How to Be Cleansed & Filled With the Spirit — Gerhard Du Toit

The entrance of thy words giveth light. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold, altered or changed in any way. You are welcome to make copies in its entirety for friends and neighbors.

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I just felt after last night in the way that God has met with us and the way that he helped us to become honest with him and I would like you to know this afternoon that the things that is coming from my heart in these evenings as we share in the word of God comes from my heart because God has first dealt with me.

So I got the first blow before you got the second one and I can also say that it comes from a broken heart. So nothing whatsoever that is coming from my lips these days are coming through a heart that is not broken before God.

If I won't preach at night I'd probably stand here and weep for an hour and 15 minutes and I'm sure you wouldn't like that. I need to share what is on my heart because I believe it's important for us as men.

Personal Accountability Before God

We have made copies of a list of questions that I give to men when I am involved in a conference for men on personal accountability. Now let me ask you, how many of you sit here this afternoon meet with someone on an accountability basis?

Will you put up your hand? Yeah, just a handful. There are five people, five men that I meet with who ask me questions about my relationship with God out in Western Canada and these men are not impressed with what I'm doing for God but they are interested in what God is doing in my life.

I mean, I can come back from a conference and say to one of them, you know, I've just preached 14 times in seven days and he would say, so what? What does that mean? And I have an accountability relationship with my wife that when I arrive back next Monday at home that one of the first questions she will ask me is, Daddy, what has God done in your life last week?

See, I don't go to meetings like this without meeting with God myself and God is doing some precious new things in my own life. When God do these things in my life, I see some needs in the life of my family and then I'm praying for them.

I prayed for them this afternoon about things that God has been speaking to me about. But I want you to take a list like this and if you don't have someone with whom you meet maybe on a weekly basis or once every two weeks or so I would encourage you to find someone that you feel you can trust.

These are the questions that we ask one another. Where are you presently in your personal relationship with God? And then we talk about it. So we ask these questions to one another. The second question that we ask is, What have you been reading in your daily devotions this week?

Let me ask you a question. How many of you that sit here this afternoon have a time where you meet with God every day? Can you put up your hand? That's wonderful. Now I don't want you to misunderstand me, but how many of you find it possible to spend more than two hours a day in the presence of God?

Can you put up your hand? How many of you spend an hour every day alone with God? How many of us spend a half an hour every day? Put up your hand. That's wonderful. I mean, that is 75 above than I'm used to at men's conferences, which to me is a wonderful testimony.

And I think maybe in some way, Brother Denny is going to give me an opportunity to talk to you about that time that you and I need to spend alone with God. So what have you been reading in your daily devotions this last week?

What has God been saying to you during those readings? Are you making notes of what God has been saying to you? Have you been consistent in your times of prayer? I wonder if you will allow me to say to you that it has taken me 19 years in my relationship with God to come to the place where I don't miss a day without meeting with God.

And I'm not saying this to try and impress you. I'm just saying to you that it just doesn't happen overnight in our relationships with God. Which areas of your relationship with God do you experience resistance?

Are there any unresolved issues in your life? So we talk about it. What are the general and specific things that you are praying about? What habits are you struggling with as a Christian at this time in your walk with God?

How are you doing regarding to your spouse and your children? What general reading are you doing these days? If Satan would try to evaluate you as a person or as a servant of God, how might he do it? You know, I met with a pastor some time ago out in Western Canada and I spent 90 of my time with these men.

And when I came home, I ran into the kitchen and ran into the arms of my wife and just wept. And she said, what's wrong? I said, well, I had lunch today with a man that scared the life out of me. He's got a church of about 2300 people.

And we sat around the lunch table and there was nothing that he didn't know. I mean, he knew everything. And the longer I spent in his presence, I tell you, the more scared I became. And I said to my wife, I said, that man is going to be in trouble very, very soon.

So, it's wonderful to become vulnerable in the presence of God. And whenever someone comes to me and says, you know, will you pray for me in this area of my life? I'm struggling and I'm so scared I'm going to fail God in this aspect of my relationship with God.

And I'm in fear and tremble about it. I'm delighted to meet people like that because as long as they keep that attitude, I've never come across a man that has failed God in that area of his life when it comes to that.

Cleansing the Mind and Body

What is the state of your sexual perspective? Are you tempted? Are you struggling with fantasies? Or are you entertaining evil thoughts? They say to us today, and I don't know if it's true or not, but they say to us today that there are almost 70 to 80 of men that have got a problem in this area of their life.

And maybe you're one of those men. I want to encourage you, the more you pray for your wife, the more you will appreciate your wife. And I have dealt with many, many men that are hooked on pornography.

And do you know what? We dealt with a man some time ago, and God set him free from the curse of that thing. And after God set him free, he turned to me and he said, when I was a youngster, he said, I was the drug addict, and he was on crack cocaine or something.

And then he said, I became a Christian, and then I was hooked on pornography. And he said, Gerard, I want to tell you that this is worse than drugs. And there is an area of your life that you need to protect, and an area of your mind that you need to protect is the realm of your mind.

And we're living in a time that we are exposed to an enormous amount of things. And God needs to keep your mind clean as a believer. Where are you financially right now? I wonder if you realize that the way that you and I deal with our finances is a reflection in our relationship with God.

A friend of mine who was a pastor was asked to leave his church about 18 months ago, not because he fell into immorality or because he messed around with the finances of the church or any of those things, but he dealt with his own finances in such a way that his house was sold out under him.

And the board and the church got together and they asked him to resign from the church because of the testimony. Do you have someone to whom you are accountable? Have you spent time with a non-Christian this last month?

I don't think God wants us to have worldly friends, but if you don't have friends in the world, you're pretty dead in the water. I trust God every year to bring 12 men across my path who do not know the Savior.

And I pray for these men every day. And I have befriended these men. And God gives me opportunities to share the gospel with them. And sometimes three or four of these men would come to Christ every year and I long for the year that every one of the 12 that God brings across my path will find the Savior.

But it hasn't happened yet. So I wonder if you've got non-Christian friends. God doesn't want you to compromise with where they are, but God wants you to get alongside of them and show an interest in their lives and win these men for the Lord Jesus.

Do you have a prayer list where you pray for non-Christians? What are the kind of challenges that you're facing right now? What's the greatest desire in your life? What are the three things that you are most thankful for?

What areas of your life is the Holy Spirit of God working on? And I have this in my quiet time every day. And when I meet with God, the Spirit of God sometimes lifts some of these questions out without me even looking at this list.

And it just becomes a real blessing to my own heart. One other little thing that I would like to suggest to you that we are free. I brought three cassettes, messages by Duncan Campbell, that many people do not have.

And I've got about 17 of these messages in my library, but I brought three of those. And the one is where he did a lecture to the students in Edinburgh. He was the principal at our Bible college. And he took an hour to do a lecture on the Lewis Revival, where he in detail shared some of the things that happened in the Lewis Revival.

And the second one did he give his personal testimony, how God dealt with him prior to the Lewis Revival. And how God met with him in such a deep way and prepared him for the Lewis Revival. And the third cassette is dealing with a message that he preached in 1976 or 1974 at Prairie Bible Institute on the nature of a God-sent revival.

And I've asked John if we can make copies for you. Now the only thing that I need to say to you is that those messages are copyright. It's just because I'm part of the organization. So you will not be allowed to go and make copies of that and distribute it unless we can get permission to do that.

So I just mention that. Let's just pray. Just sit as you are and we're just going to pray. Father, we thank you so much this afternoon for the session that we can spend together after you have met with us in such a wonderful way last night.

We thank you for the way that you have worked in our hearts. And Father God, thank you for the way that you've worked in my own heart. And thank you for the tremendous, precious burden that you have given to me for these men.

And Lord, I pray that in these minutes that we will spend together this afternoon, Father, I pray that as we talk about this great, sanctifying work of God's Spirit in our hearts that you will help me to be so simple in explaining what God is able to do in our life and that you will apply this to every one of our needs, we pray.

The Promise of Spirit-Filled Life

And cover us under the precious blood of Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen. I want to say to you at the outset that I don't know if you realize this afternoon that God's plan for every one of us who know the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior, that His plan for our lives as men is that every one of us will be able to know that we are filled with the Spirit of God.

And in saying that to you, I also need to say to you that just as sure, as you sit here this afternoon and you say, I know that I know Jesus as my personal Savior. I know that He is in my life. I know that He has saved me.

Just as sure as that, and you know that you are full to the Holy Spirit of God. Now, let me clarify myself. I personally believe that from God's perspective, is it possible for you and for me to trust Him to save us and at the very same moment that God saves us, is it possible for God to fill us with all the fullness of the Spirit of God?

Now, I believe that. I tell you what is my problem. I have found very few people who can say that God has done that for them. So, from God's perspective, is there not the slightest uncertainty, and I think if I think of the household of Cornelius, you remember in Acts chapter 10, I believe that it is possible for us to say that Cornelius was probably saved and sanctified and full to the Spirit of God at the same moment.

And you remember, for instance, when the people of God came out of Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. My brethren, it was not the will of God that they spent 40 years in the wilderness. God wanted to bring them into the Promised Land in about 11 and a half days.

But the Bible says, in fact, you remember God says in the Old Testament, He brought them out, and why did He bring them out? For one simple reason, so that He could bring them in. But my problem with men today, and just Christians in general, is that the majority of us, and the unfortunate thing is it happened to me, but the majority of us, and the majority of us that sit here this afternoon, and things that you confessed before God last night, and things that you put right before God, the majority of us, that when we trusted God to say that, is there a sense in which we couldn't say that we were full to the Spirit of God.

And God, in His great love, in His Word, has made it possible for us to look at the Scriptures and find out what the Bible is saying to us about what we would consider as a defeated Christian life, or a carnal Christian experience, or a life where I find myself sinning as a believer, and find myself doing the things that I don't want to do, and the things that I do want to do, I find myself not doing those things.

Many times the question comes to us, well, is this all, is that the only reason why Jesus has died for us on the cross? No, it's not the only reason, because let me give you a few passages from the Word of God.

Do you remember the Son of God, in John chapter 10, made a wonderful statement? He said, I have come so that you might have life and abundance of life. He said to us in John chapter 7, He said, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost of His being.

Why did He say that? The Bible said that for the simple reason that Jesus was not yet glorified, and the Holy Spirit was not yet given. So God is speaking to us that His perception of a normal Christian life is a life, my brethren, where rivers of living water are flowing from the innermost of our being.

That's God's plan for us. You remember in Luke chapter 24, He returned to His disciples and how did He say to them? He said, I want you to tarry in Jerusalem until you have received the endowment from My Father.

And Acts chapter 1 verse 8, He said to them, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you. So the Lord Jesus made it very, very clear that God's plan for you and for me as a believer is our inheritance in God, is the life and the fullness of the Spirit of God.

That's what happened in Acts chapter 2 when the Spirit of God came. The Bible says, they were all full to the Holy Spirit of God. Now, if you look at those early disciples after the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2, and if you look at those early disciples prior to Acts chapter 2, for instance, in the four Gospels, maybe you will say to me, well, Gerard, were they really saved in the four Gospels?

Can we look upon those early disciples and say that they were born of the Spirit of God? I'm not sure if we can. But if you would allow me to suggest to you that, and what we would consider as, and I don't like to use this word, but what we would consider as in the dispensation of the Gospels, will you discover that those early disciples were in the context of the Gospels, were they born of God?

For the simple reason that you remember in John chapter 17 when He prayed for them, He said to the Father when He prayed, He said, Father, I prayed for them because You have given them to Me out of this world.

In John chapter 10, or rather in Matthew chapter 10, when the Lord Jesus sent them out, and you remember how they came back rejoicing because of what they saw happen as they were preaching the good news of the Gospel, and as they came back, they were just thrilled by what was happening, and the Son of God turned to Him and He said, I don't want you to be glad about what has been happening, He said, but I want you to be glad because your name has been written in the Book of Life.

So in the context of the Gospels, if we can use this word, born again, are we allowed to say that they belong to the Lord Jesus? And I mean, there were people in the Gospels whose lives were changed. I think of Nicodemus, you remember when Jesus said to him that you must be born again, and it's obviously that something happened to Nicodemus as you read through the rest of the Gospels, and I think for instance of Zacchaeus and the woman at the well, and John chapter 4, and many of those indications that people had a real encounter with Christ.

Now if we are entitled to say that they were born of the Spirit of God or not, of course that is debatable, because there are some that say, no, we can't say that they were born of the Spirit, simply because of the reason that the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, and then there are others that would say that they were born of the Spirit at the end of John's Gospel.

You remember when the Lord Jesus appeared unto them and He breathed upon them and He said to them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. So when we discuss this whole concept of being born of the Spirit in the death, and the context of the Gospels are the things that we are maybe not sure about.

But I believe that they had an experience with God. And if you look at their lives in their relationship with the Lord Jesus prior to Pentecost and after Pentecost, then you see an amazing situation. You see Peter denying the Savior, cursing almost that he didn't know the Lord Jesus.

You see the self-centeredness and the lies of those early disciples. You see that when the Savior asked them to pray that they fell asleep. You see how they were trying to surround the Lord Jesus that others were not able to.

You see how they were so ambitious that James and John wanted to sit at the right hand, and the left hand of the Son of God in glory. And you see that it was a carnal life, even within the Gospels. Then when the Holy Spirit of God came in Acts chapter 2, you see the tremendous difference that took place in their lives.

Stephen was stoned in Acts chapter 7. Peter stood up. That man that crumbled in the presence of a servant girl at the end of the Gospels, suddenly stood up and he preached a sermon that 3 ,000 people were converted.

And something took possession of their lives to such a degree that the people recognized and they said, they must have been with Jesus. So what happened? They were full to the Spirit of God. And my brethren, if you want, and we never had time last night to be able to get to that, but if last night one of the points that I wanted to talk about was not only the importance of the time or the importance of the place and the importance of the people, but there was the importance of the manifestation.

What happened when the Holy Spirit came? The Bible said there was the sound of a rushing mighty wind. But the Bible says that there were tongues of fire that came and sat upon each and every one of them.

And the Greek word is very significant. It distributed itself upon each of those early disciples. And when the Spirit of God came, what did they do? They spoke in 16 known different languages. The Greek word is the Greek word dialectos.

Now incidentally, that never ever happened to them again. Why did they speak in those 16 languages? Because there are three feasts in the Acts of the Apostles. There was the feast of the Passover in the month of April.

There was the feast of the tabernacles in the month of October. And then there was the feast of the first fruits in the month of May. That was the time when the Spirit of God came. And they reckon that there were about a million people in and around Jerusalem during the time of the coming of the Spirit of God.

And when the Spirit of God came, those people were converted because what did they say to those early disciples? They said, we hear them speaking in our own language the wonderful works of God. They were not preaching the gospel, but they were speaking the wonderful works of God.

And those people were converted and they went back to those 16 different parts of the world. And the only logical explanation that we have for the church that was found in the city of Rome was that there were some of those who were Romans on the day of Pentecost who must have been converted and they went back to the city and the first church was planted in the city of Rome.

That was the manifestation. But my brethren, what was the evidence of what happened on the day of Pentecost? The evidence of what happened on the day of Pentecost was found in Acts chapter 15. And in Acts chapter 15, when the early church came together for what we maybe could call their first church council or their first senate meeting as it were, there was a tremendous discussion going on because somehow God has poured out His Spirit upon the household of Cornelius and the Spirit of God was pouring out upon the Gentiles.

And being a Jew, these Jews could not understand how was it possible that God would pour out His Spirit upon the Gentiles and Peter, who was the person that was used of God in the outpouring of God's Spirit upon the Gentiles, had to give account.

And you remember how he stood up and he made a statement that gives us the heart of the evidence of what happened on the day of Pentecost. And this is what he said. He said, God which knoweth their hearts has given unto them, that was the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit exactly as He has given it unto us.

And he went on to say, and he said, God has made no difference between us and them because He purified their hearts by faith. Now there are four words that you need to remember. First of all, God knoweth their hearts.

You see, when you responded last night and you sought God, God knew your heart. The second thing that Peter said, he said, God gave them witness, giving unto them the Holy Spirit, the same as He did unto us.

He made no difference between us and them. And what did He do? He purified their hearts by faith. He would ask me this afternoon, he said, Gerard, if I want to trust God to fill me with His Spirit, that's my inheritance as a husband, and as a father, and as a lay leader, and as a pastor, or whatever I find myself in this afternoon.

That's the norm of Christian life. And my brethren, you dare not be satisfied until you know in your heart that you are full to the Spirit of God. That's our inheritance as God's people. But you see, if God wants to fill me with His Spirit in my relationship with God, what is there that God needs to do in my life?

Well, what does the Bible say? Can God fill an unclean vessel? He can't do that. I mean, if I come to your house and, I mean, that's my problem with, and I don't want you to misunderstand me, but that's my problem with the people who are saying, and I'm sure you recognize that I don't use the word but the baptism in the Holy Ghost.

And maybe some of you will not agree with me, but I don't find any reference in the Word of God for a Christian to be baptized to the Holy Ghost. Maybe that's debatable. I mean, I give you a piece of my mind that I can't afford to lose anyway.

And if you don't agree with me, just come after us and say, Gerard, I'm sorry about it. God wants to cleanse us. I mean, why did John the Baptist refer to the fact that God sends fire? And when the Holy Spirit came upon the life of the Lord Jesus, there was no fire, there was no cleansing, because there was no need for cleansing.

And I mean, if I come to your house and we sit in the living room and you and I say, your wife will bring us a cup of tea. I mean, your wife will not go into the kitchen and take a cup that hasn't been washed for three or four weeks and, I mean, fill it with tea and then bring it, unless she wants to poison me and probably didn't like my preaching.

But, I mean, we won't do things like that. And, my brethren, I have great difficulty in my heart to believe that God is going to fill someone of the Spirit if that heart has not been cleansed. Now, what is it that God wants to cleanse us from?

Well, let's take a few wonderful examples from the Word of God. Let's go to the Corinthians. And you remember what happened in 1 Corinthians chapter 3? Now, you remember this, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse number 2, Paul said to them that they were sanctified.

You say, what does that mean? You see, at our experience of conversion, we are positionally and potentially sanctified, set apart unto God, but not necessarily experientially. So, God wants to do a work of cleansing in my heart as a believer.

You say, now, what about the Holy Spirit, Gerard? Can you explain that to me? Well, let me make a suggestion to you. The Holy Spirit of God is not an influence or a manifestation or an experience. My brethren, the Holy Spirit of God is a person.

And when you and I were converted, what happened to us? You and I receive the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God witnessed to my spirit that I was a child of God. And the Spirit of God is a person. The Spirit of God never speaks of Himself or about Himself.

He always brings me back to the Word of God and the life of Jesus. And when you and I receive God's Spirit into our lives, we receive the person of the Holy Spirit. And you can't divide our personality.

You can't do that. So, when you are saved, you receive that which there was of the Spirit. But you say, how is it possible that I can receive the Holy Spirit as a person in my life and I'm still defeated in my life?

Do you know why it's possible? It's possible on this basis that, and that's why I said earlier on, I believe it can happen at my experience of conversion. I believe it's possible the day when I was converted and I have, if I had the understanding of justification by faith and sanctification by faith and I have an understanding about the Spirit for life, I would say to you, I believe that in one moment, God is able to save me and cleanse me and fill me with His Spirit.

But it happens so seldom. You say, well, what has happened to me? Well, we've received the Holy Spirit. But you know what has happened to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is resident in my life and He's not precedent.

I mean, if I sit here as a Christian husband this afternoon and I'm struggling with lust in my life, it means that there is an area in my life where the Spirit of God is not precedent. If you sit here this afternoon as a man and you're struggling with evil thoughts, it means that the Spirit of God is resident there but He's not precedent.

If you sit here and you struggle with anger or bitterness, or if you struggle with envy, or if you struggle with a sense of hatred, or if you struggle with a bad temper and those kind of things, it simply means that the Spirit of God is not precedent.

He's resident in your life but He's not precedent. You say, well, if that's true in my life this afternoon, I mean, you sit here and you say, I struggle with my prayer life. There's a laziness about my life.

There is a lack of discipline. And I struggle with impurity and all kinds of stuff in the realm of my emotions. It simply means that the Spirit of God is like a little bird in a cage and He's in absolute bondage.

There's no sense of freedom in your life. So the question is, does it mean that for the rest of my life I need to go on like this? No, it doesn't mean that. My brethren, I believe that the Bible is teaching to us this afternoon that it is possible that God in a moment can come to you in my life and cleanse us from that sin in our life.

And the Spirit of God is resident there in my life as I trust Him to cleanse me and for God to fill me that the Spirit of God who's there takes absolute control of my life and I begin to live a spirit-filled life.

So 1 Corinthians chapter 3, what is it speaking of? It's speaking about strife and envy and the life of the people of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, what is it saying to us? It's speaking of a fornication within the church of the Lord Jesus.

You say, how is it possible? You see, there is sin in my life and some refer to that as indwelling sin and others refer to that as the body of sin. I mean, people give different terms to something that...

I like to speak of the fact that God saved me and He has forgiven me for the guilt of sin, but I can still sit to the power of sin in my life. And if you look at the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ...

My brethren, you remember in 1 John chapter 1 verse 7, what does the Bible say? The Bible says, if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from every sin.

1 John chapter 1 verse 9 is saying to us, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the amazing thing is that in the structure of the Greek tense, it's in the aorist imperative mood.

It means a point where God can cleanse me from all unrighteousness. That's a strong term. You sit here and you say, Gerard, are you saying to me this afternoon that there is the possibility that God is able to cleanse me from all sin in my life?

I believe that's what the Word of God is saying to us. You sit here this afternoon and you say to me, doesn't that sound like sinless perfection? I don't think so. Why is it that the Bible is saying to us in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience from what?

From dead works to serve the living God. You see, if you and I sit in the service this afternoon and you say to me, I don't think God can cleanse me from every sin in my life, we are underestimating the efficacy of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God wants to cleanse us. So what is the sin that the Bible is speaking about? Well, you remember what Romans chapter 6 is saying to us. In fact, turn to your Bible with me if you will and let's go to Romans chapter 6.

If you want to understand justification by faith, don't pluck into Romans chapter 5 and think that's where it is. If you want to understand justification by faith, it's in Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 5 is the consequences of justification by faith.

Now we come to chapter 6 and look at verse number 1. Paul said, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Now go to verse number 12 for instance. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Verse 13. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

And then verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but ye are under grace. Now verse 18. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.