04.02. Filling Often Mentioned in the Bible

Being filled with the Holy Spirit was a very important thing throughout the New Testament; yet it is much minimized in the modern pulpit.

Let me call your attention to Luk 1:15-16 the Lord said about John the Baptist, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God." (Luk 1:15-16) John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Ghost, would have great revivals, and many of the children of Israel would he turn to the Lord their God. In Luk 11:13 Jesus, teaching His disciples, had said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" We find an emphasis there on the Holy Spirit as a soul-winning power about which we do not hear very much these days.

I have read to you Luk 24:49 where Jesus said, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."

Now turn with me, please, to the first chapter of Acts. Beginning with verse 1 we read, "The former treatise have I made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem." (Acts 1:1-3) ’Do not start out to hold any revivals. Do not start out to take the gospel to all the world yet. You are not ready yet,’ Jesus said. "But wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

Now I do not wish to make an issue of the word "baptized" here as if it had some special meaning. If you will allow me, without any controversy, I will say Jesus said, ’You are going to be overwhelmed, you are going to be covered, you are going to be surrounded, you are going to be filled, you are going to be taken charge of by the Holy Spirit not many days hence.’ "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Now Jesus is not talking here about the second coming of Christ and His reign on earth, when He speaks of being "baptized with the Holy Ghost." ’It is not for you to know when. That is not the thing I am talking about,’ He said. And that is not what they were waiting for then. No, He said in verse 8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." (Acts 1:8) But I follow on. I want you to see how important in the Scripture is this term, is this matter of the Holy Spirit on people who are already saved, on people who are already converted, on people who already have the indwelling of the Spirit. There is great emphasis on a special enduement of power, a baptism of the Spirit, a filling of the Spirit, a gift of the Spirit, a pouring out .of the Spirit. All these are Bible terms, and are emphasized throughout the New Testament. In Acts 2:1-47, again we read, "And 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." (Acts 2:1-2) Now the disciples were not told to wait for a miraculous sound of a rushing cyclonic wind. That was an incidental miracle, and not that for which they were told to wait. "And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and sat upon each of them." That was an incidental miracle, and not that for which they waited. That was not what God promised. Listen: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." The fullness, the baptism, the power, the gift, the enduement of power of the Holy Spirit, is what was promised.

Now in this case they began to speak in several languages. In the Bible the Greek word glossa is translated tongue, and it is translated language. It is here "language" and ought to be so regarded. The next verse says that there were Jews, devout men, out of every nation under Heaven in Jerusalem. There were fifteen different nationalities, and every man in his own language wherein he was born heard these men preaching the gospel. Now if you read further, you will find that three thousand souls were saved.

Let us not be thinking about the incidentals. No one has any right to make anything special of the fact that there was a cyclonic wind. That is not what Jesus promised and it was not repeated again, as far as we know; certainly not always, and certainly not promised. No one has any right to make anything special of the cloven tongues of fire sitting on the people. I do not care if people do have them. They are not promised, and were not repeated in Bible times, as far as we know. Certainly they are not to be expected. No one has a right to make an issue of the fact that in this case people talked in several languages to those who understood the gospel in their own language. That is not the point of the story. That is not what Jesus talked about. That is a special miracle. Someone says, "Here is a Chinaman. He understands only his own language. He cannot understand English." All right, as far as I am concerned, if God gives you the power to speak to him in Chinese and if he hears it and is converted, then that is Biblical; that is Scriptural; that is all right. That would be a miracle. It would be of God. I am not against that. But I say that is not the part God is talking about here. The important thing is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, that they preached the gospel to everybody they saw, that they had multitudes saved. About three thousand were saved.

I am just going through some Scriptures, and showing you how important in Bible language is this matter of being filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:1-47, the people said, "What shall we do?" Peter answered them in Acts 2:28-39, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." (Acts 2:38-39) Notice now that "repent" is for salvation, and "be baptized" is pointing to, or with reference to that salvation. A study of the Greek shows that the word "for" there is really a translation of the little Greek word eis which means "with reference to." So it is not a matter of being baptized to get remission of sins. It is being baptized because of, or pointing to, or with reference to the remission of sins you got when you repented. Baptism does not save anybody. It is a good testimony you have been saved, if you have. Then read the rest of the verse. "And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Notice, one repents and is saved. Then the baptism means a laying of one’s self on the altar, a heart obedience to the commands of God, a setting out to live the surrendered and crucified life. And then, "ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:38-39). Now every one who is ever called to be saved is called to have the gift of the Holy Spirit, too, if he will, the Scripture says.

Read on further in the fourth chapter of Acts. Again the disciples met together. Again they needed blessing and power. Again they prayed. Acts 4:31 says, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." "Filled with the Holy Ghost." "Filled with the Holy Ghost." How often repeated!

Tun to Acts 6:1-15. Now the apostles said, ’We cannot continue always helping the widows with groceries and such matters. Look you out seven men, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, that we may appoint over this matter.’ And the Scripture says, "And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost . . ." (Acts 6:5). Acts 6:8 reads, "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people." Stephen was "full of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 6:8) In Acts 7:55, we see Stephen just before he is stoned: "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven," (Acts 7:55) gave his testimony, and Saul of Tarsus was convicted and later converted.

Let us turn further in Acts 11:1-30. There is another man, Barnabas. Do you know what kind of a man he is? Acts 11:24 says, "For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord." "Full of the Holy Ghost." Now you see the point. The Bible makes much of that term "full of the Holy Ghost," or a synonym, "full of the Holy Spirit," which is used again and again and again in the New Testament.

Now turn with me to Acts 19:1-41. "And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples [notice, these people were disciples], He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Now these had trusted in Christ. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36). These were converted people. These were saved people. These were disciples who had trusted in Christ. "He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?" Now Christians ought to, along with, or following conversion, have another experience. At conversion one receives an indwelling of the Spirit, but a baptism or filling with the Holy Spirit for soul-winning power and witnessing was needed. Paul referred to this filling.

I am not talking about sanctification now. I am not talking about sinless perfection. I am not talking now about speaking in tongues. I am talking about what God is talking about now. Listen carefully: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Is not that a strange question? "And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." They must have been going to churches whose pastors were afraid to mention the matter, as many of our pastors are afraid to mention it today! ’We have not so much as heard about that,’ they said. ’We do not know about it.’ "And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized?" I think Paul means this, ’Do you not remember that when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came on Him, and He started His public ministry and went around filled with the Holy Ghost? Do you not remember when John the Baptist baptized people, that he told them, "I baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost"? Do you not remember at Pentecost that Peter told the people, "Repent! and then you will be saved, but if you want to get the power of the Holy Ghost, then you must be baptized, you must lay yourself on the altar, you must set out to live the crucified life, to follow Jesus even unto death"? Why were you baptized if you did not mean to lay everything on the altar and have the power of God to carry out the Great Commission? You know the Great Commission is that you are to get others converted, get them baptized, teach them to observe everything Jesus taught the disciples, the apostles, to observe. What about that? When they heard Paul say this, they were baptized again. You know, baptism is a picture of a transaction that has taken place. It means the counting of serf dead, the reckoning of self to be dead, and the starting out to live a new life. And if that did not happen, if you did not mean that when you were baptized, you ought to be baptized again and mean it.

Now this is the thing I lay on your heart. Here in the New Testament there is an emphasis on a certain experience, if you can call it an experience; an emphasis on a certain blessing, if you can call it a blessing; an emphasis on what the Bible calls being filled with the Holy Ghost. Again and again the Scripture says, "They were full of the Holy Ghost," or "They were filled with the Holy Ghost."

There are other cases in the Bible which I did not mention. In Acts 4:8 Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost. I did not mention Zacharias in the first chapter of Luke where the Scripture says, "Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied .... " (Luk 1:67) and "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: and she spake..." (Luk 1:41-42) I say, here is a term often used in the Bible. Why don’t we preach on it? Why don’t we preachers, we Christians, seek this blessing that other Christians had?

There has been much quarreling, lots of fanatical, and I think, unscriptural teaching on this matter. Suppose someone went wrong on the blood of Christ. Does that mean I can never again preach on the blood? Certainly not! Suppose someone goes wrong on paying his honest debts. Does that mean I must never again preach on paying your debts? Must I never preach "thou shalt not steal" if somebody happens to misinterpret that Scripture? Does that mean I must leave it alone? Don’t you see how wicked it is to ignore a plain and repeated emphasis throughout the New Testament just because there has been some fanaticism or some misunderstanding on the subject? Don’t you see how wicked it is to ignore the plain teaching of the Bible that New Testament Christians again and again were filled with the Holy Ghost when they set out to win souls?