'Full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith.' There is no goodness without
the impulse and indwelling of the divine Spirit, and there is no divine
Spirit to dwell in a man's heart without that man's trusting in Jesus
Christ. The condition of receiving the gift that makes us good is
simply and solely that we should put our trust in Jesus Christ the
Giver. That opens the door, and the divine Spirit enters.
True! there are convincing operations which He effects upon the world;
but these are not in question here. These come prior to, and
independent of, faith. But the work of the Spirit of God, present
within us to heal and hallow us, has as condition our trust in Jesus
Christ, the Great Healer. If you open a chink, the water will come in.
If you trust in Jesus Christ, He will give you the new life of His
Spirit, which will make you free from the law of sin and death. That
divine Spirit 'which they that believe in Him should receive' delights
to enter into every heart where His presence is desired. Faith is
desire; and desires rooted in faith cannot be in vain. Faith is
expectation; and expectations based upon the divine promise can never
be disappointed. Faith is dependence, and dependence that reckons upon
God, and upon God's gift of His Spirit, will surely be recompensed.
The measure in which we possess the power that makes us good depends
altogether upon ourselves. 'Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.'
You may have as much of God as you want, and as little as you will. The
measure of your faith will determine at once the measure of your
goodness, and of your possession of the Spirit that makes good. Just as
when the prophet miraculously increased the oil in the cruse, the
golden stream flowed as long as they brought vessels, and stayed when
there were no more, so as long as we open our hearts for the reception,
the gift will not be withheld, but God will not let it run like water
spilled upon the ground that cannot be gathered up. If we will desire,
if we will expect, if we will reckon on, if we will look to, Jesus
Christ, and, beside all this, if we will honestly use the power that we
possess, our capacity will grow, and the gift will grow, and our
holiness and purity will grow with it.
Some of you have been trying more or less continuously, all your lives,
to mend your own characters and improve yourselves. Brethren, there is
a better way than that. A modern poet says--
'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lift life to sovereign power.'
Taken by itself that is pure heathenism. Self cannot improve self. Put
self into God's keeping, and say, 'I cannot guard, keep, purge, hallow
mine own self. Lord, do Thou do it for me!' It is no use to try to
build a tower whose top shall reach to heaven. A ladder has been let
down on which we may pass upwards, and by which God's angels of grace
and beauty will come down to dwell in our hearts. If the Judge is to
say of each of us, 'He was a good man,' He must also be able to say,
'He was full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.'