The Spirit and Scripture (2)

Those are three words that are given to the three different ways that the Holy Spirit is active in the Word of God. Now, last time we looked at his ministry in Revelation, and remember we talked about what Revelation was. Revelation is the Spirit's or Revelation in general is an unveiling or a disclosing and uncovering of truth about God and his plan. And so when we talk about Revelation, we're talking about God making known truth about Himself. And we saw that God revealed Himself, He has revealed Himself in a number of ways, but as far as Scripture is concerned, God had revealed Himself to the men who wrote Scripture, the men who were apostles, for instance, in the New Testament, and wrote down the Word of God. Now, the actual communication of that truth about God and His plan to those men is Revelation. The recording of that, the writing of that leads us to our second category in which the Holy Spirit is active in Scripture, and that is inspiration. So, last time we talked about Revelation, the fact that God revealed Himself, God disclosed, unveiled Himself, made known, communicated to people, truth about Himself and His plan, that is God's revelation. God is not revealing any new truth today. We saw that the Scriptures declared that God has revealed His truth, that is the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and it's recorded in the Bible. So, one of the reasons why I wanted to spend some time on that is these words are often used very loosely, not the way the Bible uses them. And some people will talk about, well, God revealed this to me, or God revealed this to my friend. No, He didn't. God has revealed everything He's going to reveal in His Word. And the problem some people get into is that they talk about God revealed something to me, and so they make it an equal plane of authority as Scripture, because God revealed it. So, it's just as authority of a Scripture. Well, nothing that I think or that I feel like I have learned is authority as Scripture is. It's not on the same plane. So, God has already revealed everything He's going to reveal. It's recorded in His Word, but the question is, how did it get there? We're going to talk about that tonight, and then hopefully get into a little bit of how we can understand it, and that is the third category of illumination. Okay, so let's talk about inspiration tonight before I jump into that. Any question about the idea of revelation? What we've talked about there? Inspiration. Let's define it first. What inspiration means? When we talk about inspiration, we're talking about God supernaturally directing the writers of Scripture, so that His completed message was recorded with perfect accuracy. Okay, so we're talking about God supernaturally directing the writers of Scripture, so that when they wrote down His Word, what they wrote was recorded with perfect accuracy. That is inspiration. Now, let me take a moment to distinguish that from what we talked about last time, but we have revelation. When God revealed truth to the apostles, He disclosed or unveiled, communicated to them something about His plan or about Himself, and that revelation only benefits them. That revelation is not repeated for other people or for succeeding generations. Revelation is just the communication of the truth, for instance, to the apostle Paul. Well, that doesn't do anybody in Philippi any good unless it is recorded, unless it is written down. And so God saw fit to preserve what He revealed to those men who wrote Scripture. He chose to preserve it in the process of writing it down, and that's where we come to inspiration. Inspiration is different from revelation. God revealed truth to the apostle Paul. That doesn't do anybody else any good unless it is communicated to them in some way, that truth that was revealed as preserved, and God saw fit to preserve it in writing. And that's the Bible. Now, there are two major passages that deal with inspiration. We're going to look at both of them tonight. First of all, 2 Timothy, chapter 3. 2 Timothy, 316. And we're going to see that inspiration guarantees that what God revealed to the apostles and prophets like Paul and other writers of the Bible, it guarantees that that revelation would then be recorded with perfect accuracy so that it could be preserved for other people and for future generations. 2 Timothy 316 says, all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now, what we're really looking at tonight is the first few words of verse 16. All Scripture is God breathed. Now, probably you remember, if you memorized this verse as I did, you memorized it in the King James. And you remember it goes like this, all Scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine of proof, correction, instruction, and righteousness. All Scriptures inspired. Well, that's where we get our word inspiration from the King James word that you used to hear. All Scriptures inspired of God. The word inspired, which is translated in the NIV God breathed, it actually comes from a compound word that Paul would have used in the first century. The word is actually the up newstoss and it comes from two words, theos, which means God, and then the verb, peneo, newstoss, which means to breathe. So the NIV has just taken the Greek word, a compound word, and translated directly into English. All Scripture is theos, the up, newstoss, God breathed. So that's exactly the most literal way you could translate it. The word inspired sometimes can give the wrong impression. Sometimes when you say something is inspired, it almost sounds like the writers of Scripture wrote their books and then God breathed into them, kind of his life, and brought them to life. And that's not at all what that word means. Or sometimes the word inspired can give the idea that, in a sense, God breathed into the writers of Scripture. You know, they were inspired to write something like Shakespeare would be inspired to write or someone might be inspired to write a novel. That's not at all what's being talked about here. We're not talking about God breathing into an already finished product. We're not talking about God breathing into the writers. It's not breathing into it all. The idea behind the up, newstoss, God breathed means to breathe out. So what this literally means is that all Scripture is breathed out by God. This is a very clear declaration as to where Scripture originated. It came from the very breath of God. It originated with Him. It was breathed out by Him. Now that's what this passage is saying and that's the first step of inspiration. And that is that it originated with God. It was breathed out by Him. But that just tells us where it originated without telling us how it actually got to us. And so we need the second passage to complete the picture. Second passage is second Peter chapter one. So all Scripture is inspired of God. In other words, it is breathed out by God. It originated with Him. It came from His breath. He breathed it out. But how did it get on paper? How did it get from His mind and breath to paper and the word of God? That's what second Peter tells us. Now I want to talk a little bit about the background here because this is a powerful passage if you understand how Peter leads up to it. In second Peter, he's introducing his book by saying, I'm going to remind you of truths that you already know. And basically those truths are about the second coming. He's going to really hit that hard in chapter three of this book. But he talks about the fact that he's going to remind them of these truths. And in verse 16 he wants to assure them that he's not just coming up with this on his own. Look at verse 16. He says, we did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory saying, this is my son whom I love with him. I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. Now what what event is Peter referring to here? Transfiguration. The amount of transfiguration recorded in Matthew 17 for instance. It's when Jesus took who who didn't take with him up on the mount. Peter James and John took that three, those three disciples who were kind of the inner circle. They were brought into several instances in our Lord's ministry that the other disciples did not see. And this is one of them. He took them up on a mountain. And all of a sudden he was as Matthew 17 says, transfigured before them. And what that means is his inner glory shown through and they saw what he will look like when he comes back at his second coming when he comes back in glory to this earth to set up his kingdom. Peter James and John saw that on that mountain and they heard God's voice from heaven. And this is what Peter is referring to here. God's voice from heaven saying, this is my son whom I love with him. I am well pleased. Peter says, when I talk to you about the second coming, I'm not just telling you stuff that I kind of dreamed up. Hey, I saw this. I saw what he's going to look like when he comes back at his second coming. I saw it on the mount of transfiguration. I heard the voice from heaven. So my senses embrace this. I saw it. I heard it. Now it's important to understand that Peter is saying, I know what I'm talking about because I saw it and I heard it. But look at what he says next, verse 19. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain. And you will do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Jesus is the morning star. He identifies himself in Revelation 22 16, the bright morning star. So that's talking again about the second coming. The morning star dawning is the that glory again appearing Christ coming and second coming. So notice what Peter says. With this backdrop of I know what I'm talking about because I saw it and I heard it. But he says we also have something that is more certain than that. And what is more certain than seeing or hearing? It's the word of the prophets. It's the word of God. Now this is so basic and so key to our understanding of the importance of Scripture. What Peter is saying is I'm telling you I saw and I heard what Jesus will look like when he comes back at his second coming. But I'm not going to trust my own senses. I have something more certain than what I saw and what I heard and it's the word of God. It's the word of the prophets. That's more certain. That's more sure. Now we all need to recognize that. Our senses can fool us. People can say well I saw this or I heard that. But that is not as sure as what this book says. Your senses can fool you. People can think they heard something. They can think they saw something and be mistaken. So the more certain witness as to what God has revealed is not what I see or hear but it's what's written in this book. Don't ever forget that because there are all kinds of people that will tell you today well I saw this vision and I heard this voice. And Peter is here to tell us you can be fooled by that. I know what I saw and I know what I heard but I know what's more certain and that's the word of God. So don't ever put your experience ahead of the Bible. Don't ever put even what you know you saw or you know you heard or you think you did ahead of what the Bible says. If there's ever any contradiction between what you experienced and what the Bible says you better trust the Bible over your experience. That's what Peter is saying. And it's why it's such a critical passage in our understanding of the importance of the Bible, the importance of the word of God. But now with that background he tells us how we got this more sure word, this more certain word of prophets. How did we get it? How did it come to us? Verse 20. Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture, in other words no prophet recording scripture writing scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. In other words prophets were not sitting around saying well I'm going to tell you what I think about this. It's my idea. No. No prophecy recorded in the word of God. No word revealed from God that's recorded in the Bible came about from a prophet just thinking it up. Well then how did it come? Verse 21. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man. A man. It didn't come from their own desire to communicate something. But here's how it came. Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Now notice the first part of that expression. Men spoke from God. What did we see in 2nd Timothy 3 16? All scripture comes from where? From God from the very breath of God. He breathed it out. How did he get it to us? Through men. See he spoke. He spoke. These men spoke from God. That's the breath of God speaking through them as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Now here's the Holy Spirit's role. As Peter and James and John and Paul and Isaiah and others wrote scripture. The Holy Spirit God was originating the truth that came from him. These men spoke from God as they were born along by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was literally carrying them along as they wrote to protect them from any error. And every word they wrote was exactly what God wanted written. Now this is a very interesting word. The word born along here in verse 21 carried along by the Holy Spirit. It's not just the Holy Spirit was kind of generally guiding them so they wouldn't do too bad a job. It's not the Holy Spirit was kind of directing them in their thinking. This is a very strong word. It has to do with literally controlling every movement. The word itself, the original word, the Greek word, is only used one other time in the New Testament. And it's an interesting parallel because it really serves as an example of what the word means. We're going to put it on the screen for you. It's in Acts 27. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind. So we gave way to it and where here it is. Driven along. Now this is a description of Paul's journey to Rome. Remember when he was on the ship to Rome they got caught in this hurricane on the Mediterranean Sea. The wind was so strong that the sailors could not control the ship. So they just tried to turn it so that the wind would carry them. They were driven along by the wind. That was better than being destroyed. They ended up having a shipwreck on an island. But they were driven along. That means they were totally under the control of the wind. The movement of that ship was totally under the control. They had no control over themselves. They were totally under control of the wind. So the idea here in 2 Peter is that when these men sat down to write, granted God used their background, their training, their personalities, all of that comes through in the writing. But as they wrote, the Holy Spirit, like that wind, bore them along, carried them along, drove them along so that they were totally under his control and everything they wrote was exactly what God wanted. So all scripture is breathed out by God through holy men who spoke from God. They took his breath and spoke it out. They were actually wrote it out and as they wrote it they were driven along, carried along by the Holy Spirit. That is inspiration. So yes, men wrote the Bible but they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, protected by the Holy Spirit so that everything they wrote was exactly what God wanted. That is inspiration. Any question about that or comment about that? Yes. As a great statement, if God himself had done the writing, the written Word of God would be no more authoritative than what it is. That is exactly right. That is a great description of inspiration. It was God's Word. It originated with God and these men wrote, spoke from God, communicated it in writing as they were driven along by the Holy Spirit. So God's Father and God the Holy Spirit are both involved here. The Holy Spirit's role is bearing them along as they wrote the words of scripture. Okay, tremendous truth. And this is the reason why so many other passages speak of the scriptures as being the Holy Spirit said this. So let's take a look at other passages which indicate the Holy Spirit giving us scripture. Other references to the Spirit giving scripture. Just quickly we are going to throw several of them on the screen. Mark 1236, David himself speaking by the Holy Spirit declared the Lord said to my Lord, said it to my right hand till I put your hands under your feet. He quotes from the Old Testament, Psalm 110, one, but notice how he prefaces that quote in the Old Testament. David wrote it, right? David himself wrote Psalm 110, but how did he write it? Just like Peter said they did. Holy men spoke from God as they were born along by the Holy Spirit and so it's just second nature for Mark to write it this way. David himself speaking by the Holy Spirit by the way declared. Okay, now look at this. How this just natural to say it this way acts chapter one versus 15 and 16 in those days Peter stood up among the believers, a group numbering about 120 and said brothers and sisters, the scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning to this who served as a guy for those who were. And he goes on to quote from the Old Testament, but notice he says what I'm quoting to you was something yes David wrote it, but the Holy Spirit spoke through David those words carefully phrasing what inspiration is all about same thing in Acts 318. Acts 425, that's a good one too. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David, notice the same expression. David wrote this, why do the nations raise that Psalm 2, but the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of David. Then look at Acts 2825. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul have made this final statement, the Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet. See how clear that is? I mean the writers of scripture and men like Paul, Peter and others who are preaching, they understood this truth of inspiration. They knew that Isaiah and David wrote those passages, but they also knew that the Holy Spirit was speaking through them and they just naturally spoke of it that way. A couple of other passages in Hebrews, Hebrews 3.7. So as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, again another quote from the Old Testament, and then Hebrews 10, 15, and 16, the Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. Verse 1, he says, and he quotes again from the Old Testament. So you see that time and time again, and I could have given you some others as I almost did, and some notes I have written down here, other passages would say the same thing. When the writers of the New Testament referred to the way the Bible was communicated to us, it was not only the human author, it was also the Holy Spirit speaking through them. Time and time again, they say it that way. And so that's the Holy Spirit's role in inspiration. He has a role in revelation, revealing God's truth to those who would eventually write it down, but he also had a role in inspiration in actually protecting them as they wrote it. So that's his role in inspiration. Kate comments her questions there about what that means, the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiration. Yes, Carolyn? Yes, but when it leads to the work of the Holy Spirit, it's very true. It's one of the proofs of inspiration, so to speak, that is often talked about. And that is that you have 40 authors, around 40 authors of the different books of the Bible spread over 1500 years. But there is tremendous unity in what the Bible says, and that points to a common author who is behind all the human authors, and that's the Holy Spirit. You're exactly right. That's exactly what is one of the marvels of the Bible. Yes, yeah, it's as though God does not want us to forget the Holy Spirit is behind all this, called time and time and time again. That's how it's said. And it really is amazing how many times that pops up in the scriptures. And in the Old Testament, it's a different expression, particularly in the prophets. It's not the Holy Spirit says, but thus sayeth the Lord over and over hundreds of times in the prophets. That expression, God will not let us forget that he is the real author of scripture. He used men to write it down, but he was behind it all. That's a good point, James. Now we get to the really fun part, because this is the part that affects you and me. The Holy Spirit revealed truth to apostles and prophets who ended up writing it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in scripture. But now it comes to what role the Holy Spirit plays with you and me as we read the scripture. And the word that's used to describe that is the Holy Spirit's work in illumination. So now we're going to talk about the third category of the Spirit's work in relationship scripture, that is illumination. Now when you think of the word, I'm not asking a theological definition right now, when you think of illumination, what do you think of? Light, to turn the light on. You illuminate a room or you illuminate something and it means you cast light on it, you throw light on it, and that's a good way to understand what we mean by illumination. At least it's a good basic way when we talk about the meaning of illumination. Now I want to take that general concept of enlightening or throwing light on a subject and expand it a little bit to a good theological or biblical definition of what we're talking about here. And I'll repeat this time or two so that we get it because the whole definition is important. Illumination is the work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to comprehend the meaning of scripture. It's the work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to comprehend the meaning of scripture. In other words to understand what we're reading. But it goes a step beyond that and this second step is very important. It's not only him helping us to understand scripture, comprehend the meaning of scripture, but also it's also his work of bringing conviction as to its truthfulness and authority over our lives. Those two parts of the definition go together. It's not just helping us to understand what scripture means. But the work of the Holy Spirit and illumination is also opening up our hearts and minds to recognize God's authority through his word. And it is truthful. It's what we need to know. It's not just helping us to understand what scripture means, but the work of the Holy Spirit and illumination is also opening up our hearts and minds to recognize God's authority through his word. And it is truthful. It's what we need to live by. Because let's face it, even liberal scholars who do not believe what this book teaches can understand what the literal words mean. One of the best actual commentaries on the actual text of the Gospel of John is written by a man who didn't believe a word of what John said. His name is Raymond Brown. He was a well-known Roman Catholic theologian who wrote one of the finest commentaries on John as far as just telling you this is what this Greek word means. And this is what this word means. He understood what the words meant. He just didn't believe it. illumination combines both of those. It's not only understanding what the words mean. It's understanding that's God's truth. And it has authority over my life and I believe it. That's a part of the work of the Holy Spirit too. And we're going to see both of those parts of that definition are very important and are described in the scriptures in the passages we're going to look at. It's not just, okay, I want to understand what the Bible says, but it's also a deep conviction of the Holy Spirit as to its truthfulness and its authority over my life. That's a part of illumination as well. At least a biblical understanding of it. And we may not get completely to this, well, we may get to this text first Corinthians 2.14. That passage makes it very clear that it includes both. Okay, any question about what we're talking about then the meaning of illumination? Okay, let's talk a little bit about the need for illumination. Why do we need this ministry of the Holy Spirit? Can't I just read this book and understand it on my own? I mean, people can read Shakespeare and understand it, right? Well, maybe that's not the best example. People can read the newspaper and understand it, right? Can't you just read a book and pick it up and read it and understand what it says? Why do you need some ministry of the Holy Spirit to help you understand what this book says? Here's the reason why. The fall has affected our mind. Man choosing to sin, which we describe as the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve choosing to rebel against God and sin. The effects of Adam sin on us are total complete. It affects every part of us. It means that we're born with a sin nature that affects our will. It means we have a natural tendency to choose to sin. It affects our emotions. We have a natural tendency to express our emotions in ways that are harmful and not edifying, that are sinful. It also affects our mind. The fall has affected our ability to think clearly. Now, we're going to take a few moments, maybe the rest of our time, just to look at some of this truth in Scripture. And I don't think we have any of these on the screen for you. So turn to Matthew 13. Matthew chapter 13. Jesus is talking to the disciples here about why he speaks in parables. He has two reasons. One is to explain truth to those who are believers. But the second reason is to reserve that truth for believers that he wants him to understand. And he says unbelievers are not going to get it. They're not going to catch it. And here's the reason why verse 13. He says, this is why I speak to them in parables. Those seeing they do not see. Though hearing they do not hear or understand in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. You will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving for this people's heart has become calloused. You see here's the reason why people can see something but not perceive it, not understand it. It's the reason why people can hear something but not understand it. Okay, it's given the reason in verse 15. The people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears. They have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes. Here with their ears. Understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them. What he's saying is there is a spiritual problem here. There are people who have good ears and they can hear but they don't understand. They've got good eyesight. They can read words on a page but they cannot grasp the meaning of those words. Why? Because of a heart condition. The hearts are calloused. Now, there are other passages that explain this more fully and let's look at a few of those. Romans chapter 1 really describes the impact of the fall and of man sin upon his ability to think. Romans 1 verse 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who notice suppress the truth by their wickedness. Now, that's a key concept. He's going to develop it in the next few verses. But the concept is because of our innate wickedness, because of our sinfulness, because of our simple nature, we have a tendency even though we may hear truth, read truth, we have a natural tendency because of our sin nature to suppress it. And that literally means to push it down to say, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to see that. And that's our natural tendency. He's saying here in verse 18. Now, he explains what that means. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them for since the creation of the world. God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. Do you see what that passage is saying? He's saying that God has clearly revealed two basic things about himself in creation. It's obvious to see. And those two things are his eternal power and divine nature. In other words, all you have to do is look around you with an unbiased eye and you can see that a being of greater power than man must have made this. And he must be eternal in nature. He must be divine. He must be of great power. He has eternal power and he's got to be God. He's got to be above us to do the pulses that is clearly seen in creation. Well, if it's clearly seen, then why doesn't everybody get it? Why didn't everybody understand that? Aha, here's the reason. Verse 21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. I notice, but their thinking became futile or empty. And their foolish hearts were darkened. Right there is the problem. It's a spiritual problem. The reason why people don't look at creation and automatically come to the conclusion. There's got to be someone who has much more power than man and who is divine, who's bigger and greater than man that put this into place. The reason why people do not automatically come to that conclusion is because of futile thinking and foolish hearts. It's an inner problem spiritually. Now, why did that spiritual problem happen? Verse 22. Although they claim to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Here's the problem. Man did not want to acknowledge God and so they put something else in place of God so that they would not have to be accountable to God, responsible to God. We don't want to face what we can clearly see. And so we're going to devise some other way of escaping that responsibility from God and rather than exalting and worshiping the creator, they start to exalt and worship the creation. Time, chance, brought all this about, the evolutionary process. This is a description of why people don't look at nature and see God. Why? Because their hearts are darkened and their minds are empty, futile. And the reason why minds are empties, not because they're not brilliant. Like I said, they can see, they can understand how things work. But they will not factor God into the equation because of empty thinking and darkened hearts. So it's a spiritual problem. Just real quickly in our time is up. Let's just mention these two verses. Second Corinthians 4-4. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Do you see that? Minds of unbelievers are blinded by Satan himself so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. No man, just on the surface of things, can on his own see and understand and welcome the gospel. There has to be a work of the Holy Spirit to do that. Why? Because eyes are blinded. And then one other passage Ephesians 4, and we'll pick back up on this next week, Ephesians 4-17. So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do. And sometimes in Paul's epistles, the Gentiles are just representative of unbelievers, those who don't know the Bible don't know Christ. No longer live like the Gentiles in the futility of their thinking, empty thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. You have to kind of wade through several steps here, but the initial problem is the hardening of the heart. The initial problem is saying, I don't want to admit there is a God. I don't want to see God in creation. I don't want there to be a God that I'm answerable to. So you harden your heart against that. That leads to a spiritual ignorance that leads to separation from God, that leads to a darkened understanding and inability to see rights what's in front of you. And the result of that verse 19, having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality, so to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. That kind of thing just leads to a life pursuit of sin. Why? Because of the darkness of the heart and the mind. The problem is not that people can't read and be smart and know the words off-age. The problem is a spiritual darkness in the mind and the heart. The fall has ruined us all that way. And that's the reason why nobody can understand this book unless first of all, and we'll see all this how this works out next week, first of all, you have the Holy Spirit living inside, which gives you the spectacles of faith to be able to start understanding Scripture. Doesn't mean you're automatically going to understand everything, but it gives you the capacity to understand it. You can't do that. You can't get the base one without the Holy Spirit in your heart and life. So that's where we'll pick up next week and talk about how the Holy Spirit does that. And it's an amazing truth what the Holy Spirit does. We'll look at 1 Corinthians 2, 14, and 1 John 2 and some other passages about the Holy Spirit's elimination. Alright, let's pray. Father, thank you for that great ministry of the Spirit of God without which we would remain darkened in our understanding, futile in our thinking, ignorant in our hearts and minds. We thank you, Father, that the Spirit of God has been given to us for many reasons, but one of the greatest ones is to help us to understand your word and to recognize its truthfulness and its authority over our lives and to have a longing and a desire to live by it, no bay it and to submit to it. And Lord, as we will see next week, it's the reason why the world doesn't understand us. They can't figure us out because we have that receiver inside of us that helps us to understand your word and they don't have that. And so they can't see it and understand it. Thank you for that ministry of the Spirit. May we ever be grateful that you've given him to throw your light upon this book for us. In Jesus' name, amen.