Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 06 - The Holy Spirit in Ephesians - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit in Ephesians. We are speaking in these
- 0:05Speaker 1: lectures of the spiritual life. I told you on Tuesday
- 0:10Speaker 1: morning that it is a great thing when a man
- 0:12Speaker 1: gets a vision of what the spiritual life is and
- 0:15Speaker 1: of the fact that it is for him. On Tuesday
- 0:18Speaker 1: evening and yesterday morning, I spoke of the two aspects
- 0:22Speaker 1: of that life, the one the mere doctrinal from the
- 0:26Speaker 1: eighth chapter of Romans, and the other the practical, from
- 0:29Speaker 1: the words the fruit of the Spirit is love. I
- 0:34Speaker 1: wish this morning to keep that same thought before us,
- 0:37Speaker 1: because I believe the more deeply we come to understand
- 0:40Speaker 1: that God means us to live the life of the
- 0:42Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, the more clearly we see that Scripture points
- 0:46Speaker 1: to the provision God has made by which every action
- 0:48Speaker 1: of the Redeemed life may be through the Holy Spirit.
- 0:52Speaker 1: The more convinced we shall be that God will give
- 0:54Speaker 1: us this life, and the more ready we shall be
- 0:57Speaker 1: to sacrifice all to enter into it. I think it
- 1:01Speaker 1: may help us to take a little Bible reading on
- 1:03Speaker 1: this subject this morning from one of the epistles, and
- 1:06Speaker 1: just look at the place that the Holy Spirit takes
- 1:09Speaker 1: in the Christian life, as exhibited in it. First turned
- 1:14Speaker 1: to the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter one and the
- 1:17Speaker 1: thirteenth verse, in whom after that ye believed that is
- 1:22Speaker 1: in Christ, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
- 1:26Speaker 1: We have here, first of all, the sealing of the
- 1:29Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Believing you were sealed. Just look at the
- 1:35Speaker 1: three thousand on the day of Pentecost. They believed and
- 1:38Speaker 1: were baptized and received the Holy Ghost, and they were
- 1:42Speaker 1: sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise. Now you know
- 1:46Speaker 1: what a seal is. The sealing of a letter or
- 1:49Speaker 1: document is for safety and confirmation. God gives to his
- 1:53Speaker 1: child at conversion the Holy Spirit as a seal, which
- 1:57Speaker 1: is the mark of God set upon him, that he
- 2:00Speaker 1: may know that he is God's redeemed child. That seal
- 2:04Speaker 1: is not a dead one, but is the living Holy Spirit,
- 2:08Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit of Promise. The Holy Spirit seals me
- 2:12Speaker 1: as an earnest of my inheritance, as a spirit of promise.
- 2:17Speaker 1: And when that spirit seals me, I am to trust
- 2:20Speaker 1: and hope for all God is going to do. If
- 2:24Speaker 1: I am to live a healthy Christian life, I must
- 2:26Speaker 1: carry the living seal of the Living Spirit of God
- 2:29Speaker 1: in my life. Every moment. I must pray to God
- 2:33Speaker 1: for this living, heaven born consciousness of being the child
- 2:36Speaker 1: of God to be so clear that every moment I
- 2:40Speaker 1: can realize it. The father of a family, a workman,
- 2:44Speaker 1: a soldier, a sailor. Every man carries about with him
- 2:48Speaker 1: the consciousness of what he is. Just so the Holy
- 2:52Speaker 1: Spirit will so enable a man to realize I am
- 2:55Speaker 1: sealed with the Holy Spirit from Heaven, that he will
- 2:58Speaker 1: feel I cannot do anything inconsistent with my position and nature.
- 3:03Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit reminds me, I am God's dear child. Secondly,
- 3:10Speaker 1: the second passage you will find at the seventeenth verse.
- 3:13Speaker 1: I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
- 3:17Speaker 1: of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord,
- 3:20Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you
- 3:23Speaker 1: the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
- 3:27Speaker 1: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Here we have
- 3:31Speaker 1: the spirit of illumination of divine enlightenment. After having brought
- 3:37Speaker 1: them to see that they were sealed with the Holy Spirit,
- 3:40Speaker 1: Paul praise for them. Father, give them the spirit of
- 3:43Speaker 1: wisdom and revelation and enlighten the eyes of their hearts.
- 3:48Speaker 1: He prays for them, because He wants them to know
- 3:50Speaker 1: the heights of their calling and the glory of their
- 3:53Speaker 1: inheritance and the power of Christ working in them. God
- 3:57Speaker 1: has prepared for us in Christ wonderful riches. Our calling
- 4:02Speaker 1: is to be holy, to live like God's sons. Our
- 4:06Speaker 1: heritage is rich and precious. The power that works in
- 4:09Speaker 1: us is the resurrection power of Christ by which God
- 4:12Speaker 1: raised him and set him at his right hand. That
- 4:16Speaker 1: mighty power is working in us human beings. We do
- 4:19Speaker 1: not know these things from day to day because we
- 4:22Speaker 1: do not continue waiting and asking for and yielding too
- 4:25Speaker 1: the spirit of illumination He would give us to see
- 4:29Speaker 1: what is prepared for us every day in Christ Jesus.
- 4:34Speaker 1: This week we speak about the Holy Spirit, and next
- 4:37Speaker 1: week about the Lord Jesus, showing how the Spirit leads
- 4:40Speaker 1: to Christ and out of Christ the Spirit comes ever
- 4:43Speaker 1: more abundantly. Paul prays that the Spirit might reveal Christ
- 4:48Speaker 1: fully to them and that they might know what they
- 4:51Speaker 1: have in Christ. I cannot read my Bible, I cannot
- 4:55Speaker 1: lead a Christian life unless I have the Holy Spirit
- 4:58Speaker 1: as the spirit of enlighten. It is not a special thing,
- 5:02Speaker 1: but just for the ordinary Christian life. The eyes of
- 5:06Speaker 1: my heart are darkened by sin. Every day I must
- 5:10Speaker 1: have them illuminated by the Holy Ghost. And this I
- 5:14Speaker 1: must pray for. It comes in answer to humble prayer
- 5:17Speaker 1: waiting upon God. Thirdly, in the second chapter we have
- 5:23Speaker 1: in the eighteenth verse through whom Christ we have access
- 5:28Speaker 1: by one spirit unto the Father. This is the spirit
- 5:32Speaker 1: of worship, whereby we are brought nigh to God through
- 5:35Speaker 1: Jesus by one spirit. I need the Spirit if I
- 5:39Speaker 1: want to pray. I need him to worship. As a
- 5:43Speaker 1: little child, I used to say every day to my Father,
- 5:46Speaker 1: good Morning. Every morning. I need to enter into God's
- 5:50Speaker 1: presence and cry Abba Father and dwell near to God.
- 5:55Speaker 1: How can I do it? Through Christ? By the Holy Spirit.
- 6:00Speaker 1: Many people speak of drawing nigh to God through the
- 6:03Speaker 1: Blood and through Christ. We cannot praise God too much
- 6:07Speaker 1: for Christ and the Blood. But that is not all.
- 6:10Speaker 1: There are many who don't know what it means to
- 6:12Speaker 1: draw nigh through the Holy Spirit. Where a heart is
- 6:16Speaker 1: filled with the Holy Spirit, there the access and abiding
- 6:19Speaker 1: in God's presence is no longer an effort, but the natural,
- 6:23Speaker 1: spontaneous breathing of the spirit. A man cannot live a
- 6:27Speaker 1: true Christian life unless he has the Holy Spirit living
- 6:31Speaker 1: in him every moment. He must know and be conscious
- 6:35Speaker 1: that by the Spirit he has access through Christ unto
- 6:38Speaker 1: the Father. Fourthly, our next step is the spirit of
- 6:43Speaker 1: fellowship Chapter two, verse twenty two, in whom ye also
- 6:48Speaker 1: are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
- 6:53Speaker 1: That is to say that each one of you is
- 6:55Speaker 1: not to be built up separate from the others, but
- 6:58Speaker 1: you are all built up together into an habitation of God.
- 7:02Speaker 1: So many living stones all making up the one building.
- 7:06Speaker 1: You could not have this building in which we meet
- 7:09Speaker 1: if all the stones were not put upon each other
- 7:11Speaker 1: and united and cemented into one solid body. This makes
- 7:16Speaker 1: the house fit to live in. Just so, if the
- 7:20Speaker 1: Church of Christ is to be what God wants, it
- 7:22Speaker 1: is to be his habitation. He is to dwell in
- 7:25Speaker 1: the body. But how we are so selfish unloving, we
- 7:30Speaker 1: have so little union with each other. How am I
- 7:34Speaker 1: to have a large heart for every member of the body.
- 7:37Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit will do it. If I get filled
- 7:41Speaker 1: with the Holy Spirit, I will love every brother and sister,
- 7:44Speaker 1: and will glory in the Body of Christ. Do you
- 7:48Speaker 1: not feel that here the great mischief in our Christian
- 7:51Speaker 1: life lies. We do not know the Holy Ghost and
- 7:54Speaker 1: all he is going to do for us. We do
- 7:56Speaker 1: not know that it is impossible for us to live
- 7:59Speaker 1: a full Critchristian life unless we allow the Holy Spirit
- 8:02Speaker 1: to do all his work in us, unless we accept
- 8:06Speaker 1: all his blessed workings. Let us ask God to show
- 8:10Speaker 1: us how indispensable it is that the Holy Ghost should
- 8:13Speaker 1: triumph in us, individually and collectively, if we are to
- 8:17Speaker 1: answer God's purpose. Fifth in the third chapter, fifth verse,
- 8:24Speaker 1: the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not
- 8:27Speaker 1: made known unto the sons of men, as it is
- 8:30Speaker 1: now revealed unto His Holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
- 8:35Speaker 1: There you have the spirit of inspiration. The Holy Spirit
- 8:39Speaker 1: reveals to the apostles and prophets hidden divine things. In
- 8:44Speaker 1: the first chapter, it was the spirit of illumination, teaching
- 8:48Speaker 1: every individual what he has in Christ and what Christ
- 8:51Speaker 1: can do for him. Here it is the spirit of
- 8:55Speaker 1: our practice, to whom we owe the Holy Scripture and
- 8:58Speaker 1: the knowledge of the mysteries of God. They give. The
- 9:02Speaker 1: thoughts of God's heart are large. Through the Holy Spirit.
- 9:06Speaker 1: He reveals to his servants the prospects of God's kingdom
- 9:10Speaker 1: and enriches our hearts with wonderful thoughts of the glory
- 9:13Speaker 1: of God. Look at what he says in the ninth
- 9:17Speaker 1: and tenth verses, to make all men see what is
- 9:20Speaker 1: the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of
- 9:24Speaker 1: the world hath been hid in God, who created all things,
- 9:27Speaker 1: by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, unto the
- 9:31Speaker 1: principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by
- 9:36Speaker 1: the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. God is working
- 9:40Speaker 1: out a wonderful purpose here in the world. If I
- 9:44Speaker 1: come to some great manufacturing business, and they take me
- 9:47Speaker 1: about and show me all the wonderful machinery they have,
- 9:51Speaker 1: I exclaim what power God has given to man, What
- 9:55Speaker 1: wonderful endowment the mind of man is. But now to
- 9:59Speaker 1: think that the everlasting God is working out a plan
- 10:03Speaker 1: to the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers
- 10:06Speaker 1: in the heavenly places, might be made known by the
- 10:09Speaker 1: Church the manifold wisdom of God. Let us ask for
- 10:13Speaker 1: the spirit that inspired the Bible to reveal to us
- 10:16Speaker 1: the wonderful glory of the mystery of God. We have
- 10:20Speaker 1: the Bible, but we do not understand it unless the
- 10:23Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, as our spirit of inspiration, teach us to
- 10:27Speaker 1: enter into God's blessed plan six verses fourteen to sixteen.
- 10:35Speaker 1: Same chapter, another prayer of Paul shows us the Spirit
- 10:38Speaker 1: as a spirit of strength. This is a wonderful prayer.
- 10:43Speaker 1: In the first prayer it was for light, that you
- 10:46Speaker 1: might know what you have got in Christ. Here for
- 10:49Speaker 1: strength that you may receive and have Christ in you.
- 10:53Speaker 1: In the first chapter it was a prayer for revelation.
- 10:57Speaker 1: Here it is a prayer for possession, that the Holy
- 10:59Speaker 1: Spirit might strengthen and Christ dwell in you by faith
- 11:03Speaker 1: and fill you unto all the fullness of God. Paul
- 11:07Speaker 1: prayed to God for the spirit of strengthening. That is
- 11:11Speaker 1: the spirit we need to have every day. I pray
- 11:14Speaker 1: God to make it clear to us. If you only
- 11:18Speaker 1: saw it fully that God does not mean a child
- 11:20Speaker 1: of his to live one moment without the Holy Spirit,
- 11:24Speaker 1: you would see how impossible it is to live rightly
- 11:27Speaker 1: one moment without His unceasing operation. Yet, how can God
- 11:32Speaker 1: do it if I do not pray, do not long
- 11:34Speaker 1: for it, to have Christ dwelling in the heart, And
- 11:37Speaker 1: how can I be filled unto the fullness of God.
- 11:40Speaker 1: Unless I believe a precious promise as to what God
- 11:43Speaker 1: will do by the Spirit like this, plead for it,
- 11:47Speaker 1: claim it, give yourself up to it. Dear friends, I
- 11:52Speaker 1: pray you take this blessed epistle alone and pray over
- 11:55Speaker 1: it step by step and mark down all of these
- 11:58Speaker 1: blessings we have heard in the three chapters of the sealing, illumination, worship, fellowship, inspiration,
- 12:06Speaker 1: and strengthening of the Spirit leading up to the fullness
- 12:10Speaker 1: of God. But is that really the life I am
- 12:13Speaker 1: going to live? Was this Bible written to engage or
- 12:17Speaker 1: please our intellect? Was it made that ministers might have
- 12:20Speaker 1: work to do and subjects to preach sermons on? No,
- 12:25Speaker 1: this Bible was written. This epistle was written that you,
- 12:28Speaker 1: by the Holy Spirit, might live every day according to it.
- 12:32Speaker 1: It means nothing unless it means that let us try
- 12:37Speaker 1: to find out what God says about the Holy Spirit.
- 12:40Speaker 1: With the resolve I am going to claim it all.
- 12:43Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is going to live in me and
- 12:45Speaker 1: make it a reality. In studying the epistle, you will
- 12:50Speaker 1: notice that it consists of two parts. The first three
- 12:53Speaker 1: chapters set forth the heavenly life of the believer in Christ,
- 12:57Speaker 1: and you will find nothing directly practical. There it begins,
- 13:01Speaker 1: Blessed be the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who
- 13:05Speaker 1: hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
- 13:08Speaker 1: in Christ. These are then described in chapter one. Then
- 13:13Speaker 1: Paul prays that God would reveal it. God hath quickened you.
- 13:18Speaker 1: You are His workmanship. In chapter two and three, it
- 13:22Speaker 1: is the heavenly life of the Christian, ending with prayer
- 13:25Speaker 1: and worship. The last three chapters are just the opposite.
- 13:29Speaker 1: They lead from heaven to earth. The heavenly man has
- 13:33Speaker 1: got to live here on earth, in the world. And
- 13:36Speaker 1: in the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters you get the
- 13:39Speaker 1: most simple, practical everyday applications to the daily life. You
- 13:43Speaker 1: can find these heavenly things in connection with the Holy Spirit,
- 13:48Speaker 1: his divine seal, divine illumination, divine access to God, divine
- 13:53Speaker 1: fellowship bringing us into God's Temple, divine inspiration of God's servants,
- 13:59Speaker 1: divine strengthening in the inner man. These are all spiritual
- 14:03Speaker 1: hidden blessings. Now let us see what we get in
- 14:08Speaker 1: the second part of the epistle. Firstly, there you have
- 14:12Speaker 1: in the fourth chapter the spirit of love. We read
- 14:15Speaker 1: in the third verse, endeavor to keep the unity of
- 14:19Speaker 1: the Spirit in the bond of peace. In going back
- 14:23Speaker 1: to the first two verses, you see how necessary it
- 14:26Speaker 1: is to have the spirit of love and humility as
- 14:29Speaker 1: the first graces of the Christian life. Paul knew that
- 14:33Speaker 1: there is no want so prevalent among men as the
- 14:36Speaker 1: want of humility and of love. And so from the
- 14:40Speaker 1: heavenly heights of the previous chapters he comes down and says,
- 14:44Speaker 1: walk worthy of your calling as Christians, by being very
- 14:48Speaker 1: humble and being very loving, bear with one another, and
- 14:52Speaker 1: do your utmost to keep the unity of the Spirit
- 14:55Speaker 1: in the bond of peace. How much as I have
- 14:58Speaker 1: had occasion to say before, how much there is among
- 15:01Speaker 1: Christians of want of love, of want of humility, How
- 15:05Speaker 1: much there is we can find in our own heart
- 15:08Speaker 1: of temper, of pride, of hatred, unkindness, just coming out
- 15:12Speaker 1: of that cursed flesh, keep the unity of the Spirit.
- 15:18Speaker 1: But am I not under the power of the flesh.
- 15:20Speaker 1: Am I not without the strength to keep the unity
- 15:23Speaker 1: of the Spirit. The flesh cannot do the spirit's work.
- 15:27Speaker 1: I am to keep the unity of the Spirit by
- 15:29Speaker 1: yielding to the Spirit. We read in chapter two, that
- 15:33Speaker 1: he builds up believers into one body as the habitation
- 15:37Speaker 1: of God. This is his work. I must have the
- 15:41Speaker 1: fullness of the Holy Ghost if I am always to
- 15:44Speaker 1: be living in the unity of the Spirit, in the
- 15:46Speaker 1: bond of peace, if I am always to be humble
- 15:49Speaker 1: and loving. Are there any of you who say, O, God,
- 15:53Speaker 1: let my life become perfect? You must have the Holy
- 15:57Speaker 1: Spirit dwelling in you every minute. I have lived for
- 16:01Speaker 1: more than sixty years and have been breathing the air
- 16:04Speaker 1: during all that time. I need to have fresh air
- 16:08Speaker 1: every moment. I cannot live on the air I breathed
- 16:11Speaker 1: ten minutes ago, and God has provided for its being there.
- 16:15Speaker 1: Just as essential as air is to your natural life.
- 16:19Speaker 1: So the Holy Spirit is to a right Christian life.
- 16:22Speaker 1: And if we want that, we must find out how
- 16:25Speaker 1: can a man come to live every moment in the
- 16:27Speaker 1: power of the Holy Spirit. It is true I cannot
- 16:31Speaker 1: be thinking about the Holy Spirit all day, but I
- 16:34Speaker 1: do not think about the air either, even as with
- 16:38Speaker 1: the air, so God can keep us under the power
- 16:41Speaker 1: of the Spirit all the day. May we begin to
- 16:44Speaker 1: see the heavenly possibilities of an actual life in Christ Jesus.
- 16:49Speaker 1: Then we shall understand that we can indeed keep the
- 16:51Speaker 1: unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Oh,
- 16:55Speaker 1: shame upon us. What does every little finger tell you?
- 17:00Speaker 1: Very little finger says, I am at the service of
- 17:02Speaker 1: the Head and at the service of the Body. You
- 17:05Speaker 1: believe that you are a member of the Body of Christ.
- 17:09Speaker 1: Do be assured that the Holy Spirit will come into
- 17:11Speaker 1: your life with such love and power that you will
- 17:14Speaker 1: indeed keep in the unity of the Spirit and be
- 17:17Speaker 1: at the service of every member of the body. It
- 17:21Speaker 1: is not enough that you keep in the unity of
- 17:23Speaker 1: the doctrines of your church. Let us indeed keep the
- 17:26Speaker 1: unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Shall
- 17:30Speaker 1: we not say, God help us. Second, then we find
- 17:36Speaker 1: further on in the fourth chapter another very practical thing
- 17:40Speaker 1: connected with the Holy Spirit. We see there he is
- 17:43Speaker 1: the spirit of holiness. In the first half of the
- 17:47Speaker 1: chapter he is the spirit of love. And here he
- 17:50Speaker 1: is the Spirit of holiness. Paul had been writing about
- 17:54Speaker 1: a number of sins. Read from the twenty fifth verse
- 17:57Speaker 1: to the thirty first. Put away all these things they
- 18:02Speaker 1: grieve the Holy Spirit of God by which ye were
- 18:04Speaker 1: sealed unto the day of redemption. He is the spirit
- 18:09Speaker 1: of holiness, saying you are not at home when you are,
- 18:13Speaker 1: and excusing yourself on the ground that it is a
- 18:15Speaker 1: custom of society telling an untruth to get out of trouble,
- 18:20Speaker 1: only telling a half truth or giving a false impression,
- 18:23Speaker 1: and say it is excusable because you did not want
- 18:26Speaker 1: to hurt the feelings of others. Whether it is a
- 18:29Speaker 1: black lie or a white lie, you grieve the Holy
- 18:32Speaker 1: Spirit of God. Bitterness, clamor and evil speaking just telling
- 18:38Speaker 1: news about others you need not tell. The fact may
- 18:42Speaker 1: be true, but you talk about them needlessly. This grieves
- 18:46Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. Now, don't you see how easily we
- 18:50Speaker 1: grieve the Holy Spirit and the absolute necessity of being
- 18:54Speaker 1: guided by the Spirit. Every minute we speak about the
- 18:58Speaker 1: baptism of power. We need the Holy Spirit to get
- 19:01Speaker 1: into our life to sanctify every act of our being.
- 19:07Speaker 1: The third thing we have in the second half of
- 19:09Speaker 1: the epistle is in the fifth chapter, ninth verse, For
- 19:13Speaker 1: the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and
- 19:17Speaker 1: righteousness and truth. There we have another practical thing, the
- 19:22Speaker 1: fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit. What beautiful fruit the Holy
- 19:26Speaker 1: Spirit brings forth kindness, righteousness and truth. How can I
- 19:32Speaker 1: always bring forth this fruit unless I always have the
- 19:35Speaker 1: Holy Spirit within me. The fourth thing in the eighteenth
- 19:40Speaker 1: verse of the same chapter, be not drunk with wine,
- 19:44Speaker 1: but be filled with the Spirit. Oh, what a word.
- 19:48Speaker 1: I cannot begin to speak about it at this time.
- 19:51Speaker 1: The question is this, If I am only half or
- 19:54Speaker 1: three quarters filled with the Spirit, how can I live
- 19:57Speaker 1: in the Spirit. I must have him fill my whole nature.
- 20:01Speaker 1: We must understand this. A man wants his lungs filled
- 20:05Speaker 1: perfectly with the fresh air. A man with only one
- 20:09Speaker 1: half his lungs can only have them partly filled, and
- 20:12Speaker 1: we count him diseased. When a man cannot get fresh
- 20:15Speaker 1: air in a room, he goes outside and opens his lungs.
- 20:19Speaker 1: We must be filled with the Holy Ghost. God offers
- 20:23Speaker 1: it to us. It is not a spiritual attainment to
- 20:26Speaker 1: be reached by a long process. The moment a man's
- 20:29Speaker 1: whole being yields to the Spirit, he can count on
- 20:32Speaker 1: being filled with the Spirit. Paul was writing to a
- 20:36Speaker 1: congregation just come out of Heathenism. He had to tell
- 20:40Speaker 1: some of them not to lie or steal, et cetera.
- 20:43Speaker 1: He wrote to them, brethren, do not do that which
- 20:47Speaker 1: grieves the Holy Spirit, but be entirely filled with the spirit.
- 20:51Speaker 1: Obey this command, and you will get right, and all
- 20:55Speaker 1: the fruits of the Spirit will be manifested in you. Fifth,
- 21:01Speaker 1: in the last chapter, we have two more blessed teachings,
- 21:04Speaker 1: both most precious in the Christian life. There is nothing
- 21:08Speaker 1: more important than the word and prayer. In the seventeenth
- 21:13Speaker 1: verse we read, take the helmet of salvation and the
- 21:17Speaker 1: sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
- 21:21Speaker 1: When the Spirit of God has filled one, he can
- 21:23Speaker 1: handle the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
- 21:26Speaker 1: of God, and not otherwise. This is the reason of
- 21:30Speaker 1: so much preaching without fruit, because we use the sword
- 21:34Speaker 1: of the Spirit without being filled with the spirit. The
- 21:37Speaker 1: Word of God is a sword in a double way.
- 21:41Speaker 1: Every time I read the Word of God, I ought
- 21:44Speaker 1: to let the Word search me, and he must come
- 21:47Speaker 1: like a two edged sword, dividing soul and spirit, entering
- 21:51Speaker 1: even to the very joints and marrow of the inner man.
- 21:55Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit alone can do that. Then it is
- 22:00Speaker 1: also the sword of the Spirit we need when fighting
- 22:03Speaker 1: not only with individual but with national sins and unrighteousness.
- 22:08Speaker 1: It is not the sword I take, but the sword
- 22:10Speaker 1: the Spirit takes and uses through me. Remember, all of
- 22:15Speaker 1: you who are preachers, teachers, and workers. You must be
- 22:18Speaker 1: filled with the Holy Spirit. He must be in you
- 22:21Speaker 1: all the time, or your use of the word will
- 22:23Speaker 1: be vain. The Spirit wants to live in us every moment.
- 22:28Speaker 1: Then service will be the natural outcome of an indwelling life.
- 22:33Speaker 1: Only let the Spirit have possession, He will use you. Six.
- 22:39Speaker 1: The last we have is prayer, praying always with all
- 22:44Speaker 1: prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with
- 22:48Speaker 1: all perseverance and supplication for all saints. The Spirit is
- 22:53Speaker 1: a spirit of prayer and supplication, and Paul stirs them
- 22:56Speaker 1: up to pray continually for themselves and for all saints,
- 23:00Speaker 1: and for Him. Remember, friends, if there is one thing
- 23:04Speaker 1: we need to be sure of, it is that God
- 23:06Speaker 1: has given us the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven
- 23:09Speaker 1: in the promises of prayer. I suppose not one earnest
- 23:13Speaker 1: Christian but will be willing to confess that if he
- 23:16Speaker 1: gave time enough to prayer, if he learned to use
- 23:19Speaker 1: his privilege, if he would become a man of intercession,
- 23:23Speaker 1: he could have done so much more for the world.
- 23:26Speaker 1: How can we get that? The answer is the Holy
- 23:29Speaker 1: Spirit must fill and rule your daily life. Now, friends,
- 23:35Speaker 1: what is the application? It is very simple. First, we
- 23:39Speaker 1: all want to say thank God for the wonderful revelation
- 23:43Speaker 1: of what the Holy Spirit can do to me. Then
- 23:46Speaker 1: let us ask the Spirit of sealing to let each
- 23:49Speaker 1: one know every moment that he is a child of God.
- 23:53Speaker 1: The Spirit of illumination. To have the Spirit reveal Christ
- 23:57Speaker 1: every minute, so that I can always know what I
- 23:59Speaker 1: have in Christ. The Spirit of access to God to
- 24:04Speaker 1: lift me up to God in Christ. The spirit of
- 24:07Speaker 1: fellowship with all Saints round about me. The Spirit of inspiration,
- 24:12Speaker 1: revealing truth to the apostles and to us. The Spirit
- 24:16Speaker 1: of strengthening, bringing from Heaven the divine power through which
- 24:20Speaker 1: Christ dwells in our heart by faith. These are the
- 24:24Speaker 1: aspects on the heavenly side in the outward life. The
- 24:28Speaker 1: spirits of lowliness and love keeping the unity of the Spirit.
- 24:33Speaker 1: The Spirit of holiness, never grieving him by a single
- 24:37Speaker 1: wrong thing or thought. The Spirit of fruitfulness, bringing forth
- 24:41Speaker 1: in me all kindness, righteousness, the fullness of the Spirit,
- 24:46Speaker 1: so that I may expect Him to take possession of
- 24:49Speaker 1: every faculty of my being, entirely filling me. The sword
- 24:54Speaker 1: of the Spirit, which is the Word of God to
- 24:56Speaker 1: work in me and around me. Last of all, the
- 25:00Speaker 1: spirit of prayer, lifting me up into God's presence, to
- 25:04Speaker 1: plead for myself, to plead for the church, to plead
- 25:07Speaker 1: for all sinners, to plead for those who speak, that
- 25:11Speaker 1: boldness may be given unto them. Paul had been preaching
- 25:15Speaker 1: for twenty years, and yet he says, so earnestly pray
- 25:19Speaker 1: for me. Let us pray for the ministers of the gospel.
- 25:24Speaker 1: We cannot do this unless the Holy Spirit carries us along,
- 25:28Speaker 1: unless our whole life is full of the spirit. Do
- 25:31Speaker 1: you see this glorious life? Is a prepared, a provided life.
- 25:36Speaker 1: Are you going to accept it? Say? O, Lord, this
- 25:40Speaker 1: is the life thou hast promised. This is the life
- 25:43Speaker 1: the Spirit will give. I am going to be content
- 25:46Speaker 1: with nothing less. I am going to claim it. Beloved Savior,
- 25:51Speaker 1: thou hast purchased me with thy blood. Thou hast promised
- 25:54Speaker 1: me the spirit from the Father. I claim it. Let
- 25:58Speaker 1: us bow in prayer.