THE SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER
[p. 86] THE SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER
Romans 8:1 - 17; Exodus 17:3 - 7; Numbers 21:17,18
— The scripture which we have read in the epistle to the Romans speaks of the Spirit of God. The passages from the Old Testament are illustrations and types of the passage we have read in Romans 8. My exercise is to see how the believer begins to make progress and go forward by the Spirit. When the light of God penetrates into our souls, we are brought to see what the world is and then what the flesh in ourselves is. This light tends to set us in movement, but we shall hardly make any progress before being assured that we have the Spirit of God, and it is only as consciously possessing the Spirit of God that permanent movement is produced. Unless the Spirit is recognised in the believer, and not grieved, we shall not make any progress whether individually or collectively. We shall stand still in a certain measure of light, but there will be no progress, nor growth.
In the fourth chapter of the gospel of John, the Spirit is introduced under the figure of living water, meaning refreshment and energy: it is the Spirit Himself in view of deliverance; in chapter 7, it is the Spirit in view of testimony.
— The Lord speaks of the Spirit which believers were going to receive; the Holy Spirit was not yet come because Jesus was not yet glorified.
— In Exodus 17, the people murmur. “There was no water for the people to drink. And the people contended with Moses” Exodus 17:1,2. Until the time when the young believer receives and recognises the Spirit, the tendency is always to murmur against God and against Christ. He can walk and live for some time by means of the light that he possesses; but until [p. 87] the moment when the Spirit is received and recognised, he is a persecutor. Moses had to say, “Yet a little, and they will stone me!”
— The difficulty was not in Moses, but in themselves.
— Here, God does not reproach them, but on the contrary He tells Moses to go to Horeb: “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shalt strike the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink”. That is to say that it was necessary that Christ should suffer on account of the state of our souls, in order that we might receive the Holy Spirit. Many believers have not yet seen that the Spirit is the direct answer to the sufferings of Christ, and that which necessitated the sufferings of Christ must be judged in me. The people would have stoned Moses, but God forsook the Lord Jesus on the cross. The sufferings of Christ upon the cross were from the hand of God Himself. What men might have been able to inflict upon Him would never have made propitiation. Christ suffered from men, but propitiation comes from what He suffered from God, from His own hand; from that point of view the death of Christ was to the intent that man should receive the Spirit from God. Having received the Spirit, the saints should be completely delivered from all murmuring. We appreciate the Holy Spirit as the result of the sufferings of Christ. Then the believer enters immediately into conflict. Formerly he had been the opposer; but now it is Satan who attacks him. At Rephidim, Amalek comes to fight against Israel. Amalek is Satan, who works by means of the flesh; from the moment I receive the Spirit, Satan attacks me. Amalek is not the flesh, but he is Satan who works by means of the flesh. After the reception of the Spirit the conflict begins, and the conflict continues. It says, “Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation!” Exodus 17:16. The conflict continues in the soul of the believer. The [p. 88] flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit is against the flesh.
— It is important to see that Amalek is Satan, and not the flesh; it is Satan, who attacks by means of the flesh.
— Then there is provision in our favour, in the intercession of Moses. “Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill” Exodus 17:10. Aaron the priest brings in the thought of holiness, and Hur, the thought of purity.
— Moses represents Christ.
— These three thoughts, seen in Moses, Aaron and Hur, are combined in the soul of the believer, who is conscious of the intercession of Christ and of the elements of holiness and purity. He begins to make progress according to God. You prove your nothingness, but you understand that Christ intercedes for you on high, and you have a sense of holiness. Christ has been raised by the Spirit of holiness, and it is the Holy Spirit who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. When it speaks of “the Holy Spirit”, there is a reference to what we are, meaning that the flesh is not to be tolerated. In order to benefit by the intercession of Christ, it is absolutely necessary to refuse the flesh; there must be holiness and purity. I am exercised to see that my motives are pure. Thus there is victory over Satan who works in these conditions by means of the flesh. I acquire the habit of overcoming, which will stand me in good stead later on, when I have put on the panoply of God and am able to withstand all the powers of wickedness which are in the heavenlies. The young believer then begins to learn in his soul what victory is. “He that ruleth his spirit (is better) than he that taketh a city” Proverbs 16:32. It would be good for us to search our souls and our hearts, to determine whether such victories are our daily experience.
— [p. 89] These three types are very interesting: Moses, Aaron and Hur.
— You have had some little experience of them in your soul, have you not? One would like every believer to be personally an overcomer; what lies at the very beginning of all spiritual progress is here, in the reception of the Spirit. Now, the believer learns to make war. Formerly, in the type, they were preserved from conflicts; Jehovah did not lead Israel the way of the Philistines, so that they should not see war on going out of Egypt; and at the Red Sea God intervened between the people and the Egyptians. The Lord is as a wall between us and our enemies. But this only took place at the beginning. On discovering that I possess the Spirit, I ought to defend myself.
— Then, have we the thought of the young men: “Ye are strong” 1 John 2:14?
— Possessing the Spirit, you have power in yourselves.
— In this chapter, it is not a question yet of victory they are in conflict.
— In verse 11 it says, “It came to pass when Moses raised his hand, that Israel prevailed” Exodus 17:11. At the beginning, the young believer has to learn what dependence is. At first, the conflict is uncertain, swaying from one side to the other; but in reality the believer overcomes; he proves victorious.
— For a moment there is uncertainty; but after a certain time, the believer has the assurance of victory.
— “I have strength for all things in him that gives me power” Philippians 4:13.
— One reaches that, but later on. Victory is only obtained through great exercise. It is good to understand that there is no question of victory without having anxiety. If Amalek prevails for a moment, it causes me anxiety. There cannot be weakness in our Moses, but the weakness is in that I am lacking [p. 90] in faith. A believer is established by passing through this experience.
Now, there is another figure: that is Joshua. I look at Joshua in conflict. He is a type of Christ not in an official but in a spiritual way. Joshua is not presented as occupying any official position. Up till now, he was simply Moses’ attendant, but now his military ability must be tested. This ability will be seen later, fully developed, in the armies of Jehovah. Here I catch a glimpse of Christ as military Leader of the armies of God. We do not see Joshua any more in that capacity for forty years, but we get a glimpse of what he is and what he will be. For the moment, it is a question of my own victory. So it says in verse 13, “Joshua broke the power of Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword” (Exodus 17:13); and that had to be written as a memorial, because it would need to be mentioned later.
— Joshua could not have appeared before the rock was struck.
— The memorial is to accompany the people.
— It is said that the rock that followed them was Christ.
— Yes. At the end of the seventh of Romans it says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) and then “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 7:25. I come into victory, and the door is thus opened for chapter 8. I have now arrived at a definite point: I am no longer in flesh but in Spirit; and I have arrived at this point through conflict, being supported by the Holy Spirit.
But before going on, there is the altar. Moses built an altar and gave it a name — Jehovah-Nissi, which means Jehovah my Banner. I have now an altar which involves a banner. I have gained this great victory thanks to the Lord. This altar is my public testimony. Henceforth I am not going to persecute [p. 91] the saints. I am not going to murmur and complain. The saints can look at me and say, There is someone who is useful to us! Last year he was constantly complaining, but now he is useful.
— I have my altar, and I have my banner.
— An altar means that I am in public relation with God. The banner is the public testimony.
— A banner can be displayed.
— You fight under this banner.
— We enter upon chapter 8 of Romans, do we not?
— Exactly. “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” Romans 8:25. There is the banner! It is God who has gained the victory, as the Psalmist says, “By thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall” Psalm 18:29.
— In the gospel of John, “He breathed into them, and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” John 20:22. The Holy Spirit is the result of Christ smitten and raised.
— Yes, that is indeed so in the eighth of Romans, but John 20 is further on than what we have here; it is rather a matter of entering the land, while in our passage in Exodus we are still at the threshold of the wilderness. The book of Numbers takes account of the people from that point of view, and they are set in military order, qualified for military service. They are all numbered, and each is in his place with relation to the tabernacle of testimony.
When we come to chapter 21 of Numbers, there is something to notice; that is that the people speak against God and against Moses. “Then Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, which bit the people; and much people of Israel died” Numbers 21:6. God is occupied with sin in its source. I have to learn not only what sin is in man, but what it is in Satan. The introduction of the serpent is to carry us back in mind to the third chapter of Genesis, so that the believer may see what sin is and whence it comes.
— [p. 92] There are these two questions: What is sin and what is its origin?
— “By law is knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20); in Romans 7 we see how sin works in me. But I must know its origin; that is why, in John’s writings, the Lord goes back to the origin. If it is a question of falsehood, Satan is a liar and the father of it; the devil sins from the beginning. He had sinned even before there was sin in Eden; so that in Numbers 21 we are occupied with the deepest things. We must be before God with regard to the whole question of sin, not only in men, but in Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ had to take it up in all these aspects. It is therefore a question of a serpent lifted up; which means that God, in the death of Christ, has taken up sin at its source, in such a way that it will never again raise itself against God. The thing has been dealt with at its source. God has rid Himself of it.
— What is the application of it for us now?
— We must be brought to see that Satan is against us, and that he has been against God.
— Men do not know it. If Satan is against God, he is also against man, and man ought to be brought to know it.
— The serpents bit the people (this is what we have to experience) and the only way of deliverance was to look up, to the serpent lifted up. God has dealt in righteousness with sin in its source. He who looked lived, and having learnt this, I live now in the full light of the condemnation of sin in its source. I see that sin is condemned, not only in man, but in Satan. I am in the light of this victory; now the believer lives and moves: he makes progress. In Numbers 21:10, it says, “The children of Israel journeyed”, and in verse 16 they arrived at the well: “And from thence to Beer; that is the well of which Jehovah spoke to Moses, Assemble the people, and I will give them water” Numbers 21:16.
— [p. 93] Before that, it needed serpents; now it needs water. The believer is seen in relation to all that has been presented. I have the Holy Spirit in the light of the fact that sin has been condemned and judged in the flesh and in every respect. The way is open.
— Not only do the people go forward, but at the end of chapter 21, they conquer the land, smite the enemies and dwell in their cities. The nobles who digged the well, at the word of the lawgiver, were men of spiritual power, namely the apostles.
— The apostles had the “ruler’s wand” (Numbers 21:18, note).
— The lawgiver would be Christ. The staves would symbolise experience. If the staff is a symbol of power or rule, in that case it would be what belongs to a brother who has moral power. The apostles had moral authority, and it was based on what they were morally, and the saints are able to drink of the water as the result of those who have had experience. “Israel sang this song”.
Now the presence of the Spirit is definitely recognised. When Amalek is smitten and the altar is built, indicating that the Lord is our Banner, then we are conscious that a power dwells in us superior to that of the world. The people go forward and overcome the enemy, the Amorite. In verse 24, “Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong. And Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, at Heshbon, and in all its dependent villages” Numbers 21:24,25. Typically, we see the believer who goes forward and takes possessions. It is our privilege to dwell in the conquered territory.
— Are we going to reach the ground of the Spirit?
— We are advancing.
— All these conflicts are written “in the book of the wars of Jehovah” Numbers 21:14. That is important, is it not?
— There is “the book of the wars of Jehovah” (Numbers 21:14) and that which “the poets say:
Come to Heshbon; let the city of Sihon be built and established.
For there went forth fire from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of the Arnon.
Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, people of Chemosh:
He gave his sons that had escaped, and his daughters into captivity to Sihon the king of the Amorites.
And we have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon; and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba” Numbers 21:27 - 30.
There is the book of the conflicts of Jehovah and also what the poets say; these are spiritual references. We are now on military lines, and we are not discouraged; we sing, for there is nothing mournful. What the poets say is a triumph. We begin to make our collection of songs.
— Does each one make his collection?
— These details might appear insignificant, but they are given according to divine wisdom. The war is not finished; we are dwelling in our enemies’ country; but we sing. Such is the military situation. And the war continues.
— We are already conquerors and the poets compose their songs.
— Their faces are always turned towards the sunrising (verse 11). They do not follow the setting sun.
— I believe that all that we have just been saying is connected with what we read in Romans 8. In the epistle to the Romans it is a question of victory.
— It is no longer Moses needing to have his hands supported; but Joshua goes forward.
— [p. 95] We are moving in that direction. It is not yet Joshua who leads. For the moment, it is rather spiritual power that is in view. In the book of Numbers, Joshua is definitely chosen. Moses prayed Jehovah to set a man over the assembly to lead the people and bring them in; Jehovah answered him, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and thou shalt lay thy hand upon him” Numbers 27:18. A man who has the Spirit, that is the outstanding thought! In the book of Numbers, from chapter 21, the people is considered spiritually. For example, in Balaam’s prophecies, the people is regarded as in power. “He hath as it were the strength of a buffalo” (Numbers 23:22) and “the shout of a king is in his midst” Numbers 23:21. The book of Numbers deals with a people who has typically received the Spirit; it is what Israel does. When we come to the book of Joshua, it is Christ as Leader of the armies of Jehovah. In Romans 8, the thought is what the Spirit is in the believer. The result of all that we have considered is that the youngest believer wakes up to the realisation that he has this great power within himself, so that he has a living part in all that is of God.
— That part is even that of the “little children”.
— They had “the unction from the Holy One” 1 John 2:20.
Reading with J.T. at Beauvoisin, 8th May, 1926, afternoon.