The Holy Spirit

The Crowning Work of God in Man

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

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28

I believe this to be the crowning work of God in man, that His people should be perfectly delivered from evil…Every work of the Spirit of God upon the new nature aims at the purification, the consecration, the perfecting of those whom God in love has taken to be His own. Yea, more; all the events of Providence around us work towards that one end: for this our joys and our sorrows, for this our pains of body and griefs of heart, for this our losses and our crosses-all these are sacred medicines by which we are cured of the disease of nature, and prepared for the enjoyment of perfect spiritual health. All that befalls us on our road to heaven is meant to fit us for our journey’s end. Our way through the wilderness is meant to try us, and to prove us, that our evils may be discovered, repented of, and overcome, and that thus we may be without fault before the throne at the last. We are being educated for the skies, meetened for the assembly of the perfect. It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we are struggling up towards it; and we know that when Jesus shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We are rising: by hard wrestling, and long watching, and patient waiting, we are rising into holiness. These tribulations thresh our wheat and get the chaff away, these afflictions consume our dross and tin to make the gold more pure. All things work together for good to them that love God; and the net result of them all will be the presenting of the chosen unto God, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1890.cfm

What a Great Thing Sanctification Is

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

“Sanctify them through Thy truth.” – John 17:17

No one can sanctify a soul but Almighty God, the great Father of spirits. He who made us must also make us holy, or we shall never attain that character. Our dear Savior calls the great God “Holy Father” in this prayer, and it is the part of the holy God to create holiness; while a holy Father can only be the Father of holy children, for like begets like.

Beloved, this sanctification is a work of God from its earliest stage. We go astray of ourselves, but we never return to the great Shepherd apart from His divine drawings. Regeneration, in which sanctification begins, is wholly the work of the Spirit of God. Our first discovery of wrong, and our first pang of penitence, are the work of divine grace. Every thought of holiness, and every desire after purity, must come from the Lord alone, for we are by nature wedded to iniquity. So also the ultimate conquest of sin in us, and the making us perfectly like to our Lord, must be entirely the work of the Lord God, who makes all things new, since we have no power to carry on so great a work of ourselves. This is a creation; can we create? This is a resurrection; can we raise the dead? Our degenerate nature can rot into a still direr putrefaction, but it can never return to purity or sweeten itself into perfection; this is of God and God alone. Sanctification is as much the work of God as the making of the heavens and the earth. Who is sufficient for these things? We go not even a step in sanctification in our own strength; whatever we think we advance of ourselves is but a fictitious progress which will lead to bitter disappointment. Real sanctification is entirely from first to last the work of the Spirit of the blessed God, whom the Father hath sent forth that He might sanctify His chosen ones. See, then, what a great thing sanctification is, and how necessary it is that our Lord should pray unto His Father, “Sanctify them through Thy truth.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1890.cfm

Sanctification and the Power of the Holy Spirit

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

Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world…Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word…that they also may be one in Us.. – John 17:17, 18; 20,21

How shall a holy God send out unholy messengers? An unsanctified minister is an unsent minister. An unholy missionary is a pest to the tribe he visits; an unholy teacher in a school is an injury rather than a blessing to the class he conducts. Only in proportion as you are sanctified unto God can you hope for the power of the Holy Spirit to rest on you, and to work with you, so as to bring others to the Savior’s feet. How much may each of us have been hampered and hindered by want of holiness! God will not use unclean instruments; nay, He will not even have His holy vessels borne by unclean hands. “To the wicked, God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes?” A whole host may be defeated because of one Achan in the camp; and this is our constant fear. Holiness is an essential qualificatian to a man’s fitness for being used of the Lord God for the extension of His kingdom; hence our Lord’s prayer for His apostles and other workers: “Holy Father, sanctify them.”

Furthermore, our Lord Jesus Christ was about to pray “that they all might be one;” and for this desirable result holiness is needed. Why are we not one? Sin is the great dividing element. The perfectly holy would be perfectly united. The more saintly men are, the more they love their Lord and one another; and thus they come into closer union with each other. Our errors and our sins are roots of bitterness which spring up and trouble us, and many are defiled. Our infirmities of judgment are aggravated by our imperfections of character, and our walking at a distance from our God; and these breed coldness and lukewarmness, out of which grow disunion and division, sects and heresies. If we were all abiding in Christ to the full, we should abide in union with each other and with God, and our Lord’s great prayer for the unity of His church would be fulfilled. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1890.cfm

Are We Redeemed from the Power of Evil?

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

Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. – John 17:17

Sanctification is a higher word than purification; for it includes that word and vastly more: it is not sufficient to be negatively clean; we need to be adorned with all the virtues. Children of God should exhibit the love of God, they should be filled with zeal for His glory, they should live generous, unselfish lives, they should walk with God, and commune with the Most High. Our Lord Jesus contemplated the sending of each one of us into the world even as the Father sent Him into the world; but how can He give a mission to unsanctified men and women? Must not the vessels of the Lord be clean? Without sanctification we cannot enjoy the innermost sweets of our holy faith. The unsanctified are full of doubts and fears; and what wonder? The unsanctified often say of the outward exercise of religion, “What a weariness it is!” and no wonder, for they know not the internal joys of it, having never learned to delight themselves in God. If they walk not in the light of the Lord’s countenance, how can they know the heaven below which comes of true godliness? Oh, it is a prayer that needs to be prayed for me, for you, for this church, and for the whole church of God! “Father, sanctify them through Thy truth.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1890.cfm

Lord, Make Thy People Holy

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

Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. – John 17:17

This word “sanctification” means what is commonly understood by it, namely, the making of the people of God holy. “Sanctify them,” that is, work in them a pure and holy character. “Lord, make Thy people holy,” should be our daily prayer.

O brethren, if you are called Christians, there must be no room for doubt as to the fact that you are purged from the common sins and ordinary transgressions of mankind, else are you manifestly liars unto God, and deceivers of your own souls. They that are not moral, they that are not honest, they that are not kind, they that are not truthful, are far from the kingdom. How can these be the children of God who are not even decent children of men? Thus we judge, and rightly judge, that the life of God cannot be in that man’s soul who abides wilfully in any known sin, and takes pleasure therein. We will take it for granted that you who profess to be Christians have escaped from the foul pollution of lust and falsehood; if you have not done so, humble yourselves before God, and be ashamed; for you need the very beginnings of grace. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh.” But sanctification is something more than mere morality and respectability; it is not only deliverance from the common sins of men, but also from the hardness, deadness, and carnality of nature: it is deliverance from that which is of the flesh at its very best, and admittance into that which is spiritual and divine. That which is carnal cometh not into communion with the spiritual kingdom or Christ: we need that the spiritual nature should rise above that which is merely natural. This is our prayer-Lord, spiritualize us; elevate us; make us to dwell in communion with God; make us to know Him whom flesh and blood cannot reveal or discern. May the Spirit of the living God have full sovereignty over us and perfect in us the will of the Lord, for this is to be sanctified. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1890.cfm

The Holy of Holies of the Word of God

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

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth…And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. – John 17:17, 19

Here we look into the heart of Jesus, as He sets out in order His desires and requests before His Father on our behalf. Here inspiration lifts her veil, and we behold truth face to face. Our text lies somewhere near the middle of the prayer; it is the heart of it. Our Lord’s desire for the sanctification of His people pervades the whole prayer; but it is gathered up, declared, and intensified in the one sentence: “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” How invaluable must the blessing of sanctification be when our Lord, in the highest reach of His intercession, cries: “Sanctify them!” In sight of His passion, on the night before His death, our Savior lifts His eyes to the great Father, and cries in His most plaintive tones, “Father, sanctify them.” He asks this sanctification of God the Father Himself, for He alone it is who can sanctify His people. The place whereon we stand is holy ground, and the subject whereof we speak demands our solemn thought. Come, Holy Spirit, and teach us the full meaning of this prayer for holiness!

“For their sakes I sanctify Myself.” Our Lord’s sanctification was His consecration to the fulfillment of the Divine purpose; His absorption in the will of the Father. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” In this sense our interceding Lord asks that all His people may, by the Father, be ordained and consecrated unto holy service. The prayer means, “Father, consecrate them to Thine own self; let them be temples for Thine indwelling, instruments for Thy use.” He would have each of us consecrated unto the Lord, designated and ordained for divine purposes. We are not the world’s, else might we be ambitious; we are not Satan’s, else might we be covetous; we are not our own, else might we be selfish. We are bought with a price, and hence we are His by whom the price is paid. We belong to Jesus, and He presents us to His Father, and begs Him to accept us and sanctify us to His own purposes. Do we not most heartily concur in this dedication? Do we not cry, “Father, sanctify us to Thy service?” I am sure we do if we have realized our redeemed condition. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1890.cfm

This Wonderful Prayer

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

“Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.”-John 17:17

Our Lord Jesus prayed much for His people while He was here on earth. He made Peter the special subject of His intercession when He knew that he was in extraordinary danger. The midnight wrestlings of the Son of man were for His people…He poured out His soul in life before He poured it out unto death.

In this wonderful prayer, our Lord, as our great High Priest, appears to enter upon that perpetual office of intercession which He is now exercising at the right hand of the Father. Our Lord ever seemed, in the eagerness of His love, to be anticipating His work. Before He was set apart for His life-work, by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him, He must needs be about His Father’s business; before He finally suffered at the hands of cruel men, He had a baptism to be baptized with, and He was straitened till it was accomplished; before He actually died, He was covered with a bloody sweat, and was exceeding sorrowful even unto death; and in this case, before He in person entered within the veil, He made intercession for us. He never tarries when the good of His people calls for Him. His love hath wings as well as feet: it is true of Him evermore, “He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind.” O beloved, what a friend we have in Jesus! so willing, so speedy to do for us all that we need. Oh that we could imitate Him in this, and be quick of understanding to perceive our line of service, and eager of heart to enter upon it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1890.cfm