Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Motives Unto the Love of Christ by John Owen

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

The motives to love Christ are the last thing that I shall speak unto.  When God required of the church the first and highest act of religion, the sole foundation of all others — namely, to take him as their God, to own, believe, and trust in him alone as such, (which is wholly due unto him for what he is, without any other consideration whatever,) — yet he thought it proper to add a motive unto the performance of that duty from what he had done for them, Exodus 20:2-3.  The sense of the first command is that we should take him alone for our God; for he is so, and there is no other.

But in prescribing this duty, he minds them of the benefits they had received from him in bringing them out of the house of bondage.  God, in his wisdom and grace, ordered all the causes and reasons of our duty, so as that all the rational powers and faculties of our souls may be engaged.  Therefore he does not only present himself to us, nor is Christ merely proposed unto us as the proper object of our affections, but he calls us also to the consideration of all those things that may satisfy our souls.  That it is the most just, necessary, reasonable and advantageous course for us so to fix our affections on him.  And these considerations are taken from all that he did for us, along with the reasons and grounds for why he did it.

We love him principally and ultimately for who he is.  But firstly and primarily, we love him for what he did.  What he did for us is first proposed unto us, and it is that with which our souls are first attracted.  For we are drawn to him by our sense of need and by our realization that he alone fulfills our desire for blessedness.  This directs us to what he has done for us as sinners.  But then we are led immediately unto the consideration of what he is in himself.  And when our love is fixed on him or his person, then all of these things, from a sense of our own wants and desires, become motives to confirm and increase that love.  This is the constant method of the Scripture: it first proposes unto us what the Lord Christ has done for us, and then it leads us to see who he is and shows us the consideration of all other things to engage our love for him.  (See Philippians 2:5-11, with chap. 3:8-11.)

Motives to the love of Christ are so great, and so many, and so diffused through the whole dispensation of God in him unto us that they can by no means be fully expressed.  Let these be ever enlarged in the declaration of them since they certainly cannot be represented in this short discourse where but a very small part is allotted unto their consideration.  The studying, the collection of them or so many of them as we are able, the meditation on them and improvement of them, are among the principal duties of our whole lives.  What I shall offer is the reduction of them unto these two headings: 1. The acts of Christ, which is their substance; and, 2. The spring and fountain of those acts, which is the life of them.

1. The Acts of Christ. In general, they are all the acts of his mediatory office, with all the fruits of them, whereof we are made partners.  There is not anything that he did or does, in the discharge of his mediatory office, from the first inception of it in his incarnation to his present intercession in heaven, except it is motivated by his love (as is proposed to us often in the Scripture).  Whatever he did or does with or towards us in the name of God, as the king and prophet of the church — whatever he did or does with God for us, as our high priest —all speaks this language in the hearts of them that believe:  O love the Lord Jesus in sincerity.

The consideration of what Christ thus did and does for us is inseparable from that of the benefits which we receive from him.  A mixture of both these — of what he did for us and what we have obtained — comprises the substance of these motives: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me” — “Who loved us, and washed us in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God” — “For you were slain, and have bought us unto God with your blood.”  And both these are beyond our understanding.  For who is able to comprehend the glory of the mediatory acting of the Son of God, in the assumption of our nature — in what he did and suffered on our behalf?  And for us, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive, all that we receive from it.  The least benefit we have received deserves our love and seems almost criminal were such love is not entertained.  What, then, does this greatest love deserve, which was purchased for you by the greatest expense, even the price of the blood of the Son of God?

If we have any faith concerning these things, it will produce love, and that love will produce loving obedience.  Whatever we profess concerning Christ, if it springs from tradition and opinion and not from faith, will not engage our souls to love him.  The frame of heart which ensues on the real faith and love toward these things is expressed in terms of remembering what he has done: Psalm 103:1-5, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Let men pretend what they will, there needs to be no greater and no other evidence to prove that any one does not really believe the things that are reported in the gospel, concerning the mediatory acting of Christ, or that he has no experience in his own soul and conscience of the fruits and effects of them, than this — than that his heart is not engaged by them unto the most ardent love towards his person.

Anyone who has no love for the One who has given his all for them cannot be a true believer.  Some may more abound in good deeds more than others; some may be more diligent than others in the observation of times for the solemn performance of certain duties; some may have brighter and clearer understandings than others.  But as for those whose hearts and minds do not have love for the Savior, on what grounds can they be esteemed Christians?  How do they live by the faith of the Son of God?  Are the great things of the Gospel and of the mediation of Christ as presented to us, so small as that they must give place unto all other occasions or diversions whatever?  No; if our minds are not filled with these things — if Christ does not dwell plentifully in our hearts by faith — if our souls are not possessed with them — we are strangers unto the life of faith.  But if we are conversant about these things, they will engage our hearts into the love of the person of Christ.

Take one instance from among the rest — namely, his death.  How can someone have the heart of a Christian, if he does not derive his life from it?  Who can look into the Gospel and not fix on those lines which either immediately and directly, or through some other paths of divine grace and wisdom, do lead him thereunto?  And how can anyone have believing thoughts concerning the death of Christ and not have his heart affected with ardent love unto his person?  Christ in the Gospels “is evidently set forth, crucified” before us.  How can any by the eye of faith look on this bleeding, dying Redeemer and suppose love unto his person to be nothing but the work of fancy or imagination?  Those who “always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,” (as the apostle speaks, 2 Corinthians 4:10) know the contrary.  Those whose hearts recognize this precious perfume of his death have their hearts ravished with love for this Savior.

Again: as there can be no faith in Christ where there is no love to him on the account of his mediatory acts; so, where this love is lacking, these persons are put under the highest guilt of ingratitude that our nature is liable unto.  The highest aggravation of the sin of angels was their ingratitude unto their Maker.  For why, by his mere will and pleasure, they were stated in the highest excellency, pre-eminence, and dignity, that he thought good to communicate unto any creatures — or, it may be, that any mere created nature is capable of in itself — they were unthankful for what they had so received from undeserved goodness and bounty; and so cast themselves into everlasting ruin.  But yet the sin of men, in their ingratitude towards Christ on the account of what he has done for them, is an aggravation above that of the angels.  For although the angels were originally instated in a condition of dignity which in this world we cannot attain unto, yet they were not redeemed and recovered from misery as we are.

In all the crowd of evil and wicked men that the world is pestered withal, there are none, by common consent, so stigmatized for unworthy villainy, as those who are signally ungrateful for singular benefits.  If persons are unthankful unto them, if they have not the highest love for them, who redeem them from ignominy and death, and instate them in a plentiful inheritance, (if any such instances may be given,) and that with the greatest expense of labor and charge, — mankind, without any regret, does tacitly condemn them unto greater miseries than those which they were delivered from.  What, then, will be the condition of them whose hearts are not so affected with the mediation of Christ and the fruits of it, as to engage the best, the choicest of their affections unto him!  The gospel itself will be “a savor of death” unto such ungrateful persons.

2. His Love to Us. That which the Scripture principally insists on as the motive of our love unto Christ is his love unto us — which was the principle of all his mediatory actions in our behalf.  Love is that jewel of human nature which commands a valuation wherever it is found.  Let other circumstances be what they will, whatever distances between persons may be made by them, yet real love, where it is evidenced so to be, is not despised by any except the most heartless of men.  Even if such love can produce no outward effects to them that are beloved, yet it commands at least, as it were, some kind of respect in return.

This is especially so if this love be altogether undeserved and so proves itself to proceed from a goodness of nature, and an inclination to the good of them on whom it is fixed.  If there be any such affection left in the nature of any man, it should provoke a reciprocal love.  And all these things are found in the love of Christ, unto that degree and height as nothing parallel unto it can be found in the whole creation.

I shall briefly speak of it under two general heads:

(1.) The sole reason for all the mediatory acts of Christ, both in light of our sinful nature and in all that he did and suffered for us, was his own mere love and grace, working by pity and compassion.  It is true; he undertook this work principally with respect unto the glory of God and out of love unto him.  But with respect unto us, his only motive was his abundant, overflowing love.  And this is especially remembered unto us in that instance where it carried him through the greatest difficulties — namely, in his death and the oblation of himself on our behalf, Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2, 25, 26; 1 John 3:16; Revelation 1:6.  This alone inclined the Son of God to undertake the glorious work of our redemption and carried him through the death and dread which he underwent in the accomplishment of it.

We should regularly make consideration of this love of Christ, which was the great means of conveying all the effects of dine wisdom and grace unto the church — that glass which God chose to represent himself and all his goodness in unto believers — that spirit of life in the wheel of all the motions of the person of Christ in the redemption of the church unto the eternal glory of God, his own and that of his redeemed also — that mirror wherein the holy angels and blessed saints shall forever contemplate the divine excellencies in their suitable operations.

When some raise questions about the divine nature of the person of Christ, they unwittingly destroy the whole nature of that love which we ascribe unto him.  Therefore fore, a more distinct explication and defense of it may be called for.  And this cause will not be forsaken.  Those who do so know nothing of the life and power of the gospel, nothing of the reality of the grace of God, nor do they believe aright one article of the Christian faith, whose hearts are not sensible of the love of Christ; nor is he sensible of the love of Christ, whose affections are not thereon drawn out unto him.  They often make a pageant of religion — a fable for the theater of the world, a business of fancy and opinion — whose hearts are not really affected with the love of Christ.  They do so that they might have some emotional affection toward the mediatorial work of Christ.

Many babble things which they have learned by rote but they have no real acquaintance with Christianity, who imagine that the placing of the most intense affections of our souls on the person of Christ — the loving him with all our hearts because of his love — our being overcome until we are sick of love — the constant motions of our souls towards him with delight and adherence — are but fancies and imaginations.  I renounce such a religion, whose ever it may be, that teaches, insinuates, or gives countenance to such abominations.  Such doctrine is far from the gospel and as contrary to the experience of believers as that which instructs men to a contempt of the most fervent love unto Christ or casts reflections upon it.  I had rather choose my eternal lot and portion with the weakest believer, who, being effectually sensible of the love of Christ, spends his days in mourning that he can love him no more than he finds himself on his utmost endeavors for the discharge of his duty to do, than with the best of them, whose vain speculations and a false pretense of reason puff them up unto a contempt of true love for Christ.

(2.) This love of Christ is pure and absolutely free from any alloy or mixture.  There cannot be the least suspicion of anything of self in it.  And it is absolutely undeserved.  Nothing can be found amongst men that can represent or exemplify its freedom from any desert on our part.  The most candid and ingenuous love amongst us is, when we love another for his worth, excellency, and usefulness, though we have no singular benefit of them ourselves.  But not the least of any of these things was found in those on whom he set his love, except as effects of that love which he set upon them.

Men sometimes may rise up unto such a high degree and instance in love, as that they will even die for one another; but then it must be because they esteem their worth and merit.  It may be, says the apostle in treating of the love of Christ and of God in him, that “for a good man some would even dare to die,” Romans 5:7.  It must be for a good man — one who is justly esteemed “commune bonum,” a public good to mankind — one whose benignity is ready to exercise loving-kindness on all occasions, which is the estate of a good man — it is possible that some would even dare to die for such a man.  This is the height of what love among men can rise unto; and if it has been instanced in any, it has been accompanied with an open mixture of vain-glory and desire of renown.  But the Lord Christ placed his love on us when we were sinners and ungodly; that is, everything which might render us unlovable and undeserving.  Though we were as deformed as sin could render us and more deeply indebted than the whole creation could pay or answer, yet did he fix his love upon us, to free us from that condition and to render us fit for the most intimate fellowship with himself.

Never was there love which had such effects — which cost him so dear in whom it was and proved so advantageous to them on whom it was placed.  In the pursuit of it, he underwent everything that is evil in his own person, and we receive everything that is good in the favor of God and eternal blessedness.

On the account of these things, the apostle ascribes a constraining power unto the love of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:14.  And if it constrains us to any return unto him, it does so in terms of love to him.  For no suitable return can be made for love but love, at least not without it.  As love cannot be purchased — “For if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned,” Song of Solomon 8:7 — so if a man would give all the world for a requital of love, without love, it would be despised.  To fancy that all the love of Christ unto us consists in the precepts and promises of the gospel, and all our love unto him in the observance of his commands, without a real love in him unto our persons, like that of a “husband unto a wife,” Ephesians 5:25, 26, or a holy affection in our hearts and minds unto his person, is to overthrow the whole power of religions to despoil it of its life and soul, leaving nothing but the carcass of it.

This love unto Christ and unto God in him, because of his love unto us, is the principal instance of divine love, the touchstone of its reality and sincerity.  Whatever men may boast of their affectionate endearments to divine goodness, if it is not founded in a sense of this love of Christ and the love of God in him, they are but empty notions they feed upon.  It is in Christ alone that God is declared to be love; without such an understanding, none can love him as they ought.  In him alone that infinite goodness, which is the peculiar object of divine love, and it is truly represented unto us, without any such deceiving phantasm as the workings of fancy or depravation of reason may impose upon us.  And on him alone does our salvation depend.  And it is an infinite condescension in the holy God to so express his “glory in the face of Jesus Christ,” or to propose himself as the object of our love in and through him.  For considering our weakness in even comprehending the infinite excellencies of the divine nature and his resplendent glory, it is the most adorable effect of divine wisdom and grace that we are admitted into the contemplation of them in the person of Jesus Christ.  Yet the evidence of his love is also seen in all the blessed effects of his love which believers have experienced personally.  We can only really love him for who he is when we love him rightly for what he has done!

Modernized revision of “Motives Unto the Love of Christ,” in the Works of John Owen, Vol. 1.

Posted in John Owen |

The Godly Man Prizes Christ by Thomas Watson

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

To illustrate this, I shall show (1) that Jesus Christ is precious in himself; and (2) that a godly man esteems him precious.

Jesus Christ Himself is Precious

“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious” (1 Peter 2:6).

  1. Christ is compared to “a bundle of myrrh” (Song 1:13).  Myrrh is very precious; it was one of the chief spices of which the holy anointing oil was made of (Exodus 30:25).  Myrrh is of a perfuming nature.  So Christ perfumes our persons and services, so that they are a sweet odor to God.  Why is the church, that heavenly bride, so perfumed with grace?  Because Christ, that myrrh tree, has dropped his perfume upon her (Song 3:6).  Additionally, myrrh is of an exhilarating nature.  Its smell comforts and refreshes the spirits.  So Christ comforts the souls of his people when they are fainting under their sins and suffering.
  2. Christ is compared to a pearl: “when he had found one pearl of great price.” (Matthew 13:46).  Christ, this pearl, was little with regard to his humility, but of infinite value.  Jesus Christ is a pearl that God wears in his bosom (John 1:18); a pearl whose luster drowns the world’s glory (Galatians 6:14); a pearl that enriches the soul, the angelic part of man (1 Corinthians 1:5);  a pearl that enlightens heaven (Revelation 21:23); a pearl so precious that it makes us precious to God (Ephesians 1:6); a pearl that is consoling and restorative (Luke 2:25); a pearl of more value than heaven (Colossians 1:16-17).  The preciousness of Christ is seen in three ways:
    1. He is precious in his person; he is the picture of his father’s glory (Heb. 1:3).
    2. Christ’s prophetic office is precious (Deut. 18:15).  He tie great oracle of heaven; he has preciousness above all Prophets who went before him; he teaches not only the ear, but the heart.  He who has ‘the key of David’ in his hand opened the heart of Lydia (Acts 16:14).
    3. Christ’s priestly office is precious.  This is the solid basis of our comfort.  ‘Now once hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 9:26).  By virtue of this sacrifice, the soul may go to God with boldness: ‘Lord, give me heaven; Christ has purchased it for me; he hung upon the cross, that I might sit upon the throne.’  Christ’s blood and incense are the two hinges on which our salvation turns.
    4. Christ’s regal office is precious: ‘He hath on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords’ (Rev. 19:16).  Christ has a pre-eminence above all other kings for majesty; he has the highest throne, the richest crown, the largest dominions, and the longest possession: ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever’ (Heb. 1:8).  Though Christ has many assessors — those who sit with him (Eph. 2:6) — he has no successors.  Christ sets up his scepter where no other king does; he rules the will and affections; his power binds the conscience.  The angels take the oath of allegiance to him (Heb. 1:6).
    5. Christ’s kingship is seen in ruling his people.  He rules with clemency; his regal rod has honey at the end of it.  Christ displays the ensign of mercy, which makes so many volunteers run to his standard (Psalm 110:3).  Holiness without mercy, and justice without mercy, would be dreadful, but mercy encourages poor sinners to trust in him.
    6. Christ’s kingship is seen in overruling his enemies.  He pulls down their pride, befools their policy, restrains their malice: ‘the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain’ (Psalm 76:10), or as it is in the Hebrew, ‘thou shalt girdle up.’  That stone ‘cut out of the mountain without hands, which smote the image’ (Dan. 2:34) was an emblem, says Augustine, of Christ’s monarch­ical power, conquering and triumphing over his enemies.
    7. Christ is precious in his benefits.  By Christ, all dangers are removed; through Christ all mercies are conveyed.  In his blood flows justification (Acts 13:39); purgation (Heb. 9:14); fructification (John 1:16); pacifica­tion (Rom. 5:1); adoption (Gal. 4:5); perseverance (Heb. 12:2); glorification (Heb. 9:12). This will be a matter of most sublime joy for eternity.  We read that those who had passed over the sea of glass stood with their harps and sang the song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev. 15:2, 3).  So when the ‘saints of God have passed over the glassy sea of this world, they shall sing hallelujahs to the Lamb who has redeemed them from sin and hell and has translated them into that glorious paradise where they shall see God forever and ever.

The Godly Man Esteems Christ Precious

“Therefore to you who believe He is precious” (1 Peter 2:7). In the Greek, it is ‘an honor.’  Believers have honorable esteem of Christ.  The psalmist speaks like one captivated with Christ’s amazing beauty: ‘there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee’ (Psalm 73:25).  He did not say he had nothing: he had many comforts on earth, but he desired none but God; as if a wife should say that there is no one’s company she prizes like her husband’s.  How did David prize Christ?  ‘Thou art fairer than the children of men’ (Psalm 45:2).  The spouse in the Song of Solomon looked upon Christ as the Coryphaeus, the most incompar­able one, ‘the chief among ten thousand’ (Song 5:10).  Christ outvies all others: ‘As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons’ (Song 2:3).  Christ infinitely more excels all the beauties and glories of that visible world than the apple tree surpasses the trees of the wild forest.  Paul so prized Christ that he made him his chief study: ‘I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:2).  He judged nothing else of value.  Consider how he slighted and despised other things in comparison with Christ: ‘I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Phil. 3:8).  Gain he esteemed loss, and gold dung for Christ.  Indeed, a godly person cannot choose but set a high valuation upon Christ; he sees a fullness of value in him:

  1. A fullness in regard to variety.  ‘In whom are hid all the treasures’ (Colossian 2:3).  No country has all commodities of its own growth, but Christ has all kinds of fullness — fullness of merit, of spirit, of love.  He has a treasure adequate for all our wants.
  2. A fullness in regard to degree.  Christ has not only a few drops or rays, but is more full of goodness than the sun is of light; he has the fullness of the Godhead (Colossians 2:9).
  3. A fullness in regard to duration.  The fullness in the creature, like the brooks of Arabia, is soon dried up, but Christ’s fullness is inexhaustible; it is a fullness overflowing and ever-flowing.

And this fullness is for believers: Christ is a common thesaurus (as Luther says), a common treasury or store for the saints: ‘of his fullness have all we received’ (John 1:16).

Use 1: Is a godly man a high prizer of Christ?  Then what is to be thought of those who do not put a value upon Christ?  Are they godly or not?

What is it to know all the motions of the orbs and influences of the stars, and in the meantime to be ignorant of Christ, the bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16)?  What is it to understand the nature of minerals or precious stones, and not to know Christ the true Cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16)?  It is under­valuing, yes, despising Christ, when with the lodestone we draw iron and straw to us, but neglect him who has tried gold to bestow on us (Rev. 3:18).

Use 2: Let us test our godliness by this: Do we set a high estimation on Christ?

Question: How shall we know that?

Answer 1: If we are prizers of Christ, then we prefer him in our judgments before other things.  We value Christ above honor and riches; the Pearl of Price lies nearest our heart.  He who prizes Christ esteems the gleanings of Christ better than the world’s vintage.  He counts the worst things of Christ better than the best things of the world: ‘es­teeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt’ (Heb. 11:26).  And is it thus with us?  Has the price of worldly things fallen?  Gregory Nazianzene solemnly blessed God that he had anything to lose for Christ’s sake.  But alas, how few Nazianzenes are to be found!  You will hear some say they have honorable thoughts of Christ, but they prize their land and estate above him.  The young man in the Gospel preferred his bags of gold before Christ.  Judas valued thirty pieces of silver above him.  May it not be feared, if an hour of trial comes, that there are many who would rather renounce their baptism and throw off Christ’s livery than hazard the loss of their earthly possessions for him?

Answer 2: If we are the prizers of Christ, we cannot live without him; things which we value we know not how to be without.  A man may live without music, but not without food.  A child of God can lack health and friends, but he cannot lack Christ.  In the absence of Christ, he says, like Job, ‘I went mourning without the sun’ (Job 30:28).  I have the starlight of creature comforts, but I need the Sun of Righteousness.  ‘Give me children,’ said Rachel, ‘or else I die ((Gen. 30:1).  So the soul says, ‘Lord, give me Christ, or I die.’

Let us test by this — do they prize Christ who can manage well enough to be without him?  Give a child a rattle, and it will not want gold.  If men only have worldly provisions, ‘corn rid wine’, they can be content enough without Christ.  Christ is a spiritual Rock (1 Cor. 10:4).  Just let men have ‘oil in the cruse’ and they do not care about honey from this rock.  If their trade has gone, they complain, but if God takes away the gospel, which is the ark wherein Christ the manna is hidden, they are quiet and tame enough.  Do those prize Christ who can sit down content without him?

Answer 3: If we are prizers of Christ, then we shall not complain at any pains to get him.  He who prizes gold will dip for it in the mine: ‘My soul followeth hard after God’ (Psalm 63:8).  Plutarch reports of the Gauls, an ancient people in France, that after they had tasted the sweet wine of the Italian grape, they enquired after the country, and never rested till they had arrived at it.  He in whose eye Christ is precious never rests till he has gained him: ‘I sought him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and would not let him go’ (Song 3:1,4).

Test by this!  Many say they have Christ in high veneration, but they are not industrious in the use of means to obtain him.  If Christ would drop as a ripe fig into their mouth, they could be content to have him, but they will not put themselves to too much trouble to get him.  Does he who will not take medicine or exercise prize his health?

Answer 4: If we are prizers of Christ, then we take great pleasure in Christ.  What joy a man takes in that which he counts his treasure!  He who prizes Christ makes him his greatest joy.  He can delight in Christ when other delights have gone: ‘Although the fig tree shall not blossom, yet I will rejoice in the Lord’ (Hab. 3:17, 18).  Though a flower in a man’s garden dies, he can still delight in his money and jewels.  He who esteems Christ can solace himself in Christ when there is an autumn on all other comforts.

Answer 5: If we are prizers of Christ, then we will part with our dearest pleasures for him.  Paul said of the Galatians that they so esteemed him that they were ready to pull out their own eyes and give them to him (Gal. 4:15).  He who esteems Christ will pull out that lust which is his right eye.  A wise man will throw away a poison for a stimulant.  He who sets a high value on Christ will part with his pride, unjust gain, and sinful fashions (Isaiah 30:32).  He will set his feet on the neck of his sins.

Test by this!  How can they be said to prize Christ who will not leave a vanity for him?  What scorn and contempt they put on the Lord Jesus who prefer a damning pleasure before a saving Christ!

Answer 6: If we are prizers of Christ, we shall think we cannot have him at too dear a rate.  We may buy gold too dearly, but we cannot purchase Christ too dearly.  Though we part with our blood for him, it is no dear bargain.  The apostles rejoiced that they were graced so much as to be disgraced for Christ (Acts 5:41).  They esteemed their fetters more precious than bracelets of gold.  Do not let him who refuses to bear his cross say that he prizes Christ: ‘When persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended’ (Matt. 13:21).

Answer 7: If we are prizers of Christ, we will be willing to help others to get a part in him.  That which we esteem excellent, we are desirous our friend should have a share in it.  If a man has found a spring of water, he will call others that they may drink and satisfy their thirst.  Do we commend Christ to others?  Do we take them by the hand and lead them to Christ?  This shows how few prize Christ, because they do not make more effort that their relations should have a part in him.  They get land and riches for their posterity, but have no care to leave them the Pearl of Price in their portion.

Answer 8: If we are prizers of Christ, then we prize him in health as well as in sickness; when we are enlarged, as well as when we are straitened.  A friend is prized at all times; the Rose of Sharon is always sweet.  He who values his Savior right has as precious thoughts of him in a day of prosperity as in a day of adversity.  The wicked make use of Christ only when they are in straits — as the elders of Gilead went to Jepththah when they were in distress (Judges 11:7).  Themistocles complained of the Athenians that they only ran to him as they did to a tree to shelter them in a storm.  Sinners desire Christ only for shelter.  The Hebrews never chose their judges except when they were in some imminent danger.  Godless persons never look for Christ except at death when they are in danger of hell.

Use 3: As we would prove to the world that we have the impress of godliness on us, let us be prizers of Jesus Christ; he is elect, precious.  Christ is the wonder of beauty.  Pliny said of the mulberry tree that there is nothing in it but what is therapeutic and useful: the fruit, leaves and bark.  So there is nothing in Christ but what is precious.  His name is precious, his virtues precious, his blood precious — more precious than the world.

Oh, then, let us have endearing thoughts of Christ, let him be accounted our chief treasure and delight.  This is the reason why millions perish — because they do not prize Christ.  Christ is the door by which men are to enter heaven (John 10:9).  If they do not know this door or are so proud that they will not stoop to go in at it, how can they be saved?  That we may have Christ-admiring thoughts, let us con­sider:

  1. We cannot prize Christ at too high a rate.  We may prize other things above their value.  That is our sin.  We commonly overrate the creature; we think there is more in it than there is; therefore God makes our gourd wither, because we overprize it.  But we cannot raise our esteem of Christ high enough; he is beyond all value.  There is no ruby or diamond but the jeweler can set a fair price on it.  He can say it is worth so much and no more.  But Christ’s worth can never be fully known.  No seraphim can set a due value on him; his are unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8).  Christ is more precious than the soul, than the angels, than heaven.
  2. Jesus Christ has highly prized us. He took our flesh upon him (Heb. 2:16).  He made his soul an offering for us (Isaiah 53:10).  How precious our salvation was to Christ!  Shall not we prize and adore him who has put such a value upon us?
  3. Not to prize Christ is great imprudence.  Christ is our guide to glory.  It is folly for a man to slight his guide.  He is our physician (Mal. 4:2).  It is folly to despise our physician.

What!  To set light by Christ for things of no value?  ‘Ye fools and blind’ (Matt. 23:17).  How is a fool tested but by showing him an apple and a piece of gold?  If he chooses the apple before the gold, he is judged to be a fool and his estate is beggared.  How many such idiots there are who prefer husks before manna, the gaudy, empty things of this life before the Prince of Glory!  Will not Satan beggar them at last for fools?

Some slight Christ now and say, ‘There is no beauty that we should desire him’ (Isaiah 53:2).  There is a day coming shortly when Christ will as much slight them.  He will set as light by them as they do by him.  He will say, ‘I know you not’ (Luke 13:27).  What a slighting word that will be, when men cry, ‘Lord Jesus, save us,’ and he says, ‘I was offered to you but you would have none of me (Psalm 81:11); you scorned me and now I will set light by you and your salvation.  Depart from me, I do not know you.’  This is all that sinners get by rejecting the Lord of life.  Christ will slight at the Day of Judgment those who have slighted him in he day of grace.  Only a godly man truly prizes Christ!

Posted in Thomas Watson |

Theme Study: Loving Jesus by Jim Ehrhard

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

Preface to the Study

What can be more important in our lives as believers than loving Jesus?  At times, we can become so caught up in knowing about Jesus that we have a tendency to forget that all our knowledge of Jesus is designed to cause us to love Him even more.

This issue is a collection of articles that remind us of the importance of loving Christ with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength.  The opening article by Thomas Watson reminds us that Christ is more precious than anything this world has to offer us.  Articles by Owen and Doolittle provide a number of motives for loving Christ in this way.  A. W. Pink reminds us of the wonderful privilege we have of friendship with Christ.  In each article, we are reminded of His great love toward us.

We have also included portions of two sermons by Spurgeon from John 21 where Jesus asks Peter that all-essential question: “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?”  In these sermons, followers of Christ are asked to consider this question above all others – not how much do we know about Jesus; not how much do we work for Christ – but do we love him?  That is the one thing that matters most.  And it is the one true motivation behind any service for our Savior.  Paul reminds us, “Although I speak with tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or clanging symbol.  And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have the faith so that I can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I give all my goods to the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”

Indeed, “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  And our love ought to spur us to love others.  The excerpts from the writings of George Mueller remind us that loving Christ leads to a proper love of others.

It is our hope and prayer that the articles in this issue might cause you to see Jesus as He really is, in all the fullness of His glory, and love Him with all the fullness of your heart!  As you read each article, take time to reflect on Jesus and His great love to you.  May your love for Him increase and be so evident to all that they too may be drawn to love our lovely Savior!

By His Grace, Jim

Posted in Jim Ehrhard |

The Personality of the Holy Ghost by C. H. Spurgeon

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it  seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him for he dwelleth with you, and shall he in you.” — John 14:16-17

You will be surprised to hear me announce that I do not intend this morning to say anything about the Holy Spirit as the Comforter.  I propose to reserve that for a special Sermon this evening.  In this discourse, I shall endeavor to explain and enforce certain other doctrines which I believe are plainly taught in this text and which I hope God the Holy Ghost may make profitable to our souls.  Old John Newton once said that there were some books which he could not read, they were good and sound enough; but, said he, “they are books of halfpence; — you have to take so much in quantity before you have any value; there are other books of silver, and others of gold, but I have one book that is a book of bank notes; and every leaf is a bank note of immense value.”  So I found with this text: that I had a bank note of so large a sum that I could not tell it out all this morning. I should have to keep you several hours, before I could unfold to you the whole value of this precious promise — one of the last which Christ gave to his people.

I invite your attention to this passage, because we shall find in it some instruction on four points, first, concerning the true and proper personality of the Holy Ghost; secondly, concerning the united agency of the glorious Three Persons in the work of our salvation; thirdly, we shall find something to establish the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the souls of all believers; and fourthly, we shall find out the reason why the carnal mind rejects the Holy Ghost.

I. First of all, we shall have some little instruction concerning the proper PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. We are so much accustomed to talk about the influence of the Holy Ghost and his sacred operations and graces that we are apt to forget that the Holy Spirit is truly and actually a person — that he is a subsistence — an existence; or as we Trinitarians usually say, one person in the essence of the Godhead.  I am afraid that, though we do not know it, we have acquired the habit of regarding the Holy Ghost as an emanation flowing from the Father and the Son, but not as being actually a person himself.

I know it is not easy to carry about in our mind the idea of the Holy Spirit as a person.  I can think of the Father as a person, because his acts are such as I can understand.  I see him hang the world in ether; I behold him swaddling a new-born sea in bands of darkness; I know it is he who formed the drops of hail, who leadeth forth the stars by their hosts, and calleth them by their name, I can conceive of Him as a person, because I behold his operations.  I can realize Jesus, the Son of Man, as a real person, because he is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.  It takes no great stretch of my imagination to picture the babe in Bethlehem, or to behold the “Men of sorrows and acquainted with grief;” of the King of martyrs, as he was persecuted in Pilate’s hall, or nailed to the accursed tree for our sins.  Nor do I find it difficult at times to realize the person of my Jesus sitting on his throne in heaven; or girt with clouds and wearing the diadem of all creation, calling the earth to judgment, and summoning us to hear our final sentence.  But when I come to deal with the Holy Ghost, his operations are so mysterious, his doings are so secret, his acts are so removed from everything that is of sense and of the body, that I cannot so easily get the idea of his being a person; but a person he is.  God the Holy Ghost is not an influence, an emanation, a stream of something flowing from the Father, but he is as much an actual person as either God the Son, or God the Father.  I shall attempt this morning a little to establish the doctrine and to show you the truth of it — that God the Holy Spirit is actually a person.

The first proof we shall gather from the pool of holy baptism.  Let me take you down, as I have taken others, into the pool, now concealed, but which I wish were always open to your view.  Let me take you to the baptismal font, where believers put on the name of the Lord Jesus, and you shall hear me pronounce the solemn words, “I baptize thee in the name,” — mark, “in the name,” not names, — “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”  Every one who is baptized according to the true form laid down in Scripture, must be a Trinitarian: otherwise his baptism is a farce and a lie, and he himself is found a deceiver and a hypocrite before God.  As the Father is mentioned, and as the Son is mentioned, so is the Holy Ghost, and the whole is summed up as being a Trinity in unity, by its being said, not the names, but the “name,” the glorious name, the Jehovah name, “of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”  Let me remind you that the same thing occurs each time you are dismissed from this house of prayer.  In pronouncing the solemn closing benediction, we invoke on your behalf the love of Jesus Christ, the grace of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and thus, according to the apostolic manner, we make a manifest distinction between the persons showing that we believe the Father to be a person, the Son to be a person, and the Holy Ghost to be a person.  Were there no other proofs in Scripture, I think these would be sufficient for every sensible man.  He would see that if the Holy Spirit were a mere influence, he would not be mentioned in conjunction with two whom we all confess to be actual and proper persons.

A second argument arises from the fact, that the Holy Ghost has actually made different appearances on earth. The Great Spirit has manifested himself to man; he has put on a form, so that whilst he has not been beheld by mortal men, he has been so veiled in appearance that he was seen, so far as that appearance was concerned, by the eyes of all beholders.  See you Jesus Christ our Savior?  There is the river Jordan, with its shelving banks, and its willows weeping at its stale. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descends into the stream, and the holy Baptist, John, plunges him into the waves.  The doors of heaven are opened; a miraculous appearance presents itself, a bright light shineth from the sky, brighter than the sun in all its grandeur, and down in a flood of glory descends something which you recognize to be a dove.  It rests on Jesus — it sits upon his sacred head, and as the old painters put a halo round the brow of Jesus, so did the Holy Ghost shed a resplendence around the face of him who came to fulfill all Righteousness and therefore commenced with the ordinances of baptism.  The Holy Ghost was seen as a dove, to mark his purity and his gentleness, and he came down like a dove from heaven to show that it is from heaven alone that he descendeth.  Nor is this the only time when the Holy Ghost has been manifest in a visible shape.  You notice that company of disciples gathered together in an upper room, they are waiting for some promised blessing, by-and-by it shall come.  Hark! there is a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, it fills all the house where they are sitting, and astonished, they look around them, wondering what will come next.  Soon a bright light appears, shining upon the beads of each: cloven tongues of fire sat upon them.  What were these marvelous appearances of wind and flame but a display of the Holy Ghost in his proper person?  I say the fact of an appearance manifests that he must be a person.  An influence could not appear — an attribute could not appear: we cannot see attributes — we cannot behold influences.  The Holy Ghost must then have been a person; since he was beheld by mortal eyes and came under the cognizance of mortal sense.

Another proof is from the fact that personal qualities are, in Scripture, ascribe to the Holy Ghost. First, let me read to you a text in which the Holy Ghost is spoken of as having understanding.  In the 1 Corinthians 2:9-11, you will read, “But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?  Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”  Here you see an understanding — a power of knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Ghost.  Now, if there be any persons here whose minds are of so preposterous a complexion that they would ascribe one attribute to another, and would speak of a mere influence having understanding, then I give up all the argument.  But I believe every rational man will admit, that when anything is spoken of as having an understanding it must be an existence — it must, in fact, be a person.  In 1 Corinthians 12:11, you will find a will ascribed to the Holy Spirit.  “But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”  So it is plain the Spirit has a will.  He does not come from God simply at God’s will, but he has a will of his own, which is always in keeping with the will of the infinite Jehovah, but is, nevertheless, distinct and separate; therefore, I say he is a person.  In another text, power is ascribed to the Holy Ghost and power is a thing which can only be ascribed to an existence.  In Romans 15:13, it is written, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.”  I need not insist upon it, because it is self-evident, that wherever you find understanding, will, and power, you must also find an existence; it cannot be a mere attribute, it cannot be a metaphor, it cannot be a personified influence; but it must be a person.

But I have a proof which, perhaps, will be more telling upon you than any other.  Acts and deeds are ascribed to the Holy Ghost; therefore he must be a person.  You read in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, that the Spirit brooded over the surface of the earth, when it was as yet all disorder and confusion.  This world was once a mass of chaotic matter; there was no order; it was like the valley of darkness and of the shadow of death.  God the Holy Ghost spread his wings over it; he sowed the seeds of life in it; the germs from which all beings sprang were implanted by him; he impregnated the earth so that it became capable of life.  Now it must have been a person who brought order out of confusion; it must have been an existence who hovered over this world and made it what it now is.  But do we not read in Scripture something more of the Holy Ghost?  Yes, we are told that “holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  When Moses penned the Pentateuch, the Holy Ghost moved his hand, when David wrote the Psalms, and discoursed sweet music on his harp, it was the Holy Spirit that gave his fingers their Seraphic motion when Solomon dropped from his lips the words of the Proverbs of wisdom, or when he hymned the Canticles of love it was the Holy Ghost who gave him words of knowledge and hymns of rapture.  Ah! and what fire was that which touched the lips of the eloquent Isaiah?  What hand was that which came upon Daniel?  What might was that which made Jeremiah so plaintive in his grief?  Or what was that which winged Ezekiel and made him like an eagle, soar into mysteries aloft, and see the mighty unknown beyond our reach?  Who was it that made Amos, the herdsman, a prophet?  Who taught the rough Haggai to pronounce his thundering sentences?  Who showed Habakkuk the horses of Jehovah marching through the waters?  Or who kindled the burning eloquence of Nahum?  Who cause Malachi to close up the book with the muttering of the word curse?  Who was in each of these, save the Holy Ghost?  And must it not have been a person who spake in and through these ancient witnesses?  We must believe it.  We cannot avoid believing it, when we recall that “holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

And when has the Holy Ghost ceased to have an influence upon men? We find that still he deals with his ministers and with all his saints.  Turn to the Acts and you will find that the Holy Ghost said, “Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work.”  I never heard of an attribute saying such a thing.  The Holy Spirit said to Peter, “Go to the centurion, and what I have cleansed, that call not thou common.  The Holy Ghost caught away Philip after he had baptized the eunuch and carried him to another place; and the Holy Ghost said to Paul, “Thou shalt not go into that city, but shalt turn into another.”  And we know that the Holy Ghost was lied unto by Ananias and Sapphira, when it was said, “Thou hast not lied unto man, but unto God.”  Again, that power which we feel every day who are called to preach — that wondrous spell which makes our lips so potent — that power which gives us thoughts which are like birds from a far-off region, not the natives of our soul — that influence which I sometimes strangely feel, which, if it does not give me poetry and eloquence, gives me a might I never felt before, and lifts me above my fellow-man — that majesty with which he clothes his ministers, till in the midst of the battle they cry, aha! like the war-horse of Job, and move themselves like leviathans in the water — that power which gives us might over men, and causes them to sit and listen as if their ears were chained, as if they were entranced by the power of some magician’s wand — that power must come from a person, it must come from the Holy Ghost.

But is it not said in Scripture, and do we not feel it, dear brethren, that it is the Holy Ghost who regenerates the soul?  It is the Holy Ghost who quickens us.  “You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.”  It is the Holy Spirit who imparts the first germ of life, convincing us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come.  And is it not the Holy Spirit who after that flame is kindled, still fans it with the breath of his mouth and keeps it alive?  Its author is its preserver.  Oh! can it be said that it is the Holy Ghost who strives in men’s souls, that it is the Holy Ghost who brings them to the foot of Sinai and then guides them into the sweet place that is called Calvary — can it be said that he does all these things and yet is not a person?  It may be said, but it must be said by fools; for he never can be a wise man who can consider that these things can be done by any other than a glorious person — a divine existence.

Allow me to give you one more proof, and I shall have done.  Certain feelings are ascribed to the Holy Ghost, which can only be understood upon the supposition that he is actually a person.  In the 4th chapter of Ephesians, verse 30th, it is said that the Holy Ghost can be grieved: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”  In Isaiah 63:5-10, it is said that the Holy Ghost can be vexed: “But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit, therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.”  In Acts 7:51, you read that the Holy Ghost can be resisted: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye.”  And in the 5th chapter, 9th verse of the same book, you will find that the Holy Ghost may be tempted.  We are there informed that Peter said to Ananias and Sapphira, “How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?”  Now, these things could not be emotions which might be ascribed to a quality or an emanation they must be understood to relate to a person; an influence could not be grieved; it must be a person who can be grieved, vexed, or resisted.

And now, dear brethren, I think I have fully established the point of the personality of the Holy Ghost; allow me now, most earnestly, to impress upon you the absolute necessity of being sound unto the doctrine of the Trinity.  I knew a man, a good minister of Jesus Christ he is now, and I believe he was before he turned aside unto heresy — he began to doubt the glorious divinity of our blessed Lord, and for years did he preach the heterodox doctrine, until one day he happened to hear a very eccentric old minister preaching from the text, “But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.  Thy tacklings are loosed: they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail.”  “Now,” said the old minister, “you give up the Trinity, and your tacklings are loosed, you cannot strengthen your masts.  Once give up the doctrine of three persons, and your tacklings are all gone your mast, which ought to be a support to your vessel, is a ricketty one, and shakes.”  A gospel without a Trinity! — it is a pyramid built upon its apex.  A gospel without the Trinity! — it is a rope of sand that cannot hold together.  A gospel without the Trinity! — then, indeed, Satan can overturn it.  But, give me a gospel with the Trinity and the might of hell cannot prevail against it; no man can any more overthrow it than a bubble could split a rock or a feather break in halves a mountain.  Get the thought of the three persons and you have the marrow of all divinity.  Only know the Father and know the Son and know the Holy Ghost to be One and all things will appear clear.  This is the golden key to the secrets of nature; this is the silken clue of the labyrinths of mystery, and he who understands this, will soon understand as much as mortals ever can know.

II. Now for the second point — the UNITED AGENCY of the three persons in the work of our salvation. Look at the text, and you will find all the three persons mentioned. “I,” — that is the Son — “will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.”  There are the three persons mentioned, all of them doing something for our salvation.  “I will pray,” says the Son.  “I will send,” says the Father.  “I will comfort,” says the Holy Ghost.  Now, let us for a few moments discourse upon this wondrous theme — the unity of the Three Persons with regard to the great purpose of the salvation of the elect.  When God first made man, he said, “Let us make man,” not let me, but “Let us make man in our own image.”  The covenant Elohim said to each other, “Let us unitedly become the Creator of man.”  So, when in ages far gone by in eternity, they said, “Let us save man.”  It was not the Father who said, “Let me save man,” but the three persons conjointly said with one consent, “Let us save man.”  It is to me a source of sweet comfort, to think that it is not one person of the Trinity that is engaged for my salvation; it is not simply one person of the Godhead who vows that he will redeem me, but it is a glorious trio of Godlike ones, and the three declare, unitedly, “We will save man.”

Now, observe here, that each person is spoken of as performing a separate office.  “I will pray,” says the Son — that is intercession.  “I will send,” says the Father — that is donation.  “I will comfort,” says the Holy Spirit — that is supernatural influence.  Oh! if it were possible for us to see the three persons of the Godhead, we should behold one of them standing before the throne with outstretched hands crying day and night, “O Lord, how long?”  We should see one girt with Urim and Thummin, precious stones, on which are written the twelve names of the tribes of Israel; we should behold him crying unto his Father, “Forget not thy promises, forget not thy covenant,” we should hear him make mention of our sorrows, and tell forth our griefs on our behalf, for he is our intercessor.  And could we behold the Father, we should not see him a listless and idle spectator of the intercession of the Son, but we should see him with attentive ear listening to every word of Jesus, and granting every petition.  Where is the Holy Spirit all the while?  Is he lying idle?  Oh no, he is floating over the earth, and when he sees a weary soul, he says, “Come to Jesus, he will give you rest.”  When he beholds an eye filled with tears, he wipes away the tears, and bids the mourner look for comfort on the cross.  When he sees the tempest-tossed believer, he takes the helm of his soul and speaks the word of consolation, he helpeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds; and ever on his mission of mercy, he flies around the world, being everywhere present.

Behold how the three persons work together.  Do not then say, “I am grateful to the Son,” — so you ought to be, but God the Son no more saves you than God the Father.  Do not imagine that God the Father is a great tyrant, and that God the Son had to die to make him merciful.  It was not to make the Father’s love flow towards his people.  Oh, no.  One loves as much as the other; the three are conjoined in the great purpose of rescuing the elect from damnation.

But you must notice another thing in my text, which will show the blessed unity of the three — the one person promises to the other.  The Son says, “I will pray the Father.”  “Very well,” the disciples may have said, “We can trust you for that.”  “And he will send you.”  You see here is the Son signing a bond on behalf of the Father.  “He will send you another Comforter.”  There is a bond on behalf of the Holy Spirit, too.  “And he will abide with you forever.”  One person speaks for the other and how could they if there were any disagreement between them?  If one wished to save and the other not, they could not promise on one another’s behalf.  But whatever the Son says, the Father listens to, whatever the Father promises, the Holy Ghost works, and whatever the Holy Ghost injects into the soul, that God the Father fulfill.  So the three together mutually promise on one another’s behalf.  There is a bond with three names appended, — Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  By three immutable things, as well as by two, the Christian is secured beyond the reach of death and hell.  A Trinity of Securities, because there is a trinity of God.

III. Our third point is the INDWELLING of the Holy Ghost in believers. Now beloved, these first two things have been matters of pure doctrine, this is the subject of experience.  The indwelling of the Holy Ghost is a subject so profound, and so having to do with the inner man, that no soul will be able truly and really to comprehend what I say, unless it has been taught of God.  I have heard of an old minister, who told a Fellow of one of the Cambridge Colleges, that he understood a language that he never learnt in all his life.  “I have not,” he said, “even a smattering of Greek, and I know no Latin, but thank God I can talk the language of Canaan, and that is more than you can.”  So, beloved, I shall now have to talk a little of the language of Canaan.  If you cannot comprehend me, I am much afraid it is because you are not of Israelite extraction, you are not a child of God nor an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

We are told in the text, that Jesus would send the Comforter, who would abide in the saints forever; who would dwell with them and be in them.  Old Ignatius, the martyr, used to call himself Theophorus, or the God-bearer, “because,” said he, “I bear about with me the Holy Ghost.”  And truly every Christian is a God-bearer.  “Know ye not that ye are temples of the Holy Ghost? for he dwelleth in you.”  That man is no Christian who is not the subject of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; he may talk well, he may understand theology and be a sound Calvinist; he will be the child of nature finely dressed, but not the living child.  He may be a man of so profound an intellect, so gigantic a soul, so comprehensive a mind, and so lofty an imagination, that he may dive into all the secrets of nature; may know the path which the eagle’s eye hath not seen, and go into depths where the ken of mortals reacheth not; but he shall not be a Christian with all his knowledge, he shall not be a son of God with all his researches, unless he understands what it is to have the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, and abiding in him, yea, and that forever.

Some people call this fanaticism, and they say, “You are a Quaker why not follow George Fox?”  Well we would not mind that much; we would follow any one who followed the Holy Ghost.  Even he, with all his eccentricities, I doubt not, was, in many cases, actually inspired by the Holy Spirit; and whenever I find a man in whom there rests the Spirit of God, the Spirit within me leaps to hear the Spirit within him, and he feels that we are one.  The Spirit of God in one Christian soul recognizes the Spirit in another.

I recollect talking with a good man, as I believe he was, who was insisting that it was impossible for us to know whether we had the Holy Spirit within us or not.  I should like him to be here this morning, because I would read this verse to him: “But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”  Ah! you think you cannot tell whether you have the Holy Spirit or not.  Can I tell whether I am alive or not?  If I were touched by electricity, could I tell whether I was or not?  I suppose I should; the shock would be strong enough to make me know where I stood.  So, if I have God within me — if I have Deity tabernacling in my breast — if I have God the Holy Ghost resting in my heart, and making a temple of my body, do you think I shall know it?  Call ye it fanaticism if ye will; but I trust that there are some of us who know what it is to be always, or generally, under the influence of the Holy Spirit — always in one sense, generally in another.  When we have difficulties, we ask the direction of the Holy Ghost.  When we do not understand a portion of Holy Scripture, we ask God the Holy Ghost to shine upon us.  When we are depressed, the Holy Ghost comforts us.  You cannot tell what the wondrous power of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost is: how it pulls back the hand of the saint when he would touch the forbidden thing; how it prompts him to make a covenant with his eyes; how it binds his feet, lest they should fall in a slippery way, how it restrains his heart, and keeps him from temptation.  O ye who know nothing of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, despise it not.  O despise not the Holy Ghost, for it is the unpardonable sin.  “He that speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but he that speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall never be forgiven him, either in this life, or that which is to come.”  So saith the Word of God.  Therefore, tremble, lest in anything ye despise the influences of the Holy Spirit.

But before closing this point, there is one little word which pleases me very much, that is, “forever.”  You knew I should not miss that; you were certain I could not let it go without observation.  “Abide with you forever.”  I wish I could get an Arminian here to finish my sermon.  I fancy I see him taking that word, “forever.” He would say, “for — forever;” he would have to stammer and stutter; for he never could get it out all at once.  He might stand and pull it about, and at last he would have to say, “the translation is wrong.”  And then I suppose the poor man would have to prove that the original was wrong too.  Ah! but blessed be God, we can read it — “He shall abide with you forever.”  Once give me the Holy Ghost and I shall never lose him till “forever” has run out; till eternity has spun its everlasting rounds.

IV. Now we have to close up with a brief remark on the reason why the world rejects the Holy Ghost. It is said, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.”  You know what is sometimes meant by “the world,” — those whom God, in his wondrous sovereignty, passed over when he chose his people: the ones; those passed over in God’s wondrous perdition — not the reprobates who were condemned to damnation by some awful decree, but those passed over by God, when he chose out his elect.  These cannot receive the Spirit.  Again, it means all in a carnal state are not able to procure themselves this divine influence; and thus it is true, “Whom the world cannot receive.”  The unregenerate world of sinners despises the Holy Ghost, “because it seeth him not.”  Yes, I believe this is the great secret why many laugh at the idea of the existence of the Holy Ghost — because they see him not.  You tell the worldling, “I have the Holy Ghost within me.”  He says, “I cannot see it.”  He wants it to be something tangible: a thing he can recognize with his senses.  Have you ever heard the argument used by a good old Christian against an infidel doctor?  The doctor said there was no soul and he asked, “Did you ever see a soul?”  “No,” said the Christian. “Did you ever hear a soul?”  “No.”  “Did you ever smell a soul?”  “No.”  “Did you ever taste a soul?”  “No.”  “Did you ever feel a soul?”  “Yes,” said the man — “I feel I have one within me.”  “Well,” said the doctor, “there are four senses against one: you have only one on our side.”  “Very well,” said the Christian, “Did you ever see a pain?”  “No.”  “Did you ever hear a pain?”  “No.”  “Did you ever smell a pain?”  “No.”  “Did you ever taste a pain?”  “No.”  “Did you ever feel a pain?”  “Yes,”  “And that is quite enough, I suppose, to prove there is a pain?”  “Yes.”

So the worldling says there is no Holy Ghost, because he cannot see it.  Well, but we feel it.  You say that is fanaticism, and that we never felt it.  Suppose you tell me that honey is bitter, I reply “No, I am sure you cannot have tasted it; taste it, and try.”  So with the Holy Ghost, if you did but feel his influence, you would no longer say there is no Holy Spirit, because you cannot see it.  Are there not many things, even in nature, which we cannot see?  Did you ever see the wind?  No; but ye know there is wind, when ye behold the hurricane tossing the waves about and rending down the habitations of men; or when in the soft evening zephyr it kisses the flowers, and maketh dewdrops hang in pearly coronets around the rose.   Did ye ever see electricity?  No, but ye know there is such a thing, for it travels along the wires for thousands of miles and carries our messages, though you cannot see the thing itself, you know there is such a thing.  So you must believe there is a Holy Ghost working in us, both to will and to do, even though it is beyond our senses.

But the last reason why worldly men laugh at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is because they do not know it.  If they knew it by heart-felt experience, and if they recognized its agency in the soul; if they had ever been touched by it; if they had been made to tremble under a sense of sin; if they had had their hearts melted; they would never have doubted the existence of the Holy Ghost.  And now, beloved, it says, “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”  We will close up with that sweet recollection — the Holy Ghost dwells in all believers, and shall be with them.

One word of comment and advice to the saints of God, and to sinners, and I have done.  Saints of the Lord! ye have this morning heard that God the Holy Ghost is a person; ye have had it proved to your souls.  What follows from this?  Why, it followeth how earnest ye should be in prayer to the Holy Spirit, as well as for the Holy Spirit.  Let me say that this is an inference that you should lift up your prayers to the Holy Ghost, that you should cry earnestly unto him, for he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think.  See this mass of people; what is to convert it?  See this crowd; who is to make my influence permeate through the mass?  You know this place has now a mighty influence, and God blessing us, it will have an influence, not only upon this city but upon England at large, for we now enjoy the press as well as the pulpit, and certainly, I should say before the close of the year, more than two hundred thousand of my productions will be scattered through the land — words uttered by my lips, or written by my pen.  But how can this influence he rendered for good?  How shall God’s glory be promoted by it?  Only by incessant prayer for the Holy Spirit; by constantly calling down the influence of the Holy Ghost upon us; we want him to rest upon every page that is printed, and upon every word that is uttered.  Let us then be doubly earnest in pleading with the Holy Ghost, that he would come and own our labors, that the whole church at large may be revived thereby, and not ourselves only, but the whole world share in the benefit.

Then to the ungodly, I have this one closing word to say.  Ever be careful how you speak of the Holy Ghost.  I do not know what the unpardonable sin is, and I do not think any man understands it; but it is something like this: “He that speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall never be forgiven him.”  I do not know what that means: but tread carefully!  There is danger; there is a pit which our ignorance has covered by sand, tread carefully! you may be in it before the next hour.  If there is any strife in your heart today, perhaps you will go to the ale-house and forget it.  Perhaps there is some voice speaking in your soul, and you will put it away.  I do not tell you you will be resisting the Holy Ghost and committing the unpardonable sin; but it is somewhere there.  Be very careful.  Oh ! there is no crime on earth so black as the crime against the Holy Spirit.  Ye may blaspheme the Father, and ye shall be damned for it unless ye repent, ye may blaspheme the Son, and hell shall be your portion, unless ye are forgiven; but blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and thus saith the Lord, “There is no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world which is to come.”  I cannot tell you what it is, I do not profess to understand it; but there it is.  It is the danger signal, stop! man, stop!  If thou hast despised the Holy Spirit, if thou hast laughed at his revelations, and scorned what Christians call his influence, I beseech thee, stop! this morning seriously deliberate.

Perhaps some of you have actually committed the unpardonable sin; stop!  Let fear stop you; sit down.  Do not drive on so rashly as you have done, Jehu!  Oh! slacken your reins!  Thou who art such a profligate in sin, thou who hast uttered such hard words against the Trinity, stop!  Ah, it makes us all stop.  It makes us all draw up and say, “Have I not perhaps so done?”  Let us think of this, and let us not at any time trifle either with the words, or the acts, of God the Holy Ghost.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

How the Spirit Enables Us to Pray by Thomas Boston

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

It is by the help of the Holy Spirit that we are able to pray, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6).   And, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.  For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).

There Are Two Sorts of Prayers.

Firstly, a prayer wrought out by virtue of a gift of knowledge and utterance.  This is bestowed on many reprobates, and that gift may be useful to others, and to the church.  But as it is merely of that sort, it is not accepted, nor does Christ put it in before the Father for acceptance.

For, secondly, there is a prayer wrought in men by virtue of the Holy Spirit—“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication” (Zech. 12:10).  And that is the only acceptable prayer to God, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16).  The word “effective” is from the Greek word “inwrought.”  Right praying is praying in the Spirit.  It is a gale blowing from heaven, the breathing of the Spirit in the saints, that carries them out in the prayer, and which comes the length of the throne.

Spirit Helps Us to Pray Two Ways

1. As a teaching and instructing Spirit, furnishing proper matter of prayer, causing us to know what we pray for (Romans 8:26), enlightening the mind in the knowledge of our needs, and those of others.  The Spirit brings into our remembrance these things, suggesting them to us according to the word, together with the promises of God, on which prayer is grounded, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).  Hence it is that the saints are sometimes carried out in prayer for things which they had no view of before, and carried by some things they had.

2. As a quickening, exciting Spirit (Rom. 8:26).  The Spirit qualifies the soul with praying graces and affections, working in the praying person sense of needs, faith, fervency, humility, etc., “Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear” (Psalm 10:17).  The man may go to his knees in a very unprepared attitude for prayer, yet the Spirit blows, [and] he is helped.  It is for this reason the Spirit is said to make intercession for us, namely, in so far as he teaches and quickens, puts us in a praying frame of mind, and draws out our petitions, as it were, which the Mediator presents.

Special Giftedness in Prayer?

This praying with the help of the Spirit is particular to the saints (James 5:16); yet they do not have that help at all times, nor always in the same measure; for sometimes the Spirit, being provoked, departs, and they are left in a withered condition.  So there is great need to look for a breathing, and pant for it, when we are to go to duty: for if there be not a gale, we will tug at the oars but heartlessly.

Let no man think that a readiness and flowing of expression in prayer is always the effect of the Spirit’s assistance.  For that may be the product of a gift and of the common operations of the Spirit, removing the impediment of the exercise of it.  And it is evident one may be scarce of words and have groans instead of them, while the Spirit helps him to pray (Romans 8:26).  Neither is every flood of emotions in prayer, the effect of the Spirit of prayer.  There are those which puff up a man, but make him never a whit more holy, tender in his walk, etc.  But the influences of the Spirit never miss to be humbling but sanctifying.  Hence, says David, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this?  For all things come from You, and of Your own, we have given You” (1 Chronicles 29:14).  And, says the apostle, “We have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3).

Posted in Thomas Boston |

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »