Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers
too.
This week we have Bruce Wilkinson with this
message, Walking in the Spirit.
As the president of Walk with the Bible
Ministries, I'm very convinced that the series we've
prepared is exactly the one I'm supposed to
give for you.
At a large seminary in our country recently
they gave the seniors who had studied four
years postgraduate, before they walked across the platform
to get their sheepskin, they gave them a
questionnaire and they asked them, what would you
love to know that you don't know but
you think you should have known by this
time in your seminary career since it's over?
What's bothering you the most?
What questions do you have the most?
These are seniors, four years.
Question number one, how do you know the
will of God?
Question number two, how on earth do you
live the spiritual life?
Now I don't know about you but when
I heard that, realizing that these are the
people that then go and pastor our churches
and lead Christian organizations, they come out after
four years of study saying, I don't know
how to find the will of God and
I don't know how to live the spiritual
life.
I can give you the doctrines of the
Bible, tell you what the Bible says, but
I don't know how to do it.
I would like to talk to you about
how to live the spiritual life in a
different way than perhaps you're going to expect
tonight.
And I want you to open your hearts
a little bit and don't make up your
mind about what I'm saying unless it's from
the Bible and you can see it for
yourself.
And I believe all the pieces will come
together by Sunday morning.
A.W. Tozer, who's one of my favorite
authors, I've read all of his 17 books
I could find, has a great story in
one of his books about the fact of
the normal church, a normal Christian.
We get together, he says, and we go
out in the woods and we gather some
rocks and we put together an altar and
then we cut down a tree and we
chop it up and put the wood on
top of the altar.
Then we go and we find an ox
and we slay the ox, we chop it
up, put on top of the altar, and
then we gather together.
And then we sing about the altar, we
discuss the wood, we rearrange the sacrifice, we
take up a collection about the next time
we're going to do this, and then on
the way home we say to each other,
you know, I sense there was something missing.
And Tozer in his own inimitable way says,
what we forgot is the point of the
rocks and the wood and the sacrifice is
the fire that's supposed to come down from
heaven and devour it like Elijah.
He said, we have made our faith, our
religion, our Christianity, and I'd like to say
our spiritual life, so many times right but
empty.
And that's what this conference is all about.
Now I'm going to kind of back up
a little bit and take an indirect route
to where I'm going.
When I think about God, one of the
things that I think about him is that
he's a giver and that he gives us
different gifts.
And I listed a few gifts that he
gave to us as recorded in Scripture.
One, obviously, is the Scripture.
This is a gift.
All Scripture is given by God.
This is a gift from God.
We didn't earn it, he gave it to
us.
Second thing that comes to my mind is
that the Jesus Christ is a gift from
God.
For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son.
So the Savior is a gift.
I remember Ephesians talks about the fact that
he himself gave to the church spiritual leaders,
pastors, teachers.
Your pastor is a gift from God to
you.
He may not be the perfect gift you
think in your mind, but he is the
gift for your church at this time.
God also says that he gives gifts to
all believers, called spiritual gifts.
That has nothing to do with anything we
have to say.
We don't even know about it when we
become a Christian, but he sovereignly, as he
wills, gives to all of us a gift.
And that salvation itself is a gift, not
of works less people could boast.
And then he gave something called the Spirit.
He gave us the Spirit in our hearts,
in our lives.
Those are six gifts.
There are many others, but those are six
of them.
Now what happens to a person who doesn't
open the gift that God gives?
He gave salvation to everyone.
Are there any consequences?
It's not his will that any should perish.
Is there any consequence to the world who
chooses not to open the gift of salvation?
Is it a free gift offered to all?
Yes.
Can whosoever will take it?
Yes, I believe they can.
I believe that verse.
But the tragedy is that some people don't
take the gift for whatever reason, and they
don't have any of the benefits that follow
it, eternal benefits.
Here's another gift.
Many people you and I know are born
again.
They took that gift and they have half
a dozen at least Bibles of all colors
and stripes, but they don't open it, except
on Sundays.
They carry it as if there's power in
the carry, but they don't open it.
And therefore, do they receive the benefit of
the gift that God gave?
They didn't receive the benefit.
You take a look at every single gift
that I've just mentioned, and we have a
choice whether to take the gift and to
use the gift.
And each one of those gifts have a
tremendous negative consequence if we don't unwrap it
and use it, because it has of no
value.
Now the gift that I want to talk
about is the gift of the Spirit in
here.
I want to talk about the spiritual life,
not the Christian life, but the spiritual life.
And the spiritual life is based upon the
gift of the Spirit given by God the
Father.
It's interesting, of all of the subjects in
Christianity that will divide a group of people
that quick, it's the gift of the Spirit.
It's not the gift of salvation, it's not
the gift of Christ, it's not the gift
of spiritual leaders, or many other things.
But you talk about the Holy Spirit among
Christians, and you'll typically get in one heated
conversation.
In fact, around the world there is not
another subject that split more churches than the
Holy Spirit.
Now why is that true?
Obviously we know from Scripture that carnality brings
division, and when churches split there's great sin
in the camp.
And the goal of the Holy Spirit is
to unify, therefore he is stopped and cannot,
for whatever reason, bring unity.
And the church splits and many tragedies occur.
Why is there such attack on the Spirit?
And who is attacking the truth about the
Spirit?
I believe Satan is a strategic thinker, and
has a plan, and leverages his activities, and
is very, very careful in where he invests
his strikes against us.
I personally believe that the number one place
that the enemy attacks is about the Holy
Spirit.
I do not believe you and I, normally,
would find ourselves arguing about the Spirit, any
more than we would argue about the Bible.
But we find ourselves not really understanding the
Spirit.
I listen a lot to people, and I
watch, and I try to learn.
And you'll watch people talk, Christian people, talk,
when you think about the spiritual life, they'll
talk about the Bible first, and then they'll
talk about prayer second, then they'll talk about,
usually not a clear third, maybe service, maybe
giving, maybe discipling, but it's the Bible, prayer,
other things.
And if you're in a typical evangelical group,
the Holy Spirit is rarely mentioned on the
list.
Am I speaking the truth, or am I
exaggerating?
How many say, well, this is probably true.
Good.
I think so too.
Now, let's say you had a choice.
Let's say you could have Jesus Christ here
to be with you and us, or you
could have the Spirit, and you only can
have one.
Let's vote.
All right?
It's not a hard question.
There's only two choices, A or B.
If you had the choice.
Now, don't, just be honest.
It's not a hard question.
How many wants Jesus Christ?
It's a tricky question.
It's not meant to be a hard question.
You got your defenses up too soon.
I've tried this on people, and every one
of the persons says, Jesus Christ, of course.
And when you ask the question, why?
Well, because he'd be right there, and I
can talk to him.
What else?
Well, he can teach me.
Well, what else?
And the list goes on.
In other words, Jesus is helpful, and the
Spirit is good, and I believe in him,
and he lives in me.
But when you compare what Jesus can do
for me and what the Holy Spirit can
do for me, there's no contest here.
I'll take Jesus any day.
Now, if I hadn't given you this introduction,
the vast majority of you would have said
the same thing.
The problem is, Jesus says the exact opposite.
That's the shocker.
Jesus said, if you were to pick between
me and him, it is to your advantage
to pick him.
It is to your advantage to pick him.
If you don't pick him, or you don't
know him very much, you haven't unwrapped the
gift that is overwhelmingly, from Jesus' point of
view, more advantageous to the believer today than
his presence.
Let's see if we can't see that ourselves
in the book of John, chapter 14.
John chapter 14.
I'll be reading out of the New King
James.
It's my favorite translation.
John chapter 14 is obviously the upper room
discourse, and most of it's in red, because
Jesus spoke it, and he speaks in red.
John 14.
Verse number 16.
Jesus speaking and says, I will pray the
Father, and he will give you, now watch
carefully, another helper that he may abide with
you, look at this next word, forever.
Who is the other helper?
Even the Spirit of truth.
The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it neither sees him, nor knows
him, but you know him, for he dwells
with you, but he's gonna dwell where?
In you.
Now, some people think, in practical terms, when
you push them in a corner, there's really
only two parts of the Trinity.
There's God the Father, God the Son, and
the Spirit of the Son.
God the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit of
Jesus.
Let's just kind of put that away, that's
false teaching.
There are three parts of the Trinity, there's
one God, but Jesus is going, and he
is going to send another comforter, who is
with you, but is going to be in
you.
It's not the same as Jesus, it's not
the same as Jesus, and we'll prove that
to you in a moment, but don't confuse
that.
Look further on that chapter, chapter 14, verse
number 26, now we receive his name, or
the name he is called, we don't really
know his name, but the helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, now I get some help here, he
will teach you all things.
Did Jesus teach him all things?
Did Jesus teach them all things?
If you knew the Gospel of John, what's
the answer?
No, he didn't have time, and you weren't
ready, so he did not teach all things.
So from Jesus' point of view, I'm sending
the Spirit back to you, because he's going
to be in you, and I can't be
in you, I'm on the outside of you,
and when we go to bed at night,
we can't talk, because I'm sleeping, and if
John takes me on a fishing trip, and
you want to talk to me, you can't
get a hold of me, and besides that,
I'm only here for a few years, and
I'm gone, I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna
send somebody else who's gonna teach you everything.
So Jesus did not teach them everything, he's
gonna send somebody else who will teach him
everything.
Jesus was not on the inside, he was
on the outside, and next passage is John
15, verse number 26, but when the Helper
or Comforter, the Paracletos, comes, whom I shall
send to you from the Father, so Jesus
sometimes says I send them, and sometimes he
says the Father sends them, together they're doing
this, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from
the Father, he will testify of me.
Now where is he going to be?
Inside of you, and what is he gonna
do?
He's gonna tell you about me, because you
don't know everything about me, you only know
this much about me.
So the Holy Spirit's gonna tell the person
who's this being talked to more about Jesus
than they know.
Interesting.
What Jesus didn't say was, I'm gonna write
everything about me in a book.
It's interesting.
I'm gonna send somebody inside of you who
will testify to you about me.
Now about now, you're probably becoming a little
bit uncomfortable and wondering where's he going?
I'm going through John.
I believe we're attacking right where the enemy
is fighting and winning, big time, and the
truth sets us free.
All I want to do to us is
read the truth verse by verse and prove
it to all of us what Jesus says.
Please don't box around what he says, he's
real clear.
I'm leaving and I'm sending somebody in my
place.
He was on the outside, he's gonna be
in the inside.
He'll teach you all things, he'll testify of
me.
It's pretty clear.
Don't change his words, don't misinterpret them, just
take them the way he said it.
It's kind of clear.
Chapter 16 verse 7, this is a critical
verse that we're on right now and I
want you to see it for yourself.
John 16 verse 7.
Nevertheless, Jesus said, I tell you the truth.
Go back up to verse 6, excuse me,
verse 5.
But now I go away to him who
sent me and none of you ask me
where you're going, but because I have said
these things to you, sorrow has filled your
heart.
Look here for a minute.
So the disciples are saying, Jesus is leaving
and we'll, think about this selfishly for a
minute, we'll be worse off without him.
Not only will we be lonely and we'll
miss him, but who's gonna make the bread
and all the other things.
So they're feeling disadvantaged, sense of loss.
That's why Jesus goes right on in the
next verse and says exactly what he wants.
Nevertheless, nevertheless, even though you do have sorrow,
and you should, I tell you the truth,
it is to your advantage that I go
away.
It's better for you that I go away.
It is my belief, after counseling hundreds and
hundreds of people, that it is not the
average evangelical Christian's advantage experientially.
That when you question an evangelical person about
what the Holy Spirit actually did for you
yesterday.
What did you do last week?
Well, what good is it that he's in
you?
Oh, he's sealed me until I'm dead.
Great.
So what?
Are you with me?
Now, let's get a little more practical here.
I travel a lot and speak a lot.
I go in certain churches, these are both
evangelical, not liberal.
And the Bible is preached solidly, and it's
dead in church.
And everybody but the preacher may know it.
And even he may know it.
It's lifeless, verse by verse.
The truth is being given.
You feel more tired when you leave, than
when you came.
And you go at a sense of an
obligation.
But the Bible was preached, and it was.
I go to churches, just as evangelical, and
you walk in the door, and you feel
it.
You feel what?
Some of you snuck around.
What do you feel?
You feel a little bit up.
That's one thing you feel, just speaking it
secularly to you.
You feel a little electric in the place.
Like some people in here are alive.
And then when they start to sing, what
do you find yourself doing?
You find yourself singing, and you find yourself
praising God.
In the other church, you sing the hymns
of the faith, but if you praise God,
it's because you did it.
In this church, there's a lot of handshakes
and pats on the back.
On this church, what is there?
A lot of what?
Hugs.
What else?
Laughter.
What else?
Tears.
Spontaneous.
Fixed.
Predictable to the minute.
Unpredictable.
Which side do you feel more loved?
Hello?
I'm not going by myself down this road.
Which side do you feel more loved?
We don't know what this side is, because
we've not decided to describe it, except the
results of it.
This side exalts Christ.
This side preaches the Bible a little differently
than this side.
This side preaches the Bible.
This side does one additional thing.
It recognizes the Spirit.
This side has the doctrine of the Spirit.
Now, there are excesses on both sides.
I'm not saying this is the right side,
because that's not my point here.
Many people on this side believe, unless you
speak in tongues, you're not born again.
That's heresy.
That's what I would call that.
Anybody who changes the definition of salvation is
heretical.
That's clearly not scriptural.
Other people would say, you aren't fully sanctified
until you speak in tongues.
But the scripture is clear when it says,
not all speak in tongues.
So they're wrong as well.
But there's a lot of things on this
side that are very right.
And that's the part I want to talk
about.
We've taken this whole bucket and thrown it
away.
And there was something in the bucket called
the Spirit of God.
And we put it away.
And with it, listen to me very carefully,
we've lost the number one power to live
the spiritual life.
Number one.
Nothing close.
There's God in us.
Therefore, it is my thesis tonight, that evangelical
Christianity has neglected the gift of the Spirit
that Jesus said, it is to your advantage
that I leave.
He's better in you than me with you.
And the next question you should be asking
if you're there tonight, and you haven't done
this too hard with me, is you'd be
saying to yourself, well, what does the Bible,
not what does Bruce or what does this
group of people, because those two are irrelevant.
The only thing that's relevant is, what does
the Bible say?
If the Bible says some things you don't
believe, what will you do?
Yeah, but what will you do?
Well, that's what we're going to be working
on.
It's hard work for you and for me,
because the Bible is very clear.
And I'll give you, we'll go through a
lot of verses in the next few moments.
It's clear as a bell.
And I think many of us don't believe
what it says, because we have taken this
bucket, thrown everything about this in the bucket,
and when we read it, we don't see
it.
And when we see it, we don't believe
it.
And therefore, when you ask the average evangelical
Christian, what difference is that if we took
the spirit out of your life tomorrow morning,
what difference would it have made last month
to you?
The average person's mouth falls open, gets dry,
and nods.
There should be a good answer to that,
but I don't know.
Now, I'm going to go through seven, seven
things.
There's more than seven, but seven's perfect.
There are seven things that I want to
review for you that the Bible says the
spirit will do in the life of a
believer.
And as we go through these seven things,
I'm going to ask you to do something
a little bit challenging.
Next to each one of these seven, I
want you to write it down, write down
the verse.
And then I want you to put a
number next to each one of these seven,
between one and seven, for yourself.
Do a little bit of self-examination.
It's my conviction, listen carefully, that we have
quenched the spirit so he doesn't speak in
our lives, and we think it's the norm.
We state it again.
It is my belief that we have quenched,
turned him down, the spirit, and we now
think that how we live is the norm
for Christians.
The only way it's a norm is if
it matches one by one with what the
Bible teaches.
In testing this last week here, not quite
so carefully as I'm doing tonight, the average
person in the audience realized going through these
seven, hardly any of these are true about
me.
But the spirit dwells within them.
If you can be honest with yourself, I
want you to find out how much of
your life would demonstrate to you, that the
spirit has been to your advantage.
And therefore, as I give each one of
these seven, give yourself a little number.
If you say, this isn't true of me
at all, go zero.
If you say, this is true all the
time about me, give a seven.
And then you have a score in between
to give what you'd like to do.
Don't look at anybody else's, or you will
go blind.
Let's take an easy one, because they're going
to get hard.
Number one, what's one thing the spirit does,
he says anyway, in the lives of believers.
Number one, he produces the fruit of the
spirit.
Number one, write that down, produces the fruit
of the spirit, and put down next to
it, one passage.
I'll only take one.
Galatians chapter five, verse 22 and 23.
And then take your Bibles.
I know many of you traveled the long
way tonight, but we need to, this is
the introduction for tomorrow night.
You need to get into this.
So do as best as you can to
follow me, and I'll see if I can
encourage you.
Galatians chapter five, verse 22 and 23.
Well known, we all memorize this verse a
million times, but I want to read it.
It says, but the fruit of the spirit,
the fruit of the spirit, not of the
scriptures.
Hello, not of the scriptures.
It's the fruit of the spirit.
Is that what it say in your Bible?
This is an easy one.
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy,
peace.
So that means that if I'm, if the
spirit is active in me, you will say
about me, that person is loving all the
time.
They will say, how come you're filled with
joy?
They will say, what gives you that deep
peace?
And it seems like no matter what's going
on, you have peace in your life.
And your ability to suffer long through things,
and that you have kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
that you are filled with gentleness.
You have a great deal of self-control.
This passage bothered me for years.
I thought it should say, but the fruits
of the spirit are, because I could have
one or two of these at a given
moment and feel like I'm doing okay.
But it says, no, there's only one outgrowth
of the spirit if he's active in your
life.
And this is, listen to me now, this
is what he looks like when he's doing
it.
He doesn't have a divided personality, and he's
not dysfunctional.
It's the spirit.
And this is the nature of the spirit.
And therefore, if the spirit, the Holy Spirit
of God, is fully released in my life
and your life, then this is what the
spirit will look in me, and I'll see
it, and you'll see it more than I'll
see it.
Now, I used to think for years, because
this was my training, that it's really the
fruit of determination and self-control.
And memorizing Scripture, how to slip that in,
is the way that you get the fruit
of the spirit.
The only problem is, nowhere in Scripture does
it say that.
It says it's the fruit of the spirit.
There appears to be two ways to try
and get the fruit of the spirit.
One is, the way I did most of
my life, which is, through self-control and
through renewing my mind, I will act this
way if it kills me.
How many of you can identify with me?
I'm out on a limb a little bit.
Are the rest of you not identifying?
You fall asleep.
What is the issue here?
How many of you can identify with me?
Good, thank you.
The rest of you are lying.
I'm only kidding.
This passage has a different concept, and we'll
teach about this in a couple more days.
It has the concept that says, no, it
is not in the flesh.
You do not do the fruit of the
spirit through your flesh, even well-meaning flesh.
You get the flesh out of the way,
and if it's out of the way adequately,
and you're cooperating with Him, these will be
true, all of them, in your life at
the time.
Now put a number between one and seven
down.
If you think you're doing really well, give
a 7.5. Number two, the
spirit teaches, the spirit teaches, teaches you, all
right, you personally.
There's three verses I want you to write
down.
Number one, John 16, 13, John 16, 13.
Let's turn and take a look at these
one at a time.
John 16, 13.
Verse 12, Jesus speaking again, I still have
many things to say to you, but you,
the listener now, cannot bear them now.
So that means the teacher, which was Jesus,
had a lot of content and understanding to
give to the people, but they were unable
to cope with it.
We've all experienced that many times.
Therefore, Jesus is a bit thwarted in what
He wanted to do, but you can't bear
it.
If you could bear it, I'd give you
more, right?
However, however, when He, the Spirit of Truth,
has come, He will guide you, He will
guide you into all truth, for He will
not speak on His own authority, but whatever
He hears, He will speak, and He will
tell you things to come.
You not only know what gift He's given
to you, but you know that is the
most important thing for you to be doing,
because He sovereignly gave it to you.
He's going to use it in you, sovereignly,
and I believe supernaturally, to accomplish His will.
It is the manifestation of the Spirit.
People would say, you didn't do that.
You were, that was the Spirit in you.
Yes, of course it was.
See the difference?
Now, you know what your spiritual gift is?
Are you supernaturally, do you see the Spirit
coming out when you use it, and do
other people affirm that in you, or is
it, well, it's like a carry-away now.
The manifestation of the Spirit, right, that's what
it says.
A natural talent is the manifestation of my
strengths.
Supernatural gift is the manifestation of the Holy
Spirit, and they're not the same.
They're not even related many times.
Do you have that?
Do you know what it is?
Do you use it, and do other people
acknowledge, boy, God's using you in a mighty
way, or is it kind of, I'm not
too sure about this stuff.
And when is this over?
Put a number.
One to seven.
Am I going through Bible passages or making
this stuff up?
Is this Bible or not?
It's Bible.
Now, here's one.
Hold on.
The Spirit speaks to you.
The Spirit speaks, different than teaching.
John chapter 16, verse 13.
Let me ask you a question.
Was the Spirit just given to the twelve
disciples and apostles?
No.
It's given to all of us, equally.
Interesting.
John 16, verse 13, says this.
However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has
come, he will guide you into all truth,
for he will not speak, S-P-E
-A-K, speak on his own authority.
He mustn't be speaking now.
He'd do a better job of it.
Oh, my.
How are you doing with all this tonight?
Is this all right?
I want all of it.
All the Bible teaches.
I don't want to get to heaven's gate
and find the Lord saying, you missed, you
missed some biggies I had for you.
And it was all in Scripture, but because
of your blindness and hardness of heart and
hard boxes that you felt I couldn't, wouldn't
do, you never, you never had it.
I want to get there and him to
say, good, you got it all.
Now come and get the rest.
Yeah.
He will guide you into all truth, for
he will not speak on his own.
Now look at this.
But whatever he hears, he will, what's the
word?
Speak.
And he will, come on, say it.
Tell you.
Will he tell you with his book?
Wait a minute.
This has already been said.
That's future tense.
He will tell you.
This, he has spoken.
This is it.
But when he speaks to you, it may
or may not be related to something you're
in the scriptures about.
It may be, go talk to that person
over there right now.
And you'll know it.
And depending upon how you're relating to the
spirit, you may say, no, sir.
But will you know it or not?
Yes.
Question.
That is meant to happen all the time.
How much of this happened in Jesus' life?
I don't say anything on my own.
I only say that which my father tells
me, obviously, through the spirit, as you know.
It's interesting.
I mean, God can talk to a believer.
Good question.
First Corinthians chapter 12.
I'm glad you asked.
First Corinthians chapter 12.
This is a surprising verse in the context
that we're talking about, but it's carried away
with these dumb idols, however you are led.
Therefore, I make known to you, said Paul,
that no one, watch this, no one speaking
by the spirit of God, by the means
of the spirit of God, calls Jesus accursed.
And no one can say that Jesus is
Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
Word I want you to see is speaks
by the spirit of God.
Next passage.
Now, if that was true, that the Holy
Spirit speaks, should you be able to find
illustrations in the New Testament, not including the
apostles and disciples in which the Holy Spirit
spoke?
Sure, you should.
If you couldn't, then you'd be concerned.
Acts chapter 10.
This is about one of the apostles, and
then we'll broaden it out in a minute.
Acts chapter 10, verse 19.
This is the vision that Peter saw of
the great sheet with the animals inside.
And Acts chapter 10, verse 19.
While Peter thought about the vision, the spirit
said to him, Behold, three men are seeking
you.
Don't miss that.
Look up here quickly.
Here's Peter thinking.
So his mind is preoccupied.
He is actively processing what he just saw,
what it means.
So he's not making the voice in himself.
Some people think that this whole thing is
false, that it's all your own words.
Well, you can have some, and you can
make yourself sound like you're talking to the
spirit, and you can have some vain imaginations.
Those are all true, right?
But the other truth is, the spirit speaks,
and you must learn to hear him yourself.
And at the beginning, you'll make all kinds
of mistakes, unless you've been walking with the
spirit, and you'll hear him.
How much?
You can't make him talk, but more than
you ever would dream.
Acts chapter 10, verse 19.
While Peter thought about the vision, the spirit
said to him, Behold, three men.
Now look how he says that himself, when
he talked to somebody else about what happened
to him.
Acts 11, verse 12.
He's explaining it.
And verse 11.
At that very moment, three men, said Peter,
he's explaining to some other people.
Three men stood before the house where I
was, having been sent to me from Caesarea.
Then the spirit told me to go with
him.
So what happened inside of this man, Peter?
Somehow he knew, the spirit said, go with
him, and he went.
Peter, why are you going?
Because that's what the Lord wants me to
do.
How do you know that?
Sometimes that's hard to explain, but I just
know.
That's exactly how it happens.
How often does the spirit say words?
Very, very, very, very rarely.
But does he speak?
Yes.
And your spirit knows it.
Go speak to him.
He didn't say the words, but you knew.
You're supposed to speak to that one person,
and you know it.
Is that true or false?
How many have had at least one time
in your life that you know the spirit
said, you go do that?
Raise your hand.
Oh, so there's no doubt then that that's
true.
There's no doubt that it's true.
You can't say that's not true, or else
you've all been fooled, and I'm joining with
you.
But we haven't been fooled.
But the issue is, on this side of
the box, we don't understand that the will
of God is to lead us and speak
to us a lot.
Instead, all of a sudden, he's yelling, hey,
you, the one who never talks to me.
I'm here.
Please go talk to him.
I think I heard a voice.
Take a look at Acts chapter 8.
Acts chapter 8, verses 26 to 29.
This is Philip.
Now, here we have Philip, we have an
angel, and we have the spirit, all in
the same story.
This is a great illustration.
Now, an angel of the Lord spoke to
Philip.
Well, angels can speak to people, of course,
saying, arise and go toward the south along
the road which goes down from Jerusalem to
Gaza.
This is the desert.
So he arose and he went.
And behold, a man of Ethiopia, eunuch of
great authority, under Candace, the queen of the
Ethiopians, had come, who had charge of all
her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to
worship, was returning.
And sitting in his chariot, he was reading
Isaiah the prophet.
Then the spirit said to Philip, go near
and overtake this chariot.
Does the Bible teach that the spirit speaks?
Did Jesus say he did?
Yes.
Did Paul say he did?
Yes.
Did Peter experience it?
Yes.
Did Philip experience it?
Yes.
Let's get more people experiencing it.
Acts chapter 13, verse number 2.
This is when the first missionaries are being
sent out from this particular church in Antioch.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me
Barnabas and Saul for the work to which
I've called them.
Question, does the Bible teach that the spirit
speaks to believers?
Yes or no?
Yes.
Good.
Write a number.
How often does that occur in your life?
Number five, the spirit causes us to praise
and to thank.
The spirit causes us to praise and to
thank.
Two verses.
First one, Ephesians chapter 5, verses 18 to
21.
It's a classic passage.
We'll talk all about this on Sunday morning.
How to do this?
Don't be drunk with wine, in which there's
dissipation, but filled with the spirit.
Now what does it look like when you're
filled with the spirit?
You will be doing the following things.
Number one, you'll be speaking to one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Number two, you'll be singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord.
So a person who's filled with the spirit
finds himself humming and singing to the Lord
when nobody else is around.
Frequently.
Number 20, verse 20, what else will they
be doing?
They'll be giving thanks always for all things
to God.
What do you mean?
That means that regardless what happens, their immediate
response is, Lord thank you for this.
This is for my good.
I believe it.
I believe you're in control and I thank
you because this is out of your good
hand to me.
And number 21, it says, submitting to one
another the fear of God.
That means when you are filled with the
spirit, you are not obstinate.
You are not stubborn.
You are not hard to get along with.
You submit to one another easily, easily.
Now, those four characteristics of speaking that way,
singing that way, thanking that way and submitting
to each other.
How often is that true about you?
Or do you have to think a long
time?
I can't remember the last time I was
singing.
I'm so bogged down at work or my
kids are really a problem.
Our marriage is strained and I just don't
find myself doing that.
And my husband and I, we never submit
to each other.
And guess what?
If you're filled with the spirit, those things
are true about you.
If you're not filled with the spirit, those
things are not true about you.
And you can't remember the last time.
And people say, that person's hard to get
along with.
So put a number down.
It's getting a little convicting in here.
Number six, the spirit leads us.
He teaches, he speaks and he leads.
The spirit leads.
Romans chapter 8, verse number 13 and 14.
Romans 8, 13 and 14.
But if you live according to the flesh,
you will die.
But if by the spirit you put to
death the deeds of the body, you will
live.
Look up here for a minute.
This isn't one of the points here, but
it's a major one.
Remember I tried to share a minute ago
with how do you have the fruit of
the spirit?
And there's two ways.
One is you try to do it through
your own determination.
And the other way, you do not do
it through your own determination because you realize
you can't do the work of God for
him.
That's why it says in that verse, but
if by the spirit you put to death
the deeds of the body, you can't put
the deeds of the body to death by
determination, by your determination, by your will, by
your self-control, it will not happen.
It is by the spirit who does that
in you.
That's why he continues in verse 14, but
as many as are led by the spirit,
these are the sons of God.
Galatians 5, 18, I won't turn to it,
is another passage that talks about the same
thing.
And then turn to one passage and we'll
move on to the last one.
Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16.
I have used this passage in my own
life more times.
In fact, this afternoon, this morning, I was
writing a letter because the Lord had done
this to me in our organization and it
was hard to deal with.
Acts chapter 16, verse 6.
Now, when they had gone through Phrygia in
the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by
the spirit to preach the word in Asia.
Now, how did that happen?
I think if the Lord had spoken to
them, it had said that, that the spirits
told them not to do it, but it
was forbidden by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 7, after they'd come to Mysia, they
tried to go into Bithynia.
Therefore, I think Paul would have said, Paul,
why are you doing this?
Why are you going to Bithynia?
Well, I think that's where we should go,
probably.
They tried to go into Bithynia, but the
spirit didn't permit them.
I don't know how this happened, but perhaps
it was they were out on the road
and Paul stops and says, wait, we can't
go.
What do you mean we can't go?
We're not supposed to go.
How do you know we're not supposed to
go?
I don't know.
We're just not supposed to go.
He leads you and he guides you.
A very close friend was driving home and
out of the blue into his mind came
the idea, go see this family.
And this young man said, I don't know
where the family lives.
Go see the family.
I don't know where they live.
Go see the family.
So this young man drives his car.
I think it's over there.
So he goes down into a development.
He's driving along.
This is right.
Makes a left hand turn, goes a little
bit further, makes a right hand turn.
No, he stops.
He backs up.
He goes further down and he goes to
a cul-de-sac.
Go to this person's house.
Where do they live?
He gets out of his car and starts
up the driveway.
It's not it goes over to the other
house, walks up and knocks the door.
It's the person's house.
It's the man of the house.
The man of the house opens the door
and said, I can't believe it.
God sent you and you're a young man.
This young man who was 18 said, why
am I here?
The man said, because I was upstairs on
my knees begging God to send a deacon
or an elder to tell our family what
to do.
And this young man said, then let's meet.
So he went in, got this man and
the wife and the three kids and they
spent more than two hours on their knees.
And as a result of it, their whole
family completely changed.
Now, this is something I know all about.
This is not a made up story or
one I read in a book.
This is, I know about.
Does that happen all the time?
No, but there are certain people you're around
who walk so close to the spirit that
they do the most uncanny things at times.
Why are you sitting there?
I don't know, but somebody's going to come
and sit down.
Somebody's going to come with who?
I don't know.
Lo and behold, they come and sit down
and leave them to Christ.
Does that happen a lot?
Yeah.
How do you know?
I just know.
Does the spirit lead?
Holy Spirit forbid us to go.
Holy Spirit let us to go.
How does it happen in your spirit?
That's how it happens.
Does it go like this?
No, it doesn't.
It goes through the spirit in you.
That's how it happens.
Number seven.
The spirit has fellowship with you.
This is the last one.
The spirit has fellowship with you.
It communes.
He, not it.
He communes with you and me.
Two passages.
Number one, second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14,
second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14.
It's a famous verse.
Second Corinthians 13 14 says the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God in the fellowship or communion, same word
of the Holy Spirit question.
What does it mean to have fellowship with
another person?
Is it a one way street?
It's a two way street.
Is the Holy Spirit wanting to have fellowship
with you personally?
You bet.
How much?
A lot.
Romans 8 verse 15.
Romans 8 verse 15 and 16.
It's a very special verse to many folks.
Romans 8 15 and 16.
For you did not receive the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but you receive the
spirit of adoption by whom we cry out.
Abba father, the spirit himself.
Look at this verse bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God, your
spirit and his spirit in the same body,
having fellowship together.
And nobody has to tell you that you
know it and it's real.
Don't stop seeking.
There's a lot more.
Count your numbers up.
You'd have a number between zero and seven
for all seven.
Add those all together.
A perfect score would be 49.
Take that number, multiply it times two and
you'll have a score.
Highest scores possible is the 98.
Now, if you have been walking with the
spirit, your score would have been between about
an 80 and a 98.
If you have taken the truth of scripture
and denied it, your score is going to
be below a 30, 60.
Unless I misread this exercise, there's more than
one of us who scored below a 60.
How can this possibly be?
Here's how it can possibly be.
I read this in a book written by
Dr. Louis Sperry Chaffer, the founder of Dallas.
On page 56 of his book, he has
a little paragraph in the book called He
That Is Spiritual that made this whole thing
start to think in my mind.
He said, there are two separate things that
we must never bring together as one.
And I don't know if these are the
right words.
I've tried to come up with more appropriate
ones and haven't been able to yet.
Maybe one of you can help me.
He calls this side spiritual maturity.
And he says, spiritual maturity is how much
you know of the word, what kind of
service you have, how much wisdom you have
from the word over a long period of
time.
You can only become mature in Christ over
time and with effort and through self-discipline
and through memorization and reading and journaling and
praying and all the rest of it.
On the other side, he said, is another
whole area called, he used the word, spirituality.
He said this, and I fully agree with
him.
When a person becomes a believer, they in
no way can become spiritually mature that day.
Impossible.
It takes years.
On this side, however, if the person who
accepts Christ is rightly related to the spirit,
they can be full of the spirit like
that and have full spirituality.
This is only dealing with the spirit and
our relationship to him.
This is to do with all of the
other disciplines of life.
We're here this weekend to talk to a
group who has the spiritual disciplines of life
down pat.
The navigators are par excellence and I don't
know of any other group above you guys
in this half of it.
My calling to be with you this weekend,
as I've prayed about this, was to share
with you the other half.
In case there may be a few of
us in this room who say to ourselves,
I have a feeling I have a lot
to learn about spirituality.
Is it worth it to learn on this
side how to be led by the spirit,
be taught by the spirit, be in communion
with the spirit, to be filled with the
fruit of the spirit, to have joy and
thanksgiving and easy submission?
If it is, then maybe you'll be here
tomorrow night.
As a person who lived most of my
life on this side, and now have in
the past three years been wedding this side
to it.
It's wonderful.
And it is true.
It is to your advantage, therefore, to be
at the Navigator's Presence Council and to learn
together what the scripture teaches about how to
be filled with the spirit and to walk
by means of the spirit and to enjoy
all the fullness of the spirit in your
life, because that's why Jesus sent the spirit
into your life.
May you hunger after him and more of
him, because you realize deeply and personally don't
stop seeking.
There's a lot more.
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, forgive our unbelief because
that is the sin which the enemy has
used to confuse us.
We believe what you have said in these
50 verses, one after the other, after the
other, after the other.
They're clear.
The Holy Spirit is a person.
The Holy Spirit lives within us if we
know Christ.
And as far as Jesus Christ is concerned,
he is the teacher.
He is the testifier.
He is the guider.
He is the leader.
He is the commuter.
And we thank you for the gift of
the Holy Spirit.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
in Classic Sermons series.
This week you heard Bruce Wilkinson with his
message, Walking in the Spirit.
Tune in next week to hear Milton Green
talk about the second part of his message,
The Flesh and the Power of Darkness on
From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.