And, believer, there is no fear that Christ shall be the possessor of nothing or heir of little things. Will you take the cross? O friends, I sometimes feel a strange trembling when I stand upon this platform to speak to you, because the words that I utter are often so remarkably fulfilled of God as really to amaze me. It is not merely that our judgment leads us in that direction, though usually the Spirit of God acts upon us by enlightening our judgment, but we often feel an unaccountable and irresistible desire rising again and again within our heart, and this so presses upon us, that we not only utter the desire before God at our ordinary times for prayer, but we feel it crying in our hearts all the day long, almost to the supplanting of all other considerations. Hath he joy? Will you be willing to endure the revilings of slanderous tongues? And then suppose that, in winding up the estates, it should be found that, though there be something left, yet it be a mere trifle, scarcely worth an acknowledgment: enough to excite appetite but not sufficient to satisfy it what if it should come out at last, that heaven is not the infinite joy we have been taught to expect; suppose its bliss should be but inferior joy, such as might be found even in this world below suppose that the harps have no melody, the crowns but little glory, and heaven's streets but slight magnificence what then? Is he omniscient? He whose garments are the whitest, will best perceive the spots upon them. As he turns over each of these love-tokens, and as he reads the words of his reconciled prince, he asks "When will the vessel sail to take me back to my native shore?" Who is he that condemneth, then? Now, in considering this solemn subject, let me remark that there are two kinds of callings mentioned in the Word of God. Now, the next word, "All things work together." A groan cometh not from the lips, but from the heart. The angels of heaven veil their faces; and the angels of God on earth, his chosen people, must always veil their faces with humility, when they think of what they were. Yet here are Christian men, who, if they are a little sneered at, or snubbed, or get the cold shoulder for Christ's sake, are half ashamed of their profession, and would go and hide it. Delivered on Sabbath Evening, August 10, 1856, by the. For human righteousness is only human; being human, it is finite; and, being finite, it falls short somewhere or other. May the Spirit of God enable me to expound to you this most blessed portion of God's Word. Why he is going fast onward in his mad career. Paul says, "I am persuaded," and it is implied that, first, HE IS PERSUADED OF THE LOVE OF GOD. "'Tis heaven on earth, 'tis heaven above. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons; but, if ye be true sons, like to the firstborn, the rod will make you smart, and sometimes you will have to say, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" May he help us to expound, as he has already given us the passage to explain. This is a fact which he takes for granted because he has perceived it in the hearts of believers. AP&A-c1970 lfpb. In the second place, I see in our text A REMEDY FOR ALL SIN. That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. You can understand in this sense why it is that we groan, for if this body really is still, though redeemed, a captive, and if it is one day to be completely free, and to rise to amazing glory, well may those who believe in this precious doctrine groan after it as they wait for it. You had a godly father; you had a Christian mother; you were trained in the fear of God. Our confidence is therefore strong, and it is so because Christ's dying has removed all sin from all believers. Yes; but I set over against that the fact that he always would have me. May the sweet Spirit lead you to Jesus, cause you to look to him upon the cross, and trust in him; then you will have something worth hearing, for you will have a love that changeth never, a love that shall never be separated from you nor you from it. "These," says he, "passed through great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: ask them!" Wherefore, be of good courage, and press forward in the divine life, for your work of faith and labor of love are not in vain in the Lord; so let us "lay hold upon the hope set before us:". God would not go down to the earth for payment; it must be brought to him. "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors." In Romans 11:2 , we read, "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknow," where the sense evidently has the idea of fore-love; and it is so to be understood here. Then he gave the words I used, and continued, "It was a true description of myself. He lives, and because he lives I shall live also. It is not a single carnal mind, or a certain class of characters, but "the carnal mind." This is not fearful fatalism and determinism. Is there nothing to commend this? That short sentence completely answers to all his accusations. Remember the passage "He is able also to save them unto the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." I showed you, just now, the difference between a groan and a groan. "But thou hast long resisted grace, and long stood out against the warnings of God." "All things work together for good:" that is to say, none of them work separately. He who giveth the most light to the world, will always be able to discover his own darkness. There he would stand, silent, motionless; till Christ would say, with a voice louder than ten thousand thunders, "What dost thou here? For this very reason, that we are saved, we groan for something beyond. I do not wonder, therefore, that in his epistles he often discourses upon the doctrines of foreknowledge, and predestination, and eternal love, because these are a rich cordial for a fainting spirit. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the spiritual life which we have, and all the graces which adorn that life, are the first gifts, the first operations of the Spirit of God in our souls. It was the gospel which taught Paul how to say brother. Suddenly the Goths, the old enemies of Rome, fell upon the city. Now each of these four articles of our faith is sufficient to bear the weight of the sins of the whole world. He meets it by the blessed fact that "It is Christ that died." 1-. May we have this faith on our dying bed, when the pulse is faint and feeble, and heart and flesh begin to fail! Whatever mind may properly be called carnal, not having been spiritualized by the power of God's Holy Ghost, is "enmity against God. Does he contribute anything to his new life? do I converse with him, commune with him? The time shall come when thou shalt yet be his disciple." He died for me. The Spirit of God never prompts us to ask for anything that is unholy or inconsistent with the precepts of the Lord. You can say, "God has given these souls to Christ, I am going to take them in Christ's name." 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. There is no opposition in God's providence; the raven wing of war is co-worker with the dove of peace. "Brethren, ye have been called into liberty." Have the manacles of justice been snapped, and am I delivered set free by him who is the great ransomer of spirits? First, then, there is A LEGAL TERM IN THE WILL UPON WHICH THE WHOLE MATTER WILL HINGE. Regulus returns to Rome; he stands up in the senate and conjures them never to make peace in Carthage, but ot his wife and children, and tells them that he is going back to Carthage, and of course the tell him that he need not keep faith with an enemy. The comforting truth of Romans 8:28 is based especially on God's sovereignty. So shall we be, for because he lives, we shall live also. may seem too mean to pray about. That lie had in it a residuum of truth, for by sovereign grace we have become such. Prayers which are the offspring of great desires, sublime aspirations, and elevated designs are surely the work of the Holy Spirit, and their power within a man is frequently so great that he cannot find expression for them. Romans 8:3-4. What does he say upon it? God's Spirit now rules in your life and he has made you free. 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 excellency of the power is in the doctrine, and not in my preaching. If we have to toil, let us remember, this is the world's week of toil. "But thou hast stained thyself with lust." Recollections of the Rev. Let us, then, weigh the words of the text, for they are solemn words. Sonship towards an earthly parent brings with it a host of duties, and shall the Everlasting Father be unregarded? Romans: An Expositional Commentary (Sproul) $22.80 $38.00. Only let the gospel be preached, and there shall be an end of war; let it thoroughly pervade all ranks of society, and saturate the mind of nations, and there shall be no more lifting of the spears, they shall be used for pruning hooks; no bathing of swords in blood, for they shall be turned into the peaceful ploughshares of the soil; we shall then have no hosts encountering hosts; we shall have no millions slain for widows to deplore; but every man shall meet every other man, and call him "brother." what angelic tongue shall hymn his glory? We have that work of the Spirit within our souls which always comes before admittance into glory. his Allmightiness is ours. The suggestion has, no doubt, been made by others; but I venture to press it upon Christians of all denominations that they may, in turn, urge all their pastors to summon such meetings. Some esteem it nothing. There is never a clash in the world: men think so, but it never is so. 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." Ye are young princes, and ye have not been crowned yet. He cannot bring us in debt to divine justice; for in his own hands and feet are the nail-prints, which are the receipts of justice in full settlement of all claims against us. Is it not my duty, as well as my happiness, to ask whether there be a way to be reconciled to God? 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! 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? Forth it steps into the arena, and we behold the law of God. Who enters the lists against the believer? and in order to excuse his boldness, he gives us four reasons why he can never be condemned. Secondly, I see here, a remedy for all sin. It would be a foolish pride indeed, if two prisoners in the Queen's Bench were to boast, one saying, "I owe a hundred pounds," and the other replying, "I am a greater gentleman than you are, for I owe a thousand." Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." "My Father," saith he "it is my delight to do thy will and it is thy delight to do my will, I will then that they, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." Recollect, if you are truly called it is a high calling, a calling from on high, and a calling that lifts up your heart, and raises it to the high things of God, eternity, heaven, and holiness. We ask, but we are afraid that we shall not have, because we do not exercise the thought, or the faith, which we judge to be essential to prayer. Can ye say, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I desire to keep all thy commandments, and to walk blamelessly in thy sight. Come, believer, will you be partaker with Christ to-day in the battle, and then divide this spoil with him? He will write the prayers which I ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart, and I shall see them there, and so I shall be taught how to plead. If you are now led to repent of sin; if you will now cast yourself on the blood and righteousness of Christ, your eternal salvation shall be as sure as your present existence. ", I. Man as a necessary piece of political policy, may give to the heir that which surely he can have not more real right to in the sight of God, than the rest of the family may give him all the inheritance, while his brethren, equally true born, may go without; but it is not so in the family of God. He sits at the right hand of God, and so must I. I must be crowned and reign with him for ever. 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. 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. She will retain evil, she will lose good. 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. Even so we also were born of the Spirit without human observation; men of this world saw no glory whatsoever in our regeneration, for it was not performed by mystic rites, or with sacerdotal pomp. You see what you are to come to, therefore, set Christ before your eyes always. "If Satan bring an accusation before God against any of the Lord's redeemed, that accusation is made against the Redeemer himself, for God's people are so one with Christ, that you must first bring the charge against Christ himself ere you dare to lay it against any of his elect. The Eternal Son desired association with beings who should be sons as he was, towards whom he could stand in a close relationship as being like to them in nature and Sonship, and the Father therefore ordained that a seed whom he has chosen should be conformed to the image of the Son, that his Son might head up and be chief among an order of beings more nearly akin to God than any other. The slave is not called. "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be praise." 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. But there is nothing in the-depths that can separate us from the love of Christ. 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. Our little debts we can pay. Let but the Church know her rights and claim them, let her cease to assimilate herself to the sons of earth, let her cease from her accursed fornication with the state, and she shall become the pure, chaste bride of Christ. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup." Browse all categories; New Books; Used Books Jesus when he was on earth, had a baptism to be baptised with, and how was he straitened until it was accomplished! "What!" III. It is so; but then my Lord Christ delighted to come to be my Saviour. Happy shall you and I be if, though covered with sin, though guilty and unclean, we nevertheless shall have faith to believe in the Christ that dies, a faith so strong, and confident that we shall dare to stand both now, and at the judgment-seat of Christ, and say, "Who is he that condemneth?" Are you persuaded of this love of God to you? So is it also with us. Another will say, "Ah, it is an insidious disease that will soon carry me to my grave!" But, secondly, the object of grace is that there may be some in heaven with whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. The text speaks of "our infirmities," or as many translators put it in the singular of "our infirmity." It reminds me of what I have sometimes heard of the ropes that are used in mining. Look! We have love, which sweetens all the rest. I have known what it is to feel as if I could not pray about a certain matter, and yet I have been obliged to groan about it. "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. The force that is conforming us to Christ is the will of God in predestination. and silence reigns through earth and heaven. Doth he call himself a King? "Yet," says Paul, "I am persuaded that life cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." For this simple reason: he is himself so doubtful, so ready to distrust, so difficult to be persuaded of his own security. His early years had been spent in opposition to his Saviour. It is not many minutes before he begins to feel his sin in having persecuted Jesus, nor many hours ere he receives the assurance of his pardon, and not many days ere he who persecuted Christ stands up to preach with vehemence and eloquence unparalleled, the very cause which he once trod beneath his feet. We have not yet the royal robes which become the princes of the blood; we are wearing in this flesh and blood just what we wore as the sons of Adam; but we know that when he shall appear who is the "first born among many brethren," we shall be like him; that is, God will dress us all as he dresses his eldest son "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Wait awhile; that weary head shall soon be girt with a crown. Rules for the conduct of Christians to one another, as members of the Christian church, Rom. He sees things he had not dreamed of even in the shades of night. It needs no proof, for since it is written in God's word, we, as Christian men, are bound to bow before it. The answer, therefore, to the statement, "There is sin," is this, "Christ has died. We are not to be passive like wood or marble; we are to be prayerful, watchful, fervent, diligent, obedient, earnest, and believing, but still the work is God's. 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