In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit after salvation. He describes the experience of being flooded with the love, knowledge, and glory of God. The preacher encourages the audience to continually seek spiritual growth and understanding, not just relying on their initial baptism in the Spirit. He references biblical examples of people being filled with the Holy Spirit, highlighting the need for believers to be fully immersed in the Spirit's power.

I want to share with you tonight concerning the precious Holy Spirit and really moving into our inheritance. You know, beloved, we talk much about inheritance and sometimes the whole issue is obscured because we have so much Bible knowledge. Now, you may think that's strange that I should stand up here and talk this way and say, well, that Bible knowledge can obscure your realization of truth. But it can. We're so familiar, for instance, with the fact that Joshua of old was chosen by the Lord to lead God's people into their inheritance. And we love at times to sing about these things and think about these things and investigate these things. Indeed, we may do so yet, although we only have tomorrow in which to do it. I mean, that is from the book of Joshua. I don't know whether we shall or whether we shan't. But because we know these things and we think about lands and milk and honey and possessions on an earthly level, we tend to let it obscure the truth that our inheritance in Christ is entirely spiritual and that we are not called to possess a land. We are called to possess a person. And unless this be seen, we forget that our inheritance is all that that person is. Wonderful. Our inheritance is all that that person is. And moreover, it is all that that person is in our earthly life. And that person, of course, is Jesus Christ. But when we really enter into our inheritance in all its fullness, we inherit more than one person. We inherit a being. And Jesus Christ is only one person in that being. And so we inherit Father. And glory be to God. All the wondrous dimensions, if I may use that word. How can you rightly use terms when you are speaking about God? They merely can convey ideas to our mind. All the glories of the Father and of the Son by the Blessed Spirit. This is our inheritance. The putting away not only of our former rotten nature in Adam, but the putting on of a new nature. And then as God moves us on into the discovery of the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of God himself. This is our inheritance. And so, beloved, you see how often we are put off, put onto wrong ground, wrong habits of thinking. Because we are so accommodated to thinking at least in materialistic terms, if not being materialistic in our whole outlook. Remember, beloved, that though the inheritance of the children of Israel was actual to them, it is only parabolic to us. It is a figure of the truth. It is an analogy, a parable, a working out in actual time, actually on the earth, in flesh and blood of what God has for us in the Spirit. Hallelujah. And lifting our eyes above what these things prefigure to enter into all that God is prepared to reveal unto us in the Spirit. Now, beloved, once we really are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, once we are born, altogether born, of the Spirit of God, and we are God's children, the next important thing for us in our spiritual life is to be filled with the Holy Ghost. That, and that alone, is normal Christianity. Anything less than that is subnormal. It can get perverted. We can be utterly twisted. The birth gives us the nature of God. We are born His children. And then we are to go on knowing the fullness of the Spirit as the norm of life. What a blessed thing that is. You see, it's far more important for us to be able to say tonight, I am full of God, than to say I've had my baptism. You see, people nearly worship this term in certain circles. Have you had your baptism? And all that. They nearly worship it. That takes place in a moment of time. It's an introduction to something far more wonderful, something far greater. So we don't sing the praises of the baptism. Hallelujah. That's something we have, and I hope never forget about, but leave behind as an experience. It is but an open portal. Yea, it's more. It's a glorious entree. It's a bringing in to the abundance of this glorious life. Knowing what it is to be filled with the Spirit. To be utterly filled with the Spirit. Now, let us look at some scriptures together. I want us to move around in the Bible and see something about this. Amen. Firstly then, in the Ephesians letter. In Ephesians 5, verse 18. I can always quote this verse because this was the verse that God used to bring me into these great things of God. Be filled with the Spirit. It's compared with a statement in the beginning of the verse, which says, Be not drunk with wine. That's excess. But be filled with the Spirit. If you get filled with wine, you'll get drunk. If you get filled with the Spirit, you'll be sober. If you live a life of being filled with the Spirit, you'll be able to fulfill the oft-repeated injunction in the New Testament, Be sober. Not that somebody will walk around and say, Old sober sides. Hallelujah. This then is the normal of spiritual experience. Some people think that spiritual experience is having a series of most elating experiences whereby we roll round rooms and we say, It's a heady mixture that's always bringing people up to a place of an emotional explosion and finding them midway through the next week just about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Not that there's anything wrong with having what we'll call glory times. Amen. That's marvelous. But to confuse glory times with emotional experiences is about like confusing East with West. God wants us to move in this glory of the Spirit. What a glorious thing it is. God wants us to be filled with the Spirit. Amen. That's normal. I suppose most of you will know that this is the present progressive in the Greek and it really means be being filled all the time with the Holy Spirit. That's what it really means. And this is the norm that all the time I am being filled with the Holy Spirit. All the time. Glory. Now this will keep you normal. It won't make you a giant. What I mean by this is that all giants have to be slung out of the promised land if you go back. That's right. That's what the New Testament is all about, isn't it? Anakins and I don't know what other Kims they were there. All the giants had to be slung out. It was only for God's normal people the promised land. You do realize this, don't you? All the Anakins and the whatnots out they had to go. The only remains there were of those were abnormally long graves in the ground. Got rid of them. Amen. Dust they were and to dust they went. And this is God's tremendous revelation to our hearts. God wanted normal people in His land. The giants were a result of wrong associations. They were developments of an abnormal strain. It arose from mixing spiritual with carnal to use the New Testament terms. They became giants. Sons of God and daughters of men kind of idea. Mixing this thing. God didn't want that. Hallelujah. He wants normal people. Now, normal people by God's standards are Jesus Christ. That's God's norm. Jesus Christ is God's normal man. Hallelujah. That's why He sent Him. It's what the Bible says. The first man was of the earth earthy. He was God's normal man for a start. Then He fell into sin and He became God's abnormal or subnormal man. So after the elapse of thousands of years God brought in the second man. He was the Lord from heaven. I suppose He might have been as tall and as broad as I am. You know, within an inch or two. I think He must have been a lot better sort of chap than me. Better looking and He had lovely black hair I should imagine as a Jew would. And that sort of thing. But He was quite a normal man. People didn't come to see Jesus Christ because He stood nine foot two in His socks. You see. And He weighed 595 pounds or something like that. They didn't come to see Jesus Christ because He was a great weightlifter. He could move mountains but He didn't do it with His two hands. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God's normal man and God's expecting us to be men by this standard. And we've got to be being filled with spirit. This won't make us swell and grow up and be about eleven foot ten tall like some philistine named Goliath. But you see, you might think, well if you're going to be filled with the spirit, filled with the spirit, my word, you'll expand and expand and expand. No, no, no, no. You see, that's the wrong idea. You've got this wrong. God keeps filling you with the spirit because the Holy Spirit should keep on flowing out to others. You see, that's the idea. You've got this, haven't you? This is implied to you very correctly in John's Gospel where in the fourth chapter we read of Jesus Christ giving us drinks that become living springs in us, springing up unto everlasting life. In the seventh chapter, he says, if you really drink of me, out of your belly will flow rivers. That's right, isn't it? Springs rising inside, rivers flowing out. That keeps us normal. But before they flow out, we have to go to Romans and we see something that's normal in the life in Romans 5 and chapter 5 and verse 5 that hope, we're told, makes not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and you will know that that shed abroad can be translated flooded. The Holy Ghost is flooding our hearts so the spring rises unto everlasting life, floods us with love, you see, flows out to others. Amen. Now this then is normal Christianity. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And you and I have got to know this. This is absolutely essential for spiritual living. Fullness of the Holy Ghost is not a rare luxury for some people at odd moments in their life. Amen. If I was to make one calculation, if I was allowed a guess, and there are lots of things I think and you must always sharply distinguish between what you think and what you believe. I think lots of things but I don't believe them all. And I think, no, that's not right. So I don't believe that one. You've got to distinguish between what you believe and what you think. The devil's very artful about this. He confuses you, you see. When he really wants to start a temptation, he'll start it making you think it's what you believe. But he isn't. It's what he's put into your thoughts. And he's very good at coming and putting a thought in the back of the mind and then come around the front saying what are you doing with that thought in your mind, you see. That's the devil. Accusation, accusation. You've no business with that thought in your mind. And you see, there it is. That's the cunning, artful way he works. And we're the biggest stupid people to believe it. If we fall for his trickery. But, beloved, you have to distinguish between what you believe and what you think. For what you believe is what the Bible speaks of as a man thinketh in his heart. That's what he believes because that's what he is. All right. What you believe is what you think in your heart. Praise the name of the Lord. But the other kind of thoughts that have to go through your head all day long, especially if you're one of these unfortunate people that have to go and work here or work there or work somewhere else. You have to have your head filled up with this, that and the other and you have to think about it. And that's it. And your governor will tell you you're paid to use your brains or something like that. Well, that's all right. But that's nothing to do with our heart faith, beloved. Glory be to the name of the Lord. It's very wonderful to be able to distinguish in this. But, you see, you and I have to know the glory of being filled with the Spirit and flooded with the Spirit and flowing with the Spirit. So that we can go on in our Christian experience being filled with the Spirit as quite a normal process. Amen. And, of course, it's this that takes us out of this staggering drunken approach to it and the sober approach to it. And if I can make a guess, if I may about when Jesus Christ was more filled with the Spirit than any other time perhaps you might think this is a perilous thing to do. I guess it was on the cross. I guess it was. It was by the Eternal Spirit that he offered himself without spot to God. Hallelujah. For it was on the cross, beloved when most flowed from him of uttermost love and measureless grace. And, oh, all our redemption flowed from him there. And you wouldn't have thought that Jesus Christ was drunk. I reckon he was as sober as ever he could be. And from this we read in Isaiah 53 that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. What a tremendous thing. Bless the name of the Lord. All right. To be full, flooded flooded, flooded is your experience or should be. So, I think I ought to stop now and ask you, well, is it? Is it? Normal Christianity. Hallelujah. And this is why I want to link these scriptures. If you turn with me at the moment into the Philippian letter you read a word like this. Paul, when he writes this Philippian letter is in prison. He's a prisoner. And my, he's having it rough. He really is having it rough. And I would think that well, I don't suppose he wants to be thought of as a martyr at all. He certainly wasn't a self-made martyr. But he was really suffering for the faith. And in this first chapter he prays like this or at least he talks about like this. I don't mind what's happening really in verse 18. Notwithstanding every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is preached and I therein do rejoice yea, and will rejoice for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the word there actually in the Greek is further supply. It is supply upon what has already been supplied. Isn't this lovely? Supply upon what has already been supplied. Hallelujah. Isn't this glorious? Now this is God's intention for us, beloved. Amen. Be being filled because God will keep on supplying. Isn't this precious? God keeps on supplying. Amen and amen. Amen and amen. That God should keep on supplying this blessed Spirit. You know in the things of the Spirit, beloved, we can afford to be utterly generous. Unspeakably lavish. This great ministering of the Spirit. This is what God is wanting to do. We should be able to do this. But let your supply run short and the river will stop. That's the trouble. Then what you'll be needing is a you'll be saying I need another touch from the Lord or something like that. What do you mean by a touch? I'm not quite sure about that. But there it is. It's accepted terminology. But I'm not quite sure what that means. We're supposed to understand something by it. But you see the glory of it is, beloved, it's absolutely subnormal for us to stutter around in these ways. The constancy of the supply. Hallelujah. The normal being filled with the Spirit of God. And the flowing out of this Spirit to others. Is it like that with you? Now God grant it may be. For you see, there's no such thing as the ministry of the Spirit unless these rivers are flowing out. The ministry of the Spirit is absolutely basic. Let me repeat there. It may sound quite a banal statement to you. The ministry of the Spirit is absolutely basic. And there's no ministry of the Spirit be he or she the most golden-tongued and gifted person in the world. There's no ministry of the Spirit except the opening up of the bowels. So that, I'm speaking now of the inner man. So that the Spirit of God is flowing out from our belly as the Bible says. Right down there. Where everything really commences. From the deeps of us. That's how we speak about going down into the bowels of the earth. We know that means that you go right down there. Dig right down deep. And that's where the Holy Spirit flows from. Out of the deeps of us. Praise the name of the Lord to others. And unless this is happening, there isn't any ministry of the Spirit. And yet this is the most vital thing so far as the salvation of souls is concerned. So far as the reaching of the outsider is concerned. Rivers flowing out to them. Amen. That's what it's got to be. You see, God has planned it this way. Jesus Christ went through terrible agonies. Jesus Christ went through the awful ordeal of Calvary. He died and was buried and rose again and went back home for the purpose of mediating the Holy Spirit from God to men. That's why he went. And the ministry of the Spirit is our part of this glorious, precious thing. That Jesus Christ is a minister of the sanctuary. He's a mediator of the Spirit. And he ministers and mediates the Spirit to us. And we receiving the Spirit have to minister it to others. So when we talk about ministry, the great thing of this blessed covenant we've been brought into with Jesus Christ is this continuation of what Jesus Christ has commenced. It's this yielding ourselves up to the ministry as he yielded himself up for the mediation. Oh, glory. He rose from the dead and he went back home Father, he says, the promise. The promise. He said, you tarry, I'm going to send the promise of the Father upon you. Father, the promise. He went back home and he received the promise because, you see, he confirmed and sealed it unto men by his blood. He went back home. I've confirmed it. I've sealed it. I've shed the blood. And he went back home and he received the Holy Spirit from the Father, the promised Father. I'll pray the Father, he said. He'll give. Hallelujah. That's what he went home to do. And bless the Lord, the Holy Ghost came pouring down on the day of Pentecost. Pouring, pouring, pouring. You see, the difference between the Holy Ghost and Jesus is this. You see, what do you mean when you say pouring, pouring, pouring? I know it's a word that's used in the Old Testament. I will pour water on him that's thirsty. I will send floods upon the dry ground. Hallelujah. This is it. This is the ministry, you see. He pours water upon me because I'm thirsty and I drink it and it runs out through me onto all the dry ground. This is God's great intention. When you're speaking about a person, fancy speaking of a person being poured out. What do you mean by that? Well, oh, the vastness of it. Oh, the completeness of the gift. No waiting. You see, when Jesus came, first he came as a word in the mouth of an angel, the seed from God. That word was the seed of God's intention and purpose. That's right. And there it was, a maid received it. Then we waited nine months for gestation. And then he was born. And then we had to wait another 30 years before God could begin to sort of pour out through this glorious one. Oh, 30 years of waiting. That's a lifetime. No, with Jesus, the lifetime was all lived. The wonder of it was all given up and instantaneously came the Spirit. Poured out. No waiting. Went out to God. Poured out. Bless the Lord! Poured out! That's what it's all about. That a man should be flooded, flooded, flooded with the Spirit of God. What a marvellous thing it is to be like this. The tragedy with so many of us is that we think according to the littleness of our own ideas instead of taking up and believing the great statements of God. This is a marvellous thing. Poured out. The initial supply. Glory be to the name of the Lord. Let's turn to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2. Oh, the further supply of God. Think of it. The further supply. Oh, hallelujah. Look at old Peter in Acts, chapter 2. He says, This is that, verse 16, which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days. Now I want you to notice it doesn't say it shall come to pass on the day of Pentecost. Your Bible is evidence. There it is. It comes to pass in the last days. I'll pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Glory. Isn't it a grace that God's extended these days? How many days is it since the day of Pentecost? In the last days, I'm going to pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Do you believe that? Why? What the Lord supplied on the day of Pentecost, He's further supplied. Further supplied. Further supplied. Glory. A crowd of them got together in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. You know, they were all gathered there in that upper room and some were filled with the Holy Ghost and some weren't. And after they'd all prayed, it says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. So God had made another pouring sea. It's Israel. And then the eighth chapter, you know how it all went on. Philip goes down there. He preaches the Gospel. They receive the Word of God. They don't receive the Holy Ghost. So the Apostles say, Oh well, we can't have this, we can't have that. People believe in the Gospel and not receive the Holy Ghost. And you go there. You can't have that. That's an anomaly. You can't split this Gospel up. And so as soon as they could catch up with it, humanly speaking, old Philip had got down there preaching. It's all right. God told him to go. That's fine. He just moved in God's... He was a marvelous evangelist. But the Apostles, We can't have this. It's a sort of a hiatus. It split this thing up. Come on down. You go down there. So down they went. And the Holy Ghost on the Samaritans. Praise the name of the Lord. Then you get this. You get past the tenth chapter. Peter gets there, starts to preach. This is sort of the beginning of a good house fellowship. They were all gathered there, in that room, in Cornelius' household. And down comes the Holy Spirit. Praise the name of the Lord. And it would all happen there. And wherever you go, further supply, further supply, further supply. Not only do you see, is it God's desire to further supply the individual, but it's based on further supply. This is the whole plan. More and more and more and more. You say, how can you take more? Why? Because I'm giving more. There's more flowing out. There's more flowing out. And this is the great wonder of it all, that the more you receive, the more you will know to pour out. That's right. The more you will have, the more God's glory, the more spiritual understanding, the more of the knowledge of Christ. This is it. This is why people don't know Christ. This is why they've got no understanding. This is why, beloved, flooded, filled, it floods me. Flooded, flooded, flooded. Talk about being flooded with the love of God. Flooded with the knowledge of God. Flooded with the glory of Jesus Christ. Flooded with an understanding. And I let it go and let it flow. And lo and behold, I can't get rid of it quick enough. You know what I mean. I don't want to get rid of it. God's flooded with it much more. I find, especially when I'm preaching, after I've been preaching two hours, I say, well, I'd better stop. And I think, oh, I can't. I've got to go on again. This is the whole secret of it. It's the whole secret of it, beloved. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's so wonderful when it happens. And as you go on, the revelations increase. As you go on, the understanding comes. As you go on, the explanations come. As you go on, the mysteries become simple. As you go on, hallelujah, nothing remains hidden, nothing's secret, nothing's tucked away. Everything's brought out into the open. Hallelujah. What are you going to say about a God like this? Is this the one you know? Amen. Because you're told in the Ephesian letter, that's the one we looked at first, about being filled with the Spirit, that we are not to be any longer strangers and foreigners. We're not to be strangers to this. Hallelujah. It's to be the norm of our spiritual life. Now, it's most important, having looked at the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, that we look at it again, and we see something, because it's in this chapter, which says that God is going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, that we're given the clearest indication of the only way to being filled with the Spirit. Now, the only way to be filled with the Spirit, my beloved brothers and sisters, is the way that we're told in this chapter. We'll read it, shall we? Just the opening verses. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the place where they were sitting. I wonder if that's why we heard the wind rattling through above this cellophane a little earlier. I don't know. It filled all the place where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with utter tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, there's only one way to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that is to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. There is no other way. All right. There is no other way. Glory be to God. God's way of filling people with the Holy Ghost is pushing them down into Him, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit. Amen. Pouring on them until they are absolutely flooded. Amen. That's God's way. Just the same as if in this water baptism we had here on Sunday night, Malcolm had pushed them underneath and put his foot on them like that. That's it. And kept them there till they were full of water. That's right. Till they breathed water into all the places they shouldn't have breathed water. You see. To be filled with water. That's the way he should have done it, but he was wise enough to put them under and bring them up again. But here then, beloved, is the whole secret of being filled with the Spirit of God. Fill. See, God made sure that they were not just anointed with the Holy Spirit. God made sure that He did not just come upon them. He came into them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just clothed with the Holy Spirit that Luke talks about. And sometimes can leave us a little bit with a wrong idea of what took place on the day of Pentecost. That they were anointed or clothed with power. They were. Because Jesus said they were. But they were also filled. And that's more important. That's the most important thing. That you should be filled. They were all filled. And it was after they were filled that they began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Ghost gave them utterance. That's what we read. And there's no, there's nothing in the New Testament that belongs to the New Testament which allows you to think that a man can be filled with the Holy Ghost before he's baptized in the Holy Ghost. Now, we can read, for instance, let's go back into Luke's Gospel. See that Luke wrote the Acts as well as his Gospel. And in Luke 2 we can read about people. And first we read about Mary in the first chapter. That the Holy Ghost came upon her. That's what you read. And you read down the second chapter and we read that there was a man in Jerusalem verse 25, his name was Simeon. The same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And because the Holy Ghost was upon him he got revelations. Amen. That was a marvelous thing. And then also we know that there was a prophetess named Anna. And she also moved in this great way. But before that we read about John Baptist. And in the first chapter we find that John Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Now you say, well there it is then. Now he was filled with the Holy Ghost before the day of Pentecost. That's right. But he belonged to the Old Testament. He belonged to the Old Testament. And you see, under the Old Testament regime they could be filled with the Spirit without being baptized in the Spirit. But when the New Testament commenced it commenced there and hallelujah the first persons to be filled with the Holy Ghost in the great new covenant of Jesus Christ through his blood had to be baptized in the Spirit. Amen. You must understand that and understand very clearly. Filled. Hallelujah. And they were filled and filled and filled and filled and Paul releases the secret to us they were filled and filled and filled and filled again with the blessed Spirit of God. It was the norm of spiritual living, beloved. Oh, hallelujah. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every one of us went home from this conference and we lived this normal life of being filled all the time. Being filled with the Spirit. My, what God could accomplish then. Of course you might need conferences after that for teaching and things like that that sort of thing or coming together and worshipping the Lord but not to have to be refilled with the Spirit. That ought not to be necessary. But of course if it's like old John says in his epistle he says if any man sin not necessary but if you do we have an advocate with the Father the provision is made if you do you see there is a provision if you're not filled with the Spirit you could be filled with the Spirit tonight. Hallelujah. Do you want to be? Absolutely filled with the Spirit tonight. The provision is here but blessed be the name of the Lord. If we get all filled with the Holy Ghost tonight and that's God's plan will we all come to the place where we'll say Lord by your grace I'm going to keep filled with the Spirit. Hallelujah. Every day in every way I'm going to keep filled with the Spirit. Oh hallelujah. Now I'm going to ask you this question. How is it that you manage to keep your lungs filled with air? Yeah I know but it's more than that that's what you do but how is it when you breathe you manage to keep your lungs filled with air? Pardon? Because it's here it's our normal element that's right well how can you keep filled with the Spirit? Because you live in the Spirit and it's your normal element that's right simple isn't it? How does a fish manage to keep itself filled with water? Well it lives in it. It extracts the oxygen it needs apparently from the water but it's all fitted up for its element yeah it's all fitted up for the element it lives in blessed be the name of the Lord that's why you can't live in water you see and when you're a young boy you detest it I mean girls bath every day but boys bath once a year but until they get sensible enough then they try to bath every day too don't they Ricky? Hallelujah alright we won't say any more about that Amen but you see this is how you keep your lungs filled with air because it's your normal element isn't it an extraordinary thing he always manages to keep filled up with air what a marvellous experience he had oh it was wonderful she got herself filled up with air her lungs were filled with air marvellous miracle don't talk so silly man it's quite normal it's you that's not normal talking like that let the lesson sink in you've got to live in the spirit and I'll tell you why well at least we'll point some reasons why seem very plain to me will you turn with me beloved into the second chapter the second book of Corinthians and in the fifth chapter in this great second Corinthians letter among other things Paul tells us of normal things that are in the course of the ministry I can't go into them all tonight I don't particularly want to except that if you just turn back into the third chapter you'll really see what he means about ministering the spirit verse six of chapter three God has made us able ministers of the New Testament not the letter of the New Testament don't go ministering this letter I'm writing to you not the letter but the spirit the letter will kill the spirit giveth life the ministry of the New Testament is the ministry of the spirit that's how it all commenced Jesus ministered mediated the Holy Spirit from the heights of heaven and the ministry is the continuation of this precious thing that Jesus has done ministering the spirit and he talks about various things of the ministry having laid down the fundamental thing in the third chapter and on this great ministry of the spirit of course we have the ministry of reconciliation in the fifth chapter and so on and so on but here then beloved in this fifth chapter is something else that we need to see where shall we start we are beside ourselves verse thirteen or whether we be beside ourselves or it's to God or whether we be sober it's for your cause for the love of Christ constrains us remember he's flooded with it by the spirit the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all then we're all dead by that act actually it should be brought into a more present sense than this then all died that's what he's really saying when Jesus died all died my word what? yeah that's right this is what we judge I don't know whether you minister from this point of view or whether you're all struggling to get people to let their old Adam die old Paul says we all died when Jesus died the lot of us he was the last Adam God closed that it's all finished we all died say really? what's this theory? it's not a theory it's what the Bible says we all died that's what we judge he said oh glory be to the name of the Lord that's why he keeps on hammering in Romans 6 this is what makes the sense of it don't you know that our old man was crucified with Christ don't you know he's dead because Paul's argument is pure logic when you're as crazy as he is I mean in man's view people thought he was mad do you think we're beside ourselves you can say what you like about us but I'm telling you this that we all died when Jesus Christ died hallelujah why don't you start shouting well I didn't feel anointed so I didn't shout glory to God we all died beloved you know I believe that if I've got any secret it's that one I believe I'm as dead as dead I believe I died when Jesus Christ died I literally believe it I didn't die physically I'm still hanging on there hallelujah amen I died bless the Lord I died it was a real death and there came a day when the spirit quickened my understanding to receive the truth the rest isn't the truth you see the love of Christ constrained I mustn't preach about this let's pass on it says this the love of Christ constraineth us because this is what we judge if one died for all and that was the intention of God hallelujah you might think this is an Armenian gospel in a moment if one died for all then all die and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and thank you Lord I couldn't die for myself you died for me and rose again wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh listen yea they though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more this is the introduction to the famous verse therefore if any man be in Christ he's a new creature hallelujah you see it's as simple as that but listen you can't know Christ after the flesh that's why you've got to be in the spirit you cannot know Jesus Christ after the flesh when he was in the flesh nobody knew him not in this sense this is what he said to his disciples he said have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip this is what he said he was an unknown man living amongst his disciples so he died and rose again sent the Holy Ghost so that we could come into the spirit and know him and you can't know Jesus Christ out of the spirit you can only know about him you can know what the Bible says you can know what other people say you can know what preachers say if you can understand what they're trying to get at you can know all that but you can't know Christ after the flesh you can only know Jesus Christ after the spirit blessed be the name of the Lord this is why you must be in the spirit not only just because it is the normal element of the true child of God but because you can't know anything out of that element that's right isn't it listen how long would you know me or know about me or somebody else if you don't particularly want to know me how long would you know anything if you couldn't get air for five minutes how long you'd be dead well let the lesson come home to you you see I've got to breathe in the spirit I've got to receive the Holy Ghost it's got to be unhindered unobstructed God knows the price he paid that the passage of the spirit should be unhindered through his son God knows the monstrosities that were practiced against his son in order that the Holy Ghost should have free access to us and we by that same spirit could have free access to the Father through him, Jesus by the spirit God knows that the doing of impossible things the obliterating, the removing of more than mountains that Jesus the normal man did without hands as he hung on the cross moved in all the impossibilities God dealt in natures God dealt in birth God dealt in beginnings God dealt in the things that you can't handle that you can't see he dealt in personalities he dealt with these things that these scientists gasping and wondering how to cope with them which drug, what treatment, what therapy how are we going to get at it Jesus Christ Glory he hung there all passive in the flesh rent and torn you can't know him after the flesh and everything was wrought in the spirit but meanwhile the redeeming blood poured from his gaping wounds to pay the price of sin Amen you can only know Jesus Christ after the spirit you must live in the spirit or you won't know him any more than if you sought to live out of air you wouldn't know a man what a wonderful thing this is then let's have a look we'd better look and see if we know Jesus Christ after the spirit I think we ought to don't you don't you think we'd better check up beloved haven't we are we in full agreement that we check up and we see this thing I want to be sure I don't want to be carried away by doctrines of any denomination or any sect with which I gather I want to know what the truth is and I'm prepared to leave everybody and anything for that thank God we haven't got to but we've got to be prepared to Hallelujah and in Revelation chapter 1 this is what we read verse 10 I was in the spirit Hallelujah Revelation chapter 1 verse 10 I was in the spirit on the Lord's day Hallelujah tell me what the Lord's day is will you I'll tell you it was the day when he rose from the dead that was the first great Lord's day the Lord's day was the day when the Holy Ghost came it was a Sunday morning what we call it Hallelujah the Lord's day glory be to the day when the Lord Jesus is absolutely tremendous glory glory glory we move in this and he says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day the risen Lord is Lord of my being I was in the spirit that's where God wants you to be that's what the first great meaning and teaching of the Lord's day is it isn't whether you join a society or not Amen I was in the spirit that's what happened on the day of Pentecost they were all in the spirit before the spirit filled them they were in the spirit for it filled all the room first that's your first thing God turned that upper room into a baptistry they just filled the place and then they were immersed the logic of it it's absolutely logical this great scripture you see and they were in the spirit and the spirit was in them and they were filled and it was marvellous glory oh John stopped there John stopped there John stayed in the spirit you say really did he? of course he lived in the spirit you can't live out of the spirit you die out of the spirit you can only live in the spirit and John lived there together with old Peter you can read about them up they go to the worship in the temple John and old Peter's there Peter's the leading man John's quite content about that he doesn't get worried about that Jesus chose Peter to be the leading man and he was never jealous not old John he learned his lesson mind you he learned it really and I think one thing about old John his lovely simplicity is that he learned his lesson pretty quick he remembers for instance when Jesus said to him when he was going to call down fire from heaven like Elijah said Jesus said you don't know what spirit you're of I tell you John took that to heart you see and another occasion when all the apostles were quarrelling the apostles used to quarrel you know really do apostles quarrel? mind you I did hear a story of once of a so called deacons meeting where the deacons took their jacket off and started fighting I hope that doesn't happen to you I mean I've heard of it I think it's disgusting but I did hear of it and I wasn't there I heard of it but they used to quarrel and they were having one of their quarrels you see you see and they came to Jesus and I said what do you think who do you think no it's not it's you no it's me no it's not it's him you see you don't know do you know what they were quarrelling about well you'll find out they resolved they decided to go to Jesus they said Lord who's going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven that's what they've been on about he thinks it's him it's not him it's me do you remember what he did do you remember what she said no there weren't any lady apostles you see so they came to Jesus and he said except you're converted and they weren't even converted and they thought they were arguing for the highest place he said except you're converted you won't get into the kingdom of heaven that's it wow what do you think of that they weren't even converted and they'd been following him you know I tell you what that was one of my shock times when I really read the bible that shook me when I really read the bible and came out of fantasies that they were converted and been following him some of them had got revelations old Peter had a marvellous revelation from God surely he was a man of the spirit he wasn't he wasn't converted that will teach you a lot if you'll only read your bible it'll teach you so much it'll explain these these quirks of behaviour well I thought he was baptised in the spirit well they thought they were even called apostles how about that well anyway this is it but old John learned that lesson he listened to that you see boy oh boy and on the day of Pentecost when he got filled with the spirit that's where he stayed he stayed there and you'll find him again he finishes up in prison at this juncture about the healing of this lame man with John you see and he didn't say well wasn't me it was Peter I didn't do it I mean it was Peter he was no skin saver John was loyal he was full of the spirit we're in this together and they went into prison and came out and they finished you know in the fourth chapter they get there and everybody gets filled with the Holy Ghost because these were all filled with the spirit and you follow it through he lived in the spirit chapter 8 down he goes with Peter not quarrelling that he wants to be a top dog why can't I be it not he he lived in the spirit for one thing about him his heart was flooded with love by the Holy Spirit he didn't care about that and so it goes on and on and on and so you see because he lived in the spirit on the Isle of Patmos when he's now an old man he's still in the spirit now it doesn't say now I had an exceptional experience on this day this particular Lord's Day I had a heavy anointing and I had marvellous vision God save us God save us this is all heady talk and it's only heady talk too he says I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day Amen has the day of the Lord really dawned in your heart Amen and the Lord of all revelation came and he hears a voice talking to him in the spirit and he says I turned to see the voice you know beloved if you want to covet some of the best things do you like coveting the best things and the Bible tells you you ought to covet the best things especially in the chapter that talks about gifts and that it says covet earnestly the best gifts I don't know what you think the best gifts are I don't know what do you think the higher powers covet earnestly the higher powers do you know one of the greatest gifts that you can have it's a voice that people turn to see yeah I don't mean that you go in for elocution lessons and voice production he turned to see the voice must have been wonderful because you see your voice displays your position your disposition your voice reveals you every time you can't hide away from your voice because your voice is audible everybody hears it and he turns to see the voice and he sees seven golden candlesticks and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the son of man now this is Jesus Christ after the spirit here he is hallelujah clothed with a garment down to the foot girt about the peps with a golden girdle his head and his hairs were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire and his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters and he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength and this man in the spirit very much alive when I saw him I fell down at his feet as one dead oh glory have you seen Jesus Christ after the spirit that's what he's like listen he hasn't got a crown of thorns on his head hallelujah he hasn't got a crown of thorns on his head this is what Paul means when he says we preach Christ crucified but not hanging on a cross hallelujah this is the crucified Christ same one have you got a vision of the glorious Lord you see you won't see him as you're in the spirit he's glorious glorious amen glorious in the midst of the churches this is how the churches are to see him I saw the one that's in the midst of the churches do you see him when you gather on your Sundays and I'm asking you whether you've got a three or four dimensional projection to your mind called a vision do you see him hallelujah that's him this is the one in the midst of the churches later on he'll show you the one that's in the midst of the throne but in the midst of the churches he's this one glory be to God in the midst of the throne hallelujah he's a lamb directing the affairs of the ages with the book in his hand nothing happens till he breaks the seals and allows it it's all under his control a lamb is ruling hallelujah that's marvellous but in the midst of the churches it's the glorious one will present the lamb to the world but hallelujah will present the glorious one to the churches don't you see he's the one in the midst of the churches oh if he was in the midst of this church here brother or anywhere where do you come from brother, sister in the midst of the churches the glorious one oh hallelujah do you wonder sometimes the heart gets melted and it wants to turn everything into language of worship thou art the lovely one thou and thou alone see him see him glorious and radiant and I fell at his feet as one dead my lord my lord and then he lays the hand that has the seven stars in it on me the right hand and lo I'm raised up from death in a resurrection of ministry right he says right blessed be the name of the lord this is this is ministry life this is ministry power this is this is where it all comes from the vision of the glorious one amen he's there he's there to know him after the flesh to know him after the spirit when I know you after the spirit lord I can see your countenance it's shining shining more glorious than noonday sun I can see it shining hallelujah thy radiancy lord hallelujah I see the seven golden candlesticks but I don't see their light I see thee glory I see you lord it's your voice I hear I'll pour waters on him that's thirsty floods upon the dry ground his voice is the voice of the many waters hallelujah he's all speaking the voice that carries his word is the holy ghost pouring pouring pouring pouring this is the ministry amen a sword coming out of his mouth eyes like flames of fire clothed down to the foot with a gold with a pure white robe and girt about his peps with a golden girdle oh glory be to the name of the lord to live in these great things of god you've got to you'll never see the christ you'll have a complete misconception of him you won't know him except you live in the spirit that's a tragedy it's these things that makes john say as some of us have been thinking for these last two mornings in that first epistle of his we know we know we know that we know yeah see we know we live there hallelujah do you live there? one could go on and multiply these things i want to perhaps take one more illustration or once if it be an illustration one more point on this something for us to understand i want to go into the first corinthians letter hallelujah and er the opening of the third chapter of first corinthians he says he's speaking to babes the opening verse of the third chapter unfortunately they were carnal babes they were people who'd been baptized in the spirit but hadn't been living in the spirit they were carnal and a terrible death had settled upon the corinthian church i can't go into it now haven't got the time i don't know that i wish to but hallelujah there are much there's much for us to gather and i want to gather it tonight in this third chapter and he says like he says this now let's come out of this paulus paul peter position he doesn't put it like that but that's really what he said and then he says i planted verse six paulus watered god gave the increase so then neither is he that planteth anything neither he that watereth but god i'm nothing he says that's right see he once said he was less than the least now he says he's nothing he's progressing he's progressing he says i'm nothing paulus is nothing it's god he gives the increase and we read on now he that planteth and he that watereth are one so you see this is a double nothing and two nothings make one apparently he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour for we are labourers together with god you are god's husbandry you are god's building according to the grace of god which is given unto me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon for other foundation can no man lay stand there is laid which is jesus christ now if any man build upon this foundation stone, gold, silver, precious stones wood, hay, stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is if any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer a loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire and he goes straight on don't you know that you are the temple of god that the spirit of god dwelleth in you if any man defile the temple of god him shall god destroy for the temple of god is holy which temple you are let no man deceive himself the whole tremendous thing beloved is this that in these six things that we have here we have wood, hay, stubble gold, silver, precious stones you will notice that wood and hay and stubble are superficial things gold, silver, precious stones are deep hidden things that's right trees, you don't dig down in mines to find trees they tell us that some mines that provide black diamonds that is coal are really trees I don't know it's really been trees so they tell us, I wouldn't know that but I suppose it's right I don't know but this is the way it goes you don't dig down in a mine to find hay it just grows on the surface and stubble is rubbish left over after the corn has been cut don't you see so many people are living on the surface but gold and silver and precious stones you've got to go down for them you've got to dig deep dig deep gold you know what's got to happen about gold don't you and silver they've got to dig it and melt it you've got to work hard to get gold and precious stones you've got to go all over the earth wherever they're to be found for some you've got to go down to the bottom of the ocean to find them pearls for some you've got to go right down kinderly the diamond mines I don't know where you've got to go you've got to dig in you've got to bring them up they've got to be cut they've got to be polished that's it you see if you don't live in the spirit my beloved it'll all be wood hay stubble though you say you're baptised in the spirit and it'll all be burned up all or a lot of it it's alright your spirit will be alright you'll get in you'll get in but you'll only be saved providing you go through the fire you've got to be saved so as by fire that God's going to be good enough to separate you from your works and still say well I'll keep your spirit I love you but I've hated all those things you've been doing I'm going to burn them up and we'll say oh thank you Lord thank you I'll say at the last but glory be to the name of the Lord God is wanting us to live deep in the spirit he's wanting us to get down there in the spirit where the gold is where the silver is where the precious stones are amen he's wanting us to move in this great realms I've got to live there I've got to live there are you living there? how much gold and silver and precious stones have you built in this week? how much? you've got to live in the spirit amen you've got to find spiritual gold spiritual silver and spiritual precious stones that's what you've got to do it isn't sufficient just to say I'm baptized in the spirit it isn't sufficient to say well I'm in the spirit you've got to build go on it's got to be things that remain I started off by saying this beloved that the next important thing after salvation is to be filled with the spirit after you're born you've got to know that you're living filled filled flooded flowing flowing flowing supplied supplied supplied more and more and more oh glory be the name of the lord give and give and give as I sometimes say you know the secret of a river don't you? the secret of a river keeping flowing is that one lot of water gets out of the way to let the next lot come that's right that's the secret of flowing it's here and it's gone let the next lot come this is it that's a flowing river praise the name of the lord if it stops giving out it ceases to be a river it ceases to flow the lord is with us beloved he's moving on us and I want to say this beloved you've got to know you're filled that's where you begin filled you can't be filled unless you're baptized in the spirit amen do you believe that? glory to god now are you filled with the spirit? eh? hallelujah oh and this is where you go wrong you see if you're always striving to feel more filled so you're going to feel more to bursting point you see what's it like to feel filled? well just normal like Jesus Christ at last a proper man flowing ministry giving oh that's why you haven't got to sort of try to get anything or sort of hang on to the ceiling you haven't got to try and get that at all it's just normal it's just normal that isn't to say if god baptizes you in the spirit tonight you won't feel as big as the universe you will that's marvelous but you've got to be filled filled but you haven't got to try and retain the sense the emotions of it not that you haven't got to retain that but to be flowing glory I hope you're all feeling very relieved I hope you're all very full are you? are you filled with the spirit? when were you filled with the spirit? somebody came to me once and said can you be filled with the holy ghost and not know it? I said no no you can't glory be to the name of the lord god doesn't let that one pass no you can't be filled with the holy ghost and not know it do you think your lungs could be filled with air and you not know it? well you might not notice it because it's normal well that's what I'm trying to tell you, it's normal but you'll know whether your lungs are filled with air or not praise god you ever heard a person fighting for their breath? trying to get air? have you ever heard them? my ha ha ha ha have you ever heard them? struggling to get it have you ever heard somebody struggling to get filled with the spirit? of course it's all wrong it's abnormal but blessed be the name of the lord you've got to be filled are you filled with the spirit? have you come and said lord baptize me in the holy ghost fill me with the spirit glory have you ever come to that point in your life? or have you even if you have been there at one time lost that glorious fullness of the spirit that blessed flooding of the spirit that wonderful flowing of the spirit you better ask the person that knows you best they'll tell you I hope they love you the best and then they'll tell you nicely glory be to the name of the lord if you're not full of the holy ghost be filled with the spirit tonight be filled with the spirit go on leave everybody else get away from everybody else separate yourself don't know anybody after the flesh you can't even know Jesus Christ after the flesh get away from it don't matter if you're a married man or a married woman sitting beside one another or whether you're people that want to sit in one another's pockets or something like that come away from it Calvary cut us all off from all flesh unto God it's his prerogatives now it's his choice now it's his purpose now to fill us with the holy ghost do you believe that? well if you really believe it you'll receive Amen come on then let's do it shall we?