We have spoken of the eternal purpose of
God as the motive and explanation of all
his dealings with us.
Now, before we return to our study of
the phases of Christian experience as set forth
in Romans, we must digress yet again in
order to consider something which lies at the
heart of all our experience as the vitalizing
power of effective life and service.
I refer to the personal presence and ministry
of the Holy Spirit of God.
And here, too, let us take as our
starting point two verses from Romans, one from
each of our sections.
The love of God hath been shed abroad
in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which
was given unto us.
And if any man hath not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his.
God does not give his gifts at random
nor dispense them in any arbitrary fashion.
They're given freely to all, but they are
given on a definite basis.
God has truly blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
But if those blessings which are ours in
Christ are to become ours in experience, we
must know on what ground we can appropriate
them.
In considering the gift of the Holy Spirit,
it is helpful to think of this in
two aspects, as the Spirit outpoured and the
Spirit indwelling.
And our purpose now is to understand on
what basis this twofold gift of the Holy
Spirit becomes ours.
I have no doubt that we are right
in distinguishing thus between the outward and the
inward manifestations of his working.
And that as we go on, we shall
find the distinction helpful.
Moreover, when we compare them, we cannot but
come to a conclusion that the inward activity
of the Holy Spirit is the more precious.
But to say this is not for one
moment to imply that his outward activity is
not also precious, for God only gives good
gifts to his children.
Unfortunately, we are apt to esteem our privileges
lightly because of their sheer abundance.
The Old Testament saints, who were not as
favored as we are, could appreciate more readily
than we do the preciousness of this gift
of the outpoured Spirit.
In their day, it was a gift given
only to the select few, chiefly to priests,
judges, kings, and prophets.
Whereas now, it is the portion of every
child of God.
Think, we, who are mere non-entities, can
have the same Spirit resting upon us as
rested upon Moses, the friend of God, upon
David, the beloved king, and upon Elijah, the
mighty prophet.
By receiving the gift of the outpoured Holy
Spirit, we join the ranks of God's chosen
servants of the Old Testament dispensation.
Once we see the value of this gift
of God and realize, too, our deep need
of it, we should immediately ask, how can
I receive the Holy Spirit in this way
to equip me with spiritual gifts and to
empower me for service?
Upon what basis has the Spirit been given?
Let us turn first to Acts, chapter two,
verses 32 to 36.
This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we
are all witnesses.
Being therefore by the right hand of God
exalted, and having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath poured
forth this, which ye see and hear.
For David ascended not into the heavens, but
he saith himself, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till
I make thine enemies the footstool of thy
feet.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know
assuredly that God hath made him both Lord
and Christ, this Jesus, whom ye crucified.
In verse 33, Peter states that the Lord
Jesus was exalted at the right hand of
God.
What was the result?
He received of the Father the promise of
the Holy Ghost, and what followed?
Pentecost.
The result of his exaltation was this, which
ye see and hear.
What then was the basis upon which the
Spirit was first given to the Lord Jesus
to be poured out upon his people?
It was his exaltation to heaven.
This passage makes it absolutely clear that the
Holy Spirit was poured out because the Lord
Jesus was exalted.
The outpouring of the Spirit has no relation
to your merits or mine, but only to
the merits of the Lord Jesus.
The question of what we are does not
come into consideration at all here, but only
what he is.
He is glorified, therefore the Spirit is poured
out.
Because the Lord Jesus died on the cross,
I have received forgiveness of sins.
Because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead,
I have received new life.
Because the Lord Jesus has been exalted to
the right hand of the Father, I have
received the outpoured Spirit.
All is because of him.
Nothing is because of me.
Remission of sins is not based on human
merit, but on the Lord's crucifixion.
Regeneration is not based on human merit, but
on the Lord's resurrection.
And the endowment with the Holy Spirit is
not based on human merit, but on the
Lord's exaltation.
The Holy Spirit has not been poured out
on you or me to prove how great
we are, but to prove the greatness of
the Son of God.
Now look at verse 36.
There is a word here which demands our
careful attention, the word therefore.
How is this word generally used?
Not to introduce a statement, but to follow
a statement that has already been made.
Its use always implies that something has been
mentioned before.
Now what has preceded this particular therefore?
With what is it connected?
It cannot reasonably be connected with either verse
34 or verse 35, but it quite obviously
relates back to verse 33.
Peter has just referred to the outpouring of
the Spirit upon the disciples, which ye see
and hear.
And he says, let all the house of
Israel therefore know assuredly that God hath made
him, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom
ye crucified.
Peter says in effect to his audience, the
outpouring of the Spirit, which you have witnessed
with your own eyes and ears, proves that
Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, is now
both Lord and Christ.
The Holy Spirit was poured out on earth
to prove what had taken place in heaven,
the exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth to the
right hand of God.
The purpose of Pentecost is to prove the
Lordship of Jesus Christ.
How do we know that Jesus of Nazareth,
who was crucified by wicked men nearly 2
,000 years ago, did not just die a
martyr's death, but is at the Father's right
hand in glory?
How can we know for a surety that
he is Lord of lords and King of
kings?
We can know it beyond dispute because he
has poured out his Spirit upon us.
Hallelujah!
Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Christ.
Jesus of Nazareth is both Lord and Christ.
The exaltation of the Lord Jesus is the
basis on which the Spirit has been given.
Is it possible then that the Lord has
been glorified and you have not received the
Spirit?
The principle on which we receive the endowment
of the Holy Spirit is the very same
as that on which we receive forgiveness of
sins.
The Lord has been crucified, therefore our sins
have been forgiven.
The Lord has been glorified, therefore the Spirit
has been poured out upon us.
Is it possible that the Son of God
shed his blood and that your sins, dear
child of God, have not been forgiven?
Never.
Then is it possible that the Son of
God has been glorified and you have not
received the Spirit?
Never.
Some of you may say, I agree with
all this, but I have no experience of
it.
Am I to sit down smugly and say
I have everything when I know perfectly well
I have nothing?
No, we must never rest content with objective
facts alone.
We need subjective experience also.
But that experience will only come as we
rest upon divine facts.
God's facts are the basis of our experience.
If we lack the experience, we must ask
God for a revelation of the eternal fact
of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as
the gift of the exalted Lord to his
church.
Once we see that, the effort will cease
and prayer will give place to praise.
It was a revelation of what the Lord
had done for the world that brought to
an end our efforts to secure forgiveness of
sins.
And it is a revelation of what the
Lord has done for his church that will
bring to an end our efforts to secure
the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
We work because we have not seen the
work of Christ.
But when once we have seen that, faith
will spring up in our hearts and as
we believe, experience will follow.
In the same way, you can pray and
wait for years and years, never experience the
Spirit's power.
But when you cease to plead with the
Lord to pour out his Spirit upon you,
and when instead you trustfully praise him that
the Spirit has been poured out because the
Lord Jesus has been glorified, you will find
that your problem is solved.
Praise God.
No single child of his need agonize nor
even wait for the Spirit to be given.
Jesus is not going to be made Lord,
he is Lord.
Therefore, I am not going to receive the
Spirit, I have received the Spirit.
It is all a question of the faith
which comes by revelation.
When our eyes are open to see the
Spirit has already been poured out because Jesus
has already been glorified, then prayer turns to
praise in our hearts.
All spiritual blessings are given on a definite
basis.
God's gifts are freely given, but there are
conditions which must be fulfilled on our part
before the reception of them is possible.
There is a passage in God's Word which
makes the conditions of the outpoured Spirit perfectly
clear.
Repent ye and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ unto
the remission of your sins.
And ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost for to you is the promise
and to your children and to all that
are afar off, even as many as the
Lord our God shall call unto him.
Four things are mentioned in this passage, repentance,
baptism, forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit.
The first two are conditions, the second two
are gifts.
What are the conditions to be fulfilled if
we are to have forgiveness of sins?
According to the Word, they are two, repentance
and baptism.
The first condition is repentance, which means a
change of mind.
Formerly, I thought sin a pleasant thing, but
now I have changed my mind about it.
Formerly, I thought the world an attractive place,
but now I know better.
Formerly, I regarded it a miserable business to
be a Christian, but now I think differently.
Once I thought certain things delightful, now I
think them vile.
Once I thought other things utterly worthless, now
I think them most precious.
That is a change of mind and that
is repentance.
No life can be truly changed apart from
such a change of mind.
The second condition is baptism.
Baptism is an outward expression of an inward
faith.
When in my heart, I truly believe that
I have died with Christ, have been buried
and have risen with him, then I ask
for baptism.
I thereby declare publicly what I believe privately.
Baptism is faith in action.
Here then are two divinely appointed conditions of
forgiveness, repentance and faith publicly expressed.
Have you repented?
Have you testified publicly to your union with
your Lord?
Then have you received remission of sins and
the gift of the Holy Ghost?
You say you've only received the first gift,
not the second.
But my friend, God offered you two things
if you fulfilled two conditions.
Why have you only taken one?
What are you doing about the second?
If you have fulfilled the conditions, you are
entitled to two gifts, not just one.
You have already taken the one.
Why not just come and take the other
now?
Say to the Lord, Lord, I have complied
with the conditions for receiving remission of sins
and the gift of the Holy Ghost, but
I have foolishly only taken the former.
Now I have come back to take the
gift of the Holy Ghost and I praise
thee for it.
What happened to R.A. Torrey when the
Holy Spirit came upon him after he had
been a minister for years?
Let him tell it in his own words.
I recall the exact spot where I was
kneeling in prayer in my study.
It was a very quiet moment, one of
the most quiet moments I ever knew.
Then God simply said to me, not in
any audible voice, but in my heart, it's
yours, now go and preach.
He had already said it to me in
his word in 1 John 5, verses 14
and 15.
But I did not then know my Bible
as I know it now.
And God had pity on my ignorance and
said it directly to my soul.
I went and preached and I have been
a new minister from that day to this.
Sometime after this experience, I do not recall
just how long after, while sitting in my
room one day, suddenly I found myself shouting.
I was not brought up to shout and
I'm not of a shouting temperament, but I
shouted like the loudest shouting Methodist.
Glory to God, glory to God, glory to
God and I couldn't stop.
But that was not when I was baptized
with the Holy Spirit.
I was baptized with the Holy Spirit when
I took Him by simple faith in the
word of God.
And how did D.L. Moody feel and
act when the Spirit came upon him?
I was crying all the time that God
would fill me with His Spirit.
Well, one day in the city of New
York, oh, what a day, I cannot describe
it, I seldom refer to it.
It's almost too sacred an experience to name.
Paul had an experience of which he never
spoke for 14 years.
I can only say that God revealed Himself
to me and I had such an experience
of His love that I had to ask
Him to stay His hand.
I went preaching again.
The sermons were not different.
I did not present any new truths and
yet hundreds were converted.
I would not now be placed back where
I was before that blessed experience if you
should give me all the world, would be
as the small dust of the balance.
And what was the experience of the great
Charles Finney when the power of the Holy
Ghost came upon him?
I received a mighty baptism of the Holy
Ghost without any expectation of it, without ever
having the thought in my mind that there
was any such thing for me, without any
recollection that I'd ever heard the thing mentioned
by any person in the world.
The Holy Spirit descended upon me in a
manner that seemed to go through me, body
and soul.
No words can express the wonderful love that
was shed abroad in my heart.
I wept aloud with joy and love.
When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon
God's people, their experiences will differ widely.
Some will receive new vision.
Others will know a new liberty in soul
winning.
Others will proclaim the word of God with
power.
And yet others will be filled with heavenly
joy or overflowing praise.
Let us praise the Lord for every new
experience that relates to the exaltation of Christ.
Amen.
There is nothing stereotyped about God's dealings with
his children.
Therefore we must not by our prejudices and
preconceptions make a watertight compartment for the working
of his spirit, either in our own lives
or in the lives of others.
This applies equally to those who require some
particular manifestation, such as speaking with tongues, as
evidence that the spirit has come upon them.
And to those who deny that any manifestation
is given at all.
We must leave God free to work as
he wills and to give what evidence he
pleases of the work he does.
He is Lord and it is not for
us to legislate for him.
Let us rejoice that Jesus is on the
throne.
And let us praise him that since he
has been glorified, the spirit has been poured
out upon us all.
We move on now to the second aspect
of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which
as we shall see in our next chapter
is more particularly the subject of Romans 8.
It is that which we have spoken of
as the spirit indwelling.
If so be that the spirit of God
dwelleth in you, if the spirit of him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth
in you, as with the spirit outpoured, so
with the spirit indwelling.
If we are to know and experience that
which is ours in fact, our first need
is of divine revelation.
When we see Christ as Lord objectively, that
is as exalted to the throne in heaven,
then we shall experience the power of the
spirit upon us.
When we see Christ as Lord subjectively, that
is as effective ruler within our lives, then
we shall know the power of the spirit
within us.
A revelation of the indwelling spirit was the
remedy Paul offered the Corinthian Christians for their
unspirituality.
It's important to note that the Christians in
Corinth had become preoccupied with the visible signs
of the Holy Spirit's outpouring, who were making
much of tongues and miracles while at the
same time their lives were full of contradictions
and were a reproach to the Lord's name.
They had quite evidently received the Holy Spirit
and yet they remained spiritually immature.
And the remedy God offered them for this
is the remedy he offers his church today
for the same complaint.
In his letter to them, Paul wrote, Know
ye not that ye are a temple of
God and that the spirit of God dwelleth
in you?
For others, he prayed for enlightenment of heart,
that ye may know.
A knowledge of divine facts was the need
of Christians then and it is no less
the need of Christians today.
We need the opening of the eyes of
our understanding that we may know that God
himself through the Holy Spirit has taken up
his abode in our hearts.
God is present in the person of the
spirit and Christ is present in the person
of the spirit too.
Thus, if the Holy Spirit dwells in our
hearts, we have the Father and the Son
dwelling within.
That is no mere theory or a doctrine
but a blessed reality.
We may perhaps have realized that the spirit
is actually within our heart but have we
realized that he is a person?
Have we understood that to have the spirit
within us is to have the living God
within?
Revelation is the first step to holiness and
consecration is the second.
A day must come in our lives as
definite as the day of our first conversion.
When we give up all right to ourselves
and submit to the absolute lordship of Jesus
Christ, there may be a practical issue raised
by God to test the reality of our
consecration.
Whether that be so or not, there must
be a day when without reservation we surrender
everything to him.
Ourselves, our families, our possessions, our business and
our time.
All we are and have becomes his to
be held henceforth entirely at his disposal.
From that day we are no longer our
own masters but only stewards.
Not until the lordship of Jesus Christ is
a settled thing in our hearts can the
spirit really operate effectively in us.
He cannot direct our lives effectually until all
control of them is committed to him.
If we do not give him absolute authority
in our lives, he can be present but
he cannot be powerful.
The power of the spirit is stayed.
Are you living for the lord or for
yourself?
Perhaps that is too general a question.
So let me be more specific.
Is there anything God is asking of you
that you are withholding from him?
Is there any point of contention between you
and him?
Not till every controversy is settled and the
holy spirit is given full sway can he
reproduce the life of Christ in the heart
of any believer.
Our absolute surrender of ourselves to the lord
generally hinges upon some one particular thing and
God is after that one thing.
He must have it.
He must have our all.
I was greatly impressed by something a great
national leader wrote in his autobiography.
I want nothing for myself, I want everything
for my country.
If a man can be willing that his
country should have everything and he himself nothing,
cannot we say to our God, Lord, I
want nothing for myself, I want all for
thee.
I will what thou willest and I want
to have nothing outside thy will.
Not until we take the place of a
servant can he take place as lord.
He is not calling us to devote ourselves
to his cause.
He is asking us to yield ourselves to
his will.
Are you willing for anything he wills?
A forgiven sinner is quite different from an
ordinary sinner and a consecrated Christian is quite
different from an ordinary Christian.
May the Lord bring us to a definite
issue regarding the question of his lordship.
If we do yield wholly to him and
claim the power of the indwelling spirit, we
need wait for no special feelings or supernatural
manifestations, but can simply look up and praise
him that something has already happened.
We can confidently thank him that the glory
of God has already filled his temple.
Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God and that the spirit of God
dwelleth in you?
Know ye not that your body is a
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have from God?