THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND THE SPIRIT OF EVIL
[p. 506] THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND THE SPIRIT OF EVIL
I want to draw attention to the forces with which we come into conflict in the world. It comes out distinctly in Luke 4. Outwardly it may bear a different aspect now, but the same forces are at work, and with the same object. In this world the Spirit of God is acting for God, and then there is that which is in direct opposition. In the gospel of John we find the Jew opposing — the devil working in him to discountenance what is of God. There is the same thing in christendom, or modern Judaism as it might be called, namely, the spirit of evil acting against the Spirit of God. It is of all moment to see underneath what these forces are. Stephen brought it home to the Jew when he said, “Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye”. It is an unvarying rule that the Spirit is contrary to the flesh, but apart from the flesh and not the flesh itself, there is a force in the world acting against the Spirit of God. This explains largely what we see going on in the world. God’s deliverance is from the power of evil, and from that system and order of things where the power of evil operates. Idolatry is a form in which it can operate, Judaism is another, and now christendom is a system in which the power of evil can operate and affect men. Here, in Luke 4, Satan came to the Lord, and spoke of the glory of the world being delivered to him. This world is a system where evil can operate and hold the souls of men, but there is the Spirit of God to deliver.
In this gospel you get the activity of the Spirit of God from the beginning. When the angel announced to Mary the birth of Christ, he said, “The Holy [p. 507] Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”. Son of God because He was the Son of God’s power. From the very introduction of Christ into the world we find the Spirit of God in activity. Almost contemporaneously with the announcement of the birth of Christ took place the birth of John the baptist, and in that wonderful song of his father Zacharias, we do not find him celebrating John the baptist, but the “dayspring from on high” is the burden of the song. God, he says, “hath raised up an horn of salvation for us”. It all refers to Christ. The Holy Spirit had filled Zacharias that he might celebrate the horn of salvation. I go a point further, when Christ is actually born, men on earth are inattentive, but there is a great stir in heaven. Then He is brought into the temple where was the aged Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit. God’s great answer to death was Jehovah’s Christ. Before Simeon saw death, he had been permitted to see God’s great answer to it, and he says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”. He came by the Spirit into the temple, there was drawing to Christ, and he took the child Jesus in his arms. All this shows the continual activity of the Holy Spirit in connection with the advent of Christ into the world. Now I pass over a certain period and we come to the baptism of Christ. He was baptised by John the baptist that everything might be accomplished, and then He is anointed by the Holy Spirit. In this chapter He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil — afterwards to Nazareth where He had been brought up. In verses 16 - 21 the Lord refers to the prophecy of Isaiah. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. The Spirit of God was the Spirit of grace. Jesus was anointed by the Spirit to preach, that is the first thing. It was ever in God’s mind that [p. 508] a Man should be anointed by the Holy Spirit. He was ever bent on maintaining the testimony of God in this world. He is the Preacher of the glad tidings now. Isaiah alludes to the glad tidings in connection with Christ coming into the world. Now Christ has come bringing the glad tidings. The Spirit of God always maintained the testimony of God in the world, and that is what He is here for now. What man wants is certainty. He cannot have it apart from the revelation of God. No man can be certain in himself of having arrived at the truth. Certainty must depend on revelation, so the Spirit of God in grace towards man is bent on maintaining the testimony down here in this world. In prophetic testimony certain rays of light shone forth, but now the Sun has shone. The only-begotten Son has declared the Father. Man does not want to rest his hopes on something that will come to pieces. Christ was the testimony — they “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth”. The words of grace were natural to Christ, “Grace is poured into thy lips”, they are not natural to us. There could be no discord between Christ and the Spirit of God. There is perfect communion. The Spirit is here to maintain the testimony of God in the world, whether in prophetic writings, or when Christ came, but you will find that there is always opposition to it.
Remember the passage in Acts 7, “Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit”, then in verses 25 - 32 we have the Lord referring to Elijah and Elisha. By the Holy Spirit they maintained God’s testimony and were resisted, so the Jews were judging Christ and resisting the Spirit of God. Men in the flesh resisted the Spirit. We have to apprehend the forces of evil that are at work. We must not be astonished to find the leaders — “the princes of this world”, men of science and intellect — setting themselves against the Spirit of God. We can only rest on revelation, nothing [p. 509] short of this, but there is revelation, and the Spirit of God maintains it.
At the outset of his gospel Luke writes to the one he addresses “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things”. The Lord in His address in the synagogue brings before them Elijah and Elisha. The nation took little account of them, they were despised according to the flesh, but who got the benefit of their testimony? The widow and the leper — both gentiles — not the Jews, for the simple reason they were not down low enough to apprehend the testimony of God. The things of God are hid from the wise and prudent, and are revealed unto babes. The same story is repeated today, men of wisdom and learning judge of things according to the flesh.
In verses 33 - 37 the Lord goes into the synagogue, where there is a man with an unclean devil. When the Lord was here the power of evil came out through unclean spirits, and degradation and depravity accompanied it. Now the power of evil comes out in quite a different way; its working in men may be in accordance with the general state of things existing at any given time. In the synagogue the Lord by the Spirit of God rebukes the devil and commands him to come out of the man. Satan has altered his aspect now and appears as an angel of light. The attempt by men of ability to discredit Christ, and all that Christ is, is essentially antichristian. The work of the Spirit is to deliver man from that system of things in which the power of evil can work — the great world-system; that is where man finds his glory. Do you think God will tolerate that? All glory belongs to God. If man assumes glory, it proves his system to be all wrong. How often a man in the world who is extremely wicked gets glory and honour in a marvellous way. What would the world be without ambition, emulation, and such like things? It would not suit men of the world to be meek and [p. 510] lowly like Christ. What characterises the world is “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. The Spirit of God is here to deliver from this world-system. How? By making God known to the soul; by bringing souls into the light revealed in Christ. The apostle could say to the Corinthians, after speaking of what they had been, “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6: 11); they were delivered from the world-system, and what then? put into relation with the One who is Head — “members of Christ” — as associated with Him who is the Centre and Sun of God’s system of the universe of bliss. The Sun of righteousness will arise by and by on Israel, but we have not to wait for the Sun of righteousness to arise, already we are brought into God’s marvellous light, and thus already placed in relation to the Sun of righteousness. Christ is also in us, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Do not trust the surface of things; if we want truth, we must look underneath. There is nothing new in the present course of things; the fathers resisted the Holy Spirit, the Jews resisted, and christendom resists today, but the Spirit is here in the world to deliver man from it. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”. The Spirit brought Simeon to Christ. He has brought us to Christ and He will maintain us in intelligent relation to Christ. The earth stands in relation to the sun, but the sun shines also into the earth; there is reciprocity. Christ shines into the christian in all His blessed light and warmth, and the effort of the Spirit of God is that Christ should shine out.