[0:00] Well, my thanks once again for your kind welcome. When we last met, we discussed the question of what is faith? And I want to begin at that point again this evening because we move on to ask now what happens when someone does in fact believe?
[0:24] And the primary answer to that is that in the very first moment of faith we are united to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[0:36] We come to be in Christ and Christ comes to be in us. And that is the foundation of our salvation in all its developing aspects.
[0:51] And in and through that union with Christ by faith we enjoy justification, the forgiveness of all our sins.
[1:03] We enjoy adoption into the family of God. We enjoy consecration and transformation, sanctification in a definitive sense at this moment of our union with the Lord Jesus.
[1:23] What I want to stress to whether in particular tonight is this, that in the moment of our faith union with Christ, in that moment we are also filled with the Holy Spirit.
[1:38] This privilege is one of the great elements in our initiation as Christians. It's something that happens through faith in Christ that happens immediately when we come to be in union with the Lord Jesus.
[1:58] It is as much part of the meaning of being Christians as is justification, adoption or sanctification.
[2:13] The first point I want to take up is the question of nomenclature or vocabulary. I do so because very often efforts are made to distinguish between being filled with the Spirit on the one hand and being baptized in the Spirit on the other hand.
[2:38] And to add to the confusion, some people also say that to have or receive the Spirit is one thing, but to be filled with the Spirit is something quite different.
[2:53] And I must draw a similar wedge between being sealed with the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. So we have all these various terms to be filled, to be baptized, to have, to receive, to be sealed.
[3:15] Can we draw distinctions between those various terms and can we use them as labels we put on diverse experiences?
[3:28] Though I hold very firmly that it is impossible to draw any clear distinction between these terms and that in fact they describe more or less indifferently the same great experience.
[3:49] And therefore that to be baptized with the Spirit is the same as to be filled with the Spirit, is the same as to receive the Spirit, is the same as to have the Spirit, is the same as to be sealed with the Spirit of God.
[4:05] Now, the basic reason why I say that is that virtually all of these terms are used indiscriminately to describe what happened to the Church of God on the day of Pentecost.
[4:24] In Acts chapter 1, as the Lord predicts or foretells the day of Pentecost, it is described as our being baptized.
[4:38] You shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. Now that promise is a clear allusion to Pentecost and it was fulfilled in the great Pentecost experience.
[4:57] And yet in Acts chapter 2, in the narrative of Pentecost, the phrase being baptized in the Spirit isn't used at all.
[5:08] Instead, what's said is that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave the muttons. In other words, the great promise of being baptized in the Spirit is fulfilled in terms of being filled with the Spirit.
[5:29] and if you were to compare the subsequent accounts of Pentecost on Allusions to the Acts 10 and 11 you would find that yet other technology was used to describe the same experience.
[5:46] Remember that when Peter goes on to describe what happened to the house of Cornelius to defend his own action in going to those Gentiles he defends himself and his action by going back to the story of Pentecost.
[6:05] And he said that these people received the Holy Spirit just as we did. He also says that the Spirit came upon them as he came upon us at the beginning.
[6:20] so in Acts 10 and 11 the Pentecost experience is defined in terms simply of receiving the Spirit of God.
[6:34] Now it seems to me that what emerges is this that to receive the Holy Spirit is to be baptised in the Holy Spirit and that to be baptised in the Spirit is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and that in fact nobody receives who is not baptised in the Spirit and no one is baptised who is not filled.
[7:03] Now this idea of being filled with the Spirit is worth lingering over just for a moment. There are I think two points to be borne in mind with regard to this phrase.
[7:18] The first is that to be filled with the Spirit is always something that we owe either to God the Son or to God the Father or to put it otherwise it is primarily God himself who fills us with the Holy Spirit.
[7:38] and it's not so much that we are baptised by the Spirit or filled by the Spirit or even sealed by the Spirit.
[7:51] The Spirit is the medium in which we are baptised the element with which we are filled but he is not the baptiser.
[8:03] It is either Christ who baptises the Spirit or God the Father. The Spirit is not himself the agent he is the one in whom God the Father or God the Son baptises or even if I may dare say so at this point he is the one who immerses us in the Spirit of God.
[8:28] The second point is precisely this that this baptising always amounts to a filling or to a very full experience of the Spirit of God.
[8:44] Now the reason why that has to be said is that the Holy Spirit is a person and therefore there is no possibility of our receiving simply part of the Holy Spirit.
[9:00] We are filled with the Spirit, we are baptised in the Spirit, we receive the whole Holy Spirit, this Divine Person in the fullness of this Divine Personality.
[9:15] But also of course in the fullness of this own distinctive activity. The Holy Spirit doesn't do a half job or undertake some only of his functions or engage in a partial ministry in the life of the child of God.
[9:39] He comes in the fullness of his own personality and he comes to engage in a full ministry. Now that ministry is most comprehensively a ministry of encouragement but he also comes to lead his children, he comes to mortify sin, he comes to comfort God's children, he comes to sanctify God's children, he comes to stir up all his own gifts within us.
[10:09] And this is really a very great and glorious fact about a Christian. That the Holy Spirit, the Divine Person, lives in each one of us and that in each one of us he engages in a full ministry.
[10:29] I can put this best to you if I offer a comment or two on words you find in John's Gospel where we are told that God did not give the Holy Spirit by measure unto him, that is unto Jesus.
[10:49] Now the comment I want to make in that is that if we go back to the original or in fact to the King James Version we will find that this phrase unto him is in italics.
[11:03] God does not give the Holy Spirit unto him or at least it should be in italics because there is no such phrase in the original. In the Greek we simply have that God does not give the Holy Spirit by measure.
[11:20] God doesn't dole out in sublimited and some carefully measured way the Holy Spirit but God gives the Holy Spirit in abundance.
[11:32] Now the difficulty is that Christians have always had reservations about this notion of the unlimited donation of the Spirit of God.
[11:45] I mean how can something as great as the Holy Spirit live in you and me and our pure personalities and starting from that point we begin to impose limits and constraints on the teaching of the word of God and the glories of God's gospel.
[12:05] Well the simple fact is that God does come in the whole of his own personal glory into our pure selves and we become temples of the Holy Spirit and in our lives the Holy Spirit performs a full ministry of encouragement of leading of multiplication or sanctification of guidance and so on.
[12:32] So there we have this fact that it is God who baptizes us and fills us with the Spirit and when he comes he comes in his own glorious fullness.
[12:46] But what we see so far is this we have seen that we can't distinguish receiving the Spirit from being filled with the Spirit.
[12:58] We have seen that to receive the Spirit is to receive the whole of the Spirit and to enjoy the whole of his ministry. We move on to what is maybe the central and most difficult question of all and that is this.
[13:16] Whether in fact this experience is shared by all Christians are shared only by some and possibly only by a minority.
[13:30] Now as most of us know there is in the Church of God a very large number of believers today Charismatics or Pentecostals whose central tenet is that the experience of Spirit Baptism or Spirit filling is not enjoyed by every single believer nor is it ordinarily or commonly given in the moment of conversion but it is they say a post conversion experience a second tier experience granted by God only to some of his children it is post conversion it is second tier and it is granted only to some of God's children in other words you can be a believer and yet not have been baptized in or filled with the
[14:35] Spirit of God you can be born again and you can be saved and you can be united to Christ and yet you can lack the experience of the Spirit Baptist now I respect in many ways the standpoint character and lifestyle and missionary zeal of many who hold this particular point of view but I also hold that they are profoundly mistaken and I hold that their mistake is a very serious and a very grave and I move on from that to argue that in fact to be filled with the Spirit to be baptized with the Spirit is something enjoyed by every Christian and is something that is really inseparable from the most basic experience of salvation I will even feel bound to say
[15:37] I hope with due solemnity that if we have not received the Spirit and been filled with the Spirit and been baptized in the Spirit if the whole of the Holy Spirit does not indwell us and if we do not enjoy the whole of this ministry then we are not Christians at all and I think that that is a very searching biblical principle one great risk with this modern charismatic teaching is that it leaves room for carnal Christians it leaves room for those who live on a very low moral and spiritual plane and yet can claim that they are Christians although they lack this spirit experience they lack this second tier experience now why do I hold that spirit baptism and spirit filling is something enjoyed by all
[16:38] Christians well my arguments for this point of view are as follows first of all I see that in Acts chapter 2 we are told that they were all filled with the spirit of God that is the story of Pentecost they were all filled now we're told first of all that they were all gathered with one accord in one place you see they weren't doing anything particularly important or anything particularly exciting they were simply there it wasn't what is called often a tarring meeting it wasn't one in which there was great opportunity it wasn't one in which was any heightened atmosphere but there they were they were all simply there and while they were there the Holy Spirit came and the
[17:38] Holy Spirit fell on every one of them now part of the point here is this that the whole of the church of God was gathered here they were all gathered here not only the eleven disciples and the circle of women but all those who were in the Lord's own circle they were all there and they were all baptized there is no suggestion that anybody was left out but every single one the whole assembled church of God they were all there going asking that and him and he don't the New Testament age that in these last days this is the way it's going to be you remember that Peter describes and defends what happens he does so by going back to the prophecy of Joel.
[18:41] And Joel's prophecy was to the effect that young men and old men and servants and hardmaidens and the whole body of Christ the whole stress falls on the universalness of the experience.
[18:57] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And secondly there is this that in the sequel to Pentecost an act chapter 2.
[19:11] The 3,000 converts. Remember what happened with them. As Peter preaches he preaches with such effect that they cry out men and brethren what shall we do? They were pricked in their hearts.
[19:29] And Peter said to them they must repent and be baptised and he says then they will receive this gift of the Holy Spirit.
[19:41] And what happens then? They that receive this word were baptised and receive the Holy Spirit. Just as at the beginning of the chapter he comes on all of them.
[19:55] So as a conclusion to the sermon all converts receive this privilege. Now Peter says repent which is simply be converted and be baptised and you receive this gift.
[20:13] He doesn't say that they must be converted and then wait or be converted and then go through some other subsequent experience.
[20:24] but they are converted they professed their faith and baptism and the Holy Spirit is given to them and this promise becomes theirs as Peter had indicated.
[20:37] And then we find in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13 we find again the same teaching laid down very very explicitly.
[20:48] In one spirit we were all baptised into one body. Now the language there is exactly the same as is used in Acts chapter 1 you shall be baptised in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
[21:04] The same Passover we were all baptised in one spirit not by or with but in and there is the element in which we are baptised and then there is the appendix to that statement in the same verse here which is in some ways difficult to translate.
[21:28] The old versions say that we were made to drink of one spirit but modern scholars are fairly confident that what is being said here is that we were all irrigated in the one spirit.
[21:42] It is a horticultural term we were all irrigated in one spirit. In other words we are all plants in God's garden and we are all irrigated simply because we are plants in God's garden.
[21:59] It cannot be that the great husband man leaves some of his plants not irrigated. Well in many ways this irrigation metaphor is very useful in this whole connection.
[22:12] When he says that we are all baptised into one body he is saying that if we are in the body of Christ then inevitably our mere participation in that body involves our being baptised in the spirit of God.
[22:31] Otherwise you end up with a risk the danger that Paul was so concerned to avoid a schism in the body between those baptised and those not baptised.
[22:43] No he says you can't be in the body and not have this. Now I preached on this topic once in the presence of what I shall godly call a medical person and that medical person came and told me from her knowledge of such matters that it was very intimate the body had its own very complex irrigation system and that that system carries fluids to every member and to every organ and to every cell.
[23:14] And of course it is fatal for any cell or organ to suffer dehydration. Now I don't think that Paul was conversed with all those miracle marvels but it is still interesting if we take this model this metaphor that if we're in the body of Christ then the irrigation systems of the spiritual body are as efficient as those of the natural body and these this great spirit this great enablement this power this water of life is carried to every single member of the body of Christ.
[23:52] You can't be in it and not profit from this irrigation and similarly you can't be a plant in the Lord's garden without having this same experience.
[24:04] Come back again to what is a very explicit biblical metaphor namely the husband man of the vine I am the vine you are the branches now again you see the irrigation from which the vine profits must affect every single branch otherwise there is no life and there is no productivity so that is the explicit teaching here in one spirit we were all baptized so at Pentecost they were all filled with the spirit after Pentecost every penitent every convert receives a gift of the Holy Spirit in 1st Corinthians it's said that every member of the body and every plant in the garden benefits from this experience now I am very conscious in a way that all this must seem very dialectical and very logical simply I'm building an argument well that is true and I can't avoid it but let me take you to different territory it's still argumentative but it lies very close to the heart of our salvation in other words as a fourth argument which I'm going to subdivide
[25:22] I'm going to say this that the notion that baptism of the spirit is limited to some of God's people and separated from faith really infringes some of the most elementary principles of our salvation it is a violation of the most fundamental elements of the Christian doctrine of salvation let me show you what I mean we have this great principle for example that we are saved by faith alone a reformation watchword sola fide by faith alone and it was the great distinctiveness of reformation theology that faith itself by that avenue by this instrumentality you came into possession of all the glories of salvation now the
[26:23] Roman church you see it believed in faith too and it spoke of the importance of faith but it never allowed that faith alone gave you a complete salvation there had to be faith plus all kinds of other things but the reformation said no by faith alone you are justified by faith alone you are adopted by faith alone you are part of the priesthood of all believers you had all those great privileges by faith alone and by faith alone you have the Holy Spirit by faith alone you have the Holy Spirit by faith alone you have the Holy Spirit but there you see this moral teaching comes and says oh no by faith alone you don't really have the Holy Spirit you have some limited way in some partial way but you don't have them in a complete way in a full way and what's happening again you see is this that souls are feeded by faith alone is being truncated now Galatians were told explicit which is the Spirit by the hearing of faith not by works of the law but by the hearing of faith and if
[27:45] I'm told by people no faith doesn't secure this gift for you faith brings you into a partial salvation into a part experience a measured limited experience of God's Spirit when I say that surely is a very severe limitation of faith but again let me say this to you that this limitation also strikes at the notion of union with Christ because the great New Testament theme you see is that we have everything in Christ and Christ too and if we look at Ephesians 1 we find that in Christ we have our adoption and our predestination and our redemption and all those other things and time and time again the apostle has this great phrase in him in whom in Christ blessed be God the Father of our
[28:56] Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus in whom also we are predestinated in whom we have redemption by his blood in whom we are adopted in him all the time and then someone says no we are in Christ by faith we are in Christ but we don't have the spirit sealing we don't have spirit baptism we don't have spirit filling but I thought we'd have a spiritual blessing no we don't have spirit baptism I don't see how it follows how can we say that we've every spiritual blessing in Christ if we do not have this if we do not have baptism and sealing and filling in the spirit of God in actual fact that blessing is itself utterly central you are sealed with a spirit the holy spirit of promise and so this teaching violates the principle of my faith alone it violates the principle of being in Christ and having every blessing there it also in my view truncates very seriously the whole
[30:22] Christian doctrine of the atonement now that may seem to you fairly remote but let me take you back to Galatians 3 you see there is that great and terrible word that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us some of the boldest and most powerful language in the whole of the Bible Christ God's Son made a curse for us why did he do it what did he achieve by this terrible atonement by this terrible experience when Paul says that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith that we might receive the promise of the Spirit why did Christ die why was his blood shed what does it mean to the blood of
[31:28] Christ sprinkled upon us it means that we have the promise of the Spirit by faith Christ died do you benefit from Christ's death what does it mean to you that he was made a curse in your place well it means that you by faith have the Spirit of God and we cannot say ah no we're buried from the atonement but we don't have the Holy Spirit you cannot say that by faith alone we have the Spirit in Christ we have the Spirit by the blood of the cross we are filled you cannot go on to say ah no the cross alone doesn't secure that I don't want to be unkind to this movement but it is essentially perfectionist at its core because it is always saying to me
[32:29] I must have more than faith I must have more than in Christ I must have more than the blood it isn't happy you see with the the ungodly this ungodly who believes in Jesus who is the blood of Christ who is in Christ who is faith that person because of the blood there is no room for a plus there is not something you must do in addition to being in Christ in addition to having faith in addition to being sprinkled with the blood there is not something over and above the blood the simple blood of Christ that secure spirit baptism there is not something I must do like tarry or renounce all known sin or really really really really really believe or really submit or full surrender full full you see how people add all those adjectives all those adverbs the devil comes in you surrendered yes but are you fully surrendered you believe but do you really believe it's all going back to the same thing that unless we are special second tier higher tier
[33:53] Christians then we don't have this thing and that's why I say it is so fundamentally non-evangelic quite so disastrously compromises the whole of the Christian gospel because it's saying that faith alone in Christ alone and the blood alone that these are not sufficient to get for me the promise the promise this great promise to Abraham this very call of our salvation let me put it in this way at last as we come to Colossians you are complete in him that's the great issue you see in this whole controversy it is a great pity that the debate with a charismatic movement is so often fought on the basis simply of tongue speaking as if that were the issue there is a peripheral issue there is a way on the edge of the whole discussion in some ways
[35:07] I'm not all that concerned about the tongue speaking because I know that in the New Testament it was true that people spoke in tongues but I also know that in the New Testament all of God's people and the whole ministry of God's Spirit it was through then that they spoke in tongues but it was not through then that only a few of them had spirit baptism and it is on that ground that this debate must be fought even you see if we could grant that there is tongue speaking today that is not even for a charismatic issue because he says that is the proof of spirit baptism and it wasn't that even in the New Testament it was possible then to speak in tongues and not have spirit baptism and many of those who did have spirit and this baptism gave no sign of speaking in tongues there was no emphasis on that fact so in many ways let's move away from the tongues this is about the
[36:20] Christian gospel it's about the significance of being in Christ it's about the significance of faith alone it's about the significance of the blood does that cross that blood give us a full salvation does it give us the promise does it give us every spiritual blessing does give us the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God well I think it does and I think it is the whole glory of reformation and biblical teaching that we are complete in him it is the most glorious and the most impressive and the most majestic through the imaginable that in Christ with nothing else to commend us or to describe us but simply in him we have everything in him we have every spiritual blessing in him we are filled with all the fullness of
[37:21] God it is that precious truth that charismary theology in all its forms denies and compromises the significance of the in Christo of our being in Jesus Christ Christ now I am conscious that there are certain passages that seem in the book of Acts to contradict this position I am a dilemma for the going to them or not I shall mention them Acts chapter 8 for example the story of the Samaritan believers the so called Samaritan Pentecost we are told that Philip evangelized and they believed and were baptized and then John and Peter come and find they don't have the Holy Spirit so there people say well they are believers who don't have the Spirit well I say two things about that very quickly one is that quite possibly though they were not believers in any genuine sense the language used is very strange they believed
[38:28] Philip preaching it is simple believing with a date they believed Philip teaching they believed the message there may have been nothing of the element we saw to be so important the last time personal trust in commitment to Christ the fiducia the trust in Christ but they believed Philip but what is more important and what is I think conclusive here is that this was a holy atypical situation it was called the Samaritan Pentecost it is the first time that the gospel goes beyond the Jewish community into a different constituency altogether and there was a grave danger of a separate Samaritan church emerging and so God in the order of redemption God creates a hiatus so that these people do not have spirit baptism until the
[39:31] Jerusalem church comes along and there is fellowship established and it is insisted that only in the one church of Christ only in union with the apostles is this gift going to be experienced the other passage of some consequence and it will come up in the question if I didn't take it up now is Acts 19 the Ephesian believers whom Paul came across he found some disciples of John he asked them have you been baptized in the spirit and they said we haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit they said and so Paul preaches Jesus to them and they baptized and receive the spirit now I don't see any serious difficulty at all in this because these people were in fact disciples of John the Baptist they had some little knowledge of the Lord Jesus they had no first tier experience of the
[40:35] Holy Spirit they had never heard of the Holy Spirit but the crucial thing is this that were those believers an apostle did something we never see done on any other occasion in the New Testament he practices re-baptism anabaptism he gives him a second baptism that itself indicates that Paul was not at all happy with their condition they were they were really Old Testament believers they were followers of John the Baptist they had not been baptized in a triune name and so Paul baptizes them in the appropriate way and the spirit comes that really at the moment these objections I simply mention I don't want to go to them detail because my time is running out and I want to come back again to the more existential and experiential question and issue highlighted in the caption of the lecture be filled with the spirit be filled with the spirit now here is an imperative a directive to us as Christians and furthermore it is a directive in the present tense which in the Greek please don't think that I know much
[42:02] Greek but I can read commentators telling me that this is what it is and they say this is a present tense and it is a continuous tense this is a very brilliant language this Greek and God shows it for that reason it can make marvellous distinctions between if I can sound very clever a punctilial action and a linear action and this is not a punctilial single moment instantaneous once for all experience Paul could have said that but Paul kept saying keep on being filled with the spirit of God don't be content with just one single flash moment phase of this but keep on being filled the same tense in first John the blood of Jesus cleanses us and keeps on cleansing us it's continuous again you see it's not simply one definitive moment of cleansing or one moment of being filled but keep on being filled that's
[43:10] Paul's directive you see it is possible for somebody to have more than one filling in actual fact it is imperative you see Peter you know in Acts 2 he's filled with the spirit in Acts 4 he's again filled with the spirit Stephen is a man full of the spirit of God that is a spiritual state to be full of the spirit of God the directive God gives to you is keep on being filled with the spirit of God that's your commitment and concern as a Christian Lord keep on filling me with your spirit keep him there and grant me his ministry in every single area see for example some of us we spend so much of our time without assurance and some of us imagine well assurance is a luxury no Paul says keep on ask this spirit for everything he's got ask him for assurance being filled keep on being filled with the spirit of
[44:21] God well what does directive what does this order actually mean to keep on being filled with the spirit of God well let's do it again in the face of God as God looks down upon us what is he saying to us here keep on being filled with the spirit of God well first of all it means this that we must avoid what grieves the spirit you know very often the ebb and flow and the loss of dynamism and love and so on the Christian life it's no great mystery we pretend it is but you go back and you see I've grieved the spirit I have said something I shouldn't have done I thought something I shouldn't have done I have violated God's commandment I've gone off God's road I have grieved the spirit of God and that's why I'm not filled with the spirit and if we want to be filled then you see there is a studiousness and a sensitive care to avoid anything that grieves him secondly it means this it means that we abide in Christ you see how marvelous that is there is this definitive moment of our faith our initial commitment and so very very often you see
[45:41] Christians think well that's it I was saved on such and such a day and it's all in the past but the Bible keeps on saying no it must be continuous it must be present you not only receive Christ and take Christ for your Savior but you abide there is a clinging you cling to you really wind bind yourself around Christ with tenacity and it isn't that you did it yesterday but you keep on doing it every day you abide there is the stickability of faith thirdly it means that we keep a step with the spirit to use the language of Galatians 5 we walk in the spirit we keep in step with the spirit a very interesting word again in this Bible's Greek language it is a word which was used curiously for formation dancing and in formation dancing it is very important
[46:48] I understand I can trip but I cannot dance I understand that it is very important that one should keep in step and that is the background to this here there is another word which means in fact walking with spirit in Indian file but here the word is that we keep in step in a kind we keep in formation and in some ways that is very suggestive you see that being Christian means that we stay in the formation we keep in step with the spirit of God and it comes back to this whole business does it really matter to us that is a crucial issue keep on being filled don't do anything that grieves abide in Christ keep in step with the spirit of God and maybe all the ebbings and flowings in our own lives can be explained in terms of these great principles that we have sometimes won the risk of grieving the spirit that we have sometimes not been concerned to abide in Christ and that we have sometimes broken formation and we have not kept in step with the spirit of God and it really is no great mystery at all well suppose that we do keep on being filled with the spirit what are the effects how does this show in our own lives well I'm going to very very quickly say two things that I do mean quickly here the first thing that follows is this that if we are filled and baptized and baptized in the holy spirit and sealed with the holy spirit and if we keep on being filled with the spirit then the effect it has on us is the exactly opposite effect that drink your alcohol has on people now I'm putting it in a fairly clumsy way but I feel that probably most of you remember that man spoke about alcohol if you remember a little else so be not drunk with wine for in his excess for in his debauchery you see now you see so many people use this dreadful dreadful language this blasphemous language drunk with the holy spirit drunk with god somebody was spoken of once as the god intoxicated man and the impression is often given that a really religious person is intoxicated and we're thinking you see maybe a primitive bedouin tribesman in a sted of ecstasy or some dervish and we think yeah that's revival you see behaving like a dervish a religious frenzy out of control drunk with a spirit intoxicated with the love of Jesus well what I read is be not drunk don't be drunk you see the first drop of alcohol adversely affects the higher centres of the brain and makes fine tuning of our own personalities absolutely impossible and we become loud we become aggressive and the more we take you see the more self control go so that that can man has no self control it's not only physical but it's emotional he cannot pitch his voice correctly he cannot gauge the appropriate emotional reaction this man in many ways is schizophrenic he's in touch with reality because what's happened to his brain he's got no control now don't be drunk to have the spirit of god is to have a spiritual mind to have self control time and again the bible speaks of moderation or sobriety it wants sobriety it wants self control that moderation that means that we have our own appetites our own emotions our own lusts our own reactions to things are under control people think you see that if we had the spirit we wouldn't worry about approaching strangers about the gospel and tact and so it wouldn't matter on the contrary that's when it would matter
[51:34] I don't say wouldn't approach them but we do it in the most loving and tactful and self controlled and creative way a drunken man comes along a drunken beggar there's a part of Edinburgh and when I go there same man always comes with the same request there's no self control there but if we if we have the Holy Spirit he imparts control spiritual mindedness you show me an instance in the gospels a single moment when Jesus appealed like a drunken man when the self control had gone when he was too loud when his emotions were under control of course I want the most prodigal zeal for Christ I want enthusiasm I want emotion compressed love and urgency and all of these things but these are rationalism because
[52:36] Christ deserves all these things but this spiritual man you see walking into a place he's very aware of his environment of his audience of the company present he's going to have wisdom he's going to know how to handle it because he's he is in this technical sense sober he's self controlled he's mentally disciplined and so there is nothing uncouth there is nothing uncontrolled there is nothing barbaric there is nothing insensitive there is nothing impersonal nothing egotistical or proud about this man he's controlled because he's not drunk he's the very opposite of drunk his brain it's the highest center of that man's brain under the spirit's control are working at their maximum efficiency and the second thing is this that if we are filled with the spirit then it shows itself in the moral and ethical sphere primarily submitting ourselves one to another submitting ourselves one to another now other things one could say because the context also speaks of praise and gratitude but simply these two things you see that it has the opposite effect from the effect of alcohol and it means that in our personal lives we submit to one another and it's absolutely marvellous in Ephesians 5 and 6 how the apostle moves from this great principle being filled with the spirit to that great detailed ethical instruction about husbands and wives parents and children and masters and servants and then put on the whole armour of
[54:25] God it will show itself in the kind of husband that we are in the kind of wife that we are in the kind of parent that we are in the kind of child that we are in the kind of employer and the kind of employee. It's going to show itself in all those areas and it's going to show itself in submission.
[54:46] Now I shall say a little about that beyond this. Surely the great thing is this, the transformation of attitudes consequent upon the Holy Spirit's ministry so that I never, never, never approach a problem or a relationship from the standpoint of my rights but from the standpoint of my obligations.
[55:12] That's the value of this whole idea of submission. You take the natural man, the non-spiritual man, he knows his rights. He knows what everybody else owes him.
[55:25] And today of course we have all those pleas for various bills of rights and statutory rights and so on. I see to the Christian the only person who has rights is the other person.
[55:39] To the Christian it's what we owe to people. You see in that marvelous ethical section, Paul never tells the husband his rights, never tells the child his rights, never tells the employer his rights, tells every single one of them their obligations.
[55:59] It would work wondrously even in the church of God itself if we had that kind of spirituality. Where it is not what people owe us but what we owe them that is paramount.
[56:15] In other words the primary effect of spirit baptism is not in the realm of the emotions inducing ecstasy nor is it in the realm of the gifts giving us spectacular powers but it is in the realm of personal living transforming us so that we live in accordance with God's own word in accordance with this great principle that we submit our own interests always to those of others.
[56:52] In some ways I wish I had started by trying to ascertain what you view our definition of a spiritual man was. And I leave you with the suggestion that a spiritual man is a man who lives the principles of this section of Ephesians 5 husband and wife parent and child master and servant and then goes on in felt weakness to put on the whole armor of God.
[57:25] Well I shall leave it there and I shall try to deal with any queries that you might want to raise. to Perhaps, Caritha, you could tell us, you were pointing out that if we're filled with the Spirit that we would avoid what grieves the Holy Spirit, we would abide in Christ and that we would keep in step with the Holy Spirit.
[58:17] I wonder if you could elaborate for us please what it means to abide in Christ and how can an ordinary Christian, mere Christian, hope to do this, to abide in Christ.
[58:30] Because we're so often so conscious of our own personal weakness and the ebbs and flows of human life. We find ourselves perhaps near people one day and far away another day. Is there our own inconsistency as Christians? Is there more that we can do to abide in Christ?
[58:53] Well I do think that we must always accept the blaming for the ebb and flow and for the low points in our own personal lives. What I stressed and would want to re-emphasize is that to abide in Christ means the constant re-enactment of our commitment to Him on a daily basis.
[59:16] So that in a way we really enlist every day in God's army and we take up the cross daily as the gospel's advice. Not simply in terms of one once for all commitment but we renew the pledge.
[59:32] We consciously choose and commit ourselves to Him every single day. And what I'm trying to counteract here is the form of religion that really has a conversion obsession.
[59:47] Where you know it really is that in the past I did something or something happened to me. And I'm trying to suggest that really if the truth of the past is today is what matters.
[60:01] Today is the test of the past. And do I not, can I claim not only to have made that first commitment but have I re-enacted it and on a daily basis again chosen Christ as my Savior.
[60:17] And I do think that if we go back to the Puritans for example you'll remember that many of those men made a covenant with God. And they renewed that covenant constantly. Some of them in fact renewed it every day.
[60:31] They renewed their covenant. And that's what I'm saying that we every day choose, we every day take up the cross and follow Christ. And don't rely simply on past decisions.
[60:52] Anything else? I have this marvelous ambition to preach and in charge of the lecture. Mr. McLeod.
[61:07] Could I ask about the work of the Holy Spirit before Pentecost? Yes. I'm thinking about certain disciples and their recognition of Jesus and their following of Jesus.
[61:18] Now this was the product of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit worked faith. And yet what was, what happened at Pentecost then?
[61:29] In the sense that before Pentecost the Spirit had been at work within them. And you're saying that when we have the Spirit work within us it is the full person of the Spirit.
[61:41] Yes. So what happened then with the change of Pentecost? It's the single most difficult question David in this whole area. The relation between Old and New Testament experiences here.
[61:53] And it's partly difficult because we have different terminology between the Apostle John for example and Luke in Acts. Because John says the Holy Spirit wasn't yet, because Jesus wasn't yet glorified.
[62:09] And it may not be wise to try to impose that concept on Luke's narrative. Because as far as Luke was concerned, people were filled in the Old Testament.
[62:23] John the Baptist, Zechariah for example, was filled and Elizabeth was filled in the Old Testament. So as far as Luke goes, the filling is not distinctly at all a New Testament experience.
[62:37] It was part of the Old Testament experience as well. So it isn't actually necessary keeping ourselves within the confines of Luke's terminology to say that Pentecost was their first experience of being filled with the Spirit.
[62:55] Because John the Baptist had it, Elizabeth had it before them, and they might also have had it before them. So if we limit the discussion here to the language and usage of Luke's Gospel, I think that does to some extent soften or reduce the difficulty.
[63:14] Because he will not allow the suggestion that it is a distinctive of the New Testament to be filled with the Spirit. With John's position, if I can come back, and I hope I'm not becoming too diffuse on this, but John's position was that the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
[63:37] John sees a very much more radical divide between the two dispensating. It seems to me that all I could say at the moment is that at Pentecost, the disciples were given grace that was specific to the New Dispensation, in the sense that the mission was to go and preach Christ.
[64:01] And with a view to that, they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and they are given the cloven fire-like tongues as well. And it is indicated also that this ability to bear witness to Jesus is in the New Age not confined to special functionistic Apostles, but that in the New Age, but that in the New Age every single believer has this particular capacity.
[64:27] So if I were to dare to contrast the two Testaments, the Old and New Testament, I would say first of all, that in the New Dispensation, the gift is the prerogative of every single believer, not simply special functionaries.
[64:44] And that in the New Testament it is related directly to the proclamation of Christ himself. But I start on the disadvantage of being reluctant to minimize Old Testament privilege.
[64:59] In the Old Testament, the Spirit was certainly very, very active. The folk were born again by the Spirit of God. They were in the spirit of adoption, they said, Abba, Father, or at least they had assurance.
[65:13] And also they were sanctified and kept by the Spirit of God. They had various gifts as prophets and priests and kings and so on. So I am not terribly anxious to make the rift too wide.
[65:32] I would simply stick with the two principles that in the New Age, the Spirit is the privilege of all, not simply charismatic functionaries, and that the Spirit is given with specific reference to proclaiming Christ himself who had come.
[65:51] But I am probably only restating the difficulty. I am not solving it for you. Sometimes the contrast is made between Peter, say, and his denial of our Lord, and Peter on the day of Pentecost.
[66:08] This is attributed to the work of the Spirit, the post-Pentecost work of the Spirit, in giving Peter such... No, I couldn't be patient with that because it is quite clear that after Pentecost, Peter is also a very fallible human being.
[66:27] And in fact, Paul had a rebuke very severely in Antioch because he dissembled about the Gospel. And in actual fact, again, if you apply this consistently, go to the church at Corinth, which was the most spiritual church in inverted commas.
[66:44] And yet that church had enormous problems as well. And I don't think that we can really take the line that it turned Peter into a perfect man.
[66:55] It certainly didn't. Again, the Apostle John didn't betray any such pre-Pentecost weakness that we could build on at all.
[67:09] It's certainly, I think, helpful to discuss it, if I can put it to you in this way, in Biblical theological terms.
[67:20] In other words, to stick with one author. Not to try to adjust Luke's language to John's language, but to adjust Luke's language to Luke's language.
[67:31] And in that respect, we could certainly say that even in the Old Testament, people were filled with the Spirit. But that for Luke, the difference is that now all members of the body are filled with the Spirit.
[67:48] And they are also filled with a view to the Universal Gospel mission. I haven't answered that very successfully.
[68:01] I'm as conscious of it as you are. And there's not much point in prolonging my circuitous discourses on this particular question. I don't know if it's on the same issue or not, but there's a hand up right at the back.
[68:13] Would the scripture in 1 Corinthians 12, by one Spirit, you're all baptized into one body, would this be a distinctive New Testament experience?
[68:24] Because we would not limit the Spirit of God to us as individuals, but we would have a bearing upon us collectively as the people of God. Well, the question as I understand it from you is whether, in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, or being baptized in the Spirit is a specific New Testament experience.
[68:51] That's what you're asking. I'm talking to the tape at the moment as well, because I can't pick up the questions. Have I got you correctly? I was thinking more in relation to the baptized, it's the one body.
[69:06] Is this true, something that's instinctively New Testament? I wouldn't, I have never in fact asked myself that question, but I wouldn't instinctively think that it was New Testament specifically, because in the Old Testament too, there is one church.
[69:26] But the complication of course is that we have had the Incarnation since then, and the body I suppose is linked to the incarnate Saviour. But I, the Old Testament is a very, very firm notion certainly with regard to the body.
[69:48] You're taking me back into the same territory as David to a large extent, that if in the Old Testament there were also all members of the body, would they also all have had the Holy Spirit?
[70:00] And I would need to say that in the Old Testament, believers must certainly have had the Holy Spirit, each of them, in some form of his ministry.
[70:11] There's a difference in the measure possibly in the New Testament. But if we go to the Psalms for example, and the experiential parts of the Old Testament, the level of assurance and spiritual joy enjoyed by God's people then was fully equal to what any of us knows in the New Testament.
[70:31] But the question is whether that level was experienced by a typical Old Testament believer, or was it simply an exceptional attainment on the part of those Old Testament people.
[70:46] So I am saying that the church was one body in the Old Testament. I am also saying that membership of that body even in the Old Testament implied that people had the Holy Spirit to be members of the body in the first place.
[71:06] But I would question whether it was then true that every member of the body was equipped for ministry, for body ministry as it was through in the New Testament.
[71:18] So I reflect further, again I am learning rather than answering in terms of his questions tonight. But the whole question of the difference between pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost is singularly difficult.
[71:37] What the New Testament saint has that the Old Testament saint did not have is very difficult to describe.
[71:48] And I would generally say that the New Testament saint has nothing that some Old Testament saint did not have, except the conscious relationship with an incarnate Saviour.
[72:09] That was not part of the Old Testament experience at all. But in terms of joy, assurance, and all those subjective things, the Book of Psalms shows a spirituality that is falling equal to any New Testament experience.
[72:25] The other datum to put into reflections on this is the description of John the Baptist as being less than the least in the Kingdom of God.
[72:40] Which suggests that the most eminent saint of the Old Testament yet lacked things which were basic to the New Testament.
[72:51] And I cannot again understand that except in terms of the Incarnation. I do not believe that any Old Testament saint grasped the doctrine that God would become flesh and in that flesh would die in our place.
[73:08] The elements of that doctrine are found in the Old Testament but nobody ever synthesized them. And what happens at Pentecost to some extent is that Peter suddenly understands that Jesus is in the fullest sense the incarnate sin-bearing Son of God.
[73:33] And that is a consequence of the Holy Spirit's ministry. So the effect of the filling of the Spirit in that context is that he receives new insight, new wisdom and new boldness appropriate to a New Testament situation.
[73:52] Now we have a girl here wanting to ask a question. One of the questions I wanted to ask is that faith comes by hearing the preaching of the word and the gospel is being faithfully preached Sunday by Sunday in some churches in Scotland.
[74:10] And yet we are not seeing many being converted and leading godly lives. And yet many charismatic churches are claiming to have a great many conversions and great examples of people being filled with the Spirit.
[74:26] And I just wonder why we don't see the work of the Holy Spirit as we would traditionally perhaps expect to see that work in salvation and in conversion.
[74:37] And yet the charismatics were claimed to because of the signs and the wonders that they are seeing that the Holy Spirit is at work in renewal. I think my first response is that I suspect that to a large extent in our own tradition that on Sundays we are preaching to converted people.
[75:03] And what I say may sound a little bit heretical but it seems to me we spend lots of our time flogging the conversion issue.
[75:15] And that many of those we are trying to flog into conversion are in fact already converted but they haven't had a Damascus Road experience.
[75:29] And I think that it would be helpful for us to maybe give more attention to bringing faith to a consciousness of itself.
[75:42] Rather to assume that all the non-professing Christians are pagans because they often are not. And I think that certainly in the free church there is a great need to challenge people as to whether in fact they have had the conversion they deny they have ever had.
[76:02] I mean basically the point is that we are Christians if we want Christ, if we are attracted to Christ. And that may be quite detached from questions of conversion experiences.
[76:15] My second response would be that there is fairly clear evidence that a lot of the growth of charismatic churches is sideways growth. That it's growth in terms of winning folk over from other denominations.
[76:31] And I think the free church itself has lost a fair number of people in this way. And people move sideways into that kind of situation. But it's happened also obviously in Baptist churches, Central Scotland and everywhere else.
[76:44] There has been a lot of sideways growth. It may also be thirdly I think that the criteria that they apply for church membership are a good deal less stringent than those that we apply.
[76:58] I would want to say that uncharitably. I think that in fact we are as wrong as they are in that area. That we have standards which are too stringent.
[77:10] And in some ways even violate our own particular heritage. And the fourth response that I make is that I really mustn't be tempted to envy or criticize anybody whom God is blessing.
[77:26] You know, it is quite possible that the Lord is using them. And let's be reminded that there are a lot of Pentecostal churches, a lot of Pentecostal preachers. They are also very often culturally very relevant.
[77:40] Which we in the free church for example are not. Because we have a lot of cultural baggage. Which means that we are struggling at some levels. But in the black community for example the Pentecostal tradition is indigenous.
[77:52] It is working there in its own native environment. And that is also true in many parts of England and Wales. You don't have any, there is a homogeneous unit situation going on there.
[78:04] The culture and the religion are very much in accord. And let's go on from the experience they have had. They have enjoyed remarkable growth beyond the shadow of a doubt. And we should use that as an example to inspire ourselves.
[78:20] It is also of course true that there are parts of the world where the tide of the spirit is flowing very powerfully in favour of the Gospel. In Brazil for example where I am told that you can go out and sit at noon and be almost certain of 14 converts in the afternoons.
[78:38] Of course the afternoon's work is a matter of course. It is very important for us to learn to read the signs of the times for ourselves. And to capitalise on the spirit's movements if and when that happens.
[78:51] I mean, I am sorry to take long answers to short questions. But we Scots are very, very reluctant to seem to be masochistic.
[79:05] And we often choose the most difficult areas for evangelism. And we have the sticky ability that never gives up. Whereas maybe there is more wisdom in the Pentecostal church that it will go with the spiritual tide.
[79:22] We have logged in my experience many an area and many situations that had no life in it. And from my own recollection of ideas as a minister it was very, very important to try to identify individuals with whom the spirit was working.
[79:39] And it is important for the church to identify areas where the spirit is working as well. I think I am going to be selfish and take the last question myself since I did not get it last time we were here.
[79:51] And perhaps after we have had an answer to this question, perhaps Mr. Evan MacDonald will lead us in prayer as we conclude. I wondered if you might reflect again on the balance between the being filled with the spirit that is part of the true conversion experience of every believer.
[80:12] And the being filled again with the spirit such as we have in Acts chapter 4. I always think I understand it until I come to have to address the problem and speak about it to someone else.
[80:28] And I think the problem has a lot to do with the fact that almost for all of us this idea of being filled, immediately conscious of being filled up, that it is like a jug of liquid being poured in.
[80:43] And yet we believe that we are full of the spirit at conversion because the spirit is personal. And yet it is so difficult to get away from the idea of something more being poured in when we are told that we must be filled with the spirit.
[81:00] Yes, I think that we are imposing on the biblical language a quite unscientific precision because it is not a scientific language we are using here, it is figurative language. And the important point I think is that there are not two kinds of Christians.
[81:18] There is only one kind and the one kind there is, the hasad spirit baptism. And that means that God has given us a spirit without measure. We have had full forgiveness and full adoption and so on, the fullness of the spirit as well.
[81:34] But the poem that Mackay makes is crucially important and it is tied up again with John's query about abiding in Christ. That being a Christian is not a point, it is a line.
[81:46] And it does not matter how big the experience you have had at conversion. It is going to require constant topping up and it is also going to involve a constant new departure.
[82:01] And I mean the Lord himself said, John said that we receive grace for grace, grace upon grace, filling upon filling upon filling.
[82:12] That is the way that it has got to be. Now there are different levels of this. Take the Stephen case. Here is a habit.
[82:23] A man who is full of the spirit. Now that is a habit you will state that maybe very few Christians attain to. A man whose instincts and conduct and relationships and emotions and attitudes are all of them controlled by the spirit day after day after day.
[82:43] That was Stephen, a very very special man who was destined to live long and did great service in God's kingdom. He is full. But I think for most of us, Peter is a more helpful model because what we have in Peter is a man in Acts 4 suddenly facing a crisis.
[83:01] And he has challenged us to his beliefs and he has challenged us implicitly for his life. And in that moment of crisis the Holy Spirit comes and fills.
[83:13] And I do think that many of us worry every day when we go into the world. And it is very helpful to us to come back to the Peter model here.
[83:24] That the day is going to hold a great number maybe of undisclosed and undiscoverable crisis. But we go forth confident that whatever crisis comes the spirit of God will fill us.
[83:38] Now sometimes we think well when the crisis comes I will pray. But you know sometimes at least in the Free Church College you don't have time to pray. When the crisis comes I listen to you don't have time to pray.
[83:50] You have to react quickly. And you have to hope then that the spirit will come and help and give the wisdom to deal with the problem. And really isn't that what the Lord promised.
[84:03] Take no thought what you shall say. You know you can sit today tonight and ponder all kinds of dreadful possibilities tomorrow. Take no thought.
[84:15] But go out in the confidence that it will be given you in that hour what to speak. So I am not sure just how exhaustive that is the response to Mr Mackay's question.
[84:29] But there are people who are habitually fooled. That is a character. But there is also this other model of the episodic experience of the spirit.
[84:42] So that not simply not so much in fact day by day but crisis by crisis we know the spirit's ministry. And certainly in my own experience that has been a very very rich thing.
[84:57] That one escaped from panic and one is helped in panic by this feeling of the spirit. God helping us either to do or to suffer or to overcome what must be done, suffered or overcome.
[85:14] I realise now that I was probably far too selective in going through the lecture. The questions have indicated gaps I should have been more conscious of.
[85:25] And the tie up particularly between spirit filling and evangelism is a very very important one. But I moved by that point from Acts 2 to Ephesians 5 and I was working in that groove.
[85:40] But evangelistically in particular it is very very important to rely not on some past endowment or on some inherent quality. But to go out dependently hoping that God will teach us what to say when the crisis really comes.
[85:56] And I hope that though obviously at some points this has been quite ineffectual that it has at least given you new questions and some guidance as to where to find the answers to the ones I wasn't able to handle.
[86:11] Thank you. Well we do thank you Professor MacLeod once again most sincerely for all the stimulation that you bring to our thinking and for all the light that by God's grace you bring to the scriptures.
[86:25] We are most grateful. The curtains will be drawn back at the end and you will then get access to the tapes and to the books. And if your appetites have been whetted for more reading about the spirit you will find that one of Professor MacLeod's books does deal particularly with the work of the Holy Spirit.
[86:46] But now we'll stand for prayer and Mr MacDonald will lead us. Our gracious God we thank you for the gift of the spirit which you have given to your church and to every believer.
[87:06] Our gracious God we thank you for the gift of the spirit of the spirit. We thank you for that promise of being filled with the spirit. And so we pray that each one here who names the name of Christ would go forward by being filled by the spirit.
[87:25] Come show us oh God how to abide in Christ. How not to grieve the spirit. And how to walk in the spirit.
[87:37] Help us we pray in our daily lives to take up the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to die to sin. And to live to Christ.
[87:49] Help us we pray to present our bodies as living sacrifices. Holy and acceptable to our God. As a reasonable service.
[88:00] As a reasonable service. That help us oh God to be found in union with one another through the spirit.
[88:11] Fill us with the love which was demonstrated on Calvary when the Lord Jesus Christ offered up his life for his church.
[88:22] So Father who with us we pray. And help us in everything. For we ask this with the forgiveness of our sins. In the name of our Savior.
[88:33] Amen.