Mar. 2, 2008 - The Work of the Holy Spirit D.L. Moody

I  suppose there is not a real Christian here, this afternoon, but that has a desire to be used of God. If you have no desire, no longing for usefulness, I should say there is something wrong in your life. It seems to me that the first impulse, the first aim of a new-born soul is service. "What shall I do? I want to do something." This desire is not of gratitude to Him who has saved you. I cannot conceive of a subject more important than the one before us. When Christ had finished his work, the last thing He did was to teach His disciples of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and what He would do when He came. When He handed over His work to them, then it was He told them that the Spirit was coming to help and to work with them. It was this that helped those very early Christians, and it will help us. There is not a man or woman today who may not be helped if he will. But first, there must be a willing mind and heart; we must know the mind of the Holy Spirit, give ourselves up wholly, to be led and guided and filled with the Spirit.

Now, in the first place, it is well for us to remember that the Holy Spirit is a person. I think I was a Christian for a number of years before I knew that. If I had ever heard it, it had slipped from me and left no impression. I remember, the first time I was awakened upon this subject while listening to an old minister talking about honoring the Holy Ghost. I had always up to that time looked upon Him in the light of one of the attributes, like justice, mercy, and love. But when this old divine talked about His personality, I really thought the old man had gone a little out of his mind. It seemed so strange that I had never heard of it before! I went home and read my Bible in order to find out everything that the book said about the Holy Spirit. I found that it always spoke of the spirit as "He," never as an influence. There is one verse in the fourteenth chapter of John, where the word "He" occurs four times. I only want you to understand that He is distinct from the Father and the Son. When Jesus came down to earth, the work that He did was distinct from the work of the Father.

But now let us come to what His work is. In the first place His work is to convict of sin. You often hear people say, "Why is it so few people are converted under our minister? He is cultured, refined, intellectual, eloquent, but yet there seem to be very few conversions." Well, now, my dear friends, if you are going to look to your ministers to convict and convert people, you are going to be disappointed. It is the work of the Holy Ghost to convict of sin. I have often said that I had rather do almost any manual work than that which I am doing, if I have got to convict the people of sin. It is God's work to carry home conviction to the heart, not man's work. When He shall come. He shall convict and convince men of sin. I have seen people who, when the spirit of God has been working mightily, would get up and go out, and slam the door after them in a bad passion. Not a bad sign. I would a good deal rather them do that than make no sign at all.

When I was preaching in Philadelphia, some time ago, a man and his wife attended my lecture one night. They went home, and the man went to bed without speaking to his wife. The next morning he got up, and ate his breakfast, and went off without saying a word to her. All day she moaned, that she had made a mistake in taking her husband to the meetings. He came home at noon and did not speak to her, and at night again. And he kept that up for a whole week. At the end of the week he said, "Wife, why did you tell Mr. Moody all about me?" His wife replied that she had not spoken a word to Mr. Moody about him. "Then you must have written him about me." "No, I haven't written him anything about you." "Well, then he must have heard it from someone else. That impudent wretch, held me up before thousands of people and told them all about me."

Well, then after a man has been convicted of his sins and is willing to give them up, the next thing the Spirit does is to shed aboard the love of God in our hearts. A great many people are always trying to make themselves love God. You cannot do it. Love must be spontaneous. You cannot love by trying to make yourself love. You have got to have power, and that power comes from the Spirit. When we have that love, then we have the spirit of Jesus Christ. Once I asked a lady who was mourning, because she didn't love God, if she loved her mother. She said, "Yes, I cannot help it." "Well," I said, "that is it exactly." When that heart has been filled with the spirit of God, you cannot help loving Him. But you cannot make yourself love. More love is just what we want today. If you should ask me what the church needs, I should say "love."

Then another thing that the spirit does is to impart hope. You never saw the spirit of God working in a church that wasn't hopeful. Another thing the spirit of God does, is to give liberty. In a good deal of our church work there is almost everything but liberty. A good deal of our work is forced work. Sometimes it takes a god deal of strength to get out a word. Why? Because the atmosphere isn't right. The Holy Spirit has got to have the right atmosphere to work in. You take the atmosphere out of this room, and my voice wouldn't be heard three feet away from me. You have got to have air to convey sound, and you have got to have the spirit prepare the ground in order to carry home the truth. If you get into a certain atmosphere where the spirit isn't working, you will not have liberty.

If a minister hasn't got liberty, it isn't always his fault. I want to emphasize that. The fault may be down there in the audience. I venture to say that an archangel couldn't have had liberty under such circumstances. Why? Because of the fault-finding, back-biting and criticism. Supposing Andrew and Philip had a row and were not on speaking terms, do you think there would have been any liberty? There is not the right atmosphere, and I do not care who you put in the pulpit, there will be no liberty. You want some new church members down there. You get them straight, and the minister will be all right. Supposing James had turned to John and said, "John, I really don't think Peter is preaching as well today as usual"; and John had replied, "Why, he has the most influential congregation I ever saw. The greatest men of the city are here." I will venture to say that you have had ten thousand better sermons preached than Peter ever preached. Suppose those people had gone on picking Peter to pieces. Do you think there would have been any power? But the one hundred and twenty held Peter right up to God, and, if you will allow me to use the expression, he swung loose that day. It takes neither brains nor heart to find fault. Anybody can do that. If you doubt what I say, just go into a crowd and hear a stranger talk. You will hear it said, "Well, what do you think of him?.. I must confess that I was greatly disappointed. He isn't as good as our own minister." Another comes along and says, "He wasn't logical. I have a logical turn of mind, and when I go to church I want to hear logic!" Another says, "He wasn't philosophical. Don't know what it means, but philosophy is what he wants." Another says, "It was all brain. Now, I am using my brain all day long, and when I go to church, I want some one to appeal to my heart."

I wish we could get this sort of criticism out of the church, and then there would be something done. But perhaps the fault is not with the man in the pulpit. When you go home and look in the looking-glass, perhaps you will see the guilty person. What he wants is to get out of the business of fault-finding. It is a poor business, my friend. Just get to praying. You need the spirit of God just as much as the minister. You business men need it; the Sunday-school teachers need it; there are men and women who confess God, who need it. You will have liberty to walk and talk with, and work for Christ, if you have His spirit.

His work is also to testify of Christ. What we want today is love of Christ. That's all. Let these ministers go into the pulpits and life up Christ, and let speculation go. The world can get on without speculation and theories, but this old world cannot go on without Jesus Christ. Therefore we want to preach Him and hold Him up. There is no class of men that Jesus Christ won't draw, if He is lifted up.

Then, another thing the spirit of God does is to teach you. "He shall teach you all things." He is a wonderful teacher. There is not a thing that I want to know about future life that God cannot teach me. Any spirit that does not want that book, you may know is a lying spirit. "He shall teach you all things." Now, if we have got a teacher sent down here from heaven, to teach us all things, are we not dishonoring Him if we run after other teachers? People often come to me and ask me to go to other teachers, call up some departed spirits, and have the chairs and tables turning around. I tell them, "No." When the Lord converted me, He took me out of darkness. In secret, my Master taught nothing. I don't want anything of these teachers that are going to teach us in the dark. I don't know what they are. They may come from hell.

And then He shall guide you into all truth. Wonderful guide, isn't He? That is what He is down here for, to guide us through the wilderness. He is here to look after us.

Now, I want to call your attention to a fact. You never in your life saw a man full of God who wasn't full of scripture.

You see a minister in the pulpit that is filled with the spirit of God, and he will talk scripture right along. Mary was filled with the Holy Ghost, and that Magnificent flowed from her lips. And any man full of the Holy Ghost will talk scripture.

I believe Christ never spoke of His death but what He said, "On the third day I will rise again." And yet, when the time came His disciples had forgotten all about those words. It has always been a mystery to me where the family of Bethany was. You would have thought they would have remembered and been at His grace. His enemies had better memories than His own disciples. They were at the door of the sepulcher; but they never did a better thing for Christianity than to roll that stone up against the door.

But when the Holy Ghost came, then we are told that they remembered the words of the Lord Jesus. Their memory was long enough then. I tell you, when you are filled with the spirit of God, Scripture will come rushing into your mind. One text upon another, comes rushing into our mind saying, "Use me, use me."

And then, "He shall comfort you." There is not a broken heart today that He cannot make whole. There is not a sorry one that He will not comfort. "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come."

I want to say to the singers, that there is great honor put upon music. When the Levites were praising God, then it was that the Shekinah came and filled the temple with glory. If the members of the choir had been at enmity with each other, and had not been on speaking terms, do you think there would have been any harmony? You want your singing in harmony with the preaching, and the singer wants to keep his heart as well tuned as the minister, if he is going to sing well. I don't know what angel it was that got down to the plains to tell the shepherds that Christ had come, but I have an idea that it was Gabriel. But they sung, "Glory to God in the Highest, Peace on earth, Good will toward men." And let me say to the singers that I believe they are doing as much as I am. You sing the gospel, and I will preach it. I believe John Wesley did as much as Charles. One preached and the other sung the gospel, halfway should be at my wits' ends if you asked me to quote anything that Charles Wesley ever said, but I think I could repeat several of John Wesley's hymns. Let us praise God as well as pray. Let us be thankful for what we have got.

Sometimes, when we get to praying, the Holy Ghost comes. I like to go into a meeting when you cannot sing or say anything, and when you feel as if you don't want any one to say a word. The Holy Ghost can do more in one day than you and I can in five years. I hope He will come and work in each of our hearts today.

And this is His dwelling-place, in these bodies that you and I inhabit. When we have been near the Son of God, then it is that these bodies become temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in. Jesus says, "He shall be in you. He shall abide with you." And Paul says, "Know ye not that ye are the temples of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?" We have been bought, not by silver, but by the precious Son of God; and these bodies are the temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in. Therefore, let us keep the temple pure and sweet. I want a baptism of the spirit for my own soul. I don't want to begin this year without a fresh anointing for the service. I should like to have all of you have the same desire." ~~~ D.L. Moody

Chapter 2 continues at D.L. Moody - #2

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