Serve the Lord with Gladness

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

…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame… – Hebrews 12:2

In His work our great High Priest was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, but we also note that those who are His fellows do, in their degree, partake in this oil of gladness, and are enabled to feel joy in the work which is appointed them of the Lord. While our King is anointed with the oil of gladness it is also written of the virgin souls who wait upon His Church, “With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, they shall enter into the King’s palace.” …The Lord loves to employ willing workmen. His army is not made up of pressed men, but of those whom grace has made volunteers. “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Our Lord does not set us task work, and treat us like prisoners in gaol, or slaves under the lash. I sometimes hear our life-work called a task. Well, the expression may be tolerated, but I confess I do not like it to be applied to Christian men. It is no task to me at any rate to preach my Master’s gospel, or to serve Him in any way. I thank God every day that “to me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” …No man wins a race who has no heart in the running. In this respect the joy of the Lord is your strength, and as your Master was anointed with the oil of gladness in His work, so must you be. Yet, beloved fellow laborer, you will never be so glad in your work as He was in His, nor will you ever be able to prove that gladness by such self-denials, by such agonies, and such a death. He has proved how glad He was to save sinners, because “for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame.” Blessed Emanuel, Thou art justly anointed with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1273.cfm

The Lord’s Delight

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. – Psalm 45:7

The Son of God delighted in the work which His Father had given Him to do. This delight He declared as God, in the old eternity! “Lo I come; in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O God.” …We read that when the time came that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. His frequent allusions to His own decease by a shameful death, all showed that He viewed with intense satisfaction the great object after which He was reaching. Once, indeed, His joy flowed over so that others could see it, when He said, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” “At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.” Let it never be forgotten that we must not expect to see in the life of Christ great ebullitions of manifest exultation, because He was sent on purpose to bear our sicknesses, and to be “stricken of God and afflicted.” …Now, if He had not possessed great stores of secret joy His spirit would have been famished for want of sustenance. You would have found Him constantly sighing and weeping; His words and tones would have become a terror to those around Him, and His whole appearance would have appeared melancholy and depressing to the last degree, whereas His manner was cheerful and attractive. Let the little children who thronged around Him bear witness to that. He was a man of sorrows, but He was not a preacher of sorrows, neither do His life or His discourses leave an unhappy impression upon the mind. The fact, probably, is, that He was both the greatest rejoicer and the greatest mourner that ever lived, and between these two there was an equilibrium of mind kept up, so that wherever you meet Him, with the exception of His agony in the garden, He is peaceful and serene…His peace is like a river, and His heart abides in the Sabbath of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1273.cfm

The Spirit’s Peculiar Office

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

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound… – Isaiah 61:1

“And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:2-4) The Holy Spirit also had a peculiar interest in Jesus’ resurrection, for He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.” He was “put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit.” That same Spirit wrought even more fully when the Lord ascended up on high, and led captivity captive; then, succeeding His ascension, the gifts of the cloven tongues of fire and the rushing mighty wind were witnessed by His disciples, for the Spirit of God was given abundantly to the Church in connection with the ascension of the Redeemer. Oh, how sweetly doth the Spirit co-operate with Christ at this very day, for it is He that takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. He is the abiding witness in the Church to the truth of the gospel, and the worker of all our gifts and graces. Jesus gives repentance, but the Spirit works it; faith fixes upon Christ, but the Spirit of God first creates faith and opens the eye which looks to Jesus. The whole of this dispensation through it is the peculiar office of the Spirit of God to be revealing Christ to His people, and Christ in His people, and Christ in the midst of an ungodly and gainsaying generation, for a testimony against them. Blessed be the name of the Holy Spirit, that He is the divine anointing, and so proves His hearty assent to the great plan of redemption. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1273.cfm

The Holy Ghost’s Anointing

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

“Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.”-Psalm 45:7

We know that the anointing received by our Lord Jesus Christ was the resting of the Spirit of God upon Him without measure. We are not left to any guesswork about this, for in Isaiah 61 we are told, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me.” Our Lord appropriated these very words to Himself when He went into the synagogue at Nazareth and opened the book at the place wherein these words are written, and said, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” The Apostle Peter also, in Acts 10:38, speaks of “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power”: so that we know both on Old and New Testament authority that the anointing which rested upon the Lord Jesus Christ was the unction of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, by the “oil of gladness” which we have before us in the text is intended the Holy Spirit Himself, or one of the gracious results of His sacred presence. The divine Spirit has many attributes, and His benign influences operate in divers ways, bestowing upon us benefits of various kinds, too numerous for us to attempt to catalogue them. Amongst these is His comforting and cheering influence. “The fruit of the Spirit is joy.” In Acts 13:52 we read, “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.” Wherever He comes as an anointing, whether upon the Lord or upon His people, upon the Christ or the Christians, upon the Anointed or upon those whom He anoints, in every case the ultimate result is joy and peace. On the head of our great High Priest He is joy, and this oil of gladness flows down to the skirts of His garments. To the Comforter, therefore, we ascribe “the oil of gladness.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1273.cfm

Our Best Comfort

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

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. – John 14:26

There is no comfort in the world like a sight of Christ. Oh, brethren, if you are poor, and if the Holy Ghost shows you that Christ had not where to lay His head, what a sight for you! And if you are sick, and if the Holy Ghost shows you what sufferings Christ endured, what comfort comes to you! If you are made to see the things of Christ, each thing according to the condition which you are in, how speedily you are delivered out of your sorrow!

And then, if the Holy Ghost glorifies Christ, that is the cure for every kind of sorrow. He is the Comforter. Many years ago, after the terrible accident in the Surrey Gardens, I had to go away into the country and keep quite still. The very sight of the Bible made me cry. I could only keep alone in the garden; and I was heavy and sad, for people had been killed in the accident; and there I was, half dead myself; and I remember how I got back my comfort, and I preached on the Sabbath after I recovered. I had been walking round the garden, and I was standing under a tree. If it is there now, I should know it; and I remember these words: “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior.” “Oh”, I thought to myself, “I am only a common soldier. If I die in a ditch, I do not care. The King is honored. He wins the victory;” and I was like those French soldiers in the old times, who loved the emperor; and you know how, when they were dying, if he rode by, the wounded man would raise himself up on his elbow, and cry once more, “Vive l’Empereur!” for the emperor was graven on his heart. And so, I am sure, it is with every one of you, my comrades, in this holy war. If our Lord and King is exalted, then let other things go which way they like: if He is exalted, never mind what becomes of us. God’s truth is safe, we are perfectly willing to be forgotten, derided, slandered, or anything else that men please. The cause is safe, and the King is on the throne. Hallelujah! Blessed be His name! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm

Jesus Christ Himself

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You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy.

Sermon Text

For the Honor of Christ

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

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. – John 16:13,14

How often I have wished that men of great minds might be converted! I have wished that we could have a few Miltons, and such like men, to sing of the love of Christ; a few mighty men, who teach politics, and the like, to consecrate their talents to the preaching of the gospel. Why is it not so? Well, because the Holy Ghost does not seem to think that that would be the way to glorify Christ supremely; and He prefers, as a better way, to take us common-place sort of persons, and to take the things of Christ, and to show them to us. He does glorify Christ; and blessed be His name that ever my blear eyes should look upon His infinite loveliness; that ever such a wretch as I, who can understand everything but what I ought to understand, should be made to comprehend the heights and depths, and to know, with all saints, the love of Christ, that passeth knowledge. You see, in a school, that clever boy. Well, it is not much for the master to have made a scholar of him. But here is one who shines as a scholar, and his mother says that he was the greatest dolt in the family. All his schoolfellows say, “Why, he was our butt! He seemed to have no brains; but our master, somehow, got some brain into him, and made him know something which he appeared, at one time, incapable of knowing.” Somehow, it does seem to be as if our very folly, and impotence, and spiritual death-if the Holy Ghost shows to us the things of Christ-will go towards the increase of that great glorifying of Christ at which the Holy Spirit aims. Then, beloved brethren, since it is for the honor of Christ for His things to be shown to men, He will show them to us, that we may go and show them to other people. This we cannot do, except as He is with us to make the others to see; but He will be with us while we tell forth what He has taught us; and so, the Holy Ghost will really be showing to others while He is showing to us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2213.cfm