The Unsearchable Riches of Christ # 9

The Spirit of Grace (continued)

1. The Spirit of Power (continued)

Now I wonder if I were to ask you what is in John 16 if you would be able to answer? Well, you know John 16 says, "I am going away, I am going away. You see Me now, but you will not see Me anymore. I return unto My Father ... for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you." And it goes on to say what He will do, when He is come. It is all so natural it seems; it is all effortless; it is just going to be in the order of things. He is coming and He is going to do this and that; and "that" is all there is to it. It is just that He is coming, "I am going to send Him." And when we read John 16, we know the content of the Word, but do we realize that all this means that the Holy Spirit is taking over all that Christ came to initiate, and to carry it right through to its End. He is just going to do that for which He has come for. He is the Spirit of Grace, and grace is just God doing all that God can do without asking for any merit or any payment. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of that Grace as the Power of God, but that is one of the riches, you see, it is the riches of His power through grace.

We ought to get down our Bibles and have a word study, and a passage study on that word, "Grace." Perhaps if I only just remind you, it will start off something. Have you not noticed that grace is many-sided in the New Testament, and one of the sides, or aspects of grace is that it is an "energy". It is a power. It is a power-force in our lives. "There was given to me the messenger of satan to buffet me." And although these are not the exact words that the apostle used, this is what he meant, "I cried out to the Lord, take this away, because I cannot endure it. I shall not be able to go on with this thing. I will not be able to get through; this is too much, this is too great a burden. I is going to limit me; it is going to spoil my life." And He said unto me, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Grace there is introduced as over against the conscious inability of the apostle to go on with what he had been called for, and what had been put on him to do. His natural  reaction was "I just cannot. If I have got to have this thing, I just will not be able to go on. Take it away, Lord, I asked Him three times to take it away. Lord, take it away. Lord, take it away, life is impossible." He said, "My grace is sufficient for thee," everything is possible to grace. It is a power, you see. It is an energy in the life. Perhaps, we do not know this in measure, but not as much as we ought. We have had to say many times, but for the grace of God I should have acted very differently than from what I did. But for the grace of God, grace saved me. Grace kept me. Grace held me. It is the Power of God that is the Spirit of Grace. But that is where the riches began.

2. The Spirit of Wisdom

But what is the second thing? Well, He is called the Spirit of Wisdom. Later we will have something more to say about Wisdom. But for the moment what does that mean, "What is Wisdom?" To begin with what is Wisdom. Wisdom is more than knowledge. You know, you may have a lot of knowledge and have no wisdom at all. The people that have the most knowledge have got the least wisdom. They are the most foolish people with all their knowledge. What is Wisdom? It is knowing how to do it. That is a simple formula for wisdom. But as I have said, there is more to say in another connection about wisdom, and here it is.

I remember many years ago I heard or read of a little incident of a firm of engineers who were given a contract to do a certain job, and when it was done they sent in their account, more or less general, and it was a very big account. And the people who had to pay the bill sent it back and said, "Look here, this is not good enough, I want you to explain this and tell us how you made up this bill." The firm sent back, "Materials so much, time of workmen so much, and one or two other practical things"; but when those things were added together, they did not come up to the whole account. And they wrote underneath: the balance - "knowing how to do it."

Ah, well, knowing how to do it. It is quite a big part, you see, in the whole business, is it not? They might have had the materials,and they might have had the workmen, and they might have had all the other things, but not knowing how to do it, what would have been the good at all. They never would have done it.

Wisdom is knowing "how to do it", and here is the Spirit of Grace. In this way Grace knows how to do it. We have to learn a lot about that. But Grace knows how to do it. Grace knows how to take up the problems and handle them and solve them and negotiate the situation to a successful and triumphant issue. Grace knows how to handle the people concerned and, oh, to handle a thousand other things which requires knowing how to do it.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 10)