By C.H. Spurgeon
“And I will pray the Father and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever: even the Spirit of
Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows
Him: but you know Him for He dwells with you and shall be in you.”
John 14:16, 17
You will be surprised to hear me announce that I do not
intend this morning to say anything about the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. I
propose to reserve that for a special Sermon this evening. In this discourse I
shall endeavor to explain and enforce certain other doctrines which I believe
are plainly taught in this text and which I hope God the Holy Spirit may make
profitable to our souls.
Old John Newton once said that there were some books
which he could not read, they were good and sound enough, but, he said, “they
are books of halfpence–you have to take so much in quantity before you have any
value. There are other books of silver and others of gold, but I have one book
that is a book of bank notes. And every leaf is a bank note of immense value.”
So I found with this text–that I had a bank note of so
large a sum, that I could not preach on it all this morning. I should have to
keep you several hours before I could unfold to you the whole value of this
precious promise–one of the last which Christ gave to His people.
I invite your attention to this passage, because we shall
find in it some instruction on four points, first, concerning the true and
proper personality of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, concerning the united agency
of the glorious Three Persons in the work of our salvation. Thirdly, we shall
find something to establish the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
in the souls of all Believers. And fourthly, we shall find out the reason why
the carnal mind rejects the Holy Spirit.
First of all, we shall have some little instruction
concerning the proper PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. We are so much accustomed
to talk about the influence of the Holy Spirit and His sacred operations and
graces that we are apt to forget that the Holy Spirit is truly and actually a
Person–that He is a subsistence–an existence. Or as we Trinitarians usually
say, one Person in the essence of the Godhead. I am afraid that though we do
not know it, we have acquired the habit of regarding the Holy Spirit as an
emanation flowing from the Father and the Son, but not as being actually a
Person Himself. I know it is not easy to carry about in our mind the idea of
the Holy Spirit as a Person.
I can think of the Father as a Person, because His acts
are such as I can understand. I see Him hang the world in ether. I behold Him
swaddling a newborn sea in bands of darkness. I know it is He who formed the
drops of hail, who leads forth the stars by their hosts and calls them by their
name, I can conceive of Him as a Person because I behold His operations. I can
realize Jesus, the Son of Man, as a real Person because He is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh. It takes no great stretch of my imagination to picture
the Babe in Bethlehem, or to behold the, “Man of Sorrows and acquainted with
grief.” I can easily realize the King of martyrs, as He was persecuted in
Pilate’s hall, or nailed to the accursed tree for our sins.
Nor do I find it difficult at times to realize the Person
of my Jesus sitting on His Throne in Heaven. Or girt with clouds and wearing
the diadem of all creation, calling the earth to judgment and summoning us to
hear our final sentence. But when I come to deal with the Holy Spirit–His
operations are so mysterious, His doings are so secret, His acts are so removed
from everything that is of sense and of the body–that I cannot so easily get
the idea of His being a Person.
But a Person He is. God the Holy Spirit is not an
influence, an emanation, a stream of something flowing from the Father. He is
as much an actual Person as either God the Son, or God the Father. I shall
attempt this morning a little to establish the doctrine and to show you the
truth of it–that God the Holy Spirit is actually a Person.
The first proof we shall gather from the pool of holy
Baptism. Let me take you down, as I have taken others, into the pool. It is now
concealed, but I wish it were always open to your view. Let me take you to the
baptismal font, where Believers put on the name of the Lord Jesus and you shall
hear me pronounce the solemn words, “I baptize you in the name,”–mark–“in the
name,” not names–“of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Everyone who is baptized according to the true form laid down in Scripture must
be a Trinitarian–otherwise his Baptism is a farce and a lie and he himself is
found a deceiver and a hypocrite before God.
As the Father is mentioned and as the Son is mentioned,
so is the Holy Spirit and the whole is summed up as being a Trinity in unity,
by its being said, not the names, but the “name”–the glorious name–the Jehovah
name, “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Let me remind
you that the same thing occurs each time you are dismissed from this house of
prayer. In pronouncing the solemn closing benediction, we invoke on your behalf
the love of Jesus Christ, the grace of the Father and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit. And thus, according to the Apostolic manner, we make a manifest
distinction between the Persons showing that we believe the Father to be a
Person, the Son to be a Person and the Holy Spirit to be a Person. Were there
no other proofs in Scripture, I think these would be sufficient for every
sensible man. He would see that if the Holy Spirit were a mere influence, He
would not be mentioned in conjunction with two whom we all confess to be actual
and proper Persons.
A second argument arises from the fact that the Holy
Spirit has actually made different appearances on earth. The Great Spirit has
manifested Himself to man. He has put on a form so that while He has not been
beheld by mortal men, He has been so veiled in appearance that He was seen, so
far as that appearance was concerned, by the eyes of all beholders. Do you see
Jesus Christ our Savior? There is the river Jordan, with its shelving banks and
its willows weeping at its side. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descends into
the stream and the holy Baptist, John, plunges Him into the waves.
The doors of Heaven are opened. A miraculous appearance
presents itself–a bright light shinning from the sky, brighter than the sun in
all its grandeur–and down in a flood of glory descends something which you
recognize to be a dove. It rests on Jesus–it sits upon His sacred head and as
the old painters put a halo round the brow of Jesus, so did the Holy Spirit
shed a resplendence around the face of Him who came to fulfill all
Righteousness and therefore commenced with the ordinances of Baptism. The Holy
Spirit was seen as a dove–to mark His purity and His gentleness–and He came
down like a dove from Heaven to show that it is from Heaven alone that He
descends.
Nor is this the only time when the Holy Spirit has been
manifest in a visible shape. You notice that company of disciples gathered
together in an upper room–they are waiting for some promised blessing–by-and-by
it shall come. Hark, there is a sound as of a rushing mighty wind! It fills all
the house where they are sitting. Astonished, they look around them, wondering
what will come next. Soon a bright light appears, shining upon the heads of
each–cloven tongues of fire sat upon them. What were these marvelous
appearances of wind and flame but a display of the Holy Spirit in His proper
Person? I say the fact of an appearance manifests that He must be a Person. An
influence could not appear–an attribute could not appear–we cannot see
attributes–we cannot behold influences. The Holy Spirit must, then, be a
Person–since He was beheld by mortal eyes and came under the cognizance of
mortal sense.
Another proof is from the fact that personal qualities
are, in Scripture, ascribed to the Holy Spirit. First, let me read to you a
text in which the Holy Spirit is spoken of as having understanding. In the 1 st
Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter2, you will read, “But as it is written, eye
has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the
things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them
unto us by His Spirit–for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things
of God. For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is
in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.”
Here you see an understanding–a power of knowledge is
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Now, if there are any persons here whose minds are
of so preposterous a complexion that they would ascribe one attribute to
another and would speak of a mere influence having understanding–then I give
up! But I believe every rational man will admit that when anything is spoken of
as having an understanding it must be an existence–it must, in fact, be a
Person. In the 12 th Chapter,11 th verse of the same Epistle, you will find a
will ascribed to the Holy Spirit. “But all these work that one and the selfsame
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.”
So it is plain the Spirit has a will. He does not come
from God simply at God’s will, but He has a will of His own, which is always in
keeping with the will of the infinite Jehovah, but is, nevertheless, distinct
and separate. Therefore I say He is a Person. In another text power is ascribed
to the Holy Spirit and power is a thing which can only be ascribed to an
existence. In Romans 15:13, it is written, “Now the God of hope fill you with
all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power
of the Holy Spirit.” I need not insist upon it, because it is self-evident,
that wherever you find understanding, will and power–you must also find an
existence. It cannot be a mere attribute. It cannot be a metaphor. It cannot be
a personified influence. It must be a Person.
But I have a proof which, perhaps, will be more telling
upon you than any other. Acts and deeds are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit–therefore He must be a Person. you read in the first chapter of the Book
of Genesis, that the Spirit brooded over the surface of the earth, when it was
as yet all disorder and confusion. This world was once a mass of chaotic
matter. There was no order. It was like the valley of darkness and of the
shadow of death. God the Holy Spirit spread His wings over it. He sowed the
seeds of life in it–the germs from which all beings sprang were implanted by
Him. He impregnated the earth so that it became capable of life.
Now it must have been a Person who brought order out of
confusion. It must have been an existence who hovered over this world and made
it what it now is. But do we not read in Scripture something more of the Holy
Spirit? Yes, we are told that “holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the
Holy Spirit.” When Moses penned the Pentateuch, the Holy Spirit moved his hand.
When David wrote the Psalms and discoursed sweet music on his harp, it was the
Holy Spirit that gave his fingers their Seraphic motion. When Solomon dropped
from his lips the words of the Proverbs of wisdom, or when he hymned the
Canticles of love it was the HOLY SPIRIT who gave him words of knowledge and
hymns of rapture.
Ah, and what fire was that which touched the lips of the
eloquent Isaiah? What hand was that which came upon Daniel? What might was that
which made Jeremiah so plaintive in his grief? Or what was that which winged
Ezekiel and made him, like an eagle, soar into mysteries aloft and see the
mighty unknown beyond our reach? Who was it that made Amos, the herdsman, a
Prophet? Who taught the rough Haggai to pronounce his thundering sentences? Who
showed Habakkuk the horses of Jehovah marching through the waters? Or who
kindled the burning eloquence of Nahum? Who caused Malachi to close up the book
with the muttering of the word “curse”? Who was in each of these, save the Holy
Spirit? And must it not have been a Person who spoke in and through these
ancient witnesses? We must believe it. We cannot avoid believing it, when we
recall that, “holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
And when has the Holy Spirit ceased to have an influence
upon men? We find that still He deals with His ministers and with all His
saints. Turn to the Acts and you will find that the Holy Spirit said, “Separate
me Paul and Barnabas for the work.” I never heard of an attribute saying such a
thing! The Holy Spirit said to Peter, “Go to the centurion and what I have
cleansed, that call not you common.” The Holy Spirit caught away Philip after
he had baptized yon eunuch and carried him to another place. And the Holy
Spirit said to Paul, “you shall not go into that city, but shall turn into
another.” And we know that the Holy Spirit was lied unto by Ananias and
Sapphira, when it was said, “you have not lied unto man, but unto God.”
Again, that power which we feel every day who are called
to preach–that wondrous spell which makes our lips so potent–that power which
gives us thoughts which are like birds from a far-off region, not the natives
of our soul. That influence which I sometimes strangely feel, which, if it does
not give me poetry and eloquence, gives me a might I never felt before and
lifts me above my fellow man. That majesty with which He clothes His ministers,
till in the midst of the battle they cry, aha! like the war-horse of Job and
move themselves like leviathans in the water. That power which gives us might
over men and causes them to sit and listen as if their ears were chained, as if
they were entranced by the power of some magician’s wand–that power must come
from a Person–it must come from the Holy Spirit.
But is it not said in Scripture and do we not feel it,
dear Brethren, that it is the Holy Spirit who regenerates the soul? It is the
Holy Spirit who quickens us. “You has He quickened who were dead in trespasses
and sins.” It is the Holy Spirit who imparts the first germ of life, convicting
us of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come. And is it not the Holy
Spirit who after that flame is kindled, still fans it with the breath of His
mouth and keeps it alive? Its Author is its Preserver. Oh, can it be said that
it is the Holy Spirit who strives in men’s souls, that it is the Holy Spirit
who brings them to the foot of Sinai and then guides them into the sweet place
that is called Calvary–can it be said that He does all these things and yet is
not a Person? It may be said, but it must be said by fools. For he never can be
a wise man who can consider that these things can be done by any other than a
glorious Person–a Divine Person.
Allow me to give you one more proof and I shall have
done. Certain feelings are ascribed to the Holy Spirit, which can only be
understood upon the supposition that He is actually a Person. In the 4 th
Chapter of Ephesians, verse 30, it issaid that the Holy Spirit can be
grieved–“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day
of redemption.” In Isaiah 63:10 it is said that the Holy Spirit can be
vexed–“But they rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit, therefore He was turned to
be their enemy and He fought against them.” In Acts 7:51 you read that the Holy
Spirit can be resisted–“you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.”
And in the 5 th verse of the same book, you will find
that the Holy Spirit may be tempted. We are there informed that Peter said to
Ananias and Sapphira, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the
Spirit of the Lord?” Now, these things could not be emotions which might be
ascribed to a quality or an emanation–they must be understood to relate to a
Person. An influence could not be grieved. It must be a Person who can be
grieved, vexed, or resisted. And now, dear Brethren, I think I have fully established
the point of the personality of the Holy Spirit.
Allow me now, most earnestly, to impress upon you the
absolute necessity of being sound unto the doctrine of the Trinity. I knew a
man, a good minister of Jesus Christ he was–I believe he was before he turned
aside unto heresy–he began to doubt the glorious divinity of our blessed Lord
and for years did he preach the heterodox doctrine. Then one day he happened to
hear a very eccentric old minister preaching from the text, “But there the
glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein
shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. Your
tackle is loosed–they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not
spread the sail.”
“Now,” said the old minister, “you give up the Trinity
and your tackle is loosed, you cannot strengthen your masts. Once give up the
doctrine of three Persons and your tackle is all gone. Your mast, which ought
to be a support to your vessel, is a rickety one and shakes.” A Gospel without
a Trinity? It is a pyramid built upon its apex! A Gospel without the Trinity?
It is a rope of sand that cannot hold together! A Gospel without the Trinity?
Then, indeed, Satan can overturn it. But, give me a Gospel with the Trinity and
the might of Hell cannot prevail against it. No man can any more overthrow it
than a bubble could split a rock, or a feather break in halves a mountain.
“Get the thought of the three Persons and you have the
marrow of all divinity. Only know the Father and know the Son and know the Holy
Spirit to be One and all things will appear clear. This is the golden key to
the secrets of nature. This is the silken clue of the labyrinths of mystery and
he who understands this, will soon understand as much as mortals ever can
know.”
II. Now for the second point–the UNITED AGENCY of the
Three Persons in the work of our salvation. Look at the text and you will find
all the three Persons mentioned. “I,”–that is the Son–“will pray the Father and
He shall give you another Comforter.” There are the three Persons mentioned–all
of them doing something for our salvation. “I will pray,” says the Son. “I will
send,” says the Father. “I will comfort,” says the Holy Spirit. Now, let us for
a few moments discourse upon this wondrous theme–the unity of the Three Persons
with regard to the great purpose of the salvation of the elect.
When God first made man, He said, “Let Us make man,” not
let Me, but “Let Us make man in Our own image.” The covenant Elohim said to
each other, “Let Us unitedly become the Creator of man.” So, when in ages far
gone by in eternity, they said, “Let Us save man,” it was not the Father who
said, “Let Me save man,” but the Three Persons conjointly said with One
consent, “Let Us save man.” It is to me a source of sweet comfort to think that
it is not one Person of the Trinity that is engaged for my salvation. It is not
simply one Person of the Godhead who vows that He will redeem me, but it is a
glorious Trio of Godlike ones and the Three declare, unitedly, “We will save
man.”
Now, observe here that each Person is spoken of as
performing a separate office. “I will pray,” says the Son–that is intercession.
“I will send,” says the Father–that is donation. “I will comfort,” says the
Holy Spirit–that is supernatural influence. Oh, if it were possible for us to
see the three Persons of the Godhead, we should behold one of them standing
before the Throne with outstretched hands crying day and night, “O Lord, how
long?” We should see one girt with Urim and Thummim, precious stones, on which
are written the twelve names of the tribes of Israel. We should behold Him
crying unto His Father, “Forget not Your promises, forget not Your covenant.”
We should hear Him make mention of our sorrows and tell forth our griefs on our
behalf, for He is our intercessor.
And could we behold the Father, we should not see Him a
listless and idle spectator of the intercession of the Son. We should see Him
with attentive ears listening to every word of Jesus and granting every
petition. Where is the Holy Spirit all the while? Is He lying idle? Oh no, He
is floating over the earth and when He sees a weary soul, He says, “Come to
Jesus, He will give you rest.” When He beholds an eye filled with tears, He
wipes away the tears and bids the mourner look for comfort on the Cross. When
He sees the tempest-tossed Believer, He takes the helm of his soul and speaks
the word of consolation. He helps the broken in heart and binds up their
wounds.
And ever on His mission of mercy, He flies around the
world, being everywhere present. Behold how the Three Persons work together. Do
not then say, “I am grateful to the Son”–you ought to be, but God the Son no
more saves you than God the Father. Do not imagine that God the Father is a
great tyrant and that God the Son had to die to make Him merciful. It was not
to make the Father’s love flow towards His people. Oh, no. One loves as much as
the other. The Three are conjoined in the great purpose of rescuing the elect
from damnation.
But you must notice another thing in my text which will
show the blessed unity of the Three–the one Person promises to the Other. The
Son says, “I will pray the Father.” “Very well,” the disciples may have said,
“We can trust You for that.” “And He will send you.” You see here is the Son
signing a bond on behalf of the Father. “He will send you another Comforter.”
There is a bond on behalf of the Holy Spirit, too. “And He will abide with you
forever.” One person speaks for the other and how could they if there were any
disagreement between them? If one wished to save and the other not, they could
not promise on one another’s behalf. But whatever the Son says, the Father
listens to. Whatever the Father promises, the Holy Spirit works. And whatever
the Holy Spirit injects into the soul–God the Father fulfills.
So the Three together mutually promise on one another’s
behalf. There is a bond with three names appended–Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
By three immutable things, as well as by two, the Christian is secured beyond
the reach of death and Hell. A Trinity of Securities, because there is a
Trinity of God.
III. Our third point is the INDWELLING of the Holy Spirit
in Believers. Now Beloved, these first two things have been matters of pure
doctrine–this is the subject of experience. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit
is a subject so profound and so having to do with the inner man, that no soul
will be able truly and really to comprehend what I say, unless it has been
taught of God. I have heard of an old minister, who told a Fellow of one of the
Cambridge Colleges that he understood a language that he never learnt in all
his life. “I have not,” he said, “even a smattering of Greek and I know no
Latin, but thank God I can talk the language of Canaan and that is more than
you can.”
So, Beloved, I shall now have to talk a little of the
language of Canaan. If you cannot comprehend me, I am much afraid it is because
you are not of Israelite extraction–you are not a child of God nor an inheritor
of the kingdom of Heaven.
We are told in the text, that Jesus would send the
Comforter, who would abide in the saints forever–who would dwell with them and
be in them. Old Ignatius, the martyr, used to call himself Theophorus, or the
God-bearer, “because,” said he, “I bear about with me the Holy Spirit.” And
truly every Christian is a God-bearer. Know you not that you are temples of the
Holy Spirit? For He dwells in you. That man is no Christian who is not the
subject of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
He may talk well, he may understand theology and be a
sound Calvinist. He will be the child of nature finely dressed, but not the
living child. He may be a man of so profound an intellect, so gigantic a soul,
so comprehensive a mind and so lofty an imagination that he may dive into all
the secrets of nature. He may know the path which the eagle’s eye has not seen
and go into depths where mortals reach not. But he shall not be a Christian
with all his knowledge. He shall not be a son of God with all his researches,
unless he understands what it is to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and
abiding in him– yes and that forever.
Some people call this fanaticism and they say, “you are a
Quaker, why not follow George Fox?” Well we would not mind that much–we would
follow anyone who followed the Holy Spirit. Even he, with all his
eccentricities, I doubt not, was, in many cases, actually inspired by the Holy
Spirit. And whenever I find a man in whom there rests the Spirit of God, the
Spirit within me leaps to hear the Spirit within him and he feels that we are
one. The Spirit of God in one Christian soul recognizes the Spirit in another.
I recollect talking with a good man, as I believe he was, who was insisting
that it was impossible for us to know whether we had the Holy Spirit within us
or not.
I should like him to be here this morning, because I
would read this verse to him–“But you know Him, for He dwells with you and
shall be in you.” Ah, you think you cannot tell whether you have the Holy
Spirit or not? Can I tell whether I am alive or not? If I were touched by
electricity, could I tell whether I was or not? I suppose I should. The shock
would be strong enough to make me know where I stood. So, if I have God within
me–if I have Deity tabernacling in my breast–if I have God the Holy Spirit resting
in my heart and making a temple of my body–do you think I shall not know it?
Call it fanaticism if you will. But I trust that there are some of us who know
what it is to be always, or generally, under the influence of the Holy
Spirit–always in one sense–generally in another.
When we have difficulties we ask the direction of the
Holy Spirit. When we do not understand a portion of Holy Scripture, we ask God
the Holy Spirit to shine upon us. When we are depressed, the Holy Spirit
comforts us. You cannot tell what the wondrous power of the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit is–how it pulls back the hand of the saint when he would touch the
forbidden thing. How it prompts him to make a covenant with his eyes. How it
binds his feet, lest they should fall in a slippery way, how it restrains his
heart and keeps him from temptation.
O you who know nothing of the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, despise it not. O despise not the Holy Spirit, for it is the
unpardonable sin. “He that speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be
forgiven him, but he that speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall never be
forgiven him, either in this life, or that which is to come.” So says the Word
of God. Therefore, tremble, lest in anything you despise the influences of the
Holy Spirit.
But before closing this point, there is one little word
which pleases me very much. That is, “forever.” You knew I should not miss
that. You were certain I could not let it go without observation. “Abide with
you forever.” I wish I could get an Arminian here to finish my sermon. I fancy
I see him taking that word, “forever.” He would say, “for–forever.” He would
have to stammer and stutter. For he never could get it out all at once. He
might stand and pull it about and at last he would have to say, “the translation
is wrong.” And then I suppose the poor man would have to prove that the
original was wrong, too. Ah, but blessed be God, we can read it–“He shall abide
with you forever.” Once give me the Holy Spirit and I shall never lose Him till
“forever” has run out–till eternity has spun its everlasting rounds!
IV. Now we have to close up with a brief remark on the
reason why the world rejects the Holy Spirit. It is said, “Whom the world
cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him.” You know what is
sometimes meant by “the world”–those whom God, in His wondrous sovereignty,
passed over when He chose His people–the preterite ones. Those passed over in
God’s wondrous preterition–not the reprobates who were condemned to damnation
by some awful decree, but those passed over by God, when He chose out His
elect. These cannot receive the Spirit. Again, it means all in a carnal state
are not able to procure themselves this Divine influence. And thus it is true,
“Whom the world cannot receive.”
The unregenerate world of sinners despises the Holy
Spirit, “because it sees Him not.” Yes, I believe this is the great secret why
many laugh at the idea of the existence of the Holy Spirit–because they see Him
not. You tell the worldling, “I have the Holy Spirit within me.” He says, “I
cannot see it.” He wants it to be something tangible–a thing he can recognize
with his senses. Have you ever heard the argument used by a good old Christian
against an infidel doctor? The doctor said there was no soul and he asked, “Did
you ever see a soul?” “No,” said the Christian. “Did you ever hear a soul?”
“No.” “Did you ever smell a soul?” No.“ "Did you ever taste a soul?” “No.”
“Did you ever feel a soul?”
“Yes,” said the man–“I feel I have one within me.”
“Well,” said the doctor, “there are four senses against one–you have only one
on your side.” “Very well,” said the Christian, “Did you ever see a pain?”
“No.” “Did you ever hear a pain?” “No.” “Did you ever smell a pain?” “No.” “Did
you ever taste a pain?” “No.” “Did you ever feel a pain?” “Yes,” “And that is
quite enough, I suppose, to prove there is a pain?” “Yes.” So the worldling
says there is no Holy Spirit, because he cannot see it. Well, but we feel it.
You say that is fanaticism and that we never felt it. Suppose you tell me that
honey is bitter, I reply “No, I am sure you cannot have tasted it. Taste it and
try.”
So with the Holy Spirit. If you did but feel His
influence, you would no longer say there is no Holy Spirit because you cannot
see it. Are there not many things, even in nature, which we cannot see? Did you
ever see the wind? No. But you know there is wind when you behold the hurricane
tossing the waves about and rending down the habitations of men. Or when in the
soft evening zephyr it kisses the flowers and makes dewdrops hang in pearly
coronets around the rose. Did you ever see electricity? No, but you know there
is such a thing, for it travels along the wires for thousands of miles and
carries our messages. Though you cannot see the thing itself, you know there is
such a thing. So you must believe there is a Holy Spirit working in us, both to
will and to do, even though it is beyond our senses.
But the last reason why worldly men laugh at the doctrine
of the Holy Spirit is because they do not know it. If they knew it by
heart-felt experience and if they recognized its agency in the soul–if they had
ever been touched by it. If they had been made to tremble under a sense of
sin–if they had had their hearts melted–they would never have doubted the
existence of the Holy Spirit.
And now, Beloved, it says, “He dwells with you and shall
be in you.” We will close up with that sweet recollection–the Holy Spirit
dwells in all Believers and shall be with them.
One word of comment and advice to the saints of God and
to sinners and I have done. Saints of the Lord! You have this morning heard
that God the Holy Spirit is a Person. You have had it proved to your souls.
What follows from this? Why, it follows how earnest you should be–in prayer to
the Holy Spirit, as well as for the Holy Spirit. Let me say that this is an
inference that you should lift up your prayers to the Holy Spirit, that you
should cry earnestly unto Him, for He is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all you can ask or think.
See this mass of people? What is to convert it? See this
crowd–who is to make my influence permeate through the mass? You know this
place has now a mighty influence–and God blessing us, it will continue to have
an influence–not only upon this city but upon England at large. We now enjoy
the press as well as the pulpit and certainly, I should say before the close of
the year, more than two hundred thousand of my productions will be scattered
through the land–words uttered by my lips, or written by my pen. But how can
this influence be rendered for good? How shall God’s glory be promoted by it?
Only by incessant prayer for the Holy Spirit–by constantly calling down the
influence of the Holy Spirit upon us.
We want Him to rest upon every page that is printed and
upon every word that is uttered. Let us then be doubly earnest in pleading with
the Holy Spirit, that He would come and own our labors, that the whole Church
at large may be revived thereby and not ourselves only, but the whole world
share in the benefit.
Then to the ungodly I have this one closing word to say.
Ever be careful how you speak of the Holy Spirit. I do not know what the
unpardonable sin is and I do not think any man understands it. But it is
something like this–“He that speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall
never be forgiven him.” I do not know what that means–but tread carefully!
There is danger. There is a pit which our ignorance has covered by sand–tread
carefully–you may be in it before the next hour. If there is any strife in your
heart today, perhaps you will go to the ale-house and forget it. Perhaps there
is some voice speaking in your soul and you will put it away.
I do not tell you you will be resisting the Holy Spirit
and committing the unpardonable sin. But it is somewhere there. Be very
careful. Oh, there is no crime on earth so black as the crime against the Holy
Spirit. You may blaspheme the Father and you shall be damned for it unless you
repent. You may blaspheme the Son–and Hell shall be your portion, unless you
are forgiven. But blaspheme the Holy Spirit and thus says the Lord, “There is
no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world which is to come.” I
cannot tell you what it is. I do not profess to understand it. But there it is.
It is the danger signal. Stop, Man, stop! If you have
despised the Holy Spirit, if you have laughed at His revelations and scorned
what Christians call His influence, I beseech you, stop! This morning seriously
deliberate–perhaps some of you have actually committed the unpardonable sin.
Stop! Let fear stop you. Sit down. Do not drive on so rashly as you have done.
You who are such a profligate in sin, you who have uttered such hard words
against the Trinity, stop!
Ah, it makes us all stop. It makes us all draw up and
say, “Have I not perhaps so done?” Let us think of this and let us not at any
time trifle either with the words, or the acts of God the Holy Spirit.
