“Ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”—St. John xiv. 17.

In this verse our Blessed Lord spoke of the knowledge enjoyed by His people. He spoke of the present, and the future; of that which they had then at the time that He was with them, and of that which they were about to enjoy after the Day of Pentecost, when He would be taken away from them. With reference to the present He says “He dwelleth” (or, is dwelling) with you, or amongst you; with reference to the future He says “He shall be in you.” There are clearly, therefore, two great subjects to be considered, the knowledge enjoyed by the disciples when the Lord Jesus was still upon earth, and the knowledge enjoyed by all His people ever since the Day of Pentecost.

I. When He was on Earth.

“Ye know Him for He dwelleth with you.”

The expression does not describe an internal union within the soul, but an external companionship. The meaning is the same as when St. John said, “There standeth one among you, whom ye know not.” [38] There they were, a little company of disciples, and amongst them in the midst of their society, in the room where they were assembled, was abiding, or dwelling, the Spirit of Truth.

Now what was the meaning of this declaration? Was it not this? That the Holy Spirit was at that time dwelling amongst them as embodied and manifested in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Him it was said by John the Baptist “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” [39a] So it was said by St. Paul, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” [39b] And by St. Peter we are taught that He was anointed with the Holy Ghost, and God was with Him. [39c]

Consider, then, the Lord Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh, as the human manifestation of the mind and power of the Holy Ghost, and you will see in a moment that while He was on earth the Spirit of Truth was dwelling amongst the disciples. Where the Lord Jesus was, there was the Spirit; where He dwelt, there the Spirit dwelt; and when He and those twelve disciples sat together at the Last Supper, He could say of the Spirit of Truth, “Ye know Him for He dwelleth with, or among, you.”

II. The Knowledge enjoyed by all His People after His Departure.

It was to be very different afterwards. There is an immense change when our Lord speaks of what should take place after His departure. It is no longer “with,” but “in.” He would be not merely present in their company, but abiding in their souls.

In this promise, there are three things requiring our careful notice.

(1) The promise applies not to a company, to a society, to a Church, or to any body of men, but to each individual. The Holy Spirit will not be merely in the midst of a congregation, but a sacred guest in each soul. You see this very clearly in the history of the Day of Pentecost. [40] The Holy Spirit came on the company, on the Church, for He filled all the house where they were sitting. But besides that there was a separate personal gift to each person present, for “it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”

(2) The sacred gift is no longer localized or specially enjoyed in one place. So long as the Lord Jesus was amongst them where He was, there was the Gift. But now, wherever the believer is, there is the Gift. See the unspeakable blessedness of this sacred promise. The gift of the Spirit is not confined to this place or that. It is the inestimable privilege of each individual believer wherever he is, and in whatever position it may please God to cast his lot. You may be cut off from the means of grace in which you have delighted, but wherever you are, you are not cut off from the Spirit of Truth, from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, for He is not limited to time, or place, or circumstance, and wherever you go at the Lord’s command, there you will carry His presence with you.

(3) He dwells within the soul.

There is this great difference between His presence and that of the most faithful and loving of friends. The friend can only judge by the outside; the anxious look, the tear in the eye, or the words of sorrow. But the Spirit of Truth is within, and He takes note of the inner secrets of the soul. He does not wait for any external evidence of what is passing. The hidden springs of thought are all open to His eye: the secret pain that is never breathed to any one; the hidden hope that smoulders in the heart; the subtle temptation that is beginning to grow up unperceived, and the yearning of soul after a higher life,—all these things are open to Him, and He, dwelling within and knowing all that is passing within, can check, can guide, can heal, can help, can supply any possible need “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” [41a]

There is no telling, then, the unspeakable blessing of the Pentecostal gift, and we can perfectly understand why it was that our Lord said “It is expedient for you that I go away.”

But do we all desire it? “Of course we do,” say some. But it is not at all a matter of course. There was no room for Christ in the inn at Bethlehem, and there is no room for the Spirit of Truth in many hearts. If He dwells within your soul He will humble you and make you to “abhor yourself and repent in dust and ashes.” [41b] Do you desire that? If He dwells within you, He will wean you from the world and teach you to live as one looking for the Kingdom. Do you desire that? If He dwells within you He will teach you to give up your own will. Do you desire that? Do you desire really to be led by the Spirit, taught by the Spirit to become a humble, gentle, and submissive child of God? I fear there are many who, when the whole subject is considered, are not prepared to give Him an unreserved welcome, and would be tempted to close the door of their hearts against His entrance. If the door is opened by them at all, it is only set ajar, and not thrown wide open that the King of Glory may enter in, in the fulness of His power, and turn out everything that is at variance with His will.But I believe there are many who would hold nothing back and who long above all things that the Spirit of Truth may take full possession of their souls. Their difficulty is not that they do not wish it, but that they can scarcely believe it possible that He should ever dwell in such a heart as theirs. They find so much sin there that they can scarcely imagine it possible that the Holy Comforter should not be driven from them by all that He sees within. No doubt there is quite sufficient to drive Him grieved and displeased from His resting-place, and if it were not for the everlasting covenant of God, and the precious blood of Christ, I can perfectly understand the impossibility of His making such a heart His dwelling-place. But the atoning blood alters the whole case. The blood of Christ breaks down every barrier. It is a new and living way [42] by which not only may you enter boldly into the presence of God, but through which the Spirit of God may enter your heart and take full possession of it as His own abiding-place.

If you are longing to be filled with the Spirit, you must look straight to that cross of Christ. You must remember the fulness of the pardon. You must trust to that Atonement as breaking down even the barrier raised by your own dark corruption, and, pleading that precious blood, must open every avenue of your soul to the Spirit of Truth, that He may enter in and there reign supreme.