Brethren, I pray you, if your thoughts now can bring themselves to the matter, gather up all the honors, glories, treasures, riches, that your thought have ever conceived as belonging to Christ, and while the hymn is ringing in your ear "Crown him, crown him, crown him, Lord of all;" remember that you are co-heirs with him. When the poor man was baffled by a question asked in court, he would run home and ask his adviser, and he would tell him exactly how to meet the objector. Our text speaks not only of what we ought to be, but of what we shall be, for we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son. I do not know that it is for my good that my children should be about me, like olive branches round my table, but I know that it is for my good that I should flourish in the courts of my God, and that I should be the means of winning souls from going down into the pit. 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. Say not, "Lutheranism and Popery are mighty." And he just paraphrased it in his own dialect like this "My arm is always strong, and my sickle always sharp, when there is no harvest, and I think I could mow many an acre when there is no grass; but when the harvest is on I am weak, and when the grass groweth then my scythe is blunt." The great white throne is set, the books are opened, men are trembling, fiends are yelling, sinners are shrieking "Rocks hide us, mountains on us fall;" these make up an awful chorus of dismay. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul, and they were moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who telleth man how to speak aright. We are already made "new creatures in Christ Jesus," by the effectual working of the mighty lower of God the Holy Ghost. how can the imagination revel, when the body is in an ill condition? Have I been born again from above? The world will, before long, understand what you mean by saying that Christ has made atonement for your sin; and, perhaps, here and there, a few of those who ridiculed you will be inclined to know more about this matter, and in private may come and ask you how the death of Christ has saved your soul. The Eternal Son desired association with beings who should be sons as he was, towards whom he could stand in a close relationship as being like to them in nature and Sonship, and the Father therefore ordained that a seed whom he has chosen should be conformed to the image of the Son, that his Son might head up and be chief among an order of beings more nearly akin to God than any other. The tail feathers of pride should be pulled out of our prayers, for they need only the wing feathers of faith; the peacock feathers of poetical expression are out of place before the throne of God. Who will feed my belly with hid treasures? The portals of heaven stand wide open for thee. There is never a clash in the world: men think so, but it never is so. But let me say again to thee, hast thou ever felt that the Holy Ghost has borne witness with thy spirit in his word, and in his work, in thee; and in that secret whisper has he ever said to thee, "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." You may judge of a man by what he groans after. Blessed is the man to whom this reasoning is not abstract, but experimental. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, and then it is that we groan, or utter some other inarticulate sound. I do not much wonder that thou shouldst despise spiritual good, for thou art yet "in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity;" a stranger to spiritual things, and let thy despising of spiritual things teach thee that thou art not spiritual, and therefore thou canst not understand the spiritual, because it must be spiritually discerned. Let the truths of Christianity work out their perfect work: and pride, bitterness, wrath, envy, and malice, must see their graves. "What an intellectual treat his prayer was! Beside that, I suppose that the apostle was persuaded through reasoning with himself from other grand truths. If I promulgated the doctrine on my own authority, I could not blame you if you should turn against me, and reject it; but when, on the authority of Holy Scripture, I propound it, God forbid that any man should quarrel therewith. I have had many troubles that thou reckest not of, I have buried all my kindred, and I am like the last oak of the forest, all my friends have been felled by death long ago. We groan within ourselves. no; but the whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salvation is not by the works of the law, but by the deeds of grace. I never knew a man yet, who had a reason to believe that he himself was chosen of God, who hated the doctrine of election. As the wave-sheaf was the first of the harvest, so the spiritual life which we have, and all the graces which adorn that life, are the first gifts, the first operations of the Spirit of God in our souls. Now, there are many things in which the worldly and the godly do agree, but on this point there IS a vital difference. I never felt anything like it before. In this way "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 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. They are ever working too, in opposition to the word play. We are deficient in those things for which we groan and wait. You groaned for it, not with the unhappy groan that marks one who is to perish, but with the groan of one who, having tasted of the sweets of home, is not content until again he shall be indulged with the fulness of them. I have been able again to revise a sermon without assistance. Oh! Enlarge thine expectations seek great things from the God of heaven and he will give them to thee; but by no means fold thine arms in sloth, and sit down upon the bed of carnal security. Can I bear his reproach; can I carry his cross; do I tread in his steps; do I serve his cause, and is it my grandest hope that I shall see his kingdom come, that I shall sit upon his throne, and reign with him? "Ah!" Some men are the cisterns that hold God's rain; but other men are those who pray the rain from heaven, like very Elijahs, and many of these are to be found in the lower ranks of society. When you sinned, you were not like the common people of the street, who know no better. Romans 8:16-17 . 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. First comes Satan; then the world; then conscience; and last of all the law of God. When the work of grace begins in the heart, the man is not always clear that it is God's work; he is impressed under the minister, and perhaps he is rather more occupied with the impression than with the agent of the impression; he says, "I know not how it is, but I have been called; Eli, the minister, has called me." : I took pleasure in sin; but, "he, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame." This is the part of the subject from which our craven spirit often shrinks, but if we were wise it would not be so. "Ah!" Let me feel the worm that never dies rather than the stings of an offended conscience, if indeed this is not itself, "the worm that dieth not." 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. Paul's Desire to Depart Philippians 1:23 Life in the Spirit contrasted with life in the flesh. But it is added, "We groan within ourselves." Ay, and when Christ would have pulled you away, you held hard on to your sin! Whosoever loveth God, without doubt, is a Christian; and whosoever loveth him not, however high may be his pretensions, however boastful his professions, hath not seen God, neither known him for "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Let us begin with the word "work." We are married to him, and we shall never be divorced. Do I love God? Be not drugged with the laudanum of self-security! The same legacy that left peace with you, also left tribulation with you, while you are in this world. But since we have become enemies, how much less can we hope to be saved by works! He says in the tenth verse of that chapter, "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more" that's the word I wanted "much more we shall be saved by his life." Oh! It was the father bruising the firstborn son; and, if you and I, brethren, are to be conformed to the image of the firstborn, though we may expect from God much fatherly love, we may also reckon that it will show itself in parental discipline. She liked "high Calvary" preaching, and so do I; and it is "high Calvary" doctrine that I find in this passage. My soul hath made me like the chariots of Aminadib, and I have gotten me away to the hills of myrrh and the mountains of frankincense. It resets the dislocated bones of society, rivets the bonds of friendship, and welds the broken metal of manhood into one united mass. I do not wish for anything more than I have here, I am perfectly satisfied, so far as this goes, but I long to look upon my household, and to be once more in my own sweet home, and until I reach it, I shall not cease to groan." Is he exalted? Saved by your works! It is a checkered scene, a garment of many colours. There you see, that man does not know that he is a debtor. Is not that "coming out" necessary to sonship, and were they his sons, were they his daughters, had they any claim or right to call him Father, until they came out from the midst of a wicked world, and were separate? If you follow after Christ, and find eternal life, when they hear of it, they will sneer at you, and bring up all your past life against you. Jesus when he was on earth, had a baptism to be baptised with, and how was he straitened until it was accomplished! May the sweet Spirit lead you to Jesus, cause you to look to him upon the cross, and trust in him; then you will have something worth hearing, for you will have a love that changeth never, a love that shall never be separated from you nor you from it. Added to this you must also be the heir of persecution. In English history, the days of Mary, when the saints at Smithfield bore witness for Christ at the stake, were grand days; and in Madagascar, did you ever read a more thrilling story than the record of the bravery of those Christian men and women who suffered the tyrant's cruelty? There are different senses to the word "good." heroism, where is it fled whither has it gone. It needs no proof, for since it is written in God's word, we, as Christian men, are bound to bow before it. Intended for Reading on Lord's-Day, November 22, 1896. Get thee gone? It was most natural, therefore, that a deep spiritual experience should bring him to a clear perception of the doctrines of grace, for such an experience is a school in which alone those great truths are effectually learned. If Christ owed anything to the justice of God by reason of his suretyship engagements, he would not be at God's right hand: but he owes nothing whatever. We heard of abundant harvests, but we soon discovered that they were all a dream, and that there would be scant in the worker's cottage. But Christ determined that he would call the man. Merchant; though you have been sore pressed this week, and it is highly probable that next week will be worse still for you, believe that all things even then are working for your good. It also delivers us from every fear and doubt. Stay, stay, brother; I have known you do so already, for when all that is Christ's belongs to you, do ye forget that Christ once had a cross, and that belongs to you? There is not a silent nook within the deepest forest glade where work is not going on. Through many troubles you have passed, but you can say, they have all been for your good. We have hope, which sparkles, a hope most sure and steadfast. God's Spirit now rules in your life and he has made you free. "Ask of me," saith he, and he gives him unlimited permission to ask, not as Herod who would give only the half of his kingdom, but as one who would give everything to his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom he make the worlds. Romans 8:35 Sermons: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? To us, indeed, the things are scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other. The liberating message of Romans 8 is that God never intended man to live the Christian life by his own efforts and in his own strength. 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. Is not this Bible opened and read by us all, the gift of their self-denying faithfulness? "Ah!" So it is not by imitation, but it is by nature, that the child is evil. How can I pray? We shall behold his glory, we shall be with him where he is, and we shall be ourselves glorious in his glory. It is true that you are a believer, but you have sinned often, for years, in all sorts of way." Ye are young brides, and the marriage day is not come, and by the love your spouse bears you, you are led to long and to sigh for the marriage day. I am not certain that it is altogether for my good to have kind and generous friends, with whom I may hold fellowship; but I know that it is for my good that I should hold fellowship with Christ, that I should have communion with him, even though it should be in his sufferings. Nay, he himself is ours. II. Nor is this all, for the spirit of God is not sent merely to guide and help our devotion, but he himself "maketh intercession for us" according to the will of God. 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