HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "What Happens to the Unrighteous?" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

What Happens to the Unrighteous?

Paul  tells  us  that  "the  unrighteous  will  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God"  (I Corinthians 6:9). 

In Galatians 5 the apostle lists for us the works of the flesh and adds, "I  also  told you  in time past,  that  those who  practice  such  things  will not inherit the kingdom of God" (verse 21).

 He says that those who do these  things are unrighteous;  they are not right. And if you do these  things, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

In  the book of  Revelation we  are  told  that God will  not  allow  anything  to  enter heaven  that  would  defile  it.  In  Ephesians  5:5,  Paul  tells us  that  "no  fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the

kingdom of Christ and  God." 

And  in Hebrews we  are  exhorted  to  "pursue peace with all men,  and  holiness, without  which  no one will see  the  Lord" (12:14).  

In all  these  verses  the  Holy  Spirit  is  speaking  to  us  about  a  holy  life,  about  a righteous life, about denying the flesh life.

Jesus said to His disciples, "Unless your righteousness exceeds  the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew  5:20).  

What  a  shocker  that  must  have  been  to  the  disciples!  The

scribes and Pharisees were  known  for their righteousness;  they were the  fellows who were always straining at gnats and swallowing camels. 

They were always so careful to demonstrate  their righteousness  before the people, to keep every little jot  and  tittle  of  their  own  interpretation  of  the  law.  

But  inwardly  they  were breaking  the  law  all  the  time.  

So  Jesus  told  His  men  that  "unless  your righteousness exceeds theirs, you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven."

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "The Spirit Convicts of Righteousness" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

The Spirit Convicts of Righteousness

The  second  task  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  world  is  to  reprove  the  world  of righteousness.  The  Spirit  not  only  reproves  the  world  of  sin,  but  also  of righteousness.  

Now,  sin  is  doing  the  wrong  thing;  righteousness  is  doing  the

right thing. 

Sin is missing the mark; righteousness  is hitting the mark.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "Where Do You Stand?" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

Where Do You Stand?

Jesus Himself put it like this: "He who believes in Him [Jesus]  is not condemned; but he who does not believe  is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18).

This is the issue. 

Do you believe  in God's provision  for your  sin? 
Do you believethat God sent His only begotten Son to bear your sin, to die in your place? 
Have you accepted or rejected  Jesus Christ? 

That's  the only  issue, an individual  issue.

What  is  your  relationship  with  Jesus  Christ?  Did  you  accept  Him  and  the redemption that He purchased, or did you reject it by rejecting Him?

When  you  stand  before  God  at  the  final  judgment,  He  will  ask  you  but  one question:  "What  did  you  do  with My  Son?" 

 It all  comes  down  to  your  personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  world  is  that  all  of  us  need  to  receive Jesus Christ as Savior and let Him become the Lord of our life. The whole issue is believing  in  Jesus  Christ.  

That  makes  the  difference  in  being  forgiven  or being
condemned. 

It's the only issue.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "Does God Have a Video?" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

Does God Have a Video?

Jesus says the Holy Spirit reproves  the world of sin because  they do not believe in Him. That and that alone is the sin for which a person will be judged. 

No other charges need be brought.

I've often heard  it said that God has a kind of video  in heaven, and one day He will show on a giant screen all your ungodly  thoughts and deeds. 

But Jesus says the Spirit  will  convict  the  world  "of  sin,  because  they  do  not believe  in Me."  

In other words, it boils down to a single issue: What have you done with Jesus? Do you believe in Him for your salvation?

The  very  name  "Jesus"  speaks  of  His  mission.  

The  angel  said  to  Joseph,  "You shall call  His name  Jesus,  for He will  save His people  from  their  sins"  (Matthew 1:21). 

Jesus  is  the  English  transliteration  of  the  Greek word  Iesous,  which  was taken  from  the Hebrew  name  Yeshua, which  is a contraction  of  Yahwehshua,  or "Yahweh is salvation." 

Jesus Himself described His mission  like this: "The Son of
Man has come  to seek and  to save that which was  lost" (Luke 19:10). 

That was His mission,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  testifies  to  the  world  of  this.  He  reproves  the world of sin because it does not believe in Jesus.

In  John  3,  Jesus  told  Nicodemus  that  God  did  not  send  Him  into  the  world  to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He also said that whoever  believed  in Him  was not  condemned,  but whoever  did not  believe in Him was  condemned  already  because  he did not believe  in the only begotten Son of God. 

They are condemned  because  they  refuse  to believe  in Jesus.  

Thus the Holy  Spirit  convicts  people  of  sin because  they  do  not  believe  that  Jesus  is the Son of God sent by the Father to save the world.

The Scripture  testifies,  "He who believes  in  the Son has everlasting  life;  and he who does not believe  the Son  shall not see  life, but  the wrath  of God abides  on him"  (John  3:36).

 At  the end  of John's  life,  the  apostle wrote  that  if we do not
believe, we are making God a liar. By our refusal to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who bore the sins of the world, we are blaspheming  the  Holy Spirit.

If we refuse to believe, we call the Spirit a liar, for we reject the record that God gave of His Son (see I John 5:10-12).

This is no light matter. 

As the writer of Hebrews Hebrews warned us: Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment,  do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has  trampled  the Son of God  underfoot,  counted  the blood of  the  covenant  by  which  he  was  sanctified  a  common  thing,  and  insulted  the Spirit of  grace?  

For  we  know  Him  who  said,  "Vengeance  is  Mine,  I will  repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:28-31).

There is only one way to avoid such a horrible sin. The apostle Paul spelled it out when  he  wrote, "If  you  confess  with  your mouth  the  Lord  Jesus and  believe  in your heart  that God has  raised Him  from the dead, you will be saved"  (Romans 10:9).

Of  course,  such  a  confession  must  be  genuine.  A  false  confession  never  saved anyone. There are many who make false confessions about  the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 

In fact, Jesus tells us that one day many will come to Him and say, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But He will reply, "I do not know you" (Matthew 25:11,12). 

He insisted that "not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).

How can you tell  if a confession  is  true or  false? Any  true  confession  that  Jesus Christ  is  Lord  will  be  manifested  by  submission  to  Jesus  Christ  and  to  His Lordship.  

Any  confession  not  followed  by  such  submission  is  false  and  is therefore powerless to save.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "The Spirit Convicts of Sin" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

The Spirit Convicts of Sin

When  we  talk  about  sin,  what  do  we  normally  think  about?  Lying,  stealing, cheating, pornography,  fornication,  and murder all come to mind. 

Often we think of breaking the Ten Commandments. 

And so when the Lord tells us the Spirit will reprove  the world of sin,  we might expect  Him  to say He will  convict  sinners of 
all their cheating and dishonesty and corruption. 

But that is not what Jesus says.

He says, "...of sin, because they do not believe in Me."

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "What Does the Holy Spirit Do?" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

PART TWO: What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

3. At Work in the World

Nevertheless I  tell you the  truth. It is to your advantage  that  I go away;  for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come  to you; but if I depart,  I will send Him to  you.  

And  when  He  has  come,  He  will  convict  the  world  of  sin,  and  of righteousness,  and  of  judgment:  of  sin,  because  they  do  not  believe  in  Me;  or righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
- John 16:7-11

Jesus  was  always  full  of  surprises.  

Have  you  noticed  that?  Just  when  His men thought they had Him  figured out, He would  throw them a  curve. Just when His
opponents  thought  they  had  Him  cornered,  He  would  spring  His  own  trap  and leave them drop-jawed and red-faced.

And  just  when  we  think  we  know  what  He's  about  to  say,  He  zigzags  and astonishes us with words we never expected to hear.

The  Master's  teaching  on  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  world  is  like  that.

Jesus  tells  us  that  the  Spirit's  work  is  to  reprove  the  world  of   sin,  of righteousness,  and  of  judgment.  But  in  each  case  we  discover  that  His work  is vastly different from what we would have expected.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "Here to Help" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

Here to Help

The Holy Spirit,  the blessed third Person of the Trinity, is the great gift God has given to you and to me. He has come to be our Comforter, our paracletos.

He is ready to come alongside of you to help you in your Christian walk. He is ready to come alongside of you to guide you in the way of truth. He is ready to come alongside of you to strengthen you.

God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, has been sent by the Son to indwell you so that you might be empowered to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

Such is  the marvelous  gift  that  God has  freely  bestowed upon  you and me. We will never receive a better gift. 

Other gifts may thrill us, delight us, even astonish us.  

But  no  other  gift  will  ever  supersede  this  gift  -  because  the  gift  is  God Himself.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "God Speaks in the Spirit's Voice" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

God Speaks in the Spirit's Voice

Another line of evidence  that the Holy Spirit  is God may be found  in noting how the  New  Testament  uses  some  Old  Testament  texts.  

Very  often  an  Old Testament  scripture  about  God  is  ascribed  to  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  New Testament, thus making the Holy Spirit and God one.

Consider  Isaiah 6:8,9, which  reads, "Also  I heard  the voice of the  Lord,  saying: 'Whom shall I send, and who will go  for Us?' 

Then I said,  'Here am  I! Send me.'

And He said, 'Go, and tell this people: "Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive."' 

Paul quotes this passage  in Acts 28:25,26, where he says, "The Holy Spirit spoke rightly  through  Isaiah  the prophet  to our

fathers, saying,  'Go  to this people  and  say: Hearing  you will hear, and shall  not understand; and  seeing  you will see,  and not perceive."'  

Here  Paul quite clearly attributes to the Holy Spirit an Old Testament scripture ascribed to God.

In Jeremiah 31:31,32  the prophet  said,  "Behold,  the  days  are  coming,  says  the Lord, when  I  will make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel  and  with  the house of Judah - not according to the covenant that I made with their  fathers in the day that I took them by the hand  to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My

covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord." 

Yet in Hebrews 10:15 the writer says, "The Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had  said before,  'This is the covenant  that  I will make  with them  after those days,  says  the  Lord."'  

The  New  Testament  declares  it  was  the  Holy  Spirit  who

inspired  Jeremiah,  even  though  the  prophet  himself  said  it  was  the  Lord  who

spoke  these  things.  In other words,  the Holy  Spirit  is  the One who  inspired  the writing of the Bible.

That  is why  in  II Timothy  3:16  we read,  'All Scripture  is given  by inspiration  of God," and yet Peter says  in II Peter 1:21, "For prophecy never  came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

Notice:  Paul  says  all  Scripture  is  given  by  the  inspiration  of  God,  yet  Peter declares that holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.  

Is there a problem? No, none at all. Why not? Because the Holy Spirit is God.

That  is why Jesus  in Mark 12:36  could say,  "For David himself  said by the Holy Spirit..." And  it is why Peter,  speaking about  a fulfilled  prophecy  of  David,  said, "Which  the Holy Spirit  spoke  before  by  the mouth  of David"  (Acts  1:16). 

When God spoke,  it was  the Holy Spirit  talking.  The Holy Spirit  is God.  He is the third member of the Godhead.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "Works of Deity " l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

Works of Deity

Works of deity also are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
The Scriptures  teach  that  all  three  Persons  of  the  Godhead  were  active  in  the creation.  

In  Genesis  1:1  we  learn,  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens and  the  earth,"  and  in  verse  2  we  further  learn  that  "the  Spirit  of  God  was hovering  over  the  face  of  the  waters."  
And  in  John  1:3  we  discover  that  Jesus was also  involved:  'All  things were made through Him [Christ], and without Him
nothing was made that was made."

 Paul adds in Colossians 1:16,17: For by  Him  [Jesus]  all  things  were  created  that  are  in  heaven  and  that  are  on earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  thrones  or  dominions  or  principalities  or powers. All  things  were  created  through  Him  and  for Him.  And  He  is  before  all things, and in Him all things consist.

In  the  Psalms  we  read  more  about  the  Holy  Spirit's  part  in  creation:  "By  the word  of  the  LORD  the  heavens  were  made,  and  all  the  host  of  them  by  the breath  of His mouth"  (Psalm 33:6).  

The word  breath  in Hebrew  is  ruach, which means  "wind," or  "spirit." 

So  Psalm  33:6  could  very well be translated,  "By  the
word  of  the  Lord  [and  Jesus,  of  course,  is  the  Word  of  the  Lord]  were  the heavens made,  and  all  the  host  of  them  by  the  Spirit  [or  breath,  ruach]  of  His mouth."

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "Divine References " l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

Divine References

Divine references also are made concerning  the Holy Spirit. For example,  in Acts 5:3,  Peter  first  accuses  Ananias  of  lying  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  then  quickly  adds, "You have not lied to men but to God."

Peter reasons  that if someone has  lied to the Spirit, he has  lied to God. The two are equal; the Spirit is God.

In II Corinthians 3:18, Paul  speaks of our being transformed  from glory  to glory "by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord."  

The  newer  translations  have  more  correctly  and literally  rendered  the  phrase,  "By  the  Lord,  the  Spirit"  (in  Greek,  hupo  kurios pneumatos). 

He means the  Lord is the Spirit, or the Spirit is the Lord. They are
one and the same.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "The Holy Spirit is omnipotent. " l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

The Holy Spirit  is omnipotent. 

 When  an angel announced  to Mary  that God  had chosen her as the vessel to bring the Messiah  into the world, she asked how that
could be,  since  she  was  a  virgin. 

 The  angel answered  her,  "The  Holy Spirit will come upon  you,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  will  overshadow  you;  therefore,
also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).

The angel made it clear that the Holy Spirit is the power of the Highest. All three members  of  the  Godhead  worked  together  in  what  has  been  called  "the immaculate conception." And the result was the incarnation of the Son of God.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "The Spirit is omniscient. " l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

The Spirit is omniscient. 

Paul tells us in I Corinthians 2:10,11:

But God  has  revealed  them  to  us  through  His Spirit.  For  the Spirit  searches  all things,  yes,  the  deep  things  of  God.  For  what man  knows  the  things  of  a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? 

Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

The Spirit  knows all things,  even  the deep  things of God. Whatever  God  knows, the  Spirit  knows.  And  since  God  knows  everything,  so  does  the  Spirit.  

He  is omniscient.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "The Holy Spirit is omnipresent." l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

The Holy Spirit is omnipresent.

 David asked in Psalm 139:7-10:

Where  can  I go  from  Your Spirit? Or where  can  I  flee  from  Your presence?  If  I ascend  into  heaven,  You  are  there;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  You  are there. 

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell  in the uttermost parts of the sea, even  there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. 

The Spirit of God is everywhere present. In heaven He is there; in hell He is there; in the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea  He  is  there.  

We  cannot  flee  from  the  Spirit

because He is everywhere.

HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l "Attributes of Deity" l School of the Bible l VidDevoChurch

Attributes of Deity

Another way  to  see  the deity of  the Spirit  is  to note  the many divine  attributes the Scriptures declare Him to have.
He  is  eternal.  Hebrews  9:14  says,  "How  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ, who through  the  eternal Spirit  offered  Himself  without  spot  to  God,  purge  your conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the  living  God?"  

Notice  that  the  blood  of Christ  through  the  eternal  Spirit purges  your  conscience  from  dead  works  to serve the living God. Once more, a reference to the Trinity.