The Holy Spirit

Come and Trust Jesus

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. _ John 14:1

Are you sorrowing for sin? It shall be pardoned, and in a moment joy shall fill your spirit. Are you mourning because you are unfit to come? Come with all your unfitness, and you shall thank God that you were saved from making a fitness and were enabled to come as a sinner to Christ. Do you mourn because you have a hard heart? Come and trust Jesus, and He will give you a heart of flesh and you shall bless His name that you were another instance of His Almighty power to change the hearts of men… oh, there was never such a Lord as He is! Sorrow, He told us, we should have, and we have had it, but He has always turned it into joy, and up to this moment I can say of Him, if I had to die like a dog and there were no hereafter, I would prefer to be a Christian; and if there were no joy about religion but the present joy which it gives to a believing heart, let me have it beyond all the joys of wealth, or fame, or honor. There is none like Christ. I would that some of you would come and take Him.

May His Spirit guide you and may you tonight become His disciples, and your sorrow shall be turned into joy. The Lord grant it for His name’s sake. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.gracegems.org/Spurgeon/from_sorrow_to_joy.htm

 

The Spirit is Given

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. – John 16:7

It is a great gain to us not to have the Savior here. And see you how it is? He said, “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” Now, it is a nobler thing to have the Spirit of God dwelling in us than it would be to have Jesus Christ dwelling upon earth. For, as I have hinted, if He were on earth we could not all get at Him; He could only be in one place at a time, and how would the poor be able to get where He is? And if He wandered all the world yet in the natural order of things, it is only now and then He could come to one place, and so some of us would have to be pining all our lives to see Him. But now the Holy Spirit is here. The Holy Spirit is wherever believers are. “Know you not that He dwells in us forever?” And whereas we see nothing, this is all the better for us. A life of sight is for babes; a living by feeling is for poor puny infants, but the life of faith is for men in Christ Jesus, and ennobles us by taking away anything that is to be seen and giving us to walk after the unseen. “Though we have known Christ after the flesh,” says the apostle, “yet now after the flesh know we Him no more.” We have not Christ among us after the flesh, and we are glad of it, for now our faith is exercised and God loves faith, and faith makes men into true men in the sight of God, and ennobles them and makes them friends of God. For who was “the friend of God” like Abraham, who believed God? Faith, then, being so much more for our good than the most delightful sight, we have reason to thank God that Jesus is gone and that the Spirit is given. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.gracegems.org/Spurgeon/from_sorrow_to_joy.htm

 

The Planting of the LORD

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

…the planting of the LORD… – Isaiah 61:3

Where there is joy imparted, and unction given from the Holy Spirit, instead of despondency, men will say, “It is God’s work, it is a tree that God has planted, it could not grow like that if anybody else had planted it; this man is a man of God’s making, his joy is a joy of God’s giving.” I feel sure that in the case of some of us we were under such sadness of heart before conversion, through a sense of sin, that when we did find peace, everybody noticed the change there was in us, and they said one to another, “Who has made this man so happy, for he was just now most heady and depressed?” And, when we told them where we lost our burden, they said, “Ah, there is something in religion after all.” “Then said they among the heathen the Lord hath done great things for them.” Remember poor Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress. Mark what heavy sighs he heaved, what tears fell from his eyes, what a wretched man he was when he wrung his hands, and said, “The city wherein I dwell is to be burned up with fire from heaven, and I shall be consumed in it, and, besides, I am myself undone by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me. Oh that I could get rid of it!” Do you remember John Bunyan’s description of how he got rid of the burden? He stood at the foot of the cross, and there was a sepulcher hard by, and as he stood and looked, and saw one hanging on the tree, suddenly the bands that bound his burden cracked, and the load rolled right away into the sepulcher, and when he looked for it, it could not be found. And what did he do? Why, he gave three great leaps for joy, and sang,

“Bless’d cross! bless’d sepulcher! bless’d rather
be the Man that there was put to shame for me.”

Oh, live such a happy life that you may compel the most wicked man to ask where you learned the art of living. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1016.cfm

We Shall Be Comforted

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

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. – Isaiah 61:3.

Who gives this word? It is a word to mourners in Zion, meant for their consolation. But who gives it? The answer is not far to seek. It comes from Him who said, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,” “He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted.” …If He declares that He will comfort us, then we may rest assured we shall be comforted! The stars in His right hand may fail to penetrate the darkness, but the rising of the Sun of Righteousness effectually scatters the gloom. If the consolation of Israel Himself comes forth for the uplifting of His downcast people, then their doubts and fears may well fly apace, since His presence is light and peace…

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath appointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek.” Remember what kind of preacher Jesus was. “Never man spake like this man.” He was a Son of consolation indeed. It was said of Him, “A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench.” He was gentleness itself…Now, if such be the person who declares He will comfort the broken-hearted, if He be such a preacher, we may rest assured He will accomplish His work.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1016.cfm

 

Let the Divine Nature Rule

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

And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? – Exodus 15:24

The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” …Assuredly, the tendency of human nature is to murmur. They murmured, complained, found fault. A very easy thing, for the very word “murmur,” how simple it is, made up of two infantile sounds-mur mur. No sense in it, no wit in it, no thought in it: it is the cry rather of a brute than of a man-murmur-just a double groan. Easy is it for us to kick against the dispensations of God, to give utterance to our griefs, and what is worse, to the inference we drew from them that God has forgotten to be gracious. To murmur is our tendency; but, my dear brethren and sisters in Christ, do we mean to let the tendencies of the old nature rule us? Will we murmur? O that we might have grace rather to say with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!” Shall a living man complain? Have we not received so much good from the hands of the Lord that we may well receive evil without rebellion? Will we not disappoint Satan, and overrule the tendency of the flesh, by saying in the might of God’s Spirit, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” I know we are apt to say, “Well, that is human nature,” and when we have said it is human nature, we suppose we have given a very excellent excuse for doing it. But is human nature to rule the divine nature? You, believer, profess to be a partaker of the divine nature. Let the superior force govern, let that which cometh from above be uppermost, and put the lower nature down; let us eschew murmurings and complainings, and magnify and adore the God who lays our comforts low.- C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0987.cfm

Far Better the Bitter Waters

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

So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: – Exodus 15:22,23

It is a notion, I have no doubt, of very young Christians who still have the shell upon their heads and are scarce hatched, that their trials are over now that they have become winged with faith; they had far better have reckoned that their trials have begun with tenfold force, now that they are numbered with the servants of the Most High. Whatever else comes not to thee, O servant of God, this will surely be fulfilled, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” “What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?”

When Israel was in Egypt, they drank of the river Nile. No ordinary water that…What a change from the sweetness of the Nile to the bitterness of Marah! Did not the suggestion rise in their hearts, “It was better with us in the bondage of Egypt, with water in abundance, than it is now in the liberty of the wilderness with the bitterness of Marah?” The devil tempted some of us at the very first by saying: “See what you have got by being a Christian. While you were as others are, your mind had mirth; now you have come out and followed the Crucified, you have lost the liveliness of your spirits, the brightness of your wit-that which made life worth having is taken away from you.” Young Christian, is that your case to-day? Be not stumbled, neither believe the enemy. Man, it were better to die at Marah free, than live a slave by the sweet Nile. Even men that know not the Spirit of God have felt it were better to die free than live slaves, and truly to be a slave to Satan is so degrading a thing, that if this mouth were for ever filled with Marah’s bitterness, yet were it better to be so than to be enchanted with the pleasures of sin. Yet these early trials are very severe, and need much grace lest they cause us great mischief.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0987.cfm

In the Hand of Jesus All His People Are

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

My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. – John 10:29

Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am… – John 17:24

Now, can I believe that He who promises that I shall be with Him where He is, that I may behold His glory – He who gives the certainty to every believer that He shall enter into everlasting happiness – can I believe that He is perfecting that for me-that the way by which He is taking me, so dark, so gloomy, so full of dangers, is, nevertheless, the shortest way to heaven? that He is using the quickest method to perfect that which concerns my soul? O faith! here is something for thee to do; and if thou canst perform it, thou shalt bring glory to God. The pith of it is this: that if God hath the keeping of us, He will perfect the keeping in the day of Christ. In the hand of Jesus all His people are, and in that hand they shall be for ever and ever…Every child of God is set apart by Christ, and in Christ, and the work of the Spirit has commenced which shall subdue sin, and extirpate the very roots of corruption; and this work shall be perfected; nay, is being perfected at this very moment. The dragon is being trodden down under foot. The Seed of the woman within us is beginning to bruise the serpent’s head, and shall clearly bruise it and crush it, even to the death within our soul. He is perfecting us in all things for Himself. He has promised to bring us to glory. We have the earnest of that great glory in us now. The new life is there; all the elements of heaven are within us. Now He will perfect all these. He will not suffer one good thing that He has planted within us to die. He is a living and incorruptible Seed, which liveth and abideth for ever…What a marvellous thing is a Christian! How mean; how noble! How abject; how august! How near to hell; how close to heaven! How fallen, yet lifted up! Able to do nothing; yet doing all things! Doing nothing; yet accomplishing all things; because herein it is that, in the man, and with the man, there is God, and He performeth all things for us. God give us grace to look away entirely, evermore, from ourselves, and to depend entirely upon Him.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3445.cfm