He was gentle and kind and tender; as he was, so are we to be in this world. 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." And shall a Christian man break his promise? You must endure persecution; but then, remember, he will be joint heir with you. Then let me give you just one piece of homely advice before I send you away. Until this question be answered my heart cannot rest, for I am intensely anxious about it. II. Speak of pedigrees, the glories of heraldry thou hast more than heraldry could ever give thee, or all the pomp of ancestry could ever bestow. But let me say again to thee, hast thou ever felt that the Holy Ghost has borne witness with thy spirit in his word, and in his work, in thee; and in that secret whisper has he ever said to thee, "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." No, there must be something done more than we can accomplish. Well, but God hath another Son, one who is the first-born of every creature. It is the challenge of a justified sinner protesting with holy and inspired fervour that his character is clear and his conscience clean, even in the sight of heaven. Sustained by distinguishing grace, a man learns to glory in tribulations also; and strengthened by electing love, he defies the hatred of the world and the trials of life. That short sentence completely answers to all his accusations. Oh what riches! 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. "For I am persuaded." Spirit-taught prayers are offered as they ought to be. So is it with our text. Is it wisdom to stand in opposition against him? "It is Christ that died.". First, God sent his Son as a sacrificial lamb to absorb the penalty for our sinsto make forgiveness possible. do I converse with him, commune with him? A man's heart is moved when he groans. He may see the earth burned, but into the fire of hell he can never go. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON Romans 8:26-39 . In prayer we might grow weary, but the Comforter encourages and refreshes us with cheering thoughts. If he hath poverty, it is better for him, for poverty is his to help him, to be sanctified, and to long for heaven. This will appear in two ways. Psalms 16:5 . ", Another says, "Yes, but then you have been specially guilty, there is great sin against a great God. The natural desires of the human frame are not in themselves sinful, but through the degeneracy of our nature, they very readily lead us into sin, and through the corruption which is in us, even the natural desires of the body become a very great source of temptation. Poor prodigal sinner, may our Father bring thee home, for there is an inheritance even for thee. Come, believer, will you be partaker with Christ to-day in the battle, and then divide this spoil with him? I find it extremely easy to believe that all things have worked together for my good. Go to www.ccontario.com for an . He shall feast all the more joyously because they shall eat bread with him in his kingdom. 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." There is but one that can claim the heir's rights, and the heir's title. "It is Christ that died. Some of you have a trouble perhaps, in her who is dearest to you. Very gently did He lead me into this unthought-of service, and most graciously has He hitherto sustained me in it; first giving me in my own heart the joy of His Word, and then enabling me to minister of that rejoicing to others. ", I. "Well," cries one, "but what are the words which Christ uses when he calls a sinner from death?" Christian men, do you feel this with regard to your sins. All manner of evil things we commit in our thoughts; sin runs to riot in our spirit. Can you each one say, as you sit in your pew to-night, "God loves me, and that loved joins him to me;" and "I love God, and that love joins me to him"? Brethren, the work of the Spirit is called "first-fruits," because the first-fruits were not the harvest. So shall we be, for because he lives, we shall live also. Oh! Keep that groan in your ear, for I want you to hear another. by which he means transient good, the good of the moment. Go not into thy brother's house in the day of thine adversity. I believe that the apostle was persuaded that these two blessed links existed between him and the great God, and he was persuaded that neither of those two links would ever be broken. If I read in the Scriptures that in the most heroic acts of faith God the Holy Ghost helpeth his people, I can understand it; if I read that in the sweetest music of their songs when they worship best, and chant their loftiest strains before the Most High God, the Spirit helpeth them, I can understand it; and even if I hear that in their wrestling prayers and prevalent intercessions God the Holy Spirit helpeth them, I can understand it: but I bow with reverent amazement, my heart sinking into the dust with adoration, when I reflect that God the Holy Ghost helps us when we cannot speak, but only groan. Oh unhappy souls, that cannot call one of these your own! Only too true is that confession, "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us." He declares it to be enmity against God. He see the disease, but the name of the medicine is not known to us. Calvin, John; . I look on them, and see among their glorious ranks, some whose names are celebrated in every Christian land as the bold "lions of God," the immovable pillars of truth; men of whom the world was not worthy, whose praise is in all the churches, and who are now nearest the eternal throne. Now, all them that love God love him because they have had a special, irresistible, supernatural call. Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you may know. May God help you, and help me, to groan all our days with that kind of groaning. Ah! So the enquirer asked him again, "But what is your persuasion?" What is God to us? No ungodly man loves God at least not in the Bible sense of the term. Did he not say, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world?" So the enquirer asked him again, "But what is . Suddenly the Goths, the old enemies of Rome, fell upon the city. Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of your best friend? Having thus, as far as I can, established my point, that the privilege of our text is a special one, let me dwell upon it for a moment and remark that, as a special one, it is an act of pure unmistakeable grace. Brethren, we are debtors to our covenant God; that is the point which swallows up all. We see, in many a land, the proudest dynasties and tyrannies still crushing, with their mountain-weight, every free motion of the consciences and hearts of men. Harsh as the apostle's words may seem, they are not meant for you who are really believers in Christ, and in whom the Holy Spirit has wrought a complete change of heart and life; Paul is not speaking of such as you. Into predestination itself I will not now pry. Now, there is but one Judge the man Christ Jesus. The angels in heaven had known good, and only good, and preserved by grace had not fallen; the evil spirit had fallen, and he knew evil, but he had forgotten good, and was incapable of ever choosing it again; he is now for ever banished from hope of restoration. Now here is the first touchstone by which we may try our calling many are called but few are chosen, because there are many kinds of call, but the true call, and that only, answers to the description of the text. I am now dead to the law. ", I. Saul's eyes are filled with tears, and then again with scales of darkness, and he cries, "Who art thou?" You have had God's utmost effort expended upon your behalf, and there remains no other method of salvation for you. I have heard that in the Marshalsea of old they did take rank according to the greatness of their debts. (+44) 01236 827 978. Is he glorious? But there are one or two doctrines which we will try to deduce from this. God's power will be with her heralds, God's might shall be with her armies, and the earth shall soon submit, and Christ shall reign for ever and ever. It sends a shiver through some when we begin to speak of death, and the bravest man who ever lived may well tremble at the thought that he must soon meet the king of terrors; but, brothers and sisters, if Christ loves us, and we love Christ, we may well be persuaded that death will not break the union which exists between us. Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Now each of these four articles of our faith is sufficient to bear the weight of the sins of the whole world. Happy, happy man! But lo, a light shines round about him and he falls to the ground, and he hears a voice crying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." You know the story of old Jacob. Reprinted from "Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon's Work-room" in "The Sword and the Trowel," December, 1896. Yet one more remark before we leave this point. Yea, echo O ye skies; reverberate, ye caverns of the deep. Joyfully and cheerfully for ever shall it be our delight to do the Father's will. They were, therefore, encouraged to take part and lot with Christ, the elder brother, with whom they had become joint heirs; and they were exhorted to suffer with him, that they might afterwards be glorified with him. 1. There is nothing that pains me so much as sin; I desire to be quit and rid of it; Lord help me to be holy"? Though the sins of the whole world should press on any one of these sacred columns, it would never break nor bend. there is more joy even in the groan of a Christian after heaven, than in all the mirth and merriment, and dancing, and lewdness of the ungodly when their mirth is at its greatest height. Now, the divine will or mind may be viewed two ways. If we be debtors we never ought to be proud. It is as when a man doth marry. I conclude by saying, see, my dear hearers, the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit, for if the saints know not what they should pray for as they ought; if consecrated men and women, with Christ suffering in them, still feel their need of the instruction of the Holy Spirit, how much more do you who are not saints, and have never given yourselves up to God, require divine teaching! There may be a few who do, but it has never been my misfortune to meet with them. Self-righteous man, I can tell thee in the tick of a clock, whether thou hast any evidence of election. What! May God help me, this morning, solemnly to prefer this indictment against all! Let us take these things for granted, and never dispute about them any more, but go on to still higher matters. And here I am met upon the very threshhold by the opposition of certain modern theologians, who hold that sonship is not the special and peculiar privilege of believers. Brethren, I pray you, if your thoughts now can bring themselves to the matter, gather up all the honors, glories, treasures, riches, that your thought have ever conceived as belonging to Christ, and while the hymn is ringing in your ear "Crown him, crown him, crown him, Lord of all;" remember that you are co-heirs with him. The deeper things shall be left with God. It behoveth each of us, then, to comfort and establish our hearts upon this word "work." Even if we were pure as Adam, we could not have any merit; for I do not think Adam had any desert before his Creator. He parried the question at first, for he did not think that it was very important for him to answer it. In this discourse I am only going to handle the topic of Paul's persuasion. Added to this you must also be the heir of persecution. There is real prayer in these "groanings that cannot be uttered." What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I am predestinated. Are we not his sons, and is there not a debt the son owes to the father which a lifetime of obedience can never remove? Ye may train him up, ye may make his intellect almost angelic, ye may strengthen his soul until he shall take what are riddles to us, and unravel them with his fingers in a moment; ye may make him so mighty, that he can grasp the iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind them to atoms in his fist; ye may give him an eye so keen, that he can penetrate the arcana of rocks and mountains; ye may add a soul so potent, that he may slay the giant Sphinx, that had for ages troubled the mightiest men of learning; yet, when ye have done all, his mind shall be a depraved one, and his carnal heart shall still be in opposition to God. Thus runs the decree, and thus shall the fulfillment follow "I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." We always want to be putting in some little scrap of our own virtue; we want to be doing something. 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. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul, and they were moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who telleth man how to speak aright. But if thou agreest with thy creditor, he will, for Jesus' sake, blot out all thy debts, and set thee at liberty, so that thou shalt never be amenable for thine iniquities. Ask them whether they would have loved God if left to themselves, and to a man, whatever their doctrines, they will confess, I never heard a Christian yet who said that he came to God of himself, left to his own free-will. Above all, commune much with Christ. Look at his gore, as it distils from his body in Gethsemane and on the accursed tree. But there is nothing in the-depths that can separate us from the love of Christ. He served his country, not for himself, but for his country's sake; and can it be that you will not be poor yet honest for Christ's sake! But, again, there is another point in which the saint is deficient as yet, namely, in the manifestation of our adoption. If Christ owed anything to the justice of God by reason of his suretyship engagements, he would not be at God's right hand: but he owes nothing whatever. We have seen that chapters 5-8 have a kind of sandwich structure. Recollections of the Rev. No man after having read these chapters attentively, and having understood them, can deny that the doctrines of sovereign, distinguishing grace, are the sum and substance of the teaching of the Bible. The children look up to the firstborn. The enemies of truth are more numerous and subtle than ever, and the needs of the Church are greater than at any preceding time. It cannot be that Christ should transform himself at last; but till he can do so, none can condemn. The apostle ends the list by saying, "nor any othe creature." We do not ask for these persecutions, but their might do us great good if they came. ", There is now nobody left that I know of, that can condemn us, except the Judge; and if we have escaped our opponents Satan, the world, conscience, and the law, we need not fear to stand even at God's judgment seat. I thought I saw you the other day looking amazingly great, because on such an occasion you really had done some little service to Christ's Church; and you looked astonishingly proud about it. Yes, but mark, what is true one day is not false another; "the carnal mind is enmity against God" at all times. Who can condemn? Paul points us to the cross in two ways. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to himself. He became a partaker of our infirmities and sicknesses that we might be partakers of the divine nature in all its excellence and purity. Is it not a noble thing for a Christian to be able to go where he may, and feel that he cannot meet his accuser; that wherever he may be, whether he walketh within himself in the chambers of conscience, or out of himself amongst his fellow men, or above himself into heaven, or beneath himself into hell, yet is he a justified one, and nothing can be laid to his charge. This is an instructive emblem of a great fact. 1,997, "God's Longsuffering: an Appeal to the Conscience.". The charioteers of the Roman circus might with much cleverness and art, with glowing wheels, avoid each other; but God, with skill infinitely consummate, guides the fiery coursers of man's passion, yokes the storm, bits the tempest, and keeping each clear of the other from seeming evil still enduceth good, and better still; and better still in infinite progression. Our sighs are sacred things; these griefs and sighs are too hallowed for us to tell abroad in the streets. "To the very uttermost" he is able to save, seeing he ever lives to intercede the strongest argument of the whole four. Can you not do it? Fire such as martyrs felt at the stake were but a plaything compared with the flames of a burning conscience. "Who is he that condemneth? And this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek, phronema sarkos, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject to the Law of God. You must endure persecution ; but till he can never go is your persuasion? your!, may our Father bring thee home, for because he lives, we are to stand opposition... The-Depths that can not call one of these sacred columns, it never... Weary, but the Comforter encourages and refreshes us with cheering thoughts in the Marshalsea of old did. Want you to hear another my misfortune to meet with them from `` Mrs. C. H. 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