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Chapter Two
How to receive and retain a Pentecostal fullness from our Lord Jesus
We must determine to obey God and live a holy life
Obedience, purity and holiness are essential companions of faith.
Wilful sin will not only hinder faith, it can end in apostasy. 1Cor.10v1-13. Lk.8v13-15. Heb.3v6 to 4v16. 6v1-12. 10v26-29. 1Tim.1v19. 1Sam15v22,23. Fellowship with God and other Christians is conditional upon us walking in love and purity; spiritual darkness envelops Christians who are sinful, disobedient and worldly. 1Jn.1v3-7. 2v3-17. 5v1-5,18,20. Careless worldly living will result in a life filled with injurious thorns and briars instead of the fruit of the Spirit, this ground is “nigh unto cursing.” Heb.6v6-9. Those who speak of easy blessing without moral effort, love, and obedience are walking down the broad way to destruction. Mt.7v12-29. Rom.6v1-23. 8v1-9. Lk.6v43-48. Jesus said that we must “dig deep,” or our spiritual house will collapse in ruins, and we will “fall away” from grace. Lk.6v46-49. 8v13. However, as we yield to the Holy Spirit a glorious harvest will grow in our lives, which will bring blessing to all who meet us. Gal.5v22,23.
God will never despise a broken and contrite heart. Ps.51v17. Is.66v2.
A feeling of need, a brokenness of spirit and heart examination, will always precede and accompany a genuine revival; however, these Christian qualities should not be confused with a state of morbid introspection, unbelieving anxious despair, or Satan inspired depression and dejection. We should remember, that though our need is great, God is immeasurably greater than our need, and He is wholly on our side. We should be honest with ourselves and God, about any deficiencies of character that we find in ourselves, but these should not drive us to despair, but to the throne of grace, where our great Saviour and High Priest has a plenitude of mercy and grace to meet our every need. Is.66v2. Mt.5v2-4. Heb.4v12-16.
The beauty of true holiness.
True holiness should not be confused with a negative morbid introspection, or a “holier than thou” attitude, which God abhors. Is.65v5. An affected devotion, or outward veneer of sanctity; is an empty and loathsome imitation of true holiness; which is a warm, tender and sacrificial quality of character.
Holiness does not merely mean, “to free from sin or evil;” nor does it just mean purity, which means, “to love righteousness and hate evil;” for though purity of life is an essential constituent of true holiness, holiness goes even further than purity, it carries the thought of service and devotion to God, as well as separation from sin. The words “holiness” and “sanctification” are translations of the same noun “hagiasmos,” which occurs ten times in the New Testament. Rom.6v19,22. 1Cor.1v30. 1Thes.4v3,4,7. 2Thes.2v13 Heb.12v14. 1Pet.1v2.. The verb “hagiazo,” “to sanctify,” and the adjective “hagios,” “holy,” occur many times in the New Testament. “Hagiazo” is used twice, in Jn.10v36. and 17v9., of our Lord being sanctified; this does not mean that Jesus needed to be purified, for He had always lived a perfect life. In Jn.10v36., we read the Father dedicated Jesus and sent Him into the world to be our Saviour, regardless of the pain that this would bring to His Father's heart. In Jn.17v19., Jesus states that He sanctified Himself, so that we might be sanctified; He is speaking of His amazing sacrificial dedication to the task of being our Saviour and our High Priest. He was constrained and driven by His great love for us, and for our salvation; to depths of physical, emotional and spiritual suffering that we cannot conceive. Wonderful love! This is true holiness.
Before any angels or men were created, the Trinity counted the enormous cost of our creation and salvation and were willing to pay it out of pure love for us. They have always been totally dedicated to their creation. 2Cor.8v9. Titus.1v2. Rev.13v8. The Seraphim, “Burning Ones,” in Is.6v2,3., are probably the “Living Beings” of Rev.4v6-8.; for both groups radiate Divine energy and life, have six wings, and sing the same words. For untold millenniums they have been ceaselessly crying “holy, holy, holy,” they are astonished by God's dedicated love for His creation. They do not rest, “anapausin,” from “anapauo,” “to relax,” as in Mt.11v29., from praising God. They express amazed ceaseless adoration at the totally selfless and sacrificial nature of God. Their continual, “holy, holy, holy,” does not just state the fact of the purity of God, as marvellous as this may be; but the even more amazing total sacrificial devotion of God to His creation. Is.6v3. Rev.4v8.
Sanctification starts at the Cross, and the Trinity sanctifies us.
The Trinity work together for our sanctification. The Holy Spirit regenerates us and cleans us up at the new birth, and endeavours to sanctify us. Titus.3v5. 2Thes.2v13. 1Pet.1v2. All Christians are “called to be saints,” that is, “holy ones. Rom.1v7. 15v25,26,31. 16v2,15,16. 6v1,2. 2Cor.1v1. Eph.1v1. 3v8,18. Rev.5v8. 8v3,4. 15v3. etc. They are saints in the respect that their faith in Christ has “set them apart” from the world, and this should result in a very practical and real holiness. Sanctification begins at the cross of Jesus, when we repent of our sin and believe in Him as our Saviour. Holiness develops and deepens as we grow in grace, and as we are more and more drawn into the ways and service of God. Eph.4v15. 1Pet.1v2,14-25. 2v2. 2Pet.3v18. In Mal.3v1-3., we see Christ likened to a refiner of silver, these refiners used to sit over a pot of molten silver and draw the scum off until their faces were clearly mirrored in the silver, Christ desires to clean us up until we reflect His beauty, love, and holiness to others. If we do not let the Lord Jesus refine and beautify us now with His sacred fire, then the fire will try and burn up our works at the judgement seat of Christ. 1Cor.3v12-17. 2Cor.5v8-11. Failure to yield our lives to the purifying presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit, can result in a painful chastening from our loving heavenly Father, the aim of which is to make us partakers of His holiness, and to save us from being ashamed at Christ's coming. Heb.12v10. 1Cor.11v27-34. 1Jn.2v28. Under the New Covenant, there is a definite emphasis upon purity of life, and a heart cleansed by the fire of God, and devotion to God. Lk.3v8,16,17. Jn.1v33. Acts.2v3,4,38,39. 2Cor.3v18. 1Pet.1v13-18.
THE SUPERIORITY OF THE NEW COVENANT OVER THE OLD COVENANT.
The Old Testament prophets foretold the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant. Exod.24v8. Jer.31v33,34. Ezek.36v25-27. Heb.8v7-13. It is superior in three main ways.
Through the death of Christ there is perfect remission of sin.
Christ's sacrifice is complete; there is no need of any more sacrifices for sin. Through the blood of Christ, His High Priestly ministry, and the might of the eternal Spirit, there is perfect remission and cleansing from sin. The law had only a shadow of good things to come, the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were but types of Christ's mighty sacrifice, which can satisfy the worst conscience, and meet the need of any heart longing for deliverance from sin. Heb.8v7-13. 9v11-10v18. 7v22-28. This is applied to our hearts and lives by the ceaseless intercession and vigilance of our great High Priest
There is a new relationship under the New Covenant.
We are sons instead of servants, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, with a glorious heavenly calling in place of the earthly calling of the faithful Israelites. Rom.8v14-30. Gal.4v4-7. Heb.2v10-12. Eph.2v1-10. 1Jn.3v1-3. N.B.v3.
There is a deeper ministry of the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant.
Under the Old Covenant, God gave the privilege of manifesting His power to chosen men and women of God, who were given specific tasks to accomplish, and when they were completed, the power of the Spirit left them. Under the New Covenant, every Christian can receive the baptism and permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the continual manifestation and enjoyment of “the powers of the age to come.” Jn.14v16,17. Heb.6v5. All the spiritual gifts of the Old Covenant are available for the Christian, plus the gift of tongues, and the gift of interpretation of tongues. In 2Cor.3v6-18., Paul calls the age of grace, “the ministration of the Spirit,” and states that it “exceeds in glory,” the ministration of the Law. The New Covenant enables us to live on a higher plane than was possible under the Old Covenant. The transfiguration of Christians from glory to glory, as they behold the Lord, is a definite promise of God under the New Covenant. We have the atoning covenant blood of Jesus, which carries with it greater promises, privileges and incentives than the Old Covenant; we, therefore, should respond to this great grace and live a beautiful holy life. These greater privileges bring a greater responsibility. 2Cor.3v6-18. Heb.8v6. 10v28,29. Lk.12v48.
Our Lord Jesus is our example, we see Him at Jordan “full of grace and truth,” completely consecrated to His Father, and our salvation and wellbeing, and perfectly loving and pure. He not only received the Father's “well done,” but an immeasurable fullness of the Spirit as well. When we compare Christ's matchless sinless beauty, love and dedication, with our own great need, we can only feel unworthy, pitiful and beggarly, and quite undeserving of receiving any blessing from Him. However, what is this that I hear from His lips? He tells me that He so loved me, that He died for me, and that my feeling of great need is a vital condition for receiving His blessing. Jesus declares that because I recognise my complete spiritual poverty without Him, I can claim heaven's riches with Him, and that because I hunger and thirst after righteousness, I shall be filled. Mt.5v3,6. As I abide in Christ and seek Him in prayer, I imbibe His beauty and grace; He is my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 1Cor.1v30. We have the victory over sin, failure and circumstances, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is full of love and grace towards us, He never condemns the penitent seeker, it is the proud “arrived Pharisee” that He knows afar off. Rom.8v31-39. 1Cor.15v57. Rev.3v20-22. Though we may forlornly cry: -
“Oh, how shall I, whose native sphere
Is dark, whose mind is dim,
Before the Ineffable appear,
And on my naked spirit bear
The uncreated beam”?
We can sing and shout for joy:
“There is a way for man to rise
To that sublime abode:
An offering and a sacrifice,
A Holy Spirit's energies,
An advocate with God.”
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