3506. What Self Deserves

A Sermon Published On Thursday, April 6, 1916

You shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations. {Eze 36:31}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2743, “Mistaken Notions About Repentance” 2744}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3506, “What Self Deserves” 3508}

   Exposition on Eze 36:16-38 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2743, “Mistaken Notions About Repentance” 2744 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Eze 36:16-38 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3338, “Witness of the Lord’s Supper, The” 3340 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Jer 31:31-34 Eze 36:25-32 Heb 8:7-13 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2762, “Taking Hold of God’s Covenant” 2763 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 50:14-23 Eze 36:21-38 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3472, “Solemn Deprivation, A” 3474 @@ "Exposition"}

1. It has been the supposition of those who do not know by experience that if a man is persuaded that he is pardoned, and that he is a child of God, he will necessarily become proud of the distinction which God has conferred on him. Especially if he is a believer in predestination, when he finds that he is one of God’s chosen, it is supposed that the necessary consequence will be that he will be very puffed up, and think very highly of himself. This however, is only theory; the fact is quite the opposite; for if a man is truly subjected to the work of grace in the heart, and if he is then brought to trust in Jesus, and to see his sin put away by the great sacrifice, instead of being lifted up, he will be very cast down in his own sight, and as he goes on to perceive the exceptional mercy and special privileges which God’s grace has bestowed on him, instead of being exalted, he will sink lower and lower in his own esteem, until, when he shall make a full discovery of divine love, he will become nothing, and Christ will be all in all. Mercy never makes us proud. As mercy is given to the humble, it has a humbling effect. Wherever it comes, it makes a man lie low before the throne of heavenly grace, and leads him to ascribe all honour and glory to the God from whom the mercy comes.

2. It appears from our text that when Israel shall be forgiven her long years of departure from God, one of the effects of the mercy will be that she will loathe herself, and that same effect has already been produced in some of us, to whom God’s abounding mercy has come. In fact, in every man here who has tasted that the Lord is gracious, there has been one uniform experience on this matter—we have been led to loathe ourselves in our own sight, for all the sin we have done before the Lord our God. I shall try to go into this matter, trusting to be rightly guided to say fitting and useful words at this time.

3. First, my brethren, what is it that we have come to loathe in ourselves?; secondly, why do we loathe it?; and thirdly, what is the necessary result in us, or should be, of this self-loathing?

4. I. First, then:—WHAT IS IT THAT THE PARDONED SINNER LOATHES?

5. You will perceive that he is a pardoned sinner. The verse is inserted here in a position where it plainly belongs to those whom God has renewed in heart, whose sins are forgiven, who are fully justified and accepted. It is consistent with the full enjoyment of salvation to loathe yourself. This is the strange paradox of the Christian faith. He who justifies himself is condemned, he who condemns himself is justified. He who magnifies himself, God breaks down and casts in pieces; he who throws himself prostrate before the throne of God’s justice, it is he whom God lifts up in due time. What is it, then, that we loathe in ourselves today?

6. Our reply is, first of all, we loathe every act of our past sin. Look back, you who have been brought to Jesus; look back on the past. Your lives have differed. Some here have, by God’s mercy, been kept from gross outward sin before their conversion; others have run deliberately into it to great excess of riot. Whichever may have been our pathway before conversion, we do now sincerely loathe all the sin of it, whether it was the open sin or the sin of the heart. Especially we loathe tonight those sins which we excused at the time (which we did excuse afterwards), because we said, “Others did so,” because we could not see that we did any harm to our fellow men by it. We loathe them because, if they did not relate to man, but only to God, it was all the more vicious of us that we should rebel altogether against him. “Against you, you only, have I sinned,” is a part of the bitterness of our confession tonight. There were some sins that were sweet to us at the time; we rolled them under our tongue, poisonous though they were, and we called them sweet morsels. We would revolt against them tonight with abhorrence. Begone, you damnable sins! By your very sweetness to me, I detect you. Fool that I must have been that such a thing as you, could have been sweet to me. What eyes must I have had to have seen any beauty in you! How estranged from God to love the things so foul and vile! We would recall tonight those greater sins of our life, sins perhaps which entangled others, sins which we perpetrated in the face of knowledge, after many warnings, desperate, atrocious sins. Oh! what mercy that we were not cut down while we were living in them! We think about them and remember them, not, I trust, as some do, I am afraid, when they speak of their past lives, as if they were talking about their battles and they were old soldiers—never mention your sins without tears. Do not write much about them, if at all; it is best to do with them as Noah’s sons did with their father’s nakedness, go back and cast a mantle over it all. God has forgiven them. Remember them only that you may repent, and that you may bless his name, but never mention them without loathing them—utterly loathing them—as if they were disgusting to your spirit, and you could not speak of them without the blush mantling on your cheek.

7. My brethren, in addition to loathing every act of sin, I think I can hope, if our acts are right, we do, through God’s mercy, loathe all the sins of omission. I will put them in this form. The time we wasted before our conversion. Perhaps some of you were not brought to Christ until you were thirty, or forty, or fifty years of age. It is a very, very happy circumstance to be saved while you are still younger—a case for eternal thankfulness—but let us think of the time we wasted, precious time, in which we might have served God, time in which we might have been learning more about him, studying his Word, and making ourselves more fit to be used by him in later years. How much of our time was wasted! I would especially loathe wasted Sabbaths. Some of us wasted them at home in idleness; some wasted them abroad in company, others of us wasted them in God’s house. I would loathe myself for having wasted Sabbaths, under sermons, hearing as though I did not hear them—joining in devotions in the posture, and not in the heart. And what is this but to break the Sabbath under the very garb of keeping it?—thinking other thoughts and caring for other things while eternal matters were being proclaimed in my hearing. Oh! let us loathe ourselves to think that even twenty years should have gone to waste, much more thirty, or forty, or fifty years—even sixty—should have been allowed to glide by, bearing nothing on their bosom but a freight of sin, carrying nothing to the throne of God that we would wish to have remembered there.

8. Those of us who have been converted to God would tonight loathe every refusal which we gave to Christ, in those days of our unregeneracy. Do you remember, my brother in Christ, those early knockings at the door of your heart by a gentle mother’s word, or was it a father, or was it perhaps a Sunday School teacher, or perhaps some dear one now in glory? Oh! that I should ever have refused the Saviour, if he had only presented himself to me just once! Infatuation not to be excused, to close the heart against even one of these! But many times! Some of us were very favourably circumstanced. Our mother’s tears fell thick and fast for us when we were children. She would pray with us; when we read the Scriptures with her, she talked to us. Her words were very faithful, very tender, and her child could not help feeling them, but waywardly he pushed aside the tears, and still forgot his mother’s God. Then you know with many of us the entreaties of our youth melted into the instructions of our more mature years. Do you not remember many sermons under which Christ has knocked with his pierced hand at the door of your heart? You who sit here from time to time, I know the Lord does not leave you without some strivings of heart; at least, I hope he does not, I pray the Master to help me to put the word so that it may disturb you, and not let you make a nest in your sins, but as yet you have said “No” to Christ, and given him the brush-off, even until now. As for such as are now saved, I am sure they have among their most bitter pangs of regret this, that they should ever at any time, and that they should so often and so many times have said to the Saviour, “Depart from me; I do not want to know you, neither do I desire your salvation.” And if, my brethren, in addition to having refused Christ, we have come into actual collision with him by setting up our own Pharisaic estimate of ourselves, we ought to loathe ourselves tonight. We said in our heart, “I am good enough.” The filthy rags of our own righteousness have had the impertinence to compare with the fair white linen of Christ’s righteousness. We thought we could put away our own sins by some method of our own, and that cross, which is heaven’s wonder and hell’s terror, we despised so as to think we could do without it. We might well loathe ourselves for this, if we had never committed any other transgression than this. Oh! foul pride, oh! base and loathsome pride that can make a sinner think he can do without a Saviour, and so presumptuously imagine that Christ was more than was necessary, and the cross was a work of supererogation. {a}

9. Did any of us go further than this? And did we ever commit persecuting acts against Christ and his people? Perhaps some of you did, and now you are his servants. You laughed at that Christian woman; why, you would go down on your knees now if you could find her, to beg a thousand pardons, now you know her to be a child of God. You then acted very harshly and severely towards one who was a true lover of the Saviour. Perhaps you spoke opprobrious words, or did worse. As Cranmer put his hand into the fire and said, “Oh! unworthy right hand,” because it had written a recantation of Christ and his truth years before. I am sure you would say it now if you have written one unkind word, or said one nasty word concerning a believer in Christ. And oh! if you have ever openly blasphemed, I know you loathe yourself, standing here tonight, to think those lips once cursed God, and, joining in the prayer meeting with your prayers, to think that those lips once imprecated curses on your fellow men. I know your feeling must be one of very deep prostration of spirit. And even if we have not gone so far, we feel, as you do, that we loathe ourselves for our iniquities and for our abominations. So I might continue to speak to your hearts, but I trust, my brethren, it will be needless to do so, for you already loathe yourselves for your sins.

10. Let me close this first part of the subject by just remarking that there are some people here who, if the Lord should ever convert them, would really have a strong loathing for themselves. I mean, first, hypocrites. There are such in this church, there never was a church without them. They come to the communion table, and yet have no part nor lot in the matter. We know of some who have been here Sabbath after Sabbath, and they are habitual drunkards, undiscovered by us—who intrude themselves into the assemblies of the faithful, and yet at the same time make much mockery and sport of our holy religion. Oh! if you are ever saved, what heart-breakings you will have! How you will hate yourselves! I shall not say one harsh word about you, but I do pray God’s grace will make you feel a great many harsh things about yourself, and while you look up into the dear face of the crucified, and find pardon there, may you afterwards cover your face with shame, and weep to think of the mercy you have found. So, too, those who once professed Christ and have gone away altogether—they may be here. I should not wonder that in this throng there are some who used to be religious people—put on an appearance and ran well. Now for years they have neglected prayer. That woman, once a church member, married an ungodly husband, and she has had many a bitter day since then, and tonight she has strayed in here. Ah! woman, may God bring you back and you will loathe yourself for having given up Christ for the love of a poor dying man. And others that have gone into the world for Sunday trading, or for some kind of gain, given up Christ, like Judas, who betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. Oh! if you are ever saved, you will hate yourselves. I am sure this will be your cry within yourself, “Saviour, you have forgiven me, but I shall never forgive myself; you have blotted out my sins like a cloud, but I shall always remember them, and lay very low all my praises at your feet while I think of what you have done for me.” Yes, and you there have a dear one who is a persecutor, a blasphemer, an opposer of the gospel, an infidel; may you become one of those who shall abundantly loathe yourself when you shall taste the rich, free mercy of God.

11. So I have presented what it is that a man loathes; but let me remark it is not merely his actions he loathes, but himself, to think that he could do such things. He loathes the fountain to think that it could yield such a stream; he loathes his own evil nature, the deep corruption and depravity of his heart, to think he should be so ungrateful and treat the Lord of mercy so unkindly.

12. II. But now we must turn to the second part of the subject:—HOW IS IT, AND WHY, THAT PARDONED SOULS DO LOATHE THEMSELVES?

13. Reply first. Their nature is changed. God, in conversion, makes us new men. We are not altered, improved, or mended, but a new life is given to us; we become new creations in Christ Jesus. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make us to be born again, and just as what is born of the flesh is flesh, so what is born of the Spirit is spirit, and it hates the old corrupt nature, loathes it, and fights against it to the death. And further, the moving cause for loathing ourselves is the receiving of divine mercy. “Oh!” says the soul when it finds itself forgiven, “did I rebel against such a God as this? What! has he struck out all my sins from the roll, cast them all behind his back, and does he declare that he still loves me? Then wretch that I am that I should have revolted and rebelled against such a God as this.” It is just as John Bunyan puts it. There is a city besieged, and they determine that they will fight it out to the last man. They will make every street to run with blood and will hold it out against the king who claims the city for himself; but when his troops march up and set their ranks around the city, and it is all surrounded, the trumpet sounds for a parley, and the messenger comes forward with the white flag, and they find to their surprise that the conditions offered are so honourable, so generous, so much to their own advantage, that the king appears not to be their enemy at all, but, in fact, to be their best friend. He will enlarge their liberties far above what they were. He will beautify their city—it was base before. He will come and dwell in it; he will make it the metropolis of the country; he will give it markets; he will give it all it wanted. “Why,” says John Bunyan, “whereas before they were going to fortify the walls and die to a man, they fling open the gates, and they are ready to tumble over the walls to him, they are so glad to find that he treats them so generously.” And it is even so with us when we find that he blots out our sin, that he is all love and all compassion, we yield to him at once, and then shame comes, to think that it should ever have been necessary for us to yield, that we should ever have taken up arms against him at all.

14. It is a beautiful incident in English history when one of our kings was carrying on war against his rebellious son, and they met in battle, and the son was just about to kill the father, when the father’s visor was lifted up and he saw that it was his father whom he was about to kill. So the sinner, fighting against his God, thinks he is his enemy, but suddenly he beholds it is his own Father whom he has been fighting against, and he drops the weapon of his rebellion, feeling ashamed that he should have rebelled against such mercy and such favour. That is why we are ashamed, and I pray that some here may be ashamed in the same way, for I think I hear Jehovah bewailing himself tonight. “Hear, oh heavens, and give ear, oh earth; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner and the donkey his master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not consider.” Your God is good, be ready to repent and be forgiven; rebel no more.

15. Now after the receipt of divine mercy has brought in this feeling, the feeling is continued and promoted by everything that happens to us. For example, every doctrine a Christian man learns after he is converted makes him loathe himself. Suppose he learns the doctrine of election. “What!” he says, “was I chosen by God from before the foundation of the world, and went after filthiness and uncleanness with this body? Was I dishonest and a liar, and yet loved by God before the stars began to shine?” That doctrine makes a man loathe himself. Then he learns the doctrine of redemption, and he reads, “These are those who are redeemed from among men”—a special and particular redemption. Did Jesus then die for me, as he did not die for all? Had he a special eye for me in that sacrifice of himself on the cross? Oh! then I will beat my breast to think there ever should have been such a hard heart towards a Saviour who loved me so. When the heart learns any doctrine, the spirit bows down with deep shame to think it ever should have rebelled.

16. So it is with every new mercy the Christian enjoys. Surely he wakes up every morning with a new mercy, but particularly at special times when our prayers have been heard, when we have been rescued out of deep distress, we lift up our eyes to heaven, and as we bless God for all his favours to us we say, “And can it be that I was once a rebel, up in arms against such a God as you? My God, my Father, did I ever blaspheme your name? Did I ever read your Book as a common book? Did I ever neglect your mercy, Saviour? Then shame on me when you have been ever so good, so kind to me.” And as the Christian grows in grace and mounts to more elevated platforms of experience, this self-loathing gets deeper when the spirit bears witness with him that he is a child of God. When he rises as a child to feel that he is an heir, and that, being an heir, he claims his inheritance to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, the more he sees of God’s marvellous kindness towards him, the more he looks back to his past life and to the depravity of the heart within, and he says, “Shame on your head; cover your face with confusion; silence me before you, oh! you Most High, to think that after such mercy as this I should have remained so ungrateful to you.”

17. And I suppose that as long as the Christian lives, and the further he goes in the grace of God, the deeper he is disgusted with himself; it will always be so until, as he gets to the gates of heaven, among all his joys and the growing sense of divine favour, there will be an even deeper sense of repentance for all the transgressions of his heart.

18. III. And now I shall still need your attention for a few moments longer while I dwell on the third and last point. When a soul is made to loathe itself like this:—WHAT FOLLOWS?

19. Well, there follows, first of all, self-distrust. A man who remembers what he has been, and has a due sense of what his sin was, will never trust himself again. He thought at one time that he could resist sin; he imagined that it would be possible for him to fight against iniquity, and by daily perseverance to make something of himself. Now he has fallen so often, he has proved his own weakness so thoroughly, that all he can do now is just to look up to God, and ask for strength from on high. He cannot by any possibility rest in himself; his own weakness is so thoroughly proved. A man who knows what he used to be is conscious of what his former state was, and will by no means rely on his own strength for a single hour. “Do not lead us into temptation” will be his constant prayer, and “Deliver us from evil” will follow closely after it. When I see a man going into sinful company, a Christian professor going on to the verge of sin and saying, “I shall not fall, I can take care of myself,” I feel pretty certain that that man’s experience is a very flimsy one, and that it is altogether a very grave question whether he ever was pardoned and has tasted divine grace; for if he had, he would have known what it was to loathe himself a great deal more, and to distrust himself more.

20. The next result in a man will be that he will not serve himself any longer. Before, he could have lived for his own honour, but now he has such a low opinion of himself that he must have a different object. Spend my life for my own honour and glory? “No,” he says, “I am not worthy of it. I, who could blaspheme heaven, or could live so long an enemy to God—I serve such a monster as myself! No! By God’s grace, I will serve him who has changed my nature, forgiven my sin, and made me to be a new creature in Christ Jesus. Self-loathing is quite sure to make a man have a better object than that of seeking to honour himself.”

21. And then a man who has once loathed himself will never loathe his fellow men. He will be free from that pride which is found in many, which disqualifies them for Christian service, because they do not know the hearts of sinners, and do not enter into communion with them. I have known some who imagine there ought to be a great distance between themselves and what they call common people; who talk about sin as though it were a strange thing, in which they had no participation, they themselves having been highly elevated above ordinary people. Oh! we know of some who would scorn the prostitute, and look down on a man whose character has been once destroyed, and think he never ought to be spoken to again. The Christian loathes himself for not having had pity on others. He knows how readily his feet might have gone in the same way; how easily, too, he might have fallen, even to the same extent, if circumstances had been the same with him as with them, and, as far as he can, he seeks to lift them up. The man who is once as he should be, thrusts his arm up to the elbow in every mire to bring up one of God’s precious jewels. He has taken off the kid-gloves of self-sufficiency, so he works like a true labourer. He knows what Christ has done for him—how Jesus poured out his very heart’s blood for his redemption—and he feels he cannot do too much, if by any means he can pluck a single firebrand from the flame. Brethren, it is good to loathe ourselves, for it makes us have sympathy with others.

22. Yet, once again, this self-loathing in every case where it comes makes Jesus Christ very precious, and makes sin very hateful. Whoever has loathed himself at all sees how Jesus Christ has been a great Saviour, and he admires and adores him. You know you measure the height of the Saviour’s love by the depth of your own fall. If you do not know anything about your ruin, you will not be likely to prize the remedy very much. A man who has a desperate disease, and is dealt with by the physician, if he does not know what the disease is, is not able to feel the measure of gratitude, even if he is healed, that another man would, who knew how fatal the disease was in itself. If I think I am not poor, if I am befriended, I shall not have that gratitude which a bankrupt would have had if he had nothing left, to whom someone had generously given a large estate. No! a sense of need helps us to glorify God. Among the saints, and when on earth, the sweetest voices are those that have been made sweet by repentance. Among those who sing in heaven, and sing with the most sweet and lofty praise to God, are those who bless the grace that lifted them up from the horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and set their feet on a rock and established their goings. This blessed shamefacedness, which Christ gives us, is not to be avoided; may we have it more and more, and it shall be a fit preparation for the service of God on earth and the enjoyment of his presence in heaven.

23. And now, dear friends, it will be a very suitable time for every Christian just to look back and let his shame for many things mantle on his cheeks. Oh! how little progress have we made in the divine life through all the years! We call each year a “year of grace,” but we might call it a year of sorrow. “The year of our Lord,” we call it! Too often we make it the year of ourselves. May God forgive us for not living for him, working more for him, and growing more like him! Let us close every year with repentance, not because the sin remains, for, blessed be God, it is all forgiven—we are saved. Before the sin was perpetrated, Christ carried it into the sepulchre where he was buried; he cast it there; it cannot be laid against us to condemn us, yet we hate it, and yet we loathe ourselves to think we have fallen into it. But would this not also be an admirable opportunity to show how we hate sin by seeking to bring others to Christ? Watch for other souls. As you prize your own, seek the conversion of others, and may God grant that you may bring many to Jesus.

24. And you who are not saved, oh! do not allow this occasion to pass, do not let the days go by without your seeking for that mercy which God so fully gives through his only-begotten Son. Then when you receive it you will be ashamed, and you, too, will magnify the grace that pardoned even you. May God bless you, dear friends, very richly, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

{a} Supererogation: Roman Catholic Theology. The performance of good works beyond what God commands or requires, which are held to constitute a supply of merit which the Church may dispense to others to make up for their deficiencies. OED.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Ro 8:15-31}

15. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;

You received it once. You needed it. You were in sin, and it was good for you when sin became bondage to you. It was grievous, but it was salutary; but you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.

15. But you have received the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Does your spirit cry in that way tonight? Even if you are in the dark, yet if you cry for your Father, you will soon be in the light. There is no need to be distressed with any form of doubt as long as the Spirit makes this continual breathing, “Abba, Father, show yourself to me. Do what you wish with me. Let me taste your love. Let me at least bow under your hand.”

16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

We would not have that spirit otherwise. Our spirit feels the spirit of adoption, and so there is a double witness, the witness of our spirit, and the witness of God’s Spirit, that we are the children of God. In the mouth of these two witnesses the whole matter shall be established.

17. And if children, then heirs;

That does not follow in other cases, but it does in the case of the family of God. In a man’s family, only one son can be an heir; but in God’s family, it is declared of all of them, “if children, then heirs.”

17. Heirs of God,

Not only heirs to God, but heirs of God. God himself is the inheritance of his people; he belongs to them now, as an eternal endowment. “Heirs of God.”

17. And joint-heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

We are to take the rough and the smooth, the bitter and the sweet, with Christ; and who will make any demur to that? If we are to be heirs with Christ, we do not wish to split the inheritance in pieces. No! we will take the cross as well as the crown—the reproach as well as the honour.

18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

He had just mentioned the sufferings. They are too little. They are mere specks in the sun. They are too small to be weighed in comparison with the very great weight of glory which God has prepared for us.

19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

So great is to be the glory of God’s children that all the world is waiting for it. Every creature stands on tiptoe, looking for the coming of Christ and the revealing of the redeemed. What must be the greatness of this thing which the whole creation has learned to expect?

20, 21. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

We were in bondage, and we have come out in a measure into the liberty of the children of God. Now the world in which we live is in sympathy with us, and it is part under bondage because of sin, but it is only temporary bondage. There will come a day when the whole creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God—a new heavens and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.

22. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

Deep groans are in the world. Have you not heard of earthquakes? Do you not know how the whole world is in a tremor? There is something coming, and all the world is groaning for that coming. God makes the universe to be like an instrument of music played on by the fingers of mortal men: so that when they are sorrowful, the world is sorrowful, and when they go out with joy and are led out with peace, then the mountains and the hills shall break out before them into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. “We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.”

23. And not only they, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body.

As yet the body is under bondage. The body is dead because of sin: hence those headaches—this palpitation of the heart—this heaviness of the clay which incases us: but eventually, just as the material world is to be delivered from its bondage, so shall these bodies also pass away from all the encumbrance of weakness, and disease, and death, into a better state.

24. For we are saved by hope:

As yet.

24, 25. But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he still hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, then we patiently wait for it.

What a lesson that is, and how seldom do we learn it! Oh! in this present state our main duty is, “Then we patiently wait for it.” You want to have your cake and keep it, but you cannot eat it and keep it too. Patiently wait for it. There are some fruits of the earth that are not ripe yet. You put them in storage, and there are many good things that God has laid up in storage for his people, and he says to us, “Patiently wait for it.” Oh! but you would gladly have heavenly joy on earthly ground. It would be a sorry misfit if it were so. But God keeps time and season, and there is harmony in his music. You shall have earthly sorrow on earthly ground, and you shall have heavenly bliss on the heavenly shore: but not until then. We patiently wait for it.

26. Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities;

Especially our infirmities in prayer. I think that if anywhere our infirmities come out, it is in prayer; even the strongest are, on their knees, comparatively weak. How few there are among us who prevail with God, as Elijah did! We ought to do so. None of us needs to stop short of the fullest stature of a man in Christ Jesus, and a man of full stature in Christ would surely carry the keys of heaven’s treasury at his belt. He would only have to ask, and to receive—to seek and to find. May the Spirit help our infirmities.

26. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

See what little worlds we are. Microcosms,—to use a harder word; for just as there are groanings and travailings in the whole creation, so there are such in the little world of our own heart. Only nature’s travail is just natural; but our travail is supernatural. It is the Spirit himself groaning within chosen hearts with groanings that cannot be uttered.

27. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

When we ourselves hardly know the mind of the Spirit, he who searches all hearts knows it. When we feel as if we could not pray, still the Spirit of God makes intercession in us, and the great Father reads the meaning of the intercessions, and blesses us, not according to our knowledge of our own prayer, but according to his knowledge of what the Spirit means by those prayers. Have you never noticed that holy men of old sometimes spoke much greater things than they thought they should, for the Spirit of God in them spoke by them more than they themselves understood; and I believe that it is so in prayer. Oh! often the groaning, wrestling believer may have no inkling of the full meaning of his own prayer, but he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

28. And we know

Now we are coming to a dear old passage which reads like music. There is no eloquence in the world that ever touches the eloquence of the apostle here.

28. That all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

I do not like to hear this text quoted, as I often do, only in part—only half of it. “All things work together for good,” so people say. “Oh! yes; somehow or other, good will come of it.” It does not say so here. It says, “All things work together for good for those who love God; for those who are the called according to his purpose.” A special purpose and object of God for a special people. And if you do not belong to this people, things are not working together for your good. No; but you may find that they will work together for your banishment from life and from the presence of God. Take your heed to this. The stars in their courses fight against you, if you fight against God; and the very earth groans and complains of bearing up your weight if you are a rebel against the Most High. You must, first of all, be reconciled in order to love God, and the eternal purpose must be created in you by your effectual calling from out of the world, or else you must not dare to intrude into the holy sanctuary of my text. “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” Of course, they do, for God loves them. “To those who are the called according to his purpose.” Of course, they do, for that purpose which called them is not consistent with anything, but a purpose of infinite love for them. The great eternal purpose encompasses all things that happen, and bends everything to the grand object of the good of the called ones.

29, 30. For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he predestinated, those he also called: and whom he called, those he also justified: and whom he justified, those he also glorified.

He spoke of it as if it were done because it is so sure, so certain to be done; he writes it down as a fact.

31. What shall we then say to these things?

Ah! indeed, what shall we say? If we had the tongues of men and angels, what could we say? Well, we will say this much at any rate.

31. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Those afflictions that we read about just now—these reproaches which we share with Christ—what of them? They are not worth calling anything. “If God is for us, who can be against us?”