Spirit, Water, Blood — G.W. North

With me now to the scriptures like firstly to read a few verses in the first epistle of John chapter 5. Verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.

And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world. But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God this is he that came by water and blood even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and blood.

And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is true. For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth the Spirit and the water and the blood.

And these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.

He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Amen.

The Spirit, Water, and Blood as a Biblical Theme

I want to speak to you tonight going really through the whole length of the Bible not commenting on every verse I can assure you but nevertheless following a theme through the scriptures. It has been wonderful to have been here tonight and to being witnesses of these baptisms.

Don't know about you. But I have thoroughly enjoyed and been at home through it all and felt such warmth and meltings of heart and everything that I felt the Lord would feel about it all. And that's essential.

You know it's not sufficient just to claim that you have Jesus Christ until you pass out of everything else and begin to have the feelings of Jesus Christ about things. And then you begin to know God when you really know how he feels.

That's what it means in the Bible to talk about knowing God. And that's marvelous when the Lord brings you to this place and I say that I've enjoyed it immensely. And we had the tank open. We saw these young people go down in hope that the oldest one of the lot didn't catch a chill being in there so long and witnessed it all and everything like that.

Courses, Order, and Purpose in Ministry

And it's all been lovely and you know beloved it's a marvelous thing. What God does it's he's so basically simple he doesn't really vary much in the things he has to say to us. And he connects things in the Bible.

And having started out on a course he continues that way. You know we read in the Bible about stars in their courses. That right. You remember reading that he sets them on courses. You will know that priests in the tabernacle in the temple they ministered by course and I hope you know that in the ministry of the gifts of the spirit there should be a course and not random odd stuff coming up here there and everywhere.

But of course God sets in the spirit. Please read your Bibles very carefully. God says courses and it's a marvelous thing as a matter of fact I nearly started to talk to you about that because God crams in so much that he wants to say about using gifts by course it's important that we learn the lesson of scripture and that saves us from becoming a weak chaffy lot that have to do with little snippets here there and everywhere.

But that God sets off along a line to give a course of instruction to give teaching and to edify one upon another that saves us from anybody speaking out the little vision of their own heart or the thing that sort of taken them up and consumed their mind for the last 24 hours so that it comes out in their gift.

It's we know what God is doing this we pull down the great thing that God is seeking to build and have it lying around us like cards from which little children come along and build up houses and blow them down again and build up something else.

And sometimes they get it to two stories and then it falls down again and then they and so nothing is ever really built nothing ever really achieved just the ha ha. We're building houses and rebuilding them and rebuilding them and we don't get even as high as the Tower of Babel reached.

Now the Lord wants us to understand these great things. And so as I said I've taken five minutes I nearly launched out on 55 minutes talking to you along this line but I've taken five minutes on it. I want to turn from there and come with you into the scripture on the great theme of the spirit and the water and the blood.

The Integrity and Consistency of Scripture

Now we're told here firstly hmm and note the great and glorious inward consistency of the scripture. This is a thing that's amazing me more and more not that I haven't discovered and of it of old and known in a long time but more and more as I go into the book and as I read it this precious book becomes much much more precious to me to see the wondrous basic simplicity of God it's inherent integrity and how that God never moves away from these things that he begins with he goes right on and he continues to the end.

He adds a bit here and a little there and you know line upon line precept upon precept or as you like stone upon stone if you're thinking about a building or revelation upon revelation or faith upon faith or glory upon glory whichever way your mind is running.

And God keeps on adding and adding and adding. You know of course that John is the man who is selected of the Spirit of God to unfold to us the mystery of God's great truth more perhaps than other people the mystery of the inward workings.

I'm not saying that nobody else understood them as understood them. I am only saying that he was the one selected of God to unfold the truth to us. I think it must be because he was such a basically simple man.

And you know God usually acts and works through a man according to what he basically is. I don't mean a sinner. He comes unto a man and he removes sin from a man whatever or whoever he is. But he finds us naturally one way or another.

For instance it was fitting that God should take up Saul of Tarsus that great university man of old and he should speak as God spoke through Saul of Tarsus. He did not choose him to do what John had to do.

And he didn't choose John to do what Saul had to do because John was just a basically simple fisherman. That's what he was. A man of no particular education a man of great love a man who entered in to the things of Jesus Christ in a great way.

And so God just opened up this basic simple thing to John. And what a wonder it is to take up for instance these great opening words of his gospel. You know in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

And the same was in the beginning with God. Without him was not anything made that is made. And so he goes on in just simple stark basic language. He doesn't call upon you to follow him through intricate sentences.

You have to do that with Paul. By the way if you read the Ephesian letter as he sort of piles up all the superlatives on top of one another and you wonder where in the end it's all going to finish this great usage of words.

And he uses them to leave us convinced at the end that there's very little in words after all and that they stand naked upon the sacred page absolutely stripped of any glory a man may have in words because they just fail of everything that God really wants to say Amen and Amen.

And how lovely it is to come in beloved basic spirit moving into the loveliness of God in absolute simplicity. If I said hands up all the simple ones. How many of you would put your hands on tonight. Hands up all the simpletons.

Let's have a look at all right. Hands up all the clever ones. Let's have a look at all right. Hands up all the complicated ones built in. If you put out the word that's right. God wants us to be simple.

The Bible is a simple book and God's a simple God. And the trouble is with us that we're not used to accepting and believing simple facts. That's right. Isn't it. We're just not used to that. But we've got to be if we're going to enter into what Jesus what the Lord has to say to us.

John 5:7 and the Need to Study Scripture Carefully

Take this simple man John let's read in this fifth chapter of his epistle shall we. And this is how he speaks in verse 7. There are three that bear record in heaven the Father and the Word and the Holy Ghost.

And these three are one I'd like you to say something you would like you to look into your Bibles. Are you looking carefully at that verse 7. Have any of you got a reference to anything in that verse.

You have. Yeah. That's right. That's about the only one you'd get. But in majority of Bibles you're using a Newberry polyglot is it. But there aren't many in the general run of Bibles. In the general run of Bibles there aren't any references to that verse.

Not many because they don't know what to do about it. That's really the truth. And you find many to verse 8 for the same reason they don't know what to do about it. Because I suppose you know that all the reference systems are compiled by man and they weren't inspired.

I'm very glad about the things that aren't in the Bible for instance a system of doctrine or theology. If God had wanted us to have a particular theology or doctrine he would have put it in appendices at the back appendix a appendix B.

But you see he just didn't do it. I'm very thrilled about that personally allows me a lot of latitude. I'm not bound to believe this or bound to believe these systems of men. Are you. No no but mind you Luke does speak about things that are generally believed among us and that's rather good.

It's fairly safe ground so that you don't get way out. But beloved we have got our Bibles. And really all I have to say to tonight is around these two verses. And if we saturate ourselves in the Bible more than the people who went into the tank got saturated in water for it only was their clothes and nothing went deeper than the skin unless they kept their mouths open foolishly.

If we get more soaked in God's book than ever a man can get saturated in water or tea or something like that beloved God will show us so much. Now this man John in verse 7 he speaks of the three that bear record in heaven.

It's the father and the word and the Holy Ghost. Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said let there be light. And there you have the father and the word and the Spirit you have. Moreover as you go on into verse 8 of 1 John 5 there are three that bear witness in earth the Spirit and the water and the blood.

And these three agree in one in Genesis 1 we have verse 7 made quite clear to us. That is 1 John 5 7. I hope your mind is following fairly closely. Apply yourselves. Sometimes we have glory hallelujah times and things fall on us.

Other times we have to apply ourselves and do a little bit of thinking as well. And what's the use of having a conference. If all we do is clap our hands and say glory hallelujah and turn double somersaults.

They're fine. I expect I should do something like that. You laugh. If you see my white hair nearer the ground than the ceiling you know I'm turning a somersault. But God expects you to think. Don't you dare say I don't understand this.

And shut your Bible and bail out. Where do you want to go. Hell. Where do you want to go. Do you want to keep right on the truth. What do you want to do. You don't want me to come round with a milk bottle and a spoonful of gripe water.

Do you to every one of you. No. No no. We are going to get down to the book. Let God speak to us. Amen. At least that's what I want to do. And he serves you least. Who doesn't apply himself to the book before he stands up to preach.

And not just before he stands up to preach but out of a lifetime of application to the book and seeking to apply the book to his life he gets upon his feet to tell you what the Lord has shown him. Amen.

Be careful. All you men and women don't want to be preachers. Be sure that beyond anything else in your life you know this book better still know the God of the book. Know the God of the book before you know the book of God.

Though with most of us we know the book before we know God or at least were introduced to the book before we're introduced to God. Most of us come that way. Well well here then in Genesis chapter 1 we have it.

We have this great truth God. Amen. And then you have the Spirit of God in verse 2 and the waters in verse 2. And in verse 3 the word God said let there be light. And Jesus said I am the light of the world.

There it is. You have the father the word and the Spirit. And that's how it was in the beginning. John is moving by the Spirit in basic fundamental things. He's moving down where reality lies. And what a glorious thing it is.

Creation, Judgment, and Renewal Through Water

Because you see beloved in the beginning God brought everything up out of the water. Now we've had a baptism tonight. Let your mind run ahead. I want you to do some connecting. God brought everything up out of the water.

Hallelujah. That's right. Isn't it. That's what we're told. It doesn't matter what these fellows called scientists say if they say anything different from this they're wrong. Doesn't matter how much they pay them a year to be wrong.

They're still wrong if they say anything different from this that's right. You know when you come to the Bible you've got to be like old David. And you'll never be a king. He said let God be true. And every man a liar.

That's what David said. Of course in his haste he said he got too hasty about it and he had to ask God to keep his time. Because he said I said in my haste all men are liars. Well that's not true. That's not quite true.

Some people do tell the truth. But nevertheless it's wonderful for us to see what God has to say. And isn't it lovely to see this great moving of God then spirit and the water. That's what we find in the great beginning.

Then it's like this again. You know what happened. Let's get looking down. Shall we. God says saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night.

And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said let there be an expanse or firmament. I wonder if you could say space instead of expanse. What if you could. I think you could. Really don't you.

I mean people talk about space haven't discovered anything else but God's expanse. All right. God says let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the expanse and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the waters were the second day.

So above the space the expanse the firmament is heaven. And up there there was water. Apparently that right. Yes that's right. Divided between the waters. Mind you. I know why God had those waters up there.

Let's go up. It wasn't long before God became a very disappointed God. You know what happened. And as you read on through these opening chapters of Genesis God repented himself that he had made man on the earth.

Now when you read your Bibles I tell you this is one of the great differences between the Old and the read in the New Testament that God repented. In the New Testament he's commanded all men everywhere to repent.

But in the Old Testament you will read that God repented. And you I suppose have said to yourself at times. Now what does it mean. I know what it means when I have to repent because I'm a sinner and God was never a sinner.

Why did God have to repent. Well it's simply because with us because we're sinners. Repentance carries this overtone of sin but really means a change of mind. And God changed his mind. Now you must never think that God fixes his mind and never changes it.

He does have fixed purposes that he never changes. I mean you take the case of Moses. God said to Moses when the children of Israel he said let me alone. He said I'll destroy them. I'll make a nation out of you.

And Moses said no. And God changed his mind. No not that God didn't know. He wasn't going to change his mind. We're not going to go into all this. I'm just giving you an illustration that God didn't sin when he changed his mind.

And it was Moses Moses. And see what you can do beloved. If you really know how to get hold of God and see what could have been done if the church had only known how to lay hold of God. See what could have been done in your family for instance what could have done in the world if only people have known how to get hold of God.

You know Wesley has a glorious couplet about this. I'm always quoting this man. But I don't know of any better not in this realm. He said this let Moses in the spirit groan and God cries out let me alone.

That's right. Terrific force. Moses got hold of God and God changed his mind. What a tremendous thing. Of course you see he would be less than God if he couldn't change his mind. I mean you can change yours.

Grant God the liberty to change his. Won't you amen. He demands that you change yours. He very voluntarily changed his. For he became a very disappointed God. You know how that sin got into Eden. And how sin spread and spread and spread until by the time you get to the sixth chapter.

Just a few short chapters off through the book. Here is God commanding Noah to make an ark. And so Noah makes the ark. You know he makes it of this gopher chitin or acacia wood. And he pitches it within and without.

And God calls. And Adam calls all the animals into the ark. They came in some by sevens and some by twos. They all in that in the unclean animals there were only twos. And you can always see God's preference.

You see he prefers the clean above the unclean. For all the clean animals had to come in by sevens. Seven males seven females unclean one male one female. That's how they had to come in. God even in this shows the perfection of the clean.

The Lord wants us to see this great truth. And you know how that finally God sealed in Noah into the ark. Noah and his wife and Noah's sons and their wives in the ark. And there they lived together for those months.

And here you see why God put the waters above the expense. Here that's right. Who's who's he calling. That's right. Change your cartridges over what it is. And we'll start again. Not right to the beginning.

I thought it was best to stop and have somebody waving papers around for a long time. And here we see why God gathered the waters above the expense. He was saving them up for the flood. And that's what happened.

You know what happened that God had to open the windows of heaven. He called the expanse the space heaven. And he opened the windows of heaven and let the waters that were above the expense down. Sin never takes God by surprise.

You know he's got an end to sin always. You must always remember that you can't sin and get away with it. You know that don't you. Nobody can sin and get away with it. Bless God. In ending sin he always has a merciful way of salvation as Noah and his family proved in the ark.

But nevertheless God opened the vast windows of heaven and down came the waters. And he opened the fountains of the deep and up came the waters hallelujah. And the ark floated in safety above the high mountains.

And then you know what happened. There came a time when God wanted them to come forth when the waters were subsiding the ark rested upon Ararat and out in the end came the spirit of God the dove brooding again over the waters.

And as this dove fluttered to and fro over the waters just like the holy ghost moved over the face of the waters in the beginning God as it were started his new creation. As he started the first creation so he started the next.

If you think of this as a creation I know it wasn't a creation in the same sense as we find in Genesis chapter 1. But God was bringing newness in quotes out of oldness. And it was done again. And God never departs.

This is the thing you and I have to learn. He never departs from the principles he has laid down. And from that great fluttering to and fro. And then comes the dove back into the ark. You know the dove is the type of the spirit and he bears the great olive branch.

And peace peace peace peace. And God as it were starts again. He starts again in righteousness. It was like a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness that Peter talks about for Noah was the righteous family.

You will remember that Noah was in the ark. He found grace in the sight of God. He was in there because he was righteous in all his generations. And so you have this wonderful picture of what God is doing.

Hallelujah. A new earth wherein dwelt righteousness in picture. Alas alas there was still wickedness and wrong in the heart. No. And we know how that again God had to move. But he never shifts from these basic principles of revelation.

So we have the spirit and the water. Wonderful. But he's going to move on. He's going to really deal with sin. This is the thing that he's concerned about. And we have the spirit and the water bearing witness.

But not yet have we the spirit and the water and the blood until we go on in our scriptures. By this we learn our bibles. This is what God wants us to do till we come to the time hundreds of years later again when God is going to move to the salvation of his people that were by this time slaves in the world in Egypt.

Moses, Passover, and the Spirit, Water, and Blood

Now he starts in the same way. Is this right. He starts in the same way. He starts with a Mary. She's called Miriam. Actually it was Miriam that overwatched baby Moses in the water. Is that right. In the ark.

In the water. You know the story that these two Israelites brought forth a lovely babe and they put him in the water and I don't know what they called him. They might have given him a lovely Jewish name or something like that.

But the name we know him by was bestowed upon him by a Gentile. And the Gentile was the princess that bestowed the name Moses upon the babe she found in the ark of bulrushes on the day he cried. And Miriam or Mary which means lady who'd been looking after him keeping watch on him.

Oh you know all that happened about it. You all know these stories. You should have learned them at Sunday school. If you haven't been to Sunday school please go. You've missed so much you young people if trying to kick aside traditions you threw out the baby with the bath water.

So to speak that's what people usually do. And it's a very sad thing. It's not a bondage to be taught the book. It's a glory and it's a wonder. And all these people that almost want to be throwing the Bible out of the window because we are now in the charismatic movement that we come together and all do our bit.

We all do our thing you see. And this is the sort of new move that's going on or what it can degenerate into in some quarters. I beg of you not to do that. I beg of you not to do that. You're not allowed to do it.

And if you've been thinking that way you better come on your knees to Jesus and ask him to forgive you. And he will. He'll stroke you down nicely like that and he'll give you a nice big kiss. And you'll say now start all over again and start admitting you don't know anything.

You see it's like we heard tonight about we were going to run our own Christian life. We've all attempted it beloved. We've all attempted it. That's what the cross is all about to kill all these amateur saviors to get rid of them.

For he who saved himself only saved himself from his own ideas. And he'll finish in hell unless of course he repents. But the whole glorious thing is that this man was called Moses because she said I drew him out of the water.

God was moving in this gray gray revelation. And Moses is the man that is first chosen by the Lord to reveal unto us the threefold combination of the spirit and the water and the blood. These are the three that bear witness enough they've got to be here.

And so you know how that there came a day when Moses delivered to the children of Israel in captivity the word of God that on the 14th day of the month they were to kill the Passover. And you know what happened.

They took the lamb they slew the lamb they took the blood of the lamb. They put the blood on the lintels and the side post of the houses where they were going to stay inside and eat the lamb and so on.

And there we have the blood the blood all right. And then what happened. Well you know this that that night God passed over Egypt and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt died that were not in a house that was protected by the blood.

They all died. And God brought out his people as you can read in Exodus chapter 12 with us with a gray stretched out arm he did a marvelous thing for his people and he Moses led them out and God directed to the Red Sea.

So now you've got the blood and the water. We've got the blood and the water. But you see we have to have more than that. Um we have must have the spirit. Well I think we can find the spirit. If we go back to Exodus we'll look for it ourselves very carefully and we'll find it in the end of the 13th chapter.

And the end of the 13th chapter it says in verse 21. And the Lord went before them en route to the Red Sea by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.

And that was the Lord the spirit. The pillar of cloud and fire is the type of the Holy Ghost. We can get this quite clear if we turn to the New Testament 1 Corinthians chapter 10 so that we understand what God is saying to us.

Moreover brethren I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. So they were baptized in the spirit as well as in water.

In type they were baptized under Moses in the cloud that typifies the Holy Ghost in the sea. So you have the blood and the spirit and the water. Well now we're really moving on. God cannot have a people except they be a people of blood and water and spirit.

This is the thing that you and I have to learn beloved. I thought I had a tablet for you to suck up but I don't think I have. I usually carry a mask all right. God has to have this. I hope you're taking note we're not merely doing a bible study.

We're moving up to spiritual reality and we're moving biblically to it so that we know that we're on the right truth that we've got our feet on the right ground and we're not milling around in people's ideas.

The Tabernacle and God's Order of Spirit, Water, and Blood

Now God had to set this in order and you know that he brought it into proper focus because you we may not have seen that the children of Israel might not have seen that until God came one day when Moses was up Sinai and he said to him now you speak to the children of Israel Moses and you tell them that I want them to make a tent a home a place for me to live in.

And he told him to make an ark of the covenant put the tables of stone in. He told him to make all sorts of things. I'm just going to pick out the themes that tell on this. He said you're to make a laver and that was to hold water.

And he said you are to make a brazen altar. And that was where the blood was to be shed. So when we come to the tabernacle we have the blood at the altar with the fire. Of course we have the laver midway between the altar and the holy place.

And then we have the spirit God himself right there the glorious God and over him the pillar of cloud and fire dwelling over the top of the mercy seat. So we've got to reverse that you see on earth we come blood water spirit.

But God's order is spirit. And the water and the blood the spirit and the water and the blood. That's God's way. It's always the spirit that bears witness because it's the spirit that's true. Hallelujah.

You see they could keep the blood being shed on the altar. They could keep the fire burning right there. They could always keep the laver full of water. But they would never know that God was there in the holiest of all unless the pillar of fire was the pillar of clouds.

It was the spirit that bore witness to the presence of God. Not the blood not the water but the spirit. Amen. The blood was the blood of animals. The water was some water got up out of a well somewhere i reckon.

But the cloud was from heaven. Amen. It's the holy ghost that bears witness. Blessed be the name of the lord. It's the holy ghost that is the only proof. The rest could have been a dumb charade. For that's all.

It was a meaningless nothing. For nobody had to speak words. They only had to shed blood wash in water and go silently. No jabbering clanging capering turning cartwheels in the holy place. You can do that outside.

But not when you get in here. Mark read mark learn and inwardly digest. Or hear mark learn and inwardly digest. You don't get turning cartwheels in the holiest of all. You can do that outside. The tremendous thing about it is that it was all done in silence.

That's where God dwelt under the pillar. Hallelujah. What a glorious thing. And so i trust you see that this secret that john is revealing is in the bible. But you see this is always the tremendous thing for us to learn beloved that.

And please mark this every scribe that's instructed into the kingdom of God bringeth forth out of his treasures things. That's right. You notice it didn't say old and new. If you don't bring out anything new your old is dead stale.

The new is the key to the old. You see until john pointed out the spirit and the water and the blood. They've not seen that. Perhaps you haven't seen it until tonight. See this is what the great apostles always said.

And you can always tell an apostle for our enlightenment. Seeing that i'm talking to the church of Jesus Christ gathered from sundry churches. You can always know an apostle. He is a man that reveals the mysteries of God always.

You get plenty of preachers and prophets. But it's an apostle who unfolds the mysteries. Your new testament will tell you this unto his holy apostles and prophets. The revelation of the mysteries that have been kept hidden.

It was all hidden in that old testament. It was hidden in creation genesis 1. It's hidden in genesis 6. It's hidden in exodus 12 13 14 and 20 25 and so on. It's there. But unless you get the key of a thing new first the old lies dead and hidden and unproductive.

And so to keep on bringing out old beloved is to be dead yourself and kill everybody that listens to it. That's the truth. Now the lord wants us to understand these marvelous things. It's the spirit and the water and the blood glory.

Let's move on. We could mark this constant line except that it be the fact that god having established it from exodus 12 onwards and then fastened it in the tabernacle and temple worship it remained all the way through and doesn't need any comment on it at all.