L.E. Maxwell emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit, using Peter's hypocrisy at Antioch and the contrasting experiences of Paul and John the Baptist to illustrate that true success in ministry is not always visible. He reflects on the lives of biblical figures who faced trials and challenges despite being filled with the Spirit, highlighting that God's definition of success differs from human expectations. Maxwell encourages believers to seek the Spirit's filling not for outward success but for the ability to live a Christlike life, bear witness, and fulfill their duties in faith. He concludes with a prayer for believers to welcome the Holy Spirit's indwelling power in their lives.

Peter preaching Maitre at Pentecost. Three thousand souls saved. And yet, a few years later, we find this hypocritical, holier-than-thou, exclusive little Lord's Table that he has at Antioch. The Jews come and he gets afraid. He used to be with the Gentiles, and now he has a little holier group over here. And Paul stands up and gives him a real punch. And Peter has to take it for his hypocritical, holier-than-thou, little eating on one side. I wonder if that's where Barnabas got such a wounding that he never got over it. Barnabas was carried away with their on-the-sideline hypocrisy over here. Even Barnabas, good old big-hearted Barnabas, he got carried away with it too. And I wonder if that wasn't where the division began, and Barnabas never got over it. And he broke with Paul later. I wonder. Well, I may preach on Barnabas someday. Don't want to feel all my thunder now. But listen, Paul, Paul, mightily filled with the Holy Ghost, on the way to Damascus. And what a preacher to the ends of the earth, before kings and authorities and all people, to small and great. But what do you see? What do you see later when you find him in a cold, old prison, cloakless and cold? I tell you, it took some grace to sit there. Oh, you'd say, but my, how wonderful. Look at the prison epistles that came. Look at all the prison epistles he wrote. Did you ever think about two years at Caesarea? And not a scribble or a scratch came out of it? Ancestors, to please the Jews, left Paul bound. Took some grace to sit in Caesarea while the heathen are going to hell. And sit there for two years, and not one epistle comes out of Caesarea prison. It's all right for you to say, look at the Roman epistles and all, at the epistles that came out of the Roman prison. That's all right. That's all right. Talk about Caesarea, brother. Remember that. Two years, two years, two years. What for? For what? I don't know. Not all the success comes out of being filled with the Spirit. Not everything is rosy success, you know. Some things are just a little bit different. Or, go along further. I see John the aged seer, the man who leans so confidingly on Jesus' bosom, perhaps weak beyond words, as I see him exiled and banished to the Isle of Patmos, out yonder working in the mines. And yet there he has to prove what he wrote himself before he went. This is a victory that overcomes the world. And he overcame that world, out yonder, and saw the city celestial, and wrote. What a book. What a book, the book of Revelation. But listen, in so many of these cases we've mentioned the work, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, as far as results are concerned, are utterly invisible at the time. Now remember it. That's a hard thing for young blood and thunder disciples to remember. But everything is used for God's glory, be it visible or invisible. Its results, whether visible or invisible, are not to be measured by men, but by the God of all wisdom. Now that's hard to remember. Oh, so hard. John the Baptist, think of him. He shook Palestine mightily, but he had only six months in which to shake the country. And then he was in jail. Stephen, the most eloquent and mighty expounder of the Scriptures, one of the best. I just love to read Acts chapter 7. And if you don't love to read it and see something fresh in it every time you read it, well, heaven pity you. Oh, that just sounds like a little bit of history. Ask God to give you some eyes, and you'll see wonderful things in that chapter. And that's the only chapter we have from him. It's one of the greatest sermons ever preached. And he died under the stone pile for it. As somebody said, you want to be filled with the Holy Ghost? For what do you want to be filled? As some man stood to our pulpit, he said, Stephen, or Peter got 3,000 souls, and Stephen got 3,000 stones, and both were filled with the Holy Ghost. Which one do you want? It isn't for you to say what you want. Stones or souls, it mucks me out. James, James, the son of Zebedee, one of the three nearest, Peter, James, and John, and James, why, Herod comes along with a sharp knife, and his head rolls off, and all that James left to us is a name. Wasn't that a great ministry he had? And Peter was slated to have his head rolled too. But God saw fit to open up the door and get him out and let him preach until he was an old man and shall have finished his testimony. God rolled one man's head off and let the other roll on until he was an old man before his head rolled off. But both of them were filled with the Holy Ghost. Consider the life, consider the life of the Lord Jesus himself, if you like. Was the Spirit not always upon Jesus during his whole lifetime on earth? Wasn't he? When was it? Jesus Christ was not full of the Holy Ghost. He was born of the Spirit to begin with. He did never be born again. And he was all his lifetime a perfect vessel for the Holy Ghost, his body, the temple. Was the Spirit not always upon him? But listen, people, did you ever try to think about those years between We'll take just 18 of them. Between the time he was 12 and 30. He was filled with the Spirit all that time. Not anointed for special ministry, but filled as the normal life, and he lived it. And he lived as a holy example before all the neighbors and the friends and the relatives. They all knew it. And the only great thing that came out of his life was silence for 18 years. Well, what was God doing all that time? Well, if I'd been in God's place, then I wouldn't let him sit around for 18 years. Listen, if you'd have been God, you'd have done what God did, so don't talk. But as far as we see, in the way of success, only holy, exemplary Christian silence came out. Now, I just mentioned that. You take the ministry of John the Baptist. If you take the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus, take them both, and try to write a history on the wonderful outward success of both of them, and it would make a mighty small little pocket, a little pocket kind of a booklet. Why, you could write it all and put it on two sermon sheets, all the success that they had in their lifetime. Yes. Even during his three wonderful years of public ministry, after, listen, after he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power, how much did he achieve in his lifetime? Think of what opposition, what disappointment, what alienation, what persecution, what an outward lack all the way through. How much actual visible fruit? There were a few hundred waited, 120 waited on the day of Pentecost. After all, listen, it is the power of the Holy Ghost to be used as God himself shall will in his wisdom, and you will have to leave the choice as to for what with infinite wisdom. He can think better thoughts than you can, and God doesn't give any account about so-called success. He doesn't measure it the way we measure it. Oh, to learn the lesson well. Outward success, either of John or Jesus. I remember we had a kind of a wildfire, a young student here, full of fire, blood and thunder and vinegar and everything, and I can still see him stand up and say, Ah, he says to me, we're only filled with the Holy Ghost. The whole town of Three Hills will be converted. Hooray. Three cheers for flamboyant young Carter. And what a going concern he was. If only we were filled with the Holy Ghost, the whole town would be converted. My, that almost sounds spiritual. It sounds so loud and noisome. It's a noisome pestilence, however, a noisy pestilence. Now you'd say, but Mr. Max, wasn't he full of zeal? Oh, sure he was, without an ounce of knowledge. Well, don't you think the whole town would be converted if we were all filled with the Holy Ghost? Maybe, maybe not. What do you mean? Now listen, I'm going to puncture your thinker if you've got one. I'll give you credit. Maybe that'll have to take that by faith. But I'll give you credit for having one anyhow. Poor Noah, the rascal. By unbelief, Noah let a whole world perish. When if he'd only had faith, he'd have had an ark big enough to take them all in. And if only he'd been filled with the Holy Ghost. And if Jesus had just been filled with the Holy Ghost, the whole town of Jerusalem would have been converted. Now where are you? Are you punctured yet? If not, you're unpuncturable. You've got to hide like a rhinoceros. No, let's get straightened up in some of these things. I mean, you can just go off the deep end saying big things and sound spiritual, but it's like sounding when hit but only sound. The Lord save us. Oh, but Mr. Mackey, you're putting a premium on I'll just be doing nothing. I'm not doing any such thing. I'm going to straighten you up so that you'll be ready for something real and not some delusion. I don't know where that chap is that made that big utterance. I haven't heard of any town he's been in that's been converted. Well, beloved, let's get this straight. And consider, consider, beloved, consider some faintly souls that have been flattened out on their backs and go to bed and never get up. Some of the best, and the world seems to need them. Just about the time, just about the time when they're filled with the Spirit and going places, then they're suddenly cut off and die or go to a sick bed and never get up. Who am I to say, who am I? I can't solve it, but I can't deny it. I have to face it. Again we ask, for what? Now the chief duty, the chief thing for which I need to be filled with the Spirit, and I have to say this qualifiably, is for simple ability to be a proper witness for Christ. And even when I say that, I have to be careful that I don't define witness too narrowly. I have to be careful, because witness is in many ways. I need to witness by lip. We think of that first. But I need to witness by life. As one man said, you know how I got converted? He says, I want to tell you, I watched your life for one year. I want to be saved now. Now that man had a witness, and he startled the man to death almost to think that he had been on the spot, so to speak, for a whole year. By lip and by life. Now what is my witness? My witness should be whether by lip or by life to testify in both ways unashamedly for Christ. And by word and deed to commend the Savior and do it without fear, not as a coward, but by bold witness and testimony. For what? May I put it like this? To enable me in the first place, I'm just going to try to give you about six summaries, six summaries of for what now. To enable me to live the life that He redeemed me to live, I need to be filled with His Spirit to live the life that He redeemed me to live. In other words, any place He puts me, any place, any condition, any, in other words, wherever He puts, whatever He puts me in or permits me to get into, there lives the life of a well-redeemed soul. That's one. Secondly, to enable me to abide in Christ in continuous fellowship with God. To stick, to stick, and stay put in fidelity, even in an obscure task, and do it patiently. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Filled just to do that. In the third place, to enable me to be obedient, to keep His commandments, to walk and to please God, for God gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey Him. So just to live an obedient life, I need to be filled with His Spirit. That's for what? And in the fourth place, well, may I, may I go right back to that and say just one more thing. Oh, but I don't, we had it the other day in Bible. I don't know what, I don't know what the plan of God is yet for my life. I don't know what to do. But listen, I'll tell you, if you want to know what the plan of God for your life is, I'll give it to you in a nutshell. It's to do the next thing ahead of you that's in the line of duty. Oh, dear me, that's nothing to write home about. I was going to write home this afternoon. That's nothing to write home about. Ah, Mr. Maxwell gave us a very profound thought this morning. He said if we want to be filled with the Holy Ghost, this is the reason for what? Just to do our duty, the next duty ahead of us. Oh, he's getting old and cantankerous. He just says a lot of old things now, repeats and talks to himself as he goes down the street. Ha, ha, ha, amen. All right. God bless you, good. But may I say, well, but what, you tell me just to do the next thing ahead of me? Yes. Well, what am I going to do after that? There's another one. It's just around the corner. And before you get to the corner. And if you can by the Holy Ghost do that, well, God gives the Holy Ghost to them to be. Oh, dear me, nothing exciting about this. I thought when I filled with the Holy Ghost for what? Flares and blares and blasts and trumpets and whoopee. Yes, that's what you thought. I know you did. If we could just get you down to the altar and put an electric current here, we'd get you filled. Bing! It might do some of us good to get down to the altar and get a real piece of shock treatment like that. And then we'd wake up with some sense. I mean real electric current. Well, and the fourth place, to bear fruit. To bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. The ninefold fruit of the Spirit. Wonderful fruit. Galatians 5, 21 to 23. To produce rivers of living water out from your innermost being shall flow rivers. To bear glad, unembarrassed testimony for Christ. To be bold instead of beaten. It would be wonderful if you were filled with the Holy Ghost so you could be bold instead of being beaten around all the time, have the devil mock you and laugh at you, wouldn't it? In the fifth place, to be Christlike. Just to be Christlike as believers. I'm going to quote you a verse, two of them. Ephesians 3, 16 and 17. Here, part of those verses. To be strengthened with might. Here you go now. To be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. Literally, to be made, to be with power made mighty. Oh, I believe that. Ah, I can just feel my muscles going. With power made mighty in order that, what? That I might shake the earth. That I might shake all three hills and couldn't burn them all. That I might, what? I might shake everybody else. Or even get the shakers myself. My, that I might shake the world. Yeah, wait a minute. I'm going to quote the rest of the verse. Strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your heart. Well, there you go. You take all the thunder out of it again. Do you mean to say that God wants to strengthen me with might by the Spirit that Christ may indwell me? Now, believe you me, if you just knew a little bit about the human heart, you would know that this is the power and might of God, if He can so get into your heart, that you will trustingly abdicate and move out and let the indweller really come in and take the controls, and you quit. Now, I want to tell you that takes demonstration of the Spirit and power. And if you knew anything about the wicked depravity and how you and I are so, we are so dreading, we are so dreading, dreading, and I mean dreading, we so dread, fear, and dread the incoming of the controlling, indwelling One. No wonder it says, with power to make you mighty, just to get out of the way and have a willingness to let the Holy Ghost take over the controls and establish the crucified on the throne of your heart. If you knew anything about the awfulness of the human heart, you would know that that is the exceeding greatness of God's power, not to force you, but to persuade you, to unhinge you, and decenter you, and fix you back on Christ's indwelling. And amen, and amen. Now, I'm going to quit there. I'm not through. I'm just going to leave it. So, I said I had to cut it in two, and now it sounds like I'm going to cut it in three, doesn't it? Oh, may God help you to know the meaning of for what. I'm right in the middle of that point. I'm going to quit right there. Shall we pray? Next Sunday we'll take up the subject of how, as well as finish for what. Oh, God in heaven, gracious God of heaven and earth, may we as thy people be good candidates for thy blessed indwelling. And wherever there's an inner argument, wherever we dread the invasion of God, wherever we dread Christ coming in with absolute power, making demand, and we're suspicious of his incoming to dwell like that, Lord, overcome these devilish suspicions. Overcome these dreads, dreading God's invasion. Oh, may we learn, may we be persuaded to abdicate and let the blessed indwellers come into our hearts, to dwell in our hearts by faith, that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints the length, the breadth, the depth, the height, and to know the love of Christ which passes not. Strengthened with might in the inner man, in Jesus name.