And hear ye this, John i. He cannot perish who relies on Christ, and he who hath faith in Jesus may see the heavens pass away, but not God's Word. But, remember, the text tells us that all God is, is ours. The other might have said, "Ah, you pretend to be a happy man, and here you are groaning." He is a man of a loving heart and loves his sons, but there they stand. Somebody says, "That is Calvinistic doctrine." 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. But this cannot be; the time has not yet come when the book shall be opened, and even then the seals shall not be broken by mortal hand, but it shall be said, "The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and break the seven seals thereof.". All things at this present moment are working together for the believer's good. Thou canst bear faithful witness, if thou wouldst speak the truth, that each person here has so transgressed against God, so continually broken his laws, violated his Sabbath, trampled on his statutes, despised his gospel, that it is true, aye, most true, that "the carnal mind is enmity against God. He might say, as Jesus did to the Jews, "For which of these works do ye stone me?" He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. It reminds me of what I have sometimes heard of the ropes that are used in mining. I do not know a more beautiful sight to be seen on earth than a man who has served his Lord many years, and who, having grown grey in service, feels that, in the order of nature, he must soon be called home. Our third and last point is THE SURE SUCCESS OF ALL SUCH PRAYERS. This is the Christian's brightest hope. The text says, "we groan." He gave to us hi inmost heart; he loved us even to the death. The deeper things shall be left with God. "He had not persecuted Christ," you say, "it was only some poor men and women that he had haled to prison, or scourged in the synagogue, to compel them to blaspheme." Yet more, I fancy that. 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. I knew there was a work; I knew I prayed, and cried, and groaned for mercy, but I did not know that was the Lord's work; I half thought it was my own. and no one dares to speak, for man himself cannot accuse; with all his malevolence, and acrimony, and malice, he can bring nothing against him; no charge can stand at the bar of God against the man whom he hath absolved through the merits of the death of Christ, and the power of his resurrection. We have known horror caused by guilt, and, therefore, for the future shall be throughout eternity a nobler race, freer to serve, and serving God after a nobler fashion than any other creatures in the universe. If you like to call it so, you may; but I would rather that you made the mistake of the good old Christian woman who did not know much about these things, and who said that she herself was "a high Calvarist." Methinks my head wears the crown; the white robe is girt about me, and my feet tread no more the battle fields, but the streets of peaceful bliss. The world has always been in a crisis, but this seems to use to be a peculiar one. In this chapter he exhorts them to seek to attain to this standard. He has paid all we owed and he will vindicate his own death, and claim for the travail of his soul its due reward, which is the forgiveness and the salvation of all guilty men who have come and put their trust in him. He uses the aorist (past) tense, not the present. By "good," he understands spiritual good. 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. Paul himself counted not his life dear unto him that he might win Christ, and be found in him; wherefore he says that he is persuaded that neither death, nor life, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Lord in boundless grace has resolved that a company whom no man can number, called here "many brethren," shall be restored to his image, in the particular form in which his Eternal Son displays it. Say not, "Lutheranism and Popery are mighty." III. On Lord's-day Evening, November 7th, 1886. And if thou be called, it follows as a natural inference thou art predestinated. 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 greatest faith is only what God has a right to expect from us, yet do we never exhibit it except as the Holy Ghost strengthens our confidence, and opens up before us the covenant with all its seals and securities. If thou canst but look to Jesus, thou art safe. Many believers make a mistake when they long to die and long for heaven. Amen and Amen. 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? Now, please to notice that my text is in the present tense. We must suffer with him if we would be glorified with him. Expect not, O Christian, that all things will work together to make thee rich; it is just possible they may all work to make thee poor. The great white throne is set, the books are opened, men are trembling, fiends are yelling, sinners are shrieking "Rocks hide us, mountains on us fall;" these make up an awful chorus of dismay. When he is about to favour an individual he casts the shadow of hopeful expectation over his soul. If that is not the meaning of the text I do not understand the English language. Where are your hearts, that ye can still despise God, and be at enmity with him? what can destroy thee if omnipotence is thy helper? If we suffer orthodoxy to fail, or God's truth to be dishonored, future generations will despise and execrate our name. You will remember the last one had, "Yea, rather." He rose again, I must rise, and though I die yet shall I live again. I have thus illustrated effectual calling. There is no terror to him like the terror of the cross. Can you each one say, as you sit in your pew to-night, "God loves me, and that loved joins him to me;" and "I love God, and that love joins me to him"? We shall see his face; the devils in hell cannot hinder it; we shall possess the promised rest, still the fiends that are beneath shall not rob us of the heirloom. The statement of this verse succinctly expresses the core of Christian victory. Saved by your works! Come, faith, and help me now to lay my fingers among the strings of the golden harp. Let any man hear and judge. And now I press forward to notice that in order that we may know whether we are partakers of this high this royal relationship of children of God, the text furnishes us with a SPECIAL PROOF "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Turn thy tearful eye to yonder Mount of Calvary! Blessed is the man to whom this reasoning is not abstract, but experimental. Shall it be, I say, that integrity shall be found in heathen lands and not be found here? First, we think we should learn a lesson of humility. It is Christ that died. But our God doeth more than this, he doth not send merely bread from his table, as in the day when man did eat angel's food; he doth not give us merely to drink the wines on the lees well refined the rich wines of heaven but he gives himself himself to us. There was no kinship between the Lord Jesus and angels, for to which of the angels had the Father said at any time, "Thou art my Son?" "To the very uttermost" he is able to save, seeing he ever lives to intercede the strongest argument of the whole four. And now as a matter of EXAMINATION let each man judge himself by certain characteristics of heavenly calling which I am about to mention. Nothing is idle. ", And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this fact, who shall decide the question; it shall be your conscience. We groan within ourselves. Now, do you hate God for sparing you? was the means of his quickening. 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. He called them, mark you. 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." Thou hast confessed that thou hast at times wished there were no God; now, suppose a man wished another dead, would not that show that he hated him? A tempted head involves tempted members. It is astonishing where men will go to seek salvation. If so, then am I called with the effectual calling, which is the work of God's grace, and is the sure sign of my predestination. 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. His death was the digging of the well of salvation. If today I am enabled to say I am called, then my boat is like the ferry-boat in the middle of the stream. Come on, slanderers! What a debtor thou art to Divine Sovereignty! He reads the heart itself: "he knoweth,' says the text, "what is the mind of the Spirit." 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. 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. If we now suffer the good vessel of gospel truth to be drifted by adverse winds upon the rock, if we keep not good watch to her helm, and cry not well to her great Master that she may led to a prosperous end, surely those who are to succeed us will look on us with scorn, and say, "Shame on the men, who had so great and glorious a mission, and neglected it, and handed down to us a beclouded gospel and an impure Church." 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. Second, the people being described as having no katakrima are not all who believe in Christ for everlasting life, but a particular type of believer. Yes, my lady, thou art a debtor to the poorest man that ever walked the earth. "Well!" The third foe that will seek to condemn you, and one that you have great cause to fear, is your own conscience; but the weapon which has discomfited your other foes will also avail you against this one. I tell thee, thou poor brother in Christ, there is a dignity about thee that even angels may well envy. May we still, between the very jaws of death, have solid confidence in God, and dare to ask for the presence of men and devils, too, "Who is the that condemneth?" He draws near to teach us how to pray, and in this way he helps our infirmity, relieves our suffering, and enables us to bear the heavy burden without fainting under the load. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering sacrifice for sin. Say, "I count it to be my joy to be permitted to be a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. then I must love him," and he was quickened in that selfsame hour. He comes within the gates. It was after death remember that, it was after death that his heart poured out the tribute of blood and water by which we have the double cure; see, then, how he loves us in death and after death. Renewed men are made fit companions for the Son of God. Beloved, if you would be saved, you must be persuaded of this truth; and when you are persuaded of it, you will know the joy of it. Can you not do it? Do I love what he loves; do I hate what he hates? The carnal mind is at all times enmity against God. Yes, but Christ died for the lascivious. Has it lifted up the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend your life with God in prayer, in praise, and in thanksgiving, and can no longer be satisfied with the low and mean pursuits which you followed in the days of your ignorance? There is nothing here below which does not belong to a believer. Nor can any creature accuse his saints, nor can heaven, or earth, or hell disprove our rights or infringe upon our title so long as his title stands undisputed and indisputable. He died, the Prince of glory died the ignominious felon's death, in the room and place and stead of guilty men. We expect to see the New Jerusalem descend out of heaven from God. We hear of tornadoes, of earthquakes, of tempests, of volcanoes, of avalanches, and of the sea which devoureth its thousands: there is sorrow on the sea, and there is misery on the land; and into the highest palaces as well as the poorest cottages, death, the insatiable, is shooting his arrows, while his quiver is still full to bursting with future woes. It was said, "It is finished!" says the accuser "but you sinned against light and knowledge. "Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man" (Proverbs 8:4 ). Is he everlasting? 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. Are the great Father's loving arms about your neck? Did he not say, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world?" And now, if you and I are enabled this morning to go beneath the bloody tree of Calvary, and shelter ourselves there, how safe we are! His work is never superficial, but always deep and inward. Forget the steps thou hast already trodden, and reach forward towards that which is before, looking unto Jesus. It is said that every strand of them would bear the entire onnage, and consequently, if every strand bears the full weight that will ever be put upon the whole, there is an absolute certainty of safety given to the whole when twisted together. "Ah!" He gave his Son for you; and for me. 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. Abel, the protomartyr, entering alone into heaven, shall not have a more secure title to the inheritance than he who, last of woman born, shall trust in Christ, and then ascend into his glory. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin." "It is Christ that died." We are not at liberty to give or to refuse. You will notice here, my beloved, that there are two witnesses in court two who are ready to prove our filiation to the eternal God. He shall joy in their joy, and be glad in their gladness. His intercession is not in or for the unregenerate. You are fountains for coming generations; O, be careful that your streams are pure. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Some may say, "It is the prospect of bankruptcy." You discover that Christ had his cross, and you are asked to administer to the will. Who can condemn? If you are joint heir and would claim one part of the estate, you must take the rest. I can see that part of the chain, which is named "calling," but blessed be God, that is joined to the side that is called "election," and I may be also quite clear that it is joined on to the other side, the glorious end of "glorification." Satan was eager that the new-born child of grace should be put to death, and, therefore, sent forth fierce temptations to slay us; but the Lord found a shelter for our infant spiritual life, and preserved the young child alive. I have no argument with which to convince the man who denies so strong and clear a witness. you also shall be lifted up. Does he challenge purity to convict him of guilt? Sinner! All that he has, all that he is, therefore, belongeth to us. We do not know why it is so, but we sometimes find our minds carried as by a strong under current into a particular line of prayer for some one definite object. "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," everyone of them. And now I must return to the word "work" to notice the tense of it. 14. What will the father do? What says the believer now? Look here, this is my confession of faith; here will I hale thy brothers and thy sisters to prison, and beat them in the synagogue and compel them to blaspheme and even hunt them to death, for my breath is threatening, and my heart is as fire against Christ." 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. This he does by arousing our desires. When another says, "I am a sound, orthodox Presbyterian," you stick to this solid ground, "Christ has died." For human righteousness is only human; being human, it is finite; and, being finite, it falls short somewhere or other. I doubt not that God at first supernaturally revealed it to him; but yet, in order that he might be still more sure of it, God was pleased to reveal it to him again and again, till his trembling heart was more and more completely persuaded of it. The first reason why the Christian never can be condemned is because CHRIST HATH DIED. In praying for temporal things we plead with measured voices, ever referring our petition for revision to the will of the Lord. It was evermore most clear that he acted towards God as a son towards a father. Conscience, I will put thee in the witness-box, and cross-examine thee this morning! by which he means transient good, the good of the moment. Is there anything here that can console me? 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." Out of stock. And this solemn text drops an awful warning: "How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation." Moses prayed that he might enter Canaan, but God denied him; and the man that was healed asked our Lord that he might be with him, but he received for answer, "Go home to thy friends." The text speaks "of the mind of the Spirit." Our rights are joint rights, and most be either jointly acknowledged or jointly denied. shall a son of God be less true than a Roman or a heathen? 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. Then he gave the words I used, and continued, "It was a true description of myself. 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. How shall a celestial spirit be satisfied until it sees celestial things? Or, perhaps, you were more polite; you did not curse and swear, but the accusation comes: "You argued against God and his Son, and against his blessed gospel; you have robbed him of his glory." Well, Christian, thou hast got upon the meaning of the text, then. I am a little more acquainted with the depths, and I meet with many Christian people who are very familiar with those depths. Not only are they ceaselessly active, but they are active for a purpose. Consider how many mercies you have received at his hands all your life long! "Oh!" In Philippians 3:13-14 you find these words. I defy you to exhaust that topic, though you should think about it all the days of the next week, nay, though you should muse upon it till eternity commences with your soul. O Paul, the thunderbolt of God will smite thee! "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. The apostle challenges the whole world, and heaven and hell too, in the question, "Who is he that condemneth?" "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors." Expect not, then, that all things shall work together as for thy good. When at any time then the Holy Spirit comforts you sheds a sweet calm over your disturbed spirit; when at any period he instructs you, opens to you a mystery you did not understand before; when at some special period he inspires you with an unwonted affection, an unusual faith in Christ; when you experience a hatred of sin, a faith in Jesus, a death to the world, and a life to God, these are the works of the Spirit. This will defeat your great adversary. NVIPT. 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. We are called "joint heirs with Christ" what meaneth this? He helps our infirmity; and with a helper so divinely strong we need not fear for the result. There is nothing that pains me so much as sin; I desire to be quit and rid of it; Lord help me to be holy"? It sweetly appears that the ULTIMATE END OF ALL THIS IS CHRIST. Now, we also, though we at our conversion are new creatures, are also said to be "begotten again into a lively hope." He beckons me, and I must be brought at length to see his face, and to be with him where he is. There is not a silent nook within the deepest forest glade where work is not going on. 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