May God bless us as we turn together
to his word this evening, and we'll turn back to the chapter
that we read together, the gospel according to Matthew in chapter
three, and I want to focus our thoughts in the final part of
verse 11. Matthew chapter three, in the
end part of verse 11. He shall baptize you, with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. I'll read the whole verse which
reads, I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance, but he
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear. He shall baptise you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. Well, these words, as we know,
were spoken by John the Baptist. And of course, John the Baptist
was greatly blessed and greatly used of God. It's amazing when
we read the account, as we did this evening, to think of these
many people who came to John to be baptized at that time. We read that they went out to
him, Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about
Jordan, baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. and there
were many people who then gathered to him to hear his ministry and
to be baptised. It was a baptism of repentance
as they came confessing their sins and confessing what they
had done and he would baptise them at that time. So many people
were gathered that even the Pharisees and the Sadducees came, came
to observe, came to see what he was doing and saying. He clearly
had a great impact on the people round about at that time. So
he was greatly used and greatly blessed. And in his baptism,
as the people came before him, as we say, it was a baptism of
repentance. They came confessing their sins.
and he baptised them as a sign of washing away of sins. Clearly
the baptism itself had no power to wash away sins, it was an
outward performance, but it was a sign, a symbol of the washing
away of the sins of those who came confessing their sins. But John here, and as always
whenever he spoke, made it very clear that there was one who
was far greater than him. Though he was used and blessed
in that time, he made it clear and abundantly clear, as we read
in John's Gospel, he was not the Christ. He was not the one
that would come. He was not the promised Messiah.
He was to herald the way. A voice crying, one in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way of the Lord. And here he speaks that though
he baptizes with water unto repentance, Though he has that great privilege
of baptising the people at that time, there would come another,
indeed there had already come another, he was already born,
that would do a greater work than the outward baptism of John. Greater than John, much greater
than John, and a much greater work. For the Lord Jesus Christ,
who he is clearly referring to here, would not only do the outward
work that John did. John performed an outward work
of baptism. The Lord Jesus Christ would perform
an inward work, something in the hearts of the people, something
within them, something that John couldn't do. John could only
observe the outward, just like we can. We can observe one another. We can see each other's lives,
we can hear each other's confession and profession, and as a result
we may well join with John and baptise those who we see in their
profession and confession. But the Lord Jesus Christ could
do something John could not do, and something that we cannot
do, and that is something in the hearts of the people, something
within them. And John here is referring to
that heart change, to that work inside, when he says, he will
baptise you, not with water, but with the Holy Ghost and with
fire. And this is a wondrous truth,
which is still true today. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
saviour But he does not only wash away sin, he does. He does cleanse us throughly
with the blood of Christ. He does take away all our stain
and all of our sin and make us acceptable to God. His finished
work is complete and for the child of God there is no sin
left in the sight of God. It's a full and utter cleansing,
a full removing of sin. But he does not only do that. He also comes and works within. It is not simply, as it were,
a legal transaction done outside of our knowledge and done outside
of our control, where we have, as it were, it's so remote. No,
it's something close. It's something within. Because
we're told that the Lord Jesus Christ dwells and the power of
the Spirit, he dwells within his people. We're told, Christ,
in you, the hope of glory. Know ye not, you are the temple
of the Holy Spirit, which is in you. So when one is converted,
their sins are removed and forgiven and they are made acceptable
in the sight of God. But at that very time, the Holy
Spirit comes and dwells within. the heart of the believer, baptized
with the Holy Ghost. And that work, then, not only
begins, but goes on. And the work of the Holy Spirit
is an ongoing work within the heart of the Christian throughout
their life in this world, an ongoing work. He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The example is, if you
think of an old car, you think of one that's been, not been
driven for a long time, the engine's falling apart. And if you take
that car which is rusting and is falling apart, outwardly it
looks like it's no good at all. And you take that car and you
spray paint it and you make it look much better. But still,
it may look wonderful on the outside, But if you do nothing
to the engine, you don't change the parts which are rusted away,
and you don't change the parts which are missing, then it's
not going to be any good to you. It needs to be changed within
so that it can do what a car is built to do. And it's the
same. The Lord does not, as it were,
just do the outward removing of sin, as glorious and wonderful
as that is. He also comes to dwell in the
heart. to come and work in the heart of the believer. Here we have this word baptize. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost. This word means to dip or to
wash, to dip into. It really refers to a dipping
right into, immersion really. to baptise with the Holy Ghost. Well, clearly this isn't a physical
being dipped into something, the Holy Ghost being a spirit.
But what it's referring to is to be fully immersed into the
Spirit, as if the Holy Spirit overwhelms the believer, and
comes and dwells within them. The Holy Ghost in you. It's not a short-term thing.
It's not something which is there for a moment and then gone for
the rest of our life. It's something which is complete.
It's something that overwhelms the believer. He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost. But what I want to think about
really this evening, if we've laid down the groundwork, as
it were, of the knowledge that the Holy Spirit dwells within
each true believer, is this picture here which is used with fire. Baptise you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire. And here we have a picture for
us, showing us something of the work of the Holy Spirit in the
heart of the Christian. Of course, this isn't the first
time we read of Holy Spirit and fire being linked together. You'll
think of the occasion in the Book of Acts. when we read on
the day of Pentecost that the disciples had tongues, cloven
tongues of fire resting upon them when the Holy Spirit came
in great power on the day of Pentecost. And here we have the
same picture here, the Holy Spirit linked with this picture of fire. And I want to consider what we
can learn from this picture here. Firstly, we learn that the Holy
Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit gives life. When you look at a fire, it's
as if it's alive, isn't it? As it moves about and as the
flames flicker, it's as if there's life there. It seems to be alive
in the fire. When you see the fuel of the
fire, the logs or so forth, and there's no fire, well, it's as
if they're dead. There's nothing coming out of
them. There's no liveliness there. But when a fire is going, it's
as if the flickering of flames seems to dance, it seems to be
alive in the fire. Well, here we have this picture
here. The Holy Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit gives life. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Ephesians, said those well-known words in the opening
verse of chapter 2. You hath he quickened. You hath he quickened. You hath
he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. And there we have shown to us
the truth of the state of the soul outside of Christ, dead
in trespasses and in sins. And as we know, a dead person
has no ability, is incapable of doing anything, incapable
of sitting up or of walking around, incapable of making decisions
and actions. It's dead. It's not possible
to do anything. And outside of Christ, that's
our state in our souls. We're dead. in trespasses and
in sins. We're not interested in God.
We're not interested in the truth of God. It's true, of course,
that a non-believer might have an interest in God, may have
some kind of interest in religious things, but there's no true desire
for God. There's no true concern for the
soul. There's no true desire that we
might know God, that we might be blessed by God. There's debt
in trespasses and in sins. That's what we are or what we
were as an unbeliever. He says, you hath he quickened
or made alive which were dead. The miracle has been done. The
resurrection from the dead has been performed in the heart of
each of his people. The power that raised Christ
from the grave, from the tomb, is the same power that raises
his people from death in trespasses and in sins to life in their
hearts. And what life it is. What a change
it is. Life. When one is alive, they're
living, they're breathing. And when a soul is given life,
they start to breathe. They start to breathe. They start
to have desires. They start to have longings.
that they didn't have before, an interest that they didn't
have before. Now there's a longing for something that they never
saw any interest in. There's a longing for God. There's
a longing for life. There's a longing for blessing.
There's a longing that God would speak to them and would do them
real good. They breathe. When a soul is
born again, when they're given life, they start to pray. They start to pray. If someone's
dead, they cannot speak, can they? Dead body cannot speak. A live body, all its faculties
can speak. So it's the same when the Lord
comes and awakens the dead soul. They're given speech, that is,
they're given prayer. And they're giving longing behind
those prayers, a real desire. that God would bless them and
they find themselves praying true heartfelt prayers when they
never did before. They find that prayer is not
a formal thing which passes the time. Prayer is a desire. Prayer is a longing. Prayer is
a groaning in the heart. Prayer is communion with God. They're alive. A living soul, a living body
not only speaks but hears as well. We speak and we listen. And it's the same when we've
become spiritually alive, when the dead are raised, when they're
quickened to life. Not only do they speak in prayer,
but they listen. That is, the Word of God has
become a different book. The Word of God isn't just stories
and ideas anymore. It's the voice of God speaking
to us. And we see things that we never
saw before. And we receive blessings that
we never understood before. Because we're listening to the
Word of God. We're listening to what it has
to say. And it's a joy and a pleasure to open the Word. And we see
that this is truth. This is reliable. This is something
I can hang on to and rest my soul in. We hear the Word of
God. And the living soul, or living
body, It's also given a hunger, given a hunger. Dead soul isn't
interested, a dead body rather, isn't interested in food. It's
not going to eat a meal, has no need of it, it's dead. And
yet when a soul is brought to life, they're given a hunger. They're hungry that they might
receive the blessing of the Lord, that when they open the word
of God, they might receive the blessing. that when they hear
the preaching of the gospel, they might receive something
for them, that it will stay with them, that it will feed their
soul, and as they go on into another day, that they will remember
it, and it will build them up and encourage them. They're hungry
for the blessing of the Lord. Life. You hath he quickened. What does the Lord Jesus Christ
say about life? What is true spiritual life?
This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, speaking of
the Father, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. That's a
definition of eternal life, you could say. That's a definition
of what it means to have spiritual life, to know God and Jesus Christ,
whom He has sent, have a desire for Him, to speak with Him, to
listen to Him, have a relationship with God, that is life eternal.
You hath he quickened, that's the work of the Spirit, baptise
you with the Holy Spirit to make us alive. I wonder this evening
before God whether we can all say we've known that change from
death to life. We're dead in trespasses and
sins, now we're alive because we've seen that change. We weren't
interested, we weren't concerned at all, but now we're listening,
now We're praying. Now we're hungry. Now we want
to receive something. So the spirit gives life. Secondly, fire gives light. Fire gives light. You think in a dark room, think
of the days before electricity or if your light bulb is gone,
You light a candle in a dark room, suddenly there's light.
And you can see by the light of that candle. If you have a
larger fire, there's a greater light. Fire gives light. So we can see things. And it's
the same here. I baptise you with the Holy Ghost,
with fire. The Holy Spirit gives light. He reveals things to us. reveals
things, to see things that we've not seen before, things we've
not noticed before, things we've not realized before, and suddenly
we see them and we wonder, how could I have missed that? How
could I not have seen that before? The Spirit gives light to reveal
things to us. It reveals ourselves. It reveals
ourselves. I wonder if we come to that time
when when we've seen something of ourselves that we've never
seen before. It's as if we've been in a darkened
room all our life, and we've never noticed what was around
us. And then the light turns on, or the candle is lit, and
you notice that it's all dirty, it's all cobwebs, it's all disgusting
all around you, but you never knew what was around you before,
you couldn't see it. But now the light has made the
difference. Have we known that in our own
souls, in our hearts? When the Holy Spirit has shined
in us and we've seen things that we've not seen before and we've
realised what we are. We've realised there are sins
there that we've never noticed. We've realised what we've done
or said or thought before the Lord which we never realised
before. And more the things we've said
and done, we've seen our heart like we've never seen it before.
We thought we were good. We thought the Lord was pleased
with us. We thought that we were much better than other people.
We thought we were good in our heart and then the light shone
and we seen what is our heart. It's deceitful above all things. It always veers in the way of
sin. It always veers in the way of pride. It always goes in the
way that the Lord has commanded us not to go. It's an enmity
with God. And as a result, we have walked
in sin. We've done it because of our heart. Spirit has shone
and shown us something of what we are. And have you seen your
utter inability to change? Say, I know what my heart is.
I know what I'm capable of. I know what I'll run in if left
to myself. And I know my feeling inability
to change that. The heart. You see, has the Spirit
shone to show us that? To show us what we are and do
you mourn that? Or if you're honest before God
this evening, if you ever hear someone preaching to you about
the deceitfulness of the heart, the sinfulness of man by nature,
doesn't really bother you at all? Isn't a concern at all? It has no effect on you at all.
Or do you mourn it? You're sad, you weep over it,
concerned by it, because the Lord looks on your heart, because
the Lord knows the inner feelings and the depths of your heart,
and you know what that is. The Spirit shines, the light
shines and shows the sinfulness of our heart, but then He doesn't
leave anyone there. He shines with this light and
reveals Christ. He shines and reveals Christ. Having seen the depravity of
ourselves and the inability of ourselves, what do we need? We
need one outside of ourselves to come and to bless us. We need
one outside of ourselves to wash away the filth and the uncleanness
and to give us a new heart, a heart of flesh. Has the Lord Jesus
come to see, have you come to see the suitability and the beauty
of the exactly what that means for you in the state which we're
in. It's because we know the seriousness of the state of our
heart that Christ becomes more and more precious. It's because
we realize what we are by nature that we realize how much we need
a Savior. He reveals Christ. This is the
wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. He will speak of me, says the
Lord Jesus Christ. He points us to Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ told us,
didn't he, in a very clear word, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. And when we feel dead in our
hearts, what wonder it is to have revealed to us he is life.
He is life. And the Spirit opens our eyes
and opens our hearts to see this for ourselves, that it becomes
reality. But as we go on, as I said in
opening, the work of the Holy Spirit goes on. He reveals Christ
for the first time, but it goes on, day by day, and the believer
needs a constant reminder of Christ, constant reminder of
who he is, and an increasing awareness that his love is so
deep and so wide and his salvation is so full that even the sins
we have committed since conversion are all washed away as well. To go on and see the depths of
the beauty and love of Christ is the ongoing work of the Holy
Spirit. We're not left. It's a wonderful
blessing. It's the most beautiful blessing
Eternal blessing to know Christ. But then it goes on and we see
the depths of himself and of his work that we didn't see before. So the Holy Spirit shines with
light this fire. Thirdly, the fire gives warmth. The fire gives warmth as well
as light. A fire gives warmth or gives
heat. Well, what does this mean in
the lessons of the Holy Spirit? Well, in a sense, the Holy Spirit
gives warmth, and I want to think of that in a sense, the Spirit
gives comfort. The Holy Spirit gives comfort. When the Lord Jesus was referring
to the coming of the Holy Spirit, and we read it in John's Gospel,
he refers a number of times to the Holy Spirit as the comforter. The Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom my Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you. The Comforter. What a work that
is of the Holy Spirit, to comfort the hearts of his people. And
how does he do that? How is he the Comforter? Well,
He comes near to those who are in distress. He comes near to
those who need comfort, and He comes and He assures us. Those
who feel that they're losing their salvation, if they ever
had it at all, He comes and He assures us. He comes and shows
us again that the truth of the gospel which we once knew and
loved, He shows us again. He assures us that we have a
place in them and that these things are real. Our hearts are
indeed alive. He reminds us of what we were.
So that we can come in with the man and the miracle that Jesus
wrought and we can say, one thing I know, whereas I was dead now,
was blind rather, whereas I was blind, now I see. And when the Spirit comes and
reminds us of that, just reminds us of what we were, takes our
minds back. What were you those years ago?
Where were you? What was your attitude? What
was your understanding of the things of God? And where are
you now? Has there not been a change? He comforts us by showing us
that indeed we are not deceived. And he comes and comforts us
with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Christ
has told us this wonderful truth, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world. That's a truth which doesn't
change. He is always with his people. He is always by their
side. He is always watching over them
and caring for them. He is with us, always. But there are times when we do
not feel that. Times when we mourn his absence. And it's the
work of the Spirit to remind us of His presence. To feel that
He is nearby again. To know that experience like
they did on the road to Emmaus. So Lord Jesus drew near to them.
And we know that they were, they didn't know what was happening.
They thought that maybe everything had gone wrong. They couldn't
understand what had happened and the messages and the news
that they were hearing. They couldn't fit it all together.
We thought it would be him that would redeem Israel and he was
crucified but a few days ago and now we're hearing these strange
messages from the garden that the tomb is empty. What can all
these things mean? And he speaks with them. And
their eyes are opened, their understanding is opened. Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his
glory? And what is their witness at the end of the account? Did
not our heart burn within us? As he taught to us, by the way,
and as he opened unto us the scriptures. You see, there's
a lot of teaching in those words. This wasn't just a feeling and
an emotion. This wasn't just something just within them, because
it came from an understanding of the scriptures. It was as
their eyes were opened to understand the scriptures that their hearts
burned within them and it had a real impact inside them, had
a real impact in their hearts as they heard the scriptures.
It wasn't just a good feeling, it was based on reality, it was
based on truth that the Lord Jesus expounded to them. That's
the work of the Spirit, to again open our eyes and grant us faith
to see the glory of Christ in the Scriptures. Did not our hearts
burn within us as he talked to us? By the way, he comforts us
with his presence. He comforts us as well by reminding
us of his promises, his promises. We can forget his promises. We
can forget that the promises of God belong and can be claimed
by the believer as he speaks to them to his people. And we
can also forget that God is faithful to keep his promises. We can
read them and they can mean nothing to us. I will never leave you
nor forsake you. Call upon me and I will answer
you. My father's house are many mansions.
If not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you. All these precious promises, we can lose sight of them. And
we can lose sight of the faithfulness of God to keep to those promises. And then the Spirit comes and
reminds us. We see the beauty and reality
of them again. What comfort He brings. When the things of God have seemed
cold and distant to us. And we all come to that point,
don't we? Maybe you're there this evening. Things of God seem
cold and distant. Really it's having no impact.
Really it's bringing no blessing. Your heart is hard and it's tired. There's no blessing from the
Lord. The work of the Spirit, the Comforter as he comes. And
he opens the word again, and he reveals Christ again, and
we see the promises again, and we're reminded of what he's done
for us again. And he stirs up this life within
us, and he grants this warmth, the presence of the Lord. And
our hearts burn within us because the Lord has returned. And that's what we need, isn't
it? The Lord to return. We can walk out an outwardly
religious life, and no one may know the true state of your soul. No one may know what's become
of you, that your heart's got cold, that you've become distant
from the Lord, that your prayer life has become simply formal.
No one knows. What can we do? What do we need? The Lord to come again. The Lord
to comfort us. The Lord to revive us. That makes
all the difference. That brings about the change
that we so desperately need. He brings warmth. Fourthly, It's
important to remember that fire can be painful. Fire is painful. It hurts us. If we put our hand
in the fire for but a few seconds, it will burn. And that burn will
be very painful initially and for some time to come. It's painful. And it's important to remember
this, that as much as the Holy Spirit brings warmth and comfort
and light and life and blessing, those blessings at times can
be painful. You say, how can that be possible?
You see, it's still a blessing by the Lord. But sometimes that
blessing requires conviction and teaching. And it's still
a blessing. Because it's still the Lord working
for our good. And it's still the Lord working
out of a spirit of love. But what we need is conviction.
And we need to be taught things. And they can be painful. It's
painful. to be shown our sin. It's painful
to be shown that we've done something wrong. It's painful to be shown
that we're walking in a wrong path and we need to turn around
and walk the other way. It can be painful when the Lord
shows us and puts his finger on a particular idol that we've
been clinging to. And it can be hard to learn those
lessons. It can be painful, it can hurt.
But it's still the work of the Holy Spirit. It's still the work
of our loving God. It's still a blessing. What does
he do? He works to show us our sins,
show us our idols. Are we fighting against that
this evening? So the Lord's shown us that we have an idol. We have
something which is now taking up our hearts, something which
is coming between us and God. We're never free from that tendency.
Idols can come into our lives without us hardly noticing it
and suddenly there it is and it's come between us and God
and we're suffering as a result. And as the Holy Spirit put his
finger on that and he's shown you, what are you doing? What
am I doing? Fighting against it. Pretending
it's not true. Pretending it's not real. Pretending
that we can get away with it. Pretending that we can have the
idol and God at the same time and our heart and our spiritual
life is not affected at all. he's put his finger on it, and
it's becoming more and more painful. Because our conscience is stirred.
Because conviction is setting in. Because we know that something
will have to be done. And dealing with it, dealing
with it, admitting it, admitting the idol, admitting the besetting
sin, and then dealing with it, can be very, very painful to
our flesh. See, what did the Lord say to
Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? It is hard for thee
to kick against the pricks. Saul of Tarsus, we read a few
times, had been involved in, well, we know he had been involved
in the persecution of the church, and we read that he had been
involved in the stoning of Stephen and other things. But from that
I believe we can gather that there had been pricks in his
conscience about the things he was doing, and it was hard for
him to kick against them. It was hard for him to suppress
the pricks of conscience, and yet suppress them he tried to
do. And we can be just the same.
It's the prick of conscience every time. The prick of conscience. And
it's hard to suppress, and yet we continue to try. And is the
Holy Spirit prompting us? Is the Holy Spirit touching us
in that place? And it can be painful, this fire
which comes. But you see, it's good for us.
It's good for us. He also works in that way also
to shape our conscience, to instruct our conscience. We cannot always
trust our conscience. A conscience isn't perfect. A
conscience needs to be instructed. Our first port of call when it
comes to what is right and what is wrong is the word of God,
not our conscience. Because we can think things are okay when
they're not. And we can think things are wrong
when the Word of God doesn't actually say so. We need to be
instructed by the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit does that.
As we bow under the Word of God, as we read it and think about
it, and as he applies it to us, our conscience is instructed
by the Word of God. That's what we need. That we
might be in line with the scriptures, and therefore walk in line with
the Lord. So the Spirit works to convict
us and also through that to shape our conscience. I will baptise
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. So remember this fire could
be painful. But fifthly, as well as being
painful, the blessing is that this fire cleanses. This fire
cleanses. And by that I mean it burns up
rubbish. burns up all the things which aren't any good. It burns
up all those things which are not doing us any good. It cleanses
us. And so the Holy Spirit works
in the hearts of His people and it's an ongoing work in the hearts
of His people to wean them from the world, to wean them from
those things which are wrong, to wean them from those rubbish
which is doing them no good. To see that there is nothing
for the soul here. There is no life for our soul
here. increasingly hold the world with a loose hand and look upward. He cleanses to burn up the rubbish
and refines us. Job say, when he hath tried me,
he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. And he was put in the fire, wasn't
he, Job? He was put in the fire. He had
to lose everything. He had to be brought on his own,
as it were, before the Lord and confess, behold, I am vile. He
had to lose everything in the fire that the Lord put him through,
but he was better for it. The gold shone all the much brighter
because of it. The Lord has to work. The Lord
continues to work in the hearts of his people through the power
of the Spirit. Sometimes that can mean crucifixion of the flesh.
is cleansing, crucifying of our sins, crucifying of those things
that we love, and that's painful and that can be a long, slow
death. And yet it's for our good. You
might not think about it at the time, but it's for our good.
The Lord is blessing us in it. Remember it's from the Lord.
Remember when he's pricking our conscience. Remember when it's
painful. Remember when it's crucifying our flesh. Remember, it's from
my loving God. It's because he wants my good. Baptise you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire. And then finally, if we think
of a fire, a fire can die down. If you leave a fire for A while
it will die down. After a while it will become
just glowing embers. The fire, the flame that is,
won't be seen anymore. There's still heat there. There's
still a sign that the fire's alive because you can see the
glow. But it's died down. What does
it take to keep it going? Well, often it just takes just
one blow from the bellows or to breathe on the fire and it
will burst back into life again. Burst back into life. We can become like those embers.
Once we were burning, once we knew the presence of the Lord,
once we walked in fellowship with him and what's happened?
The flames got smaller and smaller. The zeals got smaller and smaller.
The energy in our Christian lives become weaker and weaker, and
gradually, gradually it started to go. We've become lukewarm. We've become comfortable in the
world. We've lost our first love. We've
lost our passion in the things of God. Our faith has become
weak. Our communion with the Lord is,
well, it's not as lively as it was, if there's any left at all.
You can feel like that life's gone. Where is the flame? Where
is the fire? It's gone out. The life's gone. Is it possible
I've lost what I had? Is it possible that the blessing
I have have all gone? Is it possible that the Lord
has abandoned me? Is it possible that my spiritual life has been
taken away? Is it possible I've sinned away
my salvation? Is it possible the fire has gone
out? There's still life there, isn't
there? There are still glowing embers there. The very fact that
these things are concerning to you shows that there's still
life there, there's still concern there. It's just glowing embers. What do we need? What do we need? We need the Lord to blow upon
those embers, as it were, and to burst the fire back into life
again. We need the Lord to come and to revive us. Will thou not
revive us again, says the Psalmist. That's what we need for the Lord
to come and revive us, for the Lord to come and burst, bring
back the flame and the dying embers. To give us again opened
eyes to see, to give us again an appreciation for the truth,
to give us again liberty and joy in prayer and in worship. We need the Lord to breathe.
But we have a promise, don't we? We have a promise which we
can hold on to if we feel like that this evening. The fire's
gone, but there's still the embers there. We have a promise. He
will not quench the smoking flax. He will not allow the fire to
utterly go out. He will not allow the embers
to utterly die away. What a promise that is if we
feel that the fire has become very small, we feel that the
energy of the Lord has become so small, the smoking flax will
not be quenched. You see, the fire will remain
and it takes but for the Lord to breathe upon us. for the Spirit
to come, to baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire,
to come and to bring life back again. And then what a joy it
is, isn't it, when the Lord comes. You see, the Lord will work.
And this is a lesson we need to learn time and time and time
again, because we never seem to learn it. The Lord will work
to make us realise that it's Him that we need. It's Him that
we need. We can be involved in so many
things, We can be serving the Lord, we can be using our energy
for the Lord, we can be busy in Christian things and in formal
devotions and in family devotions and in Christian work, even in
the ministry of the church and preaching of the gospel, we can
be busy and yet have lost our communion with God. And the fire
has become colder and colder. What do we need? Come back to
the source of your life. Come back to the foundation of
your hope. Come back to Christ. Come back
to the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Come back that He might breathe
on us. And then when we have the life
within again, then all these things are renewed as we serve
Him and as we honour Him. We need a restoration in our
heart. is often we're tempted to think,
well, we just need to do more and more and more. Sometimes
what we need to do is stop and get on our knees. The Lord baptise you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. Well, this evening, do we know
this work of the Holy Spirit? Do we know the beginning work,
giving life, opening our eyes, granting light to see? Things
we never saw before, and do we then know the ongoing work? May we be encouraged in what
may seem to be difficult times. You may wonder, where is the
Lord in it? That it is the Lord. He's doing what is good and what
is right, and it's his ongoing work that we might be weaned
from this world and that we might be brought closer to him. That
the things, the rubbish all around us might be burnt up, that we
might come forth as gold. May we be blessed. to know the
Holy Spirit is within us and is with us. He shall baptise
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Remember this finally.
The Lord Jesus said, if you know how to give good gifts to your
children, so he shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
him. This evening, if we don't know
anything of the work of the power of the Holy Spirit, and we don't
know anything of the blessing of Christ as he reveals him to
us, ask him. For the Lord knows how to give
this best of gifts. Well, may he add his blessing
this evening.