Brothers and sisters, let us turn first to a few portions of Scripture. The first is Hebrews 1, beginning with verse 1.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the world.
Then, in 2 Timothy 3, verses 15 and 16:
From childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
We will read this much for now. As we go on in our sharing, we will turn to other Scriptures. Let us have a further word of prayer.
Lord, we come together and look to You. Lord, may You reveal the mystery of Your work in our midst. Lord, how we admit that we need You to enlighten our eyes, that You may awaken our hearts, and that, as we follow You, we may not go the wayward way.
Lord, we dare not trust ourselves. We only depend upon You. Through Your word, Lord, give us light, that we may find the right way to walk and finish the course that You have prepared for us.
May all glory be unto You. May all Your spiritual blessings be upon Your people. Lord, remember this afternoon’s time, that our physical tiredness may not interrupt our waiting before You. Thank You, Lord. All glory belongs to You. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The purpose for which the Lord has gathered us at this time is that we may know the Holy Spirit. The brothers have arranged for me to share concerning the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and the word.
This is a very real matter. As brothers and sisters consider this topic, you will naturally think of the verse which says that all Scripture is inspired by God.
Indeed, all Scripture is inspired by God. This shows us that God is willing to speak to man. He is a God who speaks. When we read Hebrews 1, we see that from the beginning until now God has used many ways to speak to us—many times through the prophets, and later through His own Son.
But brothers and sisters, have you ever considered this? God is willing to speak to man, but is man able to hear what God is saying? If man cannot hear what God is saying, what does God’s speaking accomplish?
Thank the Lord: when God speaks, He does resolve problems. But we must pay attention to this matter of God speaking and man hearing.
Remember when man fell and left God in the garden of Eden. Did not God speak a word to Adam? “The day that you eat of it, you shall die.” Adam ate. Did he die?
Outwardly speaking, he did not die immediately. Yet in reality he did die. The question is: What kind of death was this?
Sometimes we think of death as the cessation of bodily functions: no breath, the heart stops beating, and the body has no more life in it. But the word of God shows us that death, in the eyes of God, is not confined to this.
In the eyes of God, death means that man can no longer have fellowship with Him. He cannot see the face of God anymore. He no longer has fellowship with God.
This point is closely related to our sharing concerning the Holy Spirit and the word. God wants to speak to man, but fallen man cannot hear the word of God.
In the Old Testament, God spoke to many people. Yet whenever He spoke, He often spoke first to one man. God wanted that man to be able to hear His word. But was God speaking only for that one individual? Of course not. God speaks to one man so that many people may hear.
The difficulty is that even the one man who listens to God has problems in listening to God. Then how can the many hear?
There is another special feature of God’s speaking. When He speaks something the first time, He continues to speak that same word. God is from eternity to eternity, and His word is established in heaven. But man is limited. A man may hear the word of God while he is young, but he cannot remain forever. One day he passes away. Does this mean that the word God spoke to him can no longer be heard?
We must return to the word of God and see how God speaks. Scripture shows us that when God speaks to one person, others may hear a sound without hearing the meaning.
For instance, in John 12, the Father spoke to the Son. The Son heard Him clearly. Those standing around were not deaf; they heard a sound, but they did not hear the meaning. They said, “It thundered.”
The same thing occurred with Paul on the road to Damascus. When the bright light shone upon Paul and he heard the Lord speaking to him, those traveling with him also heard something. Yet they heard only noises and could not understand.
Brothers and sisters, you see that when God speaks to man, there are often difficulties. If God only found individuals to speak to, it would be very difficult. But thank the Lord, He is willing to speak to man.
When God speaks to certain individuals, how can they hear Him? They are descendants of Adam, and therefore they have the same difficulty as others. Why can one hear while others cannot? This relates directly to our topic this afternoon.
Those who are able to hear the word of God and understand it have become alive. Just as man became a living soul, so God makes man alive to hear His word.
All Scripture is inspired by God. We also see in 2 Peter 1:20-21 how the Bible originated.
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation;
for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will,
but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
At first this may appear to describe prophecy only. But, in principle, it includes all that God has spoken. From the origin of the Bible, we see that it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work upon men.
The Holy Spirit in man enabled men to hear the word of God. Then He moved men to record what God had spoken. That is how the Bible in our hands came to be.
In the history of the Bible, we must ask: Who could be sure that these writings were the word of God? Could someone simply take another writing and declare it to be part of the Bible? This brings us to the history of the canonization of Scripture.
In the days of the apostles, “the Scriptures” referred principally to the Old Testament. God had preserved His word for the Jews, and our Lord Jesus accepted those Scriptures.
In the early church there was no complete Bible. Their principal text was the Old Testament. Later, the apostles wrote epistles, and the four Gospels came forth. As these writings appeared, a spiritual warfare also began. Whenever God works, Satan seeks to intrude and destroy the work of God.
Under God’s oversight, the New Testament gradually took form. But Satan did not give up. Alongside the writings of the apostles, other writings appeared—what came to be regarded as apocryphal writings. These confused the children of God.
Many of these writings contradicted the apostles’ teachings, yet they also claimed to be from God and to be revelations of the Holy Spirit. Was this true or not? If it was true, the church should follow it. If not, the church needed to be careful. Thus, there was confusion in the early church.
In AD 397, the Council of Carthage recognized which books belonged to the New Testament and discerned which writings were apocryphal. From a human perspective, this was the canonization of the Bible.
Some say that the Bible is merely the result of men meeting together in councils. This is the accusation often made by liberals. But did the Bible result merely from men meeting together?
If our spiritual eyes are enlightened, we can see clearly that it was not simply the result of a council. We can say that the council recognized a fact: God had given His word to man.
Many of us have participated in meetings. For even a small matter, people can argue at length and still reach no conclusion. Yet the Council of Carthage involved many church leaders, and they were able to discern what was from man and what was inspired by God.
Generally speaking, there were important criteria. First, did the writings come from the apostles or the prophets? Second, were they received by all the churches?
This matter of acceptance by all the churches is not a small thing. The more people there are, the more difficult it is to reach agreement. Yet the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were accepted not merely by churches in the first two or three centuries, but by the church throughout the centuries.
Brothers and sisters, if it were not the work of the Holy Spirit, the canonization of the New Testament would not have been easy. From the origin of the Bible and from its canonization, we see the work of the Holy Spirit.
How can we know that the Bible is truly the word of God? We need the Bible to explain the Bible. You and I cannot prove it by ourselves; let the Bible prove itself.
The first point is the accuracy of the word in the Bible. What is recorded there corresponds exactly with reality.
For example, consider the Bible’s description of the condition of man. You cannot find another literature that describes man’s condition so clearly. Other religions may speak about sin, but their descriptions are far from what God reveals in Scripture.
The Bible says, “There is not one righteous, not even one.” You may find many good men and even some righteous men in a relative sense, but you cannot find a perfect man. How can the Bible speak so absolutely? Because it comes from God. That is the reality: not one righteous, not one.
The word of God is also clear concerning the result: death. But this is not God’s desire for man. God wants to redeem man, and He has prepared the work of salvation.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Is this true? Is it merely a collection of good words? Peter also said that there is no other name given by which we can be saved. Is that the truth of God’s word? Is it too narrow to say that salvation is only in Him?
This is not a matter of narrow interpretation. It is a matter of God speaking His word. Only He is able to redeem man back to God.
Who has proven this reality? For us, it is easy to see, because we ourselves are the testimony of these words. Unless we have not been saved, we should have no doubt when God says that His word is true.
During the fellowship time this morning, I met a sister whose background was very complicated. She was Tibetan. She had once been a devout Muslim, had served as an officer in the Chinese government, and had received an atheistic education.
With such a complicated background, could she be saved? Thank God, God found her. She believed in the Lord and was saved convincingly. God gave her a very real experience.
The Quran could not give her peace; it only gave her many burdens. But according to God’s word, she accepted the Lord. Once she received Him, she enjoyed peace. What religion could not resolve for her, the word of God resolved for her.
This is the Bible proving itself through our own experience.
If we want to see how the earth progresses according to the Bible, we should not look merely at economics or politics. We must look from the perspective of God’s purpose and see how things develop in His eyes.
When we read about the end times in the Bible, we can see that we are experiencing what Scripture describes. Things on earth are indeed progressing according to what is recorded in the Bible.
At the beginning of the year, I was in Europe and discovered that one could hardly mention Israel without people becoming angry. This was true not only among the general population, but even among some Christians. At first, I could not understand why Europeans were so opposed to Israel.
Brother Lance shared with us concerning the Middle East situation. I asked a question: I am not speaking about how man reacts to these matters. But if we return to the word of God, we see the experience of Israel not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament.
When we speak of the war of Armageddon, we may have a certain impression. It speaks of the whole earth rising up against Israel. How can such a thing happen? Israel is such a small land. Yet the word of God says that the whole world will rise up against Israel.
I mention this only briefly. The Bible explains itself, and its word is true. Why is it so accurate? Because it is inspired by God; it is the record of God speaking to man.
I have mentioned things occurring on earth, but even more importantly, the Bible reveals heavenly things to us. It reveals the relationship between man and God: how man was created by God, how he fell, how he was redeemed back to God, and how God reveals Himself to us.
When we consider these things, we cannot say that the Bible is something invented by man. It is impossible. For the Bible to explain the condition of man so clearly, there is only one possibility: God is speaking.
The Holy Spirit moved men to record what God spoke, and it became the Bible in our hands. The Bible began with the moving of the Holy Spirit, progressed by the arrangement of the Holy Spirit, and became a reality under His direction.
We have shared this much concerning the Bible itself. Now we must consider the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the word of God in our own experience.
Even as we consider the development of Scripture, we see the moving of the Holy Spirit. But even more important is the relationship of the Holy Spirit and the Bible to us. If these things had nothing to do with us, they would be meaningless.
This relationship concerns both our personal Christian growth and the development of God’s purpose. We see God working to bring His purpose into reality.
We often hear people say, “We believe in the same God and read the same Bible.” There is some truth in that statement, but it is not the whole truth. Though we have the same God and the same Bible, there are many different interpretations.
Man may say, “You have your explanation, and I have mine.” But if the Bible is inspired by God, we cannot explain it however we want. We must seek to understand what God originally meant.
Among men there are many interpretations, but which one should we follow? We cannot use man’s explanations as the basis. Only what God Himself says should be our basis.
Let us turn to 1 Corinthians 2:9-13.
Things which eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard,
and which have not entered into the heart of man,
all that God hath prepared for them that love Him.But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit:
for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him?
even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God.But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God;
that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God.Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth,
but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words.
These words tell us clearly that if we want to explain the word of God, we must see how the Holy Spirit opens the word to us. We cannot simply say, “This explanation makes sense,” or, “That explanation makes more sense.” Whose sense are we speaking about? Usually, it is only man’s understanding.
We must not interpret according to the thoughts of man. We must ask: How does the Holy Spirit explain it? How does the Holy Spirit open the word of God? Then our understanding becomes accurate.
If we truly want to understand the word of God, we must seek how the Holy Spirit opens that word to us. Many people read the same words and become liberal. Many heresies also arise from reading the Bible. Those who teach them may say they are basing their teaching on Scripture.
But the problem is whether the Bible was spoken in that way. A complete system of thought may appear reasonable to man, but that does not make it the truth.
If it is truly the word of God, our failure to understand it today, tomorrow, or even after many years does not change the fact that it is the truth. But thank the Lord: if we truly want to understand the heart of God, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us the mystery of the word of God.
Consider the book of Genesis. God called Adam and dealt with his failure. God gave him certain revelations concerning salvation. Do you think Adam fully understood those revelations at that time? I do not despise Adam, but I do not think he understood.
When God gave Adam and Eve garments of skin, perhaps they simply felt that their immediate problem had been taken care of. When they heard that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head, do you think they understood all that God meant? I do not think so.
Perhaps they thought only of having descendants. Cain was born, and they gave him his name, believing that they had obtained a man from the Lord. Yet they could not have imagined the mystery contained in the phrase “the seed of the woman.”
Man cannot understand this mystery according to natural thought. Later, when Abraham offered Isaac, if we look only at history, we see merely an event. How could we think that Abraham’s offering of Isaac was related to the seed of the woman?
We would not naturally think that the Son of God would become the seed of the woman. Then Isaiah prophesied:
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall call His name Immanuel.
People might say there is nothing remarkable about this. Liberals may try to explain it only in natural terms. But no one would naturally imagine that Isaiah’s prophecy was connected to Abraham’s offering of Isaac.
Then, when our Lord came, Matthew recorded a genealogy. At first, when we read genealogies, we may become tired: Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah, and so on. Finally, Jesus was born.
But when the genealogy comes to our Lord, the record is very different. He is the One called the Messiah, born of Mary. How is this possible? Thank the Lord: once the Holy Spirit opens the word, we see that many points from Genesis onward connect all the way to the birth of our Lord.
When the fullness of time came, our Lord came. Many things are written in the Bible which we have no means of understanding unless the Holy Spirit opens and explains them to us.
When we see that it is the Holy Spirit who opens the word of God to us, we notice something. Several brothers fellowshiped together yesterday. Some shared that they had previously read the word of God quickly and superficially. But when they came to read it carefully, they discovered many things they had never seen before.
Why are there so many things in the word of God that we have never seen? Why are some brothers able to see them? Brothers and sisters, this is very real.
Often in our Bible study, we merely read the Bible. If someone asks what it speaks about, we may not know. We may have little sense of what God is trying to say to us through the word.
But as you wait before the Lord, suddenly the word opens up. Then you see.
Our brother shared this morning concerning the true meaning of Pentecost. It began in Leviticus. The Jews observed Pentecost and offered sacrifices; to them it was a tradition. But when the Holy Spirit explains its true significance, we see the reality of Pentecost in the New Testament.
The Lord did not do this hastily. He had spoken of it long before. Yet without the Holy Spirit opening the word, we did not understand. We thought merely of sacrifices and offerings.
There was a special offering on that day: the meal offering of two leavened loaves. We may ask, “How can leavened bread be offered?” But when the Holy Spirit reveals the meaning, New Testament Pentecost becomes alive to us.
How can we understand the word of God? First, we must find how the Holy Spirit opens it. Once the Holy Spirit opens the word, it is as though we are illumined. Then we understand.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and light unto my path.
We may have grown up in Sunday school and memorized this verse. But merely memorizing it is not something special. The important matter is this: How does the word of God become a lamp to our feet and a light to our path? That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit gives light through the word, we can be brought into the presence of God.
We often say that those who believe in the Lord need to read and study the Bible. But this does not mean that merely reading the Bible every day is enough.
If we simply read the Bible every day, we may fall into the same condition as the Jews in the Lord’s day. The Lord said to them:
Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life;
and these are they which bear witness of Me;
and ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life.
The Scriptures testify concerning Christ. Therefore, for the word of God to become light to us, the Holy Spirit must work. Otherwise, we may find a precious treasure and not know that it is precious; we may say, “This is nothing but a stone.”
The Scriptures are inspired by God and given to us by God. The Holy Spirit is also God’s promise, dwelling in us forever. These two things together produce a result in us: we can live accurately before the face of God.
We have spoken about the Holy Spirit explaining the Bible. Now we must consider how the Holy Spirit, through the Scriptures, directs our daily life.
We will not now speak at length about logos and rhema, because we do not have time. But we must mention the lesson of the anointing. I would like brothers and sisters to understand from the word what the lesson of the anointing means.
There has been much misunderstanding from generation to generation. Often people say, “I felt something,” or, “I had a thought.” But we have heard many brothers say that they felt something very clearly in their hearts, yet when they acted according to that feeling, it proved not to be right.
A brother once said that he had a sense that a certain sister had been given by God to him. He acted according to that feeling, but the result showed that she was not the one. Then he was troubled and asked, “How could this be? It was not the way I thought.”
Brothers and sisters, the lesson of the anointing is very real. The question is whether we are truly experiencing that lesson.
From the day we are saved, if we are willing to follow the Lord, we are involved in spiritual warfare. The enemy uses every possible means to draw us away. As we learn the lesson of the anointing, he also puts counterfeits before us to confuse us.
How can we determine what is the true anointing and what is counterfeit? Let us look at 1 John 2:27.
And as for you, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you,
and ye need not that any one teach you;
but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things,
and is true, and is no lie,
and even as it taught you, ye abide in Him.
This tells us clearly that the teaching of the anointing leads us to abide in Him. The anointing is something real within us. It gives us an inward sense concerning whether something is pleasing to God.
But we must not neglect the possibility of counterfeits. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians because they had received letters that troubled them. In 2 Thessalonians 2, he said that they should not be quickly shaken or disturbed by a spirit, a message, or a letter as though it came from the apostles, saying that the day of the Lord had already come.
Paul’s instruction was clear: Do not believe it. Whether it comes by a spirit, a spoken message, or a letter claiming apostolic authority, do not believe it without testing it.
First John tells us not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. We must see whether a teaching is aligned with what the apostles spoke. If it is not the same as what the apostles wrote, we must be careful.
The Holy Spirit wants to bring us to the Lord Jesus. Before the Lord was crucified, He spoke many words to the disciples. He said, “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
The Holy Spirit would teach them the things the Lord desired to teach them. The Spirit would disclose to the church what the Lord had spoken.
But because the Holy Spirit continues to speak to the church, the enemy brings forth many counterfeits. He says, “There are many words that were not spoken before.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we must test the spirits.
What is the basis of our inward feeling? We must pay attention to what John says: “Let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning.” The teaching of the anointing is according to the word of God.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the word of God. As our brother shared this morning, the Holy Spirit reminded Peter of what was written in Scripture. The word was placed in Peter’s heart, and Peter became enlightened.
The teaching of the anointing does not refer only to matters of revelation. It especially concerns direction for daily living. Yet the principle is the same: the Holy Spirit takes the word of God and enlightens it within us, so that we know how to live in the presence of God.
This is indeed the grace of God to us—a very precious grace. The Holy Spirit often restrains us, disciplines us, and corrects us.
Many years ago, brothers and sisters memorized the word of God very well. Not the whole Bible, but some memorized the whole New Testament. I too had some experience of memorizing the New Testament.
It is a shame that I cannot memorize as I once could. Sometimes I think of a passage but cannot recite it. We may feel that this is troubling. But thank the Lord, there is one thing we must remember.
When we really need to use the word of God, the question is not merely whether we can recite it. Of course, if we can memorize it, that is good. But even if we cannot, we should not worry.
If we desire to live before the Lord, His promise is that the Holy Spirit will remind us. The Lord did not use the phrase “the teaching of the anointing” when He spoke of this, but the principle is the same: He will bring to remembrance what He has spoken to us.
This is such a precious word. When you need the word of God, even though you cannot memorize it, the Holy Spirit places that word within you. Your heart is enlightened, and you see the way that you need to go.
My time is up, and I must conclude. Our Lord has given us His word through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, and through the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
We can read the word of God at any time. Yet in some places on earth, people cannot openly read the Bible. Even there, God uses the teaching of the anointing to enlighten us through His word.
Through the word of God, we receive not only God’s provision but also His protection. The Bible enables us to prove and discern the work of the Holy Spirit.
Recently, in mainland China, a heresy has had a great impact. Its name is “Eastern Lightning.” Perhaps many brothers and sisters have heard of it but do not know much about it.
They say that God’s work now is to conclude the age. They say that the Son of God came as a man in history, but that when He comes again, He will come as a woman. They teach that this so-called female Christ must be accepted, and that even those who believe in the Lord Jesus will perish if they do not accept her.
This teaching has drawn many people. Some who came out of it said that in the beginning it seemed amazing, but gradually they sensed that something was not right within them.
If the word of God has been enlightened in us, and if the Holy Spirit gives us an inward sense, we can know from the beginning that such a teaching is not right.
The first coming of our Lord completed the work of salvation. How can He come a second time to make up for something supposedly incomplete in salvation? The Lord does not need to mend what He has completed.
He came once and completed salvation. Today we receive that salvation by faith. We do not need Him to come again to complete what He has already accomplished.
Thank the Lord. God has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, lead us, and guide us. He has also given us His outward word to tell us His will and His arrangement. Inwardly and outwardly, He is bringing us into His presence.
Let us pray.
Lord, we desire that You would open our eyes to see more clearly what is in Your heart. What man can express is so limited. Through the Holy Spirit, enlighten the word of the Bible to us.
May we live in the presence of Your face as we wait for Your return. Lord, we look to You to hold us as You complete Your work. Deliver us from the net of the enemy, that we may walk according to Your heart.
May all glory, honor, and praise be unto You, for it is all Your doing. We thank You, Lord. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.