_THE PRAYING CHRIST_ ‘He … continued all night in prayer.’ Luke 6:12 Our Lord’s choice of the Twelve marks a crisis in His ministry. Before the choice He spent the night in prayer. The praying Christ! We find in His prayers I. A REVELATION.—The prayers of our Lord reveal to us His true nature.... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE DANGERS OF POPULARITY_ ‘Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!’ Luke 6:26 It is more than probable that, if men speak well of you, their judgment of you is fallacious. Men are fallible judges of one another’s real character; yet however fallacious the popular estimate, it has a... [ Continue Reading ]
_MERCY_ ‘Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.’ Luke 6:36 That there must be some limitation to the scope of such precepts as those recorded in Luke 6:27 we may admit, that the exercise of reason and prudence must come in to limit and restrict them is evident, but how and whe... [ Continue Reading ]
_DIVINE PRECEPTS_ ‘Be ye therefore merciful.… Judge not; … Condemn not.… Give.… Cast out first the beam.’ Luke 6:36 Our Lord dwells here on _ what we are to do_, not _ what we are to believe_ (John 7:17), and He begins by putting before us the blessing and the curse (Luke 6:20; Deuteronomy 30:19)... [ Continue Reading ]
_JUDGMENT_ ‘For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.’ Luke 6:38 I. GOD’S JUDGMENT.—Those words must surely seem to us some of the most awful words in the Bible, for— (_a_) _ They are so plainly the words of that justice_ which all men acknowledge, that we... [ Continue Reading ]
_LIKE UNTO THE MASTER_ ‘The disciple is not above his Master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master.’ Luke 6:40 There are two applications of this saying in respect to Christ and His disciples; first to that which is without, to the treatment they must expect from others; next to t... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE SIN OF HYPOCRISY_ ‘Thou hypocrite.’ Luke 6:42 The only sin for which He did not make a plea, or a palliation, a pardon, or a prayer was _ hypocrisy_. I. THE HYPOCRISY OF THE PHARISEES.—Eight times—in one discourse—Christ uses the strong denunciation, ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hy... [ Continue Reading ]