THE POWER
[p. 413] THE POWER
The subject I desire to bring before you this evening is the new power, the power upon the earth for the Lord. When Noah was saved, and had entered upon what we call a cleansed earth, he offered a burnt-offering, and was accepted. Then God gave him power to subdue everything. This typifies the new order of power. Noah had been redeemed, and he is now declared to be in favour with God. “The Lord smelled a sweet savour”; he is now in favour with God where he was before under judgment, and not only in favour, but he was given power; all typical of our times. Alas! he soon lost his power by not ruling himself. The measure of your power is always the measure in which you are able to rule yourself; you never have power beyond it. The apostle says of those who were puffed up, I will know not your speech, but your power. Power is the gift of God. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power”. Noah was a striking type of the wonderful grace we are set in; we are not only a redeemed people, not only in divine favour, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Romans the order is, He was “delivered for our offences, and has been raised for our justification”, which is the effect of His work; and then, “having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom we have also access by faith into this favour”. We are in favour, but that is not all; “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”.
I have read these two verses in John, because one sets forth the power of the Holy Spirit with respect to Christ as He was on the earth; the other sets forth [p. 414] how the Holy Spirit testifies of Him in glory. The one is for our own individual comfort, and the other is for the testimony of the glorified Man. We will look at them in their order.
In chapter 14 it is the Father who sends the Holy Spirit. May we understand the gravity of it. No christian denies the fact that the Spirit of God works here. It is denied that He is dwelling here. In John 14: 17 it is thus insisted on: “He abides with you, and shall be in you”. The world would not see Him, but in a twofold way He would be here - in the individual temple (or sacred edifice, for that is what temple means) and in the collective temple.
The Lord, before He leaves the earth, is here opening out to His disciples, as I have already gone over, His provision for His own during His absence. In verse 26 He tells us how this great power comes. The Father sends Him! May we enter into the wonderful nature of this favour - a Messenger from the Father! An angel? No; but a divine Person.
The Father has sent the Holy Spirit in the name of the One dearest to our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the Messenger of the Father. The first thing is that He is sent of the Father. “Whom the Father will send in my name”. I ask you to meditate on it, that your souls may enter into the reality of it.
Mark that the Holy Spirit is sent in the name of Jesus, who had declared the Father, as He, the Lord, says in this chapter, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. It is not here the Father as He is in heaven, which we get in John 17: 1, “Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee”. Here it is how the Father has been declared on the earth.
I turn to Mark 1 to present to you a line which will interest and help you. I turn to Mark’s gospel because it is so completely in the servant character. I want [p. 415] you to see how the blessed Lord set forth the Father here. This book presents everything in a new fashion. A Man come upon the earth, declaring the heart of God, of the Father from whom He came - that is the subject.
In Mark 1: 23, “There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit”. I must speak of it briefly, because I want merely to set you on the line of inquiry, and as you pursue it you will be helped. Here there is an unclean spirit in a man in the synagogue, but there is a Man there also who is the Son of God. The unclean spirit cried out, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And .. . he came out of him”. Just think of such a thing. He came to “destroy the works of the devil”. He will set forth the heart of the Father. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. The unclean spirit must come out of the man. He will lift off the pressure on the human family.
Mark 1 and 2 embrace the range or scope of human suffering - the unclean spirit, satanic power; the fever, which is natural excitement; the leper, which is sin contaminable; and the palsy, which is natural powerlessness. Each one is relieved of the pressure under which he lay. Thus Jesus sets forth the heart of God, though as yet the soul is not turned to God.
The first thing I want you to accept is that the Son of God has come, and that He has opened out an entirely new order, never heard of before. Great as the pool of Bethesda, the ministry of angels, was, there is much more here. Jesus declares that He can remove all the pressure on the human family. In the first two chapters He deals with the pressure itself - the unclean spirit, the fever, the leper, and the palsy.
Turn now to chapter 5. Here He is dealing with the man’s state, not merely with the pressure. The man with the legion is not only relieved of the pressure, but follows the Lord and desires to be with Him. He changes masters. The unclean spirit was his master; Christ is now his Master. The woman that touched the hem of His garment is made whole; she has now found Christ. And thirdly, the damsel, at His word, arose and walked. But I trust I have given you samples enough to induce you to search for yourselves. As you study the gospels you will learn how the heart of God has been declared; not in helping man through the world, but setting him morally above all that is in the world, as Christ was here.
The Father now sends this great, this competent Person, the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name. The Lord lead your souls into the magnitude of this grace.
In a former day we get a figure of this great blessing. Elijah was going away, just as here Christ was going away, and Elijah turns to Elisha and says, “Ask what I shall do for thee”. What was the answer? Oh! beloved friends, often it rebukes one. The one thought in Elisha’s heart was that he might have the spirit of his master, that was the one thing paramount with him. If the Lord had put that question to you, what would be your answer? If I put it to christendom, what would be the answer? Elisha said, “I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me”. As much as to say, If I have your spirit, I can face this world without you; nothing can make up to me for your absence but a double portion of your spirit. Can you honestly say that it is even so with you, that nothing can make up to you for the absence of your Lord but the Holy Spirit? The Lord does not say to you, Ask what I shall do for thee. He asks the Father to send to you the Holy Spirit. “I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter”. “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all [p. 417] things, and will bring to your remembrance all the things which I have said to you”. You may say that is addressed to the apostles. But we derive from the apostles; and in the gospels we learn the way the Holy Spirit came in Christ’s name and brought all things to their remembrance; and I believe, however little we manifest it, that even here we can part company with our own surroundings for Christ’s. When Elisha received Elijah’s spirit, what did he do? He took up his own clothes and tore them in two pieces, as much as to say, I have done with them. He was ready for the mantle of Elijah which fell from him, the very mantle in which Elijah walked here. Can anything be more attractive to your heart than that, in the very scene where you had been contrary to God, He by His favour should enable you to be here in any wise similar to His own Son when on the earth? Can anything move your heart more? Yet here is the cause of all failure; and surely, unless the Holy Spirit thus comforts you in the absence of our Lord, by unfolding to you from Christ in heaven His manner of life here, you will not be able to enter into verse 26 of the next chapter, which sets forth the power to testify of Christ in glory.
This is another mission, but the same Comforter. “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me”. This is very definite. He is not only a Comforter to you, as we have seen in chapter 14, but now “He shall testify of me”. The construction of the passage is very peculiar; because naturally it would run thus. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, you shall testify of me. The Comforter is sent to you, but it is definitely stated that He is the power to testify of the glorified Christ; it is not, You shall testify of me, but “He shall testify of me”.
[p. 418] Let us revert a little to the preceding part of the chapter. John 15 refers to profession and service, how we are found here for Him. The Lord says, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” - a known thing in the world, that you would die for the brethren. In chapter 13 it is the love that washes the feet, that is private; this is public, you are thus known. Then He announces to them that while they would be a company most devoted to one another, they would be the object of the world’s unrelenting hatred.
The Jew here is called the world. Christ’s “own” are outside the world, a company most devoted to one another, like an island in the midst of a ruthless sea; but the world, like the sea, would oppose and hate them. The world is man’s organisation, and therefore it is opposed to God’s organisation on the earth. “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father”. In such a case one might suppose that the world would soon swamp us. The Lord then tells them of this new power: “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father .. . he shall testify of me”. The Holy Spirit will testify of Christ in glory. He who was rejected here, from the glory sends the Comforter. There is now on the earth a competent Person, the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, to testify on earth of the glorified Jesus. On the one side, the Comforter opens out to you Christ as He was on the earth; and the more you dwell on Him as thus presented, the more profoundly will you be entranced by the disclosure; you learn the Father through Him on the earth. The Holy Spirit from a glorified Christ can only reveal the Father as He was known to Jesus on the earth. But there is another side. The same Holy Spirit, who has brought down to you from heaven Christ as He was on the earth, now enables you here on earth to testify of a glorified Christ.
[p. 419] I am bringing before you the Holy Spirit in the two aspects.
I would now call your attention to John 15: 26. In chapter 16 the Lord says, “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. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take (receive) of mine, and shall shew it unto you”.
I wish to show you how the Holy Spirit acts for Christ, and how He leads you in connection with the testimony. There are two actions quite distinct. One is that you are contrary to the world. Here the Holy Spirit who comforted you in John 14 connects you with the testimony. If He leads you, you must be in the testimony. The Holy Spirit is the same Person with two offices. A man might be a father and a husband, two distinct duties, but he is the same man. You cannot enjoy Him in chapter 14 and be indifferent to Him in chapter 15. You cannot separate Him; you cannot say, I will have one service from Him and decline the other. Elisha desired to represent Elijah; and you are here to represent Christ, to be in any wise a testimony of that One whom the world rejected. Can anything be more wonderful than that you are left down here to be a witness of Christ in His exaltation?
[p. 420] It is not only that your heart is comforted and supported by the wonderful revelations of His life on the earth, how His resource was in the Father; but besides this, the Holy Spirit has come down here to testify of the glorified Christ in the scene of His rejection. You have to learn Christ in His humiliation in order to walk here. This is the first service of the Comforter, and an immense one.
You have not to make out a path for yourself; you are led into His path here, and His grace in it. The Holy Spirit also comes from the glorified Christ to “testify of me”. He does this in a two-fold way. He demonstrates the condition of this world, “He will reprove the world of sin”; the world is exposed by Him. It is not that they are convinced by Him; and though no one is converted without His work, the world is simply exposed or convicted. Many a culprit is convicted who is not convinced; conviction is not conversion. The Holy Spirit here is a direct witness against the world. No language could present the world in a more fearful light. If I descend to an illustration, the Holy Spirit is in the witness-box, and His incontrovertible testimony of the world is sin. Three letters, “SIN”, are written on it, “because they believe not on me”. I do not want the statistics of crime to prove the world’s guilt. The simple fact is that the Holy Spirit is here because the world would not believe in Christ; this is their sin. If you have the Holy Spirit who is here for Christ, you cannot have the world who would not have Him. If you are in company with the Holy Spirit, you must convict the world of sin. As sin is on the world, there is no righteousness there. Hence, “Of righteousness, because I go to my Father”. Finally there must be judgment; “the prince of this world is judged”. Thus you are in direct antagonism to the world. Compare the world to the current of a river; you in company with the Holy Spirit are the wind right [p. 421] against the current. The Holy Spirit and the world are diametrically opposed to one another. I believe nothing has damaged saints more than the countenance of the world. Someone has said of a handbill announcing a preaching, that it was trafficking on the world’s admission of christianity. Nay, it is more - it is superseding the action and power of the Holy Spirit. The world and the Spirit of God could not amalgamate. You must co-operate with one or the other; you will be found in the dock or in the witness-box. Most anomalous is the picture of a christian with one foot in the dock and the other in the witness-box. You like to be of the Spirit, but you do not like altogether to give up the world. The Lord deliver us from half-heartedness in following Him!
Turn to Acts 16, that we may learn the right way to meet the countenance of the world; naturally we all like it. In history we read how the church first accepted countenance from Constantine; that was in Europe, where we are; we are in the Latin kingdom. In Acts 16: 9 we read, “A vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us”. And in verse 12 he came “to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days”. This is Paul’s first visit that we know of to Europe. As the book of Acts is a book of precedents, we learn there how things were done. It does not appear that Paul met with any man, though in the vision it was a man of Macedonia who besought him to come. When in this strait, a woman with a spirit of divination proclaims him in language he could not object to. “And this did she many days”. Paul refuses this help or countenance; he was distressed, “turned, and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her”. The spirit came out of her, and forthwith as a consequence [p. 422] not a power in the place, from the magistrate down to the mob, that was not against Paul and Silas. They were beaten and cast into prison. It was illegal to imprison a Roman uncondemned; Paul does not object. The jailor, having been charged to keep them safely, “Thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks”; then he retired to his rest. But when all was in the deep silence of midnight, another power, the power of God, is made known. It is this power I want you to believe in. If we had trusted in no power but God’s, we should have made a remarkable impression on our brethren in the world. The power of God shook the prison, and the bonds of all were loosed. The jailor, the man of Macedonia, is awakened in his conscience: “he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas .. .and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Here we learn to refuse the countenance of the world, and to reckon assuredly on the power of God.
Let us now turn back to our chapter, John 16. The Holy Spirit will lead you in moral contrast to the world. The presence of the Holy Spirit demonstrates the guilt of the world. May God keep us from touching it, and from accepting any countenance from it. You should not accept a dead wall for a placard, because you have the power of God for Christ on the earth. If you are not in communion with the Holy Spirit as to the world in refusing it, you will not know His recompense. If you do not accept Him in the first, you cannot have the second. He exposes the world to you on the one side, and on the other, “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. He will show heavenly things to you on the earth. Now you have Ephesian light. “Mine” here means things; heavenly things are made known to you, what “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man” - that is, the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit, who has enabled you to take a stand against the world where Christ was rejected, compensates you by making known to you the Father’s things. And I have remarked in my experience that the servant who refused to receive support from anyone except the Holy Spirit, the only One competent to bear witness of Christ in heaven, was largely compensated by the knowledge of heavenly things. On the other hand, I never saw a man who accepted the world’s support and availed himself of every help he could for the Lord’s work, that was given the heavenly compensation; he could not get it, because he was not in the way to get it. May we understand the blessedness of the compensation! It is not merely the place; “Mine” imparts to the things the greatest charm. “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you”.
I need not add more, beloved friends. The greatest gain from an exposition of the word you will acquire in your private meditation. The Lord grant that each of you may learn the immense blessing this scripture unfolds to you as you draw near the Lord. There is much of scripture known to you, but until you have been drawn to the Lord to lead you into it, you are not really in it. He only can make true to you, that which He has in His infinite grace made true for you. When beholding the Lord’s glory we are transformed. You may be as clear as possible as to its meaning, but until in prayer you are before the Lord, counting on Him to make good His word in you, you have not faith in Him. Your prayers are the measure of your real desires, and be assured you get what you value. “He that seeketh findeth”. It is very humbling; “he that seeketh findeth”. There is an immensity belonging to us of which we have apprehended very little.
[p. 424] The Lord bring before our hearts that the Holy Spirit has come down to reside in each of us, has been given to us. It is not that He can come and go; you can grieve Him and you can quench Him, but still He is here. The Lord grant that we may enter into the reality of this new power. To you has been given a power equal to the power which effected everything for you according to God’s pleasure, in order that all may be true to you which is already true of you, and thus what is true of you will be true to you, if you are walking in the Spirit of God.
The Lord grant that each of our hearts may be more before Him, so that we may understand the greatness of His gift to us.