The Holy Spirit

Holy Contentment

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

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.- Philippians 4:11

Dear friends, we ought to walk in holy contentment. Jesus was perfectly content with His lot. When the foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests, and He had not where to lay His head, yet He never murmured, but found rest in pursuing His life-work. The cravings of covetousness and pinings of ambition never touched our Lord. Friends, if you do, indeed, say that you abide in Him, I pray you be of the same contented spirit. “I have learned,” said the apostle, as if it were a thing which had to be taught, “in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

In a word, Christ lived above this world; let us walk as He walked. Christ lived for God, and for God alone; let us live after His fashion. And Christ persevered in such living; He never turned aside from it at all; but as He lived so He died, still serving His God, obedient to His Father’s will, even unto death. May our lives be a mosaic of perfect obedience, and our deaths the completion of the fair design. From our Bethlehem to our Gethsemane may our walk run parallel with the pathway of the Well-beloved! Oh, Holy Spirit, work us to this sacred pattern! (Amen!) ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

Conformity to Christ

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

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. -Romans 8:9

The Father anointed Christ of old with the same anointing, which rests on us in our measure. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and rested upon Him, and we have an unction from the same Holy One. The Spirit of God has anointed all the chosen of God who are regenerated, and He dwelleth with them and in them. Now, the Spirit of God in every case works to the same result. It cannot be supposed that the Spirit of God in any case produces unholiness: the thought were blasphemy. The fruit of the Spirit is everything that is delightful, right, and good towards God, and generous towards man. The Spirit of God, wherever He works, works according to the mind of God; and God is hymned as “Holy, holy, holy,” by those pure spirits who know Him best. He is altogether without spot or trace of sin, and so shall we be when the Spirit’s work is done. If, then, the Spirit of God dwell in you (and if He doth not, you are not in Christ), it must work in you conformity to Christ that you should walk even as He walked.

Perhaps further argument is not needed; but I would have true Christians remember that this is one article of the agreement which we make with Christ when we become His disciples. It is taken for granted that when we enter the service of Jesus we, by that act and deed, undertake by His help to follow His example. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

Leaders in Right

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

…then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates. -Judges 5:11

To go down to the gates, however, means something else, for citizens went down to the gates to exercise authority and judgment. He that is in Christ discerneth spirits, and separateth between the excellent and the reprobate. “The spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” The saints, being led of the Spirit, discern between the precious and the vile; they know the voice of their Shepherd, but a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers. The saints judge this world, and by their living testimony condemn its sin. “Know ye not that we shall judge angels” in the day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ? Instead of being judged and following others, they who love God become the leaders in right, and are as God’s mouth rebuking iniquity.

To go down to the gates signified also to go forth to war. When a Christian man is saved, he is not content with his own safety, he longs to see others blessed. He can now go out of the gates to attack the foe who once held him in bondage, and therefore he girds on his weapon. When will the church of God be inflamed by the sacred desire of carrying the war for Christ into the enemy’s territory?… If you are saved, you must seek to save others; if you have received the light, carry it into the dark places. If you have escaped from the jaw of the lion, and the paw of the bear, now go forth to fight with the monster and tear others from his power. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm

Our Christ-centered Conversation

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

…there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of His villages in Israel…-Judges 5:11

When we come together, we ought to rehearse the work that Jesus Christ has done for us, the great work which He did on Calvary; the great work which He is doing now, as He stands before the Father’s throne. We should talk experimentally, and tell one another of what we have known, what Christ has done for us; through what troubles we have been sustained; in what perils we have been preserved; what blessings we have enjoyed; what ills, so well deserved, have been averted from us. We have not enough of this rehearsing the works of the Lord. It was a sign of the saints in the olden times, that “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard.” O let us get back to that primitive simplicity of conversation, and let us rehearse, as the text says, the righteous acts of Jehovah; let us go through our rehearsals for the grand orchestra of the skies. Let us begin to praise God and stir each other up to gratitude here, that we may be getting ready to join the overwhelming hallelujah with the ten thousand times ten thousand who for ever praise God and the Lamb. Around all the wells, whichever they may be, of which we drink, let our conversation be concerning Christ and His dying love; concerning the Holy Spirit and His conquering power; concerning the providence of God and its goodness and its faithfulness; and then, as we wend our way to our different homes, let us go with music in our hearts, and music on our lips, to take music to our households, each man and woman magnifying the name of the Lord.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm

The Unstoppable Wells of Salvation

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

For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. -Genesis 26:15

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. -Isaiah 12:3

We read that in old times the enemies stopped up the wells, but neither hell nor its infernal train can ever fill up one of the wells which the Lord has digged and filled by His Spirit. If outward ordinances be stopped, yet the great deep that lieth under will find a vent somewhere; and if we were forbidden to draw near to the Lord’s table, or to meet to listen to the word, yet, blessed be God, we could pray, and we could have secret fellowship with Jesus, and so the wells could not so be stopped that the thirsty Christian should be deprived of his drink in due season.

Moreover, as they cannot be stopped, so neither can they be taken away from us. The Philistine king, Abimelech, strove with Abraham and with Isaac to take away the wells; but these are ours by covenant engagements, these are given to us in the eternal council, they are guaranteed to us by the solemn league of the eternal Three; and none of these covenant blessings shall be wrested from the heirs of life, who are heirs of all things in Christ Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm

The Well of Refreshment

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

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. -Hebrews 4:16

What a well that is to the Christian when he can draw nigh unto God with a true heart! It is a glorious thing to have such a well as that in the family, where, in prayer with the children, you can bring all the necessities of the household before God, and mention each child if you will, and all the troubles of the past, or all the expected difficulties of the coming day. Let us never give up that well. But, as for private prayer, brethren, this world were drear indeed if we could not pour out our sorrows into our Father’s ear. This is the poor man’s riches; this is the sick man’s medicine; this is the faint man’s cordial; this is the weak one’s strength; this is the ignorant man’s school; this is the strong man’s confidence. Neglect prayer, and you will soon discover that all your spiritual powers wax weak; but be much in supplication-and he that is mighty on his knees, is mighty everywhere. He that looketh God in the face every morning, will never fear the face of man; and he who looketh Christ in the face each evening, may well close his eyes in sweet repose, feeling that, if he should never wake to this world of care, he shall wake up in the likeness of his Lord. Oh, yes! the mercy seat is a well of refreshment indeed! Over and above this, every form of fellowship with Jesus, wrought in us by the Spirit, is a well of salvation…Beloved, we are no strangers to Jesus Christ, blessed be His name, and He is no stranger to us; we have seen Him through the lattices of the ordinances; we have found the means of grace to be like windows of agate and gates of carbuncle, through which we have beheld Him; we have Him in our hearts full often, He embraces our soul-we carry the fire of His love flaming on the altar of our affections. He is our dear companion, our ever present help in time of trouble.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm

“I will arise and go unto my Father”

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

“Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.”- Hosea 6:1-2

The Lord, in His long-suffering, dealt very kindly with His erring Israel, sending them favor after favor, and blessing after blessing, saying by His acts, “I have given them their corn, and their wine, and their oil, they will surely turn unto Me and say, ‘Our Father, thou shalt be the guide of our youth.’ But the more He multiplied His bounties, the more they multiplied their iniquities, and they burned sacrifice unto the gods of Edom, and of Moab, even to those that were no gods, saying, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which have given unto thee thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil;” so they spent the mercies of God in sacrifice upon their idols…consuming upon their lusts the very mercies which God had sent to bring them to repentance.

Now, my brethren, the people of Israel are but a picture of ourselves…God has tried you with mercy upon mercy; kept you long in health, till you scarce ever had a day’s sickness; given you all that you could wish, till your cup was brimming and flowing over; but you used His mercies for your own self-indulgence, and the bodily strength which was given you to be a blessing you have made a curse. Streams of mercy never ceasing God has vouchsafed to you, but your only return has been stream of sin, broad, and black, and deep. And now today He has been changing His ways with you…You are troubled and sore broken..you are complaining.-“I am the man that has seen affliction;” and perhaps worse than that you are groaning, “His wrath lieth hard upon me, I cannot look up.”…Oh! may you…whose case is the case of Israel in Hosea, may you say, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.” I desire to come straight up to you who are in this condition and put my hand inside yours, holding you fast while I strive in God’s name to reason with you, beseeching God the Holy Spirit to reason better than I can, sweetly moving your soul, till you say, “I will arise and go unto my Father.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0400.cfm