Side 2, entitled, Your Bible Insists on a
Spirit-Filled Life.
Plus, the Catherine Kuhlman Concert Choir singing, If
My People.
What more is there to be said?
God's Word gives the answer.
Eyes closed for just this brief moment, when
there's so much at stake.
There's everything at stake.
And I pray, Heavenly Father, please, in your
tender mercy, in your great compassion, touch hearts,
there shall be a mighty spiritual outpouring.
We shall forget whether we're Catholic, whether we're
Protestant, whether we're Jew, whether we're Gentile.
We shall forget color, race, and creed.
We shall come back again and meet at
the foot of the cross.
We shall come back again to the Word
of God.
We've gone our separate ways.
We've lived in pleasure.
We've forgotten you.
No man, no nation can live contrary to
the Word of God, and get by with
it, and neither can we.
I pray again, give us a fresh baptism
of the love of God.
May we turn from our wicked ways, seek
thy face, come back again to your Word,
and your promise to heal our land.
Answer this simple prayer.
Amen.
We've been having a heart-to-heart talk
regarding the person of the Holy Spirit, and
how he relates to God the Father.
So we see that both in the Old
Testament and in the New Testament, the Holy
Spirit is the very Spirit of God.
And whenever he is spoken of as the
Spirit of God, in Genesis we read that
the Spirit of God moved upon the waters,
relating to the creation, that refers directly to
the Holy Spirit.
Whenever the Old Testament prophets spoke of the
Spirit of the Lord, or the Spirit of
God, it always referred to the Holy Spirit.
And so it is in the New Testament.
And I left you and I had a
little heart-to-heart talk with the 61st
chapter of Isaiah.
And it was the same Holy Spirit who
fills believers today.
If you have been immersed with the Holy
Spirit, if you've been filled with the Holy
Spirit, if you've been baptized with the Holy
Spirit, the one and the same experience, it
is the same Holy Spirit, the same Spirit
of God, of whom Isaiah speaks when he
said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto me.
What was he referring to?
He's referring to the anointing of the Holy
Spirit.
But let's see what David has to say.
You know, I love that 139th Psalm.
And yet, it was a long time before
I realized to whom David was referring when
he's talking about that Great Spirit.
The 7th, the 8th, the 9th verses.
I always thought that he was referring to
God, the mighty Creator.
But pause just a second.
Begin, if you will, please, with the 7th
verse of the 139th Psalm.
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
Thy Spirit.
The Spirit of God.
And the Spirit of God is a Holy
Spirit.
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art
there.
If I make my bed in hell, beholded,
thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me
and thy right hand shall hold me.
Let me repeat.
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
David was always very conscious of the Holy
Spirit.
I know.
There are those who are new in the
pedagogical experience feeling as though the Holy Spirit
is a new person, just recently having come
upon the scene.
A new personality.
A new experience.
And yet, if you and I were to
have a heart-to-heart talk, even now,
with David, regarding his experience with the Holy
Spirit, it would be similar to ours.
Let me pause a minute and make something
very clear.
When the Old Testament saints were filled with
the Holy Spirit, and not all were filled,
but whenever there were those who were filled
with the Spirit, it was always through the
sovereign act of God.
Today, when the believer is filled with the
Holy Spirit, it is a part of his
inheritance.
It is the gift that Jesus left for
his church.
It is not just a sovereign act of
God, in the sense that David was filled
with the Holy Spirit, and some of the
Old Testament saints were filled, and those who
work in the tabernacle, in the wilderness.
Moses was filled with the Holy Spirit.
There is no doubt about that.
And every worker who worked on the tabernacle
in the wilderness was filled with the Holy
Spirit.
It had to be a perfect work, carrying
out God's perfect plan.
And to get perfect work, and to carry
out God's will to perfection, they had to
be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Even the craftsmen were filled with the Holy
Spirit.
Don't you understand?
If that was necessary in the building of
the tabernacle in the wilderness, how much more
necessary it is that the believers in the
Body of Christ today be filled with the
Holy Spirit?
Don't you understand?
And let me say just now to that
pastor in that church, and I feel this
is vitally important, it is important that you
as a pastor, as a great leader, as
the shepherd of your flock, need to be
filled with the Holy Spirit.
It is not optional.
And as surely as you find it necessary
to be filled with the Holy Spirit, every
member on your board should be Spirit-filled.
Why?
I repeat, if God found it necessary that
not only Moses be filled with the Holy
Spirit, but even the craftsmen and those who
worked on the tabernacle in the wilderness had
to be filled with the Holy Spirit to
have perfect harmony, to have oneness in the
Spirit, and to obtain perfection and work according
to the will of God.
You see, that's one reason why there's so
much friction in the church today.
There are very few places of worship where
you find oneness in the Spirit.
On the surface, you may think as you
attend this Sunday morning service, oh, isn't this
lovely?
The church building is beautiful, perhaps the very
finest, perhaps the most modern.
The pews are very restful.
The atmosphere is great.
The sermon a must.
The personality above reproach.
And yet, unless there is oneness in the
Spirit, whether it's with the members of the
choir, the choir leader, the organist, the pianist,
members of the board, unless they are Spirit
-filled, sooner or later there'll be contention, there'll
be jealousy, there'll be friction, and sometimes it
becomes a tragedy.
Please hear me.
This is vitally important.
Vitally.
Again, I repeat, God's children need to be
filled with the Holy Spirit.
If ever there was a day when members
of this wonderful body of Christ needed to
be filled with the Holy Spirit, to have
the Spirit of the Holy God, a Holy
Spirit to guide us, to strengthen us, to
direct us, to reveal the truth to our
hearts, to stand against the wiles of the
enemy, to stand true to what we believe,
you can't do it in your own strength.
I don't care how strong you may be,
how good your intentions, you still cannot do
it in your own strength.
That's the reason Jesus gave the Holy Spirit.
Oh, David knew all about the Holy Spirit.
If he was to come now and complete
this heart-to-heart talk that I have
begun today, he could talk well regarding his
relationship and his fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was so important to him
that that was the reason that he looked
up and cried the greatest, the most perfect
cry that a man has ever cried.
There is no greater heartbreak in the world.
There is no more sincere prayer, and it's
more than a prayer, it's a cry.
And the cry from the heart of David,
as he looked up, it was more than
through blinding tears.
It came from every atom of his being
when he cried out, Take not thy Holy
Spirit from me.
You can take everything else.
You can take every earthly possession, you can
take anything, but take not thy Holy Spirit
from me.
And he continues in this 139th Psalm, Whether
shall I go from thy Spirit or whether
shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up to heaven, thou art
there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me
and thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover
me, even the night shall be light about
me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but
the night shineth as the day, and the
darkness and the light are both alike to
thee.
For thou hast possessed my reins.
Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
We see here, the Word of God relates
the Holy Spirit to God Almighty.
Oh, to me that's very Satan.
That's very Satan.
See something else, that sometimes we forget.
There's a reason why He's called Holy Spirit.
You see, we get so familiar sometimes with
things that are holy, we forget the sacredness
of things that are so sacred, more sacred
than our minds can comprehend.
Very glibly we use His name.
Very glibly I've heard of those in Pentecost
as we speak of the Holy Spirit.
We forget the Spirit of God is holy.
That's the reason He is wisely called the
Holy Spirit.
He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
God Almighty.
The revelation that God made of Himself, He
made through Jesus.
The revelation that He made regarding the holiness
of Himself, He has made through the Holy
Spirit.
See something.
You know, I am awed sometimes when I
realize not only how much the Old Testament
prophets knew regarding some of these deeper truths,
but I never cease to marvel the fact
that Paul was so well acquainted with some
of these things that are becoming a great
revelation to us.
Won't it be wonderful when we get home
to Glory and we all talk about these
spiritual truths.
There'll be the Old Testament saints.
There'll be Paul and John and Peter.
And we'll all have the knowledge of the
same person.
Even today, you know, I get acquainted with
some saint of God and I say to
that one as we converse regarding the deeper
things, do you know that too?
Why, I thought I was the only one
who knew that, you know.
Because it was a revelation the Holy Spirit
had probably given to me.
And I thought it was so wonderful that
I never dreamed He'd given the same revelation
to somebody else.
And then throughout all of eternity when we
talk to the saints of God through all
ages and we say, well, when did you
find that out?
When did He reveal that to your heart?
Paul, how did you know it?
And it is all revealed by the same
Spirit and none given with any private interpretation.
Here's Paul in the first chapter of Romans
talking about the very same thing that I'm
talking to you about now.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called it
to be an apostle separated unto the Gospel
of God.
Now that's what we need today.
If you would ask me what the pastor
needs more than anything else today it's the
very thing that Paul is talking about here.
Separated unto the Gospel of God.
And the hour has come when we have
everything else but this glorious separation.
Instead of separation we're having compromise.
We're acting just like the devil.
We're trying to mimic the devil.
We're trying to mimic the things the devil
does.
We throw in the beat.
You know, that's right.
Honestly, the way some saints of God act
and even some ministers act you would think
the devil was their master because they try
to mimic the things of the devil.
And we find a compromise there and a
compromise here.
And you can't tell one from the other.
But do you want to know what Paul
says here?
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to
be an apostle separated unto the Gospel of
God.
Right at the outset.
As a servant he's called unto a life
of separation.
In the world but not of the world.
Which he had promised afore by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus
Christ our Lord which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh and
declared to be the Son of God with
power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead and by whom
we have received grace and apostleship for obedience
to the faith among all nations for his
name.
Let me repeat it.
And declared to be the Son of God
with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead And who
is the spirit of holiness?
The Holy Spirit.
Watch something very closely.
The Holy Spirit cannot abide in a vessel
that is not clean.
There has got to be that separation.
That's the reason I do not care what
you profess.
I don't care what glorious experiences you may
have had.
I don't care how loudly or how long
you speak in an unknown tongue.
If there is not holy living there and
if your life does not bear the fruit
of the Spirit your body is not the
temple of the Holy Spirit.
For the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
God.
He is a spirit of holiness and cannot
dwell in an unclean vessel where there is
sin.
You cannot live a spiritual life and live
in adultery.
You cannot live a spiritual life and also
live in sin.
The two do not go together.
That concludes this message.
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you.
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