The Work of the Holy
Spirit
By J. C. Philpot
Until the Blessed Spirit quickens the soul into spiritual
life, we know nothing really or rightly of the truth as it is in Jesus. We
may be strictly orthodox in doctrine, may abhor infidelity and error, may be
shocked at profanity and irreverence, may be scrupulously attentive to every
relative duty, may repeat, with undeviating regularity, our prayers and
devotions; and may seem to ourselves and to others exceedingly religious;
when, in the sight of a heart-searching God, we are still dead in trespasses
and sins. The world is full of such exceedingly religious people. Every
church and every chapel can produce samples in abundance of such "devout and
honorable" men and women.
No! we may come much nearer the mark than this, for these
runners are indeed a long way off the very starting-place, and yet we may
still be very far from the kingdom of heaven. We may have a form of
godliness in a profession of truth, may have been suckled and bred up from
childhood in a sound creed, may have learned the doctrines of grace in
theory and as a religious system, may be convinced in our conscience of
their substantial agreement with the oracles of God, may contend for them in
argument, and prove them by texts, may sit under the sound of the gospel
with pleasure, or even preach it with eloquence and fervor; and yet know
nothing of the truth savingly and experimentally, by divine teaching and
divine testimony.
Does the Scripture afford us no example of both these
characters? Who more religious, more strict, scrupulous, and orthodox than
the Pharisee of old? He sat in Moses' seat, as the teacher of the people; he
tithed his mint, anise, and cummin with the most scrupulous care; he
strained his very drink, that no gnat or unclean worm might unawares pollute
him; he prayed and fasted rigidly and regularly; and seemed to himself and
to others the prime favorite of heaven. But what was he really and truly?
What was he in the sight of God? According to the Lord's own testimony, a
hypocrite, a viper, a whited sepulcher, ripening himself for the damnation
of hell! And was there no Saul among the prophets? no Zedekiah, the son of
Chenaanah, with a "Thus says the Lord" in his mouth? (2 Chron. 18:10.) no
Hananiah, with a declared message from God? (Jer. 28:2.) Did not these men
come with a profession of the truth, and claim to be servants of the Most
High?
And was there no Demas, nor Diotrephes, nor Alexander in
the New Testament? Who were those against whom holy John, fervent Jude, and
earnest Peter warned the churches so strongly? Who were those "spots in
their feasts of charity, feeding themselves without fear?" Who were those
"clouds without water, carried about with winds;" those "trees whose fruit
withered, twice dead, plucked up by the roots?"—who else but graceless
professors of the truth? It is not then, the form, the letter, the mere
outside, the bare shell and husk of truth, that makes or manifests the
Christian; but the vital possession of it as a divinely bestowed gift and
treasure.
But bearing this in mind as a solemn warning against
trifling with the truth of God, or being satisfied with a mere formal
recognition of it, let us proceed to see what a blessing truth is when we
are put into the vital possession of it.
If we look at the work of the Spirit on the heart, we
shall see how, in all his sacred dealings and gracious movements, he
invariably employs truth as his grand instrument. Does he pierce and wound?
It is by the truth; for the "sword of the Spirit is the word of God," and
that we know is "the word of truth." (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12; 2 Cor. 6:7.) If
he mercifully heal, if he kindly bless, it is still by means of truth; for
the promise is, "Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will
guide you into all truth." And when he thus comes, it is as a Comforter,
according to those gracious words, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds
from the Father, he shall testify of me."
In fact, if we look at the new man of grace that the
blessed Spirit begets and brings forth in the heart, we shall see that all
his members and faculties are formed and adapted to a living
reception of the truth. As the eye is adapted to light; as the ear to sound;
as the lungs to the pure air that fills them with every breath; as the heart
to the vital blood which it propels through every bounding artery, so is the
new man of grace fitted and adapted to the truth of God. And as these vital
organs perform their peculiar functions only as they receive the impressions
which these external agents produce upon them, so the organs of the new man
of grace only act as truth is impressed upon them by the power of the
blessed Spirit. Has, then, the new man of grace eyes? It is to see
the truth. (Eph. 1:18, 19.) Has he ears? It is to hear the truth.
(Isa. 55:3; Luke 9:44.) Has he hands? It is to lay hold of and
embrace the truth. (Prov. 4:13; Isa. 27:5; Heb. 6:18.) Has he feet?
It is that he may walk in the truth. (Psalm 119:45; Luke 1:6; 3 John 4.) Has
he a mouth? ("Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.") It is that
he may feed upon the truth, the living truth, yes, upon His flesh who is
truth itself. (John 6:35; 14:6.)
Without truth there is no regeneration; for it is
by "the word of truth "that we are begotten and born again. (James 1:18; 1
Pet. 1:23.) Without truth there is no justification; for we are
justified by faith, which faith consists in crediting God's truth, and so,
gives peace with God. (Rom. 4:20-24; 5:1.) Without the truth there is no
sanctification; for the Lord himself says, "Sanctify them through your
truth: your word is truth." And without the truth there is no salvation;
for "God has chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth." (2 Thess. 2:13.)
And as the truth is the instrumental cause of all these
blessings, the divinely-appointed means whereby they become manifested
mercies, so truth enters into and is received by all the graces of
the Spirit as they come forth into living exercise. Thus, without the truth,
there is no faith; for the work of faith is to believe the truth.
What is all the difference between faith and delusion? That faith believes
God's truth, and delusion credits Satan's lies. "And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they
all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness." Without truth there is no hope; for the province of
hope is to anchor in the truth. "That by two immutable things in which it
was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have
as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into
that within the veil." The two immutable things in which hope anchors are
God's word and God's wrath; in other words, the pledged veracity and
faithfulness of him who cannot lie. This made holy David say, "I have hoped
in your word." "They that go down into the pit," said good King Hezekiah,
"cannot hope for your truth." No! it is "the living, the living who praise
you as I do this day." And it is "through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures," that is, the consolation which the truth of God revealed in the
Scriptures affords, "that we have hope." (Rom. 15:4.) Without truth there is
no love, for it is by "the love of the truth" that the saved are
distinguished from the lost. "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth that
they might be saved." And it is only as we speak "the truth in love that we
grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." Thus "the
fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;" and
this is the Person of the Son of God, for "grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ."
How holy men of old sighed and cried for an experimental
knowledge of God's truth! "Lead me in your truth;" "Send out your light and
your truth;" "O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve me." And when the
Son of God came in the flesh, and thus brought down truth into visible
manifestation, how those who were born of God beheld his glory, "the glory
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!" How dear also
to God himself in his truth! Thus he is said to have "magnified his word
above all his name;" that is, exalted and glorified his revealed truth above
all his other attributes and perfections. Now, if truth be so precious in
itself, so precious to God, so precious to all the saints of God, should it
not be also precious to us? It will be so if we have the mind of Christ, and
his Spirit dwell in us. But as a love of holiness necessarily includes as
well as implies a hatred of, and a fleeing from sin, so will a love of truth
contain in it a hatred of, and a fleeing from, error. Indifference never
yet was counted a mark of love, whether human or divine. Warmth, zeal,
earnestness, devotedness, are not only sure marks of love, but are so
intimately interwoven with its very essence, that they cannot be separated
from it.