II. The Knowledge enjoyed by all His People after His Departure.
It was to be very different afterwards. There is an immense change when our Lord speaks of what should take place after His departure. It is no longer “with,” but “in.” He would be not merely present in their company, but abiding in their souls.
In this promise, there are three things requiring our careful notice.
(1) The promise applies not to a company, to a society, to a Church, or to any body of men, but to each individual. The Holy Spirit will not be merely in the midst of a congregation, but a sacred guest in each soul. You see this very clearly in the history of the Day of Pentecost. [40] The Holy Spirit came on the company, on the Church, for He filled all the house where they were sitting. But besides that there was a separate personal gift to each person present, for “it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”
(2) The sacred gift is no longer localized or specially enjoyed in one place. So long as the Lord Jesus was amongst them where He was, there was the Gift. But now, wherever the believer is, there is the Gift. See the unspeakable blessedness of this sacred promise. The gift of the Spirit is not confined to this place or that. It is the inestimable privilege of each individual believer wherever he is, and in whatever position it may please God to cast his lot. You may be cut off from the means of grace in which you have delighted, but wherever you are, you are not cut off from the Spirit of Truth, from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, for He is not limited to time, or place, or circumstance, and wherever you go at the Lord’s command, there you will carry His presence with you.
(3) He dwells within the soul.
There is this great difference between His presence and that of the most faithful and loving of friends. The friend can only judge by the outside; the anxious look, the tear in the eye, or the words of sorrow. But the Spirit of Truth is within, and He takes note of the inner secrets of the soul. He does not wait for any external evidence of what is passing. The hidden springs of thought are all open to His eye: the secret pain that is never breathed to any one; the hidden hope that smoulders in the heart; the subtle temptation that is beginning to grow up unperceived, and the yearning of soul after a higher life,—all these things are open to Him, and He, dwelling within and knowing all that is passing within, can check, can guide, can heal, can help, can supply any possible need “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” [41a]
There is no telling, then, the unspeakable blessing of the Pentecostal gift, and we can perfectly understand why it was that our Lord said “It is expedient for you that I go away.”
But do we all desire it? “Of course we do,” say some. But it is not at all a matter of course. There was no room for Christ in the inn at Bethlehem, and there is no room for the Spirit of Truth in many hearts. If He dwells within your soul He will humble you and make you to “abhor yourself and repent in dust and ashes.” [41b] Do you desire that? If He dwells within you, He will wean you from the world and teach you to live as one looking for the Kingdom. Do you desire that? If He dwells within you He will teach you to give up your own will. Do you desire that? Do you desire really to be led by the Spirit, taught by the Spirit to become a humble, gentle, and submissive child of God? I fear there are many who, when the whole subject is considered, are not prepared to give Him an unreserved welcome, and would be tempted to close the door of their hearts against His entrance. If the door is opened by them at all, it is only set ajar, and not thrown wide open that the King of Glory may enter in, in the fulness of His power, and turn out everything that is at variance with His will.
But I believe there are many who would hold nothing back and who long above all things that the Spirit of Truth may take full possession of their souls. Their difficulty is not that they do not wish it, but that they can scarcely believe it possible that He should ever dwell in such a heart as theirs. They find so much sin there that they can scarcely imagine it possible that the Holy Comforter should not be driven from them by all that He sees within. No doubt there is quite sufficient to drive Him grieved and displeased from His resting-place, and if it were not for the everlasting covenant of God, and the precious blood of Christ, I can perfectly understand the impossibility of His making such a heart His dwelling-place. But the atoning blood alters the whole case. The blood of Christ breaks down every barrier. It is a new and living way [42] by which not only may you enter boldly into the presence of God, but through which the Spirit of God may enter your heart and take full possession of it as His own abiding-place.
If you are longing to be filled with the Spirit, you must look straight to that cross of Christ. You must remember the fulness of the pardon. You must trust to that Atonement as breaking down even the barrier raised by your own dark corruption, and, pleading that precious blood, must open every avenue of your soul to the Spirit of Truth, that He may enter in and there reign supreme.
THE WITNESS—THE LEADER—THE COMMANDER
“Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.”—Isa. lv. 4.
It is often said that a living head is essential to the well-being of a living Church. Nothing can be clearer than the teaching of Scripture that our Living Head is in heaven now, seated at the right hand of God.
It is as a Living Head that our Blessed Saviour is here predicted. Three rich promises are made by God to every hungering and thirsting heart—Life, a Covenant, and a living Head. Life, for He says, “Hear, and your soul shall live.” A covenant, for He says, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you;” and a Head, for He adds, in the words of our text, “Behold I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.”
The question may arise, “Who is it that is thus given for a witness? Who is the person that the people are to recognize as their leader and commander?” The prophecy says David. But David, we know, was a typical character. He was not merely a king, but a type; a type of Him who was to be both his son and his Lord. Accordingly we are taught that the name David was applied to the Lord Jesus, for we find the words applied by St. Paul to Christ and His resurrection. [44a] We are there taught that when God raised up Christ from the dead, He gave us the sure mercies of David. The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, is the Witness, He is the Leader, and He the Commander of His people. In other words the risen Redeemer is our Living Head.
The text, therefore, directs us to His present action, not to His death or even to His life before His death, but to His present Headship at the right hand of God. He is