[Date not given.]
I. By the Spirit of God is of course meant the Holy Spirit.—The Spirit is everywhere present. He controls all the operations of nature. He operates on the minds of men, endowing and controlling them. He specially operates on the souls of the children of God. 1. In renewing them. 2. In imbuing them continually with new life. 3. In determining their inward and outward life.
II. What is meant by being led by the Spirit?
- It is not by blind suggestions or impulses. It is not by a miraculous or abnormal operation, directing what text the eye shall fall upon. The general statement is that just made. The Spirit is the determining principle of the inward and outward life of the believer. So it is not they which live, but Christ, i.e., his Spirit which liveth in them. This leading of the Spirit is, 1. Consistent with our rational nature, liberty, and responsibility. 2. It is not a matter of consciousness. His influence mingles with our consciousness and determines it, but cannot be distinguished from it. 3. The guidance of the Spirit is not always or necessarily irresistible. We may yield to it or we may oppose it. Hence men are said to resist, to grieve, to quench the Holy Spirit. In all true believers the Spirit will in the end, according to God’s promise, overcome all opposition and render them obedient. Nevertheless, it is true that, to their great detriment and loss, they may refuse to be led by him. So much for the nature of this leading.
III. As to the result of it, or the ends to which the Spirit leads us, they are,
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The knowledge of the truth. This is not by revelation, or inspiration, but by illumination. There is thus spiritual teaching apart from the outward teaching of the word, as is proved from the Scriptures and by experience.
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To the love of the truth, or the conformity of our hearts, our affections to the standard of God’s will. That is, we are made to love God, Christ, the people of God, the service of God. We are led to all right exercises of faith, penitence, meekness and every Christian grace and virtue.
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To the conformity of our outward life to the will of God. It leads to the government of the tongue, to the control of the passions, to the ordering of our life. It gives right views and right motives to determine our conduct in all the emergencies of life. Hence the Spirit leads one man to the ministry, another to some other profession, another to the missionary field.
IV. Why are those who are led by the Spirit, and they only, the sons of God?
- What is meant by the sons of God?
a. Those who partake of his nature, by regeneration.
b. Those who are adopted into his family and are thus made the objects of his parental care and love, and the heirs of his kingdom.
c. Those who are governed by a filial, as opposed to a slavish spirit; who love, reverence, obey God as his children and are zealous for his glory.
There are three reasons why those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God.
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Because this submission to the Spirit of our whole inward and outward life is the only evidence of our regeneration and adoption, in other words, of our sonship.
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Because the Holy Spirit is in his nature a Spirit of adoption. He is not a servile Spirit. It is the Spirit of the Son, and therefore it is sent to those who are sons. Those and those only who are actuated by this filial Spirit are the sons of God; that is, are such in their inward character and temper.
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Because in so far as the sonship, or being the sons of God, involves the idea of exaltation, dignity, glory, dominion, power or blessedness, the indwelling of the Spirit and his controlling power is the immediate source of all these distinctions and excellences.
V. The necessary conditions on our part in order to this guidance.
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We must renounce our own guidance, the right, the ability or the desirableness of guiding ourselves. This includes the renunciation of the guidance of our own understanding, of our own will, or of our own desires.
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We must renounce the guidance of men. a. Whether of the world, or of individual men, b. or of the Church.
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We must under a sense of our dependence, and in full faith in the Spirit’s office, resign ourselves to his guidance and submit to it.
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