Character of Jesus

A Warning To the Ungodly

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. – Matthew 12:32

(T)o the ungodly, I have this one…word to say. Ever be careful how you speak of the Holy Ghost. I do not know what the unpardonable sin is, and I do not think any man understands it; but it is something like this: “He that speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall never be forgiven him.” I do not know what that means; but tread carefully! There is danger; there is a pit which our ignorance has covered by sand; tread carefully! you may be in it before the next hour. If there is any strife in your heart to-day, perhaps you will go to the ale-house and forget it. Perhaps there is some voice speaking in your soul, and you will put it away. I do not tell you (that you) will be resisting the Holy Ghost, and committing the unpardonable sin; but it is somewhere there. Be very careful.

O, there is no crime on earth so black as the crime against the Holy Spirit! Ye may blaspheme the Father, and ye shall be damned for it, unless ye repent; ye may blaspheme the Son, and hell shall be your portion, unless ye are forgiven; but blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and thus saith the Lord: “There is no forgiveness, either in this world nor in the world which is to come.” I cannot tell you what it is; I do not profess to understand it; but there it is. It is the danger signal; stop! man, stop! If thou has despised the Holy Spirit- if thou hast laughed at His revelations, and scorned what Christians call His influence, I beseech thee, stop! This morning seriously deliberate. Perhaps some of you have actually committed the unpardonable sin; stop! Let fear stop you; sit down. Do not drive on so rashly as you have done, Jehu! O slacken your reins! Thou who are such a profligate in sin-thou who hast uttered such hard words against the Trinity, stop! Ah! it makes us all stop. It makes us all draw up, and say, “Have I not perhaps so done?” Let us think of this; and let us not at any time stifle either with the words or the acts of God the Holy Ghost. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0004.cfm

Behold How the Three Persons Work Together

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit 5 Comments

And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever. – John 14:16

Now, observe here, that each person is spoken of as performing a separate office. “I will pray,” says the Son; that is intercession. “I will send,” says the Father; that is donation. “I will comfort,” says the Holy Spirit; that is supernatural influence. O! if it were possible for us to see the three persons of the Godhead, we should behold one of them standing before the throne, with outstretched hands, crying day and night, “O, Lord, how long?” We should see one girt with Urim and Thummim, precious stones, on which are written the twelve names of the tribes of Israel; we should behold Him, crying unto His Father, “Forget not Thy promises, forget not Thy covenant;” we should hear Him make mention of our sorrows, and tell forth our griefs on our behalf, for He is our intercessor. And could we behold the Father, we should not see Him a listless and idle spectator of the intercession of the Son, but we should see Him with attentive ear listening to every word of Jesus, and granting every petition. Where is the Holy Spirit all the while? Is He lying idle? O no; He is floating over the earth, and when He seas a weary soul, He says, “Come to Jesus, He will give you rest;” when He beholds an eye filled with tears, He wipes away the tears, and bids the mourner look for comfort on the cross; when He sees the tempest-tossed believer, He takes the helm of His soul and speaks the word of consolation; He helpeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds; and, ever on His mission of mercy, He flies around the world, being everywhere present. Behold, how the three persons work together. Do not then say, “I am grateful to the Son”-so you ought to be, but God the Son no more saves you than God the Father. Do not imagine that God the Father is a great tyrant, and that God the Son had to die to make Him merciful. It was not to make the Father’s love towards His people. Oh, no. One loves as much as the other; the three are conjoined in the great purpose of rescuing the elect from damnation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0004.cfm

“Let Us Save Man”

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit 5 Comments

And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. -Ephesians 2:1

But is it not said in Scripture, and do we not feel it, dear brethren, that it is the Holy Ghost who regenerates the soul? It is the Holy Ghost who quickens us. “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” It is the Holy Spirit who imparts the first germ of life, convincing us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. And is it not the Holy Spirit, who, after that flame is kindled, still fans it with the breath of His mouth and keeps it alive? Its author is its preserver. Oh! can it be said that it is the Holy Ghost who strives in men’s souls; that it is the Holy Ghost who brings them into the sweet place that is called Calvary-can it be said that He does all these things, and yet is not a person? It may be said, but it must be said by fools; for he never can be a wise man who can consider these things can be done by any other than a glorious person-a divine existence.

When God first made man, He said, “Let Us make man,” not let Me, but, “Let Us make man in Our own image.” The covenant Elohim said to each other, “Let Us unitedly become the Creator of man.” So, when in ages far gone by, in eternity, They said, “Let Us save man:” it was not the Father who said, “Let Me save man, “but the three persons conjointly said, with one consent, “Let Us save man.” It is to me a source of sweet comfort to think that it is not one person of the Trinity that is engaged for my salvation; it is not simply one person of the Godhead who vows that He will redeem me; but…the three declare, unitedly, “We will save man.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0004.cfm

Without Faith…

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer 5 Comments

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. -Mark 11:22

Virtues without faith are whitewashed sins. Obedience without faith, if it is possible, is a gilded disobedience. Not to believe, nullifies everything. It is the fly in the ointment; it is the poison in the pot. Without faith, with all the virtues of purity, with all the benevolence of philanthropy, with all the kindness of disinterested sympathy, with all the talents of genius, with all the bravery of patriotism, and with all the decision of principle-“without faith it is impossible to please God.” Do you not see then, how bad unbelief is, because it prevents men from performing good works.

Faith fosters every virtue; unbelief murders every one. Thousands of prayers have been strangled in their infancy by unbelief. Unbelief has been guilty of infanticide; it has murdered many an infant petition; many a song of praise that would have swelled the chorus of the skies, has been stifled by an unbelieving murmur; many a noble enterprise conceived in the heart has been blighted ere it could come forth, by unbelief. Many a man would have been a missionary; would have stood and preached his Master’s gospel boldly; but he had unbelief. Once make a giant unbelieving, and he becomes a dwarf. Faith is the Samsonian lock of the Christian; cut it off, and you may put out his eyes-and he can do nothing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0003.cfm

The Holy Spirit Defeats Unbelief

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 5 Comments

Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear His voice…-Hebrews 3:7

(H)ow is it that men can hear the wooing of the cross of Calvary, and yet come not to Christ? How is it that when we preach about the sufferings of Jesus, and close up by saying, “yet there is room,”-how is it that when we dwell upon His cross and passion, men are not broken in their hearts? It is said,

“Law and terrors do but harden,
All the while they work alone:
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Will dissolve a heart of stone.”

Methinks the tale of Calvary is enough to break a rock. Rocks did rend when they saw Jesus die. Methinks the tragedy of Golgotha is enough to make a flint gush with tears, and to make the most hardened wretch weep out his eyes in drops of penitential love; but yet we tell it to you, and repeat it oft, but who weeps over it? Who cares about it? Sirs, ye sit as unconcerned as if it did not signify you. Oh! behold and see all ye that pass by. Is it nothing to you that Jesus should die? Ye seem to say “It is nothing.” What is the reason? Because there is unbelief between you and the cross. If there were not that thick veil between you and the Saviour’s eyes, His looks of love would melt you. But unbelief is the sin which keeps the power of the gospel from working in the sinner: and it is not till the Holy Ghost strikes that unbelief out-it is not till the Holy Spirit rends away that infidelity and takes it altogether down, that we can find the sinner coming to put his trust in Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0003.cfm

 

Christ is the Only Universal Doctor

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 5 Comments

“Who healeth all thy diseases.”-Psalm 103:3

Humbling as is the statement, yet the fact is certain, that we are all more or less suffering under the disease of sin. What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of Him awhile to-night. His cures are very speedy-there is life in a look at Him; His cures are radical-He strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence, His cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that His patients should be merely patched up for a season, He makes new men of them: a new heart also does He give them, and a right spirit does He put with them. He is well skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some specialty. Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease which they have studied above all others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did He meet with an out-of-the-way case that was difficult to Him. He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but He has known exactly with one glance of His eye how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor; and the medicine He gives is the only true catholicon, healing in every instance. Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we should apply at once to this Divine Physician. There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up. “His blood cleanseth from all sin.” We have but to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of His touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves in His hands. We trust Him, and sin dies; we love Him, and grace lives; we wait for Him and grace is strengthened; we see Him as He is, and grace is perfected for ever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://bible.christiansunite.com/devotionals.shtml

 

Grace, Like Light, Reveals Our Impurity

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, The Holy Spirit 5 Comments

“What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?”-2 Samuel 9:8

If Mephibosheth was thus humbled by David’s kindness, what shall we be in the presence of our gracious Lord? The more grace we have, the less we shall think of ourselves, for grace, like light, reveals our impurity. Eminent saints have scarcely known to what to compare themselves, their sense of unworthiness has been so clear and keen. “I am,” says holy Rutherford, “a dry and withered branch, a piece of dead carcass, dry bones, and not able to step over a straw.” In another place he writes, “Except as to open outbreakings, I want nothing of what Judas and Cain had.” The meanest objects in nature appear to the humbled mind to have a preference above itself, because they have never contracted sin: a dog may be greedy, fierce, or filthy, but it has no conscience to violate, no Holy Spirit to resist. A dog may be a worthless animal, and yet by a little kindness it is soon won to love its master, and is faithful unto death; but we forget the goodness of the Lord, and follow not at His call. The term “dead dog” is the most expressive of all terms of contempt, but it is none too strong to express the self-abhorrence of instructed believers. They do not affect mock modesty, they mean what they say, they have weighed themselves in the balances of the sanctuary, and found out the vanity of their nature. At best, we are but clay, animated dust, mere walking hillocks; but viewed as sinners, we are monsters indeed. Let it be published in heaven as a wonder, that the Lord Jesus should set His heart’s love upon such as we are. Dust and ashes though we be, we must and will “magnify the exceeding greatness of His grace.” Could not His heart find rest in heaven? Must He needs come to these tents of Kedar for a spouse, and choose a bride upon whom the sun had looked? O heavens and earth, break forth into a song, and give all glory to our sweet Lord Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://bible.christiansunite.com/Morning_and_Evening/chme0527.shtml