Be Filled with the Spirit

The point: Measure your love for Jesus by the seriousness with which you regard and obey His commandments.

Martin contrasts emotional transports during hymn singing with the true measure of love for Christ, which is obedience to His commandments, highlighting that feelings are not the ultimate test.

Now that's simple, so simple my flesh doesn't like it. I'd like to think that my love for the Lord Jesus is measured in terms of my lofty concepts of him, or my transports of affection when I sing a hymn like this one we've just sung tonight, Glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. If your heart can't get lifted up and get at least close to shouting at a hymn like that, there's something wrong with it. But listen, the measure of my love to the Lord Jesus is not in terms of my emotional transports when I sing hymns or hear preaching.

5:03 - 5:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not live in disregard of the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit, just as you obey the command not to be drunk with wine.

He asks the congregation to imagine the chaos if 75% of the church got drunk on a Saturday night and came to worship with hangovers, illustrating the destructive power of disobeying the first command.

We don't want to reproach our families or bring them into disrepute. There can be a number of natural carnal reasons that keep God's people in obedience to this command. Be not drunk with wine. Can you think what would happen in the church if suddenly, on a Saturday night, 75% of the people in this local church decided that they would throw off obedience to this command for just one night and all go out and get drunk and come in here on Sunday morning nursing hangovers and half drunk and try to worship and praise and carry on the work of God and your Sunday school teachers try to teach?

7:02 - 7:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not live in disregard of the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit, just as you obey the command not to be drunk with wine.

The example of the Corinthians getting drunk at their love feasts is used to show how disobedience to the command against drunkenness wreaked havoc in the early church.

Can you imagine what havoc would come to the church if God's people for one night lived in disregard of this commandment? Can you imagine the havoc that would come? The Corinthians experienced a little bit. They came to their love feast and some of them were getting drunk right at the love feast.

7:37 - 7:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But listen, they were so possessed and permeated and empowered of the Holy Spirit that it became obvious to all that though this was Paul, this was not Paul. Though this was Peter, this was a different Peter.

A drunk man is described as retaining his individual characteristics but having his entire being (walk, talk, speech) controlled by alcohol, serving as an analogy for how the Holy Spirit controls a Spirit-filled person.

A drunk man has all his individual characteristics. You can still tell that it's a certain person and name him. It has the same features. But it's obvious his whole bearing, his whole being has come under the control of that alcohol.

10:03 - 10:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But listen, they were so possessed and permeated and empowered of the Holy Spirit that it became obvious to all that though this was Paul, this was not Paul. Though this was Peter, this was a different Peter.

Peter, John, Paul, and Barnabas are cited as examples of individuals who, when filled with the Spirit, retained their distinct personalities but were obviously controlled and empowered by another force, the Holy Spirit.

Men and women filled with the Spirit. Peter filled themselves. Peter did not become John. John did not become Peter when God filled them with the Spirit.

10:41 - 10:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But listen, they were so possessed and permeated and empowered of the Holy Spirit that it became obvious to all that though this was Paul, this was not Paul. Though this was Peter, this was a different Peter.

The transformation of the 120 disciples from cowering behind closed doors to boldly proclaiming God's works after Pentecost is used to illustrate the power and control of the Holy Spirit.

They called it the wrong thing and Peter stood up to correct them. But it was obvious to them that these men were possessed and controlled by a power that did not have its source and its roots in this cowering little group who just a few days before were found behind closed doors for fear of the Jews, but now outstanding amongst these same people loudly and boldly proclaiming the works and the wonders of their God. From that initial infilling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit this band of 120 went forth demonstrating the power of Christ in anointed ministry, showing forth the beauty of Christ ...

12:17 - 13:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But listen, they were so possessed and permeated and empowered of the Holy Spirit that it became obvious to all that though this was Paul, this was not Paul. Though this was Peter, this was a different Peter.

The rapid spread of the gospel throughout the Roman Empire in one generation, without modern communication or publishing tools, is presented as undeniable evidence of the Spirit's power working through Spirit-filled people.

They called it the wrong thing and Peter stood up to correct them. But it was obvious to them that these men were possessed and controlled by a power that did not have its source and its roots in this cowering little group who just a few days before were found behind closed doors for fear of the Jews, but now outstanding amongst these same people loudly and boldly proclaiming the works and the wonders of their God. From that initial infilling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit this band of 120 went forth demonstrating the power of Christ in anointed ministry, showing forth the beauty of Christ ...

12:17 - 13:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Approach the subject of being filled with the Spirit without fear, trusting God's provision and command in Scripture.

The idea of regarding the book of Acts as a 'museum piece' (something nice to look at but not for personal use) is used to challenge believers to see it as a record of what God still desires to do.

It's nice to look at, nice to go and see once in a while, but you'd never have it in your own living room. No, no. Why has God left the record of the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the book of the Acts that we call the Acts of the Apostles? Why has He left it?

14:11 - 14:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Be open and responsive to God's light, willing to deal with flesh, self-life, darling idols, and pet sins.

A.J. Gordon's definition of the Holy Spirit's work as 'communicating and applying the work of Christ to human hearts' is quoted to clarify the Spirit's role.

But that of communicating and applying the work of Christ to human hearts. May I repeat that to you? What is the work of the Holy Spirit? But that of applying and communicating the work of Christ to human hearts.

15:44 - 15:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Be open and responsive to God's light, willing to deal with flesh, self-life, darling idols, and pet sins.

Martin asks if one would fear Jesus if He appeared in the flesh, concluding that only hypocrites would, as He knew what was in man, but open hearts would not, illustrating the Spirit's non-threatening nature to sincere believers.

If He should, of course we know He will not, but if He should come as He was in the days of His flesh and tabernacle among us as the Son of Man, would you be afraid of Him?

16:13 - 16:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Be open and responsive to God's light, willing to deal with flesh, self-life, darling idols, and pet sins.

The comfort publicans, harlots, and little children felt with Jesus is used to show His approachability and lack of austerity, implying the Holy Spirit, as Christ's revealer, is similarly approachable.

If you were a hypocrite you would be, for He knew what was in man and He spoke very scathingly and penetratingly towards the hypocrite. But if your heart was open and responsive to light and you wanted all that God had for you, you would have no fear. Publicans and harlots who were pressing into the kingdom sat down to eat with Him. There was nothing austere and distant about our Lord.

16:26 - 16:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Be open and responsive to God's light, willing to deal with flesh, self-life, darling idols, and pet sins.

The phrase 'darling little idols and our pet sins and the little lambs of iniquity that we cuddle to our bosom' vividly illustrates cherished sins that believers are unwilling to deal with.

Little children felt free to come and sit upon His knee. Publicans and harlots felt free to sit down and eat with Him, cringed in His presence and well-mighted. And the only reason we would have to be fearful of the Lord Jesus is if we were hypocrites. But if God by His grace has worked in us a desire to know Him and to know the truth, even where it means the exposure of our flesh and our self-light and the dealing with our darling little idols and our pet sins and the little lambs of iniquity that we cuddle to our bosom, if God by His grace has worked in us so that we're willing to deal with ...

16:59 - 17:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Guard against the extreme of 'no fire' – barren, lifeless, dead, spiritless orthodoxy.

The Old Testament example of God's judgment on 'strange fire' is used to illustrate God's hatred for false, soulish manifestations of spiritual activity.

Now God hates strange fire. You know what he did in the Old Testament when strange fire was offered. You know what he did. And we have heard and we have seen, some of us, strange wildfire.

25:06 - 25:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Guard against the extreme of 'no fire' – barren, lifeless, dead, spiritless orthodoxy.

The church of Laodicea, which had 'not a trace of wrong doctrine' but was lukewarm, is used to illustrate that spiritual barrenness (no fire) is as offensive to God as doctrinal error or fanaticism.

God does not want us to drift off into the terrible extreme of wildfire. May I say God just as surely is sickened, if I may speak reverently, sickened at the terrible extreme of no fire. For his most scathing word to any church in the book of the Revelation was that last word to the lukewarm church of Laodicea who had no fire and warmth of the Holy Ghost. Not a trace of wrong doctrine at Laodicea.

26:07 - 26:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The final truth is that there is no filling of the Holy Spirit apart from personal appropriation of God's provision, just as salvation requires personal faith in the crucified…

The story of Pilgrim finding rest only when his heavy burden rolled off at the foot of the cross is used to illustrate that peace and spiritual blessing come through personal appropriation by faith.

Only when by faith he lays hold of the object of salvation in the crucified stage. Do you remember a pilgrim found to rest only when, at the foot of the cross, he rolled off the heavy burden upon his back? Do you remember? That's the reason he's there for children.

42:30 - 42:49 Read in full sermon