Romans 8:30
“Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
THE GREAT BOOK OF GOD'S DECREES is fast closed against the curiosity of man.
Vain man would be wise; he would break the seven seals thereof, and read the
mysteries of eternity. But this cannot be; the time has not yet come when the
book shall be opened, and even then the seals shall not be broken by mortal
hand, but it shall be said, "The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to
open the book and break the seven seals thereof."
Eternal Father, who shall look
Into thy secret will?
None but the Lamb shall take the book,
And open every seal.
None but he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the
assembled world. How then am I to know whether I am predestinated
by God unto eternal life or not? It is a question in which my eternal
interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be
left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I
belong to that goodly company, who albeit that they have sinned shall
nevertheless be washed in the blood of Christ, and shall in white robes
walk the golden streets of paradise? Until this question be answered
my heart cannot rest, for I am intensely anxious about it. My eternal
destiny infinitely more concerns me than all the affairs of time. Tell me,
oh, tell me, if ye know, seers and prophets, is my name recorded in that
book of life? Am I one of those who are ordained unto eternal life, or
am I to be left to follow my own lusts and passions, and to destroy my
own soul? Oh! man, there is an answer to thy inquiry; the book cannot
be opened, but God himself hath published many a page thereof. He
hath not published the page whereon the actual names of the redeemed
are written; but that page of the sacred decree whereon their character
is recorded is published in his Word, and shall be proclaimed to thee
this day. The sacred record of God's hand is this day published
everywhere under heaven, and he that hath an ear let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto him. O my hearer, by thy name I know thee not, and
by thy name God's Word doth not declare thee, but by thy character
thou mayest read thy name; and if thou hast been a partaker of the
calling which is mentioned in the text, then mayest thou conclude
beyond a doubt that thou art among the predestinated--"For whom he
did predestinate, them he also called." And if thou be called, it follows
as a natural inference thou art predestinated.
Now, in considering this solemn subject, let me remark that there are
two kinds of callings mentioned in the Word of God. The first is the
general call, which is in the gospel sincerely given to everyone that
heareth the word. The duty of the minister is to call souls to Christ, he
is to make no distinction whatever--"Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature." The trumpet of the gospel sounds
aloud to every man in our congregations--"Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and
eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
"Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man" (Prov.
8:4). This call is sincere on God's part; but man by nature is so opposed
to God, that this call is never effectual, for man disregards it, turns his
back upon it, and goes his way, caring for none of these things. But
mark, although this call be rejected, man is without excuse in the
rejection; the universal call has in it such authority, that the man who
will not obey it shall be without excuse in the day of judgment. When
thou art commanded to believe and repent, when thou art exhorted to
flee from the wrath to come, the sin lies on thy own head if thou dost
despise the exhortation, and reject the commandment. And this solemn
text drops an awful warning: "How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so
great salvation." But I repeat it, this universal call is rejected by man; it
is a call, but it is not a attended with divine force and energy of the
Holy Spirit in such a degree as to make it an unconquerable call,
consequently men perish, even though they have the universal call of
the gospel ringing in their ears. The bell of God's house rings every
day, sinners hear it, but they put their fingers in their ears, and go their
way, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise, and though they
are bidden and are called to the wedding (Luke 14:16,17,18), yet they
will not come, and by not coming they incur God's wrath, and he
declareth of such,--"None of those men which were bidden shall taste
of my supper" (Luke 14:24). The call of our text is of a different kind;
it is not a universal call, it is a special, particular, personal,
discriminating, efficacious, unconquerable, call. This call is sent to the
predestinated, and to them only; they by grace hear the call, obey it,
and receive it. These are they who can now say, "Draw us, and we will
run after thee."
In preaching of this call this morning, I shall divide my sermon into
three brief parts.--First, I shall give illustrations of the call; second, we
shall come to examine whether we have been called; and then third,
what delightful consequences flow therefrom. Illustration, examination,
consolation.
I. First, then, for ILLUSTRATION. In illustrating the effectual call of
grace, which is given to the predestinated ones, I must first use the
picture of Lazarus. See you that stone rolled at the mouth of the
sepulchre? Much need is there for the stone that it should be well
secured, for within the sepulchre there is a putrid corpse. 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." This is the
voice of reason and of nature. Martha is correct; but by Martha's side
there stands a man who, despite all his lowliness, is very God of very
God. "Roll ye away the stone," saith he, and it is done; and now, listen
to him; he cries, "Lazarus, come forth!" that cry is directed to a mass of
putridity, to a body that has been dead four days, and in which the
worms have already held carnival; but, strange to say, from that tomb
there comes a living man; that mass of corruption has been quickened
into life, and out he comes, wrapped about with graveclothes, and
having a napkin about his head. "Loose him and let him go," saith the
Redeemer; and then he walks in all the liberty of life. The effectual call
of grace is precisely similar; the sinner is dead in sin; he is not only in
sin but dead in sin, without any power whatever to give to himself the
life of grace. Nay, he is not only dead, but he is corrupt; his lusts, like
the worms, have crept into him, a foul stench riseth up into the nostrils
of justice, God abhorreth him, and justice crieth, "Bury the dead out of
my sight, cast it into the fire, let it be consumed." Sovereign Mercy
comes, and there lies this unconscious, lifeless mass of sin; Sovereign
Grace cries, either by the minister, or else directly without any agency,
by the Spirit of God, "come forth!" and that man lives. Does he
contribute anything to his new life? Not he; his life is given solely by
God. He was dead, absolutely dead, rotten in his sin; the life is given
when the call comes, and, in obedience to the call, the sinner comes
forth from the grave of his lust, begins to live a new life, even the life
eternal, which Christ gives to his sheep.
"Well," cries one, "but what are the words which Christ uses when he
calls a sinner from death?" Why the Lord may use any words. It was
not long ago there came unto this hall, a man who was without God
and without Christ, and the simple reading of the hymn--
"Jesus lover of my soul,"
was the means of his quickening. He said within himself, "Does Jesus
love me? then I must love him," and he was quickened in that selfsame
hour. The words which Jesus uses are various in different cases. I trust
that even while I am speaking this morning, Christ may speak with me,
and some word that may fall from my lips, unpremeditated and almost
without design, shall be sent of God as a message of life unto some
dead and corrupt heart here, and some man who has lived in sin
hitherto, shall now live to righteousness, and live to Christ. That is the
first illustration I will give you of what is meant by effectual calling. It
finds the sinner dead, it gives him life, and he obeys the call of life and
lives.
But let us consider a second phase of it. You will remember while the
sinner is dead in sin, he is alive enough so far as any opposition to God
may be concerned. He is powerless to obey, but he is mighty enough to
resist the call of divine grace. I may illustrate it in the case of Saul of
Tarsus: this proud Pharisee abhors the Lord Jesus Christ; he has seized
upon every follower of Jesus who comes within his grasp; he has haled
men and women to prison; with the avidity of a miser who hunts after
gold, he has hunted after the precious life of Christ's disciple, and
having exhausted his prey in Jerusalem, he seeks letters and goes off to
Damascus upon the same bloody errand. Speak to him on the road,
send out the apostle Peter to him, let Peter say, "Saul, why dost thou
oppose Christ? The time shall come when thou shalt yet be his
disciple." Paul would turn round and laugh him to scorn--"Get thee
gone thou fisherman, get thee gone--I a disciple of that imposter Jesus
of Nazareth! Look here, this is my confession of faith; here will I hale
thy brothers and thy sisters to prison, and beat them in the synagogue
and compel them to blaspheme and even hunt them to death, for my
breath is threatening, and my heart is as fire against Christ." Such a
scene did not occur, but had there been any remonstrance given by men
you may easily conceive that such would have been Saul's answer. But
Christ determined that he would call the man. Oh, what an enterprise!
Stop HIM? Why he is going fast onward in his mad career. 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." Saul's eyes are filled with tears, and then
again with scales of darkness, and he cries, "Who art thou?" and a
voice calls, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." It is not many
minutes before he begins to feel his sin in having persecuted Jesus, nor
many hours ere he receives the assurance of his pardon, and not many
days ere he who persecuted Christ stands up to preach with vehemence
and eloquence unparalleled, the very cause which he once trod beneath
his feet. See what effectual calling can do. If God should choose this
morning to call the hardest-hearted wretch within hearing of the gospel,
he must obey. Let God call--a man may resist, but he cannot resist
effectually. Down thou shalt come, sinner, if God cries down; there is
no standing when he would have thee fall. And mark, every man that is
saved, is always saved by an overcoming call which he cannot
withstand; he may resist it for a time, but he cannot resist so as to
overcome it, he must give way, he must yield when God speaks. If he
says, "Let there be light," the impenetrable darkness gives way to light;
if he says, "Let there be grace," unutterable sin gives way, and the
hardest-hearted sinner melts before the fire of effectual calling.
I have thus illustrated the call in two ways, by the state of the sinner in
his sin, and by the omnipotence which overwhelms the resistance
which he offers. And now another case. The effectual call may be
illustrated in its sovereignty by the case of Zaccheus. Christ is entering
into Jericho to preach. There is a publican living in it, who is a hard,
griping, grasping, miserly extortioner. Jesus Christ is coming in to call
some one, for it is written he must abide in some man's house. Would
you believe it, that the man whom Christ intends to call is the worst
man in Jericho--the extortioner? He is a little short fellow, and he
cannot see Christ, though he has a great curiosity to look at him; so he
runs before the crowd and climbs up a sycamore tree, and thinking
himself quite safe amid the thick foliage, he waits with eager
expectation to see this wonderful man who had turned the world upside
down. Little did he think that he was to turn him also. The Saviour
walks along preaching and talking with the people until he comes under
the sycamore tree, then lifting up his eyes, he cries--"Zaccheus, make
haste and come down, for today I must abide in thy house." The shot
took effect, the bird fell, down came Zaccheus, invited the Saviour to
his house, and proved that he was really called not by the voice merely
but by grace itself, for he said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I
give unto the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false
accusation, I restore unto him fourfold;" and Jesus said, "This day is
salvation come unto thy house." Now why call Zaccheus? There were
many better men in the city than he. Why call him? Simply because the
call of God comes to unworthy sinners. There is nothing in man that
can deserve this call; nothing in the best of men that can invite it; but
God quickeneth whom he will, and when he sends that call, though it
come to the vilest of the vile, down they come speedily and swiftly;
they come down from the tree of their sin, and fall prostrate in
penitence at the feet of Jesus Christ.
But now to illustrate this call in its effects, we remind you that
Abraham is another remarkable instance of effectual calling. "Now the
Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy
kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee,"
and "by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into place which
he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not
knowing whither he went." Ah! poor Abraham, as the world would
have had it, what a trial his call cost him! He was happy enough in the
bosom of his father's household, but idolatry crept into it, and when
God called Abraham, he called him alone and blessed him out of Ur of
the Chaldees, and said to him, "Go forth, Abraham!" and he went forth,
not knowing whither he went. Now, when effectual calling comes into
a house and singles out a man, that man will be compelled to go forth
without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. He must come out from
his very dearest friends, from all his old acquaintances, from those
friends with whom he used to drink, and swear, and take pleasure; he
must go straight away from them all, to follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth. 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! And yet God had a
goodly land for him, and intended greatly to bless him. Man! if thou art
called, if thou art called truly, there will be a going out, and a going out
alone. Perhaps some of God's professed people will leave you; you will
have to go without a solitary friend,--maybe you will even be deserted
by Sarah herself, and you may be a stranger in a strange land, a solitary
wanderer, as all your fathers were. Ah! but if it be an effectual call, and
if salvation shall be the result thereof, what matters it though thou dost
go to heaven alone? Better to be a solitary pilgrim to bliss, than one of
the thousands who throng the road to hell.
I will have one more illustration. When effectual calling comes to a
man, at first he may not know that it is effectual calling. You remember
the case of Samuel; the Lord called Samuel, and he arose and went to
Eli, and he said, "Here am I, for thou calledst me." Eli said, "I called
not, lie down again. And he went and lay down." The second time the
Lord called him, and said, "Samuel, Samuel," and he arose again, and
went to Eli, and said, "Here am I, for thou didst call me," and then it
was that Eli, not Samuel, first of all perceived that the Lord had called
the child. And when Samuel knew it was the Lord, he said, "Speak; for
thy servant heareth." 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." And perhaps he
goes to Eli to ask what he wants with him. "Surely," said he, "the
minister knew me, and spoke something personally to me, because he
knew my case." 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. I know this--I believe God was at
work with my heart for years before I knew anything about him. I knew
there was a work; I knew I prayed, and cried, and groaned for mercy,
but I did not know that was the Lord's work; I half thought it was my
own. I did not know till afterwards, when I was led to know Christ as
all my salvation, and all my desire, that the Lord had called the child,
for this could not have been the result of nature, it must have been the
effect of grace. 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. If it
is a call that will suit the remarks which I 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. 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.
II. I have thus illustrated effectual calling. And now as a matter of
EXAMINATION let each man judge himself by certain characteristics
of heavenly calling which I am about to mention. If in your Bible you
turn to 2 Timothy 1:9, you will read these words--"Who hath saved us,
and called us with an holy calling." Now here is the first touchstone by
which we may try our calling--many are called but few are chosen,
because there are many kinds of call, but the true call, and that only,
answers to the description of the text. It is "an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." This
calling forbids all trust in our own doings and conducts us to Christ
alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges us from dead works to
serve the living and true God. If you are living in sin, you are not
called; if you can still continue as you were before your pretended
conversion, then it is no conversion at all; that man who is called in his
drunkenness, will forsake his drunkenness; men may be called in the
midst of sin, but they will not continue in it any longer. Saul was
anointed to be king when he was seeking his father's asses; and many a
man has been called when he has been seeking his own lust, but he will
leave the asses, and leave the lust, when once he is called. Now, by
this shall ye know whether ye be called of God or not. If ye continue in
sin, if ye walk according to the course of this world, according to the
spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, then are ye still
dead in your trespasses and your sins; but as he that hath called you is
holy, so must ye be holy. Can ye say, "Lord, thou knowest all things,
thou knowest that I desire to keep all thy commandments, and to walk
blamelessly in thy sight. I know that my obedience cannot save me, but
I long to obey. 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"? Is that the panting of
thy heart? Is that the tenor of thy life towards God, and towards his
law? Then, beloved, I have reason to hope that thou hast been called of
God, for it is a holy calling wherewith God doth call his people.
Another text. In Philippians 3:13 and 14 you find these words.
"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high calling,
has it lifted up your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Has it lifted
up your hopes, to hope no longer for things that are on earth, but for
things that are above? Has it lifted up your tastes, so that they are no
longer grovelling, but you choose the things that are of God? 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? Recollect, if you are truly called it is a high
calling, a calling from on high, and a calling that lifts up your heart, and
raises it to the high things of God, eternity, heaven, and holiness. In
Hebrews 3:1, you find this sentence. "Holy brethren partakers of the
heavenly calling." Here is another test. Heavenly calling means a call
from heaven. Have you been called, not of man but of God? Can you
now detect in your calling, the hand of God, and the voice of God? If
man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? and is it a
call to heaven as well as from heaven? Can you heartily say that you
can never rest satisfied till you
--"behold his face
And never, never sin,
But from the rivers of his grace,
Drink endless pleasures in."
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.
There is another test. Let me remind you, that there is a passage in
scripture which may tend very much to your edification, and help you
in your examination. Those who are called, are men who before the
calling, groaned in sin. What says Christ?--"I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance." Now, if I cannot say the first
things because of diffidence, though they be true, yet can I say this,
that I feel myself to be a sinner, that I loathe my sinnership, that I
detest my iniquity, that I feel I deserve the wrath of God on account of
my transgressions? If so, then I have a hope that I may be among the
called host whom God has predestinated. He has called not the
righteous but sinners to repentance. Self-righteous man, I can tell thee
in the tick of a clock, whether thou hast any evidence of election. I tell
thee--No; Christ never called the righteous; and if he has not called
thee, and if he never does call thee, thou art not elect, and thou and thy
self-righteousness must be subject to the wrath of God, and cast away
eternally. Only the sinner, the awakened sinner, can be at all assured
that he has been called; and even he, as he gets older in grace, must
look for those higher marks of the high heavenly and holy calling in
Christ Jesus.
As a further test,--keeping close to scripture this morning, for when we
are dealing with our own state before God there is nothing like giving
the very words of scripture,--we are told in the first epistle of Peter, the
second chapter, and the ninth verse, that God hath called us out of
darkness into marvelous light. Is that your call? Were you once
darkness in regard to Christ; and has marvelous light manifested to you
a marvelous Redeemer, marvelously strong to save? Say soul, canst
thou honestly declare that they past life was darkness and that thy
present state is light in the Lord? "For ye were sometime darkness, but
now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of the light." That man is
not called who cannot look back upon darkness, ignorance, and sin,
and who cannot now say, that he knows more than he did know, and
enjoys at times the light of knowledge, and the comfortable light of
God's countenance.
Yet again. Another test of calling is to be found in Galatians, the fifth
chapter, and the fifteenth verse. "Brethren, ye have been called into
liberty." Let me ask myself again this question, Have the fetters of my
sin been broken off, and am I God's free man? Have the manacles of
justice been snapped, and am I delivered--set free by him who is the
great ransomer of spirits? The slave is not called. It is the free man that
has been brought out of Egypt, who proves that he has been called of
God and is precious to the heart of the Most High.
And yet once more, another precious means of test in the first of
Corinthians, the first chapter, and the ninth verse. "He is faithful by
whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord." Do I have fellowship with Christ? do I converse with him,
commune with him? Do I suffer with him, suffer for him? Do I
sympathize with him in his objects and aims? Do I love what he loves;
do I hate what he hates? 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? If so, then am I called with the effectual calling, which
is the work of God's grace, and is the sure sign of my predestination.
Let me say now, before I turn from this point, that it is possible for a
man to know whether God has called him or not, and he may know it
too beyond a doubt. He may know it as surely as if he read it with his
own eyes; nay, he may know it more surely than that, for if I read a
thing with my eyes, even my eyes may deceive me, the testimony of
sense may be false, but the testimony of the Spirit must be true. We
have the witness of the Spirit within, bearing witness with our spirits
that we are born of God. There is such a thing on earth as an infallible
assurance of our election. Let a man once get that, and it will anoint his
head with fresh oil, it will clothe him with the white garment of praise,
and put the song of the angel into his mouth. Happy, happy man! who
is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the blood of
atonement, and in the glories of heaven! Such men there are here this
very day. Let them "rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice."
What would some of you give if you could arrive at this assurance?
Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you may know. If your heart
pants to read its title clear it shall do so ere long. No man ever desired
Christ in his heart with a living and longing desire, who did not find
him sooner or later. If thou hast a desire, God has given it thee. If thou
pantest, and criest, and groanest after Christ, even this is his gift; bless
him for it. Thank him for little grace, and ask him for great grace. He
has given thee hope, ask for faith; and when he gives thee faith, ask for
assurance; and when thou gettest assurance, ask for full assurance; and
when thou hast obtained full assurance, ask for enjoyment; and when
thou hast enjoyment, ask for glory itself; and he shall surely give it thee
in his own appointed season.
III. I now come to finish up with CONSOLATION. Is there anything
here that can console me? Oh, yes, rivers of consolation flow from my
calling. For, first, if I am called then I am predestinated, there is no
doubt about it. The great scheme of salvation is like those chains which
we sometimes see at horse-ferries. There is a chain on this side of the
river fixed into a staple, and the same chain is fixed into a staple at the
other side, but the greater part of the chain is for the most part under
water, and you cannot see it: you only see it as the boat moves on, and
as the chain is drawn out of the water by the force that propels the
boat. If today I am enabled to say I am called, then my boat is like the
ferry-boat in the middle of the stream. I can see that part of the chain,
which is named "calling," but blessed be God, that is joined to the side
that is called "election," and I may be also quite clear that it is joined
on to the other side, the glorious end of "glorification." If I be called I
must have been elected, and I need not doubt that. God never
tantalized a man by calling him by grace effectually, unless he had
written that man's name in the Lamb's book of life. Oh, what a glorious
doctrine is that of election, when a man can see himself to be elect.
One of the reasons why many men kick against it is this, they are afraid
it hurts them. 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. Men
hate election just as thieves hate Chubb's patent locks; because they
cannot get at the treasure themselves, they therefore hate the guard
which protects it. Now election shuts up the precious treasury of God's
covenant blessings for his children--for penitents, for seeking sinners.
These men will not repent, will not believe; they will not go God's way,
and then they grumble and growl, and fret, and fume, because God has
locked the treasure up against them. Let a man once believe that all the
treasure within is his, and then the stouter the bolt, and the surer the
lock, the better for him. Oh, how sweet it is to believe our names were
on Jehovah's heart, and graven on Jesus' hands before the universe had
a being! May not this electrify a man of joy, and make him dance for
very mirth?
Chosen of God ere time began.
Come on, slanderers! rail on as pleases you. Come on thou world in
arms! Cataracts of trouble descend if you will, and you, ye floods of
affliction, roll if so it be ordained, for God has written my name in the
book of life. Firm as this rock I stand, though nature reels and all things
pass away. What consolation then to be called: for if I am called, then I
am predestinated. 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. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord."
A second consolation is drawn from the grand truth, that if a man be
called he will certainly be saved at last. To prove that, however, I will
refer you to the express words of scripture: Romans 11:29--"The gifts
and calling of God are without repentance." He never repents of what
he gives, nor of what he calls. And indeed this is proved by the very
chapter out of which we have taken our text. "Whom he did
predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," everyone of
them. Now, believer, thou mayest be very poor, and very sick, and
very much unknown and despised, but sit thee down and review thy
calling this morning, and the consequences that flow from it. As sure as
thou art God's called child today, thy poverty shall soon be at an end,
and thou shalt be rich to all the intents of bliss. Wait awhile; that weary
head shall soon be girt with a crown. Stay awhile; that horny hand of
labor shall soon grasp the palm branch. Wipe away that tear; God shall
soon wipe away thy tears for ever. Take away that sigh--why sigh
when the everlasting song is almost on thy lip? The portals of heaven
stand wide open for thee. A few winged hours must fly; a few more
billows must roll o'er thee, and thou wilt be safely landed on the golden
shore. Do not say, "I shall be lost; I shall be cast away." Impossible.
Whom once he loves he never leaves,
But loves them to the end.
If he hath called thee, nothing can divide thee from his love. The wolf
of famine cannot gnaw the bond; the fire of persecution cannot burn the
link, the hammer of hell cannot break the chain; old time cannot devour
it with rust, nor eternity dissolve it, with all its ages. Oh! believe that
thou art secure; that voice which called thee, shall call thee yet again
from earth to heaven, from death's dark gloom to immortality's
unuttered splendours; Rest assured, the heart that called thee, beats
with infinite love towards thee, a love undying, that many waters
cannot quench, and that floods cannot drown. Sit thee down; rest in
peace; lift up thine eye of hope, and sing thy song with fond
anticipation. Thou shall soon be with the glorified, where thy portion
is; thou art only waiting here to be made meet, for the inheritance, and
that done, the wings of angels shall waft thee far away, to the mount of
peace, and joy, and blessedness, where
Far from a world of grief and sin,
With God eternally shut in,
thou shall rest for ever and ever. Examine yourselves then whether you
have been called.--And may the love of Jesus be with you. Amen.
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