THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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and the Son in a way that would be impossible if He were not God. See Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14. Last of all, He is called God, Acts 5:3, 4. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and as such is entitled to our worship and loving obedience. 3. He is Jesus’ representative in the Church now. ' “It is just as wrong for a Christian of today to refuse to obey the commands of the Holy Spirit as it would have been for Peter, and James, and John to refuse to obey the command of our Lord Jesus when He told them to let down the net, to go fetch the colt, to prepare the Passover feast in the upper room, or to meet Him in Galilee after His resurrec tion. ' The early church recognized this Headship of the Holy Spirit, waiting upon Him for His commands, and obey ing them. See Acts 8:27-29; 13:2, 4; 16:6, 7. How sadly different is the attitude of the organized church, and of the individual believer today, as a rule. And you, and I, reader, are individuals; individuals who help to compose the church. How far are you and I to Had we space, and had the class time, we should enjoy and be profited by studying the manifold work of the Holy Spirit. What He does m the uni verse in general, what He did in our Lord Jesus, what He did in the pro phets and the apostles, and other works; but we must confine ourselves to just two phases of it. 1. What He does in men in general. It is His work to convict men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. The special sin, the sin of sins, is the refusal to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Unconverted men will not deny that it is wrong to lie, and steal, and blame for this state of affairs? II. What the Holy Spirit Does.
I. Who the Holy Spirit Is. 1. He is a person.
In telling His disciples of the coming of the Holy Spirit to take His place with the disciples, our Lora, rn the passage in John 16, LESSON uses the personal EXPOSITION p r o n o u n “Him” John H. Hunter once, and the per sonal pronoun “He” eleven times. This is in itself sufficient proof, though there are many others, that the Holy Spirit is a person, just as real a person as Jesus Himself and yet it is no uncommon thing to hear ;Christian people speak of this Person as “it.” What difference does it make? A world of difference. If the Holy Spirit is not a person, but some strange spirit ual influence or force, then the Chris tian should And out how to make him self master of this power. But if the Holy Spirit is a person, One who has come to take the place of Jesus, then the Christian needs to find out how he can surrender himself to the Holy Spirit to be used by Him. There are other reasons. This one is enough. 2. He is a divine person. In the passage in John, Jesus specifies five things that the Holy Spirit should do when He came. Note what they are. Each implies Deity. In addition to these, we find in other passages of Scripture that each of the fpur distinctly divine attributes is ascribed to the Holy Spirit, namely, eternity (Heb. 9:14), omnipresence (Psa. 139:7-10), omnipotence (Luke 1:35), omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10, 11; John 14:26; 16:12, 13). The works of Deity are also ascribed to Him. Creation (Job 33:4; Psa. 104:30); impartation of life (John 6:63; Rom. 8:11; Gen. 2:7); author ship of divine prophecies (2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Sam. 23:2, 3). The name of the Holy Spirit is coupled with the names of the Father
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