Resisting the Holy Ghost
Those words in Acts vii. 51 are on the whole, some of the most solemn ever spoken by a Spirit-filled man: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.’* Between the reception of the new nature and the perfection of the Divine image, there lies a necessary adjustment to the will of God, which is often instantaneous. What prevents such immediate adjustment?
If God is willing to bring a human soul into such adjustment to His will, somewhat as a skilful surgeon, by a touch, adjusts a dislocated limb, what a mystery that any man or woman should hesitate a single moment to come into such co-operation with God I But the undoubted fact stands — and it is an awful fact: the stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, do always resist the Holy Ghost. If there is a single one of us who is not in harmony with the will of God, that is the trouble — resistance to the Holy Ghost, There is nothing more appalling than that one should, as it were, stand, with back to the wall massing all the powers of intellect and heart and will to beat back God! Yet that every man and woman is practically doing, who is not willing to be immediately adjusted to the will of God.
Look at the terms used. How remarkable is the way in which the Holy Spirit employs language I “Ye stiffnecked ’’ — at expres- h sion throughout the Bible, always stands for a perverse will. And uncircumcised in heart’* — that stands for,
“Uncircumcised in ears” — that stands for a j perverse intellect. A man that is not willing to hear the truth is uncircumcised in the ears. He who is not willing to turn from objects of perverted affection to God is uncircumcised in heart. He whose carnal will opposes itself to the will of God — he is stiffnecked.
There are thus three difficulties in the way of adjustment, and there are
THREE FORMS OF RESISTANCE TO THE
HOLY GHOST.
He is at once the Spirit of life, and liht, and love — of life because death must be ’ displaced by life; of liht because darkness and error must be displaced by truth; of love 3 because hate and selfishness must be displaced by holy love and unselfishness. The uncircumcised in heart resist Him as the, Spirit of love; the uncircumcised in ears. resist Him as the Spirit of light and the stiffnecked resist Him as the .Spirit of
There are two other passages of Scripture which we should connect with this terrific arraignment in Acts vii. 51. One is found in 1 Thess. v. 19: “Quench not the Spirit’’; the other, in Eph. iv. 30: Grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God.” Resist Him not, as the / Spirit of life; quench Him not as the Spirit of light; grieve Him not as the Spirit of love. There is the whole theology of the New Testament on this subject, as far as we are able to discover. Let us look a little closer at what all this means.
What is it that, in the stiff-necked sinner, or in the stubborn disciple resists the Holy Spirit? Look at Rom. viii. 6th and 7th verses: “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Here, of the carnal mind, are predicated two things — it is death, and it is enmity Things that are equal to the same thing are equal to one another; death is therefore enmity, and enmity is death, and they are both equivalent to the carnal mind. What is the carnal mind? To be bound to have my own way. What is the spiritual mind? To be bound to let God have His way. The carnal mind is death because it shuts God out; the spiritual mind is life because it lets God in. The carnal mind is enmity because it refuses to subject the will of man to the will of God; the spiritual life is peace because it produces harmony between the will of God and the will of man. “All things work together for good to them that love God.” When you are opposed to the will of God, you are opposing yourself to the whole machinery of the universe; it is like throwing yourself before a locomotive that cannot leave its track, but will grind you to powder. But, when you are spiritually minded, it is as though you are on the locomotive, and it is carrying you to the terminus with all the omnipotence of its power. God cannot venture from His track to save a transgressor — that would be transgression to Him; He will not be complicated or implicated with sin. Therefore, if you project yourself in front of Him, He must crush you; otherwise He would have to leave His own track of holiness. But, if you go along with God, as He wills. He will carry you on to the same victory that awaits Himself in the eternal ages; and to the same perfection that is in Him you will through the eternal ages approximate more and more, so that the capacity that is now but as that of a small flower which a dew drop fills will become rather like an ocean, boundless, immeasurable.
WHAT IS IT TO QUENCH THE SPIRIT?
It is to oppose the intellect to the truth of God: to be unwilling to have that truth applied for rebuke, for instruction, for guidance; to be unwilling to make His law your law. His Word your light; His instruction your admonition, your teacher, your wisdom. What is it that grieves God? Anything that is unlawful in itself, anything that withholds love from Him, or prevents love from being supremely placed upon Him; whatever disturbs harmony with your fellow man, and especially with “the household of faith ‘’ — all that grieves the Holy Spirit.
Look at the practical aspect of this subject. God may be saying to you with great tenderness, though it may seem with severity: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.” Though brought to the Lord Jesus Christ when about twelve years of age, I fear that I resisted the Holy Ghost more or less till when, in 1875, I was led to make a new surrender to God. I loved the world, desiring to be a great orator and author, a renowned preacher! These diabolical snares that entangle God’s ministers held fast my foot in the devil’s net. It was not until then that I saw that I had been resisting the Holy Ghost for all those years, and that I came, by the peculiar grace of God, into closer adjustment with His will I would not go back to the years preceding 1875, and run the risk that I was then running, for all the money in the Bank of England. Yet, how many others, even ministers and missionaries and Christian workers, are yet stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart, uncircumcised in ears, and are resisting the Holy Ghost! Oh, how good God is, to talk plainly to us I We never find God flattering; He does not shew sympathy with iniquities and call sin by polite names — a “misfortune,” a “fall forward.” He does not treat any of those things which men call infirmities apologetically, when they are really iniquities — deep and damning sins. He hates them with absolute hatred, He has no tolerance for them, and He wants us to hate them too with hatred and intolerance, Look again at the carnal mind. Is there anything else in this universe that is
AS GOOD AS THE WILL OF GOD?
I do not believe there is even an unsaved man that in his moral consciousness does not know that to be adjusted to the will of God is the best thing that can happen to anyone! I do not care how bad a man is, there is something within if he believes in a God, that tells him that for God’s will to be done upon earth as in heaven, for His name to be honoured and hallowed here as there, for His kingdom to come here as there — would be the best thing that could happen to this world and all the people of it. Yet they are resisting the will of God. When God shows His will to men, they are like the bullock that, chafing under the yoke, seeks to get rid of it. You say: “I cannot do what I want to do I” Yes, you can. There is one way to do just what you want to do, and that s to want to do what you ought to do. You can do what you like whenever you like what you do; and you never like what you do unless you learn to act in harmony with the will of God. When you do His will, and delight in it, you no longer wear a yoke of bondage. “The carnal mind is enmity against God,” and it will never willingly wear His yoke. But the moment that you say: ‘‘ I have had my own way, and followed my own will, but God’s will and way shall henceforth be mine,” the carnal mind is cast out, and the spiritual mind has come in, and you have now found your place in the wonderful machinery of the universe, in which it is impossible that any one part should collide with another. Then “all things work together for good” to you, and what you regard as adversity shall prove to be prosperity, what you reckon as failure shall prove to be success, what you think of as defeat shall in the end prove to be victory.
How do you quench the light? not literally quench the Spirit, but you may dampen His flame, and hinder His illumination in your own soul. How do you do it?
There are two or three ways in which it is very plain that we may resist the Spirit as the Spirit of light. One way is to There is the source of spiritual illumination, and the Holy Ghost never illumines any man or woman who deliberately neglects the Word of God. The light comes from the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge through the Holy Scriptures, or in connection with them, bringing them to our remembrance, opening up doors in them to those who devoutly study; so that when we begin to read and search our Bible, the Holy Ghost will take sometimes a single word and make it like unfolding portals that open into some chamber of Divine mystery. Things never thought of before, are unveiled under the illumination of the Spirit. We are in Bunyan’s “House of the Interpreter,” and have the Interpreter Himself to open up His secret chambers.
Another way to resist the Spirit of light is to meet any truth with prejudice* Many people get no blessing even at Keswick
BECAUSE THEY COME ARMED WITH
PREJUDICE
from head to foot. What they hear they criticise, dispute, and perhaps travesty, ridicule, misrepresent. One can never get light from the Spirit while in such a state of prejudice. Dr. Holmes has said, “The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it the more it contracts.” There are people who encourage a sort of personal bigotry. They do not like this, or that, or the other teacher. Those to whom they listen do them no good because of this personal bigotry; they are not ready to receive truth through any, channel that does not exactly suit their particular way of thinking. They do not like the fashion of a man’s coat, or the cut of his hair, or something in his voice or manner — as though any or all of these things should hinder for an instant the reception of a message that comes from God to the soul.
Time was when Mr. Moody, especially in his early life, did not know how to put verbs and nouns together so as to make them agree in number, and he would persist in saying “You and I “when he ought to have said “You and me,” &c. There were some people who could not listen to him because their ears were so nicely attuned. At a meeting in Llandudno, where people were singing, “I need Thee every hour,” most devoutly and softly, a man said that, if they had gone on singing a little longer, he should have gone mad. Why? “Because they
dragged so r” Poor man! Why quench the Spirit because you are so fastidious 1 Your eyes, ears, and nostrils, are so delicate, that you cannot go where there is not the most exhilarating atmosphere for your lungs. You cannot even hear saving truth under such circumstances! Or because a man is black, or ignorant, you cannot listen to him. You must have exactly your chosen channel.
or you will not receive the truth. You quench the Spirit by your petty prejudice.
How many quench the light, because it turns a searching ray upon something in their life that they are not ready to we up! As I was speaking to young converts in Wales, I told them how, in my boyhood, I used to go along the roads in the country, and turn up big stones to see the beetles run. When I let in the sunlight upon them, away they went I We cannot turn over a big stone of truth in Keswick, without hundreds of people trying to get out of the way of the light.
For example, we show
HOW THE BIBLE DEALS WITH DOUBTFUL
INDULGENCE —
we need not call it sin. The greatest difficulty in adjusting oneself to the will of God lies often not at all in known sin, but in doubtful indulgence. A man who will meet a temptation to lie, and say, “No, God forbid! or to gratify lust and say, “How can I do this, and sin against God! will nevertheless get entangled with some worldly pleasure that is not distinctly forbidden in the Bible, but which has three bad effects — first, it hinders communion with God; second, it is not to the edification of others who are weaker; and third, it brings the man himself into bondage. We have tried consistently to teach upon the Keswick platform that, if a man wants to adjust himself to the will of God, he will begin by the surrender of every known sin, in thought, heart, desire, life, speech, conduct; and then will conscientiously take up his self-indulgences and deal with all questionable matters before God in the same fashion. The true disciple will say, “I will not weigh my indulgence over against the possible pleasure of my God, but will give Him, and not myself, the benefit in every case of doubt.*’
In the early days of the Keswick Convention a clergyman stood up in the audience at an after-meeting, and said to the chairman: “I want to be conformed to the will of God, and adjusted to His will. I have got a habit; it is enslaving. I have had it for many years, and I think I ought to give it up, because it is enslaving. But I cannot; it would kill me! What shall I do?” The chairman said, “Die!” And he added this illuminating sentence: “It is not necessary that anyone should live, but it is necessary that any and every man should put away anything whatever that hinders fellowship with God.” The clergyman said, “Very well, I will undertake it; if necessary I will die.” He did not die; he has been preaching the Gospel during the many years since.
Very many Christian people are paralysed as to all real power, not so much because of known and flagrant sins, or secret sins,
D as because of doubtful indulgences that compromise them with the world and complicate them with various Satanic allurements that hinder fellowship with the Lord. Jenny Lind Goldschmidt was found toward the evening of her days, sitting in the open door of her house reading the Word of God and looking out upon a magnificent sunset. A friend of hers, who had come in, said to her: “How could you in the prime of life, and at the height of your greatest success on the opera stage, give up all your splendid prospects and retire to the quiet of your home? She lifted the Book of God that was in her hand, and she said, “This is my answer. The opera stage made me forget yonder, terrestrial glory of creation, and the celestial glory of this Book of God.” That was enough for her. That which hid from her the magnificence of God’s work in creation, and the greater magnificence of God’s glory as unfolded in His Word, settled the question for her, and she left the opera stage that she might commune more with Nature and Nature’s God.
All through the Rhondda Valley tobacco pouches and pipes were heaped up by converts who gave up smoking. It all resulted from
DEALING WITH GOD AS TO DOUBTFUL
INDULGENCES.
A friend in America, one of the most successful evangelists among young men was lying on the green grass at Syracuse, at the house of another friend. As he lay there, smoking his cigar, the smoke curling up through the atmosphere, his host said, “You are having a good time?’’ “Yes.” “Do you ever have any doubts about it?”
“No. ‘ Every creature of God is to be received with thanksgiving ’” — (a very convenient text). “But do you ever feel a doubt?” “Well, if, for instance, a lady
were walking up this garden walk, 1 should throw away my cigar.” “Suppose the Lord Jesus Christ were walking up that garden walk?” “Well, I should throw it away.” “Is He not walking up that walk?” He took out the cigar and threw it away, and he has never had one in his mouth since. No man ever enters into fulness of blessing who allows a doubtful indulgence of any kind to stand between him and his perfect adjust- j ment to the will of God,
I took a motto, for myself, twenty-five years ago, that has never ceased to be daily before me as an ideal: “/ do always those things which please Him,’’ How can any life be shadowed, darkened, depressed, where that is the rule of conduct? There was no sorrow that ever touched our Lord, except on the surface of His being, till He was identified in Gethsemane with the guilt of sins not His own. Like the cushion of the sea, that all the storms never reach, but which, through the centuries, remains absolutely in repose, there was a place lower down in the inner being of Jesus Christ our Lord that all the external sorrows of life never disturbed, because He did always the things that pleased the Father.
As to grieving the Spirit of love if you are indulging toward a brother any unholy, any resentful feeling, you are grieving the Spirit, and can never have fulness of blessing while that lasts. If every one of us would at this instant, renounce every malicious feeling, bury every axe of hostility, forget every injury, overlook every slight, abandon every prejudice, and enter into fellowship before God with every other, the peace that would follow would Jbe amazing. Even if you cannot always get every other party reconciled to you, you can take the attitude of reconciliation toward every other party. ‘‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men ’’ — not as much as lieth in them. They may refuse to live in peace with you, but, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. If there is anybody on earth that you are on hostile terms with, before God settle that hostility, as far as you are concerned, here and now. If there is anything in your life that grieves the Spirit — if there is slothfulness, prejudice, neglect of the Word, refusal to obey its instructions, set yourself in obedience to the Word of God and the will of God; if there is anything unlovely in your life, get it out of the way between you and God.
I have been told that one eminent Keswick teacher found his wife for years unable to walk, through some strange difficulty in the ankle joint. At last he went to a specialist, who had given his life to the study of the joints, and he said, “Can you help my wife? “Yes,’’ was the reply, “I think I
can.” Then the specialist took hold of the foot, and deftly and skilfully gave it a twist, and the ankle went into joint. There had been dislocation all those years, but now she got up in a moment and walked. What if there be dislocation in your ankle joint, and it should be instantaneously adjusted — “allocated?” You could walk, after for years going at a limping gait, or perhaps being borne along in a bath-chair, somebody else taking charge of you when you should have been taking charge of somebody else. Thousands of babes in Christ have to be fed when they ought to feed, and led when they ought to lead, and be borne when they ought to bear. Put that dislocated ankle joint into the hands of the Great Surgeon and give yourself up to the will of God, and you will find yourself instantaneously beginning to walk with God with a blessedness and beauty of life which you have never before known.