You have had many mercies in your family, but you have felt that in them all there was a lack of something which could satisfy your heart, and you have felt that that something was God. You think you can do wondrous things; you say. When a friend suggested that these "Notes" should be gathered together, and arranged in a small book, I felt it was quite possible that the Lord in His tenderness would continue to speak by them to some who needed consolation or encouragement. Surely no one is so daring as to say, that all men are led by the Spirit of God; yet may it readily enough be inferred from our text, that those who are not led by the Spirit of God are not the sons of God, but that they and they alone who are led, guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit, are the sons of God. "that HE might be the first-born among many brethren. But here are we who know both good and evil; we understand the one, and the other too, and now there is begotten in us a nature which loves holiness and cannot sin, because it is born of God; we are left free agents, yea, we are freer than ever we were, and yet in this life, and in the life to come, our path is like that of the just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. And yet once more, another precious means of test in the first of Corinthians, the first chapter, and the ninth verse. I think I may say to those who are the beginners in the divine life, so long as your call is real, rest assured it is divine. 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. I have thus illustrated the call in two ways, by the state of the sinner in his sin, and by the omnipotence which overwhelms the resistance which he offers. when I can find enough for my faith to be satisfied with even in the digging of the well, what shall be my satisfaction when I see it overflowing its brim, and springing up with life everlasting? He declares it to be enmity against God. Pause and think of thy state; and if thou knowest thine own sinfulness this day, believe on Christ, who came to save sinners, and that done, all things shall work for thee, the tumbling avalanche, the rumbling earthquake the tottering pillars of heaven, all, when they fall or shake, shall not hurt thee, they shall still work out thy good. I have lately seen one or two of our friends almost in the very article of death; I think that they cannot long survive, but I have come out from their bed-chamber greatly cheered by their holy peacefulness and joy. Yet for our strong consolation, that we may never tremble or fear, God hath been pleased to give us these four eternal rocks, these four immovable foundations upon which our faith may rest and stand secure. And at the present moment, in Central Africa, where Bishop Hannington has been put to death, we hear that there is an edict for the killing of Christians, yet hundreds of black men come forward to confess that they are followers of Christ. They work, in opposition to idleness. "There!" For this very reason, that we are saved, we groan for something beyond. Moreover, I doubt not that Paul remembered the doctrine of the union of believers with Christ, and he said to himself, "Shall Christ lose the members of his body? But yonder is the Saviour,, and he is called Jesus, "For he shall save his people from their sins." Do I love what he loves; do I hate what he hates? What was to be done? Impossible. 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. Now if you had a debtor who owed you more than he could pay, and you saw him going off on pleasure in a horse and gig to-morrow, you would say, "It is all very well his having that fine horse and gig, and going down to Greenwich; but I would rather that he should pay me the ten pound note I lent him the other day. If we are at enmity with God, what merit can we have? I have no argument with which to convince the man who denies so strong and clear a witness. That was on the Sunday, mark you; on the Wednesday, he was at Gravesend, there was a collision, and he and five others were drowned. At any rate, meet the attack of the world as you met the attack of Satan, with this weapon only: "It is Christ that died," and you will be "more than conquerors through him that loved us.". Behold, I present to you the fair cross of your once crucified Elder Brother. 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. Is he a victor? This is not fearful fatalism and determinism. He standeth up and beareth his own faithful testimony; but some great one of the land some nobleman who lives near rises, stands in the witness box, and confirms his witness. So it must be, "If so be that we suffer with him that we also may be glorified together." I might review all our powers, and write upon the brow of each one, "Traitor against heaven! and uttered it under the inspiration of God, did not, however, occupy the position of a sinless man. Some esteem it nothing. You will observe that the apostle has here prefixed the words, "yea rather!" Will he be received with triumph by his Father? 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. It means, first of all, that Christ is now in the honourable position of an accepted one. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 1009, 978, 400. 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." 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. But did I need witnesses, I would conjure up the nations of antiquity; I would unroll the volume of ancient history; I would tell you of the awful deeds of mankind. 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. Such and so bright shall our glories be in the day of the redemption of the body. But, remember, the text tells us that all God is, is ours. The carnal mind is at all times enmity against God. Who enters the lists against the believer? And the heart, when we perceive not its ebullitions, when it belches not forth its lava, and sendeth not forth the hot stones of its corruption, is still the same dread volcano. Even this first point of what the saint has attained will help us to understand why it is that he groans. Believer, would you be ashamed to stand and be accused as he was, and have false witness born against you? The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits." O God, thou Judge of all, my spirit meets thee robed in my Saviour's righteousness, and salutes thee as my Father and my all. Oh! Yet one more remark before we leave this point. But rather, lest there should be a shadow of a doubt, that thou canst not be condemned, thy debts are cancelled. I take him a bill to-morrow morning, and he says, "Do you coming begging?" The apostle opens with the grandest part of the inheritance first heirs of God heirs not of God's gifts, and God's works, but heirs of God himself. His intercession is not in or for the unregenerate. Who can tell the fearful consequences to future generations if we now betray our trust. Now why call Zaccheus? 2. Just a sentence upon another point. Then, consider our Lord's experience with regard to the prince of the power of the air. As I have already said, if in time of trouble a man can pray, his burden loses its weight. for who hath resisted his will? I cannot of course picture what your precise trouble is. The Spirit is one with the Father, and the Father knows what the Spirit means. In the East the firstborn is the lord and king of the household. Come with me, believer, to your estates, and behold, just on the edge of your Father's great inheritance, lies the swamp and morass of affliction. All that they endured came from a Father's hand, and this should comfort them. "We have," says the text, not "we hope and trust sometimes we have," nor yet "possibly we may have," but "we have, we know we have, we are sure we have." The surety paid the debt." Think of thyself now, not as a man or separate individual, but as a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For that very reason they began to groan. "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.". You not only sinned with your body, with your eyes, your lips, your hands; but you have sinned in imagination and desire very horribly." Calvin, John; . Here cometh one and he cries, "Thou hast been a blasphemer." To be begotten is something more than to be made: this is a more personal work of God; and that which is begotten is in closer affinity to himself than that which is only created. 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. When he sits down, he has done his worst; and his witnesses also condemn you; but if the verdict is in your favour, and the judge says that you leave the court with a stainless character, you do not care about the condemnation of others. If it sinks, I am lost; but it will not sink, for the Plot of the Galilean Lake is on board. Ay, and when Christ would have pulled you away, you held hard on to your sin! to be of that temper before described, Romans 8:5; to mind and affect the things of the flesh, doth cause death, or will end in it: the second or eternal death is chiefly intended. 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. Is he glorious? Even so did our Lord Jesus Christ. I hear a brave, strong voice, crying, "Who shall lay anything to my charge?" It is not many minutes before he begins to feel his sin in having persecuted Jesus, nor many hours ere he receives the assurance of his pardon, and not many days ere he who persecuted Christ stands up to preach with vehemence and eloquence unparalleled, the very cause which he once trod beneath his feet. AP&A-c1970 lfpb. She suffereth the glorious timbers from the forest of Lebanon to swim down the stream of oblivion, but she stoppeth all the draff that floateth from the foul city of Sodom. We teach every Sabbath day, that the whole shower of devine wrath was poured upon Christ's head, that the black cloud of vengeance emptied out itself upon the cross, and that there is not left in the book of God a single sin against a believer, nor can there possibly be even a particle of punishment ever exacted at the hand of the man that believeth in Jesus, for this reason, that Jesus has been punished to the full. "No, I did not," you say; "I was a debtor." It is often so on earth: we take rank at times according to the greatness of our talents. There must be a change, if ye consider the future state; for how can enemies to God ever sit down at the banquet of the Lamb? Some would have said within themselves "Let the caitiff nation be cut off. Directions for our behaviour, as members of civil society, Rom. 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. Somebody says, "That is Calvinistic doctrine." It is a pleasant and precious thing so to wait and so to hope. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. We cannot at times command even the earnestness which is the life of supplication: a torpor steals over us, our heart is chilled, our hand is numbed, and we cannot wrestle with the angel. When we consider what man once was, only second to the angels, the companion of God, who walked with him in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day; when we think of him as being made in the very image of his Creator, pure, spotless, and unblemished, we cannot but feel bitterly grieved to find such an accusation as this preferred against us as a race. He said "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. But I feel a darkness coming down over my spirit, and in the darkness there is a fiendish voice that says, "But you have committed unknown sins, sins that nobody else knows, and there have been sins which you yourself did not know. 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. Such guidance will the Spirit give to each of you if you will ask him to illuminate you. Looking upon the world with the mere eye of sense and reason, we say, "Yes, all things work, but they work contrary to one another. Nor need we say a word to explain that it is "enmity against God." If we have to toil, let us remember, this is the world's week of toil. The SPECIAL CONDUCT naturally expected from those who are partakers of the peculiar privileges of being the children of God. 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. Will you descend to the tricks of trade to win money. Perhaps he does not even get so far as that in expressing the mind of the Spirit, but he feels greenings which he cannot utter, he cannot find a door of utterance for his inward grief. This does not exclude even infants at the mothers' breast. A quaint old divine says, that "When God in his justice rose from his throne to smite the surety, he would make no concession whatever. The trial, too. Thus I have tried to show you the kind of prayer which the Spirit inspires. Now, my hearers, before I proceed to enter into the text, let the question go round. I have thus given you the four props and pillars of the believer's faith. Having thus, as far as I can, established my point, that the privilege of our text is a special one, let me dwell upon it for a moment and remark that, as a special one, it is an act of pure unmistakeable grace. 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. May the Spirit of God enable you so to live, that you can bequeath your example as a legacy to the future. Some say that this doctrine would send us to sleep; it never does, it wakes us up. Oh! Yea rather, is risen again; (much more) is even at the right hand of God." though that bell hath the very sound of heaven, and though all men do in a measure hear it, for "their line is gone out into all the earth and their Word unto the end of the world" yet there was never an instance of any man having been brought to God simply by that sound. We have known horror caused by guilt, and, therefore, for the future shall be throughout eternity a nobler race, freer to serve, and serving God after a nobler fashion than any other creatures in the universe. Not only does faith believe it, but our own history convinces us of the truth of it." Do not expect to get thanked at last for doing much, for after all you have done, you will only have done what is your duty. Our little debts we can pay. 2 If you belong to Christ Jesus, God's Spirit has given you a new life. Romans 8:3-4. They are lambs in the harmlessness of their dispositions, but they have the courage of lions when they defend the honours of their King. II. Sin and death no longer have authority over you. We are to be like him then in nature, in relation, in experience. I know my brethren, it is very hard for you to believe this. (1) They seem to have misunderstood Paul's teachings and to have charged that he taught that the greater the sin the greater the glory of God (3:8). (1) No condemnation. Now I must confess there is something very pretty about this theory, something so fascinating that I do not wonder that some of the ablest minds have been wooed and won by it. Moses prayed that he might enter Canaan, but God denied him; and the man that was healed asked our Lord that he might be with him, but he received for answer, "Go home to thy friends." I used this argument; I thought it might be a new one; I am sure it is a forcible one. Glory be unto thee, O God, glory be unto thee; my soul is in heaven, I with the cherubim and seraphim would bow, and sing, and rejoice with them I veil my face in this most joyful moment wiping every tear from my poor eyes, I bid them look upon thy glory in Christ. Look ye again at Camillus. If, after having ploughed this ground, and sown it, and after it has been watered by the dew and rain of heaven, no good harvest ever comes of it, every wise man would leave off tilling it. Now I must call your attention to this clause, remarking that in other passages of God's Word, Christ is said to have sat down for ever at the right hand of God. In this way "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. One of the reasons why many men kick against it is this, they are afraid it hurts them. This is the grandest message of the gospel, that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." 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