Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 78 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; He fills those who are rightly adjusted to God, Eph 4:30; 1Jo 1:9.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 78 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; He fills those who are rightly adjusted to God, EPH 4:30; 1JO 1:9.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

Principle:

It is the normal work of the Spirit to fill the one who is rightly adjusted to God. The Christian will continue to be filled while he is yielding to the ministry of the Spirit in his life.

 

EPH 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

 

The context of this section of Ephesians is walking in the way of Christ.

 

It is obvious that we live this way by means of the Spirit's manifestation in our lives, being filled with Him, walking by means of Him.

 

Due to the continuing presence of the sin nature within each believer, sin is always a possibility in his life. His sins can be either acknowledged as sinful before God or they can be falsely justified or ignored. If a believer has a habit of justifying sin in his life then he will see little effect of the Spirit in his life. The new creature that every believer is, has been designed to live a godly life, and not just overtly projecting light while harboring darkness within, but inwardly in true divine virtue, which will manifest itself outwardly.

 

A believer should never get caught up in the practice of impressionistic Christianity in which he disguises darkness within with an act of outward righteousness in order to give a false impression to others.

 

2CO 11:14-15

for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.

 

None of us are sinless or ever will be, but a believer can tolerate sin in his life and so walk in a lifestyle of it. This would be grieving the Holy Spirit. If this is true, the Holy Spirit cannot work His filling ministry in that believers life to the fullest, and for that reason many believers are spiritually weak and sick and some have died.

 

The believer's choices either grieve or do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Sin must not be tolerated. It is best to recover from it as soon as it occurs.

 

Sin tolerated in the life of a believer is simply self-justification. We will never be sinless. The question is, do we agree with God as to the sinfulness of sin, as to the darkness of it, and that it has no place in God's plan or in the new creature?

 

Sin must be dealt with and only dealt with as the scripture says and not as man says.

 

When we recognize the existence of sin in our lives we must agree with God that it is sinful (acknowledge or confess the sin privately in our own soul), 1JO 1:9.

 

By agreeing with God or acknowledging sin we are not justifying it, hiding it, blaming others for it, and are taking sole responsibility for it.

 

We must avoid continuing the sin, or other sins born from it, by applying truth to ourselves, others, and our situation and thus forming a doctrinal solution.

 

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.

 

In some instances this is very easily done whereas in others it takes a lot of thinking and reflecting in the truth to stop the trend of sinning. The more difficult instances demand thinking the truth in reference to the situation, the person (if another is involved), and in reference to self. There is a truth about the sin and the solution in the scripture and the believer must put his faith in those truths, and when he does, he breaks the power of the sin in his life.

 

Then we must rest, knowing that God has forgiven all sin in Christ, and we must not fall into guilt and condemnation, which is just another category of sin.

 

ROM 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

 

ROM 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

 

The flesh cannot follow the law of God but only the law of sin. It was put aside at salvation and we must keep it there and recover quickly when we fail to.

 

ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

Any reflection should only be done in light of the grace of God. Faith chases away any guilt and self-condemnation. We must forget what lies behind and reach forward to what lies ahead. We must not be shocked at any sin, since we should know the potential for evil within the sin nature that each of us has.

 

Finally, we must press on towards the upward call and forget what failure is now behind us.

 

Php 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

 

Php 3:10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

 

Php 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead [resurrection life].

 

Php 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

 

Php 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

 

Php 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;

 

Verse 15 is not about recovery from sin, but in a way, it is related to it. All of us need correction. Notice how peaceably Paul is in pointing this out. It's not stated in a way that makes us feel like idiots or in order to say, "how could you be so stupid?" God is conciliatory or reconciling in stating, "if you had a different attitude, so be it. I have pointed it out and now the old attitude is in the past and you are wiser. Rejoice!"

 

Many ignorance's lead us into sin, but when God reveals our erroneous attitude, we are no longer so easily led into sin in that area. Leave that different attitude in the past and rejoice in the understanding you now have and the power that it has given to you. This is stated in the next part of the sentence.

 

Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;

Php 3:16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

 

Whatever standard of truth that we have attained, let's keep after it and walk in it. We cannot walk in next year's growth and we should not live in last year's errors.

 

The Greek gives us a little more insight into this. "Attained" is a word that means to arrive at or to reach. It would mean, "as far as we have come." The verb translated "keep living" is the word for walking, but it is not peripateo (to walk around) but stoicheo, which means to walk in a straight line. Here it would refer to how a believer directs his life. There is no word for "standard." The translators have added that.

 

Php 3:16

Only one thing, so far as we have come, let us keep our lives on the same path.

 

As far as you have come, stay on that path. More correction will come in the future and more of the path will be seen, but right now, as far as you have attained, keep on that line. There is so much that we haven't yet seen in God's knowledge in way. It's like a bend in a path that you've not yet travailed. There is no telling what is around that bend. The correction of our false attitude and the call to walk only in as far as we have come, is peaceable, conciliatory, tranquil, and without undue pressure.

 

So when it comes to dealing with sin in our lives, as we have documented from scripture, the only source of knowing how to really deal with it, we:

 

Name it, apply truth, and press on in the plan of God. God the Holy Spirit will manifest the truth and the restful place within the soul.

 

1JO 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

 

1JO 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

 

1JO 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

 

1JO 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 

1JO 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

Every time we agree with God as to the existence of sin in our lives we, who understand the cross, experience the blessedness of His faithfulness, His righteousness satisfied in Christ, His forgiveness, and His cleansing from all unrighteousness in position and experience.

 

Chafer and others categorize two types of forgiveness in order to explain this verse's use of the word in connection with confession; the other type being the forgiveness of all sin forever. Yet it is clear that he sees this "second forgiveness" as a restoration to fellowship and then he adds to it a "true heart repentance," as the prevention of continuing in a sinful way and pursuing the godly way. The fact that one may quantify two forgiveness or not is just a matter of man trying to make classifications in order to better organize it in his mind, and so we should not argue over what words we use, as long as what we mean by them is accurate according to the scripture.

 

Confess, homologeo, literally means to "say the same."

 

John is saying here that to say we do not have sin or we don't sin is a lie and so when we do sin, rather than justifying it or tolerating it and so continuing in it, or trying to hide it or blame someone else for it, that we must agree with God or say the same that God would say about sin. We are also saying in our hearts that it was our decision alone.

 

If you remember, the first reaction to the first sin was to hide it, and then when we couldn't hide it any longer we blamed someone else for it.