THE BREATH OF GOD

Lake Kivu in Bukavu, D. R. Congo

24 - THE BREATH OF GOD

June 14, 1964 

Pastor Henry F. Kulp

Romans 5: 3-6 “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6 for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Last week we talked about tribulations, and we said a Christian will have tribulations, and this word, tribulation, means trouble. The Christian will experience much trouble because God has a program of "trouble" for the believer.

1/  Tribulation, trouble, is a part of an appointed process of Christian development, and it should not move us. God says that every believer will experience trouble, and trouble is the beginning of a chain of events that will cause maturity in the believer.

I Thessalonians 3: 3 “That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.”

We read that no man should be moved by these afflictions, or troubles, for yourself know that we are appointed there unto you. So, it is an appointed process of Christian development. But we are not to be moved by these afflictions. The word, affliction is exactly the same word as tribulation in Romans 5.

2/  But it is a glorious thought that tribulation, trouble, affliction will never be allowed to separate the believer from his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Romans 8: 35 – 37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

No, tribulations, trouble, affliction will never separate us from the love of God. If we are truly saved, this will not cause a separation.

3/  Then we have another glorious fact on this matter of tribulation, trouble, affliction. 

II Corinthians 4: 17 & 18 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Here we read that our affliction, or trouble is light, and it is but for a moment, and it worketh for us. First of all, notice the affliction is light and the glory is heavy, for the word, weight, means, heavy. There is something heavy about glory. We think the things we have to bear up under now are heavy, but they are really only light, according to this verse, and the word here means feathery light. These sufferings are feathery light because they are only for a short season. It does not matter what burden you bear it does not matter what sorrow you have in your life. It isn’t for very long, it will soon be gone. It is only for a little time. So, these sufferings are light.

4/  Notice the words, work for us. God doesn’t allow anything to work against you. Please understand that God is in this, and God says it is going to work for you, not against you. Think of the trouble that is now in your life at this present moment, this thing that seems so hard to bear. God says it is for you—it is not against you.

5/  You might say, if only such a thing hadn’t happened to us, it would be so much better. But these things work for us. God is in it.

6/  Remember something else that is so important. Notice the word, eternal. I do not think we give enough attention to this word, eternal. As I study the writings of preachers in days gone by, they used to spend a lot of time talking about eternity. We don’t today. We are too tied up with present day matters. But, eternity--If you go to the seashore this summer and you sit down in the sand of the seashore, just imagine every grain of sand on that seashore, if it represented a thousand years, how long would it be before that marvelous number is completed—how far into the endless ages would we be? It is also impossible to separate a single grain, they are so small—but single out a single grain, and say it is a thousand years. Separate another grain and that is a thousand years. How long will it take you to separate the grains of sand that you can hold in your hand? Then when you are through all the sand on the seashores of the Atlantic, then of the Pacific, the great sand desserts of the world. Eternity is longer than all of that. And it is also true when you separate one single grain of sand, it represents a thousand years—that is much longer than your life here, and one grain of sand represents a thousand years—and that is only a short time in eternity. Your life here cannot be compared with eternity. That is why God says it is light, and it is but for a moment.

7/  Now let us turn to Romans 5: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 

We can consider the study of this verse somewhat like a fruit tree. It may be studied in two different manners. A botanist might begin with the root structure, and then proceed to study the tree above the ground, and come at last to the fruit. However, most people, and I am one of them, will begin with the fruit. If we look at the tree at all, it would be to examine it and see what it looks like, and we would forget all about the root structure. 

Our text is in three parts, the hope that maketh not ashamed is the fruit of the tree—the love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts is the tree—the Holy Spirit, who brings the love of God to us is the root that holds up the tree. I believe it is best if we start with the root, the Holy Spirit, and work backwards, and study a tree, and then finally the fruit.

8/  Let us look at the root—the Holy Spirit who has been given unto us. Here, the Holy Spirit, the root in the Greek is past tense. Anyone who is saved has had the Holy Spirit given to him. He is not in the process of getting the Holy Spirit. He already has the Holy Spirit. The word, Spirit, came interestingly enough, both from the Greek and the Hebrew, to be translated with breath. The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God. 

To understand this fact a little better, let us turn to Isaiah 2: 22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”

This verse contains the Hebrew word for Spirit, and it is translated in our King James Version as breath, and it tells us there, cease ye the man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? 

If you were to study the Greek, you would find it to be startling. It could be translated—cease ye the man who has only one noseful capacity of breath, what is he worth anyway? One noseful of breath—that is all we have. What God is really saying is, When are you human beings going to realize you are only one nose-fullers, and I am the infinite, eternal breath. 

You dive under the water, and even though you are the world’s champion swimmer, you can stay under only as long as a brief moment, a moment of one long breath which you have inhaled. The breath that you have in your nostrils is now all that you have that you are sure of.

Just the other day they found a man in his car parked on a certain street. He was dead. He was ready to reach and turn the key to turn on the ignition and start the car, but he only had a noseful, one noseful of breath, and it was his last. God gave him his last noseful of breath. No one has any more—not one of us, and that is what we call life. So, the Holy Spirit is breath or life to us—Spiritual life. Without Him we do not have life, and God wants us to recognize that.

9/  The Holy Spirit, or the Holy Breath of God is a Person—never forget that. He is not just a power. We should change the word, which, to Who. So, the Breath of God, the Spirit of God is a Person.

10/  Hebrews 9: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who, through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God?

I want you to see something here. When the Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross, and shed His blood, the Holy Spirit, the Person of God, was there. The Son of God was dying, and God the Father was there to receive the offering. But then notice, who through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God. Christ was offering Himself, and the Holy Spirit was enabling Him to do it. Christ put Himself in the place of subjection. He became poverty-stricken and here the Holy Spirit enabled Him to give Himself on the cross of Calvary. In His flesh, He cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” And He said, “if it be possible, take this cup from Me.”But the Holy Spirit enabled Him to give Himself without spot, an offering for our sin.

11/  There is another thing I would like you to see about this Wonderful Person, The Holy Spirit, who is the Breath of God. 

John 16: 13 First of all, it says, Howbeit when He (the Holy Spirit), the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: notice this, for He shall not speak of himself, What shall He speak about? and he shall show you things to come. He shall glorify Me. 

Notice that is what the Holy Spirit has been doing to everyone that has been saved. He has been taking the things of Christ and showing them unto that individual. And do you realize this is so important that Christ repeated it? It isn’t often that anything like this is repeated, but, here in the next verse, John 16: 14 All things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said, I, He shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you. Jesus Christ felt that this was so important for you to understand that He repeated it. He said, when the Holy Spirit is come, He’ll tell you all about Me. A Spirit-filled ministry is a Christ-filled ministry. Christ will be the Sum and Substance of this ministry. 

Let me show it to you even more clearly. I Corinthians 12: 3 Notice the last part of that verse—Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost…and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, is Jehovah, but by the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God. In other words, to know that Jesus Christ is God, is through the Holy Spirit. Folks say to me, “Does one have to believe that Jesus Christ is God to be saved?” No, He may not understand that. He’ll know John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You’ll believe on Jesus Christ and you’ll be saved. But after you are saved and you receive the Breath of God, the Life of God, the Spirit of God and He dwells in your body, He will testify to you out of the Word that Jesus Christ is God, and you’ll not reject it, you’ll accept it. The proof of one really being saved is that He will believe that Jesus Christ is God, because this is the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

12/  It is also necessary that we see that it is false to believe that the Holy Spirit has been given to every member of the human race. God has never poured out His Holy Spirit upon the unsaved. The Modernist likes to talk about us all having a “spark of God”, and this is nonsense. We receive the Holy Spirit only when we are saved. 

We have a beautiful illustration of this in the Old Testament ceremony of the cleansing of the leper by God’s priests. Leviticus 14: 14 - 17 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: ¹⁵ And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand: ¹⁶ And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord: ¹⁷ And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering:

Notice, the leper was brought before the priest, who took some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it upon the tip of the leper’s right ear, upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. Together with this, the priest poured some of the anointing oil into the palm of his own left hand, and after sprinkling some of it seven times before the Lord, he put a drop of oil on top of the drop of blood on the man’s ear, on top of the blood on his thumb, on top of the drop of blood on his toe. You know that oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, just as the blood of the Lamb was the symbol of the atoning death of Jesus Christ. So the complete act shows us, that as the oil was not put upon the flesh but on the blood, so the Holy Spirit is not given to unsaved men, unregenerate man, but only to those who have been cleansed through the redeeming work of the Saviour on the cross of Calvary.

13/  Here we learn that this Wonderful One, the Holy Spirit, sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. In Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. 

Here you read that the fruit of the Spirit is love. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts. Contrast this with Galatians 5: 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Where you bite and devour one another, and here we have what we call Christian cannibalism. This certainly is not of God. How many people like to say that the Holy Spirit is using them to chastise, judge, criticize, gossip about others? But this is not the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

14/  Let us look at that word, Hope in Romans 5: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 

Hope maketh not ashamed. Hope does not disappoint. For that is exactly what the word means. Hope does not disappoint us. Hope in the world does disappoint us. As children, we first come into contact with hope, and we soon learn that we do not get everything we want, that we hope for. Then we find out that the things that are given to us, our hopes are fulfilled, but these things are not what they seem to be. Then as we grow older we hope, perhaps to make the baseball team, the football team, and the track—and we fear that we will not. So, human hope is all wrapped up with fear, because human hope can disappoint. 

Take a young couple. They look down smiling, and I suppose tearful upon their first child. They have great hopes for the child, but with the hopes there are fears. Will he live—they are not sure. Will he have a strong body? Their hope is filled with fear. Will his mind be bright; will he be intelligent? Again, their hope is tempered with fear. Will he get into trouble and bring them heartaches? Yes, a child is a bundle of hopes and fears, for in human life, hope and fear are inseparable. This is personal life, the life of our bodies. But God’s hope is assurance. We know His hope for us and our hope in Him is anchored in certainty. There is nothing insecure in His hope. There is no fear in His hope for us, or our hope in Him.

AMEN

Ref: 06/14/1964 / 24 - THE BREATH OF GOD / 2020