The Holy Spirit (Part 4)

I thank Lee for taking over in my absence last week and Tom taking over Sunday and I know you've heard some good teaching.

! Tonight we're going to be continuing our study of the Holy Spirit and we'll begin this particular aspect of the Holy Spirit. Now, the doctrine, if you want to call it, I think it would be perfectly fine to call it the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

The technical term is pneumatology. You can jot that down. Pneumatology. If you remember pneumonia, we mentioned pneumonia here tonight, but pneumatology. The fullness of the Holy Spirit or we might think of it in these terms, the filling of the Holy Spirit.

We've spent, I don't know, probably two Wednesdays, maybe three, studying the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And you might remember that one juncture in the study.

I mentioned that one of the confusions that some people have, especially our Pentecostal friends, is that they equate the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit, believing those to be the same thing.

And so, the terminology, when you find it in the Bible where it mentions the baptism, and then other places you see it mentioned the filling or fullness, they would say that's just two different ways of saying and speaking of the same thing.

But they're not the same thing. Baptism is a one-time event that takes place at salvation, not going to be repeated again. It is there at salvation, at regeneration, that we are immersed in Christ.

That's another way of saying we're baptized, immersed in the Holy Spirit. And so, that's a one-time event. The filling of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is something that takes place numerous times and throughout our lives as believers.

And so, one baptism, many fillings. And so, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Let's begin with some kind of some introductory observations.

Number one, the key distinction between the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit. And I've already kind of introduced this a little bit, but we'll look at this in more detail at this point.

The baptism of the Spirit takes place at the time of salvation. I just said that a while ago, didn't I? I have a tendency to do that, especially when I use outlines like this.

I'll let the cat out of the bag before we get there. But that's okay. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, takes place at the time of salvation and places the Christian into the body of Christ.

Being filled with the Spirit produces in the believer effective Christian living. And that's a broad kind of designation, Christian living.

Yet, to be effective in our Christian lives as the Holy Spirit, is the filling of the Holy Spirit and the continual filling of the Holy Spirit that produces the Christian life.

Our walk as Christians, as we live out the life of Christ in our lives. It's the Holy Spirit who's responsible for that. It's the filling of the Holy Spirit that defines that.

When you were saved, you were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Now, did you feel that? Not likely. Though, you know, obviously, when a person is converted, saved, born again, the event, it is an event, does carry along with it an emotion.

I mean, there is emotion as a result. I would think that a person could be saved and not feel anything about it. And we're not saying that feeling is necessarily the proof positive of salvation.

Conversion, a lot of people feel things that never really happen. And we can have emotions that are false. But, when you're born again, there will be some kind of emotion produced.

Now, it's not going to be the same for all of us, obviously. We're all emotional beings, but we don't all react the same emotionally, do we? Somebody asked me, in fact, several have asked me here tonight.

When I did the wedding, married my son to his now wife, did I have some problems emotionally? And this time I didn't.

I didn't have any. I felt good about it. I was excited about it. And it was good to look at my son and say to my son, Chris, my son, and Tony, my soon-to-be daughter-in-law, do you take, you know, I enjoyed doing that.

But I didn't have any tears. Now, when Tim was married and I did that wedding as well, and I barely made it through it, you know.

And I don't know what the difference is, but, you know, we're just different. And not only do we react differently to different things throughout our lives, but one person reacts one way, another person reacts another way.

So, emotions are not a good gauge or good proof or barometer. But, when you're saved, you were dwelt by the Holy Spirit. And as a result, we probably did experience some emotion.

And this one time in dwelling is now the basis for day-to-day continuous fillings of the Holy Spirit. And I cited Romans 8, 9, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

Indeed, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Now, we've used that passage before. Let me get this thing out of here.

I saw Tom trying to look beside it, under it. We mentioned back when we were talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that, you know, there are those who believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a subsequent event to salvation.

Well, let's see. Here, hold on. The reason I've got to put this up here is because, as you can see, the laptop is just a little bit too heavy for this music stand, and so it has a tendency to go down.

But, anyway, with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there are those who believe that it's a subsequent event, that it happens later, after salvation. And yet, the Bible clearly says here that if you don't have the Spirit, you're not his.

You're not even saved. All right? So, let's move on from there to key passages of Scripture which deal with the filling of the Holy Spirit.

There's Ephesians 5.18. It's a prime passage, and we'll get back to that a little bit later. In fact, we'll refer to Ephesians 5 a number of times in our study of the fullness of the Holy Spirit because that passage is all about the fullness, not the baptism, but the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

And not just 5.18, but all those verses that come after. That deal with the body of Christ, deal with worship, deal with family, deal with the marriage relationship. All of that is attached to the filling of the Holy Spirit.

But here's this famous passage, and I put it up here in the King James because a lot of us have, well, we recognize it probably better in the King James. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

All right? There's a passage. Now, you know, this isn't a proof text. If you want to use this text to make an argument for drinking alcoholic beverages, it's not about that.

The focus is the Holy Spirit. And we could talk about the comparisons that are made there, but let me hold off on that one for a little while. The other passage would be Acts 2, verse 4.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

There's another key passage that deals with the filling of the Holy Spirit. Not baptism, though in this case, by the way, the baptism and filling were simultaneous events.

They were baptized on the Spirit and filled at the same time. And that's perfectly fine. In fact, to some degree, we're all filled at the time when we're saved as well.

But the filling is an event or events that will take place a number of times afterward. The other passage would be Galatians 5, 16. I say then, walk or live, would be the idea there, in the Spirit, in the Holy Spirit.

And you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Now you're thinking, I don't see anything about the filling there. But as we go along, we're going to see that that really is the concept behind the filling of the Spirit.

Walking, living in the Spirit, under the control of the Spirit. That's why Galatians 5, 16 is a key passage. 1 Corinthians 2, 14.

In fact, I don't think... Yeah. Let me... That passage is too long to put up here. In fact, I don't know that I even want to attempt to read it all.

I'm certainly not going to. But I might. Let's do it. Thank you. 1 Corinthians 2, 14. Paul says, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?

But we have the mind of Christ. But I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk, and not with solid food. For until now, you were not able to receive it. And even now, you are still not able, for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, divisions among you, are you not carnal, and behaving like mere men?

And, you know, here he's dealing with, obviously, the church at Corinth that is struggling, and one of their main struggles is a yieldedness to the control of the Holy Spirit.

And so they're not living according to the power and control of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit, but they're living according to the flesh. They're carnal.

And so, and he cites some of the evidences of that in the church. Alright, so there's another key passage that deals with the filling of the Holy Spirit. Luke 4, 1, then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

Now, let me ask you something. Was Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit? because he didn't have the Holy Spirit? Well, I guess we could, you know, debate about this.

Jesus is God the Son. Holy Spirit's God the Holy Spirit. How could he be filled with the Holy Spirit? Because the point is that Jesus was guided.

He submitted to the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God. In a sense, submitted to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the parallel thought is in the very next phrase, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

And you know, of course, what happened after that as he was in the wilderness and being tempted. All right. Now, let me, let's take a closer look at Ephesians 5, 18 because that is, of these key passages, that is, I think you would agree, the most important one, the most significant one, in relation to the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Because here we have the command, be filled with the Holy Spirit. So, this is pretty important we understand what is being said here. So, it all hinges, of course, on this term, filled.

Actually, it's one Greek word, to be filled. It's all one word. All right. So, what do we know about it? The Greek word for filled, or again, to be filled, is plerao.

That's how you would pronounce it in the Greek. And it means to make full. And that makes sense, doesn't it? If it says be filled, then the word plerao means to make full.

But, the idea behind the word is better defined by this definition, to control, to, or in this sense, to be controlled by something.

Now you see why there's the comparison between being filled with alcohol to excess, because we know what happens then, don't we? If you drink too much alcoholic beverage, of course, no one in here knows about that, right?

Good. He totally backed us. But, and hopefully, you don't know anything about it. But maybe in the past sometime, you've, you know, know how this works, and you drink too much alcoholic beverage, and your body, your mind, is controlled by what you've been drinking, because you're full of it.

that is, to the point of being controlled by it. So that's why we have the comparison, don't be filled with wine, or be drunk with wine, where it's in excess, but be filled by the Holy Spirit.

And it's a perfect comparison, well not a perfect one, but a good one. And so, to be so filled with the Holy Spirit means that you are controlled, under the control of the Spirit of God.

So that's what the word plerao means, and it's used in a number of other places in Scripture. The idea is, then, that the Holy Spirit would have, come in, come in.

Probably some room right back over there. The idea is that the Holy Spirit would have free control of the believer's life, or, I think, better put, unhindered control.

Four important points concerning the verb to be filled. And, plerao, that's how you would translate it, so we don't have a number of words in the Greek text, just the one word, and it is translated to be filled.

And so here are four very important things to know about that verb. Now, I don't want to be too technical here, and sometimes, you know, preachers can be too technical with the grammar and with word studies.

Sometimes it doesn't matter, you know, what tense a verb is or mood a verb is or person, but sometimes it makes all the difference in the world, and that's why I would bring this up here.

The verb, plerao, is imperative in its mood. Every verb has mood, has mood, has tense, has voice.

In its mood, it's imperative. Now, you know what imperative means? It means command. And so, Paul is not making a suggestion here or he's not writing here in Ephesians 5, 18, saying, and saying to his readers, you know, it would be a good thing if he did this.

He's commanding it. It's very definite. It's imperative. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. So, that's first. We need to know that about the verb.

Second, it is in the present tense. Present tense. Every verb has tense. And it's present tense.

There are a host of other tenses of Greek verbs. I'm not going to get into that. But present tense means continuous. A continuous action. Literally, then, we can translate it, keep on being filled.

Day by day and moment by moment. If we understand anything about the meaning of Ephesians 5, 18, we need to understand this. It's not a one-time thing and that's all you need.

That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You've got all of God there is to get when you were saved because you're baptized in Him. But, He doesn't have all of you.

And so, this, that means, that's why the present tense is so important here and Paul wrote it just like that so that we would understand that this filling of the Holy Spirit is a continuous action.

It's keep on being filled. Keep on being filled day by day. Not just day by day but moment by moment. Third, or C, it is plural.

The verb is plural. Plural in person. And that means that this is for every believer. That's the idea by the plural.

It's for every believer not just certain, a certain number of select quote, super Christians. The Bible does not teach an elitism within the body of Christ.

There are not the haves and have-nots in the body of Christ when it comes to all the spiritual blessings and the power we need and the presence of the Holy Spirit. That's not taught in Scripture.

This being filled or the need to be filled and under the control of the Holy Spirit is for every believer. D, it is in the passive voice.

Alright, every verb has voice. I know these are technical but I think with a little bit of explanation I think you can see this is pretty important. The passive voice as opposed to an active voice means let the Holy Spirit fill you.

Let Him. This is passive. The action is done to yourself. You're allowing the Holy Spirit to fill you. That is to control you.

Our part is to yield to the control the filling of the Holy Spirit. Every day. Moment by moment. So it's passive.

So those are four things you need to see but let me add an E to this. In fact, I'm going to give you an F here in a minute. To sum this up, we are to be consciously.

It's not a subconscious thing or an unconscious thing. this is something we're very conscious about. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a conscious thing. That's part of our salvation.

It's part of the saving work of Christ in your life. It's not a conscious thing but the filling is conscious. We are to be consciously, continuously, knowingly, willingly yielded to the control of the Holy Spirit in glad obedience to the Lord.

That's a key, very key truth concerning the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This sums it all up. In Colossians 2.16, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.

By the way, walk is a present tense verb. Keep on walking in Him. Keep on walking. And when you stray, get back and walk with Him.

That's why this is a day by day. By the way, if there is a concept in the Bible that is more indicative of the filling of the Holy Spirit is this one.

This idea of walking in Him. Walking. Keep on walking in Him. Four important points concerning the verb. And I've got one other point under that.

You say, that's not four, that's six. Well, the four points had to do with the verb itself. Let me give you something, five conditions for being filled with the Holy Spirit by J. Oswald Sanders.

These all start with the letter A, by the way. I don't know, did I give those to you? You had to fill those in. I gave those to you already. Alright, so aspiration, that is, there must be a desire.

You need every day to desire the filling of the Holy Spirit in your life. Now, again, in case we're misunderstanding here, or there's a disconnect at all here, I'm talking about desiring some mystical experience.

I'm not talking about desiring some supernatural manifestation. I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about desiring the lordship of Christ in your life.

That would be another way of putting it. Desiring the control of God in your life, the way you think and speak, and how you react to things in your day, and how you decide, the decisions you make.

every aspect, the things you watch and read, and people you involve yourself with, and relationships you make. I guess we could just go on and on and on with a list that really would have no end.

Every aspect of your life, it ought to be your aspiration for everything in your life to be controlled by God, to be controlled by Him, and be directed by Him.

John 7, 37-39, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.

The Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. So, He's praying for something that we now know, and now have. and, so, I don't know if I'm going to, yeah, yeah, let me give you a little, short little outline of that passage from Adrian Rogers.

This is kind of a sideline from this. You'll have to jot this down, because I didn't put this in your notes. Adrian Rogers' outline of John 7, 37, the subjects of this passage.

Anyone who thirsts for God. Anyone. The filling of the Holy Spirit is available for all those who thirst for God, have a desire for God.

This is aspiration. So, the subjects, that's you, me. Not just preachers, not deacons, just deacons, or elders, or others who have called to some particular area of service in the ministry, not just for a select few that maybe they're more spiritual, just more spiritual than you.

All of us, all those who thirst for God, the source is God himself. He said, come to me. Not some religious experience, not getting in your car or airplane and traveling to some, quote, revival that's going on somewhere.

That's good to be a part of revival services. I mean, some so-called big movement of God, and I've got to get down there to get in on that.

You know, you don't have to just sit in a certain place in the sanctuary in Blessing Alley as they used to call it at Bellevue. You know, Dr. Rogers would preach and there'd be people sitting there.

So, somehow, there was a greater blessing for those who, you know, could be showered by, well, whatever. So, the subject's anyone who thirsts, the source of God.

He says, come to me. The secret, come. Come to me and drink. Drink.

Now, you know the metaphor here, thirsting, drinking. It's a metaphor of a spiritual experience, a spiritual commitment that you're coming to God and thirsting for Him.

Now, how do we do that? We do that through prayer, of course, but I would say prayer combined with God's Word. The kind of experience that we need, this filling, is not something that takes place extra biblical, the outside of Scripture.

It all comes through the Scripture, His Word, and our communion with Him and His Word, and our decision, decisive decision to obey His Word and live out His Word.

All right, so the subject's anyone who thirsts for God. The source of God Himself, come to me. The secret is come and drink. And the supply out of His heart, that is out of the inner being of God, will flow rivers of living water.

And, of course, the passage goes on to identify that as the Holy Spirit. All right, so we're looking at Oswald Sanders, J. Oswald Sanders, five conditions for being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The second one is acknowledgement. First aspiration, there must be a desire, acknowledgement, that is we need to acknowledge the need. I think part of our problem often is that we're pretty content.

We think we've got all we need. And we're just kind of rocking on in our lives. And, you know, and maybe even allow ourselves to drift into some feeling that we don't need anymore.

And we need to acknowledge the need. John 15, five, I'm the vine, you're the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. But without me, you can do nothing.

You can do Third, abandonment. Abandonment of the toleration of sin. Every one of us have a degree of toleration when it comes to sin.

Not just sin that's going on in the world. It's awfully easy. And if we would be really honest with ourselves and look back over our lives the last 10, 20 years, I think we would discover, or maybe more than 20, discover that we're more tolerant of sin than we once were.

Our culture is so changed and it's also awfully easy to just kind of get used to that. I'm not just talking about that, I'm talking about our own lives. We have a degree of toleration for sin in our own lives.

And the filling of the Holy Spirit requires that we abandon any toleration of sin in our lives.

Not just accept it, not accept it at all, not get used to it, not make allowances for, but to abandon it altogether.

1 John 1 9, that famous verse, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By the way, there's another present tense verb, confess.

Confess and keep on confessing. And also, let's define the word confess, though it's been defined a number of times, I hope you will remember that when we say confess, we're not just informing God, we're agreeing with it.

But all this, that's a perfect verse to describe the need to abandon, to not have any toleration for sin, to agree with God about our sin, and to take it to Him in prayer, and He's faithful and just to forgive us.

Then fourth, abdication. Abdication to enthrone God, really, I should include there, may have included this in your notes. is we need to deny self.

When it comes to abdication, it starts with a denial of self, self-rule, and a continual enthroning of Christ in our lives.

And Luke 9, 23, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. That's denying self-rule, and enthroning Christ and saying, Jesus, you have the full right to dictate everything in my life, every decision I make, every single thing.

Fifth, appropriate is the fifth word. Appropriate by faith the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And the idea here is ask for it.

Luke 11, 13, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give what? The Holy Spirit to those who ask it.

Now, again, the idea here is not give me something I don't have. I have the Holy Spirit, but He doesn't have me.

And so here's the idea, you know, ask for this feeling. I want the presence of the Holy Spirit, the controlling presence of the Holy Spirit of God in my life.

So that's why I would close with this, being filled with the Holy Spirit is God getting more of me, not me getting more of God. And we'll spend all of our lives as believers, our entire journey as believers, not only learning this principle, but experiencing the reality of this principle, that it is not getting more of God.

It is God getting more of me, and every day getting more of me. And hopefully in our maturity as believers, that's taking place.

Thank you.