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The Work of the Holy Spirit by John Owen

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

The General Work of the Holy Spirit …

The first general work of the Holy Spirit is to bring to mind the words and promises of Christ (John 14:26). There are two promises in this verse.  There is the promise of the Spirit’s teaching, which I will deal with under his work of anointing believers, and there is the promise of “bringing to remembrance all things that Jesus said.”

The work of bringing to remembrance things that Jesus said is the first general promise concerning the Spirit’s work as comforter.

This promise first concerned the apostles.  Christ promised his apostles that the Holy Spirit would bring back to their minds, by a direct work of almighty power, the things that he had said to them, so that by his inspiration they might be enabled to write and preach them for the good and benefit of his church (2 Pet. 1:21).  The apostles had forgotten much of what Christ had said to them, or might possibly do so.  And what they did remember by their natural ability was not a sufficient foundation for them to write an infallible rule of faith for the church.  It would be by this work of the Spirit that they would be enabled to write such an infallible rule of faith.

This promise of bringing to remembrance all the things that Jesus had spoken is also for the comfort of believers.  Christ had been speaking to his disciples to comfort them by giving them precious promises of his help and strength in this life.  He told them of the love of the Father, of the glory he was providing for them, which was full of unspeakable joy.  “But,” Christ says, “I know how unable you are to make use of these things for your own comfort.  The Spirit, therefore, will bring them back to your minds in their full strength, so that you will find that comfort in them which I intended.”  And this is one reason why it was necessary for believers that Christ’s bodily absence should be more than made up for by the presence of the Spirit.  While he was with them, what little effect his promises had on their hearts!  But when the Spirit came, how full of joy did he make all things to them.  He brings the promises of Christ to our minds and hearts to comfort us, to bring us the joy of them and that far beyond the joy the disciples found in them when Christ spoke to them on earth.  The gracious influences of the promises were then restrained so that the dispensation of the Spirit might be seen to be more glorious than that of the giving of the law.

Christ told the disciples that the effect of the Holy Spirit’s work in bringing things to their remembrance would be peace (John 14:27). They would be freed from worried, anxious minds and fearful hearts.  It is stupid to rely on our natural abilities to remember the promises of Christ.  But when the Comforter undertakes the work, then all is well.  Our Savior Christ, then, left to his Spirit the powerful effect of his promises which he personally gave his apostles in their great distress.  We may therefore see where all the spiritual comfort we have in this world comes from, and so we may have fellowship with the Holy Spirit in this his work.

The Holy Spirit does his work powerfully. A believer may be in the saddest and darkest condition imaginable.  Even so, the Holy Spirit is able to break through all this and bring to mind the promises of Christ.  By this work, the Holy Spirit enables Christians to sit in dungeons, rejoice in flames and glory in troubles.  If he brings to mind the promises of Christ for our comfort, neither Satan nor man, neither sin nor the world, nor even death itself shall take away our comfort. Saints who have communion with the Holy Spirit know this only too well.  Sometimes the heavens are black over them and the earth trembles under them.  Disasters and distresses appear which are so full of horror and darkness that they are tempted to give up in despair.  So how greatly are their spirits revived when the Holy Spirit brings the words of Christ to their minds for their comfort and joy.  Thus, believers are not dependent on outward circumstances for their happiness, for they have the inward and powerfully effective work of the Holy Spirit to whom they give themselves up by faith.

The Holy Spirit does his work sovereignly. The Holy Spirit distributes to everyone as he wills.  So the believer may at one time be full of joy and, at another, full of distress.  Every promise at one time brings great joy when troubles are great and heavy; yet at another time, when only suffering a little, he finds no joy in the promises, however much he seeks for it.  The reason is simple.  The Holy Spirit distributes as he wills.  So there are no rules or course of procedure given to us to follow in order to get peace and joy in the promises.  In this way, faith learns to wait on the sovereign will and pleasure of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit works freely and without payment. Because much of the comfort which comes by the promises depends on the sovereign will of the Holy Spirit, so we find that comfort comes unexpectedly when the heart has every reason in the world to expect distress and sorrow.  This is often the first means of restoring a backsliding soul who might justly be expecting to be utterly cast off.

The life and soul of all our comforts are treasured up in the promises of Christ.  They are the breasts from which we suck the milk of godly comfort.  Who does not know how powerless these promises are in the bare letter, even though we may meditate long on them, as well as how unexpectedly they burst in on the soul, bringing great comfort and joy.  Faith deals especially with the Holy Spirit.  Faith considers the promises themselves, looks up to the Spirit and waits for the Spirit to bring life and comfort into them.  No sooner does the soul begin to feel the life of a promise warming his heart, freeing him from fear, worries and troubles, than it may know, and it ought to know, that the Holy Spirit is doing his work.  This will add to the believer’s joy and lead him into deeper fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

The second general work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ (John 16:14). If the work of the Spirit is to glorify Christ, then we may see what sort of a spirit that is who sets himself up in the place of Christ, calling himself “the vicar of Christ” or “another Christ.”  The work of the Comforter is to glorify Christ.  So any spirit that claims to be of Christ and does not seek to glorify that Christ who spoke to his apostles is clearly a false spirit.

But how will the Comforter glorify Christ?  “He,” says Christ, “shall take of mine.”  What these things are is told us in the next verse.  “All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said he shall take of mine.”  Christ is not speaking of the essence and essential properties of the Father and the Son, but he is speaking of the grace which is brought to us by the Father and the Son.  This is what Christ calls “my things,” because they are the “things” purchased by his mediation.  They are also the “things of the Father,” because in his eternal love, he has provided them to be brought to us by the blood of his Son.  They are the fruits of his election.  “These,” said Christ, “the Comforter shall receive.  They shall be committed to him so that he may bring them to you for your good and for your comfort in trouble.  So he shall show, declare and make them known to you.”  As Comforter, he reveals to the souls of sinners the good things of the covenant of grace, which the Father has provided and the Son has purchased.  He shows to us mercy, grace, forgiveness, righteousness and acceptance with God.  It is vital to know that these are the things of Christ which he has procured for us.  They are shown to us for our comfort and establishment.  These things the Holy Spirit effectively conveys to the souls of believers, and makes them known to them for their own good; that they were originally from the Father, prepared from eternity in his love and good will; that they were purchased for them by Christ and laid up for them in the covenant of grace for their use.  In this way, Christ is magnified and glorified in their hearts and they then fully realize what a glorious Savior and Redeemer he is.  It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that a believer glorifies and honors Christ for the eternal redemption he has purchased for him.  “No-one can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3).

The third general work of the Holy Spirit is to “…pour the love of God into our hearts” (Romans 5:5). That it is the love of God to us and not our love to God which is here meant is clear from the context.  The love of God is either the love of his purpose to do us good or the love of acceptance and approval by him. Both these are called the love of God in Scripture.  Now, how can these be poured into our hearts?  This can be done only by giving us a spiritual understanding of them.  God pours the Holy Spirit abundantly on us and he pours out the love of God into our hearts.  That is, the Holy Spirit so persuades us that God loves us that our souls are filled with joy and comfort.  This is his work and he does it effectively.  To persuade a poor, sinful soul that God in Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is well pleased with him and only has thoughts of kindness towards him is an inexpressible mercy.

This is the special work of the Holy Spirit and by this special work we have communion with the Father in his love, which is poured into our hearts.  So not only do we rejoice in and glorify the Holy Spirit who does this work, but in the Father also, whose love it is.  It is the same in respect of the Son, in taking the things of Christ and showing them to us.  What we have of heaven in this world lies in this work of the Holy Spirit.

The fourth general work of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16). Sometimes the soul wonders whether it is a child of God or not, because so much of the old nature still remains.  So the soul brings out all the evidences to prove its claim to be a true child of God.  To support this claim, the Holy Spirit comes and bears witness that the claim is true.

The picture is that of judicial proceedings in a court of law.  The judge being seated, the person concerned lays his claim, produces his evidences and pleads his case.  Then a person of known and approved integrity comes into the court and testifies on behalf of the claimant.  This stops the mouth of all the adversaries and fills the man that pleaded with joy and satisfaction.  It is the same with the believer.  The soul, by the power of his own conscience, is brought before the law of God.  There the soul puts in his plea that he is a true child of God that he does indeed belong to God’s family, and to prove this, he produces all his evidences, everything by which faith gives him a right and title to God.  Satan, in the meantime, opposes with all his might.  Sin and the law add their opposition also.  Many flaws are found in his evidences.  The truth of them all is questioned and the soul is left in doubt as to whether he is a child of God or not.  Then the Comforter comes and by a word of promise or in some other way, overwhelms the heart with a sure persuasion, putting down all objections, showing that his plea is good and that he is indeed a child of God.  And therefore the Holy Spirit is said to “witness with our spirits that we are children of God.”

At the same time, he enables us to show our love to the Father by acts of obedience to his will, which is called “crying Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6).  But as the Holy Spirit works sovereignly of his own will and pleasure, the believer may be kept in doubt for a long time.  The law sometimes seems to prevail, sin and Satan to rejoice and the poor soul is filled with dread about his inheritance.  Perhaps by his own witness, from his faith, sanctification and previous experience, he keeps up his claim with some life and comfort.  But the work is not done, the conquest is not fully won, until the Spirit, who works freely and effectively, when and how he wills, comes in with his testimony also.  Clothing his power with his promise, he makes all parties concerned listen to him and so puts an end to the whole dispute.

In this, he gives us holy fellowship with himself.  The soul knows his voice when he speaks.  There is something too great in that voice to be only the voice of some created power.  When the Lord Jesus Christ at one word stilled the storm, all who were with him knew there was divine power at work (Matt. 8:25-27).  And when the Holy Spirit with one word stills the storms in the soul, bringing calm and assurance, then the soul knows by experience that divine power is present and so rejoices in that presence.

The fifth general work of the Holy Spirit is His work in sealing us (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30). To seal something is to impart the image of the seal to the thing sealed.  The character of the seal is stamped on the things sealed.  In this sense, the effective communication of the image of God to us should be our sealing.  The Spirit in believers, really communicating the image of God in righteousness and true holiness to the soul, seals us.  To have the stamp of the Holy Spirit as an evidence to the soul that he has been accepted by God is to be sealed by the Spirit. In this sense, Christ is said to be sealed by God (John 6:27).  He had impressed on him the power, wisdom and majesty of God.

“Sealing” confirms or ratifies any grant or conveyance made in writing.  In such cases, men set their seals to make good and confirm their grants.  When this is done, the grants are irrevocable.  Sealing also confirms the testimony that is given by anyone of the truth of anything. This is what the Jews did.  When anyone had given true witness to any thing or matter and it was received by the judges, they instantly set their seals to it, to confirm it in judgment.  So it is said that he who receives the testimony of Christ “sets to his seal that God is true” (AV) or “has certified that God is true” (John 3:33).  The promise is the great grant and conveyance of life and salvation in Christ to the souls of believers.  That we may have full assurance of the truth and the irrevocability of the promise, God gives us the Spirit to satisfy our hearts of it.  So the Spirit is said to seal us by assuring our hearts of those promises and the faithfulness of the God who promised.  But though many expositors take this line, I do not see how this accords with the true meaning of the word.  It is not said that the promise is sealed, but that we are sealed.  And when we seal a deed or grant to anyone, we do not say the man is sealed, but that the deed or grant is sealed.

Sealing denotes possession and assurance of being kept safe.  The object sealed is separated out from unsealed objects. Men set their seals on that which they possess and desire to keep safe for themselves.  So quite clearly, in this sense, the servants of God are said to be sealed.  They are marked with God’s mark as his special ones (Ezek. 9:4). So believers are sealed when they are marked for God to be the heirs of the purchased possession and to be kept safe to the day of redemption.  Now if this is what is meant, it does not denote the giving of assurance in the heart, but of giving security to the person.  The Father gives the elect into the hands of Christ to be redeemed. Christ having redeemed them, in due time they are called by the Spirit and marked for God, and so they give themselves up to the care of the Father.

We are sealed for the day of redemption when, from the stamp, image and character of the Spirit upon our souls, we have a fresh awareness of the love of God given to us, with an assured persuasion of our being accepted by God.

So the Holy Spirit communicates to us his own likeness, which is also the image of the Father and the Son (2 Cor. 3:18).  In this work of his, the Holy Spirit brings us into fellowship with himself.  Our likeness to him gives us boldness with him.  We look for his works.  We pray for his fruits, and when any effect of grace, any awareness of the image of Christ implanted in us persuades and assures us that we are separated and set apart for God, and then we have communion with the Holy Spirit in his work of sealing.

The sixth work of the Holy Spirit is His being an “Earnest” of “deposit” or “guarantee” (1 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13, 14).  From these verses, we learn that the Spirit himself is the “earnest, deposit or guarantee.” Each of these words denotes a pledge. A pledge is that property which anyone gives or leaves in the safe keeping of another, to assure him that he will give him, or pay him all that he has promised at some future date.  But that which is meant by “earnest, deposit or guarantee” here is a part of that which is to come.  An “earnest” is part of the price of anything, or part of any grant given beforehand to assure the person to whom it is given that at the appointed time he shall receive the promised whole.

For a thing to be an “earnest, deposit or guarantee,” it must be part of the whole.  It must be of the same kind and nature with the whole, just as if we have some money as an “earnest, deposit or guarantee” that the whole amount will be paid later.

It must be a guarantee of a promise. First, the whole is promised, then the “earnest” is given as a deposit or guarantee that the promise will be fulfilled.  The Holy Spirit is this “earnest.”  God gives us the promise of eternal life.  To guarantee this to us, he gives us his Spirit.  So the Spirit is the “earnest, the deposit, the guarantee” of the full inheritance that is promised and purchased.

The Holy Spirit is an “earnest, deposit and guarantee” on God’s part, because God gives him as the best part of the inheritance itself, and because the Holy Spirit is of the same kind and nature as the whole inheritance, as an “earnest” ought to be.  The full inheritance promised is the fulness of the Spirit in the enjoyment of God.  When that Spirit which is given to us in this world has perfectly taken away all sin and sorrow and has made us able to enjoy the glory of God in his presence, that is the full inheritance promised.  So that the Spirit given to us to make us fit for the enjoyment of God in some measure whilst we are here is the “earnest or guarantee” of the whole.

God does this to assure us of the inheritance and to guarantee it to us.  Having given us his Word, promises, covenant, oath, the revelation of his faithfulness and his immutability as guarantees, all of which exist outside us, he also graciously gives us his Spirit to dwell within us, so that we may have all the security and guarantee of which we are capable (Isa. 59:21).  What more can be done?  He has given us his Holy Spirit.  In him we have the first-fruits of glory, the utmost pledge of his love, the earnest or guarantee of the whole.

The Holy Spirit is also the “earnest, deposit or guarantee” on the part of believers because he gives them an awareness of the love of God for them. The Holy Spirit makes known to believers their acceptance with God, that he is their Father and will deal with them as with children and so, consequently, the inheritance will be theirs.  He sends his Spirit into their hearts, “crying Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6).  And what inference do believers draw from this?  “Now we are not servants, but sons, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Gal. 4:7; Rom. 8:17).  So as children of God, we have a right to the inheritance.  Of this the Holy Spirit assures us.

The Holy Spirit acquaints believers with their inheritance (1 Cor. 2:9, 10). As the “earnest” is the part of the whole, so by the “earnest” we get a foretaste of the whole.  By the Holy Spirit, then, we get a foretaste of the fulness of that glory which God has prepared for those that love him and the more communion we have with the Holy Spirit as an “earnest,” the more we taste of that heavenly glory that awaits us.

The seventh general work of the Holy Spirit is to anoint believers (2 Corinthians 1:21; I John 2:20, 27). Of the many endowments of Christ which he had from the Spirit with which he was anointed, wisdom, counsel and understanding are the chief things (Isa. 11:2, 3).  On account of this, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are said to be in him (Col. 2:3).  So the anointing of believers is associated with teaching (1 John. 2:20, 27).  The work of the “anointing” is to teach us. The Spirit who anoints us is therefore the Spirit of wisdom, of counsel, of knowledge and understanding in the fear of the Lord.  So the great promise of the Comforter was that he should “teach us” (John 14:26).  Christ promised that the Comforter would “guide us into all truth” (John 16:13).  This teaching us the mind and will of God in the way in which we are taught it by the Spirit our Comforter is the chief part of our anointing by him.

The Spirit teaches by conviction and illumination. So the Spirit teaches the world by the preaching of the Word as promised (John 16:8).

The Spirit teaches by sanctification.  He opens blind eyes, gives new understanding, shines into our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and enables us to receive spiritual things in a spiritual light (1 Cor. 2:13).  He gives a saving knowledge of the mystery of the gospel.  All this is common to believers.

The Spirit teaches by comforting. He makes sweet, useful and joyful to the soul that which he, as the Spirit of sanctification, reveals of the mind and will of God.  Here the oil of the Spirit is called the “oil of gladness,” because he brings joy and gladness with his teaching.  And the name of Christ is experienced as sweet “ointment poured forth,” that causes souls to run after him with joy and delight (Song 1:3).  We see it in daily experience that very many have little taste and relish in their souls for these truths which they believe for salvation.  But when we are taught by this “anointing,” how sweet is everything we learn of God!

The Spirit teaches us of the love of God in Christ. He makes every gospel truth like well-refined wine to our souls and the good things of the gospel to be a rich feast of good things.  He gives us joy and gladness of heart with all that we know of God, which is the great way of keeping the soul close to the truth.  By this anointing, the soul is kept from being seduced into error.  Truth will readily be exchanged for error when no more sweetness and joy is to be found in it than is to be found in the error.  When we find any of the good truths of the gospel coming home to our souls with power, giving us gladness of heart and transforming us into the image and likeness of it, the Holy Spirit is then at his work.  He is pouring out his oil.

The Spirit is also the “Spirit of supplication” (Zech. 12:10).  It is he who enables us to pray rightly and effectively.   Our prayers may be considered as a spiritual duty required by God.  So they are wrought in us by the Spirit of sanctification, who helps us to perform all our duties by exalting all the faculties of the soul.  Our prayers may be considered as a means of keeping up communion with God.  The soul is never more lifted up with the love of God than when by the Spirit it is taken into communion with God in prayer.  This is the work of the Spirit as comforter.

Here, then, is the wisdom of faith.  Faith looks for and meets with the Comforter in all these works of his.  Let us not, then, lose their sweetness by remaining in the dark about them, nor fall short of the response required of us in gratitude.

The Holy Spirit and the Hearts of Believers …

The Holy Spirit comforts and strengthens the hearts of believers (Acts 9:31). This is the chief work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers.  He brings the troubled soul to rest and contentment by getting the believer to think of some spiritually good thing or actually brings some spiritually good thing to him.  This spiritual good is such that it completely overcomes that trouble which the soul has been wrestling with. Where comfort is mentioned, it is always associated with trouble or suffering (2 Cor. 1:5, 6).

This comfort is everlasting (2 Thess. 2:16).  It does not come and go.  It abides for ever, because it comes from everlasting things, such as everlasting love, eternal redemption and an everlasting inheritance.

This comfort is strong (Heb. 6:18).  As we experience strong opposition and trouble, so our comfort or consolation is strong and so unconquerable.  It confirms and strengthens the heart under any evil.  It fortifies the soul and makes it able cheerfully to undergo anything that it is called to undergo.  This comfort is strong because he who brings it is strong.

This comfort is precious. So Paul makes it the great motive to obedience to which he exhorts the Philippians (Phil. 2:1).  The fellowship we have with the Holy Spirit lies, in no small part, in the comfort or consolation we receive from him.  This teaches us to value his love, to look to him in our troubles, and to wait on him for his everlasting, strong, precious comfort.

The Holy Spirit brings peace to the hearts of believers (Rom. 15:13). The power of the Holy Spirit not only refers to “hope” but also to our peace in believing.  When Christ promised to give the Comforter to his disciples, he also promised to give them his peace (John 14:26, 27).  Christ gives his peace by giving the Comforter.  The peace of Christ lies in the soul’s assurance of being accepted by God in personal friendship.  So Christ is said to be “our peace” (Eph. 2:14). He slays the enmity between God and us, “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us” (Col. 2:14).  Being assured of our justification and acceptance with God in Christ is the foundation of our peace (Rom. 5:1).  To know that we are delivered from eternal wrath, from being hated, cursed and condemned, fills the soul with joy and peace.

Nevertheless, this peace of heart is by the sovereign will and pleasure of the Holy Spirit.  A man may be chosen in the eternal love of the Father, redeemed by the blood of the Son and justified freely by the grace of God so that he has a right to all the promises of the gospel.  Yet this person can, by no reasonings or persuasions of his own heart, by no considerations of the promises of the gospel, nor of the love of God or grace of Christ in them, be brought to that peace until it is produced in him by the Holy Spirit.  “Peace” is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).

The Holy Spirit brings joy to the hearts of believers. The Spirit is called “the oil of gladness” (Heb. 1:9).  His anointing brings gladness with it (Isa. 61:3).  “The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).  The Thessalonians received the word with joy in the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:6; I Pet. 1:8).  To give joy to the hearts of believers is chiefly the work of the Holy Spirit.  He enables believers to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2).  This joy is produced by the Spirit pouring into our hearts the love of God and so carrying them through every kind of tribulation (Rom. 5:5).

The Holy Spirit produces joy in the hearts of believers directly by himself without using any other means.  As in sanctification he is a well of water springing up in the soul, so in “comforting” he fills the souls and minds of men with spiritual joy.  When he pours out the love of God in our hearts, he fills them with joy, just as he caused John to leap for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when the mother of Jesus approached.  This joy, the Holy Spirit works when and how he wills.  He secretly injects this joy into the soul, driving away all fears and sorrows, filling it with gladness and causing it to exult, sometimes with unspeakable raptures of the mind.

The Holy Spirit produces joy in the hearts of believers by his other works with respect to us.  He assures us of the love of God and of our acceptance with God and our adoption into his family.  When we think about this, the Holy Spirit brings the truth home to us with joy.  If we consider all the things the Holy Spirit does for us and in us, we will soon see what a strong foundation he lays in our hearts for our continual joy and gladness.  Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit works joy in us as and when he pleases according to his sovereign will and pleasure.  This way of producing joy in the heart, David describes as “having his head anointed with oil” (Psa. 23:5, 6).  And the result of this anointing, David says, is, “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” In Isaiah we have a wonderful description of the work of the Comforter (see Isaiah 35).

The Holy Spirit brings hope to the hearts of believers (Rom. 15:13). The great hope of the believer is to be like Christ and to enjoy God in Christ for ever. “And,” says John, “everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). By showing “the things of Christ” to us and by “glorifying Christ” in our hearts, the Holy Spirit arouses our desires to be like Christ and so we grow and increase in our hope, which is one way by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies us.

These are the general works of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers, which, if we consider them and all that they produce, will bring joy, assurance, boldness, confidence, expectation and glorying. We shall then see how much our whole communion with God is enriched and influenced by them.

From Communion With God, abridged by R.J.K. Law (published by Banner of Truth).

Posted in John Owen |

The Holy Spirit’s Love by Horatius Bonar

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

Does the Holy Spirit love us?  There can be but one answer to this question.  Yes! He does.

As truly as the Father loveth us, as truly as the Son loveth us, so truly does the Spirit love us.  The grace or free love which a sinner needs, and which has been revealed and sealed to us through the Seed of the woman, the “Word made flesh,” belongs equally to Father, Son, and Spirit.  That love which we believe to be in God must be the same in each Person of the Godhead, else the Godhead would be divided; one Person at variance with the others, or, at least, less loving than the others: which is impossible.

Twice over it is written, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16); and this applies to each Person of the Godhead.  The Father is love; the Son is love; the Spirit is love.  The Trinity is a Trinity of Love.

When it is said, “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24), the words refer to each Person.  If we lose sight of the love of one, we shall lose sight of the love of all.  That which is the glory of Jehovah, is the glory of each of the three Persons.  Let us beware of misrepresenting the Trinity by believing in unequal love, a love that is not equally large and free in each.

When it is said, “God is light” (1 John 1:5), we know that these words are true of the whole three Persons; not merely of the Father or of the Son.  The Father is light; the Son is light; the Spirit is light.  As of light, so of love; and he who would doubt that the Spirit is love, must needs also doubt that the Spirit is light.  That which is written of God, is written of the Spirit of God.  That “name” which God has proclaimed as His, belongs to the Spirit as certainly as to the Father and the Son, “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands” (Exodus 34:6).  Shall we rob the Holy Spirit of that blessed name?  His personality claims it; and the gracious characteristics which go to make up the name, are as much those of the Spirit as those of the Father and the Son.  The personality of the Spirit requires that what is thus written of one should be applicable to all.  We are wont to say of the three Persons, “They are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.”  If so, then the love which we affirm of the whole we must affirm of each.  They must be equal in love, as well as in “power and glory.”

Let not the old question of unbelief come in “How can these things be?”  We cannot “find out the Almighty unto perfection” (Job 11:7); but shall this inability of ours lead to doubt?  Shall it not rather lead to faith?  Shall we rob the Spirit of His love, because we cannot understand the deep wonders of Godhead?  Shall we not rather say, If there be love in God at all, there must be love in the Spirit?  For to Him it is given to carry out in human hearts the purposes of redeeming love, in striving, awakening, drawing, convincing, quickening, comforting; so that it is impossible to suppose that His love can be less warm, less tender, less large, less personal than the love of the Father and the Son.

Laying aside the disputes of intellectual pride, the questionings of vain human reason, the puzzling suggestions of unhumbled self-righteousness, the fond endeavors to comprehend the hidden things of God, the stubborn determination not to believe unless we see “signs and wonders” (John 4:48), let us recognize in that simple formula, God is love the foundation of our faith as to the Spirit’s gracious character, and the solution of all our perplexities as to His personal and ineffable love.  True, He did not take flesh for us; He did not become poor for us; He did not die for us; He did not weep for us the human tears which the Son of God wept over Jerusalem; but none the less does He love us; and none the less is His work for us and in us the work of love – love without bounds, or change, or end.

We are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt 28:19).  That threefold name is love; or rather, that one name in its threefold connection with the three Persons, unfolds itself as the expression of the threefold love of Father, Son, and Spirit.  The name thus named upon us is the divine declaration and pledge to us of “the love of the Spirit.”  Our baptism says, not only, “God the Father loveth us,” not only, “God the Son loveth us”; but also, “God the Spirit loveth us.”  We are baptized into the love of the Spirit.

Perhaps much of our slow progress in the walk of faith is to be traced to our overlooking the love of the Spirit.  We do not deal with Him, for strength and advancement, as one who really loveth us, and longs to bless us, and delights to help our infirmities (Rom 8:26).  We regard Him as cold, or distant, or austere; we do not trust Him for His grace, nor realize how much He is in earnest in His dealings with us.  More childlike confidence in Him and in His love would help us on mightily.  Let us not grieve Him, nor vex Him, nor quench Him by our untrustfulness, by disbelieving or doubting the riches of His grace, the abundance of His loving-kindness.

He is no mere “influence,” but a living “Personality;” and there is a vast difference between these two things. An “influence” cannot love us, and we cannot love an “influence.” If there is to be love, there must be personality; and, in this case, it must be the personality of love. The fresh breath of spring is an influence, but not a personality.  It cannot love us nor call on us to love it.  The voice of that which we call “nature” is an influence, but not a personality.  There can be no mutual love between it and us.  But a being with a soul is a personality, not an influence; and the love of man or woman is a personal thing, a true and real affection – one eye looking into another and one heart touching its fellow.  So is it with the love of the Spirit.  There is a personality about Him passing all the personalities of earth – passing all the personalities of men or angels; and it is this divine personality that makes His love so precious and so suitable, as well as so true and real.  There is no reality of love like that of the Spirit. It has nothing in common with the coldness or distance of a mere “influence.”  It comes closely home to a human heart, because it is the love of Him who formed the heart, and who is seeking to make it His abode forever.

The proofs of His love are abundant.  They are divine proofs; and, therefore, assuredly true.  It is God who has given them to us, that no doubt of the Spirit’s love may ever enter our minds. They are spread over all Scripture, in different forms and aspects.  While the Bible was meant to be specially the revelation of the Son of God, it is also the revelation of the Holy Spirit.  He reveals Himself while revealing Christ.  He utters His own love while showing us the love of the Father and the Son.

The thoughts of the Spirit are thoughts of love. The apostle uses the words, “the mind of the Spirit,” in connection with His gracious intercession (Rom 8:26, 27); and we know that intercession implies love.  The “groanings that cannot be uttered” are awakened in us by the Spirit in His love.  He thinks of us; and His thoughts are “precious” (Psalm 139:17).  Yes; He thinks of us; and His thoughts are thoughts of peace (Jeremiah 29:11).  The Bible is filled with the thoughts of the Spirit; and they are love.  They breathe in every page of Scripture; for holy men of God “spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

The ways of the Spirit are the ways of love. His manifold dealings with the sons of men, in “opening hearts” (Acts 16:14), teaching, sanctifying, chastening, are the dealings of love – love which many waters cannot quench, and which the floods cannot drown.  The faintest touch of His hand is the touch of love.  The gentlest whisper of His voice is the whisper of love.  All His dealings from day to day, whether of cheer or of chastisement, whether of warning or of welcome, are those of love.  In a thousand ways, He beckons us to come to the Cross; He draws us, unconsciously and imperceptibly, but irresistibly, away from sin and self to God and heaven.  He has not, indeed, human tears to shed, like the son of God when he wept over Jerusalem; but not the less are His yearnings true and tender, and all His ways toward us are ways of unutterable compassion (see Genesis 6:3; Psalm 51:11,12; and Isaiah 55:8).  He is “very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

The works of the Spirit are the works of love. When He “garnished the heavens” (Job 26:13), it was the work of love.  When he moved upon the face of the deep (Gen 1:2), it was in love.  When He came upon holy men of old, it was in love.  When He wrote the Scriptures, it was in love – love to us.  When He anointed Jesus of Nazareth to preach the gospel to the poor, it was in love to us.  When He fulfills His office of “guiding into all truth,” it is in love.  When He opens eyes and hearts, it is in love.  When He chastens, it is in love.  When He comforts, it is in love.  When He sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, it is in love.  When He, as one with the Father and the Son, wrote the seven epistles of the Revelation, it was in love – as the close of each of them shows: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 2:7).  His works in the soul of man, in regenerating, upholding, and perfecting, are the works of love,-love like that of Christ, “that passeth knowledge:” love to the chief of sinners; love to those who have vexed and resisted and quenched Him; love which says, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?  How shall I deliver thee, Israel?” (Hosea 11:8).

The words of the Spirit are the words of love. That which we call “the word of God” is specially the Spirit’s word: and it overflows with love; love which, while it condemns the sin, presents pardon to the sinner; love which, while it spreads out before us “the exceeding sinfulness of sin,” proclaims aloud, to the guiltiest of the guilty, free forgiveness and “deliverance from the wrath to come.”  The gospel of Christ contains in it the good news of the Spirit’s love.  “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 3:11) are the words in which is described the fitting out of men for preaching the good news; and in this baptism we have the manifestation of the Spirit’s love.  He baptizes because He loves.  He sends out men to tell of His love; and the baptism with which He baptizes them is to fit them for this message of love.  By this baptism, the words of love are put into their lips; and these words are truly those of the Spirit Himself, from whatever lips they may come, by whatever pen they may be written down.  They are the words of sincerity and truth.  He means what He says when He sends out His servants with the language of love upon their tongues.

Hear some of His words of grace – grace as boundless and as suitable as that of the Father and the Son; grace which has lost none of its largeness or freeness by the lapse of ages or the desperate resistance of human hearts: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Psalm 103:3,4); “O Lord, I will praise thee: though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away” (Isaiah 12:1); “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found” (Isaiah 55:6); “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18); “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11); “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love” (Hosea 11:4); “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity” (Micah 7:18); “The Lord is good; a stronghold in the day of trouble” (Nahum 1:7); “How great is His goodness” (Zech 9:17).  These are the Spirit’s own words; and He writes them as the witness for God, the revealer of the divine character, the Unfolder of the love of Father, Son, and Spirit.  They are the words of the Spirit, spoken before the Son of God came into the world to reveal and to embody in Himself the love of God to man.  The New Testament is yet more abundant in its utterances of love: and in every one of them the Spirit has His part: till all is summed up in the wondrous words which time cannot weaken, and which long use cannot make stale: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.  And let him that heareth say, Come.  And let him that is athirst come.  And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17).

The Holy Spirit is no mere mechanical agent in the great work of a sinner’s deliverance, and of the Church’s upbuilding, obediently doing the work appointed to Him.  “I delight to do Thy will” is as true of the Spirit as the Son.  He loves the sinner; therefore He lays hold of him.  He pities his misery; therefore He stretches out the hand of help.  He has no pleasure in his death; therefore He puts forth His saving power.  He is longsuffering and patient; therefore He strives with him day by day; and though “vexed,” “resisted,” “grieved,” and “quenched.”  He refuses to retire from, or give up, any sinner on this side of eternity.  The extent to which we resist Him, and the amount of His forbearing love, we cannot know.  This only we may say, that our stubbornness is something infinitely fearful and malignant, while His patient grace passeth all understanding.

We are little alive to the injury we do to ourselves by any misunderstanding as to the mind and the work of the Spirit.  The injustice which we do to Him is great; and the wrong which we inflict upon ourselves is no less so.  No mistakes as to the Spirit’s gracious character can be trivial or harmless.  To regard Him as “austere,” or “hard,” or inaccessible, or needing to be persuaded to do His work in us, is to treat Him as at variance with the Father and the Son; slow to carry out the great purpose of divine love, in which purpose the three Persons of the Godhead are equally concerned.  To raise questions as to the riches of His grace is to misread Scripture, and to put a dark and false construction upon His testimony for Christ, as well as upon His dealings with the sons of men – His dealings with those who have been saved, as well as with those who are lost.  For what do the saved ones not owe to His love; and what would that love not have done for the lost, had they not stubbornly set it at nought to the last!  “How often would I have gathered thy children” were the words which accompanied the tears of the Son of God over the rebellious city; and they are words equally expressive of the Spirit’s feelings toward the stout-hearted of every age and nation.

Imperfect views of the Spirit’s character may not be regarded by some as serious or fatal, but it is hardly possible that they can be entertained without exercising a darkening and deadening influence upon the soul: not in the same way as defective views of Christ’s work affect us, but still with a most evil result both upon the conscience and the heart – as if there were something in the Spirit which repelled us, whatever there might be in Christ to attract us; as if the light which the Cross throws upon the love of the Spirit were not quite in harmony with that which it reveals of the love of Christ; as if the Spirit were not always as ready with His help as is the Son.

All wrong thoughts of God, whether of Father, Son, or Spirit, must cast a shadow over the soul that entertains them.  In some cases, the shadow may not be so deep and cold as in others; but never can it be a trifle.  And it is this that furnishes the proper answer to the flippant question so often asked, Does it really matter what a man believes?  All defective views of God’s character tell upon the life of the soul and the peace of the conscience.  We must think right thoughts of God if we would worship Him as He desires to be worshipped; if we would live the life He wishes us to live and enjoy the peace which He has provided for us.

The want of stable peace, of which so many complain, may arise from imperfect views of the Spirit’s love.  True, our peace comes from the work of the Substitute upon the cross, from the blood of the one sacrifice, from the sin bearing of Him who has made peace by the blood of the cross.  But it is the Holy Spirit who glorifies Christ to us, and takes the scales from our eyes.  If then we doubt His love, can we expect Him to reveal the Son in our hearts?  Are we not thrusting Him away, and hindering that view of the peace-making which He only can give?  Trust His love and He will make known the Peacemaker to you.  Trust His love and He will show the precious blood by which the guiltiest conscience is purged, and the peace which passeth all understanding is imparted.  He is the Spirit of peace and His work is the work of peace.  His office is to make known to us the Prince of Peace.  Can there be peace without the recognition of the Holy Spirit’s love?  Can there fail to be peace when this is recognized and acted on?  Doubts as to the love of the Spirit must inevitably intercept the peace which the peace-making cross presents to us.

Perhaps the want of faith, which we often mourn over, may arise from our not realizing the Spirit’s love.  “Faith [no doubt] cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God:” yet it is the Holy Spirit who shines upon the word; it is He who gives the seeing eye and the hearing ear.  Under the pressure of unbelief, have we fled to Him and appealed to His love?  “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief,” may be as aptly a cry to the Spirit as to the Son of God.  He helpeth our infirmities; and in the infirmity of our faith He will most assuredly succor us.  It is through Him that we become strong in faith; and He loves to impart the needed strength.  He giveth to all men, liberally, and upbraideth not.  Yet in our dealings with Him regarding faith, let us remember that He does not operate in some mystical or miraculous way, as if imparting to us a new faculty called faith; but by taking of the things of Christ and showing them to us; so touching our faculties by His mighty yet invisible hand, that, ere we are aware, these disordered souls of ours begin to work aright, and these dull eyes of ours begin to see what was all along before them, but what they never had perceived, “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Thus He works in us, often slowly and imperceptibly, but with divine power, making us to understand the gospel and to draw out of it that light and life which it contains for the dead and the dark.  Looking at the cross, under the Spirit’s enlightenment, we grow in faith.  For never does He produce or increase faith in us without keeping our eye steadfastly fixed upon the great redeeming work of the incarnate Son.  He is not the Spirit of unbelief or bondage, but of faith and liberty; and His desire is that we should be delivered from unbelief and bondage. He loves us too well to be indifferent to our remaining in distance or in distrust.  He longs to see us children of faith, not of unbelief; to make us strong in faith; to remove whatever from within or without hinders its growth.  Trust His love for the increase of faith; for deliverance from the evil heart of unbelief; for revealing to you the bright object of faith – Christ, and “God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses.”  As truth is the foundation of faith, so, as “the Spirit of truth,” He guides us out of error into truth, and thus leads us out of unbelief into faith; making us to see that the root of what we called our want of faith, was not that we were believing the right thing in a wrong way (as is so often said), but that we were not believing the right thing, but something else which could not bring rest to us in what way soever we might believe it.

Perhaps our want of joy may arise from our over-looking the love of the Spirit.  Peace is one thing; joy is something more – “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”  Assuredly He is the Spirit of joy and as such delights to impart His joy.  He who, by the lips of His Apostle, said, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” wants to see you a joyful man. Will you trust Him for this?  Will you rest in His love for this gift?  Do not say, Joy is a secondary thing: a man may be a Christian without joy; some of the best of God’s people have gone mourning all their days.  These are poor excuses for not possessing what God wants you to possess, and what would make you ten times more useful to all around.  God wishes you to be joyful.  Your testimony to God is imperfect without joy.  Cultivate joy; and in order to do so effectually, take firmer hold of the Spirit’s power, and rest more implicitly in His love.  He loves you too well to wish you to be gloomy.  Be filled with the Spirit and you will be filled with joy.  Joy is a great help in living a holy and consistent life.  Holiness is joy, and joy is holiness.  Accept the Spirit’s love for both of these.

It is the loving Spirit that seals, and witnesses, and indwells, and inworks, and helps, and liberates, and strengthens, and teaches, and baptizes. The “seal of the Spirit” (Eph. 1:13); the “witness of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:16); the “indwelling” of the Spirit (Rom. 8:11); the “inworking” of the Spirit (Eph. 1:19); the “help” of the Spirit (Rom. 8:26); the “liberty” of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17); the “strengthening” of the Spirit (Eph. 3:16); the “fulness” of the Spirit (Eph. 5:18); the “teaching” of the Spirit (John 14:26); the “baptism” of the Spirit (Mark 1:8); – all these are most closely connected with the “love of the Spirit;” and he who would separate them from that love would rob them of all their meaning and power and consolation.  So that in seeking these blessings we must ever remember that we are dealing with one whose love anticipates our longings, and on whose side there exists no hindrance to our possessing them all.  Nowhere in Scripture has God led us to suppose that the Holy Spirit would be awanting to us in any time of need, or that we could be beforehand with Him in any desire of ours for any spiritual blessing.  “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:13).

In our day, when that which is miraculous or supernatural is suspected or scorned, it is not easy even to gain a hearing for such truths.  The Holy Spirit, we may say, is discarded as the most incredible part of the supernatural and impersonal.  He Himself is regarded as an airy nothing, or as mist; and His direct and divine agency is treated as the dream of diseased enthusiasm.  The removal of the supernatural from religion means specially the removal of the Spirit.  To retain Him personally in our theology is considered to be retaining the most incredible part of the supernatural – the most visionary article in our creed.

Hence the need of bringing fully into view both His personality and His character.  That modern unbelief should dislike the whole subject, and treat it as incompatible with reason, and therefore incapable of proof, as being wholly beyond the range of our senses, need not surprise us: nor would we attempt to meet Rationalism on its own ground.  But what we say is this: Our information regarding the Holy Spirit must come wholly from revelation; and the question is, Does the Bible bear us out in the above statements?  It certainly does seem to contain the doctrine we have been affirming.  Its Author evidently meant us to accept that doctrine as true.  If that doctrine cannot be true, it must be honestly struck out of the Bible; not by explaining texts away, or misinterpreting whole chapters, but by boldly affirming that Scripture is inaccurate.  The words regarding the Spirit are too plain to be diluted into unmeaning figures.  He who inspired the Bible has used language that cannot be mistaken.  He has not left us in any doubt as to what He intended.  Hence the quarrel of unbelief is a quarrel with revelation, and more especially with the Author of revelation.  This is the real point at issue in these days, in the controversy with Rationalism.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit’s person and work must stand or fall with the Bible. If it is incredible, then Scripture has utterly deceived us, and the God who made us has given us a book, as the revelation of divine truth, which contains what no man ought to believe or can believe.  If the innumerable references to the Spirit be mere figures of speech – Orientalisms – meaning nothing real, then to accept them as literal, and to believe in a personal Spirit, must be pure fanaticism; and as to such a thing as the love of the Spirit, only visionaries or mystics would accept it.

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure; and the Word of God is true and real.  Heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or one tittle of what is written in Scripture cannot.  What God has made known to us concerning the Spirit – His wisdom, love, holiness, and power, remains unaltered throughout the ages; as true to us in these last days as it was in the beginning.

That the Holy Spirit is the producer in the human heart of everything that God calls religion, is beyond question to any one who accepts Bible statements as divinely true.  He begins, carries on, and consummates in us all spiritual feeling, all spiritual worship, all spiritual life and energy.  Nor can there be anything more hollow and unreal than religion without the Holy Spirit.  That which is external and superficial – which manifests itself in dress, and music, and routine service – may flourish without Him; nay, can only flourish in His absence.  But the deep and the real must be His work from first to last.  The love of the Spirit is absolutely necessary to a religion of love, and liberty, and joy.  Religiousness is at every man’s command.  Any man may get it up in a day; but religion cometh from above, and is the product of the Spirit dwelling and working in the heart.

The bustle of the present day hinders our discernment of this difference; nay, it grieves the Spirit provoking Him utterly to depart; thus leaving us with a hollowness of heart which yields no rest nor satisfaction, and which cannot be acceptable to God.  “The Spirit of God,” says Melancthon, “loves retirement and silence; it is then He penetrates into our hearts.  The Bride of Christ does not take her stand in the streets and cross ways, but she leads her spouse into the house of her mother” (Song of Solomon 8:2).

“The gifts of the Holy Ghost!” This is the Church’s heritage (Acts 2:38, 39).  How far she has claimed it or used it is a serious question; but that this gift was meant for her in all ages is beyond a doubt.  The whole book of the Acts of the Apostles is evidence of this.  “My Spirit remaineth among you,” is a promise for the Church as truly as for Israel (Haggai 2:5).

From the beginning it has been so; and the holy men raised up by God to speak His words or do His works were men “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Exodus 31:2).  It is this Spirit that has been the life of the Church.  When He came, all was life; when He departed, all was death.  Nothing was lacking so long as He was in the midst, and when He left nothing could compensate for His withdrawal.  When He was present, the Church was the garden of the Lord; when He forsook her, every herb and flower of that garden withered.

Even in Old Testament days it was so; but since Pentecost, more largely and more powerfully.  The indwelling and inworking Spirit, who is the promise of the Father and gift of the Son, is that which belongs to the Church of every age, little as she may have claimed or welcomed her peculiar glory.

“The gift” and “the gifts” are, both of them, expressions used in connection with the Spirit (Acts 8:20-10:45).  He is one, yet manifold; called “the seven Spirits of God,” and “the seven lamps of fire,” and the “seven eyes,” and the “seven horns” (Rev. 3:1; 4:5; 5:6).  He is not only spoken of in connection with each saint, but with the body, the Church universal, which is the “habitation of God, through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22); “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19); and, as such, possessor of His love.

Such is the manifold fulness of the Spirit which as the gift of Christ, is the property of the whole Church of God.  That fulness is not only the fulness of peace, and wisdom, and holiness, but of love.  It is given her, not for herself only, but for the world out of which she has been called.  She is to shine in the light of this love upon a dark earth.  She is to pour out of the fulness which she receives upon a parched and needy world; out of her are to flow rivers of living water (John 7:38).  Great is the world’s need; but not greater than the provided supply: for the fountain of love, out of which the Church receives and pours this living water, is inexhaustible and divine.

The love of the Spirit is, like that of the Son, a love that passeth knowledge, a fountain whose waters fail not: “A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:1).

In the possession of this heavenly gift – of these sevenfold gifts – the Church is unspeakably rich, whatever her outward condition may be.  Enjoying the fulness of this abiding Spirit, she manifests her character as the witness for Christ and as the light of the world.  These gifts of the ascended Christ (Eph 4:8) made her what she was meant to be in the midst of the world’s evil and of the powers of darkness, “a burning and shining light.”  In the power of such gifts, she went forth to do battle with the idolatries and immoralities of heathendom.  Boldly entering the cities of classic fame, she took possession of pagan temples and Jewish synagogues; and thousands everywhere, through apostolic preaching gathered round the throne.

It was not the gift of miracle, of healing, or of tongues, that did the work.  These were not subordinate things, and in many places never used by the apostles.  These were not “the best gifts” which we are commanded to covet (1 Cor. 12:31).  It was the fulness of spiritual power, possessed and exercised by holy men, awakening, quickening, sanctifying, that wrought the mighty changes which history records. It is well that we should look back to Pentecost, with wistful eyes, longing for a ministry of Pentecostal power, as the only remedy for the unbelief of the last days.  But mere physical miracles are not the desirable things.  The gifts of the Spirit, the Church’s inalienable inheritance, are quite apart from bodily manifestations; and they remain with us still.  But do we claim them?  Do we use them?  Do we not trust in other strength?  Do we not lean on learning, on science, on talent, as if by these we were to fight and overcome?  And, in so doing, do we not mistake our true position, and character, and mission?  Nay, do we not grieve and quench the Spirit?

Yet, the love of the Spirit is unquenchable. He is unwilling to depart.  He despises not the day of small things; but He bids us look beyond and above them.  Formalism, routine, and external religion, the excitements of mysticism – these are poor substitutes for the life, and glow, and energy of the Holy Spirit.  Nothing but His own presence can avail to lift us out of the unreal religiousness into which we have fallen; to transform creeds into realities, and the bodily bowing of the head, or bending of the knee, into spiritual worship; turning the “dim religious light” into the sunshine of a heavenly noon; drawing out of our hymnals the deep heart-music of divine and blessed song; delivering us alike from Rationalism and Ritualism, from a hollow externalism, and from an impulsive and unreasoning fanaticism.  It is His presence only that can vitalize ordinances; clothe ministry with power; unite the broken Church; fill the void of aching hearts; impart to service, liberty and gladness; ward off error; and make truth mighty – filling our sanctuaries with living worshippers, and sending forth men of might to preach the everlasting gospel; and to proclaim, as in primitive days, the Christ that has come, and the Christ that is to come again.

He has come, in His love, to quicken the dead in sin; and He is daily moving upon the face of the waters – bringing life out of death. Nor is His arm shortened, that it cannot save.

He has come, in His love, to give light for darkness. Nor is there any human heart too dark for Him to illumine.  He lights up souls.  He lights up Churches.  He lights up lands, making them that sit in darkness to see a great light.

He has come, in His love, to gather in the wanderers, far and near. No strayed one has gone too far into the wilderness for Him to follow and to bring back.  The “ends of the earth” form the vast region into which His love has gone forth to seek, and find, and save.

He has come, in His love, to guide the doubting heart. He takes lovingly and gently the hand of the perplexed and inquiring, and leads them into the way of peace.  He knows all their troubles and fears, so that they need not fear being misunderstood.  He teaches their ignorance and shows them their mistakes, and points their eye to the cross.

He has come, in His love, to bind up the broken-hearted. His name is the Comforter, and His consolations are as abundant as they are everlasting.  “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,” are the words which he has written down for every sorrowful one (Isaiah 40:1).  In all trial, bereavement, pain, sorrow, let us realize the love of the Spirit.  That love comes out most brightly and most tenderly in the day of mourning.  In the chamber of sickness or of death, let us find strength and peace in the presence, companionship, and sympathy of the gracious Spirit.

He has come down, in His love, to seek after the backslider. From a heart that once owned Him, He has been driven out, and He has retired sorrowfully.  But He has not ceased to desire a return to His old abode.  He still pities, and yearns, and beseeches.  “Turn, ye backsliding children, for I am married unto you,” are His words of longing and pity.

He has come, in His love, even to the misbelieving and the deluded, seeking to remove the mists with which a rebellious intellect has compassed itself about; and to lead them out into life, and love, and day.  They are groping for an idea; and He brings them into contact with a Person, even God Himself.  They are crying vaguely for knowledge; and He presents to them the wisdom deposited in the Person of the Word made flesh.  They are in search of sympathy for their wounded hearts; and He places Himself before them in the fulness of His all-sympathizing love.  They are asking for a creed of certainty and perfection, on which their faith may rest; He offers Himself to them as a living and unerring Teacher – the Author of an infallible Book, all whose pages sparkle with the love of its loving Author.  They crave beauty in worship, something to please the eye,-aesthetic beauty, as they call it!  He draws the eye to Him who is “the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.”

He has come, in His love, to build up His own. He seeks to fill, with His holy presence, the soul into which He has come.  He wants, not a part of the man, but the whole – body, soul, and spirit,-the entire being, that it may be altogether conformed to Himself.  He has come to His temples, and His purpose is to make them in reality, what they are in name, the “habitation of God, the temples of the Holy Ghost.”

Posted in Horatius Bonar |

A Godly Man Has the Spirit of God in Him by Thomas Watson

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

‘The Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us’ (2 Tim. 1:14; Gal. 4:6). I conceive that the Spirit is in the godly in whom he flows in measure.  They have his presence and receive his sacred influences.  When the sun comes into a room, it is not the body of the sun that is there but the beams that sparkle from it.  The Spirit of God reveals himself in a gracious soul in two ways:I. By His Motions …

These are some of that sweet perfume that the Spirit breathes upon the heart, by which it is raised into a kind of angelic frame.

Question 1: But how may we distinguish the motions of the Spirit from a delusion?

Answer: The motions of the Spirit are always consonant with the Word.  The Word is the chariot in which the Spirit of God rides; whichever way the tide of the Word runs, that way the wind of the Spirit blows.

Question 2: How may the motions of the Spirit in the godly be distinguished from the impulses of a natural conscience?

Answer 1: A natural conscience may sometimes provoke to the same thing as the Spirit does, but not from the same principle.  Natural conscience is a spur to duty, but it drives a man to do his duties for fear of hell — as the galley-slave tugs at the oar for fear of being beaten — whereas the Spirit moves a child of God from a more noble principle.  It makes him serve God out of choice and esteem duty his privilege.

Answer 2: The impulses of a natural conscience drive men only to easier duties of religion, in which the heart is less exercised, like perfunctory reading or praying.  But the motions of the Spirit in the godly go further, causing them to do the most irksome duties, like self-reflection, self-humbling; yes, perilous duties, like confessing Christ’s name in times of danger.  Divine motions in the heart are like new wine which seeks vent.  When God’s Spirit possesses a man, he carries him full sail through all difficulties.

2. By his virtues …

These are various:

(i) God’s Spirit has a teaching virtue; the Spirit teaches convincingly (John 16:8). He so teaches as to persuade.

(ii) God’s Spirit has a sanctifying virtue.  The heart is naturally polluted, but when the Spirit comes into it, he works sin out and grace in.  The Spirit of God was repre­sented by the dove, an emblem of purity.  The Spirit makes the heart a temple of purity and a paradise for pleasantness.  The holy oil of consecration was nothing but a prefiguring of the Spirit (Exodus 30:25). The Spirit sanctifies a man’s fancy, causing it to mint holy meditations. He sanctifies his will, biasing it to good, so that now it shall be as delightful to serve God as before it was to sin against him.  Sweet powders perfume the linen.  So God’s Spirit in a man perfumes him with holiness and makes his heart a map of heaven.

(iii) God’s Spirit has a vivifying virtue: ‘the Spirit giveth life’ (2 Cor. 3:6). As the blowing in an organ makes it sound, so the breathing of the Spirit causes life and motion.  When the prophet Elijah stretched himself upon the dead child, it revived (I Kings 17:22); so God’s Spirit stretching himself upon the soul infuses life into it.

As our life is from the Spirit’s operations, so is our liveliness: ‘the Spirit lifted me up’ (Ezek. 3:14). When the heart is bowed down and is listless to duty, the Spirit of God lifts it up.  He puts a sharp edge upon the affections; he makes love ardent, hope lively.  The Spirit removes the weights of the soul and gives it wings: ‘Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib’ (Song 6:12). The wheels of the soul were pulled off before and it drove on heavily, but when the Spirit of the Almighty possesses a man, now he runs swiftly in the ways of God and his soul is like the chariots of Amminadib.

(iv) God’s Spirit has a jurisdictive virtue; he rules and governs.  God’s Spirit sits paramount in the soul; he gives check to the violence of corruption; he will not allow a man to be vain and loose like others.  The Spirit of God will not be put out of office; he exercises his authority over the heart, ‘bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Cor. 10:5).

(v) The Spirit has a mollifying virtue, therefore he is compared to fire which softens the wax.  The Spirit turns flint into flesh: ‘I will give you a heart of flesh’ (Ezekiel 36:26). How shall this be effected?  ‘I will put my spirit within you’ (v.27). While the heart is hard, it lies like a log, and is not wrought upon either by judgments or by mercies, but when God’s Spirit comes in, he makes a man’s heart as tender as his eye and now it is made yielding to divine impressions.

(vi) The Spirit of God has a corroborating virtue; he infuses strength and assistance for work; he is a Spirit of power (2 Tim. 1:7). God’s Spirit carries a man above himself: ‘strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man’ (Eph. 3:16). The Spirit confirms faith and animates courage.  He lifts one end of the cross, and makes it lighter to bear.  The Spirit gives not only a sufficiency of strength, but a redundance.

Question: How shall we know whether we are acting in the strength of God’s Spirit or in the strength of our own abilities?

Answer 1: When we humbly cast ourselves upon God for assistance, as David going out against Goliath cast himself upon God for help: ‘I come to thee in the name of the Lord’ (I Sam. 17:45).

Answer 2: When our duties are divinely qualified, we do them with pure aims.

Answer 3: When we have found God going along with us, we give him the glory for everything (I Cor. 15:10). This clearly evinces that the duty was carried on by the strength of God’s Spirit more than by any innate abilities of our own.

(vii) God’s Spirit has a comforting virtue.  Sadness may arise in a gracious heart (Psa. 43:5). As the heaven, though it is a bright and lucid body, still has interposed clouds, this sadness is caused usually through the malice of Satan, who, if he cannot destroy us, will disturb us.  But God’s Spirit within us sweetly cheers and revives.  He is called the parakletos, ‘the Comforter’ (John 14:16). These comforts are real and infallible.  Hence it is called ‘the seal of the Spirit’ (Eph. 1:13). When a deed is sealed, it is firm and unquestionable.  So when a Christian has the seal of the Spirit, his comforts are confirmed.  Every godly man has these revivings of the Spirit in some degree; he has the seeds and beginnings of joy, though the flower is not fully ripe and blown.

Question: How does the Spirit give comfort?

Answer 1: By showing us that we are in a state of grace.  A Christian cannot always see his riches.  The work of grace may be written in the heart, like shorthand which a Christian cannot read.  The Spirit gives him a key to open these dark characters, and spell out his adoption, where­upon he has joy and peace.  ‘We have received the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God’ (I Cor. 2:12).

Answer 2: The Spirit comforts by giving us some ravishing apprehensions of God’s love: ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost’ (Rom. 5:5). God’s love is a box of precious ointment, and it is only the Spirit who can break this box open and fill us with its sweet perfume.

Answer 3: The Spirit comforts by taking us to the blood of Christ.  As when a man is weary and ready to faint, we take him to the water, and he is refreshed, so when we are fainting under the burden of sin, the Spirit takes us to the fountain of Christ’s blood: ‘In that day there shall be a fountain opened. . . ‘(Zech. 13:1). The Spirit enables us to drink the waters of justification which run out of Christ’s sides.  The Spirit applies whatever Christ has purchased; he shows us that our sins are done away in Christ, and though we are spotted in ourselves, we are undefiled in our Head.

Answer 4: The Spirit comforts by enabling conscience to comfort.  The child must be taught before it can speak.  The Spirit opens the mouth of conscience, and helps it to speak and witness to a man that his state is good, whereupon he begins to receive comfort: ‘conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost’ (Rom. 9:1). Conscience draws up a certificate for a man, then the Holy Ghost comes and signs the certificate.

Answer 5: The Spirit conveys the oil of joy through two golden pipes:

1. The Ordinances. As Christ in prayer had his counten­ance changed (Luke 9:29) and there was a glorious luster upon his face, so often in the use of holy ordinances the godly have such raptures of joy and soul transfigurations that they have been carried above the world, and despised all things below.

2. The Promises. The promises are comforting: (i) For their sureness (Rom. 4:16). God in the promises has put his truth in pawn.  (ii) For their suitableness, being calculated for every Christian’s condition.  The promises are like a herb garden.  There is no disease but some herb may be found there to cure it.  But the promises of themselves cannot comfort.  Only the Spirit enables us to suck these honeycombs.  The promises are like a still full of herbs, but this still will not drop unless the fire is put under it.  So when the Spirit of God (who is compared to lire) is put to the still of the promises, then they distil consolation into the soul.  Thus we see how the Spirit is in the godly by his virtues.

Use: As you would be listed in the number of the godly, strive for the blessed indwelling of the Spirit.  Pray with Melanchthon, ‘Lord, inflame my soul with thy Holy Spirit’; and with the spouse, ‘Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden’ (Song of Solomon 4:16). As a mariner would desire a wind to drive him to sea, so beg for the prosperous gales of the Spirit and the promise may add wings to prayer.  ‘If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?’ (Luke 11:13) God’s Spirit is a rich jewel Go to God for turn ‘Lord, give me thy Spirit Where is the jewel you promised me?  When shall my soul be like Gideon’s fleece, wet with the dew of heaven?’

Consider how necessary the Spirit is.  Without him, we can do nothing acceptable to God:

1.  We cannot pray without him He is a Spirit of supplications (Zech. 12:10). He helps both the inventiveness and the affection ‘The Spirit helps us with sighs and groans’ (Rom. 8:26).

2. We cannot resist temptation without him ‘ye shall re­ceive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you’ (Acts 1:8). He who has the tide of corrupt nature and the wind of temptation must of necessity be carried down the stream of sin if the contrary wind of the Spirit does not blow.

3. We cannot be fruitful without the Spirit. ‘The golden rain from heaven waters the thirsty hearts.’  Why is the Spirit compared to dew and rain, but to show us how unable we are to bring forth a crop of grace unless the dew of God falls upon us?

4.  Without the Spirit, no ordinance is effectual to us. Ordinances are the conduit pipes of grace, but the Spirit is the spring.  Some are content that they have a ‘Levite to their priest’ (Judges 17:13), but never look any further.  As if a merchant should be content that his ship has good tackling and is well manned though it never has a gale of wind.  The ship of ordinances will not carry us to heaven, though an angel is the pilot, unless the wind of God’s Spirit blows.  The Spirit is the soul of the Word without which it is but a dead letter.  Ministers may prescribe medicine, but it is God’s Spirit who must make it work.  Our hearts are like David’s body when it grew old: ‘they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat’ (I Kings 1:1). So though the ministers of God ply us with prayers and counsel as with hot clothes, yet we are cold and chilly till God’s Spirit comes; and then we say, like the disciples, ‘Did not our heart burn within us?’ (Luke 24:32).  Oh, therefore, what need we have of the Spirit!

Thirdly, you who have the blessed Spirit manifested by his energy and vital operations:

1. Acknowledge God’s distinguishing love.  The Spirit is an earmark of election (I John 3:24). Christ gave the bag to Judas but not his Spirit.  The Spirit is a love token.  Where God gives his Spirit as a pawn, he gives himself as a portion.  The Spirit is a comprehensive blessing; he is put for all good things (Matt. 7:11). What would you be without the Spirit but like so many carcasses?  Without this, Christ would not profit you.  The blood of God is not enough without the breath of God.  Oh then, be thankful for the Spirit.  This lodestone will never stop drawing you till it has drawn you up to heaven.

2.  If you have this Spirit, do not grieve him (Eph. 4:30). Shall we grieve our Comforter?

Question: How do we grieve the Spirit?

Answer 1: When we unkindly repel his motions.  The Spirit sometimes whispers in our ears and calls to us as God did to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel’ (Gen. 35:1). So the Spirit says, ‘Arise, go to prayer, retire to meet your God.’  Now when we stifle these motions and entertain temptations to vanity, this is grieving the Spirit.  If we check the motions of the Spirit, we shall lose the comforts of the Spirit.

Answer 2: We grieve the Spirit when we deny the work of the Spirit in our hearts.  If someone gives another person a token and he should deny it and say he never received it, this would be to abuse the love of his friend.  So, Christian, when God has given you his Spirit, witnessed by those meltings of heart and passionate desires for heaven, yet you deny that you ever had any renewing work of the Spirit in you; this is base ingratitude and grieves the good Spirit.  Renounce the sinful works of the flesh, but do not deny the gracious work of the Spirit.

From The Godly Man’s Picture

Posted in Thomas Watson |

The Work of the Spirit by A. W. Pink

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

It is a great mistake to suppose that the works of the Spirit are all of one kind, or that His operations preserve an equality as to degree.  To insist that they are and do would be ascribing less freedom to the Third Person of the Godhead than is enjoyed and exercised by men.  There is variety in the activities of all voluntary agents: even human beings are not confined to one sort of work, nor to the production of the same kind of effects; and where they design so to do, they moderate them as to degrees according to their power and pleasure.  Much more so is it with the Holy Spirit.  The nature and kind of His works are regulated by His own will and purpose.

Some He executes by the touch of His finger (so to speak), in others He puts forth His hand, while in yet others (as on the day of Pentecost) He lays bare His arm. He works by no necessity of His nature, but solely according to the pleasure of His will (1 Corinthians 12:11).

UPON BOTH THE UNSAVED AND THE SAVED

Many of the works of the Spirit, though perfect in kind and fully accomplishing their design, are wrought by Him upon and within men who, nevertheless, are not saved.  “The Holy Spirit is present with many as to powerful operations, with whom He is not present as to gracious inhabitation.  Or, many are made partakers of Him in His spiritual gifts, who are not made partakers of Him in His saving grace, Matthew 7:22, 23” (John Owen on Hebrews 6:4).  The light which God furnishes different souls varies considerably, both in kind and degree.  Nor should we be surprised at this in view of the adumbration in the natural world: how wide is the difference between the glimmering of the stars from the radiance of the full moon, and that again from the shining of the midday sun.  Equally wide is the gulf which separates the savage with his faint illumination of conscience from one who has been educated under a Christian ministry, and greater still is the difference between the spiritual understanding of the wisest unregenerate professor and the feeblest babe in Christ; yet each has been a subject of the Spirit’s operations.

“The Holy Spirit works in two ways.  In some men’s hearts, He works with restraining grace only, and the restraining grace, though it will not save them, is enough to keep them from breaking out into the open and corrupt vices in which some men indulge who are totally left by the restraints of the Spirit..… God the Holy Spirit may work in men some good desires and feelings, and yet have no design of saving them.  But mark, none of these feelings are things that accompany salvation, for if so, they would be continued.  But He does not work Omnipotently to save, except in the persons of His own elect, whom He assuredly bringeth unto Himself.  I believe, then, that the trembling of Felix is to be accounted for by the restraining grace of the Spirit quickening his conscience and making him tremble” (C. H. Spurgeon on Acts 24:25).

The Holy Spirit has been robbed of much of His distinctive glory through Christians failing to perceive His varied workings.  In concluding that the operations of the blessed Spirit are confined unto God’s elect, they have been hindered from offering to Him that praise which is His due for keeping this wicked world a fit place for them to live.  Few today realize how much the children of God owe to the Third Person of the Trinity for holding in leash the children of the Devil, and preventing them from utterly consuming Christ’s church on earth.  It is true there are comparatively few texts which specifically refer to the distinctive Person of the Spirit as reigning over the wicked, but once it is seen that in the Divine economy all is from God the Father, all is through God the Son, and all is by God the Spirit, each is given His proper and separate place in our hearts and thoughts.

THE SPIRIT’S OPERATION IN THE NON-ELECT

Let us, then, now point out a few of the Spirit’s general and inferior operations in the non-elect, as distinguished from His special and superior works in the redeemed.

1.  In restraining evil. If God should leave men absolutely to their own natural corruptions and to the power of Satan (as they fully deserve to be, as He will in Hell, and as He would now but for the sake of His elect), all show of goodness and morality would be entirely banished from the earth: men would grow past feeling in sin, and wickedness would swiftly and entirely swallow up the whole world.  This is abundantly clear from Genesis 6:3, 4, 5, 12.  But He who restrained the fiery furnace of Babylon without quenching it, He who prevented the waters of the Red Sea from flowing without changing their nature, now hinders the working of natural corruption without mortifying it.  Vile as the world is, we have abundant cause to adore and praise the Holy Spirit that it is not a thousand times worse.

The world hates the people of God (John 15:19): why, then, does it not devour them?  What is it that holds back the enmity of the wicked against the righteous?  Nothing but the restraining power of the Holy Spirit.  In Psalm 14:1-3 we find a fearful picture of the utter depravity of the human race.  Then in verse 4 the Psalmist asks, “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?  Who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.”  To which answer is made, “There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous” (v. 5).  It is the Holy Spirit who places that “great fear” within them, to keep them back from many outrages against God’s people.  He curbs their malice.  So completely are the reprobate shackled by His almighty hand, that Christ could say to Pilate, “thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11)!

2.  In inciting to good actions. All the obedience of children to parents, all the true love between husbands and wives, is to be attributed unto the Holy Spirit.  Whatever morality and honesty, unselfishness and kindness, submission to the powers that be and respect for law and order which is still to be found in the world, must be traced back to the gracious operations of the Spirit.  A striking illustration of His benign influence is found in 1 Samuel 10:26, “Saul also went home to Gibeah: and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God (the Spirit) had touched.”

Men’s hearts are naturally inclined to rebellion, are impatient against being ruled over, especially by one raised out of a mean condition among them.  The Lord the Spirit inclined the hearts of those men to be subject unto Saul, gave them a disposition to obey him.  Later, the Spirit touched the heart of Saul to spare the life of David, melting him to such an extent that he wept (1 Samuel 24:16).  In like manner, it was the Holy Spirit who gave the Hebrews favor in the eyes of the Egyptians—who hitherto had bitterly hated them—so as to give earrings to them (Exodus 12:35, 36).

3.  In convicting of sin. Few seem to understand that conscience in the natural man is inoperative unless stirred up by the Spirit.  As a fallen creature, thoroughly in love with sin (John 3:19), man resists and disputes against any conviction of sin.  “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” (Genesis 6:3): man, being “flesh,” would never have the least distaste of any iniquity unless the Spirit excited those remnants of natural light which still remain in the soul.  Being “flesh,” fallen man is perverse against the convictions of the Spirit (Acts 7:51), and remains so forever unless quickened and made “spirit” (John 3:6).

4.  In illuminating. Concerning Divine things, fallen man is not only devoid of light, but is “darkness” itself (Ephesians 5:8).  He had no more apprehension of spiritual things than the beasts of the field.  This is very evident from the state of the heathen.  How, then, shall we explain the intelligence which is found in thousands in Christendom, who yet give no evidence that they are new creatures in Christ Jesus?  They have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6:4).  Many are constrained to inquire into those scriptural subjects which make no demand on the conscience and life; yea, many take great delight in them.  Just as the multitudes took pleasure in beholding the miracles of Christ, who could not endure His searching demands, so the light of the Spirit is pleasant to many to whom His convictions are grievous.

THE SPIRIT’S OPERATION IN THE ELECT

We have dwelt upon some of the general and inferior operations which the Holy Spirit performs upon the non-elect, who are never brought unto a saving knowledge of the Truth.  Now we shall consider His special and saving work in the people of God, dwelling mainly upon the absolute necessity for the same.  It should make it easier for the Christian reader to perceive the absoluteness of this necessity when we say that the whole work of the Spirit within the elect is to plant in the heart a hatred for and a loathing of sin as sin, and a love for and longing after holiness as holiness.

This is something which no human power can bring about.  It is something which the most faithful preaching as such cannot produce. It is something which the mere circulating and reading of the Scripture does not impart. It is a miracle of grace, a Divine wonder, which none but God can or does perform.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY APART FROM THE SPIRIT

Of course, if men are only partly depraved (which is really the belief today of the vast majority of preachers and their hearers, never having been experimentally taught by God their own depravity), if deep down in their hearts all men really love God, if they are so good-natured as to be easily persuaded to become Christians, then there is no need for the Holy Spirit to put forth His Almighty power and do for them what they are altogether incapable of doing for themselves.  And again: if “being saved” consists merely in believing I am a lost sinner and on my way to Hell, and by simply believing that God loves me, that Christ died for me, and that He will save me now on the one condition that I “accept Him as my personal Savior” and “rest upon His finished work,” then no supernatural operations of the Holy Spirit are required to induce and enable me to fulfill that condition—self-interest moves me to, and a decision of my will is all that is required.

But if, on the other hand, all men hate God (John 15:23, 25), and have minds which are “enmity against Him” (Romans 8:7), so that “there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11), preferring and determining to follow their own inclinations and pleasures.  If instead of being disposed unto that which is good, “the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11).  And if when the overtures of God’s mercy are made known to them and they are freely invited to avail themselves of the same, they “all with one consent begin to make excuse” (Luke 14:1 8)—then it is very evident that the invincible power and transforming operations of the Spirit are indispensably required if the heart of a sinner is thoroughly changed, so that rebellion gives place to submission and hatred to love.  This is why Christ said, “No man can come to me, except the Father (by the Spirit) which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44).

Again—if the Lord Jesus Christ came here to uphold and enforce the high claims of God, rather than to lower or set them aside.  If He declared that “strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it,” rather than pointing to a smooth and broad road which anyone would find it easy to tread.  If the salvation which He has provided is a deliverance from sin and self-pleasing, from worldliness and indulging the lusts of the flesh, and the bestowing of a nature which desires and determines to live for God’s glory and please Him in all the details of our present lives—then it is clear beyond dispute that none but the Spirit of God can impart a genuine desire for such a salvation.  And if instead of “accepting Christ” and “resting upon His finished work” be the sole condition of salvation, He demands that the sinner throw down the weapons of his defiance, abandon every idol, unreservedly surrender himself and his life, and receive Him as His only Lord and Master, then nothing but a miracle of grace can enable any captive of Satan’s to meet such requirements.

OBJECTIONS TO TOTAL DEPRAVITY PROVED FALSE

Against what has been said above it may be objected that no such hatred of God as we have affirmed exists in the hearts of the great majority of our fellow-creatures—that while there may be a few degenerates, who have sold themselves to the Devil and are thoroughly hardened in sin, yet the remainder of mankind are friendly disposed to God, as is evident by the countless millions who have some form or other of religion.  To such an objector we reply, The fact is, dear friend, that those to whom you refer are almost entirely ignorant of the God of Scripture: they have heard that He loves everybody, is benevolently inclined toward all His creatures, and is so easy-going that in return for their religious performances will wink at their sins.  Of course, they have no hatred for such a “god” as this!  But tell them something of the character of the true God: that He hates “all the workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5), that He is inexorably just and ineffably holy, that He is an uncontrollable Sovereign, who “hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth” (Romans 9:18), and their enmity against Him will soon be manifested—an enmity which none but the Holy Spirit can overcome.

It may be objected again that so far from the gloomy picture which we have sketched above being accurate, the great majority of people do desire to be saved (from having to suffer a penalty for their sin), and they make more or less endeavor after their salvation.  This is readily granted.  There is in every human heart a desire for deliverance from misery and a longing after happiness and security, and those who come under the sound of God’s Word are naturally disposed to be delivered from the wrath to come and wish to be assured that Heaven will be their eternal dwelling-place—who wants to endure the everlasting burnings?  But that desire and disposition is quite compatible and consistent with the greatest love to sin and most entire opposition of heart to that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).  But what the objector here refers to is a vastly different thing from desiring Heaven upon God’s terms, and being willing to tread the only path which leads there!

The instinct of self-preservation is sufficiently strong to move multitudes to undertake many performances and penances in the hope that thereby they shall escape Hell.  The stronger men’s belief of the truth of Divine revelation, the more firmly they become convinced that there is a Day of Judgment, when they must appear before their Maker, and render an account of all their desires, thoughts, words and deeds, the most serious and sober will be their minds.  Let conscience convict them of their misspent lives, and they are ready to turn over a new leaf; let them be persuaded that Christ stands ready as a Fire-escape and is willing to rescue them, though the world still claims their hearts, and thousands are ready to “believe in Him.”  Yes, this is done by multitudes who still hate the true character of the Savior, and reject with all their hearts the salvation which He has. Far, far different is this from an unregenerate person longing for deliverance from self and sin, and the impartation of that holiness which Christ purchased for His people.

All around us are those willing to receive Christ as their Savior, who are altogether unwilling to surrender to Him as their Lord.  They would like His peace, but they refuse His “yoke,” without which His peace cannot be found (Matthew 11:29).  They admire His promises, but have no heart for His precepts.  They will rest upon His priestly work, but will not be subject to His kingly scepter.  They will believe in a “Christ” who is suited to their own corrupt tastes or sentimental dreams, but they despise and reject the Christ of God.  Like the multitudes of old, they want His loaves and fishes, but for His heart-searching, flesh-withering, sin-condemning teaching, they have no appetite.  They approve of Him as the Healer of their bodies, but as the Healer of their depraved souls they desire Him not.  And nothing but the miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit can change this bias and bent in any soul.

It is just because modern Christendom has such an inadequate estimate of the fearful and universal effects which the Fall has wrought, that the imperative need for the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is now so little realized.  It is because such false conceptions of human depravity so widely prevail that, in most places, it is supposed all which is needed to save half of the community is to hire some popular evangelist and attractive singer.  And the reason why so few are aware of the awful depths of human depravity, the terrible enmity of the carnal mind against God and the heart’s inbred and inveterate hatred of Him, is because His character is now so rarely declared from the pulpit.  If the preachers would deliver the same type of messages as did Jeremiah in his degenerate age, or even as John the Baptist did, they would soon discover how their hearers were really affected toward God; and then they would perceive that unless the power of the Spirit attended their preaching they might as well be silent.

From Studies in the Scriptures, January and February 1934.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

Theme Study: The Holy Spirit by Jim Ehrhard

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

Preface to the Study

The work of the Holy Spirit is an often neglected area of Biblical teaching.  Not neglected so in the area of theology but often in the area of application to the believer’s daily life.   While Evangelicals hold to an orthodox view of the Holy Spirit, they have forgotten His work and ministry in their daily experience.

For instance, when we speak about the Trinity, it is often easier to speak about the work of the Father and the Son.  But we are often uncertain in our descriptions of the Spirit and in our relationship to Him.  Yet the person and work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to all of the Christian life.  It is through the work of the Spirit that we were brought to conviction and drawn to Christ.  Through the Spirit, we were adopted as sons and sealed unto the day of our redemption.  The Spirit is our counselor and our comforter.  He enables us to pray and to understand the Scriptures that He inspired.  It is the Holy Spirit who pours out the love of the Father into our hearts and it is the Spirit who works in us to transform us from glory to glory.  It is He who takes up residence in the lives of believers so that our bodies are called the “temple of the Holy Ghost.”

To be deficient in our understanding of the Spirit is to be deficient in understanding much of what God has done for us and is doing in us.  To be deficient in our love for the Spirit is to be deficient in our love for God.  We pray that this issue of Teaching Resources might remind us of the person of the Holy Spirit and cause us all to love Him more and desire to walk and live in the Spirit.

In our lead article, A. W. Pink examines the general work of the Holy Spirit on both the elect and the non-elect.  In a similar, but more detailed fashion, the article by John Owen, The Work of the Spirit in Believers, reminds the believer of all that the Holy Spirit was done in and for him.  Thomas Watson’s article speaks about the evidences of the Spirit’s working in the life of a godly man while Thomas Boston reminds us of How the Holy Spirit Enables Us to Pray.

The final two articles emphasize the personal aspects of the Spirit’s person and ministry.  The Holy Spirit’s Love by Horatius Bonar gently reminds us abut a forgotten aspect of the Spirit’s ministry and personality.  And Spurgeon’s article on The Personality of the Holy Ghost lovingly reminds us that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a force or power.

We hope that these articles will direct your hearts to thanksgiving to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because of their great love and ministry toward those who have been bought with a price.  And we pray that you might find comfort and strength for each situation you face knowing that you have an all-knowing Father in heaven, an interceding Son at His right hand, and (praise God!) a Blessed Holy Spirit who is with you always and lives in you forever!  Take time to thank the Trinity for all the ways that God’s grace, comfort and power is communicated to you through the work and person of the Holy Spirit!

By His Grace, Jim

Posted in Jim Ehrhard |

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