In the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John—John 14:26:
But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit,
Whom the Father will send in My name…
Look at Acts 1:5:
For John indeed baptized with water;
But ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
The message is in the title: The Holy Spirit.
We have sought in earlier messages to make clear that the Holy Spirit lays the foundation of all the work of God in the character of Jesus—makes the character of Jesus the basis of all His work.
Last night, we were occupied with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of truth, that great feature and characteristic of the Lord Jesus: truth. This morning, I am going to think about the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of holiness.
The Holy Spirit, in the New Testament, is referred to as such somewhere about eighty times, which in itself is a very impressive thing: the Holy Spirit.
I am perfectly well aware that this subject of holiness—of sanctification—can be a very heavy-going matter. I confess to you, for a long time it was the one subject I never enjoyed looking into or having anything to do with.
It can make many difficulties, and that is very largely due to the fact that it, as a subject, has been resolved into various systems of teaching and made, respectively, the ground of particular cults and movements—even taking on the name of a church: a holiness church.
This whole matter has brought many Christians into bondage, confusion, and frustration of life. That is mainly due to holiness or sanctification being focused down upon some particular aspects of human life.
When you come to ask people what they mean, you usually find that they refer to certain common sins in human nature. If you are delivered, can be delivered, or want to be delivered from those, then that is holiness. I am not saying that is not included, but surely that does not mean that holiness is limited to those things.
Holiness is a very much bigger, greater thing than any of our systems, crystallized teachings, movements, or points of application.
This is not intended to bring anybody either into bondage or into a life of struggle and strain. I think it is just in this very connection that Satan has shown his cleverness.
He himself brought about an unholy condition, and then he turns upon his own poor victims and brings them under terrible condemnation and accusation. He brings about a constellation of complexes, so that they are all tied up on this matter of sin, sanctification, and holiness.
That certainly ought not to be the attitude toward the matter. It is just the opposite of what it is intended to be.
Now, it is a matter, of course, which goes far beyond the limits of one brief half-hour, but I do want to seek to get this matter into its right perspective. At the outset, holiness must be seen in its full setting.
I am not stopping to argue that this is the supreme characteristic of God. We have to see it in its full background.
The Holy Spirit is set over against an unholy spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Person, and just as truly there is a personal unholy spirit. You will have to see this whole matter of holiness in that light.
Satan it is who has brought in an unholy state—not only an unholy condition, that is true—but I use that word state with a capital “S,” as we speak of the state, or the kingdom, or the regime, the system, the government.
Satan has brought in an unholy condition and an unholy kingdom, or state. He has defiled everything. He has defiled human nature. He has defiled the creation. He has defiled everything.
And the proof is in the universality of death: God’s verdict upon all that is unclean, that is defiled, and that has been touched by Satan.
It is ever impressive and instructive to note that immediately Jesus had been anointed by the Holy Spirit, He entered upon a direct and immediate battle with Satan himself. From the Jordan, straight to the wilderness, to meet and encounter this arch-soul of all unrighteousness.
When Jesus went into His baptism, He said to John:
Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.
In figure and representation, His baptism, as a type of His cross, death, burial, and resurrection, was the fulfilment of all righteousness. Now then, on that ground, He encountered the embodiment of all unrighteousness.
And this He did under the anointing—the Spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit—taking the life of God to encounter the universality of unrighteousness as represented by Satan there in the wilderness.
I say it is impressive, and it is very instructive, to note that that was the very first thing after the anointing: after the baptism.
Now, the object and method of Satan is always to make a link with his state, to make a link with his kingdom, thereby making a link with his defilement. Remember that.
I repeat: the object and method of Satan is always to try to bring us into complicity with his own evil, unholy kingdom, state, or system.
That is what was happening in that battle all the time. Satan, from one angle and then another, moving round, was trying to involve that Righteous One in his unrighteous kingdom.
You are not going to argue out those three temptations, but it is perfectly clear. At last it comes out:
If Thou wilt worship me…
“If only You will recognize me, accept me, give me that place—if only Thou wilt worship me, all this will I give Thee.” Only, in other words, if I can get You onto my ground, I have spoiled Your kingdom. I have spoiled You. I have established myself. I can make that link.
This holy and righteous One saw through it all and said, “No, not a hoof; not one iota; nothing for Satan.”
The prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me.
That is victory—absolute victory. And remember, what was true in His case is always true.
Satan is ever seeking to find some way in which he can link us in with his kingdom, which is his power, by getting us onto his ground.
Hence, all those Old Testament prescriptions made by God against contamination and against mixture:
Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.
There was nothing wrong with the ass; Jesus rode upon an ass. The ass answered many a good purpose in the Bible. But they belong to two realms, two kingdoms, and represent two orders of life, and you cannot mix them up, says God.
The work of God must not be done on the basis of mixture—of two things which belong to two different kingdoms and realms.
Again, thou shalt not wear cotton and wool together in thy garments. They belong to two kingdoms. There is nothing wrong with wool; God clothed Adam and his wife with the skins of animals. Wool in itself is not wrong. I suppose all the patriarchs wore woollen garments.
But put them together, and they belong to two realms. God is simply saying this: you must not try to bring together things that do not belong to each other.
So all this is a foreshadowing of this great principle. Remember, when the remnant came back from captivity for the rebuilding of the temple and the wall, the whole thing in Ezra headed up to this: mixed marriages.
The mixed marriages between the people of God and the other idolatrous nations—these two things must not come together.
Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.
God will not help. You see, this is the whole point of holiness in its right setting: it is preventing Satan, whose purpose is always to seek to work toward a link with his own kingdom.
It is very thorough-going, and it is very comprehensive. For instance, let us allow this principle to take us right into the First Letter to the Corinthians, because this is the thing, you know, that explains everything in that book.
Here in this First Letter to the Corinthians, you first of all begin with the wisdom of this world—the wisdom of this world.
The apostle says about it that the wisdom which is from beneath is demoniacal. The wisdom of this world—do you and I? Well, so the Word says; so the Word says.
If we want the proof of that, come back to Paul’s argument that it was in the wisdom of this world that Christ was crucified. It seemed to be the wise thing to put Him to death. What folly! What madness! What devilishness in the wisdom of this world!
Yes, and anybody who really touches that knows that it is a realm of death. I do not suppose anybody here—maybe one or two—has dipped into philosophy, but if you have, you know that there is no more deadly thing in all the sciences than philosophy. You touch it; you touch death.
The wisdom of this world—ah, yes, Satan got a good foothold inside that church along that line. He got them onto his ground right enough.
The next thing: divisions among you, divisions among you. Remember, this may be anticipated: the Holy Spirit is essentially the Spirit of unity.
There are divisions among you. Satan has got the advantage of them, for he is the great divider. Satan never stops until he has divided the last. He comes to one; he will make two of it. He never stops.
Divisions among you: there on his ground. Nothing needs to be said about the next thing mentioned—fornication.
Then you move on to the Lord’s Table. You hear the apostle saying:
Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons:
Ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.
Do not mix these things up like this. But it was there in Corinth; it was there.
And listen, you have got to read that First Letter to the Corinthians in this light. Do not extract subjects from that letter about women wearing hats, or head coverings, and all those difficult things, and lift them right out as separate subjects. If you do, you just get into confusion.
Look here: what the apostle was dealing with there was the coming in amongst the Lord’s people of the spirit of this world. That is how the world behaves—or misbehaves. That is how the world does it.
And that world is Satan’s world. If you let this sort of thing in—study all these details and practical matters in this light—it is not just that you are having to deal with an apostle whom you think had not too much liking for women, and so on.
No, no, you are up against tremendous things here. It is Satan seeking to get inside and get a foothold and a link between what is holy and what is his, in order that, by defiling, or bringing the world in with its corruption, he may destroy that thing of God.
Read it all in that light, for that is clear. The New Testament puts it: “Lest Satan should get an advantage.” You see, the whole of the battle is raised against this one unholy spirit that is in the universe—this corrupting influence and power, this defiling work.
The church is always to be on its guard against this—the spirits of uncleanness that are everywhere.
Because of the power of holiness, do not make holiness an end in itself—just to have a clean condition or something in itself. No, it is the power, the mighty power, of holiness.
Remember that in the Bible—and it is so clearly and strongly illustrated in the Old Testament—holiness is always militant. It was the priests that led them into battle. It was the sacrifice that was the ground of the warfare.
It is most impressive that even the Levites are spoken of as set apart for warfare. Levites, priests, set apart for warfare. Well, they were set apart to offer sacrifices, you feel. Oh, no: holiness is militant.
It is a mighty power against one who is militant. Our warfare is with principalities and powers. They are making war; there is no doubt about it. They make war.
Holiness is the ground of our hope. Oh, it is not our phraseology, our language, our terminology, or our doctrine. It is our holiness of life. That is the point of attack.
Unholiness puts God back. God is holy; the Holy Spirit is holy. And unholiness keeps Them back, or puts Them back. It binds Their hands; They cannot do anything.
It is as though the Lord is bound in the midst of His people and helpless, paralyzed, when there is unholiness.
I pulled a book out of my bookshelf this week, one that I had not read for a long time—for many years. As I was turning the pages, I came upon this. It is just one simple, fragmentary illustration of what I mean, because it brings us to very practical points.
It is the story of a Christian college that was carried on by prayer and by faith—all its support. Says this—I am going to read this to you. I do not often read something out of a book to you here.
The college was based on the simplicity of daring faith in God for the provision of needs. As long as the spiritual life of the men was maintained, the necessary funds came in in answer to prayer.
If the supplies failed to come in, with no sign of replenishment, it was recognized that the finger of God was on some hidden or unconfessed sin among them; and not until this was put right would supplies come in. Thus the meeting of the material needs became, as it were, the spiritual barometer.
An instance of this may be recorded. Funds were so low that a meeting was held, and the students urged to a more complete surrender to God. Still matters did not improve, and it was felt that possibly the men were not devoting sufficient time to prayer. So the curriculum was curtailed, and more time devoted to prayer. But still no supplies came, and finally all stores came to an end, and there was only the garden produce left.
Then, late one night, two students came to the tutor and confessed secret drinking. He gave urgent advice to repair to God and confess their sin and plead forgiveness—not for the sake of the loaves and fishes, but because of the leaven of hypocrisy.
And they did that. Confession was made before the whole college, and united prayer was offered. The next day was set apart for fasting and humiliation and prayer, at the close of which they gathered together with a great-hearted thankfulness, feeling the moral and spiritual atmosphere was cleansed, and that God would be able to give an exhibition of His faithfulness. God honoured their faith, and the very next morning came a cheque for fifty pounds.
A very simple story, but it illustrates rightly. A whole work of God can be held up; a whole assembly can have its spiritual life injured and limited. The warfare of the enemy can be turned into defeat.
Oh, what a lot will result if the Lord has to stand back and say, “Sorry, I cannot go on with them. There is this; there is that. There is an Achan; there is an Ananias and Sapphira.” He knows, dear friends: unholiness, you see.
It may be something which, after all, is only a small part of the whole—two men in a whole college, or one man in a room, or two people in the church at the beginning, a man and his wife in the church at the beginning.
Yes, well, the majority may be all right. It does not matter, you think. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit focuses right down on that because He is bound by the corporate principle. He is committed to the corporate principle.
On the one hand, if one member suffers, all the members suffer. If one member rejoices, all the members rejoice. There is a relatedness which is sacred to the Holy Spirit.
Our blessing benefits the whole church. Ah, sin—ah, unholiness—may cripple that whole church.
Holiness is militant. It is triumphant warfare.
Holiness is Christly character. Holiness is not formal make-up, something put on.
The Lord Jesus saw right through that with the Pharisees and rulers—none of that. No spiritual make-up will pass with the Holy Spirit.
Holiness is holy habit—more than teaching, more than profession, more than pretence, more than normal procedure on the outward side.
It is that very Person, the very life, the very character of Christ in the believer and in the church.
It is a very big matter, far bigger than this, but that is enough. The Holy Spirit—the Spirit of holiness—because He is that, everything else follows.
Everything else follows. Now, for your comfort, let me say this.
Those men who were gathered in that upper room for those ten days, and on that particular day, in themselves, I do not think they were any more holy than they were when one of them denied the Lord Jesus. They had all forsaken Him and fled. In that way, they denied Him. They were all guilty.
And I do not think that on the day of Pentecost, in themselves, they were any more holy than they were before. But the Spirit came upon them. What for? To make them holy—to set up a holiness of life within them.
You have not got to struggle to get to a place of holiness, trying to make yourself worthy of the Holy Spirit. You have to be where they were: before the Lord, set upon all that the Lord had spoken of, obedient to what the Lord had said.
That is what they were doing after He had given them commandments through the Holy Spirit. I do not believe that relates to the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Immediately, the context says He commanded them that they depart not from Jerusalem.
They were obeying His command. That is, they were bare, open, diligent, committed, earnest, ready, waiting on Him.
Men with many, many imperfections, but the Holy Spirit had a way in them—a way. And He came and took that way.