GROVE CHAPEL PULPIT.

and receive from His gracious hands the things He has prepared. Here I would ask, What has He prepared? The first answer

is

SALVATION. Yes, He has prepared a glorious and perfect salvation for His people. A salvation finished and complete. A salvation prepared according to dear old Simeon's confession : "For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people" (Luke ii. 30, 31). The plan of salvation was prepared by Him before the foundation of the world. See 2 Tim. i. 9: "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

""Twas His own purpose that begun

To rescue rebels doomed to die;
He gave us grace in Christ His Son,
Before He spread the starry sky."

Salvation! What is it? It is perfect deliverance from sin, from the curse of the law, from self, from the world, from death, and from hell. It is a glorious transfer from the authority of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son; from dunghill depths to heights of glory in union with Him. Anything short of that is not salvation. But all this the Father has prepared for His own in the Person, work, blood, and obedience of Jesus. The God-Man came to save His people from their sins (Matt. i. 21); and ere He quitted earth's dark regions, He could say to His Father: "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (John xvii. 4). I rejoice to know that the salvation of my soul is so precious as prepared and performed by my God, that I cannot add anything to it or take anything from it. I cannot have a finger in that business. The preparation of it is all God's own. The performance of it is all Christ's own. The application of it is all the Spirit's own. The glory of it is all JEHOVAH'S own. Again, I would ask, What has He prepared? The answer is

RIGHTEOUSNESS. As a sinner saved, I am something more, for, blessed be His holy name, I am a justified and accepted child. He has prepared for me a glorious robe of righteousness. From Bethlehem's crib to Calvary's cross, from the virgin womb of His mother to the virgin tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was a righteous Man-an innocent Man-a pure Man, without a spot of sin or a taint of corruption in Him-and all this for me. He perfectly obeyed God's righteous law, and thus wrought for me that righteousness without which I must have been cast out of God's presence for ever, but in which I find His presence is salvation. According to the work of the law in my heart I found myself to be a naked sinner before my God. But He said: "Bring hither the best robe and put it on him." In the design and workmanship

of this robe I had no hand whatever. The Father planned, the Son performed, the Spirit applies.

"And lest the shadow of a spot

Should on my soul be found,

He took the robe the Saviour wrought,
And wrapped it all around.'

Swain, in one of his blessed hymns, says :

"How glorious was the work He wrought,
While dwelling on this earthly globe,
When each good deed, and each pure thought,
Conspired to weave our spotless robe.
Dressed in this garment washed in blood,
And ransomed from the powers of hell,
We now free access have to God,

And of His love and goodness tell."

A prepared salvation! A prepared righteousness! Everything prepared! What else can be spoken of as JEHOVAH'S preparation? The answer from the Saviour's lips is

A BODY.

Listen to that glorious declaration by the apostle in Heb. x. 5, as he quotes Psalm xl. 6-8. The Lord Jesus Christ there says: "A body hast Thou prepared Me." This was the real human body of Christ, in and by which the salvation and righteousness of His Church was wrought; He has also His spiritual body, in which the glory of His salvation shall be eternally displayed. Think of His wonderful human body for a little while. It was a body so delicate, beautiful, and comely, so fall of grace and truth, that the Father viewed it with ineff able and unceasing delight. In it He could see no flaw, no disease, no mortality, no seed of death. No mortality? None. Immortality was there. Death could not reach Him, and He had to reach forth to meet death. He bowed His head to meet it, and gave up the ghost, saying, "Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit" (Luke xxiii. 46). He also said, "I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it up again." But look at that innocent, immaculate, and impeccable body. Upon it He bore the whole load of His people's sins. In it He learned how to sympathise with His poor brethren in all their sorrows. By it perfect obedience was rendered to God's holy law. Through it all the blessings of the covenant flow to meet the wants and necessities of His pilgrim people here upon earth. Christ, as the glorious Head of grace, could look up into the face of the Father, and say, "A body hast Thou prepared Me." Salvation was accomplished by it. Suffering was endured in it. Sympathy abounds by it, and intercession ever ascends from it for me. Look at Psalm lxi. 7: "O prepare mercy and truth that may preserve Him." Mercy and truth met together in the great and glorious Head for all in living union with Him (Psa. lxxxv. 10). Mercy for me when I

am miserable. Truth for me when I am wavering. What else has God prepared for His own?

HONOUR AND GLORY.

Yes, He has prepared for them both honour and glory in union with the Lamb. Do you not remember how the mother of Zebedee's children said unto the Lord, "Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy kingdom?" Jesus said unto her two sons, "To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine to give, but for whom it is prepared of My Father." Think of that! Prepared nobility! Prepared dignity! Prepared royalty! All in union with Zion's King and Lord. In connection with this part of the subject we delight to contemplate those words of the King to His eternally-loved ones: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." A kingdom of grace, righteousness, peace, and glory prepared, and possessed for them according to the Redeemer's words, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John xiv. 2, 3). We will notice in the last place

GOOD WORKS.

Ay, prepared good works for a prepared people. Having such preparation, promises, privileges, and immunities, what manner of men ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Fleshly free-willers would say, It is yours to bring forth good works, to do good works, and perform good works, and thus show forth your gratitude to God. To such I would say, You had better go home and do them yourself. I will tell you what I like. I like a God preparing and performing all the way through, and we find by the grace bestowed upon us, according to Eph. ii. 10, that "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained"—margin, "prepared, that we should"-do them? No! That we should walk in them." In the experimental possession of Divinely-prepared things, we can be satisfied with nothing short of Divinely-prepared good works, and these will manifest themselves in spite of the opposition of the devil and the incorrigibility of our wretched nature.

The time is gone.

May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.

REVEALED THINGS FOR A RESERVED

REMNANT.

A Sermon

PREACHED IN GROVE CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, ON SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 9TH, 1879, BY

THOMAS BRADBURY.

"But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."-1 Cor. ii. 10.

THE HE statement of the text stands in striking contrast to that of the previous verse. Last Sunday morning I endeavoured by the grace and assistance of God the ever-blessed Spirit to direct your attention to the persons and their privileges mentioned there, "Them that love Him. The things which God hath prepared." It is my lot this morning to lay before you something of the contrast contained in the text. It reveals the utter impossibility for the human mind to grasp or understand Divine realities-the utter inability of the carnal mind to apprehend, hold, or retain spiritual verities. It will be ours then to notice that with which the text is contrasted.

I.—THE CONTRAST TO THE TEXT-" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

II. THE REVELATION IN THE TEXT-"But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."

III. THE THINGS REVEALED-Not simply which may be, but the things which are, and have been revealed to the hearts. of the children of God by His blessed Spirit.

I. THE CONTRAST TO THE TEXT-Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Here we have revealed the perfect inability, incompetency, and helplessness of the creature to apprehend, grasp, or retain the things of the Spirit of God. The carnal mind is utterly unable to lay hold upon spiritual verities. Mark! The natural eye

No. 115,-PRICE ONE PENNY.

hath not seen.
The natural ear hath not heard. The natural
heart hath never received "the things which God hath prepared
for them that love God."

THE EYE is first presented to us in this statement of facts. When we consider this in connection with the persons written to, and the place where they dwelt, we wonder not at the apostle quoting this portion of Divine prophecy in proof of human inability to understand Divine truth. The Corinthians were an artistic, accomplished, and refined people, well-instructed in the arts and sciences. Architectural beauty met the eye on every hand. Grandeur and glory are seen even now amid the ruins of the place. If the eye was so cultivated and fastidious, we may well imagine what the pride of the heart would be without the constraining and restraining power of God the ever-blessed Spirit! But the apostle in the chapter before us points out the creature-humbling, Christexalting, and Spirit-honouring truth, that the revelation of God's mind and will to His people in Christ Jesus can only be by Himself, and that to His own nature (2 Peter i. 4); the new heart of his own bestowing (Ezek. xxxvi. 26); the understanding given (1 John v. 20), which He implants in the hearts of elect vessels of mercy. We see this in the statement of the apostle in the 6th verse: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory; which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." They had no spiritual appetite, taste, or desire for the revelation of God in Christ Jesus. There was no beauty in a crucified Redeemer that they should desire Him, and no charms in His Gospel that they should be drawn by it. The beauties of creation, but still more, the artistic production of men's hands, met their gaze, and with these their minds were wholly absorbed. Their whole soul was centred in earthly and sensual things, and I may say, which is in strict accordance with the apostle's reasoning, in devilish things. Let me ask, Which ancient city was so corrupt and voluptuous as that of Corinth? You know the meaning of the appellation, A Corinthian woman. A term expressive of the lowest specimen of poor fallen humanity, which will give you some little idea of the morality of a place which was so refined, so elegant, and so beautiful to the eye. But with all this mental and intellectual cultivation the apostle says, "Eye hath not seen." The natural eye of man hath not seen the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

See how this is set before us in many portions of God's blessed Word. The Lord Jesus Christ speaking to Paul says: "But rise, and stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared to