Word of Salvation – Vol.11 No.15 – April 1965

 

The Spirit Of Christ

 

Sermon by Rev. G. I. Williamson on Romans 8: 9b

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:1 – 17

Psalter Hymnal: 295; 23; 46; 207; 488

 

Beloved Congregation,

There is a great deal of confusion today about spiritual things.  And one of the strange manifestations of this confusion is the growing interest in the new, the unusual, the different, as an evidence of the reality of the spiritual realm.  And the interesting thing is that we see this in Churches that seem otherwise to have almost nothing in common, Take for example the Open Brethren.  There is at this present time a very great danger that this movement will be torn apart by controversy over a question of Pentecostal gifts and the working of the Holy Spirit.  For there are certain people who have suddenly laid claim to a special relationship with the Holy Spirit, and they are demanding that others follow them.  And many people are in a quandary to decide between these people who claim such exciting and unusual powers and blessings, and other leaders who are warning against these things in strong words.

But the strange thing is that we see this same development also in Churches that are far less orthodox, and far more ‘liturgical’ than the Open Brethren.  For example, a prominent Presbyterian minister in Auckland has recently claimed that he has received the Holy Spirit and that he can speak in tongues.  And even in the Anglican Church – in various parts of the world – there have been claims, in recent days, of extraordinary dealings with the Holy Spirit in such things as healing, and speaking in tongues, and such things.  And the result is that many people feel uneasy, not quite knowing what to think of it all – and not knowing either quite what to think of themselves, since they do not seem to have this special relationship with the Holy Spirit that other people claim to have.

Let us consider, then, the teaching of the Bible as to the fundamental aspects of this question.  For the scripture says: “To the law, and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them.”  In other words it is always our responsibility to test all things of this kind by the word of God: and then, having proved them, to hold fast to that which is good.  So let us consider the words of the Apostle Paul, who tells us much about this whole question in the words of our text.  “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

Let us carefully consider the meaning of these words.

I.  The NECESSITY

And the first thing that our text teaches us is that a man cannot be a Christian at all unless he has the spirit of Christ.  For the Bible says that “they that are in the flesh (which means, yet in their original sinful condition) cannot please God.  But ye are not in the flesh,” says the Apostle to the Christians in Rome, “but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.  Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”  Paul does not, of course, say that every member of the Church to which he is writing does actually have the Holy Spirit.  In fact, in this Epistle, as well as in others, he always acknowledges the fact that there are some who are “not Israel” even though they are “of Israel:” that is, there are some who are not really the Church, even though they are of the Church.  But what he nevertheless insists upon is that if a man is really a believer at all if he really is saved from his original condition in the flesh so that now he is able to please God and live in the Spirit he must then be one who has received the Holy Spirit of God.  And if any man among those to whom he is writing does not have the Spirit, then he is not his at all.

In other words, the Apostle would focus our attention on the fact that there are not two kinds of Christians those who do, and those who do not, have the Holy Spirit.  Nor are we to imagine that the Holy Spirit works wonders in and for some, but not for others who belong to Christ.  For it is the teaching of the Bible that there is a whole galaxy of wonderful works of the Holy Spirit belonging to each and every one of those who really are the Children of God.

(1)  Take for example the seemingly simple act of confessing Jesus Christ as one’s personal Lord and Saviour.  This hardly seems to some people to be anything wonderful at all.  There is nothing ‘spectacular’ about it – nothing that sets that person off as a special wonder in the eyes of others.  Yet the Bible says that “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.  And the reason is that man is by nature dead in trespasses and sins.  He is totally unable to will or to do anything good.  As we read in our scripture lesson, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”  So it is the Holy Spirit alone that enables dead men – men dead in trespasses and sins – to understand, to accept, and believe, and confess, the Lord Jesus Christ.  For as Jesus himself said, “Except a man be born from above’ he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing,” Or as Paul says quite simply in 2Cor.3:6, “the Spirit giveth life.”

(2)  And so the very act of Conversion itself by which a sinner repents of his sin and puts his trust once and for all in Christ Jesus the Saviour is nothing but a consequence, or effect, of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a man.  “We love him, because he first loved us, says John.  “For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,” says Paul.  So that even the faith which we exercise in laying hold of the salvation offered us in the gospel, is “not of ourselves, it is the gift of God – not of works, lest any man should boast.”

(3)  And it is the same with the long process of sanctification which follows in all who believe.  For it is not any natural power of our own which enables us to ‘die more and more unto sin, and live more and more unto righteousness,’  No,..! says the Apostle, it is “the Spirit” that has “made me free from the law of sin and death… that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  “For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God.”  Or to express the matter most simply in scriptural terms, we are – says the Apostle – “sanctified by the Holy Ghost.”

Yes we struggle hard against sin – we repent daily and earnestly seek to do better – remembering that it is only he that endures to the end that shall be saved – and yet, we never once forget that we are able to do this only because it is the Holy Spirit that gives us strength to do it.

We see then, that this new movement seriously dishonours the Holy Spirit of God exactly because it would have us believe that only some believers – only some Christians – only some of those who sincerely confess Christ are really in possession of the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit.  According to these people there are two kinds of Christians, rather than just one.  There is, first of all, the ordinary kind of Christian who believes in Christ and has his sins forgiven by God for Jesus sake.  But there is also the Christian of a much higher sort, who in addition to all that, experiences the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit in a much more wonderful way.  And the constant exhortation of these people is that these ordinary Christians should consider themselves to be in a ‘bad way’ and that they too should seek this more excellent thing!  “If any man have not the Spirit,” they say, “he may yet be one of the Lord’s, only he is not one of those who really enjoys the fullness of the blessings of God.  But you see from our text that it is not so.  For our text says that “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”  In other words having the Spirit of God is just the same as being one of Christ’s own.  And if one does not have the Spirit of God, he does not belong to the Lord at all.  So that nothing can be more contrary to the scripture than this attempt to divide the body of Christ into two parts, and then to say that one part does – and another does not – have the Spirit of God.  No, says Paul, “but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.  And the differences between one person and another are not all to be regarded as indicating that some are better, or higher than others.  No, for “there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all… there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.”  The important thing is to know that we have the Spirit: and not the particular gifts that may be ours.

II.  The PERSONALITY

You will also notice in our text a clear indication of the fact that the Holy Spirit is a person, and not a mere force or power.  For our text says that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ “he is none of His”.  That is, he does not belong to Him, the Spirit of Christ.

Much of the confusion that exists today, on the subject of the Holy Spirit – and the things that people are claiming in his name – can be avoided if we only remember that the Holy Spirit is a person, just as God the Father is, and just as our Saviour Jesus Christ is.

(1)  And this means, as you can see, that the Holy Spirit is not a mere ‘power’ or ‘force’ available to men in various degrees.  You will often notice that those who talk most about the Holy Spirit, and those who boast the most about their possession of the Holy Spirit, persist in speaking of Him as if he were merely some ‘power’ or ‘force’ available to men as a mere thing that can be used according to their will.  These people therefore think of themselves as being in possession of a certain special knowledge, or insight, by which they are able to use the power of the Holy Spirit which others do not seem to be able to use.  And the reason that others lack that power is that they do not seem to know how to ‘harness’ it for their own benefit.  Or, again, they sat that it is a matter of degrees.  Some people only enjoy a little of that power, while others – who are more skilful or experienced in spiritual things – are able to enjoy a lot of that power.  And it is usually said that the whole thing is regulated by the amount of faith that one may happen to possess.  If one has only a little faith, he will be able to harness only a little power.  But if one has a great faith, he will be able to harness a great power.  So, in other words, the Holy Spirit is really likened to electricity of unlimited power.  But faith is likened to electric wires- of various sizes.  And the amount of power that one is able to draw is determined by the size of the wire that one employs.  But you will notice that the Bible never likens the Holy Spirit to a mere force, or power.  No, the Holy Spirit is a person,  And it is never taught in scripture that we determine the operations of the Spirit: rather is it clearly stated that the Holy Spirit himself determines what we are able to do.  To one man is given one thing, says Paul, and to another man is given another, and then he says this, “but, all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”  You see, it is the Spirit himself who worketh – and divideth to every man – as He will.  And this means that the Holy Spirit is not at all a ‘power’ or a ‘force’ available to man.  But rather is the Holy Spirit a person – a divine person – of absolute sovereignty, who works not as we will, but only as he will, It is the Holy Spirit alone who decides when, and where and how powerfully he will work in them that believe.

(2)  But this is not all, for our text also teaches us that when a man does belong to Him – that is, when the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of any man – that man is in possession of all that belongs to even the greatest of the children of God.  Just as the Holy Spirit is not a mere ‘force’ or ‘power’ because he is a person, so are we to remember that as a person he dwells only in the infinite fullness of his entire and glorious nature.  The Holy Spirit cannot be divided up, so that one man has a little of him, and another man more, and so on to those who receive a great deal.  No, if any man has the Spirit of God at all, he has just all that any man can claim in the highest reaches of that claim.  And so the Apostle Peter speaks for all believers alike when he says, “his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.”  And while there are “diversities of operations” as we have already seen “it is (still) the same God – God the Holy Spirit in all of his glory and power – which worketh all in all.”  It is therefore a lie when any man says that he has more of the Holy Spirit than others.  It is a false doctrine that would divide the Lord’s people into two classes, and say that the one class has more of the Spirit of God than others.  The Book of Acts says that when the Holy Spirit came upon the Church of Pentecost, “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” And this is not at all contradicted by the fact that there were yet many differences among them.  The fact that every true believer is in possession of the whole the one and indivisible Spirit of God does not contradict the fact that believers vary widely from one another in their dealings with the Holy Spirit.  “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,” says Paul, “and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple are ye.  There are some who grieve the Holy Spirit more than others.  And even in the best, as Paul says, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.  But the important thing to remember is that so far as the possession of the Spirit is concerned, it cannot be a matter of degrees.  For the Holy Spirit is a person.  We either have this person dwelling in our hearts or we have nothing to do with him at all.  “For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

And while we must always remember that the possession of the Holy Spirit does not mean that we can sit back and take it easy or that we can grieve the Holy Spirit without receiving the sore chastisement of the Lord, it is still true that every man that has the Spirit of God will certainly be saved.

There is again, no difference at all between the Lord’s children on this matter.  If any man has the Spirit of Christ, at all, there can be no doubt at all, that he shall be saved.  For the Bible says, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God,”  For “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, and again, says the Apostle of those who have the Spirit, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” If any man have the Spirit he is one of his, and – as Jesus promised – “no one shall pluck them out of his hand.”

III.  The WORK

But there is one more important teaching to be gained from our text, which is also forgotten by many who say so much about the Holy Spirit today.  According to our text a man does not have the Spirit, unless he has the Spirit as “the Spirit of Christ.” And this tells us something very important about the real work of the Holy Spirit which is very different from what many people today imagine that it is.

It may sound strange to say it, but it is nevertheless true that people often lose the Holy Spirit just because they try so hard to get him in some extraordinary way.  And the reason is that when they make it their business to concentrate on obtaining the Holy Spirit in a special way, they tend to neglect the thing which the Bible tells us that sinners ought to do.  For the thing the Bible tells us to do is not to seek the Holy Spirit, but to seek Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”  “Come unto me” our Saviour said, “and I will give you rest.”  But nowhere in the scripture are we told to seek the Holy Spirit, or to concentrate our attention on Him, as we are told to do with respect to the saviour Jesus Christ.

And that takes us back to the words of our Lord himself.  For he said that He would send the Holy Spirit after he had gone back to sit at the right hand of the Father.  “I will send unto you… the Spirit of truth,” said Jesus, “and he shall testify of “In my name he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”  So you see, the work of the Holy Spirit is not to focus attention upon himself, but to focus attention upon the Son of God.  He does not just come as the Holy Spirit nor even just as the Holy Spirit of God but he comes above all as the Spirit of Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life.  And so close is this identification between the Holy Spirit and the Saviour, that the Bible quite often speaks of the one under the very name of the other: “Now the Lord is that Spirit” says the Apostle.  And for this very reason is he also called “the Spirit of Christ.”  For one can only have the Spirit if he never seeks to divide between the two.

Let us consider, then, the way in which one really receives the Spirit of God.

(1)  And we observe (in the first place) that the Spirit of Christ is always referred to in the Bible as the Spirit of truth.  In other words, the Spirit cannot belong to any man unless and until he is in possession of a saving knowledge of the truth.  That is what Jesus meant when he said to His disciples, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”  For the way in which the Spirit actually takes up residence in our hearts is by making our hearts the dwelling place of truth.  “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,” says Paul, “that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God: which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth…  for who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?  Bbut we have the mind of Christ.”  We have the mind of Christ when the Holy Spirit enables us to understand and believe what the Bible tells us about Christ.  And nothing is more truly an evidence of our possession of the Spirit, than is a saving knowledge of Christ Himself.  For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ – he is none of his.

(2)  Next to truth itself, the Spirit of Christ is manifest most certainly in what the Bible calls the love of Jesus.  And this means both our Love for the Saviour himself, and also the Love that we have for our brothers and sisters in the faith which is in some small way akin to the Love that our Lord has for us.  This, says the Apostle, is “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”  As a matter of fact, this is the supreme – the highest – manifestation of the Spirit.  It is far above any other that any man may want to claim for himself.  For if a man has not love – no matter how much he may claim to have the Spirit – he is nothing more than “sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”  For “God is love,” says John, “and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him.”  “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

And that is one of the most blame-worthy features of the people today who lay these claims to special manifestations of the Holy Spirit.  They immediately think of themselves as superior to other people, and harshly criticize those who lack what they think they have received.  And the higher they think they have attained, the more do they despise those who have not attained with them.  So, in other words, the more they claim the spirit, the less they manifest the love of God which is the Biblical evidence of the Spirit.  (Or, to say it differently, the more they talk about having the Spirit, the more evident it becomes that the spirit which they have is not the Spirit of Christ.)  And remember, the bible says, “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

(3)  And that brings us to observe, finally, that the Spirit of Christ is the spirit of righteousness.  “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” says the Apostle.  It is one of the noteworthy characteristics of all groups that I have heard of that lay claim to special manifestations of the Holy Spirit, that sooner or later they have fallen asunder by both scandal and schism.  They fall into awful sins, and end up hating one another.  And it is all because they forget that the Kingdom of God is not to be found in the strange, or extraordinary, or exciting experiences, but in “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost.  For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men.”  We so not need some special, some astonishing, and some spectacular manifestation of the Spirit of God in order to know that we believe.  In fact, we may have such and only be deceived into thinking that we believe.  Whereas the Bible says this: “he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.  And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

And that is just another way of saying that the man who really has the Spirit is the man who truly lives with Christ.  For it is only the love of Christ which enables us to even make a small beginning of holiness in this life.  It is gratitude to him, which constrains us to seek to do his will.  And so again our text teaches us when it says: “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

Amen.