Christian Life

For the Honor of Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. – John 16:13,14

How often I have wished that men of great minds might be converted! I have wished that we could have a few Miltons, and such like men, to sing of the love of Christ; a few mighty men, who teach politics, and the like, to consecrate their talents to the preaching of the gospel. Why is it not so? Well, because the Holy Ghost does not seem to think that that would be the way to glorify Christ supremely; and He prefers, as a better way, to take us common-place sort of persons, and to take the things of Christ, and to show them to us. He does glorify Christ; and blessed be His name that ever my blear eyes should look upon His infinite loveliness; that ever such a wretch as I, who can understand everything but what I ought to understand, should be made to comprehend the heights and depths, and to know, with all saints, the love of Christ, that passeth knowledge. You see, in a school, that clever boy. Well, it is not much for the master to have made a scholar of him. But here is one who shines as a scholar, and his mother says that he was the greatest dolt in the family. All his schoolfellows say, “Why, he was our butt! He seemed to have no brains; but our master, somehow, got some brain into him, and made him know something which he appeared, at one time, incapable of knowing.” Somehow, it does seem to be as if our very folly, and impotence, and spiritual death-if the Holy Ghost shows to us the things of Christ-will go towards the increase of that great glorifying of Christ at which the Holy Spirit aims. Then, beloved brethren, since it is for the honor of Christ for His things to be shown to men, He will show them to us, that we may go and show them to other people. This we cannot do, except as He is with us to make the others to see; but He will be with us while we tell forth what He has taught us; and so, the Holy Ghost will really be showing to others while He is showing to us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm

If You Want to Glorify Christ…

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

“He will glorify Me…” – John 16:14

How, then, does the Holy Spirit glorify Christ? It is very beautiful to think that He glorifies Christ by showing Christ’s things. If you wanted to do honor to a man, you would perhaps take him a present to decorate his house. But here, if you want to glorify Christ, you must go and take the things out of Christ’s house, “the things of Christ.” Whenever we have to praise God, what do we do? We simply say what He is. “Thou art this, and Thou art that.” There is no other praise. We cannot fetch anything from elsewhere and bring it to God; but the praises of God are simply the facts about Himself. If you want to praise the Lord Jesus Christ, tell the people about Him. Take of the things of Christ, and show them to the people, and you will glorify Christ.

Again, I think that the blessed Spirit glorifies Christ by showing us the things of Christ as Christ’s. Oh, to be pardoned! Yes, it is a great thing; but to find that pardon in His wounds, that is a greater thing! Oh, to get peace! Yes, but to find that peace in the blood of His cross! Brethren, have the blood-mark very visibly on all your mercies. They are all marked with the blood of the cross; but sometimes we think so much of the sweetness of the bread, or of the coolness of the waters, that we forget whence these came, and how they came, and then they lack their choicest flavour. That it came from Christ is the best thing about the best thing that ever came from Christ. That He saves me is, somehow, better than my being saved. It is a blessed thing to go to heaven; but I do not know that it is not a better thing to be in Christ, and so, as the result of it, to get into heaven. It is Himself, and that which comes of Himself, that becomes best of all, because it comes of Himself. So, the Holy Ghost shall glorify Christ by making us see that these things of Christ are indeed of Christ, and completely of Christ, and still are in connection with Christ; and we only enjoy them because we are in connection with Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/nkjv/jhn/16/14/s_1013014

Glorious Sights to See

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, prophecy, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

“…He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me…” – John 16:13,14

May the Holy Spirit show unto you Gethsemane, and Gabbatha, and Golgotha! and then, may it please Him to give you a sight of what our Lord is now doing! Oh, how it would cheer you up at any time when you were depressed, only to see Him standing and pleading for you! Do you not think that if your wife is ill, and your child is sick, and there is scant food in the cupboard; if you were to go out at the back door, and you saw Him with the breastplate on, and all the stones glittering, and your name there, and Him pleading for you, you would go in and say, “There, wife, it is all right. He is praying for us”? Oh, it would be a comfort if the Holy Ghost showed you a pleading Christ!

Best of all, may the Holy Spirit give you a clear view of His coming. This is our most brilliant hope: “Lo, He cometh!” The more the adversary waxes bold, and the less of faith there is, and when zeal seems almost extinct, these are the tokens of His coming. The Lord always said so; and that He would not come unless there was a falling away first; and so, the darker the night grows, and the fiercer the storm becomes, the better will we remember that He of the lake of Galilee came to them upon the waves in the night when the storm was wildest. Oh, what will His enemies say when He comes? When they behold the nail-prints of the Glorified, and the Man with the thorn Crown-when they see Him really come-they that have despised His word, and His ever-blessed blood, how will they flee before that face of injured love! And we, on the contrary, through His infinite mercy, will say, “This is what the Holy Ghost showed us; and now we behold it literally. We thank Him for the foresights which He gave us of the beatific vision.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm

The Blood of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood… – Revelation 1:5

I think that if there could be one sight more wonderful than the love of Christ, it would be the blood of Christ. It is the climax of God. I do not know of anything more divine. It seems to me as if all the eternal purposes worked up to the blood of the cross, and then worked from the blood of the cross towards the sublime consummation of all things. Oh, to think that He should become man! God has made spirit, pure spirit, embodied spirit; and then materialism; and somehow, as if He would take all up into one, the Godhead links Himself with the material, and He wears dust about Him even as we wear it; and taking it all up, He then goes, and, in that fashion, redeems His people from all the evil of their soul, their spirit, and their body, by the pouring out of a life which, while it was human, was so in connection with the divine, that we speak correctly of “the blood of God.” Turn to the twentieth chapter of the Acts and read how the apostle Paul puts it: “Feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” …It was a wonderful sacrifice that could absolutely obliterate, annihilate, and extinguish sin, and all the traces that could possibly remain of it; for “He hath finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness.” Ah, dear friends! you have seen this, have you not? but you have to see more of it yet; and when we get to heaven, we shall then know what that blood means, and with what vigor shall we sing, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood”! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm

The Vision of Christ’s Love

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” – John 16:14

Did the Holy Ghost ever show to you these things of Christ, namely, His covenant engagements? When He struck hands with the Father, it was that He would bring many sons unto glory; that of those whom the Father gave Him He would lose none, but that they should be saved; for He is under bonds to His Father to bring His elect home…I shall preach, and there will be some saved. We do not go at a peradventure; but, guided by the blessed Spirit of God, we go with a living certainty, knowing that God has a people that Christ is bound to bring home, and bring them home He will; and while He shall see of the travail of His soul, His Father shall delight in every one of them. If you get a clear view of that, it will give you backbone and make you strong. “He shall take of Mine, and shall show you My covenant engagements, and when you see them, you shall be comforted.”

But, beloved, the Holy Ghost favors you by taking what is peculiarly Christ’s, namely, His love, and showing that to you. We have seen it, seen it sometimes more vividly than at other times. But if the full blaze of the Holy Spirit were to be concentrated upon the love of Christ, and our eyesight enlarged to its utmost capacity, it would be such a vision that heaven could not excel it. We should sit with our Bible before us in our study, and feel, “Well now, here is a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. Such a man is caught up into the third heaven.” Oh, to see the love of Christ in the light of the Holy Ghost! When it is so revealed to us, it is not merely the surface which we see, but the love of Christ itself. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm

Pray the Word

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” – John 16:13,14

Dear friends, whenever you want to understand a text of Scripture, try to read the original. Consult anybody who has studied what the original means; but remember that the quickest way into a text is praying in the Holy Ghost. Pray the chapter over. I do not hesitate to say that, if a chapter is read upon one’s knees, looking up at every word to Him that gave it, the meaning will come to you with infinitely more light than by any other method of studying it. “He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine and shall shew it unto you.” He shall re-deliver the Master’s message to you in the fullness of its meaning. take the words, and never dispute over them. Still, into their soul-fullness of meaning you cannot come until the Holy Ghost shall lead you into them. They that wrote them for you did not fully understand what they wrote in many instances. There were some of them who enquired and searched diligently to know what manner of things those were whereof the Holy Ghost had spoken to them, and of which He had made them speak. And you to whom the words come will have to do the same. You must go and say, “Great Master, we thank Thee for the Book with all our hearts; and we thank Thee for putting the Book into words; but now, good Master, we will not cavil over the letter, as did the Jews and the rabbis and the scribes of old, and so miss Thy meaning. Open wide the door of the words, that we may enter into the secret closet of the meaning; and teach us this, we pray Thee. Thou hast the key. Lead us in.”

Here is a text for us-“The things of Christ.” Christ speaks as if He had not any things just then which were specially His own, for He had not died then; He had not risen then; He was not pleading then as the great Intercessor in heaven. All that was to come. But still, He says, “Even now all things that the Father hath are Mine: all His attributes, all His glory, all His rest, all His happiness, all His blessedness. All that is Mine, and the Holy Ghost shall show that to you.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm

The Holy Spirit’s Condescension

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” – John 16:14

What does the Holy Ghost do? Why, He deals with feeble men, yea, He dwells with us poor creatures. I can understand the Holy Ghost taking the things of Christ, and rejoicing therein; but the marvel is, that He should glorify Christ by coming and showing these things to us. And yet, brethren, it is among us that Christ is to get His glory. Our eyes must see Him. An unseen Christ is little glorious; and the things of Christ unknown, the things of Christ untasted and unloved seem to have lost their brilliance to a high degree. The Holy Spirit, therefore, feeling that to show a sinner the salvation of Christ glorifies Him, spends His time, and has been spending these centuries, in taking of the things of Christ, and showing them to us. Ah! it is a great condescension on His part to show them to us; but it is a miracle, too. I never could make up my mind which to admire most as an act of condescension, the incarnation of Christ, or the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The incarnation of Christ is marvellous-that He should dwell in human nature; but observe, the Holy Ghost dwells in human nature in its sinfulness; not in perfect human nature, but in imperfect human nature; and He continues to dwell, not in one body, which was fashioned strangely for Himself, and was pure and without taint; but He dwells in our body. Know ye not that they are the temples of the Holy Ghost, which were defiled by nature, and in which a measure of defilement still remains, despite His indwelling? And this He has done these multitudes of years, not in one instance, nor in thousands of instances only, but in a number that no man can number. He continues still to come into contact with sinful humanity. Not to the angels, nor to the seraphim, nor to the cherubim, nor to the host who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, does He show the things of Christ; but He shall show them unto us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm