What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I am predestinated. If one might have his choice, one might be content to have a short warfare, and to enter upon the crown at once. If this is his devotion, what must be his impiety? Stand up ye warriors of the truth, stand up firmly, for ye are debtors to the future, even as ye are debtors to the past. You had a godly father; you had a Christian mother; you were trained in the fear of God. If thou pantest, and criest, and groanest after Christ, even this is his gift; bless him for it. Adam in this world was in liberty, perfect liberty; nothing confined him; paradise was exactly fitted to be his seat. I beseech thee, "Agree with thy creditor quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him; lest he deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer to cast thee into prison: verily I say unto thee, thou shall not come out till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." O how much we owe them. who can tell what God is? In the previous chapter, Paul was writing to some who ought to have been teachers, but who needed still to be taught the first principles of the gospel; they were such babes in grace that they needed the milk of the Word, the very simplest elements of gospel truth, and not the strong meat of solid doctrine. 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. These are God's words; if any man doth cavil at them, let him cavil; he rejecteth the testimony of God against himself. Whether you take it up or not, your murmuring will not lighten your afflictions. His zeal in doing them proves that he has the spirit of a child of God, and the result of those works proves that God works in him as he will never do in any but his own children. Why, one would have thought you would rejoice to take your Master for better or for worse, and to be partaker with him, not only in his glories but in his sufferings. Very well, be it so; but then it is Christ's interest that is at stake as well as mine; he will be co-respondent in the suit. Within this narrow house of my body, this tenement of clay, if I be a true believer, there dwells the Holy Ghost, and when I desire to pray I may ask him what I should pray for as I ought, and he will help me. He who has never seen the New Jerusalem, has never clapped his hands with holy ecstasy, he has never sighed with the unutterable longing which is expressed in words like these, Take another picture to illustrate that the obtaining of something makes us groan after more. 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. "We know that all things work." "Christ has died, yea, rather, is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." So, brethren, when God gives us "Faith, hope, charity these three," when he gives us "whatsoever things are pure, lovely, and of good report," as the work of the Holy Spirit, these are to us the prognostics of the coming glory. The sister of that corrupt body stands at the side of the tomb, and she says, "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." It Jesus is thine all-prevailing king, and hath trodden thine enemies beneath his feet, if sin, death, and hell, are now only parts of his empire, for he is Lord of all, and if thou art represented in him, and he is thy guarantee, thy sworn surety, it cannot be by any possibility that thou canst be condemned. 12-15. And would you blush to sit side- by-side with him, and be made nothing of as he was? There is a publican living in it, who is a hard, griping, grasping, miserly extortioner. That is, whatever Christ possesses, as heir of all things, belongs to us. yes. Brotherhood has its ties of debt, and to my brother I owe what I shall not yet pay him. But, remember, Christ is coheir with you in this. The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit; it is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence; it is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile; it is not envious against God, it is envy; it is not at enmity, it is actual enmity. In the second place, very briefly, WHAT OUGHT WE TO DRAW FROM THIS DOCTRINE, that we are debtors? You have felt as sure about the promise as you felt about the trial. When effectual calling comes to a man, at first he may not know that it is effectual calling. I say it boldly and without a figure, the eternal arm of God now nerved with strength, now released from the bondage in which justice held it, is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Christ. With some, who can tell? The fact is, brethren, that the relationship of a son of God belongs only to those who are "predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of the Father's will:" Ephesians 1:5 . What is to be done when a man condemns himself? "Who is he that condemneth?" traitor against God!" Would it not be well for all the churches to hold special meetings for prayer concerning the deadly scourge of influenza? 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. God has accepted Christ in the place of his people; and you, accepting Christ to stand in your stead, shall find that your sin is put away, that his righteousness is yours, and that you are "accepted in the Beloved." We shall first look over these four pillars of the believer's faith, and then, afterwards, we shall ourselves take up the apostle's challenge, and cry, "Who is he that condemneth?". Dost thou frequent his mercy-seat? I pray you never think lightly of the supplications of your anguish. We expect to see the New Jerusalem descend out of heaven from God. The first one is, "Yea rather;" the second one is, "Much more." We are waiting till we shall put on our proper garments, and shall be manifested as the children of God. Oh, what an enterprise! Why the Lord may use any words. We do cry, "Abba, Father." III. Post navigation 251. 1,997, "God's Longsuffering: an Appeal to the Conscience.". If the black thought then comes up, "Ah! So, you see, beloved, that because we have the "first-fruits of the Spirit," for that very reason, if for no other, we cannot help but groan for that blissful period which is called "the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.". 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." First, he flings down the gauntlet, and challenges a battle, crying, "Who is he that condemneth?" Our nation is fast learning to forget God. Can those eyes flash lightnings on the man whom once they saw in sin, and thence with rays of love they did lift him up to joy, and peace, and purity? Exactly so, therefore if we be heirs, as Christ Jesus is the heir of all things, we are "joint heirs with Christ." If according to law we are only heirs-presumptive, whose rights may be superseded, then our great joint heir, so far as he is co-heir with us, is superseded also. Now, to come to what is evidently in the text, and to dwell upon it for a little while, Paul being thus persuaded that there was a love of God, and that there was a union through love between the soul and its God, now says that HE IS PERSUADED THAT NOTHING CAN EVER BREAK THOSE BONDS. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all Booksellers. I take him a bill to-morrow morning, and he says, "Do you coming begging?" Edwards "is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian," and one of America's greatest intellectuals. We have some splendid specimens of what men could write, when they have been under the accursed influence of ardent spirits. Have the manacles of justice been snapped, and am I delivered set free by him who is the great ransomer of spirits? "He was despised and rejected of men." But all things pass away. 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? Brethren, as soon as a man believes in Christ, he is no longer under the curse of the law. 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! We have the witness of the Spirit within, bearing witness with our spirits that we are born of God. If so, then I have a hope that I may be among the called host whom God has predestinated. "All things work." Conceive the beauties of the risen Redeemer. I can see that part of the chain, which is named "calling," but blessed be God, that is joined to the side that is called "election," and I may be also quite clear that it is joined on to the other side, the glorious end of "glorification." The bow bends so easily we wonder how it is; away flies the arrow, and it pierces the very centre of the target, for he who giveth have won the day, but it was his secret might that made us strong, and to him be the glory of it. Much more, let me now tell you, is his life, much more the fact that he lives, and is at the right hand of the Father. You observe the text speaks of waiting for the adoption; and another text further back, explains what that means, waiting for the manifestation of the children of God. If he hath wealth, let him use it in his Master's service, for it is his. In verses 1-11, Paul contrasted those "who live according to the flesh" with . 4-6. It is true that God is great, but he cannot ask for more than divine righteousness, and in Christ I present that. If his heart is against God, we ought to tell him it is his sin; and if he cannot repent, we ought to show him that sin is the sole cause of his disability that all his alienation from God is sin that as long as he keeps from God it is sin. No; the blood must he taken to the mercy-seat, God will not stoop when he is just; it must be brought to him. Fire such as martyrs felt at the stake were but a plaything compared with the flames of a burning conscience. Nor need we say a word to explain that it is "enmity against God." Now, I speak with bated breath. And yet this is just through our ignorance and through the blindness of our eyes; for verily to the enlightened believer there is more consolation in Jesus arising from the tomb, than there is in Jesus nailed to the cross. "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Would you have your Master's throne, but not his temptation in the wilderness? The grandest, most heroic, days in Christendom were the days of the Pagan persecutions, wined, to be a Christian, meant to be doomed to die. He to whom all these things are but as nothing, gives himself up to the inheritance of his people. You are quite conscious that this is not your rest. "It is Christ that died.". That is the first illustration I will give you of what is meant by effectual calling. It would not have been consistent with his justice for him to pass by my sin. 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. "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again." I would invite you, my brethren in Christ Jesus, this morning, to do three things; first, let us consider the terms of the will "joint heirs with Christ;" secondly, let us go forth and view the estates what it is of which we are joint heirs; and when we have done so, let us proceed at once to administer, for God hath made his children administrators as web as heirs. 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. We cannot be made like Christ unwillingly; a consenting will is essential to the likeness of Christ; unwilling obedience would be disobedience. And if we be his sons, are we not thereby bound to love, serve, and obey him? Will any one who believes in the Prayer Book dissent from the doctrine that "the carnal mind is enmity against God?". Let me imagine a man entering heaven without a change of heart. Who can tell the fearful consequences to future generations if we now betray our trust. How seriously, then, should each stand and think. There is no opposition in God's providence; the raven wing of war is co-worker with the dove of peace. 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." "As many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." I have thought it over, I have fully considered it, I have-thoroughly weighed it, and I have come to this persuasion, that the love of God is shed abroad in my heart.". Has it lifted up the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend your life with God in prayer, in praise, and in thanksgiving, and can no longer be satisfied with the low and mean pursuits which you followed in the days of your ignorance? It was the gospel which taught Paul how to say brother. He has not done enough "never enough;" conscience always says, "this is not perfection; it ought to have been better," Salvation for enemies must be by an ambassador, by an atonement, yea, by Christ. And yet God had a goodly land for him, and intended greatly to bless him. Oh, what joy ought to fill our spirits this morning, at the prospect which this text reveals, and which predestination secures! They are sternly holy; they are, like him, ready to forgive, but they can by no means tolerate iniquity, nor hear that sin should live in their presence." I do not believe that the Bible is to be understood except by receiving these doctrines as true. When you came here this morning you were troubled, and as you came in you were envying your neighbor. When I think how the poor toil day after day and receive barely enough to keep their souls within their bodies: when I think how frequently they serve their Church, unhonored and unrewarded, when I know some of them who perform the hardest deeds of service for our common Christianity, and are yet passed by with neglect and scorn; when I remember how many of them are toiling in the Sabbath-school, having neither emolument nor reward; when I consider how many of the lower classes are as prayerful, as careful, as honest, as upright, as devout, as spiritual as others are, and frequently more so, I cannot but say that we are debtors to all God's poor in a very large degree. You are not to be conformed to the mightiest of the apostles, you will one day be purer than were Paul or John while here below; you are not to be conformed to the sublimest of the prophets, you shall be like the prophets' Master; you are not to be content with your own conception of that which is beautiful and lovely, but God's perfect conception incarnated in his own Son is that to which you shall certainly be brought by the predestination of God. It is naught but "Look!" It is astonishing how much gratitude a man will feel to you if you have been only the instrument of doing him good; but how little gratitude he feels to God, the first cause of all! So shall we when his Father shall say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." There is a hard, griping, grasping, miserly extortioner temptation in the fear of God ''... The flesh & quot ; with rather ; '' the second place, very,! 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