The Holy Spirit in Ephesians

We are speaking-, in these lectures, of the spiritual life. I told you on Tuesday morning that it is a great thing when a man gets a vision of what the spiritual life is, and of the fact that it is for him. On Tuesday evening and yesterday morning I spoke of the two aspects of that life — the one, the mere doctrinal, from the eighth chapter of Romans; and the other, the practical, from the words, “The fruit of the Spirit is love.”

I wish this morning to keep that same thought before us; because I believe, the more deeply we come to understand that God means us to live the life of the Holy Spirit the more clearly we see that scripture points to the provision God has made by which every action of the redeemed life may be through the Holy Spirit, the more convinced we shall be that God will give us this life, and the more ready we shall be to sacrifice all to enter into it. I think it may help us to take a little Bible reading on this subject this morning, from one of the epistles, and just look at the place that the Holy Spirit takes in the Christian life as exhibited in it.

1. Turn to the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 1, and the 13th verse. “In whom, after that ye believed, (that is, in Christ) ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” We have here first of all the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

“Believing-, you were sealed.” Just look at the three thousand on the day of Pentecost. They believed and were baptized and received the Holy Ghost, and they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now,youknowwhataseal is. The sealingof a letter or document is for safety and confirmation. God g-ives to His child at conversion, the Holy Spirit as a seal, which is the mark of God, set upon him that he may know that he is God’s redeemed child. That seal is not a dead one, but is the living- Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit seals me as an earnest of my inheritance, as a spirit of promise; and when that Spirit seals me I am to trust and hope for all God is going- to do.

If I am to live a healthy Christian life I must carry the living- seal of the living- Spirit of God in my life every moment. I must pray to God for this living- heaven-born consciousness of being- the child of God to be so clear that every moment I can realize it. The father of a family, a workman, a soldier, a sailor, every man, carries about with him the consciousness of what he is. Just so the Holy Spirit will so enable a man to realize, I am sealed with the Holy Spirit from heaven, that He will feel, I cannot do anything- inconsistent with my position and nature. The Holy Spirit reminds me I am God’s dear child.

2- The second passage you find at the 17th verse: “I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” Here we have the Spirit of illumination of Divine enlightenment. After having brought them to see that they were sealed with the Holy Spirit, Paul prays for them, “Father, give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and enlighten the eyes of their hearts.” He prays for them because he wants them to know the height of their calling and the glory of their inheritance and the power of Christ working in them. God has prepared for us in Christ just ivonderfiil riches. Our calling is to be holy, to live like God’s sons. Our heritage is rich and precious. The power that works in us is the resurrection power of Christ by which God raised Him and set Him at His right hand. That mighty power is working in us human beings. We do not know these things from day to day because we do not continue waiting and asking for, and yielding to the Spirit of illumination. He would give us to see what is prepared for us every day in Christ Jesus.

This week we speak about the Holy Spirit and next week about the Lord Jesus, showing how the Spirit leads to Christ and out of Christ the Spirit comes ever more abundantly. Paul prays that the Spirit might reveal Christ fully to them, and that they might know what they have in Christ. I can not read my Bible, I cannot lead a Christian life, unless I have the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of enlig-htenment. It is not a special thing-, but just for the ordinary Christian life. The eyes of ray heart are darkened by sin; every day I raust have them illuminated by the Holy Ghost. And this I must pray for; it comes in answer to humble prayer, waiting upon God.

3. In the 2nd chapter we have, in the 18th verse, “Through whom (Christ) we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” This is the Spirit of worship whereby we are brought nigh to God through Jesus by one Spirit. I need the Spirit if I want to pray, I need Him to worship. As a little child I used to say every day to my father, “Good morning.” Every morning I need to enter into God’s presence and cry “Abba Father,” and dwell near to God. How can I do it? Through Christ, by the Holy Spirit. Many people speak of drawing nigh to God through the blood and through Christ. We cannot praise God too much for Christ and the blood, but that is not all, there are many who don’t know what it means to draw nigh through the Holy Spirit. Where a heart is filled with the Holy Spirit, there the access and abiding in God’s presence is no longer an effort, but the natural spontaneous breathing of the Spirit. A man cannot live a true Christian life unless he has the Holy Spirit living in him every moment. He must know, and be conscious that by the Spirit he has access through Christ unto the Father.

4. Our next step is the Spirit of fellozvship.

Chap. 2:22. “In whom ye also are builded togfether for an habitation of God throug-h the Spirit.” That is to say, that each one of you is not to be built up separate from the others, but you are all built up tog-ether, into an habitation of God, so many livingstones all making- up the one building-. You could not have this building- in which we meet if all the stones were not put upon each other and united and cemented into one solid body; this makes the house fit to live in. Just so, if the church of Christ is to be what God wants, it is to be His habitation. He is to dwell in the body, but how? We are so selfish, unloving; we have so little union with each other. How am I to have a larg-e heart for every member of the body? The Holy Spirit will do it. If I g-et filled with the Holy Spirit I will love every brother and sister, and will g-lory in the body of Christ. Do you not feel that here the g-reat mischief in our Christian life lies. We do not know the Holy Ghost and all He is going- to do for us. We do not know that it is impossible for us to live a full Christian life unless we allow the Holy Spirit to do all His work in us; unless we accept all His blessed workings. Let us ask God to show us how indispensable it is that the Holy Ghost should triumph in us individually and collectively if we are to answer God’s purpose.

5. In the yd chapter, 5th verse: “The mystery of Christ, 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.” There you have the Spirit of inspiration. The Holy

Spirit reveals to the apostles and prophets hidden divine things. In the first chapter it was the Spirit of illumination, teaching- every individual what he has in Christ and what Christ can do for him. Here it is the Spirit of our practice to whom we owe the Holy Scripture, and the knowledge of the mysteries of God they give. The thoughts of God’s heart are large; through the Holy Spirit He rereals to His servants the prospects of God’s kingdom and enriches our hearts with wonderful thoughts of the glory of God. Look at what He says in the 9th and 10th verses: “To make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” God is working out a wonderful purpose here in the world. If I come to some great manufacturing business, and they take me about and show me all the wonderful machinery they have, I exclaim: “What power God has given to man! What a wonderful endowment the mind of man is!” But now, to think that the Everlasting God is working out a plan “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God.” Let us ask for the Spirit that inspired the Bible to reveal to us the wonderful glory of the mystery of God. We have the Bible, but we do not understand it, unless the Holy Spirit, as our Spirit of inspiration, teach us to enter into God’s blessed plan.

64 THE SPIRITUAL I<IFK.

6. Verses 14-16, same chapter, another prayer of Paul, shows us the Spirit as a Spirit of strength This is a wonderful prayer. In the first prayer it was for lights that you might know what you have g-ot in Christ; here, for strength that you may receive and have Christ in you. In the first chapter it was a prayer for revelation, here it is a prayer for possession; that the Holy Spirit might strengthen and Christ dwell in you by faith and fill you unto all the fullness of God. Paul prayed to God for the Spirit of strengthening. That is the Spirit we need to have every day. I pray God to make it clear to us. If you only saw it fully, that God does not mean a child of His to live one moment without the Holy Spirit you would see how impossible it is to live rightly one moment without His unceasing operation. Yet how can God do it if I do not pray, do not long for it, to have Christ dwelling in the heart; and how can I be filled unto the fullness of God unless I believe a precious promise as to what God will do by the Spirit, like this. Plead for it, claim it, give yourself up to it.

Dear friends, I pray you take this blessed Epistle alone and pray over it step by step, and mark down all of these blessings. We have heard in the three chapters of the sealing, illumination, worship, fellowship, inspiration, and strengthening of the Spirit leading up to the fullness of God. But is that really the life I am going to live? was this Bible written to engage or please our intellect? Was it made that ministers might have work to do, and subjects to preach sermons on? No! This

Bible was written, this Epistle was written, that you, by the Holy Spirit, mig-ht live every day according- to it. It means nothing- unless it means that. Let us try to find out what God says about the Holy Spirit, with the resolve, I am g-oing to claim it all; the Holy Spirit is going to live in me and make it a reality

In studying the Epistle you will notice that it consists of two parts. The first three chapters set forth the heavenly life of the believer in Christ, you you will find nothing directly practical there. It begins, “Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;” these are then described in chapter one. Then Paul prays that God would reveal it. “God hath quickened you,” “You are His workmanship.” In chapter two and three it is the heavenly life of the Christian, ending with prayer and worship. The three last chapters are just the opposite. They lead from heaven to earth. The heavenly man has got to live here on earth, in the world; and in the 4th, 5th, and 6th chapters you get the most simple, practical, every-day applications to the daily life you can find. These heavenly things in connection with the Holy Spirit, His divine seal, divine illumination, divine access to God, divine fellowship bringing us into God’s temple, divine inspiration of God’s servants, divine strengthening in the inner man — these are all hidden spiritual blessings.

Now, let us see what we get in the second part of the Epistle.

1. There you have, in the fourth chapter, the Spirit of love. We read in the third verse, “Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” In going- back to the first two verses, you see how necessary it is to have the Spirit of love and humility as the first graces of the Christian life. Paul knew that there is no want so prevalent among men as the want of humility and of love; and so, from the heavenly heights of the previous chapters, he comes down and says, “Walk worthy of your calling as Christians, by being very humble, and being very loving; bear with one another, and do your utmost to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How much — as I have had occasion to say before — how much there is among Christians of want of love, of want of humility; how much there is we can find in our own heart of temper, of pride, of hatred, unkindness, just coming out of that cursed flesh! “Keep the unity of the Spirit.” But am I not under the power of the flesh? Am I not without the strength to keep the unity of the Spirit? The flesh cannot do the Spirit’s work. I am to keep the unity of the Spirit by yielding to the Spirit. We read in chapter two that He builds up believers into one body as the habitation of God. This is His work. I must have the fullness of the Holy Ghost if I am always to be living in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, if I am always to be humble and loving. Are there any of you who say, “Oh God let my life become perfect?” You must have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you every minute. I have lived for more than 60 years and have been breathing- the air during- all that time. I need to have fresh air every moment, I cannot live on the air I breathed 10 minutes ago, and God has provided for its being there. Just as essential as air is to your natural life, so the Holy Spirit is to a right Christian life; and, if we want that, we must find out how a man may come to live every moment in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is true, I cannot be thinking about the Holy Spirit all day. But I do not think about the air either. Even as with the air, so God can keep us under the power of the Spirit all the day. As we begin to see the heavenly possibilities of an actual life in Christ Jesus, then we shall understand that we can indeed keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Oh, shame upon us! What does every little finger tell you? Every little finger says, “I am at the service of the head and at the service of the body.” You believe that 3’ou are a member of the body of Christ, do be assured that the Holy Spirit will come into your life with such love and power that you will indeed keep in the unity of the Spirit, and be at the service of every member of the body. It is not enough that you keep in the unity of the doctrines of your church. Let us indeed keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace! Shall we not say, “God help us?” 2. Then we find, further on in the fourth chapter, another very practical thing connected with the Holy Spirit. We see there He is the Spirit of holiness. In the first half of the chapter He is the Spirit of love, here He is the Spirit of holiness.

Paul had been writing about a number of sins. Read from the 25th verse to the 31st. Put away all these things; they grieve the Holy Spirit of God by which ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. He is the Spirit of holiness. Saying you are not at home when you are, and excusing yourself on the ground that it is a custom of society; telling an untruth to get out of trouble; only telling a half truth or giving a false impression, and say it is excusable because you did not want to hurt the feelings of others; whether it is a “black lie” or a “white lie,” you grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Bitterness, clamor, and evil speaking, just telling news about others you need not tell; the facts may be true but you talk about them needlessly. This grieves the Holy Spirit. Now, don’t you see how easily we grieve the Holy Spirit and the absolute necessity of being guided by the Spirit every minute? We speak about the baptism of power. “We need the Holy Spirit to get into our life to sanctify every act of our being.

3. The third thing we have in the second half of the Epistle is in the 5th chapter, 9th verse: “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.” There we have another practical thing — the fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit. What beautiful fruit the Holy Spirit brings forth! — kindness, righteousness, and truth. How can I always bring forth this fruit unless I always have the Holy Spirit within me?

4. The fourth thing, in the 18th verse of the same chapter: “Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.” Oh what a word! I cannot beg-in to speak about it at this time. The question is this: If I am only half or three-quarters filled with the Spirit, how can I live in the Spirit? I must have Him fill my whole nature. We must understand this. A man wants his lung’s filled perfectly with the fresh air. A man with only one-half his lung’s can only have them partly filled and we count him diseased. “When a man cannot get fresh air in a room he goes outside and opens his lungs. We must be filled with the Holy Ghost. God offers it to us. It is not a spiritual attainment, to be reached by a long process. The moment a man’s whole being yields to the Spirit he can count upon being filled with the Spirit. Paul was writing to a congregation just come out of heathenism. He had to tell some of them not to lie, or steal, etc. He wrote to them, “Brethren, do not do that which grieves the Holy Spirit, but be entirely filled with the Spirit. Obey this command and you will get right, and all the fruits of the Spirit will be manifested in you.”

5. In the last chapter we have two more blessed teachings, both most precious. In the Christian life there is nothing more important than the Word zxA prayer. In the I7th verse we read, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” When the Spirit of God has filled one, he can handle the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and not otherwise. This is the reason of so much preaching without fruit, because we use the sword of the

Spirit without being- filled with the Spirit. The word of God is a sword in a double way. Every time I read the word of God I ought to let the word search me, and He must come like a two-edged sword dividing soul and Spirit, entering even to the very joints and marrow of the inner man. The Holy Spirit alone can do that. Then it is also the sword of the Spirit we need when fighting, not only with individual, but with national sins and unrighteousness. It is not the sword /take, but the sword the Spirit takes and uses through me. Remember, all of you who are preachers, teachers, and workers, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit, He must be in you all the time, or your use of the word will be vain. The Spirit wants to live in us every moment; then service will be the natural outcome of an indwelling life. Only let the Spirit have possession. He will use you.

6. The last we have is prayer, * * Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” The Spirit is a Spirit of prayer and supplication, and Paul stirs them up to pray continually for themselves and for all saints, and for him. Remember, friends, if there is one thing we need to be sure of, it is that God has given us the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the promises of prayer. I suppose not one earnest Christian but will be willing to confess, that if he gave time enough to prayer, if he learned to use his privilege, if he would become a man of intercession, he could have done so much more for the world. How

can we g-et that? The answer is, the Holy Spirit must fill and rule your daily life.

Now, friends, what is the application? It is very simple. First we all want to say, “Thank God for the wonderful revelation of what the Holy Spirit can do to me.” Then let us ask the Spirit of sealing- to let each one know every moment that he is a child of God; the Spirit of illumination, to have the Spirit reveal Christ every minute, so that I can always know what I have in Christ; the Spirit of access to God, to lift me up to God in Christ; the Spirit of fellowship with all saints round about me; the Spirit of inspiration, revealing- truths to the apostles and to us; the Spirit of streng-thening-, bring-ing- from heaven the divine power through which Christ dwells in our heart by faith. These are the aspects on the heavenly side.

In the outward life, the Spirit of lowliness and love, keeping the unity of the Spirit; the Spirit of holiness, never grieving Him by a single wrong thing or thought; the Spirit of fruitfulness, bringing forth in me all kindness, righteousness; the fullness of the Spirit, so that I may expect Him to take possession of every faculty of my being, entirely filling me; the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, to work in me and around me; last of all, the Spirit of prayer, lifting rae up into God’s presence to plead for myself, to plead for the church, to plead for all sinners, to plead for those who speak, that boldness may be given unto them. Paul had been preaching for 20 years, and yet he says so earnestly. ^’Pray for me.” Let us pray for the ministers of the gospel.

We cannot do all this unless the Holy Spirit carries us along, unless our whole life is full of the Spirit. Do you see, this glorious life is a prepared, a provided life? Are you going- to accept it? Say, “Oh Lord, this is the life Thou hast promised; this is the life the Spirit will give; I am going to be content with nothing less; I am going to claim it. Beloved Saviour, Thou hast purchased me with Thy blood, Thou hast promised me the Spirit from the Father, I claim it.”

Let us bow in prayer.