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." ", There is now nobody left that I know of, that can condemn us, except the Judge; and if we have escaped our opponents Satan, the world, conscience, and the law, we need not fear to stand even at God's judgment seat. Would that he were not so severe, so rigorously just, so sternly strict to his integrity." Will you be scoffed at for his sake? Now election shuts up the precious treasury of God's covenant blessings for his children for penitents, for seeking sinners. The work is not yet done, the time of folding of hands has not yet arrived; our swords must not yet see their scabbards, for the foe is not yet slain. I have certain experiences and feelings; turning to the Word, I find similar experiences and feelings recorded; and so I prove that I am right, and the Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am born of God. The saints of God must not expect crowns where Christ found a cross; they must not reckon to ride in triumph through those streets which saw the Savior hurried to a malefactor's death. Look at his gore, as it distils from his body in Gethsemane and on the accursed tree. Forty cubits upwards hath this red sea prevailed. You were saying of such-and-such an ungodly person, "Everything seems to go well with him, but as for me, all the day long am I plagued, and chastened every morning." This truth divides itself thus: it is the will of God that conforms us to Christ's image rather than our own will. Romans 8:26-27 . Thou Church of God, surely it must survive in thee; for to whom should it more belong to die and sacrifice all, than to those who are the sons of God. The raising and elevation of Christ to that throne of dignity and favour, is the elevation, the acceptance, the enshrinement, the glorifying of all his people, for he is their common head, and stands as their representative. We will think of our bodies, for that is a point surrounded with consolation, since he shall change our vile body and make it like unto his glorious body. Yet we are persuaded that he did it, and that the love of God is most clearly to be seen in the faot that he gave his Son Jesus Christ to die instead of us. He that is most endowed with worldly goods, and he who has the fewest; he that is blessed in health, and he who is racked with sickness; we all have in our measure an earnest inward groaning towards the redemption of our body. No priest sat down; he must always stand; for there was always work to be accomplished, always something to be done. I, for my part, take only one objection to it, which is that it is perfectly untrue and utterly unfounded, having not the lightest shadow of a pretence of being proved by the Word of God. Brethren, faith can do wonders. A pan of hot coals is blazing in the tent; Scoevola puts out his right hand and holds it; it crackles in the flame; the young man flinches not, though his fingers drop away. The fleshly mind, the phronema sarkos, the lusts, the passions of the soul; it is this which has gone astray from God, and become enmity against him. We must be joined together, or else the apostle would not talk of separation. Perhaps, also, there was one who had travailed in birth till Christ was formed in us the hope of glory, and how happy was that spirit to see us born unto God; how did our spiritual parent ponder each gracious word which we uttered, and thank God for the good signs of grace which could be found in our conversation. Romans 8:12 . 2. Now, observe, that this conformity to Christ lies in several things. And has not God often made the dead to rise at our word, by the power of his Spirit! God bless you! What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I am predestinated. If we be debtors we never ought to be proud. It is only where God's hand has been that the vessel begins to assume the form of the model. My spiritual distress robs me of the power to pour out my heart before my God. Will you descend to the tricks of trade to win money. Saul's eyes are filled with tears, and then again with scales of darkness, and he cries, "Who art thou?" First, in 8:37 he says that "we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.". Hebrews 6:20 . I might appeal to scores and hundreds here, and I might say, brethren, you with grey heads, rise up and speak. So with the judgement I might prove how ill it decides. He shows us where our deficiencies are, what our sins are, and what our necessities are; he sheds a light upon our condition, and makes us feel deeply our helplessness, sinfulness, and dire poverty; and then he casts the same light upon the promises of the Word, and lays home to the heart that very text which was intended to meet the occasion the precise promise which was framed with foresight of our present distress. and by that was meant, that what'er his people owed was wiped away for ever from the book of remembrance. We have, indeed, in the death of Christ, a great atonement; an atonement so great, that none can measure its height and depth, its length and breadth. Yours, in deep sympathy with all the sick and the bereaved. Now, I speak with bated breath. If you are joint heir and would claim one part of the estate, you must take the rest. Now, this is not my assertion, it is the declaration of God's word, and you must leave it if you do not believe it; but quarrel not with me, it is my Master's message; and it is true of every one of you men, women, and children, and myself too that if we have not been regenerated and converted, if we have not experienced a change of heart, our carnal mind is still at enmity against God. and uttered it under the inspiration of God, did not, however, occupy the position of a sinless man. III. If the call be effectual, and you are brought out and brought in brought out of sin and brought to Christ, brought out of death into life, and out of slavery into liberty, then, though thou canst not see God's hand in it, yet it is there. Amen and amen. What the wealthiest man has is not his own, but God's, and if it be God's then it is Christ's, and if Christ's, then his children's; and Christ's children are often those who are hungry, and thirsty, and destitute, and afflicted, and tormented. "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." Again he speaks, and fixing his eyes full on the Judge himself, he cries, "Who is he that condemneth?" Second, the people being described as having no katakrima are not all who believe in Christ for everlasting life, but a particular type of believer. This is too absurd to need an answer, for if so, horses and cows, rats and mice, snakes and flies are children of God, for they are surely creatures as well as we. There are too many thorns in your nest, to permit you to hope for an abiding city below the skies. The next argument for making us sure that they will speed is this that they are "the mind of the Spirit." "To the very uttermost" he is able to save, seeing he ever lives to intercede the strongest argument of the whole four. This counsellor would suggest the line of pleading, arrange the arguments, and put them into right courtly language. Now, Christian, consider how thou art a debtor to thy God. The adoption is not manifested yet, the children are not yet openly declared. "Who is he that condemneth? Standing at the foot of the cross, and beholding the Redeemer in his expiring agony, the Christian may indeed gather courage. 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. First, then, my brethren, a SPECIAL PRIVILEGE mentioned in the text. So, beloved friends, there is nothing in death to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The idle man that folds his arms or lies upon the bed of sloth is an exception to God's rule; for except himself all things work. You read your Bible in early youth, and you went astray with a vengeance; for when you sinned, you knew that you were sinning, and yet you transgressed." And would you blush to sit side- by-side with him, and be made nothing of as he was? Even up in heaven they have not their full reward. How will your broken leg work for your good?" Perhaps after those great fires of which Peter speaks when he says, "The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat," earth will be renewed in more than pristine loveliness. I want nothing more. I have thought it over, I have fully considered it, I have-thoroughly weighed it, and I have come to this persuasion, that the love of God is shed abroad in my heart.". His wife clings to his shoulder, his children seek to persuade him; they attend him to the waters' edge; he sails for Carthage; his death was too horrible to be described. The deeper things shall be left with God. Happy shall you and I be if, though covered with sin, though guilty and unclean, we nevertheless shall have faith to believe in the Christ that dies, a faith so strong, and confident that we shall dare to stand both now, and at the judgment-seat of Christ, and say, "Who is he that condemneth?" Thou didst for awhile leave the Firstborn when he was made a curse for us, so that he cried in agony, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Perhaps our fullest thought upon the text is this. Surely the apostle was right when he said, "Yea rather, who hath risen from the dead." Fourthly. I have died in Christ, and my life now is that of a child of God, for I have been lifted to that high estate by my redeeming Lord. 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. This is called "the first-fruits of the Spirit," by which I understand the first works of the Spirit in our souls. But my counsel would say, "Now just be quiet, my dear sir, you perhaps may plead more earnestly than I can, because it is for your own life, but then you do not understand the law, you will make some blunder or other, and commit yourself and spoil your own cause." The apostle tells us that not only is there a groan from creation, but this is shared in by God's people. Our little debts we can pay. On this I shall speak very briefly. Is Christ a priest? who is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the blood of atonement, and in the glories of heaven! What can you be at? In this discourse I am only going to handle the topic of Paul's persuasion. He might say, as Jesus did to the Jews, "For which of these works do ye stone me?" And you and I must be conformed to Christ in this respect. Note, also, that Paul in this chapter has been treating of the sufferings of this present time; and though by faith he speaks of them as very inconsiderable compared with the glory to be revealed, yet we know that they were not inconsiderable in his case. "Yet," says Paul, "I am persuaded that life cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." but thou wilt not leave one of the "many brethren" for whom he died: the Spirit shall be with them, and when they cannot so much as groan he will make intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered. The first witness is our spirit; the second witness is The Spirit, the eternal Spirit of God, who beareth witness with our spirit. I pray you take the possession now. He had not seen many of those whom he addressed; yet they were known to him, in the Spirit, as partakers of one glorious and blessed hope, and, therefore, he called them "brethren." There is in the death of Christ enough and more than enough. 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." I have once more preached the gospel to you as plainly and as simply as I can. I do not know a more beautiful sight to be seen on earth than a man who has served his Lord many years, and who, having grown grey in service, feels that, in the order of nature, he must soon be called home. Oh! 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. They think that if they cry, "Lord, have mercy upon me," when they lay a-dying, they shall go to heaven directly. There he would stand, silent, motionless; till Christ would say, with a voice louder than ten thousand thunders, "What dost thou here? 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. Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, April 11th, 1880, by. Very well, be it so; but then it is Christ's interest that is at stake as well as mine; he will be co-respondent in the suit. He argued that, if the death of Christ reconciled God's enemies to himself, the life of Christ will certainly preserve safely those who are the friends of God; that was good argument, was it not? Thus, that doubt is answered by the same all-powerful argument: "It is Christ that died.". But what is the conflagration of a distant planet, what is the destruction of the mere material of the most ponderous orb, compared with this fall of humanity, this wreck of all that is holy and sacred in ourselves? He never repents of what he gives, nor of what he calls. "We know that all things work." He has come on purpose to put away our sin, and when he died, he made an end of it. Ah! We are to be conformed to the image of his Son, fifthly, as to our inheritance for he is heir of all things, and what less are we heirs of, since all things are ours? Consider this, believer. Certainly, this wondrous ship of Christ's Church, when she ploughs her way through waves of blood, makes swifter headway to the heavenly haven than she does in times of calm. Is not this Bible opened and read by us all, the gift of their self-denying faithfulness? 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. There is another test. 1. And yet it is within reach of every truly penitent sinner. O come, thou condemned one, self-condemned, and turn thine eye this way, for one look will save. were to be understood in its broadest and most unlimited sense. Hezekiah said, "like a crane or a swallow did I chatter." We ask, but we are afraid that we shall not have, because we do not exercise the thought, or the faith, which we judge to be essential to prayer. Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 6th, 1859, by the, "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called." There is nothing that pains me so much as sin; I desire to be quit and rid of it; Lord help me to be holy"? Will not such presumption as this be avenged? I pray you consider yourself as being in Christ. 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.'" Many men cavil at election; the very word with some is a great bug ear; they no sooner hear it than they turn upon their heel indignantly. REV. What would you give, some of you, if you could have such a hope as this? I say, "No; I have brought a bill; look at it." It there be a touch of our finger anywhere upon the vessel, it mars and does not beautify. It behoveth each of us, then, to comfort and establish our hearts upon this word "work." III. I go to one brother, and I say, "Brother, there is such-and-such an office in the Sabbath-school; will you take it?" This is an instructive emblem of a great fact. But if thou scorn it, remember, thou scornest the rest of the inheritance, for they are all one and indivisible in your Father's will. 1. Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were not true? They are gone, and gone for ever! If any take up the gage of battle, and say, "We condemn you," we shall have this for our complete answer to every one, "It is Christ that died." The Lord reigneth, or we might lament right bitterly. The old divines, the Puritans, the Reformers, are now in these last days, to be superseded by men whose teaching flatly contradicts all that we have received of our forefathers. I fear that some of you, seeing ye have never come and put your trust in Christ, will have to say, when your time comes to die, what Wolsey is said to have declared, with only one word of alteration: Had I but served my God with half the zeal. Children for penitents, for seeking sinners how thou art a debtor to God! 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romans 8 commentary spurgeon