Plain and Parochial Sermons: Volume 3 Sermon 18 The Gift of the Spirit

“We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”—2 Cor. iii. 18

• “Moses prayed for this one thing, that he might ‘see God’s glory”
• He got to observe it such a measure that his face shone when he came down from the Mount
• This privilege was given to only Moses, but it was promised that at some future point in time, it would be extended to the whole earth
• Christ’s presence among us fulfilled these promises made
• Paul contrasts the shadows of the law to the glory of Christ
• “At length the glory of God in full measure was the privilege and birthright of all believers, who now, ‘in the unveiled face of Christ their Saviour, behold the reflection of the Lord’s glory,’ and were ‘changed into His likeness from one measure of glory to another.’”
• Christ, in his last prayer for his Apostles, says, “The Glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them.”
• The current dispensation of the Church is called by Paul “the ministration of the Spirit.”
• The Spirit’s presence honors and exalts the Church so that we can be called the “Kingdom of God”
• “I propose now to make some remarks on this peculiar gift of the Gospel Dispensation, which, as in the foregoing passages, is spoken of as the gift of ‘the Spirit,” the gift of ‘glory,’ and through which the Church has become what it was not before, the Kingdom of Heaven.”
• There is a sense in which the “grant of glory” was made under the law. “Still there is a peculiar and sufficient sense in which it is ascribed to the Christian Church, and what sense in which it is ascribed to the Christian Church, and what this is, is the question now before us.”
• 1, “In the first place, some insight is given into the force of the word ‘glory,’ as our present privilege, by considering the meaning of the title ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ which, as has been just observed, has also belonged to the Church since Christ came.”
• “The Church is called by this name as being the court and domain of Almighty God, who retreated from the earth, as far as His kingly presence was concerned, when man fell.”
• God has always been here on the earth but as a “stranger”
• When Christ reconciled the world to Him, He returned to dwell with them
• Thus the Church became a kingdom
• “It became once more an integral part of that unseen, but really existing world, of which ‘the Lord is the everlasting light;’ and it had fellowship with its blessed inhabitants.”
• “Since then the Christian Church is a Heaven upon earth, it is not surprising that in some sense or other its distinguishing privilege or gift should be glory, for this is the one attribute which we ever attach to our notion of Heaven itself, according to the Scripture intimations concerning it. The glory here may be conceived of by considering what we believe of the glory hereafter.”
• 2. “Next, if we consider the variety and dignity of the gifts ministered by the Spirit, we shall, perhaps, discern in a measure, why our state under the Gospel is called a state of glory.”
• Some divide the works of the Holy Spirit into two kinds, miraculous and moral
• By miraculous, we mean acts beyond the normal course of nature
• “On the other hand, by moral operations or influences are meant such as act upon our minds, and enable us to be what we otherwise could not be, holy and accepted in all branches of the Christian character; in a word, all such as issue in Sanctification, as it is called.”
• This distinction is sometimes referred to as gifts and graces and some say that gifts have ceased and graces alone remain and they limit the present ministrations of the spirit to the work of sanctification that occurs within us
• Is there any sense, though, in which the work of the Holy Spirit within us can be called glory?
• Miracles were part of the glory of the Holy Spirit’s outward manifestation in the early ages of the Church but not the sole indicator of it
• Holiness is the real characteristic of glory
• “In truth, the Holy Ghost has taken up His abode in the Church in a variety of gifts, as a sevenfold Spirit.”
• The gift of the Holy Spirit cannot be defined sufficiently
• “The gift is denoted in Scripture by the vague and mysterious term ‘glory;’ and all the descriptions we can give of it can only, and should only, run out into a mystery.”
• 3. “Perhaps, however, it may be questioned whether the gift of the Spirit, now possessed by us, is really called by this name;”
• There are numerous verses in which “Spirit,” “glory,” and “heaven” occur
• “I would have you pay particular attention to this last passage, which, in speaking of those who thwart God’s grace, runs through the various characteristics or titles of that glory which they forfeit:--illumination, the heavenly gift, the Holy Ghost, the Divine Word, the powers of the world to come; which all mean the same thing, viewed in different lights, viz., that unspeakable Gospel privilege, which is an earnest and portion of heavenly glory, of the holiness and blessedness of Angels—a present entrance into the next world, opened upon our souls through the participation of the Word Incarnate, ministered to us by the Holy Ghost.”
• This is part of the mysterious state of the Christian we are here but are also presently part of the heavenly community
• It is the same thing with Christ when he told Nicodemus that He, the Son of Man, was in heaven, at the time he was physically speaking to Nicodemus
• In the Kingdom of God, Christ is the center of it and his glory is the light of it
• This gift is imparted to every member by baptism
• Through baptism we are imparted the gift of glory and changed from glory to glory
• If we resist the gift, it withdraws and we do not attain the sanctification desired
• We are blessed to recognize the gift of God, let us “act up to it”
• “Let us adore the Sacred Presence within us with all fear, and ‘rejoice with trembling.’”
• “In this then, consists our whole duty, first in contemplating Almighty God, as in Heaven, so in our hearts and souls; and next, while we contemplate Him, in acting towards and for Him in the works of everyday, in viewing by faith His glory without and within us, and in acknowledging it in our obedience.”
• “Lastly, the doctrine on which I have been dwelling cannot fail to produce in us deeper and more reverent feelings towards the Church of Christ, as His especial dwelling place. It is evident that we are in a much more extraordinary state than we are at all aware of.”

Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have become temples of God. God's greatest and holiest presence lies within us as we have received the gift of His Spirit. How then do we treat ourselves as temples or other temples or potential temples of the living God?

Plain and Parochial Sermons: Volume 3 Sermon 15 Contrast Between Truth and Falsehood in the Church

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.”—Matt. xiii. 47, 48

• “In the Apostle’s age, the chief contest between Truth and Falsehood lay in the war waged by the Church against the world, and the world against the Church—the Church, the aggressor in the name of the Lord; the world, stung with envy and malice, rage and pride, retaliating spiritual weapons with carnal, the Gospel with persecution, good with evil, in the cause of the Devil.”
• However, the Christians of that time did not know conflict within the Christian community such as we have it today
• These days there are those who refuse to accept that the Church has unholy members and that the kingdom of heaven is like a large net cast, gathering every kind of fish. They refuse to see that there is a wide variety of types in the Church and that the Church is neither all holy or without standards of holiness, that is, a lower bar of holiness in order to accept everyone
• This idea of the wide net will be considered here in reference to the “contest between Truth and Falsehood in the Church.”
• While in the Church there are those who adhere to the duty of faith, there are also bad people
• There are no perfect models of holiness, nor are there purely evil people, everyone has good and bad traits to varying degrees
• So why do these two groups contend? In what does their conflict lie?
• “I say, that as the early Christians were bound to ‘contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the saints,’ so the trial of our obedience commonly lies in taking this or that side in a multitude of questions, in which there happens to be two sides, and which come before us almost continually; and, before attempting to explain what I mean, I would have you observe how parallel this state of things to God’s mode of trying and disciplining us in other respects.”
• For instance, our devotion to Christ is not shown in great matters of universal importance but in the little silent deeds of our daily lives
• Self denial is likewise not shown in departing for the wilderness and living off wild honey, but in the little abstinences we practice in our daily lives
• So also, how is the Christian faith shown in our lives? This is not a case of joining Christianity at the risk of one’s life, as was the case with the early Christians.
• “It is shown in this day by taking this side or that side in the many questions of opinion and conduct which come before us, whether domestic, or parochial, or political, or of whatever kind.”
• For instance, a simple person in a small town may display this by refusing to laugh at mockery being made of the Christian faith and witness for Christ
• “Thus he carries on, in his day, the eternal conflict between Truth and Falsehood.”
• “Another, in a higher class of society, has a certain influence in parish matters, in the application of charities, the appointment of officers, and the like; he, too, must act as in God’s sight, for the Truth’s sake, as Christ would have him.”
• “Another has a certain political power; he has a vote to bestow, or dependents to advise; he has a voice to raise, and substance to contribute. Let him act for religion, not as if there were not a God in the world.”
• “It is sometimes said that religion is not (what is called) political.”
• There is a bad sense of the word “political” and there is a good sense of the word. Religion has to do with “political” in the good sense
• It is right and necessary to take a stand on many political issues of the day
• “I am not saying which side is right and which is wrong, in the ver-varying course of social duty, much less am I saying that all religious people are on one side and all irreligious on the other (for then would that division between good and evil take place, which the text and other parables assure us is not to be till the day of judgment); I only say there is a right and a wrong, that it is not a matter of indifference which side a man takes, that a man will be judged hereafter for the side he takes.”
• It is better if when making decisions, that the thought of religion absorbed all other considerations
• Also this union and conflict between truth and falsehood in the Church has always existed, not only among the people at large, but among the leaders
• “Now I would have every one who hears me bring what I have said home as a solemn truth to his own mind;—the solemn truth, that there is nothing indifferent in our conduct, no part of it without its duties, no room for trifling, lest we trifle with eternity.”
• As individuals we easily tend to focus on rights and not on our corresponding duties. However, even though we have rights and free will, there is still right and wrong in the world
• We recall that the devil was the first to do as he willed
• In conclusion we are part of that wide net cast and are destined for election or destruction
• In the course of life we encounter trials of our faith and instruments of our purification
• Our part lies in finding out what is right and what is wrong and doing what is right
• Without being judgmental, it is also our duty to point out when we think our brothers and sisters in Christ are wrong
• “If all this be true, may God Himself, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, enable us heartily to act upon it! May he give us the honesty and simplicity of mind, which looks at things as He views them, realizes what is unseen, puts aside all the shadows and mists of pride, party-feeling, or covetousness; and not only knows and does what is right, but does it because it knows it, and that not from mere reason and on grounds of argument, but from the heart itself, with that inward and pure sense, and scrupulous fear, and keen faith, and generous devotion, which does not need arguments, except as a means of strengthening itself, and of persuading and satisfying others.”

St Paul says that if amy man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold all things are new. Do we see this newness of rebirth in our lives? It is clear that not everyone in the Church will exhibit the love of Christ. It is clear that not everyone in the Church will speak of Christ's glory by their actions. However, the question we all need to ask ourselves as individuals is what about our own lives. Are we the vessels of honor bearing abour the fragrance of God's saving grace? We have received the grace to be "new creatures." Even if others around us fail at it, our solemn duty as Christians is to be Christ in and to the world.

Plain and Parochial Sermons: Volume 3 Sermon 12 The Humiliation of the Eternal Son

“Who in the days if His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared, though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.”—Heb. v. 7,8.


• “The chief mystery of our holy faith is the humiliation of the Son of God to temptation and suffering, as described in this passage of Scripture.”
• It is a more overwhelming mystery than even that of the Trinity. “Overwhelming” does not mean “greater.”
• It’s just that there is more in it to perplex and subdue our minds.
• In the case of the Trinity it is no wonder to us that our language and intellect should fail at accurately describing God’s unspeakable nature.
• But in the case of the Incarnation we are dealing with aspects of it that should be within our reason
• “[I]t lies not only in the manner how God and man is one in Christ, but in the very fact that so it is.”
• He is perfect yet he took on an imperfect human nature and his human nature is now as much who he is as is his divine nature
• “The mystery lies as much in what we think we know, as in what we do not know.”
• “And as the doctrine of our Lord’s humiliation is most mysterious, so the very surface of the narrative in which it is contained is mysterious also, as exciting wonder, and impressing upon us our real ignorance of nature, manner, and causes of it.”
• We see this mysteriousness in the narrative of the temptation and his baptism and descent of the Holy Spirit on him
• After his baptism Mark tells us that the Spirit immediately drove him in the wilderness to be tempted as though there is a connection between the baptism and the temptation
• This was the first act of the Holy Spirit after his baptism
• “Observer too, that it was almost from this solemn recognition, ‘This is My beloved Son,” that the Devil took up the temptation, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread;’ yet what his thoughts and designs were we cannot even conjecture. All we see is a renewal, apparently, of Adam’s temptation, in the person of the Second Man.”
• There is also mysteriousness regarding his descent into Hell
• “I bring together these various questions in order to impress upon you our depth of ignorance on the entire subject under review.”
• We need to realize that there is much that we are unable to know and not know
• We should reflect on the little that we have and enlarge upon it
• Given our limited knowledge, we now reflect on the Incarnation
• “Bearing in mind, then, that we know nothing truly about the manner or the ultimate ends of the humiliation of the Eternal Son, our Lord and Savior, let us consider what the humiliation itself was.”
• What is meant by “Son of God.”
• “It is meant that our Lord is the very or true Son of God, that is, Hi Son by nature.”
• We are sons of God by adoption
• “’Such knowledge is too excellent for’ us; yet, however high it be, we learn as from His own mouth that God is not solitary, if we may dare so to speak, but that in His own in comprehensible essence, in the perfection of His one indivisible and eternal nature, His Dearly-beloved Son has ever existed with Him, who is called the Word, and being His Son is partaker in all the fullness of the Godhead.”
• When the early Christians spoke of the Son of God, they had in mind the same thing that the creed proclaims
• The Son of God is whatever God is, of the same essence. To say they are divisible would be as rash as saying our intellect or will was separate from our minds
• The verse says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.”
• “Obedience belongs to a servant, but accordance, concurrence, co-operation, are the characteristics of a Son.”
• In His eternal union, there was no distinction between his Father’s work and will and His
• In the days of his flesh, when he had humbled himself in the form of a servant, he had taken on a separate will and separate work and the toil and suffering of a creature. Thus what had been concurrence became a matter of obedience
• Further, he learned this obedience through suffering and temptation
• When we say that the Word became flesh, it means that the Word became what he was not before, yet while being human he mysteriously always remained who he always was before the Incarnation
• His human nature was part of who he was so much so that Paul can speak of the “blood of God,” and when the people saw the man Jesus they saw the Very and Eternal Son of God
• “After this manner, then, mist be understood His suffering, temptation, and obedience, not as if He ceased to be what He had ever been, but, having clothed Himself with a created essence, he made it the instrument of His humiliation; he acted in it, He obeyed and suffered through it.”
• “That Eternal Power, which, till then, had thought and acted as God, began to think and act as a man, with all man’s faculties, affections and imperfections, sin excepted. Before He came on earth He was infinitely above joy and grief, fear and anger, pain and heaviness; but afterwards, all these properties and many more were His as fully as they are ours.”
• Before he Incarnation he had the perfection of God, as a creature he had the virtues of a creature
• “Thus, He possessed at once a double assemblage of attributes, divine and human.”
• He was all-powerful, though in the form of a servant. He was all-knowing, though seemingly ignorant
• We have to view this as a mystery and not focus on the form of language and contradiction in terms
• “And this being so, how can we pronounce it to be any contradiction that, while the Word of God was upon earth, in our flesh, compassed within and without with human virtues and feelings, with faith and patience, fear and joy, grief, misgivings, infirmities, temptations, still He was, according to His Divine Nature, as from the first, passing in thought from one end of heaven even to the other, reading all hearts, foreseeing all events, and receiving all worship as in the bosom of the Father?”
• Christ himself suggests this to Nicodemus when he says the Son of Man is “in” heaven
• In conclusion, these are not vain abstractions but practical
• There are parts of our faith that perplex even the most orthodox
• Until we consider Christ in all his aspects, the titles and words we use for him would not profit us much
• Christ is the Son of God in His divine nature as well as in His human
• “We are able indeed to continue the idea of a Son into that of a servant, though the descent was infinite, and, to our reason, incomprehensible; but when we merely speak first of God, then of man, we seem to change the nature without preserving the Person. In truth, His Divine Sonship is that portion of sacred doctrine on which the mind is providentially intended to rest throughout, and so to preserve for itself His identity unbroken.”

One aspect of Eve's threefold temptation was that when she looked at the tree at the serpent's urging, she desire to be like a god. This is the essence of pride. Pride also manifests itself when we encounter mystery. The reverent mind understands that a mystery emerges because as humans, we are limited and unable to grasp the fullness of truth. The proud mind, on the other hand, believes itself capable of deciphering the mystery. Our first reaction to the mysterious doctrine of the Incarnation and sufferings of Christ should be wonder and praise. This is a mystery not to be conquered by our intellect, but to lead us to submission of our intellect.