The Holy Spirit

House Cleaning

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

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ ” – 2 Kings 20:1

Our body, our property, our family, this present life, and all its surroundings are in the text described as our house. As believers in Jesus Christ, if there is anything deficient in us, if there be anything excessive in us, if there be aught that is contrary to the Lord’s mind and will, may the Holy Spirit come and correct it all, so that our house may be set in order!.. Some of your houses need sweeping. The dust and filth of sin are lying all over the floors. You want the precious blood to be sprinkled, or else if the Lord begins to sweep with the bosom of the law, it will happen, as Bunyan tells us, that the dust will be enough to choke your prayers or blind the eyes of your faith. May the Gospel come and sprinkle the water of grace and then may Christ come in and sweep your house. But you need more than sweeping—your house wants washing. Every floor needs cleansing and there is no one but the Lord Jesus Christ who can do this. Nothing can make you clean but His blood. In many of your houses the windows are very filthy and the light of the glorious Gospel cannot enter, so as to bring with it an intelligent conception of the things of God. Oh, that this may be set right! The very drainage in some men’s houses is neglected. Many a foul thing stagnates, ferments, and pollutes their souls. Ah! what is there that is in order in the unregenerate man? To every one in that state, the text calls loudly, “Set thine house in order.” But sirs, unless Christ comes to help you, it is a hopeless task. Unless Christ and His Holy Spirit come to the rescue, your houses will remain out of order still, everything filthy and everything disarranged, and when the great King shall come and find it so, woe unto you, woe unto you, in the day of His appearing! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Our Chief Business

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

Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. – Isaiah 38:1

We are to set our house in order, that is, our own house. Some persons are very busy setting other people’s houses in order and oh, how fast their tongues will go when they are sweeping out their neighbor’s kitchen or dusting out his cupboard! Set your own houses in order, sirs, before you attempt to arrange the affairs of other people. Again, the tenant himself must do it. “Set thine house in order.” You must not leave it to a priest. You must not ask your fellow man to become responsible for you. You must make personal application to Him who can set all in order for you, even to Him who came into the world and died for this very purpose. If you need oil for your lamps, you must go to them that sell and buy for yourselves, for your fellow virgins can give you none of their oil. Set your own house in order. This is the chief business of every living man as a tenant under God…What kind of order is my house to be set in? My conscience will help to tell me that. An enlightened conscience tells us in what kind of order our heart, our family, and our business should be. By its teachings, we may learn how all the departments of the house should be ordered. It cannot be right that the body should be master over the soul—conscience tells us that…Conscience says that the heart is never right till the whole man is in Christ—till, by a living faith, we have embraced Jesus as our full salvation and have received the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier. We are never right till we are right with conscience, and conscience tells us that we are never right till we are right with God. “Set thine house in order.” Obey the inward monitor, listen to the still small voice, and prepare to meet your God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Our Great Landlord

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Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Selah – Psalm 68:19

There is this clause in the lease, which I am afraid some have never observed, namely, that the Landlord has at all times the right of ingress and egress over His own property. I thank God that some of us have yielded to the Lord this right, and now our prayer often is that He would come into our house, and search us, and try us, and know our ways, and see if there be any evil way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting. Time was when the last thing we wished for was the presence of God, when we said to Him, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” But now, being renewed by His Spirit, we say to Him, “Abide with us.” Beloved friend, are you always ready to open the door of your heart to God’s inspection? Do you delight in heavenly communion? Do you constantly invite the Lord Jesus to come in and sup with you, and you with Him? If not, you are forgetting one great clause in your lease, and let me also say, you are forgetting the greatest privilege that men can enjoy beneath the stars. It is well for me to recall to your memories that, according to our tenure, our great Landlord permits us to call upon Him to execute all repairs. Our circumstances are apt to grow straitened, and He it is who gives us power to get wealth, He daily loads us with benefits. When our bodily tabernacle is shaken, He it is who heals all our diseases. When our sorrows and wants multiply, He it is who satisfies our mouth with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s…Jesus is the beloved Physician. If we had more faith in God and resorted more often to Him by prayer and faith, the prescriptions of the medical man might be more often wise, and his medicines more frequently useful. The Lord, who made our house, best knows how to repair the tenement and He permits us to resort to Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Cease from the Wanderings of Fear

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

“Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.” – Joshua 1:2, 3

Our friends have come as far as that first verse of our Lord’s invitation, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; and they have a measure of that rest which comes of pardoned sin and confidence in Jesus. The pity is that they have not advanced to His next word of exhortation, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” This is a rest discovered and enjoyed through willing service: “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Many people are saved in one sense, but in another sense they are seeking salvation. Oh, that we may come to be saved in every sense: may salvation be ours in the broadest, widest, deepest, highest meaning of that blessed word! May we not only be saved from but saved to! Saved from sin; that makes us safe. Saved unto holiness, that makes us happy. May we realize our completeness in Christ this day, and cease from the wanderings of fear! It is time that we took possession of that goodly heritage which the Lord has made our own, for in Christ Jesus “we have obtained an inheritance,” and have the earnest of it in our possession of the Spirit of God. Hear ye the watch-word, ye that have tarried long enough in the wilderness: “Arise, go over this Jordan!” If I read the whole verse it is a command to myself: “Arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2086.cfm

Beware The Foes Within

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

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day… – Ephesians 6:13

People who are beginning the Christian life should seek to know where their weak points are. I should not wonder, dear friend, if your weak point lies where you think that you are strong. Where you think, “Oh, I shall never go wrong there!”-that is the very place where you are likely to fall. Set a watch wherever any weakness has appeared; and if you have, in the past of your Christian life, grieved the Holy Spirit by anything wrong, set a double watch there. Where you have tripped once, you may trip again; for you are the same man. Set a watch, also, dear friend, whenever you feel quite secure. Whenever you feel certain that you cannot be tempted in a particular direction, that proves that you are already as proud as Lucifer. Set a watch, set a watch, set a watch. Avoid every occasion of sin. If any course of conduct would lead you into sin, do not go in that direction. I heard a man say, as an excuse for drinking, “You see, if ever I take a glass of beer, I seem to lose myself, and I must have two or three more.” Well, then, if that is the case with you, do not take a glass of beer. “But,” says one, “if I get into company, I forget myself.” Do not go where you are likely to be tempted. “Well,” says one, “but my business calls me into the midst of temptation.” I grant you that your business may compel you to go where there are ungodly men; for how could some live at all, if they had not to come into contact with the ungodly?-they would have to go out of the world. Well, then, if that is your case, put on the whole armour of God, and do not go without being prepared to fight the good fight of faith. Set a watch, set a watch, set a watch. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2254.cfm

The Two Guards

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Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. – Nehemiah 4:9

Nehemiah was well qualified for his work. He gave the Jews very shrewd, sensible, and yet spiritual advice, and this was a great help to them in their hour of need. Beloved, we have a better Leader than Nehemiah; we have our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and we have His Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, and shall abide with us. I beg you to listen to His wise and good advice. I think that He will give it to you through our explanation of the text. He will say to you what Nehemiah, in effect, said to these people, “Watch and pray.” Although the adversaries of the Jews conspired together, and came to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder the work of rebuilding the wall, Nehemiah says, “Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.” In the text, I see two guards; first, prayer: “We made our prayer unto our God.” The second guard is watchfulness: “We set a watch.” “We prayed, and we set a watch.” We must have them both, if we would defeat the enemy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2254.cfm

Follow Your Lord’s Example

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

Look unto Me, and be ye saved… – Isaiah 45:22

Fight sinful habits with the Word of God, as the sword of the Spirit: so only will you conquer your evil self. Find a text of Scripture that will cleave your sin down to the chine, or stab it to the heart. “Alas! Satan tempts me horribly,” cries one; “I have been lately assailed in many ways.” Have you? You are not the first. Our divine Lord in the wilderness was tempted of the devil. He might have fought Satan with a thousand weapons; but He chose to defeat him with this one only. He said, “It is written; it is written; it is written.” He pricked the foeman so sorely with this sharp point, that the arch-adversary thought to try the same sword; and he also began to say, “It is written.” But he cut himself with this sword, for he did not quote the passages correctly, nor give the whole of them; and the Master soon found the way to knock aside his sword, and wound him still more. Follow your Lord’s example. “Oh, but,” says one,” I am so low in spirits.” Very well; fight lowness of spirits with the Word of God. “The doctor recommended me,” says one, “to take a little spirits to raise my spirits.” Those doctors are always having this sin laid to their charge. I am not so sure that they are not often maligned. You like the dose, and that is why you take it. Try the Word of God for lowness of spirits, and you will have found a sure remedy. I find, if I can lay a promise under my tongue, like a sweet lozenge, and keep it in my mouth or mind all the day long, I am happy enough. If I cannot find a Scripture to comfort me, then my inward troubles are multiplied. Fight despondency and despair with the sword of the Spirit. I cannot tell what your particular difficulty may be at this moment; but I give you this direction for all holy warfare- “Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

God grant you His Spirit’s aid, for Christ’s sake! Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2201.cfm