Part 16 (2/2)

The object of the Holy Ghost, like that of an artist, is to picture Jesus upon the canvas and make Him real to us, while the blessed Actor Himself is, in a measure, out of sight.

The more we are filled with the Holy Ghost, the more we recognize Christ, depend upon Christ, live upon Christ alone. Therefore this very word ”filled” is used in connection with Him.

In Colossians 2: 9, 10, we have these two remarkable relative verses, ”In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the G.o.dhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him.” Literally translated, it reads, ”In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the G.o.dhead in a bodily form, and ye are filled with Him.” G.o.d fills Jesus; Jesus fills us. Christ is the ideal man, the pattern of what a man should be, and G.o.d has put into Him all that humanity needs to be to satisfy Him; therefore, in order that we should be true men, we must relive His life, reproduce His personality, receive Him, grow up into Him, and live Him in all the completeness of His glorious life.

So we read, ”Of His fullness have all we received, even grace for grace.” We ourselves are insufficient for every situation, and the great business of the Holy Ghost is to bring us up to the situations of life and show us our insufficiency, and then reveal to us Christ and bring Him into our life as the supply of our needs. So in connection with that wonderful promise of the Holy Ghost in the fourteenth chapter of John, the true sequel is, ”I am the Vine, ye are the branches. Abide in Me and I in you. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing.”

This is the life into which the Holy Ghost brings us, the life of personal union with and constant dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. To be filled with the Spirit, then, is to be filled with Christ, and so live that our constant experience and testimony will be, ”I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of G.o.d, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

2. To be filled with the Spirit will exclude the life of self and sin, and will, of course, bring us into a life of holiness, righteousness and obedience.

We read in Exodus 40: 34, 35, that ”when the cloud of the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation; because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

This is the true picture of a Spirit-filled man. The indwelling and in-filling of the Holy Spirit excludes self and sin. There is no room for Moses when the glory of G.o.d fills our being.

3. The filling of the Holy Ghost will bring us joy and fullness of joy. ”These things have I spoken unto you, ”the Master said after He had given us the promise of the Spirit, ”that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” And so the apostle prays that ”the G.o.d of hope may fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.”

The fullness of the Spirit must crowd out pain, doubt, fear and sorrow, and bring the joy of Christ to fill our being. What is it that makes the melody in an organ? It is not the touch of skillful fingers only on the keys, but it is the filling of the pipes by the movement of the pedals. I may try in vain to play the most skillful tune, unless the organ is filled; and so our songs of praise are dead and cold until the breath of G.o.d fills all the channels of our being. Then comes the heart-song of praise and the overflowing fountain of gladness.

4. So all the fruits of the Spirit come from the Spirit-filled heart. ”The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance.” These are all fruits or, at least, the fruit of the Spirit, and spring spontaneous from the fullness of the Holy Ghost.

When, a few years ago, I stood at Hebron and looked at the pool of David and saw it overflowing, my friend turned to me, and said, ”This is the token by which we know that the valleys of Judea are filled with water, and its plains will be covered with fertility and luxuriance. The rains have been abundant because the pool of David is full at Hebron, and the sources of irrigation are ample.”

And so when the heart is full of G.o.d, the life will be full of G.o.dliness. Spontaneously and sweetly will spring up all the fruits of righteousness, holiness and blessing, and ”the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

5. Again, the Holy Ghost can fill our minds and understandings with knowledge and light, and control our thoughts with harmony and sweetness and strength. The peace of G.o.d that pa.s.seth all understanding will keep our hearts and minds, and our thoughts will be stayed upon Him, and ”brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

6. Yes, our very bodies will feel the fullness. The Holy Ghost is a true tonic for physical energy and perfect health. The fullness of the Spirit is the elixir for body and brain and being. To be filled with His blessed life will make our feet spring, our nerves steady, our brain strong, our circulation regular, and our whole being at its best for G.o.d and holy service.

7. Then, also, our very circ.u.mstances keep time to the blessed fullness of the heart within.

Like the widow's pot of oil that flowed out into every vessel, so the presence of G.o.d touches everything that comes into our life, and we find that all things work together for good to us if we love G.o.d and fulfill His purpose.

Our circ.u.mstances will become adjusted to us, or we become adjusted to our circ.u.mstances, and the whole of our life, ”fitly framed together,” will become vigorous, and full of power and blessing.

8. The blessing will no longer be expended upon itself; but we shall have enough and to spare; it will overrun until there is not room to receive it, and the residue will become the inheritance of a suffering world. These are the lives G.o.d uses, and G.o.d cannot use us until we are running over.

It was when Cana's water was poured out that it was changed from water into wine. It was when Ezekiel's river ran from the sanctuary to the desert that it grew deeper and broader and fuller. And it is when our lives are lost in selfforgetting love that we know all the fullness of G.o.d.

III. HOW MAY WE BE FILLED?.

1. We must be empty.

I have a phonograph into whose sensitive gelatine cylinders I dictate my literary work. One busy day, I dictated a large amount of matter, filling up every cylinder. I spent nearly two days getting through a great amount of literary labor, and felt very much relieved that it was off my hands.

But when my typist proceeded to copy the messages which I had spoken to these cylinders, she could not understand the words, they were all jargon and confusion. The reason was very simple. I had neglected to shave off the former dictation before giving the new message. I had really dictated a lot of matter into ears that were already filled and, therefore, it had made no impression. My work was lost, my labor was in vain. But I learned a lesson that was worth all it cost, and that is, that we must be empty before we can be filled. G.o.d cannot speak His messages into full ears. The Holy Ghost cannot pour His fullness into those who are already full.

2. We must be hungry. For ”He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich hath He sent away empty.” The caravans on the burning desert, when they cannot find the accustomed well of water, let loose the thirsty harts and they sweep over the burning plains, panting with thirst, until they find the water brooks.

And so the hungry heart always finds the living bread, the thirsty soul is always filled with water. There is nothing that finds G.o.d so quickly as an earnest soul. We always find Him when ”we search for Him with all our hearts.”

3. We must be open if we would be filled. ”Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” We must be free from prejudice and preconceptions of truth that shut us up from G.o.d's voice. We must be adjusted so as to catch His whisper and understand His will.

4. We must receive as well as ask; we must believe as well as pray; we must take the water of life freely; we must know the secret of drinking the living water, if we would be filled.

5. We must wait upon the Lord. The heart is too large to be filled in a moment; the soul is too great to be satisfied with a mere mouthful. ”They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” We must ”continue in prayer”; we must be much at the throne of grace; we must learn the secret of communion as well as supplication; and as we thus wait upon the Lord, we shall be filled until we shall find it a luxury to give forth our blessing to others.

6. And finally, if we would be filled, we must learn to give as well as receive; we must empty our hearts, that they may be refilled. G.o.d is a great economist and He loves to bless those who make the best use of their blessings, and become in turn a source of blessing to others.

The Holy Ghost is given for service; G.o.d cannot bless a selfish soul; and there is no selfishness more odious in His sight than that which can h.o.a.rd G.o.d's spiritual blessing, and let others die in ignorance of the gospel, and suffer through selfish neglect.

”The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth others shall be watered himself.” In this blessed work of winning the lost and giving the gospel to the world, we shall find our own rich reward, and ”the fullness of the blessing of Christ.”

Chapter 10.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

”But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of G.o.d dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Rom. 8: 9.

We approach, in this great epistle, a spiritual temple, and from its illuminated windows there s.h.i.+ne out the beams of lofty and divine truth. It is so glorious that it needs only to be stated to bring its own illumination and vindication. This, the greatest of the epistles, presents to us the doctrine of the Holy Ghost with a symmetry and fullness quite as remarkable as the unfolding of the other doctrines which it contains.

I.

First, we have the witnessing Spirit. In Romans 1: 3, 4, the Lord Jesus Christ is said to have been ”of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of G.o.d with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

The Spirit of holiness has been interpreted to mean the divine nature of Jesus Christ, but it is quite proper and, indeed, a more simple interpretation to apply it directly to the Holy Ghost as a divine Person, witnessing to the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, by raising Him from the dead according to the will of the Father.

The Holy Ghost was ever the witness to Christ's divinity, and the Spirit Who had so distinct a part in the offering up of His sacrifice (for it was ”by the eternal Spirit that He offered Himself to G.o.d without spot”) had surely as important a part in His resurrection. This is the first view we love to take of the Holy Spirit, as the Witness of Jesus, and especially of the risen Jesus, the living Christ, and the divine Lord.

II.

We next see the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of life and holiness. In Romans 8: 2, we read, ”The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

This is the first work of the Holy Ghost in sanctifying the soul. Let us carefully notice the place where this comes in. It is subsequent to our justification by faith and our surrender to Christ in death and resurrection. Then the Holy Spirit comes and takes possession of us and breathes into us the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. This becomes a new law of life and power in our spiritual being, and this new law lifts us above and sets us free from the old law of sin and death.

Just as the law of life lifts us above the law of gravitation, and the power of my will can raise my hand in spite of that physical law which makes dead matter fall to the ground, so the Holy Ghost, bringing Christ as a living presence into my heart and life, establishes a new law of feeling, thinking, choosing, and acting, and this new law lifts me above the power of sin and makes it natural for me to be holy, obedient, and Christ-like.

III.

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