In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the teaching of the Word of God regarding deliverance from carnality. He emphasizes that domination by the carnal mind is not inevitable and that God is willing and able to deliver us from it. The preacher also highlights the fourfold freedom mentioned in Romans 8:1-5, which includes freedom from condemnation, freedom from the law of sin and death, freedom from frustration, and freedom to walk in the Spirit. He emphasizes the importance of personal commitment to God and the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to live a victorious life.

I think it is sometimes disconcerting and certainly very challenging to discover that just as the sinner is confronted with a choice of two ways, either one of two paths, the path of death through sin or the path of life through salvation, so the Christian believer is confronted with two ways. I think we looked at some of this last Tuesday evening, but it doesn't do any harm just to repeat one or two things. There is the way of the carnal and there is the way of the spiritual. A man may either live in the flesh or else live in the spirit, as a Christian, as a believer, as one who professes to love and to serve the Lord, not simply as a person unconverted outside the kingdom of God. And I suppose that when we talk about living in the spirit, that this is one of the highest forms of expression in the whole Bible, to live in the spirit, to move in the spirit, to pray in the spirit. It's a tremendously comprehensive term. And also it is very, very inclusive. As I thought about it in preparing for this evening, I realized afresh that this term, in the spirit, it can be applied to every experience that we know as Christians in relation to the Holy Spirit. Whatever is experiential in our life as believers, in relation to the Holy Spirit, can be summed up and expressed in this term, in the spirit. It encompasses all sorts of things. Being baptized with the spirit, being full of the spirit, being filled with the spirit, being possessed by the spirit, the spirit being pulled out, the spirit falling upon, the spirit resting on, and so on. All these terms can be expressed in that one thing, in the spirit. And this expression, in the spirit, emerges from the preposition of the spirit that we studied together last Tuesday evening. The little but important preposition, en, e-n, which means in. And as I thought about it since last Tuesday night, and looking to the Lord for His direction concerning this evening, I was made to understand that there is a lot more yet to be said about this little preposition. Because all these expressions that I have mentioned emerge from this one thing, in the spirit. There are eight occasions when en, that is the preposition that we have mentioned, eight occasions when it relates to the indwelling spirit. And some of these we saw last Tuesday evening. But there are 26 times when this is seen as the element which infills the believer, as well as surrounds him. So there are 26 references to being infilled by the spirit, which emerge from this preposition, en. Now, don't get excited. I'm not going to deal with all 26 tonight. But I would say that each one of them is important. And this is only one of many prepositions that I use in relation to the Holy Spirit. But this one, it seems to me, has some special significance for us at such a time as this. To mention one or two key verses where this occurs. It doesn't perhaps appear in the authorised version. The baptism with the Holy Ghost, Acts 1, 5. For John truly baptised you with water, but he shall be baptised with, there it is, en. In the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. So it predicts a moment when the Holy Spirit would, for the first time in their experience as believers, infill their very being, as well as surround them with his presence. And I know that in these later years a lot has been written and preached and spoken about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As some would term it, correctly, the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And so I don't propose tonight to speak very much about this. I have felt very definitely since the Lord led me to accept the invitation to come along here on a Tuesday evening that my ministry ought to be concerned, when it comes to the person and work of the Holy Spirit, not with the obvious and the things that we accept and know almost by rote by now because they have been repeated so many times. The baptism with the Holy Ghost, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and so on, and the functions of the Holy Spirit in the Church through the gifts. We have heard so much about this, haven't we? But you see, there are other aspects of truth. There are other elements and facets that need to be emphasised in order that we might have a comprehensive and a well-balanced view of what it is the Holy Spirit is seeking and striving to do in the days in which we live. I would enjoy just talking about the gifts of the Spirit. And in fact, I think I have done this already within this room before Christmas time. We talked about the divine background to the gifts and the human foreground and the carnal playground and the satanic battleground where all these gifts are involved and where they are exercised. And I believe that that was a profitable time to spend together. But there is something more to learn than simply that the Holy Spirit has given gifts to men in the Church and that these gifts are to fulfil special functions, that they are being attacked by Satan from many angles, and that even the carnal and the human and the fleshly can come in in a manifestation in the most sacred and holy environment where these gifts are concerned. There is something more to be said than this. For instance, in the proclamation of Christ as Lord, you still have this preposition creeping in. 1 Corinthians 12, 3. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by, in, in the Holy Spirit. Anybody could say, Jesus Christ is Lord, but that isn't the point here. The point here is that only as he is infilled with the presence and power of the Holy Ghost is he able to say, Jesus Christ is Lord in this sense. And so we are pointed right to the very source of direct inspiration, and that is what is in view here, by the same token, in the same verse. No man speaking by, again, in, in the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. Once more, it is inspiration at its very source that is in question. And so it is not just a matter of ordinary, natural, human procedure here, but procedure which is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And this is brought out by the use of this one little preposition, the preposition in, or in. But now there is something even more interesting to me than this, and that is that the very revelation of the Church as the body of Christ emerges from this one preposition. Ephesians 3, 5, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by, in, the Spirit. Now this is an important passage, and it should have fuller exposition, because it signifies what occurred when the Holy Spirit infilled these servants of God, and suddenly there was brought to birth a new revelation, a complete revelation of the Church as the body of Christ, which had never been known up to this point. And I would like to spend at least some little time looking at this with you. But first of all, let us look at the teaching of the Word of God concerning deliverance from carnality, from the path that people sometimes tread, even Christians, opposed to the way of the Spirit. And to look particularly at deliverance from carnality, particularly, again, at the fourfold freedom which is mentioned in Romans 8, verses 1 to 5. I would not like to accentuate the negative in any of my teaching or preaching, but to accentuate the positive. But I have learned by experience that you must first show the malady before you begin to suggest the remedy. And the malady is here, the malady of the self-life, the flesh life, the carnal life that militates against the things of the Spirit and causes havoc in the lives of so many of God's dear people who long to be able to serve God and to live for God victoriously and in the Spirit, but who are hindered because of carnal maxims and carnal desires and carnal living in general. All right. The first freedom is freedom from condemnation. Chapter 8 of Romans, verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The force of the Greek here is, there is not the slightest suggestion of condemnation, and none of us need ever come under it. Because, you see, the glorious pledge of it is this. It is based on belief. John 3, verse 18, gives us this. He that believeth is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. So the glorious pledge of freedom from condemnation is first of all based on our personal belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior and our living Lord. But it is also linked with life. You have this in John 5 and 24. He that heareth my word, said Jesus, and believeth on him that hath sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed, present tense, is passed from death into life. So that the glorious pledge of no condemnation and freedom from condemnation is not only based on belief, but it is linked with life, a living experience on the part of those who know Christ as their Savior and Lord. But it is also radiant with resurrection. In Romans 8 and verse 34 you read, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, nay, rather, that is risen again. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification, so that there is no condemnation, therefore, to those who know Christ as their Savior and as their Lord. And this leads us to talk about the precious place of no condemnation, to them which are in Christ Jesus, in Christ, centered in him as their Savior. This, you know, is the secret of fruitfulness in spiritual life, isn't it? Abide in me, said Jesus, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine, neither can he except he abide in me. So in Christ Jesus is the secret of fruitfulness. In Christ Jesus is the secret of effectiveness. John 15, 7. If he abide in me, and my words abide in you, he shall ask what he will, and it shall be done unto you. In Christ. Again, this is the secret of steadfastness. First John 3 and verse 6. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. So those who are in Christ have found the precious place of no condemnation. But here is the challenging part. The wondrous path of no condemnation is this. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Whose conduct is not dictated by the flesh, but dictated and controlled by the Holy Spirit. It is they who enjoy to the full this redemptive blessing of no condemnation. Because as long as they are dominated by the flesh, as long as they are obeying fleshly desires and fleshly passions, they are forever coming under condemnation. But here is the path that leads out into victory and into blessing. So the first freedom is freedom from condemnation. The second freedom is freedom from domination by the carnal mind. And verse 2, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. It is a freedom which involves the law of the Spirit of life, that's the Holy Spirit, in Christ Jesus again. Now this law of the Spirit is an authority which the Holy Spirit exercises on behalf of those whose lives are centered in Jesus Christ. And it is a freedom which involves the liberty of the believer, if he truly believes. You see what the Apostle says, hath made me free from the law of sin and death, the inward law that controls your members. Through the law of the Spirit of life, the law of sin and death are rendered inoperative. That's the meaning of it here, where the Christian is concerned, rendered inoperative. He is no longer subject to domination by the flesh life, provided, provided he is prepared to choose the way of the Spirit. For the prerogative is his to exercise, and as we saw last Tuesday, he must take action at this point. The exercise of this prerogative is going to involve him in something which is very, very positive. Galatians 2.20 is not only Paul's experience, if he takes action here, it becomes his experience, where he too can say, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And again, as we saw last Tuesday, there must be an exercise of faith for sanctification, as there was an exercise of faith for salvation. That faith which is comprised of knowledge and belief and confidence. Romans 6.6, the knowing part. Romans 6.11, the believing part. Romans 6.13, the confidence part. Enroll your members under God's banner, as those who are alive from the dead. And so it goes on. But it must be something which is positive and personal before it becomes effectual. And therefore you see the exercise of our prerogative, not to walk in the flesh, but really to live and to walk in the Spirit, is something which devolves upon us as a personal obligation. But the great thing to remember is this, that domination by the carnal mind is not an inescapable necessity. It is something from which the Lord is able and willing and ready to deliver us. Then there is freedom from frustration, verses 3 and 4. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Now what is Paul saying here? Simply this. There was no deliverance from carnality through trying to give obedience to the law's demands. For no righteousness could be obtained in this way. The flesh, the human, our nature, was too weak to meet the divine requirements. But God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Notice, not sending his own Son in sinful flesh, for he is the sinless one. But in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Condemned your sin and my sin in the sacrifice of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why was this possible? How could God be just and yet justify the unjust? How could it possibly take place? By his sinless life, Christ fulfilled and met all the preceptive demands of the law. All that the law required of people in order that they might have life, Christ met them all. And by his sacrificial death, Christ met all the punitive demands of the law, the penalties imposed because of the law, the broken law for which we were responsible. And so in his own Son, God condemned your sin and mine in Christ, and removed and lifted the condemnation from you and from me, and by so doing, did something else, as we shall see in a moment. In verse 4, imputed as well as imparted a righteousness to us which we never could have had by our own efforts and by our own striving. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Not fulfilled by us, as we saw the other night, but fulfilled in us. And so there is freedom from condemnation. There is freedom also from the frustration that comes because of finality and because of failure. There is freedom from that domination by the carnal mind. And there is freedom from absorption by carnality, in verse 5. For they that are after the flesh to mind the things of the flesh, those whose character and conduct are absorbed with fleshly things, give their whole minds to fleshly things. The carnal man is taken up with carnal things, with carnal motives, with carnal projects, with carnal ambitions, with carnal thoughts. He has given himself over to these things and he minds them. He is concerned about them. But this absorption with carnality can be changed. But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, we read in verse 5. So it is possible for a Christian to be as absorbed with the things of the Spirit as the carnal man is absorbed with the things of the flesh. This is what the Apostle is saying, that God has made it possible that freedom, deliverance, can be our experience as believers if we are prepared to use our prerogative and to lay hold of the thing that God Himself has provided. God does not make demands upon us without providing the means that those demands might be met. And if He expects you and me to live a life that is in the Spirit, then He has His own way of dealing with a life that is in the flesh. And many of us know from experience, and some of it perhaps very bitter experience, what it means to have this transference from one place to another by the grace of God and by the workings of God's Spirit. When Pompeii was overthrown by that volcanic eruption, many years afterwards, as they were digging in the vaults of the city where the dungeons used to be, they found in many instances that there were men, guards and jailers, who had some thought for their prisoners who had been chained to the walls. For they had released them and let them free. But they came upon one case where the man was still chained to the wall and was reaching as far as ever possible, his fingers outstretched towards the key that could have set him free. Only his jailer, panic-stricken, had thrown it down and ran for his own life, but thrown it down out of the reach of the man concerned. Isn't it a wonderful thing to know tonight that if we desire to live and walk in the Spirit, if we do want a life of victory over sin and over the flesh and over the carnal, God has put the key in our hands and we can use it. We can say yes to the Spirit of God. And in using our prerogative and paying the price, which is the absolute committal of ourselves to God without any reserves, without any strings attached, the key is in our hand. God can give us grace to use it that we might find the freedom from carnality which the Apostle Paul had found and about which he writes to his friends and encouraging them to do as he had done. Now, I want to look just briefly at the reference to the infilling Spirit by means of which the revelation of the Body of Christ came into being. That's Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 5 is the key verse. But we are going to range a little beyond this verse in order to get the background. Ephesians 3. You'll know how in the end of chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul spoke of the church as a building. In chapter 3, the theme is the mystery of the church, which is the Body of Christ. And the whole subject is covered in verses 1 to 13. But we are concerned only with part of this, verses 1 to 5. What we are talking about then is the revelation of the infilling Holy Spirit. And that revelation concerns the mystery of the Body of Christ. The channel of the mystery is mentioned first in verses 1 and 2. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. For this cause, pointing back to all he has said about believers being constituted a building for God, a habitation of God through or in, as it is really, in the Spirit. Later on in this same chapter, he is going to say, for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he is concerned with this revelation of what the church truly is. With Paul, of course, any contemplation of God's purpose would lead naturally to supplication for God's power. And this is what happens. But notice how he describes himself here. A prisoner of Jesus Christ. Not a political prisoner of Caesar, but a prisoner of Jesus Christ. For you Gentiles, on your behalf, because I am the apostle to the Gentiles. And so he accepts the situation. He accepts the imprisonment because he believes it is part of the plan and the purpose of God. A prisoner of Christ. But this isn't the full story. He is also a dispenser of grace. Verse 2. If ye have heard of the grace of God which is given me to you all. Now, Paul knew they understood the special position that he occupied. That his commission to them was a dispensation. Oikonomion. Oikos, a house. Nomos, a law. Household law. It implies oversight, management, administration, stewardship. And the distinctive grace which Paul had to dispense was the revealing of Christ to the Gentiles. Remember writing in the first chapter of Romans, he speaks of himself as being a debtor. As being ready and as being not ashamed. I am debtor. I am ready. I am not ashamed. He looked upon himself as a debtor to all mankind because he had been entrusted with the gospel. And he was ready to discharge his obligation. For he said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And praise God, neither am I. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For three reasons. One, because of its power. It is the power of God. Two, because of its purpose. It is unto salvation. And three, because of its provision. It is unto everyone. And a gospel like that is a gospel worth preaching. And so, I am ready. I am debtor. I am ready. I am not ashamed. And throughout his life, he spent every possible moment in discharging this obligation. And I am sure that this is the vision. The vision of being debtor, being ready, and being unashamed, which has caused countless thousands to go to the far-flung fields of the world. And Albert Schweitzer stood in the city that day and looked up at the statue of that naked Negro and suddenly asked himself the question, Am I that man's brother? And received the answer, Yes, you are. Then he said, I must do something about it. And those of you who have read his life story will know that he did something very practical and very real about it. He gave his life over in the interests of the colored man and lived out his days in that fashion. He got a vision, just as Paul had a vision, of responsibility. But you see, before you and I can be a dispenser of grace, we have to know what it means to be a prisoner of Christ. We cannot hope to be able to express the grace of God as we should in ministry, in service, in activity, in any other way until we first know what Paul knew, that we are prisoners of Jesus Christ. And to be a prisoner in the nail-torn hand of Jesus is not only the place of greatest security, but it is the place of greatest authority too. Paul understood this. God granted we shall understand this. What is the concept of the mystery? You have this, I think, in verses 3 to 5. First of all, it is positive. How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Apocalypse him. Apo, away from, colopter, to cover, to remove the covering. The mystery, musterion, is the hidden secret. So he is saying, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, how God revealed the hidden secret to me. In prophecy, men are borne along like a sailing ship before the wind. In revelation, men are guided along like pupils in the school of Christ. And there is a difference between these two functions. Prophecy may come spontaneously like a gust of wind from heaven. But revelation usually comes by research. And it is line upon line here. Impatient plodding very often. But suddenly, just as positively, as prophecy brings new light, there will be a flash of revelation. And you will know you have seen something which you had never seen before. And yet it has been there probably all the time. Pupils in the school of Christ. And if it is revelation, then surely it is bound to be positive. Opinions are a bit waffling. But revelation is something upon which you can stand. Because it is positive, and you accept it as coming from the Spirit of God, and you know that it will stand the test of time. Paul's concept of the mystery was positive because it was a revelation through the Spirit. This concept is comprehensive. Whereby, when he read, he may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. In other words, you will be able to perceive my knowledge. The word here is sonesis. Full, exact knowledge and insight, which relates here, of course, to the body of Christ. And no one had such a clear insight to what the body of Christ truly means than the Apostle Paul himself. So far as its revelation and its theology is concerned, there is no one really in his class when it comes to the revelation of the Church as the body of Christ. And yet, although this concept is comprehensive and positive, it is also exclusive. Verse 5, Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by, in, again our preposition, the Spirit. So it was because of the infilling presence of the Holy Spirit that the revelation of the Church as the body of Christ was granted. And this is the significance of this preposition. Out of it, and out of the experience attending it, comes the revelation of the Church, which is the body of Christ. And that, we know, is the revelation for these days in particular. It is not too much to believe, as I see it, that from the same source, the same infilling Holy Spirit, we may still receive at least revelation upon revelation. I am not suggesting that we shall receive new truth. There is no such thing as new truth. If it is new, it is not true. If it is true, it is not new. Truth is as old as God. So it is not new truth. But surely revelation upon revelation, a revelation upon the written revelation of God's Word, surely we may expect this. After all, it is the Holy Spirit with whom we are dealing. The Holy Spirit, who not only indwells the believer, but infills every part of the believer, the whole personality, not just simply his God-consciousness, but also his self-consciousness, if you like, his soul as well as his spirit. And in the light of this, he can give us, surely, light upon light and truth upon truth, in the sense that I have just explained it. Revelation upon revelation. There is unity in the teaching which he gives. And there is authority which originates with the infilling Holy Spirit. Jesus promised concerning the coming Comforter he would teach you all things. And again, he will guide you into all truth. And so to the end of his days the Christian may expect to be a learner in this school. I used to think, you know, when I was much younger, the time would come when I would know so much about the Bible that I would not need to study very much at all. But how deceived I would be! I find that even with these Tuesday nights, coming to expound the Word of God, as I have tried to do, it has been no use at all just leaning hard upon the past. I have had to come once again to God's Word. I have had to wait before Him. And I have discovered over and over again how suddenly, talk about speaking in tongues, the Bible itself seems to speak with new tongues. I see something there that I have never seen before. And I get so excited about it. And I am sure this is what God intends. That when we talk about being filled with the Spirit, we are not talking about being filled with the Spirit we might overflow in praise or in tongues or in prophecy or interpretation or some other ecstatic and wondrous activity or gift. Not surely only this, but filled with the Spirit that we might see into the inner depths of God's Word and behold in a comprehensive way truths and revelations upon truth that we have never seen before. I can tell you in all sincerity and humility that I have learned far more when I have been on my face before God with an open Bible than when I have been sitting before lecturers time and time again who have been trying to explain and interpret the Word of God. I am not decrying scholarship by any means at all. It would be foolish of my part to do so. But I do know this. You can learn so much under the inspiration of the infilling Holy Spirit which you could never learn in any other way. Let's face it. You couldn't learn it in any other way at all because He seems to stand at the primal fountain source of truth where this revelation is concerned. Because, you see, there is this authority which Jesus promised should be in His teaching. And we must never forget that the mission of the infilling Spirit is so to mediate Christ to you and me that by so doing He may magnify Christ. And nothing else concerns Him at all. And isn't it a wonderful thing to understand that the final test of the validity of any doctrine new or otherwise is simply whether it does mediate Christ, whether it does actually glorify and magnify Him. If it doesn't, it's suspect. It may be interesting. It may be far-reaching in its implications. It may indeed be deeply mysterious. But if it does not possess these qualities, it is not born of the Spirit of God. Everything relating to the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, however shrouded in mystery to us, is an open book to Him. He knows all there is to know about the Lord Jesus. And standing at that primal fount of revelation what truths, what revelations, what light is He able to empower to you and to me if we are prepared to trust Him as He comes to infill us with His presence and with His power? In the area of progressive revelation, this indwelling Holy Spirit has an access to a source which no one else has. Jesus told us this. He said, He shall take of my things and shall show it unto you. Who else has been able to touch this source of supply? No one save He. For only one equal with God could ever interpret God. And only one equal with Jesus Christ could ever interpret and explain and express Him and reveal Him as He should be known amongst His people. Everything relating to the Lord is known to the Spirit of God. Think then of the difference that it makes when He interprets Christ through the Scriptures, when He takes the book, when He begins to unfold the truth to you. There are so many paperback books around today on so many religious subjects and so many charismatic movements that I sometimes wonder how the world could contain so many. But look, you can read and read and read and study and study and study and you can become absorbed and interested in all the rest of it. But you must in the end come back to the book. And you must finally come back to the Teacher. And you must in the end throw yourself upon His resources. If you are ever to know the truth for yourself, as something which uniquely and specially belongs to you, something of which you can say, This God gave to me personally. And brother, when that happens, nothing can ever stand against you or against the truth that God has shown you. But this, I feel, is an important thing to remember. As there is authority in His teaching, so there is testimony in it. He shall testify of me, said Jesus. What a lovely thing to know that Jesus said, I receive not testimony of men, I have one that testifies of me. And that one is the Holy Spirit and He is present in this room here tonight. How wonderful to know that He is timeless and ageless. That His presence not simply fills the place where we are assembled in the name of Jesus, but I trust fills our hearts and our minds too, even as we are considering together the meaning of His Word. He shall testify of me. You know, not only to the world around, but to you and to me as believers. The Bible teaches this truly. There is a Spirit's witness to us. You have this in Hebrews 10, 15. The Holy Ghost is a witness to us, we read. A witness to us of what, you ask? Well, I can tell you in the light of what we are taught here in Hebrews 10, of the finality of Christ's atoning sacrifice for sin, once and for all. He witnesses to us that the offering of Jesus was acceptable to God for time and for eternity. That there may not therefore be no more sacrifice for sin. It is over and done with. That when Jesus cried, Tetelestai, finished, that all the Levitical economy was over and done with. That there were no more bulls and goats and sheep and oxen to be slaughtered, to be slain and their blood sprinkled upon the mercy seat or upon the altar of sacrifice. No more. Five bleeding wounds He bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive Him. Oh, forgive, they cry. Nor let that ransomed sinner die. That is what the Spirit of God witnesses to me. Does He to you? His witness to us concerning the one supreme and for all time sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of men. Yes, but there is something else too. There is the Spirit's witness in us. In 1 John 5 and verse 10, He that believeth in the Son of God hath witness in himself. In the context, there is a threefold testimony to the supernatural incarnation of Jesus Christ. Now, it is to this that the Spirit bears witness in us. In the believer, a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Redeemer of men. And where the Holy Spirit infills the believer, then this testimony, this witness is in us to the supreme fact concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in us. So it is intensely reassuring, isn't it? There is the Spirit's witness with us. Romans 8 and verse 16. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. This confirms our filial relationship with God, that He is our Father, we are His children. And we are taught that as a true son of God, we are to submit to the mastery of the Spirit and therefore lead a guided life. That is verse 14 of that chapter 8. That He enjoys the liberty of the Spirit. That is taught in verse 15 of the same chapter. And that He has and possesses the testimony of the Spirit, which we have looked at in verse 16. So as we trace the revelation of the mystery of the Body of Christ to the infilling Holy Spirit, we begin to see how He is prepared to deal with us personally and individually at the place where He finds us, if you like, not simply according to our spirituality, but according to our mentality too. And because He is the infilling Holy Spirit, the source, the primal fount of revelation of what the Body of Christ is, don't you see that bearing witness to us and in us and with us as believers, He can teach us as we are able to be taught. And we can receive from His gracious ministry revelation that no one else could possibly give us. Oh, that God would teach us how to depend upon His Spirit more and more, how to lean hard upon the ministry which He has come to give, that we should not be so taken up with the demonstrative, with the ecstatic, with the manifest, but taken up more with the mystery of His indwelling and with the function of His teaching and with the ministry of His abiding presence as He comes to live in us and make our hearts His very home. The revelation of the infilling Spirit. One thing more, and I think that this too is important. The supplication of the Spirit can be traced to this one preposition. Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 18. I think you all know this chapter fairly well. The subject here, of course, is the Christian's warfare. Ephesians 6, 10 to 18. And we are made aware that the Church is militant in character. And Paul first describes, as you notice, the panoply that we are to wear. Put on the whole armor of God, he says. The piece-by-piece armor. And then the pieces of the armor or the equipment, they are described. I'm just touching on this. The belt of truth, having your loins girded about with truth. Loins, of course, represent the strength of a man. And truth is what God says about a thing. The breastplate of righteousness over the vulnerable part. A righteousness here which is practical, not simply idealistic, but a righteousness which really works in right-wiseness, in right dealings, not only with God, but with men. The sandals of the gospel. The preparation of the gospel of peace. The word preparation is firm-footed. So firm-footedness, stability, which the gospel itself produces. The shield of faith. On this the fiery darts, which are the separate temptations of Satan, are to be quenched. As I think I've mentioned once before, this shield was a pretty hefty thing. It was four feet by two foot six. To give you an idea, like a door. When this was held up, well, Satan didn't have much of a show of getting through with his fiery darts. When they came upon the shield, well, they just were quenched. And that was the end of them. The helmet of salvation. Protection for the head. The sword of the Spirit. Here it is, the heavy two-edged sword, which is the Word of God. And it's always the Spirit's sword. It never is yours or mine. Remember this. We talk about using the sword of the Spirit. Who gave you the right to use the sword of the Spirit? It's the Spirit's sword. It's always His. And so if we take up the sword of the Spirit, it is only He was able to use the Word of God correctly and appropriately and effectually. Surely. How many times have we tried to do it? We thought we had all the answers. And we tried to correct the person or try to help with a problem. And you know what the result has been time and time again. We thought we had the answer. We didn't even have the question. But the Spirit of God, when He wields the sword, now things begin to happen. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, a two-edged sword. Remember how Jesus in the wilderness employed this. It is written. Satan can't get past that one. And then as for the enemy we face, we are told that he is strong and wily, methodical in his planning, diabolical in his scheming, infernal in his working. And so he is a fool to be reckoned with. But the ultimate defense we have against Satan lies in the strategy that we employ. And this you have in verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in, in the Spirit. Again, our preposition. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Here is the continual attitude in prayer. Praying always means at all seasons, on every occasion. And this is the way into conquest over temptation. By the 2641. Watch and pray that he enter not into temptation. It is the way into spiritual blessing. Again, Matthew 7 and verse 7. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. And I think that is a marvelous thing to know, isn't it? Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. There are some participles here really. For he who keeps on asking, keeps on receiving. And he who keeps on knocking, to him the door keeps on being opened. And he who keeps on seeking, keeps on finding. You keep on and you, well, God keeps on. And this is the lesson behind this constant attitude in prayer. This giving ourselves over to prayer. And it is the way into personal strength. Luke 18 and verse 1. Men are always to pray. And not to faint. So to preserve yourself from spiritual fainting fits. This is the way. The continued attitude of prayer. Praying always with all prayer and supplication. The word prayer is prosuchy. Intense intercession on fire. You should know this by now. I have mentioned it a few times. And the word supplication is diēcius. Which means separate or special petition. So what the Apostle Paul is saying is this. On every occasion, as a need arises, whatever it may be, let this be your continual attitude. You exercise yourself in prayer, either for intense intercession or special petition. And now you reach the crux, it seems to me, of the matter where Paul describes the creative agency in prayer. With all prayer and supplication in, in the Spirit. Now this envisages the infilling presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And I would say, in the light of Scripture, that to pray in the Spirit means we are infilled by the Spirit. How can you pray in the Spirit if the Spirit is not praying in you? If you are not infilled with the Spirit. I am not talking now about the baptism of the Spirit. I am not talking about speaking in tongues or anything like that. I am talking about the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we'd better speak about the specific exhortation itself in Ephesians 5.18. Then we'll all be happy, perhaps. It seems to me that we can be taken up, you know, with these terms and with these expressions. And sometimes forget, really, the blessing that they are supposed to be in our experience. Ephesians 5.18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with, again, the Spirit. This is the source of victorious living. What is Paul's meaning? Do not be intoxicated with the wine of this world, but keep on drinking deeply of God's Spirit, so that you are infilled and controlled. The believer is not an empty vessel. He never is. He is a willing instrument and a responsive channel. The Holy Spirit is not a substance that fills an empty vessel. He is a person who controls a responsive individual. And I think that this understanding is the imperative necessity of a Christian's life. Certainly the experience is something with which he cannot do without. You know, there is a striking contrast here. When a man is stimulated by wine, very often his ego is enlarged. He thinks he is a wonderful person. He can drive at 70 miles an hour. All that sort of business. When you are filled with the Spirit, self-life has no place at all. Rather, we were driving at 20 coming up from Taronga tonight. I thought I was in the wrong place. I thought I had begun from Hamilton. The fog was so thick. That's a different story, though. Let's get out of this fog for a moment. When a man is stimulated by wine, his ego is enlarged. When a man is filled with the Spirit, he knows that he is nothing and nobody. When a man is filled with the Spirit, he is not talking about himself. He is talking about the Lord because he loves Him. Because there is no one else worth talking about anyhow. The drunken man may have blurred vision, but the man whom the Spirit infills will have a clear sight of Jesus. Henceforth the world seeth me no more. He said, But ye see ye. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, if you look at others, you become either disappointed or disgusted. If you look at ourselves, we become frustrated. If we look at obstacles, we become defeated. But if we are looking unto Jesus, it's all right, isn't it? The intoxicated man may have speech which is sometimes incoherent, but the man who is controlled by the infilling Spirit of God, he will be positive in his testimony to Jesus Christ. When a man is drunken, his walk may be unsteady. When a man is filled with the Spirit, his walk doesn't waver. It's a sign. He knows where he is going. In order to be positive, you've got to know where you stand. And to be progressive, you've got to know where you're going. It's the man who is filled with the Spirit that has this delightful experience and enjoys this consciousness and this jubilance. The intoxicated man will often suffer a loss of moral values, but the man who knows the infilling Holy Spirit will usually have his priorities well in order. So, because we cannot really shelve this question, and because we can't actually pray in the Spirit unless we are infilled by the Spirit, this exhortation cannot be lightly dismissed. You know, of course, by now, don't you, that the verb filled gives you four very wonderful lessons in this experience. It's in the imperative mood, the mood of command. It's in the passive voice, so you have to go to the very source. You can't fill yourself. It's in the present tense, so it's a continuing thing, but it must have a beginning. And I'm sure that the beginning point is when a man is baptized with the Spirit. You can say the Spirit came upon him. You can say that he was filled with the Spirit. I don't care what you say about it, but I mean this is where it begins. Because if there is to be a continuing filling of the Spirit, there must be a starting point somewhere. And I believe on the day of Pentecost when they were first filled, or if you like, when they were baptized with the Spirit, that was the starting point of something which was intended as a continuing experience. And it's in the plural number, so that includes everybody. No one is left out at all. It's not for some special favorites in the church. It's not for some people who have some special task to fulfill. It's for everyone. It's a command given by God. It is to be sought at the hand of God. It's a continuing experience and must have a starting point. And it's all-inclusive. It includes all believers. Two ways lie before us. We began by saying this. The way of the flesh. The way of the Spirit. They are opposed to each other. They never can be reconciled. They are against each other. And so a choice has to be made. In the Spirit or in the flesh. Which is it to be? The choice is yours and mine, you know. The key is in our hand, placed there by God. But we have to use it. We have to take action. There are two seas in Palestine, are there not? And into those two seas the River Jordan flows. One of those seas is alive, full of fish. Around it men have built their homes and birds have built their nests. It's a pleasure to look upon. The other sea, the River Jordan flows into it, but there is nothing moving there at all. No one wants to live near that sea. No one wants to be associated with it. They call it the Dead Sea, just as they called the other the Sea of Galilee. There are two kinds of seas in Palestine. There are two kinds of Christians in the Church. Think about that, won't you? Let us pray. Eternal God, our hearts go out to Thee again in thanksgiving and praise for Thy presence with us throughout this time that we have spent together around Thy Word. There are some things in Thy Word which are hard to comprehend. Other things that come so much easier to our understanding. But, O God, wilt Thou save us from the desire at any time to avoid what has to be said, however difficult it may be, in order that we might be relieved and we might be eased when there is a need amongst Thy people that Thy Word should have its right of way and that release and deliverance and freedom should come. We praise Thee and thank Thee for the reality of Thy nearness to us. This night again, we ask that the Holy Spirit may at all times not simply be resident in our lives, but president, absolutely in control. We ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen.