The Father

The Spirit Also Helps in Our Infirmities

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, The Father, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. – Romans 8:26

(T)here is yet another sense in which the Holy Ghost advocates, and that is, He advocates our cause with Jesus Christ, with groanings that cannot be uttered. O my soul! thou art ready to burst within me. O my heart! thou art swelled with grief. The hot tide of my emotion would well-nigh overflood the channels of my veins. I long to speak, but the very desire chains my tongue. I wish to pray, but the fervency of my feeling curbs my language. There is a groaning within that cannot be uttered. Do you know who can utter that groaning? who can understand it, and who can put it into heavenly language, and utter it in a celestial tongue, so that Christ can hear it? O yes; it is God the Holy Spirit; He advocates our cause with Christ, and then Christ advocates it with His Father. He is the advocate who maketh intercession for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered.

“Let cares like a wild deluge come,
And storms of sorrow fall;
May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my heaven, my all.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0005.cfm

Our Advocate

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

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever–John 14:16

Have you ever thought how the Holy Ghost can be said to be an advocate? You know Jesus Christ is called the wonderful, the counsellor, the mighty God; but how can the Holy Ghost be said to be an advocate? I suppose it is thus; He is an advocate on earth to plead against the enemies of the cross. How was it that Paul could so ably plead before Felix and Agrippa? How was it that the Apostles stood unawed before the magistrates, and confessed their Lord? How has it come to pass, that in all times God’s ministers have been made fearless as lions, and their brows have been firmer than brass; their hearts sterner than steel, and their words like the language of God? Why, it was simply for this reason; that it was not the man who pleaded, but it was God the Holy Ghost pleading through him. Have you never seen an earnest minister, with hands uplifted and eyes dropping tears, pleading with the sons of men? Have you never admired that portrait from the hand of old John Bunyan?-a grave person with eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth written on his lips, the world behind his back, standing as if he pleaded with men, and a crown of gold hanging over his head. Who gave that minister so blessed a manner, and such goodly matter? Whence came his skill? Did he acquire it in the college? Did he learn it in the seminary? Ah, no. He learned it of the God of Jacob; he learned it of the Holy Ghost; for the Holy Ghost is the great counsellor who teaches us how to advocate His cause aright. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0005.cfm

The Great Teacher

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. – John 14:26

“I will send you another teacher.” Jesus Christ had been the official teacher of His saints whilst on earth. They called no man Rabbi except Christ. They sat at no man’s feet to learn their doctrines; but they had them direct from the lips of Him who “spake as never man spake.”…”I am the infallible paraclete, or teacher, and when I am gone, I will send you another teacher, and He shall be the person who is to explain Scripture; He shall be the authoritative oracle of God, who shall make all dark things light, who shall unravel mysteries, who shall untwist all knots of revelation, and shall make you understand what you could not discover, had it not been for His influence.” And, beloved, no man ever learns anything aright, unless He is taught of the Spirit. You may learn election, and you may know it so that you shall be damned by it, if you are not taught of the Holy Ghost; for I have known some who have learned election to their soul’s destruction; they have learned it so that they said they were of the elect, whereas, they had no marks, no evidences, and no works of the Holy Ghost in their souls. There is a way of learning truth in Satan’s college, and holding it in licentiousness; but if so, it shall be to your souls as poison to your veins and prove your everlasting ruin. No man can know Jesus Christ unless he is taught of God. There is no doctrine of the Bible which can be safely, thoroughly, and truly learned, except by the agency of the one authoritative teacher…He is the Teacher; it matters not what this man or that man says; I rest on no man’s boasting authority, nor will you. Ye are not to be carried away with the craftiness of men, nor sleight of words; this is the authoritative oracle-the Holy Ghost resting in the hearts of His children. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0005.cfm

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

The Holy Spirit’s Dwelling Within

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

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. -John 14:17

The indwelling of the Holy Ghost is a subject so profound, and so having to do with the inner man, that no soul will be able truly and really to comprehend what I say, unless it has been taught of God. I have heard of an old minister, who told a fellow of one of the Cambridge colleges, that he understood a language that he never learned in all his life. “I have not,” he said, “even a smattering of Greek, and I know no Latin, but thank God, I can talk the language of Canaan, and that is more than you can.” So, beloved, I shall now have to talk a little of the language of Canaan. If you cannot comprehend me, I am much afraid it is because you are not of Israelitish extraction; you are not a child of God, nor an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

Old Ignatius, the martyr, used to call himself Theophorus, or Godbearer, “because,” said he, “I bear about with me the Holy Ghost.” And truly every Christian is a Godbearer. “Know ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost? for He dwelleth in you?” That man is no Christian who is not the subject of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; he may talk well, he may understand theology, and be a sound Calvinist; he will be the child of nature finely dressed, but not the living child. He may be a man of so profound an intellect, so gigantic a soul, so comprehensive a mind, and so lofty an imagination, that he may dive into all the secrets of nature, may know the path which the eagle’s eye hath not seen, and go into depths where the ken of mortals reacheth not, but he shall not be a Christian with all his knowledge, he shall not be a son of God with all his researches, unless he understands what it is to have the Holy Ghost dwelling in him and abiding in him; yea, and that for ever. ~ 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