In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the Spirit-filled life for Christians. He highlights that it is not by human strength or power, but by the Holy Spirit that believers can confront the world with a message of life and power. The speaker also mentions some shocking statistics about how Christians spend their time, emphasizing the need for a greater focus on devotion to God. He then discusses the evidence of a Spirit-filled life, which includes being vocal about the Lord, joyful, thankful, and humble. The sermon references Ephesians 5 and encourages believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to honor Christ by submitting to one another.

Now, in this exciting and wonderful project of Key 73, I thought to relate my messages night by night to this project. We've talked together about the Christian's responsibility to be a light that shines for Christ. The Christian is the only person who can reflect the Lord Jesus to others and bring light to bear in the darkness of this world. We spoke about the Christian renunciation, that he must live in the power of the Holy Spirit and renounce the life of self in order that the Spirit of God may really break through. We spoke last night about the Christian requirement, the Word of God, the right and wrong use of the Bible in study. And I must say, I think you've got a marvelous local press here, or a press agent. I've never in my life had messages so fully reported as they have been in Thailand. And this is a wonderful means of publicity throughout the whole city. I think that our good friend Nelson Clyde is very largely responsible for this and I would like personally to thank him for it. It means a great deal. Now tonight I want to speak in my final message to you about the Christian's resources for the task. It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit. Serve the Lord. And I want to speak to you as God shall help me about the Spirit-filled life. For it is only the Spirit-filled Christian who confronts and can confront unashamedly the world of today with a message of life and power and reality. I saw by the way in a magazine lately that in the average Christian life of 75 years, we spend 25 years asleep, 19 years at work, 6 years traveling, 7 and a half years dressing, 9 years watching television, 6 years eating, 4 years being sick and 6 months in devotions. Those are pretty shocking figures. I wonder how anybody computed them, but somehow they hit you between the eyes. Don't you? Don't they? If we live like that, do you think we really believe in the Holy Spirit at all? With so many people, God the Father is a way up there, and Jesus Christ somewhere else, and the Holy Spirit a sort of second cousin. But He, the Holy Spirit, is God in the Christian. And this is the one and the only one by whom we can fulfill the purpose for which God has given us life and breath. Far too many Christians live on the right side of Calvary, but the wrong side of Pentecost. Too many of us are on the right side of pardon, but the wrong side of power. The right side of forgiveness and the wrong side of fellowship. And it is God's purpose in redeeming us and saving us and coming to live in our hearts, that we should be on the right side of both. You remember that the Lord Jesus, in that wonderful conversation with the woman at the well, said, If you knew who it is that's speaking to you, you'd have asked of him and he would have given you living water. John chapter 4. A little later on in the same conversation, The water that I shall give you shall be in you a fountain springing up into everlasting life. The Living Bible puts it, watering you daily with eternal life. I like that. Fresh supplies every day from heaven of living water. And later in the same gospel in chapter 7, the Lord Jesus stood at the gate of the temple and said, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me out of his innermost being shall flow. Not a drop, not a trickle, not a stream, not even a river, but rivers of living water. Now in those three texts you have life, abundant life, and overflowing life. Life, abundant life, and overflowing life. In which category would you put yourself right now? Of course, if you're a Christian at all, you cannot be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. You cannot be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. And the most important matter for us to get settled at the start is, that we know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and are born of the Spirit, and so we possess his life indwelling our hearts. That means forgiveness of sin by virtue of his blood, and it is a beginning, a wonderful beginning, but it's only the beginning. There's a tremendous need in every one of our lives tonight for more of God. We don't go to the fountain to drink often enough, and we don't stay long enough to have our thirst quenched. I love the books of Dr. A. W. Tozer. And in his book, In Pursuit of God, he says this, let me quote to you. Everything is made today to center upon the initial act of accepting Christ. We are not expected to crave after any further revelation of God to ourselves. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic, which insists that if we have found him, we need no more seek him. This is set before us as the last word in orthodoxy. The hot theology of a great army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture, which would have sounded strange to Augustine, Rutherford, and David Brennan. Oh, that the language of John Samuel Mansell was in our hearts again. I hunger and I thirst. Jesus, my manna be, ye living waters burst out of the rock for me. For still the desert lies my thirsty soul before. Oh, living waters rise within me evermore. So speaks A. W. Tozer, he that is dead yet speaketh. And this rings a bell in my own heart. And I find a strange echo there to all that he is saying. Far too often in our lives, if we're honest, instead of victory, it's defeat. Instead of real satisfaction in Jesus, it's hunger and dissatisfaction and frustration. And instead of advancing in our witness, we're losing ground. We've lost the boldness and the courage and the daring of the early church. I'm not a Methodist, but I love Wesley's hymns. Alas, that some of his best hymns have been conveniently, I think that would be the word, omitted, from many of our recently published hymn books, whose title will remain anonymous. But do you know this hymn of Wesley's? Do you remember it? Jesus, thine all-victorious love, shedded my soul abroad. Then shall my heart no longer rove, rooted and fixed in God. Refining fire go through my heart, illuminate my soul. Scatter thy light through every part and sanctify the whole. O that in me the sacred fire might now begin to glow. Burn up the draughts of base desire and make the mountains flow. O thou at Pentecost, who thou at Pentecost didst fall, do thou my sins consume. Come, Holy Ghost, on thee I call, Spirit of burning cup. If a man prays like that or talks like that or preaches like that today, he's a wild Pentecostalist. And we have exchanged the false fire of fanaticism for the no fire of orthodoxy. And we're bankrupt. I'm terribly concerned that we should follow the track of the word of God in dealing with this subject tonight. For more than any other subject in Bible, it has been suffered from unwise handling. The devil has seen to that. But I'm not going to allow the fear of the counterfeit to keep me back from reality. I preached on Sunday morning in a church in Tyler, in which there were many people with hungry hearts. And I preached to them as a man with a hungry heart, who's hungering for more of God every day. I can never exhaust all of Him until I see Him face to face. There's always more of Him to experience and to know in my life. And my life's ambition has always been not that I might know truth, but that I might know Him. That's what Paul's ambition was, that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering. And if God has promised me something in His word which can turn defeat into victory, dryness into freshness, self-centeredness into Christ-centeredness, despair sometimes into delight, not to make me smug, but to make me vital for the kingdom, I long for all that God has for me in Jesus. And isn't it a wonderful thing that He promises in Psalm 107 verse 9, He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry with goodness, not madness, but goodness. Now let me just clear an acre of ground before I start, if you know what I mean. And of course, we're going to go through some controversial territory tonight. I don't enjoy that at all, because though it may be that I love all of you dearly, it may be by the end of this service you won't be loving me very much, I hope however, I hope however, if we disagree on minor points, we'll find the same burden, the same urge and the same hunger at the root of our heart. Let me therefore begin by saying that some people teach that a spirit-filled life is something apart from the presence of Jesus. That the fullness of the spirit is something different, and that the evidence of it will be seen in ecstatic utterances, in amazing miracles, and in outstanding success in witness. At once of course, we come straight against or into touch with the charismatic movement. I think I mentioned one night this week already, I have been in about 45 countries preaching the word of God, and every country I've been in, I've come across this movement. Which majors on the gift of the spirit, especially speaking in tongues and in healing. Now, many people say, don't touch it. This is all of the devil, it's so divisive. Hold it my friend, hold it. Who's responsible for the division? I believe the answer to that question is twofold. First, people who say, this is not for our day. This gift of speaking in tongues was finished at Pentecost. It is all of the devil, and we must always take a stand against it. Now people like that are the cause of division. For one thing, Paul himself spoke in tongues. And he told the Corinthian church, forbid not to speak in tongues. He acknowledged the gift. And in the light of his teaching in 1 Corinthians, you can't possibly say that this gift was eliminated at Pentecost. As a matter of fact, what happened at Pentecost was one thing, and what happened in Corinth was another. At Pentecost, representatives from 15 different nations heard the disciples preach in the gospel in their own language. Here God was initiating a new day, a new dispensation. The coming of God the Holy Spirit, and here was the dramatic announcement of his coming, and the word was preached, so that all present in Jerusalem at that time could understand it. There was no need of an interpreter. But in Corinth, it was an unknown tongue in which people were speaking, and it required interpretation. These two things were entirely different. You cannot, cannot biblically assert that this gift has been withdrawn from the church. Moreover, in these 45 countries, I have in every one of them, no exaggeration, visited with and spoken to literally hundreds of people who have come into life through the exercise and receiving of this gift. To whom Jesus has become so wonderfully real, and he's much more precious, and their lives are much more real and much more vital and much more open and much more tender and loving than they have been before. I've seen so much reality in this, that I cannot possibly come down and say this is all a devil, and I don't think it's biblical to do so. But, having said that, let me say this. There are people in this charismatic movement who say, in order to be filled with the Spirit, you must speak in an unknown tongue. Now hold it again. I do not consider that is biblical. It's a confusion in thought between the gifts of the Spirit, which are distributed according to the will of God, 1 Corinthians 12, and the fullness of the Spirit, which hasn't anything to do with gifts, but has everything to do with character. The major emphasis on the New Testament is not on gifts, but on Christ-likeness, character. If speaking in tongues was that which we all must have to enter into fullness of life, then may I respectfully suggest to you it would be the major emphasis in every one of Paul's letters, instead of which it isn't referred to in any of them, except one, 1 Corinthians. And then only in two chapters, 12 and 14. And then always with a view to keeping it in hand, dampening it down. Obviously, speaking in tongues was no mark of spiritual maturity. For the Corinthian church was the most carnal church in the New Testament, but they had the gift. So when a dear lady a little while ago came up to me and said to me after a service, Oh, what a pity you haven't got it. I said to her, beg your pardon, ma'am. She said, what a pity you haven't got it. I said, what do you mean? Oh, she said, if you'd only come to our church, you'd get it. All the gifts are in operation there. You'd get it. My dear lady, I said to her, my dear lady, I'm not looking for it, I'm looking for Him. Besides, I said to her, it takes me all my time to speak right with the one tongue I have got without having an unknown tongue. Now, my dear friends at Dallas, I do not say all that to cause offense. I say it simply to present a balanced view. And if someone here speaks in tongues, God bless you, and I trust that it has made Jesus so wonderfully real that He fills your heart and your life and you witness to Him and not to your experience. And that you don't go around insisting that everybody else must have your gift because nobody can. And on the other hand, if you don't speak in tongues and you think the whole things of the devil don't cause division, by that, let's learn to love each other even though we disagree, and rejoice in every Christian who has entered into life. You, there are, oh, there are 431 people here tonight, approximately. Don't spend the rest of the evening counting them, but I think that's about right. Listen, there are 431 miracles, I hope. Every one of us came a different way to Jesus. If you could stand up and give 431 testimonies, you'd all tell how you came, different ways and different circumstances. And you all came to the cross in different ways. And so it is that everybody comes in different ways into fullness of life. But you all have to come there if you're going to witness in power. You see, the evidence of a spirit-filled life, as we noted, I hope, in our reading, is not gift, but character. Galatians 5.22 says, The fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Love, joy, peace, that's my relationship to God. Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, that's my relationship to other people. Faith, meekness, self-control, that's my relationship to myself. That's fruit. And it's all character. I have chosen you, said Jesus, that you should bring forth fruit and your fruit should remain. Character. Stability of a spirit-filled life. And Ephesians chapter 5, that lovely portion that was read to us, let me just note it with you in the Living Bible. It says in verse 18, Don't drink too much wine, for many evils lie along that path. Be filled instead with the Holy Spirit and controlled by Him. Verse 19, Talk with each other much about the Lord, quoting psalms and hymns and singing sacred songs, making music in your hearts to the Lord. Always give thanks for everything to our God and Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Honor Christ by submitting to each other. You could put four words, as I have done, down my margin here. Evidence is of a spirit-filled life. One, vocal. Two, joyful. Three, thankful. Four, humble. And they're all character. Vocal. Talking with each other much about the Lord. Of course, the spirit-filled Christian can't stop talking. The fountain's bubbling over. Quoting hymns and singing sacred songs, making music in your hearts to the Lord. Isn't that a happy verse? The happy, the Christian's got a joy deep, deep down in his heart that goes far deeper than happiness. Happiness depends on what happens, but joy is far, far deeper than that. J-O-Y, Jesus, others, yourself. That's joy. Always giving thanks to God for everything. Ooh, that's tough. I can give thanks to the Lord sometimes for something, but always giving thanks to God, our Father in the name of Jesus Christ, for everything. Ooh. That takes some doing. I remember Paul Rees, you don't talk to Paul Rees, do you? World Vision lives in Minneapolis. He told me and told several people that there was a gentleman, a friend of his, a Christian fellow, who was going from Birmingham, Alabama to Chicago. Thank you very much. To Chicago. And he was sitting in the bus, alone, it was a very hot day, about 100 degrees, and he was waiting in this bus terminal, and, ooh, it was stifling. And presently a lady got in and sat down beside him. And if I may say so, she was rather a large lady. And she oozed onto his section of the seat. And presently, three of her children joined her and sat on her knee. And this poor little man was squashed into the corner of this seat. And he thought to himself, my, Chicago's an awful long way. This, this round me, I must leave a lot to your imagination, but it was pretty grim. And just then he remembered that he'd got a verse in the Bible that morning in his devotion. This verse, giving thanks to God our Father is all things in the name of the Lord Jesus. And he remembered that verse. And he said, oh God, oh Lord, what can I be thankful to you for right now? And then he thought, Lord Jesus, I'm so thankful this woman is not my wife. Now if you don't like that story, that's Dr. Paul Rees, not me. But see what I mean, it's a graphic illustration of the fact that a spirit-filled life is a thankful life. And you can only thank God for everything when your faith is deeply rooted in the sovereignty of God. Deeply rooted in the sovereignty of God. Then you're always thankful. For everything. Then let me say this again, that many people tell us, teach us, that the fullness of the spirit must always come as a sudden experience. Later than conversion, after a distinct time of waiting on God and expectation. Now it's perfectly true that the fullness of the spirit in our lives produces an experience so different from anything known before that it seems absolutely different. In fact, it's like being born again, again. If I may be so untheological. Just born again all over again. Suddenly, truths to which I have had mental assent and agreement come alive. And the one thing that matters is that I should get on the ball and begin obeying them. But the mistake, the mistake is made when that which is frequent is laid down as necessary. There's always a risk of trouble when Christians make their own experience the standard for other people. You've got to go through what I have been through in order to be right. And in order to be filled with the spirit. This is not a second blessing. Do I believe in a second blessing? Certainly. I believe in a second and a third and a fourth and a fifth and a sixth. A day without a blessing would be a miserable day. But God expects nothing from him except failure. But God has provided him with the Holy Spirit that he need not fail. That's a crisis. That takes the sweat and drudgery out of Christian life. And it turns it from drudgery to luxury. You're not living at the last edge of your resources then. You're living at the infinite resources of Jesus all the time. And yet with all I must ask you most earnestly the question that Paul asked this Ephesian church. Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? In that deep, powerful, transforming sense. Now I've cleared my acre of ground. That's only the introduction and the time is now ten to nine. Keep believing. If you can't stay to the end, good night, God bless you. I do love you still. It's been nice to have you. However, if you can stay, I'll be so grateful and so thankful. I want to present to you four simple propositions about the Holy Spirit based on the word of God. And the first one is this. The Bible teaches there is a fullness of the Spirit which is not identical with the new birth. May I repeat that? There is a fullness of the Spirit which is not identical with the new birth. A man may be born again, may believe and live, but be far from full. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. 1 Corinthians 12, 3. No man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12, 13. By one Spirit we have all, all these Corinthian tragedies, little wrecks of spiritual lives. Carnal Christians, we have all been baptized by one Spirit into one body. Major Thomas, a great friend of mine and of yours I know, came to Moody Church during my pastorate and preached a sermon entitled Unsaved Believers. My! It took us about three months to get over that. It rocked the whole place but it was dead right. Everything in their heads but nothing in their hearts. The danger of having your doctrines and your hearts all in a mess, devoid of life and power. But you can be a believer without having the Holy Spirit but you can't be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. But to have the Spirit and to be filled with the Spirit are two different things. You see, Egypt, for instance, always has the Nile. But it waits every year for the Nile to overflow. And having the Nile is one thing and having the overflow is another. That overflow changes the desert into a garden and waste into fruitfulness, disaster into abundance and that's exactly what the fullness of the Spirit does for a Christian. It turns the desert wilderness life into a garden. It turns disaster into abundance, abundance into victory and waste into fruitfulness. Now I see no reason from the Word of God why the fullness of the Spirit should not come at conversion. As in the case, for example, of Cornelius and his household in Acts chapter 10 and verse 44. But this seems to have been exceptional. In John 20 verse 22 Jesus breathed on the disciples and they received the Holy Spirit. But in Acts 2 and verse 4 they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul, a converted man on the Damascus road surrendered, believing, praying, wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit till Ananias came. Acts 9 chapter 17. And these Christians at Ephesus, they lacked so much evidence of reality and they were so sort of dull and dry and sort of uninteresting people that Paul said, Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? I wonder if he asked that question if he was here tonight. I wonder what he'd say about us, about us Baptists and then there's Presbyterians and all the rest. What would he say? Have you received the Holy Spirit? You don't look any different. You haven't got any joy. You hear Christians saying, I've got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart and I've got faces by the mile long. Look absolutely miserable. There's no joy, there's no lift, there's no enthusiasm, there's no thrill, there's no reality about you. Ephesians 5, 18 is written to Christians. Be filled with the Spirit. And if that wasn't a command for Christian people it wouldn't appear in the Bible. Something following conversion. Corinthian Christians were carnal but they were born again. Indwelt but mastered by the self life. And if we're honest we know the agony of that. Perhaps I could best illustrate what I'm getting at by a little homey illustration. I think you know, some of you, that we have two daughters and one is ten years older than the other. The other is a sort of postscript. And I remember one day when the older one was a teenager and the other little one was only I think about four. I was in my study in London on a Monday morning. I had a bit of a Monday morning feeling but I thought my sermons had been so hopeless the previous day. Preachers understand that I'm sure. And I heard my wife say to the kid run upstairs and tell daddy breakfast's ready. So I ran upstairs and the one with long legs got in first. She came into my study rushed across the floor jumped under me put my arm round her neck and said daddy breakfast's ready. Then postscript came about a minute afterwards. Puffing and panting and got as far as the door and looked inside and big sister said something to her which wasn't very nice. She said you needn't come any farther I've got all the rest of daddy. And I saw a little lip begin to quiver. A little tear come into her eye. So I stuck out a spare knee and held out my arm and said come on darling. And so she ran in tolled up and jumped on my knee and I hugged her tight. And then she said to big sister not in a very Christian spirit she said to her and she was only about six inches away she said you may have all the rest of daddy but daddy's got all the rest of me. That's what it is. That's the crisis. When not only do I have all of Jesus but he has all of me. That's the crisis. And you don't receive Jesus on the installment plan. When you are baptized into Christ you have So the trouble is he hasn't got all of you. And he wants room to maneuver. Room to manipulate. Room to work. Room to operate. Room to be in control. Room to go into business. Room to go out through you to each other. My second proposition. The first one if you have got notes. There is such a thing as the fullness of the spirit that is not identical with the new birth. The second. The fullness of the spirit is not a once and for all experience. But an increasing habit of life. You'll find many references in the Acts of the Apostles where those who were filled at Pentecost were filled again. They were filled as they prayed Acts 4.31. And as they suffered Acts 13.32. Often you read of Paul filled with the spirit. Fullness was an increasing habit of life. A fullness which distinguishes a man's character and atmosphere in which he lives. There is no such thing as a once and for all fullness of the spirit. It's a continuous appropriation of a continuous supply from Jesus Christ himself. A moment by moment faith in a moment by moment cleansing. At the moment I begin to believe praise the Lord. At that moment I begin to receive. And as long as I go on believing I go on receiving. That's it. So simple. But hallelujah so wonderful. See. Go on believing. Go on taking. Go on claiming. And go on being filled. An increasing habit of life. My third proposition. The fullness of the spirit is not for the hierarchy in the church or for a favored few but for everybody. The negative command of Ephesians 5.18 presents no difficulty. Don't get drunk with wine. But this positive is no less clear. The one is as binding as the other. If it's a sin to be drunk it's a sin, equally a sin not to be filled with the spirit. God doesn't issue a command to admire it. He issues a command to obey it. It's not for a few people but it's for everybody. Do you notice the context of Ephesians 5.18? Be being filled with the spirit. Present continuous ten. Be continuously filled with the spirit. And then he speaks of the most precious relationships in life. Husband, wife, parent, child. I know that I need His fullness every time I preach. I know you need your fullness the fullness of His spirit to teach your Sunday school class. But I need His fullness most of all, beloved to be a husband and a father worthy of the Lord Jesus. And that matters to me more than anything in the world. If I can't preserve openness love, fellowship, sweetness in my home I'd rather never preach again. Never preach again. If I haven't got a home where people can come and sit and talk and share Christ with us a home where we're open about the Lord and where we love Him and love each other all the more because of that. I couldn't preach anymore. I need the fullness of His spirit to make my home a corner of heaven. So do you. Oh, that's what we need. And that's, you know, you know that's the focal point of Key 73. The whole. Not the pulpit, but the whole. The whole. I'm love, I'm simply thrilled with these Bible cells and home Bible studies that have sprung up in these last years masses of them all over the place. I think it's simply great to see Christianity getting out into the homes. Because, you see, the family is the first unit in God's society. That's where God started in creating a man. And then in order that he might not be alone he created a woman out of the man. Not from his head lest he should dominate her. Not from his feet lest she should trample on him. But from his heart that she might love him. From under his shoulder that he might protect her. That's God's order of a family. A man and a woman ideal in love. In love, desperately in love. Loving each other with all their heart. Because Jesus is central to their home. Oh, what a testimony comes from a home like that. What healing power I mean spiritually. What that home can do in terms of blessing to the home next door where they're nattering each other and biting each other's head off and the whole thing is going to a shambles. Who do you think is going to witness to them that pastor won't, the church can't, it's impossible. Ah, but the neighbor can. And what a wonderful thing to take the Lord Jesus out from a home like that. See what I mean? Oh, yes. You need him. Not to make us abnormal but to make us normal people. Do you ever read Oswald Chambers? That book of his, My Utmost for His Highest is a lovely book of daily readings and in it he says this. Some people think Christians are people who should do exceptional things in extraordinary circumstances. But that is not so. Christians rather are people who should be exceptional people in ordinary circumstances. And as a father if you're bringing up teenagers today you've got problems on your hands and it isn't easy. And if you're going to be saved from worry, anxiety, a crowded face, offensive speech, bad manner, lack of courtesy in your home, you need Jesus. In all his fullness. Oh, yes. It's not for a favored few. I'm not speaking to you about some weird cloud nine blessing. I'm speaking to you about someone whom you need right deep in your heart every moment of every day. The last proposition is this. This fullness of the Spirit is not something isolated from Jesus Christ. We do not move on from Jesus to the Holy Spirit. He always works in relationship to God the Son. In fact, my attitude to Jesus determines the action of the Holy Spirit to me. For instance, if I reject Jesus the Holy Spirit convinces of sin. If I receive Christ the Holy Spirit comes into my heart. If I yield to Christ the Holy Spirit fills me. If I obey Christ the Holy Spirit uses me. But these are not two separate things. For the Holy Spirit convicting of sin is Jesus knocking at the door. And the Holy Spirit entering my life is Christ coming in by faith. And the Holy Spirit filling my life is Jesus coming with all the fullness of the Godhead into my heart. And the Holy Spirit using me is Jesus the Lord taking His servant who is prepared to obey Him and thrusting him out and using him. The two are not separate. You don't move from Jesus to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into your life to make Jesus real. To magnify the Son of God. I pray, said Paul to the Ephesian church in chapter 3 that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. And in Colossians 2, 9 he says in Him, in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. My dear, dear friends you can't have more than Jesus. You can't have more than the fullness of God in Christ. You don't move away from Christ to something else, to an experience. He is in you by His Spirit to make Jesus real, to magnify Him. How do you magnify something? Well, you can use a microscope or you can use a telescope. A microscope makes little things big. But Jesus is never little. A telescope makes distant things come near. And Jesus is often distant. Often distant. And it is the ministry of the Spirit in my heart to magnify the Lord and make Him dear and near to me. Until I begin to sing and say Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts Thou fount of life, Thou light of man Jesus, the very thought of Thee with sweetness fills my breast. The Holy Spirit, therefore, glorifies Christ. And that's the difference between reality and counterfeit. Where your experience of the Holy Spirit glorifies the experience, it's counterfeit. Where it glorifies Jesus, it's real. Now, I have just one more thing to say. Finally, brethren. Though I remind you that Paul wrote the letter to the church at Philippi and at the beginning of the third chapter when he was only half way through he said, finally, brethren. He became the father of all creatures. Let me say, I couldn't just leave you right there. I've been talking to you about the crisis experience. An experience of the fullness of the Spirit not identical with the new birth. Not for the favored few, but for everybody. Not something apart from the Lord Jesus. Not a final experience, but increasing habit of life. Then, if that be so, how may He be mine? Oh, I can't let you go without trying to answer that question. But then, in putting the question I am inclined to get into a dilemma. Because I cannot put the Holy Spirit in a straitjacket. The wind bloweth where it whisteth. Thou canst not tell the sound thereof whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So also is he that is born of the Spirit of God. Jesus is sovereign. And right now as I've been talking to you you may have said to you in your heart Oh Lord, that man has been saying something exactly what I need. Jesus, fill me now. And probably he's done it. If you've asked him, he will do it. But, if I may give you a suggestion without calling it a formula if you want to receive His fullness you must ask Him you must ask Him Luke 11.13 How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And that, of course, is not a sort of willy-nilly intellectual desire. It is a deep heart longing an intense dissatisfaction with yourself. Do you ever feel absolutely disgusted with yourself? Well, so do I. And I've never been nearer the Lord than then. And there's nobody nearer to Christ than the person in this crowd tonight who's absolutely at the end of the rope. You are disgusted with yourself. You've tried so often and you've struggled so hard and the things all prove to wash out and it's hardly worth carrying on the only thing is to quit. Hold it, my friend, hold it. You're at the edge of a discovery. Yes. Because when I come to the end of myself I'm just at the beginning of a miracle of touching the reality of Heaven. I receive forgiveness from my sins by stretching out an empty hand and saying, Nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling. And if I want to be filled with the Spirit I stretch out another empty hand and say, Lord, I've nothing in my hand I take by faith your life to indwell and fill me. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. If any man thirst, that's desire. Have you ever been thirsty? I wish Major Thomas was here because at this point I think I know him so well that I could ask him to stand up and say, Ian, come here and tell this congregation your experiences at Benghazi in North African desert in World War II when it was being pushed back by Rommel and when the British forces were being shoved back in the African desert and they hadn't a drop of water for a week. Tongues sticking to their mouth unable to say, unable to swallow absolute agony. Oh, Jesus said, If any man thirst what a wonderful thing to have a craving for God like that. None but Christ can satisfy none other name but He. If any man thirst, let him come. That means emptiness. I would never come to Jesus if I think I can do it alone. If I keep using my do-it-yourself kit well, I'd never come to Jesus until I'm empty. Let him come to me and drink. Drink? Oh, what is more wonderful and what is more easy than that? That's simply taking. Taking what he's there to offer. Drink! And he that believeth in me believeth on me out of him shall flow rivers. Oh, my friends and I just at this moment why the river of God could begin to flow this way.