1355. Filled with the Spirit

Filled with the Spirit

"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph_5:18).

It says in the key text, "Be not drunk with wine." You know when wine gets a hold of you. It gets a hold of your head and your feet. I know it gets the feet. I have seen them. You have heard people say, "That man is filled from his head to his toes with wine." He is dominated by it. The Bible says, "Be not drunk with wine; but be filled with the Spirit."

Do you know why the Holy Ghost did not put this text in the 1st chapter? Because it did not belong there. Why didn't He put it in the 2d chapter, the 3d chapter, the 4th chapter? Because it did not belong there. The 1st chapter, the 2d chapter and the 3d chapter are telling us what we have in Christ, while the 4th and 5th are telling us how we ought to walk as Christians. That is why the Holy Spirit put the text in the 5th chapter, because it is not until you cry, "Help," until you are all undone and feel your weakness and helplessness, that you feel the need of the Spirit. He will help you. He is your victory. He will bring your state up to your standing. He is the power that will enable you to walk worthy.

One day my little boy (he is not so little now, but I call them all little. They never get big to me), said, "You bet." He was just betting around at the dinner table.

I said, "Charles, did you ever hear your father say, 'you bet,' in your life?" He looked at me, and I will tell you what he said.

He said, "Dad, you see I am not you."

Bless his heart, "You see I am not you."

Well, this is what I thought, "Supposing I could put my life into him, my thoughts, my conception of things, my attitude towards life, my standard of righteousness; suppose I could put all this in him, then He would live like I would." But, when I thought about it, I said, "I would not want him to do that, for I am too far short myself, and I would not want him to do as I do."

But I want to tell how the Lord deals with me. Because I am His child, He tells me how I ought to live, and then He says, "My son, I want to tell you something, I know, in your own strength, you cannot walk worthy so I will just put My Spirit and My life within you, and you can lay hold of My strength."

When I was a little lad I used to live in Chicago. My father used to go along the streets in the snow of winter or the dust of summer, and many times I would stretch my little legs and try to put my tiny feet in dad's great big footsteps. It was a job to keep up with him.

And, if you ever try to put the steps of your humanity into the steps of Deity; your helplessness into the steps of Almightiness, you will find that you are going to have a hard time of it.

Now remember the last command of our text is quite as strong as the first. If any one, who is a believer, is intoxicated with wine, they are breaking certain precepts of God in their life. "Be not intoxicated with wine, wherein is riot." But there is another command that is just as strong as that one. It is God's statement: "Be filled with the Spirit." When God says: "Be not drunk with wine," He means it, and, when He says: "Be filled with the Spirit," He means that. He who is not filled with the Holy Ghost, is not living up to the will and purpose of God's command, His will is not only that you should be saved, but that you should be filled with the Spirit.

"But," some one will say, "salvation includes being filled with the Spirit."

No, salvation makes possible the filling with the Spirit, but it does not necessarily include the filling of the Spirit.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR