READINESS FOR THE SUPPER
Paul Devenish
Numbers 10: 1,2; Exodus 21: 1-6; 1 Corinthians 5: 7,8; 11: 23-26
The Lord's supper is before us on the morrow, a wonderful occasion in which we look forward to a fresh manifestation of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps the Lord would help us about what lies behind the Supper, which if entered into, would give depth to us - spiritual depth. It is not to be just a superficial matter. I think it has been said that maybe with most of us, or with many of us, the impression of the Lord's coming is second hand. For myself, I long for a first-hand impression. I would desire that each of us here receive it first-hand. Thomas in chapter 20 of John learned about the first manifestation second hand, from others. There would be a certain blessing, I suppose, connected with that. Perhaps we do not have the personal experience of His coming to us, but the fact that He has come leaves a certain blessing with it which we can partake of or participate in. But I would desire for myself, and I trust for each one of us, that the experience may be first hand; "The disciples rejoiced therefore, having seen the Lord," John 20: 20. What is in mind is what leads up to the Supper and what lies behind it that would help us. The injunction in Hebrews is, "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together," v 25. In that connection I desire to speak about the silver trumpets. What lies behind the suggestion of the silver trumpets is that the Lord Jesus has a right to us through redemption. We. are not our own, we have been bought with a price. Think about that when it is meeting night or on the Lord's day. We are not our own, we have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body, (1 Cor 6: 20). When you are ready to put your feet up and be comfortable for the evening when there is a meeting on, I hope your wife says to you, Have you heard the silver trumpets? You are not your own, you have been bought with a price. Of course the great occasion that the silver trumpets would announce, is the Lord's supper, "when ye come together in assembly," 1 Cor 11: 18. But it would apply to all our gatherings. I would suggest that these things that I desire to speak about lie behind the Supper, they are in view of the Supper, all looking on to the Supper. We are often reminded that we are never more than three days from the Supper and we want to have it in our hearts and minds because that is when the Lord is going to come to us and we will see some manifestation of His glory. Do not miss it.
Then we might speak for a moment of the new covenant. It is referred to in chapter 11 of first Corinthians, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood". But then the new covenant is to form us, it is to form us in love. The spirit of the Hebrew bondman is the spirit of the new covenant. It is spoken about in Galatians as our mother (Gal 4: 24-26). It is linked with Jerusalem above, which is our mother. It has a certain forming character. and we are to be formed in love. So that the spirit of the Hebrew bondman is the spirit of the new covenant and it is to form us in the Divine nature. Hymn 456 says, 'A people formed to show, Thy praise, ... Thy willing people formed in love’. The character of a mother is linked with the new covenant, having in mind formation, spiritual formation, but formation in love that would go to an excess beyond any legal requirement: "I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free". Well, let us just be nurtured, let us be formed in love as we contemplate the Hebrew bondman. It says his master bored his ear through with an awl. We know it required the Lord's death to bring into force the new covenant. Scripture is clear about that, but it has in mind that we should be formed in the divine nature. And that would involve excess, not just meeting the legal requirements. "I love my master, my wife, and my children. How does that work out? Not only our love for God, but our love for one another is to be marked by excess. The spirit of the Hebrew bondman, I say it again and I hope it leaves an impression on your heart, is the spirit of the new covenant. It is wonderful to think about the way the Lord Jesus went in love - "I love" - not only a requirement, He must indeed needs go that way, He must go that way if we were to be brought into blessing, into the gain and the enjoyment of divine love the Spirit shedding abroad God's love in our hearts. But that spirit is to mark us. The mother character comes out in Galatians involving that we are in spiritual liberty as formed in love.
Then I refer to the passover. In the teaching in 1 Corinthians it precedes Paul's reference to the Lord's supper - these very affecting words "our passover, Christ has been sacrificed". Moses says your lamb is to be roast with fire (Exod 12) involving the sufferings of Christ. Perhaps it is not normal to emphasise the sufferings of Christ at the Supper, although they may come in to move the hearts of the saints, but lying behind our appreciation of the Lord Jesus is this reference to the passover, the passover lamb - our passover, your lamb. Let us take that home to each of our hearts, your lamb. "Our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed; so that let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven". That would link back with Adam's transgression, Adam and Eve's transgression of disobedience; old leaven would be disobedience. The leaven of malice and wickedness would come out in Cain. It says, "but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." The appropriation of the passover I think is to deepen us in our appreciation of Christ and His sufferings on our account. Dear young ones, He suffered in your stead and in my stead. He is the One that is our Substitute. He is your Lamb, take Him into your heart - your Lamb that has been roast with fire involving the extremity of His sufferings. Matthew and Mark give us that, the unmitigated character of the sufferings of Christ. O, beloved, go over those sufferings and take Him into your affections! What depths, what wealth in spiritual affection would be available to the Lord as we come to the great matter of the Supper if we appreciate and appropriate our passover, Christ, it says, "has been sacrificed".
In chapter 10 you have the matter of loyalty to the fellowship, the fellowship of His death. Let it not be that our coming to the Supper is just a superficial matter. Oh, dear brethren, let these things that we have spoken about enter into the depths of our feelings and affections as we make ourselves ready for that great occasion. Let us not minimise the wonderful occasion that is before us. It is the time when the Lord will manifest Himself and we are to have some impression of His glory, of His beauty. Our brother spoke about Peter's reference to being eyewitnesses of His majesty (2 Peter 1: 16). The prophet speaks about seeing the King in His beauty (Isa 33: 17). Do not miss it. Do not have it second hand. Dear brethren, let us come up this way, let us be loyal to the fellowship. There is a great need for that. You say, What I do out of the sight of the brethren is my business. It is a great test what we do out of the sight of the brethren. We may conform and be true when we are in the sight of the brethren, but what do we do out of the sight of the brethren. The fellowship involves a partnership and it involves loyalty, loyalty to the truth, loyalty to the death of the Lord Jesus, it is the fellowship of His death. These things all lie behind, I might suggest, our coming up to that wonderful occasion of the Lord's supper.
I trust we might be formed in love, that we might realise that we are not our own, we have been bought with a price, that the Lord has that claim over us, "glorify now then God in your body" 1 Cor 6: 20 and that these things may help us as we approach the great occasion of the Lord's supper. So He says in chapter 11, "For I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you". A most touching matter, ''This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come." What a privilege, beloved brethren, is ours! And one's concern is that we might have· this experience of the Lord's presence first-hand. And it involves exercise. It involves that we work out the truth in our souls so that there is depth and meaning to this wonderful occasion. And one would encourage one another with these words. I trust that each one of us might be ready for the Lord's supper. You say, Well, you have been speaking about the Lord's coming, and that may transpire tomorrow, but what we are looking for if the Lord tarries for a moment, is the Lord Jesus coming to us. May we know it first-hand, not like Thomas who missed that wonderful occasion. It has been said before, the disciples did not say to him, Why were you not at the meeting? Where were you? They did not say that. "The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord", John 20: 25. O, do not miss that wonderful moment, dear brethren. May we be led along the line that I have suggested in these scriptures that there may be depth and meaning, there may be spiritual formation with us in divine love so that this wonderful occasion may have the great place that it should have in our minds and hearts because we have the prospect of seeing the Lord. May it be so in His Name.
NEW YORK
7 June 1997
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Roland Brown
John 15: 26,27; 16: 13-15; Revelation 21: 9,10; 22: 16,17
I desire, dear brethren, to say something as to what might be described as the mission of the Holy Spirit of God. You find when you speak to many believers about that Person of the Godhead that they regard Him only as an influence and as a power. They will speak appreciatively of what He does for them, as we would, I trust, but what is not always apparent is the recognition that He is a divine Person with feelings, with prerogatives that are all His own. We often speak together of His activities, how He joins His help to our weakness, how He sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God. What great things these are! The very familiarity with the text can eclipse in the soul the greatness of it, that He should shed abroad in your heart and mine the love of God. But is that all we see - His activities as a Help, as a Supporter, as a Comforter, as a Sustainer? I do believe that there is room for enrichment in our thoughts as to the Holy Spirit of God. There is scope for greater depth and fulness in response to Him. "But when he is come": what a moment when He came at Pentecost! What grace that He should come at all, One so great and glorious that the Lord speaks anticipatively of His coming, that He would come with a mission. I believe that all those other activities to which we have referred, wide and diverse as they are, are directed to that objective. His activities and His power are not indiscriminate, but all that He is to us and all that He does for us is directed towards the objective for which He came. Now, it is important that we should know what t at objective is. It is important that we should align ourselves with the objective of the Holy Spirit of God because we can be sure that if the objective that He has before Him is the objective that we have before us, we shall prove His power perhaps in a way that we have never known before. The Lord speaks of Him in this first passage as ''the Spirit of truth" ... ''whom I will send". He has come as the sent One, but immediately the Lord Jesus refers to Him as having His own prerogatives, ''the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father”. We need to speak of Him with reverence. In His presence we need, as the scripture exhorts us, to be careful. He "goes forth from with the Father'' and the Lord says, "he shall bear witness concerning me". We often dwell at length on what is described as His lowly service. But I think these passages would enhance the Person of the Holy Spirit to us, that our response to Him might be richer and fuller and reverential, that it should not only be occupied with His activities but with a Person and I think we shall find that those activities that we describe as lowly are indeed very exalted.
"He shall bear witness concerning me". Since the outset of time that has been the activity of the Spirit of God. Peter tells us in his epistle how the prophets "searched out; searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out, testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these", 1 Pet 1: 11. How wonderful to think of that, that from the outset of time the subject of divine testimony, empowered by the Spirit of God, has been Christ. Indeed, you go right back to the garden of Eden and in the presence of the greatest catastrophe of all, the incoming of sin into the world, a testimony was raised as to Christ, the woman's seed, and in the presence of what was possibly the greatest human disaster ever, God rendered a testimony to the victory that Christ would gain; how He would crush the serpent's head. Right down through the Old Testament you find persons who were brought into sympathy with the Spirit of God as they bore testimony to Christ: "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet ... like unto me", says Moses (Deut 18: 15). David said, "And he shall be as the light of the morning, like the rising of the sun, A morning without clouds", 2 Sam 23: 4. I am sure many references will come into your mind of how the Spirit of God was pointing to Christ, pointing to His incoming, pointing to His sufferings prophetically and pointing to His coming glory. Enoch prophesied, "Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads", Jude v 14. What a theme of prophetic testimony from the outset of time! And as Stephen ranged over it in his address to those who were about to murder him, his conclusion was, "ye do always resist the Holy Spirit", Acts 7: 51. What an indictment! What a setting out of divine ways in patient grace as God presented His best! God spoke anticipatively of His beloved Son, "Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!" Isa 42: 1. Think of God, if it is a right word to use, and I use it reverently, enthusing as He spoke of Christ anticipatively through the prophet and, consistent with the faithful testimony of the Spirit of God, consistent also was its rejection, "ye do always resist the Holy Spirit ... Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain those who announced beforehand concerning the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have now become deliverers up and murderers!", Acts 7: 51,52.
Was there ever anyone so sinned against as the Holy Spirit of God? Even today we read of the insulting of the Spirit of grace (Heb 10: 29). In the believer the flesh lusts against Him. His presence here supremely in Christ, and they said He had a demon! Because of the grace of His coming as the sent One to indwell believers He is despised and the very scriptures that were written under His inspiration are twisted and distorted and contradicted. Was ever anyone more sinned against than the Holy Spirit of God? Well might we be exhorted in the word, not to quench the operation of His power. He is here in lowly grace and His power can be quenched. The operation of it can be stifled by the allowance of that in me that is abhorrent to God. And He can be grieved too. Nothing brings out more clearly in the scriptures His personality, if one might reverently speak of it in that way, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God", Eph 4: 30. What feelings He has as He takes up His abode in the believer, closely identified, as He is, with the condition we are in. It says of Him that He "makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered", Rom 8: 26. Think of feelings like that! James says, ''the Spirit which has taken his abode in us", chap 4: 5. Is there evidence in you that He is in residence? I remember a brother drawing attention to the fact that when the Queen is in residence in her palace, the flag flies. When she goes off to another one, it comes down. Is there evidence that this Person of the Godhead has taken up His dwelling-place within? The Lord says, "He shall bear witness concerning me". That is His great mission. He says to these faithful ones who loved Him and were feeling His departure, "and ye too bear witness". How thankful we are for their witness! How thankful we are for the witness of the apostles, those who had fellowship with Christ in the days of His flesh. What a valuable witness was theirs! How privileged we are to have the account of it. But that came to an end. The witness of the apostles was distinctive but it came to an end; "he shall bear witness concerning me" is continuing right up to this present moment and the challenge is whether we are available for the Spirit of God in the pursuance of His objective or whether we obstruct Him.
In the next passage the Lord says, "He shall glorify me". I think it refers to a circle here on the earth where Christ is honoured. He has been glorified in heaven. Peter announced that early on in the Acts, He gave his own testimony but then through his mouth came the testimony of the Spirit of God, "God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified , both Lord and Christ", Acts 2: 36. There was the Spirit of God testifying to the exaltation of Christ in heaven , but He has in mind that He should be glorified in human hearts. He has in mind that there should be a circle here on the earth where He is "everything, and in all", Col 3: 11. We often sing that hymn,
"Jesus! Thou art enough
The mind and heart to fill" (Hymn 174).
Are you searched as you sing that hymn? Is He sufficient for you? The Spirit of God would make Him sufficient for you. "He shall glorify me" and all His activities in relation to guiding us into the truth, I think, have that in mind. What grace that it should say of this Divine Person that "he shall not speak from himself". We read in the Corinthians of the exercise of His prerogatives, that He divides ''to each in particular according as he pleases", 1 Cor 12: 11, but He has taken this place of not speaking from Himself, but conveying the present mind of God. What a place He has taken! How ill it behoves any of us, therefore to speak from ourselves! How ill it behoves any of us in the local meeting to say what I think and what I want and what my opinion is when the Holy Spirit of God is there and He is there as not speaking from Himself but content to be a conveyor of the mind of God. "For he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak". The suggestion is that there are living communications available from heaven that the Spirit of God is committed to passing on and the question would be whether we are ready to receive them.
Brethren will recall that at the beginning of the recovery, about 150 years ago, one of the things that troubled the brethren was clericalism. Many of the brethren in fellowship had come out of what we speak of as system and there were many persons that were familiar with the clerical system, the idea that we all sit in the room and only Mr So-and-So who knows something is allowed to speak. In fact, if you look into Mr Darby's writings at the time, you will see that conditions reached such a pass that if some simple brother gave out a hymn, many brethren would not even open their hymnbooks, even less so if he presumed to read the Scriptures.
It was thought that those things were the province of educated and intelligent men only and Mr Darby who was himself an educated and intelligent man was the foremost in condemning that. He wrote that article as to the sin against the Holy Ghost, the notion of a clergyman being that dispensationally. These things are history and are well-known but, of course, the reason why many brethren were fearful of letting go of clericalism was because they thought it would be a free-for-all. I think in the day in which we are, the day of small things, the danger arises from that, not so much from clerical ism but the notion that we can all have our say and that my opinion is just as good as yours. That is a thing that we are in danger of falling into and I believe the principle of democracy amongst us militates as effectively against the operation of the Holy Spirit of God as clericalism ever did. I do think, dear brethren, that we help one another by reminding one another that there is a divine Person here and the word is, "Be careful in his presence" (Exod 23: 21) ''for He shall not speak from himself". So if I jump in with what I want to say, the chances are that what He would minister in His infinite patience and grace may be lost and effectively His power and operation amongst us may be quenched.
"He will announce to you what is coming." What a wonderful service, not occupying us with the past but engaging us with the future, a future which is very imminent. I think when it says, "and he will announce to you what is coming" it really embraces what is eternal in character, what will shortly eclipse this time-scene in which we are and that is what the Holy Spirit would engage us with, not with difficulties and administrative matters, but with what is coming. Of course, we need what is administrative. We are thankful for those who provide these occasions for us and the work that goes into it but all is in view of the Holy Spirit being tree to fulfil His mission to engage us with what is coming.
So Paul says, ''forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before" (Phil 3: 13): there was a man who was committed in his life and service to the objectives to which the Holy Spirit was committed. Indeed, I think one of those that has helped us has said that there are times when he almost personifies the Holy Spirit of God and he speaks of ''forgetting". There is much that occupies our time that can be profitably forgotten, but there are things ahead that are immense and glorious. How much do we have our view on what lies ahead and the imminence of our entry into it in finality? How that sets everything in perspective in our souls "He shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you." In the type "all the treasure of his master was under his hand", Gen 24: 10. What wealth He is entrusted with, come down from heaven at Pentecost, freighted with heavenly grace. In that type you see him travelling as the servant to Rebecca and he opens his treasures. They are his credentials that he is who he says he is. How much more so with the Spirit of truth, what that divine Person has brought to us. Do we estimate it sufficiently, the very wealth that we have in our hands, the written word of God inspired by Him: "all the treasure of his master as under his hand."
Now in Revelation you get the word, "Come here, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife". What an invitation to one who had seen the great harlot, seen Babylon destroyed, but the invitation is, "Come here, I will shew thee ... And he carried me away in the Spirit". Are we ready to be carried away like that, carried away to a great and high mountain? You say the point of that, as we are often told, is that He would get a good view, that he would see this great sight from an elevated position, but I think it indicates that in the beloved apostle there is a self-surrender and humility that he could be carried away in the Spirit. What do you know of that, dear brother, dear sister, being carried away in the Spirit, lifted above the mundane that occupies us so necessarily for so much of our time, but lifted above it, carried away? Or are we becoming so tied down by earthly and temporal things? The apostle says "For all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ" Phil 2: 21. What a sad statement for the apostle who had so ministered in the power of the Spirit to bring the things of Jesus Christ before the saints and he said, "For all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ". They did not want to be carried away. But in John you get a man who was ready to be carried away, a man who had written about the breakdown of the church, who had written faithfully for Christ to the assemblies, but he is seeing the finished product of the activities of the Holy Spirit of God. "I will shew thee" - it is not a common sight. It is not on show for anybody to gawp at. This is a view that is given to those that desire to see it and I think the Spirit of God would promote that desire in our souls. It is part of the "things that are mine" that He would communicate to us: "I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." What a view! How much has been said and written about this passage, this city "coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God", having its own radiance, heavenly in origin and in destiny and in character, God's abode, a dwellingplace suited for Him! Would you like a view of that or would you prefer a view of the brethren in their difficulties and their weaknesses and their shortcomings, and these things that we talk about? "And he carried me away". People say frivolously, He got a bit carried away, but, I believe, the scriptures indicate that that is Christian experience. Paul says in writing to the Corinthians, "For whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God; or are sober, it is for you", 2 Cor 5: 13. He knew what it was to be beside himself. I would like to know more of that. I could not say very much about that from experience, perhaps momentarily, but if we stop for a minute to think of what the psalmist says that, "Thy countenance is fulness of joy, Ps 16: 11, I think the believer should in his experience know something of ecstasy. This beloved man was "carried away" and Paul speaking of his own experience says he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body and the implication is that it did not matter, that the senses and faculties of the earthen vessel would not have availed. What he was listening to, what he was privileged to be privy to, those unspeakable things that were said which were not permitted for man to utter, but which he heard, his earthly vessel would not have helped. The curious would like to know whether he went up physically or whether he went up in his spirit or how he went up. It is amazing how trivial we can be. A sister was speaking to somebody who was not a believer about the coming of the Lord as being her hope and she replied, Well, how are you going to get up there? How the natural mind focuses on the trivia instead of the immensity of the prospect! Paul in writing that great resurrection chapter says, "But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what body do they come?" (1 Cor 15: 35). Someone will say that. Instead of embracing the immensity of the objective that there is a spiritual body, that the believer is going to be clothed with a body that is suited to eternal and final conditions, some one will want to know the mechanics of it, how does it all work. But the apostle says he was carried away in the Spirit. I covet that experience. Ezekiel was lifted up by a lock of his head (Ezek 8: 3). There was not a big business holding him down, pinning him to the earth. No! There were not lots of earthly connections and attractions. He could be lifted up by the Spirit by a lock of his head and I challenge my own soul, am I amenable to spiritual experience or am I, as the apostle had to say to the Corinthians, "yet carnal", 1 Cor 3: 3? He was not able to speak to them as to spiritual but as to fleshly because they were carnal. I think the Spirit of God would help us as we have the desire to be spiritual, to enter into the reality of spiritual experience for ourselves and to have a view of what is going to delight the heart of Christ eternally. How the local meeting would take on a different hue as it is seen through this passage, “the bride, the Lamb's wife".
The scriptures finish with this direct word from the Lord, "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you ..." He is giving His personal authority to what is in this book, that it comes from Him: "I Jesus". He is speaking from beyond death. He is speaking from the resurrection world to those of us that are here on the earth. How that should thrill our hearts, a word from a glorified Man in heaven. It has struck me recently as one of the most wonderful things that there are persons here on the earth that are in touch with a glorified Man in heaven. That is an amazing thing and here He is speaking from the glory, "I Jesus" and He presents Himself. There is nothing more intended to affect the affections of the saints than the presentation of Himself. There is nothing on Tuesday night that will more stimulate the saints than some simple impression of Christ and that is the spirit of prophecy, the testimony of Jesus. "I Jesus ... I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come." The Spirit of God is speaking and the bride is speaking. They both say, "Come" and they say it together. The Spirit of God is saying, "Come". He is empowering that response and there is on the earth, those that long for Christ and form His bride, and they say it. The objective of the Spirit of God is their own and they say, "Come".
But then there are those that hear. All these categories of persons that are described in this verse might be in this room. I have no doubt that there is here what forms the bride or Christ and there might be those in this room who although positionally very near it are not really committed to it. "And let him that hears say, Come". Have you heard it? Have you heard that longing expressed in the hearts of the saints for Christ? "And let him that is athirst come". There is somebody with a need and the appeal is for them to come. You can see how the Spirit of God is maintaining right to the end of the dispensation the character of it, the evangelical appeal of it: "And let him that is athirst come". I do pray that we may be maintained in the spirit of evangelical appeal until the Lord comes. A brother said to me recently that evangelism is the refuge of those who have given up assembly truth. Can that be right? The more you think about it, it is nonsense. Can it really be asserted that what is evangelical is inconsistent with assembly truth? "And let him that is athirst come; he that will ..." What an appeal going out to all men, "he that will, let him take the water of life freely." May God preserve amongst us the spirit of evangelical zeal, not only towards unbelievers but towards our brethren in Christ, many of whom are not available to us. The Spirit of God is urgent that the dispensation might be completed and he would inspire our hearts with that spirit of evangelical fervour. Thank God for the young men who preach in the open air in this city. I say, Thank God for them, persons that are prepared to go out and speak of the great things of God in a hostile atmosphere. I believe that is one of the ways that the Spirit of God restrains. It is another of His activities, restraining evil, and I think He does it through the testimony of the saints, including the open-air preaching. May it result in the formation in them of character and spiritual manhood and stamina for the testimony and may those of us who may not have the courage for that support them in our prayers and in our presence, if we can, and certainly in our sympathy and outgoing! It grieves me to hear the labours of such slighted. The open-air preaching requires courage; it requires spiritual mettle; and it will form, I have no doubt, in those that are committed to it, manhood and character which is needed in the testimony. Somebody once said that many of us have a wishbone where the backbone ought to be and one feels that one of the things that the Spirit of God would do is to energise us in the testimony. The apostle says, "For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice", 2 Tim 1: 7. If I have a spirit of cowardice, I have not got it from Him. The Spirit of God has come down to energise the testimony and the glad tidings are part of that. They are preached in His power, sent down from heaven. I say, was there ever any one so sinned against as the Holy Spirit of God?
One desires that these few words might be used to magnify that Person of the Godhead, that our response to Him might be the more affectionate, might be the more real!
LONDON
20 September 1997