The Abuse of The Holy Spirit

Okay, this is a good time to make the transition to get into some of the abuses of the

Holy Spirit, because as I said at the start, the Spirit is the most misunderstood member of the

Trinity. He is the most abused member of the Godhead. One more verse listed in our doctoral statement, the speaking, uh, speaking of the filling of the

Holy Ghost. Marcus, what is it? Ephesians 5, 18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess or dissipation, but be filled with the spirit.

Okay. One man, again, of more of a charismatic, uh, persuasion.

He gave me his interpretation of that verse. Do not be drunk with wine. He said, you know, when someone's drunk, it makes them kind of act in a bizarre manner.

He said, well, that's what the Holy Spirit does. When you're filled with the spirit, the spirit makes you act in a bizarre manner.

And that's why when these people are filled with the spirit, they're rolling on the term. Holy roller.

We've all heard of that term. They were called Holy rollers because they were quote, filled with the spirit, literally rolling on the floor in church.

It's like the Quakers, the Quakers were called Quakers because they were, this is the spirit they're quaking.

Uh, I don't know what that is. It's not the Holy Spirit. It's not the author of confusion, right?

Which is, yeah, exactly where I was going with that. So I did a sermon a few months ago on this topic, the feeling of the

Holy Spirit. If you want to know what that is all about, the Holy Spirit, the feeling has been described as a conscious moment by moment awareness of the presence of the

Lord in all things saying thy will be done. Not my will be done, but thy will be done.

So when you, uh, someone drinks a bottle of wine, they're under the influence of the wine.

Well, when you're filled with the spirit, you're being influenced. You're under the spirits influence, and that's obviously what, what we want, right?

We'll close on this subject, the abuses of the Holy Spirit versus the gifts of the

Holy Spirit. I think we have time to finish. So tongues, prophecy, healings.

These are the most abused within the realm, mainly of charismatic Christianity.

It started with Pentecostalism and then it kind of jumped to all denominations. That's charismaticism, which is everywhere where there's people in our church throughout the years who have been influenced of a charismatic persuasion.

So you can be Baptist, Catholic, anything, and still be charismatic. Here's care is the word refers to the gifting of the spirit.

So people, one of the common things people say, the Holy Spirit led me to do this.

And then you look at what they're doing, like where's that in the Bible or that's contradicting the Bible.

So we always need to go back to what the spirit, we know the spirit definitely said what's in the word of God.

So compare everything of what's happening to the word of God, because people will abuse the

Holy Spirit? Well, God told me the Holy Spirit said this.

Well, that kind of ends the conversation. Well, God told me that. Are we going to argue with God?

The question is, did God really tell them that? That's the issue. Question? If I can phrase this right, then.

Obviously, it says, be filled with the Holy Spirit. So these manifestations, these jumping of the pews and speaking in tongues, like alcohol.

We know alcohol can cause being drunk and bizarre things. Right. And sometimes alcohol is called spirits.

Right. Spirit house. Do you think then, or would you go so far as to say that these bizarre things are come about because of the influence of evil spirits?

Sometimes, sometimes, not always. One of the most common abuses is this whole idea of tongues.

Someone might say, well, Pastor Grant's against speaking in tongues. No, I'm not. Speaking in tongues is biblical.

It's just what they're doing today is not tongues. Acts chapter two clearly States that tongues are a foreign language.

Read Acts chapter two. They could understand they were speaking in their own language. That's what it plainly

States. Paul deals with this subject in first Corinthians 14. And I find it odd that in first Corinthians 14, the apostle

Paul lays down all these rules and guidelines, how to conduct yourself in the house of God, charismatics and Pentecostals break almost every one of those rules.

Paul forbids for example, Paul forbids female preachers in the church and second

Timothy two 12, first Corinthians 1437, a 34 through 37.

Yet Pentecostals were the first group to ordain female preachers. The Holy spirit led us to do this.

Well, the Holy spirit said in the Bible, you're not to do it. Who are you going to believe? It's, it's that simple.

And I don't say any of this to be unkind. It's just amazing how the word of God is mishandled, if not completely ignored.

So when those misunderstandings become common, it creates chaos and confusion within Christianity.

Again, they teach people you can lose your salvation, which comes awfully close to a false gospel, not saying it is, but it comes awfully close.

Uh, people will say, if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved. There are the oneness Pentecostals that deny the

Trinity. Again, not all do people out there claim to have private revelations from God, which undermines the authority of the

Bible because everyone now has their own interpretation. All of this undercuts and undermines the authority of the word of God, which was given to the church by the

Holy spirit. And then Paul ends chapter 14 by saying, God is not the author of confusion.

So all the people rolling and jumping pews, he said, let everything be done decently and in order.

Yes. Is that a question? Uh, the references that you mentioned on women preachers, are they in the

Mylos or, uh, yeah. Second Timothy, uh, first Timothy two 12, first Tim first Timothy two 12, first Corinthians 1434 through 37.

And then of course, we could talk about all the false prophecies or guys like Kenneth Copeland, Benny hand,

Pat Robertson. These are the big leaders within the charismatic Pentecostal faith. They, they are verifiable false prophets.

They literally has have made prophecies. God told me this, it did not come to pass. And some of them openly admit, yeah, sometimes they get it wrong.

But as Deuteronomy say about that stone, but you see that they've totally detached themselves from the

Bible because while we have the spirit, so the spirit is telling us one thing, the Bible is saying something else.

That's what's happening. So I, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying, Hey, all charismatic

Christians are bad. All charismatic churches are bad. I'm not saying that, but there are major, major problems.

Every denomination has its problems, but this is just a huge, huge issue. If you don't believe me, turn on Christian television.

Actually don't it's a jungle out there. So hopefully this doesn't make anyone upset, but if it does,

I would quote the apostle Paul again, who said, have I become your enemy because I told you the truth.