The Great Defect # 2

The Great Defect # 2

Not having the Holy Spirit - they have no right, heart-affecting, soul-transforming views of Christ. They may think highly of Him, and they may speak well of Him. But to them He is not a personal, present, soul-satisfying Saviour. The eye does not affect the heart. Therefore the heart is not set upon Christ, so as to devote itself and all that it has to Christ. Now the Spirit, while He unfolds the work of Christ, testifies to the ability of Christ, and applies the blood of Christ. he directs the heart, and fixes the affections supremely upon the person of Christ. So that just in proportion as we experience the teaching and work of the Spirit - shall we be taken up with the person and personal glories of Christ.

Not having the Spirit - they have no deep and abiding conviction of sin, especially of the sin of unbelief. Now when the Spirit of truth has come, He convinces the world of sin, because it believes not in Christ. The people of whom we are writing, are convinced of outward acts of sin, and also that there are many things within them which are contrary to the law of God. But the hidden evils of the heart are not discovered by them; the great tap root of all sin, UNBELIEF, is not unfolded to their view; and therefore they are not humbled under it, nor led to loathe themselves before God on account of it.

Not having the Spirit - they have no hearty, thorough, self-renunciation. Now SELF must be renounced, before Christ can be enthroned in the heart - religious self, sinful self, self in every form! For we must sink into nothingness, into self-abhorrence - before we shall prize or glory in a salvation all of grace. The more we experience of the Spirit's work and power in our hearts, the less we shall think of ourselves, our experiences, our attainments, or our works. Self will be nothing - that Christ may be all in all.

Now where there is not a living faith in a living Saviour; genuine sorrow for sin, and departure from sin; spiritual love to God and all that is godlike; enlightened zeal for God and His glory; heart affecting, soul-transforming views of Christ; deep and abiding convictions of sin, specially of the sin of unbelief; and habitual and thorough self-renunciation - there is not the Spirit - at least is not that satisfactory proof of the indwelling of the Spirit which every professor of Christ should seek to possess.

What Are the Consequences of NOT Having the Spirit?

Not having the Spirit - we have no title to church privileges. Baptism, without faith, is not pleasing to God. The Lord's supper, unless we discern the Lord's body, is only eating our own condemnation. A place in the church, without Christ in the heart, only makes our conversion more difficult, our salvation more improbable, and leads to a hotter place in Hell. The church is no place for an unconverted sinner. Without union to the head - we can have no communion with the body; and without the Spirit - there is no union to Christ.

Not having the Spirit - we have no fitness for the Lord's service. Spiritual services require spiritual people. We cannot preach, or teach, or pray, or do anything acceptable to God - without the Holy Spirit. So that whatever gifts we may possess, whatever station we may fill, whatever calls we may have - we are not qualified to engage in the Lord's service, unless the Spirit of God dwells in us.

Not having the Spirit - we can have no spiritual fellowship, either with God, or with the saints. Fellowship springs from sameness, or similarity of nature. Light can have no fellowship with darkness. Christ can have no fellowship with Belial. God can have no fellowship with an unconverted sinner. If we would have fellowship with God, or with God's people - we must be taught, led, and sanctified by the Spirit of God. We may have fellowship with believers in temporal things, or in religious services; but fellowship with them as saints, in spiritual things - we cannot have without the Holy Spirit.

Not having the Spirit - there can be no consecration to the Lord's service and glory. People and things were consecrated under the law, by the application of blood and oil; and consecration effected in the same way now. The blood of Christ must be applied to the conscience to remove the guilt of sin - and the Spirit must be imparted to set us apart for God. Therefore John wrote to God's consecrated ones of old, "You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things." That Holy One is the Lord Jesus; the anointing is the Holy Spirit; the things known are the things freely given to us of God. Again he says, "The anointing which you have received of Him abides in you." The Spirit once given, abides; as Jesus said, "I will send you another Comforter, who shall abide with you forever."

~James Smith~

(continued with # 3)