", II. If I be called I must have been elected, and I need not doubt that. And now my hearers, let me just utter this personal appeal to you. He must come out from his very dearest friends, from all his old acquaintances, from those friends with whom he used to drink, and swear, and take pleasure; he must go straight away from them all, to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. This is readily granted, but a reader must wear very powerful magnifying spectacles before he will be able to discover that sense in the text. Many believers make a mistake when they long to die and long for heaven. Romans 8 We can live by God's Spirit 1 Now we know this: God has forgiven those people who are united with Christ Jesus. He was content with them for what they were, but the first-fruits enlarged his desires for the harvest. And this solemn text drops an awful warning: "How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation." We expect to see this world that is now so full of sin as to be an Aceldama, a field of blood, turned into a paradise, a garden of God. How are we to judge between them? He uses the word "likewise" to intimate that in the same manner as hope sustains the soul, so does the Holy Spirit strengthen us under trial. We must suffer with him if we would be glorified with him. The Lord bless this assembly, for Christ's sake. The affliction was, as it were, in your very bones, but the promise was also in your very heart. Come on, slanderers! You are as bad as any one of us. Having summarily disposed of all of them, Paul adds, "nor things present." I have sometimes read sermons upon the inclination of the sinner to evil, in which it has been very powerfully proved, and certainly the pride of human nature has been well humbled and brought low; but one thing always strikes me, if it is left out, as being a very great omission; viz. And would you blush to sit side- by-side with him, and be made nothing of as he was? Yes; but I set over against that the fact that he always would have me. Stay, then, ye who are puffed up by your achievements, consider ye have but poorly performed, not a deed of supererogation, but of ordinary duty. It is a wonderful thing. He intercedes, and he must be heard. This is a 12-16 week, in-depth study of Romans 8, averaging less than 3 verses per week (there are 12 weekly preparation guides, but leaders should allow some discussions to take one and a half or two weeks). I have such a happy house, I do not like to be out of it." "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Oh, the bitterness of that cry "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" says one; "a pleasant fiction, sir!" Those whom the Lord looked upon with favor as he foresaw them, he has predestinated to he conformed to the image of his Son. Old English warfare was then conducted by bowmen to a great extent. and hence he is "a very present help in time of trouble.". Should another say, "I was baptized an adult," let your confidence remain the same: "Christ has died." It means, first of all, that our right to the divine heritage stands or falls with Christ's right to the same inheritance. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have been begotten into the family of grace. It is a pleasant and precious thing so to wait and so to hope. The signature of the one will not avail to alienate the estate, nor can he sell it by his own right, nor have it all at his own separate disposal, or in his own sole possession or holding. We keep our longings to our Lord, and to our Lord alone. : I took pleasure in sin; but, "he, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame." Only give man something that shall well nigh intoxicate him; drug him with opium; and how will his imagination dance with joy! III. If any take up the gage of battle, and say, "We condemn you," we shall have this for our complete answer to every one, "It is Christ that died." No hint is given in the text of foreseen virtue any more than of foreseen sin, and, therefore, we are driven to find another meaning for the word. With that attack upon his Sonship the fiend commenced the battle. We who are but babes cannot hold the great ocean of Godhead in our infantile palms. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should what pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. But mark, although this call be rejected, man is without excuse in the rejection; the universal call has in it such authority, that the man who will not obey it shall be without excuse in the day of judgment. It is not black, but blackness; it is not at enmity, but enmity itself; it is not corrupt, but corruption; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion; it is not wicked, it is wickedness itself. Napoleon had been used to gilded halls, and all the pomp and glory of imperial state, and it was hard to be reduced to a handful of servants. I think I need not remind you of your condition here below; you are too conversant with it, being hourly fretted with troubles, vexed with your own infirmities, with the temptations of Satan, and with all the allurements of this world. God's Spirit now rules in your life and he has made you free. Yet at that selfsame moment, where human eyes saw nothing seraphic eyes beheld marvels of grace, and angels in heaven rejoiced over one sinner that repented, singing once again "glory to God in the highest." We are debtors to the men who crossed the sea, and laughed at the fury of the storm, who risked the journeying, and the weariness, and all the various perils to which they were exposed, by reason of robbers and false brethren; we are debtors to each stake at Smithfield; we are debtors to the sacred ashes of the thousands who have there followed Jesus even unto death; we are debtors to the headless bodies of those who were beheaded for Christ Jesus; we are debtors to those who dared the lions in the amphitheatre and fought with wild beasts at Ephesus; we are debtors to the massacred thousands of the bloody church of Rome, and the murdered myriads of her pagan predecessors; we are debtors to them all. Regulus returns to Rome; he stands up in the senate and conjures them never to make peace in Carthage, but ot his wife and children, and tells them that he is going back to Carthage, and of course the tell him that he need not keep faith with an enemy. We may say of the prayers which the Holy Spirit works in us that they are prayers of knowledge. Do you curse your father, who so wisely watched over you? And he just paraphrased it in his own dialect like this "My arm is always strong, and my sickle always sharp, when there is no harvest, and I think I could mow many an acre when there is no grass; but when the harvest is on I am weak, and when the grass groweth then my scythe is blunt." There is never a clash in the world: men think so, but it never is so. Oh, if you, my dear hearers, knew the joy and peace that would come to you if you but trusted in the doctrine of substitution, you would not rest until you were able to say, "Christ was in my place, that I might stand in his place: my sins were laid on him, that his righteousness might be girded on me." It shall work for thy good. God bless you, my beloved brethren, and may you feel the Spirit of the Lord thus working in you and with you. What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I am predestinated. It was said of king Cyrus, that he was a prince of so amiable a disposition, that when at any time he sat down at meat, if there were aught that pleased his appetite, he would order it to be taken away and given to his friends with this message, "King Cyrus found that this food pleased his palate, and he thought his friend should feed upon that which he enjoyed himself." Cry mightily to the Holy Spirit to continue his sanctifying work upon you; beseech him not to be grieved and vexed, and, therefore, in any measure to stay his hand. ", When you have overcome Satan, the world will come forth to attack you, and to dispute your claim to be numbered amongst the people of God. Well, whatever it may be, and the woes of the present are very many, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. Many have gone round the world to look for a saviour other than the Lord Jesus Christ, and they have only come to him when all others have failed them. We cannot be precisely as God is, yet as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, whatever that image may be. I will make no answer to that accusation but this: "It is Christ that died." "Put your right hand here, my boy, and place your left hand so. My friends, there is a cementing power in the grace of God which can scarcely be over estimated. Rules for the conduct of Christians to one another, as members of the Christian church, Rom. Sound conviction of sin, deep humiliation on account of it, and a sense of utter weakness and unworthiness naturally conduct the mind to the belief of the doctrines of grace, while shallowness in these matters leaves a man content with a superficial creed. Therefore hath God, as it were, enlarged his arguments. He was a man of many trials; he went from one tribulation to another for Christ's sake; he swam through many seas of affliction to serve the church. They seek in vain; for there is no Saviour to be found, except at Calvary; and after you have made the circuit of the globe, and compassed heaven and hell to find another way of salvation, you will have to come back to Christ. At any rate, meet the attack of the world as you met the attack of Satan, with this weapon only: "It is Christ that died," and you will be "more than conquerors through him that loved us.". They all work to bring him to Paradise all work to bring him to the Saviour's feet. As to our spirits, we have liberty to soar into the third heaven, and sit in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus; but as for our bodies, we can only roam about this narrow cell of earth, and feel that it is not the place for us. Tell conscience that Christ has died for your sins, according to the Scriptures, and it will be perfectly satisfied: it will not go to sleep, but it will use its voice for other purposes, and it will no longer seek to condemn you. And yet God had a goodly land for him, and intended greatly to bless him. No Jew was ever content with the first-fruits. Let them "rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice.". To us, indeed, the things are scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other. But this should not be so. He decrees that Christ Jesus, the Well-Beloved, even his own other self, who is one with him, should come into the world and bear the sin of man, make amends to the injured honour of God, and magnify the law before the eyes of the whole universe. If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Strange to say, it proved true that it was for his good; for being delayed a day or so on the road through his lameness, he just arrived in London in time enough to hear that Elizabeth was proclaimed queen, and so he escaped the stake by his broken leg. Now, if I understand the passage before us, it means this. He is powerless to obey, but he is mighty enough to resist the call of divine grace. So, beloved friends, there is nothing in death to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. All things at this present moment are working together for the believer's good. If you like to call it so, you may; but I would rather that you made the mistake of the good old Christian woman who did not know much about these things, and who said that she herself was "a high Calvarist." Yes, and with that natural groan there may go up an unutterable groaning of the Holy Spirit. Is he a victor? may seem too mean to pray about. How greatly we ought to value the Holy Spirit, because when we are in the dark he gives us light, and when our perplexed spirit is so befogged and beclouded that it cannot see its own need, and cannot find out the appropriate promise in the Scriptures, the Spirit of God comes in and teaches us all things, and brings all things to our remembrance, whatsoever our Lord has told us. And indeed this is proved by the very chapter out of which we have taken our text. While we have an Almighty Saviour, the redeemed must be saved; until omnipotence can fail, and the Almighty can be overcome, every blood-bought redeemed child of God is safe and secure for ever. It is written, "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Now the apostle adds two more expressions, "nor height, nor depth." Then secondly, there is the secret mind of God, the will of his eternal predestination and decree, of which we know nothing; but we do know this, that the Spirit of God never prompts us to ask anything which is contrary to the eternal purpose of God. You not only sinned with your body, with your eyes, your lips, your hands; but you have sinned in imagination and desire very horribly." "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life," and so on. A thousand sources of joy are opened in that one blessing of adoption. Measure me by the articles of the Church of England, and I will not stand second to any man under heaven's blue sky in preaching the gospel contained in them; for if there be an excellent epitome of the gospel, it is to be found in the articles of the Church of England. The proof of love to the uttermost is that "It is Christ that died.". First, then, my brethren, a SPECIAL PRIVILEGE mentioned in the text. At such times we should thank God for direction and give our desire a clear road: the Holy Spirit is granting us inward direction as to how we should reckon upon good success in our pleadings. The world is not at play; it hath an object in its wildest movement. Now, beloved, it is in such a plight as this that the Holy Ghost aids us with his divine help. The influences of the Holy Ghost at times pass through the soul like winds through an Eolian harp, creating and inspiring sweet notes of gratitude and tones of desire, to which we should have been strangers if it had not been for his divine visitation. Oh for 400 Scoevolas, 400 men who for Christ's sake would burn, not their right hands, but their bodies, if indeed Christ's name night be glorified, and sin might be stabbed to the heart. I showed you, just now, the difference between a groan and a groan. At all times, at all hours, at every moment, (I speak this as God speaketh it), if ye are carnal, ye are each one of you enmity against God. Yes, that is quite true, and it would be a great mercy for you if you knew how to groan in the same way. Now, believer, thou mayest be very poor, and very sick, and very much unknown and despised, but sit thee down and review thy calling this morning, and the consequences that flow from it. We are like Adam now in weakness and pain, and we shall soon be like him in death, returning to the ground whence we were taken; but we shall rise again to a better life, and then shall we wear in glory and incorruption the image of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Ask him whether he is happy and content. You have felt as sure about the promise as you felt about the trial. Many men cavil at election; the very word with some is a great bug ear; they no sooner hear it than they turn upon their heel indignantly. I could indicate some dear friends here who I hope are not in the depths now, but I have seen them there. God's people are known by their outward mark: they love God, and the secret cause of their loving God is this God chose them from before the foundation of the world that they should love him, and he sent forth the call of his grace, so that they were called according to his purpose, and were led by grace to love and to fear him. But I repeat it, this universal call is rejected by man; it is a call, but it is not a attended with divine force and energy of the Holy Spirit in such a degree as to make it an unconquerable call, consequently men perish, even though they have the universal call of the gospel ringing in their ears. Jesus must lose the reward of his agonies before we can lose the fruits of them. He just repeated his master's name and office as many times as the other gentleman had titles. Oh! It would be a foolish pride indeed, if two prisoners in the Queen's Bench were to boast, one saying, "I owe a hundred pounds," and the other replying, "I am a greater gentleman than you are, for I owe a thousand." Through many troubles you have passed, but you can say, they have all been for your good. When a Roman general came home from the wars, he entered Rome by stealth, and slept at night, and tarried by day, perhaps for a week or two, among his friends. Christian, stop and ponder for a moment! I have thus given you the four props and pillars of the believer's faith. It is said that every strand of them would bear the entire onnage, and consequently, if every strand bears the full weight that will ever be put upon the whole, there is an absolute certainty of safety given to the whole when twisted together. I have thought it over, I have fully considered it, I have-thoroughly weighed it, and I have come to this persuasion, that the love of God is shed abroad in my heart.". What Paul are you at? O, unbelievers you must first be made saints or you cannot feel the Spirit's intercession within you. This truth divides itself thus: it is the will of God that conforms us to Christ's image rather than our own will. We are to groan after perfection, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. One of two joint heirs has no right apart from the other. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: "Saved by your works! Look around you and learn your duty. The cross and Christ are nailed together by four nails, and they will never be disassociated in the experience of any Christian. ", And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this fact, who shall decide the question; it shall be your conscience. Simply because it is depraved; and until he had entered a foul element until the body had begun to quiver with a kind of intoxication the fancy would not hold its carnival. You were saying of such-and-such an ungodly person, "Everything seems to go well with him, but as for me, all the day long am I plagued, and chastened every morning." It goes into the region of things unknown; it goes beyond the knowable; for flesh and blood will never be able to comprehend what Jesus suffered when the great flood of human sin came rushing down upon him, and filled his spirit to the brim. "Ah!" Brethren, we who know and love the Lord, are debtors, not to one creditor, but to many. Even so did our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had been persuaded of this truth by his own experience. Forty cubits upwards hath this red sea prevailed. If he hath wealth, let him use it in his Master's service, for it is his. Last of all, I have another practical point. and what is election, but God's purpose to do what he does do? "The meek shall inherit the earth, and delight themselves with the abundance of peace." Now that which God reads in the heart and approves of for the word to "know" in this case includes approval as well as the mere act of omniscience what God sees and approves of in the heart must succeed. though that bell hath the very sound of heaven, and though all men do in a measure hear it, for "their line is gone out into all the earth and their Word unto the end of the world" yet there was never an instance of any man having been brought to God simply by that sound. I am treating the text as you see, verbally. I beseech you, my dear friends, take this thought with you wherever you go: "I am a debtor, I must serve my God. There is no flaw in God's will with regard to Christ. Every carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. Then all thy love, as though there were not another to be loved, is mine, O God, and all thy grace, as though there were never another sinner to partake of it, is mine. A carnal man draws the inference that if God has ordained an event we need not pray about it, but faith obediently draws the inference that the God who secretly ordained to give the blessing has openly commanded that we should pray for it, and therefore faith obediently prays. Five Divine acts, through each of which in regular succession the purpose of salvation advances to its accomplishment, are linked by St. Paul into one golden chain, of which one end is let down out of the unknown past, and the other returns to lose itself in the unknown future. I do not wonder, therefore, that in his epistles he often discourses upon the doctrines of foreknowledge, and predestination, and eternal love, because these are a rich cordial for a fainting spirit. But perhaps there may be a suit in law made against the will; some antagonist may set up a counter claim; an enemy to the entire family may proceed at once to attack the will with venom and with malice; he may take it into the Heavenly Court of Chancery, and there, before the great Judge, the question may be tried as to whether the inheritance be legally and lawfully ours. Like the marvellous structures of Palmyra of Baalbek, in the far off east, the earth in ruins reveals a magnificence which betokens a royal founder, and an extraordinary purpose. We will come again in a few days: as we are entering the first house we see weeping faces and flowing tears, a coffin, and a hearse. An adversary in the court might plead against him, and overthrow him, for he could not answer him. There is but one that can claim the heir's rights, and the heir's title. Is there not any word of special commendation to this? traitor against God!" "All things work," at this very instant and second of time. The desires which the Spirit prompts may be too spiritual for such babes in grace as we are actually to describe or to express, and yet the Spirit writes the desire on the renewed mind, and the Father sees it. Yet our heavenly Father, who looks immediately upon the heart, reads what the Spirit of God has indited there, and does not need even our groans to explain the meaning. Lo! But, beloved, we are persuaded better thing of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Will he be received with triumph by his Father? I want you to notice that Paul does not even rest his confidence as to the believers' safety upon the fact that they are able to say, "We have trusted in Christ; we have loved Christ; we have served Christ." The bow bends so easily we wonder how it is; away flies the arrow, and it pierces the very centre of the target, for he who giveth have won the day, but it was his secret might that made us strong, and to him be the glory of it. Surely the apostle was right when he said, "Yea rather, who hath risen from the dead." And shall a Christian man break his promise? Consider, then, how much thou owest to his Sovereignty! ", Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, January 5TH, 1868, by. His interpretation of it is a groan, and that is all. says yet another accuser; "but you have sinned with delight. So the little volume is now ready, and I shall be a happy woman if God will use it to make music in any worn and weary heart. II. Whatever may be the confidences of others, and whatever may be your own, put them all away, and keep to this one declaration, "It is Christ that died." Lecture 2: On Commenting. Provision for Christian living is in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Consider again, I pray you, what a dignity God hath conferred upon you even upon you in making you his son. How much have you done after all, young man? First, then, for ILLUSTRATION. Not in one sense, for the members of our body, which were instruments of unrighteousness, become by sanctification, the instruments of righteousness unto the glory of God; and the body which was once a workshop for Satan, becomes a temple for the Holy Ghost, wherein he dwells; but we are all perfectly aware that the grace of God makes no change in the body in other respects. So far as mere prescience goes, every man is foreknown, and yet no one will assert that all men are predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. These are they who can now say, "Draw us, and we will run after thee.". Remember thou art now a debtor to God in a legal sense, as thou art in Adam, thou art no longer a debtor to God's justice as thou once wast. Brethren, as soon as a man believes in Christ, he is no longer under the curse of the law. "Yes," he could say, "and a blessed thing it would be for you if you had the same thing to groan after that I have." 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