Living in the Spirit

Description of the Holy Spirit and His Work Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill I think a lot of people today are asking questions like how you heal and how you overcome depression, and how do you pray and it seems like we have a multitude of how questions. It seems that we always have a multitude of how questions when people are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and not too much of the tree of life. If you remember, when Mary asked the angel, “How can these things be?” And the angel said, “You shall conceive and the child shall be born in your womb.” The angel answered, “By the Holy Spirit.” And it seems that all the “how” questions are answered by life, by the life of the Holy Spirit. But when there’s an abundance of knowledge and a shortage of life, then I think there are a lot of questions and very few answers. I feel that in a way, even in spirit filled circles today, that’s the problem. There are a great many of us who are saying, “This is the way to the Holy Spirit. This is the way to receive the Holy Spirit. This is the way to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” But there is surprisingly little of the sensitive life of the Holy Spirit alive among us. And it does seem that you can often talk about the Holy Spirit and teach about the Holy Spirit without actually living in the stream of the life of the Holy Spirit. And, I think it is important, you know, just to see that really it’s the Holy Spirit alone that gives life. In 2 Corinthians 3:6, this is really what Paul says, that the old letter kills in a written code but in the spirit for a written code kills but the spirit gives life. And I think John 6:63 states the same thing, that it’s in the spirit that real life is. And I think that it is true that if we, in our bodies, here of Christ, give more respect to the Holy Spirit than we did to ideas, I think we’d receive more life of the Holy Spirit into us. I think too, we’d be led to the person of Jesus rather than the principles of Jesus. Old Stanley Jones was good, he said, “Unity comes when people are preoccupied with the person of Christ rather than the principle of Christ.” And really, if we honored the Holy Spirit and respected him in our own individual lives, more of us would be preoccupied with the person of Christ and we’d be led into real unity than preoccupied with the principles of Christ. I think this is the real reason for Jesus’ command to the apostles. You remember, they had experienced more of truth and reality than any of us probably will ever do in a sense and they had walked, and ate, and slept with this man who was absolute truth and yet this man said to them, “Listen, after I die I don’t want you to leave Jerusalem, I want you to stay there to wait for the promise of the Father which is coming to you.” This seems to be the reason why Jesus emphasized this command, because he knew that he could bring principles and he could teach truths, but only the Holy Spirit could give actual life. And I think this is why he emphasized the importance of the Holy Spirit in John 14. He talked of the Holy Spirit as someone without whom we could not do at all. John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.” And Jesus emphasized that unless the Holy Spirit came to them, really all that he had said was of little value. I think this is why such serious consequences were taught in the early church for blaspheming the Holy Spirit. People blasphemed and lied to Jesus and yet they were not struck dead. But in Act 5:3-5, Ananias and Sapphira you remember, lied to the Holy Spirit when they kept back the proceeds of the land and they were struck dead for that. It seems that in doing this kind of thing God was guarding the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit was someone very precious that he wanted his people to honor and obey. And you remember blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is reckoned in Mark 3:29, to be the unpardonable sin. That is the sin that will not be forgiven, if you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. I think this is the reason too for the battle that took place in the fourth century in the early church about the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Many of us think of the battle over the divinity of Jesus that took place around the time of the Creed of Nicene. But really it was in 381 at Constantinople that at last the early church agreed that the Holy Spirit was a divine person of the Trinity. And it seems that this was such a long drawn out battle because Satan realized that if people did not treat the Holy Spirit as what he was, a real person in the Trinity then all would be lost as far as Jesus’ death had gone. I think the importance of the Holy Spirit is implied really in that benediction that we use most Sundays in church. It’s the benediction mentioned in 2 Corinthians 13:14 and it’s that verse from which we get the implied doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible. 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” It would seem very strange if Paul were to say, “The grace of Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of Peter be with you all.” We would feel, “Ah no, that is wrong. Peter isn’t on the same level at all with Jesus and with God.” And yet Paul feels it is very natural to say, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” Implying that the Holy Spirit is equally important with the Father and the Son and he’s just like them. So, that’s really brothers why I think it’s important to see that the Holy Spirit is someone who is pre-imminently important in these days, these days that we call the age of the Holy Spirit. What I’d like to try to talk about a little is who the Holy Spirit is first of all. I think it’s important to see that he is a person. Ephesians 4:30 talks about the Holy Spirit being someone who can be grieved. We often insult him as treating him as a force or an influence and I think it’s good to see that he is a person with a real will, and a real mind, and real desires and it is possible for the Holy Spirit to interact with you and me, and it is possible for his mind to become our mind and for his will to deal with our will. This is I think, what we feel at times in our own Christian lives when we find something stirring within us wanting us to go a certain way. It is the will of the Holy Spirit. When a person becomes a Christian it is because the will of the Holy Spirit has taken over his will, or his will has cooperated now with the will of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a divine person; he’s not just an influence. Jesus told us that he was to be his successor. He was to complete what Christ himself began. Jesus said that we were dead in our sins but it’s the Holy Spirit that makes us really realize that we’re dead. Jesus can say, “You must be born of the Spirit,” but it’s the Holy Spirit that makes us actually come alive. And, it’s the Holy Spirit that is the successor of Jesus in that he makes real to us the things that Jesus talked about. He is a successor in a real way. He can do things for us that Jesus cannot do. I think we often forget that. I think we feel, “Oh, Jesus can do everything.” No, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father today and he can only influence us as the Holy Spirit brings his life to us. The Holy Spirit was even so important to Jesus that Jesus said, “Unless the Holy Spirit had anointed me, I could not preach the gospel to the poor, I could not heal the broken hearted, I could not bind up wounds.” He said, “The Holy Spirit has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” So, it was the Holy Spirit that gave even Jesus the power to do these things. Many of us say, “Oh well, I mean, you ask Jesus to do the thing and he’ll do it anyway.” But, it is good to see that it’s wrong for us to look to one person of the Trinity to do what that person expressly told us another person of the Trinity would do. And this is what Jesus said in John 16:7-8. He really pointed out that it was the Holy Spirit who would do things for us that he could not do for us at this time, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.” Significant that it says in the Bible that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it and it’s the Holy Spirit who comes to convict the world of sin. Jesus himself does not convict it. So, in many ways Jesus showed us that the Holy Spirit would do things that he could not do and we should look to him to do them. Really we ourselves in our studies, and our preaching, and our positions as husbands, and our positions as sons; I think we would be freer in our relationships if we really did honor the Holy Spirit. Maybe too often we look to our wives, or we look to our fathers or mothers to see how we can really be a blessing to them, or how we can be like Christ to them. Maybe if we honored the Holy Spirit himself, and spent more time loving him, and respecting him, and obeying him, we would automatically be better husbands and more sensitive people in our families. This is the kind of thing that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do for us. That he would really bring Jesus real in our own lives and make him real. I think we often have looked upon the Holy Spirit as the force that comes upon a meeting, a great influence that comes upon a Billy Graham evangelistic service, and this is just insulting the Holy Spirit. All of us have objected to people treating us as machines. You, Mike, would hate to be treated in the library as a kind of book machine that just shot out a book when you shot your card in. And I hated it most when men treated me as a pastor, “He’s a pastor and that’s the kind of thing he’s supposed to do.” And we all feel this, oh insult, to our personalities when people treat us as functions and yet I think often we have grieved the Holy Spirit because we have treated him as a function, who will do certain things, or influence us in certain ways instead of treating him as a real dear person whom we can love and who can love us. The Bible uses the same terms of the Holy Spirit as it does of the Father and the Son. It’s good to see that, that in a sense you can think of the Father as God existing and the son as God revealing, and the Holy Spirit as God communicating and yet they are all equal and equally important. And omnipresence of the Father is attributed to the Holy Spirit. All these invisible qualities that God has and the Son has, the Holy Spirit is said to have also. Indeed, you can see in connection with the Constantinople conference that belief in the Holy Spirit was the last test of orthodoxy as far as Christians were concerned. And even today we would think that orthodox Christians are Trinitarians, people who really believe in the personality of the Holy Spirit. Maybe it’s good to see lastly about this whole question of who is the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit is the real gift. Maybe we’ve made a tremendous mistake in our bodies today in looking for pardon, or cleansing, or peace as the gifts instead of looking to the Holy Spirit as the gift. You remember, in Acts 2:38, it was the Holy Spirit who was promised as the gift to the new converts. The men asked Peter, “Oh, what should we do?” And he said, “Be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And it wasn’t, “That you shall receive the gift of pardon, or the gift of cleansing, or the gift of peace, or the gift of forgiveness but, “You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” It seems that if we’re looking for the Holy Spirit it would help a lot if we’d look for the Holy Spirit and not for his gifts. All the other things that he gives are gifts of his. He gives the nine gifts of the Spirit outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and he provides the nine fruit of the Spirit as outlined in Galatians 5:22-23, but the Holy Spirit himself is the gift. Jesus emphasizes that you know, in John 15:26 and I’d just refer maybe to John 8:13, where Jesus says, “It’s the Holy Spirit that you need, it’s not pardon and cleansing that you need, it’s the Holy Spirit. He will bring the rest of the things to you.” The Pharisees and John 16:7 he says when the Holy Spirit comes, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away,” not peace will not come to you, or forgiveness will not come to you, or sense of glory will not come to you but, “The Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” a person. So, that’s something brothers of who the Holy Spirit is. What was the Holy Spirit’s relationship to the church, to the early church? I think we find that the Holy Spirit was absolutely responsible for the early church. Without the Holy Spirit the early church wouldn’t have existed really. The Holy Spirit started the church. You remember there was no movement of a church. Jesus certainly talked about his church but there was no creation of a church until Acts 2:4 took place, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” It was only when the Holy Spirit fell upon these men that they began to gather together in the unique community that was called the church and that, you know, outlasted Domitian and Nero, and all the other Emperors that tried to destroy it. The Holy Spirit began the church and Acts 2:17-18 you get that emphasis again that this would take place, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and then your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” And none of this would take place until the Holy Spirit came. It was the Holy Spirit who began the church. It was the Holy Spirit we saw that was promised as the gift to the new converts. It wasn’t peace or forgiveness, it was the Holy Spirit. Wait for the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who disciplined the church. It’s good for us, I think, to see that especially in our situation where we tend to feel that man is so important. I mean, we are precious to each other and I know I’m precious to you as you’re precious to me, but it’s very important to see that it’s not the elders, it’s not the pastor, it’s not we men that discipline the church, it’s the Holy Spirit himself. Acts 5:3, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Bishop?” “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Elders?” No, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?” I really do feel that if we had that attitude to the Holy Spirit as the disciplinarian in the body, it brings forth a great freedom. It brings for instance, me into tremendous freedom that I don’t feel that when I’m reflecting something to Tim, or something to you Mike, that it’s my discipline or I’m teaching you how to do something that I know better than you. But suddenly we all become aware, “Yes, he’s just calling me back to the Holy Spirit.” I felt that, I have to say it Tim, even though we’re recording, that when you were pushing me to record and to put this on tape it was good to feel you’re not disciplining me. This isn’t Tim trying to discipline the pastor of the body, but it’s Tim calling me back to what the Holy Spirit wants me to do. And it seems that’s the atmosphere that God wants, you know, where the Holy Spirit is the disciplinarian in the church and we all feel we are responsible to this invisible person that is moving among us and that is expressing himself through different ones of us at different times. It seems that that’s why the church can be a mutual experience. It seems that’s what takes the whole responsibility from one man to lead the church and discipline the church, and advise the church. Suddenly we begin to find that all of us men are being used by the Holy Spirit to speak forth his word to each of us at different times. It seems to me there’s a great balance, and a great set of balances and counteracting forces there that saves us from wild individualism and fanaticism. But the Holy Spirit was the one who disciplined the Church. The Holy Spirit was the one who directed the leaders in evangelistic activity. I think it’s good to see that in Acts 16:6-7, because a lot of us, especially we here who are concerned with getting 10,000 of us out here into the world for Jesus, we wonder well, “Where do you go? Do you go to India Mike where you have had some experience?” Or, do we go Tim to London and specialize there? Or, do we go to South America with Sue or to Bolivia with Wally and Marg who have had some experience in Bolivia? Do we go where the Holy Spirit tells us? And it seems that it’s plain you know, Acts 16:6-7 states that, “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.” And so they avoided Asia not because they didn’t know Asia but because the Holy Spirit had forbidden them to speak the world there. “And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” This is the kind of discipline that the Holy Spirit exerted over the missionaries of the early church and it seems to me it’s the kind of discipline that he wants to exercise over us in our missionary strategy. The Holy Spirit apparently can see deeper than we can. It’s not a matter of looking for the underprivileged countries, it’s not a matter of looking for the non-lost of lands, or looking for the lands that will be freshest and most open to the gospel, but it’s really a question of following the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit directed the evangelistic strategy of the early church. The Holy Spirit ministers to the world. It seems even in the New Testament it wasn’t the church that ministered to the world but it was the Holy Spirit. You remember, Jesus said, “When the Holy Spirit comes he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.” It wasn’t the church that was to convince the world of sin but the Holy Spirit. I think the church has become so often a mealy mouthed kind of harmless milk and water organization or it has seemed to other people as a downright fanatical narrow minded fundamentalist oppressive operation because the church has tried to convince the world of sin. Instead of just living before the world in the Spirit of Jesus, the church has tried to convince the world of sin. Now, the Holy Spirit is the one that ministers to the world through the church. So, it is really good to see that the Holy Spirit is the one who will do the main work of the church and will do these things for our church today. Perhaps it would be good just to look for a moment or two at what the Holy Spirit does in connection with Jesus himself, in other words, the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would tell us who he was. John 15:26, “But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me.” Many of us say, “Oh, we know who Jesus is, he’s the son of God, he lived in the first century, we have manuscripts to back up his historicity. He’s the one that healed the lepers; he’s the one that called Peter and John to follow him.” Those are the historical facts of Jesus and through those facts we can know him as we know Winston Churchill, but the truth is that the Holy Spirit can bring us into a personal knowledge of Jesus. Even though he lived 1900 years ago, he can enable us to know Jesus as really and more really than even the disciples knew him. The disciples for instance, knew Jesus after the flesh and yet when it came to the time of his trial they forsook him and fled. That’s how well they knew him after the flesh. It seems that the Holy Spirit can bring to us a knowledge of Jesus that is even finer, and more sensitive, and more detailed than that in the New Testament. I’m not saying, you know, that we go on to new revelations that are beyond the New Testament, but the Holy Spirit interprets the details of the New Testament picture to us in ways that we’ve never seen before. It was just a revelation to me in my prayer times, when I began to discover that I could get up from prayer knowing Jesus in a deeper and a more sensitive way than I knew him when I first kneeled down to pray. And yet, it wasn’t that I could tell you of some quality that I didn’t know he had before, that I discovered, but it was him himself. I met him in a new way and the Holy Spirit will tell us who Jesus is in that way. The Holy Spirit will make Jesus real in our own lives. He’ll reveal Jesus to us. He’ll interpret scripture to us. Jesus said this in John 16:14, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Some of us have used this kind of illustration that oh you could bring the most beautiful paintings into this room at the moment, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper and the crucifixion and St. John of the Cross, and have them around the walls of this room and then I could bring you into the room and say, “Aren’t these beautiful paintings?” And never switch the light on you and you’d say, “Well, I can’t see a thing, darkness, absolute darkness.” And then when I switch the light on you’d see these beautiful master pieces lined up around the walls of the room. Now, it seems to be the same with the Holy Spirit, you can talk about the beauties of Jesus, but until the Holy Spirit has made them real to you, and revealed them to you, and lit them up for you, there is no beauty in them. It’s the Holy Spirit who interprets scripture and enables us really to understand scripture. The Holy Spirit makes the things of Jesus real and fresh. They happened 2000 years ago but he makes them real and fresh today. That’s really what Jesus is saying in John 15 and that verse where Jesus says, “He will take of the things that are mine and communicate them to you,” and the Greek word means you know, make them real with you, share them with you in a way that you will understand. And it seems that, oh you can talk of Jesus and he’s just a historical figure until the Holy Spirit makes it real and alive. Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit will glorify him.” I was always baffled when I read about that. I thought, “Oh yeah, that means we’ll all glorify Jesus. We’ll glorify Jesus.” We’ll say, “Oh, Jesus you’re wonderful, you’re great. Oh, you’re a good Lord, you’re a good Lord.” And I used to think, you know, that praising and glorifying Jesus seemed to me rather a flattering kind of attitude towards Jesus and it never struck me as a manly thing to do, everybody would be around glorifying one person. But I think it’s good when you see that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus in this way. He takes of the things of Jesus and reproduces them in our lives so that the world sees Jesus alive inside us and that’s all the world needs to do to glorify him. Jesus will automatically be glorified when the world sees him again and that’s really the way the Holy Spirit glorifies him. He imparts to us the very beauties of Jesus’ own life and then the world sees Jesus alive again and simply falls before him and worships him. It seems that the same way the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin. We often feel, he’ll come straight down and strike them dead, or strike them in their conscious. No, I think the Holy Spirit will reproduce the beauties of Jesus in you and me and then the world will see the beauty and the balance of our lives and the peace of our emotions, and the love in our hearts, and the world will be convicted of its own ugliness. And that’s the way the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. Maybe I could just end by talking for a couple of minutes about the Holy Spirit and us ourselves. The Holy Spirit, if we allow him will miraculously take the life of Jesus and make it real in us. This is the unique factor in Christianity. Mohammad cannot make himself real in us, but Jesus can make himself real in us. The Holy Spirit can take the love of Jesus and make it real in us. It meant a lot to me when I at last saw that when 1 Corinthians 13 describes the love of Jesus, if I’m really allowing the Holy Spirit to do what he wants in me, then it will describe me. And I know you’ve maybe heard it before, but just to be able to say, you know, “I am not jealous or boastful. I am not arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way. I am not irritable or resentful. I am not glad when others go wrong. I am glad when others are right. I believe all things. I bear all things. I endure all things. My love never ends.” It seems that that’s what happens when the Holy Spirit takes the love of Jesus and makes it real in each one of us. And when he takes the forgiveness of Jesus and makes it real in us and the humility of Jesus, not that old diffidence or that humiliation, or that timidity, or that modesty that we call humility but real humility of Jesus a willingness to be rated low, a willingness to waive our rights as Jesus did whether we’re praised or blamed for his sake. Those qualities, those unique supernatural qualities the Holy Spirit will make real in us. So it seems to me this is some of his work and some of his ministry and oh, we would just transformed people if we would really honor the Holy Spirit and ask him to make the supernatural life of Jesus real in us and he will really. You know, in these next meetings I’d really like to begin to talk of how the Holy Spirit will make real in us the purity and the power of Jesus.

New Testament Personal Experiences Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill What is really necessary things in regard to the work of the Holy Spirit is to be very clear in our own minds what the New Testament experience of the Holy Spirit is, and to really interpret that carefully and closely. And so that’s really what I’d like to spend a little time doing now. I think it’s important brothers to see that Jesus himself came to do a two-fold work and you have that pointed out clearly, you remember, in John 1:29 and 33 where John says first that Jesus is the one you remember, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” And John says, “First of all Jesus came to take away the sin of the world,” that is to bring forgiveness of sins. And then in Verse 33 the second purpose of his coming, “I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’’ So, I think it’s important to see that the reason Jesus came was to remove our sins from between us and God so that God would then really be free to replace the tree of life in our lives and to fill us and baptize us with the Holy Spirit. And I think it’s vital to see that Jesus’ work is not just the work of a savior from the guilt of past sins but his work is also as a Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit from present sinning and from our present powerless lives. And I think it’s important to see that really this was what Jesus himself laid emphasis on in John 7:37-39. You find Jesus emphasizing this truth that the Holy Spirit was someone that we would receive really only from him and Verse 37, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’” And then John explains you see, “Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” And you see that’s the special mark of the new covenant. You see that. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given in a full way because Jesus was not yet glorified. So, not only is the baptism of the Holy Spirit really the real reason Jesus came, but it’s the unique mark of the new covenant as opposed to the old covenant because John says plainly, “Until Jesus is glorified.” That is until Jesus presents his blood to the Father, God cannot replace the tree of life among us men and so cannot baptize us with the Holy Spirit. Now, you get that emphasis in Acts 2:17-18. The emphasis that this is the really unique mark of the new covenant, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:17, “And in the last days it shall be.” You remember, Peter quotes Joel, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; yeah, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” So, you can see that really the new covenant was to have as its unique mark, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus, you remember, said on one occasion to the disciples, “The Holy Spirit is with you,” because in the old covenant in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was with people. I mean, the Holy Spirit was with Saul to be a king. The Holy Spirit was with the prophets to prophesy. The Holy Spirit was often with Moses, but here in the New Testament the Holy Spirit was to be in you and this was a new mark of the new covenant, that the Holy Spirit was going to be able to become synonymous with us men and with us woman. In the old days God spoke through Balaam’s ass external and independent of people but now with the coming of the Holy Spirit into people then the word was again made flesh and so the mark of the new covenant is the Holy Spirit coming in and filling and making us like Jesus himself. Now you get that clear teaching about the Holy Spirit brothers if you look at the first instruction, you remember, that was given after the first Christian sermon that was preached, Acts 2:37-38. You remember, the response of the people to that first Christian sermon in Act 2:37, “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’” And then the first instruction you see, includes right in the forefront of it this command to receive the Holy Spirit, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” And you see it there that the gift of the Holy Spirit was the thing they were told to receive. That is what would make them Christians as opposed to Jews, they were going to receive the Holy Spirit into themselves. Now, the Holy Spirit would do certain things in them and the Holy Spirit, we find does certain things in us. First of all John 16:8, you remember, “When the Holy Spirit comes he will convince the world of sin.” It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin. None of us have moved towards Jesus or towards God except that the Holy Spirit has worked in us and made us realize that we were not right with God. Then the Holy Spirit will regenerate us in John 3:5, you remember, “Unless you are born of water and of the Spirit, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of God.” So, we’re born of the Spirit when we become Christians. The Holy Spirit seals us you remember, Ephesians 1:13 that it is the Holy Spirit that seals you as God’s own people. So our assurance that we’re children of God comes from the Holy Spirit. And then you remember Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” It’s the Holy Spirit that brings power. Now, I mention all those because I think we often have an idea that the Holy Spirit only comes upon a person when that person is baptized with the Holy Spirit. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit has dealt with many of us even before we’re children of God. He has convicted us of sin. It’s him that brings real repentance to us. It’s him really that enables us to believe on God. It’s the Holy Spirit that works the grace in us. We have to say yes or no to him, but it’s the Holy Spirit that brings about the miracle of the new birth. It’s the Holy Spirit that brings about the miracle of assurance that we’re children of God, and it’s the Holy Spirit that fills us with power. So, maybe it’s good to see that the Holy Spirit is not just to be identified with what we have so often called the baptism of the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit does many things in our lives down through the years. Maybe it’s important to see at this stage that he’s the basis of our assurance. A lot of people in these days really aren’t sure whether they’re Christians or not and they aren’t sure because they don’t know the real basis of the assurance that they’re children of God. Some of them get caught in that trap that Jesus outlined you remember, in John 1:12 and they say, “Oh, we’re born of blood and we’re born of Christian parents so we must be Christians.” Or, “We’re born by the will of man. The Baptist pastor or the Presbyterian pastor, or the Methodist pastor gives us the hand of fellowship, welcomed us into the church, we’re members of the church so we know we’re children of God.” Or, some have a belief in the will of the flesh, born of the will of the flesh. They say at a Billy Graham meeting or an evangelist service, “I’m going to believe in Jesus,” and they say, “Just the sheer determination to believe, that makes me a Christian.” And they try and look back and say, “Do I really feel determined? Then I must be a Christian.” Now, assurance of salvation is not based on any of those things. Assurance of salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit within us and it can be clearly discerned. It’s outlined there in Romans 8:16 and you remember Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit moving within us and he says in Verse 16, “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Now, the Holy Spirit gives us an assurance of salvation because he, you see the Spirit capital S in Verse 16 of Romans 8, the Spirit himself and the capital S signifies a definite article in Greek and it always refers to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit and that’s a small s that we are children of God. So the way you tell you’re a child of God is because of the combination of the witness of the Holy Spirit and the witness of your own spirit. Now you know, if you say, “Well, what is the witness of God’s Spirit?” Well, it’s there outlined in Verse 15 of Romans 8, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” So, the witness of God’s Spirit inside us is that we feel he is our Father, we sense he’s our Father. When we go to him in prayer we sense we want to call Abba! Father! And Abba is the Greek word for dad, and we feel that God is our Father. We sense inside, “He is our Father, he loves me.” There’s a spirit inside of God that calls up to God and regards him as our Father, no longer as a great Creator or as a mighty Lord God but it’s Jesus inside us calling up to his Father and saying, “Dad, I love you.” Now, it seems to me the first witness is the witness of God’s Spirit inside us that makes us feel about God the way Jesus does. We just sense we love him. We sense he is our Father. However much we fail him, however much we’ve disobeyed, there’s a spirit inside us that makes us keep on coming back to him saying, “Father forgive me.” It’s not a spirit of fear of the mighty judge but it’s a spirit of a child coming back to his father and saying, “Father I’ve messed it all up again. Will you forgive me?” But it’s a spirit inside, it’s a spirit you know, that assures you that because Jesus has died for you, God no longer has anything against you. It’s an absolute recumbency upon Jesus as your only hope of salvation. It’s an absolute confidence inside that you have nothing to offer God, that only the blood of Jesus will enable you to be accepted by him and it’s therefore a rest in Jesus as your redemption and sanctification. It’s a complete trust in Jesus because of his blood. But it seems to me that’s the witness of the Holy Spirit you see, and that’s something that goes below feelings, and below intellectual convictions. It’s something that you sense deep down, it’s an attitude of heart. And then what is the witness of our own spirit? Well, the witness of our own spirit is outlined in several places but Romans 5:5 is one place. Romans 5:5, love is part of the witness of our own spirit, when the Holy Spirit comes inside us he dwells with us and he also influences our spirit and he fills it with love, “And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy spirit which has been given to us.” So, there is a love inside us of God and a desire to love other people. Now brothers and sisters, I’m not saying that it dwells unmixed in the heart until really you have been filled with the Holy Spirit completely, but it is there. It’s a desire to love people and it’s a desire to love God, and it is a sense inside, “I want to love you Lord. I want to go your way.” In other words, the real mark of God’s Spirit within a person is that they have a desire deep down that they want to go his way. When sin comes up, it’s an alien thing to them. You know, they don’t embrace sin. Sin may be there but they don’t embrace it. They say, “No, I want to go God’s way.” Whatever the sin is like they reject it as something alien and external to them. Now, it’s important maybe brothers and sisters to just note those clearly and to see that really Galatians 5:22-23, you know, the fruit of the Spirit is an indication that our own spirit has been changed by God and the absolute confidence that we have that God will receive us for Jesus’ sake, that’s the witness of God’s own Spirit and the Holy Spirit brings that about. Now, what about the whole business of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? And it seems to me here it’s important really to look carefully at the New Testament and to analyze it as carefully, and coolly, and calmly as we can. Would you like to look at the whole problem of the time sequence? And this is where a great deal of the problem lies. The time sequence in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at Acts 2:38. Here’s the norm you see, here is the norm. Acts 2:38, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Probably what happened was this, Peter preached, said, “You have murdered the son of God and this Jesus has been raised to the right hand of the Father and he has poured out this power which you now see. You murdered him by ruthless and cruel hands.” And the people said, “What do we do about it?” And Peter said, “Repent. Be sorry, stop doing it. Turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And they probably that very day believed on Jesus and said, “We’re sorry. We’re sorry. Now we’ve seen what we’ve done, we’re turning from it and we’ll turn and we’ll live for this Jesus.” And then Peter would say, “Alright, now next day you’re going to be baptized. I’m going to baptize you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.” And he would gather them around the next day and he would repeat probably something of what Paul wrote down for us, you remember, on Romans 6:3-4. He would say, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” And they would say, “Well, yeah, yeah, but what does that mean?” And Peter would outline what it meant. He would say, “Now listen, I could be arrested any day. I could be killed tomorrow. I can’t live for tomorrow. I can’t hope for my family to grow up. I can’t hope to be wealthy. I can’t hope to look to the future. As far as I’m concerned there is no future. Now, that’s what being baptized into Jesus’ death is going to mean for you.” And then he would go through the possessions you know, this is what it’s going to mean for you and he would explain fully what full surrender meant. And then he would say, “Now, are you willing not only to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, but are you willing to be baptized ‘ice’ is the Greek word, into Jesus? Are you willing to be identified absolutely with Jesus in his death so that you can be identified with him in his resurrection?” And then if they were willing they would go down into the water and as they came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit would baptize them with himself. And so brothers, I honestly believe that in New Testament days the norm was really the whole experience taking place either in one day or in two days. But, I honestly question you know, if the norm in those days was you were born of the spirit and then a long while after, maybe two or three years, or in my miserable experience, you know, 17 years later, you’re filled with the Spirit or you’re baptized with the Spirit. I honestly believe that was the norm in those days and that they were baptized with the spirit in two ways. They were filled with the Spirit for purity and from that day on the nine fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 began to appear in their lives and they were anointed with the Holy Spirit for power so that the nine gifts of the spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:3-4 were made available to them. But that really, that was the New Testament experience. And, really that is the work of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant and in that way reproduced the image of Jesus, reproduced the purity of Jesus in the converts and reproduced the power of Jesus in the converts which was really why the people in the ancient world saw immediately Jesus in what were apparently very new converts. Now, Satan has tried to upset our whole attitude to the Holy Spirit by preoccupying us with distractions in regard to this experience. And I really think he has done his best to eliminate this precious unique work of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant by getting us all to disagree in all kinds of ways with the way your baptized with the Holy Spirit. And so I’d like really to try and tackle some of those. First of all you know, that he has tried to preoccupy us with this whole business of the time sequence of the works of the new birth and the filling and the anointing by the Holy Spirit. And you know there are plenty of people in all kinds of churches and all kinds of groups that spend their time disagreeing with each other about the time sequence in regard to the work of the Holy Spirit. So, there are people who say, “Oh, you must be born of the Spirit before you can be filled with the Spirit.” There are people who say, “You have to be baptized with the Spirit before you can be filled with the Spirit.” There are others who say, “No, it has to be the other way around.” Now brothers, I think the first thing you have to face is that it’s very hard to tie down a time sequence. After you’ve looked at the normal pattern in Acts 2:38 you have to accept that the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ words is a free spirit and the wind bloweth where it listeth and the Holy Spirit will often do things backwards and in different ways. And you get that you remember, in Acts 10:44-48 the experience of Cornelius. Acts 10:44-48, and you remember Peter had hardly finished preaching and it says, “While Peter was still saying this,” still preaching, still preaching the gospel, “The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” Who had apparently not even believed on Jesus or just about and no more, “For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, ‘Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’” So the first thing I think is to see that it’s hard to tie down and say, “No, Larry you can’t have been baptized with the Holy Spirit because you haven’t experienced this or you haven’t experienced that.” I think finally we have to be very humble about the time sequence of the works of the Holy Spirit and be open to God doing them in a new way. So brothers, I don’t think you can afford to say to a person, “You couldn’t be born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit at the same time.” You can say with old John Wesley that, “I have interviewed hundreds of people in the midst of revival in the 18th century and I have not found one in whom both works have taken place instantaneously.” So, you can take the empirical evidence and historical report but you have to finally say that there is nothing in the scripture that says it should be so. And you certainly cannot afford to say to a person purely on the basis of time sequence that you cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit because you haven’t been born of the Spirit. You have to accept that a person could be born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit the same day as far as God is concerned. There is no difficulty as far as faith is concerned. Now then I think, people have tried to confuse us and Satan has tried to confuse people on the issue of tongues. Tried to get people all wrapped up with the whole business of tongues. Not with the gift of the Holy Spirit, not with being baptized with the Holy Spirit but with the whole business that you have to speak in tongues otherwise you haven’t been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now brothers, it’s just not true you see. 1 Corinthians 12: 29-30 run like this, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing?” And the form of the Greek question obviously expects the answer, “No.” And you could guess even from the English that the answer is, “No, all aren’t prophets, all aren’t teachers, all don’t work miracles.” And then, “Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” And obviously, Paul is saying everybody doesn’t speak with tongues. There are many people who are baptized with the Holy Spirit who don’t speak with tongues. Now, I think many people get caught up in the kind of scholastic argument, “Oh, but maybe that was the gift of tongues, but everybody speaks with a tongue when they’re first baptized.” But then brothers you’d have to deal with the fact that only three instances in Acts, only in three instances in Acts is it recorded that they spoke with tongues. In all the other instances where they were baptized with the Holy Spirit there’s no mention of tongues. And I’d just mention, you know, Acts 2:41, and Acts 8:17, and Acts 9:18 and Acts 2:41 is just a plain one where it just says clearly that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and that was it. Acts 2:41, “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” It just says they were baptized into Jesus and there were added three thousand souls. Or, if you like to look at Acts 8:17, you remember, the case of Philip’s converts, “Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” But there’s no mention of tongues. So it’s wrong, I think, for us to be preoccupied with the question of tongues. Tongues is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit is separate from his manifestations and the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not signified simply by speaking on tongues. But Satan, I think, has preoccupied us with this you know. I think he has tried to preoccupy us with what many of us will claim is a very cool, and intellectual, and middle of the way, and maybe a British attitude to take. And the alternative many people say to these is, “That’s right, you’re right brother. That’s madness talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a second work. It isn’t a second work, it’s one complete work and when we’re born of the Spirit we’re baptized with the Spirit and there’s no question about it. And it doesn’t matter what my life is like, it doesn’t matter whether I have the fruit of the Spirit in my life or not, it doesn’t matter whether I minister in the gifts of the Spirit or not, I’ve been baptized with the Spirit because what you say is right. In the New Testament it was to be one experience and even though it seems to me, I haven’t experienced the whole one experience yet I know I’ve been born of the Spirit so I must have been baptized with the Spirit.” Now brothers, do you see that’s an utterly blind attitude today where you say because the norm in the New Testament was one great experience then you say you’re a Christian and yet you haven’t the fruit of the Spirit in your life, you have no experience of the gifts of the Spirit but you keep on saying, “Ah, no but I’m baptized with the Spirit.” Now dear ones, do you see that’s contradicted by the New Testament examples of people who had entered into only part of the work of the Holy Spirit and it’s contradicted also by those of us who know we’re Christians but know we’re not moving in the fullness of the Spirit. So really, what we need to see is that the norm in the New Testament is one complete experience but there are several indications in the New Testament itself that many people entered into only half of the experience. Some were born of the Spirit and not filled with the Spirit. Some were anointed with the Spirit and not filled with the Spirit. Some experienced victory and not power. Some experienced power and not victory. Some experienced forgiveness of sins and neither power nor victory. Now I know that there are some brothers who say, “Well, you should accept the teaching of the work of the Holy Spirit on the basis of the didactic passages alone in the New Testament and you shouldn’t bother with the descriptive passages. But do you see from the didactic passages you get the norm and the normal doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but from the descriptive passages you find how that worked out in human experience and how it often worked out only partially in some people’s experience. Now, that’s brothers what I’d like to look at a little now. Would you look with me at some of the impartial experiences of the work of the Holy Spirit? First of all, you get Acts 19:1-6, and you remember those were Apollos’ converts at Corinth. And you read in Verse 2, and Paul said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said, ‘No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ And he said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ They said, ‘Into John’s baptism.’ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.” Now, here was a group of people who believed on the one who was to come. Now, old Apollos obviously hadn’t even told them about Jesus but they believed on the Messiah who was to come and through whose holy servant of God they were to receive the forgiveness of their sins. In other words, they were baptized as good Jews. Now, they obviously received the forgiveness of their sins for Jesus’ sake but they did not believe for the Holy Spirit. And it is unto you according to your faith. Now it seems that many people can be born of the Spirit and have their sins forgiven and yet not be baptized with the Holy Spirit because it is unto them according to their faith. There’s another situation in Acts 8, you remember, Philip converted some people in Samaria and in Acts 8:5-8 you read this, that Philip asked them then to come forward and then explained to them what was going to happen. Acts 8:5, “Philip went down to a city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did.” And then it says, you know, to be clear in Verse 12, “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.” Now here was an instance where people believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and so they actually were born of the Spirit. They were not just good Jews, they were born of the Spirit and they became children of God. And yet, “When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” Now, it seems that some people can actually be baptized in the name of Jesus and become Christians, not just be good Jews who know the forgiveness of their sins but really know Jesus himself and be born of his Spirit and yet not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And it seems to me that there are some people that we come across that are in that position. Then there’s another example, you remember, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, “But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ.” These are the people in whom the spiritual gifts were manifest. The Corinthian church had the spiritual gifts in complete fullness. You could see it from the details Paul gave in 1 Corinthians 12 about spiritual gifts and yet he says, “I could only address you has babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh.” And he says, “You are still carnal.” “For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men?” Now here was an instance of men who had been baptized with the Spirit and experienced the gifts of the Spirit but had not experienced the inner purifying work of the Holy Spirit. And so it seems to me you can come into that situation where people have entered into the power of the work of the Holy Spirit but not into the purity. Now really brothers, these are some of the instances in the New Testament that suggests that though the work of the birth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit should probably and is planned by God to be one great work, yet there are examples in the New Testament that it was only a partial work. What I would like us to talk about probably in the next tape or the next time we meet is what should be our practical attitude then to our own lives and our own experiences in the light of this fact that the norm in the New Testament is one great experience but there are instances of people entering into only partial experiences. And I would trust God, that he would at least begin to guide you in your outworking of it in your own life during these days. Amen.

Fruits of the Spirit Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill I’d like brothers to really talk today about how to enter the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And you remember, that last time we talked about the New Testament experience of the Holy Spirit and we talked about receiving the Holy Spirit as being an essential part of entering into Christ where Acts 2:38 says, “Repent and be baptized into the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the Holy Spirit.” And the indication is in the New Testament that everybody was expected to enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit as a complete experience in salvation. And yet you remember we saw that there were definite descriptive parts of the New Testament that revealed to us that not everybody entered into the fullness of the Spirit. You remember in Acts 19 Apollos’ converts entered into only the Jewish forgiveness of sins and I think many people do that today, enter simply into forgiveness of sins. Probably as with Apollos’ converts through lack of light rather than through unwillingness to make a full surrender. Some people enter into the same thing as Philips’ converts in Acts 8, they entered into a real forgiveness of sins through Jesus and a real baptism into Jesus but they had not believed for the fullness of the Holy Spirit and so the fullness of the Holy Spirit did not come to them so they were simply in that position. They didn’t know all that the Holy Spirit could do in them. And I think a lot of people in churches today are in that position, they just have not had full surrender or the fullness of the Holy Spirit preached to them and so they enter into only a partial experience. Thirdly you remember, there were the Corinthians that Paul wrote to who had entered into the baptism with the Holy Spirit for the gifts and ministered in tongues and ministered in healing but had not entered into the Holy Spirit as far as purity of life was concerned and so Paul had to say you are carnal you are fleshly, you behave like ordinary men, you’re walking like ordinary men who have never met Jesus. And I think there are many people in that position today who believe their sins are being forgiven and even have some experience of the gifts of the spirit but have not purity of life in their own hearts. Now, what I’d like us to share just for about half an hour is how to enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit. What should be our practical application of the didactic teaching in the New Testament that all men should enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit and of the descriptive teaching that some did not. I think the heart of it is our attitude should be a pragmatic attitude. We should not play about with semantic games. We should not take the position of those people who say, “Well, it is God’s will for you to enter into a full experience isn’t it? To enter into the new birth and to enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit all at once. That’s God’s will for you. Now, if you’ve entered into part you must have entered into all.” Now, it’s not wise to play that semantic game you see. Some people would say, “Oh well, doesn’t it mean we’ve entered into the Holy Spirit, that we’ve all of the Holy Spirit that we need, but we’re not letting him express himself in our lives?” Do you see it’s silly to argue about whether you’ve entered into all of the Holy Spirit and you’re not letting him express himself in your lives or you’ve entered into only part of the Holy Spirit and you need to receive more of him? It’s silly to argue over that semantic question which is which. The vital thing is to take a pragmatic and a practical attitude to the people involved. I think we shouldn’t argue about superficial signs. I don’t think you should get into the position where you say to a person, “Have you spoken in tongues?” Because obviously, the Bible makes it very plain that not all people speak in tongues. I think it’s foolish if you get into the position, “Have you had hands laid upon you and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit by that method?” It’s silly to talk about superficial signs, you know, that are involved in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It’s wrong even brothers, to talk about the way you entered it. It’s wrong for me really to say to you, “I entered in this way brothers so you must enter in the same way.” Loved ones, I think we should be pragmatic about the thing. We should deal with the question, “have you the marks of a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit?” Not did you go through a Pentecostal experience, not did you go through a holiness experience, not do you think you’ve died to self, but have you the marks of the fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life? And deal with that issue brothers. Deal with reality. That is what will save us from all kinds of wild and vague introspection and uncertainty. Deal with the basic pragmatic fact, “You’re filled with the Holy Spirit? Okay. Have you the marks of a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit?” And then when you’ve dealt with that see that it’s beautiful. If I haven’t those marks what I need is to be filled with the Holy Spirit not to try harder, not to pretend that I have the fullness of the Holy Spirit but to see I’ve entered into a partial experience like many people in the new Testament and now even though I’m in Jesus’ and my sins are forgiven and I’m accepted by the Father because of his blood, yet I need to enter into more of the Holy Spirit. But brothers I think our attitudes should be pragmatic. Okay, what are the marks of the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Well, maybe you’d like to look at very plain ones given in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” Now, when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will bear the fruit of the Spirit naturally and effortlessly in their lives. In other words, you will find yourself not having to try to produce love and long suffering. You will find long suffering rising up from your spirit. Your spirit, your inner human spirit will be a spirit that is filled with the Holy Spirit and will automatically bear the fruit of that Holy Spirit. You’ll find in situations that there’ll just rise up a gentleness in your heart; it will just come from within. You’ll just know it’s there. If I were to ask you or if you were to ask yourself, “Look, what is your spirit really like? What is your spirit inside you like at the moment?” You’d be able to see, “It’s amazing, it’s a miracle, but it’s really a spirit of gentleness and of love.” In other words brothers, you’ll be able to describe yourself as one who is love. That’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Some people have said, you know, “All the other fruits just really elaborate on the first fruit, love. Joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, are all expressions of love.” In other words you’ll be able to say in 1 Corinthians 13, “Not love is patient and kind,” but, “My spirit, my spirit is patient and kind. It is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” And you’ll be able to say your spirit that rises up from within you is that kind of spirit. And brothers, here’s the glory of it, if your spirit is not like that it’s great to see that there’s a fullness of the Holy Spirit into which you can enter that will make your spirit like that. And it’s good to see that you don’t have to try to keep repressing it or suppressing, or trying to will it forth and say, “Oh, I’m filled with the Holy Spirit because I’m a Christian. I know that so I have to really prove that I’m filled with the Holy Spirit.” No, it will be just a beautiful admission. “Oh brother, my spirit is not like that. I have a spirit that comes up that is not gentle and long suffering.” Now, the thing is to begin to identify that spirit. You see, the Bible has told us that that spirit would arise, you remember. In Galatians 5:17, it says, “This is the normal experience,” and I’m afraid it’s the normal experience of most of us who have come to know Jesus. We believe in him for the forgiveness of our sins. There comes in a beautiful sense of the presence of Jesus’ Spirit. And in the early days and weeks we have no trouble reading the Bible, we have no trouble praying, we have no trouble witnessing, it’s just a joy to do it. It’s a joy to serve our Lord. He’s given us everything and we want to give everything to him. And then many of us have found that this begins to be true inside us in Galatians 5:17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.” And most of us who have entered into the forgiveness of our sins, and have received the Holy Spirit inside us, find that there’s another attitude in us that grieves the Holy Spirit and works against the Holy Spirit. And we find that the Bible study isn’t so easy to do. We find there is another desire coming up inside us to cut the Bible study a bit and get on with the rest of our lives. There’s a bit of us that in prayer life, there’s a spirit within us of Jesus because we’ve really received the Holy Spirit of Jesus when we’re born of God, but there’s a spirit inside us or an attitude inside us that fights against that spirit that wants to go to God in prayer and says, “You’ve other things to do. You have study to do you have more things you’re responsible for. You have to get on with your own life as well as serve God.” And bit by bit many of us find that those desires inside us grieve and quench the Spirit of Jesus more and more until we find a daily resistance against God’s Spirit inside us and we find ourselves really just in a position that Paul was in in Romans 7 where he says, “I find a law inside my members.” And he says in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate.” And he says this, “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Now many of us you see, in the Christian life have found that weeks, or months, or maybe years for some of us, there begins to work inside us that desire that opposes the Spirit of Jesus at times. Now, brothers it is true that if we would reject that spirit immediately, probably we would just walk on into the fullness of the Holy Spirit. But the tragedy is that we tend to look around at the rest of the Christians in the world who have had controlled surrender or half surrender preached to them and we say, – well, I remember it happened in my own life. I remember the voice inside me saying, “What would it be like to give everything to Jesus? To live only for him?” And I looked around at all the other friends at college and I said, “Nobody else is doing that. That must be a fanatical thought. I must get on with my own life, plan my career, make a good marriage, have a good home, and serve God all I can.” But I remember that voice and I do believe that the Spirit speaks to us early on in our Christian lives and says, “Would you give all?” And brothers, the only reason a crisis experience is needed in our hearts is because like the people in Corinth, we resist the Holy Spirit of Jesus. We resist him and we build up a back log of resistances against the Holy Spirit so that we are actually quenching him and grieving him. And that’s why it becomes necessary for us to come to a point where we find, “What can I do? I’m not a Christian on the inside at all. I’m not in the position I initially came to.” I realized, “I’m not a Christian inside at all. Inside I have all kinds of Jekyll and Hyde struggles. Inside I have a desire to criticize my brother, I don’t have any desire to love my sister, I have a desire to bite against them and the only reason I keep it down is because I don’t want to spoil my witness.” But what I didn’t realize was that that witness was being spoiled anyway because it was coming from me, a stream of sweet water at times and a stream of sour water. And really it wasn’t a case of teenagers. I mean it’s silly to tell about teenagers, you’re either one nature or the other nature. A nature, when you talk about a person being a generous nature, you don’t mean he’s a generous nature sometimes and a mean nature other times, or a pinch penny in nature at other times. You mean he’s of a generous nature, that’s what he is, that’s what he’s like. Now you are either of one nature or another. When before we were born of the spirit they’re governed by an evil nature of the children of wrath. When we’re born of the Spirit and as long as we submit to the Spirit we are born of God’s nature and his nature is imparted to us. So brothers, really what many of us come to in our Christian lives is what I came to 13 years after I’d been born of the Spirit. I came to a place where I had to face it, was I a Christian or was I not? Was I governed by Jesus’ Spirit or was I governed by my own desire for my own pride, and my own self, and my own ways? And bit-by-bit I began to see that undoubtedly I was in Romans 7. I was not doing the good I wanted to do, it was the evil that I wanted to avoid, that was the thing that drove my life. And I didn’t know what to do, you know. I read a book called Possibilities of Grace and I began to see there that some men had had to come into a new conviction of sin. And brothers, you know, I’m not arguing that we all seek second experiences or second crisis but it was so in my life, that even though I say here undoubtedly we can enter into a fullness of the Spirit as far as God is concerned all in one activity and experience with the new birth, yet it seems true that most of us have to come into a second conviction of sin, and a second believing, and a second repenting because our own first one is not continued. And I believe even the brothers, you know, across the Atlantic who would be a wee bit slow on the whole business of baptism of the Holy Spirit, they would admit that this is the problem with many Christians. This is the reason that many Christians are not living in the fullness of the Spirit, because they have grieved the Spirit and they have quenched him in their lives and something else is needed. And that’s why brothers, that’s why we emphasize so much another event in your life, or a crisis of some kind because even though there may be a gradual, gradual awareness of your problem, there comes a moment when you at last decide to deal with that problem. Well brothers, I can only tell you the way I got down to it. First of all I started to see that there was something in me that I couldn’t control. There was an attitude in me that I could not control. I tried to control it, tried to pray it down, tried to will it down, tried to suppress it, tried to repress it but there was something in me that wanted its own way, that wanted to be independent of God. Now, it was a great help to me to see that that something was something that was really beyond my control and I suspect that was the first step for me in any kind of deliverance. You see, the self inside us wants to believe that it can destroy itself whenever it wants and that’s what kills most of us. Most of us feel, “Oh, I can control it whenever I really want to, it’s just I don’t really want to. I can stop being impatient whenever I really want to.” It was a tremendous relief for me when I looked – I think it was Romans 8:7 where I read this, “For the mind that is set on the flesh,” and the flesh is just our independence of God you see, it’s not the physical flesh or the sexual part of us, it’s the mind that is set on the flesh independent of God. For “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot.” And brothers that was a deliverance for me that I began to see that this thing inside me was really something that I could not control. It was something that was a part of Satan in me and I could not change it. It would not submit to God’s indeed it could not submit and for the first time I began to distinguish between the part that Satan had in me and my own self. Up to then I’d mixed them both up and that’s Satan’s game. He wants to mix up his rebellion in your heart with you. He wants to try to get you to say, “Okay, that’s you. You can’t let you go.” And it’s a big step when you begin to see, “But this isn’t the real me. The real me is deeper than that but this is something that has almost taken me over.” And that was the first step in my life. The second great step for me was seeing that God had done something with that because I didn’t know how to get rid of it myself. And so Romans 6:6 was just deliverance for me. That can only be deliverance I think when a man is at the end of his tether. That’s why I say approach this in a pragmatic way. Deal with a person ask the gift of discernment to see where they are. If you minister this to a person who isn’t ready for it, they’ll just give up completely. But for me, this was life you know. What I didn’t know what to do with this place inside, this self that wanted its own way and wouldn’t do what God wanted and then I saw in Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” And that was life that I saw that God had not only put my sins on Jesus and destroyed them, but that he had put sin in the singular, the old independent self that produced sins, he had put that on the cross and crucified that with Jesus. That in some way loved ones that I couldn’t understand, God had put my independent rebellious carnal will and rebellion against God into Jesus and destroyed that in him and that I was actually living a lie. Persuaded by Satan I was believing that I was my own man that I was not bought with a price, that I could do what I wanted. I could have my own way, I could do what I wanted, I could establish my own rights, defend my own rights, assert myself and defend myself whenever I wanted and that all that was a lie and that I was actually under the control of this old self because I was refusing to believe that it had been crucified with Jesus. And so I began, you know, gradually to see maybe there was a way through. Then the thing that baffled me; why did I not believe that? Why did I not believe that my old self had been crucified with Christ? And the Holy Spirit gradually showed me I didn’t believe it because I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want my old self crucified. There were bits of my old self that I liked. Alright, the anger was inconvenient at times but self-pity, I didn’t mind a good cry over myself at times. It wasn’t bad at night just to think how everybody was treating me and it wasn’t bad to kind of just mull over, mull over some of the resentment from the criticism I had of people because it sort of made me feel, “Well I knew where other people stood and I knew what was right and what was wrong.” And I began to see that although there were bits of the old self that I didn’t like but there were many bits that I hugged to myself and I enjoyed and that I really, in a way, couldn’t do without. And so the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me in order to believe that your old self is crucified you have to be willing for it to be crucified. And so I just began to ask the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit will you show me what dying to self with Jesus on the cross would mean in my life at present?” And for me it was a lot of different things. Anger for me was a method of pulling things back into my control when they got out of control because I knew everybody respects you when you get angry so you get angry to get them to respect you and get them to do what you want them to do. And so the Holy Spirit made it plain to me, “If I take anger and self from you, you’ll actually be in situations you can’t control. Do you know that? You’ll have to leave the control to me. Now, would you be willing to let those things come under my control and not be able to control them or stop them yourself? Would you be willing for me to call uncle when I choose not when you choose? Would you be willing to face all the things that I would be willing for you to face however long I ask you to continue it?” Brothers, I had to be willing to face the consequences in my life of the Holy Spirit cleansing cleansing me from self, that’s what it was. I had to be willing to face the consequences in my life of me being crucified with Christ. Lust for me even though I was married, lust was a problem. So for me the question was, “Would you be willing, if you die to self with Christ, and die like him to having a woman, would you be willing if I asked you never to have intercourse again in your life?” And that was it. You know, he didn’t ask me to do that afterwards but he asked me would I be willing and here’s the thing, the Holy Spirit by searching out the places in my life where I was not willing for Christ’s death to be made real, began to expose to me the part of myself that I treasured more than Jesus. And bit-by-bit he began to get me down to the nitty gritty that it wasn’t the envy, it wasn’t the jealousy, it wasn’t the lust, it wasn’t the pride, it wasn’t the ambition, it wasn’t the irritability, or bad temper, it was self. I felt I had the right to myself. I felt I had the right to run my own life and I had the right to keep myself back from pain and hardship when I wanted to and I had the right to protect myself from other people. I had the right to look after myself and take care of myself. And I began to see, you know, it was self it was me Ernest O’Neill that was the problem and that that was the source of all these works of the flesh envy, and jealousy, and bitterness that I read about in Galatians 5:21, that it was the source of all those things. It wasn’t a matter of dying bit by bit, you know, to self, and to envy, to envy and selfishness, and jealousy, and pride. It was a business of allowing the Holy Spirit to bring me right to the ground of my heart where I saw it was myself I was defending and would I be willing for that self to be crucified with Christ? With me it was really finally, I mean, he gets you down to besetting sin, each of us has a besetting sin that holds self down, you see. There’s a hard fallow ground that all of us have built up over – because we have a back log of resistances to God’s will over many, many little failures and surrenders. Now, on top of that fallow ground there’s a besetting sin like a cover of ice that prevents the Holy Spirit getting down. All of us have a besetting sin. I think mine probably was, “Would you be willing to be a failure for me if it’s for my glory?” I was a minister, I wanted to succeed. I wanted to succeed. I even defended it – self is so subtle, I even defended and said, “It’s for God’s sake you want to succeed.” But I wanted to succeed I didn’t want to be left in the corner with nobody knowing what I was doing for God. And finally, you know, the Holy Spirit brought me to that point, “Would you be willing to be a failure for me? Would you be willing to be nothing for Jesus’ glory?” Now brothers, I do emphasis that only the Holy Spirit can give you revelation on these things. Only he could give me revelation. Even as I say this, you know, it was real to me when the Holy Spirit made it real. It wouldn’t have been real if you had said it to me. I had to see the exceeding sinfulness of myself. I had to think that this was a choosing – an intersection of two ways, a fork in the path. I had to either go this way and all into the full surrender and fullness of the Holy Spirit or I had to move out of Jesus. Actually, to be filled with the Spirit all you have to do is to stay in Jesus. The only way to avoid the fullness of the Spirit is to step out of Jesus. And I began to see that was the choice for me. Would I be willing to live for Jesus’ glory alone and allow him to fill me with his Spirit so that was the only thing that governed my life? And you know I’ve shared with you before, that there came a morning that the Holy Spirit witnessed that I was at a place of full consecration. A place of full consecration. I’d often thought I was at it before but I wasn’t sure. Then I began to realize if you’re not sure you’re not at it. There was a moment when the Holy Spirit witnessed to me, “Yes, you are really willing to be nothing for Jesus. You’re willing to be filled with me. Alright, I witness that in your heart.” And I just knew it, I knew I was at a place of full consecration, or the human side of sanctification and then I just received the fullness of the Holy Spirit that day. Just a quiet assurance that he had come into my heart and with me there was just a sense of cleanliness, and purity, and victory. There need not be that with you. For many people there’s a weeping and a crying. For many people there’s a laughing. For many people there’s a speaking in tongues. For many people there’s just a knowing. The heart of it is a knowing. You know that you are willing to do what God wants from you in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore that He must fill you and say you’ve just received the filling. Now brothers, I honestly do believe that this is God’s normal way into a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Really. I know there are other brothers and I’ll try and talk about it next day, I know there are other brothers who will say, “Oh brother, you can enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues without any of this stuff that you’re talking about.” Brothers, I honestly do believe that as it’s outlined in Romans 6, “Do you not know that you who were baptized into Christ Jesus will baptize into his death so that you might be raised from the dead by the glory of the Father and might walk in the newness of life.” I do believe that that’s God’s normal way of us entering into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now I agree with you, being ready to enter in is not the baptism. Being in a place of sanctification, being in a place where you’re ready to be crucified with Christ is not the baptism. It is the condition of the baptism it is a place of full consecration. But that is the normal way to enter into it. Coming into a place of full consecration where you accept your identification with Christ, and his death, and his life, and his resurrection and the Holy Spirit fills you with himself and cleanses your heart. As Acts 15:9 says, God gives the Holy Spirit to them the Gentiles that he did to us and cleansed our hearts by faith. And he fills you with the purity and the nine fruit of the spirit and then he anoints you with that nine gifts of the spirit so that you can minister that life to others. And that’s what I’d like to share next day the ministry of the gifts of the spirit. But brothers, if you don’t enter into an absolute consecration you’ll find that you’ll end up ministering gifts in the flesh or by the power of demons, but you won’t minister the life of Jesus unless your own life has been crucified with Christ and only his flows through you. So I really do believe this is the normal scriptural way to enter into the fullness of the Holy Spirit that will bring real joy and delight not only to your own life but the people who live with you. Amen.

Gifts of the Spirit Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill The unique factor in the Christian Gospel is not only Jesus but the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that’s what we’ve been saying over the past few days, that the gift of the Holy Spirit is what sets Christianity apart from Mohammedanism and Buddhism and other religions. It is that peculiar gift that was offered, you remember, by Peter on the day of Pentecost when he said, “And you shall receive the Holy Spirit when you’re baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Then, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And that is the unique gift that brings to us the very abilities and aptitudes of Jesus himself. No other religion can do that. Buddha can never ensure that all his followers have the very gifts that he had. Mohammad can never ensure that all his followers have the gifts that he had. But, Jesus can ensure that we experience his own life through this gift of the Holy Spirit. And you remember we shared in the past how the Holy Spirit normally comes into a person when he is born of the Spirit, when he receives Jesus the first time for the forgiveness of his sins. And how often the Holy Spirit then begins to try to expand his influence throughout that person’s life and begins to try to fill that person with himself and how very soon after that most of us began to experience a real double life inside us, a real sense of hypocrisy where the desires of the flesh, the desires of our own selfish independent attitude to God strove against the desires of the Spirit and we found that we were prevented from doing what we would. And most of us have found that our lives have followed that kind of pattern. We saw how in the New Testament it didn’t need to be like that. How in the New Testament probably people were born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit all at once and they died to self and were raised with Christ the first day virtually that they heard the gospel. But we saw how even in the New Testament many people experienced only half of the work of the Holy Spirit. You remember the people who were converted in Acts 19 by Apollos had obviously believed in the one that was to come and they’d obviously entered into some forgiveness of sins into actually a Jewish experience of God wiping out their sins. Now, many of us have entered into that kind of partial experience. Many of us have entered into what the people entered into who were converted by Philip who entered into a real baptism into Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of sins and presumably came alive in the Spirit and had the Spirit of Jesus inside them and were born of the Spirit but had not really been filled with the Holy Spirit and so the apostles had to come down and pray they would receive the Holy Spirit. I think many of us too have come into the partial experience of the Corinthians who experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the gifts of the Spirit but still walked in strife, and envy, anger, and jealously and therefore behaved like ordinary men and were called carnal or fleshly Christians. And so we saw that in the New Testament times there were many people who entered into only half of the work of the Holy Spirit so many of us have found the same thing, we’ve had to come to a new experience of conviction of sin, of seeing where the Holy Spirit was not filling us completely and seeing where we needed to die to self with Christ and be filled and cleansed by his Holy Spirit. Now brothers that’s only half of the work of the Holy Spirit. The purifying work is only half of the work that the Holy Spirit was sent to do. It is the cleansing work by which the Holy Spirit is able to bring about inside our own lives the nine fruit of the Spirit but it is God’s will that we should not only walk with the purity of Jesus but with the power of Jesus. And so the second part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to anoint us with himself with power so that we can begin to administer the gifts of the Spirit. Now, if you imagine us entering into the purity of the Holy Spirit without the power of the Holy Spirit, then it’s like imagining Jesus walking in absolute purity and coming to the leper and being able to do nothing with him. Saying, “Well, look I love you with a pure heart but I can’t do anything about your leprosy.” In other words, you would see a maimed Christ, a crippled Christ and if we walk only in the purity of the Holy Spirit, we may walk in holiness, we may walk in purity and in joy in our own lives, but we walk as a crippled Christ as far as the troubles and the problems of this world is concerned. Moreover, we’ll probably eventually walk back into our own self confidence because we’ll depend on our own psychology or our philosophy to deal in problems of counseling with people who are being oppressed by Satan. We’ll to try to deal with the ordinary form of medicine with people who are oppressed in their body. So, it’s vital not to accept only half of the work of the Holy Spirit but to go on and see that the Holy Spirit wants to make available to us the nine gifts of the Spirit. And this is the second part of the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, on the other hand, if you enter into the nine gifts of the Spirits without the purity of the Holy Spirit running through you, if you enter into a ministry of gifts without really being purified and cleansed from anger, and envy, and jealousy, then you’ll find yourself ministering the gifts in the power of the flesh or in the power of satanic forces and you’ll find your ministering gifts but instead of ministering life of Jesus through the gifts you’re ministering miracles and great events that everybody is preoccupied with and people will be preoccupied with you instead of with Jesus. So it’s vital, you can see, to enter into both the purity and the power of the Holy Spirit. What I’d like to do just for a short time now is to talk a little about the nine gifts of the Spirit. So, if you have a Bible maybe you’d turn to 1 Corinthians 12 and just see the teaching that is very plain there and that will prevent us from going astray in regards to the nine gifts of the Spirit if we’d only look at it. I think the first thing really to see is the statement made in 1 Corinthians 12:11, “All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” Now brothers, we need to write that on all our walls and in all our hearts, that it’s the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts. You can’t claim the gifts yourself by the sheer determination of your faith. It is the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts. He distributes to each one individually as he wills for the up building of the body of Christ. Now, you cannot go to God and say, “I want a gift to prove that I’m filled with the Holy Spirit.” Nor can you go to God and say, “Look, I need this gift now give it to me.” The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts to each one of us as he wills. Now, I agree with you that the Bible says that we should covet the best gifts. We should want them, you see. We should desire them. We should be in a position where we say, “Holy Spirit, we want you to give us all the power that we need to be you to these people today.” And that should be our general attitude of hunger and thirst for all that the Holy Spirit wants to give us. But then we should wait upon him to show us which gift he wants us to have so that we can believe him for it. So brothers, it’s important to see that it’s the Holy Spirit who distributes the gifts. You don’t grab the gifts yourself. That is why it’s important to see the truth that is outlined there in Verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 12, a verse we looked at before, 1 Corinthians 12:29, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” In other words, God is plainly saying, “All people are not prophets, all do not work miracles.” Why? Because they haven’t enough faith, because they’re not baptized with the Holy Spirit, because they’ve been under heretical teaching that has taught that the Holy Spirit only cleanses? No, because the Holy Spirit distributes to each one individually as he wills and he does not distribute tongues to everybody and he does not distribute gifts of miracles to everyone. He distributes to each one as he wills. One of the beauties of this is that no man becomes preeminent above everybody else by the fact that he ministers in the whole nine gifts of the Spirit. No man becomes preeminent. It’s vital for John to be in the body because the Holy Spirit is given him a gift that he has not given me. It is vital for Scott to be in the body because the Holy Spirit is distributing to him a gift that he has not distributed to me and so the body comes into a beautiful harmony and wholeness where it’s not just a matter of Scott saying, “Oh yeah, yeah, I know I’m part of the body. I know you want me to feel I’m necessary but really you could do it on your own.” It’s so good to be free from that. To see that each of us is vital to the body. That the body is not a body if John is not in it. The body is not a body if Scott is not in it. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will distribute to him a particular gift at a particular time that will be needed in the body. I think that’s important to see that, that no man can say, “I have the gift of healing.” No man can say, “I have the gift of miracles.” Every one of us has to say, “The Holy Spirit will give us the gift for the time that we need it at the time that we need it and then will take it back to himself.” So, I think it’s good to see that the Holy Spirit is the one who distributes the gifts. Maybe it would help us to see that there are differences of gifts, and differences of workings, and differences of services because I think a lot of people say, “If you’re not ministering the gift of tongues, or the gift of healing in the way I have seen it ministered then you’re not ministering that gift.” Now maybe you’d look in Verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 12 to see God’s description of how the gifts work, “And there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” So, there are nine different gifts but there is the one Holy Spirit who distributes those gifts. Then come to another person’s attrinity, the second person in Verse 5, “And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.” Now, there are varieties of service, Jesus will appoint some of us to be pastors and teachers, some of us to be evangelists, some of us probably to be administrators. He’ll appoint different ones of us to different services and the nine gifts will be ministered in those different services, all obviously in different ways. A preacher ministers the gift of prophecy in a very obvious way that is plain to everybody. He ministers it in a very different way when he’s in a counseling situation. He ministers it in a slightly different way when he’s an evangelist. Now, there are varieties of service and some of us will be administrators but we’ll still need the nine gifts of the Spirit for our service. Then in Verse 6, “And there are varieties of working,” maybe this is the most important one, “But it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.” Now, there are different gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit. There are different services appointed by Jesus but there are varieties of working of the gifts or differences of operation and they are determined by God. And brothers I think it’s vital for us to see that everybody does not minister the gift of healing the way Katherine Kuhlman does. She ministers it by listening to Jesus’ Spirit and knowing when he reveals to her that somebody in the balcony has been healed. Then she says, “Come up if you’ve been healed and she invites them up.” They’re already healed she doesn’t heal them via her touching them. So often as she recognizes and is given the gift of revelation, they have been healed. Oral Roberts is different, he calls them up, lays his hands on them and heals them in the name of Jesus. There’s a man called Christopher Woodard in London who doesn’t heal either of those ways. He is given discernment by Spirit to see when a person is tense or upset in their own spiritual life and he ministers directly to that and the healing of their whole spirit spreads to their body and heals them. Now brothers, it’s vital to see that there are different ways to minister the gift of healing and we are being utterly naïve and utterly unfair to God’s word to say a man has not a gift of healing because he simply doesn’t lay hands on people and they’re healed. Healing comes in many different ways, so the gift of prophecy, so the gift of knowledge. So, dear brother David can stand in front of a meeting and say, “I know what you were doing wrong today and I know what your relationship is with this person,” and he can see right into your spirit and he can tell you that and that’s a real gift of knowledge for knowing what is in a person’s life. Now, he can minister that gift of knowledge that way another person can minister it in a study counseling another person not saying, “Scott, I know what is in your heart.” Maybe he doesn’t know, but he shares something automatically and Scott wonders, “How on earth did you know that about me?” And that’s the gift of knowledge ministered in a much less obtrusive way but ministered nevertheless. So it’s important to see, you see, that there are different ways of workings in the gifts. Now, brothers maybe we could go on directly into the gifts themselves and just talk about them one-by-one a little. You see that there are nine gifts. Let’s look at really the first one mentioned there in Verse 8, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom.” Now, there is an earthly wisdom you know, that comes from studying the psychology books, the philosophy books and even that comes from studying the Bible. But there is a spiritual wisdom that is exactly right for that person in their spiritual state. There’s a spiritual wisdom that is deeper than just a scriptural wisdom. There’s a time when it may seem to you, “The right thing scripturally is this person is obviously in disobedience to God and what they need to do is repent.” And you say, “Okay, you must repent,” and you minister repentance to them. A spiritual wisdom gives you the insight to see that what that person fails to believe is that God is good and that God will forgive them and that’s really why they don’t repent. They don’t want to even acknowledge their sins because they’re afraid God won’t forgive them. Now spiritual wisdom is concerned with the internal workings of the Holy Spirit in a person and is a wisdom that is deeper than just knowledge. Spiritual wisdom is really what a lot of the churches lacked. Spiritual wisdom for instance in ministers or speakers enables you to apply the right word to a body at the right time. I remember reading once where someone said a lot of preachers are trying to cut wheat with a plow and they’re trying to plant corn with a threshing machine and I think a lot of us are trying to do that. I think a lot of us are trying to bring people into forgiveness with the word of law when we should be using the word of grace and a lot of us are trying to bring people to an awareness of God with teaching love/love all the time when what we should be bringing is the word of law home to their hearts to convict them. Now spiritual wisdom is knowing which to do and the Holy Spirit gives you that. The Holy Spirit gave wisdom, you remember, to Philip when he went up to Ethiopia eunuch and asked him, “Do you know what you’re reading?” That was the right thing to ask that eunuch at that time. Now that’s spiritual wisdom. Do you see the next one is in Verse 8, “And to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” I don’t think we need to dwell on that because I mentioned it as an illustration earlier on that the gift of knowledge is the ability to know what is in a person’s spirit. So, I remember one fellow who was dealing with someone who was seeking Jesus and suddenly this pastor saw a great white cockatoo, just saw it as a vision. Now knowledge doesn’t come to everybody, it doesn’t come to me like that, but it came as a great white cockatoo. So he said to the fellow, “Do you know anything about a big white cockatoo?” The fellow said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I stole it four years ago.” And he wouldn’t confess that to God and that was what held him up and when he confessed it and dealt with it and was prepared to make restitution God dealt with the man. Now that’s the gift of knowledge you see. It’s knowing what is in a person’s spirit. Now brothers, could I say this, that most of these gifts are probably ministered with the person very unconscious that he is ministering the gift. Probably that’s true. Probably we’re not very conscious at the time that we’re ministering that. I’ve had a number of people come into the study during this week so far and obviously they were ministered to as if I knew exactly what was in their spirits but I didn’t know. So often the Holy Spirit will give the gift of knowledge and get you to pass it on almost without you knowing. Now at other times, you’ll know very well. So you know, I love you brothers and I just know at times what is in your hearts. It’s very important also to see that the gift is the utterance of knowledge not just the knowledge because I think a lot of us feel, “Ah yeah, I know what is in his heart so I minister it now,” and we shouldn’t. I think we have to be loving to each other very often and hold back and some things I see in you brothers and I’m sure you see in me and you just – no, God tells you, “Don’t utter just keep quiet about it and pray and let the brother come on in to this.” So it’s more important that you see that knowledge, the utterance of knowledge is something deeper than just knowledge itself. Verse 9, “To another faith by the same Spirit.” This is working faith, you see, it’s not saving faith that comes when a person is willing to submit to God and believe that Jesus has died for their sins. But this is working faith. This is faith that works results in people’s lives. It’s the kind of faith that Mueller had, you remember, with the orphanages. He just prayed and prayed and God brought money and he built orphanages for thousands of homeless children just through the result of his prayers. Now if you remember reading Mueller’s life he emphasizes that he was not driven to build the orphanages primarily for the children, though he really loved the children, but primarily to show the world that God was still a prayer answering God and so God granted him the gift of faith for that purpose. The gift of faith would really be seen in people like Brainerd who was among the red Indians where he obviously could not be understood by the Indians through a drunken interpreter. They couldn’t understand what he was trying to get over and yet Brainerd was given the gift of faith in long periods of prayer each day to pray for these Indians so that they came to the highest level of Christian living through the preaching that Brainerd did through the drunken interpreter. Now obviously, it didn’t come through what the interpreter was able to say. It obviously didn’t come through the spirit that came through the interpreter. It came direct from the Holy Spirit by revelation as a result of old Brainerd’s faith and that’s what we mean, you see, when we talk about the gift of faith. Now, just if I could say a little about each it might be useful rather than spending a long time on certain gifts. “To another,” Verse 9, “Gifts of healing by the one Spirit.” Again, I don’t think we should spend a long time on it because I used that as an illustration at the beginning. But the gift of healing can be manifested in many, many different ways and frankly, I think the Holy Spirit wants to bring a lot of us in the bodies around the world into now is such an atmosphere of Jesus’ presence in an ordinary meeting. Such an atmosphere of love and peace. Such an atmosphere of brokenness as far as soulish powers are concerned, that people will come into the meeting and they’ll just sense a healing. They’ll just sense a healing in the atmosphere and they’ll receive the healing without anyone doing anything. It seems to me to keep us clear from this emphasis on people, “Oh, that man, you should see how he’s used in healing.” It seems that in these days Jesus wants to lead us a way from this preoccupation with individuals and lead us into a consciousness of the reality of the body of Christ. And that when a number of people come into real love and harmony with Jesus, and with the trinity family, and with each other, all the gifts of the Spirit begin to be manifested just naturally by the Holy Spirit. So the gift of healing I think maybe we should just go quickly on since I did use some examples about Katherine Kuhlman and Oral Roberts. The next gift mentioned is in Verse 10, “To another the working of miracles.” Miracles is almost in a sense apart from faith. It’s a definite miracle that is worked for a real reason and purpose and as a sign not just for the sake of the healing but as a sign to people that God’s super natural power is at work. It seems to me that’s how it would differ from the gift of healing which is primarily concerned with bringing health to people. But the gift of miracles may be a gift of healing but is primarily from the point of view of a sign to show that God’s super natural power is still at work here in the world. Carvasso got into a coach you remember, in the 19th Century; there were 12 people in the coach. They road down two miles down the road and he got out again and the 12 people were Christians. Now, that wasn’t because he did a quick round with the Spiritual Laws booklet but because he had the gift at that moment of the miracle whereby God revealed Jesus so really to each of these people that they saw him and they did submit to him. The gift of miracles would be seeing, you remember, with Finney when he went into that weaving factory and there were two little girls tittering you remember, in one corner and he looked over at them and they tittered a little longer, and then they got nervous, and then the tears began to come down their eyes, and then one broke the thread you remember, and then they got worried, and then they started to weep quietly. Then another person at the next loom began to weep, and another person further down the factory floor began to weep and then gradually everybody began to get down on their knees and the manager who was still standing with Finney looked around and then he closed the factory for the whole day and they sought God. Now that’s a gift, that’s a miracle you see. Now it is important brothers for us to see that this gift is still available to us and will be needed as we go out to be a Christian Peace Corps in God’s world because that’s the only thing we have to pit against massive economic systems of supply and support that Russia and America will give to different nations. We will have this power to work miracles and God will work them, you know, in us in regard to damning up waters for reservoirs, in regard to piping in electricity to people’s home, in regards to transport of all kinds, problems of all kinds, God will work miracles for us. Now that’s the gift of working miracles. “To another prophecy.” I think I shared that a little, that prophecy is the speaking forth of God’s word and the speaking forth of the right word at the right moment. It’s not just the ability to preach you see there are people who preach with no gift of prophecy. There are people who preach just from their own knowledge of God’s word and their own insight into human nature. But the gift of prophecy is being able to speak forth God’s word to the right person at the right moment. Now that you can do in a constant situation. That you can do in an ordinary witnessing situation. That’s where we’re so far astray when we go up to a person who isn’t a Christian and we blast them with all the gospel versus and we say, “Well, we ought to take them through the whole gospel and we ought to hit them with this, and this, and this.” This is why it’s vital in any kind of booklet that outlines how to bring a person to Christ, it’s vital that we receive from the Holy Spirit the gift of prophecy to speak the right verse at the right time to that person. And the gift of prophecy is that more even, you know, than speaking forth words about the future. Only on occasion did the prophets actually prophecy about the future. More often than not, if you examine the Old Testament prophets, they spoke the right word to the nation of people at the right time. “To another the ability to distinguish between spirits.” In Verse 10, and that’s the discernment of spirits and that’s what we need so badly today because there are a whole lot of people going around doing miracles of all kinds, speaking in tongues in all kinds of situation and so few people seem to have the discernment of the Holy Spirit to tell whether it’s of the Spirit. Whether it’s of an evil spirit or whether it’s of the flesh. And brothers, that gift of discernment is essential. You can read a book that seems very scriptural and seems very fundamentalist in its doctrine and yet there can be a subtle spirit of deception running through that book. So it’s vital to have the discernment of Spirits not only to see what books to read but to see what a person is like really in their hearts. It’s not enough in these days, you see, to say, “Oh I was baptized with the Spirit. I speak in tongues. I have been used by God to bring miracles and healing.” So were the people that opposed Moses that did the miracle of throwing their staffs down and turning them into snakes. So the Bible says will the antichrist be. He will be a person who comes doing many miracles like a wolf in sheep’s clothing having all the appearances of power. And unless we have the discernment of the Spirit we can be led away after the antichrist thinking that it is Christ himself. So there’s a great need for the discernment of spirits. I’d just like to go quickly over that though a lot more needs to be said about it to the last gift because there is so much misunderstanding about it. “To another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” Could I just state briefly because of the shortage of the time that if you examine 1 Corinthians 12 carefully you’ll find outlined there in 12, and in 13, and particularly in 14, you’ll find especially in 14, there are three occasions when tongues are used as a gift of the Holy Spirit. One is in a believers meeting when only believers are present and there it’s to be used only if there is an interpretation. If there is no interpretation then either the person themselves spoke inspired by a demon, or spoke inspired by the flesh, or spoke out of God’s will. But it is not God’s will for that tongue to come forth at that moment unless there is an interpretation. And the problem is with the person who speaks in tongues. You may say, “What about the interpreter could they not be disobedient of the Holy Spirit?” The Holy Spirit knows before he inspires a person to speak in a tongue that there’s a person present to interpret. So first of all a tongues when it’s used in a believers meeting must be accompanied by someone who has given the interpretation by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, you’ll see in 1 Corinthians 14 especially, that tongues can be used in private prayer without interpretation and there the tongues simply express the glory, and the sense of praise that you have for God in the midst of your private prayer. And it’s accompanied by a great sense of elevation and a sense that you want to glorify God, “Father, you’re wonderful, you’re magnificent. Lord Jesus, you’re beautiful,” and you run out of words and your tongue trips over itself as the Holy Spirit gives you more words that you don’t know from an unknown language to express your desire and your love for God. And there it’s used without any interpretation and it comes very naturally from a sense of an inner desire to glorify and praise God. When that inner desire isn’t there brothers, it’s questionable whether it’s tongue. If you ever feel, “Oh, I must use the tongue today otherwise I’ll lose it,” then that’s questionable if that’s a tongue in the Spirit. A tongue in the Spirit comes when you have a great sense of a glory and a presence of your Father and you haven’t enough words to express your love to him. Now a tongue comes then in private prayer. It up builds the person himself, and it elevates him and strengthens him and releases his spirit. The third occasion is in the presence of unbelievers. And then always it’s a known language such as was used in the day of Pentecost. It’s a sign to unbelievers that God’s power is present. That’s why they said, you remember, “Do we not all hear speaking in our own language the wonderful works of God?” And often, you see, a person has been used I remember, Reverend Mirer was used by God in a certain situation to speak to a person in their own language and he didn’t know the language at all and this person said, “How did you come to speak in perfect,” whatever it was, “Arabian?” And he was amazed. But it was the Holy Spirit giving him a known language to speak to an unbeliever to convince the unbeliever that God’s power was still available. Now it’s those three places you see, that the Holy Spirit in the Bible has told us tongues can be used and I think we need to be careful in the use of them and to look especially at the New Testament outline of a normal New Testament meeting and see that at the most two or three people speak in tongues and always in order and always to the up building of the body and to the up building of those present. In other words, where there are unbelievers present it’s very questionable if you should ever use an unknown tongue.

How Can We Be Born of the Spirit? Galatians 5:17-20 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill A dictatorship has been prepared for during previous years. And dear ones, in Cuba the people there had had this decay working in their hearts for many years so that gradually their natures changed, and changed, and changed and when the dictator came they welcomed him as the savior. And so it was in Germany, it was no sudden event. The decay had been seeping through the nation. The decadence had been working in the people’s hearts and to those of us on the outside it was a great surprise when it took over, but to the people really, it was no surprise. The people received him as a savior. It’s when the people’s needs, and the people’s willingness to pay the price for the fulfillment of their needs come together that the dictator takes over without a battle. And so it will be with the antichrist. When the antichrist comes there will be no great opposition to him, but there will be a great flocking to him from all the corners of the earth. From dear ones whose hearts have been deceived, and whose hearts have been prepared, and whose hearts have been looking for the savior, and whose hearts have not be filled with the Holy Spirit, and whose lives are not pervaded by the spirit of God’s truth. And they will flock to the antichrist, and they will worship him as the savior. So it will be with the personal opponent of Jesus Christ whom the New Testament says will come at the end of the ages. He will be hailed as a new savior. And you say, “Well, why will this be?” Well, you can look for yourself in the New Testament and find out why it will be dear ones, it’s in 1 John 4 and the second half of Verse three. 1 John 4:3, “And every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God.” Then the second half reads, “This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.” That was 180, the spirit of antichrist has been in the world preparing the hearts of many of the so called faithful to receive the antichrist when he comes. And so the Bible itself teaches that there is a spirit of antichrist abroad even in church people, abroad even in those who think they are deep Christians. There is a spirit of antichrist seeping underneath the very Holy Spirit that is trying to get ahold of our very hearts and lives and that antichrist spirit is preparing us to receive the antichrist. And when he comes, many of us will be deceived into thinking that this is Jesus. This is the second coming of our Savior. Now, this is why the Bible warns us to discern spirits. And you can see that warning in 1 John 4:3B there, “This is the Spirit of antichrist, which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.” And 1 John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.” And in Chapter Four of 1 John 1, the warning to test the spirits, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” And you may say, “Well, why are you preaching about the antichrist?” Well, I’m not preaching because you can stop the antichrist coming, you cannot. You cannot break scripture. The scripture says, “The antichrist will come and you cannot stop him coming.” Even if I could tell you who he was at this moment you could not stop him coming. Perhaps he is in the world already but you will not be able to stop him coming because the scripture cannot be broken. But dear ones, it is imperative that we begin to discern the spirit of antichrist when he moves in our own hearts least we ourselves be deceived when he comes. That’s why I’m preaching. Not so you will be able to look to the antichrist and not so that dear ones here will be able to become excited over who the antichrist might be, dear ones those are doctrines of demons. Those are doctrines of demons when these false prophets who do not even prophesy in the name of Jesus say, “The antichrist is born in such and such a land.” That is not what the Bible tells us to look for. But, the Bible does tell us to discern our own spirits and discern the spirits that are working in our own hearts so that we ourselves will not be deceived. You see, the Bible comes right down the line on who are Christians and who are not. The Bible comes right down the line by the law and tells us, “If you obey the law then you please God.” The Bible says that right from the first part of the Bible to the last part of the Bible. It tells us that obedience to the law is the mark of the sons of God. Then Jesus Christ came and he says, “Whoever has my spirit in their hearts, you are the sons of God, you are the children of God.” And Christ comes right down the line and points out the things that we need to have if we claim to be alive in God. And then the Holy Spirit came after Jesus ascended to the Father and he comes right down the line and he says, “If I abide in you, you will have these marks. You will have love, and joy, and peace.” And he comes right down the line. And the law and Jesus Christ’s life and the Holy Spirit all testify to us who are the sons of God. Now dear ones, there will come a day when God will allow someone to testify to us who will bring even a clearer judgment. When the antichrist comes many of us who think we are sons of God will find out where we really stand when we follow him as the antichrist. So it is important tonight, on the last night of the conference, to make sure that you have the pure Holy Spirit of truth governing your life. Now, you may sit there and say, “Oh now, this is a lot of mumbo jumbo. You don’t need all this stuff to distinguish the antichrist. I have a good mind and I may not be walking in all the light that God has given me, but I have a good mind and I can discern the antichrist.” Now dear ones, the Bible makes it plain that it will be difficult to discern the antichrist. One of the reasons it will be difficult is given in 1 John 2:19. You remember, John has said so many antichrists have come and then in 1 John 2:19, the Bible reads, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plan that they all are not of us.” But one reason is the antichrist and the spirit of the antichrist is among us ourselves. Another reason that’s given plainly in Ephesians 6:11. Ephesians 6:11, why you cannot discern the antichrist just by your clever mind, “Put on the whole armor of God.” Why? “That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The devil when he comes, in the person of the antichrist, will not plainly have a name on his chest saying, “Satan,” or, “Antichrist.” He will come with tricks, and with wiles. It will be impossible to discern him however closely you have studied the Bible. The Bible itself is not a sufficient guard against the antichrist. Some of us know we’re not walking in all the will of God. You know it. You know you’re not walking in all the will of God. You know you’re walking a little aside from God’s will and yet you keep pretending to yourself, “Ah, I will not be deceived by the antichrist. I will know him because I will see him. He will look like the antichrist.” He won’t dear ones. The spirit of antichrist was in the false prophets and here’s what it said about the false prophets by Jesus, Matthew 7:15. Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in,” wolves clothing? No. But, “Who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” In other words, the antichrist will look like Christ. You see, from what you read in the scripture the antichrist will come and will claim to unite all nations and all political powers in him. He will claim to unite all churches in himself. He will come as the savior of the world. He will say, “Come bring to me your sick and your dying. Come to me those who are enslaved and need deliverance and I will deliver you.” The antichrist will look like Christ. He will be in sheep’s clothing. You by the cleverness of your own mind or even by your intimate knowledge of the Bible will not be able to discern him just by that alone. You may say, “Oh, now that’s silly we’ll know him by his works. He will come and he will burn and ravish all before him.” He won’t. He will come with healing medicines. He will come with an offer of peace, mental peace such as we have never had before. He will come and offer to solve the international problems in politics. He will come and promise to solve the economic difficulties we have in our nations. He will come with good works. You doubt it? Well, look at what Jesus says himself you can find it there in Matthew 7:22, that same Chapter Matthew 7:22, Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name?’ And then will I declare to him, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’” And so the antichrist will come with mighty works that will imitate the works of Jesus. You remember what happened when Moses threw down his staff and it turned into a snake? Weren’t they able to imitate the work even of God? How much more will the antichrist be able to imitate the very works of Jesus? Some of us say, “Well, we’ll know him by his fruits, by their fruits you shall know them.” But you know that today already, there are imitation fruits all around us. There are so many of us that talk about concern now, we talk about care, you must be concerned, and you must show concern for the downtrodden. But, it isn’t the loving, it isn’t the loving concern that comes from the heart of Jesus it’s an artificial politic philanthropic concern that ends when its purpose is achieved. But already there is this artificial imitation of love abroad in many of our hearts. Already there is an imitation of Christian joy abroad and many dear ones cannot discern the difference between real Christian joy and the happiness that seems to exist in people’s minds. There is a false peace abroad not only with the tranquilizers but there is a false peace with the new drugs. There is a false peace with even the blindness that has come into many man’s eyes about the future. There are artificial fruits. We will not be able to discern the antichrist simply by his works or by his fruits. The only way we can prepare for the coming of the antichrist and the only way you can be assured that you will not be deceived by him when he comes is to allow the Holy Spirit tonight, to wield his sword in your own spirit and to show you if any of the marks of the spirit of antichrist are present in your life. Now, will you do that dear ones? Will you allow the Holy Spirit to wield his own sword in your heart and to stop saying, “I was born again on that date.” Or, “I was sanctified on that date.” Or, “I was baptized with the Spirit on that date.” And allow the Holy Spirit himself to speak to your heart. Let’s just look at some of those plain marks in scripture. The first one is found right at the beginning of the Bible Genesis 3:4-6. Genesis 3:4-6, “But the serpent,” who is a symbol too of Satan and of the antichrist, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. Yeah, the spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. The spirit of antichrist makes the bullets and allows someone else to fire. “I believe Mrs. Woodard feels that your children make a little too much noise.” Yeah, that’s the spirit of antichrist. That establishes a hostile triangle, right? With the one that told it, with the one whose children are being talked about, and with Mrs. Woodard. And you only need four of those and you have 12 dear ones who have distrust being built up in their hearts for each other. No, it is up to Mrs. Woodard to go and tell about the children herself. But, the spirit of the whisperer wants to have the privilege of imparting to you some special knowledge that only she has. The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. This is why John Wesley said, “Never say anything about anyone who is absent or anyone who is dead.” Never. You don’t need to talk about them. You don’t need to do you? Are you doing them any good? It’s the spirit of antichrist that is working in your heart at that moment dear ones. It’s not achieving any good, you know that, it only creates distrust. Or, you know, “I don’t think John is really capable of that Job.” When it isn’t your responsibility to decide whether he’s capable or not and you aren’t asked any opinion but you say to a third member, “I don’t think John is really capable.” That binds you two in an attitude of superiority to John and eventually John’s spirit feels that and there’s distrust and the spirit of antichrist has already begun to prepare you to receive him when he comes because he is the spirit of the whisperer. Dear ones, no whispering and if there is any whispering in your heart and if you’ve done that then seek the spirit for purification tonight. Not only for forgiveness but for purification from that whispering spirit. Let’s look at a second mark of the antichrist and generally speaking it’s given by Jesus in Matthew 15:6. And generally speaking it’s the attitude of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The attitude that wants to question or disobey God’s word. You remember the serpent said, “God has not said,” and it’s that spirit and it’s found in Matthew 15:6 and Jesus is speaking to some of those who had the spirit of antichrist living in them. Matthew 15:6, “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.” Now first of all dear ones, for the sake of your tradition. So many of us will say, “Well, I believe that you’re righteous because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you. I believe you’re holy in Christ. I believe you can commit adultery and God looks down upon you and he says, ‘That’s no adultery,’ because you’re within Christ.” And there are dear ones who say, “This is our tradition. We believe in imputed righteousness. We believe you are holy in Christ. You may not be holy in life but you’re holy in Christ.” And so they have a list of sins every day and they bring them to Christa and they confess them to him as a matter of course but they thank him that they are holy in Christ. And Jesus again, and again says, “If a man love me he will keep my words. If a man loves me he will not continue to cut me apart with the nails and the sword.” But they say they are holy in Christ. And Jesus says, “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.” There are many in whom the spirit of antichrist has made void the word of God for the sake of their tradition. So, let’s go to the other side of the spectrum and there are many of us who believe in holiness and we say, “It’s glorious where you come to the place where you die to that old self and where the Holy Spirit cleanses your heart from anger, and jealousy, and impatience, and irritability, and critical spirit, and it’s glorious when you come to that place when you know the old self is dead at last and nailed to the cross.” And then the next day we find we’re a little angry so for the sake of our tradition, for the sake of our belief in eradication, we say, “The sin was taken out so that’s not anger.” And we call black white. For the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God. Now dear ones, those are some of the marks of the spirit of antichrist. And many of us – I see some dear ones whom I love and they’ll know what I mean when I say this, many of us do the same with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We say, “I am baptized with the Holy Spirit. I may be irritable in my home, I may cut my wife to bits, I may be angry when my friends oppose my doctrine but I am baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Dear ones, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 15:9, cleanses our hearts by faith but for the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God. One group pretends that sin is not sin with them. The other group pretends that what they’re doing is not sin and the middle group ignores sin altogether and for the sake of our tradition, for the sake of our human doctrines we make void the word of God. There’s another mark of the spirit of antichrist that is outlined in Colossians 2:16-22. Colossians 2:16-22, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no on disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” And many dear ones who have not really entered into the purifying part of the Holy Spirit have sunk into a false legalism. The Holy Spirit makes you want to obey God’s law and we have every responsibility to encourage each other to obey the law of God if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. But, there is a false legalism. There is a list of don’ts and dos that many of us arrange to suit ourselves. So, we happen not to do this thing so we’ll label that a sin because we have no trouble avoiding it. And we list our don’ts and we create a false legalism that is the very spirit of antichrist because it takes our eyes off the beauty of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus and puts our eyes on men’s precepts and doctrines. There is also another mark of the spirit of antichrist mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:20. 1 Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.” This is the last verse of 1 Timothy 6 dear ones, “Guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.” “Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” Even in Jesus’ day there was a devil living among the Greeks of gnostic beliefs. You remember the mastics felt they had an esoteric kind of knowledge and you needed it. Dear ones, let’s be humble about any knowledge that God has given us. You know there are movements among us in these days that depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge. Esoteric means, you know, a specialized kind of knowledge and you must joint my group to get it. Now dear ones, that’s dangerous. The Spirit of Jesus is an open spirit full of love, full of joy with only one assurance that the Spirit of Christ moves among you. That the Spirit of Christ motivates your every heart and your every action. But it does not depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge that you feel you can bestow on everyone else. That’s the very mark of antichrist. So is the last mark of this kind that I’d ask you to look at. It’s in 2 Peter 2:17-19 and this is the very opposite of the unscriptural legalism. 2 Peter 2:17-19, “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” And you see what the Bible lays emphasis on, they promised him freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption and there is an unscriptural freedom, an unscriptural licentiousness. There is a licentiousness that says, “It doesn’t matter what we do we have the Spirit of Christ within us.” Dear ones, the mark of the Spirit of Christ is plain. It’s plain and you can’t go on saying day, after day, after day, “Well, I’m angry but I have liberty in the Spirit.” The Bible again, and again right down the line talks about anger. Proverbs says, “Cease from anger and forsake wrath.” Another verse in Proverbs says, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.” Ecclesiastes says, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger rests in the bosom of fools and the fool belief that there is no God.” And Matthew 5:19, you remember, Jesus says, “Think not that I have come to abolish that law and those prophets. I have come not to abolish them but I have come to fulfill them and I tell you it was said of old that whosoever kills is guilty of the judgment but I say to you whosoever is angry with his brother is guilty of the judgment.” Let us face the truth as it is in God’s word. Let us not say, “We have liberty. We have freedom,” while anger rises and rules our hearts. We have nothing but the spirit off antichrist if that is so dear ones. Now, there is another mark of the spirit of antichrist and you can find it in 1 Timothy 1:6-7. 1 Timothy 1:6-7, “Certain persons by swerving from these,” you see what these are they are in Verse Five, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.” And so there are many today who claim today to be able to teach the way of God but they teach it with so much ambiguity that you don’t know which side you’re on. They say, “You should not sin.” But they say, “Well, this may not be sin and you can sin a little.” They say, “Complete obedience to God is necessary. But well, you have to allow for a little disobedience.” And they teach the way so ambiguously that no one knows where they are. They say, “The Holy Spirit cleanses the heart from all sin,” and then they say, “Well, if there’s a little rising that’s temptation.” Dear ones, temptation comes from the outside. The fiery darts of the wicked one come into the converted heart and it’s like a can of gasoline inside and the look, the look of the girl, or the temptation to be angry comes in as the fiery dart of the wicked one and comes into the gasoline inside and there’s a reaction within that bursts out and responds. And the flame goes up within and the anger is out or the lust is out. And when the sanctified heart meets the fiery darts of the wicked one, the fiery dart of the wicked one comes out from the outside and comes into the inside and into the can of water and it sizzles out and the reaction and the response is not there. Ah dear ones, there’s no ambiguity about the sanctified life. You can know whether you’re sanctified. It’s clear, there is no response within. There is no rising from within. The temptation comes from without. But the spirit of antichrist is trying to encourage many of us to say, “Well, maybe this maybe that.” The trumpet of God issues a certain sound. You have no doubt about the trumpet of God, it issues a certain sound and you know to prepare for battle. But so it is that many dear ones have come into ambiguity in their teaching. Dear ones, there’s no ambiguity in the Bible, it’s full of it you know. Some people say, “Oh, should a Christian obey God’s word? Can you really expect him to obey God’s word?” Well, it runs through every part of it. Deuteronomy, “This day the Lord thy God has commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments. They shall therefore keep them and do them with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Joshua says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth even but they shall meditate therein day and night that thy mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.” And we keep on asking, “Do you really mean that Christians are supposed to obey God’s law?” And Samuel said, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold to obey is better to sacrifice and to harken than the fat of rams.” And we keep asking, “Do you really think a Christian cannot have any sin in his life?” And in Matthew it says, “Not everyone that sayeth unto me, “Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which thou is heaven.” And we keep asking, “Do you really think that we cannot afford to disobey God’s law even in just our [inaudible 30:21] or sons of God?” Well, the Bible says in James 4:17, that if a man knows what is right to do and fails to do it for him it is sin. And the Bible says, “Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin.” And then we keep on ask you see, “Well, do you really think that we’re not allowed to sin at all?” And Jesus says, “Therefore whosoever hear these things of mine and doeth them I will liken him onto a wise man which built a house upon a rock.” And we ask, “Do you really think a Christian is meant to live without sin? Do you really think he’s meant to obey God’s word?” And Jesus says, “For whosoever do the will of my father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother.” And we say, “Do you really think you can only belong to the family of God if you obey his word?” Well dear ones, where does it stop? I have a list of symptoms of cancer here. Here they are and I read them out to you. You don’t say to me, “I have only one of those.” One is enough. The marks of the flesh are plain, you know they are. The marks of the flesh are there and you can look them up yourself in Galatians 5:18-23. Galatians 5:18-23, “But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” You see, you are not going to be condemned under the law. “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.” Now the word of God is plain, if you come to that word and say, “Well, do you mean to say if I feel just a little envy for that singer up there and just envy a little that voice that I am not walking in the will of God?” Well, you can judge for yourself. You may say, “Do you mean to say if anger rises in my heart at the children that I have some of the works of the flesh in me?” Well look, look at the word. There is no ambiguity in God’s word and there is no ambiguity in the Spirit of Christ but there is constant ambiguity in the spirit of antichrist. Dear ones, I know many of you need to deal with the Holy Spirit for heart cleansing tonight and the spirit of antichrist is trying to deceive you and persuade you that the amount of victory that you have already is sufficient. Dear ones, complete victory is possible in the power of the Holy Spirit. Well so it goes on, another mark of the spirit of antichrist is 1 Timothy 4:1-2. 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in a later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared.” And one of the marks of the spirit of antichrist is the deceitful spirit, the dishonest spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes in and cleanses your heart and begins to lead you in away from your soulish powers and into the purity of the resources of the tree of life, then you become very conscious of the slightest dishonesty. The Holy Spirit makes you treasure absolute honesty, absolute honesty. “That’s a beautiful dress.” Well, if it really is and you really think it is then the Spirit of Jesus would have you say it and the dear one will know you mean it and the dear one will know politeness and the dear one will know that cultured sophistication when she sees it and there is just a great difference between the two. When the Holy Spirit comes into your heart he makes you treasure honesty. He has nothing to do with deceitful spirits because they are of the spirit of antichrist. He has nothing to do with doctrines of demons. I think there are doctrines about demons as well as doctrines of demons. I think many dear ones want to cast out demons when they should be repenting of carnality. And I think there are a lot of us you know, that how that doctrine of demons and doctrines about demons. There are doctrines of demons such as Robinson spreads about the virgin birth of Christ and there are doctrines of demons such as [inaudible 34:40] spreads about the reality of God. But there are also doctrines about demons and many of us are wanting people to cast out demons from us when really the demon is just bad temper and we need to get down under God and surrender that old self which produces the bad temper to him. But the doctrines of demons and the doctrines about demons are part of the spirit of antichrist. Then you see it mentions that their consciences have become seared and many wives weep over husbands in these days. Husbands who think they are far on in the spirit and have not the Spirit of Jesus ruling their own hearts and their homes. You cannot be advanced in the spirit unless the beauty of Jesus rules your life and your home and in your work. Just two more dear ones, and one especially that I think is important and you find it in Ezekiel 34:2-3. Ezekiel 34:2-3, and these men were produced by the spirit of antichrist even in Old Testament times. Ezekiel 34:2-3, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ho, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!” A shepherd you see is one who feeds, but you’ve been feeding yourselves. “Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have no brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the wild beasts.” There are many who feel they have advanced far in the Christian faith and they are ruled by selfishness. And so I say to my dear brothers and sisters whom I love, it is glorious that there will come a day that the sons of God will be revealed. It is glorious that Jesus is building for himself a great body that will rise up and glorify his Father in heaven even as he glorified his Father. It is glorious that there will be a great day when the sons of God will be revealed. And that’s great but dear ones, let’s be careful. Let’s be careful that we do not become preoccupied with the revelation of us as the sons of God, less we find ourselves feeding ourselves instead of feeding the sheep. After all there’s a time to sow and a time to reap. There is a time to be born and a time to die. There’s a time to save the lost and to see the Holy Spirit filling others with the beauty of Jesus and with the power of Jesus and there is a time for the revelation of the sons of God and no doubt God will lead us forward bit-by-bit. We don’t have to keep looking ahead and trying to see what is going to happen we can trust the Holy Spirit to prepare us for that day. Let us be careful that none of the advancement that we have in the Christian faith becomes a selfish delight in our position. Let us be careful that we are found doing what God has given us to do. The commission, the great commission and my dear brother said, has never been with God. We are still called to go and preach the gospel to all the world and we are to be found doing that when Jesus comes. Well the very last mark of the spirit of antichrist is there in the original chapters we were studying 1 John 2:22. 1 John 2:22, “Who is the liar,” “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” You mean I say God is not the Father, Jesus is not the son? No. Deny means make nothing of the Father and make nothing of the son. Perhaps the greatest and clearest mark of the spirit of the antichrist is that the antichrist will rise in the place of Jesus. He will take the place that Jesus himself ought to have and the spirit of antichrist is found that it is clearest in our own hearts, in our own selves when we want to rise up and rule our own lives. And the dear one comes home and Jesus wants to be loving to that dear one but the old self wants to rise up and cut the dear one apart. Jesus wants to rise up in us and get the glory in the service, he wants to receive the glory to himself and our old self rises up and we want all men to look at us. We want every eye to see what we have done. There’s a great pride rises up within us. We not only want our way so that Jesus will not have his way but we want our glory so he will not have his glory. There’s a great desire to be praised, a great desire to be noticed that rises up in the hearts that is ruled by the spirit of antichrist because you see, the antichrist is already preparing that heart for himself. He’s already preparing that heart so that heart will recognize him when he comes. That heart will bury down the pride, will bury down the envy and the jealousy but that is all seeping underneath and will rise up to receive the antichrist when he arrives. There are only two guardians against the spirit of antichrist. There is first of all in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the scripture itself. You can look at it there. Paul explained to Timothy that there would come days of stress and surely those days are already upon us when men would be lovers of self rather than lovers of God. And then he says, “There is only one guard on that day.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” And in Verse 14 he says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” And the second guardian against the spirit of antichrist is found in John 16:13 and it is as you can guess yourselves the true Holy Spirit of truth. John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” There will come a day either before you and I die or soon after it when a glorious figure will appear in our world and he will have apparently the fruits of the spirit and he will do many mighty works such as Jesus himself did and that great figure will call to himself all who believe in him, all who respect what he is and great, great numbers of evenly elect will come towards him and be deceived and their judgment will have already taken place. And you say, “How can I prepare for that day?” Allow the Holy Spirit to wield his sword in your heart tonight and be honest. Now many of you have been arguing, haven’t you? I know it because God told me. Many of you have been arguing with God and you have been saying, “Victorious life can’t be that victorious.” A little anger, a little envy, a little jealous and the spirit of antichrist is already in work in you. Dear ones, the only way to prepare is to be open with God. Open with God, direct with him and honest now and admit that you are what you are. And you say, “What can be done?” Well, at this present time the Holy Spirit is here among us. At this present time we are privileged to have the Holy Spirit in our midst. There will come a day when he will withdraw but the Holy Spirit is here tonight and his word is here and you know his word well enough during this past week to know where you stand. The Holy Spirit is able to show you where the spirit of antichrist still rules in your heart and where you yourself are being prepared for his coming. You need to come to the alter tonight and allow the Holy Spirit to do that. Ask him, “Holy Spirit of truth show me where the spirit of antichrist still rules in my heart. Show me where I am not being obedient to you.” And the Holy Spirit will show you. Then you need to see that all that spirit of antichrist within you, all that old self was crucified with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is able to crucify it now in you. He is able to cleanse out all that and fill you with himself so that when the antichrist comes the Holy Spirit will cry in your heart, “That is the antichrist.” But he can only cry that in the heart of one who is being utterly obedient to him today. Well are you such a one and will you have such a counselor on that fateful day? I pray that you will. I pray that you will receive him tonight if you haven’t received him already. Let us pray. Loving Father, we trust you now to do your work. Blessed Holy Spirit, your word has been proclaimed and we trust you to minister to each of us as we need that we may not be found following the wrong man on that fateful day. We trust you Holy Spirit, now to minister to us and to draw out the ones that need to take you fully into their hearts and surrender their spirits completely to you. For the glory of Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

The Death of the Old Life Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Last time we shared how God gives us the Holy Spirit and makes our spirits alive. He gives us the Holy Spirit because something has happened that has made it no longer necessary for him to keep the flaming sword that guards every way to the tree of life. The event that happened was simply that his justice was able to work its full way out upon us in Jesus. That’s it. God took the whole human race, put that human race into Jesus, and destroyed it there. Now that his justice has worked its way out upon the sinner, the Holy Spirit and the way to the tree of life are accessible to us. Now it seems to me it is very important to see that the only reason we can experience new birth or the Holy Spirit coming into our spirits and regenerating us — is because all the old life was destroyed. Sometimes I don’t think we really realize that that’s the case — that it’s because all the old race of mankind with all its self and all its own rights were destroyed in Jesus. It’s because of that, that God can actually begin a whole new race. That’s why the new life is possible to us at all. In God’s eyes new life is only possible because he has destroyed all the old life. That’s why we can experience the new birth at all. It’s because we have all died in Jesus and all our old life of independence of God has been destroyed, that God is able to give us a new life in the Holy Spirit. So really, in a sense you could say the death comes before the new birth. Yet it is true that many of us have found ourselves in the new birth experience and have not really come into the death of the old life. That’s what I’d really like to talk about during the three quarters of an hour that we have. I think all of us see that being a Christian is not just being a moral person. It’s not just being a church-goer. That is, it’s not doing works that will save you. It’s not just being a church person, somebody who goes to the right service and attends the right meetings. It’s not just being socially responsible. It’s not just being a person who believes and accepts the world view of Christ that he has preached to the world. It’s not a person that experiences gifts or miracles. A Christian is one who has received the Spirit of Jesus into himself. John 1:12: “To as many as received him, to them gave him the right to become the children of God.” Now we also looked at the kind of person that meant that you were. You remember, it was the kind of person described in 1 John 3:9. A person who had really received the Spirit of Jesus into them would be this kind of person. 1 John 3:9: “No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.” So you recognize a person who has really been born of the spirit — not just one who attends church, not just one who accepts the Christian world view, not just one who tries to do what is best for him and the world. You recognize a Christian who is born of the spirit by the fact that he does not commit sin. We talked a little about what that meant. It certainly doesn’t mean that you never deviate from absolute right. Because of our imperfect minds, there will be times when we unintentionally deviate from absolute truth and absolute goodness. So certainly, not committing sin doesn’t mean that we never unintentionally deviate from absolute right. At times you will. Nor does it mean that you never err in excess of emotion. I think our emotions at the point of the new birth certainly are not utterly balanced and at times we will joke more than we should. I feel like Ron and I and Scott — who were comedians before we met Jesus — will have emotions that tend to fly off from the old joke or the old laugh too much, and we will overbalance in that direction. So, it doesn’t mean that you’ll never indulge in excess emotion. It doesn’t mean that you won’t fall back at times through physical weariness. In other words, because of imperfect mind, and imperfect emotions, and a weakened body, we’ll find that very often we’ll make mistakes and we’ll do things that we didn’t intend to do. So that isn’t sin. Sin is what is stated in James 4:17. It’s stated very clearly so we really need be in no doubt of what it is: “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Sin is something very far from being an unintentional deviation from absolute right. Sin is a deliberate disobedience — a conscious knowing disobedience to God’s rule and God’s law. It’s a knowing disobedience of the 10 Commandments, a knowing disobedience to the life that is presented in the Sermon on the Mount, a knowing disobedience to some of the marks of a Christian that are described in Paul’s Epistles, a knowing disobedience to the whole example we have in Jesus’ life. Sin is a conscious resistance to that will of God that is stated for us in scripture. So sin is something very concrete. It’s a conscious disobedience to God’s will as outlined in the gospels, and the Epistles, and the Old Testament. Now, does this mean that a Christian never sins? “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.” We’ve talked in the past a bit: does this mean you never sin, or does this mean that you just don’t sin habitually? It certainly doesn’t mean anything as weak as not sinning habitually. It doesn’t mean, “Oh yeah, I sin once or twice every week but not habitually. I mean, I don’t sleep in every day of the week. I don’t sleep in habitually. I sleep in maybe Saturday morning and maybe an odd Monday morning but not habitually.” So, it doesn’t mean anything as weak as “does not commit sin habitually.” But I think it’s fair to see that it doesn’t really mean “never sins.” It means hardly ever sins. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. This is not the natural normal activity of a Christian who is born of God — because the nature within him is Jesus’ nature, and that nature always wants to obey God and will always obey God — except where the imperfect mind, or the unbalanced emotions, or the weakened body that has not yet come under the daily discipline of the daily cross — prevents the spirit of Jesus from getting out through that person. But inside, the person will always have a pure attitude of wanting to obey God. That brings us to the problem of the death of the old life, because I think that many of us have difficulties there. We know that a Christian is one who does not commit sin and who does not disobey God knowingly. Yet we have problems inside in our own inner lives. We come to a situation where we are due to hand an assignment in to a professor and we know we have to be honest. It says so in Ephesians 4:25. It might be good just to look at it because God’s word can often speak individually to us as we look at it. Ephesians 4:25: “Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” And we see that. We say, “Alright, I’m a Christian. I’m a child of God and I’ve to put away falsehood.” We haven’t the assignment ready for the professor and we tell him so. What troubles many of us is that even as we tell him, we have within us almost an unbearable strain that makes us want to tell him a lie. We tell him the truth, but inside us there’s a tremendous strain — because we don’t want to face the music and we don’t want to lose our reputation with this man who respects us. Even though we do obey, we find a tremendous pressure within us, a tremendous desire of the flesh that is against the desire of the spirit. That desire is deep down there and we try to rationalize it away but it’s still there. Or, we go home and the roommate is there. They’ve taken all of our books out and spread them all over the floor. We know we’re to be patient with them, and we now that we’re not to be angry with them, because if you’re angry you sin, and we hold the anger in. But within us there is a tremendous strain and desire to be angry with that person, to put them in the right place. So even though we obey God outwardly, inside we find this tremendous strain. I think many of us wonder: is this the victory in the Christian life? We’re obeying – okay, we’re obeying outwardly. We’re not sinning outwardly. But inside we have a tremendous battle to hold down that attitude, or that reaction, or that response, or that motive that is not in accordance with God’s Spirit. So underneath the water of the lake there is this restlessness. We feel it’s there. I think you’d admit that at times you can obey God and you can be kind to the sister and say the right word to the brother but inside it’s as if you didn’t do it — because the restlessness is so miserable, and the strain is so terrible, that it’s almost as if you in your own heart have sinned. Now that’s one of the problems they come against — that desire within to sin even though they don’t actually sin. I think we have another problem, and it’s really the problem outlined in Hebrews 12:1. It’s a famous phrase that you’ll recognize. In Hebrews 12:1 the writer of Hebrews is saying that we should follow the example of a great cloud of witnesses: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” “Sin which clings so closely” is translated in the King James Version as “the besetting sin.” That’s the second problem that many of us Christians have: we’re born of the spirit but we have a sin that we cannot get over. I don’t know what it is with you. With me it was the whole question of lust and masturbation. It was that whole area. With others it’s just a strong selfish ambition. With me for some time it was that. It was a strong selfish ambition that I could not get on top of. With some of us it is a pride. But it is some besetting sin that keeps catching us out. Now, we know we’re children of God as long as Jesus continues to deal with us as he told us to deal with each other. That is, he said, “You must forgive until 70 times seven.” So we know we’re saved. God will always forgive us as long as we’re able to repent. So the problem is not that God will ever refuse to forgive us however often we commit this sin. But don’t you see that isn’t the problem? The problem is deeper than that. The problem is that the more that we commit this sin day after day, or week after week, or month after month, the more we attempt to excuse it — the more we attempt to rationalize it — and the more we try to persuade ourselves, “This is just my personality. This is just a normal human trait that I have.” I think that’s the real danger here. The danger is not that God is not willing to forgive us. I think a lot of us are concerned, “Well, am I really a child of God if I do sin? Say I do continue in a sin maybe ever month. Am I a child of God?” You’re a child of God as long as you can sue for forgiveness. As long as you can repent, God will forgive you until 70 times seven and far beyond that time. But the real danger is that we continue in this tendency to rationalize the sin, and to excuse it, and to talk our way around it, until we begin to build up a resistance and a hardening of our conscious towards the conviction of the Holy Spirit. There’s a famous passage in Hebrews 6:4 that deals with this: “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.” Do you see? The key words are, “It is impossible to restore again to repentance.” It is not impossible for God to forgive us. God can forgive us until 70 times seven. But it is impossible to restore again to repentance a person who continues to so rationalize and excuse sin in his life that he comes past the point of ever repenting. I think those are the problems we share. Paul expresses it in Romans 7:22-24. It’s that old passage that describes the defeated life that we’ve so often looked at: “For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The real problem there for us is two-fold. We often find ourselves obeying God outwardly, but inwardly we have a tremendous strain to disobey him. As well as that we have often some sins that eventually have broken out into outward expression in our lives that we keep on rationalizing and excusing away. Do you see it’s the excusing that is the heart of sin? That’s what sin is. Actually the argument mark isn’t over, “Do you tell a lie?” or, “Have I lived the whole of the past year without ever losing my temper?” That isn’t the issue. The real issue is that sin is an attitude of resistance to God’s will that wants to rationalize away any deviation from his will — instead of face it and treat it as sin. That’s the real problem inside us. The problem is how we treat sin as just a human shortcoming, and the corresponding tendency in our nature to suppress it or repress it, and to strive to overcome it, and to fight it. That isn’t God’s plan for us. It isn’t God’s plan that we should live in that kind of rationalizing and suppressing and repressing kind of life. Maybe we could look at the problem as we were mentioning it at the beginning of this talk. The real problem is that though God destroyed all of us in Jesus — and that’s why he can forgive us — yet we have not all entered into that. Now, we did become Christians, because the condition for becoming a Christian is, “to as many as receive Jesus God gives the right to become the children of God.” It’s important, I think, to see that the Greek word for “right” is “exousias.” The King James Version wrongly interprets it as “power.” God gives you the right to become the children of God. He gives you the right to eat fully of the tree of life the moment you are ready to receive his Son Jesus. And you actually do receive the Spirit of Jesus within you at that time. But the fact is that that’s possible only because God destroyed us all in Jesus. You can only experience the fullness of that life when you are actually willing to dot the i’s and cross the t’s of what God did to us in Christ. Only when we’re willing to identify ourselves totally with Jesus’ death will we be able to identify ourselves totally with his fullness of life and his resurrection life. Part of the problem is not that everything has not been achieved for us by God and Jesus — but that we’re only entering into half of it. Really what we need to experience is a complete death. Not just a complete birth but a complete death with Jesus. If you say to me, “Oh brother, why is that?” Because the basic principle upon which God deals with us is, “Be it unto you according to your faith.” God can only do in each of us what we believe he is able to do and what we’re willing to let him do. And so it is unto us according to our faith. So I don’t know about you, but for me, when I heard of becoming a Christian, it was never told me that I died with Jesus. I was told Jesus died for me so that I wouldn’t have to die. So I believed that and God dealt with me according to my belief. I think with many of us that’s the case. God dealt with us according to our belief. We believed that Jesus would come into our hearts when we asked him in, and that’s what happened. We did not believe for any death with Jesus. We didn’t even think it was necessary to die with Jesus. We thought God had destroyed the whole human race in Jesus and that was it. But it is possible to enter into an actual experience with that in our own life. You know the secret is this — that sin is an attitude that has to be destroyed and displaced by the attitude of the Holy Spirit — whereas sins are acts, and thoughts, and words that have to be forgiven. What most of us enter into is a freedom from the outward symptoms first, and we deal with God over the outward acts, and thoughts, and words. Before I became a Christian I would have known what anger was by my angry words. But if you had said to me, “Oh, you’re angry deep down even though you’re not showing it” — I don’t know if I had enough sensitivity or light to even recognize that. I recognized anger when I expressed it. I recognized irritability when I expressed it. But it was only after the Spirit of Jesus came into me and gave me something to compare my own spirit with, that I began to sense that you could have an attitude that didn’t come out and didn’t express itself. So it seems that it’s almost like a darkened room — until you bring a candle in you don’t see the dark corners. It seems almost as if until the pure Spirit of Jesus comes into our hearts, we can’t see the really dark corners — they just look gray to us. So for most of us, I think we’ve come into a forgiveness of our sins but not into a real cleansing of the inward attitude. What is that inward attitude? Some people say it’s just the old nature, and you’re committed to fighting the old nature for the rest of your lives. There’s something silly even in the semantics of it — because if you say to me, “Oh, he has a generous nature,” you mean he’s a generous kind of person. That’s his nature. That’s the basic kind of person he are. You don’t really mean, “Yeah, well he has a generous nature but he also has another nature.” When you talk about a person being of a certain nature you mean that’s really what that person is. Now do you see you can’t have good fruit from a bad tree and you can’t have bad fruit from a good tree? You can’t have sweet water from a sour source and you can’t have sour water from a sweet source? You’re either one or the other. We all like to think that on the whole we are children of God and on the whole we are really Christians. But there are just little bits of us that aren’t Christ-like. I think it’s probably the other way around. I think on the whole we have an outward appearance of being Jesus, but inwardly we’re our real selves, and that it’s not a question so much of one nature fighting against another. It’s simply a fact that the desires of the flesh are against the spirit wherever they are. The desires of the flesh are always against the spirit. But where the desires of the flesh are strong in us, it’s probably because we have not really received the divine nature of God. And that’s why many of us will say, “Oh, should the Christian life be a striving and a straining to obey?” No, it’s probably true that the Christian life is never that. It’s probably true that it’s just Christ imitators that live a straining, striving kind of life. Yet do you see that you can’t accuse a brother or a sister who has entered into that of not being a Christian in any sense? Because he has entered into all that God has told him, and all that he has believed for he has entered into. But once more life begins to come to him and he begins to see that more is possible. Then he is under obligation to go on into it. Romans 3:25 shows part of the work that Jesus did on the cross. Romans 3:25: “Whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” So the blood of Jesus is what we believe was shed to enable God to forgive us for our sins. And so we enter into a sense of the meaning of the blood of Jesus. Every time we sin we offer to God the blood of Jesus. But the second part of the work that God did on the cross is in Romans 6 and it refers to the cross of Christ. You see how Paul tackles it? He says in Romans 6:3: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” Now, you’ve been baptized into Christ Jesus. You’ve been baptized into him for the forgiveness of your sins. Now do you realize that you were baptized into his death? Romans 6:4: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” The death of Jesus, or the cross of Christ, is something that we enter into. Why? So that we might walk in newness of life. Verse 5 says, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” The truth is that it’s really impossible to walk in newness of life until we enter into the actuality of being buried with Christ. It’s impossible to walk in anything but a partial experience of newness of life until you’ve entered into the death of Christ. The truth is that we all have been crucified. The truth is that you’re not really alive today as far as God is concerned — you’ve been destroyed. But you and I keep believing Satan’s lie that this is our life and this is our future, and we have a right to our own way and we have a right to establish our reputation. The truth is we haven’t. We’re all dead. At this moment we’re each one in heaven beside the Father — but we won’t believe that or aren’t willing to believe that. First of all, some of us won’t believe it. We just won’t believe it. We won’t believe God’s word that we know that our old self was crucified with him. We just won’t believe it. It’s a problem of the mind. We set our eyes on our experience rather than on God’s word. Some of us have a problem that we are not willing for it. We’re not willing to be dead. You have a car that you like and you have clothes that you like. You have a lot of things you want to look forward to – marriage and a whole future. We don’t want to be dead people. We’re not willing to be dead. Really, if we were honest with God, when he says, “You’re dead with my Son,” we would recognize that we’re saying, “We’re not dead with your Son. We’re alive and we have a right to our own way. We have a right to ensure that we have a certain future ahead of us.” It’s disagreement with God. It’s a controversy with God when we don’t enter into the death with Christ. I think it’s good to see the details of it. You see in Romans 6:6 there are three elements involved in our defeated life that we live even after we’ve received the Spirit of Jesus into us. You see in Verse 6 there’s first of all the old self. There’s that tendency, that desire, to have our own way, to be God of our own lives, to do what we want, to insist on our own rights. Then you see the body of sin, or the sinful body it is called in the RSV {Revised Standard Version of the Bible}. That’s the second element. The sinful body, the body that is being used to commit sin for years. The emotions have been used to getting angry with people who tried to oppose us. The mind has been used to trying to manipulate other people. The body itself has been used to being lazy and being indolent. So, the body can always be called a sinful body because it’s being used for so long by sin. That’s the second element. Then the third element is, “we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” That’s Satan himself. Satan controls the attitude of sin in our world. Satan has spread throughout this world an attitude that is determined to live happily in the world without God, without his creator. It’s an attitude of rebellion against God, to go our own way rather than God’s way, to do what is right in our own eyes. Now, those are the three elements that are used in bringing us into a defeated life. Sin is the source of the rebellion against God. The body of sin is the instrument that that sin uses to express itself in the world. Do you see the middle man? The middle man is our old self. The middle man is the connection between sin and our body. The middle man is that little bit of attitude that self has that it has a right to its own way. It’s the attitude of the will really. It’s the evil will — the attitude of the will that wants to go its own way. Now you see what God does. The perfectionist eliminates sin from the world. They say, “Yeah, when you’ve entered into the death of Christ you never sin again. You can’t ever sin again even if you try hard — you can’t ever sin. Sin is just eliminated from the world.” That’s what perfectionists say. There are some perfectionists who teach holiness in that line. They say, “If you have entered into the death of Christ you’ll never sin again. Sin is once and for all blotted out from the world.” They get themselves into the problem where they go home and beat their wives at night and they say, “No, it wasn’t a sin. It wasn’t a sin. I’m a sanctified Christian. I can’t possibly sin. I know it because I’ve entered into the death of Christ.” That’s what some holiness perfectionist will say. They’ll try to eliminate sin from the world. The ascetics — many of whom I think found themselves in the Catholic Church at one time anyway — the ascetics will try to eliminate the body. They’ll teach the body as the problem. They’ll say, “Let’s eliminate the body. Let’s beat it with irons and with chains.” They’ll say, “Let’s fast, and let’s treat the body so badly that we take from it all power and energy to sin.” That isn’t the answer. God’s answer is you take out the middle man. You take out the old self. You crucify the old self. You crucify that evil will that wants to go its own way. That’s what Romans 6:6 means: we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed — or really rendered inoperative as the Greek word means. Rendered inoperative — and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. It’s the old self that God rendered inoperative. It’s the evil will. That’s what makes us get angry. Your problem and my problem is: are we willing to have that evil will destroyed? I think some of us have said, “Will God make me willing?” Well, God has already destroyed that evil will, but you have to be willing to allow him to destroy it in you. You have to be willing to allow him to destroy what you call freedom of your will. In other words, we have to be prepared to face the consequences if we were never to be allowed to sleep late when we wanted to. Would you be prepared to be in that position? Would you give up your right of ever sleeping late in the morning just because you wanted to — if God wanted you not to? Would you be prepared to give up your right ever to have ice cream again if God didn’t want you to have it? Being willing for God to destroy the evil will means being willing for God to destroy your will completely and make it absolutely like his whenever he wants to. You’d still have to exercise the will, but you’re giving up the right ever to exercise it against God. Now what the Holy Spirit does if a man is really anxious to enter into that, is he begins to show up in your life the places where you wouldn’t be prepared for that — where you just don’t want that. He begins to show you the places in your life where you want your own way and you’re determined to get it, and you’re not prepared for that will to be destroyed. He’ll take the darling sins, or the darling relationships, the things that are dearest to you, that mean most to you. He’ll take those and say, “Would you be prepared for my will to be done alone there and for your will to be destroyed?” What we need to do is to come to the place where we are willing for the Holy Spirit to do that. Where we say, “Lord, I’m willing for you to destroy this evil will and even my good will. I’m willing for you to destroy that. I’m willing to do whatever you want me to do — if you will only make this crucifixion with Christ real in my life.” It is true that after you get down all the levels of the things you’re willing to do and the things you’re not willing to do, the Holy Spirit graciously brings you to a place where he isolates the evil will, the heart of the evil will, the heart of that self. It’s just a miracle of the Holy Spirit that he isolates that for us, because we all probably think as I used to think, “Oh, no. It’s just my mind that is used to working intellectually, and so I have a natural pride in my mind. I just have to control that pride.” Or I thought, “No, I’m just an emotional kind of person. Therefore I have trouble with my feelings. I just have to discipline my emotions or my feelings a wee bit more.” But really the heart of it was that my will was letting loose those things, and my will had to be destroyed with Christ on Calvary. The Holy Spirit is so good to isolate that for you, and he’ll find out whatever is your darling sin, or whatever is really the heart of your self will. He’ll bring you to that place and say, “Would you be willing for me to destroy it?” And he’ll only destroy it when you say, “Yes.” I think that’s what some people mean when they say, “Can I pray that the Lord make me willing to be willing?” Well, yes, if you really get down to business and find out in what way you are not willing and are prepared for God to destroy that sense in which you are not willing. But you actually have to be willing for God to take away the right of you to do whatever you want to do. And when you get to the heart of that, then the Holy Spirit will make that crucifixion real in you. I’ve already shared before that it was just deliverance for me, and I almost thought that I had really hardly experienced Christ’s life at all before that time. Even though I did know I was a child of God before then, and I knew I was forgiven, and I knew God would accept me into his own presence — yet I never had any real experience of the victorious or pure life within me — until one day I did say, “I’m really willing.” There are two parts to it, and it might be just good to look at the two verses. First of all to look at 2 Corinthians 5:14 and see the complete experience of the new birth and the new death, or the complete birth and the complete death together as they are in scripture. Because I think we often try to separate them — and you cannot separate really the birth and the death. You cannot separate the birth in the spirit from your death in Christ — though many of us have done this in order to produce an easier kind of Christianity. 2 Corinthians 5:14: “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all.” That is what most of us enter into initially. We are convinced that Jesus has died for us so that our sins can be forgiven. “Therefore all have died.” Because all have died, we have all died with him. That’s what we need to enter into to experience freedom from the power of sin. Not only from the penalty of sin but from its power. The way to enter in is simple. It’s Romans 6:11. First of all the believing: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin” — reckon yourselves dead to sin — “and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” So we have a responsibility to believe what God has told us is true in scripture. Then the second part is the obedience — Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” Submission to the Holy Spirit will enable the Holy Spirit to make this death real in us and this victorious life real in us. So what’s needed is: believing what has happened to us in Jesus, and obeying the Holy Spirit day-by-day. The same truths are taught in Galatians 5:24-25. It might be good to look at them there again and see the two parts that we need to be willing to enter into: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” You belong to Christ when you receive his spirit into you. If you have done that then you have already crucified the flesh with his passions and desires, and you need to take your stand on that biblical ground, “I have been crucified with Christ.” Not, “I have to crucify myself,” but, “I have been crucified.” Then verse 25 says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” It’s submission to the Holy Spirit day-by-day. Some people have said, “How does it become real in us?” Well, you believe it and you submit to the Holy Spirit and you trust him to make it real in you. Next time I’d like to deal, if possible, with some of the difficulties that we run up against in the actual experiential side of what has potentially taken place in Jesus. So maybe you’d perhaps think of some questions for that presentation that we can then talk about.

How to Enter into Deliverance Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Brothers just to remind you we’re in a series at the moment, dealing with the four great stages, if you like to call them, in the Christian life, or the four great freedoms that you can experience in the Christian life. And, you remember, we’ve talked about the freedom from the guilt, from the guilty conscience. And we’ve talked about the freedom from the selfish will. And we’ve talked about the freedom from the domination of a personality that is independent of God’s Spirit. And we’ve talked about freedom from a passive spirit. And it seems to me that those are the great stages, really, that all of us come to, sooner or later–maybe in different order and maybe some faster than the other. But we eventually have to come through those stages. We have to deal with our guilty conscious. We have to allow God to deal with our selfish wills. We have to allow him to deal with our independent souls or independent personalities. And we have to allow him to deal with our passive spirits that are so poor at warring against Satan in an aggressive way. And what we have seen, during the past few talks together, is that all these freedoms and deliverances are found already in what Jesus has done for us on Calvary. So there’s nothing that we need in our own lives that Jesus has not already done for us. All we’re talking about here is the making these things real in our own lives. So it’s never a case of, “Oh, the cross is alright for forgiveness of sins, but when it comes to deliverance from the selfish will, you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” It’s never that. It’s always, what we have in Jesus on the cross, we can have made real in our own lives–if we will really believe God’s word, and submit to his Holy Spirit. Now, last time we talked, you may remember we discussed the deliverance from a selfish will. We discussed the problem that we all have found, that is outlined in Romans 7, starting at verse15. I’ll just read it to you. You almost know it off by heart–the problem which Paul explains this way. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.” And he says, “I can’t do what I want to do, for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” And we talked last day of the need to be delivered from that selfish will. And you remember, we outlined the facts that that deliverance was based on–the fact that our old self was crucified with Christ, that that old selfish will was crucified with Jesus. And in order for that to be made real in us we simply had to believe that and to be willing to submit to the Holy Spirit, to die to self, ourselves. Now those are the only conditions that are necessary. What I’d like to share today in a little more detail is how to enter into that deliverance. And I’d really appreciate it in between the presentations, if you have questions, if you would share them. Question from audience: I was going to ask, you said there were two conditions for the person making it. Can we know which one of those two a person is not fulfilling? Reply from Pastor O’Neil: Sam says that there are two needs: Revelation that you have been crucified with Christ and a willingness to be crucified–belief and submission or trust and obey. And can you, in counseling, tell which one a person is having trouble with? Normally, the Holy Spirit can reveal to you which one the person is having trouble with, though you can see that they are very closely linked, because “belief” in Greek is “pisteuo”. And it has a willingness, a willing content to it. And if you’re not really willing, in fact, you’re only believing with your head. And so, total belief is a real willingness. But I think that’s what I’ll spend the time going into, in some detail. Brothers the first point I think we should make clear is what the deliverance is. And it’s made clear in Romans 7:17, “So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.” “It is sin which dwells within me.” Romans 6 goes back to that fact, you know, where Paul says in Verse 7 of Romans 6, “He who has died is freed from sin.” Now, the deliverance is from sin. Sin is an inward desire to be independent of God. I think it’s very important for us to see that the deliverance is from the selfish will. It is from the desire to disobey God. It is deliverance from the desire to get angry. It’s deliverance from the desire to be irritable. It’s the deliverance from that rising up from within when the fiery darts of the wicked one come into you. It’s the deliverance from that quick reaction that is wrong and that is apart from God’s will. Now why I push that strongly is, I sensed at times, Larry, that you were sometimes asking me, “Well your attitude, I mean, your attitude. You still really have to resist in your attitude.” Well, I think it’s very important to see that it is an actual change that is wrought in your response to Satan’s temptation that takes place when you are willing to die to self. It is not in other words simply a case that the fiery dart of the wicked one comes in. And you find the rising up to get irritable, but now you decide you have to resist it. And so you resist. It isn’t that kind of inner fight that it once was. It is an actual deliverance from the desire to be irritable, or the desire to be jealous, or the desire to be envious. That’s what we mean when we say, “You’re freed from sin,” you see. If you like to put it this way, you’re freed from the power of sin.” Or, if it’s clearer to put it this way, “You’re free from having to sin.” You’re free to sin. But you’re freed from having to sin. So it’s important to make that distinction. You’re free to sin, but you’re now free, so that you need not sin, if you don’t want to. Before, you see, the problem was, “I don’t want to get angry. I don’t want to think these unclean thoughts. I don’t want to be irritable. But, I find something in me that wants to do them.” Now death to self with Christ, and being cleansed by the Holy Spirit, means that your heart is actually cleansed by faith. That’s what Acts 15:9 says, “God gave the Holy Spirit to them as he did to us and cleansed their hearts by faith.” It is actually, brothers, a cleansing of the tendency to disobey God. It is a cleansing from the tendency to fall over independent of God. I make that point, Bill, because deliverance was so real in my own life, you know. And if you press me and say, “Brother, are you saying you never sin again?” I’m saying, “If you ever do sin again it’s your fault.” And many of us are deceived into sinning. And many of us sin after entering into our death with Christ. But if we do, it’s simply our own fault. Before, it was really what Paul said, “If I do it, it is sin that dwells within me.” But now this is a deliverance from that inward sin, and you’re really free to obey. Now I believe I should stop there and give an opportunity for anybody to press me. Question from audience: You mean we’re not responsible for the sin before that? Reply from Pastor O’Neil: Alright, that’s good. Sam says, “You mean we’re not responsible for the sin before that?” And obviously, old Paul would be very strong and say, you know, or James says, “Let no one say is tempted by God.” And undoubtedly God says, “A man is responsible for expressing the inward desire that Satan has put inside him.” He’s responsible for that. And so, even though he says, “This is something that seems to be controlling me,” yet he still is responsible for letting it express itself in his life. Most of us Sam, it seems to me, have come to the place where we do not express this outwardly. But we have it inside, and we’re holding it down. And most of us, therefore, are walking in some degree of victory. But it’s through an intense self will and willpower. And it’s due to great repression and suppression of that desire. But certainly, if we give vent to it, still God holds us responsible for that giving vent. Indeed, we feel it ourselves. We sense guilt, immediately we express that anger. We don’t say to ourselves, “Oh, well that anger is part of Satan so I’m not responsible for it.” There’s something in our conscience that says, “If you express it you’re responsible for it.” Now I think the responsibility is the same in both cases. But before, it seems impossible to do anything about it. And that possibly is due to the fact that we do not read God’s word in an open minded way. Mark? Question from audience: You said there were two steps. Will there be a time period before they experience deliverance? Reply from Pastor O’Neil: Mark is going back–and it’s just for the sake for any who are listening to the cassette that I do this. Mark is going back to the two facts, you remember, or the two conditions that are necessary if we’re to enter in. And they’re outlined in many verses but Galatians 5:24-25 are two such verses, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” That’s belief in that fact. And the second one, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit,” is submission to the Holy Spirit or willingness. And he’s saying, “If you enter into a real belief in the fact is there often a gap,” I think, “Before you enter into the willingness?” Yes, I think there often is. I think many of us have to believe that fact for a long time only in our heads until the Holy Spirit really brings us into a willingness for that fact to be made real in our own spirits and lives. Mark I think now I’m going to deal with just some of those issues. What I’d like now to deal with, brothers, is three of the misunderstandings or misconceptions about how to enter into this deliverance from self or this being filled with the Holy Spirit. The first one is this, that many of us do not set our eyes on the fact. We set our eyes on our own experience. Many of us, in other words, when we find anger and impatience within us, say to ourselves, “Obviously, I’m not crucified with Christ. Obviously, you can see it my life is full of irritability, and anger, and jealousy. I’m not crucified.” Now all we’re doing there, is walking by sight and not by faith. We’re walking by the symptoms that Satan is producing in our own lives, rather than by the reality that is stated clearly in God’s word. In other words, God’s word says in Romans 6:6, “Our old self was crucified with Christ.” Now brothers, if the Holy Spirit is going to make real anything in our lives, he can only make it real if we believe God’s word, against our own experiences. Now many of us get into real problems you see, we say, “Oh no, my experience tells me that I am not crucified with Christ. So now I have to crucify myself.” And if we don’t fall into exactly the asceticism of the Catholic saints–of some of the Catholic saints–we do fall into that same kind of attitude, “I must crucify myself. I must destroy this evil within me. I must destroy this selfishness.” And we end up falling into legalism, in order to control this lion within us. Now brothers it is not a matter of looking at our own personal experiences. I think each time you find irritability, or impatience, or anger inside yourself you have to say, “Holy Spirit, I know that is there. Satan, you don’t need to tell me I am evil. I know it. But I know that my old self was crucified with Christ. And I set my mind on that fact. And Holy Spirit, I know you can only make this real, if I set my mind upon it and accept it.” Now brothers if you don’t set your mind on the fact that that was crucified on the cross, you will begin to experience an increasing conviction of sin, which is the Holy Spirit’s way of leading you on into this experience. But, as you increasingly experience how evil and how egotistical you are, that great ego will loom so large, in your own mind, that you’ll become utterly discouraged–unless you keep hold of the fact, “This has been crucified with Christ.” It will overwhelm you completely, you see, unless you hold to the fact in your own mind, “But this has been destroyed. I thank God it has been destroyed. Boy, I’m still under it but I thank God this old self has been destroyed.” But if you don’t accept that brothers, there’ll be no deliverance for you, you see. And I think a lot of us say, “Oh I see the old self. I see the envy. I see the jealousy. I see the irritability, and boy, God, I don’t know how you’re ever going to overcome it.” Unless you hold to the fact that God has said, “Listen my brother, my sister, your old self was crucified with my son. I destroyed all that. What you’re seeing is simply a ghost.” Now if you say to me, “Oh, but brother, if the old self was destroyed, why is it that I still feel the effects of it inside me?” Because, you’re living a lie–you’re believing the lie that that old self is still alive, and that it has a right to its own possessions–it has a right to its own way, when actually God has destroyed it. And the reality is that all of us are dead. I know that’s mad. But the reality is that all of us are dead. And we’ve been raised with Jesus. And at the moment, are at God’s right hand. But, we keep believing Satan’s lie. We believe we have a right to live our own life, to have our own way. And so, his lie produces those evil fruit. Sam? Question from audience: So it’s by ignoring the empirical reality of our evil nature? Reply from Pastor O’Neil: It is in a sense, though it is in another sense facing it, facing it head on and saying, “Holy Spirit, I see that. I see evidence that I’m still believing the lie, but in actual fact, I know that I’ve been crucified. I know that potentially it is there, and the only possibility of it being actualized in me is if I believe it.” It’s the same with our sins. I mean, we all believed that Jesus had died for us, but it was only made real in us when we were willing to let go of our sins. Now, it’s the same with this. The only basis is to believe that you have been crucified with Christ, and then to go on and find out in what way you’re not willing to be, because it’s the unwillingness that prevents the Holy Spirit from making it real. Do you want to press me anywhere brothers? Question from audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neil: Scott, if you don’t mind I’ll repeat that just in case some listen. Scott was saying, as you heard, that it seemed a lot more natural to him, and God seemed to begin to deal with him on the issue, when he at last accepted that, “Okay, I have been crucified with Christ and now I’ll just let the Holy Spirit show me, and make this real to me, but I won’t fight to die.” And it seems to me that’s the heart of it, that we have to accept that when God destroyed Jesus, he destroyed the whole evil world. And we are part of that world. And we have been destroyed in Jesus. And as far as God is concerned we’re no longer any great threat. And we should simply accept, “Well Lord, I thank you that you’ve destroyed this. And now, Holy Spirit, I know you want to express the victory of that death right in my life. And now I just trust you to let it come.” I agree with Scott, I think you can get yourself into a neurotic state if you say, “I’ve got to die. I’ve got to die.” Yeah. It’s actually–the place of faith is, “I believe your word, Lord. Now Holy Spirit, I trust you to make it real in me.” Sam? Question from audience: When I was dealing with some word last Sunday night, it came to me, “What does it mean to hunger?” Reply from Pastor O’Neil: Yes, that’s good. Sam has brought up the question of, when he stops striving, then God seemed to deal with him. Then someone asked, “Well, what does it mean to hunger and thirst after righteousness?” And it seems to me we need to keep doing our best to obey God’s word all the time. We never need to stand back and say, “Okay, I can’t do it I’ll just be a sinner.” We need to, all the time, set our mind on God’s word, and move towards it. But we need to see that what we’re trying to do, is begin to see how helpless and hopeless we are. We’ll never succeed in obeying it on our own. But it’s always a coming to an end of our own helplessness and hopelessness. So it’s a hungering after Jesus rather than a striving to obey the word without him. It seems to me that’s the heart of it. It seems to me as we try to obey the word without God, by our own strength, that’s the striving that is wrong. That’s the striving that God is trying to bring us to the end of. But the point to which he’s trying to bring us, is to see that, with all our striving, we’ll never do anything. What we need is simply Jesus within us. But until that time comes, I think Nee is right. All you can do is keep doing your best to obey. And yet all the time allow the Holy Spirit to show you how hopeless your obedience or your attempts are. The second misconception, brothers, that I’d like to deal with is, that many of us think it’s a question of auto suggestion. Many of us say, “All I have to do is auto suggest myself into this death with Christ.” And we keep saying it – in fact, I know a brother who used to walk around saying, “I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead.” Now, do you see that’s only the mind trying to persuade the mind that it’s dead? In other words, it’s revelation, not auto suggestion that will bring us into this. And it ties up a bit with what you said Scott, we need to set our mind on the fact that we’ve been crucified with Christ. And then ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us in what way we’re not crucified. But it seems to be an attitude that says, “Alright Holy Spirit I’ve tried my method. Now I’m giving up on my method. I’m willing to try your method. Holy Spirit, will you give me revelation about what, in what way, I’m not crucified with Christ?” Now brothers, if you don’t do that, you end up in introspection, because you start looking around and saying, “Well, I’m not dead. It’s not real in my life. Now in what way am I not dead?” And you start asking yourselves all kinds of questions that you make up, you know. “Would I be willing not to be married? Yeah, yeah. Would I be willing not to have a dog? Would I be willing not to have two dogs? Would I be willing not to have a lot of money?” And you start making up questions that God isn’t asking you at all. Now it seems to me that’s the difference between striving around and thrashing around in your own experience and introspection and auto suggestion and what is really needed, going to the Holy Spirit and saying, “Holy Spirit, my Lord said, ‘You would lead me into all truth.’ My Lord said, ‘You would counsel me.’ Now, Holy Spirit, tell me how do I look in Jesus’ eyes at this moment? In what way am I not willing to go through his death with him? In what way am I not willing to die to self? Holy Spirit, I’m asking you. Will you show me?” And brothers, it seems to me that’s the hungering and thirsting after righteousness. It’s not so much, if you like, a hungering and thirsting after victory, Scott. It seems to me you can come preoccupied with victory until it becomes almost a neurotic obsession. But, it’s a hungering and thirsting after the Father’s will. “Lord, what is your mind for me? What do you think of me? Holy Spirit, you know God’s mind. You know how he sees me. Give me judgment day honesty. Help me to see myself through Jesus’ eyes.” And it seems to me that’s what we mean by revelation, you see. And that’s so important, brothers, because all of us have different things holding us back from death to self. All of us hold back from the cross for lots of different reasons. And the person, who knows you best, still doesn’t know you well enough to show you in what way you’re not willing to be crucified in Christ. Only the Holy Spirit knows you that well. And so that’s the second misconception. A lot of us think it’s auto suggestion instead of revelation. A lot of us think it’s introspection instead of revelation. But it’s not. It’s always revelation. And that’s, Scott, where that rest comes in. You come to a place where you see at last, “Lord, I don’t know what’s holding me back. I’ve done my best to obey. I don’t know what’s holding me back. Holy Spirit, will you show me?” And there was a great deliverance in my own life when I gave up the introspection, and gave up trying to see the thing for myself. In fact, it involved a death to my own mind, because my mind thought it could discover all my shortcomings itself. And so that was part of the old self that had to die. Now brothers, revelation not auto suggestion. Is that okay? The third misconception brothers, is this. I think a lot of us are tempted by Satan to believe that this experience of death to self, or deliverance from the selfish will, is simply a question of believing that we’ve been crucified with Christ, and then repressing the feelings that we have inside, on the basis of that. So a lot of us, I think, get into the position where we think it’s a kind of double think, or a kind of bluff. “Okay knowing that you’re crucified with Christ, knowing that fact, that fact has a certain intellectual power of constraint upon my mind. And if I keep holding to that I’ll come into more strength than I used to have over envy and jealousy. And I’ll somehow be able to repress them or suppress them, in a way that I wasn’t able to before.” Now brothers, it is not suppression. It is submission. It is not suppression of the evil things within us. It is submission to the Holy Spirit. It is a loving gentle attitude to the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit, show me in what way I’m not ready to die to self. And whatever way you show me, I’m willing to submit to you.” And you submit to the Holy Spirit. You come into an absolute death to your own ability to live the Christ life, and an absolute obedience, instant obedience, to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit naturally and unconsciously takes away those desires from within you. So it is a real miracle, the Holy Spirit removes those things from your heart as you spend your time submitting to him. So actually it’s far from preoccupation, you know, with the evil things within you. Actually, it’s a real preoccupation with the Holy Spirit and with submitting to him. And suddenly as you begin to submit to him completely, and trust him to make the Christ life real in you, suddenly you find yourself flying over all the other things. So it is a real miraculous removal of those things by the Holy Spirit. It isn’t a suppressing of them with the help of the intellectual fact that you’ve been crucified with Christ. It is in other words, a real miracle, brothers. It’s a miracle that the Holy Spirit works in your spirit in response to your absolute submission to him. And if you say to me you see, “Where is the problem?” I think the problem is in the submission to the Holy Spirit. I think we think we’re submitting to the Holy Spirit, but there are a hundred different ways in which we’re not really obedient to the Holy Spirit at all. And, in a way, this experience is an experience of total obedience, you know. Question from audience: How can one have the discernment to obey the Holy Spirit before they’ve died to self? Reply from Pastor O’Neil: How can one have the discernment to obey the Holy Spirit before they have died to themselves? First of all I would go in on the word discernment. I would say that it is not discernment that is needed to obey the Holy Spirit. But it is willingness to obey the Holy Spirit. Then, when you come into a willingness to obey the Holy Spirit, discernment is given to you. In other words, God is very gracious he doesn’t reveal to you much more than you’re willing to enter into. He just reveals a little step ahead to convince you that there’s resistance in there that has to be dealt with. But he will not – somebody has said, “The key to insight, spiritual insight is love, loving obedience.” And so you only receive the discernment when you actually come into a willingness to obey. That would tie up, Mark, with what I’ve said at times that when you come into full consecration or readiness to die to self, the Holy Spirit witnesses that inside. He witnesses it, so that you know, “Yeah, I am ready.” And then discernment pours in on top of you. If God gave us all the discernment that he could give us, about how we’re not obeying the Holy Spirit, he would blind us, and absolutely discourage us, and dishearten us. So, he only gives just enough, which is why we talk about revelation, why we talk about the importance of revelation. God only reveals what is necessary for us to see at that time in order to enter into deliverance. Question from audience: Doesn’t this description tend to present the death to self as a process rather than as a crisis? Reply from Pastor O’Neil: Why I think it appears as a process is, I’m trying to take this experience apart, and trying to foresee all the ways in which we try to enter into it that are unscriptural, and ineffective. And I think, in fact, you can spend a lot of time dying, but there’s a moment when the breath stops and you’re dead. So you can say that there is a process leading up to the experience, but the experience itself is instantaneous. And I remember in my own life there was a moment came, when I knew I was willing to die with Christ. And it was just a moment when I knew I was filled with the Holy Spirit. Could I just finish with one thing brothers? What is the relationship of this to the baptism with the Holy Spirit? It does seem that this is the precondition of a full, complete baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can’t say that being ready to die to self is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. All you can say is that, when you are willing to die to self, and to be buried with Christ, then, as he rises up from the water, and the dove of the Holy Spirit comes upon him, so as we rise up from our crucifixion with Christ, the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and baptizes us with himself–filling us for inward purity and anointing us for outward power–filling us with the fruit of the sprit, the nine fruit of the spirit, and anointing us with the availability of the nine gifts of the spirit. But it is true I think, doctrinally, to say that it is – the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a result, or follows upon, our readiness to be crucified with Christ. And yet it’s the baptism with the Holy Spirit that actually completes it, because you can be ready to be crucified with Christ and to die with self and never be angry again, but, unless the Holy Spirit baptizes you with himself, there’ll be no deliverance from anger. So, really, it’s important to see that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is, as it were, the seal. Ephesians puts it, you remember, it’s the seal of our childlike position to God the Father. So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is what follows upon our readiness to die with Christ. Now does anyone want to press me on that? I think we dealt, last day, with the fact that some people do seem to enter into a very partial experience that they call baptism with the Holy Spirit, but that is only a temporary experience of some of the gifts of the spirit–at times tongues, or maybe some of the miracle gifts. But they don’t enter into a real death to self with Christ. And so they don’t minister life through the gifts. They become preoccupied with the gifts and with each other. Brothers, is there anything because I think we’re finished? Question from audience: It’s very natural. I didn’t realize it was happening. Reply from Pastor O’Neil: That’s good. It is good to point out what Larry has done, that many of us have entered into this without any of the terms or the names being used, and that actually if we follow on after the Holy Spirit, he will lead us into this. It seems, Larry, the tragedy is, that many of us have not followed after the Holy Spirit, or have received some teaching which discouraged us from going on into a complete consecration, and so we have entered into only a partial experience of the forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from guilt, and we still walk in a defeated life, because of the selfish will. Okay, shall we pray? Lord Jesus, we thank you for the completeness of the victory that is in you and in your death and resurrection. And we trust you by your Holy Spirit to make it real in each one of our lives. To actualize in us what has potentially taken place in you. Lord Jesus, we know that this is your will. And we thank you that all that we need is found in you, and in your death, and in an absolute identification of ourselves with your death and resurrection. We thank you for that, for your glory, amen. ?? ?? ?? ??

Independent Life of the Soul – edited by Mary Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Do you remember the night that the servants of the high priests arrested Jesus in the Garden Gethsemane? You remember the scene and then coming into the garden and surrounding him and his disciples? Now, there was an incident that took place then and I’d ask you to look at it with me loved ones, it’s John 18:10-11. The high priest followers have surrounded the disciples and Jesus and then in John 18:10, “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?’” Now what was the cup which the Father had given him? Well, if you see that you’ll find it in Matthew 16 where he had explained it carefully to Peter long before that incident took place. Matthew 16:21, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.’” So Jesus knew that God had a plan for his life and he was determined to drink the cup of that plan to the last drop. But Peter rebelled against the whole plan and felt, “No, Jesus don’t die stay alive as long as possible and liberate the Jews from the Romans.” And so Peter rejected the plan that God had completely and was determined to ensure that his plan would be executed by the strength of his own strong right arm and that was the situation in the Garden of Gethsemane. Now loved ones that is sin in the flesh. That is sin in the flesh, independent action by ourselves on the basis of our own needs for self preservation, absolutely independent of what God wants and using our own power to bring it about. That’s sin in the flesh, you see. You remember, we came across it last Sunday because in Romans 8:3, it says, “That God sent Jesus and he destroyed sin in the flesh in Jesus.” Now sin in the flesh is just Peter’s action in the garden. It’s action and attitudes within ourselves that are motivated by priorities of the body’s need for self preservation and self gratification independent of what God wants. Now I think some of us who are activist are prone to say, “Ah, that’s it! Sin in the flesh is action and today’s study walking in the spirit is doing nothing, leaving it all up to God.” Well no, you know Jesus did plenty. I mean, he healed lepers, he rebuked the religious leaders, and he carried his own cross, and he turned over the tables of the money lenders. So walking in the spirit is certainly action but sin in the flesh is action that is motivated by our own selfish desire for things, for pleasure, for power, and influence. That’s what sin in the flesh is. It’s action and attitude that is independent of God, that is for our own benefit, and is motivated by the old body’s need for things, and for pleasure, and for security. That’s what sin in the flesh is and really that’s what God is opposing in Jesus. And going back to last Sunday’s verse, some of you may say, “Well, why did he destroy sin in the flesh?” Well maybe you should look at the verse because some of us weren’t here last Sunday and maybe you should get the continuity for today’s study, Romans 8:3 dear ones, it mentions this sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” Some of us may say, “Well, going back to that verse I mean, why did God have to condemn sin to destruction in the flesh?” Well the answer is that we men and woman had been operating that way for so long over so many centuries that we have actually managed to twist our own personalities so that they only work that way. That’s it. Somebody comes at us with a sword; we take out our sword and cut the ear off. We’ve been operating that way so long that our personalities have become twisted and forced into a rut whereby they always work from the body’s fear mechanism, or the body’s need for security mechanism, or the body’s need for comfort and pleasure mechanism work from the outside in all the time. It’s been going for centuries like that. You remember what happened with Cain and Abel way at the beginning. Cain and Abel were two brothers, they brought two sacrifices to God but God judged that Cain’s heart was not truly penitent and Abel’s was and so he refused Cain’s sacrifice. Cain, kind of casual like, “Would you like to come out into the field with me Abel?” And then, just takes out his sword and kills his brother. Then when God says to him, “Where is his brother?” He says, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” So that was from that early stage but loved ones, the whole race has been operating that way for generations. So much so that we have developed personalities that are twisted so that’s the way they automatically operate. So we try to do what God wants us to do but our whole personalities have been rutted into that kind of activity for so long that they are now hopeless reversed and perverted and the only way God can give us any chance to do what he wants is to destroy that old reverse personality completely. You’ll find the same line again, you know, and you’ll see yourself in this one, with Jacob you remember Jacob and Esau? You remember Jacob had conned his brother Esau out of his inheritance as an older brother. Then, years later he heard that Esau was coming with many, many men to meet him and so look at Jacob’s action. If you look at it in Genesis 32:11, and first you see he tries to do it the way God wants him to, he prays, “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children.” So he did make the effort to do the thing right, to go to God first and say, “Lord, I did the wrong thing in regard to my brother. Will you protect me now?” But it’s like ourselves you know, we say a prayer and then we think, “We better stack the deck the right way anyway just in case the prayer doesn’t work,” and you get it in Genesis 32:13. “So he lodged there that night, and took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau, two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten he-asses. These he delivered into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants,” as usual you know our own system becomes highly complicated, “Pass on before me, and put a space between drove and drove.’ He instructed the foremost, ‘When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong?’” And you can get our old system in it, we’re always manipulating and every time we manipulate everybody has to say just the right word you know, “Don’t tell him it this way tell him it this way.” “To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these before you? Then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord Esau; and moreover he is behind us.’ He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, ‘You shall say the same thing to Esau when you meet him, and you shall say, ‘Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.’ For he thought, ‘I may appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.’” That’s sin in the flesh. Not necessarily doing anything wrong you see, sin in the flesh is not necessarily murdering people, or committing adultery, or committing fornication. Sin in the flesh is just acting independent of whether there’s a Creator or whether there is not a Creator, independent of what he wants from my life or what he doesn’t want, but acting on the basis of the old body desires for pleasures, security, and power over other people. That’s loved ones, what sin in the flesh is and the truth is we have a human race have been acting that way so long that our personalities are hopelessly twisted into that direction. And so for God to get us to operate the other way he has to first of all deal with this miserable twisted perverted personality. And you know, some of you know, the diagram but it’s a fast way I think, of reminding you of it but that was the way our personalities were supposed to work there. And it was God’s plan that we would always operate that way. We would operate by praying to him as Jacob tried to in the beginning in asking God what he wanted. Then he would give us the life of his Holy Spirit in communion with him and would, through the intuition of our spirits, guide us as to what we should do and then our conscious would constrain our will on the basis of that guidance and direct our mind and emotions so that they would understand God’s will for us. Our emotions would experience the joy of doing it and we would pass it on through our bodies to the world and express it through our bodies to the world. And that was God’s plan for us, that we would operate that way. Now of course, we kept rejecting that, we kept acting as Cain did on the basis of security, or jealousy, or pride, on the basis of Jacob his fear of his brother, on the basis of Peter let’s get our own way, our own judgment is right in this instance and we began to operate the personalities the other way completely. And so we began to be dominated by our minds and emotions and they in turn were dominated of course from here by the needs of the body and we began to concentrate on doing things that would give us enjoyment, that would give us control of other people, that would exploit our flesh and give us a sense of thrill in that area. And so our whole personalities have been reversed and perverted and now that’s why God destroyed sin in the flesh. He took our whole personalities, put them into Jesus and destroyed that old personality there and that’s really what that means. That that was the way we operated and God took that personality that operated from the outside in from the body and its desires, and its needs, and its necessities, and put it on the cross and destroyed it and raised us up as a new personality. And that’s what God has done. What we shared last day was that God has done that with every one of us. He has destroyed sin in the flesh. He has destroyed that old personality that worked the wrong way around. In other words really, he took Peter’s old desire to retaliate immediately somebody attacked him and he put it into Jesus. And even though Jesus could have had any time called millions of angels to his aid yet when the Roman soldier put the spear into his side he accepted it and refused to retaliate on the basis of the needs of his own body and the desire of his own mind and emotions to protect himself. And in doing that he destroyed Peter’s powerful retaliatory force inside his personality. And so he made it possible for Peter to receive a new personality and that’s what he has done with each one of us. He has taken that old personality of yours that has been used to operating the other way for years; he has put it into Jesus and destroyed it there. Now loved ones, here’s a question if Peter just believed that would he fulfill God’s will for his life? That is, if Peter said, “Well, I believe that my old desire to retaliate was crucified with Jesus. I believe that. Okay now Lord, does that satisfy you?” God would have to say, “No. I destroyed your old contorted perverted personality so that you would be able to obey me. It’s not enough for you to just believe that I removed this old personality that prevented you obeying me out of the way. I have done that so you will obey me, so that you’ll take advantage of the new personality I’ve given you. So that you’ll take advantage of the death of your old self and old flesh in Jesus and you’ll begin to obey me. In other words, the reason I took your old perverted personality and put it into Jesus and destroyed it was to stop you cutting off people’s ears. That was why I did it. It wasn’t so you’d carry on saying as you took the 25th ear off, the 25th of the high priest guard, ‘Oh well, I believe my personality has been destroyed in Jesus.’ No, I did it so that you would stop cutting off ears and so that you would take advantage of the new personality that I have given you.” Now loved ones, many of us I think have a misapprehension about this. I think many of us think, “Oh no, you’ve got it wrong. Jesus died to his desire to retaliate against the Roman soldiers. Jesus destroyed my old selfish personality in himself and the perverted drive of my psychic and of my spirit so that I would not have to do it myself. So Jesus fulfilled the law so that I do not have to fulfill it.” Now loved ones, there are people down through the centuries that have been called antinomians. Antinomians, anti and “nomos” is Greek for law and anti is against the law and there have been people down through the years who have been antinomians and have said, “No, no Jesus destroyed the selfish drive in himself and obeyed God’s law so I wouldn’t have to do it any longer.” And they will say, you see, you don’t need to do anything. You just need to believe that your old personality has been crucified with Jesus and that’s enough and you can do what you like then. You can live how you please because the important thing is Jesus has fulfilled the law for you. Now of course, it just contradicts the ideas of our own logic but it contradicts also this verse loved ones, that we’re studying today so maybe you’d look at it and we’ll just take it word-by-word. Romans 8:3-4, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” For what purpose? So that we would not have to do anything else but believe? No, “In order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us,” that’s why God did it. God destroyed the old carnal reversed personality that we have that has made it impossible for us to obey him; he destroyed that in Jesus in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Now an antinomian would read that verse you see and say, “Oh no, the verse is wrong, the Greek is wrong. The word is not in; it is in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled for us.” No, it’s that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. You can’t go home and lose your temper with your wife. You can’t go home and tell lies about the missed assignment and say, “It’s okay, Jesus has fulfilled that law for me so I don’t need to fulfill it.” The fact is loved ones; Jesus wants to fulfill the law in you not for you. What Jesus did for you was to die for you so that God could take your miserable perverted personality, put it into Jesus and destroy it there and make a new beautiful personality available to you that was adapted for God’s original purpose of working according to his judgment and by his power. That’s what Jesus did for you, but he did that for you so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in you. And I think some of us you see, who have been brought up maybe under a kind of antinomian teaching, we will react and say, “Ah, that’s work righteousness. You’re saying we have to do something, we have to do something.” Well no, not really loved ones, it’s the passive voice you see. The verb is in the passive voice there in Romans 8:4, “In order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.” In other words, I’m right with you. You have no more power to obey God’s law after your old self has been destroyed in Jesus than before it was destroyed. You can’t obey God’s law yourself it has to be fulfilled in you by the Holy Spirit of Jesus. So it’s the Holy Spirit of Jesus that obeys the law but he does obey it in you. So you know you can’t afford to say to your mum or your dad, “Yeah, yeah I know I lost my temper but it’s okay Jesus in some ephemeral place in the seventh heaven is obeying the law for me and it doesn’t matter what I am doing down here.” Because your mum and dad have every right to say, “No, no, the teaching is that Jesus is obeying it in you. And if he’s obeying it in you it’s probably that I’ll be able to perceive it.” And so Jesus’ Spirit fulfills the law in us. But that’s the purpose of it loved ones, that we would express and let Jesus express his obedience to the law through us. And that’s why God destroyed that old perverted self, so that the law might be fulfilled in us. Really, what we’ve to do is let him. So it’s a wee bit like somebody buying you a new electric carving knife for Christmas. And you put it up on the shelf and you have the old knife and you take it and you just throw it out into the garbage bin and you realize no more sawing. Then you sit there and you say, “Well, I believe that old knife has been thrown out and I believe I have a perfectly new knife that will enable me to cut just efficiently and just with absolute freedom and relaxation. I believe it.” And you just look at the old roast sitting there and you expect any minute to see it falling into slices. And it doesn’t matter how much you believe, it doesn’t matter how much you believe the old knife has been thrown away and you’ve got a new knife, if you just keep believing and sitting there that meat will never be cut. That’s one mistake I think some of us make. We say, “Oh, it’s enough just to believe that my old personality is gone.” It’s not enough. You have to take advantage of the new personality that is there. On the other hand, there’s no point either in getting the carving knife down, sticking the knife in and going to it just sawing back and forward the way you used to in the old days with the old knife because it’s just going to be as hard as ever. There’s no point in doing what you used to do to get the meat cut, and yet you do have to do something. You don’t have to do what you used to do with the old knife but you do have to do something. You have to flick the switch. So it’s not right to say, “We don’t have to do anything.” It is right to say, “We don’t have to do what we used to do. We don’t have to saw that old meat the way we used to.” But we do have to flick the knife. Otherwise, the power that is available there will never do its work as it was meant to. And loved ones, it’s the same with us. Your dead right if you’re having trouble obeying God, you’re dead right when you say, “I can’t. I can’t.” You’re right. Your old personality has been so used to acting from the outside and from the needs of the body inside that unless you get rid of that old selfish reverse personality you won’t be able to obey God’s law at all. But the important thing to see is once you believe that it has been destroyed and that there is a new personality available to you in Jesus, then you do have to flick the switch. You do have to let the Spirit of Jesus begin to run your life. So it’s right, you don’t have the old legalistic concentration on every jot and tittle of the law to make sure, “I don’t go wrong here, I don’t go wrong there.” You don’t have to legalistically try to fulfill the law like that but you do have to do something, you have to let the Holy Spirit of Jesus begin to operate in your life. And that of course often means letting him express love through your body to somebody else instead of exploiting somebody else’s body for the sake of your own. It does mean that you have to often be content with experiencing just the joy of letting Jesus’ life flow through you and stop looking for more and more enjoyment from circumstances, and situations, and other people. It does mean you’ll have to be content for your mind to concentrate on understanding God’s will and God’s plan for you instead of using your mind to control and manipulate other people for your own purposes. So it does mean letting the Spirit of Jesus flow through you and that means rejecting once and for all the old reverse personality that has been crucified with him. And loved ones, do you see how you do that in Romans 8:4, “In order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” That’s how you flick the switch, by walking not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. By walking not according to this direction from the outside in but according to this direction from the inside out beginning at last to give up concentrating on the law and obeying it and avoiding sin and begin instead to pay attention to this dear new friend that is inside you called the Holy Spirit. And when he tells you to speak, to speak; when he tells you to turn, to turn; when he tells you to be silent, to be silent; and to start listening to him and running your life by this Holy Spirit. And then one day you’ll glance around and you’ll suddenly find to your surprise that the just requirements of the law are being fulfilled in your life and you never thought about fulfilling them you’ve just been so busy concentrating on this Holy Spirit. Now that’s God’s plan for us. What I’d like to spend the next seven weeks doing is talking about how to walk after the Spirit and not walk after the flesh. But that’s the secret, walking after the Spirit. That’s how to come into victory and deliverance. So will you think loved ones, of some of those things and just see if there has been some misunderstanding in your own mind or some deception that Satan has brought and just get it straight in your own heart so that we can really get down to business these next couple of months and talk about how to walk after the Spirit and not walking after the flesh. Let us pray. Dear Father, we thank you that you have done all in Jesus’ death that needs to be done. We thank you Lord that you did it so that you would be able to see your law fulfilled in our lives. So that our friends would be able to meet people who are kind, and gentle, and loving, and understanding, people who are free from that jealousy and anger, critical resentment. So Father, we trust you now to make it clear to us that you have done everything that was needed to change our personalities and we can afford to trade that old personality in now for the new one that you have given us in Jesus. And Father, we know that old personality has been crucified and done away with forever and we know that this new one will work only as we follow this dear Holy Spirit that you have given us. So Holy Spirit, we would give ourselves to following you and walking after you in these coming days. And we know that incidentally as a result of that we will end up fulfilling the law. Dear Father, we trust you to make all these truths real in each one of us in these coming days for Jesus’ glory, Amen.

Gift of the Holy Spirit Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill There is someone called Bob here this morning who wrote me a letter and in it he said, “You’ve been saying that the Holy Spirit is a ‘dynamic’ and what do you mean by a ‘dynamic?’” So I’d like to try and talk about that loved ones. I’d point out to you that “dynamic” is not only an adjective but is a noun and in the dictionary it means “an energizing or motivating force”. You remember, during the first part of August, we talked about the general problem that all of us have in our own personal lives. The problem is we have evil desires within us and we lack often good desires that we would like to have. That’s exactly what Paul said in Romans 7:15, “I do not do what I want. [There are times when I want to feel good desires and I can’t feel them] but I do the very thing I hate. [There are evil desires within me that I am not able to control].” And you remember, we shared at the beginning of August that most of us deal with these inner desires or motivations within in the same way as we deal with a headache — we try to deal with the symptoms. We take an aspirin to try and cut off the nervous system that connects up the pain with our perception of the pain. We do the same with these desires. We try to bring in external compulsions that will make us do good. In secular business, we do it by offering incentives to the salesman to sell more. Really, the ideal would be that he would want to get up and get out every morning and just sell for the joy of selling, but he doesn’t find that, so we offer other incentives, promotion, or commissions to make him do it. We, on the whole, deal with our own personal lives the same way. loved ones. We hold carrots out to each other to make us do the good that we don’t feel comes naturally from within us. So I’d ask you to look at your own lives and see do your own lives not operate that same way? Why do you get up in the morning? It would be nice to say, “Oh, just because I love to get up in the morning,” but often it’s because of fear of what the boss will say if we don’t get up, or it’s because of fear of what our wives will say if we don’t get up. It’s the same with the evil desires that we have. We tend on the whole not to be able to get rid of them from within so we try to use external compulsions from without to hold them down. So, many of us are not caught like Allan Howe [U.S. Congressman] because of fear of society. That’s why we don’t get caught in the red light district of Salt Lake City, because of the fear of what other people will think or what other people will say. Many of us hold down a great many of our evil desires because of fear of what other people will say or because we have been brought up to respect certain standards. It’s not that we feel naturally free of these evil desires, but we have all kinds of inhibitions that we use to hold them down. Now of course, that’s why so many of us are just wild neurotics, or we’re on the version of becoming a wild neurotic, or we are a kind of semi-sophisticated civilized being that has tremendous internal conflict within that we cannot get rid of. That’s why loved ones, most of us do not deal with that failure inside us to have good motivations and that presence inside us of many bad motivations. Most of us don’t deal with those inside at all. We simply control them or we limit them, or we discipline them by all kinds of external compulsions. Of course, that’s the tremendous conflict that keeps hitting — it just rings us dry. Many of us here, I’m sure, are run dry in one area or another because we are a battlefield of EXTERNAL compulsion trying to control and INTERNAL motivating force. It is hideous. That’s why we often feel we are a “Jekyll and Hyde”. Now, God knows that and that’s why when he allowed his son to die on Calvary — though it was just a death apparently of a political criminal on this space-time continuum yet in the cosmic world of reality where time and space do not exist. The Father who made us put us into his son on Calvary and destroyed there all the selfish perverted personality that has produced these strong evil desires of ours. That’s what God did. He actually did that loved ones. That’s the only way to get rid of those things. Not all the drugs in the world, not all the transcendental meditation in the world and not all the power of positive thinking in the world can deal with those evil desires because they themselves are only a product of a personality that is perverted, that has determined to live on dependence on the world for its security, significance, and success. That’s where all the problem comes from. Now God put all that in Jesus and destroyed it there and recreated us anew by giving us HIS dynamic. The dynamic that makes God God. The dynamic that makes God a loving father is the Holy Spirit. That’s the energizing and motive force that makes God the kind of person he is. Now loved ones, Jesus came to earth to destroy the evil desires in us once and for all and to give us this Holy Spirit. That’s why he’s called the HOLY Spirit. He’s a spirit of holiness. He’s a spirit that makes us like God. To be holy is to be like God. It’s not first an ethical concept you know, strangely enough. Holiness is not first an ethical concept. It does become that in connection with society but it’s first and foremost somebody like God. That’s what holiness is. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of supernatural life that makes you like God from within. Of course it solves all that chaos inside and that’s why Jesus came. Now many of us here believe all that you see. Many of us here believe all that and that’s the first great watershed that separates some of us from the others here this morning. Some of us really believe that — but that’s all we do, we just believe it. We are like those demons that are mentioned in James 2:19. We read it before but it might be good just to remind yourselves that this degree of belief is mentioned in scripture and yet is inadequate. James 2:19, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder.” Now a lot of us do that. A lot of us say, “Oh, you mean God has destroyed all that is evil in me in Jesus? Great, that means he has nothing against me?” “Right!” “That means he has forgiven me?” “Right!” “Oh, good — I’m clear!” And that’s where we stay. Loved ones, hundreds of us live in that – now, you know they do, dear ones. You know because I lived in that for years and felt I was a Christian. I believed that that’s what had happened and therefore there was no reason why God should have anything against me, which is all right, and that he had forgiven me my sins, which is right. What I didn’t see was that BELIEVING is not enough — that even the demons believe all that and they shudder because they won’t let it be made real in their own lives. It’s not BELIEVING that enables you to become a child of God — it is RECEIVING. It’s receiving. Would you like to look at that? It’s John 1:12, and this is one of the first distinctions, loved ones, between two groups of us this morning that some of us “believe” and some of us “receive”. John 1:12, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” “To all who received him.” And that’s what old Peter said in that Pentecost day. They asked him, “What will we do?” And he said in Acts 2:38, “Be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” In order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, you have to not only believe that you were crucified with Christ but you have to actually reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. You actually have to be willing for that to be made real in your life. Only then are you able to receive the Holy Spirit. Now loved ones, could I just stress that just the last time because I know many of you just know it off by heart — but loved ones, you will not be able to receive the Holy Spirit unless you are willing for the crucifixion which took place on Calvary to be made real in you. Now dear ones, it may not be complete in you or you may still be smoking or you may still be losing your temper, but if you enter into the position where you say, “Lord God, I know that Jesus did not die instead of me. I know he died and I died with him and Lord, I’m willing for that to be made real in me. I ask you by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring me into the same death to self and death to my own will and my own way that Jesus experienced.” Loved ones, God will send the spirit of his son into your heart and that’s what becoming a Christian is, receiving the Spirit of Jesus into you. Even when that dear Holy Spirit first comes in he will bring something of Jesus to you. That’s what the Bible says, the Holy Spirit will take of the things of Jesus and impart them to you. [1 Corinthians 2:13] Now that’s why a person who becomes a Christian experiences a real change because they receive a new energizing and motive force within them so that they find new attitudes coming up from inside them. Now, that’s what that means in John 16:14 loved ones, if you’d like to look at it. John 16:14, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Greek word for “declare” actually means “impart or share”. So “he will take what is mine and share it with you” — and that’s what the Holy Spirit does for a person who takes that step of identification with Jesus in his death and willingness to obey the Holy Spirit. Now then, another great watershed takes place because the Holy Spirit begins to want to spread his life in you. That’s why I said to you we shouldn’t be surprised if we grow out of this auditorium. I think we should be concerned if we don’t outgrow it. really — because the Holy Spirit always expands, you see. He’s always moving out. You remember the way Jesus went into the highways and the byways to bring people to come into the marriage feast? Now the Holy Spirit is always doing that. He’s always acting. He’s always going out looking for dear sheep — and so that’s what the Holy Spirit does in you. So he begins, you remember, the house illustration we used. He begins to try to find his way into every area of your life. Now some of us just say, “Stop there! Wait a minute! Holy Spirit, I’ve given you my Christian religious life, and my inner life, but I can’t give you my business life, and my social life and my sex life. I can’t give you everything. And I do have a life to get on with, you know. I mean, there are limits!” Many of us say that loved ones. Many of us say, “Holy Spirit, I’m willing for you to bring some truth to me but I’m not willing to give my whole life for Jesus’ glory. I have a lot of other things, you know, that I have to take care of and I better get on with them myself.” So many of us say, “No” to the Holy Spirit and we come into the position, loved ones, that Paul talks about in Galatians 3:3, you remember, looking at it before probably. Many of us come into that attitude, Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish,” he says to the Galatians, “having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” And many of us come into that spot, you see — the Holy Spirit begins to say to us, “Are you willing for people to criticize you and to put you down and yet to be satisfied with that?” And the flesh gets up — the flesh is the independent personality that wants its own way — and it says, “No, I’m not. I’m not prepared for that at all.” We grieve the Holy Spirit once there. His voice is a little fainter the next time. He says, “Will you start reading the scripture again each morning before you go out to work?” And we say, “Well, I’ll try.” But we don’t do it. And his voice is fainter the next time and it’s not long before we become just BELIEVERS. You can call us Christians if you like — it’s questionable if we are at all. We become part of that great group of church-goers who believe it all, but aren’t like Jesus at all. Now there are others of us who, when we come to this great watershed say, “Yeah, Lord I want everything. I want your death to expand through every part of my life and Holy Spirit, whether I’m a bank clerk, or whether I’m a shopkeeper, or whether I’m a businessman, or whether I’m a housewife, Holy Spirit I want to go for Jesus. That’s the only one I care for, THAT’S the person I’m going to live for for the rest of my life. Holy Spirit, change me whatever way you want. Make me like Jesus.” And we take that attitude and we say, “You can do whatever you want to me.” The Holy Spirit expands through all our personalities — and loved ones, he begins to change us completely and to bring in a whole new set of motivating powers within us. They’re all different kinds. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was talked of in terms of the oil that was poured on the prophets, and the priests and the kings when they were anointed for their office. They poured oil on them and the oil is regarded as the symbol of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The oil or the ointment that was put on them had certain effects and those are the effects that the Holy Spirit has miraculously for those of us who surrender completely to live for Jesus’ glory. It is miraculous, really, loved ones. Here’s one of the effects in John 12:3 and some of you know these examples — we’ve looked at them before. This is part of what it means when we talk about the Holy Spirit as a dynamic in your life. He brings about attitudes within you that are foreign to you and that you cannot produce yourself. John 12:3, an example of oil or ointment and the effect it has, “Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.” When you allow the Holy Spirit to fill you completely he fills your life with a fragrance of Jesus that is supernatural and that no one else can imitate. It is not the “sweetie sweetness” of the pseudo Christian. It is not the “I wouldn’t hurt a fly” of the one who is pretending to be a Christian. It is the strong sweet fragrance of Jesus himself. Your soul becomes a garden of spices. Your conscious becomes a delight to you and not a smell in your nostrils. You yourself become a delight in the office where you work. You become a pleasure in the church where you worship. You become a blessing in the home where you live. Loved ones, it is a supernatural fragrance that the Holy Spirit brings upon you and brings into your life. It’s a beauty that no man can create and no woman can create. It’s a supernatural fragrance. I’ll tell you where it comes from. It comes directly from Jesus himself. The Holy Spirit takes the fragrance of Jesus’ own life and creates that fragrance miraculously in you so that no longer do you find you’re constantly arguing with people in the office to try and persuade them to be Christians. No longer are you coming to church and saying, “Do I agree with that? Do I agree with that?” — but there’s a beauty and a fragrance in your life that is the most precious thing to you and everything else is a detail after that. Oil was used in the old days to strengthen the body. Those who allow themselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit find that they have supernatural strength. Many of us are good at this, “How are ya?” “Oh, I’m doing fairly well, bearing up you know, bravely carrying the cross.” — and everybody knows it. Everybody knows it. Our loved ones know it at home. Our friends know it. Everybody knows what brave suffering soldiers we are. Loved ones, when the Holy Spirit fills your life you’re able to bear unbearable sufferings and pain with absolute joy and with effortlessness — and in a way that isn’t masochistic. You’re actually even able to enjoy and glory in the things that you’re suffering for Jesus’ sake. Now that’s what you get when you look at old Paul. If you’d just glance in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. It’s just a different kind of human being that this dear Holy Spirit creates. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Now loved ones, the Holy Spirit does that. He changes the power, and strength and ability you have to endure pain and hardship. Those of us who have been involved in athletics at all know at times they used to use oil in the old days just to make the old joints supple and flexible. Now, when the Holy Spirit comes and fills a person’s life that’s the kind of personality he gives them. Suddenly they’re flexible and supple. Suddenly they can become all things to all men. Before you’re filled with the Holy Spirit you drag yourself to pray, you drag yourself to church, you drag yourself to witness, you drag yourself to talk about God –but after being filled with the Holy Spirit you can be whatever Jesus wants you to be wherever you are. I don’t know how often you find yourself in the position where your dear wife or your dear friend needed something said to them — not a rebuke at all, but something loving, something that was just right for them. You knew there was a dear broken bleeding heart in there and you knew you had to say something to speak to it. You know how you felt: clumsiness, awkwardness, all the difficulties and the frustrations of your own personality that you’ve inherited from your mums and dads, and you just couldn’t bring it out. Loved ones, how many times have we husbands and wives sat across from each other and failed to say the thing that needed to be said? But loved ones, those of us who live together in houses and rooms, those of us who live together in dorms, those of us who work with each other in the office, how often have we found that our business attitude and our business behavior prevented us suddenly opening out and being Jesus to a certain person? Loved ones, that’s because that is a miraculous result of the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit fills you with that flexibility when you’re at last willing to live for Jesus and for his glory alone. There are other things that you can get just symbolically from the oil in the Old Testament. The oil in the Old Testament was made up of different ingredients. There was one ingredient that was called myrrh. It was probably the kind of thing that the men brought to Jesus when he was first born. Myrrh is used to ease the pain and take the soreness out of a bruise. Before you’re filled with the Holy Spirit somebody insults you or criticizes you, or puts you down, and you cry yourself to sleep that night, or you bravely bear it but you know you have received a mortal wound. Courageously, you overcome it or, as old Plato said, “You at least blot the face out of your memory that created that pain in you.” But loved ones, when the Holy Spirit fills you with himself he takes all the soreness out of those bruises and you can walk through the days in the office, and people can say all kinds of things and can criticize you, and put you down, and can talk behind your back, and there’s a peace and a freedom from resentment. Loved ones, it’s true. Don’t sit there and say, “Ah brother, you mean you overcome resentment?” No, there is no resentment – really, really. Now don’t tone it down. Don’t dilute it. There is no resentment. The Holy Spirit takes away the soreness of the bruise. In fact, really in a way, you feel like pitying them because you know you’ve been crucified in Christ and they aren’t doing it to you they’re doing it to that old dead person that used to be and you feel like saying, “Look, don’t kick that old dead horse you’ll hurt your foot!” It just brings loved ones a miraculous detachment from yourself. You see, it’s ourselves we’re bound up with. We’re always protecting our miserable selves. We’re always defending our miserable selves because we think that’s it, that’s it. Loved ones, it isn’t. That old self was destroyed as it needed to be thousands of years ago on Calvary but you cannot make that real by manipulation of your thoughts. You can only allow the Holy Spirit to make it real miraculously in you. He takes the soreness out of all the bruises. Another of the ingredients was calamus. Calamus was used to counteract the acids and take the sourness out of the stomach. I don’t know, but before the Holy Spirit fills you you’re always kind of looking out, “Yeah well Billy Graham, yeah he’s okay there, but he’s wrong there. Yeah, and my friend that neighbor, well she’s okay on that but she’s wrong on that. And this other person yeah, they’re quite nice but they’re a wee bit critical, aren’t they?” You’re always seeing the little things that are wrong in others. You see these apparent saints walking by seeing no harm in anybody, and for a while, we argue they’re dumb. They just can’t see what’s really in front of their eyes. But loved ones, when the Holy Spirit fills you with himself he takes the sourness out of your stomach, removes all the acid and you never have met a sourpuss. He never allows you to see the sourpuss in others. He enables you always to see the Jesus in other people — now that’s true, loved ones. Don’t say, “Ah Pastor, you mean you see the wrong thing but the Holy Spirit enables you not to notice it?” No, no. The Holy Spirit gives you clean eyes, gives you a pure heart, gives you a stomach that is clear of any acidity or sourness and enables you to meet other people for the beautiful people that they are in Jesus. Loved ones, that’s a miracle. I don’t know about you but I tried psychology and auto suggestion for a long time trying to control the old mind because I believed these were the right things to do. Most of us do, don’t we? We all agree that’s the right way to live. For a long time I tried to do it myself, but you can’t. It’s a result of the Holy Spirit. That’s part of what it means when we say the Holy Spirit is a “dynamic”, he’s a motivating and energizing power that changes you completely and enables you to be different inside. Another one is cinnamon. Cinnamon was a spice that was used to stimulate and to motivate and to produce effortless activity. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. When you sit worn out and weary and tired or utterly made passive by depression and you just can’t get this heavy body up to do anything, loved ones, that’s the way life is until the fullness of the Holy Spirit brings that stimulating effortlessness that makes nothing a problem or a trouble. You know how different it is to have a person who is always willing to do anything that you ask the them to do. It’s entirely different, isn’t it? In fact, you also know some people that if they have to do something outside their ordinary job they haven’t time, “Everything’s on top of me”. They’re always complaining. Everything is always down on them. They can never do anything but just manage through to the end of the day and creep into bed and fall asleep. Loved ones, that’s the way we are without this dear Holy Spirit who produces an effortless strength in you and enables you to always have energy for whatever God allows you to be asked to do — of course, that’s the secret. What we fail to realize is that if we’re asked to do something it is because God has allowed it to be asked us. What we normally do is we try to judge for ourselves. So it’s the whole difference between lumpish, awkward, heavy, people and people who are light and effortless as a feather. The Holy Spirit brings that, loved ones, and you can trust him for that. That’s why we talk about the Holy Spirit as a dynamic. You remember when Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The Greek word is “dunamis” and the “u” changes to a “y” in English and becomes “dynamite”. That’s what “dunamis” is. That’s what the power of the Holy Spirit is — it’s a dynamite that produces a new life in you that is utterly and absolutely different. Now loved ones, that’s what God does — he gives you that Holy Spirit and fills you with that Holy Spirit as long as you will continue to regard the Holy Spirit as your Lord and master and obey him moment-by-moment and day-by-day. The truth in Acts 5:32 is true, God gives the Holy Spirit “to those who obey” — and that’s it — not to those who are trying to obey, but those who say, “Holy Spirit, I’m going to obey you whatever the cost, even if it means Calvary. I thank you that it has meant Calvary for me.” That’s it loved ones — it’s a supernatural life. Somebody said a couple of weeks ago, “Ah, another sermon on the Holy Spirit?” But actually, you could go on for five or six weeks and I hope to go on for the next 40 years — no 80 years. I’m going for 120 — because he is the precious gift, loved ones, that our Creator has prepared for us. Oh I pray that you’ll see it that way and you’ll see that why God has given us supernatural standards is because he has given us a supernatural power to reach those standards. That’s God’s plan and so let us never lower the standards, but let us never take our eyes off this precious gift. What do you need to do to receive him? Acts 5:32, “God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey.” All you need to do is bow your head in a moment and say, “Lord, I need that kind of life and I am willing to do whatever you, Holy Spirit, tell me to do if you’ll bring me into God’s will for my life.” That’s it. The Holy Spirit then will give you some direction, even this afternoon. Loved ones, watch out because it will probably be so utterly contradictory to your normal way of life that you’ll have a tendency to say, “No, no, I won’t do it!” But do it, do it. If you say to me, “What if it’s not the Holy Spirit?” The Holy Spirit will check you before you get too far out on a limb. If you read the Bible every day and you continue to fellowship with other loved ones in Jesus you won’t get away out after some evil spirit. You can afford to trust that dear voice. So really, that’s the secret loved ones. Anybody here could begin that kind of life this very moment — really. Shall we pray? Holy Spirit, we do believe that you’re real because you have created the church, and with the church the first hospitals, and the first schools, and all the civilization that has come to this dear old broken world. Holy Spirit, most of all, you have created this Bible and made the life of Jesus possible and we have seen you reproduce that life in others here. Holy Spirit, we would ask you to come in and change our lives. Holy Spirit, all of us here may not know all the details but will you tell us them — will you show us? We may not know everything that’s involved in being crucified with Christ, but Holy Spirit, we ask, will you show us what that means in our lives? Holy Spirit, if this is our Creator’s plan for us, that we will be filled with you and be governed by you as the dynamic in our lives, then that’s what we want. So we commit ourselves to obeying you as our Lord and Master in the same way that the disciples obeyed Jesus. Holy Spirit, we tell you we’re going to put our faith in you and we’re going to expect to hear you either verbally through someone else, or through the reading that we’ll do, or Holy Spirit, through an attitude inside us, or an impression, or desire within us that makes us feel that we should do something this afternoon. Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to obeying that, whatever it is, and we trust you to grow in us as we obey you more and more — and as we surrender more and more, Holy Spirit, will you fill us more and more until we’re a replica of Jesus Christ and we’re a delight to our friends, and to our relatives, and to our colleagues? We ask this for your glory, amen.

Ultimate Intention of the Holy Spirit Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Lord Jesus, we trust you to explain these things to us yourself so that we can believe them with all certainty and so that we can enter into all that you have provided through your counselor, the Holy Spirit for us. We ask this in your name and for your glory, Amen. It’s good dear ones, to see what God’s ultimate intention for us is. And I think you can find that in Ephesians 1 there and reading just Verse 9 and Verse 11. Even Verse 9 and 10 reveals it clearly. Ephesians 1:9-10, “For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.” It is dear ones, God’s will for us to become conformed completely to the image of his son Jesus so that there will rise up on the earth here a great body of his sons. And all of us, you see, will be different limbs of his body so that Jesus will look down upon the earth and will see another reflection of himself rising up in the earth. And that this reflection of himself will be exactly like him. And that eventually this great body of sons, this great body of brothers and sisters to our Lord Jesus, will rise up and bring glory to the Father the same as the original son brought glory to him. And that in its turn, that revelation of the sons of God that we talk about, in its turn, is to bring us into the very family of the father heart of God. I think we should be careful; some of us dear ones talk about the revelation of the sons of God as if that was an end in itself. Well it’s not. That in its turn is only a step on the way to our entering into the trinity love that the trinity family share with one another, until we enter into the very Father heart of God and become a part of that dear blessed family. And so we will reflect the glory of God among ourselves and up to him and he will reflect it back down to us. So it is God’s will that we’ll become completely like Jesus. You remember God made two provisions for that, they’re in Acts 2:38. It’s the first Christian sermon that was ever preached, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’” That’s the first provision that he made, that we could be restored into the favor of God. And then the second provision is, “And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And that’s the second provision that we might be restored into the very image of God and into the very image of his son. Now last night we talked about the inward work that the gift of the Holy Spirit accomplishes in our hearts. That’s the inward work, dear ones of, if you like, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, dear ones, if you rebel against that and shout out a Pentecostal shout and say, “Ah, no that isn’t a baptism with the Holy Spirit.” You must remember that Peter looked back on the day of Pentecost you remember in Acts 15:9, and he looked back on that day when we believe the apostles were baptized with the Holy Spirit. And he did not look back and say, “Well, on that day we received the gift of tongues.” But he looked back and said, in Acts 15:8-9, “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them,” these gentiles, “Giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,” in parenthesis, on the day of Pentecost, “And he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.” And so Peter says that one of the things that happened with the baptism of the Holy Spirit was an inward cleansing of our hearts so that we could be renewed in the image of Jesus. And that inward cleansing of the Holy Spirit begets in us the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Now dear ones, it is important to see that the baptism of the Holy Spirit had an outward effect on their lives in regard to their service. So you see there are two sides to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is an inward cleansing through the Holy Spirit applying the work of the cross to our own lives and the death to self. But there is an outward baptism with the Holy Spirit by which the Holy Spirit gives us gifts and power for service. And I think it’s necessary to see both of those. In other words, it’s necessary to see that Jesus would have put forth a very poor revelation of his Father if he had not been able to perform miracles. The ability to perform miracles in Jesus’ life was a vital part of the revelation of God. You can find that in Acts 2:22. It’s referred to there by Peter. It was a necessary part of the proof that Jesus was the son of God and it was what Peter used on that Pentecost sermon. “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.” Jesus would not have been the revelation of God if he had not been able to do many might works, and wonders, and signs. And it was so with the group of people that were called his body. They were the body of Christ not only because they shared the very inner pure cleansed heart of Christ but because they also were able to do the same many might works, and wonders, and signs. So would you look at one of the members of the body doing this in Acts 3:12? Peter was asked for alms and the Holy Spirit had baptized him with power and so he stretched forth his hand and said, “Silver and gold have I none but what I have…” (“I know I have because the Holy Spirit has baptized me with this power.”) “…and what I have I give to thee.” And in Verse 12, Peter says, when Peter saw that the people were moved and they clung to him, “He addressed the people, ‘Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.” And he says, “It was by Jesus’ power that this man was raised up.” In other words, the early church had the same power and the same gifts as Jesus himself had otherwise the early church could not have been called his body. And dear ones, the early church had the power to stop believers in their track with a mighty sign so that they stopped and thought. Now throughout our world today there are many churches who are trying to be the body of Jesus and the non-believers know that they are not the body of Jesus because the only power they have is the power of ministers who are trained in pastoral psychology. The only power they have is the power of the doctors whom the churches send out to the mission fields. But it is human, fleshly power. And they do not manifest the power that the Lord Jesus had. And so the believer respects these churches, and goes to them, and uses them for his own convenience but does not believe that they are the body of Christ. And it is not God’s will that a church should work in such powerlessness. It is God’s will that the body, the church, the body of Christ, should glorify him by a pure heart and power and service. And so dear ones, the Holy Spirit gives us the power for serving God in his way by bestowing on us the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now we do violence to the Holy Spirit if we enter into the death to self and then say to him, “Not the gifts, Holy Spirit. We do not want the gifts.” It’s the same as the Pentecostals saying, “We want the tongues, Holy Spirit, but we do not want the purity.” Each of those attitudes is a reaction against the Holy Spirit and they grieve the Holy Spirit. And therefore, he begins to withdraw from the life. So dear ones, you know what has happened, many of us have entered into an experience of sanctification or deliverance from inward sin and we have refused to go on into what the Holy Spirit had to give us in gifts. And so we know we have sunk back into legalism. So it wasn’t long after the Holy Spirit graciously cleansed my heart that he began to ask me to do things that I was not able to do with the natural power that I had and so I was not able to obey him. And I knew that if I could not obey him then he would withdraw from my heart. So I then began to seek him and say, “Holy Spirit if you’ve told me to do these things you must be able to give me the power to do them.” And so it wasn’t long after that the Holy Spirit revealed to me that he was able to give me the gifts of the spirit. And so dear ones, it’s almost – well, I think it’s essential after you’ve entered into the inward cleansing of the heart through the Holy Spirit that you show your willingness to be led by the Holy Spirit on into the gifts of the spirit. And you see the holiness groups on one side and the Pentecostal groups on the other side have both grieved the Holy Spirit in many ways. The holiness groups have said, “We won’t have the gifts. We don’t want anything to do with them because of their fleshly administration we’ve seen in them.” And the Pentecostals say, “We don’t want holiness because you say that the cleansing of the heart is what the baptism of the spirit is and that alone and we believe that it gives power.” And it is God’s will for us to know that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an inward cleansing of the heart from sin so that we will obey God continually and then it is an outward bestowal of power through the gifts of the spirit. But dear ones, we grieve the spirit if we refuse to enter into one or the other. Now, I think it is important to see that Paul says clearly – well, you could look at 1 Corinthians 13 dear ones, if you like. Paul does state clearly dear ones, what is essential and what will last and I think we have to be wise about this. 1 Corinthians 13:8, “Love,” which is the bestowal of the Holy Spirit and the cleansing of the heart through the death to self, “Love never ends.” So in heaven, heaven will be full of love. There will be a great rising and pouring out of love to God, the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit and a great pouring down of life and love into our hearts from them. And love will never end. Love will involve all of us and will bathe us round as we were bathed in our mother’s womb when we were babies. So love will bathe us all around. “Love never ends; as for prophecies,” gifts of the spirit, “They will pass away,” because there will be no need for them. “As for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect, but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.” It’s important to see that the precious thing that the Holy Spirit does is to make us holy. Now there’s a reason why God did not call it the gift spirit, he called it the Holy Spirit. And it is important to see that the precious permanent work that the Holy Spirit does in us is the cleansing of the heart. But it is vital to see dear ones, that we live at the moment in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit has gifts to give us for service and if we refuse these gifts we are unable to enter into the service that he calls us to. And so we grieve him in disobedience and he withdraws even from the cleansing heart experience. But it is vital, I think, to see that the precious thing that he brings is holiness to our lives. Could I say just one more thing about that? You see, the terrible weakness and the terrible work that the devil has done through many dear ones entering into a baptism of power with the Holy Spirit and not entering into the cleansing inward experience of the Holy Spirit. So you have dear Pentecostal ministers and others among us who know how to heal and have experienced the gift of healing but in their home they are impure. And they lose their temper. And they’re irritable. And they’re impatient. And pride surges up in their hearts. And they do many of these things at times for a wrong motive. And so eventually the Devil begins to take over and they begin to minister these things in the flesh. It is vital in other words to take it in the order in which God has led us along this week. Dear ones, first we are reborn by the spirit. Secondly, we are cleansed by the Holy Spirit. Then, we are baptized with power by the Holy Spirit. And I know. I’m sure they could all take place at once. And I am sure they could take place in strange order so that God will show us that he is sovereign. But it is good, dear ones, it is good to see the good reason for them taking place in that order and the good reason for seeking them in that way. So that when you’re baptized with the Holy Spirit make sure, dear ones, that you’re ready to die to self. Make sure that you’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to cleanse your heart as well as to give you these outwards gifts. So now, could we go on to the outward gifts, because if you’re like me and maybe you aren’t, I came through the holiness witness of this. And so I learned that Bethany taught three works of grace. You see, so I thought you were all heretics. And so I had a reaction and I’m sure brother Dick feels the same way. I was brought up a Methodist, not a John Wesley Methodist, though I was in my heart. But I was brought up a formal Methodist and I felt that the tongues and all those things were of the Devil and that they were fleshly imitations, as I think many of them were that I observed. So I had a great feeling against the gifts. And if you’re like me, maybe you have some of that. So let’s deal with that dear ones. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12:31. And let’s look at the usual interpretation we place upon that. See Paul says, he gives the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and then in the last verse of the chapter he says, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts.” And many of us feel, “Well that’s good, the tongues and the prophecies, yeah they’re lower gifts. Let’s desire the higher gifts. I’m glad he’s getting onto some good holiness doctrine.” And then we read the next half of the Verse and say, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” And we tend to say, “Ah, I’m glad Paul understands what God wants and that he sees that there is a still more excellent way besides gifts. Gifts is a lower way and he’s going to show us a more excellent way.” And then we say to ourselves, “Ah yes, you ought to covet the best gifts. And the best gift of all is love.” And so, many of us get ourselves into a corner. We say, “Paul has outlined the gifts and obviously he thinks there are gifts, but he obviously means us to covet the best gifts. And the best gift of all is love. So we’ll go straight for love and we’ll ignore these things, lest we fall into danger.” Now dear ones, this isn’t the interpretation. Would you like to look at the verses 14-16 in that 1 Corinthians 12? And you see there that Paul says, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” And he goes on and says towards the end of the Chapter in Verse 29, “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?” And he’s saying there is some need for cooperation between those who have different gifts and he’s pointing out there is a difficulty here. There is a tendency for some of us to say, “Ah, we have the most precious gift, what need have we for the other gifts in the body?” And it’s in the light of that that he says, “Now I’m going to show you a more excellent way to exercise these gifts.” He’s saying, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love I am a noising gong or clanging symbol.” He’s not saying, “Don’t speak in the tongues of men and angels,” but he’s saying, “If I do that and don’t have love then I’ll constantly be in conflict with ones who have other gifts.” And in other words, in 1 Corinthians 13 he’s saying, “Not I give you a greater gift,” but, “I’m showing you how to exercise the gifts you have received. You exercise them in love.” In other words it’s important to see dear ones, that Paul is not saying, “You don’t need gifts.” He’s saying, “These are the gifts but to exercise them properly in harmony you need the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” And so he’s not saying, “Don’t bother with the gifts.” He’s saying, “Exercise the gifts in the spirit of the fruit of love that the Holy Spirit sheds in your heart.” So he’s not saying, dear ones, “Don’t have gifts.” If we argue against gifts we’re left with a powerless church that is pastor dominated. We’re left with a powerless church which does not minister as a body but where the pastor alone ministers. And he becomes – he takes the place of the Holy Spirit among us. But where the Holy Spirit is allowed to shed abroad the gifts of the spirit among us there’s a ministry of the body. And when everyone comes together they have a special gift by which they can minister. So I think it’s good to see that the Devil has held us there and has held us back strongly from the gifts. I think, as we’ll see later on he has held us back also on the tongues. But I think it’s important dear ones, to see that we’re living in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit and that it is his will that we should be able to minister through his power the gifts of his spirit. You may say, “Well, were the gifts not always in the Church?” Well they were in the church for the first 300 years. For the first 300 years the gifts were ministered freely in the church. Some of us say you see – and look back on church history and some of us liberal theologians look back and we see, “Ah well, from the year 300 I mean, there was nothing so obviously, it’s not meant to be today.” But you know what happened around the year 300? Constantine legalized Christianity. And he endowed the church with money. And he endowed it with great power and prestige. And as soon as he did that the church began to depend on its power and prestige and its position of influence and so it began to withdraw its dependence on the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit withdrew the gifts from the church. And the church was left to get on without them. Dear ones, wherever a church begins to depend on its own wealth, or its prestige, or its own methods then the Holy Spirit withdraws the precious gifts from that church. And so I don’t know, but you have a great temptation obviously in Bethany because you have a great going concern in the camping trailers. And you have a going concern in the other things that you manufacture. And there will always be a temptation for you to begin to depend on the power of the flesh that you have available there and to depend on the wealth that God has given you, and the ability that God has given you. You see, the Holy Spirit will only be active in a church that cannot do without him. And so it’s vital for dear ones in their churches to constantly hang on the Holy Spirit and depend on him. Otherwise, he withdraws the gifts and eventually the fruit of the spirit from their midst. Now dear ones, will you look more closely with me then at 1 Corinthians 12 and just let’s receive God’s teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let’s look first at the verses which deal with the problem the Devil brings up. The Devil says, “Ah well, he gives the gifts but only to some.” So let’s look at the verses that deal with that. 1 Corinthians 12:7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And the Devil wants us to read there, “To the pastor is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” But God’s word cannot be changed dear ones, and we need to read it as it is. “To each,” that’s to each dear Christian who is ready to be cleansed and baptized with the Holy Spirit, to each of them, “Is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And then in Verse 11 again, “All these,” and we want to read the pastor, or a few chosen ones. But in Verse 11, “All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to,” the pastor and a few chosen ones. “Who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” And it’s good to look at 13 and 14, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member,” the pastor, “But of many.” In other words, the emphasis in the teaching on gifts if that the Holy Spirit wants to give each one of us gifts as we need them. He does not want to give them just to a few. So dear ones, many of us sin against God in the sanctified life because we do not read these verses sincerely and we are not prepared to enter into any gifts. We just assume that they’re for the pastor, or they’re for a few chosen ones and so we’re not able to be used by the Holy Spirit. We need to see that the Holy Spirit is willing to give to all of us the gifts that we need for ministry. I think some of us say, “Well, how do we know?” Well you see it in Chapter 14:1. You may say, “Well, how do you know what gift you are going to be given?” Well, 1 Corinthians 14:1, “Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” I think we need to do that, just to earnestly desire. To be hungering after the Holy Spirit day, after day. To be drinking the Holy Spirit in day, after day and saying, “Holy Spirit, manifest more of the power of the life of Jesus within me.” And be earnestly desiring the gifts. Not ask for one gift but earnestly desire the gift that the Holy Spirit wants to give you. But we have a responsibility to earnestly desire them, dear ones. Now, could we look then at some more teaching on the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. Look at Verse 4 first of all, “Now there are varieties of gifts,” and I think it just says diversities of gifts in King James. “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Well, you can see the varieties of gifts if you look down at the nine of them that are listed. Notice there are nine fruits of the spirit though it’s really only fruit of the spirit, isn’t it? But there are nine manifestations of the fruit of the spirit and there are nine gifts of the spirit through which he manifests himself. In Verse 8 and the following verses, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom.” That’s a gift. “And to another the utterance of knowledge.” That’s a gift. “To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” So that’s what Verse 4 means, you see, there are varieties of gifts and the Holy Spirit gives different gifts to each one. Of course, it takes away all pride, you see. Because anyone who is responsible, it seems, for the healing of a dear one at the altar, all the others know, “Thank you Holy Spirit for manifesting the gift of healing through that dear one.” And it’s precious that at times then, he withdraws the healing from that dear one, the gift of healing, and gives them some other gift as they need it. It’s precious that the Holy Spirit has the right to give the gift when he is pleased to give it. And so the glory always goes to the Holy Spirit. And no one feels you see, “Oh, I wish I had his gift.” Because if the Holy Spirit gives you one gift you thank him for it and you say, “Holy Spirit, I’m glad you’re willing to use me as a little finger of the body. And I’m glad you’re willing to use him as an eye of the body.” And there’s just a joy you see, in the exercise of the gifts that is free from selfish pride if the old self is on the cross. Otherwise, the Devil works mischief among us. But there are varieties of gifts. Then will you look dear ones, at Verse 5 because I think these are important verses, “And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord.” Now with the varieties of service the word is “diakonion” and it means the same as deacon you know. It means, different kinds, different ministries. And it means different ministries in the one body of the same Lord Jesus. And you see those different ministries over there that God gives to the Lord Jesus in his body, over in the Verses 28 and the following verses of 1 Corinthians 12. Here are the different ministries or the different forms of service, “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” Well, there are different ministries and that’s why it’s a joy to be able to sit down there and say, “Lord, you have given me the ministry of taking care of this auditorium and that brother has been given the ministry of speaking today. And I’m glad Holy Spirit that the moment you withdraw your power from me I have no ability to take care of this auditorium in the gracious way that you want the life of Jesus to pour through me in doing it. And I’m glad, Holy Spirit, that the moment you withdraw your power from that dear one at the desk, that moment he ceases to be able to be used to pour forth the life of Jesus in his words.” It is a great sense everyone has that no one is more important than the other because all of us owe our ministries to the Holy Spirit and to the Lord Jesus himself who appoints some of us a finger, some of us a leg, some of us a foot. So there are varieties of ministries. Now it’s important then dear ones – it’s important therefore not to covet somebody else’s ministry you see, because that grieves the Holy Spirit. And then in Verse 6, could I say that the preacher always has to be ready to take care of the auditorium? See? If he ever gets to the place where he’s not willing for God to withdraw all his power from him so that he can only clean the auditorium then he is not in the right place in the body. So always keep your ministry – sit loosely by your ministry, won’t you? It’s given to you by Jesus and just for as long as he pleases. Now would you look dear ones, at Verse 6 because I think this is even more important in a sense, “And there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.” And that’s “energaematon”, working. And there are varieties of working. And in King James isn’t it, “operations?” There are varieties of operations. God operates in different ways through different ministries at different times. So it’s important to see that a dear brother can be given the gift of healing and God can have a different way of operating that gift through him. So that Oral Roberts (Granville “Oral” Roberts was an American Methodist-Pentecostal televangelist and a Christian charismatic.(cid:160)1918-2009) asks me to touch my radio set and if I’m in tune with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit does not say through me, “Ah, be careful of that man he asked you to touch your radio set.” He does not say to me, “Now, look at Christopher Woodard, a Harley Street specialist in London who practices the gift of healing in a different way.” He says, “You must come to a harmony of your own spirit and then the harmony of your own spirit which God is able to bring through my ministry to you, the harmony of your own spirit will spread to your body and make it healthy and holy too.” And the Holy Spirit does not say inside me, “Now that’s the way that healing gift should be operating, the way Woodard does it in London, a much more cultured way, a much more sane way it seems to this mind.” The Holy Spirit does not say that. The Holy Spirit if he’s in charge of you says, “Thank God for Oral Roberts. Thank God for Christopher Woodard. Thank God that he works and operates in different ways through different ministries through different gifts.” And dear ones, then none of us is able to judge another. And oh I wish we could see this – you know, if we really see the hordes of the enemy that are marching against us, I don’t turn around as the Germans attack us and say, “Listen brother you’re not firing your gun properly. You’d better fire it like me.” You don’t say that. If you’re fighting against the hordes of the heathen you don’t turn around to a brother and say, “You’re not using the gift the way I use it.” You say, “Thank God for you, brother. We need all of us. Let’s go forward.” And you minister the life of Jesus to him. And the life of Jesus will fix him up if he’s not fixed up. You see? But we don’t need to start repairing him. We just need to minister our gift and keep our eyes off everybody else because there are varieties of working in these gifts. Now dear ones, could we go on just briefly then to the gifts themselves. And we won’t be able really to say too much about them. But would you like to look at the first on there that is given in Verse 8, “To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom.” Now the world is full of books dear ones, and the world is full of Stanley Jones’s and T.A. Hegre’s [founder of Bethany Fellowship and author]. And the world is full of dear ones who have been given revelations by God. And those are found in the precious books that these brothers have been inspired to write. But there is a holy wisdom that the Holy Spirit is also able to give you at special times. There is a wisdom that comes not from books but comes directly from the Holy Spirit himself. There is an inner wisdom in doing things that only the Holy Spirit can give you, you see. And there are moments when you need the real gift of wisdom. The preacher needs the real gift of wisdom so that he will not reap when he should be sowing and so that he will not sow when he should be reaping; so that he should not preach holiness when they’re not even half committed or converted and so that he will not keep preaching salvation when they are walking in the light that they’ve been given. So you need wisdom in dealing with souls as brother Elmer has said again and again this week. You need at times the gift of wisdom to be able to interpret God’s supernatural wisdom to dear ones. You need wisdom for understanding the things that are happening in your own life. Now the Bible says plainly, “If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who gives liberally and doesn’t question you as long as you ask in faith nothing doubting.” There is need for wisdom that you cannot get from books. I remember a dear brother, and I think I’ve told you this before, who was preaching with me at a camp meeting, a holiness camp meeting. And the dear brother was about 75 and had lovely white hair and I remember him saying once, “Now Brother O’Neil,” it’s the first time I ever heard it, “Brother O’Neil is a man of books but I’m a man of one book, the Bible.” And that’s right he had very little education, you know, and he had maybe got to–I don’t know–eighth grade or something and then had left school. But God had given him the gift of wisdom. I had been trying–I think I told you–for days to get over to dear ones that we needed to trust the Holy Spirit even when we could not see where he was leading us. Even when we were going blind we needed to trust him and obey what he told us. But this dear brother just in a moment did what I tried to do with two or three sermons. He said, “You know, if the Holy Spirit tells you to jump through that wall, you jump and he’ll make the hole.” That, I think, was a word of wisdom that the Holy Spirit had given to him, and that came over clearly to all our hearts. So the Holy Spirit wants at times to give you the word of wisdom. Then would you look at the second word there in Verse 8, “To another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” And there come times you see, when you need insight into another’s heart. And so there is a dear one at the altar and something is holding them back. And you need the word of knowledge of their spiritual condition. So you’re kneeling there, and if you’re depending on your own power or even your own ability to worship, then you’re lost. You need to be ready to receive the gift of knowledge at any moment and say, “Holy Spirit, will you reveal to me what you want to reveal?” And so I remember one dear brother was dealing with another one at the altar and they couldn’t get through and it was an hour and they’d been on their knees. And then there came to the brother who was dealing with him the gift of knowledge. And he saw a great white hen, and he told the brother what he saw. And of course the brother had stolen this great white hen two years before from a neighbor. And what was holding him back from being cleansed by the Holy Spirit, his refusal not only to look at that but to make restitution. So again and again we need the gift of knowledge of the other’s condition. Then would you like to look at faith. I think it’s the next gift, “To another faith by the same Spirit.” And faith is working faith. So Carvaso [William Carvaso, of Cornwall, England, 1749-1834] would get into a carriage and would drive two miles and there were 12 people in the carriage and when he got out they were all converted.” Well that wasn’t because he explained the four spiritual laws quickly, or because he had brother Hegre’s book and was able to read it fast to them. But that was a miracle of working faith you see. And there are miracles like that dear ones, whereby God can use you mightily to bring about the conversion of many. So Finney [Charles Grandison Finney 1792-1875] you remember walked into the factory. A little girl began to titter and he looked at her and then she felt condemnation in her heart. And the thread broke in the loom and tears began to trickle down her eyes. And he went over to her and spoke to her about Jesus. And then bit-by-bit the other members in the factory fell down on their knees until everybody was on their knees. Then the owner of the factory closed the factory and had a revival meeting. He was not a Christian but he closed the factory and many, many dear ones were converted. That was a miracle of working faith, you see and that can happen. That can happen, dear ones, if you’re given the gift of working faith. Not saving faith or sanctifying faith but the gift of working faith. So it goes on, dear ones, into others. Could we just look very briefly at the Devil’s instrument? And there it is peeping out in 1 Corinthians 14:18. It’s ridiculous of Paul to say this kind of thing when he knows the theology so thoroughly. He is daring enough to say, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.” Then in Verse 39 he says, “So, my brethren, earnestly desires to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” And I think Paul really was just deviating from true pure holiness theology there. And I’m glad we can correct him. Dear ones, do you see that that’s the Devil’s instrument? It is the ninth gift and because many dear ones have made it the first gift, or have supplanted the need for the cleansed heart with an outwards expression of tongues, and because so many dear ones have ministered tongues in the flesh, the Devil has used tongues to turn us from all the gifts. Now you can see how illogical that is, you see. We’ve looked at tongues and we’ve said, “Oh, no I’m not having anything to do with that wild stuff.” But you see there is a real message in the gift of tongues because the Holy Spirit wants complete control of us and the last thing of course that we’re really ready to render is our tongue. It’s a little thing you know, but a very strong member. It can guide a huge boat–the rudder–and the tongue can set passions on fire. And so the Holy Spirit wants control of our tongues and it seems to me that’s the message of this gift of tongues. That the Holy Spirit wants to control your tongue not only when you’re speaking an unknown tongue but especially when you’re speaking a known tongue. It is important then to see that this is one of the gifts of the spirit. And it is important to see that the Devil has taken advantage of it and has said, “Look at tongues, that’s all you get when you deal with gifts.” It’s important for us to see that’s silly. It’s the ninth gift of the spirit. It’s one of the gifts. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let’s not throw everything out. And you see that is what has happened, dear ones. The Holy Spirit has come into many dear hearts in the cleansed experience and then the Holy Spirit has led them on to see the need for gifts. And then someone has brought up, “Look at those wild people that minister tongues in the flesh.” And so we look at them and we say, “Yes, that must be tongues. That can’t be God’s will.” It’s not God’s will to minister any gift in the flesh, but it is his will to minister the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And it is therefore necessary to look at those two verses where the apostle Paul who was given the very presence of Jesus on the Damascus Road says in 1 Corinthians 14:18, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.” And he says in Verse 39, “So, my brethren, earnestly desires to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” So it’s important to see that. Now, what’s the meaning of tongues? Well would you like to look at the meaning as it’s outlined in 1 Corinthians 14:2, “For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.” So obviously when you speak in a tongue the Holy Spirit works directly bypassing your mind and speaks directly with your tongue to God. And in Verse 4, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” Well now, it’s true that there is a great sense of up building in times in private prayer when the Holy Spirit gives you freedom in utterance in a tongue. Then in Verse 14, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.” Now in other words the tongue can be used to build you up spiritually. It seems that the Bible puts the emphasis on private prayer. It doesn’t say, “You can’t use it in public.” But it does seem to put the emphasis on private prayer. And what’s the meaning, dear ones? When the Holy Spirit fills you with a great spirit of praise for Jesus and you see him in all his glory at the right hand of God, then there surges up in your heart a great desire to praise him. And you say, “Mighty God, Ruler of all things, Lord Jesus my Savior, my Dear One, I love you.” And the words are not sufficient. And the Holy Spirit takes your tongue and utters an unknown tongue, the praise. So that the very spirit of your self seems to rise out of your heart and you seem to lift off from your body and rise into the very heavenlies. That’s the purpose of a tongue and it’s a precious purpose. And the Holy Spirit has given us the tongues for that. We should not be concerned if we haven’t tongues. We shouldn’t say to the Holy Spirit, “Give me a tongue.” The Holy Spirit gives you what you need and will give you what you need at the time you need it. So we should not say, “I want a tongue.” We should say, “Thank you Holy Spirit for what you’ve given me and I’ll minister that in the fullness. And if I minister that in the fullness you’ll give me other things that I need.” But, if he gives you a tongue it’s a precious thing and a dear one should use it. Though dear ones, the Bible emphasizes private prayer. You can see this in a few other verses just before we finish. In 1 Corinthians 14:5, “Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.” That’s to speak the word of God in the right way, at the right time, to the right person. “He who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues, unless some one interprets, so that the church may be edified.” So on the whole God guides us through Paul to speak in tongues in public only when there’s someone there to interpret. Now dear ones, I think we need more obedience in that. I think we grieve the Holy Spirit often because we speak in tongues when there’s no interpreter and the Devil can always get in in the flesh unless we obey the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. We cannot afford you see, to grieve the Holy Spirit in any way in the life in the spirit. And then if you look again in Verse 9-13 Paul gives this emphasis again about the public use of tongues, “So with yourselves; if you in a tongue utter speech that is not intelligible, how will any one know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning; but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, he who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.” And that seems like good logical, spiritual common sense doesn’t it? And I think it’s important to – the higher you get, the closer you must be to the obedience of the Holy Spirit. You see, the higher you get the closer you must be and the finer must be your obedience. And last of all dear ones, in Verse 16 and 19 there, in Verse 16 Paul says, “Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit how can any one in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?” And then in Verse 19 last of all, “Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” In other words it’s important to minister the gifts according to the obedience of the Holy Spirit and according to the words that God has given us. Well dear ones, have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Now maybe you’re saying, “Well, I was cleansed last night.” Well then the Holy Spirit is filling you, all you need to do is open your heart to him and say, “Holy Spirit, I am willing to receive whatever gifts you want to give me and I am willing to walk into whatever avenues of service you have equipped me for.” And the Holy Spirit will give you the gifts as you need them so that you can walk fearlessly into the lion’s den, fearlessly into the ward in the hospital, fearlessly in to the better educated person than you are and you know that the Holy Spirit will give you the necessary gifts and will enable you to reflect the very image of Jesus, not only purity but power. Let us pray. ?? ?? ?? ??

Crucifixion – Condition for Being Filled Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill If you say, “Oh I was baptized with the Holy Spirit when I was born of the Spirit.” Well I don’t think anyone is going to say it’s not possible. I think they’re going to say if you have the marks of the baptism with the Holy Spirit than that must have happened. But for many of us it has been as second step in our Christian experience. And so we have this bookcase with the baptism with the Holy Spirit: The top section has books on filing of the Holy Spirit for purity, for inward victory. And the bottom section is anointing of the Holy Spirit for power, for the gifts of the spirit. Emphasizing you see, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an inward and an outward enduement: power for inward purity and power for outward witnessing. And then the third bookcase is labeled “Walking In The Spirit,” and it deals with union with Christ and with ministering life. Now I tell you that to point out that really on these Sunday evenings we’ve been dealing again and again with the third bookcase and with that third step. And I noticed that really the seminar this morning that John leads on baptism with the Holy Spirit was overflowing. And really I think the truth is that many of us are at that stage. I think that’s true, isn’t it? Many of us are at that stage where we’re having some difficulty in some defeat in our Christian lives and what we need is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Now some of us are baptized with the Holy Spirit and have come into a full surrender and we really need to be walking in the Spirit and learning how to walk in the Spirit. But I think it’s necessary maybe, from time-to-time on Sunday evenings to back up and deal again with that crises experience, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And that’s what I’d like to share a little about tonight and you’ll forgive me therefore not dealing with the Christian’s desires but in fact, just going back in the light of this morning’s message and dealing once more with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the need of it in our lives. I had some cream in that glass jar and I left it too long. Yeah, I did. And it’s really quite a smell. And there’s nothing as miserable as sour cream. Now do you see dear ones, if I leave that like that and you bring me some fresh cream and I say, “Okay, I’ve got a jar here,” and I take your fresh cream and I pour it in here, you know what will happen. And you’ll say to me, “Listen pastor if you pour that fresh cream on top of the sour cream the sour cream will affect the fresh cream in a matter of a day or so.” Now that’s foolish. What you need to do is clean that sour cream right out and then put the fresh cream in. Now loved ones, that’s the situation with many of us in our Christian lives. We have come to the place where we realize there was a lot of sour cream in our lives that we needed to empty out. And we did come into a real repentance and we received Jesus into our spirits. And it wasn’t long after that until Jesus began to make us aware that there was something sour underneath that we had never really got to the bottom of. And it was still laying there in our lives. There was a doubleness of will that we had never really dealt with. And do you see what happens? While we allow that to remain there you can receive more of the Holy Spirit in every Sunday, and you can receive a special supply of the Holy Spirit at Easter time, and a great supply of the Holy Spirit if you’re on a retreat, or at a series of evangelistic services. But do you see that the same thing happens all the time? If that stuff at the bottom of your heart has not been dealt with then the Holy Spirit will soon be soured again by that sour lack of full surrender at the bottom of your heart. Now that’s really what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. We’re saying that the only way to get that sour double will out of your life is to allow the Holy Spirit to be poured in and displace it completely. And to do that you have to be willing to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the whole deal with the baptism of the Holy Spirit is coming to a place of honesty where you really do want the Holy Spirit to fill every part of you. Now brothers and sisters, you may say, “Oh Pastor if you had the trouble I have with my temper you’d know I want it.” But loved ones, there’s a great part of us that wants so much of the Holy Spirit but not completely and that’s what the struggle is all about, you see. Now, this is built in to the whole message of salvation and maybe we should see that. Acts 2:38, you remember, that famous verse where the people on the day of Pentecost came up to Peter and they asked him, “What must we do to be saved?” And Peter’s answer you see really implies these two important works that the Holy Spirit does within us, regenerating us and filling us. Peter replied, you remember, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Now the forgiveness of our sins is what Jesus’ blood was shed for. Jesus’ blood you remember, I suggested this morning, was shed to enable God to forgive us and remain a just God even though we were sinners and deserved death. And in a real sense therefore Jesus’ death was for God. In a real sense, Jesus died for his Father’s sake, to enable his Father to forgive sinners who in all justice deserved death. And this enabled his Father to forgive us even though we deserved death because his Justice was wrought upon Jesus. Now that was for the remission of our sins. But you see the second step is, you shall receive the Holy Spirit. And of course the Bible means receive the Holy Spirit not only to regenerate you and renew your spirit and you give a desire for God but to fill your spirit completely, to cleanse your heart by faith. Now those two things are implied in Jesus’ death for us. And dear ones, they run right through the whole of scripture. Jesus died so that God could forgive us our sins. Secondly, Jesus died so that we might die in him and God might destroy and render in operative that rebellious will of ours. Now you see, we don’t accept that at all most of the time. Most of the time we say, “Yes, Jesus died so that God could forgive us our sins. Now our job is to suppress and repress that rebellious will.” And that’s what most of us live in, isn’t it? We believe that Jesus died so that God could forgive us our sins. We couldn’t find any other. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. But when it comes to victory within we begin to use our great willpower. We begin to suppress and repress that attitude within us which begets individual sins on the outside. Now if you’d just be patient and look at those two verses that we did check this morning. You remember, I suggested that the first four and a half chapters of Romans deal all the time with sins in the plural: acts, and thoughts, and words that are disobedient to God. And the second three and a half chapters’ deal all the time with sin in the singular, the inward attitude that wants to disobey God. Now that’s Romans 3:25. You remember, it mentions there that Jesus died for the remission of our sins, “Whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous,” even though he forgives us, “And that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.” Now you see, the emphasis there is on sins and the forgiveness of our sins. Now would you look at Romans 6:6, where the emphasis is not on sins but on the inward attitude of sin which produces those sins. “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin,” in the singular. In other words, there’s a real need for us not only to believe that Jesus has died for our sins and to be willing to let go of our sins, but there’s a real need for us to realize that we were crucified with Christ and to be willing to let go of self so that he is able to free us through the Holy Spirit. Now there isn’t a place dear ones, where you cannot find these two things emphasized you see. You look at 1 John 1:9 and it’s a verse we often quote about how really to become a Christian. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins,” and that’s the part that we again, and again preach in our churches, “He will forgive us our sins.” But do you see the second, “And cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now it is God who will cleanse us from the unrighteousness within. It is not ourselves by willpower or the power of positive thinking, or Paul Tournier [1898-1986, A Swiss physician, author and pastoral counselor] or fellowship, or through Bible study and prayer. It is God himself who through the Holy Spirit will do this. Now why do we say through the Holy Spirit? Well Acts 15:9 states what Peter felt happened on the day of Pentecost you remember. You remember there’s difficulty about receiving the gentiles in without first becoming Jews. In Acts 15:8 Peter explains this, “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.” In other words, when we share this need to die with Jesus we’re not making the Christian faith harder, or the Christian life harder we’re making it possible, loved ones. It is impossible to destroy that evil inward inclination you have to have your own way and insist on your own rights. It is impossible to do that by human willpower. The only way is to see that God, through the Holy Spirit, does it and he will only do it if you’re willing to die to self. Now you know if you say, “Oh well brother now why don’t we share this more in our churches?” Loved ones, you know why, because we want to retain some free will ourselves. We call it free will. It isn’t free will. It’s slavery to self. But you know that in our churches we’re anxious for admission into heaven. We want our sins covered by Jesus’ blood. We don’t want to be found in hell at the end of this life. But when it comes to the way we live this present life, again, and again we want to be able to live it our own way. Now you’ll see as you go through scripture, it just isn’t on the books loved ones. It just is not that way. Now look at 2 Corinthians 5:14 and you begin to see a magnificent symmetrical logic you know, about God’s word when you see the two events that took place when Jesus died on the cross: Not only the bearing of the penalty of our sins but the bearing of ourselves into death with him. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all.” That’s for the forgiveness of our sins. “Therefore all have died.” In other words the two emphases are there, that Jesus died for us but that we also died with him. And really, until we enter into that there’ll be no experience of resurrection. You find it in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 36:25-26 and again, the two sides of the work that Jesus did on the cross. “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” And it says that God will sprinkle clean water upon us: sprinkle the blood of Jesus upon us so that we are looked upon as righteous because of Jesus’ righteousness. Then in Verse 26 the real change that he will work in us: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” And again, and again throughout scripture there’s the emphasis. God will treat you as righteous because Jesus has died for you but he will make you righteous by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Now this is pictured for us you remember, in the Israelites. You remember, they passed over the Red Sea and the escaped from the bondage and the slavery that they were in-in Egypt. And then, like many of us, they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness coming back to their old campsites, making the same old resolutions, “We’re going to win through this time. We’re going to obey you Lord whatever the cost.” And it wasn’t until they eventually crossed the Jordan and into Canaan that they came into a place of rest. And there was in a sense two different experiences for them: A coming free from slavery and then an entering into the rest that God had for them. Now that’s what many of us have found you know, in this baptism with the Holy Spirit, that it suddenly seems to bring you into a rest. And that’s why many of us call it the second rest of the people of God, where you cease from your labors. You cease from that striving to overcome those miserable habits and you enter in through the filling of the Holy Spirit into an effortless life of obedience. But dear ones, those are just a few of the pictures in the New Testament and I have others here you know, and could go through them. Now where is the problem normally in the born again Christian or the child of God who has not entered into baptism of the Holy Spirit? Where is the problem? Well I suggested where it is this morning. It’s not normally in the outward life. Most of us can walk in a fair degree of outward victory. We’ve been trained, we have strong wills. We’re sophisticated western educated people. We have a fair degree of control over what we do outwardly and what we say outwardly. But the problem with most of us is in the area of attitudes, or the area of reactions, or the area of motives, or the area of tempers or desires. You see, we’re willing to do something for God and we get up here and we do it and we’re not quite sure what was the real motive behind it. We believe that it was for the glory of God and we say, “Praise God,” when somebody thanks us for it. But often inside there’s a great welling up of pride in the old natural abilities. And there’s a great pleasure derived from all eyes being upon us. Now normally dear ones, it’s in the area of motives where we have our problems, or the area of attitudes, you know. You can hold back from being angry with a brother. You can hold back from outwardly criticizing someone. But you know if you’re heart was to be projected on one of those outdoor screens in an outdoor theatre and everybody could see it, you know you would be the most ashamed person in the whole world, because there are things in your attitudes to others: just unquestioned attitudes of criticism. Unquestioned attitudes of hatred, and grudges, and resentment that you would hate anyone to see. Now loved ones, usually it’s in those inner areas. That’s why we often call it inward sin, you see, as opposed to outward sins. And the reason why we have no revival among us is many of us are walking about in apparent outward victory but inside our hearts our foul, and unclean, and filled with things that are not godly and are not Christ-like. And those are the things that destroy our witness. Now if you said, “What particular things?” Well, you’d find them there in Galatians 5:19 if you wanted to look at it. They’re called, you remember, in the New Testament the works of the flesh. “Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity,” you see, these are attitudes, all the “-y’s”, all the “y” words are normally attitudes, “Immorality, impurity, licentiousness.” See it’s not just enough loved ones, to hold back from unclean acts. It’s that God wants us to be free from a spirit of licentiousness. See there’s a real way in which I’m all for the sap coming up in the trees at spring time and all that. And it’s beautiful. But there’s a way, too, in which there can be a licentiousness in our lives. There can be an attitude of a libertine even though it doesn’t get outside. Now that’s what is not consistent you see, with the spirit of the pure tender Jesus that is dwelling within us. That’s why he is uncomfortable so often in our lives, because he has to dwell with such unclean neighbors inside our hearts. And that’s why there’s always a struggle, because he will not stay there if you’re going to keep that neighbor there, you see. One of them must go. And that’s where the struggle comes from. “Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.” Party spirit isn’t where this group on this side of the church get up and fight against this group on this side of the church. That isn’t party spirit. Party spirit is where that’s already beginning to move in your hearts– where we’re already beginning to think of him as him or them as them and us as us. That’s party spirit beginning to develop in our hearts. One tract that I found was good for me at the time I needed to enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, was this little one, and Roger is ordering more: “Traits of the Self Life.” And it’s good, you know, to ask yourself, “Have you any of these?” Because, you see, the most plain evidence that you’re not baptized with the spirit is your self life, your self life. And it has these things. “Are you ever conscience of a secret spirit of pride, an exalted feeling in view of your success or position, because of your good training or appearance, because of your natural gifts and abilities, an important independent spirit? Are you ever conscience of a love of human praise, a secret fondness to be noticed, a love of supremacy, a drawing attention to self in conversation, a swelling out of self when you have had a free time in speaking or praying?” “Are you ever conscience of the stirrings of anger or impatience which worse of all you call nervousness or holy indignation, a touchy sensitive spirit, a disposition to resent and retaliate when disapproved of or contradicted, a desire to throw sharp heated flings at another? Are you ever conscience of self will, a stubborn unteachable spirit, an arguing talkative spirit, harsh sarcastic expressions, an unyielding headstrong disposition, a driving commanding spirit, a disposition to criticize and pick flaws when set aside and unnoticed, a peevish fretful spirit, a disposition that loves to be coaxed and humored?” “Are you ever conscience of carnal fear, a man fearing spirit, a shrinking from approach and duty, a reasoning around your cross? Are you ever conscience of a compromising spirit, a jealous disposition, a secret spirit of envy shut up in your heart, an unpleasant sensation in view of the great prosperity and success of another, a disposition to speak of the faults and failings rather than the gifts and virtues of those more talented and more appreciated than yourself?” “Are you ever conscience of a dishonest deceitful disposition, the evading and covering of the truth, the covering up of your real faults leaving a better impression of your self than is strictly true, false humility, exaggeration, straining the truth? Are you ever conscience of unbelief, a spirit of discouragement in times of pressure and opposition, lack of quietness and confidence in God, lack of faith and trust in God, a disposition to worry and complain in the midst of pain, or at the dispensations of divine providence, an over anxious feeling whether everything will come out alright? Are you ever conscience of selfishness, a love of ease, a love of money?” Now loved ones, do you see that God cannot use you if those things are down there? Loved ones, I don’t care if you know Schaeffer [Francis August Schaeffer, 1912-1984, theologian, philosopher, pastor, L’Abri founder] backwards. I don’t care if you know Watchman Nee back to front. I don’t care if you’re a Baptist or if you’re a miserable poor Methodist like me. But do you see if you have those things deep down within, then the Holy Spirit has not filled you with himself? Now loved ones, that’s just true. You have not allowed him to deal with some areas in your life. Now if you’ve come to a place you know, where you say, “Well Pastor I believe I entered into a filling with the Holy Spirit.” Well then brothers and sisters thank the Holy Spirit for filling you and tell him about these things. Tell him, “Holy Spirit, I know it’s your desire for me to be completely cleansed from these things. Now will you reveal to me what area of my life is not nailed to the cross with Christ?” Now that’s it, loved ones. Now if you say you know, “How do you enter in?” Dear ones, it’s trust and obey. That’s the way you enter into forgiveness of sins. You trust or you believe that Jesus died for your sins and then you obey him absolutely. You let all those things go from your own life and you obey him. It’s the same with entering into victory over sin within. You trust and you believe that you were crucified with Christ. You believe that, that you died 1900 years ago. That that great person that your parents have made all the plans for, that you have made all the plans for, that the government has all the plans for is actually dead and that your mind and body are available for the Holy Spirit to live the life of Jesus over again in. But believe that you are crucified, that you’re dead with Christ, that you have no rights to your own way, or your own rights, or your own attitude. You’ve no right to assert yourself or defend yourself and you were crucified with Christ. And now look to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit if there’s any way in which I’m not really willing to be crucified then will you let me know?” Because do you see dear ones, believing is not a matter of auto suggestion, you see. The word for believe in the New Testament means obey. You can’t believe unless you’re willing to obey. I can’t say, “I believe that chair will hold me,” unless I’m willing to step on that chair. Then in the New Testament sense I believe. The word is “pisteuo” in Greek. It means I obey what I believe, I do what I believe. Even the English word, believe, comes from “be” in Anglo Saxon and “liefan”, to be in accordance with. And until you actually are in accordance with what you say you believe the Holy Spirit cannot fill you with himself. Now you’ll see that if you look at just two verses there in Romans and then two in Galatians. Romans 6:11 explains how to enter into the baptism of the Holy Spirit or into a full surrender or freedom from this desire to disobey God and have our own way. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” That’s it. That’s what believing is. The word you remember, is translated in the King James Version reckon and the Greek word for means you don’t only reckon it, you don’t only imagine it, you are in that position. And for many of us that is the real struggle in coming into the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It’s coming to that place where we’re actually willing to be crucified with Christ. Now that’s hard loved ones, because that means your future is not your own. That means dear sisters you cannot choose who you’re going to marry. It means there is no marriage ahead for you, there is only a marriage ahead for the Holy Spirit using your mind, and body, and emotions. Brothers, there is no future ahead for us. There are no jobs to plan for; there is only a future ahead for the Holy Spirit living inside our minds and bodies. It really means a funeral you see. Somebody has said, “Oh, that death is more real than physical death.” And brothers and sisters I’d testify to it in my own life. You know, that was a death to all the things I held dearest, all the things I wanted myself. And God dealt with each one of them and asked me, “Would you be willing to come to a place there where you’re willing to be a failure for Jesus? Where you’re willing to be nothing for him?” Now do you see I can share these questions with you? But only the Holy Spirit can choose the area of your life where you’re not willing to reckon yourself crucified with Christ. Now in fact, you have been crucified. As far as God is concerned he sees you crucified. But that can only be made real in you if you’re willing for it to be made real just as with the forgiveness of your sins. Now you see the second step is, after you’ve come to that place, Romans 8:13 is the way to live in this victory. In other words, you don’t come to a place where you’re really willing to be crucified with Christ and then start trying. No. “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” Now the answer to every how in the New Testament is the Holy Spirit. Mary said, “How shall these things be?” The answer was, “The Holy Spirit will conceive within you.” Now it’s the same here. How can you walk in this victory? By instant obedience and submission to the Holy Spirit. So those are the two sides, dear ones, a reckoning that you have been crucified with Christ, that you have no rights to live your own life in your own way and then an absolute submission to the Holy Spirit. Now I’d just point to two more verses and then we’ll have some questions if you want to ask. Galatians 5:24-25 state those two conditions that are necessary to be fulfilled in order to be entered in. The first, you see, is belief, is trust, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” The flesh in the New Testament is not the body or even the sexual part of us. The flesh is if you rearrange the words and leave one letter out you get what it is, it’s self. The flesh in the New Testament is self. The self love that is not the kind of self respect that God wants but is a self centered love, a self deification, a self glorification, a self aggrandizement. You see, it is those things. Now all of us you see, that belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh. Loved ones, as far as God is concerned you don’t have a future, you see. But you’re arguing with him. You’re saying, “Yes Lord, I have a future and I am going to have a two car garage, a motor lounge, and I’m going to have the best salary I can possibly get my hands on.” And the Father has just a controversy with you. He says, “No my child, I crucified you with Jesus. I destroyed that evil inclination to have your own way with Jesus. And you must accept that. Otherwise I cannot give you my Holy Spirit in his fullness.” Now that’s the first step you see, that realizing that you were crucified. And then Verse 25, the obedience, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” The way you walk in that victory is by instant obedience to the Holy Spirit. I’d just finish there that you see you cannot have instant obedience to the Holy Spirit if there is a great area of your life that you have not allowed the Holy Spirit to place on the cross. Then of course you’re trying to believe over a half committed and half surrendered self. Well, that’s impossible you see and you’re always going to have difficulty obeying. Just one example, if your problem is anger, I think I used this before, or bad temper, the Holy Spirit will probably deal with what would be the consequences if you did not use anger or bad temper in your life. In other words he’ll probably point out to you, “Now listen you know you use anger to keep people off. You know you use anger to control people. You use bad temper to let them see that you want your way. Now, would you be willing not to have your way?” And then you will think in your mind, “But Holy Spirit, if I don’t get my way at times these people would trample me under foot. They would just walk over me. They would treat me as a doormat.” The Holy Spirit will pin you on that and say, “Are you willing to be a doormat? Are you willing to be trampled underfoot as much as I want you to be? Are you willing for me to be your only defense? Are you willing for me to decide when to take the heat off?” Now when you’re willing, you see, to face the consequences of not having anger and temper as a weapon against other people then the Holy Spirit will move on to the next area in your life. And he will keep moving dear ones, until he gets to the bottom of all your resistances to God’s will. Now that doesn’t mean he’ll have no more light to show you but he’ll deal with all the areas where you have already rebelled against God and he’ll bring you down to the ground of your heart Wesley said. You’ll come to a place where you’ll see the ground of your heart. And the Holy Spirit will witness you in a place of full consecration ready to be crucified with Jesus in your own life. And faith will spring up in your heart to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Faith is not a problem when you come to that place. Then it’s a matter of walking in the same way as you entered in, trusting and obeying the Holy Spirit. Now loved ones, will you share questions? Now brothers and sisters do you see that I’m glad to be asked a question that I can’t answer. There was a day when I was concerned about that and anxious always to have an answer. But I want you to ask questions, they may be even – well, if they’re hostile questions don’t ask them in a hostile way, ask them in a loving way. But do you see, that I want to find truth? Don’t you think if you’ve the truth there, don’t keep it wrapped up you see. Share it and push me. Chris is asking, “Does God break us individually of different areas?” What she has found at times is she’s been broken in a certain area and later on it has cropped up. Do you see, dear ones, that the common misunderstanding of growing in grace is that God gradually breaks us of all the things that we’re doing wrong in our lives over a period of time? That’s the normal misunderstanding of growing in grace. Dear ones don’t realize that growing in grace only takes place after you’ve been crucified with Christ. It only takes place after you’ve entered into resurrection life. Growth in grace implies growth in the grace and beauty of our Lord Jesus, not growth out of our own ugliness. That is something that is achieved by Christ’s death on the cross. And so the important thing I think to see is that no, the heart of all these areas is self. That is the reason why we’re bad tempered. It’s the reason why we’re jealous, why we’re proud. All those things can be traced back to self. And what the Holy Spirit does is he’ll deal with certain areas. He’ll ask us to walk in obedience in those areas. We’ll have to, in other words, start walking in obedience. We don’t want to wait for a great blockbuster some day when he’ll blast through everything. If the Holy Spirit shows me some area, I need to walk in obedience in that area. But I need to see that what the Holy Spirit wants to get at is the great self deep down. And so I know for me, I had to ask the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, show me. I see my anger, I see my ambition, but reveal to me how that comes from self and how that great self underneath me is like an iceberg, a tenth on the surface, a tenth on the surface that shows a little pride but underneath nine tenths I cannot see. And will you show me that great self? And show me that it is hostile to God. Show me that the exceeding sinfulness of that.” Because if you had pointed out some of the things in my life I would have said, “Well, those are just little things. I mean, those I can overcome gradually.” But it was only when the Holy Spirit gave me revelation and light to see that self as a rebel against God, that I really saw that that needed to be destroyed by God. “Rendered inoperative” is a better word because there’s nothing destroyed forever, it’s only put on the cross and held there by the power of the Holy Spirit. As soon as we cease to believe it comes back down again. So it’s held there by the power of faith and willing submission to the Holy Spirit. But it is, as far as we’re concerned, it’s dead because it’s rendered inoperative by the power of the Holy Spirit. So that would be my answer, that you need to walk in obedience, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you, but the issue is to get to that heart of self. Otherwise, the things will just crop up again. Otherwise, you’re just treating the symptoms of the disease and the disease is still there. “The just shall live by faith.” We have to steer well clear of the emphasis that some dear ones, and well intentioned they were, but it is not scripture, where they say, “The flesh you see, can be once and for all done away with so that you never have to remember it again. You’ll never sin again. Once you’ve entered into the crucifixion with Christ you’ll never sin again.” Now I see no reason why you should ever sin again, but that’s because of continual exercise of faith and submission to the Holy Spirit. In other words, you cannot get to the point where you say, “Whether I exercise faith or submission to the Holy Spirit, I’ll never sin again because that’s once and for all crucified.” Well, that’s a wrong understanding of inward sin. Inward sin and a carnal nature is not an appendix that you take out and put on the cross. It is an attitude within us. You say to a person, “That fellow is very generous. Yes, that’s his nature. That’s the way he’s built. It’s just his whole attitude in life.” Now it’s in that sense that we mean we have a carnal nature. But that’s an attitude that can be held on the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit as long as we believe, as long as we trust and obey. “Once the Holy Spirit has revealed to you that there’s something like pride in your life, how can you know that you’re willing to give it up unless you give it up?” Presumably, let’s go the other step by saying, “Surely you can only walk in obedience if the Holy Spirit enables you to.” Now do you see, dear ones, that the Holy Spirit knows if you’re willing to give it up? That’s why I’ve mentioned the witness of the Holy Spirit to your full consecration. It’s not a question you see, of wondering through this and wondering, “Am I fully consecrated? Well, I feel a bit more consecrated than last time. I think I am.” No, the Holy Spirit comes and the New Testament says, “We are sealed by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit stamps a seal upon us and says, “Yes, you’re fully consecrated.” I remember in my own heart, I came to a place where I knew that witness of the Holy Spirit. He hadn’t filled me at that point, but he witnessed that I was fully consecrated. So, that’s it. The Holy Spirit will witness, when you’ve come to the ground of your own heart, when you’ve come to the end of yourself. Diane says, “Then there’ll never be a time when we’ll have everything fully given over? The Holy Spirit will always be showing us more things.” Now, here’s the distinction I would make, that most of us after walking in Jesus for six months or a year, the Holy Spirit begins to show us things where we ought to move out after him, maybe in witnessing in school, which concerns our reputation. We want to be thought a swinger and the Holy Spirit tells us to witness and be a square. And we stand back on that and our reputation becomes precious to us. It’s those resistances to the Father’s will that we’ve already established. It’s those things that the Holy Spirit wants to clear away. And you’re right, when he comes to the bottom of those he will fill us. And then he will give us more light on other areas that we’ve never seen before. But do you see when it comes to those, the resistance of our will, will have been cleansed away by the filling of the Holy Spirit and we’ll walk willingly and obediently into those other areas. Well, as far as God is concerned you’re clear at that point. The Father regards you as perfect at that moment, you see. Because the Father says, “Sin is, anyone who knows what is right to do it and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Now my dear child if you are walking in obedience to me and have no resistance to anything that I’ve shown you in the past, then as far as I’m concerned you are perfect in my sight.” And the Father, you see, knows a whole lot of other things where we could walk in greater perfection. But they are not obligatory on us until the Holy Spirit brings them to our hearts. Of course, he can always tell whether we’re walking purposely blind to the Holy Spirit or not. The Holy Spirit knows. That’s why loved ones, I’ve shared with the importance of the Holy Spirit as the counselor. He alone knows whether you’re being honest or not. I don’t know. Your wife doesn’t know. Your best friend doesn’t know. The Holy Spirit knows if you’re being honest. And he determines his filling if your life by your honesty with him. There can be no separation. If we’re dealing with New Testament Christianity, there can be no separation between belief and obedience. But you see, that today, you’re right, what we have shared is cheap grace, you see. Bless our hearts, our tendency is to present it as a hedonistic offer to people. And it’s ridiculous you see, we say, “Now listen, if you continue as you are you’ll have a miserable life and you’ll go to hell. Now if you accept Jesus you’ll have a great life and you’ll go to heaven.” Well now anyone in their right senses will choose the latter. You know, they’ll say, “Well I’d rather have a good life here and go to heaven.” And we’ve preached you see, all they have to do is accept Jesus. And the emphasis has been on accept. And we thought it was the idea of accepting that he’s the son of God, accept all the things that they say about him, and generally try to live like him. But the New Testament experience is repent: A radical repentance, a turning from all our sins, an absolute obedience to him and a receiving his spirit into our hearts. It’s trust and obey. And that’s why, you see, we have so many – we call them conversions–they’re not really you know. We call them even, intellectual Christians. They’re kind of intellectual conversions, most of them. They’re giving intellectual assent to the truth of scripture and trying hard. That’s really what many of them are…

The Holy Spirit Anoints Us for Witnessing Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill How many have you led to Christ during the past year? How many have you led to Christ during the past year? Well, during the past two years? Well dear ones, how many have you witnessed due about Jesus during this past week? Now not to Christians, and not witnessed about the church, but how many have you witnessed to about Jesus during this past week? Well, during the past three weeks? Now Acts 1:8 says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” You see, that’s a promise. You’ll receive power and you’ll be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in your own home; in Judea, in your place of work; in Samaria, among the people with whom you have personality conflicts; and then until the utter most parts of the earth. Now how is your witnessing life? Now dear ones, I think the Devil is engaged in deceiving us about our spiritual state. I think he has persuaded us to treat created life as if it were begotten life. He has persuaded us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then is now trying to persuade us that we have eaten of the tree of life. And he is constantly trying to deceive us about our true relationship to God. Now the Bible leaves no room for any deception. Dear ones, knowing your state of grace is not a matter of, “I feel a feeling I felt I felt before.” And it just is not, dear ones. And you can say what you like about these old hard preachers that preach otherwise, but the Bible gives clear marks of our different states of grace. Now the mark of one who is born of God is that one who is born of God does not commit sin. And that’s the glorious grace into which God can lift us that we can be free from known act or word that disobeys him. So if a dear one is talking to some others and someone says, “Well, you know she bakes very nice cakes.” And you reply, “Yes, but I wish she’d help with the dishes,” that’s sin. Yeah, yeah, that’s not what Jesus would say. Jesus would not say that about the dear one. And that is a non-loving word. Now loved ones, do you see I’m saying to you that God can lift you into this kind of victory. I’m not beating it over your head and saying, “You must rise to that yourself,” but I’m saying that is sin and anyone who is born of God need not do that. You need not speaking an unloving word like that. The Holy Spirit can give you the insight to see that that is an unloving word. The one who is born of God does not go to the higher $10 when he’s filing in his expenses in the income tax. He doesn’t go to the next $10 up. He puts it exactly right. He does not steal. He is given the power not to commit sin. And one who is born of God does not commit sin. And if he commits sin he isn’t born of God. See, it’s like a group of Irish doctors gathering around a corpse in some Irish town. And there someone has left you know, part of what is to go on the coffin or the casket. And they have, “Born 15th of September 1903,” and the dear one is dead. And the doctors look and say, “Well, he was born 15th of September 1903. Now there’s no death and he doesn’t speak like someone who is alive. And he doesn’t look like someone who is alive. And he doesn’t think like someone who is alive, but it says he was born 15th of September 1903.” Now I think a lot of us are engaged in that kind of deception with the Devil, “I was born again in this year; I must be alive; I must be regenerate. I do not talk like a live person. I do not breath the Holy Spirit in like a live person. I do not breathe the Holy Spirit out to my dear ones in love like a live person, but I must be a regenerate person.” Dear ones, if you’re a regenerate person you do not commit sin. You have the marks of life. And the Holy Spirit is able to give you that life. Some dear ones would say you know, “Well that’s hard words. You’re not ministering grace you’re ministering the law.” Dear ones, it’s vital to know if you have cancer so you can get better. You know the power is available in God, but it is vital to know when you have not that power. And so, one who is born of God doesn’t commit sin. One who has had their heart cleansed by the Holy Spirit has no experience of these feelings within: “unbelief; a spirit of discouragement in times of pressure and opposition; a lack of quietness and confidence in God; a lack of faith and trust in God; a disposition to worry and complain in the midst of pain; an over anxious feeling whether everything will come out all right; formality and deadness; lack of concern for lost souls; dryness and indifference; lack of power with God.” One who has allowed the Holy Spirit to come in and cleanse their heart has no lack of love for lost souls. But dear ones, many of us are sanctified and petrified. And we are stamped and addressed and are ready to go to heaven. And you know that because ever since we have come into Bethany, and ever since we have come into this experience, we’ve just walked around concerned with our own family, and our own little children, and with all that concerns ourselves. And we’re here and we’re ready to help with the work, but we don’t overflow with the Love of Jesus. We have not a great burden of souls in our spirits. Now one who is cleansed from inward sin by the Holy Spirit is free from inward signs of self and self centeredness and self love. And so it is that the Bible here gives us another clear mark of one who has been anointed with the Holy Spirit, or baptized with the Holy Spirit. You may say, “Oh, you speak in tongues.” No, no because the Bible says, “Do you all speak in tongues?” No, obviously you don’t. Well you may say, “Oh, you have the gift of healing?” The Bible says, “Do all have the gifts of healing?” No, because of course those are gifts. The Holy Spirit may be pleased to give you himself without those gifts. He may just make those gifts available when you need them. But this other sign is a plain sign and it’s found there in Acts 1:8 if you’d like to look at it. And it refers to that realm in many of our lives where we are utter failures. It refers to our witnessing lives. This is a clear sign that you have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” Now let me make another sentence up as near as I can to that, “When you get into this plane you will end up in San Francisco, and then in Los Angeles, and then in Mexico City.” Now if you get into the plane and you end up in New York, and Miami, and Cuba then you know you’re not on the right plane or something has gone wrong. Now dear ones, if you are not witnesses in Jerusalem, your home, and in Judea, your place of work, and in Samaria, to those with whom you have personality conflicts, then you have not received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That’s just what it means you see. If you have not a victorious witnessing life tonight then you are not anointed with the Holy Spirit. And if I have not a victorious witnessing life tonight it doesn’t matter what state I have been in in the past, the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not upon me. And I am not pouring fourth the life of Jesus because a witness is a “marturae” and “Martureo” in Greek is obviously near to our “martyr” and it means just that: One who dies. And a real witness is one who dies to himself so that Jesus stands up and lives within him and everyone sees Jesus instead of the person. Now if you are not a witness in that sense to Jesus then you have not been anointed with the Holy Spirit. And I’m saying tonight that the Holy Spirit is available for you. Now some of us of course say, “Oh well, I haven’t time to wait around for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and I don’t know whether I have the anointing of the Holy Spirit or not, but I’ll go out and witness anyway.” And many of us get out there and you know what we do, we end up in a conversation with some dear one and we say, “You know, we believe you can be free from sin.” And the other dear one says, “Well, I have just finished reading Calvin and I don’t believe you can be free from sin in this life. I believe, in a sense, one has to sin in act and word and thought every day.” And then we say, “Well, 1 John 3:9 says, ‘Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.’” And they say, “Well, even so-and-so sinned.” And you have a long argument over whether you can commit sin or not. And you leave and they leave. And they think, “Well that’s a strange theology.” And the only impression you make on them is that of a clever theologian or a theologian of a different color to themselves. You know that. Or, we meet some dear one and we decide to witness without the anointing of the Holy Spirit and we go up to them and say, “You know, I think you drink too much.” And they say, “Well, it’s my own life. I can do what I like.” And we say, “Well, look it says in the Bible that drunkenness is a sin.” And they say, “But it says take a little wine for your stomach’s sake.” And then you balance up a few more verses and they balance up the two or three other verses that they have and you leave each other. And they get the impression, “Well, he’s a very moral person. He doesn’t drink and I must say I’d like to be him.” But these dear ones do not see Jesus. They see you as a theologian or they see you as a moralist. Or we go to them you know, and we tell them about Bethany Church, or we tell them about our Presbyterian church or our Nazarene Church or Methodist Church and they say, “That’s very interesting. I go the Lutheran Church.” And they share some things about the Lutheran Church. And you share some things about your minister. And then you talk about the terrible state of the world, and you talk about ecumenicity, and how many some things are getting better or worse. And you depart from each other and all they think is, “That’s a certain kind of churchman and I’m this kind of churchman.” And you make an impression on them as a certain kind of churchman but you don’t witness about Jesus. Now dear ones, that’s the disappointing, defeatist witnessing life without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now the Bible says, “Listen, there’s a promise. You can receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and then you will be witnesses, when the power of the Holy Spirit is upon you.” In other words the Bible says, “God has done a miraculous work in your heart. You need a miraculous power and ability to tell of it to others.” If you haven’t that miraculous power all you’ll get over to them is the non-supernatural part of the experience. But if you have the supernatural part of the Holy Spirit then Jesus will shine through you to them. Now dear ones, Jesus himself required this anointing. Maybe you’d like to check that for yourselves. It’s in Luke 4:18-19, and Jesus, you remember, is speaking and reading in the temple and he applies these words to himself from the Old Testament. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” In other words, Jesus could not have preached good news to the poor; he could not have proclaimed release to the captives; he could not have proclaimed recovering of sight to the blind if he had not been anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Even our Lord Jesus who was the son of God himself had to be anointed with the Holy Spirit for the work he was sent to do. And so it is with us, dear ones. We cannot go and witness unless we have the baptism and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon us. So Fletcher of Madeley, the old saintly Methodist used to gather his preachers around them and he used to talk to them for 30 minutes and then he used to get them to pray for 30 minutes for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And the older Methodist bishops used to gather their preachers around them before they ordained them and they’d say, “Have you the anointing of the Spirit?” Dear ones, there can be no witnessing without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now of course the truth is that you and I are members of the body of Jesus. And so if you are a hand, then as the Holy Spirit anoints Jesus, the Holy Spirit pours down over the whole body and down over this right hand. And so he anoints you also if you stay in Jesus. But many of us get into the position where we find witnessing so difficult that we disobey Jesus’ command to witness. We disobey his injunction that we are to be witnesses. And so we step aside from Jesus and the Holy Spirit is not able to anoint us. Now we can only receive the anointing if we remain in Christ in obedience and in love. You may say, “Well, what is the significance of this anointing?” Well you remember it occurred in the Old Testament. You could be born into the tribe of Levi but you did not become a priest, you did not enter into your Levite priesthood until you were anointed with oil. That was the seal that the Israelites put upon you that you were ready to enter your office. Now you can be a born again Christian, but you cannot enter your office as a priest before God until you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That’s why so many of us are unable to be a “pontifex”, a “bridge maker” between ourselves or between our friends and God. We’re unable to intercede before the Father for dear ones. And we have little experience of successful and victorious intercessory prayer because we have no anointing to enter into that priesthood. See dear ones, there’s a sense in which a priest must bear the sorrows and the pains of others as his very own and that requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We need priests in our churches today. We don’t need so much, better preachers, but we greatly need priests who will intercede mightily before God. And so you remember, that story that I’m sure you’ve heard again and again of Moody (Dwight L. Moody 1837-1899, American evangelist) traveling to that church, preaching in the morning: cold service, no atmosphere, no movement. And he was reluctant to go back that night. But a dear one went home to her invalid sister and told her that a Mr. Moody was at the church. And the sister said, “Take my lunch away. I’ve been praying for him to come to this church for years.” And she prayed all day and Moody preached that night and 500 came forward. And he sent them back and said, “No, this is emotion. If you want really to give your lives to Jesus, to deny yourself, to become nothing for him, then come to the vestry tomorrow night.” So those 500 and 200 others came forward. Now dear ones, that’s the power of an intercessor in prayer. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit to become priests before God. Now you could be born a king in Israel. But until you had the anointing of the oil you could not enter into your office as a king. Now we have available authority in Jesus over evil spirits and over demons. You remember, it says in Ephesians that Jesus was placed above every authority and above every power in heaven and on earth. And of course, we who are in Jesus are there also. And so if every enemy is under his feet and if we are in him we are at least above the soles of his feet. So we’re above every enemy. So the Holy Spirit is able to anoint us to be kings, rulers over demons and evil spirits. But many of us go to homes where the Devil rules, where the Satan spirit has a hold on a member of that home so that that member is not free to decide for Jesus. And we go and we give them the gospel again, and again, and again. And we wonder why they aren’t reacting. And we have not the anointing of the Holy Spirit to stand against that evil force within them. We need the anointing then to be kings. You remember, there were prophets. You could be born a prophet because one of them said, you remember, “I wasn’t born in a prophet’s family. I was a shepherd.” You could be born as a prophet. But you couldn’t enter into the office until the Holy Spirit anointed you. Now we need prophets today. We need people who will stop going to the person next door who has a funeral and say, “Well now, I want to give you some verses that will help you.” And then they read over “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.” And they read over some other verses. Then they close the Bible and they think of some good things that ministers have said in the past at funerals and they give them then. And then they give them a little bit of commonsense that they’ve got out of the Reader’s Digest. And they feel that they have acted the part of a prophet and comforted the dear ones. Do you see that God has a right word for that person at that time? And you need the anointing of the Holy Spirit so that you can speak that prophetic word to them, so that you can speak the right word out of the right place of the Bible to the right person at the right time. And that requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And God has promised us this. Now you can have this anointing tonight. What affect does this anointing have on your own life? Well, some of the effect of the anointing can be found if you look at John 12:3. You can see if you take the “an” off as an indefinite article from “anointing” you’re left with “o-i-n-t” And therefore you can see the connection easily in the English language between it and “ointment”. And they’re very close together. The effect of the anointing on a life is the effect of this ointment. “Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.” And when the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself he fills your life with the fragrance of Jesus. And Jesus breaks through what was that old self. And your thoughts and your feelings become sweet as his are. Not with the sweetie sweetness that people try to imitate, but with the real sweetness of Jesus himself. When the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself, your own soul becomes a garden of spices and you become a delight in the church, and a delight at work. There’s something fragrant about your presence. You don’t need to speak but something shines through from you and people sense the very presence of Jesus. And you don’t need to preach the gospel to them. But the Holy Spirit has anointed you with the very fragrance of Christ himself. Now that can be yours dear ones. The Holy Spirit is anxious to give you that kind of fragrance instead of the sourness that so many people connect with so many of us Christians. When the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself he anoints you with the very fragrance of the Christ life miraculously. Too many of us have tried to imitate Jesus. We aren’t called to imitate Jesus. Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father and he is able through the Holy Spirit to give us the things that are his own. So he is able supernaturally to impart to you his own fragrance of his own life. But you need to get down on your knees and begin to admit that you need it and that you have not sufficient in your own self. When the Holy Spirit comes he gives you strength. When the Holy Spirit came to Paul he was able to endure shipwrecks and persecutions. He was able to endure stonings. He was able to endure arrest, and criticism, and conflict with joy–with complete joy. Now some of us come into a hard place and somebody says, “You’re having a hard time these days.” And we say, “Yes, but God is sufficient,” with teeth clenched. Now we don’t need to have the teeth clenched. You can meet those trials, and those defeats, and those difficulties with joy. The Holy Spirit is able to strengthen you so that you can face all those things and not be weary. So this is the whole promise of the Bible: that you’ll rise up with wings as of eagles. You shall run and not faint. And the Holy Spirit is able to strengthen you in this way so that you can go through unbearable trials, things that you would have thought you could not meet. And you can meet them, not just meet them but meet them with joy and with peace because nothing is draining from you yourself. The Holy Spirit has anointed you with his own strength. Another effect I think of the Holy Spirit is the same effect as oil. You know that oil in the Old Testament is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And the young men especially, will know that athletes use oil on their limbs to make them supple and flexible, to make the joints nimble so that they’ll move easily and quickly without any friction, without any strain. Now many Christians enter into some experience of conversion and often enter into the place of full consecration for sanctification but never stay long enough to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. And so they have to be dragged to the prayer meeting. They have to be dragged to testify. They have to be persuaded and begged to do this or that piece of Christian work. They move slowly and lumpishly and awkward about God’s business. They are enthusiastic and alive and active in their own business but they’re slow and awkward in God’s business. Now when you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit he makes you flexible. He makes you nimble about God’s business. You have gospel shoes on and you’re ready to go about God’s business. And you’re not always preoccupied with how little time I have left for myself, but you’re anxious how much time can I give to the Lord Jesus because the Holy Spirit has anointed you with that. No longer do you come up to people and say, “I can’t witness to them because they are better educated and better read than I am.” But the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself so that your personality becomes as fluid as the psychologists think it can become. It becomes fluid and flexible so that you can meet all different kinds of people and you can deal with them in the way God wants you to deal with them. And you can tell that you have this flexibility about you. You know it. You know yourself. You know whether you’re lumpish and awkward at the moment in God’s business. You know it dear ones, don’t you? You know how you feel tonight. You know whether you’re free for Jesus just to break out of you if he wants. You know it. Or, whether you’re wrapped up in half a dozen contortions of thinking that you have. The Holy Spirit anoints us with that kind of flexibility in our lives. Just, dear ones, to finish could we look at the anointing oil of the Old Testament? And I think it teaches us some things about the way the Holy Spirit can affect your own witnessing life. The oil in the Old Testament that they use to anoint prophets, and priests, and kings with contains several ingredients. The first ingredient was myrrh. And myrrh was used to take the soreness out of a bruise. Now when the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself people can kick you, and tear you apart, and criticize you, and complain about you, and oppose you, and offend you, and there is no soreness in the bruise. Now there is no soreness. You may sit there and say, “I don’t believe it. You feel hurt surely and the Holy Spirit comes in and he gives you a band for the hurt. And it heals up after a while.” No, when you’re anointed with the Holy Spirit you feel no bruise. You feel no soreness. You feel no pain. You never feel, “How badly I’ve been treated. How unfair they’ve been to me. What a thing to say to me. I’ll never see that person again if they’re going to treat me like that.” You don’t feel it. The Holy Spirit takes the soreness out of the bruises. And that’s why one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit can keep going forward. So he’s a Steven; he’s a Paul; he’s a Peter. He feels nothing. The Holy Spirit bears it all. It is possible, dear ones, and it is for you. Another ingredient of the anointing oil was cinnamon. And it was a fiery spice as we know and stimulates. This is why Paul said, “Don’t be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.” Because wine does stimulate you at one point but the Holy Spirit does a far better job and has none of the other effects. That’s why the Holy Spirit acts as cinnamon in us. It stimulates us and makes us active, makes us able to do 10 times the amount of work that we did before. That’s why one old preacher said, “I enjoy the rest of faith which keeps me in perpetual motion.” When you’re in that place anointed with the Holy Spirit you have no weariness, you have no tiredness because the Holy Spirit has given you a new stimulation. And I think it’s important to say that there is a stimulation in our faces and our hearts. You know, some of us take each other for granted, don’t we–in Bethany, and in our churches, and in our families? We say, “Well, we’ve to witness to everyone else but these people know. And they won’t mind me walking around just my good old self.” And we expect them to take our good old selves which are usually glum, complacent, and wrapped up in ourselves saying nothing but what refers to our desires and our wishes. Now when the Holy Spirit comes he stimulates you so that you are interesting each way in a new way and a new way to your wife. Each morning is new. She meets you as a new person with more of Jesus in you. And you meet her with more of the loved one in you, more of the Savior in you. And the Holy Spirit is able to do that. It’s new every morning, the grace that he gives. But it’s a continual moving forward because of the stimulating power of the Holy Spirit. So one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit is an interesting person to be with. He or she is just an exciting person to be with because they’re dynamic and they’re moving forward. And they’re saved out of self and delivered out of self, and out of those sinking sands–out of those quick sands where we’re lifting one foot after another with grave difficulty, grave difficulty. The Holy Spirit gives you stimulation in your life. The Holy Spirit acts as calamus. Calamus was another ingredient and it was used to counteract the acid in people’s stomachs. I suppose it was alka-seltzer. And it took the sourness out of people’s stomachs. And when one is anointed with the Holy Spirit they’re like the people in that bank that used to advertise on the TV, they’ve never met a sourpuss. They not only are not sourpusses but they themselves have never met a sourpuss. They really haven’t. And someone comes along to them and says, “Isn’t he very irritable? Isn’t he? Isn’t he an irritable person? Don’t you find that?” And the one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit says, “No, no. But I tell you I see this of Jesus in him. I see this beauty of Jesus in him.” And the Holy Spirit anoints you so that it takes the sourness out of the stomach. You do not feel sourness coming to you. Now don’t you say, “Oh, you have to be honest you know.” I think we should leave that to the Holy Spirit of truth. He’ll do a better job of convicting than we will. If we can trust him he’ll enable us only to see the sweetness in other’s lives. And that’s the way we should be, to be looking for the Jesus in each of us so that one anointed with the Holy Spirit is always being ministered to by the life of Jesus. Well just looking at one other thing, one other ingredient of the anointing oil was olive oil. And olive oil was used to take the kinks and the creases out of the skin and to put a shin on the skin and make it smooth. And when the Holy Spirit anoints a person with himself he takes all those stupid idiosyncrasies out of that person’s life. You know how many of us want to witness but we want to witness so they know that it is us that are witnessing. I mean, we want our witness to have a special kind of flavor to it. We want them to know it’s our particular self that’s being used by Jesus to witness. We don’t want to be rolled over in the crowd. We don’t want to be conformed to the mass of Christians, we want them to see Jesus but we want them to see Jesus through the beauty that is in us. And we have these idiosyncrasies and these elbows, and they’re always getting in the way. We try to deal with it dear one and the elbows are getting in the way because we want them to see just how vitally different we are to all other Christians they’ve met. When the Holy Spirit anoints us with himself he takes all those kinks out of our characters–all those creases that shouldn’t be there, all those strange characteristics that God doesn’t really want there, because he wants to replace some of his own. When the Holy Spirit anoints you with himself he anoints you with the very beauty of Jesus. So that you know, you can read 1 Corinthians 13 and you don’t need to say “love”, but you can say, “I am patient and kind. I am not arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way. I am not glad when others go wrong. I rejoice at the truth. I bear all things. I believe all things. I endure all things.” And it is God’s will for you tonight to be able to say that. And the Holy Spirit is available to you tonight to anoint you with that beauty of Jesus. Now have you that beauty? Have you the beauty of Jesus in your life? You may say, “Well, will he anoint anyone?” No, he will only anoint a lamb. You remember, the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus at the baptism in the shape of a dove. A dove is a very gentle bird and very easily repelled, and very easily frightened. And a dove will only come to rest on a lamb–on one who is like the lamb of God, one who is gentile and who “as a lamb to the slaughter, opened not his mouth.” One who is ready to die to all self seeking. One who is ready to die to that desire to appear a more enthusiastic Christian than everyone else. One who is ready to die to that desire of self to seek to pray better than everyone else, to seek to preach better than everyone else. One who is dead to self seeking, who does not steal any glory from God. One who is dead to self confidence, a lamb without self confidence. One who, like Peter, has fallen and lost their self confidence–lost confidence in their own ability to witness in this way. One who, like Paul, became blind before he could see at all. One who has lost trust in their own ability to see what is needed in any witnessing situation. One who has died, not only to self seeking, but one who has died to this desire to have your own way, this desire to have your own self confidence. One who has died to that desire to help yourself. One who is no longer anxious to say, “Lord, these are difficult circumstances if I could only get out of these I could witness better.” One who is not eager to rescue himself from the circumstances in which God has put him. One who is not eager to say, “If that person were only removed I could witness.” One who is not eager to withdraw from a certain situation so that they’ll be able to witness. One who has stopped trying to plane away their own cross to make it easier to carry. If you are ready to be a lamb, if you are ready to die to self defense, and self assertion, and ready to be looked upon as nothing by others for Jesus’ sake, then the Holy Spirit, the blessed dove that God sends will come and anoint you with the beauty of Jesus. Now if you have entered into sanctification, if you have died to self and been filled with the Holy Spirit this week and yet God has spoken to your heart and you need the anointing, I would ask you dear ones, unless God presses you, to remain in your seat and receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you see. Or, to kneel down in your place afterwards and receive that anointing, because if you are a place of real readiness to die to self then the Holy Spirit will anoint you without refusing. So I’d ask you just to stay in your seat. But if God has spoken to some of you dear ones, tonight and you do not know the victory of death to self–and I know there’s one dear brother here certainly that does not and wants to seek tonight–so in other words if you have not entered into sanctification, if you have not freedom from anger, and envy, and jealousy, if you’ve not freedom from bitterness, a desire to save yourself, a desire to assert yourself and get yourself out of difficult situations, if you’ve a desire still to protect yourself and are not a lamb, then will you seek God tonight and simply allow the Holy Spirit show you where you’re not ready to be a lamb yet. And then come to the place where you’re ready to be one, and simply receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit tonight for a witnessing life that God has planned for you–that God has available for you tonight. No more defeat and no more disappointment, but the victory of the beauty of Jesus shining through. That can be yours. I pray it will. Let us just turn to the last hymn dear ones. And will you just come to the altar and seek God as he speaks to you. “Hover o’er me, Holy Spirit, bathe my trembling heart and brow, fill me with thy hallowed presence. Come oh come and fill me now.” And the Holy Spirit will fill those who are willing. So let us stand as we sing. ?? ?? ?? ??

The Holy Spirit Cleanses Our Heart Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Let us pray, dear ones. Father, we trust you in the name of Jesus and for his sake and for his glory, and for the exhibiting of him in all our lives. We trust you our Father, tonight to expose the lies of the Devil. We trust you our Father, to expose his lies that we cannot live a conquering victorious life. Father, we trust you to dissipate all the grey area. We trust you to make things black and white for us so that we can glimpse the victory that you are able to bring about in our hearts. Father, we trust you to lead us to throw away all belief in past experiences, all belief in an experience and to look at you and know that you are able to accomplish what you have promised. And that in Christ we are able to be more than conquerors through him that loved us. We trust you for this, our Father, that we may be your sons in spirit and in life. Amen. I don’t know if you can see from there but you can tell by the smell. It was good cream at one time and I left it too long and it got a bit sour. And it smells sour. And dear ones, it doesn’t matter how often I put good milk into it. It keeps going sour faster than the original stuff did. And I can fill it up again, and again, and again. And maybe a day later the whole jar of milk is sour. And while that sour stuff remains at the bottom you can do nothing. And you’ll continue to sour even the sweet milk that goes in. And many Christians are experiencing that. They go to a conference like this, and some of the sweet milk of the Holy Spirit pours in. And there’s something sour deep down that makes it all sour two days after the conference has ended. And they’re up on that peak at the conference but two days later the old sour stuff that has never been cleansed away has soured all that has come in. And dear ones, many Christians are living like that. Many Christians are living that up and down existence because they still have something sour at the bottom that they have never had cleansed out. And you know, the only answer to this is for me to put it under the hot tap and to wash it thoroughly and clean out all the sour stuff. And then I can put sweet milk in it and it stays sweet. And that’s exactly what Peter meant. He said, “You know there came a day when the Father gave us the Holy Spirit. And he cleansed our hearts by faith.” But many Christians are living defeated lives because they have never gone that deep. You know, they came as all of us have done, where they felt that God was condemning them. They saw that angry words were wrong. They saw that dishonest words were wrong. They saw that their actions were all built on building their bank account and on making themselves successful. And they saw that they were under condemnation of death, that the Bible said that the wages of sin was death. And they didn’t know what to do. They felt they had to die. And then the Holy Spirit revealed the blood of Jesus to them. And they suddenly realized that they could present the blood of Jesus on behalf of their sins. They realized that the Father looked down on them. And where he had said before, “I demand your life,” now he was ready to say, “I accept my son’s life on your behalf.” And so when Satan the accuser of the brethren would say, “You haven’t had such a good day today. You haven’t been up so much as you were yesterday,” they got used to saying, “Well no, but that’s not the basis of my acceptance with God. It’s the blood of Jesus. The outpoured life of Jesus pleases my Father.” But then they began to find that more and more they were needing the blood of Jesus where they hadn’t before. And though all of us, even if we were as saintly as God is able to make us, all of us need the blood of Jesus to be acceptable to God, they found that their life was becoming a series of hills and valleys. And they began to discover that they were on the top at a conference, or they were at the top at Easter time, or they were at the top when church began in the fall. But there were long, long dry valleys when they began to feel that they were not in grace at all. In other words, they began to feel great depression in their spirits. And the depression of course was brought by guilt because they could see that certain things were wrong. They could see that they should not break out in bad temper with the children. They could see that that was wrong. And they would pray to Jesus at the beginning of the day that he would control them in this very regard. And then the children would do something and before they knew it the temper was out. And they would go to the Lord Jesus at night and they would plead again his precious blood. And they would confess the sin. And then they would come to repentance. And they would remember the words of some preacher who said, “Repentance is a godly sorrow to Jesus for your sins and an absolute turning from the sin.” And they would remember the words of John when he said, “If we walk in the light as he is in the light then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” But they realized they were not walking in the light because they had confessed this sin yesterday. And so they would walk the next day, and they would walk that day victoriously. And the next day they would lose their temper again with the children. And the guilt would settle on their conscience. And when they tried to plead the blood of Jesus again for that, the words would come in, “If we walk in the light as he is in the light.” And they realized that they had confessed this sin so often to the Father that they were now becoming immune to what even the blood of Jesus could do for them. And dear ones, there are many I think, dear Christians and many who are even baptized with the Spirit and experience some of the gifts of the spirit who live this kind of up and down life. You remember that Jesus gave the gift of casting out demons and healing to the apostles when he sent them out, the mission of the 70 you remember. And yet even after that James and John will still arguing about the place they were going to get in heaven. Even after that Peter denied his Lord for fear of the little maid and his reputation. And many Christians who seem to have gone on in the Lord in many might ways are experiencing this up and down life. Now dear ones, you know what that brings. It brings eventually a sense of condemnation that you are a hypocrite. Bit-by-bit you begin to feel that what the people say at home is right. You know, “I wish the church people could see you.” And bit-by-bit you begin to realize that you seem to be leading a double life. You’re one person on the outside, you can control your acts and words at times. And to some people you make a good impression but inside there is a mass of what Jesus said was in the heart. For he said, “It was out of the heart that adultery comes and the jealous comes and envy.” It’s out of the heart that that comes. And bit-by-bit you began to realize that there was something down there that you had never allowed God to touch. Now dear ones, the Bible has made provision for all that and God has. The Bible has made a clear distinction between sins, your acts and words over which you get victory at the beginning in your converted life and sin in the singular which is the attitude within you that still wants to be a little independent of God in some things. If you read, you see, the book of Romans carefully, you find that the first four and a half chapters are concerned with sins. You very rarely find the singular word sin in the first four and a half chapters of Romans. It talks about sins. And it talks about the blood of Jesus. You might like to look at one of these places now. In Romans 3:25 you find an example of this. And if you go through the first four and a half chapters of Romans I think you’ll find that on the whole those chapters talk about sins and the blood of Jesus. You see it says there, taking part of 24, “Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” In other words, the first four and a half chapters give us the message that you can be forgiven your sins by God because he looks upon the blood of Jesus, the outpoured life of Jesus, the death of Jesus that has been offered in your place. And therefore you see, there is nothing between you and God. Before, there was death between you and God. Now there is nothing because Jesus has died for you. And he is able to reach right over Jesus and to grip you and draw you to himself. And he forgives you. He restores the relationship that he wants with you. In other words, the blood of Jesus deals with the forgiveness of our sins. And it refers to the standing we have before God. And so we can go before God in confidence because of the blood of Jesus. But it refers to our standing before God. It refers to our justification. To justify you means God treats you as just for the sake of the blood of Jesus offered on your behalf. But the second three and a half chapters of Romans deal with another subject completely. There you find the word sins, rarely occurs. But the word sin in the singular occurs often. And there you find the emphasis not so much on the blood of Jesus but on the death of Jesus and on the cross of Christ. And there you find the emphasis is not so much on our standing with God or the state of our own conscience. But you find the emphasis is on our walk with God and our life. Now dear ones, you can see that yourselves if you look at Romans 6. And these are the second three and a half chapters in Romans. And I’m just taking this one example but you can read through them all and you’ll find this emphasis. Romans 6:4, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,” no mention of blood but, “Into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” In other words, the emphasis there is on our walk with God. And I suggest to you dear ones, that it’s at that point that many dear Christians who are converted but have had no experience of the death to self, or the deliverance from sin, it’s there that many of us are failing. We are failing to walk in the light because we have taken one truth of Christ’s death for us, and we have utterly forgotten the other side of that truth. And so dear ones, the blood of Jesus is for the forgiveness of our sins but the cross of Jesus and the death of Jesus are for the deliverance of us from sin, in the singular. In other words, there are two sides to sin. There’s the inward sin in the singular, the inward attitude of independence to God. And there are the outward sins that that begets in our life. There is the inward “dis-ease” where we are at “dis ease” with God’s will. And there are the outward symptoms of that “dis ease”. And, as with the doctor when you come to him, he sees your symptoms first. And so when we first come to Jesus he points to the symptoms on the outside and he says, “Those must first be forgiven.” But then if we will stay with him and if we will open our hearts to all the Bible demands of us in a victorious life, we will see that Jesus is pointing to the “dis ease” and he is saying, “Listen, that is no use being forgiven. I am not going to forgive you that rebellion which lurks in your heart. That rebellion has to be removed. The disease has to be cleansed. The disease has to be cleansed from the bottom of your heart. Otherwise, every time I pour your spirit in your “dis ease” with me, will contort what I give you. And you’ll pervert it.” Now dear ones, do you see that this was the emphasis all through the Bible? That again and again, even the Old Testament while it talks of the need to have our sins forgiven, again and again it says, “I will put a new heart within you. I will take away your old heart of stone and I will put a heart of flesh within you, a heart that can feel me and wants me.” Again and again the Old Testament emphasis, “I will put a new spirit within you.” And dear ones, many of us are trying to walk without entering into the second blessing of Christ’s death. And it is there for us. We can enter into it. The Bible calls sin by several names. First of all it talks about sin in the singular. And it doesn’t matter what creed of which church you read, the creed will state “We believe that there are the remains of sin even in the born again believer.” Even if you looked at the Baptist church statement of belief, you’ll find that it says that. If you look at the Methodist church statement of belief you’ll find it says that. The Lutheran… They proclaim plainly that even after you’re converted, there remains within you some of this sin. Now the easy way to see what the sin is, is to take the center letter of it. And many of us come to Jesus and tell him that we want to get into heaven. We tell him that we want our sins forgiven and we want to be accepted by his Father. And we receive forgiveness. But the “I” is still central. And we still begin to rub our hands and tend to say, “I’m glad I’m going to heaven. I’m glad of what Jesus has done for me. And now I want to get on with my life and I want to live it the way I best possibly can, and then be accepted by him, at the end, in heaven.” But the “I” is central. “It is not for his purposes that I’m living. It’s primarily for my own purposes that I’m living. I want to help with the missions. I want to be a good church member. I want to do as much as I can for Jesus. “I can” for Jesus.” But the “I” is central. And everything in my Christian experience is still being referred to myself. And if someone asked me to do something in the church, I find out whether it’s convenient for me first. And then I may do it. And even when I do-do it if they ask me to sing, I sing. And I sing for the glory of Jesus. But there’s something inside that creeps up and says, “Look at what these people are thinking of you. And look at some of the glory that you’re getting for yourself.” And so this “I” begins to have a greater and greater place in many Christian’s lives until it comes to the place where it begins to break out in outward sin again. See you know dear ones, it stays for a while where no one can see it. It does stay for a while in the inward part of man’s life. It stays in the realm of the attitudes. It stays in the realm of the motives. You know, you preach. But there’s a voice says, “Look at what they’re thinking of you. Look at what they’re thinking of you.” And the self rises up within. And you don’t want it to rise up, but it rises up. And sometimes you can’t control it. And before you know it you’ve said something that obviously express pride. And you’ve committed an outward sin and then you have to go back and plead the blood of Jesus. And there’s that continual list of confessions and forgiveness’s. It’s found in the realm of the reactions and the responses. You’re alright while it’s the pastor that’s coming to the house because you know he thinks you’re a Christian and feels you’re a Christian and you ought to be on your best behavior. So you get prayed up so that you will be in good form. And he comes in and everything is right and the kids are in the right place in the other room and the wife is organized. And you’re ready to receive him. And you witness well for Jesus. And then he goes out and the kids come in and the wife comes in and says, “I forgot that thing you wanted me to get today.” And you say, “You forgot?” And before you know it you’ve responded in a way that shows that what is in will always come out. And dear ones, sin will always come out. The tragedy is it comes out with the ones whom you ought to love best. Not the ones you love best, the ones you ought to love best. It comes out with them. There you’re relaxed, there you go off your guard. And before you know it the sin is out. And it’s out in the responses and the reactions. Brother Elmer said the same thing, “You know, it’s not the actions that are the trouble to a converted Christian it’s the reactions.” And that’s what shows what’s inside you. So it’s in the realm of the attitudes and the motives, the reactions and responses, the intentions and the desires. It’s there where we have trouble. And you know what it’s like at times, it’s like a great Alsatian dog–and I think maybe I said this to you before– and it’s running around the room, it’s bounding everywhere in chaos. And you can’t get talking to the pastor. So you take that big Alsatian dog that’s so obvious to everyone, those sins, and you put it in a box. And then you sit on it and you start talking to the pastor. And then after six months or so the dog begins to jump and the box begins to lift and you begin to go up and down and say, “Yes, yes, yes.” And the lid is lifting and you’re having trouble keeping it down. And you know dear ones, I needn’t tell you because we know what it’s like. You pray for patience. And God doesn’t give you patience. Maybe he gives you a temporary patience but he allows it to break out again. Do you know why? Because you don’t put cosmetics on somebody that has cancer, you see. And he wants you to see your real state. And so he refuses to take away one of the symptoms that show the deadly disease that is within. And he wants you to know that it is possible to remove that, to remove that completely. How do you know it’s there, dear ones? Well you can do it in many ways. I’d ask you to listen faithfully and honestly as I read these words. “Are you ever conscious of a secret spirit of pride, an exalted feeling in view of your success or position, because of your good training or appearance, because of your natural gifts and abilities? Are you ever conscious of an important independent spirit? Are you ever conscious of a love of human praise, a secret fondness to be noticed, a love of supremacy, a drawing attention to self in conversation, a swelling out of self when you have had a free time in speaking or praying? Are you ever conscious of the stirrings of anger or impatience which worst of all you call nervousness or holy indignation?” “Are you ever conscious of a touchy sensitive spirit, a disposition to resent and retaliate when disapproved of or contradicted, a desires to throw sharp heated flings at another? Are you ever conscious of a disposition to criticize and pick flaws when set aside and unnoticed, a peevish fretful spirit, a disposition that loves to be coaxed and humored. Are you ever conscious of a jealous disposition, a secret spirit of envy shut up in your heart, an unpleasant sensation in view of the great prosperity and success of another, a disposition to speak of the faults and failings rather than the gifts and virtues of those more talented and appreciated than yourself? Are you ever conscious of a dishonest, deceitful disposition? Are you ever anxious about whether everything will come out alright?” Dear ones, all those are symptoms of the self inside you that you have never allowed God to deal with. The teaching of the Bible is that we can live the exchanged life. As Jesus exchanged your position on the cross, as Jesus died on that cross for you now he calls you to die on that cross with him. Now many of us fail to see that. Many of us say, “He’s died the death for me now I’m free to live my own life.” You’re free to live your own life under the tyranny of self. But he has called you to die on that cross with him. He has said to you, “I can bear your sins but I want to bear you to the cross with me.” Now you can see this, dear ones, in Romans 6 very plainly. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” Now I ask you, do you know that experience? Do you know that experience of being baptized into Jesus’ death? Because that’s the truth that the Bible proclaims. You cannot tame that old self, you cannot train it. That old self has to be destroyed on the cross by Jesus. And he has done it. It says in Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self, our old man was crucified with him.” Why? “So that the sinful body might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin,” we might no longer have to cry out, “The good that I would I cannot do and the evil I do not want that’s the very thing I do.” The next verse says, “Who is free from sin?” “Those of us who have died are free from sin.” In other words Jesus calls you as a converted Christian to come to him on the cross and allow yourself to be crucified with him. And no more of this business, “Thank God that he has forgiven my sins, and now I can get on with my life. And I can have my own way, and insist on my own rights, and stand up for myself, and assert myself, and defend myself.” But, “Now, I can join him on the cross and I can die to this old self within.” But dear ones, do you see that it’s Jesus that has crucified that old self and all you can do is enter into this victory? So the Bible makes a clear distinction between being born again and dying. It says at the beginning in John 3:3, “You must be born again.” You have to be born again. You have to come into the life of Jesus. But when that life comes into you it will soon begin to tackle another life that’s within you already. And in Galatians 5:17 Paul stated it plainly. He said, “This life of the spirit fights against the life of the flesh within.” And is another word the Bible gives to sin, the life of the flesh, the independent spirit of a man. Now do you see that it shows itself only slightly in all of us? You know, the Devil is clever and the Devil loves religion. And Christians in whom the old self has not been crucified usually love religion. And they especially love to do a whole lot of work in the church. And they love to get leading positions in the church. And so the Devil loves religion and the old self loves religion. And it really enjoys being looked upon as a Christian worker. But inside all the time it’s perverting everything to its own glory. And the old self takes all the victory out of the Christian life. It destroys your victory. You come to a time when you know you should have love for the wife and she comes in and she has bought a new dress and she says, “Do you like it?” And the bank account isn’t in too good shape and you say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah it’s alright.” That’s the old self. Do you see? See? Don’t say dear ones, “That isn’t a sin.” That’s a sin of a lack of love. That’s not perfect Christian behavior. That’s not the victory that Jesus has wrought in us. And you know why it’s not, because you’re thinking of the bank account. You have not committed it to God. You’ve said you had, but you haven’t really. And she’s affected the bank account. And you know you are the guardian of the bank account. And it’s your responsibility to take charge of it. And the only way you can take charge of it is by showing her what you think of the new dress. And it all comes from self. Self is in charge of the bank account. And self must up and show its ugly head to the dear one. And it takes all the joy out of the new dress. Do you think Jesus could organize that bank account even though she bought the new dress? Dear ones, I know he can. I know he can. Really! But we don’t believe it and we take control. Or, the kids are running around the house and they’re tearing the place apart and somebody is coming. And we don’t know what to do because we are mother. And this is our home. And it’s our responsibility to keep it right. And we want to be like Eve. We want to be as gods. And we want to have this place right. And we are the mother of these children. And it’s our responsibility. And we have never died to our motherhood. We have never died. We have never allowed the mother of that home to be placed on the cross. And so we don’t know what to do and we tell them gently. And we try to be Christian. And then we lose our temper and we’re angry. And then the words fly. And the peace of Jesus rules no one’s heart. And all the time the Lord Jesus is waiting in the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse out all that from you. And dear ones, it can be. The Holy Spirit can cleanse all those reactions out of your heart. Now do you understand that? I don’t mean fight them. You’ve fought them, I know you have because I fought them. You can fight them. And you can call it the fight of faith even though you’re not being biblical. But you can call it the fight of faith. And you can try to pray them down. But there is no victory. There is no victory until Jesus comes in and cleanses those. And in this experience of Jesus’ death on the cross, the Holy Spirit is able to cleanse those things from you. I don’t know how I could make any more plain the victory, dear ones. Do you see that even if it’s within you, and you don’t express it, that is sin rising up? Do you see that? You come into the church and you see someone whom you know isn’t living a right life and you don’t say a thing. Your face doesn’t even change, but a critical attitude rises inside you. And you just look at them without the pure love of Jesus. That is sin. That is a lack of victory. I think I told you what I did as a pastor. They would come in to me in the office, and makes some slick comment about the sermon which wasn’t very complementary. And I would grip the chair and smile because a pastor always smiles. And I would smile. And inwardly the old self rose up and said, “What right have you to criticize my sermon? They don’t know any Homiletics.” And dear ones, again and again it’s this reaction within. It doesn’t show itself outside except that the eyes begin to get a grey look at the back of them. There becomes a defeat into the eyes of Christians who live with the old self alive inside. There comes that defeated look, there comes that strain to the whole face. You know, when you hold a disease down that brings a strain to the face. And these Christians live strained lives. They carry the burden of Christianity on their back. They do not look into the heavenlies in Jesus. But they struggle along. And you know, they draw up their car to Jesus and they ask him to step in and he steps into the passenger seat and they drive along in their life for six months. And he says, “Turn left.” They turn left. “Turn right.” They turn right. “Go down the hill.” And they go down the hill. Then he says one day, “Go down through those slums.” And they say, “Father, Lord Jesus, I don’t want to spoil my reputation by going down there and doing that kind of thing. No.” And then they do that a few times. And they turnaround one day and Jesus is not there any longer. And the whole assurance of his presence has gone from their hearts. Dear ones, there comes a day when you have to stop the car, and get out, and walk around and let Jesus into the driver seat and then keep your hands off the wheel. Keep your hands off the wheel and say, “Lord Jesus, whatever this means for me, whatever it means, a loss of reputation, it doesn’t matter. I’m dying now with you. I’m willing to die to self. I’m willing to be anything for you.” How do you enter in dear ones? First of all acknowledge the Holy Spirit as a person. First, do that. Don’t treat him as a force or an influence. Start praying to the Holy Spirit. Now would you do that? A lot of people say, “I know what you mean, I know what you mean. Now Lord Jesus, will you help me here?” Jesus has said, “It is to your advantage that I go away because if I did not go away the Holy Spirit would not come unto you. And he’s the counselor. And when he comes he will lead you into all the truth. And he will convict you of sin.” So begin to pray to the Holy Spirit. And if you do this tonight, do it this way, dear ones. Address the Holy Spirit in your prayers and say, “Holy Spirit, will you search my old self and see where it’s still alive in me?” And he’ll take you deep down. And he’ll begin to show you the pride that is deep within you. He’ll begin to show you the irritability that is deep within you. He’ll begin to show the root and the source of these things that you really want to be God. You want your own way all the time. You want to rule your own life and everybody else’s. And the Holy Spirit will reveal this to you. But only he can do it. You can’t do it through introspection. Nee says that introspection is no good to Christians. Introspection does harm because you only look at what you’re prepared to look at. The Holy Spirit will take you into the very heart of yourself where you’ve never seen the evil that is within. Now dear ones, you need to deal with the Holy Spirit in this regard. You know? That’s why at the altar it’s so good to leave your seeking with the Holy Spirit. He is the counselor. He can counsel you. He can reveal to you where this still exists in you. Secondly, it’s necessary to see the sinfulness of that old self and to see that it isn’t just a shortcoming. And it isn’t just a higher realm in the Christian life you’re concerned with but it’s what Romans 8:7 says it is, “The mind of the flesh, the mind of the old self, the mind of sin, the mind of the eye is enmity against God. It is not subject to God’s law neither indeed can it be.” And dear ones, do you see why it’s so silly to struggle? Do you see why it’s pleasing the Devil tonight if you say, “I have some of those things but I’m not going to come up there and deal with them?” It pleases the Devil. Because while you’re a Christian with the old self alive you’re at enmity against God. And that is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. That’s why when you try to get patience or you try to pray anger down you can’t. Because those things are not subject to God’s law. They’re subject only to the power of the evil one within you. And that’s why they need to be crucified. And it’s necessary to see the sinfulness of that. And then to see thirdly, that Jesus has done something for it. You cannot crucify it. You can’t strangle it. But Romans 6:6 says, “That our old self was crucified with Christ.” Do you realize that’s every one of you? Dear ones, all your pride, all your desire to have your own way, all that strong, stiff necked attitude that you have towards God: That has all been destroyed on the cross of Calvary. It has been destroyed on the cross of Calvary. It is dead already. That old self is dead. And that can be made real in your heart because the Holy Spirit can take of the things of Jesus and impart them to you. By a miracle you can receive the application of that victory to your heart. Romans 6:6, “Our old self was crucified with Christ.” And lastly, you need faith. You need faith to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and cleanse out all this and displace it with himself. And what is faith? Some people say, “Oh, if I had only faith. I want to pump up faith.” And they pump up faith. And they say, “Our old self was crucified with Christ. Our old self was crucified with Christ.” And they try auto suggestion instead of faith. Faith is the gift of God. In other words, faith has two sides. It’s first of all a vote of no confidence in self. It’s a readiness to say, “Father, there is no good in me. The anger comes out because that is me. That is what I am. I am anger. It’s not something I do. I am pride. It’s not something I feel. I am envy. It’s not something I show or express. I am envy. I am anger. I am pride. I am a man of unclean lips. Not, I speak unclean words. It’s me that’s wrong. It’s me that has to go to the cross with you. Father, I accept. Holy Spirit, I believe. There is no good thing in me. Even the good things I’ve done in church have been tinged with self and have stolen the glory from God.” In other words, the first part of faith is not a circling to believe dear ones, but a readiness to accept that there is no good thing in me and a readiness, therefore, to consecrate my whole self to God and a readiness to say, “I’m ready to be anything for you Father.” And the Holy Spirit will come into you tonight and he’ll begin to say, “Are you ready to be anything? Are you ready to fail financially for me? Are you ready to fail financially? Are you ready to sell that house and buy one that I want you to buy or to live in rented accommodation? Are you ready to do without that davenport forever? Are you ready to be a failure in your business? Are you ready to do without your own way at home tonight? Are you ready to do without your summer vacation that you’ve planned? Are you ready to die to your own plans, to die to your future?” Ah young brothers and sisters. That’s us, you know. We carry the future on our back. We want to be gods in our future. Jesus says, “He who is crucified has died to the future. He has no future.” Are you ready to be dead to your future? And the Holy Spirit will come down and down the line. And then he will say, “Are you ready to be nothing for Jesus if he wants you to be? Are you ready to be nothing? Someone with no reactions, no responses, no opinions? Are you ready to be nothing for Jesus?” And then there comes a blessed moment when the Holy Spirit witnesses that you are ready to be nothing. And he witnesses that you’re at the place of full consecration. Now the Holy Spirit will tell you that dear ones, you don’t need to struggle to believe that. The Holy Spirit will witness you have reached the ground of your heart. You have seen all that God wants to show you. And then there will spring up in your heart faith. It will spring up in your heart. You don’t grasp it. You don’t work it up. It springs up in your heart when you’re at the place of full consecration. But what many of us do is we try to have faith for the death of self over a partially consecrated life and it’s impossible. We work up a human faith and the thing, as we say, doesn’t take or doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it’s human faith. When you come to the ground of your heart and you’re ready to be anything that the Holy Spirit wants you to be, then faith springs up in your heart and receives the blessed Holy Spirit in. And he comes in. And I don’t know what he’ll do with you. I don’t know how he’ll manifest himself in you. But he will cleanse all that mess out. And he will displace all that unholy spirit that rules your life, and all those unholy desires that you have and those unholy motives. And he will fill you with the very beauty of Jesus. And dear ones, I can’t tell you the victory that comes into your heart when you find the envy does not rise, when you find the anger is not there, when you find the pride does not rise in that situation, and when you find the motive is clean. And the Father is pleased completely with what he sees in your heart. Ah that’s a joy and a victory that is for each one of us, for every one of us. What is it to die to self? You die tonight. My mother is lying, her corpse, in our home in Ireland now. You’re dying and you lie here tonight. And you lie there. And what have you died to? You’ve died to your possessions. It doesn’t matter about those possessions they belong to somebody else now. They’re not yours. You’re not concerned with whether that house ever gets painted. You’re not concerned with all that. Your mind is not burdened with all the things that you’re going to do tomorrow. You’ve died to your possessions. You’ve died to your affections, too. You know, your loved ones may still love you in some sense, but you cannot love them. And it’s a good thing to die to your natural affection, because at times it binds us from doing what we need to do with our dear ones. You die to your natural affections. And you die to your future. You have no future. And you’re called to die tonight to all that. To be as if you were now with Christ in the heavenlies and as if your body belonged to him. And then tonight, let’s say, we all go out of this auditorium, and during the night Jesus comes in and he sees your body lying there. And he gets inside it and he stands up straight. And then he walks out in your body and walks to your work tomorrow and your friends say, “Good to see you. You’re looking well today.” And you say, “Well no, actually I died last night. And this life, this life that I live is not I that am alive but it is Christ that lives within me. And this life I’m living now I live by the faith of the son of God.” And dear ones, that can be your experience tonight. So that only Jesus, only Jesus thinks and feels in your heart. The Holy Spirit is able to do that for you. He is able to do that this very night for you. And I testify that he did it for me and that the Holy Spirit is able to keep you clean. He’s able to keep you clean every day as you trust him and obey him. And it need not be a battle. It is victory, victory all the way, inside and out with no “ifs” and no “buts,” and no qualifications. And it’s available for you. Dear ones, you know you’ve heard God’s word and I trust you now just to respond to the Spirit as he tells you. I wouldn’t stay in my seat if I was defeated. I tell you that. Because the Holy Spirit is present tonight and is able to cleanse you completely and give you victory. So I trust you just to do what God tells you. And if you all have victory then you need to stay in your seats or you need to stay standing. But if you haven’t victory, don’t struggle further. And don’t keep compromising. Don’t keep compromising. Come and receive the Holy Spirit to cleanse your heart from inward sin and give you victory.

Preparation for the Spirit of Anti Christ Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill A dictatorship has been prepared for during previous years. And dear ones, in Cuba the people there had had this decay working in their hearts for many years. So gradually their natures changed, and changed, and changed. And when the dictator came they welcomed him as the savior. And so it was in Germany. It was no sudden event; the decay had been seeping through the nation. The decadence had been working in the people’s hearts. And to those of us on the outside it was a great surprise when the dictator took over but to the people really it was no surprise. The people received him as a savior. It’s when the people’s needs and the people’s willingness to pay the price for the fulfillment of their needs come together that the dictator takes over without a battle. And so it will be with the antichrist. When the antichrist comes there will be no great opposition to him but there will be a great flocking to him from all the corners of the earth. It will be dear ones whose hearts have been deceived, and whose hearts have been prepared, and whose hearts have been looking for the savior but whose hearts have not been filled with the Holy Spirit. It will be those, whose lives are not pervaded by the spirit of God’s truth, and they will flock to the antichrist and they will welcome him as the savior. So it will be with the personal opponent of Jesus Christ who the New Testament says will come at the end of the ages. He will be hailed as a new savior. And you say, “Well, why will this be?” Well you can look for yourself in the New Testament and find out why it will be dear ones. It’s in 1 John 4 and the second half of Verse 3. “And every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God.” And then the second half reads, “This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.” That was 100 A.D. The spirit of the antichrist has been in the world preparing the hearts of many of the so called faithful to receive the antichrist when he comes. And so the Bible itself teaches that there is a spirit of antichrist abroad even in church people, abroad even in those who think they are deep Christians. There is a spirit of antichrist seeping underneath the very Holy Spirit that is trying to get a hold of all our hearts and lives. And that antichrist spirit is preparing us to receive the antichrist. And when he comes, many of us will be deceived into thinking that this is Jesus. This is the second coming of our Savior. Now this is why the Bible warns us to discern spirits. And you can see that warning in 1 John 4:3b there, “This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that is coming, and now it is in the world already.” And 1 John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.” And in 1 John 4:1, the warning to test the spirits, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” And you may say, “Well, why are you preaching about the antichrist?” Well, I’m not preaching because you can stop the antichrist coming. You cannot. You cannot break scripture. The scripture says the antichrist will come and you cannot stop him coming. Even if I could tell you who he was at this moment you could not stop him coming. Perhaps he is in the world already but you will not be able to stop him coming because the scripture cannot be broken. But dear ones, it is imperative that we begin to discern the spirit of antichrist when he moves in our own hearts lest we ourselves be deceived when he comes. That’s why I’m preaching. Not so you will be able to look to the antichrist, and not so that dear ones here will be able to become excited over whom the antichrist might be. Dear ones, those are doctrines of demons. Those are doctrines of demons when these false prophets who do not even prophesy in the name of Jesus say, “The antichrist is born in such and such a land.” That is not what the Bible tells us to look for. But the Bible does tell us to discern our own spirits and discern the spirits that are working in our own hearts so that we ourselves will not be deceived. You see, the Bible comes right down the line on who are Christians and who are not. The Bible comes right down the line by the law and tells us, “If you obey the law then you please God.” The Bible says that right from the first part of the Bible to the last part of the Bible. It tells us that, “Obedience to the law is the mark of the sons of God.” Then Jesus Christ came and he says, “Whoever has my spirit in their hearts, you are the sons of God, you are the children of God.” And Christ comes right down the line and points out the things that we need to have if we claim to be alive in God. And then the Holy Spirit came after Jesus ascended to the Father and he comes right down the line and he says, “If I abide in you, you will have these marks. You will have love, and joy, and peace.” And he comes right down the line. And the law, and Jesus Christ’s life, and the Holy Spirit all testify to us who are the sons of God. Now dear ones, there will come a day when God will allow someone to testify to us who will bring even a clearer judgment. When the antichrist comes many of us who think we are sons of God will find out where we really stand when we follow him as the antichrist. So it is important tonight, on the last night of the conference, to make sure that you have the pure Holy Spirit of truth governing your life. Now you may sit there and say, “Ah, now this is a lot of mumbo jumbo. You don’t need all this stuff to distinguish the antichrist. I have a good mind and I may not be walking in all the light that God has given me but I have a good mind and I can discern the antichrist.” Now dear ones, the Bible makes it plain that it will be difficult to discern the antichrist. One of the reasons it will be difficult is given in 1 John 2:19. You remember, John had said so many antichrists have come. And then the Bible reads, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.” But one reason is the antichrist and the spirit of antichrist is among us ourselves. Another reason is given plainly in Ephesians 6:11, why you cannot discern the antichrist just by your clever mind, “Put on the whole armor of God.” Why? “That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The Devil when he comes in the person of the antichrist will not plainly have a name on his chest saying, “Satan,” or, “Antichrist.” He will come with tricks and with wiles. It will be impossible to discern him however closely you have studied the Bible. The Bible itself is not a sufficient guard against the antichrist. Some of us know we’re not walking in all the will of God. You know it. You know you’re not walking in all the will of God. You know you’re walking a little aside from God’s will and yet you keep pretending to yourself, “Ah, I will not be deceived by the antichrist. I will know him because I will see him. He will look like the antichrist.” He won’t dear ones. The spirit of antichrist was in the false prophets. And here is what is said about the false prophets by Jesus, Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you…” “In wolves clothing?” No but, “Who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” In other words, the antichrist will look like Christ. You see from what you read in the scripture the antichrist will come and will claim to unite all nations and all political powers in himself. He will claim to unite all churches in himself. He will come as the savior of the world. He will say, “Come, bring to me your sick and your dying. Come to me those who are enslaved and need deliverance and I will deliver you.” The antichrist will look like Christ. He will be in sheep’s clothing. You by the cleverness of your own mind, or even by your intimate knowledge of the Bible will not be able to discern him just by that alone. You may say, “Oh, now that’s silly we’ll know him by his works. He will come and he will burn and ravage all before him.” He won’t. He will come with healing medicines. He will come with an offer of peace, mental peace such as we have never had before. He will come and offer to solve the international problems in politics. He will come and promise to solve the economic difficulties we have in our nations. He will come with good works. You doubt it? Well, look at what Jesus says himself. You can find it there in Matthew 7:22, that same chapter. Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty words in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’” And so the antichrist will come with mighty works that imitate the works of Jesus. You remember, what happened when Moses threw down his staff and it turned into a snake. Weren’t they able to imitate the work even of God? How much more will the antichrist be able to imitate the very works of Jesus? Some of us say, “Well, we’ll know him by his fruits. By their fruits you shall know them.” But you know that today already there are imitation fruits all around us. There are so many of us that talk about concern now. We talk about care. You must be concerned. You must show concern for the downtrodden. But it isn’t the loving. It isn’t the loving concern that comes from the heart of Jesus. It’s an artificial, politic, philanthropic concern that ends when its purpose is achieved. But already there is this artificial imitation of love abroad in many of our hearts. Already there is an imitation of Christian joy abroad. And many dear ones cannot discern the difference between real Christian joy and the happiness that seems to exist in people’s minds. There is a false peace abroad not only with the tranquilizers but there is a false peace with the new drugs, there is a false peace with even the blindness that has come in many men’s eyes about the future. There are artificial fruits. We will not be able to discern the antichrist simply by his works or by his fruits. The only way we can prepare for the coming of the antichrist and the only way you can be assured that you will not be deceived by him when he comes is to allow the Holy Spirit tonight to wield his sword in your own spirit and to show you if any of the marks of the spirit of antichrist are present in your life. Now will you do that dear ones? Will you allow the Holy Spirit to wield his own sword in your heart? And will you stop saying, “I was born again on that date.” Or, “I was sanctified on that date.” Or, “I was baptized with the Spirit on that date.” And allow the Holy Spirit himself to speak to your heart. Let’s just look at some of those plain marks in scripture. The first one is found right at the beginning of the Bible. Genesis 3:4-6, “But the serpent,” who is a symbol too of Satan and of the antichrist, “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die. For God knows that when you eat,’” (of that tree of knowledge of good and evil) “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. The spirit of the antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. The spirit of antichrist makes the bullets and allows someone else to fire. “I believe that Mrs. Woodard feels that your children make a little too much noise.” Yeah, that’s the spirit of antichrist. That establishes a hostile triangle. Right? With the one that told it, with the one whose children are being talked about, and with Mrs. Woodard. And you only need four of those and you have 12 dear ones who have distrusting built up in their hearts for each other. No, it is up to Mrs. Woodard to go and tell about the children herself. But the spirit of the whisperer wants to have the privilege of imparting to you some special knowledge that only she has. The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of the whisperer. This is why John Wesley said, “Never say anything about anyone who is absent or anyone who is dead.” Never! You don’t need to talk about them. You don’t need to do you? Are you doing them any good? It’s the spirit of antichrist that is working in your heart at that moment, dear ones. It’s not achieving any good. You know that. It only creates distrust. Or, “You know I don’t think John is really capable of that job.” When it isn’t your responsibility to decide whether he is capable or not and you aren’t asked any opinion but you say to a third member, “I don’t think John is really capable.” That binds you two in an attitude of superiority to John. And eventually John’s spirit feels that and there’s distrust. And the spirit of antichrist has already begun to prepare you to receive him when he comes because he is the spirit of the whisperer. Dear ones, no whisper. And if there’s any whisper in your heart, and if you’ve done that, then seek the Spirit for purification tonight–not only for forgiveness but for purification from that whispering spirit. Let’s look at a second mark of the antichrist. Generally speaking, it’s given by Jesus in Matthew 15:6. And generally speaking, it’s the attitude of the serpent in the Garden of Eden–the attitude that wants to question or disobey God’s word. You remember, the serpent said, “God hath not said.” And it’s that spirit. It’s found in Matthew 15:6. Jesus is speaking to some of those who have the spirit of antichrist living in them. “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.” Now first of all dear ones, “For the sake of your tradition.” So, many of us will say, “Well, I believe that you’re righteous because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you. I believe you’re holy in Christ. I believe you can commit adultery and God looks down upon you and he says, ‘That’s not adultery because you’re in Christ.’” And there are dear ones you say, “This is our tradition. We believe in imputed righteousness. We believe you are holy in Christ. You may not be holy in life but you’re holy in Christ.” And so they have a list of sins every day. And they bring them to Christ and they confess them to him as a matter of course. But they thank them that they are holy in Christ. And Jesus again and again says, “If a man loves me he will keep my words. If a man loves me he will not continue to cut me apart with the nails and the sword.” But they say they are holy in Christ. And Jesus says, “So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.” There are many in whom the spirit of antichrist has made void the word of God for the sake of their tradition. So let’s go to the other side of the spectrum and there are many of us who believe in holiness and we say, “It’s glorious when you come to the place where you die to that old self and where the Holy Spirit cleanses your heart from anger, and jealousy, and impatience, and irritability, and critical spirit. And it’s glorious when you come to that place when you know the old self is dead at last and nailed to the cross.” And then the next day we find we’re a little angry. So for the sake of our tradition, for the sake in our belief in eradication we say, “The sin was taken out so that’s not anger.” And we call black white. For the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God. Now dear ones, those are some of the marks of the spirit of antichrist. And I see some dear ones whom I love and they’ll know what I mean when I say this, many of us do the same with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We say, “I am baptized with the Holy Spirit. I may be irritable in my home, I may cut my wife to bits, I may be angry when friends oppose my doctrine, but I am baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Dear ones, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 15:9, cleanses our hearts by faith. “But for the sake of our tradition we make void the word of God.” One group pretends that sin is not sin with them. The other group pretends that what they’re doing is not sin. And the middle group ignores sin all together. .”And for the sake of our condition, for the sake of our human doctrines, we make void the word of God.” There’s another mark of the spirit of antichrist that is outlined in Colossians 2:16-22. “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human percepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.” And many dear ones who have not really entered into the purifying power of the Holy Spirit have sunk into a false legalism. The Holy Spirit makes you want to obey God’s law. And we have every responsibility to encourage each other to obey the law of God if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. But there is a false legalism. There is a list of don’ts and do’s that many of us arrange to suit ourselves. So we happen not to do this thing so we label that as sin because we have no trouble avoiding it. And we list our don’ts and we create a false legalism that is the very spirit of antichrist because it takes our eyes off the beauty of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus and puts our eyes on men’s precepts and doctrines. There is also another mark of the spirit of antichrist mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.” “Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” Even in Jesus’ day there was a development among the Greeks of Gnostic beliefs. You remember, the Gnostics felt they had an esoteric kind of knowledge. And you needed it. Dear ones, let’s be humble about any knowledge that God has given us. You know there are movements among us in these days which depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge. Esoteric means, you know, a specialized kind of knowledge. “And you must join my group to get it.” Ah, dear ones, that’s dangerous. The Spirit of Jesus is an open spirit full of love, full of joy, with only one assurance: that the Spirit of Christ moves among you, that the Spirit of Christ motivates your every heart and your every action. But it does not depend on an esoteric kind of knowledge that you feel you can bestow on everyone else. That’s the very mark of antichrist. So is the last mark of this kind that I’d ask you to look at. It’s in 2 Peter 2:17-19 and this is the very opposite of the unscriptural legalism. “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” And you see what the Bible lays emphasis on, “They promise them freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption.” And there is an unscriptural freedom, an unscriptural licentiousness. There is a licentiousness that says, “It doesn’t matter what we do. We have the Spirit of Christ within us.” Dear ones, the mark of the Spirit of Christ is plain. It’s plain. And you can’t go on saying day, after day, after day, “Well, I’m angry but I have liberty in the Spirit.” The Bible again, and again right down the line talks about anger. Proverbs says, “Cease from anger and forsake wrath.” Another verse in Proverbs says, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.” Ecclesiastes says, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools and the fool believeth that there is no God.” And Matthew 5:19 you remember, Jesus says, “Think not that I have come to abolish that law and those prophets. I have come not to abolish them but I have come to fulfill them. And I tell you it was said of old that whosoever kills is guilty of the judgment but I say to you whosoever is angry with his brother is guilty of the judgment.” Let us face the truth as it is in God’s word. Let us not say, “We have liberty, we have freedom,” while anger rises and rules our hearts. We have nothing but the spirit of antichrist if that is so, dear ones. Now there is another mark of the spirit of antichrist and you can find it in 1 Timothy 1:6-7. “Certain persons by swerving from these.” You see what “these” are. They’re in Verse 5, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” “Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.” And so there are many today who claim to be able to teach the way of God but they teach it with so much ambiguity that you don’t know which side you’re on. They say, “You should not sin.” But they say, “Well, this may not be sin and you can sin a little.” They say, “Complete obedience to God is necessary but, well, you have to allow for a little disobedience.” And they teach the way so ambiguously that no one knows where they are. They say, “The Holy Spirit cleanses the heart from all sin,” and then they say, “Well, if there is a little rising maybe that’s temptation.” Dear ones, temptation comes from the outside. The fiery darts of the wicked one come into the converted heart and it’s like a can of gasoline inside. And the look, the look of the girl or the temptation to be angry comes in as a fiery dart of the wicked one and comes into the gasoline inside. And there’s a reaction within that bursts out and responds. And the flame goes up within. And the anger is out or the lust is out. And when the sanctified heart meets the fiery darts of the wicked one, the fiery dart of the wicked one comes from the outside and comes into the inside, and into the can of water and it sizzles out. And the reaction and the response is not there. Ah, dear ones, there’s no ambiguity about the sanctified life. You can know whether you’re sanctified. It is clear. There is no response within. There is no rising from within. The temptation comes from without. But the spirit of antichrist is trying to encourage many of us to say, “Well, maybe this, maybe that.” The trumpet of God issues a certain sound. You have no doubt about the trumpet of God. It issues a certain sound. And you know to prepare for battle. But so it is that many dear ones have come into ambiguity in their teaching. Dear ones, there’s no ambiguity in the Bible. It’s full of it, you know. Some people say, “Oh well, should a Christian obey God’s word? Can you really expect them to obey God’s word?” Well it runs through every part of it. Deuteronomy, “This day the Lord thy God has commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments. Thou shall therefore keep them and do them with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Joshua says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth even but thou shall meditate therein day and night that thou may observe to do according to all that is written therein.” And we keep on asking, “Do you really mean that Christians are supposed to obey God’s law?” And Samuel said, “Hath the Lord its great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifices and to harken than the fat of rams.” And we keep asking, “Do you really think a Christian cannot have any sin in his life?” And in Matthew it says, “Not everyone that sayeth unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who doeth the will of my Father which thou in heaven.” And we keep asking, “Do you really think that we cannot afford to disobey God’s law even in one jot or tattle if we’re Christians or sons of God?” Well the Bible says in James 4:17, “If a man knows what is right and fails to do it for him it is sin.” And the Bible says, “Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin.” And then we keep on asking you see, “Well, do you really think that we’re not allowed to sin at all?” And Jesus says, “Therefore whosoever heareth these things of mine and doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock.” And we ask, “Do you really think a Christian is meant to live without sin? Do you really think he’s meant to obey God’s word?” And Jesus says, “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother.” And we say, “Do you really think you can only belong to the family of God if you obey his word?” Well dear ones, where does it stop? I have a list of symptoms of cancer here. Here they are and I read them out to you, you don’t say to me, “I have only one of those.” One is enough. The marks of the flesh are plain. You know they are. The marks of the flesh are there. And you can look them up yourself in Galatians 5:18-23. “But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” You see, you’re not going to be condemned under the law. “Now the words of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.” Now the word of God is plain, if you come to that word and say, “Well, do you mean to say if I feel just a little envy for that singer up there and just envy a little that voice, that I am not walking in the will of God?” Well, you can judge for yourself. You may say, “Do you mean to say if anger rises in my heart at the children that I have some of the works of the flesh in me?” Well look, look at the word. There is no ambiguity in God’s word and there is no ambiguity in the Spirit of Christ. But there is constant ambiguity in the spirit of antichrist. Dear ones, I know many of you need to deal with the Holy Spirit for heart cleansing tonight, and the spirit of antichrist is trying to deceive you and persuade you that the amount of victory that you have already is sufficient. Dear ones, complete victory is possible in the power of the Holy Spirit. Well so it goes on. Another mark of the spirit of antichrist is 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared.” And one of the marks of the spirit of antichrist is the deceitful spirit, the dishonest spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes in and cleanses your heart and begins to lead you in away from your soulish powers and into the purity of the resources of the tree of life, then you become very conscious of the slightest dishonesty. The Holy Spirit makes you treasure absolute honesty, absolute honesty. “That’s a beautiful dress.” Well, if it really is and you really think it is then the Spirit of Jesus would have you say it, and the dear one will know you mean it. And the dear one will know politeness and the dear one will know that cultured sophistication when she sees it. And there’s just a great difference between the two. When the Holy Spirit comes into your heart he makes you treasure honesty. He has nothing to do with deceitful spirits because they are of the spirit of antichrist. He has nothing to do with doctrines of demons. I think there are doctrines about demons as well as doctrines of demons. I think many dear ones want to cast out demons when they should be repenting of carnality. And I think there are a lot of us, you know, that have that doctrine of demons and doctrine about demons. There are doctrines of demons such as Robinson (John A. T. Robinson, Anglican bishop) spreads about the virgin birth of Christ and there are doctrines of demons such as Altizer (Thomas J. J. Altizer, b. 1927) spreads about the reality of God. But there are also doctrines about demons. And many of us are wanting people to cast out demons from us when really the demon is just bad temper. And we need to get down under God and surrender that old self which produces the bad temper to him. But the doctrine of demons and the doctrines about demons are part of the spirit of antichrist. And then you see that it mentions that “their consciences have become seared”. And many wives weep over husbands in these days…husbands who think they are far on in the spirit and have not the Spirit of Jesus ruling in their own hearts and in their homes. You cannot be advanced in the spirit unless the beauty of Jesus rules your life, in your home, and in your work. Just two more, dear ones, and one especially I think that is important. You find it in Ezekiel 34:2-3. These men were produced by the spirit of antichrist even in Old Testament times. “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ho, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!” A shepherd, you see, is one who feeds. But you’ve been feeding yourselves. “Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the wild beasts.” There are many who feel they have advanced far in the Christian faith and they are ruled by selfishness. And so I say to my dear brothers and sisters whom I love, it is glorious that there will come a day when the sons of God will be revealed. It is glorious that Jesus is building for himself a great body that will rise up and glorify his Father in heaven even has he glorified his Father. It is glorious that there will be a great day when the sons of God will be revealed. And that’s great, but dear ones, let’s be careful. Let’s be careful that we do not become preoccupied with the revelation of us as the sons of God lest we find ourselves feeding ourselves instead of feeding the sheep. After all, there’s a time to sow and a time to reap. There is a time to be born and a time to die. There’s a time to save the lost and to see the Holy Spirit filling others with the beauty of Jesus and with the power of Jesus. And there is a time for the revelation of the sons of God. And no doubt God will lead us forward bit-by-bit. We don’t have to keep looking ahead and trying to see what is going to happen. We can trust the Holy Spirit to prepare us for that day. Let us be careful that none of the advancement that we have in the Christian faith becomes a selfish delight in our position. Let us be careful that we are found doing what God has given us to do. The commission, the great commission, my dear brother said, has never been withdrawn. We are still called to go and preach the gospel to all the world. And we are to be found doing that when Jesus comes. Well, the very last mark of the spirit of antichrist is there in the original chapters we were studying. 1 John 2:22, “Who is the liar?” “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” You mean, “I say, God is not the Father? Jesus is not the Son?” No. Deny means, make nothing of the Father and make nothing of the Son. Perhaps the greatest and clearest mark of the spirit of antichrist is that the antichrist will rise in the place of Jesus. He will take the place that Jesus himself ought to have and the spirit of antichrist is found in its clearest in our own hearts, in our own selves when we want to rise up and rule our own lives. And the dear one comes home, and Jesus wants to be loving to that dear one, but the old self wants to rise up and cut the dear one apart. Jesus wants to rise up in us and get the glory and the service. He wants to receive the glory to himself and our old self rises up and we want all men to look at us. We want every eye to see what we have done. There’s a great pride rises up within us. We not only want our way so that Jesus will not have his way, but we want our glory so he will not have his glory. There’s a great desire to be praised, a great desire to be noticed that rises up in the heart that is ruled by the Spirit of antichrist. Because you see, the antichrist is already preparing that heart for himself. He’s already preparing that heart so that that heart will recognize him when he comes. That heart will bury down the pride, will bury down the envy and the jealousy but that is all seeping underneath and will rise up to receive the antichrist when he arrives. There are only two guardians against the spirit of antichrist. There is first of all in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, the scripture itself. You can look at it there. Paul explained to Timothy that there would come days of stress and surely those days are already upon us when men would be lovers of self rather than lovers of God. And then he says there is only one guard on that day. “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” And in Verse 14 he says in these days, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.” And the second guardian against the spirit of antichrist is found in John 16:13. And it is as you can guess yourselves, the true Holy Spirit of truth. “When the Spirit of truth comes,” into your heart, “He will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” There will come a day either before you and I die, or soon after it, when a glorious figure will appear in our world and he will have apparently the fruits of the spirit and he will do many might works such as Jesus himself did. And that great figure will call to himself all who believe in him, all who respect what he is. And great, great numbers of even the elect will come towards him and be deceived. And their judgment will have already taken place. And you say, “How can I prepare for that day?” Allow the Holy Spirit to wield his sword in your heart tonight and be honest. Now many of you have been arguing haven’t you? I know it because God told me. Many of you have been arguing with God, and you’ve been saying, “Victorious life can’t be that victorious.” A little anger? A little envy? A little jealousy? And the spirit of antichrist is already at work in you. Dear ones, the only way to prepare is to be open with God–open with God, direct with him and honest now and admit that you are what you are. And you say, “What can be done?” Well at this present time the Holy Spirit is here among us. At this present time we are privileged to have the Holy Spirit in our midst. There will come a day when he will be withdrawn, but the Holy Spirit is here tonight. And his word is here and you know his word well enough during this past week to know where you stand. The Holy Spirit is able to show you where the spirit of antichrist still rules in your heart and where you yourself are being prepared for his coming. You need to come to the altar tonight and allow the Holy Spirit to do that. Ask him, “Holy Spirit of truth, show me where the spirit of antichrist still rules in my heart. Show me where I am not being obedient to you.” And the Holy Spirit will show you and then you need to see that all that spirit of antichrist within you, all that old self was crucified with Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is able to crucify it now in you. He is able to cleanse out all that and fill you with himself so that when the antichrist comes the Holy Spirit will cry in your heart, “That is the antichrist.” But he can only cry that in the heart of one who is being utterly obedient to him, today. Well, are you such a one? And will you have such a counselor on that fateful day? I pray that you will. I pray that you’ll receive him tonight if you haven’t received him already. Let us pray. Loving Father, we trust you now to do your work. Blessed Holy Spirit, your word has been proclaimed and we trust you to minister to each of us as we need that we may not be found following the wrong man on that fateful day. We trust you Holy Spirit, now to minister to us and to draw out the ones that need to take you fully into their hearts and surrender their spirits completely to you. For the glory of Jesus, our Savior, amen.

Healing in the Christian Life 1 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill It’s important for each one of us not only that we be strong in our spiritual life, but also to be strong and healthy physically. You can easily see that if your body continues to be weak, it doesn’t matter how strong a spirit you have, or how strong or healthy a mind and emotions you may have. If your body is weak then the life cannot flow out to the outside world. Actually what happens is, the spirit life that God gives you damns up inside you. You remember — the natural life of our spirit is expressed in the last few Psalms in the Book of Psalms. Any of those Psalms at the very end of the book really express the normal state of our spirits — anywhere from Psalms 144 to 150. If you look at Psalm 144 this is the normal activity of our spirits when they’re filled with the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is like a fountain in the earth, and it’s continually rising up to God with this kind of attitude: Psalm 144:1-2: “Blessed by the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; my rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge.” Psalm 145 verses 1 and 2: “I will extol thee, my God and King, and bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day I will bless thee, and praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” Psalm 146 verses 1 and 2: “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have being.” That’s the normal attitude of our spirits. Now if your body is racked with sickness, do you see that it will block the outflow of your spirit up to God? You’ve noticed that even with a cold. A cold is often enough to block your spirit inside you so that it cannot rise up to God and it certainly can’t go out to other people. You’ve noticed with a cold it kind of closes you in from other people. Any sickness kind of closes you in and blocks your spirit off. Now that’s why it’s so vital for our body to experience the wholeness that our spirits experience and that our souls experience. That’s why over the next few Sundays I’d like to talk just about sickness — because sickness is something that we’re very conscious of in our everyday lives, and it’s very important for us to know what our attitude to sickness should be and how we should view sickness, and then how God can heal sickness. Then you can see that if we don’t move into this realm, brothers and sisters — then we’ll always be crippled children of God — perhaps with spirits that are filled with his Holy Spirit and perhaps with minds that are renewed, and emotions that are balanced — but with weak, tired, sick bodies that continually bear in on our spirits, press our spirits down, and repress our spirits, and make us in every way appear to the world really as unregenerate people. Now, that’s what Jesus meant when he referred to the disciplines in Matthew 26:41. It really didn’t matter what the desire of their spirit was, because the old body held them back from doing what he had asked them to do. And so it is with us. If our bodies are not made whole as he wants them to be, then repeatedly we’ll find ourselves in the position of the disciples there. Matthew 26:41 tells what takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane: “’Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’” It wasn’t the old self that Jesus meant was weak there. It was the body. The old body couldn’t keep awake any longer — and if our bodies don’t share the strength of Jesus then we’ll find ourselves often in that position. I put it to you: have you not done that? Have you not often found that there was a real desire in you to do something for God, or to spend time in prayer – and yet the old body wouldn’t respond? And it seemed as if you had a supernatural spirit but you had only an old natural body that wouldn’t rise to it. Now that’s why it’s vital, you can see, to have a body that fits your spirit and matches really what he wants you to do. Now as we’re talking about this business of sickness the next two or three Sundays, will you really look to Jesus to break the bread for you? Will you do that? Don’t look to me. Don’t do that, loved ones. Don’t look to preachers, or teachers to break the bread for you. I’ll say what Jesus guides me to say but you see you must ask the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, will you explain this to me in a way that I will understand?” Otherwise brothers and sisters you’ll go off on all kinds of wild ideas. It’ll take us two or three Sundays to deal with the whole business of sickness. We’ll only talk about part of it tonight. So it’s vital for you to look to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, what do you want me to receive?” Now the reason I say this is found in 2 Timothy 3:6-7. It is really relevant to this kind of teaching about the deeper life. Paul isn’t really against women’s liberation here. He’s talking about those men among us who do the same thing — but in this situation, it was just women that were involved. 2 Timothy 3:6: “For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses.” And then verse 7: “who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” Now that’s why I say — look to the Holy Spirit. Don’t run away home tonight and take a whole lot of things that I share and then just without any question accept them all. And then take something else that somebody else says and pile those things on top. One moment you’ll be way over in this direction with healing, and another moment you’ll be way over in this direction, and then you’ll be down the middle for a while until you hear somebody else’s take on healing. Now loved ones, don’t do that. Look to the Holy Spirit tonight and say, “Holy Spirit, I don’t want to be a person like that, swayed to and fro by anybody who comes with any gospel. I want your word for me.” You can see each of us are at different stages, brothers and sisters. Each of us are at different stages in regards to our bodies tonight, and only the Holy Spirit can minister to you what will be life for you. So that’s important — otherwise we get into all kinds of extremes. Now maybe it would be good to look at what Jesus’ attitude to sickness was. Let’s look at it first in Romans 8:2 and you can see there the general teaching of the Bible about sickness. Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.” The Bible links sin and death as two results of the fall of mankind. Death is the ultimate consequence of sickness. So really the Bible links sin and death, or sin and sickness together. In fact, God implies that there was no death until men rebelled against God. You can see that in Genesis 3:19. There you remember God is speaking to Adam and telling him the consequences of this fall. Genesis 3:19: “’In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’” Death was a result that followed upon man rebelling against God. In other words, sin and sickness are twin results of the fall and God and Jesus look upon them as that. They don’t look upon sickness as a natural thing. They look upon sickness and death as something that is not God’s perfect will for us, and they tie them both up together –sin and death, sin and sickness. Now Jesus came with a message about both of those. He came to completely recapitulate our lives and completely reverse the effects of the fall. So he came not only preaching forgiveness of sin but he came preaching healing of sickness. You can see it there in the first day of his ministry in Matthew 4. The very first day of his ministry includes the emphasis on these two things. He came not only to forgive sins but he came to heal sickness. Matthew 4:17: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” That was his dealing with sin and forgiveness of sins. Then in Verse 23: “And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.” Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom and healed every infirmity and every disease. So Jesus came both forgiving sins and healing sicknesses, and he regarded both as equally important parts of his ministry. When he was sending out the seventy he gave them the same commission. You have it there in Luke 9:1-2: “And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal.” You can’t get away from it, dear ones — as you go right through the Bible you find that God looks upon sin and sickness as both enemies of his in people’s lives and both of them as results of the fall of mankind. These are both mentioned in that famous chapter — Isaiah 53 — that talks about Jesus’ death and the effects of his death. Isaiah 53:4-5: “Surely he has born our griefs.” You see the footnote “x” in the RSV and you look down to the bottom, “Or sicknesses.” The Hebrew word is actually sicknesses. “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows,” and the footnote “y” goes down to the word “pains” and the Hebrew is “pains.” “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” Then in Verse 5: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.” That’s continually the emphasis in the Bible — that Jesus’ death did something not only for our sins but for our sicknesses. Jesus came not only to forgive us our sins but to heal our bodies and to heal sickness. You find it in Psalms 103:1 and 3: “Bless the Lord oh my soul,… who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.” So brothers and sisters it’s very hard for us to split sickness from sin. It’s very hard for us to say, “Jesus emphasized only forgiveness of sins.” It’s just very difficult to read anything about the gospel, or anything about the description of our fall from God’s fellowship, and not to find sin and sickness linked together — and that Jesus really dealt with both. Sometimes he healed first. That’s right. Sometimes he healed first and sometimes he forgave people their sins first. I think this was really because the Jews at that time found it easier to believe for healing. That’s strange. They found it easier to believe that Jesus was healing diseases than he was forgiving sins and so Jesus therefore dealt with sickness. He dealt with people where they were. If they respected his power in healing then he healed first in various situations. Matthew 9:5 was one of them where obviously Jesus himself would have been inclined to forgive the man his sins — but then he saw the attitude of the Jews. He in that case did the thing that they would find it easier to recognize. Matthew 9:5: “’For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk”?’” Then Verse 6 says, “’But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he then said to the paralytic – ‘Rise, take up your bed and go home.’ And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.” Jesus healed a man in that case because they were readier to believe in healing and the power to heal. Then once they believed that, he felt they would begin to move on and see, “Well, if he can heal sickness, then maybe what he says about the forgiveness of sins is true.” Now in our day it’s the other way around. We find it easier in our churches to emphasize, “Oh yeah, Jesus can forgive your sins, forgive your sins.” But we find it difficult to believe that he can heal our sicknesses. So Jesus has to deal with us in a different way. And yet it is important to see that really it’s both that Jesus wants done. Luke 5:24 shows this: “’But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he said to the man who was paralyzed – ‘I say to you, rise, take up your bed and go home.’” But then in Verse 20, it says: “And when he saw their faith he said, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.’” So it’s Jesus’ will that both things should take place. Now that isn’t our attitude. So often our attitude is that sin — which we can see — belongs to the spiritual realm and is evil — but we feel sickness is in the natural realm and it may be evil or it may be good. Now do you see that Jesus didn’t take that attitude? Jesus didn’t say, “Sickness is an option for Christians.” He implied that sickness was part of the work of the devil and that as it says in 1 John 3:8: “Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.” In Acts 10:38, Peter says: “’How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.’” Jesus regarded sickness as an oppression or a work of the devil. So, brothers and sisters, if we ever regard sickness as just a natural thing in our lives — do you see we’re treating a work of the devil as something natural? That’s what he wants. He wants us to treat his works as something natural — something that we ought to expect in the every-day world. And once he can deceive us into that, then half the battle is won as far as he is concerned. But you can see Jesus doesn’t think of it that way at all. He thinks of sin as an enemy of his Father and sickness as an enemy of his Father and he opposes both. Now maybe it would be good to see about the use and the meaning of sickness. Could God ever use sickness to chastise us? We say staunchly, “Never. Never.” Don’t we? You know we do it. We react against that old puritanical old-fashioned belief that anyone who was sick was a sinner and so we had reacted away to the other extreme and we say, “No, God never uses sickness to chastise us.” But what then is the place of sickness in the believer? Now it might be good to see why we reacted in that way. It’s because of what it says in John 9:3. You remember the man who was born blind. This is the basis of our attitude to sickness whereby we say, “No, God would never use sickness to chastise his children.” John 9:2-3: “And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.’” We then tend to say, “There it is in black and white — sin never causes sickness. That is what Jesus is saying: ‘This man didn’t sin nor did his parents sin. Sickness has nothing to do with sin.’ And God therefore could never use sickness to chastise his children.” Now do you see first of all that this sickness is utterly different from what we’re talking about in believers? This sickness was something the man was born with so it was of a different nature entirely to the sicknesses that come upon God’s children. It was a different sickness — it was one that the man was born with. It was a different situation. Secondly, Jesus isn’t saying, “No, sickness is never due to sin.” He’s just saying, “In this case it wasn’t this man that sinned nor was it his parents that sinned.” And Jesus is really saying, “Every time you see a sick person don’t immediately say that they have sinned.” But do you see that’s a far cry from saying sickness is never due to sin? Now brothers and sisters, do you see the two extremes? Jesus is saying, “Look, every time you see a sick person — don’t immediately say like Jesus’ disciples, ‘This man has sinned or his parents have sinned.’” Jesus is saying, “That’s not always the case. There are many people who are sick who haven’t sinned and brought their sickness upon themselves.” But that’s a far cry from Jesus saying, “No, my Father never uses sickness to draw attention to any sin in your life.” Now do you see it’s important for us to balance that out, loved ones? It’s important for us to accept what Jesus says. Every time you see a sick person you can’t say, “Ah, you’ve sinned greatly because you have a great sickness.” But on the other hand you shouldn’t run to the other extreme and say, “No, God never uses sickness to chastise his children.” In fact, there are some indications in the Bible that God can use what is really a work of Satan. God never sends sickness. God doesn’t send sickness and then send his Son to die for sickness. You can see how that doesn’t make sense. You can’t have A and not-A. You can’t have God opposing sickness and then sending sickness. You can’t have him sending sickness upon the earth and then sending his Son to take away sickness. But God can use a work of Satan and he can use it for his own purposes. Now let’s just look at some of the verses that would help us with that. 1 Corinthians 11:30-32, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” Now brothers and sisters you can see in Verse 30 that that can mean only spiritual death when you drink the body and blood of Jesus without discerning or without judging yourself, and without examining yourself about your sins. But it can mean really what it says, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged.” In other words, if you examined yourself, Paul says, “You should not have to be judged by God or brought to account by him. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened.” Of course the obvious implication with that verse with the previous one is that when we are chastened by sickness, then, “We are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” It is for a good purpose. Now that’s one of the verses that suggests how God uses a sickness caused by Satan for God’s purpose. Now let’s look at another verse– James 5:16. It makes sense of this verse which perhaps many of us have often wondered why the two facts are mentioned in this verse. James 5:16, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” Do you see that God connects confession of sins with praying that you may be healed? You see the previous verse has the same emphasis (Verse 15): “And the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” The two are closely connected — the confession of sins and the healing of sickness. Do you see that the normal state of God’s children is the normal state of the Israelites? Now that’s the state described in Exodus 15:26. Here God is speaking: “’If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord, your healer.’” Now that’s the normal state of the children of God, that God puts or allows Satan to put none of the diseases upon us that ordinary non-Christians experience — if we will abide by his statutes. But do you see that when the Father sees us needing chastening, then he is able to use a work of Satan to bring us to a place of self-examination? Now what is very important for us to see is that it is not just connected with ordinary sin. That’s important. Otherwise if we teach that it’s always connected with sin, anybody with a cold tonight is in bad shape and you better just keep your coughs quiet! Otherwise everybody will look at you and say, “Ha-ha! You’re sinning like mad again.” So it’s very important to see that chastening is not simply connected with sin. It is also connected with the growth in Christ-likeness. God chastens his children whom he loves. Maybe it would be good to settle that one from Jesus’ own words. When we talk about God using sickness to chasten his children we’re not talking only about sin. We may be talking about sin — but we are not necessarily talking about sin. You can be talking about a new position of Christ-likeness into which God is trying to bring his children. Luke 13:2 deals with this: “And he answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus?’” So again it’s Jesus’ balanced way of seeing things. It’s Jesus saying, “No, every time you see somebody who is sick, don’t say, ‘Ah, they must have sinned.’” Because God is concerned with not only bringing us into an awareness of sin in our lives, but with bringing us into new positions of Christ-likeness. Job is an example of that. If you look at Job 1:7-12 you’ll find that Job was not regarded really in any way as a great sinner by God. Job 1:7-12: “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Whence have you come?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’” Now that’s God obviously saying that Job was a blameless and upright man as far as God was concerned. Continuing on in this passage: “Then Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for naught? Has thou not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face.’ And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand.’” That is, don’t destroy his physical self. “So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.” And you remember, God allowed Satan to bring all kinds of sicknesses, and boils, and pains, and sufferings to Job. So God will use sickness sent by Satan — first of all, to bring us into an awareness of some sin that there may be in our lives, and secondly, to bring us into a new place of Christ-likeness. Now do you see that this affects our whole attitude to sickness when it comes — our response to sickness? Do you see that we shouldn’t scurry around looking for a cure? That’s our attitude, isn’t it? We say, “Sickness is of Satan, so once it comes about we must get a cure. We must get a cure either by doctor, by medicine, by drugs, by a healer, anything — but we must get a cure. We must get rid of the sickness.” Now brothers and sisters, do you see that that isn’t the attitude of children of God who trust their Father? The attitude of children of God is, “Father, you said you would put none of these sicknesses upon me. Now, is there any way in which I have become self-reliant in your work, or in which I have become greedy in your work? Or, is there any sin that is lodging in my life that you are trying to bring before my mind? Because, Father, once I confess that and turn from it, I know I won’t have to try to whip myself into a frenzy to believe that you’re healing. I know that the healing life will flow from Jesus and will fill me, and heal me, and make me whole.” Loved ones, that is to be our attitude to sickness. There shouldn’t be this panic and this terrible fear: “We must get rid of it at all costs.” But there should be the attitude of children who have a loving dear Father and we should go to him and say, “Now Father, it’s your own word in Exodus that you’ll put none of these diseases upon me. Now I can only believe that you’re using this sickness that Satan has brought to bring something before my mind. Now Father, is there any sin in me that is there?” Loved ones, do you see you don’t burrow into yourself in introspection? You ask the Father, you listen to the Holy Spirit, and if he brings the sin before you, you repent. You confess it. You make the thing right with somebody else if the sin has been against somebody else, or if it is against God you make it right with him. And then you look to the Father and you say, “Father, I will receive healing just as you want me to receive it now. I know it is here. I know it is my position according to your word to receive healing.” Now if there is no sin you see you need to repent of — you go before the Holy Spirit and you ask, “Holy Spirit, is there any new place you want me to come in here? Is there any new place, new position in Jesus that you want me to enter into?” Loved ones, I honestly think that we don’t realize how much Jesus wants us to draw into an experience of his own sufferings. I think we really feel it’s a superficial and easy thing to become like Jesus. It isn’t, loved ones. If Jesus had to learn obedience through suffering, do you see that we are called into the same thing? We like to think that once we’ve reckoned ourselves dead with Christ then that’s the end of it. But do you see that God requires of us permission at that point to begin to bring us into something of Jesus’ sufferings? Do you see that there’s a self-love, there are self-desires, there is a self will in us that has to be burned out? It cannot be thought out or prayed out — it has to be burned out and at times suffered out. And after we’ve entered into a willingness to be crucified with Jesus, then we have the glory of walking the Calvary road with Jesus. I think I shared with you before that I used to think all Jesus was asking me was: would I be willing to be nothing? Would I be willing to be a failure? Would I be willing not to have my own desires? Then as the years passed I found that he “did the dirty on me.” He began to ask me to actually walk into these things. He tested the old will inside and really was saying, “Would you really be willing? Would you really be willing? Is this bit of you dead? Is this bit of you dead? Is this bit of you dead?” He’d stick needles in to see if that bit was dead. That’s the Father showing that really you can only come into a real Christ-likeness if you’re willing to take part in Jesus’ own suffering. I know it’s a hard teaching. You find that there in Philippians 3:10: “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” It’s pretty explicit that Paul is saying, “There is a sense in which we are to share Jesus’ suffering and become like him in his death.” It’s only in his death that we can become like him. So God will often use sickness to bring us into a place with Jesus that is close to his heart. So God uses sickness at times to point out actual positive sin in our lives. At other times he uses sickness to try to bring us into a new place with himself, a new position in Jesus. Of course the reason is so that we will produce work that is lasting. If you are in the same place as Jesus, the work that God does through you will be lasting. Now do you remember that Paul makes a distinction between two kinds of work? He talks about the foundation of Jesus and then about the building that men put upon it. The building would be things like the body here that we’re building, or Fish Enterprises {a business affiliated with Campus Church and Rev. O’Neill}, or a work that God does through you in the world or through all of us. Paul talks about this in I Corinthians 3:12: “Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw” — you see, either precious stones, or stubble (wood, hay, or straw); “– each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day” — that is, the Day of judgment — “will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” Superficial shallow work that has been done by shallow little Christians who have entered into none of the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings — that work will be wood, hay, and stubble and will not last. So it’s vital for us to be willing to regard our sicknesses as a possible way that God has in bringing us close to himself — never to regard that that sickness is his final will for us. God’s ideal will for us is perfect health. But it is his permissive will — as it was his permissive will to use suffering with Jesus — to bring us into an awareness of a new place with himself. Now I’d just share with you a book that I’ve just started to read. I suppose I should have read it a long time ago. It’s a book with a message similar to that of The Calvary Road by Roy Hession. The Calvary Road book deals with the life of fellowship with Jesus’ sufferings after the crisis experience of being filled with the Spirit. You can see there are a lot of naïve people running around filled with the Spirit saying, “Hallelujah, and Amen, we’re filled with the Spirit.” But bless their hearts — they have turned from any of the fellowship of Jesus’ suffering. Anything that is suffering in any way or travail they have turned from and said, “No, no, that must be wrong. That must be wrong. Things must be just Hallelujah and Amen all the time.” Well it is. But it’s often a deep Hallelujah and a deep Amen from the heart of a spirit that has come unto the cross with Jesus in a new way. This is partly what is talked about in this book that I’m referring to, “Hind’s Feet on High Places.” God talks in his Word about how we will skip on the mountains on the high places like hinds — light, and easily, and agilely. Of course this woman who is the author of this book is talking about how a person comes to those high places and she has an allegorical conversation between a person in the book and her Lord. I’ll just read a little of the preface: “But the high places of victory and union with Christ cannot be reached by any mental reckoning of self to be dead to sin, or by seeking to devise some way or discipline by which the will can be crucified. The only way is by learning to accept day-by-day the actual conditions and tests permitted by God, by a continually repeated laying down of our own will and acceptance of his as it is presented to us in the form of the people with whom we have to live and work and in the things which happen to us. Every acceptance of his will becomes an altar of sacrifice.” There’s a conversation found on page 41 of the book. Jesus introduces the main character in the book to the two helpers who will bring her unto the high places — into the victorious life. She looks at them in horror. He’s just told her their names. She says: “‘I can’t go with them. I can’t! I can’t! Oh my Lord Shepherd, why do you do this to me? How can I travel in their company? It is more than I can bear. You tell me the mountain way is so steep and difficult that I cannot climb it alone. Then why, oh why, must You make Sorrow and Suffering my companions?’” Those were the two companions that Jesus introduced her to — Sorrow and Suffering. ‘“Couldn’t You have given Joy and Peace to go with me, to strengthen me and encourage me and help me on the difficult way? I never thought you would do this to me!’ And she burst into tears.” “A strange look passed over the Shepherd’s face as he listened to this outburst, then looking at the veiled figures as he spoke he answered very gently, ‘Joy and Peace. Are those the companions you would choose for yourself? You remember your promise, to accept the helpers that I would give, because you believed that I would choose the very best possible guides for you. Will you still trust me, Much-Afraid?’” That was the name she was given – Much-Afraid. “’Will you go with them, or do you wish to turn back to the Valley, and to all your Fearing relatives, to Craven Fear himself?’” Now loved ones, do you see that it brings a new meaning into sickness if we can see that it’s not a matter of scurrying away to the nearest faith healer, or scurrying away to the first doctor — but rather a going to our Father first and saying, “Lord, why has this come upon me? I know you can keep this from me. Why have you allowed it to come upon me? What do you want me to repent of, or what new position into Jesus do you want me to enter?” It’s this way that God begins to expose any self that is still there. Loved ones, we will say in the glory of health, “Father, I will take from your hand whatever you choose to give me.” But in the midst of sickness God can tell whether we meant that or not. We will say in the glory of health, “Lord, I don’t care what happens to me. I will look to you alone.” But when sickness comes and we get wrapped up in the symptoms and we begin to wonder, “Are we hot enough? Or, “Are we too cold?” Or, “Are those people giving me the right sympathy?” Or, “Are they treating me right? Am I looking after myself right?” As we get involved more and more in the symptoms of our sickness, we see that God is using that sickness to expose the self that we thought was absolutely on the cross. Do you see that what God wants is the midst of sickness is a forgetfulness of the sickness? That’s it. That proves to him that we’re where he wants us to be. Where we forget the sickness and we say, “Father, I thank you for allowing this to come upon me. I know it’s here for some reason. Now will you reveal to me whether it’s positive sin in me, or whether it’s a new place of completeness in Jesus that you want me to enter into?” Then he wants us to be content to have the sickness as long as he wants us to have it. Because the truth is, loved ones, once the cause or the reason for the sickness is removed, the sickness will be healed. The sickness will be healed once the reason is dealt with. But if we get down under it and we start yielding to Satan and saying, “Ah, I’m a sinner. I’m a sinner. Something must be wrong,” and we don’t look to the loving healer himself — then of course the sickness will work death in us. Now loved ones, I think that’s maybe as far as we should go tonight — just about God’s attitude to sickness, and our attitude, and then how God can use sickness.

Healing in the Christian Life 2 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Tonight I’d like to continue on talking about what the Bible says about sickness and death as they apply to Christians, and begin with the overall general will of God for us as it’s explained there. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is God’s will for us. And there it is again in 1 Thessalonians 4:3: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification,” — that is, your being made completely like him. Of course being made completely like him means your spirit, and soul, and body will be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that’s God’s will for our bodies. We ought to see that plainly. That was not the state of our bodies after we rebelled against God, you remember. We became independent of God and our bodies suffered the same kind of death really that our souls and our spirits suffered. You find it there in Genesis 3:19. As we rebelled against God, so we suffered death in our spirits, and death in our souls, and death in our bodies. Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Death came into the world, and all that leads up to death in the way of sickness resulted from us rebelling against God. It worked just this way. If we had followed God’s will we would have received his approval continually on our lives. Our consciences would have been clean, we would have sensed that the Father in the heaven above enjoys us and approves of us. There would have been a freedom from any strain. When we lacked that approval by rebelling against him, we began to try and justify ourselves. We entered into all the strain of trying to justify ourselves and prove ourselves to everybody. That brought all the strain and stress diseases that bring too much adrenaline and acid into the stomach and bring the ulcers and create all the sicknesses that come from strain and stress. If we had really obeyed God we would have enjoyed just doing what he wanted us to do. That would have been all the enjoyment that we needed. But when we didn’t receive that enjoyment of operating and exercising our personalities fully in the way he wanted us to, then we wanted to get enjoyment for ourselves. So you remember we turned hunger into gluttony and we turned the desire to reproduce ourselves into lust. And lust and gluttony brought a whole series of diseases and sicknesses within — and our bodies became weak and out of shape. If we had listened to God we would have had pure direction about how we should use the world. Instead of that we misused the world and we perverted the world itself. We used it actually to harm us and to bring other diseases to us. So you see, disease set in on top of sin and is a direct result of sin. No doubt even viruses and germs would not be in the world if we loved each other enough to keep clean, and to keep pure, and to maintain the world under God’s will and in submission to his plan. But because we didn’t listen to God and follow his plan, all these sicknesses followed and all these diseases were the result. It was because of that that we read in Romans 8:20-22 what God did. The whole world suffered this kind of fall. Romans 8:20-22: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now.” So the whole natural creation fell into that same kind of strain. That coupled with us men and us woman resulted in us having minds that were impaired, emotions that were unbalanced, and bodies that became very, very weak. So weak that we’re only a shadow of the great giants of people that we were at the very beginning of creation. Now, God himself always connects up sickness with this rebellion against him. He really does, brothers and sisters. God always connects the two up together. You can see it there in Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.” That’s the law of sin and death — that as we rebelled against God we lacked his approval, and we fell into justifying ourselves. We created strain and stress in our bodies, resulting in all the adrenaline pumping into the stomach and the acid and bringing the diseases that come with stress. It resulted in a lack of direction, so that we perverted the world and misused it against ourselves. It resulted in us seeking enjoyment through lust and gluttony which in its turn weakened and destroyed our bodies. That’s the law of sin and death, and God always connects the two up together. Death is the ultimate result of sickness and sin, and sickness God always sees as a result of us rebelling against him. Jesus always connected them both together in his ministry. He always said, “I oppose both — not just sin but sickness also. They’re both a result of your rebellion against God.” You have it there in Mark 1:15. You can really turn to any gospel that describes Jesus’ first day in his ministry and you find that they all emphasize both these sides of his ministry. The emphasis is on sin as an enemy of God and the emphasis is on sickness. He opposed both sin and sickness. Mark 1:15: “’The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.’” Jesus first called men to turn from sin. And then verses 22-23 go on: “And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” As soon as Jesus appears, sickness exposed itself. Then you remember that Jesus deals with the sickness. Jesus always connected the two together. If you look at Matthew 9:5 he connected the two up together. Matthew 9:5: “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk?’” Jesus obviously saw a connection between the sickness and the sin because he mentioned that both or either of those would deal with the case at hand. Last Sunday we suggested that why he so often dealt with sickness was that the Jews and the Gentiles at that time found it easier to believe in healing than they did in forgiveness of sins. Now in our day it’s almost the other way around. Then he entrusted to us really the job of removing both when he sent out the apostles and said, “You are to preach the gospel of the kingdom and you are to heal all diseases.” Now that is why we say that sin and sickness are connected up together. Now, why did God allow sickness to continue if it wasn’t his will? Why did he not come down after the fall of mankind and simply clean up the whole earth and wipe out cancer, and wipe out gonorrhea, and wipe out leprosy? Why did God not just come down and clean up all sicknesses? Well, the first reason, dear ones, is in Genesis 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’” The very fact that God gave a commandment to man proves that he gave him free will. God had to allow man to choose what he wanted. You can see that if man chooses rebellion against God and therefore sickness, really God is cancelling out man’s free will if he comes down and wipes out sickness. Or if God came down and wiped out sin in every generation he would really be saying, “No, you can only choose it as long as you want, but I come down and cancel it out as soon as you die.” In other words, the first reason God had to allow sickness to continue was because man had chosen it and God was determined most of all to make man be like himself. He himself had a free will, so he was committed to preserving man’s free will even if he had to let sickness run rampant. The second reason you’ll see is in Genesis 3:4: “But the serpent,” Satan, “said to the woman, ‘You will not die.’” The devil persuaded man that they wouldn’t die. They could rebel against God — live independently of him — and they wouldn’t die. God had to leave sickness in the world to show man that he would die. Sickness is one of God’s ways of showing man that all is not right in creation. You know that the whole world is bent on making it normal and natural to live as if there’s no creator. In great parts of the world that has become almost possible. There are many people who don’t think there is a creator at all. Do you see that Satan’s job was to persuade us that we’d never die? And God’s job was to leave some signs in the earth that we would die — indeed, that we were in the process of death. That explains that verse that we read, that God subjected the creation to futility. He subjected it in hope. He allowed disease and sickness to come as the natural consequences of our sin so that we ourselves would see that all is not right. That’s the second reason why God allowed sickness to continue. And the third reason really is an extension of that last one. It’s in 1 Corinthians 11:30-32: “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” God left sickness in the world as a sign to us to at least judge ourselves and see if there is any sin present. So sickness really can be a friend — something like the law. I think many of us say, “Oh well now, what about what it says in John 9:3?” And we say, “They ask Jesus, ‘What about this man? Has this man sinned or his parents?’ And Jesus said, ‘No, this man has not sinned nor have his parents sinned.’” It is very important for us to see that all God was saying was — because you are sick it does not necessarily mean you individually have sinned. Moreover, some of you have been born with a congenital sickness that is there because of your parents’ sin, or your grandparents’ sin, or because way back Adam himself sinned. So every time you see someone who is sick, you don’t automatically say, “They’ve sinned and that’s what Jesus was saying.” The man in John Chapter 9 was one who had been born blind. All that Jesus means there is that not everyone who is sick has sinned and brought it upon themselves. Some people are born with congenital sickness because the sins of their fathers have been visited on the third and fourth generation. But that is very different, brothers and sisters, as we said last day, from saying that sickness has no connection with sin. Sickness is there, allowed by God as a consequence of sin, to ask us to examine ourselves and see if things are right. Now why do we say that? Because the normal state of God’s children is expressed in Exodus 15:26: “’If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord, your healer.’” In other words, here is a world torn with sin and sickness, and God says, “You are my people, and if you avoid sin then I will put none of the sicknesses upon you that have been put upon the Egyptians.” Now, if you know your grammar well enough, you’ll know what I mean: if the apodosis is not true then one ought to examine if the hypothesis is not true. And if the apodosis is true, then one ought to examine if the hypothesis is true. That’s why God allowed sickness to continue. You see, the hypothesis is, “if you will gently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God.” That’s the hypothesis in a conditional statement and the apodosis is, “I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians.” Now that’s why God has allowed sickness to continue in the world, so that when we see sickness we may at least suspect that perhaps there is sin somewhere around — or perhaps God is trying to say something to us about our relationship with him. In other words, sickness is a bit like the law. You remember the law, as it’s outlined in Exodus 20: “If you receive the Spirit of my uncreated life in you, you’ll have no other gods before me. You will not commit adultery. You will not steal. You will not bear false witness.” Those are promises that are true if you’re receiving the Spirit of God’s uncreated life. Now sickness is a little like the law. God is saying, “If you’re receiving all of the life that flows from my right hand from my Son Jesus from the tree of life, then really you’ll be well. I will put no sicknesses upon you.” Now if you find yourself with some sicknesses, at least be fair and loving enough to ask yourself, “Am I receiving all of the life that God can give me?” And that’s part of the purpose of sickness, and it can be used by God in that way. It’s not that God sends sickness. It’s that he allows Satan to work this work upon us. Now I think some of us have a danger here. We say, “You mean, every time I have a sickness I have sinned?” No. It could be that God wants you to come into more Christ-likeness. It could be that you haven’t sinned at all but that God is anxious for you to come into a new Christ-likeness. Now you can see this if you look at the teaching that you receive in Hebrews 12:10 about Jesus’ own position. Here God is talking about ordinary fathers and how they discipline. Hebrews 12:10: “For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.” God at times allows hard things to come upon us so that we might share his holiness. Now, do you see sharing his holiness is both a negative thing and a positive thing? It’s first of all being cleared of sins, and secondly it’s growing in Christ-likeness. That’s why at times God can allow sickness to come upon us. It’s either because there is sin in our life of some kind and he wants to draw attention to it in as loving a way as possible — or because there’s a new position in Jesus into which he wants us to come. Now I think it’s important, brothers and sisters, to see the two sides — otherwise you won’t understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Just because these Gentiles are suffering it doesn’t mean they’ve sinned.” So some of us may come into a real deep sickness. It’s very important for the rest of us to see that doesn’t mean necessarily that that person has sinned. It can mean that that person is far away beyond the stage at which we are with Jesus, and God is allowing that person to come into a new place with Jesus. That ties up with Jesus’ own experience which is described in Hebrews 5:8: “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” You see that even Jesus suffered — and obviously he didn’t sin. Obviously it wasn’t because of sin that he suffered. Yet he did suffer so that he would learn perfect obedience. Now at times God allows sickness to come upon us because there is sin there. At other times he allows sickness to come upon us because he wants us to come into a new place in his Son Jesus, a new place of growth in Christ-likeness. I think we have to see both those sides. Maybe you can share a little bit in questions at the end about that. Do you see then that sickness is really a symptom of a disease that we have with God? Sickness is not God’s perfect will for us. So whenever sickness comes upon us we should regard it as a symptom. “Now Lord, why has this sickness come upon me?” God is faithful, and he will reveal to us what the real disease is. God has promised that. He’s promised for instance in Exodus 15:26 that he’ll prevent sickness as far as his children are concerned. He will prevent sickness. He says, “I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians.” And secondly he says, “If ever sickness comes upon you I’ll cure sickness.” You remember he said that in James 5:16. It’s the promise given to us if we are ever sick. “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” God says, “If you confess your sins — if you get rid of whatever it is that I’m trying to draw attention to — then as soon as that’s removed your sickness will be healed. Also — if I’m trying to show you how to come into a greater place of faith in my Son Jesus — as soon as you come into it, as soon as you confess your lack of Christ-likeness and you see it plainly — then the sickness will be removed.” So that is God’s promise to us — that he will prevent sickness, and that if ever we come into a place where he needs to allow sickness to come upon us, once we have seen whatever he’s been trying to point out, he will remove the sickness from us. That’s God’s will for us in regard to sickness. Now where does this put the whole business of medicine? What is the place of medicine in the sickness of Christians? Probably the place of medicine in the world is the same position as the law. Do you remember why God gave us the law? It wasn’t to make us like Jesus. Let’s look at the reason why in Galatians 3:23: “Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed.” The purpose of the law was to keep us under restraint until faith should be revealed. God gave the law to keep us men and woman from blowing apart the world before his redeeming Spirit could get to work among us. Now that was the purpose of the law. You know that you could try to obey the law perfectly in every way and yet it would never make you like Jesus. The law is there only to keep back sin and to keep back sin from destroying the world. You remember that Luther put it this way: “There’s the power of the sword and there’s the power of the spirit.” The power of the sword is the power of law, of police officers, of courts, and of everything connected with our judicial system. The purpose of the power of the sword is to control the world and keep men from blowing it apart — while the power of the Holy Spirit gets to work through Jesus to redeem men. Now that’s probably the same purpose of medicine. It’s to keep sickness from running rampant throughout the world and destroying the whole world before the Spirit of Jesus can really come into people and make them whole as he is. What then should Christians do about medicine? First of all, if you get sick you shouldn’t immediately start running for a cure. Your first question should not be, “Where can I find the cure?” Just the same way if you had trouble with some brother or sister in the body, who was really sinning against you in some way, you wouldn’t hand them over to the police. You wouldn’t say, “I must get rid of this nuisance as soon as I can whatever way I can do it.” So your first question in sickness should not be, “Where can I find a cure?” but, “Father, why have you allowed this to come upon me? Is there something you’re trying to show me in this sickness? Is there some sin that I have in my own life, or is there some new position in Christ that you want me to enter into?” This should be our first response to sickness. The issue isn’t: can Christians use medicine to get healed? There’s no problem with that as long as you don’t object to what Paul called medicine. Now maybe you’d look at it in 1 Timothy 5:23. A lot of you know it already. The issue isn’t whether Christians can use medicine or not. The answer is obvious there in 1 Timothy 5:23: “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” So obviously Paul advised Timothy, “Listen, there are good nourishing things that will help your body. At times it’s good to use those.” That isn’t the issue – whether Christians should use medicine or not. You get into a legal bind and come under bondage if you begin to take the position, “No, Christians should not use medicine if they want.” But do you see that with Jesus it is a higher thing? The principle that we follow in regard to sickness is in 1 Corinthians 6:12: “’All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be enslaved by anything.” All things are lawful for us Christians, but there are some things that are lawful and there are some things that are expedient. Really the question is, “Am I concerned to find out what God is trying to show me through this sickness? Or do I love myself so much that I have to get rid of this pain and suffering at any cost? Do I have to use the normal methods that non-Christians use to be healed of my sickness?” And do you see brothers and sisters, there’s no question of whether Christians should be doctors or not? Don’t you see that? It’s the same question about whether Christians should be lawyers or policemen. Of course they should. As God guides them they should take part in part of the preserving grace that he has shed throughout the world in the legal systems. Of course they should take part in the whole medical work which is an attempt of God’s preserving grace to hold back sickness in the world so that God’s Spirit can get to deal with men. But the issue for Christians is not, “Is it legal to be a Christian? Is it right to be a Christian?” It is not, “As a Christian is it right to use medicine?” But the issue is, “Is this what God’s will is for me in this present situation?” At times it may be God’s will for you. But there are several precautions now that we ought to share with one another as Christians in regards to medicine. I’ll try to take them in what detail I can. First of all, often our rush to man’s drugs is simply a compounding of the rebellion of our self-love against God. God sees that we love ourselves in some way that is not according to his will, and he allows sickness to come upon us. We rush to drugs to get rid of the sickness in order to carry on without looking at what God was trying to show us. Moreover, some of us are so hurt by the pain of the sickness, and we love ourselves so much, and we want to avoid suffering at any cost, that we are determined to take drugs or anything that will get rid of the pain. Do you see that often when we rush to medicine – now remember what I said, that accepting medicine is lawful to us — but it just is a fact that often we rush to medicine because of our self-love — because we’re not really willing to wait to find out what God is trying to show us. Often we ignore the deeper benefits of the salvation that Jesus has wrought in his death for us by rushing to medicine. Often we take the drugs to clear up the symptoms — and actually the disease remains deep down there, and we ignore the depth of the salvation which is wrought in Jesus and which is available to us — for a rather shallower, more superficial kind of removal of the symptoms. Now often I think that is true, isn’t it? We know the whole business about Contact {a decongestant drug} and the old tiny time capsules, you know, and really they just work on the principle that they stop the secretions that God has put in our bodies to clear away virus and germs, and they just stop them. They stop the nose running. They stop all the secretions that really are used by God to take away the sickness. That’s just one very clear example of the way we take drugs to suppress and repress symptoms rather than to deal with the real sickness underneath. Now very often, by running to man’s medicines we ignore and neglect the deeper health and healing that Jesus can bring to us from the cross. Often, in other words, men’s medicines heal the physical symptoms but really don’t deal at all with the spiritual sickness that was what God wanted to point out to us. So, often we miss the whole purpose of the sickness. Often we say that doctors are God’s intermediaries. We thank God for them, and that’s right because they are God’s intermediaries. But we ourselves really end up trusting more in the doctors and the drugs than we do in God. Now that need not be you. It need not be. But isn’t it true that often that’s what happens? It’s very important, brothers and sisters, that we see that I’m not saying to you, “Don’t use medicine,” — because my wife would be out of a job if you did that. {Rev. O’Neill’s wife is a dentist.} So I’m not saying don’t use medicine. But I’m saying to you that there are cautions that we need to remember as we approach this whole question of sickness. The first question we should ask is, “Lord, is there anything that you’re trying to draw my attention to? I know you’re fully able to make me whole and well on your own as soon as the reason for this sickness is removed. Now, is there anything you’re trying to draw my attention to?” That should be our first question – instead of our first question being, “Where can I get a cure?” Often that latter one is the first question we ask. I think it’s true that though all medical knowledge is made possible by God’s Spirit — yet often medical knowledge glorifies the cleverness of man rather than glorifying the death of Jesus on the cross. That need not be, but often it is the case. Often you’ll find brothers and sisters who say, “The doctor is God’s method of healing. So I take the healing as if it’s from God.” But deep down they really know better. They know the healing comes from the doctor — really. They don’t believe it comes primarily from the Father because they have tackled it in the wrong way. In other words, it depends on the way you go for medical help. It depends on whether God has directed you to go to that — whether you have waited long enough for him to see how he wants you to proceed. Very many of us who run to medicine are so quick to get a cure that we cannot wait long enough to ascertain what God’s will is for us. We can’t find out why he allowed the sickness to come, and we certainly can’t find out whether he wants us to go to a doctor or not to go to a doctor. But what God wants when we come into a problem with sickness is to wait upon him — to draw closer to him. That’s why he’s allowed the thing to come to us, so that we would draw closer and nearer to him and understand him better. Instead many of us draw away from him and we actually get more independent of him almost because of the sickness, rather than really drawing close to him. God’s will for us in sickness is found there in Matthew 6:25: “’Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.’” That’s God’s will. When we come into sickness he wants us not to get away down under the symptoms and start being anxious and worried about our life. He wants us to look up to him and say, “Father, I thank you for allowing this to come. I know you’re trying to point something out to me because you have said that you will put none of these diseases upon anyone who abides in your statutes. So Father, I’ll wait upon you and I’ll wait for you to show me this.” And wait, brothers and sisters, long enough for God to show you this. It says in James Chapter 1 verse 4, “Let steadfastness have its full effect.” Don’t opt out before God has shown you what he wants to show you. He wants you to take that attitude. As the symptoms bear down on you more and more heavily, he’s saying to you, “Do not love yourself. Do not love yourself. Do not get all wrought up and desire sympathy from other people for your symptoms. Look away from your symptoms and look up to me and wait upon me. Wait as long as I ask you to wait.” And do you see dear ones, that God may ask you to wait a little while? Now that was true of Paul, where Paul describes what we think may have been a sickness in his eyes as “a thorn in the flesh.” It’s 2 Corinthians 12:7, where he expresses plainly the belief that God had allowed this to come upon him for a spiritual reason: “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but,” — here’s the important thing: he didn’t just go on hoping and hoping, he received an answer from God– “but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” Then he said in verse 9: “’I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.’” Now that is God’s will, that we should know what he intends in the sickness. In other words, it is not his will that any of us should be under sickness for years and years and not know why it’s there, and not be clear whether God wants to heal it or not. God’s normal attitude to sickness is, “I want to heal all your sicknesses. I want to put none of them upon you that I’ve put upon the Egyptians.” But you can see that at times, as in Paul’s situation, he allowed a thorn in the flesh to remain and allowed Paul to glory actually in that weakness. Now it’s important I think, to say last of all that some people go to the other extreme and some people say, “I have drawn close to God in my sickness so really I’d rather be sick than well.” So they accept sickness and welcome it, and never look for healing at all. Now do you see that that kind of holiness will not last? If you’re only holy while you’re sick — that is certainly not the Father’s will for you. So it’s not right ever to accept sickness as something that is God’s will for you. Sickness is never God’s will for you. God may, through his permissive will, allow sickness to come upon you — but for a purpose and for a time — and then when the reason for that is removed, the sickness will be removed. So it is a lie of Satan for us ever to accept sickness as God’s permanent will for us. Yet some of us glory in sickness in that way. Now it’s plain that sickness is not God’s will. You can look up many verses in the Bible, but John 9:3 is a plain reason why we should never accept sickness. In this verse, they asked, “Did this man sin, or did his parents sin?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned or his parents but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” Now the reason the sickness came was that the works of God might be made manifest in him. That’s why God allows sickness to come upon you. Now if the sickness is not healed then God’s works are not made manifest in you. So there’s no point if you accept sickness as a permanent part of your life. Then God is not glorified by sickness. In fact, only one person is glorified by sickness, and that is the one whom Jesus said really is the one that produces it. It’s Acts 10:38. Peter is talking about Jesus and he talks about the works that Jesus did: “’How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.’” The reason we should never accept sickness is that sickness is oppression by the devil. We should never accept anything from Satan as a permanent work in our lives. So it’s not right to say, “Oh, I have grown closer to God during this sickness. So really, sickness is good and sickness will keep me close to God.” No. God wants you to be rid of sickness because sickness is a work of Satan and God cannot be glorified in the midst of it. So brothers and sisters there are a lot of other things to say, and we’ll share a little more of them next Sunday. But do you see that the basic attitude of Christians towards medicine should be not that we cannot use it? But that God has a perfect way, and the perfect way is to receive all healing and life from Jesus. Yet we have to deal individually with God about that. But if we ever do use medicine, we have to see that there are many cautions to be observed in the use of it. We have to at least ascertain: is it God’s will that we should use medicine? Yet we ought to see that it is easily and obviously God’s will for many Christians to be in medicine — because it’s a beautiful opportunity to deal with a work of Satan, and at the same time to have the opportunity to explain to someone that there is a better way and a fuller way for dealing with the sickness and for dealing with this enemy. Now dear ones, would you like to ask questions? Because I think that the questions are the most important part. We’ll share a little more next Sunday. Question from someone in the audience: Christian Science healings — are they sometimes of the devil or can they be of God? Rev. O’Neill: I’m sure, sister, that there are many Christians in all denominations or sects, even though we would think that no one could be a Christian Scientist and still be a Christian. I’m sure there must be many dear souls who maybe don’t see all the finer points of doctrine and maybe are real Christians in their own homes. So they may well experience real healing from Jesus .

Sickness and Health 3 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Brothers and sisters, we’re coming to the end of a series on sickness. The question tonight is: sickness or health? It concerns sickness or health for you and me. So tonight I will be summarizing some of the things that we said during the past two Sundays and perhaps trying to tie it together from the point of view of practical application. Now it might be good to begin with Romans 5:12 where we see plainly where God puts sickness: “Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.” Now death came through sin and death is the ultimate in sickness. So what God is plainly saying is that if there had been no sin, if there had been no independence of him in the race of mankind — there would have been no sickness. So that’s the basic position we start with. Nevertheless, you know that though that is true in regard to the whole race of mankind, it is not necessarily true in every individual situation. Now Jesus pointed out that though sin generally is responsible for sickness, and so sickness is something that God opposes and does not want — yet individually you cannot say that everyone who is sick has himself sinned. You remember we found that in John 9:1 where Jesus deals with a man who had a congenital sickness. He was born blind: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” So though sickness here was due to the original rebellion of man against God and though if man had never rebelled there never would have been any blindness, yet you see how Jesus answered as far as the individual is concerned. John 9:3: “Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.’” So there are many individual sicknesses that are not due to the individual sin. Jesus emphasized this again in Luke 13:2. Luke 13:2 follows the same line that though sin in mankind was the cause of sickness, yet you cannot apply that in every individual case. Luke 13:2: “And he answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus?’” So it’s not fair to see someone who is under the weather with a cold and say, “This man has sinned worse than the rest of us.” Jesus said plainly, “You cannot say right across the board that every individual who is sick has sinned.” Yet it is true that that is sometimes the case. That’s what Jesus was really saying: it’s not always the case that the individual has sinned, but sometimes that has caused his sickness. Sometimes it is God trying to point out some sin in an individual that is really the cause of the sickness. Now, you find that in 1 Corinthians 11:30. Some of these verses we mentioned in the last two talks. 1 Corinthians 11:30: “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly,” that is if we really thoroughly examined our own lives, “we should not be judged.” This implies that when you become sick and ill you are sometimes being judged and not being punished. Jesus bore all the punishment for our sins. God doesn’t punish us with sickness but he judges us sometimes with sickness. Sometimes he says, “Okay, look at this part of your life. It’s not right.” “But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” (Verse 32) So sometimes God uses sickness in order to point out some sin in us — “that we may not be condemned along with the world.” It’s not to punish us. It’s not to condemn. So it’s to save us from a blindness to a certain sin that is developing in our lives. Yet it’s good to see you see that sickness is not brought by God. Sickness is caused by sin and by Satan. Whenever you’re oppressed by sickness, you’re not being oppressed by God but you’re being oppressed by Satan himself. It’s simply that God uses Satan’s work at times to point out certain things. Now, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes God wants us to move into a new position of Christ-likeness. So he allows a weakness or sickness to come upon us. You find that in Hebrews 5:8 in regard to Jesus himself. Jesus, you remember, was without sin at all. God himself said that. Yet Hebrews 5:8 says: “Although he was a Son,” and a perfect Son, you can see that from the capital S, God’s only Son, “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” So there’s a place for God allowing weakness and sickness to come upon us in order to bring us into a new place of Christ-likeness. So sometimes he allows it to point out a positive thing. Sometimes he allows it to bring us into a new place of Christ-likeness. It’s mentioned again in 2 Corinthians 12:7. There’s a clear example of that happening in one of God’s greatest saints. This man you remember said, “In Christ we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37) This is the man who said, “I can do all things in Christ.” (Philippians 4:13) This is the man who said, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25) Yet this man said in 2 Corinthians 12:7: “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.” So at times God allows sickness to come upon us in order to bring us into a new position of Christ-likeness. It is true that in Exodus 15:26, God promised his people if they obeyed his laws and commandments, to keep them from many sicknesses that the Egyptians have suffered. So it is true, brothers and sisters, that there is sufficient emphasis in the Bible on health as a result of obeying God. There is also sufficient emphasis on the need to confess our sins in order that we should be healed. We are to seriously examine ourselves when we come into sickness and say, “Lord, I know this may not mean that I’ve sinned. But does it? Are you trying to point out some sin in my life?” Certainly if God does not point out any sin then we should say, “Father, what new position of Christ-likeness do you want me to come into?” Maybe we should look, brothers and sisters, just for a few minutes at God using sickness to bring us into a new position of Christ-likeness. In other words, sickness in regard to God’s work and in regard to his workers and preparing his workers. Maybe we could look back at the basis of God’s power over sickness. Isaiah 53:4-5 talks about this: “Surely he has borne our griefs,” — that is, as you see when you look at footnote “x”, “sicknesses.” “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows.” You see the footnote “y”, “or pains.” The Hebrew is “pains.” “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.” Now there it says plainly that Jesus bore our sins and he also bore our sicknesses. Yet the Holy Spirit does apply the benefits of Christ’s atonement in regard to those two facts differently, doesn’t he? Jesus bore our sins so that for any of us that confess our sins to God, God forgives those sins and removes them from us. But it seems different with sicknesses, doesn’t it? Even though Jesus has born our sicknesses and God is free to lift all our sicknesses from us, it does seem that at times the Holy Spirit applies that particular benefit of Christ’s atonement differently. You can see some of the reasons why leaving sin in our lives would never glorify God. Any time a person confesses a sin, God deals with it and removes it right away. He doesn’t always remove sneezes, or remove sickness. Sometimes he leaves the sickness and it seems that he can glorify himself through a sickness. But he can’t glorify himself through a sin. I think it’s important, brothers and sisters, to see that there is nothing that God cannot do. Jesus has already borne our sins and borne our sicknesses. But it is the Holy Spirit’s right and prerogative to apply the benefits of that bearing by Jesus according as it will glorify God. And sometimes when he leaves a sickness upon a person for a little longer – the Holy Spirit is able to glorify the Father. Now you can see that in 2 Corinthians 12:10 again in regard to Paul: “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Somehow it is possible in sickness to say, “When I am weak, then I am more strong. When I am at my weakest the power of Jesus is most powerful in me.” Whereas you can’t say, “When I am most sinful then I am most holy.” So there is a real difference. Even though Jesus has borne both sin and sickness on the cross for us, yet the Holy Spirit always removes one of them when we confess it. But the other at times he will leave upon us because this can often glorify the Father and can often enable us to say, “When I am really most weak then I am really strongest.” Yet it is important never to accept sickness as one of God’s workers, never to accept it unquestionably — because it is a work of Satan. You should never accept any work of Satan unless God very clearly explains to you that, “I want you to bear this for a little.” Now that’s important, brother and sisters. I think too many of us pray away there and ask God to heal us. He doesn’t heal us so we say, “Oh well, I’ve just to bear this. This is God’s will for me.” Now, God does not work in us by default. We do not assume God’s will through silence. We do not assume it is God’s will because we hear nothing from him. The only reason you should ever accept the sickness is if God clearly tells you that this is his will. Now you can see that in Paul’s experience there in that same chapter, 2 Corinthians 12:8. Paul is saying, “Three times I besought the Lord about this,” — probably some sickness of the eyes — “that it should leave me; but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” And then Paul says, “’I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ my rest upon me.’” But do you see that God specifically said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In other words, God explained it to him, “This is going to glorify me — what you’re experiencing.” I think it’s very important for us to see that, so that we don’t condemn a person who is walking under sickness and yet so that we do not easily accept sickness. Loved ones, it is significant that it’s God’s giants in the Bible that bore sickness over a long period of time. So let us be careful before we say, “God is allowing me to bear this sickness that I may serve him better or may glorify him better.” It is God’s giants that bear sickness as a normal run of their lives over a long period of years. Nevertheless, it is important to see that they do it. There are some other examples beside Paul. If you look at 2 Timothy 4:20, you’ll see a reference there. It is important, brothers and sisters, to see this — otherwise you’re driven into absolutism in healing. That is, you say, “If you had enough faith you’d be healed.” That’s enough to drive a person insane if you beat them with that law. So it’s important to see there are definite instances in the New Testament where God did ask someone to walk in sickness. Yet it’s important to see that it did not interfere with their work, and that they were real spiritual giants at that time. 2 Timothy 4:20: “Erastus remained at Corinth; Trophimus I left ill at Miletus.” Now it should also deliver us from this business of, “Why don’t you heal if you’re an apostle of God?” If Paul, with all his power, left Trophimus ill at Miletus, then we can’t get each other over the barrel in this kind of way. If you drive yourself into absolutism as far as healing is concerned, you really will back yourself into a corner that will spoil all blessings from God. So it is important to see that there are instances in the Bible of this. 1 Timothy 5:23, is another one: “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” I mean, why didn’t Paul just heal Timothy? So it is vital for us to see that God has allowed sickness in some situations. But I think before we get ourselves lined up with old Timothy, Trophimus, and Paul we ought to really check: are we maybe that stature and is God really allowing that sickness to come upon us? Or is it our own stubbornness that will not deal with God over what is wrong in our lives? So our general attitude should be not one of getting ourselves onto a rack: “If this sickness is left upon me then I’m not getting through to God.” But rather, “This could be the Father’s will but it’s more than likely not.” God’s normal will for his children is for them to be well. So we should pray like this: “Father, is there anything wrong in my life that has opened me up to this sickness?” Really, that should be our attitude rather than just accepting the thing. It seems the normal attitude is stated in 3 John 1, and you find that that’s really God’s will for us. 3 John 1:2: “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in health; I know that it is well with your soul.” That’s praying according to God’s will: “I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in health.” Along these same lines is 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God’s normal will for his children is health, and we need to be very clear that it is not otherwise. Nevertheless, do you see that we should not look upon sickness as something terrible? I’ve said often to you: would you treat the law as a dear friend? We should love the law. We children of God should love the law. We should not grind under the law. We should not be glad we don’t have to obey the law. We should love the law because the law is God’s list of symptoms that show us when we’re lacking his light of the Spirit flowing through us. So it is with sickness. When sickness comes we should not treat it as something terrible. We should see it’s something that is lovingly filtered down to us by a dear Father, and that dear Father will not give us more than we’re able to bear. We should see that. It’s in James 5:11 that God says that: “Behold, we call those happy who were steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” God only allows sickness to come upon us for a certain purpose. So we need to accept it in that light and receive it from him in that light. Not accept it as a permanent will for us but receive it as something that is filtered down to us by a Lord that is compassionate and merciful. Yet we need to go before him and say, “Lord, why has this come upon us?” I suggested last Sunday that we should never be preoccupied with our sickness. Watchman Nee describes a friend of his who, when he got sickness, he really enjoyed it. ”I know a brother who always expected love and kindness from others. Whenever people inquired after his wellbeing he habitually responded with complaints about his physical weakness. He would give a detailed report of how many minutes he suffered from fever, how long it was he had the headache, how many times a minute he breathed, and how irregular was his heartbeat. He was continually in discomfort. He loved to tell people of his stress so that they might sympathize with him. He had nothing to relate except his tail of endless sickness and at times he wondered why he was never healed.” Well, even if God is showing us something through sickness, or even if God has said to us, “This sickness is my will for you for a little while,” we should never emphasize the sickness. We should never talk about the sickness. We should be looking up to the Father. You might say, “Does that mean we should tell a lie?” There’s an interesting example in 2 Kings 4:18-21: “When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, ‘Oh, my head, my head!’ The father said to his servant, ‘Carry him to his mother.’ And when he had lifted him, and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.” Then Verse 25, “So she set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, ‘Look, yonder is the Shunammite; run at once to meet her, and say to her, Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’ And she answered, ‘It is well.’” And it was well that she had absolute faith that God was in charge of the child’s life and that this man of God would be used by the Father in a way that would bring about his will. But it is interesting to see that God’s word obviously agrees with that. You don’t talk about your sickness. You deal with God about it and you commit the whole thing to him and you don’t fret, and you don’t talk to everybody about your sickness. It does seem, brothers and sisters, that you can tell a prayer of faith in a person by whether they delineate in great detail what their sickness is, or whether they glory in the fact that Jesus has borne their sicknesses. You really can. You can tell whether a man or a woman is going in God’s direction by how they pray. If they pray under the sickness all the time, then you can be sure that there is something of Satan’s deception in them, and they are really in some way preoccupied with the sickness, and they are really in some way glorying in the sickness — because it brings them a lot of attention. But when God’s people are rightly related to Jesus about a sickness, they don’t mention the sickness much. They glory in the health that is streaming down from Jesus. That’s really God’s will, whether the sickness is for pointing out a sin inside you, or whether it is pointing out a new position of Christ-likeness in you, or whether it is to keep you from being too proud, or to keep you close to God yourself. Yet in all of those three instances, God’s will is for us to glory in his healing, and to glory in the fact that he has the thing under control, and what is happening is known by him and is being controlled by him. Now what should we do in seeking healing when sickness comes upon us? What should be our attitude? First of all, don’t get all over-anxious and run here, there, and everywhere for remedies. That’s the first thing. Don’t do what most of us do. Don’t do that. Satan has gotten us used to that. That’s one of the reasons we experience so little healing, relatively speaking, in the bodies of Christ — because we’re all used to running to the doctor immediately for a remedy. So don’t be over-anxious, and don’t run for quick remedies from anybody. Second step: examine yourself. That’s it. Under the Holy Spirit’s light examine yourself: “Father, I thank you for this sickness. I thank you that it has been allowed to come upon me for a purpose. It may have been caused by a virus of some kind. But you obviously allowed this to come upon me. Now thank you for that.” “Now, I want to examine myself before you, and Father, I want you to show me in your word through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit if there’s any sin in my life.” Then if there’s no sin stay before the Father maybe several days, praying, “Father, is there a new position of Christ-likeness that you want me to come into? Is there new light and new revelation that I have to receive?” Stay before the Father until he shows you. When he shows you, deal with him over it. Don’t leave it there. If he’s getting at you over a lack of care about your sleeping habits, put them right. If he’s getting to you over the way you eat, put that right. If he’s getting to you over tension or strain that you’re enduring because some part of your life is not fully surrendered to him, get that right. Whatever it is, get it right. If he’s getting at your prayer life, then put your prayer life right. Whatever it is God is highlighting, put it right and then thank him for healing. Because once the cause is removed the healing will follow. God always will remove the sickness if the cause of the sickness is removed. If you want any help in it, it’s good just to look up to God, to look to his power, and see that there’s no question of his power, no question that he is able to heal. There’s an example in Mark 9:21-23. Some people came to Jesus and this question came up of his power to do a thing. So you need to establish yourself firmly on that fact first — because sometimes the sickness seems to be so heavy upon us that we wonder at times, “Well, can God do anything with this?” Mark 9:21: “And Jesus asked his father, ‘How long has he had this?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.’” And it’s unusual for Jesus to use this kind of strength and really almost rebuke the man: “And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.’” So it’s good to look directly to the power of God and say, “Father, this is in your power.” It’s good to look to the will of God. It’s good to look to his general will for you. It’s referred to in Mark 1:40-41. You ought to establish it with a word of scripture because so often Satan on sickness can make us doubt. Mark 1:40-41: “And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, ‘If you will, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’” That’s Jesus’ will. Unless Jesus very clearly explains to you, “It’s not my will to heal you,” — it’s his will to heal you. Notice you don’t take it for granted that it’s not God’s will to heal because you’re not getting anywhere. That’s walking by sight. Walking by faith is, “Lord, I know it’s your will to heal me. I accept that.” And only if God very clearly explains to you as he explained to Paul after beseeching him three times — only then do you say, “Well, perhaps God, you want me to be under this for a while.” Then the third step that is important is in Mark 11:23-24: “’Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’” We said that hope is belief that God will undoubtedly do something. Faith is belief that he has already done it. So the third step is — after looking to God’s power and looking to his will — accepting healing. You still have a pain in your back — that’s sight back there. You don’t walk by sight. You don’t walk by removal of symptoms. You walk by a faith that the thing has happened, and you walk that way with your eyes on Jesus and not on the sickness — until it pleases God to remove the symptoms. Now brothers and sisters, that is the approach we should take now inside the body in regard to sickness. If it’s God’s will that we should take a little wine for our stomach’s sake, if it’s God’s will and he guides us to a doctor or to drugs of some kind — alright that’s for him to guide us that way. But his normal will for us is that we would receive healing directly through the life of Jesus. Yet you can see that that’s something we need to deal with individually and honestly in regard to him. Now dear ones, I think we should stop and you should ask questions, if you have any. [Question — inaudible] You remember, John 9:3, Jesus said, “It is not that this man sinned or his parents but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” We touched on it last Sunday. It seems to me that it was the power of Jesus to heal even a congenital illness — that Jesus had complete power to heal — and that that is where God is normally glorified in the sickness. That’s why it’s normally not his will for us to lay under sickness permanently. It is only on a rare occasion with a giant of his that he is glorified in the continual sickness. God is normally glorified by the removal of the work of Satan — not by the continuation of the work of Satan. [Question inaudible] I see. This is the man who was born blind. You’re asking: If any man is filled with the Holy Spirit and believes completely that God will heal his sickness, why does he remain sick? All I can say is — I’m going along the lines that I explained — that the Holy Spirit can only apply the benefits of Christ’s bearing of the sickness, in the light of our honesty about our sin, or about the new Christ-likeness into which God wants us to enter, or in the light of the fact that sometimes God asks a man to walk with sickness as he did Paul, and Trophimus, and Timothy. In other words, according to that man’s dealing with God. If that man is walking in the fullness of the Spirit and walking into all the light, then his sickness will be lifted from him unless God wants him to walk as he wanted Paul to walk. But that is an abnormal situation, dear ones. Question: What position is a child of God in if he turns to medicine to remove the sickness? It seems to me, brother, that first of all we have to withdraw from any position that would suggest that we condemn such a person because otherwise you’d have to condemn Paul and his advice to Timothy about a little wine for a stomach sickness. So we cannot condemn each other for going to medicine. Nevertheless, I think we should see that medicine is like the law. The law is there to restrain sin in the world so that the redeeming grace of God can go to work to hold the world back from chaos and disorder. So medicine is primarily in the same position in regard to sickness. It’s to keep the world from being destroyed by plagues and tremendous diseases. It’s not God’s primary will but it is certainly his permissive will. So medicine is primarily for the unbeliever, or for holding back sickness in a situation. Really, the believer is to go to Jesus. But we should be very wise and see that God will always deal with us according to our situation and our state. Sometimes some of us are so proud in our faith and have been so strong in condemnation of others who did not trust God, that God makes us go to medicine. Or at times God may have some work for us to do. I have known hospitals that were blessed, brother, by some brother or sister in Christ being in that hospital. So there are situations like that. So again, it’s as with absolutism in sickness: we should teach strongly what is God’s normal way, but we should not dare to condemn a person who does not come into that normal pattern because God can move as he wishes. [Question inaudible] That’s right. The Father deals with us according to our situations, right? Obviously it would be most obvious that the Father would expect you – if Paul gave Timothy instructions to use something that would stimulate the juices in his stomach — then undoubtedly God would certainly agree with us massaging the heart and doing what natural things we know in order to keep the person alive. So obviously, God deals with us according to our particular situation. Nevertheless, I do believe if more of us really trusted to Jesus to pour down his life in emergency situations, the life would come down like that. Question: What should our attitude be to vaccinations? Could you go to some other church? {Laughter} That’s good brother, that’s good. I’ve been on this campus for five years and I’ve never been in this position. At least I can say you’re a professor and not a student. I don’t know. At least I’ve the confidence to say that. Ushers could you keep this man out of the church? {Laughter} It would seem to me that one undoubtedly is up against lots of influences of environment in regard to that question. For instance, in Ireland because we lived there the whole TB {tuberculosis} situation was utterly different from here in Minnesota. It was really a fearful disease certainly when I was in high school. I can see that was partly because you’re taking part in the sinfulness or the sinful and sick atmosphere around you and you cannot avoid it. You’re born to parents with this kind of thing. I can see how you’re laboring under an environmental predisposition to a disease that some people maybe in another country or another part of the world are not laboring under. So I can see that in some things you’re fighting against a general sickness. You’re sharing in the sickness of the world. Now in that regard, obviously one could liken it in some way to the congenital blindness of the person in John. So I’m sure that that would influence what God would have people do with their children. I’m sure that one would have to accept that God has provided some medical means of counteracting this kind of environmental influence. Now at the same time I would have to hold that if the Father put one of us in Iran with children in a situation that was very open to this kind of sickness where vaccination was not possible, I’m quite sure the Holy Spirit would give the strength and the immunity that would normally proceed through vaccination. So I think that I would walk somewhere between those two positions. Has anyone any light on it? (End of tape)

Sickness and Health 4 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Now dear ones, maybe we could just tonight talk a little more about God’s life and the body. Maybe before I begin it would be good just to deal with that question, which is: can we really expect healing of residual pains of bodily injuries sustained years ago? Presumably that’s the kind of injury you would get in a car accident. You can see that we cannot divide diseases up into structural diseases which would be that kind of thing, and infectious diseases, invasive diseases, and spiritual and emotional diseases — and then say that God can only heal one category. God can heal any kind of weakness or sickness. We’ll see that in some of the promises that he gives us in his Word. But God will heal any kind of weakness or sickness, anything that really is hindering us from being what he wants us to be in his kingdom’s work? God will heal those things as well. God will not only heal infectious or invasive diseases, but will heal sickness or weaknesses that come from that kind of thing. One of the things that we have to be very sure of is to find out from him whether we were in some way at fault in that situation. I remember a girl who had a car accident, and in some sense it was an attitude of sin or carelessness that had caused the accident. Now it would be important there as with every other sickness to say, “Father, what are you trying to show me in this?” Do you see? Then to confess it and to get it right. But then to trust God for the healing and the wholeness of the sickness. I have known brothers and sisters who have been healed from this kind of thing. Dear ones, what we’ve been sharing the past few Sundays on sickness is contained in 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your body,” — your body — “is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?” Now why didn’t God say, “Do you not know that your spirit is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” Why did he say, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” The answer is because he reckons that his Holy Spirit who dwells within our spirits will move out and discipline our souls, and bring peace to our minds and balance to our emotions, and liberty to our wills. Then he will move out into our bodies and bring complete redemption and wholeness to our bodies. That’s what we’ve been saying — that God’s Spirit who dwells within us brings complete wholeness to every part of us and brings wholeness to our bodies. We used the example of Jesus who at the transfiguration found that this resurrection life was bursting through his physical body and not only filled him to completeness so that he was utterly healthy, but actually broke through so that he seemed to be shinning and transfigured on that mountain top. Then of course on the resurrection day, his spiritual body broke through completely and just transformed his physical body. So that’s what we’ve been saying — that God’s Holy Spirit will bring light to our own bodies. Not only to our minds, or to our spirits, or to our emotions, but actually to our bodies. You get that in Romans 8:11. It’s really the parts of the Bible — that are important in what we share. Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.” The important word is “mortal.” It doesn’t say corruptible body as when Paul is talking about the resurrection — when this corruptible body will be put on incorruptibility — but it says our mortal body. That is our present body, our physical body. If God’s Spirit dwells in you, that spirit will give life to your physical body. It will actually fill your physical body with health and wholeness. That’s God’s promise. Never does God look upon the body as an old physical prison cell that we have to escape from, or that we have to put up with. But he looks upon our body always as something that is sharing the wholeness of the Holy Spirit. You find that in 1 Timothy 6:12: “Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Now do you see the words, “Take hold of the eternal life”? There are many of us who dwell in weakness and sickness because we don’t take hold of the eternal life which is within us, and realize that that is to be taken by us for physical wholeness and health. God says, “Take hold of it. Don’t just let it dwell within and say, ‘Ah yeah, the Holy Spirit takes care of the spiritual side of my life. He takes care of the Christian side, the witnessing side, the prayer side. But this body I have to struggle along with through drugs, and through medicine as well as I can.’’” God’s word is always, “No, take hold of the life that is inside you.” Loved ones, we need to do that. There is a Holy Spirit within you that is complete wholeness. The Hebrew word for holiness means health. It means health, and the Holy Spirit within you will bring health to your own body. Now you can see that there are really two laws at work in your body. There’s sort of the law of consumption. There’s the consuming of energy that goes on inside you continually. Just an eating up and a burning up of energy — in walking along, in running, in speaking, in exercising, and in thinking. There’s just a consumption of energy. Then there is a replenishment — a law of replenishment whereby life comes into you through rest, and through food, and through sleep. Those two really should be balanced all the time inside your body for perfect health. Now, in a Christian’s life there is an extra consumption taking place over that of a non-Christian. You can see that if you look at it in Galatians 4:19, where Paul mentions that in his own life: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!” Paul said, “with whom I am again in travail.” Now that’s just one of the consumption exercises or drains on energy that a Christian has that a non-Christian has not. There is a travailing, and a laboring in prayer that non-Christians know nothing about. There is a fighting against Satan that non-Christians know nothing about. There is a resisting Satan that non-Christians don’t have to worry about too much. In other words, there are a lot of consuming factors in a Christian’s life that use up energy that a non-Christian does not have to face. That’s why many Christians have no trouble with their health until they begin to really live for Jesus. Many of us have no trouble with weakness or weariness of body until we began really to be a priest unto Jesus. Many of us, until we were filled with the Holy Spirit, never engaged in this kind of warfare and so we never had this kind of strain upon our bodies. You can see this is why it’s vital for those who are Christians to not only depend on food, and rest and sleep to replenish their own energies, but to depend on Jesus himself. Brothers and sisters, you cannot live the strenuous life of a Christian in your body without receiving the life of Jesus for your body. That is why there is a part in the Bible that says, “The Lord is for the body.” The Lord Jesus is for your body, and you really need to receive his life for your body. You need to receive him into your body to fill you with himself. That’s why Jesus says so often that he is the vine and you are the branches. It’s vital for us to receive the life that runs through the main plant of the vine into the branches. If you’re not living that way — you’ll go down. There’s a part of the Bible that explains it well, saying that Christians need not only food and rest but something deeper than that. It’s one of Jesus’ replies to Satan in the wilderness. It’s Matthew 4:4: “But he answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”’” God’s own word through the Holy Spirit is life to a Christian, and it’s life to your body. Yet the other side that it says is, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” So we need to take care of our bodies. We need to eat right, and we need to sleep right, and we need to exercise right. But do you see? After you’ve done all — you’ll crash in a physical or nervous breakdown unless you’ve learned to eat of Jesus’ body itself. Unless you’ve learned to take him into yourself as health, and wholeness, and energy — you’ll wear out. A.B. Simpson puts it like this: “Then the body broke away in every sort of way. I had always worked hard and from the age of 14 I studied and labored and spared no strength. I took charge of a large congregation at the age of 21. I broke down utterly half a dozen times and at last my constitution was worn out. Many times I feared I should drop dead in my pulpit. I could not ascend any height without a sense of suffocation because of a broken-down heart and exhausted nervous system.” “I heard of the Lord’s healing but I struggled against it. I was afraid of it. I had been taught in theological seminaries that the age of the supernatural was past and I could not go back from my early training. My head was in my way. But at last when I was brought to attend the ‘funeral of my dogmatics’ the Lord whispered to me the little secret, ‘Christ in you.’ And from that hour I received him for my body as I had done for my soul. I was made so strong and well that work has been a perfect delight. For years I have spent my summer holiday in the hot city of New York preaching and working among the masses as I never did before; besides the work of our Home and College and an immense mass of library work and much besides. But the Lord did not merely remove my sufferings. It was more than simple healing. He so gave me Himself that I lost the painful consciousness of physical organs.” “That is the best of the health he gives. I thank the Lord that he keeps me from all morbid physical consciousness and a body that is the object of anxious care, and gives a simple life that is a delight and a service for the Master, that is a rest and joy.” Really it’s true. It really is true. I had some weaknesses in my own body that I cosseted, and looked after, and took care of, and tried to treat with exercise, and with the right rest, and Jesus came in and worked a miracle. As long as I trusted and as long as I eat his flesh and drink his blood into myself, so long the health stays. Loved ones, it is a miracle and it is God’s will, not only that he will heal our sicknesses but that he will keep us well and keep us healthy. That happens as long as we take the Lord God himself for our bodies. The Lord is for the body. The Lord is not just for the spirit. He is not just for the soul. The Lord Jesus is for your body. You can actually receive Jesus for your bodily health and wholeness. This goes right through the Old Testament. Just as you look through it you find all the time that God preserved his own servants and his saints in health and wholeness. You find that even in the case of Paul, as you’ll see a little later, even where the sickness still remained as far as the outward phenomena was concerned. Yet there was health and wholeness that enabled these men to do God’s work without any holding back. You find that promise — God’s own will — in Deuteronomy 33:25. You do need a promise, a clear promise in his word in order to go before him in this regard. Deuteronomy 33:25: “’Your bars shall be iron and bronze; and as your days, so shall your strength be.’” “And as your days, so shall your strength be.” That means as long as you’re alive your strength will be there available to you. So really it’s up to us to get up each morning, whatever the night before has been like, however restless we have been in sleep. It is good to get up each morning and say, “Father, you’ve said, ‘As my days are, so shall my strength be.’ Now this is another day you’ve given me. Now I trust you to make that promise real, and I take your life now. I take your life now into me for this day.” And brothers and sisters, it means a disregarding of the feelings in the body, or the feelings in the emotions. It means a walk by faith — not by sight. But as you receive that, so God gives you strength. As your days are, so will your strength be. In other words, it is God’s will for his children to be robust and healthy as long as they’re alive and really, in a way, to die well. To die well! Even if we die like Paul with a thorn in the flesh, to die well. To die indifferent to whatever physical ailment there seems to be, and in no way held back by that physical ailment. That’s what you find right through scripture. Look at Abraham in Romans 4:19. These verses refer to him: “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” Abraham was nearly 100 years of age, and, “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead.” The body still remained as good as dead. Do you see that? The body didn’t suddenly blossom with a young man’s body. The body was still as good as dead. But God gave Abraham the kind of strength and life that enabled him to have a son, and gave Sarah’s body the same kind of life that enabled her to bear a son. See — the body remained as good as dead. The body remained old. It’s just that the life of Jesus is different from physical life. Do you see that? You could have all of the signs of cancer with Jesus’ life and still continue a full ministry. I knew a man, Brian Hessian, a minister in England who was dying of cancer. He never was healed of cancer — at least the world would have said he never was healed. He had countless operations after operations and everybody would say, “Ah, he wasn’t believing.” The man had hardly anything inside him left. They had cut away organs upon organs and he continued a full ministry right to the moment he went into the Father’s arms. He actually traveled around the country. I met him in Ireland. He traveled around the country and he traveled into Europe. They were cutting away all the time, more operations upon operations. But the life of Jesus is separate from the phenomena in the physical body. It’s separate from those symptoms — so that a man can work and can walk with a body that the world would say cannot hold up any kind of ministry. That kind of man can walk in strength. So it is not the symptoms. Now again, I remind you that it is not just that God does that. He does that to some people. With most people he makes them whole and well. But even when he lets the symptoms continue he gives a life that is different from physical life, and that manages to enable you to continue a full ministry and a full work. You see it again with Moses in Deuteronomy 34:7: “Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Now that’s at 120 years old. That’s God’s will. God can keep us as long as it’s his will for us to continue in this world. He can keep us well. He can keep us like that. “His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” It’s the same with Caleb. You can read it in Joshua 14:9-11. Caleb, one of the scouts that was sent into the Promised Land, is speaking in Joshua 14:9-11: “’And Moses swore on that day, saying, “Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children for ever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.” And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong to this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war, and for going and coming.’” That is God’s word to us. If God wants you to live to 85, he will give you the health and the strength to live until that time. As your days are, so will your strength be. So it goes on. I could give you lots of references about David and about Joshua himself, about Job, about Ehud, and about other saints of God — that God did give them strength and that the Lord was for the body. And you know that that was in those days — then how much more now in the days of the Holy Spirit, when grace is flowing like a river and it is plentiful for all of us. Now do you see — the one condition is that it is for God’s work. You find that it is for God’s work. You remember that promise about the diseases that God had put upon the Egyptians. He said, “None of those diseases will I put upon you if you abide in my statutes.” {Paraphrase of Exodus 15:26} Now, brothers and sisters, it does mean that you have to live a life that is only for Jesus. I tell you this, as soon as your eyes turn in on yourselves and you begin to live for yourself and for your own pleasure, the strength of God is no longer available. You’ll find that, and I’ve found it in my own life — when you’re going out after God’s work and God’s will — it doesn’t matter what the difficulties are. He gives more healing and strength. When you’re engaged in his work there is no shortage of supply. My wife and I joke about it a little because if I’m going off to Pittsburgh, or down to Puerto Rico, or somewhere for a week’s meetings, and I’m just feeling tired and weary, we both know that I’ll come back blasting away like mad when I come back from the place — because it seems that when you’re engaged in his work, or giving out the life that Jesus has given you, it seems that that life flowing through you is like good clear blood through your arteries. It makes them whole and well. Do you see it is tied to the work of his kingdom, dear ones? It cannot be otherwise. You find that in Romans 12. It’s the one condition that we mentioned at the very beginning of the series on health and on sickness. It’s an essential condition if God is going to give you this healing life. Romans 12:1: “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” In other words, you do need to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. For many of us it ties up with what I was sharing at the beginning about marriage. It means giving your whole body over to the Father: “You do with it what you want, Father. Use it or don’t use it. Whatever you want to do with it — I give it to you.” But it does require us to make that full sacrifice. You need to offer the body to God. If you keep it for yourself you’ll grow weary and weak. It is so every time. That’s why I’m anxious for you to keep going out for Jesus. That’s why I’m anxious for us to get out into the world to the 2.5 billion that do not know Jesus. {This message was presented in about 1975.} Loved ones, you’ll be a bunch of weak, sick people unless you live for the world for whom Jesus has died. Really. And you’ll be all the time wrought up in hospitalization. You’ll be all the time wrought up with looking after yourself — unless you really go out and live for the world that Jesus has died for. Then if you live for that, he will take care of you. He will hold you up. So he gives you the strength while you’re living for him. Turn in on yourself and you grow weary and sick, and you begin to worry about your health. Now it’s so, right through even with old Paul. I think it’s important to look at Paul — because a lot of us say, “Well, what about Paul? What about the thorn in the flesh?” So, let’s look briefly at 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. You can see that Paul is speaking here: “And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” You remember, we said last Sunday that from time-to-time God gives some of his giants a sickness that they have to bear. But that sickness they are able to glory in, because of the paradox described there in Verse 9, “’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” Now the weakness remained. Old Paul still had an old weak frail body, whatever was wrong with it, and it obviously was a physical sickness. If you look up some of the other references, you get some idea of Paul’s sickness. So Paul was still weak and frail, but Jesus’ power was made real in the midst of that weaknesses. Do you see that’s very tricky? The weakness was still there but Jesus’ life surged through and achieved more than ten men could achieve — because Paul was constantly in shipwrecks, being stoned, being persecuted, being imprisoned, and taking journeys in days where any kind of journey was misery. So it was Jesus’ life that was coming through and achieving that. Now it’s very important I think that we see that you walk that by faith and not by sight. In other words, you don’t look at your body and say, “Well, you’ve made it whole — so now I can go.” No — you step out as the body is sick and weak. You step out and say, “Lord, this weak old sick body will never achieve this. But I trust you to make your power real in me while my weakness is there.” The two go together, loved ones. And do you see that’s the way healing comes? Healing doesn’t come from saying, “Lord, I’ll go when you heal this body. I’ll go when you remove this weakness.” Healing comes when you say, “Lord Jesus, you’ve told me to go this way. The body looks weak to me. But I know I’m going to do it by your strength anyway. So I go out.” Then God either removes your weakness, or he provides his own strength in the midst of that weakness. Some of us have to learn that. Some of us especially who have very healthy bodies have to learn that — because we are so proud of our health and our strength that we want to kind of combine it with God’s own strength. But God will share the glory with no one. So, often he has to bring our ordinary natural strength in our bodies to the end of itself. Do you see our bodies are governed by our minds and emotions? But we cannot do anything for God’s work with the strength of our minds and emotions. That’s a natural strength, and it will always claim glory for itself. A strong body will always draw attention to itself. So God has to bring even those of us who have strong bodies to the end of ourselves. He has to bring us into things that are beyond ourselves. I don’t encourage you to go out into foolish pursuits — because God will only give you strength for what is his will. But I do point out to you that God is going to continually ask you to go beyond your own strength, and every time you hold back you will miss the life of Jesus in you. And brothers and sisters I’ll present it to you again: 2.5 billion people who don’t know Jesus. 800 million in China, 500 million in India, 200 million in South America, and so it goes on. Don’t you see that we will have to be supermen and superwomen? Don’t you see that we will have to have a supernatural strength? And what I am saying is: that is the glory of it. You go out after Jesus and he supplies this strength to you by faith but not by sight. And of course it ties up with what we said about healing. If every time you have sickness you become preoccupied with the symptoms and the phenomena and you go to God and say, “Lord, look at this. Look at this weakness in my arm. Look at the way my mind can’t concentrate.” Then as you concentrate on those phenomena, on the things that are seen — so the things that are unseen will become more and more distant and God can do nothing with you. That’s why, brothers and sisters, in a body of Christ it is never the case that people talk about their sicknesses or their weaknesses. It’s not that they don’t see them. They’re realistic. They don’t go the Christian Science route and say they’re not there. They say they’re there, but they don’t talk about them. They talk about the life of Jesus that they know anyway is the only thing that empowers them to do God’s work. Now it’s important to get back to the old condition, and it’s the same condition as we’ve mentioned before. You have it in 2 Corinthians 4:10-11, the method or the condition under which God will give us this strength and this life. 2 Corinthians 4:10-11. It’s good to see some of the things that Paul suffered too in Verse 9: “Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” So if the life of Jesus is to be manifested in our bodies, we have to be always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. And then repeated in Verse 11 again: “For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” And do you see that that’s the condition? In order for the life of Jesus to be manifested in our bodies, in order for the life of Jesus to be manifested in our mortal flesh — we must always be carrying in the body the death of Jesus. We must always be given up to death for Jesus’ sake. And what was the death of Jesus? The dying of Jesus was all the time saying “No” to himself. All the time saying “No” to his own pleasure. All the time saying “No” to his own convenience. All the time saying “No” to his own comfort. All the time saying “No” to his own future. The dying of Jesus was the death to the self-life. It was the taking of self off the throne, off the control point of the life, and putting God in charge and saying, “Lord God, I live for you and you alone.” In order to have the life of Jesus manifested in our bodies, we need to be in that position, loved ones, all the time living for Jesus, for the world, for God — never for ourselves. And loved ones, honestly the world would see the healthiest group of people that it had ever seen — if all of us tonight really committed ourselves to that kind of life. I challenge you on it: do you want the other miserable “chocolate solider” kind of life, where you look after yourself with the insurance, and the right kind of house, and the right kind of children, and the right kind of job, and the right kind of connections? Loved ones, is it to be that kind of life, or is it to be a life that is always dying to itself and always going out beyond itself? If it is that, then God will make the life of Jesus real inside you and continually bring you health and wholeness. It’s God’s promise in the Bible that says that God will supply it to us. There’s another important thing, and I think we should look at it. It shows a principle that I think we need to see clearly, in Jeremiah 45:5: “’And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not; for behold, I am bringing evil upon all flesh, says the Lord; but I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.’” “But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.” God promises that he’ll give us this life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go. But he gives you it in the place. You don’t stand here and say, “Lord, I feel that I can’t, on the advice of the medics, go to a climate such as you get in Africa, because I’m obviously not fit to face it.” God said he would give you his life in all places to which you shall go. Not before you leave to go to the place, but in the place itself. That’s why you can never receive life today for tomorrow. You can’t gather manna for today and keep it for tomorrow — it will spoil. In other words, the health of Jesus, and the life of Jesus for your body will come moment-by-moment. Loved ones, it’s a moment-by-moment receiving — so that you’re always leaning heavily on Jesus. You’re never in a position where you say, “Oh yeah, I could tackle it. I have enough strength and health stored up for it.” If you look forward to the thing you’ll never be able to do it. You’ll never have the strength enough to say, “Yes, I haves strength enough for next week.” It’s always God will to give you his life as a prize of war in all places to which you shall go. So it’s in the midst of the situation itself that God will give you the strength. And all I have found is that every time I’ve crumpled back as a weakling and said, “No, no, I haven’t the strength for it,” God has said, “Yes, that’s right — you haven’t the strength. I know you haven’t the strength. And if you depend on your own strength you’ll never have the strength. But I will give you the strength at the time that you’ll need it.” So it is a beautiful life. It’s a life that is really free from anxiety for health for tomorrow. It’s a life that is free from worrying about, “I wonder — will I have enough strength for tomorrow?” It’s a life that is really free when you have a bad night — a sleepless night, and all the thoughts of Satan crowd in upon you and you hear said to you, “This is bound to be a miserable day, because you’ve had no rest tonight. So let’s just suffer it out. You’ll be tense. You’ll be taut. You’ll just be worn out all day. Let’s see it through best we can, and get through as soon as we can to bed.” But God will give you strength for that day. So you get up in the morning and you say, “Yeah, I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. But I take the life of Jesus for my life today. Lord Jesus, I take your life for this physical body today.” {End of tape}

Overcoming Death Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Brothers and sisters, we’ve been looking at the whole business of sickness, and we talked about it for two or three weeks. We found out that sickness came as a result of us failing to receive the Holy Spirit — the tree of life from God. It had the same effect on us as running a V8 high-capacity car engine on regular gas, and the whole thing “pings” like anything. That was the effect of lacking the Holy Spirit in our own lives. Our minds became impaired, our emotions became unbalanced, our bodies became weakened, and death set in in our whole personalities on top of sin. I think it’s very important to see that death is a progressive work. It is not simply a crisis event. It is a progressive work that leads to a crisis event, and Jesus came to save us from that whole law of sin and death. The sin was independence in refusing the Holy Spirit, and the death was that which set in on top of that. Now you find that in Romans 8:2. God says clearly, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.” It is God’s will for us to experience Jesus’ life, the Holy Spirit in us, setting us free from sin and from death. Not only from sin and sickness, but from sin and death. It is Jesus’ work to wipe out all the consequences of the fall. So it is our privilege as children of God to walk above sin and to walk above death itself. Now this is nothing new for God’s servants, is it? All down through the Old Testament God’s servants were overcoming death and were experiencing being free from the law of sin and death. You find that in 2 Kings 4:38-41: “And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, ‘Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.’ One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of pottage, not knowing what they were. And they poured out for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the pottage, they cried out, ‘O man of God, there is death in the pot!’ And they could not eat it. He said, ‘Then bring meal.’ And he threw it into the pot, and said, ‘Pour out for the men, that they may eat.’ And there was no harm in the pot.” And it was again and again God’s gift to his servants to give them power to overcome death whenever they came up against it. You find it again in Daniel 3:16-27, and you remember the story probably from Sunday school days. Daniel 3:16: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.’” “Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he ordered certain mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.” “Then these men were bound in their mantles, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were cast into the burning fiery furnace. Because the king’s order was strict and the furnace was very hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.” “Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He said to his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?’ They answered the king, ‘True, O king.’ He answered, ‘But I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.’” “Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace and said, ‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come here!’ Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their mantles were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.” Now obviously God can deliver his servants from the most obvious power of death, and he can do it whenever he desires and whenever he wishes. Now brothers and sisters, this runs right through the Old Testament. Elijah and Enoch never died. It just says, “And Enoch was not for the Lord took him,” and Elijah was translated — went up into heaven.” Now it is God’s will that we ourselves should experience victory not only over sin but over death. Death is as much our enemy as sin is. 1 Corinthians 15:26 says that very plainly. You remember it talks about the things that Jesus will put under his feet, and then comes to the final enemy, as God calls it. 1 Corinthians 15:25-26: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” It is God’s will that we should experience a destruction of death in our lives. Now death can touch any part of us. Death can touch our bodies, and can bring them weakness and sickness. Death can touch our minds and emotions and can strike them with imbalance, and can strike them with impairment. Death can touch our spirits and can take the life out of our spirits. Now it is our privilege as a body of Christ always to resist death whenever it touches any part of us. So we are expected by the Holy Spirit to be experts on sensing when death is touching us in any way. You can often sense it in a meeting, or in your attitude to another person — death can strike at your whole relationship. I think some of the sisters have seen that — death can strike at a relationship between you and your attitude to another brother in a moment and can destroy all spiritual life. So it is in our own situations through the week. You can be walking along in complete victory — and death can strike right in. If you don’t resist death at that moment it will come in and will steal all life from you. So it is God’s will that we should overcome death. It’s Jesus atonement and the power of the atonement that enables us to overcome that. Romans 5:17 has the fact of Jesus’ victory over death stated very plainly: “If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” Now do you see the words “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ”? Jesus replaced our sin with his righteousness, and it is his desire to replace our death with his life. It’s his will that we should reign in life over death completely in every degree. It is God’s plan that Jesus should not only save us from sin, but should save us from any experience of death. Now of course, many of us fall into the old trap and we say, “Well, if Jesus has overcome death, then all I have to do is sit back and wait and he’ll just overcome it in me bit-by-bit.” We had an old saying in Ireland. I suppose Northern Ireland is heavily Calvinist and heavily predestination in their thinking. We had a saying – you would go to a funeral and somebody would say – you didn’t know what to say. Somebody would say, “I’m sorry for your trouble.” That was a famous one. A complete understatement, but we said that. Then somebody else would come along and say, “Well, well, Mrs. O’Daugherty. His time had come. His time had come.” That tends to be an attitude among many Christians. They say, “Well, Jesus has overcome death. So God will save us from death as long as he wants to save us from death. And if he doesn’t save us, well we’ll die. That’s it. And it’s up to God, and our job is just to pad along and wait for the moment when he brings death to us.” Now loved ones, do you see that that is lazy passivity? If death is an enemy of God, then it is an enemy to be resisted. You don’t simply say, “Well, Jesus has born my sins, so whenever he wants to take them away from me he can take them away. Whenever he wants me to stop taking drugs he will take the craving away. Whenever he wants me to stop throwing chairs at my roommate he will take the chairs away.” We say, “Jesus has borne that sin for me. Therefore I set my will against it and I resist it.” Now loved ones, that is God’s will for death. Nothing can come to us from Jesus’ atonement unless we set our wills for that thing or against that thing. Now it is not the Father’s will that we rest like that and say, “Oh no. Jesus has taken away death. So until God wants me to die I’m safe enough.” No, the Father bringing about his will in you demands the total co-operation of your will. If you do not stand against death in your life, then death can take you before it’s the Father’s plan. Now we’ll see later that the Father has a plan for each of us. But if you do not resist death on every occasion, until you know for certain that this is the Father’s time for you, then death can take you out of God’s will. So it is very important to see that death is an enemy that we resist, and the only possibility of Jesus’ victory being made real in us is if we take that same relentless attitude towards death. Now what kind of victory can we expect over death? Well, you can have victory in three ways. I’ll try to go into the scripture for each of these. Either you can trust God to keep you alive until your work is finished. Or you can have the victory that when death does come there will be no fear but you’ll meet it as a friend. Thirdly, it is possible, increasingly so in these last days, that some of us will be translated in the rapture before we meet physical death. Now it’s in one of those three ways — and God expects us to walk in victory in these ways. Let’s just look for a moment or two at the first one. We can trust God even in the face of the most terrible physical experiences and the most drastic physical dangers. It is right to trust God to keep us alive until our work is finished. And loved ones, there is no joy or glory in this attitude, “Oh well, I don’t care. God can take me as soon as he wants.” No — the attitude off the Christian is, “I’ll stay here as long as I possibly can, and I’ll resist death as long as I can — to be used as much for God as I can.” Loved ones, there are 2.5 billion people who do not know Jesus. We all ought to aim at living to 70 and I’m aiming at 85 — but you all aim at 70 anyway. It’s the Father’s will that we trust God and we resist death until our work is completed. Now, you can look at some of the references to this. In Luke 4:29-30 you find Jesus himself doing this. He did not run into death’s hands. There were other times when Jesus could have died. But he knew there was a right time — and that was when his work was completed. Luke 4:29-30: “And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong.” So they intended to murder him there. “But passing through the midst of them he went away.” So Jesus escaped because it wasn’t the time and so no doubt God gave him power to do that. You find it in John 7:1. Here’s a situation where he obviously avoided death. There was a time when he set his face steadfastly towards Jerusalem knowing and prophesying what would happen there. But there were other times like this when he walked away from death because his time was not come yet. John 7:1: “After this Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.” So, he avoided Judea because he knew they would kill him. Now there does come to some of us — and we’ll deal with it in a few moments — there does come a revelation of when our time is due and when God is willing to release us. But until that time comes you do as Jesus did. John 8:59: “So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.” You have to set that kind of action against the walking right into the arms of his enemies in Jerusalem. Obviously with him, there was a time to face death and there was a time to avoid it. So it must be with us. We do not foolishly walk into the jaws of death. We only walk there when we know that it is God’s time. If we do not know then we pray, “It will be according to your will.” But you only pray, “Let it be according to your will,” if you do not know God’s will. But if you know God’s will then you pray strongly against death or towards death but you never pray really for death unless it is plainly God’s will. If it’s not that, then you resist with all the power you have. You find it in Philippians 1:22-25, and you find Paul expressing this attitude: “If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Many of us I think feel like that. That it would be better, obviously, to be with Jesus at this moment in a free world in a free place where there were no limitations. So it’s not unique in us to feel that. We should see that all Christians feel that way. But if you will that way, and God has not told you that’s what’s going to happen, then dear ones, you are putting yourself on Satan’s side. A death wish is an enemy of Jesus and an enemy of God. You see Paul continuing in verse 24: “But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.” So Paul says, “No. I know it is necessary for me to remain with you. So I know that I will remain for your progress and joy in the faith — so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.” Now loved ones, if Jesus sets your face out to the 2.5 billion people in the world, you set your face there and you trust Jesus for absolute health and victory over death until he plainly tells you that he wants you in the next world. But until then you set your face against death. That is the Father’s will for us. Now it is not Satan’s will at all. John 8:44 states his will for us. John 8:44: “’You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him.’” The devil is a murderer from the beginning, and he intends to murder as many of God’s saints as he possibly can. Do you see? Whenever you accept death or the working of death in you, you’re really siding with Satan. Now it’s different, as you’ll see when it comes to a saint of God to whom God has revealed that he must die. Then that is different. Then the saint welcomes that. You’ll see that Paul came to a place in his life when he knew that. But if you don’t know that, then you stand against Satan. How does Satan really bring death? You find it in Daniel 7:25. This is Satan’s method of bringing death among God’s children. I think many of us succumb to this and think that it is just the working of the cross in us. Daniel 7:25: ”’”He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High.’”” Satan’s job is to bring death into your life by wearing you out. Just wearing you out bit-by-bit. Just wearing you out with a little bit of worry, a little bit of anxiety, a little bit of wrong affection, just wearing like a drop of water on a stone, just wearing you down, wearing you down. If you don’t see that and resist it, it will bring death. Watchman Nee says this: “Sometimes the devil directly attacks believers and causes them to die. Many deaths are assaults such as these, though few recognize them for what they are. Perhaps it is merely a cold, sunstroke, insomnia, exhaustion, or loss of appetite. Perhaps it is uncleanness, wrath, jealously, or licentiousness. Failing to perceive that the power of death is behind these phenomena, the full victory for Christians is jeopardized. Were they to recognize them as the assaults of death and resist aright, they would triumph. How often saints attribute them to their age or to some other factor and miss the real import of it all.” That’s Satan’s technique again, to persuade you that this thing is purely natural, that this is your personality, or this is the body that you inherited from your father or mother, and you can only expect it to do so much. Dear ones, the history of God’s children is filled with people who were too weak to live to 25 and they lived to 88. It is filled with servants of God who overcame weaknesses, and difficulties that the world said they could not overcome. Nee says this: “The devil is a murderer. The purpose of Satan’s work against the saints is to kill them. If he can add just a little anxiety to the believer’s spirit, increase just a trifle the restlessness in his mind, cause the saint to lose sleep one night, eat less the next time, and overwork still another time, then he has made inroads with his power of death. Although a single drop of water is powerless, continuous dripping can indisputably wear a hole in a rock. Being well acquainted with this truth, Satan incites a little worry here, a little anxiety there, or a little neglect elsewhere to literally wear out the saints.” Now brothers and sisters, do you see it is the Father’s will for us to get clear of all those things? You dare not nourish and cherish one piece of anxiety or worry for one night. Cherish it one night and Satan has made inroads in you in insensitivity. You’ll be insensitive to it the next night, and it will just wear you down, wear you down. The Father’s will is that we walk in continuous renewing life. That can be you, loved ones. It is the Father’s will that each day we come to the end of the day. We leave this old corpse at the foot of the cross and tomorrow morning we receive a new body and a new creation from Jesus, and we start anew. We start anew as a new creation every day. That way there is no wearing out. That way you die well. You die well and whole. It is God’s will that you should experience that. It is Satan’s will that you should begin to accept a little death here, a little death there, until gradually he brings death before your time. Now, God has a time undoubtedly for us. That’s different from saying we know it, but John 21:22 shows that the Father has a perfect plan for us: “Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’” You remember when Peter saw John, he asked Jesus, “’Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’” Obviously the Father has a time for us. Now whether that time is arranged, it’s hardly arranged before we’re born, and undoubtedly it’s planned by God in relationship to the value we are in the kingdom and undoubtedly God plans that time. You don’t expect that time unless Jesus has clearly shown you. Some of us will know it. Many of us will not know it. If we don’t know it we’ll resist death until God shows us by our death that it’s our time — but until then we resist. Paul seemed to know it — as you can see in 2 Timothy 4:6: “For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Obviously Paul talks knowing that the time is not far when he will meet Jesus face-to-face. Now brothers and sisters, it takes very clear knowledge and very deep awareness of Jesus to know that your time has arrived. You can see the foolishness of this comment, “His time had come.” No, his time had not come unless he was able to tell everybody, “God has told me this is my time.” But if that hasn’t been the case it is probably that Satan has succeeded in stealing another one of God’s children. But unless you know clearly, we resist. Can you know? Well, normally yes. Normally, the lifespan is outlined in Psalms 90:10. That’s the normal lifespan of God’s people and obviously, it can be longer at times and it can be shorter. But unless you know that for certain, this is what you should trust God for. Psalms 90:10: “The years of our life are threescore and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore.” So that’s normal for God’s children — that we’ll live, all of us here will live to 70, or we’ll live to 80. But that is the normal plan for us and we should resist death until that time comes. We should be in this world as long as we possibly can for Jesus. When we go out to China, when we go to Russia, when we go to India and there are no medical facilities and we are struck with malaria, or we are struck with some other disease, or we need a surgical operation that cannot possibly be done by any doctor nearby, then we trust the Holy Spirit to cure us, and heal us, and make us whole so that we can be alive for Jesus’ work. But it’s always that, loved ones. We always trust God to keep us alive until we complete our work. Now if death should com then, how do we face it? Well, we face it as people who are walking after someone who has gone through before us. We go into death following a person who has shown us there is lightness and brightness on the other side. I would testify in my own life as I’ve been near both loved ones and others at the point of death, that a person who knows this Jesus that has gone through death has no fear. Death is a dear friend. It is a passing from one room into another room. It is a going to sleep and a beautiful awakening in the morning. Death for us when it comes is not something to be feared at all. I think the famous heart surgeon, whose name I can’t remember, said that even non-Christians do not fear the actual business of dying. He didn’t comment on their fear of what is after death — but said they do not actually fear the dying. Now, we not only do not fear the dying, but we look forward to what is beyond. So it’s a glorious thing. That’s stated several times in the Bible. Job 5:26 is one of those places: “’You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.’” It just seems the right time. It just seems the right time and it is God’s will that we shall come to that. I’ve often mentioned to you an old grandmother that I had who was an officer in the Salvation Army. She died at 85, and that was it. A very ripe age, and ready to go, and just the right time. It was just a continuing of her work. The Salvation Army people say, “You get promoted. That’s what death is — you’re promoted.” I remember the old funeral in Belfast in Ireland. I suppose they couldn’t walk down this York Street now without getting shot at. But I remember the funeral with the Army band lined up at each side, and her going triumphantly down the center, and no sadness or anything — just joy all the time. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was the same. Everybody was dressed in white and they sang gospel hymns. That’s the way God intends us to die, so that if we do die, if some member of the body here does die, then it’s a joyful time. It’s a time when we come together in joy. I remember my father’s death. We have services in the home in Ireland. I think I’d like us to do that in our houses when that time comes for us. We sang the hymn: In heavenly love abiding, no change my heart shall fear. And safe is such confiding, for nothing changes here. It felt really that he was singing with the rest of us before the throne. That’s what death is for those of us who are Christians. There is no fear. There is no sadness. There is no remorse. It is just a joy. It is going from this room into really what is a better room and it is a sensing. You’ll feel that you have an extra interest in heaven because there’s somebody there whom you know personally. It’s the communion of saints. It’s the communion of saints. Don’t you feel that around here in this church tonight, that there are not only angels and archangels, but there is a whole company of heaven that sees us? I remember one dear brother in north Minneapolis who died desperately of cancer. I remember being with him the day before he actually died and there was no mention of pain. No pain — there was just a joy. I remember saying to him as I left, “God bless you.” He said, “No, no brother. God make you a blessing.” That was the day before he died of what is supposedly one of the most painful diseases. So, do you see that for children of God death is a joyful thing? Loved ones, there is no fear in death for those of us who know Jesus — because he has already gone through it and he has prepared a place for us and we know that — so it is a delight. The other possibility is that we would be translated in the rapture. You see that in 1 Corinthians 15. As Layton {an elder of the church} said earlier on, you do have to live in the expectancy at any moment of Jesus returning — because it does seem there are many signs that we are in the last days. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52: “Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep,” — you see, some of us will not go to sleep {die} at all — “but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” But we shall not all sleep. Some of us will be translated in the rapture. You have it in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.” Undoubtedly some people on the earth will experience that and there are many signs that we are in those last days. But you come to that not by doing what the disciples did on the Mount of Ascension, looking up and staring. You come to that by being concerned with Jesus’ work here on earth. Then when he comes, it’s just an optional extra joy that you expect. We should not pray for the Lord’s soon return. With 2.5 billion people who do not know Jesus? Loved ones, if there’s love in our hearts for these people, then we’ll want Jesus to stay away as long as possible until we get to these 2.5 billion. Now if we have no interest in getting to them, then of course we want the whole thing closed down as soon as possible. But it’s Jesus’ love in us. Jesus wants them. He wants them to himself. His desire is always, “Come unto me all thee that labor and are heavy laden.” His desire is always weeping over Jerusalem. “I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens, but you would not.” But that’s always the heart of Jesus. When the heart of Jesus beats within us, it’s a heart that doesn’t yearn for a soon return, but really, really wants time to get to the 2.5 billion. Loved ones, that’s why I say we must be about our Father’s business. Do you see that? There is only one way to be found on that day, and that is not storing up our own bank accounts, or making our own futures, or ensuring our own comfort. The only place to be is with those 2.5 billion who don’t know him, working there and to be found there preaching, or speaking to them, or sharing with them, or lifting them up when Jesus comes and taps us on the shoulder. That’s the way he wants to find us. Now, what brings life? Proverbs is full of things, brothers and sisters, that bring life. You might like to look at some of them. I’ll just give you the references quickly and at least it will be on the transcript if you want to look up these verses. If you look at Proverbs 3:1, you’ll find that God has put promises of victory over death right through his word. Proverbs 3:1: “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare will they give you.” That’s God’s direct command, that living inside his commandments will bring length of days and years of life. And Verse 8: “It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” His word will be this. Obedience to his word will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. I do believe, brothers and sisters, that it’s true what we’ve shared on other Sundays — that many of us who have little weaknesses and ailments would find them healed if we walked in obedience to Jesus’ commands. Many of the strains and the worries that we have in our bodies we have because we are not really trusting him. There is strain, or tension, or worry, or anxiety in so many of our hearts. We’re encumbered and troubled about many things when only one thing is needful, and because of that, sickness and death are making inroads in us. You find it in Proverbs 4:20-21: “My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to him who finds them, and healing to all his flesh.” Again, God promises that his words are healing. There are more, dear ones, if you check Proverbs 10:27 and then 14:30. And just look quickly to 10:27: “The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.” Then in 14:30: “A tranquil mind gives life to the flesh, but passion makes the bones rot.” “A tranquil mind gives life to the flesh,” and everything that involves our turning from ourselves, and turning from our own ways, and turning to God’s ways, enables him to make his will real in us. Brothers and sisters, really the central part of it is you fight and resist death — until the end. When God tells you it’s your time, then you welcome him. But until that moment you resist death. Brothers and sisters, I don’t care if your body is worn out. I don’t care whether you have any arteries left. It doesn’t matter how hypertension has got a hold of you. You stand against death knowing that Jesus’ body is available for what your body cannot face. You trust him until that final day. Loved ones, you can see that this is a joyful way. You know, it will be great when I’m 85 and you’re 75, and we’re moving, we’re moving still out to the rest of the world. And if you’re moving out to the rest of the world, then God can enable us to do that kind of thing and to live as long as he wants us to. Now loved ones, any questions? This is maybe not the kind of thing you have questions on. [Question inaudible] The question is about the Millennial views. I am glad to say, loved ones, that I am an ignoramus really. I am trusting God to lead me in preparing a series of studies on it. But I know something about it. I’m not an absolute ignoramus, but I’m not by any means an expert on it. So I’d rather in a way wait and do a series of studies that will be complete. Yes, because I’m sure if I make a statement here there will be 10 or 20 people who will think otherwise. Brother? [Question inaudible] Yes, it seems to me “transfero” in Latin would be “to bring away or bring across.” It means just that God lifts a person up as he did Jesus, just lifts him up from the earth and lifts him into himself. That seems to be what happened with Elijah and Enoch. [Question inaudible] That’s right. The physical body just disappeared from the earth and Elijah or Enoch’s bodies were never found, and neither was Jesus’ body ever found. [Question inaudible] That’s right. That’s right. Death and relationships with people. It seems to me that many of us in the body here, and I say this because I’ve sensed that some of the sisters are having some of this difficulty and the brothers must be having it in a different way. I think in the body here God has set up a great Christ-like love among us, and it is a pure love with no thought of self in it. While we live on that level then you’ll find a continual openness in the body. Now let a sister or a brother allow death to enter into that Christ-like love, and let it develop into a kind of natural crush on someone, and death begins to enter in. There is no longer any blessing in that relationship. The sister is not being a blessing to the brother, and the brother cannot be a blessing to the sister. There have been a number of situations where brothers and sisters have found that a real obstacle — a real difficulty. I think it’s very important to really keep death away from our personal relationships. I think indeed, many of the sisters would admit that they have spent many depressing hours over this same business. I think it’s true it’s the same with me. I can have it in a different kind of way, not in relationship to a love relationship at all, but I can allow something of a personal feeling to enter in between myself and another brother and sister. Once I do that, death comes in. I no longer am pastor to that brother or sister. They no longer are my brother and sister in the body. It becomes a personal relationship with all the little human irritabilities that come in there. So I think it’s very important to perceive death the moment it enters in and to drive it back and resist it without any argument at all. So those would be two examples of death in human relationships. [Question inaudible] Coldness between two brothers? Where there’s anything but an overflowing, outgoing, spontaneous love of Jesus that is building up the other brother or the other sister — that is death. I mean, some of us have got used to this attitude, “Oh well, love is an absence of hate.” No it isn’t. No. Love is a positive wanting the other person’s wellbeing and having an absolutely open and generous heart towards the other person, or wanting the very best for them. If there’s a coldness or a nothingness between you and the brother or sister, that is death. It has the coldness, and loneliness, and darkness of death. [Question inaudible] Kirk says for him death is a shadow in the relationship, and that’s good. Where there’s just a shadow comes across and you can’t look the person straight in the eye with absolute confidence and full love. How does it come in and how is it defeated? It comes in undoubtedly when we begin to say, “Not your will but mine be done.” We begin to want our way. We begin to want satisfaction out of the relationship. We come to that place. I think it’s very easy in a body that has been so prospered and so blessed by the Father. It’s very easy to come to a place where we suddenly say, “Boy this is great. This is really great.” We sort of lay back and we say, “Well, I’m going to enjoy this.” As soon as a person begins to do that they begin to bring death into the body, and death comes into their own relationships. They begin to ride on the life of the body, and they sink into it, and they’re a weight and a burden. They feel a pressure each time you come into their company. It seems to me it comes from turning your eyes to yourself and turning your eyes away from God. God has shown me more and more each day that you have to live every day aggressively for Jesus. If you step back in the least to look after self — that death creeps in. Before you know it the joy is gone and the spontaneous fountain flowing up to the Father is gone. So it’s defeated by getting back onto the cross. Saying, “Lord Jesus, not my will but thine be done for you. It’s your comfort, your pleasure I want. This is your time.” It begins to come in when a brother or sister gets annoyed that they have to do something because it’s taking up their time. That’s when death is entering in. When someone asks them to do something and they’re thinking, “Ah, my time. This is my hour.” The opposite is a body of brothers and sisters who are going out never claiming their own time, never claiming this is their time to do what they want. The body will prosper, and will rise up, and will spread. [Question inaudible] Priority of commitments. Yes, it seems to me it has to be Jesus first. I’ve slowly learned that then it has to be your wife next. Then it has to be the work. My wife was very patient while I was learning that. But it seems to me it has to be Jesus, and then the loved one that you’re committed to or the people in your immediate circle. It seems to me impossible for a person to be doing work, if it were Jean {a member of the church}, being a blessing in the bookshop — if she isn’t first a blessing with the people with whom she lives in the house. It seems to me the promise is to Jerusalem, and to Judea and Samaria, and then the outermost parts of the earth. But it’s first to the circle that lives around us. So it’s Jesus first and then the people that we live with, and then it’s the work of God. And it seems to me the first two are the work of God really. [Question inaudible] Sister says I said that you would know when your time had come and it seems that many people like Marshal and the missionaries that were killed by the Indians and other people — Wycliffe translators who were very close to God — did not know. And sister, no, I’d just say – no, I didn’t say that everybody would know their time had come. No, it seems to me some people are given that privilege but there are many of us that God does not tell. [Question inaudible] Yes. They’ll resist up to the point of death, yes. Then the Father – the thing is that there comes a quiet assurance. They may say there comes a quiet assurance that this is the time, yes. And you have to realize that in the case of the missionaries who were killed by the Indians, you’re working against a world of evil, and not every death has been the Father’s ideal will. Often he has had to permit a death because some of God’s people, maybe the intercessors who were interceding for those men were not interceding. So you have to allow for the fact that it’s wrong to say that every death of every child of God is God’s will for that child. Often I’m afraid God’s children come to death earlier than they ought. But it is true that some know that it’s their time and many of us will not know, yes. That’s why I don’t think one should be morbid about it and wonder, “Now Father, could you give me a date?” It seems to me the only way Jesus will ever let us know is when we’re out after him thinking only of him, and incidentally, he will let us know sometimes as he let Paul know. But many of us will not know. I think that this is a corny thing to do, but I would like tonight to say that I have used many men in speaking and in preaching over the years. I would like to thank the man who wrote The Spiritual Man — Watchman Nee called it. I don’t know if he’s dead now or not. I am not a Nee worshiper by any means and I know where I disagree with him in the books. But this is the end of maybe three or four years when I’ve preached just through these three volumes of The Spiritual Man. I’d like to acknowledge the blessing that Nee has been to me and I’d just like to thank God for him. I think I owe that to him in love whether he is on the other side listening or whether he will be told by the Father. But he has been just a blessing to me and over three or four years has just been a great source of real balanced teaching. I’m not saying Nee is the be all and end all. I think Jesus is the be all and end all. Shall we pray, dear ones? Dear Father, we praise you that you have called us to a life of victory over sin, Satan, the world, and death. And we thank you that it is your will for us to experience this victory completely in our own lives. So Father, we accept your ordinary normal standard for ourselves: three score and 10 years, or by reason of strength four score. And Father, we trust you for health and wholeness from the life of Jesus for that time. We will abide by the rules that you give us for our bodies. We will obey your commandments, and we will trust you to preserve us to complete the work that you have set before us. And Father, we as a body would commit ourselves to that. We think of these 2.5 billion people who do not know you, and Father, we commit ourselves to them and to you on their behalf, and we trust you to keep us alive until there are 10,000 of us out in the world for you. We trust you for this. Thank you for such a clear purpose our Father. Thank you for taking away our purposeless, meaningless, directionless lives and instead giving us a full life with a plain and simple purpose, and with limitless power to fulfill that purpose. We commit ourselves to you now for that. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us, now and ever more. Amen.

Questions on Spirit Filled Living Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill These Sunday evenings we’re talking about the post crucifixion life of a Christian. And maybe it’s good to emphasize that once every three or four weeks. We’re talking about the post crucifixion life. Now brothers and sisters it’s very important to emphasize that, otherwise you sink into this as the power of positive thinking. In other words, we’re talking tonight about people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and the problems that they meet in their mind during these few weeks. Now it’s important for us to see that. That if you’re not filled with the Holy Spirit then you’ll have all kinds of problems in your mind that don’t come from evil spirits at all. They just come from the fact that you have a double mind and that you have a divided heart. And when we talk tonight about the problems that evil spirits cause in a Christian’s mind, we’re talking about the mind of a Christian who is crucified with Christ and who has been filled with the Holy Spirit. Otherwise you see, you’re going to become confused over this issue and a great many things rise in the minds of half surrendered or control surrendered Christians because their will is divided and double. Now we’re talking on these Sunday evenings of people who have come to the place where they have a single eye and where their mind is single. Where they have been filled with the Holy Spirit, they have died to their own glory or their own satisfaction and they’re living only for Jesus’ glory. Now it’s in the minds of people like that, that the demons begin to work and Satan begins to operate. The other people who have still a double mind, and are still uncertain about whether they are living for Jesus’ glory or partly for their own glory, Satan doesn’t need to get subtle or sophisticated with them. No, he just makes their will do at times what he wants them to do and lets their will at times do what Jesus wants them to do. That way he keeps bluffing them that Jesus is really the Lord of their lives. And it’s only when they realize that if he’s not Lord of all, he’s not really Lord at all. Indeed, he’s only Lord by permission of Satan. It’s only then when they begin to seek the experience of a real crucifixion with Christ, a real acceptance that they have been crucified with him. Now Jesus made that distinction plain in Matthew 6:22 and it might be good to look at it. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Now the eye of the body is really the mind and that’s governed by your will. And if your will is not fully consecrated and surrendered to God then you’re going to have part darkness in your life at times and part light. Now most of us have been in that position at one time or another. We have entered into the first part of believing in Jesus, that is the part where we believe that Jesus had died for our sins. And we received, in his name, the forgiveness of our sins. And we know we are children of God. We have received the Holy Spirit. We are born of the Spirit. We sense at times the Spirit of Jesus making us want to obey God. But at other times the good that we would we do not and the evil that we want to avoid, that’s the very thing we do. Though we are children of God and born of the spirit, yet we have not a single eye. We are not intent on Jesus’ glory alone. Indeed, most of us in that condition have decided, “Now I have my sins forgiven, God loves me. I’m ready for heaven. Now I shall get on with my own life.” And we get back to defending and asserting our own reputation to getting our own way at home, to insisting on our own rights. And we live that partly defeated, partly victorious, Christian life. Now brothers and sisters that life will continue until you really accept that when Jesus died you died. And when he died to his rights you died to your rights. And when he was crucified you were crucified. And when his future ended your future ended. And when his reputation was destroyed your reputation was destroyed. And only when you enter into that by belief plus submission of the will is Jesus able to fill you with the Holy Spirit and anoint you with the Holy Spirit. And that’s what we mean by being baptized with the Spirit. When a person comes to a place where he believes not only that Jesus died for him but that if Jesus died for all then all died. And you remember that is, I believe, in 2 Corinthians 5:14. And, you remember, I’ve talked about it at times as the big and the small print in the Christian contract that we sign with God in Jesus’ name. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all.” Now that is what has normally been presented in our churches as becoming a Christian, when you believe that Christ died for you, died in your place, so that God could forgive you. Normally in our churches we say, “You become a Christian if you believe that.” That’s not what the early Christian church believed. The early Christian church was in no doubt. When the people came up and said to Peter, “What must we do now that we see we have crucified the son of God?” Then old Peter said, “You must repent and you must be baptized into the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the Holy Spirit.” Then he explained to them, “Do you know that those of you who have been baptized into Jesus have been baptized into his death? So, just as he died, you died also. And just as he was buried, you were buried also, that you might walk in newness of life.” And so the early Christians entered into not only Jesus’ death for them but they entered into the small print of the contract described there in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “That one has died for all; therefore all have died.” They said, “That’s it. That’s why God can forgive us. He should have destroyed us, but he destroyed Jesus instead. What does that mean? It means we were destroyed with Jesus. We thank God, we’re destroyed; we’re crucified; we’re buried. This life is not ours to live. It’s his completely. Lord Jesus, we thank you. We trust you now to fill us and anoint us with the Holy Spirit so that we can live for you alone.” It was a full and complete experience brothers and sisters. There was no half and half. There was none of this business, “Oh, I’ve had my sins forgiven but I haven’t been baptized with the Holy Spirit.” There was none of that. When that occurred it was a special case. When that occurred in Acts 8, it was regarded by the apostles as a special deviation from the norm. There it is in Acts 8. You can see it there. Acts 8:4. “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to a city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the sings which he did.” So there was much joy in that city in Verse 8. And then, you remember, in Verse 10, “They all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, ‘This man is that power of God.’” And then in Verse 12, “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed.” And yet this was a deviation from the norm. You can see it in Verse 14, “Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,” in his fullness, “For it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” They received the Holy Spirit in his fullness. Presumably they were born of the Spirit when they believed and were baptized but they received the Holy Spirit in his fullness then when the apostles laid their hands on them. And you remember, it occurs once more in Acts 19, there’s a situation there where there was a deviation from the norm. Acts 19:1. “While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said, ‘No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ And he said, ‘Into what then were you baptized?’ They said, ‘Into John’s baptism.’ And Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and the spoke with tongues and prophesied.” We should be wise about tongues. There are five instances, I think, in the New Testament where it is said that the Holy Spirit filled people. And you remember that, isn’t it in two of those that they spoke in tongues? And then in three tongues aren’t mentioned. We should see that the tongues are not the sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless in the early church it was taught plainly that the experience was a complete experience. Now brothers and sisters do you see that what we talk about on these Sunday evenings assumes that you have entered into a complete Christian experience? That is, that you have been born of the Spirit and you have died to self with Jesus. Now loved ones, honestly, if you haven’t entered into that then a lot of this stuff that we share tonight will just end up in the power of positive thinking for you. Because you see, your mind is being filled with all kinds of things that you want it to be filled with. We’re talking here tonight about our mind being filled with things that we don’t want and that we don’t put in there ourselves, that come in from outside by Satan. But do you see that if you have a double mind and a double will, if you’re still living partly for your own glory, you’ll fill your mind with things that are not in God’s will? And those things are not necessarily put there by demons. They’re put there by you. You can’t cast those out. You have to obey those out. And it’s important for us to see the distinction, you know. Now maybe I should pause there brothers and sisters because at times I feel some of us don’t really understand that what we talk about in these Sunday evenings is really for the person who is filled with the Spirit and for the person who is crucified with Christ. Now if you say, “Oh, but brother that puts me out. What am I going to do on Sunday evenings?” No, I think you should come. You enter into these things by hungering after them. Yeah, don’t you sit back and say, “Oh, well it’s not for me.” No, you enter into these things by being hungry. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Yeah, it’s always by listening to speaking or preaching that is above where we are. Without a vision the people perish. It is with that that God lifts us up. So yeah, you keep coming but I want you to see the distinction. I don’t want you to substitute the power of positive thinking for an experience of the cross of Christ in your life. And maybe I should pause for questions there because some may be uncertain about that. Question from Audience: Didn’t even Paul have problems with sin in his life? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: No, it seems to me brother that that was it. It was certainly before he was filled with the Spirit. Maybe we should look at Romans 7 brothers and sisters because it has been just mutilated hasn’t it by the Christian body so often. Many people believe that this Romans 7 is the picture of a defeated Christian. I think I’ll go with old John Wesley that it’s not even a defeated Christian, that it is really a Jew under the law. It is a Jew under the law who is not even born of the spirit let alone filled with spirit. It so happens that the level that we have for the converted Christian life is so low that we think, “And maybe this is it.” But this isn’t even the level of a converted Christian life. I believe really it’s the level of a Jew under the law. Now you can see in Verse 8, “But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law.” I once, that is, didn’t think anything about sin. “But when the commandment came…” When I began to come under the law as a Jew then the law exposed the independence of God–that’s what sin is–exposed the independence of God that was in me, “Sin revived and I died.” I became aware that I could not live the way this God wanted me to, and I died. “The very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.” Now then you see how he describes his own life in Verse 15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Now of course, even a Christian who has had his sins forgiven ought to live in a little more victory than that you see. A Christian who has had his sins forgiven and is having trouble in a defeated Christian life is normally having trouble inside. He usually has enough will power and enough grace given by Jesus to avoid outward sin. It breaks out from time-to-time but he doesn’t walk in that sin. It is an odd exception when it breaks out. What he finds is, he wants to be angry, he wants to be irritable, he wants to be sarcastic. But it is inward sin he has trouble with. That’s why so many people say, “Well Paul is describing not the life of a defeated or half Christian here but the life of a Jew that can’t do what he ought to do.” Now in Verse 20, “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.” So you either take it you see, as the life of a Jew under the law or the life of a Christian who only knows the forgiveness of his sins. But even for that Christian it’s a pretty low level. But you can interpret it as that: that this Christian is simply a good Jew. He’s a Jew that believes that for the sake of Jesus God will forgive him his sins. But yet he cannot walk in the victory that has been promised to him. And he looks up to those promises, “I can do anything through Christ who strengthens me.” Maybe I should just look at it brothers and sisters. Do you see Verse 24? “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And most people stop there and say, “That’s the situation. That’s the normal Christian life.” It’s not you see. Verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Then people look at the next verse and say, “Ah, but there he is still in the old spot.” No he’s not; he’s summarizing the previous experience that he had before he entered into crucifixion with Christ. He’s saying, “So then, I of myself,” and the Greek means, I left to myself, I depending on myself–before my old self was crucified–depending on myself. “I of myself serve the law of God with my mind,” I want to do the right thing, “But with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” But that was the old life. He’s not describing what happens after “Thanks be to God.” After “Thanks be to God,” he outlines it in Verse 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.” And then he goes on to talk in Verse 9, “But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” Then he points to the assurance we have in Verse 15, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” And then he runs on you see, and describes the victorious life in which he finds himself. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: That’s right. Brother, I believe that Paul’s experience was the complete one that he describes, you remember, in Acts. Maybe we could look at it. Some of you will have to help me because I don’t know the exact chapters but if you look at Paul’s experience you remember, of conversion. You remember, where Ananias laid his hands on him. I think someone will have to find the exact chapter and verse. Acts 9:17. “So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened.” Now do you see that Paul’s new birth presumably occurred the previous day didn’t it on the road to Damascus because there in Verse 4, “And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’” And presumably at that moment Paul identified Jesus as his Lord and was willing to give his life to him and so the conversion presumably took place that day. I think brother, that Paul had no more than one day’s distinction between his new birth and being filled with the Spirit. And so I don’t think that Romans 7 describes a defeated Christian life but rather his life as Jew. Now we can rightfully, I think, say that it describes the life of many of us who are just good Jews. We’re Christians who have had our sins forgiven. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: No, because he describes his normal life in Romans 8, where he describes the life in the Spirit, brother. No. And you see, why we get into that trouble dear ones is we take Romans as a chronological exposition of Paul’s life which I isn’t. It’s the very opposite. He makes it plain that this is an outline of Christian doctrine. And even if you read a book like John Stott’s “Baptism With the Holy Spirit”, he’ll take Romans 6, 7, and 8, I think it is, those three chapters together. It’s an outline of doctrine. It’s not a chronological exposition of Paul’s life. And that’s where I think we get into difficulties. Now this is good brothers and sisters I’d rather we’d clarify this than really do what we were going to do tonight. Question from Audience: Do we believe that you can be filled with the Holy Spirit to the extent that you walk in total obedience? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: It seems to me brother that from the beginning of the Bible to the very end God is saying one thing. He’s saying, “Obey me.” He keeps on saying, “Obey me.” And we keep on saying, “He doesn’t really mean it. He doesn’t believe we can obey him.” And he keeps on saying, right through every chapter of the Bible you know, you keep getting it, he says, “Obey me. Obey me. Obey me.” Jesus says, “If a man loves me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home in his heart. If a man does not love me he will not keep my words.” And we keep on protesting and saying, “But we really do love you even though we’re not keeping your words.” And Jesus keeps on saying, “Look, you’re doing like a man who builds his house upon sand. And the storm comes, and the floods of judgment come, and the house is just wrecked. And that’s the kind of position you people are in who hear my word and don’t do them.” Brother praise God. Yes, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Now don’t let’s get under that and say, “We never, never, never.” It’s your natural normal life not to commit sin. If you do commit sin we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus the Christ the righteous but it is an exception in our lives. It is an emergency situation. Sin is not any imperfection. It isn’t. Sin is what is described in James 2:10, as whosoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it. For him it is sin. Sin is not a mistake, it’s not ignorance. Many of us make mistakes and many of us do things through ignorance but sin is known rebellious attitude towards God. And if you say to me, “Well brother then I’m not crucified with Christ if I’ve ever committed a sin?” Yes, but sin is not a normal natural part of your life it is an exception, it is an emergency situation where you get before the Father and you get real forgiveness for it. Yeah brother, but that is true what you say. Yes, we are expected to walk in perfect obedience. Not in perfection, we’re not talking about sinless perfection. People talk about sinless perfection and say, “You ought never to make a mistake. You ought never, ever to fall.” No, we’re talking about perfect obedience, obeying God in all that you know you should obey him. Yeah. The absence of a rebellious resistant will to his. The presence of a penitent contrite heart that’s what we see. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Brother here’s the thing: the law is specially designed to drive a man to crucifixion. God is wise and I’d rather be wise with him than try something of my own. And it is so brother. You’re dead right. That is really it. That is really it. God keeps laying this law to us–and that’s what happens to so many of us. We hear this law and we hear it laid down and we keep on saying, “Well I’m trying, I’m trying. But you’re driving me to despair.” That’s exactly where God wants us, to be driven to despair where we at last say, “There is no good thing in me. I’m going to just accept that you did the right thing Lord, you destroyed me in Jesus. And it’s about time I let that happen inside and allow him to take over.” Yes, that’s right. Maybe I should take a sister there. Question from Audience: Can you be filled with the Holy Spirit and not experience that crucifixion? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: It does seem true, doesn’t it, that it is unto you according to your faith. And it does seem that some people, particularly those who have come through a Pentecostal emphasis have had it stressed to them again and again that Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and you will receive the gift of tongues and you will have available to you the other gifts of the Spirit. And it does seem that some people have entered into that by faith and so they have ministered in the gifts of the spirit and they have never had light on this subject of their crucifixion with Christ. And so it has been unto them according to their faith. And it has lasted for a while. And then the Holy Spirit has begun to try and draw them into this but they have resisted. And as they have resisted and grieved him, so he has withdrawn his gifts. But they have kept on manifesting the gifts in the flesh. And so they have persuaded themselves that they still have the baptism, as they call it. But they’re manifesting the gifts in the flesh. And you notice that they are often drawing attention to themselves and to the gifts. And there seems to be a lack of the transmission of Jesus’ life. So it seems, sister, that even though you may enter into the power on one side or the purity on the other side, unless you are yielding to the Holy Spirit for all that he wants to do in you, you’ll lose him completely. And so it seems with those of us who see the need to enter into the crucified experience, if we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to begin to administer the gifts of the Spirit through us and to express his power through us then we will grieve him also. So it’s neither purity nor power. It’s both and, purity and power. But it does seem that it was the Father’s will that we should come via the cross–that that is his will that we should come into the baptism of the Holy Spirit through the cross. And I know many brothers and sisters say, “Come into the anointing with power first and then you can come into the cross.” It seems that it’s hard for many to take the dizzy heights that the gifts raise them to without beginning to glorify themselves rather than Jesus. Question from Audience: Can you believe for your crucifixion without the Holy Spirit putting light on it? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Brothers and sisters here’s the simple situation. You can believe with your mind for it. It’s Galatians 5:24. Undoubtedly you can believe with your mind. That’s a different thing from saying you can enter into the reality of it by yourself. I think we often have to see that there is a sense in which we can exercise faith. God expects us to exercise faith. “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” We have a responsibility to believe that, yes. God doesn’t say, “Now, I’m going to help you to believe that.” He says, “It’s in my word, you believe it or you don’t. I’ve written it all over the word. I’ve written in Colossians, ‘You have died with Christ.’ I’ve written in Romans 6:6 that, ‘Your old self was crucified with Christ.’ How often do you want me to repeat it before you believe it? It’s your responsibility to believe that you were crucified with Christ.” But brother, I’m with you, in order to experience the reality of that in our own lives we need to then submit to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, will you give me revelation as to where I am not willing to enter into this in my own life? And if there’s any place where I am not willing to enter in, will you expose it to me? Otherwise, I’m going to submit to you now and trust you now to make the resurrection life of Jesus real in me.” Then the next day if you’re angry or you’re irritable you say, not, “I’m not crucified.” But you say, “Thank you Holy Spirit for answering my prayer, for exposing to me where I was not willing to be crucified with Christ. Now, why did I get angry?” And then the Holy Spirit begins to show you something of what brother shared. “Well, you got angry because you were insisting on your own rights there. Now, being crucified with Christ means you die to those rights. Now are you willing?” And then you come into that. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Oh, you cooperate with the Holy Spirit. You do. You remember, the difference between introspection and the Holy Spirit’s revelation is that the Holy Spirit initiates the process. You do not examine your own heart in order to find the pride. You look to him and look to the word and the Holy Spirit brings the pride before you. But once he brings it before you, he expects you to cooperate with him and to work out with him why you were proud. Yes, and so you should do that. But that’s different brother from what we normally call introspection. We normally call introspection this vague groping around for something bad in us. Now there’s no place for that. But when the Holy Spirit convicts you of a definite sin, no vague guilt, but convicts you of a sin, it’s our job to track that sin down with him and cooperate with him. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Dear ones, there are three stages – well, it’s silly to talk about that. I’m sure God sees only one stage and we silly little men make three stages. It’s helpful. It’s helpful to look at three works that God does in us. He delivers us from a guilty conscience through the blood of Jesus that has been shed for our sins. That’s the blood of Jesus deals with that. That’s what a person enters into who has his sins forgiven. The God begins to deal with our selfish wills. That is the will that Paul talked about in Romans 7. There God deals with that through the experience of the cross of Christ. You’ll notice that that is always talked – the sins are always dealt with by the blood of Jesus. And the sin, the selfish independent will is always dealt with by the cross of Christ, by our identification with Christ in his death. And then after that begins the progressive work of the breaking of the outward man because we have also got an independent soul. That is we have a mind and emotions and a will that have been used for years to following the old self. And they have got into – the psychologists are right from that point of view. They have got into ruts in ways of thinking, in ways of feeling, in ways of responding. We don’t want them to respond that way but they’ve just got used to it. And they’re so strongly in those ruts that those ruts have to be broken. And that’s where the progressive daily experience of bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus takes place. And that is what follows the baptism with the Holy Spirit. In other words it is very important that those of you who go to the seminars on Sunday morning go to John Larson’s seminar if you have not been filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit because that deals with the crisis experience. Just back off from crisis, I don’t mean bells ring and the heavens thunder and lightening. I just mean it is a moment when you quietly say, “Lord Jesus, I’m willing to die to myself. I’m willing to stop living for myself. I’m willing to start living for you.” It’s just a moment that comes. It may be a quiet moment. It may not be a moment that you can identify but there comes a time when you actually do accept that you’re crucified with Christ. Now that’s when the baptism with the Holy Spirit takes place. This brokenness of the independent soul that Roger talks about with “Release of the Spirit” in his seminar, that’s a progressive experience that you remember, we began to talk about here on Sunday evenings. That’s good. Can anyone zero in on questions regarding that? If we can group the questions around one subject. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: The independent soul is what Paul talks about when he said, “I bear about in my body,” you remember, “The dying of the Lord Jesus.” And isn’t that 2 Corinthians? I know Paul talks about it also in 2 Corinthians 4:10, “Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” And then, you remember, in Verse 16 he explains what he means, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away,” our soul, our outward soul, “Our inner nature,” our spirit, “Is being renewed every day.” And you see how that takes place, Verse 17. “For this slight momentary affliction…” And it’s through trials and breaking experiences that we come into that. And that’s what you talk about there. Romans 6:6 is what you talk about in regard to the selfish will. 2 Corinthians 4:10 is what you talk about in relationship to the independent soul. This is a daily experience. [Indicating on visual] And this [shows visual] is really a once for all experience in which you live. The reality of it you live in day-by-day. Don’t let’s be foolish about that. You had an initial experience of the forgiveness of your sins but you live daily in that forgiveness. You thank God for the forgiveness of your sins. And so it is you have a once for all experience of your crucifixion with Christ and yet you live in the light of that death. But here you also allow that death to extend itself to your mind, emotions, and will, or your mind and emotions. Maybe it’s easier to say that. Question from Audience: Going along the lines of last Sunday’s morning service is it not true that at your baptism into Jesus you experience baptism into the spirit and then you receive further fillings after that? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Brothers and sisters what I’m anxious for us to do is see the wholeness of the experience and see that in New Testament time they have not this business of dividing it up. And I know our job is to find out into what have we entered. Our job is certainly not to treat us all as if we’re baptized with the spirit. Our job is to find out, “Okay where do you stand?” But do you see that from the point of view of scriptural truth you must keep emphasizing that it is the Father’s will that we enter into everything? Maybe not at the same instance–maybe like Paul, one day born of the spirit the next day filled with the spirit. But we need to emphasize that it’s God’s will that we enter into the whole experience and stop this pattern that we’ve developed in our churches of being born of the spirit and living in defeat for 20 years, and then being filled with the spirit 20 years later when we’ve already brought 20 years of disrepute and shame to the name of Jesus, and claimed that we were full Christians. And so that’s why I expressed that in New Testament times baptism into Jesus meant baptism into his death and, and his resurrection, and his ascension and baptism into his Spirit. Now many of us have been baptized into Jesus but have not entered into all of that. And so it’s our responsibility to see, “Well, what have we entered into?” Not as many of us do. Many of us argue, “Oh, I’ve been baptized into Jesus so I must have it all.” No, I say, “Look, have you love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance? Have you experienced the gift of discernment? Have you experienced the gift of wisdom? Have you experienced the gift of prophecy? Have you love that is patient and kind, that is not jealous or boastful, that is not arrogant or rude, that is not irritable or resentful? Now if you haven’t then there’s more of Jesus that you can enter into.” And I think that should be our approach. But our approach should not be you know, “Well I have it. Pastor, I have it. I’ve been baptized, I’ve spoken with tongues.” Or, “No, I was baptized by emersion so I must have it.” No, always Jesus is realistic he says, “Well, have you the marks? Have you the marks of a crucified man? Have you the marks of a resurrected man?” Well, if you haven’t don’t get all worried and say, “Oh, I’m not a Christian.” But, “Listen to me, there’s more of me that you can enter into.” You see. And I think that’s the position. Otherwise brothers and sisters we get into ridiculous doctrinal arguments you see. And we’re backing Stott on this point. And we’re backing Leon Morris [Australian New Testament scholar, 1914-2006] on this point. And we’re with the Pentecostal people here and with the holiness people there, you see. And that’s endless. Satan just wants just wants us to get all occupied with defending our own position so that none of us will enter into anything. I think I should take different people if I can. Question from Audience: Is there any way you can help the Lord along? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: I think he is a bit slow at times. [Laughter] I think that all the time the Father has one thing to say to us. He says, “Look, obey me. Obey me. Read my word and enter into all that you can and strive until you’re tired striving.” And I believe that the Father wants us to do that. He wants us to run our prayer lives sensibly each day and run our bible study lives sensibly each day, and do all we can to walk in his will. And as we hunger and thirst for more of his righteousness, the Holy Spirit will lead us more and more and bring us into this. Question from Audience: How do you know something is of Jesus or it’s just positive thinking? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: It would seem to me that if it’s of Jesus it’s something that has come from his word and something that has come as a promise of God, or a commandment of God. And so you have every right to take that promise or that commandment and to enshrine it in your mind and to seek to live it. And I think that that’s it. Now if you say, “Well, what part does will power play in it?” Well, I think you should exercise your will until you’re ready at last to die and to see the hopelessness of your will. But I remember there was a time in my life when I thought you know, “Why bother? Why bother exercising my will? I’m not succeeding anyway. Why don’t I just give up the will and wait for God to hit me with the Holy Spirit.” And then, you know, he showed me plainly, “You’re just falling into passivity. You’re just falling into a pattern where you want me to do what I cannot do. You have to yearn with all your heart. I still said, ‘Blessed are you who hunger and thirst after righteousness for you shall be filled.’” And it is our responsibility to try and obey him with all our hearts until, as brother said, we realize that it’s better to die really than to try. And we need to see that and enter into it. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Brother, if it weren’t so late I’d get started to the study which was about that. And I think that we really – really brother, I think it would be unfair maybe to begin even the study at this point. It’s just a massive subject and I would like to continue it next Sunday evening if you’d be patient. I say that, brother, because I know that a number of us do like to spend a little time just getting back into the center of things and seeing what all this is based on, on Sunday evenings. I myself have thought that maybe you would be bored with going over this again but I do think there are a number of brothers and sisters are still uncertain in some of these things and we should settle it. ?? ?? ?? ??

Distinction: Body, Soul and Spirit Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Dear ones, I felt really that there was a need to back up for one Sunday. That’s because I’ve again and again mentioned the soul and the spirit and I’ve continually forgotten that the last time I expounded the scriptural distinctions between them was about a year or year and a half ago. And many of us were not together then. And so I felt that it would be good tonight to go back and deal with God’s plan for the spirit, the soul and the body. And so that’s what I’d like to talk about and next week then I’d like to get back to desire in the life of the Christian. So really tonight I’d begin talking and discussing because the discussion is really as important as the presentation. But I’d like to speak for maybe half an hour for God’s plan for the spirit, the soul, and the body. Why do you think God made us? Why do you think God made us? I think a lot of us feel that he made us because he needed us. Now, I think it’s important to see brothers and sisters that it was not a selfish desire like that that prompted God to make us because he already had all fellowship he needed. Now you can see that in John 1, and you remember the verse yourselves by heart probably. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So Jesus, you remember, is the Word. And so Jesus was with God before the creation of the world. You remember Jesus says to the Father on one occasion, “Give me the glory which I had with thee before the creation of the world.” And you remember it talks about Jesus being the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. So before we were ever thought of the Father and the Son had a love relationship that we can only imagine and that we will experience in heaven. You remember, too at the very beginning in Genesis it says – if you look at Genesis 1:2, you find there was a third member of that fellowship, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” So there was a trinity family that had all of the love they needed before we were ever created. And God did not make us because he needed us. He had all the fellowship he wanted in the Son and the Holy Spirit. That’s the importance of the three persons you see. They were independent without us. They didn’t need us. Now, why did God make us? Well, the answer is really there in, I believe it’s 1 John 1:3. “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you,” and this is the reason the Father made us, “So that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” And God made us so that we’d have fellowship with him, and with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit. Much the same brothers and sisters as two people in love naturally seem to produce another person to enjoy that love and enjoy that life. Love seems you see, to create. It seems to bring to birth other people to enjoy the fellowship. And so the Father’s love was the reason we were created. And his love wanted other beings to share the fellowship that he, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit already possessed. And that’s why you see he turns to them you remember at the beginning of Genesis there. And you remember, he is obviously speaking to somebody else, if you look at it there. And it is Genesis 1:26. And it’s obviously God turning to someone else because God turns and he says, “Let us,” that is you my Son Jesus and you Holy Spirit, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And so the Father decided to make us so that we could enjoy his fellowship. Now you can see that some things were important if we were going to enjoy God’s fellowship. First of all you know how difficult it is to have fellowship with someone who doesn’t speak the same language as yourself. It’s a real problem, you know. Or, it’s very difficult to marry someone who is from a totally different background to yourself. It really is. You spend a lot of time coming together into something that you have in common. In other words, you can see, dear ones, that it’s essential if you’re going to have fellowship with someone that that someone is like you in some way. Now that’s why the Father made us in his own image, you see. Now people interpret that variously. Some say, “Yes, he made us a trinity as he himself is a trinity. He made us with a body like his Son had here on earth. He made us with a spirit like the Holy Spirit has. He made us with a soul, the real part of us, the very real part of us, the real you just as God the Father is the real you in the trinity.” And some people say, “That’s partly what it means, that God made us in the tripartite image of himself.” Some say, “Well, he made us with a mind like his so that we could enjoy the beauty of the galaxies as he enjoyed them. He made us with emotions and feelings like his so that we could feel like him. We could feel joy like him and feel sadness like him, and feel love like him. And he made us with wills like his so that we could make decisions and do things.” But do you see that God made us in his own image? Now I think it is important, dear ones, to see that God only carried that up to a certain point. Now, would you look there at the actual creation account in Genesis 2:7? “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground.” So God made our bodies. He took ordinary dust to which we return and he fashioned them into physical bodies like this. And then do you see what he did in the rest of the verse, “…Man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Now God breathed his own life into us. Now what kind of life did he breathe into us? Obviously not the kind of life that we could get from the tree of life, otherwise he needn’t have provided the tree of life. But do you see that word, life, in Verse 7? The Hebrew word is “chai’im”. And some of you will recognize it, I think, in “Fiddler on the Roof” wasn’t it? They toasted “l’chai’im” “l’chai’im”. And it means “to life”. But ‘chai’im’ is the Hebrew plural. In other words, every time you come to it, it’s actually a yod and a mem. If I can remember it in English letters now, it’s an I, and like a Y and M. And every time you come to that in Hebrew it means lives, lives [plural of the noun “life”]. And so many people can see that really when God breathed into our nostrils he breathed into our nostrils the breath of lives. He breathed into our nostrils the breath of mental life, and emotional life, and volitional life. And then do you see what happened? As a result of God’s life combining with our bodies, man became a living–and the King James Version is more correct there. The Hebrew word is nephesh. And it means a living soul. And so you see what happened, God took the corporal part of us, the dust part, the physical part, and he breathed into that part his own life and as a result those two parts fused together and formed man’s soul. And so you had the Spirit of God, the capacity for spirit inside us combining with our bodies and forming a soul, our mind and emotions and wills. And that’s how we came to be the creatures we are. And that’s why the soul is so important in mankind, you see. The soul is the unique part of man. You remember, God never calls the angels, souls. But he often calls men, souls. You know again, and again you find in the Bible references that man is referred to as a soul. You see it there in Matthew 10:28–because this was the element in us that distinguished us not only from the animals but also from the very angels themselves. And that’s why it’s so important to see that the soul is there. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both the soul and body.” And in Revelation 20:4 it’s more obvious that the reference is to men. And yet it is souls. “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Now do you see, it doesn’t mean I saw the souls in the sense of I saw their minds, emotions and their wills wandering around. It means, I saw the lives of those men who had died. And again, and again if you follow through the Bible you’ll find that God often refers to men as souls. And there he’s not referring to just the soulish part of them but the soul is so peculiar to man that God often refers to men as souls when he means their whole beings. And this is because the soul is the unique part of us. So we ought not to despise the soul. We ought to see that is the personality part. That is the real you. Nevertheless we ought to see its true place. Now it is important, dear ones, to see that we have a body, soul and a spirit. Some people say, “Oh yes, you’re right pastor. We’re just referred to as souls because, you see, that’s all we have. We have our body. Then we have our soul. We’re two parts.” Now, dear ones, that is dualism. That is the belief of modern psychology. Modern psychology says, “Listen, all you people have is you have a body. And that produces behavioral psychology. And you have inside that a soul. You have mind, emotions and a will. And you have nothing deeper than that. You have no spirit.” Now do you see that we throw ourselves into the hands of the psychologists if we are unscriptural in this? And some of us tend to be. Some of us want to say, “Oh yeah, Pastor, we have only two parts of us. We have a body and a spirit.” Dear ones, the soul is different from the spirit and we need to see the distinction. That’s what’s happened to the great majority of churches today. They have made no distinction between the spirit and the soul. And so the psychologists and the psychiatrists seem to be able to do as good a job as the pastors. Now loved ones, I know I did courses and courses in psychology in seminary because the whole mood in Britain, at that time, was that way. And now the whole mood in America is that way, because, you see, we’ve made no distinction between soul and spirit. And so we say, “What’s wrong with a person is what’s wrong with their soul.” The Greek word for soul is “psuche”, psyche, hence psychology. Psychology is the knowledge of the “psuche” or the soul. Now do you see that the Bible says, though the soul is the personality part of man, though the soul is the part that distinguishes man from the animals and from the angels, and though the Bible at times, therefore, refers to man as souls when the Bible means their whole beings. Yet there is a clear distinction between spirit, soul, and body. Now would you like to look at that distinction? And you’ve often looked at it before. But let’s look just once more. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may…” And you see the order. The order is God’s order, the most important first. “And may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now brothers and sisters, it’s not enough to say, “Ah, that’s the Bible saying, you know, ‘May the whole lot of you be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.’” You know, the Bible is God’s inspired word. The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit so that the men who wrote the Bible wrote exactly what God meant. And God didn’t just generalize. When he says, “Spirit and soul and body,” he means, “Spirit and soul and body.” And loved ones, it is vital for us as Christians to retain that distinction and to see that there is a spirit, a soul and a body. Otherwise you verge into psychological religion, you see. You either verge into that or you end up with people filled with the Spirit but living by their mental and emotional powers. That is why, for instance, many spirit filled groups end up preoccupied with the emotion that the singing of choruses or the singing in tongues produces, because they themselves have not moved into a distinction between soul and spirit. And though they are filled with the spirit they worship in the strength of the soul. That’s why certain theological groups who want to find their way back to orthodoxy, if they don’t make a distinction between spirit and soul, they begin to move forward in the strength of their purely intellectual insights. And you know, you’ve met those dear ones. There’s a hardness to them. They’re speaking truth but they’re speaking it with a hardness. It’s as if truth itself will conquer, you know. Now, you see, truth is truth coming through inspired and sanctified personality. That will conquer but there’s no such thing as just orthodoxy on its own. The Bible always talks, not about orthodox doctrine, but about sound doctrine, doctrine that produces the Greek word meaning health–health giving doctrine. And so it’s vital to keep the distinction between soul and spirit and body. Now some of us may feel, well really, is it necessary to know that there is a difference between them? And is it necessary to know the distinction in your own life? Well, would you look at Hebrews 4, dear ones, which points out that yes, it is important at a certain part of our lives, to know that there is a distinction between spirit and soul? It’s Hebrews 4:12. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit.” Now you see the Bible says that the word of God is a sword and will pierce and divide between the soul and the spirit. Now why bother dividing if it doesn’t need to be divided, you know? The Bible doesn’t go around doing things for pleasure or for the sake of doing it. So if it says that the Bible is the word of God and divides between soul and spirit, there must be some reason and some need for it. Now you see, dear ones, that we need to deal with these passages when we’re dealing with these levels of the personality. We need to see that these are scriptural. These are not thought up by some man. We may say, “This is an infinite word of God, brother. And you have a miserable little finite mind. And every time you take this infinite word of God and try to divide it up for us you make it less true.” Yes, I’ll agree brother, that finally only the word of God can be interpreted by the Holy Spirit to each of us. Nevertheless, do you see we do need to make some attempt to draw out the implications of this word? And we need to see that this distinction is written into the word. Would you let me just caution here? Do you see that we’re not saying that I can take out this and say, “There’s my soul; okay doctor, there’s my soul?” And then I can take out this and say, “Okay Pastor, there’s my spirit.” They aren’t things. We agree with the modern psychologists, you can’t divide us up into different parts. We are all one personality. All you can say is, we live at different levels. And what we’re saying is, you can live at a physical level. And you can live at a soul level, an emotional, mental and volitional level. And you can live at a spiritual level. Now dear ones, I agree with you that when I utter a prayer, I’m living at all those levels at once if I’m really praying in the Spirit because the prayer is really coming from my spirit. And yet it’s being applied through my mind in words and in language and coming out through my tongue so that you can hear it. So I agree that all the levels are working at one time. But you do see that it is important to know that we are moving at the level of our spirits. And that’s the real me, you see. Because, God’s plan was this: He made us with these capacities, but he didn’t make us like himself. Now did you get that? He didn’t make us like himself. He made us like himself in that he made us in his image with the capacities to be like him but he didn’t make us robots that could not do other than be like him. In fact, he made us with a body, and with a soul and a spirit. And then you see what he did in Genesis 2:9, “And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” And God, in spite of the fact that he had given us life, natural life, mental, emotional, and physical and volitional life, and the capacity for spiritual life, he put another source of life and made it available to us. Now dear ones, that tree of life is the life of the Holy Spirit. It’s the life that became available in Jesus. And it was the Father’s will that we should go to Jesus as he walked among us, and we should, by our own choice, choose to receive that spiritual life of God into our spirits. Now loved ones, do you see what we had was created life? It was mental life, emotional life, volitional life, and physical life and a capacity for spiritual life. But it was up to us to choose to receive this uncreated spiritual life into our beings. It was up to us to choose that. Now you see why God made it that way loved ones. If he had made us like himself, with an inability to do anything but be part of the trinity family, he would not have had a family. He’d have had a family of captive robots. And this is why dear ones, he made us with capacity, and he made us with the capacity to receive his uncreated spiritual life into our spirits. But he said, “You must choose. You must choose to walk into my trinity family. You have the ability to become like us. You have the capacity that makes you superficially like us, but you can only become like us by being born of our uncreated life. And that is life that is available to you through my son, through the tree of life, through the Holy Spirit. And only there, if you’re born of my eternal uncreated life, can you become like the trinity family.” Well that’s good sense dear ones. You cannot really become like my father unless you were born of my mother. That’s the only thing that would really make you look like my father, or give you his traits. And it’s the same with the Father. The only way we become like the Father is to receive the uncreated spiritual trinity life from the Holy Spirit, by means of Jesus, into our spirits. And that uncreated spiritual life contains the genes of God. It contains his spirituality, which will work out into our minds and fill our minds with his spirituality. It contains his own blessedness and joy, which will flow out through our emotions, and give us real happiness and real joy and peace. It contains the liberty of his own will that will flow out through our wills, and give our wills liberty from self. But do you see the only way we can become like God is to be born of God by receiving that spiritual uncreated life into us. And the Father told us that that’s what we had to do. And then you see what he wanted to happen after that, you see what he told us to do in Genesis 1:28, “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’” And God wanted us to receive that uncreated spiritual life into our spirits and then to go out into the world and allow that spirit life to pour through our minds, and emotions, and our will, and to discipline them, and to make those minds, and emotions, and wills the servant of the spirit, and then flow out through the body, and begin to subdue the earth, and bring it under God’s command and will. And then move from this earth to the other planets and the galaxies until we had brought the whole universe under God’s will. And you see, by exercising ourselves in fulfilling that great commission we would allow that spiritual life that had come into our spirits to flow out through our souls, and discipline them, and make them servants of the spirit. And that way we would become totally like the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. Not only because we were filled with the spiritual uncreated life in our spirits, but because our minds, emotions, and wills had voluntarily become the servants impregnated with this Holy Spirit. And so you see there were really two choices that we had to make. The Father wanted us to choose to receive the Holy Spirit and to be dependent on him for our life and to be dependent on him for all our needs, and secondly to allow that Holy Spirit to utterly control the soul part of us, the mind, and the emotions and the will. And that was the Father’s plan. In other words, it was his plan from the beginning that we should be born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and then that we should allow that Spirit to distinguish between our souls and our spirits and to control our souls completely. Now you know what in fact happened, the rebellion in the Garden of Eden was a rebellion of the body and the soul. Man said, virtually to God in his own being, “We will not live by your life. You have given us created physical life. We will use that life. And we will get what that life needs to feed it, from the world.” And you see, that’s the heart of the story in Genesis 3 really. You remember, that Eve looked at the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil in Genesis 3:6. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,” that she could get all that her physical body needed from the world itself without depending on God. She could get food from the crops, and the fruits of the tree. She could get that for food, “And that it was a delight to the eyes.” And that’s a delight to the eyes to make you feel happy and glad. And she saw that she could get all the enjoyment she wanted for her emotions from the world. Boy, there was a beautiful green world out there. She could get all the satisfaction and emotion she wanted. I suppose she never foresaw water skiing and flying. But in her own way, she saw that you could get all the enjoyment for your emotions from the world itself, from the natural world. And do you see that immediately she began to see what she could get? The Father wanted her to pour out life through her emotions and through her body so that she’d fill the world. But she saw that she could get from the world and empty the world–empty it of all its oil, empty it of all its natural resources, of all its purity, of all its fresh water. And so we come to this position you see we’re in today. And then you see, “That the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” And she began to play about in her own mind. And her sons and her daughters did. And you remember, at the very beginning of the world obviously–from the Inca civilizations we can see that at the beginning of time men were incredibly clever. And they used the abilities that they had mentally to begin to increase their wisdom through manipulating the world for their advantage. And that was the fall of mankind you see. It was a rebellion of the body and a rebellion of the soul. And you see what happened: Man began to be dominated by his body and his soul. Now loved ones, what is needed is, that the whole thing should be reversed, you see. The tragedy is that we, as unregenerated people, live for what we can get through our bodies, and live for the independent life in our souls. And therefore, there is a great threefold need when we come to Jesus. First of all, really, there is a need for God to be able to forgive us, and give the tree of life back to us, the life of the Holy Spirit back. And in order to do that, someone has to die for us, so that God can return again that tree of life to us. That’s the first need and Jesus died for that. The second need is that we not only believe that but that we go to the tree of life when we receive the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we’re in the old position that Adam was in, where the tree of life was right there, but he never touched it. Now you see, many Christians are like that. Many of them know that their sins are forgiven and they know that Jesus died for them. And they will say again and again, “Boy, we’re glad that God has given us back the Holy Spirit, that he’s available for us.” But they don’t receive the Holy Spirit, or they receive him and hold him into a little part of their lives and they don’t allow him to fill them and to be utterly dependent on him. That’s the second need, that they are filled with the Holy Spirit. And the third need is, that they do what God originally intended. They allow that Holy Spirit to control their souls and to integrate their souls and bring them back under the order of the Spirit. And of course, begin the flow of life in the right direction. And that’s what we talk about, you know, when we talk about the soul powers going to the cross. The soul powers have two mistakes. They are independent working on their own, and secondly they’re working in a reverse direction. They’re working from the body. The body dominates the soul, and the spirit is virtually compressed completely. What needs to be done is that the spirit is filled with God’s Spirit and becomes alive. And then the direction begins to flow back the way God wants it to, and that the soulish powers begins to come under the control of the Spirit. So there are two needs, dear ones, with the soulish powers: that they begin to work from the spirit outwards and secondly, that they begin to be healed and disciplined by the Holy Spirit. Because, you see, at the moment, they’re like anything that doesn’t have sufficient life. If you don’t have sufficient air coming in through your nostrils, then you’ll begin to have symptoms inside your body of a lack of air. Now, if you do for a long time without the Holy Spirit your mind becomes impaired. Your emotions become unbalanced. Your body becomes weakened. And that’s the state most of us are in. And so it’s necessary after we’re filled with the Holy Spirit to allow the Holy Spirit to begin to strengthen our minds and to rule our minds, begin to balance our emotions and begin to strengthen our bodies. And that is the movement that comes back. Now, dear ones, really I do feel that I should just very briefly give you some scriptural references to the soul, and perhaps if we have time, to the spirit, so that you have some understanding of it. Now I’ve just taken a few of them so maybe we could just look at the few that I have. First of all, would you look at Psalm 41:2? And this is so that we should begin to see that the scripture teaches the distinction between soul and spirit and goes further than that. The scripture, by its references to soul, indicates some of the functions of the soul. “The LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies.” Now the Hebrew word is “nephesh”, “soul”. And it’s translated “soul” in the King James Version. And again and again when the Hebrew Bible talks about “nephesh” or “soul” it is talking about as it’s translated there in the RSV, the will. So the “will”, you see, that volitional part of us, is part of our souls. And that’s what we mean, “Many Christians live in their souls.” They serve God with their souls. They’re willful people, you know, they want to do it. And they insist on, “Yeah, you should go to this meeting, brother. This is the church to go to. You should go to this meeting.” And there’s not the sweetness of Jesus comes out, not the sweetness of Jesus’ Spirit. But they’re serving in their wills. That old will has not been broken. Their soulish powers have not come to the cross. Deuteronomy 21:14, “Then, if you have no delight in her, you shall let her go where she will.” Now the Hebrew is according to her “soul”, according to her “nephesh”. And so again, you see, you’ll find that soul means “will” in the Bible. And so one of the soul functions is our will. Now would you look at another one? It’s Lamentations 3:20: another function of the soul. “My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.” Now obviously what thinks is our mind, you see. So when the Bible refers to “soul thinking,” it obviously means that one of the parts of our soul is our mind. And you get that again in Proverbs 3:21-22. “My son, keep sound wisdom and discretion; let them not escape from your sight, and they will be life for your soul.” Now obviously wisdom and discretion we connect with our minds, you see. And so when the Bible talks about soul, it means, at times, our mind. So another function of the soul is our mind. And you can begin to see where the psychologists got their name, “psychology” from. Really, many things stem back to the Bible strangely enough you know. And it is really from the soul that they got the meaning of psychology, that it includes the emotions. Really, they were not so brilliant after all you know, discovering that they ought to deal with the will and the mind. And then if you’d like to look at 1 Samuel 18:1. I’m sure these are not the only functions of the soul, but they are perhaps three of the primary functions. This particular reference refers to the emotion of affection, you see, “When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” And the second “soul”, of course, means as his own being. As we said the Bible uses “soul” at times to refer to the whole man. But the first “soul” is obviously emotion. When you love a person you love them with your emotions. And so the Bible, when it refers to soul, it refers to emotion. I’ll just give you quickly the other references, dear ones, so that you’ll have them. The emotion of affection is in 1 Samuel 18:1. Then Psalm 84:2 which refers the emotion of desire, you see. We desire with our emotions. That’s when we’re walking through Dayton’s [department store] and that desire for that lounge chair or that new dress comes upon us. There, we’re walking in our souls, you see. And we’re still walking in reverse direction. We can be baptized with the spirit, filled with the spirit, all that. But if we’re walking with that desire drawing us, that’s what brings unrest to us. You know it. You desire it. And you live for it, and live for it. And it brings unrest. That’s why, dear ones, I’ve shared with you the need to bring those soulish powers to the cross, because they can cause you as much unrest as that old will that is independent of God–that resists God. That’s the emotion of desire. Then Psalm 42:5, and that is the emotion of feeling. And maybe we could just pause to look at that for a moment because it affects so many of us. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?” Now you can see the reason for coming to a cross experience as far as our soulish powers go, because it is in our emotions that we experience sadness and depression. And that’s where many of us make a mistake you see. We think, “Oh in a service on Sunday morning if our emotions are aroused to the height, that’s great.” No, it’s bad, because if you live in your emotion there, Satan will find it very easy to draw you down into the emotion of depression later on in the day. And it’s the Father’s will, you see, that our soulish powers should come to an experience of the cross and be broken. Because you’re right, they are not evil in themselves. But they are natural and they are independent, strictly speaking, of the Holy Spirit life of God. And they can be used by Satan to draw us back into independence. So you can see, dear ones, that there is a real distinction in the Bible between spirit soul and body. I think it would be unfair at this point to go on into the distinctions of the spirit. And I will try and do that on another Sunday evening. But I think it’s vital to see that we are a tripartite being. We are tripartite beings. And there is a need, not only to receive and be filled with the Holy Spirit in our spirits. But there is a need to allow the Holy Spirit to bring our soulish powers under the control of our spirit, so that we no longer live by those soulish powers, but they are controlled by the Spirit of God. Now would you have questions, dear ones? Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: It seems to me that the whole meaning – somebody could correct me on this, but I think the whole meaning of the resurrection is that the body will be raised up and the soul and they will be united with the spirit and that the whole three will come together in unity before they come before the Father. And I think that’s the meaning, that the spirit does not die but the body and the soul, as it were, are dead, because the spirit is no longer in them. And that’s where at times, you know–I remember with my dad, when he was lying there – in Ireland we are foolish really. We keep the body in the casket in the house. And I remember there came a time about, oh six hours, you know, after he was dead, when I sensed that he was no longer there. Now, one can give that many explanations. But I think that many of us have sensed that there comes a time when the spirit – we seem to sense that that person is no longer the people we knew. And so it seems that at the resurrection the whole three will be united together. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Good, good. In other words, that in heaven – no the whole tripartite personality yes, will be alive. The only difference will be, we’ll have a spiritual body like unto the glorious body of Jesus. And therefore it will be free, presumably, to move throughout the universe and will be free from the weaknesses that our own body has. And it seems that then part of the change in the twinkling of an eye would be that the Holy Spirit would then completely renew our minds, and our emotions, and our will. And so that’s why we say we’re not perfect now as we will be then. Question from Audience: (inaudible) Reply from Pastor O’Neill: It seems to me that when the Bible talks about the heart, it talks about it much in the same way as it talks about the soul. At times it refers to the heart as the inner being of mankind, just the deepest part. So that at times, if it means the heart of an unregenerate man, it means the deepest part of that man. At times if it talks about the heart of a regenerate man, it means the spirit of that man. The heart of an unregenerate man would be a soul, because his spirit is really dead to God. And the heart of a regenerate man would be his spirit. And at times it talks that way. But for instance, Deuteronomy 6:5, obviously it means something even different from that again. “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with your soul, and with all your might.” So it’s the same as with the soul. No, you can’t mathematically divide it, brother. You can’t say, “Every time soul means this,” or, “Every time soul means that.” And that’s where I think we verge into purely intellectual distinctions that get us into trouble. And I think it’s the same with “heart.” What it certainly doesn’t mean is a blood pump. That’s undoubtedly true. Question from Audience: What made Adam and Eve rebel? Was it ignorance of what they had in God? Reply from Pastor O’Neill: Brother, the will remains a mystery. And every theologian would say that. The will is left a mystery by God. And as far as I can go is Dostoyevsky’s statement. He said, “The only reason a man will act against his own best advantage is in order to have his own way.” And I don’t know, brother. That’s it. You can say, you know, it was a deception of Satan. You can say that that is why God is able to forgive man at all, because man did not originate sin. Satan originated sin. And you can say it was a deception of Satan. And Satan said, “Now, you’ll be as God if you do this. You’ll be as God.” And so he deceived man into thinking that he would really fulfill himself. ?? ?? ?? ??

Importance of Authority Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill I think it is good if we try tonight to make explicit what God expects in the way of authority and subjection from us as his children. I think it’s important to state it for several reasons because first of all it will help us to see how gracious God has been to us because a lot of what I’ll share here tonight in the way of scriptural teaching we have entered into by his sheer grace. There is a lot of the beauty of God’s scriptural authority and subjection here in our body, but I think it’s good to share too, so that any of us who have been deceived in regard to authority and subjection may be undeceived by God’s word and may come into freedom in that area. It’s good to share it for another reason: most of us here tonight will probably become leaders in some way in Jesus’ body throughout the world and it’s very important for us to know what the normal pattern of the Holy Spirit is that leads us along in regard to authority and subjection in Jesus’ body. I think it’s good for another reason; so that I will be sure that I come into a right relationship with the dear head of the body and so that I will be in a position of subjection and so that the elders will be in a right relationship with me and then that you will be in a right relationship to the elders and the leaders of the houses. I think also, God will begin to show you some things about your own mums and dads, and about the way God expects us to regard them. I think it’s all very necessary, because you’ll probably agree; the whole world is filled with lawlessness and an absolute contempt for authority. So I think it’s good that we, in Jesus’ body, come into his plan for us in regard to authority. Maybe it would be good first of all to look at the importance of authority and you find one of the basic statements of the important of authority in Romans 13:1-7. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” To answer the obvious question that we all have in regard to the draft [for the Viet Nam war which was active at the time of this message] that obviously the one time when this would not rule our lives would be if we were forced to disobey God through obeying the authorities. But a lot of us run to that too fast; you can go pretty far obeying the authorities before you’re forced to disobey God. Verse 3, “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but too bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, and honor to whom honor is due.” Jesus obeyed this to the letter himself. Where he was faced with Pilate, he could maintain silence but where he was faced with a religious authority he obeyed that religious authority and you see it in Matthew 26. So even though Jesus, of all people, could have argued that this high priest was but a shadow and a puppet of the man that God really wanted in that position, yet because of his religious authority, Jesus submitted himself to him. You see it in Matthew 26:62, “And the high priest stood up and said, ‘Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?’ But Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to him, ‘I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’” And you see, in the light of that, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God” Jesus was adjured [or requested] at that time and was under the authority of the high priest so “Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” So even Jesus submitted himself to that kind of authority. The truth is that it’s the authority of God that holds everything together. And it’s the authority of Jesus in the body here that holds the body together. It’s not the power of God, it’s not the power of the Holy Spirit that holds things together; it’s the weight of God’s own authority and you find that in Hebrews 1:3 where it speaks of Jesus by whom all things were made. “He reflects glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” And the word “power” used here is “exousia” which means authority, so he upholds the universe by the word of his authority. “When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” So Jesus holds the whole place together by his authority, and a [church] body like this is held together by the authority of Jesus and by our respect for the authority of Jesus. Once we begin to play around with that authority, the body begins to fall apart and begins to deteriorate. It was rebellion against authority that was the very heart of Satan and you see that in Isaiah 14. Isaiah is talking first of all of the king of Babylon and then he begins to telescope time, as all God’s prophets are able to do, and he sees that the king of Babylon is really just a “type” of this person who rebelled against God at the very beginning. Isaiah 14:12 and it’s the story of Satan’s fall, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart,’” and this is rebellion, “’I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit.” Rebellion was the very heart of Satan’s sin against God. God can forgive many sins, but there is an attitude of rebellion that he can do nothing with while it exists there in the heart. So every time you act in rebellion, you’re really acting on a satanic principle. You can often do good things in rebellion against God. You can often do good things that are actually not submissive to God’s own will. To maintain God’s authority means you have to submit to it with all your heart; there can’t be any holding back if you’re really submissive to God’s authority. It can’t be an unwilling thing, or a reluctant thing. If you’re really going to submit to God’s authority, it has to be a whole hearted submission; it can’t be something that is only partial. So it has to be something therefore that applies to the delegated authorities that God has set up. For instance, if a man or a woman here is utterly submissive to God’s authority you have no trouble with God’s delegated authorities even though they are people as unimportant to Paul as that little fellow called Ananias. Think of it; Paul was an important citizen of the Roman Empire. He was involved with Empire business; exterminating Christians, and suddenly he came up against this experience on the road to Damascus and when he submitted completely to that experience he was prepared to submit himself to a little man that he knew nothing about. In other words, when a person submits wholeheartedly to God’s authority, they don’t question the littleness or the unimportance or the unworthiness of God’s delegated authorities. You find the account of Paul’s conversion in Acts 9:3-6, “Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” Then here was Saul’s submission to authority, “And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’” Paul called him Lord, “And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’” Then in verse 10, “Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” Then verse 17, “So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something likes scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened.” So you see it’s true that whenever you submit wholeheartedly to God’s authority you don’t have trouble with the people who are delegated by God to exercise the power of authority. But if your submission to God’s authority in your own life, to God’s inherent authority in your own personal life is reluctant or halfhearted, then you’ll always be grumbling and complaining about the unwillingness of the people that God has delegated to have authority over you. Whether it’s your parents or your Pastor, or it’s the boss at work, you’ll always have trouble with their authority if you aren’t really fully submitted to God’s authority. Of course Jesus’ plan is that his body here on earth should restore God’s order as far as authority is concerned, that’s God’s plan. His plan is that the world will see a perfectly coordinated body, a perfectly coordinated group of people who are absolutely at one in authority. It is Jesus’ will that the body of Christ should work together in complete cooperation and in absolute coordination and that’s why it’s important for us to love and respect each other for the positions Jesus has given us in the body, however unworthy we are. In Ireland we knew nothing about this so we just made chaos of Jesus’ body. I remember a dear Pastor who did not sing so well and we used to, in our foolishness, make fun of his singing, not only to those in the body but to those outside the body. And gradually I began to see that we would often talk about this Pastor to people outside the body, but the first thing we would talk about was the singing which we in the body couldn’t distinguish from the spiritual position, we had no wisdom about it, so we would joke about him to the non-Christians outside the body who would then come into the body. We had no idea of spiritual authority and of course we had despised the Pastor because of the jokes that we would make. Harmless jokes, in a way and you would think “Really, they do no harm.” But it was sufficient to destroy the authority of that Pastor that God has put in the body. Now, do you see what it means to love each other and to build each other up? Your place is to build me up in my position and my place is to build you up in your position, so that when the world begins to contact us they find a body of people that are at absolute ease with one another and where there’s a perfect, coordinated authority, throughout the whole body. So there are lots of ways in which the body heals because of the peace and harmony that exists within it. Now maybe we should look at obedience and see how important it is in God’s word. A lot of us feel that God wants us to deny ourselves, to bear the cross, to make sacrifices while the truth is that God wants more than all those things. To God, obedience is more important than bearing the cross. We will say, “Well, surely one is the same as the other” but to God obedience is more important than sacrifice. I think you can often sacrifice in actual rebellion against God, as you’ll see in a moment Saul did. But for God the most precious thing is his will, and for his children the most precious thing is God’s will. The question we should always ask is not “What can we do to help God, or not “What can we do to bring other people to Jesus” but, “Father what do you want us to do at this moment?” God’s will is the most precious thing. It’s more important to do God’s will than to make tremendous sacrifices. You remember this situation where God had told Saul to, “Kill all the Amalekites, destroy everything; cattle and property and everything among the Amalekites.” Saul didn’t do it. In 1 Samuel 15 Saul said to Samuel, “I’ve saved the good animals; the best of the sheep and the oxen in order to sacrifice to God.” Samuel replies in verse 22: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” God points out there that it’s better to obey him to the letter than to make great sacrifices for him. You can surrender and yet have an element of self will in your surrender. What if there’s a will to, “We’ll do great things for God, but we’ll do it our own way.” Many of us come into death in our own spiritual lives because we won’t do what God wants; we don’t really love his will, we just love the idea, or we love the principles that he stands for and we want to go out and be that kind of person but we don’t really love the Father’s will. That’s why I think a lot of us end up in the position of those people that Jesus talked about in Matthew 7 where people did many good works, but they were works that were not according to God’s will at that time for them. Matthew 7:21, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name? And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’” Jesus said that to those people and will say it to those like them, because they were doing things in his name and apparently for his glory, but it wasn’t the things he was telling them to do; they really didn’t love God’s will. A child of God is one who hangs on God’s word, hangs on God’s will for them. A child of God is one who leans on the Holy Spirit, anxious to know what he wants him to do at each moment. A child of God is one who loves the individual obedience that God requires from all of us. A child of God knows that the children of God are not stereotype people who are all doing the same thing at the same time, but they’re involved in independent obedience to Jesus. That’s what makes them so individualistic and that is what pleases the Father. Doing his will will please him. You’ll please the Father far more by finding out what he wants you to do and doing it, even if it’s a little thing; even if all he wants you to do are little things for the rest of your lives. It doesn’t matter who knows, it doesn’t matter what it achieves for the kingdom; what is important is that it would be what God wants you to do. The Bible points out that the problem with obedience is not just the outward act, but it is the attitude inside it. 1 John 3:4 states clearly what disobedience really is and what sin really is. 1 John 3:4, “Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” So when you commit a sin, that’s an act, but the thing that makes you want to commit that sin is the spirit of lawlessness inside you. Obedience, authority and subjection in the body, or in the family, or in the home, or at work is a spirit isn’t it? I have often in the past obeyed a school teacher and though I obeyed him I didn’t respect him and I hadn’t the spirit of love or submission to him. But in the body of Jesus especially, a spirit of subjection is an attitude, isn’t it? It’s not just outwardly doing whatever the elder seems to say. It’s not outwardly giving a show of respect for the leader; it’s not outwardly appearing to agree with the Pastor, it’s an attitude of love and submission, isn’t it? There have been many sweet moments, but one of the sweetest moments for me in the body was regarding a a certain brother who is here tonight; he was moving back and forward between this body and another body and was really unsettled. And oh, it was a moment of the greatness of the presence of Jesus for me when he came to me and said, “Pastor, I want you to be my Pastor. I want you to treat me as a Pastor would and I want you to deal with me authoritatively in whatever way you want. But I want you to know that I’m going to regard you as my Pastor from this moment on.” And that brother is a benediction every time I meet him. Now I know a lot of you feel the same way and you don’t all come up and say it, but there’s sweetness and a blessing that comes from a spirit of obedience and a spirit of subjection. And the result of that is as it is with any mum or dad here knows; you’re most reluctant to exercise authority unnecessarily with the son or the daughter when they have that spirit of obedience. It’s an up building thing, dear ones, and in the body it’s an up building thing. Now maybe we could look at a couple of examples in the Old Testament when people rebelled. I think it’s important to see some of the elements in that rebellion and the first one is in Genesis 2:16-17. And even though many of us know the account of it by heart, I think it’s good to look at God’s word and let it speak again to us. Genesis 2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’” And then going to 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” Of course there’s a lot in the rebellion there, but part of the rebellion was Eve’s decision to go out on her own. Adam was placed there in authority over the animals and over all the living creatures, but in order that he should be fit to exercise that authority, God put him under authority to God himself. And it’s important to see that first; that you can’t exercise authority unless you submit to another authority yourself. It’s been good for me because I’ve seen that whenever there was any difficulty with authority, it was often not only the problem of the brother or sister in respect of me but it was also in respect to me and Jesus. And it’s very important for those of us who exercise authority to be under authority ourselves. In fact, none of us are capable of exercising delegated authority at all unless, like Adam, we are put under God’s authority and learn to submit to him. That’s why obedience is so important in our personal lives; because you can’t exercise authority over even your own children unless you’re submissive to God’s authority. Then maybe it’s good to see too that Eve was really rebelling against delegated authority. She was deciding to move out on her own without ever asking a question of Adam, never any submission to him at all, but she just decided to do what she wanted to do. And haven’t you seen that in bodies of Christ? I’ve seen brothers and sisters move from one body to another and they never deal with the Pastor of either body; they’re just like ghosts who fly by in the wind. They go through to this body and then they drift off to another one, and they drift off to another one and they’re under no authority whatsoever. Indeed, if they only knew it, they’re not even in the body of Jesus, because they don’t live scriptural lives in the body of Christ. I’d encourage you loved ones; don’t drift from one body to another. Don’t drift in and out of a body without any reference to the Pastor or any reference to the elders because as far as Jesus is concerned, you have no protection from that body at all. And yet isn’t it true, a lot of brothers and sisters especially with this “Jesus Movement” being so prevalent, a lot have just drifted from one place to another in and out, and one day they’re here and the next day they’re gone. Do you see loved ones that really is rebellion, however nicely it’s done and however quietly, it’s really rebellion against God’s delegated authority, so of course you’re not coming under the protection that that authority brings. It’s good to see too, that as far as the rebellion in the Garden of Eden was concerned, it wasn’t a question of right and wrong. I think this is quite important for the Mom and Dad issue and for the issue of the elders here, or my position, or the leaders of the houses: it isn’t a question of right and wrong. They were eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were learning what was right and wrong, but the fact was when they depended on God alone, then they knew what his will was. Now they could decide what was right or wrong for themselves without any reference to God. So the heart of it all was rebellion against God’s authority. It isn’t really a question of whether the Mom is right or whether she’s wrong. It isn’t a question of whether I, in my stupidity, am right or wrong. It isn’t really a question of whether the leader of the house is right or wrong. That isn’t the issue brothers and sisters; the issue is one of authority — that when God delegates authority to certain men or woman, then our place is to respect that authority and to trust the Holy Spirit to correct that authority when he needs to. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and the heart of even that non-Christian employer is in the hand of the Lord. And the heart of even that – yes, I think you have to press it this far probably, the heart of even that alcoholic father is in the hand of the Lord, isn’t that true? There seems to be a chain of authority that God has established and that he asks us to love and as long as we obey that authority and do not get mixed up with our subtle questions of right and wrong, then I think God will bless us and will deal with us. Watchman Nee puts it like this, “There is no authority except from God. All authorities have been instituted by him. By tracing all authorities back to their source we unerringly end up with God. God is above all authorities and all authorities are under him. In touching God’s authority we touch God himself.” And then he talks about the Christian worker, “A Christian worker ought to know who is above him. Some do not know who the authorities above them hence are, they do not obey. We should not be occupied with right or wrong, good or evil, rather we should know who the authority above us is. Once we learn to whom we must be subjected, we naturally find our place in the body. How many Christians today have not the faintest idea concerning subjection? No wonder there was so much confusion and disorder. For this reason, obedience to authority is the first lesson a worker ought to learn and it also occupies a large place in the work itself.” I was a maverick! My wife and I called our first dog, it was a boxer, a boxer is an ugly little animal (I apologize to any owners of boxers) but I remember we were so so rebellious against the impotent church to which we had committed our lives that we called this dog “Rebel.” We in every way were rebelling against the impotent stuff of the Methodist church in Ireland and we felt we were wasting our lives, and the people in it were wasting their lives and mocking God. So I, like many of you, have been a rebel and we are a bunch of mavericks in a way, in Campus Church, just a bunch of wild individualists. But do you see that God can actually do nothing with us until we come into a real coordinated relationship of authority and love? God will not do anything with us loved ones, except as a body of Jesus because the thing that he is trying to restore in this chaotic world of ours is order. The whole world is in disorder. Nobody obeys anybody, everybody knows best. Everybody knows better than our poor President. The fellow hardly makes a speech before commentators are on telling us what he really said, or what he should have said had he been as wise as they were. But throughout the whole society everybody has contempt and despises authority. Now do you see that that’s what has resulted from the fall and what Jesus is after is to restore the beauty and the harmony of order; the beauty and harmony of people who trust each other. One of the things that surprised me when I came to the states is I found nobody trusted anybody. We didn’t trust Nixon to do his job because of course we knew better than him how to do it. Now, I’m not saying he did it perfectly but it seems that everybody knows better than the expert how to do it. And it’s so wrong; Jesus wants to restore the beauty and the harmony of that order of submission. Now what does God want us to do? Well, I think to come into a spirit of obedience; to come into a place where we trust God with our circumstances and the people who are in authority over us. That was my problem in the Methodist church; they moved us around, they just put us anywhere. I felt sure the fellows weren’t praying and I’m afraid they weren’t praying much about it, but my problem was that I couldn’t trust that God would govern my life through their mistakes. So I literally was not trusting God; it was a problem of trust. I would trust God if he had good obedient men to work under him, but if I suspected the caliber of the men then I could not trust God to govern my life. Now loved ones, it seems to me the first thing is to have a spirit of obedience by really trusting the Father with the people that God has put in authority over us; believing that God will overrule their mistakes and will work through their shortsightedness. But I think that’s first, a spirit of obedience, a real spirit of obedience in the body. I think the second step is to practice submission and to practice submission means to submit to the individuals that exercise authority over you in a downright down-to-earth way. It certainly doesn’t mean refusing to receive God’s guidance for your own life through the intuition of your spirit — that would be silly. It doesn’t mean we all start depending on everybody else. It’s surprising how relatively few matters there are that will connect you with somebody else’s authority; for the greater part of your life, Jesus’ Spirit will guide you directly as to what you have to do in your life. But at those times when you are related to someone else in authority over you, then God expects you to practice that submission. And whenever you have trouble with God’s delegated authority, it’s usually because you’re having trouble with God’s own authority in your life. You find that if there’s somebody who is rebelling or resisting, even spiritually opposing — you know it; you understand when that is. I was a school teacher for more years than I like to remember, but you can tell just by looking at the fella whether he’s submissive or not. It’s so in the body; the Holy Spirits gives you the sermon and maybe they’re pretending to be submissive, but you can discern and it’s that discernment of the lack of the spirit of obedience that spoils the harmony of the body. So God wants us to practice that spirit of obedience in reality towards delegated authority. And then those of us who have authority in the body, and as I look around and see mums and dads here too, as well as the elders and the leaders of the houses, and leaders of seminars, and leaders of different businesses, it seems to me we are to learn to exercise authority without pride, to see that we are nothing. That it is not us that people respect, it is Jesus they respect. It is not us. It is not because we’re worthy to exercise authority or we’ve been put in this place, it’s because God has decided to put us here. So the church suffers from a great lack of submission to authority and that’s why it’s in tatters loved ones. It’s not because they’re Methodist, and Presbyterians and Lutherans. Probably that’s good to say because we’re all different kinds of individuals, but the reason the church overall appears to be in tatters before the world is because local churches are in tatters. And local churches are in tatters and division because of a lack of submission to delegated authority and also because of delegated authorities who are refusing to exercise authority. I think that was a problem with many of the brothers and sisters here. We felt we were very young, so who were we to exercise authority? And you’re dead right — you are nobody and you don’t deserve to exercise authority on the basis of what you are — we are nothings. But Jesus has appointed us to a place and he expects us to exercise that authority in love and in humility. And brothers and sisters, that’s where the firmness of the body comes you see, and what you and I have sensed is an increasing strength in the body, haven’t we? We’ve felt an increasing solidity and that comes from some of us beginning to exercise authority quietly, confidently, and humbly, and from some of the rest of us submitting to that authority. And that’s a loving and a beautiful picture for God to present to the world. Now there are many references but I’ll ask you to look at two instances of delegated authority before we conclude. One is in Genesis 9 and it will teach us something about our attitude to delegated authority. Genesis 9:20-27, “Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’” Now do you see that Noah was the head of his family first? That was the delegated authority that God had given to him. Then at that time he was head of the whole world. He had been put by God in that position of authority over the whole world. Now, did he do wrong in verse 21? Yes, he did. God did not want Noah to become drunk; Noah had done wrong in that situation. But do you see after he had done wrong, Ham’s attitude was, “I’ll take advantage of this mistake or this disobedience of my father in order to throw off the restraint of his authority over me. I’ll take advantage of this to spoil his position of authority.” And that’s why God condemned Ham. Noah was wrong, there’s no question of it, and yet God still felt that Ham should have respected his father and when he found him naked he should not have shown his nakedness to his brothers, but should have done what they did; he should have walked without looking at the father and covered him in order to respect him; in order to maintain the position of respect and dignity that he’d been given him. But instead of Ham protecting the delegated authority of God, he took advantage of it for his own sake. Now brothers and sisters do you see the lesson in there? Our place is to respect the delegated authorities; to love them and protect them. So what happens if the dad is wrong, or the mum is wrong, or the house leader makes a mistake, or the elder is foolish about something, that’s no excuse for us. Our position is still one of protecting them and protecting their dignity. God showed me this morning that all of us in the body should be covering up for each other, shouldn’t we? We should not be eager to expose the ugliness of another brother or sister. After all, you do it with your body — if you cut this finger, you bandage it up, and you put stuff on it and cover it and protect it when you’re working so that it won’t be hurt in any way. You want to do that because you want your body to be strong. Now, do you see that it applies to brothers and sisters in the body of Jesus? When you know a fault in a brother or sister, or see something wrong in them, it should be your desire and mind to cover up for them; we should not be the first to expose it, we should not be the first to talk about it. God has just shown me my stupidity and your stupidity, and our disobedience in this regard; that we should never say anything negative about a brother or a sister in the body. Our place is to cover up for each other and then the Holy Spirit will get to work and convict the rest of us of our sins. But it’s never to expose, it’s always to cover up. So Ham in fact, because of his actions, became the slave of the people who respected God’s delegated authority. That was part of the curse, he became the slave to the people who did obey God’s authority and respect it. Now, would you look at Leviticus 10:1-2, “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unholy fire” or as the King James says, “strange fire” “and offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them.” Now what’s the meaning of that, because you see the result, “And fire came forth from the presence of the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” Now it helps a little if you look back to Leviticus 8:14, “Then he brought the bull of the sin offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull of the sin offering.” Aaron was the one anointed by God. He was the one who was God’s delegated authority; when he acted, his sons acted. When Aaron did something, his sons did it with him, but they worked in continual coordination. The sons were only doing it because they were part of the family that God had chosen but it was the head of the family that had been anointed and you find that right through verse 18, “Then he presented the ram of the burnt offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.” When Aaron did it, his sons did it. Verse 22, “Then he presented the other ram, the ram of ordination; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.” When Aaron acted the sons acted. Aaron received the direction from the Father and the sons acted with it. Now what did the two sons do? Well, you see in 10:1, they offered “unholy fire” that was fire, “Such as he had not commanded them.” The sons decided to offer some sacrifice on their own apart from Aaron their father, and God regarded that as strange fire and he sent fire out against them. Now that’s coordinated authority; there’s a sense in which here in the body, God has given a vision and given a promise and it’s vitally important that we work together to fulfill that vision. As soon as some of us say, “I want to see a vision too — he’s not the only one who can see a vision, I’ve got a vision too.” As soon as we begin to do that, we’re beginning to offer “strange fire.” I suppose I can see great importance to it in our particular situation because in our business we’re touching the world, aren’t we? Watchman Nee is good in “Love Not The World” where he says, “When you touch money or business, you touch the world.” And there’s no question you do. I can see how it’s vitally important for us to go forward in our business with God’s guidance every moment. I suppose that’s why I appreciate so much when you hold on a thing and you ask “Okay, is this the way we should go?” And, “Oh yes, that’s the way God wants us to move forward.” But as soon as we start moving forward in all directions ourselves without that spirit of love, and that spirit of submission, and that spirit of subjection, then we begin to get ourselves into trouble. How many Christian businesses have gone down the drain because they’ve lost their direction? And it’s that same way in all of the activities in the body loved ones. You can destroy the whole loving unity of the house if you don’t work with the “Aaron” in that house. There’s a love and submission to the “Aaron” that enables you all to go forward together. But there’s a kind of independent wildcatting that means an offering of “strange fire” and God just will not accept “strange fire.” You find it right through the New Testament; you find Barnabus and Paul working together, Paul and Timothy working together, Peter and Mark working together. You find that the principle of coordinated authority runs right through the New Testament, and that’s the way the Father wants us to work. And if we’re in doubt at all, let’s check with each other; let’s have that spirit of obedience and that spirit of submission that means that we walk together as a body and walk together according to God’s will. I’ll read the last piece [from Watchman Nee] because he always says the thing better than I do, “Just as the delegated authority follows God, so those who are subject to authority should follow God’s delegated authority. There is no place,” and my heart used to rebel against this until God really taught me that I had to do this before he would give me any authority. I did it for a miserable two years, but it was good, “There is no place for isolated individual service.” And I’ve been like many of you; “don’t wait for it, let’s get on and do the thing.” I think its right loved ones, that there is no place for isolated individual service. “In spiritual work, all must serve in coordination. Coordination is the rule; the individual is not the unit. The sons of Aaron were out of coordination with Aaron hence, they were out of coordination with God. They should not have left Aaron and served independently. Those who violated authority will be consumed by fire from before God.” I think it’s good to see God’s plan for our own body here, and to see it in regard to things like your work where you have, presumably, non-Christian bosses, and in your families where we maybe have dads and mums who don’t agree with everything we’re doing. Yet it seems there is a principle that God has built in and of course it brings great harmony; you find that every time you bend over to someone to build up their authority, Jesus comes back in love from their hearts. But if there’s a chomping at the bit then there’s a pulling in the other direction and that’s where you get the strain. And the heart of it is that obedience is a spirit, isn’t that right? Obedience, and subjection, and submission is a spirit. Your dad or your mom know whether you love them and submit to them or not, even if you don’t say a thing or do a thing, and I think it’s so in the body. I know that one sister has just been dealt with by God over this during the past week and God impressed upon me that I should share it tonight, so if there are areas there where you have been touched I think all you need do is settle it tonight. You don’t need to make a whole show about it, just repent to Jesus. And again, I don’t know that it’s outward disobedience that is the problem, I think with many of us it’s just a spirit of resistance, it’s a spirit of rebellion that puts us out of touch with those who are in authority over us. And I think if we’ll submit to God’s authority and his delegated authorities, we’ll find that it’s true, the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and evermore. Amen.

The Purpose of Authority 1 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill We’ve done perhaps fourteen studies on scriptural psychology; in other words, on the makeup of the personality in body, soul, and spirit. You’ll remember we covered the three great freedoms that we experienced in connection with Jesus; freedom from a guilty conscience, freedom from the selfish will, and then freedom from the independent personality. Now, normally we would have gone on brothers and sisters, to close the study of the Spirit but God impressed upon me strongly last weekend that we should break for maybe two or three weeks and talk about authority and subjection. It was a subject that I had kept well clear of partly because God was blessing us so naturally in that area and partly because I don’t believe I saw it in the right light myself because I had been such a maverick and rebel in my own attitude to the authorities that were often above me. And I knew that most of us had come that way. But God has impressed upon us the need to talk about authority and subjection and during our last time together we dealt with the importance of authority. I think it came home to me clearly that one of the reasons I shied away from the whole business of authority and subjection was I did not see that what we were concerned with was a maintaining of God’s authority, not of man’s authority. I think I always stayed away from exercising this authority over much because I couldn’t see that what we are really involved in, in authority and subjection in the body of Jesus, or in our relationships with each other in the family, is maintaining God’s authority. So it’s very important for a body of Christians to face authority plainly and openly and not to evade the issue as something old fashioned, or something that is strangely Republican, or strangely like a Supreme Court, or strangely Victorian, but it’s important for us to look away from all those extreme expressions of unbalanced authority and to look at God’s authority and to see that what we’re concerned with in authority and subjection is that we’re really maintaining God’s authority, not maintaining our own authority. Understanding this has freed me a great deal in ministering to you about it, because I feel now it’s not me asking you or telling you to submit to me, it’s asking us all to unite together and learn what God’s authority is and what it means to us. Another reason I want to go on talking about it for several Sundays is the release that came to many of us last week and the release that came to me through many of you. A brother here pointed out that when you submit to the right authority, whether the son or the daughter to the father and mother, or the member of the body to the elder in the body, or the elders to the Pastor, or the Pastor to the head of the body, then as you submit you come under an umbrella of protection that saves you from many temptations that you would otherwise get into. And that many of us, when we don’t exist under the protective umbrella of authority, end up in temptations that aren’t God’s will at all for us to enter into. You see, our temptations are carefully permitted by him to strengthen us and to enable us to grow in grace, but when we step out from under authority we come into many things that we’re not ready for. So we began to see last week that authority has been a protection for many of us. Then lastly, I have been realizing over the past months that you cannot build an army of Christ on enjoyment. Now, a lot of us came together because of the sheer joy that we have found in Jesus and because of the life that is in him, and the peace that is in him. But it’s obvious that we can’t build an army of Christ to go out into the world simply on enjoyment. It’s obvious that there will be times when we don’t seem to be enjoying it too much and the only thing that holds you there then is God’s authority. I think if we’re going to be any use to him at all, we need to come into an understanding of this authority. That’s why I think it is important to go on tonight to talk about the purpose of authority. It is very clear in God’s will, and God’s mind, and God’s plan and it might be good to read the verse that states clearly God’s teaching on authority in Romans. It’s a verse we read last Sunday and I suppose it’s the basis of all that we’re talking about in this series on authority and subjection. Romans 13:1-2, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” And then this strong statement, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” This was written by Paul under one of the strongest and most strict military dictatorships that the world has suffered. “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” And the secondary teaching, that when you resist God’s delegated authority you’re resisting God’s authority itself and that is the real sin involved in resisting delegated authority. Whether it is the right relationship of husband to wife, or the right relationship of children to parents, or the right relationship of citizens to the government, or the right relationship of members to elders, to heads of houses, to Pastors, to each other, there is a right authority and subjection in all of those situations. All those authorities are instituted by God to bring about order and harmony in his body. Now brothers and sisters, we looked last time at some Old Testament examples of real rebellion against authority which helped, I think, to point out rebellion in some of our own hearts, so I think, therefore, they were useful. I’d like us to look at just two more of those and then go on to the purpose of God’s authority. Numbers 12 is one of those examples of people rebelling against God’s delegated authority. In my early days I never saw any purpose in this because I often thought it was just old fashioned teaching; old fashioned respect in the old country. But really, it’s God’s plan for us. Numbers 12:1, “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.” That was an Ethiopian from the people who had been condemned to be a slave to his brothers because of his attitude to God. And of course Moses should not have married the Cushite woman; he was wrong. Miriam and Aaron were his older brother and sister and in the home they had the right to have authority over Moses but not over him outside the home. He was God’s anointed leader and so they had no authority over him there, “For he had married a Cushite woman; and they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?’” And you see — they weren’t tackling him there on the level of an older brother and sister; they were challenging his position as leader and prophet; and spokesman of God. “Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it.” Then this has been good for me and I think, all of you elders and all of you parents, that we need to see the next verse. “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth.” One of the reasons for that was that he trusted God for his authority; he didn’t feel he had to defend it because he trusted God. God had appointed him; it wasn’t because of his brilliance, but God had chosen him, so he was meek because he trusted God to defend what he had appointed and established. “And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, ‘Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.’ And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. And he said, ‘Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?’ And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed; and when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.” Spiritual death is dealt by God to any of us who treat his delegated authority in that manner. Half of us have spiritual problems that come from our failure to respond to the delegated authorities. I think what many of us do is what Aaron and Miriam did; we approach the delegated authority on the ground of what is natural. They approached Moses on the basis of his being their younger brother, but he wasn’t; in the Spirit, he was an authority over them. Now I can see it in our own relationships; an elder can act towards you as an older brother, a Pastor can act towards you as a dear brother or a father; but they are never a brother or a father; they are God’s appointed people. So they may often act towards us in a familiar way and we should love them and we should respond to them warmly, but they are always God’s anointed, you see. And there always comes a strain in a relationship when there isn’t that right relationship. Every dad here knows that you can be very, very close to your children and you can love your children, and they can love you with all their heart, and they can share the deepest things with you and the most interesting things, but you’re still their father; you still have a dignity. They still treat you in a certain way that they wouldn’t treat their friends whom they run around with. Now loved ones, it’s the same in our body where it’s so much more important because we’re so young and our elders are so close to us in age, and many of us are older than our elders as far as chronology is concerned and maybe even spiritually; many of us find ourselves seeing things deeper than our elders. Many of you see things deeper than I do. But do you see loved ones; we can’t approach each other on the basis of natural ground; we respect each other as delegated authorities. In verse 11, “And Aaron said to Moses, ‘Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned.’” And then Aaron comes back into the relationship with Moses. He says, “Oh, my lord,” not because of Moses himself, it’s not because of the man, but it’s because he is God’s appointed. “My lord” is a term of respect to God’s authority and Aaron respects Moses because he’s God’s authority. “We have done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.’ And Moses cried to the Lord, ‘Heal her, O God, I beseech thee.’ But the Lord said to Moses, ‘If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.’” And the term “outside the camp” in the Bible has an extra dimension to it because it means alienation and exclusion. And you always find that when there’s a failure in submission to God’s appointed authority, you feel a sense of alienation; you feel a sense of exclusion from the fellowship; there’s not that warm intimacy. “So Miriam was shut up outside the camp seven days.” And then you see what happened, “And the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.” The tent didn’t move until Miriam’s case was settled, “After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.” But every time there’s a stumbling in the body over authority, the body stops moving, the tent stops moving. There can be no forward march by the people of God until all the members of the body are in the right relationship and you’ve noticed that yourself; there’s a hesitation and a stumbling. It seems that it doesn’t matter where in the chain of authority that happens, whether it’s a, b, c, d, or e it doesn’t matter. If “d” is having trouble with the relationship to “c”, then “e” begins to have trouble with the relationship to “d”, and then that begins to affect “c” and it’s a domino theory. It goes up and down through the body until one member is just strong enough in Jesus to hold the thing. And it’s interesting, sometimes I have harder weeks than others and it’s often because I think things are coming up and they just hit and shatter. And really loved ones, John Donne was right, “no man is an island.” We are all bound up with each other. The whole body is knit together and where someone is having a little difficulty, it shudders right through. If one member suffers, the whole body suffers, and that’s why it’s so important. If “b” has trouble then “c” will begin to have trouble too. If “a” has trouble with the responsibility to the head, then “b” has trouble in the relationship to “a”. I thank God for those of you who love me and have prayed for me, especially over the past weeks. I thank you for your kindness in keeping me in my position and loving me and praying for me in it and that’s what we need to do; we need to keep holding each other in our right position in love. Whether the person is worthy of it or not, you hold them there and you treat people as you want them to be, in the same way as Jesus does with us. Love is always eager to believe the best, and they’ll have an easier time coming back into the position, so it is a loving relationship. Brothers and sisters do you see that Moses’ authority was not built on knowledge though the world builds its authority system on knowledge. You know more so you’re boss; you understand the system more so you’re in charge of the others who work on the production line. Now, it’s not so in God’s body; we’re in authority because God has appointed us. Of course, that’s a beautiful thing too because in the world, if you’ve gained your position because of your knowledge then you’re always in strain because you’re always trying to keep one step ahead of the rest and it’s a strain keeping in that position. We know it when we look at the poor executives who get the ulcers because they’re trying to hold their position. We see it even at university where there’s a whole scale of positions in the faculty and you have to hold yours against the others underneath you; you have to keep that one little bit of knowledge extra. Now loved ones, in spiritual authority it’s not the knowledge that puts you there and of course, that’s beautiful. Because John, who shared with us this morning, is an expert on geodesic domes — they’re the latest things in cheap buildings where the whole thing is worked out very carefully geometrically and you just build a whole dome up with no structural supports at all. Well no doubt John will begin to move out in Fish Geodesic Domes and God will lead us out in the whole area of cheap housing through these domes, but do you see it’s vital that my authority over John is not built on my knowledge? Otherwise he’d eventually come into a position where he’d be out there and just wouldn’t explain things, and wouldn’t minister things to me and so I’d have no authority over him. You see, that it’s a loving situation where, “Okay, I understand Hebrew so I’ll try to explain it to you as simply as possible so that you understand it. You understand geodesic domes; okay you explain them to me.” But it’s a loving relationship in authority; not built on knowledge. Your position in the body doesn’t come because you know more, but because God has appointed you, so there’s a great freedom from strain in it. You’re there because God has put you there. Now maybe you’d look just at one other instance in Numbers 16 because it teaches another important principle. It’s the principle of contagion and you’ll see it in Numbers 16:3. It’s about the rebellion of Korah, “And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, ‘You have gone too far! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?’” And of course it wasn’t Moses exalting himself, it was God. Now this is good for those of us who have authority anywhere, and I think all of us have some authority in our situation, “When Moses heard it, he fell on his face.” He didn’t get up and fight them back and beat them down with a staff and tell them to go home. But Moses heard it and he fell on his face and it’s good you fall on your face before the authority to which you’re responsible; towards God. “And he said to Korah and all his company, ‘In the morning the Lord will show who is his,” and he left it to God, “and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him; him whom he will choose he will cause to come near to him.” And Moses left the decision up to God and it’s good to see that that needs to be our attitude. You see then in verses 12-14 that Dathan and Abiram who were with Korah in spirit, intensified the whole rebellion, “And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab; and they said, ‘We will not come up. Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness that you must also make yourself a prince over us? Moreover you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.’” They were right, they weren’t in a land of milk and honey and yet God regarded them as wrong in rebellion against Moses’ leadership. Brothers and sisters, submission to authority is a matter of faith not of reason. They were in rebellion because they wouldn’t go on the vision that God had given their leader. They came down to reason and argued against it. And loved ones, that’s true; every time you try to reason the thing through you’ll end up in their position, because often a body goes forward by the vision that the Father gives to its leader, or its leaders and he requires that the brothers and sisters trust the leader to move forward. Now by all means you have to pray for the poor soul so that he doesn’t go too far out in left field, and you have to share as you see, but it’s always sharing in an attitude of love and of trust. They went astray because they would not walk by faith. They said, “Here we are; you said we were coming to this land and we’re not here yet.” Then you see God’s judgment on that kind of outright rebellion in Numbers 16:31, “And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split asunder; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel that were round about them fled at their cry; for they said, ‘Lest the earth swallow us up!’ And fire came forth from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense.” That happens in every body of God’s people where there is this kind of rebellion; the earth does really swallow them up. You know the pitiful situation in the great majority of our churches, isn’t it true — and I’m anxious not to say anything wrong about churches — but it’s true that most of us have suffered in this kind of situation: there has been no basis of authority. There has been little respect for the poor Pastors that have worked among us. In fact, there has been no doubt in our own minds about their authority, we knew who the authority was; we paid their salary and the pastoral relations board appointed the man. So they whipped him in and they suffered him for three years and then the honeymoon is over; and the fourth and fifth years are sticky, and then they decide to get rid of him and so they bring another man in. It’s no wonder that the earth has begun to open and swallow so many of our churches. The New York Times has another record of the numerical losses in the churches; the earth will always swallow up bodies of Christ that do not respect and build up God’s appointed authority and we’ve been utterly out of God’s plan and God’s order in most of our churches because in most of them there’s been little respect. I thank God that he has created a miracle here, because our whole relationship with each other is utterly different. But do you see; the earth swallows up a body that does not respect that delegated authority? Now here’s the real principle that I wanted you to see in this and it’s found in Numbers 16:41-50. The leaders rebelled and then you get the next step in Numbers 16:41, “But on the morrow all the congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron” so it’s contagious resistance, “saying, ‘You have killed the people of the Lord.’ And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting; and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, and the Lord said to Moses, ‘Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.’ And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take your censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone forth from the Lord, the plague has begun.’” Moses realized that he himself could not hold God back from defending his authority. “So Aaron took it as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and behold, the plague had already begun among the people; and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped. Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped.” We need to seek God carefully before we engage in rebellion or resistance to his authority, because we can work spiritual agony for others that we don’t know about at all and that’s really what happened there. The leaders of that rebellion had no idea that they were going to cause the deaths of 14,000 people and yet that’s what resulted. So it’s that principle of contagion and resistance. It’s good to see that all authority and submission to authority is a matter of revelation, so we need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show us where we are to be submissive in authority to others. We need to ask him to show us, “Lord, what attitude should we have to each other?” Maybe we could look at a little of the purpose of authority. I don’t know how far we’ll get, but let’s look at David and the example that he sets, and I’ll describe the situation to you first. You remember that Saul had disobeyed God in not destroying all of the Amalekites. He had in fact kept the best of the cattle and the goods and because of that God had disqualified him from the kingship. Saul did not obey God, he thought sacrifice was better than obedience, so God determined to take the kingship from Saul and he already let David know that he, David, was to be king. Now David was running from Saul because Saul was after him to destroy him. On one occasion, in the wilderness of Engedi, David came upon Saul in a cave. Saul did not know that David was there at all, and so David was in the position where he could kill Saul at that very moment. Now do you see that he might well have felt justified in doing that? He might well have felt, “Well, I’m going to be king and this is a way to forward God’s cause. I can kill Saul and I can ascend the throne.” And yet that is not what he did at all as you’ll see in 1 Samuel 24. And even though the delegated authority had disobeyed God and had actually already been disqualified from authority, yet he was still king over David and David still respected his authority. 1 Samuel 24:1, “When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, ‘Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.’ Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats’ Rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, ‘Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’’” And so some people suggested that maybe this is God’s day for David to take the throne. “Then David arose and stealthily cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe. And afterward David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. He said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.’” He knew that although Saul was disqualified from the kingship, he was still king. God had not yet raised David to the throne even though he had told him he was going to be king and so David was still under Saul’s authority. And David called him “my lord” not because of the man himself, the man himself had been disobedient to the authority above him, but David respected him because he was still in charge of him. He was still in control of him. In other words brothers and sisters, it’s dangerous to say, “My father is not in God’s will, so I do not need to submit to him. He is disqualified because of his disobedience to God.” You can see that the principle taught here in David’s experience is that you keep on respecting the Lord’s anointed whatever he is like, or however he behaves. We often felt it was a dangerous principle in the Catholic Church where they would suggest that even a drunk priest could celebrate the mass and he should be respected. Many of us Protestants rebelled against that and said, “Now, that’s just typical of the immorality that so often operates in the institutional church.” But do you see that there was a principle behind that that was good? It was the principle that if a man or a woman is appointed into an authority by God, you respect them because of their appointment, not because they are always submissive to God, not because they are always right. Now I think there’s another principle that is important that probably most of us have sensed at one time or another in our own lives. Let’s begin at I Samuel 24:4b. After the men speak to David then it says, “Then David arose and stealthily cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe. And afterward David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.” It seems such a little thing, doesn’t it? And yet David saw that it was actually a failure to respect Saul’s authority; it was really contempt for Saul. And oh, I saw it in my own life; often I wouldn’t be in outright rebellion against the authority, but I would have an inward resistance to the authority. I would have that kind of back biting attitude to the authority. “Alright, I’ll obey you, I’ll submit to you,” then I’d criticize them behind their back. But it’s true with all of us, isn’t it? Often we don’t disobey the authority; we evade the issue by rank bad manners. We appear to submit to the authority but really inside we’re laughing at the authority and we’re really cutting them down inside even if we don’t tell anybody. We display that by bad manners, or abruptness, or a throwaway line we use to destroy the authority that God wants you to submit to. It’s so different from the submission that blesses and that is, actually, love, isn’t it? Don’t you think there can be a real expressing of love through submission to authority? Don’t you think there can be a beautiful expression of love in good manners? I know it’s getting less and less popular, but I think Jesus wants us to reclaim it for him; it seems to me there’s a beauty in a brother opening a door for a sister. There’s a beauty and there’s love expressed in it. Don’t you think that I’ve often felt it from brothers and sisters in the body; there’s a love and a delight that can come forth in submission? I suppose we were taught it, not in a spiritual context at all, but I suppose in the old country attitude back home we were taught you could actually bless a teacher by a certain attitude to them. You could actually bless a father or a mother by a certain attitude to them, though we didn’t understand it all at the time. That is totally different from “Well, I’ll just cut off the skirt of his gown if I can.” There’s an absolute difference between a wholehearted love and a wholehearted submissiveness and a delight in expressing your love to the person that way, and a kind of reluctant backbiting, bad mannered kind of submission that isn’t submission at all and it seems an important principle, doesn’t it? Submission to authority is a heart attitude. Of course you know the effect it has on the authority, we all know that fine well; it puts the one in authority in a place of security. Suddenly they feel a release, they feel a sense of being at ease with us and they can kind of back off. I’ve found it often with Pastors of other churches who maybe hear of Campus Church. It’s vital for me, if I go to do a wedding in their church to acknowledge that they are the Pastor, they are in control, and they are the spiritual authorities. And of course, as you don’t go as somebody who knows everything, but as a loving brother who trusts them and respects them and obeys what they suggest you should do in the church, then there’s an ease that comes about in them. And I think you’ve found the same thing; there’s just an ease comes in the authority when you love it and respect it. Now loved ones, this kept coming to David, as you see in 1 Samuel 26, and God often does this with us; he often gives us opportunities such as he gave David in order to really test him. In this next instance almost the same situation occurred; David again found Saul in a defenseless position. 1 Samuel 26:8, “Then said Abishai to David, ‘God has given your enemy into your hand this day; now therefore let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.’ But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?’” That kind of submission and respect for God’s appointment is incredible isn’t it? “And David said, ‘As the Lord lives, the Lord will smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed; but take now the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.’” And it does seem brothers and sisters, that in whatever situation we are, we need to trust God to change the authority or remove it. David constantly had this attitude to Saul; that he was God’s appointed person whether he was worthy of respect or not. It was God’s authority that David was maintaining and that comes out very clearly in his attitude to the man who eventually kills Saul. Now you would think that surely David would accept it when someone else got rid of Saul? But it wasn’t so; what David cared about was maintaining God’s authority. 2 Samuel 1:13, “And David said to the young man who told him [he had killed Saul], ‘Where do you come from?’ And he answered, ‘I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.’ David said to him, ‘How is it you were not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?’” It’s just amazing isn’t it? You feel the needle is caught on the one track of the record but David just sticks at it; “You killed the Lord’s anointed.” “Then David called one of the young men and said, ‘Go, fall upon him.’ And he smote him so that he died. And David said to him, ‘Your blood be upon your head; for your own mouth has testified against you saying, ‘I have slain the Lord’s anointed.’” Brothers and sisters do you see: it’s maintaining God’s authority? I don’t think we can go as far as I had hoped tonight, but it’s about maintaining God’s authority; that’s what we’re doing here. When we’re building each other up and preferring one another before ourselves, when we’re respecting our elders and respecting the leaders of the houses, when we’re respecting the Pastor, we’re really respecting the head of the body and we’re building up the authority of Jesus. When the day comes that the whole world will break into anarchy and chaos and may be saved only by the totalitarian government of an antichrist that will preserve many of us in a state of order and harmony. And what God is after is to build up that authority among a people who are after his own heart. And those people, when the whole world is writhing in anarchy and is seeking the antichrist to bring them into some order and preserve them from destruction — that will keep the church of Jesus and will keep it in order and harmony. So it is really a precious thing. I’d like to talk in a little more detail about it next time, in connection with the authority of the body, but at least this introduces us to the whole purpose of authority. It is really to preserve us on that final day when the whole world will break into disharmony and chaos and that’s why we defend the authority of God, you see. Now, would you like to ask questions? Question: “What did Jesus mean when he said, “I came not to bring peace but a sword and I will divide father from mother and son and daughter and he who does not leave his father and mother is not worthy of me?” Response: Let’s tackle the first one. It seems to me that Jesus was saying that the sword of the Spirit had indeed a physical sword as we have seen in communist countries where children have been taught to betray their parents. Certainly a spiritual sword of the Spirit and at times a physical sword will mean that those who believe in Jesus will be betrayed by those who do not believe in Jesus and will be handed over to authorities, so there will be a real division at times, spiritually, in a family. That still does not say that the son or the daughter should not submit to the unbelieving parent as long as they possibly can. It seems to me the other teaching where Jesus says, “If you will not leave father, and mother, and children for the gospel’s sake then you are not worthy of me,” Jesus was teaching, “If it comes to a place where you have to choose; where I make it clear to you that you have to choose even as it came to that place where the preachers in Acts, when they were forbidden to preach the gospel, replied, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” So when it comes to that moment then you must be willing to go with God rather than stay with the parents and the family. So it seems the first one is simply a dividing of people spiritually and the second one is a readiness to forsake self-love because most of us really love ourselves when we think we love our parents or our homes before Jesus. So it seems to me they’re both in connection with putting God before anybody. But after you’ve got God in the right position then you have to put your delegated authorities in the right position. Could you comment on Bonhoeffer and Hitler? I thought of that tonight as I was praying and getting ready. You remember that Bonhoeffer was involved in the plot, I believe, that was made on Hitler’s life. It would seem to me that Bonhoeffer would say that he had come into the position of the preachers in the Acts of the apostles that we must obey God rather than man. It would seem to me that a man like Bonhoeffer had come into a position where he felt that he had to act or submit to being forced to disobey God; that he would feel if he allowed Hitler and the regime to continue he was in fact part of that. Now brother, it is important to see that many other men felt differently and many submitted to Hitler presumably on the basis of the principle of authority and I think it’s very presumptuous of us all these years later to try to pronounce what we think is right. But it would seem to me very dependent on a man’s own conscience in regard to the government. However, brothers and sisters, we are ridiculous in our attitude here. We have not a government that is in anyway a terror to good conduct and even the provision for conscientious objection means that we’re in a legal position to submit to the government and yet do what our conscience dictates. So I think in our position it’s very hard to see a justification for resisting authority. I think we should work for better politicians; I’m with you on that. I think we should get into politics, and we should pray that Watergate incidents will not only not occur, but will be exposed clearly. We should pray that the ridiculous artificial oil shortage will be cleared up by strong political leaders who will move against the greed and the avarice. But having said all that, I think we have to submit and respect our leaders. Love ones, I think we should stop here and carry on next time. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and evermore. Amen.

The Authority of the Body Ephesians 6:1-5 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill What I’d like to talk about this evening is the authority of the body, and last Sunday evening you remember, we dealt with – in the third of the series on authority and subjection we dealt with the purpose of authority. We established that the purpose of authority really is to establish the principle of obedience to God. That’s the purpose of God’s appointing any authorities in the world at all — to establish the principle of obedience to him. Many of us know the need for that through our own experience in the early days of the body here, because the body started in the midst of all the rebellion and protest of the 1960’s. Many of us came into the body true but we didn’t want anything to do with any authority at all, and you’d throw everything over. Many of us found that we came in with ways and minds that were utterly undisciplined. And many of us know for instance, old Bruce and the battle that he had. Bruce was just a free swinging Californian, and boy it was rough for Bruce to kind of begin to come under some kind of order or discipline, and many of us found that. That we had been used to this spirit of wild license that had gone through society. There was great justification for it, mind you, society itself is in a pretty poor state, and needs a great deal certainly, of protest and a great deal of correction. But you remember two or three years ago you could protest almost against anything in the world, and there was a general spirit of chaos and anarchy in our society. And many of us found that living in that situation, as a group it was quite a struggle to come into any kind of obedience at all. Now that’s why God has appointed authority here. He’s establishing the principle of authorities in the world to begin to establish the principle of obedience to himself, so that we would begin to come into obedience. Almost into obedience to anyone, just in order to come into obedience. Now that is the principle that you have right through the Old Testament. You can see it in Genesis 1:28, if you look at it. I won’t give you all references, but Genesis 1:28 right at the beginning of God’s creation there is that principle of authority and principle of obedience established. Genesis 1:28, “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air.’” You see there was his command to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth and then there was the authority that men and women had as the result of that, “Subdue it; and have dominion.” So you have that world dominion coming in right at the beginning of the Bible and that runs right through the Old Testament. God tried to establish the authority and obedience in the Garden of Eden, and they rebelled against him. He tried to do it again with Noah, his sons rebelled. He tried to do it again with Abraham, his people rebelled. He tried to do it again with Moses, the people rebelled in the wilderness. He tried to do it again in the land of Canaan through the kings, the people eventually rebelled or the kings were disobedient. He tried to do it again as the people wandered over through Persia, and through Assyria, and through various exiles continually God was trying to bring people into obedience to himself. That’s really the reason for authority, and you find it – it’s the purpose of the gospel. You find it in Romans 2:8, the purpose of the gospel is to bring men and women into obedience to God. God is just so wise and he knows that real trust is expressed in perfect obedience. And Romans 2:8, you see, “But for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.” It’s not, “Those who do not believe the truth,” but those who do not obey the truth. You find that constantly emphasized in the apostolic preaching, that you have not just to believe the gospel, you’ve not just to have faith in Jesus, but you’ve to obey him. Now that’s why we should respect delegated authorities. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Nixon. It doesn’t matter – I suppose a lot of us would hope that it won’t be, but it doesn’t matter if it’s Kennedy. It doesn’t matter who the fellow is as president. The reason for obeying delegated authority and respecting it is to establish the principle of obedience to God. That’s why God has delegated these authorities to us. You know that he has delegated authorities in the world, first of all, and we’re expected to obey those delegated authorities in the world. You can see it Romans 13:1. It is that verse that we have read before. Romans 13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Really what God is saying is that, “I have appointed these authorities.” It’s the authority that is important. Maybe Nixon is not a perfect man, maybe in fact, almost certainly Bob Holdeman [President Nixon’s chief of staff and involved in the Watergate scandal] is not a perfect man, or John Dean is not a perfect man. These men stand for authority. I’m not asking you to obey these men, I’m asking you to respect the principle of authority in your world. I think the Father would say to us this evening, because you brothers and sisters know what happens when we ignored the principle of authority two or three years ago. Brothers and sisters, I don’t say that the government is very much better than it was in Lyndon Johnson’s time, but at least there is a little more order. I don’t know that Nixon has brought it, but there is just a little more respect for authority than there was. Now I’m not a Nixon man, I’m not republican do or die. I’m probably if anything a wild socialist! Coming from England, when our own conservative government is even more tending towards a welfare state than you would be here. I don’t want to antagonize people but I want you to see that I’m not a Nixon man do or die, but I do think that there’s more order than there was maybe three or four years ago. Now what God is saying is, “Will you respect the authorities? I don’t ask you to agree with them, I gave it to you many times that they are not honorable men, but the authority is what I want you to respect, because if you keep respecting authority and law your continuing to respect something that I have appointed.” Now brothers and sisters, do you see that the principle of man ruling men is in the Bible away back at the beginning? If you look there Genesis 9:6 there’s the principle of men being entrusted with authority. Why? In order to hold the world back from chaos while Gods redeeming grace is working, you see. Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” Now we believe that God is taking us deeper into an understanding of that verse, but certainly at the beginning God was saying, “Look I give you authority to destroy those who destroy your brothers and sisters.” Or, Exodus 22:28 is the same kind of responsibility that God gave to men to govern themselves. Exodus 22:28, “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of you people.” In other words, God appointed rulers over us to express his prevailing grace — to hold back sin from utterly destroying our world. Now brothers and sisters, the authorities may not be perfect people themselves, they may even as we can see in some of the Supreme Court judges, they may even disobey the laws themselves, but do you see it’s the principle of authority that God is trying to build? He’s saying, “Nothing will come about unless you build up a respect for law and authority, because all authority takes its power from my laws.” So, dear ones, when we’re respecting authority we’re respecting God’s principle of order, and really he asks us to do that. You may say, “What if the authority is wrong?” Dear ones, God doesn’t deal with that, he says, “Look I’ve entrusted the authority into these man’s hands, whatever they do I allow that to stand, now your place is to obey them.” Unless in that instance you remember, in Acts 5:29 I think it is, unless you come into that situation. That’s the one occasion when a son or daughter of God is justified in refusing to obey the authorities over them politically. Acts 5:29, you remember, verse 28 is the actual command of the authorities, “’We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’” And you see that’s the authority’s saying, “He strictly charged you not to teach,” and then the verse 29, “But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” That’s the only instance, if the authority commands you to disobey God than your justified in saying unto them, “No we must obey God rather than men.” But in all other situations, unless they command you to do something that is immoral or illegal, or that is against God’s direct will for you, then we’re expected to respect that authority. I’m afraid, whatever they’re like because it’s not the man we’re respecting it’s the position. That’s, I suppose, what they’re trying to get at with Mr. President. That’s really what they’re trying to get at. That’s why they insist on calling him that, because it’s not him that we’re respecting it’s the principle of the presidency, or the principle of some kind of order in our civil world, and that’s why the Father commands us to respect authorities. That’s why then the speed limit is an issue that we have to deal with. I’ve just been forced to deal with it. We need to see the speed limit as not a frustrating nuisance to our freedom, but it’s something that has been set up by God through his delegated authority. In other words, there ought to be a real joy in this, and peace at being able to travel 30 miles an hour knowing that we’re glorifying God by doing that. Just an entirely different attitude to the one where we Christians feel, “Oh yeah, well the speed limit, it isn’t important. It isn’t really the law.” But it is, and if you say to me, “Oh nobody would notice.” Brothers and sisters, there’s a whole spiritual world that is shattered every time we break the speed limit. I’m preaching to myself too, but there is, there’s a whole spiritual world of order and peace that is shattered whenever we refuse to obey the authorities. Maybe some of us are so insensitive that we feel, “Oh no, that couldn’t be.” But really loved ones, it is. If we could see the spiritual world visibly tonight we would see that on countless occasions we violate God’s commands because we reject the authority of those who are put over us. If you don’t respect the delegated authorities, it’s probable that you half the time are violating God, and his commandments. It’s only about half the time that you obey God by obeying his direct commands through the Bible. Half the rest of the time you’re obeying him by obeying and respecting these delegated authorities. That’s why there so important because they’re set there by the Father. Now loved ones, I appeal to you again, I am against Watergate — I’m with you. I think that we have to change the thing, but we ought to get into politics ourselves and change them. We ought not to break down in order to try to build up. You can’t build anything in the world by disobeying God about respecting the authorities. In other words, vehement criticism of the government on the whole doesn’t do too much good. Unless you get the names on the petition and forward them in a legal way to the congressmen, really all you did was ranting, and raving, and creating an atmosphere of disorder. Half the reason why I would object to the marches of protest is, it’s just an inefficient system. It’s an inefficient way of doing it. You waste a lot of breath and a lot of energy, and all you do is create an atmosphere of disorder. I’m with you, I think we should pray for the people. We should pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them. We should pray that the Watergate thing will be out, utterly exposed, and put right, and rectified, and we should have oppose all attempts to whitewash Nixon or whitewash anyone else. But we ourselves should have an attitude of respect and love for government and for order, for police even. The poor souls they have a miserable time, haven’t they? They should love freedom and right to protest. I agree with you about the ones that are taking money, and taking bribes for protection in Chicago, and presumably in Minneapolis, and New York. I agree there are bad policemen but don’t you think our place is to respect, and love them, and pray for them, and build up the order in authority that they stand for? Now that’s the delegated authorities, dear ones, in the government. We should obey the delegated authorities in the home. You can see that in Ephesians 5:22-24. Why? Because it’s just the principle of obedience to the Father. When we obey these authorities whether they’re right or wrong we’re saying to God, “Alright we trust you, Lord, with the consequences. We simply are responsible for obeying. You’re responsible for changing consequences, or for convicting people.” Ephesians 5:22, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” I think that God may be able to clarify that a little for us later when we talk about the authority of the body. But, would you look at Ephesians 6:1-3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.’” It’s interesting that that’s the only commandment that has a definite promise of a long life attached to it. Verse 4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Then you can see the limits to which God carried this obedience to delegated authority. “Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” It’s amazing isn’t it, that God told them to even submit to a militaristic dictatorship, which no doubt was continuing to spread pain and cruelty throughout the world at that time. Yet God said, “Your place is to submit. My place is to deal with them.” As in fact he did as you know when the barbarians overran the Roman Empire. But do you see, dear ones, that the authority in the home is something that God has established? Now I’m sure we have to discuss among ourselves and ask Jesus to show us what the relationships of husbands and wives ought to be? But you can see that certainly God is not backing Dr. Benjamin Spock [American Pediatrician, May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998] anyway. He’s not backing the idea that you let the child express himself, or let him do whatever he wants. Certainly God is saying, “There is an order in the chain of authority in the family, and you have to obey the delegated authority.” An alcoholic father, well a bit the same, I suppose, as a dishonest congressmen, God expects us to love that person, and give submission to them unless they command us to do something that is illegal or immoral, or against God’s will for us. But obviously God is saying, “My grace will work in them as you obey me, but if you disobey me you just increased the anarchy and the disorder.” But God expects us to obey those delegated authorities from the home. And then he expects us to obey the delegated authorities in the church, and you have that in 1 Thessalonians 5, if you will look at it. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, “But we beseech you, brethren, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.” And then in 1 Timothy 5:17, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Then in 1 Corinthians 16:15-16, “Now, brethren, you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints; I urge you to be subject to such men and to every fellow worker and laborer.” God tells us that in the body of Christ the younger are to be subject to the older, both spiritually and in age. That’s why I think – now they’ll forgive me referring to them again, but I think brothers and sister like Mr. and Mrs. Halverson would feel comfortable among us. No, he’s not officially an elder here, but we all think of his as an elder, and there’s just an attitude to the older ones among us that is one of love, and respect, and submission. Now it seems to me wherever the Holy Spirit has freedom in a body, that kind of relationship comes about. I think that’s why some of the brothers and sisters who are older than college age do feel strangely at home, because in a real body of Christ there is that kind of love and respect for those who are older chronologically and those who are older spiritually. Now maybe, brothers and sisters, we could just look at that in a little more detail and then I’d really open it for questions. Do you see that the church is the perfect place for God to establish authority and obedience? There are two reasons for this. One is that often authority and obedience in the secular sphere, whether in politics, or in the home, authority there or submission is often just an appearance experience. It’s not a real heartfelt thing. In other words, often in politics, or in government, or in law you find the submission but it’s primarily an outward thing, it isn’t a heartfelt submission, and so there isn’t that perfect presentation of authority and subjection in the civil field. As well as that in the political field or in the family area, often the authority does in fact hurt those who are under it. There are often parents who are not wise about their children, and who in fact often hurt their children. There are many governments who though they don’t want apparently to hurt their citizens, will hurt them. Now in the church neither of those things occur. One of the big reasons is that in the body of Christ, authority and obedience are both found in Jesus. The authority of the body comes from the head of the body, Jesus, but the obedience of the body to that head, is Jesus in each member of the body. So in the church you get a perfect marriage of authority in subjection, because the only way of exercising the authority is the head, Jesus, and the spirit that is bringing about submission and subjection to that authority is the Spirit of Jesus in each member. In the church particularly, you can see that authority and subjection is a life situation. It’s not a command situation, it’s a real authority of the body. Now my eyes look and see the book, and they give the message to my head, and the head doesn’t really give a command to the hands, the hands just go out and lift the book. It’s all a beautiful unconscious action because of the life that flows through my body. The head doesn’t suddenly command the hands, “Hands lift the Bible.” No, the head just gently and naturally tells the hand to lift the Bible, and it lifts it, and it’s a life experience, it’s a flowing spontaneous thing. Now do you see that this works in the body of Jesus, and this works in the husband-wife thing, you see? In the husband wife thing, it’s something to argue about if there isn’t the life of Jesus in both of you. But if there’s the life in Jesus in both of you, it’s a loving relationship of both of you to the head. You see, it’s not the hand obeying the eyes. No, the eyes just give the information to the head, and the head moves out through the hands. So both of them act because their related to the head, and that’s the same in the body of Jesus. The body of Jesus is not concerned with just obeying God’s commands, but the body of Jesus is concerned with obeying the life of Jesus that is flowing on among us. That’s why in a body that is really filled with the Spirit of Jesus, authority and subjection is not a hard thing to experience. It’s not a shattering thing, it’s not a battle to get people to obey. It’s just a natural thing, it’s a natural flow. It’s the eyes seeing something to be done, giving the information to the head, and the head, Jesus, tells the hand what to do. And so suddenly the hands and the eyes find themselves being used miraculously in cooperation, and they’re amazed. They don’t know why it is because the hand has not been very conscious of obeying the eyes, it’s only been conscious of obeying the head, and receiving the life that flows from the head. So really, brothers and sisters, the body of Jesus is a beautiful, perfect example of authority and subjection working because of the same life and nature that flows through everybody. Now then do you see that if you’re having trouble with subjection, or I’m having trouble with subjection, it’s a problem of life? Do you see that? It’s a problem of life. It isn’t a problem of you not respecting me, or me not respecting you, it’s a problem of life. It’s something wrong about our relationship to the head, and therefore the life is not flowing through us as it should, and so we’re not experiencing that light spontaneous relationship. But in the body of Christ is not a matter of command. There are two ways in which you can receive – do God’s work, either by receiving a command from him or just by sensing his will, and the authority and subjection to the experience in the body is the second of those two. Sometimes some people have asked me how do you get guidance. Well honestly most of the time I’m not conscious of walking this way and then hearing God saying, “Turn right. Turn right okay, turn left.” It’s not that kind of deal. It’s just I’m walking and the life of Jesus is, you don’t know it, oh yeah you turn left. It’s the life of Jesus just moving through you, and guiding you to do the right thing spontaneously. There are times when you seek direct guidance, but most of the time it’s just a natural spontaneous flow. Now that’s the same in the body of Jesus. Authority in subjection is a loving spontaneous thing, when the life of Jesus is flowing through. Now I think we have to learn a lot about it ourselves. For instance, one of the things we brothers and sisters are learning is the whole business of fears of authority. It’s so important it seems to me, for you to be able to be to be an authority in your sphere, and yet when you come in relationship to me, or to the elders then okay, there’s an attitude of submission and love. It seems to me important when I go home not to run things at home as God guides me to run things here, otherwise my wife and my dog might have a hard time. It seems very important to be able to go into different spheres and have the relationship that is appropriate in that situation. One example of it that I can think of is, Scott Columb just knows the leather machines far better than I do. I don’t know what is the best edge cutter, or what is the best dye for it to cut out the bag, or what is the best clicker, he knows all that. So he is the eye, and if I refuse his ministry there then the body and I am poorer for it. If I tried to do what he can do then the body and I suffer, but then when he has placed all that information before me than he has to stand back and say, “Oh right, now the next move is yours. God is giving you the vision for the next move in the body, now you decide when to buy the machines or not.” And there’s a lovely relationship there. There’s a thing in which we administer authority in our sphere but then when we come into another sphere we know submission. So some of the older brothers and sisters here, I know will just go with my authority and they will submit and they will build me up, but I will know in my own heart that they know many things through experience and through years better than me. So I’ll go to them at times and will say, “Okay, what do you think of this?” And I’ll have that attitude of honoring them and respecting them. Brothers and sisters, it is something that it seems only the life of Jesus can teach us. Of course, one of the real problems I think with us all here, since we all are of this particular generation, is that we have come up in a society that has been chaotic. You’re going to find a few moments when we’re just stumbling on the thing before we find the right level. But it seems that if we let the life of Jesus, the head of the body, flow through us then will come into a loving relationship where authority and submission is just right. And I think I should stop there, there’s a lot more to say but, would anyone like to ask questions that might push us a bit deeper or give a different view point, or different insight? What happens in the situation that often comes up in the workplace where you’re commanded to do things almost in order to harass you and make life tough for you, and there not necessarily things at all and what is to be your attitude in that situation? I can only say what Jesus’ Spirit seems to be revealing to me, but I have to say I’ve never been in that situation and so every man in that situation has to get God’s mind on the thing there. But I would think that the Father’s will would be for us not to question, or to argue, but to submit and that there would be more a flow of life through us ourselves in our own experience. If we turned our back on any resentment, or any sense of a criticism and in fact, bless the person by our actual obedience trusting that the Father knew that we were spending our time doing something that would be undone an hour later. It would seem to me that the attitude would be submission unless the thing was certainly illegal or immoral. But brother I offer that, you know, lovingly and humbly because you’re the one in the situation, but I would imagine that God would pour more life through us if we took that attitude than if we took the attitude standing up on our hind legs and said, “Look at this stupid thing there’s no sense in it.” In a way few of the things have any sense, really, and what counts as obedience to the Father? Not the good sense of the thing itself. Yeah. Is there a place for quiet correction of authority? I can see that situation working often in the body in relationship to myself. I hope I don’t suggestion to brothers and sisters that they do stupid things, but I know that the Holy Spirit gets through to me a lot faster if they say, “Okay, I’m not sure that’s the best, and maybe do you not think maybe this is a possibility, and this a possibility?” But they do the thing and then I quietly get together with the Holy Spirit and he sorts me out. But it seems to be that the affect it has on authority, I think. Anyone in authority should avoid defending it for us. Now in the body authority should never defend its decisions. It should take the attitude of Moses, which was to express and act on faith before the Father, and I think that and that’s what I think I’m learning to do. Some people argue that they should not – they do not need to submit to the authorities of the government because the constitution states they are public servants. I think that’s a semantics fix, you know, I think it is, because I would think that in this case the servanthood has the same humility as Jesus’ servant hood when he kneeled down and washed the disciple’s feet and said, “You tell your master and lord, you see that I am here washing your feet.” So it would seem to me there that servanthood is meant to qualify them for authority.

Authority and Rebellion 2 Peter 2:10-12 Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill Last time, we began our study on authority and subjection and today, we’ll close what we’ve been talking about. God has been showing us the need for some understanding of authority and submission and subjection inside the body. One of the real difficulties for many of us has been that we’ve lived in such a licentious and permissive kind of society that it may seem strange to some of the older ones among us, but many of us have really surprisingly little understanding of what authority and subjection is all about. I think some of us find great difficulty in being able to tell whether we are in submission or whether we are in rebellion ourselves. What I’d like to share tonight is three of the ways in which rebellion shows itself. It will enable us, through the Holy Spirit, to at least look at our own actions and our own behavior and then tell whether we are in the right relationship to God’s authority. Because it is true that if you’re in the right relationship to the authority of God then you have no trouble with other delegated authorities, you see. Every one of us that is fighting our father or fighting our mother, every one of us that is fighting the government, every one of us that is fighting the elders in the body, we’re having trouble with Gods authority. That’s really our basic problem. So what are the signs that there is rebellion in our hearts? The first sign is our word. A lack of a spirit of submission, or a respect for authority, or for those whom God has put over us is seen in our words. You can see this 2 Peter 2:10-12, if you look at it. 2 Peter 2:10-12, and Peter is describing some of the disorderly people who will take over the world towards the end of times. 2 Peter 2:10, “And especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones,” and you reviling and criticizing, “Whereas angels though, greater in might and power, do not pronounce a reviling judgment upon them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them.” You can see those are strong words against those who despise authority and express the contempt in their words. And then in Ephesians 5:6, you get the same kind of emphasis that a rebellion or a spirit of rebellion is expressed in words. Ephesians 5:6, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” Disobedience and rebellion is shown really in the empty words that people speak. And Matthew 12:34 is one last one that we should look at. Matthew 12:34, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” And really brothers and sisters you can hold yourself in, in all kinds of ways, but if you have a real lack of a submissive spirit you know, and we’ll talk about the difference of submission and obedience in a moment, but if you have a lack of a submissive spirit towards professors at school, towards your own parents, towards the authorities, eventually out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You may be able to hold it in, whether while you’re in their presence, but eventually when you get them away out of it you’ll revile them with words of criticism. So often you can tell what your own inner attitude is by the way you speak of people who have authority over you when they’re absent. I think that’s why many of us do not bless our teachers, or we do not bless our parents, we are not a blessing to authorities in the body because our obedience or submission to them is just out of the mouth and out of the eyes, but it really isn’t an inner thing. So when we get rid of them, the old mouth lets the expression of rebellion out. Now examples of rebellion expressed in words: we’ve looked at some of them before but maybe it would be good to look at them again because God always shows us some new things. Genesis 3:3 is one clear instance. Genesis 3:3 and you remember, it’s in the Garden of Eden and Eve is talking with Satan and she says, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,” in 2b and then 3, “But God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Now the rebellion in that is found in the last three words, or rather the four words before those final three, because look at God’s own words in 2:16. Genesis 2:16, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “’ You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’” But God never said, “Neither should you touch it.” Now it’s interesting that if a man or a woman really respects God’s authority every word of God is important, and he’s very slow to change God’s word. It sounds corny at first, “Oh just add another phrase,” but it’s interesting the more anxious you are to be submissive to God the more important his words are to you. I suppose we found that a lot I was brought up in a kind of liberal seminary atmosphere, and we were very easy going about God’s words. We would wipe off a scriptural difficulty just with, “Ah, it was Paul’s mistake. It wasn’t God’s revelation. It was Paul’s mistake.” We would be very casual about God’s words. But it’s interesting when we come under submission to Jesus, every word of God is precious and every word of God is important. It’s also interesting that then when you speak God’s word to others, whether you’re speaking in a house fellowship or whether you’re speaking a word of personal counsel to a friend, it’s important just to speak what God gives you to speak and not to add to it or subtract from it. That’s one way in which rebellion is shown, in taking a person’s words casually. Isn’t it true that a lot of us have got into difficulty in our relationship to authorities by misquoting them, and quoting them glibly and carelessly? How many problems come about because people misquote? I think I spend a lot of my time gathering up the mis-quotes that people use. They say, “Pastor said,” and I have to get right round back of it and say what I think I originally did say. But I think that when you’re anxious to submit to God then there’s a care over every word. Now there’s another instance, dear ones, Genesis 9:22. Genesis 9:22, and you remember that Noah had two sons and you remember Ham one of them Shem and Japheth were the others. And you remember that Noah got drunk and he laid there naked and of course, it was an attitude of disrespect for the sons to see him naked. Now Genesis 9:22, “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” It’s a good way to check your submissiveness to authority. If you find yourself telling things about the authority that take away from the dignity of the authority or take away from the other person’s trust in that authority, then there’s a rebellion hiding in your heart you know. Even though you have very good when you’re facing the authority, yet if you find yourself despising the authority or contentious of the authority when the authority isn’t present to others, then probably there is a rebellion in your heart. It’s interesting how used we have got to deception and hypocrisy — isn’t it really? I mean, we’ve almost – we’ve grown up in this atmosphere of deception and hypocrisy and so it’s become an easy thing to us to have two faces. We show this face to the authority, but behind the authorities back, we show another face completely. Yet, I think a lot of us have problems in our spiritual life because of that dishonesty, that schizophrenia. So, that’s one way in which you can detect a rebellion in your heart. More and more God is bringing it home to my heart that it doesn’t simply apply to my attitude to those in authority over me, but it applies in my attitude to you. If I say something about Gary to Sam when Gary is absent I’m not responsible to Gary. I’m having to be submissive to him. If anything, he is to be submissive to me, but yet I’m doing the same kind of thing has Ham did. I’m trying in some way to lower the dignity of Gary himself in Sam’s eyes. Now brothers and sisters I honestly do think that we are careless in our words and in our attitude to authorities. You can think, loved ones, think of your attitude to the teachers you know, those of you who are at college or at Bethel. We have all kinds of reasons for it, haven’t we? But really we’re undermining the dignity of the teacher, or the dignity of his position in regard to the other person. So it’s one way in which it shows itself. Would you look Numbers 12:2? Again, it’s one I think that we have looked at before. Numbers 12:2, “And they said,” you remember of course, that Moses married a Cushite woman and Miriam and Aaron were his older brother and sister, “And they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?’ And the Lord heard it.” Contempt for authority is expressed in words and almost always comes out of words. It comes out in words. A respect for authority will close your mouth, and will seal your mouth, and will solve a lot of problems, really. A lot of us would talk far less if we really had respect for the authorities that God has placed over us. Mind you, a lot of us might have had really little to talk about then or be very poor on conversation, and it does take a real willingness to be thought a most uninteresting person in order to abstain from misusing words. But really dear ones, we always express a rebellion sooner or later in words, and it always comes out. Numbers 16:3 is the situation you remember, where Korah led a rebellion against Moses and is the same thing. Numbers 16:3, “And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, ‘You have gone too far! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them and the Lord is among them; why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?’” And then 16:31-32, “And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split asunder; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods.” And the reason seems to be that words, in some way, are even worse than thoughts. In some way words bring destruction to the whole order of authority and submission in a way that even thoughts don’t. That’s why you remember, Jesus said, “For you will give account of the last day for every careless word you utter.” It does seem when you utter words in criticism of an authority or in criticism of anybody you lose spiritual power dear ones, you do. I mean, you must admit it yourself — haven’t you experienced a kind of dissipation of spiritual life when you’ve talked about somebody else you know? I know I have, whether it’s an authority over me or not, there seems to be a loss of spiritual power when you revile anyone or you criticize anyone. Something my dad used to say comes back to me. For a long time, our house was just chaos before my mom or my brother dealt with God at all. We were fighting and squabbling all over the place, and I would always want to say to my dad, “No dad, you must explain to them what’s wrong. I mean, you must come back at them and explain it.” He would say, “No, no you love them, and you bless them, and you pray for them, and God will do more through that then through all your arguing and discussing.” And of course I was young and thought I knew all the answers and it took me a long time to learn that talking about people really does nothing. All you do is lose spiritual power yourself and it enables Satan to spread enmity, and disagreement, and lack of love, and paranoia among your brothers and sisters. So it is really important. I just have great respect for Watchman Nee — I suppose maybe some of you noticed that. He says this, “Difficulties in the church often derive from slanderous words. Speaking inadvertently is largely responsible for the breaking of the unity of the church and the losing of power.” When you think of the mess we’ve made of our churches right across the nation, by the careless way we’ve criticized pastor, elders, everybody. It’s just like a scythe; we’ve gone in with a scythe and just cut the feet from under them. “Probably most difficulties in the church are due primarily to slanderous words.” Here’s an interesting phrase. It’s one of his insights that are good, “Only a minor part of the difficulties are real problems.” That’s right. Really, only a minor part of the difficulties in any church are real problems. Only a minor part of the difficulties in the body are real problems. It’s always what we do with the problems. It’s the way we increase them and exaggerate them. And remember there was a good illustration that somebody shared about someone who had spread a rumor about someone else or had said something that wasn’t true about them. And the person said, “It’s really like bursting a feather pillow, in a high wind. It’s impossible to gather up all the feathers.” It really is. Once you say something about somebody else you can’t tell where it goes. You have no longer control of it and it’s just impossible ever to get that word back. So loved ones, our words are our ways of expressing our rebellion. Here’s a strange one. Our reasons are often a way of expressing rebellion. Could we read that difficult passage in Romans 9? I’m not going to explain the passage. I’m using it as an illustration. Maybe someday in 10 years time will come to it on Sunday morning. I hope it will be in that length of time till I have the answer. Romans 9:10-24, “And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call she was told, ‘The elder will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’ What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So it depends not upon man’s will or exertion, but upon God’s mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills. You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me thus?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for the beauty and another for menial use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, in order to make know the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, in which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” I will not answer a question on that, I cannot, but I’d like to share that one of the ways we can tell a lack of submission to God is in our always being preoccupied with our own reasons for doing something else. Often God will give us a command and will ask us to obey it, but we will filter it through the old tree of the knowledge of good and evil that we have gathered in our own mind, and we will examine it under our own reason. Now brothers and sisters, do you see that our minds are to be renewed according to the mind of Christ, to take in the values that Jesus himself had? Now if we begin to reason in a fleshly way, we’ll find ourselves often rebelling against God. Many of us can tell that we’re rebelling against God because of our tendency always to give our reasons for doing something different. If we go by reason alone, we’ll eventually end up in slanderous words and in rebellion against them. Now this comes out in a scripture again and again where you find old Miriam and Aaron. They had reason for criticizing Moses. He had married a Cushite woman. He ought not to have married outside the tribe and he was wrong to do it. They found the reason. They said, “We’re his older brother and sister. We have the right to rebuke him.” [Numbers 12:1] But according to God’s state of values he was the head of the people, the leader of God’s own people, so he was superior to his elder brother and sister. According to God’s reasoning, they had no right to criticize him. But you find that most of the cases of rebellion they always find reasons for criticizing. You remember old Korah said, “You’ve led us out here in the wilderness. There’s no promise land.” He had a good reason, you see. There was a good reason for criticizing God’s leader. Now brothers and sisters, I think Satan often gets us to rebel against God’s authorities on the basis of using our reasons and giving good reasons for rebelling — and you know how we do it. We’ll do it against the dad who is an alcoholic. The reason is plain and obvious. We’ll do it against a teacher who is a bit liberal in his theology. The reason is obvious. We have always good reasons for it. We’ll do it against an elder who doesn’t seem to be as mature as the other elders and we seem to have good reason for it. But do you see that if you go simply by reason you end up living your life by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? I don’t know how many of you have ended up complicating your life by not doing what God was telling you to do, but by reasoning about it. I think maybe two weeks ago, a brother told me what God seemed to want him to do, and I said, “Go and do it. Do it and be finished with it and obey him.” But the brother fiddled around and reasoned around it and argued around it. The next week he came and he wasn’t so clear on it: “Now I’m not sure which, not sure whether it’s Satan or whether it’s God who is telling me.” And the next week he didn’t do anything. He just left the whole thing. Now it seems to me brother and sisters that we can get into difficulty by not leading the simple life of faith. We try to walk by sight all the time and by our reasons and our arguments. Now loved ones, I’m not opposing the mind. The mind is there to gather information. But the mind is there to be controlled by the Holy Spirit after it’s got the information. We often try to use the mind to bring about the thing ourselves. You notice of course, from that piece in Romans 9, God just doesn’t argue. He says, “Look I am God. Some things I tell you, you won’t know why I’m telling you them. You have to obey me just because you trust me.” And that comes out I think in Leviticus 18. From Leviticus 18:22, God is telling the people what to do. And he doesn’t give them great reasons for obeying him. He must have bored them to tears. He keeps repeating this phrase, this clause, and you’ll see it if you read it a wee bit. Leviticus 18:1-5, and you’ll see the clause occurring several times. Leviticus 18:1, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord your God.’” That’s his reason. “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall do my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them.” Here’s the reason, “I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, by doing which a man shall live.” Why? “I am the Lord.” And just keeps on and really gets to you. Verse 6, “None of you shall approach any one near of kin to him to uncover nakedness.” Why? Would it be physically bad, or …? “I am the Lord.” That’s the reason. And just keeps on through all those commands about sexual relationships and keeps on saying, “Why? Because I am the Lord.” In Verse 21, “You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.” Now God will often tell us to do things and he’ll expect us to obey him just because he is God. And brothers and sisters it is important to know when that happens. And it’s important, too, to see that Satan gets us to become rebellious on the basis of our reasons. I’m sure there isn’t one of you who would disobey mom or dad, or disobey an elder, or disobey authorities without excellent reasons for doing it. Except, that you see, there’s no reason that is sufficient for doing it, except that you’re obeying God, rather than man. So it’s important. REASONS are one way [to rebel against God] and THOUGHTS are the other. You find it in 2 Corinthians 10:4-6. You can detect rebellion in your own spirit just by your thoughts. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, “For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” And then what are the strongholds? “We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” It’s amazing that men and women protect themselves from God behind endless defense lines of thought. They have always good reasons for really not dealing with God and their thoughts run along those lines. The only way to deal with it, is to bring every thought into captivity of Jesus. But many of us are so opinionated that we cannot possibly submit to the Father. Old Saul was on his way from Tarsus to Jerusalem to arrest the Christians. Jesus confronted him and told him to go to Jerusalem. And he neither went back to Tarsus nor did he go on to go to Damascus, nor did he go on to go to Jerusalem. He went straight to Damascus where he was told. Now many of us, we’re on our way from Tarsus to Jerusalem and Jesus confronts us and tells us, “Go to Damascus,” but we either go back to Tarsus first or we go on to Jerusalem first. But we’re very full of our own opinions and our own thoughts and we think, “Well, now it might be better to go this way, or to go that way.” Now really brothers and sisters, your thoughts can show you whether you are really trusting in God’s authority and really submissive to him, or whether you have lots of ideas of your own. Now maybe it would be good just finally to look at the statement that we made some time ago: that submission is an attitude and is absolute, but obedience concerns action and is relative. It’s relative to God’s will for you. So could we look at a few verses? There is a place for obeying God rather than men. Hebrews 11:23 “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” Now by faith obviously they were guided, it says, to do this. They were not afraid of the king’s edict, in spite of the fact that God’s word tells you to respect those who are in authority over you. Now then, see Matthew 2:13 in connection with Jesus’ own birth. Remember, this is in the light of the fact that later on in the New Testament — there is that piece in Romans, “Respect those who are authority over you, because the authorities are placed there by God. And let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God”. Matthew 2:13, “Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’” So there was a time there to disobey the governing authority. And then again in Acts 5:27-29, that’s the plain and obvious one — “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, ‘We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” Now dear ones, there are times it seems when obedience has to be relative to God’s own command to you, and though your submission must be absolute, yet your obedience in that case has to be first to God and only secondly to men. Now obviously, it is always concerned with preaching God’s word or with transmitting God’s life, or with a clear command of God to you. It brings up the whole area of what attitude you should take to parents who just will not let you go to the mission field. There’s the whole teaching that Bill Gothard has shared that, yes you go with it. You submit to those parents. They’re part of God’s chain of authority. Sooner or later, the Holy Spirit will work with them. Now all I suggest is that you must put alongside that, Acts 5:29. You must also see that there seems to be a time when you must obey God rather than man. Now only the Holy Spirit it seems, can show us the difference. The attitude must always be the same dear ones — I think that’s it. Acts 4:19 shows that the attitude always has to be the same. The attitude has to be one of submission and respect. So even if you make suggestions to your parents or creative alternatives, as even I think Bill Gothard would suggest you do, yet they must be made in a submissive attitude of respect. Acts 4:19, “But Peter and John answered them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.” Peter and John’s attitude was, “Well look, we respect you but you have to judge which is right for us to do.” And so there was an attitude of submission to them. Now you probably have to work that out in your own relationships with parents and your own relationships with authorities. All I do submit to you is that while submission must be absolute, surely obedience must a relative kind of thing. Now I think too many of us are too anxious to rebel against the parents or authorities. That’s where we come into trouble. Too few of us are sure that we have a command from God. Too many of us lack a submissive attitude and submissive spirit to those in authority and so, were looking for an excuse to disobey them. But it seems brothers and sisters, where you really have an attitude of submission and respect for parents, or teachers, or elders, or those in authority over you, that comes over to the authority and it has a winsome way of breaking down their opposition to you so that you can actually share what you believe God is telling you to do. So it seems that God does work these things out if the attitude is correct and if it is an attitude of submission. It seems to me that those of us who have an obedient spirit have definite signs. I think for one thing, if you have an obedient spirit rather than a rebellious spirit, you will look for authority wherever you go. You will look for authority. Perfect authority and perfect obedience is found in Jesus’ body. There’s no perfect obedience found outside his body, certainly. Normally, a person who has a spirit of obedience will look for a body to belong to, and to come in, and to be under the authorities that God has set up in that body. Another mark of a person who has an obedient spirit will be a softness and a tenderness. A person who has respect for God’s authority has a tenderness about them and a softness. They’re always afraid to err and to go aside from what God is telling them. So, there’s a gentleness about them and they are easily reproved. They are easily turned in God’s hand. I think probably, submissive people who have an attitude or spirits of submissiveness are very reluctant to council, or to command, or to be in authority over other people. But like Plato’s old recommendation, you remember, that only the philosophers govern, and among them only the ones who didn’t want to, govern. It seems that that’s one of the marks of a person who is submissive to God’s authority. There’s a reluctance to be an authority over others, a reluctance to control them. I think there’s a great desire to keep their mouths closed, and to speak little, and just to speak when God tells them to speak. I think there’s also sensitivity to lawlessness or rebellion whenever it does occur. Now it seems brothers and sisters, that we might talk in some future Sundays about delegated authorities and who is able to be a delegated authority, yet this is probably the last time we’ll deal with our attitude to authorities. So maybe we should just have a few minutes if you want to ask questions. Q. If your dad or mom tells you to submit in something, do they not need to give you a reason? A. It seems to me that’s right. I think any sensible dad or mom will see that it’s important to try to give a reason if you possibly can because, for instance, it helps the son or daughter to mature and to understand as well as to obey. Paul, it would be true, that they really should not be required to give a reason to us, that we ought to submit to them until their commands cross God’s will for us, and there of course, our own hearts have to be very clear before God. T