Who can resist them? To death (Psalm 9:17).3. A third incentive is the impulse of the Holy Spirit, inciting thoughts of Christ. )The support of good men under their sufferings for religionAbp. The "springs of the valleys give drink to the beasts of the field." THE PEOPLE OF GOD WILL BE SAVED WITH DIFFICULTY.1. THAT THIS END IS FRAUGHT WITH FEARFUL CONTINGENCIES. Alas! where will you appear? Seeing that your reproaches and sufferings are not endless, yea, that they are short, they shall quickly end in glory, be not troubled about them, overlook them. The difficulty in the way of saving sinners is not simply that they have sinned, but that they will not now cease from sinning and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteous often find it difficult to bear their trials with Christian consistency, being liable to impatience and irritability, through want of watchfulness in trials comparatively light and transient, and strongly urged to discontent and resistance of will, through distrust of God and failure in spiritual firmness, in trials severe and lasting. 12, 13; 1 Peter 1:7). )Salvation difficult to the ChristianC. It is not doing good, but doing well that gets God to keep the soul. Physical force can have no direct application to mind for the purpose of determining its moral action. The righteous are scarcely saved —(1) Because their salvation could not be purchased but at the greatest conceivable expense. And His will is not that we should always suffer, though generally our estate be so in one kind or other. We must be conformable to our Head before we can come to heaven. No! And now will heaven let you in? The justice of God will not allow you to participate in the joys of the saints. (8) The remains of corruption within. That as it is impossible for the ungodly and sinner to be saved as such, so their misery is unspeakable. (2) This is further evident from the fears there are in the people of God about their salvation.4. It is one of the general characteristics of revelation throughout the Bible that it attributes to God certain distinct moral qualities; that it brings out by these the character of God, rather than the nature or mode in which God may be conceived to exist or to create. We must all have the same journey's end if we hope to get to heaven, but some may meet with a freer road, and a calmer season, and better company, in their journey than others. So much sin as gets in, so much peace will go out. It remains now to ponder the inference which the apostle chiefly designs to impress on our minds, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (6) The work of salvation in the righteous is already begun (Philippians 1:6).2. We should have an eye to God, and an eye to ourselves, and an eye to others, and an eye to the cause in hand; so we shall do well. Again, the sinner cannot be saved, because salvation from sin is an indispensable condition of salvation from hell. What can they plead in their own behalf at the bar of the eternal Judge? When their souls are ready to take their flight into another world, then is Satan most busy to hinder their salvation. Nothing at all. For they cast off all riot and excess, because the pain which followed exceeded the pleasure; and therefore they made temperance and chastity necessary to the true pleasure of life. God's "tender mercies are over all His works." The manner of such injury to their faith will be different at separate times. Genuine religion is the one thing essential for man.2. Human nature is ruined, but not left to decay, not simply kept from getting worse. And surely, if He is thus faithful in adhering to His own purpose concerning you, He is faithful also in the sense of being worthy of your trust. He would lead you into humility. Faith fulness in the highest is for us to be true to our ideals. THE TEXT SHOWS US WHO ALONE IS QUALIFIED TO BE THE KEEPER OF THIS INVALUABLE TREASURE — OUR IMMORTAL SOUL. Coals of conversion.2. The righteous are scarcely saved —(1) Because their salvation could not be purchased but at the greatest conceivable expense. HOW FAR THEY MAY RELY UPON THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO BEAR THEM OUT IN THESE SUFFERINGS. Remember God is as just as He is merciful. As man has chosen that he shall not be educated by standing firm, he must be educated by and through his very fall. Where will the mere professor appear? Faith fulness in the highest is for us to be true to our ideals. And the successful merchant remembers crises in his history when he found himself on the brink of ruin, when the last straw only was wanting to precipitate the catastrophe. So that all were agreed that it was impossible to attain to anything that looked like happiness without some real difficulty, which was necessary to be undergone, although the success Were uncertain. Not with the righteous in the judgment, for so God's Word has often and most solemnly affirmed. The wicked man may commit his soul to God's keeping, but how is he sure God will take the charge of it? When men may be said to suffer truly for the cause of religion and God's truth, and when not.1. So likewise in suffering we must commit our souls to God in well-doing in a double regard.1. And as a man protects his house from all enemies, so will God protect His Church and people, and be a wall of fire, and a defence round about them.3. Holiness of life and zeal in religion will provoke the ungodly (Matthew 11:18; Luke 7:33; Hebrews 11:25, 26).3. It is wonderful to see how much this difficulty is enhanced by the agency Satan and sin have had in the framework of society. God's will concerning our suffering is permissive in respect of those that do us harm; but in regard of our patient enduring injuries, it is His approving and commanding will. We must not go out of our sphere, but serve God in our standings, that if trouble comes it may find us in a way of well-pleasing, either doing works of charity or else the works of our particular calling wherein God hath set us.2. What construction ought to be put on the little difference made between the righteous and the wicked in the dispensations of Providence. Even of the animal creation this is true. Again, the darkness of nature is so great and so gross that it must be an exceedingly great work to save them from its influence and pour the true light of God through their intelligence. Alexander. (1) This difficulty is not owing to any deficiency in the love of God, which is universal (John 3:16). There is none for the ungodly and sinner. (2) Nor in the death and merit of Christ, which are infinite (Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2). Only that arm which clasps God's arm, and that heart sustained by God's heart. Sibbes. I mean such as are involved in the following sayings of the Master: — "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. They shall not appear among the righteous and the saved. And what is most grievous, is, that, by their unwary walking and the prevailing of some corruption, believers grieve the Spirit of God, and provoke Him to hide His face and withdraw His comforts. )The faithful CreatorJ. He is the faithful One. (1)Immoral conduct. Braden.Suppose, in the place of God as Creator, we substitute chance, or fate, or law, what a blank we have at once in the highest regions of thought and feeling! 28-32). For regular habit, or methodical action, is a quality of faithfulness. IN WHAT SENSE THE RIGHTEOUS ARE SAID TO BE SCARCELY SAVED. God may and does employ physical agencies to act morally, but never to act physically. In particular, we must do well to them that do us wrong. The soul is the more excellent part, witness He that purchased the same with His dearest blood. And their exposedness to this may hardly be obviated by the frequent calls they may have to the healthy and invigorating exercises of devotion. Disappointments fret, and fraud exasperates us, and meddlesome curiosity makes our lip curl. The man who is not a Christian has yet to enter upon the way.2. There is a man chained to a wife who is a constant source of temptation and trial to him. OBSERVE BOTH THE MYSTERY AND THE MERCY OF THE BELIEVER'S SUFFERINGS IN THIS WORLD.1. When then they are persecuted only for making an open profession of the Christian religion, by joining in the assemblies of Christians for the worship of God.3. And are the righteous scarcely saved? Sent a Saviour for them — engaged to accept and keep them.IV. How many postpone conversion because they think that it is so easy to become religious — they can begin at any time! There the former trials will contribute to the eternal bliss.(C. Their parents have held erroneous opinions, and they have had their moral constitution saturated with this influence from their cradle and upwards. )If the righteous scarcely be savedThe righteous scarcely saved, and the misery of the wickedJ. When we make it clear by managing anything, that we are led with the cause and conscience of our duty, it works mightily upon them that wrong us. For the more excellent and desirable the happiness is, the more it is worth the while for us to take pains about it; especially when there is a certainty of attaining it(2) The difficulties in our way to salvation are not such but we may reasonably hope to overcome them; i.e., if we set ourselves about it; otherwise a very mean difficulty will appear too great for us.And there are two things to show that we may hope to overcome them. It is a mystery that God should be pleased to subject His people to suffering.2. Another incentive is special temptation, or trouble, or difficulty, which often besets them, and urges them to look to their Saviour for deliverance or support. There would be indeed no use and no hope for anything we may do or say to make things human better were it not for this prior and this final responsibility of God, the faithful One from eternity to eternity. Sincerity and constancy are the necessary conditions of salvation, which may be tried much more in some than it is in others. Sometimes, to notice the two extremes, when it is violently assailed by doubts within and infidel expressions and actions without, its injury will be sudden and apparent, like that of a plant which in spring is smitten with the blast of the east wind, so that one hour its roots are firm and its leaves green, the next its roots are loose, and its leaves dried up and withered. The meaning of this is that the righteous are saved with difficulty, or, as Steiger well expresses it, "it costs believers much to remain steadfast in their endurance of trials and to glorify God." The more we are tried the stronger must be our attachment to Christ (Job 5:19-22) Active usefulness a cure for trouble.2. The soul belongs to God.2. If, then, the sinner cannot be saved and go to heaven, WHERE SHALL HE APPEAR? And surely God is faithful also in responding to the claims of man. (2) How dreadful must it be! The way to heaven is but a narrow way. Business, entrenched behind counters, and bales of goods, and safes, attempts the overthrow of our souls. "Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Nevertheless, their salvation is here represented as being with difficulty obtained. If they render bodily service, they render no spiritual service to God. How is it possible, then, that the ungodly and sinners can find favour before the judgment seat?(C. (4) Because after death is the judgment. There is a man chained to a wife who is a constant source of temptation and trial to him. He tells them of judgment beginning at the house of God, by which we are to understand affliction and calamity, wherewith God exercises His people. So likewise in suffering we must commit our souls to God in well-doing in a double regard.1. The reason which should move us hereunto, implied in these words, as unto a faithful Creator.Observe —1. (3) It was the ultimate end of Christ's sufferings (Hebrews 2:10). Sin introduced another law — the law of self-indulgence. Where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? It would seem that a bait is held before every man, whatever his position and circumstances may be. He that suffers for Christ's testimony is confident of God's mercy.IV. Humanity, in His idea, is a holy and blessed thing; and this idea must yet be realised. (2)Our means of spiritual improvement.(Homilist. The person who is here and there and everywhere, and whose belongings are never in their place; the person whose life follows no conceivable method may have some other attractive qualities, but would not be counted on as faithful. Even the Church of God, after a long time of peace, is apt to gather corruption, as water doth by standing, and as the air itself will do if it have not the wind to purge it.2. HOW FAR THEY MAY RELY UPON THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO BEAR THEM OUT IN THESE SUFFERINGS. The soul is the more excellent part, witness He that purchased the same with His dearest blood. But herein mankind are apt to be deceived, as though all the difficulties lay in a suffering condition; whereas a soft and careless life is rather more dangerous to their souls, because persons are less apt to suspect their danger. (Newman Smyth. Let Martin Luther do and dare as the great reformer, because God is Governor of the world. This is a common form of speaking. But God's regular ways of doing things, whether in the evolution of the creation or in His redemptive work of making all things new — God's methods have been formed in wisdom, and are on the whole the methods which can be trusted to work out the largest amount of possible creaturely good. I beseech you, therefore, considering all our sufferings are by the appointment and will of God, let us bring our souls to a holy resignation unto His Majesty, not looking so much to the grievance we are under as to the hand that sent it.I. We are here only preparing for the sublime work of some future, preparing to fulfil what our Father has had in view for us from the beginning. It remains now to ponder the inference which the apostle chiefly designs to impress on our minds, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" How many postpone conversion because they think that it is so easy to become religious — they can begin at any time! (3)Rebellion against God (Romans. This is the largest sense of well-doing, and the most necessary, to prepare us for sufferings, and to give us courage and constancy under them; and likewise to engage the providence of God to a tender care of us, and concernment for us, if He shall see it fit to bring us into a state of suffering.(Abp. Will not heaven be worth all the efforts he has yet to make?2. In particular, we must do well to them that do us wrong. That was all that the owner of that once famous place could do — support the ruin! This is an act of faith resting on His promise of salvation through a Mediator.2. And from hence we see WHAT ENCOURAGEMENT THERE IS STILL FOR US TO HOPE TO BE SAVED, IF WE BE RIGHTEOUS. It is readily admitted that they are surrounded also with the helps of the Church. Braden.Suppose, in the place of God as Creator, we substitute chance, or fate, or law, what a blank we have at once in the highest regions of thought and feeling! He would subdue your selfishness and self-will. Leighton. We indeed some times have to change our methods, because we find that they do not work. and the professing Church. The eye of faith will do it. It requires that the goal be kept in sight. Human nature is ruined, but not left to decay, not simply kept from getting worse. There is another strength than theirs, which bears them up and brings them through. 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