My goal with this message today, friends, is
to be clear on my subject and for
you to grasp it.
And if God will enable me by his
spirit to have his authority to give you
this treatment on the doctrine of the fullness
of the spirit, that'll be presented with such
clarity and finality that'll stick with you and
its message will remain with you for the
rest of your days and that God will
use it in your life to bring change.
The aim of this message is to get
you to the place of admission that you
will see your need of what I am
talking about and that you will admit your
need of it.
My message today is about being filled with
the Holy Spirit.
I know you say that you were filled
with the Holy Spirit at the time of
your conversion and that is true.
What I'm talking about is power or lack
of power.
I'm talking about a mighty God we serve.
God demonstrated his power in our life by
raising us from death to life, by saving
us through the blood of his son.
But where is our power?
Where is our authority?
Vance Hafner summed it up when he said,
If we serve such a dynamite God, then
why are so many of us living firecracker
lives?
Firecracker lives.
Why are we living firecracker lives where we
go off with just a little pop and
without little notice?
There's no real power in our lives, no
explosion of taking down strongholds, either of the
devil or in our personal walk.
We are confronted with sin every day.
We're confronted with sin when we hear a
coworker take God's name in vain.
We're confronted with sin when someone tells us
a filthy joke or dirty story.
We are continually confronted with sin in the
media, sin in the movies we watch.
We can either condone sin in our life
or condemn it.
But to condemn it takes power from above.
We need power.
We need power over sin, power for service.
Let's talk about the first of these, power
over sin.
And it is here where I am attempting
to get you to agree with me, friends,
and to see your need of something, to
see your need of being filled with the
Spirit.
We have a command of this in Ephesians
5, 18, which is a command to be
filled with the Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit means more than
being indwelt by Him.
It is possible for the Holy Spirit to
be present in the life without being president.
In England, they have a queen who reigns,
but she doesn't rule.
The same principle can apply in the life
of a believer.
We need power from above to live a
victorious life in Christ.
Here in Ephesians, God's Word is clear in
His command to be filled with the Spirit,
to be under the undisputed control of the
Spirit.
This is seen in the Greek language of
Ephesians 5, 18, where the verb is in
the imperative mood, the passive voice, and the
present tense.
This calls for obedience and allegiance to and
dependence on the Holy Spirit every day, every
hour of our lives.
The Bible speaks of our besetting sin.
Hebrews 12, 1 mentions this besetting sin.
Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight in the sin which
does so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set
before us.
If we were truly honest with ourselves, we
would admit that we have a besetting sin,
a sin that keeps resurfacing in our lives.
We may be able to avoid it for
some weeks at a time, or we may
even be able to stay away from it
for months at a time.
But there it comes and rears its ugly
head, and we cannot hold out against it
any longer.
And we give way to its sway.
We collapse before it.
Oh, how we regret that besetting sin.
How many years it has bothered us.
How many tears we have wept over it.
We think we've come to the place where
we are finally done with it once and
for all.
And the devil puts us in an environment
ripe for its resurgence once again.
We fall before it like a domino in
the wind.
This besetting sin seems to plague us, to
mock us, and to continually discourage us.
When I say, friends, we need power over
sin, this is the very thing I am
addressing here.
We need power over our besetting sin.
You have to admit two things, that you
have a besetting sin, and secondly, you need
power over it.
Do you agree with that, friend?
Do you see your need for power over
sin?
I'm not talking about the eradication of sin.
We have a ruined nature and a bent
toward sin.
Christ saves us from sin.
Christ saves us from the penalty of sin.
Christ saves us from the power of sin,
as we are crucified with Christ positionally.
Galatians 2.20 declares, I am crucified with
Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me.
In the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.
We need power over sin.
We need to be filled with the Spirit.
I can have a glass that has some
water in it.
It may be half full of water, because
water is residing there, but it is not
full.
I can fill that glass with water to
where it is spilling over the brim.
To be filled with the Spirit means to
be filled to the brim, to be brimming
over with the Spirit.
So this doctrine of the Spirit-filled life
consists in giving the Spirit control at all
times and all circumstances.
We must give the Lord Jesus his rightful
place in our lives.
Self must be dethroned, and another enthroned there,
the Lord Jesus Christ, where he is reigning
and ruling in our hearts and lives.
A good scripture example of this is seen
in 1 Corinthians 3.17, which states, Now
the Lord is that Spirit, and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
This can be understood, where the Spirit is
Lord, that is, where he is given his
true deity and sovereignty, there is liberty.
Listen to my message, friends.
This message can set you free.
It's done wonders in my own life when
I heard it from the lips of Stephen
Oford when he preached on the fullness of
the Holy Spirit years ago.
I want to give you some of the
instruction I've learned over the years in the
truth of being filled with the Spirit so
you'll have power over sin.
And it can be realized by every believer
in Christ Jesus who is willing to bow
daily and hourly to the sovereignty of Christ
and the authority of the Word.
We are commanded in Ephesians 5.18 to
be filled with the Spirit, and not to
be filled is our only excuse for our
lack of power.
The Holy Spirit is a person who can
be grieved and quenched in a believer's life
by sin, but when sin is exposed and
self is executed, then the Holy Spirit can
fill overflowing and anoint with authority and power.
And now I want to address this second
aspect of the Spirit-filled life.
We see our need for power over sin,
but we must also confess our lack of
power for service.
We do much in the energy of the
flesh, rushing to this conference here, and that
meeting there, and working day and night in
our physical strength until we are plum worn
out for God, but where is the power?
I remember Dr. Stephen Olford sharing with me
a story about a preacher who showed an
interest in Stephen Olford's message on the Spirit
-filled life, but this man refused the invitation
to Dr. Olford to come meet with him
to discuss it further.
Well, this man rose to popularity and prominence
within his denomination, and Stephen Olford went to
hear this man preach at a big Baptist
church, and the man preached a funny and
amusing message where he gave one funny joke
after another, and he kept the congregation laughing
in stitches, and when he was done, he
was given a solid round of applause, and
Stephen Olford went directly home that day to
write this man a letter, and in it,
he stated that he'd just heard him entertain
his audience that Sunday morning with jokes and
stories that made him popular with his hearers.
Then Dr. Olford asked this stinging question, but
tell me, my good man, where is your
power?
And that is my question to you today,
brother pastor, fellow evangelist, dear Christian worker, where
is your power?
We need power for service, or our efforts
are just in the flesh.
Did not our Lord Jesus tell his disciples
to tarry in the city until they were
endued with power from on high?
Jesus instructed them, and behold, I send the
promise of my Father upon you, but tarry
ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye
be endued with power from on high.
And that's the very thing Vance Havner was
talking about when he said, if we serve
such a dynamite God, then how come so
many of us are living firecracker lives?
It's because we lack power, that dunamis power
of the Holy Spirit like dynamite in our
lives.
I'll never forget the story about D.L.
Moody.
D.L. Moody saw his need one day
for this power when two elderly ladies in
his congregation in Chicago told him they were
praying for him.
He told them, why don't you pray for
these other folks who need Christ?
Why pray for me?
They informed him they were praying for him
to have power, to be filled with the
Holy Spirit.
From that day on, Moody would meet with
these two ladies for prayer, to be filled
with the Spirit.
His desire became so great he would actually
roll on the floor in agony his soul
as he wrestled in prayer with God to
give him his Spirit.
One day, while Moody was in the city
of New York, he felt an incredible urgency
to go get alone with God and to
pray.
He found a friend's home and asked for
a room to pray in, and he stayed
in that room for hours until the Holy
Spirit came upon him, filling his soul with
such joy he had asked God to withhold
his hand, lest he die on the spot.
Moody often would speak of this time.
The sermons were no different, and I did
not present any new truths, and yet hundreds
were converted.
I would not be placed back where I
was before that blessed experience.
Well, we need, too, that power, friends.
We need power for service.
The church today has no authority because the
church operates more on money and manpower rather
than God and Holy Ghost power.
We need power.
I've been preaching a long time.
I know what I'm talking about.
I know what it's like to preach without
power and just have my audience stare at
their watches to know when they can go
have their lunch.
There have been other times when I've preached
with such a power and anointing.
I've seen an entire church frozen in their
seats by the Spirit of God to where
they could not stand up until God told
them to.
I've seen an entire room of pastors get
so distressed by the disturbing presence of Christ
that the very look on their faces became
altered from looks of smiles to looks of
alarm.
I've seen people brought to the very verge
of eternity.
I know the difference.
I know what I've done in the flesh
is flesh, and it will perish, but what
God has wrought by His Spirit will last
forever.
Listen to me, friend.
We need power over sin.
We need power for service.
Do you recognize this?
Do you sense your need for this power?
Do you want this power?
It's yours for the asking.
It's yours to be appropriated.
There are steps I will walk you through
to have this power.
That's why this message is so important today.
Several things need to be done.
We will first list them and then elaborate
upon each head.
We must remember that what counts costs and
what costs counts.
Nothing important in life is ever gained without
effort and commitment.
If we want to graduate college, we have
to study hard and make some sacrifices.
Spiritual life is no different.
What counts costs and what costs counts.
We need power over sin.
We need power for service.
We need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit for this power, but God will not
give His Spirit to a dirty bride.
We must get right with God.
Amos 3, 3 states.
Can two walk together except they be agreed?
Well, the answer is no.
We must be a clean and empty channel
for God to flow through with His Holy
Spirit power like a mountain stream can be
hindered by collected debris in its path.
The debris of fallen branches and dry leaves
can stack up and stop the flow.
They must be swept away for the water
to flow freely.
And while there are some strategic steps in
the spiritual life as well, friends, we need
to get right with God so our lives
can be clean and clear channels for His
blessings and power to flow through to others.
I want to talk about these steps today.
There's four of them.
The first is confess.
The second is admit.
The third is submit.
And the fourth is believe.
Let's take these one by one.
Confess.
That means to relinquish your self-life and
its need and control and to ask God
that you need His help to confess your
need of Him.
To confess that you need to have His
Holy Spirit fill in you.
Psalm 24 speaks of the one who receives
a blessing from the Lord.
We read in Psalm 24 in verses 3
through 5.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the
Lord?
Or who shall stand in His holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure
heart, who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive
the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from
the God of his salvation.
Clean hands speak of our dealings with others.
Have we lied to someone or treated them
dishonestly?
I remember years ago I was playing racquetball
with a church friend, and he asked me
when I graduated college.
Well, I was too embarrassed to tell him
the truth, so I lied to him about
it because at the time I had just
dropped out of school.
Oh, I felt absolutely useless for God until
I made things right with this man.
I found him at church the next Sunday
in a hallway and confessed my sin of
lying to him and asked for his forgiveness.
And when I did that, I knew instantly
my walk with God was restored.
So clean hands here in our text speaks
of our dealings with men.
This is on the horizontal plane.
Next, a pure heart signifies our walk with
God.
This is on the vertical plane.
We must search our hearts and confess to
God anything he is displeased with in our
lives.
So we must get right horizontally and then
vertically, if I may so speak.
And when these two planes meet, they form
a cross.
This is the cross in the life of
a believer.
I am crucified with Christ.
So the very first step to being filled
with the Spirit is confess.
We must get right with God in an
intimate, close walk with him.
We must confess our sins.
We must confess our need of him.
Secondly, we must do the next thing, which
is admit.
Admit our need to be filled with the
Spirit.
Confess our lack of power and ask God
to hear our admission of our need for
power.
We must admit that we can do nothing
without him.
John 15 5 says the very thing Jesus
told his disciples.
For without me, ye can do nothing.
That means nothing impacting for eternity your spiritual
good.
If you do these things, friend, and mean
them with sincerity of heart, you will have
an answer to your prayer and be filled
with the Spirit.
But the next step is to submit.
This one is critically important for submission to
God is everything in the Christian life.
I want to share with you a story
about one of my heroes in the faith,
the evangelist Sam Jones.
Well, in the late 19th century, the two
titans of American evangelism were D.L. Moody
and Sam Jones.
God had a great work cut out for
each of them.
But this story is about Sam Jones.
I hope you bear with me while I
relate it to you.
You'll be glad when it's over that you
listen to it.
Sam Jones was at his home in Cordesville,
Georgia, when he received a telegram from Texas
inviting him to go preach to the cowboys
of southwest Texas.
Well, he prayed about it and he got
on a train and went to Texas.
And for two weeks, he preached the gospel
of Jesus Christ to the cowboys of Texas.
When it was over, as they came to
the end of the campaign, the cowboys wanted
to give Sam Jones a love offering.
They felt the laborer was worthy of his
hire, and they had received wonderful blessings from
his time among them.
But there was a problem.
They had no money, not a single dollar
in any of their pockets, and didn't know
what to do.
And they allowed Sam Jones to go back
to Cordesville, Georgia, with no compensation or love
offering of any kind, whatever.
Well, Sam Jones went back, and a number
of weeks passed by.
Then suddenly one day he received a telegram.
It was from the cowboys of Texas.
It read like this.
We are sending you a love offering, and
we are shipping you a carload of broncos.
And Sam Jones scratched his head as he
looked in amazement at that telegram.
What am I going to do, he said,
with a carload of wild horses in the
small town of Cordesville?
Well, his friend was standing beside him, and
he said, Why, it's very easy.
Hold an auction sale.
Sell the broncos, and you'll get your money.
You can get your love offering then and
put it in your pocket.
Well, Sam Jones thought it was a good
suggestion, so he held an auction sale.
He sold the broncos, all except one.
He kept the finest looking bronco for his
son.
He wanted to give that bronco to his
son.
He wanted to give that bronco to his
son as a gift, and that's what he
did.
But the son had never in his life
been on the back of an unbroken bronco,
and Sam Jones wondered what he could do.
He called the cowboy to him who had
brought the carload of broncos to Cordesville.
He said, Will you take this bronco?
Will you break him so that my son
can ride him?
Yes, sir, said the cowboy.
I'd be glad to.
How much will you charge?
Fifteen dollars, said the cowboy.
All right, said Sam.
Take him away.
The cowboy disappeared with the bronco.
Two weeks later, he came back.
Is he broken?
Said Sam.
Yes, sir, he's broken.
Can my son ride him in perfect safety?
Yes, sir, your son can ride him in
perfect safety.
All right, here's your fifteen dollars.
The father thought that before allowing his son
to ride the bronco, he'd better mount himself
and make sure that the cowboy had broken
the bronco.
He started toward the bronco.
The cowboy came running up, waving his hands
in alarm.
Why, said Sam, what's the matter?
What's gone wrong?
Oh, said the cowboy, he's only broken on
one side, and you're mounting from the wrong
side.
Oh, said Sam, that will never do.
My son might make a mistake, and he
might mount from the wrong side.
How much will you charge to break him
on the other side?
Fifteen dollars, said the cowboy.
All right, said Sam, take him away and
break him on the other side.
Well, another two weeks passed by, and again
the cowboy came back, leading the bronco.
Is he broken?
Said Sam.
Yes, sir, he's broken.
Both sides?
Yes, sir, both sides.
Your son can mount him with perfect safety
from either side.
All right, here's your fifteen dollars.
Well, I like that story, friend, but it's
so true.
You know, the average Christian is only broken
on one side.
He'll do this, but he won't do that.
He'll go here, but he won't go there.
He'll give God just so much of himself,
but still hold something back.
He's like the bronco.
He's only broken on one side, and then
he wonders why God doesn't use him more,
why the years have passed by, and he's
not used of God.
He's been highly educated, perhaps.
He's been well-trained.
He may even have gone to seminary, and
he sees God using other men who've got
very little education, very little training, who've never
been to seminary, and they're being used to
God, but he can't understand why God doesn't
use him more.
He doesn't realize he's only been broken on
one side, that God can't trust him.
He'll do this, but he won't do that.
He'll go there, but he won't go here.
He's only broken on one side, and God
cannot rely upon him.
God cannot trust him.
The man God uses is the man who's
been broken on both sides, the man who's
been totally surrendered and totally yielded to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what I mean
by submission, and unless you and I are
broken on both sides and thoroughly surrendered to
the Lord Jesus Christ, there isn't any way
that God can use us.
We are willing to go to the hillside
with Jesus to sit at his feet and
learn him, but we are unwilling to go
with him to Gethsemane to suffer with him.
We are broken only on one side.
We hold something back from God, and that
will never do.
God has to have us, all of us,
lock, stock, and barrel.
Well, the last thing in our things to
do to be overflowing with the Spirit of
God, to be filled to the brim through
the life of fullness of the Spirit, is
to believe, to believe God's Word is true,
that he's true to his Word.
We must appropriate this truth and ask him
to fill us by his Spirit.
It's by faith this is done, and I
like what R.
A.
Torrey told his students at Moody Bible School.
He said, if you want more of the
Holy Spirit, then be prepared to have the
Holy Spirit to have more of you, and
that ties into our thoughts here, friend.
It's true.
Well, I want to take this time now
for those of you that God's been dealing
with, for those of you who want to
get serious with God, because I believe God
gets serious with those who get serious with
him.
Do you want to continue to serve God
in the energy of the flesh?
Do you want to keep falling to your
besetting sin?
Do you want power over sin?
Do you want power in service?
Your impact on eternity hangs in the balance.
Do you want to be busy for God
in the strength of your might, relying only
on your talents, training, education, and personality?
Or do you want to be a clear
and empty channel where the power of God
courses through you like dynamite?
I'm going to ask you, friend, as we
close out this message, to slip out of
your chair and get on your knees so
you can get alone with God, to seek
him earnestly with all your heart in regard
to these things which we've talked about today.
Admit you need power over sin.
Admit your bankruptcy.
Admit your need for power, for service to
him.
Take God at his word and trust him
to give you the desire of your heart
in honoring his dear son Jesus to give
you this power.
Do it today, friend, and you will never
want to go back to where you were
before this time again.
I can tell you that myself.
Admit you've been broken only on one side.
Confess your need of him.
Wonderful things happen when God uses broken things.
He broke the loaves and fed five thousand.
He broke the vase and the beautiful ointment
enveloped the room.
Are you only broken on one side?
Make today the day you give it all
to him.
Give yourself up entirely to Jesus, friends.
Don't hold anything back, and he will fill
you to the brim with his spirit.
Come now, we serve a dynamite God.
Don't you settle one skinny minute for a
firecracker life again when you can live a
dynamite life for him.
Come and surrender all you are to all
he is and place everything you are and
all you have on his altar.
Ask God to change you now.
Let us pray.