Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. So the enquirer asked him again, "But what is your persuasion?" 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. Open your mouth wide, and God will fill it! "I have been sick for many a day, and wife and children, dependent on my daily labor, are crying for food: will this work together for my good?" Moreover, Christ wrought miracles of mercy towards men, which proved him to be the Son of God. Look around, above, beneath, and all things work. Here are beings that know evil, and know also good, beings placed under infinite obligations by bonds of love and gratitude to choose for ever the good, beings with a nature so renewed that they always must be holy beings; and these beings can commune with the incarnate God upon spurring as angels cannot, upon the penalty of guilt as angels cannot; upon heart-throes, conflicts, reproaches, and brokenness of spirit as angels cannot: and to them the Lord Jesus can reveal the glory of holiness, the bliss of conquering sin, and the sweetness of benevolence as only they can comprehend them. Yet there is the church, and how can she in the slightest degree incur condemnation, when she is already at the right hand of the Father with her covenant head. When Christ was God's heir, and was here on earth, he was heir of the cross, heir of shame, and spitting, and cruel mockings, and scourgings. this is "to the uttermost;" what we thought, perhaps, to be the very smallest matter in the recital, is just the greatest. Let us take these things for granted, and never dispute about them any more, but go on to still higher matters. A man has to deliver a piece which he has learned; but his memory is treacherous, and therefore somewhere out of sight there is a prompter, so that when the speaker is at a loss and might use a wrong word, a whisper is heard, which suggests the right one. "These are thy glorious works, parent of good, Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then!". Tell me, oh, tell me, if ye know, seers and prophets, is my name recorded in that book of life? Well, certainly, you made no pretension to it six months ago; you were about as black as a man could be." "We are joint heirs with Christ.". Tell him that you are a sinner, and that if he should paint your sin in its blackest colours, you would not even then despair, for it would still be true that Christ "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Daniel, all the mighty ones that have gone before, tell out the tale of their history, write their autobiography, and they say, "We!" A man might as well try to dispute him out of the fact of his existence as out of that equally sure fact that he has been born again, and that by gracious adoption he has been taken into the family of God. You were murmuring at the dispensations of God. Those who obey his promptings shall not walk in darkness. The enemy is in front of us. Let us begin with the word "work." Home; Shop. God bless you! 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, Christian, consider how thou art a debtor to thy God. The co-heir is heir to the entire estate; and if he says, "No, not to that portion," then he is not heir to any; and if he makes exemption anywhere, he makes exemption to the whole. traitor against God!" Ah! There is real prayer in these "groanings that cannot be uttered." I cannot stay longer on that point, except just to notice, that we must never quarrel with this divine arrangement. In many things we all offend. But the text, you see, furnishes us with a higher witness than this. There were no seats whatever provided tor the priests. Then, remember, thy head must deny itself the pleasure of wearing the crown. Out of stock. "Who is he that condemneth?" And so, too, it is rather God's work than our work. Time and ability alike fail us to speak of this. You went to some place, and asked the price, and thought it too high; then you went away to half-a-dozen other stablekeepers, and could not do any better, so you came back to the first; but he, displeased with you, very possibly said, "I do not want your custom. There is nothing about death that the believer should construe it into a fear that it will separate him from the love of Christ. 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. Here is an argument which hath much more power, much more strength, much more force than even Christ's death. Look! The portals of heaven stand wide open for thee. True, many things are yet in the future, but even at this present moment, we have obtained an inheritance; we have already in our possession a heritage divine which is the beginning of our eternal portion. And as to our weaknesses and infirmities, he is there to plead for his people: "Who also maketh intercession for us." Communion is the fountain of conformity. "Well, sir, you know how much I love the cause, and how earnest I am in doing everything that I can to serve my Maker; but (now comes the end of it all) I really work so hard all the week that I cannot afford to go out on the Sabbath to Sunday-schools." The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit; it is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence; it is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile; it is not envious against God, it is envy; it is not at enmity, it is actual enmity. Poor prodigal sinner, may our Father bring thee home, for there is an inheritance even for thee. If it be possible that by some decree in heaven's high court, it should be certified and determined that the inheritance is not rightly ours, because some one part of the covenant was left in a precarious state so that it became void and of no effect, then, thine inheritance, O thou King of kings, has failed thee in the very day when it hath failed us. Then, I shall leave off these plebeian garments, and be robed as becomes my senatorial rank." What a broad assertion it is. 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. 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." In praying for temporal things we plead with measured voices, ever referring our petition for revision to the will of the Lord. but you have aforetime refused Christ. He is in an enemy's house; for he is at enmity with God. Would you have your Master's throne, but not his temptation in the wilderness? If my friend over yonder has paid my debt, it is gone. Look at the imagination, too. These divine persons always work together, and there is a common desire for the glory of each blessed Person of the Divine Unity, and therefore it cannot be conceived without profanity, that anything could be the mind of the Holy Spirit and not be the mind of the Father and the mind of the Son. Not only are they ceaselessly active, but they are active for a purpose. Behold it, wonder at it, and bless God for it. I shall now pass on to my third point. But still I think if my life were in hazard, and I stood in the dock, and my counsel were pleading for me, my tongue would be itching to plead for myself, and I should want to get up and just say, "My lord, I am innocent, innocent as the babe newly born, of the crime laid to my charge. I groan, for I can do no more. 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. 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. And let the idle and slothful remember that they are a great anomaly; they are blots in the great work-writing of God; they mean nothing; in all the book of letters with which God has written out the great word "work," they are nothing at all. I have thus given you the four props and pillars of the believer's faith. The true son of God will never blush to acknowledge that he is in subjection to the Father of spirits. Now, let us march with joyful footsteps onward to the other part of the inheritance. 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." Ah, it was the groan of death! The influence of his holy religion has made abundant atonement to the world for any wrong that you ever did to it. Where is the blessedness of the title, for they might be lovers of strife, and yet according to modern theologians they might still be the sons of God. YOU WILL DIEYOU WILL LIVE. It is to the praise of his enemy. 'Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire in hell!'" It may be true that we owe a great deal to the higher ranks of society; we may possibly, in some mysterious way, be much under obligation to the sacred personages who are styled lords and bishops, but it is not necessary that I should stand up for their claims, for I have no doubt they will take good care of themselves; at any rate they have usually done so, and have not allowed themselves to be robbed of much of their deservings. Satan was no friend to Christ, but finding him in the desert he came to him with this accursed "if" "If thou be the Son of God." He could not join the song, for he would not know the tune. What can you be at? The sermons he preached touched the lives of thousands. I cannot of course picture what your precise trouble is. You had a share in his death. thou art bitten. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Prosperous professors, who do no business amid David's billows and waterspouts, may set small store by the blessed anchorage of eternal purpose and everlasting love but those who are "tossed with tempest, and not comforted, are of another mind." The text says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." And I think I may stand firmly while I argue here, that if a Roman, a worshipper of Jupiter or Saturn, became great or glorious, a Son of God ought to be nobler far. But the greatness of our talents is only the amount of our debt; for, the more we have, the more we owe. He whose garments are the whitest, will best perceive the spots upon them. It will be the Spirit's own self pleading in me, and by me, and through me, before the throne of grace. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 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. 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 Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" Romans 8:34 . The finite cannot grasp the infinite. I imagine that he said, "I promised to go back, and though it is to pangs indescribable, I will return." What bliss to know that he who is "very God of very God," and sits on the eternal throne, is also of the same nature with ourselves, our kinsman, who is not ashamed even amidst the royalties of glory to call us brethren. He died for me. The effectual call of grace is precisely similar; the sinner is dead in sin; he is not only in sin but dead in sin, without any power whatever to give to himself the life of grace. Sometimes I have thought that impossible. Thou Church of God, surely it must survive in thee; for to whom should it more belong to die and sacrifice all, than to those who are the sons of God. I think he does, and this, then, is our comfort, that, if we have to meet the arch-fiend himself foot to foot in terrible duel, and we may, for men of God have had so to meet him, and he that does battle with the adversary will gain nothing by it but sweat of blood and aching heart, even if he shall win the victory, so that we may well pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one," still we have this comfort, that even though he may rejoice over us for a moment, and may cast us down, he cannot separate us from the love of Christ; he may open many of our veins, and make us bleed even to utter weakness, but the life-vein he can never touch. True believers love God as their Father; they have "the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry Abba, Father." Dries he sit upon a throne? "Who is he that condemneth? If not, tremble, for there are but two vast families in this world. 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. He can make the zeal for God's house to eat us up, and the passion for God's glory to be like a fire within our bones; and this is one part of that process by which in inspiring our prayers he helps our infirmity. How much have you done after all, young man? God is King over all, and able to govern the world according to his own mind, which mind is always infinitely just. May God help you, and help me, to groan all our days with that kind of groaning. no; but the whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salvation is not by the works of the law, but by the deeds of grace. Now, as there is nothing like Scripture, let me read you a few texts, Romans viii. And let me further remark, that the right hand is the place of power. "Surely," said he, "the minister knew me, and spoke something personally to me, because he knew my case." If the wings of the Eternal are thy shelter, what plague can attack thee? When a friend suggested that these "Notes" should be gathered together, and arranged in a small book, I felt it was quite possible that the Lord in His tenderness would continue to speak by them to some who needed consolation or encouragement. "All things work," at this very instant and second of time. I can sit down and let him plead, and I do not want to get up and conduct the pleading myself. Alas! I, too, am persuaded by a thousand arguments, and persuaded beyond all question, that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 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. being made bold to do so because we have believed in the Christ that died. for that ours will be. ", Now, my hearers, "the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants;" but whenever I find a certain book much held in reverence by our Episcopalian brethren, entirely on my side, I always feel the greatest delight in quoting from it. To him fine language is as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal, but a groan has music in it. This is called the first-fruit because it comes first. Many of you will not feel the force of Christian reasons, let me remind you, that even you are obliged to the laboring poor. I believe that the Spirit of God sometimes comes into a mysterious and marvellous contact with the spirit of man, and that at times the Spirit speaketh in the heart of man by a voice not audible to the ear, but perfectly audible to the spirit which is the subject of it. you a saint? but thou wilt not leave one of the "many brethren" for whom he died: the Spirit shall be with them, and when they cannot so much as groan he will make intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered. You, that were going to thrash mountains, find that molehills cast you down. Christ had to be persecuted and so must you. When Christ Jesus took away our guilt, and "his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree," justice was more terribly displayed than when guilty sinners sink to hell. rail on as pleases you. Come, my hearer, if what I say to you be true (and I will answer for its truth at God's great judgment-seat), then I pray you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; for "he that believeth in him shall not be ashamed, nor confounded, world without end." It has been the good pleasure of the Lord to bless my "Personal Notes On a Text" to many of His tried and afflicted people, and to make them messengers of comfort in hours of sorrow or darkness. 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. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus," declaring as it seems to me, and rightly enough, that all believers, all who have faith in Christ are the children of God, and that they become actually and manifestly so by faith in Christ Jesus, and implying that those who have no faith in Christ Jesus, are not God's sons, and that any pretence which they could make to that relationship would be but arrogance and presumption. Spurgeon, Charles H. Owen, John; Ferguson, Sinclair B. Sproul, R.C. He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth; he bears up the pillars of the universe; his breath perfumes the flowers; his pencil paints them; he is the author of this fair creation; "we are the sheep of his pasture; he hath made us, and not we ourselves." What was the nature of Christ, then, as divine? I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: "Saved by your works! Ministers are helpers of the joy of the saints. No. "There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life," that there is so much longer time for temptation and trial. Cannot you imagine that a child taken from the lowest ranks of society, who is adopted by a Roman senator, will be saying to himself, "I wish the day were come when I shall be publicly revealed as the child of my new father. We all confess that if we are brought to the marriage-banquet, "'Twas the same love that spread the feast. A chapter by chapter and verse by verse study of Romans taught by Pastor Paul LeBoutillier of Calvary Chapel Ontario, Oregon. I. If he could, if there were yet a chance of risk, Christ would not be sitting down; if the work were not so fully done, that every redeemed one should at last be received into heaven, he would never rest, nor hold his peace. "We are the children of God." "All things work together for good.". He whose crown shineth the brightest, will know when he hath lost a jewel. Two Sunday nights ago, when I stood here to preach about the longsuffering of God being salvation,* I spoke, in the middle of the sermon, as if personally addressing someone who was present, who had lately been ill with fever, and who had come to the Tabernacle, still weakly, and scarcely recovered. If we be debtors we never ought to be proud. There is nothing new in the book; no, for "the old is better," it tells of ancient covenants, and everlasting love, and full atonement, and final perseverance, grand old doctrines on which a soul may stand without fear when heaven and earth are passing away, and the Son of Man comes in His glory. 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. Naturally we never will towards good without God, but God works in us to will and to do. 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. Believing in Jesus, we speak confidently, we have unspeakable blessings given to us by the Father of spirits. 2. And I say it this morning, it is a shameful thing that ever idolatry should be able to breed better men than some who profess Christianity. He sees hosts of angels; but those hosts are the servants of his enemy. and he went forth, not knowing whither he went. Will you be willing to endure the revilings of slanderous tongues? It should be, "The fool hath said in his heart, no God." Can those eyes flash lightnings on the man whom once they saw in sin, and thence with rays of love they did lift him up to joy, and peace, and purity? III. We read that, when David had cut off Saul's skirt. Happy is he who can follow the apostle step by step, and say, "Yes, I have this morning the spirit of a son; I know that my heart loves God, and I look to him as my Father, with trust, with confidence, and with love; then I am surely his son, because I have the Spirit a son; then I am his heir; I am the heir of God; and thus my faith lays hold upon the thrice-precious words of this glorious text I am joint heir with Christ.". says yet another accuser; "but you have sinned with delight. And dost thou hate God for that? He has borne the penalty which I ought to have borne, and I am clear. It is true that God is great, but he cannot ask for more than divine righteousness, and in Christ I present that. 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