There is nothing new in the book; no, for "the old is better," it tells of ancient covenants, and everlasting love, and full atonement, and final perseverance, grand old doctrines on which a soul may stand without fear when heaven and earth are passing away, and the Son of Man comes in His glory. MY venerable friend, who, on the first Sabbath of the year, always sends me a text to preach from, has on this occasion selected one which it is very far from easy to handle. 2 Corinthians 4:1. Some men groan because of their great losses or sufferings; well, this may be nothing but a rebellious smarting under the rod, and if so, no blessing will come of it. Does he do nothing for sinners, then? The text says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized, and thou shalt be saved," for so runneth the gospel. Where is the blessedness of the title, for they might be lovers of strife, and yet according to modern theologians they might still be the sons of God. I used this argument; I thought it might be a new one; I am sure it is a forcible one. "We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 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. As many of you as have been born again have been conformed to the image of Christ in the matter of his birth, and you are now partakers of his nature. But the great high priest of our profession, Jesus, the Son of God, hath taken his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high. I will count it to be my highest glory if I may be made a knight of the cross, and may carry that cross upon my shoulder: to the world a badge of dishonor, but to me the ensign of glory, the escutcheon of honor. The fool does not say in his heart there is no God, for he knows there is a God; but he says, "No God I don't want any; I wish there were none." It was said, "It is finished!" God has punished sin; and when men say, "God must punish sin," we answer, "Sin has been punished, for Christ has died.". We cannot break the bread and multiply it, we can, however, generously distribute what we have, and thus in feeding the hungry we shall prove ourselves children of our Father who is in heaven; we cannot heal the diseased with our touch, still we can care for the sick, and so in love towards the suffering we can prove ourselves to be children of the tender and ever-pitiful God. God grant to you all to be believers in Christ, now and for ever. As to his humanity our blessed Lord, when he came into this world, underwent a birth which was a remarkable type of our second birth. Many of you will not feel the force of Christian reasons, let me remind you, that even you are obliged to the laboring poor. Do I love God? Now here is a proof that the Christian cannot be condemned, because the blood is on the mercy-seat. III. The law condemned us in former days, and would again overthrow us if we ventured to meet it unarmed. But, secondly, the object of grace is that there may be some in heaven with whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. You went to the house of God, not to pray, but to laugh. You cannot deny it. Illustration, examination, consolation. This is styled by our new philosophers as old cumbersome scheme of theology, and it is proposed that it be swept away a proposition which will never be carried out, while the earth remaineth, or while God endureth. "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." The more you search the Bible, the more sure will you be that sonship is the special privilege of the chosen people of God and of none beside. Recollections of the Rev. Our two interests are intertwined and made one, we have neither of us any heirship apart from the other; we are joint heirs, Christ jointly with us; ourselves jointly with Christ. We are waiting till we shall put on our proper garments, and shall be manifested as the children of God. Thou hast confessed that thou hast at times wished there were no God; now, suppose a man wished another dead, would not that show that he hated him? A free meal here and there isnt worth it at the cost of even one of these weak ones. So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if theres any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters. As a further test, keeping close to scripture this morning, for when we are dealing with our own state before God there is nothing like giving the very words of scripture, we are told in the first epistle of Peter, the second chapter, and the ninth verse, that God hath called us out of darkness into marvelous light. Is he exalted? "Complete the sentence, lictors;" and their heads are smitten off in the father's presence. There is a chain on this side of the river fixed into a staple, and the same chain is fixed into a staple at the other side, but the greater part of the chain is for the most part under water, and you cannot see it: you only see it as the boat moves on, and as the chain is drawn out of the water by the force that propels the boat. It is almost as good as Scripture; for Scripture leads us to think of the sufferings of Christ as an unfathomable deep. He was content with them for what they were, but the first-fruits enlarged his desires for the harvest. It reminds me of what I have sometimes heard of the ropes that are used in mining. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 537, 553, 297. 1. His possessions shall be shared by his spouse; and when Christ took his Church unto himself he endowed her with all his goods, both temporal and eternal. Enemies in heaven? Have they not had the desire that it might turn out that all these divine realities were a delusion, a farce, and an imposture? "Who is he that condemneth? 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. The other might have said, "Ah, you pretend to be a happy man, and here you are groaning." Cannot you imagine that a child taken from the lowest ranks of society, who is adopted by a Roman senator, will be saying to himself, "I wish the day were come when I shall be publicly revealed as the child of my new father. Yes, and the apostle seems to hint that this persuasion that Christ would not leave him made him aspire to a very great victory. Possibly they fancy that creation is a paternal act, that all created things are sons. Come in with me, let us sail together to glory. Do you curse your father, who so wisely watched over you? For ever with Christ at our head he shall be the nearest to the eternal throne; the most attached of servants, because also sons; the most firmly adhesive to good, because we once knew the bitterness of evil. When a Roman general came home from the wars, he entered Rome by stealth, and slept at night, and tarried by day, perhaps for a week or two, among his friends. If you have proved by your works that the grace of God is within you, God will not forget you; he will not leave you, he will not cast you away. Even as Christ had to drink the cup of suffering, for sin, we also have sipped of it. "Roll ye away the stone," saith he, and it is done; and now, listen to him; he cries, "Lazarus, come forth!" Secondly, I see here, a remedy for all sin. He has written concerning the spirit of bondage, and the spirit of adoption, the infirmities of the flesh, and the helpings of the spirit; the waiting for the redemption of the body, and the groanings which cannot be uttered. I have no sort of sympathy with those who cannot enjoy the beauties of nature. Does the apostle mean devils, fallen angels, that would overthrow us, some of them as "principalities" by their dignity, others of them as "powers" by their subtle, crafty force, does he refer to devils? This is a very solemn indictment which the Apostle Paul here prefers against the carnal mind. I believe that the fall crushed man entirely, albeit, when it rolled like an avalanche upon the mighty temple of human nature, some shafts were still left undestroyed, and amidst the ruins you find here and there, a flute, a pedestal, a cornice, a column, not quite broken, yet the entire structure fell, and its most glorious relics are fallen ones, levelled in the dust. There is such a thing on earth as an infallible assurance of our election. Tongues are good, prophecy and knowledge and faith are good, sacrifice is good. This is an instructive emblem of a great fact. I beseech you, my dear friends, take this thought with you wherever you go: "I am a debtor, I must serve my God. Two Sunday nights ago, when I stood here to preach about the longsuffering of God being salvation,* I spoke, in the middle of the sermon, as if personally addressing someone who was present, who had lately been ill with fever, and who had come to the Tabernacle, still weakly, and scarcely recovered. Here comes in this blessed word taken out of the Greek litany, "By thine unknown sufferings." Satan desires to have us and to sift us as wheat. My brethren, we ought not to do so. But, at any rate, certain knight-errants have set themselves to do battle with windmills, and really believe that they shall actually destroy from the face of the earth that which is a fundamental and abiding distinction, without which the Scriptures are not to be understood. Just so, we are kings we are of the blood imperial; but we have not our proper state and becoming dignities we have not our royalties here. Oh! Above all, commune much with Christ. A man's heart is moved when he groans. Yet there is the church, and how can she in the slightest degree incur condemnation, when she is already at the right hand of the Father with her covenant head. When at any time then the Holy Spirit comforts you sheds a sweet calm over your disturbed spirit; when at any period he instructs you, opens to you a mystery you did not understand before; when at some special period he inspires you with an unwonted affection, an unusual faith in Christ; when you experience a hatred of sin, a faith in Jesus, a death to the world, and a life to God, these are the works of the Spirit. Ask ye why? Splendid must be the inheritance of Jesus Christ. It is as when two dear friends lovingly embrace with their arms around each other's neck, there is a double link binding them together. "A night and a day," said he, "I have been in the deep," and I will warrant you that many a night and many a day he had been in spiritual deeps; yet he had survived them all, and he could testify to the faithfulness of his God, and say at the end, as the issue of his sufferings, "I am persuaded that nothing in creation is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.". Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 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. Who is he that condemneth." 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. "Yes," he could say, "and a blessed thing it would be for you if you had the same thing to groan after that I have." Note yet a little further concerning the special privilege of heirship, we are joint heirs with Christ. Just so! It is an unqualified statement, including every individual. How could they have been the sons of God before, for "to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, who were born not of blood," then they were not make the sons of God by mere creation "nor of the will of the flesh," that is to say, not by any efforts of their own "but of God." Shall it be, I say, that integrity shall be found in heathen lands and not be found here? "In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them." Moreover, the Holy Spirit's intercession creates prayers offered in a proper manner. Do I sympathize with him in his objects and aims? Infidelity, popery, and every other phase of anti-Christ are now straining every nerve. Absurd! We are married to him, and we shall never be divorced. No! God the ever blessed is one, and there can be no division between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Others, this afternoon, by teaching your children in the class. Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were not true? What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I am predestinated. It sends a shiver through some when we begin to speak of death, and the bravest man who ever lived may well tremble at the thought that he must soon meet the king of terrors; but, brothers and sisters, if Christ loves us, and we love Christ, we may well be persuaded that death will not break the union which exists between us. He went about his Father's business; so should we ever be occupied. B. Gough. He uses the word "likewise" to intimate that in the same manner as hope sustains the soul, so does the Holy Spirit strengthen us under trial. Amen. Our Library Bible Commentaries John Gill's Exposition of the Bible 1 Corinthians 1 Corinthians 8 1 Corinthians 8 He preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon over one hundred years earlier. The force that is conforming us to Christ is the will of God in predestination. He has to intercede with his Father, and mark, with our Father too. Today a canal joins the two harbours. And now I must return to the word "work" to notice the tense of it. He knows enough of our conduct to be able, truthfully, to bring to our memory much that might condemn us. But Christ determined that he would call the man. You are quite conscious that this is not your rest. Did an earthly benefactor feed you, would you hate him? There lie the bodies of the saints he has martyred, and they cry from under the altar "O Lord! Self-righteous man, I can tell thee in the tick of a clock, whether thou hast any evidence of election. And so, my friends, the wish that there were no God, proves that we dislike God. Amen. so also shall your soul be filled to the brim with delights. Heavenly calling means a call from heaven. Hark! Therefore hath God, as it were, enlarged his arguments. May God help me, this morning, solemnly to prefer this indictment against all! If such be the bright hope that cheers us, we may well groan for its realisation, crying out. And now we may rest assured, since we can see a sitting Christ in heaven, that the whole atonement is finished, the work is over, he hath made an end of sin. 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? I. I wonder what the things present are with you, my dear hearers. And the Father says, "Yes, my beloved Son, I will love them; Jesus, I will love them for thy sake.". If all things are working, let us work too "work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no man can work." I may illustrate it in the case of Saul of Tarsus: this proud Pharisee abhors the Lord Jesus Christ; he has seized upon every follower of Jesus who comes within his grasp; he has haled men and women to prison; with the avidity of a miser who hunts after gold, he has hunted after the precious life of Christ's disciple, and having exhausted his prey in Jerusalem, he seeks letters and goes off to Damascus upon the same bloody errand. He had endured persecution, imprisonment, famine, shipwreck, he had suffered from scorn and scandal, pain of body, and depression of spirit. Your very happiness makes you groan; your joy, like a swollen spring, longs to leap up like some Iceland Geyser, climbing to the skies, and it heaves and groans within the bowels of your spirit for want of space and room by which to manifest itself to men. for thy Master's honor, and for thine own comfort, retain that consolation. Here are two sorts of children, therefore all are not the children of God. Now, let us march with joyful footsteps onward to the other part of the inheritance. And if thou be called, it follows as a natural inference thou art predestinated. Death is terrible to them; the tomb affrights them, they can scarcely understand the possibility of having any confidence this side of the grave. Suppose it to be a time of war centuries back. He is bold to declare that he has the petition which he has asked of God, and he therefore begins to rejoice and to praise God, even before the blessing has actually arrived. Now, sir, if it is not wrong for God to do the thing, how can it be wrong for God to purpose to do the thing? And now a little capful of wind blows on you and the tears run down your cheeks, and you say, "Lord, let me die; I am no better than my fathers." (Who would wish that they should? It is the free man that has been brought out of Egypt, who proves that he has been called of God and is precious to the heart of the Most High. First, I shall give illustrations of the call; second, we shall come to examine whether we have been called; and then third, what delightful consequences flow therefrom.
Morrison Healthcare Employee Handbook,
Healthfirst Appeals And Grievances Department,
Mockito Refeq Not Working,
Mama Awards 2023 Date And Time,
Is Anne Dead In Working Moms,
Articles OTHER