A. (2) We see their intensity in the fact that Christ's life was perfectly holy. that if the main direction of a life be right, God will reveal to a man the points in which he is wrong. The eye that is the quickest to see beauty is most pained by deformity; the ear that most loves harmony is most pained by discord. Yet had they no real fellowship in His sufferings, because they had not risen to the discovery of His design. 12. Blessed are they whose love grows with sorrow. One day the tide is flowing in Solway Firth, rushing like a race horse with snowy mane to the shore. 20. We can add nothing. VIII. Nor should we entirely dismiss such a theme without one look onwards. 13, 14. It was not a phantom that haunted the upper chamber, etc. He suffered (1) Voluntarily and cheerfully do we suffer willingly? )The martyr spiritA Chinese convert, when trying to persuade his countrymen to give up their idols and believe in Christ, was ridiculed and scorned, and at last pelted with mud and stones till his face was red with the blood that flowed from the cuts in his temples. The first lesson of life is one of vicarious suffering. Shall the coming months be marked by a diligent, heart-searching application of "the rest of the oil," to the yet unoccupied possibilities of our life and service? It led the Son into the darkness; yet it was not the less precious to the heart of the Son for that. Paul might have had them as had the impenitent thief, without any fellowship with Christ. Conformity to Christ's death is the deep calm of indifference to sin with all its allurements, ever setting in together with and over against the conflict. Really the text means--our citizenship is in Heaven, we belong to the Eternal City. vi. The knowledge transcends all other as to its importance. (2) How strong were the cords with which Christ was bound! "They were amazed" as Jesus went before them to Jerusalem, "and as they followed they were afraid." The first words of the text show that Paul was beginning to think of winding up his letter, and the preceding context also suggests that. When I first see Christ linked to me by the bonds of God's everlasting covenant, then faith begins its work within me; then, the first utter dislike to sin, as sin, is bred in my heart.3. Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency Alexander MaclarenExpositions of Holy Scripture, The Gain of ChristThat I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.'--PHIL. He was not like those old schoolmen whom Lord Bacon condemned, and who, instead of learning what to think about nature from the facts of nature, endeavoured to persuade themselves that the facts of nature corresponded somehow with what they already thought about it. To know its power is to feel our confidence strengthened in sorrow and death.V. Did they allow this ever lasting protest against the pollution, the selfishness, the hatefulness of sin before God, to be lifted up in peace? His last words upon the cross testified that His trust remained unshaken. When first the Holy Spirit convinces of the hatefulness of sin.2. )Vicarious suffering commonH. In pro portion to the tide of new resurrection, life is strong in us. He carries its scars yet, and will carry them to his grave. Just so thy fondly cherished hopes of earthly distinction must be laid down at the foot of His cross; thou must be content, so far as they are concerned, to be stripped and nailed to the cross of shame, and made a spectacle to men.3. 10). First, He should seek to be clothed upon with Christ's righteousness, and this ought to take up all his spirit. (1)Our Sonship "begotten again to a lively hope. Better to know Jesus Himself than to know the truth about Him for the deep things of God as they are revealed by the Holy Ghost. Blessed are they whose love grows with sorrow. And as it was with them historically, so it seems to be doctrinally here. And it may be our joy to do likewise, and to have the brighter fellowship even in the meanness of your toil.2. If you pride yourself on your family you can have no fellowship with Him who endured contempt as the carpenter's son.2. Every man feels this in himself; one part of his being paying another's penalty. He likes nothing better than to side-track one of God's express trains, sent on some blessed mission and filled with the fire of a holy purpose. If it was grief to the Good Shepherd to see the sheep wandering, it was joy to bring it back to the fold. And thus we are partakers with Him, being called to suffer after His example. God setting him forth as a propitiation is something distinct from setting us an example. Mere suffering will do nothing for us. A. A. The pains of life are as various as bodies and souls. As Christ died to sin, passed out from the penalty and imputation of sin, He had no more to do with it. How does this principle of sin manifest itself? IN WHAT SUFFERINGS CAN WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST?1. St. Paul appreciated the value of other departments of knowledge. In the highest sense we cannot share Christ's sufferings, and, thank God, need not. In (1)Unbelief. (Anna Shipton. Iii. Whatever projects His followers may have formed for Him were defeated by it. Shall the coming months be marked by a diligent, heart-searching application of "the rest of the oil," to the yet unoccupied possibilities of our life and service? Why is it we do not declare that truth more constantly and zealously? 10). And so with great mental suffering. So each of the brethren who are being made like Him are losing part and interest in sin, weaned from its power, alienated from its motives and objects; the distance ever widening between it and them; the breach becoming ever more and more irreconcilable. People often fail to get at the meaning of this glorious text because they mistake that word conversation. Methinks what I have now pictured before you will wake the echoes in your breasts, and you will say, "Ah, it is even so! THE BENEFITS ARISING FROM THIS FELLOWSHIP. If, then, God has made a new creature in Christ Jesus, He has provided for it an element and gratification for its spiritual desires. )Fellowship with Christ's sufferingMusical Anecdotes.An intimate friend of Handel's called upon him just as he was in the middle of setting the words of "He was despised" to music, and found the great composer sobbing with tears, so greatly had this passage and the rest of his morning's work affected the master. (7)The agonized; and(8)The dying.II. (1) They were meritorious, whereas we cam never have any merit in God's sight. (Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.) (4) In the matter and form and nature of His suffering He surpassed us. Like Paul, you must count all things loss. Such must be the law of our life. Norton. Is this a gloomy view of religion? If He became sin for us we are the sinners. (c) That the moral law of God is a transcript of His own character, and as such, must be vindicated in all its honours and claims. They stood beside Him bravely for a moment in the garden, but when they saw Him bound and helpless when they expected miraculous power, they all forsook Him and fled. He carries its scars yet, and will carry them to his grave. "Made conformable" means being cast in the same form, being brought into such a community and likeness that one sketch, outline, shape, will represent both.I. And our Easter resurrection from sin will be no less real if it is His power by which we are rising (Revelation 3:1).2. )Fellowship with suffering longed forS. But where were they meantime? (1) They were meritorious, whereas we cam never have any merit in God's sight. (1) Because when, e.g., we have experience of the power of Christ's resurrection it begets a new life within which inclines us to heavenly things there is a principle to work with (Galatians 5:25). "That I may know Him" (Phil. In this sense believers must be conformed to Christ. )The fellowship of Christ's sufferingsDean Vaughan.I. THE FELLOWSHIP of His sufferings. Iii. Love cannot clasp all it yearns for in its bosom, without first suffering for it. Surely a very short bede-roll would contain their names; or would there be any other but the Name which is above every name upon it? 3. iii. )The fellowship of Christ's sufferingsDean Vaughan.I. A. Is it not worth while to get rid of this with all its grievous bondage?3. IN WHAT SUFFERINGS CAN WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST?1. St. Paul's life was Christ. The same capacity for pain that marks the highest nature also shows its capacity for pleasure. The pains of life are as various as bodies and souls. They may be ignoble and puerile, or they may be worthy and great. He was incarnated, suffered, died, and rose again from the dead; ascended to heaven, and there Adam ClarkeEntire SanctificationThat True Solace is to be Sought in God AloneWhatsoever I am able to desire or to think of for my solace, I look for it not here, but hereafter. In pro portion to the tide of new resurrection, life is strong in us. (2)To comprehend and appreciate it in its relation with man's redemption. The child which has no one to suffer for it is a miserable wretch. This is true of the roughnesses of life, its calumnies, its disappointments; of those trials which come through the affections, and those which come through the ambitions of our nature. Paul yearned to share the pain and distress that Christ experienced. To feel its power is to rise with Him and set our affections on things above. All his desires, interests, objects, were swallowed up in the living to Christ's glory. We have an illustration of 1. (c) Faith. Having for one of its main objects deliverance from the power of sin and the promotion of universal holiness, it is fitted to cherish a love of practical godliness.2. Martin. )Fellowship with Christ's sufferingMusical Anecdotes.An intimate friend of Handel's called upon him just as he was in the middle of setting the words of "He was despised" to music, and found the great composer sobbing with tears, so greatly had this passage and the rest of his morning's work affected the master. Considerations of pleasure and pain were subordinate. 1). But when in the depth of the valley of humiliation Christ was ever awake to each particular of His great load of woe, and when they offered Him the stupefying potion He put it from Him. It signifies to make holy or pure. If you pride yourself on your family you can have no fellowship with Him who endured contempt as the carpenter's son.2. I want to understand and have a share in His sufferings and be like Christ in His death. (c) That the moral law of God is a transcript of His own character, and as such, must be vindicated in all its honours and claims. IN RELATION TO SIN. 17 Brethren, be ye imitators [followers] together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample. Really the text means--our citizenship is in Heaven, we belong to the Eternal City. Do we desire that the Lord may nerve us to participate in His sufferings? If I throw a stone, I can ascertain the weight of the stone, the moment at which it leaves my hand, the distance of the spot at which it touches the ground. I become knit to Him and weaned from it crucified with Him, so that though the motions towards it are yet felt in my body, yet I have no disposition in its favour.III. IV. iii. (Bishop Magee. Our privilege of fellowship in the sufferings. It represents the principles which lie at the foundation of God's moral character and government, and are most vitally connected with man's hopes as a guilty and helpless being. Paul wished to be raised in the scale of being, and he knew that he could not have Christ's holiness without Christ's sadness, His grace without His grief. What is life? (Dean Vaughan. 10). (3)Reconciliation and peace. B. SimpsonDays of Heaven Upon Earth Twenty Third Sunday after Trinity Enemies of the Cross of Christ and the Christian's Citizenship in Heaven. The heart felt experience of what is said to be known (Colossians 2:12-13; Colossians 3:1; Ephesians 2:4-57, corresponding to what the resurrection meant for Christ. Because of our unbelief. Now we see what is meant by this fellowship. All his desires, interests, objects, were swallowed up in the living to Christ's glory. Of this the natural man knows nothing. But give a spiritual eye that loves the beauty of holiness; a spiritual ear that loves the harmony of righteousness, and place them in the midst of disorder and evil, and you have a nature that, just because it is perfect, must be sorrowful.3. Rutherford. to the Philippians iii. Raffles, D. D.I. One is about pardon, and the other about righteousness. 13). Would such reasoning help you to dry your scalding tears? We live still because he lives, and never is our life more joyous than when we look most steadily to him. This should teach us patience, watchfulness, continued looking unto Jesus.3. (d) He contemplates with delight at the foot of the Cross the harmony of the Divine attributes. In the enjoyment of the Divine favour "This is My beloved Son," "We are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." I become knit to Him and weaned from it crucified with Him, so that though the motions towards it are yet felt in my body, yet I have no disposition in its favour.III. The spiritual life owes nothing to the natural life: it is from another source, and tends in another direction, The old life bears the image of the first and earthy Adam; the second life bears the image of the second and heavenly Adam. If Christ, while apostles behold, is taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Christian in heart and mind with Him ascends, with Him continually dwells, is made to sit together with Him in heavenly places. What was it that wrung that "My soul is exceeding sorrowful." Christ never was sick or unwell. IN RELATION TO SIN. A CONFIRMATION FOREVER OF THE CLAIMS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. John 16:16; Matthew 26:31-33). 15. One bright and thankful look at the cross is worth a thousand morbid, self-condemning reflections.
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