isaiah-61:1,-luke-4:18-niv

As the writer of this letter (to the "Hebrews") approaches its conclusion; after repeatedly giving great and terrible warnings as to the peril of failure to apprehend the full purpose and meaning of God in Christ, he gathers all up into a prophetic forecast which is itself the inclusive warning. "He... Read More

Reading: Isaiah 61:1–62:1a. We come now to yet a further aspect of this so many-sided fruit of the Cross of the Lord Jesus. We remember that the first three verses of this sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, so full, were taken up by our Lord Jesus Himself. After His baptism the heavens were opened, and ... Read More

“I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I, if it is already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:49, 50). (The real sense of the first sentence is perhaps better given in the American Standard Revised Version: “I cam... Read More

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14). Overshadowing and encompassing all else in the Bible, and especially in the new Testament, is the phrase: "the kingdom of God". "John the Baptist [come... Read More

Reading: Isaiah 6:1-7. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fl... Read More

Reading: Luke 3:21-22; 4:1-12. This section of Luke which we have read contains all the principles and elements of what we have been occupied with in this series of meditations - that is, the significance of Christ. Here we have the significance of Christ as the presenting to God of a manhood, a hum... Read More

“To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at Thee; (His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men): So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings s... Read More

"My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter; I speak the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, ... Read More

"Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth" (Isa. 42:1). In our previous meditation, when we had seen the passing on into the Church of the great vocation, and were speaking about the electing of the Church in relation to the eternal purpose, we reminded you that, seei... Read More

Reading: Nehemiah 5:2-6; Luke 4:14-21; II Kings 4:1-4. In these messages we are allowing Nehemiah, that great servant of the Lord in the old dispensation, to illustrate for us, and to lead us in relation to, the recovering of the Lord's testimony in fullness. Nehemiah said that he was "doing a great... Read More