_Now this I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant._ READING LIFE There is nothing final in the character of this world. But all betrays infancy. Everything is in a state of preparation. We move up and down amidst the reflections of the future. Certainly the... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world._ THE ELEMENTS OF THIS WORLD The law was so called. I. In respect of the fuller and complete doctrine of the new testament. II. Because Jewry was a little school set up in a corner of the world and the law an A.B... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son._ CHRIST’S ADVENT IN THE FULNESS OF TIME The question has often been asked, Why did not Christ come sooner? Why were patriarchs, kings, and prophets, left to experience the sickness of heart arising from hope long deferred? It was n... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts._ THE SPIRIT AND THE CRY OF ADOPTION I. The dignity of believers. Adoption gives us the rights of children; regeneration gives us the nature of children: we are partakers of both of these, for we are sons. 1. Thi... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son._ SERVITUDE AND SONSHIP I. Sonship is here contrasted with servitude. 1. It is a change from ignorance to knowledge. 2. A change from bondage to self-control. 3. A change from a temporal relationship to an eternal one. II. This sonship is the gi... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods._ THE THREE ESTATES OF THE GALATIAN CHURCH I. Before their conversion. 1. Ignorance of God. There is a twofold knowledge of God. (1) Natural (Actes 14:17; Romains 1:20), but this is (A) imperfect, (B) wea... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_But now, after that ye have known God._ KNOWLEDGE OF GOD That is not the best and truest knowledge of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of brain, but that which is kindled within us by a heavenly warmth in our hearts. As, in the natural body, it is the heart that sends up good bloo... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_To observe days and months _ THE OBSERVANCE OF DAYS AND SEASONS I. Natural. When days are observed according to the course of the sun and moon. Thus night follows day, and every year hath four seasons. II. Civil. When set times are observed in husbandry, for household affairs, for matters of the... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_I am afraid of you._ A MINISTER’S FEARS I. What are those fears? 1. Lest his word should not issue in conversions. 2. Lest the converted members of his flock should not adorn their profession. 3. Lest his converts should apostatise. II. What is his duty in the presence of these fears? 1. To... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am._ THE CALL TO CHRISTIAN LIBERTY I. The call is based on personal example. “I am.” Paul, an exemplification of Christian liberty. He could afford to contrast himself with the Judaisers in point of piety, labour, and Divine blessing on his work. Christian liberty... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh._ PREACHING IN THE INFIRMITY OF THE FLESH I. That we might not exalt our teachers unduly, who are only instruments of grace (Actes 14:15). II. That we might ascribe the whole work of our conversion to God alone (2 Corinthiens 4:7). III. That God might... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not._ MINISTERS AND PEOPLE Here we see-- I. The goodness of God, who does not speak in His awful majesty, but sends ambassadors to beseech us to be reconciled to Him. II. The responsibility of pastors, because they stand in the stead of Christ... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?_ INSTABILITY I. Their past religious experience was one of blessedness. 1. Blessedness is one of the earliest notes of religious life. Christ’s first miracle was at Cana: amongst His first words were the beatitudes. The earliest religious experience is... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_They zealously affect you, but not well._ FALSE ZEAL Paul suggests-- I. That things which are good in their kind may be done for wrong ends. 1. In preaching, (1) some do it for envy and strife; (2) some to gain personal or pecuniary ends. 2. In embracing the gospel, some do it, not for its o... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?_ THE RIGHT MODE OF GIVING AND RECEIVING REPROOF Men commonly assign a number of the persons and things within their sphere to the classes, respectively, of friends and enemies. There are beings that have in them aa evil spirit toward... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Until Christ be formed in you._ THE GROWTH OF CHRIST IN US Now, although the apostle nowhere carries out this into a full allegory, yet it may be clearly seen that this thought dwelt in his mind, viz., that as Christ came into this world, and was first a babe, and then a youth, and finally a man,... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Tell me._ THE VALUE OF A POINTED QUESTION The question that prompts us to tell what we know sharpens our knowledge; and, similarly, the question that makes us tell what we are doing may greatly influence our conduct. For many a man drifting on in a course of evil that he has never stopped to defin... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_That Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman._ ST. PAUL’S OUTLOOK AND VISION The principle from which he views the Old Testament history may be compared to those lines of light which, on a misty day, open up glimpses among the mountains, in which that which is defin... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Which things are an allegory: for they are the two covenants._ WHICH THINGS ARE AN ALLEGORY I. The two women. 1. Sarah, the type of the covenant of grace, was the original wife of Abraham. This covenant is the original one. 2. Though Sarah was the elder wife, Hagar bore the first son. 3. Hagar... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_But Jerusalem, which is above, is free._ NOTES OF THE CHURCH The Church is-- 1. Heavenly. 2. One. 3. Invisible. 4. Free. 5. Propagative. 6. Careful of her children. JERUSALEM A TYPE OF THE CHURCH Cf. Hébreux 12:22; Apocalypse 21:2. I. God chose Jerusalem above all places to dwell in; the... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not._ REJOICE, THOU BARREN I. The Church in her sadness. 1. The figure is drawn from the closest tie that nature knows, that of marriage relationship, and teaches that as both male and female are incomplete without each other, so the happiness of God is incompl... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit._ ENMITY BETWEEN THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL MAN I must profess that since I observed the course of the world, and the concord of the Word and providences of God, I took it for a notable proof of man’s fall, and of th... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_Cast out the bondwoman and her son._ FREEDOM THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL I. Freedom is the characteristic privilege of the gospel. 1. Christ proclaimed freedom from sin (Jean 8:33). 2. Paul proclaimed freedom from the law, both ceremonial and moral 3. But does not the latter (1) contradict the... [ Continuer la lecture ]
_We are not children of the bondwomn, but of the free._ NATURE AND THE SUPERNATURAL The whole force of this application of the allegory lies in the truth of the facts. It is because the birth of Isaac was supernatural that St. Paul was able to find in it what he here bids us see. What Isaac was in... [ Continuer la lecture ]