The subject is the spirit-filled life and
how to live it.
This matter of the spirit-filled life is
not an emotional matter, it's a matter of
clear thinking based upon correct doctrine.
And in order to understand this matter of
the spirit-filled life and how to live
it, we want to discuss the precise distinction
between the anointing with the spirit, the baptism
by the spirit, and the fullness of the
spirit.
Notice, if you will, the prepositions used.
It's the anointing with the spirit, the baptism
by the spirit, and the fullness of the
spirit.
Our first question, then, is this.
The anointing with the spirit, just what does
that mean?
And the easiest way to approach our problem
is to look at the two Greek words
in the New Testament translated anointing.
One of those words is the word elipho.
And we look at that word and see
how the first century people used that word
in ordinary conversation.
For instance, it was used of a yoke
band.
That is, one of those yokes placed around
oxen as they pull a plow.
And here are the words.
Which you will carefully grease.
Now the word grease is the word anoint.
Then we have a letter from a man
whose wife had presumably gone off on a
vacation, and he writes her that during the
month in which she has been gone, he
has missed her so that he did not
bathe nor anoint himself.
That is, give himself a body massage of
olive oil.
And there is her word anoint.
Then we have an inscription to a gymnasiac,
the head of a gymnasium, to the well
-beloved, honored Messor.
Evidently, this man wasn't remembered so much for
his athletic prowess as for the fact that
he gave the athletes, after their exercise, a
rubdown with olive oil.
And there is the word anoint.
Then we have in James, If any sick
among you, let him call for the elders
of the church and let them pray over
him, massaging him with oil in the name
of the Lord.
Now there is one of the words translated
anoint.
The other one is this, it's the word
creole, and it is used of the application
of a lotion to a sick horse.
And so we have our definition now of
the word anoint.
It refers to the act of applying something
to man or beast for a certain purpose.
We're going to take first now an illustration
of the word anointing in the case of
our Lord, in Luke chapter 4, verse 18,
where we read, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me.
Now does that mean the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because the Holy Spirit
hath anointed me?
Or does it mean the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because the Lord hath
anointed me?
Well, the answer is found in the Old
Testament text, which is clearer.
The Old Testament text reads, The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me because the Lord
hath anointed me.
That is, Jesus is explaining the place or
position of the Holy Spirit upon him in
view of the fact that God the Father
anointed him with the Spirit.
That is, God the Father placed the Holy
Spirit upon the Lord Jesus.
There is our first illustration as to how
the word anoint was used.
Then we turn in the New Testament to
the anointing of the believer with the Spirit.
And we have in the Corinthian epistles the
fact that God has anointed us.
Paul tells us that.
And we turn to James chapter 4 and
verse 5 for an illustration of how that
anointing was effected.
When we read, Do you think that the
scripture saith in vain the Spirit that dwelleth
in us lusteth to envy?
Now the context here clearly indicates that the
word spirit refers to the Holy Spirit.
And the Greek word translated dwelleth in its
full meaning is as follows.
It refers to the act of one person
causing another person to make his home in
a certain place.
And then our English word lusteth today.
The word lust refers to an immoral desire.
But 300 years ago when the authorized translation
was made, it meant what the Greek word
meant, namely a passionate desire.
And now we're going to translate in an
expanded translation.
The Spirit who has been caused to take
up his permanent residence in us has a
passionate desire to the point of envy.
Therefore, the word anointing refers here to the
act of God the Father in answer to
the prayer of God the Son sending the
Holy Spirit to take up his permanent residence
in us.
And the Holy Spirit in us has a
passionate desire to control us to the point
of envy which he has regarding the control
which the evil nature might have over us.
And so we would translate and interpret this
way.
The Spirit who has been caused to take
up his permanent residence in us has a
passionate desire to control us to the point
of envy.
Envy of any control which the evil nature
might have over us.
And then we come to 1 John for
a moment.
And in 1 John 2.20 we read
this.
But ye have an unction from the Holy
One, and ye know all things.
The word unction there is the word anointing.
Ye have an anointing from the Holy One.
And that anointing is the Holy Spirit placed
in the believer.
As for the words ye know all things,
the better Greek text had this.
All of you have a capacity to know.
That is, by virtue of the fact that
the Holy Spirit indwells, the Christian has a
capacity to understand the Scriptures.
And so we have our definition of the
anointing with the Spirit.
It is the act of God the Father
in answer to the prayer of God the
Son placing the Holy Spirit in the believer,
in the believing sinner, the moment he believes.
But now, you may ask me, how do
I know that the Holy Spirit takes up
his residence in the believer the moment he
believes?
Someone may say, I know a passage where
the teaching is that the Holy Spirit doesn't
take up his place in the believing sinner
at the moment he is saved, but sometime
afterwards.
And it's in Acts chapter 19 and verse
2, where Paul says to these men in
Ephesus, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since
ye believed?
That is, did you receive the Holy Spirit
since the time you believed?
And that would indicate that the Holy Spirit
comes in after the initial act of faith.
But let us remember that the English word
since has two meanings.
One meaning is the temporal meaning.
Namely, I didn't see this young man since
he was a boy.
That's a temporal meaning.
But then it has a causal meaning too.
For instance, we could illustrate it this way.
Since you are a Greek scholar, you ought
to know better.
Now, which meaning is in Paul's mind here?
Well, we go to the Greek text and
use a few Greek technicalities here to show
that the teacher is on a solid basis
when he interprets this passage.
The word believe is a participle and a
causal participle.
The word receive is the main verb.
And the rule is here that the action
in the verb is based upon the action
in the participle.
The action in the participle is the act
of believing.
The result of believing is receiving.
All of which means this.
That Paul says, did you receive the Holy
Spirit in view of the fact that you
believed?
Teaching that the reception of the Holy Spirit
is the result of the initial act of
faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, the purpose of the anointing with the
Spirit.
The purpose is to place the Holy Spirit
in a position in the believer where he
can minister to him in his Christian life.
That's the purpose of the anointing with the
Spirit.
This indwelling of the Holy Spirit is only
potential.
It's a means to an end.
All the ministries of the Spirit are made
possible by his indwelling.
But they do not spring automatically from it.
For instance, every saint is anointed with the
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit indwells every saint.
But every saint is not the recipient of
the full ministry of the Spirit.
That has to do with other things.
Then there is another thing about this anointing
with the Spirit.
There is no such thing as a fresh
anointing.
The Old Testament priests were anointed with oil
once at their induction into their ministry.
So the Christian believer is anointed with the
Holy Spirit once.
He's a priest, and he is anointed with
the Holy Spirit once at the moment he
puts his faith in Jesus Christ.
And so we've answered our first question.
What is meant by the anointing with the
Spirit?
The answer is the act of God the
Father in answer to the prayer of God
the Son placing the Holy Spirit in the
believing sinner at the moment he puts his
faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.
That brings us now to our second question.
What is meant by the baptism by the
Spirit?
And we turn again to our Greek text,
and we find that there are two words
translated baptized.
One is the word baptizo, and the other
is the word bapto.
And let us remind ourselves of the fact
that the English word baptized and the word
baptism are not the translation or the meaning
of the Greek word.
They are simply the English spelling of the
Greek word.
We're going to look in classical Greek and
New Testament Greek as to how these Greek
words were used by ancient people.
For instance, we have this.
A blacksmith dips the hot iron in water
tempering it.
He places the hot iron in water.
Greek soldiers dip the points of their spears
in a bowl of blood before going to
war.
They placed the points of their spears in
a bowl of blood.
We have the instance of an angry slave
master giving his slave a ducking in the
river.
He placed him in the river.
Then we have in the Septuagint the Greek
translation of the Old Testament this.
The priest shall dip his finger in the
blood and sprinkle the people.
He places his finger in the blood.
That brings us to this definition of the
baptism, namely this.
The introduction or placing of a person or
thing into a new environment or into union
with something else so as to alter its
condition or relationship to its previous environment or
condition.
The word in its usual usage means to
place into.
Now we will look at several places in
the New Testament where the word baptize is
used.
And we turn to Romans chapter 6 and
verse 3 where we read, Know ye not
that so many of us that were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
But let us remember again please that the
word baptized here is not the translation or
meaning of the Greek word, but it's merely
the English spelling.
And if we want to translate, we have
this.
Know ye not that so many of us
that were placed into Jesus Christ were placed
into his death?
This is the action of God the Holy
Spirit placing believing sinners in vital union with
Jesus Christ.
Now, you may say, teacher, how do you
know this isn't water baptism, but it is
spirit baptism?
In the first place, we have this fact,
that this baptism into Jesus Christ, this being
placed into Jesus Christ, occurred 2,000 years
ago when Jesus died on the cross.
And believing sinners were not alive at that
time.
You and I were not alive at that
time.
And thus water couldn't touch us.
But then there's another reason.
This baptism into Jesus Christ resulted in, as
we are told in verse 2, the breaking
of the power of sin in the life.
Now the breaking of the power of sin
in a person's life is a supernatural act.
And therefore this must be supernatural baptism, not
water baptism.
This teacher believes in the responsibility of a
Christian submitting to water baptism as a testimony
to his faith in Jesus Christ.
And there are plenty of passages in the
New Testament which teach that.
But this passage does not teach that.
It teaches that the Holy Spirit placed us
in vital union with Jesus Christ when he
died on the cross in order that we
might share his death, have the power of
sin broken on our lives, and share his
resurrection.
And then we go to one other passage,
please.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, no, it's chapter
12, where we read in verse 13, For
by one Spirit are we all baptized into
one body.
Or we could translate it this way, For
by means of one Spirit we were all
placed into one body.
And then we turn to Matthew chapter 3
for a moment.
And we have John the Baptist's words regarding
the Lord Jesus when John says, He, the
Lord Jesus, shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost.
Now that Greek word with has the idea
of instrumentality.
For instance, the boy painted the fence with
the brush.
That is, by means of the brush.
Jesus did this baptism by means of the
Holy Spirit.
That is, the Holy Spirit was the divine
agent that did the baptizing, the placing into
Jesus Christ.
Thus we have the baptism by the Spirit.
It isn't for power.
It's merely for the placing of the believing
sinner in the vital union with Jesus Christ.
It's never repeated.
For we have in Ephesians chapter 4, the
seven unities that provide unity in the Christian
church.
Where Paul says, There is one body and
one Spirit, even as ye are called in
one hope of your calling, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one Father of all.
Now this one baptism here is in connection
with six supernatural things.
And we would not expect Paul to bring
in water baptism, a natural thing, in a
list of six other supernatural things.
You can hardly translate this.
The best thing you can do is to
interpret it and paraphrase it.
One Lord, one faith, one placing into.
That is, one act of the Holy Spirit,
once.
Placing the believing sinner in Christ.
And so we have the baptism by the
Spirit.
The act of God the Father, a bigger
pardon, the act of God the Holy Spirit
placing the believing sinner in Christ.
Now we come to some distinctions.
Mainly the distinction between the anointing with and
the baptism by the Spirit.
The anointing with the Spirit places the Spirit
in the believer.
The baptism by the Spirit places the believer
in Christ.
That brings us now to the consideration of
the fullness of the Spirit.
And we will consider the words fill and
full in their English and Greek words.
These words are used in two different ways.
For instance, here is the first way the
Greek word and the English word fill is
used.
For instance, at the marriage of Cana, if
Jesus said, fill the water pots with water.
And we use this illustration.
Perhaps you heard the statement, one baptism, many
fillings.
Mainly, one baptism by the Holy Spirit placing
us in Christ.
And many fillings with the Spirit.
Let us illustrate that second expression, many fillings
with the Spirit.
Here is a man who has a motor
car.
And he drives up to the filling station
and he says, fill up the tank ten
gallons of gasoline.
And he drives off and uses up that
gasoline.
And he drives up to the next filling
station and fills up again and so on
and so on.
And this is supposed to be the illustration
of a Christian who yields himself to the
Holy Spirit and is filled with the Holy
Spirit, uses up that power by Christian living
and service, is empty and goes back and
is filled up again.
And uses up that power and is empty
and goes back to the Holy Spirit and
is filled up again.
Now let us look at that illustration just
a moment.
In the first place, the Christian's heart is
not an empty receptacle like a gasoline tank.
The Christian's heart is a symbol of his
willpower, his emotional nature, and his reason.
And in the second place, the Holy Spirit
is not so much liquid power poured into
an empty receptacle.
The Holy Spirit is a person to control
another person, the believer.
And that illustration breaks down.
Aren't you glad that doctrine is not based
upon illustrations?
Therefore, the use of the word fill in
full, having the idea of fill the water
pots with water, that use is not applicable
when we speak of the fullness of the
Holy Spirit.
Here is the other way the word fill
and the word full is used.
Namely, they were filled with fear, Luke 5
.26. Fear controlled them.
And then we have in Acts 6.5,
a man called Stephen, who is described as
a man full of faith and of the
Holy Spirit.
Stephen was filled with faith.
Faith controlled him.
And filled with the Spirit, the Spirit controlled
him.
And so let us remember that when we
speak of the fullness of the Holy Spirit,
we refer to the Holy Spirit's control over
the believer.
That brings us to Paul's exhortation in Ephesians
5.18, Be filled with the Spirit.
Let us translate it this way.
Be controlled by the Spirit.
Now there is a rule of Greek grammar
that makes us translate it this way.
Be constantly being controlled by the Spirit.
That is God's ideal for a Christian.
And so instead of saying one baptism and
many fillings, we should say one baptism and
his constant control.
You and I as Christians cannot live above
sin unless we are constantly being controlled by
the Spirit.
The Christian never acts alone.
He either acts in the power of the
evil nature or the power of the Holy
Spirit.
The Christian's will is free, poised between these
two.
And thus, the ideal in a Christian life
is the constant control of the Holy Spirit
over him.
The only thing that will keep the Christian
from being controlled by the Spirit is known
and cherished sin in his life.
When he has known and cherished sin in
his life, then the evil nature controls him.
And the only way he can get back
into the control of the Holy Spirit is
to confess that sin and put it out
of his life.
John says in his first epistle, If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
That Greek word confess literally means to speak
the same thing.
That's to agree with somebody.
And Christian confession of sin to the Lord
Jesus amounts to this.
The Lord Jesus says to me, that's sin
in your life.
I say, I agree Lord Jesus, that's sin.
He says to me, you ought to be
ashamed of yourself and sorry for it.
And I say, Lord, I am.
And the Lord Jesus says, you ought to
put it out of your life.
And I say, Lord Jesus, by thy grace
I'll put that sin out of my life.
And that's Christian confession.
And that brings the Christian back under the
control of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, we have to find the words filled
with the Spirit.
Namely, the Spirit's control over the believer.
That brings us to three distinctions.
First, the anointing with the Spirit places the
Holy Spirit in the believer at the moment
he puts his faith in Jesus Christ.
Second, the baptism by the Spirit places the
believer in Christ at the same moment.
And we want to be careful to note
that these two acts are instantaneous acts, never
repeated.
Third, the fullness of the Spirit refers to
the control of the Holy Spirit over the
believer.
And this is not an instantaneous act, it's
a process that goes on all through the
life of the believer.
That brings us to this question.
What must the Christian do to live a
Spirit-controlled life?
And we turn to John 7, 37 and
38 for part of our answer.
John 7, 37 and 38, where we read,
And in the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirsts, let him come unto
me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture
hath said, out from his inmost being shall
flow rivers of living water.
Jesus lays down two conditions which must be
met by the Christian if he is to
be controlled by the Spirit.
In verse 37, a thirst.
In verse 38, a trust.
First, then, a thirst.
You and I do not take a drink
of water unless we are thirsty, unless we
desire it.
And the Christian is not the full recipient
of the Spirit's ministry until he has a
desire for that.
Jesus didn't save you and me until we
desired him to save us.
The Holy Spirit, while doing his best in
a saint that is ignorant of his ministry,
yet cannot perform his full ministry in the
believer unless that believer has a conscious desire
for that control.
Now, what does it mean for me as
a Christian to desire the control of the
Holy Spirit?
It means, first of all, that I desire
the Holy Spirit to put all sin out
of my life.
Second, I desire the Holy Spirit to dethrone
my proud ego and enthrone the Lord Jesus.
Third, I desire the Holy Spirit to produce
his fruit in my life and make me
like Jesus.
And that is a very definite desire.
Then the other condition is, namely, a trust.
There is no scripture that instructs the Christian
to pray to be filled with the Spirit.
That does not mean that if a Christian
prays a rite in faith-believing, he will
not be filled, God will answer his prayer.
But we didn't pray to be saved, we
trusted to be saved.
And the rite scripture procedure is to trust
the Holy Spirit to control us.
And that trust includes a yieldedness to him.
For we have in Romans 6.13, yield
yourselves to God.
Thus we have two prerequisites for the fullness
of the Holy Spirit.
What are they?
A desire for that fullness and a trust
and yieldedness to the Holy Spirit for that
control.
Now your question may be, how long must
I wait until I am controlled by the
Holy Spirit after fulfilling these prerequisites?
Must I tarry for his fullness?
Well, let's go to the tarrying verse, Luke
24.49. And
we read, Now this was spoken by our
Lord Jesus to the disciples forty days after
his resurrection.
Ten days after that, at the Feast of
Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was scheduled to come
from Heaven.
Fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits.
And the only reason Jesus asked the disciples
to tarry in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit
would give them power was that the disciples
were in Jerusalem ahead of schedule.
They were to wait for the Holy Spirit
to come from Heaven to Earth.
For instance, some years ago, this speaker was
teaching at a Bible conference in North Platte,
Nebraska.
And speaking on the ministry of the Spirit.
And in the concluding message he said, My
wife and I are leaving on the train
tonight for home.
We're going to hold a tarrying meeting in
the waiting room of the railroad depot.
And you're all invited to come.
But the only reason why is that we
were going to wait for the train.
There's really no reason.
So the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost.
And he's here.
He need not be waited for.
But now we haven't answered our question.
How long will it take the Holy Spirit
to control the believer after he has fulfilled
these two requirements?
We'll answer the question by asking another.
How long did it take Jesus to save
you when you put your faith in him?
And you will answer, on the split second
that I put my faith in Jesus Christ,
he saved me.
And there's the answer.
The minute the Christian desires the control of
the Holy Spirit, and yields himself and trusts
for that control, the Holy Spirit controls him.
Thus we have two of the prerequisites of
the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And that's one side of the picture.
But here's the other side.
Namely, the Christian must not only desire his
control, yield himself to that control with a
trusting heart, but he must cooperate with the
Holy Spirit in his work.
We get this truth from two passages in
the New Testament.
We have in Philippians 2, the words, the
fellowship of the Spirit.
And in a Corinthian passage, we have the
words, the communion of the Holy Ghost.
And the Greek word in translated fellowship and
communion is a word that speaks of partnership.
Thus when two individuals are in partnership, they
cooperate with one another.
And so the believer must cooperate with the
Holy Spirit in the Holy Spirit's work of
sanctification.
For instance, here are two extremes in the
Christian life which must be avoided.
Here's a young man who does not know
anything about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
And he says, I'm determined to be loving
to everybody I meet today.
In his own strength, he tries to be
loving and he fails.
Here is a young man who knows about
the ministry of the Spirit, and the Spirit's
ministry of producing love in his heart.
And he says, I'm determined to be loving
to everybody I meet today, and I'm just
going to let the Holy Spirit make me
loving.
I won't do a thing about it.
He fails there.
The ideal combination is this.
The Christian saying, I know the Holy Spirit
indwells me.
I know also that one of his ministries
is to make me loving.
And so depending upon the Holy Spirit yielded
to him, I will step out in faith
and be loving to everyone I meet.
There is the ideal combination.
It's a combination of dependence upon the Holy
Spirit and a stepping out in faith to
do the very thing you are depending upon
the Holy Spirit to do in you.
It is like bending one's arm.
I have strength in my arm to bend
it, but my arm won't bend until I
say, bend.
Or let's have this illustration.
Here's a young man who knows nothing about
the Holy Spirit, a Christian, and he is
faced with a temptation.
He grits his teeth and clenches his fists
and he says, no, I won't do it.
And he does it.
Here is a young man who knows that
the ministry of the Spirit is to give
victory over sin.
And he says, here I'm faced with this
temptation.
I'm just going to allow the Holy Spirit
and depend upon him to give me victory.
And he goes down in failure.
For the Holy Spirit will not do for
the Christian what he can do for himself.
The ideal combination is the Christian saying to
himself, Blessed Spirit, I'm depending upon thee to
give me victory over this sin, and I'm
saying a definite point-blank no to it.
There is the combination of the dependence upon
the Spirit for victory and a stepping out
in faith and saying no to sin.
And the more frequently the Christian says no
to sin and yes to Jesus, the easier
it is until it becomes automatic to do
so.
And there is the victorious life.
A few more things regarding the cooperation of
the Christian with the Holy Spirit.
There must be a devotional study of the
Word of God through which the Holy Spirit
speaks to the Christian.
Then he must live a life of prayer
and he must engage in some Christian work.
Finally, what must a Christian do to live
a Christian life, a life filled with the
Spirit, controlled by the Spirit?
One, he must desire that control.
Two, he must yield himself to the Holy
Spirit trustingly for that control.
And three, he must cooperate with the Holy
Spirit in that control.
This concludes our message, namely, The Spirit-Filled
Life and How to Live a Christian Life.