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Welcome the fourth of our short meditations on the Blessed and Holy Trinity. We have been spending these evenings considering the three persons of the Trinity. That the Father is God is so obvious in the whole of scripture that we needn't take the time to read the various, the numerous scriptures that state that glorious fact. But we have spent three sessions of our discussions on considering the Son of God or the Word of God, and have noticed in particular how scripture points out that before he became flesh, before his incarnation, he was not only with God, but was God.
And because this is so important, we sent another session discovering from scripture that in the time that he lived here on earth, though man, he was no less God as he always had been. And in resurrection and ascension, and at his coming again, he is said in scripture and styled as God. But then we spent, uh, our last session looking at his humanity. The New Testament asserts his humanity as clearly and constantly as it asserts his deity, that he was a real man, made in all points like as we are, apart from sin.
We didn't stay last night to discuss the problem that that raises in many people's minds, namely, how can Jesus Christ be both God and simultaneously man? But God willing, tomorrow we must discuss that particular problem. Tonight, however, we turn to the third member of the Holy Trinity, that is the Holy Spirit. And we shall see tonight in our study that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal power or force.
The Holy Spirit is God, and as equally God as the Father and the Son. So let us introduce ourselves to the topic by reading in the Gospel by John and chapter sixteen. The Gospel by John and chapter uh sixteen. And we take up at verse four. But these things have I spoken unto you, that when their hour is come, you may remember them, how that I told you.
And these things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go unto him that sent me, and none of you ask of me, whither goest thou? But because I have spoken these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I go, I will send him unto you. And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Of sin because they believe not on me, uh, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness because I go to the Father and you behold me no more. Of judgment because the prince of this world has been judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. How be it when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth. For he shall not speak from himself, but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak, and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come.
He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he taketh of mine and shall declare it unto you. Now tonight, beloved, I must make you work very hard. Perhaps you thought I had made you work hard on previous occasions, but if you have thought so, then tonight you will have to decide I have worked you harder, because I must ask you now to turn to a whole succession of verses of scripture and actually to read them with me in the course of our study this evening.
Perhaps you think I'm a little bit like one of Pharaoh's taskmasters, uh, do you see? But our Lord Jesus himself told us, did he not, that, uh, we are not to work so much for the meat that perisheth, but we are to work as hard as we possibly can for the meat that endureth unto eternal life. So I have our Lord's permission to make you work hard, you see. Work rather for the meat that, uh, endureth to eternal life. So now we begin a first selection of scriptures, and these scriptures will tell us, as I have said, that the Holy Spirit is a person.
Many scriptures, of course, talk of the power that he exerts in various ways, but the Holy Spirit himself is not just a force or an impersonal power, he is a person, just as the Father and the Son are persons, so the Holy Spirit is a person. How do we know that? Well, let me ask you to read John's Gospel, chapter fourteen, if you will, and verse sixteen. John's Gospel fourteen and verse sixteen. and I will pray, says the Lord Jesus, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.
That is a lovely title of the Holy Spirit. He is the other comforter. But that immediately asks us to inquire who the first comforter was then. If he, the Holy Spirit, is another comforter, who was the first comforter? And the first comforter, of course, was our blessed Lord himself. And he, as he was telling his disciples, was about to leave them, but he wouldn't leave them orphans. He wouldn't leave them worse off than they were before when he was with them, for he would send another comforter, a comforter like himself, who would be with them.
And that very fact that he is the second comforter after our Lord shows us at once that he is a person, just as our Lord was. For if our Lord went away from his apostles and only sent in his place an impersonal force, then certainly they would have been in worse state than they were when the Lord Jesus was with them. But no, he is the other comforter. In that sense, like the Lord Jesus, he is a person. And then we noticed in that passage that we read from John chapter sixteen, look at verse eight again, if you will.
And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. The Holy Spirit's ministry, said Christ, is that of a person. He personally will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And he will do so on the basis of a demonstration and an argument. He will convict this world of sin. In what particular sin? Because they have murdered or stolen or this or that or tother?
No, of this sin par excellence, the sin. He will convict the world of sin because they believe not on me. The fact that our Lord was here and revealed the Father in this world, and the world refused to believe him. Now comes the Holy Spirit to convict them. And as you heard the Lord say, I will send him. And on the day of Pentecost, he came and began his personal ministry to convict the world of sin because they didn't believe on the Savior.
And in the second place, of righteousness. He will convict them of righteousness because I go to the Father, said our Lord. Meaning what? He will convince the world that they were wrong in refusing to believe the Savior. He will convict the world that Jesus Christ was right. He was righteous. As it is said in the prophet Isaiah, where Messiah speaks prophetically, he is near that justifies me, that vindicates me. On the day of Pentecost, the world came to convict the world. The world was wrong in refusing to believe him and denying his claim.
Jesus Christ was right, and God has raised him to his own right hand in heaven. The world will con- uh, the spirit will convict the world of judgment because the prince of this world hath been judged. The resurrection of Christ demonstrates the death knell, sounds the death knell, the eventual death knell of his satanic majesty. Christ has triumphed. This, therefore, ministry of convicting the world, as you see, depends on a demonstration and an argument, and it is thus performed by the Holy Spirit because he is a person.
Notice, if you will, what verse thirteen says. Our Lord talking about the Spirit, he says, how be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth, for he shall not speak from himself, but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak. Now notice that verb, if you will, whatever things he hears. An impersonal force couldn't hear anything, could it? Have a go at speaking to the lightning or the thunder.
The thunder won't hear you, nor the lightning either. Watch an atomic bomb explode if you dare, and speak to it. It won't hear you. It is just an impersonal force. But the Holy Spirit, says our Lord, he will not speak from himself. He will not take the initiative. It's what he hears. He speaks. And the very verb shows that the Holy Spirit is a person who can, of course, hear. And somebody will say, he is what? And from whom does he hear it? Well, from our blessed Lord, of course, our ascended Lord.
He shall take of my things and show them to you. Or if you care now to turn over to Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight and verses twenty six to twenty seven. Romans chapter eight, verses twenty six to twenty seven. And in like manner, the Spirit also helps our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he who searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.
And here we notice that last phrase, the Spirit then has a mind. And only persons have minds in that sense. The Holy Spirit is not just a force, therefore. He is a person, and he has a mind. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is said to have what we may call in human terms feelings. Let's look at Ephesians chapter four and verse thirty. Ephesians chapter four and verse thirty. And says Paul, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.
Can he be grieved, therefore? Alas, he can be. It is possible for believers who have the Holy Spirit so to behave as to grieve the Holy Spirit. But again, the very words points to the fact that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is a person who has, as we humans call it, feelings, and he can be grieved. He is a person then, and what is more, he speaks as a person. One final scripture at this point will be Acts chapter thirteen and verse two.
Acts chapter thirteen and verse two. And reads as follows, and as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Here is the Holy Spirit speaking to this gathering of elders and apostles, and he talks in the first person, I. Separate unto me, Paul and Barnabas, for the work on whereunto I have called them.
It makes no difference that the Holy Spirit may have been speaking through a prophet, who knows how he spoke. But notice, I say again, he spoke in the first person. I have called them, separate unto me the, uh, uh, these, uh, aforementioned Barnabas and Saul. Let that suffice for scriptures, and there are others, of course, plenty, that tell us that the Holy Spirit is not just a force, he is a person. Now another few scriptures, one or two scriptures, that will tell us that within the blessed and holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son.
If you were here, you will remember how we noticed on our first, in our first study, that according to John one and verse one, the Holy Spirit existed eternally, in the beginning was the Word, but he was distinct from God in the sense that the Word was with God. He was distinct, therefore, from God the Father. He was, of course, God, as the next phrase says, and the Word was God. But the Word is to be distinguished in our thinking from the Father.
They too were two persons in divine communion, the one with the other. And when you read in scripture, the Father loveth the Son, you will see how the very verb implies, uh, duality. The Father loves, and the one he loves is the Son. God is love, says scripture, and that shows us that the Holy Trinity, uh, the Godhead is not just a monolith. For if God were love, but he was merely a monolith, whom would he love? Whereas being a Trinity of persons, the Father loves the Son and loves, of course, the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit, as eventually we'll see, is the love that passes between Father and Son. So the Holy Spirit, then, is to be distinguished in our thinking, both from the Father and from the Son. Look again at John fourteen, just briefly, if you will, and this time verse twenty six. Verse twenty six: But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. And we quote it simply to show this distinction.
The Father is said to send the Holy Spirit, just like the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, so the Father sends the Holy Spirit, and in particular sent him on the day of Pentecost. Or again in John chapter sixteen, this time in verse seven: Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
And you notice the distinction. At the moment, says Christ, I am with you. And if I don't go away, the Holy Spirit will not come. But if I go away, I will send him, and he will come. A distinction, therefore, between the two persons, the Son on the one hand, and the Holy Spirit on the other. While we're at those verses, let us notice again that phrase come. There were in Old Testament, you will remember, occasions when the angel of the Lord appeared to Abram, for instance, and to Manoah and his wife.
The angel of the Lord appeared. And the Bible students will tell us that that angel of the Lord was the one whom we call the Word of God in a pre-incarnation appearance. But when he came to Bethlehem, then the Bible uses the term come. Jesus, my savior, to Bethlehem came. Came in the sense that he came to reside here, to be here, and was here all those thirty three and a half years. When he went away, then he said, the Holy Spirit will come.
So the Holy Spirit didn't just visit from time to time, the Holy Spirit came and resides still. And it is interesting that, according to our Lord, the two divine persons would not here person- be present personally at the same time. If I don't go, he won't come. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is distinct from the Father. He's distinct from the Son, and we see it easily and need not spend too much time on it, that he, unlike the Son of God, never became incarnate, never took a human body.
He's different from the Son, therefore, isn't he? But the difference is very interesting. While he personally has not taken a human body, he lives in your body, if you are the Lord's. He is the divine occupant of the temple of your body. He it is that gives your sanctity to your body. He did not die for us at Calvary, any more than the Father died, so the Spirit didn't die. He is different, therefore distinct from the Son who did die for us. But let's take those simply as preliminaries, and you may sit back just for a few seconds, if you will, tired of turning pages, and think now what is the substance of our study this evening.
It is our third observation that though the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is God, no less than the Father and the Son. And to show this, let's read together second Corinthians and chapter three. Second Corinthians chapter three. And we shall start reading there at verse twelve. Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech and are not as Moses who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away.
But their minds were hardened. For until this very day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remaineth unlifted, which veil is done away in Christ. But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart. But whensoever it, that is Israel, shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
So first, let me fasten your attention on that phrase in verse seventeen. It is key. The Lord is the Spirit. And at the end of verse eighteen, from the Lord the Spirit. The Lord is the Spirit. Now, to find out what that means, I shall have to take you back to an Old Testament story. If you want the reference, it is Exodus chapter thirty four. Exodus chapter thirty four. And this is the record of how Moses went into God to hear God speaking, writing the new renewed tablets of stone.
And when he came out from the presence of the Lord, he was not aware of the fact that his face shone brilliantly, so that when he drew near the Israelites to talk to them and they saw the brilliance on his face, they were afraid. And Moses took a veil eventually and put it on his face, because that brilliance was gradually getting less and less and less. It was getting less, diminishing. And so that they should not see it diminish, he put a veil upon his face. But then verse thirty four says, but when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out.
And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which what he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So what's happening? When he came out, he spoke to the Israelites, and then he would put a veil on his face. But when he went back into the Lord, when he turned back to the Lord, he took the veil off. And of course, being in the presence of God without a veil on his face, his face began to shine again because he'd gone into the Lord with an open face unveiled, so that when now he came out the ne- uh, the next time, the Israelites could see his face all aglow with the very glory of God, and then he spoke to them and eventually took, uh, put the veil back on.
So the phrase what we notice is that when he went into the Lord, when he turned to the Lord. Now I shall have to give you a little lesson in Hebrew and Greek. No extra charge, of course, eh, do see. The word Lord in that verse, when Moses went into the Lord, the word in Hebrew is Jehovah, or as in Hebrew, Yahweh. When he went into the Lord, that is Jehovah. But of course, the Jews, to this very present day, when they come across the name of God, Jehovah, in the Bible, they will not read it, they won't pronounce it, for fear they take the name of the Lord God in vain.
So what they do is, when they come across the name of God, Yahweh, Jehovah, they say instead not Yahweh, but the Lord, Adonai. Adonai. Then when the Jews, two hundred years before Christ, two hundred and eighty years before Christ, translated their Old Testament into Greek, they were faced with the question, how shall we translate Jehovah? Well, in Hebrew, they they called him the Lord. So when they translated it into Greek, they used the Greek word for Lord, Kyrios. And so the Greek translation there reads that when Moses went into the Kyrios, the Lord, that is Jehovah.
Have we got those points? When he went into Jehovah, Yahweh, the Lord, then his veil was taken off, and he saw the glory of God, and his face shone. And with that, we come back to, um, two Corinthians three to see the tremendous im- precation of what Paul here says. Two Corinthians three once more. It says, you'll see, but to this day, verse fifteen, whensoever Moses, that's the old Testament, is read, a veil lieth upon their heart, that is on Israel's heart.
But so whensoever it, Israel, shall turn to the Lord, like Moses went into the Lord. But whensoever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is, Jehovah is, therefore. Paul is translating and quoting Exodus thirty four. Jehovah is the Spirit. In other words, when Israel turns to the Spirit of God, to God the Spirit, the veil shall be taken away.
Oh, this is a marvelous thing, isn't it? You see, when the Lord was here on earth, he did his marvelous miracles by the power of the Spirit, but many there were who didn't understand and didn't see it and didn't believe him. But when the day of Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and the apostles preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit worked his miracles. Then multitudes in Israel turned to the Lord, that is to the Spirit, didn't they? And they saw the glory of Christ and were converted to him and baptized in his name.
It was the coming of the Lord the Spirit, God the Spirit, Jehovah the Spirit, that brought Israel illumination and therefore faith in the risen Christ. It's not only they, of course, but the verb, uh, uh, the verse at the end, verse eighteen, but we all with unveiled fa- face, beholding, or if you like, reflecting, both are true, as a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image from glory to go- glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit, God the Spirit.
And I pause, oh my dear brethren, I can't resist it, to think what could be happening even in these humble studies. But it's daily happening, is it not? God has shown us his dear Son and revealed his dear Son in the world. We have the record of it. But how shall I ever be like him? Where can I turn so that my character may begin to glow with the very glory of the Lord? Where can I turn to? Well, yeah, you can get he- preachers to help you and pray for you, but our resource is here.
Whensoever we turn to the Lord, the Spirit. It is the Spirit that will take the veil from our hearts and our eyes and reveal the glory of the Lord to us. And as we behold it, for the Greek word here can be translated both ways, beholding as in a mirror or reflecting as in a mirror. You see, if you get a mirror and turn it to the light, the mirror beholds the light, yes? At the same time, it reflects the light. The two are joined. And if we behold the glory of the Lord, at the same time we shall reflect the glory of the Lord.
And in that process are transformed from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit. Oh, let's pause here to worship. Because you see, the Holy Spirit is not just a force. He is a person. Consider the wonder that God has done, the extreme to which God has done. God would manifest himself, so he sent his dear Son, for no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father nonetheless, has told him out, told out the glory of God, and we beheld his glory, says John, glory as of an only begotten from the Father.
But how shall I take it in? How shall I bear the sight of it? How shall I be turned into that same glory and become like the Lord Jesus. Ah, it's good that I read of him in the scripture and contemplate him. But God has done more for us than that. God has given us his spirit, and that spirit is God himself. And whereas the Son came to reveal God, and I see that glory, ah, but yes, God has given me the Holy Spirit of God.
When I turn to the Holy Spirit for his illumination, then he reveals to me the glory of God and helps me to see it. The question has often been raised in evangelical circles as to whether we are to pray for the Spirit or not, and the view has generally been, no, we don't have to pray for the Spirit because we have the Spirit. The moment that we receive the Lord Jesus as Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit, and that is absolutely true. But we need to pray for his work in our hearts, don't we? Listen to Paul bowing his knees daily for the believers.
I bow my knees daily in prayer for you, that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Paul is praying for the believers at Ephesus, for the work of God's spirit in their hearts, revealing God to them. And we do well to copy Paul and pray it as often as we live. That God's, the work of God's Holy Spirit may be carried on in our hearts, a spirit of wisdom and revelation, not revelation of new truth, but revelation of the glories of Christ to our hearts, so that gazing on him, we gradually become like him, as from the Lord the Spirit.
And again, Paul prays, doesn't he, that God would grant you to be strengthened with all power by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints the length and breadth and height and depth of this great mystery, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Yes, our hearts need to be strengthened if we are going to comprehend the love of God and be rooted and grounded in that love. And it's not us who do the strengthening, it is God the Holy Spirit ministering to us in our hearts to give them the strength to know the Savior and to be rooted in his love, and thus to be joined with all the believers to form God, a habitation of God through the Spirit.
So now let's, um, think in our fourth observation of the ministry that the Holy Spirit does for us because he is nothing less than God. And this now is one Corinthians two. One Corinthians two. One Corinthians two and verse six. How be it we speak wisdom among the perfect, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world, which are coming to naught. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory, which none of the rulers of this world knows, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written, things which eye saw not and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit exploreth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the things of God none knoweth, save the spirit of God. But we received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Marvelous words, these, and sometimes quoted out of context, they give us a slightly distorted view. Look at that verse nine again. Things which eye saw not and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. And I've heard one or and more than one of my fellow Christians say, ah yes, marvelous things. It would be wonderful when we get home to heaven that we shall be given to know and see those marvelous things that God has prepared for them that love him. Well, you shall see a lot of such things when you get home to heaven that God has prepared for you who love him. But this verse is saying something in addition.
It's saying that you don't have to wait before you start to get to know these l- wonderful things, for the human eye has never seen them, nor can this world see them. But God has manifested them to us by his spirit. The spirit sent to reveal these things to us. Let me put a question to you. How on earth did you ever come to even believe that you at this moment are seated with Christ in heavenly places? Or perhaps you don't believe it. You do? How did you come to know that? Because if it's true, it is the most extraordinary thing that you, in God's sight, are seated in Christ at the right hand of God, above principalities, powers, mights, and dominions.
We know it because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us through inspiring the Apostle Paul and others to talk about it. He has taken of the things of Christ and showed them to us here. And someone says to me, but I find it difficult to grasp it, you know. I find it difficult even to imagine it. Doesn't mean anything to me. Well, no. How would we grasp it? Because of these, the great secrets of God. This is precisely why the Holy Spirit has been sent to us, that we may know these things that are freely given to us of God. And Paul makes the point, you see.
If it comes to men's things, who knows the things of a man, save the spirit of a man that's in him? You'll see you can get a very intelligent dog, if you like, and it knows a lot about you, such as you have a stomach and you like beef steaks and other such things. But if you took, uh, your favorite book to the dog and said, read this Fido, Fido might lick the page or sniff it or do other funny things to it. We'd never know what it was about. If you took him to your favorite picture in your drawing room and showed Fido this, now look at that Fido. Fido can make a head and a tail of it.
You'll see. He knows things about stomachs and eating and running and things like that, that he shares with human beings. But things that are typically human, Fido doesn't understand and never will understand. You can take Fido to a course in fine arts and aesthetics. He'll never get his BA. He won't understand the first word about it. And never would he understand it unless somehow you could put your human spirit in him. That's how the things of God are. How will we know the things of God and appreciate them? Well, the only way you'll know the things of God, for none knoweth the things of God, say the Spirit of God, the only way you'll know those things are when the Holy Spirit living in your heart and mind shows you those things, because he is God and can give us to understand them.
He exploreth all things. I love that word. It sounds to me exciting, like some explorer exploring things. He explores does the Holy Spirit, all the deep things of God, revels in them, in that sacred fellowship that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Fancy that Holy Spirit being God, coming into my poor heart and mind to sh- give me the benefits of his explorations of the mind of God. And then, of course, and I must briefly, uh, mention his varied ministry to us, being God.
We are, uh, told that he pours out the love of God in our hearts. We have such restricted ideas of the love of God, don't we? But God has given us his Holy Spirit, and he is God, and because he's God, he knows the love of God. God only knows the love of God, says the old hymn, and it's perfectly true. That Holy Spirit has been given to us to pour out the love of God in our hearts and comes alongside with an argument and says, now look here, my dear, you trusted Christ, you've been justified, yes.
Well, then even more so is it sure that you will be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if we were, uh, while we were yet sinners, if we were while we were yet weak, Christ died for the ungodly. How much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him? And thus does the Holy Spirit begin to pour out God's love in our hearts, for he knows God, and he knows the love of God. And then Ephesians chapter two verse eighteen says that we have access in one's spirit to the Father.
And this too is a lovely thing, isn't it? God has not only forgiven us, not only saved us, not only showed us what he's like in his son, but he bids us draw near. And how shall I? How shall I draw near to God? Who will conduct me there? I confess before you, I don't go to Buckingham Palace very often. Well, I haven't been asked. I've never been at all, you see. Don't know if I'd want to go, particularly on the great banquets that the Queen gives, for to be asked to go and sit with Her Majesty and all that glory and paraphernalia, and to know what to say and how to behave in the presence of all the high persons and nobility of Earth, it would be hard work and penal servitude to me to have to try and rise to it, you see, but um, what must it mean to have access to the Father?
Well, one day you shall be there bodily. You imagine being introduced to the Father in the midst of all the high intelligences of the universe, the principalities, powers, mights, and dominions, and the vast congregation of the firstborn in heaven, and being introduced. How shall I do it, you say? How should I even endure it? Because within you, says the scripture, is God himself, the Holy Spirit, through whom you have conduct into the very presence of God.
Our Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I'm going away, and I shall come again and receive you to myself, because in my Father's house are many mansions, and I shall take you there. And then he said to the apostles, and you know the way there, don't you? And Thomas, being the character he was, said, sorry, Lord, don't even know where you're going, so how shall I know the way there? You say you're going to the Father's house. Where are- wherever is the Father's house? And the way there, I've not got a clue, said Thomas, the way there. What is the way to heaven anyway? How do you get there? And then our Lord answered him, but as he answered him, he changed the phrase.
He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. It's one thing to come to the Father's house, you know. It's another thing to come to the Father. I've been around many stately homes as a pastime, both in Ireland and England and elsewhere, but very rarely have I ever come across the master of the house. He doesn't bother to come and talk to the tourists when they're going around his stately home. So it's one thing to come to the stately home, another thing to come to the master of the home.
One thing to get to the father's house. What about coming to the father? I'm the way there, says Christ. He that has seen me has seen the father. You will never see more of God than you see in Christ. But if you've seen him and you see him, you see the Father. He's the way to the Father. And then he says, I'm the truth, and I shall send you the spirit of truth. Because that is the way to the Father too, isn't it? I once knew a good man who did a Christian work in one of the orphanages for abused children in Glasgow, and he told me on one occasion how he went into the home, and there was a nurse with a a a little boy, and the boy screamed his head off, and the nurse asked him, my friend, to to go out a while while she comforted the child, and then called him in, and the child was pacified.
And she took the boy's, little boy's clothes off, and his body was all scarred and burned. And the little lad told my friend, my father always burns me. The father used to take a red hot poker and hit the child with it. Now you tell that child that God is a father. What do you suppose the child will think about the father? It's the only kind of father he knows. And what about us? Are you like me, that sometimes you're all enjoying the marvelous grace of God, and then things happen in your life, and you begin to wonder, and you have doubts about the Father's good intention, whether he's forgotten you, whether he's treating you too harshly.
How shall we come, not just to the Father's house, but to the Father? And the provision our Lord has made is to send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to be in us, and gradually to teach us the truth about the Father, undoing our nervous knots and all our complexes and false ideas about the Father, the gracious Holy Spirit of truth within, to tell us the truth about the Father, and then enabling us to realize our potential as children of God.
Galatians four says that because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba Father. Ponder it. For Abba Father is how the Lord Jesus addressed God. Jews hadn't heard anybody address God like that. Abba, it's almost the child's word. It's not daddy, but it's a word the child respectfully would use of its father. And the apostles heard the Lord Jesus pray with that tremendous intimacy with God, Abba Father.
Here, Paul says, the Holy Spirit of his Son put into your heart so that you likewise cry, Abba Father, talking to God just like the Lord Jesus talked to God, enjoying the relationship with God, talking to God as Father, just as the Lord Jesus. Why? Because you have the spirit of the Son in your heart. He is the power to sanctify us. He is the power to guide us, isn't he? He is the blessed Holy Spirit that dwells in the temple of our bodies and thus makes us holy.
The final thing I want to say, and oh how many things could be said. According to Romans eight, the Holy Spirit is our intercessor within. We have an advocate with the Father in heaven, that is Jesus Christ the righteous. I'm not content with that. The God has given us a advocate within, an intercessor within us. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, says Paul, with groanings that cannot be uttered within. And he who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit.
Why do I need the Holy Spirit within me? To intercede for me? Well, he makes intercession according to the will of God, and God's will is this, that those whom he has justified, them he proposes to glorify, you'll see, and bring us home to glory until we are completely like our blessed Lord. That is a long pathway. And says Paul, we don't always know what to pray for as we ought, do we? What would you be praying for now, my dear brother, my sister? What are you especially praying for in your life?
Do you know the best thing to pray for? What would help at your stage, where you have reached? What would most help you to progress according to the Father's purpose, to become more like the Savior? Would you say, ah, ah, I need some, I need some pain and suffering. Would you say that? Or would you say, no, what I need is a season of clear shining, a sense of the love of God and easy circumstances and feeling that God is smiling upon me.
Would you pray for good children and healthy children? You wouldn't pray for prodigals, I suppose. Do you know what best to pray for? In the sense of the next thing that is necessary to help you forward to God's purpose of becoming completely like Christ. And so very often we don't know what to pray for as we ought, do we? Thank God we're not left to our own devices and decisions. Now the Holy Spirit within, he intercedes. He interprets to God all our moods and our voices and our prayers and desires are, but he has his mind on the purposes of God and how they shall be reached in this particular person, and he intercedes with God accordingly to take us and guide us and develop us on our way home to glory.
And when I think of that, the Holy Spirit as our guide within, our intercessor within, on the road home to glory, I think of that lovely story, how that Abraham sent his servant, did he not, to get a bride for Isaac. So the servant went, in the providence of God, he arrived at the very home and found the exact young lady that God had prepared for his master's son. And he gave out the jewels and the raiment, you know, to entice the dear lady, and told the dear lady the story of his master's son, how wealthy his master's son was because his father loved the son and had given everything into his hand.
And the proposal was, would this dear young lady like to be, consent to be a wife for his master's son. She was called upon to make her decision, and she answered, yes, I will go with this man and be the wife of his master's son. And what happened then? Is it so that the servant said, well, now, my dear, now you have decided, um, here's our, uh, our visiting card, and here's our address, you see, and, uh, if ever you should get across the desert and find your way there, uh, come and visit us, and you'll be very welcome, you see. Well, of course not. Of course not.
And the dear lady said yes. Then the servant took her, provided the camels, and as she rode, he walked step by step by step by step, until he brought her home to his master's son. So we are not left on our pilgrimage to find our own way. God has given us God the Holy Spirit within to bring us home to glory, to meet him who for all eternity shall be the bridegroom of our hearts.
