The Holy Spirit in Man

The Bible, that book that you got, that we're so thankful for, begins by talking about spirit. Let's notice Genesis 1 and verse 1. In the beginning, God. Now, I'm not going to turn to John 24. You might want to jot it down. But John 4 and verse 24 says God is a spirit. His composition is spirit. Spirit is what He is made of. So here, in the beginning, God, who is a spirit, whose composition is spirit, created the heaven and the earth. And as I said, the Bible begins by talking about spirit, because God is spirit. God is a spirit. He is spirit. He's composed of it. And when you go to verse 2, and it says the earth was, and of course, in the Hebrew, the earth became without form and void. It became chaos and confusion. It didn't start out that way. It became, beau hu and toh hu, because, as other scriptures do reveal when you put the story together, an angelic rebellion, a third of the angels under the archangel Lucifer, who rebelled against God, and threw everything into chaos and confusion, beau hu and toh hu. And the time came that God had to renew the planet, renew the face of the earth, remodel it, and prepare it for a new creation. But in the heaven, verse 2, it says, and the spirit of God, it says the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The spirit of, or that belongs to, God. This supreme being, who is composed of spirit, puts out a spirit. He exudes a spirit. He generates a spirit. I'd like for you to think of something just for a moment. You can turn to a scripture like John 4.24, and you can simply and plainly and clearly read about how that God is a spirit. He's made of spirit. He's composed of spirit. And you can turn to certain scriptures where it says that God is holy. Well, if he is holy and he is spirit, he is Holy Spirit. This spirit that God exudes, or that he puts out, that he generates from himself and puts forth, is what we call the Holy Spirit. And don't get me wrong. I am not saying the Holy Spirit is a being. I'm not saying it's an intelligence. There are two beings, the Father and the Son, and they're both spirit. And what they put forth, their power, their energy, the pure golden power and energy of God that they exude that's under their perfect control that they put forth. That is the Holy Spirit. That's the power and energy by which they work. That's the supreme energy by which they accomplish. That is the eternal essence and energy of the eternal God. And that's the power by which they accomplish their plans and their purposes. That's the power by which they carry out their designs.

I want to read Psalm 104, verse 30. Now, keep in mind, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Keep in mind, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens as it is in Hebrew and the earth.

And then there came a time, a time of destruction because of a rebellion. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. God poured out of his power upon the face of the waters because he was going to begin a renewal. So with that thought in mind, read Psalm 104, verse 30.

If it's right with verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1. How did God create? Of course, we know the Father has always created through the one who became Christ, the Word. It says, The original creation was done that way. And notice, and you renew the face of the earth. And the renewal was done by God pouring out of his spirit and renewing the earth, remodeling it, and preparing it for a new creation to be made. On Pentecost, we read Acts 1.8, Acts 1, verse 8. You don't need to turn there, but that's where Christ, towards the end of that 40 days that he spent with him after his resurrection before sending his spirit, the Father sending his spirit on Pentecost. That's where he said, Remain in Jerusalem until you have received power from on high. Because you're going to be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in Samaria, in the most parts of the earth eventually. That's in Acts 1.8. So, anyhow, right at the very beginning of the Bible, we are introduced to spirit, both as a being, a being of supreme intelligence, and as a power. A being who emanates a spirit power. This is the first spirit we are introduced to. Shortly in the creative process of this being through his power, we're introduced to the creation of man. So in Genesis 1, verse 26 and 27, verse 26, and God said, Let us make man in our image. It's interesting, let us, Elohim, plural, there are two beings of supreme intelligence, the one we call the Father and the one we call the Son, Jesus Christ.

Make man in our image, after our likeness. And in verse 27, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, and of course in the two counterparts of male and female, created he them. Then in chapter 2, in verse 7, it says a little bit more about that. Verse 7, chapter 2, And the Lord God formed man of the dust to the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became, doesn't say he was given, he wasn't given, he became. He was made a living netish. The Hebrew word netish just means a living creature. The word soul that's translated from the netish, there is nothing intrinsically immortal or undying about the word. So here is a creation of matter, a composition of matter, a being made of matter, but into whom a spirit is placed. Now, in most of mainstream Christianity, traditional Christianity, if I use that phrase, a being made of matter, but into whom a spirit is placed, when I say a spirit, they automatically think an intelligence. They automatically think a being. They automatically think, aha, an immortal soul. That's not what I'm talking about, and that's not what the Bible talks about. Two verses I want to read. One is Job 32, verse 8. Elihu is the fourth one, the fourth friend to speak to Job in these discourses of Job's friends. And so when Elihu has waited for the other three to say all of their say, he says in Job 32, verse 8, he makes this an acknowledgment. He says, But there is, notice, a spirit in man. There is a spirit in man. And the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding. So he notates that there is a spirit in man. He doesn't delineate everything about it. He just makes a notation about it here. Zechariah 12, verse 1. Zechariah 12, verse 1.

The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel says the Lord, the Lord, which stretches forth the heavens, remember, he created them, and lays the foundations of the earth in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, that which Elihu talked of, a spirit in man. Here it is called the spirit of man within him. The Bible refers to this as the spirit in man. The spirit in man, and I spoke on this, gave some sermons involving a lot of material on it, oh, a year or two ago, whatever it's been now. But the spirit in man is the spirit component. It's the spirit or spiritual element, essence, that combined with the physical brain is what creates mind. That's why and how we have a mind. There's this spirit essence, this spirit component, this spirit element. You could use a number of words to describe it. It is a non-thinking essence or element or component. It is not an intelligence. It is not a self-awareness of itself. It is simply a spirit component or element or essence. That when it, as half of the equation, mind is an equation. There's two parts to the mind. Mind is an equation. When the spirit essence component element is called the spirit of man or the spirit in man, whichever way you want to say it, that combines with the gray matter brain. When it couples together, you have a mind. You now have an intelligence. You have a self-aware thinking, planning, hoping, dreaming, you know, mind that can make choices and plans and carry them out. That can be aware and realize, hope and dream and all of that. That spirit component cannot be destroyed by any human means. It doesn't matter if somebody was vaporized at Hiroshima, became a shadow, so to speak, on the sidewalk, the concrete. It doesn't matter if sharks eat the person. It doesn't matter if somebody was burned into nothingness. It is spirit essence. It is spirit component. It cannot be destroyed by any physical means whatsoever, no matter how intense. Only God can destroy that.

But the other side of the equation, which is the most highly sophisticated computer that's ever been created or ever will be, the brain, is gray matter. Its composition is matter.

When a person dies, that turns back to dust. The coupling is broken. There is no mind there anymore. The spirit component contains the record of the individual. God retains that. That is a complete record of the person. God retains it. God can reproduce that person someday. He can resurrect them no matter how they're demise in this life.

But because the brain, the gray matter, is matter, and it decomposes, it goes back to dust, the coupling is broken, the mind doesn't exist at that point. There is no thinking. This is why David said, in the day that a man dies, his thoughts cease. He has no more thoughts. It takes a mind to produce thoughts. Thoughts are the product of a mind. So the thoughts cease because the mind is not there anymore. The person is not thinking. They can't think. They're dead. Solomon said, the living know they shall die, but the dead know nothing.

So when the gray matter is alive and vibrant, the spirit in man is combined with it, you have a mind. Death breaks that coupling. The mind doesn't think. There's no consciousness. The composition of the human matter goes back to dust. God retains that spirit in man, which made it possible for a human to have mind. He retains it as a record to the future time of resurrection. Now, we could refer to this spirit, the spirit in man, as the second one we're introduced to, although the introduction doesn't come until somewhat later in the Bible. But in Genesis 3, we're introduced to a third spirit. And we all know the account well, don't we? Verse 1, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and it's the devil that's coming, it's the fallen archangel, it's the leader of that angelic rebellion that was defeated, but has not been bound, still roamed the earth, still roams the earth, won't be bound until Christ returns, still works his influence, and he used a physical creature as an instrument, but it's the devil talking through that physical creature, that snake, to Eve. And it says, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Yea, as God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And again, we know the account very well, don't we? And of course, you can go to other scriptures which refer to them as that old serpent, Satan, Revelation 12.9 is one of those. And of course, we know those scriptures in Isaiah and Ezekiel that lay out the whole account. I say lay it out, it lays out enough of it that using those two prime areas in Isaiah and Ezekiel, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, and other scriptures, you can put it together. But here is a fallen archangel, created very powerful, of course, cannot match God by any means, obviously. But a fallen archangel who also exudes, he literally does exude a spirit power or presence. And that is something that for 6,000 years has caught the world off guard. That's the missing dimension of understanding in many of the geopolitical situations of the world. Humans in geopolitics tend to look only at what they see in front of them, that's other humans. They don't realize the powers that are working behind the scenes in an invisible way to foment movements and all. There's no doubt that the history of mankind has been fraught with this spirit influence, and still is to this day.

Remember, and I think we can just jot it down, we don't need to turn there, but remember Ephesians 2, 2, what it says, Ephesians 2, verse 2, the prince of the power of the air, and when you read those verses, and Paul puts it in current tense, he doesn't say this is past, it's historical, it's only it's past. No, it's historical, it's current, and it's also futuristic in the sense that he knew that as long as this age lasted, it will continue to be the reality.

He identified Satan as the prince, prince of someone with power, the prince of the power, the power of the air, who sets the course of this world, who the spirit, it says, that now works in the children of disobedience. So if you just read something like that and take it at face value, you have to say there is something that exudes from him, he's able to emanate and influence. And of course, Paul also nails him in 2 Corinthians 4.4, again, one we're very familiar with when he wrote to the Corinthians that in this world, the God of this world, with a little g, the one that's ruling this age is Satan.

Now, that said, that in no way takes away from the sovereignty of God because God is simply allowing it. God is allowing it. And at the same time that God for a time is allowing it, God, because he is God, still reserves the right to step in any time he so chooses to do whatever he wants to do according to his will to see that things work towards an ultimate purpose of an accomplishment and an achievement and a fulfilling of God's plans and purposes.

But God is simply allowing Satan at this time to have the particular leeway that he has, but he does have certain leeways and he does exude a spirit of power. So in a very true sense, we're dealing with three spirits. When you think of it that way, you're dealing with, number one, the Holy Spirit. I mean, looking at it, you know, the standpoint of us as humans, there is the issue of the Holy Spirit. Number two, there is the issue of the spirit in man. You know, our minds that have a certain spiritual component to them, a certain spiritual essence, there is a spirit element that does not die.

It is not self-thinking. If it is separate from the gray matter of the brain, there's no mind. It's just simply a spirit component that is separated from the brain at death. God retains it as a record of us and will use it as a perfect record for reproducing us someday through resurrection. And then, obviously, the third one, Satan's spirit. So with the first one, the Holy Spirit, you have the power of God, you have the energy of God. With the spirit in man is the spirit essence that makes mind power possible.

And Satan's spirit is his energy and effort to influence disobedience. Now, let's just use a classic case. With what's currently going on in Iraq, let's just focus there for a moment. These Islamic extremists that are very quickly beheading people that are taking over cities, which spirit do you think that they are adhering to?

We all know it's not the Holy Spirit that they're following. And they are being very much impacted by a spirit and being influenced. When somebody can strap on a suicide vest and willing to turn themselves into a pink mist in order to kill as many as they can around them and maim as many as they can, what spirit are they working by? They're not completely on their own. Let's put it that way.

So, to go back to what I was saying, here we have two totally, two totally, totally different spirit beings with spirit power. We've got God on the one hand with his spirit power. We've got the serpent, the dragon, the devil, Satan, on the other hand, with his spirit power.

And by no means do I put him on the same plane level of power because there's no way Satan's power in any sense can ever match God's. We know that. But God is allowing him a leeway for a time before he is bound and someday banished. But two totally different spirit beings with spirit power and a being of matter containing an essence or component or element of spirit. In a very true sense, man is in the middle.

Man, woman, the human being, in a very true sense, is caught in the middle, placed in the middle, finds himself in the middle. Notice again Genesis 2. He's placed in the middle between these two spirits, between these two beings, between God and Satan. That's where man is placed.

Look at the account. Genesis 2, verses 15 through 17. This is one illustration of it. And the Lord God took the man, put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. It's God's garden. He puts man there. And he commands the man, verse 16, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. Every tree is accessible to you, Adam. Eve, you can have any of these trees, but there's only one exception. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.

Now, here's Adam. Eve, you're the first humans. They are being guided by God. They're being instructed by God. At this point, they're responding to God. Shortly, not too long after that, here comes the devil. As God said, you're not to eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

And then here comes the big lie. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. I mean, God's told him, you shall surely die if you take of it. You'll have death to look forward to. He says, no, you won't die. So right here, you have the first example, humanly speaking, in terms of dealing with humans, of Satan's pull and influence. Here's Adam and Eve, they're in the middle.

On the one hand is God's guidance and God's inspiration. On the other hand is Satan's pull and his influence. And guess what? They have followed God, at least for whatever brief time it was. Now they follow the devil. Man finds himself susceptible to either. Think about that just for a moment. They were following God, at least for a time. Now, instead of following God's guidance and inspiration, Satan's pull and influence has got them going the other way. Why does man find himself susceptible to either? Because the spirit in man is open, it's neutral.

It's neither positive nor negative of itself. When a baby is born, you don't look at that baby and say, oh, what a righteous baby. That baby's not righteous. That's a sweet, cuddly, innocent little baby. But it's not righteous. You don't look at that baby and say, oh, what an evil little baby. It's a sweet, cuddly little bundle. It's neither righteous nor it's evil. Neither one.

Because the spirit in man, combined with the gray matter that produces mind power, it's open. It's neutral. In and of itself, it's neither positive nor negative of itself. But because of what it is, it can be affected by another spirit, good or bad. I think we all know sufficient cases of babies born into, let's just say, very, very negative situations and being raised and influenced by very, very negative situations and how quickly that little child can be corrupted. And we've also known sufficient cases of little babies being born into good situations and being raised to be what we could call a good, solid human being. We understand the influences and how they can be influenced. But that spirit in man, a baby is born neutral. They're born open. They can be affected by another spirit. The human being, the mind, can be affected by another spirit, good or bad. God's spirit is positive. Satan's spirit is negative. Either can affect man. You know, the spirit in man does not, of itself, give direction. It simply makes mind power possible. And the mind can make choices on direction. But it does not go in any particular direction automatically just because of the spirit in man. It's like when we got up this morning. We chose to be here or we chose not to be here. We chose to honor God or not to honor God. We chose to honor God or honor ourselves. That's simple. We have some that would love to be with us today, but can't be. You know, because of health reasons and stuff. But across wherever God's congregations are, on any given Sabbath, there are some people who could be and choose not to be. We make choices. We're constantly making choices. We don't just automatically go in one direction. We have to choose. Man is made in a way to need another spirit. Now, think about it. When Adam was made, he was made complete. As a human being, he was complete. Eve, as a human being, they were both perfect specimens. They were complete. There was nothing missing from them as a human. But God never intended for us to indefinitely, eternally remain human, did He? The human being is the method or the means by which God will create sons and daughters of His. If the means, the method, the mechanics by which, the raw material, you might say, by which He will produce a spiritual product that He can resurrect into His family as younger brothers and sisters of Christ. So, the human being as a completed product is not. It's a completed product as a human, but it's not a completed product as to what God has in mind for it ultimately to be. So, God made man in a way that something else can be added to him, another spirit. He is made in a way that another spirit can couple with his mind. And that's for the means of connecting God's Holy Spirit to Him. There is, in a very true sense, since God made us, and we're made to be in His image after His likeness, we're made with a certain mission and destiny. We're made so that we can receive of God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that it can connect with us so that God, through that, in our yieldedness and our cooperation, can be formed and shaped for eternity. That, in one sense, is like a vacuum that's created in us for the purpose of having something that can be added to us, God's Spirit.

And when that vacuum just sits there, all kinds of things tend to rush into that spot. And that's one of the reasons why so much of the world is wayward today, as well as Satan pumping them and priming them for everything that he can. But we're made to need another Spirit, God's Holy Spirit. And when that Holy Spirit of God is coupled with our minds connected, we refer to it as a type of—and I heard this years ago, and I can think of no better way of expressing it, as far as an illustration—as a type of spiritual impregnation, where our mind is impregnated with life. The spiritual life of God. There's another word that we also use that is very accurate, and that's the word conversion. We speak of when a person is converted. We speak of the process of when a person has repented, they've been baptized in the Christ, they have been cleansed, forgiven, and God imparts His Holy Spirit to them in a type of spiritual impregnation. We say they're converted. And, of course, conversion is a process that can deepen and should as the years go by as we grow and develop. But we speak of it as the type of beginning of a new creation. Paul spoke of it that way in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. If you're in Christ, you're a new creation. And so it's a very proper way of speaking of it. But that act, that coupling of God's Spirit in the act of conversion is absolutely necessary for accessing something that you cannot access without. That coupling of God's Spirit in what we call the act of conversion is absolutely necessary for accessing the deep things of God.

1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 and 10. When you talk about, quote, the things of God, the things of God, His truths, there are two planes or two levels. There's what I call the first level, the basics, or the fundamentals, and there's what I call, because the Bible calls it this, the deep things of God. Notice 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 and 10.

The Spirit searches all things, all things, yes. Now Paul singles out, when he says searches all things, he singles out a certain aspect of the things of God. He says, yes, the deep things of God. It's only through the Holy Spirit that we have access to the deep things of God. A couple of scriptures. We're fairly close by Ephesians 3.8. I found it interesting on the Pentecost when Mr.

Walker gave his message that he touched upon some of what I will be touching upon today in the sermon. Notice how Paul words this. He says, He says the riches of Christ, but how does he define those riches? He says you can't search them out. He says the unsearchable riches of Christ. What does he mean, the unsearchable? He's saying that the human being cannot search out those deep riches of Christ. You have to have a key for it.

You have to have some key. You've got to have something that opens that door. And, of course, he's preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, which for those that God gives opportunity to who respond to that opportunity, they'll be given the key. And as we read in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 and 10, it's the Holy Spirit that's that key that opens it up.

Romans 11.33, when he wrote this to the Romans in Romans 11.33, notice how he words here, he says, Oh, the depth, you know, the deeps, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Notice what he says, How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out? You know, some of the greatest philosophers, names that anybody that has any education or practically no education would recognize by name.

Some of the great philosophers of the ages have searched to try to figure it all out and to put it all together and to figure out about God and what God is doing and why God is doing it and what does it all add up to and have not been able to do it. I want to turn to two scriptures in Ecclesiastes. The first one is in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Now, I'm reading from the King James.

I'm not using the Old English as I read, but this is the King James Version. As I said before, and as Bible scholars will testify too, the most accurate... There's a lot of good translations, and we're probably using a number of different translations in here among us. And there's a number of real good translations. Some are better than others. But the King James is still recognized as the most accurate that's ever been made.

And sometimes it says what is meant better than another translation. Here's how chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes is rendered in the King James. I think the New King James is different from this. Some other translations may or may not be, depending on the translation. But listen to how it's worded. Now, keep in mind, Ephesians 3.8, the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Keep in mind 1 Corinthians 2, that God says it takes the Holy Spirit to really open up the deep things of God. Keep in mind Romans 11.33, about how you cannot, as a human, just on your own find these things out and see if the two verses I will read in Ecclesiastes matches with what we just read before this.

He has made everything beautiful in His time. Also, He has set the world in their heart, or He has allowed the world to be set in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.

And the second place in Ecclesiastes is Chapter 8, Verses 16 and 17. Solomon said, All of that agrees together that one on his own, as a human, is not going to be able to truly get into and put together. The deep things of God. It's through the Holy Spirit, which exudes from God, which is generated by God, which is put forth by God. It's through the Holy Spirit we have access to the mind of God. If I may take a moment just to read Psalm 139, verses 17 and 18, the words of David. Psalm 139, verses 17 and 18. David was the man close to God's heart.

He was the man close to God's mind. He was the man who spent a tremendous amount of time thinking about the things of God. He says, How precious also, verse 17, are your thoughts, your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand when I wake, I am still with you. The longer that David lived, the more he had the mind of God, the more he realized what that mind was like, the more he shared in access to the things of God through God's Spirit.

David, as he so clearly said and says in Psalm 51, he did have God's Spirit. That was the point in his life where he was deeply concerned about losing it. We know the account there. But the mind and things of God are inexhaustible. We could turn to certain scriptures that point that out. But anyway, here's the thing. Those scriptures we've read, unsearchable riches, no man can find out, etc., etc. Looking at it from the human perspective as something that you as a human, just on your own, cannot truly get into, you would say that's private, right?

If something's locked up and you were to say, what if you got locked up in that safe over there? The person says, well, it's locked up and it's private. Well, how can I find out what's in there? Well, you'll have to have a key. Well, give me the key. No, it's not best for you to have the key right now. The Holy Spirit is the key to God's private library. It's the key to the things of God that are private from the world, but that's opened up to His disciples. Let's go back to Matthew 16, verse 13.

The Holy Spirit is the key to God's private off-limits to humans, information, deep things, and all that. There's a clarifier that I will add shortly, but I'll get to there in just a very short time. John 16, in verse 13, Christ tells him on that night He's to be taken. He says, How be it? When it the Spirit of truth. And it's called that because God Himself cannot promote anything but truth. He cannot promote falsehood. He can allow it, but He doesn't promote it.

There's a difference. And what He sends forth of Himself always moves in the direction of truth. The Spirit of truth is come. Notice, it will guide you. Notice the goal that is set. Notice the direction. It will guide you into all truth. It doesn't mean you'll have all truth all at once or anything like that, but it is setting. This is the goal. This is the direction. Which means, if it will guide you into all truth, that does include the deep things of God.

That just makes sense. Of course, if we look at chapter 14, verse 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, it shall teach you all things, again, showing the goal, the target, the mark, and the direction, obviously, and bring all things to your remembrance, as well as bring things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said to you. It turns the light on where previously there had been darkness. It opens up the mind in a way and to a degree that it had not been opened before. And there is a new God-given capacity.

It's a God-given capacity for understanding. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 2 again. In 1 Corinthians 2, picking it up in verse 11, for what man or woman knows the things of a man, of a human, except the spirit of man which is in him?

In other words, cows don't have that spirit in man. Horses don't have it. They're fine animals. Dogs. They can be fine pets. But they don't have minds. There is an awareness of the surroundings they around with them. But they don't hope, they don't dream, they don't plan, they don't purpose, they don't lay out plans and pursue those plans and seek them. There is not mind power there as there is in the human being. And you cannot teach a horse geometry or algebra.

You can't teach it philosophy and all that kind of stuff. You can't teach it the history of mankind. You can't teach it the future of mankind. It has no capacity for those things. This is why it says, for what man knows the things of a man, what is it that allows man to be able to do all that? It's that spirit in man that's combined with his brain that gives him the mind. Then he uses that as an analogy in a way of saying, even so, if you step it up another level, the things of God knows no man but the spirit of God.

And we've not received the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Notice verse 14.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ, and we have that because of and through God's spirit. So this deep capacity insight given through God is locked out or locked out from the natural mind of man.

Verse 14. But I said I wanted to do a clarification. So I want to add a clarification in here. Let me take just a little bit of time to clarify something. The natural man without God's Holy Spirit is capable of understanding certain things of God. You want proof of that? Romans 1 is proof of that. Romans 1 very clearly is talking about natural man and how natural man can know there's a God. And natural man can know there's certain things right and certain things wrong. That natural man without God's Spirit, there is a capacity to know certain things of God and to do them.

Romans 1, again, is one of the proofs of that. The natural man does have a certain latitude or capacity for what we call spiritual things. And God, through Paul, would not designate some of the things of God. He wouldn't have Paul, he wouldn't inspire Paul to look at the things of God and single out a certain part of them that are referenced as the deep things of God unless there are some things that are the deep things of God and there are some things that are not deep.

They're easily seen, easily recognized. The natural man does have a certain latitude or capacity for spiritual things. Why do you think we refer to what every human has? Free moral agency. The key word in that being moral. Humans can choose to do that which is moral, or they can choose to do that which is immoral. Free moral agency. See, it does not require God's Holy Spirit to know that lying and killing and stealing is wrong.

It does not require the Holy Spirit to have and understand a basic concept of right and wrong. We are free moral agents. We have minds. We can think. We can reason. Just by analyzing, observing, looking at cause and effect, etc., etc., there are some things we can figure out and do. Take ancient Israel without God's Spirit. Ancient Israel without God's Holy Spirit.

There were only a few that had God's Spirit in ancient Israel. Moses had it, Joshua, David, of course others we can name, Samuel. There were a number, but they were very few overall that had God's Spirit. But ancient Israel, in spite of not having God's Spirit, was expected to follow the Ten Commandments, which are spiritual laws.

Think about that just for a moment. Without God's Spirit, they were expected to follow the Ten Commandments, which are spiritual laws. Notice with me, briefly, Deuteronomy 29. It's interesting. Something I want to point out here. Deuteronomy. Moses knows his time is short. Moses knows he's shortly going to be taken up on the mountain, put to sleep in death by God, and await the resurrection.

And that Joshua is going to be the instrument leading Israel into the land of Canaan. Now, I want you to think about something. Verse 5. Deuteronomy 29.

Let's get the chronology on this. Moses said, And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. That's the chronology. They're completing. They have completed the forty years in the wilderness. Who's he talking to? The only people he's talking to at this point are fifty-nine years old and younger, with only two exceptions. Joshua and Caleb. The twelve spies forty years before had been sent into the land. Ten had come back with an evil report. We can't do it.

God's tricked us, etc. Joshua and Caleb said, yes, we can do it. Let's go in. Let's not hesitate. No, better we just die in the wilderness. God said, okay, for the forty days that you spied the land, and based on the evil report the ten have given, and you said that you'd rather just go back in the wilderness and die, that can be arranged. So for each day of spying, there'll be one year for that. Forty years in the wilderness, until every one of you with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, every one of you, of course, Moses was included, and he would live, and it was something Moses did during that time that cost him not being able to go into the land.

It was a different issue. But anyway, every one of you from twenty and above will die off during this forty years, and you're nineteen and younger, and the ones born during that time, they're the ones that will come into the land. So at this point, when Moses is talking to them, you're dealing with the fifty-nine-year-olds and younger. All of the others have died off. Notice verse nine, I think, is what I want. Verse nine, Keep therefore, he's instructing this younger generation that's now a bit older, after forty years, says, Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them.

That's obedience, isn't it? This covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. Now, keep your finger here. Go with me to Joshua 24, 31. Joshua 24, verse 31. Okay, chapter 24, verse 31. Notice, and Israel, they went into the land, this generation that Moses is speaking to, that he says, Keep the words of the Lord, obey him.

Obey him. And Israel served the Lord. Notice that phrase, Israel served the Lord. All! You can't serve him without obeying him. It's one and the same. And Israel obeyed. Israel followed. Israel served the Lord. All the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who were much younger than Joshua, that outlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel.

And then this is repeated in Judges here, chapter 2. In Judges, chapter 2, verse 7. Judges 2, verse 7. And the people served the Lord. All the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel.

So we have Moses' admonishment to, You obey the Lord. We have the historical record that that particular generation did serve God all the days of the Lord, and it was when they died off that the generations coming up behind them went totally wayward. Now back in Deuteronomy 29, read verse 4. Moses, as he's talking to them and telling them he's led them, and they're to obey God, says, Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day.

They were not given God's Holy Spirit, yet they were expected to obey God. As I said, there are truths of God that are very easily seen, basic concepts of right and wrong, issues that the Ten Commandments cover. There's plenty that one can do to follow what's good and right that just makes good reasoning sense if a person wants to do them. There can be a high level of character on the human plane.

We may refer to this as human character, and such can obviously be very important or valuable to a neighborhood, a community, a relationship for a nation. But the truly deep things of God require His Holy Spirit. And that takes one to a deeper level of understanding, to a higher plateau of spiritual sight. God's Holy Spirit in us is the investment of Himself in us, a direct investment on His part in us through Christ, of His power in us. It's the power for connection. It's the power for transformation. It's the power for change.

It's the power for growth. These are things that I, as a pastor, and that the elders will continue to emphasize. Let the power of God have its work in your life. I never gave a title through the sermon. Just title it, The Holy Spirit in Man.