The Holy Spirit Glorifying Christ
August 17, 1862
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of
mine, and shall shew it unto you."--John 16:14
We always need the Spirit of God
in our preaching; but I think we more especially require his divine direction
and instruction when the subject is himself: for the Holy Spirit is so
mysterious in his varied attributes and operations, that unless He himself
shall reveal himself to us, and give us the words in which to speak of Him, we
shall surely fail either to understand for ourselves, or to enlighten
others. In his light we see
light, but without him we grope like blind men in the dark.
Certain sins against the Holy
Ghost continually exist in a degree in the Christian Church. Unholiness of life grieves the Holy
Spirit. When Christian men walk not
according to the gospel; when their conversation is not ordered according to
the pattern of Christ, then the Holy Spirit who hath no fellowship with
unholiness, with draweth himself in a measure from the Church. Discord, too, strife among brethren,
forgetfulness of the new commandment, that we love one another, grieveth the
sacred Dove: for as his nature is peaceable, as his office is to be the peace-giver,
so he tarrieth not where there is the din and noise of contending parties. So, also, when he perceiveth his saints to
be diseased with worldliness, when we prefer the treasures of Egypt to
the reproach of Christ, and seek rather the things which are seen, which are
temporal, than the things which are not seen, which are eternal, than again is
the Holy Ghost quenched, and departeth from our midst. Above all, pride, and that murmuring,
rebellion, unbelief, obstinacy, and self-seeking which pride leads to--all
this grieveth the Holy Ghost, for he dwelleth with those who are "humble
and of a contrite spirit;" and where there is the voice of murmuring,
where one man seeketh to lift himself above another, and all to exalt
themselves above their despised Lord, the Holy Ghost hideth himself and
suffereth barrenness to take the place of plenty, and death to reign where once
life triumphed. These are a few of the
common and the constant infirmities of the Church, by which the Holy Ghost is
much hindered in those marvelous manifestations which otherwise would be common
and usual in the midst of our Israel.
But there are two faults of
the Church which appear to me periodically to manifest themselves. The one is when men ascribe wrong things to
the Holy Ghost, and maketh him the author of human novelties and
delusions. In seasons when the minds of
good men were anxiously alive to spiritual operations, certain weak-headed or
designing persons have grown fanatical, and being bewildered by their own confused
feelings, and puffed up by their fleshly mind, have forsaken the true light
which is in the Word, to follow after the will-o'the-wisps of their own
fancies, the ignes-fatui [illusion] of their own brains. Such vain-glorious fools aspiring to be leaders,
masters of sects, will boldly tell to men of itching ears that fresh doctrines
have been specially revealed to them.
They prate much of what they call the inner light (which is often an
inner darkness), which dim candle they exalt above the light of the word of
God, and tell you that marvelous things have been taught to them in dreams and
visions. Ah! this is a high and crying
crime. What, will you lay at the door
of the Holy Ghost a deed which God hath solemnly cursed? Do you not start back
at such a thought? Is it not almost
blasphemy to imagine it? And yet
remember, he that adds a single word to the canon of inspiration is cursed.
Give ear to the very words of the Lord our God, "If any man shall add unto
these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and
from the things which are written in this book." And do you think the Holy
Ghost would do that which involves a curse upon man? If I venture to add to God's word, or to take from it, I do it
with this as my penalty, that God shall blot my name out of the Book of Life and
out of the holy city; and yet these base pretenders, who would lay their
foolish notions at the door of God the Holy Ghost, will have it that he has
taught them more than is in the Book, that he has removed that which God laid
down as the grand landmark, and added to the finished testimony of God. Let none of you have any sort of patience
with men who talk thus. Deny their very
first principle, tell them--whether it be the deceiver of Western America, or
the false prophet of Arabia--tell them that they are all imposters, for they
ascribe to the Holy Ghost that which is impossible for him to commit, a
violation of the revealed will of God in which it is declared that the canon of
inspiration is shut up once for all. A
little of this evil I detect among godly people. I find that sometimes even gracious men think they have had
revelations. Texts of Scripture are no
doubt laid home by the Holy Ghost to the souls of men as much today as in
Paul’s time, and there can be no doubt whatever that the Spirit bringeth all
things to our remembrance whatsoever Christ hath taught, and that he leadeth us
into all truth; but when a man tells me that the Holy Ghost has revealed to him
something that is not in the Bible, he lies!
Is that a hard word? It doth but
express the truth. The man may have
dreamed his revelation, he may have fancied it, but the Holy Spirit goeth never
beyond the written word. "He shall
take of mine, and shall show it unto you." And beyond what Christ hath
spoken and what Christ hath taught, the Holy Spirit goeth in no sense and in no
respect.
You understand what Christ
has taught through the Spirit's teaching; but anything beyond the teaching of
Christ and his apostles must be not of God but of man. This is a most important principle to be
held fast by all godly people, for the day may come when false prophets shall
arise, and delude the people, and by this shall we be able to discover them; if
they claim ought beyond what Christ hath revealed, put them aside, for they be
false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing.
The Spirit only teacheth us that which Christ hath taught beforehand
either by himself or by the inspired apostles.
"He shall take of mine and shall show it unto you." Just now
we are in little danger form the excesses of fevered brains, for, as a rule our
sin is in being far too cold and dead to spiritual influences. I fear me we are liable to another evil, and
are apt to forget the person and work of the Comforter altogether. We fear some congregations might say,
"We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. "From
many modern sermons would you know that there was a Holy Spirit? If it were not for the benediction or the
doxology you might go in and out many churches and meeting houses by the year
together, and scarcely know that there was such a person as that blessed,
blessed giver of all good, the Holy Ghost.
Sometimes we hear a little about his influences, as if the Holy Spirit
were not as truly a person as even Jesus Christ himself, who in flesh and blood
trod this earth. Oh, dear friends, I
fear the first danger, that of running wild with whimsies and fancies about
inner lights and new revelations; but I equally dread this last, this putting
the revelation above the revealer, this taking the book without the author,
this preaching of the truth without the great truth-applyer, this going forth
to work with the sword, forgetting that it is the sword of the Spirit, and only
mighty as the Holy Ghost maketh it "mighty to the pulling down of
strongholds. "May this Church ever continue to reverence the Holy Spirit
without exaggerating his work! May we
prize him love him, and adore him, because he so wondrously glorifies our
blessed Lord.
With this, by way of preface,
I shall now come at once to our text, using it three ways--first, as a test
to try various things by; secondly, as a direction how to honor Jesus, and
thirdly, as a stimulus, stirring us up to glorify Christ.
I. First, then, we shall use
our text AS A TEST.
There are a thousand things
that claim to be of the Holy Ghost; how can we know whether they are or
not? Here is a simple mode of
discovering, "He shall glorify me."
1. Let us, first of all, apply this test to ministries.
There are crowds of preachers
and reverend divines now-a-days in the world; but all are not ministers of God
who are so called. A true minister is a
creation of the God of heaven. It is no
more in the power of the Church than it is in the power of the bishops to make
ministers. Independency is as weak as
Episcopacy on this point. God alone
ordains ministers; all that the Church can do is to recognize them. We cannot make them at our colleges; we
cannot make them by the laying on of hands, nor even by the choice of the
Church. God must make them; God must
ordain them; it is only for the Church to perceive God's work and cheerfully to
submit to his choice. Now, there are
some ministries which clearly are not of the Holy Ghost, because they glorify
ceremonies. We could take you into certain
places of worship where the general strain of the ministry is a glorification
of baptism, the blessed Eucharist, confirmation, priesthood, and so on. There you hear much of the childish
millinery with which they deck the altar, and much is said of those grotesque
garments in which their priests disguise themselves. We could point to many places where the main object of teaching
seems to be to exalt a rubric, to magnify a liturgy, to hold up a hierarchy, or
to extol a ritual. Now all such
ministries we may at once sweepingly and unerringly condemn. They are not of the Holy Ghost, for the Holy
Spirit teacheth us not to magnify outward rites, but Christ; and that teaching
is not of the Holy Ghost which doth not glorify the Lord Jesus.
Into other places we might
take you where very clearly the object is the extolling of doctrine. From the first of January to the last of
December the brother bitterly contends for the favorite corners of his
faith. Doctrine, with certain friends,
is everything, and their rigid orthodoxy is the one care of their life. Now, against a sound creed and the doctrines
of grace we have not a word to say. God
be thanked that we love these things as much as those who exalt them above
measure; and are not a whit behind the chiefest of these champions in our zeal
for orthodoxy; but still our Lord is, and must be, the leading theme of our
ministry, and we must continue to exalt him rather than Calvinism, or any other
system of theology. We are bold to say
it, much as we love the Master's throne, we love the Master better still; and
dearly as we love battling for the walls of his vineyard, yet the clusters of
his Eshcol are sweeter to our taste. We
love Christ better than creed, and we think we would rather magnify our Master
than any set of truths, however important they may be.
There are certain doctrinal brethren,
good enough in their way, but still you can evidently see that the doctrine of
election is a thing that they contend more for than the doctrine of the
redemption of Christ; or if it be redemption, it is rather the specialty
of redemption than the divine sacrifice itself. I love to preach the distinguishing grace of God, but I am far
from thinking that some four or five points comprise all the truths which God
has revealed. Be it ours to preach the
doctrines as Dr. Hawker preached them, with Christ as their sum and substance;
"a full Christ for empty sinners," be this our theme. To a great extent it is true of a ministry
that seeketh only to exalt doctrines, that it hath not the fullness of the Holy
Ghost in it, for of the Holy Spirit it is written "He shall glorify, me,"
And, dear brethren, once
again, we are cursed with some few men--would God they were fewer--whose
teaching constantly is, "morality:" if we will do this, and that, and
the other, we shall be saved--the old law of Moses is toned down, and them held
up as the road to heaven. Now, at once,
ye may forsake the synagogues where such men are in the chief places; for if
any man exalt the works of flesh, and not the finished work of Christ; if the
doings, the willings, the prayings, the feelings of man, be put in the place of
the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, his ministry is not of
the Holy Ghost. And what might I say of
many who produce on the Sabbath-day, their pretty little essays, their
elaborate disquisitions, their high-sounding periods?-- what shall I say of all
these but that they are as "sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal,"
inasmuch as they forget Christ, the person of Christ--God and man; the work of
Christ--his atonement and righteousness; the resurrection of Christ--the life
and joy of the saints; the intercession of Christ--our hope and our strength;
and the second advent of Christ, which is as the bright morningstar to every
weary watcher in this world's darkness. That ministry, and that ministry only, is
of the Holy Ghost which magnifies Christ Jesus.
And here, dear brethren in
the ministry--and there are some such present--how bitterly may you and I
lament much of our ministry because it hath not glorified Christ! When we shall lie stretched upon our dying
beds, we shall look back with satisfaction to that poor stammering sermon in
which we magnified the Master; we shall look with intense regret to that well-delivered
oration in which we glorified a sect, or lifted up an ordinance at the expense
of our Lord. Oh, what joy it shall be
to remember that we did lift him up, that however feebly, yet we did
extol him; that though sometimes utterance would not come as our heart
would have it, yet we did point to his flowing wounds and say, "Behold the
way to God." Oh! the sweet bliss of a Whitfield when he retires to his
last couch, to feel that he did preach Jesus, whether it was at the market
cross, or on the hill side, or in the Church, or in the barn; what a
consolation to feel that he did cry faithfully, "Other foundation can no
man lay than that which is laid!"
Oh! the curse on the other hand, that shall rest on a man who, in his
last moments, shall have to reflect-- "I preached other men's sermons, and
talked of anything but Christ; I lifted up anything but the Lord!" Oh! how shall the howlings of his eternal
doom commence in his ear, how shall the judgments of God get hold upon him even
before he passes to the dread tribunal of the Most High. We must, as preachers, come back more and
more to this rule, to feel that if the Holy Ghost be in us he will make us
glorify Christ.
2. Having thus tried
ministries, let us now take the same test with regard to doctrine; and
very briefly here lay its own as a self-evident truth that any teaching,
whatever authority it may claim, which does not glorify Christ, is most
assuredly false; and on the other hand, I think we shall seldom be wrong if we
believe that when a teaching lifts Christ up and puts many crowns upon his
head, it must be a doctrine according to godliness.
Dear friends, Socinianism
must be utterly abhorred of us, for it strikes at once at the Deity of our
blessed Lord and Master. We cannot give
to such persons even the name of Christians.
Mahomatans they may be--it were well if they would join with those men--they
may be good men, they may he moral men, they may be excellent citizen, but
Christians they cannot be, if they deny our Lord to be very God of very God,
and worthy to be worshipped even as is the Father. I marvel much that sundry dissenters should have fraternized with
Arians and Socinians in attacking the Church of England, in the present
sorrowfully mistaken onslaught called the Bicentenary, and I can only pray that
the Lord may not visit them for this shameful confederacy with his enemies. In Arminianism, which is a mixture of truth
and error, there is the doctrine of the saints falling from grace--a doctrine
which is more dishonorable to Christ than I can tell you--which to my mind,
seems to put its black and sooty finger right adown the escutcheon of my Lord
and Master, setting him as a laughing-stock to the whole world, as one who
begins to build and is not able to finish, there is a blot upon his power; he
loves and yet he loves not to the end, there is a blot upon his faithfulness;
he says, "I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish,
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand," and yet they do perish,
according to that doctrine which is a stain upon his veracity. In fact, the doctrine of final falling,
inpugns the whole character of Christ so much, that it would render him
unworthy of our faith. When they shall
prove that one who was once in Christ hath fallen away and hath been lost, I
know not Christ, for he hath violated his word. He can no more be "the truth," when he hath thus put
his own promised into the background, and suffered his darlings to fall into
the power of the dog. If there be
anything in Scripture as plain as noon-day, it is the doctrine that "He
that believeth in him hath everlasting life and shall never perish, neither
shall he come into condemnation;" and if the child of God can be
disinherited, if Christ can divorce his spouse, if the good shepherd shall lose
his sheep; if the limbs of Christ's mystical body can be cut off; or can be allowed
to rot, then I know not what Scripture teacheth, nor do I understand how Christ
can be worthy of the believer's trust.
That doctrine, I think, must be reprobated, because it staineth the
honor and glory of Christ. Without
alluding to others, let that suffice as an instance. Examine well all doctrines; look not at them with complacency
because they are put in cunning language, or asserted in vigorous declamation;
but if you perceive that any teaching dishonors Christ and maketh much of human
ability, if it exalts man and derogates from the grace of God, it is false and
dangerous; and if on the other hand, it layeth man in the dust and lifteth up
Christ as a Savior, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of
salvation, you may safely say that is the Holy Ghost's doctrine, for He shall
glorify Christ.
3. Again, we may use as a
means by which to try much of the conviction through which a sinner
passes. In the first dawn of our
spiritual life, a mighty tempest of spiritual influence sweeps over the
heart. The Holy Ghost is active, and
the prince of the power of the air is active too. There is more of God and more of devil in a new convert, than
perhaps in any other stage of human existence; for just then Satan rageth with
extraordinary fury to drag back the soul to destruction, and the Holy Ghost
worketh in him mightily, with a power which only omnipotence can wield. How, in this confusion, can a man know what
part of his conviction is of God, and what part of the devil? Young man, hearken to me, you have a thought
in your head that you are too great a sinner to be saved. That is not of the Holy Ghost, clearly,
because it detracts from the power of Christ as a Savior; that cannot be of the
Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ. "Yes, sir, but I fell myself to be a great sinner, utterly
lost and ruined." That is
of the Holy Spirit, because it lays you low in order that the greatness of
Christ's salvation may be the more apparent.
"Oh, but," you say, "I am not fit to come to
Christ." Surely this feeling is
not of the Holy Ghost, but of the devil, for it does not glorify Christ. What, are you to make yourself fit to come to
Christ? Why, that is making you a
Christ; yes, it is making you an Antichrist, which is no work of heaven, but a
foul design of hell. "But I heard
old Mr. So-and-So say the other day, sir, that when he was converted, he seemed
to be dragged by the hair of his head to the very depths of hell, and his soul
was full of blasphemy, and his heart was in such an awful state that he cursed
the day of his birth, because he thought he was shut out of the covenant, and
was utterly lost beyond the reach of mercy." Very well, no doubt what he
has told you was his veritable experience; but do you want to experience every
piece of devilry that a good man has known?
Because a good man trips and falls into the gutter, must you trip and
fall there too? Because Jonah descends
into the whale's belly, must we all dive into the sea? I tell you, soul, that much of what your friend
felt was not of God, but of his own corrupt heart, and of the devil, and he
knows it, and he will confess the same to you.
Why, therefore, should you pant after that poison of asps, and snuff the
fumes of Tophet? Nay, but if the Lord
brings thee, this morning, to put thy soul just as it is into the hands of the
Redeemer, honoring him by a childlike trust, thou hast an experience infinitely
more precious than the howling of fiends, and the ravings of thy proud heart
could ever yield thee. To be nothing,
and to accept Christ as everything, is worked in us of the Holy Ghost; but all
the rest, those horrible insinuations, that terrible hell-shaking, may be well
dispensed with; good men have felt these, but they are not good things; they
come from Satan, and are to be avoided and prayed against, but not to be sought
after. 1 pray you, therefore, let the Holy Spirit lead you in his own way, and
ask not to be led in a way of you own choice.
Why long for darkness when the Master wills to let thee walk in light? Into these balances, then, put all your
convictions, and discover how far they are of God, and how far of Satan. That which glorifies Christ is of the Holy
Ghost; all the rest is of flesh, or of hell.
4. Thus, also, we may test what is called experience. Very much of the experience of a Christian
is not Christian experience. If any
person should mount the platform and say, "I will tell you the experience
of a man," and then inform us that he had been five times tried at the Old
Bailey, you would say, "Well, you may have experienced that
disgrace, but it is not fair to call it human experience," So, a Christian man may fall into great
darkness, and into sin too; let us mournfully confess it. But then, if he shall set up his darkness
and his sin as being Christian experience, we say, "Now; we do not judge you,
you may be a Christian and know this, but we cannot allow you to
judge us, and decide our spiritual state according to your peculiar
method of feeling. I fear that many
biographies have done as much mischief as service; because while no doubt they
comfort many who fall into the same state, yet a sufficient discrimination is
not made between the man stirred by the powers of evil, and the same man when
filled with the Holy Ghost. Where we
get to that which cometh from beneath we ought to write always in the spirit of
our apostle who cannot describe himself without an agony. "Oh! wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord." That which glorifies
Christ is true Christian experience, and that which does aught but this, a
Christian may experience, but it is not Christian experience.
5. Let us lift the scales of judgment once more. I think our text gives us an excellent test
by which to try ourselves. My
hearer, art thou saved or not, this morning?
If thou be saved, the bent, the tenor, the bias of thy life is to
glorify Christ. What sayest thou in
looking back? Does the past glorify
Christ? Can you say now with all your
heart, “Yes, glory be to his name; when I think of the love that cleansed me
from such sin: of the grace that broke a heart so hard as mine; of the
faithfulness that has kept me to this day, I can only glorify Christ." And
what about the present? "Oh,"
can you say, "when I think of what I now am by the grace of God, and what
I should have been now if the grace had not prevented; when I look within and
see so much blackness, I must magnify the grace that keeps me ; and when I look
without and see so many temptations, I must and will speak well of his dear
name; I must glorify my Lord Jesus." And what dost thou say about the
future? Wilt thou glorify him
then? I think I see even the timid ones
with their eyes a little brightening up when they say "Ay! if he will but
once bring me across the river, if I ever get beyond gunshot of the devil, ind
behold the face of Christ in glory, I will sing loudest of all the crowd. I will magnify him with all my powers, for I
shall owe more to him than any else before the throne; I will never cease to
sing with all the blood-washed throng,
"Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown him Lord of all.”
Oh! if your heart is not so
that Christ is all to you, and if your soul is not desiring this morning to
honor him, him only, then indeed I fear me the Holy Ghost has no dealing with
your spirit, for where he has been at work, he must, he shall glorify Christ.
II. We are now to use our
text as A DIRECTION. How are we to
glorify Christ?
The text tells us that we
must have the Holy Spirit. Let our
text, then, be sanctified to our humiliation. Here are we saved, by the rich love of Christ, delivered from our
sins, and made alive unto God, and yet we are such weak things that we cannot
glorify Christ without the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. We may pant, and long, and pray that we may
have helped to honor our Master, but we shall only dishonor him and disgrace
his cause, unless the Holy Spirit hold us up and strengthen us. Dost thou hear that, Christian man? Thou hast ten talents, but those ten talents
shall make thee ten times a worse defaulter to thy Master unless the Holy Ghost
help thee. Thou hast eloquence, thou
has wit, thou hast wealth; with none of these canst thou glorify Christ, unless
the Holy Ghost be with thee; for "He shall glorify me." Man cannot, except as the Holy Ghost be with
him. Bow your heads, then, O ye saints
of God, and ascribe ye glory unto the Holy Spirit, but unto yourselves be shame
and confusion of face. Let us employ
this text as an excitement to earnest prayer. We as a Church, and I may speak freely for my own flock, we long
to see Christ glorified. It is to this
end we seek to train up our sons, young men in our much-loved college, that
they may so forth as preachers of the Word.
We have agencies by which we hope to do something in our generation for
our Master, but what is everything we can do without the Holy Ghost? Let us, therefore, pray without
ceasing. Oh, without prayer what are
the Church's agencies, but the stretching out of a dead man's arm, or the
lifting up of the led of a blind man's eye?
Only when the Holy Spirit comes, is there any life and force and
power. Cry then mightily unto God, O ye
who seek to glorify Christ, for without the Holy Spirit ye utterly fail. And here what a lesson our text reads us of entire
dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
Nothing can ye do ye ministers of God, nothing ye faithful watchmen of
Jerusalem, nothing can ye do ye teachers of youth, nothing ye heralds of the
cross in foreign fields, nothing ye ten thousands who are willing to give all
your substance, your time, and your talents, absolutely nothing can ye
accomplish until God the Holy Spirit comes.
We are by the seaside; there are a number of ships left high and dry by
the ebb of the tide. Along tract of mud
stretches out before us. What is to be
done? Call the king's horses, bring the
king's men, gather together the wise and the mighty; what can they all so? Nothing; their learning can only avail to
prove most clearly that they can do nothing.
But see the tide rolls in, wave after wave rises from the deep, and lo
every ship floats, and all the mud and sand is covered with the fullness of the
sea. So is it with the Churches, we all
lie high and dry upon the beach, and there is nothing but the rock and mud of
our inability that is visible, and we can do nothing, absolutely nothing, till
lo! the holy tide comes; the blessed spirit of revival, the Holy Ghost, is
poured out, and now the heaviest Church is floating out to sea, and that which was
most inactive begins to move! Oh! what
can we not so if we have the Holy Spirit?
What can we do if we have him not?
See our utter and entire dependence upon him. When we, as a Church, first came out into broader light and more
public notice, I bear my witness; we had an entire dependence upon the Holy
Ghost. What prayers have I heard, what
strivings and what groanings. We are
reaping now the ripe fruits of the early sowing. Lo, your minister, but a stripling from the country all untrained
in academic lore, knowing nothing but just the doctrine of the cross, came
forth before the multitudes to tell out simply the Word. How he felt his nothingness then, and how
often he told you so! You cried, to God
and the child, the lad was helped, What mighty deeds were done in the
conversion of hundreds! And now we have
a name, and there is a great temptation to rest upon our success, and for men
to think there is something in the preacher, that he can gather the crowd, can
preach the Word, and it is sure to be blessed when he preaches it. Brethren, again I say we are nothing, we are
less than nothing, Your minister a fool, and nought beyond, except the Holy
Ghost be with him; able to do nothing except mischief, nothing that shall be
profitable to you, or make any heart glad but the heart of the evil one, unless
the Holy Ghost be with us still.
Joyously would I receive again the jeer, the sneer, the constant slander
that was heaped upon my devoted head, if I might have back again your entire
dependence upon the Holy Ghost. Oh,
members of this Church, you who have been quickened under our word, let not
your faith stand in the wisdom of man, but still in the demonstration of the
Spirit; and let us one and all feel that we are still as weak as water, and as
vain as the whistling wind, unless he that was first with us be with us
still. "He shall glorify me."
The Holy Ghost shall do it. None can do
it if he be absent.
I know I am addressing some
this morning who have seen the goings forth of the Holy One of Israel. In fact we as a Church have had to rejoice
these nearly nine years in a blessed revival, but how diligent should we be
while we have that revival, in order that we may retain it! All the farmers in England cannot make it
leave off raining, but when it does leave off, and the sun shines, I know what
they can do--get their wheat in as quick as they can. All the sailors on the ocean cannot make a capful of wind; when
the sail flaps to and fro they cannot make it swell out as in the gale, but
what can they do when the wind does blow?
They can crowd on every yard of canvas, So all the Christians in the
world cannot make the Holy Spirit work.
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth;" but
what we can do is this, when we have the Holy Spirit, we can use him; when He
is with us we can work. We must make
hay while the sun shines; we must grind while the wind blows, we must be active
and diligent for God when the visitation of the Holy Spirit is with us. The revival has to a great extent ceased in
many places, I fear me it is because they did not diligently use its
influence. In Ireland how much of
revival there was, but the Holy Spirit withdrew necessarily because it was held
up as a curiosity. Every newspaper
reeked with the news of the revival; people went from England to see it; it
could not last them, God never does His great works to be stared at, to be held
up as curiosities. The thing was ruined
the moment men began curiously to talk of it and spread abroad the news thereof
as of a phenomenon worthy of philosophical investigation. These good things
should never be made a subject of "Come, see my zeal for the Lord of
Hosts;" while the good work goes on we should be so hard at work for the
Master, that we have not time to put into every penny newspaper the tale of
what God is doing. Let us then be up
while the Master is with us and doing His work, doing it in the Spirit's own way,
seeking to glorify Jesus, and seeking to retain the Spirit in our midst.
III. And now, lastly, I am to take my text by way
of A STIMULUS.
Does the Holy Ghost glorify
Christ? Ah, then, how should we aim to
do it! Let us make, then, beloved brothers
and sisters in Christ, let us make this the one object of our life, to glorify
Christ. You have been a man in a large
way of business. Could you say while
you were doing business so largely that your object was to honor Christ in it?
Well you have come down in the world; you have a smaller shop now. Yes, but
suppose you can glorify God more. Then
you are in a better position than you used to be. I have seen many a man who
prospered in his soul and honored his Master much, who has made a wrong step,
and has injured his usefulness and happiness; wanting to get more business, he
has launched into wide speculations, and has had less time for serving his
Lord, and has thus really been in a worse position, for spirituals were under a
decay. You may have seen in the
newspapers an instance of what sometimes comes through getting wealthy. A man and his wife were prospering in a
little way of business, as hard-working people, near Birmingham. A friend died and left the wife some _1,300,
no great sum, but quite enough to ruin a man.
They at once took a public-house, and you will remember that he now lies
in prison on a charge of murdering his wife.
Little marvel that when, tempted by what little they had to seek after
more they entered upon an ill occupation in order to increase their wealth;
that evil trade soon led to vicious habits and to death. Now I have seen believers mournfully
impoverish their souls by seeking after carnal wealth instead of seeking
Christ; but let a man's only object be to glorify Christ, and he will feel very
little concern where providence places him, so long as he may still promote his
one object, and put crowns on the Redeemer's head.
This brings me to say,
brethren, while we make this our aim, let us take every opportunity of
glorifying Christ. We throw thousands
of opportunities away. Where we might
do good we neglect it. I chide my own
self here very bitterly and very often, but I fear me I might chide many of you
too. You had an opportunity yesterday,
but you lost it; you might have spoken for Christ but you did not. No one can tell the good you might have
done, but you did not do it. You were
backward. Oh! as the Holy Ghost
glorifies Christ everywhere, so do you!
I pray you do this always, not merely at particular times, but make your
whole life a glorifying of Christ. As I
sat on an omnibus yesterday, I heard a man saying behind me, how greatly he
admired the continental way of keeping Sundays--going to the church in the
morning, and going to the theatre at night.
"Don't you see," he said, "it is irrational to think that
the Almighty expects to spend the whole day in praying. There is no man living who can pray for six hours
together, let alone twelve." That
was just putting in broad language what most ungodly people feel, but then I
wonder what they would make of the Apostle Paul's admonition, "Pray
without ceasing." Here was a man
who thought that nobody could pray for six hours together, while the saints of
God are to continue always in prayer.
No man comes up to the stature of the Christian, or such a man as he
should be, unless he cannot only pray for six hours together, but his whole
life long. It was said of good old
Rowland Hill, that people did not so much notice his particular times of
retirement, for he was a man who was always praying, wherever he might be. You would often find him alone talking to
himself, and ever in company his heart would be going away to the object of his
best love, he would still be in communion with Christ. Be ye always glorifying Christ, Christians,
from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Whether ye work at a lapstone, or drive a
plough or lay the stones in a building; serve the Master in all these things;
whether ye are diligent with the pen, or whether ye buy and sell, or plough the
sea, do all even to your eating or your drinking in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and so like the Holy Spirit let it be said of you, "He shall glorify
me."
We conclude by endeavoring to
magnify our Master ourselves. I want to
say just two or three things to glorify him, and they shall be just these. I shall say this to the poor troubled
doubting sinner, "Sinner, my Master is able to save you?” “Oh, but I am the biggest sinner out of
hell." “Yes, he is the greatest of all Saviors. "Yes, but I have gone over head and ears in iniquity."
Yes, but he was baptized also in his agonies that he might save you. "Oh, but he cannot save
me!" Ay! but he can; and if I am
now addressing the scum of the earth, one of the devil's sweepings, one who is
hardly fit for decent company, my Master is able to save you. Unto the utter most he saveth, and your sin,
though black, he can cleanse, and make you whiter than snow.
I would say something else to glorify him. He is willing to save you; his generous
heart desireth you. Your perishing will
not make him glad, but he will weep over you as he did over Jerusalem; but your
being saved will give him to see the travail of his soul. "Do you know who you are speaking to,
sir?" No I don't, but my Master does; for now he fixes his poor tearful
eyes on thee. Where is the sinner? Behind that pillar is he in yonder
corner? The Master looketh at him, and
he saith, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto
your souls." What, are ye so far
away? How loudly doth he call you
"Come, sinner, repent and come."
Art thou willing to come? Lo! he
meets thee, in the road he meets thee; embracing thee, he falls upon thy neck
to kiss thee. He saith, even this
morning he saith it, "Take off his rags and clothe him in fine apparel;
wash him and make him clean, for I have put away his sins like a cloud, and
like a thick cloud his iniquities."
That which glorifies Christ the most of all is the preaching of the
gospel to sinners, and therefore have I glorified him now, and would do so as
long as I live. Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, for he that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned. God give us to glorify Christ by trusting in
Him! Amen.
Added to Bible
Bulletin Board's "Spurgeon Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986