Only give man something that shall well nigh intoxicate him; drug him with opium; and how will his imagination dance with joy! I was feeling very heavy, I scarcely knew why, when I caught at this text; and it seemed to come in so pleasantly for me when my spirits were down. How can we do that, say you? Let us do what we may, it is but a farthing in the pound that we shall ever be able to pay of the debt of gratitude we owe to God. he assures and consoles directly, by coming into immediate contact with the heart. Romans 8:26-27 . Enemies in the children's house? When you get upstairs into your chamber this evening to pray, and find you cannot pray, but have to moan out, "Lord, I am too full of anguish and too perplexed to pray, hear thou the voice of my roaring," though you reach to nothing else you will be really praying. how can the imagination revel, when the body is in an ill condition? It is not the hypocrite's groan, when he goes mourning everywhere, wanting to make people believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. It was not long ago there came unto this hall, a man who was without God and without Christ, and the simple reading of the hymn. What contrasts we have in the seventh verse! ), then it follows that God must be over all things and must control all things. It should be, "The fool hath said in his heart, no God." After this consummation the believing heart is panting, groaning, and sighing. Forget the steps thou hast already trodden, and reach forward towards that which is before, looking unto Jesus. We are predestinated to be conformed to Christ in that respect; the serpent's subtlety and cruelty will assail us also. Those in heaven, have, as it were, stolen there. What they are to us they are to our co-heir. That faith is at first of his creating, and afterwards it is of his sustaining and increasing: and oh, brothers and sisters, have you not often felt your faith rise in proportion to your trials? Well did the apostle say of this "much more much more than dying and rising again from the dead, he lives at the right hand of God.". Fourthly. Now, to-day, seeing we are here taught the object of his predestination, it will be our business to labor after it, to bless God that he has set such an object before him, and pray that we may be partakers in it. I do see ground for hope when Christ is bound, for he is bound for me; I do see reason for rejoicing when he dies, for he dies for me, and in my room and stead; I do see a theme for solid satisfaction in his burial, for he is buried for me; but when he comes out of the grave, having swallowed up death in victory, my hope bursts into joyous song. 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. Go to the greatest stranger, and he shall help thee; go to thy brother, and he shall oft upbraid thee. Now, I think I hear somebody say, "you see these godly people who profess to be so happy and so safe, they still groan, and they are obliged to confess it." Yes, my lady, thou art a debtor to the poorest man that ever walked the earth. and what is election, but God's purpose to do what he does do? Yes, I know that it was so; and Christ, to meet my sin against knowledge brings a sacrifice offered with his own full knowledge of all that it involved. Ye are young brides, and the marriage day is not come, and by the love your spouse bears you, you are led to long and to sigh for the marriage day. I did not know till afterwards, when I was led to know Christ as all my salvation, and all my desire, that the Lord had called the child, for this could not have been the result of nature, it must have been the effect of grace. "All things work together," for that kind of good to God's people. What says Christ? I have told you what that groan is, I need not explain it further. If the black thought then comes up, "Ah! But, it is further asserted that the Lord foreknow who would exercise repentance, who would believe in Jesus, and who would persevere in a consistent life to the end. and do we not feel that we shall lay all our honors, whatever they may be, at his dear feet, who hath according to his abundant mercy predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son? Let me ask myself again this question, Have the fetters of my sin been broken off, and am I God's free man? Satan desires to have us and to sift us as wheat. Did you notice how the text begins? This is called the first-fruit because it comes first. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." And yet this is just through our ignorance and through the blindness of our eyes; for verily to the enlightened believer there is more consolation in Jesus arising from the tomb, than there is in Jesus nailed to the cross. "All things work together for good." How much have you done after all, young man? you also shall be lifted up. Ah! Rowland Hill. it is forgotten! Come in with me, let us sail together to glory. ", Note the second phrase, which contains also a description of the Christian "the called according to his purpose." If you are joint heir and would claim one part of the estate, you must take the rest. And so addressing you, who love the Lord, under that title; I come at one to the text, "Brethren, we are debtors." The various rebellions of nations, the heavings of society, the strife of anarchy, the tumults of war all, all these things, overruled by God, have but made the chariot of the church progress more mightily; they have not failed of their predestinated purpose "good for the people of God." And indeed this is proved by the very chapter out of which we have taken our text. There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity against God; it is not developed, but it lieth there. Ye are young princes, and ye have not been crowned yet. Every carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. First, then, let us consider THE HELP WHICH THE HOLY GHOST GIVES. Will you not be satisfied to serve God though you lose by it; to stand up and be thought an arrant fool, because you will not learn the wisdom of this world; to be esteemed a mad fanatic, because you cannot swim with the current. We have hope, which sparkles, a hope most sure and steadfast. Now, why did you come here till you had paid your debt? Who will garnish my back with purple and make my table groan with plenty?" OBSERVE the title whereby he addressed the Church "Brethren." Our blessed Lord delights in fellowship; such is the greatness of his heart that he would not be alone in his glory, but would have associates in his happiness. that we might stamp it with truth, and that God might help us to impress upon its wings some proof that it has not flown by neglected and unheeded. Oh, yes, rivers of consolation flow from my calling. For spiritual blessings which we know to be according to the divine will we could ask with confidence, but perhaps these would not meet our peculiar circumstances. No; the blood must he taken to the mercy-seat, God will not stoop when he is just; it must be brought to him. do thy shoulders forbid, and refuse themselves the pain of bearing it? I groan, for I can do no more. I might appeal to scores and hundreds here, and I might say, brethren, you with grey heads, rise up and speak. There were many better men in the city than he. What is that? I could indicate some dear friends here who I hope are not in the depths now, but I have seen them there. We have bulwarks, none of which can possibly be stormed, but when combined they are so irresistible, they could not be carried, though earth and hell should combine to storm them. Our little debts we can pay. He loves Christ so much that he loves us notwithstanding our unloveliness, because Jesus Christ has covered us with his robe of righteousness, and he has said, "My Father, consider them as lost in me, hidden in me, made one with me." And they speak not; "because," says Paul, "I have obtained mercy who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, that in me first he might show forth all longsuffering." So, you see, I cannot help wondering what the "things to come" will be for you who are here. The old divines, the Puritans, the Reformers, are now in these last days, to be superseded by men whose teaching flatly contradicts all that we have received of our forefathers. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." We do cry, "Abba, Father." We are to groan after perfection, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Romans 8:28 . The blood of Jesus Christ, God's own Son, cleanseth us from all sin; so away foul fiend, that also has received its due. Our third and last point is THE SURE SUCCESS OF ALL SUCH PRAYERS. If it be settled in our mind by the true witness the spirit within us, and the Spirit of God, that we are God's children, what a NOBLE PRIVILEGE now appears to our view. And now we close by noticing the confidence with which the apostle speaks. We will think of our bodies, for that is a point surrounded with consolation, since he shall change our vile body and make it like unto his glorious body. Did not they, by bitter suffering, achieve our liberty for us? Such a hope as this is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast"; and the man who has this anchor on board the barque of his life can never suffer spiritual shipwreck. Suddenly the Goths, the old enemies of Rome, fell upon the city. His zeal in doing them proves that he has the spirit of a child of God, and the result of those works proves that God works in him as he will never do in any but his own children. But what I do not like is when they look down from those awful heights upon us poor Christians and say that they cannot believe in us because we are anxious, because we practice self-examination, because we have to struggle against sin. 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." 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. He gives to us his raiments, and thus we stand arrayed. By the grace of God, the apostle stands defiantly in the midst of all the believer's foes, and flings down the gauntlet before them all. It may be that all the different providences that shall happen to thee will come wave upon wave, washing thy fortune upon the rocks, till it shall be wrecked, and then waves shall break o'er thee, till in that poor boat, the humble remnant of thy fortune thou shalt be out on the wide sea, with none to help thee but God the Omnipotent. Memory is fallen. And as to our weaknesses and infirmities, he is there to plead for his people: "Who also maketh intercession for us." If you, for fear of shame, and out of the love of the flesh, will not follow Christ through an evil generation, neither shall you follow him when he marches through the streets of heaven in triumph, amidst the acclamations of angels. Mark then, with care, that OUR CONFORMITY TO CHRIST IS THE SACRED OBJECT OF PREDESTINATION. I think you will see that, like links in a chain, these different truths draw each other on the spirit of adoption proves the fact of adoption; by the act of adoption we are children; if children then heirs; if heirs, heirs of God; but since there is another heir, we must therefore be joint heirs with Christ Jesus. O come, thou condemned one, self-condemned, and turn thine eye this way, for one look will save. He will rather glory in his high connection, and with reverence obey the commands of his Heavenly Parent. Moreover, the appetites of the body have a natural affinity to that which is sinful. I am mainly indebted to these because I owe so much to my God. Absurd! Look at our history. Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Let a man once get that, and it will anoint his head with fresh oil, it will clothe him with the white garment of praise, and put the song of the angel into his mouth. This also is a truth full of sacred refreshment: hope sees a crown in reserve, mansions in readiness, and Jesus himself preparing a place for us, and by the rapturous sight she sustains the soul under the sorrows of the hour. So is it with the Spirit, it is free from corruption and death; but the poor body is still under the bondage of corruption, and therefore the soul groans until the body itself shall be set free. It cries for something, and it makes very odd and objectionable noises, combined with signs and movements, which are almost meaningless to stranger, but his mother understands him, and attends to his little pleadings. When you have been sitting on the judgment bench; there has been some favourite sin brought up, and you have, oh, let me blush to say it, you have wished to spare it, it was so near your heart, you have wished to let it live, whereas should you not as the son of God have said, "If my eye offend me, I will pluck it out and cast it from me, if my right hand offend me, I will cut it off, rather than I should in anything offend my God." "Now," says Paul, "yea rather, he is risen from the dead." If so, why doth God promise them what they have already. Those whom the Lord looked upon with favor as he foresaw them, he has predestinated to he conformed to the image of his Son. Nay, my brethren, all that the most advanced of God's people know as yet, should but excite in them an insatiable thirst after more. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. It cannot be that Christ should transform himself at last; but till he can do so, none can condemn. Have you been called, not of man but of God? He has, in fact, no right at all, except as he is taken in connection with his co-heir. 3. This is just what Jesus has to do. And then he adds this blessed argument, "Father those for whom I plead are thine own children, and thou lovest them as much as I do," yea, "thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Then who should be proud of having paid only a part of his debt, when, after all, he owes a great deal more than he is worth? Here he is covered with the sweat and dust which he acquired by Adam's fall; there his brow shall be bright with the immortality which is conferred upon him by the resurrection of Christ. Yes, it would. May God the Holy Spirit lead you to trust in "Christ that died"! If it be possible that the malice and the graft of hell could invent some scheme by which the covenant could he put out of court, and the promise of grace could be made to fail, then Christ fails with his people, and the heir of all things loses his inheritance as soon as one single one of the other heirs shall have his right to the inheritance disproved. Does he stand in the presence of God he appears in the presence of God for us; Hebrews 9:24 . We shall behold his glory, we shall be with him where he is, and we shall be ourselves glorious in his glory. Browse all categories; New Books; Used Books Now I want your attention while I try to show that this blessed sentence, "It is Christ that died," is AN ANSWER TO EVERY ACCUSATION which, under any circumstances, may arise from sin. No, perhaps thou dost not; it is not very likely swine should ever lift their heads from their troughs to think aught of stars. Romans 8 - A New and Wonderful Life in the Spirit A. Oh, when you start aside at a little jest, let your conscience prick you, and say, "Am I not a joint heir with Christ, and am I about to quarrel with the legacy? Do you hate your mother, who nursed you on her knee? Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 24th, 1872, by. 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. If the call be effectual, and you are brought out and brought in brought out of sin and brought to Christ, brought out of death into life, and out of slavery into liberty, then, though thou canst not see God's hand in it, yet it is there. We have this. Another text. 1,997, "God's Longsuffering: an Appeal to the Conscience.". 20. Therefore it is that we groan. They will say, "What! Amen. He says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." God made man not pure spirit, but body and spirit, and the spirit alone will never be content until it sees its corporeal frame raised to its own condition of holiness and glory. He sees things he had not dreamed of even in the shades of night. May God help you, and help me, to groan all our days with that kind of groaning. And now we may rest assured, since we can see a sitting Christ in heaven, that the whole atonement is finished, the work is over, he hath made an end of sin. A mother can translate baby-talk: she comprehends incomprehensible noises. Until this question be answered my heart cannot rest, for I am intensely anxious about it. First comes Satan; then the world; then conscience; and last of all the law of God. You are as bad as any one of us. It appears from the text that this groaning is universal among the saints: there are no exceptions; to a greater or less extent we all feel it. 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." I shall direct your joyous attention to one precious jewel in your treasury, namely, your adoption into the family of God. The believer continues to hope for the time when death and sin shall no more annoy his body; when, as his soul has been purified, so shall his body be, and his prayer shall be heard, that the Lord would sanctify him wholly, body, soul, and spirit. 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. We have before us in the text the four marvellous pillars upon which the Christian rests his hope. Oh what riches! And then suppose that, in winding up the estates, it should be found that, though there be something left, yet it be a mere trifle, scarcely worth an acknowledgment: enough to excite appetite but not sufficient to satisfy it what if it should come out at last, that heaven is not the infinite joy we have been taught to expect; suppose its bliss should be but inferior joy, such as might be found even in this world below suppose that the harps have no melody, the crowns but little glory, and heaven's streets but slight magnificence what then? And if an angel could exalt a gnat to equal dignity with himself, yet would not the boon be such-an-one as that which God hath conferred on thee. For when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. Reprinted from "Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon's Work-room" in "The Sword and the Trowel," December, 1896. 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." Come, lift up thine head; envy no man his dukedom; think no man's princeship worth thy coveting; thou art greater than the greatest, for thou art joint heir with Christ; in dignified relationship thou hast no superior upon earth; and except those who are joint heirs with thee, thou hast not an equal, since thou art joint heir with Christ. Will he judge the nations? III. Is he omnipotent? At this time our subjects for consideration shall be, firstly, the help which the Holy Spirit gives; secondly, the prayers which he inspires; and thirdly, the success which such prayers ore certain to obtain. The statement of this verse succinctly expresses the core of Christian victory. "The carnal mind," he says, "is ENMITY against God." Christ had to be persecuted and so must you. Debts of honor, as we call them which are no debts in some men's eyes we can discharge; but the great and solemn debt we owe to God is ofttimes passed by, neglected and forgotten. you are quarreling with this divine arrangement, you are beginning to differ with this blessed policy of God. but if it be an effectual call, and if salvation shall be the result thereof, what matters it though thou dost go to heaven alone? It is not so in the family of God. These are blessed subjects, though I cannot speak upon them as I would. A great gulf had opened in the Forum, perhaps caused by an earthquake, and the auspices had said that the chasm could never be filled up, except the most precious thing in Rome could be cast into it. Some men groan because of their great losses or sufferings; well, this may be nothing but a rebellious smarting under the rod, and if so, no blessing will come of it. But our Lord has told us that greater works than his own shall we do, because he is gone to his Father; and these greater works we do. 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. Among the Romans a man might adopt a child, and that child might be treated as his for a long time; but there was a second adoption in public, when the child was brought before the constituted authorities, and in the presence of spectators its ordinary garments which it had worn before were taken off, and the father who took it to be his child put on garments suitable to the condition of life in which it was to live. Condemn a man who sits next to his Father, the King of kings! Catalogue of Commentaries & Expositions. We have seen that chapters 5-8 have a kind of sandwich structure. True Advocate is he, and Comforter most effectual. He says, "Yes, I am happy and grateful. YOU WILL HAVE NOTICED that in this chapter, Paul has been expounding a very deep inward, spiritual experience. The apostle endorses that sentiment by quoting it, and against that endorsement we can of course have no contention; but the word there used for "offspring," expresses no idea of Fatherhood in the majestic sense of the term, it is a word which might be used as appropriately for the young of animals, the young of any other creature, it has not about it the human sympathies which belong to a father and a son. Stop HIM? I trust you will lay hold upon that thought; if Christ as God's heir has a perfect right to what his Father has bestowed upon him, even so have we, for our rights are nonexistent. He it is that leads our soul to cry, "though my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure." He took the great mass of the sins of believers, and piled the whole on Christ; and when he hung upon the cross as his people's Substitute, even his Father hid his face from him. And are we not debtors to them? If any man will contradict that flatly well, be it so. Oh, before those days fully come, quit the service of the master who never can reward you except with death! ", I am anxious not to tarry over controverted matters, but to reach the subject of my sermon this morning. Will he be received with triumph by his Father? The whole "carnal mind is enmity against God. He had endured persecution, imprisonment, famine, shipwreck, he had suffered from scorn and scandal, pain of body, and depression of spirit. First, then, my brethren, a SPECIAL PRIVILEGE mentioned in the text. 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. Time and ability alike fail us to speak of this. The suggestion has, no doubt, been made by others; but I venture to press it upon Christians of all denominations that they may, in turn, urge all their pastors to summon such meetings. Let us now notice these four stupendous doctrines. "There!" On Lord's-day Evening, November 7th, 1886. ", And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this fact, who shall decide the question; it shall be your conscience. It is not with us a matter of doubt; we have tried it, we have proved it. you converted? 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. Being the father of lies, he will accuse us of things of which we are not guilty, or, when it suits his purpose, he will exaggerate our guilt, and make it appear worse than it is, in order that he may drive us to despair. Sovereign Mercy comes, and there lies this unconscious, lifeless mass of sin; Sovereign Grace cries, either by the minister, or else directly without any agency, by the Spirit of God, "come forth!" Though the sins of the whole world should press on any one of these sacred columns, it would never break nor bend. What then is to be said to this, "These are not the children of God." Happy, happy man! "Complete the sentence, lictors;" and their heads are smitten off in the father's presence. We shall notice in our text, first, whereunto the saints have already attained; secondly, wherein we are deficient; and thirdly, what is the state of mind of the saints in regard to the whole of the matter. You were not as some who were mere drudges to sin. 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Of sandwich structure to come '' will be for you who are here back with and... Is election, but it lieth there as any one of these columns... Why did you come here till you had paid your debt Church `` Brethren. expounding... To be said to this, `` behold, I am mainly indebted to these because I so. As he is taken in connection with his co-heir and refuse themselves pain...