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Being Filled with the Spirit By Steven Curry
Ephesians 5:18

25/03/1990 Newtown Baptist Church

Ephesians 5 and verse 15, Paul writes,
Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise,
making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
Do not get drunk and whine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
And we know God will add his blessing to the public reading of his own word.
This evening, I want to speak on verse 18.
Do not get drunk and whine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Now, the subject of the Spirit, I'm not sure about Australia, but certainly at home,
it's a very controversial subject.
And there's a lot of excesses and a lot of dubious teaching around.
And rightly so, Reformed people have maybe turned away from that
and looked for something more solid and more biblical
in the interpretation of the doctrine of the Spirit contained in Scripture.
However, I do feel that there is a danger that we throw out all that is supernatural
and we overlook the clear teaching of Scripture on the doctrine of the filling of the Spirit.
Sin seems to abound in the lives of so many Christians.
Worship is shallow. Sin has the victory.
Materialism has got hold of so many of God's people.
And why is that so?
Well, it's because they know nothing of the doctrine of the filling of the Spirit.
I want to look at this command of Paul under three very simple, straightforward headings.
The command to be filled, the conditions for being filled, and the consequences of being filled with the Spirit.
First of all, then, the command to be filled.
Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
As you know, the book of Ephesians can be divided into two.
The first three chapters, we have that great doctrinal section in which Paul lays the foundations of our faith.
The doctrines of election, the doctrines of regeneration, the doctrines of adoption,
the sanctification, all contained in chapters one to three.
And then in the second half of the book, we have the practical section where Paul is concerned about the outworkings of our faith as Christians.
And there he's concerned about our personal life, our ecclesiastical life, our domestic life, our secular life.
And he gives clear, straightforward teaching on how we should live and behave as Christians.
And it's in the middle of this practical section that we find this statement of Paul's be filled with the Spirit.
And it seems that Paul is saying how we behave and how we live as Christians is intimately connected to the doctrine of the filling of the Spirit.
Donald MacLeod, the professor of the Free Church College in Edinburgh, says,
the filling of the Spirit is not so much related to euphoric experience, but to the ethical rigors of Christian living.
And that's true.
Now, Paul comes here and he doesn't say, I would like you to be filled with the Spirit.
Nor does he say, I want you to consider this doctrine of being filled with the Spirit.
He doesn't say, I want you to go and pray about the filling of the Spirit.
He says dogmatically and emphatically, be filled with the Spirit.
Now, this is a commandment of God, a commandment of Christ through his servant Paul.
And he is commanding all Christians to be filled with the Spirit.
It's a law of God.
And we know that transgression or that sin is any transgression of the law of God.
And so we sin against God and his word if we know nothing of the filling of the Spirit.
So I'm asking you this evening, as I ask myself, are you filled with the Spirit?
As you sit in your seat this evening in New Town Baptist Church, are you filled with the Spirit?
Filled with the third person of the Trinity?
Well, you may say, I'm not sure.
I don't know what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
Perhaps if you explain to me, then I could tell you if I'm filled with the Spirit.
So that's the first question we want to answer.
What does it mean then to be filled with the Spirit?
And in answering that question, I want to answer it negatively first.
I want to tell you what it doesn't mean to be filled with the Spirit.
And first of all, being filled with the Spirit is not the same thing as receiving the Spirit
or being indwelt by the Spirit.
Paul writes in Romans chapter 8 in verse 9,
If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
And so you cannot be a Christian if you haven't received the Spirit.
It's thoroughly unbiblical to ask any Christian, have you received the Spirit?
And if you are a Christian and you're born of the Spirit of God and any other believer comes to you
and asks, have you received the Spirit?
You must answer yes, because you cannot be a Christian without receiving the Spirit.
Secondly, being filled with the Spirit is not the same thing as being baptized by the Spirit.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 in verse 13.
This is a very important verse.
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free,
and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the Corinthian church had a problem over unity and the trouble arose over a difference
in the gifts that different members had received.
Paul is arguing for the unity of the body of Christ.
He comes to the doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit and he says,
don't you know that you've all been baptized by one Spirit into one body?
The doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit is never a dividing doctrine in Scripture.
It's always a uniting doctrine.
All Christians have been baptized by the Spirit.
Donald Gray Barnhouse writes,
No one may ask a believer whether he has been baptized with the Spirit.
The very fact that a man is in the body of Christ demonstrates that he has been baptized
with the Spirit, for there is no other way of entering Christ's body.
So if you're a Christian born of the Spirit of God, you have been baptized.
Thirdly, the filling of the Spirit is not the same thing as being sealed by the Spirit.
Many Pentecostalists, recognizing that it is unbiblical to describe their second experience
in terms of the baptism of the Spirit or receiving the Spirit,
have found this new phrase in Scripture being sealed by the Spirit.
And they turn for their reference to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13,
where Paul writes,
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth
in the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in him with the seal,
the promised Holy Spirit, who is the deposit,
guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession.
Again, the sealing of the Spirit, as in the context of Ephesians here,
is conversion.
Paul says you were sealed with the Holy Spirit
when you believe as a deposit which guarantees your inheritance,
and your inheritance in heaven is guaranteed from the moment you come to faith in Christ.
So then this filling of the Spirit is not the same thing as being indwelt by the Spirit.
It's not the same thing as receiving the Spirit.
It's not the same thing as being baptized by the Spirit.
And it's not the same thing as being sealed by the Spirit.
All these things describe the work of God when he brings a sinner to faith in Christ.
Well, let's take this phrase a little bit further,
be filled with the Spirit.
Another common misunderstanding, and one that I held for a number of years,
is that the filling of the Spirit means that you receive the Spirit in degrees or doses.
Some people talk about the Holy Spirit as if the Holy Spirit was a type of liquid.
And they say, well, we as Christians are vessels,
and some people have a little bit of the Spirit in the bottom.
Some people are half full, and some Christians, well, they're overflowing.
Now, that's a thoroughly unbiblical idea.
The Holy Spirit is not a substance.
He's not a liquid.
He's not a power like electricity.
He's a person, and you can't receive part of a person.
You can't receive a person in degrees or doses.
You either have him in the totality of his personhood, or you do not.
If you're a Christian, you have the third person of the Trinity dwelling in your heart,
in the totality of his personhood.
He is there.
You can't receive him in parcels and installments.
And we must put to death this notion that the Holy Spirit is some kind of
substance that you can receive a little bit of at a time.
Well, let's go on positively and ask ourselves what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
In Taylor's Greek lexicon, the definition of this word filled is this.
He writes,
What holy takes possession of the mind is said to fill it.
Now, that's the definition.
What holy takes possession of the mind is said to fill it.
It means to be controlled or dominated by someone.
Ananias and Sapphira were filled with Satan.
What does that mean?
It means they were controlled and they were dominated by Satan.
And Stephen in Acts six was at full, full faith.
He was controlled and he was dominated by faith.
We have an expression in Ireland.
I don't know if it's used in Australia, but if a person is a bit proud,
we would say that person's full of himself.
Do you have that expression in Australia?
Or we would say maybe that man's full of his wife.
All he talks about is his wife and he asks her permission for everything.
Or we might say that young couple are full of their new home.
Well, that's the way that Paul is using this word filled here.
He is saying to be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled and to be dominated by the Spirit.
It means that we cannot think of purely secular thought
without relating it to the Spirit's ministry in our lives.
Every action is dominated by him.
Our worship is controlled by him.
Our work is dominated by him.
Our family is controlled by him.
Our personal private life is controlled and dominated by him.
Every emotion, every thought, every action is subject to his authority and to his sovereignty.
That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
Warren Wiersbe writes,
The baptism of the Spirit means I belong to Christ's body.
The filling of the Spirit means my body belongs to Christ.
Let me repeat that.
The baptism of the Spirit means I belong to Christ's body.
The filling of the Spirit means my body belongs to Christ.
Now, that is a helpful statement, but it's not all the truth.
To be filled with the Spirit not only means my body belongs to Christ.
It means my mind belongs to Christ.
It means my intellect belongs to Christ.
It means every fiber of my being belongs to him and is under his sovereignty and his authority.
And that's what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
This is Paul's expression in verse 18 of chapter 5.
He says, Do not get drunk with wine.
He says, Don't come under the influence of wine.
Don't let wine control and dominate you, but be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Be controlled and dominated by the Holy Spirit instead.
To be filled with the Spirit.
Secondly, on the positive side and what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
Let me say that this filling of the Spirit is not a once for all experience,
nor is it a series of crisis experiences.
The tense of the verb shares great light in Paul's meaning.
It's in the present continuous tense.
Now, what does that mean?
It means that this is a continuous action and being filled with the Spirit.
It would be better translated.
Go on being filled with the Spirit.
Be perpetually, habitually filled with the Spirit.
You see, it's not a once for all experience.
It's an abiding continuous experience.
And we see this again and again in scripture.
When they chose those seven deacons, they chose Stephen because he was full of the Holy Spirit.
Now, just before the church came to vote and officers,
Stephen didn't have some magical, mystical experience.
And they said, Ah, Stephen's filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, that was his abiding condition.
He was filled with the Spirit.
He lived under the Spirit's control.
He was under the Spirit's authority,
and they recognized him as a godly man filled with the Spirit.
To be filled with the Spirit.
Secondly, and quickly, I want you to notice the conditions for being filled with the Spirit.
As I have already pointed out, this is a command of Paul.
Now, since that is true, being filled with the Spirit is a duty and not an experience.
This is not something that happens to us,
but it's something that we control and something that we determine.
As a man decides whether he is going to be filled with wine,
so he also decides whether he is going to be filled with the Spirit.
Paul gives a commandment, an injunction here to be obeyed.
Now, we do not control the baptism of the Spirit.
That is the secret, sovereign work of God where the purpose and election is fulfilled
and the wind blows where it listeth and no man knows where it comes from.
But when it comes to the doctrine of the filling of the Spirit, we control this.
And I believe we should not pray for the filling of the Spirit.
I believe we should not wait for the filling of the Spirit.
But we should get up and determine within ourselves to be filled with the Spirit.
It's in our power and it's in our control whether or not we are filled with the Spirit.
How do you ask, how do you determine whether or not you are filled with the Spirit?
Well, Paul says, be not filled with wine.
And that's not a verse primarily for teaching temperance.
To see that is to miss Paul's whole argument here.
Paul in this passage is contrasting the old life with life in the Spirit.
And he is saying we must mortify all that is old.
We must mortify the old man.
We must feed the new man.
We mustn't be dominated and controlled by the old life,
but we must be controlled and dominated by life in the Spirit.
And he says get rid of anything that dominates from the old
and start living a life that is pleasing to God.
Now this involves confession of sin,
involves surrender of will and intellect, body, time, talents, desires, ambitions.
We have to take self to the altar and put self to death on the altar.
We need to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable and pleasing onto him.
Putting death to self.
It also involves a submission to the Word of God.
If you turn over to the parallel passage in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16.
We read these words.
Now what I mean by a parallel passage is that it almost seems that Paul has
lifted phrases on letter and put them in another letter.
And we have references to the family here, to Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
And in verse 16, instead of being filled with the Spirit, he says,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,
as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Now, Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs filled with the Spirit.
Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, let the word of God dwell in you richly.
Being filled with the Spirit means to be under the authority of the Scriptures.
It means to willingly obey and subject ourselves to everything that God commands in his Word.
I was talking to a girl once, a student,
and I was talking to her about a finer point of doctrine,
and she was getting very agitated and she turned around to me and she said,
Even if you show me that in the Bible, I will not believe it.
Even if you show me that in the Bible, I will not believe it.
Now, that's a very serious thing to say, and that girl wasn't filled with the Spirit.
To be full of the Spirit means that you are under the authority of the Word of God.
That's what it means to be filled by the Spirit.
So, we've looked at the command to be filled with the Spirit.
It's not baptism of the Spirit. It's not being indwelled by the Spirit.
It's not receiving the Spirit. It's not a progressive process.
It's an abiding experience. It means to be dominated by him.
What are the conditions to be filled with the Spirit?
Well, we need to realize that this is a duty.
It's a responsibility for us as Christians to be filled with the Spirit.
It involves the mortification of the old man
and a surrender of ourselves to the teaching of the Word of God.
Finally, this evening, I want to look at the consequences of being filled with the Spirit.
Three points under this main point.
Our worship will be revolutionized, verse 19.
Contentment will be realized, verse 20.
Unity will be revealed, in verse 21.
So, first of all, then, when we are filled with the Spirit,
controlled and dominated by the Spirit, our worship will be revolutionized.
Paul says in verse 19,
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
Now, the first consequence of being filled with the Spirit is not mountain-moving faith.
It's not some ecstatic spiritual experience, but it's the ability to worship God.
Now, if that is one of the consequences of being filled with the Spirit,
it seems to me that very few churches know very much about being filled with the Spirit,
and many churches, what passes for worship would not be out of place in the graveyard.
It's so dead and lifeless.
On the other hand, what passes for worship in some places wouldn't be out of place in the circus.
So frivolous and fleshly, no reverence and fear.
A.W. Tozer's words are still tragically true today.
He writes this.
Now, listen to these words very carefully.
He says,
Evangelical Christianity is now tragically below the New Testament standard.
Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life.
Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual.
We have lost the art of worship.
We are not producing saints.
Our models are successful businessmen, celebrated athletes and theatrical personalities.
Our literature is shallow, and our hymns or choruses border in sacrilege,
and scarcely anyone appears to care.
We have lost the art of worship.
Why is that?
Because we are not filled with the Spirit.
No sense of reverence and fear before God.
People talk about having a worship time.
For the life of me, I don't know what a worship time is.
You either meet to worship God or you don't.
Paul says, speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
Now, what does that tell us about Spirit-filled worship?
Well, first of all, it tells us that Spirit-filled worship is ordered and balanced.
Paul doesn't say speak to one another in psalms or hymns or spiritual songs.
He doesn't say use whatever you like, whatever takes your fancy.
No, Spirit-filled worship is ordered and balanced,
and it will include psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
All free ought to be in the program.
It ought to be organized and ordered.
Christian worship isn't a free-for-all with no organized program.
It's organized for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of order.
Now, what does Paul mean when he uses these words, psalms, hymns and spiritual songs?
Well, he certainly didn't mean the sultry Christian hymns
and some little chorus book tagged on to the end.
First of all, this word, psalms.
Psalms are hymns of objective worship to God,
where you're focusing your attention upon God and you're seeking to worship Him.
Immortal, invisible, God only wise, enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes.
You're worshipping Him.
You're focusing upon Him.
You're seeking to uplift His name.
That's a psalm.
Well, what's a hymn?
Well, a hymn recalls the work of Christ.
You focus on the work of Christ and the great atonement He made.
Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?
Spiritual songs, well, they're songs of testimony.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
That's a spiritual song.
It's a song about what has happened to you.
Now, all three ought to be in the program and I've been at church services
and they've been all spiritual songs.
Indeed, there is a tendency in our circles at home not to worship in hymns at all.
And they sing these hymns.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the lap?
You're not singing to God.
You're singing to unbelievers.
No worship there.
Spirit-filled worship is ordered and balanced.
It includes psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Spirit-filled worship is congregation.
Paul says that speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Worship is to be congregational.
It's to be for the benefit of the church.
The Spirit-filled Christian will sing with other Christians
and he will meet with other Christians.
The Spirit-filled Christian isn't an isolationist who worships God on his own.
He meets with God's people so that he with God's people can exalt God's name.
We had a church conference last year and a man came to the conference and
he came quite a distance and I said to him on the way out shaking his hand,
I said, where do you worship?
He says, oh, I don't worship anywhere.
Can't find anybody to agree with me.
And you see that man wasn't filled with the Spirit.
We worship congregationally.
The primary audience for singing is fellow Christians.
That's fellowship.
Singing and music never is used in scripture as an evangelistic tool.
We do not sing the gospel for unbelievers.
We sing to edify each other.
For over 1,000 years, the church did not sing from shortly after the New Testament
until the time of the Reformation.
What music was sung was usually performed by professional musicians.
It was sung in Latin and no one could understand it.
The average church member couldn't participate, let alone appreciate what was being sung.
And when the Bible came back into the church, congregational singing came back into the church.
Worship must never, never be limited to the professional musicians.
It's to be congregational.
I can't sing a note.
I've been often told that by my church.
But I sing with the voice that God has given me and I sing to his praise.
And nobody should complain about that.
From where do spiritual Christians worship?
Well, Paul says sing and make music in your heart.
Now I want you to notice it doesn't say sing and make music in your church.
It's not a question of who can play the guitar.
Can somebody play the trombone and what about the drums?
Sing and make music in your heart and somebody will object and say,
but in the Old Testament, didn't they have 10 stringed instruments and trombones to play?
And they did.
Didn't they dance before the Lord?
They did.
But where did they do all this?
In the temple.
In the temple.
And in the New Covenant, Jeremiah, the Lord through Jeremiah says,
I will write my law on their hearts.
It will be internalized and worship has been internalized as well.
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit dwells within us and the worship place is in the heart.
In the heart, we can have our lively singing and our hand clapping and we can still feel to worship
God.
Worship that is meaningful and acceptable to God is worship that is from the heart.
To whom do spiritual Christians sing?
Well, sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
To the Lord.
Our singing is to be doxological.
It is to be due to the Lord.
We do not sing simply to edify each other, but we sing to uplift the name tribe of Jehovah.
Johann Sebastian Bach said the aim of all music is the glory of God.
Now that's not true of all music.
It should be true of Christian music, but it's not.
But it should be true of spirit-filled Christian music.
The glory of God.
Jeffrey Thomas says in true worship, men have little thought of the means of worship.
Their thoughts are upon God.
Now, if our singing is to be to the Lord, it ought to be signed.
Much of the hymns and choruses that have been written in the last 25 years come from a theological stew and are, I believe, dishonouring to God.
We must worship the Lord in spirit and in breath and in truth because it is to Him.
So that's your first point then.
What are the consequences of being filled with the Spirit?
Worship will be revolutionised.
Secondly, contentment will be realised in verse 20.
Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The second consequence of being filled with the Spirit is contentment.
Now, why do I say that?
Well, Paul talks about giving thanks, giving thanks, and that's closely related to worship.
Prayer is the beggar asking.
Praise is simply saying thank you for what you have received.
And thankfulness is part of worship.
But notice that Paul says, giving thanks always in all things, always in all things, always in all things.
Always in all things.
And always means always.
This spiritual Christian gives thanks in the lows as well as the highs.
He gives thanks in the troughs as well as the peaks.
He gives thanks in the valleys, even the valley of all valleys, the valley of the shadow of death itself.
He gives thanks just as much as when he's on the mountaintop.
He gives thanks in the midst of personal trial.
When he receives the letter from the bank manager and he's under financial pressure.
When his son who he sought to teach the things of God to and instruct him and bring him up
and the Christian home rebels and throws off the conservative upbringing that he's had.
When bereavement comes and he loses his wife, his partner in life or his son or daughter.
When loneliness comes, he gives thanks in all things, no matter what the circumstances are.
That's the mark of the spiritual Christian.
Arthur Pink in his writings talks about fair weather Christians.
And what he means there is these Christians that when things are going well.
Well, they're on the mountaintop and they're spiritually king and will see.
But when difficulty or hardship or persecution comes.
And it does come because Jesus said in the world you will have trouble.
And when that comes, their Christian life goes to pieces.
But the spiritual man is no fair weather Christian.
His worship, his praise, his walk with God is totally unaffected
by the circumstances of life always in all things.
And Job is the classic experience.
He lost everything, lost his health, his possessions, his family, his dignity.
And he accepts it all.
And he says in Job 1 in verse 21,
Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Even in the midst of desperate circumstances, Job manages to praise and worship God.
Paul says in Philippians 4 in verse 11,
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances, whatever the circumstances.
And here's Paul, he's jailed, he's chained to a Roman soldier.
He's called, he's hungry.
He's hearing nothing but bad reports from his beloved churches.
And he says, I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
That's the mark of the spiritual Christian.
It's like William Carey.
William Carey went into, he was there seven years.
He had been translating the scriptures into numerous dialects and languages.
He had his Greek dictionary linked up with the language.
He had all this work and it was all stored in a shed outside his home.
One night a fire came and destroyed the whole lot.
Seven years work down the drain.
Do you know what William Carey did?
He fell to his knees to worship the God of Providence.
That's a spiritual Christian.
The last consequence of being filled with the spirit is that unity will be revealed.
Look at verse 21.
Paul says, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Paul is still speaking here about the consequences of being filled with the spirit.
And that ability to submit to another person is not a natural grace bestowed upon men.
Man is a proud and arrogant creature.
He's always certain, trying to assert himself and defend his corner.
An article in the London Times a few years ago.
It was discussing all the problems in the world and invited correspondence on this particular issue.
And they received this letter, a very brief letter, and it simply said,
Dear sir, I am yours faithfully, GK Chesterton.
Dear sir, I am.
That's the problems in the world.
That's why we have wars.
That's why we have divisions in the churches.
Dear sir, I am.
Now, unity in the church from its inception has always been a problem.
People, when they're converted, they're justified by faith, but they're not sanctified instantaneously.
It's a process that is only completed at glorification.
And so they come into the covenant community and they bring their old prejudice.
They bring their ideas.
They turn things on their head, you know, the position of deacon.
Deacon in Greek means servant.
And these are servants.
Deacons are servants to the church.
And when they sit around the Lord's table, they're serving you.
They're your servants in the old style.
They're serving you, the congregation.
And what have we done?
We've turned it on its head.
And the man says, oh, it'd be nice to be a deacon.
I'd love to be a deacon.
I'd love to climb that ecclesiastical ladder.
I'd love to leap into the limelight.
I would love to be promoted within the church.
And a position of service suddenly becomes a position of prestige.
And that's the old man within us turns these things on their head.
And Paul says, if you want unity in the church,
you need to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
And the spiritual Christian is willing to do that.
He is willing to submit his own interests to the interests of others.
If a man is filled with the Spirit,
he is meticulously careful in his personal relationships.
He's not interested in his rights or what other men owe him,
but what he owes other men.
When we're filled with the Spirit, submission will characterize our lives.
Now, that's not easy.
It's hard and it's difficult.
George Whitfield and John Wesley were the leaders of the Methodist Revival in England.
And George Whitfield, as you know, was a Calvinist.
And John Wesley was an Armenian.
And when John Wesley preached that horrific sermon
against the doctrine of predestination,
George Whitfield felt constrained to write to him, to rebuke him.
And he began his letter,
Only my love for you and my love for Christ has forced this letter from my hand.
And when George Whitfield came to preach in Ireland,
the leaders of the Methodist work in Ireland, they wanted a Calvinistic work.
And so they wrote to George Whitfield and they begged him to come over and lead the work.
Something that George Whitfield refused to do for the sake of the unity of the revival.
After he died, Charles Wesley wrote this about George Whitfield.
He said, Though longed by multitudes and marred,
No party for himself he ere desired, His one desire was to make the Saviour known,
To magnify the name of Christ alone, If others strove, who should the greatest be?
No lover of preeminence was he.
The proud, arrogant Christian,
The critical spirit, always finding fault, is not filled with the Spirit.
The wife who cannot submit to her husband's, notice the context, the verses that carry on,
The child who cannot submit to her husband is not filled with the Spirit.
The husband who cannot love his wife as Christ loved the church is not filled with the Spirit.
The child who cannot obey his parents is not filled with the Spirit.
The parents who cannot bring their children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord
are not filled with the Spirit.
The employee who always criticizes and undermines his employer is not filled with the Spirit.
Are you filled with the Spirit?
Here's the test. Here are the consequences.
What's your worship like?
What's your heart like when you come to church to worship God?
What was the hymn that we sang just prior to the sermon?
Was it so external?
Did it make so little impression upon the memory that we've forgotten already?
Contentment will be realized.
What are we like in difficult circumstances?
When trials come, do we go to pieces?
Are we filled with the Spirit?
What are we like in personal relationships?
Do we find it difficult to submit to other Christians?
Personal relationships, we find a strain.
Are we filled with the Spirit?
The command to be filled by the Spirit, the conditions to be filled by the Spirit,
and the consequences of being filled with the Spirit.
Now, maybe there's somebody here and all that I've said tonight has been strange to you,
because you know nothing of the baptism of the Spirit.
In other words, you're not converted.
You have never felt your sin before a holy God who dwells in unapproachable light and
your need of a Savior.
You haven't come to Him and asked for mercy, forgiveness.
You haven't placed your trust in Christ as the grounds of your acceptance before God.
You haven't seen that it was your sin that God gave you.
You haven't seen that it was your sin that crucified Him,
that it was your sin that drove those nails into His hands and to His feet.
And so you've never come to faith in Christ.
And so you know nothing of the filling of the Spirit, let alone the baptism of the Spirit.
So I want to urge you tonight to come to Christ and to trust Him.
And then God will give you the understanding to put these things into practice.
May God help us all to be filled with the Spirit.