philippians-2:13

There are two great subjects in Scripture (when once the great thing salvation is settled,) in the ways of God, namely, the government of this world and the sovereign grace that gives people a place according to God's counsels: the Jews are the centre of the one, and the Church of the other, after C... Read More

I take this chapter as fully setting us - the twelve disciples, then those that believe on Him through their word - first, in our place of relationship to the Father; secondly, to the world; and both in a most distinctive way. We have something of the same character in the Ephesians; but there it is... Read More

This epistle gives us two practical characteristics of Christian life in which we find the true practical power of the life - the principle on which it passes through the world according to the mind of God. The Epistle is not doctrinal but, in it, we get the Christian path - Christian experience in ... Read More

Twenty-First Week It is a terrible thing . . . when God's presence, in the place of being the home of our hearts, is terror and distress. I have no doubt that you will find hundreds of Christians who, instead of feeling away from home when they have got out of God's presence, are at ease. We are cal... Read More

Genesis has a character of its own; and, as the beginning of the Holy Book, presents to us all the great elementary principles which find their development in the history of the relationships of God with man, which is recorded in the following books. The germ of each of these principles will be foun... Read More

This chapter brings out the way in which the power of the truth works on our souls to bring us into the presence of the Lord. It begins with the effect of this in testimony to others; and then lets us know how the effect is produced - what a Christian, and so what the church, really is. The Corinthi... Read More

In Philippians we get the experience of the Christian, but no allusion to sin. All the out-goings of the heart - Christ. There is no "if" as to being in Christ, but plenty of "ifs" the moment we get Christ in us. Caleb and Joshua were sustained as examples of the power of faith in the wilderness; th... Read More

The previous part of the chapter is addressed to the world, as to laying up treasure for themselves. At verse 32 the Lord begins with the disciples. The coming of the Lord does not present itself, when we think of it rightly, as a thing we learn; but I see in Scripture that it is constantly identifi... Read More

The apostle speaks here of the ministry that he had received. A man of like passions with us, he was one who in a wonderful manner lived with God so as to carry out this ministry; he laboured more abundantly than they all. Still what he ministered we receive; only he was a vessel filled in a more th... Read More

It is worthy of remark that the moment you get out of the epistles to the churches, you get catholic epistles and others which treat the church as in the "last days." In John, there were "many antichrists." In Peter, "Judgment must begin at the house of God." In 1 Timothy, "In the latter times some ... Read More