The Eighth Chapter of Romans

The 8th chapter of Romans is one of the most famous chapters in all of Paul’s epistles. I say, one of the most famous. There are three chapters that I think are highwater mark, and when I get into one of them I think that is the best, and when I get into the second one, I think that is the best, and when I get into the third, I think that is the best. I have three children; I think they are all the best. I can’t tell which I like the best, but I like all three of them.

The 13th chapter of I Corinthians, that treatise on love, is sublime, and if the church of God could live in that chapter for twelve months, I believe it would revolutionize this country. I am quite sure the church of God itself would be revolutionized. Or the isth chapter of I Corinthians, where Paul tells us what the gospel is, how Christ died for our sins and how He was raised for our justification, and where he teaches the mighty doctrine of the resurrection and the precious truth of His coming again; when I get there, I think that is about the best chapter. And then I turn to the 8th chapter of Romans, and when I get right into the heart of it, I really think that it is the best chapter ever wrote.

A ,^ *’^^^’’^ss delivered on Saturday evening, August ^«», a..’tt«^%.’&«t«ii« oejd. Mass,

This is the chapter that opens with no condemnation and closes with no separation. But mark you, it doesn’t say there are no faults, no infirmities; it says there is no condemnation, either in life, or in death, or at the judgment. A great many people live all their lifetime under the bondage of death, and they fear the judgment; but if a man’s life is hid with Christ in God, there is nothing to fear in time or in eternity. There is nothing that will give the believer so much comfort as to know his standing in Christ.

Note that the difference between a believer and an unbeliever is right here. An unbeliever is living in his day, and he has nothing but a long dark eternal night to look forward to; a Christian is now living in his night, and he has a grand morning that he is looking forward to. The day is ahead, the glory is ahead, the best of life is ahead; it is not behind. That is the teaching of Scripture; and for a man whose life is hid with Christ in God, judgment is already passed; he will not come into judgment. Christ was judged for me, and the judgment is behind me, instead of before me. John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Already passed from death unto life.

ADOPTION, SONSHIP AND HEIRSHIP.

You will notice, as you pass along through this eighth chapter of Romans, how Paul brings out the thought of adoption, sonship and heirsM^. It I’ascw adopted, I have become a chiVd-, Gofii V^toVs^^x-^jj:^ judge, but my Father. It mate aVle 5^^^^’^^”^’^^’^^ the world how we look upon God. Some people fear God, but when they understand that He is their Father, that fear is gone.

Look a moment at the fourth verse: “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” If we have been born of the Spirit, and have the divine life within us, we are not to follow after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Do you know that the flesh and the Spirit divide all men, and there is no third state? Either we are in the flesh and following after the flesh, or we are in the Spirit and following after the Spirit.

Note the fourfold description: first, their nature, after the flesh; second, they mind the things of the flesh; third, their state is death, dead to spiritual things; fourth, carnal-minded and cannot please God.

The flesh has its religion. You will find hardly a man to-day on the face of the earth that hasn’t some sort of religion. You will find people living in the blackest, vilest kinds of sin, and you begin to talk with them, and they tell you:

“I won’t give up my religion for yours.”

That woman that Christ met at the well of Sychar

was looking for the Messiah; she was a disciple of

Jacob; she was all right. Yet she was living in the

vilest kind of sin. We find the same state of things

now. What is your creed good for if it hasn’t got

grace in it, and if there is no regeneration? A man

told me the other day that he wanted a religion that

was beautiful. There are a good many of that kind

now; they want a dead cold formalism; they don’t

want anything that has life in it. A maxv o. QjaxVfc

^nty some time ago because I said religloliVva ?>om%- thing to do with his moral character. He had divorced the two. That is human; that is man’s religion.

Now, people say, “Well, how can you tell?”

Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, has drawn the picture so vividly that no one need be deceived. Let me read to you a few words from the 5 th chapter of Galatians, the 19th verse: *’Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.**

People have an idea now that it makes very little difference what a man believes if he is only sincere, if he is only honest in his creed. I believe that is one of the greatest lies that ever came out of the pit of hell. Why, they virtually say you can believe a lie just as well as you can believe the truth, if you are only in earnest, and stick to it.

Suppose I go to a bank and present a check for $10,000, and the cashier says:

**Have you any money in this bank?’*

I say, •*No, nor in any other bank. *’

**What are you drawing this check on?**

“Earnestness. There isn’t a man in Massachusetts who wants to get $10,000 as much as D. L. Moody.’*

They would have me in a madhouse inside of thirty days, if not inside of thirty hours; and you people who say it doesn’t make any dit£et^Ti.Q.^ la. ^aa:c ‘^’^- lieves, you are deluded by SaUu The time has come wYieti. a. Vvxi ^VcrcM^^^^ ^^”^^^^ between the church and the world, and every Christian should get both feet out of the world. The trouble to-day is with these border Christians — that are living on the border, and that constantly want to slip over into Egypt, and get some of the onions and leeks and garlic. The most miserable people I meet are these border Christians. They are trying to live for both worlds, and are off and on, and you never know where to find them.

When the civil war was going on, the border states suffered more than any other part of the country. The states that were farther south, where they didn’t have any fighting, didn’t suffer like Kentucky and Maryland and Virginia. Every inch of that ground was fought over. In some places there were people who tried to be on both sides. They had the Confederate flag and the Star Spangled Banner, and when the Union army came along they ran up the American flag and shouted themselves hoarse for the Union, and when they passed, and the Confederate army came along, they put up the Confederate flag. Do you know what happened? Both armies had utter contempt for them, and they burned down their houses to the ground.

Next Paul goes on to tell what the fruit of Spirit is. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain-glory, provokmg one another, envying one another.” Isn’t It put clear there? Haven’t 70U th Vlv “ys of the flesh, and the fruit o£ tlcie S^imt”^ W.

seems to me no man or woman need be in doubt as to where they stand, which side they are on. What kind. of fniit are you bringing forth?

Now, the best part of the natural man is his mind, isn’t it? Let the mind move out of this body, and I am shut up in some institution. Now, Paul teaches that the carnal mind is enmity against God (verse 7)., If the best part of a man is enmity against God, and isn’t subject to the law of God, as, indeed, it cannot be, according to the Scripture, then we must put ofif the flesh, must we not, and not try to serve God in the flesh? “For to be carnally-minded is death; but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace; because the car* nal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.*’

I have had mothers come to me and say, “Mr. Moody, don’t you think it is strange that my boy doesn’t like spiritual things?”

I always say, “No; it would be a very strange thing if he did, until he is born of the Spirit.”

The carnal mind likes carnal things, the natural mind likes natural things, the worldly mind likes worldly things; but the spiritually-minded man likes spiritual things. The man that has become a partaker of the divine nature wants food for that nature, food that comes from heaven. This world will never satisfy him. He has a nature that reaches out after God. **01d things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” He doesn’t have to give up the world; the world slips away from him; he has something better. But the carnal man, of eouT^^,^^J2w’^^>15wfe^’^V^ why shouldn’t hey Now there are three stumAvas-%XoTL^s Va *0a^«^ ’ every man — human religion, human wisdom and human righteousness. In a great many of our colleges they are leaving this old Book out entirely, and they are trying to get wisdom without the Word of God and without the mind of God and without any knoledge of God. Daniel tells us that men shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. I believe that day has come. There never has been a day when knowledge has been sweeping over the earth as it is at the present time. We are living in a most marvelous age. A boy sixteen years old knows more than his father did one hundred years ago at the age of fifty. He has more advantages. But this doesn’t mean that righteousness is increasing. Therefore, let us be wary.

If it never troubles a man’s conscience to spend a great deal of his time in questionable places of amusement, and to take his family into places where there are degraded people, if he drives like Jehu all the week to make a dollar and moves like a snail on the Sabbath toward spiritual things — I believe that man is following the flesh; the divine nature is not in him; he is not walking after the Spirit, but after the flesh. When I find Christian people who had rather go to some progressive euchre party or whist party than to a religious meeting, I think they are following the flesh, don’t you? I was perfectly shocked when at Pittsburg some time ago to find that some church members left the town Sunday night and went to Philadelphia to attend a whist association. Is it any wonder their children go to ruin? Oh, God hates a sham! It means a good ies to he a, Christian, and if a person is going to be a Oliristian, let him put off the old man with a lils te?. d piat on the new man. That is the titid ot Chf^- tians we need at the present time, for to be carnally-minded is death; but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace.’*

What are we going to do with the flesh? Let it be abolished! let it be destroyed! Let us put it in the place of death, and keep it there. It is not God’s plan to bring this corrupt body into His kingdom; it is going to be cast off at death, and, therefore, we had better put it away now.

Look at that ninth verse: **But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.**

How are you going to tell whether you are a Christian or not? Not by the fact that you are a Catholic or a Protestant, not that you subscribe to some creed that man has drawn up. We must have something better than that. What did Christ say? **By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another. ‘* I used to wish, when I was first converted, that every Christian had to wear a badge, because I would like to know them; my heart went out toward the household of faith. But I have got over that. Every hypocrite would have a badge on inside of thirty days, if Christianity had become popular. No badge outside; but God gives us a badge in the heart. The man that hasn’t any love in his religion, I don’t want it; it is human. The man that hasn*t any love in his creed may let it go to the winds; I don*t want it. **By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that you have love one toward axLotber, “That is the fruit oi the vt.. “‘^^ ^”^ hath not the Spirit of Christ, lie uoti o^*^^’’

THE LOVE OF GOD.

The quicker every church that hasn’t the love of God is swept from the face of the earth, the better. They are stumbling-stones. They do far more harm than good. Our churches would not be empty, and our church members oflE on their bicycles on the Sabbath, or reading the Sunday newspapers, if the church of God was filled with love. Nothing will take hold of the hearts of people like love. If I can convince a man that I love him, it will break down every barrier, and I can reach him; there is a time coming in his life when I can reach him if I only bide my time, if I am filled with love.

You know the old story of the boy and the echo. The boy, living on the edge of the woods, heard the echo of his voice, and he cried out,

“Halloa there!”

The answer came, “Halloa there!”

**You are a bad boy!*’

“You are a bad boy!”

“Come here, and I’ll whip you!”

“Come here, and I’ll whip you!”

“I am coming!”

“I am coming!”

The little fellow ran into the house and said, “Mother, there is a bad boy out in the woods, and he is going to whip me.”

The mother said, **No, I don’t think he is a bad boy; you didn’t talk to him well. If you had spoken to him kindly I think he would have spoken to you kindly. Go out and try it again.*’ So tie boy went out.

••Halloa!”

•’You are a good boy!’*

‘•You are a good boy!’*

“I love you!’*

“I love you!”

He came running into the house, and said,

“Mother, that is a good boy, after all.”

Life is only an echo. If you go through the world with love in your heart, you will make people love you; and love is the badge that Christ gave his disciples.

In the loth, nth, and 13th verses there are four “Ifs*’ that I want to call your attention to. “^’If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” “^ the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” **//^ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.” “^ ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’* Mark it. We are to walk by the Spirit, we are to be led by the Spirit, we are to be taught by the Spirit, we are to be influenced by the Spirit, we are to be guided by the Spirit, we are to be inhabited by the Spirit; and if these bodies become a temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, and we put off the old man with all his deeds, and put on the new man, then we shall have power with God and man, we shall get victory over sin, over the world, and over Satan, — over every foe. But it is in Christ.

Bat look again, in the 15th vexse-. ‘’’^ot^^i’s?^^^^*^ tweived t6e spirit of bondage agaxu ljo te« NiX^“^ “have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

I want to say very emphatically that I have no sympathy with the doctrine of universal brotherhood, and universal fatherhood; I don’t believe one word of it. If a man lives in the flesh and serves, the flesh, he IS a child of the devil. That is pretty strong language, but it is what Christ said. It brought down a hornet’s nest on His head, and helped to hasten Him to the cross, but nevertheless it is true. Show me a man that will lie and steal and get drunk and ruin a woman, — do you tell me he is my brother? Not a bit of it. He must be born into the household of faith before he becomes my brother in Christ. He is an alien, he is a stranger to the grace of God, he is an enemy to God, he is not a friend. Before a man can cry, “Abba, Father,” he must be born from above, born of the Spirit.

“The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Paul is climbing along up to this beautiful doctrine of sonship, but he is coming a different way from what the world does. “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Oh, that we might know our true relationship! Sons and daughters of God in this crooked and perverse generation! Do you know that a great many children of God have never seen their standing in Christ, and what it means to be a son or a daughter?

They never rise above servants. Go into a strange family, and see wow loTi. V^^-^ J^ou to find out who are the setvauts», axi o *Cti

-tfre. guests, and who the sons. I have been into many a home when I have been a stranger in a strange city; arrived late Saturday night; got up Sunday morning early, before anyone was up except the servant. The servant would come in, and dust the room, and put the furniture in order; I knew that was the servant.

By and by a guest would come down, and I wouldn’t be there five minutes before I would find that he was in the sae position as myself. By and by down would come rollicking boy, and away he would go all throuj the house, out into the kitchen, into one room after i ther; and if it was a week day, and the post had cc he would look over all the letters to see if there was a letter for him. You could tell the difference between a servant and a guest and a son.

What ailed that prodigal? Why, he was coming to to say to his father, “Let me go into the kitchen and live with the servants. Make me as one of thy hired servants.”

His father wouldn’t hear a word of it. “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again.” He called him his son not servant

My dear friends, we are sons; and if sons, we are heirs; and thank God, if we are heirs, we are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

What He is, so am I. / /.

After the Chicago fire I met aiaau^Vo ‘’Moody, I hear you lost everJ)cvmm^^^^^’^’^^^

“Voll/* I said, ‘you understood it wrong; I vlivln’t.”

Ho Sill J, “How much have you left?”

l vMn’t toll you; I have got a good deal more left thiin I lost/*

“Vou can’t tell how much you have?”

“No /•

“l vlidni know you were ever that rich.”

“I supixe YOU didn’t”

‘*Vhat do YOU mean?”

“I moan just what I say. I got my old Bible out of tho tho; that is about the only thing. I saved it from I’iv* luiiuin^; ot that city, and one promise came to me ‘M ilUuuiiiatos. that city a good deal more than the tho kIuI •Ho that overcometh shall inherit all things, ■uul I witl tv his IivhI.*”

Wmi ,isk luo hvnv much I am worth. I don’t know. v» uMv >;v aiKl timl out how much the Vanderbiltskui wxMih, Aitvl tho Astvrs, and Rothschilds, but you ui I luul v»ii5 how much a child of God is worth. Vti ‘ItooaitNO ho is a joint-heir with Jesus Christ.

Vt» ,tic wMi x:vM!lj» aivund with your head down, tilVniv .i*OK»ut wiir ^vYortY? The weakest, poorest UA i»f l IN liohor than a Vanderbilt, because he t* ^’t ^^^Mu.^l iiclu’v The stutf that burned up in Chi- ‘»v:^* o the llust in the balance. Joint-heir ^^»U^ lovsu v’lnist* That is what the 8th of Romans

Oivl vM» ovot uvlKx when Christ reached resurrec- wm yunuwU what Uc siid? “I ascend unto My ••’’W^//tv; rfrtt, u»rK rather: iUld to “ii Ood ^od your ^nnl” z/^, ^^H»t us rijiht iiUo t^Wovf^YAv lsbl. V^ajaX.

Did you ever think that when Christ was dying on the cross, He made a will? Perhaps you have thought that no one ever remembered you in a will. You have been remembered, if you are in the kingdom. Christ remembered you in His will. He willed His body to Joseph of Arimathea, He willed His mother to John, the son of Zebedee, — and what a legacy it was! better than bonds and stocks, — and He willed his Spirit back to His Father. But to His disciples He said, “My peace, I leave that with you; that is my legacy. My joy, I give that to you.’* “My joy,” think of it! “My peace give I unto you” — not ^?/r peace, hut His peace!

They say a man can’t make a will now that lawyers can’t break, and drive a four-in-hand right straight through it. I will challenge them to break Christ’s will; let them try it. No judge or jury can set that aside. Christ rose to execute His own will. If He had left us a lot of gold, thieves would have stolen it in the first century; we never would have got it; but He left His peace and His joy for every true believer. Get into the 8th chapter of Romans! Paul was down in the. 7th; but he was up in the 8th chapter. He had both feet on the rock in the 8th. What a grand chapter it is!

Stop a moment, and ask yourself this question: Am I an heir, really an heir, of God? Are all these things mine? What does He say? “I appoint unto you a kingdom as My Father hath appointed” — that is jointheirship, isn’t it? — “that you might eat and drink with Me in My kingdom, and thai yolim. i-^^v’Ocs.^^^ on My throne.” Think of the LiOtd sX^oov:^^ e^cr^ taking a poor drunkard right up owX. ^eci.NX«:

and putting his feet on the rock, and a new song in his mouth, and lifting him up above powers and principalities, above angels and archangels, seraphims and cherubims, up, up, up, onto the throne with Himself! Do you suppose that an angel flying over the nations of the earth would look at any throne? What a great time they had a few years ago putting the Czar onto the throne of Russia! Nation after nation sent representatives to help lift him up. But Christ’s is more than that. His is an everlasting kingdom. His is a throne that is going to endure forever; and He says, **Ye shall sit with Me on My throne.’* Man, look up! Look at the stars to-night! no mud to-night! Our inheritance is above.

How sweetly He utters these words: “In My Father’s house.” How tender! The same Spirit, the. same place that He is in, the same hope, the same Grace, the same glory, and the same home!

This life is perfectly safe. Suppose that some one should lay hands upon the heir to the throne of England, — every man in the English army and ever vessel in the navy would be brought out at once to defend him, if necessary. God will take care of the heirs of glory. How are they guarded? “The angels of God encamp round about them.” Do you remember when that servant of Elisha got scared, Elisha said, “Lord, open his eyes,” and he saw the mountains filled with horses and chariots of fire. Look up, and thank God for this promise!

I had rather be in the heart of the 8th of Romans than Adam in the heart of Paradise. Adam might /rave stayed in Paradise ten thousand yeats, ^.TA:t^ <fevjl could have come in then and snatcliedlils»li away from him, but I challenge the devil himself to get my life away from me, because it is hid with Christ in God, and Christ conquered Satan. **The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. Christ conquered him, and oh, how safe the believer is! When the sinner is hid in Christ, hid in God, how is Satan going to get at him? He must go by the Almighty and by Christ before he can get at that sinner.

It is a great thing to be an heir of glory. It is a great thing to have your life guarded by the Son of God, and to have the angels of God encamping round about you.

*’What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? * ’ (verse 31.) Would jou just answer that question? Who can be against us if God, the Creator of heaven and earth, be for us? Why, no one!

Take the 28th verse: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.” All things: tribulation, reproaches, persecution, infirmities, distresses, famines, etc.; all things work together for good to them that love Him.

Do you know, a dead level in a man’s life would be his ruin? If he had nothing but prosperity, he would be ruined. A man can stand adversity better than prosperity. I know a great many men who have become very prosperous, but I know few that haven’t lost all their piety, that haven’t lost sight of that city eternal in the heavens, whose builder and maker is God. Earthly things have drawn their heart’s aifectioxis, away from eternal things.

What we sigh and long for is very often the very ruin of us. Joseph was like most of us. He thought it was a pretty hard thing to be sold by his brothers, and taken off down into Egypt. It looked as if it was going to work against him. But didn’t Grod overrule, and send him down there to lay by for all the nations of the earth? That star that began to shine down there has been shining ever since.

I have an idea we will thank God in eternity for our reverses and trials more than for anything else. I believe John Bunyan thanked Grod for the Bedford Jail more than for anything that happened to him down here. I believe Paul thanked God for the rods and stripes more than for anything else that happened to him; and he is talking right out of his own experience in this 8th of Romans. I haven’t any doubt but that Daniel thought it was pretty hard to be taken as a captive, before he was twenty years old, off. down into Babylon; but God sent him down there to tell the people how to live, and to light up that whole country. Not only that, he has been shining these twenty-five hundred years. What a record be has left behind him, to prove that all things work together for good to them that love God,*’ — the lion’s den included. Little did he know, when he was cast into the lion’s den, what a blessing he was going to be to the nations of the earth! Those young men didn’t know what they were doing when they went into the fiery furnace, but what a plessing their experience has been to the church of God! Man, are yon passing through the waters? Don’t get discouraged! You are an heir of gVory, axi li o calls you to pass through deep waters, o otv ia.^^.

with you. He was with Joseph when he was cast into prison; they had to put the Almighty in with him. I had rather be in prison with the Almighty than outside without Him. You needn’t be afraid of prison, and, my dear friends, you needn’t be afraid of the grave, you needn’t be afraid of death. Cheer up, child of God; the lime of our redemption draweth near! We may have to suffer a little while, but when you think of the eternal weight of glory, you can afford to suffer, can’t you?

I think we will be so ashamed of ourselves when we get to heaven, to remember we ever spoke about our j sufferings. Christ said once that they that left every- ij thing for Him He would reward, and Peter asked: Ij

“What are you going to give me?” |;

. What had he left to follow Christ? A few old broken

nets and fishing smacks.

I believe Peter was ashamed of that question a good many times afterward, when he got a taste of resurrection life and the glory beyond.

What have we left? I am tired and sick of people who are all the time talking about what they have to give up. Let that kind of talk go to the winds, and - look and see what you have gained.

WHAT PAUL KNEW.

Here is one of Paul’s favorite expressions, “We know that all things work together for good.” I like to put down what John and Paul said about things they knew.

* * We know whom we have believed.” That is a good - thing to know, isn’t it?

“^^ jim?w that we are of God.” ^^-^^ Vl-ss^V^Jcc bearswitness with our spirit.’’

*’ We know that the Son of God hath come. *’

Oh, I am so tried of Christianity that is made up of negations, what people dofit believe. I met a man some time ago, and he said, “I don’t believe this.’* I talked with him a little, and made another statement; he didn’t believe that. Finally, I aid, “Man, will you tell me what you do believe?” and he didn’t believe anything except that he didn’t believe.

‘’We know we have passed from death unto life.” Man, do you know it? If you don’t, don’t leave this hall to-night until you are sure you have passed, from death unto life.

‘’We know that He abideth with us.” Isn’t that a great thing to know? If I have Christ formed in me the hope of glory, I can conquer this world and get it under my feet through Him; no other way.

“We know that He hears us.” It is a good thing to live within speaking distance of heaven, and to get your prayers answered. You might as well tell me that I don’t exist as to tell me God doesn’t answer prayer. I would never stop to discuss that with a man, because God answers prayer every day.

“We know that we shall appear with IJim in glory. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Cheer up, O child of God; the glory is ahead, not behind us.

“We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like Him. “You say we are not like Him; we know it, but we shall be. That is something that is ahead. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. *’/^ ^//i?ze, that if our earthly house were dissolved, vfre have a building of God, an house notmafiie WCa. “nds, eternal in the heavens.” My dear ixinas, am going to make something out of death. You talk about death being an enemy. It is the gateway to immortality. We pass through it to a glorious resurrection. I lay this body down, and I get a body even like His own glorious body, a body that death cannot touch, a body that sin cannot taint, a body like His own. Think of it!

I was down in Texas some time ago, and I happened to pick up a newspaper, and there they called me **01d Moody.” Honestly, I never got such a shock from any paper in my life before! I never had been called old before. I went to my hotel, and looked in the looking glass.

My dear friends, I never felt so young in my life as I do to-night; I cannot conceive of getting old. I believe that I have a life that is never going to end. Death may change my position but not my condition, not my standing with Jesus Christ. Death is not going to separate us. That is the teaching of the 8th of Romans.

Old! I wish you all felt as young as I do here to-night. Why, I am only sixty- two years old! If you meet me ten million years hence, then I will be young. Read that 91st Psalm, “With long life will I satisfy him. ’ * That doesn’t mean seventy years. Would that satisfy you? Did you ever see a man or woman of seventy satisfied? Don ’ t they want to live longer? You know that seventy wouldn’t satisfy you. Would eighty? would ninety? would one hundred? What will satisfy 70u.> Ah, my friends, lt kOis.mV’aA.Xv^^x.^^^ a, million years old, and had .o eijie, V^ ^rw^^.”^^^ satis&ed. /’With long life wW 1 ^a:^tjA:vcc:^ -^^ without end. Don’t call me old. I am only sixty- two. I am not old by a good deal.

SOME QUESTIONS.

Now Paul puts some questions. ‘*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 give us freely all things? (verse 32).” When God the Father gave Christ, the Son of His bosom. He literally gave up all that heaven had. He gave the richest jewel that heaven possessed. And if He has given us His Son, is there anything too great for us to

I ask? If a man should give me a diamond worth one hundred thousand dollars, I think I would make bold to ask him for a little piece of brown paper to carry it away in. If the Lord has given me the Son of His bosom, I can ask for anything. How shall He not freely give us all things?

He gave us His Son without anybody asking Him. No one dared to ask such a thing; He gave Him up freely for us all, says Paul. Thank God for the gift! “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God*s elect?” (verse 33). That is another question. Who will do it? How are you going to do it? “God that justifieth?” It would be a strange thing if God justi-. fied me, and then brought a charge against me.

That word **justifieth*’ seems too good to be true.

No wonder that Martin Luther shook all Germany

when that truth dawned upon him, the just shall live

by faith.” Do you know what ‘* justified” means? I

fP37/ tell you. It is to Stand before God mtlvout spot

wr/nkle, without a sin. It is to be ptLtbacL>eYOTi

en. God looks over His ledger, and says, “Moody, I have no account against you; it has all been wiped out by another.”

There is no condemnation. “Who is he that con-. demneth? Christ that died?”

Who will condemn me? Will Christ? Ten thousand times no! He wouldn’t do it. That sweet verse, John 3:17, that has been overlooked. The 16th verse is so sublime that we forget the other. It is this: **For “, God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the ’ world; but that the world through Him might be saved.*’ Thank God, Christ didn’t come to condemn, He cam to save me. He left the bosom of the Father, stooped from yonder throne, and came down to this world that He might get His arm under the vilest sinner and lift him up to glory.

Haven’t you sinned? I have. But if God has forgiven me, that is the end of it. What does the Bible say? “Not one of your sins shall be remembered.” If God has put them away, they are gone for time and eternity. * Oh, my friends, it is a great thing to be forgiven.

The next question is: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (verse 35).

Now, who is going to do it? Devils? men? angels? Paul throws down a challenge. He challenges heaven, and earth, and angels, and men, and principalities and powers; and not only that, but all things past, present and to come; all creatures internal or external; all states, death or life, height or preferment, depth or dungeon, prison or stripes — nothing shall separate me. Let the enemies come coWeelvveV^ ox ^vsvc ^. ^^-^^v. care. Let them come one and a. 1 wan xv.o “o *<^J^^ can overcome me. Why”? Became QioeL»s.^^^ me. I do not dread death; why? Because Christ has tasted death for me. I dread no judgment; why? That is past I dread no separation, and I anticipate no failure.

If any man ever took a flight on earth, Paul did in closing up that eighth chapter of Romans. As some one has said, he rode triumphant in his chariot through heaven and earth, and he threw down the gauntlet and defied the enemies of God to come on. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can separate us from the love of God, if we will just let the love of God into our hearts, and abide in His love.

There are three triplets in this chapter that I want to call your attention to:

The Trinity — God the Father, Christ the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Three all things**; all things work together for good; all things He will freely give us; in all things we are more than conquerors.

Three groans — the groan of creation, the groan of the believer, the groan of the Holy Spirit. But in Revelation 5 :13, the groans of creation cease. Thank God ioT that! Joseph Parker of London uttered sometli/jy that I thought was splendid mteatdto the h ^^^^^*’ wAere it says: *’Sotto axidi sK^- Mail flee away.’* Take up an oVA flicXXouax^ he said, and once in a while you will come across a word marked ‘’obsolete/* The time is coming, he said, when those two words, “sorrow*’ and “sighing,” shall be obsolete. Sighing and sorrow shall flee away, to be no more. Thank God for the outlook!

I thank God for the 8th chapter of Romans; and if you are not yet in it, get in and live there. It is a good place to live.