Psalm 119:116 Uphold me according to your word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope. I. THAT WE MAY NOT AT LAST BE ASHAMED OF OUR HOPE, IT MUST ORIGINATE IN A CHANGE OF THE TEMPER OF THE HEART. The carnal mind must be regenerated. Old things must pass away and all things become new. God must be loved and Christ received by faith. II. THAT WE MAY NOT AT LAST BE ASHAMED OF OUR HOPE, IT MUST RENDER US HOLY. "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Now Christ can, in no other sense, be in the believer, than as His doctrines form our creed, His temper reigns in our hearts, His example guides our steps, and His love engrosses our affections. III. THAT WE MAY NOT AT LAST BE ASHAMED OF OUR HOPE IT MUST BEAR EXAMINATION. "Prove your own selves." IV. THAT WE MAY NOT AT LAST BE ASHAMED OF OUR HOPE, IT MUST LIVE WITHOUT AN EFFORT. We shall bend all our efforts to be holy and our hope will support itself. V. THE HOPE THAT MAKETH NOT ASHAMED IS ALWAYS INTERRUPTED BY SIN, while the hypocrite retains his hope unimpaired in the midst of transgression. VI. THAT WE MAY NOT BE ASHAMED OF OUR HOPE, OTHERS MUST HAVE A HIGHER OPINION OF OUR PIETY THAN OURSELVES. VII. THAT WE MAY NOT, AT LAST, BE ASHAMED OF OUR HOPE, IT MUST PUT US UPON EARNEST ENDEAVOURS TO REACH THE OBJECT OF OUR HOPE. If heaven is the object of our hope, we shall endeavour to bring so much of heaven down to earth as possible. 1. The subject should urge us to examine ourselves, and render us willing to be examined. 2. The subject should render us submissive and thoughtful in every scene of life by which God tries our hope and proves our faith. 3. If our hope is such that we expect not to be ashamed of it at the last, let us not be ashamed of it now. 4. In that hope, of which we shall not at last be ashamed, we may now rejoice. "Which hope we have," says an apostle, " as an anchor of the soul," etc. 5. To so live as to sustain a high hope of heaven is the way to die in peace, with anticipated prospects of future blessedness. 6. To live with this high hope is to speak when we are dead. 7. This subject should show the ungodly how unprepared they are to die. What would be a preparation to die is a preparation to live. (D. A. Clark.) Parallel Verses KJV: Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.WEB: Uphold me according to your word, that I may live. Let me not be ashamed of my hope. |
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