The Spirit and Filling

Well in our study of the what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit we're turning a bit of a corner tonight in tackling a new topic within the main topic. We've been five weeks on baptism in the Spirit and that generated a lot of discussion. Good questions about particularly its relationship to speaking in tongues and so forth but we're done with that. I mean not done with speaking in tongues we haven't been doing that but we're done with that part of the study and just want to kind of back up take a big picture view again and then zero in on our study for tonight as we've talked about the the Holy Spirit we began by talking about his personality the fact that he is a person not just a force influence power of God he is a person one of the three persons in the Trinity so we began by talking about his personality then we talked about the deity of the Holy Spirit in fact that he is fully God just as fully God as the father and the son is and then we talked about his work in creation his work related to the scriptures and remember that he is involved in revelation revealing God's truth to people he is involved then in inspiration the actual recording of the truth was was by men who were controlled by the Holy Spirit in a way that they would have no error in what they wrote and then he is also involved in illumination helping us to see understand and submit to the truths of scripture so he's very involved in the scriptures then we began to look at his ministries to unsaved people which are basically to conviction and regeneration the conviction of the Spirit his working in hearts to draw people to the Savior and then the regeneration is the moment that new life is imparted to a person who trusts Christ that's a ministry of the Holy Spirit Jesus said in John chapter three and Paul said in Titus chapter three so we looked at those and then we turned our attention to the Holy Spirit's ministry to believers and so far we've looked at three ministries that he has to believe us the ceiling the indwelling and then the baptism in the Spirit all three of those take place at the moment of salvation they are instantaneous they are not experiential they're not something that we feel or experience or have to do with reaching a certain level of experience they're just an act of God that happens along with our salvation but tonight we're going to look at something that's very different and that is the filling of the Spirit just by way of introduction to this topic I want to say that the filling of the Spirit is a tremendously important subject for us as believers just as the greatest need for an unsaved person is regeneration salvation to be saved the greatest need for a believer is to be filled with the Spirit because that is the only way that we're going to live a lifestyle that's pleasing to God it's the only way we're going to live in a way that will accomplish his plan and purpose for our lives and for our service for him so if God is going to accomplish what he wants to accomplish in our lives we must be filled with the Spirit we're going to talk about what that means tonight and probably for at least a couple of more sessions as well okay let me pause for just a moment and ask you have any questions about where we've been and where we are right now introducing this topic any comments or questions okay you're ready to jump in then let's begin with the meaning of the Spirit's filling what are we talking about here and as always when you begin to define a topic or a subject it sometimes helps to say what it is not first so that you can weed out a few things before you zero in on a definition and so that's what we're going to do the the filling of the Spirit first of all is not the same as indwelling it is not the same as indwelling this verse will be on the screen a couple of verses first Corinthians 6 19 and 20 remember two of the key verses about indwelling where Paul says do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit which who is in you whom you have received from God so the Holy Spirit is in us as believers he maintains an abiding presence with us at all times he is in us whom you receive from God he says you are not your own you're bought at a price therefore honor God with your bodies the implication of that verse and we saw many others when we were talking about the indwelling is that the indwelling of the Spirit when he comes in to live to maintain an abiding presence with us forever that happens at the moment of salvation it happens at redemption that verse says it couples it with redemption being bought with a price so indwelling happens at the moment of salvation it is not experiential and you know I hope by now you understand what we're talking about when we say that the indwelling is not something you have to reach a certain level of Christian experience to obtain it's not based on your experience in other words and it is also not something that you experience that you feel that that that you sense is happening it's it's kind of like justification it just happens God does it and the Holy Spirit comes in at the moment of salvation so it's not experiential and it is true of all believers okay those are three critical things to understand about indwelling that are not true of filling the indwelling happens at the moment of salvation it is not experiential and it is true of all believers every believer has been indwelling by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation okay so filling is not the same as indwelling secondly filling is not the same as baptism in the Spirit now here's the verse that we saw was the main verse for baptism in the spirit first Corinthians 12 13 for we were all baptized by and we talked about the fact of preposition probably is better translated in one spirit so as to form one body whether Jews or Gentiles slavery free and we were all given the one spirit to drink and the idea is that at the moment of salvation Christ baptizes us in the Spirit we are placed in the realm of the Holy Spirit it's a new realm that we live in now no longer the realm of the flesh we're in a new realm of where we have new power new opportunities new desires new inclinations all that's made possible because we're in a new realm now so we're placed in the spirit that also unites us with the body of Christ so that's what the baptism of the spirit baptism in the Spirit is that also has the same three characteristics as indwelling it happens at the moment of salvation it is not experiential and it is true of all believers okay that's those three elements are also true of baptism in the spirit now you're gonna see when we get into the filling of the spirit it's very different it does not have any of those three characteristics so it's very different than then indwelling or baptism or even sealing for that matter we could have included that one as well let me give you a definition and then we'll pause for any questions or comments you have what what then is the filling of the spirit I'm going to define it this way it is the spirits action in taking control of the believers life the Holy Spirit's action in taking control of the believers life we're talking about taking control of our thoughts our speech our attitudes our conduct our service everything about us when the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives that's what the filling of the spirit is and that happens in response to certain conditions that are met by the believer so that one is based on our experience it's based on things as we'll see later on we won't get to this tonight but we'll see it's based on things like your desire for holiness your submission to the Lord your confession of sin all of those things and other conditions bring about the the filling of the spirit so you can see it's very different from indwelling and baptism it doesn't happen at the moment of salvation we'll see that it is something that should be having continually in the life of a Christian over and over again but it doesn't automatically happen at the moment of salvation it is based on your experience based on certain conditions that you need to meet and then it is not true of all believers because believers who are not living in obedience to the Lord are not experiencing the control of the spirit over their lives the filling of the spirit every believer is indwelt by the spirit baptize in the spirit and sealed by the spirit but not every believer is filled with the spirit okay it's very different we're going to explain more what the filling is as we get into some of the passages but that's kind of the basic idea comments or questions at this point before we look at the key text yes Allison yes the filling of the spirit is a recurring hopefully a lot in the ideal situation is that it should be pretty much all the time but obviously that's not going to happen because we do sin and when we sin we forfeit the control of the spirit of God at least in that part of our life so so it is it is something that can and should happen over and over again when when do we receive that well we'll get to that more specifically when we talk about the conditions but basically just to summarize whenever we are walking with the Lord sin is confessed and we're yielded to him the Holy Spirit is controlling us okay whenever I'm not controlling myself and I'm yielding to him then he is in control that's when it happens yes obedience to the scriptures all of those are conditions that I need to meet in order to have the Holy Spirit controlling my life as long as I'm trying to control it long as I'm disobedient to the Lord as long as I'm living in sin you know then the Holy Spirit's not in control and it's really issue of who is in control of your life although that's just talking about different demographics of people in the first century whether they were slaves or free people literally slaves or free doesn't matter what socioeconomic status you were in in the first century you were baptized in the spirit if you were if you trusted Christ so it didn't matter if you were Roman or Jewish or a slave or a free person or doesn't matter if you trust Christ you're baptized in the spirit yeah okay all right now we're gonna look at the command regarding the spirit spilling the command itself is found in Ephesians 518 and that's the verse we want to look at it's the key verse on the filling of the spirit because it is a command for believers Ephesians 518 do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the spirit okay you can tell it's a command it's not a suggestion it's not a description of something that automatically happens it's a command so as with any command there are conditions that must be met we need to obey that command there are things that we need to do in order for this to be true the command itself is to be filled with the spirit now I want to make clear it's not talking about being filled up or being full of we'll see a expression later that is used in the book of Acts to be full of in a different sense but we're not talking here about you get more of the spirit so you get filled up you maybe your tanks half full you got half the spirit or your half full of the spirit and your three quarters full it's not like filling up a gas tank in your car that's not the idea here to be filled with as we'll see from this verse basically has the idea of God God doing something in you through the Holy Spirit who is already there when you get saved and you're in dwelt with the Holy Spirit you get all of the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get it's not like you get more of the spirit he comes in the fullness of his presence when he indwells you it's a matter of are you yielding control to him okay that's the issue in the filling of the spirit one other thing I want to say about the command is that the verb be filled is in the present tense in in the original language which always in in Greek means continuous action it's not just that something is happening in the present that's the English present tense in Greek the present tense means continual action something that keeps on happening so the command literally is to be continually being filled with the spirit it is a command that we should should experience this repeatedly keep on being filled with the spirit is the idea so it is unlike sealing which happens once in dwelling which happens once at salvation baptism which happens once at salvation baptism in the spirit this is something that that we are commanded to to have happen over and over and over again should be a repeated ongoing experience in the life of a believer so that's the command any question about that is that clear gene okay great question and you've hit on a couple of important elements here a couple important truths one is I'm not in control of how much of the spirit I have the Holy Spirit when he indwells me comes in the fullness of his presence his presence is there it's not like I have half or three quarters of him but I am by my obedience and yielded this in control of how much he has of me and how much he has of me is really what determines the filling of the spirit and yes there is a constant battle which Paul addresses in Galatians 5 and and maybe it would be good to just look at that real quick Galatians 5 verse 16 he says so I say walk by the spirit which is another way of saying be filled with the spirit okay in your daily walk you need to be controlled by the Holy Spirit walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh okay the flesh is the sinful nature that we have that's always pulling us towards sin now look at the battle described in verse 17 for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh they are in conflict with each other so that you are so that you are not to do whatever you want but if you're led by the spirit you're not under the law then he then he gives the the acts of the flesh the sinful nature what that looks like and then what the control of the spirit will look like in verses 22 and 23 and that's the fruit of the spirit the character qualities this is what your life will look like if the Holy Spirit's in control but you are exactly right Jean there is a battle constantly and the word conflict there is a Greek word which means hand-to-hand combat combat down in the trenches I mean they are wrestling with each other all the time constant battle and you know in our experience we understand that battle don't we we understand the pull of temptation the desires of the flesh to go a certain direction to say something to react angrily and and the Holy Spirit's always pulling us back and saying no no no love joy piece remember long suffering self-control remember that and so the Holy Spirit's always pulling us that direction there's a constant battle on the inside of the believer so my yieldedness to him and my obedience to scripture is going to determine how much of me he controls and that's the filling of the spirit yeah yeah you're you're referencing Paul's statements in Roman seven about the reality of the Christian life that he says I have a delight to do the will of God the word of God but I see another law in my members he says another law operating inside my body which is that sinful nature and for that reason because that is still there I find myself Paul says in Roman seven not doing the things I want to do I delight in I really want to live this way and also find myself doing things that beat down a don't want to do and that's what the true believer experiences when he or she sins when when you sin unless you have a pattern of sin that has begun to harden your heart as we saw a couple Sunday mornings ago but when a true believer sins there is that conviction of the Holy Spirit I don't want to live that way and that's that that struggle yeah battle inside Tommy okay okay yeah good good analogy yeah okay a couple of other things about this verse while we're in Ephesians 5 18 and that is that the verse presents both a contrast and a comparison okay notice again the verse do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be filled with the spirit the Bible is very clear about the sin of drunkenness and the clear consistent warning of scripture is not to become drunk okay now the contrast here is between being drunk and being filled with the spirit now here's the contrast drunkenness indicates excess and a lack of self-control person who is drunk has has consumed alcohol to excess to the point that it controls them now and they are out of control but we have contrast the filling of the spirit is controlled the filling of the spirit means that he controls us in fact one of the evidences one of the parts of the fruit of the spirit is self-control and so part of the evidence of the spirits working and filling is control not loss of control so that's the contrast but there is also a comparison here between these two images of being drunk and being filled with the spirit if and the comparison is this if you are drunk you are under the control of an outside influence which which causes you to act in a way that is not natural to you okay you say things you do things under the influence of alcohol that you would not otherwise or other people do not you right other people would be true of them but you're under the control of something that causes you to act in an unnatural way that really is a comparison to what we're talking about with the Holy Spirit because when you're filled with the spirit you are under the control of a person who has come to live within you from the outside which leads you to act in an unnatural way in a way that is not natural to you now I'm not talking here about an erratic way or a bizarre way but certainly in a way that is not natural to you as a sinner so the Holy Spirit controls you to live and to act in a way that is really unnatural you respond differently than your sinful nature wants you to and when he was in control when the sinful nature was in control of you the way that you typically would react okay so hidden in this analogy here in verse 18 is both a contrast and a comparison it's a beautiful analogy because it works on both sides so it really helps us to understand that the filling of the spirit is a control issue just like alcohol controls a person the filling of the spirit is does he have control of you to where he's controlling your thinking your words your responses your actions so forth okay that's the command regarding the spirits filling any any other comments or questions there okay good to move on then now what I want to do is expand our horizons a little bit because I've talked about the basic command about the filling of the spirit but now we're going to go a little deeper branch a little bit more and we're going to talk about the comparison of two kinds of filling there are actually not just this one kind of filling there are actually two kinds of spirit filling in the scriptures and we're gonna for the next 15 minutes examine the first one we want time to get to the second one but I want to give you the second one so that you know what we're talking about boy of contrast here the the the first kind of filling the spirit that we're gonna talk about tonight is what what I like to call the special sovereign filling of the spirit the second kind which I don't have on your outline is a normal progressive filling it's not special it's normal it should be the normal lifestyle of the believer and it is not sovereign it is progressive it is continual it is recurring and it's dependent on our response to the Lord submission obedience yielded this all those things we we talked about confession of sin so forth so there are two different kinds of fillings in the Bible one is this special sovereign filling of the spirit with a spirit comes on a person and we'll see why and what that looks like but the other is what we just talked about a more normal progressive growing continual kind of control of the spirit okay and there's a very different so what I want us to look at for the remainder of our time this evening is that special sovereign filling of the spirit what we're gonna do first is define it again mostly you know exactly what we're talking about I'm gonna find it very carefully and then we're gonna describe it by picking a part the definition and expanding on some of the words in the definition but let me let me define it very carefully for you the the special sovereign filling of the spirit is a sovereign work of God sovereign work of God where a believer is instantaneously empowered so it's a sovereign work of God where a believer is instantaneously empowered for a special task sovereign work of God where a believer is instantaneously empowered for a special task until it is completed until that task is completed okay so what we're talking about is a sovereign work of God this is something God does of his own purpose and pleasure and will sovereign work of God whereby a believer is instantaneously empowered for a special task until that task is completed now let me fill that definition out with the description and then we'll pause for for questions let me say a little bit more about the word sovereign okay if this really is a sovereign work of God what do we mean by sovereign we use that word a lot and I want to make sure that we're all clear what that means it basically means that God chooses to do this according to his own plan and purpose this is not this is not something that I can presume on or assume will happen automatically God chooses to do this according to his purpose and plan now I can ask for this I can pray for this I can make sure that my heart and life is in a position where I can trust God to grant this kind of power to serve him in certain ways but I can't just expect that it's going to be there this is a sovereign work of God he may choose to do it or not do it okay so that's that's a key element then let me move to the word instantaneously a sovereign work of God where a believer is instantaneously empowered what I'm talking about there is this is a sudden infusion of power this is not a normal progressive growing kind of control of the spirit this is a sudden infusion of power an instantaneous infusion of power I like to use the word enablement it is an enablement God enables us to do a particular task okay and then that's the next part of the definition I'd like to expand on this a little bit sovereign work of God where a believer is instantaneously instantaneously empowered for a special task this is this is God's divine enablement for a particular ministry or particular act of service that God wants you to do in that moment and the Holy Spirit infuses you with the power the boldness the confidence to do that that's this sovereign filling of the spirit and then the last part of the definition until that task is completed so this kind of filling is only for a particular task it is not the ongoing progressive control of the spirit over my speech my attitudes my conduct my behavior it's not that kind of fruit of the spirit thing this is a sudden infusion of power to do a particular task and when that task is done then that empowerment stops it may happen again and again and again each time we ask and trust God if he sovereignly sees fit to do that then he can do that but it's not this continual recurring growing kind of ongoing character development that is the the the filling of the spirit that we just looked at moment ago this is a special sudden infusion of power to do a particular task Allison I'm going to give you about 15 here in just a little bit I've got him listed on the back that's why you haven't seen it yet and someone pointed out to me before we started looking at that you're getting awful ambitious thinking you'll get through all that tonight and probably right but yes there are multitudes of examples of this inscripture a lot of them in the Old Testament but also some in the New Testament with this infusion of power to do a particular task and that's that's as you can tell very different from an ongoing progressive control of the spirit over my life which is leading to maturity in Christ okay before we move to some of those examples let's see if there are any other questions about what we're talking about here about the definition description okay it could be it's been a while since I've read those Quarantine boom books and all and and I'm not sure whether what you're describing was a particular action of service if so then it probably was the special sovereign filling of the spirit if it was more a character reacting to a situation than that was probably that she had really grown in this progressive normal progressive filling of the spirit so the special sovereign filling is more of a special infusion of power for a particular task and it may have been what happened but I don't remember all the details of yeah yeah I would think that is more the normal progressive control of the spirit but just she had really matured in Christ to the point that she was really experiencing the fruit of the spirit in all of her life gentleness and goodness and temperance self-control those kinds of things she was really expressing that on a more consistent level than I would for instance and thus she had really grown more in Christ and is experiencing to a greater degree the that normal progressive filling of the spirit now if if she had if it were a situation where she was concerned about witnessing to a guard and all of a sudden just felt a special sense of burden and had a clear boldness and power to do that that's the special sovereign filling yeah okay so she was probably experiencing both and and believers should experience both from time to time well I'm saying basically that this is a sovereign work of God he chooses when this will happen to accomplish what he wants to accomplish and we might ask for a particular act of service that we have this special sovereign filling and and God does not see fit to grant that not necessarily because there's some sin in our lives or something just that wasn't God's purpose to work in that way in that time okay let's do a few examples we've only got about five or six minutes less do a few examples I think it will help us to look at those and and actually the first ones I'm going in order from front of the Bible to the back the first ones are not the best examples but they might be let's look at Exodus 31 3 this is the man who built the tabernacle Bezel L is his name Exodus 31 3 says of him let's begin in verse 1 then the Lord said the Moses see I've chosen Bezel L son of Uri the son of her of the tribe of Judah and I have filled him with the spirit of God with wisdom with understanding with knowledge and with all kinds of skills and then he goes on to talk about to make these articles for the the tabernacle then chapter 35 verse 31 same guy verse 30 Moses said to the Israelites see the Lord has chosen Bezel L son of Uri son of her of the tribe of Judah he has filled him with the spirit of God with wisdom with understanding with knowledge and with all kinds of skills to make the tabernacle basically he goes on to describe now the reason I've got a question marked by this one is this is kind of on the border this this could be more in the sense of spiritual gift kind of thing that God has gifted this man by his spirit to to be able to to do this kind of work but he does say he's building with the spirit so it may also have been that God gave him in that period of time where he was working on the tabernacle a special enablement to understand exactly what needed to be done and how to do it this is not your every day building that's going to be built and it could could well mean that this was a special enablement for a particular period of time but it also does sound like more just the spiritual gift kind of I've got the skill and the Holy Spirit enabled me to do that so that's the reason I have a little bit of question mark here not real confident of this the others we're going to look at I'm very confident of all of them being this special sovereign filling of the spirit so let's let's look at the next one I think you'll see it more clearly here in Numbers 11 Numbers 11 is the story of God choosing the 70 elders to help Moses with the leadership of God's people and in verses 16 and 17 the Lord said to Moses bring me 70 of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people have them come to the tent of meeting that they may stand there with you I will come down and speak with you there and I will take some of the power of the spirit that is on you and put it on them they will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone now if you skip down to verse 24 you see the description of how this happened verse 24 so Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said he brought together 70 of their elders and had them stand around the tent then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him and he took some of the power of the spirit that was on him and put it on the 70 elders when the spirit rested on them they prophesied but did not do so again then if you read on through verse 30 you find more of that you know two guys remained at the camp were continuing to prophesy verse 29 Moses said are you jealous for my sake I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets the Lord have put his spirit on them this does seem to be a coming of the spirit on these 70 elders for a particular purpose and that is to be able to have the ability to to lead but it's evidenced in this one occasion by prophesying by speaking some kind of prophecy and then they will go on to help Moses so this does seem to be this kind of sudden infusion of power to accomplish a particular task well it's yeah it's not it's not that he took the Holy Spirit or part of it away from part of him away from Moses he was saying basically I'm going to do the same thing to them I've done for you I'm going to take the same spirit I've put on you and put on them yeah it's almost like it almost sounds like he took okay all the Holy Spirit is on Moses he's going to take divided into 70 parts but no it's just he's describing he's going to do the same thing for these 70 that he's done for Moses okay I think it will be even clearer in the next two examples in judges six and these are some of the clearest ones in the Old Testament judges chapter six and verse 34 this is Gideon judges 634 then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon and he blew a trumpet summoning the ABS rights to to follow him and goes on to describe he goes out to do battle with the Israelites to defeat the enemy the Midianites now remember Gideon when the Lord first came to him and told him I've chosen you to lead my army he said who me not me surely not me he's hiding from the enemy and and he doesn't want to do this and so it's obvious that God gives him a special infusion of boldness power confidence of the Spirit to be able to go out and lead Israel's army and it's described as the Spirit coming on him this is it quite clearly a sudden infusion of power and enablement for a particular task and the same thing is true of Samson it will happen several times in Samson's life but one of the clearest is in chapter 14 verses five and six Samson and his parents are going down to Timnath to visit the Philistine woman verse five Samson went down to Timnath together with his father and mother as they approach the vineyards of Timnath suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat okay it's very clear in the terminology here this is a sudden infusion of the Spirit's power to accomplish something that Samson would not normally do he didn't go around tearing up lions all the time but and this will happen several times in in Samson's ministry career you want to call it that you know a lot of people think Samson was this huge bulky guy you know looks like Charles Atlas and got muscles bulging all over probably not the things he did were done with this sudden infusion of power by the Holy Spirit and I don't know that he was that imposing a character but this was this was an enablement of the Spirit quite clearly okay so that it doesn't the kinds of examples we're going to wait and look at the others in Micah and then and several in the New Testament of the same thing of the Holy Spirit giving boldness power to do a particular task and so I think this still happens today it certainly happened in the book of Acts in the church age particularly in regard to proclaiming the message preaching the word and I think it can also happen in having boldness to witness to people and and do any other particular task that God moves us to do we'll see the other examples next week okay real quick before we close any other pressing questions that you know you'll burst before you get to the door if you don't get to ask them okay good nobody's going burst that's great let's pray father we thank you for this amazing provision you've given up