A sermon preached at FGA Taiping, Perak, Malaysia, on Sunday, 8 November 2026.

This morning I had the privilege of standing behind the pulpit at Full Gospel Assembly (FGA) Taiping. What follows is the message the Holy Spirit laid on my heart, written out for you, wherever in the world you are reading this.

Here is the one truth I would like you to carry away: the gospel does not only wipe our slate clean, it fills our lives with God Himself through the Spirit of His Son. The Spirit is also known as the Promise and the Gift of the gospel. Read that again, slowly, and meditatively. We will come back to it at the end.

1. Half a Gospel

Some of us have lived for years on half a gospel. We know we are forgiven. We sang “Old Rugged Cross” a million times, and we cried ocassionally when we sang it. We know the blood of Christ covers our sin. We are thoroughly convinced. Praise God! We know we are going to heaven. But between now and heaven, we feel we are on our own: trying hard, holding our tongue, managing our temper, and getting exhausted of trying to please God and others.

That is only HALF the good news. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached a DOUBLE blessing:

“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” — Acts 2:38–39

Notice the little word “and”. One gospel. Two gifts. Not two gospels for two classes of Christians, but one gospel for “every one of you”.

• Blessing 1: The Lamb forgives our past, present and future with His blood.
• Blessing 2: The Spirit empowers and enables us, from today till eternity, with His Presence.

Paul holds the two together as well. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law “that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:13–14; see also Titus 3:5–7). Theologians speak of justification (our right standing before God) and regeneration and sanctification (our new life and new power by the Spirit). My burden this morning: the believer actualizes this double blessing through his lips. His words. His confession of faith. I’ve had the sad experience of listening to many believers, those closest to me, those not so well known to me, continuously and habitually allow negativity out of their mouths with the justification that they are “saying it as it is”, or being “honest”. They have not come to a place where “saying it as it is”, and being “honest” need to be placed within the paradigm of the gospel, and viewed through its lenses. This sermon will explain the point as we go along.

2. Even Rain Town Taiping Can Run Dry

For my readers outside Malaysia: Taiping is known as “Rain Town”. It receives roughly 4,000 mm of rain a year, close to double the average for Peninsular Malaysia. Its pride and joy is the Lake Gardens, more than 140 years old, with its great rain trees bending over the water. I’ve loved my walks with Jessie my wife, and other family members there over the years.

And yet, in July 2024, after almost a month without rain, it was reported that more than 70% of the Lake Gardens’ channels had dried up. Rain Town, dry! Who would have believed it? But when the rains returned in August, within weeks the lake was filling again.

You can live in Rain Town and still be dry, spiritually. You can be a believer, sitting under good teaching, good fellowship, good worship, for decades, and still be dry inside. Our words become sharp. Our joy grows thin. We are tired. No one is exempt from periods of dryness. However, we need to realize and become aware that God in giving us His great gospel gift of the Holy Spirit knew that life will bear down on us and leave us thrashed oftentimes. He made provision for us by making sure that when Jesus left, the “Buddy” came! This amazing Friend is Jesus in the Spirit who would save us and stay inside of us to keep saving us. This is called regeneration and sanctification by the theologians. So periods of dryness will happen. Like the lake in Taiping.

Here is the good news. The lake did not need a new location. It needed the rain to return. And God has promised rain: “I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh … your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). God has not retired you. He wants to pour His Spirit on you AGAIN, and again. And this pouring out of the Spirit is twinned with the WORD of GOD, Christ Himself, the Eternal Logos who became flesh and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:1-14). He is the Living Word available to us via the Written Word. Here’s where our “quiet times” musn’t get too quiet. There is an amazing dynamic and reason God gave us His Word to feed on daily. Remember? “Give us today our daily bread”? And here’s where meditation upon God’s Word becomes super crucial.

3. Meditation Is Never Silent

How do our tongues activate this double blessing? Let’s begin with how God told Joshua to handle His Word on the eve of some major battles for him and his people after 40 years of wandering in the desert. They were now on the brink of the Promised Land. Long, weary and bloody battles await. And what advise does God give Joshua the general?

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night.” — Joshua 1:8

The Hebrew word for “meditate” is “hagah”. It means to mutter, to utter, to murmur under one’s breath. It is the same word in Psalm 1:2, of the blessed man who meditates on God’s law day and night, and who “shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water … whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (Ps 1:3).

Biblical meditation is never silent and cognitive. It rigorously involves the mouth, the tongue, the words, the confession of our faith. What we keep saying, we keep believing. And what we keep believing, we keep living. We NEVER live above the level of our confession of faith.

4. The Tongue No One Can Tame

But here is our honest problem, if we are being honest!

“But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” — James 3:8

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” — Proverbs 18:21

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” — Matthew 12:34

James, the Lord’s own half-brother and a pillar of the Jerusalem church, does not say taming the tongue is difficult. He does not say “try harder”. He says NO MAN CAN. We have tamed lions and elephants. We have put men on the moon. But one small muscle in our mouth has defeated every one of us, repeatedly.

Think about the last month. The WhatsApp message we forwarded too quickly. The sharp word to our spouse, even after decades of marriage. The complaint at the kopitiam (our neighbourhood coffee shop) about the pastor, the government, the children. The word that slipped out at a grandchild.

Proverbs tells us death and life are in the power of the tongue (Pro 18:21). Jesus tells us WHY: out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So the tongue is not really the problem. The tongue is the tap. The heart is the tank. If we want to fix the tap, we must go to the tank.

5. What the Heart Truly Believes, the Tongue Truly Speaks

In my years of teaching counselling psychology and emotional intelligence to students, teachers, adults and corporate executives, I have seen it again and again: our words come out of our thoughts and beliefs; our thoughts are coloured by our feelings; our feelings drive our behaviour; and round and round it goes. In fact, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is built on this premise. Our thoughts are affected by our feelings and emotions which in turn affects our behavior and lifestyle.

And whoever sits on the throne at the centre of that circle sets the direction of the whole circle. So ask yourself honestly:

• Who is the Source of my thoughts and true beliefs?
• What is my dominant belief, and where is it coming from?
• What motivates and drives my behaviour, speech and lifestyle?
• Who, or what, is my true “god”?

We cannot fix this circle by willpower. Many of us have tried for decades. But listen to what God promised through Ezekiel, some six hundred years before Jesus:

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean … I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you … I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.” — Ezekiel 36:25–27

Do you see the order? First CLEANSING: “you shall be clean”. That is forgiveness. Then EMPOWERING: “I will put My Spirit within you”. That is power. The double blessing! Not a repaired heart. A NEW heart, with God Himself living inside it by the Spirit of His Son.

And on the day of Pentecost, Peter announced: the promise has arrived. Notice how the Spirit came: as “divided tongues, as of fire” (Acts 2:3). And the very first evidence was transformed SPEECH: “we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11). The tongue that no man can tame was the very first thing the Spirit took hold of!

6. Blessing One: The Lamb Whose Blood Covers Sin and Removes the Curse

“You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” — Revelation 5:9

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” — Psalm 103:12

We never graduate from the cross. Forty years or more in church does not move us PAST the blood; it should move us DEEPER into it, into the width and length and depth and height of the love of Christ (Eph 3:18). In heaven they are still singing about the Lamb who was slain. If heaven has not moved on from the blood, neither should we.

Old words, past memories, fully forgiven. Some of us lie awake at night replaying words we said thirty years ago: to our children, to a spouse now with the Lord, to a friend we have lost touch with. Hear me: if you have confessed it to Jesus, it is gone, as far as the east is from the west. You may still need to make it right with a person, if you can. But before God, it is FINISHED. Paid for in full by the priceof Christ the Lamb of God’s blood.

Confession keeps the channel of power clear. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). John is writing to believers. Confession is not how we get saved all over again; it is how we keep the pipe from the reservoir unblocked. Say it out loud: I am forgiven. There is no more curse over me. This is a daily experience of receiving the Lamb’s blood and being forgiven. We’re never a second without the need of mercy and grace of being under Christ’s finished work on the cross.

But if forgiveness were all, we would be like pardoned prisoners left standing at the prison gate, with nowhere to go and no strength to walk. Having the slate wiped clean is great. No more debts. All cleared. But how many of us can live with both sides of the ledger containing zero? We need continual deposits. We need fresh supplies. And thank God, there is a second blessing that fills us with heaven’s never-ending resources!

7. Blessing Two: The Spirit Empowers and Enables the Abundant Life

• Forgiveness changes my STANDING: I am no longer guilty. The Spirit changes my STATE: I am no longer empty.
• Forgiveness says Christ died FOR me. The Spirit says Christ lives IN me (Gal 2:20; Col 1:27).
• Forgiveness opens the door of the house. The Spirit moves in, unpacks, and starts rearranging the furniture!

Think of an old family kampung (village) house. Paying off the arrears so the house is not taken away is forgiveness. But the house stays dark until the electricity is connected. The Holy Spirit is the power connected to the house.

The Spirit supplies the grace of faith for present, everyday living. He transforms us, renews us and revives us, continually. That is why Paul can say, “I can do ALL THINGS through CHRIST who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). And notice: the Spirit is received the same way forgiveness is, “through faith” (Gal 3:2, 5, 14). By believing, not by achieving.

8. Called to Be Different

1. Renewed daily. “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18). In Greek this is a present imperative: keep on being filled. “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16). Knees, eyes and memory may fail; the inward man is being renewed, not merely was renewed.
2. Partnership with the Spirit. “The communion (fellowship) of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14). He is not a force to use but a Person to walk with.
3. Consistent confession. “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward” (Heb 10:35). Keep speaking what God has said, especially when feelings and circumstances say otherwise.
4. Walk the talk. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).

Many in the congregation this morning came to Christ in the revival years of the 1970s and 80s, and maybe 90s. They may remember prayer meetings that went past midnight and souls saved week after week. Perhaps you, too, have quietly concluded that those days are over, for the church and for you. Beloved, the Holy Spirit is not a memory. He is not a museum piece from 1975. “They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing” (Ps 92:14), like those rain trees at the Lake Gardens, still spreading their shade after more than a century, because their roots drink deep.

9. But Sometimes… (Honest Objections)

“I received the Spirit decades ago.” Yes, and every true believer has the Spirit (Rom 8:9). You are not being told you lack Him. But we need to keep on being filled. The very disciples filled at Pentecost in Acts 2 were filled AGAIN in Acts 4:31, and “spoke the word of God with boldness”. In a Pentecostal church like FGA, many of us treasure a distinct experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Honour it! But yesterday’s filling is not today’s supply. A lake that was full in 1980 still needs rain in 2026.

“My body is weak. Where is the victory?” “The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses” (Rom 8:26). “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). The abundant life of John 10:10 is not the absence of frailty; it is the presence of God IN it. Some of you are caring for a sick spouse or living with chronic illness. God sees you, and His Spirit groans with you and for you.

“Isn’t ‘victorious living’ just triumphalism?” Read Romans 8:37 in context. “More than conquerors” comes immediately after tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword (Rom 8:35–36). Victory in the New Testament is Christlikeness IN trouble, not escape FROM trouble. Trouble does not define us. Our identity in Christ does. This is the healthy, biblical middle between defeatism (“this is just how I am”) and triumphalism (“real Christians never suffer”).

10. What a Spirit-Filled Tongue Sounds Like

Scripture shows us Christ as BOTH the Lion of the tribe of Judah AND the Lamb who was slain (Rev 5:5–6). When the Spirit of Christ fills us, both come out through our lips. Notice: this comes only AFTER the gospel indicatives, after all that God has already given us. Grace first, then fruit. Otherwise we are back to “try harder with your tongue”, which James says is impossible.

Lion speech: bold and authoritative.

• Confess Christ without shame (Rom 10:9).
• Declare God’s promises in hard times.
• Confess God’s Word against contrary feelings and circumstances.
• Tell your testimony to the next generation: “Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation” (Ps 71:18).

Lamb speech: gentle, kind and humble.

• Words that build up and impart grace to the hearers (Eph 4:29).
• Speech “always with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col 4:6).
• Answers given “with meekness and fear” (1 Pet 3:15). There it is: a ready defence of the faith (Lion) with meekness (Lamb), in one verse!
• Extending the fruit of the Spirit to all, including self-control (Gal 5:22–23). The tongue is tamed not by our grip but by His fruit.

This week, try it here:

• The family WhatsApp group: before forwarding, ask: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Could I bless instead of complain?
• The grandchildren and the young: speak blessing over them, not only correction. Tell them how you met Jesus.
• The coffee-shop table: when talk turns to politics and prices, be the one who brings hope.
• The hospital visit: carry words of life to friends who are sick (Prov 18:21).

And remember verse 39 of Acts 2: “the promise is to you AND TO YOUR CHILDREN, and to all who are afar off”. The promise that came to you is the same promise for your grandchildren in Melbourne and your son in Singapore or London. God’s promise travels further than our WhatsApp messages!

11. Let Revival Rain Down on Rain Town!

We began at the Lake Gardens, 70% dry in the wettest town in the peninsula. What filled it again was not effort, not digging, not a new committee. It was rain from heaven.

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit. — John 7:37–39

Not a trickle. Not a lake that dries up in July. RIVERS.

So hear the good news one more time: the gospel does not only wipe our slate clean, it fills our lives with God Himself through the Spirit of His Son. The Lamb forgives the past. The Spirit fills the present. And Christ, the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah, lives in us by His Spirit: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

Tame the tongue? No man can. But surrender it to Him, and He will loose the Lamb and the Lion through your lips!

Let it rain again, Lord: in us, in our families, in FGA Taiping, and in every reader’s church and home around the world.

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” — Romans 15:13