Angelic Obedience part II

When the way to the tree of life was to be closed against fallen man, cherubim were set to guard the entrance, and with their flaming sword rendered it unapproachable: when that way was again to be thrown open, and the twelve manner of fruits yielded in their season, and the leaves to be applied for the healing of the nations, twelve angels are represented as standing at the gates that are never to be shut, day or night, not armed to bar the passage, but as guards of honor welcoming the happy comers to that scene of everlasting felicity.  The variety of commissions which we know the angels to have executed among men, sufficiently attest their prompt obedience to every command of their glorious King, whom to serve is their privilege and joy: for "he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven." Dan.4:35. "Thinkest thou," said our Lord to the disciple who smote the high priest's servant, "thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than ten legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" Matt. 26:53, 54.

We now proceed to review the instances of angelic interference and as the work of vengeance is in no way consonant to the character of a holy angel, except when executed in loyal obedience to the command of his righteous King, who will punish evil-doers, we may class under the present head all the destructive operations of the heavenly host. 

The Lord needs no help of men or of angels; yet the armies of heaven stand around, eager to be employed against the enemies of his name and of his people.  To render a recompense to those who afflict Christ in his members, is indeed a part of angelic office, as David shows; when speaking of those who sought to destroy his soul, he says, "Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angels of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them." Psalm xxxv. 5, 6.  In virtue of this office, they will fulfill their terrible commission in the last days of the present dispensation. "The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. 13: 42. 

They will come fully prepared for the terrible work of that great day: "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1: 6, 7, 8.

He "who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire," (Psalm 104: 4,) has pre-ordained them to act a most conspicuous part in the transactions of the last days, we must turn to the book of Revelation, where a scene of awful magnificence is opened to us, in language of unparalleled grandeur.

Angelic Obedience

"See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book." Rev.22: 9

There is not, in the whole Bible, an instance where an angel appears to act independently of the divine command. Perfect submission is the unvaried character of the heavenly host. Our Lord expresses this, in the prayer that he has taught us to use: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When John would have worshiped the angel who showed him the wonderful things that he has recorded for us, he was prohibited in these words: "See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book." Rev.22: 9.

We cannot doubt that the Holy Spirit has so framed the word of truth as to be a perpetual antidote to every form of error that should creep into the world : and the "worshiping of angels," which constitutes a prominent mark of the Roman apostasy, is provided against by continually setting forth their entire dependence and subordination. They never appear but as messengers:

"God sent an angel into Jerusalem to destroy it." 1 Chron. 21:15. 

"My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." Dan. 4:22. 

"The man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." Dan. 9:21.

  "At the beginning of thy supplication the commandment came forth, and I am come." (v. 23.) 

"And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth." Luke 1:26.

  "Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews," Acts 12:11:

And in the last instance that is recorded by inspiration of an angelic mission, we read, "I Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the Church." Rev. 22:16. However willingly performed to men, it is still a service appointed of God, and by him especially directed; they are "ministering spirits," sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation," Heb. 1:14 ; and it is on this principle of holy obedience that we find them zealously executing God's righteous displeasure against the rebellious.

The Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ part V

No sooner had the Lord received the baptism of the Holy Ghost than He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to "be tempted of the devil." This is especially emphasized by the Evangelist. It is aot the devil that appears first, but it is the Spirit. In the Gospel of Mark the language is still stronger, and it is said that he was "driven of the Spirit."

Perhaps His human spirit recoiled from the awful ordeal of the wilderness as it afterwards shrank from the anguish of Gethsemane, and the Holy Ghost pressed Him forward by one of those resistless impulses which many of us have learned to understand; and for forty days His blessing was challenged, His faith was tested, His very soul was tried by all the assaults of the adversary.

He was brought into certain places that seemed to contradict all that He believed, and to challenge all that had been promised to Him. The devil might well say to Him, "Art Thou indeed the Son of God, in the midst of hunger, desolation, and wild beasts, and every form of suffering, cast.off and neglected even by God, and left in destitution and desolation."

And then, amid all these perils and privations, suddenly there opened before Him, the vision of power and pleasure—the kingdoms of the world and all the glory of them if He would but yield a single point and accept the leadership of the enemy, who doubtless appealed to His higher nature and represented Himself as an angel of light, or perhaps approached Him through His own form, and all the visions and possibilities of power He might use for the good of men and the benefit of the world.

These and other yet more subtle insinuations and instigations came to Him on every side; and yet amid them all He stood unmoved in His obedience to His Father's will and His reliance upon His Father's word, until Satan was driven from His presence, and He came forth more than conqueror. And so the first thing that we may look for, after the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is the wilderness with its desolations and privations. Circumstances will surely come to us which seem to contradict all that we have believed, and to render impossible the promise of God. Even God will seem to have failed us; and when all is dark as midnight, the vision of help from other sources will come to us, and a thousand voices will whisper to us their promises of sympathy and aid if we will but yield a single point of conscience and give ourselves up to the will of the deceiver. All the temptations of our Master will come to us;—The lust of the flesh, The lust of the eye, The pride of life, The temptation to take help from forbidden sources,  All these will come; but if the Spirit has led us up into the wilderness He will lead us out. If we will but lift our eyes above the tempter to the Divine Deliverer, we shall find that even Satan shall be compelled to become our ally; and, more than conquerors like our Master, We shall take our enemy prisoner, and make him fight our very battles.

The Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ part IV

Jesus Christ was baptized by the Holy Spirit. Not only did He derive His person and His incarnate life from the Holy Ghost, but when at thirty years of age He consecrated Himself to His ministry of life and suffering, and service, and went down into the waters of the Jordan, in token of His self-renunciation and His assumption of death, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost by whom He had been born,  Now "came down and personally possessed His being and henceforth dwelt within Him."

No one can for a moment deny that this was something transcendentally more than the incarnation of Christ. Up to this time there had been one personality, henceforth there were two ; for the Holy Ghost was added to the Christ, and in the strength of this indwelling Spirit, henceforth He wrought His works, and spake His words, and accomplished His ministry on earth.

But this also has its parallel in the experience of the disciples of Christ. It is not enough for us to be born of the Holy Ghost, we must also be baptized with the Holy Ghost. There must come a crisis hour in the life of every Christian when he, too, steps down into the Jordan of death, when he yields his will to fulfill all righteousness, like his Master, when he voluntarily assumes the life of self-renunciation and service, which God has appointed for him in His Holy will, and when there is added to him, as a Divine trust, the Holy Ghost; and henceforth it is not one but two, and then these two are one.

The Holy Spirit of Jesus part III

Our Lord was born of the Holy Spirit. The announcement by the angel to Mary, connects the Divine Spirit directly with the conception and incarnation of Christ. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke 1:35.

The human mind cannot fathom this mystery —a holy Christ conceived and born of one who was herself the daughter of a sinful race. We cannot believe in the immaculate Mary, but we can believe in the immaculate Son of God, born of her without sin.

The very fact that she was an imperfect and sinful woman adds to the glory of this mystery and makes it the more perfect type of the experience through which we also come into fellowship with our living Head. For just as Jesus was born of the Spirit, so we, the disciples of Jesus, must also be born of the Holy Ghost; for "except a man be born from above he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

The mystery of the incarnation is repeated every time a soul is created anew in Christ Jesus. Into the unholy being of a child of Adam a seed of incorruptible and eternal life is implanted by the Divine Spirit, and that seed is in itself through the life of God, holy and incorruptible. Just as you may see in the sweet springtime the little white, spotless shoot, coming from the dark soil and out of the heap of manure, unstained by all its gross surroundings, so out of our lost humanity the Holy Spirit causes to spring forth the life of the newborn soul; and while the subject of that marvelous experience may seem an imperfect being, still he has that within him, of which the apostle has said, '' His seed remaineth in him, and cannot sin; because it is born of God." He can sin, but that holy nature implanted in him cannot, it is like its Author, holy too.

"And so He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." Like Him we areborn of the Holy Ghost and become the sons of God, not by adoption, but by the Divine regeneration.

The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus part II

It is not the influence of the Holy Ghost that we receive but it is the Person of the Holy Ghost.

3. This leads us to the third distinction, namely, that under the Old Testament Dispensation, the Holy Ghost was not resident upon earth, but visited it from time to time as occasion required. Now the Spirit of God is dwelling upon the earth. This is His abode. He resides in the hearts of men, and in the Church of Christ, just as literally as Jesus resided upon the earth, during the 33 years of His incarnation and life below.

4. Perhaps the principal difference was this, that in the Old Testament age the Holy Ghost came rather as the Spirit of the Father, in the glory and majesty of the Deity; while under the New Testament, He comes rather as the Spirit of the Son, to represent Jesus to us, and make Him real in our experience and life. Indeed, the Person of the Holy Ghost was not fully constituted under the Old Testament. It was necessary that He should reside for three and a half years in the heart of Jesus of Nazareth, and become, as it were, humanized, colored, and brought nearer to us by His personal union with our Incarnate Lord; and now He comes to us as the same Spirit that lived, and loved, and suffered, and wrought, in Jesus Christ.

In a sense our Master left His heart behind Him; and when the Holy Ghost comes to dwell within us, He brings the living Christ and makes His person real to our hearts.

This must be the meaning of that remarkable passage in John 8:37, 38, where Jesus said that the Spirit in the believer should flow out like rivers of living water; and then the evangelist adds, "The Spirit was not yet; because Jesus was not yet glorified." The Holy Spirit in the form which He was to be manifest in the coming age was not yet constituted until after the ascension of Jesus. Now, He comes to us as the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, it is intensely interesting to us to look at the relation of the Holy Ghost to the person of our Lord in His first baptism and earthly ministry.

This is our present theme. May the Holy Ghost Himself illuminate and apply it to all our hearts!

The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus Christ

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."—Matt. 3:11

These words from the lips of the Forerunner intimate that there was to be a great distinction between the old Dispensation which he was closing, and the new, which Jesus Christ was about to usher in.

The distinction was to be very marked in connection with the manner and measure in which the Holy Ghost would be poured out upon the people of God and manifested in connection with the work of redemption.

The two natural emblems of water and fire are used to denote the difference between the two dispensations.

We have seen that the Holy Ghost was present on earth during the Old Testament age, speaking in the prophets and messengers of God, and working out the Divine purpose in the lives of God's chosen agents, and instrumentalities. But the New Testament is pre-eminently the age of the Holy Ghost, and we might, therefore, expect that there would be a great and infinite difference. The principal difference between the old and new dispensations, with respect to the presence and manifestations of the Holy Ghost, might be summed up in the following particulars.

1. In the Old Testament, the Holy Ghost was given to special individuals to fit them for special service; and in the New Testament, the promise is that the Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh, and they shall not need io say one to another, "Know the Lord, for all shall know Him," through the Divine unction, "from the least to the greatest."

The universal outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon all believers is the striking feature of the New Testament.

2. The Holy Spirit was with men and upon men rather than in them in the Old Testament. In the New Testament Dispensation, the Holy Ghost comes to dwell in us and to unite us personally with God, and to be in us not only a Spirit of power and a preparation for service, but a Spirit of life, holiness, and fellowship with The Divine Being.