Seven Blessings
We learned this morningfrom God’s Word to the Corinthians that there are two classes of Christians. Paul speaks of some who are carnal and of others who are spiritual. I tried to point out what the life of the carnal Christian is, what a wrong and wretched state it is; and on the other hand what the steps are by which we can get out of the carnal state into the spiritual. Among these steps I mentioned first of all that a man must be fully convicted of the wrongness of the carnal state, and of the possibilities and blessedness of the spiritual state. I want, tonight, to speak of the latter and to set before you what God’s Word teaches of a life in the Spirit. You know when the Children of Israel got to Kadesh-Barnea they sent out spies to see what the land was like. God expected that when they saw the grapes and heard of the beauty of that land they would all enter in. So God wants us to look at the spiritual life, until we believe that it is indeed to be divided, and within our reach. Later on in these addresses we shall have occasion to come back to the carnal life and the passage out of it, but I want, by God’s help to-night, just to set before you what the life is in the fullness of the Spirit, as God expects His children to live it day by day. I want to take you to a chapter in God’s word where it is set before us more plainly than in any other chapter. Romans, the eighth chapter. Let us read the first sixteen verses. You will find in these seven blessings, seven of the blessed fruits of the Spirit in us. 1 shall point them out as we read.
1. “Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” The whole of our conduct is under the rule of the Spirit.
2. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” The Spirit brings us into liberties.
3. “They that «;-£?«//£’/’ the Spirit * * * ye are in the Spirit * * * the Spirit dwells in you.’’’’ The Christian has a new nature; God’s Spirit is in him.
4. “Z>^ 7«/«^ the things of the Spirit.” To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Mind means disposition; to mind the things of the Spirit, to have a spiritual disposition.
5. Vs. 13. “If ye through the Spirit do mortijy the deeds of the body ye shall live.” The Spirit makes the death to sin an actual reality in our body.
6. “As many as ai’e led by the Spirit oi God they are the sons of God.” Divine guidance.
7. “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption.” The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit.
What I want to put before you is this, that all we have in this chapter is simply the description of the normal Christian life. This is a thing for every believer. We are sometimes in dang-er of talkingabout the baptism of the Spirit, of being- filled with the Spirit for service, as thoug-h that were all, but it is possible, as I pointed out this morning-, to have baptism of the Holy Spirit for special service and yet be carnal. We want to feel that we must not seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a power for work only, but, as a far more important matter, we must have the baptism of the Holy Spirit for our whole life. The work must be the outcome of the life. There are over 100 men in the g-old fields of South Africa who have been Christian workers but have now given up their religion for gold. It is possible that at the time of their service they had the Spirit of God but it was a very superficial work in their hearts and lives. The Holy Spirit had never been allowed to go down into the very depths of their being to establish the life of God through their whole nature. If He had, they would never have gone back. Nothing can take us back when the Holy Spirit gets entire possession of our inner life. I want to show you this evening what provision God has made for you. You know in England that the nobility when they want their names to be carried down, entail their estate so that it must always go to the eldest son. Often there will be younger sons who get almost nothing. God does not do that. He disinherits none of His sons. He calls all of His children to share alike in the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit. All may not have the same gift of power for work, but all may and must have the fitness for a life full of God. Let us all seek Him.
Let me point you to seven principal thoughts in the passage.
1. The Christian is a man who walks after the Spirit. In Galatians it is said, “If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit.” “Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” My walk is my conduct, what the Bible calls my conversation, my course of life, my external manner of life. Here I am told as a Christian, God will enable me to walk after the Spirit, with the Spirit as my inspiration. Unconverted men walk after the flesh; the flesh leads them and tells them what to do. The Christian can come into the life of the Spirit; in it he acts, in it he walks, he has the continual hidden guidance of the Spirit of God moulding and shaping his will and walk. I may be a minister, if I walk after the Spirit, that does not mean that I am to pray for the Spirit just before I preach, and in other things live after the flesh. No, God calls us to walk in the Spirit at all times. Is not that what you wish? I need the Spirit so that when I sit down at my table, when my temper might be tempted to rise; in my business, in trials of any kind I may feel the power of the Holy Spirit working in me, and moving me. All my walk is to be according to the Spirit. How can I get to that?
2. Paul says in the second verse” For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. In the seventh chapter he speaks of a believer, a regenerated man, who delights in the law of God after the inward man but who finds another law in his members that leads him into captivity to the law of sin and death. I am a prisoner, I am a captive, I want to do g-ood but I cannot. Suppose a husband is in prison and his wife and children are all starving. She writes to him “Can you not do something to help me?” He writes back, ‘’Ilong to help you, I would do anything I could to help you, but here I am bound, so that I cannot.” This is just like the believer in the seventh chapter of Romans, “I long to obey God but I cannot.” Why? Because he is bound with the chains of the flesh, in captivity to the law of sin and death in his members. But the Spirit sets a man free out of this captivity. “The law of the Spirit of life hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Let us believe there are two powers, the power of the Spirit and the power of sin. Which is stronger? Many Christians tell me the power of the flesh is stronger. It is very sad that so many think thus. Paul tells me, God tells me, that the power of the Holy Spirit is stronger and the power of the Holy Spirit can make me free from the law of sin and death if I trust Him. It is not here a question of the last root of sin being exterminated. We believe the tendency to evil remains to the end, but, we believe this word, too, is literal truth, that the Spirit of life in Christ makes me free from the law of sin to such extent that it has no power over me. My enemy is there, but he cannot touch me. After the close of your civil war those who had been slaves could dwell in the presence of their former masters; the masters were not dead and yet they could not touch them. Just so the Holy Spirit can take possession, and in presence of the power of sin the Holy Spirit can fill the believer and make sin powerless. Are there not many who serve God under constraint, who have to force themselves to g-o and work for God, and then ever feel that they come far short; they cannot rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. The Master said, “If the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed,” but you do not enjoy it. If you believed it, if you trusted God’s word for it, you would begin to long- for the fullness of the Holy Spirit and you would understand that nothing less than this being made free by the Holy Spirit dwelling’ in His fullness in you can enable you to live an inwardly holy life.
3.” Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.’’’’ “Of the Spirit,” “After the Spirit,” “In the Spirit,” “The Spirit of God in you.” All these expressions are used to express the one thought of the closeness, and the reality of the blessed union by which the Holy Spirit takes possession of me. I am in Him and He is in me just as a man is in the air and the air is in him. The air is in my lungs and I am in the air that surrounds me. The two things go together; I go into the fresh air and the fresh air comes into me. Even so the child of God is taken out of the life of the flesh and taken into the life of the Spirit. The Spirit surrounds him on every side with a divjne power that is breathed into him and that constitutes his life. He is in the Spirit and the Spirit is in him. He is after the Spirit and the very nature, the divine nature of the Spirit is in him. Have you ever thoug-ht about it, how wonderful the Spirit of God becomes the very spirit of our life. Many people think of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as a man dwells in a house, the man and the house remain separate existances all the time. There is no organic union, no participation of life or nature between the two. That is not the way with the Holy Spirit. He comes into my very being and just as my thinking and willing and feeling is my very nature, so by the Holy Spirit, I become partaker of the divine nature; He enters deep, deep, into me and prevades my whole inner life. The Spirit of God is in me and I am in the Spirit of God. Ought that not to fill us with a holy fear and a holy joy? fear lest we should remain ignorant of the truth; joy in the expectation of all we will do. The Spirit who came out from the Father and the Son brings and reveals them to me. And the three persons in the one God-Head through Him come into my heart and so I live in the Spirit. Oh believers who do not think it possible to live this blessed life. I will tell you the simple reason. Because you do not believe God, do not believe that Almighty God will dwell in you. Will you not begin and say, if it be true I may be in the Spirit just as I am in the air, thank God, I think I can lead a holy and blessed life.
4. “They that are after the Spirit do mind the
thing’s of the Spirit “What does that word “mind” mean? Generally it is used of the intellect, but here it means something” else. You know when I speak of a hig’hminded man, by mind I mean disposition. A larg-e hearted man is one of a large hearted disposition. To be a spiritual minded man is to have the disposition of the Holy Spirit; heavenly minded is a mind that has the spirit and disposition of heaven. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. The Holy Spirit is ready to breathe within me the very mind and disposition of Christ; that is what Paul meant in writing* to the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” etc. If the Holy Spirit comes in and takes possession of my disposition I shall have the mind of Christ. God’s word says, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” you have tried hard but failed because it is not natural. But it is no difi&culty to a mother to be g-entle and loving- because it is her natural disposition to be so. Just so the Holy Spirit will make my disposition spiritual minded. He lives within me, and breathes into me everything- that is gentle and Christ-like and humble. He puts it so into me that it becomes my very nature. I can love him whom I hated. The love of God is indeed a wonderful mystery; when it becomes ours the more unlovable a man is the more we love him, the more unworthy a man is the more love is magnified in loving him. You find it so hard to keep your tempers. There is just one reason for this; you are not spiritually minded. The Spirit of God must come and// you. You may have had Him in some measure but He must fill you deeper and deeper. He must fill you with the disposition of Jesus so that you become spiritually minded. Christians! would you not long- to have such a disposition that everything about you might be spiritual. The Spirit who dwells in you can and will give if you yield to Him.
5. Vs. 13. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live.” The word “mortify” simply means to cse to die. “If ye make dead the deeds of the body ye shall live.” The man who has not given the body over to the Spirit to do His work, what a trouble the body gives him. How much sin comes out of the body. Many Christians never understand that it is the deeds of the body that must be made dead. But it is very hard, and in fact impossible, until we begin to see that it is through the Holy Ghost who is the mighty power of God. It is a very simple thing eating and drinking a little too much. And is that such a great sin? Ask the Bible.” Whether ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God.” Overeating or eating for mere enjoyment, weights and makes the body heavy and unfit for prayer. That is the time the devil can come to you. A man may be living in victory over some sin but through the pleasure of eating the devil may get power over his flesh. “When you think you are only feeding the body you are feeding the flesh, you are strengthening it by gratifying its appetite. That cannot please God. Temper is very much a sin of the flesh. It is in me. It is my selfhood. A bundle of nerves is nothing but a bundle of self. The Holy Spirit is able to mortify the deeds of the body and to reign through it all with His Divine peace and power. If you want to have the deeds of the body mortified, beware of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. Ah, Christians, remember if you want to have your body the temple of the Holy Ghost, if you want to live a holy life, you must be filled with the Spirit; your body, too, must be under the power. You might know the mysteries of the heavens, like the apostle Paul, but this could give you no help to live a holy life. God’s word has no help for you except as it tells you that you must be filled with the Spirit. You know how Scripture speaks about being baptized into the death of Christ; we must reckon ourselves indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God. It says we are crucified with Christ; we are dead. And then it adds, mortify therefore your members. My inmost regenerated life is life out of death, a life dead to sin in Christ. And the Spirit of Christ maintains the power of that death in the body. People say that this is too hard. You know the Christians of old sometimes gave their whole lives to keep down the body; and some of the most earnest would go into solitary caves, and yet there they found themselves tempted more than ever with evil spirits. They were trjdng to be holy by self mortification but they did not succeed. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live.” If you are willing to claim, and receive the power of the Holy Spirit the thing can be done. It was the Holy Spirit that took
Christ to Calvary. It was throug-h the eternal Spirit He offered Himself as a sacrifice unto God. By that eternal Spirit we too, can be led to Calvary, to the place of crucifixion, to the conformity of Christ’s death and the experience of its power. Have you ever cried in despair, “Oh, that I might be crucified to the world and dead to sin?” The Holy Spirit will do it. Oh the blessedness of a life filled with this Spirit.
6.” As many as are lead by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God.” There you have the leading of the Holy Spirit. There are a g“reat many people who are always ready to ask, “Do tell me, how can I know the leading- of the Holy Spirit? I want to know God’s will, I pray, and seek, and cannot get it.” They want to know God’s will in some perplexing question. I always tell them, you beg“in at the wrong end. What does a little child do? He comes to his father and says,” I want to be an engineer,” the father says, “Yes, my son, but you must learn a number of things before you can be an engineer.” The child may say, “I want to be an engineer but I don’t want to learn all those things.” The father will point out that he must learn to add one, two and three, and so on, before he can be an engineer, and it will take a good long time; he must master the simple things before he can go on to the higher. And so I say to the inquirer, the Holy Spirit wants to lead you in the simpler things of daily life. He wants you in daily life to be spiritually minded. Then you will know the mind of the Spirit in special circumstances. If, in your daily life, you will say, “Lord, let me know what my conduct today should be,” then you will be prepared for understanding- His leading- in times of need. Then He will lead you into deeper things of God’s word. Then He will show you how you are to walk. That is exactly the life of the Lord Jesus. You remember He said, “I cannot do anything of myself, the words I speak are not my own, what the Father showeth me I do,” etc. He was always listening to the voice of God and was lead by God. Is it not a wonderful privilege for us? As God says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God.” Dear Christians, would you not be willing to sacrifice everything for that, that you might be led by the Spirit? You know God cannot abate His requirements. I must give up having any will of my own, I must desire above everything- to lead a holy life like Jesus, in dependent, humble waiting upon God. You say that is hard. It is not hard. It is the most blessed life. It is exactly the life Jesus lived. Is it not a privilege to have the blessed God lead and guide me all along, in everything-. He has promised to do that. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God.” Oh, beloved let us realize what this life is. If you speak about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for service — and I want you to speak about it. I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit for your work — remember there is something of far deeper importance. It is that your whole life, from moment to moment, bear the mark of being led by the Spirit, of being spiritually minded. The Spirit of
Jesus makes you like Jesus By the Holy Ghost you can live a Christ like life.
7. “Ye have not received the spirit of bondag-e ag*ain to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father.” “The Spirit dwelleth with our spirit.” What Spirit? The Spirit that has been described in the previous verses as leading- us, making us spiritually minded, mortifying- the deeds of the body; that is the spirit of adoption. This is the Spirit that will bear witness that I am a son of God. Many people talk about the witness of the Holy Spirit they received when they believed. I do not say they are not children of God, but they do not live like it. If we want the Spirit of adoption by which every day we can have that assurance and evidence that can confidently say, “Abba, Father,” then we must be in the Spirit and must walk after the Spirit. If by Him I am living, if He dwell in and possess me, if I be of the Spirit and after the Spirit, if the Spirit is mine, my life will be one of increasing joy and fellowship with God. How gently He leads me, how close He keeps by me. Through Him God fulfills the word that -He spoke to the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all I have is thine.” That becomes a possession, an experience, made real by the Holy Ghost, that makes the spiritual, heavenly minded man. “Abba, Father,” I do not have to try and feel, or claim, or struggle for the relationship, but the Everlasting God reveals Himself to me as a Father. So the Living Father makes us to know what it means to be dwelling- in love and dwelling” in God, and what all the promises about the Holy Spirit mean, “The Father shall send the Comforter that He may abide with you for ever.” Beloved Christians there is a wonderful life, which the Holy Spirit makes intensely true. It is a real Canaan life. It is indeed a solemn, precious thoug-ht. God’s Holy Spirit can make all God’s promises and provisions in Christ our experience. Who are ready to come into this life tonight, and claim the heritagfe as the child of God? Who will cry: I am going- to ask that Rom. 8:1-16 shall be literally fulfilled in my life.
Let me sug-g-est four simple steps. Say tonight! I must be filled with the Spirit. God commands it. My soul needs it. The Spirit longs for it. Christ will do it. The world needs it. I cannot live aright without it. I must be filled with the Spirit.
2. I may be filled with the Spirit. God does not give a “must” without a “may.” God does not say, you must live holy, without saying you may, you can live holy. Say, “I may.” God has promised it, Christ has purchased it, the Word reveals it, thousands have experienced it. I 7nay be filled with the Spirit.
3. I would be filled with the Spirit. Say, Lord, my heart longs for it. Begin to say, I give up everything O, God, self, sin, self-will, self-confidence, the flesh; I give up everything. I would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Lord God, set Thy mark upon me; I am an empty vessel waiting to be filled. I would be filled with the Holy Spirit. I am ready.
4. I shall be filled with the Holy Spirit. God has promised it to me. I have a right to say, I shall be filled with the Spirit. Say that trembling-ly and very, very humble. I confess I am carnal, I have felt my sinfulness, I confess my sin. My heart is willing- for it; I am going to trust God for it. Oh, God, Thou doest above what I can ask or think, I give myself to Thee entirely, I trust Thee forever, I give myself up fully and I claim the filling of the Holy Spirit. Thou givest it.