Solus Christus Reformed Baptist Church

how is the gracious help of the Spirit manifested? Thus: seeing the Christian bowed down by oppression and depression, His compassion is called forth, and He strengthens with His might in the inner man. Every Christian is a living witness to the truth of this, though he may not be conscious of the divine process. Why is it, my afflicted brother, my distressed sister, that you have not made shipwreck of your profession long ere this?

It is the eternal and immutable purpose of God, that all who are his in a peculiar manner, all whom he designs to bring unto blessedness in the everlasting enjoyment of himself, shall antecedently thereunto be made holy. This purpose of his God hath declared unto us, that we may take no wrong measures of our estate and condition, nor build hopes or expectations of future glory on sandy foundations that will fail us.

I am to show whether a person who has been a great sinner, has any ground to expect pardon and the comforts of the Holy Ghost. If he continues hardened, and is obstinately determined to live in the gratification of any criminal lust and passion; he has no reason to expect either pardon or the consolations of the Holy Ghost. But under a conviction of sin, if he applies to the Mediator, is willing to receive him, and submit to him in all his characters (which I apprehend is the case with this person), then we may readily answer this question in the affirmative.

The peace of God is not enough to a gracious heart except it may have the God of that peace. A carnal heart could be satisfied if he might but have outward peace, though it is not the pace of God; peace in the state, and his trading, would satisfy him. But mark how a godly heart goes beyond a carnal. All outward peace is not enough; I must have the peace of God. But suppose you have the peace of God. Will that not quiet you? No, I must have the God of peace; as the peace of God so the God of peace. That is, I must enjoy that God who gives me the peace; I must have the Cause as well as the effect.

it is not only said to be "enmity," but it is said to be "enmity against God." It has chosen a great enemy indeed. It is in various places proposed as our enemy, "Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (1Pe 2:11). Fleshly lusts are enemies to the soul (that is, to ourselves). Sometimes indwelling sin is proposed as an enemy to the Spirit that is in us: "The flesh lusteth [that is, fights] against the Spirit" (Gal 5:17). It fights against the Spirit, or the spiritual principle that is in us, to conquer it. It fights against our souls to destroy them. It has special aims and designs against our souls and against the principle of grace that is in us. But its proper formal object is God:

Let a man but make the sign of the cross on his forehead, his breast, or the like,— which he may as easily do as take up or cast away a straw,—and there is no more required to engage Christ unto his assistance at any time. And the virtues which they ascribe hereunto are innumerable. But this also is an idol, a teacher of lies, invented and set up for no other end but to satisfy the carnal minds of men with a presumptuous supposition, in the neglect of the spiritually laborious exercise of faith.

This principle of truth, concerning the necessity of mortification, is retained in the Church of Rome; yea, she pretends highly unto it, above any other Christian society. The mortification of their devotionists is one of the principal arguments which they plead, to draw unwary souls over unto their superstition. Yet, in the height of their pretenses unto it, they have lost all experience of its nature, with the power and efficacy of the grace of Christ therein; and have, therefore, framed an image of it unto themselves. For,— 1. They place the eminency and height of it in a monastical life, and pretended retirement from the world.

Many of you have been sorely wearied with going your way to find peace. Some of you tried ceremonies, and trusted in them, and the priest came to your help; but he mocked your heart's distress. Others of you sought by various systems of thought to come to an anchorage; but, tossed from billow to billow, you found no rest upon the seething sea of speculation. More of you tried by your good works to gain rest to your consciences. You multiplied your prayers, you poured out floods of tears, you hoped, by almsgiving and by the like, that some merit might accrue to you, and that your heart might feel acceptance with God, and so have rest. You toiled and toiled, like the men that were in the vessel with Jonah when they rowed hard to bring their ship to land, but could not, for the sea wrought and was tempestuous.

A secure, senseless state is the certain prediction of approaching ruin. Know this, brethren, please know this, I beg of you, for your and my own soul, that you will be aware of, and affected by, the perils of the season into which we are cast. What they are, if God helps me, and gives me a little strength, I will show you shortly.

CASE 9. Is it presumptuous for a person to hope he has an interest in Christ, when he sees little or nothing in himself except reason to doubt and question it? You concerned souls, remember for your encouragement, that if you really desire, and cannot be satisfied without, the blood of Christ for your pardon, the righteousness of Christ for your justification, and the Spirit of Christ for your purification — then under this concern and these desires, you may apply yourselves to Christ, and apply Christ to yourselves, without any danger of presuming. This is because you may be sure that the grace of Christ is so free, that if a whole Christ is welcome to you, then you are welcome to Christ and all his salvation.

I take it that this is where we begin to know our Lord's shadow. He was at the first to us a refuge in time of trouble. Weary was the way, and great was the heat; our lips were parched, and our souls were fainting; we sought for shelter, and we found none; for we were in the wilderness of sin and condemnation, and who could bring us deliverance, or even hope? Then we cried unto the Lord in our trouble, and He led us to the Rock of ages, which of old was cleft for us. We saw our interposing Mediator coming between us and the fierce heat of justice, and we hailed the blessed screen. The Lord Jesus was unto us a covering for sin, and so a covert from wrath. The sense of divine displeasure, which had beaten upon our conscience, was removed by the removal of the sin itself, which we saw to be laid on Jesus, who in our place and stead endured its penalty.

It is agreeable both to Scripture and reason to suppose that the wicked shall be punished in such a manner that they shall be sensible of the punishment they are under: that they should be sensible that now God has executed and fulfilled what he threatened, what they disregarded and would not believe. They should know themselves that justice takes place upon them, that God vindicates that majesty which they despised, [and] that God is not so despicable a being as they thought him to be. They should be sensible for what they are punished, while they are under the threatened punishment. It is reasonable that they should be sensible of their own guilt, and should remember their former opportunities and obligations, and should see their own folly and God's justice. — If the punishment threatened be eternal annihilation, they will never know that it is inflicted. They will never know that God is just in their punishment,

I do remember well when God first visited me; and assuredly it was the night of nature, of ignorance, of sin. His visit had the same effect upon me that it had upon Saul of Tarsus when the Lord spoke to him out of heaven. He brought me down from the high horse, and caused me to fall to the ground; by the brightness of the light of His Spirit He made me grope in conscious blindness; and in the brokenness of my heart I cried, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?

The best we can reach or attain unto in this world, is only something touching Christ. "We cannot yet behold the King in his glory; we cannot see his uncreated excellencies or beauties, nor those unspeakable glories of his person, natures, andworks, as we shall one day contemplate and behold.

Bible Verses arranged by subject. I have been narrating these things for 40 years this month. I can assure you this is worth hearing.

This truth, in general, of an implantation into Christ, and the ensuing confirmation in grace, is universally assented unto; none can deny it without denying the whole doctrine of the gospel. But the sense and experience of it was lost amongst them of whom we treat; yet would they not forego the profession of the principle itself,—which would have proclaimed them apostates from the grace of Christ. Wherefore they formed an image of it, or images of both its distinct parts, which they could manage unto their own ends, and such as the carnal minds of men could readily comply with and rest in.

The way of purging sins by the blood of Christ is mysterious. There is no discerning of its glory but by spiritual light,—no experience of its power but by faith. Hence it is despised and neglected by the most, that yet outwardly profess the doctrine of the gospel. Men generally think there are a thousand better ways for the purging of sin than this by the blood of Christ, which they cannot understand. Wherefore, having lost the substance of this truth, and all experience of its power, to retain the use of its name, they have made sundry little images of it,—creeping things,—whereunto they ascribe the power of purging sin; such as holy water, pilgrimages, disciplines, masses, and various commutations. But they quickly found, by experience, that these things would neither purify the heart, nor pacify the consciences of sinners.

God wrought many deliverances for his church and people before Christ came; but these were only so many images and forerunners of the great salvation. The church during that space of time enjoyed the light of divine revelation. They had in a degree the light of the gospel.

As soon as man fell, Christ entered on his mediatorial work. Then it was that he began to execute the work and office of a mediator. He had undertaken it before the world was made. He stood engaged with the Father to appear as man's mediator, and to take on that office when there should be occasion, from all eternity. But now the time was come. Christ the eternal Son of God clothed himself with the mediatorial character, and therein presented himself before the Father.

Demonstrations from instances both of wicked men and holy men, who have felt in this life impressions of God's immediate wrath.—And that such impressions are evidences of what, in the fulness, is in hell. A second instance is of bad and wicked men. What was it caused Judas to hang himself? The prophecy of the psalmist, and the apostle's reference to it, have resolved us, that it was the curse or wrath of God entering into his soul.

This will be a most unexpected sight to the wicked world: it will come as a cry at midnight: they shall be taken in the midst of their wickedness, and it will give them a dreadful alarm. It will at once break up their revels, their eating, and drinking, and carousing. It will put a quick end to the design of. the great army that will then be compassing the camp of the saints: it will make them let drop their weapons out of their hands. The world, which will then be very full of people, most of whom will be wicked men, will then be filled with dolorous shrieking and crying; for all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.

I shall here say no more particularly to you two, but that sound repentance, and the fruits thereof, in a settled reformation of life, will yet be your glory, and my joy; but if you hate to be reformed, (which God forbid) I shall mourn till I die for the loss of Children, but you will be tormented forever for the loss of God.

The Punishment of Sin in Hell The passage in Rom. 9:22 explicated, only so far as concerns the execution...that which makes God willing, by reason of sin, to execute this, is thereby to obtain a glory unto his power by shewing his wrath. So as that although he hath already shewn his power in creating the world at first, and upholding it by the word of his power, and other effects, that yet over and above, and besides all this, he takes the advantage of sin to shew, as the riches of his mercy in saving from sin, so the greatness of his power another way, namely, in destroying for sin.

These and all else you can imagine, are but shadows and similitudes (as I myself heard one upon the rack of terror of conscience cry out, in a like comparison, These are but metaphors to what I feel), and indeed unto what the thing itself is. As to say of heaven, there are rivers of pleasures, a city whereof the streets are of gold, the gates of pearl, and such like, they are but metaphorical descriptions; for it is God himself that is the fountain of life. And oppositely it is said of the wrath to come, that 'God is a consuming fire,

"Rev. A. Nettleton." In another letter dated June 23d, 1827, Dr. Richards says, "Your review of Mr. Finney's sermon, has gone to the very core of the business, and will surely be effective in dissipating Much of the illusion which is connected with these mournful innovations. They call it severe, but I call it just, and as timely as it is just. I think you may greatly felicitate yourself, for having written just such a thing.

Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer Chapter 1 It cannot be denied that the work and acting of the Spirit of grace in and towards believers with respect to the duty of prayer, are more frequently and expressly asserted in the Scripture, than his operations with respect to any other particular grace or duty whatever. If this were called into question, the ensuing discourse, I hope, will sufficiently vindicate and confirm its truth. But hereby believers are instructed in the importance of the duty itself, and also in the use and necessity of the aid and assistance of the Spirit of God to rightly discharge or perform it.

He is, as thus poured out, a 'Spirit of supplications;' that is, of prayer for grace and mercy. The word is formed from chen, as the other was — to be gracious or merciful. And expressing our act towards God, it is prayer for grace — a supplication; and it is never used except to express vocal prayer, either in the assemblies of the people of God or by private persons.

Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer Chapter 5 The matter of our prayer respects the depravation of our nature, and our wants on that account: The darkness and ignorance that is in our understandings; Our unacquaintedness with heavenly things; Our alienation from the life of God thereby; The secret workings of the lusts of the mind under the shade and covert of this darkness; The stubbornness, obstinacy, and perverseness of our wills by nature; Our wills' reluctance toward and dislike of spiritual things; Innumerable latent guiles arising from this reluctance. All of these keep the soul from a due conformity to the holiness of God.

"But the worst is not told. The spirit of denunciation which has grown out of the mode of conducting the revivals at the West, is truly alarming. We do not call in question the genuineness of those revivals, or the purity of the motives of those who have been the most active in them. You, doubtless, are reaping and rejoicing in their happy fruits. But the evils to which I allude, are felt by the churches abroad.

The unfolding of these words, "If any of you lack wisdom," will serve greatly to ease your heart concerning that trouble. The outcome is this: that the Apostle plainly supposes true believers may both actually, and especially in their own sense and experience, find themselves greatly lacking when it comes to patience in the face of trials. And this fact alone should afford you significant relief from the common discouragements that arise in such moments.

"May 21. Sabbath—Held a meeting at a public house, (Mr. B's,) four or five miles from this village. When I arrived, the rooms were filled—doors and windows thronged. Those who seemed the most anxious, had placed themselves near the seat of the speaker. When I named the psalm, all was silence, except the sighs and sobs of anxious souls. The moment I began to speak, I felt that God was there.

1. This objection is very natural unto carnal and unbelieving minds, and therefore we shall meet with it at every turn. There is nothing seems more reasonable unto them than that we may live in sin because grace hath abounded. If men must yet be holy, they can see no need nor use of grace; and they cannot see that God is gracious to any purpose, if notwithstanding men may perish because they are not holy. But this objection is raised, rejected, and condemned by our apostle, in whose judgment we may acquiesce, Rom. 6:1;

The holy Apostle also testifies of himself, that he had learned to be just as content in want as in abundance. This same spirit is evident elsewhere in the midst of all his needs and sufferings—proving that patience, through affliction, had taught him well. In 2 Corinthians 6, after cataloging his sufferings (v. 4), he concludes with these remarkable statements (v. 10): "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things."