======================================================================== HOLY SPIRIT, HIS SUPPLY by Mike Attwood ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit, highlighting the need for complete surrender to God to experience His power and divine guidance. It explores the discernible qualities of a Spirit-filled life, such as boldness in preaching Christ, reproving error, and the ability to face challenges with grace and forgiveness. The sermon encourages believers to yield every area of their lives to the control of the Holy Spirit, seeking a fullness of God's power and presence. Topics: "Holy Spirit", "Complete Surrender" Scripture References: Acts 1:8, Acts 3:12, Acts 6:3, Acts 4:31, Acts 7:55, Ephesians 3:19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit, highlighting the need for complete surrender to God to experience His power and divine guidance. It explores the discernible qualities of a Spirit-filled life, such as boldness in preaching Christ, reproving error, and the ability to face challenges with grace and forgiveness. The sermon encourages believers to yield every area of their lives to the control of the Holy Spirit, seeking a fullness of God's power and presence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let's turn in our hymn books to number 330, 330. ♪ Take the world but give me Jesus ♪ ♪ All its joys are but a name ♪ ♪ But his love abideth ever ♪ ♪ Through eternal years the same ♪ ♪ O the height and depth of mercy ♪ ♪ O the length and breadth of love ♪ ♪ O the fullness of redemption ♪ ♪ Pledge of endless life above ♪ ♪ Take the world but give me Jesus ♪ ♪ The sweetest comfort of my soul ♪ ♪ With my savior watching o'er me ♪ ♪ I can sing the billows roll ♪ ♪ O the height and depth of mercy ♪ ♪ O the length and breadth of love ♪ ♪ O the fullness of redemption ♪ ♪ Pledge of endless life above ♪ ♪ Take the world but give me Jesus ♪ ♪ Let me view his constant smile ♪ ♪ Then throughout my pilgrim journey ♪ ♪ Light will cheer me all the while ♪ ♪ O the height and depth of mercy ♪ ♪ O the length and breadth of love ♪ ♪ O the fullness of redemption ♪ ♪ Pledge of endless life above ♪ ♪ Take the world but give me Jesus ♪ ♪ In his cross my trust shall be ♪ ♪ Till with clearer brighter vision ♪ ♪ Face to face my Lord I see ♪ ♪ O the height and depth of mercy ♪ ♪ O the length and breadth of love ♪ ♪ O the fullness of redemption ♪ ♪ Pledge of endless life above ♪ Tim, would you bring us before the Lord in prayer? Amen. We are going to, this session will go till about, well, you can take till about 25 after. We'll sing another song and give thanks for supper. And so at this point, we'll turn it over to our brother. Well, I am very grateful for the invitation. Thank you, brethren, for inviting me to be at this conference and to share from the word of God. And I'd like us to continue on as we're looking at the verses that pertain to the Holy Spirit and the believers security. And we want to think about the earnest of the Spirit, the earnest. And so again, we want to look at 2 Corinthians, please. A couple of verses in 2 Corinthians, one in Ephesians that talk about this matter. And so one of them we've already read in context of the sealing, 2 Corinthians 1, verse 22, it says, you have also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Chapter five, please, in verse five. Now, he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. And then please the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1, verse 13, it says, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance and the redemption of the purchase possession unto the praise of his glory. So three times in the epistles, twice in Corinthians, once in Ephesians, we're told that we have the earnest of the Spirit, has given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 1, 22 of Corinthians, hath also given unto us the earnest of the Spirit, 5-5 in Corinthians. And then again, verse 14 in Ephesians, which is the earnest, he's given us this, sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. So what exactly is the earnest? Well, it's a pledge, a foretaste of the inheritance, a part payment, if you like, when we purchased our house, the first process in purchasing a house is you have to put down earnest money, which is usually kind of a reasonably substantial amount. And what you're saying to the sellers is I'm really serious about this. I intend to go through with the deal, okay? And so isn't it wonderful to say that when God gives us the Holy Spirit, he is telling us, I'm really serious about this. I intend to go through with the whole deal. In other words, everything that we're gonna enjoy, our eternal inheritance, we already got the down payment, the Spirit of God lives within us, right? He's given us the earnest, which is the Spirit. And so putting his Spirit within us is God saying to us, I intend to fulfill everything that I have promised in all the promises that I've made to you. Giving the Spirit is my down payment, my assurance. I'm committed, I'm going through with this deal all the way. I don't know about you, but I'm thrilled. He's going through with the deal all the way. He's not gonna pull back. He's not gonna say, oh, I've got buyer's remorse here. If I had realized what this Mike Atwood was gonna be like, in fact, I'm pulling out with a deal. No, no, the fact that the day I got saved, the Spirit of God came to live within me. God is saying I'm committed all the way, not turning back. I'm gonna bring him into the fullness of his inheritance. It's the earnest of our inheritance. It's saying that everything that is gonna happen in the future, our eternal joy in the presence of the Lord, our inheritance that's laid up for us in heaven, this earnest is the pledge. God is going through with the deal. One of our hymns says this, and we to the end shall endure as sure as the earnest is given. More happy, but not more secure, the spirits departed to heaven. Isn't that good to know? Those that are already in heaven, they're happier than us. They don't have the sin issue anymore. They're in the presence of the Lord where there's fullness of joy, but they're not more secure than we are. Isn't that good to know that? Because we got the down payment, and he's going through with the deal. It's part payment in kind. Full payment would be the same character as the earnest. So we've received the first fruits of the spirit, and there's a full harvest coming. And it's wonderful to think about those things. Now I want to think about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Again, one of the security issues that we've looked at the baptism, the sealing, the earnest, the indwelling. John 14, please. John chapter 14. And this was very revolutionary when the Lord Jesus said these words, verse 16 of John 14, and verse 17. John 14, 16, John 14, 17. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. That's another security verse there, isn't it? He's not gonna leave us. He's gonna abide with us forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. So as the Lord talks to the disciples, he says the Holy Spirit is with you, but something new is coming. The one who is with you shall be in you, right? What we call the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, because he's gonna abide with you forever. Now there's a real contrast here with the experience of the Old Testament saint. The Old Testament saint did not enjoy the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In fact, in the Old Testament, it would be clear to say that the Holy Spirit came upon individuals for certain acts of service, but he could also leave them. And so he came upon kings and priests and craftsmen who were connected with service in the house of God. And so some examples that we could look at, look at the book of Exodus. We're just thinking of the Old Testament believer's experience. And his experience wasn't a permanent indwelling of the Spirit of God. Exodus 31 and verses two through five. So it says, see, I have called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled them with the Spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to devise cunning works, to work in gold and in silver and in brass and in cutting of stones, to set them and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And so I suppose what you could say is the Spirit of God came upon this man, Bezalel, and his job was making the furniture for the tabernacle and making all the different aspects of it. So his job was to build and beautify the house of God. And in order to build and beautify the house of God, the Spirit of God came upon him, filled him and enabled him to do that. And could we say this, that by way of application, what a wonderful way for us to use our lives to be involved in building and beautifying the house of God. And in order for us to be part of that building and beautifying the house of God, we must know something of the filling of the Holy Spirit in order for that to happen. But he wants that to happen. He wants to use us in that way. And so we might go to meetings and ask ourselves, how can I build up this testimony here? How can I make it a beautiful place for God's people to be? What can I do that would affect it in that way to make it more beautiful and to be involved in the process of building? Now, of course, the Lord says, I will build my church, but he uses human instruments in that process. And he wants to use us. And so here's Bezalel, he's doing that. Chapter 35, and verse 30. Again, similar ideas communicated to us. Verse 30, it says, "'And Moses said to the children of Israel, "'See, the Lord hath called by name Bezalel, "'the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. "'And he hath filled him with the Spirit of God, "'wisdom, understanding, knowledge, so on and so forth.'" Very same language that we saw earlier. So this man, 36, verses one and two. "'Then wrought Bezalel, and Aholihab, "'and every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord "'put wisdom and understanding to know how to work, "'all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, "'according to all that the Lord had commanded. "'And Moses called Bezalel, Aholihab, "'and every wise-hearted man in whose heart "'the Lord had put wisdom, "'even everyone whose heart stirred him up "'to come unto the work to do it.'" So the equipping came from the Spirit of God, but their hearts were stirred up to do it as well. So there's a human element right there. Their heart was in this, they were wanting to do it. But basically we see this particular pattern, chapter 38. Again, same picture, but it's just good to see the details. Verse 22, "'And Bezalel, the son of Uri, "'the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, "'made all that the Lord commanded Moses.'" What a successful ministry. He did it. The job he'd be to build and beautify the house of God. And according to the pattern that had been commanded by Moses in the Holy Mount, there was no room for artistic license or man's initiative. It was to build it according to the pattern that had been given in the Holy Mount by Moses. And again, if we're gonna be builders, we have to follow the pattern in the word of God. There's no room for artistic liberty. We must follow the pattern that God has given in the word of God. And certainly these people did. Paul, I think, would give credence to what I've just said in 1 Corinthians chapter three in verse 10, where he talked about our activity. And he says in chapter three, verse 10, "'According to the grace of God, "'which is given unto me as a wise master builder, "'I've laid the foundation where the builders thereon, "'but let every man take heed how we build thereon.'" It must be built according to the plan that has been given by the master himself. If we're gonna be wise master builders, you know, if you've got a builder and you told him the design of your house and he did something completely different, you might be a bit upset with him because, well, he said, I've got this artistic streak and I know that the plan said this, but I thought this wall would look a lot better curved than straight. And you might say, hey, hold on a second. I'm paying you to follow the plan. God, he wants us to follow the plan. He wants us to follow the plan, the pattern, the design, and a spirit- filled man will always build according to the master design. He won't do it different to what God designed. But this task, the Holy Spirit came upon these men for specific acts of service that they did, but he could leave them. And we know that from examples. Look at 1 Samuel now, where we're gonna see that when a man failed to do what God had told him to do, the spirit could be taken away from him. So we have the story of Saul, and it says in verse 13, "'Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him,' this is David, "'in the midst of his brethren, "'and the spirit of the Lord came upon David "'from that day forward.' "'So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.'" Now verse 14, "'But the spirit of the Lord "'departed from Saul, "'and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.'" Now that's a verse that's troubling, right? But what do we see? From our purposes, all we're trying to show is that in the Old Testament, there was not such a thing as a permanent indwelling. David, when he slew Goliath, that was before the spirit of God came upon him in 1 Samuel 16, right? It comes upon him at his anointing. Saul, when David is anointed, the spirit of God, it says, "'departed from Saul.'" Now look at Psalm 51. Psalm 51 and verse 11. Psalm 51 and verse 11. This is David's penitential Psalm. This is after Nathan has confronted him concerning the sin of Bathsheba. And remember what he says is, "'Thou art the man, you're guilty.'" And David, when he finally comes to this place of repentance, he prays this prayer. And in verse 11, he says this, "'Cast me not away from thy presence, "'and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. "'Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, "'and hold me with thy free spirit.'" So on and so forth. Now, again, here's the interesting thing. He knows what's happened to Saul. Why did it happen to Saul? Saul was disobedient. What's David just done? He's been disobedient. The difference between Saul and David, and this is a big difference. When Saul was confronted, he always tried to justify his sin. When David was confronted, he was broken over his sin. Big difference. But David's concerned, he's scared. He's seen what's happened to Saul, and he cries out to God, "'Take not your Holy Spirit from me.'" Now, there was a very popular song. I think it was Keith Green that sang it, and sometimes it's sung in meetings of believers. And part of it, it's a kind of a rendition of Psalm 51, and part of it says, "'And take not thy Holy Spirit from me.'" And I can't sing it. I won't sing it. I absolutely, stubbornly, and maybe I'm becoming a grumpy old man, but I absolutely refuse to sing that line. Because I can sing it until I'm blue in the face, and he will never take his Holy Spirit from me. Different dispensation. See, songs not only have to be right, they have to be in the right dispensation, right? We're not in that dispensation. Something new has happened. John 14, he shall be with you, and he shall be in you, and he will abide with you forever. You're sealed with the Spirit of God until the day of redemption. He's not leaving. No matter how passionately you sing, he's not going anywhere. And so it's important for us to realize that. This wonderful truth of the permanent indwelling of the Spirit of God. It's unique to the church age. And it's a marvelous truth that we're indwelt, and he's with us forever. John 14 again, verse 16. It says, and I pray the Father, he'll give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. You know, the uniqueness of this dispensation is that there's a real man in the glory at the Father's right hand, and there's also a divine person on the earth living in the hearts of every believer. And that's a unique feature of this dispensation. So what about, could I be guilty of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? See, that's a question people ask. In the issue of security, right? Is it possible? Let's just look again at that. We read it earlier in a different context. We talked about it as evidence of his divinity, that he's divine, because you can only blaspheme a divine person. But let's look at Matthew's Gospel chapter 12, verse 22. It says, this is giving us the context of this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And so it says in verse 22, then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him in so much that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, is not this the son of David? And so when the common people see this miracle, the magnitude of it, this man, both blind and dumb, and the Lord heals him, they make a deduction based on the evidence. And it's a very biblical deduction. How do you know the Messiah's here? Well, he's gonna do these miracles. He's gonna, you know, the blind will receive their sight. The lame will leap as a hawk. And so the people say, this is the son of David. And they're dead on. They're absolutely accurate in their pinpoint deduction from what they witnessed. But notice when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. So what they say is, even though the evidence is absolutely undeniable, they say he's doing it in the power of Satan. It's Satanic, the prince of the devils. That's what he's doing. And so they're attributing Jesus' actions to that of Beelzebub. Pretty, pretty serious statement. And so verse 25, Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. Every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he's divided against himself. How shall then his kingdom stand? And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. Then he says this, but if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Now, what does that tell us? Jesus performed these miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit. If I, by the spirit of God, cast out demons. And again, we got to think about this, that the Lord Jesus was here as the second man, the last Adam, and he's the first Adam acted independently. The second man, the last Adam, is in full dependence. And you see it in Luke's gospel, primarily more than any other, where the Lord Jesus spends more time in prayer than is recorded in any of the gospels because he's the dependent man. And he spends more time talking about his ministry in the power of the spirit because he's the dependent man. But here we see it again. He's doing these miracles. He's doing them in the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's evidence the kingdom of God has come to you. Or else, he says, verse 29, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man? And then he'll spoil his house. He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore, I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. By the way, just stop there. Isn't that wonderful? All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. Isn't that wonderful? I mean, that's pretty broad, isn't it? All the things that we could have done that we can be forgiven. Praise God for that. But then he says, but whoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, or literally this age, neither in the age to come. Now let's just look at Mark's account for a moment. We're gonna compare the two. And then we're gonna see how we can explain this. Mark's gospel, chapter three. Very much a parallel account. Mark 3, 28. Verily I say unto you, all sin shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiven us, but is in danger of eternal damnation. Now notice verse 30. Verse 30 is critical to a right understanding of what this literally means, the baptism or the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Verse 30 says this, because they said he hath an unclean spirit. Because they said he hath an unclean spirit. So if I can put it this way, I believe that this is a unique dispensational sin. What I mean by that is, for this sin to be committed, Jesus has to be on the earth, doing miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit, and somebody to see that and say he has an unclean spirit. Because isn't that what it says in verse 30? Tied it with verse 29. He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never forgiveness, in danger of eternal damnation, because they said he hath an unclean spirit. And so it requires Jesus to be present, Jesus to be doing these miracles, and somebody to actually willfully see that and say he has an unclean spirit. And that can only happen in this age, and then he says, and in the age to come. What's the age to come? The messianic age, when Jesus is back on earth, doing amazing things. But now he's at the Father's right hand, right? And so I don't believe that it's possible in this dispensation. And the reason I say all that is because some Christians get very nervous when they read that verse, and they wonder, could I, in my unsaved days, have inadvertently blasphemed the Holy Spirit? And if so, then am I forever lost? Can I never be forgiven, you see? And the answer is no. That's not right. You have to see it with your own eyes, witness it, and then come to the conclusion, he hath an unclean spirit. And so I believe that it's a very unique dispensational sin. And again, just say this to say that I believe we're absolutely secure as a believer in Christ. He will abide with us forever. He sealed us, he's the earnest. All of these things, and we have absolute security. So now we want to move on to the Holy Spirit. And we wanna think about his supply. And I wanna think of more on the subject of the filling of the spirit. Because we're commanded in scripture to be filled with the spirit. If you look at Ephesians chapter five, in verse 18. Ephesians five and verse 18. And we'll look at it in its context here. And this is very fresh in my mind because I spoke on this in Malaysia at 6.30 on Wednesday morning. It was there, 8.30 their evening, but 6.30 mine. And they wanted me to do Ephesians 5.17 to the end of the chapter. So it says in verse 17, wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. It's always good to understand what the will of the Lord is. And one of the things that I've said many, many times is that I believe that from scripture, the will of God is primarily moral. It's not where you are, but what you are. This is the will of God, even your sanctification, right? That's moral. If you're sanctified wherever you are, God will use you. In everything, give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. If you're a thankful person, you'll be a blessing everywhere you go because everybody's complaining. And you'll stand out like a sore thumb. You'll be so different, right? And so we see it again that here, understand what the will of the Lord is. Then he goes on and he says, and be not drunk with wine. Well, one thing I can say is it's not God's will for a Christian to be drunk with wine. Never. And again, maybe I'm extreme in this, but I grew up around drunkenness. I've seen a lot of it. I've seen what it's done. And I'm petrified of drink. I'm absolutely petrified of this stuff because I've seen the damage it's done. And I found the best way for me not to be drunk with wine is not to drink wine. I mean, that's the simplest solution as far as I'm concerned. Every drunkard started with one glass, with one taste, right? So it's just for safety. I mean, I can't from scripture say thou shalt not drink. Jesus turned water into wine. I understand all that. But I'm just saying this. Why do you need it when you have the spirit of God living within you? There's two places I think where it's acceptable, the medicine cabinet and the memorial cup. That's where it's legitimate. Medicine cabinet, memorial cup. But I see no place for it in the Christian life because we don't need artificial stimulants when you have the spirit of God living within you. But it says, be not drunk with wine. Wherein is excess? That word excess is the same word that's used at prodigal. And it literally means the inability to save. It's the idea of this that if you become a drunkard, you won't save much. The breweries will do really well and the liquor stores will do really well, but you won't do very well because it brings a man to poverty. Wonderful, wonderful story of, I think it was a Welsh revival and the teacher in the school was talking about the miracles not being true and Jesus didn't turn water into wine and all this kind of stuff. And this little girl put her hand up and she said, well, in our family, Jesus turned wine into furniture. And the teacher said, what do you mean? Well, she said, my dad was a drunkard and he trusted Jesus. Before he was a drunkard, we had no furniture. We hardly had food. Now we have furniture in the house. We have food to eat. Jesus turned wine into furniture. Isn't that wonderful? That's the power of the gospel. So basically he says, be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. And so then he says, but in contrast, a stark contrast, he says, instead, be filled with the Spirit. Now, if you were reading it in the Greek language, what it would say is, but be ye being continuously filled with the Spirit. Not a one-off thing. It's a continuous thing, okay? Continuous filling. We need it constantly, to be constantly filled with the Spirit. So what does it mean? What are we talking about? So let's talk about, for instance, the drunkard, because there's clearly an analogy here. Some said that it couldn't be that this analogy, but I think it's a perfect analogy, that the drunkard, the ways that you know somebody's a drunkard is that it affects their speech. They have slurred speech. They talk rubbish, right? I mean, they pontificate about nothing, right? So it affects their speech. It affects their walk. You know, before the breathalyzer tests, you know, these technology things, in England, anyway, you had to walk on the white line. And the police officer will watch you. And when you're drunk, you know, you're like, what does it say? You're like a man on a ship in a storm. You're going from this side to that side. You can't walk in a straight line. Even if your license depends on it, you can't do it, because it affects your walk. And then the third thing is it affects your inhibitions. People's inhibitions are lowered. They do things under the influence of alcohol they would never do when they were sober. They wouldn't have the courage to do it. That's why they call it Dutch courage. So how do we make that application with the spirit of God? Well, he's gonna show us here that a man who is full of the Holy Spirit is gonna certainly affect his speech. In fact, what does it say about his speech? It says, verse 19, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Right? Psalm 40, he brought me out of a horrible pit, put my feet on a rock, and what did he do? He put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. And so an evidence of a spiritual life is we'll be speaking to ourselves. This is to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody. And this idea of making melody, it's the idea of the stringed instrument, but the idea is this, that God is pulling the strings of our hearts and we're worshiping God private. This is not public worship here. This is private worship. This is that new song that's in our hearts that we sing because the spirit is in control. Just like the song of the drunkard, because it talks about the song of the drunkard in scripture. Well, the man that's under the control of the Holy Spirit affects, certainly affects his speech. It certainly affects his walk. His walk is affected if he's under the control of the Holy Spirit. He'll certainly walk uprightly or walk in holiness. It affects his inhibitions. Instead of them going down, the standards will rise higher because it's the Holy Spirit who's in control. And he, first and foremost, is the Holy Spirit. So he's not gonna have you doing things that are unholy. So there's some clear things. But the other thing we wanna notice here, just by way of observation, is that there are three characteristics here of the spirit- filled Christian that are brought to our attention. We've already seen the singing or speaking in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Second thing is giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the third thing is submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. So three evidences of a spirit-filled life, the singing, the thankfulness, and the submission. And you think of it, if somebody's controlled by the flesh, you don't want to sing necessarily the songs of Zion. Right, you just don't want to because you know what you're doing is wrong anyway. And so it would almost be pure hypocrisy for you to sing those songs. You're not thankful in the flesh, what are we? We're a bunch of grouchy complainers, aren't we? Like the weather in Missouri. You know how it is, right? We could just go, it's just the beginning, the politics, right? We could go on and on. But the spirit-filled man is always giving thanks, always for all things to God and the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The all things is a bit challenging, isn't it? Some things, I got COVID again, can I be thankful? I'm still here, praise God, I can be thankful for that. I got a lot of good rest, I'm really thankful for that. I slept really well, lots of good things. I lost some weight, I can be thankful for that, praise God, there's blessings coming out of this, right? It's amazing how you can be thankful. Matthew Henry, you probably heard this before, but it was wonderful, he'd been robbed. And so he says, I thank you, Father, that I've never been robbed before. That's good. He said, and Father, I also thank you that even though he took my all, I didn't have much. And thirdly, he says, Lord, I'm really thankful that I was the one being robbed, not the one doing the robbing. It's hard to discourage a guy like that, isn't it? Because he's thankful, is he filled with this? I think he was filled with a spirit when he responded to being robbed like that. That was not a fleshly response, was it? It was actually a supernatural response. The Spirit of God is in control. And then submission. When I'm in the flesh, somebody, and again, it's to one another. And the word submit is a military term, it means rank under, take your place under, right? The military is not gonna work unless those that are under obey those that are over. It's just not gonna work. You've gotta have order, you gotta have submission, right? So you rank under. But this is to one another. And when I'm in the flesh, I say, if somebody comes up and speaks to me, I say to them, who do you think you are telling me what to do? That's the flesh. Spirit, filled believer, will say, well, that's a good point, brother, I never thought of that. And does it, you see? So again, submitting to one another. Now, look at Colossians, just for a second. Colossians chapter three, where it's kind of a parallel, because you get the same evidences, but you get a different cause. But is it a different cause? So verse 16 says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom. Then it says, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. And so you can see clear parallels, husbands love your wives, so on and so forth. You see the parallels between, I mean, if you were to put them side by side, Ephesians 5, 18 following, Colossians 3, 16 following, you'd see the very same results, but a different cause. One says, be filled with the spirit. The other says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now, what we have of the word of Christ, we've already learned, it's part of that all scripture that is given to us by inspiration of God. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved, so that would include Matthew and Mark and Luke and John as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So as I allow that word to dwell in me richly, what does that mean? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It means that to dwell means to be at home, doesn't it? So the word of God comes to me and it finds a willing lodging place in my life, not just in my head, but it affects my emotions, it affects my will, it becomes part of who I am. And the more I allow that word of Christ to dwell in me richly, the more my life comes under the control of God, the Holy Spirit, who's the author of the word of God. And therefore the consequences are the same, okay? But we're not done with this. We've got to think through this a little bit more. Back in Ephesians five, what does it mean to be filled with the spirit? And how does that really work? Well, let's just think about it for a moment, because earlier on today, if you were paying attention, I said the spirit is a person and you're indwelt by the person of the Holy Spirit. So how can you be filled if you already have all of him? You see the difficulty? You can't have more than all. And if you got him, you got him all. Now we've got some problems. So what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? He dwells within us, but do we know what it is to be filled with him? Now, in a little illustration here, this is gonna keep you awake because you've done really well, but there's a glove here and I'm gonna see, can I get, so this glove is me, just pretend, and the hand is the Holy Spirit. And he is in me, but is he filling me? Well, all my hand is in, right? But is he filling me? Well, no, he isn't because there's something else in there, blocking, so he's not filling every part because something else is filling it. And so we have to take what's in there out so that he can fill. So we've got to take these out. And unfortunately, this podium, you won't be able to see, but there actually is filled with M&Ms. This is my favorite illustration because I get to eat the illustration afterwards, but I'll share. Nope, oops. No wonder I couldn't get, oops. No wonder, I better not stand on them here. No wonder I couldn't get in my hand to fill the glove because it was filled with so much other stuff. Nope, there's one more in there. Wow, that's a big packet. That was a big packet. There we go. Yep. Now, hand is in the glove and it's filled, right? So how do we apply that? See, the question is this. We have all of the Holy Spirit, but does he have all of us? Is every area of our lives yielded fully to his control? Now, this is a true story. I have a friend. He's a dear, dear friend to this day. And I heard that he had committed a very heinous sin. And when I heard it, I didn't believe it because I thought I knew this man well. And it seemed so out of character. So I went to his house because I don't wanna just believe what other people say. I wanna go to the horse's mouth. And I said to this man, knocked on his door, he came to the door, I said, tell me it's not true. And he began to weep. And we knelt down on the floor and he said to me, he said, Mike, he said, I wanna tell you the true story here. He said, there was one room in my life, if my life is like a house, one room where the door was barred to the Holy Spirit, it was my room and I did my thing. And he said, the reason I'm in the state I'm in today is because I didn't let him in to every room in my life. And he said, if you do one thing for me, he said, everywhere you go, you tell people, don't shut any doors in your life to the Lord. Allow the Spirit of God to have access to every room. And you see, the problem is that oftentimes we're filled with other things. We're filled with anger. We're filled with rage. We're filled with bitterness. We're filled with lust. We're filled with greed. And how can you be filled with him when something else is filling you? And so we often sing this hymn, Channels Only, Blessed Master. And then we hear these words, and they're quite interesting words. It says this, emptied that thou shouldest fill me, a clean vessel in thy hand. Isn't that interesting? I find those words very interesting. Emptied that thou shouldest fill me. And so we might ask the question of all of our hearts today, is there any areas of our lives that we will not yield to his control? You have all of him, but does he have all of you? The areas that you're saying, sorry, this is a no-go zone. This is me. This is what I do. You don't impose on this part of my life. And I think that that is part of it. And so it's bringing, we could put it this way, that alcohol, what it does is it brings the person under control of these spirits. They're often called wines and spirits. They're under control of these spirits, and it affects everything. And we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and he wants every part of your life to be under his complete control. And that's, I think, the implication of being filled with the Spirit. Now, along with that comes power. And I think of these men, like Dale Moody, and I think what happened to them, they called it a baptism of power, but I believe what happened is that they came to a place where they fully yielded themselves to the control of the Spirit of God. And that's how God took them up and blessed them and used them so much. And I have some basis for that. I want you to look with me at John 3, a couple of scriptures that would support what I'm saying, that yieldedness is the key. I really believe it's the key. It's really hard preaching with these M&Ms here on the platform. It's just very distracting. John 3, verse 34, it says, for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, speaking of the Lord Jesus, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. Isn't that a beautiful verse? God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. How could it be said of the Lord Jesus that God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him? I think what it would say is that there's no person ever who walked this earth who was more fully yielded to the Spirit of God than the Lord Jesus. Nobody. And we can prove it from scripture. Luke's gospel chapter four, Luke chapter four, just a marvelous chapter. And we see something of the Lord Jesus here. Verse one, Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Now, we'll come back to this passage because we want to talk about the leading of the Spirit. But Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. He was led by the Spirit. Verse 14, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. And verse 18, he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, so on and so forth. All I want you to see is this, that if, and again, Luke is presenting to us Jesus as man, okay? The emphasis in Luke is primarily on his humanity. He is the man par excellence, right? He is the fully dependent man. And so in Luke, we see that Jesus as man is full of the Spirit, led by the Spirit, operates in the power of the Spirit. And we also learn a lot about his prayer life in Luke. And what I'm saying to us as Christians is this, if Jesus as man saw that need of dependence on the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit, who do we think we are as men to think that we could ever accomplish anything for God without that life of dependence, without experiencing that same fullness and power and leading in our lives? I think it's supreme arrogance to think that we could ever be remotely like the Lord Jesus unless we follow in his footsteps, which is a life of dependence. And I think it's just absolutely preposterous to think that we could ever do that. So what does this look like? We've seen the singing and we've seen the submission and we've seen those very practical things, the thanksgiving, but what does it look like in terms of the power of a man filled with the Spirit? Why don't you look at a couple of verses in Acts? First of all, there's a promise in Acts 1, verse 8. We've looked at it already. You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you'll be witnesses. So power to witness. And certainly the early church had that power. Look at Acts 3, verse 12. Just some of the examples that just quickly we'll run through them, Acts 3, 12. It says, and when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, you men of Israel, why marvel you at this? Or why look you so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? So obviously there's a demonstrative power in their ministry, but they're saying it's not our own. We couldn't do this in our own power. There's another power at work here. Acts 4, verse 7. It says, and when they had set them in the midst and asked by what power, by what name, have you done this? And Peter responds in verse 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said to them, and he begins to speak. But look at Acts 6. This is where it gets interesting, at least to me. Acts 6, remember there's a problem in the early church and one section of the church felt that they were being overlooked and neglected. And they felt they were getting a raw deal. And the enemy loves to divide. That's his primary object for the church is to divide and conquer. Get us to see our differences rather than what unites us. And so these ladies, they're widows. They're Jewish widows. They both lost the love of their life. Both groups are Jews. I mean, they got a lot of, and they both, they believe in Jesus. Like, how much more in common could you have in that they're widows, they're Jews? But the enemy wants to focus on the fact that one group is, well, they're Jews from Jerusalem. They speak Hebrew. They use the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Well, the other group, you see, they're Grecians. They've come under Hellenistic influence. Hebrew's not their first language. And they use that awful translation that set you against translation. And so what is the enemy doing? He's focusing on differences rather than where they're the same. They have a lot of things in common, but he wants them to see the differences. And at 12, called the multitude of the disciples unto them, verse two, and said, it's not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. We see this as an attempt to the enemy to sidetrack us from our primary calling. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. So they said, okay, we're gonna give the task to the church of selecting these men. We're just gonna give you the criteria. You, the church, are gonna make the choice, but we're gonna give you the criteria. So these seven men, we're telling you how many, seven, we're telling you what to look for. They have to be men of honest report. They're gonna be handling finances. They're gonna be handling the resources of the church. And so we want somebody who's gonna be a man of integrity, honest report, no more Judases, right? You've already had a Judas handling the bag. We're done with that. We want people that have a reputation for honesty. It's always good to find an honest man, isn't it? I have a mechanic, and I really like him, because he's a, I know it sounds like an oxymoron, an honest mechanic, but he has been, and his deal is with me, and I'm not gonna go anywhere else. I like this guy. He does what he tells me, and if he can't do it, he tells me he can't do it, and he stands by his word. I just appreciate it. It's a wonderful thing. Honest men, hard to find. Seven men of honest report. And then he says, not just honest report, it says they have to be men who are full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Now, if you're giving that as a criteria, okay, in other words, this is how you pick. They must be men who are full of the Holy Ghost. It's obvious that you can tell what a full of the Holy Ghost guy looks like if you're gonna have to pick that, right? There's some ability to, and again, I ask, could you pick seven men who you would consider full of the Holy Ghost in your assembly? I don't know. Just asking the question. An interesting question, I think. But in this case, they seem to get it right, because verse five, it says, and the saying pleased the whole multitude. They obviously didn't have a difficulty finding these men, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. So at least with Stephen, they got it dead right, didn't they? Because he's full of the Holy Ghost. And so, clearly, it's something, all I'm saying, it's something clearly discernible. So what does this really look like in practice? They're recognizable by the qualities of being filled. We can see that clearly. We see other examples. Look at 11, chapter 11 of Acts, in verse 24, as Barnabas is described. And again, what a lovely description. I just love the way the Christians in the New Testament spoke about one another. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And much people were added unto the Lord. That's speaking of Barnabas. What a great description. Wouldn't you love that? If somebody was describing somebody you knew, and they used that to, well, he's a good man. He's full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Well, that's a beautiful designation, isn't it? And clearly he was. And so, it's clearly discernible. It certainly resulted in certain things. Acts 4, verse 31, it says, when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And so, you'd say that a spirit-filled person is somebody that can speak God's word with boldness. Because that's what it says. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke the word of God with boldness. Now, they prayed for boldness. That's what they'd asked for. But it tells us that in answer to their prayer, he filled them with the Holy Ghost so that they could speak the word with boldness. So, boldness in the presentation and preaching of Christ. Look at Acts 13, verse 10. Acts 13, verse 10. We break in in verse nine. It says, then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him. This is Elemas the sorcerer. So, Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. Now, again, this is interesting, isn't it? Well, sometimes when we think of somebody who's filled with the Spirit, we think of them as Mr. Nice Guy, right? Who wouldn't say anything to offend or hurt anybody. And he's just this kind of, well, you know, just a lovely little guy. Never would say anything. And yet the Lord Jesus, we've already read that the Spirit was given him above measure. Nobody was more filled with the Spirit than Jesus. So when he cleansed the temple, was he filled with the Spirit? When he called them a brood of vipers, was he filled with the Spirit? John the Baptist, same thing, right? He was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb, and he calls them a brood of vipers, bunch of snakes. When he says, woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, was he filled with the Spirit? Yes, he was. So a Spirit-filled man has a boldness to preach Christ, but he also has equally a boldness to confront and reprove error, clearly, and do it with a definite boldness. Acts 7, Acts chapter 7, verse 55 and 56. Well, let's break in in verse 51. It says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. By the way, you remember we talked about the Holy Spirit and salvation? You know, he does this convicting and all this other stuff, but we need to recognize that Scripture tells us it's possible to resist the Holy Spirit, because the Jews were masters at it. You always resist the Holy Spirit, because God is a perfect gentleman. He'll convict, but he's not gonna bring you against your will to accept Christ. So they resisted the Holy Spirit, and they always did. And as your fathers did, so do you. This is a generational thing. These are past masters at resisting the Holy Spirit. And they were doing it, and their fathers had done it before them. And so he says, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers. You have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, saw the glory of God, Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened, son of man standing on the right hand of God. And they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord, cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Stop there, of course, verse 59, I gotta do that. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. In the context here, I would say this, that not only does the Holy Spirit give boldness in preaching Christ, a man full of the Holy Spirit, not only does he give boldness in reproving error, but he gives the ability to die well, because that's what Stephen's doing here, right? In the face of hostility and all that's going on, he sees Jesus, God's right hand, isn't that amazing? And he's able to act like his master and say, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, just like his master has said, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. He was given ability to die well. And so this is what this looks like. You know, it's interesting that it's something we should long for, the spirit-filled life. Lord, I want this. One man says, and it's this yieldedness, it's this yielding ourselves fully. One man says this, when it came, I couldn't explain what had happened, but I was aware of things unspeakable and full of glory. Some results were immediate. There came into my soul a deep peace, a thrilling joy, a new sense of power. My mind was quickened. I felt I had received a new faculty of understanding. Every power was vitalized. My bodily powers were quickened. There was a new sense of spring and vitality, a new power of endurance and a strong man's exhilaration. In big things, things began to happen. What we had failed to do by strenuous endeavor came to pass without labor. It was as when the Lord Jesus stepped in the boat, that with all their rowing, they had made no progress. Immediately, the ship came to the land. Now, I don't know about you, but I think God's people are working as hard as they've ever worked, but not seeing much. Could it be that we've neglected the very source of divine power, the yielding to the spirit of God? Does God want that for us? Jonathan Goldforth, who was a missionary to China and Manchuria in Korea, he was dissatisfied with his work, restless, discontented. He was led to a more intensive study of the scriptures. He said every passage that had any bearing on the price of or the road to the accession of power became life and breath to me. He said, I'm gonna find out what those laws of the spirit are and obey them no matter what the cost. And God took him up in a marvelous way to bring revival in Manchuria and Korea. And what was the answer? Well, he just recognized, I've been doing all this in my own strength and I'm getting nowhere. I'm getting worn out. I'm getting frazzled with all this hard work and no results. And he said, I've got to have this New Testament power. So he said, I'm gonna look at every scripture. I'm gonna do everything. I've got to get this. I've got to find this. I've got to somehow, this has got to become a reality in my life and service. And that's God's prayer for us, isn't it? Paul prayed in Ephesians 3.19 with the Christians in Ephesus that they might be filled with all the fullness of God. That's what he wants for us, fullness. And so we know, we often sing it, emptied that thou shouldest fill me, a clean vessel in thy hand. Do we really mean what we sing? Do we really want to know something of the life, of the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit in our service? Or are we content with business as usual, just carry on the way we're going? Or do we have a yearning? Lord, I read the book of Acts. We're supposed to be New Testament Christians, but I see a bit of a disconnect between them and us. I don't want to see that disconnect. See, I think there's nothing wrong with New Testament principles. I think the problem is we lack New Testament power. I think the principles are absolutely clear. They're biblical, they're correct, but they have to be carried out in New Testament power. And if we try to do it in our own strength, it's just going to get weaker and weaker and weaker and going to fail. We need to be continuously being filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what we need. Let's pray. Father, we just look to thee. We want you to use today in our lives. Lord, I don't know how you're going to use it. Maybe it will cause a discontentment with the way it is. Not a critical spirit, Lord, we don't need that, but just a longing, a yearning in our hearts to know something of what Stephen and Paul and Peter and these many believers, Barnabas, experienced in their lives. What Jonathan Goforth and D.L. Moody and so many others experienced when they fully yielded themselves to the control of the indwelling heavenly guest. They opened every door to every room and said, you have free access, you take control. I resign, I quit, I give up, you take over. And they saw a great blessing. Oh Lord, we long for this. We long for it in all of our lives. Lord, would you do that in us? Would you bring us to the end of self, the end of self-effort, the end of the energy of the flesh in a yearning for spirit-filled Christianity that would magnify the Lord Jesus more than ever. We'll give thee the glory, Jesus' name, amen. Try not to eat my M&Ms when you come up, if you can. Ready to take some M&Ms out of your glove? Let's sing verse two together of number 533. Marvin, would you give thanks for the food when we're done singing? Just verse two of 533. All to Jesus I surrender. Make me Savior wholly thine. May thy Holy Spirit fill me. May I know thy power divine. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. Marvin? Your son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Amen. And supper should be ready downstairs. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Zaay5BYcEUg.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/mike-attwood/holy-spirit-his-supply/ ========================================================================