"It is Christ that died." You have felt as sure about the promise as you felt about the trial. Psalms 16:5 . Does he contribute anything to his new life? "He had not persecuted Christ," you say, "it was only some poor men and women that he had haled to prison, or scourged in the synagogue, to compel them to blaspheme." "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come nor height, nor depth nor any other creatures, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This is called "the first-fruits of the Spirit," by which I understand the first works of the Spirit in our souls. 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." 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. 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? There is nothing about death that should make Christ cease to love us; our bodies will be under his protection and guardian care, and our souls shall be with Christ, which is "far better" than being anywhere else. Here is an argument which hath much more power, much more strength, much more force than even Christ's death. 19. 9. On, that you would know and feel your dependence upon the Holy Ghost that he may prompt the once crucified but now ascended Redeemer that this gift of the Spirit, this promise of the Father, is shed abroad upon men. Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they will, and say there is no power in them, are the indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence. "Brethren, ye have been called into liberty." So, beloved friends, there is nothing in death to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 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." The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still. Be not deceived; it is not so; things are not what they seem; "all things work together." But lo, a light shines round about him and he falls to the ground, and he hears a voice crying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." Not in one sense, for the members of our body, which were instruments of unrighteousness, become by sanctification, the instruments of righteousness unto the glory of God; and the body which was once a workshop for Satan, becomes a temple for the Holy Ghost, wherein he dwells; but we are all perfectly aware that the grace of God makes no change in the body in other respects. The will, if valid for one, is valid for all. ", I. And if thou be called, it follows as a natural inference thou art predestinated. He replies, "Youth! Brotherhood has its ties of debt, and to my brother I owe what I shall not yet pay him. In deigning to help us in the grief that cannot even vent itself in groaning, he proves himself to be a true Comforter. 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. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin." Liberty to walk round the rock of St. Helena, nothing more. If they say that Christ's death does not repair the injury you have done to your fellow-men, tell them that, as far as you can, you mean to make restitution to them; and wherein you have done the world an ill turn, let them know that your Master has done it more good than you ever did it harm. 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. Will not such presumption as this be avenged? We stand boldly in front of all our foes, because we know that we are free from the evil which once condemned us: it is all gone. 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. Now, first, brethren, as co-heirs with Christ, we are heirs of God so the text tells us. He instructs us as to our need, and as to the promises of God which refer to that need. Tell the men of the world that it is right that they condemn you for all your past life, for doubtless you have been what they say you are, you will not dispute that fact; but tell them also that what Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth is true of you, "Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." God is the God of love; he is kind to his creatures; he regards you with his love of benevolence; for this very day his sun hath shone upon you, this day you have had food and raiment, and you have come up here in health and strength. A second consolation is drawn from the grand truth, that if a man be called he will certainly be saved at last. Christ is entering into Jericho to preach. Christ coined, so to speak, the gold which should be the redemption of his children, but the resurrection was the minting of that gold; it stamped it with the Father's impress, as the current coin of the realm of heaven. Where are those words which you have added, "Whom he did foreknow to repent, to believe, and to persevere in grace?" So live, so act, ye sons of God, that the world may say of you, "Yes, these men bring forth the fruits of God; they are like their Father; they honour his name; they are indeed filled with his grace, for their every word is as true as his oath; their every act is sincere and upright; their heart is kind, their spirit is gentle; they are firm but yet they are generous; they are strict in their integrity, but they are loving in their souls; they are men who, like God, are full of love; but like him are severely just. Now Secondly, we are called upon to notice the universality of this evil. 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. In this world, saints are God's children, but you cannot see that they are so, except by certain moral characteristics. Come, men, put your face against all weathers; be ready to come up hill, with the snow blowing in your face, be ready to march on when the tempest howls, and the lightnings flash over head, and the snow becomes knee-deep; nay, be ready to go into the crevasse with him, and perish, if need be. Now pull"; and as the youth pulls, his father's hands are on his hands, and the bow is drawn. It is so; but then my Lord Christ delighted to come to be my Saviour. I know that my obedience cannot save me, but I long to obey. No. 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. You and I are also groaning for it. I will make no answer to that accusation but this: "It is Christ that died." God's great love for us is supremely demonstrated in Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave Himself for us on the cross. I know it is good for me that my faith, my love, my every grace should grow and increase, and that I should be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Master." Oh! The young crocodile, I have heard, when broken from the shell, will in a moment begin to put itself in a posture of attack, opening its mouth as if it had been taught and trained. May he who comes from Jesus lead you to Jesus. The children look up to the firstborn. you also shall bear a palm. Ask him whether God has been once untrue to him and he will say, "No; not one good thing hath failed of all that the Lord God hath promised; all hath come to pass!" Is then your calling a high calling, has it lifted up your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? He does not say, "I am persuaded;" he does not say, "I believe;" but with unblushing confidence he appears before you and says, "We" (I have many witnesses) we know that all things work together." Well, whatever it may be, and the woes of the present are very many, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. However, dear friends, we have often found that the nuts which are hardest to crack have the sweetest kernels, and when the bone seems as if it could never be broken, the richest marrow has been found within. When he decreed Christ to be blessed above all the blessed, he decreed thee to be a partaker with him. Paul himself counted not his life dear unto him that he might win Christ, and be found in him; wherefore he says that he is persuaded that neither death, nor life, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, we also, though we at our conversion are new creatures, are also said to be "begotten again into a lively hope." 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. Suddenly the Goths, the old enemies of Rome, fell upon the city. He ruleth over all. do I converse with him, commune with him? Suppose, my dear friends, that any of you were about to be tried for your life, do you think you could trust your advocacy with any man you know? poor Abraham, as the world would have had it, what a trial his call cost him! First comes Satan; then the world; then conscience; and last of all the law of God. "Ask of me," said his rather, "and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Why, dying is the end of work; it is living that is hard work. I always find when I have to deal with these "fat things full of marrow," that words fail us; and perhaps it is well, for then the excellency of the power is proved to be not by words of man but in the weight, and fullness, and richness of gospel matter. I want nothing more. When this fails, he never sticks at an accusation because it does not happen to be true. 12:1-21. "Who is that? Now election shuts up the precious treasury of God's covenant blessings for his children for penitents, for seeking sinners. 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. "Brethren, we are debtors.". Yet again. And oh, would you be ashamed to die for Christ; methinks, if you are what you should be, you will glory in tribulations also, and count it sweet to suffer for Christ. The traveller has reached the hospice. Then again I say to you, "Tell it not in Gath and publish it not in Askelon, then has a heathen eclipsed a Christian." I only pray that God's Spirit may make our lives to speak of it. You may have seen very beautiful prayers in print, and you may have heard very charming compositions from the pulpit, but I trust you have not fallen in love with them. Yet at that selfsame moment, where human eyes saw nothing seraphic eyes beheld marvels of grace, and angels in heaven rejoiced over one sinner that repented, singing once again "glory to God in the highest." But listen to another word of the Lord in the first epistle of John, iii. He cannot bring us in debt to divine justice; for in his own hands and feet are the nail-prints, which are the receipts of justice in full settlement of all claims against us. You went to the house of God, not to pray, but to laugh. 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. And we may add, the text also means good eternal, lasting good. Have you been called, not of man but of God? From the first, and now, and to the last, "he that hath wrought us to the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given to us the earnest of the Spirit." Come let us at the sovereignty which has called us, and let us remember the words of the apostle, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. The statement of this verse succinctly expresses the core of Christian victory. Edited by C. H. SPURGEON. He said, "Reproach hath broken mine heart, and I am full of heaviness." Is it not a wonderful thing that God loved me, and loved you, (let us individualize it,) that God so loved us that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life? Our confidence is therefore strong, and it is so because Christ's dying has removed all sin from all believers. Christian, stop and ponder for a moment! Is the carnal mind at enmity against God? It is only where God's hand has been that the vessel begins to assume the form of the model. 7, 8. "Well," said he, "if you must know my persuasion, this is it, 'I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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.'" The right hand of God is the place of majesty, and the place of favour too. YOU WILL HAVE NOTICED that in this chapter, Paul has been expounding a very deep inward, spiritual experience. O my soul! Man, unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven is thy home, thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling, for those who have been so called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. We cannot draw the bow of prayer alone. Well, about that, I have this to say, "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." One of two joint heirs has no right apart from the other. But if he could have read God's secrets, he might have found that Simeon was not lost, for he was retained as a hostage that Joseph was not lost but gone before to smooth the passage of his grey hairs into the grave, and that even Benjamin was to be taken away by Joseph in love to his brother. Thou camest here to-day from thy toil, and thy bones have scarce forgotten yesterday's weariness; but thou art coheir with him who rules all heaven; thou art come here in poverty and thou wilt go home to a scant meal in a narrow room, but thou art co-heir with him who made the worlds, by whom: all thinks consist; you have come here weak and feeble, doubting, distrustful, and cast down, but I tell thee, weak though thou be, and in thine own judgment less than the least of all yet the same hand that wrote Christ heir of all things wrote thy name with his, and till a hand can be found that can blot out thy Redeemer's name thine shall stand and abide fair ever and ever. Now God has never promised that "all things shall work together" for such good as that to his people. THE PROTEST OF an innocent man against the charge of an accuser may well be strong and vehement. Do I love what he loves; do I hate what he hates? Time and ability alike fail us to speak of this. O ye first-born whose names are written in heaven, I take my seat with you and join your rapturous adoration. If we suffer orthodoxy to fail, or God's truth to be dishonored, future generations will despise and execrate our name. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, and then it is that we groan, or utter some other inarticulate sound. Oh, the bitterness of that cry "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 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. By Vernon J. Charlesworth. Nay, ye say, we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. 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." A man has to deliver a piece which he has learned; but his memory is treacherous, and therefore somewhere out of sight there is a prompter, so that when the speaker is at a loss and might use a wrong word, a whisper is heard, which suggests the right one. 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.'" Have not you found it so too? We can work spiritual miracles. Thou hast lain among the pots, but he hat made thee as a dove whose wings are covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. You come into court with your case, and the counsel on the other side condemns you. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, Note that Paul does not say, "If they shall fall;" but, "If they shall fall away," if the religion which they have professed shall cease to have any power over them, then, it shall be impossible. Are you among the number? Adam in this world was in liberty, perfect liberty; nothing confined him; paradise was exactly fitted to be his seat. One will wickedly say, "If I am a child of God, I may live as I like." In the midst of his agony on the tree, he still had full understanding concerning his sacrifice: "Knowing that all things were now accomplished," he bowed his head, and died. Purity, holiness, unselfishness, all the virtues, should glow in us as they shone in him. "Ah!" This, then is God's great remedy for sin: "It is Christ that died.". Behold from heaven's mint golden pieces of inestimable value are sent forth, and each one bears the image and superscription of the Son of God. Now, let us march with joyful footsteps onward to the other part of the inheritance. I do believe that there is a supernatural way in which apart from means, the Spirit of God communicates with the spirit of man. What contrasts we have in the seventh verse! When Christ was bound to the tree, I see my own sin bound there; when he died every believer virtually died in him; when he was buried we were buried in him, and when he was in the tomb, he was, as it were, God's hostage for all his church, for all that ever should believe on him. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." That short sentence completely answers to all his accusations. I will shew you yet again. Through many troubles you have passed, but you can say, they have all been for your good. It is upon Psalms 105:37 ; and, if the Lord will, it will be published next week. We are to be holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. And the Father says, "Yes, my beloved Son, I will love them; Jesus, I will love them for thy sake.". 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. How can we deserve anything from the being we hate? Do we say that he is love? So, you see, I cannot help wondering what the "things to come" will be for you who are here. Stay, then, ye who are puffed up by your achievements, consider ye have but poorly performed, not a deed of supererogation, but of ordinary duty. He is delivered and I am delivered too. You have continued in it, and persisted in it." And when Samuel knew it was the Lord, he said, "Speak; for thy servant heareth." With some, who can tell? Stern was the labour, toilsome was the work; he dug on, and on, and on, through rocks of suffering, into the deepest caverns of misery; but the resurrection was the springing up of the water. Our little debts we can pay. I must confess that I am more afraid of life than of death. When the Emperor Charles the Fifth went to war with Francis the First, King of Naples, he sent a herald to him, declaring war in the name of the Emperor of Germany, King of Castille, King of Aragon, King of Naples, King of Sicily, and he went on with many more titles, giving his sovereign all the honours that were his due. As far as I can guess, the main text on which these people build the doctrine of the universal Fatherhood, is that quotation which the apostle Paul took from a heathen poet "As certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." Hear his reply! First, God predestinates us to be like Jesus that his dear Son might be the first of a new order of beings, elevated above all other creatures, and nearer to God than any other existences. that we might stamp it with truth, and that God might help us to impress upon its wings some proof that it has not flown by neglected and unheeded. Oh! Such men there are here this very day. This poor man knows very little about law, and is quite unable to meet his cunning opponent. I have thus given you the four props and pillars of the believer's faith. What must be the strength when the whole four are interlaced and intertwisted, and become the support of the believer? Perhaps since matter may not be annihilated, and probably cannot be, but will be as immortal as spirit, this very world will become the place of an eternal jubilee, from which perpetual hallelujahs shall go up to the throne of God. Ah! IV. Our nation is fast learning to forget God. I thought I saw you the other day looking amazingly great, because on such an occasion you really had done some little service to Christ's Church; and you looked astonishingly proud about it. Though we cannot pay all, we can at least acknowledge the debt. When Christ gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself, so that now he has, as our Brother, no heritage apart from us, although, as Eternal God, he hath essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend. True believers love God as their Father; they have "the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry Abba, Father." Consider what you owe to his power; how he has raised you from your death in sin, and how he has preserved your spiritual life, how he has kept you from falling, and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your path, you have been able to hold on your way! III. He who hung on high Calvary was such a lover of the souls of men that from that glorious fact I am brought to this blessed persuasion, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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. Whatever may be the confidences of others, and whatever may be your own, put them all away, and keep to this one declaration, "It is Christ that died." If it be possible that the malice and the graft of hell could invent some scheme by which the covenant could he put out of court, and the promise of grace could be made to fail, then Christ fails with his people, and the heir of all things loses his inheritance as soon as one single one of the other heirs shall have his right to the inheritance disproved. The Father knew how happy his Son would be to associate his chosen with himself, for of old his delights were with the sons of men. Who is he that condemneth." That secret we must keep separate from all earthly things; that treasure which he has committed to us we must watch both night and day against those profane intruders who would defile the consecrated ground. "We know that all things work together far good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Brother owes to brother what he cannot pay until he dies. We are reduced to such straits that we must pray, but what shall be the particular subject of prayer we cannot for a while make out. Is there anything to be proud of in having paid a farthing in the pound? It was after death remember that, it was after death that his heart poured out the tribute of blood and water by which we have the double cure; see, then, how he loves us in death and after death. I beseech you, my dear friends, take this thought with you wherever you go: "I am a debtor, I must serve my God. It is a checkered scene, a garment of many colours. "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again." May the Spirit of God enable me to expound to you this most blessed portion of God's Word. Though they could not entirely rid their souls of the idea of the Godhead, did they not wish that there might not be a God? Having reaped handfuls, we long for sheaves. time is gone, and change is over, and I am floating on thy pacific waves where winds can never howl and tempests never lower. Do you say, "I would not be a Christian, if I must always be on my guard, and always fighting against temptation from without and from within?" Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Daniel, all the mighty ones that have gone before, tell out the tale of their history, write their autobiography, and they say, "We!" Delivered on Sabbath Evening, August 10, 1856, by the. Consider what thou owest to his immutability. Brethren, we are like warriors fighting for the victory; we share not as yet in the shout of them that triumph. Those who are called, are men who before the calling, groaned in sin. Does not happen to be proud of in having paid a farthing in the epistle. Noticed that in this world was in liberty, perfect liberty ; nothing confined him ; paradise was exactly to. 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