The Holy Spirit and the Believer

“Now He which establisheth us with you in (or into) Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corrs is 2122);

tions of the Holy Spirit succinctly epitomized in a striking way. ‘There are four distinct phases of His work in and for the believer.

First, establishment into Christ, which includes sanctification by the Spirit, new birth by the Spirit, and the baptism of the Spirit.

Second, our anointing by the same Spirit, with which all His gifts are linked.

Third, the sealing by the Spirit, insuring our full conformity to Christ in the day of the redemption of the body.

And fourth, the earnest of the Spirit, which necessarily involves the thought of the firstfruits and the filling of the Spirit.

Let us look at each subject in the order given.

Establishment into Christ is more than individual salvation, though it involves that, for the greater includes the less. The apostle says, ‘““He who establisheth us with you into Christ,” which suggests the truth of the unity of the body, and so links with 1 Cor. 12: 12,13: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, ...and have been all made to drink into one Spirit,”

ig these two verses we have the various opera-This is the great dispensational work of the Holy Spirit, the express purpose for which He was given. But ere He could form the body, there must be inlividuals separated from the world and born from above, and it was the work of the Spirit to bring this about. He it is who sanctifies by using the Word of God to awaken the sinner; and by that same Word, oelieved, He produces the new birth. Born of water and of the Spirit is really born of the Word, which has become living in the soul by the direct operation of the Spirit, thus completely changing the ways. [t is the “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.’ Peter writes, ‘“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God... and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” James tells us, “Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth.” And our Lord says, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.”

The Holy Spirit sanctifies by exercising the soul of the unsaved one — brooding over him while still in the darkness, then the light shines in and the man lives unto God, as the Word is believed.

This was true in all dispensations. Men ever needed a second birth to bring them into the family of God. “The flesh profiteth nothing;” it could never be made acceptable to God. A new nature was a necessity, and this the Holy Spirit produced, acting in power, before He came at Pentecost to dwell in us, and abide with us here in our Lord’s absence.

But on that memorable day He did a new work. He took up one hundred and twenty units (all born of God), and He baptized them into one body, thus forming the Church of the new dispensation. By this act He established them into the Christ, making them one body with their glorified Head, and linking them one with another in a union as close as members in the human body. The baptism of the Spirit is therefore collective,and,as I have remarked, dispensational. It is not something to be sought or prayed for, nor yet tarried for, since the body has already been formed.

In the four Gospels and the first chapter of Acts, the baptism of the Spirit was yet future. In the 2d chapter of Acts the promise is fulfilled. In 1 Cor. 12: 13 we have the only reference to the Spirit’s baptism after the 11th of Acts. It is a doctrinal statement to be believed, not an exhortation to seek after an experience.

Four times, as related in the Acts, special supernatural manifestations accompanied the reception of the Spirit, as various companies were incorporated into the assembly. In chapter 2 all were Jews; in chapter 8 the same blessing falls upon regenerated Samaritans, adding them to the body of Christ. In chapter 10 the nucleus of Gentiles is baptized into the same body. And in chapter 19 a remnant of John’s disciples are brought in. There is a special miraculous endowment in each instance to confirm the souls of the saints, and to make known the truth that all distinctions are done away in Christ, and there is but “one body and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling.”

What grace on God’s part to give this four-fole testimony in the beginning! But what folly fo Christians now to expect a duplication of these initiatory manifestations. The body is formed; all believers have their part in it. And as any are sane.

tified and born of the Spirit, they receive Him as the indwelling Guest, and are thus brought into the good of the Spirit’s baptism.

If some scriptures seem to indicate that the baptism of the Spirit is a blessing to be received gubsequent to conversion, it is well to examine them carefully, noting the context, and asking, “Was this spoken before or after Pentecost?” — for the difference is immense; as a new dispensation began when the Holy Spirit descended to dwell in the believer.

Let me mention several such passages and seek to help you to place them. Jesus said, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him” (Luke 11:13). Many take this as their authority for seeking the gift of the Spirit by prayer. But this was spoken by our Saviour before the cross. The Father gave the Spirit at Pentecost; He does not now wait for us to ask Him to do go again; for the wondrous gift once given abides in the Church and indwells every believer, having baptized all into one body, as we have seen.

What of the words, “He hath been with you, He shall be in you”? Does it not imply that some are only born of the Spirit, and others indwelt? When did Jesus so speak? Before or after Pentecost? You say, “Before.” Correct! And He there contrasts the two dispensations. The Spirit was with believers before the cross, He is in them now. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9).

But did not our Lord command His disciples to tarry till endued with power from on high? He did, and He particularly indicated where they were to tarry — ‘“in Jerusalem.” No other place would do. For there the Spirit came, even as the Son came to Bethlehem.

A gentleman said to me recently,“I have just come from a great tarrying meeting. Hundreds have been tarrying for many days at San José, California, waiting for the Holy Ghost.” I asked, “What authority did you have for that?” He replied, “Why, Jesus said, ‘Tarry in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.’”

“Well, my friend,” I inquired; ‘are you not confounding locations and time? You are over ten thousand miles too far away, and over eighteen hundred years too late.’”’” Observe: If some of the disciples had “tarried” at Nazareth, and some at Bethlehem, and others at Bethany, would the Holy Spirit have fallen on them on that Pentecostal morning? Surely not! The command was, “Tarry at Jerusalem,” and as they waited there, like a rushing, mighty wind He came, sent from the Father and the Son to form the body of Christ, and to endue with power the waiting disciples that they might bear testimony to the risen Christ. Thus He established them into the Christ — making them members of His body.

But let me not be misunderstood. I am not insinuating that it is a vain thing for any believer or any company of believers to wait on God for power to overcome the enemy and sound out the evangel. It is always well to be thus before Him. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

This is true in all dispensations. But we wait, not for Him to send the Spirit, for He is already here, — and by His baptism we have all been joined to the body. We need, however, to wait on God to show us any hindrance in our lives that may be restraining His working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. As we judge ourselves, and learn from our past failures to walk humbly and in self-distrust, we make room for the Holy Spirit to fill us with divine power, and to use us for the glory of God and the blessing of a needy world.

But to tarry for the baptism of the Spirit is an evidence of utter ignorance of God’s dispensational ways. Remember, the only place where the baptism is definitely mentioned in all the epistolary portions of the New Testament is this one verse, namely, 1 Cor. 12:18; and here it is distinctly spoken of as a past event, into the good of which we all have been brought.

Trusting I have been able to make this important point clear, I pass on to the second phase of the Spirit’s work — the anointing.

It may help us here to inquire: Who were anointed in Old Testament times? You who are familiar with your Bibles will at once reply, “Prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with oil to induct them into their offices.” And some will remember that the cleansed leper was anointed first by blood and then with oil, just as the priests were.

The leper is the type of ourselves, unclean by sin, cleansed by blood, and anointed with the Spirit of God. We are anointed as “kings and priests unto God” (Rev. 1:6).:

Our Lord was anointed without blood. He was the sinless One who needed no sacrifice for Himself, So we read, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). This anointing took place immediately following His baptism in the Jordan when He presented Himself without spot to be our Saviour. On the cross He offered up Himself. This is to be distinguished from His offering Himself, or pledging Himself, to fulfil all righteousness on our behalf. As He came up out of the water the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and it abode on Him, and the Father’s voice was heard declaring, “This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight.” Thus He was anointed — pointed out as the predicted Prophet, Priest, and King.

He was the Prophet on earth, sealing His testimony with His blood. He is the Priest in heaven, ever living to make intercession for us. He is coming again to reign as the universal King.

Now in a very precious sense we share this threefold ministry. Anointed by the Spirit at our conversion to God, having been cleansed by the blood of Christ, we are empowered to speak for God on earth as His prophet-messengers. We are made priests, holy and royal, to enter into the holiest as purged worshipers, and to show forth His praises in the world. And we are to reign with Him as kings in the day of His power.

But is this true of all believers, or only of a favored few? Surely, of all, as a careful study of 1 John 2: 12-29 will make plain. In verse 12 the apostle addresses all believers as “children” whose sins are forgiven. The word “little” is better omitted.

The term used has reference neither to size or age,

simply children — those born into the family.

In verse 13 he divides the children into three classes. There are, in the family of God, “fathers,” “young men,” and “babes.” Here the term used is properly translated “little children.” To these three classes he then addresses himself, giving to each a Separate message. It is to the babes he says, in verse 20, “Ye have an unction (or, anointing) from

the Holy One, and ye know all things.” And again,

in verse 27, while still addressing the youngest and feeblest of saints he writes, “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” The anointing then is the portion of the babe in Christ; how much more of the young men and fathers. All Christians are anointed. In fact, this is involved in the very name divinely given them. Christ means the “anointed.” Christians are anoint- .ed ones, by the Spirit linked with their glorified Head. By the anointing our understanding is opened that We may understand the Scriptures and be kept from Satanic perversions of the truth. It is to the unregenerate in Laodicea that the Lord says, “Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see.” This was their great need, as natural men, unable to comprehend spiritual things..

What real believers need is to learn to depend on the Holy Spirit, and thus profit by the anointing which abides in them. He delights to glorify Christ, and if there be but subjection of heart to Him, and a willing mind to be guided aright, He will preserve the simplest from error and lead them into all truth.

I was in Los Angeles some years ago, and one evening was listening to a well-known “Russellite” setting forth his God-dishonoring teaching with great liberty of speech and a most dogmatic assurance of manner. Standing in the crowd was a plainly dressed colored man, humble in appearance and probably unlettered, who seemed to me to be listening with great interest. Fearing he would be deceived by the specious sophistries of the Restitutionist I remained, with the intention of trying to help him after the address was finished. But I found I was not needed, for he had better help than I could give. As the speaker concluded his harangue, a man stepped over to the colored brother, slapped him familiarly on the back and exclaimed, “‘Well, George, what do you think of that?” “That sure was some talk,” replied the negro; ‘‘Dunno when I’se heard so smart a man befo.’” — ‘He certainly knocked the bottom out of all your old Baptist doctrines, didn’t he? He showed the churches are all wrong that believe in the Trinity and the Deity of Christ, and all that stuff.’ — ‘“Yes, sah, he just tore up by the roots all I’se been believin’ fo’ yeahs.” ‘‘Well, I suppose you’ll join his crowd now?” “No, sah, NO! ah ain’t gwine to do that. Couldn’t answer him, sah, but a voice in ma’ soul’s say in’ ‘lies, lies, lies,’ all the time he was talkin’ — ain’t gwine to believe a word of it. No, sah — not a word.” I was delighted to see how the anointing had enabled him to withstand this assault of the devil. The Spirit dwells within us for that very purpose.

All the gifts are linked with the dnotnbinn We read in 1 Cor. 12, ‘There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” He imparts some gift to each member of the body to be exercised in subjection to the risen Lord. All have not the same gift; and while we are told to “covet earnestly the best gifts,” we are not promised any particular gift that we might admire and long for. He divideth “to every man severally as He will,” that each may profit thereby, and for the edification of the whole body.

Nor are the spectacular gifts, such as healing, tongues, miracles, the most important. The greatest of all is prophecy — that is the ability so to present the truth of God that men will be stirred up, blessed, and comforted thereby. No other gift compares with this in value. But all must be exercised in “the love of the Spirit.”

The third thing I would notice is the sealing of the Spirit. This is another term that is used in connection with our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 6: 27 He says Himself, “Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for Him hath God the Father sealed.” This is the chapter in which He speaks of Himself as the “Bread of God,” “the Living Bread,” and “the True Bread from heaven.” This life-giving Bread came forth and was presented to men that they might eat and live forever, as sealed by the Father. Here we see how the anointing and the sealing take place at one and the same time. For the anointing really was the sealing. It was the Father owning Him as His well-beloved One, and declaring His delight in Him.

I heard a very homely illustration recently that I cannot forbear passing on. How common a thing is it to-day to find bread offered for sale with the maker’s name, or some trade-name, either put upon it by a stamp or literally baked into it. The bread is sealed with the name of the baker. He practically says, ‘‘This bread is good. I put my name upon it, for I stand back of it in every particular.” So has God the Father sealed the Bread from heaven. He acknowledged and approved His blessed Son in everything, for in the fullest sense Jesus could say, “IT and my Father are one.” Think of it! I and my Father! If He were less than Divine what terrible pretension, what effrontery that would have been! Every saved one would reverse the order and say, My Father and I. But He is the Eternal Son become flesh, and one with the Father.

But now we pass on to consider the sealing of the believer; for the same Spirit who sealed the Saviour seals all who are saved by Him. The first passage that demands our attention is Eph. 1:13: “In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.”

In the Revised Version it is even aneer “Tn whom, having also believed, ye were sealed.” How soul-assuring is this! Sealing is not a question of experience. It is a precious fact to be accepted on the authority of the Word of God. When you believed the gospel, dear saved one, you were sealed by - the Spirit. God the Father put His stamp upon you, so to speak. He did this by giving you the Spirit to dwell in you — He who dwells in us is the seal.

The same epistle says, in chapter 4: 30, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’ You cannot grieve an influence. You may grieve a person, and He is a divine Person by whom you have been sealed.

Does it say, “Sealed as long as you are faithful?” No, indeed, for if so,who could be sure of it from one day to another? Does it say, ‘‘Lest you grieve Him away?’’ No, not that either, for He is come to abide with and in us. “By whom ye are sealed till the day of redemption” — that is the day of Christ’s return, when the redemption of our body will take place. Till that blessed consummation He never leaves the believer, neither in life nor in death.

I love to think of Him keeping guard over the very bedies of those who sleep in Jesus. The holy dead are not alone. ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” He never loses sight of one of them, and when the Lord returns He will quicken them unto resurrection-life, and escort them to the meeting-place in the air.

But we must not overlook the admonition, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit.” How may we grieve Him? By disobeying the Word. By indulging in any of the things forbidden in the immediate context. Falsehood of the lips, dishonest practices, corrupt speech, bitterness, anger, clamor, railing and malice — all these grieve Him and hinder His ministry of grace in the life. To walk in the Spirit is to walk as before God, in lowliness and meekness, in purity and self-judgment, obeying the written Word, and thus doing

His will from the heart. He who so walks does not grieve this holy, heavenly Guest, who has sealed us until the day of our triumph over death, when our descending Lord shall change the bodies of our humiliation, making them like the body of His glory.

But we must now consider for a little what is suggested by and involved in the term, ‘‘the earnest of the Spirit.” Eph. 1:13 speaks of our sealing, as we have seen; and the 14th verse speaks of the earnest. We read, “‘Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Until this glorious event, of which we spoke a few moments ago, takes place, namely, the redemption of the body, the indwelling Spirit enables us to enjoy a little of what will be our portion forever. He ministers Christ to our souls. He opens up the Word to us. We worship by the Spirit; we pray in the Spirit; we enjoy the fellowship, the communion of the Spirit; “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.” So we have even now, as we tread the sands of the wilderness, ‘‘the firstfruits of the Spirit.” We taste here the precious fruit of the land. This is the Christian’s Eshcol cluster. He gives us now to enjoy in measure what shall be our portion forever.

How important then the exhortation in Eph. 5: 18, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.” God would have us enter into His fulness, He would have us entirely under His control — filled with the Spirit day by day.

Notice, we are never exhorted to seek the baptism of the Spirit; nor told to be anointed with the Spirit; neither are we commanded to be sealed with the Spirit. These are blessed facts, true of every believer. But the word is, “Be filled with the Spirit.” It is a command that we are not at liberty to ignore. How shall we obey it? Can we be filled at will? Do we obtain this fulness by prayer? Is it a blessing that comes once for all? Or may we need to seek it again and again?

We cannot be filled by deciding to claim it by faith. Neither are we filled by praying for it; and once filled there is no guarantee that we will be in the same blessed state to-morrow. We are only filled with the Spirit as we yield ourselves to God and walk in obedience to His word. By comparing Col. 3:16 with Eph. 5:18 we will see that the same results follow; if the Word of Christ dwells in us richly, it is being filled with the Spirit. What then is the legitimate inference? Surely, that a Word-filled Christian is a Spirit-filled Christian. I do not mean that one who has a mental knowledge of the Word is necessarily Spirit-filled; but when the Word is hidden in the heart and controls the ways, then the Spirit of God fills and energizes, as He cannot do when we ignore the written Word.

People pray for more of the Spirit, but the Spirit is not a liquid, or an element. He is a Person. He wants to get more of you. When you let Him take charge of you, you will be filled with the Spirit.

But this is so big a subject, I must devote another address to it; so, for the present, I would just leave this thought with you: — He will fill every room in your being to which you give Him the key. If He does not fill you it is because you are reserving some part for yourself. Do not simply give Him the best room. He is downright exclusive. He would have all for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom He delights to exalt. Can you say, “None of self, but all of Thee?’ Then you will be filled indeed.