My fellow creature, dost thou not know that God sent his Son from his bosom, hung him on the tree, and there suffered him to die for sinners, the just for the unjust? Do I love God? Spurgeon, Charles H. Owen, John; Ferguson, Sinclair B. Sproul, R.C. Would that he were not so severe, so rigorously just, so sternly strict to his integrity." That man is God's child, but though he is a prince of the blood royal, his garments are those of toil, the smock frock or the fustian jacket. I do feel that he loves me better than I love myself. We have around us appliances for doing good, such as men never possessed before; we behold around us machinery for doing evil, such as never was at work even in earth's worst days. But we may be permitted to live on to extreme old age; do you dread it? Brethren, the work of the Spirit is called "first-fruits," because the first-fruits were not the harvest. His intercession is not in or for the unregenerate. Not only is our sin punished, but the sin is gone. 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. Now, dear brethren, if I could extend the time for this service to four-and-twenty hours, I might give you all the arguments, or the most of the arguments, which support the blessed truth of the nonseparation of believers from the love of Christ. Ask him whether God has been once untrue to him and he will say, "No; not one good thing hath failed of all that the Lord God hath promised; all hath come to pass!" 19. As this is a legal question, and as in matters of wills everything should be proven and sworn to, let us have, concerning our inheritance, the evidence of God: that cannot lie. God bless you! Now, I am not sure that the doctor is perfectly right. It is a question in which my eternal interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I belong to that goodly company, who albeit that they have sinned shall nevertheless be washed in the blood of Christ, and shall in white robes walk the golden streets of paradise? Now, his fellow workman, who worked beside of him, as it was getting very late, wished himself at home, and therefore groaned. 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. I was reading a passage by Dr. Chalmers the other day, in which he says, that his own experience did not lead him to believe that the Holy Spirit ever gave any witness of our being the children of God, apart from the written Word of God, and his ordinary workings in our hearts. He felt within him affinities with all the blood-bought race, and loved them all. Are you intelligently persuaded not only that God is love, but that God loves you? And shall a Christian man break his promise? Man! If he hath wealth, let him use it in his Master's service, for it is his. However, dear friends, we have often found that the nuts which are hardest to crack have the sweetest kernels, and when the bone seems as if it could never be broken, the richest marrow has been found within. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." YOU WILL DIEYOU WILL LIVE. He says, "I fear not that assize, for who can condemn?" If so, methinks your heart is not in a right state. Let us not be backward in doing our work. This and this alone can restore the peace of divided families, and unite disputing relatives. They will say, "What! Even so we know concerning our great Father: Do you therefore rejoice in this, that because the prayers of the Spirit are known and understood of God, therefore they will be sure to speed. He who said, "all things work together," will soon prove to you that there is a harmony in the most discordant parts of your life. He is the ambassador; he it is who can make peace through his blood; and though you came in here an enemy, it is possible you may go out through that door a friend yet, if you can but look to Jesus Christ, the brazen serpent which was lifted up. Creation glows with a thousand beauties, even in its present fallen condition; yet clearly enough it is not as when it came from the Maker's hand the slime of the serpent is on it all this is not the world which God pronounced to be "very good." Do you curse your father, who so wisely watched over you? Do you see the force of this expression? Didst thou never hear the heart say, "I wish there were no God?" The apostle says next, "nor life." Suppose, my dear friends, that any of you were about to be tried for your life, do you think you could trust your advocacy with any man you know? Now Secondly, we are called upon to notice the universality of this evil. As sure as thou art God's called child today, thy poverty shall soon be at an end, and thou shalt be rich to all the intents of bliss. This shall be an all-sufficient argument to shut their clamorous mouths, "Christ hath died." Our apostle, in the epistle to the Hebrews, puts a very strong encomium upon this sentence. I thought Christians were a humble, timid people." To us, indeed, the things are scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other. What is God to us? In the golden age of Rome, if a man were tempted to dishonesty, he would stand upright, look the tempter in the face, and say to him, "I am a Roman." We may be remarkably indebted to members of parliament, but for the little they do they are tolerably well rewarded; at least, we take it that the place is more an honour to some of them than they are to their place. And hear ye this, John i. 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." Hearken ye to this passage in the 9th of Romans! Let me appeal personally to you in an interrogatory style, for this has weight with it. No separation: that is the end of the chapter. There is much to sadden us in a view of the ruins of our race. ", Note the second phrase, which contains also a description of the Christian "the called according to his purpose." Oh! Believe then that all things work together for thy good; if thou lovest God, and art called according to his purpose. Holland, Belgium, Russia, and Poland, belong not to their kings and czars, Christ is the King of kings, these lands belong to us. We are joint heirs. HOW ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND THIS, "Brethren, we are debtors"? But the text, you see, furnishes us with a higher witness than this. 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. He was happy enough in the bosom of his father's household, but idolatry crept into it, and when God called Abraham, he called him alone and blessed him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and said to him, "Go forth, Abraham!" We are heirs with Christ. Forty cubits upwards hath this red sea prevailed. I know that I have robbed God of his glory, but Christ has brought all the glory back again. Psalms 73:26 . You can understand in this sense why it is that we groan, for if this body really is still, though redeemed, a captive, and if it is one day to be completely free, and to rise to amazing glory, well may those who believe in this precious doctrine groan after it as they wait for it. Adam in this world was in liberty, perfect liberty; nothing confined him; paradise was exactly fitted to be his seat. What would you give, some of you, if you could have such a hope as this? And so, too, it is rather God's work than our work. Intended for Reading on Lord's-Day, January 24th, 1892. We teach every Sabbath day, that the whole shower of devine wrath was poured upon Christ's head, that the black cloud of vengeance emptied out itself upon the cross, and that there is not left in the book of God a single sin against a believer, nor can there possibly be even a particle of punishment ever exacted at the hand of the man that believeth in Jesus, for this reason, that Jesus has been punished to the full. Let me imagine a man entering heaven without a change of heart. If ever there lived a man who has reason to be grateful to Almighty God, I think I am that man. "If Satan bring an accusation before God against any of the Lord's redeemed, that accusation is made against the Redeemer himself, for God's people are so one with Christ, that you must first bring the charge against Christ himself ere you dare to lay it against any of his elect. "Yea," saith every man; "that has crossed my mind sometimes. Joint heirs with Christ Jesus! I cannot stay longer on that point, except just to notice, that we must never quarrel with this divine arrangement. The whole creation is fair and beautiful even in its present condition. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, Note that Paul does not say, "If they shall fall;" but, "If they shall fall away," if the religion which they have professed shall cease to have any power over them, then, it shall be impossible. No cross no crown. Yes, but Christ died for the lascivious. Will he judge the nations? In verses 1-11, Paul contrasted those "who live according to the flesh" with . I like this thought. Oh! She suffereth the glorious timbers from the forest of Lebanon to swim down the stream of oblivion, but she stoppeth all the draff that floateth from the foul city of Sodom. I can see that there is no better place than the brink of Jordan, after all. Go into yonder house. ", "But, interrupts another, "God must punish sin. The second time the Lord called him, and said, "Samuel, Samuel," and he arose again, and went to Eli, and said, "Here am I, for thou didst call me," and then it was that Eli, not Samuel, first of all perceived that the Lord had called the child. I heard of one who sat up at the end of last year to groan last year out; it was ill done, but in truth it was a year of groaning, and the present one opens amid turbulence and distress. "Yes," saith he, "I will. It is true that you are a believer, but you have sinned often, for years, in all sorts of way." 7, 8. Are your arms about the neck of the great Father? Even as Solomon built the temple because he superintended and ordained all, and yet I know not that he ever fashioned a timber or prepared a stone, so doth the Holy Spirit pray and plead within us by leading us to pray and plead. But his reply was, "No, I trust they will always be at war with you, for Carthage must be destroyed if Rome is to prosper." It shall work for thy good. So shall we be when he shall say unto us, "Enter ye into the joy of your Lord." The law condemned us in former days, and would again overthrow us if we ventured to meet it unarmed. That old preacher Solomon once said as much as that. Our Lord was declared to be the Son of God by the actions which he performed, both towards God and towards man. 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. The time shall come when thou shalt yet be his disciple." One of you says, "Well, it is an empty pocket with me." And when Samuel knew it was the Lord, he said, "Speak; for thy servant heareth." When Christ gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself, so that now he has, as our Brother, no heritage apart from us, although, as Eternal God, he hath essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend. I am sure I feel, myself, the force of this word "brother," with regard to many of you. says some one, "I, debtor to the poor?" My friends, there is a cementing power in the grace of God which can scarcely be over estimated. It is an unqualified statement, including every individual. I know this I believe God was at work with my heart for years before I knew anything about him. Sanctification is the Lord's work in us. If they drink but little from the river of pleasure, his draughts must be shallow too, for their joy is his joy, and his glory he has given them. You feel you must have your Father, or else the gifts of his providence are nothing to you. what angelic tongue shall hymn his glory? If our title be true and just, so is his, and if his rights of heritage be true and just, so are ours. Now, sir, if it is not wrong for God to do the thing, how can it be wrong for God to purpose to do the thing? I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: "Saved by your works! We do not ask for these persecutions, but their might do us great good if they came. And let me further remark, that the right hand is the place of power. There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity against God; it is not developed, but it lieth there. Did he not say, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world?" See what effectual calling can do. "Well," cries one, "but what are the words which Christ uses when he calls a sinner from death?" We have, indeed, in the death of Christ, a great atonement; an atonement so great, that none can measure its height and depth, its length and breadth. ", And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this fact, who shall decide the question; it shall be your conscience. But, secondly, the object of grace is that there may be some in heaven with whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. All manner of evil things we commit in our thoughts; sin runs to riot in our spirit. 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. "All things work," at this very instant and second of time. What says the believer now? He supplys our wants; he keeps the breath within our nostrils; he bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins; he holdeth us in life, and preventeth us from death; he standeth before us, our creator, our king, our sustainer, our benefactor, and I ask, is it not a sin of enormous magnitude is it not high treason against the emperor of heaven is it not an awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all our judgment that we, his creatures, dependent upon him, should be at enmity with God? I go to one brother, and I say, "Brother, there is such-and-such an office in the Sabbath-school; will you take it?" "Roll ye away the stone," saith he, and it is done; and now, listen to him; he cries, "Lazarus, come forth!" The high priest first took the blood, but that was not accepted. Now, if I cannot say the first things because of diffidence, though they be true, yet can I say this, that I feel myself to be a sinner, that I loathe my sinnership, that I detest my iniquity, that I feel I deserve the wrath of God on account of my transgressions? Having reaped handfuls, we long for sheaves. I can look upward without distressing fear." who can tell what God is? That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. "Oh," say some, "it may be true that we are at times opposed to God, but surely we are not always so." And he goes to Eli, and it is not till afterwards, perhaps, that he finds that Eli had nothing to do with the impression, but that the Lord had called him. See you that stone rolled at the mouth of the sepulchre? "Brethren, we are debtors. "We have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities." II. But anyhow, things present cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Oh! And if this applies to children, equally does it include every class of men. Thirdly, we are to be conformed to the image of Christ in our experience. Can it be supposed that those who are the children of the devil are nevertheless the children of God? Have they not had the desire that it might turn out that all these divine realities were a delusion, a farce, and an imposture? It may have seemed to him, as it does to some of us, to be almost too good to be true, and therefore the Holy Spirit so shed abroad this truth in the apostle's mind that he yielded to it, and said, "I am persuaded." Why, I see you, sirs, if there is a new and perilous work to be done for Christ, you like to be in the rear rank this time; if there were something honourable, so that you might ride on with your well caparisoned steeds in the midst of the dainty ranks ye would do it; but to leap into certain annihilation for Christ's sake Oh! May the Spirit of God enable you so to live, that you can bequeath your example as a legacy to the future. I see the heavens on fire, rolling up like a scroll I see sun, moon, and stars pale now their feeble light the earth is tottering; the pillars of heaven are rocking; the grand assize is commenced the herald angels descend, not to sing this time, but with thundering trumpets to proclaim, "He comes, he comes to judge the earth in righteousness, and the people in equity." Who among us would change with Gabriel? says yet another accuser; "but you have sinned with delight. Listen at that door on the left, there is a deep, hollow, awful groan. For human righteousness is only human; being human, it is finite; and, being finite, it falls short somewhere or other. Home; Shop. Yes, and with that natural groan there may go up an unutterable groaning of the Holy Spirit. "So he bringeth them to their desired haven," said the Psalmist by storm and tempest, flood and hurricane. holy Immanuel, exalted as thou art, thy co-heirs here below begin by faith to partake of thy glory. This was my subject last Sabbath day, therefore I take it I shall be fully justified in leaving the first point that Christ hath died, while I pass on to the other three. "We know that all things work." ", I do not seem to want to preach. They love God also as their Portion, for in him they live and move and have their being; God is their all, without him they have nothing, but possessing him, however little they may have of outward good, they feel that they are rich to all the intents of bliss. It is not merely that our judgment leads us in that direction, though usually the Spirit of God acts upon us by enlightening our judgment, but we often feel an unaccountable and irresistible desire rising again and again within our heart, and this so presses upon us, that we not only utter the desire before God at our ordinary times for prayer, but we feel it crying in our hearts all the day long, almost to the supplanting of all other considerations. Amen and amen. Happy shall you and I be if, though covered with sin, though guilty and unclean, we nevertheless shall have faith to believe in the Christ that dies, a faith so strong, and confident that we shall dare to stand both now, and at the judgment-seat of Christ, and say, "Who is he that condemneth?" Happy man, happy woman, who can truly say, "I am persuaded that God loves me. They are, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Ephesians, "predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will. Have I any reason to believe that I have been called according to his purpose? He lives, and because he lives I shall live also. Yet one more illustration: it is that of a father aiding his boy. Brethren, we who know and love the Lord, are debtors, not to one creditor, but to many. That man is not called who cannot look back upon darkness, ignorance, and sin, and who cannot now say, that he knows more than he did know, and enjoys at times the light of knowledge, and the comfortable light of God's countenance. Oh! But, beloved, we are persuaded better thing of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. how long wilt thou not avenge thine own elect?" You had a godly father; you had a Christian mother; you were trained in the fear of God. Romans 8 The apostle, having fully explained the doctrine of justification, and pressed the necessity of sanctification, in this chapter applies himself to the consolation of the Lord's people. He parried the question at first, for he did not think that it was very important for him to answer it. None but he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the assembled world. We shall take the words one by one, and try to explain them. 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. We repeat, a third time, it was the gospel which implanted in the soul of Paul the feeling of brotherhood, and removed every wall of partition which divided him from any of the Lord's elect. 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. Our nation is fast learning to forget God. Christ at the right hand of God signifies that all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth. Yea, and when we cannot even utter our groanings, he doth not only help us but he claims as his own particular creation the "groanings that cannot be uttered." Saul was anointed to be king when he was seeking his father's asses; and many a man has been called when he has been seeking his own lust, but he will leave the asses, and leave the lust, when once he is called. There is nothing here below which does not belong to a believer. My brother with great experience, my sister with enlarged acquaintance with Christ, ye have not yet known the harvest, you have only reaped the first handful of corn. What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory. Come on thou world in arms! Ah! He attacked the Shepherd, and he will never cease to worry the sheep. It is a bold, brave challenge; but it never could have been uttered by Paul if it had not been accompanied by the next sentence, "It is Christ that dies." The Necessity of the Spirit's Work Ezekiel 36:27 274. A man's heart is moved when he groans. He will write the prayers which I ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart, and I shall see them there, and so I shall be taught how to plead.

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