THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.

• The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirits that we are children of God. Romans, 8:16.

• Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. I. Cor. 2:12.

• He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. I. John 5:10.

• Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father. Gal. 4:6.

• Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. II. Cor. 1:22.

• For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us. Heb. 10:14, 15.

I am learning to honor, reverence and worship the Holy Spirit more and more, as I see the many important things He has surely been sent into the world to perform. I am astonished that I myself am so slow to obey Him and learn from Him the things He has been sent to accomplish. One of the things that He has been specially sent to do is to bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God and that we might know the things that are freely given us of God, for He shall take the things of Jesus and show them to us. No one who believes in the Bible will doubt the importance of these great matters which are so frequently mentioned in the scriptures. If we disregard these works of the Spirit, it is absolutely certain that our religion will degenerate into a mere formality and we will have nothing but the form of godliness, and soon will deny its power.

It becomes Methodist people to understand this doctrine of the witness of the Spirit, because it was especially given to them to make this work of the Spirit known to all mankind, and by the Methodists this part of evangelical truth has been recovered from the rubbish of the dark ages, and restored to its proper place in the church of God.

Let us examine this truth. The scriptures speak of four witnesses in this world.

1. The witness of the Word. God declares in His Word that such and such things, will bring forth such and such results. That is God's witness and testimony to humanity.

2. Then, when we believe the Word, our own spirit confirms the word of Christ and bears witness that it is true. “We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to them that obey Him.”

3. “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.”

4. Then will come the fruit of the Spirit as a last witness, to confirm our testimony before the world as children of God.

We all know what the witness of the Word is but

I. What is the Witness of our spirit.

1. The witness of our own spirit is not that natural presumption of one who, being puffed up with spiritual pride, testifies that he is good enough — just as good as they can make them.

2. The witness of my own spirit is not the testimony of somebody else about me that I am born again. The priest or evangelist or preacher may say I am a Christian, but how do they know? Are they not only erring men, who do not know my heart and may say that I am regenerated, when I know that I am under the wrath of God and in the gall of bitterness?

3. The witness of our own spirit is not the testimony that comes when you compare yourself with others around you. When you find out what state of feeling others have and what they do under certain similar temptations, and measure yourself by their standing, that is childishness. Paul says, “Comparing themselves by themselves and measuring themselves among themselves, are not wise.” That is the way little children do.

4. The true witness of our own spirit is simply this, — God has given his word that there are certain marks or signs by which we may know that we are His children. He says, “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.” “If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” God has also described in the plainest manner the circumstances which go before regeneration, such as “repentance and forgiveness of others,” and “sorrow for sin.” He has described the circumstances that accompany and follow the true conversion. Now then, we take these words in the Bible, and believing the word, find that there is harmony, there is a correspondence between the word of God and our own hearts: then our own spirits testify to that fact and we conclude that we are born of God. With the eye of consciousness we read what is in ourselves, and with the eye of our understanding, we read what is in the word of God, and when the works of Grace within us correspond to the works of Grace as described in the Bible, then our spirits bear testimony to this fact, confirming the testimony of Christ, and this is the witness of our own spirit, that the word of God is true, when it says, “If we confess, He forgives. If we come, He receives. Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.

5. How do we know that we have these marks or evidences? How do we find out ourselves that we have them? How do you know you are alive and not dead? How do you know you are well and not sick? Awake and not asleep? You* know these things by your own consciousness. So when you see the marks of life in the Bible, marks of peace and rest, you know by your own consciousness whether your soul is alive to God or not; you know whether you have peace and quietness of spirit, whether you have forgiveness and love, joy and delight in the Lord or not, your own consciousness bearing testimony to the word of God that these things are wrought in you.

II. What then is the witness or testimony of the ‘ Holy Spirit?

When the Son of God was upon the earth He said to the sinful ones, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” They heard Him say, “Now ye are clean through the word I have spoken unto you.” “They are not of the world.” “They have kept Thy word.” They have His word for it. They could afterwards examine their inner life and their experience and compare it with His descriptions of them, and if there was harmony, their own spirits would bear testimony to the fact, but they had His divine presence with them and His word at the start. Now, He has gone away. I have His word, but He is gone. Is there any one who can take the grace of God and apply it to my heart and tell me so? I want to know it now and not wait till I have grown and developed and can produce the fruit of the Spirit. Can I have the divine assurance at once, as well as if Jesus was here? Is there any one anywhere who can tell me? Is there any one that knoweth the things that God is doing for me? Yes, indeed, “because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.”

The Spirit knoweth the things of God, for He searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God,” so when I believe the promise, the Father forgives me, justifies me, and adopts me in His family; the Spirit knows it and declares it unto me, for what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Adoption, because He certifies that our names are written in heaven.

Jesus has purchased our pardon, has secured our salvation, and He says, “The Spirit shall take the things of mine and show them unto you.” Paul says, “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit” and thus He directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God, that Jesus loves me, that my sins are blotted out and that I, even I, am reconciled to God.

III. The Spirit witnesses to all the work of God, whatever that work may he.

1. The Spirit convinces the sinner of his guilt and condemns him, and the man feels and knows that he is a lost man. His friends may try to dissuade him and tell him that he has always been a good man, but that will not give him the relief he wants. He may not have been a violent sinner, but he knows that he needs the 'Savior. The man may not know that it is the Spirit that is convicting him of sin, but the fact of his guilt is impressed on his mind. Jesus says, “And He, when He is come, will convict the world of sin,” and the sinner will know it. Before I was a Christian, the Spirit witnessed to my guilt and sin as clearly as He now witnesses that I am a child of God.

2. The Spirit witnesses to us of the Divine forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act within the Divine mind? If you forgive another, that is an act within your own mind, and the other can only know of your forgiveness by your communicating such knowledge to him in some way.

When God forgives a sinner, it is an act within the Divine mind, and the Holy Spirit is the only one who knows the mind of God and can make known to the believer the fact of the Divine forgiveness. If the forgiven one is ever to know it, the Holy Spirit must reveal it unto him, so that he can say, “Tis done. The great transaction's done. I am my Lord's and He is mine."

3. The Spirit reveals to the regenerated, the fact of his further needs and convicts him of his weakness and inward perversity of nature and proneness to sin. The regenerated man soon discovers that some tempers * are wrong, that self-will and unbelief, malice, wrath, anger and worldliness are in the heart. He sees there are pride, envy and other marks of the carnal mind that are opposed to the new life he is living. He feels and knows that the work of grace is not completed in his heart. He is as sure of this inward perversity as he was of guilt and condemnation before, and as long as he tries to serve and obey God, the Spirit will bear testimony to these things. He knows he needs another impartation of life, so that he will not only have life, but have it more abundantly. The Spirit reveals the need of the deeper work of cleansing and filling the soul, and adjusting it to the Divine will. When the believer obeys the command of Jesus and tarries for the Pentecostal baptism and yields himself unto God as those alive from the dead, he receives the Spirit of Holiness, and now he feels and knows that he is conformed to the image of Christ.

This is not speculation, nor theory. Surely, if the Spirit is to take the things of Jesus Christ and show them to us, He must show us the fact when the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.

The scriptures declare the necessity of regeneration, the necessity of adoption, the necessity of purity, the necessity of reaching forth after the things that are before us, the necessity of being changed from glory to glory by following on to know the Lord.

Now, these various phases of experience are not to be mere speculations or matters of conjecture, but we are to know them. And “we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God.”

4. This true witness of the Spirit will be afterwards confirmed before the world by the fruit of the Spirit,... love, joy, peace, quietness, goodness, meekness, and temperance. Do not rest content with any supposed evidence if the fruit of the Spirit does not follow. These manifestations of love, joy, peace and rest may not always be so apparent, but may be clouded in times of trial and distress; but when the hour and power of darkness is past, they will come again and you will rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. There is great need of the witness of the Spirit. In Acts 9:31, we read that the churches, “walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit were multiplied!” What does it mean to walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit? The word comfort with us means, to soothe, to give ease and freedom from pain. It is a kind of padded quilt on which w r e can recline. But the real meaning of the word is to exhort, to support, to inspire, to admonish.

The Holy Spirit is sent to support, exhort, assure and inspire every heart.

He is called the Comforter, because He settles every doubt, dispels every fear and gives confidence and assurance of the Divine favor, and every man has a sure preparation for every event of life, whether prosperity or adversity, whether sickness or health, whether life or death, whether in time or eternity, if he walks in the admonition of the Holy Spirit.