MOUNTAIN, Mo. — Amazingly, just to hear Charles Spurgeon during the 1800s, people numbering in the hundreds of thousands traveled great distances, some from around the world. Thousands more, eagerly waited for his sermons, sermons that had been hand-copied by dozens of secretaries, to be mailed to them each week. Yet, in these words spoken and written were admonitions to lead a holy life. A holy life! Why did so many desire to hear these messages? If we are honest, we will recognize that in each of us is a deep desire to live as God wants us to. Please make note, I said “if” we are honest! So read and hear what Charles Spurgeon, of the 1850s, has to say to us today.
“All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spiritof grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant except he worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Do you desire to speak for Jesus?
How can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas! What dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you!
Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy?
Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardour for the Master’s cause? You cannot without the Spirit. Without me ye can do nothing.”
“O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the sap! O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which God gives thee through his Spirit! Then let us not grieve him or provoke him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench him in one of his faintest motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion,and be ready to obey every prompting. If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without him; let us begin no project, and carry on noenterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring his blessing. Let us do him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from him, and then depending alone upon him, having this for our prayer - Open thou my heart and my whole being to thine incoming, and uphold me with thy free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts.”
Lest we think that the people of his day were “more religious” than people today we should consider these facts: Darwinism plagued the church, creating division in most assemblies; many people, included those within the church, were moving away from the Bible as the authoritative Word of God; most women had no choice but to marry, having no rights to work or hold property, but thecongregation sitting before Spurgeon was equally male and female, as Spurgeon talked of everyone being equal before Christ.
This period of history was equally troubled, as is our time, by unholy actions and thoughts.
Today, the church established by the risen Christ Jesus must not allow the world around them to dictate the life a believer in Christ should live. The truth is this: If born-again believers live just as Jesus taught and as expounded upon by the New Testament writers, then those who honestly recognize the emptiness of their souls, emptiness enhanced by much of what can be watched on the big or the multiples of small screens, these souls will be looking for those believers. They will recognize in these believers the answer tothe emptiness they feel.
Spurgeon is right: Believers must live by the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
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Editor’s note: Jim Duncan is the pastor of Mountain Bible Church, Mountain, Mo. He may be contacted at P.O. Box 146, Pea Ridge, AR 72751; or by telephone at 417-341-8504; by e-mail at james [email protected]. His Web site is www.jamesduncan-writer.net.
Church, Pages 2 on 06/20/2012