Sermons and Biblical Studies

The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus also called the Spirit of Truth, has not come into this world to fool around. He will be found wherever the Lord’s people meet, and in confirming the Word and the Person of Jesus Christ, He will demand moral action!… The Holy Spirit came to do a confirmatory work and … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: INWARD WITNESS; APOLOGETICS; CLAIMS OF CHRIST”

Deity indwelling men! That, I say, is Christianity, and no man has experienced rightly the power of Christian belief until he has known this for himself as a living reality. Everything else is preliminary to this. Incarnation, atonement, justification, regeneration; what are these but acts of God preparatory to the work of invading and the … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: INDWELLING”

The doctrine of the inability of the human mind and the need for divine illumination is so fully developed in the New Testament that it is nothing short of astonishing that we should have gone so far astray about the whole thing. Fundamentalism has stood aloof from the Liberal in self-conscious superiority and has on … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: ILLUMINATION; TEXTUALISM”

I would like to make an emphasis here and make it clearly: A revelation of the Holy Spirit in one glorious flash of inward illumination would teach you more of Jesus than five years in a theological seminary—and I believe in the seminary! You can learn about Jesus in the seminary. You can learn a … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: ILLUMINATION”

Another thing that greatly hinders God’s people is a hardness of heart caused by hearing men without the Spirit constantly preaching about the Spirit. There is no doctrine so chilling as the doctrine of the Spirit when held in cold passivity and personal unbelief. The hearers will turn away in dull apathy from an exhortation … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: FILLING; PASTORAL MINISTRY: NEED FOR SPIRITUAL REALITY”

He will expect obedience to the written Word of God. But our human problem is that we would like to be full of the Spirit and yet go on and do as we please. The Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures will expect obedience to the Scriptures, and if we do not obey the Scriptures, … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: FILLING; OBEDIENCE: NEED FOR”

Again, before you can be filled with the Spirit you must desire to be filled. Here I meet with a certain amount of puzzlement. Somebody will say, “How is it that you say to us that we must desire to be filled, because you know we desire to be. Haven’t we talked to you in … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: FILLING; OBEDIENCE: COST OF; LORDSHIP OF CHRIST”

After a man is convinced that he can be filled with the Spirit he must desire to be. To the interested inquirer I ask these questions: Are you sure that you want to be possessed by a Spirit Who, while He is pure and gentle and wise and loving, will yet insist upon being Lord … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: FILLING; COMMITMENT”

It may be said without qualification that every man is as holy and as full of the Spirit as he wants to be. He may not be as full as he wishes he were, but he is most certainly as full as he wants to be. Our Lord placed this beyond dispute when He said, … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: FILLING; APATHY”

Pentecost means that the Deity came to mankind to give Himself to man, that man might breathe Him in as he breathes in the air, that He might fill men. Dr. A.B. Simpson used an illustration which was about as good as any I ever heard. He said, “Being filled with the fullness of God … Continue reading “HOLY
SPIRIT: FILLING”