God the Spirit: Life-Giver & Lord

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Bubba)

Good morning family!

If you received a connect card, please fill it out and put in offering plate

Announcements:

1) Discover Class

2) __________________________________________

3) __________________________________________

4) __________________________________________

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Ephesians 1:11-14)

Prayer of Praise (Brannan Holdren)

Come Praise and Glorify

There is a Redeemer

Prayer of Confession (Jacob Worthan), Self-sufficiency

Assurance of Pardon (John 15:5)

All Praise to Him

The First Hymn

Nicene Creed

Pastoral Prayer (Bubba)

Prayer for PBC—Biblical church leadership

Prayer for kingdom partner—Seaford Baptist (Michael Howard)

Prayer for US—Mayor

Prayer for the world—Armenia

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

In 325 AD, the church faced a crisis. A man named Arius claimed Jesus wasn’t truly God—just a created being. In response, the Council of Nicaea declared with clarity:

“We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ... true God from true God, begotten not made.”

But about the Holy Spirit? Just one line: “And in the Holy Spirit.”

That silence didn’t last. In the decades that followed, a group called the Pneumatomachians [Noom-ah-ta-MOCK-ee-ins],—literally “Spirit-fighters”—rose up. They denied the Spirit’s divinity and resisted His worship.

The Pneumatomachians were not merely confused. They were opposing the Spirit Himself—resisting His glory, rejecting His personhood, and robbing Him of the worship He deserves.

God raised up faithful defenders: the Cappadocian Fathers—Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus.

SHOW CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS IMAGE

They returned to Scripture and proclaimed what had always been true: the Spirit is fully God—worthy of worship alongside the Father and the Son. And in 381, the Church met again—this time in Constantinople—and finished what Nicaea had begun. The line “And in the Holy Spirit” was expanded to declare:

“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets”

But the story doesn’t end in the 4th century. It continues today.

Because the truth is: we don’t have to deny the Spirit’s divinity outright to fight against Him. We can fight Him by ignoring His work. By refusing His conviction. By treating Him as optional. By building churches, living lives, and preaching sermons where the Spirit is barely mentioned and rarely obeyed.

The truth is, We fight against the Holy Spirit when we reject Him in our beliefs and behaviors.

That’s the Big Idea I hope to communicate with God’s help this morning.

So the question before us is not, “What did the early church believe about the Spirit?” That’s important. But even more important is this question: “What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?”

To answer that question, please turn in your Bibles to John 15:26

You’ll find it on page 1072 in the black Bibles.

While you’re turning there, you need to know the context of Jesus’ words in this verse.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He spent considerable time teaching His disciples, preparing them for His physical absence.

The gospel of John records more of this teaching than any other gospel writer. You can read the entire Upper Room Discourse in John 14-17.

One of the key themes in Jesus’ teaching in these chapters is the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And that’s exactly what He talks about in our text this morning.

John 15:26—“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.”

I said a moment ago that We fight against the Holy Spirit when we reject Him in our beliefs and behaviors.

But what does the Bible say about Him? To answer that question in full, we would need to read the entire Bible. We don’t have time for that today!

But thankfully, this verse (along with the Creed) gives us a theology of the Holy Spirit in miniature.

So consider with me Four Essential Truths We Believe About the Holy Spirit:

We Believe the Holy Spirit is a Person,

We Believe the Holy Spirit is God,

We Believe the Holy Spirit is In Us,

and We Believe the Holy Spirit is Speaking.

But Christianity is more than a theological test. It’s not enough to believe the right things, we must also behave like we believe them. So with each truth I’ll offer some practical implications that our beliefs should have on our behaviors.

Let’s begin by considering our first essential truth…

1) We Believe the Holy Spirit is a PERSON

Notice carefully in our text that when Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls the Spirit a “He.”

“He will bear witness about me.”

The pronoun “He” is used by Jesus to refer to the Spirit 12 times in the Upper Room Discourse. [1]

This means the Spirit is not an “it.” He’s a speaking, thinking, feeling, person!

Gravity doesn’t speak. But the Holy Spirit does.

In our text Jesus says the Holy Spirit will speak by bearing witness about Him.

The Force in Star Wars doesn’t think. But the Holy Spirit does.

Romans 8:27 talks about “the mind of the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit has a mind, which, of course, He uses to think.

And, by the way, part of what the Spirit thinks about, Christian, is you! He’s using His mind and His words to pray to the Father for God’s people!

Electricity doesn’t express emotions. But the Holy Spirit does.

Ephesians 4:30 says we can grieve the Holy Spirit by our sin.

And Hebrews 10:29 says we can outrage the Holy Spirit by rejecting Him.

If we really believe the Holy Spirit is a person, it will change how we talk about Him.

When you talk about the Spirit, don’t call Him an “it.” He’s a person. Refer to the Spirit like Jesus did.

But there is something far more important than using the proper pronouns for the Spirit.

If we really believe the Holy Spirit is a person, it will change how we treat Him.

Especially when we’re alone.

Christian, do you sometimes act different when no other Christians are around?

Do you use words you wouldn’t use at church?

Do you visit websites you would never visit if another Christian was around?

Do you indulge thoughts and feelings that you would never want to admit to another Christian?

If so, you’re ACTING as if the Holy Spirit isn’t there. Or as if He’s not a real person who can see what you’re doing.

Psalm 139:7–10— Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

Christian: it is foolish and dangerous to act as if the Holy Spirit isn’t there or doesn’t care.

One of the clearest examples of this is given in Acts 5.

A man named Ananias lied about the price of a piece of property that he sold to give to the church.

In Acts 5:3, Peter confronts Ananias and says that Satan filled Ananias’s heart to “lie to the Holy Spirit”

You don’t lie to a force or an energy. You lie to persons. Ananias could lie to the Holy Spirit because the Spirit is a person.

But the Spirit isn’t just ANY person.

In Acts 5:4, Peter concludes by saying that when Ananias lied to the Spirit, He “lied to God”

How can Peter say this? Because the Holy Spirit is God!

That’s the second essential truth we must believe about the Holy Spirit...

2) We Believe the Holy Spirit is GOD

In 381 AD, the additions to the original Nicene Creed make it crystal clear that Christians believe the Holy Spirit is God.

The Creed says “we believe in the Holy Spirit.” Our faith would be misplaced if we put it in anyone or anything other than God Himself.

The Creed also says He is “the Lord,” which is a title reserved for God and God alone.

The Creed says He is “the giver of life,” which means the Holy Spirit (along with the Father and the Son) was active in the creation of all things.

And perhaps most clearly, the Creed says “with the Father and the Son together [the Spirit] is worshipped and glorified.”

So we believe the Holy Spirit is a the third person of the Trinity, coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son.

Now when we explain this glorious, mysterious doctrine of the Trinity, there are two dangers we must avoid.

Imagine you’re walking on a very narrow bridge across a vast canyon. Whether you fall off on the right side or the left side, the end result is the same. The goal is to stay safely on the bridge.

So what are the two pitfalls?

Do not minimize the distinctions between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yes, the Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the Son. And He is not the Father.

God the Spirit didn’t die on the cross for your sins, God the Son did.

And God the Spirit didn’t send Jesus, God the Father did.

So as we articulate what the Bible teaches, we must be careful not to put the Father, Son, and Spirit into a blender and blur all the distinctions between them.

But we must be careful, because as soon as we distinguish between the persons, we are in danger of the opposite error...

Do not minimize the unity among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As we insist the Father, Son, and Spirit are different, we may be tempted to think they are not equal.

We may, like Arius or the Pneumatomachians, speak as if there is a hierarchy within the Trinity. As if one person were better than the other.

To fight against both errors, we need to ask the question, “What is it that distinguishes the three persons from one another?”

We’ve already begun to answer this question a few weeks ago.

We can distinguish the Son from the other persons because He is eternally begotten. He is eternally the Son.

We can distinguish the Father from the other persons because He is eternally Father.

How than do we distinguish the Spirit? He is not the Father. And He is not Jesus’ twin brother. After all, the Bible says Jesus is God’s “only begotten Son.”

The answer is given right here in the words of Jesus...

John 15:26—“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.”

The Spirit proceeds from, or is breathed out by, the Father in eternity past.

I shared this a few weeks ago, but it’s worth repeating.

Adam, Eve, and Cain were the first three humans. Each of them had a real human nature, yet each received their human nature in a different way. [2]

Adam received human nature when God breathed life into dust.

Eve received human nature when God made her out of one of Adam’s ribs.

And Cain received human nature at his conception.

Similarly, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit each share in the divine nature. And yet, each of them has their divine nature in a different way.

The Father is eternally unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten, and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

When we talk about the Spirit, we aren’t talking about a lesser God. We aren’t talking about a being less important or less powerful than the Father or Son. We are talking about God Himself!

Once again, it is one thing to say we believe this and another thing to behave like we believe it.

And a simple way to test our belief that the Holy Spirit is God is to ask ourselves if we worship and pray to Him.

I agree with the Puritan theologian John Owen, who writes, “The Holy Ghost, being God, is no less to be invocated, prayed to, and called on, than the Father and the Son.” [3]

Do you ever pray to the Spirit? Do you ever praise Him? If you believe He’s God, you should!

And because we believe the Spirit is God, our next essential truth is even more wonderful...

3) We Believe the Holy Spirit is IN US

John 15:26—“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.”

What does Jesus mean that the Holy Spirit is going to be sent to His disciples?

Jesus certainly doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit is a new character on the scene.

After all, if the Spirit is God than the Spirit is eternal.

And if you read your Old Testament carefully, you’ll notice the presence of the Spirit all over the Old Testament.

Including in Genesis 1:2, the second verse in the Bible.

So what does Jesus mean when He says He’s sending the Holy Spirit?

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would sometimes empower people for specific tasks, but He didn’t permanently indwell the people of God.

That’s why you’ll sometimes read in the Old Testament about God leaving people.

Like Samson after his hair is cut, or King Saul after disobeying God, or King David praying in Psalm 51, “Lord take not your Spirit from me!”

The incredible blessing of the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling the hearts of God’s people is what Jesus prophesied in...

John 14:17 “…You know [the Spirit of truth], for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

In the Old Testament, God is with His people and near His people. Sometimes He is in some people, but never permanently. [4]

But all that changed after the ascension of Jesus. When the Spirit came down at Pentecost, He came to live in the hearts of every believer forever.

How should believing that the Spirit lives in believers change the way we behave?

The Spirit’s presence in the Christian should both guard him from sin and grow him in righteousness.

If we really lived as if we believed the Spirit was in us, we would fight our sin.

We wouldn’t give ourselves to the ways of the world. We would live with a real awareness that whatever we watch, whatever we do, we are in effect bringing the Spirit along for the ride.

And if we really lived as if we believed the Spirit was in us, we would strive to grow in righteousness.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all fruits of the Holy Spirit.

If you lived like you believed He was in you, you would pursue growth in each of these areas, knowing that He will help you grow!

Do you trust the Spirit is changing you from the inside out?

But how primarily does the Spirit change us? The answer comes as we consider our final essential truth...

4) We Believe the Holy Spirit is SPEAKING

Jesus’ words make it clear that the Holy Spirit will come speaking God’s Word to God’s people.

John 15:26—“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.”

But how exactly does the Spirit speak?

Some people believe that if we sit in silence we can hear the Spirit speak to us.

Silence is good for us, especially in a world of constant noise.

But you won’t find a single verse in the Bible that tells you that this is a reliable path to hear from God.

But what about that “still small voice” the Bible talks about?

The “still small voice” has one reference in Scripture.

Elijah the prophet was hiding from Jezebel when God appeared to Him.

Elijah saw a great wind, then felt an earthquake, and then a raging, fire, but God wasn’t present in any of those things.

Instead, God spoke to Elijah in a still small voice. [5]

But there is nowhere in the Bible that tells us to seek this kind of experience.

The entire point of this story is that God is present, but He often doesn’t show up in sensational ways. And yet many twist this verse, turning it into an expectation that we will receive similar sensational experiences.

Justin Peters was right when he said, “Evangelicals have created an entire theology of hearing God’s ‘still small voice’ from a verse that has been completely taken out of context and misinterpreted.” [6]

Nowhere in the Bible are we told to expect God to speak to us through a “still small voice.”

But what about those times when you feel a strong impression that you’re supposed to do something? Could that be the Spirit speaking to you?

The 19th century pastor Charles Spurgeon said this:

“‘If I feel it impressed upon my mind,’ says one, ‘I shall do it.’ Does God command you to do it? This is the proper question. If he does, you should make haste, whether it is impressed upon your mind or not; but if there be no command to that effect, or rather, if it diverges from the line of God’s statutes, and needs apology or explanation, hold your hand, for though you have ten thousand impressions, yet must you never dare go by them. It is a dangerous thing for us to make the whims of our brain instead of the clear precepts of God, the guide of our moral actions.” [7]

Just because something feels right doesn’t mean it is right!

How then do we hear God speak?

Through His Word.

This is what the Creed means when it says the Spirit “spoke by the prophets.”

It’s a reference to the Christian belief that the Bible was ultimately written, not by humans, but by God Himself.

2 Peter 1:20–21—Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Peter doesn’t deny that human authors are involved in the writing of Scripture.

But he is saying that the Holy Spirit so superintended the process that every word Peter, Paul, Moses, David, and every other human author wrote was exactly what God intended without a single error.

Now I deliberately said the Spirit is speaking—present tense—rather than simply saying the Spirit spoke.

Since the Word of God is “living and active,” the Spirit continues to speak to us through His Word today.

He speaks through His Word in power whenever the Scriptures are faithfully preached.

He speaks through His Word whenever His Word is faithfully read, studied, memorized, and meditated upon.

He speaks through His Word whenever His Word is faithfully taught and applied in counseling.

Here’s what this means practically. If you want to hear God speak, read your Bible. And if you want to hear God speak out loud, read your Bible out loud.

If we’re expecting God to speak to us in other ways while rejecting His Word, we are guilty of fighting against the Spirit.

If we truly believe the Spirit is a Person, fully God, dwelling in us and speaking to us—then we must respond. We must stop resisting and start yielding.

For some of you, this means turning from your sins and trusting in Jesus.

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL

For the Christians in the room, one way you need to respond is by trusting the Holy Spirit to help you in your moments of greatest need.

In Luke 12:12, Jesus told His disciples that when persecution overwhelmed them they shouldn’t worry because the Holy Spirit would tell them what to say.

This was powerfully demonstrated in the life of Basil of Caesarea—one of the Cappadocian Fathers we mentioned earlier—during a confrontation with the Roman Empire in 372 A.D.

American politics reminds me of a pendulum swinging back and forth. Republican, Democrat, Republican, Democrat, back and forth, back and forth.

A similar dynamic was happening in the Roman empire after the Council of Nicaea. Except the pendulum wasn’t swinging between conservatives and liberals, but between those who supported the Nicene Creed and those who supported Arius.

In 372 AD, the Roman Emperor Valens was a strong supporter of the Arian heresy. He was absolutely determined to impose Arianism on the churches in the East. As part of that effort, he sent his representative, the Prefect Modestus, to pressure church leaders into submission.

Basil of Caesarea stood in the way.

Modestus summoned Basil and demanded that he accept the emperor’s theological position. But Basil remained unmoved. Frustrated by Basil’s resistance, Modestus raised his voice: “Do you not fear my authority?”

Basil answered calmly, “Fear of what?”

Modestus barked, “Fear of the powers I possess—confiscation, banishment, torture, even death!”

But the Holy Spirit gave Basil words that silenced the room. He replied:

“Do you have no other threat? None of these can touch me. A man who owns nothing cannot be harmed by confiscation—unless you want my worn-out clothes and a few books. Banishment means nothing to one who considers the whole world God's. Wherever I am, I am a guest of the Lord. Torture? You can wound my body, but it is already given to Christ. Death? That would be a gift. It would send me sooner to the God for whom I live, and to whom I have long been hastening.”

Modestus was stunned. He had tried to intimidate Basil, but the Spirit of God had made him unshakable. Basil’s courage wasn’t born of arrogance—it was born of deep conviction and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who gave him the words to say in the moment they were needed most. [8]

Most of us will never have a moment like that. But we will have moments when we are absolutely overwhelmed with sorrow and suffering when we have no idea what to say and no idea what to do.

It’s in those moments when the Spirit’s power is most deeply felt.

So we trust Him today, believing that He is a person. He is God. He is in us, if we have trusted in Christ. And He is speaking to us through His Word.

So let’s praise Him as we prepare to come to the table together.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We Receive

LORD’S SUPPER

Doxology

Benediction (Romans 15:13)