Trials of faith

1. Brotherly Love as the Essence of the TruthNo. 1 · 1 December 1867 · 15 min read aloud

   Starting from the exhortation “Let brotherly love continue”, the speaker argues that love is the root and object of the truth, and that those who lack it are not of God and will be cut off like unfruitful branches.

2. Suffering Now, Doing Good, Meeting Christ UnafraidNo. 8 · 1 August 1868 · 29 min read aloud

   Beginning with the need to behold the High Priest by faith, the exhortation contrasts the disciples’ wish to call down fire (Luke 9) with Christ’s present work of saving and his coming work of destroying, illustrated by the plagues of Egypt.

3. Why Assemble: Fellowship, Submission, and SacrificeNo. 10 · 1 November 1868 · 35 min read aloud · Read: Romans 13

   The speaker thanks God for Christ’s command to assemble and break bread, arguing that believers are to be in the world but not of it, and that regular meeting and daily reading of the scriptures are needed to keep faith and the memory of Christ alive against the pull of worldly things.

4. Faith That God Is: Trial and PerseveranceNo. 19 · 1 April 1870 · 28 min read aloud · Read: Hebrews 11

   Taking Hebrews 11 as his starting point, the speaker says that faith in God as a rewarder of those who seek Him is a great consolation, and that trial, as with the prophets and Joseph, is the means by which God prepares men for the kingdom.

5. Reconciled to the World’s Rejection, Choosing ChristNo. 24 · 1 September 1870 · 33 min read aloud · Read: 1 John 3

   Taking 1 John 3 as its starting point, the exhortation says believers, as sons of God, must accept that the world knows them not, as it knew not Christ.

6. Pilgrims awaiting the times of refreshingNo. 26 · 1 March 1871 · 21 min read aloud · Read: Acts 2

   Taking up Peter’s call in Acts 2 and 3 to repent that sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing come, the speaker says believers will not know how they stand until the Lord comes and judges.

7. Patient Continuance in Well-Doing Through TrialNo. 32 · 1 December 1871 · 19 min read aloud

   Takes Romans 2:7 and argues that patient continuance is needed because the believer’s way implies something to endure and hope is often deferred.

8. Purity, Kindness and Sharing Christ’s SufferingsNo. 36 · 1 April 1872 · 24 min read aloud · Read: 2 Corinthians 1

   Taking Paul’s opening words in 2 Corinthians 1, the exhortation says that the peace Paul wished the Corinthians rests on purity, and that believers should take comfort only where they are walking in obedience, and repent where they are not.

9. Peter’s Comfort for Strangers Awaiting the InheritanceNo. 48 · 1 September 1873 · 22 min read aloud

   Turning from James to 1 Peter 1, Roberts presents Peter’s words as comfort for believers who are strangers and sojourners in the present world, urging them to gird up the loins of the mind, pass their sojourning in fear, be holy, and keep the Word in earnest memory.

10. Sardis: A Name to Live, and DeadNo. 50 · 1 January 1874 · 20 min read aloud · Read: Revelation 3

    Takes the Lord’s message to the ecclesia in Sardis as instruction for every ecclesia, including Birmingham, beginning with his assurance ‘I know thy works’.

11. Steadfast at the Table Amid Trials and ApostasyNo. 52 · 1 March 1874 · 20 min read aloud

    Notes that the world regards the breaking of bread with scorn, though the saints are now free to meet since the end of the Papal power.

12. The Sufferings of Christ in Psalm 69No. 53 · 1 April 1874 · 26 min read aloud

    Taking the breaking of bread as a reminder of Christ’s inner experience in the days of his flesh, the speaker reads Psalm 69 as the voice of Christ in his waiting, his hatred by the world without a cause, his burden of mortal nature, and his zeal for the Father.

13. Waiting for Christ: Delay, Patience and ComfortNo. 57 · 1 August 1874 · 17 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 10

    Argues that Christ’s allusions to his second coming presuppose a period of waiting, and that the apparent delay is no delay from the Lord’s point of view but a matter of our expectations, since the end and the time of the end are different things.

14. God Exalted: Confidence from Psalm 46No. 64 · 1 April 1875 · 21 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 46

    Takes two points from Psalm 46: the confidence in God that sustains believers in trouble (verse 1) and the declaration ‘I will be exalted’ (verse 10).

15. 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.

16. The World’s Enmity, Offences and Unprofitable ServantsNo. 68 · 1 August 1875 · 23 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 64, Luke 17

    Says the conflict with enemies in David’s psalm reflects God’s plan to take out a few chosen by faith and the world’s nature of self-interest, so the world hates the truth and believers must expect tribulation, honouring the shame as a sharing in Christ’s.

17. Psalm 72: Christ’s Reign and Present TribulationNo. 70 · 1 October 1875 · 25 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 72, Luke 24

    Takes Psalm 72 and Luke 24 to show the double application of God’s promises, in which David’s covenant and Solomon’s reign foreshadow the greater reign of Christ, who will deliver the needy as no mortal ruler can, helped by immortal fellow kings and priests.

18. Obeying the Commandments of the Sermon on the MountNo. 72 · 1 December 1875 · 43 min read aloud

    Beginning from the breaking of bread, the exhortation says obedience is the great lesson of the faith and the test by which Christ’s friends will be known at his coming.

19. God Our Sun and Shield: Comfort in TrialNo. 73 · 1 January 1876 · 30 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 84

    Taking the Eastern Question as a sign that the Lord is near, the exhortation turns to the comfort of Psalm 84, “The Lord God is a sun and shield”, and to the kindness of God shown in reconciling the world through Christ.

20. Fellowship in Christ’s Sufferings and Coming GloryNo. 75 · 1 April 1876 · 39 min read aloud · Read: Psalm 99

    Contemplating the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, the speaker says Christ’s sufferings were largely mental, caused by a world indifferent to God, and that believers share them as pilgrims in an evil world; he contrasts the living sacrifice God requires with the penances of Charles V. and the early martyrs.

21. Lovers of Pleasure More Than Lovers of GodNo. 80 · 1 January 1877 · 19 min read aloud · Read: 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 4

    Taking the apostolic warnings about the dangers of the present evil world, the speaker says the love of pleasure is the danger named in the chapters read, and that those who have only a form of godliness deny its power as seed that is not allowed to bear fruit.

22. Obedience to Commandments, Not Mere Interest in ProphecyNo. 84 · 1 May 1877 · 18 min read aloud

    The basis of the ecclesia is the work of the apostles, and the first-century brethren were faithful without the excitement of the political signs of the times.

23. Daniel: Adversity, Temperance, Integrity and Open PrayerNo. 90 · 1 December 1877 · 25 min read aloud

    Taking Daniel, read that morning, as a brother “greatly beloved”, the exhortation first shows that apparent evil (the captivity, like the good figs of Jeremiah 24) may be God’s way of leading His people to good.

24. Comfort in God’s Promises: Faith Against FeelingsNo. 93 · 1 March 1878 · 28 min read aloud · Read: Zechariah 8

    Starting from the comfort the Scriptures give, the exhortation takes God’s question in Zechariah 8:6, ‘if it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant... should it also be marvellous in mine eyes?‘, and applies it to the believer’s hope of Christ’s return, the kingdom and bodily change.

25. Not Sleeping as Others: Watching and EnduringNo. 98 · 1 August 1878 · 26 min read aloud

    Taking Paul’s call not to sleep as others do but to watch and be sober in view of the day of the Lord, the speaker likens the world’s unawareness to a sleeper robbed by a burglar.

26. Christ’s Temptation: Scripture as Our DefenceNo. 105 · 1 March 1879 · 33 min read aloud

    Starting from the purpose of the weekly breaking of bread, the exhortation considers the temptation of Christ as part of his moral preparation as a sinless but tempted brother.

27. Baruch’s Sorrow and God’s Message to HimNo. 112 · 1 October 1879 · 19 min read aloud

    Takes Baruch, Jeremiah’s companion, as a sorrowing man, and shows from Jeremiah and James that the prophets were fellow-sufferers with believers today.

28. 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.

29. Israel’s Destiny and the Patience Needed MeanwhileNo. 121 · 1 July 1880 · 23 min read aloud

    Begins from Israel as a nation ‘terrible from their beginning hitherto’, arguing that Israel’s conquest of Canaan and survival as a people can be explained only by God’s work with them, as part of a plan to make His name known and prepare the earth.

30. The Truth, the Hope of Israel, and ComfortNo. 132 · 1 August 1881 · 23 min read aloud · Read: 2 John, 3 John, Isaiah 43

    Asked what is meant by ‘the truth,’ the speaker shows from John’s epistles and Paul’s words that it is the truth of the gospel, which is the hope of Israel, so linking John to the Isaiah chapter read that morning.

31. The Rechabites and Obedience to CommandmentsNo. 134 · 1 October 1881 · 27 min read aloud · Read: Jeremiah 35

    From the interview between Jeremiah and the Rechabites, who obeyed their father’s command to drink no wine while Israel disregarded God’s, the speaker draws the lesson that the words of a man are obeyed and the words of God are not.

32. Right Views of Life: Tyre, Britain, PaulNo. 135 · 1 November 1881 · 29 min read aloud · Read: 1 Chronicles 15, Ezekiel 27, Ezekiel 28, Galatians 1

    The exhortation argues that right views of life are of great consequence, since human life and history look aimless without the testimony of Scripture.

33. Trusting God’s Promises Against Feeling and AppearanceNo. 140 · 1 June 1882 · 28 min read aloud · Read: Galatians 1

    Taking the opening of Galatians 1 as an antidote to the suspicion that the hope of the Gospel is too good to be true, the speaker argues that it rests on God and not on man.

34. The World’s Hatred of the Sons of GodNo. 148 · 1 August 1883 · 22 min read aloud

    Taking John’s words that believers are called the sons of God, the speaker says the world knows them not because it knew not Christ.

35. Brethren of the Prophets: Bearing Their TestimonyNo. 149 · 1 October 1883 · 22 min read aloud

    Starting from James’s appeal to the prophets as examples of affliction and patience, the speaker says they were not men free from distress, and cites Ezekiel, sent to a rebellious house and told to eat a roll of lamentation and woe.

36. Wisdom Applied: Seeking Life and Bearing the CrossNo. 158 · 1 July 1884 · 25 min read aloud · Read: Proverbs 8

    Takes the parable of wisdom in Proverbs 8 and says that God’s wisdom is seen in all creation, while human wisdom is the right use of knowledge to secure life, so that a man who lives only for the present is a fool.

37. 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.

38. Light from Job, Jonah and HebrewsNo. 175 · 1 February 1887 · 27 min read aloud

    Taking the morning’s three readings as the “words” of God that give light, the speaker finds in Job a rich man who used wealth faithfully and a pattern of patience toward God in unexplained trouble, which God uses to teach dependence and which is the preliminary discipline of those who will inherit the kingdom.

39. The Word’s Permanence and Jeremiah’s Faithful TestimonyNo. 257 · 1 September 1894 · 22 min read aloud · Read: Jeremiah 26

    The speaker marvels that the truth can be talked of week after week without loss of interest, while worldly pursuits fade like the flower of the field, because the Word of the Lord meets man’s real needs.

40. Learning From Jehoram, Daniel, and AnaniasNo. 260 · 1 December 1894 · 24 min read aloud

    The speaker urges reading the apostolic narratives in the settled conviction that they are true, and then draws a lesson from each of the three portions read.

41. David’s Humble Origin, Trial and CovenantNo. 305 · 1 February 1899 · 22 min read aloud Printed after his death

    The exhortation says the meeting helps us see beyond our present surroundings, backward and forward, and that the Scriptures supply the material for this.

42. Comfort for the Troubled; Rest at Christ’s ComingNo. 306 · 1 March 1899 · 21 min read aloud Printed after his death

    Taking Paul’s words of comfort to the Thessalonians, the exhortation distinguishes those who trouble, those who are troubled, and those who know not God.

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