“Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand;...that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.” 1 Samuel 17:45–47
It is concerning this subject, “Alive Again,” that I wish to speak. Let me read from the 20th chapter of John’s Gospel: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre.” (Here is a little touch of her love for the Master. She cannot sleep—early, early while it was yet dark. You have gotten up many a time to get ready to go to a picnic, early, while it was yet dark. Her heart went out to Christ early while it was yet dark. Note this eagerness on Mary’s part that …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of Easter 1920, Mark 16)
“And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.” This, and the occasion when Jesus spoke to Lazarus are the only records of Jesus using a loud voice. Both are in connection with death—one to bring a man from death, the other, in utter agony as He Himself enters into death.
We have, as a Sunday School lesson, the story of the resurrection, but I have purposely started with this agonizing cry of Jesus that we might go to the cross before we look at the open …
In the King James Version, this text reads, “Rejoice evermore,” but the Revised Version (a more accurate rendering), reads, “Rejoice always. “If I should ask you want the shortest verse in the Bible is, a great sea of hands would go and you would say, “John 11:35, ‘Jesus wept.’” Well, that is so in the English version, but in the Greek that verse has sixteen letters, while our text has only fourteen letters; so in the Greek this is a shorter verse than “Jesus wept.”
I want you to read the verse in its connection: “Rejoice …
“So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it (the end) is near, even at the doors.”—Matthew 24:33
I do not want to give you men’s words to start with, but God’s Word on this subject. If we make any deduction, if we draw any conclusion, we have no right to start with anything as a premise but the Word of God, Who alone holds the future in His hand. Man has been calling himself splendid names because he has been able to preserve something of the past. He points to the pyramids, swells his chest …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of March 21, 1920, Revelation 7:9–17)
“And palms in their hands.” Let us look at another scene of palms where Jesus rode into Jerusalem as king of the Jews, to be rejected. The whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” As this scene the multitude cast their garments on the ground for the ass on which Jesus was seated to walk upon, …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of March 14, 1920, Revelation 1)
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ,”—not Revelations, but the REVELATION of that which God told the devil in the garden of Eden, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” This is the record of the “bruising,” the record of the ascendancy of Jesus Christ and His Body, called “the church,” over all the works of the devil and over all the kingdoms of the earth.
There are many things out of place, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ shows how these things are to get back …
“Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
“And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
“So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed.” —Acts 13:1–4.
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of March 7, 1920, 1 John 4:7–21)
“God is love.” We could also say “God is law”; for in another place in the Scripture God says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Now the law was holy and was placed before men that they might see themselves as God sees them. It was as if a shabby tramp suddenly came upon the picture of a real clean and well-dressed man, and recognized the awful chasm between himself and this gentleman. God placed the law that men might see the chasm between the natural man …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of February 29, 1920; 1 Peter 2:1–5, 11–12; 19–25)
“Laying aside.” How necessary is this first step in Christian living. Many people quote another part of the Scripture that says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” but they forget the words of that injunction, which are, “Submit yourselves to God.” Now before there can be Christian living there must be a laying aside. How few Christians consider this cleaning up that is necessary, this pruning that must take place, this going down before there comes the going up and the bearing of …
