(4) THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF WHAT IS CHRIST'S BY THE SPIRIT

(^[p. 34] 4) THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF WHAT IS CHRIST’S BY THE SPIRIT

Genesis 24:34-41; Genesis 24:66,67; John 16:7-15; John 16:20-22

I think that all would admit that it is a matter of profound importance to enter into the great consequences of the coming of the Spirit. In Christendom, generally, the truth which has been let slip is the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is not that the Person of the Holy Spirit is denied, but His presence is not apprehended. When I began to know anything at all about the truth of things, I could see that there were comparatively few Christians who apprehended the presence of the Holy Spirit; and, when realised, it had a most profound effect upon one’s course here.

If the mass of those around take no account of the presence of the Holy Spirit I think I can understand the reason of it. The tendency of modern times has been to adapt Christianity to the course of the world. This came in even in the time of the apostles. It is clear that it was that into which the Corinthians and Galatians were nigh falling, and from which the apostle sought to deliver them.

What is connected with the presence of the Spirit, is the bringing to light, though not into display, another order of things. He brings to light the unseen things. The Holy Spirit “was not” until Jesus was glorified. Christ being now glorified has become the Centre and Head of unseen things, and the Spirit has come down to make them known; He announces the whole truth connected with Christ in glory. Hence the impossibility of connecting the presence of the Spirit with the course of this world, and the presence of the Spirit must be ignored because people cannot fit in His presence with the kind of thing which they are seeking to build up here.

The apostle’s challenge both to the Corinthians and to the Galatians was in regard of the presence of the Holy Spirit. He says to the Galatians, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith”, and to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” He takes up each on the ground of the presence of the Spirit, which they were virtually ignoring because they wanted to connect Christianity with the course of this world. The Galatians desired to be circumcised, to go back to law, to observe days, months, times and years: but to do that meant to connect Christianity with the course of this world. I refer to that because my point is to speak of what the Spirit announces.

In John 15 the first point is fruit-bearing, but, at the close of the chapter, we get witness or testimony — the Spirit would bear witness of Christ. In chapter 16, we get the announcement of the Spirit, “He shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you”.

He first bears witness of Christ and then announces the things connected with Christ: that is the office of the Holy Spirit. I want first to say a word in regard to the Holy Spirit in relation to the world that is. Christ says, “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, having come, He would convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. That is one side, but the Lord speaks of another side, of that which He would announce: “^[p. 44] All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you”. Now that is what I want now to come to.

If these things have been announced, it is evident that they cannot be announced again. And if they are announced to us there is an object in it. I have no doubt the object is to connect the hearts of the ^[p. 36] saints with Christ; to deliver them from one order of things in order that they may, in mind, be connected with Christ in another order. I think that we have been too much in the habit of taking truths up in an isolated way, instead of apprehending the whole system of truth: what the Lord speaks of here as, “all truth”. “When he, the ^[p. 39] Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth”. It is the completeness of truth.

If you a little apprehend the whole truth, you understand the detail much better. The soul lives in the system of things which the Holy Spirit has made known to us. I would like to bring before you that system, of which Christ is the Head and Centre; things which are of the Father.

The presence of the Spirit does not exactly test the world. The world has been fully tested by the presence of Christ in it. He was in it, and was the great test which God saw fit to apply to the world. When the Spirit came the world had been tested, and the Spirit came to bring the demonstration of the result of that testing; we are entitled now to have an apprehension of the great world system as it is in the eye of God.

In John’s first epistle the apostle takes this up and says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked one”. The Lord probably refers to the wicked one in saying, “Of judgment because the prince of this world is judged”. A difference between the gospel and the epistle of John is this: In the gospel the apostle speaks of faith, but in the epistle of the consciousness of faith, and hence it is he says, “We know that we are of God”. He does not say, “We believe that we are of God”, but we are conscious that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one. The Lord bears witness to that in the gospel. The prince of this world was judged. Christ had been the test.

That is the position of the world in the eye of God,

^[p. 37] and it is a great point to apprehend it. There is real deliverance when a person is practically set free from the influence of this world. Very many people live and act in the presence of the world, and adapt their conduct to the judgment of the world. I have seen real Christians ordering their conduct more or less with reference to the judgment of the world, but it makes little difference to me what the world may think of me. I cannot order my conduct to merit the approval of a world which is convicted concerning sin.

Christ was the test, and the test proved fatal. It discovered the self-will of man. Man was blinded by his self-will, and did not apprehend the witness which Christ brought. There was no lack of witness both in word and in work, but man’s foolish self-will blinded him in regard of every evidence that Christ gave. “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father: for which of those works do ye stone me?” Man was so blind that he would stone the One who bore witness, and, therefore, the Spirit brings demonstration of sin, “because they believe not on me”. They would not have been guilty in the same way if the evidence had not been there, but when Christ came the world was left without excuse.

I do not doubt at all that the result would be the same today if it were possible for Christ to come again in humiliation; man would shew that he is blinded by his own perverse will in spite of the evidence that the Lord might give. “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father”. People were astonished at the works that Christ did, but they became accustomed to the mighty works, and self-will came in, and they did not believe in Him.

Now we come to righteousness. Jesus says, “Of righteousness because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more”. The righteous One does not remain ^[p. 38] here. All that is in the will of God must come forth from the Father, and come forth by the righteous One. Nothing can be brought about for God by any political change in the world, everything is brought about by the righteous One gone to the Father, and everything for God will come forth from the Father.

But there is another thing, the prince of this world is judged, and that shews us the position of the world. The world has been tested by the presence of Christ, and found wanting. There is no more testing for the world, but the Spirit brings demonstration that all has been brought to an issue by the presence of Christ. It is God’s purpose to deliver us from this present evil world. “Our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”. You do not find prophets talking about the deliverance of people from this present evil world, but in the New Testament you find that Christ died to that end.

Now just a word as to the presence of God here by the Spirit, because this is a truth of profound importance. The Spirit of God must be our standard of judgment in regard of everything as to God. You only apprehend the true character of the world-system in the presence of the Spirit of God. He has come to us in order that we may have the consciousness of that of which John speaks at the close of this epistle, “We are of God”. And He has wrought in us the conviction, “The whole world lies in the wicked one”. That is the position of the world. The attempt to identify Christianity with the course of this world cannot alter the world in the presence of God. Christianity is corrupted, but the world is not really improved. But after all, light has come in to deliver us from the world system.

I pass on now to the other side, to that which is connected with the Holy Spirit. “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all 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 of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. I read in connection with that the passage in Genesis 24. The servant says, “I am Abraham’s servant. And Jehovah has blessed my master greatly, and he is become great, and he has given him sheep, and cattle, and silver, and gold, and bondmen, and bondwomen, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master’s wife, bore a son to my master after she had grown old: and unto him has he given all that he has”.

I do not doubt that in what the servant said here we have a foreshadowing of the present moment. You get in John the remarkable statement, “All things that the Father hath are mine”; and the servant said, Jehovah has greatly blessed my master, and to his son hath he given all. That son was Isaac. Isaac was born outside of the power of nature, and all was given to Isaac. You can readily see that these two passages are very much akin. The Lord says of the Spirit, “He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. That indicates to me the unchanging interest that Christ had in the disciples. I think, too, that all was bound up with the ways of God, for, in a sense, everything is looked at as coming from the Father. The Father is put in contrast to the world, and is presented as the source of everything which is for eternal blessing. The Son is regarded as the only-begotten coming forth from the Father: the Spirit proceeds from the Father: and the saints are given of the Father to Christ. The Lord Jesus Himself says, “Thine they were and thou gavest them me”. In purpose they were the Father’s, but the Father gives them to Christ: and ^[p. 40] Christ brings them to the Father. We have it expressed in the lines —

“Thou gav’st us, in eternal love,
To Him, to bring us home to Thee”. (88:1)

They were the Father’s, but given to Christ in order that He might conduct them to the Father. The world and the Father are put in contrast, the world system has been tested and is convicted; all its character is demonstrated by the Spirit, but in the Father we have the source of another system. Not simply is God revealed in love in the Father, but the One who is the Son and Heir of all that the Father hath, is presented.

The first point in the system of truth is the revelation of God. Everything which has come to pass is in the full light of God. When God created man, he was not in the full light of God, because the heart of God was not yet revealed. God created man perfect and set him in the presence of divine goodness, but he could not know the love of God till God revealed Himself. When man was created the moment had not come for God to reveal Himself. The revelation of God was, in a sense, gradual, for though in the Old Testament we get divine light coming in as to the character and attributes of God, we could not speak of the full revelation of God until the death of Christ. It was at the death of Christ that the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and then it was that God was revealed. Christ came here to reveal God. “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. Eternal blessing is in the full light of divine love and glory. God is in the light; that is the principle to be apprehended.

Now another point is that all is centred in the Son, “All things that the Father hath are mine”. The Lord ever looks to the Father as being the source of everything. Every family is of the Father. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians, “Of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. Christ is the centre of every circle. There may be many circles, but He is the centre of all. “All things that the Father hath are mine”. That is a remarkable word; and, from the very fact of all being His, He gives His own character to all, in order that all may be according to the Father. I judge that Christ has become Man in order that He may be Head of every family, the centre of every circle: that He may give a morally divine character to all. God does not again create an innocent man. Man, as such, was tested and failed; now the second Man has come into the scene, the Man who is out of heaven, and He takes up the position of Head that all may be according to the nature of God.

The great issue of God’s ways is, that God is to be all in all, and that is consequent upon Christ having become Man, and giving His own character to every family which is under Him. He could say, “All things that the Father hath are mine”. The effect of that was to interest the hearts of the disciples in Christ. The Holy Spirit would come and make known to them all the counsels of the Father, and the place which Christ had taken in reference to these counsels. All was to the end that the hearts of the disciples might find their centre of interest in the Son. The Holy Spirit would make known to them the whole system of truth, and the life of their souls was to be in the truth. Christ was the Son of God, and was the centre for them, and He counts upon their being taken up with His things, by the Holy Spirit, according to the Father’s counsels.

The announcement of the Holy Spirit has been made. God has made known the detail of His will which He hath purposed in Himself for the dispensation of the fulness of times, to gather together in One all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and on earth. God has given us an insight even into that which is to mark eternity. We have the light of the ^[p. 42] heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, and the tabernacle of God with men, and the abolition of the old order of things: no more death. Our hearts are carried on to that by the Spirit. All is taken up in the Son, in order that the Father may have supreme satisfaction in all; that is the meaning in all.

Now I want to say a word upon the practical effect of this. The Spirit of God, the Comforter, has come to give us the announcement. All is made known, but you do not enter into the understanding of it but by the Spirit. The natural mind of man cannot touch these things. It is not in the competency of man to take up these things at all. He could not understand them, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him”. We get the power to understand these things in the Holy Spirit. “The spiritual discerns all things; and he is discerned of no one”.

I might venture to ask the question, What is the life in which you are practically living? I can understand a person living in the life of the world; but, on the other hand, I can understand a saint living in the life of Christ. You have to put two things in contrast. For instance, Moses proposed to Israel life or death, blessing or cursing. He urged Israel to choose life and not death. My own thought has been to leave the life of the world in order to live in the life of Christ.

What marks the life of the world, to begin with, is sin and the shadow of death. I think if you have any experience of it you will admit that the will of man and pride, covetousness, ambition, and self-seeking, all that kind of thing, go to make up largely the life of the world. Politics form a great part of the life of the world. The principles which lie at the bottom of all are expediency and covetousness. Many people in the world have strong natural force of character, which God has been pleased to allow in man; there are in man, too, evidences of God’s handiwork; but all that does not alter the world morally: it is still the sphere of covetousness and largely governed by expediency. Inventions would have but a poor chance of success if it were not that they promote moneymaking. Covetousness gives an impetus to inventive power.

But while we have the life of the world on the one hand, we have the life of Christ on the other. And I touch on only two points in connection with it: love and holiness. These are the two great marks of the life of Christ. The life of Christ is morally divine, and must be so from the fact of who Christ is.

There is this principle in love, it works in every direction. There is love to God, love to Christ, love to the saints, and love to one’s neighbour. In that way it fulfils the law, for “love works no ill to its neighbour; love therefore is the whole law”; and love is the true way to holiness. If you have part in the divine nature, you will not want holiness meetings. Holiness will be promoted in a very simple way. You cannot dissociate holiness from the divine nature.

Another point in connection with this is, that the life of Christ adapts itself to the circumstances in which we are here, and I am sure you can want nothing better or more suitable here; for humility, meekness and endurance all spring out of love. In the Lord there was love to perfection, and it adapted itself to the very incongruous circumstances in which He was found in the world. Love was natural to Christ. Love is the spring of everything that is comely and agreeable to God on the one hand, while, on the other, it is corrective of all which is unworthy and unseemly. If one needed proof of this, it is found in 1 Corinthians 13.

Being in the life of Christ, we delight to meditate upon the things which the Spirit of God has announced,

“All things that the Father hath are mine”. The Holy Spirit has brought the announcement of these things in order that He may interest our hearts in all that which Christ is, as Son. The disciples were first brought into the light of it, then into the life of it; and so with us, we receive the light of it, but we have to be in the life of it. Love and blessing in the light of the Father are brought in by the power of the Spirit. He brings us into everything which is of the Father. The Holy Spirit came to open up another order of things, which is the fruit and blessed result of the revelation of God in Christ, and of the place which Christ has, as man, according to the Father’s counsels.