This tape is all about being filled with
the Holy Spirit.
We read in Acts chapter 2, when the
day of Pentecost was fully come, they were
all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven,
as of a rushing mighty wind, which filled
all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like
as a fire, and it sat upon each
of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
And it was from this experience of being
filled with the Holy Spirit, that they broke
out unto the streets of Jerusalem, and the
amazing happenings of the day of Pentecost took
place.
In the days of the early church, when
the early fathers were writing their statements of
faith, they boldly included the strongest affirmation of
the deity and power of the Holy Spirit.
Without hesitation, without compromise, without doubt, they attested
that the Holy Spirit, given by the Father
and the Son to the church on the
day of Pentecost, was very God of very
God.
Here is the Nicene Creed, And I believe
in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver
of life, who proceeded from the Father and
from the Son, who with the Father and
Son together is worshipped and glorified.
Even more emphatic is the Athanasian Creed, where
the statement concerning the Holy Spirit is made
with a sweep and comprehensiveness, a definition and
precision incomparable in any literature.
There is one person of the Father, another
of the Son, and another of the Holy
Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all
one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.
And in this Trinity none is of four
or after other, none is greater or less
than another, but the whole three persons are
co-eternal together and co-equal, so that
in all things as is aforesaid, the unity
in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, is to
be worshipped.
The three persons of the Godhead work together.
They are one in substance, they are one
in operation.
God the Father is never present in any
one place without the Son and the Holy
Spirit, and yet in office they are distinguishable.
The Father is the Father Almighty, maker of
heaven and earth.
The Son is the revealer of the Father
and the Redeemer of men.
The Spirit is the agent of the Godhead
and the indweller of the life of the
child of God, his guide into all truth,
the glorifier of the Saviour.
It is axiomatic for us to say that
all things come from the Father, through the
Son, by the Holy Spirit.
Now in the perfect plan of God, the
Holy Spirit was not fully known until after
the ascension of Christ to the right hand
of God the Father.
He had told his disciples it was expedient
for him to go away.
If he did not depart, the Comforter would
not be able to come.
But if I depart, I will send him
unto you, John 16.7. When he ascended
on high, he prayed the Father for the
gift of the Spirit, and the Father, whose
delight it is to glorify the Son, granted
his request.
All the excitement of this is focused in
Paul's glowing words to the Ephesians in chapter
4, verses 8 to 13, how the glorified
Christ, having ascended far above all heavens, that
he might fill all things, his Holy Spirit,
and with him all the gifts of the
Holy Spirit.
This was Pentecost.
On that unforgettable day, the coming of the
Holy Spirit signified the absoluteness of the victory
of Christ over death, Satan, and evil of
every dimension.
And this was sealed to those who belonged
to Christ by their being filled with the
Holy Spirit.
Now Paul prayed that the church might know
the fullness of God.
He said, For this cause I bow my
knees unto the Father, from whom every family
in heaven and on earth is named, that
he would grant you, according to the riches
of his glory, that you may be strengthened
with power by his Spirit in the inward
man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith, to the end, that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able
to comprehend with all the saints what is
the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that you may be filled with
all the fullness of God.
Filled with all the fullness of God.
Now that's what being filled with the Holy
Spirit means.
It means being filled with all the fullness
of God.
This means that if the Holy Spirit is
in filling my life, then if I do
sin, I sin in the presence of the
Holy Spirit.
To sin, of course, would mean that I
wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit.
For the Holy Spirit makes us free from
the law of sin and death.
It's when we're faithless and turned from the
indwelling and infilling Spirit of God, that we
are prone to temptation and liable to fall
into sin.
But the infilling of the Holy Spirit is
given to us in order that we might
have the victory over sin.
And this is what John means when he
speaks about the victorious life.
He who abides in him does not keep
on sinning.
To abide in Christ is to abide in
the power of his Holy Spirit.
We are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Therefore it is impossible for us to continue
in sin.
But let me remind you that if you
take your eyes for one moment away from
the Lord, who is the Lord of your
life, you may find yourself plummeting down again
into sin and falling before all manner of
temptations.
We must continually be being filled with the
Holy Spirit.
John adds in the same chapter, 1 John
3 9, Whatsoever is born of God sinneth
not.
That means he doesn't make it his habit
to continue in sin.
If we are habitually drawn into sin, then
plainly we are evidencing that the Spirit of
holiness isn't dwelling within us.
But to be filled with the Spirit demands
that we walk after the Spirit and not
after the flesh.
And surely this is why, after the passage
we've just quoted from Ephesians 3, that Paul
breaks out into doxology, into the praise of
the one who is able to do far
more than we can ask or think.
Now unto him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that worketh in
us, unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without
end.
Now this is the spontaneous song of them
who are filled with the Spirit, of them
who are filled with all the fullness of
God.
Now one very important thing that we must
note is that this is a continuous experience.
By that I don't mean it's an experience
that we arrive at and cannot fall back
from.
By a continuous experience I mean it is
an experience that we are to be experiencing
continuously.
Some years ago I noted some words of
Dr. Charles Inwood at the Keswick Convention in
England.
I can't recall fully the message that he
gave, nor can I find the message in
any of the published annual reports.
But my notes carry this unique statement from
him and do not have burned their way
right into my heart and mind.
Speaking of the fullness of the Holy Spirit
and being filled with the Spirit, he says,
There is no such thing as a once
-for-all fullness.
It is a continuous appropriation of a continuous
supply from the Lord Christ Himself.
It is a moment-by-moment faith in
a moment-by-moment Savior, for a moment
-by-moment cleansing and a moment-by-moment
filling.
As I trust Him, He fills me.
The moment I begin to believe, that moment
I begin to receive.
And as long as I keep believing, praise
the Lord, so long I keep receiving.
Well now that's an all-important fact.
There is no such thing as a permanent
filling.
There is no such thing as a once
-for-all filling.
The reverse is the truth.
I come in my emptiness to the Lord
today with a prayer that I may be
filled.
And He answers that prayer.
He fills me.
As the day goes on, I continue making
the same prayer.
And as the days pass by, another miracle
happens.
I find that I have an increased capacity
for holiness, for fullness, for all God's fullness.
It's in this way that we grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This infilling of the Spirit is always associated
with a deep longing for it.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness, they shall be filled.
Matthew 5 and 6.
Likewise with thirst, he that drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never
thirst again.
John 4, 14.
So did our Lord speak to the woman
of Samaria by Jacob's well.
And He went on.
The water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life.
Later on He emphasized the same truth.
He that believeth on me, as the scriptures
say, out of him there shall flow rivers
of living water.
John 7, 37.
And John adds this comment.
This he spoke concerning the Spirit, which they
that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Spirit was not yet given,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7, 39.
We know from the subsequent history of our
Lord's life, death, resurrection, and ascension, that the
Holy Spirit was given when Christ was glorified.
When Christ took His place at the right
hand of God the Father Almighty, He prayed
the Father that He would pour forth the
Holy Spirit upon the church.
And on the day of Pentecost it happened.
And it is also true in daily experience.
If Jesus isn't glorified in my life, the
Spirit will not be able to fill me.
It is when we acknowledge Jesus as Lord
of all, and work to that role, that
the Holy Spirit can fill and possess me
to the uttermost.
Blessed indeed are they that know this truth.
They glorify Christ continually.
They are filled with the Spirit.
And from the Old Testament there comes the
word, I will pour water on him that
is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.
Isaiah 44, 3.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit is an
accompaniment of such thirst.
I read recently in Jonathan Goforth's journal, I
began to experience a growing dissatisfaction with the
results of my work.
Restless, discontented, I was led to a more
intensive study of the Scriptures.
Every passage that had any bearing on the
price of, or the road to, accession of
power became life and breath to me.
If Charles Finney is right, I vowed to
myself, then I'm going to find out what
these spiritual laws of renewal and revival are,
and I will obey them, no matter the
cost.
You know, that's true thirst.
God satisfied Goforth.
Revival fires broke out as he blazed a
trail for God in the Orient.
And these revival fires were not of his
making.
They were of God's creation.
They were the evidence of the infilling of
the Holy Spirit, of one man's life absolutely
dedicated to God.
And for this thirst we should pray.
The Achilles heel of our spiritual life is
lack of desire.
We have not, because we desire not.
If we are going to be filled, we
must of course be emptied, first of all.
It may seem a simple truism that God
can only fill what has first been emptied,
and yet we fail so often here.
We ask for fullness.
We come to God, and we ask him
to fill us with himself, but we're already
full.
We're full of our own selves.
We're full of self, which means that we're
full of sin, and God cannot pour his
Spirit into that which is unclean.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you are sealed unto the day of your
redemption.
Ephesians 4.30. That's Paul's counsel to believers
who wish to be filled with the Holy
Spirit, and around that verse he has grouped
a series of things from which the believer
will separate himself.
Listen.
Neither the immoral, nor the dirty-minded, nor
the covetous has any inheritance in the kingdom
of God.
Steer clear of the activities of darkness.
Let your life show by contrast how dreary
and futile these things are.
You know the sort of things I mean.
To detail them is really too shameful.
That's how Phillips paraphrases that passage from Ephesians.
From all such things we must be delivered.
We must empty ourselves of all double-mindedness,
greed, love of money, envy, anger, ease, uncleanness.
It is the emptied vessel, purified by the
blood of our dear Redeemer, which the Holy
Spirit will alone fill.
Out of the heart of the Rwanda revival,
this story comes.
Rwanda is an area in the eastern parts
of Africa, and there's been an amazing revival
there, going on for many years, and still
going on.
Well, one Rwanda pastor, with whom the Holy
Spirit had been striving for many months over
certain things in his life which he knew
were not pleasing his Lord, he dreamed a
dream.
And in his dream he saw a long,
narrow room in which was a table prepared
for a meal, with dishes for food and
cups from which to drink.
The table was covered with a spotless cloth
of white.
Suddenly into the room Christ came.
He carried in his hand a chalice with
which he approached the table and began to
pour into the cups as though in preparation
for guests who would soon appear.
But there were some cups bypassed, and into
them he poured nothing.
Then, having gone round all the table, he
vanished as quickly as he had come.
From his watch-stance the Rwanda pastor rose
hurriedly, for he wondered why it was that
Christ had not filled all the cups.
He crept to the table, and when he
reached it and looked within the cups that
were still empty, he saw they were altogether
unclean.
Yes, indeed, they were unclean.
And into a heart that is harboring evil
thoughts and unclean imaginations, Christ will never pour
his Spirit.
If we would know the fullness of God
and be filled with the immeasurable fullness of
his Spirit, then we must empty ourselves of
everything that grieves our Lord.
When that happens, you and I may know
the wonder of the Spirit without measure.
In John 3, 34 we read, He whom
God hath sent speaketh the words of God,
for God giveth not the Spirit by measure.
In the authorized version the words unto him
are added, but they are not in the
original text.
Doubtless it is true that our Lord exemplifies
preeminently the life filled with the Spirit, the
life in which the Spirit is found without
measure.
But this is also true in the age
of the Holy Spirit of every believer.
Without measure he is given to us.
We may have all of the Holy Spirit
we desire to have if we are prepared
to meet God's conditions, purity of heart, hunger
and thirst after righteousness, yearning for God.
Where you find these things, you will find
the Holy Spirit being given without measure.
And all this is pure grace.
It's never merit.
We don't qualify for it by some unusual
excellence of gift or ability.
No, we receive this as we manifest a
broken and contrite heart which the Lord never
despises.
God always fills those lives with his Spirit
who eagerly seek for this.
And when he does so, he gifts us
also with the gifts and powers of the
Spirit so that we can go forth and
tell others about the wonderful salvation we have
found in Christ.
Witnesses are never lacking when the Holy Spirit
is given within his church without measure.
Some wonderful words of John Wesley may fittingly
be quoted here.
He's been speaking about the witness of the
Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer
and is proceeding to show the effects of
this Spirit-filled life.
I quote from Sermon 9 of his volume,
the 44 Sermons.
This man is no longer under law, he
is under grace.
He has received the Spirit of adoption whereby
he now cries, Abba, Father.
He has cried unto the Lord in his
trouble and God has delivered him from all
his distress.
His eyes are opened in quite another manner
than before, even to see a loving, gracious
God.
While he is calling, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory, he hears a voice within
his inmost soul.
I will make all my goodness pass before
thee, and I will proclaim the name of
the Lord.
I will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and I will show mercy to
whom I will show mercy.
And it is not long before the Lord
descends in the cloud and proclaims the name
of the Lord.
Then he sees, but not with the eyes
of flesh and blood, the Lord, the Lord
God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
and forgiving iniquities and transgressions and sins.
Heavenly healing light now breaks upon his soul.
He looks on him whom he pierced, and
God who shineth out of darkness shines within
his heart.
He sees the light of the glorious love
of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He has a divine evidence of things not
seen by sense, even of the deep things
of God, and overpowered with the sight, his
soul cries out, My Lord and my God.
This passage would be worth quoting even if
it were for nothing else than to demonstrate
how Wesley quoted so copiously from Scripture, and
how Scripture was indeed woven into the very
texture of his thought and speech.
But there's a further reason than that.
Here is manifested the life of the Holy
Spirit poured forth without measure upon all believers,
and in that without measure you and I
may share.
And this is a divine commandment to be
filled with the Spirit.
We must never forget this.
We must never forget that when St. Paul
speaks about the fullness of the Holy Spirit
to the church in Ephesus, he uses the
imperative, be filled with the Spirit.
In other words, it's a commandment.
It's a duty.
The verb is imperative.
We're commanded to be filled.
We're expected to have the Holy Spirit in
free and uninhibited power within our personalities.
We should constantly be allowing him to have
his own way, for in no other way
will Christlikeness be known in us.
The Christian life is a supernatural life, and
can only be lived from supernatural resources.
There are no powers latent within ourselves that
will help us live the Christian life, no
matter what our disposition may be.
It's essentially hostile to God.
It is only as we are possessed by,
filled with the Holy Spirit, that we are
able to obey the divine commandment.
Even as an officer in any army will
give the order and expect it obeyed, so
must we obey the commandment of our Lord,
be filled with the Spirit.
Should that not be our prayer, let's make
it our prayer.
Heavenly Father, fill our hearts today with your
Holy Spirit.
Empty us of self, of everything, of sin,
of everything that grieves thee, and then fill
us with everything of God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, that
we may truly be filled with all the
fullness of God.
In the name of Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.