The Holy Spirit

Made Near to God

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

And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 66:21

The priests and the Levites enjoyed the privilege of drawing near to God—nearer than the rest of the people in that typical dispensation. While the people stood without, the Levites were busy inside. One of them, the chief of the tribe, and the High Priest before the Lord for all the tribes, was permitted and commanded to go into the most holy place within the veil; and you know that the holy places made with hands are figures of the true, even of heaven itself. In like manner there is a people to be found on earth at this day whom God has chosen to draw near unto Him. In Christ Jesus they who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. The same precious blood that is applied to their conscience is sprinkled on the mercy-seat; therefore, they have access to the Father. Oh! happy they, who, like the priests and Levites, love dwelling in the Lord’s house, and praising Him, who can say—

“Here, Lord, I find settled rest
While others go and come;
No more a stranger or a guest,
But like a child at home.”

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations: we are a people near unto Thee made nigh by affinity with the Son of God, brought nigh by the blood, led nigh by the Spirit of God, kept nigh, and rejoicing to be nigh—for herein is our honor and comfort, to be near unto God; made priests and Levites, because claimed as God’s portion, prepared for God’s service, and admitted to a near familiarity with Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0992.cfm

Communion, Sweet Communion!

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

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. – 2 Corinthians 13:14

Communion! It is the flower of language; it is the honeycomb of words. Communion! You like to talk of corruption best, do you not? Well, if you like that filthy word, you are very willing to meditate upon it. I do so when I am forced to do it; but communion seems to me to be a sweeter word than that. You like to talk a great deal about affliction, don’t you? Well, if you love the black word—ah! you have reason to love it; but if you love to be happy upon it, you may do so; but give me for my constant text and for my constant joy, communion. And I will not choose which kind of communion it shall be. Sweet Master, if You give me communion with You in Your sufferings, if I have to bear reproach and shame for Your name’s sake, I will thank You; if I may have fellowship with You in it, and if You will give me to suffer for Your sake, I will call it honor, that so I can be a partaker of Your sufferings, and if You give me sweet enjoyments, if You raise me up and make me to sit in heavenly places in Christ, I will bless You. I will bless You for ascension communion—communion with Christ in His glories. Do you not say the same? And for communion with Christ in death. Have you died unto the world, as Christ did die unto Himself? And then have you had communion with Him in resurrection? Have you felt that you are raised to newness of life, even as was He? And have you had communion with Him in ascension, so that you could know yourself to be an heir to a throne in Paradise? If so, you have had the best earnest you can receive of the joys of Paradise. To be in heaven is to lean one’s head upon the breast of Jesus. You have done it on earth? Then you know what heaven is. To be in heaven is to talk with Jesus, to sit at His feet, to let our heart beat against His heart. For, remember, it is “Christ in you the hope of glory,” after all, that is your only foretaste of heaven; and the more fully prepared shall you be for the bliss of the joyous ones in the land of the happy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0989.cfm

Pray for the Power to Win Souls

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

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? – Romans 10:14

I wish that it were your habit to be always looking out for souls. Up then, you Christian men, and seek as God shall help you, by every means in your power, to make known Christ to the dying all around you! But you will not do it unless you are sent, driven, impelled, forced—you will not win souls for Christ until the Gospel is like a fire in your bones, and you feel that woe is unto you if you do not preach it.

Well now, before you go to try to do that, there is one thing more. You cannot do it effectively unless you are sent—and to be sent means to have power given you with which to do the work. Can that power be had? If you feel impelled to cry to God to give you the power to preach, the spiritual power, the power of the Holy Ghost, if you are propelled to teach in the Sunday school—and it is not worth doing unless you feel that you are impelled to it, and sent to it—then pray for the power to win the souls of those dear children for Christ. If you feel called upon to write a letter to a friend tomorrow about his soul or her soul, do it because you feel called upon to do it—but pray to God to show you how to do it. Pray to Him to put the power into the words that you utter, that you may say the right words, and put even the right tone into those words.

But the power being obtained, you must go forth and tell out the message that your Lord has given you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2327.cfm

Go as a God-Sent Man

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

And how shall they preach, except they be sent?  – Romans 10:15

A man who goes to tell others about Christ must feel that he is sent to do it, or he will never do it properly and effectively. The man who is sent, first of all, has a message given to him. You do not say to your servant, “You go north, south, east, west, and that is all.” No, if you send him, you give him a message: “Go and say to Mr. So-and-so, this and that;” or you write it down, and you say, “Deliver that letter to such a person.” You do not leave him to go and say whatever he likes: “John, I want you to call on Mr. So-and-so tomorrow morning, and to say whatever first comes into your head.” You do not act like that, do you? Yet that is the notion some people have, nowadays, of what a preacher is; he is a man who makes his message up as he goes along; he is a “thinker;” he excogitates the Gospel out of his own brains. I have heard of a German who is said to have constructed a camel out of his own consciousness. Very likely; but I am sure that nobody will construct the Gospel that way. He must receive it by the revelation of God. The other plan is not Paul’s notion, for he asks, “How shall they preach, except they be sent?” First, then, get your message, be determined to know nothing among men but what the Lord Himself has revealed to you in His Word, by the teaching of His Spirit. Get it well into you; say to yourself, “What I am going to speak is nothing of my own; else it would fall flat and powerless; but I am going with, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ This is God’s message.” Then, if you are sent, you will preach, and you will so preach that men will hear; and they will so hear that they will believe; and they will so believe that they will be saved. But you must go as a God-sent man, having received your message from the mouth of your Master. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2327.cfm

Make Christ Known

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

…and how shall they hear without a preacher? – Romans 10:14

How can they hear without a preacher? Now, let every one of you become, in the sense in which the text means it, a preacher, by telling out in some form or other, and making known in some way or other, the wondrous doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Speak to an individual, if you can. If you cannot do that, write. If you cannot write, send a sermon, or give a tract. Only do keep on making Christ known….If every one of you Christians would every day make Christ known to somebody, what a missionary organization we should be!

It is pitiable that anybody should live and die without knowing the Gospel.

The more earnest a man is to win souls, the more he is shocked, amazed, and appalled by the necessity there is to keep on making known the Gospel of Christ…We, to whom the text alludes, who are the preachers of this Gospel of peace, say to you: “Sinner, throw down your weapons of rebellion. Guilty one, fight no longer against God; come, and be at peace with Him. His peace is proclaimed to you through Jesus Christ. He will freely forgive you every transgression and iniquity; He is ready to forget and blot it all out. God invites you to be reconciled to Him, to have done with warring against Him. We preach peace to you; and, if you hear us, we then tell you glad tidings of good things, full pardon for all the past, a change of heart to be given to you, to make you a new creature in Christ Jesus; help for the future to strive against sin; strength to conquer and tread the dragon beneath your feet, power to become a child of God, to become an heir of heaven, to be taken under the guardian wing of Providence, to be directed by the infinite wisdom of the Holy Spirit.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2327.cfm

Mark Ye This

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

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” – Colossians 2:8

“As it was with the worship of Israel of old, so it is now with that of the Christian church. The pure becomes alloyed with the base, that which is genuine with that which is spurious, divine revelation with human tradition, and the inspired decrees of heaven with the inventions and devices of the children of men. Some fallacies are perpetuated from generation to generation, until the deep hue of antiquity tinges them over, makes them look venerable and speciously invites a reverence and regard to which they never had any legitimate claim… But mark ye this, if the grace of God be once more restored to the church in all its fullness and the Spirit of God be poured out from on high, in all His sanctifying energy there will come such a shaking as has never been seen in our days.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Amen, Brother Spurgeon!

The Christ Mass and Easter fits perfectly with what Spurgeon has said! They are pagan/papist/traditions of men that have been practiced for so long that they are unlawfully regarded as holy! And those who speak against such days are treated as if they are not Christians by many so-called Christians who love the day above their Lord Jesus’ desires. “Learn not the way of the heathen to worship Me in the same manner…”

Revival comes after repentance!

The Eye of Faith Sees Him

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

Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation… Luke 2:29,30

All the saints have seen God’s salvation, therefore, should they all depart in peace. It is true, we cannot take up the infant Christ into our arms, but He is “formed in us, the hope of glory.” It is true, we cannot look upon Him with these mortal eyes, but we have seen Him with those eyes immortal which death cannot dim-the eyes of our own spirit which have been opened by God’s Holy Spirit. A sight of Christ with the natural eye is not saving, for thousands saw Him and then cried, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” After all, it was in Simeon’s case the spiritual eye that saw, the eye of faith that truly beheld the Christ of God; for there were others in the temple who saw the babe; there was the priest who performed the act of circumcision, and the other officials who gathered round the group; but I do not know that any of them saw God’s salvation. They saw the little innocent child that was brought there by His parents, but they saw nothing remarkable in Him; perhaps Simeon and Anna, alone of all those who were in the temple, saw with the inward eye the real Anointed of God revealed as a feeble infant. So, though you and I miss the outward sight of Christ, we need not regret it, it is but secondary as a privilege; if with the inner sight we have seen the Incarnate God, and accepted Him as our salvation, we are blessed with holy Simeon. Abraham saw Christ’s day before it dawned, and even thus, after it has passed, we see it, and with faithful Abraham we are glad. We have looked unto Him, and we are lightened. We have beheld the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. In the “despised and rejected of men” we have seen the anointed Savior; in the crucified and buried One, who afterwards rose again, and ascended into glory, we have seen salvation, full, free, finished. Why, therefore, should we think ourselves less favored than Simeon? From like causes like results shall spring: we shall depart in peace, for we have seen God’s salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm