The Spirit Filled Believer - Part 1 — Peter Brandon

The Spirit-Filled Believer and the Call to Walk in the Spirit

I propose on these three nights to give three addresses on the Holy Spirit. First of all, tonight I want to speak on the Spirit-filled believer. Shall we read from Ephesians? Chapter 5, reading from verse 8.

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.

For whatsoever doth make manifest this light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest. And arise from the dead, or the dead ones, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine wherein an excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Now the Lord will bless to us the reading of his precious word. When we go through the book of the Acts, right on the surface of the text we see that the secret of the blessing was two-fold. First of all they preach fearlessly the gospel.

And you can see as you read almost every chapter that is evangelistic. That when they preach they preach with boldness and absolute clarity. But secondly they preach in the power of the Holy Ghost. I think if you go through the book of the Acts you will read nine times they were filled with the Spirit.

They were filled with the Spirit. They were filled with the Spirit. In chapter six and seven there is a difference. We never read of Stephen being filled with the Spirit. He was full of the Spirit. That meant he actually experienced the full capacity.

No wonder he was a mighty man of God. Now of course in these days when there are extremes on the subject of the Holy Spirit. We must be very careful we keep to the Scriptures. And if we keep to the Scriptures on this subject I'm sure it will be a blessing to us.

The Holy Spirit as a Divine Person

But before basically we speak about this matter of fullness. Who is the Holy Spirit? Now all of us are familiar with the term Trinity. Although the word is never mentioned in Scripture. And unfortunately we relate the Holy Spirit to the third person of the Trinity.

But this is surprising. The first divine person ever mentioned in the Old Testament was the Spirit of God. In the beginning God and the word there is Elohim created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

Now note and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. Or literally on the face of the waters. So you can see the first divine person ever mentioned in Scripture is the Spirit of God. When you turn to the book of the Revelation the last chapter 22.

You will see almost, not completely, almost. The last person that's mentioned is the Spirit of God. The Spirit and the Bride say come. And isn't it lovely when the church joins in and says with the Spirit come, come.

And that's when we shall be really ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Now there are 16 titles given to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Now I was going to take up those 16 titles. But if we do we wouldn't mention this subject of fullness that the Lord has laid on my heart.

So I'm only going to mention three. In that great classic on the Holy Spirit, Romans 8. I think it's verse 9. There are three titles given to the Holy Spirit. He is called in that particular verse the Spirit.

He is called the Spirit of Christ. And he is called the Spirit of God. And they are the three major titles. The Spirit of God. This shows to us his deity. When we think of the Holy Spirit and this is absolutely essential.

We must never think of him as an influence. If we do, forgive me being dogmatic. We are dreadfully wrong. We must never think of him as an active force. If we do, we're in error. We must never think of him as the Spirit which is the character of God.

If we think of him like that, we're in error. We must always remember that the Holy Spirit is a divine person. And forgive me raising my voice. Divine as God in every single detail. Now, of course, someone will say, well, what makes God, God?

Well, three facts. God is omnipotent, meaning all power. So is the Holy Spirit. You see, if you go through the Old Testament, every miracle that was wrought in the Old Testament was the exclusive work of the Holy Spirit.

When we come to the New Testament, even the incarnation which is the greatest mystery that we have in the universe, God manifest in the flesh, that was the work of the Holy Spirit. And when we look at the Lord Jesus carefully, he depended entirely upon the Holy Spirit for all the works that he wrought.

Not that he was inferior to the Holy Spirit, but as a man, he subjected himself to the Spirit of God. When it comes to the atonement, which was the greatest work that the Trinity ever performed, we find in Hebrews chapter 9, he was aided through the eternal Spirit.

Think of that. When it comes to the resurrection, the apostle makes it quite clear, if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. Think of it. It was the Holy Spirit that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead.

So in Romans, he is raised by the glory of the Father. But again in Romans chapter 8, it's the Holy Spirit that actually was the engineer in the raising of the Lord Jesus from the dead. And then when we come to this great epistle called the Ephesians, there's more in this epistle about the Holy Spirit than any other epistle as we shall see in a few moments.

So can you see when we think of the Spirit of God, never think of someone that's a little inferior to the Father or a little inferior to the Son. Always remember he is co-equal with God in every single detail.

Now let's stop and think. If you're a Christian, that person indwells you. Think of the mighty power that's latent within your little body at this moment. That's why it's so vital to be filled with the Spirit.

The Spirit of Christ and the Believer’s Knowledge of Jesus

Secondly, he is called the Spirit of Christ. Now what does this mean? The whole purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to give you an it, but the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit is to give you a him. The whole work of the Holy Spirit, if I can put it in simple language, is to make the Lord Jesus real to you subjectively, and to make the Lord Jesus real to you objectively.

Now let's take the objective. There are two ways in which we can learn of Christ. Number one, if a person has a good mind, he can go through the Old Testament and he can collect all the prophecies together.

He can go through the Old Testament and he can get all the types together, and he can feed his mind with thoughts about Christ. In the region of theology, it's called Christology, and he can have a mind filled with the Old Testament matter relating to Christ.

Now that's good. Again, if a person has a good mind, he can read the four gospels, and he can read the epistles, and he can gain a tremendous mental understanding of the person of Christ. But here's the problem.

That does not mean to say that you know him. That means you know all the facts and the figures about the Lord Jesus, but there's one thing, knowing the facts and the figures, but do you know him intimately and personally?

And there is only one person that can make Jesus Christ absolutely real to you objectively, and that is the Spirit of God. Now this is surprising, at least to me. When the Lord Jesus Christ was with his disciples for approximately three and a half years, he taught them many wonderful lessons, as you know.

But when it came to the crunch and the crisis, they all failed, and failed miserably. They all forsook him and fell. But when the Lord Jesus had restored them, and when he went back to heaven and was glorified, and sent the Holy Spirit, the scripture says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and quite frankly, they were totally transformed.

When you read of the apostles in the four gospels, and when you read of the apostles in the Acts, you wonder if you're looking at the same people. They were absolutely transformed in every way. Why? The Holy Spirit was taking of the things of Christ, and making Christ absolutely real to them.

Beloved friends, may I say this. The Holy Spirit is able to make the Lord Jesus so real to you, that he's more real than even your wife or your children. If you would let him. It's one thing to know all the facts and figures about the Lord Jesus, it's another thing to know him intimately.

And that's what Philippians is all about. Knowing the Lord Jesus and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. Secondly, he wants to reveal the Lord Jesus subjectively. Now what does this mean?

You have within your body a piece of holy mechanism, that's the only way I can describe it, called soul, psuche in the Greek. And it makes you a profound mystery. That body that we see tonight, and you see, is temporary.

It's called in scripture a tent, it's called sometimes a tatter tent, and once Paul called it a mud hut. And yet we know that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We only live in this body approximately five seconds, and then we're out of it.

We're going to live eternity in the body of glory. Now the purpose of the Holy Spirit coming into you, is to invade your personality, with the beauty and the loveliness of Christ. And this is the interesting thing about Christianity.

We could be looking at five believers. They all have the Holy Spirit. And yet one of those believers is radiant with the joy of the Lord. And the other four look, can I say it, quite anemic. Now what does it mean?

Does it mean that that one has more of the Holy Spirit than others? No. It simply means that he has cultivated the life of the Holy Spirit, and allowed the Holy Spirit to permeate his personality, so that you actually see shining out of him, those lovely fruit of the Spirit.

Now that is basic Christianity. Now as we shall see on Thursday night, and that will be a tremendous leap that we're going to take. When we come together in assembly character, it's not a meeting. It's a gathering.

Why? A meeting can be in a pub. For instance we shall have a meeting tomorrow, with people who are studying all the religions of the world. That's a meeting. But a gathering has a center. And that center is Christ.

And therefore we come together drawn, not to hear ministry, but we are coming together drawn to the person of the Lord Jesus. Magnetized to him. Now what does he want to do? By the power of the Spirit, and to me this is so wondrous, because Christ is glorified, and the Holy Spirit is here to represent him.

And he wants to make that glorified Christ absolutely real in the company. So that the glory of the Lord fills the place. And you just bow before him in holy worship. That's Christ, objectively. And then because the assembly functions as a body, he wants to fill that body collectively with the glory of Christ, so that it's fulfilled as the Apostle says in Corinthians, the body is Christ.

That means as a company of believers when you come together, you're so filled with the love of the Lord Jesus, that as people come among you, they see the beauty of the Lord in you collectively. Beloved if we had that, we'd be establishing assemblies all over the country.

God would be working in power, instead of all this ugly infighting, and bruising and harming that we see. If the Lord was center, and his glory filled us, what beautiful companies we would be, there would be that divine attraction.

Holiness, the Trinity, and the Meaning of Fullness

And then he is called, and I think this is lovely, he is called the Holy Spirit, because he specializes in holiness. But he is called the Spirit of Holiness. The Trinity is a profound mystery. The Godhead is comprised of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

But each of the Godhead has its identity. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And we must not confuse them. The Father God will never be seen. Never. The Holy Spirit will never be seen. There's only one person that we shall ever see of the Trinity, and that's the Lord Jesus.

And he is constantly revealing the Father's glory, and it's the Spirit of God that reveals that glory in the believer. Now all that God makes is in threes, not fours. I can't go into the details of this at the moment, but you are in three parts, tripartite.

You are body, soul and spirit. Take for instance the time, it's past, present and future. Everything that God makes is not seen in fours but in threes, because he has stamped the Trinity on everything that he makes.

Now having said that, let's ask a question. What is the fullness of the Spirit? Now in order to see how Paul uses this word fullness, we must go through the Ephesians. And I'm going to turn you to a number of scriptures, so that we see exactly what he means by this word fullness.

Now shall we turn to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

Now in a few moments we shall be talking about the depth of that word fullness and filleth. But right on the surface of the text, can you see dear friends, that the word fullness is linked with headship.

And the word headship is linked with sovereignty. So when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, he comes under the sovereignty of Christ. Now that's vital. So can you see the first reference is linked very much with sovereignty and headship.

Just remember that because that is important. When we come to the third chapter, he uses the word fullness in a different way. Ephesians 3 verse 18. May be able to comprehend with all saints, Ephesians 3 verse 18, what is the breadth and length and depth and height.

Now let me say this is the only time in scripture you get the four measurements. And there's a reason for it. And if you want to discuss that with me afterwards, I shall be very pleased to do so. But this is the only start time in scripture you do get the four dimensions and not three.

Now unto him that is able to do, I'm sorry verse 19, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that she might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly, or exceeding above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.

Now can you see right on the surface of the text, that the word filled, the word fullness, is associated with power. So the second application of the word is, that when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, he is filled with authority.

So the first reference, it's linked with sovereignty. And the second reference, it's linked with authority. But there's two kinds of power. There's a power that's frightening. For instance I was staying with a man, who was assumed pretendant in a nuclear power station, and he said to me on one occasion, would you like to come in and see a nuclear power station?

And I said I would. I was an electrical engineer, before I went into the Lord's work. And or I was studying to be an electrical engineer. And I shall never forget, he said would you like to stand on a reactor?

Well I was none too pleased to do that. But he says come on Peter, stand on it. And I stood on this reactor, and quite frankly I was trembling. And he was telling me the power that was there. Now there was tremendous power, but it was frightening power.

And how glad I was when I was x-rayed, to show that there was no nuclear power in me. I was very pleased to get home, especially to my wife and say I was alright. But you see some power is frightening.

But look at this power. It's the power of love. The power of love. And that's the fullness of the spirit, love. Now if you go to the fourth chapter, you see the main meaning of the word. It's verse 13 or perhaps verse 12, so that we might see the context.

For the perfecting of the saints, he's speaking on the gifts of the risen Lord, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now can you see the word fullness is linked with the word perfect man. And the word perfect doesn't mean to say sinless perfection. It has to do with maturity. And quite frankly dear friends, that's the main meaning of the word being filled with the spirit.

It means to come to maturity. Perhaps this needs an illustration. I was staying in Vancouver. And there were two lads, one was 12, the other one was 21. And the boy that was 21 weighed 18 stone. And you may not believe this, but there wasn't an ounce of fat on him.

He was a weightlifter. He did it of course as a hobby. And one day I went down to the gym and the two brothers were there. And he was picking up these weights. And quite frankly it was really frightening to see him lifting these weights and to see the muscles all rippling.

You wouldn't like to meet a man like that in the dark. But I looked at his brother and forgive if I give you what I was thinking verbatim. He looked a weed. As though he'd gone to seed. He was tall but one bag of bones.

So I was looking at both of them and the mother came in and she was reading my thoughts and she knew me very well. And she said, I know what you're thinking Peter. I said, what's that? How did they come from the same stock?

Well that's exactly what I was thinking. And then she said this, when he gets 21 and fills out, he'll be as big as him. And I said under my breath, some hopes. Well we received a few years ago some photographs of these boys at a wedding.

And now that boy that I called a weed has filled out and he's nearly 18 stone. And he looks lovely. You see he's come to maturity. He's no longer a weed. He's a matured strong man. Would you mind a little bit of vulgarity?

There are hundreds of spiritual weeds among us. They have never been filled with the Spirit. Now the Lord wants to bring us to maturity so that we're filled and constantly filled. You can blow a balloon up and there are very, very many measures but it can burst.

Human beings can't. We can be constantly filled with all the fullness of the Lord and come to that spiritual maturity. And that's why we need to be filled to come into that maturity in the Lord. Now having said that let's rush on.

Indwelling, Conversion, and Spiritual Awareness

How is this person to be filled with the Spirit? Well the first question is this, is every Christian indwelt by the Holy Spirit? And the answer is yes. Yes. Can I say it again? Yes. If we went through the book of the Acts we would find this, that Acts 2 is different from Acts 8.

Acts 8 is different from Acts 9. Acts 9 is different from Acts 10. And Acts 10 is different from Acts 19. These are all movements and manifestations of the Spirit. Why? Because it's the Acts of the Apostle.

It speaks of these movings of the Spirit. And we must remember this, that Acts is a transitional book. You see that? When you get to the end of the chapter there's a matured form of Christianity that's come right out of Judaism.

But when you go through the epistles what a difference! In Romans 8 when Paul gives us that great classic on the Holy Spirit, he says if you have not received the Spirit of Christ you're none of His. That means you're not a Christian.

Again when you come to Galatians chapter 3 he said how did you receive the Holy Spirit? By the works of the law or the hearing of faith? Well we know we received the Holy Spirit by the hearing of faith.

When you come to Ephesians he makes it perfectly clear since you believed you were all sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So right from this very epistle where we get the word fullness he makes absolutely clear that every single believer has been indwelt with the Holy Spirit.

But there's a problem. If in our preaching of the Gospel we just badger the will. If in our preaching of the Gospel we just talk about commitments. If in our preaching of the Gospel we just talk about following Jesus we shall do the devil's work.

And that's called profession. Now I do not want to disturb anybody's faith. That would be a terrible thing. But when the Lord comes there's going to be some awful shocks among Christian people. You see when a person becomes a Christian first of all the preacher gives information about the Gospel and that's all he can do.

Then the Holy Spirit must come and bring conviction. We've got to talk about that on Friday. Then after conviction divine revelation. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts.

And after that conviction and divine revelation then it's the person's responsibility to receive Christ or reject Him. We mustn't water down the Gospel. If we do we shall produce this profession. And you know quite frankly dear friends and I'm not going to throw stones at any other denomination but even among assemblies I can see there are people and I wonder if they're really saved.

They have no joy about the Lord. They hardly read the Scriptures. They talk about godly men but they won't talk about the Scriptures. And obviously there's something missing. And we want to all examine our hearts during these days to make our calling and election sure.

But the moment there is a genuine work of the new birth we have received the Holy Spirit. But the second question is a little more difficult. Is every Christian aware of the Holy Spirit? And the answer is no.

You see when the Apostle Paul went to Ephesus he found a group of people who were following John the Baptist and they were influenced by a person called Apollos who was a brilliant teacher. And he couldn't decipher whether they were in the faith or not.

Now what was his ascetic? Did you go to a local church? No. Have you got a letter of commendation? No. Have you been baptized by a merchant? No. What was his ascetic? Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?

And when they said to him they'd never heard of the Holy Spirit he knew they were not complete in the faith. But now when he writes to the Corinthians and many of them he had led personally to the Lord Jesus and some of them were rather carnal he didn't say to them have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?

Now note what he said. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? Haven't you got your eyes open to see that the Holy Spirit is dwelling within you and that your body is the very inner temple of the Holy Spirit?

Beloved if that gripped us by divine revelation it would revolutionize us. Has God opened your eyes to see that your body is absolutely sacred? When you get into the bathroom tonight look at yourself and say this body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and every part is sacred.

The Lord is dwelling in me. Now when God opens your eyes to see that wonderful truth don't imagine you've just received the Holy Spirit and call it by a special name. You received the Holy Spirit the moment you were saved.

But now you've got your eyes open to see it. Have you ever had this experience filling your car up with diesel? Probably you have petrol here. And then you go and look for your wallet and you haven't got it.

I had that experience recently. And the man knew I was a preacher. And I filled the tank up and I was in a panic. I thought what can I do? And then the idea came I'll give him my watch and that will prove to him that I'll come back and pay.

And then I don't know why I did it. I put my hand in the back pocket and I felt paper. And then I pulled it out. It was a 20 pound note. Now forgive me getting excited. I said oh hallelujah. I was so pleased.

No. I mean you didn't put it there. It was there all the time. But I just discovered it. Now it's a wonderful thing when you discover that the Holy Spirit is in your body and your body is sacred. But is awareness fullness?

No. What then is fullness? If you come back with me to Acts chapter 4 you will see a classical example. Acts chapter 4. For a limited time we'll read from verse 23 when Peter and John were released from prison with the lame man and from the Sanhedrin.

And being let go they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God which hath made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is.

Now because of our limited time let's turn to verse 31. And when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness.

Now you will see from that prayer if you look at it very carefully they prayed for two things that they might heal in the name of thy holy servant Jesus and that they might preach the word with boldness.

They never prayed for the fullness of the Spirit. And when they had prayed the risen Lord confirmed their prayer and that is confirmed too by the ever-present Holy Spirit and he shook the place literally to show that God answers that kind of prayer.

Wonderful. And then we read they were all filled with the Holy Ghost so what's the secret? If you look at the way in which they addressed the Lord they called him Sovereign Lord God. In our authorised it's Lord thou art God.

You will notice if you have Mr Darby or Mr Newbury it is Sovereign Lord God. Now in a Roman household they had two kinds of servants. There was a servant that was paid a wage and he always addressed his master with the New Testament word overseer.

But there was a man that was bought from 8 to 30 pieces of silver and he was a slave and he always addressed his master as Sovereign Absolute Lord. Now I want you to see the beauty of this. These early Christians had seen the meaning of the cross and therefore they were not only at the cross they were not only on the cross but they were under it.

They had learned to call God Sovereign Lord God. In other words they were all bond slaves. But they were not slaves by compulsion they were slaves by compassion. Their ears were all bore through with an awl figuratively.

And when they came together they were able to say Sovereign Lord God. Beloved that simply means they were all laid on the altar. And beloved if we had a group of people all laid on the altar we would see God answering our prayers with spiritual earthquakes.

Because wherever you get a group of people that can honestly say Sovereign Lord God the glorified Lord will answer that prayer. And the spirit will give his confirmation. Don't we need that? You see when we talk on Thursday night about this spirit filled assembly we must discuss all those matters.

Because they are vital to us. But then someone challenged me the other day and I'm so glad he did. And this is what he said speaking on behalf of others. Peter we agree with you on the subject of the fullness of the spirit.

And quite frankly we know that doctrine. Yes. But how do we get from a carnal state and then the person stopped and paraphrased. And we are in a carnal state. To a state where we are filled with the spirit.

Can we jump out of carnality on a Tuesday and then enter into it on Wednesday? Well I said it's possible for God to break a man and fill him with the spirit. But surely how do we move from that state of carnality into spirituality?

Hunger, Exposure, and Surrender

Well I put down four steps. First of all there must be hunger. Psalm 42 blessed Psalm 42 As the heart pence after the water brook So pence my soul after thee. In other words he goes on that his soul was longing for the living God.

Again when you come to Matthew chapter 5 The Lord Jesus said Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Again in John chapter 6 you remember 38. John chapter 7, 38 If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink and out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

So it's a matter of hungering and thirsting. Now here's the application. There are some assemblies that we go to where we could never speak about the work of the Holy Spirit. The hunger has all gone. They've all got excellent jobs.

They've all got beautiful houses. And materialism has taken the place of spirituality. Never allow that to happen. Far better to sweep the roads than to be a director of a big company and lose the joy of your salvation.

You see dear friends there comes a time when people begin to hunger. They look around and they say well when I read the Ephesian epistle there's something in that epistle that I don't know. When you go through the book of Acts you say well there's something that these early Christians had that I haven't got.

And you begin to hunger. Now would you mind if I ask a very practical question. Do you hunger for a deeper life? Are you satisfied with the kind of Christian life you're living? Do you hunger for something?

Now if there's a hunger that's the first step. Secondly there must be exposure. Now let's turn to Ephesians 4 read the scripture because if I quote it I think quite frankly dear friends it hasn't the weight like when we read it.

So we get the setting read from verse 29 Ephesians 4 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearer. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

Now this exposure. The word grieve is one of the most potent words that we have probably in the New Testament. It is not only potent but it's negative. And it's the idea of not only being sad but it's the idea of deep, deep bereavement.

The nearest you have to the word is when Lazarus died and the Lord Jesus wept and he groaned in his spirit and was troubled. Now I'm not saying for one moment that we could groan like the Lord Jesus. But it gives us some idea of the word grieve not the Holy Spirit.