Luke
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Submitted by F W Grant on Tue, 12/20/2005 - 06:00
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We have seen, then, two main steps in the Church’s outward
decline, after the loss of first love had made any departure possible.
First of all, the divine idea of the Church was lost. Instead of its
being a body of people having, in the full and proper sense, eternal
life and salvation, children of God, members of Christ, and called out
of the world as not belonging to it, it became a mere "gathering
together" of those for whom, indeed, the old names might in part
remain, but who were,...
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Submitted by F W Grant on Fri, 12/09/2005 - 06:00
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The key to the characteristic features of the Gospels is the position of the Lord Jesus. There are four principal positions answering to the four Gospels, one to each.
Thus in Matthew as "Son of David, Son of Abraham," He is seen in relation to the dispensations. We have His position with regard to David's throne and Abraham's true seed,- the heirs of promise.
In Mark, on the other hand, we find Him "in the form of a servant," come not to be ministered unto but to minister; and to do t...
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Submitted by F W Grant on Mon, 11/21/2005 - 06:00
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THE ELDER SON
(Luke xv. 25—32.)
Every one of the class that were now following the Lord
would realize in the prodigal his picture, and thus would find the invitation
of grace superscribed with his name. Publicans and sinners would have the
mirror plainly before them, and the truth in the description was absolute
truth, - the condition of all men, if they could but realize it. With the other
class who murmured against this grace, their lack of realization made it
necessa...
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Submitted by F W Grant on Mon, 11/21/2005 - 06:00
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A GOSPEL ADDRESS.
(LUKE
vii. 36-50.)
When we first wake up to realize that we have not got any
real solid peace as to the future, - I do not say hope, for I suppose everybody
has something which he likes to call hope, if it is not very solid, - but when
we wake up to find no solid ground for the future, we are still, if awake, yet
in the darkness. We wake up ignorant how to secure what we are so anxious to
secure; and therefore it is that we commonly miss, for a time at...
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Submitted by F W Grant on Mon, 11/21/2005 - 06:00
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(Luke xv. 8 - 10.)
The second parable of this chapter, brief as it is, is
undoubtedly the most difficult of the three, and that not merely because of its
brevity. The thought of the woman, and that of the house, seem to introduce
elements which if intelligible from a Christian are all the less so from a
Jewish stand-point. Yet we may not omit them as of no importance. Scripture is
nowhere less than perfect, and to impute what is our own ignorance to defect in
it is irrever...
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Submitted by F W Grant on Mon, 11/21/2005 - 06:00
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(Luke xv. 11 - 24.)
The third parable of this chapter, while it reveals no
less than the former ones the heart of God, reveals on the other hand, more
than these, the heart of man, and that whether as receiving or rejecting the
grace that seeks him. It is in this respect the fitting close of the appeal to
conscience. Publican and Pharisee are both shown fully to themselves in the
holy light which yet invites and welcomes all who will receive it.
Whatever applications...
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Submitted by F W Grant on Mon, 11/21/2005 - 06:00
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(Luke xv. 1 - 7.)
Not only are the mines of Scripture yet little worked,
there is a wealth of precious things yet upon the surface which we have never
made our own, for all the centuries we have had the fields in our possession.
What are we more familiar with than the parables of this chapter? They are the
constant theme of the evangelist; they are among the most prized treasures of
faith everywhere. They are sung in hail and in street, lisped by childhood and
studied b...
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He was Homeless. It is hard for most of us to
imagine being homeless. The idea of being homeless never crosses our minds,
until we see that person living in a cardboard box, or that family living in a
station wagon, or those people under an overpass warming themselves by a fire.
When we see them we might have pity or we might think of them “losers.” Rather
than a “loser,” I believe Jesus would rather we see them as “lost....
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And said unto them, Take heed, and beware of
covetousness; for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
which he possesseth.” (Luke 12:15)
How difficult it is to define this
“covetousness!” how hard to bring it home to the conscience! It is, as some one
has said of worldliness, “shaded off gradually from white to jet black.” It is
only as we are imbued with the spirit and mind of heaven, and thoroughly
schooled in...
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“Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken: … And beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself.” Luke 24:25–27
Apparently the disciples were selective in their focus on the
Scriptures. They, like most in Israel, had focused only on those
Scriptures which spoke of the Messiah coming in great glory and power
to establish His kingdom. Thus wh...
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