Heavenly Command Empty Sin Fill with Spirit — E.A. Johnston

The Sinfulness of Sin and the Need for the Holy Spirit

Well, the last time we were together, friends, we covered the first message in our Christian Life series, Heavenly Prescription, Empty Self, Filled with Spirit. Now today we will cover the second message in this series on the Christian life, and the title of our message today is Heavenly Command, Empty Sin, Filled with Spirit.

A High View of God and the Evil of Sin

And we will focus our attention today pretty much on the doctrine of sin. You will be hard-pressed to hear a sermon in our day on the sinfulness of sin, but if you go back and read the Puritan writers, you will find that the doctrine of the sinfulness of sin is a major theme from their pens and from their pulpits.

It is because they maintained a high view of God, and therefore properly maintained a high view of sin as an evil. But today, in our modern churches, we maintain a low view of God, and consequently, we have a low view of sin, and because of our low view of sin, we have lost our fear of God.

Many today even preach a sin in religion, but Jesus never did. It's been said that sin will keep you from the Bible, and the Bible will keep you from sin, and it's true, friends. When we are backslidden in sin, our Bibles are a closed book.

Everything is of interest to us except the Word of God and the God of the Word. So this message today is of great importance, Heavenly Command, Empty Sin, Filled with Spirit. Before we begin, please listen to this quote from the Puritan John Owen as it sets the stage for our message at this hour.

Here now are his words on the doctrine of sin. Nothing is so evil as sin. Nothing is evil but sin. As the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, so neither the sufferings of this life nor of that to come are worthy to be compared as evil with the evil of sin.

No evil is displeasing to God or destructive to man but the evil of sin. Sin is worse than affliction, than death, than devil, than hell. Affliction is not so afflictive. Death is not so deadly. The devil not so devilish.

Hell not so hellish as sin is. This will help to fill up the charge against its sinfulness especially as it is contrary to and against the good of men. Well friends, those are the words of John Owen and I want us to look at some definitions of sin from our Bible and then see the consequences of sin as we examine this first aspect of the Heavenly Command, Empty Sin.

Biblical Definitions of Sin

Some biblical definitions of sin can be found in our Old Testament. The Hebrew term for sin is ta 'al. It means to err, to wander, to go astray. And that's what the Jews of old did when they wandered away from God in their backslidden state and erred in their thoughts.

And when astray in their behavior through sin, God sent his prophets time and time again to warn the erring people of God to return to him and to forsake their sins. Often God has to chastise his wandering people through divine displeasure by leading them away through captivity until they cried out to God in genuine repentance and returned back to him.

In our New Testament, the Greek term for sin is hamartano. It means to miss the mark. A picture of this is when an arrow is shot from the bow by the archer and it misses the intended mark. Sin means to miss the mark, to miss what God has for us in life.

Listen friends, sin is deceitful, sin is destructive, sin is deadly. When we sin we leave the main path and follow our own path. We err and miss the mark. We miss the best God has for us when we sin. I believe the shortest definition of sin found in my Bible is in Isaiah.

Let me read that to us now. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. Listen friends, sin is going our way when we know it isn't God's way and sin is treason against the sovereign.

When we sin we transgress his holy law. This is seen in 1 John 3, 4 which states, whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And the apostle Paul has an important warning to ministers of the gospel in regard to sin, friends.

In 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 27 we read Paul's admonition to fellow ministers, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

And that word castaway in the Greek is adakimos and it means to become useless, worthless for God. Oh dear brother preacher, how we need to guard ourselves against the blackness of sin and to fall and become useless for God.

I had a good friend who was a leader in Christian circles at his church and he fell into gross immorality. It cost him his family. He lost his testimony for Christ and he, who was once my biggest inspiration, became my biggest warning, adakimos, cast away for Christ.

Satan's Purposes in Tempting Believers

Now friends, I want us to look at some consequences of sin. Satan the great deceiver wants to ruin believers. Two of Satan's biggest weapons against us are disappointment and discouragement. If he can get us disappointed and discouraged, then our eyes are off God and on us and he can sideline us from usefulness for a season.

Satan is full of malice toward all followers of Christ. He will set traps for the believer to sin. He's a sin and devil. He's a rotten foe. He's a raging lion. Satan wants to get us to sin for the following reasons.

I've listed 10 of them here. Number one, to rob God of his glory because when we sin, we rob God of his glory. Number two, to accuse us before God as unworthy of his blessings. Number three, to prevent or hinder us from participating in kingdom work.

Number four, to render us useless, sideline us like an injured athlete for present service. Number five, to break our fellowship and walk with God. Number six, to hinder our prayer life and render us powerless with God and man.

Number seven, to deaden our spiritual ears so we fail to hear the Holy Spirit's guiding counsel. This is where we often fall into a ditch because we followed our own advice. Number eight, to make the Bible a closed book before us.

And number nine, to ruin and destroy our families. Satan hates the family unit to such a degree. He's doing all he can to pervert the family unit in today's society. And number 10, to wreak havoc in every spiritual area of our lives.

These are some of the ways Satan deceives and defeats us through sin. Any kind of sin is ruinous. We quench the Holy Spirit by sin. We grieve the Holy Spirit with sin. This is why friends are heavenly command.

Repentance as the Way to Revival

Empty sin is so important. We must first forsake all sin and be clean vessels that can then be filled with the living waters of God's spirit for service. I believe our greatest challenge in our day is to realign ourselves back to the God of the Bible through repentance and humiliation.

Sin in the church is the main hindrance to revival, friends. Listen to these wise words from my friend, Dr. Ted Randall, who's an expert in the field of revival. Ted Randall has witnessed true revival and has written many books on its subject.

Here now are his words. In Israel, the reign of heaven was withheld from fields and vineyards. In the church, God's fruit to find blessing is withheld from the sown seed, which is the word of God. Why?

In both cases, the answer is the same. Sin in the hearts of God's people. Let us not seek to shift the blame to present-day conditions, the hardness of man's hearts, greedy materialism, the international conflict, or the moral chaos.

Let us face the fact in honesty and humiliation. The reason for the shut heaven is the sin of God's people. I believe that, friends, and how the church needs to fall to her knees in desperate prayer and confession and forsaken the sin, oh, the great need to empty sin, heavenly command, empty sin.

And I believe, friends, that our problem today in our churches is we have shifted the standard from God to us, we compare ourselves to society and one another and set our standard for sin. This is the reason for the great moral upheaval in society today and the sad spiritual declension in our churches across the land.

God's Plumb Line in Amos

Turn in your Bibles to the book Amos. This will be our text for today. We will be in chapter 7 and looking at verses 7 through 8. And I want us to look at the only standard we should align ourselves to, and that is God's plumb line.

Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of God be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. Thus he showed me, and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.

And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a plumb line. Then said the Lord, behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them anymore.

Now allow me to make a statement, dear friends. These words from our passage where God declares I will not pass by them anymore, it speaks of the withdrawn presence of God from among the people of God.

And is this not our sad condition today? We have sinned grievously against the Almighty, and he has withdrawn his presence from our midst. That's why there's so few conversions today. We've grieved the Holy Spirit away from our meetings because we've let the world into our churches.

Our pride grieves the heart of God. We've set up our own plumb line, so to speak. We judge everything by our standards of reason rather than God and his Holy Word. That's why we're in the mess we're in, friends, in both society and in the church today.

Emptying Sin Through Obedience to Scripture

So the first thing from our heavenly command, empty sin, let us see this from Scripture. Job 11 .14 declares, if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away. Isaiah 55 .7 states, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord.

And Hebrews 12 .1 tells us, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And we see, friends, in 1 Peter, the following is found in chapter 2 and verse 11, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

Being Filled With the Holy Spirit

So this first aspect of the heavenly command is empty sin. Let us look at the second aspect, which is filled with spirit, friends. We tend to avoid mentioning the Holy Spirit today in our churches. In many churches, it's almost a taboo subject.

The main reason why our pulpits lack power today is the absence of the Holy Spirit. Where oh where is the unction on the man of God in the pulpit today? How desperately we need to be filled with power from on high.

Jesus told his men to tarry in the city until they were endued with power from above. How can we even think to preach or witness for Christ without his spirit? Many of us are afraid of preaching on the need of the Holy Spirit because we don't want to be labeled charismatics, but the vast majority of our pulpits today, all we have is personality, education, and eloquence.

But I ask you, where is the power? Jesus told his men, but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you should be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Adrian Rogers used to say, we need God called man who will take the book of God and preach the Son of God with the anointing of the Spirit of God. And listen, friends, to the wise words of Charles Spurgeon regarding the necessity of the Spirit of God in one's ministry.

If the Holy Spirit does not come and give spiritual life, we may preach until we have not another breath, let, but we shall not raise from the tomb of sin even the soul of a little child or bring a single sinner to the feet of Christ.

And I agree with Spurgeon, friends, how we need to do this heavenly command to fill with the Spirit. Too many churches operate on money and manpower, but I remember a day when they operated on prayer and Holy Ghost power.

Spirit-Governed Ministry and Anointed Preaching

I like the words of Samuel Chadwick on the subject. He said, the Spirit never abdicated his authority nor relegated his power. Any church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure.

A minister that is college-trained but not spirit-filled works no miracles. The real work of the church depends upon the power of the Spirit. But we don't believe that today, friends. In our churches today, activity has replaced authority.

We have no living consciousness of God's presence and power. Most people are dulled by today's preaching, and unanointed preaching has to rely on personality and humor to keep the attention of its hearers.

But when a man is anointed by the Spirit of God, then his preaching will be gripping, the preached word will search the hearts of his hearers and bring conviction of sin like a sword thrust. Only the Word of God with the illumination of the Spirit of God can break through the hard, stony heart of man and turn it into a heart of flesh.

My homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Olford, possessed this holy fire in both his prayer life and his pulpit ministry. I'll never forget, I was sitting with him in a study one day, and he slumped into his chair.

He said, give me a moment, brother, give me a moment. I need to regain myself. I just finished preaching and virtue has left me. When I heard him say that, my thoughts immediately ran to the passage in the Gospels, where Jesus is touched by the woman with the issue of blood.

And he declares, somebody has touched me, for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me. Let me ask you a question, brother pastor. When you preach, can you say, I perceive that virtue has gone out of me?

Confessing Sin and Seeking Revival

Listen, friends, this heavenly command to empty sin and fill with the Spirit could bring revival to our churches at this hour. Without repentance and without reliance upon the Spirit of God, we hinder the work of God in sin revival.

I want to close this message with a quote from Dr. Stephen Olford on this very subject because I agree with it wholeheartedly, and it's timely for us at this hour before we go to prayer. Here now are his words.

The serious problem of our age is that Christian men and women are sinning against the Holy Spirit. The reformer John Calvin was right when he pointed out that the sin of Old Testament times was the rejection of Jehovah God.

The sin of New Testament times was the rejection of the Son of God. And the sin in the church age has been the rejection of the Holy Spirit. There are so-called believers all over Christendom today who refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in individual and congregational life.

These people are not living in the fullness and freedom and fellowship of the Spirit. And this is why we do not know a contagious revival. And that's true, friends. Now as we go to our time of prayer, let us go to our God and confess our sins.

Ask the Holy Spirit to shine His searching spotlight in our hearts to see if there's anything standing between us and God and hindering the work of God in our life. Ask Him to empty ourselves of sin and to turn from it.

Ask Him to fill us with His Spirit. Empty sin filled with Spirit is our objectiveness for effectiveness in our walk with Him. Let us take this time to pray.