GROWING IN GRACE STUDIES
Blogging with TheologyGirl & ReformedWomen
Fall 2009
BOOK: The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray
VII. A WORD TO WORKERS
Some time ago I read this expression in an old author: –“The first
duty of a clergyman is humbly to ask of God that all that he wants done
in his hearers should first be truly and fully done in himself.” These
words have stuck to me ever since. What a solemn application this is to
the subject that occupied our attention in previous chapters–the
living and working under the fullness of the Holy Spirit! And yet, if
we understand our calling aright, every one of us will have to say,
That is the one thing on which everything depends. What profit is it to
tell men that they may be filled with the Spirit of God, if, when they
ask us, “Has God done it for you?” we have to answer, “No, He has not
done it”? What profit is it for me to tell men that Jesus Christ can
dwell within us every moment, and keep us from sin and actual
transgression, and that the abiding presence of God can be our portion
all the day, if I wait not upon God first to do it truly and fully day
by day?
Look at the Lord Jesus Christ; it was of the Christ Himself, when He
had received the Holy Ghost from heaven, that John the Baptist said
that “He would baptize with the Holy Ghost.” I can only communicate to
others what God has imparted to me. If my life as a minister be a life
in which the flesh still greatly prevails–if my life be a life in
which I grieve the Spirit of God, I cannot expect but that my people
will receive through me a very mingled kind of life. But if the life of
God dwell in me, and I am filled with His power, then I can hope that
the life that goes out from me may be infused into my hearers too.
We have referred to the need of every believer being filled with the
Spirit; and what is there of deeper interest to us now, or that can
better occupy our attention, than prayerfully to consider how we can
bring our congregations to believe that this is possible; and how we
can lead on every believer to seek it for himself, to expect it, and to
accept of it, so as to live it out? But, brethren, the message must
come from us as a witness of our personal experience, by the grace of
God. The same writer to whom I alluded, says elsewhere:– “The first
business of a clergyman, when he sees men awakened and brought to
Christ, is to lead them on to know the Holy Spirit.” How true! Do not
we find this throughout the word of God? John the Baptist preached
Christ as the “Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world;” we
read in Matthew that he also said that Christ would “baptize with the
Holy Ghost and with fire.” In the gospel by John, we read that the
Baptist was told that upon Whom he would see the Spirit descending and
abiding, He it was who would baptize with the Spirit. Thus John the
Baptist led the people on from Christ to the expectation of the Holy
Ghost for themselves. And what did Jesus do? For three years, He was
with His disciples, teaching and instructing them; but when He was
about to go away, in His farewell discourse on the last night, what was
His great promise to the disciples? “I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth.” He had
previously promised to those who believed on Him, that “rivers of
living water” should flow from them; which the Evangelist explains as
meaning the Holy Ghost: –“Thus spake He of the Spirit.” But this
promise was only to be fulfilled after Christ “was glorified.” Christ
points to the Holy Spirit as the one fruit of being glorified. The
glorified Christ leads to the Holy Ghost. So in the farewell discourse,
Christ leads the disciples to expect the Spirit as the Father’s great
blessing. Then again, when Christ came and stood at the footstool of
His heavenly throne, on the Mount of Olives, ready to ascend, what were
His words? “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” Christ’s constant work
was to teach His disciples to expect the Holy Spirit. Look through the
Book of Acts, you see the same thing. Peter on the day of Pentecost
preached that Christ was exalted, and had received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Ghost; and so he told the people: “Repent and be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” So, when I believe in Jesus
risen, ascended, and glorified, I shall receive the Holy Ghost.
Look again, after Philip had preached the gospel in Samaria, men and
women had been converted, and there was great joy in the city. The Holy
Spirit had been working, but something was still wanting; Peter and
John came down from Jerusalem, prayed for the converted ones, laid
their hands upon them, “and they received the Holy Ghost.” Then they
had the conscious possession and enjoyment of the Spirit; but till that
came they were incomplete. Paul was converted by the mighty power of
Jesus who appeared to Him on the way to Damascus; and yet he had to go
to Ananias to receive the Holy Ghost.
Then again, we read that when Peter went to preach to Cornelius, as he
preached Christ, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the
word,” which Peter took as the sign that these Gentiles were one with
the Jews in the favour of God, having the same baptism.
And so we might go through many of the Epistles, where we find the same
truth taught. Look at that wonderful epistle to the Romans. The
doctrine of justification by faith is established in the first five
chapters. Then in the sixth and seventh, though the believer is
represented as dead to sin and the law, and married to Christ, yet a
dreadful struggle goes on in the heart of the regenerate man as long as
he has not got the full power of the Holy Spirit. But in the eighth
chapter, it is the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” that
maketh us free from “the law of sin and death.” Then we are “not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit,” with the Spirit of God dwelling in us. All
the teaching leads up to the Holy Spirit.
Look again at the epistle to the Galatians. We always talk of this
epistle as the great source of instruction on the doctrine of
justification by faith: but have you ever noticed how the doctrine of
the Holy Spirit holds a most prominent place there? Paul asks the
Galatian church: –“Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or
by the hearing of faith?” It was the hearing of faith that led them to
the full enjoyment of the Spirit’s power. If they sought to be
justified by the works of the law, they had “fallen from grace.” “For
we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” And
then at the end of the fifth chapter, we are told: –“If we live in the
Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.”
Again, if we go to the epistles to the Corinthians, we find Paul asking
the Christians in Corinth: –“Know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” If we look into the epistle to the
Ephesians, we find the doctrine of the Holy Spirit mentioned twelve
times. It is the Spirit that seals God’s people; “Ye were sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise.” He illumines them; “That God may give the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Through
Christ, both Jew and Gentile “have access by one Spirit unto the
Father.” They “are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit.” They are “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man.” With “all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love,” they “endeavour to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace.” By not “grieving the Holy Spirit of
God,” we preserve our sealing to the “day of redemption.” Being “filled
with the Spirit,” we “sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord,”
and thus glorify Him. Just study these epistles carefully, and you will
find that what I say is true–that the apostle Paul takes great pains
to lead Christians to the Holy Ghost as the consummation of the
Christian life.
It was the Holy Ghost Who was given to the church at Pentecost; and it
is the Holy Ghost Who gives Pentecostal blessings now. It is this
power, given to bless men, that wrought such wonderful life, and love,
and self-sacrifice in the early church; and it is this that makes us
look back to those days as the most beautiful part of the Church’s
history. And it is the same Spirit of power that must dwell in the
hearts of all believers in our day to give the Church its true
position. Let us ask God then, that every minister and Christian worker
may be endued with the power of the Holy Ghost; that He may search us
and try us, and enable us sincerely to answer the question, “Have I
known the indwelling and the filling of the Holy Spirit that God wants
me to have?” Let each one of us ask himself: “Is it my great study to
know the Holy Ghost dwelling in me, so that I may help others to yield
to the same indwelling of the Holy Spirit; and that He may reveal
Christ fully in His divine saving and keeping power?” Will not every
one have to confess: “Lord, I have all too little understood this; I
have all too little manifested this in my work and preaching”? Beloved
brethren, “The first duty of every clergyman is to humbly ask God that
all that he wants done in his hearers may be first fully and truly done
in himself.” And the second thing is his duty towards those who are
awakened and brought to Christ, to lead them on to the full knowledge
of the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Now, if we are indeed to come into full harmony with these two great
principles, then there come to us some further questions of the very
deepest importance. And the first questions is: –“Why is it that there
is in the church of Christ so little practical acknowledgment of the
power of the Holy Ghost?” I am not speaking to you, brethren, as if I
thought you were not sound in doctrine on this point. I speak to you as
believing in the Holy Ghost as the third person in the ever-blessed
Trinity. But I speak to you confidently as to those who will readily
admit that the truth of the presence and of the power of the Holy Ghost
is not acknowledged in the church as it ought to be. Then the question
is: Why is it not so acknowledged? I answer because of its
spirituality. It is one of the most difficult truths in the Bible for
the human mind to comprehend. God has revealed Himself in creation
throughout the whole universe. He has revealed Himself in Christ
incarnate–and what a subject of study the person, and word, and works
of Christ form! But the mysterious indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
hidden in the depths of the life of the believer, how much less easy to
comprehend!
In the early Pentecostal days of the church, this knowledge was
intuitive; they possessed the Spirit in power. But soon after the
spirit of the world began to creep into the church and mastered it.
This was followed by the deeper darkness of formality and superstition
in the Roman Catholic Church, when the spirit of the world completely
triumphed in what was improperly styled the Church of Christ. The
Reformation in the days of Luther restored the truth of justification
by faith in Christ; but the doctrine of the Holy Ghost did not then
obtain its proper place, for God does not reveal all truth at one time.
A great deal of the spirit of the world was still left in the reformed
churches; but now God is awakening the church to strive after a fuller
scriptural idea of the Holy Spirit’s place and power. Through the
medium of books, and discussions, and conventions many hearts are being
stirred.
Brethren, it is our privilege to take part in this great movement; and
let us engage in the work more earnestly than ever. Let each of us say
my great work is, in preaching Christ, to lead men to the acknowledging
of the Holy Spirit, who alone can glorify Christ. I may try to glorify
Christ in my preaching, but it will avail nothing without the Spirit of
God. I may urge men to the practice of holiness and every Christian
virtue, but all my persuasion will avail very little unless I help them
to believe that they must have the Holy Ghost dwelling in them every
moment enabling to live the life of Christ. The great reason why the
Holy Spirit was given from heaven was to make Christ Jesus’ presence
manifest to us. While Jesus was incarnate, His disciples were too much
under the power of the flesh to allow Christ to get a lodgement in
their hearts. It was needful, He said, that He should go away, in order
that the Spirit might come; and He promised to those who loved Him and
kept His commandments, that with the Spirit, He would come, and the
Father would also come, and make Their abode with them. It is thus the
Holy Spirit’s great work to reveal the Father and the Son in the hearts
of God’s people. If we believe and teach men that the Holy Spirit can
make Christ a reality to them every moment, men will learn to believe
and accept Christ’s presence and power, of which they now know far too
little.
Then another question presents itself, viz, What are we to expect when
the Holy Spirit is duly acknowledged and received? I ask this question,
because I have frequently noticed something with considerable
interest–and, I may say, with some anxiety. I sometimes hear men
praying earnestly for a baptism of the Holy Spirit that He may give
them power for their work. Beloved brethren, we need this power, not
only for work, but for our daily life. Remember, we must have it all
the time. In Old Testament times, the Spirit came with power upon the
prophets and other inspired men; but He did not dwell permanently in
them. In the same way, in the church of the Corinthians, the Holy
Spirit came with power to work miraculous gifts, and yet they had but a
small measure of His sanctifying grace. You will remember the carnal
strife, envying, and divisions there were. They had gifts of knowledge
and wisdom, etc.; but alas! Pride, unlovingness, and other sins sadly
marred the character of many of them. And what does this teach us? That
a man may have a great gift of power for work, but very little of the
indwelling Spirit. In 1 Cor. xiii, we are reminded that though we may
have faith that would remove mountains, if we have not love, we are
nothing. We must have the love that brings the humility and
self-sacrifice of Jesus. Don’t let us put in the first place the gifts
we may possess; if we do, we shall have very little blessing. But we
should seek, in the first place, that the Spirit of God should come as
a light and power of holiness from the indwelling Jesus. Let the first
work of the Holy Spirit be to humble you deep down in the very dust, so
that your whole life shall be a tender, broken-hearted waiting on God,
in the consciousness of mercy coming from above.
Do not seek large gifts; there is something deeper you need. It is not
enough that a tree shoots its branches to the sky, and be covered
thickly with leaves; but we want its roots to strike deeply into the
soil. Let the thought of the Holy Spirit’s being in us, and our hope of
being filled with the Spirit, be always accompanied in us with a broken
and contrite heart. Let us bow very low before God, in waiting for His
grace to fill and to sanctify us. We do not want a power which God
might allow us to use, while our inner part is unsanctified. We want
God to give us full possession of Himself. In due time, the special
gift may come; but we want first and now, the power of the Holy Ghost
working something far mightier and more effectual in us than any such
gift. We should seek, therefore, not only a baptism of power, but a
baptism of holiness; we should seek that the inner nature be sanctified
by the indwelling of Jesus, and then other power will come as needed.
There is a third question: –Suppose some one says to me: –“I have
given myself up to be filled with the Spirit, and I do not feel that
there is any difference in my condition; there is no change of
experience that I can speak of. What must I then think? Must not I
think that my surrender was not honest?” No, do not think that. “But
how then? Does God give no response?” Beloved, God gives a response,
but that is not always within certain months or years. “What, then,
would you have me do?” Retain the position you have taken before God,
and maintain it every day. Say, “Oh God, I have given myself to be
filled, here I am an empty vessel, trusting and expecting to be filled
by Thee.” Take that position every day and every hour. Ask God to write
it across your heart. Give up to God an empty, consecrated vessel that
He may fill it with the Holy Spirit. Take that position constantly. It
may be that you are not fully prepared. Ask God to cleanse you; to give
you grace to separate from everything sinful–from unbelief or whatever
hindrance there may be. Then take your position before God and say, “My
God, Thou art faithful; I have entered into covenant with Thee for Thy
Holy Spirit to fill me, and I believe Thou wilt fulfil it.” Brethren, I
say for myself, and for every minister of the gospel, and for every
fellow worker, man or woman, that if we thus come before God with a
full surrender, in a bold, believing attitude, God’s promise must be
fulfilled.
If you were to ask me of my own experience, I would say this: –That
there have been times when I hardly knew myself what to think of God’s
answer to my prayer in this matter; but I have found it my joy and my
strength to take and maintain my position, and say: “My God, I have
given myself up to Thee. It was Thine own grace that led me to Christ;
and I stand before Thee in confidence that Thou wilt keep Thy covenant
with me to the end. I am the empty vessel; Thou art the God that
fillest all.” God is faithful, and He gives the promised blessing in
His own time and method. Beloved, for God’s sake, be content with
nothing less than full health and full spiritual life. “Be filled with
the Spirit.”
Let me return now to the two expressions with which I began: “the first
duty of every clergyman is humbly to ask of God that all that he wants
done in those who hear his preaching may be first truly and fully done
in himself.” Brethren, I ask you, is it not the longing of your hearts
to have a congregation of believers filled with the Holy Ghost? Is it
not your unceasing prayer for the Church of Christ, in which you
minister, that the Spirit of holiness, the very Spirit of God’s Son,
the spirit of unworldliness and of heavenly-mindedness, may possess it;
and that the Spirit of victory and of power over sin may fill its
children? If you are willing for that to come, your first duty is to
have it yourself.
And then the second sentence: –“the first duty of every clergyman is
to lead those who have been brought to Christ to be entirely filled
with the Holy Ghost.” How can I do my work with success? I can conceive
what a privilege it is to be led by the Spirit of God in all that I am
doing. In studying my Bible, praying, visiting, organizing, or whatever
I am doing, God is willing to guide me by His Holy Spirit. It sometimes
becomes a humiliating experience to me that I am unwatchful, and do not
wait for the blessing; when that is the case, God can bring me back
again. But there is also the blessed experience of God’s guiding hand,
often through deep darkness, by His Holy Spirit. Let us walk about
among the people as men of God, that we may not only preach about a
book, and what we believe with our hearts to be true, but may preach
what we are and what we have in our own experience. Jesus calls us
witnesses for Him; what does that mean? The Holy Ghost brought down
from heaven to men a participation in the glory and the joy of the
exalted Christ. Peter and the others who spoke with Him were filled
with this heavenly Spirit; and thus Christ spoke in them, and
accomplished the work for them. O brethren, if you and I be Christ’s we
should take our places and claim our privilege. We are witnesses to the
truth which we believe–witnesses to the reality of what Jesus does and
what He is, by His presence in our own souls. If we are willing to be
such witnesses for Christ, let us go to our God; let us make confession
and surrender, and by faith claim what God has for us as ministers of
the gospel and workers in His service. God will prove faithful. Even at
this very moment, He will touch our hearts with a deep consciousness of
His faithfulness and of His presence; and He will give to every
hungering, trustful one that which we continually need.
Next Week: CONSECRATION
