Being filled with the Spirit is a command for all believers in this age, not an optional experience for a select few. This state is not a one-time event but a continuous process, described as 'be ye being filled,' emphasizing a daily, even hourly, occupation with Christ. It is distinct from the baptism, indwelling, sealing, anointing, or earnest of the Spirit, and should not be confused with human efforts like education or ordination. The sermon contrasts being filled with the Spirit to drunkenness, noting similarities in outside influence, fervor, and affected speech and walk, but highlights key differences: order instead of riot, self-control instead of excess, and God-consciousness instead of stupor. To be filled, one must confess and forsake known sins, judge the self, yield to God, give heed to His Word, and make no provision for the flesh, resulting in power for witnessing, boldness, liberality, joy, an outflow of blessing, thankfulness, and submissiveness.
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Now we're going to study being filled with the Holy Spirit. Our text for this is Ephesians five and verse eighteen. Actually beginning at verse seventeen he says, Wherefore be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is. and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." There's a parallel passage to this in Colossians, and there, instead of saying, he goes on to tell here what should be in the same connection, he tells us what will be, but instead of saying, be filled with the Spirit, he says in Colossians Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And then he goes on to say that the wives and the husbands and the children and the servants and the masters should behave in such a way exactly as in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. The difference being that he says, be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians five, and he says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in Colossians three. I want to call attention to that. Now section one of our outline, this is for all believers in this age.
It is a command, Ephesians five, eighteen, which we just read, but be filled with the Spirit. Two, it is the norm. Now we see this in a number of ways. A, many individuals in the Acts, and I've given you four references, just the samples. And these four references tell us that Peter, Stephen, Paul, and Barnabas were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now Peter and Paul were apostles.
Stephen was a deacon and an evangelist. Barnabas was an apostolic delegate, at least. He's even listed with the apostles, but he was said to be a good man. They're all different. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Now B put down they were all underlined, filled. In Acts four in verse thirty-one, this is the way it reads.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. All of the believers that were met there together in Jerusalem. And there was quite a crowd of them by this time too. I have noted here, see Acts two in verse four. Now this was on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down, there again it says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. The reason I'm pointing this out is it is not an unusual thing. There are many Christians who think of the filling of the Holy Spirit as being only for, quote, full-time servants of Christ, unquote.
or for being only for missionaries or ministers as they call them, so on. But every believer should be, is commanded to be, filled with the Holy Spirit in this present age. This was not true before the coming of the Spirit of God to indwell us. It was not true before the Lord Jesus went back into heaven. And it will not be true in the same sense though there will be many manifestations of the Spirit of God in the coming kingdom age. But in this age it is for all believers. Now number three, it is a process.
A, there must be the first time. And I believe that this first time is at conversion. I believe that when you receive Christ as your Savior, the Spirit of God has full control of you. He has led you into faith. He has brought you to the Lord Jesus. And for that moment at least, right after you receive the Lord Jesus, you are totally occupied with the Lord Himself. One of the best definitions for true spirituality that I've ever come across, I saw on the wall of a home of a widow lady in Kansas.
I don't know whether it was a quotation or where it came from, but this is what it said. True spirituality is occupation with Christ. True spirituality is occupation with Christ. So, at your conversion, you were very evidently occupied with the Lord Jesus because you put your trust in him. But now be, and I want to give you the, for this heading here, I want to give you the revised reading of Ephesians five, eighteen. Instead of reading be filled with the Spirit, put down be ye being filled.
Now that isn't good English, but that's exactly the way it reads in the language in which our New Testament is given. Be ye being filled. That is to say, this is something which should be going on daily. It's not something that happens for crisis in your life. But it should be a daily, well, you might say hourly. or momentarily think. Being filled. This should be your norm. This should be your state day by day.
And number four, it is not to be confused with, and you can lengthen this list as far as you want to, education, methods, ordination, or any of the thousand other things that people substitute for the filling of the Spirit. Don't confuse it with things that you can accomplish or buy or do or have done to you. Now the second section of the study distinguishes between filling and, number one, baptism of the Holy Spirit.
First Corinthians twelve, thirteen. There he says, ye are all, by one spirit are ye all baptized into one body. Now distinguish between the two. And I have given a quote here, which I believe comes from the Schofield Bible, that I don't know where they got it. There is one baptism and many fillings. Now second, distinguish between filling and indwelling. Now given you Romans eight and nine, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
If the Spirit of Christ does not live within you, you are not a child of God. And yet you may be a child of God and not be filled with the Holy Spirit. He indwells you. So don't confuse the two. He never ceases to be within you, but he may not be filling. And third, distinguish between the filling and sealing. In Ephesians one, thirteen, he tells us upon believing you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. or the Holy Spirit of promise.
In Ephesians four and verse thirty, you remember that verse, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption. So don't confuse the two. All believers are sealed and not all filled. And then don't confuse it with the anointing. First John two and verse twenty seven, this anointing teaches you and you have need that no man should teach you. And finally, don't confuse it with the earnest. In Ephesians one, fourteen we read, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
All of these things we have, and we have them equally. But the filling of the Spirit, we do not have equally. This is something that is dependent upon your response. Now the third section contrasted with drunkenness. This may seem to be a very strange analogy, but the Spirit of God has seen fit to put this in. Now let me point out some of the reasons why. One, it is similar.
in four ways. A, you are under outside influence. Now we all know what it means for a man to be under the influence of alcohol. We say he is not himself. Some men excuse what they do because they say, well, I am. I didn't realize what I was doing. I was drunk. Well, just as the alcohol can influence a person, so the Spirit of God wants to do, wants to control, wants to influence the believer.
Now, secondly, the person under this influence is fervent. I'm using the word fervent advisedly. The word fervent comes from a root word which means white hot at a white heat. Now a person under the influence of alcohol becomes a very fervent person. He's very excitable, he's very intense, he is hard to handle, And a person who is truly filled with the Spirit of God will be fervent for God, just as the other man is fervent in whatever he's occupied with.
And then see his speech and his song are affected. We can pretty easily tell when a person is under the influence of alcohol by the way he talks and by the way he sings. I wonder if it's ever occurred to you that the same thing is true of a man who's filled with the Spirit of God. What do you talk about? What do you sing about? The filling of the Spirit does influence our speech. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth seeketh.
What do you talk about? My late deceased friend, A.P. Gibbs, used to tell about a young man who said he just didn't have any ability to speak. His father was quite an able man, but he never opened his head. He never took any part in any kind of meetings, not even the young people's meetings. Mr. Gibbs asked him why. Punny said, I just don't, I don't have that gift, I guess. But he said as soon as the young people's meeting was over, he saw a crowd gathered around this young fella. And this young man was really laying it off. He was telling them all about what he had done to a motor of a car, how he had shaved the heads, and how he put on dual manifolds, and how he'd done this, and how he'd done that, you know, and how he'd put on the four-barrel carburetor, and And how he'd souped this thing up and put a supercharger in it.
And he was just rattling it off. And he was explaining it and entrancing the people. And Mr. Gibbs said, then I understood. I understood. The reason the young man didn't talk about the Lord's things was that he didn't have anything to say. He said his heart was a garage. Every time you open these valves, you could smell the exhaust fumes and hear the clash of gears. His heart was filled with automobiles. Now, if the Spirit of God fills you, it's going to affect what you talk about and what you sing about. And the last point is, it affects the walk.
Before they got these little machines to have a man breathe into and check him for the amount of alcohol in his system, the old time police used to use a white line painted on the floor. And they just ask the man to walk that line. Very simple thing for a man who is normal but very difficult when he keeps weaving around. And he just tries his best to step on it and he can't. Now his walk is affected adversely. But the walk of a believer is affected by the filling of the Spirit of God.
It makes him walk in a different way than he had walked before. And the walk, of course, stands for the whole course of your life, the direction your life takes. I knew a man who, up until the age of forty, was interested in one thing, one more buck. He said, I lived it, I ate it, I slept it, I talked it. That was my whole life. One more buck. then he said at the age of forty I came to know the Lord and he said those things lost their hold on me so you see his walk was changed now since that time I wouldn't say that all of the time he has lost total interest in that one duck because some of the time he has not been filled with the Spirit of God and some of the time the old pull has come back again But in the measure in which we are filled with the Spirit of God, in that measure our walk will be what it ought to be.
Now, secondly, it is different from drunkenness. A. Instead of riot, there is order. First Corinthians, fourteen, forty. Let all things be done decently and in order, it says. God is not the author of confusion, but of order. One of the ways that you can tell that you're led, filled by the Spirit of God, is that your life will assume at least some semblance of orderliness. Now, B, instead of excess, there is self-control.
from this same chapter, First Corinthians fourteen, the thirty-second verse says, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. Now in contrast to this, Pentecostalism says that when you are filled with the spirit, you are going to lose self-control. I saw a woman dance a jig on top of the piano. Now that's quite a demonstration of some kind of spirit. but hardly the spirit of God. They fall down and roll on the floor. They lose control of their vocal cords and they begin to jabber. Now, the scripture plainly says the spirit of God does not lead to excess, but he leads to self-control.
If a man is led by the spirit of God, his spirit is subject to himself. I mean his own spirit. He is totally under self-control. And see, instead of stupor, there is God consciousness. You know, of course, that drunkenness eventually leads to stupor. A man just passes out after he gets a certain percentage of alcohol and his blood. He just passes out. But in the case of being filled with the Spirit, we are God-conscious. Ephesians five and verse twenty says, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father.
If you're filled by the Spirit of God, you will be constantly remembering your Father, your contact with him, your dependence upon him. How thankful you ought to be to it. Give that some thoughts. Now section four, the conditions to be met. These are four, one sin must be dealt with. I suggest three things to be done. A, known sins confessed. Because Ephesians four, thirty says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
First John one and nine says, if we confess our sins. And by the way, Asking God to forgive you is not confession. If somebody comes to me and said, I wish you'd forgive me, I'd ask immediately for what? Maybe he's done something that I don't know he's done. I'm not sure that I'm about to forgive this. I don't know what it's all about, at least. Now, it's true that God knows, but when you come to God, don't say, please forgive me for everything wrong I've done. Tell him exactly what you did. And in the naming of the thing, you will be revoluted from it. And he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Now be, these sins are to be forsaken. Proverbs twenty eight thirteen says, Whoso confesseth and forsakeeth them. Be sure you add that word and forsaking. Because when sins are genuinely hated, they're soon forsaken. And see self must be judged. First Corinthians eleven thirty-one. Well, this is not the same as confession of sins. I confess the sin that I have done, but I judge the self, the evil nature, the fallen nature, the flesh, which produced that.
Now the second condition to be met is yield yourselves to God. Romans six and the eleven says, as dead to sin and alive to God. Passing out of one realm into the other realm. If you're willing to do this, if you're willing to count yourself to be done with the life that you've been doing, and you're willing to yield yourself to God, you'll find that the Spirit of God then is able to fill you. you are to yield each member of your body, each faculty, everything that you have.
Romans six, thirteen to nineteen. And there he says, just as you yielded your members as instruments of unrighteousness, yield them as instruments of righteousness unto God. What did you use your hands for before? How are you using them now? and see this is called an intelligent presentation in Romans twelve and one I'm quoting from the revised version it is your intelligence duty presents your bodies as living sacrifices unto God you should do it thoughtfully understanding exactly what it means just as marriage should be entered into thoughtfully, you should realize that you are giving yourself to another person in marriage.
So in presenting yourself to God, you should do it thoughtfully. Now the third condition to be met is give heed to the Word of God. A, allow the Holy Spirit to teach you. John, fourteen and twenty-six says that's why he's come to be our teacher. He will teach you if you allow him to. And B, that verse that I read from Colossians three sixteen, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now the word dwell, as used in the Bible, means to settle down and be at home.
and I might ask you this question, does the Word of God really have a home in your heart and life? Does it have the place that it ought to have? Do you settle things by the Word or do you settle them by how you feel? I'm always suspicious of anybody who comes around and asks me for advice because I know human nature. I know that probably what he's going to do is to ask as many people as he needs to until he gets somebody who agrees with the way he already feels and then he thinks he's found a very smart person i don't waste your time trying to get advice that way turn to the word of god itself and you'll find that scripture does tell you what to do see you should keep his word first john two verses three to five in the third verse he says to keep his that we we keep his commandments because we belong to him.
And then it says that the love of God is fulfilled in us when we keep his word. To keep his word means to love it and to want to do it because he said so. And the fourth provision or the fourth condition is to make no provision for the flesh. This may be done in two ways. A, as do the Gentiles. First Peter four, one to four. It says, they think it's strange that you run not to the same excessive riot with them.
You may make provision for the flesh by arranging to go to a tavern. You may make a provision for the flesh by arranging some way to satisfy your own lust. Don't make provision for the flesh. If you really believe that your old man is crucified with Christ, you're not going to make provision for it. We don't do anything for dead people. And if you really believe that you have died with Christ, and are alive under God you're not going to make provision for yourself think about that a little bit now B you may make provision for the flesh by excusing wrongdoing Romans two fifteen says the conscience meanwhile accusing or else excusing and many times we excuse ourselves I heard a fellow say not so long ago Well, he said, I certainly am not behaving myself very much like a Christian, but he said, I suppose I'll go right on like this as long as I'm here, because I've got the old nature in
me. Well, that's making provision for the flesh. That's making allowance for it. And this is totally wrong. God has given us the means of controlling it. Last of all, say a little word about the results. This will take some meditation. One, Acts one-eight, says we have power for witnessing. He says, you tarry here at Jerusalem until you've been due with power from on high. Now, you don't need to tarry any longer because the Holy Spirit came. They were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come initially. He has come.
So we do have power for witnessing. And second, we have boldness. In the face of persecution, Acts four thirty-one, they spake the word of God with boldness when they were filled with the Spirit. Maybe you're naturally a tender soul. God will give you boldness. He'll enable you to speak, even though it's difficult. Now the third result is liberality. The very next verse, Acts four and thirty-two says, But they no longer said that the things they possessed were their own. They began to use them for each other. One of the results of being filled with a spirit is a liberal attitude toward others instead of selfishness and covetousness.
And fourth, joy. And incidentally, joy is not happiness. Happiness is connected with the word happening. Some people are happy when things happen right. God never promised you that. But he did promise you a deep-seated joy. In Acts thirteen and fifty-two, we're told the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. And where we read there in Ephesians five and verse nineteen, he says, be filled with the Spirit. And the very next verse says, singing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So the filling of the Spirit gives us a deep-seated joy it may not bubble all the time but it flows all the time and then five there will be an outflow of blessing to others John seven thirty seven to thirty nine out of his inward part shall flow rivers of living water this is the overflow my cup run is over well that way There's some for the saucer.
If your own life is filled and you're enjoying God's things, there'll be some for others. And number six, there will be thankfulness. In this same fifth chapter of Romans in verse twenty, he says, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father. A thankful spirit is one of the results of being spirit-filled. And finally, submissiveness. And from the twenty-first verse, clear through to the ninth verse of the next chapter, he tells us what wives, husbands, children, servants, and masters will do when they are spirit-filled. And the one word that seems to categorize the whole thing is submissiveness.
No longer pride, but it's a willingness to be led.