The Spirit of Power, of Love, and of a Sound Mind 2
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II. But I pass on to consider what I proposed to speak of in the second place– What God HAS given us. Three things are spoken of in our text, all of which are meant by the apostle to stand in opposition to the spirit of fear. The three blessings that God has given us, and which are direct opposites to the spirit of fear that we have been considering, are–Power; Love; and a Sound Mind. These we will view separately.
A. "POWER" is the grand distinctive characteristic of the gospel of the grace of God. It is therefore declared to be "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes;" and the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of Christ administered here below in and by the gospel, is said to be "not in word but in power." "I will know," the apostle says, "not the speech of those who are puffed up, but the power." The apostle was very jealous over his own preaching, as he tells us he was with the Corinthians "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling;" and this was a part of his godly jealousy, lest their faith might not "stand in the power of God."
But you will ask– "What is power?" To answer this question, we may put another– What is power as we usually understand the term? It is some movement, force, or influence, put forth by an agent, whatever that agent might be. We speak, for instance, of "water-power." Running in yonder valley is a stream of water; as this approaches the town, it is penned up and a wheel is put in a certain direction to meet the current. The water now acts upon the wheel; the wheel turns; and we call the moving cause "water-power." Or we see a locomotive move upon the railway. Our fathers would have stared with astonishment to see a train moving, as it were, of itself. They would have thought it little else than a miracle. We know the cause. We know that steam has been controlled and brought under man's direction so as to exert a certain power, which power is made manifest in dragging an enormous weight at an enormous velocity. This we call "steam-power." Now if the water never turned the wheel– if the steam never moved the locomotive, how could we say that there was power in either water or steam?
Take the idea into grace. Here before our eyes and in our hands is the Scripture, the pure word of God. Now unless the word of God acts upon a man's heart as the water acts upon the wheel, or as the steam upon the locomotive, there is nothing done. And that is the case with hundreds and thousands. They read the Scripture or hear the Scripture read, but nothing is done, at least as regards salvation. There is no divine power put forth, and no power being put forth nothing is produced of a divine nature. But God acts by his word upon the hearts of his saints, and he acts with power; for his work is a powerful work, produces powerful effects, and leads to powerful results. This, then, is what God is here said to have given us– "the spirit of power."
We will now, with God's blessing, examine a little more closely how this power acts; for it is the power of God's Spirit– the operation of his grace; or, to speak more correctly, it isthe power of God himself upon the heart of man. For as the water acts upon the wheel, as the steam acts upon the locomotive, so does God, through the word of his grace, act upon the soul of man. "Of his own will he begat us through the word of truth." "The word of God is quick and powerful." "The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty." Let us apply this.
1. Here is a poor guilty sinner, in his own feelings justly condemned to die. Burdened by guilt, he is under the influence of that slavish fear of which I have spoken– for you must take the two in opposition to each other as the apostle places them, power and fear. He cannot believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, or in his own saving interest in him, though he would gladly do so; nor can he lift himself up or out of that sunken state into which he has been cast by guilt of conscience. He trembles at the wrath to come. He fears death and hell; but he cannot deliver himself from the fears that work in his guilty conscience.
Now what does this man need? He is helpless and almost hopeless. He therefore needs the Lord to put forth a power in his soul that he himself cannot exercise; and when the Lord is pleased by the word of his grace to put forth this power and to raise up a living faith in that man's heart, then he can believe. Nor can he believe to any effectual purpose until the Lord gives power; for his faith, if it be genuine faith, is "to stand in the power of God," and it cannot stand in the power of God unless it first be in the power of God. You must be in a place before you can stand in it. God gives that soul power to believe, and then he does believe; and that is power.
2. But his servile fears have almost kept him down even from hoping that matters would one day be otherwise with him– from hoping in the grace of God. Nor can he, so long as he is in slavish fear, raise up "a good hope through grace" in his soul; for if it comes through grace, and he has not any sensible communication of grace, he cannot have a good hope. He may have a hope, but he can hardly be said to have a good hope; and while under the influence of slavish fear, he often does not dare to hope. Though he is not in despair he is in despondency; nor can he get beyond a dim and distant hope that his soul may be saved. But when the Lord puts forth power by applying a promise to his soul, or by giving him strength to believe in the Lord Jesus, he raises up a good hope; for grace, that is, the free favor of God, comes into his heart, and then he has power to hope in the Lord of life and glory. He is now enabled to loosen the anchor from the ship and to cast it forth into firm holding ground. The anchor was there before, but he had no power to let it go; and thus it could not take hold of the wounds of Jesus or enter within the veil.
3. Nor had he power to love. He would love, but could not. We cannot love the Lord until we know that the Lord loves us; nor can we love him with all our heart and soul until he tells us that he loves us with all his. When he says "I have loved you with an everlasting love," and sheds abroad his love in the soul, this gives power to love him. When, too, he sets himself before our eyes in his divine beauty and blessedness, this makes us fall in love with him. For beauty kindles love. It is so often in natural love, and always so in divine.
4. Nor can we submit to God's will, if that will crosses our own. Many a dear saint of God would be reconciled to his heavenly Father's will, but cannot, for he feels a rebellious heart; and while his heart is full of rebellion there is no power to submit. This power must be given of God; and the Lord sometimes does in rich and tender mercy give it. He has but to speak and it is done; he has but to touch the heart and it softens; he has but to appear and the soul melts at the sight. Thus is power given to submit to God's will in opposition to our own.
So might I run through the whole list of divine graces, such as a spirit of prayer and supplication, spirituality of mind and heavenliness of affections, fighting against sin and Satan, crucifying the lusts of the flesh, putting off the old man, putting on the new, and with him the whole armour of God, and remaining faithful unto the end. We have no ability to do any of these things, except as God gives us inward power; and this strength he makes perfect in our weakness.
When we are come to the end of all our own power, we are only come to the beginning of God's. When we see an end of all our own perfection, then only do we begin to see the beginning of Christ's beauty and glory. And when all creature loveliness and all native goodness fades and comes to nothing, then the beauty and blessedness of the person, work, love, and blood of Jesus begin to open to our admiring view.
B. But I pass on to show the second thing which the apostle tells us God has given us in opposition to the Spirit of fear; and that is the spirit of LOVE. Now love is a grace that may be counterfeited, like all other graces; but to give a real spirit of divine love and affection is as much beyond the power of Satan as it is beyond his will.
1. There is no sweeter or surer mark of being savingly interested in the blood of Jesus than to love him with a pure heart fervently; for we certainly never can truly and spiritually love him unless he has first loved us. This is the express declaration of the Holy Spirit– "We love him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). This made Paul say, "Who loved me and gave himself for me." Nor will our affections ever flow unto his glorious person, blood, and work, until we have had some divine discovery of these blessings to our heart and conscience.
We may try to love him; we may think it our duty to do so, and may be exercised and perplexed in our mind for our want of it; we may be secretly ashamed of our miserable coldness, and may lament our barrenness in this blessed grace. But no power of our own can raise up true love to Jesus and to what he is in himself. The spirit of love and affection to the Lord comes from the power of God put forth, springs immediately from the communications of his grace, and especially from the visitations of Christ to the soul. He always comes with love in his heart and hands, and never departs without leaving love behind him.
We read, "Because of the savour of your good ointments, your name is as the ointment poured forth, therefore the virgins love you." When once the ointment is poured forth, the box that held it may be taken away, but the smell of the ointment still remains; as it was in the case of the woman who anointed the Redeemer's feet, when the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. So wherever Jesus has come in his Spirit and grace, when he departs he still leaves behind the savour of his presence, as the ointment poured forth. If, therefore, the virgins love him because his name is "as ointment poured forth" when he visits them with his presence, they love him no less for the sweetness he leaves behind when he departs.
2. Nor can we love the children of God except the Lord lays them upon our affections. Our hearts are by nature cold and selfish; we have no knowledge who the saints of God are, nor have we any sympathy with them, any delight in their company, any feeling towards them in their distress, or any union with them in their joy. We must love first him who begat, and then we shall love those who are begotten by him. We love the Master and then we love the servant; we love the head and then we love the members; we love Jesus and then we love those whom Jesus loves and who love him.
Thus to love is of grace, God's special gift, as the text declares; and by this as a sure evidence "we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death."
You may think yourself a great Christian– you may boast of your deep experience; but if you do not love the saints of God, there are no present marks of the grace of God being in your heart. And if you love the saints of God, you will manifest it in your words and actions, and will show that you do love them by manifesting that brotherly affection, tenderness, forbearance, and sympathy, without which Christian love is but a name.
3. Nor can you love the Word of God except as it is made precious to your soul. You cannot love the preaching of the gospel unless it be commended to your conscience, unless it is full of sweetness and unction, and falls like dew upon your heart. If the preaching of the gospel brings peace to your soul, fills your heart with sweet and blessed feelings, melts your spirit in humility and love, makes Christ precious, dispels your doubts, removes your fears, and sheds abroad a little heaven within, you will love it because, as the power of God, it does all this for you. Otherwise you will be cold and indifferent towards it. It will be to you as it is to hundreds– a mere sound of words that neither sanctifies nor saves.
Likewise in reading the Scriptures. If you love the Scripture, you will be reading it; if you love the promises, you will be searching how you may find more and more power, sweetness, and life in them. If you love prayer, you will be much in prayer; if you love meditation and secret communion with the Lord, you will get away from everything else that you may enjoy more and more of it. You may know a man by his friends. A man will keep the company he loves. And so you may know a saint of God by the company he keeps, by the books he reads, by the people he loves, and by those fruits of righteousness which alone are found upon the gospel bough.
C. The last thing spoken of in our text as the special gift of God, is the spirit of "a SOUND MIND."What a mercy it is naturally to have a sound mind! It is one of the greatest temporal blessings that God can bestow upon a man. It is far better than intellect, imagination, poetical gift, or reasoning power. And how wretched it is to have an unsound mind! a mind in the least degree diseased, eccentric, or in any way tainted with those delusive fancies which mar all comfort and often lead to the worst of consequences. "A sound mind in a sound body," the heathen used to consider, in one of their proverbs, are the greatest blessings their gods could give. But however great be the blessing of a healthy body, a healthy mind as much exceeds it in value as it is superior to it in nature.
How you see men ruining themselves every day for lack of a sound mind! What extravagance, what folly are they daily committing! What disorder they bring upon their families, upon their property, and upon others also– what havoc and ruin from being crazed with some fancy or wild delusion! But the apostle is not here speaking of a sound mind in natural things, because though that is a most valuable temporal gift, it is not spiritual grace– it is a sound mind in the things of God that he joins in union with power and love. And I must say that I look upon this gift from heaven as an inestimable mercy to the church of God.
We are often reproached with being fanatics, enthusiasts, and people of a wild imagination, carried and led away by airy flights, without any sobriety of judgements or soundness of mind. I consider that no charge was ever more false or more misdirected. I consider that those of us who know the truth of God by divine teaching are eminently people of a sound mind eminently free from superstition, fanaticism, enthusiasm, or wild imaginations and delusive fancies. I never had sounder mind in my life than I have at this moment, and I am sure my religion has not made my mind unsound. It has made my mind sound naturally as well as spiritually, for it has cured me of a thousand airy fancies and wild ambitious desires, and given me sobriety in natural things as well as in spiritual.
To possess, then, the spirit of a "sound mind" is to have a sound judgement in the things of God– not to be drawn aside by every passing opinion– not to be allured by every novel doctrine– not to be charmed by every fresh device of the wicked one– not to be caught by every one of his flesh-pleasing snares; but to have that sobriety of judgement and holy wisdom in the things of God, with that fixedness of heart upon the Lord Jesus, and that solid experience of his Spirit and grace, as shall keep us from errors and delusions on the right hand and on the left.
Unless we have this spiritual sobriety, this ripe and matured judgement, and this firm establishment in the truth of God, we are almost sure to be drawn aside into some error or other. Satan will somehow deceive us as an angel of light. He will impose upon us some of his heresies and present them to our minds with such plausibility that they shall appear to be in accordance with the scriptures; he will puff us up with pride and presumption; he will draw us off the firm and safe ground of spiritual experience, to entangle us in a maze of confusion and error; he will beguile our minds with some of his subtle deceits, and lead us off that foundation which God has laid in Zion, and upon which all his saints have ever stood; and by working upon our Pharisaical or Antinomian mind, withdraw us away from the glorious truths that all the preachers of righteousness have ever taught. If we have not the spirit of a sound mind, we shall mistake a false experience for a true one– natural feelings for spiritual– the workings of pride and self-righteousness for the workings of the Spirit of God– and the deceits of the devil for the teachings of the Holy Spirit.
But where there is a sound mind– and that there ever will be, more or less, where there is spiritual light, divine life, gracious feeling, and a conscience made tender by God's fear– there will be a sound faith, a sound hope, a sound love, a sound repentance, and a sound work of grace upon the heart from first to last. To have a sound mind is to have a mind deeply imbued and vitally impregnated with the truth of God; and as that truth is the only really solid and enduring substance under the sun, it follows that those who know it experimentally for themselves are the only people really possessed of soundness of mind; for they only take right and sound views of all things and all events, natural and spiritual, and have, as the apostle says, "the mind of Christ."
You see, then, what God has not given, and what he has given. The gospel does not give us slavish fear, bondage, darkness, and death. The gospel does not preach to us wrath, condemnation, and hell. The gospel does not hold out curses and punishment and misery. This is not the gospel message, the gospel tenor, or the gospel spirit. The law does this, but the gospel does it not. The gospel holds forth and reveals Christ. The gospel proclaims pardon and peace, salvation and deliverance through atoning blood and justifying righteousness. And the gospel when applied to the heart by the Spirit of God, becomes "a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind." To possess these three salient blessings is to possess true religion, vital godliness, real spirituality– a religion such as will save the soul from death and hell. To have this made vitally known is to have the religion of Abel, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, of Moses, of David, of all the ancient martyrs, of all the apostles and prophets, and of that innumerable company that John saw in vision, "with palms in their hands," who had "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." All these had a religion given them of God; and though they may have had, as we may have had or still have, their servile fears, their slavish doubts, their miserable guilt of conscience, their dark and gloomy hours of bondage, yet they all possessed the "spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind." And such is ever the effect of God's grace, as wrought by his own divine power in the heart.
The question for us to ask ourselves is, how far we are partakers of this divine religion? We may have slavish fear, guilt, bondage, darkness, and death. Though these are felt by many a child of God, and by all during different periods of their spiritual life, yet are they not evidences of our being partakers of grace? Have we "the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind?" Have we any reason to believe that God by his grace has wrought anything in our hearts of a saving nature? If we have, it will be proved as such. We shall have the enjoyment here, and to him will be rendered here and hereafter all the praise, honour, and glory due to his glorious and blessed name.
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