Ye Shall Live
The Holy Spirit's work is to kill and keep us dead, allowing us to be filled with His resurrection life, and we must surrender to this process.
A.B. Simpson emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is essential for true spiritual death and resurrection, as many Christians struggle to achieve this on their own, leading to a cycle of ineffective self-crucifixion. He illustrates that while yielding to the Holy Spirit may seem painful, it can be a delightful process when we surrender fully, allowing the Spirit to execute God's will in our lives. Simpson encourages believers to stop living in a state of perpetual struggle and instead trust the Holy Spirit to slay anything that opposes God's purpose, enabling them to live in the fullness of His resurrection life.
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The Holy Spirit is the only one who can kill us and keep us dead. Many Christians try to do this disagreeable work themselves, and they are going through a continual crucifixion but can never accomplish the work permanently. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and when we really yield ourselves to the death, it is delightful to find how sweetly He can execute the sentence. They tell us that by the touch of the electric spark life is extinguished almost without a quiver of pain. However this may be in natural things, we know the Holy Spirit can touch with celestial fire the surrendered thing, after it is really yielded up to the sentence of death, and slay it in a moment.
The yielding is our business, and it is God's business to execute the sentence and to keep it constantly operative.
May we not live in the pain of perpetual and ineffective suicide, but reckoning ourselves dead indeed, let us leave ourselves in the hands of the blessed Holy Spirit. He will slay whatever rises in opposition to His will and keep us true to our heavenly reckoning and filled with His resurrection life.
Sermon Outline
- The Work of the Holy Spirit
- The Role of Surrender
- The Power of the Holy Spirit
- Touch with Celestial Fire
- Slaying Opposition and Filling with Resurrection Life
Key Quotes
“The Holy Spirit is the only one who can kill us and keep us dead.” — A.B. Simpson
“May we not live in the pain of perpetual and ineffective suicide, but reckoning ourselves dead indeed, let us leave ourselves in the hands of the blessed Holy Spirit.” — A.B. Simpson
Application Points
- We must surrender to the Holy Spirit's work in our lives, allowing Him to execute the sentence of death and keep us constantly operative.
- By reckoning ourselves dead indeed, we can avoid living in spiritual pain and ineffective struggle.
- The Holy Spirit's touch with celestial fire can slay whatever rises in opposition to His will and fill us with His resurrection life.