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23:3

@@@^What are we to pray for this evening? — Let us remember that self is the only barrier between us and God, and that God will never force us to come to Him. Let us ask Him for power to use the grace He so freely provides. He would not have made us free moral agents if He did not expect us to use our wills. We should ask Him to help us to be “willing to be made willing,” and then join our wills to His, and so “work out our own salvation.” We need the strength of God to resist all evil, to overcome the world as Jesus overcame.

24:3

@@@^The reason given for the Spirit’s power upon Him is that the Lord God had anointed Him to preach good tidings unto the meek, implying that if the Lord had not anointed Him to preach, the Spirit of the Lord would not have been on Him. Moreover, He was anointed to preach to the meek, to those who are not self-sufficient, not high-minded, but humble and teachable; the other class could not be taught. He was to comfort all that mourn, to bind the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives (not to free them immediately). “The acceptable year of the Lord” is, of course, the time in which the scripture is fulfilled, the time it is unsealed and proclaimed. Those who give no heed to it are to be swept away in the “day of vengeance.” These were the good tidings for which Jesus was anointed. Unbelief and indifference in revealed Truth is an insult to God and a sin against the Holy Ghost Who leads into all Truth.

29:4

@@@^That Jesus was anointed to preach the good news, news that He was to open the prison door of sin, to bind up the wounds of God’s people, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to comfort those who mourn, and to give all an opportunity to escape “the day of vengeance”; that because He was thus anointed He was fitted to comfort them that mourn in Zion, to bring beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the gift of praise in place of heaviness, that they might be called “trees of righteousness,” and that God might thereby be glorified; that through the gift of the Spirit His people shall be enabled to build up the desolated places of many generations; that those who are called now are to be ministers of God “and they shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,” and glory in them, and “strangers and aliens” shall be their shepherds and “vinedressers”; that then their shame and confusion will be changed into everlasting joy; that as God hates robbery, He will direct the work in Truth and make an everlasting covenant with them that know Him; that then their seed shall be known to the Gentiles and among the people and they will acknowledge that God has blessed His people; that because the anointed One clothes His people with the garment of salvation, and the robe of righteousness, the testimony of His children will be, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord”; and as a bride adorns herself with jewels so the spiritual adornments, given through these gifts will bring on the “revival and reformation”; and that, as nature brings to fruition the seed sown in the ground, so the anointed One will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations.

30:1

@@@^“Ample provisions have been made for all who sincerely, earnestly, and thoughtfully set about the work of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Strength, grace, and glory have been provided through Christ, to be brought by ministering angels to the heirs of salvation. None are so low, so corrupt and vile, that they cannot find in Jesus, who died for them, strength, purity, and righteousness, if they will put away their sins, cease their course of iniquity, and turn with full purpose of heart to the living God. He is waiting to strip them of their garments, stained and polluted by sin, and to put upon them the white, bright robes of righteousness; and he bids them live and not die. In him they may flourish. Their branches will not wither nor be fruitless. If they abide in him, they can draw sap and nourishment from him, be imbued with his Spirit, walk even as he walked, overcome as he overcame, and be exalted to his own right hand.” — “Testimonies,” Vol. 2, pg. 453.

8:1

@@@^We therefore cannot do otherwise but go through, for it is our God-given duty to prepare the way for the people. We must build a highway, a way for them to come over to the light of God and thus to His Kingdom. We must gather out every obstacle that stands in the way, and must lift up a standard for the people, a standard which they can see and follow as it leads ahead. What could the standard be? — The very standard which the people are to see and to follow is Jesus in His Truth.

2:2

@@@^“Not all who profess His name and wear His badge are Christ’s. Many who have taught in My name, said Jesus, will be found wanting at last. ‘Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.’

18:3

@@@^How thankful we ought to be that the Lord is feeding us with “meat in due season”! Though people kill one another by the millions in order to free themselves from the yoke of some other nation, Moses freed ancient Israel without a casualty. We should now know that faith removes mountains, while doubt ruins nations. We should no longer be fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written (Luke 24:25) “Believe” was Jesus’ motto, and it should be ours, too. No doubters will ever enter His Kingdom.

3:5

@@@^@0@9Luke 18:22 — “Now when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me.”@7@^To understand this scripture, we must read another one along with it:

6:2

@@@^And the illustration, “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit,” definitely points out that to really know what it is to be born of the Spirit is to have the experience of being one of His disciples, of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and of proclaiming His Truth. Jesus, comparing His followers, those who are born again, with the wind, makes this fact still clearer; for if His disciples are like the wind, if no one knows where they come from and where they go to, then the only way to find out is to become one with them.

7:1

@@@^@0@9Isa. 66:7 — “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.”@7@^The Jewish church, the church into which and by which Jesus was born, Inspiration declares, neither travailed nor had pain; that is, she felt neither need of nor burden for a Saviour, and yet in spite of it, He was born.

7:3

@@@^@0@9Verse 8 — “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”@7@^Although the Jewish church in Jesus’ day travailed not, yet she brought forth the Son of God! But when Zion travaileth she brings forth all her children at once, a whole nation! A miracle in each instance.

2:2

@@@^“Christ sought to remove that which obscured the truth.... His words placed the teachings of nature as well as of the Bible in a new aspect, and made them a new revelation.... He gave the lesson, ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow [in the simplicity of natural beauty]; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’ Then followed the sweet assurance and the important lesson, ‘Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?’ In the sermon on the mount these words...were spoken to the multitude, among whom were men and women full of worries and perplexities, and sore with disappointment and sorrow. Jesus continued: ‘Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.’...”

14:2

@@@^“In the earlier part of His ministry, Christ had spoken to the people in words so plain that all His hearers might have grasped truths which would make them wise unto salvation. But in many hearts the truth had taken no root, and it had been quickly caught away. ‘Therefore speak I to them in parables,’ He said; ‘because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.... Jesus desired to awaken inquiry. He sought to arouse the careless, and impress truth upon the heart....”

14:3

@@@^In Christ’s day it was just as difficult to bring new truths to the people as it is today. Jesus used every possible means to interest the people in the present Truth of His day, but you know what little success He did have — just a few of the common people. The so-called learned men of the day bitterly opposed Him and spent their time and means to falsely accuse Him of one thing, then of another. In the kind of world we live we cannot expect the people to be different today than what they were in His day. Let us therefore pray that we ever keep awake, that we continue to be even more dissatisfied with our attainments as the days go by lest we, too, be found wanting — back into Laodiceanism. Let us pray that our hearts be ever open to His unfolding Truth, and that we never lose our hunger for “meat in due season.”

17:2

@@@^The people, you note, are deceived by the ancient men who have betrayed their trust. You well know that the prophets, the apostles, Jesus Christ, and the reformers, were all in their times railed against and taunted as “Offshoots,” but we thank God that the “offshoots” and the Truth, not the dead tops, triumphed.

20:1

@@@^@0@9Verses 7-11 — “And He said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city. And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said He unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for Me also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as Thou hast commanded me.”@7 When is this separation of the wicked from among the righteous to take place? Jesus places it in the end of the world. Says He:

6:4

@@@^@0@9Verses 24, 25 — “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”@7@^Yes, God and His law in our minds, which we acquire only by the study of the Word of God are our only hope for victory over the law of sin and the flesh.

7:1

@@@^@0@9Rom. 8:1 — “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”@7@^The moment we accept Christ as our Saviour, all of our trespasses against the law are blotted out, and paid for by the death of Christ. Were this not the case we ourselves would have to pay the penalty of death, from which there is no resurrection to eternal life.

7:2

@@@^@0@9Rom. 8:2 — “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.@7@^Here the apostle introduces another law, the law of the Spirit of life — three laws in all: (1) the law of ten commandments, (2) the law of the flesh, (3) the law of the Spirit of life. But this third law, let us remember, is in Christ, and it makes us free from the law of sin and death only if we be in Him.

7:3

@@@^@0@9Rom. 8:3-11 — “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.@7@^“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”