GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT—What Baptists Believe
#792 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
What Baptists Believe
Scripture Luke 3:16; Acts 2:33, NIV Orig. 3/6/1983
Rewr. 3/23/1988
Passage:
Luke 3
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with[a] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire.
Acts 2
33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
Purpose: In a message accentuating Baptist Beliefs, here calling attention to the person and work of God the Holy Spirit.
Keywords: God, Sustainer Series, Baptist Beliefs Holy Spirit Trinity
Introduction
Grady Welch, our Director of Stewardship for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, used to tell about a church down in one of our CenLa parishes that discovered oil on its property. I went through that parish last week and saw some of those wells pumping still. The church was just a small one as numbers go. And even thirty years ago, the return would be considerable. A hasty business meeting was called, and the membership closed except to the families of members who might come on profession of faith. They were going to divide the income among themselves, and didn’t want people to join expecting to get in on the spoils.
William Temple long before had written well relative to the church and its relation to community. “The church exists primarily for those who never go near it,” he declared. How sad it becomes when a church exists to pay tribute to itself. It exists to exist.
As God the Son came into the human picture to intercede with God the Father for our salvation, even so, God the Holy Spirit came, following the human Jesus in a renewed display of Spirit presence. His purpose was and is to magnify the work of Jesus in the world. His work inside the church must be mutually directed toward those who are outside the church, and never can be exclusive of them.
Dr. James Stewart wrote, “When a church is not worried about those who never go near it, . . . that church may be flourishing, but it is certainly not Christian.” This message deals with the place allowed the Holy Spirit in our lives.
I. We Must First Acknowledge the Scriptural Declaration of God the Holy Spirit.
I remind you that the Holy Spirit is spoken of as God in the Scriptures. Consider the case of Ananias and Sapphira. Acts 5:3,4, “Ananias, . . . you have lied to the Holy Spirit . . . . You have not lied to man but to God.” Wrong done to men. Wrong done to the faith. But chiefly, sin against God.
It is positively asserted also. I Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Hieron is the temple precincts. Naos is the place where God and man come face to face. Before Christ only the designated priest could enter. The believer is where lost people encounter God.
I remind you as well, that the Holy Spirit is given the attributes of God. We know that God is life. Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free.” We know that God is truth. John 16:13, “When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you to all truth.” We know that God is love. Romans 15:30, “I urge you brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit . . . (pray) for me.”
And I remind you that the Holy Spirit is assigned the works of God. The work of God in creation: Genesis 1:2, “The Spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters.” The work of God in undergirding Christ: Matthew 12:28, “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God then the Kingdom of God has come.” The work of God in redemption: John 3:5, “Except a man is born of . . . the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Titus 3:5, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. The work of God in renewed faith: Romans 8:11, “He who raised Christ from the dead . . . will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”
II. We Must then Understand that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person of the Godhead.
He is more than just a positive influence. It is true that the word for spirit is the same as for “wind, breath,” and as such is a [gender-neutral] word. But references to the Holy Spirit find this [gender-neutral] word accompanied by a masculine pronoun. John 16:13, “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” As with other references where the Holy Spirit is intended: John 14:26, “The comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, . . . he will teach you all.”
The Holy Spirit is never referred to in Scripture as an “it,” nor must we. He is a person. He has personality. We perceive of mind, will, even emotions. Intelligence—I Corinthians 2:10f, “The Spirit searcheth . . . the deep things of God. The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit.” Will—I Corinthians 12:11, “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame spirit, dividing . . . as he will.” Emotions—Romans 15:30, speaks of the “love of the Spirit”; Ephesians 4:30, calls attention to the fact that he can be “grieved.”
III. Finally, We Must Grasp a Personal Relation with the Holy Spirit.
He is a seeking, searching agent for God even in man’s lost estate. Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the . . . renewing of the Holy Spirit.”
Thus, the Holy Spirit is the major influence both before and after conversion.
The Holy Spirit comes into our lives at the time that we receive Christ as Lord. Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” There must be genuine repentance—not guilt for getting caught; not a tear-jerking confession at impressing someone; [but] repentance before God. There should be a covenant of trust that eventuates in baptism. [In] this interwoven tapestry of faith, repentance, remission, trust, baptism, there is the assuring gift of the Holy Spirit.
There are yet other applications of the Holy Spirit’s influence. The above is the “gift” of the Holy Spirit. There are also “gifts” of Holy Spirit: Romans 12:5, “So we, being many, are one body in Christ . . . having then, gifts according to the grace given”; Hebrews 2:4, “distributing the gifts of Holy Spirit." And there is the “fruit” of the Holy Spirit; this is the mellowing of our lives, growing in Bible knowledge and Christ-likeness.
During a time of rowdiness in our convention, an evangelist (James Robinson) wrote to [the] Baptist Message (3/1983) a letter of apology for verbal attacks he had engaged in on those who disagreed with him. “My eyes were distracted to focus more on the cancer in Baptist life than the cure.” “I’ve become more concerned about my own sin than the sin of others.”
The “filling” of the Holy Spirit is an imperative of faith. Ephesians 5;18, “Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit”: Submission to His authority; few are full—it is complete submission; the Holy Spirit’s work is to magnify Christ—to be full of the Holy Spirit is to be full of desire to praise and honor our Lord.
Conclusion
Dr. F.B. Meyer gives a classic example of the work of the Holy Spirit. The young daughter of a prominent individual had started to take piano lessons. The parents of the little girl fussed over her even though her playing was more painful to non-family members than pleasurable. They would allow her to invade the gathering of their friends to “play" for these guests. Some started looking for excuses to get away early before the little girl started.
On one occasion, an eminent pianist was present. Instead of leaving, as some did, he took a place on the bench by the little girl. He began filling the void of the child’s discordant notes. In fact, it turned into very beautiful music. People who tried to leave were returning.
After a few minutes at the piano, the musician led the little girl around the room to receive the thanks and the praise of the other guests. So said Dr. Meyer, “The Holy Spirit helpeth our infirmities.” (Romans 8:26)
Alternate Conclusion
I read someone account of Will Campbell’s story in Brother to a Dragonfly1, of the Easter chicken. An acquaintance bought a purple chicken for his little girl at Easter. She loved it, for a little while. Then the chick began to feather out. Underneath that purple down, began to appear little pin feathers, and they were not purple, they were red. It was an awful picture, and the little girl no longer found it appealing. So, the chick went out in the chicken yard.
But there it was out of place. Some of the purple still showed. The other chickens knew it was different. It became this man’s parable of the church.
For a while, the other chickens resisted this one. They pecked it, chased it over the yard, generally, made its life miserable. At first the chick didn’t fight back. It was the new kid on the block. But even before all the purple was gone, the chick was bigger and stronger and knew that feed went to those who struggled for it. It just became like all the other chickens.
His point was, “Who needs an Easter chicken?” Or, “Who needs the church?”
But Preacher Campbell tried to point out that it was good because it still laid eggs. “Yeah, Preacher Will. It lays eggs. But they all lay eggs. Who needs an Easter chicken for that? And the Rotary Club serves coffee. And the 4-H Club says prayers. The Red Cross takes up offerings for hurricane victims. Mental Health does counseling, and the Boy Scouts have youth programs.”
The underlying question came clearly through. The parable was contemporary. “What unique thing does the church do?”
Don M. Aycock, Symbols of Salvation2
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Temple: https://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/about-the-foundation/archbishop-william-temple/
Campbell: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/B/Brother-to-a-Dragonfly
Aycock: https://www.amazon.com/Symbols-salvation-Don-M-Aycock/dp/0805451900
1Campbell, W. (2018). Brother to a Dragonfly. University Press of Mississippi.
2Aycock, D.M. (1982). Symbols of Salvation. Broadman Press.