Latest / The Immutable Word / EP031 The Holy Spirit: Person, Presence, and Power — Lecture 2

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EP031 The Holy Spirit: Person, Presence, and Power — Lecture 2 · The Immutable Word

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Hey guys, welcome back to The Immutable Word. Today we're going to be listening
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to a college lecture given by Robert covering the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
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This is part of a series of lectures that he's focusing on this semester,
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and I thought it would be a treat to get a classroom experience along with the
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college students. I mean, why not, right?
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So, in his first lecture, Introduction to the Holy Ghost, he's going to explore
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the biblical concept of the Godhead, our position as believers regarding the
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Holy Ghost, and examine various heretical beliefs.
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He's also going to dive into the importance of the doctrine and discuss the
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distinction between the terms Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit.
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So, I believe this is the first or second lecture.
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I mean, it's still very early in the semester, but there's going to be a lot
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of good information that's going to be provided in this lecture and,
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of course, the following lectures that we'd like to upload here.
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But if you like it, we'll upload more of these. I think there's a lot of great
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information in here that will apply to this podcast. So hope you enjoy it.
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But without further ado, let's jump into class.
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With the survey, I guess just an open question. How many of you,
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from going through the questions, and I know some of you, you know,
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some of the answers everybody put, and some of you guys, you know,
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gave some pretty good responses.
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But overall, listening, going through those questions and thinking about them,
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how many of you are thinking this will be, if you were in a live conversation
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and somebody just dropped it on you, it would be a little bit difficult to respond, right?
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And that was really the intent of the survey. What I did is also,
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if I refresh the website, if you go there, I actually put answers to every single
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one of those objections. So you can take a look at it.
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I would highly encourage you to take a look at the responses,
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kind of familiarize yourself with it.
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The better, again, it's not a magical thing.
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We're preaching and teaching on the Holy Spirit.
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But again, the Bible says the Holy Spirit will teach you all things.
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Let me ask you a question. how do you think the Holy Spirit is going to teach
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you all things? While you're sleeping?
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Subliminally? Yeah. All of a sudden you're just going to be filled with,
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you know, a radiant light and understand all things. No.
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What has the, what has the Holy Spirit given us to understand the truth of who
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God is, the revelation of Jesus Christ,
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What has he given us? The Bible, yeah. The Bible is the manifestation,
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is the revelation of the Holy Spirit concerning God.
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If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2, look at that real quick,
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1 Corinthians chapter 2, that chapter is a great chapter to understand one of
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the greatest roles and responsibilities of the Holy Spirit in this particular age.
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Remember I told you in the Old Testament it was God the Father.
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In the Gospels, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son.
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And of course, during the church age, it's the Holy Spirit.
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And God sent the Son to die for us on the cross, right? He came to minister to us.
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That was the first advent, first coming of Jesus Christ.
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The Son sent the Holy Spirit. So it was God and the Son that sends the Holy Spirit to do what?
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To manifest the church. The church was born through the Spirit.
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It's a spiritual church, right?
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I mean, it's not just a physical congregation.
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I mean, you go to a physical location. But is that every single believer in Christ? No.
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But what the Bible tells us is that God sent the Father, God and the Son sends the Spirit.
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Guess what the Spirit does? Who does the Spirit send? The church.
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So we're gone based off of the commission of the Holy Spirit.
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But look at 1 Corinthians 2 real quick. 1 Corinthians 2, the Bible tells us, look at verse 9.
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The Bible says, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard,
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neither have entered into the
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heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love them.
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So he says, I haven't seen, hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, nor has it entered
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into the heart of man, the things that God's prepared for him.
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So when you just take that verse by itself, I mean, it's pretty obvious.
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There's things that God has not revealed to us, that there's no way that we
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would be able to ever understand them, right?
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Look at verse 10. But God hath revealed them. He hath revealed them to us. How?
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By spirit. The spirit searcheth all things, the deep things of God.
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For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit, except the spirit
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that's in a man. So that shows you the spirit.
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A man is a body, soul, and a spirit, right?
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So body, soul, and spirit. That's the image of God. You're You're a picture
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of God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity.
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Our bodies are made as the Trinity. That's what the image of God means.
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Now, the Bible tells us that the spirit of man is his understanding.
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That's how he understands things. You understand the things of a spirit.
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Animals have a spirit, according to Ecclesiastes.
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Okay? Animals can communicate with animals. Human beings can communicate with human beings.
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Why is that? Because we have a spirit, a human spirit.
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Which means if you want to understand the things of God, you must go to the
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spirit of God to understand the things of God. Look what it says.
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He says, The spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
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Verse 11, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him.
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Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.
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Now we have received not the spirit of the world.
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So there's a worldly spirit, but the spirit of God, but the spirit,
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which is of God, that we know we might know the things that are freely given
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to us of God, which things also we speak.
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Notice now he's talking about words. You speak words, right?
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Not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.
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Notice, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
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for they are foolishness. Now, what does he mean by things?
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Go to chapter 2, verse 1. Look at verse 1, the same chapter.
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Here's Paul. He says, And I, brother, when I came to you, came not with excellency
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of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. Notice what he says.
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For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
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And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. My speech,
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my preaching was not with enticing words.
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Right? So he sits there and he says, verse 6, how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.
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Not the wisdom of this world, nor the princes.
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Verse 7, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery and so forth and so on.
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So the things of God are the words of God.
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That's what the Holy Spirit teaches you. And that's why he just gave you the
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model for studying your Bible.
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You compare scripture with scripture.
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You compare spiritual words with spiritual words. That's how you understand
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the things of the spirit.
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If you want to understand anything about God, you have to go to the word of God.
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You don't dream doctrine. You don't come up with doctrine because a teacher teaches you.
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You come up with doctrine because it's based off of the scriptures.
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So that's another reason why the other document that I put in there,
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the biblical expression, the doctrinal expression, how to express doctrine,
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how to tell other people what you believe.
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And remember the model I gave you was the two whys for every what?
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The what is bottom line up front. So somebody says, hey, Brother Gamos,
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why do you go to a Baptist church?
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And I'll say, because it's the closest model of a New Testament church that
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exists today, period. Yeah.
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You know what the next question is? Well, how do you know that's true?
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Oh, that's the second why. That's the first why.
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Why is it true? Well, let me walk you through and you go through the Baptist distinctive.
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So, you know, B-A-P-T-I-S-T is the easiest way to answer it.
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Bible is our final authority.
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Autonomy of the church, priesthood of the believer, two ordinances,
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individual soul liberty, two offices, and separation of church and state.
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If you take those Baptist principles, that's why we're Baptists.
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Historically, conviction politically wise, and by conviction wise, I'm a Baptist.
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Scripturally, I'm a Bible believer. That's why we call ourselves Bible-believing Baptists.
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Okay, so anyway, I would encourage you to look at the answers,
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look at the biblical expression, because that's going to help you if you start
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to talk to people about what you believe.
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Because you're going to struggle if you don't know how to answer those questions.
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And one of the basis of the answers that I was looking for is,
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number one, not just give me why or what it is you believe, but why you believe it's true.
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And you can add on to the part where you're trying to persuade them are the
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consequences of rejecting it.
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I believe Jesus Christ is God. That's the what. Well, how do you know that's true?
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That's true in two ways. Biblical evidence, and this is, you know,
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I've taught this before in some of the other classes, but evidence shows up two ways in your Bible.
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One explicitly, two implicitly. Explicit means there is a direct quote or statement
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in your Bible that says it.
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Like John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, right?
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2 Timothy 3.16, God manifest in the flesh, right? That's an explicit statement.
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What's implicit? It means it's not directly stated, so it's implied.
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So for example, they fell down and worshiped Jesus Christ. He never stopped them.
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Jesus Christ forgave sins, right? And they even said, well, nobody can forgive sins except God.
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So what's the implication? The implied statement there is that Jesus is God. See what I mean?
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So evidence always shows up either explicitly or implicitly combined.
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Now, when we look at, we start looking at, like today, we're going to be looking
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at the personality of the Holy Spirit, that he's a person.
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He's not just an inanimate force.
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Okay, so that's what a lot of people teach. So let me pull that up.
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When we look at, you know, when we're trying to argue again for something,
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that's why it's important to kind of understand that whole doctrinal expression.
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You know, what is it that you believe? Why do you believe it's true?
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So forth and so on. So just I wanted to bring I'm going to keep this on all
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the slides just because, again, that's a great way to illustrate what we believe about the Trinity.
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Does it explain everything about the Trinity? Absolutely not. There's no way.
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The Bible says we just read the verse that the spirit searcheth the deep things
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of God. the more you understand God from the scriptures, the character of God,
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the nature of God, so forth and so on, the better you'll understand the Trinity, okay?
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Like for example, somebody might ask the question, can God, the Bible says God cannot deny himself.
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I think it's in Titus. Can God lie?
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Let me ask you another question. Does God have the capability of lying?
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Yeah. But why doesn't he lie?
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It gets his nature. God is a God of truth and without just and right is he, right?
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God without iniquity. He cannot lie because he cannot deny himself.
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Okay. And that's the thing that challenges people.
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Well, you know, is it true because God said it or is it true because God says truth?
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Both. God is truth. The source of all truth is God.
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So that's why when we understand, again, the better you understand God,
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the better you'll understand the Trinity.
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But the only way you're going to understand that better is to study your Bible.
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Learn how to articulate. You know what you ought to do is in the back of your
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Bible, write down questions that you've been, you know, somebody's challenged you with.
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Why do you believe in God? Why do you go to church?
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Well, aren't there, you know, aren't there other ways to God?
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I mean, what if I'm just a good Catholic and I really believe in God?
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Right? I mean, some of us know some of the common answers.
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Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, right? But what is it about,
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like, what a Catholic will tell you?
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Well, I believe in having faith in God and I receive Jesus Christ.
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I just receive him every Saturday.
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But you understand their wording and their terminology may sound similar,
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but we call that a false analogy. When you compare two things that have similarities,
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but they're not the same, there's differences in those two things.
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So it's important to understand the distinctions.
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Anyway, so again, what we teach is one what? God, three who's,
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the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
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Okay? So the word Trinity and rapture, for example, remember I gave you this
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argument last time, doesn't exist in the Bible.
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They go, well, show me where Jesus Christ explicitly said I'm God.
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Doesn't exist in scripture. You're not going to find where Jesus Christ said,
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I am God. You're not going to find that. You'll see where he says, I am one.
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If you've seen me, you've seen the father, right? And so forth and so on.
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You believe in me, you'll have eternal life.
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I received, I'm going to receive glory, John 17, just like the glory I had with the father.
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But you've got to compare scripture to dissect that.
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God, do you know what the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2.15?
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Study to show thyself approved unto your pastor. Is that what it says?
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No, study to show yourself approved unto God.
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You know what's interesting about that word approved? Paul ran into problems
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with people in the church, you know, suing each other, distorting the Lord's
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supper and things like that.
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You know what he said? He goes, even the least among you, little children should
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be able to judge between right and wrong.
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But you know what he also said? He says those, he goes, there also must be heresies
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among you so that they that are approved, they that are approved can manifest
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those heresies as being false.
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How do you get approval? Study. But what does he say in that statement?
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Study, show thyself approved unto God, rightly dividing, which tells you that
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people will wrongly combine scripture.
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They'll take Old Testament passages and mix them with New Testament.
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Right? But here's another thing he says. He says, a workman that needeth not be ashamed.
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You know where your shame comes in whenever you don't know how to answer responses
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is because you're not a workman.
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You'll read your Bible. You have a reading plan. You'll do devotions.
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You'll go listen to sermons.
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You know, you'll do all this other stuff. You'll go out there, pass out tracts.
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You go there and work on bus ministries. You'll do all of that, but you will not study.
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You won't work to study. You know what study means? That means where you set aside time.
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It's not your reading time. It's not your devotion time. It's where you take
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a doctrine like the Trinity and you dig deep into it.
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You find everything you possibly can in the scriptures.
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And you should build those responses in the back of your Bible.
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How would you answer this question?
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I remember one of the Bible, you know, when I was about 22, 21 years old,
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I was in the Air Force and living in California. I remember I used to run into
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a lot of people because, you know, I was street preaching since I was 16.
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So when you're on a street, you're going to run into people that disagree with you naturally.
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And so that's all I did. So, you know, what I used to get frustrated with is
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I never, I didn't know how to answer people. And it frustrated me.
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It wasn't until years later, you know, I'm reading, you know, 1 Peter 3, 15.
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It says, be ready always to give an answer for the reason of the hope.
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But it says the reason of the hope.
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We always say, well, the answer is Jesus. You're right.
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But what's the reason? Why is he the answer? You should be able to answer that
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question, okay? So the word Trinity, rapture, not in the scripture.
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So that argument, we call it the argument from silence. And what that means
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is the argument of silence is when someone claims that something is true.
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Oh, by the way, I did upload the notes for today if you go to the website.
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And I'll do that every morning. So just be, so you know, so you have this slide.
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But the argument of silence is when somebody claims something is true or false
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because the Bible or another source doesn't mention it. It assumes that absence
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of evidence is evidence of absence.
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It's a bad argument, which is a logical fallacy unless the silence occurs where
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mentioned would reasonably be expected.
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But notice here, Matthew 22, verse 29, 30.
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Jesus Christ is responding to the Sadducees because remember they challenged
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him. They go, oh, this guy marries a wife. He dies.
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She marries the brother. And then seven husbands later, right?
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And when they ask him, they're challenging him. You know why the Sadducees were
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challenging him with that?
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Because they rejected the spiritual life. they rejected the spiritual afterlife.
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They rejected the resurrection.
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But what did Jesus say? He said, you do err, not knowing the scriptures.
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Now, what's he implying? You don't know the scriptures. You don't know what the Bible says.
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Let me ask you a question. What did Jesus Christ have when he's responding?
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Did he have the New Testament? Did he have the Pauline epistles?
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No. Did he have the book of Revelation? What did he have? He had the Old Testament, right?
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And interesting, he says, for in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are
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given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
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So he says, he's implying, you guys don't know what the scriptures say about the resurrection.
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You know why that's such an ironic statement?
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Because in Matthew chapter 22 is the first time the word resurrection shows up in your Bible.
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You will not find one place in your Old Testament where the word resurrection shows up.
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Does that mean the resurrection is a false doctrine? No.
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So just because it's not stated explicitly does not mean that it's not true.
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It's not a true biblical, remember the evidence? It comes in what forms?
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Two forms? What's the evidence? What's biblical evidence show up as?
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Explicit, implicit. That means the resurrection is implied.
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You go over there and you read Job. Job goes, you know, he's going to stand before God one day.
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The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 that he, that Abraham,
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whenever he was offering up Isaac, what was the reason why he was going to offer up Isaac?
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Because he knew that God would raise him up, right?
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So the resurrection is all throughout the Old Testament. but it's never explicitly stated.
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That's why this is a bad argument. Just because the word Trinity doesn't show
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up in the Bible doesn't mean it's not true.
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Just because the word rapture is not in your Bible does not mean it's not true.
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That's why it's important to learn how to argue for what you believe in.
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So here's what Theodore Epp, so we're looking at the personality.
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The Holy Spirit's a person.
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Theodore Epp, he says, it's essential that we as Christians learn to know the
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Holy Spirit not as an influence, but as some would describe him as a divine person.
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This concept will prepare us for the blessing that he wants to bring us,
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bring into our lives. So why personality matters?
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If the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is a person, then we're obligated to develop
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a personal relationship with him.
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And what's interesting is most of us, we believe in the Holy Spirit,
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but how many of you actually communed and fellowshiped with the Holy Spirit?
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How many of you actually have spent time communing and communicating and talking to the Spirit?
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So it's an important doctrine for us. Obviously, he's the most influential person
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of the Trinity for the church today and the believer today.
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Even though we believe Jesus Christ, we know Jesus Christ saves,
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we believe in God the Father, we pray to God the Father.
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But when have you ever asked the Holy Spirit to pray for you?
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Because the Bible says in Romans, he prays for things that you can't.
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He knows the will of God. Wouldn't it be wise if you wanted to know more about
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God or learn more about the nature of God and who God is in the revelation of Jesus Christ?
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Remember, Paul said for him to live is Christ.
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And in Philippians chapter 3, he says, it's better for me to understand who
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Christ was and to live for Christ. And not only that, but be prepared to die for Christ.
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That's what Paul preached about in Philippians.
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So he wrote that from a prison cell.
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You know what taught him about who Jesus Christ was?
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Well, obviously Jesus Christ is through the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote a lot about
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the Holy Spirit. He writes it, especially if you read Romans chapter 8.
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So that communication, that relationship is not with a rock and it's not with
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some inanimate wind force. You understand?
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There's a demand. If the Holy Spirit is a person, that means you have to develop
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a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
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Relationship defines Relationship, reverence Response, communication Consequence,
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denial of personality Leads obviously to doctrinal error in worship The Holy
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Ghost is to be loved, obeyed, and worshipped So.
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The Bible uses pronouns, especially
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in the New Testament, it often refers to the Holy Spirit as a he.
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So John 15, 26, but when the comforters come, whom I'll send unto you from the
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Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeded from the Father, he shall testify of me.
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You don't say that about a rock. You don't say that about wind.
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You don't say that about some impersonal force. You don't call it a he.
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John 16, 8 and 13 through 14, when he is come, he will reprove the world of
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sin and righteousness and judgment.
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How be it when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all the truth.
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For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.
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And he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive
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of mine and shall show it.
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So what you see is every time the Holy Spirit is referenced,
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he's referenced as a male.
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It's interesting, you know, because people argue, is God a woman?
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Is God transgender? Is God this or that?
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And the Bible tells us that God's always referenced as a male.
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So is the Holy Spirit. You know why that's important?
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You read about Jezebel in the book of Revelation, right?
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You also read about a false religion in Revelation chapter 17 that's built at,
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it's called Mystery Babylon.
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So that means it's Babylon in mystery form.
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What was Babylon back in Genesis 10 and 11, Tower of Babel and all that stuff,
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Nimrod was the king of it and so forth and so on.
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That same religion eventually progressed into what was Jezebel's religion,
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actually, the Baalites.
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Remember, she had all the Baalite priests go against Elijah.
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Well, that eventually moved into Pergamos, okay?
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That religion, and it started basically the Baalite religion with them wearing
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black robes and stuff. You'll read about that in the Old Testament.
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Well, guess what? That's where the Bible says in Revelation,
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I can't remember, I think it's Revelation 2 or 3, where it says Pergamos is Satan's seat.
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That eventually becomes Rome, which is eventually becomes mystery Babylon.
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Well, guess what? It's a female spirit. You have the queen of heaven, so forth and so on.
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So the spirit of the Antichrist is always connected with a feminine spirit,
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but the Holy Spirit is always connected to a male spirit.
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So even though we have men and women in here, guess what?
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Every single one of us, it doesn't matter if you're male or female,
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you have a male spirit in you and a true biblical spirit that's in response
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to the Holy Spirit is always going to be connected.
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I'm not talking about misogyny. I'm not talking about that. What I'm talking
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about is it's about authority and God is an authority.
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So that's why whenever you respond to the spiritual wickedness of this world,
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you'll notice that it's always extremely feminine and it's always extremely anti-biblical.
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That's why you got to be very careful about the woman in politics stuff.
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You've got to be very careful about that because there's a spirit behind it.
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Just like there's a spirit behind the modern music movement.
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There's a spirit behind modern worship. A lot of it's feminine.
23:39
You hear a lot of feminine voices in religion today. So anyway,
23:43
Holy Spirit, every time he's mentioned in the Bible, he's always mentioned with
23:47
the male pronouns, okay?
23:50
But there are times where the Bible is called it, itself.
23:54
The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
23:59
I didn't put the verse there, It's Romans 8, 16, and 26.
24:03
But he says, Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,
24:06
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.
24:12
So the question is, is the translation in the King James Bible a mistake?
24:16
Because if you look at other translations, guess how they translate it?
24:20
They translate it himself.
24:22
So somebody might ask you that. Well, why does your King James Bible translate
24:26
the Holy Spirit if he's a male, as itself, but these other Bibles translate
24:32
it correctly as himself.
24:34
Every single one of them. Well, the question is, the work of the Holy Spirit,
24:38
this is what we say, this is our response is, the work, if you look at it,
24:42
the Spirit itself beareth witness.
24:44
It's the work of the Spirit is always reflected as neuter.
24:49
It's even in the Greek language, it's always a neuter when you look at that pronoun. out.
24:54
The word itself is neuter and it refers to the spirit itself.
24:59
The neuter is perfectly correct. It's never a mistake and it's not degrading
25:04
the Holy Spirit because it's focusing on his work and not the person of the Holy Spirit.
25:08
That's the reason why if you look in the Old Testament, you hardly ever see
25:13
reference to the Holy Spirit as a person.
25:17
It's always in connection with God. And this is the reason why JWs,
25:21
a lot of their verses against the Holy Spirit being a person is they'll run to the Old Testament.
25:27
It's always connected with God. Well, the reason why is because the Holy Spirit
25:30
was not revealed yet until Jesus Christ revealed him.
25:35
But the Jews understood what it meant to be filled with the Spirit because it
25:39
was prophesied, like in the book of Joel and so forth and so on. But three reasons here.
25:44
One, it's a misspelt valid English grammar.
25:49
Ironic. Anyway, the pronoun itself is appropriately used in English to refer
25:54
to a person or animal when their gender is unknown or deliberately disregarded
26:00
in a particular context.
26:01
The King James translators therefore faithfully reflected this flexibility in
26:05
a language when referring to the Holy Spirit.
26:07
So, itself actually matches the Greek that it comes from.
26:12
There's no mistranslation there. They're translating exactly.
26:15
The problem isn't that we're going to change the language because it offends
26:19
us. The question is, is which Bible is more faithful to what God originally
26:24
said? Well, the King James Bible is.
26:26
Then number two, widespread translation. It wasn't just the King James Bible
26:30
that adopted this. And we'll look at that in just a second.
26:32
But many Bible versions, both those that produced before and after the King
26:37
James Bible, have also used the word it or itself when translating passages
26:41
referring to the Holy Spirit. This demonstrates broad historical consensus.
26:45
So it's not just a personal thing. I love the King James, so I think it's right.
26:49
No, because it's consistent. There's a difference.
26:52
Number three, consistency in modern versions. Even modern translations like
26:56
the New American Standard Bible, the English Standard, the New International,
27:00
New King James, they employ itself for spiritual entities such as unclean spirits.
27:04
And in certain verses for Jesus Christ himself, like Luke 24,
27:08
39, they validate what the King James usage is.
27:12
So there's no mistake that.
27:15
In that, and I'm going to show you this chart here real quick,
27:17
but the passage itself matches, right, in Romans 8, 16, 34 other translations mentioned.
27:25
They align with the King James, for example, the Bishop's Bible in 1568,
27:29
Darby, Rotterdam's emphasized Bible, the New America in 1991,
27:33
2010, NRSV, the Evidence Bible, and so forth.
27:36
So the reason why I show you that is to show you that the King James translators
27:40
just didn't arbitrarily pick from the sky itself because they liked it.
27:45
They were actually being consistent traditionally, historically,
27:49
whenever they were translating your Bible.
27:51
So don't let people confuse you and think that, oh, well, the King James translators
27:55
really didn't understand English grammar.
27:58
You have to understand in 1600, the English language was just being perfected at that point.
28:04
And if you were to look at old, actual old English, you barely understand it.
28:10
But they were actually speaking what we understand as modern English.
28:15
Okay? Romans 8, 26, again here, this verse has 34 translations,
28:19
same thing, that include itself, the 21st century Bible, bishops,
28:24
Geneva, Coverdale, Derby, Rotterdam, so forth and so on.
28:27
So the point is, is there's no legitimate error or mistake is made.
28:32
And translating. So, showing you that when the word itself is being used, look at the context.
28:38
Is it speaking to the person of the Holy Spirit, or is it speaking to the work of the Holy Spirit?
28:44
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that's the work of the Spirit,
28:48
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession, interceding is a work of the Holy
28:53
Spirit, you understand?
28:54
So, don't be confused about that, and don't, you know, all of a sudden get somebody
28:57
to trick you and go, oh, the King James Bible made a mistake,
29:00
it should have been translated himself.
29:02
And then you're going to feel like, because you know what the Bible says,
29:05
and it's talking to Mary about Jesus Christ.
29:08
It calls Jesus Christ that holy thing that's within you.
29:12
And people are horrified by that. They just call Jesus Christ a holy thing, a holy thing.
29:17
And I remember years ago, there was a pastor, a preacher, he brought up,
29:20
I think it's in Leviticus, where they had the law where they would offer,
29:27
like the jubilee they would offer after the 50 year mark, they would offer an offering to God.
29:32
One of the offerings that they would make was a piece of property.
29:36
If you owned a piece of property and you wanted to give it to the Levites as
29:40
an offering unto God, you know how the Levites would evaluate that piece of property?
29:45
They would evaluate the piece of property based off of the seed that that property would produce.
29:52
Like how much seed could this property, now think about it.
29:55
I mean, if you had a barren wasteland and then you had this fruitful crop area
30:01
and all this other stuff. You're like, man, I want that if I want to grow crops.
30:04
I want that if I want to grow gophers.
30:07
But you see the difference is they're valuating the land based off of the seed it would produce.
30:13
And they said that that estimation the priest would make, well,
30:17
this would produce so much seed in the next 50 years, right?
30:21
Guess what they would say that estimation was?
30:24
And holy thing unto the Lord.
30:28
Do you know what that shows me about the Lord Jesus Christ? The value and the
30:31
estimation of Jesus Christ is the amount of seed he would produce.
30:37
So the problem is, is not that we're offended because of our sensibilities.
30:41
The problem is, is we don't do enough deep dive into the scriptures to let the
30:44
Bible explain to you why he used holy thing.
30:48
Again, most of the errors that you're going to find in the Bible are in you, not in the Bible.
30:54
So that's why you always got to come to that Bible with the right attitude.
30:57
So anyway, these translations show us that, look, historically, there's no mistake.
31:02
The King James Bible translators didn't just make some arbitrary translation decision.
31:07
Okay? They did it based off of consistency. They were honoring the text. They didn't change it.
31:12
That's the reason why your King James Bible has italics and the New Modern Versions don't.
31:17
Because they're showing you where they had to add words. You know,
31:20
when we took the King James class, we talked about translation.
31:23
Translation, a perfect translation doesn't mean word for word literal perfection.
31:28
Because you can't translate from Spanish to English perfectly word for word.
31:33
But the question is, does the Spanish translation, does it communicate exactly what the English did?
31:40
That's the question you ask. Does the Greek communicate exactly what the Hebrew did?
31:45
Because there was translations within the Greek. We looked at that in the King James class too.
31:49
I think there's like over 66 translations, direct quotes and translations inside your Bible.
31:55
Somebody goes, oh, a translation can't be inspired. Really? Then what about those translations?
31:59
What do you do when they're quoting from the Old Testament and translating from
32:03
the Greek or from the Hebrew to the Greek? What do you do then?
32:07
When Paul gave his testimony and he says, I heard a voice from heaven and he
32:12
says, why are you persecuting me?
32:14
And he said this, I heard it in the Hebrew language.
32:17
So he's telling these Romans, and he's not saying it in Hebrew,
32:22
but he's translating it, Latin or Greek, to this consulate or this governor that he's speaking to.
32:30
But guess what Luke is doing? What is Luke doing? He's writing it down in what language? Greek.
32:36
So you go from Hebrew to possibly Latin to Greek, and it's preserved.
32:41
So I ask you, which translation, which part was inspired? What God said from heaven?
32:47
What Paul was telling Agrippa and them? Or what Luke was writing down? All of it was.
32:53
Anyway, the problem is you get too caught up in all the little details that
32:58
you don't let the Bible explain itself. Your Bible is absolutely perfect.
33:01
The problem is the way we think, okay?
33:04
So translations that match, there is no legitimate mistake when it comes to
33:10
the word itself. it's perfectly understandable.
33:13
And again, it represents the work of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is
33:16
a divine person. Here's at least five attributes.
33:19
I list a lot more in the outline, but here's five of them. He loves.
33:24
Again, all you got to do is ask yourself, can a rock love somebody?
33:30
He grieves. Can the wind be grievous over somebody's behavior? He thinks.
33:37
In order to think you have to have a conscience, right? You have to have intellect.
33:42
You have to have some kind of understanding.
33:45
You can't say that about, I mean, listen, the next time you think your animal
33:49
is a human, put a tax return in front of it and have it fill out the tax return
33:54
or have it read to you the works of Shakespeare.
33:57
You understand that it's impossible. You can't compare the two.
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A person is a person and they're unique in God's eyes because they are a unique creation.
34:08
I talked about it before in one of our other classes, but you know,
34:11
one of the greatest rebukes to an evolutionist is, is the vocal cords.
34:17
If the vocal cord evolved, they have no way to explain it. You know why?
34:22
Because animals can't sing the way humans do.
34:25
They can't make sounds like we do. Like for example, how many of you have ever
34:29
tried to drink and breathe at the same time?
34:32
Yeah, it doesn't turn out right, does it?
34:36
But do you understand that that's the way God created you? He created your vocal
34:39
cords and your esophagus with two different paths.
34:43
That's not true in an animal. Animal can grunt and make sounds as it's eating or drinking.
34:48
We can't, I mean, you can make some of that, but you're making it from your
34:50
stomach. But the point is, is you can't talk and eat at the same time,
34:54
or you can't drink and talk at the same time or drink and breathe,
34:57
because that's the uniqueness of the vocal cords.
34:59
That couldn't have ever, ever evolved because if they were combined at some
35:06
point, you would choke and die.
35:08
There's no way to explain it. The vocal cord, the human language is unexplainable to evolutionists.
35:17
And yet God gave us a voice.
35:20
And he, what was one of the first jobs Adam had in the garden?
35:24
Naming the animals. He had vocal structure. He understood the words of God.
35:29
He spoke to God. You see, you got to understand when you see those things in
35:34
the Bible, that's showing, God's showing you evidence of what his creation is.
35:38
The Bible tells us that the worlds and the stars and the sun,
35:43
the moon, they're all evidence of his creation.
35:46
One of the greatest things that you have as far as revelation of God is general
35:50
revelation. That's revelation you see in nature, right?
35:54
Specific revelation is your Bible. That's what starts to tell you who created all those things.
36:00
The Bible says in Romans chapter one, that the invisible things of him are clearly
36:04
seen by the things that are made, right?
36:05
I understand. I know it's not a perfect replica. I understand by looking at
36:10
the sun that it reminds me of who God is.
36:13
That's why so many people worship the sun back then.
36:17
Men have always wanted to try
36:18
to worship something greater to themselves because there was a creator.
36:21
When in Acts chapter 17, Paul goes to Athens. In the beginning of the chapter,
36:25
he goes into the synagogues and he argues and reasons from scripture because
36:29
that's what they understood.
36:30
The synagogue, the Jews understood scripture.
36:33
So he would argue for Jesus Christ using scripture.
36:36
But when he stepped out onto Areopagus, onto that Mars Hill, what did Paul refer to?
36:45
He didn't refer to scripture. You know what he referred to? God, the creator.
36:49
So you know what you do? You have to understand your audience when and you're
36:53
trying to witness to somebody.
36:54
If you're dealing with somebody that knows nothing about Jesus Christ,
36:58
maybe you need to deal with them about creation first.
37:02
Because if you can get them past creation to understand that there is a God
37:05
who created everything, and you cannot explain logic and mathematics and all
37:10
these other things without knowing that there's a creator, you might not even get to Jesus Christ.
37:17
But if you can get them to accept that there is a creator, guess what?
37:20
Now you can try to start telling them that creator is going to be your judge one day.
37:23
Anyway, the Bible says, like, for example, in the beginning was the word.
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Jesus Christ was called the word before he was called the son of God.
37:30
That was his original title, the word. Okay.
37:34
And the Bible tells us 1 John 5, 7, it was the beginning, it was the word and
37:38
he became flesh and so forth, but he's also connected with God as a Trinity.
37:43
The word, do you know any, does anybody know what the word word means in Greek
37:47
or what it comes from, the Greek word for it? Have you ever heard of the word logos?
37:51
Okay. That's what word is in Greek. Guess where we get the word logic from?
37:57
The reason why we use logic to think and reasonably argue for the existence
38:01
of God, because that is the basis of who Jesus Christ is.
38:04
He is logic. God is the God of logic.
38:07
God is a reasonable God. That means God will always use good reasons and argumentation.
38:12
God said himself, he says, come, let us reason together, though your sins be
38:17
scarlet, right? You know what he says in Isaiah 41, 21?
38:20
He says, okay, produce your cause.
38:22
Bring forth your strong reasons. I want you to show me the future.
38:27
That's what God says. So we can know that you're gods.
38:29
So God said the divine fingerprint of being a god is prophecy.
38:34
Guess what's all over your Bible?
38:36
So the point is, is God wants us to think. And the best way to think is,
38:41
I'm on number three. That's the reason why I'm like, why am I talking like this?
38:44
His number three, Romans 8, 27, is because the Holy Spirit thinks. A human being thinks.
38:49
A human being has intellect. You can't sit there and attribute that to a rock. He knows.
38:55
We just read that in 1 Corinthians 2, 10 through 11. And then he exercises will.
39:00
He gives and he divides people the gifts of the Spirit as he wills.
39:06
That's what the Bible tells us.
39:07
The Holy Spirit is the one that determines what spiritual gifts you have.
39:10
Okay. And just so there's no confusion, when you read 1 Corinthians 12,
39:14
there are sign gifts and there's non-sign gifts.
39:17
Sign gifts are for Jews. Non-sign gifts are for the New Testament.
39:22
Even in Paul's day, there was still a translation going from the Jews to the Gentiles.
39:26
So you have to understand that. So don't get mixed up in the sign gifts,
39:29
like, you know, speaking in tongues, healing and things like that.
39:34
Those are gifts that were active in that day, but then even eventually by the
39:38
time Paul was finishing his ministry, he was telling he had to leave Trophimus
39:42
and my lead him sick. How come Paul didn't heal him?
39:45
Because that sign gift was no longer applicable.
39:49
Why did he tell Timothy, hey, if you feel sick, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake.
39:55
He goes, all you got to do is just pray over yourself and you'll be healed.
39:58
He didn't say that. Why? Because we believe in secessionism,
40:01
that there was a ceasing of those signed gifts to a certain gift.
40:05
But there are certain gifts that
40:06
are not signed gifts, like the gift of knowledge, the gift of prophecy.
40:10
Guess what? When you tell somebody if they don't accept Jesus Christ,
40:13
they're going to die some point in the future and go to hell, you're prophesying.
40:18
Gift of prophecy, gift of knowledge. We're supposed to grow in the grace and
40:23
the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
40:25
Where do you get knowledge from? From the word of God.
40:28
So those things aren't contradictions. What's a contradiction is the way people
40:32
think about them, right? So anyway, the Holy Ghost is divine person.
40:36
Now his personal characteristics, here's a list of some. Mind and intelligence, Romans 8, 27.
40:42
Perfect knowledge. He knows our thoughts, knows our works, knows our needs,
40:46
knows how we should pray, knows our hearts.
40:49
And then of course, will and submission submits to the father,
40:52
speaks to the father's will, by the father's will, sent by the son,
40:55
and reflects the divine order, not inferiority.
40:58
There's what we call the ontological argument. What that is,
41:01
is simply meaning who you are as a human being.
41:04
So for example, we know that the order biblically in a home is who's the head
41:09
of the home? The husband, right?
41:12
Does that mean that the husband is a better human being than the wife?
41:17
No, that's the ontological. So ontologically, you're the same. You're a human being.
41:22
Matter of fact, when you read Ephesians chapter 5, both the husband and the
41:25
wife submit to each other.
41:27
But the head of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. So you got to understand
41:31
that. But there is an order.
41:32
Doesn't mean that God the Father is a greater God than Jesus Christ.
41:38
And Jesus Christ is a greater God than the Holy Spirit.
41:40
It just means when it comes to their submission, it's about order and God is
41:44
the God of order, according to 1 Corinthians 14.
41:47
So the question I put here is, can any of this be said of a rock?
41:51
No, it seems like a simple argument, honestly, but the reason why most people,
41:57
and I went to the JW website and I posted some of their beliefs on here.
42:02
And honestly, they don't deal with any of this. They skip over a lot of these
42:05
passages. What they do is they run to the passages that make it look like that
42:09
the Holy Spirit's just some impersonal force.
42:12
You can't, again, you can't cherry pick verses just because you don't like the argument.
42:17
And you should never do that with another person. Don't go to an atheist.
42:20
This is the reason why I gave you those arguments in the survey.
42:23
I wanted you to hear the strongest arguments and the strongest objections first,
42:28
because if you can learn how to respond to the strongest objections,
42:31
you'll be better at answering why you believe what you believe.
42:35
We call it steel manning. The opposite of steel man is straw man.
42:39
Straw man is where you manufacture the other person's argument because it's
42:43
easy to push over a straw man.
42:46
Steel manning is the best way to respect your opponent who you're debating with.
42:50
What you want to do is state exactly what JWs believe, state exactly what Mormons
42:55
believe, state exactly what atheists and evolutionists believe.
42:58
In order to do that, you've got to do some studying. You've got to understand their worldview.
43:02
So here's another, his action. So the first one was his characteristics and here's his actions.
43:08
Holy Spirit acts personally and powerfully. He's a divine person, not in personal force.
43:13
So he leads and guides, he commands and forbids, he helps and prays,
43:18
he calls and assigns, he speaks and testifies, he teaches, he loves,
43:23
he grieves, he cries out.
43:25
These actions reflect intellect, emotion, and will, clear evidence of divine personhood.
43:31
Again, can any of this be said of a rock? No.
43:34
So it's an easy argument. It's just hard for people to accept and believe.
43:40
Most of the problems that people have with the Bible fall into that category.
43:44
It's not that it's hard to understand. It's just hard to believe.
43:48
I can't believe that salvation is that simple.
43:52
So person, if you take the word person, the first 10 times it's mentioned in
43:58
your Bible, this is what we discover.
44:01
Number one, a person means that that person has a moral agency.
44:06
He can decide between good and bad.
44:08
Persons are capable of making vows, being purified, being counted for provision.
44:12
So there's a moral agency connected to the word person.
44:16
This is the reason why we argue for the person. What do you mean by persons?
44:20
What do you mean by persons?
44:22
Person has moral agency. They understand good, bad, so forth, so on.
44:27
Number two, spiritual value. Persons are estimable before God,
44:31
not interchangeable with goods or animals.
44:33
They're not just assigned values
44:36
like an animal is. They're not trades and goods. They're a human being.
44:41
And the Christian worldview is the only worldview that promotes humanity and the dignity of humans.
44:50
I mean, you look at the murder of Charlie Kirk. Why did they kill him?
44:54
Because as far as they're concerned, he was an enemy combatant.
44:57
They didn't like his ideas.
44:58
So just kill him because, you know, you've been teaching in schools evolution
45:03
for, you know, 60 years that people just came as animals.
45:07
There's just nothing but a prodigal accident. So why not? What's the value of a human life?
45:11
But guess what? A person in the Bible has estimate, has worth, has value.
45:16
That's the basis of our Christian worldview. you rational or
45:20
relational identity persons are not just household goods
45:23
they're not herds or inventories they're
45:27
people that can communicate and have relationships with okay distinct ontology
45:32
so we talked about ontology is your your existence who you are the consistent
45:36
separation of persons from material and animal categories that you know affirm
45:41
their unique nature as image bearers of god So the idea is that whenever the
45:45
Bible talks about a person,
45:46
it's referring to a human being that has intellect,
45:51
emotion, feelings.
45:54
Okay, that's the basis. That's the way the Bible defines person.
45:57
And it's an implied definition.
46:00
Here's what JWs typically believe. I mean, you can read that on your own.
46:04
But the summary is, Jehovah's Witnesses deny the Holy Spirit's personhood.
46:08
They view him as God's impersonal act of force used to accomplish his will.
46:13
They reject the Trinity, interpreting references to the spirit,
46:17
speaking or teaching as literary personification.
46:21
The rock spoke to me. That's how they look at it.
46:24
Not evidence of divine personality. So if you go to jw.org, go to jw.org.
46:29
I encourage you, look at it. Look at what they believe about the Holy Spirit.
46:33
Because when you talk to a JW, don't assume what they believe. Know what they believe.
46:38
Well, my understanding, this is what you believe. Is that correct? Yes. Okay.
46:42
And then I have some questions at the end of the slide deck here.
46:46
These are legitimate, viable questions that are based off of what we believe of the Holy Spirit.
46:50
Well, how does a impersonal force be grieved? How do you grieve an impersonal
46:54
force? Help me understand that.
46:56
Put the shoe on their foot. Make them defend their undoctrinal position.
47:02
You see? But you got to understand where they're coming from and you got to
47:05
understand where you're coming from.
47:06
If you don't understand where you're coming from, you're going to have a hard
47:09
time trying to defend it.
47:10
All right? So there's a list of things that they basically reject them as a personal force.
47:16
As a matter of fact, I told you before, most of the time when we say Holy Spirit,
47:20
they interpret what we mean by Holy Spirit as a demonic spirit.
47:24
But it was interesting, Pastor Ben preached the first Samuel talking about Abigail and David, right?
47:30
And it just, it stood out to me and I thought about this, like that's actually a pretty good verse.
47:35
But in first Samuel 25, 32 through 35, you know that he was going to kill Nabal, right?
47:40
And she realized that David was going to kill Nabal.
47:44
So what did she do? She stepped in. She goes, oh, wait. And she brought all
47:47
the food to him and so forth and so on. And because Nabal means fool.
47:50
She goes, look, he lives by his namesake. He's a fool.
47:54
But, you know, the Bible says that, what did David decide? He says,
47:58
I'm not going to kill you.
47:59
And he says, I'm going to, he says, I accept thy person. And I thought that
48:03
was interesting he said that.
48:05
So the passage is a great illustration of the biblical concept of personhood,
48:10
not merely the physical presence.
48:12
You know, oh, she's just a statue.
48:14
No, she was actual human being that he can communicate with.
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Well, what did she do? She had intellect, emotion, and will.
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David's response to Abigail reveals that her advice, she reasoned with him,
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right? She talked to David.
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She kind of brought him, she basically got him to put away his sword.
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So she had to reason with him, that intervention.
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And she is obviously, she was concerned because she's going to,
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you know, David's going to go in there and destroy her whole household.
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So he altered the course. That's the will of David.
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He said, I have accepted thy person in verse 35. So he affirms or identified.
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Identity as a distinct reasoning relational being, not a force or influence. So what's the argument?
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This supports the argument for the personhood of the Holy Ghost.
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Again, look at biblical patterns that'll help you understand a doctrine like
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the Trinity, the concept of the personhood of the Holy Spirit,
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and look at the biblical patterns to help you interpret that.
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So just as Abigail's personhood is recognized through her speech,
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counsel, moral influence, the Holy Spirit is also shown throughout scripture,
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to speak, to teach, grieve, intercede, all marks of a personal being.
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The spirit is not an impersonal energy, but a divine person who reasons,
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feels, and acts with purpose.
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The word, the Hebrew word person is nephesh, and that's the Hebrew symbols.
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So, the King James translates this word, nephesh, soul, 475 times.
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It translates it life 117 times, person is 29 times, mind is 15 times, heart 15 times,
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creature 9 times, body 8 times, himself 8 times, yourselves 6 times,
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dead 5 times, will 4 times, desire 4 times, man 3 times, themselves 3 times, any 3 times.
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Three times, appetite and miscellaneous, 47 times.
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So soul, according to the way that it's translated in your King James Bible,
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so it's a life, a creature, person, appetite, mind, living, being,
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desire, all these things are connected to a person.
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One that which breathes a living being, living being with life in the blood,
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man himself, self, person, or individual, seat of the appetites.
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Your Bible is absolutely consistent.
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It will never refer to a person as a thing or an object.
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And yet all those same attributes are connected to the Holy Spirit.
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Why do I believe the Holy Spirit's a person? Because there's nothing in my Bible that says he's not.
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There's no reason for me not to. I'm not just trying to come to that conclusion
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because I have to teach he's a person.
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I don't have to teach anything. I just show you, this is what the Bible tells
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us. If you want to know what a person is, let the Bible define what a person is.
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So some questions to ask. Here's a great question to ask. I know this is small.
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But if the Holy Spirit is merely a force, how do you explain his ability to
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speak, teach, and intercede? Actions that require intellect and will. How do you explain that?
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Leave it there. You don't have to explain the question. Just say,
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help me understand. Let's look at this verse, John 14, 26. He teaches. How does a thing teach?
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Show me one pulpit that teaches something.
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Right? And these are simple questions, but guess what?
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The whole point of asking questions like this is to challenge their thinking and their assumptions.
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The best way to witness to people is to ask questions.
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Most of us as Christians, we go into preaching mode. Let me tell you about Jesus Christ.
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He died for your sins. And the person doesn't even have a chance to say anything edgewise.
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All you're doing is preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching.
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Sometimes you ought to ask them.
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I love doing that on the street. I mean, there's one time where we'd be at,
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I think it was in Memphis on Beale Street. It was kind of like 6th Street down here.
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And we had about 100 banners and, you know, banners, scripture signs, things like that.
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And I stood across the street in the crowd that was looking at the banners.
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And I was looking at this guy. I was like, I mean, what do you think about these people?
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And he started telling me. I said, oh, what do you think of Jesus Christ?
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And he started telling me who he thought Jesus Christ was. And man,
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it opened up of conversation.
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Next 45 minutes, I got a chance to talk to him, give him scripture, give him track.
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But I started with questions because I know people, most people want to say something.
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They always want to say something. Give him a chance. And sometimes you'll give
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him enough rope to hang himself.
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Honestly, you know, I mean, I do that a lot, especially with atheists.
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I don't believe in God. Why don't you believe in God? There's no evidence.
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What evidence are you looking for?
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Well, I just, there is no evidence of God. I said, so do you
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reject personal eyewitness testimony that's not
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evidence i said that's enough evidence to send somebody to
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prison for the rest of their life our legal court system says that's legitimate
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evidence why don't you i said do you reject legal court evidence so you're saying
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that's not evidence why because you don't feel like it's evidence oh so you're
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ruled by your emotions anyway the point is is like you you you'll run into the
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reason is once they answer your questions they are telling you what they believe.
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A Mormon? Oh, we believe in Jesus. I said, well, can I ask you a couple of questions about Jesus?
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I did this to a Muslim. I remember I answered the door, or I was knocking on
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doors one time on, I can't remember if it was across the way.
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And I remember in one of the apartment complexes, and he had just gotten here from Pakistan.
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And he taught in a Muslim university over there. And I asked him,
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he goes, oh, we believe in Jesus. I said, oh, really?
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I said, do you believe in the same Jesus we do? He goes, absolutely.
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I said, so you believe he was the physical manifestation of God,
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that he was the son of God, that he rose again on the third.
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Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't believe that. I said, oh,
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that's not the same Jesus.
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So people will use the same language, but it's a false analogy.
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Again, they're using similarities, but it's not the same thing.
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Ask questions. Here's another one. Why does scripture consistently use personal
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pronouns like he and him for the Holy Spirit if he's not a person?
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Would God mislead us with anthropomorphic language in doctrinal context? Would God do that?
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Would God mislead us and lie to us by using, why is he using that kind of language to mess us up?
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If being poured out proves impersonality, does that mean love,
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wisdom, and even God himself are also described metaphorically are not personal
54:20
either, where God pours out love?
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So again, what you're doing is challenging them what the Bible teaches.
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You're challenging their belief against what the scripture says.
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Okay. Now there's people go, well, I don't think that's what it means.
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And this is my favorite answer. I don't care what you think it means.
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It doesn't matter what you think it means. What matters is what does it say?
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And they will listen, they will argue to their blue in the face about what they
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think it means, but they, you got to get them to walk away in their mind.
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Like, well, I guess it says that now they got to go home and try to figure out
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how to respond to that. I call it putting a rock in their shoe.
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Have you ever had a little rock in your shoe and it just irritates you to death?
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That's what you do with questions.
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You just, look, if all you can do is irritate them enough to make them go home
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and think about it, that's enough.
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That's what you want because people are not trained to think today.
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They learn how to TikTok and YouTube short. That's how they think, right?
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How can the Holy Spirit be grieved or resisted if he lacks emotion and volition?
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What's funny is on the JW page, they used Acts chapter 7 with Stephen,
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and they were talking about the Holy Spirit, but they didn't go to verse 51
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where he said that you resist the Holy Spirit.
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They completely ignored that verse, but they were arguing for another part of
55:40
that passage in chapter seven.
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Again, that's how JWs operate. They are trained to cherry pick verses.
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We preach the whole counsel of God, not part of it.
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You don't leave out part of the Bible. You can remember when the Bible says
55:54
in first Peter, I think it's first Peter 1, 21, where he says that no scripture
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of the prophet or no prophecy of the scripture is of any private religion.
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Interpretation, right? What does the word private mean? The way you and I understand
56:06
it is your personal opinion, but that's not what private means in the scripture.
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You know what Jesus Christ sometimes would do whenever he'd tell a parable and
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the people didn't get the parable and then his disciples were confused about it?
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You know what the Bible says? He would take them aside privately,
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away from the larger group, away from the context.
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So guess what? You know how you interpret scripture privately?
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You rip it out of its context.
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That's what the devil did whenever he challenged Jesus Christ in Matthew 4.
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Didn't the devil quote scripture? Is scripture wrong?
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It's only wrong if you apply it wrong and you take it out of context.
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So that's what you learn to do is don't take verses out of context.
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Let's look at what the Bible actually says.
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Okay, so don't cherry pick. If the Holy Spirit is not co-equal to the Father
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and Son, why is he included in the baptismal formula?
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The apostolic benedictions in Matthew 28 and 2 Corinthians 13 Would God include
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a mere force alongside divine persons? Why would he do that?
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Right? Oh, in my force, you know, be baptized in the force of God. Nobody says that.
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Anyway, Holy Spirit is a divine person, not a mere force who actively ministers
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to human needs. He dispels darkness.
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He comforts the lonely. He grants sleep to the weary.
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He heals broken hearts through his indwelling presence. scripture affirms his
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personality through communion, love, and care, making him the believer's constant
57:30
companion, comforter, and cure for life's deep struggles. He's a person.
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He's not a thing. He's not an it, right?
57:37
So, understanding the personhood of the Holy Spirit basically helps us to avoid
57:44
all those doctrinal errors that JWs, Mormons, and Muslims believe.
57:50
Of course, Muslims believe the Holy Spirit is the angel Gabriel, right?
57:55
But again, the Bible doesn't ever say that. Sometimes some of their doctrines,
57:59
they derive from other writings like the Apocrypha and things like that.
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You'll see some doctrinal application like that. But here's the point.
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The point is, is if the Holy Spirit is a person, then the challenge to you,
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the question is, how often do you communicate and have a relationship with the Holy Spirit?
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How much of his influence and his will and his direction is actually in your life.
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Now, we pray to Jesus, we pray to God, and I'm not saying not to do that, but at the end of the day,
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the Bible tells us that the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 8
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is that he communicates and he groans, things that we can't articulate, the Holy Spirit.
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So, you might be praying, well,
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Lord, I really need a car. I really need a husband. I really need a wife.
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And the Holy Spirit is like, well, Lord, this is actually what he meant.
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That's what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit will redirect things that
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actually mean something in our life because the Holy Spirit is concerned about
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your relationship with the Father and the Son.
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And your relationship, I can tell you this, your relationship with the Bible
59:06
is connected with your relationship to the Holy Spirit.
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So, any questions? Person of the Holy Spirit.
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So, and again, the whole point of this is just to show us, this is what the Bible shows us.
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It demonstrates, it illustrates that the Holy Spirit's a person. Yes.
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That's right. And the Bible tells us that about God, right?
59:26
John 4, God is a spirit, but you must worship him in spirit and truth.
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Remember we talked about spirit being part of the intellect, the way you think?
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Well, guess what? But that's why the only way to properly worship God is spiritually
59:39
and truthfully, spiritually, intellectually.
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Didn't Jesus Christ say, the
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greatest commandment is love the Lord thy God with all thy spirit, right?
59:48
Thy mind, that's what he talks about, and your strength and your soul.
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So, in soul is your emotion, your body is obviously the physical aspects,
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your five senses, and your spirit is the way you think.
1:00:00
So, we ought to think the way God wants us to. So, yes, he's connected to a spirit. He's a spirit.
1:00:05
He's a person. A person is a spirit. So anyway, good question. Anybody else?
1:00:10
All right. There is no homework. So I would just recommend go through the question
1:00:15
answers for the survey that I posted.
1:00:17
If you have any questions about that, please let me know.
1:00:20
And what I'll also say, has anybody had a chance to read the final exam stuff?
1:00:25
Any questions on it right now? Okay.
1:00:29
You can, again, like I said, you can try to find one of those groups or a church
1:00:33
here in Robby. You can contact the pastor.
1:00:35
They may or may not respond to you.
1:00:38
There's a JW church right down the street, so you can always ask them.
1:00:42
Wait till they're all coming out.
1:00:44
Hey, I got a question. Hey, listen, sometimes they like that.
1:00:48
They really do because their job is to have Bible studies with people.
1:00:52
That's a perfect opportunity. Yeah, I'd love to have a Bible study with you.
1:00:55
Let's go have coffee. Let's talk.
1:00:57
Right? So anyway, I've done that with plenty of them, you know,
1:01:00
and again, don't be afraid of what they say.
1:01:04
What I would say is if they say something you don't know how to respond to,
1:01:07
write it down and study it out.
1:01:10
No Christian should ever be scared of what the world thinks or what a false religion thinks.
1:01:16
You have the word of God. You have the Holy Spirit. You have the right Bible.
1:01:20
We have the right worldview, the correct belief.
1:01:23
And there's reasons why they're correct. I just showed you reasons why we believe
1:01:28
that the Holy Spirit's a person.
1:01:30
Okay? None of this was guesswork. None of it was assumption.
1:01:33
It was basically, it came from scripture.
1:01:35
So that's what you do. The better you understand your Bible,
1:01:38
the more confident you'll be able to do.
1:01:40
There's questions. I know, you know, the whole thing about Charlie Kirk recently,
1:01:44
you know, one of the things he would do before he went to college campuses,
1:01:48
he would contact Christian apologists.
1:01:50
One of them is Frank Turk, for example, And Dr. Frank Turek,
1:01:53
he wrote a book called I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist,
1:01:57
which is a great book, by the way.
1:01:59
And he would ask Frank Turek, he goes, how do I have one-liner responses?
1:02:02
How do I answer some of these questions?
1:02:03
Here's things I'm struggling with. And he always wanted to have either a biblical
1:02:07
answer or some kind of an answer from a Christian worldview.
1:02:10
He did that. The reason why he was so good at it is because he exercised it
1:02:15
over and over and over again.
1:02:18
The more that you witness and deal with people, don't be afraid to answer.
1:02:21
Listen, when we preached downtown in front of UT, I'd have philosophical professors
1:02:28
come up there and argue and debate with me. But then I would ask them questions.
1:02:33
Of course, most of those people, they may be smart in their area,
1:02:36
but you know one thing they don't know? That book.
1:02:39
They don't know the Bible. There's so many bad assumptions about the Bible.
1:02:43
Oh, God condones slavery. Can you show me one command where God said that slavery
1:02:48
was good and he wanted them to take slaves?
1:02:51
Show me where slaves and servants are the same thing. Help me define it the
1:02:56
way that, because most people, when they think slaves, you know what they think of?
1:02:59
Antebellum South, the South, right? They think of Civil War slavery.
1:03:02
That's what they think. That's not the slavery that's shown in your Bible.
1:03:07
They have a misconception of what the Bible actually says. So the better you
1:03:11
get at entering those questions. So this is the way I always say it.
1:03:15
I use the acronym BLUF, B-L-U-F, bottom line up front.
1:03:20
Answer the question and then look to provide proof for that.
1:03:25
That's the two whys for every what, okay?
1:03:28
All right, so let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time.
1:03:32
We thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you for the spirit.
1:03:34
And we just pray that the Spirit would guide us, instruct us,
1:03:37
help us, Lord, to develop a personal relationship with you, Father,
1:03:41
and Lord, that we would draw closer to you, Father, and help to always be bold, Lord.
1:03:46
One thing that we saw in the scriptures or that we see in the scriptures is
1:03:50
that every time somebody was filled with the Holy Spirit, they had boldness
1:03:52
to stand against this vile, wicked world, Lord.
1:03:56
Help us to always be able to present the truth and uphold the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:04:00
In his name we pray, amen.