22. Chapter 6. Particular communion with the Holy Spirit
Chapter 6. Particular communion with the Holy Spirit
– The way being plain for us, I will now show how we hold particular communion with the Holy Spirit as our comforter, who works out our consolation by the means mentioned. The first thing I will do is prepare for this by leading believers to a proper valuation of his work towards us, for which he is called our Comforter. To elevate our hearts and fit us for this duty, let us consider three things: FIRST, what he comforts us against. SECONDLY, what he comforts us with. THIRDLY, the principle underlying all of his consoling acts and operations in us.
FIRST. There are only three things in the whole course of our pilgrimage in which the consolations of the Holy Spirit are useful and necessary: 1. In our afflictions. Affliction is part of the provision that God has made for his children, Hebrews 12:5-6. The great variety of its causes, means, uses, and effects, is generally known. There is a measure of affliction appointed for everyone. It is a temptation to be wholly without them, and so in some measure their absence would be an affliction. What I am saying is that we need the consolations of the Holy Spirit in all our afflictions. It is the nature of man to try to find his own relief from his entanglements, by any and all means. Man’s natural inclination is to manage himself under pressure. “The spirit of a man will bear his infirmity”
Proverbs 18:14; at least, he will struggle with it. There are two great evils, either of which generally takes hold of a man under affliction, and keeps him from properly managing them. The apostle mentions them both in Hebrews 12:5, “Do not despise the chastisement of the Lord; neither faint when you are reproved.” Men usually fall into one of these extremes; either they despise the Lord’s correction, or they sink under it.
(1.) Men despise it. They consider what befalls them to be a light or common thing. They take no notice of God in it. They can deal with it well enough, looking at its instrumentalities and its incidental causes. They provide for their own defense and vindication with little regard to God or his hand in it. And the ground of this despising is because they accept assistance in their trouble that God will not mix his grace with. They focus on remedies other than what God has appointed. And then they completely lose all the benefits and advantage of their affliction. So will every man who seeks his relief in anything but the consolations of the Holy Spirit.
(2.) Men faint and sink under their trials and afflictions, which the apostle further reproves, Hebrews 12:12. The first ones despise the assistance of the Holy Spirit through pride of heart; the latter ones refuse it because they are dejected in spirit, and sink under the weight of their troubles. Who does not offend God by doing one or the other at some point? Had we not learned to take lightly the chastisements of the Lord, and to take little notice of his dealings with us, we would find that our times of affliction comprise no small portion of our pilgrimage. The only way to properly manage ourselves under affliction, so that God may have the glory and we may derive the spiritual benefit of it, is by the consolations of the Holy Spirit. The only promise that our Savior makes to his disciples when he tells them of the great trials and tribulations to come is this, “I will send you the Spirit, the Comforter; he will give you peace in me, when in the world you will have trouble. He will guide and direct, and keep you in all your trials.” And the apostle tells us it came to pass, 2 Corinthians 1:4-6. Under the greatest afflictions, the Spirit will carry the soul to the highest joy, peace, rest, and contentment. “We glory in tribulations,” Romans 5:3. This is a great expression. He said before, “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God,” Romans 5:2. But what if various afflictions and tribulations befall us? “Why, even in those we will glory,” he says. But why would our spirits be so borne up under afflictions, as to glory in them in the Lord? He tells us in verse 5, that it is from the
“shedding abroad of the love of God in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” This is why believers are said to “receive the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,” l Thess. 1:6, and to “take joyfully the spoiling of their goods.” This is my point: there is no management or improvement of any affliction, except by the consolations of the Holy Spirit. What is it worth to you to derive the benefit of all your trials, temptations, and afflictions? Learn to value the only thing that renders them useful.
2. Consolation is uniquely suited for dealing with sin, the second burden of our lives, and the greatest. In Hebrews 6:17-18, an allusion is made to the manslayer under the law. Having killed a man unawares, and having brought the guilt of his blood upon himself, he quickly flees to the city of refuge for his deliverance. Our great and only refuge from the guilt of sin is the Lord Jesus Christ. In fleeing to him, the Spirit consoles us. A sense of sin fills the heart with trouble and disquiet, but the Holy Spirit gives us peace in Christ. A sense of sin gives an anticipation of wrath, but the Holy Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts. It is sin that Satan and the law use to accuse us of being objects of God’s hatred. It is the Spirit who bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. There is no single weapon or instrument that sin can use against our peace, that one effect or another of the Holy Spirit cannot defeat.
3. The consolations of the Spirit are also necessary during the whole course of our obedience, so that we may go through with it cheerfully, willingly, and patiently to the end. This will be more fully examined as I give directions for our communion with this blessed Comforter. To summarize, in all our concerns of this life, and in our expectation of another, we stand in need of the consolations of the Holy Spirit.
Without them, we will either despise afflictions or faint under them, and God will be ignored in his intent for them.
Without them, sin will either harden us so as to disdain it, or it will drive us to neglect the remedies graciously provided against it.
Without them, our duties will either puff us up with pride, or deny us the sweetness that comes with new obedience.
Without them, prosperity will make us carnal, sensual, and content with these things. It will utterly weaken us for the trials of adversity.
Without them, the comforts of our relationships will separate us from God, and the loss of them will make our hearts as wicked as Nabal’s.
Without them, the trials of the church will overwhelm us, and the prosperity of the church will not concern us.
Without them, we will have wisdom for no work, peace in no condition, strength for no duty, success in no trial, joy in no state, life with no comfort, and death with no light. Our afflictions, our sins, and our obedience, with their respective circumstances, are the focus of our lives. What we are in relation to God is found in them, and the due management of them. Through all of these there runs a line of consolation from the Holy Spirit, that gives us a joyful response throughout. It is a sad condition for those who have no such consolations. What poor alternatives they are forced to resort to! What giants they have to encounter in their own strength! Whether they are conquered, or seem to conquer, they have nothing but the misery of their trials! The SECOND thing to consider, is putting a proper valuation on the consolations of the Holy Spirit. This may be divided into the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son. All of the consolations of the Holy Spirit consist in his acquainting us with, and communicating to us, the love of the Father and the grace of the Son. There is nothing in one or the other that he does not make a matter of consolation to us. Indeed, we have our communion with the Father in his love, and with the Son in his grace, by the operation of the Holy Spirit.
1. The Spirit communicates to us, and acquaints us with, the love of the Father.
Having informed his disciples that they would receive the foundation of their consolation by the Comforter, our blessed Savior encloses everything in this,
“The father himself loves you,” (John 16:27). This is what the Comforter is given to acquaint us with: that God is the Father, and that he loves us. In particular, the Father, as the first person in the Trinity, loves us. For this reason, the Spirit is often said to come from the Father because he comes in pursuit of the Father’s love. He comes to acquaint the hearts of believers with it, so that they may be comforted and established. By persuading us of the eternal and unchangeable love of the Father, he fills us with consolation. Indeed, all the effects of the Holy Spirit mentioned before tend to do this. You heard earlier of this love and its transcendent excellence. The Holy Spirit communicates to us everything that is desirable in it. A sense of this love not only relieves us, but it makes us rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious in every condition.
He does not comfort our souls with more corn, wine, and oil, but by shining the countenance of God upon us, Psalms 4:6-7. A soul that has the Spirit might say;
“The world hates me, but my Father loves me. Men despise me as a hypocrite; but my Father loves me as a child. I am poor in this world; but I have a rich inheritance in the love of my Father. I am limited in all things; but there is bread enough in my Father’s house. I mourn in secret under the power of my lusts and sin, where no eyes see me; but the Father sees me, and is full of compassion. With a sense of his kindness, which is better than life, I rejoice in tribulation, glory in affliction, and triumph as a conqueror. Though I am killed all day long, all my sorrows have a bottom that may be fathomed, my trials have bounds that may be compassed; but the breadth, and depth, and height of the love of the
Father cannot be expressed.” If I compared all other causes and means of joy and consolation to how the Spirit comforts us with the love of the Father, I would discover their emptiness, and its fullness, their nothingness, and its being all in all. I would render the consolation of the Spirit glorious by such a comparison.
2. Again: the Spirit does this by communicating to us, and acquainting us with, the grace of Christ, all the fruits of his purchase, and all the desirability of his person, because we are in him. The grace of Christ refers to the grace of his person, and the work of his office. The Holy Spirit administers consolation to us by both of these things, John 16:14. He glorifies Christ by revealing his excellence and desirability to believers, as the “chief of ten thousand, altogether lovely,” Song of Solomon 5:10; Song of Solomon 5:16. Then he shows them the things of Christ: his love, grace, and all the fruits of his death, suffering, resurrection, and intercession. He supports their hearts and souls with these. As a result, he gives them whatever refreshes them in the pardon of their sin, delivers them from the curse and wrath to come, and conveys the hope of glory in their justification and adoption, along with the innumerable privileges that accompany these things. The THIRD thing to consider is the principle underlying all of his consoling acts and operations. This leads us a little nearer to the communion I intended to direct us in. The principle which governs them is his own great love and infinite condescension. He willingly proceeds or comes from the Father to be our comforter. He knew what we were, and what we could do, and how we would deal with him. He knew we would grieve him, provoke him, quench his impulses, and defile his dwelling-place. And yet he would come to be our comforter. Failure to duly consider this great love of the Holy Spirit will weaken all the principles of our own obedience. If this truth abided in our hearts, what a precious value we would need to put upon all his operations and actions towards us! Indeed, nothing is valuable that does not come from love and good-will. This is the way the Scripture motivates us to a right and due estimation of our redemption by Jesus Christ. It tells us that he did it freely. He laid down his life of his own will. And he did it out of love. “In this was manifested the love of God, that he laid down his life for us,” 1 John 3:16. “He loved us, and gave himself for us,” Galatians 2:20. “He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,”
Revelation 1:5. Here the Scripture reveals our state and condition. We must consider that he undertook to do this while we were still sinners, enemies, dead, and alienated. Then he loved us, and died for us, and washed us with his blood. May we not also value the dispensation of the Spirit for our consolation from this? He proceeds from the Father for that same purpose. He distributes as he will, and works as he pleases. And how do we respond to him? We are froward, perverse, and unthankful. We grieve, vex, and provoke him. Yet in his love and tenderness he continues to do us good. Let us by faith consider this love of the Holy Spirit.
It is the source of all the communion we have with him in this life. This is, as I said, spoken only to prepare our hearts for this communion; and it is such a little portion of what might be said! It suffices to say that the work in hand is among the greatest duties, and most excellent privileges, of the gospel.