Under The Influence of the Holy Spirit
Pastor Don Carpenter
Under the Influence / Ephesians 5:15–18
D. L. Moody said,
“I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts.
But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled.”
We start 2021 with a fairly clean path. There has not been much time lapsed this year to mess things up too badly. Each new year brings us to resolutions where we try to do better.
The Bible teaches that it is impossible to do enough good to merit heaven. We are hopelessly lost in sin and cannot pull ourselves out of the hole we are in. No amount of our sincere religious efforts will atone for sin. This is why Jesus Christ the Righteous had to live a perfect life and die in our place. Once we trust in His finished work on the cross, we are Justified, or declared to be Righteous.
Once we are saved, we are to live for the Lord, not out of fear of Hell, because that debt has been cared for on the cross. We are to live for the Lord out of love and gratitude for what He has done for us. But let’s face it… our flesh is strong and it is hard to fight it sometimes. So here we are, at the dawn of a new year with a genuine desire to walk right and do better… but how? The answer is simple yet profound… and it is the subject of our discussions for the next few Sunday mornings. Believers will walk according to the influence that they choose to be in their lives.
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Your Choice of Influence Affects:
Your Walk
Ephesians 5:15 KJV
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words Accurately
akribos (????????, 199) is correctly translated in the RV of Luke 1:3, “having traced the course of all things accurately” (KJV, “having had perfect understanding”). It is used in Matt. 2:8, of Herod’s command to the wise men as to searching for the young Child (RV, “carefully”; KJV, “diligently”); in Acts 18:25, of Apollos’ teaching of “the things concerning Jesus” (RV, “carefully”; KJV, “diligently”); in Eph. 5:15, of the way in which believers are to walk (RV, “carefully”; KJV, “circumspectly”); in 1 Thess. 5:2, of the knowledge gained by the saints through the apostle’s teaching concerning the Day of the Lord (RV and KJV, “perfectly”). The word expresses that “accuracy” which is the outcome of carefulness. It is connected with akros, “pointed.”
This word and its other grammatical forms, akribeia, akribes, akribesteron and akriboo, are used especially by Luke, who employs them eight times out of the thirteen in the NT; Matthew uses them three times, Paul twice. See CAREFUL, DILIGENT, EXACTLY, PERFECT.¶
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 72.19 ???????; ???????, ??
72.19 ???????; ???????, ??: pertaining to strict conformity to a norm or standard, involving both detail and completeness—‘accurate, accurately, strict, strictly.’
Matthew 10:16 KJV
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Take care for what influences your walk… you need to navigate danger carefully and accurately.
That is, see to it that your conduct is accurate with respect to the demands of the Word of God. It is like a motorist accurately following on the right side of the center line dividing traffic. – Wuest
Colossians 4:5 KJV
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
Your Use of Time
Ephesians 5:16 KJV
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Redeeming” is exagoraz? (?????????), “to buy up.” In the middle voice as it is used here, it means, “to buy up for one’s self or one’s advantage.” Metaphorically, it means, “to make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good,” so that zeal and well-doing are as it were the purchase-money by which we make the time our own” (Thayer). “Time” is not chronos (??????), “time as such,” but kairos (??????), “time as regarded in its strategic, epoch-making, seasonable, opportune seasons.” The idea is not to make best use of time as such, which is what we should do in the sense of not wasting it, but of taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. “Evil” is not kakos (?????), “evil in the abstract,” but pon?ros (???????), “evil in active opposition to the good, pernicious.”
Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English reader (Eph 5:15). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Romans 13:11 KJV
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Galatians 6:10 KJV
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Your Understanding
Ephesians 5:17 KJV
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
“Unwise” is aphr?n (?????), “without reason, senseless, foolish, stupid, without reflection or intelligence, acting rashly.” “Understanding” is suni?mi (???????), “to set or bring together, to put the perception with the thing perceived, to set or join together in the mind,” thus, “to understand.” The word speaks of reflective thinking. The verb is present imperative in a prohibition, forbidding the continuance of an action already going on. Ginomai (???????) is the verb, meaning “to become.”
?Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English reader (Eph 5:17). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
?When you walk into a place of business, you will find the salesman in there on his toes: he is dynamic. If a man is a child of God, how does he act when he is not in his place of business trying to make a dollar? Is he on his toes? Is he dynamic? Is he living for God? The believer is to walk in this world as though he belonged to Christ.
McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.) (Eph 5:17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Romans 12:2 KJV
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Avoid Negative Influence
Ephesians 5:18 KJV
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
D.U. I. is a crime. Driving under the influence… of alcohol or drugs. You see, when you are under that influence, your reaction time is slower, your thinking and reasoning is different.
Drunkenness is sin because of the influence.
Genesis 9:21 KJV
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Proverbs 20:1 KJV
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it giveth his colour in the cup, When it moveth itself aright.
At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, And thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Romans 13:13 KJV
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
Excess = no saving quality – destructive.
The word as it is generally used expresses the idea of an abandoned, debauched, profligate life.
There are other things that can enslave, control and influence you.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
• Drugs
• Pornography
• Food
• Sleep
• Video Games
• Relationships
• Anything you cannot control, but controls you is a bad influence.
Be Under The Holy Spirit’s Influence
Ephesians 5:18 KJV
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
All these give the idea of profligate or licentious living that is wasteful. In this verse the literal sense of incorrigibility seems best, for a drunken man acts abnormally. Rather than controlling himself, the wine controls him. Conversely, the positive command is, Be filled with the Spirit. Thus a believer, rather than controlling himself, is controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Eph 5:18). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Believers Are Already Indwelled By The Spirit
Romans 8:9 KJV
But ye 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.
To Be Filled is to the Under the Influence of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18 KJV
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Chapter Five
The Holy Spirit filled Stephen in the sense that He controlled him. Therefore, the fullness of the Spirit has reference to His control over the believer yielded to Him. The verb is in the present imperative; “Be constantly being filled with the Spirit.” The interpretation is, “Be constantly, moment by moment, being controlled by the Spirit.”
This is a COMMANDMENT, not a suggestion.
Romans 6:10–12 KJV
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
A. J. Gordon, one of the founders of Gordon Conwell Divinity School, told of being out walking and looking across a field at a house. There beside the house was what looked like a man pumping furiously at one of those hand pumps. As Gordon watched, the man continued to pump at a tremendous rate; he seemed absolutely tireless, pumping on and on, up and down, without ever slowing in the slightest, much less stopping.
Truly it was a remarkable sight, so Gordon started to walk toward it. As he got closer, he could see it was not a man at the pump, but a wooden figure painted to look like a man. The arm that was pumping so rapidly was hinged at the elbow and the hand was wired to the pump handle. The water was pouring forth, but not because the figure was pumping it. You see, it was an artesian well, and the water was pumping the man!
When you see a man who is at work for God and producing results, recognize that it is the Holy Spirit working through him, not the man’s efforts that are giving results. All he has to do—and all you have to do—is keep your hand on the handle.
1 Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 190.
Do you want to live more for God in 2021 than you ever have before? Do you want to walk in the right direction, make good use of your time, and continue to grow in your spiritual understanding? If so, then you need to evaluate and choose the right influences. You need to avoid those negative things that control you. You need to strive to be under the Holy Spirit’s influence. In the next few weeks we will also discover that you can be influenced by good music, gratitude and humility. May God be with us all as we go under the right influence.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:08 PM January 2, 2021.