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It was because they longed to enter it. 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. But here we have a more uncommon and a sublimer theme. God is their Father, they are therefore God's heirs! But since we have become enemies, how much less can we hope to be saved by works! Then salvation cannot be by merit; it must be by grace. It is true, that by birth we are at enmity with God. But Solomon did not add, that things are not what they seem. But mark, although this call be rejected, man is without excuse in the rejection; the universal call has in it such authority, that the man who will not obey it shall be without excuse in the day of judgment. But his reply was, "No, I trust they will always be at war with you, for Carthage must be destroyed if Rome is to prosper." Is he a King? Can you heartily say that you can never rest satisfied till you. Ah, brethren! As for my own convictions, I never can doubt it, I am fully persuaded concerning it. 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. 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. The carnal mind is at all times enmity against 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?" As the Carthaginian, who might tread the desolate site of his much-loved city, would shed many tears when he saw it laid in heaps by the Romans; or as the Jew, wandering through the deserted streets of Jerusalelm, would lament that the ploughshare had marred the beauty and the glory of that city which was the joy of the whole earth; so ought we to mourn for ourselves and our race, when we behold the ruins of that goodly structure which God had piled, that creature, matchless in symmetry, second only to angelic intellect, that mighty being, man when we behold how he is "fallen, fallen, fallen, from his high estate," and lies in a mass of destruction. 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. The Secret Power in Prayer January 8, 1888 by . If the black thought then comes up, "Ah! Now, first, brethren, as co-heirs with Christ, we are heirs of God so the text tells us. If we drink in our nutriment from the world, we shall be worldly; but, if we live upon Christ and dwell in him, our conformity with him shall be readily accomplished, and we shall be recognized as brethren of that blessed family of which Jesus Christ is the firstborn. As Paul's exposition in 5:12-21 has shown, "through one . satanic enormity! The sea is the house of storms, even when it is glassy as a lake; the thunder is still the mighty rolling thunder, when it is so much aloft that we hear it not. I do feel that he loves me better than I love myself. He might have sent you to hell; but you are here. Dost thou love to hold communion with him? The other night, just before Christmas, two men who were working very late, were groaning in two very different ways, one of them saying, "Ah, there's a poor Christmas day in store for me, my house is full of misery." He ever liveth to secure effectually the eternal salvation of every soul for whom he died, even for every one who puts his trust in him. What shall we say then? I did not know till afterwards, when I was led to know Christ as all my salvation, and all my desire, that the Lord had called the child, for this could not have been the result of nature, it must have been the effect of grace. The SPECIAL CONDUCT naturally expected from those who are partakers of the peculiar privileges of being the children of God. $140.00 $258.00. Many a Jonah, who now rejects the doctrines of the grace of God, only needs to be put into the whale's belly and he will cry out with the soundest free-grace man, "Salvation is of the Lord." He whose garments are the whitest, will best perceive the spots upon them. One blow might, we should have imagined, have been enough to have smitten to death our unbelief for ever; the cross ought to have been enough for the crucifixion of our infidelity, yet God, foreseeing the strength of our unbelief, hath been pleased to smite it four times that it might be razed to rise no more. We cannot be precisely as God is, yet as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, whatever that image may be. God treats us as men responsible and intelligent, and not as stone or metal; he made us free agents, and he treats us as such. He hath not published the page whereon the actual names of the redeemed are written; but that page of the sacred decree whereon their character is recorded is published in his Word, and shall be proclaimed to thee this day. "He is faithful by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." He reads the heart itself: "he knoweth,' says the text, "what is the mind of the Spirit." How joyfully will we serve him, how rapturously adore him. 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. To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast. My God, thou art my all in all the circle where my passions move, the centre of my soul. Some of you have a trouble perhaps, in her who is dearest to you. I never knew a man yet, who had a reason to believe that he himself was chosen of God, who hated the doctrine of election. O Christian, thou canst not be condemned, for Christ has paid the debt. "Oh, yes," he says, "I see; there is the cash." Then, beloved, I have reason to hope that thou hast been called of God, for it is a holy calling wherewith God doth call his people. Well did the apostle say of this "much more much more than dying and rising again from the dead, he lives at the right hand of God.". It means, first of all, that our right to the divine heritage stands or falls with Christ's right to the same inheritance. But next: why cannot we administer also to the blessed part of the glorious testament! That man is not called who cannot look back upon darkness, ignorance, and sin, and who cannot now say, that he knows more than he did know, and enjoys at times the light of knowledge, and the comfortable light of God's countenance. But now to illustrate this call in its effects, we remind you that Abraham is another remarkable instance of effectual calling. He died for his murderers, for those that mocked and insulted him; for he commanded his disciples to begin preaching the gospel at Jerusalem, where they crucified him, to preach it even to those who had hounded him to his doom. Ask him whether he is happy and content. 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. In too many instances ministers of religion has propagated doubt, and the result is a general hardening of the popular feeling, and a greatly-increased neglect of public worship. Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, April 11th, 1880, by. But all things pass away. "To the very uttermost" he is able to save, seeing he ever lives to intercede the strongest argument of the whole four. "All things work together for good." Do you hate him because he spared your life by his tender mercy? We are only creatures after all, and when we are condemned, we sink down into destruction, and suffer for our sin; but he is the eternal God, and when he takes our nature, and cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is "an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 6. They tell me, that they of old maintained the truth, and preached it, in the midst of fire and sword that they bore death in defence of the cause of God, that they might hand down his holy word inviolate to us! 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. Let me ask myself again this question, Have the fetters of my sin been broken off, and am I God's free man? And you and I must be conformed to Christ in this respect. The idle man that folds his arms or lies upon the bed of sloth is an exception to God's rule; for except himself all things work. Well, we confess that too; but then Christ suffered in his spirit. We see the mercy-seat, and we perceive that God will hear us: we have no doubt about that, for we know that we are his own favoured children, and yet we hardly know what to desire. Cannot we say this morning with thankful hearts, "By the grace of God I am what I am?" This and this alone can restore the peace of divided families, and unite disputing relatives. And dost thou hate God for that? heroism, where is it fled whither has it gone. Our blessed Lord delights in fellowship; such is the greatness of his heart that he would not be alone in his glory, but would have associates in his happiness. I trust you will lay hold upon that thought; if Christ as God's heir has a perfect right to what his Father has bestowed upon him, even so have we, for our rights are nonexistent. Our third and last point is THE SURE SUCCESS OF ALL SUCH PRAYERS. Perhaps, also, there was one who had travailed in birth till Christ was formed in us the hope of glory, and how happy was that spirit to see us born unto God; how did our spiritual parent ponder each gracious word which we uttered, and thank God for the good signs of grace which could be found in our conversation. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Brethren, we who know and love the Lord, are debtors, not to one creditor, but to many. So shall we be, for because he lives, we shall live also. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," so runs our commission, Isa 40 1. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes: "Saved by your works! He gave to us hi inmost heart; he loved us even to the death. Yes, blessed be God, even this foe can be overcome by the weapon the believer wields in the power of God, for he can tell conscience, as he told his former opponents, "It is Christ that died." Directions for our behaviour, as members of civil society, Rom. Is not this Bible opened and read by us all, the gift of their self-denying faithfulness? However wise and advisable a human interpolation may be, it has no authority with us; we bow to holy Scripture, but not to glosses which theologians may choose to put upon it. Sproul's Expositional Commentary Set - 8 Volumes. ", I am anxious not to tarry over controverted matters, but to reach the subject of my sermon this morning. There are two things that join God and a believer together; the first is, God's love to the believer, and the second is, the believer's love to God. There is never a clash in the world: men think so, but it never is so. Edited by C. H. SPURGEON. The Lord bless you! Listen at that door on the left, there is a deep, hollow, awful groan. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's own Son, cleanseth us from all sin; so away foul fiend, that also has received its due. On this I shall speak very briefly. The mass of men are all in uncertainty; they do not know what will become of them at last. He has paid all we owed and he will vindicate his own death, and claim for the travail of his soul its due reward, which is the forgiveness and the salvation of all guilty men who have come and put their trust in him. Now pull"; and as the youth pulls, his father's hands are on his hands, and the bow is drawn. May we still, between the very jaws of death, have solid confidence in God, and dare to ask for the presence of men and devils, too, "Who is the that condemneth?" It is called "first-fruits," again, because these were always holy to the Lord. The title of joint heir contains another mystery which I cannot withhold, although it must be judiciously handled Christ, as coheir, has (of his own free grace) so identified himself with what his rights as co-heir are not to be separated or viewed apart from ours. If all things work together for good (all events, all circumstances, all trials, all happenings, etc. cries a third; "a downright lie." Romans 8:37 "The enemy is behind us. All the prayers which the Spirit of God inspires in us must succeed, because, first, there is a meaning in them which God reads and approves. Since the day when Adam fell all things have had to toil and labor. We may well hang our harps upon the willows, while we listen to the voice of Jehovah solemnly speaking to his rebellious creature. Has the Spirit operated in my heart in a manner to which flesh and blood never can attain? What if Christ died for all your past sins? say you? 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. Side by side with you there sits an ungodly person; you two have been brought up together, you have lived in the same house, you have enjoyed the same means of grace, you are converted, he is not; will you please to tell me what has made the difference? I imagine that he said, "I promised to go back, and though it is to pangs indescribable, I will return." Up with your shield, and say, "Yes, it is all true, or it might have been, for my heart is so evil that it would have led me to any sin; but 'It is Christ that died.'" Here, then, in the nick of time, as a very present help in time of trouble, comes in the Holy Spirit. He guides us in prayer, and thus he helps our infirmity. I have had many troubles that thou reckest not of, I have buried all my kindred, and I am like the last oak of the forest, all my friends have been felled by death long ago. He must come out from his very dearest friends, from all his old acquaintances, from those friends with whom he used to drink, and swear, and take pleasure; he must go straight away from them all, to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. 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. If the vessel tarries, he groans over the delay; and if the voyage be tedious, and adverse winds blow back the barque from the white cliffs of Albion, his thirst for his own sweet land compels him to groan. Ah! Eli said, "I called not, lie down again. ", Note the second phrase, which contains also a description of the Christian "the called according to his purpose." 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.". It was not long ago there came unto this hall, a man who was without God and without Christ, and the simple reading of the hymn. Come now, though this be an exceedingly noisome spot, though it be a piece of ground which thou wouldst fain leave out and give to thine enemies, yet there is a possibility of getting great treasure and great riches out of it; therefore do not scorn it. Some men are the cisterns that hold God's rain; but other men are those who pray the rain from heaven, like very Elijahs, and many of these are to be found in the lower ranks of society. I have been able again to revise a sermon without assistance. I hear a brave, strong voice, crying, "Who shall lay anything to my charge?" Consider how much you owe to his forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts he loves you as infinitely as ever; and after a myriad of sins, his Spirit still resides within you. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I are free, but what is our liberty? A man may be full of faith and joy spiritually, but I will defy him under some forms of disease to feel as he would. 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. 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