Be Filled with the Spirit

"And 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; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Eph. 5 vv. 18-21.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

As the word of God is preached, the Holy Spirit is using that word to draw people to God. People can resist the Holy Spirit but that does not alter the fact that His work is to draw them to God. In John chapter 16, you will find that Jesus describes this work of the Holy Spirit, awakening the minds and consciences of people to their own sin, to their need to be righteous and to the fact that there is a judgment to face. Look at vv 8-ll, where Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit: "When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: of sin because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see Me no more; of judgement, because the prince of this world is judged"

And so the Holy Spirit will reprove the world, the unsaved, of sin. The world, certainly in the West, does not really believe in sin. The vast majority of people believe themselves to be morally upright and decent. As far as most people are concerned, if you were born in England you are a Christian. One man is as good as another. But the Bible says that the Holy Spirit reproves the world of sin, awakening the conscience to the fact of sin, that we are separated from God and deserve nothing but judgment. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Now the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit (John 14 v 17), because it is full of sin. The unsaved cannot receive the Holy Spirit because of sin, and so the Holy Spirit reproves them of sin. He speaks to their conscience to awaken them to the fact that there is a need there. He speaks about righteousness and the righteous standard of God; He speaks about the fact of judgment that people may turn to Christ to find forgiveness and cleansing in Him. Then, when people do turn to Christ, when there is repentance and the placing of faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation from sin, the Holy Spirit does a work in the heart and life of those people. That is the work of regeneration - being born again of the Spirit, new birth, new life from God.

You know that in John chapter 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." You must be born again. There is no other way. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. So when you came to God through Jesus Christ, you received forgiveness from God, because your sins were dealt with in Jesus. You received cleansing from that sin through the blood of Jesus. But something else happened: a miracle took place in your life. You, who were once dead, spiritually speaking, were born again spiritually. There began that new life in you. You were born of the Spirit. You received life from above, Divine life. The Bible shows us that it is resurrection life, life that has defeated death. If you are a believer, you are rejoicing in forgiveness of sins, and experiencing that life from above. Although physically you are dying - as Paul said, "The outward man perishes day by day" - within you is the life that will never die. The unsaved do not have that. The unsaved are without God in this world and without hope. They have nothing to look forward to, outside of Christ, but the second death. But the believer, because he is born again of the Spirit of God, has life which is eternal.

Here is what Paul says about that life in the Spirit:

"But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live." Romans 8 vv 9-13

This is resurrection life. It is the Spirit who gives life. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring people to this starting point of being born again.