1 John 3:3:  “And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

“Men must cleanse themselves from wrong in thought, word and deed, and purify their souls in obeying the truth.  The Bible teaches that this is God’s way of purifying sinners” (H.R.  Pritchard, “Addresses," p. 323).

From this chapter the reader will obtain the following Scripture facts: 

1.  The Holy Spirit rested on John the Baptist from his mother’s womb.

2.  The Holy Spirit filled his father Zacharias so that he prophesied.

3.  The Holy Spirit bore witness to Jesus by descending and abiding upon him, enabling John to identify him.

4.  John promised a baptism in the Holy Spirit to some of his auditors and threatened others with a baptism in fire.

1 Pet. 1:11, 12:  “Searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them.  To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things, which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven:  which things angels desire to look into.”

V

THE SPIRIT AND JESUS

The relation sustained by the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ is a twofold one.  First:  He predicted by the holy prophets the great facts in the life of the coming one.  Second:  He associated himself with that one after he came.

1.  THE TIME OF HIS COMING WAS CLEARLY FORETOLD.  He was to come “in the last days,” or in the end of the Jewish Dispensation.  “And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isa. 2:2).

2.  HE WAS TO COME WHILE THE SECOND TEMPLE WAS IN EXISTENCE.  “Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me:  and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts” (Mal. 3:1).

3.  THE PLACE OF HIS NATIVITY WAS A MATTER OF PROPHECY.  “But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2).

4.  HIS LINEAGE WAS DECLARED IN THE JEWISH SCRIPTURES.

(1) He was to be a descendant of Abraham. “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).  “For verily not of angels doth he take hold, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham” (Heb. 2:16).

(2) He was to be of the tribe of Judah. “For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung out of Judah; as to which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priests” (Heb. 7:14).