THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Victors In Spiritual Warfare • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Ephesians 5:15–21 (KJV 1900)
15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
On the one hand, Christians face the problem of excessive emotionalism surrounding the Person of the Holy Spirit. This emphasis too often stresses experience and spiritistic manifestations into which demonic powers are always ready to intrude. Dr.
So-called "institutional Christianity" has come under criticism in recent years. When religious worship is reduced to lifeless, impersonal ceremony, it is no wonder that people look elsewhere for the joys of life. Satan's program looks very appealing in contrast to the drab institutionalism that often makes up modern worship.
Nearly all the serious errors that have divided and hindered the Christian church have somehow been related to a lack of balance. Many paradoxical truths in Scripture require balanced understanding. The sovereignty of God and man’s free will are a case in point. Predestination and the doctrine of election are thrilling truths. Yet, if we ignore the Bible's teaching on man's opportunity for choice and responsibility for decision, we will inevitably wander into trouble. The Word ofGod puts equal emphasis on both teachings.
Similarly, balance is the key to recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit in effecting victory. The Holy Spirit's ministry toward believers as outlined in God's Word has at least seven aspects.
Balance is required to keep those ministries in proper perspective. Excessive emphasis upon one of the Spirit's ministries at the expense of the others begins to destroy the balance. The enemy gets us preoccupied with tangents that rob our time and distract us tom understanding the whole of the Spirit's work. As we daily appropriate the Holy Spirit's power, it is helpful to keep in mind the Spirit's seven unique ministries.
I. A Ministry of Conviction
John 16:7-11
The convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit expresses itself in our lives even before we know Jesus Christ as our Lord land Savior. The Lord Jesus told the grumbling Jews,
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
The heavenly Father draws us by His Holy Spirit, convicting us of our sin, of God's righteousness, and of the certainty of judgment to come. Though I was only eight when I converted to Christ, the convicting work of the Holy Spirit is still vivid in my memory. I knew I was sinful and needed to be saved.
On the day of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit came and Peter had preached his sermon, the conviction of the Holy Spirit was present in power.
37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
The Holy Spirit takes God's Word and applies it to human hearts. Guilt for sin, the righteousness of God, and accountability deserving judgment are brought to the human heart by the Holy Spirit. That is how unbelievers come to know Christ as Lord and Savior. This ministry of the Spirit is constantly active in our world.
NOTE: The Holy Spirit does not use your words; emphasize God’s Word.
There is a sense in which the Holy Spirit also brings conviction upon believers if they have unconfessed sin. It is a different kind of conviction, however. It comes as our heavenly Father’s wooing, loving appeal to His children. It centers not on judgment and wrath but rather on broken fellowship and the need for a restored relationship (see 1 John 1 and Hebrews 12:1-15).
Unfortunately, much so-called conviction in believers’ lives is false guilt thrust upon them by the "accuser of the brethren." Revelation anticipates that day when
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
We must understand the work of Satan's kingdom, or we may tragically attribute to the Holy Spirit what is really Satan's doing.
Few believers escape Satan's clever ways of heaping guilt and self-condemnation upon themselves. He and his workers try to destroy a believer's sense of self-worth with accusations. "Look at you, comes the taunt. "You claim to be a Christian, yet you feel hate toward God and His Word. What kind of Christian are you?
You deserve to be judged and go to hell" Such thoughts should be recognized as Satan's work. The Holy Spirit does not deal with believers that way. He may well reveal to us our acts of disobedi-ence, but only to help us see the forgiveness and cleansing available through the blood of Christ. His purpose is to restore and assure us of God's love, forgiveness, and renewed fellowship.
One must refrain from warning too strongly of the importance of discerning the difference between the Holy Spirit's loving work toward believers and Satan's accusing, destroying actions. Consider the following comparisons:
The Holy Spirit's Work
1. Seeks to show you that your worth and value to God make He desires your fellowship.
2. Seeks to show you that forgiveness and restoration are available no matter how bad your sin.
3. Uses God's Word to give you hope and assurance of God's love and forgiveness.
4. Builds faith, hope, and love in your heart and increases your confidence and assurance of salvation.
Satan's Work
1. Seeks to convince you that you are so bad that God wouldn't want to have anything to do with
you.
2. Seeks to convince you that there is no forgiveness for you, that you've committed the unpardonable sin.
3. Uses God's Word out of context to try to convince you that there is no hope for you.
4. It Creates despair, doubt, resentment, and anger toward God, His Word, and His people. Tries to make you feel that no one as bad as you could ever be saved.
False guilt is one of the most common maladies affecting believers today. Freedom from such guilt is exciting and life-giving.
A Christian engineer shared this testimony with me. It's the kind of testimony the Holy Spirit wants to give to every believer.
"You'll never know, pastor, what a life-transforming thing it has been for me to be free of false guilt. Ever since I was saved, I've been haunted by my awareness of the sinful desires of my old nature. I'd feel so guilty and condemned when these desires would come to me. Now I see that these desires express what God said my old sinful nature is like. I can now reject them and seldom feel that destroying, paralyzing, self-condemning guilt anymore. If I do, I know how to fight it."
II. The Ministry of Indwelling
Romans 8:9
That text makes clear that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within a believer at the moment of salvation. John 3:6 states,
"Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit? At the moment of one's new birth, the Holy Spirit dwells within the believer’s spirit. He is a literal presence, dwelling within the believer's body. "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (1 Corinthians 6:19).
Understanding that truth should protect us from some excesses of today's religious scene. We do not need more of the Holy Spirit. We have Him living, dwelling within our very beings.
It remains for us to recognize His presence and to welcome His Person and work within us. We do not need more of Him; He needs more of us. We are to yield daily to His Person and His work within us. We will study that more as we consider the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Recognizing and appropriating the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence has much to do with our success as Christians. Because He dwells within us, we can ask Him to produce the fruit of the Spirit daily. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5.22-23).
Producing that fruit does not require new, super experience with the Holy Spirit. It is a matter of faith practiced daily. As the old nature tries to rule by causing us to manifest some of its expressions as outlined in Galatians 5:19-21, it is our responsibility to affirm that we are dead to its rule and then ask the Holy Spirit to produce His fruitful work within us.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is also why we can expect to understand God's Word as we read and study it.
However, as it is written:
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
That aspect of the Holy Spirit's activity toward believers is often called His illuminating work. As we depend upon the in-dwelling Spirit of God when we study the Bible, He will bring its truth into our understanding. That is why asking the Holy Spirit to illumine God’s truth as we study or memorize it is so important.
Many benefits flow from the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. He can sanctify us, to keep us growing in grace, to give us His peace, and to enable us to practice love. Through His indwelling presence, He distributes the spiritual gifts He wants each believer to have (Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:7-13).
III. The Ministry of Adding to the Body of Christ
I cor 12:11-13
The baptism "in the Holy Spirit," or "with the Holy Spirit," or by the Holy Spirit" is a doctrine often disagreed upon by various Christian groups. Some insist that this work comes after salvation and is accompanied by speaking in tongues. First Corinthians 12:13
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
describes baptism by the Spirit as a work of the Holy Spirit that places all believers into Christ's body, His body is described in Ephesians 5:22-23 as His church. The Holy Spirit baptizes every believer at the moment of conversion into the Body of Christ, the body of all true believers. Just as a profession of faith and water baptism seem to have been the two requirements for entrance into the local church of the New Testament, so the new birth, accompanied by Holy Spirit baptism, is how God puts us into the Body of Christ. Though joyful feelings may well accompany our conversion, baptism by the Spirit does not necessitate some experiential "high." Like justification, it takes place apart from experience. It's incredibly comforting to realize that I do not need to seek, groan, and strive to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. That work of the Holy Spirit unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ and to other believers as soon we believe.
IV. The Ministry of Sealing the Believer
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Those texts make clear that sealing is a work of God, apart from any effort or striving on our part. We are sealed unto God the moment we are saved.
The sealing work of the Holy Spirit guarantees your security and assurance of eternal life. Satan and his kingdom will What indescribable ceaselessly challenge your assurance comfort and ceaseless of salvation. He will assert that you are praise should come to us not good enough to make it to heaven. in knowing that the seal What indescribable comfort and of ownership is God's ceaseless praise should come to us in doing.
knowing that the seal of ownership is God's doing. The Holy Spirit seals us until the day of redemption, guaranteeing what is to come.
The believer's security centers in the Trinity:
• The Father holds us in His grasp: "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:29).
• The Son secures us: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28).
• The Holy Spirit seals every believer
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
The security of the believer is one of the most important biblical doctrines. If we have an understanding of our security hidden deeply in our faith, not even Satan himself can convince us to doubt.
V. The Quickening Ministry
Ephesians 2:4-5
Romans 8:11
Quickening means bringing the dead to life. The Holy Spirit does that for believers.
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
This text makes clear that before God brought us to spiritual life through the quickening work of the Holy Spirit, the ruler of the kingdom of the air, Satan, had a terrible hold upon us. After the Holy Spirit brought spiritual life into us as believers, we were set free from Satan's rule.
The quickening work of the Holy Spirit has three phases to it:
1. We were quickened and brought to spiritual life by the Holy Spirit the day we first believed.
2. We are quickened as we daily walk in the Spirit and experience His life-giving work (Galatians 5:16-26).
3. We will yet be quickened at the Lord's coming when the Holy Spirit accomplishes that glorifying work in our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11; see also 1 Corinthians 15:42-58; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
Our bodies need the quickening power of the Holy Spirit before they will be ready to enter the glory of heaven. In Romans 6 the apostle Paul calls the body "the body of sin." "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6:6-7 Esv, italics added).
Verses like this indicate that the old nature still has the potential to rule over us through our human bodies, which have not vet been quickened and glorified. The body is in the process of dying death is upon it, but it will one day be quickened in resurrection power by the Holy Spirit. We will then have glorified, immortal bodies like the one Jesus Christ had when He arose from the grave. "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:20-21).
VI. The Ministry of Interceding
Ephesians 6:8
Jude 20-21
Those texts remind us that we have help with our praying.
The Holy Spirit enables us to "pray in the Holy Spirit." That means He comes to our side and helps us frame our prayers. It also means that He prays for us when we may be completely silent but depend upon the Holy Spirit to bring our requests before the throne of grace with His deep groanings.
Indeed every believer has experienced the frailty of humanity that is common to us all, which may make prayer difficult.
Sometimes as we wait on the Holy Spirit, He will free our minds and lips to express our longings to God. At other times, we may kneel before the Lord in silence, knowing that the Holy Spirit is bringing our petitions before God.
To say that "praying in the Spirit" requires using an unknown tongue is incorrect. Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians
14:13-17 that praying in the Spirit includes the use of the mind.
Paul's prayers for the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:15-22; 3:14-19) and the believers in Colosse and Philippi were prayers in the Spirit. To pray in the Spirit means that the Holy Spirit’s control enables us to pray according to His Word and His will. He enables us to pray and intercede in ways that we could not without His help.
VII. The Ministry Of Filling
31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
The filling of the Spirit allows the Holy Spirit to accomplish the things He entered our lives to do. Through the Holy Spirit's filling, believers are empowered increasingly to walk in victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. As a result of the filling of the Spirit our lives will exhibit what Paul called "the fruit of the Spirit" -the qualities that characterized the life of our Lord Jesus Christ when He was on earth. The Holy Spirit's filling provides us with power for service and enables us to exercise our spiritual gifts.
As we seek to find our strength in “His mighty power, we must remain balanced, seeing the whole scope of the Holy Spirit's Person and work.