Joy Unspeakable

An extract from Chapter 12, entitled: 'Seeking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit' from the book 'Joy Unspeakable' by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Kingsway.

Let us be clear in our doctrine. The Spirit does give experiences. I have tried to show that there is no experience possible to the Christian in this world higher than this experience of the baptism with the Spirit. There is only one thing beyond this and that is the glory itself. As Peter puts it there in 1 Peter 1.8: 'Rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.' It is a touch of the glory everlasting and there is nothing that brings a man nearer to that than this, the baptism with the Spirit. This is the universal testimony of all men who have ever had this experience. He gives experiences, he gives power, he has gifts that he can give. But the point that I am making is that we should not seek primarily what he gives.

Seeking Jesus

What should we be seeking? We should always be seeking the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to know him, and know his love and to be witnesses for him and to minister to his glory. That is what you find, of course, in the New Testament itself. The apostle Paul says that the height of his ambition is 'that I might know him'. Not that he might have experiences, but that he 'might know him, and the power of his resurrection. and the fellowship of his sufferings' etc.

This, I think, is something that should be obvious to us. Our Lord said of the Holy Spirit that he would not glorify himself but that he would glorify him. The Spirit is sent to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ , and those who are familiar with Acts will know that this is what happens there. All along, when the Spirit has come upon these men, they preach about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is therefore what we should be seeking. We should seek to know him and his love. You see, we are told of the Spirit: 'The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.'

Not belief, but love

Now take that great term again, 'shed abroad'. Do not put your little limit to it and say: 'Oh yes, I love God.' Paul says that the love of God is 'shed abroad' in great profusion, overwhelmingly, in our hearts. Now that is what we should seek. We believe in God, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the doctrines of salvation. All right! But the question that confronts us at this particular point is not that of believing but love! A belief that does not lead to love is a very doubtful belief, it may be nothing but intellectual assent. The emphasis of the Bible is always upon love. The relationship of man to God is to be one of love. 'What is the first and greatest commandment?' Not that 'thou shalt believe in the Lord thy God', but that 'thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength'. Is this true of us?

There is nothing that will enable a man to do that but the baptism with the Holy Spirit. You can believe, and in a sense have a measure of love; but the thing put before us is not just a measure of love, it is an abounding love. Paul says in Romans 8.15: 'Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.' That word 'cry' has a depth of meaning in it - it is an elemental cry going up from the depth of the being.

Here, then, is the question - to what extent do we know this love of God to us and how do we love God? We are meant to love him with the whole of our being and there is nothing that can make us do so but the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. 'We love him because he first loved us.' You can believe in his love to us, but you only feel it in its fullness when you are baptised with the Spirit, and that in turn forces your love to rise up within you to him.

Not just polite

This is New Testament Christianity! New Testament Christianity is not just a formal, polite, correct and orthodox kind of faith and belief. No! What characterises it is this element of love and passion, this pneumatic element, this life, this vigour, this abandon, this exuberance - and, as I say, it has ever characterised the life of the church in all its periods of revival and of re-awakening. That is what we must seek - not experiences, not power, not gifts. If he chooses to give them to us, thank God for them and exercise them to his glory, but the only safe way of receiving gifts is that you love him and that you know him.

© Evangelicals Now - October 1999
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