The Holy Spirit

Love’s Endurance

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

Love…endures all things. – 1 Corinthians 13:7

The last victory of love is in enduring all things, by which I understand a patient perseverance in loving. This is perhaps the hardest work of all, for many people can be affectionate and patient for a time, but the task is to hold on year after year. I have known some men earnestly check their temper under provocation, and bear a great many slights, but at last they have said, “There is an end to everything: I am not going to put up with it any longer. I cannot stand it.” Blessed be God, the love that Christ gives us endureth all things. As His love endured to the end, so does the love which the Spirit works in us endure to the end.

(L)ove holds out under all rebuffs. “You mean that I shall not love you, my good man, but I shall love you. You give me the rough side of your tongue and make me see that you are not a very lovable person, but I can love you notwithstanding all. What? Will you do me a further unkindness? I will oppose you by doing you a greater kindness than before. You said a vile thing about me; I will not hear it, but if it be possible I will say a kind thing of you. I will cover you up with hot coals till I melt you; I will war against you with flames of love till your anger is consumed. I will master you by being kinder to you than you have been unkind to me.” What hosts of misrepresentations and unkindnesses there are; but if you go on to be a true Christian you must endure all these…Stand fast in love; endure not some things, but all things, for Christ’s sake; so shall you prove yourself to be a Christian indeed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Love Believes in the Salvation of Men

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

Love…believes all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

Love believes that the precious blood of Christ can redeem the bondslaves of sin and Satan and break their iron chains; she believes that the power of the Holy Spirit can change a heart of granite into a heart of flesh. Love, therefore, believing this, believes also that God can save this sinner by herself, and she therefore begins to speak to him, expecting that the word she speaks will be God’s instrument of salvation…She does not refrain from preaching Christ through fear of failure, but she believes in the great possibilities which lie in the gospel and in the Spirit of God, and so she deals earnestly with the man next her. She believes in her own principles, she believes in the grace of God, she believes in the power of the Spirit of God, she believes in the force of truth, she believes in the existence of conscience, and so she is moved to set about her saving work. She believeth all things.

Brethren, do you want a model of this? Then I beseech you look to your divine Master. See Him in the morning when the sheep are counted, missing one of them, and so full of faith is He that He can find the lost one, that He leaves the ninety and nine, and cheerfully enters the pathless wilderness. See how He bounds over the mountains! How He descends the ravines! He is seeking His sheep until He finds it, for He is fully assured that He shall find it. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, for His faith is great in the salvation of men, and He goes forth to it believing that sinners shall be saved. I delight in the deep, calm faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had no faith in man’s goodness, for “He knew what was in man”; but He had great faith in what could be done in men and what could be wrought for them, and for the joy that was set before Him in this He endured the cross, despising the shame. He had faith that grand things would come of His salvation-men would be purified, error would be driven out, false-hood would be slain, and love would reign supreme. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Absolutely Needful

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

“Charity beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”- 1 Corinthians 13:7

The absence of charity is absolutely fatal to vital godliness; so saith the Holy Ghost in this chapter. When then, you read the apostle’s high encomiums of charity, do not say, “This is a fancy virtue to which certain special saints have attained, and we are bound to admire them for it, but we need not imitate them.” Far from it. This charity is the common, everyday livery of the people of God. It is not the prerogative of a few; it must be the possession of all. Do not, therefore, however lofty the model may be, look up to it as though you could not reach it: you must reach it. It is put before you not only as a thing greatly desirable, but as absolutely needful; for if you excelled in every spiritual gift, yet if you had not this all the rest would profit you nothing whatever. One would think that such excellent gifts might benefit us a little, but no, the apostle sums them all up, and saith of the whole, “it profiteth me nothing.” I pray that this may be understood of us at the very beginning, lest we should manage to slip away from the truth taught us by the Holy Ghost in this place and should excuse ourselves from being loving by the notion that we are so inconsiderable that such high virtue cannot be required of us, or so feeble that we cannot be expected to attain to it. You must attain it, or you cannot enter into eternal life, for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His; and the Spirit of Christ is sure to beget the charity of our text, which “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

The Song of the Redeemed

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

Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it…break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. – Isaiah 44:23

Mr. Sankey is now behind me, but he cannot sing sweetly enough to set forth to the full the majesty of this song, nor could the choicest choir of singing men and singing women; nay, this task exceeds the reach of the seraphim themselves. Praise is silenced, O Lord, by the glory of Thy love. Yet, brethren, let us give forth such music as we have.

Let us consider how we sing this song. We sing it when by faith we see the grand truth that Jesus Christ took His people’s sin upon Him, and so redeemed them. Understanding this fact, which is the heart of the gospel, we begin to sing for joy. Get a grip of that, my brethren, and hold it fast: your hearts will then sing; you cannot help it. Not all the harps of heaven can be more melodious than your song will be when your heart fully understands this fact-that Jesus Christ did actually stand in His people’s stead, and finished transgression, and brought in everlasting righteousness for them. You will sing it better still if the Holy Spirit has applied it to your own soul, so that you can say, “My sins are blotted out like a cloud, and like a thick cloud my transgressions.” “Through Jesus’ blood I am clean, I am accepted in the Beloved, I am dear to the heart of God; on me there remaineth now no spot nor wrinkle, for I am cleansed through Jesus Christ.” Nothing else can bring forth such charming music from any man’s mind as a sense of redeeming grace and dying love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

Rejoice in Your Redemption

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou … hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation … – Revelation 5:8

…the Lord hath done it… – Isaiah 44:23

Sinner, though you have not this redemption, yet I would have you sing about it, for it is precisely what you want. You are slaves to sin, and ought you not to bless God that there can be such a thing as redemption? …Many are redeemed, and are rejoicing in it; why should it not come to you? At any rate, begin to hope.

Rejoice, because salvation is a work done for you by another hand. “The Lord hath done it.” A redemption in which you had to find a part of the price would not make you sing, for you are too poor to contribute a farthing, but the Lord has found the whole cost to the utmost penny. If ever you are saved, it must be by power beyond your own, for you are weak as water; be glad, then, that the Lord has done it. If you can ever get that thought into your mind (and I pray the Holy Ghost to put it there), that your salvation was completed on the tree by the Lord Jesus, why, methinks, you will with joy shout forth the Redeemer’s praise.

Think again “the Lord hath done it,” even He whom you have offended. The God whom you have grieved has condescended to work out your redemption. Ought not this to make your soul say, “Would God it were for me”? and then begin to sing even at the bare possibility of such a thing. “Only trust Him now! He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

The Lord Hath Done It!

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

Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it… – Isaiah 44:23

Brethren, the very center and emphasis of the song seems to me to lie in this: “The Lord hath done it.” How my heart delights in those five words, “The Lord hath done it!” Look at them for a minute. Whatever God does is the subject of joy to all pure beings. God in action is the delight of an intelligent universe. When God created the world, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. I can well conceive that they kept a more than ordinarily joyous festival on that Seventh Day, when the Lord “rested and was refreshed.” Wondrous expression! If we were perfect, everything that God did would cause us to sing, and as He is always acting, we should be always singing. If salvation were the work of man, our scantiest notes might suffice, for what is man but a worm, a creature that is crushed before the moth? Wherein is he to be accounted of? But when we sing of redemption it is the Lord’s redemption. He planned it from the beginning; He carried it out in the person of His Son; He applies it by His Holy Spirit. Salvation is of the Lord. “The Lord hath done it.” You who choose may invent a salvation that is partly by man and partly by God, and you may cry this up much as you please; as for me, I have no desire for any salvation but that which is all of God, neither is there any other. This one note shall occupy my entire being-“The Lord hath done it:” “The Lord hath done it.” Every new convert who has newly found peace knows that the Lord has done it; every man who has been for years a believer, and has learned his own weakness, will say clearly, “The Lord hath done it;” ay, and the aged Christian just about to depart is the man to say, “The Lord hath done it.” Grace reigns without a rival, the Lord alone is exalted. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful O earth, for redemption is Jehovah’s work. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

The Day Will Come

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. – Isaiah 44:22

There are times when our unbelief makes new clouds and threatens new storms. Though our sin was all forgiven at the very first, and when we were first washed we were clean every whit, so that we needed not ever afterwards to wash again, except to wash our feet, yet unbelief can revive the memories of sin, and defile the conscience with dead works, and so it can create clouds between us and God: nevertheless, when our Lord reveals Himself He blotteth out our sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud our transgressions, and again we return unto Him and rejoice in Him. We need not come under these returning glooms, and we ought not to do so; but should it happen to us that we come under a cloud, it will be a blessed thing to look up and remember that the Lord can clear the skies in a moment and turn our dreariest shades into the brightness of the morning.

The day will come when the gospel shall have been preached for the last time, when the chosen of God shall have been all gathered out from among men, and the dispensation shall be fulfilled. Then shall all the saints rise to glory at the call of God. The elect multitude shall be all there, every one according to the purpose of the Father, every one according to the redemption of the Son, every one according to the calling of the Spirit, all there; upon their faces there shall be no spot nor wrinkle, and on their garments no stain nor defilement, for they are without fault before the throne of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm