THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT IN THIS DISPENSATION

R. Gray

John 16: 6–16, 23–28; Psalm 45: 8–14; Revelation 22: 16, 17

What is in mind is to speak about the work of the Spirit. It is a very large subject, which one would seek grace to speak of carefully because we are speaking of a divine Person who is here. But I believe that the presence and power and the work of the Holy Spirit are becoming increasingly known by us. I do not say increasingly important, they were always vitally important, but they are something perhaps that we are beginning to understand better and know more of.

In chapter 16 of John the Lord is speaking of the coming of the Spirit in a hostile environment. We did not read it but He says earlier, “They shall put you out of the synagogues ... every one who kills you will think to render service to God” (John 16: 2). Well that came upon the apostles, but in principle the world is the same. I would say to our younger brethren and friends, the world hates Christ as much today as it did then when He was crucified; there is no place for Him. But the Lord Jesus anticipated these conditions, and He said, I am going to send the Holy Spirit into the saints who are passing through these things. And He says a remarkable thing in verse 7 after speaking about sorrow filling their heart, “But I say the truth to you, It is profitable for you that I go away”. How could that be? The Lord was there, a divine Person. One who could answer all their questions. He met every need, He protected them, He preserved them every step of the pathway, and yet He said, “It is profitable for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you”. I believe that we see something of the profit today. What the Lord Jesus set on, by way of the truth was full and complete. The epistles do not exactly add to what the Lord taught, because the germ of it is there in the gospels, but what the Holy Spirit has brought in is expansion of the truth. He has not added to it, but He has expanded it greatly so that Paul and the other apostles and New Testament writers brought out in fulness what the divine mind was for the assembly.

One thing that the Holy Spirit brings, is expansion in our knowledge of the truth. The Lord Jesus, as we see in this chapter of John 16, more than once says “in that day”, that was the Spirit’s day, when things that the Lord had set on would be fully understood; now that is the day in which we are. We are not at the tail end of a waning or deteriorating situation. We are in the Spirit’s day. The Holy Spirit is here in the saints and He is, as we well know a divine Person. In fact I was impressed by verse 13 which says, “But when he is come”. Chapter 14 suggests that the Father gave the Spirit, and chapter 15 brings out the thought as to the Lord sending the Spirit, but here I believe the Lord would emphasise all the dignity of the Person who was coming, “But when he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth”. His coming was characteristic of His place in the present dispensation. When the Lord came there was an announcement from heaven, there were angels who testified to the fact; it was publicly acknowledged and prophecies bore upon it. But when the Spirit came, (the house was filled with the sound of tempestuous blowing and so on, but that was in the house), there was not exactly any public announcement from heaven. He came in that wonderful way and sat on each one of them, and the testimony flowed out through the saints; so Peter says “he”, that is, God, “has poured out this which ye behold and hear”, Acts 2: 33.

Another thing to remember about the fact of the Spirit being here, I say reverently, is that He is here plentifully. That may seem a strange thing to say, but we look around us and see the exercises to which many of us have contributed and we think things are difficult and the resources are slender, but they are not. The resources in the Holy Spirit are bountiful, they are full, they are more than sufficient, they will see the testimony through to completion. And my exercise is that each one of us might be in touch with the Holy Spirit, learning what communion with the Holy Spirit is, so that we might be kept usefully in the testimony. It is a great thing to be useful in the testimony. I go to the meeting, that is very good, people know I am different, well that is fine too, but to be useful as under charge, and having the consciousness of being strengthened by divine Persons, is what God is seeking for each one of us.

And so the Lord goes on to say, “but if I go I will send him to you. And having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment—of sin”. Do you think that is still going on? Well of course it is because the Holy Spirit is still here. And where is it happening? It is happening in the saints in whom the Spirit of God is free. If you preach in the open air that is a testimony, if you break bread, that is a testimony; scripture says so, “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, 1 Corinthians 11: 26. We used to be told often when we were young that if the world knew what we were really doing and saying at the Lord’s supper, they would try and stop us. Because what we do and what we are saying is that the Lord Jesus has been wrongfully cast out, the judgment against Him was wicked and the world is really His. We are bearing testimony to the death of the Lord, until He come.

These things have often been spoken about, “demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment—of sin, because they do not believe on me”. That is a constant thing; you go to school, or go to work, or go about among our fellow men, and what are we a testimony to? I do not have television. That is quite right and we all approve of that; but the point is, is there something in my life that would mark me, and others off as being here under another head. If people come to the door and say, ‘Vote for us’, there is a look of blank astonishment when you say, ‘I do not vote’. What sort of person is this? But the test is I find, to try and tell them why I do not vote, because the Lord Jesus has been cast out. ‘Oh yes, yes quite’, and they are soon off to another address. But I think the time for bearing testimony is still with us. And so He goes on “of righteousness, because I go away to my Father”; what a comfort; what God has done in Christ is righteous. Your sins are forgiven, that is righteous; no one can point a finger at you. That God “has raised him from among the dead and given him glory” (1 Peter 1: 21), were acts of righteousness, and they would confirm us that our righteousness which is in Christ is solidly founded.

Then “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged”. Remember that the Lord Jesus when He was here, said towards the end of His life, “the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”, John 14: 30. I could not say that. It would be good if I could, but there is that in each one of us that the world appeals to; every one of us. The apostle Paul said, “through whom the world is crucified to me”, Galatians 6: 14. Well we would accept that, the world that crucified Christ, but then he said, “I to the world”. Is there nothing left in me that answers to what the world would offer by way of interest or of attraction? That is what the Holy Spirit is here for; to fill our hearts with Christ, to lead us away from a system of things that denied Him and rejected Him, so that the Lord underlines this, as it were, by saying, “But when he is come”. Well beloved brethren He is here and He is able to maintain the testimony and maintain us in it.

What I wanted to touch on before moving on is this, that one of the blessings among many that the Holy Spirit brings us into, is a knowledge of the feelings of divine Persons, first of all towards each other and then to us. Now that is a great thing. The Lord spoke in His ministry of His relations with the Father. He said, “He that has seen me has seen the Father”, John 14: 9. I do not really think they fully understood that, but when the Holy Spirit is here and free with us, we get some impression of what the Father’s feelings for the Son are. What a secret, what knowledge to be introduced into; what our God and Father thinks and feels about His Son is known to us in measure. The Lord says that in the next chapter, “thou has loved them as thou hast loved me”, John 17: 23. Is there anything better? That is what the Holy Spirit would bring us into. The knowledge of the Father’s love for the Son, a knowledge of the Son’s feelings about the Father.

Do these things appeal? The fact that we can have first-hand knowledge in our spirits of the way that divine Persons view each other, and we say with all reverence, the love They have for one another, and that we are introduced into the circle, into that secret. It says again in John 17, “that they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17: 21). Well it was remarked in the reading, and I think justifiably that there is love among the brethren. God grant that it may not be destroyed or broken in on, because it is the desire of divine Persons that we should be together in confidence, in love, as feeling rightly for one another, and the Holy Spirit is here to that end. The Old Testament hints at these things. Abigail spoke to David about the “bundle of the living” (1 Samuel 25: 29); that is what is open to us. You young people, can I appeal to you in this? You are in a company that loves you and where love is known, you are in the bundle of the living, you are in a company where the Holy Spirit is free, and to which the Lord Jesus comes. Let me say a very simple thing. Divine Persons are really in earnest about what They are doing. They are not going to draw back or allow things to fade out. Our salvation, but more than our salvation, our life our happiness lies in this, that we go with Them and sow to the Spirit, and from the Spirit reap eternal life. Follow the Lord. He has left us a model that we should follow in His steps.

I turn to Psalm 45 just to touch on the work of the Spirit here. Our relationships are with divine Persons and with one another. None of us, I speak for myself at least, can say very much, but can you say something? Can you say anything about having a link with the Lord Jesus, and knowing it, knowing that He loves you, knowing that He hears you when you pray? It says in verse 8 of Psalm 45, “Myrrh and aloes, cassia, are all thy garments; out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made thee glad”; that refers to the Lord. When He comes in amongst us, are you aware of it? Have you ever had the sense that the Lord Jesus is there in spirit, and that something that is beyond nature, beyond time, beyond mere physical feeling, is there and has touched you? Well that is what is in mind as the Lord comes in amongst His own. And what you find is, that the queen discerns it, and she says, “Myrrh and aloes, cassia, are all thy garments”. Now what she discerns is the fragrance of His movements as He comes in and makes Himself known. What a fine thing that is, you know. It has been said before and truly, that we do not exactly come to the Supper as penitents, we come as those who have proved themselves; but still the fragrance of what the Lord Jesus has done is carried in our spirits. Somebody said recently that we remember suffering love and that is true. That hymn as to the Lord—‘We Thy beloved, remember Thee, Lord, and Thy dying’ (Hymn 311) has a fragrance of its own, the very perfume of His movements among the saints.

I really wanted to touch on the matter of “raiment of embroidery”. You know if what we are saying is true, if what we are saying is real to faith, then there must be a result. And if we have contact, and it is not the ‘if of doubt, if we have contact with divine Persons, it must make a difference; it cannot be otherwise, because 2 Corinthians 3 says, “we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed” (2 Corinthians 3: 18). No one could be in the divine presence and come out unchanged. I believe that is a basic truth, and so we see here that there are results in the queen. And I just want to apply it in this way, if you go to Romans 16 you see what the apostle is seeking to produce in the whole epistle. He is setting out the truth of the gospel, and the kingdom, but what he is seeking to arrive at is what is collective. You get that near the end of the epistle, “with one accord, with one mouth” (Romans 15: 6), that is not individual. We get too the reference to “one body in Christ” (Romans 12: 5), it is not the full thing, it is not the body of Christ, but still the suggestion is there of the saints gathered into one. So if you go on to Romans 16 you see individuals, “Phoebe, our sister” (Romans 16: 1), but she is set in relation to the saints, “a helper of many” (Romans 16: 2). He brings out various features, and what I am trying to say is that these are the features suggested in “raiment of embroidery”. As you look at the brethren can you see something of the Master’s hand? can you see something of the Spirit’s work? can you see something that you can link on with? That is what this “raiment of embroidery” speaks of, and I believe it has a particular resonance at this present time when the brethren are suffering in their bodies and in their spirits. It is not for nothing.

God forbid that I should speak lightly about these things. We need to fear God in relation to His ways, but I do believe that it is part of a refining process that points to the completion of the dispensation. Things are being drawn together and completed. The Spirit is still here. He is still working. What we long for is that every one of us should be in the current of what He is doing. Throw away these other things that are a hindrance. And do not think that young people have hindrances and old people do not. We all have the things that appeal to us and they change as we grow older. If we give up vigilance for a moment the enemy will show you an easier way, a more interesting way. Do not believe him and do not listen to him. You say I cannot live in a vacuum; God is not asking you to do that. He has given us company, given us fellowship. He has given us the truth. He has given us the Scriptures, what else? He has given us His Son. He gave His only-begotten Son “he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. What else? How like God, after they had crucified Christ, He sent His Spirit. The grace of God is unconquerable. He will give and give and give until He secures what He wants from our hearts, and that is what we appeal for that you will make way for the Holy Spirit. Let Him work in your heart, He will not displace Christ, He will fill your heart with Christ.

I just touch on this scripture in Revelation, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. Reference was made in the reading to Genesis 24, and I likened this verse to that. You see in Revelation, the normal work of the Spirit was to speak to the assemblies, as far as the part of it devoted to the assembly is concerned, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies” (Revelation 2: 7), but here so to speak, He turns away from the bride and He says to the Lord, “Come”. Now that is just like the servant in Genesis 24. He spoke to Rebecca all through the desert and fitted her to be with Isaac and told her about Isaac, but there came the moment when he turned away and he says, “That is my master!” (Genesis 24: 65). And I believe that the Holy Spirit is serving in this way now. We may say the bride is speaking also. Yes she is, and what she is saying is the same thing; “Come”. And why is she saying it? Because the Spirit’s work I believe, is nearing completion. “Christ is everything, and in all”, Colossians 3: 11. Her heart is full of Christ, because of the Spirit’s ministrations, and she is speaking along with the One, I say reverently, whom she knows, and she is saying “Come”. They are speaking together, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”.

Well, beloved brethren, that is the impression I have. I trust every one may be encouraged to see the reality and the substantiality of what we are engaged with in divine things, and to see that the blessed Spirit of God is here to maintain everything in triumph. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Address at Dundee
5 June 2010