A Wafer of Honey

A Wafer of Honey

(No. 2974)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1906.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1863.

"My Grace is sufficient for you." 2 Corinthians 12:9.

LET no Christian imagine that he will ever have immunity from trouble
while he continues in the body. Should you be favored with visions and
Revelations of the Lord, caught up to the third Heaven, admitted into
Paradise and privileged to hear things which it were not lawful for a
man to utter, conclude not that you have escaped the rod– rather
expect that such high privilege will need heavy affliction to balance
it! If God has given you the great sail and the prosperous wind, He
will also give you the heavy ballast to keep your keel deep in the
stream. Do not expect, dear Brothers and Sisters, that because you have
been strengthened in the faith, you will therefore be loosened from the
burden of the flesh–neither because you may have been the means of
strengthening others, that, therefore, trouble will be light for you.
Even into your ship the deep waters may come. Think not that it is so
water-tight that the billows will only dash against it. You may be
called to feel heaviness–your faith may be all but staggered and your
soul may have to cry out from the depths because of the slender
strength you possess.

The Lord has such ways of chastising His children as to make them feel.
We think, some of us, after we have suffered a certain amount of
trouble, that we have been so conditioned to it we shall no longer be
moved as we used to be. The Apostle Paul had been beaten with rods,
tossed about in shipwrecks, yet he had suffered hunger and thirst and
nakedness till he felt that, if any man had a right to glory after the
flesh, he had. Still, even he found that the Lord had a way of getting
at his heart and making it smart. He had thorns in the flesh,
messengers of Satan that did most effectually buffet him. We, too, must
have trials–briars of a kind that shall come right home to us and
touch us in our bones and in our flesh.

Neither let us think, dear Friends, that even the privilege of the
Mercy Seat will shield us from the rod. When chastened we run to
prayer, but we shall not, therefore, escape the chastisement! Paul, an
Apostle, prays. He who certainly must have understood "the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man," beseeches the Lord three times, yet
the thorn in the flesh was not blunted, much less removed! He still had
to suffer as he had done before. Oh, how often we think we can use the
Mercy Seat for our own lust! Is not prayer too sacred a thing for us to
make a selfish use of it? When God gives us the key of His storehouse
and bids us take what we will, shall we use even a single promise of
His Word merely to pander to our own desires and to enable us to escape
from enduring hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ? If we thus
misuse prayer, we may be excused for it, but we shall not be accepted
in it. Even Paul is non-suited when he asks ease for the flesh. He gets
no release from trouble. He gets something better, however, for the
Lord says to Him, "My Grace is sufficient for you; for My strength is
made perfect in weakness." Thus, Beloved, we must reckon upon the
adversities that are sure to befall us. "In the world you shall have
tribulation." This is one of the Divine shalls and wills. The Lord will
chasten those whom He loves and His children shall suffer–you can be
sure of that. It is as sure as any other thing in the world, "You
shallhave tribulation."

I. To those who have proved the truth of this declaration, the text
will be peculiarly sweet. THERE ARE CERTAIN SORE VEXATIONS OF SPIRIT
FOR WHICH GRACE IS THE ONLY BALM. The Lord does not say, "My Providence
shall protect you." Nothing of the kind–Divine Grace is the remedy in
this case and, I take it, this was because the Apostle was suffering in
the very core and center of his being. There are many trials, the grief
of which may be fully

relieved by ordinary Providences–but these that come and wound a man
to the quick–require Grace as their only effectual balm.

Past experience of Grace is of no availin such a case. It is
presentGrace that is promised in the text and it is present Grace that
is required. When we have sometimes been bowed down and walked in
darkness, and seen no light, we have called to remembrance our song in
the night and our spirit has made diligent search–but that very song
has been turned into howling in the remembrance and all that we thought
we felt, and thought we knew has vanished from before our eyes! I do
not know how it has been with you, but there have been times with me
when I could set no value upon my past experience. The devil has said
it was all a delusion, my faith mere presumption, my hope mere
excitement–and all my joys but the effusion of animal spirits. There
will be a time when he will bid you look back and all the way will look
like the Valley of the Shadow of Death. You cannot see one hopeful sign
in it! And you turn over the books of experience and read them, and you
think, "Well, my spot is not the spot of God's children, and my
footprints do not seem to be at all like the footprints of the flock."
I tell you, if you have ever done business in deep waters, you have
found that anchors at home are of no use in a storm–and that the
anchor which stood so well a year ago, if it is left at home on
shore–is of no use to you now in the storm! It is present Grace,
nothing but present Grace, that will do now! You have eaten all the
cold meats and you have brought out from the cupboard every moldy crust
you can find–and now your soul is reduced to the very last and faints
within you. And now you must cry to your God in your trouble and get
present Grace in this, your time of need!

And if past experience is of no use, much less is past success.
Somebody might have touched the Apostle on the shoulder and have said,
"Paul, Paul, Paul! Why must you feel the buffetings of Satan? Did you
not establish the Church at Corinth, and plant churches throughout all
Asia Minor? Who has served his God as faithfully as you have? Have you
not been on many journeys, in perils by waters, in perils of robbers,
in perils by the sword, in watches and fasts? Have you not had the care
of all the Churches? Has not your Master highly distinguished you and
made you not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles? What
multitudes of spirits are now before the Throne of God that were born,
under God, through your ministry! And what thousands are still on the
road who call you their spiritual father and to whom you have been as a
nursing mother in the faith!" If you had said this to the Apostle, he
would have replied, "Yes, sometimes this might have comforted me. If it
had been a question of my Apostleship, this would have been
satisfactory. If the point in hand had been a question as to whether my
ministry has been acknowledged of God, this would have been decisive.
But I am touched in another place, now, and the wound is so deep, my
sore is grievous. And my heart is so exceedingly heavy that no kindly
thought of others, and no pleasant musings of my own bring me the
slightest relief. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me!" The Lord
knows how to succor him and, therefore, He gave him that gracious
assurance, "My Grace is sufficient for you."

I think it is well, dear Friends, to remember the Lord's past goodness,
but we must not live on that– we must go and get fresh supplies from
Heaven. Old manna, to this day, though it came from Heaven, will always
breed worms and stink, if it is kept. There is no alteration in it from
the days of Moses and it is the same at this moment. You must eat the
manna as you get it and constantly go for more! The old manna will be
of very little use to you. It is only on Sundays, when your soul is
perfectly at rest and quiet–it is only at those sweet resting seasons,
which the soul sometimes enjoys, that the remembrance of the past
becomes very sweet. You must have daily present dispensations of manna
from the Throne of God.

In such a case as this, to which the Apostle was brought, we feel sure
that the fact of his high office and eminent attainments of Gracewould
not have been a sufficient consideration. Paul, who shall match you? So
deep in knowledge and so ardent in zeal, you seem to have a seraph's
spirit. So mighty in words and yet, so humble in your own esteem, you
are surely a prince in Israel! Paul was not one of the young men, much
less one of the babes in Grace. He says, "There are not many fathers,"
though certainly he, himself, was worthy to be called a Patriarch. Yet
that fact would not comfort him. And, Brothers and Sisters, you may
come to such hard pinches that your growth in Grace and the flourishing
of your virtues will not afford so much as a drop of comfort to
you–you will have to go to the Eternal Fountain to drink, for even
these marble cisterns will have been broken and will hold no water.

Observe, further, Brothers and Sisters, that the Lord does not say, "
The consolation of your brethren shall be sufficient for you.''" Oh,
how sweet it is to be comforted by our fellow Christians! Let those who
will, walk in isolation–

give me sweet communion, for to tell one's trial to a true Brother in
Christ is often to lighten the weight, as if half of it were removed!
Sometimes it is to be wholly relieved, for the words of some wise men
in our Israel are, indeed, as balm that brings speedy healing to the
wound. But there are wounds which the stranger intermeddles not with,
no, that even the dearest friend cannot touch! There are certain
vexations of spirit and disquietudes of soul that mock human agency. I
have had, sometimes, to converse with some members of the Church and I
have never felt so much the littleness of my own power as when I have
tried be comfort them and failed. I thought it was because I was but as
a little child in experience and could not talk with them as a father
in Israel might have done, whose years might have given him more
wisdom. But I have found that even the fathers have failed and that
years have not always sufficed to give sufficient knowledge to comfort
the troubled conscience, or to remove the burden from the galled
shoulder. No, there are cases that mock the ordinary practitioner and
must be taken straight to the Great Physician, for the only thing that
will survive the purpose is the Grace, the presentGrace of an
all-sufficient God!

I might prolong this catalog, but you who experimentally know the Truth
of God will know from your own experience that there are trials and
there are points in affliction where nothing can possibly console but
the immediate outpouring and receiving of the Grace of God.

II. And now, Beloved, in the second place, let me say that SUFFICIENT
GRACE IS A SURE BALM–that even for the most acute disorder, the most
chronic disease–"Grace" is"sufficient."

Do you not perceive that it just meets the fear which trial excites?
What is the Christian's fear when he is buffeted, tried and afflicted?
I know him in his sober senses–he has a fear of sin. Listen to him. "I
am afraid of being poor," says he, "not because I dislike poverty, but
I am afraid of my faith, lest I should murmur against God. I am not
afraid of suffering," he says, "if God sends it to me, I am willing to
receive it. But I am afraid of my faith, lest the pangs should be too
severe and I should doubt my God. I am not," he says, "afraid of
slander or of persecution. I have learned to rejoice in this, for so am
I made a member of the goodly fellowship of the martyrs–but I am
afraid lest I should deny my Lord, or be ashamed of Him, or prove an
apostate, after all. As I look forward to the temptations of the world,
the suggestions of Satan and the corruptions of the flesh which shall
yet assail me, I am not afraid of their coming if I can but be
guaranteed that they shall not cause me to sin"–for the only real
wound the Christian gets is when he has sinned! Sufferings are only
scars, flesh wounds–sins are the real wounds! We are never trampled on
by Satan, however low our spirits may sink. It is only when we give
way–capitulate in very terror and begin to be afraid–that Satan is
really victorious. The battle of sin is the battle in which Satan gains
the victory! But suffering, shame, distress, peril, nakedness and sword
are no triumphs to Satan, for, "in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us."

You see then, Brothers and Sisters, that Grace meets the danger because
it deals with sin. You are afraid that your patience will give out, so
the Lord says, "My Grace shall operate upon your patience and make you
endure." You think your faith will fail, so the Lord says, "My Grace
gave you your faith and My Grace, like oil secretly applied to the fire
by One standing behind the wall, shall keep your faith burning while
the devil pours on his floods to quench it. It was My Grace that first
taught you to love My great name so, when persecuted, My Grace shall
make you love Me more. I have kept you from apostasy until now and, let
what will come, My Grace, by which I guaranteed your final
perseverance, shall be sufficient for you and you shall come out of all
your trials and troubles like silver out of the furnace–not
defiled–but cleansed and purified by the flames." You see then,
Brothers and Sisters, that this assurance does actually touch the fear
which the Christian may ever have before his eyes–no, it does not
merely touch the fear, but it absolutely touches all the real danger!
It is as though the Lord should say to one of His servants who was
standing alone, while thousands of his enemies were shooting at him
with their arrows, "They shall shoot at you, but I have covered you
with armor from head to foot." Or it is as if you or I trembled at the
thought of crossing the deep sea and the Lord had said, "The sea is
deep, and you must cross it–but I will be by you and you shall go
through it dry shod." Or it is as if He said, "The fire is hot and you
must walk through the midst of it. Those glowing coals your feet must
know, but I will so cover you by My power that the flames nor coals
shall not hurt you–you shall walk through the fire and not so much as
the smell of it shall pass upon you."

What does it matter how much we suffer if we have Grace to endure it?
Put a Believer where you will, if his Master gives him Grace, he is in
the best place he can be for security! I have heard Brethren sometimes
say, "Such a minister is in great danger! His position is lofty, his
head will be turned." Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if he had had the
keeping of his own head, it would have been turned long ago! And your
head will turn even if you are on the ground if you have the keeping of
it! But if God sets a man as high as the stars and if He kept him
there, he would be able to sing, "You make my feet like hinds' feet,
and make me to stand on high places." It is the Grace we have, not the
position we occupy, that is the important matter! If a man had Grace
enough, you might put him in the worst haunts of sin and he would be
the better for being there!

Now, do not think I say what I do not know. Solomon saw hyssops grow on
walls and cedars on Lebanon. However, I have seen cedars grow on walls
and hyssops on Lebanon! I have seen the smallest Christians in the best
places and the best Christians in the worst positions. I have seen, in
the midst of the haunts of the harlot, Grace shining in all the purity
and chastity of lovely womanhood. And in the haunt of the thief and of
the burglar, God has been pleased to have some choice saint, that, for
honesty, integrity and holy living might have been worthy to have
walked in a bishop's palace, or to have adorned the best Evangelical
drawing room in England! Brethren, it is not the position that is the
main thing! The best of men may grow in the worst places and some of
the meekest of Believers may be found where there ought to have been
the bravest. I will leave this point, therein, by repeating that
whatever may be the trial of heart which a man may have to endure, this
assurance just meets the case–"My Grace is sufficient for you."

III. And, lastly, SHOULD NOT THE ASSURANCE THAT WE SHALL RECEIVE
SUFFICIENT GRACE MAKE US EXCEEDINGLY GLAD?

"My Grace is sufficient for you"–what then? "Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities"–not only gladly, but, "most
gladly." Nothing else will make you happy The Grace of God comes to
meet your case and now how happy you should be! Think about the
sureness of this fact, that sufficient Grace will be ours! My dear
Brothers and Sisters, I am not careful about preachingtonight, I merely
talk right on about some things that you know and can testify. It has
been so, has it not, in your experience? If there is one saint here who
has an accusation to make against his Lord, let him speak! He might
well say to you, "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? Which of you
have I failed to succor? When have I violated My promise? You have been
in the waters–were you drowned? You have passed through the fire–were
you burned? What loss have you ever sustained by your troubles? Did I
ever refuse to hear your cry when you called upon Me? When was it that,
in the day of battle, I did not cover your head and that I left you as
a prey to the destroyer?" My answer is–O Lord, You know all things and
You know that Your servant's witness is–

"When trouble, like a gloomy cloud, Has gathered thick and thundered
loud, He near my soul has always stood, His loving kindness, oh, how
good!" And is not that your case, my Brother, my Sister in the Lord? I
am sure it is! Well then, this ought to make you glad. "My Grace is
sufficient for you," says the Lord. Your past experience proves it.
Gladly, therefore, rejoice that you have an opportunity yet again of
testing and trying the good Word of the Lord!

Again, is not God's Grace sufficient for you in your present
emergency?. Have you had some trouble today? I suppose you have had
quite enough, too, for I never did find a day yet that had not enough
trouble in it, and sufficient for the day is the evil thereof–well,
but have you not had sufficient Grace today? Do you feel dull, heavy
and gloomy in God's House of Prayer? Well, but there is Grace to be had
and, therefore, looking to Him before you go to bed, you may still have
another day to sing of the sufficient Grace which was given in the
necessary hour! "Oh, but," you say, "it is not now! I can trust God for
today, but there are clouds looming before me and I fear to enter
them." Well, my dear Friend, if He is faithful to you today, add that
to the fact that He was faithful yesterday! Is He not the same
yesterday, today and forever? And ought you not at once to rejoice in
Him? Furthermore, ask your Father and He shall tell you to turn to the
records of Inspiration and they shall teach you! Were the righteous
ever forsaken? And when did the Lord cast off His chosen? They have
certainly been in quite as deep waters as you have ever known–you have
not yet been brought to lose all that you have, to lose every
child–not yet do you sit among the ashes and scrape yourself with a
potsherd as Job did. And can you say, to the fullest extent, "They that
walked in the streets did condemn me"? Not yet have you drunk of that
cup and been baptized with the baptism of Him who said, "My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?"–

"His way was much rougher and darker than yours"–

and yet your Lord triumphed! And all His people, in all ages, and under
every circumstance, have triumphed in Him! If you could find one child
of God who has been left, and if you could find one instance in which
God has been untrue to you, then it would be fair for you to be
depressed in spirit–but until then, you should be most joyful!

Remember also, Brothers and Sisters, that we would never know how
sufficient Grace was if it were not for these troubles–therefore we
ought to be glad of all the lessons that assure us how ample and
sufficient this Grace is! I know not whether all soldiers love the
thought of war, but there are many who plead for a campaign. How many
an officer of low rank has said, "There is no promotion, no hope of
rising, no honors unless we have to fight. If we could run to the
cannon's mouth, there would be some hope that we might gain a
promotion." Men get few medals to hang upon their breasts who never
know the smell of gunpowder. The brave days, as men call them, of
Nelson and Trafalgar, have gone by–and we thank God for it–but still
we do not expect to see such brave old veterans, the offspring of this
age, as they who are still to be found lingering in our hospitals–the
relics of our old campaigns. No, Brothers and Sisters, we must have
trials if we are to get on. Young men do not become midshipmen
altogether through going to the school at Greenwich and climbing the
mast on dry land–they must go out to sea and be on deck in the storm!
And if we are to be among the worthies, we must have stood side by side
with King David! We must have gone down into the pit to slay the lion,
or have lifted up the spear against the eight hundred as Adino did.
Conflicts bring experience and experience brings that growth in Grace
which is not to be attained by any other means!

Besides, Brothers and Sisters, how is God's Grace to be seen by other
men in the world except by our trials Grace is given to keep us from
sin, which is a great blessing. But what is the good of Grace except it
is in the time when the trial comes? Certainly, the Grace that will not
stand in the hour of temptation or affliction is a very spurious sort
of Grace and we had better get rid of it, if we have it. When a godly
woman's child dies, the infidel husband sees the mother's faith. When
the ship goes down and is lost in the sea, the ungodly merchant
understands the resignation of his fellow man. When pangs shows through
our body and ghastly death appears in view, people see the patience of
the dying Christian. Our infirmities become the black velvet on which
the diamond of God's love glitters all the more brightly! Thank God I
can suffer! Thank God I can be made the object of shame and contempt
for, in this way, God shall be glorified! This shall be the wonder of
many and to the praise of His own Grace–that so mean and so
contemptible a thing was made the instrument of effecting His purpose!

I will say no more except to commend this assurance to you and ask you
to take it home and lay it on your tongue. It will be like a wafer made
with honey. Mind you have it for your breakfast tomorrow morning and
let it be your constant daily meal–live on it–"My Grace is sufficient
for you." Let the word, "you," come home to your heart, as though God
spoke it to youand as if He had never spoken it to anyone else!

There are some of you to whom the text does not apply, except in this
light–you have many sins–but if you trust Christ, His Grace is
sufficient for you. You have been head over heels in the kennel of sin,
but the power of His blood is sufficient to make you white. And even if
you have become a very prince and peer in the dominions of evil, the
Grace of Christ is sufficient to wash you whiter than the driven snow!
May the Lord add His blessing on these feeble rambling remarks, for
Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 3:9-27; 5:6-11; 8:1-32.

Romans 3:9. What then? Are we better than they?The first chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans contains so horrible an account of the manners of
the Gentiles, the heathen of Paul's day, that it is one of the most
painful chapters in Scripture to read. Not long ago, one of our
missionaries out in China was attacked concerning the Bible on this
very ground. One of the learned men said to him, "This Bible of yours
cannot be as ancient as you say that it is, for it is quite clear that
the next chapter of the Epistle to the Nomads must have been written by
somebody who had been in China and who had seen the habits and ways of
the people here." So accurate is the Holy Spirit, who knew right well
what the ways and manners and secret vices of the heathen were, and
still are! But the Jews said, "Ah, but this is a description of the
Gentiles." So Paul replies, "What then? Are we better than they?"

9. 10. No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentile,
that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one. Then he selects passages out of different parts of
Scripture to show what man is by nature.

11-18. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after
God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat
is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the
poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery
are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is
no fear of God before their eyes.These are all quotations from Old
Testament Scriptures, from their own Psalmists and Prophets from whom
Paul quotes to the Jews so that they might see what their own character
was by nature.

19. Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them
who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the
world may become guilty before God. The Law of God was given to the
Jews and the descriptions which it gives must be descriptions of the
Jews. "Therefore," says Paul, "as Gentile mouths have been already
stopped by the descriptions of their vices, you also, the favored
people of God, have your mouths stopped by the descriptions of
yourselves taken from your own Prophets."

20. Therefore by the deeds ofthe law there shallno flesh. Whether Jew
or Gentile–

20, 21. Be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now. Since man is lost, since man is

guilty–

21-27. The righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the Prophets: even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His Grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God,
to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be
just, and the justifer of him which believes in Jesus. Where is
boasting then?If salvation is given to the guilty and if all are
guilty–if no one can claim exemption, and yet salvation is freely
given–what then? Why, salvation must be purely by the Grace of God! So
let Grace have all the honor. "Where is boasting then?"

27. It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No: but by the law of faith.
The law of works sometimes aids boasting, for a man rejoices and
glories in what he has done. Yet the law of works ought to stop our
boasting because we are guilty in God's sight. The law of faith stops
our mouth because we are under obligation to God and do not dare to
boast, seeing that we have nothing of good but what we have received
from Him!

Romans 5:6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly. What a wonderful sentence that is! Not, "Christ
died for the saints, "not, "Christ died for righteous men," but, "when
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

7-9. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yetperhaps for a
goodman some would even dare to die. But God commends His love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more
then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through Him. What an argument this is for the final safety of
Believers! If Christ died for us when we were enemies, surely He will
give us, now that He has died for us and made us His friends, His
reconciled subject–"Much more then, being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him."

10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
There is a threefold argument here. We were enemies, yet God blessed us
even then, so will He not bless us even more, now that we are
reconciled to Him? When we were enemies, He reconciled us unto Himself.
Having done that, will He not certainly save us? We were reconciled to
God by the death of His Son–so much more shall we be saved by the life
of the risen and glorified Jesus, which has almighty, irresistible
power!

11. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in
Christ Jesus. Observe that Paul writes "There is therefore," for he is
stating a Truth of God which is founded upon solid argument. "There is
therefore now"– at this very day, at this very moment–"no
condemnation"–none of any sort–none that will lie in the Court of
Conscience or in the Court of King's Bench above! "There is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ

Jesus." Our forefathers used to read this verse, "There is therefore
now no damnation." One of the martyrs, being brought before a Popish
bishop, heard the bishop say to him, "Dying in your heresy, you will be
damned." "That I never shall be," answered the good man, "for there is
therefore now no damnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.'" He had
sought the very spirit of the text, for there is nothing that can
condemn the man who is in Christ Jesus!

1. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This is the
distinctive mark of a man in Christ Jesus. He does not let the flesh
govern him, but the Spirit. The spiritual nature has come to the front
and the flesh must go to the back. The Spirit of the living God has
entered into him and become the master-power of his life. He walks "not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death. And nothing else can do that. Every man
is, by nature, under bondage to that which Paul describes as "the law
of sin and death." There is a law in our nature which is so powerful
that even when we would do good, evil is present with us, and we cannot
get away from that law except by introducing another, which is "the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." Dr. Chalmers has a remarkable
sermon upon it–The Expulsive Power of a New Afection–and it is this
new affection for Christ which is the accompaniment of the new life in
Christ, which expels the old forces that used to hold us under bondage
to sin and death.

3. 4. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for
sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. The Law of God never made anybody holy and it never will do so.
The Law says to a man, "This is what you ought to do and you will be
condemned if you do not do it." That is quite true, but the Law
supplies no power to enable us to do this! It says to the lame man,
"You must walk," and to the blind man, "You must see," but it does not
enable them either to walk or to see! On the contrary, our nature is
such that when the Law issues its commands, there is a tendency in us
at once to disobeythem. There are some sins which we never would have
thought of committing if we had not been commanded not to do them, so
that the Law of God–not because of its own nature, but because of the
wickedness of our nature, is weak and ineffectual for the producing of
righteousness. But the Lord Jesus Christ has come, has lived and has
died–died for us who are His people, and has put away our sins. Now we
love Him! Now, being delivered from all condemnation, we love Him who
has delivered us and this becomes the force by which we are inclined to
holiness and led on further and further in a course, not merely of
morality, but of holiness before God! What a blessed system this is,
which saves the sinner from the love of sin, delivers a man from
sinning, gives him a new nature and puts a right spirit within him!

5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
Flesh cares for flesh. The man who is all body cares only for the body.
The man whose mind is under subjection to his body, minds "the things
of the flesh."

5. But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Where
the Holy Spirit is supreme. Where the spiritual world has become
predominant over the heart and life. There, men live for something
nobler than the worldly man's trinity, "What shall we eat, and what
shall we drink, and how shall we be clothed?" The carnal life is only
becoming to a beast, or a bird, or an insect. But when a man cares for
his immortal spirit and lives for Divine and spiritual things, he has
attained to the life that is life, indeed!

6, 7. For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for
it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. As long as
a man lives only for this present evil world, lives for self, lives
under the domination of the flesh, he cannot really know God, or truly
serve Him. Such a mind as his "is not subject to the Law of God,
neither indeed can be."

8. So then they that are in the flesh. That is, those who are under its
condemnation and power– 8-10. Cannotplease God. But you are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in
you. Now if any men have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the
Spirit is life because of righteousness. So that although Christ dwells
in a man, he must not reckon that he will be free from suffering, pain
and sickness, for the body has not yet risen from the dead and does not
yet feel the full effect of regeneration. The soul is risen from the
dead by regeneration and it, therefore, "is life because of
righteousness." The body will, in due time, also share in the power of
Christ's Spirit. The day draws near when we "shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of
God."

11, 12. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also
quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. We
have got nothing good out of the flesh at present, for it is not yet
"delivered from the bondage of corruption," though it is to be
delivered.

13. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. For the flesh is to
die.

13. But if you, through the Spirit do mortify. Or, kill–

13. The deeds of the body, you shall live. Shall a dying body, then, be
my master? Shall the appetite for eating and drinking, or anything else
that comes of the flesh, dominate my spirit? God forbid! Let death go
to death–and the flesh is such. But the newly-given Spirit of God, the
Spirit who has quickened us with immortal life shall rule and reign in
us forevermore!

14-21. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are
the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may
also be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of the
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall
be revealed anew. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for
the manifestation of the Son of God. 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 are part and parcel of creation and we shall draw it along with
us. There shall be new heavens and a new earth. The curse shall be
taken from the garden, thorns and thistles shall no longer grow there,
and there shall be no killing or devouring in all God's holy mountain.
The galling yoke, which we have laid on the whole of creation by our
sin, shall be taken off it by our Redeemer!

22, 23. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain
together until now. And not only they, but ourselves, also, which have
the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body.
We groan in unison with a groaning creation and we shall not, at
present, get altogether rid of our aches, pains and sicknesses.

24-32. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for
what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we
see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also
helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we
ought: but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groans
which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the heart knows what is
the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to
His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. 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. What shall we say, then, to these things? If God is
for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give
us all things?