Robert Turner - Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

AI SUMMARY : In a 1972 lecture, Robert Turner discusses the concept of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He states that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can only be understood by studying the indwelling of deity as a whole. He provides various biblical references that speak of the indwelling of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit as well as other elements such as faith and sin. Turner suggests that the reluctance to see the Holy Spirit as indwelling may stem from an under-emphasis on the indwelling of the Father and Son. He also touches on the topic of being led by the Spirit and the importance of an objective approach rather than a subjective one. He mentions a personal anecdote about a couple seeking marriage approval and discuss different concepts of being led by the Spirit. The speaker emphasizes that man was made to respond to God's call and that through Christ, forgiveness and justification are made possible. He explains that without the gift of God's Son, man would be unable to be forgiven and restored to his intended ex AI TRANSCRIPT: I consider that I have a subject that could be considered either one of the most difficult subjects I could be given, or if I can really bring myself to believe this, as I think I should, one of the most simple. And it's just going to depend on me now to really have faith in what I honestly believe the Word of God teaches about this subject. If I believe that, as I think I should, if I can have the confidence, and I'm certain that this is exactly what Brother Harold was talking about, the kind of confidence I should have in what God says, now, what He actually says about the subject, I don't know why it should be anything but a reasonably ordinary subject, if any scriptural subject can be ordinary. One that can be studied, grasped, used to great advantage, one that all of us need. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When God wished to picture for man the ultimate blessing, the final reward, the eternal destiny of those who are acceptable in His sight, He described New Jerusalem, the heavenly home where God dwells with His people. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. Revelation 21. Notice how closely this description of the heavenly home fits with the language of the Old Testament, where God has said to dwell among the children of Israel, Exodus 29.45, and walk among them, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people, Leviticus 26. Then, those who prophesied of redemption in Christ used the same language, adding, I will put my law in their inward hearts, and in their heart will I write it, Jeremiah 31.33. God promised, Ezekiel 37.27, my tabernacle also shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. This is not the promise of a tent, but of the divine presence, and portends the ultimate indwelling of God with His people. It is in this framework that I view our subject, for I believe that a proper understanding of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can be found only in a study of the indwelling of deity as a whole. The scriptures speak of the Holy Spirit being in some in a miraculous measure, endowing with power, delivering all through, enabling some to work miracles, confirming the Word. This lecture does not deal with that facet of the subject, even to classify the references, but assumes the objective student will recognize such passages by their context. It should be remembered, however, that all apostles were Christians and subject to the indwelling, even though all Christians are not apostles and are not subject to the special importation of the Spirit and power given to the apostles and prophets. No special significance can be attached to the language of indwelling. Inoikeo is in, plus the verb form of house, hence, indwell. The word is used, and watch it, of God's Spirit, it indwells, in, God's Spirit, Romans 8.11. Of God himself, 2 Corinthians 6.16, same language. Of the Word of Christ, Colossians 3.16, of faith, you have to sort of read that a little carefully, but 2 Timothy 1.5, talking about faith, that indwells, and of the Holy Spirit, 2 Timothy 1.14, and even of sin, Romans 7.17, exactly the same language for every one of those. In all of these cases, indwell is accompanied by an additional in, epsilonu, in. He indwells in. Expanding our terminology to include katakel, or to dwell with, then we have to add Christ to that list, Ephesians 3.17. With the word menno, or remain, we add spirit of truth, John 14.17, at least for the Apostles. The language makes no distinction in the indwelling of God and that of the Holy Spirit. Now, if this reduces the Holy Spirit to an influence, as some claim, it does the same for the Father and the Son of Deity. Perhaps our reluctance to see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all indwell is due not so much to an over-emphasis upon the Holy Spirit as to an under-emphasis upon the indwelling of Father and Son. If we better understood and appreciated the latter, the former would not be such a problem. The beautiful, ultimate relationship of Creator and creature is pictured in Revelation, as pictured in Revelation, is the culmination of God's eternal purpose, and is made possible by three things. 1. The creature was made in the image of God, having a spirit that can respond to God's spirit. They that are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, Romans 8.14. And intended to the glory of God, Philippians 1.11, Ephesians 3.21. I think this is a tremendously important point, that man is so constructed that he can respond to God's reaching out for him, the manner and method by which God reaches for man. A long time ago they used to put it like this, that the gospel that God made is suited to the man that God made. Well, that's it. That's what I'm saying right here. And that this leading man being led by the Spirit, that it must be an objective approach to the Spirit rather than subjective, is a thing that has been mentioned many times in the course of this particular lecture, but that needs far, far more emphasis. I had a couple come to me one time wanting to get married. I happened to know something about the man, and I knew that I couldn't have anything to do with that marriage relationship, with performing of ceremony or anything else. And I told him so. But this woman assured me that that very morning she had talked with God. I guess she went out in the garden and talked to the angel. She had talked with God that morning, and that God told her that this was all right, that it would be just fine. Well, I said, Do you mind if I ask him? No. So I turned over and asked him. I read from Matthew 19, the third through the ninth verses. When I finished, I said, Well, he said it wasn't a thing to do. Now, there are two different concepts about how we are led by the Spirit. The Augustinian and Calvinistic theology, and I dare say that we scarcely appreciate what this old religious theology has done to our thinking along this line. That old Augustinian and Calvinistic theology which makes man incapable of that kind of leading, incapable of accepting that sort of call. I mean, God speaking to us through his word. That permeates much of today's religious thinking, is degrading and discouraging to the product of God's creation. Man was made but little lower than the angels, and it is God's intention that he should occupy a glorious position, joint heir with Christ. There's a marvelous study of that in Hebrews 2, which I will not have time to go into. But he emphasizes that very point, and we might outline it like this, that God made man but little lower than himself, gave him an exalted position, creator and creature. And then it was through sin, man's own sin, that man came to such a low state. And then God sent his Son made in the image, not of the angels, but like Abraham, made like his brethren, you see. And he became partaker of flesh and blood, like these down here, so that he might elevate them, bring them back up. That's the whole idea of the thing. God intended man to occupy a glorious position, to be joint heirs with Christ. And these all things that he does for us, there is a popular conception that what Romans 8 says is that no matter what happens, that it will all turn out. God will see to it that it all turns out for your good. That's not what that passage says. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Those are the ones that love God. These are parallel statements here, to them that love God. Who are those that love God? To those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called, then he also justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified. There are five all things, five of these all things that God did that are for our good. What are those five things? He designates them, he names them here. Here are all these things that God did so that those who are the called according to his purpose, and that's put right in the middle of them. God's plan, and then the working out of that plan, then the call, then the justification, and then the glorification. And all these things work for our good. For whose good? For them that are called according to his purpose. It is a false and erroneous, very misleading concept of the matter that says no matter what happens, this is all God meant to be for your good. Now, it's true that we may be exercised by all sorts of things, and it's true that occurrences in our life may awaken us to the need for God. But without these five things that God gave so that we could ultimately be glorified with him, we're just missing the point of that passage. But, now the first point is that God made man so that he could respond to his call. Second, but man used the free agency with which God endowed him to reject God. He chose as a free agent, he chose evil rather than good, and in so doing he separated himself from God. Now, I can't go into all the theology of that point, but we are responsible beings before God. Hence the necessity for the second step, namely, God so loved man that he gave his own son to die on our behalf. Through Christ we are forgiven, justified, and the compatibility necessary for indwelling is made possible. That's the point of the Roman letter, especially of the early part of it. Verse 23 of the third chapter says, "...for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Man was made up here in this glorious position, but he sinned. Then it says, "...being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." And you know the rest of it. As we go on, I shall try to impress upon you the fact that without this, without this gift of God's Son that man might be forgiven of his sins, the compatibility necessary for indwelling could not be. For God and darkness just do not mix. Without this perfect offering, this continual cleansing, man could have no fellowship with God. 1 John 1, 6 and 7, "...and God would not tabernacle with man." 2 Corinthians 6, "...come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and I will be your Father, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." That's the only way that compatibility can be established by which God will tabernacle with man. God has amply demonstrated his desire to indwell his creatures, and has made compatibility possible through Christ, but man must supply the final leg to this triad. Third, here's your third. Man must freely submit his own spirit to the Spirit of God. Only in this total submission of will, this giving of one's self, can man establish true fellowship with God and enjoy the blessings of indwelling. I think it not unreasonable nor unscriptural to suggest that the whole of God's dealings with man from the time of Adam's sin has been to instruct, encourage and persuade man to this end. Hereby is man blessed and God glorified. So we come to the thesis of what I want to put before you this morning. Here is the core of it. We'll state as clearly as possible our thesis for this subject. It is according to God's eternal purpose that he dwell in, be manifested through, and glorified by his creatures. The nature of man, the sacrifice of Christ, and the manner by which God calls or draws his creatures all contribute to the final realization of this indwelling. The indwelling of which we read in the New Testament is a foretaste, an earnest, of that which is to come, and is relative to the degree that each man partakes of the divine nature. Indwelling in this time of preparation is inseparably related to our acceptance and response to the word of God, in that the word is the only media by which God's Spirit expresses the things of God to the spirit of his creatures. It must be an objective, not a subjective approach to the word of God. An objective, not a subjective approach to God himself. These two things cannot be separated. The ultimate indwelling of God with his people is forecast in many ways throughout the divine revelation. God dwelt in the tabernacle, later in the temple, among the people of Israel. Exodus 40, 1 Kings 8. Of course, the presence of God was by way of manifestation, shekinah. Even Solomon knew that God in very deed did not have a limited dwelling place, 1 Kings 8, 27 and following expressively. Then came the supreme manifestation of God in the flesh, Jesus of Nazareth. Here, Son of Man and Son of God was blended, and in a sense, and I wish you'd underscore or circle that, in a sense, the perfect example of indwelling was set before man. Let me say briefly but emphatically, I do not believe that Jesus Christ is nothing more than a sort of a supreme case of indwelling. That's not what I'm saying. But in a sense, the indwelling of God with man was, we were given the perfect example. He was called Immanuel, or God with us. And in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2. He is our mediator, our advocate, the link between humanity and deity, the means by which man has fellowship with God, and the final indwelling is consummated. We see, that is, perceive or understand God in Christ, John 14, 7 and 9. We come to know God in Christ, 1 John 2, 3. We have fellowship with God in Christ, 1 John 1, 3, 6 and 7. And we abide in God through Christ, John 14, 3. These passages and their many counterparts all emphasize the necessity for our being faithful to Christ, and how else than by means of the teaching or words of Christ, to assure our abiding in God and God in us. We must abide in Christ and Christ in us in order to bear fruit, John 15, 1 to 7. And in the 14th chapter of John, verse 23, we read, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. The word for abode here is the same as that used in John 14, 2. In my Father's house are many mansions, or abodes. John sums up the matter beautifully when he says, He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, 1 John 3, 24a. The second part of that verse, 24b, we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us, is in a context that clearly indicates an objective, not a subjective test for end-weather. We are to try the Spirits, whether they be of God. And this trying is to be done by comparison with apostolic teaching, 1 John 4, 6. He is not of God, heareth not us. 1 John 4, 12 reads, If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Now, I'm assuming that these passages just say what they mean to say, and that man is so equipped that when he's ready to just look at them, take them in their context, that he can accept them exactly the way they're given. And that is the context, that is the context of the statement that we can know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he has given. That is the context. We're talking about the context. We're in a book that was written to Christians to promote a closer, finer sort of a fellowship, or end-weather. As one may suspect from passages already cited, fellowship, knowing, oneness, and abiding or indwelling of God and man are not different relationships, but one relationship differently described. There's no difference in them. When you put it all together, you're talking about the same thing. I don't mean those terms are interchangeable. Like, kingdom and church refer to the same people, but refer to different relations, different aspects of the single relationship. So here, I don't mean you can just insert this term, indwell, wherever you find fellowship, on them. But when you talk about a person who is in fellowship with God, really and truly, you're talking about a person in whom God dwells, really and truly. We'll keep going on this. The Father and Son are in us to the extent the truth is in us, and the point embraces far more than an intellectual knowledge of truth. It concerns a response to truth whereby the Father and Son are manifested in our lives. 1 John 2 read, "...let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father." Compare 1 John 1 to 6-7. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. In this consistent overlapping of indwelling and fellowship with God, of knowing in the sense of relationship, see Vine, and being known of him, we are being taught concerning the oneness of God and man on earth, whereby we are prepared for the ultimate heavenly indwelling. I just don't see how you can ignore the tremendous and repeated overlapping of these terms. And they do overlap time and time again. The things of God, his nature, will, the very manifestation of God in Christ, are made known to us by the Spirit of God through chosen messengers. And I'm passing this point rather rapidly because I assume that you surely have studied such poems as 1 Corinthians 2, where God hath revealed these 54 unknown things, God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. The us here are inspired men. Oh, I know, it's popular nowadays. In fact, several years back, a Firm Foundation article carried the whole point here. It was just as Calvinistic as it could be, that the Holy Spirit is the glasses. You can't understand, and then you put on the glasses, and then you can understand, and it made the us just anyone who would be trying to understand. That's not what that's talking about. The us there are inspired men. They are the same kind of men under consideration in Ephesians, the third chapter, when Paul says that this dispensation of grace which is given unto us, where God by revelation through his Spirit hath made known unto me certain things which I wrote before in few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Here was something hithertofore unknown. God made it known to Paul. If you'll excuse the reference here to myself as a middleman. God made it known to Paul by his Spirit, by revelation. And he goes on to say, which he made known unto the apostles and prophets by his Spirit. There's your us, the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, by his Spirit. And then we wrote. And you, when you read what we wrote, you can know what we know. How did you know it, Paul? God revealed it unto me. How can I know it, Paul? You can take what I say, Paul says. You can listen to what I say. You can receive what I'm setting forth here. This is God's plan, and it must be accepted objectively. These truths must be objectively determined and accepted by the Spirit of man. We must look outside ourselves to that which God has provided. Then, taking this, what God has provided, taking this to heart, Romans 2.29, that you circumcise in the heart, we are motivated thereby and seek to conform our lives to the divine will. Indwelling is the result of the marriage of God's Spirit and man's Spirit, a blending, knowing, abiding, or oneness that is initiated by the love of God, but is consummated only when the free will of man acquiesces, so that the two Spirits bear witness together. It is in this vein, keeping God and the Spirit of God united as deity, that the Church is called the house or temple of God, where dwells the Spirit of God. It's the temple of God where dwells the Spirit of God. On an individual basis, the Saints are urged to flee fornication because one's body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed that the Ephesians might be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Here we see God's Spirit in man's Spirit. I wish I had the time to study that passage with you. Particularly is it important here, and I don't mean to say that you can't understand it in English, but here if you knew just a little bit about Greek and the word hoti, or in order that, you would find perhaps different outlines of those sentences, 16 through 19, than you had thought of before. Paul prayed for something, and what he prayed for is set forth here. What he prayed for was that we might have two things here, be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, and then this next vat is not a hoti at all. Verse 17 is not a hoti, it's just a comparable statement. These are comparable statements, compatible statements. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth, the length, the depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that you might be, and the vat is now hoti again, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. What he's really saying is, there's two big things here that I want for you, and they sum up finally in your being filled with the fullness of God. And I pray in order to these two big things. They all amount to saying that God may dwell in you. That's exactly what they amount to say. When Christ dwells in us, we are rooted and grounded in love, a parallel with Romans 5.5 where we are told that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. We are filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5.18, when we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, Colossians 3.16. One must shut his mind to an enormous overlapping of terminology in order to conclude that the Holy Spirit dwells in a Christian in a way different from the indwelling of the Father and the Son of God. Our tendency to contemplate the subject and gag at the difficulties of our own making has precedence in sacred history. In John 4.10-14, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman of living water, which one may have in him, a well of water springing up unto eternal life. She did not understand how this could be. Then in John 6.31-35, Jesus describes himself as the true bread from heaven which giveth life unto the world. Later, he expanded the figure to include meat and drink, saying, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. He that eateth me he also shall live because of me, verse 56-57. Romanists absurdly interpret this as referring to the Lord's Supper. People in Jesus' day were offended by it and walked away saying, This is a hard saying, who can hear you? But Jesus gave a clear explanation. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life, verse 63. Christ dwells in us and we in him to the extent we feed on him. This is done by receiving his words, assimilating that food, digesting that food, allowing them, his teaching, to become a part of us. It's not just the intellectual knowledge of the matter, but the assimilation and use of it that makes for the end-weather. They produce spiritual life to the extent we live by them following Christ. Peter understood this, for when Jesus asked if he would go away, he replied, and watch his reply, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, verse 63. We cannot separate the Lordship of Christ from the Lord's decrees, whatever the Lord says. You can't separate that. You can't say that you are a servant and citizen under the Lordship of Christ, and pay no attention to what the Lord says. But, and this is an important statement also, but we must not conclude that man saves himself by the use he makes, per se, of the word of God. This is not a system of law. Man cannot achieve compatibility with God through a system of law, no matter how sincerely he tries it. Nor can he summon the Spirit of God by his intellectual grasp of Christ's teaching, a central factor of our thesis, yet undiscussed, is the forgiveness of sins made possible by the death of Jesus Christ, and without which there could be no end-dwelling. We now invite your attention to the seventh and eighth chapters of the Roman letter. In chapter 7, 7 and following, Paul says that having the law of God was not enough, that it did, in fact, work death in him. You say, yes, but that's what the old law was, and you keep following it. The fault was not in the law, which he said was holy, just, and good, but the trouble lay in Paul. I delight in the law of God after the inward man, Paul says, affirming that his spirit was holy desires of life. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members, 7.22.23. He says the answer for this, a joyous answer, is Jesus Christ who makes forgiveness possible through his self-sacrifice. Note that the answer for the problem of man is not a new set of laws, although that difference does exist, but the answer is the blood of Christ by which forgiveness is possible. Those two spirits earnestly yearn to serve God in Christ, and that's for us, too, today with the new covenant. We're faced with the same conflict described by Paul, the good that we would, we do not, the evil which we would not, that we do. We receive the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit willingly enough, but despite our earnest endeavor, we sin. There is no compatibility between God and darkness, 1 John 1, verses 5-7. And if we persist in sin, we have no fellowship with him. But those who desire to be free from sin, who sincerely strive to walk according to his Spirit's directions, have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1 John 2.1. By whom forgiveness is possible. Through Christ, a fellowship with God, an indwelling is made possible which could not otherwise exist. It is to Christians, to those who have this advocate, this forgiveness, that Paul directs the eighth chapter. Then when you get into the eighth chapter, notice that the will of man, the mind, the inward man of chapter 7, is the spirit, man's spirit, of the early part of chapter 8. Don't let the capital S fool you there. Keep it in its context. Paul contrasts the carnal mind, desires of fleshly satisfaction, with the spirit of man that desires to serve God. But desire alone is not enough. Our spirit must find compatibility with the Spirit of God so that they can bear witness together, verse 16, that we are children of God, awaiting ultimate glorification. And that's why there must be, coupled with this, our dependence upon the forgiveness that is made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I am the one who sinned, but Christ is the one who died. I am the one to whom the strokes were due, but he is the one who received the strokes. You leave that out of this picture and there is no compatibility. Why? Not because God doesn't desire it, but because he made us free agents. We'll go right back to our thesis. Because he made us free agents, and because being free agents we sin, there must be forgiveness or there can be no compatibility. These Christian people, people who are striving to serve God, who have put their dependence upon Jesus Christ and looked to him for this forgiveness, and who now attune their spirit to his spirit, his spirit in their spirit and their spirit in his, you see the sort of coupling that is here shown us. These are the kind of people in whom the Spirit of God dwells today. Notice that verse 9 uses Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ interchanged. And verse 10 continues by saying, "...if Christ be in you." The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a means of describing the close fellowship that exists between God and those of his creatures who earnestly desire and endeavor to partake of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1.4. "...become partakers of his holiness," Hebrews 12.10, "...and through forgiveness in Jesus Christ are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3.18. The ultimate end of such a life is our acceptance into the heavenly habitation where God will dwell with us and we with him throughout all eternity. God bless you.