"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you."
Are you ever cast down and depressed in spirit? Listen to Paul:
"Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the
Holy Ghost" (Romans xv. 13). What cheer is in those words! They
ring like the shout of a triumph.
1. God Himself is "the God of hope." There is no gloom, no
depression, no wasting sickness of deferred hope in Him. He is a
brimming fountain and ocean of hope eternally, and He is our God.
He is our Hope.
2. Out of His infinite fullness He is to fill us; not half fill
us, but fill us with joy, "all joy," hallelujah! "and peace."
3. And this is not by some condition or means that is so high and
difficult that we cannot perform our part, but it is simply "in
believing "--something which the little child or the aged
philosopher, the poor man and the rich man, the ignorant and the
learned can do. And the result will be:--
4. Abounding "hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." And what
power is that? If it is physical power, then the power of a
million Niagaras and flowing oceans and rushing worlds is as
nothing compared to it. If it is mental power, then the power of
Plato and Bacon and Milton and Shakespeare and Newton is as the
light of a fire-fly to the sun when compared to it. If it is
spiritual power, then there is nothing with which it can be
compared. But suppose it is all three in one, infinite and
eternal! This is the power, throbbing with love and mercy, to
which we are to bring our little hearts by living faith, and God
will fill us with joy and peace and hope by the incoming of the
Holy Spirit.
God's people are a hopeful people. They hope in God, with whom
there is no change, no weakness, no decay. In the darkest night
and the fiercest storm they still hope in Him, though it may be
feebly. But He would have His people "abound in hope" so that
they should always be buoyant, triumphant.
But how can this be in a world such as this? We are surrounded by
awful, mysterious, and merciless forces, that at any moment may
overwhelm us. The fire may burn us, the water may drown us, the
hurricane may sweep us away, friends may desert us, foes may
master us. There is the depression that comes from failing
health, from poverty, from overwork and sleepless nights and
constant care, from thwarted plans, disappointed ambitions,
slighted love, and base ingratitude. Old age comes on with its
grey hairs, failing strength, dimness of sight, dullness of
hearing, tottering step, shortness of breath, and general
weakness and decay. The friends of youth die, and a new, strange,
pushing generation that knows not the old man, comes elbowing him
aside and taking his place. Under some blessed outpouring of the
Spirit the work of God revives, vile sinners are saved, Zion puts
on her beautiful garments, reforms of all kind advance, the
desert blossoms as the rose, the waste place becomes a fruitful
field, and the millennium seems just at hand; and then the
spiritual tide recedes, the forces of evil are emboldened, they
mass themselves and again sweep over the heritage of the Lord,
leaving it waste and desolate, and the battle must be fought over
again.
How can one be always hopeful, always abounding in hope, in such
a world? Well, hallelujah! it is possible "through the power of
the Holy Ghost," but only through His power; and this power will
not fail so long as we fix our eyes on eternal things and
believe.
The Holy Spirit, dwelling within, turns our eyes from that which
is temporal to that which is eternal; from the trial itself to
God's purpose in the trial; from the present pain to the precious
promise.
I am now writing in a little city made rich by vast potteries. If
the dull, heavy clay on the potter's wheel and in the fiery oven
could think and speak, it would doubtless cry out against the
fierce agony; but if it could foresee the purpose of the potter,
and the thing of use and beauty he meant to make it, it would
nestle low under his hand and rejoice in hope.
We are clay in the hand of the Divine Potter, but we can think
and speak, and in some measure understand His high purpose in us.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make us understand. And if
we will not be dull and senseless and unbelieving, He will
illuminate us and fill us with peaceful, joyous hope.
1. He would reveal to us that our Heavenly Potter has Himself
been on the wheel and in the fiery furnace, learning obedience
and being fashioned into "the Captain of our salvation" by the
things which He suffered. When we are tempted and tried, and
tempest-tossed, He raises our hope by showing us Jesus suffering
and sympathising with us, tempted in all points as we are, and so
able and wise and willing to help us in our struggle and conflict
(Hebrews ii. 9-18). He assures us that Jesus, into whose hands is
committed all power in Heaven and earth, is our elder Brother,
"touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews iv. 15),
and He encourages us to rest in Him and not be afraid; and so we
abound in hope, through His power as we believe.
2. He reveals to us the eternal purpose of God in our trials and
difficulties. Listen to Paul: "All things work together for good
to them that love God." "We know _this_," says Paul (Romans
viii. 28). But how can this be? Ah! there is where faith must be
exercised. It is "in believing" that we "abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost."
God's wisdom and ability to make all things work together for our
good are not to be measured by our understanding, but to be
firmly held by our faith. My child is in serious difficulty and
does not know how to help himself; but I say, "Leave it to me."
He may not understand how I am to help him, but he trusts me, and
rejoices in hope. We are God's dear children, and He knows how to
help us, and make all things work together for our good, if we
will only commit ourselves to Him in faith.
"Thou art as much His care as if beside
Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or earth;
Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide,
To light up worlds, or wake an insect's mirth."
Again, afflictions overtake us, and now the Holy Spirit
encourages our hope and makes it to abound by such promises as
these: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18). But
such a promise as that only mocks us if we do not believe. "In
all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His
presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed
them; and He bare them, and He carried them all the days of old"
(Isaiah lxiii. 9). And He is just the same to-day. To some He
says: "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isaiah
xlviii 10), and nestling down into His will and "believing," they
"abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost."
He turns our eyes back upon Job in his loss and pain; upon Joseph
sold into Egyptian slavery; Daniel in the lions' den; the three
Hebrews in the burning fiery furnace, and Paul in prison and
shipwreck and manifold perils; and, showing us their steadfastness
and their final triumph, He prompts us to hope in God.
When weakness of body overtakes us, He encourages us with such
assurances as these: "My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is
the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalm lxxiii.
26), and the words of Paul: "Though our outward man perish, yet
the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. iv. 16).
When old age comes creeping on apace, He has promised to meet the
need that our hope fail not. Listen to David! He prays: "Cast me
not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength
faileth.... Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake
me not; until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation,
and Thy power to every one that is to come" (Psalm lxxi. 9, 18).
And through Isaiah the Lord replies: "Even to your old age I am
He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I
will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you" (Isaiah xlvi.
4). And David cries out, "The righteous shall flourish like the
palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be
planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of
our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they
shall be fat and flourishing, to show that the Lord is upright"
(Psalm xcii. 12-15).
These are sample promises of which the Bible is full, and which
have been adapted by infinite wisdom and love to meet us at every
point of doubt and fear and need, that, in believing them, we may
have a steadfast and glad hope in God. He is pledged to help us.
He says: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for
I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea,
I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness"
(Isaiah xli. 10).
When all God's waves and billows seemed to sweep over David, and
his soul was bowed within him, three times he cried out: "Why art
thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His
countenance" (Psalm xlii. 5). And Jeremiah, remembering the
wormwood and the gall, and the deep mire of the dungeon into
which they had plunged him, and from which he had scarcely been
delivered, said: "It is good that a man should both hope and
quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord" (Lam. iii. 26).
When the Holy Spirit is come, He brings to remembrance these
precious promises, and makes them living words; and, if we
believe, the whole heaven of our soul shall be lighted up with
abounding hope. Hallelujah! It is only through ignorance of God's
promises, or through weak and wavering faith, that hope is
dimmed. Oh, that we may heed the still small voice of the
Heavenly Comforter, and steadfastly, joyously believe!
"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay."
"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?"