The Holy Spirit

He Will Fulfill His Divine Decree

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

And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel. – Malachi 1:5

Those who now despise the messages which are sent to them will, at last, be left to their own devices. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” saith the Eternal God; and continual rejection will, at last, end in the total withdrawal of His presence, and the eternal ruin of all who have resisted Him.

But notwithstanding the rejection of men, He will fulfill the divine decree. Man’s obstinacy shall not frustrate the purpose of God; and the things which He hath foreordained shall surely come to pass. In this shall be clear evidence that the Spirit of the Lord was not straitened. Not one of God’s chosen shall be suffered to continue in the way to ruin; they shall all be effectually called, and enabled to embrace Christ as He is freely preached to them in the gospel.

He will glorify Christ, and prepare a people to welcome His advent. The gospel shall be preached among all nations, and out of every tribe and people witnesses shall be gathered to await the glorious appearing of the victorious Christ, which cannot be long delayed. Then it shall be soon how grandly the Spirit of the Lord has perfected both the number and the character of the church, which, like a chaste virgin, shall be presented to the Lamb, as the reward of His agony and intercession. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

Let the Lord Do His Work in His Own Way

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

… I will pardon all their iniquities … – Jeremiah 33:8

A great many persons are guilty of thinking the Spirit of God to be straitened when they fancy that He must always work in one way. When I am seeing persons who come forward to confess their faith, I find they often begin by telling me how they were brought low under a sense of sin; and I like that old-fashioned way of conversion. But when I find one beginning by saying, “The Lord met me, and filled my heart with joy and gladness under a sense of pardon, almost before I had any sense of sin, and the sense of sin followed after,” I say to myself, “Let the Lord do His work in His own way.” I am not going to make a pattern, and lay them all on it, and say that they must all be just that length, or else be stretched out a bit, or be cut shorter. No; let the Lord save His own people in His own way; and if one is made to go down to the dark dungeon of law-work, and gets whipped till he has not a bit of whole skin in his soul, I hope that it will do him good. But if another is gently led to Christ, and does not know that there is a rod, but through love and kindness is led to rejoice in his Savior, I trust that he will remember it, and be glad all his days. Conversions are not run into moulds. You cannot get a gross of conversions like a gross of steel pens. Each living child is different from any other living child. A great painter never paints exactly the same picture twice. There is always a difference somewhere, be it ever so slight; and when there is a work for eternity done in a church, it is done in very varied ways. If we begin to tie the Lord down to one way of work, we shall make a great mistake.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

 

However Weak and Feeble You May Be…

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

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. – 2 Corinthians 2:10

Dear friends, do you not think that we also treat the Spirit of God as though He were straitened when we imagine that our weakness hinders His working by us. “Oh,” says one, “I have no doubt that God can bless a great many by you!” Well, dear fiend, if you knew what I am often obliged to feel of myself, you would never talk so. I am the weakest of you all, in my own apprehension. Another says, “I know that I am inferior in ability, in knowledge, in opportunity.” Just so, dear friend; and therefore you suppose that the Spirit of God cannot use you. Do you not see, that, though you think such a confession is an evidence of humility, you are straitening the Spirit of God? However weak and feeble you may be, He can use you. If you think that He cannot, you deprive Him of power in your apprehension. It is not yourself, you see, that you are lowering, you are really lowering the power of God. He can use a person who is very insignificant, very obscure, very unlearned, very feeble. Nay, He delights to do this; and He makes even those that are strong feel weak before He uses them, so that they say, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” He will use empty vessels, and if you do not want emptying because you are empty already, then there is one little thing that needs not to be done, and God can begin with you at once. There is nothing in you-nothing. Now, if God will use you, He will manifestly have all the glory. Believe that He can use you, and get to work, and do something. Tell out His gospel. Tell it over and over again. Tell it where you have told it, or where you have never told it, and believe that God can use you; AND HE WILL! Else, if you say, “He cannot use me,” I shall put the question to you again, “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

The Spirit of God Can Save

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

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us… – Ephesians 3:20

Oh, for a mighty belief in that God who “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”; and that power is the Holy Ghost, who cannot be straitened!

Why, then, should we not come up to the house of God with the prayer, “O Lord, work mighty marvels”? Is He not the God that doeth great wonders? Should we not expect Him to do large things? I know some will say, “Well, if I were to see a great many converted, I should be afraid that they would, many of them, go back.” But my experience tells me that there is no reason to believe that when many are converted there are more mistaken persons in the number, in proportion, than when few are converted. In fact, I think that I have noticed that the more that are received into the church the better is the quality. And the reason is this-that, when few are coming, there is a strong temptation to accept them with less discretion; but, when there are a great many, we can afford to be somewhat more rigid; so that the more the merrier, and the more the sounder. I think that it is often the case. Let us believe that the Spirit of God can save a parish, can save a city, can shake London from end to end. Oh, that God would enlarge the capacity of our faith! “According to your faith be it unto you.” But we have not more than sixpenny-worth of faith; and when we get as much as that represents, we think that we are getting rich; and yet there are mines of untold wealth of the grace of God to be had. Oh, that we had the faith wherewith to take possession of them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

Look Upward!

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

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. – Matthew 19:26

I address some man, so far ungodly that he has no hope of salvation, yet still is anxious to be saved. Perhaps he says, “How can I ever become a Christian? How can I have a new heart and a right spirit?” Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Cannot He give you the tenderness you desire? Cannot He give you the desire that seems to be lacking? Cannot He give you faith in Christ, at this very moment? Cannot He breathe into you now that breath of spiritual life that shall make you a living soul, looking up to the cross, and finding life in the Crucified? I pray you, dear friend, if you are under a horrible sense of sin, if you think yourself the worst wretch that ever poisoned the air, if you feel unfit to live as well as unfit to die; yet believe that the Holy Ghost can renew you, and can turn the sinner into a saint, and make you to glorify God even now, this instant. If not, you limit the power of the Holy Ghost; and I come to you with this question, “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” The case is desperate, if it were not for the divine hand; it is beyond all hope, if there were no God. There is no balm in Gilead; there is no physician there; if there had been, the health of the daughter of God’s people would long ago have been recovered. Where, then, is the balm? Look upward for it. Where is the physician? Look upward for Him. There is the Christ of God, “mighty to save,” and there is the living Father Himself, and there is the almighty Spirit. Oh, that you would no longer be filled with suspicions as to the power of God! for with God all things are possible. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Is the Lord’s arm waxed short? Trust thou that He can do all things, and do all things for thee whether thou art a saint or a sinner.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

The Inspiring Influence of God’s Word

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

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. – Hebrews 4:12

If we act towards (God) as if His holy Word would not now convert and sanctify, comfort and conquer, as it used to do, we are in this horrible position of practical unbelief. His holy Book, in days gone by, did great wonders. It was like Goliath’s sword, of which David said, “There is none like that; give it me.” It was double-edged, and even he that played with it, might wound himself to spiritual death. Many have wrested the Word to their own destruction. “But surely the Word has not the same power now?” Try it. Give the Bible still to the wicked, to the careless, and the thoughtless; read it to them; induce them to read it; and see if it does not still convert. When you are in great trouble, turn to the Book, and pray the Holy Ghost to bless it, and see if it does not comfort you. In your darkest hour you shall find light in it; when you are ready to give up in despair, you shall to be strengthened, and return to your labor with hope, if you do but search it, and believe its message. It is full of consolation. Never think that the Spirit cannot bless the Word to you, as He used to do. He is not straitened. When you hear and do not profit, it is your hearing that is wrong, not His power that has failed. When you read the Bible, and have not that enjoyment you once had, be you sure that it is your own fault. The meat is as rich; you have lost your appetite. The Spirit of God is not straitened. There is as much inspiration in this Book as when it was first penned. It is still inspired; and he that reads it aright, still feels its inspiring influence, as God comes into his heart through His own Word. The Spirit of God in the Book, and through the Book, is not straitened. Let us keep to it. Let us preach it more and more. Let us take care that our sermons are made out of the Bible, not out of our own heads; then, speaking God’s Word, we shall see that the Spirit of God is not straitened.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

The Free Spirit of God

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

… is the spirit of the LORD straitened? – Micah 2:7

The Spirit of the Lord is not straitened by any change in Himself. The Holy Ghost, as very God of very God, might truly say of Himself, “I am the Lord, I change not.” He is to-day what He was at Pentecost, what He always was from that beginning which had no beginning. He is divine, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, all-wise, infinite. He doeth as He wills. Therefore He is not straitened.

He is not straitened by the spirit of the age, whatever that may be. I have heard a good deal about it, and I believe that “the spirit of the age” is the devil. That is short, and not very sweet; but that is the only spirit of the age that I know of. Ages have followed ages, but there has never been but one “prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” He has appeared in different forms-the spirit of ignorance, the spirit of intolerance, the spirit of superstition, the spirit of envy, the spirit of infidelity, the spirit of speculation. All those worketh one and the selfsame spirit, dividing unto his disciples severally as he wills. And though the spirit of evil is mighty, he must fly before the Spirit of God, who is infinitely more powerful, and who is not to be hindered, hampered or straitened by the spirit of the age. Certainly the Spirit of God is not to be straitened by the discoveries of science…. Neither is He straitened by the worldliness of the great masses in the midst of whom we live… And the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened even by the skill of His enemies… If He be divine, He is omnipotent, and, if omnipotent, nothing can lay hands on Him to bind Him as the Philistines bound Samson. He would burst their bands asunder. He is the free Spirit of God, and no power can hold Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm