Our Mighty Father

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again, my dear radio friend. How in the world are you? You’re doing all right today? Oh, I trust so bless your heart, been praying that God might have something special for you today. May He answer that prayer abundantly as we look again at Ephesians chapter 4, the unity of the spirit. What is it? One body, that’s all the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s called the body of Christ, one Spirit, that’s the blessed Holy Spirit. One hope of your calling, that’s our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, seated at the right hand of God and coming again for you and for me to take us to himself, our hope is Christ.

One lord, the lordship of Christ means let Him give the orders. One faith, that’s dependent upon the lord Jesus for salvation and then a lifestyle of trusting God and obeying Him thereafter. One baptism, what is this? Well, there are some who call water baptism, this, whatever this is referring to. I think however that we’re talking about the fact that when you trust the lord Jesus Christ as your lord and your savior, you’re baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit. He says, “know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, we’re buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Now, a symbol of this, of course, is water baptism where the believer goes down into the water comes up out of the water symbolizing and testifying in obedience to Christ’s command that he has committed himself to the lord Jesus Christ as lord and savior. Now, some of you, of course, who listen have different views and please don’t write and argue with me, because we’ll be in heaven one day and we’ll all be straightened out. My father used to say when I would argue with him as a teenager, he’d say, “Well, we’ll be in heaven someday and you’ll know I was right.” I wouldn’t presume to say that about this, but here’s what I understand the Scripture teaches: when you trust the lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell in your life and he baptizes you into Christ, a spiritual oneness with the lord Jesus Christ, and He dwells within you, the Holy Spirit dwells within you from that time on. Now, there are many who feel that there is a second definite work of grace and that they call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I’m not gonna quarrel with that, I’m heartily in favor of a filling of the Holy Spirit of God, heartily in favor of seeking God until your whole being, every room as Oswald J Smith used to say it, “Every room in your heart house is filled with the Holy Spirit.” No quarrel with that concept at all. And the more we depend upon the blessed Spirit of God to fill us, the more effective we’ll be in Christian work.

Besides, there’s differences, differences of opinion and we need to be charitable to each other and loving and understanding that one of these days we’ll get to heaven, and we’ll realize that the main thing is that Jesus Christ should be lord and the Holy Spirit of God should have his way in the believer’s heart, no matter how He, the Holy Spirit, chooses to manifest himself.

I remember…when I was a boy, I went to the First Church of the Nazarene in Cleveland, Ohio down on 156th Street and Hayden Avenue. I don’t know if they’re still there or not, but that’s where it was when I attended as a little boy and one of the dear ladies who was kind to me as a motherless boy, she sort of mothered me and looked after me now and then was a Mrs Hartman, when I say she was generously built, I suppose she would have tipped the scales at probably 225 or 30 pounds at least. And so you can see that for her to do very much quick moving around physically would entail a little effort, we might say, and yet, this dear lady now when the Spirit of God was moving in the congregation and people’s hearts were filled with praise, she would get up from her seat. I see this in my mind, as though it were a photograph across all the years that would have been in 19, I suppose, 23 or 24.

She would get up from her seat and she’d take a little handkerchief and she’d wave it and then she would walk with the daintiest of steps up and down the isle and around the congregation and just say softly, “Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, praise Jesus.” Now, I never did that. First of all, I never had a lace handkerchief to wave. [chuckle] My handkerchiefs generally were black that they gave me a black handkerchief ’cause it didn’t show the dirt quite so much, I guess, but I never did that nor have I since. I think the Holy Spirit works in different ways with different people. Don’t you really think so?

The thing that you have to remember is: there is one Lord, one faith, one Holy Spirit and He wants to fill your life. Now, you call it what you will, call it what you will, but what is important, what is important is that the Spirit of God fill every room in your heart house. And I think so often of what Dr Wasserzug told me When Helen Parkson had gone through the area in Switzerland, where Mrs Wasserzug was with her husband running a Bible institute, and she said, “I was busy but I was barren, I didn’t have any fruit.” And then, it was explained to me that by faith, I could receive the Spirit of God into every part of my life. And as I’ve told you before in these broadcasts, she pointed up to a boulder great rock outcropping halfway up the mountain above us, and she said, “See that big boulder up there, Mr Cook?” I said, “Yes, I see it.” Well, she said, “I climbed up the mountain and I sat on that big rock outcropping and one by one, I gave by faith every part of all of my life to the Holy Spirit to control.

And when I was finished I looked out across Lake Thun over toward the Matterhorn and the Jungfrau and the other mountains and then I looked heavenward, and I said, “I thank Thee that Thou hast filled me with Thy Holy Spirit.” Well, she said, “I didn’t have any experience then, I didn’t hear any bells ringing, or any lightning flashing or thunder,” but she said, “The next time I gave out the Gospel, people were saved and that’s been happening ever since.” This, I think, dear friends, is what we’re getting at.

Now do you know, in any real effective way, the presence of the Holy Spirit of God in your life, beloved? Don’t let denominational arguments get in the way here now. We’re not talking about pyrotechnics and fireworks and emotional outcroppings, we’re talking about the lordship of Jesus Christ and the control of the blessed Holy Spirit who exalts the Savior day by day. He comes to dwell when you get saved, He wants to fill every part of all of your life with himself, and when He does the Lord Jesus will get the glory and you will be an effective witness. The Lord Jesus linked the touch of the Holy Spirit and effective witnessing together.

Did you notice that? You shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you, and we might add, as a result, ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the outermost part of the earth. You, my dear friend and I, have the privilege as well as God’s command that we be filled with his blessed Holy Spirit. Now, all of that grew out of that phrase one baptism, the Spirit of God baptizes you into the body of Christ, when you’re saved, He wants to fill your life with himself if you’ll let Him.

Then what else? One baptism, one God and father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all, now that’s a mouthful, and we’re not gonna get through it before time runs out today. You start with the concept of God.

In these days we have an awful lot of casual reference to God. Hollywood has produced films that either mock at the traditional Judeo-Christian concept of the living God or else portray him in a milktoast manner, a casual reference to God, he’s the “heavenly body”, he’s the “man upstairs,” he’s the “somebody loves me up there”, that sort of a thing, the songwriters, they say, well, “I dream that I went up to the pearly gates and on my way I thought, I’ll never get in because of all I’ve done, but then I remembered that God loves me.” Well, that’s partly true, you know, and partly untrue. There’s only one way to get through the pearly gates and that’s through the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn’t depend on what you’ve done, it depends on whether you’ve made him your Lord and your Savior.

So anyway, one God, we start with God, he’s not your heavenly buddy, he is all-mighty God. That’s how God spoke to Abraham, he said, “I’m Almighty God. You walk before me and be perfect.” Watch your step in other words. “When thou comes into the presence of God be careful what you say,” said Solomon. “Be careful what you say, when you come to God,” Why? Because every word counts. Jesus said, “For every idle word, that men shall speak they should give account thereof, in the day of judgment.” How many words of gossip or idle criticism or downright slander or whatever it may be, how many of those words are going to greet you in the judgment? Well, you better get them under the blood of Jesus, you better get them covered with his precious cleansing blood so that your heart is clean, and your record is clean and you’ll be then in position for the fulfillment of John 5, “Shall not come into judgment but is passed from death unto life.” Hallelujah for that. Now, he says God and Father, you start with Almighty God, He is the sovereign God.

He’s the creator, you’re the creature, he’s the potter, you’re the clay, he’s the source of life, you’re the objective of his life-giving power. He could destroy you just by looking away from you. He’s God. I think we need a resurgence, a renewal of awe in the presence of almighty God, we are too casual with Him, we need to learn to worship Him. Read the sixth chapter of Isaiah and hear the seraphim saying one to another, “Holy, holy, holy is the lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his presence, full of his glory.” See?

Then he says, “And father.” Now, if they stop just with the word God, you and I would be absolutely hopeless but there’s Father, he is our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, we’ve been adopted into the heavenly family, and the Spirit of God has been sent forth into our hearts. Paul says, crying, “Abba, Father, Papa, God.” He’s our father. Yes, there’s a sense of awe when you come into his presence but there’s also a sense of loving trust because you know that He loves you and the everlasting arms are wrapped around you and they hold you safely as the days go by. We’ll come back to that verse the next time we get together.

Dear Father, may the Holy Spirit who dwells within us have full sway in our lives, may God, our Father, be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!