Before we begin the subject of the evening,
I've been asked to explain Revelation 1 and
10 and give my views on what it
means to be in the Spirit.
This reminds me of the fact that we
could have had a question box all this
week if you thought of it in time.
Oftentimes, oftentimes we minister and still do not
answer people's questions.
Forgive me for being thoughtless on that subject.
In the ninth verse of the first chapter
of Revelation, I, John, who also am your
brother and companion and tribulation in the kingdom
and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the
isle that is called Patmos for the Word
of God and for the testimony of Jesus
Christ.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day and heard behind me a great voice
of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and
Omega, the first and the last, and what
thou seest write in a book, and send
it unto the seven churches which are in
Asia, the Ephesus, and the Smyrna, and the
Pergamos, and the Thyatira, and the Tardis, and
the Philadelphia, and the Laodicea.
What does it mean to be in the
Spirit?
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day.
Well, I should think we would have to
answer that from Galatians chapter 5.
This I say then, walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of
the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary the one to another
to the other so that ye cannot do
the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the Spirit
ye are not under the law.
I think that to be in the Spirit
as he was on the Lord's day is
to be led of the Spirit and to
walk in the Spirit.
To walk in his Spirit.
We know what that means to act in
the flesh.
We know what it means to walk in
the flesh.
To walk in the wisdom of the flesh,
to walk in the energy of the flesh
is destructive for our Christian experience.
But walking in the Spirit, it would seem
to me, and being in the Spirit on
the Lord's day, being led by the Spirit,
is in the sphere of the Spirit.
Under his influence and enjoying that sphere.
I don't know whether that satisfies the question,
answers the question in the mind of those,
the person who asks it or not.
But it means to be in the sphere
of the Spirit under his influence.
That's what it means to me.
Now this evening we would like to talk
about the ministry of the Spirit through us
and its promotion.
And then also we would like to give
some time to the Spirit's ministry in developing
Christian graces within us.
And we have been given three injunctions as
to in which we have a responsibility.
And those three commands are, breathe not the
Holy Spirit, then quench not the Spirit, then
lastly be filled with the Spirit.
Now you and I have a responsibility in
fulfilling each of these commands.
Let's look at Ephesians chapter 4, first of
all, where we have been given the admonition
to breathe not the Spirit.
For sake of time, let's begin at 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 breathe not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye 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, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you.
How may we grieve the Holy Spirit of
God?
Well, certainly he can be grieved.
We can grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
I would say that we do not disappoint
the Holy Spirit.
We do not disappoint God at any time.
If we were to disappoint God, then we
would, we would be, he would be disappointed
because we weren't what he had expected us
to be.
Now God knows what we are.
He knoweth our frame.
He remembereth that we are but dust.
We do not disappoint God.
He knows what we are, ever and always.
And we never take him by surprise.
But I'll tell you something we can do.
We can grieve him.
Though we don't disappoint him, he does suffer
grief.
And we can grieve the Holy Spirit of
God by the things which we do.
Now you can only grieve those people that
love you.
We can make other people angry at us.
The fellow that we try to beat, beat
through the four-way stop, or beat through
the revolving door, or some such thing as
that.
We can make him angry, but you grieve
those who love you.
And the Spirit of God loves us.
It is said that he loves us in
Romans chapter 15, for the love of the
Spirit.
He loves us.
And so we can grieve him.
We grieve those that we love oftentimes.
Now grief generally suffers in silence.
And I think that that's true of the
Holy Spirit of God when we grieve him
by the things that we do.
It isn't that we are severely rebuked, but
nevertheless he feels it.
And we grieve him.
Now how may we grieve the Holy Spirit
of God?
Well, it is interesting to me, and I
don't think without signification, or significance rather, that
it's mentioned in connection with all these injunctions
in the fourth chapter of Ephesians.
The one immediately before it, it seems to
me, would grieve him.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your
mouth, but let that which is good to
the use of edifying, that it may administer
grace unto the hearer.
We can grieve him by the things which
we say, by wrong things which we can
say.
That's the context.
The next verse says, grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto
the day of redemption.
Then it says next, let all bitterness and
wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all mettle.
Now these are the products of hatred.
Bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking are all the products of hatred,
whereas the Spirit of God, the fruit of
the Spirit, is love.
And when we do these things, I'm sure
that we grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
We can grieve him with an unforgiving spirit.
Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has
forgiven you.
I think we can grieve the Spirit of
God with an unforgiving spirit.
Now, I suppose we could go through the
whole fourth chapter of the book of Ephesians
and say that anything that we are enjoined
not to do, or anything that we're enjoined
to do, that we fail to do, would
be grieving the Holy Spirit of God.
I think we grieve the Holy Spirit of
God when we do not enjoy the Lord.
He would put Christ before us.
He would bring Christ before us.
He would bring us into the good of
all that Christ has for us.
And when we fail to do that, when
we're too busy with the things of this
life, I think we grieve the Holy Spirit
of God.
Now there are other things to consider which
we are enjoined to do.
Quench not the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
Verse 16.
Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Quench not the Spirit.
Despise not prophesying.
Spoof all things.
Hold fast that which is good.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Quench not the Spirit.
Don't throttle the Spirit.
Don't quench Him.
Now the Spirit of God is indwelling us,
and He would speak through us.
Now we may quench Him by what we
fail to do.
When we fail to speak for the Spirit
of God, we quench Him.
We grieve Him by the things which we
do.
We quench Him by the things which we
do not do.
He would have us speak a word for
Him.
The Spirit of God is dealing with men
around us.
And He uses our lips.
He indwells our body.
Our body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost.
And He would use these lips of mine,
these lips of clay, to speak to those
that are around us.
He would have me praise the Lord.
I think that's a part of the ministry
of the Holy Spirit of God within me.
When I'm filled with the Spirit, my heart
will be filled so, as we will notice
presently in the fifth chapter of Ephesians.
I think the immediate context shows one way
that we could grieve the Spirit, or quench
the Spirit rather, despise not prophesying.
We are not to despise prophesying we are
not to despise those gifts which He gives
in regard to the future and in regard
to the present too for that matter.
Because they are revealed to us by the
Spirit.
We'll talk more about the New Testament prophets.
Shall we turn to the 14th chapter of
1 Corinthians.
Verse 29, Let the prophets speak two or
three, and let the other judge.
If anything be revealed to another that sit
it by, let the first hold his feet.
For ye may all prophesy one by one,
that all may learn, and all may be
comforted.
And the spirits of the prophets are subject
to the prophets.
For God is not the author of confusion,
but of peace, as in all churches of
the saints.
Now he said let the prophets speak two
or three, and let the other judge.
If anything be revealed to another that sit
it by, let the first hold his feet.
Now who reveals?
Who does the revealing here?
Well we saw that the other night in
1 Corinthians 2, that as it is written,
I have not seen, nor heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things
which God hath prepared for them that love
him, but God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit.
So it's the Spirit that reveals these things
to our minds and to our hearts.
Now if a brother is speaking and somebody
else gets a fresh revelation from the Lord,
the first man at the holy seat, now
by all parliamentary rules, he has the floor.
Are we going to take the floor away
from him?
He should continue speaking.
But the scripture says, told the Corinthians, and
I think there's a reason for it, if
anything be revealed to another that sit it
by, is not on his feet, but the
first hold his feet.
Why?
He has the floor, he has a right
to speak, doesn't he?
Let him finish his speech.
Well I think God wants us to get
our messages just as fresh from the throne
of Greece as we can get.
Now I don't know, I don't know how
long this other brother, we'll take the hypothetical
case of a brother that's speaking at Corinth,
and he's speaking something that the Spirit has
revealed to him maybe the morning before.
There's another brother that's sitting by and he
has a revelation given to him, and it's
from the Lord.
Remember this was before the Word of God
was written to him.
And that first man, if the brother tries
to interrupt him and shows very evidently that
he's being led by the Spirit, he's to
get away.
We want our messages fresh from the throne
of Greece.
And now the New Testament prophet was not
the same kind of prophet as Elijah and
Elisha, but he spoke by the leading of
the Spirit of God, and I think in
that sense we still have a New Testament
prophet.
Because although we have the mind of God
revealed in the Word of God, we will
not understand it, we will not get the
truth of it until the Spirit reveals it
to us.
And I think if the Spirit reveals the
truth through one of his servants, and I
mean really reveals the truth from the Word
of God, it's just as if we've never
seen it before.
I know I'm amazed.
I'm amazed at what some of my brethren,
and this is not, I'm not speaking facetiously
or sarcastically, but I'm amazed at what God
gives some of my brethren.
And I often ask myself the question, why
didn't I see that before?
I've read that, and I've said that, and
I've read that, and I'll tell you something
else that the Lord does with me.
Sometimes I'll puzzle over a certain truth of
the Scripture.
I'll puzzle over a certain pathway, perhaps, a
certain question, and I can't seem to get
the answer, and I search in the Scriptures,
and I search the Scriptures, and I can't
seem to get the answer.
And perhaps I'll go to a conference many
hundreds of miles away.
Perhaps a brother is on the platform.
Perhaps he is not so highly esteemed by
me as he should be.
And that brother speaks up, and he has
the exact word to answer my question.
And I have to bow my head in
worship.
And acknowledge that the Spirit of God gave
it to him.
And perhaps the Spirit of God gave it
to him just to kind of put me
in my place.
And you know God has a way of
kind of smoothing things out.
He has a way of kind of evening
things up.
And I am forced to admit that he
to quite a degree has been a New
Testament prophet.
Because he is speaking by the inspiration, by
the leading, by the guidance, by the power
of the Holy Spirit of God.
Now we should get, and our ministry should
be of that quality.
It really should be.
We should be Spirit led.
Now the things that we get from the
Lord are the best.
But don't decide the things which the Spirit
gives us through our brethren.
Years and years ago a dear servant of
God whom I have heard here in this
very, very auditorium many, many, many years ago
was asked after a particularly moving and effective
message how he could have such scripture at
his fingertips or on his lips.
And he says, oh he says I get
a little bit from here and a little
bit from there.
A little bit from this brother and a
little bit from that brother.
And he says the Lord gives me a
little.
And that was his way of putting it.
Now the Spirit of God gives us all
that we know about the Lord.
Now Spirit breathed ministry is that quality of
ministry which the Spirit of God gives.
And though it's not due to human ingenuity,
it's not human reasoning at all, it's the
result of the Spirit.
Now the Spirit can do it.
The Spirit can do this just as well.
He can suggest things to our hearts and
our minds.
Now we're getting into a highly subjective field.
I'd better say a few words about this
while we're talking about it.
The Spirit can bring things to our mind
just the same as he can recall things
to our mind.
Now we know that's true.
We've seen it too many times during this
week that the Spirit shall recall the things
to our minds.
Well he didn't.
The Lord told his disciples the Spirit will
bring these things to your mind that I
have taught you.
We remember that then the disciples, after the
Lord was risen, then they remembered when certain
things were brought to their attention that the
Lord had said these things.
And the Spirit of God has access to
our minds and he gives us thoughts.
Now God forbid that after the Spirit of
God gives us these thoughts, and he does.
He does indeed.
That we should take the credit that because
of our ingenuity, our spirituality, and our deep
desire perhaps we have obtained them ourselves.
They are revelations from God.
Now this is highly subjective because I think
sometimes the things that we get, that we
are so enthused about perhaps, and we spring
them upon the people of the Lord.
And some dear well-thought brother has to
come up and tell us that we have
not spoken the truth.
We have not expounded the truth.
Oh what then?
What then?
Well there is the energy of the flesh
you know.
And the scripture does say let the judge.
Because they are spirit filled too and they
can certainly recognize when they can hear what
the Spirit has given to a man.
So we must accept the judgment of others
in regard to our own ministry and oftentimes
as we mentioned in regard to our own
gifts.
Now this may discourage us a time or
two when we find out that we have
gotten something we have been very enthused about.
And we've given it and we have perhaps
been rebuffed.
And oh that it was not the true
explanation of the scripture.
Well what then?
How do we recognize?
How do we recognize when the Spirit has
really given us something?
Well I'll tell you.
When the Spirit has really given us something,
the saints of God will recognize it and
the Lord will be glorified and the church
will be edified because it is the business
of the Spirit of God to edify the
church of God.
And when that is accomplished we have been
speaking under the power of the Spirit of
God under his leading.
We have been in its sphere.
Now we may be as I said discouraged
once or twice.
Ministry can be of such a quality that
it's almost like the magician who pulls the
rabbit out of the hat.
Now he can pull the rabbit out of
the hat because he put the rabbit in
the hat.
Now it's very, very possible that in our
dealing, in our speaking the word of God,
that we read things in there, in our
zeal, that we don't belong there.
Now the test will be, are we trying
to seek our own aggrandizement?
Are we trying to raise our own stock
among the people of God?
What is our motive?
Is it a humble motive?
Do we seek to be led by the
Spirit?
Are we quenching the Spirit?
Are we grieving the Spirit in any sense?
Now I think when you grieve the Spirit
that oftentimes he will withhold his blessed ministry
in these respects and let us know that
he's grieved.
Now I think sometimes I grieve my wife
and somehow or other I get the message.
By a thing that is said that I
get the message.
Somehow she can connote to me that she
is grieved with what I say and what
I do.
Now I think the Spirit can do that.
Now this is in a highly subjective area.
But I think that you and I, especially
as we grow older and especially as the
Spirit of God does use us on occasion,
thank God for every occasion that he does,
we become used to recognizing when we have
spoken for the Lord and certainly the saints
of God are the last court of appeal.
They are the final court of appeal in
regard as to whether or not I have
spoken in the Spirit of God.
Were they antithetized?
Was the Lord Jesus Christ exalted?
Was there that air, that freshness that comes
with the fresh air of the Spirit?
And here I am again using that figure,
highly suggested by the very Greek word for
Spirit.
Now in quenching the Spirit, oftentimes he wishes
to speak to us.
Now after what I have said there may
be a reticence on our part to speak
up for the Lord.
Now wait just a minute.
I better not speak because if I do
I'll be seeking my own glory.
I'll be trying to raise my own stock
and maybe I just better not do it.
Well offsetting that is the admonition quench, not
the Spirit.
Now we can quench the Spirit by failing
to speak to an unfaithful person about his
fault.
I quenched the Spirit on one occasion.
I'm sorry to tell that, but I'll tell
it to you because the scripture says confess
your fault one to another.
And so I have scriptural authority for saying
this and being personal when I do it
because my fault are my fault.
And too often we confess each other's fault
to one another.
But the scripture is confess your fault to
one another.
Well I saw a gentleman sitting out that
I knew on a bench in Boulder, Colorado
one day.
His name was Bill.
He was a taxi driver.
Bill was retired.
He used to come into my brother's tire
shop and I knew Bill.
And I saw Bill sitting there alone and
I was rushing by.
And I said to myself, you know you
ought to speak to that man about his
soul.
Here he is.
He's wide open.
He hasn't got a thing to think about.
You could sit down there on that bench
and talk to him a little while about
his soul.
But I had a lot of things to
do.
And I said, I'll tell you what I'll
do.
I'll, I'm so busy now I couldn't get
any satisfaction out of talking to him.
I'll find him here in another day and
I'll really sit down and talk with Bill.
So you know I looked for that day.
I walked by that bench and Bill wasn't
there.
And I kept walking by the bench and
somebody, someday I asked Bill, someday, one day
I asked where Bill was.
Somebody said, oh he passed away.
He passed away.
Do you know when I should have spoken
to him?
Do you know when I should have spoken
to him?
The time I thought about it, I'm afraid
that I clenched the spear.
Oftentimes I think that we supply, and rightfully
so, this verse to the morning meeting.
The Lord would have us, perhaps, get up
and give a word of praise and a
word of thanksgiving to the Lord and express
the attitude of our hearts to the Lord.
And we sit like the proverbial bump on
the law.
They don't say a thing.
And there's a long silence.
Instead of somebody blaming, blaming everybody for not
being in a spiritual condition on this particular
morning, the thought comes to you.
Why aren't you up there on your feet?
Why aren't you praising the Lord?
Why should there be a silence?
Because you don't do a thing about it.
I don't do a thing about it.
I think we're clenching the spear.
The spirit would glorify the Lord through our
voice and he would have us speak a
word for him.
Now somebody says, oh I can't do it.
I have no gift.
I just get up and make a fool
out of myself.
That's what I do.
Well, if the spirit is really exercising us
to do it, really putting us on our
heart to do it, I believe that he
would give us the strength to do it.
We might be surprised.
Now I think that if we keep on
clenching the spirit, and if we keep on
grieving the spirit, that we will find ourselves
not alert to his promptings, and we will
find that we will just go through our
Christian experience, perhaps just coasting with no particular
exercise and no particular benefit, shall I say
to the church of God, just filling a
seat.
There's nothing wrong with just filling a seat.
But brethren, do be exercised about these things.
We can clench the spirit.
And the very next verse is, despite not
prophesying, we should be willing ever and always
to receive something from our brethren.
And we can clench the spirit by refusing
to receive things from our brethren.
I heard a sermon of the Lord say
once, years and years ago, that Christians oftentimes
have their favorite drinking cup.
And he said that harkens back to the
time when you had your cup with your
name and gold on your drinking cup.
And you just can't take a drink unless
you drink out of your drinking cup.
And I believe that sometimes there are some
Christians, though I doubt if there are any
of them here tonight, that fall into this
category, but sometimes there are Christians that just
won't receive anything from the Lord except from
their favorite drinking cup.
They do not seem to realize that the
Spirit of God has given many gifts, and
he has gifted many people.
We ought always to be listening for the
voice of the Lord when anybody is on
the platform.
And above, let's say we're getting very, very
practical here, I hope not too practical.
And we should never criticize that person for
his lack of unction, or his lack of
expression, and especially if we didn't pray for
the brother before he got on the platform.
Now, if you didn't pray for the speaker,
don't blame the speaker for being dry.
Above all things, be fair enough not to
blame the speaker for being dry if you
didn't get down on your knees and pray
for him before he spoke that night.
But be sure not to despise his prophetry.
Listen for the voice of the Lord, and
don't have your favorite drinking cup.
Because God is able to use any of
his servants, and he does use them in
a most marvelous, marvelous way.
And sometimes you get the sweetest things, the
things that do thrill your heart from the
most unexpected sources, and that just thrills me.
And don't falter in unbelief to think that
God can't use you, just the same as
he can use anybody else.
We're all of clay, our lips are of
clay, and the Lord can use us, and
we ought to be exercised not to quench
the Spirit.
Now we are enjoined, in the fifth chapter
of Ephesians, to be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians chapter 5, verse
18, Be not drunk with wine wherein is
excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
Don't be filled with spirits, be filled with
the Spirit.
Now, when we're filled with Spirit, when I
say we are, when a man is filled
with Spirit, that may point to an exuberant
form, and he may be very lavish, and
I wouldn't say that he sets an example
for us, but he is very often at
times a happy person.
And when you and I are filled with
the Spirit, and I believe that this injunction
we must obey.
That's kind of like the sixth chapter of
Ephesians, where we're told to be strong in
the Lord.
Just as if a man, if somebody says,
well isn't that mockery to tell a person
to be strong in the Lord?
It can't be, or the apostle wouldn't have
told us to be strong in the Lord.
It's within our power to be strong in
the Lord.
We can own our weakness, we can depend
on the Lord, and we can be strong
in the Lord.
We think it's ridiculous because of a man
lifting a cake of nails and straining to
his utmost extent to get that up on
the table, and we say, be strong, be
strong.
We would think that was mockery, naturally, but
when we are told to be strong in
the Lord, that's an admonition we can obey.
And when we're told to be filled with
the Spirit, that's an admonition that we can
obey.
We're told to be filled with the Spirit.
Now, this is not the baptism of the
Spirit.
There are some in Christian circles, there is
some confusion about being filled with the Spirit,
and being baptized with the Spirit.
Some feel that being baptized with the Spirit
is accompanied, is a second blessing, and is
accompanied by the power to speak in tongues,
etc.
That's not being baptized with the Spirit at
all.
When I was baptized into the body of
Christ, I didn't even feel it.
I didn't even know it had happened until
a long time after it had happened.
But, believe me, we do know when we're
filled with the Spirit, and we're enjoined to
be filled with the Spirit of God.
I think being filled with the Spirit is
a matter of making room for the Spirit.
He's already incited.
We don't need to invite Him in.
He's there.
He was there the moment that we believed.
A servant of the Lord once wrote a
little booklet on the 38 things that happen
the moment that we trust Christ.
I haven't had a chance to get a
hold of that little booklet, but someday I'm
going to do it.
And this is what happens.
The Spirit of God comes and involves this
body of mine, and I didn't even realize
it.
You see, the manifestation has become very evident.
The Word of God opens up.
My heart is filled with joy.
My heart is filled with love.
My heart is filled with peace.
This is all a product of the Spirit
of God.
And I didn't even know it when He
came in.
But the evidences are there, just as the
evidences are there when the wind passes through
the trees.
We don't see the wind, but we see
the evidences of the wind.
Now, when we are filled with the Spirit,
I think it's a matter of making room
for Him in our heart.
He's already there.
Let's let Him occupy.
That may result in doing a lot of
things like Hezekiah did when he began his
revival.
Do you remember what he did?
He went into the temple, and he carted
a lot of stuff out of the temple.
And this also was done in Nehemiah's day.
Nehemiah's day, I mean, Nehemiah and Hezekiah, both
men.
Their names were similar, but they both did.
And then they brought in the great saints.
They brought in the offerings.
Now, when I make room for the Spirit,
it may be that I'll take a lot
of things out of my life that don't
belong there.
And I'll give the Spirit time.
I'll be occupied with praise, as He would
always occupy me with praise.
I'll be filled with the Spirit of God
because I make room for Him.
That's hard to do in this day and
age.
This is a busy day and age, and
I fear that we crowd the Spirit up
into one little old corner of our lives.
Perhaps we'll give Him an hour on Lord's
same day, and that's about the extent of
what He gets out of our lives for
the whole week.
Oh, the Spirit of God would occupy us
with our blessings.
He would fill us.
And it's going to take some discipline on
our part to make room for Him.
But remember, the injunction would not be given
unless we could do something about it.
Be filled with the Spirit.
Now, there are certain evidences of being filled
with the Spirit that I believe are a
part of the context here.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs.
Singing and making melody in your heart to
the Lord.
Now, singing perhaps loudly so as to be
heard in the meeting.
And I couldn't do that if I wanted
to.
But it's not necessarily an evidence of the
Spirit of the Lord.
Perhaps it is.
Perhaps it's an evidence of a buoyant spirit.
But what I'm bringing out is, if you
can't sing loudly and sweetly with a trained
voice, don't feel bad about it.
Look at the verse.
Please.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs.
Singing and making melody in your heart to
the Lord.
Now, that's evidences and evidence of being filled
with the Spirit.
Is having a heart full of music.
And a heart full of thanksgiving incidentally.
The next verse.
Giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
I think that a Spirit-filled heart will
be a thankful heart.
It will not be only a singing heart.
It will be a thankful heart.
Then it will be a submissive heart.
We have the injunction in verse 21.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear
of God.
We have wives submitting themselves unto the husbands.
The children in chapter 6 are told to
obey their parents.
And the servants in verse 5 of chapter
6 are told to be obedient to your
masters and serve them with fear and trembling.
And the masters are told to respect their
servants.
The husbands are told to respect their wives.
It's a submission.
Now, being filled with the Spirit of God
is having a certain flash in your eye,
a certain snap in your step, and a
certain air of command.
Actually, I think that if we're filled with
the Spirit of God we will be submissive,
we will be quiet.
And we will indeed have a song in
our heart and a word of thanksgiving for
the Lord.
Now, we haven't touched on this to any
degree, but we must leave it.
Now, these injunctions are given to you and
to me in regard to our responsibilities toward
the Spirit.
Let's not grieve him by what we do.
Let's not quench him by what we don't
do.
Let's be filled with the Spirit so that
he may occupy us with Christ.
Now, let's speak of the Spirit's ministry in
developing Christian graces.
Galatians 5.
Verse 19, now the works of the flesh
are manifest.
You can't hide them.
Which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, and so on.
We would never get to the end of
the list because he ends this category here,
this catalog, and such life.
But he does say in verse 22 that
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.
Now, the Spirit's ministry in developing the Christian
graces is a slow process.
It's a quiet process.
It is a process that is best explained
by growth, because fruit grows.
It's the fruit of the Spirit.
Now, the works of the flesh are, they
make a lot of noise.
They make a lot of, of what shall
we say, rafting.
The flesh is very evident.
I think everybody else needs to know it's
evident too.
But the fruit of the Spirit, it develops
so quietly.
I remember hearing Mr. C.W. Roth explain
this scripture, and I couldn't do better than
what he did.
He speaks of the works of the flesh.
That's the factory of the flesh.
And oh, the odious things that are produced
in this factory.
All the hammerings, all the smoke, all the
fire.
It's the works of the flesh.
And then he says, over against that, there's
the fruit of the Spirit.
And Mr. Roth says, did you ever go
out and enter the orchard on a nice,
lovely day and listen to the apples grow?
Well, of course, you don't go out in
the orchard and listen to the apples grow.
But they do grow.
They grow so quietly.
But they grow.
And there they are.
They're beautiful.
Now, the fruit of the Spirit is developed
in you and me.
And it starts out with love.
As a matter of fact, this is the
fruit of the Spirit.
It does not say the fruit of the
Spirit.
It's not fruit, plural.
It's the fruit.
And all of the other things spring out
of love.
This is not original with me.
Love is the great source of all the
good things that come out of the heart.
When the Spirit is in control, when he
is leading, when he is guiding, then these
things come out of the heart.
Joy is love exulting.
Peace is love resting.
Long-suffering is love's aberrance.
Gentleness is love's very character.
Goodness is love's result.
Faithfulness is love's consistency.
Meekness is love's attitude.
Temperance is love's restraint.
And love does restrain.
They are all the fruit of the Spirit.
And that fruit is love.
And these various things that follow.
The first three of these, and I'm being
very, very brief with this, love, joy, and
peace is broad words.
Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness is church words.
Faith, meekness, temperance is man words.
These fruits are in three, as we have
already pointed out.
And others will see when we have been
indeed under the influence of the Spirit of
God.
Now really, what is happening here is the
Spirit is producing Christ.
These things, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, were seen in their
most highest developed character in our Lord Jesus
Christ himself.
He is the one who always manifests love.
He is the one whose heart was filled
with joy.
He is the one who could fill others
with joy.
His peace he speaks of in John 14.
His long-suffering is so great.
These are all the characteristics of our Lord
Jesus, and the Spirit is trying to produce
them in us.
And what lovely fruits they are.
In this connection, please turn to 2 Corinthians
3.
2 Corinthians 3, verse 17.
Now, the Lord is that Spirit, and where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.
But we all with open faith, beholding as
in a glass the glory of the Lord,
are changed, transformed, transfigured, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as
by the Spirit of the Lord.
Now, if we will behold the Lord, and
that's what the Spirit would do, is to
bring Christ before us, then we will be
changed into his image.
We shall become like him as we behold
him.
To know the Lord is to become like
the Lord.
And it's the Spirit's work to change us
into his image.
If we're in the presence of the Lord,
if we admire him, we shall certainly become
like him.
And the Spirit will see to it, because
he affects the change, and are changed into
the same image from glory to glory, even
as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Now, this dovetails completely with Ephesians 5, 22
and 23.
It's the fruit of the Spirit in our
lives.
He is bringing Christ into our lives.
Now, this will not be happening.
This will not be happening if we quench
him, if we grieve him, if we are
not filled with him, if we crowd him
out of our lives and don't make room
for the Spirit, the fruit will not be
an evidence to the extent, at least, it
would be if we would be submissive.
Now, if you'll forgive me, you'll have to
go on.
I have just one more thought.
In the 8th chapter of Romans, we see
the last ministry of the Spirit has gone
through us.
The last ministry in our experience in connection
with this world, connection with this body.
Romans 8, verse 10, And
if Christ be in you, the body is
dead because of sin, but the Spirit is
life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his
Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Now, God is going to quicken these mortal
bodies when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again,
and he's going to do it by his
Spirit.
The Spirit is going to give me that
new body.
Now, the power is already here.
The power is already resident within my body
that's going to change my body, like to
his body of glory, when the Lord Jesus
Christ comes.
I may have given you this illustration before,
but there was one time in my life
as a schoolboy that I worked in a
mine, and we used to load the hold
with dynamite.
We used to blast out drifts to reach
the oar, and then blast the oar down.
Now, oftentimes the expression would be used, well,
we're loaded, let's get out of here.
The power was in the hold all ready
to go.
Perhaps the fuse were to be ignited.
Well, may I use that expression, may I
borrow that expression from a miner's term?
You and I are loaded.
The power is already here, only the fuse
is a sonic fuse.
Now, there is such a thing as a
sonic fuse.
A fuse that will detonate with a certain
vibration.
And the fuse that I've got inside of
me, if you'll let me carry this illustration
on out, is a sonic fuse.
What will set it off?
A certain shout from the right person.
And the power transforms me just like that,
and the power is already here.
I'm loaded.
I'm ready to go.
Nothing has to happen except one thing, and
that's a shout from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm chained to the moment, and the
power is right here, already, right now.
Isn't that a gracious ministry?
Won't that be a wonderful ministry of the
Spirit?
Won't that be the climax of all the
good and gracious things that he does for
you and for me, down in this life
below, to change these bodies?
Had you ever thought of the Spirit in
connection with giving our blessed Lord Jesus Christ
his body?
Remember that the Lord, the angel rather, Gabriel
told Mary, that which is conceived in thee
is of the Holy Ghost.
Now, the Spirit of God gave my blessed
Lord Jesus Christ his body.
And the Spirit of God, praise God, is
going to change this body, like unto his
body of glory.
The same Spirit that gave my blessed Lord
his body.
And if you want to carry out the
thought a little bit farther, he is also
giving Christ his spiritual body in the church.
For we are all, by one Spirit, baptized
into one body, even as by the Spirit
of God.
He is the one that's giving the Lord
his body, the church.
Now, this is the last ministry of the
Spirit to us, and it is the climax
we wish by day, when the Spirit of
God shall do his final service for us,
his final work, in giving us a body
like unto the body of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
What a day of rejoicing that will be,
shall we pray.
Our Father tonight, in the name of the
Lord Jesus, we do thank thee for the
time which we have enjoyed together around the
Word of God this week.
We do thank thee for the many encouragements
that we receive from the Word of God.
Lord, help us to lift up the feeble
hand.
Lord, help us, strengthen us as we wait
upon the Lord to mount up with wings
as eagles, to run and not be worried,
to walk and not faint.
That the Spirit of God may have his
way in our lives, that he may have
full sway, that we may make room for
him, that he may be priestly for us
and develop those graces that were so displayed
in our Lord Jesus in us.
We pray, Father, that we shall be sinlesses
and that we will not resist his efforts,
we will not quench him, we will not
grieve him.
Lord, bless us as we separate and keep
us all close to thee, we pray, and
take up our thanks for the Lord Jesus
and for the ministry of the Spirit of
God as we ask, as we give thanks
in our Savior's precious name.