The Spirit-Filled Life: Part 2

Welcome to the Point to the Cross Radio Podcast, the For the Radio Ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Bible.

Our prayer is that the five-hour Bible study programs will bring the law to a craving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the grave to grow in the great knowledge of the speaker.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

And thank you so very much for that kind word of introduction.

Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today.

I am Brother James, and once again I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, and I welcome you one more time to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

We hope and pray that God would use the time that we have together, about 30 minutes, that God would use this time to be a help and a blessing to each and every one of you that has tuned in to the program today.

On our last broadcast, we began a series of studies entitled The Simplicity of the Spirit-Filled Life.

The Simplicity of the Spirit-Filled Life.

We discussed the fact that many people, saved people, born-again people, are confused about this matter of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and this matter of the born-again believer being filled with the Spirit.

We saw from the Word of God last time, and we certainly can't review all the verses and all the material, but we saw from the scripture last time that the born-again believer, his body is the temple of the living God, the dwelling place on earth of the Holy Spirit.

Then we saw from Romans chapter number eight that anyone and everyone that is born again possesses the Spirit of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is a present possession of all born-again believers.

That what we saw from Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Then we noted from Acts 11 and Acts number 10 that the Holy Spirit of God is a gift, not earned, not purchased, not sought after, but a gift given by God the Father to all those that put their faith and trust in God the Son.

And we saw that the Holy Spirit of God dwells in our hearts by faith.

Then, just as time began to run out, we started to take a look at the seven words in Scripture that God uses to describe the relation of the Holy Spirit to the believer.

We saw first of all, and that's as far as we got, was one of these seven great words.

First, we saw that the Holy Spirit is a gift, and we quoted to you from Acts 10 45 and Acts 11 17.

The second great word that the whole the Holy Bible uses to describe the relationship of the born-again believer to the Holy Spirit is the word dwells.

The Holy Spirit dwells in us.

Listen again to these words, and I mentioned them just a moment ago, but I want to read you the verse from 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

What?

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.

This gift is a person who lives in every believer.

There is not one believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom the Spirit does not dwell.

This is the glorious fact which, when once recognized and acted upon, makes the difference between success and failure in life and service.

The Apostle Paul asked the Corinthians whether they were ignorant of this fact.

Most of them, at least casually, believed it.

They evidently did not know it.

At least the young man who took his father's wife did not seem to know it.

That took place in chapter 5.

They were still, the Corinthian people were still living like so many American Christians live.

Strictly Orthodox.

They had the right facts, they could give you the right answers, but they were factious, they were quarreling, they were going to law, they were envying one another, they were stirring up division and strife and controversy in the church house.

They were rejoicing in the gifts of the Spirit, but ignoring the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is to control, guide, and direct the exercise of those gifts.

There is a world of difference between saying we believe in Him and knowing Him.

All who are listening to my voice right now, without doubt, believe that there is a place called Niagara Falls.

Some of you know it, for you have seen it.

Do you know the Holy Spirit lives in you from personal experience?

There was a time a time when I didn't really know this.

Now I believed it.

If you had asked me, does the Bible teach this, that the Holy Spirit dwells within the believer, I I would have said, Oh yes, of course.

Because I'd read the verses, I knew where the verses were.

But but as a conscious reality, a controlling factor in my thoughts, words, deeds, and actions, uh the indwelling Holy Spirit meant nothing to me.

I thought nothing of him nor of his presence in me.

Then one day, one day, God began to deal with my heart about believing the Bible, not just intellectually, but practically, that is, putting what I said I believed to the test by by living by it, by acting upon it.

Would I believe the Holy Spirit lived in me?

I began to thank God that it was true.

Morning and night, whenever the thought came to my mind, I thanked God that his spirit lived in me.

One morning my believing a fact became a conscious knowing, and today I know, I know he lives in me.

Beloved, would you also enter into a covenant with your heart that you will actively believe God's word in your heart and begin to thank him for the great truths contained therein?

Begin today to practice the presence of God.

The best way is to thank him that he lives in you, that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

When you do so, many things which you do today allow in your life will be seen as hideous sins.

You know there's a lot of things Christians argue about and justify and rationalize, and they only do that because they are comparing their Christian life to someone else's Christian life, or they're comparing their uh convictions or their standards or their measure of holiness with uh someone else's obedience or with their own imagined requirements.

But I'm telling you right now, I'm telling you right now, if if God's people were continually and constantly and and believingly aware that the Holy Spirit is present with them every moment of every day, those things they fight about, argue about, seek to justify would be denounced and repented of.

I'm certain of it.

Number three, the gift that lives in us is God's seal.

In Ephesians 4 and verse 30, the Bible says, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

One purpose of a seal is to identify, and the Holy Spirit identifies us as belonging to God.

Moses asked, For wherein shall it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy people, is it not in that thou goest with us?

So that we are we're separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

The presence of God the Holy Spirit is that which identifies God's people today, as in the days of old, and distinguishes them from the people of the world.

Another purpose of a seal is to secure the thing, the thing that is sealed.

We are sealed until not until the day we mess up, not until the day that we slip and fall, not until the day that we we commit some sin or or perform some misdeed.

No, the Bible says we are sealed until the day of redemption, the day that Jesus Himself comes to raise those who sleep in him and to change those who are awake into his own likeness.

When we lay to rest one whom he is sealed, we lay away a temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with his own blood, sealed until the day of redemption, a temple for which he personally is coming again.

So the Holy Spirit is a gift, the Holy Spirit is a seal.

The Holy Spirit dwells in us.

Number four, the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance.

Listen to these words, and I'll turn there so that I can get them just right.

From Ephesians chapter 1, and I'm going to read you verses 13 and 14.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

The Bible says, 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.

Now we just covered that, but but watch in verse 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory.

Our inheritance suggests much for the future.

When two Jews in the old days were bargaining about land and the price to be paid was agreed upon, the seller stooped down, took up a handful of soil, and gave it to the buyer.

The buyer had the earnest.

When the price was paid, he would receive the inheritance, but now he had a sample and could, by analyzing the soil, know just what he was to get.

Each of us, though neither buyer nor seller now has the earnest of our inheritance, the Holy Spirit.

And when he is yielded to, and we are filled by him, we have a slight foretaste of the peace and rest and joy of the future.

I got news for you, friend.

If it's this good, if there is so much peace, such abundant joy, such blessed rest, and we've only received the earnest, the down payment, I don't suppose any of us can comprehend what it's going to be like when we receive the full measure of our inheritance.

The Holy Spirit is the pledge of the fulfillment of all God's promises to us.

His pledge for the full enjoyment of all the eternal inheritance, our airship of God and our joint airship with Christ Jesus.

You know, somebody said that they had a recent experience in the in the Holy Land.

This individual said he had long wanted to sail on the Sea of Galilee.

One evening he set out to find a boatman for the following day.

After engaging a boat for a certain amount for a day, he was turning to leave.

The boatman handed to the individual a certain amount of money, an earnest of the boat for the following day.

Now true, this man did not have the boat, but he did have the earnest of the boat for the next day.

The following morning, he called for the boat, he gave back the earnest, received the boat.

At the end of the day, he paid the rental price agreed upon the day before.

So we too now have the earnest of our inheritance.

God's guarantee to us of the redemption of the purchased possession our bodies.

The Holy Spirit is the present pledge living in us, the present pledge of the coming of the Lord for us, and the present pledge of the resurrection of our bodies.

Number five, we are anointed by God with the Holy Spirit.

In 2 Corinthians, and this word is so misused, you hear it just thrown about in our day and age in churches and on religious TV and religious radio.

But the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 21, now he which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

2 Corinthians 1:21

Notice Christ in the passage, God in the passage, the Spirit in the passage.

How men can deny the doctrine of the Trinity is uh beyond me.

But nevertheless, many earnest Christians are constantly asking God for an anointing.

You hear it all the time.

God anoint the preacher, God anoint this, anoint that, give us the anointing, how we need the anointing.

But my friend, this ignores the fact that God has anointed each beloved child of his.

Perhaps one reason people think they need an anointing, the reason that uh they seek an anointing is because they suppose that some great power or supernatural manifestation will come upon them if they receive what they define or call uh the anointing.

They forget that the anointing was always an official matter.

Anywhere in the Bible, uh, I mean, if people would study the Bible, they'd quit teaching so many silly things that just aren't true.

But the anointing in Scripture was an official matter, giving both authority and power, and only kings and priests were anointed with the holy oil.

The significance was not in the amount of oil, but in the kind of oil used.

You go back and read those Bible passages, you don't you don't see much emphasis upon the amount.

What the emphasis is upon is the type, the kind.

What is the oil?

What is that oil made of?

And we are anointed, my friend, with the Holy Spirit, God's holy anointing oil, to be kings and priests unto God right now.

The Bible says in Revelation 1 6 He hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.

To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Your chosen generation, a royal priesthood, first Peter 2 9 says, chosen of God, anointed to be kings and priests unto God and the Father.

This is not a future matter.

It is a life for today.

We are anointed of God.

Let us bow before him in gratitude, that he chose us from among men to anoint us for this royal service of praising and worshiping and declaring his holy name.

Number six.

Jesus promised his disciples before he left them that they should be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

In Acts chapter 1 and verse number 5, Acts chapter 1 and verse number 5, the Bible says, John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

Acts 1 · chapter mention Acts 1 · chapter mention

Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, while they were in the upper chamber, the Holy Spirit was given.

When he came to live in men, they were baptized, anointed, sealed.

The Holy Spirit made their bodies God's temples.

They had the earnest, and on that day they received the promised gift.

It was the fulfillment of the promise, ye shall be baptized.

On that day, on that day, the body of Christ was filled with the Holy Spirit as the believers, as the believers received this great outpouring from God.

As individuals, and unitedly as a group, they became the temple of God, the body of Christ.

And since that time there has been added such as are being saved.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13.

Now I now listen, listen, listen.

I know what some of you are thinking right now.

I know where your little minds are racing.

You say, Brother James, I I've been asking God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I've been seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

I've been begging God for the I understand that.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry that men teach you their doctrines instead of the Bible.

I'm really sorry.

The Bible says, I I mean, just for a change of pace, the Bible says, For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Now, every part of my body is a part of my body, right?

Got it?

That's not too difficult.

So everyone that belongs to Christ is part of Christ.

That's that's not too hard to understand.

Verse 13.

For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body.

You cannot be a part of Jesus Christ and and not have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Now, you you might be according to some teacher, you might be according to some preacher, you might be according to some radio minister, but according to the word of God, if you belong to Jesus Christ, if you are a born-again child of God, you have been baptized with the Holy Ghost.

The Bible also distinctly informs us that we have been baptized not only into his body, but into his death.

In Romans 6 and verse number 3, let me let me read that to you.

Romans chapter 6 and verse number 3.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

I'll have it here in just a minute.

There we go.

Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ.

Now, who is that?

According to 1 Corinthians 12, 12, we just read 12 and 13, every believer was baptized into Jesus Christ.

Well, the scripture says, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death.

Before Pentecost, no one was baptized by the Spirit.

The Spirit of God came upon men and women to empower them for special work, Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, uh, Bezalel to prepare the materials for the tabernacle, Joshua to bring the people into the promised land, Hannah to be the mother of Samuel to train a child who would later lead Israel back to God, Jeremiah to prophesy and stand against the wickedness of the king, Elizabeth to be the mother of John the Baptist, Mary to be the mother of our Lord, but not one of these was baptized by the Holy Spirit.

Oh yes, the Spirit came upon them, but not the baptism.

Why?

There was no death of Christ into which they could be baptized, and there was no body of Christ here on earth to which they could be united.

The baptism of the Spirit is an act done once for all.

We are united in the death of Christ once for all, and we are united to the body of Christ once for all.

It can never be repeated.

There is not one place in the Bible where we are commanded to be baptized with the Spirit.

The disciples were commanded to wait in Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Spirit.

He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which they had heard from him.

John baptized with water, but he promised they'd be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

From that day on, when the baptism of the Spirit is mentioned in the Bible, it is every single time in the past hence, it is not something to be sought, it is something for which to thank God.

And how soon, how very soon, you, my listener friend, would be filled with the Holy Spirit if now you would rejoice in the six things he has done, instead of asking or seeking or begging or crying or striving to get from God what He's already given you.

Finally, I hope I've got time for this seventh truth about the Holy Spirit in relation to the believer.

We are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be not drunk with wine where it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5 18.

Now, why should God link being drunk with wine to being filled with the Spirit?

I think it must have been in order that the most unlearned would know how to be filled.

Every child in Paul's day knew that a person was filled with wine by drinking wine, and that to remain filled he kept on drinking.

Even so, the only way by By which one can be filled with the spirit is by drinking and to remain filled, one continues drinking.

It's all so simple and easy.

For the word clearly indicates that drinking and believing is one and the same thing.

To drink is to believe.

We all know it is a sin to get drunk.

Do we all agree it is as much a sin not to keep the second part of the above command to be filled with the spirit?

It is a sin against the longing heart of God, for he longs to fill us.

What makes the water flow from hydrants and taps with such force?

It is the longing of the great pent up dam in the hills to seek an outlet.

And in much the same way, only with an intelligent, loving longing.

God yearns to fill us with his Holy Spirit.

His command is His command is be filled with the Spirit.

God desires that this be our normal state.

Not an unusual, freakish, bizarre experience in some church service.

Not some strange phenomena that happens once or twice in a lifetime.

Oh no, my friend.

A constant, continual filling of the Holy Spirit of God is God's will, God's desire, God's design for his born-again people.

Quite a catalog, isn't it?

Quite a listing of things, terms that God gives for the relationship between the child of God and the Holy Spirit.

Gift, indwelling, seal, earnest, anointing, baptized, fulfilled.

Six of those things God does for everyone who trusts his son and does them the moment they trust his son.

The seventh item, the filling of the spirit comes later, comes as oft as the believer will, and deserves a great deal of attention and discussion, which can't take place on the program today.

Our time is gone.

We've got a long way to go in this story in this uh study.

We're going to talk about the gift and his and his gifts, the witness of the spirit, the purpose of being filled, conditions, evidence, results.

And if you can't be with us for the remaining programs in this series, if you'll write to us, we will send you free of charge without cost, without obligation, this entire series on cassette recording.

Just write to us at 872 Glenwood Road.

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D Land, Florida.

D Land, Florida.

The zip code number 32720.

That's 32720.

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Until then, I'm Brother James.

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