Welcome to Turning Points. If you're a Christian, he's living within you. Ready to be your guide and comfort. But how much do you really know about the Holy Spirit? Today, Dr.
David Jeremiah begins a new series to shed light on the least understood member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit you may not know. To introduce the first message, the promise of the Spirit, here's David. And thank you for joining us today. We are beginning a new series on Turning Point as we explore the third person of the Trinity. As many of you know, we have already done a series called The God You May Not Know and another one called The Jesus You May Not Know.
This series is called The Holy Spirit You May Not Know. These three series have been packaged in three books that are in a beautiful box that I just saw for the first time this week. And it's a great way to make sure you have some information on the Trinity. What does the Bible say about each member of the Godhead? We began this series as we talk about the Holy Spirit, and we're going to begin with the promise of Jesus that the Holy Spirit would come.
He said that if he did not go away, the Holy Spirit couldn't come. And he went back to heaven so that the Holy Spirit could be released at Pentecost and fill the believers. with his presence. We feel that presence even today. Say, during this month, as we teach on the Holy Spirit, we want to make available to you this brand new book that just came off the press.
It's a Turning Point production called The Holy Spirit You May Not Know. It's a hardback book that takes you through every one of these lessons with lots more material than I can ever share on the radio. This book will really be a blessing to you and something you will hang on to for the days to come as you walk with the Lord. When you have a question about the Holy Spirit, this will be there on the shelf. You'll be able to go and open it up and find some of your answers.
It's 250 pages, fully footnoted. It's a beautiful presentation. It's very similar to the other two books we mentioned earlier, and it's yours for the asking when you send a gift of any size to Turning Point during the month of June.
So, why not be one of the first to help us? This is the last month of the fiscal year. We need your help this month more perhaps than any other month in the year. This is the month when the books close down, and we have to take note of where we are and make decisions based upon that.
So, your gift is really important. And this year, for the first time that I can remember, when you give a gift, we have some people that are going to match it.
So, your gift will be worth twice as much as what you give. And I want to encourage you to take advantage of that.
Well, we need to jump into this series and get going.
So here is part one of the promise of the Holy Spirit from John chapter 14, verses 16 and 17. During the darkest days of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a man who was always with him. His name was Harry Hopkins. Hopkins wasn't a general or a politician.
He was a sickly, frail, weakened by years of battling cancer man. But Roosevelt trusted him and loved him more than anyone else. Hopkins even moved into the White House so he could be close by, recovering from surgery while serving the President. For more than three years, he lived just down the hall, eating at Roosevelt's table. sitting in on late-night strategy sessions.
sometimes even meeting with world leaders in the President's bedroom. Churchill nicknamed him Lord Root of the Batter. Because Hopkins had a way of cutting through confusion to the heart of an issue. Stalin Those suspicious of Americans trusted this man when he promised that the United States would stand with the Allies until Hitler was defeated. Roosevelt once said the reason he leaned on Hopkins so much was simple.
He said, Harry is the one man I can count on to always tell me the truth. And do what needs to be done. He also said in a later time that he loved this man because he knew he was not after anything for himself. He was just trying to be a help to the President. He was in every sense the President's helper.
He was unseen by most, unknown by many, but indispensable to history. And yet As remarkable as Harry Hopkins was. His help could only go so far. You see, his body weakened, his strength gave out, and when his life ended, so did his service. That's the way it is with every human helper.
Their support is valuable. But it's always temporary.
Now think of another moment in history. The night before the cross. Jesus sat down with his disciples for one final meal. He told them he was leaving. and their hearts were troubled.
They couldn't imagine life without him. Who would guide them? Who would help them? And that's when Jesus gave them a promise they never expected. He said, John 14, 16.
I will pray the Father. and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you Forever. For the disciples, those words felt like a lifeline. Jesus was about to leave, but he promised they wouldn't be alone.
Someone was coming to help them. And that's someone. Was God the Holy Spirit? In the weeks ahead, we're going to learn who the Holy Spirit is. What he does, and some people don't know much about him, others misunderstand him.
The Bible tells us the truth. The Spirit of God is living inside every one of us if we're Christians. The Spirit hovered over the waters of creation. The Spirit gave Joseph the wisdom to lead a nation through famine. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, gave David the strength to face giants and enemies, and he even gave the skill to design and build God's tabernacle.
Here's the incredible part. That sane spirit is alive today, and he's ready to help you. When you don't know what to do, He can guide you. When worries keep you up at night, He can calm you down. When life feels too big or too hard, he can give you the courage to stand strong and move forward.
To know the Holy Spirit is to know God Himself. It is to know His presence and His power in your life.
So let's get started learning about him. First of all, Let me tell you about his personality. John 14, 16 and 17 says, And I will pray the Father. And he will give you another helper. that he may abide with you forever in the spirit of truth.
whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him. For he dwells with you. and will be in you. When Jesus spoke these words, He wasn't promising a force.
or some type of vague spiritual electricity. He was promising a person.
Now, this is where some people get tripped up about the Holy Spirit. They refer to the Holy Spirit as an it. But the Holy Spirit is not an it. He is God. The third person of the Trinity.
Think of it this way. Electricity can't love you. Gravity can't teach you. A magnetic field won't comfort you at two o'clock in the morning. But the Spirit of God does all of that and more.
Jesus said He would teach us. And in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit speaks and He makes decisions and prevents people's plans. And Paul said he can be grieved, and you can't hurt electricity's feelings. Did you know that? The Spirit intercedes for us in prayer.
So the Holy Spirit is not an it, it's not a force like electricity. The Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God. And here's the clincher: the Holy Spirit has all of the marks of personality. Psychologists tell us that personality is made up of three things.
Intellect. Emotion. and volition or will. The Holy Spirit has all of those things. He searches and knows the deep things of God.
He has knowledge. He loves. He has emotion. And he makes choices like distributing the spiritual gifts to his people. He has mind, emotion, and will, the complete profile of a person.
So let me hear you say this in your own mind: the Holy Spirit is a person. Say that. The Holy Spirit is a person. Jesus said, I will send you this person. And he gave him a name.
He called him another helper. He wasn't sending an it. He was sending a he.
Someone who would walk alongside the disciples just as he did.
Someone who knows and feels and chooses, someone who could fill the empty seat at the table when Jesus returned to the Father. Perhaps you wonder, why does it matter whether the spirit is a person or a force? It really does matter. Listen to R. A.
Tori, who wrote this. He said: if you think of the Spirit as a power to use, It will lead to pride. And you will start to think you're better than others. But if you understand that the Spirit is God Himself, Full of majesty and glory, who comes to live in your heart and work in your life, it will make you humble. Just think of it.
The God of heaven chooses to live in you. What an awesome thought that is. Oh men and women, it makes all the difference what you believe about the Holy Spirit. If he is in it, an impersonal influence that we learn to harness, then we may boast. I've got it.
But the truth is far different. The Holy Spirit is the person of God. comes to live in our hearts. And when we realize that, pride goes away and humility fills our lips. And God has chosen to live within me.
I don't know if you know it or not, but throughout the ranks of Christianity, there are some people who believe that if you. Become a Christian, you don't have the Holy Spirit quite yet. You have to have the second blessing. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, they put you down. You don't have that yet?
Listen to me. The Bible tells us that when you become a Christian, immediately upon becoming a Christian, you receive the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not an influence, the Holy Spirit is a person who comes to live within your heart. Let me talk with you about the priority of the Holy Spirit.
Why is the Holy Spirit important? What kind of a person is he? Is he simply an angel? Is he higher than the angels? We've already begun to answer that question, but Jesus gave us the clearest reply in a single word.
And that word is another. You don't often build a sermon on one word, but I could preach a whole sermon on the word another. Jesus said, I will pray the Father, and he will give you. Another helper.
Okay.
Now, in the Greek language, there are only two words for the word another. One is the word heteros, which means another of a different kind. That's where we get the word heterosexual, a different kind. But the other word is the word alas. And that word means another of the very same kind.
So, what Jesus said is, I'm going to give you another helper of the very same kind that I am. This will be another one just like me, someone you can trust in, someone you can know, someone who will live within you. What does that mean? Jesus was saying, don't be afraid that I'm leaving. When I return to the Father, He's going to send another helper like the one you already have, another one just like Jesus.
Another who is God, for Jesus is God. Another who is a person, for Jesus is a person.
Someone has put it this way: another instead of Jesus. another like Jesus another beside Jesus. All three are true. The disciples weren't losing Jesus, they were gaining the Spirit. Jesus promised his continuing presence, but now they would also enjoy the Spirit's presence, two instead of one.
Jesus alongside of you and in you, and the Holy Spirit indwelling you. It's like what people say at a wedding. A father gives away his daughter, and friends console him. You're not losing a daughter, you're gaining a son-in-law.
Now, that could depend on the kind of guy she marries. But in this case, there's no doubt. Jesus was saying, you're receiving another one just like the one you already have. And here's the wonder of it: they weren't even losing the one they loved. Jesus would still be with them, closer than ever, living inside them through the Holy Spirit.
The personality of the Holy Spirit, the priority of it. What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? And listen to me carefully in these next moments. I'm sure you know. There's a lot of confusion.
A lot of discussion, a lot of disagreement.
sometimes even leading to division. about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can unify churches, but if he's misunderstood, he can divide churches. You can get into the ones who have him and the ones who don't. And pretty soon you've got this conflict going on.
I know something about that from experiences I've had. in churches that I've pastored. The priority of the Holy Spirit is really important. There are many ways to answer the question: what is he here for? But let me tell you what he's here for.
First of all, to promote Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is here to promote Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that. Listen to John 15, 26. When the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he, the Holy Spirit, said Jesus, will testify of me.
And in chapter 16, we read: When he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will tell you things to come.
Now, watch this: he will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. Do you see it? The Holy Spirit does not glorify himself. He glorifies Christ. The first and foremost purpose of the Holy Spirit is to lift up the name of Jesus.
That means something very practical. and teaching any movement Any emphasis that puts the Spirit of God ahead of the Son of God is not. accurate and not from the Bible. As important as the Holy Spirit is, he never preempts the place of Christ. On the other hand, wherever Christ is magnified, you can be sure the Holy Spirit is at work.
His task is to make much of Jesus. This is a word needed in our generation, men and women, because there are groups today who have elevated the Spirit in such a way that Jesus is almost lost. To be sure, the Spirit is God. We do not need to make Him God. He already is, but His place in the Trinity is to glorify Jesus Christ.
And when the Spirit is doing his work in your life, You will not be going around talking primarily about the Holy Spirit, you'll be talking about Jesus. You will be talking about Jesus Christ because the Spirit comes to lift him up. Spirit-filled Christians, men and women, are Christ-centered Christians. Like John the Baptist, who said, He must increase, but I must decrease.
So, the Holy Spirit comes first of all to promote Jesus Christ. And if you get yourself in a group, and all of a sudden, Jesus Christ gets lost, and the Holy Spirit becomes the whole discussion in the gifts of the Spirit, and speaking in tongues, and all of this takes over. Whenever that happens, you know something's not right. Because the Holy Spirit did not come to promote himself, he came to promote Jesus. And if you're filled with the Spirit of Jesus, you'll be filled with the Spirit itself.
That's the one that works, and that's what the Bible teaches.
So he's here to promote Jesus Christ. Secondly, the Holy Spirit has come to provide strength. for believers. I want you to know that's very special to me, especially during these days. I'm sure it's special to some of you, even though you may not know what's going on.
John 14, 16 says, I will pray the Father, and he will send you another helper. How many of you could use another helper? I mean, amen. We could use a little help, couldn't we? Jesus called the Holy Spirit helper.
That word has the meaning of someone who comes alongside of you, who walks beside you. The word is parakaleo colon alongside of. He comes to strengthen you. The Holy Spirit is the one who comes with strength. He's the divine strengthener.
Someone once said, the Holy Spirit is the rod of iron in your back. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives you the backbone to do the things you don't have the courage to do. How we need that today. How we need that in our world today, in our churches today. We live in a time of immense pressure, and without the Spirit's strength, we will collapse.
Think of Simon Peter. He's a great illustration. On the night Jesus was betrayed, Peter denied the Lord three times. When confronted, he swore, I don't even know the man. Speaking of Jesus.
What a pitiful picture of cowardice. Yet, wait 40 days, and that same Peter stands before a hostile crowd on the day of Pentecost. And proclaims Jesus Christ crucified and risen, and three thousand people. are converted.
So you say, what made the difference between Peter on the night before Jesus died and Peter 40 days later? Two things: the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit transformed Peter from a coward to a courageous preacher. The Holy Spirit was the steel in Peter's backbone. He was the source of his power.
That's what Jesus promised. He said, I will send you another helper. He is the strength we need. to live boldly and faithfully. in a hostile world.
How many of you know that if you only ever do the things you think you can do, you will never do the things God called you to do? I'm sure it would surprise you that many times I don't feel like preaching to you. on Sunday. I'm tired. Maybe I've had a busy week or I'm not feeling good physically.
But you know what? One of the most wonderful things in the world to be a preacher is to stand up here and feel weak. and know that the Holy Spirit has filled you with His power.
Sometimes it's almost like I'm standing over here watching someone else preach. Because the Holy Spirit is doing it. In 1966, a 22-year-old English woman named Jackie Pullinger. boarded a ship with little more than a suitcase and a few dollars and a prayer. She had asked God to show her where to get off.
At every point the ship stopped. She felt no peace until the ship docked in Hong Kong. There, God led her to Kolan Walled City, a lawless maze of alleys ruled by gangs and filled with heroin addicts and street children. Jackie moved into a tiny room in that dark city. She had no money, no program, and no plan.
All she had was the Holy Spirit. At first she felt helpless. But when addicts came to her for prayer, she discovered something astonishing. Many of them who got prayed for were delivered from heroin without withdrawal pain. Doctors couldn't explain it.
Jackie simply said, I discovered the Holy Spirit is stronger than heroin. I just show up, and He brings life. Her ministry became known as St. Stephen's Society. It has since helped thousands of people recover from drug addiction.
Former gang members have become pastors and addicts, free and broken lives became whole. We may never walk into a walled city of crime and addiction as Jackie did. But all of us know what it's like to feel powerless. And it is in those very moments that the Holy Spirit comes alongside us to help us and to strengthen us and to enable us to do what we could never do if He weren't active. The Bible says You shall receive power.
After the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The Bible says, I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength. Through his spirit. The Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit is to give you the strength you don't have without Him.
He gives you the power, the courage to do things you would never do on your own. He becomes the source of God within you. He comes to promote Jesus Christ. He comes to provide strength for Christian living. Here's the third thing.
The Holy Spirit comes to point us to the truth. Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit in John 14:26, but the helper. The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things. And bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. And two chapters later, Jesus said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. You know, truth is almost lost in our world today, is it not? You wonder if anybody really even knows what the meaning of it is. People talk about their truth, it's just another way of describing their deception and lies. But the Bible says there is truth, and Jesus Christ is the truth.
And sometimes, as we look at what's going on in life, we need someone to help us understand the truth. What is true? In John 14, 26, Jesus explained that the Spirit would be the disciples' helper and that He would teach them everything they needed to know and even bring back to their mind the words He had already spoken. In John 16, Jesus said there was more truth waiting for them, but they weren't ready for it yet. He said he would handle that too.
When the time came, he would give them the truth that they needed at that moment.
So let me just tell you this, the same Spirit still teaches us today. Reminding us of God's word when we need it most and leading us into deeper understanding as we grow. If you've ever memorized any verses, you know that sometimes when you're in a situation, that verse will pop into your mind. Who does that? The Holy Spirit does that.
The Holy Spirit brings to your memory the things Jesus has already said, so you have that verse when you need it the most. And you know, sometimes what I've discovered is, and I don't know if this happens to you, these are verses I haven't even reviewed in a long time. And if you told me, could you say that verse and do it perfectly, I couldn't, but the Holy Spirit can. And He brings that verse back to your mind so when you're in the midst of a situation, you know exactly what it is you should say because the Spirit of truth is working in your heart. The mystery of the Holy Spirit and the majesty of it.
Come together as you study the scripture. And we're going to be doing that for this next month as we talk about the Holy Spirit you may not know. We have just completed part one. Of the promise of the Spirit, and we'll have the rest of this message tomorrow. We want to remind you also that during this month and this month only, you can order your copy of the 250-page book that we created from our study of this particular subject.
This book has not been released yet. It's just been finished. I have a copy of it in my hands right now, along with the study guide.
So we are ready now to make this available to you for your own personal use. Maybe you want to use it for a small group or you're using it for research for some things you're doing and teaching. The book is yours for the asking when you send a gift to Turning Point during the month of June. and we'll send it right to you as soon as we get your request. See you tomorrow.
I'm David Jeremiah. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's new series, The Holy Spirit You May Not Know, visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine, Turning Points, and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call us at 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of David's new book, The Holy Spirit You May Not Know, a valuable resource that's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International and New King James Versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study. Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us tomorrow as we continue the Holy Spirit You May Not Know on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
