Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his people his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church. God dwelleth in us, and we are one with Christ. "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." I do not know that it is for my good that I should be respectable and walk in good society; but I know that it is for my good that I should walk humbly with my God. 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. The Holy Spirit acts to his people somewhat as a prompter to a reciter. 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." Conecte-se Inscrever-se; Incio. Is it not a noble thing for a Christian to be able to go where he may, and feel that he cannot meet his accuser; that wherever he may be, whether he walketh within himself in the chambers of conscience, or out of himself amongst his fellow men, or above himself into heaven, or beneath himself into hell, yet is he a justified one, and nothing can be laid to his charge. There is no terror to him like the terror of the cross. ", And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this fact, who shall decide the question; it shall be your conscience. I have called it, "A Carillon of Bells," because its one aim and object is to summon the Lord's people to bless and praise His Holy Name; and every note, from the highest to the lowest, is meant to peal forth the melody of "free grace and dying love." There are four things of which I shall speak this morning. He reads the heart itself: "he knoweth,' says the text, "what is the mind of the Spirit." Now, the first groan which you heard was deep and dreadful, as though it were fetched from the abyss of hell; that is the groan of the ungodly man as he perishes, and leaves all his dear delights; but the second groan is so softened and sweetened, that it is rather the note of desire than of distress. When the Church rejects you, casts you out, annoys, despises you, still be ready to defend her, and when you have an ill name even in the lips of God's people, still stand up for the common cause of Zion, the city of our solemnities. And therefore the surety first groped through death to fight his way up to the eternal throne, and then mounting aloft by a glorious ascension, dragged his conquered foes behind him, and scattering mercies with both his hands, like Roman conquerors who scattered gold and silver coins in their triumph, entered heaven. When he had kept all his Master's law he was but an unprofitable servant; he had done no more than he ought to have done; he had no surplus, no balance. Oh Christian, this should ever be your spirit, only in a higher degree. There is not only enough to put our sins to death, but enough to bury them and hide them out of sight. Much need is there for the stone that it should be well secured, for within the sepulchre there is a putrid corpse. Some of you have a trouble perhaps, in her who is dearest to you. Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. None but he hath a right to condemn, for he is the sole judge of right and wrong, and if he hath died shall he put us to death, and if he hath risen for us, shall he thrust us downwards to the pit, and if he hath reigned for us and hath been accepted for us, shall he cast us away, and if he hath pleaded for us, shall he curse us at the last? Romans 8:30, THE GREAT BOOK OF GOD'S DECREES is fast closed against the curiosity of man. who can tell what God is? Be the property much or little, we are co-heirs; if there be infinite treasures, Christ hath them, and we have them; but if there be no treasure whatever, and faith should end in disappointment, and hope in despair, the calamity which impoverishes us must also impoverish our great co-heir. The mass of men are all in uncertainty; they do not know what will become of them at last. Then secondly, there is the secret mind of God, the will of his eternal predestination and decree, of which we know nothing; but we do know this, that the Spirit of God never prompts us to ask anything which is contrary to the eternal purpose of God. Have you not, like Noah's ark, mounted towards heaven as the flood deepened around you? If this is his devotion, what must be his impiety? Not only is our sin punished, but the sin is gone. We are chosen out of the world to be a peculiar people, adversaries to all evil, never sheathing our sword till we enter into our rest. He had not time so much as to eat bread, full often, so eager was he to accomplish all his work. He comes within the gates. Their anchor goes within the veil of the waters into the deeps of the sea; ours goes within the veil of glory, into the heights of heaven, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God: "within the veil;". And he goes to Eli, and it is not till afterwards, perhaps, that he finds that Eli had nothing to do with the impression, but that the Lord had called him. this is "to the uttermost;" what we thought, perhaps, to be the very smallest matter in the recital, is just the greatest. When the soldiers of Godfrey of Bouillon came in sight of Jerusalem, it is said they shouted for joy at the sight of the holy city. 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. All men are called by the ministry, by the Word, by daily providence, to love God, there is a common call always given to men to come to Christ, the great bell of the gospel rings a universal welcome to every living soul that breathes; but alas! Some think that the fall was only felt by the affections, and that the intellect was unimpaired; this they argue from the wisdom of man, and the mighty discoveries he has made, such as the law of gravitation, the steam-engine, and the sciences. We may safely entreat the Lord to do what he has ordained to do. 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. When this fails, he never sticks at an accusation because it does not happen to be true. God's Spirit now rules in your life and he has made you free. That is, the entire man, every part of him every power, every passion. God's grace will be sufficient for us; his strength will be made perfect in weakness. You perceive at once, by his deeds, that his nature was godlike. 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. The joint heirship reaches from the gloomy patina of deep affliction up to the bright ineffable splendor of the throne of bliss, nor can any man reverse the record. Did you notice how the text begins? Oh unhappy souls, that cannot call one of these your own! 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? He stands to us in the relationship of a Maker and Creator; and from that fact he claims to be our King. Like a bird uncaged, how will it mount with more than eagles' wings! First, then, let us consider THE HELP WHICH THE HOLY GHOST GIVES. Say, "I count it to be my joy to be permitted to be a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. What a trial to Abraham's faith, when he had to leave all that was so dear to him, and go he knew not whither! By an Old Member of Surrey Chapel. There is the worldling's sense: "Who will show us any good?" Paul's Desire to Depart Philippians 1:23 Now, his fellow workman, who worked beside of him, as it was getting very late, wished himself at home, and therefore groaned. My fellow creature, dost thou not know that God sent his Son from his bosom, hung him on the tree, and there suffered him to die for sinners, the just for the unjust? 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? I might appeal to scores and hundreds here, and I might say, brethren, you with grey heads, rise up and speak. 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. Let but the Church know her rights and claim them, let her cease to assimilate herself to the sons of earth, let her cease from her accursed fornication with the state, and she shall become the pure, chaste bride of Christ. Today, can we not stand at the grave of the dead sinner, and say, "Lazarus, come forth?" Soul, thou art linked with Christ in the Eternal business of the Eternal Father. It becomes our business then to take the Spirit's witness through his Word, and through his works, but I would seek to have immediate, actual, undivided fellowship with the Holy Ghost, who by his divine Spirit, should work in my spirit and convince me that I am a child of God. The affliction was, as it were, in your very bones, but the promise was also in your very heart. If it be settled in our mind by the true witness the spirit within us, and the Spirit of God, that we are God's children, what a NOBLE PRIVILEGE now appears to our view. I do not find them either in the English version or in the Greek original. He puts it thus, they are not able to separate us. Has the Spirit operated in my heart in a manner to which flesh and blood never can attain? Beloved, if you would be saved, you must be persuaded of this truth; and when you are persuaded of it, you will know the joy of it. in that thought "The carnal mind is enmity with God;" there is something which may make us shake; for it is a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. 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. (2) They may have thought him to teach that we should sin in order to get more grace (6:1) and, therefore, may have made his teaching of justification by faith an excuse for immoral conduct. I can see black storms that have lowered o'er my head, and torrents of opposition that have run across my path, but I can thank God for every incident that ever occurred to me from my cradle up to now, and do not desire a better pilot for the rest of my days, than he who has steered me from obscurity and scorn, to this place to preach his word and feed this great congregation. It is Christ that died." Who can condemn when Christ hath died, hath risen from the dead, is enthroned on high, and intercedes? He proclaimed the doctrine of the "one blood," and gloried in the fact of "one family" in Christ. As surely as Jesus is a son, so surely are we, for the same Spirit bears witness to both, as it is written "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." We are to be conformed to Christ Jesus as to character. you shall not be uncrowned. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Paul points us to the cross in two ways. And the Father says, "Yes, my beloved Son, I will love them; Jesus, I will love them for thy sake.". His intercession is not in or for the unregenerate. who is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the blood of atonement, and in the glories of heaven! Do we say that he is love? It cries for something, and it makes very odd and objectionable noises, combined with signs and movements, which are almost meaningless to stranger, but his mother understands him, and attends to his little pleadings. And now, what with strifes between men and masters, which are banishing trade from England, and what with political convulsions, which unhinge everything, the vessel of the state is drifting fast to the shallows. 1-. 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. Who will feed my belly with hid treasures? Let us take these things for granted, and never dispute about them any more, but go on to still higher matters. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," so runs our commission, Isa 40 1. We are not at liberty to give or to refuse. Should thine house of business threaten to tumble about thine ears so long as thou hast acted honourably, still bear thy cross. Ah, it was the groan of death! 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. We morally speak of work, especially on this day, as being the opposite of sacred rest and worship. 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