Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 49 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Eph 5:18.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 49 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; EPH 5:18.

 

Announcementsopening prayer:  

 

 

We have completed our work in Rom 5-6.

 

ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 

 

ROM 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

 

ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

 

ROM 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

 

ROM 5:16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

 

ROM 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

 

ROM 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

 

ROM 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

 

ROM 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

 

ROM 5:21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

ROM 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

 

ROM 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

 

ROM 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

 

ROM 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

ROM 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

 

ROM 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

ROM 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 

ROM 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

 

ROM 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

 

ROM 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

 

ROM 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

ROM 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

 

ROM 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

ROM 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

 

It is truly the will of the Father for the believer to be filled with the Spirit and that will is to be constantly filled with the Spirit.

 

EPH 5:18

be filled [present imperative] with the Spirit

 

Yet God acknowledges clearly in the scripture that we are sinners until the day we die and so He has provided, by means of the cross, forgiveness for all sin and therein the means of recovery. Persisting in sin is to persist to grieve the Spirit while recovery from sin through confession or acknowledgment lands the believer in agreement with God. The cross is the cleansing and forgiving element that restores that believer to fellowship. There he must remain so that he may continue to learn, discern, and govern power by means of the Spirit filling his soul.

 

If Paul, by means of the Spirit, had used the aorist tense then he would have been referring to the fact of being filled with the Spirit, but by using the present tense he is exhorting his readers to have a constant, moment by moment life filled with the Spirit. Newness of life is one that is constantly, consciously, and definitely subjected or yielded to the Holy Spirit. Like occupation with Christ, it is to be a constant attitude of faith, reliance, focus, and yielding.

 

Many Christians live defeated lives because they are under the impression that God's will is for them to have self-serving, fleshly, play-time for themselves apart from Him. And by play-time I do mean moral as well as immoral degeneracy. Their attitude is one of punching in and punching out of the plan of God. They do their "necessary" study or service and then punch out in order to run off and give time to the sin nature. We are to constantly consider ourselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God in Christ Jesus. We are to have the attitude of constant submission to the will of God every waking moment. The command here is present tense. It is God's will that we be constantly filled and therefore the believer's attitude is to be just that.

 

It not a matter of just logging in time, but a lifestyle of learning, applying, working, serving, praying, developing and expressing virtue, manifesting Christ through life that is all empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

 

It is important to remember that the Spirit is a person and not some force or object that fills you like gas does a car. This is a relationship in which we are subject to His will and way.

 

In other words, it's not a procedure. It is a life! It is a dynamic, personal, individual life of freedom.

 

It is in every sense the Christian's own life which is lived and his only consciousness will be that of the use of his own faculties: but all these will be empowered by the Spirit as they otherwise could not be.

 

This can be seen in the writers of scripture. Each writer maintained his own personality and personal writing style while being inspired by the Holy Spirit to write His inerrant word.

 

The empowering work of the Holy Spirit does not set aside the normal functions of the human soul and spirit. He works through them unto fullness of power which realizes the blessed will of God.

 

In fact, it is through this process that the believer finds his personality, intellect, sensibility, and will as a new creature and as God desired you to be. The real you is yet to be fully discovered.

 

The end game is fruit and that is what the Spirit produces and that is what is judged at the Bema Seat of Christ.

 

So then, the believer's faith in the Spirit's control is necessary but not the end of the matter.

 

The Christian is to take hold of the eternal life given to him and pursue it, while all the while trusting in the Holy Spirit to empower him and guide him in doing so.

 

The Christian way of life is not just a "let go and let God" affair. We rely upon the Spirit in faith and we also set our hearts on accomplishing the will of the Father by the use of our own faculties, conscience, volition, and will. We are not jelly-fish floating in the currents of the ocean.

 

1TI 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called

 

1TI 6:18-19

Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

 

We are commanded multiple times to love one another, to walk in love, to lay down our lives in love, unified in love, etc.

 

Fulfilling the command to love involves not only the desire to be loving, but the definite endeavor to be loving while dependent on the Holy Spirit.

 

You may have faith that you are strong enough to lift a certain object, but it will not move unless you actually exert the power to lift it.

 

It is here that some get tied up in knots over which comes first. One says, "I was filled with the Spirit and the Spirit led me to love so-and-so." The other says, "I set out to love so-and-so and the Spirit empowered me to do it." Why split hairs? Love the person and do not sin against him. We walk by faith and not some procedure. There is a mystery as to how the Spirit engages a yielded believer, but what we do know is that He does engage us to walk in His manner, but without annulling our choices. It is supernatural and so it cannot fit into some finite, humanistic explanation. There is a mysterious, incomprehensible, and not to be understood interaction and mutual response between the free will of man and the sovereign grace of God.

 

There is one direct New Testament command given.

 

EPH 5:15 Therefore be [take heed or discern] careful [carefully, accurately] how you walk [how you conduct yourself, how you order your behavior], not as unwise men, but as wise,

 

EPH 5:16 making the most of your time [buy up the time for yourself], because the days are evil [poneros: evil in active opposition to good].

 

Be constantly taking heed therefore how accurately you are conducting yourselves, not as unwise ones but as wise ones, buying up for yourselves the opportune time, because the days are in active opposition to good. [expanded translation]

 

This is one of the many commands in the NT that demands a lifestyle of daily and constantly being in submission or yielding to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

 

EPH 5:17 So then do not be foolish [without reason, senseless, or rash], but understand [bring together] what the will of the Lord is.

 

Don't be senseless is the negative command corresponding to the positive command to be constantly taking heed how accurately you are conducting yourself.

 

MAT 13:23

"And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."

 

"understand" - suni,hmi [suniemi] = to bring together in the mind. Taking all the doctrines and bringing them together in relational understanding.

 

EPH 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,