The Holy Spirit

Alive, but also Awake?

Sherry Christian Life, prayer, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

I myself will awake early. – Psalm 57:8

“Will awake.” This is a world in which most men nowadays are alive to their temporal interests. If in these pushing times any man goes about his business in a sleepy, listless fashion, he very soon finds himself on an ebb-tide, and all his affairs aground. The wideawake man seizes opportunities or makes them, and thus those who are widest awake usually come to the front. Years ago affairs moved like the broad-wheel wagon, very sleepily, with sober pause and leisurely progression, and then the son of the snail had a chance but now, when we almost fly, if a man would succeed in trade, he must be all alive, and all awake. If it be so in temporals, it is equally so in spirituals, for the world, the flesh, and the devil are all awake to compete with us; and there is no resolution that I would more earnestly commend to each one of the people of God than this one: “I will awake; I will awake at once; I will awake early, and I will pray to God that I may be kept awake, that my Christian existence may not be dreamy, but that I may be to the fullest degree useful in my Master’s service.” If this were the resolve of each, what a change would come over the Christian church! I long to see the diligence of the shop exceeded by the closet, and the zeal of the market excelled by the church. Each Christian is alive: but is he also awake? He has eyes, but are they open? He has lofty possibilities of blessing his fellow men, but does he exercise them? My heart’s desire is that none of us may feel the dreamy influence of this age, which is comparable to the enchanted ground; but that each of us may be watchful, wakeful, vigorous, intense, fervent. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0996.cfm

Contending for the Health of the Church

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

But speaking the truth in love, may (we) grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ… – Ephesians 4:15

I do not think the time will ever come when we shall all of us see eye to eye and shall all use the same terms and phrases in setting forth doctrinal truths. I do not imagine there ever will be a period, unless it should be in that long looked for millennium, when every brother is able to subscribe to every other brother’s creed; when we shall be identical in our apprehensions, experiences, and expositions of the gospel in the fullest sense of the word. But I do maintain there should be, and there must be if our churches are to be healthy and sound, a constant adherence to the fundamental doctrines of divine truth…if it should ever come to be a matter which casts doubts upon the divinity of Christ, or the personality of the Holy Ghost; if it should come to a matter of using gospel terms in a sense the most contrary to that which has ever been attached to them in any age of the truth; if it should ever come to the marring and spoiling of our ideas of Divine justice, and of that great atonement which is the basis of the whole gospel, as they have been delivered to us; then it is time, my brethren, once for all that the scabbard be thrown aside, that the sword be drawn. Against any who assails those precious vital truths which constitute the heart of our holy religion, we must contend even to the death…Verily there were giants at one time, when the sons of God saw the daughters of men and we may live to see gigantic heresies, when God’s own children may look upon the fair daughters of philosophy, and monster delusions shall stalk across the earth. A want of union about truth too clearly proves that the body of the Church is not in a healthy state…We must look to the preservation of the health of the Church. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0314.cfm

Friend…?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit, the unbelieving life 1 Comment

Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? – Matthew 22:12

But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come?” – Matthew 26:50

It was too high a day for the king to use rough speech; the man pretended to be a friend, and he addressed him as such, but though the word I doubt not was uttered softly, it must have stung him if he had any feeling left. Judas exemplified in his own person this character. When he gave the Saviour the traitor’s kiss, our Lord addressed him as “friend.” He pretended to be a friend. A friend, indeed, to insult his king at his own table, and to select for the insult the delicate occasion of the prince’s marriage to which he had been hospitably invited! The king put it to him, “How camest thou in hither? In hither? Was there nowhere else to pour forth thy sedition, no other spot in which to play the traitor? Needest thou come into my palace, and to my table, and before my son on his wedding day to reveal thy enmity? Was there a need to do this?” So may the Lord say to some of us. “Were there no other ways to sin, but that you must profess to be My servant when you were not so? Were there no other bowls that you could drink from, that ye must profane the cups of My table? Was there no other bread that you could put into your wicked mouths but the bread that represents the body of My Son? Had you nowhere else to sin in that you must needs sin in the church? Could you do nothing else to show your spite but that you must make a lying profession of faith in My Son, who bled upon the cross to redeem the sons of men? Could you assail Me nowhere else but through the wounds of My only begotten Son? Could you vex My Spirit by no other means than by pretending to be My friend, and thrusting yourself in hither, while defiantly rejecting that which was necessary to do Me honour, and to do My Son honour, at the festival of My grace?” I dare not dwell upon the topic. I give you the text; I pray that your conscience may preach the sermon. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

The King at His Feast

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

And when the king came in to see the guests… – Matthew 22:11

“The king came in to see the guests.” What an honour and privilege this was to the poor creatures whom his royal munificence had brought together! Was it not indeed the chief point of the entire festival’? What would church fellowship be if it had not the fellowship of God with it? To sit with my dear brethren and rejoice in their love is exceedingly delightful; but the best wine is fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. The king did not provide the banquet and leave his guests to eat by themselves, but he “came in,” and into every gospel church gathered according to His command the King will come. I am sure the most fervent desire of this church is that the King may personally visit us. We trust He is with us, but we want Him yet more fully to reveal Himself. Our cry is, “Come, great King, with all Thy glorious power, with Thy Spirit and with Thy glorious Son, and manifest Thyself to us as Thou dost not unto the world.” When the king came into the banqueting chamber he saw the guests, and they also saw him. It was a mutual revelation. Ever sweet is this to the saints, that their God looks upon them; His look brings no terror to our minds when we are loyal and loving. “Thou God seest me” is sweet music. We desire to abide for ever beneath the divine inspection, for it is an inspection of unbounded love. He sees our faults-it is to remove them; He notes our imperfections, it is to cleanse them away. Behold me, O great King, and lift up Thine eyes upon me, accepting me in the Beloved. What joy it is to us who are saved in Christ Jesus that we also can see Him! “Through a glass darkly,” I grant you we behold Him, for as yet we are not fit to behold the full splendour of His Godhead! but yet how sweetly doth He reveal Himself to our souls and unveils His eternal love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

We Put On Christ

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

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord… – Hebrews 12:14

Holiness is always present in those who are loyal guests of the great King, for “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Too many professors pacify themselves with the idea that they possess imputed righteousness, while they are indifferent to the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They refuse to put on the garment of obedience, they reject the white linen which is the righteousness of saints. They thus reveal their self-will, their enmity to God, and their non-submission to His Son. Such men may talk what they will about justification by faith, and salvation by grace, but they are rebels at heart, they have not on the wedding dress any more than the self-righteous, whom they so eagerly condemn. The fact is, if we wish for the blessings of grace, we must in our hearts submit to the rules of grace without picking and choosing. It is idle to dispute whether the wedding garment is faith or love, as some have done, for all the graces of the Spirit and blessings of the covenant go together. No one ever had the imputed righteousness of Christ without receiving at the same time a measure of the righteousness wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. Justification by faith is not contrary to the production of good works: God forbid. The faith by which we are justified is the faith which produces holiness, and no one is justified by faith which does not also sanctify him and deliver him from the love of sin. All the essentials of the Christian character may be understood as making up the great wedding garment. In one word, we put on Christ, and He is “made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

Our Resurrection

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

…and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Hebrews 9:28

The resurrection is the salvation principally intended here. Alas, what evil sin hath done! How many of our best beloved lie rotting beneath the clay! The worms are feeding on those whose voices were the music of our lives. The scythe of death has cut them down like grass; they lie together in rows in yonder cemetery. Who slew all these? The sting of death is sin. But when our Lord cometh, who is the resurrection and the life, from beds of dust and silent clay our dead men shall rise; they shall leap up into immortality. “Thy brother shall rise again.” Thy children shall come again from the land of their captivity. Not a bone, nor a piece of a bone, of a saint shall be left as a trophy in the hand of the enemy. When our Lord brought forth Peter from the prison, He did not let him leave his old shoes behind him, but the angel said, “Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals, and follow me”; and when the Lord Jesus shall come and open wide the door of the sepulcher, He will bid us come forth in the entirety of our nature and leave nothing behind. Salvation shall mean to us the perfection of our manhood in the likeness of our Lord. No aching hands and weary brows then; but we shall be raised in power. Our vile body shall be changed and made like unto His glorious body. Though sown in corruption, our body shall be raised in incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. What a glorious prospect lies before us in connection with the day of His appearing a second time unto salvation! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm

Herein is the Life of Our Spirits

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

“Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”- Hebrew 9:26-28

The text says, “He hath appeared”; and again, “He shall appear.” Between these two lights-“He hath appeared” and “He shall appear”-we shall sail safely, if the Holy Spirit will direct our way. By faith we first look to Jesus, and then for Jesus; and herein is the life of our spirits. Christ on the cross of shame, and Christ on the throne of glory, we dwell between these two boundaries: these are our Dan and Beersheba, and all between is holy ground. As for our Lord’s first coming, there lies our rest: the once-offered Sacrifice hath put away our sin and made our peace with God. As for His second coming, there lies our hope, our joy; for we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. The glories of His sacred royalty shall be repeated in all the saints; for He hath made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign with Him for ever and ever. At His first advent we adore Him with gratitude rejoicing in “God with us”, as making Himself to be our near kinsman. We gather with grateful boldness around the infant in the manger and behold our God. But in the second advent we are struck with a solemn reverence, a trembling awe. We are not less grateful, but we are more prostrate as we bow before the majesty of the triumphant Christ. Jesus in His glory is an overpowering vision. John, the beloved disciple, writes, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” We could have kissed His feet till He quitted us on Olivet; but at the sight of the returning Lord, when heaven and earth shall flee away, we bow in lowliest adoration. His first appearing has given us that life and holy confidence with which we press forward to His glorious appearing, which is the crown of all. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm