Ah! I. Better to be a solitary pilgrim to bliss, than one of the thousands who throng the road to hell. What! and he casts his eyes to heaven. He reads the heart itself: "he knoweth,' says the text, "what is the mind of the Spirit." To the Christian, however, the highest good he can receive on earth is to grow in grace. If the black thought then comes up, "Ah! The various rebellions of nations, the heavings of society, the strife of anarchy, the tumults of war all, all these things, overruled by God, have but made the chariot of the church progress more mightily; they have not failed of their predestinated purpose "good for the people of God." What! 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." "As many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." This also is a truth full of sacred refreshment: hope sees a crown in reserve, mansions in readiness, and Jesus himself preparing a place for us, and by the rapturous sight she sustains the soul under the sorrows of the hour. ", A further argument I might find in the fact, that the best of men have been always the readiest to confess their depravity. In verses 1-11, Paul contrasted those "who live according to the flesh" with . They surrounded it; they were about to sack it, and Camillus was the only man who could deliver it. The influences of the Holy Ghost at times pass through the soul like winds through an Eolian harp, creating and inspiring sweet notes of gratitude and tones of desire, to which we should have been strangers if it had not been for his divine visitation. We are priests unto our God. Happy in what he has received, for that very reason he groans to get the fulness of what is promised him. Now, thirdly, and this is the practical part of the discourse, let us proceed to ADMINISTER TO THE EFFECTS. Is there anything here that can console me? The mother received that letter about an hour before she heard the news that her son was dead, and the parents write to tell me what a balm it was to their spirits that God's providence should bring their boy in here just before he was to meet his God. I see "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Listen to me for a moment. He did not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax; neither should we. He was a man of many trials; he went from one tribulation to another for Christ's sake; he swam through many seas of affliction to serve the church. Commentary on Romans 12:3-8 (Read Romans 12:3-8) Pride is a sin in us by nature; we need to be cautioned and armed against it. I can look upward without distressing fear." Grace in the soul is its new nature; the soul is alive to God, and has begun its holy happiness which shall endure for ever. Certainly no true child of God; he would not have it altered, even if he might. Ah, and blessed be God they will too, by the work of the Spirit. I trust that even while I am speaking this morning, Christ may speak with me, and some word that may fall from my lips, unpremeditated and almost without design, shall be sent of God as a message of life unto some dead and corrupt heart here, and some man who has lived in sin hitherto, shall now live to righteousness, and live to Christ. Some say that this doctrine would send us to sleep; it never does, it wakes us up. Not only is our sin punished, but the sin is gone. All the attributes of divinity are the property of God's children their inheritance entailed upon them. Look! 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. Oh, when you start aside at a little jest, let your conscience prick you, and say, "Am I not a joint heir with Christ, and am I about to quarrel with the legacy? And they speak not; "because," says Paul, "I have obtained mercy who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, that in me first he might show forth all longsuffering." The ills of life are many, the trials of life are many, the temptations of life are more; O life, life, life here below, thou art, after all, little better than a lingering death! Would it not be well for all the churches to hold special meetings for prayer concerning the deadly scourge of influenza? Brethren, we are like warriors fighting for the victory; we share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph. poor Abraham, as the world would have had it, what a trial his call cost him! He was consecrated to God; so are we to be. One man has ten talents, and oh how proud he is, and how he looks down upon another who has but one, and says: "Ah, you are a mean man; I have ten talents." The Lord bless this assembly, for Christ's sake. He was made like to her for her salvation, and now she is made like to him for his honor. Now why call Zaccheus? So it is with us to-day. A shopmate asked, "What's the matter?" Christ loved you when he died; he will love you when you die. Yet one more illustration: it is that of a father aiding his boy. One will wickedly say, "If I am a child of God, I may live as I like." As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. It is not the hypocrite's groan, when he goes mourning everywhere, wanting to make people believe that he is a saint because he is wretched. In the next verse we are described as hoping. Everything that is and is done, worketh out some great end and purpose. You may come on, battalions of the adversary, with all your terrible might sweeping hypocrites and deceivers before you, like chaff before the wind, but as many as are linked to Christ by his eternal love shall stand firm against you, like the solid rocks against the billows of the sea." Is not this Bible opened and read by us all, the gift of their self-denying faithfulness? The encounter to which he challenges them is not to be a mere tilt in a tournament, but a battle for life or death. Boast not, if thou art in the true olive. Romans 8:29 . It is a strong expression, but as it is Scriptural, we cannot alter it; and we have no wish to do so. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, much more will they call them of his household by some yet more opprobrious title, if they can invent it. Blessed be his name. Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his people his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church. how true it is that some who have had the best of parents, have been the worst of sons; that many who have been trained up under the most holy auspices, in the midst of the most favorable scenes for piety, have nevertheless, become loose and wanton! Do not say you: can charge the members with sin; you may do so in the inferior courts of earth, but the bill will be ignored in the supreme court of heaven, since before that bar the accepted substitute appears to answer an demands. 10. Cry, "Lord, melt me, pour me out like wax, and set thy seal upon me until the image of Christ be clearly there." Why is this? Why, my brethren, if we get nothing, Christ gets nothing; if there should for us, there is no heaven for Christ. Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were not true? We believe that the tabernacle of God will be among men, that he will dwell among them, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. Avalanche, hurricane, earthquake, are but order in an unusual form; destruction and death are but progress in veiled attire. Dost thou frequent his mercy-seat? Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you may know. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," so runs our commission, Isa 40 1. For human righteousness is only human; being human, it is finite; and, being finite, it falls short somewhere or other. What says the believer now? Would that he were not so severe, so rigorously just, so sternly strict to his integrity." But, beloved, we are persuaded better thing of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. I have been dwelling upon the black side in order to bring the bright one out by contrast. Now, if I cannot say the first things because of diffidence, though they be true, yet can I say this, that I feel myself to be a sinner, that I loathe my sinnership, that I detest my iniquity, that I feel I deserve the wrath of God on account of my transgressions? We read that, when David had cut off Saul's skirt. We are deficient in those things for which we groan and wait. His early years had been spent in opposition to his Saviour. 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. It was evermore most clear that he acted towards God as a son towards a father. Another test of calling is to be found in Galatians, the fifth chapter, and the fifteenth verse. So must we be, for we shall be made like him. 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. Liberty to walk round the rock of St. Helena, nothing more. Amen. I do not find them either in the English version or in the Greek original. Thus runs the decree, and thus shall the fulfillment follow "I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." Note, also, that Paul in this chapter has been treating of the sufferings of this present time; and though by faith he speaks of them as very inconsiderable compared with the glory to be revealed, yet we know that they were not inconsiderable in his case. Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 6th, 1859, by the, "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called." Let us begin with the word "work." We are like the dove that flutters, and is weary, but thank God, we have an ark to go to. But I think must go a little further than this. Wherefore, since it is only our Judge who can condemn us, and since he is the very Person who has paid our debt for us, and put our sin away, we dare to repeat again, with additional emphasis, our ringing challenge to all the universe, "Who is he that condemneth?". Take care then of that class, brethren, for we are debtors to them. This will defeat your great adversary. Happy man, happy woman, who can truly say, "I am persuaded that God loves me. In prayer we should often come to a dead stand, but he incites, suggests, and inspires, and so we go onward. If you, for fear of shame, and out of the love of the flesh, will not follow Christ through an evil generation, neither shall you follow him when he marches through the streets of heaven in triumph, amidst the acclamations of angels. They all work to bring him to Paradise all work to bring him to the Saviour's feet. The whole "carnal mind is enmity against God. They do not struggle; they have risen beyond all struggling, they rub their hands, and sing of everlasting victory. It means, first of all, that Christ is now in the honourable position of an accepted one. But let me say again to thee, hast thou ever felt that the Holy Ghost has borne witness with thy spirit in his word, and in his work, in thee; and in that secret whisper has he ever said to thee, "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." What is to be done when a man condemns himself? 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. We have seen that chapters 5-8 have a kind of sandwich structure. rail on as pleases you. 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. I think, dear friends, you will all admit that if a man can pray, his trouble is at once lightened. The finite cannot grasp the infinite. We heard of abundant harvests, but we soon discovered that they were all a dream, and that there would be scant in the worker's cottage. 'Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire in hell!'" (+44) 01236 827 978. Go up; take them. He is rejoicing in the first-fruits of the Spirit which he has obtained, but he is panting after the full harvest of the Spirit which is guaranteed to him. That is "good," the vat bursting with wine, the barn full of corn! And mark, every man that is saved, is always saved by an overcoming call which he cannot withstand; he may resist it for a time, but he cannot resist so as to overcome it, he must give way, he must yield when God speaks. You believe that all things will in the end work for your good. : I took pleasure in sin; but, "he, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame." I can always believe the past, and always believe the future, but the present, the present, the present, that is what staggers faith. He is safe, and he must be saved, though all things pass away. The text says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." Too much joy would intoxicate us, too much misery would drive us to despair: but the joy and the misery, the battle and the victory, the storm and the calm, all these compounded make that sacred elixir whereby God maketh all his people perfect through suffering, and leadeth them to ultimate happiness. 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? It was said of king Cyrus, that he was a prince of so amiable a disposition, that when at any time he sat down at meat, if there were aught that pleased his appetite, he would order it to be taken away and given to his friends with this message, "King Cyrus found that this food pleased his palate, and he thought his friend should feed upon that which he enjoyed himself." Like the marvellous structures of Palmyra of Baalbek, in the far off east, the earth in ruins reveals a magnificence which betokens a royal founder, and an extraordinary purpose. Now, in considering this solemn subject, let me remark that there are two kinds of callings mentioned in the Word of God. Sustained by distinguishing grace, a man learns to glory in tribulations also; and strengthened by electing love, he defies the hatred of the world and the trials of life. My brethren, we ought not to do so. It does not charge manhood with an aversion merely to the dominion, laws, or doctrines of Jehovah; but it strikes a deeper and surer blow. that eternal unchangeableness is engaged for the defence of the people of God. Calvin, John; . Therefore, he aspired to be a complete and perfect conqueror. I cannot mention all the accusations which sin makes, but I will mention a great many of them very quickly, and show how the man who believes in Christ, the dying Christ, the risen Christ, the reigning Christ, is able to meet and overcome them. And now, what with strifes between men and masters, which are banishing trade from England, and what with political convulsions, which unhinge everything, the vessel of the state is drifting fast to the shallows. "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be praise." This detailed study of Romans 8 will encourage you to live free of sin's shackles and enjoy victorious, confident communion with Christ. Do I love God? Here the heir of heaven is unknown; he is in disguise, full often clad in the habiliments of poverty, but there his princely character shall be discerned and acknowledged, he shall be waited upon by angels, and shall share in the admiration which the universe shall pour upon the glorified Redeemer. 2. You must be chastened, you must feel the goad; will you kick against the pricks and so wound yourself more than you would have been by the goad itself? True Advocate is he, and Comforter most effectual. Inasmuch as we are of the seed of the woman, there must be enmity between us and the seed of the serpent. He hath suffered, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. It seems, then, dear friends, that PAUL'S PERSUASION HELPED TO BRING HIM TO VICTORY. thou art bitten. "It is Christ that died," becomes both his sword and his shield; and when the dread conflict is over, and even while it is raging, he sings, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.". For all the churches to hold special meetings for prayer concerning the deadly scourge of influenza pass. The road to hell David had cut off Saul 's skirt the of... Would have had it, and sing of everlasting victory 1-11, Paul contrasted those & ;. 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