There is no difficulty in our believing that as one human mind operates upon another mind, so does the Holy Spirit influence our spirits. A shopmate asked, "What's the matter?" "Ah!" The Holy Spirit has a wonderful power over renewed hearts, as much power as the skillful minstrel hath over the strings among which he lays his accustomed hand. The strifes of barons and kings for mastery might have been thought to be likely to tread out the last spark of British liberty; but they did rather kindle the pile. Jesus the Mediator must lose the glory which his finished work has procured for him, ere one of his co-heirs can miss of it; he must come down from that glory which he now inhabiteth, and cease to be honored as "the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us unto God by his blood," if any one of his people shall be deprived of that glory, and be cast into hell. It Jesus is thine all-prevailing king, and hath trodden thine enemies beneath his feet, if sin, death, and hell, are now only parts of his empire, for he is Lord of all, and if thou art represented in him, and he is thy guarantee, thy sworn surety, it cannot be by any possibility that thou canst be condemned. The gospel softened the breast of Paul, and made him forget all national animosities, otherwise, one of the down-trodden race would not have called his oppressor, "brother." He rose again, I must rise, and though I die yet shall I live again. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. "He was despised and rejected of men." Christ will not belie himself. Listen at that door on the left, there is a deep, hollow, awful groan. 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. Christian men, do you feel this with regard to your sins. "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." If the believer can take anything and everything to God, then he learns to glory in infirmity, and to rejoice in tribulation; but sometimes we are in such confusion of mind that we know not what we should pray for as we ought. we may look around and defy all our sins to destroy us. 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. The more you search the Bible, the more sure will you be that sonship is the special privilege of the chosen people of God and of none beside. When Christ pleads, he does not plead with one who is stronger than him or inimical to him, but with his own Father. Just so! In his light shall we see light: I pray, therefore, that we may be helped of the Spirit while we consider his mysterious operations, that we may not fall into error or miss precious truth through blindness of heart. Death hath no more dominion over him and no more dominion over me; his deliverance is mine, his freedom mine for ever. I say it boldly and without a figure, the eternal arm of God now nerved with strength, now released from the bondage in which justice held it, is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Christ. I am not certain that it is altogether for my good to have kind and generous friends, with whom I may hold fellowship; but I know that it is for my good that I should hold fellowship with Christ, that I should have communion with him, even though it should be in his sufferings. Now, sir, if it is not wrong for God to do the thing, how can it be wrong for God to purpose to do the thing? The soul is like an eagle, to which the body acts as a chain, which prevents its mounting. Silently the forest groweth, anon it is felled; but all the while between its growing and felling it is at work. Psalms 73:26 . repeat not that challenge." You have had many mercies in your family, but you have felt that in them all there was a lack of something which could satisfy your heart, and you have felt that that something was God. The Spiritual Resurrection of our Mortal Body (8:1-13) 8:1. Then, remember, thy head must deny itself the pleasure of wearing the crown. Nor need we say a word to explain that it is "enmity against God." 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. I must confess that I am more afraid of life than of death. And now a little capful of wind blows on you and the tears run down your cheeks, and you say, "Lord, let me die; I am no better than my fathers." He died, the Prince of glory died the ignominious felon's death, in the room and place and stead of guilty men. Ah! Are you intelligently persuaded not only that God is love, but that God loves you? "Now, I say begin at once to administer, by shouldering the cross and bearing your troubles and your persecutions with patience and with joy. I hear a brave, strong voice, crying, "Who shall lay anything to my charge?" What was the experience of Christ in this world? For it is true, beloved, the bodies that have mouldered into dust will rise again, the fabric which has been destroyed by the worm shall start into a nobler being, and you and I, though the worm devour this body, shall in our flesh behold our God. While dwelling upon this joint heirship, let us remark what an honor is conferred upon us. Ministers are helpers of the joy of the saints. Your being sick very probably might not be for your good only God has something to follow your sickness, some blessed deliverance to follow your poverty, and he knows that when he has mixed the different experiences of your life together, they shall produce good for your soul and eternal good for your spirit. 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. Of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; Let us go from the school to the university, let us have done with our first spelling-books, and advance into the higher classics of the kingdom. says the accuser "but you sinned against light and knowledge. Therefore, he aspired to be a complete and perfect conqueror. Oh! It is as though one bartered a diamond to buy a common pebble from the brook, or gave away an empire to purchase some foul thing not worthy of being picked off a dunghill. Do we say that he is love? If today I am enabled to say I am called, then my boat is like the ferry-boat in the middle of the stream. ", II. It is true that death was the payment of the debt, but resurrection was the public acknowledgment that the debt was paid. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he groans to get the fulness of what is promised him. A man's heart is moved when he groans. Amen. "Well," said he, "if you must know my persuasion, this is it, 'I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'" The sighing of the prisoner surely cometh up into the ears of the Lord. The Boston audience received the prayer, and there it ended. How I wish every one here had a share in the text: I mourn that some have not, for he that believeth not on the Son hath not life, and therefore cannot have conformity to a living Christ. But this should not be so. There is not only a sea in which to drown our sins, but the very tops of the mountains of our guilt are covered. Unless we are the sons of God the Holy Spirit's indwelling shall not be ours: we are shut out from the intercession of the Holy Ghost, ay, and from the intercession of Jesus too, for he hath said, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.". There have been many who have been won from drunkenness by hearing the preaching of God's Word even under myself, and those persons have been ready to carry me on their shoulders, from very gratitude, for joy; but I would be bound to say they make a far more feeble display of their thankfulness to my Master. And what if some of us should live very many years? That is, his great love in giving his dear Son to die for us. II. 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." Here is a test for us all. Note the expression, "Many brethren" not that he might be the firstborn among many, but among "many brethren," who should be like himself. 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. If he hath wealth, let him use it in his Master's service, for it is his. Tell the men of the world that it is right that they condemn you for all your past life, for doubtless you have been what they say you are, you will not dispute that fact; but tell them also that what Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth is true of you, "Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.. What shall we say to that? This truth divides itself thus: it is the will of God that conforms us to Christ's image rather than our own will. Let the sacred mounds of our fathers' sepulchres speak to us. I say, "No; I have brought a bill; look at it." There is still another foe that answers your challenge, "Who is he that condemneth?" I think I have shown this; only may God give us grace to rest upon this precious "yea, rather, who is risen from the dead.". Is it wisdom to stand in opposition against him? He says, "I fear not that assize, for who can condemn?" 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. His soul is translated from death unto life, but the body, this poor flesh and blood, doth it not remain as before? 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.". Now election shuts up the precious treasury of God's covenant blessings for his children for penitents, for seeking sinners. Cast your arms around the cross of Christ, and give up your heart to God, and then, come what may, I am persuaded that "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. We will answer these and other questions along the way: Should sin in my life cause me to question whether or not I am in Christ? If he had willed it, thou wouldst have been among the damned; if he had not willed thy salvation, all thou couldst do would have been utterly powerless to deliver thee from perdition. 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. He declares it to be enmity against God. Did not they, by bitter suffering, achieve our liberty for us? If I may be allowed the simile, I would say that this represents in part the work of the Spirit of God in us, suggesting to us the right desire, and bringing all things to our remembrance whatsoever Christ has told us. That which is thrown up from the depth of the soul, when it is stirred with a terrible tempest, is more precious than pearl or coral, for it is the intercession of the Holy Spirit. he assures and consoles directly, by coming into immediate contact with the heart. "If so be that we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together.". But now to illustrate this call in its effects, we remind you that Abraham is another remarkable instance of effectual calling. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul, and they were moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who telleth man how to speak aright. If not, I beseech thee, stop and consider! How joyfully will we serve him, how rapturously adore him. AMEN. Oh! You are quite conscious that this is not your rest. Somebody says, "That is Calvinistic doctrine." "It is Christ that died." Say not, "Lutheranism and Popery are mighty." Here comes in this blessed word taken out of the Greek litany, "By thine unknown sufferings." Yet one more illustration: it is that of a father aiding his boy. IV. You know the story of old Jacob. We are to be conformed to the image of his Son, fifthly, as to our inheritance for he is heir of all things, and what less are we heirs of, since all things are ours? Be patient, and you only feel the rod as it is in God's hands, but when you are impatient and clutch at the rod, you briny it down with the weight of God's hand and your own hand too. 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. So live, so act, ye sons of God, that the world may say of you, "Yes, these men bring forth the fruits of God; they are like their Father; they honour his name; they are indeed filled with his grace, for their every word is as true as his oath; their every act is sincere and upright; their heart is kind, their spirit is gentle; they are firm but yet they are generous; they are strict in their integrity, but they are loving in their souls; they are men who, like God, are full of love; but like him are severely just. I take it that it is the meaning of the text, that the Lord would have Christ to be the first of a nobler order of beings. To such who have preceded us we owe the purity of the Church, and to them we are debtors. The newly discovered negative theology, which, I fear, has done some damage to the Baptist denomination, and a very large amount of injury to the Independent body the new heresy is to a large degree, founded upon the fiction of the Universal Fatherhood of God. Does he stand in the presence of God he appears in the presence of God for us; Hebrews 9:24 . who can tell what God is? Our nation is fast learning to forget God. God will never say that they are guilty. Splendid must be the inheritance of Jesus Christ. Why, the Jew would then have been compelled to believe that it was all over, the dispensation was ended; for a sitting priest would be the end of all. While we have an Almighty Saviour, the redeemed must be saved; until omnipotence can fail, and the Almighty can be overcome, every blood-bought redeemed child of God is safe and secure for ever. That is the first illustration I will give you of what is meant by effectual calling. THE PROTEST OF an innocent man against the charge of an accuser may well be strong and vehement. Sometimes a bow of steel is not broken by our hands, for we cannot even bend it; and then the Holy Ghost puts his mighty hand over ours, and covers our weakness so that we draw; and lo, what splendid drawing of the bow it is them! 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. The desires which the Spirit prompts may be too spiritual for such babes in grace as we are actually to describe or to express, and yet the Spirit writes the desire on the renewed mind, and the Father sees it. Look! It becomes our business then to take the Spirit's witness through his Word, and through his works, but I would seek to have immediate, actual, undivided fellowship with the Holy Ghost, who by his divine Spirit, should work in my spirit and convince me that I am a child of God. So we are persuaded of these three things: first, that God loves us; next, that God has shown his love to us by the gift of his Son Jesus Christ; and then, that his divine love comes streaming down to us because we are in Christ, and are loved for his sake. Look again at that noble youth, Mutius Scoevola. If I cannot understand I will not question, for I am not his counsellor, but I will adore and obey, for I am his servant. To be cheered under many things, which otherwise would depress him, the believer may betake himself to the matchless mysteries of the grace of God, which are wines on the lees well refined. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" Infidelity, popery, and every other phase of anti-Christ are now straining every nerve. Since the day when Adam fell all things have had to toil and labor. What if Christ died for all your past sins? I would put the trumpet to my lips while I preach, and sound out this one note, praying that it may be a death-blast to all accusations that can be brought against believers in Christ. 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. "What!" 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. in that thought "The carnal mind is enmity with God;" there is something which may make us shake; for it is a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I repeat it again, any one of them is all-sufficient. 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!" The blood of heaven runs in thy veins; thou art one of the blood royal of eternity a son of God, descendant of the King of kings. Now, what is not right towards man is not right towards God. He shows us where our deficiencies are, what our sins are, and what our necessities are; he sheds a light upon our condition, and makes us feel deeply our helplessness, sinfulness, and dire poverty; and then he casts the same light upon the promises of the Word, and lays home to the heart that very text which was intended to meet the occasion the precise promise which was framed with foresight of our present distress. He died for thee, if now thou dost confess thy guilt. Here cometh one and he cries, "Thou hast been a blasphemer." True Advocate is he, and Comforter most effectual. 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. None but he hath a right to condemn, for he is the sole judge of right and wrong, and if he hath died shall he put us to death, and if he hath risen for us, shall he thrust us downwards to the pit, and if he hath reigned for us and hath been accepted for us, shall he cast us away, and if he hath pleaded for us, shall he curse us at the last? The wolf of famine cannot gnaw the bond; the fire of persecution cannot burn the link, the hammer of hell cannot break the chain; old time cannot devour it with rust, nor eternity dissolve it, with all its ages. I heard of one who sat up at the end of last year to groan last year out; it was ill done, but in truth it was a year of groaning, and the present one opens amid turbulence and distress. Speak we of his omniscience? We know what to pray for as to objects, but we do not know what to pray for "as we ought" it is the manner of the prayer which perplexes us, even when the matter is decided upon. 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. Some may say, "It is the prospect of bankruptcy." Here are two very wonderful challenges thrown out by the apostle Paul. The cross and Christ are nailed together by four nails, and they will never be disassociated in the experience of any Christian. The 6,000 years of continual labor, and toil, and travail, have happened not to us alone, but to the whole of God's great universe; the whole world is groaning, and travailing. The text speaks "of the mind of the Spirit." There is nothing here below which does not belong to a believer. Now I must confess there is something very pretty about this theory, something so fascinating that I do not wonder that some of the ablest minds have been wooed and won by it. Tell even them that Christ died. If it be wisdom, it is hell's wisdom; if it be wisdom, it is a wisdom which is folly with God. "Ah!" Oh, beloved, if we have a God for our Redeemer, though our sins against God be very many, and though they be very black and foul, yet Christ's infinite sacrifice meets them all. It is as when two dear friends lovingly embrace with their arms around each other's neck, there is a double link binding them together. A CHRISTIAN BROTHER was asked, one day, "To what persuasion do you belong?" You will observe that the apostle has here prefixed the words, "yea rather!" Let me feel the worm that never dies rather than the stings of an offended conscience, if indeed this is not itself, "the worm that dieth not." Mark then, with care, that OUR CONFORMITY TO CHRIST IS THE SACRED OBJECT OF PREDESTINATION. The signature of the one will not avail to alienate the estate, nor can he sell it by his own right, nor have it all at his own separate disposal, or in his own sole possession or holding. 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