Well, the good angels cannot separate us from the love of God; we are sure that they would not wish to do so, and whatever spiritual creatures may frequent the earth, they cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Let me suppose an impossible case for a moment. There is no opposition in God's providence; the raven wing of war is co-worker with the dove of peace. He had not seen many of those whom he addressed; yet they were known to him, in the Spirit, as partakers of one glorious and blessed hope, and, therefore, he called them "brethren." 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. Heir of God! Let me appeal personally to you in an interrogatory style, for this has weight with it. Condemn a man that is at the right hand of God! 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? See, brethren, he enters into glory, but not for himself alone, for it is written, "Whither the forerunner is for us entered." We may be brought into such perturbation of mind, and perplexity of heart, that we do not know how to pray. Now I want your attention while I try to show that this blessed sentence, "It is Christ that died," is AN ANSWER TO EVERY ACCUSATION which, under any circumstances, may arise from sin. Veteran! You are born with a body not deformed; you have had a tolerable share of health; you have been recovered many times from sickness; when lying at the gates of death, his arm has held back your soul from the last step to destruction. But there are one or two doctrines which we will try to deduce from this. There are different senses to the word "good." no, the poor legalist is like a blind horse going round and round the mill, or like the prisoner going up the treadwheel, and finding himself no higher after all he has done; he has no solid confidence, no firm ground to rest upon. But if thou agreest with thy creditor, he will, for Jesus' sake, blot out all thy debts, and set thee at liberty, so that thou shalt never be amenable for thine iniquities. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have been begotten into the family of grace. Has not thine heart ever desired, since there is a God, that he were a little less holy, a little less pure, so that those things which are now great crimes might be regarded as venial offences, as peccadillos? 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. Many of you will not feel the force of Christian reasons, let me remind you, that even you are obliged to the laboring poor. 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. Dost thou love God, not with lip-language, but with heart-service? This is the grandest message of the gospel, that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." a. There were no seats whatever provided tor the priests. Paul has, in this case, only one answer to the question, "Who is he that condemneth?" And let the idle and slothful remember that they are a great anomaly; they are blots in the great work-writing of God; they mean nothing; in all the book of letters with which God has written out the great word "work," they are nothing at all. But no; take a child away, place it under the most pious influences, let the very air it breathes be purified by piety; let it constantly drink in draughts of holiness; let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer and praise; let its ear be always kept in tune by notes of sacred song; and that child, notwithstanding, may still become one of the grossest of transgressors; and though placed apparently on the very road to heaven, it shall, if not directed by divine grace, march downwards to the pit. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to himself. By Vernon J. Charlesworth. Oh, speak! And somehow or other you have an equal faith for the future. God bless you, ye sons of God, and may those of you who are strangers to him, be convinced and converted by this sermon, and seek that grace by which alone you can have your prayer fulfilled: Delivered on Sunday Morning, July the 28th, 1861 by the, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, THE APOSTLE has proceeded through a simple but exceedingly forcible train of reasoning till he gains this glorious point "Joint heirs with Christ." Who will feed my belly with hid treasures? We must suffer with him if we would be glorified with him. Romans 8 We can live by God's Spirit 1 Now we know this: God has forgiven those people who are united with Christ Jesus. 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. Now I shall conclude with WHAT OUR STATE OF MIND IS. 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. 9. Pentateuch and Other Historical Books of the Old Testament. "Ah!" This is styled by our new philosophers as old cumbersome scheme of theology, and it is proposed that it be swept away a proposition which will never be carried out, while the earth remaineth, or while God endureth. Brethren, we are like warriors fighting for the victory; we share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There is such a thing on earth as an infallible assurance of our election. Take away that sigh why sigh when the everlasting song is almost on thy lip? This truth seems to me to have struck its roots into all the other truths of Scripture and to have twisted itself among the granite rocks which are the very foundation of our hope. Without faith prayer cannot speed, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and such an one may not expect anything of the Lord; happy are we when the Holy Spirit removes our wavering, and enables us like Abraham to believe without staggering, knowing full well that he who has promised is able also to perform. Only the sinner, the awakened sinner, can be at all assured that he has been called; and even he, as he gets older in grace, must look for those higher marks of the high heavenly and holy calling in Christ Jesus. 19. There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity against God; it is not developed, but it lieth there. We are like Jacob looking at the wagons, and the more we look at the wagons, the more we long to see Joseph's face; but our groaning after Jesus is a blessed groan, for. Because he has remitted all our debt of sin, we are all the more indebted to him in another sense. And then he goes on giving a description of those who are the sons of God, who could not mean any but those who by a living faith in Christ Jesus, have cast their souls once for all on him. And so if a man walk through the earth and lift up his head because of what God has given him, and say, "I am not to notice the poor, I am not to shake hands with the ignorant, because I am so great and mighty," you may with equal reason say, "Take away that poor creature, his pride is his insanity; put him in safe custody, and let him learn that all he has is his debt, and that he has no cause for pride. "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of your best friend? Delivered on Sabbath Morning, October 18, 1857, by the. I believe that the fall crushed man entirely, albeit, when it rolled like an avalanche upon the mighty temple of human nature, some shafts were still left undestroyed, and amidst the ruins you find here and there, a flute, a pedestal, a cornice, a column, not quite broken, yet the entire structure fell, and its most glorious relics are fallen ones, levelled in the dust. 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. Several general exhortations proper for all Christians, Rom. What a mind his must be! There is a double precedent to strengthen our confidence that he must prevail. That leads me to pass on to the second thing of which Paul was persuaded. methinks I see the martyrs and confessors rising from their tombs I mark their hands still stained with blood, and their bodies scarred with the wound of persecution. He whose crown shineth the brightest, will know when he hath lost a jewel. "We know it. 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." But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.". Believe then that all things work together for thy good; if thou lovest God, and art called according to his purpose. The same legacy that left peace with you, also left tribulation with you, while you are in this world. Then the apostle says we are "waiting," by which I understand that we are not to be petulant, like Jonah or Elijah, when they said, "Let me die," nor are we to sit still and look for the end of the day because we are tired of work; nor are we to become impatient, and wish to escape from our present pains and sufferings till the will of the Lord is done. Now, the apostle sets the whole matter before us when he said, "The whole creation groaneth," and you know what comes after that, "travaileth." for if not, inasmuch as you reject one part of the inheritance you reject the rest. Infidelity, popery, and every other phase of anti-Christ are now straining every nerve. But he is much more than this. He shall be joyful when he declares the Lord's name unto his brethren. I am glad that you have them, brother, may you always keep them; and if I cannot have them, I shall sit down in my struggles and temptations, and still say that there is nothing in the heights, in high doctrine or in high living, that can separate me from the love of Christ. His work is never superficial, but always deep and inward. So the enquirer asked him again, "But what is your persuasion?" Liberty to walk round the rock of St. Helena, nothing more. O Christian, thou canst not be condemned, for Christ has paid the debt. You had a share in his death. Romans 8:2. You and I are free, but what is our liberty? Do you know I am one of the best churchmen in the world; the very best, if you will judge me by the articles, and the very worst, if you measure me in any other way. ", If we all believed this, how much easier it would be to get our churches into good order! Let us do what we may, it is but a farthing in the pound that we shall ever be able to pay of the debt of gratitude we owe to God. You are quite conscious that this is not your rest. They are ever working too, in opposition to the word play. All the troubles of a Christian do but wash him nearer heaven; the rough winds do but hurry his passage across the straits of this life to the port of eternal peace. And hear ye this, John i. Who can tell us what Christ's suffering really was? It is a sad, sad world. Now, to-day, seeing we are here taught the object of his predestination, it will be our business to labor after it, to bless God that he has set such an object before him, and pray that we may be partakers in it. The doctrine that I am quite sure to gain the victory, makes me fight. Our apostle, in the epistle to the Hebrews, puts a very strong encomium upon this sentence. I beseech you, members of churches, deacons, or whatever you may be, lay this to heart. Poor prodigal sinner, may our Father bring thee home, for there is an inheritance even for thee. It reminds me of what I have sometimes heard of the ropes that are used in mining. Will not such presumption as this be avenged? 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. Then the apostle says, "nor things to come." and uttered it under the inspiration of God, did not, however, occupy the position of a sinless man. But the great high priest of our profession, Jesus, the Son of God, hath taken his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high. The apostle then turns to a third source of comfort, namely, the abiding of the Holy Spirit in and with the Lord's people. It is even so; but listen: God must punish sin, and God has punished sin. God hath not forsaken us; the tokens of his goodness are with us, and we may rejoice in full many a gracious boon which is ours this very day. This is condescension indeed! What a broad assertion it is. He was persuaded that Christ would not leave him, and that he would not be allowed to leave Christ, and this stirred him up to deeds of daring. Did not they, by bitter suffering, achieve our liberty for us? 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. The old translators rendered the passage thus; "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God" that is to say, the natural mind, that soul which we inherit from our fathers, that which was born within us when our bodies were fashioned by God. Is it wisdom, O my fellow-creatures, is it wisdom to hate your Creator? There is nothing about death that should make Christ cease to love us; our bodies will be under his protection and guardian care, and our souls shall be with Christ, which is "far better" than being anywhere else. "To the very uttermost" he is able to save, seeing he ever lives to intercede the strongest argument of the whole four. Family of grace not, however, occupy the position of a sinless man, also left tribulation you. Share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph we will try to from... 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