It's actually in verse 18 where the Bible reads,
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
Now this is a command from God that we be filled with the Spirit.
And he uses the contrast of someone being drunk,
you know, somebody who's under the influence of alcohol.
And it's amazing how people can act when they become under the influence of alcohol.
They actually act similar in some ways, but in an evil way
of someone who's a Christian who's filled with the Holy Spirit.
You see, the Christian who's filled with the Holy Spirit, according to the Bible, is very bold.
He speaks the Word of God with power, okay?
And the person who's drunk,
and you can see this throughout the Bible, and I'm sure you've seen it in your life,
gets boldness.
And you've heard of people drinking up their courage to do something,
and you see, the devil is always a counterfeiter.
And those who use alcohol and they become drunk, basically,
they become bold, they start to say a lot of really stupid things and blow off their mouth.
They might even get in a fight with somebody who they're not able to defeat
because they just can't really assess their own strength
because they have a supernatural boldness from drinking.
And so God says, be not drunk with wine.
He's telling us Christians, don't be drunk,
but he says, be filled with the Spirit.
Now, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
And I could preach a sermon about how to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I could preach a sermon about what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
What I want to preach about this morning is this.
How do I know if I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?
Okay? Because if this is something that God commands me to do,
to be filled with the Spirit, how do I know
if I were to ask you, for example, and say to you and call you by name and say,
Dave, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
Or if I say, Chris, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
Would you know the answer to that question?
How do you know whether you've obeyed this command?
And that's what I'm preaching about this morning.
Now, just before I get into it, though,
I have to just give you the basics of what it means
to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to understand this.
You see, a lot of people are mixed up about this,
and today the modern charismatic movement
has turned this into some kind of a freak show.
And today, if you go to a charismatic church, a Pentecostal church,
there will be literally people rolling in the aisles
and barking like a dog and talking in some gibberish
and claiming that that's what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
You've got Benny Hinn slapping people on the forehead,
and they fall over and somebody catches them.
And you've got all this madness and this circus going on today
in the name of God and Jesus Christ.
It's a lie.
God is not the author of confusion.
God is not behind all this confusion and madness and circus show that's
on TV.
And the sad thing is that if Benny Hinn came to town today,
there would be tens of thousands of people to go listen to him,
to go watch him slap people on the forehead,
and they fall over and speak in tongues and all this garbage.
But I'm going to preach to you today the truth about what
it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit
and how you can know, am I filled with the Holy Spirit?
First of all, let's turn to Acts chapter 1.
You see, in the Old Testament, and I'm just
giving you a little bit of background right now
to get into the actual sermon, which is,
how do I know that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?
That's actually the title of the sermon.
You see, in the Old Testament, you read over and over again
about the Spirit of the Lord coming upon great men of God
in the Old Testament.
You remember King Saul?
The Spirit of the Lord came upon him,
and he led the children of Israel to victory against the Philistines.
You remember when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson?
The Spirit of the Lord came upon David.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samuel.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Oded the prophet.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehu, the son of Hanani.
These men were great preachers.
They were great leaders.
They were great warriors in battle.
And the power of the Holy Spirit rested upon them.
And that's how they were able to do
all these great works for God in the Old Testament,
because God's Spirit came upon them.
Now, in the New Testament, every single believer,
according to the Bible, is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
I'll give you one scripture on that.
Romans 8, 9, and I could preach a whole sermon on it,
but you don't have to turn there.
Romans 8, 9, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be that the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, dwell in you.
And listen to this statement.
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of his.
So every single believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus preached this in John chapter seven.
He said, those who believe on me
will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
He preached it in John 14, 15, and 16,
when he said, after I've died and buried and risen again,
he said, it's expedient for you that I go away.
I'll send the comforter, the Spirit of God,
that will indwell you.
He'll never leave you nor forsake you.
Once you're saved, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you
and indwells you, which makes you able to understand
the Bible, which will guide you into all truth,
according to the Bible.
But that doesn't mean that you're filled
with the Holy Spirit, because God commands us as Christians
to be filled with the Spirit.
And if it was automatic, he wouldn't have to command it.
Okay?
But what a lot of people misunderstand about this doctrine
is they think that the New Testament indwelling
of the Holy Spirit has replaced the Old Testament,
you know, the Spirit of the Lord came upon so-and-so.
And it's not true, because in the New Testament,
the Spirit of the Lord will still rest upon people.
People are still filled with the Holy Spirit.
Look at Acts chapter one, verse eight,
and I'll show you what I'm talking about.
Keep in mind that back in John 20,
and actually, I'm just gonna have you glance back
to John 20 quickly, just so that you can see this.
It says in verse 22 of John 20,
and when he had said this, he breathed on them
and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Okay, so it's not that they were not indwelled
by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had already been glorified,
and they were indwelled by the Holy Spirit
as of John chapter 20.
But yet, in Acts chapter one, it says in verse four,
and being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father,
which saith he, ye have heard of me, verse five,
for John truly baptized with water,
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence.
When they therefore were come together,
they asked of him, saying, Lord,
will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them, it is not for you to know
the times of the seasons which the Father
hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
Did you get that?
After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you,
just like the Holy Ghost came upon Saul, Samson, David.
He says, and ye shall be witnesses unto me,
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
So this is a New Testament doctrine.
This is a doctrine that applies to us today.
Yes, we're indwelled by the Spirit,
but if we're gonna preach a great sermon,
if we're gonna go out and knock doors and get people saved,
if we're gonna be a great leader,
if we're gonna do something great for God,
we're gonna need the Spirit of the Lord to come upon us
as it came upon Saul, Samson, David, Jehu,
as it came upon the early church in Acts chapter one
when they preached the gospel and saw multitudes saved
and baptized and they preached the word of God with power.
How do, but how do I know that I'm filled
with the Holy Spirit is the title of the sermon?
Well, look at Acts chapter four, verse 31.
I'll show you the first way that you can know
if you're filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now we can talk about how to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says, if ye then being evil
know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven,
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Okay, that's Luke 11, 13.
The Bible talks about in the Old Testament
where David prayed and asked God not to take away
the Holy Spirit's anointing on his life
because of the sin that he committed with Bathsheba.
We know that living in sin will cause
the Spirit of the Lord to depart from you.
We're not talking about your salvation, you're still saved.
David was still saved, but he said restore unto me
the joy of thy salvation.
He was still, he wasn't indwelled by the Holy Spirit
because he was living in the Old Testament, okay?
The indwelling is permanent, but God's anointing
of his Spirit upon you is temporary
and sin can cause you to lose that.
Asking and praying is one way to be filled
with the Holy Spirit, but how do I know
I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?
Number one, Acts 4 31 says, and when they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and they spake the word of God with boldness.
That's the first way to know if you're filled
with the Holy Spirit because you speak
God's word with boldness.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1 seven,
for God has not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of sound mind.
And so those who live in fear, those who power
and they get up behind a pulpit and they go
to preach the Bible, but they're scared
of what somebody thinks.
They're scared of what somebody's gonna say.
They're scared of what some rich church member
who puts a lot of money in the plate
is gonna think about what they're saying.
They're scared about what the media and CNN thinks.
They're scared about what the government thinks.
Hey, that person's not filled with the Spirit of God
because those who are filled with the Spirit
have the boldness to come from God to get up
and hold up the Bible and say, that saves the Lord.
Doesn't matter whether you like it.
It doesn't matter whether they like it.
The Bible says, and therefore I'm gonna preach it
with power and conviction and authority,
not get up and say, you know, well, you know,
I'm sorry, but you know, the Bible kinda says
that, just give me a second.
You know what, if I were you, the Bible kinda says
that women are supposed to obey their husband.
But you know, I mean, I, but you know,
the husband, you know, and this kind of lame,
limp-wristed preaching that we hear today.
It's a lack of the fullness of the Holy Spirit
is the problem.
You see, a man who's filled with the Holy Spirit,
he's not letting man dictate his preaching, okay?
And notice, how did they get filled with the Holy Spirit?
They prayed and asked God to fill them
with his Holy Spirit.
They prayed and asked God that they would preach
with boldness, and it says, and when they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And they spake the word of God with boldness.
You see, a preacher who you're listening to,
let's say you go to church and you hear the preacher
preaching, and you can tell he begins to hold back.
You know, he wants to say something that he believes,
that it's in the Bible, we've all seen it.
You know, it's all sitting in our lap in front of us.
We look down and see it, and he holds back.
That man is not filled with the Holy Spirit.
He's violating God's commands,
because God said be filled with the Holy Spirit.
He might as well be preaching drunk,
because God said be not drunk with wine,
but be filled with the Spirit.
He's only obeyed half the verse.
What if I came to church drunk this morning and preached?
I mean, would you get up and walk out of the church,
wouldn't you?
Now, I don't even know what beer tastes like, to be honest.
I've never even drunk a beer in my life,
but can you imagine if I stumbled up here,
you know, oh, hey, Brother Dave, how you doing?
And I'm just up here drunk.
You don't want to listen to me preach.
Well, let me tell you, I don't want to listen
to somebody preach who's not filled with the Spirit of God.
I don't want to listen to somebody preach
who's filled with the Spirit of fear,
the Spirit of this world.
We have received, brethren, not the Spirit of this world,
but the Spirit which is of God.
And those who are filled with the Spirit of God,
according to Acts 4 31,
they speak the Word of God with boldness, boldness.
How do you get boldness?
You pray for boldness.
How are you filled with the Holy Spirit of God?
You pray to be filled with the Spirit of God.
So number one, we saw how do I know
that I'm filled with the Spirit?
Number one, because I'm speaking
the Word of God with boldness.
How are you going to know if you're filled with the Spirit?
You'll speak the Word of God with boldness.
Your life won't be characterized by fear.
It'll be characterized by boldness.
But number two, flip back, actually, just while we're here,
flip back to Acts chapter two.
Now, I alluded to this a little bit earlier,
the modern day charismatic, the Pentecostal tongues movement,
the slapping people on the forehead,
the rolling in the aisles, laughing hysterically,
these kind of bizarre circus side shows
that go on in the name of Christianity.
And people talk about this, speaking in tongues,
and they'll say, you'll know you're filled
with the Holy Spirit when you speak in tongues.
But let's read what the Bible says in Acts chapter two.
It says in Acts chapter two, in verse number four,
and this is actually the first time that's mentioned
where somebody spoke with other tongues,
where it uses that wording in the Bible.
It says in verse four,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
Okay, so here's a great scripture we can look for.
Okay, well, what happened?
He said they were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And they were dwelling at Jerusalem,
Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven.
Now, when this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together and were confounded.
Confounded means confused,
because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Now, what do you think the word tongue means,
just based on what we read so far?
Language.
Have you ever heard somebody say, you know,
it's his mother tongue?
Who's ever heard that expression
about somebody's language that they speak?
Hey, he was speaking in his mother tongue, okay?
The word tongue is just an older word
referring to languages, okay?
And who's ever heard this term, lingua franca?
Who's ever heard that term?
That's basically the word referring
to the most common language spoken in the world,
the lingua franca.
Lingua, who's ever eaten lingua?
Okay, what's lingua mean?
Tongue, okay?
And so language, tongue, in other languages,
these words are interchangeable, okay?
It's a shock, but you speak with your tongue,
and so therefore, languages are called tongues.
And so it says here that they spoke with other tongues.
Then at the end of verse six, it says,
every man heard them speak in his own what?
Language, okay?
And they were all amazed and marveled,
saying one to another.
Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?
And how here we every man in our own tongue?
Wherein we were born.
So wait a minute, it says they heard
every man in his own language.
Then it says they heard every man in their own tongue,
because these two words are synonymous.
Then it even lists the languages.
Tell me if this sounds like gibberish to you.
Tell me if this sounds like barking like a dog.
It says, Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites,
and the dwellers in Mesopotamia,
and in Judea and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia.
He's listing the languages that they heard in.
And Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya,
about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome,
Jews and proselytes, Crete and Arabians,
we do hear them speak in our tongues
the wonderful works of God.
And they were all amazed, and were in doubt
saying one to another, what meaneth this?
Now let me ask you something.
Were they amazed at what they did not understand?
Or were they amazed at what they did understand?
They were amazed because they did understand.
This wasn't something where somebody stood up
and blah, blah, blah, and nobody knows what they said,
or you have to wonder what they said.
No, the amazing thing was that they did understand.
You see, this event was a miracle of God,
where you had people from all over the world
that were gathering in Jerusalem
for an event that was held there annually, a Jewish feast,
they all were there together,
they all spoke a multitude of different languages
because they were from all over the world,
and Jesus had just risen from the dead,
and God wanted that message to go out to a lot of people,
so his disciples only spoke one language,
yet the 120 of them went out
and were preaching to these people and talking to them,
and God miraculously gave them the ability
to speak in a foreign language that they'd never studied.
It was just a miracle that God performed,
and they were shocked
because they heard them speak in their life.
Now, this tells me a couple things.
Number one, it shows me that God's Word
can be translated into any language.
You know, I get so tired of people saying,
well, in order to get the true meaning,
you have to go back to the Greek,
or you have to go back to the Hebrew.
Wait a minute, God here spoke to these people
in the language wherein they were born,
and who was doing the translating?
The Holy Spirit of God was the one who translated,
because he's the one who gave them utterance
to these words that they'd never learned.
I promise you it was translated correctly,
and so God is not just monolingual or whatever that,
you know, if that's even a word.
God doesn't only speak one language.
God can speak to man in any language,
and so to sit there and say,
well, the King James Bible is just like a copy of a copy
because it's not the Greek and Hebrew, no.
This is God's Word translated into English,
and it's just as much God's Word
as it is in the Greek or the Hebrew.
Just because it's in another language,
God can speak any language,
and so here we see that when these men
were filled with the Spirit,
they preached God's Word to people,
and those people got saved,
and then later on those people,
a lot of them ended up getting,
not all of them, but a lot of them ended up getting baptized
later in the chapter.
So let's keep reading.
It says, we finished in verse 12,
where it said they were all amazed and were in doubt,
saying one another, what made this?
Look at verse 17, okay?
It says right here, or verse 16,
and this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,
and it shall come to pass in the last day, say of God,
I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.
Notice how being filled with the Holy Spirit
or having the Holy Spirit upon you
are used synonymously throughout the Bible.
He says, it shall come to pass in the last day,
say of God, 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,
and on my servants and on my handmaidens
I will pour out in those days of my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy.
You see, it's not just for man.
It's for man and woman.
It's for boy and girl.
It's for every single Christian
to be filled with the Spirit.
That command's not just to me as the pastor.
When he said be filled with the Spirit,
he's talking to every man, woman, boy and girl,
and that's why at our church, I thank God
that the ladies in our church,
they go out and preach the gospel and get people saved.
They're out knocking the doors.
They're out talking to people at work
and friends and relatives.
They are out there participating.
Now, we're not gonna have a woman preach down in the pulpit
because the Bible says for women
to keep silent in the church.
That's what the Bible says.
Preach it with boldness.
Women are to keep silent in the church.
You say, well, that's not fair.
That leaves us out.
Hey, you're not left out.
You listen up and get the preaching.
You go out there and do the greatest thing
that anybody in this church ever does,
which is to give the gospel to somebody and get them saved.
And I guarantee you, you'll be standing in line
in front of those who didn't, even if they were a man,
even if they did get behind the pulpit and preach.
If you're out there as a female,
winning people to Christ, giving the gospel,
you can do the greatest thing.
You see, the greatest thing in faith-forward Baptist church
is not what I'm doing right now,
preaching a sermon behind the pulpit.
No, it's when I go out and knock doors and get people saved,
that's the greatest thing that I do all week long.
And so you can do that too, ladies.
The Bible says it's for you.
And so every single person should be listening
to this sermon saying, am I filled with the Spirit?
Am I obeying God's command to be filled with the Spirit?
Number one, are you speaking the word of God with boldness?
Number two, are you a soul winner?
Are you out giving the gospel to people?
Because so far, the two scriptures I've shown you,
that was the manifestation.
They were out there giving people the gospel,
preaching the word of God with boldness.
They were not afraid.
I love what it says in Acts chapter number four,
flip over if you would to Acts chapter four.
Acts chapter four, look at verse number eight.
Let's see Peter when he was filled with the Holy Ghost.
Let's see if he fell over and Benny Hinn had to pick him up.
It says in Acts four, eight,
then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost,
said unto them, ye rulers of the people.
Now keep in mind, he's preaching to the rulers of the people.
He is standing in front of the most,
he's basically in a courtroom,
in front of the most powerful leaders at that time.
He said ye men, I'm sorry,
ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we be this day, if we this day be examined
of the good deed done to the impotent man,
by what means he is made whole,
be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom ye crucified.
So he's looking at right them saying,
hey, you crucified him.
You think that's what they wanted to hear?
Whom God raised from the dead,
even by him did this man stand here before you whole.
This is the stone which was set in not of you builders,
which has become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.
What did they notice about this in verse 13?
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,
you see what characterizes being filled with the Spirit?
And perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men.
They didn't have all the world's degrees
and the BS degree and the BA degree
and the MS and the MA and the PhD and the THD
and the MICKYMOUSE.
They didn't have all these fancy degrees,
but they took knowledge of them,
they marveled and they took knowledge of them
that they've been with Jesus.
Okay, boldness, my friend.
But what else, how else do I know
that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?
Look back where we started, Ephesians 5.
Go forward in the New Testament,
about halfway through the New Testament.
You'll find Ephesians, Ephesians chapter number five
is where we started.
So this is the question to ask yourself
when you're asking yourself the question,
how do I know that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?
Well, number one, do I speak the word of God with boldness
or am I scared of my own shadow?
That's question number one.
Number two, am I a soul winner?
Am I out winning people to Christ?
Am I giving people the gospel?
You see, Jesus Christ himself said in Luke chapter four,
the spirit of the Lord God is upon me
because he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor.
That's what Jesus said.
So he said the spirit of the Lord was upon him
to preach the gospel to the poor.
So if the spirit of the Lord's gonna be upon you,
it's gonna be to preach the gospel to the poor.
If it was good enough for Jesus,
it'll be good enough for you.
Look at Ephesians 5.18 again.
And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess,
but be filled with the spirit.
That tells me right there
that when you're under the influence of alcohol,
you're not filled with the spirit.
But he says in verse 19,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Now keep your finger there if you would,
and just go a few pages to the right in your Bible.
Just turn about three, four pages, you'll find Colossians.
Just literally three or four pages to the right.
And Colossians 3.16.
I'm gonna show you a verse
that says almost exactly the same thing
with a major difference.
Look at Colossians 3.16.
The Bible says,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
Now, what do you notice about these two statements?
One of them says, be filled with the spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.
The other one says,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Basically, he's getting the same point across.
You say, well, what's the deal here?
Be filled with the spirit?
Because you can't be filled with the spirit
unless you're filled with the word of God.
He said, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
with all wisdom.
That's part of being filled with the spirit.
Because Jesus said, the words that I say unto you,
they are spirit and they are life.
That's what Jesus Christ said on his,
you can't be filled with the Holy Spirit
unless you're filled with God's word.
Unless you meditate upon God's word day and night.
You see, part of being filled with the spirit,
and look at the next verse in Colossians 3 16,
look at verse 17.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
You see, being filled with the Holy Spirit
is not some tingling all over your body.
You know what I mean?
It's not some kind of a charismatic experience
in a church service somewhere
where you're listening to a bunch of music
that's getting you all emotional.
No, being filled with the Holy Spirit
is directly related to being filled
with this book right here.
Being filled with God's word.
And let me tell you something.
If you do everything to the glory of God,
if everything that you do on Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
if everything that you do,
you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
if every word in your mouth is some word,
a thought in your mind about God and Jesus Christ
and the Bible and the word of God fills you
and you meditate therein day and night,
that's when you're filled with the Spirit.
And you see so many people, they don't know the Bible
and then they'll claim they're filled with the Spirit.
But yet they don't know what the Bible says.
Wait a minute, how can you be filled with the Spirit
if you are not filled with the words of God?
When Jesus said, these words are spirit and they are life.
You can't be filled with the Spirit
unless the word of God dwells in you richly with all wisdom.
When you wake up in the morning
and the first thing you do is pick up this book and read it
or quote these words or quote these chapters of the Bible,
that's when you know you're filled with the Spirit.
When these words roll off your tongue in conversation,
you see how the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaking.
And when you never make mention of God's word,
it's probably because you're not filled with the Spirit.
It's probably because you don't have God's word
in your heart.
You see, I've listened to preaching
and I'm sure you have too,
that maybe referenced one verse from the Bible
in a 45 minute sermon.
Who's ever heard a lot of preaching like that?
Well, when I was in Bible college,
this was almost every sermon.
You pretty much, the preacher would get up,
he would read a verse and that was his text verse
and he would close the Bible and just blah, blah, blah.
And let me tell you something,
the Bible says, preach the word.
And I think a lot of people have missed what that means.
It means, I know this is complicated,
but it means preach the word, preach God's word.
Not just getting up and preaching your own words,
preaching God's word.
Okay, and let me tell you something,
if a preacher could get up and just preach for an hour
and he's maybe referenced one scripture,
that's just showing you
he's not filled with the Holy Spirit.
Because if he were filled with the Holy Spirit,
out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaking,
and he'd have so much of God's word in his heart
that as he preached,
the Holy Spirit would bring that to his mind
and it would be constantly rolling off of his tongue,
God's word.
And when he preached, he'd be preaching the word.
Even if it weren't even in his notes to reference the Bible,
it would come out of his mouth
because he's filled with the Spirit.
He can't help but speak God's word.
He cannot help to speak the things that he's seen and heard.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaking,
he'd be getting up and preaching the Bible
and he'd have God's word flowing off his tongue.
Another thing, you hear a preacher
that's just constantly misquoting the verses.
It's probably because he's not reading them.
It's probably because he's not filled with the Holy Spirit.
How do you know, Christian, man, woman, boy, girl,
that you're filled with the Holy Spirit?
Let me ask you, how often does God's word
come out of your mouth?
That'll tell me whether you're filled
with the Holy Spirit or not.
Is God's word coming out of your mouth on a daily basis
in conversation with friends, in conversation with family,
in conversation with your child or your wife
or your husband?
How often is God's word rolling across your lips?
That could be a measure of the fullness
of the Spirit of God.
How much is God's word in your mind?
How much are you meditating there on day and night?
That'll tell you whether you're filled with the Holy Spirit.
When you get up to preach, are you preaching a sermon
that you download on the internet for $19.95
or are you preaching God's word from the heart
that you studied, that you read, that God spoke to you
when you were reading the Bible in your prayer closet
and alone with God and his word?
That's when you'll know that you're filled
with the Holy Spirit.
Number one, you'll be bold because no man in the Bible
who's filled with the Holy Spirit was scared
of running away.
The wicked flee when no man pursue it
but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
So number one, are you bold?
Number two, are you a soul winner?
Do you preach the gospel to every creature?
Number three, is God's word dwelling richly in you
with all wisdom?
I mean, is it just what you think about throughout the day,
just devoid of God's word
or are you constantly making reference to God's word?
Is it constantly coming out of your mouth?
Is it constantly in your mind and in your heart,
God's word?
That's how you'll know that you're filled
with the Holy Spirit.
Look if you would at Acts chapter 13.
Acts chapter 13.
And while you're turning there,
let me make reference to the other thing
that was mentioned in Ephesians 5.
He said, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess
but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
He said, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
I can look at your music
and tell whether you're filled with the Holy Spirit
because God said, when you're filled with the Holy Spirit,
you are speaking to yourselves,
you are singing and making melody in your heart.
Singing with your mouth
and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
that's when you're filled with the Spirit.
When you're walking down the street
singing all the world's garbage,
singing all the world's music,
singing a bunch of songs written by a bunch of communist,
God-hating devils of this world,
and you know that's who most of these singers are.
Are you gonna tell me that U2 is a godly and righteous band?
Are you gonna tell me that the singer of U2
stands for anything that's right?
It's everything that's against God,
it's everything that's against freedom and liberty,
it's everything that's against America,
it's everything that's for communism and totalitarian
and destroying Africa and all.
His garbage, okay, I don't wanna listen to his music,
I'm not filled with the Spirit
when I'm singing that kind of stuff.
Remember last week's sermon on blasphemy?
When you're singing all,
and I showed you the blasphemy of a lot of music
that's out there,
if you're singing that blasphemous music,
you're not filled with the Spirit.
If you're singing the blasphemous Christian rock,
because look, I showed you how the Christian rock
of this world, you know, like DC Talk or whatever,
they were using Nine Inch Nails producer
to make their video,
because they loved his work on Nine Inch Nails video closer.
And that's what, you know, you think that's of God?
You think that has anything to do with Jesus Christ?
And then you think that you're filled with the Spirit
when your mind and your mouth is filled
with all the world's music all day long,
you're tuned in to the same radio stations
as everybody else, listening to all this stuff,
listening to all this bunch of sodomite,
perverted, communist garbage.
And you know, you say,
well, I just listed the golden oldies.
You know, you're listed, what are you listening to?
John Lennon?
You know, there's a real godly guy
in his Chinese communist military uniform.
You know, that's my favorite picture of him.
You know, oh, I just listed the golden oldies,
like Jimi Hendrix who said,
music is my religion and that religion is voodoo.
Do you, which one does that fall under?
Psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs?
You know what I mean?
Jimi Hendrix, voodoo child.
Which one does that fit under?
Which of those three categories?
You know, we could go,
and I'm not gonna re-preach my sermon about music,
but to be honest with you,
when you're saying the hymns to God,
when you're saying God's praises,
saying, and I'm not talking about this touchy feely,
you know, Christian contemporary music.
I'm talking about the real old hymns of the faith,
not this bunch of Nashville love of money
of the root of all evil, you know, Madison Avenue,
Christian rock, Christian rap, Christian gangster rap,
Christian heavenly metal, you know, all the stupid,
you know, look, if you're gonna listen to that stuff,
why don't you just listen to the real thing?
Instead of this weird Christian watered down,
so-called Pentecostal, Catholic, whatever,
you know, Southern Baptist garbage.
Why don't you just choose who you're gonna serve?
But as far as I'm concerned,
I wanna be filled with the Spirit.
That's why I'm not gonna sing some rip-off of Snoop Dogg
that calls itself, you know, Christian Snoop Dogg
or whatever.
And believe me, Christian Snoop Dogg is out there.
Yeah, it's even funny.
I've been to the Christian music store
and saw a guy that looked just like Snoop Dogg
on the part of a CD, and then in the bottom corner,
it had the Parental Advisory.
This is a Christian store, okay?
And I walked up to it, I was like, huh?
I walked up to it, and the Parental Advisory said,
non-explicit lyrics.
But they're trying so hard to copy Snoop Dogg
that they even have to mirror image
his little parental advisory.
You know, this is what they've sunk to.
Nowadays, you go to buy a Bible, you can buy a Bible Z.
You can buy a New Testament
that looks like a teenage magazine
that says, boyfriends tell all on the front,
and it's the New Testament.
I'm not kidding, who's seen it?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Well, there's a couple of hands up.
I'm not lying to you.
It's my wife, but you know, I'm not lying to you.
Honestly, if you go to the Christian bookstore,
they literally have Bibles each
with the text of the New Testament
packaged like a girly magazine that says like,
boyfriends tell all on the front,
and shows a girl doing her nails or something.
And it basically is a text about,
but it's not the King James Bible.
It's the new Twinkie version or whatever.
And in the version, it basically says this,
you know, at the Christmas store,
cause I just flipped it open
and just looked for a few highlights.
I flipped it open and said, you know,
that Jesus would put in the manger
cause there was no room in the hospital.
You know, that kind of stuff.
Just totally just corrupting and twisting.
It's not even a, it's like a joke of a Bible,
is what I'm saying.
And you know, I'm not gonna go get my music from that place.
I'd rather sing the hymns, blessed assurance,
Jesus is mine, to God be the glory,
the great things he had done on Christ,
the solid rock I sang.
Hey, I'd rather sing the hymns of God, Jesus saves.
And let me tell you something,
when you're singing that music,
not just on Sunday and Wednesday,
but on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
that's when you're filled with the spirit of God,
when you're speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns
and spiritual songs,
not just constantly the iPod of all the Nirvana and U2
and whatever other blasphemous garbage,
is when you're filled with the spirit,
it's when you're singing hymns of praise to God.
David said, you put a new song in my mouth,
even praise to our God.
Why are you singing the old song?
It's because you're not filled with the spirit.
You were filled with the spirit,
you have a new song in your mouth, even praise to our God.
But look at Acts 13.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 13, verse 44,
and the next Sabbath day,
came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
So this is a great crowd coming to hear the apostles preach.
It says in verse 45,
but when the Jews saw the multitudes,
they were filled with envy
and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul,
contradicting and blaspheming.
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold.
And that's mentioned so many times,
these guys were courageous men of God.
They weren't a bunch of cowards.
It says and said,
it was necessary that the word of God
should first have been spoken to you,
but seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
For so at the Lord commanded us saying,
and he quotes the Bible from the Old Testament,
I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles
that thou shouldest be for salvation
under the ends of the earth.
And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord.
And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed,
and the word of the Lord was published
throughout all the region,
but the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women
and the chief men of the city
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas
and expelled them out of their coasts,
but they shook out the dust of their feet against them
and came unto Iconium
and the disciples were filled with joy
and with the Holy Ghost.
So here's the next aspect
of how do I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit?
How are you gonna know
that you're filled with the Holy Spirit?
Well, number one, you're gonna be persecuted
because the Bible says,
ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
If the world loves you,
you're not filled with the Spirit.
I was just reading to my children last night,
we're reading the Bible.
We were reading John 14, 15 and 16.
And as we read the Bible, he said,
he said, if the world hates you,
know that it hated me before it hated you.
It's basically what he said.
And he said, marvel not my brethren if the world hate you.
He said, remember the word which I spoke unto you,
the servant is not above his Lord.
He said, if they called the master of the house Beelzebub,
how much more shall they call them of his household?
Persecution comes with being filled with the Spirit.
But what else does it say?
They were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.
You see, there is what's called the fruit of the Spirit.
Everybody's probably heard of that, right?
The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance, that's the fruits of the Spirit, okay?
And when the Bible talks about being filled with the Spirit,
basically those characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit
will be evident in your life.
So if you're doing a self-check,
am I filled with the Spirit?
Do I speak the word of God with boldness?
Do I win people to Christ?
Do I eat, breathe, and sleep the Bible
from the time I get up to the time I go to bed?
That's when you're filled with the Spirit.
And do the songs in your mouth,
songs that God would approve of,
and in fact they're praises to God,
or are they just the coolest thing that's on the radio
that every Sodomite pervert is listening to
right next to you on the airplane?
You know, the same thing.
That's how you'll know you're filled with the Spirit,
but you know what, the other way to know
is when these characteristics characterize your life.
If you're filled with love, you're filled with the Spirit.
If you're filled with joy, you're filled with the Spirit.
All right, if you're filled with peace,
you're filled with the Spirit.
If you're full of faith, remember Stephen?
Full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, the Bible says,
because faith is one of the fruit of the Spirit.
And that's why Stephen was a man
who was full of faith and the Holy Ghost.
That's why the disciples here were full of joy
and the Holy Ghost, because that's the manifestation
of being filled with the Spirit.
When you're filled with temperance, meekness,
gentleness, goodness, faith, temperance, godliness,
when you're filled with joy, with love, with peace,
that is the evidence, partially,
of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Nothing to do with some kind of an experience,
nothing to do with some kind of a tingling
or you saw a bright light.
We live in a day where it's emotionalism
that dictates people's religion and their Christianity.
People judge a church based on what kind
of an emotional experience they go through
while they're there.
You know, they come out with tears,
oh, that was so great.
But they're exactly the same as when they walked in.
They don't know anything that they didn't know
when they walked in.
And then they walk out and they live the same way
that they lived before they walked in.
What has that worked?
You know, oh, wow, you know, it's just,
oh, it was just so, such a pick-me-up
to get me through the week.
This is not a pick-me-up to get you through the week.
This is a swift kick to get you through the week.
No, but it's not a pick-me-up to get,
I don't need a pick-me-up to get me just through the week.
I want to get through my whole life.
You know, this kind of preaching,
if you let this sink down into your ears,
this'll get you through your whole life,
not just through the week, you know?
Just make it through the next couple days
and just survive all my emotional breakdowns, you know?
No, hey, I'm, God gave us the spirit of a sound mind.
I don't need some pick-me-up,
some spiritual vitamin tab on Sunday morning
just to keep me going, like a five-hour energy.
It's like a five-hour energy Baptist church
is what it ought to be called, you know?
Five-hour, five-day energy Baptist church, you know?
But then by Friday, it started to wear off
and I started to come down from the high of church.
You know, this isn't five-hour energy Baptist church.
This is like vitamin B12 Baptist,
you know, some of this could give you permanent energy.
I don't know, I'm not,
I don't know that much about that kind of stuff, so.
Talking about that.
But look, the bottom line is this.
You don't blow off this sermon and say,
well, I don't know if that's for me.
Oh yes, it is.
We're living in the last days,
and the Bible says in the last days,
I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
He said, I want young men, young women to prophesy.
And to prophesy means to preach God's word.
It's not just behind the pulpit, but it's to your friend,
it's to your neighbors, to your brother
when you speak to him and say,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
When you show him the Bible how to be saved,
that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have eternal life.
That's the preaching that every one of us does.
Many people will never get up and preach behind a pulpit.
It's not God's will that every single person
become a pastor, become a preacher,
get up and preach to a crowd of people.
But it is God's will that every single person
open their mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel.
Because Acts chapter two,
although it's commonly referred to as
Peter preached and 3000 people got saved,
that's not what happened.
You read that story again.
There were 120 people speaking
to different groups of people in all different languages.
17 languages are listed.
I believe there are probably many more
that were not listed.
17 different languages were spoken
and 120 people, men and women,
and even young men and women,
the Bible makes it very clear in Acts chapter two,
were filled with God's spirit.
Therefore they spoke God's word and some people say,
you wanna know why most churches are as dead as a doornail?
Because the people are not filled with the spirit.
They may have music that's emotional driven.
They may have people swaying and swaying
and jamming and diving for Jesus,
but let me tell you something.
That's not the fullness of the spirit.
Was that anywhere that I showed you?
And they were filled with the Holy Spirit
and they swayed and had their hands in the air.
I don't remember that verse.
They were filled with the spirit
and therefore they fell down on the ground and rolled.
But yet how can people believe in this stuff?
The Bible said, no, they're filled with the Holy Spirit
and that's why a bunch of people got saved.
And they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's why they preach God's word without fear.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's why they sang in Psalms and Hymns
and spiritual songs.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's why they were filled with joy,
even during persecution.
They were being run out of town, they're filled with joy.
Sitting in the jail cell filled with joy.
All throughout the Bible,
we read in the book of Acts that these men of God
who were filled with the spirit,
that's why they were strong in the Lord
and the power of his might.
That's why they were filled with joy.
that's why they had love
to where people can just see their love and say
you know, here by shall all men know that you're my disciples, Jesus said
the love that you have one or another
that's because most people out in the world
you can see a lack of love in their decision, the way they live their life
whereas God says you should be able to look at Christians and see their love
one for another
okay, their joy, their peace
their goodness
and you'll know that they're filled with the Spirit
and so this is not something just from the Old Testament
and I get so tired of this dispensationalism
because I'm going to tell you something
yes, as New Testament believers we're indwelled by the Spirit
that was not in the Old Testament
but God did not take away the power
in the New Testament
the Bible says there are people today who have a form of godliness but they deny the power
thereof
from such turn away
no, just as the Spirit of the Lord came upon David
the Spirit of the Lord
can come upon me and can come upon you
how will you know when you're filled with the Spirit?
how do I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit? This is how
straight out of God's Word, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer
Father please just help every single one of us to realize the importance of being filled with the Spirit
help us not to say, oh well I'm just not there in my Christianity, well help us to get there God
because we need to be there in our Christianity
those who would say I'm just a baby Christian will grow up
and be strong in the Lord and the power is might
Father help us all to be filled with the Spirit as a church, dear God
help us to see many people saved, help us to never back off from our stand on the
Word of God
and help us never to stop being filled with love
for the souls of Phoenix, Arizona which is what compels us every week to go out
in the highways and hedges
giving the gospel to man, woman, boy and girl
Father we love you and we thank you for everything that you do for us and for the
Holy Spirit's indwelling in us
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen
all right let's go ahead and sing one song before we go
let's go ahead and sing the song
how about 174, my Jesus I love thee, 174
let's sing 174 on the first verse, 174
my Jesus I love thee
I know thou art mine
for thee all the
polys of sin I
resign, my gracious
redeemer, my Savior art thou
if ever I love thee
my Jesus tis now
I love thee because thou
hast first loveth thee
and purchased my pardon
on Calvary's tree
I love thee for wearing
the thorns on thy brow
if ever I love thee
my Jesus tis