Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-09-29

CONDUCTED BY
REV, ROBERT IATH AN.
IOriginal ]
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.
John l6: 81

John 6:S-12.
The redemption of single human being
from the curse of the violated law of God,
and reinstating it in the favor of God, and
finally translating it from world of sin and
sorrow to a world of bliss, is, beyond all con
troversy, stupendous work. 1t is mystery
to angels. They stoop down and earnestly
desire to look into this marvellous work which
ransoms a hell-deserving sinner, and makes
him ft, legally and actually fit, for seat al
Gods right hand. Not only so, but the plan
of redeeming love prepares a home in the
Fathers house for the sinner, as we'll as frees
the sinner from guilt and all pollution.
The persons who, in eternity, devised this
scheme Of redemption, were the three persons
of the Godhead in united capacity. 1t was
the same persons who, in time, executed the
plan. Each person of the Trinity had his
particular work to do in the work Of saving
souls. 1t would be intensely interesting and
no doubt very edifying, could the part which
each one of the three persons of the Trinity
performed in this grandest and most glorious
of all works of which we have any knowledge,
be succinctly stated. This we are unable to
do, any farther than we are taught by reve.
lation. Beyond this, it is dangerous even to
conjecture. Secret things belong to the Lord
our God.
We feel warranted in saying that God,
the Father, gave his Son to redeem sinners;
that the Son of God voluntarily gave himself
to be the redeemer of sinners; and that the
Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity,
voluntarily undertook, as his part of the work,
to make an application of the redemption
purchased by the Son of God. If we use
the words redemption and salvation in their
strict technical sense, the former is the work
of Jesus Christ, the God Man redeemer and
the latter is the work of the Holy Spirit In
other words, Jesus Christ redeems and the
Holy Spirit saves. Usually this strict scrip.
tural distinction is not observed, and while it
is rarely attended with any bad results, it
always produces degree of confusion.
1t is in the work of the Holy Spirit that
we should be mos: intensely interested. We
would not, by any means, even intimate that
we are not interested in the work which Jesus
Christ has performed. 1t is the foundation
of the work of the Spirit. In the order Of
nature, and by the conditions of the covenant
of grace, redemption precedes salvation. De-
liverance from the curse of the law is first
Then follows the internal work of the Spirit
The work of the Holy Spirit and the work
of Jesus Christ, is one and the same work.
Not only so, but the end and design is the
same. The thing proposed to be done, is to
take sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, free
him from the liability to be punished on ac-
count of bis sins, furnish him with perfect
righteousness by which he can be justified,
and then work in him an internal righteous.
ness by which he is made fit for heaven as
we'll as entitled to it. The object in view is
the glory of God.
The work of the Holy Spirit differs from
the work of Jesus Christ in the following
particulars: Jesus Christ used no secondary
agencies in what he did as a redeemer. He
alone suffered the penalties of the law. He
alone fulfilled all Righteousness. The Holy
Spirit uses means in the accomplishment OF
his work. Without his influence, the means
are entirely futile but without the use Of
these means, the Holy Spirit rarely, if ever,
works.
Jesus Christ performed his part of this
work for US. Not simply for our benefit !;
but in our room-in our place. 1t is true
that the work of Jesus Christ results in our
good, but the main thing we should keep in
view is all that he did as a redeemer, was in our
room and stead. He lived life of obedience
to the law in our stead, and he died on the
cross in our stead We are healed by his
stripes, because in our room and as our sub
stitute he was stricken, and for our iniquities
he was bruised. When the attonement was
actually made by Jesus Christ, none Of
US had an existence, only in the determinate
counsels of God In the atonement we are
absolutely passive. We have nothing to do.
We can do nothing We are required to do
nothing. The whole of it, from beginning to
end, was begun and ended without US. In
the work of the spirit it is different. Iu
making an application Of the redemption pur-
chased by Christ, the Spirit works in US, and
we are laborers together with him.
The peculiar work of the Holy Spirit is ex-
planned in many portions Of the Scriptures.
One of his office works is to reveal or make
clear the Scriptures. One promise which Je-
sus Christ made to lis disciples is that the
Spirit shall lead them into all truth. Not
that he will make them any new revelation !;
but enlighten their minds that they may un-
derstand the revelation already made In
the gospel, according to John, the Saviour
SAYS when the Spirit is come, or when he has
come, be will reprove the world of sin, Of
righteousness, and of Judgment He will so
order everything that all men shall be con-
vinced that they are sinners !; that Jesus
Christ was righteous, and that Satan has been
deprived of much Of the power which he
once exercised over the children of men.
The work of the Holy Spirit began immedi-
ately on the ascension of Jesus Christ, and
will continue to the end Of the world. That
noriod narks the bepinninp of the prandest