The Holy Spirit

The Christian’s Vital Breath

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

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer… – Romans 12:12

If prayer be the Christian’s vital breath, how can he leave off praying?

We must maintain the ardour of prayer; we must be intense always. Prayer is not to be a thing of yesterday, but of to-day, and to-morrow, until it changeth into praise above. Perhaps prayer will continue even in heaven. Certainly the souls under the altar cry “How long?” and unfulfilled prophecies yet big with future events will be pleaded even there. Praise, however, is the chief characteristic of the future state, as prayer is the characteristic of the present one. We are to get into a good pace-“instant in prayer,” and then to keep it up-continuing instant in prayer. “That is difficult” says one. Who said it was not? All the processes of the Christian life are difficult; indeed, they are impossible apart from the abiding help of the divine Spirit: but “the Spirit helpeth our infirmities.” Now then, brethren, that we may be helped to keep up our fervency in prayer, please to notice that prayer must be continuous, because it is so singularly mixed with the whole gospel dispensation. As the incense filled the temple, so does prayer fill the gospel economy. The blood was upon the mercy seat, and upon the altar, and the laver, and the candlestick, and the book; it was sprinkled everywhere in the Jewish Tabernacle, and thus atonement was the most conspicuous object in the worship prescribed by the law of Moses; but next to this, prayer was most prominent in the continual calling upon God, and in the smoke of the incense by which prayer was symbolized. It is the high privilege of those who are believers in Jesus to draw nigh unto God with their petitions perpetually. The whole church, like the twelve tribes, is instantly serving God day and night in prayer, hoping for the fulfillment of the promise of the glorious appearing. “Behold, he prayeth” is the very mark of the individual Christian, and the unity, the life, and the spirituality of the church are best seen in prayer.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1480.cfm

Our Prayer-Hearing God

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

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6

You cannot be instant in prayer, nay, you cannot offer an acceptable prayer at all except as you believe in the prayer-hearing God. The modern wise men assure us, with a patronizing air, that prayer is a pious exercise, exceedingly beneficial to ourselves, but quite inoperative with God. They are kind enough to allow us to pray, only we must not suppose that it has the slightest effect. And do they think that we are such idiots that we would stand and whistle to the wind and find good for our souls in such a stupid proceeding? They must have formed their notion of our mental condition from their own if they imagine that we should pray if we knew that God did not hear us, and would not answer us. Prayer apart from the idea of a hearing God is not praying; it is soliloquizing, or, in plainer words, a silly talking to yourself, such as one sees in half-witted old persons who have outlived what few senses they once possessed. You must believe that God is, and that your pleadings are a part of the divine way of blessing you, or else you are not praying but maundering and chattering. The Lord does really listen to the pleadings of His people, and though He does not alter His ordinance and His decree, yet in some way or other He makes the prayers of His people to be an efficient link in the machinery of His providence and grace, so that not without prayer doth He bless them, but with it He doth bless them abundantly. Dear friends, may the Lord the Holy Spirit stir us all up to be instant in mighty, energetic prayer. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1480.cfm

Honey and Milk

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

Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue. – Song of Songs 4:11

The things that are under the tongue are thoughts that have never yet been expressed; they do not get to the top of the tongue, but lie there half formed and are ready to come out; but either because they cannot come out, or we have not time to let them out, there they remain, and never come into actual words. Now Jesus Christ thinks very much even of these; He says, “Honey and milk are under thy tongue;” and Christian meditation and Christian contemplation are to Christ like honey for sweetness and like milk for nourishment. Honey and milk are two things with which the land of Canaan was said to flow; and so the heart of a Christian flows with milk and honey, like the land which God gave to His ancient people. “Well,” says one, “I cannot find that my heart is like that. If I do sit down and think of Jesus, my thoughts turn upon the glories of His person and the excellency of His office; but oh, sir, my thoughts are such dull, cold, useless things, they do not feed me or delight me.” Ah but, you see, Christ does not estimate them as you do; He feeds on them, they are like honey to Him, and though you think little of your own thoughts, and are right in so doing, yet, oh remember, such is the love of Jesus, such is His abundant condescension and compassion, that the very least things that you have He values at a great price. The words you are not speaking the words you cannot utter, the groans you cannot bring out-these the Holy Spirit utters for you, and these Jesus treasures up as choice and peculiarly precious thing. “Honey and milk are under thy tongue.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0282.cfm

How Fair! How Precious!

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

How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! – Song of Songs 4:10

Thy love, poor, feeble, and cold though it be, is very precious unto the Lord Jesus, in fact it is so precious, that He Himself cannot tell how precious it is. He does not say how precious, but He says, “how fair.” This is an expression that men use when they do not know how to describe anything. They lift up their hands, they put in a note of exclamation, and they say, “How fair! how precious! how much better is thy love than wine!” The fact is, that Jesus values our love at such a price, that the Holy Spirit when He dictated this Song of Solomon, could not see any word in all human language that was large enough to set forth Christ’s estimation of our love. Have you never thought of Christ’s love to you, till your heart has been melted, while your Beloved spoke to you, till the tears have run down your eyes, and you have believed you could do as Mary Magdalene did, could kiss His feet, and wash them with your tears, and wipe them with the hairs of your head? Now can you believe it? Just what you think of Christ’s love, Christ thinks of yours. You value His love, and you are right in so doing; but I am afraid that still you undervalue it. He even values your love, if I may so speak, He sets a far higher estimate upon it than you do; He thinks very much of little, He estimates it not by its strength, but by its sincerity. “Ah,” He says, “he does love Me, he does love Me, I know he does; he sins, he disobeys Me, but still I know he loves Me and his heart is true; he does not love Me as I deserve, but still he loves Me.” Jesus Christ is delighted with the thought that His people love Him; this cheers and gladdens Him. Just as the thought of His love gladdens us, so the thought of our love gladdens Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0282.cfm

The Battle is Already Won

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

He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. – Isaiah 53:11

Considering how great this Man is do not be afraid, nor troubled, nor tumbled up and down in your thoughts about anything that is happening, or is yet to happen. “Consider how great this Man was.” Our wise men are going to do away with the old faith; modern culture means to stamp out old- fashioned orthodoxy. Christianity itself is getting to be effete, and something better is to supersede it. Listen! “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed. He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Yet have I set my King upon My holy hill of Zion.” One said to me the other day, “The current of thought does not seem to run in the direction of evangelical religion.” Well, I said I should not believe in evangelical religion an atom the more if the current of thought did run that way. We do not believe according to the counting of heads. The currents of men’s thoughts are so uncertain that you can better tell the flight of birds, or the changing of English weather. The gospel is perhaps the surer to be true because there are so few who believe it. It is according to our expectation that God’s revealed truth should be abhorred and hated by the wise men of every generation. I shall not believe the gospel any the less if I am left alone, nor shall I believe it any the more if the whole world shall cry it up. Let God be true and every man a liar.

Be of good cheer, dear friends! Let no man’s heart fail him because of modern doubt. Let no man be troubled because of the fierceness of the fight. I can hear already the sounding of the trumpets of the Lord’s coming. He is not far away; even if thousands of years intervene before His feet touch the Mount of Olivet the victory will never be doubtful. All is done that is required for winning the battle; His blood has been shed, His life has been accepted as a ransom. The eternal decree has settled it, nothing can change it! Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

Hallelujah, Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH!

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

Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. – Psalm 68:18

He has gone up on high, and has led captivity captive. Think of the gifts which were showered down from heaven in consequence of this Man’s ascent into the highest. For the Holy Spirit descended never to return till the close of this dispensation, and now all the gifts that rest in the Church of God, and all the works of regeneration, illumination, sanctification, and the like, which are wrought by the blessed Paraclete, are the effects of the entrance of this Man into the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Every soul regenerated, every heart comforted, every mind quickened, every eye illuminated, every creature spiritually blessed, reflects glory upon this Man. How great is He!

HALLELUJAH. For He shall reign for ever and ever. HALLELUJAH! Break forth with your loud hosannas, oh, ye waiting spirits of believing men, for the time is at hand when He shall be admired in all them that believe! Consider how great this Man is. I have but reached the fringe of my subject. We see but the skirts of our Lord’s garments; His actual glory is unspeakable, unsearchable. Oh, the depths! Oh, the depths! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

Jesus is the Center of History

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

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace… – Ephesians 1:7

Thousands of years before His birth holy men had been speaking of Him. Prophets and seers all pointed to Him as The Coming One. “How great this man was,” since the wisest and best of mankind all looked forward to His day with gladness. Think of that wonderful system of types, and emblems, and symbols which God ordained by His servant Moses; for the whole of this system was meant to set forth the Messiah, who would yet appear in the fulness of time. To Him witnessed each bleeding sacrifice, each censer of sweet incense, each golden vessel, each curtain and wall of tabernacle or temple: all spoke concerning Him. Ay, and more than that, all the histories of all the empires were all but concentric rings of which He was the center; for the Lord Jesus is the center of history, the sum total of all God’s doings and manifestations among the sons of men. That was an august Person towards whom all the past had been labouring, and for whom all the present was agonizing. “How great this man was,” that when He came the saints were watching for Him: Simeon and Anna could not depart till He appeared. Angels stood on tip-toe ready to descend and sing, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Humble shepherds, as they watched their flocks, did but wait for the signal to hasten to adore Him; and wise men from the east forgot the fatigues of a long journey that they might lay their gold and incense at His feet. How great this man was, when being born and laid in a manger, the whole earth was moved by His appearing.

For this man was not “born in sin,” as we are; neither was He “shapen in iniquity.” Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, He was truly a man, but not fallen man. The method by which the pure human nature of the man Christ Jesus was produced is a great mystery, but it serves to make us see “how great this man was.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm