Tape 2 - Abundant Life Series

Park Meadows Church

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to continue our series concerning the abundant life and the relationship the

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Holy Spirit plays in the abundant life. Let's pray together for a moment.

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Father, I just pray that you take the truth from your word, that you use it to all of our hearts, that when we leave this place,

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Father, that we might be filled with thy spirit, that we might Jesus, Lord of our lives, and that our lives might be what you want them to be.

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Encourage us with your love for us, help us to love one another, and help us to walk in obedience to the word of God at whatever the cost, whatever the price, whatever the conflict, whatever the tribulation or persecution, may we walk in obedience to thy word.

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We thank you for that and the opportunity to do it in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to speak to you concerning the thought, the dynamic of Pentecost, the dynamic of Pentecost.

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In Acts, the first chapter, of course, when the Lord Jesus was preparing the apostles, these early

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Christians, for the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell them, and of course, the

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Christians on the day of Pentecost, it was the first time in all of history that a person was permanently indwelt by the

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Holy Spirit. And in Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, we find our key for the topic.

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But ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all

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Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

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And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

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And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said,

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Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

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So the Lord Jesus said, Ye shall receive power, and the result of that power was to witness to the uttermost parts of the earth.

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Under the southern cross there is a majestic range of mountains. On their summit there is a lake fifty miles in circumference, which supplied a waterfall one thousand feet in height.

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As with Niagara, so with this. The vast volume of power generated by the fall has been converted into an electric current, which now supplies an entire island with power.

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This has already tempted manufacturers to establish themselves in the neighborhood, and it is attracting others.

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There is a large demand for labor, and the property of Tasmania will be greatly enhanced. The suggestion of a spiritual analogy is most irresistible.

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That mountain lake, hidden from sight, has carried my thought to the mystery of the Eternal God. The fall of descending water was a symbol of the

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Incarnation, while the diffusion of power to the factory and the home suggested the grace of the

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Holy Spirit. This is the power which on His ascension He communicated to His Church. This is the power of which we must avail ourselves if we are to count in Christian service and warfare.

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Would it not be the height of folly if Tasmania were to resolve to cut off the supply of power from that mountain lake and to substitute hand power?

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Would not the factory soon close down and the harvest of prosperity suddenly wither? Yet it often seems as though the

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Church is in danger of making a similar mistake. In scores of cases the

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Church is disconnecting Herself from the dynamic of Pentecost and is endeavoring to find compensation for Her loss of spiritual power, in the brilliance of intellect in the pulpit, in highly organized and expensive machinery, and by calling to Her aid, adventurous accessories which are borrowed from the world.

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Even where they may be comparatively innocent, they are totally unfit to secure the great ends for which the

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Church was called into being according to the purpose and plan of Her great architect. Far otherwise was the purpose of our

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Lord. When He led the little group of chosen friends to some familiar spot on the Mount of Olives, that He might give them

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His parting instructions and brace them for the stupendous task which He was about to commit to their care.

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Satan had offered to give Him all the kingdoms of the world for one act of homage. This offer

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He had refused. He was inaugurating a campaign which would win these same kingdoms, not by sword or scimitar, nor by compromising to human passion, but by blood and suffering, by the proclamation of the living voice, and notably by the cooperation of the

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Holy Spirit of God. Think with me about the imperative need of power.

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The task that awaited that little group was one of unparalleled difficulty. They were to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

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Also, they were to disciple all nations scattered over the vast Roman Empire which extended from the

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Atlantic to the Far East. They were to initiate a mission of regeneration and renewal, comparable to a new creation.

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They were to substitute Christianity for paganism as the foundation of a new type of civilization.

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The task was most difficult. Upon the reception or rejection of their message, eternal issues hung.

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In fact, humanly speaking and without exaggeration, it depended on that tiny group of unknown and ordinary men and women whether the incarnation of Jesus Christ and His death, the resurrection and ascension, all of that of the

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Son of God, whether it would obtain the audience and acceptance of mankind, it depended upon that little band of people.

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The task was stupendous, and the obstacles to success immeasurable. There were the philosophies and priesthoods of the ancient religions.

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Most jealous of the least invasion of their vested interests. There was a shameless license and immorality of the

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Roman Empire which had left their trail on the epistles of the New Testament as well as in the locked chambers of Pompeii.

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There was also the pride of the Caesars who would not tolerate the rivalry of another king.

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In addition to all of that, let it be remembered that they had to conquer through the cross.

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That's right, the cross. It was the symbol of unutterable shame. The cross.

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By common consent, it was never mentioned in polite society. The cross.

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Only the lowest criminals were condemned to suffer its terrible and shameful torture. To the

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Jews it was a stumbling block, and to the Greeks it was foolishness. But this was to be the royal standard under which our

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Lord marshaled his troops to overcome the world. We cannot consider these circumstances which arose like a chain of Alps from the plains of human indifference and opposition without realizing the enormous task which awaited the little company that clustered around the

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Savior, ready to receive from His lips their worldwide commission. But He knew all.

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He would never have sent them forth unless He had known that the power which He promised to supply was amply adequate for their need.

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Question. Is not the Church today in danger of prosecuting her vast mission without availing herself to the full of that divine power?

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Her ministers and missionaries are educated to a high level of intellectual efficiency. Very many of them are earnest and devoted.

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Her finances are magnificent, the machinery complex and efficient. But she must always remember that she will fail of the results that alone can satisfy the travail of the

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Lord unless her main reliance be upon the energy of that power to which

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He deferred. Think with me, the power which our Lord promised was spiritual.

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That is, it was an appeal of the Divine Spirit to the human. God is

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Spirit, said our Lord as He stood at Jacob's well. It seemed as though He were inaugurating a new era, did it not?

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The well of patriarchal piety might be deserted. The arguments as to where men ought to worship might be left unsolved.

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The expectation of a conquering Messiah might be unrealized. But the one outstanding feature of the new era was that the

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Father was seeking worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And this is the highest level of all human experience, to worship

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God in spirit and in truth. Our human nature can operate on three levels of experience.

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On the level of the material world by the senses of our body. On the level of the world of mind and morals by the perceptions of our soul.

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On the level of the eternal and spiritual world by our spirit. Now we may regard the soul as the seat of our personality.

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The reason, affections, emotions, judgments, and moral consciousness have their home there.

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But the soul looks out on two worlds. To the material world below it, it is related by the organs of touch, sight, smell, taste, and hearing.

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To the eternal world above it, it is related by the spirit, which seems to be endowed with similar organs of perception extended even to being quick of scent in fear of the

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Lord. We have the option of descending by the spirit spiral staircase downward to materialism, or of ascending by the spiral staircase upward to fellowship with the eternal and divine.

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On the one hand, the lure of the savory pottage. On the other, the ladder which reaches to heaven, and on which angels go and come.

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There are multitudes, according to the teachings of the apostle, which eternally please to 1

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Corinthians chapter 2. There are multitudes of people who never rise above the natural or the soulish level.

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In 1 Corinthians 2, verses 14 and 15, listen to the teachings of the apostle.

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But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

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But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. And so we see that there are those who do not rise above the natural or soulish level.

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They bear the image of the earthly, and die without having been lifted by obedience and faith into that union with the heavenly man, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. They are actually unlit candles. The inner chamber of their threefold nature has never been illumined by the

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Shekinah, the personal presence of the glory of God. The throne room of their heart has never been occupied by the king.

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And the windows that look out on the delectable mountains and the city of God have never been unshuttered.

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But all this is altered when the soul turns towards God in faith and obedience.

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Then we are born into a new world. Then we become aware of the unseen and eternal, as we used to be of the passing shadows of time and sense.

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Then the spiritual senses are as quick to discern good and evil as our physical senses to distinguish light from dark and sweet from bitter.

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The Shekinah, the personal glory of God, shines in the most holy place in that life.

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The king ascends to his throne of the heart. And through the upper windows of faith, we look out on the things which

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God has prepared for them that love him. What a happy day when the

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Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and as children become heirs to the priceless boons which the

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Spirit hastens to unfold. You see, the Spirit is our capacity for God.

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When it is vitalized by the incorruptible seed, it enters into direct union with the divine nature.

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We move on new levels of experience. We touch spiritual reality. We climb the mountain ranges which are reflected in the changeable waters of the timesphere in which we live.

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We understand not by reasoning but by spiritual intuition, which reason afterwards will verify to be true.

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And more particularly, we become receptive of that might, power of which our

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Lord spoke and which he pledged himself to give. Our Lord knew well that if only a channel could be formed between the

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Spirit of God and the Spirit of man, there would be a constant communication of grace and power which would find its way into the soul.

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And there would be the enlightening of the mind, enriching of the speech, invigorating courage, sweetening of the affections, imparting of a divine enthusiasm, and the body would become a temple of the

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Lord. The water of life that proceeds from the throne of God would flow through all the channels of our being, refreshing, cleansing, satisfying, and renewing, then flowing forth to heal the marshes and ultimately make the waters of the dead sea of life sweet.

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I want you to bear in mind and mentally record three facts. This is the life which flows through the mystic vine in which all who believe are branches.

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As we abide, as we read in John 15, in constant fellowship with the

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Savior, we feel the pulse of the Spirit of life permeating our spirits as the sap permeates the branches.

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A second fact I want you to remember is this life is eminently practical. It pours into the soul and dominates the body.

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When the lamp of the Spirit is lit, the whole body is also full of light. There is no part dark, but everything is as when a lamp with its bright shining gives light to all that enter into the house.

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Third fact, one of the best methods of quickening the life of the

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Spirit is worship. The repetition of Isaiah's thrice holy, holy, holy, holy

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Lord God Almighty in Isaiah chapter 6, or any of the outbursts of adoration that you read recorded in the great book of the

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Revelation, will at once bring us into contact with the world of reality. Will not some ask themselves whether their spirit may not resemble a disused muscle and present, it's there, but it's atrophied, it's withering, it's decaying, it's drawing up?

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Do they realize that they may have within a living spring of holy desire and love?

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Does the Spirit bear witness within them that they are God's children? Does He inspire their prayers and overcome the striving of the flesh?

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Above all, does He reveal the love and the grace of Christ so that He has become a living, bright reality?

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If not, then let them follow on the track of the ascending Savior and commit to Him their destiny in this life and the next.

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That moment will witness the awakening of their spiritual life. The scales will fall from their eyes.

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A new world will open to their view. Peace unspeakable will keep heart and mind.

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The Spirit will begin to witness with their spirit, and living water will flow through their life.

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This is the level on which alone we can receive the promise of the Father. Light attracts light.

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Let me give you a literal reading of the scripture, 1 Corinthians 2, that we just read.

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The natural or psychical man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

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But he that is spiritual discerns or understands all things, and he himself is discerned or understood by no man.

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It was because our Lord knew that those who gathered around Him had fulfilled these conditions and had been born into union with the unseen and eternal, that He was actually able to say to them,

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Behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you. Tarry you in the city until you be clothed with power from on high.

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Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you. I want you to think with me for a moment about the significance of Christ's parting promise.

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From the earliest times, the dynamic of the Holy Spirit has been realized by individuals.

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Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, and the other prophets of Israel. They were mountaintop men, we say, whose contact with the spiritual and eternal made them saints and seers of God's truth.

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They were elect souls who dwelt apart, breathing the rare air of the highlands of God.

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They spake as moved by the Holy Spirit, though sometimes unaware, perhaps, of all that the

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Spirit did signify in what they were saying. The full mystery was not known unto these holy souls as it has now been unfolded through the ascension of Jesus Christ.

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This great intention, I believe, was in the heart of Christ. By assuming humanity and carrying it through the heavens to the eternal throne,

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He has placed the fullness of the Holy Spirit within the reach of all mankind. He placed world -old and eternal power within the reach of the simplest and humblest souls who were joined to Him by a living faith.

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But there is a pathway, and the pathway is that of Christ's ascension. From the teachings of the

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Apostle Paul, if you will turn with me, please, to the book of Ephesians, chapter one.

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In Ephesians, chapter one, verse twenty -one, Far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, and fullness of him that filleth all in all.

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And in that same book, of course, in that marvelous chapter six, verse twelve, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

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From the teaching of the Apostle Paul, here we gather that, when the cloud hid him from view, the ascending

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Christ was beset with the concentrated opposition of the spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places.

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It was as though the whole force of the world of fallen spirits were gathered to bar his upward progress.

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It was a vain attempt. His course was no more interrupted than a flimsy veil of mist can alter the course of a sunbeam.

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He ascended on high, leading captivity captive. As in the triumph of a victorious general through the streets of ancient

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Rome, the conqueror's car was followed by a long train of subdued and captive princes and potentates, so that we may picture death, the grave, and the power of hell as conquered foes, attached to Christ's triumphal progress.

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Having put off from himself the principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross.

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May we not here make use of the magnificent symbolism of the ancient psalm, quoted by the

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Apostle? The chariots of God came forth to welcome the returning King, even thousands upon thousands.

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Then they turned to accompany his progress as he approached the eternal city. We hear the challenging voice of the foremost ranks.

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Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the

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King of Glory shall come in. To the inquiring appeal, Who is the

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King of Glory? The entire crowd of rejoicing angels and saints reply, The Lord strong and mighty, the

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Lord mighty in battle, the Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory. Read for yourself that magnificent Psalm 24.

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Who is the King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the

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Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory. Finally the ancient door slowly unfolds to admit

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Him. He bears the semblance of our humanity. He is the man Christ Jesus. But on His vesture and on His thigh

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He hath a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. This is poetry of the sublimest sort, but the truth which lies beneath is the sure anchorage of our faith.

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We know it is true because we have felt the pull of the rope, the power of the risen, ascended and glorified

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Christ. Let's recall the Lord's own promise. I will pray or make request to the

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Father, and He shall give you another paraclete, that He may be with you forever, even the

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Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father. If I go, I will send

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Him unto you. Permit me to put it thusly. When our

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Lord entered the presence chamber of Deity, all created beings dropped behind as He received the

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Father's welcome. I believe that when He was asked what reward He would claim for His agony to blood, the

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Savior would answer, Father, I ask nothing for myself. It is enough to have finished the work

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Thou gavest me to do, and to be assured that redemption is secured for a lost race. But if Thou wilt give aught,

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I ask that in my human divine nature that same fullness of the Holy Spirit may reside which

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I possess with Thee, and Him in the eternal unity of our being before the world wise.

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Thus I shall be able to shed forth the fullness of His grace, and help upon my church as they were shed on me.

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Such would be the Savior's prayer. He made request of the Father as He had promised, and in His coming on the day of Pentecost, in that sermon that He preached,

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Simon Peter, the apostle to the Gentiles, declared that being exalted to the right hand of God, he received of the

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Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, which he poured forth on the waiting disciples. Read Acts chapter 2.

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Having led captivity captive, he besought and obtained this great gift for men.

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In Colossians chapter 1, verse 19, and Colossians chapter 2, verse 9, we adopt the language of the apostle by saying,

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It pleased the Father that in him, in his mediatorial and representative capacity, all the fullness of the

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Godhead should dwell, that from his fullness we might all receive and grace for grace.

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In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a corporeal form, and to each one of us who is united to him by faith, a share in that gift was a portion.

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Whether we have claimed that gift or not is another matter. Too many people are content to claim their share in Calvary, but never go further to claim their portion in the gift of the anointing power of the

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Lord. They are content with the brazen altar and the labor, but never enter the holy or the holy of holies, the holiest place.

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Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest cannot confound nor doubt him nor deny.

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Yea, with one voice, O world, thou that deniest, stand those on that side, for on this side am

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I. Of course, as there is a dynamic of Pentecost, as we study what happened on Pentecost and what its significance is for us today, we see that there is a challenge of Pentecost.

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The day of and activities of Pentecost challenges the very citadel of our faith. The gift of the

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Holy Spirit is the distinguishing feature of the Christian faith. It is the very soul of faith. In his indwelling presence is the secret of all

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Christian experience, and in the abiding energy of his power is the dynamic of all

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Christian service. The promises concerning the Spirit of God challenge us. The record of the day of Pentecost challenges us.

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The history of the Christian church challenges us. Do we believe in the Holy Spirit?

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If we do, what is the practical proof of our faith? Let's think for just a brief moment about the fullness of the

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Spirit. The blessing of Pentecost is the blessing of fullness. The essential truth is that they were all filled with the

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Holy Spirit. They overflowed because they were filled to the overflowing. It is the fullness that makes the difference.

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One man illustrated the difference fullness makes by saying this. A piece of iron is dark and cold.

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Imbued with a certain degree of heat, it becomes almost burning, without any change of appearance.

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Imbued with a still greater degree of heat, its appearance changes to that of solid fire, and sets fire to whatever it touches.

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A piece of water without heat is solid and brittle. Gently warmed, it flows.

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Further heated, it mounts to the sky. An organ filled with the ordinary degree of air is silent.

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The touch of the player can elicit but a clicking of the keys. Throw in not other air, but an unsteady current of the same air, and sweet but imperfect and uncertain notes immediately respond to the player's touch.

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Increase the current to a full supply, and every pipe swells with music. Such is the soul without the fullness of the

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Holy Spirit, and such are the changes which pass upon it when it receives the fullness of the

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Holy Spirit, and when it is filled to the brim by God's Spirit. This is the blessing of the fullness of the

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Holy Spirit. It affects the whole being of a person. The seed of the indwelling presence is the innermost recesses of the spiritual being, but it permeates, energizes, and controls every faculty of our nature.

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The Holy Spirit clothed Himself with the waiting disciples in the upper room, and He still clothes

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Himself with consecrated believers. He clothes Himself, and they are clothed in Him.

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In them He finds a body, and in Him they find the power of spiritual expression and execution.

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Without confusion, without loss of personal consciousness, without change of inherent qualities, there are mutual appropriation and oneness of operation.

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The effects are seen in the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Jesus had said the coming of the

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Spirit would bring fullness of knowledge. He said, In that day ye shall know. They would know with certainty when the

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Spirit of truth had come, and they did know. There is nothing more wonderful on the day of Pentecost than the wisdom and certainty with which they talked.

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The fact of Christ's death and resurrection were interpreted in the light of the eternal purpose of God.

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The Word of God became new, and the history of Christ's teaching and ministry got a new meaning. The scriptures were made luminous in the light of the

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Holy Spirit. The change in their characters were ever greater than the change in their knowledge.

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The Gospels portray these men as proud and contentious, many times selfish and cowardly. But the first pages of the

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Acts of the Apostles tell another story. Something had happened between the judgment hall and the streets of the city.

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Resurrection found them all shivering behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. But at Pentecost they were openly preaching

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Jesus and charging the rulers with His death. Pentecost had transformed them.

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It was the fullness of the Holy Spirit that made the difference between timidity and joyous daring, shivering weakness and exultant power.

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They were jubilantly, fearless and hilariously happy. That is the difference the fullness of the

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Holy Spirit always makes. Challenge of Pentecost, and that is the challenge of the fullness of the

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Holy Spirit. How does the challenge find us? Do we measure to the standard of the fullness?

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Is not the explanation of our confusion in the lack of it? The gift of the Holy Spirit is not for the working of miraculous deeds, for there were men filled with the

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Holy Spirit who never wrought one miracle. There is the danger lest we claim more than is promised.

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What about our assurance of heavenly things? There is an end of uncertainty when the fullness of the

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Holy Spirit is known. Have we this power over sin? The Spirit of truth is the

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Spirit of holiness. He sanctifies in truth. The day of Pentecost changed carnal thought into spiritual vision.

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It changed pride into humility. It changed selfishness into love and cowardice into courage.

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It changed hearts and transformed lives. Victory comes by fullness.

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Have we this joy of conquest? Is the character of the average Christian anywhere near the standard of a

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Spirit -filled soul? What about the love of the world? Jesus said

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He was the one whom the world cannot receive. They are in irreconcilable antagonism.

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What has become of the doctrine of separation from the world? If believers were filled with the

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Spirit, would they haunt the world's gaudy fountains and brackish springs for water? It is mocking to profess fullness and go about panting with thirst and gasping with vanity for the things of the world.

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What about the power for serving God, for service? Is our decline due to external difficulties or internal weakness?

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Think of the host of workers, the vastness and variety of their service, the earnestness and ingenuity of their labors, and the scanty result of it all.

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What influence has the Church upon the life of people, and what impression does it make upon the strongholds of iniquity?

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What about the drought of conversions? The day of Pentecost brought awakening, conviction, conversions, and baptism, but the ungodly no longer speak of churches as converting forces.

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The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of power, and the lack of power is due to the absence of His indwelling fullness.

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Abounding fullness overflowed in gladness, testimony, and sacrifice.

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This is the challenge of Pentecost, the challenge of fullness, and in that challenge God calls us to fullness.

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There is no doubt that the one thing needful for the Church today is the blessing of fullness.

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The flood would sweep away all the rubbish, fill all the reservoirs, and fertilize all the desert.

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The work of God cannot be accomplished without the fullness of the Spirit. It is

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His will that every believer should be filled with the Spirit, overflow in the power of the

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Spirit, and in all things prevail through the Spirit. What hinders this fullness?

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The conditions are simple, unalterable, and universal. God waits to fill ordinary people with extraordinary power and to turn a baffled faith into a rapturous conquest.

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How? Ask Peter, James, John. They were deeply attached and openly committed to Jesus Christ before Pentecost.

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They had left all for Christ's sake. They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They were witnesses of His death and of His resurrection.

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They were workers, stewards, preachers, evangelists, missionaries, without Pentecost.

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Then according to the Lord's own word, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

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If we speak of the challenge of Pentecost and the dynamic of Pentecost and that it's a challenge to fullness, what is the fullness?

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Who is the Holy Spirit? What is one of the aspects of fullness? Perhaps the greatest need of understanding in the fullness of the

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Spirit is that He is the Spirit of Holiness. The title of the Holy Spirit most frequently used in the

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New Testament is the Holy Spirit. The phrase Spirit of Holiness occurs but one time and it can hardly be claimed that it refers directly even to the

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Holy Spirit. Paul says in Romans 1 .4 that as Christ on the human side was the seed of David, so on the divine side

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He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection of the dead.

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It was not the Holy Spirit that the apostle evidently had in mind, but our

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Lord's human spirit distinguished by holiness and conquering the powers of death. Elsewhere the resurrection of our

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Lord from the dead is attributed to the Holy Spirit. And even if it be the quality of our

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Lord's own Spirit that made it impossible that He should be holder of death, the human spirit was equipped, sanctified, and kept by the divine

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Spirit. But the phrase, however, reaches further than the resurrection and implies that by the

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Spirit of Holiness men are sanctified in truth. His work is to glorify

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Christ and sanctify the saints, making holy the body of Christ which is His Church.

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But what is holiness? It is unfortunate, I believe, that the term has ceased to attract even good people.

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There are many who regard it with suspicion and some who dismiss it with scorn. It is not uncommon for it to be made the butt of cheap wit and the subject of some doubtful stories.

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This is all the more surprising because of the emphasis with which the New Testament insists upon its necessity and enforces its obligations.

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There is little teaching and testimony on the subject and therefore there is dense ignorance and much misunderstanding, so much misinformation.

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The subject is most generally dismissed without inquiry and the reason is that proper attention is not given to the place and the work of the

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Holy Spirit in the sanctifying of the believer. The Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer.

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The meaning of holiness, I believe, must be interpreted according to the Scriptures.

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It has a biblical content and value. It is no use to search for it in pagan literature, however classical, or books on the bookshelf, for the biblical idea of holiness is not to be found elsewhere.

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Even in Israel it was of slow growth and the idea passed through many stages before it took its complete and final form.

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Its root meaning is separation and it was used of things dedicated to religious uses in the tabernacle, the temple.

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God was known of as separate in majesty and apart in character and holiness was ascribed to him in his ways.

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This quality in God demanded a like quality in his people and to his covenanted people he said,

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Be ye holy for I am holy. He chose them to be unto him a holy people.

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It is for this purpose he called them from among the nations. They were to be to him a peculiar people in whom all men should see a holy and sanctified people.

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Holiness had its positive as well as its negative side. They were to be distinguished by moral and spiritual excellence as well as by ceremonial and national distinctions.

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So holiness is experiential as well as an attitude, a life as well as a separation.

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Their separation unto God was to be manifest in their likeness to him. The supreme revelation and standard are in Jesus Christ.

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He revealed the Holy Father and made manifest the Holy Spirit thereby making known in both

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God and man the spirit of holiness. Believers are called unto holiness.

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This is the will of God even your sanctification. God chose you from the beginning in sanctification of the spirit so that without holiness grace fails in its purpose and without it no man sees the

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Lord. It is set forth in various forms and unto many forms but in all its manifold representations of scripture the same root ideas permit and prevail.

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Holiness is an attitude of dedication and it is an experience of grace in which the heart is cleansed from sin and made perfect in the love of Christ.

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Now, as I've said there are many misapprehensions about holiness. There is a strange mistake that holiness is something quite optional.

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It is regarded as desirable for certain people and in special circumstances but its claims are by no means universal.

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Holiness is regarded as an emotional luxury if not a spiritual fad. Its claims are deemed to be emotional rather than ethical and they are optional rather than imperative.

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There is little exposition of its character and still less insistence upon its urgency. Consequently, few seek to take seriously the solemn words of Holy Scripture.

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Many take it for granted that if it is necessary it will come to them in due course without any concern of theirs.

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Such slackness accounts for so much backsliding amongst Christians. But the

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Christian calling is one that demands all diligence and earnest heed. Those who fail to seek after holiness fall short of the grace of God.

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They give opportunity to the roots of bitterness to spring up and become secular and worldly like Esau who traded his spiritual inheritance for material good.

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But there is another mistake made by earnest Christians about holiness and that is they are always growing toward it but they never get into it, always struggling and striving to attain but never entering into possession of it.

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The positive expectation is always seen to be a far off and they die without ever having possessed.

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The hopeful future never becomes the positive now. The time never comes that calls for a positive act of faith.

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But holiness is the gift of abundant life. Holiness is a healthful life.

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Holiness implies a transformed life. It is not an achievement or an attainment but a gift of grace in the

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Holy Spirit. It comes not by works but of faith. Not a few good people mix up things that differ.

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They confuse cleansing with maturity. They confuse motive with achievement, love with blamelessness and the perfection of grace with the perfection of the resurrection glory.

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Love never exhausts its inheritance or reaches its limits in being made perfect. No doctrine of the

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Bible has been stated with greater care and if any man wills to possess he need not err as to the way into the biblical holiness.

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That biblical holiness is through the Holy Spirit of God. The scriptural method is through the personal work of the

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Holy Spirit. The law of the Spirit of Life makes us free from the law of sin and death.

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It is God's work wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit who makes Christ our sanctification.

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There are diversities of operation in all the works of the Spirit. And the method of entering into possession is as manifold as the temperaments and conditions of human life.

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No two experiences are ever really alike. Generally there is an awakening of heart and mind in which there comes vision and persuasion.

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There is a conviction of need and a revelation of grace. There is a hunger and a search, a process and a crisis, an act of faith and an assurance of cleansing.

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Consecration to Christ is as practical as repentance. And being moved into a holiness of life and biblically separated is as definite as regeneration.

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When unbelief stumbles at a name, and whatever you call it, and the heart shrinks from a crisis that involves a death and a resurrection, and Satan will multiply difficulties and an evil heart backs him, the way of life must be sought in the

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Holy Word of God and by the Holy Spirit of God. And the twofold guide, the

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Word of God and the Spirit of God, will not fail those who seek with all their heart.

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Jeremiah 29, 13, And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

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Holiness is in the Spirit and of the Divine Spirit. It is not in forms and ordinances.

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It is not in will -worship and voluntary humility. It is not in prohibitions.

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It is not in self -denial. It is a spirit, a life, a principle, a dynamic.

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The Spirit of God indwells the spirit of man. He clothes himself with man, and man is clothed in the presence and power of the

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Holy Spirit. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ lives in man through the

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Holy Spirit. He is no longer a model, but a living presence. And Christian faith does not copy him, it lives him.

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Christ is not imitated in the life, but reproduced in the life. Life is sanctified, set apart, becomes holy because he possesses it, lives it, and transforms it.

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The Spirit of God does not work upon us. He lives in us. This is the contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the

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Spirit. Works are by the sweat of man's brow. Fruit is God's gift to man.

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Fruit does not come by toil, but by appropriation, assimilation, and abiding.

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And that holiness makes life fruitful, because it abides in the living Word and gives free scope to the

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Spirit of life. The Spirit of holiness makes the heart clean, the mind true, the faculties fit, the life fruitful by making

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His holiness become ours. Now, in our closing thought,

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I've mentioned the word, the fruit. Let me just speak for just a brief moment concerning the fruit of the

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Spirit. There are nine gifts of the Spirit and nine graces of the

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Spirit. The graces of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long -suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and self -control.

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The Scripture never confuses. Gifts are for service and are bestowed in the sovereign wisdom of the

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Holy Spirit. They are given according to natural endowment as the talents were according to the ability of those who received them.

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They are given according to grace. The Scripture says, having them gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.

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The differing gifts are adapted to the kind of service by the grace of God we are called, whether prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, beneficence, administration, or works of mercy.

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Each may have some gift. Some may have more than one. But all gifts of the Spirit are according to the election of grace and are given for the effective working by each of the divine will.

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They are also according to faith. There is a faith that is among the gifts of the

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Spirit. But there is a faith that is basic to all gifts, and God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

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But we are speaking of fruit, not gifts. The graces of the Spirit, the gifts, are not the fruit of the

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Spirit. There are three leading passages that speak of the Christian character's fruit.

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The first you recall is our Lord's allegory of the vine and the branches in John 15.

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The second is Paul's catalog of nine virtues, which he calls the fruit of the Spirit. We read these in Galatians 5.

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And the third is Peter's list of Christian graces, which he regards as the fruitful result of the life of Christ in the soul.

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Now there are many other passages in which the figure of fruit is used. But in these three representative passages, there are set forth the conditions of fruitfulness, the cluster of fruit, and the process of fruitage.

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In the figure of the vine, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned. But in comparing himself to the vine and his disciples to the branches, the tree corresponds to the body and the life to his

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Spirit. You see, the diffusion of life is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit by which the

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Father is glorified is the fruit of the Spirit. Apart from Christ there is neither life nor fruit.

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But without the Spirit of Christ, there can be neither union nor abiding. Our Lord does not specify the fruit.

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What he emphasizes is the fact that it is fruit, and that it is fruit directly from himself.

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He says that some have no fruit, read John 15, and they are cast forth as a branch that is withered.

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Others are described as having fruit, some more fruit, and much fruit, and there is the fruit that abides.

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The conditions of fruitfulness are union with Christ, being purged or cleansed by the

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Father, abiding in Christ, and having Christ abiding in us. But Paul sums up all this teaching of the vine and its branches in the phrase that he uses, the fruit of the

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Spirit. He enlarges upon neither conditions nor process, for everything is implied in the word fruit.

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He assumes both conditions and process and sets forth the result. And this will explain the difference when you read

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Paul and Peter. Paul begins where Peter ends. One gives the result and the other dwells on the process of cultivation.

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Peter begins at conversion to the experience of deliverance, and he says, Yea, and for this very cause, adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue, and in your virtue knowledge, and in your knowledge self -control, and in your self -control patience, and in your patience godliness, and in your godliness love of the brethren, and in your love of the brethren love.

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You see, the process begins in faith and ends in love. Then the apostle Paul takes up the list.

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The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long -suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self -control.

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So what we have is a garden or factory. In the Galatians passage, the fruit of the

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Spirit is placed in contrast with the works of the flesh, and a striking contrast they make.

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The catalog of sinful works begins with the sins of the flesh and passes on to idolatry, discord and drunkenness.

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The fruit of the Spirit begins with the characteristics of the spiritual mind and passes on to its manifestation in personal character, social virtues and practical conduct.

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The most striking feature of the contrast is the emphatic change from works to fruit.

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You see, works belong to the workshop, but fruit belongs to the garden. One comes from the ingenuity of the factory and the other is the silent growth of abounding life.

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The factory operates with dead stuff. The garden cultivates living forces to their appointed end.

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Works are always in the realm of dead things. Every building is built out of dead material.

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The tree must die before it can be of use to the builder. There is no life in stones and bricks and iron girders.

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They are all dead and are in the process of disintegration. Nothing material lasts.

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Man's best works fail and fade, crumble and pass away. The works of the flesh are there.

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These are the products of all the operations of the flesh. The sinner becomes a victim of devilish ingenuity and cunning.

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A monotonous machine from which are turned out fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousies, wrath, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revelings and such like.

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That is the factory that keeps up the supply of the devil's kingdom and furnishes hell with the souls of the damned.

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But fruit does not come of man's labor. It requires all his diligence, but it is neither his invention nor is it his product.

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He does not make the flowers. No skill of his brings the golden harvest of the fields or the luscious fruit upon the trees.

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God begins and life proceeds. Fruit is God's work. The phrase fruit of the spirit assigns the graces of the

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Christian character to their proper source. They are not of man's producing. They do not spring from the soil of a carnal nature.

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Every tree brings forth fruit after its kind. The fruit of the vine is not deposited in its branches to be quickened by an act of faith.

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It grows by the life that is in the vine. Salvation is by grace and the

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Christian virtues are the fruit of the indwelling presence of the spirit of life. Fruit, not works, is what he says.

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Yes, there is a cultivation of fruit. You see, fruit implies cultivation.

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Jesus said, My father is the husbandman. A neglected garden grows weeds and plenty, as we all know, but its fruitfulness soon passes away.

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The gardener is a busy man. He always has to be caring for the things he grows.

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They only respond to love. They need protection, nourishment, and cleansing.

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You see, pruning is the surgery of love. Jesus said, My father is the husbandman.

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He holds the knife. Chastening of the Lord is proof of love.

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For the present it may not be joyous, but grievous. The present pruning is for future perfecting.

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It is often a painful process, but the glory of the Father is in the yield of the life and its fruit of the spirit.

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Fruit must not be confused with gifts any more than it must be mistaken for works.

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Such confusion will lead to doubt and distress. It is not an uncommon thing for many earnest workers of the church to imagine that if they are filled with the spirit they will be endowed with marvelous and miraculous power for service.

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But gifts are not fruit. They may exist apart from great spirituality. The Corinthian Christians were rich in gifts, but they were poor in fruit.

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Our Lord told of some who wrought wonders in His name, but they were none of His.

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Fruit is for all. His gifts He gives to each severally as He will.

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The fruit of the spirit consists of sanctified dispositions. Gifts are according to the basis of natural endowments.

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Fruit is the perfecting of grace in heart and life. Gifts apart from fruit do not glorify

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God. To glory in gifts brings a snare, but fruit is sacrificial and sacramental and brings glory to all.

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It grows by abiding and it is perfected without noise or fuss, without anxiety or care, and God glories in fruit.

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We say there are nine graces. The term is singular and though the number is plural, the grammar is correct.

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There is no grammatical difficulty. The term is generic and is used of the graces that follow as we use it of a cluster of grapes.

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They refer to character and set forth the kind of man the spirit produces rather than the things he inspires him to do.

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The nine elements have been divided into three sections of three each. In relation to God, there's love, joy, and peace.

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In relation to our fellow man, long -suffering, gentleness, and goodness.

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And in relation to ourselves, faithfulness, not faith, but faithfulness, meekness, self -control.

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And the singular term is meant to indicate unity and all the nine belong to all three divisions.

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In English, the passage would read like this. The fruit of the spirit is an affectionate, lovable disposition, a radiant spirit and a cheerful temper, a tranquil mind and a quiet manner, a forbearing patience in provoking circumstances and with trying people, a sympathetic insight and tactful helpfulness, generous judgment and a big -souled charity, loyalty and reliability under all circumstances, humility that forgets self in the joy of others, in all things self -mastered, self -controlled, which is the final mark of perfecting.

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This is the kind of character that is the fruit of the spirit. Everything is in that word, fruit.

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It is not by striving but by abiding. It is not by worrying but by trusting.

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It is not of the words but of faith. If this is the fruit of the spirit, for whom is the fruit grown?

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It is grown for God and for His Son, the Lord Jesus, by the

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Holy Spirit as He works in the lives of those who have yielded to the dynamic of Pentecost, been challenged by it and heard the call to the fullness of life, have moved towards that fullness of life and have allowed

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God to cleanse and bring them into that biblical separated life where the holiness of life becomes theirs and they walk in the spirit of the

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Lord and walk in the light as He is in the light, that they might have fellowship one with another and that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, would keep on cleansing from all sin.

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I don't look back. God knows the fruitless efforts, the wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets.

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I'll leave them all with Him who blots the record and mercifully forgives and then forgets.

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I don't look forward. God sees all the future. The road that's short along will lead me home and He will face with me its every trial and bear for me the burdens that may come.

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I don't look round me, then would fears assail me, so wild the tumult of earth's restless seas, so dark the world, so filled with war and evil, so vain the hope of comfort or of ease.

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I don't look in, for then am I most wretched. My self hath naught on which to stay my trust.

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Nothing I see save failures and shortcomings and weak endeavors crumbling into dust.

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But I look up into the face of Jesus, for there my heart can rest. My fears are stilled and there is joy and love and light for darkness and perfect peace and every hope fulfilled.

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Let this be our declaration unto the Lord. Laid on thine altar,

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O my Lord Divine, accept my gift this day. For Jesus' sake,

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I have no jewels to adorn thy shrine, nor any world -famed sacrifice to make.

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But here I bring within my trembling hands this will of mine, a thing that seemeth small.

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Yet thou alone, O Lord, canst understand how when I yield thee this,

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I yield mine all. Hidden therein thy heart my searching gaze can see, struggles of passion, visions of delight.

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All that I have or am or feign would be. Deep loves, fond hopes, and longings infinite.

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It hath been wet with tears and dim with sighs. Clenched in my grasp, till beauty hath it none.

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Now from thy footstool where it vanquish lies, the prayer ascendeth, may thy will be done.

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Take it, O Father, ere my courage fail, and merge it so into thine own will, that in, if in some desperate hour my cries prevail, and thou give back my gift, it may have been so changed, so purified, so fair have grown.

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So one with thee, so filled with love divine, I may not know or feel it is as my own, but gaining back my will, may find that it is thine.

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May God add his blessings to the teaching of the truth of his word. May God bless you as you consider the truth of his word.