The sermon transcript discusses the strength and solace found in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. It refutes the idea that there are multiple ways to come to God, emphasizing the exclusivity of Jesus as the only path to the Father. The sermon draws parallels to the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, highlighting the themes of solace and strength throughout. It also references Romans chapter 8, contrasting the carnal mind with the spiritual mind and emphasizing the need for the revelation of Calvary through the Holy Spirit.

I suppose that probably one of the best-known and one of the oft-quoted chapters of the New Testament is the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, especially the opening verses, Let not your heart be troubled. If ye believe in God, believe also in me. And I think you'll find that in that chapter there are twin strands that seem to run right through, the strands of solace and of strength, of consolation and of courage. And these strands appear and reappear all the way through this chapter. You'll find it, for instance, right away in the appeal that Jesus makes. Let not your hearts be troubled. Don't let your hearts become tempest-tossed like the wind-swept waves of the sea. The authorized version says, he believed in God, believe also in me. But literally it is, believe in God, believe also in me. And if you do this, then your heart will not be troubled like the storm-tossed wave of the sea. And so right away you'll find this twin strand of strength and solace in the appeal that Jesus makes. And then you'll find it in the abode that he prepares when he says in verse 2, In my Father's house are many mansions. And I hope that no one has the impression that you're going to get some wonderful palace when you get up there. Actually the word mansions is simply booths or dwelling places. And I hope I haven't disillusioned anyone unduly. But the point is this, that Jesus even here gives strength and solace together when he says, In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. You see it also in the advent which he predicts when he says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And he wasn't talking about coming in death. He was talking about coming actually and personally, as I believe. Coming in the second advent. You know there are more scriptures concerning the second advent of Jesus than there are concerning the first advent. Perhaps you didn't know that, but it's perfectly true. So again you see this strength and solace coming to the surface. Then you have it in the access he provides in verses 4, 5 and 6 where he says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And by the way, I've heard so many people say again and again, Well, there are many ways of coming to God. And you see God in creation and if you follow the light of creation, it will lead you to God and so on. Well, that's one of the arguments of the first chapter of Romans with regard to the heathen who have never heard the gospel. But what Jesus said is this, No man cometh unto the Father but by me. The Father revelation of God is peculiarly and uniquely the revelation which Jesus brought. And I think that's a fairly good argument in answer to those that raise such ideas in your minds at times and try to promulgate their own theories as to the many ways to come to God. There's only one way to come to the Father and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever revelations of the majesty of God creation itself may reveal, yet it is only Jesus who shows us God as the Father. And sometimes it does seem to me that it required the babyhood of Jesus to reveal the fatherhood of God. That's only my own idea of course. But then again you have it in the activity he describes in verses 7 to 12 which you may read sometime. Not now, but sometime at your leisure. And you'll see that right there in those verses 7 to 12 he describes certain activity which again brings this idea of strength and solace to the service. And you have it especially in the asking which he encourages. Verses 12 and 13. I've got to read these verses. And whatsoever he shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If he shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now isn't that a glorious passage of Scripture? Isn't it something wonderful to contemplate even? As I thought about it in studying and preparing for this evening's service, it began to open up to me and I could almost see myself preaching a sermon on these two verses. I'm not going to, but I could almost imagine it, you know. The widest possible compass whatsoever. The simplest possible action he shall ask, even a child can ask. The strongest possible confirmation, that will I do. And the highest possible motive, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And the fullest possible detail, if he shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now that's a wonderful sermon, isn't it, if I only had time to preach it. But you see the idea is there. This tremendous scope that comes in the asking which Jesus himself encourages here. And then you come to the main evidence of solace and strength, as I see it, in the advocate he promises in verses 15 to 26. Begin to remember, if ye love me, keep my commandments, and then I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter. Now when you read, if ye love me, keep my commandments, you should read it, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. This is how it should read, really. And then linked with this, with this obedience that springs from love, comes this other promise of the advocate who is yet to come. And I will pray the Father and he will give you another advocate or comforter that he may abide with you forever. That's how verse 16 reads in full. And I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Remember, pointing to the future, with there is the preposition meta. As when one friend is identified with another and converses and walks with that friend in perfect unity, that's this word meta, that points to the future. That he may abide with you, meta. Or at verse 17, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but he knoweth him. Now notice, for he dwelleth with you, para, alongside you. Got the idea? That he may abide with you, meta, identified with. But he dwelleth with you, para, alongside you. And then the third preposition, and shall be in you, en, e-n, in you, as a person who dwells in a house or who settles down in a home. Now it's this third preposition that I want to talk about tonight and what comes out of it. I've been mentioning from time to time various emblems of the Holy Spirit. I've been reminding you of titles of the Holy Spirit. And I've also told you on occasions that there are many prepositions of the Spirit. And each one of these prepositions has a peculiar and significant contribution to make to the totality of the revelation of who the Holy Spirit is and what it is he is seeking to do. And so I thought tonight that if we looked at this one, en, in you, then we would have some concept of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this preposition is used of two things relating to the Holy Spirit, his indwelling presence and his infilling presence. But I want to speak tonight of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit which comes out from this preposition en, or in. Now, you're with me thus far. This isn't too complicated, I hope. I don't want to be too theological about it in the sense of confusing anybody. You can have too much theology, not enough neology, I find, so that we are going to try and see the thing in its simplicity. But I trust also in the profundity of the work which the Spirit of God is seeking to do. So this last preposition then, en, which speaks to us tonight of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Now, this preposition is mentioned in relation to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit eight times in the writings of the New Testament and principally in the writings of the Apostle Paul. It is an indwelling that would not be fulfilled until the day of Pentecost had been accomplished. They had to understand this. And I think Jesus makes it very clear and very plain to them because it is his own exposition of what is to take place when the Spirit of God finally comes and takes up his abode, takes up his dwelling place in the hearts and lives of God's people, makes the church his own living home. And that required the day of Pentecost, which is more than a day. It is the beginning of a new dispensation. And I think that what we need most of all today as Christian people and in the churches to which we belong is a rediscovery of Jesus Christ in the Holy Ghost sense, in the Holy Spirit sense of interpretation. Not so much the lowly Nazarene, the carpenter's son, but the Lord of glory and the head of his church. This is the vision that we need and this is the vision which the Holy Spirit has come to bring to each one of us if our hearts are open to receive it. I think that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian is one of the main functions of the Spirit of God. And you know that when he came into existence as far as the church was concerned, he came for a fourfold purpose. First he came to evangelize the world. And he does this by restraining sin and by reproving sin, convicting concerning sin. He comes to evangelize the world. There can be no evangelism apart from rebirth. And there can be no regeneration apart from the Holy Spirit. So I think it's pretty clear, isn't it, that if there is to be an evangelizing of the world around us, it depends upon the personal ministry and function of the Holy Spirit of God himself. And he comes not only to evangelize the world, but he comes also to enrich the church with spiritual gifts and graces, with ministries of the ascended and living head, and in many, many ways to express through the church the bounty of the living Christ who is the head of the church. So he comes in this way also, not only to evangelize the world but to enrich the church, God's own dear people. And I think he comes to empower the Christian for service, for witness, for personal testimony, and for many, many other things. Because you need power not only to enable you to speak and to witness for Jesus Christ. You need power to enable you to stand, power to enable you to suffer, power to enable you to sacrifice, power for many, many things. Apart from power to be able to speak with tongues and magnify God, or prophesy or interpret or tell others about Jesus, you need this empowering by the Spirit of God for a thousand different things. Let God be praised. He knows our particular need and our personal circumstances, and in his own wonderful way he adopts his tremendous, illimitable power for our own finite human needs and capabilities. He has his own way of doing this. And most of all, and first and cheapest of all, he comes to exalt the Lord. There's nothing else, it seems to me, that concerns the Spirit of God in all that I've said, apart from the fact that through all this and in all this and because of all this, Christ, the Lord, is to be exalted. This is why I said a moment ago how our great need, it seems to me, is for a rediscovery of Jesus Christ in this horrible sense, because only he can express what Christ is in all the perfect balance of his marvelous personality. He has the majesty of an emperor when you see him under the light of the Spirit, and he has the simplicity of a little child. He burns with a white heat of enthusiasm and devotion, and he's as calm as the blue of a summer sky. His teaching is profoundly simple, and yet it is simply profound. Why, the great men of his day, they can't seem to comprehend what he is saying, but the common people hear him gladly. We talk about the meekness of the man of God when we think in terms of the Old Testament, and we think of the meekness of Moses, and we think of the faith of Abraham, and we think of the patience of Job, and so on. But if you were to take any one of the qualities found in Jesus Christ and extend them to the same extent in any other person, you would make that person outstandingly famous. But you see the culmination of all these qualities in the one person whom we love and serve, the Lord Jesus Christ, makes him the one perfect flower of humanity, makes him the hope of the world, makes him the Savior of mankind, and makes him my Lord and my God. And when I see him as he scintillates and glows under the enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit, as I see him interpreted by the Spirit of God, I begin to understand what it is that he is trying to do in exalting Christ, not simply in the church, but in your life and in mine. Why did I say all that? I don't know. But what I wanted to say was this, that one of the great functions of the Holy Spirit then is to indwell the Christian's life, indwell the believer as a person. And I'm sure that this indwelling by the Spirit of God is a very, very important function which he fulfills. Now, what is the significant thing about it? Well, first, I would say the first significant thing is that it is a mark of distinction. It distinguishes the carnal man from the spiritual man. This is from God's standpoint. This is the idealism in it. This is how God sees it, that when a person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, it makes that person different from the person who is carnally minded. And this is what God always intended, it seems to me. Now, it doesn't always work out this way, but it's God's intention. And so if we are indwelt by the presence of the Spirit of God, there is a mark of distinction between the man who is filled with the Spirit and the man who is filled with himself. Sometimes you can even see this. You know, the classic chapter on this subject is Romans chapter 8, whom someone has called Paul's Pentecost. But particularly in verses 6 to 13, you'll find this contrast is made between the carnal man and the spiritual man, or the carnal mind and the spiritual mind. Romans chapter 8, verses 6 to 13. I'm not going to read those verses because there isn't time, but I'm going to touch on one or two of these, so keep your Bibles, open up that point, and then you can check with me, because now and again I'm going to give you A. S. Way's translation, now and again the N. E. B. translation, so you can just check it as we go through. Right. Now, Paul's description of the carnal mind is in verses 6 to 8. And you'll notice how he describes the influence of the carnal mind to begin with. Verse 6, For to be carnally minded is death, and death in Scripture is separation from environment. But to be spiritually minded is life, and life in Scripture is correspondence with environment, life and peace. What he is saying, in effect, is this. Carnality tends to separate the life from God. Spirituality tends to unite the life with God. And this, in simple terms, is what the apostle is saying to his readers. So there is a strong contrast here, made between two conditions. Live to satisfy the longings and the yearnings and the desires and the ambitions of the flesh, and you will drift away from fellowship with God. But live to obey the promptings of the indwelling Spirit, and then you will enjoy fellowship which produces lasting harmony and peace. And if you want a life in which the harmony of the Spirit of God is present, then you cannot have your own way, you cannot live to please yourself, you cannot indulge carnal desires and fleshly passions and selfish motives and interests. You have to make a distinction, because it is made already, if you do believe that the Spirit of God has come to indwell you. But if you want the harmony of the Spirit in your life, this is the way. Strasbourg Cathedral is a huge edifice, and in it there is a magnificent organ. And one day a stranger arrived and asked permission to play, and the caretaker was not too happy about it, but at last gave in. And as the music filled this vast building, so wonderful, so beautiful, so breathtaking almost, the caretaker stood there and by and by, the tears were streaming down his cheeks, he could not help himself, he was so emotionally stirred. When the music ceased, he went across and he said, Sir, tell me your name. And he said, Well, they call me Mendelssohn. And he said, Oh, Sir, forgive me. He said, To think that I might never have had this tremendous experience, that in my stubbornness I could have kept you away from this instrument, and never had this glorious experience at all. And how often it is in the Christian's life, that because of carnality, because of selfishness, because of our fleshliness, we miss the soul-absorbing harmonies of the fellowship of the Spirit, the music that comes out of our association with Him, the intimacy of His fellowship with us, we miss it, because we forget that there has to be a mark between the carnal and the spiritual. So, you see, Paul is describing here the influence of the carnal mind. It's deadly in its influence. It deprives you from real fellowship with God. It breaks the connection. Whereas, if you are spiritually minded, then it's life, it's communion, it's fellowship, and it's harmony, it's peace. Peace, of course, is the word Irenaean. It means harmony. So, we're not far off the track here. But then, you see, Paul goes on to describe the arrogance of carnality in verse 7 of this chapter. He's described the influence in verse 6. Now, the arrogance of carnality. And here's A. S. Way's translation. For the tendency of the animal nature is hostile to God. It does not subject itself to the law of God. In fact, it is incapable of doing so. Carnality is not simply deadly, then. But from God's standpoint, it's mutiny. It's hostility. And this is how he says it. It will never marshal its forces under God's banner. It's against God because the flesh lusts against the Spirit, just as the Spirit lusts against the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other. Antichai are entrenched in opposition to each other. They can never, never be reconciled. That, said Jesus, which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. You can do what you like with it. You can educate it. You can paint it up. You can dress it prettily. You can do anything you like. It's still flesh. But that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And the two can never, never hope to be harmonized. This is what the Apostle is saying. And so it will never marshal its forces under God's banner. Then moving to verse 8, you are shown the consequences of carnality. Here sways translation again. Those in whom the animal nature has the upper hand cannot please God. The man who is determined to please himself can never bring pleasure to the heart of the eternal God. It's impossible. You can go your own way. You can do your own thing. You can accomplish your own purpose as much as you like. But do this and you cannot bring pleasure to the heart of God. For if you are living outside the bounds of His will, then that is displeasure to Him. However much you may think that you are getting on and that you are going places because you are doing a thing you feel you should be doing and you want to be doing. Don't make any mistake about it. If its base, if its source, if its origin, if its fount is carnality, it can never, never come under the blessing of God. It may appear to do so for a little while, but it will not in the end because those who are in the flesh cannot please God. There is an area of experience where the believer daily and hourly and sometimes almost momentarily adjusts his will to the will of the indwelling Spirit. And he knows this sometimes as a conscious experience, sometimes almost unconsciously because he flows with God. But this surely has to be done. And this realm of experience is altogether outside and totally unrelated to the other kind of living, the other kind of life, the sphere of the self-life, the carnal mind. It's altogether foreign to this. I wish we had time to go more deeply into this, but I know we haven't. Paul moves from negative contrasts now to positive assertions. Now, let me get on to the positive. Let's accentuate the positive a bit. Verse 9, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit of God well in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. What's he saying? You can please God, is it? Because you are not living under the control of the flesh. You are living under the control of the Spirit. But on one important condition, If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. In you. In you. This is the preposition. And in reality, it's a fulfilled condition. If, as is the fact, you have the Spirit of God abiding in you as in a womb, because this is a fact for you, then you are not in the flesh. You are in the Spirit. You are not under the control of fleshly passions and desires. You are under the control of the indwelling, abiding Holy Spirit. Because this is a fact so far as you are concerned, the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you, abiding in you, has settled down in you as into a home. There is no such thing as automatic holiness. Some people think there is. To have victory over the flesh, the Holy Spirit must be allowed to settle down and be at home in the Christian's heart. And as in every real home there is a home environment, so here the Spirit indwelling produces a distinctive atmosphere, environment in which He is able to live. His graciousness and truth, His gentleness and strength, His faithfulness and love, these create an atmosphere. These produce an environment, a home environment, in which He can settle down and dwell. And where you have this, then you can be sure there will be life and peace. There will be communion and harmony, as God intended. And it will not just be an ideal. It will not be as it is in the case of so many Christians, an eternal progression towards an unrealizable ideal. But it will become an experience, something which actually happens. We have just said that there is no such thing as automatic holiness. We repeat it in the light of the conclusion of this verse 9. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. The New English Bible says, And if a man does not possess the Spirit of Christ, he is no Christian. That's a positive statement for the New English Bible. That's right. But if a man does not possess the Spirit of Christ, he is no Christian. But I would add, but if the indwelling Spirit does not possess the man, he is not an overcoming Christian. And I think that in experience we have to agree with this. Now don't be misled into thinking that the Spirit of Christ here is not the Holy Spirit. This is simply one of the 24 titles which the Holy Spirit bears. And three of these titles are titles of relationship with Jesus Christ. And so if He is called the Spirit of Christ, it does not do away with the fact that it is still the Holy Spirit who is in view here. Why is He called the Spirit of Christ? Well, I would say for these following reasons. First, because He rested upon Christ at His baptism. That's Luke 4.18. Secondly, because He testifies of Christ. That's 1 Peter 1.11, where holy men of God searched to see when and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand of the sufferings and the glory which was to follow. You know that scripture passage, don't you? Very well. They had the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, in them, signifying, testifying of sufferings and glory, and they couldn't understand it. I think we said some time ago, these men were moved and impelled by the Spirit of God, dwelling in them, living in them, and moving upon them. They had the inspiration of the sufferings of Christ, but they lacked the interpretation. Our problem is that we've got the interpretation, but often we lack the inspiration. It is only when the Spirit of God is able to come and give to us a revelation of Calvary that we somehow can enter again upon that scene. The neighbors have a song they sing, Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? No, I was not there. Not actually. But there is one present here tonight who was there, the Holy Spirit of God, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God. And so when we meet together and we sing about Calvary, we're not trying to recapture emotionally something of what Calvary meant, but it is gloriously possible to have given to us a revelation of the inner meaning of the cross because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and so recapture not simply the interpretation of Calvary, which we can rattle off and reel off at our leisure, but the inspiration of the cross, which is something altogether different, isn't it? And so there you have the Spirit of Christ testifying. He unites us to Christ, 1 Corinthians 12, 12. He acts for Christ, another comforter, alos paracletos, not an additional comforter, not someone different from myself, not a heteros, but alos, the same as myself, another comforter. So He acts for Christ, and He makes us like Christ. 2 Corinthians 3, 18, But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He makes us like Christ, from glory to glory, from one degree of exultant glory to a degree of inherent glory, as our character is transformed, gazing upon that image which is presented by the Spirit of God and made effective through His ministry in our lives. Now, these designations, then, are interchangeable. Spirit of Christ, Holy Spirit, the supplier of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of His Son, they are interchangeable. And this is an argument, surely in favor of the essential Deity of Jesus Christ. Now, we have often said that faith is comprised of knowledge plus belief plus confidence. I am sure you have heard me say that if you have been attending these services more than once. I don't mind repeating something if I think it's really good, and I think that is really good. Because we all want to know what faith is. Faith is knowledge plus belief plus confidence. In salvation, faith accepts. In sanctification, faith accounts. In service, faith adventures. Well now, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is a privilege, but it is also an obligation which is inescapable. Because, you see, the mark of distinction which is intended between the carnal man and the spiritual man, the flesh and the spirit, calls for action on your part and mine. What action? The action of faith for a sanctified life. That's the action. The great paradox of a Christian's life is that he is called to be what he is. He is called to be experientially what he is positionally in Christ. In Christ, we have our sanctification. But do we have it in Hamilton? This is the thing that really matters. And so we are called to translate the positional into terms of the experiential. And you can only do this on a personal basis. No one else can do it for you. There's no such thing, as I said, as automatic holiness. No one else can live a holy life for you. So there you are. We are called, then, and are obliged to exercise faith toward this ideal if it is ever to become effectual in our life and experience. So how are we going to apply these elements of faith for a sanctified life? Romans 6, verse 6. That's the first scripture. Now, this is the knowing part in sanctifying faith. Knowing this, that our old man, that the old nature is, really was crucified with him, that is, with Christ, that the body of sin, that's the sin principle, might be destroyed, actually rendered inoperative, that henceforth we should not serve sin. In sanctification, we said, faith accounts. And this is part of the accounting which must be done. You take your stand here, that your old nature was crucified with Christ, that somehow when He died, your old nature was involved in that death. This is where you have to take your stand. Justification is Christ dying for me. Sanctification is my dying with Christ. This is the knowing part of sanctifying faith. And this is where we have to start. All right, verse 11. Here is the believing part in sanctifying faith. Likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In sanctification, faith accounts. All right? This is the believing part. The second part of the process, if you like. Reckoning, believing, as you reckon, that this is actually so. Dynamic faith is simply believing what you know to be true from God's standpoint. And so from God's standpoint, your old nature was crucified with Christ. From your standpoint, you reckon it to be so. Therefore, you are saying, Amen to what God has said. And this makes your faith, therefore, become effectual. This is the second part of sanctifying faith. Now notice, it does not say, reckon sin to be dead indeed unto you. But it does say, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Sin does not die out in the believer. But it is the Christian who reckons himself dead indeed unto sin. It is the slave and not the master who dies. Sin doesn't die. Never does. It is we who regard ourselves as dead to that sin. And so it is the Christian who reckons himself dead indeed unto sin. In sanctification, then, death to sin is not a state into which you enter and from which you can never fall. But it is a stand that you take, a reckoning by faith, which becomes effectual as you maintain your stand by faith. But suppose you fall. Suppose you fail. Suppose you sin. Suppose you heal. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Instant confession means instant restoration. And this is the kind of sanctification which the New Testament presents to us, not simply as an ideal, but as a working kind of faith, faith with its sleeves rolled up, if you like, something that really does work. And it works because we are prepared to do what God wants us to do. All right? Now, this is the confidence part in sanctifying faith in verse 13. We have looked at two of these things in the process. Romans 6.6, knowing part. Romans 6.11, the believing part. Romans 6.13, the confidence part in sanctifying faith. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. This is the obligation. Let's give it now, remembering the tense of the verbs and everything else, stop at once submitting your members as weapons of unrighteousness, but once and for all enroll your members under God's banner, as those who are alive from the dead. It's a lovely picture. Stop at once submitting your members as weapons of unrighteousness, but once and for all enroll your members under God's banner, as those who are alive from the dead. This calls, on our part, for a complete dedication, an act that we must perform, an obligation we do accept, something deliberate, a handing over of ourselves to God. And then the promise of Romans 6.14 becomes effective. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. So you see, if we would demonstrate to others that the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit is a mark of distinction between the carnal man and the spiritual man, we've got to take action. It's not automatic. We have to take action. And if we take the action which God Himself prescribes, then the mark of distinction becomes something positive and something real in the lives of God's people. We live a sanctified life because faith claims it. And sanctifying faith is a reckoning faith. The second way in which faith takes action in this area is intensely personal. You have it as you stand with Paul in Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. What is Paul saying? He is telling us that he has found in the cross two powers. A destructive power and a creative power. A destructive power which destroys what He used to be. A creative power which gives Him a new life in Christ. And as the same sun shining in the forest works deeper decay into the rotting trunk, it works greater life into the living trunk. The same thing applies here. The same cross working death to the old and working new and abundant life in the new. It is a marvelous picture, isn't it? But it is more than a picture. It can be an experience. I am crucified. Can you say this with the Apostle Paul? Well, now, if you have never said it, just hesitate a moment because if you do say it, it is quite probable that God will send your best friend along to hammer in the nails. I am crucified. It affected his past who was before a blasphemer and persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy. He was so glad that that part of his past was blotted out. Yes, but this part too. I was touching the Lord blameless. Ah, yes, even the good part has to go. It affects the present. What things were gained to me, I count loss for the knowledge of Christ, that I may win Christ and be found in Him and having mine own righteousness. It affects the future that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. That is the reality, surely, of an experience that this man has passed through. But think of the implication in the statement. Crucified with Christ. His brow is crowned with thorns. He knows the meaning of a thorn-crowned intellect in the service and the ministry of Jesus Christ. With Christ. He knows what it is to go to Calvary and not utter one single word, led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done. He claims no rights if he is crucified with Christ. And think then of the creative power that he discovered. Nevertheless I live. And the reality of this life shines through, doesn't it? What are the proofs of life? One of the proofs of life is the desire for sustenance. No one has to teach a little baby that it needs food or what kind of food either. Desire for sustenance. Are we hungering and thirsting after God? Can you say tonight, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God? This is a proof of the reality of this new life that we may claim to have found. Growth too. This is a sign of life. Development. Are we growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Sensitiveness and responsiveness to one's surroundings. This is a proof of life. Can we go day after day and month after month and never say, Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul or give Him the least little bit of praise? Can we be in a meeting where God is moving by the power of His Spirit and remain untouched, unmoved ourselves, unresponsive? If there is life, there must be a response to environment, to what's going on. We must know, we must sense what is happening. Oh, there's a reality about this life and there's a dependency in it too. Yet, not I, but Christ. Christ, the source of His life. Christ, the subject of His life. He is always talking about Him. Christ, the strength of His life. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. Christ, the sphere of His life. You don't ever find Paul talking about his missionary journeys. I thought he had gone on some tour or other. But he is only concerned about Christ and the things of Christ in all that he says and does and writes. You can discover this. Christ, the sphere of His life. Yet, not I, but Christ. The implication here is very searching, isn't it? And what about the quality of this life when we claim it, having gone through by the way of the cross? Listen to what he says. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Three things. What are they? Faith, love, sacrifice. This is the quality of the life. A life of faith, a life of love, a life of sacrifice. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. And I am sure of this. Happy are we if we recognize, first of all, the slavery to self that makes this deliverance necessary. And then if we recognize the agency that makes this deliverance possible. And best of all, if we have known the liberty that makes this deliverance real. Deliverance from the flesh life, the self life, the carnal life, to make a mark of distinction so that everyone can see it and we ourselves can sense it that we are different by the grace of God because of the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Oh, there is so much I want to say. But I am not going to say any more on that particular heading. I want to touch very briefly on one other point, which I think is important. The indwelling Holy Spirit is significant because it is a pledge of resurrection. Romans 8 for this. Romans 8, verses 10 and 11. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. The difference lies between two spheres, the physical and the spiritual. This is what Paul is saying. Although as a Christian Christ is in you, yet this does not change the fact that as a member of the human race your body lies under sentence of death. This is due to the penalty of sin which has entered upon the human race. Nevertheless, the Spirit is life, he says. The redeemed human spirit of the Christian possessed by, invaded by, controlled by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is instinct with life. God-begotten and God-sustained life. And so there are two spheres, the body under sentence of death, but the Spirit under sentence of abounding and abiding life. And this, because of righteousness, says the Apostle, the righteousness of Christ which is imputed to us and by the indwelling Spirit imparted to us. The pledge of future resurrection lies in the fact that the Holy Spirit indwelling us is quickening our mortal bodies now, supplying life now to these mortal bodies of ours as a pledge of what will take place in the future, in the end. So our concern is not really with the weakening produced by the trump of the archangel, but with the quickening produced by the indwelling Spirit of God. And this is where we stand as believers. The Holy Spirit indwelling the Christian is a mark of distinction and a pledge of resurrection. And I touch upon one more thing. I'll be as brief as possible. It is a seal of separation. In Paul's first letter to Corinth, there are two passages which have a similarity in structure and a positive unity in emphasis. And they both bear out this preposition, indwelling Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Corinthians 6.19 What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? First, he writes of the church of God as God's temple. And then, remembering that the church is people, he writes of believers as a temple of the Holy Spirit. And it is the indwelling Holy Spirit in both instances that seals their separation unto God. Ye are the temple of God, says the Apostle. Here, then, the presence of God is located. As the temple of Solomon was based on the tabernacle of Moses, and God said, Build me a tabernacle, there will I dwell, he who inhabits eternity deigns to localize himself in a body of people. And I believe that the church is intended to be a place where the presence of the living God is so located, so recognized, because it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that it will be in our case, as Paul said it was in his day, they will depart from the midst of you, saying, God is in the midst of them, of a truth. They will find and sense the presence of the living God. Here, too, the purpose of God is vindicated. See, said God to his servant, that thou build it according to the pattern which was shown thee in the mount. And so the church, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is to vindicate the purpose of God in every detail, with all things under his control, no longer organization without action, which is so often the case in our day. When the Holy Spirit is the sole administrator of the affairs of Christ in his church, then it will confirm God's purpose for his church, which is to be not a hospital for the care of sick souls, but an arsenal for the forging of spiritual weapons. Here the voice of God is heard to speak. There will I speak with thee at the entering in of the tabernacle. Let the church be truly indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the voice of God will be heard speaking in the midst of his people and to his people, not merely in the exposition of Scripture, but through the voice gifts of the Spirit, through the ascension ministries of Christ, the head of the church. I am speaking with authority. I can remember years ago now when I was only a youngster sitting in a huge convention. There were at least 3,000 people gathered. I was way back in the congregation, of course, and up on the platform there were servants of God. One of them I remember in particular was a prophet of the Lord, and the word through him had been tested, tried and proved over many, many years. As I sat there worshiping the Lord, I heard this from the platform, and I say to my young servant Greenway, I have not forgotten thee, my young servant, for even as in the case of my servant of old, though the promise may seem to have fallen into the ashes, out of the ashes will I raise up my Isaac. I have spoken to thee, my young servant, in the silences of your own heart, and now I say to thee, thou art my servant, and I call thee to serve me in my church, which is the body of Christ. Can you imagine what that did to me? Then proceeded a prophecy directing me to the place, to the very location where I was to serve God. Then I think for the first time I understood what was meant in Acts 30, where it says, The Holy Ghost said, Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul. And how often this is quoted in almost every ordination service, isn't it? And how far removed we seem to be from that specific and dynamic declaration of the voice of God, which God purposes should reverberate through the corridors of His church. And here the glory of God is demonstrated. And the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. The glory clouded that led them through the wilderness came to rest in this place of God's appointment. And so where the Holy Spirit is indwelling, there will be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages unto the age of ages. The psalmist said, In His temple doth everything speak of His glory. To my Lord! In His tabernacle doth everything shout glory. That is what it means in the Hebrew. Everything shouts glory. Everything so bespeaks the glory of God, you can't keep it still. And I believe that the glory of God is to be demonstrated in the house of God. And here the anointed priests will minister. And the Lord said, Anoint Aaron and his sons. You know that was for the work of the ministry. And again, where the indwelling presence of the Spirit is acknowledged, we may expect the flow of an anointed ministry in the midst of God's people. I'm going to stop at this point. I have more to say to you, but I'm going to stop right here. Simply by saying, from our study together tonight, I trust we have learned something at least. That the presence of the Holy Spirit indicated by the preposition N, a little preposition, reveals Him as indwelling the life of the believer as well as the church of the living God. That this is intended to be a mark of distinction between the carnal and the spiritual, and a pledge of resurrection to those who believe, and a seal of separation upon the Christian church, upon the Christian believer, until Christ returns. And if we believe this, and if we have grasped the significance of this, then I think we can understand what John said in his first epistle when he talked about the anointing, and said, But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, N, in you, that is, remains in you, and ye need not that any man teach you. In other words, the two classes of false teacher in his day, antinomianism, Gnosticism, antinomianism, anti-against, nomos alor, live as you please as long as you are under grace, which despoil the purity of the gospel. And the Gnostics, who made Jesus simply the son of Joseph, and denied His deity, you do not have to listen to those teachers, he says, because the anointing you have received abides in you, and teaches you of all things, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in Him. He is telling us three things about the Holy Spirit. He is indwelling the Christian. He is instructing the Christian. He is inducing the Christian to abide in Christ. And my brother and sister, if we can be induced to do this because of the presence and the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit, then it will be fulfilled in us, as John promised, that when He shall appear, we shall not be ashamed before Him at His coming. We shall have no cause to shrink back in shame and confusion, blushing at the thought of our waywardness, our failures, our carnality, our weaknesses, but rather stand to welcome Him because we have been induced thus to do, to abide in Him through the ministry of the indwelling Spirit. May God bless His Word. Let us pray. O God, our Eternal Father, we are so very grateful to Thee again for Thy presence with us, and for the sense of Thy Holy Spirit's power in the midst of us, and for the reality of His indwelling presence, we are conscious, too, that we are not worthy of the least of Thy benefits and blessings, but Thou hast drawn divinely near to us, and we dare to believe that Thou hast spoken to us, Lord, from Thy Word and by Thy Holy Spirit. We pray now very humbly that whatever has been said that has not borne the hallmark of the Divine, Thou wilt blot out from our remembrance, but whatever has come from Thee as its origin and its ultimate source may produce in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Make us by grace what we never could be by nature, we pray, for Jesus' sake. Amen.