He was content with them for what they were, but the first-fruits enlarged his desires for the harvest. 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." The first one is, "Yea rather;" the second one is, "Much more." Now, I think I hear somebody say, "you see these godly people who profess to be so happy and so safe, they still groan, and they are obliged to confess it." How shall a celestial spirit be satisfied until it sees celestial things? As this is a legal question, and as in matters of wills everything should be proven and sworn to, let us have, concerning our inheritance, the evidence of God: that cannot lie. And, believer, there is no fear that Christ shall be the possessor of nothing or heir of little things. 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. So saith the word, my brother, and so shalt thou find it ere long. He declares it to be enmity against God. Tell conscience that Christ has died for your sins, according to the Scriptures, and it will be perfectly satisfied: it will not go to sleep, but it will use its voice for other purposes, and it will no longer seek to condemn you. 2. Soul, thou art linked with Christ in the Eternal business of the Eternal Father. You feel you must have your Father, or else the gifts of his providence are nothing to you. In praying for temporal things we plead with measured voices, ever referring our petition for revision to the will of the Lord. And I say it this morning, it is a shameful thing that ever idolatry should be able to breed better men than some who profess Christianity. 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. Therefore, over against my delight in sin, I set his delight in presenting to the Father his perfect righteousness and his all-sufficient substitutionary sacrifice: "It is Christ that died. It is astonishing where men will go to seek salvation. So the Spirit confirms the witness of my spirit that I am born of God. Oh, what a glorious doctrine is that of election, when a man can see himself to be elect. Again, cries Paul, "Who shall lay anything to my charge?" I thought that had I to intercede for anybody, and do a mediating part, if I had to intercede for my brother with my father, I should feel I had got a safe case in hand. 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. Those whom the Lord looked upon with favor as he foresaw them, he has predestinated to he conformed to the image of his Son. They never had any seats to sit on. 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. 11. Simply because it is depraved; and until he had entered a foul element until the body had begun to quiver with a kind of intoxication the fancy would not hold its carnival. We shall have joy too, for we shall have his joy. You see, my dear hearers, if it were possible for the work of grace in your souls to be of no avail, nothing more could be done for you. Make thou thyself assured, then, that thou art in union with Christ, for out of him thou hast no rights whatever. Every carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. Would you believe it, that the man whom Christ intends to call is the worst man in Jericho the extortioner? And as I look on them, and they on me, I turn to you all and say, "Brethren, we are debtors." Paul says, "I am persuaded," and it is implied that, first, HE IS PERSUADED OF THE LOVE OF GOD. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. If thou hast a desire, God has given it thee. Yes, my lady, thou art a debtor to the poorest man that ever walked the earth. Oh, where there is real cause for fighting, there cannot be victory without striving! That faith is at first of his creating, and afterwards it is of his sustaining and increasing: and oh, brothers and sisters, have you not often felt your faith rise in proportion to your trials? troubles? 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. "We are joint heirs with Christ.". Come, faith, and help me now to lay my fingers among the strings of the golden harp. Oh! I have wished I might indulge in folly; I have wished there were no laws to restrain me; I have wished, as the fool, that there were no God." It is a question often asked, "What part of man was injured by the fall?" We groan within ourselves. This call is sincere on God's part; but man by nature is so opposed to God, that this call is never effectual, for man disregards it, turns his back upon it, and goes his way, caring for none of these things. What a heritage lies before us! The old divines, the Puritans, the Reformers, are now in these last days, to be superseded by men whose teaching flatly contradicts all that we have received of our forefathers. Then again I say to you, "Tell it not in Gath and publish it not in Askelon, then has a heathen eclipsed a Christian." A few winged hours must fly; a few more billows must roll o'er thee, and thou wilt be safely landed on the golden shore. Even up in heaven they have not their full reward. I think, dear friends, you will all admit that if a man can pray, his trouble is at once lightened. A man has to deliver a piece which he has learned; but his memory is treacherous, and therefore somewhere out of sight there is a prompter, so that when the speaker is at a loss and might use a wrong word, a whisper is heard, which suggests the right one. We have him first very succinctly, but very fully described in these words "Them that love God, them who are the called according to his purpose." Upon this supposition, God's utmost has been tried, and has failed. We see not yet all things put under man, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor; and in the person of Christ Jesus this day we, the men who are made in his image, have dominion over all things, being all made kings and priests unto God, and in Christ Jesus ordained to reign with him forever and ever. Does he stand in the presence of God he appears in the presence of God for us; Hebrews 9:24 . May my blessed Master help you to come to him, and draw you to his Son, for Jesu's sake. Come, I know as you look down the inventory, you are apt to look a little askance on that cross, and you think, "Well, the crown is glorious, but I love not the spittle, I care not to be despised and rejected of men." Our Lord is the Son of the Highest, the Son of God; and truly, beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. But it may be, beloved, that we groan because we are conscious of the littleness of our desire, and the narrowness of our faith. What bliss to know that he who is "very God of very God," and sits on the eternal throne, is also of the same nature with ourselves, our kinsman, who is not ashamed even amidst the royalties of glory to call us brethren. Very gently did He lead me into this unthought-of service, and most graciously has He hitherto sustained me in it; first giving me in my own heart the joy of His Word, and then enabling me to minister of that rejoicing to others. You and I are also groaning for it. Our confidence is therefore strong, and it is so because Christ's dying has removed all sin from all believers. "No," says another, "there is some truth in it, certainly; men do get bettered by their afflictions, but it is a truth that is not valuable to me, for I do not realize the good that these things bring." They were, therefore, encouraged to take part and lot with Christ, the elder brother, with whom they had become joint heirs; and they were exhorted to suffer with him, that they might afterwards be glorified with him. I take it thus: Christ by his death paid to his Father the full price of what we owed to him. If our title be true and just, so is his, and if his rights of heritage be true and just, so are ours. The excellency of the power is in the doctrine, and not in my preaching. And yet God had a goodly land for him, and intended greatly to bless him. Would you refuse to go with him to the garden of his agony? Another text. It finds the sinner dead, it gives him life, and he obeys the call of life and lives. In illustrating the effectual call of grace, which is given to the predestinated ones, I must first use the picture of Lazarus. Dost thou abide in his commandments, and desire to be conformed unto his Image? As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. God will not leave you, my brethren, he has pledged himself by covenant to you, and he has given au oath that his covenant shall stand. Believer, would you be ashamed to stand and be accused as he was, and have false witness born against you? II. The work is not yet done, the time of folding of hands has not yet arrived; our swords must not yet see their scabbards, for the foe is not yet slain. There lie the bodies of the saints he has martyred, and they cry from under the altar "O Lord! There be others of acute intellect, who, searching into mysteries of science, discover things that have been hidden from the creation of the world; men of keen research, and mighty erudition; and yet of each of these poet, philosopher, metaphysician, and great discoverer it shall be said, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." Delivered on Sabbath Morning, April 22, 1855, by the, --------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Now, there are some of you here incommoding us to-night, and making us very hot. The will, if valid for one, is valid for all. Are you persuaded of this love of God to you? Come on thou world in arms! Ye would, I am sure, at once confess, did ye know what the race is, that the indictment is proven, and that the world must unreservedly and truthfully exclaim, "guilty. We expect to see this world that is now so full of sin as to be an Aceldama, a field of blood, turned into a paradise, a garden of God. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Beloved, if God be a father, where is honor? I. If we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son, the Lord has predestinated us to much tribulation, and through it shall we inherit the kingdom. We generally receive more comfort at the cross than we do at the empty sepulchre. Our nation is fast learning to forget God. "He was despised and rejected of men." Little did they know that they had already what they asked for for all the church is now at the right hand of the Father; all the church is now raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Thus my ill knowledge is met by the great and heavenly knowledge with which he went about the work of offering a complete atonement in my place and stead. And I doubt not that each of you, in looking back upon your past experience as Christians, could say very much the same. Thou art not as some, who say, that thou didst choose thyself to be saved; but thou believest that God could have destroyed thee, if he had pleased and that it is entirely of his own good pleasure that thou art made one of his, while others are suffered to perish. The apostle, however, desires that the Hebrew believers should understand the sublimer doctrines of the gospel, and so be like men of full age who can eat strong meat. Words fail, and even the sighs which try to embody them cannot be uttered. "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." "Oh," say you, "we never shall." I pray you take the possession now. There is no flaw in God's will with regard to Christ. See also John 10:14-15 , and 2 Timothy 2:19 . Sometimes, too, the spirit feels that God is its Father not only by love but by trust. Romans 8 concludes the second main section of the body of the letter, ' Living under grace '. So that wish and I do not think there has been a man in this world who has not had it proves that "the carnal mind is enmity against God. If it be possible that the malice and the graft of hell could invent some scheme by which the covenant could he put out of court, and the promise of grace could be made to fail, then Christ fails with his people, and the heir of all things loses his inheritance as soon as one single one of the other heirs shall have his right to the inheritance disproved. Now this is the cause of our groaning and mourning, for the soul is so married to the body that when it is itself delivered from condemnation, it sighs to think that its poor friend, the body, should still be under the yoke. Wherefore, let us be encouraged to go on, and fight against everything that is evil, especially in ourselves, and tread down all the powers of darkness, since nothing can stand against us while Christ is sor us; and for us he must be for ever and ever. "In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them." The cross and Christ are nailed together by four nails, and they will never be disassociated in the experience of any Christian. Even as Christ had to drink the cup of suffering, for sin, we also have sipped of it. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Methinks I see the fathers at their midnight lamps, the ancient saints in their much-frequented closets, the thrice brave preachers in their pulpits denouncing error, and the faithful pastors reproving wrong. In the days when this Epistle was written, the saints had to die very cruel deaths by fire, by the cross, by wild beasts in the amphitheatre; they were sawn asunder, they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; yet they never feared death. Ah! 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. You have been to everybody else; you may go to them now." But I think must go a little further than this. The sacred record of God's hand is this day published everywhere under heaven, and he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto him. 14. He was consecrated to God; so are we to be. It needs no stretch of imagination to conceive this place to be a Roman amphitheatre. 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:". We are joint heirs. Another test of calling is to be found in Galatians, the fifth chapter, and the fifteenth verse. In this very place, where sin has triumphed, we expect that grace will much more abound. What was the nature of Christ, then, as divine? Edwards's theological work is very broad in scope, but he is often associated with his . We stand boldly in front of all our foes, because we know that we are free from the evil which once condemned us: it is all gone. Delivered on Sabbath Evening, August 10, 1856, by the. First, in 8:37 he says that "we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.". 3. Now, observe, that this conformity to Christ lies in several things. Is there a place into which your Master went that you would be ashamed to enter? "I don't know," said he, "how it will, but for my good I know it will work, and you shall see it so." At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. Yes, and with that natural groan there may go up an unutterable groaning of the Holy Spirit. What must be the strength when the whole four are interlaced and intertwisted, and become the support of the believer? How can I pray? On Lord's-day Evening, November 7th, 1886. There is no getting away from yourself, and when you yourself condemn yourself, then you are condemned indeed. If you were a free man, and had married a wife, a slave, you could not feel perfectly content, but the more you enjoyed the sweets of freedom yourself, the more would you pine that she should still he in slavery. The Spiritual Resurrection of our Mortal Body (8:1-13) 8:1. "He maketh intercession for us," and "He maketh intercession for the saints." PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON Romans 8:16-39 ; 1 Corinthians 15:39-58 . You have perhaps received an increase to your wealth, and after the first flush of pleasure which was but natural, you have said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity; this is not my joy." But listen to another word of the Lord in the first epistle of John, iii. Series (High Quality) Series (Low Quality) Buy CD Album This sermon series includes the following 12 messages: The Spirit Takes Us from Sin to Righteousness Romans 8:1-11 Apr 24 1983 45-57 Audio It still lingers in the realm of bondage, and is not brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. I beseech you, members of churches, deacons, or whatever you may be, lay this to heart. "How art thou fallen from heaven, thou son of the morning!" 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. "Put your right hand here, my boy, and place your left hand so. Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he groans to get the fulness of what is promised him. for thy Master's honor, and for thine own comfort, retain that consolation. It was said, "It is finished!" Nay, ye say, we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. And there may be many differences between godly men, as there undoubtedly are; they may belong to different sects, they may hold very opposite opinions, but all godly men agree in this, that they love God. First, he boldly defies anyone to charge the chosen of God with sin: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" He cannot reverse his grace; it cannot be that the throne of condemnation shall be exalted on the ruins of the cross. Wherefore, be confident, dear brethren, that these spiritual beings, these unseen forces, these strange and mysterious powers which you cannot fully understand, can none of them separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord. 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. It sweetly appears that the ULTIMATE END OF ALL THIS IS CHRIST. The world's barque, it is true, is always tossed with waves, but these waves toss her first to the right and then to the left; they do not steadily bear her onward to her desired haven. Do you curse your father, who so wisely watched over you? And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." I have thus illustrated effectual calling. Who can condemn when Christ hath died, hath risen from the dead, is enthroned on high, and intercedes? And if we be his sons, are we not thereby bound to love, serve, and obey him? 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 says, "I had rather be a bankrupt in business than I would be a bankrupt in grace; let my fortune be decreased better that, than that I should backslide; there! Here, then, in the nick of time, as a very present help in time of trouble, comes in the Holy Spirit. 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. 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