Who shall accuse the Redeemer? Yet it is not the natural innocence of his heart, but the perfect mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which gives him this amazing confidence. Did not Jesus say, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things before you ask them"? We are to be conformed to Christ Jesus as to character. May he who comes from Jesus lead you to Jesus. They are blessed, but they have not had their public entrance. Why, one would have thought you would rejoice to take your Master for better or for worse, and to be partaker with him, not only in his glories but in his sufferings. He puts it thus, they are not able to separate us. you a saint? thou art bitten. If he adds anything at all, it is still something about that same Christ "yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. "But thou hast stained thyself with lust." It is proven to a demonstration in our own lives; it is a fact which runs like a golden clue through all the labyrinth of our history "All things work together for good to them that love God." Suffering is the college of orthodoxy. Let a man once believe that all the treasure within is his, and then the stouter the bolt, and the surer the lock, the better for him. The having those corruptions is our crime which should be confessed as an enormous evil; and if I, as a minister of the gospel, do not press home the sin of the thing, I have missed what is the very virus of it. Is there anything to be proud of in having paid a farthing in the pound? 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. Suppose it to be a time of war centuries back. The Holy Spirit acts to his people somewhat as a prompter to a reciter. Is then your calling a high calling, has it lifted up your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Silently the forest groweth, anon it is felled; but all the while between its growing and felling it is at work. There is a chain on this side of the river fixed into a staple, and the same chain is fixed into a staple at the other side, but the greater part of the chain is for the most part under water, and you cannot see it: you only see it as the boat moves on, and as the chain is drawn out of the water by the force that propels the boat. ----- "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." Romans 8:16-17. God grant to you all to be believers in Christ, now and for ever. === Sample: Romans 8:1-3 === Romans 8 Some people talk about "getting out of the 7th chapter, into the 8th." "This world is ours," says the apostle in another place, and ours because it is Christ's by right of inheritance. when I can find enough for my faith to be satisfied with even in the digging of the well, what shall be my satisfaction when I see it overflowing its brim, and springing up with life everlasting? II. He guides us in prayer, and thus he helps our infirmity. He stands to us in the relationship of a Maker and Creator; and from that fact he claims to be our King. When the Emperor Charles the Fifth went to war with Francis the First, King of Naples, he sent a herald to him, declaring war in the name of the Emperor of Germany, King of Castille, King of Aragon, King of Naples, King of Sicily, and he went on with many more titles, giving his sovereign all the honours that were his due. There is another test. What about your present sinfulness?" 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." If I could so read them the passage would certainly he very easy, and would very greatly alter my doctrinal views; but, as I do not find those words there, begging your pardon, I do not believe in them. To us, indeed, the things are scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other. We have faith, that priceless, precious jewel. If there be some points in the covenant of grace where wisdom has been deficient, and therefore by error it may miscarry, or by lack of legal right may prove null and void, it is as surely null towards Christ as towards ourselves, for he is jointly concerned therein. If all things are working, let us work too "work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no man can work." Thine eternity, O God, is mine to keep me in existence, that I may ever be preserved. Make thou thyself assured, then, that thou art in union with Christ, for out of him thou hast no rights whatever. AP&A-c1970 lfpb. It is as if a poor man were called into court to prove his right to some piece of land which was disputed. The right hand of God is the place of majesty, and the place of favour too. If it is a call that will suit the remarks which I am about to give you in the second part of the discourse, even though you may have thought that God's hand is not in it, rest assured that it is, for nature could never produce effectual calling. and is it a call to heaven as well as from heaven? Martin Luther declared that he constantly preached justification by faith alone, "because," said he, "the people would forget it; so that I was obliged almost to knock my Bible against their heads, to send it into their hearts." Where are your hearts, that ye can still despise God, and be at enmity with him? "What!" Dost thou frequent his mercy-seat? Come now, though this be an exceedingly noisome spot, though it be a piece of ground which thou wouldst fain leave out and give to thine enemies, yet there is a possibility of getting great treasure and great riches out of it; therefore do not scorn it. When Christ was bound to the tree, I see my own sin bound there; when he died every believer virtually died in him; when he was buried we were buried in him, and when he was in the tomb, he was, as it were, God's hostage for all his church, for all that ever should believe on him. For memory graspeth with an iron hand ill things, but the good she holdeth with feeble fingers. I fear many of us here must acknowledge that we do not charge the sin of it to our own consciences. it is a glorious truth. There is no getting away from yourself, and when you yourself condemn yourself, then you are condemned indeed. What! Thou knowest what I have need of before I ask thee, and though I cannot go into each item of my need, I know it to be very great, and such as I myself can never estimate. Let me say now, before I turn from this point, that it is possible for a man to know whether God has called him or not, and he may know it too beyond a doubt. The tall archangel before the throne is not called God's Son, he is one of the most favoured of his servants, but not his child. "Christ has died, yea, rather, is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Oh, what joy ought to fill our spirits this morning, at the prospect which this text reveals, and which predestination secures! Behold from heaven's mint golden pieces of inestimable value are sent forth, and each one bears the image and superscription of the Son of God. Why, sometimes, it can drive us to Christ; let us pray that it may. Now I must come to the third point, upon which with brevity. We must suffer with him if we would be glorified with him. Nay, ye say, we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. Death hath no more dominion over him and no more dominion over me; his deliverance is mine, his freedom mine for ever. Here stands the case. Yet we are persuaded that he did it, and that the love of God is most clearly to be seen in the faot that he gave his Son Jesus Christ to die instead of us. We may sum it up as referring to God, to men, to the devil, and to all evil. There is one thing I have noticed, in looking over the old levitical law, under the description of the tabernacle. 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. Remember how much thou owest to his disinterested love, which rent his own Son from his bosom that he might die for thee! Lecture 1: A Chat about Commentaries. I do not know that it is for my good that my children should be about me, like olive branches round my table, but I know that it is for my good that I should flourish in the courts of my God, and that I should be the means of winning souls from going down into the pit. I am a little more acquainted with the depths, and I meet with many Christian people who are very familiar with those depths. Then all thy love, as though there were not another to be loved, is mine, O God, and all thy grace, as though there were never another sinner to partake of it, is mine. They seek in vain; for there is no Saviour to be found, except at Calvary; and after you have made the circuit of the globe, and compassed heaven and hell to find another way of salvation, you will have to come back to Christ. Now, farewell to such of you as are debtors in that sense; but just one word to those who are debtors in the other sense; Sinner, thou who owest to God's justice, thou who hast never been pardoned; what wilt thou do when pay-day comes/ My friend over there, you who have run up a score of black sins, what will you do when pay-day comes, and no Christ to pay your debts for you? Now which shall it be! Possibly they fancy that creation is a paternal act, that all created things are sons. It is "an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Now, by this shall ye know whether ye be called of God or not. Oh, what a glorious doctrine is that of election, when a man can see himself to be elect. Young man, didst thou do more than thou oughtest to have done? Thus runs the decree, and thus shall the fulfillment follow "I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." It is enough; he has the cause, nor would we take it from his hand even if we could, Well did the apostle say, "To the very uttermost he is able to save them that come unto God by him, because he ever lives to make intercession for them.". This is condescension indeed! When Napoleon was on the island of St. Helena, he was watched by many guards, but after many complaints, he enjoyed comparative liberty, and walked alone. Believe then that all things work together for thy good; if thou lovest God, and art called according to his purpose. The tail feathers of pride should be pulled out of our prayers, for they need only the wing feathers of faith; the peacock feathers of poetical expression are out of place before the throne of God. He is in an enemy's house; for he is at enmity with God. It seems, then, dear friends, that PAUL'S PERSUASION HELPED TO BRING HIM TO VICTORY. The snake with its azure hues, may slumber amid the flowers, and the child may stroke its slimy back, but it is a serpent still; it does not change its nature, though it is dormant. Whosoever loveth God, without doubt, is a Christian; and whosoever loveth him not, however high may be his pretensions, however boastful his professions, hath not seen God, neither known him for "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." In that light he makes the promise shine in all its truthfulness, certainty, sweetness, and suitability, so that we, poor trembling sons of men, dare take that word into our mouth which first came out of God's mouth, and then come with it as an argument, and plead it before the throne of the heavenly grace. I want you, dear friends, to get this persuasion into you. "Who is that? I have broken away from its thralldom; the new law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the law of grace has set me free from the domination of the law of sin and death. Have I been born again from above? Has the Spirit operated in my heart in a manner to which flesh and blood never can attain? We must have more preaching of the Holy Spirit, if we are to have more conversion work. There is a general wail among nations and peoples. I have affirmed, and I am sure most Christians will bear witness, that what I said was the truth, that if any man loveth God he loves him because God gave him grace to love him. Doth he call himself a King? Oh unhappy souls, that cannot call one of these your own! That old preacher Solomon once said as much as that. Martha is correct; but by Martha's side there stands a man who, despite all his lowliness, is very God of very God. Old English warfare was then conducted by bowmen to a great extent. What is that? Is he a victor? Now, suppose I should put the following question to any converted man in this hall. His possessions shall be shared by his spouse; and when Christ took his Church unto himself he endowed her with all his goods, both temporal and eternal. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? And when Samuel knew it was the Lord, he said, "Speak; for thy servant heareth." 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