Holy Spirit

Radical Christians – Paul Washer

Radical Christians are not people who wear Christian t-shirts. Radical Christians are those who bear fruit of the Holy Spirit. … A little boy, Andrew, a Muslim shot him five times through the stomach and left him on a sidewalk simply because he said, “I am so afraid, but I can not deny Jesus Christ! Please don’t kill me! But I will not deny Him!” He died in a pool of blood, and you talk about being a radical Christian because you wear a t-shirt!

– Paul Washer –

The Mark of True Gospel Preaching – Charles Spurgeon

“Let this be to you the mark of true gospel preaching—where Christ is everything, and the creature is nothing; where it is salvation all of grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit applying to the soul the precious blood of Jesus.”

– Charles Spurgeon –

Context of Persecution – Leon Morris

The work of the Holy Spirit in the church is done in the context of persecution. The Spirit is not a guide and a helper for those on the straight way perfectly able to manage on their own. He comes to assist people caught up in the thick of battle and tried beyond their strength. Jesus makes it quite plain that the way before his followers is a hard and difficult way.

– Leon Morris – 

Union with Jesus Christ – AB Simpson

Christianity may mean nothing more than a religious system. The Christian life may mean nothing more than an earnest and honest attempt to follow and imitate Christ. The Christ life is more than these and expresses our actual union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is actually in us as the life and source of all our experience and work. This conception of the highest Christian life is at once simpler and more sublime than any other. We do not teach that the purpose of Christ’s redemption is to restore us to Adamic perfection, for if we had it we should lose it tomorrow. Rather, it is to unite us with the second Adam, and to lift us up to a higher plane than our first parents ever knew. This is the only thing that can reconcile the warring elements of diverse schools of teaching with respect to Christian life. The Spirit of God will lead us to have no controversy respecting mere theories. Rather, we are simply to hold to the person and life of Jesus Christ Himself and the privilege of being united to Him through living in constant dependence upon His keeping power and grace.

– AB Simpson –

The Strength to Stand – Richard Sibbes

With the freedom of spirit, there is courage and strength of faith against opposition… It gives him courage and strength to resist. The more opposition, the more courage he has. When the early Christians had the Spirit of God (Acts 4:23ff), they resisted opposition, and the more they were opposed, the more they grew. They were cast in prison, and rejoiced. And the more they were imprisoned, the more courageous they were still.

– Richard Sibbes –
from Glorious Freedom, 1639

All Spiritual Strength Comes from the Holy Spirit – Thomas Brooks

All the spiritual might and strength that a Christian has, he has it from the Holy Spirit. Though the Spirit strengthens every Christian in the inner man, yet I do not say that the Spirit strengthens every Christian alike in the inward man. Some have stronger corruptions to subdue than others, and more violent temptations to withstand than others, and greater difficulties to wrestle with than others, and choicer mercies to improve than others, and higher and harder duties of religion to manage than others, and accordingly they are more strengthened in the inner man than others.

– Thomas Brooks –
from The Secret Key To Heaven, 1665