Death and mortality

1. Paul, Grecian Wisdom and the Spirit’s RevelationNo. 9 · 1 September 1868 · 29 min read aloud · Read: 1 Corinthians 2

   Expounding 1 Corinthians 2, the speaker argues that the chapter must be read against its setting: Paul preached Jesus Christ crucified, and the kingdom with him, to Corinthians trained in Greek philosophy, which taught that virtuous men would be saved and that the soul goes to a future state.

2. Paul’s Seed Analogy and the Mortal ResurrectionNo. 11 · 1 December 1868 · 21 min read aloud John Butler

   The speaker takes Paul’s comparison of the resurrection to a sown grain in 1 Corinthians 15 and argues that the germ of the seed corresponds not to an immortal soul but to the truth, which dwells in believers and is kept in God’s memory until Christ quickens it.

3. Peace with God Through Justification by FaithNo. 13 · 1 October 1869 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Romans 5

   On Romans 5, the speaker explains that those justified by faith in Christ have peace and favour with God, which no one has outside Christ.

4. Past, Present and Future in Spiritual LifeNo. 20 · 1 May 1870 · 23 min read aloud

   The speaker says three truths, the past, the present and the future, must be realised for an active spiritual life, and that in each the appearance is contrary to the truth.

5. Doing God’s Will, Not Merely KnowingNo. 21 · 1 June 1870 · 18 min read aloud · Read: 1 Peter 4

   Starting from the griefs of this mortal state and the way sickness and death show what is of real value, the speaker urges the brethren to give themselves wholly to the truth rather than to the pursuits of the flesh.

6. Clod-Hoppers, Invisible Stock and Scriptural JustificationNo. 29 · 1 September 1871 · 25 min read aloud · Read: Romans 4

   Opens by saying that life and all its goods end in the grave, yet men turn from the glory to be revealed and, like an agricultural labourer who distrusts commercial “stock”, despise the spiritual things they cannot see.

7. Holiness, Worship and Present Obedience Before ChristNo. 37 · 1 June 1872 · 24 min read aloud · Read: 2 Corinthians 5

   Says believers are called not merely to believe and speak of the truth but to holiness, and that the only standard of righteousness is obedience to God’s commandments.

8. Sonship in Christ and Longing for His ReturnNo. 40 · 1 January 1873 · 16 min read aloud

   Roberts contrasts the hopeless, mortal state of man in Adam with the sonship and fellowship with the Father offered through Christ, whom the breaking of bread sets before the brethren.

9. Uncarefulness: Christ’s Free Men in a Passing WorldNo. 55 · 1 June 1874 · 23 min read aloud

   Takes Paul’s counsel to the Corinthians to be without carefulness, applying it first to slave and free, master and servant: the believer in either condition belongs to Christ, and the present state is short, so its burdens may be borne patiently until the freedom and change of body that Christ will give at his coming.

10. Remarks on the Death of Brother AllsoppNo. 66 · 1 June 1875 · 19 min read aloud

    Spoken on learning of the sudden death of brother Allsopp, who led the singing; praises his usefulness, Scripture-reading and zeal, and suggests the loss may be like rain on the garden, sent so that the Word planted in believers may bear fruit.

11. Death of a Sister: Mourning, Hope and WarningNo. 91 · 1 January 1878 · 24 min read aloud · Read: 1 Thessalonians 4

    Spoken after the sudden death of a sister who had broken bread the Sunday before, it says that sorrow is for ourselves, since the dead in Christ are at rest, and that death teaches the wisdom of the house of mourning over the pursuit of present cares, riches and pleasures.

12. Paul’s Antioch Address and Israel’s HopeNo. 108 · 1 June 1879 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Acts 13 Robert Ashcroft

    Taking up Paul’s address at Antioch (Acts 13), the speaker says popular religion neglects the history of Israel, whereas the hope of believers rests on those histories being true.

13. Mortality, Obedience and the Day of JudgmentNo. 113 · 1 November 1879 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Ezekiel 17, Luke 13

    Starts from the four figures in the Ezekiel 17 reading (Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, the king of Judah and the prophet), all long dead, to show that the present life is brief yet decides the future.

14. Life’s Brevity, God’s Mercy, and Husbands and WivesNo. 122 · 1 August 1880 · 23 min read aloud · Read: 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 3

    Begins from the passing of human generations and the vanity of present life, and sets against it the hope and ‘abundant mercy’ of 1 Peter 1, which promises relief from every present trouble.

15. Salvation Is of the Jews: Israel RestoredNo. 125 · 1 November 1880 · 29 min read aloud · Read: Ezekiel 36

    Takes Christ’s words ‘Salvation is of the Jews’ to argue that there is no hope in natural directions, only in Christ, and that the Christ of the Bible cannot be separated from Israel’s history and land.

16. Waiting for God: Manna Instead of Flesh-potsNo. 148 · 1 September 1883 · 23 min read aloud · Read: Matthew 9

    The speaker asks the hearers to look at their lives as they will appear in retrospect, and urges them to live now so that the judgment seat of Christ will find them faithful, taking the Scriptures alone as guide.

17. Paul’s Faith in the Storm: ‘I Believe God’No. 153 · 1 February 1884 · 21 min read aloud

    Returning to Paul’s shipwreck, the speaker notes that an angel stood by Paul in the storm, and that Paul told the ship’s company that he believed God, that it would be as it was told him.

18. Light and Darkness: God’s Plan Behind SufferingNo. 154 · 1 March 1884 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Acts 15

    Beginning with the darkness of the world, and recent revelations of the misery of the London poor, the speaker takes comfort from James’s words that all God’s works are known to him from the beginning.

19. Political Hopes Versus the Hope of IsraelNo. 160 · 1 September 1884 · 21 min read aloud · Read: Jeremiah 31

    Speaking at a meeting held in the Birmingham Town Hall, the speaker contrasts the political hope of the town’s public men and the religious hope of its sectarians with the hope of Israel, centred on Christ’s return and the kingdom of God.

20. The Nearness of Death and the Lord’s ComingNo. 176 · 1 March 1887 · 29 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 53, Psalm 54, Psalm 55, Romans 7, Romans 8

    The speaker defends the commanded meeting and urges that its order and exhortation aim at edification, then argues that the Lord’s coming is nearer than supposed, since death, as with a young brother lately dead at 27, would bring it for any of us in a moment.

21. Life Without God: Darkness Needing the LightNo. 179 · 1 June 1887 · 30 min read aloud · Read: Ecclesiastes 3

    The exhortation takes Ecclesiastes’ “a time to be born and a time to die” as a reminder of mortal birth, of the coffin, and of the sentence of death under which all are born, and urges that remembering death makes for sober, godly living.

22. Overcoming as Christ Did: Crucifying the Old ManNo. 252 · 1 April 1894 · 20 min read aloud

    Starting from the wonder that Christ is remembered every week, the speaker turns to the chapter read, which shows Jesus in Gethsemane submitting the Father’s will over his own.

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