01.04. The Holy Ghost No Failure
4. The Holy Ghost No Failure The caption above may strike some readers as peculiar and needless, but will not others, who are studying the times, watching God’s providential movements, and listening to the outspoken fears, opinions and judgments of great numbers of people. That the Holy Spirit can be no failure we might well know from his divine personality as well as Executive Office. He is God, and to him has been entrusted by the Father and Son the work of applying, advancing and completing the great plan of Redemption, until the world is brought back to God, and Christ appears in the clouds to judge and reward mankind. The ground of the suspicion and accusation that the work and dispensation of the Holy Ghost is a failure appears to be in the apparently unmoved masses of mankind all around us; the lethargy and powerlessness of the church; the seemingly superior force of an evil habit over a man as compared with the influence which Heaven has upon him; the backsliding of Christians; and the spectacle of the great unconverted world outside of the church.
All these things are grave enough to contemplate to be sure, but every one of them is explainable and that, too, without a single impeachment upon the ability of the Holy Spirit to meet successfully and triumphantly all these conditions, and to do thoroughly and completely all that the Bible says he can, and will yet certainly perform.
Two things should not be forgotten by these aforesaid criticizers and judges of heaven, and discounters of the great Executive of the Trinity, and that is, that men are endowed with moral freedom, and so cannot be forced. Again, that in view of the ignorance, prejudice, spiritual darkness, sin and power of the devil, time must be given the Holy One to accomplish his mission. And yet thus far he has hardly had a chance. As yet His work has been sporadic, and not as it will be. His human agents and instruments have been slow and stupid. The great majority in the church have never been "born of the Spirit." A mere handful have been baptized with the Holy Ghost. His so-called people get sidetracked and clear off the track, impeding and hindering the work on the outside world. Difficulties that would be appalling and paralyzing to any but an omniscient, omnipresent omnipotent God are constantly on the hands of the Spirit. And yet in spite of all, He, the Holy One, is moving on and up with his work, and will yet bring the nations to the feet of Christ. Knowing his boundless resources he has nothing to fear as to the final outcome. And like him whom he represents, he will not faint, nor be discouraged until all be fulfilled and the universal victory shall take place which is prophesied in the Word of God. The Holy Ghost has been sent forth to reprove or convict the world of sin. And for that matter this has already been done. The light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world has visited each soul, whether that being is in heathen or Christian lands. It is not necessary to know there is a Holy Ghost to be convicted and reproved by the Holy Ghost. Nor is it essential to be in a meeting. Nor is it required that a man be willing to be convicted. Here is a work of the Spirit that can take place independently of the consent of a free moral agent.
According to the testimony of all the ages the Holy Spirit has been no failure on this line.
He certainly got in a most successful work one morning in Jerusalem when a multitude in deep distress cried to the disciples, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
Then let the reader ask himself if there was any lack in the trouble for sins or sin wrought in his case by the Spirit prior to his conversion or sanctification. Did he not see himself in all his weakness and helplessness, and sin in all its blackness and vileness? Could he have stood it, if the burden had been heavier? No doubt about it, that it was a perfect work.
Again, the Father uses the Spirit in regenerating the soul; the first work being made distinctive and peculiar by the figure, "Born of the Spirit." The Son employs him in the second work of grace described as "The Baptism with the Holy Ghost." It is noticeable that both of the other persons of the Trinity take the Holy Ghost as their tremendous instrument or agent of power.
They certainly have confidence in him.
It is also to be observed that whoever claims to obtain or arrive at these two moral states or conditions otherwise than by the power of the Holy Ghost, soon treats the community without exception, to a first-class exhibition of spiritual ignorance, fanaticism, humbuggery and make believe, and inevitably followed by the character downfall and life failure, as the building built on the sand was certain to go when the floods came, according to the parable of Christ. With all who have allowed the Spirit to regenerate and sanctify, we have yet to hear a single one say that he or she was dissatisfied with the work. Judging from their radiant faces, and their ringing testimonies, they are not only content but exultant over what the Holy Ghost did. They cannot even speak of it without the heart swelling, the eyes filling, and the voice giving glory to God. So there seems to be no failure there. As for the seemingly stronger power of sinful habit over a man, as compared to the delivering influence of the Holy Ghost, it is only apparent and not really so. The condition of being perfectly freed from the dominion of every form of sin, is, that we give up the sin itself first. "Let the wicked forsake his way--and I will have mercy upon him," says the Lord.
We have been struck with the fact that deliverance from the tobacco habit will never be given if the man cherishes in his mind an intention to return to it. Nor will the work be done, while the wretched little compromises are seen in chewing sticks, wax and gum.
We know of an evangelist who carries around with him for the habit-ridden victim something that looks like tobacco with licorice in it. The Spirit will not honor such a halfway surrender. So his power is not seen in the case, and he is misjudged as to his ability and counted a failure.
What an army of men and women could stand up today and declare truthfully the complete rescue from alcohol, narcotics and every acquired and perverted appetite of the flesh, giving all the glory to God through the power of the Holy Ghost. They would all say that He was no failure in their case. As for the lethargy and lack of power in the church, this state of things does not arise from the fact that the Holy Spirit could not in a single second, vitalize, electrify, glorify and turn the church loose on the world, powerful, exultant and irresistible; but the trouble and cause of failure is the neglect of the same people to meet the conditions which the Spirit makes imperative before he will work in us and through us upon the nations. If the tarrying in the Upper Room for the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, and for that alone, is not separated from educational and missionary programs, the Spirit will not fall on us, and we will not be able to fall on the people, and the people will not fall before the Lord. As for the ability of the Holy Ghost to finish the work, committed to him by the Father and Son, of bringing the nations to the feet of Christ, and the world back to God, none can doubt who read correctly the Word of God. As we have already said, the Father and Son have perfect confidence in his power to carry on and complete the work of Redemption, in this Third and Last Dispensation, called the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost. Christ said it was expedient that he go away that the Spirit might come. In no place does the Word of God say that it will be expedient to recall the Spirit because of his failure, and so another and fourth Dispensation set up. This would prove the Saviour to have made a blunder, if such a statement appeared, or would present the world with a double conflicting and contradictory teaching in the Bible.
We are glad that we do not belong to a class or body of men who belittle or discount the work and power of the Holy Ghost in saying that the world is getting worse and worse, and that he will have to be retired and give way to some other kind of Dispensation on the order of a temporal kingdom. The Bible does not say the world is getting worse, but that under certain conditions mentioned, "Evil men shall wax worse and worse." This is quite different. Nor does the Bible say that there is another Dispensation to follow this, but declares we are in "the Last Days," or, more correctly, "The Last Dispensation."
No, the Holy Ghost is able to bring the nations and all the adversaries of Christ down to his feet, and this he can and will do WITHOUT CHRIST COMING VISIBLY AND PHYSICALLY TO HIS RELIEF! Two verses out of many prove this. They are in Hebrews, tenth chapter, and they settle the fact of Christ remaining in heaven while the Holy Ghost makes a complete work of the Gospel on earth. The verses are the twelfth and thirteenth--"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool." The reader will observe that Christ remains sitting on his throne in heaven! He does not come back to earth to assist a failing Holy Ghost! He waits on his throne in heaven expectant, until his enemies are conquered and his cause won. And these enemies are made his footstool! It is evident that he is still sitting on his throne when the victory, clothed and described in such a remarkable and convincing figure, is accomplished. And mind you, achieved by the Holy Ghost on earth for a Christ sitting on his throne in heaven.
No, thank God, the Holy Ghost is no failure! Some preachers and teachers may so falsely instruct the people, but the Word of God most plainly and powerfully declares to the contrary.
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