What Every Christian Should Know About The Holy Spirit – Part 1

Hey podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click the donate button, or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. And I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program.

On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. Only the Holy Spirit of God can take something that is dead and make it alive again. And if you're a Christian today, the guarantee you have that you're going to be raised from the dead is the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. And by the way, that same Holy Spirit works in your life while you're alive to give you power to say no to sin and yes to God. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, most Christians tend to picture God the Father and God the Son in human form.

But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, we often don't know what to think. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress reintroduces us to the third person of the Godhead and helps us understand his role in our lives. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David. And welcome again to Pathway to Victory. When was the last time you took a vacation that was intentionally designed to enrich your spiritual life? Well, in just four months from now, I'll be hosting a spectacular vacation with a purpose.

I'm referring to our Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, June 15th through 22nd. Nothing will ignite your passion for God quite like standing in the majestic beauty of his creation. And I want you to see the jaw-dropping beauty in Alaska with us. I guarantee the lush coastline, the open skies, the glacier-filled bays will inspire your praise to God.

So take a look at all the details and make plans to join us by going to ptv.org. Well, today's Pathway to Victory program features another message in my teaching series called What Every Christian Should Know, and I'm very pleased to offer you the hardbound book that complements our study. Sometimes my friends feel like theology. That is, the study of God is sacred territory. They mistakenly believe that doctrine is an academic privilege that belongs to the clergy.

Well, to put it clearly, that's a lie from the pit. You see, here's the truth. Theology matters.

It shapes the way we understand and interact with the world around us. And in my book, What Every Christian Should Know, I explain in language that everybody can understand, 10 core doctrines for your Christian faith. I want you to own a copy of What Every Christian Should Know. I'll send a copy to your home when you provide a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. David and I will say more about my book and the study that goes with it after today's message. But right now, let's get started with our next study in the series, What Every Christian Should Know About the Holy Spirit. Are you familiar with the rule of three?

You may not have heard that term before, but you see it in operation all the time. Movies or plays are usually written with three acts to them. Sermons or motivational speeches have three points to them. Even a good joke has how many people walking into a bar? Three men walked into a bar, not one or two. Interior decorators understand the importance of three. Many times, they'll arrange furniture in three pieces or picture frames in three pieces, three frames. And yet, here's the interesting twist. Although all three members of the triad are equal, one usually takes a subsidiary role, a complementary role. It's still equal, it's still equal, but it diminishes in its view and its prominence. For example, think of vanilla in Neapolitan ice cream.

Everybody talks about chocolate and strawberry, poor old vanilla gets left behind. Or think about Larry in the Three Stooges. I mean, he was a brother just like the other two, but he had a subsidiary role. Now, admittedly, it's quite a jump to go from the Three Stooges to the Trinity, but I don't want you to miss the point. In the Trinity, we have God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three are equal, but the Holy Spirit is mentioned third. And some people feel like he is not as important as the other two members of the Trinity.

Nothing could be further from the truth. As we're going to discover today, the Holy Spirit may have a subsidiary role, one that's not prominent as the other two, but he is just as important. And understanding who the Holy Spirit is, and by the way, he is a who, not a it. Understanding who the Holy Spirit is is key to experiencing the kind of life, the kind of power that God wants us to experience every day. Today, as we continue our series on the 10 core beliefs of historic Christianity, we're going to look at that fourth pillar, and that is what every Christian should know about the Holy Spirit of God. Now, as I said earlier, the Holy Spirit is equal to God.

You see that in the attributes or the perfections. He has the same attributes or perfections as the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit's eternal. He's omniscient, all-knowing. He's omnipotent, all-powerful.

He is God. Jesus treated the Holy Spirit as God. Remember in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 19, he said, we're to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. In our study of Acts, remember Acts chapter 5, when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the church about the money they were given. And what did Peter say to Ananias? Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit of God? And then in the next verse, verse four, Peter said, you've not lied to men, you've lied to God.

In other words, he was equating lying to the Holy Spirit as lying to God himself. We see the Holy Spirit's work throughout scripture. We see him in the Old Testament. Now, he wasn't present in Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, but you find him in the next verse. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. The Holy Spirit was instrumental in creation. He was instrumental in the creation of man, of you and me as well. In Job 33, verse four, remember Elihu is talking to Job and he said, the Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

It is a Holy Spirit of God who gives us physical as well as spiritual life. Throughout the Old Testament, we see the Holy Spirit working, bringing power to empower certain people to do certain things. He empowered Gideon and Othniel and Samson, all to produce mighty works for God. You see him in the life of David in a different way. Remember when David sent his sin with Bathsheba in Psalm 51, 11, he prayed, oh Lord, do not remove your Holy Spirit from me. The worst thing David could imagine was the Holy Spirit being removed from him. He had seen what had happened to his predecessor, Saul, because in 1 Samuel 16, 14, it said, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

David didn't want to experience that same fate. It was unimaginable to try to live life without the Holy Spirit of God. You see the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament in writing scripture. In Acts 28, verse 25, Paul said, the Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah, the prophet to your fathers. It wasn't Isaiah's words. Isaiah was speaking, it was the Word of God moved by the Holy Spirit of God. In our message on what every Christian should know about the Bible, we talked about the role of the Holy Spirit in scripture. In 2 Peter 1, 20 to 21, Peter said, know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of a human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Isaiah didn't wake up one day and say, I'm going to write some scripture today.

They didn't initiate it. God moved upon them and he moved them to write scripture without error. That's the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. You may be surprised at what the Holy Spirit did in the New Testament.