Now back to Paul's letter to Ephesians and
chapter 1.
Ephesians 1 and we're going to read first
of all verse at verse 13.
In whom you also trusted after that you
heard the word of truth the gospel of
your salvation in whom also after that you
believed you were sealed with that holy spirit
of promise which is the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
unto the praise of his glory over to
chapter 4 and verse 29 let no
corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but
that which is good to the use of
edifying that it may minister grace unto the
hearers and grieve not the holy spirit of
god whereby you are sealed unto the day
of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and
anger and clamor and evil speaking be put
away from you with all malice and be
kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one
another even as god for christ's sake hath
forgiven you and chapter 5 verse 17 wherefore
be not unwise but understanding what the will
of the lord is and be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess but be filled
with the spirit speaking to yourselves and psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making
melody in your heart to the lord giving
thanks always for all things unto god and
the father in the name of our lord
jesus christ submitting yourselves one to another in
the fear of god now i was wondering
really how what i have in mind would
fit in with what we've been able to
hear already today i think our brother mccandless
gave us a a bit of a survey
on the title jesus of nazareth and brother
frank he reminded us similarly a survey of
the christians battle and our brother william just
gave us a survey of the role of
that anointed cherub down to when he will
be confined forever in the lake of fire
now i've just made that up to get
you to buy into what i'm about to
say because this is what i'm going to
do i want to give a survey a
seven-fold survey of the role and work
of the holy spirit in the life of
a believer and brother william's uh reference there
in first john greater is he that is
in you than he that is in the
world so i've just highlighted in my own
meditation here seven things about the spirit of
god that is true about his work his
person his role in every believer okay and
so it's not seven because this is all
there is actually in the drive on the
way here i thought of another so it's
not seven because of completion or whatever seven
is supposed to mean but it is seven
because i've stopped at seven for the purpose
of the okay so we're going to look
at seven things about the holy spirit you
know as as our brethren have been mentioning
but just in case for younger believers our
age is uniquely the age of the holy
spirit it began the day of pentecost when
the spirit rushed in and it will end
when he that restraineth is taken away the
role of the spirit of god in the
church and and and universal church okay so
this is very uniquely our period of time
it is the age of the holy spirit
and while there are so many differences even
in in the few of us who are
here today different callings for the lord's use
and different places we all live the one
thing that is true of every believer is
you are a possessor of the holy spirit
of god romans 8 makes it clear if
anyone has not the spirit of christ he
is none of his and so i think
for all of us but especially for young
believers because this is kind of the feature
that marks our era our age and because
this is something that is true of you
it would be good to have some idea
of who the spirit of god is and
his role in us so i've got seven
of them i'm going to just go through
them i'll give them all to you like
uh like pegs and then we'll go through
them first of all he has a convicting
work this is luke chapter 15 the woman
who sweeps the the house a picture of
the he has a convicting work by the
way a pre-conversion convicting work okay a
pre-conversion convicting work you say you better
explain that good i'm glad you're all awake
i'll do my best convicting number two he
has a creating work this is john chapter
three that which is born of the flesh
is flesh that which is born of the
spirit is spirit he has a creating work
number three that was number two number three
he has a confirming work how do i
know i'm saved how do i know i'm
a believer and we read that here in
ephesians 1 sealed with the spirit in romans
8 he has a comforting work the spirit
bears witness the spirit makes intercession for us
there's a comforting work another ephesians is big
a letter big on the holy spirit but
another crucial chapter is romans chapter 8 if
you wanted to look look at that and
get a handle on it so he has
a comforting work then here in ephesians 5
i put it as a controlling work that's
what it means here to be filled with
the spirit number six he has a conflicting
work we didn't read that but in galatians
it talks about the spirit lusts against the
flesh and there is this conflict going on
not merely between believers and the devil but
between the spirit and the flesh and so
there is a conflict a conflicting work and
lastly a conforming work and that again is
romans 8 you say seven points how long
is this going to be not long not
long we're just going to go through them
hang a hat on each peg and then
i'll sit down first of all a convicting
work the lord jesus is the one who's
speaking there in luke chapter 15 and he
speaks about the role of the father as
the one who waits and runs when the
prodigal returns the good shepherd the role of
the son who goes out and picks up
the sheep and the role of the holy
spirit who sweeps the house and disturbs the
mind and uh just seems to clear away
things to find the lost silver and we
all but we believe that the bible teaches
that that before someone is saved there is
a work that the spirit of god is
doing that's why by the way some of
us have just commented among one another here
we are at the end of the summer
and you look back at the summer meetings
and maybe there's been some blessing here and
there if there has been blessing it is
not because necessarily it's been great preaching but
because the spirit is at work god is
at work there's a sense in which when
somebody is truly saved we should have a
sense of fear god is working here because
it takes god and so the spirit of
god is working sweeping away the dirt people
come into a meeting feeling good about themselves
not thinking anything about their sin they're just
pretty good people and all of a sudden
they say i felt bad i felt disturbed
it's the work of the spirit of god
now there is an idea out there uh
and maybe what you would call reform circles
that this work that the spirit of god
does in convicting is irresistible that he disturbs
a person to the point that by hook
or by crook to use theological language there
that that person is going to be born
again and the spirit of god is going
to sovereignly grab that person from the kingdom
of darkness and make them come into the
kingdom of his son now that idea as
far as i can tell is not found
in the bible the bible teaches that the
spirit of god is at work before a
person is saved but it never teaches that
that work cannot be resisted i think we
just heard even earlier today it is hard
for thee to kick again to resist to
resist and so yes the spirit of god's
work we all probably can relate maybe loved
ones family members people that you bring into
sunday school who maybe for years have resisted
and it's no failure on the spirit of
god right but at the same time there
is a work that is being done before
a person is saved where the spirit of
god is bringing things into that person's mind
so pre-conversion convicting work number two the
creating work how is a person born again
for those of you who are saved how
were you born again how did that all
happen you say a verse came into my
mind and i understood i'd never be in
hell and well i i think for simplicity
i think the hymn has it right when
it says that as soon as my all
i ventured on christ's atoning blood as soon
as i rested on christ now listen the
holy spirit entered and i was born of
god how is a person born again it
is a work of the spirit of god
i didn't realize that when i was saved
at 11 i understood that because jesus christ
was wounded for my sins i wouldn't be
punished for my own but something happened when
i was 11 and i don't know how
old it was for you but the spirit
of god entered and you were born again
you were given divine life eternal life and
so he has a creating work it is
a work of the spirit of god that's
why by the way one of the good
gauges a good measure of whether a person
is truly saved is the fruit of the
spirit right there are a lot of things
that a person can put on and a
person can be around assembly life enough to
learn the lingo but there is that fruit
of the spirit because that is how a
person is born again so there is a
convicting work and a creating work just i
don't think i mentioned this just in the
spirit of god is a person okay he
is not a force or an influence he
is a person as much a person if
i can use a poor expression as god
the father and god the son we were
thinking this morning a little bit in the
breaking of bread there about the trinity and
how it all worked together in our salvation
there's a subject to boggle the mind for
a bit the trinity i remember a man
he's in heaven now and uh in my
home assembly i'm sure he's uh he had
never i don't think he'd ever been to
ankeny but i'm sure he spent many many
times in iowa mr crawford and he corrected
some of the sunday school teachers one day
because you know they were bringing up water
and they were bringing up a three-leaf
clover and they were using different things and
in his own gentle way he was just
saying that you know you will never find
anything in this world that god is like
because there is nothing that god is like
there is nothing that god is not like
a three-leaf clover god is not like
water that exists in three states god is
not like body soul and spirit of a
human being god is not like an egg
these are our own analogies and our limitations
god by nature is transcendent there is nothing
like god and so all of our analogies
best we can do we're trying they all
fall short but the spirit of god is
as much a person of god as the
son of god okay so anyway convicting creating
confirming how do i know i'm saved maybe
there's somebody here struggling with that at a
bible conference you wouldn't be the first person
how do i know i'm saved i'm struggling
with many doubts i i go back to
that time and i wonder what i believed
back then and how do i know well
the bible points you in romans chapter 8
and again here in ephesians 1 romans chapter
8 tells us this that god has sent
forth the spirit of his son into our
hearts whereby we cry abba father and so
the spirit of god in a believer testifies
to that believer that you are a child
of god it is his work how does
the spirit of god do that well the
spirit of god has one great tool it's
the word that's why that's why people say
sometimes when they come to a gospel meeting
or a gospel series i know we have
them for those who are lost but one
of the great results is some of the
christians come and they say if i wasn't
saved before i've been saved all over again
what happened the spirit of god used the
word and testified you're a child of god
it's great great to have that happen so
he has a confirming work that i know
i'm a believer i cry abba father i
have access in relationship with god it's the
work of the holy spirit ephesians 1 says
it like that it says in that's what
we read upon believing you were sealed with
the holy spirit as we've already touched reformed
theology let's just do it again uh sometimes
i just don't know where these ideas come
from to be honest i i mean these
guys some of the men i've i've listened
to them they're smarter than me but they
have this idea that the spirit of god
takes up a work in in a person
and by sovereign sway he regenerates them made
alive and the first thing they do as
a child of god is believe the gospel
because nobody could believe the gospel who's just
a dead sinner of course the bible says
upon believing you were sealed with the spirit
of god the bible says that look and
you will live nicodemus believe and have eternal
life so i don't know where it comes
from i've tried to look into the greek
myself and i haven't found it yet but
maybe i have to read some roman catholic
no i shouldn't go there maybe i have
to read some different documents to find out
where it all came from no the bible
makes it clear that the spirit of god
enters and confirms that a person is saved
and it's beautiful here william was taking us
to that day of ultimate redemption and we
are sealed sealed with the spirit of god
can never be lost can never lose our
salvation and so a confirming work a comforting
work likely even here in our audience today
there are believers who have been through trials
even in the last and the last little
while i love that reference in romans chapter
8 it says the spirit makes intercession for
us with groanings that cannot be uttered what
do you think that means some people think
that means that the spirit of god speaks
a heavenly language and you know god can't
really understand our prayers so the spirit takes
our prayers and makes it known i just
have a problem i don't know god can't
understand our prayers that's just doesn't sit right
with me i think what it means is
there are times and you know this some
of you who've been on the road a
lot longer than the speaker you know that
there are times where you've gotten to a
point where you've gotten down to pray and
you can't get the words out groanings that
can't be uttered nothing formulated not our father
we come into the presence no just the
groaning of a heart and and how can
that be known but the spirit of god
he is so intimately connected with you as
a believer that he takes those groanings that
cannot be uttered and he speaks them in
the presence of god that's the role of
the holy spirit it's a comforting work there
in romans 8 with all the persecution tribulation
distress and all that these believers are going
through the apostle paul says the spirit of
god can take those groanings that you cannot
utter and you can make them well known
in the presence of god and so it's
a very comforting work there are times where
i know even well even for myself not
to speak of myself there have been occasions
where you just don't have the words but
thank god that we have that person as
we already heard about in us and so
every one of our needs is known in
the presence of god comforting so convicting creating
comforting confirming comforting okay we'll go to this
one controlling controlling be filled with the spirit
brother frank mentioned this in his ministry there
in ephesians 6 using the word filled in
a different with a different idea there my
wife comes from a hutterite colony i don't
know if you know hutterites around here in
iowa there's three groups anabaptist group hutterite minunite
amish shout out david yoder um different in
their theology and but similar in some ways
it's dead religion so one of the things
that happens when people decide to leave is
some of them can swing quite a way
to go to something exciting i was back
at one of the colonies uh just not
too long ago and visiting and a guy
had left and he had joined a church
um we would know them as a charismatic
group and he came up and we were
talking and as far as i know he's
a he's a true believer and he was
asking me what i do and what amanda
and i my wife and i and um
and he says do you teach your converts
to be filled with the spirit and i
said uh what do you mean and he
told me what he meant he said that
really what you need to do is now
they need to invite the holy spirit to
have and take over their life and the
way that they will know that happens is
they will be able to miraculously speak in
tongues and maybe they will have other signs
with it like the the power to heal
diseases and other things like that but that
is the way they'll know is the miraculous
and the supernatural and i thought no we
don't do any of that no and i
went home and i didn't think anything of
it you know i thought man that guy
is wonky until i was going with a
very uh dear but very um conservative older
believer a widow actually in our home assembly
and we were taking a trip to another
assembly and it was just me and my
wife and her we were driving down and
in this assembly um she was commenting the
about the person who was instrumental in planting
it she had a great deal of respect
for this brother and i just asked her
i said well what was the secret with
his preaching this brother she had a lot
of respect for him and uh what was
the secret and she looks over at me
and she says joey it was spirit filled
and my mind goes back to this kind
of crazy guy at the hutterite colony and
i thought oh no that brother was definitely
not doing any of that he wasn't he
wasn't speaking in tongues was he he wasn't
up there doing some kind of fancy what
do you mean spirit filled and i was
so i i got to this passage ephesians
5 now you notice did you did you
notice it is a command if i can
put it in the lingo of that brother
we should be teaching our converts to be
filled with the spirit it's a command in
ephesians 5 paul says do not be drunk
with wine wherein is excess but be filled
with the spirit and then he says that
a person who is filled with the spirit
what will it look like will it look
like gifts of miracles will it look like
speaking in tongues no he says it will
be people who speak to themselves and psalms
hymns spiritual songs number one singing and making
melody in their heart number two they will
be thankful number three and they will be
submissive number four verse 21 those ing words
participles they're called those are the four ways
that you will know that a person has
been filled with the spirit and then as
our brother mentioned he picks out the last
one submitting and he looks at it in
three relationships husbands and wives i guess wives
are meant wives and husbands children and parents
servants and masters so just that you say
what's the point of all that so the
husband in ephesians chapter 5 is not merely
the christian husband but the spirit filled husband
you notice that because the husband's instructions come
to a husband who is first verse 8
verse 18 filled with the spirit now that's
very helpful to me because the standard for
the husband here is way up here so
whatever it means to be filled with the
spirit i'm going to have to have that
happen if i'm going to be able to
be the husband in ephesians 5 or the
child or father or employee or employer so
i wondered what does it mean and as
i looked at it i started to find
out that it is a very important verse
people have said it's one of the most
important commands there's an expositor who has said
that if you cannot fulfill this command you
cannot fulfill any other command wow now as
we've as i've tried to mention feebly here
the spirit of god is a person okay
so you cannot get more of a person
whether it's to your benefit or detriment a
young indian man from michigan has indwelt this
little community center in ankeny i'm here now
you can't get a thousand of me you're
like thank god you can't get a thousand
joseph bakers to come here there's only one
of me there's only one spirit of god
he has indwelt you so what does it
mean when he fills you is this like
a gas tank that you drive and you
say well mine's running on e here i'd
like to get more of him somehow so
i'll go to about 10 bible conferences and
get it all the way up no no
it doesn't work like that again he's not
an influence he's not a goo he's a
person so as we heard i think it
was mentioned yesterday by one of the brethren
we cannot get more of him but he
can get more of us and that's what
it means to be filled with the spirit
that's what the word i put over my
outline here controlled controlled so many analogies have
been used the analogy of of sails on
a ship and as the sails go up
then those sails get filled with the wind
and then the wind controls the boat right
or you have the two people in the
car and there you are as the driver
and if you can imagine it reverently here
the holy spirit as the passenger well the
holy spirit is indwelling the car but it's
a different thing when the and the holy
spirit drives the car now he controls right
and so just to use my myself for
an example i have right now indwelt this
room what would it look like if i
filled it it would mean that i would
have sovereign control i get to decide what
color i want the walls and whether i
want carpet here or hardwoods i'd get to
decide what i wanted for lunch i'd want
the same thing i i you know i
would have sovereign control and that's what it
means when the spirit of god fills it
means he has control over every area in
my life so let me stop and ask
you some young people here does he have
control how about the internet browsing who has
control many a young man young sister even
knows something about private browsing clearing search history
you know all of those things are they
can be very real strong temptations maybe even
to the point of an addiction i don't
know but you know if the spirit of
god would fill right fill and have control
have his sway as one of the as
one of the hymn writers put it the
way that i guess appealed to me because
you know you hear all these analogies i
like what one guy said he says you
know when the spirit of god entered you
when you were saved he became resident he
says when he fills you he becomes president
i said i know something about the president
don't you yeah he said oh i know
the president he's got control well at least
it seems like he does doesn't he yeah
god wants the spirit of god not just
to be resident oh he's in me i'm
saved i'm a believer but to be president
to have control over my life what will
that look like how will that look like
in my in my job in my family
in my marriage in my work for the
lord you see that's it's very practical it
doesn't go on to talk about oh the
spirit of god is going to fill you
and now you're going to be able to
do miracles you're going to be able to
speak in tongues no he says the spirit
of god will fill you and you will
have interaction with believers that are spiritual if
i can put a simple summary over verses
19 and 20 right and so the spirit
filling work works itself out in normal christian
behavior wouldn't it be great if you followed
what i've just said there wouldn't it be
great to go to spirit-filled conferences you
say i like spirit-led ones okay spirit
-filled or the spirit of god is having
his sway you say what would that look
like i'm i'm wondering here in ankeny or
my home assembly what would it look like
if if our assembly was spirit-filled is
all of a sudden the whole community going
to be saved well i think what it
looks like the apostle paul kind of spells
out in 1 corinthians 14 he gives instructions
the instructions of the spirit and he tells
those believers to follow them and he says
if you follow them he says there's somebody
who's going to come in and they're going
to confess these are the nicest people in
town no it doesn't say that they're going
to say we've never heard such good they're
going to say god is in you of
a truth god is here you see that's
the work of the spirit of god and
so he controls now how does he control
you say i'm supposed to let him have
sway have control what does that look like
in my life well it's interesting if you
were to put ephesians 5 beside the sister
epistle sister letter colossians similar things are said
and it goes into similar relationships except in
colossians it doesn't say be filled with the
spirit in colossians it says let the word
of christ dwell in you richly so how
does the spirit of god how do i
know if my life is under the sway
the filling of the spirit of god is
it under the control of the word of
god remember the apostle john wrote some things
to seven churches and it says these things
saith the spirit what was it that the
spirit said to those churches well the things
that john wrote the things that john wrote
down so i can have my life filled
and controlled by the spirit in and to
the extent that i bow to the word
of god okay so i i what i
want to do with this expression maybe there's
nobody who struggles with that here i want
to remove it from the airy fairy the
sensational the fantastical and bring it right back
to what the bible says okay this is
a fairly straightforward teaching and the reason it's
straightforward is because god wants this for you
and i he wants us to have spirit
filled lives and so this is his controlling
work that brings me to number six conflicting
again in my meditation on this i thought
well if the spirit of god wants to
have control of my life why doesn't he
just do it he's god after all he's
already indwelt me why doesn't he just have
full control of my life and that is
because i can resist him okay this comes
back to even what we said before conversion
there's a conflict and we read about it
even here in ephesians 4 it says do
not grieve the holy spirit so the holy
spirit wants to have control right he wants
to fill to use this word just remember
it's in contrast to alcohol too much alcohol
a person gets drunk and they are under
the control of the spirits they're called spirits
aren't they and when a person is under
the control now the apostle says of the
holy spirit but we can resist him as
it says here we can grieve him that
to me is very solemn grieving the holy
spirit i can resist his work in me
how well it gives a list of sins
that maybe we don't talk about too much
i just mentioned maybe struggling with something like
pornography you know that's not one of the
sins mentioned here that does grieve the holy
spirit but what's mentioned here is corrupt communication
bitterness wrath anger clamor evil speaking grieves hurts
the holy oh don't forget he is the
holy spirit of god so i that's very
solemn to me that i can hurt him
he's a person after all you know i
try to be tough up here but you
know you could hurt me couldn't you he
could say something i hurt me you could
hurt him hurt him and so that's why
sometimes our lives aren't filled and controlled we've
hurt him we shut certain doors of the
house and we've said oh spirit of god
you can have sway here but not here
and so that's the conflicting work but lastly
just as i sit down the conforming work
i enjoyed this uh on the way here
to ankeny you know the spirit of god
he has come into my life and to
every believer here if you are saved he
has indwelt and possessed your life sealed i
love it just by the way how it
says here grieve not the holy spirit of
god whereby you are sealed i like that
in other words you can grieve him yes
but never to the point that he'll leave
you're sealed you'll never have to pray like
david don't take your holy spirit from me
no sealed with the spirit but the conforming
work what's the work the spirit of god
is doing what's the big aim he's aiming
at romans 8 says he's has a renovation
project going on on me we all have
a renovation tape around us and he wants
to conform us to what what's his goal
to the image of god's son that's the
work of the spirit of god he wants
to make us like the lord jesus and
so you'll go easy on me and i'll
my best to go easy on you because
we're all under renovation and some of us
needed more renovations maybe than others now that's
a lie we all needed the same massive
renovation it wasn't just replace the wallpaper or
paint the ceiling no the whole thing was
and the spirit of god thankfully is at
work at work renovating remodeling and his great
aim isn't it amazing one day you are
going to be like his son the lord
jesus i was thinking this morning it made
me smile the different brethren taking part some
were focused i'm sure you caught it on
the loftiness of christ where he left and
others were talking about his stoop one sunday
afternoon we left the breaking of bread there
in jackson my little brother and i we
had both taken part one of us had
focused on the high position that christ had
as eternal god the other one had focused
on his stoop you say well those are
big things to think about what were you
guys doing on the way home we were
fighting which one was better yeah i was
saying that no no i i think i
think the big thing is how high he
was and my brother was like oh no
the big thing was how low he came
and you would think oh you're smiling up
there must have been a friendly battle oh
it went from the theological to the carnal
we were going at it and maybe it
was raising in volume and the spice was
going you know all of a sudden my
mom dear mom she turns from the from
the passenger seat she says boys just think
about how high he's lifted you not how
high he was or how low he came
just think about how high he's lifted you
now theologians would say i'm not sure about
your mom you know what that that made
us just trip over our lip a little
we just we just got quiet have you
ever stopped to think how high he's lifted
you we sang this morning far far above
a restless world that wars below let me
ask you why should any of us not
be part of that world that wars below
only by the grace of god were we
saved only by the grace of god is
the spirit of god taken resident and done
his renovations and is doing his renovations in
our life but one day we will be
satisfied when we awake with his likeness when
we are like his son to god be
the glory great things he has done once
poor vile sinners now look like his son
what a renovation all because of the work
of the spirit of god so these seven
things you can add more to it i
haven't talked about the gifts of the spirit
and all the some other things but convicting
creating confirming comforting controlling conflicting conforming and god
bless his word and may the lord continue
to help us to yield to the spirit
of god so that he can have more
control in our lives