Nineteenth Meeting
(February 15, 1964 P.M.)
I want
you to read with me two or three short passages of the
Word of God:
"I have many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Holy Spirit of
truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He
shall not speak of Himself - but whatsoever He shall
hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to
come" (John 16:12,13).
"And
I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the
Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him;
for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not
leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me:
because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:16-19).
"And
it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul
having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus:
and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, 'Have
ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed?' And they
said unto him, "We have not so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Spirit." And he said unto them,
"Unto what then were ye baptized?" And they
said, "Unto John's baptism." Then said Paul,
"John verily baptized with the baptism of
repentance, saying unto the people, that they
should believe on Him Which should come after him, that
is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." And when
Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came
on them; and they spake with tongues, and
prophesied" (Acts 19:1-6).
Now what
I want from these verses are just two fragments, "When
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into
all the truth." And the other one is this: "Did
ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" These
Scriptures, which we have just read, present to us a
matter about which the apostles were very particular. And
what was it that the apostles demanded as the proof of
this matter? It was that these people had definitely
received the Holy Spirit. I expect some of you may say,
'Well, how do we know if and when we have received the
Holy Spirit?' Now there are quite a number of things that
are the proofs that we have received the Holy Spirit. And
I am just going to choose several of the most normal
things in this connection.
The
first thing is that we have recognized and acknowledged
the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ over our life. You
notice that when the apostles preached, they always began
their preaching by setting forth Jesus Christ as Lord.
The first thing that they said about Jesus was not
"He is Savior," but the first thing that they
said about Him was "He is Lord." "God
has made this Jesus Whom ye crucified both Lord and
Christ." They said, we preach Jesus Christ as Lord.
It was the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ that came
first in their preaching.
Now this
coming of the Holy Spirit was only the earthly side of
what had taken place in heaven. Jesus had been received
up into glory, and in glory God made Him Lord: God had
said to Him, "Sit Thou at My right hand."
In heaven, Jesus Christ was recognized as
Lord. All the angels of heaven worship Him as Lord. The
Father God called Jesus, "Lord."
This is what happened in heaven. When that happened in
heaven, the Holy Spirit came right down from heaven to
this earth, and He came down to make what was in heaven
true here on this earth. He came to make earth and heaven
agree on this one thing, "Jesus is Lord." The
first proof that you and I have the Holy Spirit is that
Jesus Christ is absolute Lord in our life. We bow to the
Lord Jesus and we say, "Lord." And we
mean from that time Jesus is Lord of all things in and
over our lives.
When
Jesus is Lord, there is always one thing that the Holy
Spirit does. The Holy Spirit brings into the heart the
glory of the Lord Jesus. Jesus was glorified in heaven,
because Jesus was Lord there. When Jesus becomes Lord in
our lives, some of that heavenly glory comes into our
lives. You notice how the people in the New Testament
were filled with joy because they had received the Holy
Spirit. And that joy was the expression of the glory of
Jesus. That is why when we truly make Jesus Lord, we feel
so happy, so joyful. We cannot keep it to ourselves. We
want everybody to know about it. The Holy Spirit has
brought the glory of the Lord Jesus into our lives. That
is the first way in which you can tell whether you have
received the Holy Spirit. Have you got something of the
glory of Jesus in your heart?
You know
that Christianity is the only true singing religion in
the world. Some other religions make some very funny
noises. Perhaps they think it is singing. But it is a
miserable noise. It is just an awful noise that they
make. We Christians sing, and why do we sing? Because the
Holy Spirit makes us sing. You notice what a good time
Christians have when they are singing about the Lord
Jesus. Well, that is the first evidence that we have
received the Holy Spirit.
Another
thing, which is the proof that we have received the Holy
Spirit, is the complete change that is made in our lives.
Now you have only to look in your New Testament to see
how true this is. Look at the disciples before the day of
Pentecost. Look at them up to the time that Jesus was
crucified. Now we cannot say very much that is good about
them up to that time. Those disciples up to the time of
Pentecost were defeated disciples. When Jesus was taken
by the soldiers, they all ran away from Him. Not one of
them stayed with Him. They were so afraid. And Peter,
poor Peter, went down lower than all of them. Three
times, Peter very strongly denied that he knew Who Jesus
was, he said, "I know not the Man." Just think
of Peter talking like that. That wonderfully
self-confident Peter behaving like that, seeking to save
his own life by denying his Lord. Yes, they were all
defeated men when it came to the Cross.
Now look
at them on the day of Pentecost, and from that time
onward, they are men in absolute victory. Let the same
rulers that crucify Jesus take these men prisoner, and
threaten to put them to death. And what do these men do
now? Do they run away? Do they say, 'We do not know
Jesus?' Oh, no, they are very different men. They are
just full of courage. They stand up to the rulers. And it
says, "They counted it joy to suffer shame for
Christ's Name." Before they received the Holy
Spirit, they were men who were very much afraid, very
fearful indeed. You know, we are told that after Jesus
rose from the dead, these disciples were all in the room
and they had bolted the door for fear of the Jews. If
they heard some footsteps coming along the road, all
their faces went white, and they began to tremble, 'Are
they coming for us now?' Men full of fear. Now look at
them, after they have received the Holy Spirit. No white
faces now. No trembling with fear now. Fear has given way
to a wonderful courage. They can stand up to anybody.
Then
look again at them after Jesus was crucified. It says
about two of them who were walking to a village called
Emmaus, that they walked and were sad. They were very sad
and unhappy men. And I think that was true of all the
disciples at that time. They thought that they had lost
everything. Yes, they were very sad men.
Now look
at them when they had received the Holy Spirit. It says
they were full of joy and of the Holy Spirit. Rejoicing
had taken the place of the sadness. How weak they were
before that. They could not stand up to even a little
servant maid. You remember the story? Jesus is being
tried, and Peter is in the hall near by, and he is
warming his hands. You know, you always feel cold when
you are afraid; and Peter was feeling very cold, because
he was very afraid. And there came a little maid - just a
little girl, a serving girl. And she said to him,
"You are one of His disciples." And he was
afraid of a little girl. He said, "I do not know the
Man." Yes, he was afraid of a little girl. How weak
they were. Now after Pentecost, you can bring all the
girls and all the men in the world, and you can let them
say all they like to Peter and the other disciples, for
now they are no longer weak, but they are strong.
Then
there was another thing. Before the day of Pentecost, the
Bible was a closed book to them. They knew it as a book.
They had read Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, but
they did not understand it. They did not understand what
it was all about. They knew it as a book, but to them it
was a closed book. Now look at them on the day of
Pentecost. Why, they had a new Bible! I would like for
you to read carefully Peter's address to the multitude on
the day of Pentecost. See how much of the Old Testament
he quotes. See how he explains the Old Testament. Now his
eyes are opened, and he sees Jesus everywhere in the Old
Testament. Yes, they had a new Bible. The Bible was no
longer closed, it is an open book. All these things were
marks of their receiving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
made defeated men into men of victory. The Holy Spirit
made fearful men into men of courage. The Holy Spirit
made sad men into rejoicing men. The Holy Spirit made
weak men into strong men. And the Holy Spirit gave them
all a new Bible. This is the proof that they had received
the Holy Spirit. Now I am sure you will agree with me
that the Holy Spirit is very important.
These
are the true characteristics of a Christian life. I am
not going to keep you any longer tonight. Perhaps at some
other time we will have another talk, and I will go on
from this point, showing something more of the meaning of
the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit means to us in our
lives. But for tonight this is the point: The absolute
necessity of our receiving the Holy Spirit. And be sure
that we have received the Holy Spirit. And we can test
this matter by these things that I have mentioned. We can
test it and prove it because to us Jesus is Lord of all.
He is absolute Lord of our lives. It is the Holy Spirit
that does that. If that is true of us, then we have the
Holy Spirit. And these other things that I have mentioned
must also be true.
We can
prove it by this: 'Have you received the Holy Spirit?' Or
to put it in Paul's way, 'When you believed, did you
receive the Holy Spirit? Have you really got the Holy
Spirit dwelling in you?' And you say, 'How do I know?'
Well, I have told you just a few of the things which can
make you know whether or not you have received the Holy
Spirit. Of course, we often put it in another way. We ask
people if they have received the Lord Jesus. And we speak
about having the Lord Jesus in our hearts, but it is just
the same thing. Jesus said, "I and My Father are
one" (John 10:30). And the Holy Spirit and Jesus are
one. The Holy Spirit has come to make Jesus live in us.
It is the same thing. But it is something that we must be
very sure about.
Well, I
will leave the question with you. You see, I am trying to
be very faithful, and really to get right down to the
foundation of the Christian life. I think that one of the
greatest weaknesses in Christianity of our time is that
we take too much for granted. That is why the apostles
were so particular about this matter. They made it a
personal matter. They made it a matter of supreme
importance. They said, "When you believed, did you
receive the Holy Spirit?" THE ONLY TRUE CHRISTIAN
LIFE IS THE LIFE IN WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT MAKES JESUS
LORD.
Well,
that is my simple word to you this evening, but it is a
very important word. I have come a long way to speak to
you, I may not be here very long, then I shall be gone
and may never meet you again on this earth. But I want to
be quite sure that when I speak to you, I am very
faithful with you, that I leave you in no doubt as to the
true nature of the Christian life - the life in which the
Holy Spirit makes Jesus Christ Lord! Perhaps we shall say
something about the going on of the Christian life, but
this is how it must begin.