The Holy Spirit

The Blood Heat of Christ’s Love

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

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh… – Romans 9:1-3

I wish all felt it, but there are generally some in every church who will never warm up to the right point. If we could once get the whole Church up to blood heat, we might be content. I never want you to get to fever heat, but to blood heat—the heat of the blood of Christ—to love as He loved! Oh, to get there and to stay there! Well, what would be the result, if we all felt as Paul did? The first effect would be likeness to Christ! After that manner He loved—He did become a curse for us! He entered under the awful shadow of Jehovah’s wrath for us. He did what Paul could wish but could not do. He passed under the awful sword that we might be delivered from its edge forever!

Brethren, I want you to feel that you would pass under poverty if you could save souls better by being poor! That you would gladly endure sickness if from your sick bed you could speak better for Christ than now! Yes, and that you would be ready to die if your death might give life to those dear to you! …Oh, to be willing to die if others may be saved from the eternal death! God give us just such a spirit as that! This should be our constant feeling—how else can we become like Christ? …When the Spirit of God has brought you to it, you will pray day and night for those whom you love! As you go down the road, something will suggest your praying for them. The very oaths and blasphemies so common in our streets will make you pray for sinners. A gracious meeting where some are saved will move you to prayer. A thousand things will lead you to pray, and that prayer will lead you to effort—to proper and fitting effort. It is wonderful how a man can talk to souls when he loves them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

Our Deep Love for the Lost Souls

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

I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. – Romans 9:2

Our concern for souls must be worked in us by the Holy Spirit. It must come irresistibly upon us and become a master passion. Just as the birds, when the eggs are in the nest, have upon them a natural feeling that they must sit on those eggs and that they must feed those little fledglings which will come from the eggs—so if God calls you to win souls, you will have a natural love for them, a longing worked in you by the Holy Spirit so that the whole of your being will run out in that direction, seeking the salvation of men. The Apostle goes on to say that he had great heaviness—not only heaviness, but great heaviness. Was he, therefore, an unhappy man? By no means! He had great joy in other things, though he had great heaviness on this point…Whenever Paul’s thoughts turned towards his Jewish brethren, a great heaviness came upon him. It bore him down and he would have sunk under it if it had not been for sustaining grace. “O God,” he said, “shall my nation perish? Shall my people die? Shall my kinsmen be anathema? Shall it come to this, that they shall hear the Gospel in vain and perish, after all?” …He thought of his brethren and their unbelief—and then he thought of how they had been the enemies of Christ and, therefore, sorrow filled his heart. I could wish that in full many a professor the same sorrow reigned, for then there would be much more holy work done for souls! …Let other men’s sins grieve you! Let their eternal destiny be often on your mind! No better spur can be needed. You will labor for their good in proportion as you feel for them. I do not think that I can ask a better thing for the unconverted than that the converted may be in heaviness over them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

Mourning Over Sinners

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

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. – Romans 9:1,2

There was no sham about it. It is pretty easy to work yourself up into a state of feeling, but it was not passing emotion with Paul, it was deep, true, constant grief. He says, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.” He did not fancy that he felt, but he really was heart-broken for guilty souls. He did not sometimes get up into that condition or down into it, but he lived in it. “I lie not,” he says, “I do not speak more than the truth. I do not exaggerate.” For fear he should not be believed he asserts as strongly as is allowed to a Christian man— “I say the truth in Christ. I lie not.” His was true heaviness, real sorrow…Paul’s feeling was very gracious. It was not an animal feeling, or a natural feeling—it was a gracious feeling, for He says, “I say the truth in Christ.” When he was nearest to his Lord. When he felt most his union with Christ and communion with Him, then he felt that he did mourn over men’s souls.

It was truth in Christ that he was expressing because he was one with Christ! He had a love for sinners because his very soul was knit to Christ. He had a heaviness such as his Master knew when He, also, was very heavy and sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, in the day of His passion. O Beloved, we need the Spirit of God to work this feeling in us! It is of no use to try to get it by reading books, or to pump yourself up to it in private—this feeling is the work of God! A soul-winner is a creation. As a Christian has to be created, so out of a Christian the soul-winner has to be fashioned. There has to be a careful preparation, a softening of the soul to make the worker know how naturally to care for the welfare of others. Paul had been trained and qualified for soul-saving work. He says that his conscience bore him witness that he spoke the truth and then he says the Holy Spirit bore witness with his conscience. May we have such a manifest love for sinners that we can ask the Holy Spirit to bear witness that we have it! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

A United Operation

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards… – Song of Songs 7:11,12

Consider once more that the love which is the great motive to Christian action is a love which looks to Jesus for united operation. It is, “Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us get up early to the vineyard.”…All is well when the Redeemer leads the way. Be not afraid, beloved, for you go in good Company. Who among us will be afraid to do anything or go anywhere if Jesus says, “I will go with you”? Such was the prayer the spouse put up, and doubtless she was led to pray for that which God will grant. Let us pray with her as she prayed. Come, Savior, come up with us to whatever we attempt for You! If there are any brethren here who are working away for You in dark places in London, dear Savior carry the lantern with them—be their Light! If they are digging for You and quarrying amidst granite rocks which refuse to yield to their strokes, come Almighty One and wield Your hammer and straightway the stones shall be broken! Come with us, Lord! This is the fellowship we desire of You—the fellowship of labor and of soul-winning. We would not only sit at Your feet to learn, but we would take up our cross and follow You! We would go with You where ever You go! We would fight, or labor, or suffer, or live, or die at Your bidding! Be this the fellowship You shall bestow upon us!

As a Church constituting a part of the Master’s field, we have had, for years, one continued harvest but still never such an one as has satisfied our spirits, for our idea of our King is such that the largest increase to His Church would not content us—we should still feel that our Lord Jesus deserved far more! As He has not yet seen of the travail of His soul so as to be satisfied, so neither are we, His servants, content on His behalf, but we long, and cry, and pray for a larger harvest as His reward for the dread sowings in bloody sweat and streams of vital blood of Gethsemane and Golgotha! I would urge you all to sharpen your sickles and with good hope and prayerful confidence prepare for the appointed weeks of our harvest! May God, by His Holy Spirit, inspire you with zeal for the work which awaits you and give you to walk in fellowship with Jesus in all that you do. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1066.cfm

Loved to Christ

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

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16

“Venture on Him: venture wholly.
Let no other trust intrude.
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”

But, Sinner, it is not a venture! As surely as you cast yourself upon Him, He will be sure to save you! I will not multiply words, but I would, if I thought words would draw you. I pray the blessed and eternal Spirit to sweetly influence your minds, young people, and old people, too, and middle-aged people, too—that you may have done with trying to do anything, or to be anything in order to your own salvation, and know that it was all done when Jesus bled and died, all finished when He cried, “It is finished!” You have only to take believingly what He presents to you and accept Him as your All in All. God help you to do it!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, if you really feel yourselves to have been outcasts and yet have been received into the Divine family—and are now on the road to Heaven—I ask you to pay every attention to any whom you meet with who are now what you once were! If you meet with any in great despair of soul, say, “Ah, I must be a comforter here, for I have gone through this. I will never let this poor soul go till, by God’s help, I have cheered him.” If you meet with one who is an open sinner, perhaps you will have to say to yourself, “I was an open sinner, too.” But if not, say, “My sins were more secret, but still they were as bad as his and, therefore, I have hope of this poor soul and will try whether he cannot be loved to Christ by me.” Mark my expression— “loved to Christ,” for that is the power we must use—sinners are to be loved to Christ!  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

A Double Cure

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. – Ezekiel 36:26

Justification without sanctification would be no salvation at all. It would call the leper clean and leave him to die of his disease; it would forgive the rebellion and allow the rebel to remain an enemy to his king. It would remove the consequences but overlook the cause, and this would leave an endless and hopeless task before us. It would stop the stream for a time but leave an open fountain of defilement which would sooner or later break forth with increased power. Remember that the Lord came to take away sin in three ways. He came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and last, the presence of sin…Our Lord Jesus came to destroy in us the works of the devil. That which was said at our Lord’s birth was declared in His death; for when the soldier pierced His side, there came out blood and water to set forth the double cure by which we are delivered from the guilt and the defilement of sin. If, however, you are troubled about the power of sin and about the tendencies of your nature, as you well may be, here is a promise for you. Have faith in it, for it stands in that covenant of grace which is ordered in all things and sure. God, who cannot lie, has said in Ezekiel 36:26, ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.’ You see, it is all ‘I will’ and ‘I will.’ ‘I will give’ and ‘I will take away.’ This is the royal style of the King of kings who is able to accomplish all His will. No word of His shall ever fall to the ground. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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The Spirit’s Healing Oil

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

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. – James 5:14

The Spirit of God heals us of our diseases. The Eastern mode of medicine was generally the application of oil, and I should not wonder if in the course of years it should be discovered that the modern pharmacy, with all its drugs, is not worth so much as the old-fashioned method. Certainly, when the Holy Spirit spake concerning sick men, and advised that medicines should be used, and prayer for their restoration, he prescribed anointing with oil. I suppose that anointing with oil was mentioned because it was the current medicine of the times, but it could not have been injurious or altogether absurd, or the Holy Spirit would not in any measure have sanctioned it. I will not raise the question, however. But a frequent medicine of the olden time was, undoubtedly, anointing with oil, and it is well known that olive oil does possess very remarkable healing qualities. I have read in books of one or two instances of the bites of serpents having the venom effectually removed by the use of olive oil. It is more commonly used in countries where it grows than here, and it is in many ways a very useful medicine. Certainly the Holy Spirit is that to us. What wounds and bruises have been healed with this oil. Before the Spirit came they were putrefying, they had not been bound up nor mollified with ointment, but now this ointment, mixed after the art of the apothecary, with the costliest spices, has effectually healed us, and what remains of the old sores and wounds it continues still to heal; and so wonderful is its power it will ultimately take out every scar, and we shall be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing through its healing power. Shall we not, therefore, be glad and rejoice in the Lord, for if restoration to health makes us happy surely the renewal of our spiritual youth should make our hearts bound for joy! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1273.cfm