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Word and Spirit By David Cook

North Coast Christian Convention

Well, we're going to be working this morning from Ephesians 5, verse 15, and this is on the inside back cover of your booklets.
So if you'd like to open your Bibles, I'll be reading from Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5, 15.
Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery.
Instead be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Now notice here in this section Paul is telling the people at Ephesus and in the wider church, not just in Ephesus, how they are to live.
And he says that they're not to live as the unwise or as the fool. Therefore, verse 17, don't be foolish, but they are to live in wisdom.
Now wisdom is a great theme in Scripture, isn't it? We're told that Christ is our wisdom.
We have what we call the wisdom literature, the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and books like that.
We pray for wisdom. We pray that God will give wisdom to our leaders and the Bible contrasts the wise with the fool.
Who is the fool? The fool is not the unintelligent person. The fool may well have a high IQ.
Who is the wise? Not necessarily the intelligent, not necessarily the person with the high IQ.
Let me give you a working definition of wisdom so that when you do pray for wisdom, for others and for yourself, you know exactly what you're praying for.
The wise person is the person who lives in harmony with reality. The wise person is the person who lives in harmony with reality.
Now, therefore, the wise person recognises reality for what it is and he or she lives in harmony with it.
August 12 months ago, our family were on the side of Mount Panorama, the great racing circuit that was on TV yesterday.
We were in the Anglican Conference Centre there, which is right on the side of the hill of Mount Panorama.
All weekend, the kids were saying, rightio, Dad, let's get the Torago and go up the top of Mount Panorama.
And because there was a motor club meeting there, we couldn't actually get up there till about five o'clock on the Sunday on our way home.
So we drove up through the S's. Now, if you've ever driven through the S's at Mount Panorama, two things struck me.
I'd never done it before. One, the S's are very sharp. And secondly, it's a long way down if you miss the S's.
So I drove up slowly and I turned around and I revved the old Torago up and I was going to put it through the S's.
And as I was about to put my foot down, I thought, now wait on. I'm not Alan Moffett. I'm not Dick Johnson.
I'm not Richards. I'm not these guys. And they don't do this in a Toyota Torago.
And they don't have their five kids sitting in the back and their wife sitting next to them saying, don't do it.
And so I took the S's at 30 kilometres per hour. Now, you see, was I foolish? No, I was wise.
I recognised the reality of the situation that I wasn't those men. I wasn't driving a car like they do.
And I had passengers and they don't. I recognise the reality of that. And I took the S's very slowly.
I drove in harmony with reality, the wise. Now, did you see that thing on Channel seven?
It was in Sydney anyway, of that man in Proserpine in Queensland.
And he had a pet called Charlene, who had lived twenty nine years in Proserpine.
Every morning, this man would take Charlene her breakfast this particular morning when he took Charlene her breakfast.
Twenty nine year old Charlene grabbed this man by the forearm, did three death rolls and ripped his forearm off.
Charlene was a 10 foot crocodile. You see, it's foolish.
You see, the wise recognises that Charlene is a man eating crocodile. She can starve to death as far as I'm concerned.
That's wisdom to recognise reality and to live your life in harmony with it.
Now, look at what Paul says here. Be very careful in how you live, not as the person who lives out of touch with reality, but rather as the wise.
So look at the sign, the fool. It's the person out of touch with reality that says there is no God.
God is at the very core of reality. And therefore the essence of foolishness is to deny the reality that God is there.
Now, Paul says, live in harmony with reality. Live as the wise. Look at verse 16.
Making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
It's the fool who says, well, today's one day and there'll be another day tomorrow and then there'll be another day.
Just like every other week, every other day, every other week, it'll just keep on going.
But the wise recognise that there is a God in heaven who is just and the days are evil and God is going to bring the curtain down on history and call us to account.
Now, it is the wise person who recognises the reality of that. It's interesting, isn't it?
That when the world wants to show someone who's over the top, who's lost their marbles, who is mentally unbalanced, how do they do it?
They usually, one, give that person a beard. Two, not necessarily just a beard. They put a sandwich board on that person.
And they have that person walking around the street saying something like, the end is near. Repent because the end is near.
I mean, he's lost his marbles, hasn't he? Lost all sense of reality. He's crazy. The way he's acting proves that.
Now notice that Paul says precisely the opposite. It is the wise person who knows that the end is near.
It's the person who puts the sandwich board on and walks around and says the days are evil and the end is near.
And Paul says that is to be living in harmony with reality. Now he says, verse 17, therefore don't be foolish.
Don't live as though God weren't there, as though he didn't have a purpose, as though he didn't have a will.
But understand what the will of the Lord is. Now it is in that context that we come to what he's talking about here in verse 18 about the Spirit.
The reality is that we do not just live as material beings in a material world. The reality is that we live also in a spiritual sphere.
And I think we should be very careful in dividing the material from the spiritual and having unspiritual experiences and spiritual experiences.
I don't know how you think, but I think all the experiences I have are spiritual experiences.
When I go to the rugby I have a spiritual experience. I find I don't know how people can go to a rugby match and not weep when they see the wallabies score a great try.
That's a spiritual experience. And I know what it's like to go to the Sydney Cricket Ground and sit in the stand and watch an Australian leg spinner spin his way through the West Indies.
To me that's a spiritual experience. I know what it's like to go to church and for the music to be so good, which it is occasionally, that there's tears in my eyes.
That is a spiritual experience. But why is that a more spiritual experience than weeping at the rugby?
I'm a man in relationship to God and I take all these things into account and ultimately even when I see the wallabies score a try I think God is good.
Isn't that an amazing game? It's just magnificent.
Now Paul says we do not live just in the material sphere. We need to be aware that we need, if we are to live realistically,
we need to know the fullness of God's Spirit within us if we are to live realistically.
Now let me just ask some questions which I've got down there. What does it mean under point two to be Spirit-filled?
I remember one night I was in the shopping mall near where our church was in Ashfield and we were doing some tract work and a group of young people came through filled with enthusiasm and they said,
oh, where are you from? We said the church we were from. Are they a Spirit-filled church? I said, too right we are.
They said, oh, you speak in tongues, do you? It's interesting, isn't it? To use a term which the Bible uses in an unbiblical way.
See, what does the Bible say about Spirit-filled churches? Here it is.
And you can search all you like even in the Greek and you won't find any mention of tongues. Not here.
What does it mean to be Spirit-filled then? Now notice what Paul says, verse 18, do not get drunk on wine.
Rose, a red, a white, you name it, don't get drunk on it because that leads to debauchery, literally living without any moral boundaries.
That's where drunkenness will take you. Instead, by contrast, be filled with the Spirit.
Now it's no accident here that Paul's giving us a contrast. One, don't be drunk on wine but do be filled with the Spirit.
Therefore, there must be some similarities between being drunk and being Spirit-filled.
Now, hear me carefully, there are some similarities and there are differences as well. But what are the similarities?
You look at a person who's drunk, what do we say about that person? Oh, he's full.
And how do you know he's full? Well, he'll often stumble along. When he looks at you, he'll gaze at you like a drunk gazes at you.
His speech will be slurred. If he's got some action to do, like getting some money out of a pocket or something, he'll take time to do it.
And we say such a person is full. He's full of alcohol. In other words, he's not quantitatively full but alcohol has taken control.
Now, instead of allowing wine to take control, Paul says, and that leads to loose living, living without restraint, instead of that, allow the Spirit to take control.
Be filled with the Spirit. And when the Spirit takes control, whereas the drunk is out of control, the Spirit-filled person is a person who has self-control.
For the Spirit is a Spirit of power and of love and of self-control. So you never say, I couldn't help myself, the Spirit just took control.
When the Spirit takes control, self-control takes control because afraid of the Spirit is that he's a Spirit of self-control.
So, drunkenness shows, by contrast, something of what it means to have the Spirit's fullness, that is that he controls.
He is the one who permeates every area of my life and takes control.
Now then, what is the evidence then of the Spirit's fullness? See what Paul says from verse 19.
You see, what you have here in the Greek, sorry to go back to the Greek, but what you actually have here in the Greek, as you can see in the English, is a command.
The command is, don't get drunk on wine. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Now there's your command.
Now coming out from that command in verses 19 and 20, you've got four running words, participles, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God for everything and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
So how do I know that I'm filled with the Spirit? The Spirit's fullness will show itself, and that is, we'll be speaking.
We'll be singing and psalming. We'll be giving thanks and we'll be subject to one another.
Now let's look at each of those. First of all, in verse 19, speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
It's interesting, isn't it? When you go back to Paul's summary of the first three chapters of Romans, and he wants to show you the rebellious nature of mankind,
he refers primarily to the mouth, the lips, the tongue, the throat, that our rebellion against God is seen most clearly in that part of our anatomy which speaks.
Now Jesus said that, that the tongue is the indicator of the heart. What is on your heart? Listen to what you say. What is on a person's heart? Listen to what they say.
And therefore it is natural that when Paul comes to say, be filled with the Spirit, we would expect the Spirit to show himself to evidence his fullness in the way in which we speak.
Now when we were at Ashfield, we lived in this manse, and across the road they were building a new shopping centre, and I can remember one morning I was preparing some scripture class work.
And as they were building this building across the road, I sort of wandered out with a cup of tea, and I noticed that there was a meeting of the old builders' labourers who were in those days, and they were across the road.
And I thought, well I've never been to a stop work meeting of builders' labourers, so I just wandered over with my cup of tea.
And all these blokes are standing around and they're getting all upset about something, but I tell you what, I heard language there that I didn't normally hear at Ashfield at our church on a Sunday morning.
And these blokes, it was just flowing. It was a second nature to them. Now then, is it not so that that is the way it is when we're outside of Christ?
It's interesting that J. Edwin Orr, who did all his PhD work on the history of revivals, says in his book on revivals that in his study of the Welsh revival, which swept through Wales in 1904 and 1905, one of the effects of that revival was that coal production in Wales was cut by 50%.
Now Edwin Orr actually documents that. He gives us a statistic, because what he's about to say is unbelievable. What happened is the miners came up out of the coal mines, they got converted, they went back down into the mines, and their mine ponies who were used to being told and given commands with all sorts of dreadful language, now the miners were converted.
They weren't using that dreadful language, and so the mine ponies didn't know what to do. And coal production was cut 50%, and Edwin Orr says it again and again, and I can document it, he says. I can document it.
Now you see, when a person gets converted, their heart is changed, and what is in the heart is on the tongue, and so they will speak a different language. They will speak in a way which elevates.
Now what is that language? Look at what Paul says, and Presbyterians, you can take heart, can't you? Look at it. Speaking to one another with metrical psalms. Wouldn't that be dreadful? Doesn't that make you, when I hear that rugby is the sport they play in heaven, I think it's terrific.
But when I hear some Presbyterians, they say the metrical psalms are what we sing in heaven, I think oh good grief, I couldn't stand it. Oh dreadful. The metrical psalms. Oh they're really nice, aren't they?
Speak to one another with psalms, with words of scripture, with hymns, and with spiritual songs. Now what do we go on about? Oh spiritual songs means this, and hymns mean that, and psalms mean that. You've only got what those words say. We know what psalms are, we know basically what hymns are. What are spiritual songs? I don't know. Halfway between a psalm and a hymn. Whatever it is, it's good to sing, isn't it?
What Paul's saying though, if we are spirit-filled people, we will be ministering to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
When I first arrived in our old parish, Presbyterian parish, we had a retired minister's village where the old Presbyterian ministers were right in the parish.
I can remember visiting an old Scottish minister, and he said, young man, he said, the high point of any Presbyterian minister's week is when he stands before the congregation and he says, let us worship God.
Oh dear.
Why do we come together in the building? Why do we do it? I react against this idea that we come together somehow to be silent.
Don't we come together to talk to each other about any time we see each other? We come together to build each other up.
We come together to encourage each other and to teach each other, and it is in that that we are actually worshipping God by our encouragement of each other to walk in godly ways, because worship is something that is life.
Now then, therefore, when we come together and when we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs here, the singing's been terrific. What are we doing?
Yes, we're worshipping God, but we're encouraging one another. Yield not to temptation for yielding a sin. God, don't you yield to temptation? Aren't we singing to each other?
And he has made me glad. Am I speaking that too? Of course I'm speaking in the presence of God, but I'm telling you, aren't I? This is my testimony. I trust this is going to build you up.
So the apostle Paul says that the spirit-filled person, when that person comes together, will be concerned to build up the body of Christ, to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
The spirit-filled person will be concerned to build up the brethren. You know the devil is seeking to destroy the church. Jesus is building the church.
How does the devil seek to destroy the church? By building. How does Jesus seek to build the church? By destruction. Have you ever thought of that?
Jesus, the devil, what does he do? Destroys the church by building up the old barriers between us. And the devil comes along to destroy the church. Sorry, Jesus comes along to build the church by destroying those old barriers.
Young and old, organ person, guitar person. Yeah, get them arguing about that, the devil says. Build up those barriers again and we'll destroy the church. Jesus comes along and says the barriers have been torn down in order that we might be built.
Now then, are you a building person? Because the tongue has the power of life and death. The spirit-filled person will be the person who seeks to build up, to encourage, to tear down those old barriers between us and simply to encourage one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Now look secondly at verse 19. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord. Now again, literally what he's saying here is singing and making psalms in your heart to the Lord, psalming.
Singing and making psalms now in your heart, in the whole of your inner being. So this isn't just something on your tongue but the spirit-filled person actually has joy within.
And this joy is this sense of contentment and serenity despite the circumstances of life. It is the spirit who comes to us when things are against us and reminds us that God is in control.
And the fruit of the spirit's fullness is that we have this deep inner joy, contentment and serenity.
A year before last at our college we had Elizabeth Elliott come and she has an incredible testimony. I didn't realise what a testimony it was.
She told of how she and her husband Jim Elliott went out to the Alca Indians and her husband as a young missionary with Wycliffe went off and was martyred by the Alca Indians.
Elizabeth Elliott went back therefore to the United States and 12 months later she returned to those Alca Indians with her little 12-month-old daughter.
Can you imagine that? The people who had killed her husband, she now comes in and she seeks to translate the scriptures for her with her little daughter, Elizabeth Elliott, and her daughter alone.
She said, we worked for 12 months. I did a year of solid translation work and it was almost 12 months to the day that a dreadful flood came right through the valley and washed all my translation work away.
It was worth nothing. It was all gone and I had nothing to show for 12 months of sacrifice.
And she said, my testimony is that in the midst of that sort of dreadful experience God gave me great joy because the Spirit reminded me that God was in control and that joy is not something which is subject to circumstance.
And it's interesting isn't it that when Paul was in prison in Rome he writes to the Philippians, rejoice. Again I will say it, rejoice.
See our joy, our serenity, our contentment at which is a result of the Spirit's fullness is not disturbed by circumstances. It is the music of the heart, the Apostle Paul says.
When we were in Edinburgh recently we stayed with Ian Murray and his wife Jean. Ian has written a biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones.
And he told us of the death of Lloyd-Jones. Dr Lloyd-Jones was for many years the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, wrote many great commentaries on biblical books.
And he told us there how Dr Lloyd-Jones was dying of cancer and he could barely speak. He found it very difficult to speak.
One of the last visits which the doctor's GP had with him, the GP said to Dr Lloyd-Jones, look take these antibiotics you'll feel much better.
Lloyd-Jones just shook his head. He didn't want any more treatment like that. He was ready to go and be with the Lord Jesus.
Oh the doctor said, look please take these pills. I don't like to see you weary and worn and sad like this.
Ian Murray said, Dr Lloyd-Jones gasped for breath and said, not sad, not sad.
That's the experience of the Christian. We are not sad even in the midst of the deepest trials.
We have that music in our heart and we sing and make music in our heart to the Lord and why? Because we know something of the Spirit's fullness.
Thirdly, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the things I've underlined there, the two things I've underlined are always and everything. Why?
Because of Romans 8 28, that God is at work in all things. He is working in all things for our good to make us like his son Jesus.
And it's hard isn't it? But that everything the Lord Jesus would give thanks to the Father for, always and in everything,
so the Spirit filled person is to be thankful to recognise God's hand leading him on to Christ like this and always and in everything giving thanks.
When we first left the city to go to the country parish of Weowar, I'm city born and bred. I love the city.
And we found that moving into a country parish, there were lots of cultural changes and adjustments we need to make.
I remember at the end of our first year in about October, we're invited out onto one of the cotton properties and that time of year,
the wheat is in head ready to be harvested and the cotton is about that far above the ground.
And as we stood there that Sunday afternoon, we noticed a great storm coming from the north from the direction of Moree and hailstones as big as golf balls.
And as we wondered at this, we're inside watching this hail fall. This was just incredible wasn't it?
But everyone else was silent because for them it spelt disaster. The wheat was in head, it would be cut down, the cotton that far above the ground would be just destroyed.
And the person that was staying where we were visiting, he stood to lose millions of dollars probably.
After the storm was over, we went outside to look at what damage had been done to the cars.
And one of his workers came down, I can remember him coming down, he was a man who was known to be antagonistic to the Christian faith.
And he said to the owner of the property, a Christian man from our church, this man who was so antagonistic having seen the results of this storm said,
well the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. And he spat on the ground.
And my friend said, finish the verse, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
You see that's impressive isn't it? You go to youth fellowships in the city where I go, though the fig tree does not blossom, there be no fruit on the vine, the produce of the olive fail,
doesn't matter, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Very easy to do it in the city isn't it?
But when you're actually out in the country and your livelihood depends on it, whether you've got food on the plate depends on it, can you, in that circumstance,
rejoice in the Lord and give thanks to him in all situations and for everything?
Well now here is a mark of the Spirit's fullness. And it's not the sort of thing we say, hey that is spectacular.
But it is deeply impressive isn't it? When we see the Spirit manifest himself in that way.
Finally verse 21, submitting to one another out of the fear of Christ or reverence for Christ.
In other words, humbly serving one another out of reverence for the Christ who has humbly served us.
Honouring one another. And at this point of course the Spirit is very creative.
Because there are so many ways in which we can humbly serve and honour one another.
And we do it because Christ has served and given himself for us.
See when you become a Christian, God sets you not in an island but as part of a community.
And so where Paul writes here in verse 18, he says you all be filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit's fullness is not something which we just have alone but as it were we have the Spirit's fullness in community.
And it's in community therefore that we are to be part of a Spirit filled community, a Spirit filled church.
And what will that mean? Again, not the sort of things we say wow to.
Look at what Paul goes immediately on to talk about in verse 22.
Wives, be subject to your husbands, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
Now ladies let me lay that on you. I'm a male. I'm a Christian male.
But go back to the Greek and you know what that means?
Ian will tell you. Submit to your husbands. Submit to your husbands. Quite correct.
You know looking for the Greek, often when we go looking for the Greek it's trying to find a cop out.
I want to get out of this. But invariably the English says what the Greek says.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.
Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church.
Where do we see the Spirit's fullness? In family life.
We see it in wives willingly submitting to their husbands out of honour for Christ.
And husbands loving their wives in a self-sacrificial way as Jesus loved the church.
Where do we see it? Chapter 6. We see it in children obeying their parents for that is right.
Chapter 6 verse 4. We see it in fathers not teasing and exasperating their children but raising them in the Lord.
This is how we see the Spirit's fullness. We see it in the workplace. Verse 5 of chapter 6.
Employees obeying their earthly masters with respect and fear and earthly masters, verse 9, treating their employees in a just way.
You see we're always looking for the Spirit to manifest himself in some unusual way, aren't we?
What's wrong with me having a spiritual experience at the rugby?
The Spirit is there. He's there. I'm there. I'm a person of God. The Spirit is there and therefore the Spirit's open.
You're a Spirit-filled church. Oh, you speak in tongues then.
No. We may not. But we do seek to practice and walk in love.
That is the great indelible mark of the Spirit.
And remember when Paul wrote that great chapter to the Corinthians? He was writing to a church which measured spirituality and maturity by giftedness.
And he says that the exercise of all the gifts in the world, those spectacular gifts minus love, means nothing.
They are only empty useless sounds. On our beach mission team, someone a few years ago had a bugle blowing this empty useless sound.
And they did a most selfish thing and gave the bugle to one of our children.
It is an empty useless sound.
You see, and Paul says, all the exercise of these great gifts we have without love is just an empty useless sound.
And knowledge, he says, knowledge and the emotional gifts, even giving yourself to the flames without love, is nothing.
Working without love is empty apart from the Spirit's fullness.
And so this is what Paul says when he writes to the Corinthians, but notice as well.
He talks to the Corinthians about laboring. Laboring in the work of the gospel is another mark of the Spirit's fullness.
In 1 Corinthians 15 he says, I by the grace of God work harder than all the others. I work hard.
And he says at the end of that 15th chapter of Corinthians, always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know in the Lord that your labour is not in vain.
And he speaks about the gospel labourer in the highest terms because at Corinth people were saying, well now you're a Christian, you have everything, you can just sit back and enjoy your leisure, you're already full, you're already rich, you're above all toils, don't do anything.
And the apostle Paul says that you cannot love the word and not love the work.
That if you love the word of God you will labour and toil in the gospel.
And how does the world know that God cares? The world knows that God cares because it sees Christians working for the gospel.
And therefore God cares because Christians are at work and caring and therefore God cares through them.
He talks in Colossians 1 about labouring and struggling in the ministry and that is a mark of the Spirit's fullness.
The Spirit just shows himself in relational, practical, down to earth ways.
And we run around, we divorce the spiritual world from the material world and say, oh no we want to see him work in extraterrestrial spiritual ways, don't we?
No, the Spirit works in our relationships, the Spirit works in our hard work, the Spirit works in family life, office life, the Spirit works in the church.
Finally, how can we be filled with the Spirit? Verse 18, notice what he says, it's one of those continuous tenses, right?
Be filled with the Spirit in Acts, people were filled with the Spirit in chapter 2, they were filled with the Spirit again, the same people in chapter 4, filled with the Spirit again a little later, same people.
So this is a continuous experience. Notice also in verse 18 it's a command, be filled and again it's one of those frustrating commands because it's passive.
God does it. How can I be filled with the Spirit? Take a deeper step, is that what it's about? No. Paul doesn't say that.
We can sit down and we can write little booklets on how to be filled with the Spirit and we can say well point A, B, C, D, Paul doesn't put it that way.
How can I be filled with the Spirit? Listen to what the apostle says, speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. Give thanks to God for everything and submit to one another.
How can I be filled with the Spirit? Go and do those things. But how can I do those things? Be filled with the Spirit, he'll enable you.
But how can I be filled with the Spirit? Do those things. How can I do those things? The Spirit will enable you.
Come on this is a circle Paul, exactly it's a circle. Go and do those things and you can be sure that as you do those things you'll be filled with the Spirit.
He'll be enabling you to do those things. Remember John 15, remain in me. How can we remain in you Lord? By being obedient.
How can we be obedient Lord by remaining in me? How can I remain by being obedient? How can I be obedient? Remain.
How can I remain by being obedient? How can I be obedient? Remain. It's a circle.
Now look over to Philippians 2, just a couple of pages over. Philippians chapter 2 verse 12.
Paul talks about having the same humble attitude as that of Jesus.
And Philippians 2, therefore my dear friends as you have always obeyed not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
I'll sit down with a book and try and mathematically work it out how I can be saved but he's saying let your salvation work itself out in practice.
Let's people see the reality of your faith. Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
You do it. Now look at verse 13. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
You go and do it. But how can I do it? God will enable you to do it. When will God enable me to do it? As you go and do it.
So you see the Bible's way of talking about Christian living is very practical. How can I be filled with the Spirit?
Go and do these things. Speak. Joy. Giving thanks. Submitting to one another.
And you will know in the midst of that that it is the fullness of the Spirit who is enabling you to do that.
Now go over a couple more pages to Colossians 3 this time, just beyond Philippians. And here we have another word from God.
And notice here Colossians 3 is the parallel passage, the equivalent passage to Ephesians 5. Now look at what he says here.
Let the word of Christ, verse 16, Colossians 3 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.
And as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart to the Lord.
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Now notice here, where as he said before, be filled with the Spirit and the Spirit will show himself in various ways.
The equivalent term he uses there in verse 16 is to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you do these things.
So I take it therefore, as we've been saying all weekend, that to be filled with the Spirit and to be filled with God's word, the Gospel, the Bible, Scripture, is equivalent.
So that the Spirit will always be reminding me about the word and the word and the Spirit will have the same fruit in its effect in my life.
Now we have a dear student at our college who was converted out of a very mystical sort of background.
And when he shares his testimony with me, he's had incredible experiences.
Why he's seen rainbows from the sky, he's seen crystals come down, he's seen all of this.
And I just sort of heard the Gospel preached and got converted.
But he had all sorts of visions which brought him to Christ. Is he a Christian? Is he born again now? Yes he is.
It was through hearing the Gospel he'd had all these other experiences as well.
And sometimes when he speaks to me he says, well David, I'm a spirit man and you're a word man.
And I say, well look, the important thing is that we both be like Jesus. He says, yes that's right. Therefore what was Jesus?
Oh he was a spirit man. Exactly, he was a spirit man. Therefore he was a word man.
You see, Jesus was a word man. Therefore he was a spirit man.
What God has joined together. Let not man separate. Don't separate the spirit from the word, the word from the spirit.
They are both there. And therefore I say to my friend, your experiences are entirely legitimate. I thank God for them.
Just be careful how you interpret them. You've got to interpret them through the word.
Because the spirit never leads us apart from the word he has given to us.
And so you might receive a word from God. I remember we went one night there for dinner.
And we're sitting there listening to lots of all this experience stuff.
And I can remember I thought, well I'd better speak before my wife does because I could feel her getting ready to speak.
And I said to these people as they were all talking about their experiences, I said, I have a word from God for you.
Oh, a word from God. God says, what did God say? He said, this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Oh, it's just the Bible.
Of course it's the Bible. That is what God has said. And isn't it right that often God will speak to you somehow when you're praying something will happen back there.
And often you'll turn up the Bible and God has said exactly what he said in the Bible.
He'll never say contrary to that. They don't bring experiences if they are contrary to this.
And what we've got to be careful about our experience because I think that I'm a very experienced person.
I mean how many people do you know who weep at rugby and leg spinning matches?
Now what I've got to be careful about my experience is the way I interpret them.
That I don't try and impose them on other people and that I don't try and impose them on the Bible.
Have your experience. It's great. As I said at the very beginning, one of the effects of the de-emphasis on the new birth is that we almost downplay experience.
We're scared of it. We run away from it. And what we want to say to those who may be our charismatic brethren who want to focus there is be careful.
Don't seek to impose your experience on me. Don't impose it on the Bible. It's word based.
It's a very spiritual experience therefore it is a very wordy experience.
Don't bring the Spirit to me in a way which is foreign to the Spirit. The Spirit comes to me in the Word.
And so that great section you remember those men come along in Acts chapter 19 to the Apostle Paul.
They had been followers of John the Baptist and Paul just thought there was something wrong. You remember? Let's go. You mightn't believe me. Acts 19.
Acts 19. Now Paul took the roach, verse 1, through the interior and arrived at Ephesus.
There he found some disciples and he asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered no. We've never heard of the Holy Spirit.
Well what baptism did you receive? I mean if you had received Christian baptism you would have heard of the Holy Spirit.
People have baptised the name of the Father, Son and the Spirit but they hadn't received Christian baptism. So they said we're baptised by John.
Paul said John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is in Jesus.
On hearing this they were baptised into the name of Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues.
There were about 12 of them in all. Now what did Paul do? He spoke to them about Jesus.
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is in Jesus.
On hearing this they were baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus. We didn't know about the Holy Spirit. Well let me tell you about Jesus.
It's Jesus, not about the Spirit. And you live in an area that's full of new ageism. We probably do too but we don't notice it so much.
It's like living in a city, you don't notice death, people are dying all the time. In the country you notice it all the time.
Up here you probably notice new ageism so much and people are looking for something spiritual. They're looking for the Spirit.
Well the Holy Spirit can only come when we find Jesus. We need to be preaching Jesus and people are looking for power from the Spirit and all that.
But the Spirit brings us back to the Word to focus on Jesus. One of these great old hymns that I was talking about.
I tried the broken cisterns Lord. You know that one. My kids always laugh when they think of that, flushing the toilet.
I tried the broken cisterns Lord but other waters fell and it gets worse. Even as I stooped to drink they mocked me as I wailed.
But there's a lovely verse there. I sighed for rest and happiness. I yearned for them rest and happiness, not thee.
But while I passed my Saviour by, His love laid hold on me. Now none but Christ can satisfy, none other name for me.
There's love and life and lasting joy. Lord Jesus found in me, don't seek the Spirit.
For as you pass your Saviour by, His love will lay hold on you. The Spirit is found only when Jesus is there and Jesus is central and Jesus is found.
And the Spirit is always encouraging us to be focusing on the Word. Am I a spirit man or a word man? I'm a word man because I'm a spirit man.
Well let me close simply by taking you back to a period of church history which is most interesting to a man by the name of Charles Simeon.
Charles Simeon for some 53 years ministered at an Anglican church at Cambridge University.
As he was a young Christian he was a hot tempered, an angry, an angular and proud man.
And he visited a friend of his who was known as the first pastor to the modern day slum, a man by the name of Henry Venn.
Henry Venn had three daughters I think it was and the day Charles Simeon came the children ran in after Charles Simeon left and said,
Dad what an awful man he was. Who was he? What a rude man was he? Oh Henry Venn said that was Charles Simeon.
Oh he's an awful man isn't he? And Henry Venn said this, he said to his daughter whose name was Nellie, he said,
Nellie go out and pick a green peach. Why Dad? Well when you pick that green peach will it be ready to eat? No.
That's right, it's green now. But give it some more sunshine, wait a little longer, showers of rain will fall on it and it will ripen.
My darling so it is with Mr. Simeon. And Charles Simeon later on in life for 12 years, can you imagine he preached in his church
and because the people didn't like the gospel message they locked him out. And every Sunday he came back to that church for 12 long years.
Every Sunday he came back to see whether they would let him in to preach. 12 years! Incredible.
One historian says that Charles Simeon is one of the great miracles of church history. That he was a man of such persevering patience.
Angular, proud, rude, a green peach. But the Spirit of God came upon him and he realised how the Spirit was making him more and more like Jesus
and he became a persevering, patient man. Spirit filled man. Now that is what Paul is saying. Here it is, very down to earth.
I think the best thing I love about being a Christian is it's so realistic. Be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another.
Giving thanks always to God. Singing and making music in your heart. Submitting to one another. Out of reverence for him. Let's pray.
We thank you our Heavenly Father that because of our Lord Jesus we can know the fullness of the Spirit.
We pray that we would be guided by him back into your Word to focus again and again on the Lord Jesus.
That he would continually lead us, as the Apostle says, to put to death the misdeeds of the body.
That he'd continue to remind us that you're in control and that the work of Jesus is all we need to set us right with you.
We pray in our workplace. We pray in our relationship with our families. We pray in our relationship with wife, husband, parents, children.
And we pray in our relationships in the church with our fellow believers that we would show forth the fullness of the Spirit.
And that as we do these things that the Spirit himself would be the one who grants us the grace sufficient to do these things.
We commit ourselves to you our Heavenly Father thanking and praising you for every new truth we have learned this weekend.
For everything which you have written on our hearts by your Spirit.
We thank you again for the Spirit who brings us to new life. Who makes us like Christ. Who testifies to the world and who fills us.
We thank you for your Word. We thank you that you have spoken so clearly in the Bible to us that we need no other word from you.
We thank you that with these certainties our Heavenly Father we will continue to grow onto maturity until one day we will stand in glory without any defect of sin.
And we will be like our Saviour the Lord Jesus. And we pray that no matter what the future holds for us our Father that our focus would always be on the glory which is to come.
And we pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.