Pentecost

Beloved reader, it is indispensable to all of us for salvation that God the Holy Spirit makes His indwelling in our hearts. Precisely, this is the meaning of Pentecost, the feast which we hope to commemorate.

The Holy Spirit, the third Person in the adorable, blessed essence of God, came down on that day. He made His people a temple of the living God. Just as the Son of God came down in Bethlehem’s stable in our human nature— “Immanuel, God with us”—and that He died on Golgotha— “God for us”—so it was necessary for the Holy Spirit to come down on the Day of Pentecost—“God in us”—so that the miracle of God’s eternal good pleasure would be accomplished in the application of salvation obtained by Christ. God makes the heart of fallen man a dwelling for Himself and establishes him in communion with Him. The ground was laid in Christ. He bore the wrath of God and took it away and was afterward glorified at the right hand of God. He had to enter heaven to send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who will abide with His people forever.

Thus, the word of Ezekiel’s prophecy was fulfilled, “And I will put My Spirit within you.” Note that this is not a work of the mind but a work of the heart; not a general but a saving work. So, death and life, eternal well and eternal woe are connected to this.

Now the work of the Spirit may be spoken of by a historical knowledge, but where grace is lacking one is a stranger to the blessed indwelling of the Spirit. It is by His indwelling that in conviction unto salvation the Word declares Him to be one with the Father and the Son as the third Person in the Holy Trinity; that with the Father and the Son He is due the same divine honor, not as power but as Person. This shines forth in the work He does and the honor which is due to Him. This divine honor is due to Him in His work in Creation and, also in the work of re-creation.

How necessary it is, to come to self-examination, to know and experience that God’s Spirit is given in us. Because darkness is great, the general gift of the Spirit is often mistaken for the special gift. Only with the special gift of the Spirit is there a godly sorrow that works repentance to salvation not to be repented of, a reproving of sin, righteousness, and judgment but, also, a well-founded hope to live, enjoying comfort, and once to die happily.

There is so much that comes close but does not bear the stamp of the true work—that this Spirit is given in the inward parts. How our times speak that we live in the latter days; how many spirits reveal themselves. A cry is heard; here is the Christ and there is the Christ; yes, if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived.

Therefore, blessed are they who may learn to be ministered unto by the sovereign work of God and wrought upon by that Spirit, raised from their state of death and discovered to their lost state by this Spirit who is in them, and brought to Him in whom they obtain redemption— namely, forgiveness of their trespasses and restoration into His communion. It is the Spirit’s work not only to discover these as to how lost they are but, also, to reveal Christ as the Way of salvation and to glorify His work in them.

May it please God to send forth His Spirit in these days of darkness that cover the earth and God’s Church— the north wind of the Spirit for uncovering, to make way for the south wind of the Spirit of consolation. That there may be some of Judah yet brought out of Babylon, gathered together at Jerusalem, and who have for them fulfilled, “And I will put My Spirit within you.”

“And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39).

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