888 TRUE NOBILITY. A Sermon PREACHED IN GROVE CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, ON SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 2ND, 1878, BY THOMAS BRADBURY. "And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their Governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto Me for who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto Me? saith the LORD. 66 66 And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God."-Jer. xxx. 21, 22. "T HEM that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam. ii. 30), is the declaration of a faithful and unchanging God. The spirit and power, whereby all honour is rendered to Him, proceeds from, and is communicated directly by, Himself. It is a high privilege which cannot be acquired by any human effort, neither can it be communicated by any human means or appliances. It is wholly of God, and cannot be foiled by any act or association on the part of the creature. The favoured sinner upon whom He thrusts this signal honour cannot take any credit to himself, because he is kept, upheld, and maintained by JEHOVAH in those ways predestined for him to walk. The man who is brought by the teaching of the Holy Ghost to honour God, and to have an eye to His glory in whatever state of life He has been pleased to call him, will meet with many opponents and much opposition, while He who has thrust honour upon him will take care of him, and teach him to leave all his affairs in His gracious hands. He will manage all things for him, not only those which are small, but those which appear great and insurmountable, and will settle matters with all his adversaries. Did you notice the declaration in this chapter which I read for our lesson this morning, and which created a quiver in my heart? Ver. 16: "Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured." To be devoured is not very comfortable to the No. 81,-PRICE ONE PENNY child of God. This is his feeling ofttimes in his doubting moments; but, blessed be God, the words of the hymn are true concerning Satan : "He worries whom he can't devour But here God declares, "They that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them." Mark well that precious declaration. Lest the child of God might be left in doubt concerning some of his adversaries, God says, "All thine adversaries, EVERY ONE OF THEM, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an outcast." You may depend upon it, the adversaries who devour and prey upon God's people, and delight to spoil their dwelling-place experimentally and feelingly, have not yet ceased out of the land. Those tribes are not yet extinct, and are as lively to-day as ever they were against those upon whom JEHOVAH has thrust signal honour, brought to the knowledge of His sovereign and uninfluenced grace, separated from the world, and given them a place near to Himself, to rejoice in Him, and in Him alone, as their Portion and their All in all. Let one of these be led by God the ever-blessed Spirit into the enjoyment of the love of the Covenant-Three, to confess that salvation is wholly of grace from first to last, that God's Gospel is discriminating, distinguishing, and dividing between the elect and the reprobate, between the redeemed and the unredeemed, between the regenerate and the unregenerate, between the flesh and the Spirit, between the old man which is unimproveable, and the new man which is perfect and complete, which can never be marred, never soiled, never sullied in the sight of Infinite Excellency-I say, let a man confess this before the religious world, and what will be the sure effect? Misrepresentation, reproach, and persecution; and if the persecuted one be not constrained by sovereign love, and upheld by sovereign power, he can do nothing but retort with the same spirit, and smite with the same weapons. But it is our mercy to hear the Master's voice saying, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay;" and to enter into the spirit of Job when he said, "For I know that my Redeemer liveth" (Job. xix. 25)—that is, "I know that my God, my Next-of-Kin, the One who has a right to avenge me of my adversaries, and vindicate my cause before the Church and before the world, liveth. May it be ours this morning, in profound subjection to God's Word, under the teaching and guidance of His Spirit, to seek for a little instruction, comfort, and edification in the text. I feel myself to be but a puling infant in attempting to speak a word or two on so glorious a theme as the one before us, and my spirit trembles in the presence of Him, "whose I am and whom I serve," who has owned His own blessed testimony from my lips in making it life and power to many hearts in this place. I say, my spirit trembles as I contemplate the vast and glorious theme presented to us in this precious portion. We will noticeI. TRUE NOBILITY" And their nobles shall be of themselves." II.-GLORIOUS SOVEREIGNTY- "And their Governor shall proceed from the midst of them." III.-GRACIOUS ACCESS" And I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto Me." - IV. HALLOWED FAMILIARITY "For who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto Me? saith the LORD." V.-COVENANT RELATIONSHIP-"And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God." I. TRUE NOBILITY-"And their nobles shall be of themselves." Nobles. Who are these? What are we to understand by the word "nobles?" Persons of rank, dignity, excellence, greatness, antiquity of family, descendants from noble ancestors. There are nobles upon whom signal honour has been thrust, who have been lifted up from among the common people to positions of power and influence in the State. Nobles are they who stand by birth, right, and title next to the Sovereign, and are favoured at times to enter the presence of royalty. When we look at this subject in a spiritual light, we are lost in awe and admiration. Spiritual nobles. Those whom God, in His rich and sovereign mercy, has raised to great dignity and eternal honour. Those who are not only sinners saved by grace, but saints ennobled and exalted to eternal oneness with their great and glorious King. What are they by nature? Anything more than others? Nay, they are corrupt and depraved, among the common herd of mankind. "There is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. iii. 22, 23). If one is singled out by sovereign decree, and exalted amongst God's nobles, the Holy Ghost will be sure to teach him by the searching question: "Who maketh thee to differ?" or, as you may read in the margin, "Who distinguisheth thee? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (1 Cor. iv. 7). As we stand by nature in the presence of a just and holy God, and see ourselves in the light of that perfection which flows alone from Him, we judge ourselves as infinitely inferior to the common mass of mankind, and the confession of our heart is, "Sinners, of whom I am the chief." Even after we are brought to experience the sweets of salvation by grace, and to enjoy our true nobility in union with Him, like Abraham we shall approach the Majesty of heaven with a true sense of our original baseness. See Gen. xviii. 27: "And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes." believe, according to the teaching of God's most Holy Word, and the experience of His saints recorded there, which experience is in perfect agreement with that of my own heart, the more we are brought to see our high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the humbler we shall lie at the footstool of sovereign mercy. According to that precious testimony in Ezekiel xxxvi. 31, when honour upon honour has been conferred upon us, we bemoan ourselves, and "remember our own evil ways that are not good, and loathe ourselves in our own sight, for our iniquities and for our abominations.' Look at a child of God as he is in himself-far away from God. Look at him as the spiritual law of God opens up to him his true state" Enmity against God." Look at him after he is brought into fellowship with God and communion with the saints-ofttimes murmuring against God and repining at His will. Yet, in the face of all this, the Gospel of the grace of God declares, that before the worlds were framed, JEHOVAH had designs of mercy toward His own. In His covenant of grace He had high honours, gracious privileges, marvellous immunities, and true nobility treasured up for them. Ay, something more than true nobility, even royalty itself in union with Him He has to confer upon them. Look how their state before and after regeneration is described in Eph. ii. 1-7: " And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." After an awful description of them, Paul says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Such favoured ones are able to say sometimes, " Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures" (James i. 18). "This is my comfort in my affliction; for Thy Word hath quickened me" (Psalm cxix. 50). "Being born again, not of corruptible things, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter i. 23). See how you have it stated in John i. 12, 13: "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Begotten, quickened, and born again-all according to the will of a sovereign God in Christ Jesus. Family privileges and family immunities are made graciously ours. Sometimes, in our doubting and desponding moods, we think if we could only claim the relationship of a child we should arrive at the goal of our spiritual aspirations. In this we fall short of the glory God has reserved for us. Turn to that precious portion, Isaiah lvi. 5: "Even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." Not simply a child in the family, but raised to a glorious equality with the King of kings and Lord of lords, who begets, quickens, brings to the birth, introduces into His family, enriches with the treasures of His kingdom, and gives them a royal portion and position before Him. See how this is stated in 1 Peter ii. 9: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar, or purchased, people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." This royal portion and position is still further set before us in Rev. i. 5, 6: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Here we see Christ loving His own with an everlasting love, leaving them not to wash themselves, but washing them in His own blood. There is peculiar force and strength in that expression, "His own." Whenever you meet with it in the New Testament, you may rest assured that all else is excluded. "Nothing but precious blood would do, And that must flow from His own side." Cleansed, clothed, and crowned priests to God in union with Jesus. Turn to Isa. xxxii. 1: "Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment." Who are these princes? They are Heaven's nobles, God's aristocracy, upon whom He confers favours, bestows a kingdom, and who shall reign with Him for ever and ever. We read again in that precious Psa. xlv. 16: "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth." Yes, these are the princes who are "set over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant" (Jer. i. 10); these subdue kingdoms and work righteousness (Heb. xi. 33); they shall sit with Jesus on His throne (Rev. iii. 21), and shall judge the world and angels too (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3). Now comes the question, "How many of us have any intimation in our hearts that we are raised to so high, so excellent, and so glorious a dignity?" Some here may not be able to apprehend it, yet may be moved with desires and longings to be just what God designed us to be in His covenant compact before the worlds were framed. If there are such, and this we doubt not, then a separation has been wrought by the Holy Ghost between you and the world, between you and your mother's children, between you and those who are professors according to the flesh, between you and those who seek for place, position, and power amongst |