Peter Brandon explores the fullness of the Spirit, emphasizing the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit for a vibrant Christian life. He shares personal anecdotes to illustrate the necessity of relying on Scripture rather than human opinions, and he discusses the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life. Brandon highlights that true fullness comes from a deep relationship with Christ, characterized by love, joy, and a commitment to living under His sovereignty. He encourages believers to cultivate a hunger for spiritual depth, engage in self-examination, and fully surrender to God to experience the fullness of the Spirit. Ultimately, he calls for a revival of spiritual fervor within the church, urging believers to seek a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Tonight we are going to look at what is the fullness of the Spirit. I was going to travel to Scotland a few years ago, and I shall never forget this, and I wanted to go from Bletchley instead of going into London. So I phoned up the local village station and I said to the station master, I would like to go to Scotland from Bletchley. And he knew me, so he said, Mr. Brandon, I'll get the book. So he got the book and he says, according to the book, you can get a train at Bletchley that stops at Preston, and from Preston you can get the Royal Scot that takes you right to Glasgow. Then I saw a man who was a very regular traveller from London to Scotland. He says, I've been travelling for 25 years. The Royal Scot never stops at Preston. He says, wait a moment, Mr. Brandon. Well, of course, I was uneasy because in the evening I was to speak at a conference. So I saw another brother that... You've been missing forms. It never stops at Preston. Well, he said, Mr. Brandon, according to the... You can go by your... I'm giving you what the book says. Well, I went by the book, but I was very nervous. And the Bletchley train stopped at Rugby, and there I saw the stationmaster all in his gold braid, and I called him out. Yes, then I'm going to pick up the Royal Scot that takes me to Glasgow. He said, you never will. Well, I could have died in the coach. He says, wait a moment, I'll get the book. And he got the book and his gold braid hat nearly fell off. Well, he says, at this particular time, according to the book, it stops at Preston. I went by the book and I was right. Now, beloved, I'm not going by my Christian friends regarding the doctrine of... And if I give you what the book says, it will be right. And so tonight, I shall go strictly sure of this, if we go by the book and we read from verse 14. Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, meaning the dead ones, and Christ shall give thee light. The word there doesn't mean the light of exposure that we have in verse 8. The word there is the light of radiancy. See then that she walks circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart, and in the name of our Lord, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear. First of all, I do want that it's absolutely vital, if we're going to make an impact on them, to get back to the experimental meaning of what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Any dead church will... We must get back... Then I want to take up the subject, what is the... Then I want to take up another fullness of the Holy Spirit procured. If we had time to go through Romans 8, and we're going to do that, we're saying something like, that if we have not the... Now what does he mean? First of all, he cleanses them from sin through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, meaning through his death. That it satisfies all the claims of a holy God. And he is born of God. That means if someone tonight, after this service, stayed behind, and he felt the bitterness of his own sin, and he wanted to turn from them, he believed that Christ would make Jesus his Saviour and Lord, he could kneel down, but would call upon the Lord, his sins would be cleansed and forgiven, into his life there would come the Holy Spirit, and that person will be born of God. That is basic Christianity. Now there are 14 titles for you three tonight. Number one is called the Spirit of God, that the Spirit of Christ, his unique identity. Now the Spirit of God. What really makes God? Well there are three great attributes. God is omnipresent, we'll explain it in a moment. God is omnipotent, and God is omniscient. Now you cannot isolate the Almighty God. First of all, the scripture tells us that he is outside of time and space, and that he is transcendent. That means he looks at the whole of the starry universe, he looks at the world in which we now live, and he looks at it as a small thing. In fact, we are told by Isaiah that he just sits upon the circle of the earth. God is not only transcendent, but he is also imminent. What does that mean? Everything that God makes, he projects in it his own glory. So that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse shows forth his anti-works. Therefore, everything that you look at will speak to you of the Creator God. Now you cannot isolate God and put the Almighty God in the little... He is outside of time and space, he is in it and projects his glory. So is the Holy Spirit. You must never imagine for one moment that the Holy Spirit is an inferior member of the Godhead. In every single detail, he is co-equal with God. In fact, we call him the third person of the Trinity. The Scripture never does. This may surprise you, the first divine person to be mentioned in Scripture as a person is the Spirit of God. Now the Word of God makes it quite clear that the Holy Spirit is only present. That means he is outside of time and space, he is in it, and he fills the whole universe with his glory. That's why he can fill hundreds of people. The Bible says something like this, Whither shall I go, whither shall I see from him? If I ascend into heaven, he's there. If I ascend into hell, he's there. In other words, you cannot escape from him. He fills the... Secondly, we are told, it means he has all power all above him, saying, let there be light on his left, release divine forces. All the miracles that you find, Lord Jesus was... The Holy Ghost shall come... All the miracles that the Lord Jesus did, he did in the past. Matthew 4, you read of him being filled with the... When the Lord Jesus was actually doing his dying, the atonement, when he was raised from the dead, according to Romans to Ephesians 1. And so you can see that they put it in language that we can understand, it's the engineer of God. He is the one that performs all the miracles and all the power. Secondly, the Holy Spirit is omniscient. You say, where's your scripture for that? In 1 Corinthians 2, we read this, he searches, here it comes, the deep things of God. Think of that. Not just those things that we can understand, but he's able to search the very deep, unfathomable things of God. Now, may I say this as clearly as I can? Never think of the Holy Spirit as an active force. Never think of him as a divine influence. Always think of him as a divine person and always remember, he is co-equal with the almighty God. Therefore, we realize now that we are handling a subject that is essentially holy and it should fill our hearts with awe as we speak on the blessed person of God. Secondly, he is called the Spirit of Christ. And this too is seen in Romans 8, verse 9. Now, the Spirit is not to give you an end, like a gift. The Spirit is to give you a hymn, to give you Christ. Therefore, he will not, he will take of the things of Christ and reveal them to you. When you read the book of the Acts, you will see very Spirit was present, the disciples and the apostles knew the Lord Jesus much more intimately then. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was taking of the things of Christ and revealing it to them. How does he want to take the things of Christ and reveal them to us? There are two ways in which you can learn Christ. If you have a good mind, you will read the scriptures and you will read the scriptures and in your mind, it is only the Holy Spirit can take that knowledge to you that Christ comes before you as a living person. And he comes to you as a living person that lives of God's right. You will meet people that have a good, but then you will meet people that know Jesus Christ really real to you. But then he wants to do something more than that. He wants to make the Lord Jesus real to you subjectively. If you read the Philippian epistle, you will see that the whole point of that epistle is to show to us Christ in us. Now you have a what he wants to do is to beautify in order to invade your personality so that the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord is seen in you. Filled with the... And year by year, he wants the... So that each person should be able to come to your local church in 1993. Christ being formed. Then he should be able to come back in three years time and see more of Christ being formed in that local company. And that means all the members moving up to the head. All glorifying the Lord. And the body filled with the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord Jesus. And that's the teaching of Ephesians. But then I must say something about the Holy Spirit. There's a glory I say to me. Well, the word Trinity is never used in the scripture. That is, you will find it in Genesis 1, 2 and 3. Matthew chapter... God said, this is my... The spirit anoints. And if you want to see the whole... Read the Ephesians epistle and you will see it almost in every chapter in a day. Because the beauty of the subject shows you what the fullness is. Turn to chapter 1. Also uses the word... Has put all things under his feet. That's the Lord Jesus. And gave him to be head over all things to the church. Now that basically is the subject that's before him. Which is his body. The fullness of him that filleth all in all. Now can you see the word fullness and the word filleth is associated with headship. Headship is associated with sovereignty. And therefore when a person or a company of people are filled with the spirit they come under the sovereignty of the Lord. Now that's clear. Now if you turn to the third chapter he uses the word in another way. Verse 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Now note that word because we're going to discuss it in a few moments. That he being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend that means to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and to know the love of Christ that he might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all associated with power associated with love. So when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit is filled with love and love is the same is filled with the Holy Spirit he comes under the mighty authority. We see another expression of fullness. Would you look at this? For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ perfect man and there you can see the perfect man means filled with the Holy Spirit he is filled with maturity. Now could I say this? In passing really begins to grow until he is filled with the Spirit and then he grows into maturity and he moves into various forms of maturity. You see there is no end to it. So that the apostle Paul could say that I might know him and the power of his resurrection the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Now we have seen on the surface what basically he means by the sovereignty into maturity. Now let's ask the big question. If every Christian indwelt with the Holy Spirit if we went through the book of the Acts we would be indeed water. You see what? Acts 2 manifestation is different from Acts 8. Acts 8 manifestation is different from Acts 9. Acts 9 is different from Acts 10. Acts 10 manifestation is different. Now if you are going to build a doctrine on that you are going to choose. You see you must remember this in the book of the Acts it's Christianity coming up. But when you come to the epistles it's all settled. When he writes to the Romans he says if we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his. Again when he writes to the Ephesians he makes it perfectly clear in the first chapter after he believed he was filled with the Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of your inheritance. In verse 3 he argues how did you receive the Holy Spirit? The hearing is clear and settled the moment you're saved you are born within you a different person. But now a person becomes a Christian we must make sure it's not and they're quite sure of this that many who sit around the Spirit of God it comes into your life then how can you tell a person when a person is truly saved first of all he hears about personal sin he hears how that Christ died he hears how that he must receive Christ as his Saviour and Lord to be much deeper than just hearing. Then there comes a moment in your experience when so that your sins become all personal painful and then they're pointed you say what do you mean by that? You realize they're all directed to God and you realize you're under judgment and there's deep anxiety then there comes a time in your experience when you're listening God says to that mind let there be light and then you feel like weak my sins put him on the cross the Lord loved me unto death and then you find your heart moved and then after that there's your responsibility you receive Christ as your Saviour you receive him as your Sovereign and then you're born of God now if that is missing and the conversion is mechanical then all you have is a profession you have a form of godliness but no power but if it's the real work of the Spirit of God then it's deep and it's genuine now I'm not saying that all of us have to be Philippian jailers for instance when the Philippian jailer got saved he was going to commit suicide he cried out what must I do to be saved and it was ordinary when little Lydia got converted it was quiet the set of breezes blew upon her and quietly she received the Lord Jesus as her Saviour and Lord now we do not all have to have the same feelings for instance if he had used the earthquake on Lydia poor little thing she would have died with a heart failure and if he had blown with set of breezes upon the Philippian jailer he would have said oh there's someone tickling me so God uses one thing for one man but they all had conviction they all had revelation now the second question is more tantalizing is every Christian aware of the Holy Spirit now I must turn you now to a scripture 1 Corinthians chapter 6 flee fornication I'm reading from verse 18 every sin that a man doeth is without the body but he that commits fornication sins against his own body what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your now that little expression what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own now when Paul went to Ephesus he found a group of disciples that were following John the Baptist and they were influenced by a brilliant teacher whose name was Apollos and the apostle Paul couldn't decipher whether they were Christian or not now what was his acid test? have you been baptised by a merchant? no have you a letter of commendation? no what did he say? have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? now that was the identifying question now when he writes to the Corinthians and he knew that they had received the Holy Spirit because he had led many of them to the Holy Spirit he did not say to them have you received the Holy Ghost? now note the difference what? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own haven't you got your eyes open yet to see that the Holy Spirit is within you? on one occasion I took my car to the phil... filled it up with diesel went to fill in my pockets from the wallet and it wasn't there if the ground could have opened it would have been a pleasure because the man in the filling station knew I was a Christian I walked round the car three times well I said I'll have to go in and tell him and it was some distance from my home that I filled up the tank and I've got no money so I thought what could I leave him? well I had nothing to leave him I don't think I had a watch on so in my dilemma you know how you go you put your hands in your pockets and I pulled it out and there was a ten pound note I couldn't help it but praise the Lord now it was there all the time you see at that moment an angel didn't come and put it I didn't call it a baptism it was there all the time but I just got my eyes open and all the joy now there comes a time when you sit in a meeting like this and God opens your eyes to see that the Spirit and you say praise the Lord my body is the inner shrine of the Holy Ghost and then you realise that you're infinitely holy and that's not an exaggeration you're infinitely holy every part of your body is God's inner temple but is awareness fullness? no what then is fullness? there's a classical example given in Acts 4 would you turn to it? and then we see this lovely case of the fullness of the Spirit verse 24 when Peter and John were released from prison perhaps we ought to read from verse 23 we read this and being let go they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them Acts 4 verse 23 and when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord now the word is very strong it's Suffering Lord if you have an NIV you will notice that they put in the word Suffering Lord if you have a Newberry Bible Suffering Lord thou art God would you look at that? the place was shaken where they were assembled now you will notice they did not pray for the filling of the Spirit they prayed that they might heal in the name of that holy serpent Jesus and they prayed that God would give them boldness that would be the but you see when they had prayed the place was shaken because they addressed the Lord honestly as Suffering Lord now in order to see the real mechanics of that word would you now turn to 1 Timothy and you'll see the real jaggedness of that word 1 Timothy 6 verse 1 let as many servants as are under the yoke that's the yoke of slavery count their own masters worthy of all honour that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed the word masters there is exactly the same word Suffering Lord now can you see the point we're driving at let as many slaves who are under the yoke meaning the yoke of slavery count their own Sovereign Lords worthy of all honour these slaves were bought from 8 to 30 pieces of silver and when they were bought they never addressed their master as Foreman always by this word so when these early Christians came together they loved the Lord so much that they were enslaved to him and when they prayed they not only called him Lord but they called him Offering Lord and that meant they were all under the yoke and to put that very simply it simply meant that they were all completely and the secret of a spirit filled life is not so much your relationship to the spirit but your relationship to that lovely and when you could honestly call him Sovereign Lord be sure of this you'll be filled with the spirit in fact the more you make him Sovereign Lord the greater the fullness will be now I could almost hear someone saying and so many have challenged me with this statement that I must mention it they say now look Peter the church is in a carnal state we're grovelling in the dust how can we get from a state where we're carnal to a state where we can say Sovereign Lord what are the steps? how do we get there? well my dear friends the first step is hunger Psalm 42 don't turn to this let me quote it it says as the heart pounces so pounces my soul Matthew chapter 5 says blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled John chapter 7 says and the Lord Jesus is the speaker if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink and out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water let he speak of the Holy Ghost for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified can you see it? hunger now here's a sad and then a gladstand we go to some people where we can never speak to them about the Holy Spirit no hunger material things and worldly things have so filled their hearts that all hunger has gone and that means God's people are dying and then we go to another group of people and you begin to almost hear an inarticulate groan like this I've read the scriptures I love the word of God but there's something in those first century Christians that I haven't got there's a power there that I know nothing at all about and I'm hungry I'm thirsty we've heard people say this in prayer Lord I don't want to be I don't want to live until you've met with me in power that's hunger I wonder can I speak to some of you would there be some here you've been reading through the scriptures you've not been critical thank God for that and you've quietly said this Lord there's something missing and I'm hungry are you there? now the moment God stimulates a hunger for something deeper something better hear me but if you are satisfied with a mediocre form of Christianity he can't leave you that's why we all need to be hungry for the deeper things of God the second step is exposure now let's turn to the scriptures in order to see this and he went right up to his mother he looked right into her face and he says mum you're crying what's that for? she said you and he broke down and wept the slipper hardened him the tear broke him there comes a time when you go into the presence of God and you genuinely say this Lord I've been grieving grieving the spirit of God go over my life completely search me show me everything in my life that's wrong help me now to study the scriptures not to be clever to be good and I'm willing to search the word of God so as to discover those things that are wrong in my life I do not want to sadden thee again blessed and there's a time of exposure now can I give you some advice here too? be careful of morbid introspection that can give you a mental breakdown we don't want that after a time of healthy introspection go into the presence of the claim cleansing that comes through the blood that's once and for all that never has to be repeated and then claim that if you confess your sin it's faithful and just to forgive you to forgive you of your sin and claim it completely believe the promise and accept the word of God for that brings glory to the Lord don't keep on confessing the same old sin having done it claim the forgiveness that God gives and then what after that? consecration and what do you mean by that? let's turn to Romans 12 Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that she presents your bodice a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that she may prove what is that good and acceptable after a time of health then lay yourself completely on the altar you say well how do I do that? yield up your mind and say oh God think now through my eyes yield up your eyes take your eyes and yield them to God then go all over the faculties of your body then lay yourself upon the altar and say Lord I'm not asking he wouldn't say be being filled with the Holy Spirit if you couldn't be filled it starts with hunger moves on to exposure then there's quiet intelligent consecration to the Lord and then claiming thy faith the fullness of the spirit as the hymn writer says fill now with thy spirit hearts that full surrender now you see what we love are feelings what God loves is faith and do you know I really believe sometimes God has to give a few of his people but those little subjective feelings do not please God what God wants is functional faith someone that takes the word of God stands upon it and claims it and once you have viewed it yourself to the Lord claim that fullness of the spirit I'm afraid of doing that brother Peter why? well I might roll on the floor you would if you were drunk I might froth at the mouth you would if you were drunk I might start shouting and losing complete control of myself you would if you were drunk you see drunk people act like that and when you are filled with the spirit you don't lose the dignity of manhood but you gain the dignity of Christianity now let me show you how foolish it is to rely on feelings moment the blood is going through my arm I can't feel it what would you think of me if all the time I was speaking I was doing you would say there's something wrong with him mentally no my heart is pumping I can't feel it but it's pumping now what would you think of me if I was doing that all the time I was speaking now I'm told that my optic nerves are working if I could feel them I would be very ill but nature works silently now note this when the Holy Spirit comes into your life he doesn't ring emotional bells like a person being God moves through nature you look at an enormous oak tree you put your hand on it you can't feel a thing but it's when I go home I hope to see some seeds I planted there when he comes into your life he moves in with the dignity of silence but all the power of it so how do you know then you're filled with the Holy Spirit the moment you're filled with the Holy Spirit you will get a fresh appreciation of Christ for the first time you'll be able to say a minute oh hallelujah you'll be able to kneel down in your quiet room now all together you see he's showing to you the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord and then unconsciously your life will begin to show forth the beauty so he makes Christ real and then he fills your heart with love a love that you never had before you see the fruit of the Spirit is love and the authority that God has given all the gossiping all the bickering goes and the Lord's people are filled with time to Ephesians 5 verse 18 be not drunk with wine wherein an excess be filled and being constantly filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God so the first sign of a person being filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs now this is a very difficult verse in those days they did not have the full canon of scripture they did have the psalms they had hymns and spiritual songs for instance great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh that was a spiritual song Christ died for our sins according to the scripture he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the script and so they had these inspired quotes and the moment they were filled with the Holy Spirit they would address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs for us the moment you're filled with the Holy Spirit you will get a fresh love for the Word of God instead of the Word of God being a dry book and we all know that sometimes but the moment you're filled with the Holy Spirit it will become to you like a psalm singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord giving thanks that means the joy of the Lord will be in you now it won't be a frivolous joy where you just make merry because a few jokes have been told but it will be a deep joy it will be the joy of the Lord you remember when Paul and Silas were in prison and at midnight when their backs were bleeding now that proves they were filled with the Holy Spirit and when people are filled with the Holy Spirit even in the midst of deep sorrow there can be truth then giving a thanks you know sometimes when we meet people there is only one experience that you give testimony to that's your salvation if thou shall confess with thy mouth Jesus when a person is healed the wife submits to a husband the husband will love his wife in a new way the children will be obedient to the children the fathers the fathers will be understanding the slaves will obey their masters the masters will be considerate to the slaves you see it affects every part now i want to stretch your imagination and really close could you imagine what God would do with 40 people in one assembly filled with the Holy Spirit think of it you would go to a worship meeting and it would be heaven on earth you would go to a prayer meeting and there would be a great the kind of gospel meetings you would have then would be productive beloved let's not advocate the theory and the doctrine that may God fill every one of us with so that there will be real Lord we come to thee now and we would ask thee to stimulate in our hearts that we pray that thou will save us all just to say search me oh God we pray that among us thy that in these last days just before the Lord Jesus comes there might be scores of us who will lay ourselves us and oh God we pray in this great city of Sydney commence a flame that shall really spread and for some of our young people that come may there be a flame there that will spread so that scores might be swept into the kingdom ere the Lord Jesus returns grant this for his glory tomorrow night we're going to look at the great conflict now i want to be practical some of us have been through agony the understanding loving way we've all had them