The period of His sufferings.3. Christ hath suffered, the just for the unjust. It is in every station and rank of life. THAT YOU HAVE REPENTED OF YOUR PAST LIFE AND CONDUCT. By the operations of His Holy Spirit.3. This certainty of angelical aid, so far as we are on Christ's side, we have by His exaltation into heaven, and the subjection to Him of angels, authorities, and powers. THE SALVATION OF NOAH AND HIS FAMILY BY WATER. The apostle Peter wrote: Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered (1 Peter 3:7). We speak of a person with whom we take advice as "the man of our right hand." He descended into hell." He was "put to death" as regards the one; He was "made alive" as regards the other. "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin."II. At length a wiser, more experienced eye was turned to that very side which had been pronounced evidently impossible; and, as he thus faced what had seemed the most despairing side of the problem, he saw that the strata of the earth below, broken sharp off in the upheaval of that majestic peak, furnished a series of steps which made the passage possible directly to the summit; and now every year even unexperienced feet make their way over the path thus opened. There are a thousand things that hinder men that have done wrong from forsaking their wrong-doing. Yet we dare not raise a monument to Christ as one who is dead. Thirdly: A lesson to the impenitent. Leighton. The flesh denotes His living body and animal soul; the spirit denotes here not the Holy Spirit nor the proper Deity, but the higher principle of the human spirit life, which was especially united to the Deity of Christ. The example and company of the saints in suffering, is very considerable, but that of Christ is more so than any other, yea, than all the rest together. Another sermon you will want to hear if you were not able to hear it Sunday.SB_111113_Sonnenberg. The danger. The Greek term here translated "answer" means a question or interrogation. This is one of the wonders of heaven. A young friend, who had been in much anxiety about her soul, was shown into my study one night. St. Peter defines with great precision the objects of this unearthly visitation. Art thou mean in thy birth and life, despised, misjudged, and reviled, on all hands? It is very simple. Take such an instance as that of the disobedient prophet — a man lied to by another prophet — and failing, under that persuasion, to keep the safe rule, what God has said to thee thyself is more true, for thee at least, and more concerning, than that which God is said to have said, in correction of it, or in repeal of it, to another. His official character. We know what the provocation is, when our motives are misjudged, or our self-respect is insulted; when mean calculations take advantage of our friendship; when our children are forgetful or wilful, our pupils dull, our servants careless, our neighbours arrogant, our beneficiaries unthankful or impertinent. And yet it was also expedient that His death should be violent, and so the more penal, to carry the more clear expression of a punishment, and such a violent death as had both ignominy and a curse tied to it, and this inflicted in a judicial way; that He should stand, and be judged, and condemned to death as a guilty person, carrying in that person the persons of so many who would otherwise have fallen under condemnation, as indeed guilty. 1. If such glorious creatures be subject to Christ, then —(1) How great a one is He, and how glorious is His kingdom. H. Wilson, D. D.I. He had spoken in the days of His flesh of being "straitened" till the great "baptism" was accomplished. )The sufferings of ChristS. Having somewhat considered these sufferings, as the apostle's argument for his present purpose, we come now, to take a nearer view of the particulars by which he illustrates them, as the main point of our faith and comfort. His talk of the pleasures of the table, his gossipy narration of things that have taken place, his dull, unimaginative dealing with all that happens, his narrow interests and selfish aims, they are dreadfully unsatisfying and wearisome. They begin thus — "Who is gone into heaven." His work which He wrought in our nature was the rescuing it from the dominion of sin, and bringing it into union with God. There are a thousand things that hinder men that have done wrong from forsaking their wrong-doing. In the Old Testament times, this principle of Divine government was exhibited in acts and ordinances of a more material kind. A prison is a place of gloom.2. I know they are often bitter and so long continued as to put a sore strain on clinging faith. To these imprisoned souls was revealed in Hades the presence and the form of one like unto the Son of Man, clothed in human spirit. Even the one people that He chose out of all the rest for His own, folding and guarding them, turned itself into the bitterest offence against Him. They had made the world a different place, one that had the power and presence of God as well as of man in it; never were they to forget that. We are not at home on earth. We could smile at death, and at him who hath its power, if we were free from sin.2. This shows us the meaning and power of the last clause of our text. Nor is this the chief exercise of His patience. But the Christian is subject to grievous temptations and sad desertions, which are heavier by far than the sufferings which the apostle speaks of here. W. McKay, D. D.The sufferings of Christ were in many respects peculiar:I. THAT YOU HAVE CONSECRATED YOURSELF TO CHRIST'S SERVICE. THAT THERE ARE HUMAN SPIRITS ACTUALLY IN THE PRISON OF HELL.1. Let us complete the sentence — "who is gone into heaven." His was just one of those impressible, impetuous temperaments, with great faults and great virtues, which lay a heavy tax upon the patience of friends, and yet inspire, beneath all that, a lively interest. He shows us this patience first as the Maker of things. To set forth the DESIGN of Christ's sufferings, and to aim at its accomplishment in BRINGING MEN TO GOD. Suffering is made to flow from sin. Wonderful conception! The water of baptism could no more save the baptized man, of itself, than the water of the deluge could save the antediluvian sinners who were outside the ark. Unique (ἄπαξ), once for all.2. He therefore took our flesh, to put it off thus, and to offer it up as a sacrifice, which, to be acceptable, must of necessity be free and voluntary; and, in this sense, He is said to have died even by that same Spirit, which here, in opposition to death, is said to quicken Him; "Through the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself without spot unto God." There is thy safety; there thy guarantee of God's favour; on that blessed Form falls no frown of the Father's countenance, but an everlasting smile of approval, and under that smile thou, His lowly and fainting member, art included. And He carries with Him there the same tender love towards the meanest of His faithful servants which He ever vouchsafed to exercise here. Find the way of making an end of sin, and the sting of death is instantly taken away. "Take heart," he seems to say; "your sufferings are not exceptional; they run in the Divine family; even our Master was not exempt from them; He also suffered in the flesh; but His sufferings did not stay His blessed ministry; nay, they even augmented His sphere of usefulness; 'He was quickened in spirit,' in which also he went forth to herald His accomplished work in regions to which, but for death, He had not obtained access. That only happens two ways–an intense study of the Word of God as it relates to people, and a deep personal study of your wife. "That He might bring us to God."II. Thomas. So shall it also be with you. The very trials of our life are ordered by a wiser will than ours, and are parts of a Heavenly Father's discipline. As long as you think merely of Noah being saved from death by drowning, you miss the grand design of God in bringing the flood upon the earth. In this sense it has an element of salvation in it, and it may be made helpful to you in the cultivation of Christian character and life by reminding you of the terms of that covenant.I. There are many things that he would not do because it would disgrace his profession. Just so far as they are real offences at all, they are offences against Him before they are to us. (3) That He might exercise tender compassion towards us, under our trials and sorrows.2. You now see how false is the common notion which many have of religion. Infinite leagues must necessarily lie between the Creator and the created; but between God and man in Christ Jesus there seems no distance at all, the man Christ Jesus sits at God's right hand. They had drawn to Him who was able to reveal God to them. If any of that had been in His sufferings, it had not furthered but undone all our comfort in Him.2. Consider the greatness of the example; the greatness of the person "Christ." And this is a most important consideration. THAT THERE ARE HUMAN SPIRITS WHO HAVE BEEN IN THE PRISON OF HELL FOR CENTURIES. Thus they would stand before the Preacher self-convicted and self-condemned. God's long suffering waited for them.Applications:1. It belongs not to Him any more than His death and resurrection belonged to Him, as man individual. Man's capacity for endurance. They are full in His sight. (3) That He might exercise tender compassion towards us, under our trials and sorrows.2. Again, our glorified Saviour is the giver of the Holy Spirit. Unless you come to know and feel your need of a thing, you will never desire or welcome it. He has to wait even for His own people that He has redeemed — the Church that He has purchased with His blood — in her backward and worldly living. Chains of iron confined the miserable culprit.4. Redemptive mercy is not for a favourite few: — it is for the unjust. )Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto HimAll angels subject to ChristJohn Rogers.Both good and bad; the good willingly, the others against their will.I. And then, if we could look far into the heart of God, might it not: appear that He has — considering their light, their calling, their privileges, and promises — quite as much occasion to let His patience have her perfect work in the inconstancies of Christians as in the crimes of unbelievers? The wheel will turn, and they that are lowest now shall soon be highest; they that have been with Him in the dust shall be with Him in His glory.3. But what marks a special contrast between them and the Divine displeasure is this, that as they gain in strength our human antipathies toward transgression are apt to grow hot and hasty. It is only by getting at the true nature of a difficulty that we are able to conquer it; the new and deeper knowledge opens ways of approach unthought of before. Men in countless myriads are in heaven white robed, praising God; and one Man is actually on the throne of God, vicegerent, Lord over all; having every knee to bow before Him, and every tongue to call Him Lord, to the glory of God the Father.II. McMordie, M. Dr. Carey, the great Indian scholar and missionary, tells of his visit to one of the wards in an Indian hospital. They are full in His sight. )The ascensionDean Vaughan. Have we not a reason for this, and at the same time a deeper look into his warm heart, when we turn to his personal character and history? To sit at the right hand of God is the highest conceivable glory. A prison is a scene of darkness. What does this signify but, first, that He is gone out of the region wherein our senses can perceive Him? I am gone, and you must be gone, This is not your place of resting, but you must prepare yourselves for a time when it shall be said of each one of you, 'He is gone.'" It seems to me that there are some few passages in Scripture which indicate the broad theory that all men of all ages, who in this life never had the opportunity of hearing of Christ and of His salvation, will not perish hereafter for lack of that opportunity given some time, but failing this world will find that opportunity in the world to come; and if they are equal to it, if by patient continuance in well-doing here they are able to meet it, then they will embrace the gospel, and become par takers of the kingdom of heaven, if not as princes and rulers in Israel, yet as subjects. It is so various in its manifestations, that it seems as if we took a new lesson in it every day. 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