Empowered by the Spirit: Standing Firm Against Deception

The devil has only one Central object and objective and that is always to Mar and if he can to ruin the work of God that's what he did at the beginning in the fall God having made everything Perfect The Devil comes in spoils it and now here is this new creation here is this new beginning the start of this new Humanity in the Lord Jesus Christ the son of God who is the firstborn amongst many Brethren and of course immediately the devil came in his object is to Mar and to ruin this second this new Humanity as he had done with the first. [00:08:50]

The devil has fundamentally only one method he can vary his technique but the technique doesn't matter it's it's the method that really matters he can put on different guises he's a perfect actor he's a chameleon but that's not the point the thing is that fundamentally this is what he always does he always sends us from one extreme to the other that's his method and let's observe uh somewhat this morning as to how he does this with regard to this particular matter. [00:11:29]

One method therefore which he implies is to drive people to excesses with regard to the spirit and the doctrine of the spirit he comes to us and he says well yes that's right the Holy Spirit came upon the church and you see speaking with other tongues other languages working miracles doing this and that that's it you're you're meant to be like that and like that always and so he presses this he comes as an angel of Light and he preaches the doctrine of the spirit to us and He suggests to us that unless we're constantly in a state of rapture that we're not not Christians at all. [00:12:04]

The devil had succeeded in driving them to existence there was utter confusion there but of course it has not been confined to the members of the church at current there are hints about it it in other Epistles and the subsequent history of the church shows this very clearly those who were interested in that great period in the history of the church the Puritan period of 300 years ago will know that there was a great deal of trouble then during the time of the Commonwealth under Cromwell there were certain sections of the Puritan Movement who were attacked by the devil along this line. [00:13:18]

The result of all this of course is that they tend to lose any sense of discrimination acting on impulses acting on feelings acting on leadings acting on impressions in their honesty and they're always very honest people they're sincere people the devil doesn't try this on anybody except the most sincere people the people who are most anxious to be spiritual and to please God they're the very ones that he concentrates his WS upon and he tries to press them to these extremes they have no discrimination they act immediately. [00:16:42]

The devil has paid particular attention to this whole aspect of our life our relationship to the Holy Spirit here we are meeting on which Sunday anniversary of the day of Pentecost doesn't matter about exact dates the point is that we are thinking today of this great and momentous event when the spirit of God came down upon the church the thing that led to all that we read of in the acts and in the various Epistles the Fulfillment of our Lord's promise oh the devil has been particularly Keen here the whole history of the church shows it our individual experience is Illustrated almost endlessly. [00:10:35]

The state of the Christian church today is almost entirely due to quenching the spirit and when I say that I am including the whole of the Christian Church the Evangelical section as well as that which is not Evangelical I am asserting that the main trouble in the church today is quenching the spirit on what grounds do you make that assertion says someone well let me put it like this to you read your new testament read the New Testament description of the individual Christian and the New Testament description of the Christian church and then compare yourself in the church today with that. [00:22:40]

The Holy Ghost not only came upon the church on the day of Pentecost he dwells within us as Believers take again the way the Apostle put that so plainly to those Corinthians what he says in 1 Corinthians 6:19 what know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own ye are with the price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods the Holy Ghost dwells within us and he's in the church he is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. [00:28:38]

The Christian Life is a spiritual life it's a life governed controlled Guided by the Blessed Holy Spirit the fire of the spirit so I don't apologize for asking a question this morning are you and I living that life the devil's Chief object is to prevent our living that life and he's so successful that the average men out in the street and in the world looking at the Christian Church says of course I'm not a Christian what need is there to be a Christian I can't see much difference between a Christian and the man who's not a Christian. [00:33:30]

The Christian is a man who knows that God loves him he's amazed at it but he knows it he's melted by it he's moved by it and not only that he knows that he's a child of God As I said he knows he's a special object of God's care God pours his love upon him and into him and the result of this is of course that he in turn loves God and he loves the Lord Jesus Christ you can't have the fire of the spirit within you without loving God you not only believe in him you love him you not only believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you love him. [00:42:00]

The Christian spirit is a warm Spirit I'm not talking about some artificial appearance which looks like it you know how people are trying to make these electric fires look as if they're fire but it's not the same thing I'm talking about fire not appearance not paintings not some artifa the genuine thing in the man himself don't quench the spirit what does the spirit do well he not only gives warmth he gives as a part of this warmth and heat Assurance the man who's a true Christian filled with the spirit he knows that his sins are forgiven he knows that he's a child of God. [00:43:30]

The devil's chief aim is to get us to quench the spirit andas he's very successful how can we know then whether we are quenching the spirit or not well let me just ask a few questions before I close this morning what does the spirit do as far here are some of the things he does first of all he gives light light and understanding the apostles has already prayed for these Ephesians that the spirit may do this very thing for them he prays that the Lord of that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him. [00:35:20]