Price:
Note: The minimum quantity for this product with a custom imprint is 100.
About This Product
A choice chapter from "Lectures on the Gospel of Matthew" --a key to understanding the New Testament.
Excerpt- Whoso bears the name of Christ belongs to the kingdom of heaven. It may be that he is only a tare there, but still there he is. This is a very solemn consideration. Wherever Christ is outwardly confessed, there is a responsibility beyond that which attaches to the rest of the world.
The first parable clearly was true when our Lord was on earth. It is very general, and would apply to the Lord in person, or in spirit. Hence it may be said to be always going on; for we find in the second parable the Lord presented again, still sowing good seed: only here it is the “kingdom of heaven” that is said to be like to a man who sowed good seed in his field. The first is Christ’s work in publishing the word among men, while He was here below. The second rather applies to our Lord sowing by means of His servants; that is, the Holy Ghost working in them according to the will of the Lord while He is above, the kingdom of heaven being then set up. This at once furnishes an important key to the whole subject. But inasmuch as the matter of the first parable is very general, there is a great deal in all the moral teaching of it which applies as truly now as it did when our Lord was upon earth. “A sower went forth to sow” — a weighty truth indeed!
It was not thus that the Jews looked for their Messiah. The prophets bore witness of a glorious ruler, who would establish His kingdom in their midst. No doubt there were plain predictions of His suffering, as well as of His exaltation. Our parable describes neither suffering nor outward glory; but a work carried on by the Lord, of a distinct character from anything the Jew would naturally draw from the bulk of the prophecies. Nevertheless, our Lord, I conceive, was alluding to Isaiah. It is not exactly the gospel of grace and salvation to the poor, wretched, and guilty, but One who instead of coming to claim the fruits of the vineyard set up in Israel, has to begin an entirely new work. A sower going forth to sow evidently marks the commencement of that which did not exist before. The Lord is beginning a work not previously known in this world.