If he hath poverty, it is better for him, for poverty is his to help him, to be sanctified, and to long for heaven. The sister of that corrupt body stands at the side of the tomb, and she says, "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." If ye be partakers of that glorious hope, if ye be believers in our glorious Redeemer, if ye have put your trust under the shadow of his wings, my hand and my heart with it, there is that word "brother" for you. his Allmightiness is ours. Romans 8:2. He has borne the penalty which I ought to have borne, and I am clear. Do not expect to get thanked at last for doing much, for after all you have done, you will only have done what is your duty. If it is a call that will suit the remarks which I am about to give you in the second part of the discourse, even though you may have thought that God's hand is not in it, rest assured that it is, for nature could never produce effectual calling. And indeed this is proved by the very chapter out of which we have taken our text. Should another say, "I was baptized an adult," let your confidence remain the same: "Christ has died." He begins thus "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." You know the contrast in the speech between different persons concerning this doctrine. 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. My mind wanders: I chatter like a crane; I roar like a beast in pain; I moan in the brokenness of my heart, but oh, my God, I know not what it is my inmost spirit needs; or if I know it, I know not how to frame my petition aright before thee. Fourthly. It is true we can work no miracles, yet can we do works which mark God's children. One will wickedly say, "If I am a child of God, I may live as I like." We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to himself. The Judge is now on our side; and none of us need fear anybody's condemnation if the Judge does not condemn us. Not only be quiet, but be glad. He draws near to teach us how to pray, and in this way he helps our infirmity, relieves our suffering, and enables us to bear the heavy burden without fainting under the load. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: Keep it up; be as earnest to-day as you were twenty years ago, when you were baptized and joined the church: "Show the same diligence unto the end." If the Holy Ghost prompts it, the Father must and will accept it, for it is not possible that he should put a slight upon the ever blessed and adorable Spirit. You are as bad as any one of us. If we are at enmity with God, what merit can we have? Do not say you: can charge the members with sin; you may do so in the inferior courts of earth, but the bill will be ignored in the supreme court of heaven, since before that bar the accepted substitute appears to answer an demands. Even so we also were born of the Spirit without human observation; men of this world saw no glory whatsoever in our regeneration, for it was not performed by mystic rites, or with sacerdotal pomp. I. for that ours will be. for thy Master's honor, and for thine own comfort, retain that consolation. I do see ground for hope when Christ is bound, for he is bound for me; I do see reason for rejoicing when he dies, for he dies for me, and in my room and stead; I do see a theme for solid satisfaction in his burial, for he is buried for me; but when he comes out of the grave, having swallowed up death in victory, my hope bursts into joyous song. "Brethren, we are debtors;" what I have is not my own, but God's; and if it be God's, then it belongs to God's poor. Cannot we say this morning with thankful hearts, "By the grace of God I am what I am?" II. Ay, and when Christ would have pulled you away, you held hard on to your sin! Christ will not belie himself. It is not optional with him, it is an inevitable law of the universe. Remember that this is grace, and parentage, look back to the hole of the pit whence thou art digged, and the miry clay whence thou wast drawn. shall a son of God be less true than a Roman or a heathen? In that light he makes the promise shine in all its truthfulness, certainty, sweetness, and suitability, so that we, poor trembling sons of men, dare take that word into our mouth which first came out of God's mouth, and then come with it as an argument, and plead it before the throne of the heavenly grace. In these words I see first, a challenge to all comers: "Who is he that condemneth?" If, at your leisure, you read through the fifth chapter of this epistle to the Romans, you will there very readily discover that the apostle proves, that if Christ's death be an argument for our salvation, his life is a still greater one. This was pictured by the high priest of old. "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Ah, what is this? My soul would even now take her seat upon the throne; where my treasure is, there shall my heart be also. You will observe that the apostle has here prefixed the words, "yea rather!" Expect not, O Christian, that all things will work together to make thee rich; it is just possible they may all work to make thee poor. God was so well pleased with his Son, and saw such beauties in him, that he determined to multiply his image. 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. I. In the spiritual body, some are fitted for and called to one sort of work; others for another sort of work. Has not thine heart ever desired, since there is a God, that he were a little less holy, a little less pure, so that those things which are now great crimes might be regarded as venial offences, as peccadillos? There is another point under the first head which I must not omit. First, then, my brethren, a SPECIAL PRIVILEGE mentioned in the text. First, God sent his Son as a sacrificial lamb to absorb the penalty for our sinsto make forgiveness possible. Nay, ye say, we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. Come now, though this be an exceedingly noisome spot, though it be a piece of ground which thou wouldst fain leave out and give to thine enemies, yet there is a possibility of getting great treasure and great riches out of it; therefore do not scorn it. He meets it by the blessed fact that "It is Christ that died." "All things work together for good.". There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Such a hope as this is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast"; and the man who has this anchor on board the barque of his life can never suffer spiritual shipwreck. "We have borne," says the Apostle, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, "the image of the earthy." Again and again let this blow, from the sword of the Spirit, descend upon him, "It is Christ that died," and you will soon be acclaimed the victor over your greatest foe. 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. The arch enemy, the old dragon, was always nibbling at the heel of our great Michael, who has for ever crushed his head. When Jesus came into the world as God's Son, he was not left without attesting proofs. Were you once darkness in regard to Christ; and has marvelous light manifested to you a marvelous Redeemer, marvelously strong to save? ", When you have overcome Satan, the world will come forth to attack you, and to dispute your claim to be numbered amongst the people of God. When Christ pleads, he does not plead with one who is stronger than him or inimical to him, but with his own Father. The enemy is to the right and the left of us. It is he that died for us. She will retain evil, she will lose good. I have said before, there is heaven in it, and though the word sounds like sorrow, there is a depth of joy concealed within. The man who uttered this challenge, "Who is he that condemneth?" Nothing is idle. "All things work." The promises are yea and amen to thee, but only in Christ Jesus, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh at things after the counsel of his own will. I. It is a wonderful story this old, old story, of Jesus and his love to guilty sinners; let me tell it once again. "Thou hast wrought all our works in us." First, he flings down the gauntlet, and challenges a battle, crying, "Who is he that condemneth?" It there be a touch of our finger anywhere upon the vessel, it mars and does not beautify. 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"? Blessed be his name. Is he full of joy and rejoicing? It is a checkered scene, a garment of many colours. I feel that to the knee that dandled me and the breast that gave me sustenance, I owe more than I can ever pay; and to him who taught me, and led me in the paths of truth I owe so much, that I dare not speak of the tremendous weight of obligation due to him. You feel you must have your Father, or else the gifts of his providence are nothing to you. Baptist pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon is remembered today as the Prince of Preachers. By three figures I will endeavour to describe the work of the Spirit of God in this matter, though they all fall short, and indeed all that I can say must fall infinitely short of the glory of his work. A wife waiting for her husband's footsteps; a child waiting in the darkness of the night till its mother comes to give it the evening's kiss, are portraits of our waiting. Now Jesus by his death paid all the debt; to the utmost farthing that was due from us to God Christ did pay by his death. We do not ask for these persecutions, but their might do us great good if they came. The desires which the Spirit prompts may be too spiritual for such babes in grace as we are actually to describe or to express, and yet the Spirit writes the desire on the renewed mind, and the Father sees it. In Romans 11:2 , we read, "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknow," where the sense evidently has the idea of fore-love; and it is so to be understood here. Ah! I have been astonished in looking though old Roman history at the wonderful prodigies of integrity and valour which were produced by idolatry, or rather, which were produced by patriotism, and that principle which ruled the Romans, namely, love of fame. May not this electrify a man of joy, and make him dance for very mirth?