THE HOLY SPIRIT AS CAPACITY TO APPREHEND DIVINE THINGS

^[p. 332] THE HOLY SPIRIT AS CAPACITY TO APPREHEND DIVINE THINGS

Luke 2: 25 - 32; Revelation 1: 10 - 11

My thought is to seek to call your attention to the Holy Spirit. I do not intend to speak of Him in ^[p. 338] the varied relations in which He is presented to us in the Scriptures, but I wish more particularly to speak of Him as giving us the capacity to apprehend divine things. I wish to engage you with the great fact of the presence of the Spirit here, in regard to what God is going to establish publicly in the future.

It is a matter of the greatest importance, that we should understand that all intelligence as to divine things, is of necessity by the Spirit of God. You will recall how the apostle introduces this in the epistle to the Corinthians. He introduces it in connection with that which was creeping in among the christians at Corinth; that is to say, the activity of man’s mind in divine things. That is wholly excluded from the sphere of divine things: it has no place there. In the first place, God would not admit of it; in the second place, it has no ability whatever to take in the things of God. “What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2: 11).

God has not given to us the spirit that is of the world. He has given to us the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God; and it seems to me to be of immense importance that every believer should be concerned as to the things “which God has prepared for them that love him” 1 Corinthians 2: 9. God takes account of the love of His people, and prepares things for those that love Him, and before they are actually displayed God has given His Spirit to us that we may know them. We all believe the doctrine of the Holy Spirit down here, but we want to realise ^[p. 333] that the Person is here. I think if there is one thing more than another that God would have emphasised for His people at the present time, it is the great preponderating fact of the actual, living presence of the Spirit of God here below, in answer to Christ as Man in heaven. He shows us things to come, and He is also the power in us whereby we understand and appreciate these things. “We have the mind of Christ” 1 Corinthians 2: 16; that is to say, we have a divinely given faculty of thought, and this is by the Spirit of God. He would engage our hearts with the unseen system of things; the system of things that is to replace the present, and which is to abide. As the apostle says, “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” 2 Corinthians 4: 18.

What I think the enemy succeeded in doing at the outset, was to reduce divine things to the level of man’s mind. Divine things are sacred, and we treat them as common when we reduce them to the range of the human intellect. We must be on our guard as to the mind of man; reducing the truth of God and the things of God to the level of man’s mind, is what has to a great extent brought about the present state of christendom.

Now what strikes me in regard to the gospel of Luke is the prominent place the Spirit of God has in it. His presence and activity give character to the opening chapter, first in relation to John the baptist, and then to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself What a peculiarly holy scene is presented! How entirely out of place would be the mind of man there, and all that man is after the flesh! It opens with Zacharias, the priest, who has a wife of the daughters of Aaron; then there is that wonderful character, Mary, the mother of the Lord; and the Holy Spirit comes upon each. Then we see Him in Simeon, and John the baptist, and finally, but in a unique way, and permanently, in the Lord Himself. As taught of God we recognise the suitability ^[p. 334] of all this. The birth into this world, and public appearance of the Lord for ministry, necessitated morally all this divine interest and activity; and no attentive reader can fail to appreciate the holy simplicity of the scene presented, as pervaded and controlled by the Spirit of God. I desire that each one should understand that christianity involves the complete exclusion of every trace, morally, of the first man, and the introduction of Another, who has become the Head and centre of an entirely new system of things, which is pervaded in the power of the Spirit, with divine simplicity, holiness, and blessedness. That is what is seen at the incoming of the Holy Spirit from Christ in heaven. Look at that wonderful chapter in the opening of the Acts, and see the beautiful simplicity of those disciples of the Lord as He is taken from them! There they are gazing up into heaven after the object of their affections, who had gone in there, and then they return to Jerusalem, according to His words, and there they are seen in prayer. Look at the simplicity of all that! It was the fruit of the Lord’s own work, and it conveys to our minds what was to characterise christianity, that is — affection and dependence. And now the blessed Spirit of God comes, and there is that marvellous display of divine power down here for God. The early chapters of the Acts, present christianity to us in its original power and simplicity, and I believe the Lord would recall our hearts to this, and He would maintain us in it so that our walk would be in accordance with it. God would maintain christianity down here, for if this is allowed to slip away, the testimony of God slips away with it.

In the opening of Luke, as I was saying, you get the Holy Spirit in connection with the birth of Christ, and then in chapter 4 in connection with His ministry. What you get in Luke is the exquisite beauty of humanity according to God as seen in the Person of Christ; it is Man as anointed by the Spirit that is brought before us,

^[p. 335] and chapter 4 presents a striking illustration of this. Dwell for a moment on the picture of that blessed Man standing up in the synagogue at Nazareth to read There had never been such reading in the history of the world. Did you ever think of the Lord Jesus Christ standing there in the presence of men to read? He stood up to read, and He would have a scripture; then He closed the book, and handing it to an attendant, sat down. It is all recorded for a purpose, there was grace in every movement: it says, “the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him” Luke 4: 20. Then he begins to speak. Oh, what speaking! Do not for the moment dwell on what He said, but seek to discover how He said it. The passage further said they “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” Luke 4: 22. The Spirit would engage our hearts with Christ thus presented, and would produce in us such spiritual taste as would enable us to appreciate divine beauty and perfection seen in a Man. There was a time when I had very little interest in the gospels, I had much more in the epistles; but I can say now, if one may make comparisons, that there is no part of the scripture that attracts me more than the gospels. In this chapter it is Christ anointed to preach that is before us. Would that all who preach made Him their model! First, He selects the right scripture and reads it, stopping at the proper place, then He sits down, His movements being attractive, and finally He speaks, and His words are words of grace. Note, that the point of view here in regard to Christ is not that of a divine Person acting as of Himself; it is Man, although ever a divine Person, in the place of obedience, acting in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now I want to direct your attention to Simeon — to the particular phase of the Spirit’s work which we see represented in him. We may speak of it as an illustration of the believer being directed to the temple; Simeon came into the temple by the Spirit of God. There is ^[p. 336] nothing at all in the way of movement or activity of any pleasure to God except what is by the Spirit. This is a great day for the activity of man’s mind in research, discoveries, and inventions, but do you think God has any pleasure in that kind of activity? No; but if a man moves towards the temple by the Spirit, that is a matter of excessive importance in the eye of God. It matters little what you may be publicly, if your heart is under the control of the Spirit, you may depend you are of intense interest to God. You can conceive of Simeon moving towards the temple. It was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death, until he had seen the Lord’s Christ, and this was to be in the temple. That is where you see all things in their true light and bearing. You cannot be intelligent without the Scriptures, but if you move by the Spirit into the temple, you will be surprised to find how much you discover there. The oracles of God are in the temple, therefore that is the place to go to find things. What a wonderful thing it was for the christians at Corinth, in the presence of all the activity of man’s mind, to discover by the letter of the apostle, that they were the temple of God! He says, “Ye are the temple of God” 1 Corinthians 3: 16. All divine light is in the temple, and it is in coming into it, that you are made acquainted with the mind of God. What did Simeon find in the temple? I will tell you what he found: he found what you will find there — he found Christ! Speaking of the temple in this way may seem to make much of the saints; be it so; the Scripture says that christians are the temple of God. We are on safe ground when relying on Scripture, especially if recognising Christ, the Spirit, and the temple.

Simeon took the little Child into his arms, and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” Luke 2: 29,30. This is the light in which Simeon first speaks of Him. Christ is salvation, He is salvation personally, whatever the position He occupies — whether He be on ^[p. 337] earth or in heaven. It is not that He was salvation for Simeon, simply; He was God’s salvation, which had been prepared “before the face of all people” Luke 2: 31. To the man who needs salvation, Christ is preached as Lord in heaven, salvation for every man is obtained through faith in Him; but it is another thing entirely to come, as it were, by the Spirit, into the temple, and apprehend Him as God’s salvation. You will always find Christ in the temple: He is there by the Spirit.

Now I desire to go a little bit further. Simeon does not stop with the thought of salvation. He says, “A light to lighten the Gentiles” Luke 2: 32, or more correctly rendered — “A light for revelation of the Gentiles”. The gentiles had been like a dark body upon which the sun did not shine. The light of God only shone upon a small part of the earth — Palestine. Intense darkness covered all outside, but now this marvellous moral Sun rises upon the earth for the revelation of the gentile world; it brings the heathen nations into the view of God for blessing. Did you ever apprehend Christ in that light? You are led into it by the Spirit of God. The gentiles are to be no longer regarded as outside the pale of blessing, and privilege: their Head has now appeared, and henceforth they appear as related to Him, under the eye of God.

But there is a third point: “The glory of thy people Israel” Luke 2: 32. That is what Christ is. He is the salvation of Jehovah, the light for the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. You want to apprehend Christ in all these connections, but how can you do it? You must give place to the Spirit of God. If you recognise the Spirit of God, you will find that He will bring you into the intelligence of Christ in all these wonderful lights, and much more.

I will dwell for a moment on the passage in Revelation 1. It is only to connect the thought of revelation with the Spirit. The impression I should like to leave upon every heart here, is that of the greatness of Christ and the varied relations in which He is presented, which can only he apprehended by the Spirit. John says “I was in the Spirit” Revelation 1: 10. See how the early christians recognised the Spirit! Being in the Spirit seems to be mentioned as something that occurred frequently. No doubt John was always “in the Spirit” as to his state, but I think that what is indicated here is a man so under the control of the Spirit as to be abstracted entirely from seen things. We cannot expect to realise all the experience which John had in Patmos, but we can enjoy something of the blessed privileges involved in being in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. If the Spirit of God controls your heart and mind, wonderful things will come before you; the things of God will be opened up to you. The Lord’s day was a very proper time to be “in the Spirit”, the Lord and the Spirit go together. If the Lord has a day, you may depend the Spirit will have a day, and the saints will have a day, too. We should be for the Lord each day in the week, but I think He would have us, entirely apart for Himself on the first day. It would be well if we were to consider this. The conditions spoken of here were not peculiar to John, they are available to all christians. We have the Lord, the Spirit, and the Lord’s day. John goes on to say, “and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet” Revelation 1: 10. Whose voice was it? The voice of the One whose day it was — the Lord’s voice. It was the Lord’s day and He was speaking. He calls John’s attention to Himself “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” Revelation 1: 17. John heard this, and he heard and saw a great deal more, as may be seen in this wonderful Apocalypse. How did he come to hear the Lord and see all these things? He was “in the Spirit”. Simeon also was in the Spirit, he had come, by Him, into the temple, and so saw the Lord’s Christ.

May we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, who will not fail to engage us with divine Persons, and will open up divine things to us!