SOME SERVICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

D. Robertson

Romans 5: 3–5; 8: 26–28; 14: 16–18; 15: 13

I desire to say a word, beloved brethren, with regard to some of the services of the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful fact that the Holy Spirit is actually here, not merely influentially, but actually, and He is here operatively. You remember in the beginning of Acts that the Lord Jesus charged them by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1: 2). I think He was indicating the character of the dispensation that was about to begin, our own dispensation, and involved that a divine Person would come down from heaven to take charge of divine interests on the earth in this dispensation. The brethren will be well acquainted with Mr. Raven’s well-known remark as to the great vital features that mark the dispensation; that there is a Man in heaven, and God is here, the Holy Spirit is here. These are the two cardinal features of Christianity; that Christ as Man is in the presence of God, and the Holy Spirit, as to His Person God, is here on this earth with men; not with men generally but with those who believe. Ruin has come into the church’s public history, but it has not in one whit altered the glorious fact that the Holy Spirit is here; and He is in charge of divine interests on the earth. It is as true of the closing days of the dispensation as it was of the early days. Divine interests down here remain in the charge of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit remains and He can be trusted. I leave the question with each of our souls, Are we really in the trust of the Holy Spirit?

Now I wanted to speak of these four passages in Romans, and firstly of this one in chapter 5

where it says, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. I wonder if we are really conscious of that operation of the Holy Spirit, shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts?

You young men and women, are you conscious of it? The love of God, we may say, objectively, has been set out in all its glorious effulgence in the cross. As I understand it there are two great matters connected to the cross of Christ. One is that there was—the judgment of sin, that involves judicial glory, but it is also declarative. Where sin has been judged God’s love has been declared. The hymn expresses it well, ‘Inscribed upon the cross we see, In shining letters, God is love’. What this scripture suggests is that it has not only been displayed objectively but it is being shed abroad in the hearts of believers. That is, as I understand it, the subjective influence and power of the love of God is to be known in your heart and in mine. It has been shed abroad. It is not now a single act as seen in the cross in the declaration of God, but the effect of it is known throughout the whole dispensation in persons like you and me who have come, through the grace of God, to know Christ as Lord and Saviour, and have been brought into the joy of that love being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. What a glorious matter it is! I remember a remark from the ministry of Mr.

Raven as to this matter. He said that the first breath the Christian takes spiritually is in the love of God. Have you ever breathed in the love of God? Have you ever felt, spiritually speaking, your inwards being filled with the love of God? It is the service of One who Himself is a divine Person, to shed abroad the love of God in the hearts of believers. It is a wonderful satisfying subjective experience.

Think of God being interested in our hearts. Young men and women, boys and girls, think of God being interested in your heart. Just think of the pollution that is in this world through lust; of all the obnoxious influences that are at work very definitely in our own day; of the terrible dilemma that authorities face in this world through the influence of drugs, and drink, and all these other things. What is the answer to it? The answer is the love of God “shed abroad in our hearts by

the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. I think it is one of the most satisfying experiences that enters into the believer’s early history, and remains there, that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. One would long that the Holy Spirit Himself would serve you to make it attractive to you, that you might see the vital importance of it, that your heart should become an area that is filled with the satisfying influence and power of the love of God. In Romans 8 we read of “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8: 39). There it is, in that blessed Man, shining in all its effulgence. The love of God has been made known by Him, and it is shining in Him where He is. It says, “the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6. Have you ever wondered what eternity will be like? No doubt you have had some little taste of it, and no doubt it has filled your soul with a sense of wonderment. Think of what it will be when the whole of the universe will be held in the radiancy of the face of a blessed Man. And what is the radiancy? It is the effulgence of the love of God; that is the same love that is to permeate and fill your heart. God intends it to affect and invigorate and satisfy your whole moral being.

In speaking about the intercessory power of the Holy Spirit, I would like to speak a word of comfort. There is a great deal of pressure among the brethren, a great deal of sorrow. I am sure all of us have known pressures, some of them very great. I wonder if you have ever considered and experienced the intercessory power of the Holy Spirit. It says, “in like manner the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness”. There is a footnote which says, ‘It means—to take up a person’s cause, so as to help him’. Think of the Spirit drawing near to you in a time of distress, in a time of trouble. I trust we are all conscious of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, but think of Him at a particular time of trouble drawing near to you, joining Its help to your weakness. Have you

ever experienced that? In the Old Testament we read about a man standing by (Ezekiel 43: 6), but think of the Spirit joining Its help to your weakness. There is your weakness on one hand, and here is the Holy Spirit joining Its help to it. Does it make a difference? Surely it does. In Hebrews we read of those who became strong out of weakness (Hebrews 11: 34), and you find that. I speak tenderly to my brethren, but you find that in a time of great weakness you are made strong. The burden may seem almost unbearable, but there comes a point in the experience when the Spirit joins Its help to your weakness. May you experience it, beloved brethren. When you are going through trial, through sorrow, through pressure of one kind and another, the Spirit would draw near to you and join Itself to your weakness.

Then it goes on to say, “for we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting”. I do not think I am speaking of something that the brethren have not proved. There are times, I am sure, in your history, as there have been in mine, when you do not know what to pray for.

You might say you have come to your end. Natural resources that you relied upon are no use to you then. These are real experiences, “but the Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered”, it is the perfect understanding of our best Friend on earth. That is what the Spirit is, He is our best Friend on earth. Oh you young people, get that into your souls. Learn to speak to Him, learn to rely upon Him, learn to trust Him for His services. There is a depth about it, “with groanings which cannot be uttered”. No doubt that is reflective of the deep exercise that you yourself are undergoing. The Lord groaned. In Mark’s gospel there are at least two occasions where it says the Lord groaned. These were situations that involved depth of feeling. It says here, “the Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered”. I do not know what more to say, but it involves a very definite experience with the Holy Spirit and a very

definite sense of the way He would serve you at a particular time in your history. That particular time might be right now. Who knows what souls are going through in this very room, but the Spirit is available to serve us in this wonderful way. Then it says, “But he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit”. Now I suppose that is God Himself.

God is the heart-knowing God. What a comfort that is. He knows what is in your heart right at this moment. It may be grief that is in your heart, but God knows it. Is He not the heart-knowing God? He surely is. “He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit”. It is almost as if the Spirit is interpreting the anguish that is in your heart. One does not want to bring anything novel in, but it seems to me it is that. We might say, He is determining the depth of your exercise. No one else understands. Your best friend humanly speaking does not understand. Your husband, your wife may not understand; they understand much but they do not understand this; but the Spirit’s mind is involved in it and He understands, and God understands.

Then it says, “because he intercedes for saints according to God”. What a precious word that is. We may not know how to pray but “we do know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose”. I do not know if you understand that verse or not, but it is a wonderful verse of scripture. It is not exactly individual good that is being spoken about, it is the system of good. That is what is developed in the Roman epistle. Persons are being adjusted in relation to the will of God, and they are being given to see where they fit into the great system of good over against the evil. That was what was settled at the cross. The great issue of good and evil was settled at the cross.

Romans works that out in the history of the believer. Romans 6 is that the believer’s position publicly is clarified in relation to this world. You see what the world is, and your position in relation to that in Romans 6. But Romans 7 involves

that you are beginning to get clear inwardly; the inward man is coming to light, and clarification is coming into the inwards. What flows from that is a priestly expression, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7: 25). That is a priestly expression as a result of the clarification of the inwards. How vital and necessary the experience of Romans 7

is! It is all part of the adjustment so that you might find your part in this great system of good.

It is not only God doing you good as an individual, although He will do that. The psalmist says, Jehovah is good and He doeth good. But it is more than that here. He is fitting you into this great system of good. God is going to display in the world to come what He has done in the presence of a system of evil. He has formed the system of good morally in persons, and in the world to come these very same persons will show forth in display the handiwork of God and His moral glory. So it says, “we do know that all things work together for good”. You might not see it as to you yourself individually, but I think what God would show you is, that in all these exercises He passes you through, it is like God putting another stitch into this great system of good, weaving another piece into the fabric. He is weaving another piece of the fabric in through all the exercises of the believer. So triumph comes out of the weakness.

The triumph is that all the formation that has taken place, and the enriched knowledge you have of the Spirit’s operations in it, and the knowledge of God Himself, you begin to see it all fitting into this great system of good, that will be shining in its moral display in all its lustre in the world to come.

I want to say a brief word on Romans 14 where it says, “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking”. One fundamental important fact I believe we need to understand is that Christianity is not material. It is not that we ourselves are not physical, and things have to work out in our circumstances, but Christianity is moral and spiritual. That is a very great lesson to learn. What you learn earlier in the book is that the blessings of

Christianity are not like the blessings of the Old Testament. The blessings of God in the Old Testament were largely measured materially, that is, God gave a man more cows or more sheep, great possessions, and what was reflected in that was that God had prospered that man.

That is not like Christianity. You could have nothing in your pocket and yet have the blessings of Christianity. In fact it is generally true that the less you have materially, the more you enjoy the blessings of Christianity. I have often thought very simply like this, if the blessings of Christianity depended, for instance, on the monetary value of any currency, what a terrible thing when the slump came and the currency was devalued. What would happen to your blessing then? It would go down. The blessings of Christianity are invariable, there is no change in them. The blessings of Christianity are established in a Man out of death. That is the standard of the blessings of Christianity; they are beyond the reach and the range of death.

That is why they are called spiritual blessings by Paul in Ephesians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Ephesians 1: 3. Spiritual blessings are not affected by circumstances, not even by death. These blessings remain and they remain in their absoluteness. They are moral and spiritual in character.

So Paul says, “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. These are the great elements of the kingdom of God. I have been speaking about man being adjusted in relation to the will of God, that is, he is adjusted on the ground of righteousness. It is not merely righteousness in the sense that you pay your dues, that is involved in it, but righteousness in the sense that all your relationships are right; your relationships with God are right; your relationships with your wife, your children, your family and with your brethren are right. That is righteousness. You see the scope of it.

Righteousness is the bond. We have been

taught that righteousness is the bond of the moral universe, and is the bond, we may say, morally, of Christianity in operation. It is that strong bond that permeates the whole structure of Christianity and holds it together, and so it says it “is not eating and drinking, but righteousness”. It is a bond that cannot be usurped or overthrown, and it is more than that, it says “and peace”. What a wonderful thing that is, peace. I am not speaking about something that is merely a false complacency, I am talking about this deep inward matter of peace; peace in your own heart and peace also in our relationships with one another. Beloved brethren, have we got that? There are some localities at the moment where there is not peace among the brethren. You feel it. And I will tell you the reason for that is that the principles of the kingdom of God somewhere are being usurped. May we know what it is to have peace.

Does it not say, “Pursue peace with all, and holiness”, Hebrews 12: 14? May we learn what to do, beloved brethren, in these solid principles of the kingdom of God operating amongst us.

Then it says finally, “joy in the Holy Spirit”. It is all in the Holy Spirit. These great elements are workable, they are operating in the Holy Spirit. You see what marks the kingdom of God.

How solid it is and substantial. I believe that the kingdom of God operates. We have been taught it involves the moral sway of God in the soul. God’s supremacy is understood.

Redemption if understood brings you to that. What you see in Exodus 15 is that the people were brought to acknowledge the supremacy of God. The soul today, as coming under the value of the redemptive work of Christ and following the moral lines of Christianity, is brought to the point where you accept gratefully that God is supreme. You are under new control, you are under new authority. There is no question now of your own will, no question now of being dictated to by the world and its purposes, but you are under a new authority; you are under God’s authority, and it is all operating in the power

of the Holy Spirit. How substantial and great these matters are. Much more could be said of it, but I leave that thought with you. It says, “For he that in this serves the Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men”.

Now finally this verse in chapter 15, which says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing”. I believe that is to be a characteristic thing with us. It is not that the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as having believed, but “in believing”; that is, you have to be a characteristic believer. You are believing today and you will be believing tomorrow, and you will be believing as long as the Lord leaves you here. It says, “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that ye should abound in hope”. May you be encouraged, beloved brother and sister, to abound in hope. We need to abound in hope, because I find that the quality of hope can diminish pretty fast. Abound in it! There is a triumphant thought in that, an overcoming thought, a superior thought. The believer is abounding in hope. Now you see that in a man like Habakkuk, who says that even though the stalls are empty his trust in God would remain unshaken (Habakkuk 3: 17). He was a man who was typically abounding in hope. We have seen that in our own lifetimes in persons in very difficult circumstances, and yet they were abounding in hope. You could not take away from them what they had; they were abounding in hope. May we be like that. It says, “so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. There is the power for it. It is not the power of self-determination, it is not the power of some mighty resolution that is needed on your part, but it is the power that comes from the Holy Spirit.

One points out these services of the Spirit, and trusts the beloved brethren’s thoughts might be enriched by them; and that there may be a conviction in each of our souls, in each of our minds, that these are the things

that we need to lay hold of, and not let them go. Beloved brother, beloved sister, no matter what happens, do not let them go, cling to them. The Spirit is here and He is here in the dispensation, and He is here to serve you, He is here to serve me. He is here of course to serve the whole church, and how faithfully He has served, but thank God He is available to each one of us. Typically Samson came into the knowledge of that. You remember how it says he thirsted, and then he found that there was something available; that something was the caller’s spring (Judges 15: 19). I remember a brother saying, ‘You will find that the Spirit of God is never further away than the distance of a call’. Why do you not call upon Him? He is not far away. He is in you, but in His service He is not far from you. He is available as the caller’s spring to help you; whether it is to put that satisfying sense of the love of God in your heart; or to assure you through the mighty character of His intercessory service; or to keep you stable on the lines of the kingdom. That is sure and steadfast. It provides ground you can put your foot on, which will not move. Other things and other powers that you have relied on may go, but the power available in the kingdom of God is the power of the Holy Spirit and that is not shakeable. Then this final thought of what is available in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we might be filled with all joy and peace in believing and that we might abound in hope. It is all in view of that glorious day, that is soon coming, when our blessed Lord and Saviour will come and take us to Himself. May the brethren be encouraged, for His name’s sake.

Address at East Finchley
14 March 1998