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Sermon #2074

Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit

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INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
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“The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him;
but you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you
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THE part of the text on which we shall meditate is this—“The Spirit of Truth, you know Him, for He dwells with
you and shall be in you
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There is much meaning in this
expression
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He never
teaches anything but the Truth of God
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It is He that takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us
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He is the very Spirit and soul of Truth, the essence, the life and power of it
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He makes the Truth of
God itself, in its reality and substance, to enter the soul and affect the heart
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He is the Spirit of Truth in this
sense, too, that He works truthfulness in His people
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”
They are open-hearted, honest, sincere and true
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They are by His truthful influence preserved from deadly error
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But where the Spirit of God dwells, He detects for us the false from the true and He gives us the spirit of a sound
mind by which we reject that which is false and cleave only to that which is revealed of God
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And as He works truthfulness in His people, so the work that He does is always true and real work
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He works deep conviction of sin and simple faith in the Lord Jesus
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The new birth, as He works it, is not
after the fancied manner of baptismal regeneration but after an effective spiritual manner so that a Divine life is imparted
and the man becomes a child of God
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Everything the Spirit of God does is substance and not shadow
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But the eternal, abiding, everlasting work of Divine Grace is wrought by the Spirit of Truth alone
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He will only bear witness to
the Truth of God
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Mark this word—careful observation will show that in proportion as the nominal Church of the present day has departed from the truth of God, the Spirit of God has departed
from her
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The testimony of His sacred operation in “signs following,” is borne only to
the Truth of God
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There will be no conversions among sinners and there will be no edification for the people of God
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And we must be very careful that we do not
bring forth any other instrument
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For where the doctrine is not of God, the Spirit of Truth is grieved and He will depart from such a ministry
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In vain your music, your architecture, your learning and your “bright services” if the Truth of God is given up
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Sermon #2074

If the Holy Spirit is bearing witness in your spirit that you are the children of God, then you are truly born of God
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If He dwells in you, this is the token of your sonship
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If He helps, strengthens, comforts, guides, illuminates and sanctifies you, you
have a seal which you need not question—the seal of God upon you—that you are His chosen and shall be His in the day
when He makes up His jewels
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This is the distinction between the men of
the world and the disciples of Christ
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But the disciples of Christ know Him
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” There are a great many distinctions in the world of a
religious kind—one man wears his phylacteries, another is girt with camel’s hair
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You cannot judge who are the people of God by these external things
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” But he that has the Spirit dwelling within his soul, he it is that is a true born heir of
Heaven
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I pray that it may be no question with anyone of you but that you may know that it is so and may go on to enjoy the
blessed privilege of being on intimate terms with the Holy Spirit—“But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall
be in you
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To come close up to my subject, the first head will be BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST KNOW THE HOLY
SPIRIT
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When Jesus Christ had taught His people concerning the Holy Spirit and they had received His teaching, He
said, “You know Him
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” If they had refused the sayings of Christ, if they had
possessed no love, if they had not kept His Commandments, if they had arrogantly resolved to find out this mystery for
themselves by their own thinking, apart from the instruction of their Master, they would not have known the Spirit of
God
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But more than this—we know the Holy Spirit by knowing our Lord Jesus and by Him knowing the Father
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If we know the Lord Jesus, we have the Spirit of God
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Beginning then, at the very beginning—do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? You
know something about Him—but do you know Him? Is He your friend, your acquaintance? Are you on personal terms of
fellowship with Him?
If so, then you see the Father in His face
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” And He tells His people, “From henceforth you know Him and have seen Him
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And you have seen the glory of His Grace beaming in your Savior’s face
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As you know the Son you know
the Father, and in this way you come to know the Holy Spirit
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We know the Holy Spirit, next, by His operations upon us
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All those who are true disciples of Christ have felt a divinely supernatural power working upon
them
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There was a time when we were dead in trespasses and
in sins—holy feeling was unknown to us and the life of faith was far from us
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The Spirit of God came upon us and we were awakened and made to live
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With others, the visible life may have been made manifest more
gradually, but even in them there was a moment when the vital force entered the soul and they can now rejoice that they
have been quickened who were once spiritually dead
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In connection with that quickening there was conviction of sin
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spurgeongems
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But when
a single beam from the Spirit of Truth shines upon sin, it makes it appear “exceeding sinful
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Bunyan said, when under conviction, “I thought none but the devil himself could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind
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This revelation of darkness is the effect of
light—the light of the Spirit of God
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After having convicted us of sin, He leads us to repentance and to faith in Jesus Christ—then we know Him! How
many a promise did some of you hear but you could not receive it! How many a comforting discourse did you listen to
and yet it did not comfort you! But when the Spirit of God came—in a moment you saw Jesus as the Consolation of Israel, the Friend of sinners, the atoning Sacrifice, the Surety of the Covenant of Grace—and sweet peace came streaming
into your soul! At that time you did not only know that the Holy Spirit leads to Jesus Christ but you knew that He was
leading you
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Since that time, beloved Brethren, we have known the Holy Spirit in many ways—restraining from evil, stimulating
to good, instructing, consoling, directing and enlivening
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”
But no sooner has the Spirit visited us than we have felt all alive—bright, cheerful and intense
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How true is that word, “He restores my soul”!
Thus have we known the Holy Spirit by His operations within us
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A difficult Scripture or mysterious doctrine has been before me—I have
looked at the original and I have examined what the best Biblical students have written upon it
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My best aid has ever been to resort to the great
Author of the sacred Word—even the Holy Spirit Himself
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He has the clue of every maze, the solution of every
riddle
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Dear young Believers, you who wish to understand the Scriptures, seek this light from above for this is the true light
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To have the Spirit of God lighting up the inner chambers of truth is a
great gift
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When the Spirit of Truth is come He pours daylight into the darkness and leads us into all Truth of God
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Then we know Him as our sacred Illuminator
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Alas for the disturbance of heart which we receive in the
world—perhaps even in the family! Few things, it may be, are as we could wish and therefore we are sorely troubled
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” Do
you know that peace? Many saints of God have enjoyed a heavenly calm upon their sick beds—when pain should have
distracted them
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I have heard of one saint, near his end, who asked, “Is this
dying? Then I should like to keep on dying forever
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May God give us His Grace to know the Holy Spirit as our Comforter! Happy knowledge!
I trust that we have oftentimes known the Holy Spirit as guiding us in various ways
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But I know for sure that the Holy Spirit does give to His favored people hints as to things
to come
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But I do say that choice saints have received preparations for
the future and foreshadowing of their coming experiences
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” The oracle is not dumb, but in some way, not always to be explained, the Spirit of God guides our steps
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Sermon #2074

through life if we are willing to obey His monitions
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But they are a peculiar voice to their own souls and are not to be repeated in words
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That exhilaration, that superlative joy as of
Heaven begun below which only the Lord can work
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Thus we know the Holy
Spirit by His works and gifts and revelations
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“You know Him,” says the text—you know not
only His work but Himself
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I may know a man’s paintings and therefore I may guess somewhat of his character but yet I may not know the
man himself
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And truly we know the Holy Spirit as to His personality
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” Let us always shun the mistake of calling the Holy Spirit
“it
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It is a dead thing—the Holy Spirit is a living, blessed Person and I hope we can say that we
know Him as such
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But we believe in the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and behold, in the names given to Him, the emotions ascribed to Him and the acts performed by Him, abundant proofs of His
sacred personality
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As we know His personality so we know also His Divinity because the Holy Spirit work in us effects which none but
God could work
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There have been things worked in us—in our experience—in which we have beheld not only the finger of God
but God Himself working in our hearts to will and to do of His own good pleasure
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Let us adore Him, yield to Him, confide in Him—and pray that we may know Him to the fullest
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I mean
this—that there is now a personal relationship between the Believer and the Holy Spirit, a conscious and clear fellowship
and communion
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Do we
not enjoy it? We speak with Him and He speaks with us
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We are not strangers now
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Come, let me look into your faces, my Beloved in the Lord, and let me ask you, Is this true or not? If you are obliged
to say, “We do not know whether there is any Holy Spirit, for we are utter strangers to Him,” then I pray the Lord to
deal graciously with you and manifest His Son Jesus Christ to you by the power of that same Holy Spirit of whom we
speak
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He is more familiar with us than
any other Person
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“You know Him
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” Thus much upon our first head
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May the Holy Spirit help me
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The second head is this—BELIEVERS KNOW THE HOLY SPIRIT THROUGH HIMSELF
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” It is not, “You know Him for you have heard gracious preaching
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” No—“You know Him, for He
dwells with you and shall be in you
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God can only be
seen in His own light
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I thought this morning, coming along—I have to preach about the Holy Spirit
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And if He is not there, I shall only
darken counsel by words without knowledge
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By what methods can you make a man know the Holy Spirit? He is not to
be discerned by the senses, nor perceived by eyes or ears
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spurgeongems
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Nothing is more to be deplored than a hungering after mere oratory
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Words are nothing but air and wind and they cannot possibly reveal the Holy Spirit
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We greatly rejoice in the Baptism of Believers and in the
breaking of bread in which the death of the Lord Jesus is set forth before us
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The Spirit Himself must reveal Himself
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It is not possible for God to reveal Himself fully by His works—He is seen only by Himself
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” In Him we see God
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This is even more clear from the inability of our nature to discover the Holy Spirit
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We must be endowed with a spirit before we can discern the great
Spirit
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No, it is the Lord Himself who must come and breathe into us the Spirit
of life and then we perceive Him who is the Spirit of Truth
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How do I
know a man but by the man himself appearing to me and speaking to me and manifesting himself to me? You cannot with
accuracy judge of a man by his writings
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Toplady, who wrote very bitterly on behalf
of the Truth of God, was, in temper, the sweetest of men
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Romaine, of Blackfriars, who in their
writings seem to be the gentlest of beings were by no means free from harshness
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No, more—you
must live with a man in order to know him
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The facts of the case prove this
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” How do you know the Holy Spirit but by the Holy Spirit? Did you learn your religion from me?
Then you have it all to unlearn
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Did you inherit it from
your parents or borrow it from your friends? Then you are still ignorant of the vital point—God is only known through
Himself
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Have you not found it so in your own case? Why, you have sat and heard a
sermon which was in itself cheering, comforting and quickening, for your neighbor said, “What a happy time we have
enjoyed!” Alas, you thought you had never felt more stupid and lifeless
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But when the Divine Spirit comes upon you, such complaints are at an end
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Then are you full of living joy in listening to the Gospel—every word you hear seems to be on wheels
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III
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I am not going
to withdraw that word intimacy
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For He says, “You know Him, for He
dwells with you and shall be in you
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” Is not that a wonderful sentence? The Holy Spirit is God, and therefore the
Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him—and yet behold the condescending fact—“He dwells with you
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Consider how our Lord dwelt with His disciples
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Jesus permitted His disciples the most intimate communion with Himself—they ran to Him with their troubles, they told Him their difficulties, they confessed their doubts
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spurgeongems
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He ate and drank with them and permitted the freest
conversation
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He did not draw a ring
round Himself and say, “Keep your distance
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“He
dwells with you
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You cannot see Him, but He sees you, which is much better
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No, He hears your thoughts
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“He dwells with you
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It is He who fulfils the promise of our Lord, “Lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world
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That we might enjoy that sacred
Presence, it was expedient for our Lord to go away
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But what of
these things? They are a bag of wind! If the Holy Spirit is not in the congregation, it is gathered together in vain
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But the Comforter does come into our
assemblies
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”
He also comes into our homes—“He dwells with you
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” It may be, dear Friend, you live on board ship and are tossed upon the sea—“He
dwells with you
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” Many
choice saints are bed-ridden but the Spirit dwells with them
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” The first disciples said to the Lord Jesus, “Master, where do you dwell?” He answered,
“Come and see
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Well may we know Him for He takes up His abode with us
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He makes our members instruments of His working and sanctifies the faculties of our nature as vessels of a temple wherein He dwells
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O Believer, “He dwells with you” in all the might of His Godhead and you are made strong in the inner man
by His strengthening! Fall back upon the Holy Spirit in the moment of your weakness
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Even in the prayer in which you seek strength, ask that the Spirit may help your infirmities
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“He dwells with you,” for you are unable to live without
His constant presence and you need not attempt the perilous experiment
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” This is a greater marvel
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Let not the idea of drunkenness, gluttony, or lust come near you
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” With what reverence should we look upon the
body now that it has been redeemed by the Lord Jesus and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit! The Spirit also dwells within your
minds
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“He shall be in you,” as a king in his palace, or a soul in its body
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I must be talking nonsense in the esteem of some of you—if it seems nonsense, let
that fact condemn you
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The Spirit must permeate your entire being, filling it full with His floods, even as the waters cover the channels of the
deep
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” It is a wonderful fact
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What cannot a man do when the Holy Spirit is in him? His weakest endeavor will prosper when the Holy Spirit is pouring His
life into him
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His leaf also shall
not wither
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But without the Holy Spirit, what barren and withered trees we are! May
we never know the awful drought which comes of the absence of the Spirit!
Brethren, when our Lord Jesus Christ came upon the earth and was beheld as God in human flesh, that was to us the
pledge of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us—for as God dwelt in the human Person of the Lord Jesus Christ—even so
does the Spirit abide in our humanity
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As He was anointed
of the Spirit, even so are we in our measure
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” He lived consecrated to God, loving the sons of
men
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The death of Christ was the way by which the Spirit was enabled to come to sinful men
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When our Lord rose from the dead, we had the guarantee that even so the Spirit of God would quicken our mortal bodies
and renew us into newness of life
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When our Redeemer returned to His Father’s Throne, He scattered the largess of Heaven—He gave
the Holy Spirit to men of various offices and to His whole Church
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Your
ascended Lord gives you this token of His love—the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in you—prize it above all things
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I
trust you knew the Holy Spirit before I was born
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I have urged the question upon myself and therefore I urge it upon you
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I come to a conclusion with one more observation
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“He dwells with you and shall be in you
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Is it not a blessed step from “with” to “in”? “He dwells with you”—that is, a Friend in the same
house
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This is nearer, dearer, more mysterious and more effective by
far
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I eat it and now it is “in” me
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” What a distinct advance it is for the child of God when he rises from the Spirit of God being with him to the Spirit of
God being in him! When the Spirit of God helped the Apostles to work miracles, He was with them
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Even
if you could obtain miraculous gifts, you ought not to be satisfied to speak with tongues, nor to work miracles
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“He shall be in you
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If a person dwells with us, we begin to know him
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“He shall be in you” is a
high degree of intimacy
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” There is no period
in which the Holy Spirit will have finished His work so as to go away and leave the Believer to himself
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” Grieve not the Spirit of God, I pray you—quench Him not, resist Him
not—but carefully cherish in your hearts this Divine word, “He shall be in you
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” You tremble before that trial which threatens you, but
“He shall be in you
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And when the last moment approaches, when you
must breathe out your soul to God—the living Spirit who dwells with you, even as the nurse sits at your bedside—shall then
be in you and by His living power within shall transform death into the gate of endless life
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” O child of God, your Comforter will not leave you! He will continue still to take up His residence within you until you
shall be taken up to dwell where Jesus is forever and ever
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The Church of God will never be destroyed
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For the Holy Spirit dwells with us and shall be in us to the end of the world
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He knows that Jesus lives and therefore he shall live
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The Believer pushes on despite a thousand obstacles, knowing that God
gives him the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ—out of whose hand none can pluck him
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And yet I have done nothing unless the Spirit of God shall bless the word spoken
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The other day the ground was hard as
iron and the water was turned to ice
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Intimate Knowledge of the Holy Spirit

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Come, Holy Spirit
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Let us implore His Presence and power
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The first token of the Spirit’s work will be that they will
begin to feel their sin and cry for mercy—and when that is done, the glad tidings of pardon are for them
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” The Lord make the word effectual, for Jesus Christ’s
sake
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Adapted from The C
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Spurgeon Collection, Version 1
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