Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 82 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; He fills those who are rightly adjusted to God.
length: 51:34 - taught on May, 5 2016
Class Outline:
Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 82 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; He fills those who are rightly adjusted to God.
Announcements / opening prayer:
An idle directionless life is no life at all. The brain the body will rot and the spiritual life for a believer who is so accustomed will lie dormant and out of shape.
ROM 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service [logikos = reasonable or rational] of worship.
Presenting our whole bodies is a result of faith in what has been written to this point in the book of Romans. Chapters 12 to the end of the book appeals to a divine and royal manner of life that becomes one who has been thus delivered from the rulership of the sinful nature and has overcome it through faith in the facts presented about the two-fold work of Christ in crucifying the old nature and graciously making each believer a new divine creature who is united with Him in resurrection.
This practical application of the new creature is the result of that creature really living. Our "reasonable service" is yielding of our entire will to Him as the humanity of our Lord fully did.
Christ was willing to go where the Father chose. He was willing to be whatever the Father desired. He was willing to do whatever the Father asked.
The Father chose for Him to come into the world. The Father chose for Him to be of no reputation in becoming a slave. The Father chose for Him to be obedient to death, even death on a cross [the most horrible].
The Spirit is to lead me. I don't exactly know where He is going to lead me. Which situations and places and before which people will He lead me? None know the future, but we can be sure that He is going to lead those who are already committed to going where the Spirit will. It's not a question of being yielded to any one thing, but being yielded to anything He may desire. Again, this is an act of faith. No two of His children are alike and no two are led to the same places, people, and circumstances. The constant for us all is that His leading will always be according to the scriptures in which the means of responding to His leading is always to be set forth before our conscience.
The Spirit indwells us and so His leading will be from within and not by overt signs.
Finding direction through overt signs is only superstition. We are not diviners or wizards, but rather we have the Spirit and the word within us and they become our guide.
Some of the more unstable in reference to truth like to make decisions by overt signs or by lot. The pillar of cloud and fire that led Israel through the wilderness are not existent in our age. We are to trust by faith that He will lead us from within. As we grow, each of us individually, will learn to be sensitive in our hearts to the leading of the Spirit. It is a precarious thing to be making decisions based on your interpretation of overt things you see. We have been given the word and the Spirit for this purpose.
And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them
Why do you think the manner in which the Spirit forbade them to go is omitted? If it were included, Christians everywhere would be looking for something similar as a communication from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does communicate with us, but by faith and not by sight.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
To be guided by the Spirit is to be moved through the most delicate relationship the heart can know. The bit and bridle must give way to the gentle leading.
Enforced humility must become genuine humility if we are ever going to mature.
One might imagine a relationship that is close enough that just a glance from the eye would tell the other a wealth of things. In other words, we should, through a long time desiring to walk with the Spirit by faith, come to be sensitive enough to His leading that just a glance (metaphorically speaking) would show us to go right or left. As with ballroom dancers who have danced a long time together, the following lady can feel the slightest lead from the leading man and follow his steps and direction perfectly. So it is to be between us and the Spirit of God.
Satan attempts to confuse this walk with the Spirit by presenting counterfeits to the leading of the Spirit.
"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
Now there was a certain man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city, and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, "This man is what is called the Great Power of God."
Simon did believe in Christ and give up his magic arts.
But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Satan attacks the conscience, the desire, the understanding, the affection, etc. If he is successful in any way the believer will find his walk to be irksome, painful, and disagreeable. Hence the believer's intimacy with the Spirit is his number one defense against Satan's attacks upon it.
The humble, positive believer comes to easily know when something is wrong with his thinking, his affection, his love, his values, and his understanding. The leading of the Spirit is sweet, pleasant, and satisfying.
It is imperative that the believer become accustomed to the plan of God and the effects of the filling of the Spirit. If he does, he will easily see when something in his thinking is wrong, sinful, evil, selfish. He will be very sensitive to the inner functioning of his own heart, whether it is full of divine virtue or void of divine virtue.
Php 2:13
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Anything other than submission to the will of God is rebellion. God does not influence rebellion.
The highest motive for yielding to the will of God is not the mere desire for victory in life, or for power, or blessing. It is that we may live the sacrificial life which is the life of Christ, the life that you have been given when you were baptized into His resurrection. Sacrificial does not mean painful; it is simply doing Another's will. Some pain may be in the path; but the prevailing note is joy, and the blessing of the heart is peace. [Chafer]
The submission to the will of God is further highlighted by the attitude of the first rebellion in God's universe, ISA 14:13-14.
ISA 14:12 "How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
ISA 14:13 "But you said in your heart,
'I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
ISA 14:14 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.'
EZE 28:15 … 17
"You were blameless in your ways
From the day you were created,
Until unrighteousness was found in you.
"Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.
To be spiritual we must not say No to God. We must not quench the Spirit.
The two conditions of do not grieve the Spirit and do not quench the Spirit are negative in character, but walk by the Spirit is a positive attitude of reliance upon the presence and power of the indwelling Spirit.
Principle: The church age believer has the highest standard of experiential sanctification placed upon him, hence it is only attainable by walking in the Spirit.
The OT saints had a pretty high standard of life placed upon them by God. However, it is not as near as high as that which is demanded of the church age believer. The standard of life found in the NT demonstrates that it is attainable only by walking in the Spirit.
While some of the commands of the law of Moses may be taken to be equally impossible standards, there is a distinction. The law of Moses was designed as a means of condemnation. The standards of grace in the present age are designed for sanctification.
This emphasizes the understanding of dispensations. To put ourselves under the law is to reject the grace of God as the Galatians did.
What man could not do under the law, with the enablement provided then, man can do under grace by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The effect of these truths is that the Christian is responsible for a life empowered by the Spirit as the saints were not in the previous dispensations, when the Spirit was not as freely bestowed.
This gets to the heart of sanctification.
Sanctification:
Positional - set apart unto God forever.
Experiential - set apart unto God in time in holy living.
Ultimate - set apart unto God in heaven in ress body.
Our subject refers to experiential sanctification which can be summarized by three things.
Experiential Sanctification:
1. Being yielded to God.
2. Deliverance from the power of the sin nature through the power of the Spirit.
3. Growing in grace and knowledge constantly.
Walking by the Spirit presumes activity; it is not a defensive stand against the enemy, but a positive approach to the problems of the spiritual life, endeavoring to be active in the will of God as well as resting in His sufficiency. The heart of the matter remains in the continued dependence upon the Spirit to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to be yielded to the Spirit in all His guidance, to confess every known sin, and to seek from the Spirit in faith that ministry which will work in us "both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Php 2:13).
The walk by the Spirit is a delight to the heart of the believer in which the intimate joys of fellowship with God are known and the fruit of the Spirit is produced in the heart and life.
This is the joy of fulfilling the life for which you have been created. It is not doing to get something in return other than the joy of fulfillment. Legitimate joy, rather than selfish pleasure, is for all who fulfill what they have been predestined to.
Here, indeed, is a foretaste of the unstinted and unhindered blessings that will be ours when we see the glorious face of Him who suffered and rose in triumph from the tomb that we might have victory in a world over which He Himself has triumphed.
We must believe that the Spirit will do all that the Scripture says that He will. He leads, we do not. He teaches, we listen and learn. He empowers, we do not fall back on any human power, which almost always centers around arrogance.
GAL 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
In meeting the impossible issues of the Christian life, are we attempting it on a works basis or a faith basis? Is it fighting the good fight of the flesh or the good fight of faith?
There is a wide difference between fighting to do what God alone can do and fighting to maintain an attitude of dependence upon Him to do what He alone can do. I must attempt to say no to sin and evil and yes to good, but with complete trust on God the Holy Spirit within me to accomplish it. The new creature, the word of God, the Holy Spirit, the plan from the Father, the life from Christ are all designed to do this. The flesh cannot do it.
The pages of scripture are abundantly clear that we are to deny sin and evil and produce good in complete trust on God the Holy Spirit to accomplish both.
HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
HEB 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author [Prince Ruler] and perfecter [completer] of faith, who for the joy [instead of the present joy] set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
HEB 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
HEB 12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin
We are to have a constant attitude of relying upon the Spirit, which takes constant attention to who we are in Christ and what that life truly is.
We are to have an attitude that is relying upon the Holy Spirit at all times. It is the Christian way of life and this is the way. It is not a part time thing. It takes constant attention alertness to only see ourselves as in the glory of Christ and to reject worldly and fleshly concepts that are contrary to that life.
LUK 12:35 "Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps alight.
LUK 12:36 "And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.
LUK 12:37 "Blessed are those slaves whom the master shall find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.
LUK 12:38 "Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
This is likely speaking of the second coming and many want to limit it to that event, but I don't see how it doesn't apply to us now in illustrating the point. In commenting on a similar passage in MAT 25:1-13, the parable of the ten virgins, Fruchtenbaum states: "The emphasis on [this] parable is on both watchfulness and readiness. I think the same is true here. The virgins represent neither the Church nor Israel in this parable, but simply serve to illustrate a point." It is not true that the Tribulational saints need to be watchful and ready, while we are not to be.
As the tribulational saints will be alert to His Second coming, so we, who do not know when the Rapture will happen, are alert to living day by day being filled with the Spirit, walking by means of the Spirit.
"I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. "Therefore be on the alert
for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
Principle:
The filling of the Spirit does not set aside the normal faculties of the function of the human soul, rather, they are empowered by the Spirit as they otherwise could not be.
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. The empowering work of the Holy Spirit does not set aside the normal functions of the human soul and spirit. He works through unto fullness of power which realizes the blessed will of God.
Imagine, for instance, setting to the work of serving another believer in need. As you set about the work in the motivation of love, ideas come into your stream of consciousness on things to do and say, and not do and not say, yet all seeming quite normal as far as the process of thinking occurs, but all of them truly divine in nature. God the Holy Spirit is empowering, guiding, and leading since you have set your walk in agreement with His way. Yet it is not of any one kind of experience or emotion and you are always in control of acting upon it. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
As we set about to do anything that is of the will of God from proper motivation, God the Holy Spirit will accomplish that endeavor from within the believer and through the believer. It is truly supernatural but not of any ecstatic feeling.
Starting a couple of centuries ago, a great movement of rationalization flooded upon the church. Rationalists believe in foundational principles and that there is an objective reality that can be known by human reason. This began slowly as all viruses do. From believing that the Bible was totally inerrant to denying the reality of all of Christ's miracles and even to denying His bodily resurrection.
Instead of trusting the supernatural by faith, so-called Christians sought to rationalize Christianity down to the human level. Christianity, in these large circles, eventually became nothing but human morality and scriptures of the more miraculous nature were allegorized in order to fit the human, rationalistic model.
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