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036 - Note D Growth in the Knowledge of the Spirit Chap 8 · Spirit of Christ

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  Speaker 1: Note d of the Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Note d
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  Speaker 1: Growth in the Knowledge of the Spirit, Chapter eight. In
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  Speaker 1: the following extract from Doctor Saphirs Christ Crucified Lectures on
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  Speaker 1: First Corinthians two, the thought is put very distinctly that
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  Speaker 1: as a rule, the believer in the first stage of
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  Speaker 1: the Christian life hardly knows that he owes his faith
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  Speaker 1: and the power of the Christian life to the direct
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  Speaker 1: working of the Holy Spirit. As a consequence of this ignorance,
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  Speaker 1: there very often comes a time of darkness with the
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  Speaker 1: very view of waking him up to seek for the
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  Speaker 1: reason of his failure and the power of restoration and
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  Speaker 1: abiding growth. The discovery of the work and in dwelling
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  Speaker 1: of the third person the Holy Spirit is what he
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  Speaker 1: needs to see how all that is in Christ can
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  Speaker 1: in very deed be his incontinuous experience. I am sure
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  Speaker 1: that clear teaching in regard to this advance in the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the Christian and the proclamation to the very
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  Speaker 1: feeblest of God's children that the in dwelling of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is their privilege and their strength is just
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  Speaker 1: what is needed in the Church in our day and
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  Speaker 1: cannot fail of bringing light and blessing. To many quotes
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  Speaker 1: from Doctor Sophia, we read that the apostle Paul found
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  Speaker 1: disciples in Ephesus, whom he asked, have ye received the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost? Since ye believed? And their reply was, we
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  Speaker 1: have not so much heard whether there be any Holy ghost.
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  Speaker 1: As the Lord Jesus said to Philip, have I been
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  Speaker 1: so long time with you? And yet hast thou not
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  Speaker 1: known me? So may the Holy Ghost say to some
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  Speaker 1: true and sincere believers, have I been so long with you?
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  Speaker 1: Revealing unto you the truth as it is in Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: working in your faith, shedding abroad in your hearts, God's love,
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  Speaker 1: comforting you in your sorrow for sin, helping your infirmities
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  Speaker 1: in prayer, opening to your understanding wanders out of God's word,
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  Speaker 1: And yet have you not known me? This ignorance arises
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  Speaker 1: to some extent from the fact that the Spirit testifies
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  Speaker 1: not of himself, but of the Father and the Son.
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  Speaker 1: It is his to glorify Christ. As when in the
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  Speaker 1: dark night a bright light is concentrated on one point,
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  Speaker 1: the light bearer himself remains unseen. So the blessed Spirit
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  Speaker 1: unperceived by the awakened sinner, causes all the light to
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  Speaker 1: fall on the crucified Savior and the loving Father. The
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  Speaker 1: soul exclaims, how great is the love of God, How
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  Speaker 1: marvelous is the grace of Jesus. He who has kindled
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  Speaker 1: the light, who has opened the eyes of the heart,
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  Speaker 1: who has renewed the soul is as yet unknown and unobserved.
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  Speaker 1: John the Baptist compared himself with the friend of the bridegroom,
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  Speaker 1: who standeth and rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
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  Speaker 1: In like manner does the Spirit direct the soul to
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  Speaker 1: Christ and fills the heart with joy in believing Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: while as yet he does not reveal his own love
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  Speaker 1: and work. Another reason why the young believer knows little
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  Speaker 1: of the Spirit is because the Holy Ghost is so gentle,
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  Speaker 1: His approach is so soft, his adaptation to our peculiarities
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  Speaker 1: of character so perfect, his influences so deep and penetrating,
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  Speaker 1: that we think our own reason, imagination, will conscience have
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  Speaker 1: been acting of their own accord and with perfect spontaneity.
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  Speaker 1: How little do we know that the Holy Ghost has
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  Speaker 1: been influencing every faculty every emotion, every mental process. So noiselessly,
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  Speaker 1: so quietly, so lovingly, so inwardly has the Great Spirit
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  Speaker 1: been working, preparing and chiseling, fitting every stone for the building. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: at the building of Solomon's temple, no sound was heard.
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  Speaker 1: With perfect knowledge and with infinite love, the Holy Ghost
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  Speaker 1: deals with our spirits, and when the creative feat goes forth,
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  Speaker 1: it is mostly as the still small voice which came
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  Speaker 1: to Elijah after the earthquake and the tempest and the fire.
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  Speaker 1: Yet the believer knows that he has experienced divine grace
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  Speaker 1: and power God has revealed to him Christ. God has
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  Speaker 1: created him anew. It is a supernatural influence of which
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  Speaker 1: he is conscious, and as it is unique, so it
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  Speaker 1: brings with it the assurance of its truth. There is
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  Speaker 1: a testimony within his heart that the true light now shineth.
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  Speaker 1: I know whom I have believed. Now we ourselves know.
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  Speaker 1: Yet the reason why we ourselves know is that our
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  Speaker 1: knowledge is not of ourselves, but of God. Hereby we
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  Speaker 1: know that we know Him by the spirit He hath
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  Speaker 1: given to us. And this light is sweet. There is
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  Speaker 1: a blessedness in this knowledge of the Father and the Son,
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  Speaker 1: a peace and joy which satisfy the heart and fill
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  Speaker 1: the immortal soul, so that there is perfect rest. Whence
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  Speaker 1: is this because the Holy Ghost, who is God, has
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  Speaker 1: revealed to us the things which are freely given us
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  Speaker 1: of God. Because by the Spirit we call the Father
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  Speaker 1: Abba and Jesus Lord. As the believer progresses and his
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  Speaker 1: path becomes more complicated, he is taught more about the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: for he needs this doctrine increasingly for his comfort and growth.
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  Speaker 1: His faith is not so strong and unwavering as he imagined.
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  Speaker 1: The ardor of his love soon vanishes. The power of sin,
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  Speaker 1: which at first he fancied was utterly broken, makes itself
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  Speaker 1: felt again. Prayer becomes languid, and joy seems to have
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  Speaker 1: taken flight. In other words, God leads him into the valley,
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  Speaker 1: and lest he should make a christ of his faith
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  Speaker 1: and a wellspring of a system. He is taught something
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  Speaker 1: of himself who does not know of this second stage
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  Speaker 1: in the Christian life, at first so painful, so humiliating,
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  Speaker 1: and filling the soul with perplexity. It is thus that
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  Speaker 1: we learn that the Spirit who has renewed our hearts,
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  Speaker 1: must also sustain the new life that we depend entirely on.
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  Speaker 1: Divine grace and power not merely to bring us to Christ,
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  Speaker 1: but to keep us in Him. Thus, as in all
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  Speaker 1: God's dealings, there is progress, in ever increasing, widening and
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  Speaker 1: deepening cycles. The believer experience again in a more enlarged
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  Speaker 1: and profound manner, what he was taught at his first conversion.
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  Speaker 1: He sees now more clearly the guilt and helplessness of man,
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  Speaker 1: our utter dependence on a father to love us, on
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  Speaker 1: a savior to save us by the shading of his blood,
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  Speaker 1: and on a divine spirit to quicken and enlighten the
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  Speaker 1: soul and fill it with the love of God. He
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  Speaker 1: feels now with deeper humility and truer joy, that salvation
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  Speaker 1: is of God, that the divine grace lays the foundation
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  Speaker 1: and performs the good work in us until the day
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  Speaker 1: of Christ. Then he beholds the gift and the indwelling
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Ghost. Thus was it that the first disciples,
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  Speaker 1: after a season of childlike peace and joy in the
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  Speaker 1: presence and companionship of Jesus, lost the Savior, and with
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  Speaker 1: him the garden of the soul, trees and flowers and
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  Speaker 1: songs of birds, vanished, and all was winter, cold, silent,
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  Speaker 1: and dead, and then he returned unto them, never to
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  Speaker 1: leave them. And on the day of Pentecost, he in
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  Speaker 1: the person of the Comforter descended and made all things new,
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  Speaker 1: and it was summer full of fragrance and brightness. They
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  Speaker 1: had to lose Jesus for a while, to long for
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit and to rejoice in his coming. The gift
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Ghost is the most precious gift of
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  Speaker 1: that love which the Father has toward us for the
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  Speaker 1: sake of his dear son, and because we love him
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  Speaker 1: and believe that he came from God. It is the
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  Speaker 1: gift in which the purposes of God towards us are
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  Speaker 1: fulfilled and consummated. The Messiah and the Spirit always go together,
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  Speaker 1: and the gift of the Spirit is the great purpose
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  Speaker 1: of the Messiah's coming and the first fruits of his work.
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  Speaker 1: End of quote from Doctor Saphir. Now a quote from
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  Speaker 1: Reverend H. C. G. I shall never forget the gain
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  Speaker 1: to conscious faith and peace, which in my own experience
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  Speaker 1: came not at but after a first decisive and appropriating
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  Speaker 1: view of the crucified one, as the sinner's sacrifice of
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  Speaker 1: peace came from a clearer and more intelligent hold upon
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  Speaker 1: the personality of that spirit through whose mercy the soul
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  Speaker 1: had seen that blessed view. It was a new development
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  Speaker 1: of insight into the love of God, a new contact
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  Speaker 1: with the inner and eternal movements of redeeming mercy, a
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  Speaker 1: new discovery of divine resources gratitude and love and adoration,
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  Speaker 1: found a new a newly realized reason and spring and rest.
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  Speaker 1: He who had awakened, who had regenerated, shone before the
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  Speaker 1: soul with the smile of a personal and eternal kindness
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  Speaker 1: and friendship, standing side by side in union unspeakable, yet
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  Speaker 1: not in confusion, with him who had suffered and redeemed,
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  Speaker 1: and with him who had given his son, who had
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  Speaker 1: laid the eternal plan of grace and willed its all
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  Speaker 1: merciful success. End of quote, end of note D