Last week we started a series on the subject of the Holy Spirit. And we are going through a Sunday Night series called “By My Spirit”. And if you remember last week, we’re going to be going through some very practical lessons about the Holy Spirit. And educational lessons about the Holy Spirit. And I hope you’re just ready to learn and take notes and learn about the Holy Spirit. I just want to remind you that last week we began with a sermon entitled “The Person of the Holy Spirit”. And we went through scripture and showed how the Holy Spirit is not just power or energy or some sort of a force. But that he’s actually a person and he’s the 3rd person of the Trinity. Tonight we’re going to kind of continue that introductory type message. And I want to speak to you tonight on the subject of “The Holy Spirit as God”. And the reason for that is because in the same way we often fail to think of the Holy Spirit as a person, we’ve kind of been conditioned by maybe the Pentecostals and Charismatics to kind of think of the Holy Spirit as some sort of mystical Spirit that is just kind of out there. And we don’t really think of him as an individual, a person. Who has emotion. That has intellect. In the same way we often don’t think of the Holy Spirit as God.
Now if you ask somebody if the Holy Spirit is God or if they believe in the Trinity and they will probably say yes. But we often don’t think of the Holy Spirit as God. And I think the reason for that is because we often think of the Holy Spirit in the same sense as our Spirit. And there’s definitely a picture there of how man is made up of 3 components. But I want you to understand that sometimes we think of the Holy Spirit in the sense that we would think of a human being as part of it is the body and part of it is the soul and part of it is the spirit. And we think the Holy Spirit is just the Spirit of God. I understand that is what he is called and that is his title. But we will think that he’s just the Spirit of God or just the Spirit of Christ. But what you need to understand and what we talked about last week is that he is a person in his own right. The Trinity does not consist of 3 parts that make up God but it is 3 persons that are 1 God. They live as God. And in that sense we need to understand that the Holy Spirit is God in his own right. He’s God completely. He is God. He’s not just a part of God. He’s not just a component of God. But he is God. And I realize that theologically as Pastors we would say that the Holy Spirit is God but we often fail to think of the Holy Spirit as a person and the Holy Spirit as God.
So tonight we’re just going to go through scripture and look at a lot of references. And we will just look at some proofs of the Holy Spirit being God. And in Acts 5 it’s a famous story of Ananias and Sapphira. But I’m not preaching on that but I want to show you what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. Acts 5:1-3 “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” So we have Ananias and Sapphira who have sold property and they are giving it as an offering. This is like their Vision Offering. But they are going around telling everybody that they sold their land and are giving all the money to the church. But they are only giving part of the money. They are actually lying about it. Here’s the thing, there is nothing wrong with them keeping part of it back. They didn’t have to give any of it. But they shouldn’t have lied and acted like you gave more than you actually did. This is what the story is about.
Notice verse 3 “3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart” I want you to notice this phrase. “to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” So Peter is looking at Ananias and saying, you’re not lying to me. You’re not lying to man. You’re not lying to our congregation. You’re lying to the Holy Ghost when you kept back part of the price of the land. Notice verse 4 “4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own?” He’s saying look, it was your land. It was your money. You could have done what you wanted with it. “Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?” He’s saying nobody forced you to do that. You had power to do what you wanted with it. “why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?” Notice what he says “thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”
And I want you to notice that in verse 4, at the end of verse 4, he says you haven’t lied to men. You’ve lied to God. But in verse 3 he says you’ve lied. He said Satan hath filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost. And here we see that Peter is referring to the Holy Ghost. He says you’re lying to the Holy Ghost. Then he says you’re lying to God. You say why is that? Because the Holy Spirit is God. And that’s just a proof text there. And we could say Amen and close the Bible and pray and be done. But we aren’t going to. But that proves that in scripture he’s referred to as the Holy Ghost, he’s referred to as the Holy Spirit, he’s referred to as God. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is a person and God in his own right.
So what I want to do tonight is go through some of the attributes of God and show you how the Holy Spirit has the exact same attributes. And also I want to show you an action with God and one thing that God does or did that makes him God. And I want to be able to show you how the Holy Spirit does the same thing. Now, when we’re talking about the attributes of God, we’re talking about the characteristics that make God, God. There are certain things that make God, God. When it comes to his attributes and in regards to his power. And I want to show that to you and maybe there will be some new material and new words you haven’t heard a lot in the past. But go with me to the book of Psalms. Psalms 139. And let’s begin by this. Let us begin with this. How can we prove or how do we know that the Holy Spirit is not just part of God but that he is God in his own right. That he is completely God. That he is God. He’s not just part of God. He’s not just the Spirit of God. But he is God.
#1 – God the Holy Spirit is Omniscient. When we talk about the attributes of God and what makes him God. The reason why I’m not God and you aren’t God, God has attributes that make him different than the rest of us. One of those is the fact that God is omniscient. Now, maybe you’ve not heard that word before and let me just give you a little of the etymology and break that down for you. The word Omni is a Latin word that means all or everything. The word science when we say omniscient or omniscience. The 2 words that come together are omni-science. The word science means knowledge. Often we talk about science when we’re referring to a field of study or knowledge. But the word science means knowledge. When we talk about God being omniscient or God having omniscience, we are referring to the fact that God is all knowing. The difference between you and God, the reason why no matter what the Mormons say, you’ll never become God. No matter what the evolutionists say, you’ll never evolve in to God. No matter what any false religion says, the difference between you and me and God is that God is omniscient. God is all knowing.
Let’s look at some verses. There are lots of verses we could look at and I will just show some highlights. We will not look at every single one. Psalms 139:1 “O LORD, thou hast searched me,” Now when you see the word LORD there, this is referring to Jehovah. “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.” I want you to notice the emphasis from the Psalmist. That God searched him and knows him. “2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising,” Here’s what he’s saying, you know when I sit down and you know when I get up. “thou understandest” Talking about his omniscience “my thought afar off.” You see, God knows the thoughts. The reason that you’re not God and I’m not God is that I can’t look at an individual and know their thoughts. But here we’re told that “2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.” By the way, this is the proof that Jesus is God. Because Jesus was able to know the thoughts of man even while walking on this earth. Remember when they brought down the man on the bed through the roof. And the Pharisees were saying in their heart, can this man forgive sin. And Jesus knew what they were saying and answered their question. You say why? Look, only God can understand my thoughts afar off. That phrase afar off means that not only do you know my thoughts but you know them before I even think them. Before I even think it afar off, you already know what I will think.
“3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted” Again, emphasizing the knowledge. The understanding. “And art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” He says, you know when I lay down. You know when I get up. You know my thoughts. You know everything that comes out of my mouth. There is not a word in my tongue but O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Why? God is omniscient. God is all knowing. He knows everything. He knows everything we think, say, where we go, everytime you’re sleeping, sitting down, and whatever. It’s not Santa Clause, it’s God. God knows when you’re sleeping, awake, bad, good, God knows everything about you. And by the way, that’s why the teaching of Santa Clause is so blasphemous. Because it takes the attributes of God and gives it to a man.
Psalms 147:5 “5 Great is our Lord, and of great power:” We’re going to talk about his power in his attributes later. Notice “his understanding is infinite.” What does that mean? It means there is no end to his understanding. It’s infinite. He knows everything. He has all knowledge. Here’s what I want you to understand. God is omniscient. We just looked at a few passages. We could look at many more. But the Bible teaches very clearly that God is omniscient and God knows everything. We say well God is omniscient. Yes. But you know, the Bible also teaches that the Holy Spirit is omniscient. 1 Corinthians 2:10 “10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit:” He’s talking about the hidden things of God. That there are some things that natural man cannot understand spiritual things. But natural man when he gets saved has a spiritual side to them and has the Holy Spirit of God living inside of them. And he says that “God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit”. You say why is that? Notice “for the Spirit” Notice the capital letter. That’s the Holy Spirit of God. “his Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
Here’s what he’s saying. The Spirit has access to all that God has access to. He searches all things. Yea the deep things of God. Now we can spread verses that show that God’s understanding is infinite. But you know what, if God’s understanding is infinite. The Spirit searcheth all those infinite things. What is the Bible telling us? That the Holy Spirit knows everything. He’s omniscient. He searches all things. Yea the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11 “11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” And again this is a very proving the deity of the Holy Ghost or showing that the Holy Ghost is God. Because a man only understands the things of a man because man has the spirit of man within him. The reason why you and I understand each other, and not just through communication, but just understand what you’re thinking. I can see you weeping or crying and understand that you’re mourning. And I can see you happy and joyful and understand that you are rejoicing. The reason why we can understand each other is because we both have the same spirit because we have a human spirit. He says “11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?”
I’m here to tell you that your dog doesn’t understand you. Now you can look your dog. We just got a nice dog. And we’re happy for our dog. But you know what, at the end of the day, it’s a dog. And it doesn’t have a spirit. It doesn’t have a human spirit. It doesn’t understand me. And I don’t understand it. Sometimes we have the dog and think, what in the world are you doing? Why are you licking that? Why are you eating that? And look, we have a great dog, we have an awesome dog. We’re really happy with the dog we got. But at the end of the day, it’s a dog. And worse comes to worse, if it came to it, that dog would eat me if it needed to and I would probably hit her. Or whatever. But the point is this, that it’s a dog. It’s not a human. There is no human spirit there.
Now understand this, “10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” That’s the context. “even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” Here’s what he’s saying. The only reason you can understand anything from God is because you have the Holy Spirit in you. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is God. Your spirit can’t understand the Spirit of God. Your natural flesh can’t understand the things of God. The only reason you can understand anything of God is because you have God in you. The Holy Spirit of God. God in his own right.
In Isaiah 40:13 we have these questions but they are rhetorical. They are not meant to be answered. The answer is obvious. Notice what he says Isaiah 40:13 “13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD,” Here’s what he’s saying. Who has ever had to give the Holy Spirit of God directions? The Holy Spirit has never had to stop and ask directions from anyone. He has never been lost. He has never needed someone to guide him. He says “13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?”
Here’s what he’s saying. No one ever needed to teach or counsel the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit didn’t need a teacher or director. Why? Because the Holy Spirit of God is all knowing. He’s omniscient. He searcheth all things. Yea the deep things of God. And we see that. You say well God is omniscient. The Holy Spirit of God is omniscient also. You say why? Because the Holy Spirit is God. Because the Holy Spirit is God in his own right. As Bible believing Christians, we need to begin to think of the Holy Spirit as God. Not just as a force like in Star Wars. We need to begin to think of the Holy Spirit as the 3rd person of the Godhead. As Deity. He is God and God in his own right. So we see that God the Holy Spirit is omniscient.
Not only is God the Holy Spirit omniscient, but I’d like you to notice tonight that God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent. Now again the word “omni” means all. The word “present” means being with one or others in a specified or understood place. The word “present” means you are there or in the place we are talking about. When we say that God is omnipresent, what we are saying is that God is everywhere at once. He is in all places all at the same time. He’s omni-present. Are you there in Proverbs 15? Look at Proverbs 15:3 “3 The eyes of the LORD” We’re talking about Jehovah God. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” You say, how can the eyes of the Lord be everywhere? Because God is everywhere. Because God is omnipresent. Because God is present everywhere at once. What makes God different than you and I is not only that he’s all knowing. But that he’s all present. That he is everywhere. All at the same time. Well here’s what’s interesting. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is omni-present.
We’re learning about the Holy Spirit as God. Or God the Holy Spirit. Psalms 139:7 “7 Whither” Meaning to which place or to where. “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?” The Psalmist is saying to what place or which place should I go from thy presence. Or he says “whither shall I flee from thy presence?” He says how can I get away from your Spirit. How can I get away from your presence. Verse 8 “8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” And by the way, hell is not separation from God. Because if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. “9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” Here we are told the Holy Spirit, that’s the Holy Spirit. Whither shall I go from the Spirit. Whither shall I from thy presence. The Holy Spirit is omniscient. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. The Holy Spirit knows all things. And the Holy Spirit is everywhere at once. You say that I thought God was omnipresent. Yes. So how is the Holy Spirit omnipresent? Because the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit shares the attributes of God because he is completely God in his own right.
We talked about the fact that God the Holy Spirit is omniscient. We talked about the fact that God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent. Let me give you the 3rd one. God the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. Again, the word “omni”. Meaning all. “Potent” is in reference to power or strength. When we say that God the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. What we mean by that is God is all powerful. That God has all power. That God is all able to do all things. Revelation 19:6 “6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia:” Notice what it says, “for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”. In 2 Thessalonians it says he is potent. And it uses that word and terminology. And again, meaning that he is all powerful. It says the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
You say what do you mean by God is omnipotent. Here is what we mean. Matthew 19:26 “26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible;”. Why? Because man is not omnipotent. The strength and power of man is limited. There are some things that are impossible for you and for myself to do. Jesus says, “with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Why? Because he is omnipotent. Because God is all knowing. Because God is all present. Because God is all powerful. This is why we often read in the Old Testament “Is anything too hard for the Lord”. And again a rhetorical question. Because nothing is too hard for the Lord. He’s omnipotent.
We get the name for this series in this verse Zechariah 4:6 “6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power,” Notice, he’s saying you’re not going to do it by your strength. You’re not going to do it by your ability. You’re not going to do it by your power. He says “but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” Here’s what he’s saying, what you can’t do in your strength, my Spirit can do. You say why is that? Because with men this is impossible. But with God all things are possible. And what the Bible is teaching us here is that yes God the Holy Spirit is omnipotent but the Bible also teaches that the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. The Holy Spirit has the power. He says you can’t do it by your might. You can’t do it by your power. But it can be done by the Spirit. We see that the Spirit is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.
Isaiah 40:28 “28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” Why is there no searching of his understanding? Because he is omniscient. He knows everything. But notice that this verse says ““28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God,” He’s called the everlasting God. Because here is another attribute of God. Not only is he omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent but God is eternal. He’s everlasting. The word “I AM”. That phrase means he’s the self-existing one. No one created him. He was never given life. He has always existed. He is eternal. He is the everlasting God. Because he’s eternal. Well here’s what’s interesting. The Bible tells us the Holy Spirit is everlasting.
And we’re jumping in the midst of a paragraph of context here. And I don’t want to spend time developing that but I just want you to notice this title. Hebrews 9:14 says “14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through” I want you to just notice this phrase “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”. In Isaiah we saw that God is the everlasting God. In Hebrews we saw that the Spirit is the eternal Spirit. The word eternal/everlasting, they mean the same thing. They are 2 different ways of saying the same thing. Everlasting is in the positive meaning it will last forever. Eternal is in the negative meaning it won’t end. But they mean the same thing. Lasting forever and not ending means the same thing. God is everlasting and the Holy Spirit is eternal.
The difference between you and God is that he is eternal. We get eternal. Do you understand what I’m saying. He is life. And he is eternal life. Everlasting life. You and I get everlasting life. And here’s what that means. You say, well we’re everlasting too. Don’t we have everlasting life. The difference is this. You had a moment where you were created. You had a moment that you came in to existence. And when you got saved, you received everlasting life. Eternal life at that moment. And the moment you believed and called on the Lord to save you, from that moment forward you have everlasting life forever. It will never end. It’s infinite. It will never end. The difference between you and God is this, that we get everlasting life. And from the moment we get it, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
The difference between you and God and me and God is that he has everlasting life going this way and that way. He is eternal. We get eternal. He is everlasting life. He is life. Remember Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. He doesn’t have life. He is life. He is the source of life. You and I get life. But one of the attributes of God is that he’s eternal. Well one of the attributes of the Spirit is that he’s the eternal Spirit. Why? Because the Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is God. You say, well you’re preaching to the choir and I get that. But in our minds, you and I need to begin to think of the Holy Spirit not just as some sort of mist out there. But he is a person who is God. He is a person who is God. And he’s God in his own right. He’s God completely. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is omnipotent. He is eternal. Let me give you one more.
So far we talked about the attributes of God. And we looked at some of the attributes of God. He’s omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and eternal. This is what makes God, God. The Holy Spirit has all of the same attributes. He’s omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and eternal. He’s the eternal Spirit. He is God. Now let me give you some actions. There are some actions that God does that make God, God. These are things which we are not able to do. Let me just give you a couple. The first one is this, God is the Creator. Isaiah 40:28 “28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God,” We just talked about that. “the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth,” God is the Creator. “fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.”. But one thing that makes God, God is the fact that he is the Creator.
Psalms 100:3 “3 Know ye that the LORD” Notice this verse “he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;” Today the world wants to teach that God didn’t make us. We just made ourselves. We evolved and evolved and evolved and evolved. No, the Bible says “3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” The Bible is very clear that God is the one who created the Universe. God is the Creator of the ends of the earth. But go to Job 33. Job 33:4 “4 The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” You say, well I thought God was the Creator. Well Job said the Spirit created him. Job said the Spirit of God hath made me. And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
And again, I don’t want to turn this in to a sermon on the Trinity but there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. 1 God that exists, not in 3 parts. The members of the Godhead do not come together to become 1 God. The Holy Spirit is not 1/3rd of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is not 1/3rd of God. God the Father is not 1/3rd of God. And they come together to make up 1 God. No, there is 1 God that exists all at the same time in 3 persons. You say well I thought God was the Creator. Well the Holy Spirit is the Creator. And Jesus is the Creator too. In John 1, Jesus creates. That’s why God is speaking in the plural when he says “Let us make man in our image” because there are 3 that exist. 1 God that exists in 3. So the Holy Spirit is not part of God or inside of God. No, no, no, he’s God in his own right. He’s omniscient. He’s omnipotent. He’s eternal. And he is the Creator. Job said, the Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Job 26:13 “13 By his spirit he hath garnished” The word garnish means to provide supplies for. “he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.” Why? Why does Job say this? Because God is the Creator, the Spirit is the Creator, why? Because the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is a person. But the Holy Spirit is God as well. Let me give you 1 more.
I gave you some attributes. What are the attributes? God is omniscient. The Holy Spirit is omniscient. God is omnipresent. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. God is omnipotent. The Holy Spirit is omnipotent. God is eternal. The Holy Spirit is eternal. Then I want to give you a couple actions. God is the Creator. The Holy Spirit is the Creator. Why? Because there is 1 God. They exist as 1 God. God gives us scripture 2 Timothy 3:16 “16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” The word inspiration there means God breathed. God spoke it. It came out of his mouth. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” So God gives us scripture. And we see that all throughout the Bible. There are many verses that we could look at. We just saw that God he spoke his Word. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. He gave it. He breathed it out of his mouth. He spoke it out of his mouth.
In 1 Peter 2:21 “21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:” Nobody sat down and wrote the Bible. Let me tell you something, man would not write the Bible. Man would write positive only thinking books. Man would write books that would tell you that you are inherently good and everything is fine and you’re lovely and you’re wonderful. Man would write books like your best life now. Man would not write the Bible. The Bible says “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” You say, well all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Here we are told that it’s given by the Holy Ghost. So what’s the deal? Well, the Holy Ghost is God. He gives us the Word. He gives us scripture.
Job said that the Spirit of God hath made me. He says that he hath garnished the heavens. The Bible says that God created. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is God. And for some reason we don’t have a problem with saying that God the Father is God, we understand that. And we don’t even have a problem as Bible believing Christians with understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. But sometimes you talk to people and you tell them that the Holy Spirit is God. Just like God the Father. Just like God the Son. He’s God in his own right. And we’re like, I don’t know about that.
Well I’m here to tell you that the Holy Spirit is God. And the Holy Spirit is a person. And there is a person living inside of you who wants to help you. Who wants to guide you. Who wants to empower you. Who wants to fill you. And it’s not mystical. It’s not magical. It’s God that fills you. It is the Holy Spirit of God. And it is God the Holy Spirit. So we’re just going step by step, systematically going through this doctrine of the Holy Spirit. What are we learning? The Holy Spirit is a person. Not a force. Not mystical. He’s got emotion. He’s got intellect. He communicates. He’s got a will. He’s a person. But he’s also the 3rd person of the Godhead. Not part of God. But completely God in his own right.
Let’s pray.