• When we talk about God the Father, we can understand the concept of a Father,
• When we talk about God the Son, again we can understand the concept of a Son,
• When we talk about the God the Holy Ghost we have a hard time understanding the concept of Someone we can not see.
I have asked the Lord to help me in this sermon to help each one here today to have a biblical understanding view of WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT!
My fear in preaching this sermon is that we hear the words of the Holy Spirit so much that what I am preaching from God’s Word is not going to penetrate your heart.
Before we get into the heart of this sermon on the Holy Spirit we need to deal with two mis-understandings concerning the Holy Spirit in the King James version.
Now I am a King James preacher. I believe it is the best translation that a preacher can preach from.
However, I am not like some of these KJV preachers ONLY that believe it is the ONLY TRANSLATION and if you preach from any other translation you are going to die and go to hell.
1) One of the problem of the kjv is a grammar problem.
2) The other one is bad impression that is given
(1) For example in the KJV we read in , Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Notice, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a “It”.
ASV translates Romans 8-16 The Spirit HIMSELF bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
I agree the HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT AN “IT” the Holy Spirit is a “HIM”.
Illus: Now I agree in this transgender generation there is a lot of “It’s out there but the Holy Spirit is not an “It”.
He’s not an “IT”, but a person of the Godhead, and He is in every believer.
There is another thing we need to consider as we deal with the Holy Spirit concerning the King James version that deals with a bad impression.
(2) In Ephesians 5:18, we are instructed, And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.
We have two commands from God in this verse, such as:
(1) BE NOT DRUNK WITH WINE
(2) BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
We are told not to drink wine and then the KJV Bible tells us not to drink in EXCESS.
According to the King James translation it gives the impression it is all right to drink wine but do not drink it in excess.
Now if you believe that is true, you have to explain other verses of scriptures that teach drinking wine is sinful. Such as: Proverbs 20:1, Isaiah 5:22, Isaiah 5:11, Ephesians 5:6, and Numbers 6:3. There is over seventy-five verses of scriptures that deals with the drinking of alcoholic beverage.
But if there was not one scripture in the Bible that forbids drinking, common sense tells us of the damage it has done:
• To people’s health
• To robbing them of their wealth
• To destroying their reputation
• To destroying their home
• To destroying their careers
That is why many of the seventy-five scriptures concerning drinking starts off with “WOE” UNTO THEM WHO DRINK!
Notice these words again that needs to be dealt with in kjv, And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.
Let’s look at several more translations to understand Ephesians 5:18
• Ephesians 5:18, NLT (New Living Translation: "Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit."
• Ephesians 5:18, CSB (Christians Standard Bible): "And don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit."
Illus: What some say who drink they say, “My doctor tells me it is alright to drink”.
Well, all that means is that your doctor probably drinks does not know what the Bible teaches about drinking and you need to find you another doctor.
What Paul was telling the Ephesian christians, DO NOT GET DRUNK ON WINE, BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT AND GET DRUNK ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Some years ago hearing Dr. J. Vernon McGee gave a commencement address at Dallas Theological Seminary.
He was then in his early 80s and near the end of a long and fruitful ministry.
Of course, he was addressing young preachers.
During this commencement address he said that if he were starting his ministry over again, he would give much more attention to the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.
• He went on to say, He would preach on the Spirit more frequently.
• He also said he would attempt to lead people to depend on HIS power every day.
This great man of God was admitting something every preacher is guilty of, that is, we do not preach enough on the Holy Spirit.
Acts 19 records the story of Paul’s first visit to Ephesus where he met some disciples of John the Baptist.
When Paul asked if they had received the Holy Spirit when they believed, they replied with total honesty in verse 2, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
In today’s church most of us would be hard pressed to pass a mid-term exam on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Some churches preaches on the Holy Spirit a lot but they twist the scripture to fit their erroneous teachings.
Look at the command of God in this verse, BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.
I.HOW CAN I BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
It is absolutely amazing the folks in our church that claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Suppose someone asked you, “Are you filled with the Spirit?” What would you tell them.
In order to understand if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you would first need to know what is the definition of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
According to that definition of being filled with the scriptures a lot of folks who say they are filled with the Spirit are not filled with the Holy Spirit.
The definition of being filled with the Holy Spirit simply mean you are HOLY SPIRIT CONTROL AT ALL TIMES.
The reason that Paul is using wine and the Holy Spirit together is because:
(1) Wine controls our behavior.
(2) Holy spirit controls our behavior.
The filling of the Holy Spirit produces a change in behavior.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger was with a christian man when this man met an old friend that he knew.
Dr. Belger patiently waited for these two men to carry on a brief conversation.
He could hear the conversation between these two men came up about a man who both of them knew.
The christian man said ”When I see him I am going to beat him to a pulp.” (whatever that means, but it doesn’t’s sound good!).
But after he told this man what he was going to do to this man he invited him to church.
Now I use this example because this man if he was asked if he was a Spirit filled christian might say he was a Spirit filled christian. But he certainly did not talk like a Spirit filled man.
But his life is like so many who claim to be filled that do not fit the definition of being Spirit filled.
HOW CAN I KNOW I AM FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
The evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit the Bible tells us in Acts 2:1-8, But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
How do we know we are filled with the Holy Spirit?
Notice what the scriptures tells us, YE SHALL RECEIVE…YE SHALL BE WITNESSES.
That is, if you are not witnessing for Christ by …
(1) By Christian lifestyle
(2) By Speech
You are not filled with the Holy Spirit according to the Bible definition.
With that we turn to our text—Ephesians 5:18 where we are COMMANDED BY GOD TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Notice TWO things…
(1)This is a command.
In the Greek language this a verb in the imperative mode.
This means the filling of the Spirit isn’t an optional part of the Christian life. THIS IS A COMMAND!!!
Every Christian is to be filled with the Spirit all of the time. If you aren’t, you are DISOBEYHING THE COMMAND OF GOD.
Also, notice this COMMAND…
2. It is in the present tense.
This insight is particularly helpful because the Greek present tense has the idea of continual action.
That is, we are not to be filled with the Holy Spirit on just Sunday but every day of the week.
Illus: It’s what happens when you tell your children to go out and rake the leaves. They go outside and rake for a few minutes and then come back in.
• When you check it, you see that most of the leaves haven’t been touched.
• So you say, “Why didn’t you rake the leaves?”
• “I did.”
• “Why didn’t you rake all the leaves?”
• “You didn’t tell me to.”
• What do you do?
You tell them, “Go back outside and rake, rake, rake and keep on raking until all the leaves are raked.”
That is the Greek present tense that has the idea of continual action.
You keep on doing something. It’s not a one-time event.
We need to be filled again and again,
• We could legitimately translate this verse this way: “Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.”
• Wuest translates it as “Be constantly controlled by the Spirit.”
• The Amplified Bible catches the present tense this way: “But ever be filled and stimulated with the (Holy) Spirit.”
The filling of the Spirit is supposed to be the normal way of life for the Christian.
But it is not only in present tense…
3. It is in the passive voice.
In the Greek as in English commands can be either active or passive.
However, we’re much more use to the active commands.
Let me give you a illustration, I say “Go to the store and pick up some milk, please.” That’s an active command.
But Ephesians 5:18 it is in the passive voice.
He doesn’t say:
1) “Fill yourself with the Spirit”
2) But rather “Be filled with the Spirit.”
This is the key to everything. To be “be filled” means that the filling of the Spirit is a work of God, not man.
I draw two important implications from this truth:
1. The Holy Spirit is ready and willing to fill us at any moment.
2. We must make ourselves available to him.
Let me give you a new WORD perhaps you have never heard “fillability.”
Illus: It’s what happens when WE HAD FULL-SERVICE gas station and we would say to the attendant “Fill ‘er up.”
The person pumping the gas knows that the statement “Fill ‘er up” means two things:
1) I’m empty, and
2) I want my car to be filled with gas.
That’s fillability.
To have fillability it requires NEED plus desire.
When your need to be filled with the Spirit becomes your great desire, you will be filled. Over and over again.
We have looked at HOW I CAN BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, but now let us look at…
II. HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT AFFECTS OUR LIFE.
Let’s wrap up this message by pointing out three issues we need to think about relating to the filling of the Holy Spirit.
A.What happens when the Holy Spirit CONTROLS US?
Let’s go back to the contrast between wine and the Spirit.
Drunken and Spirit-filled people have one thing in common. They both are controlled people.
Their lives and their behavior are radically changed by that which fills them.
For example:
• If a man is filled with anger, then anger controls his life.
• If a man is filled with greed, then greed dominates his life.
• If a man is filled with love, then love influences all he does.
• If a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit controls him.
B. It is CONTROL BY CONSENT.
Illus: We Christians are to quick to jump out of bed each morning. Before I feet hit the floor we need to be praying God I want your Holy Spirit to control me through out the day.
Illus: God is not like our government that is trying to force us to get rid of our nice gasoline driven vehicle by the year 2035 to buy these sixty thousand dollar electric golf carts.
God give us a choice each day to be…
• HOLY SPIRIT CONTROL
• HUMAN CONTROL.
When the Holy Spirit fills you, he will have the controlling interest in your life. It is “control by consent.”
• Being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean I have more of the Spirit, it means the Spirit has more of me.
• It doesn’t happen all at once any more than you get drunk all at once.
• Being filled with the Spirit happens as you continually choose to live under his influence.
• I believe that every Christian is filled with the Spirit from the moment of the new birth.
Since the Holy Spirit indwells in us from the moment we are saved, it only makes sense that new believers are filled with that same Spirit, That means the central issue is one of cooperation. Am I going to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and let him control me or I am going to keep on trying to do things my own way?
So many of us struggle at precisely this point. We fight the Lord because we want to do things our way.
And God says, “Okay, we can do it your way for a while, but it’s not going to work.”
Illus: In that sense, if we won’t cooperate with God, he’ll cooperate with us by letting us do things in our own strength and by our own will. But then we fail and cry out to the Lord and he says, “Are you willing to cooperate with me now?”
C. The issue of Contact
Finally, there is the issue of contact.
Illus: In one of his books F. B. Meyer explained the Spirit’s filling this way.
He said that most people think of the Spirit as a substance to fill us, like gas filling up a tank. So we run out of the Spirit and God fills us again.
Illus: But that’s not the best image to use.
• Think about the elevated trains that you find in many large cities.
• Those trains run on three rails—two for the wheels and one for the electricity.
• The electricity is always there, but the train doesn’t move unless there is contact with the third rail. Touch that rail and the train moves; pull away from that rail and it stops.
The third rail is like the Holy Spirit. His power is always available—and unlike your local utility, there’s never a power shortage and never a brownout.
But sometimes we live out of contact with his power. When that happens, our lives simply stop working the way God intended.
D. Our Greatest Need
Illus: Here is my final definition of the filling of the Spirit: It is that state in which the Holy Spirit is free to do all that he came into my life to do.
The filling of the Spirit is not primarily an emotional experience, and it’s certainly not reserved for a few super-Christians. It’s nothing more than the normal Christian life when the Holy Spirit is in control. That is why the command is in the present tense:
We are continually to be controlled by the Spirit, cooperating with the Spirit, and in contact with the Spirit.
Illus: When the New Testament church was filled with the Holy Spirit they turned the world upside down with the gospel of Christ.
This is why I told you at the beginning of this sermon I ask the Lord to help me preach this sermon so that everyone here will get a biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
• So that we can say I believe in the Holy Spirit.
• But that the Holy Spirit will control our lives.
So that we can turn the world upside down with the gospel.
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT GOD’S CHURCH IS CONTROLLED BY CHRISTIANS WHO ARE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
We have churches today that are practically empty when the world is filled with lost people.
This lost world that is full of lost people will never be reached for Christ until the church is filled with christians that are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Remember I told you at the beginning of this sermon my fear is that many of you will hear what has been preached but it will go in one ear and out of the other.
I certainly hope this is not the case. If this is true…It will mean that some will die and go to a devil’s hell because you have not taken the Word of God serious of how important it is that we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion:
I close with this thought. God is ready, willing and able to fill you right now. He’s more willing to fill you than you are to be filled.
If for some reason you aren’t filled with the Holy Spirit, it’s not because of God’s reluctance. We do not have to beg God to do what he has already promised to do.
Rather, he is begging us to make the way clear so he can do what he promised to do!
During the sermon on this topic,
I told you a jar that is already filled can not be filled.
I told you a jar with the lid so tight that it can not be filled.
We need two things—emptiness and openness.
The filling of the Spirit is really as simple as that.
Illus: Two men who had very different priorities were: Ray Krock & David Livingstone.
Ray Krock was the founder of McDonald’s (as we know it),
1) He was once asked by a reporter what he believed in.
2) “I believe in God, my family and McDonald’s,” he said.
3) Then he added, “When I get to the office, I reverse the order.
David Livingstone
1) Was buried in Westminster Abbey England in 1874.
2) But one part of him was missing!
3) His heart was buried in the Africa he loved.
4) It was buried at the foot of a tall tree in a small African village.
5) The natives dug a hole and placed in it the heart of this man who they loved and respected.
These two men with very different priorities in life:
• One determined to make money!
• One determined to glorify Christ and make Christ known!
• One was filled with the Holy Spirit Everyday!!!
Which one are you like?
In this sermon on the Holy Spirit we have looked at:
I. HOW CAN I BE FILLED WITH HOLY SPIRIT
II. HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT AFFECTS OUR LIFE
