Let us turn now to God's Word
in the second chapter of that first epistle general of John. The second chapter and verse
27. But the anointing which ye have
received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man
teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
is truth and is no lie. And even as He hath taught you,
ye shall abide in Him. In the first epistle general
of John chapter 2 and verse 27. Now observe the words there in
the middle of the verse where we read the same anointing teacheth
you all things. The same anointing teacheth you
all things. And so I want tonight simply
to deal with these two headings. First of all to say something
with regards to the anointing and then secondly to consider
the teaching. But the anointing which you have
received of him abideth in you And ye needeth not that any man
teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
is truth and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall
abide in him. First of all then the anointing. Now what we have here of course
is a figure of the Holy Spirit. We have a similar statement previously,
in fact we looked at that 20th verse on another occasion where
we read, but ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know
all things. An unction, an anointing, it's
one and the same word that is used in each of the verses in
fact. The reference in here, when we read of the anointing,
is to Him whom we refer to as God, the Holy Ghost. And we speak for our convenience,
of course, in terms of the first person and the second person
and the third person in the Holy Trinity. And we speak of God,
the Holy Ghost, as the third person, but in many ways, to
speak in such ways is rather misleading because it would suggest
to our poor minds some idea of superiority and inferiority. The first being superior to the
second and each of those being superior to the third. And that
of course is not so. That the three persons are co-equal
as they are co-eternal. That God, the Holy Ghost, the
anointing, the unction, is no less God than is the Father and
is the Son. The figure then here is to be
understood, I say, in terms of God, the Holy Spirit. Now the
Holy Spirit, we know, was given to the Lord Jesus Christ. The very word that we have here, anointing, and you'll see how
we choose twice in the verse the anointing which you have
received of him and then again the same anointing teaches you
of all things it is the word Chrisma and it's from the same
root obviously as the word Christ it was the Holy Spirit who came
upon the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 10, remember how
Peter there speaks of Christ as that one who is the anointed
of God. Acts chapter 10 and verse 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Ghost and with power. who went about doing good
and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with
him. Jesus of Nazareth then is spoken
of as he who was anointed with the Holy Ghost. So Jesus of Nazareth
is the one who is referred to of course as the Christ. He is the anointed of the Lord.
That's what the word Christ means. Again in Hebrews 1 and verse
9, God, even though God hath anointed them with the oil of
gladness above thy fallows. Now all of this is spoken of
in the Old Testament, all of this was foretold, it's there
in the books of the prophets. Isaiah speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ, does he not, as that one who is anointed? And so not
surprisingly we come to the Gospels and we see the fulfilment of
those things that were spoken of by the Old Testament prophets
when the Lord Jesus begins his public ministry after his baptism
when he comes back having been led into the wilderness by the
Spirit of God and there so sorely tested tempted by the devil he
returns and then we're told he comes into Nazareth where he
had been brought up there in Luke's account for example, Luke
chapter 4 and verse 16 he came to Nazareth where he had been
brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue
on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read and there was
delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he
had opened the book he found the place where it was written
he turns to the words of chapter 61 the place where it was written,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal
the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister
and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto
them this day, Is this scripture fulfilled in your ears? In him there is the fulfillment
then of those words of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ as that one who is truly the anointed
of God. And how was he anointed? He was
anointed with the Holy Ghost. At the end of that third chapter
of John's Gospel are we not told quite plainly, God give us not
the Spirit by measure unto Him. Oh, there was a glorious effusion
of the Spirit that came upon the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is his baptism. Remember when he comes out of
the waters of baptism, as he comes up out of the water of
baptism, the heavens are opened and the Spirit descends upon
him in the form of a dove. And the Father speaks those words
from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The Lord Jesus Christ, friends,
is that one then who at the very outset of his public ministry is anointed and anointed by the
Spirit of God. And so, not surprisingly, we
are told immediately how he is led of the Spirit. As we just
said, he was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
by Satan. strange leadings of the spirit
of God that he should go into that desert place and there be
so violently assaulted and how his temptation must have been
more intense than that that any man has ever known only he could
say the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in birth
how satan must have released all of the ammunition in his
arson in order to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ, when we are tempted.
He finds much in us that he can take advantage of. And as soon,
alas, fallen creatures that we are, we fall in with these temptations,
but not so Christ. He was so sorely tempted of the
devil, and yet all this under the hand of the Spirit who is
leading him. And then we are told how he returns
from the wilderness and he returns in the fullness of the Spirit.
In every part of his earthly ministry, of course, we see him
as that one who is the anointed of the Lord when he performs
his miracles. Does he not perform his miracles
by the Holy Ghost? The Lord Jesus says as much.
If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, Then the Kingdom of God
is come unto you. He cast out the demons by the
Spirit of God. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
is clearly the Anointed One. And we see how the Psalmist,
as he pleads with God in his prayers, and so many of those
Psalms are in the form of prayers, How does the psalmist address
God? Behold O God our shield and look
upon the face of thine anointed. Or look upon the face of thine
anointed. Isn't that our plea when we come
before God that he would look upon the face of him, the anointed
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. I say then friends with regards
to this anointing we see clearly that the Holy Spirit was given
to the Lord Jesus Christ. There was such a wonderful ministry
of the Spirit of God throughout the days of his humiliation.
He lived his life in the Spirit, the Christ, the Anointed. And
as Christ is that One who was given the Holy Spirit, so we
see that the Holy Spirit is also given by the Lord Jesus Christ. the anointing which ye have received
of him. That's what John says, the anointing
which ye have received of him. When we come to the closing chapters
of John's Gospel, remember what the Lord says to his disciples
there in chapter 20. after his resurrection from the
dead. He breathed on him, it says. He breathed on him. And
said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. How significant are the words
there in that 22nd verse in chapter 20 of John's Gospel. He breathed
on him. And said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. It's not just
his words that are significant. The words that he speaks when
he says, receive the Holy Ghost, but it is actually, he breathes
on them. It is the Holy Ghost of course
who proceeds. He proceeds from the Son, he
breathes on them. He proceeds from the Father. He says when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father. Now here is some
intimation of the inter-trinitarian relationship. We speak of God
the Father, of God the Son, of God the Holy Ghost. Now, the
Father begets, the Son is begotten, the Spirit proceeds. It indicates
to us something of that relationship between the Divine Persons. The three Persons of course are
one God. But how when Christ breathed
on them, you see, they are to receive the Holy Ghost and so
it was. So it was when the day of Pentecost
was fully come. There in Acts chapter 2 we have
the record of that glorious coming in state of the Holy Ghost. It
wasn't that he was never present previous to Pentecost. He is
there, of course, throughout the Scriptures, throughout the
Old Testament. How did those holy men of God speak? They spake,
says Peter, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. He was there
in the Old Testament, David, in all the agonies of his soul
as he is convinced of his sin in Psalm 51 he cries out take
not thy Holy Spirit from me now he must have felt that he had
grieved the Holy Spirit of God he was there in the Old Testament
but what we have in the second chapter of the Acts is the coming
of the Spirit in all his glory ushering in, as it were, this
great gospel day, this great day of the grace of God. But from whence does the Spirit
come? Well, Peter spells it out as he preaches there to those
Jews and those proselytes, those converts, Gentile converts to
the Jewish religion. He says, therefore, being by
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost he has shed forth this which
he knows to thee and here who is the one who has been exalted
by God the Father it is the Lord Jesus Christ that he is speaking
of being exalted he has shed forth this it is the Lord Jesus
Christ then who gives the Spirit the anointing the anointing which
ye have received of him and here we are told are we not that the
anointing is truth and is no lie even the spirit of truth
which proceedeth from the father oh he bears testimony to the
truth he bears testimony to the truth always, that is his ministry
to speak true words where does the unction come from? look back
at verse 20 you have an unction from the Holy One they are holy
words they are truthful words the words of the Holy Ghost and we are to recognise that,
are we not? He tells us the truth. He tells us the truth concerning
ourselves. When He comes first into our
poor hearts, how we smart under that truth. How we are made to
see and to feel what we are as poor sinners. And it's all coming, you see,
by the Spirit and that Spirit coming by the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Lord Jesus Christ is that
one who is giving the Holy Spirit, so we see quite clearly that
the Lord Jesus Christ is none other than God himself. Look at the words that we find
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 21. Now he which has anointed
us is God. That's what Paul says, he which
has anointed us is God. And who is the one who has anointed
us? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so clearly we see that he
as the anointer is God. This is how God has ordered things
in terms of the eternal covenant. Although the Holy Ghost is equal
to the Son and equal to the Father, in the outworking of that covenant,
we see quite clearly that he engages in what we can only describe
as a self-effacing ministry. Just as God the Son, in the covenant,
willingly becomes the servant of the Father, beholds my servant,
says God, whom I uphold, my elect in whom I shall delight, if he
is speaking of the Son, I have put my Spirit upon him. As the Son is willing in the
outworking of that covenant to serve the will of the Father,
so in that same covenant we see the Spirit so willingly serving
Christ. When He has come, says Christ
he shall testify of mine he shall not speak of himself he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you this is his ministry
remember how these things are spoken so clearly so plainly
by the Lord Jesus in the course of those valedictory discourses
there in that 16th chapter of John's Gospel how brilliant When
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth,
for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear,
that shall He speak. And He will show you things to
come. He shall glorify mercy, for He shall receive a vine,
and shall show it unto you. He comes as that Spirit of Christ. The one who is pleased to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ just as this time was pleased to serve
the will of the Father. All the amazing grace of our
God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost in that great plan and purpose
of salvation that is bound up in that eternal covenant of grace. but now we need to know that
ministry of the Holy Spirit friends if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ he is none of his or are we those who know the
Holy Ghost delight in the Holy Ghost and love his ministry and
look to him as that one who must come and reveal to us the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ so might so necessary, no man can say
that Jesus Christ is Lord but by the Holy Ghost or we can say
the words or we can utter the word can we not Jesus Christ
is Lord but all to say by that gracious ministry through that
wondrous revealing of the Son by the Holy Ghost here then we
have the anointing the anointing, we have to think here in terms
of God the Holy Ghost and how the Spirit was given
unto Christ as He executed His work here upon the earth and
how having accomplished all that great work the Son gives the
Spirit the anointing which He has received of Him abideth in
you and you need not that any man teach you but as the same
anointing teaches you of all things and is truth and is no
lie and even as it hath taught you you shall abide in him there
is a certain emphasis here is there not upon this blessed teaching
and so let us turn in the second place to consider something of
that teaching the teaching of the holy anointing What is this
teaching? It's the teaching, it says, of
all things. The same anointing teaches you
of all things. But what are these all things?
Well, we're not to think here in terms of natural things. We're to think here, surely,
in terms of spiritual things. That is evident, is it not? It
is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And surely the Spirit will therefore
teach spiritual things. And how each of us stand in need
of such a ministry of the Holy Spirit when we consider what
we are by nature. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. That's a plain truth, is it not?
What is our natural condition? What is our natural mind? The
carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law
of God. Neither, indeed, can be unnecessary
then is that ministry of the Holy Spirit and Paul speaks of
it so plainly there in that second chapter of the first epistle
to the Corinthians we just referred to those words in verse 14 the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for
they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned What man knoweth the things of
a man, save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the
things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. 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. We need friends to know that
ministry of God's the Holy Ghost. Let us beware lest we should
be those who grieve the Spirit or quench the Spirit. Only the
Spirit of God can teach us that that is real, real religion.
Only the Spirit can teach us that that is real Christianity. Observe what Paul says, ye need
not that any man teach you. We don't learn our Christianity
from men. We cannot teach it ourselves,
we cannot by dint of struggle make ourselves Christians. I
think that Joseph Hart is quite right in what he says in that
little preface to his hymn book, that remarkable account that
he gives of his own experience, the golden preface, as J.C. Philpott called it, the nearest
thing to inspiration outside of Holy Scripture. And amongst
other remarkable statements, Hart says only he that made the
world can make a Christian. We have to recognise that. Only
he that made the world can make a Christian. What is a Christian
is a new creation in Christ Jesus. How we need then that ministry
of God and that ministry of God the Holy Spirit to come to us
as the Spirit of Christ. Ye need not that any man teach
you, it says here in the text. We are to be taught of God. We
are to be taught by the Spirit of God. This of course is the
great promise that we find in Jeremiah concerning the New Covenant. In Jeremiah 31 and verse 34,
They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all
know him. from the least of them until
the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. This is the
covenant, says God, that I will make with the house of Israel.
After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward
parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they
shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man
his neighbour. No, because they are taught of
God. Again, remember how the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself in the course of His earthly ministry in John's
Gospel, John 6.45, actually refers to the words of the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 54 is what Christ is speaking
of there in John 6.45. It is written in the Prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Mary. And how does God teach? By the
anointing, by the Holy Ghost. In the outworking of the covenant,
as the Father is the one who purposed the great salvation,
as the Son is the one appointed to procure and purchase salvation
by the shedding of his precious blood, the blood of the everlasting
covenant. So it is the Holy Spirit who
comes to apply it. How does He apply it? Apply it
by the anointing. By the anointing. The anointing
which you have received of Him abideth in you. Ye need not that
any man teach you but as the same anointing teaches you of
all things and is truth and is no lie. But even as it hath taught
you, ye shall abide in him. Now what is this spiritual teaching
associated here with the anointing? Well, it is a threefold knowledge
that must be taught. There must be the knowledge of
God. Surely it must begin there. We
must have a knowledge of God. We must have some understanding
of the nature of God. He is the holy God. He is the
just God. He is the righteous God. How
He is revealed to us, you see, in all His attributes. All the glories that belong unto
God. We must have some understanding
of who God is. And it's only as we come to that
knowledge of God that we can really begin to have any proper
knowledge of ourselves. Because man was created in God's
image. Man was made in God's likeness,
was he not? Where can we best discover the
truth about ourselves? By going back to that God who
created us and made us after his own image. And as God has
revealed himself to us here in Holy Scripture, so as we would
know the truth about God in the Word of God, we also find the
truth concerning ourselves. As James says, we come to a mirror,
and we see ourselves in the mirror. And what do we see? Oh, alas,
we are not as God created us. Did we not fall in Adam? Did
we not fall in Adam? God, my man, our pride. But they have sought out many
inventions. And we are the children of Adam,
are we not? And we are full of inventions.
Oh, our hearts are full of all manner of wickedness. Paul discovered it, did he not?
In the light of that Holy Lord of God, that law which is holy,
that commandment which he says in Romans 2 is holy and just
and good. I had not known sin but by the
law. I had not known lust except the
commandment said thou shalt not covet. And what was his heart?
It was full of all covetousness, full of all evil desire, full
of concupiscence. Is the word that you say in in
Romans chapter 7 in our authorised version, full of all evil desires,
full of wicked inventions. God made man upright. They sought out many inventions.
All we discover, friends, alas, not only the truth about God,
but we also discover the truth about ourselves. We sought to
say something about it this morning from those words of David in
the psalm. That's a 38th psalm in which
like Paul in Romans 7 he speaks so plainly of his sin and his
awful experimental knowledge of his total depravity. He knew
it, he felt it, did David, just like Paul. It's a threefold knowledge, it's
a knowledge of God and who God is in all his holy attributes. There's that knowledge of ourselves,
there's those who have fallen, we're sinners, we've fallen short
of the glory of God. And then, what is that third
aspect of the knowledge that the anointing teaches us? Is it not the knowledge of Christ,
who is the Saviour? Oh, thank God for that. There
is one revealed to us here on the page of Holy Scripture, who
is the friend of the sinner. And that one that the anointing,
the Holy Ghost, came into this world to bear testimony to, we
shall testify of him only, says Christ. That is the blessed ministry
of the Holy Ghost. to reveal the things of Christ.
But what a knowledge, what a knowledge we need. It's not enough to have
an intellectual awareness, a natural understanding. As I said, this
teaching of the anointing is a spiritual teaching. We need
to have an experimental knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
how are we taught that? Well, we have to have some experience
of the Law of God. How God's Word in His Holy Law,
you see, comes and breaks the heart of proud sinners. Or what
does Jeremiah say? Or God say through His servant
the Prophet Jeremiah, is not my word like as a hammer? or like a fire, he says to us.
He's not my word like a fire and like as a hammer that breaketh
a rock in pieces. That's the law. Oh, that's the
awful law of God, it breaks the heart. There we see God to be
a consuming fire. That was the experience of the
children of Israel at Mansi and I read Exodus 9 said that introduces
us to the giving of the Ten Commandments, the whole mountain is on fire
when God descends upon it. And now that fire speaks to us
of the wrath of God against the sins of men or the terrors of
the Lord of God. Which is easy anointing is that
one who is the Spirit of Christ, is he not? And we know, do we
not, that law and terrors do but harden all the while they
work alone, but a sense of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves the heart
of stone. All we need is those gracious,
gentle dealings of God in the Gospel, the Spirit to come in
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that not a striking
word that we have in Isaiah 10? We read of the yoke, the yoke
of the Lord, this is Isaiah 10.27, the yoke shall be destroyed because
of the anointing. The yoke shall be destroyed,
all that dreadful yoke, by the anointing, that is the Holy Ghost. I say it's the same word in verse
20, it's the word prisma, the same as we have rendered anointing
in verse 27, but the word can equally as well be rendered as
unction, the anointing word. What does oil do? It penetrates,
it softens. That was a lovely hymn we sang
just now, another hymn of God's, a beautiful hymn. And those words,
let the unction of redemption supple every conscience well.
Oh, what glorious truths, to have our consciences suppled
as it were, with that precious oil of the Gospel. The unction
of redemption. This is how the Holy Ghost teaches
us, you see. He softens our hearts. How does
He soften our hearts? He gives us something of a view
of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel. Go back to the 16th chapter,
that long chapter there in the book of Ezekiel. And what do we read at the end
of the chapter? God says, verse 62, I will establish my covenant
with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou
mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any
more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for
all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. That's not law,
friend, that's gospel. That's gospel. the covenant of
God's graciousness that thou mayest remember and be confounded
and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when
I am pacified the Lord Jesus we read of him here you see the
propitiation for our sins all that propitiation speaks peace
when God is pacified towards the sinner how God you see comes
and he softens our hearts does he not when he gives us such
a view of Christ in all his sufferings as that great sin bearer that
one who is the loving saviour of sinners and you know these
men in the Old Testament how they knew it oh how they knew
it, Job knew it Job knew it he says God Maketh my heart soft. Do we not need that, friends?
Well, I need that. So hard-hearted as a sinner,
that only God can soften our hard hearts. And that's the unction,
you see. That's the oil. That's the anointing.
God maketh my heart soft. And then again, what does Job
say? He asks the question, who treats
us like this? Who teaches like Him? We need no other teacher. You
need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teaches
you of all things and is truth and is no lie. This is what we
need, the blessed teaching, that gracious ministry of God, the
Holy Ghost, when He comes to bear testimony to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? It's life eternal. This
is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Oh, it's that knowledge,
you see, of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and it's an experimental
knowledge, I say. And John knew it. That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. Now John speaks in terms of different
senses. He speaks of what he has seen
and what he has heard, but more than that, what he has handled.
This is that favoured one who was leaning upon the Lord's bosom
when Christ instituted his Holy Supper. Now John of course was
favoured in that sense, he was with Christ in the days of the
Lord's humiliation, but is there not also friends a spiritual
seeing and a spiritual hearing and a spiritual handling? Or
is Christ that real to us that we can take up those words of
the Apostle, and we can join with what John is saying, we
can enter in some measure into what he is saying, that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands
have handled of the Word of Life. We know Him. We know what it
is to lean upon Him. Oh, the Beloved there in the
Song of Solomon, coming out of the wilderness, leaning, it says. leaning upon her Beloved. I say, it's an experimental knowledge,
is it not? And who teaches it? The Anointing.
The Anointing teacheth you, it says, of all things. It teaches
all things. Now, we don't learn it all at
once, do we? It doesn't teach us these things
all at once. That clearly is not the case.
If that were the case, why would John need to write any epistle?
These things would already be known. But John finds it necessary
to write, as he says there in chapter 1 and verse 4, these
things write we unto you that your joy may be full. He writes because he feels there
is a need. to write. Again in the opening
verse of chapter 2, My little children, these things write
I unto you, that ye sin not, that if any man sin we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous, and He
is the propitiation for our sins. We don't learn everything at
once. It's line upon line, line upon
line. It's here a little, there a little.
That's the way of God in teaching his children and John acknowledges
that. He speaks, does he not, in verses
12 and 13 and 14 of little children and young men and fathers. They are at different stages
of spiritual growth and development. There is such a truth, he says
not, as that of growing. Growing grows, says Peter, and
in the knowledge of our God and Saviour, our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. Oh, we need to be learning more
and more of these precious truths, we need to know more and more
of this gracious ministry of the anointing that teaches us
of all things. And as He teaches, so the Spirit
abides. in the believer and as he abides
in the believer so he causes the believer more and more to
abide in the Lord Jesus Christ the anointing which every seed
of him abideth in you he abideth in you and ye need
not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it
hath taught you ye shall abide in him the Holy Ghost abides
in you and ye abide in him who is the him Well, it's that
one spoken of at the beginning, the anointing which I received
of Him, it's the Lord Jesus. As the Spirit abides in us, so
He causes us to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. By that ministry
of the abiding Spirit, the believer is one who is increasingly made
to feel his need of Christ. That's the ministry of the Spirit.
To constantly show us our great need of Christ. What does God
say at the end of chapter one? If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say
that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not
in us. Friends, if the spirit of truth
is in us by his word, we will have to acknowledge what we are,
we'll have to acknowledge our sins. We'll have to acknowledge
our sins. And then we'll see that all our
salvation is only in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit comes
to us as that blessed Spirit of Christ. Or this is His office,
is it not? In the covenant to reveal these
precious truths concerning the only Saviour of sinners. Or to know then something of
that blessed unction of the Holy One. that gracious anointing
of the Holy Ghost, the anointing which have received of him abideth
in you. Ye need not that any man teach
you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye
shall abide in him. The Lord then best his word to
us. Amen. We sing as our concluding
hymn, hymn number 26, and the tune is Angel Song 703. Eternal Spirit, we confess and
sing the wonders of thy grace, Thy power conveys our blessings
down from God the Father.