THE SPIRIT OF GOD
[p. 349] THE SPIRIT OF GOD
Genesis 1: 2; Genesis 2: 6, 7; Genesis 6: 3; Romans 8:23-27; Romans 8:15
My remarks will be about the Spirit of God. I have in view to develop and make clear that through Him divine feelings are set out. The Spirit of God, of course, is God, but come in, even sent in, in the attitude of dependence. He, therefore, comes down very low to be alongside of us and in us to take account of us feelingly.
So I have in mind to look at a state of chaos effected by some power hostile to God, but causing deep feelings in God. “The earth was waste and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep”. God never created things in that condition. It was without form. All that we can see of God’s creation indicates great attention paid to form; and, too, all that we can see indicates that voidness is not a divine thought. And the absence of light, which is darkness, is not a divine thought. Light marks God’s operations, for He is light, but in the state described here, “darkness was on the face of the deep”. And on account of all these things, the Spirit of God is clearly affected, for He “was hovering over the face of the waters”. He garnished the heavens, but He is not mentioned in that connection here. He is occupied with this state of things; not with the ornamental side of the creation. It does not say the heavens were waste and empty; it is just the earth.
Apparently the catastrophe was not universal; it was limited. It is always so, including the present state of things. The state of christendom is very bad, but still there is something for God. And what there is has been preceded by divine feelings. Many weepings, many tears, preceded what we are now enjoying. What we have is limited, I admit, but still we are enjoying something. That is, God came in; He came in to make a change in the profession of christianity; but before [p. 350] coming in in a positive way, He came in feelingly in a negative sense, for He felt what the enemy had brought in. And so it is, bringing the matter down, not only to the profession of christianity, but to each individual. God is affected when any of us turns aside from the truth. He is the first to feel it; and He feels it very keenly. His feelings will be reflected in those who are spiritual; whether it be in our parents, brothers or sisters in the flesh, or our brethren, God has a way of coming in and causing right feelings when there has been in any of us, departure from the truth. You will remember how the Lord in one of His parables, said that a certain householder sowed good seed in his field and his enemy came and sowed darnel. In the explanation of the parable the Lord says, “The darnel are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who has sowed it is the devil”, Matthew 13: 38, 39. It may be through a school friend, or a business friend, or some hobby that has been taken on, or the love of money — whatever it is, an enemy has done it and you are not what you used to be. There is a want of form, a certain voidness; and if a spiritual brother speaks with you the conversation is not tasteful to you. You are without form and void spiritually. But God has a means here of expressing His feelings, His Spirit being here in the assembly.
And so in the scripture I read, it is said, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”. The earth was evidently totally immersed as it was in the days of Noah. And hence what feelings! Who can fathom the feelings of the blessed Spirit of God as He brooded over it? It would not be in part only; the whole position would be noted: darkness, and below the darkness, water; just water, not a pulsation of life at all. And so it was; for how long, Scripture does not say. Geologists and astronomers are very profuse with their years; they have plenty of them, sometimes, I believe, far more than God, and sometimes far less! The Spirit of God was in this attitude for how long no astronomer [p. 351] or geologist can tell. Only God knows how long the period was. And how long He can mourn over disaster, who can tell? But there is the fact for reception into our minds that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. God would make use of the waters; they are a creation. And so, if the Lord is going to take any one up here tonight to bless him. He is not going to make any use of the darkness that is in your soul; He will dispel it to make use of your soul; He is going to make use of you as the darkness is removed. The Spirit is not said to move over the darkness, but over the face of the waters. They will be used later. Presently, the earth emerged out of them; the water was not destroyed, nor the earth. In principle, darkness was dispelled. God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. Light displaces darkness. Darkness is retained in God’s wise ordering. He called it night and separated it from the light. God is light. There is no darkness at all in God.
The whole of the first chapter after this is the outcome, morally, of the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters. What was below was going to be brought out. The earth was to emerge and bear fruit. The power of vegetation was put into it, and grass and trees were to grow out of it. Man was to be made out of its dust. What a development! All this is preceded by the Spirit moving on the face of the waters. History is brought out. God did not make the earth in its submerged condition. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. The earth was specially in the mind of God; life was to be in it; trees were to grow out of it; grass was to grow out of it, and man was to be made out of it.
Now that is chapter 1 very briefly. Chapter 2 is Jehovah Elohim; not now dealing with darkness. In truth, it is foreshadowing the wonderful period in which we are; the period of “glory to glory”. Genesis 2 is a wonderful chapter. It is a chapter of glories. Intelligence in man marks it, the breath of God having [p. 352] given him being. God is spoken of as breathing into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. It is not that He lives as we do; far otherwise; God is a Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is pleased to bring things down to our understanding. Thus man became a living soul by the breath of God. The Spirit of God says “there was no man to till the ground” (verse 5). It is not ‘no being’, but ‘no man’. God is going to have some one to work with Him. If I am restored out of the chaos I had gotten into, God says, I want you to work with Me. The Lord Jesus says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5: 17. That did not mean the Father stopped working. The last Adam was now here and He was working.
I wonder how much we think of this as we turn aside from the truth — that God has lost a man. The Lord Jesus says, “How much better then is a man than a sheep!” Matthew 12: 12. A sheep is of some value to God. The sparrow does not fall without Him, but God attaches great value to a man. So, “there was no man to till the ground”. And yet chapter 1 says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ... And God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (verses 26, 27). But chapter 2 says “there was no man to till the ground”. So we must think a little and understand how God puts things together. He leaves them for a moment and then comes back to them and tells us that a certain thing was created before another. Many things were created before man, and man was created before woman. In fact, when we hear of her in chapter 1 we would think she was created with Adam, whereas in truth she was created after him. And when she is specifically brought into being, it is not creation, it is making or building. An architectural word being employed suggests peculiar dignity; the material of which she was built suggests dignity also, for it was a rib of man — not dust of the ground.
[p. 353] As to the material used to make man, the passage says that God caused a mist to rise out of the earth, and it watered the face of the ground. And then, “Jehovah Elohim formed Man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living soul”. It is just the dust of the earth, but the thought of moistening the ground immediately precedes this, and evidently enters into that out of which man was formed. That he was “dust of the ground”, is inserted here anticipating the Fall, intended to be a humiliating fact connected with sin, in view of repentance. But the passage shows that the material out of which man was made was of less value than that out of which woman was made. The main thought, however, is that man was formed and breathed into by Jehovah Elohim and in this way became a living soul. It is of a rib of man, as living by the breath of God, that Eve was built. Thus there is no inferiority on either side, but man is not of woman, but woman of man. Paul says, “For man is not of woman, but woman of man”, 1 Corinthians 11: 8. Chapter 2 of Genesis is a chapter of glories. What enters into the man’s glory is that as formed by God. He breathed into him; it is not said that He breathed into the woman. He may have made her to live by a less distinctive transaction. In Ezekiel breath is said to come into Israel through prophecy. Animals live by breath, too, but we are not told how this took place as they were created. God breathing into Adam’s nostrils indicates that He was operating with very pleasing material. He breathed into man’s nostrils, we are told. Think of that transaction of God’s! These details help us to know God. What did He breathe into man? The breath of life. Hence the great superiority of man above the animals. The breath of life.
And then God takes a lion and brings him to Adam. He takes an elephant and a horse and brings them to Adam. How did He do these things? How did He [p. 354] take the birds to Adam? Scripture says He did, to see what Adam would call them. Was Adam equal to this? Yes. How pleasing he must have been to God! You see Adam there in the field and an elephant coming up. God brought him up. ‘What are you going to call this creature?’ ‘Elephant’. God was pleased with that. ‘What are you going to call this creature?’ ‘Horse’. ‘That one?’ ‘Lion’. ‘That one?’ ‘Sheep’. See how wonderful God is, coming down to His great creature, into whose nostrils He had breathed in this familiar way!
The apostle Paul says to the Athenians, “Some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring”. Why then did they think that God is like gold, silver, or stone to be worshipped? God is thus available to be known by us; He “is not far from each one of us: for in him we live and move and exist”, Acts 17: 27, 28. Elihu says, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life”, Job 33: 4. That is a remarkable scripture. Elihu was representative of God; one in a thousand, an interpreter. He connected his very being with the Spirit of God; the breath of the Almighty had given him life. I refer to that because of this remarkable chapter in Genesis, so full of glory, as if God were to cause His own glories to shine out before Satan showed his hand and caused darkness. In the second chapter the breath of God causes man to become a living soul: and he is set in the garden to till it and guard it. He was to have dominion and a general working part in that which God had created and made. He was intelligent in all this as shown in his naming of the animals and fowls. Solomon spoke about all these things. The millennium will bring out the wonders of creation; certainly of the earth. God would say, You must have the man, the woman, and the lower creatures; the land animals, the beasts and the birds to fly in the air. You must have all these. They are all made for a purpose, and they will all appear according to the divine intent in the [p. 355] millennial day. God says in effect to Adam, I am in covenant with you; I am linked with you, and I want you to be with Me in all that I have made. How applicable that is at the present time! God would bring us to be fellow-workers with Him. God is working governmentally, but He is also working directly through Christ by the Spirit, and He is calling us to be with Him. He is feeling it if you are not. If He has lost one of us, He is feeling it, and would say, He is better than a sheep.
I now go on to Genesis 6 for a moment, to show you how the Spirit is pleading. That is feeling too. The word ‘plead’ is energetic. You may depend that there is great feeling in striving by the Spirit. In this service He may use others to save you, as He is doing. It is a day of household salvation. A peculiar phase of the truth that is being emphasised is the household. The fathers and mothers are overwhelmed at times with the conflict there is to save the children; and the Spirit of God is in it. To the young here I would say, He is striving for your salvation, to keep you out of the evil; and if you are in it, to deliver you out of it. I just touch on that verse; it is a gospel verse. God says, “My Spirit shall not always plead with Man”; not, “I” shall not plead, but “my Spirit”; that is Himself in a feeling way. He will not always strive with men; but He will give him one hundred and twenty years; that is, until the flood.
Now I pass on to the New Testament to bring out my main thought, and that is the activities of the Holy Spirit in us. I have been speaking about the breath of God, and it is very touching that the incoming of the Holy Spirit is called impetuous blowing or breathing, in Acts 2. It is not, however, breathing into the disciples as the Lord did. That is peculiarly touching. The Lord, it says, “breathed into them, and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit”, John 20: 22. That is to say, they were to understand what they were receiving. But [p. 356] in Acts 2 it is an impetuous breathing, (see note in New Translation). That is, a powerful sound coming in from heaven. What is the actual fact of the Spirit of God coming in in this way? “And there came suddenly a sound out of heaven as of a violent impetuous blowing, and filled all the house where they were sitting”, Acts 2: 2. But it is violent breathing, as the note says. That is, God is coming in Spirit-wise. That is the point. Think of the divine thoughtfulness in all this, dear brethren! Would that we had a right appraisal of the blessed Spirit of God; what divine Persons had to do in order to make it possible to impart the Spirit, and then that He should come in in this way! So that the cloven tongues as of fire “sat upon each one of them”. And when the actual speaking begins, it is “as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth”. The disciples spoke about “the great things of God”, the Spirit of God thus acting in them.
And so I thought these verses in Romans 8 would help us. The apostle says in verse 23, “And not only that, but even we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit”. Christians have the Spirit in a greater and more blessed way, a more elevated way, than others — “the first-fruits”. But, in spite of that, “we also ourselves groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption”, sonship, “that is the redemption of our body”. The real cause of the groaning is the state of our bodies — the mixed condition in which we are; and what will bring that to a definite end is the redemption of our bodies, and that is called sonship here. So that, as to the state of our bodies, we are not in the state of sonship absolutely, yet. We may as well accept that, although it is said, “ye are sons” (Galatians 4: 6), but sons by faith, not by actuality; I mean, in the sense of our bodies being included. Our bodies are mortal; they are subject to corruption; they are liable to corruption. We are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. It is a heavenly relationship; but our bodies are not equal to that, and so we are “awaiting adoption, that is the redemption of our body”.
You may say, ‘I thought I was redeemed in toto when I believed in the Lord Jesus’. Well, that is true in the great principle of salvation, but my body needs redemption yet, because I am liable to death and the grave. We should never die if our bodies were redeemed in the sense of Romans 8: 23. We are awaiting that. Our bodies are liable to death, and yet God is using them. We are to present them to Him as living sacrifices, but we await the glorious redemption of our bodies. Does everybody here really understand that verse? I would you did. Awaiting sonship, for that is the word; adoption is sonship; and the meaning of that in this passage — every passage has to be taken in its context — is the redemption of our bodies, so that they are no longer liable to death. In the meantime, the apostle says that although we have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we are groaning. And, oh! what groaning is going on throughout the world! If ever there was a period of groans it is today. God said He heard the groanings of His people in Egypt. He hears them now, too; and they are prevalent; nor do we want to stifle them; it is legitimate to have them. But then, think of this: the Spirit of God Himself in us, groans. But He is not doing it as if things are impossible. No. The Spirit of God never groans in that sense. Many of our groans are because we think there is no possibility of relief. But there is. A Christian characteristically never loses hope. Hope is one of the great features of Christianity — faith, hope and love. Love is the greatest; but the other two are great also, and the Spirit of God groans in us, not hopelessly, but hopefully. And He makes intercession for the saints according to God.
I want you to ponder that, dear brethren: what the Holy Spirit is as in us, what He actually is to us, what operations He carries on in us. The passage says, “but [p. 358] the Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered” (verse 26). But God understands Him. Sometimes I wonder whether I should pray without using my vocal powers even in the formation of words. If I had to do that I could not pray nearly as much as I do. I am thankful that I can pray without articulating. Abraham’s servant prayed in his heart, Scripture says, and God answered him. God answered the very feelings of his heart. That is, you make formations in your heart, and in your mind, of your needs. You can make formations as to them throughout the night seasons. As one says, “Even in the nights my reins instruct me”, Psalm 16: 7. The reins are the inwards, the automatic organs. God knows them; He does not need to have the vocal powers in action to discover what our needs are. He knows well. And the Holy Spirit is there to see it in the believer, in his organs, and to make groans which cannot be uttered. God knows them. That is one of the most encouraging things I know of. “The Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered”. But He makes intercession for the saints according to God. There is thus perfect correspondence with God in believers. Is that not a great thought?
A person that really judges himself, who has gone through Romans 7, knows what this inward thing is, and what that is; he labels the things, as it were, and disallows this, and allows that. And so he says, “I myself with the mind serve God’s law” (verse 25). So that there is in me the Spirit of God, corresponding exactly with God in heaven. Think how great one is in that sense, and how imperative it is to disallow the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit! The enemy is against the Spirit, and so, as Moses says, “Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation!” Exodus 17: 16. The war is on but the Spirit of God is greater than Amalek, “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4:4. He is also greater [p. 359] than the flesh in the believer so that there is room for the Spirit of God; and, therefore, in the subjective condition in the saints forming the assembly, there is perfect correspondence with heaven. Is that not testimony? It is, and a wonderful triumph. It is going to come out fully presently — when we are entirely according to God, spirit, soul and body. But for the moment the triumph is in the teaching of Romans: how it enables us to make room for the Holy Spirit in us, so that there is correspondence in us with God. His very groanings in us are acceptable to God, and He makes intercession for us according to God.
That is the secret, beloved brethren, of the testimony being maintained in this world. Heaven is attentive to what is going on in the saints. But it is in this matter of a subjective condition such as I have mentioned, in the believer, that the Holy Spirit has scope, and so there is perfect correspondence between heaven and earth; that is, in the state of the believer. The believer himself and the whole assembly are, in principle, in accord with heaven. That is what Romans 8 teaches. We do not know how to pray, says the apostle, as we ought to: “But he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for saints according to God” (verse 27).
And, finally, while the Spirit is doing all that. He is thinking of God. He is thinking of the Father. God has been helping us as to the term ‘Father’! The Lord Jesus said in the garden of Gethsemane, “Abba, Father”, Mark 14: 36. Heaven heard that. I do not say that was the only time, but it is said that He said it there, that is, under great pressure; and we are living in a time of pressure. Never, perhaps, was there a time of more general pressure. I often question why it is that in our day God has allowed the two greatest wars that ever occurred. Is it accidental? It is not. He has the brethren in mind. He is keeping war away from among the saints, but allowing it among the nations. But still [p. 360] it is a great pressure, and the Lord was in the greatest pressure in the garden and said, “Abba, Father”. That is what He said, and that was heard in heaven by the Father. It was delightful to Him. The Lord was always pleasing to His Father, but in Gethsemane and on the cross peculiarly so. On the cross He said, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Mark 15: 34. That was heard in heaven too, but not then answered. But the expression was heard and felt as infinitely precious by the Father, and the Holy Spirit thinks of that in coming down into our hearts and crying, Abba, Father. And when the disciple says, “Lord, teach us to pray”. He said to them, “... say, Father”, Luke 11: 1, 2. The Holy Spirit comes in and does not wait for us to say it, but He says it. He is urgent about it; He cries, “Abba, Father”, Galatians 4: 6. But in Romans 8 we have, “... whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (verse 15). It is urgent too: “... whereby we cry”. This would imply that there is great love for the Father; it is from the Spirit, who first cries in the believer.
So that all that I have said is to emphasise the thought of the Spirit in this feeling way, so that we know how to move toward God at the present time. Really the whole current sorrow and pressure is intended to affect the saints. As knowing God and His great purpose of love for us we cannot but think thus. He is forming us for our great destiny through it. God will come in for deliverance; but He is causing it to affect us for our gain; He is working in His people, having all the elect in mind, and when His end is reached, the external matter will be seen in its true character. Let us then be learners; learners especially in the sense of making room for the Spirit of God so that He may be known in a feeling way in our hearts, and that thus we may be with God in a feeling way.