Lost Doctrines Spirit Filled Life

Well, today, friends, we're wrapping up our series on the Lost Doctrines of the Church. And in this message, we will cover the Lost Doctrine of the Spirit-Filled Life. I learned the Doctrine of the Spirit-Filled Life from my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Ulford.

In fact, it was Stephen Ulford who taught the Spirit-Filled Life to young Billy Graham. And when you heard Stephen Ulford preach, you knew immediately you were listening to a man who had the Spirit's anointing upon him, for he preached with an authority and a power few have today. I believe, friends, the reason why our pulpits have lost their voice of authority is because we have grieved the Spirit of God away by allowing compromise in our personal lives.

I'll never forget being invited to a big Baptist church's Christmas play where a member of the church dressed up like one of the former pastors of the church with a crisp suit and tie and impersonated as preaching. And this person must have studied the mannerisms and ministry of this old pastor, for we all sat there spellbound as we listened to a man preach with authority. Then he walked off stage, and the new pastor of the church casually strolled on stage wearing blue jeans and a sports shirt, untucked.

And he began to quote John 3.16, and he misquoted it. And unless you were asleep in that congregation that night, you could not help but notice that man of former times held preaching with a holy reverence for the Word of God and a healthy fear of God. I believe it's vitally important to restore expository preaching to our churches today, but we must not ignore the fact, friend, and the deep need for anointed expository preaching.

The lost doctrine in the church today is the Spirit-filled life. And the missing person in our churches today is God's Spirit. Adrian Rogers used to say, we need God-called men who will take the book of God and preach the Son of God with the anointing of the Spirit of God.

Oh, friends, how true that is. And I believe it's also true that there can only be one answer to the question, oh, why has the church lost her power? The answer lies in the reality that the church has forsaken the third person of the trinity, replacing him with programs, money, and man-centered methodologies. Our reliance is one of self rather than reliance upon the Holy Spirit to empower us to pray, preach, and witness with an endowment from on high.

Let's talk about what the Spirit-filled life is. It's one baptism and many fillings because we are leaky buckets. Let's begin by looking at Ephesians 5.18, which is an exhortation to be filled with the Spirit and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Listen, friends, the Spirit-filled life is the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer who is willing to bow daily and hourly to the sovereignty of Christ and to the authority of God's Word. While we receive the Holy Spirit at the time of our conversion, it is possible for the Holy Spirit to be present without being president, to be dormant without being dominant, to be resident without reigning. The Holy Spirit is a person who can be quenched and grieved by sin in a believer's life, but when sin is exposed and self goes the way of the cross, then the Holy Spirit can fill to overflowing and anoint with authority and power.

This unction, this anointing, is the missing factor in our churches today. We have become so self-reliant and so accustomed in our Christian service by getting the job done with money and manpower that we've completely overlooked the great need of doing God's work by the power of prayer and Holy Ghost power. We particularly need this unction in our preaching today if we are to have any hope, friends, of regaining that missing voice of authority in our pulpits throughout the land.

We desperately need an endowment with power from on high as we preach the gospel of the cross to a sin-soaked society going to hell and droves, but to have this power is a surrender to Christ's Lordship in every area of our lives. We are bought with a price, and that price was His blood. As born-again believers, our life is no longer our own.

Our bodies are no longer our own. Our money is not our own. Our time is not our own.

Christ must be a complete master. And the Spirit-filled life is one that calls for obedience and allegiance and dependence on the Holy Spirit every moment of our lives. Well, I hope this little message, friends, on the Spirit-filled life, has been a help to you today, and I hope that our series on the lost doctrines of the church has inspired you to do all you can to recapture them in your life and ministry, all for God's glory.