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"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual sons, singing with grace in your hearts to
the Lord."
The one object of the Holy Spirit in this age of grace is to uplift and glorify Christ.
"He shall not speak of Himself . . . . . He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine
and shall show it unto you" (John 16: 13, 14). Let us not make the mistake of limiting
the words of Christ to those to whom He spoke on earth when He was a "minister of the
circumcision (the Jew)" (Rom. 15: 8) and limited His ministry to the people of Israel
(Matt. 15: 24). He now "speaks from heaven" (Heb. 12: 25) through the human channel
He has appointed for the Body of Christ, the Apostle Paul (I Cor. 14: 37; Col. 1: 24-27)
and the context already quoted in Col. 3: makes it quite clear what it is that the Holy
Spirit fills the believer with, namely the spirit of praise and thanksgiving, not tongues,
excitable feelings and emotions and the various experiences that Pentecostalists have
deduced from these verses.
We should take care to distinguish in the Scriptures between the Giver (the Holy
Spirit) and His various gifts which can be rendered `spirit' with a small `s'. A verse that
cries out for this distinction is I Thess. 5: 19, "quench not the spirit". Most versions
render the last word with a capital "S" and make it mean the Holy Spirit. But a moment's
thought should make us realize that it is impossible for limited finite beings to quench or
bring to nought the Infinite. If we render spirit with a small `s' and make it refer to any
gift of the Holy Spirit, then we have truth. I Thessalonians was written during the Acts
period when the various evidential gifts of the Holy Spirit were much in evidence. But
no one was compelled to use them, "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the
prophets" (I Cor. 14: 32). They could be neglected or misused, hence the admonition
not to `quench' them. The next verse confirms this: "despise not prophesyings", which
was also one of the these gifts (I Cor. 12: 4-11).
We hope it has become clear to the reader and student of the Word of God, that not
only is it of paramount importance to get Scriptural conception of the Person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary to get likewise a Scriptural conception of the Holy
Spirit, especially what His work entails in this dispensation of grace. Owing to failure to
`rightly divide' the Word there are many faulty ideas abroad today in Christian circles
concerning these persons of the Godhead and this leads to wrong doctrine and practice
which does not further the truth of God, but rather the darkness and deception of the evil
one. Let us test all things and only hold fast to that which is truth for today, and then
seek to make it known `in season and out of season' (II Tim. 4: 2).
No.7.
pp. 121 - 125
Let us now sum up what we have discovered from the Word of God in relation to the
Holy Spirit.