The Holy Spirit

Give the Most Earnest Heed

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

But ye are come unto mount Sion…See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. – Hebrews 12:22, (23,24),25

The text says, “You are come.” We are not come to Mount Sinai, but we are come to Mount Zion, to angels and their God, to saints and their Mediator, and to the blood of sprinkling. This having had its share of our thoughts, we are to conclude with the question: What then? If we have come to this blood of sprinkling, what then? The answer is, “See that you refuse not Him that speaks.” Let us give to the wondrous truths revealed to us by the sacrifice of Jesus the most earnest heed, that our souls may hear and live. May the Holy Spirit enable us to hear the heavenly voice at this hour! “Faith comes by hearing,” may it come at this time by our reverently hearing the voice of the blood of sprinkling!

Count yourselves happy that you are privileged to hear of the divinely appointed way of reconciliation with God. You are come to hear, not of your sin and its doom, not of the last judgment and the swift destruction of the enemies of God, but of love to the guilty, pity for the miserable, mercy for the wicked, compassion for those who are out of the way. You are come to hear of God’s great expedient of wisdom, by which, He, by the same act and deed, condemns sin, and lets the sinner live, honors His law, and yet passes by transgression, iniquity, and sin. You are come to hear, not of the shedding of your own blood, but of the shedding of His blood who, in His infinite compassion, deigned to take the place of guilty men—to suffer, that they might not suffer, and die, that they might not die. Blessed are your ears that they hear of the perfect sacrifice! Happy are your spirits, since they are found where free grace and boundless love have set forth a great propitiation for sin! Divinely favored are you to live where you are told of pardon freely given to all who will believe on the name of the Lord Jesus, as the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1889.cfm

This Blood is Always Speaking

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

And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. – Hebrews 12:24

The text says not “the blood of sprinkling that spoke,” but “that speaks.” It is always speaking; it always remains a plea with God and a testimony to men. It never will be silenced, either one way or the other. In the intercession of our risen and ascended Lord His sacrifice ever speaks to the Most High. By the teaching of the Holy Spirit the atonement will always speak in edification to believers yet upon the earth. It is the blood that speaks. According to our text, this is the only speech which this dispensation yields us. Shall that speech ever be still? Shall we decline to hear it? Shall we refuse to echo it? God forbid. By day, by night, the great sacrifice continues to cry to the sons of men, “Turn from your sins, for they cost your Savior dearly. The time of your ignorance God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, since He is able to forgive and yet be just. Your offended God has Himself provided a sacrifice; come and be sprinkled with its blood and be reconciled once and for all.” The voice of this blood speaks wherever there is a guilty conscience, wherever there is an anxious heart, wherever there is a seeking sinner, wherever there is a believing mind. It speaks with a sweet, familiar, tender, inviting voice. There is no music like it to the sinner’s ear, it charms away his fears. It shall never cease its speaking so long as there is a sinner yet out of Christ, no, so long as there is one on earth who still needs its cleansing power because of fresh backslidings. Oh, hear its voice! Incline your ears and receive its blessed accents. It says, “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1888.cfm

The Sacrifice is Identical with the Savior

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

But ye are come unto mount Sion…and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. – Hebrews 12:22,24,25

I ask you to look at the text and observe that this sprinkling of the blood, as mentioned by the Holy Spirit in this passage, is absolutely identical with Jesus Himself. Read it. “To Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you refuse not Him who speaks.” He says it is the blood that speaks, and then he proceeds to say, “See that you refuse not Him who speaks.” The Spirit of God intentionally sets forth the striking truth, that the sacrifice is identical with the Savior. “We are come to the Savior, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks; see that you refuse not Him.” Beloved friends, there is no Jesus if there is no blood of sprinkling; there is no Savior if there is no sacrifice. I put this strongly, because the attempt is being made nowadays to set forth Jesus apart from His cross and atonement. He is held up as a great ethical teacher, a self-sacrificing spirit, who is to lead the way in a grand moral reformation, and by His influence to set up a kingdom of moral influence in the world. It is even hinted that this kingdom has never had prominence enough given to it because it has been overshadowed by His cross. But where is Jesus apart from His sacrifice? He is not there if you have left out the blood of sprinkling, which is the blood of sacrifice. Without the atonement, no man is a Christian, and Christ is not Jesus. If you have torn away the sacrificial blood, you have drawn the heart out of the gospel of Jesus Christ and robbed it of its life. If you have trampled on the blood of sprinkling, and counted it a common thing, instead of putting it above you upon the lintel of the door, and all around you upon the two side posts, you have fearfully transgressed. As for me, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, since to me that cross is identical with Jesus Himself. I know no Jesus but He who died the just for the unjust. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1888.cfm

Made Meet for Divine Service

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

…and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling… – Hebrews 12:24

Before a man entered upon the priesthood the blood was put upon his right ear, and on the big toe of his right foot, and on the thumb of his right hand, signifying that all his powers were thus consecrated to God. The ordination ceremony included the sprinkling of blood upon the altar round about. Even thus has the Lord Jesus redeemed us unto God by His death, and the sprinkling of His blood has made us kings and priests unto God forever. He is made of God unto us sanctification, and all else that is needed for the divine service. When the high priest went into the most holy place once a year, it was not without blood, which he sprinkled upon the ark of the covenant, and upon the mercy seat, which was on the top thereof. All approaches to God were made by blood. There was no hope of a man drawing near to God, even in symbol, apart from the sprinkling of the blood. And now today our only way to God is by the precious sacrifice of Christ, the only hope for the success of our prayers, the acceptance of our praises, or the reception of our holy works, is through the ever-abiding merit of the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit bids us enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, there is no other way.

Have you not come a long way? Are you not admitted into the very center of the whole revelation? Not yet. A step further lands you where stands your Savior, the Mediator, with the new covenant. Now is your joy complete; but you have a further object to behold. What is in that innermost shrine? What is that which is hidden away in the holy of holies? What is that which is the most precious and costly thing of all, the last, the ultimatum, God’s grandest revelation? The precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot—the blood of sprinkling. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1888.cfm

From Mount Sinai to Mount Sion

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

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest…But ye are come unto mount Sion… – Hebrews 12:18, 22

We are joyfully reminded by the apostle that we have not come to Mount Sinai and its overwhelming manifestations…We have not come to the dread and terror of the old covenant, of which our apostle says in another place, “The covenant from the Mount Sinai genders to bondage” (Galatians 4:24). Upon the believer’s spirit there rests not the slavish fear, the abject terror, the fainting alarm, which swayed the tribes of Israel, for the manifestation of God which he beholds, though not less majestic, is far fuller of hope and joy. Over us there rests not the impenetrable cloud of apprehension, we are not buried in a present darkness of despair, we are not tossed about with a tempest of horror, and therefore, we do not exceedingly fear and quake. How thankful we should be for this! We are come to a more joyous sight than Sinai, and the mountain burning with fire…The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ lives in quite another atmosphere. He has not come to a barren crag, but to an inhabited city, Jerusalem above, the metropolis of God. He has left the wilderness for the land which flows with milk and honey, and the material mount which might be touched for the spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem. He has entered into fellowship with an innumerable company of angels, who are to him, not cherubim with flaming swords to keep men back from the tree of life, but ministering spirits sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation. He is come to the joyous assembly of all pure intelligences who have met, not in trembling, but in joyous liberty, to keep the feast with their great Lord and King. He thinks of all who love God throughout all worlds, and he feels that he is one of them, for he has come to “the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.” God is not to them a dreadful person who speaks from a distance, but He is their Father and their Friend, in whom they delight themselves, in whose presence there is fullness of joy for them. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1888.cfm

Will You Behold Your King?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, repentance, salvation, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

And they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him: and the third day He shall rise again. – Mark 10:34

The Jews no doubt having bribed the soldiers to excessive zeal of scorn, a second time (oh! mark this; perhaps ye thought this happened only once! this is the fifth time He has thus been treated) the soldiers took Him back again, and once more they mocked Him, once more they spat upon Him, and treated Him shamefully. So, you see, there was once when He first went to the house of Caiaphas; then after He was condemned there; then Herod and his men of war; then Pilate after the scourging; and then the soldiers, after the ultimate condemnation. See ye not how manifestly “He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” Oh, that I could set forth Thy grief, Thou Man of Sorrows! God the Holy Ghost impress it on your memories and on your souls and help you pitifully to consider the griefs of your blessed Lord.

You must this day accept Christ as your King, or else His blood will be on you. I bring my Master out before your eyes, and say to you, “Behold your King.” Are you willing to yield obedience to Him? He claims first your implicit faith in His merit: will you yield to that? He claims, next, that you will take Him to be Lord of your heart, and that, as He shall be Lord within, so He shall be Lord without. Which shall it be? Will you choose Him now? Does the Holy Spirit in your soul-for without that you never will-does the Holy Spirit say, “Bow the knee, and take Him as your king?” Thank God, then. But if not, His blood is on you, to condemn you. Pilate, Caiaphas, Herod, the Jews and Romans, all meet in you. You scourged Him; you said, “Let Him be crucified.” Do not say it was not so. In effect you join their clamours when you refuse Him; when you go your way to your farm and to your merchandise, and despise His love and His blood, you do spiritually what they did literally-you despise the King of kings. Come to the fountain of His blood, and wash and be clean. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0495.cfm

Be Very Watchful

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. – 1 Peter 1:16

Let us be very watchful against all impurity. Anything like uncleanness in a Christian will soon send the Master away from the church. You know what it was that brought the evil upon the house of Eli. It was because his sons made themselves vile even at the tabernacle door. The young people in that case were the immediate cause of the mischief, but it was the fault of the elder ones that they restrained them not. Watch against all evil passions and corrupt desires. Be ye holy even as your Father which is in heaven is holy.

And then, again, a want of prayer will send Him away. There are members of some churches who never come to the prayer-meetings, and I should be afraid that their private prayers cannot be any too earnest. Of course we speak not of those who have good excuse; but there are some who habitually and wilfully neglect the assembling of themselves together; these are worthy of condemnation. Oh, let us continue a prayerful church as we have hitherto been, otherwise the Master may say, “They do not value the blessing, for they will not even ask for it; they evidently do not care about My Spirit, for they will not meet together and cry for Him.” Do not grieve Him by any such negligence of prayer.

So, too, we may grieve the Spirit by worldliness. If any of you who are rich get to imitate the fashions of the world and act as worldlings do, you cannot expect the Lord to bless us. You are Achans in the camp, if such is the case. And if you who are poor get to be envious of others and speak harshly of others to whom God has given more substance than to you, that again will grieve the Lord…Let me ask you to be more in prayer; let me pray you to live nearer to Him; let me entreat you for the church’s sake, and for the world’s sake, to be more thoroughly Christ’s than you ever have been and may the power of the Holy Spirit enable you in this. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm