Matthew 24 We have already seen that the rejection of the testimony to the kingdom in grace, is the cause of the judgment that falls upon Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Now in chapter 24 we have the position of this testimony in the midst of the people; the condition of the Gentiles, and the relation in which they stood to the testimony rendered by the discip ...read
Matthew 25 Professors, during the Lord's absence, are here presented as virgins, who went out to meet the Bridegroom, and light Him to the house. In this passage He is not the Bridegroom of the church. No others go to meet Him for His marriage with the church in heaven. The bride does not appear in this parable. Had she been introduced, it would have been Je ...read
Matthew 26 The Lord had finished His discourses. He prepares (chap. 26) to suffer, and to make His last and touching adieus to His disciples, at the table of His last passover on earth, at which He instituted, the simple and precious memorial which recalls His sufferings and His love with such profound interest. This part of our Gospel requires little explana ...read
Matthew 27 After this (chap. 27), the unhappy priests and heads of the people deliver up their Messiah to the Gentiles, as He had told His disciples. Judas, in despair under Satan's power, hangs himself, having cast the reward of his iniquity at the feet of the chief priests and elders. Satan was forced to bear witness, even by a conscience that he had betra ...read
Matthew 3 We now begin His actual history. John the Baptist comes to prepare the way of Jehovah before Him, according to the prophecy of Isaiah; proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and calling on the people to repent. It is by these three things that John's ministry to Israel is characterised in this Gospel. First the Lord Jehovah Himself wa ...read
Matthew 4 Having thus in grace taken up His position as man on earth, He commences His earthly career, being led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The righteous and holy man, the Son of God, enjoying the privileges proper to such a one, He must undergo the trial of those devices through which the first Adam fell. It is His spiritu ...read
Matthew 5-7 He then gathers around Him those who were definitively to follow Him in His ministry and His temptations; and, at His call, to link their portion and their lot with His, forsaking all beside.
The strong man was bound, so that Jesus could spoil his goods, and proclaim the kingdom with proofs of that power which were able to establish it.
Two ...read
Matthew 8 Then, in chapter 8, the Lord begins in the midst of Israel His patient life of testimony, which closed with His rejection by the people whom God had so long preserved for Him, and for their own blessing.
He had proclaimed the kingdom, displayed His power throughout the land, and declared His character, as well as the spirit of those who should ...read
Matthew 9 In the following chapter (9), while acting in the character and according to the power of Jehovah (as we read in Psalms 103), "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases"; it is the actual grace in itself towards and for them, in which He came, which is presented. It gives the character of His ministry, as the previous one g ...read
Moses Veiled MOSES VEILED, AND THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST
2 CORINTHIANS 3 ; 4 : 6
The apostle has been led to speak of himself (as he says, afterwards, chapter 12, " I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me," etc.) by reason of special circumstances at the time at Corinth. He had been forced to speak of himse ...read
No More Conscience of Sins "NO MORE CONSCIENCE OF SINS"
HEBREWS 10
THE object of redemption is to bring us nigh to God, as it is written, " Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." But what is our state before God when thus brought nigh ? The right understanding of this is most important. It is impo ...read
On Evangelism (extracts) Darby on Evangelism
"I should also be exceedingly sorry to see that the peculiar principles of brethren, and their just and never to be loosened attachment to the assembling of the saints, led to the giving up of work among souls. It was quite the contrary at the first. And if love is at work- if the meetings are to be blest it must be so- what ...read
Parable of the Sower PARABLE OF THE SOWER
MATTHEW 13
We have here three reasons why the seed of God's testimony concerning Christ is unproductive, described in the character and circumstances ; first, of those who hear by the wayside the hard rock, and the beaten path in which Satan ever watches to catch away that which is sown in the heart. In th ...read
Parables of Luke 15 PARABLES OF LUKE 15
It is a wonderfully blessed thing to have One (the thoughts, and words, and ways of One down here, in His actings among men) who could so well manifest God, as the Lord Jesus.
We may look at the sin of man, at our sins, as a question to be judged of in the light of righteousness before God, and most important it ...read
Separation from Evil Separation From Evil God's Principle of Unity
The need of union is felt now by every right-minded Christian. The power of evil is felt by all.
Its pressure comes too near home, its rapid and gigantic strides are too evident, and affect too nearly the particular feelings which characterise distinctively every class of Christians, to allow the ...read
Sifted as Wheat How good and precious it is that we have at all times the Lord to look to; for if our eye had always to be fixed upon self, not only should we not advance, but we should be thoroughly discouraged by the thought of the evil within us. We confine ourselves to the idea of the evil, and thus deprive ourselves of the strength which can overcome it.
T ...read
The Accepted Man THE ACCEPTED MAN
2 CORINTHIANS 3
There are two ways in which we may approach the judgment of man. We may judge of where man is (of the condition in which he is looked at by God) by taking the word of God and applying it to the condition of man in himself, to his state as an actual sinner. Thus, for instance, in Genesis 3, in the sin of Adam and ...read
The Church in the Wilderness in the Vision of God THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS IN THE VISION OF GOD
NUMBERS 24
ALL this statement of Balaam is of what God would do with His people.* Behind Israel's failure God takes up His own thoughts, and acts in His own ways, about them.
* The sovereignty and efficacy of the calling of God.
Firstly they are a peculiar peo ...read
The Church, What Is It? THE CHURCH-WHAT IS IT?
HER POWER, HOPES, CALLING, PRESENT POSITION, AND OCCUPATION
It is a solemn thing when we come to think what the church really is.* It is all blessed when we think of her privileges ; but looking at her as Christ's representative on earth is most solemn-an " epistle of Christ." As the tables of stone re ...read
The Church- God's Habitation Through the Spirit THE CHURCH, AN HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT
EPHESIANS 2
There are two great ideas in this epistle as regards the saints. The grand thought all through it is the grace of God towards them ; but, as regards the saints, there are these two ideals about the church : firstly, its hopes ; secondly, what it is now meanwhile.
...read