Meet the Holy Spirit

We have a very brief scripture portion this morning, although in the message we will be considering a number of passages from Ephesians. I'm going to begin with verse 15 of chapter 5 and read to verse 21. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, buying up the opportunity, because the days are evil.

Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And may you and I respond to the work of the Holy Spirit.

When the Apostle Paul came to Ephesus to found a church, he met a dozen men who professed to be Christians, but they didn't know anything about the Holy Spirit. This record is found in the book of Acts chapter 19. Paul said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, We don't even know whether or not the Holy Spirit has been given.

So Paul opened to them the beauties of the work of Christ, how Jesus had died and gone back to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit. The indication is that these men believed in the Lord Jesus and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. You can imagine how difficult it would be to try to form a church of people who knew nothing about the Holy Spirit.

This may be one reason why Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus is so saturated with teaching about the Holy Spirit. Now, the situation today is a little bit different. Today, everybody is an expert on the Holy Spirit.

Everybody. The question these days is not, Are you born again? The question is, Have you spoken in tongues? I think the time has come for us to pause in our study of Ephesians and find out what he says about the Holy Spirit. Because, my friends, apart from the Holy Spirit, we cannot live a Christian life.

We can try, but we won't make it. Apart from the Holy Spirit, the moody church is done for. Some years ago, at one of our great denominational meetings, a preacher made the astounding statement, If God were to take the Holy Spirit out of this world, most of what the church is doing would go right on and nobody would know the difference.

I'm afraid that may be true. We need the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians, Paul has a great deal to say about the Holy Spirit.

In fact, there are twelve references to the Holy Spirit in Ephesians. When you boil them down and organize them, you discover an interesting thing. In the first half of Ephesians, Paul tells us five specific ministries of the Holy Spirit.

In the last half of Ephesians, chapters 4, 5, and 6, he gives me five responsibilities that I have to the Holy Spirit. When you match these up, you discover that they meet together like two hands. In Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, Paul has been telling us what God has done for us.

The whole theme of Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 is, My blessings in Christ. In Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, Paul says, Here are five wonderful ministries that the Holy Spirit has performed for you. Not that he will perform, but that he has performed.

These are finished, and they are yours. When you turn the page and move into the last half of the book, our behavior in Christ, Paul says, Now you as believers, how will you respond to these five ministries of the Holy Spirit? Because each of us has responsibilities toward the Holy Spirit. If you are truly born again, the Holy Spirit lives in you.

When you were saved, God's Holy Spirit came to live in you. Are you and the Holy Spirit getting along? What I would like to do this morning is briefly, but I trust pointedly, survey the five ministries of the Holy Spirit and discover what my responsibilities are toward the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has sealed us.

In whom ye also trusted after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, when ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest, the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. The first ministry of the Holy Spirit for you, he has sealed you. Now, verse 13 of chapter one tells us how you were saved.

There's only one way to be saved, and this is how it happens. First, you hear the word of God. After that, ye heard the word of truth.

Notice what he calls it, the gospel of your salvation. You hear the word of God. That's where it all starts.

How shall they believe on him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except someone be sent? And so God sent someone to you and that someone gave you the word of God. Now, this word of truth is the gospel, the good news that Christ died for your sins. You don't have to die, that he was buried and rose again, and that today he can forgive you and give you eternal life.

That's the gospel. It's the gospel of salvation, salvation from sin and salvation from eternal judgment. It's the gospel of your salvation.

It's personal. It's as though God sent you a message and put your name on it. Don't you hate to get these letters where they fill in the information? You wrote them a nice personal letter and back comes a form letter that says, Dear friend, thank you for writing to us concerning blank.

And they fill it all in. You kind of wish that somebody there would have taken a personal interest in you. Well, God does.

And God sent a message to you. He says, this is the good news. It's the good news of salvation.

It's the good news of your salvation. So you heard the word. That's the first step.

Secondly, you trusted Jesus Christ in whom you also trusted after that, you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And so the word comes and presents Christ.

And then you believed on Jesus Christ. The good news is that you can believe on him and he'll receive you. The good news is that you can believe on him and he'll forgive you.

That's the good news. Some people have the idea that the gospel is the bad news that people are going to hell. The gospel is the good news that people don't have to go to hell.

It's the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. You heard, you believe. Now, when you believe the Holy Spirit came in and the Holy Spirit of God sealed you.

This sealing simply means ownership. When you believe, God says, OK, you're mine. You're bought with a price.

I'm going to put my seal into you. I own you. You are the real thing.

Nobody puts a seal on the counterfeit. You are authentic. You are saved.

You are mine. I possess you. You are safe.

You are secure. I am going to keep you until the day of redemption. I know that good people disagree about this, but this sort of says to me that once you've truly been born from above and the Holy Spirit has sealed you, God's going to keep you until that day of redemption when Jesus Christ appears and we receive our wonderful new body and we enter into glory with him.

So the Holy Spirit has sealed us. That's finished. It's done for.

We have a responsibility now. We turn to the second half of the book, chapter 4, and verse 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

He has sealed me. That's his responsibility. Grieve not the Holy Spirit.

That's my responsibility. Now, Paul tells us how we grieve the Holy Spirit. In chapter 4, there's a long list of sins that we commit sometimes as saints.

Verse 22, deceitful lusts. That would grieve the Holy Spirit. Imagine defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit of God.

Verse 25, lying. But he's the Spirit of truth, and so if we lie, we're grieving the Holy Spirit. Verse 26, be angry, but don't sin.

The Holy Spirit is the dove of peace, and our anger must sometimes grieve him. Verse 28, stealing. The Holy Spirit is a gift.

He comes to give to us all that we need, and so if we steal, we're grieving the Holy Spirit. Verse 29, corrupt communication. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit.

He is the heavenly dove, and the dove is a bird that is a clean bird. And Paul is saying if corruption comes in, we're grieving the Holy Spirit. Verse 31, bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking.

Verse 32, hard-hearted and unforgiving spirit. Oh, you say, Pastor, these things don't happen to Christians. Yes, they do, and they grieve the Holy Spirit.

And so my responsibility is not to say, well, I'm sealed. I can live any way I please. Oh, no.

He has sealed me, and he lives in me. Now, I don't want to grieve him. When I was doing itinerant Bible teaching, I often stayed in homes, and I must confess to you that sometimes there were people in those homes that made it very difficult for me to feel at home.

And I'd wait until Friday evening when I could pack my suitcase and get out of there. The Holy Spirit will not leave you. Jesus said he'll abide with you forever.

He won't depart, but he can be grieved. My first responsibility, grieve not the Spirit. He has sealed me till the day of redemption.

If you were the Holy Spirit, would you want to live with yourself? Now, the second ministry the Holy Spirit performs is in chapter 2 and verse 18 of the book of Ephesians. For through him, that is Jesus Christ, we both have access, Jew and Gentile, by one Spirit unto the Father. He has sealed me, and he has given me access to the Father.

Now, in chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul is talking about Jews and Gentiles. Paul says, now come on down to the temple. I want to show you something at the temple.

Number one, there was a veil in the temple, and the Jews could not go beyond that veil. Number two, there was a wall in the temple, and the Gentiles couldn't go beyond that wall. If a Jew went beyond the veil, he was killed.

If a Gentile went beyond the wall, he was killed. Then Jesus Christ came, and the first thing he did was tear the veil, and then he broke down the wall. So there is no partition now between Jews and Gentiles.

When you trust Christ as your Savior, it doesn't make any difference whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, or bond, or free, or male or female, because we are all one in Jesus Christ. He took Jew and Gentile and put them together into the church. He broke down the wall.

Many churches have been spending a lot of time putting the wall back up again. And he tore the veil, and there are many people who would like to sew the veil back together again. And when he tore that veil and broke down that wall, he said, now, believing Jews and Gentiles have access to the Father, nothing stands in the way.

Now, the Holy Spirit of God is the one who helps to give us access. Verse 18, for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. You know what that means? I can't come to the Father in my own name.

I have to come in the name of Jesus. And I can't come in my own nature. My nature is not good enough for me to come to God.

I have to come through the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is my advocate up in heaven, and the Holy Spirit is the advocate down here. And so when the two of them get together, I have access to the Father.

It rejoices my heart to know that I don't have to go through any human being on earth. I don't have to go through any ceremony on earth. The Holy Spirit always lives within me, and if I want to talk to my Father, the Spirit of God is there to give me access.

My authority for access comes from Jesus. My ability for access comes from the Holy Spirit. Now, what's my responsibility? Well, we turn to chapter 6 of Ephesians and verse 18.

Ephesians 6, 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit has given me access to the Father, therefore I should pray in the Spirit. You know what that means? That means if I don't pray, I'm not taking advantage of what He's done for me.

This word access is a technical word that means introduction to the King. I confess to you that I would be very happy to meet the Queen of England. I would be thrilled if a message would come to me and say, you are invited to Buckingham Palace to an audience with the Queen.

That would be an honor. But I have a greater honor than that. I have an audience with the King, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

The trouble is too many of us as Christians don't take advantage of this. It's much easier to worry than it is to pray. It's much easier to pick up the telephone and complain than it is to pray.

And yet Paul says he has given you access. Now, pray in the Spirit. I can still hear Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse when he used to pray.

He would say, we come to Thee, Heavenly Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit. And the first time I heard him say that, I thought to myself, what does he mean, in the Spirit? And I began to read my Bible and found out. Jude, that little letter of Jude.

Jude says, praying in the Spirit. Let me illustrate it. Back in the Old Testament, they had this veil in the tabernacle, and once a year the high priest would go back there with the blood and with the censer, the hot coals, the burning of the incense.

Regularly, every day, they used to burn the incense on the little golden altar right before the veil. It's a picture of prayer. The psalmist says, let my prayer arise as incense.

It's a beautiful picture. Incense has to be burned. The fire in prayer is the Holy Spirit.

Oh, there are times when we just can't pray, when our minds are befogged and our wills are stubborn, and then we've got to say, Spirit of God, take over in my life. Take my heart. Ignite the altar of my soul.

And then the Spirit of God comes in, in a new way, and we pray in the Spirit. It's so easy for us to pray in the flesh. I realize that when you talk about prayer, especially public prayer, you're walking on dangerous ground.

But sometimes praying is in the flesh. Sometimes we're telling God things he already knows. Or like the dear man that Vance Havner talked about, who said, Dear Lord, we had a wonderful meeting.

You should have been there. The Holy Spirit of God has given us access to the Father. My responsibility is to pray in the Spirit.

That means the next time you pause to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to take over your mind so you'll pray intelligently. Ask him to take over your heart so you'll pray lovingly. Ask him to take over your will so that you'll pray obediently.

The third ministry of the Holy Spirit is found in chapter 2, verse 22. He seals us and therefore grieve not the Spirit. He gives us access to the Father, therefore pray in the Spirit.

Chapter 2, verse 22. In whom ye also are being built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. He makes us God's dwelling place.

That's marvelous. You see, before I was saved, I was a dwelling place of a different kind. Chapter 2, verse 2. The Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

If I speak to an unsaved friend right now, you hear me. There is a Spirit at work in your life, but it's not the Spirit of obedience, it's the Spirit of disobedience. It's not the Spirit that came down from heaven, it's the Spirit that came up from hell.

It's not the Spirit that makes you more like Jesus Christ, it's the Spirit that leads you deeper and deeper into sin. That evil spirit. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, then the Holy Spirit came in, and you know what? He made you God's dwelling place.

It's a beautiful thing to go through the Bible and pinpoint the dwelling places of God. The fact that God would want to dwell with us is a miracle. Some of you wouldn't want to dwell with me, and the feeling might be mutual, you never can tell.

But God deigns to dwell with us. Back in Genesis, he walked with people. He walked with Enoch.

Enoch walked with God, and Abraham walked with God. You get to Exodus, and God says, you know, I've been walking with you now all through Genesis, now I want to dwell with you. Make me a tabernacle.

And so they made him a tabernacle, and God dwelt in the tabernacle. Then they made a temple, and God dwelt in the temple. Israel sinned, and God had to leave the temple.

Jesus said, your house is left unto you desolate. But God came and dwelt in Jesus, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. And now, when you trust Christ as your Savior, God dwells in you.

What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Now, what is my responsibility? Since you and I are the habitation of God through the Spirit, what is our responsibility? It's in chapter four and verse three. Chapter four and verse three. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

He sealed me. Grieve not the Spirit. He gives me access to the Father.

Pray in the Spirit. He makes me God's dwelling place. Keep the unity of the Spirit.

Now, we'll not go into this in detail. I've already preached on Ephesians 4, but I'll just drop this into your heart. Too much of what is called Christian fellowship is not based on the Holy Spirit.

It's based on things on the surface, the color of skin, or whether or not you like to go fishing or don't like to fish, or whether you agree with what I want to do in the Church or not. You see, if we're going to maintain the unity of the Spirit, it has to be deeper than the skin. It's got to be deeper than my ideas and your ideas.

The unity of the Spirit is not a surface thing. It's a deep, abiding thing. The tragedy today is there is unity of cliques and unity of groups, but oh, how we need the unity of the Spirit.

There are some Christians, the instant you meet them, they want to know how you differ. That's bad. When I meet a new Christian, I don't want to find out how I differ with him.

I want to find out what we have in common. We have a very wonderful thing in common. The Holy Spirit lives within each of us.

Maintaining the unity of the Spirit is so important. It doesn't mean sweeping the dirt under the rug. It doesn't mean whitewashing the sin.

No, no. It means going deep enough so that surface things don't matter, and the deeper things we can pray about and we can forgive and we can confess, and God can give unity. There's a fourth ministry of the Holy Spirit, chapter 3 and verse 5, talking about this mystery of Christ, this wonderful truth of the Church, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

He reveals God's truth to us. That's wonderful. When I was in high school, I didn't have too much trouble with my academics, because the Lord enabled me.

But I had an awful time in a woodshop. I had a terrible time in an electric shop. I was always afraid I was going to electrocute my partner.

I had a bad time in gym, my gym class, just terrible. And I often wished that when I was in woodshop, my brother could have been there, because he's a master, well, either of my brothers, a master at making things and fixing things. But the teacher didn't really have time for a dumbbell like me.

He was really helping the kids who had some skill and some potential. He was probably right. I got saved, and the Lord handed me a Bible and said, here's a book.

Study it. It'll make you what you ought to be. But, Lord, I don't understand it.

Oh, I'm going to give you the teacher. In fact, I'm going to give you the one who wrote the book. When you were saved, God gave you the greatest Bible teacher in the world to live inside of you, the Holy Spirit.

He's the Spirit of revelation. He opens up the truth of God. In fact, Paul prayed about this back in chapter 1, verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit, and I think that should be a capital S, the Holy Spirit, of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Not just the knowledge of the Bible, but Bible knowledge that gives us the knowledge of Him, of Jesus. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, He shall take the things of mine and show them to you. He shall glorify me.

And so, the Holy Spirit of God has come into my life to teach me God's truth. Now, what's my responsibility? Chapter 6 and verse 17. He's talking about the armor of the believer, and he says, and take the helmet of salvation.

It's great when your mind gets saved. And take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit of God teaches me the Word.

What should I do? Reach out and take the Word, which is the sword of the Spirit, and let the Holy Spirit use the Word. You know why the Holy Spirit doesn't teach many Christians? They don't take time to read the Word, and memorize the Word, and meditate on the Word. My friend, don't you be satisfied to get your spiritual knowledge secondhand.

Get it firsthand from the one who wrote the book. He is the Spirit who teaches us. He has opened unto us the Word of God.

Now, what should we do? Take the Word of God and use it. Well, there's a fifth ministry. Chapter 3 and verse 16.

He has sealed me, grieve not the Spirit. He has given me access, pray in the Spirit. He has made me the habitation of God, keep the unity of the Spirit.

He reveals the Word to me, take the sword of the Spirit. Chapter 3, verse 16. He is praying now that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.

The Holy Spirit of God strengthens us in the inner man. Now, nowhere in Ephesians does God promise to take care of the outer man. If we prayed as much for the inner man as we do about the outer man, we'd all be better Christians.

We come and say, Oh Lord, I've got a headache. And he knows that, and we tell him. But oh, if we'd only pray, Oh God, I've got an unforgiving spirit.

I've got a hard heart. Paul is saying the inner man needs strength. If the inner man has the strength that he needs, then we can live a life to the glory of God.

I tell you, there's been many a time in my life when the outer man has been strong, but the inner man has been terribly weak. Peter is there in the garden, and the outer man was strong. He gets a sword, and he goes after a fellow's throat.

But Jesus had said to him, Yes, the spirit is willing, flesh is weak. Your inner man, Peter, needs strengthening. Now, since the Holy Spirit of God is the one who strengthens us in the inner man, that's his ministry.

What's my responsibility? Chapter 5, verse 18, be filled with the spirit. Now, we're going to spend a little more time on this, the Lord willing, in our next message. Many people don't know the evidences of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

He gives them to us. In Ephesians, Paul says nothing about tongues, but he has a great deal to say about character and conduct. Paul is contrasting being controlled by wine and being controlled by the Spirit.

That word filled means controlled. Filled with anger, controlled with anger. Filled with wine, controlled by wine.

Filled with the Spirit, controlled by the Spirit. Wine, of course, is a false strength. A fellow gets too much alcohol and he can fight the world.

It's a false strength. Wine begins as a stimulant, but it ends up as a depressant. It begins by making you think you're built up when really it's tearing you down.

Wine makes a person lose self-control. But the Holy Spirit of God, in contrast, is not a depressant. He is a spiritual stimulant.

He stimulates you in Christian living and service. He doesn't tear down, he builds up. It's not a power, it's a true spiritual power.

Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. That has already taken place at conversion. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, the Spirit of God moved in and made you a part of the body of Christ.

He baptized you. He identified you with the body of Christ. And when he did that, he sealed you.

And he gave you access. And he made you the habitation of God. And he opened up God's truth to you.

And he gave God's power to you. It's all settled. Now my responsibility is so to be controlled by the Holy Spirit of God that his power can be revealed in daily living and service.

For what let people know how spiritual I am? No. Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. The power of God is not a luxury for an evangelical elite who want to show off.

The power of God is a necessity for every believer who wants to witness and win souls to Christ. And so our responsibility is to be filled with the Spirit. You see, Paul is saying in verse 18, it's a sin to be drunk.

If I came to this church next Sunday drunk, you'd fire me. I wonder if they'd fire me if I came and was not filled with the Spirit. If it's a sin to be drunk, it's also a sin not to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I've been pastoring long enough to know that not every time I stand in the pulpit is the Holy Spirit in control. Not every speech that's made in a committee meeting is made by the control of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it's another kind of a spirit.

Oh, how important it is that you and I maintain a right relationship with the Holy Spirit. He has sealed us. Grieve not the Spirit.

He has given us access to the Father. Pray in the Spirit. He has made us the habitation of God.

Maintain the unity of the Spirit. He has revealed the truth to us. Take the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

He has strengthened us. Be filled with the Spirit, because the only way you and I can succeed is through the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a great deal of counterfeit spirituality these days on both extremes.

I trust that as we study these words together in the weeks that lie before, the Lord willing, we'll understand truly what it means to be Spirit-controlled people. Which leads us to that final question. Which Spirit is controlling you today? Is it the Spirit that now works in the children of disobedience? Is it the unholy Spirit? Or is it the Holy Spirit? Am I grieving Him? Is the Holy Spirit finding it very difficult to live with me or you? We come, our Father, realizing that just as we can sin against God the Father who called us and God the Son who died for us, we can sin against God the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

We marvel, O God, that he would, in love, dwell with us. Forgive us, O God, for attitudes and actions and motives that have grieved your Holy Spirit. I pray, Father, that beginning at this very time, each of us will begin to cultivate a right relationship with the Holy Spirit, because we do want to be Spirit-controlled, because then people can see Jesus and they can trust him and be saved.

O Holy Spirit, make us more like the Lord Jesus. We fall so far short. Thank you, Holy Spirit.

Thank you very much for the ministries you have performed for us. Now help us in our response to these ministries to be just as faithful, for Jesus' sake. Amen.