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THE K I N G ' S BUS I NESS
June, 1937
Around the K ing 's Table
By PAUL W . ROOD
hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive : for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39). Thus there must be not only intense desire; there must be an utter abandonment as well, a whole-hearted sur render to Christ so that the passion of the life will be to glorify Christ. No one who has unscriptural views of the life and work of Christ can glorify Him. No one who is not wholly yielded to Christ can glorify Him as He ought to be glorified. This surrender of self and this recogni tion of the Lordship of Christ involves of necessity a break with everything that is displeasing and dishonoring to our Lord. The three steps already enumerated are, then: first, intense désiré; second, absolute surrender; and third, a breaking with all known evil. After these three steps have been taken, there remains one other step : namely, whole-hearted faith that the Lord does accept the surrendered life and does fill the yielded Christian with the Holy Spirit. When these God-ordained require ments have been met, there will be spiritual growth and fruitful service. reverent sense of miracle. A t this joyful season, students and those who have been over them “ in the Lord” have realized that God has led another group of young men and women through years of preparation into a new phase of Christ - honoring service. Fifty - eight members of the twenty-seventh graduating class— twenty-nine men and twenty-nine women— are preparing to receive from the Bible Institute of Los Angeles the diplomas granted in recognition of their achievement in the classroom and their loyalty to the “ faith which was once delivered.” A . T . O ’Rear, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Long Beach, Calif., has been invited to preach the baccalaureate sermon on the evening of Sunday, June 6. On Thursday evening, June 10, Ralph Walker, pastor of the Temple Baptist Church, Los Angeles, Calif., will deliver the commencement address to the graduates. The days of commencement week will be filled with events of interest to students and their friends, with the Alumni Fellowship Meeting scheduled for June 7. Biola’s new increased curriculum requiring at least three years of Bible Institute study for a diploma was put in operation in the fall of 1935, and the changed requirements affected students then enrolling in their first year at the Institute. Friends of the school may wonder why this present class is smaller than the classes of recent years. The reason is that the first group of students who entered the Institute under the new curriculum will not complete their course until the spring of 1938. Tw o degrees never previously granted at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles will be received this spring— the degree of Bachelor of Sacred Music, and the degree of Bachelor of Christian Educa tion, each representing the completion of four years of Commencement time at the Bible M i l f l 1x58 Angeles has been, through the years, a period or a Commencement
The Spirit- ' Filled Life"
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. He is a person and not an influence. He is Deity and has the attri
butes of Deity and personality. The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost to baptize the disciples into the body of Christ and to dwell within that body and the individual members of the body. Every time a soul is saved, that soul is baptized into the body: “ For by one Spirit are we all baptized into onfe body” (1 Cor. 12:13). Every true be liever is indwelt by the Spirit: “ Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8 :9 ). The Spirit of God gives us assurance of sonship: “ The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are chil dren of God” (Rom. 8:16, R. V .). While every Christian is indwelt by the Spirit, not every Christian is filled with the Spirit. Therefore Paul admonished the believers in Ephesus to “ be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5 :1 8 ). He then described the effect of the infilling, showing the result 'in the home and in all the relationships of life. Every Christian needs to be filled with the Spirit. W e cannot live overcoming lives and render efficient service for the Lord unless we have this infilling. Many Christians are weak, immature, and un fruitful because they are living and working in the energy of the flesh instead of in the energy of the Spirit. Our adversary is too powerful and the desires of the flesh and the currents of this age are too strong for us to be able to live as we ought and to accomplish something for God in our own strength. Some Christians are having an up-and-down experience. They are not growing in grace and are not winning souls. Other Christians are vibrant, transparent, and joyous. Their very countenances reveal that there is peace that passeth understanding and joy unspeakable and full of glory in their hearts. They have a testimony and are wit nessing for Christ and are winning men and women and boys and girls for the Lord. The secret is that they are filled with the Spirit, and thus they pray, live, speak, and work in the power of the Holy Spirit. When we recognize the fact that this analysis is true to the Scriptures and to experience, we naturally ask the question: How can we experience the infilling of the Spirit? It is usually a crisis experience subsequent to con version. There is, of course, ho reason that a believer may not be filled with the Spirit at the time of or im mediately following conversion. Usually, however, we have to learn by bitter experience the frailty of human nature even after we have become partakers of the divine nature. W e come to the end of our own resources and recognize at last our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit. There is then, as Keswick teachers put it, “ a crisis leading to a process.” W e are humbled by our impotence, and we commence to hunger for the fullness of God. W e discover the truth of the Beatitude, “ Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5 :6 ). The desire becomes so in tense that it can best be characterized as a thirst. Our Lord described this overwhelming desire and the means of its satisfaction: “ I f any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture
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