Let us turn to Hebrews 8. I will just read a few verses there. We have been talking about this for a few weeks. In Hebrews 8, starting in verse 5, this is speaking of the Old Testament priests. We read in Hebrews 8:5-8:
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make…
This is actually better translated “finish.”
…I will finish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
We have taken a look at this, the two covenants: the Old Testament, and then the second covenant being the New Testament covenant. Now God is going to “finish” the covenant, and we have seen that this has to do with God’s revelation, the revealing of Himself.
The Old Testament revelation, the Old Testament Scriptures, in giving us those Scriptures, God revealed Himself and in a much better way than when we look up at the sky and we see the expanse of the heavens and the sun, moon, and stars, which do declare the glory of God; they are a testimony that there is a God. But the Old Testament Scriptures gave us a lot more information about that God and what He is like and who He is. Then the New Testament, the new covenant, filled us in even more and explained many of the things of the Old Testament.
So there were these two covenants, which really make up the Bible. There is not going to be any more additional revelation of any kind. Once God finished the book of Revelation, the last book, He told us not to add or subtract anything from “the words of the book,” meaning the whole Bible. But here in Hebrews, when we read that He found “fault with them,” that has to do with the first and second covenant, or the Old Testament and the New Testament.
There is no fault in the Word itself. It is perfect, pure, holy, right, without mistake, no errors of any kind in the original Hebrew or Greek. That is not the fault. The fault was that in the Old Testament, it was very cloudy, shadowy; there was a veil, in a sense, over our understanding because God wrote mysterious things. In the New Testament, many things are explained concerning the sacrificial system and how it all pointed to Christ, and many other truths are explained in the New Testament.
But still, there were a lot of things that the church did not understand over the last nearly 2,000 years, things that we thought were basic and simple: salvation, faith, repentance, baptism, the resurrection, the end of the world, the eternal judgment. Really, on and on and on, major doctrines, the church has written volumes and volumes and volumes about, but there is no clarity; there is no real understanding.
So God is going to “finish” the covenant, and that is in our present time, in our day. How is He going to do it? He is not going to give us anything further, no more revelation, no more visions, no more dreams, no more tongues, no more moving of His people, of a prophet of some kind, to speak, and that would be inspired by God. It will not be in that way at all because the Book is finished. We know it. Revelation 22:18 tells it.
But we read in other places that God has sealed up certain things. “Seal the book,” He said to Daniel, “till the time of the end.” Then at the end, the implication is, and it is the right implication, God will take off the seal, take off the cover, and open up the Scriptures to the understanding of His people.
In doing that, there will be further clarity, where we will read the Old Testament and the New Testament, the whole Bible, and we are going to learn about the Great Tribulation, the end of the world, the timing of those things, faith. It is only in the last 10-15 years, we understand that it is not man’s faith but it is Christ’s faith that saves. God has opened that up. We learned about baptism. If you want to read a good book, read Mr. Camping’s “Baptism: The Washing Away of Our Sins,” which really clears up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of theology that was a muddled mess on the subject of baptism. This is only because God is opening the Scriptures to His people during these last days.
What is going to shine during the last few years of the world’s existence is the Bible, but also a person. A person is going to shine. A person is going to, in a big way, take center stage like, really, he has not done before. He is going to be a real force in these last days, and the Bible tells us that and the Bible teaches that.
And who is that person? It is not who you might think, I am going to say. That Person is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost: that is who is going to shine. That is who is going to be a key to the whole end of the world and all the information that God is going to reveal. He is going to teach His people during the last few days of the Great Tribulation. The Holy Spirit is really in view, really in view, like never before.
For instance, last Sunday I was discussing with Mr. Wesam, who is a Muslim man, the whole question of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Person and Who He is. The Muslims think that He is a prophet but that He is not God. And, you know, you always go into the Bible, and it is really pretty easy, God has made statements all over the place to show from the Bible that Jesus is Eternal God. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given...His name shall be called…The mighty God, The everlasting Father.” There are all kinds of verses like that. “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us,” and on and on and on and on. The Bible is really full of information that proves that Jesus is God. And we know the Father; there are all kinds of verses that show God the Father is Eternal God. Yet when we come to the third Person of the Trinity, sometimes I am kind of glad that I did not have to discuss from the Scriptures and prove that the Holy Spirit is God because this is a little bit more difficult; this is a little tougher.
Just off the top of your head, try to think, what verses would you go to to show that the Holy Spirit is God Himself, the third Person of the Trinity? Well, you can go to verses that prove the Father and verses that prove the Son, but where do you go to show the Holy Spirit?
I was thinking about that and I would like us to spend a little time looking at some of the Scriptures that get into that question; for example, let us go to 1 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 10. It says in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11:
1 Corinthians 2:10-11:
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of God; these are just some of His names. A lot of times when we read the Spirit of the Father/the Spirit of Christ, our minds just naturally go to that Person of the Godhead, and we are kind of not seeing as clearly that this is actually talking about the third Person. This is talking about the Holy Spirit; He is the Spirit of God.
Really, how could we overlook that? How could we miss it? “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Ghost is the One who is key for the whole Bible. He is the One who moved Jeremiah. He is the One who moved Ezekiel or Isaiah, or all of the men of old. They were moved to give us the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the One who directed them and guided them to write or speak whatever inspiration, whatever Scripture God was giving them.
Or let us go to John 15 and look at one verse. It says in John 15:26:
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
We see all three Persons in this verse. The Comforter (the Holy Spirit), the Father, and Jesus is saying that the Father “shall testify of Me,” (the Son). We normally tie in this word “spirit” with Christ and we tie it in with the Father. We have not carefully seen that this actually is a distinct Person; He is a distinct Person of the Godhead.
God is One God. He is only One God. The Bible is clear about this, as we read in several places in the Bible. In Ephesians, there is “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” and it goes on. Yet Got reveals Himself as three, like we find in 1 John 5:6-7:
This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,…
And that is Jesus.
…and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
I do not understand it; I do not think that anybody does. But I know that the Christian, the true child of God believes, because the Bible teaches it, that God is three but One. People get in trouble when they try to solve this mystery, when they try to explain how this could be. We can not explain it; we have severe limitations. We are finite creatures. We do have a miniscule-type mind, and mine is probably smaller than many. We have very peanut-sized minds within us and we just can not comprehend, we can not fathom, we can not grasp this, we can not understand the Person of God.
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts; this is what the Bible says; an example of this is, “As the heavens are higher than the earth.” So when they shoot a rocket into space and it goes for thousands upon thousands upon thousands of miles and it could keep going for a long, long, long time, this is an example of God’s thoughts: way, way up there; and here we are on the planet earth, way back here: far, far from the heavens. This is how God’s Mind is. It is brilliant. You can put everything in this world, all of the brain power of mankind and all of the computers together, and it still will not amount to the tiniest little bit in comparison to the Infinite God who inhabits eternity. This is how the Bible reveals God. He is an incredible Being, and the Holy Spirit is this God.
If we go to Matthew 28, the Great Commission, that command in Matthew 28:19 tells us:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
We know that the Father can be shown from the Bible to be a distinct Person. The Son is a distinct Person. Therefore, it is definitely the truth that the Holy Ghost is a distinct Person. He is not some “it.” He is not some “thing.” He is not some mysterious thing out there that does not have a personality. The Holy Spirit has a very definite and distinct personality, just like the Son, just like the Father, and the Bible teaches this in many places.
For instance, let us go to several places in Acts and read several verses. In Acts 8:29, the historical situation here is familiar. This is about the Ethiopian eunuch, and we read in Acts 8:29:
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
The Spirit said this, not the Father, not Jesus, the Spirit.
Turn to Acts 10:19-20:
While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.
The Spirit sent those men.
Let us go to Acts 13:2:
As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost…
Do not be confused with the word “ghost.” It is the same word as “spirit.” It is pneuma. This is the same word in the Strong’s Concordance. When the world talks about ghosts today, they are referring to the spirit of a dead person that they think is in a house or roaming near. This identification between ghost and spirit comes from the Bible. In one verse, God may be called the Holy Spirit. In another verse, He might be called the Holy Ghost. It is basically a different Old English word for the word “spirit.”
Acts 13:2:
As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
This is the Holy Ghost directly speaking and instructing Barnabas and Saul to begin their missionary activities.
In Acts 16:6-10, it says:
Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
This is all the direction of the Holy Spirit telling them where not to go and directing them where they should go. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter. He is the guide of the people of God. He is your guide and my guide on a daily basis. This is who leads us. This is who guides us, step-by-step, in this world. The Holy Spirit is the One who indwells the child of God and applies the Word of God to the hearts of God’s people.
Actually, as far as salvation, let us go to John 3:5-6, where it says:
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So the Holy Spirit is key. He is key. He has always been key. He has always been instrumental in God’s whole salvation plan. Of course, every Person of the Godhead is key and instrumental in God’s saving plan, but the Holy Spirit has kind of fallen into the background to where we look on Him as someone who points to the Lord Jesus Christ. But now in these last days, in these last few years, the Holy Spirit is actually going to take center stage. He is going to come to the forefront. He is going to be the One who is responsible for opening up the Scriptures so that God’s people will understand the finished covenant. We are going to know this new information coming forth from the Bible that has to do with the timing of the end, the nature of the end, the end of the Church Age, and this information about the resurrection and eternal judgment.
We have said this before and it is the truth. If someone does not like what is coming forth, if they do not like this information, and a lot of people are getting upset and have gotten upset about the end of the Church Age or they are upset about this new revelation that there is no resurrection, at least not as far as they understand one to be, that there is no eternal damnation where someone would be suffering in Hell forever and ever in the pit, consciously suffering. then really, they have a problem but not with an individual or with a person, with a fellow human being, or with a bunch of people. They have a problem with the Holy Ghost. Actually, this is very clear.
For instance, let us go to Mark 13:11:
But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
This is the Holy Spirit. There are a lot of things that are interesting about this verse. For one, it is in Mark 13 and Mark 13 is one of the chapters that deals with the Great Tribulation and the end of the world. It is a parallel chapter to Matthew 24 and Luke 21. Another thing is that God says here, “take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate…in that hour.” And when we search out this word “hour,” we find that Revelation 14 speaks of the “hour of His judgment.” Revelation 17 and 18 speaks of the “hour” when Babylon is being destroyed.
As we search out this word “hour,” it has to do with the full Great Tribulation period. This is why in Revelation 8:1, where it says, “there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour,” it is pointing to the first part of the Great Tribulation when God was not saving people, or at least virtually not saving as many people in the world because the judgment process had begun and judgment had begun at the house of God. This began the “hour” of Great Tribulation.
So Mark 13, which definitely deals with this subject, is right there in the same context that we would read, if we kept reading on, the same thing as Matthew 24, and we read in Mark 13:11:
…neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour…
Why would God say this? The Bible tells us, “Study to show thyself approved.” “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them.” “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you.”
These things are true. We are never to stop reading and studying the Bible, but “neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour” because “in that hour” the information has been “sealed.” The information is a closed book. You can study all of the end-time passages that you want, or other bits of information, and you are not going to know, you are not going to find out, you are not going to understand the end-time truths that God has sealed up till we get to “that hour.” Once we get to “that hour,” God says:
…but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye:…
So this is our command. Do I tell people about the end of the Church Age? “That speak ye.” Do I tell people about the five-month period, May 21st to October 21st? “That speak ye.” If we can show that something is coming from Scripture, coming forth from the Bible, we are commanded to declare it. We are commanded to speak it. We do not have a choice. If we are a true child of God, we can not say, “No, I am uncomfortable with this and I know that people get offended by this so I think that I will just keep telling them and warning them about salvation.” Then you are not bringing the whole truth. You are not bringing the whole counsel of God at that point.
Whatever the Holy Ghost, as it says here in Mark 13:11:
…but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye:…
This is God’s commandment.
…for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
This could be a dangerous phrase if people were to take it wrongly, but we have already gone over this. The Holy Spirit is not going to “speak” in the same way that He moved prophets of old, but He is going to “speak” in a different way: through the Scriptures.
Let us go to Matthew 10, and I am going to read a passage here beginning in verse 16. We read in Matthew 10:16-26:
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
You see, this is in a very interesting context because this comes in the book of Matthew, but much earlier than Matthew 24, and we are reading here an example of when they called Jesus “Beelzebub.” Remember that in Mark 3, it was the leaders of Israel, the Jews, who said, “He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth He out devils.” They were saying that this was how He did it, not through any power of God but through the power of the devil. Then Jesus warned about the sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. He warned about this.
So here we have God telling us that in “that hour,” it will not really be you who speaks, even though, of course, God is going to use men. He is going to use people. He has to because the Bible is closed and He has always worked through His people anyway. So He is going to use people, in no way comparable to men of old who were such diligent and brilliant students of Scripture, men who dedicated their lives to reading the Bible in its original languages and so forth. No, this will not even be necessary. He is going to use some of the common people, some of the everyday people, and He is going to simply reveal to them, first the right mechanics and methodology of studying the Bible. That is absolutely necessary. You have to know how to read the Bible in order to come to truth.
So God is going to give us the necessary instructions, just as when you are given the instruction manual for something that has been made… here is how you do it; here is what you follow. “Comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” anyone can understand that. We know that the Bible is a spiritual Book. We compare Scripture with Scripture, and then we make sure that our conclusions fit and harmonize together like the pieces of a puzzle. At that point, you will come to truth. Remember that this passage in 1 Corinthians 2 tells us that when we do this, “the Holy Ghost teacheth.” This is how the Holy Ghost teaches. This is how the Holy Ghost “speaks” to the world. After God’s people have studied and seen that we are saved by the faith of Christ, then they share this information. This is really the Holy Ghost teaching and “speaking” this information.
So here in Matthew 10:20, God is saying that it is not us who will speak:
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
This is because God is in charge of this whole thing, the whole plan, the whole operation, and He is going to cause us to speak. He puts this in the context of when Christ was called Beelzebub and was accused of being of the devil, and He says in Matthew 10:24-25:
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
So if they said this about the Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, the Word made flesh who dwelt amongst them even though they saw all of His great miracles, how much more will they speak evil of simple messengers, of simple humble individuals who are commissioned to bring the Gospel to the world? This is one point, but it is also important that the verse following this mention of Beelzebub in Matthew 10:26 speaks of:
…there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
This ties in with the whole idea of sealing up the Scriptures till the time of the end. We think that this is what it is saying here because of the mention of Beelzebub, but we can not really lock that in with this passage; however, if we go over to Luke 12 where I will read several verses, beginning in verse 2 which is a very similar verse to the one that we just read. Luke 12:2-12 says:
For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: but he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
There we hear mention of the sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost in connection with what God is going to reveal and what the Holy Ghost is going to speak or teach “in the same hour.” This is a shocking thing; this is a shocking truth.
I actually can relate to this a little bit because I remember back in 2001 when I first heard about the end of the Church Age and I did not get it. I did not get it. I was at a Bible conference in Tuscarora. I did not see it for the whole week. I remember going back to the room and searching the Bible, trying to find verses that would prove that it was not so.
We had just begun a church. I had just been commissioned as pastor. I liked that idea. I did. I liked that idea. I remember that we were listening to Mr. Camping, and Gary from Buffalo was sitting in front of me in the Tuscarora conference center. After Mr. Camping made a point about the Church Age being over and all churches and congregations being finished, Gary turned around to me with a big smile and said, “Sorry, Chris.” He said this because he knew. We had actually gone up to Buffalo and we were thinking about starting a church there. So I did not like it at all.
Finally, though, by God’s grace, I thought, “I will study it.” So when we came back, we started really looking into it. Within a few weeks, we had the question answered just by reading through the book of Jeremiah and seeing the references to God forsaking them. By God’s grace also, just knowing that God has historical parables that apply to the churches—that really helped.
So I can understand this. We get upset; we really get upset when we hear something that we have never heard before. It just seems like it came out of the blue. Wow! It is a shock and it affects us. It really affects us, so there can be a big struggle.
But there are others, and we can only pray that God will still have mercy and grace on them, but others get into the mindset to study to show that it is not so. Then they kind of get hardened and they start thinking, “Well, this can not be of God.” And they start making accusations, “This is heresy. This does not fit with the traditions of the church at all.” This is really what they are saying, “It does not fit with the confessions and the creeds, and it does not fit with what my church believes. And if it is heresy, then it must be of Satan. It must be of the devil.”
You see, what they are doing is exactly what the Jews did at the time when God was making a big change. When He was switching from the Old Testament congregation of Israel to the New Testament churches and congregations, they refused to believe. They thought that if anyone was having devils cast out, it was only through the prince of the devils. They were actually denying the Person of God as He was standing right in their midst. So they committed the sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost where there would never be forgiveness for anyone in that church of Israel again—never—unless someone came out of that church, like the Apostle Paul who was a blasphemer. Paul was hailing men and women to prison and he was helping in their deaths. He blasphemed God.
So God still could have mercy on an individual who was in the church of Israel, or any individual, but they lost the Gospel. They lost the saving power of the Word of God because they stayed right in their own system, their sacrificial system, their circumcision. They kept all of these things, as much as they could, of the Law of Moses, and God forsook them. Never, ever, into eternity, has there been anyone saved out of the synagogue system of Israel up until today, and this will continue until the end of the world. Has anyone been saved sitting in a synagogue since then? “Never forgiveness.”
So we are coming to this time of finishing the covenant, of opening up the Scriptures, of the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is the second outpouring. He was poured out on the day of Pentecost and God says that He will “set His hand again the second time.” There is going to be a great work of salvation where a “great multitude” will come in. And at this time, we find history repeating itself.
“In that hour,” when the Holy Ghost is taking full responsibility, full accountability for what will be said in this time of the Great Tribulation, people are saying, “This is of Satan. It is heresy. It is of the devil.” They refuse to accept these Scriptures where the Word is harmonizing with many Scriptures from the Bible. Charges are flying; accusations are flying all over the place. So this is why God is putting these two together: “in that hour” and mentioning blaspheming the Holy Ghost.
At this point, let us go back to the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament. It is Habakkuk, Zephaniah…if that helps. It is after Nahum. I am going to read Habakkuk 2:2-4, where it says:
And JEHOVAH answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
I have a quote from Loraine Boettner. This is a man who actually was a very good Reformed theologian. He wrote a theology book and he said, “Some people, because they are very thoughtless, speak of the Holy Spirit as ‘it,’ when a little reflection would show that the proper term is ‘He’ or ‘Him.’” And we saw this earlier as we looked at several Scriptures that pointed out that the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is a Person. He is a Person. He is the third Person of the Trinity.
Hebrew grammar is similar to our English with personal pronouns, such as “he,” “she,” or “it.” It depends upon the context as to whether it is “he,” or “she,” or “it.” For instance, I saw a house today and it was beautiful. We use “it” because we were not referring to a person. Or I saw my wife today and she was beautiful. We use “she” because she is a person. (I said the right thing, did I not?) This is how God uses pronouns. It is in the same way that we use pronouns.
So Habakkuk 2:3 says:
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Is this speaking of the vision? They did not know that, actually, this is speaking of the Holy Spirit.
Habakkuk 2 is an interesting chapter because I have come here before to prove the faith of Christ, because it says in Habakkuk 2:4:
…the just shall live by his faith.
“The just shall live by His faith,” rather than our own faith. And this is quoted in Hebrews 10:38, where we read:
Now the just shall live by faith:…
But it leaves out the word “His.” And some people go to this verse and read, “The just shall live by faith,” and believe that we have to have faith in Christ. This is a verse that some people might go to to try to show that you have to believe and accept Him. But then you go to Habakkuk where this is quoted from, and this is one of the reasons that I go back to this passage a lot, and it says, “The just shall live by His faith.” We are not justified by our own faith, but by the “faith of Christ,” according to Galatians 2:16.
It is kind of the reverse in this situation. Habakkuk 2:3 needs a little bit more clarity, and look at the previous verse in Hebrews 10:37. This is a quote also from that same passage in Habakkuk. It says in Hebrews 10:37:
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
“He,” so let us go back to Habakkuk 2:3, where we read:
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Then it goes into the next verse which is also quoted in Hebrews.
So just as Habakkuk sheds light on Hebrews, that it is not man’s faith but Christ’s faith, so Hebrews sheds light back on Habakkuk, that “it” is not an impersonal thing. “It” is a Person who is going to come. “He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” This is the Holy Spirit, because when we get into the time of the end, the time of the Great Tribulation, after the 2300-day period, He is going to “speak.” He is going to give us information in this hour that He takes full responsibility for. So God’s people will hear the truth from the Holy Spirit.
Let us just tie in two more verses and then we will close, and I think that we might follow this up with studying a little bit further on the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. But let us go to 1 Corinthians 13:9, where we read:
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
This has been the whole history of the world, up until today, up until the last few years. We had incomplete information. The first covenant, the Old Testament; the second covenant, the New Testament, but not finished; now it is going to be finished in these days.
So we knew “in part,” and then we read in 1 Corinthians 13:10:
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
The Holy Spirit, when He will come. He will come, Habakkuk tells us.
Now let us go to John 16 and this will be the last verse. We read in John 16:13:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
The Holy Spirit, when He is come. He came twice. There was an outpouring in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, but there is a second outpouring. This is what John 16:13 is looking at: our day “when He, the Spirit of truth, is come.” We can know this because who has been guided into all truth in the past? It is only presently that the Scriptures are opening up. And He is going to lead us into “all truth.” We are not going to understand the Trinity, but we can understand that there is a Trinity. There are many other things that we will not understand. We may not understand the depths of what they mean, but we will understand the doctrine. We can understand that.
Whatever God has measured out for us to know, for us to learn before the world ends, whatever is in that cup of knowledge that God wants to give to us, we are going to know it completely and totally. The great thing is, and this is a humble thing but also a wonderful thing because we do not have to worry about our own limitations, the great thing is that the Holy Spirit, God, gets all of the glory. “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory,” and this is what is happening now as the Word of God is being glorified like never before and the Holy Spirit is the One who is behind it all.