The Spirit Filled Life — Oswald J. Smith

This morning, I want to commence the brand new message, new for this series, the Spirit-Filled Life. I know of no subject more important for Christian workers, for ministers, for missionaries, than the subject, the Spirit-Filled Life.

The Command to Be Filled With the Spirit

And I'm going to base what I have to say on Ephesians, the 5th chapter and the 18th verse. Five words. Be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Before I get into the message, let me make three or four observations.

First of all, I want to draw your attention to the fact that this is a command. It is not something that you and I can take or leave. It's a very definite command. Now, I know the Ten Commandments are important.

To a great many people, they are very important. But I dare to say that this commandment is far more important than any one of the Ten Commandments ever given by God to Moses. Be filled with the Spirit.

I know that the commandment to be baptized is important, especially to Baptists and to other groups. But I dare to say that this commandment, be filled with the Spirit, is infinitely more important than the commandment to be baptized.

I know that the Great Commission is important, the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel. But I dare to say that this commandment is even more important than the commandment to evangelize the world.

Be filled with the Spirit. Because, you see, if you observe this commandment, if you obey this commandment, you will automatically obey every other commandment in the Word of God. This commandment includes all the others.

If you are filled with the Spirit, then you will want to do everything that you are commanded to do in the Word of God. And so I look upon this commandment as the most important commandment to be found in God's Word.

Be filled with the Spirit. The second observation I want to make is this. This commandment was not given to a carnal church. That's the most amazing thing. It was given to a spiritual church. Now, if it had been given to the Corinthian church, you and I could have understood it.

Because the Corinthian Christians were very, very carnal. And if any church needed to be filled with the Spirit, certainly the members of the Corinthian church needed the Spirit's fullness. A carnal, a worldly church.

But this commandment was not given to that church. This commandment was given to one of the most spiritual of all the churches of the New Testament era. It was given to the Ephesian church. Now, if it was important for them, how much more important is it for you and for me?

In this our day and generation, I wonder how many churches, I wonder of how many churches it could be said, they're filled with the Spirit. In every church I've visited the world over, I have found some who have never been filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

And that's true of any church anywhere in the world. And therefore, I consider this commandment the most important of all the commandments of God's Word. It was not given to a carnal church. It was given to a spiritual church.

And if it was necessary for the Ephesian church, one of the most spiritual of all the churches, how much more necessary is it for the churches of our day and our generation? How much more important is it for you and for me?

You and I are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. But I know what you're saying. You're saying, I have the Spirit. I received the Holy Spirit when I was converted. And I've had the Holy Spirit ever since.

Yes, but that's not the question. The question is, are you filled with the Spirit? Am I filled with the Spirit? I know you have the Spirit. I know that when you were saved, the Holy Spirit came. And I know that at that time He came into your life and into your heart and into my life and into my heart.

And ever since you and I were converted, ever since you and I were saved, we've had the Holy Spirit. If you do not have the Holy Spirit, you're not saved. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

That's a very definite statement. And it refers to the Holy Spirit. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The word Spirit spelled with a capital S, indicating that a person is meant.

And therefore, if you and I do not have the Holy Spirit, we're not even saved. We haven't even been born again. For in order to be born again, you must have the Holy Spirit. But the question is not, do I have the Holy Spirit?

The question is, am I filled with the Holy Spirit? And am I living a Spirit-filled life? I have a glass of water here. The one who placed it here was a little bit stingy this morning. It's not very well filled.

Now, no one would look at that glass of water and say it's filled. The glass is filled with water. But everyone would say the glass contains water. The glass has water. You can plainly see that there is water in the glass.

But you can also see that the glass is not filled with water. It's only partially filled. And so it is with a Christian. He may be filled and filled to the brim. Or he may be only partially filled. He may simply have the Holy Spirit and not be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It would not be correct for me to say the glass is filled with water unless I had it filled right up to the brim, right up to the top. And you can see that there's a space in the glass that is not filled.

It's only partially filled. And you know that's the experience of the average Christian. The average Christian is only partially filled. He has the Holy Spirit, but he is not filled with the Holy Spirit.

And that's why God cannot use him the way he wants to use him. The command is, be filled with the Spirit. Now I ask the question, why? Why is it necessary? Why must you and I be filled with the fullness of the Spirit of God?

Power Over Sin and Power in Service

Why must we as Christians be Spirit-filled? There are two reasons, and I'm going to give them just as briefly as I possibly can. First, power over sin. Power over sin. And second, power in service. Power in service.

In one word, I can answer the question, why? And that word is power. You and I must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order that we may have power. But first, power over sin. And unless you as a Christian have power over sin, you cannot honestly say that you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Because when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are a victor over sin. I do not say that the sin nature has been eradicated. I do not say that you will not be conscious of failure and conscious of sin.

But I do say that you will have a power that you have never had before, a power over sin. And that you will be a victorious Christian. But unless you are filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, even though he may indwell, you will not have power over sin.

Do you realize, as I do, that the average Christian has one besetting sin in his life? Most Christians overcome most of their sins. Most Christians have turned away from most of their sins. But there is not a single Christian anywhere in the world who has a besetting sin.

One sin that at times has dominated and controlled his life. He has not been delivered from that one besetting sin. He may be delivered for months, and then suddenly he may yield again. He may be victorious for weeks, and then suddenly he may collapse before that sin once more.

Because he does not have the power of the Holy Spirit in his life to enable him to overcome even his besetting sin. And while you and I may conquer most of our sins, and that is true of all Christians, we overcome most of our sins.

We conquer most of our sins. We turn away from most of our sins. But I dare to say that if you are honest, you will have to admit that there is one besetting sin in your life, and you are still having a battle with that one besetting sin.

Now there is no remedy, there is no cure, there is no deliverance until you are filled with the fullness of the Spirit of God. Only then will that one besetting sin be conquered in your life. Now you say, Dr. Smith, is there any verse of Scripture that you can base what you have said on?

And I turn to Galatians, the fifth chapter, and the sixteenth verse, and I read these words. Listen now. Walk in the Spirit. Live in the Spirit. Dwell in the Spirit. Abide in the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit.

What's the result? And ye shall not, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And there's the only remedy I know anything about. If you and I want to overcome, if you and I want to be victorious, if you and I want to conquer, if you and I want to get rid of that one besetting sin, the only remedy, the only way you can ever accomplish it will be by walking, living, dwelling, abiding in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

I know of no other remedy. I know of no other solution. I know that as I live in the fullness of the Spirit, sin is conquered. Sin is overcome. I'm not saying it's eradicated. I'm not saying that I get rid of it and get rid of it forever.

We are delivered from the penalty of sin when we're saved. We are delivered from the power of sin when we're filled with the Spirit. We are delivered from the presence of sin when we meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face.

And not until then will we see the last of sin. Not until then will we get rid of the presence of sin. Sin surrounds us. Sin is on every side. We see it wherever we go. We meet it every time we look at the billboards in our cities.

We're confronted with it constantly. Sin is ever around us. Sin is ever confronting us and ever will until we're raptured and we see the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. But God saves us from the penalty of sin when we're born again.

He saves us from the power of sin when we're filled with the Holy Spirit. He saves us from the presence of sin when we meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. Have you been delivered from the penalty of sin?

If you have been saved, then you have. Have you been delivered from the power of sin? If you have never been filled with the Holy Spirit, then you have never been delivered from the power of that one besetting sin in your life.

But when you are filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, then you are delivered from the power of sin. And sin no longer dominates. And sin no longer controls. And sin no longer conquers. You're a victorious Christian living a victorious life because the Holy Spirit indwells in power.

And then in the second place, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order that we may have power in service. How long have you endeavored to serve the Lord? How often have you been disappointed? How frequently have you failed?

Why is it that God does not use you? Why is it you cannot win souls to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why is it that there's a lack in your life when it comes to service? Are you going to serve God in the energy of the flesh or in the power of the Spirit?

There are two ways that you can serve. You can serve in the energy of the flesh and you'll not accomplish very much. Or you can serve in the power of the Spirit. And if you serve in the power of the Spirit, you can accomplish more in a single year than you can accomplish in a lifetime serving in the energy of the flesh.

And you've got to decide whether you're going to serve God in the energy of the flesh or whether you're going to serve God in the power of the Spirit. And only as you are filled with the Spirit will you be able to serve in the power of the Spirit.

Therefore, it's of paramount importance that you and I as Christians should not only have the Spirit, but it's of paramount importance that we should be filled with the Spirit. And how few of us are filled with the Spirit.

How many of our church members have the Spirit but have never been filled with the Spirit? How many of our church officials know nothing whatever about being filled with the Spirit? How many of us as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ serve God a whole lifetime in the energy of the flesh?

We run here and we run there. We work hard. We labor. We toil. We're busy. We're occupied. But it's all in the energy of the flesh. We see very few results. Very little ever happens in our ministry because we're not laboring in the fullness of the Spirit.

That's why we love to read the lives of men who have lived Spirit-filled lives and who have accomplished great things for God. Not because of them, not because of their gifts, not because of their talents, not because of their education, but because they have been filled with the Spirit and they're living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

And God uses them for His glory and for His honor. If you have the Spirit and you're not filled with the Spirit, you speak to a man who does not know Jesus Christ and little or nothing happens. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you speak to that same man.

Conviction settles upon him. Something happens in his life. A change takes place because a Spirit-filled man has dealt with him. And if you want your life as a missionary or as a minister or as a Christian worker, if you want your life to count for God, you should see to it that you're filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

There isn't anything fanatical about what I'm saying. I'm talking about the normal life of a Christian, the kind of a life God wants every Christian to live, a Spirit-filled life. So, first of all, we need the Holy Spirit's fullness in order that we may have power, power over sin, and second, power in service.

That's what I look for all the time. That's what I'm interested in constantly, power over sin, power in service. I want to live a life honoring to God. I want to be an overcomer. I want to conquer. I want to be a victorious Christian.

At the same time, I want power in service. I want God to use me. I want to be of some value in his service. I want him to use me for his glory and for his honor. Now I come to the heart of the message.

Five Conditions for Spirit-Filled Living

How? How may I be filled? That's the question you're asking. That's the question everyone asks who has been convicted of his need. How may I be filled? There are five conditions, and I'm going to deal with these five conditions one by one, and I want you to face them.

I use them by mentioning five words. The first word is the word confession. The second word is the word renunciation. The third word is the word surrender. The fourth word is the word obey or obedience.

The fifth word is the word faith or believe. I want you to look with me at these five words for a few moments. Confession, renunciation, surrender, obedience, faith. First, the word confession. That's where we start.

Confession of Sin for the Christian

And I'm talking to Christians now. I'm talking to men and women who have been born again, and I say to you as I say to myself, the first word is the word confession. That's where we must start. You realize that the sinner is never told to confess his sins.

Have you ever realized that? You go through the New Testament Scriptures, if you will, and you'll discover that the sinner is never told to confess his sins. Never. Do you remember the publican? Do you remember how he fell down before God in the presence of the other man?

And do you remember how he cried out, God, be merciful, be merciful to me, a sinner. How many sins did he confess? Not one. He never even mentioned one. Never confessed a single sin. Never mentioned a single sin.

He confessed that he was a sinner. He admitted that he was a sinner. He did not mention his sins. He did not confess his sins one by one. He fell down stricken before God as he cried out, God, be merciful.

God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He knew he was a sinner. No need to confess the individual's sins. Now, why didn't he confess his sins? Why is it not necessary for a sinner to confess his sins? Well, if I were to deal with a sinner, if I were to say to him, now, kneel down, the first thing I want you to do is to confess your sins.

Start to work now. Work hard. Labor just as hard as you possibly can. Get busy. Go to work. And confess your sins. What would I be telling that sinner? I would be telling him that salvation is of works.

And that he is to work at the work of confession. And work hard. And that he is to labor and toil, confessing his sins until the job has been done. And he has confessed them all. What would I be doing?

I would be asking him to do the impossible. Have you ever met a sinner in your whole life who could even remember his sins? I haven't. Oh, he'll remember the big ones. If he murdered a few people, he'll remember them.

If he stole large sums of money, he'll remember those sins. If he blasphemed and swore and cursed, he'll remember those sins. But there will be hundreds upon hundreds of individual sins that he'll never remember.

He'll never recall them. And if he forgets one, and the basis of salvation is the confession of sins, he might as well confess none. Because if he's got to confess his sins in order to be saved, he's got to confess them all.

And if he's going to confess them all, he's got to remember them all. And there isn't a sinner on the face of the earth who can remember all the sins that he has committed. It's absolutely impossible.

Therefore, I would be telling that sinner to do the impossible, to do something that he could not possibly do. Now, if it'll give him any peace or any joy or any comfort, I have no objection if he wants to mention a few of the big sins that have bothered him that he can remember without any difficulty.

But I am not going to tell him that the basis of salvation is the confession of his individual sins. I'm going to tell him to confess that he's a sinner. And when he confesses and recognizes the fact that he is a sinner, then he is coming before God the way God wants him to come before him, as a hell-deserving sinner.

And he can pour out his heart in confession, and he can confess, as the publican did, the fact that he's a sinner. He can cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But if I ask him to confess his individual sins, I'm going to base salvation on works.

And I'm going to say to him, unless you can remember and confess your sins and confess all of them and work hard at confessing, you'll never be saved. All I'm going to tell him to do is to confess that he's a sinner in the sight of God.

And when he's ready to confess that he's a sinner in God's sight, God will immediately have mercy upon him, and God will forgive him every sin, the ones he can remember, the ones he cannot remember. He confesses that he's a sinner in the sight of God.

But what about the Christian? It's absolutely different when it comes to the Christian. The Christian must confess his individual sins. Because, you see, at some time, he got off the track. He got away from God.

He failed God. He lost the victory. He transgressed, and he's got to go back, back to the place where he failed, back to the place where he sinned, back to the sin that he committed when he grieved the Holy Spirit and lost the joy of God's salvation and to some extent backslid.

The Christian has to confess his sin to God if he's going to be filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Wasn't it so with Christian in Pilgrim's Progress? Didn't Christian have to go back when he lost his scroll?

Do you remember it? He got up in the morning after having a night's sleep. He went on his way, but he did not go on his way rejoicing. There was a deadness to his experience. There was no joy in his walk.

It was hard going as Christian continued toward the celestial city. He couldn't understand what was wrong. He was in misery. He was in torment. And then suddenly he reached his hand into his bosom. He thought he would get out his scroll and read it and that that might help him.

And to his amazement and astonishment and disappointment, he found that the scroll was not there. He had lost his scroll. What did he do? Did he just confess it and say, Lord, I've lost my scroll and go on?

No. He was a Christian. He was a pilgrim. He went back. He turned around. He retraced his steps. How far back did he go? He went back to the place where he failed. He went back to the place where he lost his scroll.

He went back to the place where he had fallen asleep. And when he got back to that spot, there he saw lying on the ground his scroll. He picked it up, turned around, started again. He went on his way rejoicing.

Not because he had confessed that he had lost his scroll, but because he went back to the place where he had lost it and he found it again. My friends, if you're a Christian and you lose the joy of God's salvation and your walk is not what it ought to be and you're not rejoicing in your experience in Christ, you had better go back.

You had better retrace your steps. You had better find the place where you failed God. You had better seek God and ask Him to show you where you failed and when you failed and then go back to the place of failure and there confess your sin, confess your failure, pick up your scroll, get right with God again and then go on your way rejoicing.

So the Christian has to confess his sin when he fails God, when he goes astray, when he does something that has grieved the Holy Spirit, when he has transgressed, he'll never be able to go on his way rejoicing until he retraces his steps to the place where he lost his scroll.

Bunyan knew all about it. John Bunyan understood it and he sent Christian back to the place where the scroll had been lost and you'll have to go back and I'll have to go back and when you ask God to reveal the place where you failed, all you have to do is to go back to that place, recover your scroll and go on your way rejoicing.

Now what verse in the Bible, what verse is there for you and for me in such a situation? There's that wonderful verse in 1 John, the first chapter, the ninth verse and I want you to read it like this.

If we, not sinners, not the unsaved, John never wrote his epistle to the unsaved. He wrote his entire epistle to the Christians every bit of it and he classes himself, he puts himself in the class with those who perchance have failed and he says if we, we Christians confess, confess our sins, the sins committed by the Christian, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, faithful because he promised, just because he atoned to forgive us, the Christian, our sins, the sins of the Christian, all the way through that entire verse, not a word for the sinner, I know there are some Christians who deal with unsaved people and use this verse.

I never do. For this verse is not for the unsaved. This verse is for the children of God. This verse is for the Christian. John includes himself and he was a Christian and he says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And on the basis of that verse, I say the Christian has to confess his sins. And then there's this last thought. Generally, there will be one besetting sin that will have tripped him up and it's that one besetting sin that he'll have to confess if he's going to get right with God.

And I've never met a Christian yet but who has one besetting sin, one sin that dogs his footsteps, one sin that follows him wherever he goes, one sin that perchance he has never overcome or conquered.

And when he fails God and commits that one besetting sin, he had better get back to God quickly by confessing that one besetting sin and seeking God's forgiveness and the atoning blood. And only as he picks up his scroll after admitting that he has dropped it, after confessing that he has lost it, only as he picks up his scroll can he go on his way rejoicing.

Renunciation of Sin

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We come now to renunciation. In the 66th Psalm of the 18th verse, you have these striking words, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

That verse has spoken to me again and again and again, especially in times of great temptation. If I regard iniquity, if I harbor iniquity in my heart, it doesn't say if I practice sin, if I indulge in sin.

It says if I harbor iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. He'll not even bend down and listen to what I have to say. And so this second condition that I mention is renunciation, the renunciation of sin.

And no one can be filled with the Holy Spirit until he's ready to renounce every sin in his life, especially that besetting sin of his to which he has been addicted perhaps for years. There must be the renunciation of sin.

As you say to me this morning, Dr. Smith, I'm not willing to renounce my sin. I love my sin. I love to indulge in it and it doesn't do me much harm and it doesn't affect anybody else. It only affects me personally.

It's between me and God and I love it. I enjoy it and therefore I'm not willing to renounce my sin. That reminds me of the day when the Lord Jesus Christ turned to a crippled man at the pool and said to that man, Will thou be made whole?

There must be a willingness to be made whole, a willingness to renounce sin, a willingness to depart from iniquity before there can be any victory over sin or any deliverance from sin. You and I must come to the place of submission.

We must be willing to turn away from our sins, even our besetting sins. We must be willing to renounce our sins. Now this man at the pool was willing. He was perfectly willing. He said, I try again and again but every time I try, somebody gets ahead of me and steps down before me and here I am.

I'm still a cripple. I'm still lying at the pool. I have not yet been made whole and yet I'm willing. Now he was perfectly willing. He was willing to get to that pool. He was willing to get into the pool.

He wanted to be made whole but he was prevented. Someone stepped down before him and therefore he never made it and Jesus had to touch him and Jesus had to heal him. And so you and I must ask ourselves the question first of all, am I willing?

It's a very important question. Am I willing? Or do I so love my sin, my besetting sin, do I so love it that I'm not even willing to give it up? I'm not willing to depart from it. There must be willingness before there can be deliverance but there's something else.

Willingness is not sufficient. In the second place, there must be determination. Both willingness and determination. It's one thing to be willing to give up your sin. It's another thing to be determined to give up your sin.

Do you remember the prodigal son? He was willing. He was perfectly willing. He abhorred the life he was living. He despised the hogs he was tending. He wanted to get away from them in the worst way possible.

He was willing. He was anxious. He would have given anything to have gotten away from those hogs but he never got away. He sat there with the hogs. He fed them day by day. He abhorred the life he was living.

He despised what he was doing. He was perfectly willing but there was one thing he lacked. He was not determined. There was no determination. His willingness did not become determination. And even though he was willing, he did not get away from the hogs because he was not determined.

He did not mean business. And I want to say that even though you and I may be willing, perfectly willing, to turn away from our sins, even though we may despise our sins, even though we may be glad to get away from them, and anxious to be delivered, unless there is determination, we'll never get away.

Willingness must be followed by determination. And determination must take the place of willingness. And only when you and I are determined will we get away. The Prodigal Son was willing. But the Prodigal Son was not determined.

And therefore, he did not get away. As he sat there looking at those hogs, anxious to get away from them, anxious to be delivered, there came a moment when determination took the place of willingness and suddenly he said, I will arise.

And with those words he sprang to his feet. I will arise and go. And he turned his back on the hogs and he never even looked over his shoulder. He lost all interest in the hogs and he headed straight for his father's home.

And he never looked back until he found himself in the arms of his father. He was delivered because he was not only willing, but he was also determined. Now the same is true in regard to sin. Willingness must be changed into determination.

And you and I may be willing, perfectly willing, and never get away. But the very moment we become determined, we can turn our back on our sins, we can walk away, and we can be delivered. And you and I have to ask ourselves a question.

First, am I willing? And second, am I determined? And the moment you and I are determined, the moment we mean business with God, willingness will change into determination and we can get away from those sins of ours, even our besetting sin, and be delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I will rise and go. That's renunciation. Now in the third place, surrender. So far we have been talking about the negative side. Now we're going to speak for a moment about the positive side. Not only must there be confession, not only must there be renunciation, there must also be surrender, the surrender of the life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Surrender and Complete Consecration

What does God say? Yield yourselves, give yourselves, surrender yourselves, submit, yield yourselves unto God. And when you and I are ready to surrender completely and for all time to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, not only having confessed our sins, not only having renounced our sins, but having become willing to surrender our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, to do His will, to serve Him, to follow Him, to obey Him, to live for Him, to glorify Him.

When we are ready to surrender, then we're getting close to the place where we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. And that surrender can become a reality in our lives. Yield yourselves unto God. You remember Sam Jones?

Sam Jones, the great southern American evangelist. He has been gone now for a number of years. Sam Jones one day received a letter from the cowboys of Texas, inviting him to come from his home in Philadelphia to Texas to hold an evangelistic campaign in their midst.

Sam Jones felt led to accept the invitation. He left Philadelphia. He journeyed to Texas, and for two weeks he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the cowboys of Texas. When it was all over, as they came to the end of the campaign, the cowboys wanted to remunerate Sam Jones.

They wanted to give him a love offering. They felt that the laborer was worthy of his hire and that he should receive some compensation for his ministry. But they had no money, not a single cent in any of their pockets.

And they didn't know what to do. They didn't know how they could give him a love offering. And they allowed Sam Jones to go back to the city of Philadelphia with no remuneration, no love offering of any kind whatever.

Sam Jones went back. A number of weeks passed by. Then suddenly one day he received a telegram. It was from the cowboys of Texas. It read like this, We are sending you a love offering. We are shipping you a carload of broncos.

And Sam Jones looked in amazement at that telegram. What am I going to do, he said, with a carload of wild horses in the city of Philadelphia? His friend was standing beside him. I said, His friend, it's very easy.

Hold an auction sale. Sell the broncos and you'll get your money. You'll get your love offering put in your pocket. Sam Jones thought that was a good suggestion. So he held an auction sale. He sold the broncos, all except one.