"Beginnings and Endings, Part IV"

[Romans]

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“Beginnings and Endings, Part IV”

We are continuing, tonight, in our Series, “Beginnings and Endings.” Last week, we completed our “Beginnings” review for The Old Testament. Tonight, I we are going to at least begin a review of the occasions and concepts of “Beginnings” as we find them in The New Testament.
Our first stop is found in Matthew 4:17: “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The Sermon Bible tells us, “The text invites us to look at two things:—
I. The Preacher. "Jesus began to preach." Jesus was the Son of man and the Son of God. Who, then, can equal Him in sympathy and in wisdom? It should be understood that very much depends upon the preacher as well as upon the doctrine preached. (1) There was more human nature in Jesus Christ than was ever in any other man. He needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin—without that one defilement which impairs and ruins the finest qualities of human nature. Preachers must be intensely human if they would reach with good effect the hearts of men.

(2) There was more intellectual ability and spiritual insight in Jesus Christ than ever distinguished any other preacher. Look at the answers which He gave to cavillers. Look at the keenness of His discrimination as to moral differences—hypocrisy, falseness, half-heartedness. Look at His love of truth—simple, pure, eternal truth.

II. The Subject of His Preaching. That subject was repentance. Hear this marvellous Preacher—Repent! That is one of the most solemnly suggestive words in all human language. (1) Repent—then men are in a wrong moral condition. But for this Jesus would never have come. (2) Repent—then there is a work which men must do themselves. One man cannot repent for another. See the power and the weakness of human nature in this particular. One man can suffer for another; can pay for another; can work for another; can even die for another, but never can one man repent for another.

(3) Repent, then, until this special work is done; everything else that is seemingly good is worthless. If Jesus preached repentance, then (a) all true preachers will do the same; (b) it is certain that repentance is vitally necessary for all mankind; (c) if repentance is the first act needed, it is vicious and absurd to attempt to make religious progress without it.
Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 116.

The Privilege of Repentance. I. There are two different words used in the New Testament, both of which are translated into the English word Repentance; one of them conveys especially the notion of being sorry for having done wrong; the other conveys specially the notion of changing one’s mind as to things,—seeing things in a different light, and then shaping one’s conduct accordingly,—trying to mend one’s life. It is this second word which Christ used; which you can see is the fuller and larger word, including substantially the meaning of the first word too; taking in the being sorry for the wrongdoing and ashamed of it; coming to right views, beginning afresh, and trying to do better.

II. The religion Christ taught was the first which offered forgiveness without suffering, on the part of the penitent, or inflicted by the penitent. All the suffering was borne, long ago, and once for all, that brought our salvation. And now, "if we confess our sins"—that is all—God "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Christ’s preaching starts from a fact; the fact that there is something wrong; the fact that men are sinners. Now repentance is just the right and healthy feeling of the awakened soul that sees its own sin. Once a man is made to see he is a sinner, then, if his mind be in any way healthy and true, the state of feeling which arises in it is what we call Repentance.

III. Is it not strange that repentance should be so commonly thought a painful duty? It is a grand and inexpressible privilege. There is nothing degrading in it; the degradation is all in the state it takes us out of. It is degrading to stay in sin, not to get out of it. And there is no humiliation, beyond the fact that it is a humble thing to be a human being, in confessing that we have been wrong. That Christ’s Gospel invites us to repentance just means that man is not tied down to go on in his wrong and misery. It means that he has not got into that miserable lane in which there is no turning.
A. K. H. B., From a Quiet Place, p. 32.
References: Mat_4:17.—J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life, p. 87; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 329; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 209. Mat_4:18.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 276. Mat_4:18, Mat_4:19.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 702. Mat_4:18-20.—H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit, p. 469.”

As we continue, let's go next to Matthew 11:20: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:”

John Gill writes, “Then began he to upbraid the cities,.... When he had sent forth his disciples to preach, and had been in these several cities hereafter mentioned himself, and had taught and preached in them, and confirmed his doctrine by many wonderful works; when he had observed how ill they had used both John and himself, representing the one as having a devil, and the other as a licentious person;

when they could not be pleased with the ministry of the one, nor of the other, he very seasonably and righteously began to reproach them with their ungenerous treatment of him, their ingratitude to him, their unbelief in him, the hardness and impenitence of their hearts; which could not be moved to repent of their evil ways, and believe in him, and acknowledge him as the Messiah, by all the instructions he gave them, and miracles he wrought among them: for the cities he has a view to, were such,
wherein most of his mighty works were done; the most for number, and the greatest in their kind; as particularly at Capernaum; where he cured the centurion's servant, recovered Peter's wife's mother from a fever, healed the man sick of a palsy, raised Jairus's daughter from the dead, made whole the woman that had a bloody issue, opened the eyes of two blind men, and cast out a devil from a dumb man, possessed with one: all these, and more, he did in this one city, and therefore he might justly upbraid them,

because they repented not: not because they did not commend him, and speak well of his works, for he sought not his own glory, but their good: all he did was, in order to bring men to repentance of their sins, and faith in himself, that they might be saved.”

Next, let's take a look at Matthew 14:30: “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.”

Peter is often criticized for beginning to sink. It may well be that some of his first critics were the other disciples who were still sitting safely in the boat. Peter may have began to sink, but he was the only one willing to step out of a boat in the middle of The Sea of Galilee which is 141 feet straight to the bottom!
We have to remember that the above scene took place after Jesus walked on the water to the disciples' storm-embattled boat. With that in mind, F.B. Meyer writes, “Jesus always comes in the storm. It had been a great relief to escape from the pressure of the crowd to His place of prayer, on heights swept by the evening breeze and lighted by the holy stars. But He tore Himself away because His friends needed Him. He is watching you also in the storm and will certainly come to your help.

He uses the element we dread as the path for His approach. The waves were endangering the boat, but Jesus walked on them. In our lives are people and circumstances we dread, but it is through these that the greatest blessing of our lives will come, if we look through them to Christ.
His coming is sometimes delayed. The gray dawn was already beginning to spread over the scene. The disciples’ strength was spent. He was not too late to be of service, but just in time to save them from despair. Be of good cheer, and if Jesus bids you come to Him on the water, always believe that His commands are enabling. Keep looking to Him, not at the storm.”

Let's move on to Matthew 16:21: “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”

Matthew Henry offers us quite an insightful review of the above, writing, “We have here Christ's discourse with his disciples concerning his own sufferings; in which observe, I.. Christ's foretelling of his sufferings. Now he began to do it, and from this time he frequently spake of them. Some hints he had already given of his sufferings, as when he said, Destroy this temple: when he spake of the Son of man being lifted up, and of eating his flesh, and drinking his blood: but now he began to show it, to speak plainly and expressly of it.

Hitherto he had not touched upon this, because the disciples were weak, and could not well bear the notice of a thing so very strange, and so very melancholy; but now that they were more ripe in knowledge, and strong in faith, he began to tell them this. Note, Christ reveals his mind to his people gradually, and lets in light as they can bear it, and are fit to receive it.

From that time, when they had made that full confession of Christ, that he was the Son of God, then he began to show them this. When he found them knowing in one truth, he taught them another; for to him that has, shall be given. Let them first be established in the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and then go on to perfection. If they had not been well grounded in the belief of Christ's being the Son of God, it would have been a great shaking to their faith. All truths are not to be spoken to all persons at all times, but such as are proper and suitable to their present state. Now observe,

1. What he foretold concerning his sufferings, the particulars and circumstances of them, and all surprising. (1.) The place where he should suffer. He must go to Jerusalem, the head city, the holy city, and suffer there. Though he lived most of his time in Galilee, he must die at Jerusalem; there all the sacrifices were offered, there therefore he must die, who is the great sacrifice.

(2.) The persons by whom he should suffer; the elders, and chief priests, and scribes; these made up the great sanhedrim, which sat at Jerusalem, and was had in veneration by the people. Those that should have been most forward in owning and admiring Christ, were the most bitter in persecuting him. It was strange that men of knowledge in the scripture, who professed to expect the Messiah's coming, and pretended to have something sacred in their character, should use him thus barbarously when he did come. It was the Roman power that condemned and crucified Christ, but he lays it at the door of the chief priests and scribes, who were the first movers.

(3.) What he should suffer; he must suffer many things, and be killed. His enemies' insatiable malice, and his own invincible patience, appear in the variety and multiplicity of his sufferings (he suffered many things) and in the extremity of them; nothing less than his death would satisfy them, he must be killed. The suffering of many things, if not unto death, is more tolerable; for while there is life, there is hope; and death, without such prefaces, would be less terrible; but he must first suffer many things, and then be killed.

(4.) What should be the happy issue of all his sufferings; he shall be raised again the third day. As the prophets, so Christ himself, when he testified beforehand his sufferings, testified withal the glory that should follow. His rising again the third day proved him to be the Son of God, notwithstanding his sufferings; and therefore he mentions that, to keep up their faith. When he spoke of the cross and the shame, he spoke in the same breath of the joy set before him, in the prospect of which he endured the cross, and despised the shame. Thus we must look upon Christ's suffering for us, trace in it the way to his glory; and thus we must look upon our suffering for Christ, look through it to the recompence of reward.

If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him.
2. Why he foretold his sufferings. (1.) To show that they were the product of an eternal counsel and consent; were agreed upon between the Father and the Son from eternity; Thus is behoved Christ to suffer. The matter was settled in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge, in pursuance of his own voluntary susception and undertaking for our salvation; his sufferings were no surprise to him, did not come upon him as a snare, but he had a distinct and certain foresight of them, which greatly magnifies his love.

(2.) To rectify the mistakes which his disciples had imbibed concerning the external pomp and power of his kingdom. Believing him to be the Messiah, they counted upon nothing but dignity and authority in the world; but here Christ reads them another lesson, tells them of the cross and sufferings; nay, that the chief priests and the elders, whom, it is likely, they expected to be the supports of the Messiah's kingdom, should be its great enemies and persecutors; this would give them quite another idea of that kingdom which they themselves had preached the approach of; and it was requisite that this mistake should be rectified. Those that follow Christ must be dealt plainly with, and warned not to expect great things in this world.

(3.) It was to prepare them for the share, at least, of sorrow and fear, which they must have in his sufferings. When he suffered many things, the disciples could not but suffer some; if their Master be killed, they will be seized with terror; let them know it before, that they may provide accordingly, and, being fore-warned, may be fore-armed.”

We read next of Peter's rambunctious reaction to Jesus' words that He would be crucified in Matthew 16:22: “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.”

I will allow Matthew Henry to finish his thoughts on this scene: “The offence which Peter took at this he said, Be it far from thee, Lord: probably he spake the sense of the rest of the disciples, as before, for he was chief speaker. He took him, and began to rebuke him. Perhaps Peter was a little elevated with the great things Christ had how said unto him, which made him more bold with Christ than did become him; so hard is it to keep the spirit low and humble in the midst of great advancements!

1. It did not become Peter to contradict his Master, or take upon him to advise him; he might have wished, that, if it were possible, this cup might pass away, without saying so peremptorily, This shall not be, when Christ had said, It must be. Shall any teach God knowledge? He that reproveth God, let him answer it. Note, When God's dispensations are either intricate or cross to us, it becomes us silently to acquiesce in, and not to prescribe to, the divine will; God knows what he has to do, without our teaching. Unless we know the mind of the Lord, it is not for us to be his counsellors.

2. It savoured much of fleshly wisdom, for him to appear so warmly against suffering, and to startle thus at the offence of the cross. It is the corrupt part of us, that is thus solicitous to sleep in a whole skin. We are apt to look upon sufferings as they relate to this present life, to which they are uneasy; but there are other rules to measure them by, which, if duly observed, will enable us cheerfully to bear them, Rom_8:18. See how passionately Peter speaks: “Be it far from thee, Lord. God forbid, that thou shouldst suffer and be killed; we cannot bear the thoughts of it.”

Master, spare thyself: so it might be read - “Be merciful to thyself, and then no one else can be cruel to thee; pity thyself, and then this shall not be to thee.” He would have Christ to dread suffering as much as he did; but we mistake, if we measure Christ's love and patience by our own. He intimates, likewise, the improbability of the thing, humanly speaking; 'This shall not be unto thee. It is impossible that one who hath so great an interest in the people as thou hast, should be crushed by the elders, who fear the people: this can never be; we that have followed thee, will fight for thee, if occasion be; and there are thousands that will stand by us.'”

We are going to move next into the Book of Luke. We read in Luke 24:27: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Even before revealing Himself to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, Jesus, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, opened the Scriptures to them regarding all that the Messiah would have to suffer. They only knew and looked forward to the Messiah setting up a Kingdom and a Throne, and ruling the world from Jerusalem. They seemed to know nothing of the suffering that prophecy foretold not only in symbolism in the sacrificial system the Jews had observed for centuries, but other specific Prophecies in
Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.

Adam Clarke writes, “Beginning at Moses, etc. - What a sermon this must have been, where all the prophecies relative to the incarnation, birth, teaching, miracles, sufferings, death, and resurrection of the blessed Jesus were all adduced, illustrated, and applied to himself, by an appeal to the well known facts which had taken place during his life! We are almost irresistibly impelled to exclaim, What a pity this discourse had not been preserved! No wonder their hearts burned within them, while hearing such a sermon, from such a preacher. The law and the prophets had all borne testimony, either directly or indirectly, to Christ; and we may naturally suppose that these prophecies and references were those which our Lord at this time explained and applied to himself.”

Next, we read in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Of this, the Sermon Bible says, “I. "In the beginning was the Word." "In the beginning—viz., of all things; farther back than the mind can conceive. For, form in your mind any image you will, however far back beyond the present state of things, of a definite point and a condition existing, and the beginning is beyond that. The expression is a simple one, but it baffles thought. We have here asserted, not that at some very remote period the world began to be, but that beyond the very remotest period which the mind can conceive, the Word was, was existing, not then brought into being, but then having His being and consequently, for such is the expression in which we take refuge when baffled by these things which stretch beyond the range of our ideas, "being from everlasting."

II. This Word, then, thus being in the beginning, is said also by the Evangelist to have been "with God." That is not with, in the sense of together with, or besides; but with in the sense of abiding with, as when we say, "I have it with me," or "He is abiding with us—with God, so as to be in that place where God especially was present, so as to be at home with Him and inseparable from Him. It is thus that the Word was with God as His beloved in whom He was well-pleased.

III. The next and concluding clause of our text now follows by an easy sequence. That which was in the beginning—that which was in the beginning with God and inseparable from Him—what was it? Could it be a created being? If so, a certain definite moment must have witnessed its calling into being; and before that moment it was not, and thus could not be in the beginning. With creation necessarily began the incidents and limitations of time. Created being is the channel, so to speak, in which the stream of time flows on. But the Word "was" in the beginning, and is therefore uncreated.

Again, the Word was "with God." Could a created being accompany the Almighty in the inhabitation of eternity? Could it be said of the Jealous One, who giveth not His glory to another, that even the loftiest of His angelic ministers was, or could be, "with Him"—His assessor, His companion, the sharer of His glory, the impress of His substance? We are thus, you see, led on to the next declaration of our text, "the Word was God:" was no created being, no angelic intelligence, but partook of the nature and essence of God, equal with the Father, as indeed the very term itself implies. So that the Father in the beginning was not more, nor the Son less, Divine; but both were co-equal, and co-eternal. The Lord Jesus, in His humiliation, was the same Divine Person as before the worlds began; clothed in the garb of flesh, but not a different person.

And if at that time we find Him performing acts of distinct personality, addressing the Father, speaking of the Father, so must it have been setting aside merely the difference made by His humiliation, in the beginning, when He was with God and was God. The fulness of the Father’s glory was upon, shone forth from, was expressed by, Him. "All that the Father hath," He says, "is Mine." You cannot exalt, cannot reverence, you cannot adore, the Son of God too much. There is no such thing as exaggerating His Divine majesty and glory. The worship which we owe to the Father, the same precisely we owe to Him. He Himself describes the purpose of His course to be, "that all men may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father."
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vi., p. 1.
References: Joh_1:1.—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of St. John, p. 1; C. Kingsley, Village Sermons, p. 176; Ibid., Discipline and Other Sermons p. 212; Joh_1:1-14.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p.3 43; vol. v., p. 31; J. H. Hutchins, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 71. Joh_1:1-15.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 472. Joh_1:1-18.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. ii., pp. 49, 103. Joh_1:2.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 294.”

This notion of Jesus, embodying the Beginning of the physical Creation, is mirrored in a Spiritual dimension in Colossians 1:18 “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
Of this, the Sermon Bible writes, “I. Living as we do, far down the stream of time, when long ago the name of Christ has associated itself to all that is the most classical in literature, the most refined in art, the most exquisite in poetry, the most generous in chivalry, and the most advanced in civilisation; when the cross, no more the word of shame or the brand of ignominy, has become the banner of progress, and the crest of honour, it is very difficult for us to throw ourselves enough into the spirit of the age of St. Paul, to estimate the grandeur of thought, and the strangeness with which the words must have burst upon the world, that Christ the Nazarene, Christ the Crucified, should in all things have the pre-eminence.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, p. 261.
References: Col_1:18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 839; T. Guthrie, Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints, p. 269, etc.”

Next, we read in John 2:11: “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.”

Of this, the sermon Bible writes, “Beyond doubt this was a miracle of sympathy; and, which perhaps we should not have expected, sympathy with festivity and joy. The hardest kind of sympathy, as everyone who has tried it knows, is to throw a mind that is saddened—which Christ’s mind was always—into the happiness of others. It is singular, too, that though it was a first thing, its great point and object was to teach about the last—that with what Christ does, and what Christ gives, unlike and the very opposite to what man does and what the world gives, the last is always the best; and that it grows sweeter, richer, truer, even to the end.”

Next we move way into The New Testament where we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”
The Preacher's Homiletical tells us of this, “The Spirit sanctifies the individual soul, and the soul, in the exercise of its voluntary power, co-operates with the Spirit. The soul feels the need of being sanctified, is willing to be sanctified, earnestly desires to be sanctified, and gives free, unrestricted scope to the Spirit in His sanctifying work. 2. Salvation implies personal faith.—“And belief of the truth”

This clause brings out distinctly that the sanctification of the Spirit is not wrought on a passive and unresponsive agent. Faith is the gift of God, but it is the act of man. It is a self-giving; the surrender of his own freedom to secure the larger freedom that salvation confers on the soul that trusts. Without God’s gift there would be no faith, and without man’s exercise of that gift there is no salvation. It is not faith that saves, but the Christ received by faith.

Erskine puts it thus: 'As it is not the laying on the plaster that heals the sore, but the plaster itself that is laid on, so it is not the faith, or receiving of Christ, but Christ received by faith that saves us. It is not our looking to the brazen serpent mystical, but the mystical brazen serpent looked unto by faith—Christ received by faith—that saves us.'”

Hebrews 3:14: “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”

Albert Barnes writes, “If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast - If we continue to maintain the same confidence which we had in the beginning, or which we showed at the commencement of our Christian life. At first, they had been firm in the Christian hope. They evinced true and strong attachment to the Redeemer. They were ardent and devoted to his cause. If they continued to maintain that to the end, that is, the end of life; if in the midst of all temptations and trials they adhered inflexibly to the cause of the Saviour, they would show that they were true Christians, and would partake of the blessedness of the heavenly world with the Redeemer.

The idea is, that it is only perseverance in the ways of religion that constitutes certain evidence of piety. Where piety is manifested through life, or where there is an untiring devotion to the cause of God, there the evidence is clear and undoubted.”

Next we will look at the mockery regarding Jesus' Second Coming in 2 Peter 3:4: “And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Adam Clarke writes, “Where is the promise of his coming? - Perhaps the false teachers here referred to were such as believed in the eternity of the world: the prophets and the apostles had foretold its destruction, and they took it for granted, if this were true, that the terrestrial machine would have begun long ago to have shown some symptoms of decay; but they found that since the patriarchs died all things remained as they were from the foundation of the world; that is, men were propagated by natural generation, one was born and another died, and the course of nature continued regular in the seasons, succession of day and night, generation and corruption of animals and vegetables, etc.;
for they did not consider the power of the Almighty, by which the whole can be annihilated in a moment, as well as created. As, therefore, they saw none of these changes, they presumed that there would be none, and they intimated that there never had been any.”

We will close the Beginnings aspect of this Series with Jesus' words in Revelation 1:8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

The Preacher's Homiletical says, “The Eternity of God.—It is thought by many that this must be a description of the Lord Jesus, and a distinct assertion of His divinity. Elsewhere (Rev_1:17; Rev_22:13) the same thing is directly asserted of Christ, whom we believe to be one with the Father in nature, but other than the Father in manifestation. We can form no proper conception of beings that had no beginning. We had; everybody with whom we have to do had; everything around us had. And it is almost as impossible for us to conceive of beings that have no ending. Everybody and everything seems to have a limited existence, and the apparently simple idea of the continuity of life our minds seem unable really to grasp.

At least so far as the earth-life is concerned, everything has a beginning and an ending. See, then, what a sublime assertion of Divine superiority is made when we are required to form three conceptions of God. 1. He exists. It is all that can be said about Him. He is the “I am,” dependent on nobody and nothing, adversely affected by nobody and nothing.
2. He always did exist. Carry the story of the world back, if you will, through millions of ages, God was before the first age begun. What changes He must have seen! How little He is affected by changes that seem overwhelming to us! 3. He always will exist. To say nothing of the little story of that Christian age, the whole story of the world’s ages is as nothing in His sight. Egypt gone, Babylon gone, Rome gone, but God abides. The seemingly long history of the world—of humanity in the world—is but an episode in His eternity, and readily grasped in one vision by Him.

In His highest glory we are all personally interested. All His powers and privileges of being our eternal Governor, Guide, and Friend, are founded on the great declaration, “I am alive for evermore.” Christ, who “liveth for evermore,” is set forth in two great characters, in both of which His eternal life in glory is momentous to our interests. In relation to sin He is a mediator of justification and holiness; in relation to death and pain, He is the author of endless life and glory.

If the holiness be everlasting, the source that supplies it must be everlasting too. We have no reason to suppose that the dependence on Christ shall ever cease; our very exaltation shall be but to feel that dependence more nearly, to lean on that Arm more trustingly, to look up to those Divine Eyes with more affectionate confidence. He is “alive for evermore,” that He may be to us the everlasting fountain of our holiness.

Scripture uses the word “life” to imply “felicity,” and “eternal life” to imply “eternal felicity.” Glorious alliance. It shall be bound eternally in heaven, when He who is “alive for evermore,” shall, in the power and diffusion of that life, spread around Him happiness with it coextensive and commingled. Every blessing that belongs to our inheritance centres in this great truth, that He who “was dead” is now “alive for evermore.” In Him newly born, we in Him die, rise, and ascend; our life is the reflection of His, if, spiritually quickened by Him, we too, like Him, are even now, and hereafter are destined yet more gloriously to be, “alive for evermore.”—W. Archer Butler, M.A.

This concludes this Evening's Discussion, “Beginnings and Endings, Part IV”

This Discussion was originally presented “live” on July 25th, 2018

[shadowlou]

very interesting. sorry that I have not attended your lessons but between my computer and not sitting long times, I am kinda limited. I recently cracked some ribs so between my ribs and my knees it makes it hard to sit.

I always have enjoyed your lessons, but to tell you the truth they are too long for me to sit through. you have a knack for teaching the gospel and I look forward to when I can enjoy them in person again. Love you Agent Rossi.