Luke 14:10 I. To take the "lowest room" towards God is: (1) To be content simply to take God at His word, without asking any questions or raising any doubts, but to accept at His hand all that God graciously vouchsafes to give you the pardon and the peace; to be a receptacle of love, a vessel into... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:11 This is one of the sayings which we gather from the Gospels to have been frequently in our Lord's mouth, and this means that it had some variety of application now graver, now lighter. In the passage which we just read, it was His comment on an exhibition of what we should call _vanity._... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:12 Christ's Counsel to His Host. Are ordinary dinner-parties wrong, then, in the eye of Christ, our Law-giver? Does He really condemn the custom of having our friends and social equals to dine with us, and really demand that we entertain instead, if we entertain at all, only those who are... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:16 The Great Supper. Note: I. The feast. This is the Gospel which God has provided for mankind, sinners. It is a feast (1) in respect of the excellence of the provision which it sets before us; (2) in respect of abundance, for the supply is inexhaustible; (3) in respect of fellowship; (4)... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:17 Reasons for Embracing the Gospel. I. You believe that the Gospel is true; perhaps upon no one point are your convictions so full and clear and decided. It matters not whence this conviction has been derived; we have the fact, and here we take our stand and make our appeal. Why not embra... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:18 That God's call is often disobeyed is a matter of fact, of which our consciences cannot pretend to be ignorant. But the nature of the excuses given is well worthy of our consideration. I. One of these excuses arises from a feeling that our common work is not a matter of religion; and tha... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:23 Acceptance of Religious Privileges Compulsory. I. Consider what first of all presents itself to our thoughts our birth into the world. Allow that this is a world of enjoyment, yet unquestionably it is a world of care and pain. Also, most men will judge that the pain on the whole exceeds... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:24 God's Call to the Young. I. God's call, addressed to the soul of every man, is a call to him to be happy for ever; and this is the same thing as calling upon him to be holy, for holiness and happiness are one in God, and they are one also in the children of God. Holiness in God's creatu... [ Continue Reading ]
Luke 14:34 I. What is it in the spiritual life which answers to the influence of salt in the natural life? I answer: A certain deep, secret power of the Spirit of God, acting generally through the word, in the conscience, upon the intellect, the affections, the will of a man, whereby he is made and... [ Continue Reading ]