_A HEARTY DESIRE TO PRAY_ ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ Luke 11:1 Have we this ‘hearty desire’ to pray of which the Collect for the Third Sunday after Trinity speaks to us? I. WHENCE DOES IT COME?—It comes from God; it is His gift. Let us never forget this. We cannot too often call to mind that of... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE LORD’S PRAYER_ ‘And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.’ Luke 11:2 There are some most interesting facts, and thoughts, and lessons that emerge from a general survey of this most beautiful prayer. The Lord would have us understand the m... [ Continue Reading ]
_GOD’S EMPIRE_ ‘Thy kingdom come.’ Luke 11:2 There are three portions of God’s empire which are particularly included in the petition, when we say, ‘Thy kingdom come.’ There are the reign of grace in a believer’s soul, which is personal religion; the extension of that kingdom in many hearts, whic... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE SUBJECTION OF MAN’S WILL_ ‘Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.’ Luke 11:2 The only possible way of feeling at home in heaven when God has called us to be there, will be to have looked out for opportunities to get into touch with the spirit of it while here on earth. There is a King... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE HALLOWED NAME AND THE HALLOWED LIFE_ ‘Hallowed be Thy Name.’ Luke 11:2 A person who wishes to live up to His prayer, that God’s Name may be hallowed, must have a hallowed life. I. A MAN DOES NOT HALLOW THE NAME OF GOD WHO DOES NOT SPEAK OF HIM MOST REVERENTLY. II. The man who could hallow... [ Continue Reading ]
_MAN DEPENDENT_ ‘Give us day by day our daily bread.’ Luke 11:3 Dependence and not independence is the true condition of man; dependence upon God for all things—things bodily, things spiritual. I. THE SPIRIT OF THE TEXT is that of our entire dependence upon God. We acknowledge the Source from wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_SIN AND ITS FORGIVENESS_ ‘And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.’ Luke 11:4 Sin is universal. It is everywhere. Nor does it confine itself to any particular age of mankind. It is this sinfulness which runs through all our acts except those which are done b... [ Continue Reading ]
_TEMPTATION_ ‘And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.’ Luke 11:4 Temptation is the precincts of sin. The soul that has trespassed, and is restored back again, is desirous to stand aloof from the neighbourhood of sin; it hates everything to do with sin; and therefore its cry is,... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE FRIEND AT MIDNIGHT_ ‘Because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.’ Luke 11:8 The parable of the friend at midnight is one of the most striking pictures in the Gospel gallery. It is a picture of importunity—an importunity which you must exercise when you prefer... [ Continue Reading ]
_COMMANDING PRAYER_ ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ Luke 11:9 There is no particular subject of prayer to which this exhortation is to be applied. It is perfectly general; it is universal. There is no boundary. Ask, ask everything... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE EFFECT OF PERMITTED SIN_ ‘And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.’ Luke 11:14 The word here translated ‘dumb,’ means, in its first use, blunt, obtuse; and so a blunted or lamed man in tongue. Mark the lesson enshrined... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE STRONG MAN OVERCOME_ ‘When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.’ Luke 11:21 Satan is the ‘strong man’ of whom our Lord s... [ Continue Reading ]
_FOR OR AGAINST?_ ‘He that is not with Me is against Me.’ Luke 11:23 As we look around the world we see some are for Christ, and we see others are against Him. In fact, this is the thing which divides the whole world. I. IF YOU ARE FOR CHRIST, YOURS IS GREAT JOY.—Christ infinitely increases the... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE HUMAN HOUSE_ ‘I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.’ Luke 11:24 The human heart cannot remain empty. It must have an inhabitant, either good or evil. It must from its very nature have desires and longings of some kind, either pi... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE LAST STATE_ ‘The last state of that man is worse than the first.’ Luke 11:26 ‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest … and the last state of that man is worse than the first.’ This short parable is one of the most terrible in the whole Bible... [ Continue Reading ]
_HEARING AND KEEPING GOD’S WORD_ ‘A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked. But He said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.’ Luke 11:27 The wonder is not that th... [ Continue Reading ]
_ASKING FOR A SIGN_ ‘This is an evil generation: they seek a sign.’ Luke 11:29 We see here the desperate unbelief of the Jews in our Lord’s time. We are told that though they ‘gathered thick together’ to hear Christ preach, they still professed to be waiting for a sign. They pretended to want mor... [ Continue Reading ]
_SPIRITUAL LIGHT_ ‘If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light.’ Luke 11:36 We learn from these words of the Lord Jesus— I. THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING A GOOD USE OF RELIGIOUS LIGHT AND PRIVILEGES.—When the Gospel of Christ is placed before a... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE NEW LIBERTY_ ‘Seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him.’ Luke 11:54 No intelligent observer could fail to notice the opposition towards Jesus Christ in certain quarters. While the common people heard Him gladly, those who were in authority at Jerusalem set them... [ Continue Reading ]