Tape 8 - Abundant Life Series

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Dr. Irwin "Rocky" Freeman

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Abundant life and dealing with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. I want to speak for a moment or two concerning the law and the spirit.
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There is no escape from the law. Grace, love, and faith are all declared to be the end of the law, but they are also subject to law.
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There is a law of grace, a law of love, a law of faith, and a law of the spirit of life set free from the law of sin and death is still under law.
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He exchanges one kingdom for another, but in each there is law. Salvation, which is of grace and not of works, brings deliverance from the law of works, but it's subject to the law of grace and truth.
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Paul, the apostle, glories above all others in his liberty through grace. The law has no more authority over him.
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He conforms to it or rejects it as a thing of no account. Though free, he brings himself under bondage to all that he might gain some.
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The apostle's freedom was not lawless. All his expediency was subject to law.
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He says, not being without law to God, but under law to Christ, 1 Corinthians 9, verses 20 and 21.
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Christ was supreme. All expediency was subject to the will of Christ. The freed slave was the free slave of Christ, but he was still a slave, a bond servant subject to the law of Christ, to the
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Christian, all's love and all's law, just as truly as all's law and all's love.
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So think with me for a moment about the law and the Holy Spirit. There is therefore nothing anomalous in the paradox of law and spirit.
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The Christian life is not a philosophy to be debated. It is not an ordinance to be observed and it is not an ethic to be achieved.
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Truth and ritual and ethic are important and in some sense inseparable from Christian life and experience, but they are not of the essence of the life in Christ.
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They may exist without it and they are in no sense essential to it. Theological intelligence is not necessary to salvation.
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The person who makes doctrinal instruction a necessary content of saving faith has missed the most elementary teaching of the
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New Testament and professing wisdom he turns out to be what the scriptures call a fool.
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Sacraments or ordinances may have their value, but neither the one nor the other is necessary to a cry and the promise is to everyone that shall call on the name of the
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Lord. Good works spring from grace for faith without works is dead, but no logic can make that mean that grace is conditioned on works.
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Christianity is a life that must be imparted before it can be lived. All life is a gift and the gift of God is eternal life.
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So the spirit of Christ indwelling the spirit of man and if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his.
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The supreme value of all life is in the quality of its spirit. The moral quality of an act is in the spirit that prompts it.
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The difference between a caress and an insult is not in the act, but in the spirit. Action is without morality apart from questions of motive and disposition.
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It is the spirit that counts. Law affects nothing. Certainly it makes nothing perfect.
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The most careful observance of technique never makes an artist, a statesman or an orator, much less a friend, a father or lover.
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But where the spirit reigns, law is forgotten and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
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Worship is not of rules and regulations. It is a spirit inspired by the spirit of life.
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Preaching may be perfect art and poles away from the gospel. The power of preaching is in the demonstration of the spirit and so it is with fellowship.
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From first to last, the life and work of the Christian church are not of laws and rules, but of the spirit of common life, begotten of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
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The life is the life of the spirit and is therefore not lawless but subject to the law of the spirit.
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So that would lead us to a logical thought. Well, let's compare law and life.
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Christ's gift is a gift of life. It is called eternal life and the life which is life indeed.
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Its distinctive feature is not in its duration but in its quality. It is eternal in its quality.
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The gift of living life from him who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Eternal life stands for fullness and fruition.
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Life that is divine in quality and eternal in progression. It is the life of God in man.
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It comes by the new birth through him who is the spirit of life. The same life is common to the vine and the branches.
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The same life is common to the body and the head. All life is subject to law.
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The laws of different spheres and qualities of life may not be identical but they are analogous.
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In some sense the laws of life are common to all life and the life of the believer is not without law.
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It needs attention or it will perish. And without cultivation there can be no progress.
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There are several things in which the law of the spirit of life follows the general order of life in other spheres.
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Life is inward, mysterious and secret. It vitalizes personality without either absorbing or confusing it.
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The manifestation appears in an endless variety of forms and yet through them all it is the same life that appears.
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There is unity of spirit without a trace of uniformity in manifestation. The life of the one spirit appears in each making all like Christ and no two exactly like each other.
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The law of the spirit of life is seen also in its propagation. Life propagates by contact and cooperation.
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All that lives comes into being by birth and no living thing is born of one parent.
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There must be mutual and complementary service. Life lives by propagation and there is no propagation without cooperation.
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This is pre -eminently true of the law of the spirit of life. As the father is dependent upon the son for revelation and the son dependent upon the spirit for both revelation and administration, so the spirit is dependent upon the church for evangelization.
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The church is the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit is his spirit. There is a human agent as well as a divine spirit.
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This goes far, does it not, to explain the sterility of the church and the barrenness of many saints.
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The trouble of the church is in its declining spiritual birth rate. There must be watchfulness and nourishment.
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There has to be fellowship and exercise, instruction and obedience. Spiritual health must be maintained.
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Waste products must be shed and carnality must be destroyed. There must be receptivity, cooperation, discipline and obedience.
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The life of the soul cannot live haphazardly. There is a law of the spirit of life by which spiritual life is ruled.
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So, when you think of the law of the spirit of life, we think it is the spirit who rules,
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Christ reigns. There are not two kings in the kingdom of grace. The spirit is never called king.
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He is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. In all things he is subject to the son as the son is subject to the father.
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His mission is to glorify Christ. He takes the things of Christ and makes them known to us.
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He indwells the body of Christ and he calls, equips, and appoints for service. No soul is begotten of God without him.
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No victory of grace is won without him. He is the sole source and medium of grace and power.
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But in all things it is in Christ Jesus. Christ is Lord. But the spirit of life reigns in the kingdom of life.
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He is a person in authority. If we would live in the spirit, we must obey the laws of the spirit.
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If we would find the power, we must obey the law. We must surrender to Christ, for he cannot rule where Christ does not reign.
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We must yield our bodies with all their powers, for they are his temples and his instruments of righteousness. We must obey him, for without obedience there can be neither fellowship nor cooperation.
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Communion means mutual understanding. It also means mutual consecration and mutual cooperation.
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And it is in the communion of the spirit of life we find eternal life, abiding peace, and prevailing power.
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The law of the spirit of life is found in such words as faith, prayer, truth, love, and obedience.
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By these the believer lives. By the law of the spirit of life comes the fruit by which
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God is glorified and man is blessed. So, let's think about the spirit of life.
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Truth and life are the distinctive features of the spirit emphasized in the
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Nicene Creed. He is said to be the Lord and giver of life who is spake by the prophets.
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He is the Lord and the giver of life. Our Lord said that he was the life, and the spirit is said to be the spirit of life, just as our
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Lord is the truth and the spirit is the spirit of truth. Our life is in Christ.
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It is in him and from him and by him and to him. He came that through him men might have life and have it abundantly.
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Life is the gift of God given in Christ Jesus. The divine spirit is the spirit of life.
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So, the Lord is the giver of life. All life is due to the direct action of the spirit of God.
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The phrase spirit of life is a comprehensive phrase indicating his relation to all life.
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Through all the seasons and millenniums the earth has been renewed and replenished by the eternal and living spirit of God.
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To him the Bible attributes the whole life of man. From him is every intellectual and artistic gift, every emotional and volitional capacity, every gift of grace and love.
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You see, the spirit is associated with the whole man. Apart from him men are dead.
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It is the coming of the Holy Spirit that gives life. That he is the spirit of life cannot mean less than that he is the life -giving spirit.
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It cannot mean less than that in the spirit of the living God is the source, the agent of living energy, the expression of revealed truth, the secret of divine power and every other quality and function of life.
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The source and seed of all life is in and through him for all life is the spirit. The spirit is the bringer of life and where the spirit is not there is no life.
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Life has been defined by the scientist as the dynamical condition of an organism.
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But this definition will confuse more than it will make plain. Life is in its essence of the spirit, spiritual.
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It is more than a dynamic separate from conditions and distinct from its organism.
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Life is in itself spirit and the true life is from the spirit of life.
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It is more than existence for the Bible speaks of those who are dead while they live.
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Life has its seat in man's spiritual nature. It's in his self -conscious reason, his moral sense and his capacity for the knowledge of and the fellowship with God.
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Life is more than animal existence just as death is more than physical dissolution. The spirit of God quickens into life the spirit of man.
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The body of man is the temple of the Holy Spirit but he does not dwell in the flesh. Spirit dwells in spirit.
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The spirit of God dwells in the spirit of man. And from the center of life and power he quickens.
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He directs and he controls and sanctifies the whole man. He indwells sanctified men and women.
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He becomes the spirit of their spirit, the mind of their mind, the heart of their heart, the strength of their strength and yes the life of their life.
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The sphere of the spirit is in the realm of life. He gives the life that is in Christ.
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And in all things he works through the law of the spirit of life. He works and fashions the outward from the inward and the material through the spiritual.
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He functions through life. The spirit giveth life and the spirit worketh through the life, strengthens, directs and transforms.
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He reveals the presence of Christ. He transforms into the same image from glory to glory even as from the
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Lord the spirit. All understanding of the truth as truth is in Jesus Christ.
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He is by the Lord and giver of life who spake by the prophets and is given to guide believers into all the truth.
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All Christ likeness of life and character is by the transforming power of life through the spirit of the living
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God who is the bringer of life. That is why the work of God in the church depends upon the life of the church.
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It is not by might of carnal strength nor the power of organized authority but by the spirit of the
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Lord. Life is greater than all the resources of material power.
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So when we think about the life we think about life in the spirit. The Holy Spirit is emphatically both bringer and Lord of the life that is in Christ.
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His action covers the whole life from first to last. He is called the spirit of life for regeneration.
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John chapter 3 verse 58. He is the spirit of life for regeneration.
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He is the spirit of sonship for adoption. Romans 8 15 and Galatians 4 6.
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He is the spirit of holiness for sanctification. Romans 8 5. He is the spirit of glory for transfiguration.
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2 Corinthians 3 18 and 1 Peter 4 14. He is the spirit of promise for resurrection.
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Ephesians 1 13 and Ephesians 4 30. You see the believer is born of the spirit.
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He believes in the spirit. He prays in the spirit. He walks in the spirit. From first to last he is spirit in the presence of the spirit.
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The spirit dwells in him just as in his natural life he lives in him. Just as in his natural life he lives in the air and the air dwells in him.
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Delivered from the flesh he lives in the spirit. And what is the life in the spirit? It is a life lived in the realm of the spiritual.
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It is a life in which there is no condemnation. Yes, guilt is purged and sin is cleansed away.
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Carnality is destroyed. There is not only an imputed righteous by grace but a realized righteousness through faith.
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The things that brings condemnation have been put away. And life stands approved and accepted in the will of God.
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Instead of condemnation there is the assurance of sonship and heirship in Christ Jesus.
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You see the life of prayer finds a new intelligence, intensity and a new power.
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Conquest takes the place of defeat and the spirit -filled life prevails in conflict as it prevails in prayer.
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Consequently there comes to the heart a deep sense of security in the love of God and a
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Christ -like compassion for the souls of the lost. The spirit of Christ brings the mind of Christ and it introduces us into the fellowship of his redeeming love.
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This is the abundant life Christ came to bring. It is the life filled with his spirit.
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Yes, the law of the spirit of life. The Holy Spirit is the ruler as well as the giver of life.
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Rule means law and there is no escape from law. There is a law of the flesh, a law of the mind, a law of sin and a law of death.
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There is no escape from law in the life that is unregenerate. Neither is there any escape for those who live in the spirit.
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It is another law but it is still law. There is a law of faith, a law of grace, a law of truth, a law of life and a law of the spirit.
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And this law of the spirit will lead us into truth. Now, when we speak of the spirit of truth we remember our
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Lord Spake of himself as the truth and of the Holy Spirit as the spirit of truth. The revelation, inspiration and interpretation of truth are in a special and unique sense the work of the divine spirit.
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God has spoken through his spirit. It is incredible that God should expect fellowship without mutual speech especially when the need of revelation became manifest.
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Had there been no sin, man would have still needed a guide to things beyond himself. There is no sure basis for faith without revelation.
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Still more is revelation necessary when sin darkens the understanding. Thus God has spoken.
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He has revealed his mind to man. He has declared his will and set forth his way to truth and life and power.
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By the spirit of truth God spoke through the prophets and by him has come the inspired and infallible revelation by God, the
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Holy Scriptures. Think with me for a moment about revelation, the spirit of revelation.
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By revelation is understood those truths made known by supernatural means because they lie beyond the power of man to discover them.
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Inspiration is concerned with the means and processes by which these truths are made known. Revelation comes by the inspiration of the spirit of truth.
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Man by searching cannot find God. But it has pleased God to make himself known to the children of man.
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We know God by revelation and in the knowledge of him is the life which is life indeed.
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To revelation then we owe also the knowledge of the final issues of the kingdom of grace. The ascended glory and the triumphal return of our glorious Lord are of such a character that no human mind could have conceived them.
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The sum of the divine revelation is in Jesus Christ the Son of God. You see reveal truth is truth as truth is in Jesus.
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He is the eternal word of God, the oracle of God in human flesh. He is emphatically the truth, the embodiment of truth, the word of truth and the sum of truth.
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The eternal word and the eternal truth are one. The incarnate word is the sum and substance of truth.
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In Christ is God's final revelation of truth. But in the spirit of truth is its unfolding, interpretation and realization.
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Because it was the spirit that made known the revelation. It was the Holy Spirit who directed its development and the
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Holy Spirit watched over its integrity. The Bible, the Holy Scriptures is the record of the revelation of God through the
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Holy Spirit. The prophets of the Old Testament claimed to be the spokesman of God on the ground that they had received a revelation from God.
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They are God's messengers for they have heard his voice. They gave account of the way the word of the
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Lord came to them and their claim to speak for him is that they have received his word. The same authorities claimed in the
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New Testament. The gospel came to the apostles by revelation. Our Lord assured them that the spirit of truth would reveal it to them and he did.
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So let's think for a moment about this word inspiration in its relation to the
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Holy Spirit. It was in this way the revelation came from God and that is basically how the scriptures came to be written.
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The revelation was before the record and it was the revelation that created the necessity for the
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Holy Scriptures. They are the work of the Holy Spirit. The scriptures claim a special influence of the
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Holy Spirit by which they possess a divine quality and a final authority.
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They are inspired and infallible and therefore the divine rule of all faith and practice.
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There was to inspired speakers and writers of the divine revelation a special and unique influence by which they were able faithfully to make known the truth revealed.
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The Bible never defines inspiration but it insists upon the fact.
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It never attempts to explain the theory. The fault of most discussions on inspiration is that they've overlooked some important facts and factors.
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If they had taken pains to know the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and understand the relation of the spirit of truth to the word of God it would solve a lot of problems.
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Modern methods have specialized in the scriptures and in nothing has the change brought been so drastic and for the time being disastrous in so many ways.
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It is claimed that the orthodox and traditional views have been demolished forever and that never again will the
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Bible be regarded as a divine and infallible book. Great sport has been made of the superstitious reverence for the
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Bible of the devout people who accepted all its parts as equally inspired and of equal value.
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The so -called traditional view has been ignorantly or willfully misrepresented or flippantly caricatured.
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It's difficult to explain with the spacious shallowness and colossal vanity that masquerade of the claims of modernity and scientific criticism.
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The human ego is amazing. From then we have learned much of the human historical side of inspiration.
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The Holy Spirit works by human cooperation. He spoke by the prophets. No prophecy came of the prophets own prompting.
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Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. He moved, they spoke.
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There was no suspension of their personal powers and there was no putting away of their personal consciousness or personal gifts.
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Inspiration just intensified their personality but it neither changed nor confused it.
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The message was spoken by many voices and when it came to be written, the writing of the divine word was by a man's hand true.
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Yes, it was, but it was by one spirit and he is the spirit of truth.
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Yes, there are 66 books in the Bible but it is one book.
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There are many writers but only one author. The unity of the progressive word is the miracle of the spirit and revealed truth.
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So the Holy Spirit is involved in inspiration but the Holy Spirit also, if he was involved in the inspiration would be involved in the interpretation.
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Before man can see, he must have two things sight and light.
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Eyes cannot see in the dark and light shows nothing to the blind. So it is with regard to truth, there must be the seeing eye and the illuminating light.
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The word of God is truth but it is the spirit of truth that makes it the living word.
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Inspiration for this revelation ceased within a hundred years. The best writings of the second century and the third century reveal a transition that is an abrupt and abysmal gulf.
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Creative inspiration gave place to imitative devotion. The Holy Spirit was still in the church but he no longer inspired new revelations.
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Since the New Testament times the Holy Spirit has illumined truth but has not revealed anything new.
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All agree that we must have an interpreter. The sacerdotalist holds that the church is the custodian and interpreter of the scriptures.
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He argues that the living voice is more than the written word. Well, we do need an interpreter but we need an infallible teacher, a trustworthy guide and the interpreter of the inspired word of God is the
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Holy Spirit of truth. The grammarian cannot find it. The controversialist cannot explain it.
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The critic knows not its secret. The carnal mind cannot perceive it. The natural man cannot possess it.
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But the twice born see. The anointed know. The Holy Spirit that revealed, illumined and he that inspired interprets.
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The spirit of truth always honors that word of truth. He consents to be tried by the word of God.
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Illuminations that come from him are in harmony always with the word of God. He guides into all truth.
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The sons of God are led of the spirit of truth. Though the world cannot receive him but they know him.
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In the world the spirit of truth convicts. He challenges and condemns. But to the spirit -filled believer he illumines, he interprets and he transforms.
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Had a scriptural view of the person and work of the Holy Spirit been more powerfully prevalent in the church, not merely in her formalities and in her formularies, but in reality and life, there would never have been so much occasion given to represent the teaching of the church on the inspiration of scripture as mechanical or men converted into automata or robots.
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And the whole question would never have assumed such a scholastic form. The devastating higher criticism of the rationalistic
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German theologians would never have come about. For then the living testimony and the written testimony would appear both as supernatural and spirit -breathed.
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Beloved, the more the supremacy of the Holy Spirit, divine, loving and present is acknowledged, the more the
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Bible is fixed in the heart and conscience. But if the book is seen as the relic and substitute of a now absence and inactive spirit,
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Bible rejection is the inevitable result. Without the spirit of truth, even the word of truth is a dead letter.
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It is the Holy Spirit that quickens, illumines and interprets the word.
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I've used another word. We've talked about revelation, inspiration, but you notice I just used the word illumination.
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So let's think for a moment about the Holy Spirit and illumination. Jesus said, Divine truth is not of grammar.
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It is not of learning or of logic, but of the Holy Spirit of God. He is given to reveal the deep things.
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The Spirit searches the deep things of God. There is no adjective in the
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Greek language. It is not deep things, but actually translated deeps, deeps, deep beyond deep, fathoms unfathomable.
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And these the Spirit of God searches and reveals. He does not search to discover.
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In Romans 8, verse 27 and also Revelation 2, 23, God and Christ are said to search, but it implies thoroughness and not quest.
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The Holy Spirit is ever active in fathoming the depths of God. His omniscience is ever exploring and revealing the depths of God.
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Romans 11, 33 unites both the ideas of depth and unsearchableness.
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The point of this argument is that the deeps in God cannot be known by any other means than the revelation of the
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Holy Spirit. Our wisdom cannot discover Him. The princes and rulers of the world's intellect and intelligence cannot know
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Him. The well is deep and they have nothing wherewith to draw. The deep things are not discovered.
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They are received. They are not achieved. They are believed. They are not taught.
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They are revealed. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and by Him we know the things of God.
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The Holy Spirit is given to glorify Jesus Christ. No man can know
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Jesus Christ without the distinct revelation of the Holy Spirit. The deeps of Christ cannot be explored by human wisdom.
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His life in Nazareth may be reconstructed by art but the Christ Himself is not in them.
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The same is true of His teaching. Grammar cannot discover its truth and the letter killeth.
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It is also true of His work. The cross must always be an enigma, a stupidity, an anathema to the wisdom of this world.
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It belongs to the deeps known only to the Spirit and to those enlightened and instructed of Him.
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Yes, the depths of Christ are unsearchable. The love of Christ is immeasurable.
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The grace of Christ is immeasurable. The glory of Christ is unfathomable.
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There are deeps beyond deep, heights beyond height.
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Deep calls unto deep and glory unto glory. To the natural man they are without meaning.
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To the taught of the Spirit they are eternally sure. We know Him and we know that we know
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Him because we have an anointing of the Holy One that takes of the things that are His and reveals them unto us.
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This happens because of the renewal of the mind. The scripture says the natural man receiveth not the things of the
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Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned.
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But who is sufficient to describe the transformation wrought by the Spirit in the consenting mind?
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The Holy Spirit's operation upon the mind does not end with the bestowal of understanding. The gift of the
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Spirit brings a sound mind as well as a new spirit. The mind must be renewed for through the renewed mind comes the transformed life and the proving of the will of God.
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Romans 12, 1 and 2 Dedication of the body as a living sacrifice must be sustained by the constant renewal of the mind.
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The Spirit of God dwells in the spirit of man to guide the mind into all truth. He interprets the mind of Christ for He takes of the things of Christ and He reveals them unto us who are believers.
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And so Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
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And as He does become these things to us, the Holy Spirit, because of Christ, God the
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Father, bestows gifts. The Holy Spirit Himself is a gift.
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In the gift of the Spirit there are gifts. In Ephesians 4, 8 -12
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Wherefore He saith when He ascended up on high He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men and He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ.
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In 1 Corinthians 12, 4 -7 Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. There are diversities of administrations but the same
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Lord. And there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
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But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. So there are diversities of manifestation.
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You see, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is not always the same. There are diversities of gifts, differences of administration, operation and manifestation but the same
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Holy Spirit. There is a manifold variety of the one Spirit. There are varieties according to temperament, according to capability, according to grace and according to function.
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The failure to remember this ensnares the unwary. They look for the experiences and gifts in others to be given to them and we are apt to think these are invariable and inseparable from the
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Holy Spirit and His fullness. The Holy Spirit divides to every man as He will, the
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Scripture says. But the gifts of the Spirit are no more arbitrary than the elections of grace.
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Spiritual gifts must not be interpreted as natural endowments. That is not of what we speak.
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The gifts of the Holy Spirit transcend the gifts of nature but they function through the sanctified powers of man.
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There is a new creation but it is along the lines of natural endowment.
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The one deciding factor in the will of the Spirit is according to the ability of sanctified nature to receive and function.
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The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit but it is to spiritual man spiritual gifts are given according to each man's several ability in the will of the
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Holy Spirit. God does not make every Spirit -filled man a D .L. Moody or a William Booth.
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He gives the Holy Spirit to some that they may be ministers of helpfulness, to some that they may be faithful witnesses, and to others that they may be sanctified mothers who are keepers at home and miracles of patience, wisdom, and sweetness in Christ.
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To each there is a gift of the Spirit and whatever the kind of gift there is to all the gift of power for effective service and testimony.
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Each receives power. The Holy Spirit swallows up in effectiveness and power and banishes all fear in the victory of courageous faith.
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Let me make a comment or two concerning the distinctiveness of gifts. The gifts of the
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Holy Spirit are distinct from natural talents and from the fruit of the Spirit. They are related to both but they are distinct from both.
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The fullness of the Holy Spirit vitalizes natural powers. It quickens dormant faculties and reinforces capabilities.
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The brain gets a new quality of alertness, endurance, and effectiveness. The mind receives new powers of perception, intelligence, and understanding.
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The heart finds a new clarity of vision, a new simplicity of motive, and a new intensity of emotion.
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The impossible becomes capable of achievement in the sanctified powers of the natural man. These are undoubtedly the work of the
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Spirit but the gifts of the Holy Spirit are distinct from these and they transcend the powers of even sanctified natural powers.
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They are not unrelated and yet they are in some ways independent. Wisdom and knowledge are related to intelligence and learning and yet they are so distinct that they are undiscoverable from the natural powers of man.
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But we Christians, believers, we live by faith. We walk by faith. We do everything by faith.
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And the gift of the Holy Spirit is faith. By the Holy Spirit, faith sees the invisible and proves the reality of the unrealized.
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The gifts of the Holy Spirit give a supernatural power to the works of sanctified natural endowments.
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So that then men are challenged to see and consider cause and effect and find there is nothing in the natural man to account for what is manifestly of God.
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Well, what about the relation of fruit and gifts, someone says. The fruit of the
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Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are not identical. The fruit of the Spirit belongs to character.
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But the gifts of the Spirit are endowments of power. Gifts are an evidence of the
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Holy Spirit being active in the life but they are no proof of holiness. Gifts are according to the elections of the sovereign will of the
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Spirit of God. But fruit is the manifestation of cultivated life. Gifts are for service.
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Fruit is for character. The gifts of the Spirit are functional. But the fruit of the
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Spirit is a quality of life. The gifts are bestowed. But the fruit is a manifestation.
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Gifts may be given immediately and completely. But fruit is implanted and seems to have gradual development.
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But they are of the Spirit and are intimately connected with one another. But they are not inseparable much less identical.
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The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to people who are elect according to the sovereign will of God.
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Who by His Spirit divides to every man severally as He will.
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Fruit is for all. Gifts are for those for whom they have been prepared. We may covet gifts but we must bear fruit.
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Gifts cannot take the place of fruit. Gifts cannot take the place of fruit.
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What is the function of gifts? Well in Romans 12 6 -8 Having then gifts according to the grace that is given to us for the prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry let us wait on our ministry or he that teacheth or teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation he that giveth let him do it with simplicity he that ruleth with diligence he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness
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The gifts of the Holy Spirit are for service and they differ according to the kind of ministry to be fulfilled.
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The occasion may determine the function. There is so much abuse today.
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Let me share what I think are some safeguards against this abuse. The gifts of the
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Spirit are liable to abuse always. In the early church they appealed to unspiritual men who desired them for carnal purposes and they thought they had a commercial value and they are still commercialized though not always for their cash value.
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In the Corinthian church the gifts of the Holy Spirit became a fruitful source of rivalry jealousy and disorder.
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Those possessors of one gift claim priority in importance and precedence in order.
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The root of the difficulty lay in the fact that carnal people were in possession of spiritual gifts and used them for carnal ends.
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Spiritual gifts are no proof of spirituality. I'll say that again.
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Spiritual gifts are no proof of spirituality. The New Testament nowhere makes spiritual gifts the sign of holiness.
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And there were some greatly endowed of whom Jesus said that at the last day it would be declared that he never knew them.
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There is no suggestion that the gifts were not genuine but they were perverted to wrong ends or exercised in the wrong spirit.
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Now this seems to be a serious difficulty to many but the scriptures make it plain that in a church that came behind in no gift waiting for the coming of the
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Lord there were carnalities that would have disgraced a decent pagan assembly. Gifts of the
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Spirit are not substitutes for the grace and ignorance and carnality have made them a menace to holiness of heart and integrity of character.
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The safeguard against abuse are in the loyalties of faith. The first loyalty of faith is loyalty to the
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Lordship of Christ. That is the first law of Christian discipleship and the continual standard of all
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Christian life and service. The second line of defense is loyalty to the word of God.
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The word and the spirit are never at variance and the word of truth attests the spirit of truth and the
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Holy Spirit interprets, cooperates, verifies and confirms the word of God.
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No wisdom is of God that is not according to the scriptures. There is laid down a very plain practical rule in loyalty to the fellowship in the body of Christ.
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Edification is the test and order is the rule. But the law of love applied to all.
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So let's think about this thought, the law of love applied to all. Love is the last word in what we call religion.
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It completes the revelation of God and it sums up the whole deity of man.
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Love is of God and the spirit of God is the spirit of love. This designation of the
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Holy Spirit is not so well known as some others but it is the quality that gives value to all the rest when we talk about the love of the spirit.
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There is one passage that speaks directly of the love of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15 30.
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Now I beseech you brethren by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.
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Now there is some dispute as to whether the love of the spirit refers to the love which the spirit produces in us or the personal love of the
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Holy Spirit for us. The love which the spirit produces finds considerable favor in many and in that case the apostle would mean
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I beseech you brethren by our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of your spirit to me that you strive together with me in your prayers.
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Such a request would be natural enough but the form of the request would be unnatural and strange.
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The phrase becomes awkward and enigmatical if it is meant to mean the love which the spirit gives but it is natural and plain if it names the son and the spirit as the ground of the appeal.
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The entreaty names all the persons of the trinity and beseeches for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and by the love of the spirit whom he has given to us that they will pray with him and for him.
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The love of the spirit is the quality of love in the spirit. It is his love not ours that is the basis of this appeal.
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This is the unmistakable teaching of the word of God. Romans 5 5 speaks of the love of God that has been shed in our hearts by the
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Holy Spirit being given unto us. This must mean that it is God's own love that is shed in our hearts.
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It is a quality of life that is given to us and this quality comes from and through the
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Holy Spirit. It is not a gift that can be received apart from the giver himself.
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The love of God comes with the Holy Spirit. Now love stands first in the order of fruit.
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There can be no doubt that love in the believer is the fruit of the love of the spirit. Fruit is an expression of life and love is the fruit of the
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Holy Spirit. The fruit is not of our growth. It is the result of abiding in Christ by the spirit of love dwelling in us.
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Love is the fruit. It is the chief, the most notable result when the spirit of love dwells in us.
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There is another notable passage which speaks of the believer's love in the spirit.
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It's Colossians 1 verse 8. This is something more than spiritual love.
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It means that our love of the brethren is a love not human in its origin. Not mere good nature and goodwill perfected by grace but the love of God that dwells in our hearts by the good spirit of love.
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You recall 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but and then you could put in the spirit of power, of love and of sound mind.
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You see the Holy Spirit of God is not a spirit of fear. He is not a spirit of bondage but the spirit of adoption, the spirit of truth, the spirit of power and the spirit of love.
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His coming brings the conscious possession of love shed abroad in the heart and the love with which we love
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God is God's own love imparted to us and implanted in us and implanted in us by the
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Holy Spirit. Yes the spirit of love. Well if we have the spirit of love and He is the spirit of love it must be that He desires a ministry of love.
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The ministry of the Holy Spirit is a ministry of love. I believe the ministry of consolation may be a very small part of the meaning of paraclete but the comfort of the
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Holy Spirit is treasured as a priceless possession more precious than power. Sorrow is more universal than the thirst for knowledge and in the day of distress consolation is more than might.
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The word paraclete means more than comforter but in meaning more it cannot mean less because the comforter is in the paraclete.
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Our Lord promised did He not that He should save His disciples from the desolation the desolation of orphans.
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He declared that they would gain by the exchange of His presence for that of the paraclete.
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You recall John 16 7 It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I go
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I will send him unto you. It is difficult to see how
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He could expect them to be comforted by the promise of one who would more than fill his place.
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They might protest that they did not believe any such gain possible. Our Lord said it and none dared to deny or even challenge
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His words. The Holy Spirit came to fulfill our Lord's ministry of love in the world.
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The world cannot receive Him for the spirit of love cannot dwell in a heart of hate or a spirit of worldliness.
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The world does not even know Him. He takes up the redemptive work of Jesus Christ the
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Savior of the world. Like our Lord He suffers the contradiction of sinners against themselves.
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Love agonizes where it is powerless to help. Think of the grief of the spirit of love.
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Who can measure the anguish of His rebuffs reproaches and rejection. You and I know that love is sensitive.
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It shrinks from distrust, indifference, and reproach. It yearns for love.
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So the spirit yearns for us. As the scripture says, even unto jealous envy,
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James 4, 5. This is the same sensitive love in all His work. The love of God in Christ made
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Him the drawer of sinners. Love shrinks from the ugly and offensive. But it overcomes and loves all the more for the greater need.
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The spirit of God dwells in men's hearts. When Christ came, a body was prepared for Him.
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It had the limitations of humanity but it was without sin. The temple of the
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Holy Spirit is not so prepared for His coming. He comes to hearts that are confessedly unclean.
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The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And yet He comes to abide at its very seat and center.
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Through what travail the spirit of love must pass before the heart becomes indeed
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His temple and His home. The patience of the Holy Spirit would be impossible were it not for His love.
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And He is there to bring about a perfecting of love. Herein is love made perfect with us.
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Wherein? In the secret of the indwelling spirit of love. Hereby know we that we abide in Him and He in us because He hath given us of His spirit.
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Another, God is love and He that abideth in love abideth in God and God abideth in Him.
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Herein is love made perfect with us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as He is, even so are we in this world.
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There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear hath punishment and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.
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1 John 4 verses 13, 16, 17 and 18. The whole secret then is in the hereby and the herein.
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Perfect love is by the spirit of love. There are two senses in which love may be in need of perfecting.
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It may be defective in quality or it may be deficient in quantity. If the love shed abroad in the heart is the very love of God Himself it cannot be defective in quality but it may be deficient in range and scope of operation.
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The Holy Spirit fills what is given. He does not wait for fullness of knowledge. Wherever there is a sincere purpose to serve
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Christ He accepts the motive, however great the ignorance. There is a law of the spirit of life and it patiently waits through all the stages of the blade, the ear and the full corn in the ear.
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He yearns for fullness of love and as He led to repentance, so He leads to surrender and fullness of blessing.
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Love is made perfect when the spirit of love alone reigns in all the heart and life.
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We love because the spirit of love dwells in us and that love permeates, dominates and possesses us entirely to the praise of His glory and to the excellence of His power.
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Now I want to comment concerning something that is quite a burden to me.
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In these last days, the enemy is about to deceive. Yes, the Holy Spirit magnifies and glorifies
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Christ but there is such a lack, such a drought of God's Word.
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People are hungry, they are thirsty for the things of God. Without any announcement and so subtle that it has been undetected by most of Christianity, there has come upon the world in these modern times a new cross.
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This new cross has exploded into modern Christendom and popular evangelical circles.
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It's like unto the old cross but it's different. The likenesses are superficial and the differences are fundamental.
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From this new cross has sprung to life a new philosophy of living the Christian life. From this new philosophy of living has come forth an amazing new evangelistic technique, a new type of evangelistic meeting and a brand new brand of evangelistic preaching.
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This new type of Christian evangelism employs the same language, uses the same verbiage and the words and the phrases as the old did but its content is not the same and its emphasis not as before.
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The old cross would have nothing with the world for the proud flesh of Adam it meant to one and all the end of the journey.
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It carried and swept into effect the sentence that was imposed by the law of Mount Sinai. But the new cross is not opposed at all to the mass of the human race but rather it's a big buddy a friendly pal and if one understands correctly it is the source of oceans of good clean fun and seemingly innocent enjoyment.
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The new cross allows Adam flesh to live without interference. The motivation of his life is unchanged.
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He still lives for his own pleasure only now he takes delight in singing songs and watching religious movies instead of singing risque songs and drinking alcoholic beverages.
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The accent is still on self -enjoyment although the so -called fun is now moved to a higher plane morally if not intellectually.
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The new cross also has encouraged and continues to encourage a new and entirely different evangelistic approach.
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The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received.
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He does not preach contrast but presents similarities. He seeks to key into the public interest by displaying that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands rather it offers the same basics of the world only on a higher level.
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Whatever the sin crazed world happens to be clamoring after at the particular moment is very cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers.
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Only the religious product becomes better. The new cross does not slay the sinner it simply redirects him.
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It gears him into a cleaner and happier way of living and saves his self -respect. To the self -assertive it says come and assert yourself for Christ.
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To the egotist it says come and do your boasting in the Lord. To the thrill -seeker it says come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.
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The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.
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The philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere but its sincerity does not save it from being a false philosophy.
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It is false because it is blind. It completely misses the entire meaning and depth of the cross.
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The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for and demands an abrupt violent end of a human being.
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The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said farewell.
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He had bid goodbye to all his friends. He was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life redirected.
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He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise. The cross modified nothing.
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The cross spared nothing. The cross slew all of the man completely and for good.
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The cross struck cruel and hard and when it had finished its work the man was no more.
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The race of Adam is under a death sentence. There is no commutation of that sentence and there is no escape.
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Almighty God because of his holiness cannot approve any of the fruits of sin. However innocent they may appear or how wonderful they may seem to the eyes of men.
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God salvages, redeems the individual life by first liquidating him and then raising him again to newness of life.
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That kind of evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the
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Bible and certainly cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not run parallel to the world.
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It intersects it. It runs directly across it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life up onto a higher plane.
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We leave it at the cross. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.
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Those who proclaim the gospel must not regard themselves as public relations agents sent out to establish some goodwill between the
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Lord Jesus Christ and the world. Ministers, missionaries, and servants of the Lord must not imagine themselves commissioned to make
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Christ acceptable to big business, the media, the world of sports, or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, proclaimers of his complete message.
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And that message is not a compromise but it is an ultimatum. God does offer life but not an improved, mended old life.
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The life he offers is out of death. It stands always and ever on the far side, the other side of the cross.
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Whoever would possess it must pass under the rod. He must repudiate, deny himself, and concur, agree totally and completely in God's just sentence against him.
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What does all this mean to the individual, the condemned person who would desire a new life in Jesus Christ?
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How can one translate this biblical truth into a practical daily reality? Very simply, he must repent and believe.
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He must forsake his sins and then go on to forsake himself. Let him cover nothing.
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Let him defend nothing. Let him excuse nothing. Let him not seek to make terms with God.
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Let him bow his head before the stroke of God's stern displeasure and acknowledge himself worthy to die.
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Having done this, let him gaze with simple trust upon the risen Savior. And from the Lord will come new life, rebirth, cleansing, and power.
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The cross that ended the earthly life of Jesus now puts an end to the sinner. The power that raised
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Christ Jesus from the dead now raises him to a new life along with the Lord Jesus Christ. To anyone who may object to this or attribute it to a narrow -minded and private interpretation of God's biblical truth, let me quickly state that Almighty God has set his hallmark of approval upon this message from the days of the
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Apostle Paul to the present moment. Whether stated in these exact words or not, this has been the content of all preaching and proclamation of truth that has brought life and power to the world through the centuries of time.
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The great reformers and revivalists all put their emphasis here, and the Holy Spirit gave witness to God's approval.
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Do we, the heirs of such a wonderful legacy of life and power, tamper with the truth? Do we dare take our stubby pencils and attempt to erase the lines of God's great blueprint or alter in any way the precious pattern shown us in the
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Word of God? God forbid! Let us proclaim the old cross, and we will know the power of old, and God will empower the life,
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God will empower the church, and God will reach people for his glory and for the glory of his
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Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless your hearts for coming, and may
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God bless the truth of his Word to our hearts, and may we go out to serve him, walking in humility, in honor preferring one another, and in the love of God.