First Bible Study on the Holy Spirit*
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." John 16:7.
It is not so much my purpose to give an interpretation terpretation of the scriptures to which we shall refer, as to bring to you some thoughts concerning the gifts and relationships of the Holy Spirit as they have been impressed upon my heart during recent months, particularly since I received the invitation to attend this evangelistic council, and to take part in its proceedings with you.
The thought that I wish first to bring to you from the reading of this particular scripture, is that in the mind of the Saviour the coming of the Holy Spirit was very important. Jesus believed it to be more important to the Christian church that the Comforter should come than that He Himself remain with them. Without the coming of the Comforter, the church would have no proper understanding of Christ or of His work for us. And that is one of the reasons why, to the mind of the Lord Jesus, the coming of the Comforter, or Holy Spirit, was so important. It was very necessary indeed that the church should be led to a right understanding of Christ as Saviour, and of His work in behalf of sinners as the Saviour of sinners. The understanding of the gospel by the disciples was very fallible, very imperfect. One has only to recall the early experience of these men, as related in the Gospels, to understand that this is so. They had need of a much fuller, clearer, better understanding of the things of Christ than they had at the time of His going away.
Notice also what Christ said the Holy Spirit was to do in the lives of the disciples and for the church. In John 14:26 appears the statement that the Spirit, when He came, was to teach them concerning Christ. More than that, He was to testify of Christ, and there is a sharp distinction between the two. There were very real reasons why Christ Himself could not make the truth concerning Himself plain to their minds at that time. Certain things had to occur before truth could become understanding to their minds. Those events had not yet occurred, and their occurrence would take Christ away from them.
It was therefore necessary that the Holy Spirit should be sent to them, and the promise of Christ was that the Holy Spirit, when He came, should teach them concerning Christ. In John 16:13 we read Christ's assurance that when the Holy Spirit came He would guide them into all truth, that He would bring all things to their remembrance. Then further, the Saviour said that He—the Spirit—was to glorify Christ by imparting to them the things of Christ. That is so clear that we must not fail to understand that the way of glorifying Christ is obviously by receiving the things of Christ from the Spirit.
Necessary, then, to the life of the church is the provision that those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ should possess the things of Christ. And the way to possess them is to receive them from the Holy Spirit. His impartation of those things to us would glorify Christ. The way, therefore, in which we glorify Christ is to receive the things of Christ from the Holy Spirit. And if we do not take time to do that, we are not glorifying Christ. Such a conclusion is unescapable. And when I make that statement, I have in mind this: that we can fail to glorify Christ because of the busy life we permit ourselves to live. We can easily become so busy in God's own work that we do not take time to receive the very things that the Spirit has come to impart to us.
There are three most important purposes, then, for which, according to Christ, the Spirit of God was-to be sent consequent upon Christ's going away. And we cannot fail to understand the importance of the Spirit's coming—in the mind of the Saviour, as well as in the purpose of God for the church,—if we recognize and realize specifically those purposes that Christ Himself stated were to be in our thoughts concerning the coming of the Spirit.
Notice how the Spirit has wonderfully fulfilled these purposes. We have only to read the New Testament to understand that the Spirit has taught all things concerning Christ, has testified concerning Christ, and has glorified Christ, imparting the things of Christ to those who believe on Him. We cannot read the inspired record without recognizing that it has made a great deal of difference to those who were given the leadership of the church.
For example, James and John came to Christ on one occasion, desiring that one be placed on the right side and one on the left. The disciples did not understand much about the kingdom then. They were pitiably ignorant of the principles of the gospel of God. But having witnessed the great power of God manifested by the Saviour, and having been sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to arrange for His accommodation in the Samaritan village, failing to receive the hospitality which they thought He merited, they asked their Lord, "Wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?" Luke 9:54. That was the spirit of James and John before the coming of the Spirit. Violence and intolerance were in the hearts of these disciples. But think of John after the coming of the Spirit. Think of the formerly intolerant John later tenderly appealing to men to believe on Christ. In 1 John 4:7, we find, "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." This they did not know in the ninth chapter of Luke. The difference between the two was brought about by the coming and work of the Holy Spirit.
It was very important, for Peter's sake, that the Holy Spirit should come. The Lord had been speaking to the disciples about His going away. We read:
"The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto Him, Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison, and to death." Luke 22:31-33.
Christ recognized the need of a great work in the heart of Peter in order that he might be helpful to his brethren. And let me suggest to you, dear friends, as you read this scripture, that it is important that we recognize this principle, that an unconverted man is not helpful in the church of God. An unconverted man in the leadership of the ministry of the church of God is a menace. Christ recognized this when He said, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." But Peter said unto Him, "Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison, and to death." Was he? No, he wasn't ready at all. He needed a great work to be done in his heart, in order that he might understand what it meant to be a follower of Christ, and what the spirit of the gospel really is. But that was Peter at that time, ignorant of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that at the close of three years of close personal association with Christ.
Yes, that was Peter, not only misunderstanding himself, but not knowing the relationship of Christ's going away to any purpose of God. But that is the same Peter from whom we read over in his first epistle, chapter one, verse 22:
"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."
That is the same Peter of whom we read in the twenty-second chapter of Luke. But a great change has been wrought by the Holy Spirit coming into Peter. The difference between Peter in the twenty-second chapter of Luke and in the first chapter of his epistle was solely the change wrought by the Spirit.
It is impossible for us to read statements like those in the Gospel records without observing that the early understanding of the disciples of the Gospels concerning the principles—not merely the facts—of the Gospels, was very limited indeed, so that Christ found Himself under necessity to say to them: "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Another glimpse of Peter is found in the last chapter of the Gospel of John, the fifteenth verse: "So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs."
Peter said he would go to death, but he was wrong. He did not know himself. Jesus says again, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?"
And Peter said, "Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee." There are two Greek words here that are translated "love." Christ used one, Peter used the other. Thus: "Agapao thou Me?" And the response, "Lord, Thou knowest I phileo Thee." There is a distinct degree of meaning between them. One is sacrificial, the other is affectionate. The first was used where God said, He "so loved the world." That is sacrificial to the giving of all. The second word is more properly translated, "Thou knowest that I have affection for Thee,"—I phileo Thee.
Peter had been absolutely sure that he could qualify under the term agapao—that he loved to death, that he had that kind of love that yields all. But now he said, "Lord, Thou knowest that I phileo Thee." There is this difference between those two words: if I love as God loves, I am willing to give all. That. is divine love. If I merely have an affection, I can be benevolent. But there is all the difference in the world between being merely benevolent and loving so that I give all. Many rich people who came to the temple were benevolent. They cast in of their surplus. But the widow had nothing left. God loved so that He had nothing left. Peter did not love that way. He had an affection for Christ, but he did not love Christ so that he would give all. When we come to his first epistle, he uses agapao there. A change had come in. Peter was not the same man he had been before.
What is the difference between Peter before the Lord was crucified, and Peter when he wrote his first epistle? And what had made the change?—The Holy Spirit. The Spirit does not really speak through us to make known the gospel of Jesus Christ, without giving us an understanding and a sharing of that Spirit. The difference, then, between. Peter in the twenty-second chapter of Luke and Peter in his epistle, is that the purpose of the Holy Spirit's coming had found its fulfillment -in the experience of Peter. And so we might go on and relate instance after instance of the miraculous fulfillment of the purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the experience of the disciples.
I wish you would think of these experiences 4n the closing chapters of the Gospels, where -Christ, the risen Christ, came to some of the disciples, and they revealed that they had absolutely no understanding of His risen life and purpose. You recognize that. Now think of them as you find them in the book of Acts. What, for instance, was the subject of the sermon at Pentecost?—Christ crucified, risen, glorified. That was the subject, and no sermon .ever preached has been delivered with greater clarity and more vividness of understanding than that.
What made the difference between those men in the closing chapters of the Gospels, and the same men in the second chapter of Acts a few -weeks later?—It was the coming of the Spirit. If you want to know the difference between a man without the Spirit and one filled with the Spirit, you have it right here. No man needs to misunderstand the preaching of the Spirit through him in the gospel of Jest', Christ. Those men spoke from the understanding of the matter concerning which the Holy Spirit was speaking through them. It wasn't that something came into them and used them as machines, and without understanding of -what was being done. Those men understood -the gospel they preached. That was all consequent upon the coming of the Holy Spirit into their hearts. The extent of their knowledge concerning those things amazed the scoffers. You find that in the fourth chapter of Acts. The difference between Acts 4 and John 21 is the coming of the Holy Spirit, not merely into the world, but into the hearts of those men who spoke for God in Acts 4. The world understood that there was a difference in those men. The people looked for something in the background of the lives of those men to explain it. They said, "These are ignorant men; they have had no opportunities." But it was not something in the background of those men's lives that explained the fourth chapter of Acts. The explanation was within the men,. The promise of the Spirit had been fulfilled. He had come. I want to tell you that my heart has thrilled with encouragement again and again when I have thought that this was not merely written, for us, but has been promised to us and is available for us.
I have more confidence in what the Spirit teaches than in all that can be taught by scholars, or any other class of men in all the world. God at the beginning made the Christian church dependent upon the teaching of the Spirit, and He has never changed that. All this foolishness about being qualified by degrees is simply worldly foolishness. Education is proper. But the qualification that we need in the church's work is the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit into all truth. And I understand that the Spirit guides us in bringing to our remembrance the things of Christ, and in the reception of those things imparted by Christ. If we are proceeding on any plan toward qualification other than that, we are mistaken, and are destined to end with the same kind of blindness as that of all other people who have followed human plans.
I wish I could so lift up my voice as to warn against any such course. I wish I could put a holy fear into every heart that would forestall the first step in that direction. My experience and my observation are that those who depend upon worldly qualifications for efficiency in the work of God, think a great deal too much of themselves, and too little about the power of the Holy Spirit. I do not fellowship that kind of spirit at all. That is not qualifying ourselves for the work of the church of God. That is the spirit that was in Peter when he thought too much of himself, when he said that he loved the Lord more than all, and when he didn't know himself.
When I see a man strutting around and making it known that he has attained in worldly scholarship, and because of that is superior to his fellows in the work of Christ, I do not believe in following him very far. I believe the thought I am expressing to be from the word of God. Never was a greater work done by any group of men than was done by those apostles. And it was all made possible by the coming of the Holy Spirit. It was not through anything they had learned from men. If I am to have scholarship, then may God give me grace to bring it all to Him and submit it to Him until the Holy Spirit is pleased to take it and use it in His own way. If I have it, and submit it to the Holy Spirit, I believe I am more profitable than I am without it; but I do not believe that mere scholarship can substitute for the Holy Spirit.
I wish we would all take it to our hearts, that when God said to us to "preach the Word," He really meant what He said. I do believe He said what He meant. Preach the Word. Somehow, brethren, I do not believe that we can get the power of the Word into something else that we put in place of the Word in our preaching, do you? If we want power in preaching, we must expect that power to manifest itself through the Word in which the power is inherent. I believe we ought to remember all the time that what we are seeking to do is, by the preaching of the Word, to bring men into a testifying relationship to that Word.
There was nothing in that list of things that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would do after His coming that He had not been doing. You remember the statement that the Scriptures had been written by "holy men of God . . . as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." He had taught men the truth before. It was by that means that the Old Testament Scriptures were written,—the only Scriptures then existent. And the Holy Spirit brought to the disciples' remembrance the things that He would have the people know. Through His moving, things were brought to mind, and these they wrote down for us in the New Testament. Through His moving upon the hearts of men, the Old Testament Scriptures were made to testify of Christ from the very beginning to their close. In the Old Testament we really have as the theme, Christ in prophecy, while in the four Gospels we have Christ in history. In the book of Acts, and in most of the epistles, we have Christ in experience. In the book of Hebrews we have Christ in the priesthood.
And in the book of Revelation we have Christ in glory.
The Holy Spirit, being sent according to the promise, was to reveal Christ in new relationship to all truth. Why?—Because now had been made possible the beginning of the faith in Christ's work that had before not been possible. We make a serious mistake when we think that these things that have been written are merely for our understanding. They have been promised for the experience of the church. And if there is anything about the life of the church for which they are assured, it is for the leadership of the ministry in the church.
It is the same work and it is the same testimony. It is for the same purpose in relation to men. In what sense, then, is it different? In this,—that the facts of the work of salvation are brought to us in an altogether different relationship by the Holy Spirit after Christ went away, from what they were brought to men before Christ went away. Certain facts in the work of Christ that were prophesied and testified to in the Old Testament, had not yet become real in the work of Christ, and it was necessary for Him to go away for them to become real, historical actualities. He had not yet begun His designated priesthood in heaven. Those were the facts, and it was in relation to those facts that the Holy Spirit was introduced.
The disciples themselves were to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. But that was not all. They were also to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And they were to be both baptized and filled before the Holy Spirit used them. They were to receive power, but not until the Holy Ghost had come. When, then, in relation to His coming?—"After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Jesus came and breathed upon them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Did they then have that power for witnessing? No; but after that, they did receive power. And when you read of the actual empowering of those men, it was when the Holy Spirit filled them.
Let me impress the lesson of this morning's study: That you cannot possibly expect to be empowered with the Holy Spirit unless you are willing to let God put unholiness out of your heart and bring holiness in. Unless the Spirit leads us to do that,—unless we are willing to surrender ourselves for such a work to be done,—then the falling of the latter rain will not bring much power to our work. But if we are willing to surrender ourselves, to have done with sin and self, and to let absolutely nothing stand between us and that, the change that we have observed in the hearts and lives of those men will be seen in us. And the change will be just as marked as was the change effected in those men, for God has not changed His declared ways of working. His purpose through the Spirit has not changed. His purpose for our service has not changed. }Ps de+ermination to finish His work in power has not changed, but the change that is needed is in those who undertake to do His work, that it might be transferred from dependence upon self to dependence upon Him, from dependence upon power that is without to dependence upon power from on high.
* Presented at both the St. Louis and the Philadelphia Council.—Editor
