Classic Christianity Radio (03-04-19) – Classic Christianity Part 1
Bob shares a message on what it means to be controlled by the Spirit of God, or to be filled with the Spirit of God. Bob explains how man has so much error in his thinking and such error has to replaced with truth. Many churches encourage the memorization of scriptures and that could be good or bad. The same scripture can be used to help or hurt people. If one does not understand the meaning of the word of God, not understanding the context in which the scripture was written, then the same scripture can be used to confuse or even hurt people. To make his point clear, Bob cites the example of Satan trying to tempt Jesus in the wilderness by quoting scripture out of context. And how many ways are people confused on what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Bob cites examples of holy laughter, being slain in the Spirit, or being filled a second time, as examples of erroneous teaching. Bob explains what being filled with the Spirit means by looking at the broader context of the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 3, for example, provides insight into understanding Ephesians 5.
Bob starts by explaining how the natural man is controlled by all kinds of things. Alcohol and drug addiction are the most obvious, visual example of people being controlled, becoming dependent or addicted to a substance. Whatever you deem as your meaning and purpose in life, and try to get that need met through people or things rather than God, then you have become controlled and dependent in an unhealthy or harmful way. In essence, all men have a need for unconditional love and acceptance. Teenagers have a pull for acceptance to be in the “in group” and even turn to drinking in a club to get that acceptance. Adults can get controlled by their job when their purpose and meaning is driven by how successful they are. These are all examples of what can control people. People have a great need of unconditional acceptance, and seek to get that need met through others, who are unable to meet that need. Only God can meet a person’s need for unconditional love and acceptance.
So then, if one replaces the error with truth about God’s unconditional love and acceptance, then you have something better to hold on to. When you come to know the love of God, then the things or people that once controlled you, you become loosed of, with no desire to go back. You are able to walk in the newness of life through God’s love! Bob made a point to emphasize this. “You do not rip that error away from people. If you take something away from someone, then what is he left with? You are left empty handed. So you do not take something away, you replace it.” Bob cites the example of the apostle Paul, when instructing the Corinthians in the way of love, explaining to them what love is, who is the source of love, and letting Christ dwell in your hearts through faith. Let His love be produced in you and through you. You replace error with truth, and in so doing, you show them a better way to live, by the power of God’s love, to live in you and through you.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Ephesians 5:18
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit
What does it mean to be controlled by the Spirit of God? What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit of God?
Knowing What The Bible Says and Understanding What it Means Are Two Different Things.
One of the difficulties in Christendom is when people memorize scripture but fail to understand the context and meaning of the scriptures memorized. Is memorizing scripture good? Well, it depends. It depends if you are memorizing in context or not. One of the methods so practical and effective is memory cards. Wonderful, but if you do not read in context, what good does it do? Look at context to know what it means. If you do not know what it means, then you can use it to help people or hurt people. Satan had scripture memorized and yet had audacity to quote scripture to Jesus and out of context. The same methodology is used today to bury people and confuse people about what truth is about.
Matthew 4:1-10
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
“Are you Spirit filled?” says someone who called on the radio, saying that they are Spirit-filled. What it means to be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit. What we are to be controlled by is the love of God. When people ask such a question, they are essentially saying “I am a Spirit-filled Christian. I am controlled by love 24 hours a day”. Let’s be truthful now. Anyone who is married has a spouse, who knows that is not true. Love has to occur moment by moment by God and not something we can generate by human effort.
2 Corinthians 5:14
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
We have substituted everything for what it means to be Spirit filled. Have you been baptized in the Spirit? People of the Pentecostal or Assembly of God background erroneously believe that there is a need for a second filling of the Spirit. Are you Spirit-filled? There are groups that say that has to be manifested by speaking in foreign or unknown tongues. If speaking in an unknown tongue, then the Spirit-filled person is a Spirit-filled noisy, clanging symbol.
1 Corinthians 13:1
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
So nothing to with any of these things. Man has put emphasis on the gift instead of the giver, the provision instead of the provider, and my salvation instead of the Savior. So man’s tendency is to be self-centered rather than God-centered. So we try to put the emphasis on me and what I am doing instead of who He is and what He is doing. Realize something about this passage of scripture of being filled, that it means to be controlled by.
New believers will bring in faulty thinking into their new life in Christ. They have just begun a new journey, a new life in Christ, and much renewing of the mind needs to take place. That is why the apostle Paul, a mature believer in the Lord, spent much time instructing and exhorting new believers in truth. For example, Paul writes to the Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 3:18-23
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
You have drug and alcohol dependencies. If involved in them it would be easy to see. What brings about the control of drugs and alcohol upon your life? Some could say it is a chemical imbalance. Really not so much chemistry as your dependency of that to do for you is where the control comes in. Anything you are depending upon for your meaning and purpose to life is what will control you. If you are dependent on somebody to do something for you then that person controls you. Control is a by-product of your dependency on it to control. You do not start out thinking that you want to be controlled by alcohol. Rather you start out wanting that alcohol to do something for you, to make you relaxed to take away your fear of speaking to people. Different reasons for different people. There is a typical pattern in regards to teenagers wanting acceptance among peers. The popularity of the “in-group”, whatever that is, is a draw among teenagers. When your meaning and purpose is to be accepted by that group, then they are controlling you. They are controlling your life because of your dependency on them to do something for you that you could not do for yourself. That does not end once you past being a teenager. You and I desire acceptance, and not just love, more than anything else. If I think somebody will accept me, I will do anything in my power to ensure they continue to accept me. That is also how gangs get started. So then I am controlled by them. Your job can control your life. That was Bob’s case before he became a child of God. If how successful you became in business is your purpose and meaning in life, then the business controls you, keeping you away from other responsibilities at home or neglecting the needs of your family.
One of the reasons people go to bars is because of acceptance. That is where people find it easy to get accepted. This is one clear example of acceptance control. It is not hard to be accepted in bars. Bob says that he has found a lot more acceptance as a lost person in a bar than in most churches as a saved person. No one criticizes you for drinking in a bar. No one criticizes you in a bar, even if you get drunk. You can tell jokes and get everybody to laugh with you in a bar. You can find more acceptance in a bar than at home when you find you cannot even meet your spouse’s need for acceptance. So you feel like a failure at home but successful in the bar. How subtle this is, this area of dependency.
So what does it mean to be controlled by the Spirit? For it says do not get drunk on wine but instead be filled with the Spirit. From God’s vantage point, what do you think God is interested in? You not being drunk or you being filled with the Spirit? Being filled with the Spirit! What do we concentrate on? Getting sober. All kinds of organizations out there to help you get sober, and that is fine if they help you get sober, but that is not the ultimate goal in life, getting sober. That is not God’s ultimate goal or desire for you, to be sober. How many sober people walking around that are as mean as can be? It is like the man who said, “I kicked the cat and beat up my wife, but I didn’t drink.” As a drunk, you think that getting sober is the ultimate in life. They think that if they could just get sober then all their problems would go away. If you were a former drunk, and today you are free, did you discover that all your problems did not go away? The issue is this. This is what to stop doing and this is what to start doing.
Paul addresses all kinds of erroneous behavior in the church in Corinth, with all sorts of problems. Notice he did not just tell them to stop doing something. Nor did he just merely tell them to start doing something. He provided a background of truth in which their thinking is changed. Beginning with the understanding of all they have in Christ, His glorious riches, with His unconditional love and acceptance, as the foundation, he instructed them. Since you are a part of the body of Christ, let Christ rule in your hearts, and serve one another in love.
Ephesians 4:28
Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
Everything is reversed in this world. The goal is not to stop doing something, but to start doing something. And with the power of Christ in you, you can start doing something, serving one another in love, not by the energy of the flesh, but God’s power. If you start doing something, then you will stop doing the other. It is amazing that we will memorize Ephesians 5 but then do not go back to Ephesians 3 to know what that means. It is amazing how the scriptures will interpret itself. Scripture interprets itself if you read beyond one verse, letting the Spirit teach you. What can we learn from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians?
Ephesians 3:14-20
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love
In verse 15, we come to understand that the Ephesians belong to one another as members of the body of Christ, all over the world. From verse 16, we learn that God has given you riches to strengthen you with power. You are weak in your natural selves, unable to love or find acceptance in this world. Whose power can strengthen you? The power of the Holy Spirit! In verse 17, you read “so that”. The phrase, “so that”, is a key phrase indicating a purpose. What is the purpose of this? The purpose is so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So then, a relationship with the living God is vital! What is the object of this strengthening? God will dwell in your hearts and be at home in your hearts through faith. So do we have any problem realizing Jesus will be at home in your hearts? This means that He will never leave you or forsake you. This means that there is no problem that you cannot go to him for. That is God’s desire and will for you! Are you rooted and established in love?
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
So then, applying the same pattern of learning by the Spirit, when you read, “Let us then” implies there is so much more that the writer of Hebrews explained to provide the foundation at which we can have the confidence to boldly approach God for help. I encourage the reader to go through the passages preceding Hebrews 4:16.
Hebrews 13:15
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
And in Hebrews 13:15, take particular notice of the phrase, “because God has said”. That is the foundation of faith, trusting in what God has said. By trusting in what God has said, what does Hebrews 13:15 say to do? Keep your lives from the love of money and be content in what you have. That is the natural by-product of trusting God and depending on Him, which is from the glorious riches He has given you!
Ephesians 3:17
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
The power being referred to here is not the power to do something big for Jesus or to do some heroic thing. Yet, so often people memorize a scripture, relying on their own understanding, without checking out what God’s word means.
No, you need the power of God to grasp truth. What reason do we need? Because we are dumb is the reason! Our heads are full of error. Bob jokingly said, “That is why we are called air-heads” and how true that is. Jesus refers to us as sheep.
John 10:2-4
2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Jesus, in John 10:14, identifies himself as the good shepherd.
John 10:14
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—
Do you know that we have a personal relationship with God and know his voice? That is the meaning of the parable. Just as the sheep will only listen to one shepherd, so also the church, the people of God, born again with the Spirit of God, will listen to the head of the church, Jesus Christ, the good shepherd.
Sheep are dumb animals and will walk off a cliff unless watched carefully. Man’s wisdom is foolishness to God.
1 Corinthians 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
I need power to push out foolish religious, psychological, religious error. All that baggage thinking needs to be pushed out. You do not rip that error away from people. If you take something away from someone, then what is he left with? You are left empty handed. So you do not take something away, but you replace it.
1 Thessalonians 2:8
so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
So what cliffs do we tend to fall over? As believers our minds must continually be renewed. When people think naturally in the flesh, so much emphasis is on gifts and healing. Why all this emphasis all the time? Maybe if I am sick? Why all this emphasis there? Because emphasis is on the gift instead of the giver, healing instead of the healer. Instead of teaching people to walk in newness of life, we are preoccupied with self. That is not unlike a sheep who is so dumb that he will try to jump across a huge canyon to his death to get to what he sees as better pasture on the other side. So Paul addresses people by showing them a better way. I know how you believe but let me show you a better way.
In speaking to the Corinthians, Paul explained a better way, the way of love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Ephesians 3:18-21
18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
So Paul is praying that you and I could know a better way. So you need the power of God to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.
I cannot sit down and tell you why I know Jesus will never leave me or forsake me. I could not give you ten steps why. It is there and surpasses knowledge. Why? Because it is taught by the Spirit and not by man. If you learn from man that God will never leave you nor forsake you, then you can be taught by another man that God could leave you. But when the Spirit teaches you, then you are convinced He is with you forever and will not doubt that no matter what any man says. How did Paul learn this? Through trials and tribulations he became convinced of God’s love. He grasped onto something for dear life. The by-product of this that you may be filled to the full measure of God.
Romans 8:37-39
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And as you read other passages, such as 2 Corinthians 11:16-33, you will have read about the trials and tribulations that Paul went through, and how he learned personally of God’s grace in all such struggles. Paul said that if he must boast, he will boast in those things that show his weaknesses that the power of Christ might rest on him (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Do you think it is possible to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God and not be filled with the Spirit? Is it possible to be filled with the Spirit and not be filled with the fullness of God? Why not? They are one and the same. To be filled with all of God is to be filled with the Spirit. So instead of sitting around, wondering what it is, just look at the scriptures. Many erroneously believe be filled with the Spirit is to be rolling on the floor, to be slain, to be filled with holy laughter, or to be filled a second time. Look to the scriptures to know what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by the love of God.
2 Corinthians 5:14
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
But then there are those who say but I don’t like that. I want something miraculous to happen. I like this miraculous stuff. I like to deal in miracles. You will never see a bigger miracle than if you are loving someone with God’s love. If I ever see 1 Corinthians love out of me then seeing something bigger than the sea splitting. Yet so often we want something miraculous and spectacular. Everything has to be with fire crackers going off. God has something better than that. Those kinds of things do not prove anything.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
If love never fails, then how well am I loving? To love according to 1 Corinthians 13 would indeed be miraculous.
John 13:35
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
They will know you are my disciples not by your church attendance, raising your hand in the air or in the lap, or miraculous things you have seen. They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another. That stops me in my tracks! How about you? Does it do that to you? Without being saved, I can do that other stuff. As a lost person, I can go to church. Do you have to be saved to be baptized? No! Do you have to be saved to speak a static utterance? No! Do you have to be saved to do a miracle, or what you think is a miracle? No! But if ever going to see 1 Corinthians love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) come out of me, then you must be saved! For unless that love has a home in your heart, there is no place for love to go. You cannot manufacture it. It has to be in you before it flows out through you.
Romans 5:5
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
1 Timothy 1:14
The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
From this basis, of the grace of the Lord lavishly given to you, of the love of God being poured in your heart, what did Paul exhort us to do?
Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
What is worship from God’s vantage point?
John 4:23-24
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Is it singing praise songs? Is that worship from God’s stand point? People call it a worship service, as if to say it is the only place you can worship. Is that worship? No. Hands up or down, does that have anything to do with worship? Not necessarily. All those things a lost person can do. Do you have to be saved to have goose bumps when you hear the old rugged cross? No.
You have to be saved to present your body, which has already been made holy and acceptable in the sight of God, as a living sacrifice, which is your reasonable act of worship. I cannot present my body to Him who is not living in me. You cannot present your body to Him unless He is living in you. The real God was living inside in the physical Jesus. God says, “I am living inside you, so make your body available to me.” And you say, “For what?” God replies, “To live my life through you.”
Ephesians 1:3-5
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Romans 8:11
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Colossians 2:6
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,