III. Stern justice swayed his spirit, and no other feeling could for a single moment make him turn aside. Again and again let this blow, from the sword of the Spirit, descend upon him, "It is Christ that died," and you will soon be acclaimed the victor over your greatest foe. You shall find, when your biography is written, that the black page did but harmonize with the bright one that the dark and cloudy day was but a glorious foil to set forth the brighter noon-tide of your joy. It is the mighty God himself who came here to be a Man, and to die in our stead, for is it not written that God hath bought his people with his own blood? But I ask you, does your spirit say to-day "I am God's child." He will rather glory in his high connection, and with reverence obey the commands of his Heavenly Parent. It is almost as good as Scripture; for Scripture leads us to think of the sufferings of Christ as an unfathomable deep. When Jesus came into the world as God's Son, he was not left without attesting proofs. No, perhaps thou dost not; it is not very likely swine should ever lift their heads from their troughs to think aught of stars. Yet for our strong consolation, that we may never tremble or fear, God hath been pleased to give us these four eternal rocks, these four immovable foundations upon which our faith may rest and stand secure. "No," says he, "I can stop his mouth with this cry, 'It is Christ that died;' that will make him tremble, for he crushed the serpent's head in that victorious hour. Now, suppose I should put the following question to any converted man in this hall. Sproul's Expositional Commentary Set - 8 Volumes. He does not say, "I am persuaded;" he does not say, "I believe;" but with unblushing confidence he appears before you and says, "We" (I have many witnesses) we know that all things work together." Who will garnish my back with purple and make my table groan with plenty?" Conecte-se Inscrever-se; Incio. It is twice over declared in our text that he maketh intercession for us; and the meaning of this I tried to show when I described a father as putting his hands upon his child's hands. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of him who rose again from the dead? We are to groan after perfection, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Go to www.ccontario.com for an . Now this is the cause of our groaning and mourning, for the soul is so married to the body that when it is itself delivered from condemnation, it sighs to think that its poor friend, the body, should still be under the yoke. Second, being born in human likeness and living among us as a sinless man, Jesus "condemned sin in the flesh"beat sin on its own turf. for thy Master's honor, and for thine own comfort, retain that consolation. I only pray that God's Spirit may make our lives to speak of it. God did as it were hold a bond against us which we could not pay. And let me further remark, that the right hand is the place of power. He is chosen Dictator, but as soon as ever his dictatorship is over he retires to his little farm of three acres, and goes to his plough, and when he is wanted to be absolute monarch of Rome he is found at his plough upon his three acres of land and his little cottage. One other instance let me give you. Oh! O come, thou condemned one, self-condemned, and turn thine eye this way, for one look will save. === Sample: Romans 8:1-3 === Romans 8 Some people talk about "getting out of the 7th chapter, into the 8th." Why, dying is the end of work; it is living that is hard work. I have wished I might indulge in folly; I have wished there were no laws to restrain me; I have wished, as the fool, that there were no God." III. "All things work together," for that kind of good to God's people. If the vessel tarries, he groans over the delay; and if the voyage be tedious, and adverse winds blow back the barque from the white cliffs of Albion, his thirst for his own sweet land compels him to groan. Let us now notice these four stupendous doctrines. Nay, his law never asked for more than human righteousness divine. That is, the entire man, every part of him every power, every passion. All that they endured came from a Father's hand, and this should comfort them. Whether you take it up or not, your murmuring will not lighten your afflictions. You and I are free, but what is our liberty? Having summarily disposed of all of them, Paul adds, "nor things present." There is nothing here below which does not belong to a believer. If there should be no thrones for us, there would be no throne for him; if the promise should utterly fail of fulfillment to the least of the joint heritors, it must also fail of accomplishment to our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Ah! Christ was always considered as having you in him, and you were always considered by God as being in Christ. AMEN. Others of you who can do little yourselves, can this day assist by sending forth men of God to preach the gospel of Christ. The first one is, "Yea rather;" the second one is, "Much more." He ever liveth to secure effectually the eternal salvation of every soul for whom he died, even for every one who puts his trust in him. But now in the breast of this "Hebrew of Hebrews," there is the holy recognition of Christian fraternity without reserve or hypocrisy. Is it prudent to despise the riches of his grace? For, first, if I am called then I am predestinated, there is no doubt about it. and hence he is "a very present help in time of trouble.". Our prevalence in prayer lies in the plea, "Lord, do as thou hast said." Romans 8:29 . O eternity, eternity eternity! "He maketh intercession for us," and "He maketh intercession for the saints." But if thou scorn it, remember, thou scornest the rest of the inheritance, for they are all one and indivisible in your Father's will. As an old countryman once said to me, from whom I gained many a pithy saying "Ah! 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. Romans 8:35 Sermons: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? But now to illustrate this call in its effects, we remind you that Abraham is another remarkable instance of effectual calling. 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? 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. Does he stand in the presence of God he appears in the presence of God for us; Hebrews 9:24 . We do cry, "Abba, Father." Christ digged the well to its very bottom, but not a drop did spring up; still was the world dry and thirsty, till on the morning of the resurrection a voice was heard, "Spring up O well," and forth came Christ himself from the grave, and with him came the resurrection and the life; pardon and peace for all souls sprang up from the deep well of his misery. No. Perhaps you ask me, how is this. The fleshly mind, the phronema sarkos, the lusts, the passions of the soul; it is this which has gone astray from God, and become enmity against him. Upon this supposition, God's utmost has been tried, and has failed. Learn, then, that it is wrong to ask, concerning any particular act of providence; is this for my good? As a Son he served his Father, you could see the nature of God in him, in his deep sympathy with God and in his exact imitation of God. 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. When you sinned, you were not like the common people of the street, who know no better. II. He would not be there if he were a debtor. I take it thus: Christ by his death paid to his Father the full price of what we owed to him. that love belongs to us. Paul was so persuaded that Christ would never leave him that he became a fighter, and he went in with all his might against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Silently the forest groweth, anon it is felled; but all the while between its growing and felling it is at work. A lack of depth in the inner life accounts for most of the doctrinal error in the church. You have no right to heaven in yourself; your right lieth in Christ. When the speaker has almost lost the thread of his discourse he turns his ear, and the prompter gives him the catch-word and aids his memory. 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. Is he everlasting? I do fear, my brethren, that very often when we consider our state, we think not so much of the guilt as of the misery. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Suppose you have been enabled to believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation; that faith has produced love to Christ; that love to Christ has led you to work for Christ; you come to the Bible, and you find that this was just the very thing which was felt by early believers; and then you say, "Good Lord, I am thy son, because what I feel is what thou has said by the lips of thy servant must be felt by those who are thy children." If according to law we are only heirs-presumptive, whose rights may be superseded, then our great joint heir, so far as he is co-heir with us, is superseded also. "We are the children of God." I do really think I should be impatient to speak for myself. 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. It is astonishing how much gratitude a man will feel to you if you have been only the instrument of doing him good; but how little gratitude he feels to God, the first cause of all! "In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them." That was on the Sunday, mark you; on the Wednesday, he was at Gravesend, there was a collision, and he and five others were drowned. Note yet a little further concerning the special privilege of heirship, we are joint heirs with Christ. When thou art commanded to believe and repent, when thou art exhorted to flee from the wrath to come, the sin lies on thy own head if thou dost despise the exhortation, and reject the commandment. The doctrine that I am quite sure to gain the victory, makes me fight. Who is he that condemneth, then? 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. I must not speculate, for I know nothing about it; but it is no speculation to say that we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness; and that there will come a time when the lion shall eat straw like an ox, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? we may look around and defy all our sins to destroy us. The slave is not called. do I converse with him, commune with him? They are discontented enough with life and yet they are afraid to die. God dwelleth in us, and we are one with Christ. Ungodly men prosper well enough in this world, they root themselves, and spread themselves like green bay trees: it is their native soil; but the Christian needs the hothouse of grace to keep himself alive at all and out in the world he is like some strange foreign bird, native of a warm and sultry clime, that being let loose here under our wintry skies is ready to perish. If we be debtors we never ought to be proud. "To as man as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God"; and to the sons of God alone cometh the Spirit of adoption, and all his helping grace. Baptist pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon is remembered today as the Prince of Preachers. But why is this? Dost thou love God, not with lip-language, but with heart-service? It is not poured out on the ground; it is on the mercy-seat, it is on the throne; it speaks in the very ears of God, and it must of a surety prevail. 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. Ask him whether he is happy and content. Now these longings these pantings for something more than this world can give you were but the evidences of a child-like spirit, which was panting after its Father's presence. I know my brethren, it is very hard for you to believe this. Let me attempt a second simile: he is as an advocate to one in peril at law. Oh! 1. 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. Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." As soon as the Israelite had plucked the first handful of ripe ears, they were to him so many proofs that the harvest was already come. Brethren, faith can do wonders. Yes, as we look, we must confess that it is true, there is the sin. Why the Lord may use any words. This day, if we do not break fish and barley loaves, we bring you better food; this day, if we cannot give to men opened eyes and unstopped ears, yet in the teaching of the gospel of Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, the mental eye is cleansed, and the soul's ear also is purged; so that in every child of God, in proportion as he labors in the power of the Spirit for Christ, the works which he does bear witness of him that he is the son of God. I owe nothing to the past, I owe nothing to the future, I owe nothing to the rich, and nothing to the poor, compared with what I owe to my God. He might say, as Jesus did to the Jews, "For which of these works do ye stone me?" Suddenly the Goths, the old enemies of Rome, fell upon the city. I hear a brave, strong voice, crying, "Who shall lay anything to my charge?" May God in mercy put his hand to the helm of the ship, and steer her safely. I have died in Christ, and my life now is that of a child of God, for I have been lifted to that high estate by my redeeming Lord. There be others of acute intellect, who, searching into mysteries of science, discover things that have been hidden from the creation of the world; men of keen research, and mighty erudition; and yet of each of these poet, philosopher, metaphysician, and great discoverer it shall be said, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." IV. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of low, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. I go to one brother, and I say, "Brother, there is such-and-such an office in the Sabbath-school; will you take it?" As many of you as have been born again have been conformed to the image of Christ in the matter of his birth, and you are now partakers of his nature. As much as to say, it is a powerful argument for our salvation, that Christ died; but it is a still more cogent proof that every believer shall be saved, that Christ rose again from the dead. 4. Thine omnipotence is ours, O God, to be our defense. Do you think so? There was a young man here, who exactly answered to the description I gave, and who wrote home to his mother something like this (I have the letter): "I went to Spurgeon's Tabernacle on Sunday night, and I heard such a sermon. 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. What will you do if you are out of God and out of Christ at the last pay-day, when the whole roll of your debts to God shall be opened, and you have no Christ to give you a discharge? But another bitter taunt comes to me, "You have sinned in spirit. Earth wears upon her brow, like Cain of old, the brand of transgression. Be not deceived; it is not so; things are not what they seem; "all things work together." One of you says, "Well, it is an empty pocket with me." but another thought comes up, "You know that he died; but then you have slain your Lord. Would you refuse to go with him to the garden of his agony? You see what you are predestinated to be: aim at it, aim at it every day. And he went and lay down." This is a very solemn indictment which the Apostle Paul here prefers against the carnal mind. The call of our text is of a different kind; it is not a universal call, it is a special, particular, personal, discriminating, efficacious, unconquerable, call. If he says, "Let there be light," the impenetrable darkness gives way to light; if he says, "Let there be grace," unutterable sin gives way, and the hardest-hearted sinner melts before the fire of effectual calling. In full tale hath every sin received sentence in his death. 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). O dear friends, what comfort lies in this word, "It is Christ that died."! If you have faith enough brethren, you may this mourning be raised up to sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We morally speak of work, especially on this day, as being the opposite of sacred rest and worship. "As many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." What shall I do? "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." He said to himself, "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." 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. 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!" Nor need we say a word to explain that it is "enmity against God." The ills of life are many, the trials of life are many, the temptations of life are more; O life, life, life here below, thou art, after all, little better than a lingering death! 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. "No," says he, "it is God that justifieth, I am not afraid to face the highest heaven, since God has said that I am just. Sonship towards an earthly parent brings with it a host of duties, and shall the Everlasting Father be unregarded? Even this first point of what the saint has attained will help us to understand why it is that he groans. Reprinted from "Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon's Work-room" in "The Sword and the Trowel," December, 1896. It seems to be, so far as we can judge, much more painful than the first, and has an anguish in it of the severest sort. Again he speaks, and fixing his eyes full on the Judge himself, he cries, "Who is he that condemneth?" The apostle says that those who love God are "the called according to his purpose" by which he means to say two things first, that all who love God love him because he called them to love him. Directions for our behaviour, as members of civil society, Rom. There are opposite currents; the wind bloweth to the north and to the south. In deigning to help us in the grief that cannot even vent itself in groaning, he proves himself to be a true Comforter. The force that is conforming us to Christ is the will of God in predestination. Jonah went down to the depths of the sea, but he oame up with this testimony, that there was nothing there to separate us from the love of God. Within this narrow house of my body, this tenement of clay, if I be a true believer, there dwells the Holy Ghost, and when I desire to pray I may ask him what I should pray for as I ought, and he will help me. Is not this Bible opened and read by us all, the gift of their self-denying faithfulness? 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. Come, take your cross up and bear it with joy. II. 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." 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. He was ill-treated, abused, and slandered, and went away to retirement. We believe that the tabernacle of God will be among men, that he will dwell among them, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. 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.". Paul, a Christian! that eternal unchangeableness is engaged for the defence of the people of God. 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. In the volume of the Book it is written of him: "I delight to do thy will, O my God! Said he, "All things work together for good; but perhaps, any one of those 'all things' might destroy us if taken alone. 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