Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibbert. In Ephesians chapter 5, verse
18, Paul says, And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,
but be filled with the Spirit. What does that mean? to be filled with the Spirit. Religion will have a whole lot
to say about that subject, but a little grammar lesson, I think,
would be very helpful. This is spoken in the present
tense, in the original, and the passive voice. Present tense
means the being filled with the Spirit. It's not a one-time event.
It is something that is continual. Be being filled with the Spirit. And it's spoken of in the passive
voice. That means you don't fill yourself.
You don't fill yourself with the Spirit. You are filled with
the Spirit. It's not something you do to
cause it to take place. Be being filled with the Spirit
of God. Now, the first thing and the
most important thing we need to understand is, who is this
Spirit? of whom Paul says, be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess, profligacy, but be filled with
the Spirit. Well, he is speaking of the third
person of the triune Godhead. There's God the Father, there's
God the Son, and there's God the Holy Spirit. God is one God
in three distinct persons. Do I understand that? Of course
I don't. Neither do you. Do I believe
it? With all my heart. It is what the scriptures teach
concerning who God is. Now, if we don't have the Bible,
All we have is my opinion. All we have is your opinion.
And both of my opinion and your opinion is worthless in this
thing of knowing the character of God. Somebody says, here's
what I think about God. Doesn't matter what you think.
God has revealed Himself in His Word, and in His Word He reveals
Himself as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
one God in three distinct persons. Now, when the Lord said we were
to baptize people in Matthew chapter 28, He said, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the three different persons of the Godhead, the Trinity. Somebody
says, the word Trinity is not in the Bible. I realize that,
but it sure doesn't mean it's not taught. God is one God in
three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit. Do you remember when Ananias
and his wife Sapphira acted deceitfully in Acts chapter 5. Peter said
to them, Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy
Ghost? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. The Holy Spirit is God, the third
person of the blessed Trinity, co-eternal Co-equal with God
the Father and God the Son, God is one God in three distinct
persons. Now, God the Holy Spirit is a
person. He's not an influence. He's not
a force. He's a person, the third person of the Godhead. And he's
first mentioned in Genesis 1, verse 2, where we read, the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. It was He who came
upon the Virgin Mary to conceive the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
was born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Ghost. Now somebody
says, I don't believe that. Well, I'm sorry, but it's what
the Scripture teaches. If Christ was just a mere man
like me or you, He'd have a sinful nature like me and you do, and
He couldn't do anything for us. But He is the Eternal Son of
God, conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He is with the Father and the
Son, eternal. There's a time when there was
no time, and all there was was God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit dwelling in unity, rejoicing in one another. Now, they created the universe.
God the Father created the universe. God the Son created the universe. God the Spirit created the universe. God the Holy Spirit has all the
attributes of God the Father and God the Son. You know how
it says regarding God the Son, in Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily? He has every attribute of God.
He's sovereign. He's all-powerful. He knows everything. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere
at once. He's not bound by space or time. He's omniscient. He knows all
things. He's immutable, he can't change, he's independent, he
has no needs, he has life in himself. That which is said of
the Son is also said of the Spirit. In him dwells all of the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. These three are one, and he's
God. But understand this, his activity
is never separate from the person and work of Christ. And let me
repeat that. His activity is never separate
from the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord said regarding him, he shall not speak of himself. He will glorify me. He'll guide you into all truth. Now, whenever you hear a preacher
speaking a lot about the Holy Spirit. It's because he doesn't
know the Spirit of God. If a preacher has the Spirit
of God, he's exalting the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation
that's in him. If you hear a preacher making
much of the Spirit of God, it's because he doesn't have the Spirit
of God. He's got another spirit. The one who exalts the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one who has the Spirit of God. Now, the Holy
Spirit was and is the Creator. He, with the Father and the Son,
created the universe. They said, the one God revealed
in three persons said, let us make man in our own image. And not only Is He the author
of the first creation? He's the author of the second
creation. That's speaking of the new birth. That's speaking
of regeneration. Now, for us to understand the
new birth, we've got to understand that man is dead in sins. He's
spiritually dead. What can a dead man do? Nothing. He has to be given life by the
Spirit of God. And He is the author of this
new creation. He put something there that was
not there before, a new heart. Scripture says we're made partakers
of the divine nature. THAT WHICH IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT
IS SPIRIT. THE LORD SAID, THE WIND BLOWS
WHERE IT WILLS. YOU CAN'T CONTROL IT. THE WIND
BLOWS WHERE IT WILLS. YOU HEAR THE SOUND THEREOF, AND
YOU DON'T KNOW FROM WHENCE IT COMES OR WHETHER IT GOES. EVEN
SO IS EVERYONE WHO IS BORN OF the Spirit. He sovereignly gives
life to those the Fathers elected and those the Son redeemed. Creation is the work of the Spirit
of God. I love this scripture in II Thessalonians
2.13. Paul said, But we're bound to
thank God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation or elected you
to salvation. If you're saved, it's because
God elected you in the beginning, before the foundation of the
world, to be saved. But the verse doesn't stop there.
He's chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Now, if you're elect, you're
going to experience the sanctifying, life-giving work of the Spirit
of God. And the evidence of that is belief
of the truth. There are some who teach election,
but they Don't present election as it really is, because they
make it sound like if you're elected, you'll be saved, whether
or not you believe or whether you don't believe. It doesn't
matter. You'll be saved if you're elect, even if you don't believe.
That's not so. That is anti-gospel. That is
anti-Christ. That is diminishing from the
work of Christ. If you're elect, you'll be born
again to believe on Christ through the belief of the truth. Now,
the first person of the Trinity, God, the Father, elects. He chooses who will be saved. The second person of the Trinity,
God the Son, redeems and justifies. He is the one who makes those
the Father elected to be just before God by putting away their
sins and giving them His righteousness. The third person of the Blessed
Trinity, the Spirit of whom Paul says were to be filled, regenerates. He gives life to a dead sinner
and causes them to believe on Christ. Now, all three persons
of the Godhead have their work in salvation, and each work is
essential. You cannot preach the gospel
and not preach the electing work of the Father. You cannot preach
the gospel and not preach the successful redemption of the
work of the Son for those the Father gave him the elect. Christ
died for the elect and accomplished their salvation. And you can't
preach the gospel and not preach the work of God the Holy Spirit
in giving life to those the Father elected and those the Son redeemed. This Spirit that Paul tells us
to be filled with is the Spirit of the Living God, the third
person of the Blessed Trinity. God the Holy Spirit is the author
of Scripture. Peter said, holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Every word of the Bible
is inspired by the Spirit of God to reveal who God is. We read in Ephesians chapter
six that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. He's the
author of every word of the Bible. He is called the Spirit of truth.
He's called the Spirit of Christ. He's called the Spirit of Grace.
He's called the Eternal Spirit. He's called the Spirit of God. He's called the Holy Spirit. He's called the Comforter. And
everything that you and I experience in salvation, if we have faith,
If we look to Christ, that's what faith is, it's a looking
to Christ and resting in Him as all I need to make me accepted
before God. I'm actually trusting Him as
my salvation. That's the work of God the Holy
Spirit within me. If I experience true repentance,
if I have a change of mind about God, about myself, about how
He saves sinners by Christ, it's God the Holy Spirit that has
worked that in me. If I love God, if I love His
Word, that's the work of God the Holy Spirit in me. Now, what is the preaching of
the gospel without the Holy Spirit? Paul or Peter said in 1 Peter
1.12, he spoke of those who have preached the gospel with the
Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. There is no true preaching of
the gospel without the Holy Spirit. It's just an exercise of futility. You might say what's true, but
it won't do any good unless the Holy Spirit blesses it and causes
us to hear and to receive and to believe. He's got to give
us a new heart. He's got to give us those hearing
ears and that receptive heart. The Holy Spirit works through
the preaching of the gospel. My preaching is vain. It won't
do anything if all you hear is my voice. It's only if God the
Holy Spirit blesses it and you're made to see that this is the
Word of the Living God. Now, he is said to be the earnest
of the believer. That's the pledge. The earnest,
you know what an earnest payment is. It's the proof that you're
going to have something. He's called the seal. the sealing
of the Spirit, that means that's the proof that we're authentic.
We have God the Holy Spirit, and a sealing is to preserve. When you can something in sealing,
it preserves it. We're preserved. We persevere
in the faith because of the work of the Holy Spirit. The believer
said to walk not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. And that doesn't
mean sometimes you're walking in the flesh, and sometimes you're
walking in the Spirit. You're always looking to Christ
only. That's what it is, to walk in the Spirit. You look to Christ
only. We read in II Corinthians 3.17,
the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. There's liberty. Where God the Holy Spirit
is, There's liberty. There's freedom. Stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And be not
entangled again in that yoke of bondage. the bondage of salvation
by works. What freedom there is in knowing
that all God requires of me, I have. I have no debts. Christ
has paid them all. I have been set free by what
He has done. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is this liberty, there is this freedom. Now it is God
the Holy Spirit of whom Paul speaks when he says, Be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit
of God. Now when Paul says, Be not drunk
with wine or intoxicated with wine, understand this, drunkenness
is sin. Intoxication is sin. That's all you can call it. I
think it is interesting where he says, be not drunk with wine
wherein is excess. Now, that doesn't mean drinking
wine is sin. It's not sinful to drink alcohol.
The Lord drank alcohol. He was even called by his enemies
a winebibber. They tried to make an issue out
of him drinking Paul said to Timothy, drink a little wine
for thy stomach's sake and not often infirmities. Not a lot
of wine, but a little wine. There's no sin in wine. When
we take the Lord's table, we use real wine because that's
what they used then. We don't use grape juice. That's watering
down the gospel. We use wine, and that's what
we're supposed to do. And so there's no sin in drinking
wine, but there is sin in drunkenness. Now, why is Paul making this
issue, putting these things together? Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess. Peter called it excess of riot. The Lord called it, when he told
the story of the prodigal, riotous living. When you're intoxicated,
it affects everything about you. It affects your thinking. It
affects your movement. It affects everything about you. And what he's saying is, Don't be drunk with wine where
everything is affected by that, but be filled with the Spirit
of God where everything about you is affected by being filled
with the Spirit of God. Just like being drunk with wine
affects everything, being filled with the Spirit of God affects
everything. That's what he means. Now what
is he talking about when he's talking about this filling of
the Spirit? Now, sometimes when the Scripture
is speaking of being filled with the Spirit, it's talking about
being filled with the supernatural gifts of the Spirit of God. Now, in the New Testament, the
apostles could lay their hands on you. Nobody else could do
this, only the apostles. Acts chapter 8 says when they saw
that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy
Ghost was given. It's only the apostles that could
do this. They could lay their hands upon
men, and they would be given these supernatural abilities. They would be able to heal the
sick. They would be able to raise the dead. They would be able
to speak in other languages wherever they went. It didn't matter what
the language was. They could preach the gospel
in that language. That's what the gift of tongues
is. It's not some kind of heavenly gibberish that people speak of
today. It's the ability to speak the
gospel and preach the gospel in other languages. You could
be bitten by snakes and it wouldn't hurt you if you had this gift.
You could drink poison and it wouldn't hurt you. Now, I want
you to understand this. those gifts have ceased. They are no longer in operation. And if someone claims them, don't
believe them. They don't really have them.
If they did have these gifts, why aren't they going into hospitals
and healing people? Because they don't have the gift.
That's why. These men could go into hospitals and heal people
and they'd be healed immediately. It wouldn't be gradual. They
would be healed immediately. They could even raise the dead.
And if somebody claims to have these gifts I want to say, well
here's a bottle of Drano. Drink it and let's see how you
handle that. If you have the gift you do it. Now of course
nobody is going to do it and I wouldn't want them to do it. But the point
is That part of the filling of the Spirit is over. It was over
with the apostles. When people talk about the continuation
of the gifts today, they're not continued. And the scripture
teaches that, because it says, through the laying on of the
apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given. So that's not talking
about that part of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Also, we
read of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is regeneration.
being immersed in the Spirit of God, being born of the Spirit.
That's when God, this is a one-time event that continues the rest
of your life. It's called being born again. being born from above. There was a time when you had
no spiritual life. There's a time when you do. God
gives you a new heart. You're birthed of the Spirit
of God, and you're given a new nature, a nature that was not
there before, birthed of the Spirit of God. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and it'll never rise above that.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It is the Spirit,
the Lord said, it's the Spirit that quickeneth. It's the Spirit,
John 6, 63, it's the Spirit that giveth life. The flesh profits
nothing. The flesh has nothing to do with
this thing of spiritual life. This is the work of God. Just
as God had no help in the work of creation, He has no help in
the work of the new creation, regeneration. begotten again
by the Word of God, by the Spirit of God. You hear the gospel,
God gives you life, you believe. And then there is what Paul is
talking about here, the filling, the continual filling of the
Spirit of God. Be not drunk with wine, wherein
is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit of God. Now this is
not a message on how to be filled with the Spirit. Billy Graham
wrote a book, How to Be Born Again. How foolish. The Bible
never tells you how to be born again. It tells you you must
be born again. The Bible doesn't tell us how
to be filled with the Spirit, but the title, the Bible does
say be ye filled with the Spirit. Be being filled with the Spirit. Now, the Lord tells us to pray
for the Holy Spirit. You can read it in Luke 11, 13.
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Now, this feeling of the
Holy Spirit is seen, not by feeling something. But look what this
passage says. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves,
speaking to one another and speaking to yourself. If you're being
filled with the Spirit, here's what happens, speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord. You are so thankful that salvation
really is all of grace. You're so joyous that everything
that God requires of you, he looks to his son for, and you
are complete in him, that you're wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. And that's making melody in your
heart to the Lord. He says in verse 20, giving thanks
always for all things unto God and the Father. You give thanks
for everything, the bad stuff too, because you know who sent
it. And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
and you can give thanks for everything. If somebody says something bad
about you, you can thank the Lord for it because you know
that somehow it's gonna end up for your good and His glory.
If you get sick, you can thank the Lord for it because you know
somehow it's for your good and His glory. You believe God and
you're enabled to thank Him. I love what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians
5.18, in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Whatever it is you're going through,
it's God's will for you. Give thanks. You're up to your
neck in the will of God. Giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. When you're being filled with
the Spirit, you're always keenly aware that your only way of acceptance
before God and the only way you can come into God's presence
is in the name of Christ. You know you only come by Him.
You can't come any other way. You see, when you're being filled
with the Spirit of God, you're always made keenly aware of your
need of Christ to be everything in your salvation. And you don't
believe salvation is by your works in any way. Verse 21. It says, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God. If I'm being filled with
the Spirit of God, I'm going to be subject to you, and if
you're filled with the subject of God, you're going to be subject
to me. We're going to submit to one another in love. That's
what we want to do. We're not filled with ourself
and our own self-interest and so on, but we submit to one another,
seeking God's glory above all things. He says in verse 22,
wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as to the Lord.
If someone is filled with the Spirit of God, they're going
to submit themselves to their husbands for Christ's sake, not
necessarily even because their husbands deserve that kind of
attention, but because Christ tells them to do it. It's something
they want to do. When someone is being filled
with the Spirit of God, it says, husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church. If someone is being filled with
the Spirit of God, they're going to love their wife. As Christ loved the
church, that's what He says to do. And then if you go on reading
in the context in chapter 6, children, obey your parents.
That's what folks are going to do who are being filled with
the Spirit of God. It says, Fathers, provoke not your children to
wrath. In verse 4, if people are being filled with the Spirit
of God, it's going to make them better parents. He talks about servants, be obedient
to them that you're masters. You're going to be a better employee.
He tells the masters to treat the servants well. If you're
being filled with the Spirit of Christ, you're going to treat
your employees in such a way that they're going to be thankful
that you're their boss. I'm treated well by Him. I want
to work hard for Him because of the way He treats me. You
see, it's going to affect everything. That's what being filled with
the Spirit of God is. It's not where you feel something
and you start speaking in tongues or you start doing miracles or
whatever all these people claim, but it affects every area of
your life. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be ye filled, be being filled with the Spirit
of God, looking to Christ only. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send a request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.