that is a book of bank notes and every leaf is a bank note of immense value.” So I have found with this text that I had a bank note of so large a sum, that I could not expound it all this morning. I would have to detain you for several hours, before I could unfold to you the whole value of this precious promise — one of the last which Christ gave to his people.
2. I invite your attention to this passage, because we shall find in it some instruction on four points; first, concerning the true and proper personality of the Holy Spirit; secondly, concerning the united agency of the glorious Three Persons in the work of our salvation; thirdly, we shall find something to establish the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the souls of all believers; and fourthly, we shall find out the reason why the carnal mind rejects the Holy Spirit.
3. I. First of all, we shall have some little instruction concerning the proper PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. We are so much accustomed to talk about the influence of the Holy Spirit, and his sacred operations and graces, that we are apt to forget that the Holy Spirit is truly and actually a person — that he is a subsistence — an existence; or as we Trinitarians usually say, one person in the essence of the Godhead. I am afraid that though we do not know it, we have acquired the habit of regarding the Holy Spirit as an emanation flowing from the Father and the Son, but not as being actually a person himself. I know it is not easy to carry about in our mind the idea of the Holy Spirit as a person. I can think of the Father as a person, because his acts are such as I can understand. I see him hang the world in ether; I behold him swaddling a newborn sea in bands of darkness; I know it is he who formed the drops of hail, who leads out the stars by their hosts, and calls them by their name; I can conceive of him as a person, because I behold his operations. I can realise Jesus, the Son of Man, as a real person, because he is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It takes no great stretch of my imagination to picture the babe in Bethlehem, or to behold the “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”; of the King of martyrs, as he was persecuted in Pilate’s hall, or nailed to the accursed tree for our sins. Nor do I find it difficult at times to realise the person of my Jesus sitting on his throne in heaven; or clothed with clouds and wearing the diadem of all creation, calling the earth to judgment, and summoning us to hear our final sentence. But when I come to deal with the Holy Spirit, his operations are so mysterious, his doings are so secret, his acts are so removed from everything that is of sense, and of the body, that I cannot so easily get the idea of his being a person; but a person he is. God the Holy Spirit is not an influence, an emanation, a stream of something flowing from the Father; but he is as much an actual person as either God the Son, or God the Father. I shall attempt this morning a little to establish the doctrine, and to show you the truth of it — that God the Holy Spirit is actually a person.
4. The first proof we shall gather from the pool of holy baptism. Let me take you down, as I have taken others, into the pool, now concealed, but which I wish were always open to your view. Let me take you to the baptismal font, where believers put on the name of the Lord Jesus; and you shall hear me pronounce the solemn words, “I baptize you in the name,” — note, “in the name,” not names, — “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Every one who is baptized according to the true form laid down in Scripture, must be a Trinitarian: otherwise his baptism is a farce and a lie, and he himself is found a deceiver and a hypocrite before God. As the Father is mentioned, and as the Son is mentioned, so is the Holy Spirit; and the whole is summed up as being a Trinity in unity, by its being said, not the names, but the “name” the glorious name, the Jehovah name, “of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Let me remind you that the same thing occurs each time you are dismissed from this house of prayer. In pronouncing the solemn closing benediction, we invoke on your behalf the love of Jesus Christ, the grace of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and thus, according to the apostolic manner, we make an obvious distinction between the persons, showing that we believe the Father to be a person, the Son to be a person, and the Holy Spirit to be a person. Were there no other proofs in Scripture, I think these would be sufficient for every sensible man. He would see that if the Holy Spirit were a mere influence, he would not be mentioned in conjunction with two whom we all confess to be actual and proper persons.
5. A second argument arises from the fact, that the Holy Spirit has actually made different appearances on earth. The Great Spirit has revealed himself to man; he has put on a form, so that while he has not been beheld by mortal men, he has been so veiled in appearance that he was seen, so far as that appearance was concerned, by the eyes of all beholders. Do you see Jesus Christ our Saviour? There is the river Jordan, with its shelving banks, and its willows weeping at its side. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descends into the stream, and the holy Baptist, John, plunges him into the waves. The doors of heaven are opened; a miraculous appearance presents itself; a bright light shines from the sky, brighter than the sun in all its grandeur, and down in a flood of glory descends something which you recognise to be a dove. It rests on Jesus — it sits upon his sacred head, and as the old painters put a halo around the brow of Jesus, so did the Holy Spirit shed a resplendence around the face of him who came to fulfil all righteousness, and therefore commenced with the ordinances of baptism. The Holy Spirit was seen as a dove, mark his purity and his gentleness, and he came down like a dove from heaven to show that it is from heaven alone that he descends. Nor is this the only time when the Holy Spirit has been revealed in a visible shape. You see that company of disciples gathered together in an upper room; they are waiting for some promised blessing, by and by it shall come. Listen! there is a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, it fills all the house where they are sitting; and astonished, they look around them, wondering what will come next. Soon a bright light appears, shining upon the heads of each: cloven tongues of fire sat upon them. What were these marvellous appearances of wind and flame but a display of the Holy Spirit in his proper person? I say the fact of an appearance demonstrates that he must be a person. An influence could not appear — an attribute could not appear: we cannot see attributes — we cannot behold influences. The Holy Spirit must then have been a person; since he was beheld by mortal eyes, and came under the cognizance of mortal sense.
6. Another proof is from the fact, that personal qualities are, in Scripture, ascribed to the Holy Spirit. First, let me read to you a text in which the Holy Spirit is spoken of as having understanding. In 1 Corinthians 2:9-11, you will read, “But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God no man knows, but the Spirit of God.” Here you see an understanding — a power of knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Now, if there are any people here whose minds have such preposterous ideas that they would ascribe one attribute to another, and would speak of a mere influence having understanding, then I give up the whole argument. But I believe every rational man will admit, that when anything is spoken about as having an understanding it must be an existence — it must, in fact, be a person. In 1 Corinthians 12:11, you will find a will ascribed to the Holy Spirit. “But all these works that one and the very same Spirit, dividing to every man individulally as he wills.” So it is plain the Spirit has a will. He does not come from God simply at God’s will, but he has a will of his own, which is always in keeping with the will of the infinite Jehovah, but is, nevertheless, distinct and separate; therefore, I say he is a person. In another text power is ascribed to the Holy Spirit, and power is a thing which can only be ascribed to an existence. In Romans 15:13, it is written, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” I need not insist upon it, because it is self-evident, that wherever you find understanding, will, and power, you must also find an existence; it cannot be a mere attribute, it cannot be a metaphor, it cannot be a personified influence; but it must be a person.
7. But I have a proof which, perhaps, will be more convincing to you than any other. Acts and deeds are ascribed to the Holy Spirit; therefore he must be a person. You read in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, that the Spirit
