Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V00150

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 18KB | 440 lines

00150
 # Mt 6:12
    \\Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.\\ Debts
 means moral obligations unfulfilled--our shortcomings, our sins.
 Let it be noted with emphasis that God is asked to forgive us as
 we forgive others. We ask, in other words, that he may mete out
 to us what we measure to others.
 (PNT 42)
00151
 # Mt 6:13
    \\Lead us not into temptation.\\ The thought is that God may
 preserve us from temptations that might lead us astray. No man
 can pray these words who does not try to keep out of temptation.
    \\For thine is the kingdom.\\ This clause, called the
 doxology, is wanting in the oldest and best manuscripts, and
 probably an addition based on
 # 1Ch 29:11
 (PNT 43 edited)
00152
 # Mt 6:14-15
    \\For if ye forgive men . . . your heavenly Father will also
 \\forgive you.\\ Our Lord makes it a condition of our obtaining
 forgiveness, that we shall have a merciful, forgiving spirit.
 (PNT 43)
00154
 # Mt 6:16
    \\When ye fast.\\ This is the third example of the right and
 wrong way of righteousness, in contrast. The same principle of
 doing nothing for mere show is still insisted upon. Fasting is
 not wrong, and, indeed, is often blessed richly, but not when
 our object is to appear to men to fast.
    \\Of a sad countenance.\\ It was common to assume a woe-
 begone look, put ashes upon the head, and even wear sackcloth,
 in order to show to the world deep humiliation. This is
 condemned.
 (PNT 43)
00155
 # Mt 6:17
    \\Anoint thy head.\\ That is, dress as usual.
    \\Wash thy face.\\ The usual practice before eating.
 (PNT 43)
00156
 # Mt 6:18
    \\Thy Father . . . shall reward thee.\\ Our self-denial must
 be for the eyes of God, not of men.
 (PNT 43)
00157
 # Mt 6:19
    \\Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.\\ This
 forbids, not the laying up of treasures, but laying them up on
 the earth; that is, the piling up of worldly wealth for worldly
 purposes. Riches are no sin in themselves, but the improper use
 of riches is a sin.
    \\Where moth and rust doth corrupt.\\ Unused garments often
 become moth-eaten; unused coins sometimes rust. All earth
 treasure will finally perish.
    \\Thieves break through.\\ Literally, "dig through." Often
 robbers in the East dig through the house walls of mud or
 unburnt brick.
 (PNT 43)
00158
 # Mt 6:20
    \\Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.\\ This is the
 only way to save our wealth. It is a positive precept. Our
 wealth must be consecrated to God and used as his work demands.
 Wealth used for doing good is treasure laid up in heaven.
 (PNT 43)
00159
 # Mt 6:21
    \\For.\\ This introduces a reason for the preceding precepts.
    \\Where thy treasure is, will your heart be.\\ This states a
 universal truth. A man's heart will be upon what he treasures
 most. If his treasure is in heaven, heaven will have his heart.
 (PNT 43)
00160
 # Mt 6:22-23
    \\The light of the body is the eye.\\ This is not an abrupt
 transition, but bears on the same subject. If one's eye is
 diseased, all he sees is wrong. So the mind, or conscience, is
 the light of the soul. If these be darkened, all is darkness; if
 these see aright, all is light.
 (PNT 43-44)
00162
 # Mt 6:24
    \\No man can serve two masters.\\ He cannot give his heart to
 two services at the same time. He cannot follow two callings
 successfully.
    \\Ye cannot serve God and money.\\ This is the direct
 application. The Chaldee word "Mammon" means money or riches. It
 is here personified as an idol. "Mammon" originally meant
 "trust," or confidence, and riches is the trust of worldly men.
 If God be not the object of supreme trust, something else will
 be, and it is more likely to be money.
 (PNT 44)
00163
 # Mt 6:25
    \\Be not anxious.\\ The Greek word \\[merimnao]\\ means "to
 have the mind distracted." Christ does not forbid prudent
 forethought.
    \\Is not the life more than food?\\ The argument is: God gave
 the life, and it is higher than food. If he gave it, he will see
 that it is sustained, if you trust in him. So, too, he made the
 body. He will see that it is clothed.
 (PNT 44)
00164
 # Mt 6:26
    \\Behold the fowls of the air.\\ God feeds the birds without
 their sowing or reaping, but they do the work for which they
 were created, and God takes care of them. So, too, he will take
 care of us--not in idleness or improvidence--but if we do the
 work for which God created us.
 (PNT 44)
00165
 # Mt 6:27
    \\Which of you by being anxious,\\ etc. There can hardly be
 a doubt that this ought to be rendered, "add one cubit to his
 age," or period of life. The idea is: "What is the use of
 anxiety? Who, by his anxiety, can add anything to life's
 journey?" If it is proper to speak of "length of life," it is
 also appropriate to speaking of adding a cubit to its length.
 (PNT 44)
00166
 # Mt 6:28
    \\Consider the lilies.\\ While the lilies do not toil or
 spin, they do their work, draw up sustenance from the earth, and
 drink in the dew, rain and sunbeams. So we are to do our
 appointed work. It we do this, trusting in God, he will supply
 all our needs.
 (PNT 44)
00167
 # Mt 6:29
    \\Even Solomon in all his glory.\\ To the Jew the court of
 Solomon was the highest representation of human glory. The
 magnificence of the court is not only celebrated in Jewish
 writings, but in all Oriental literature, and it is still
 proverbial throughout the East. Yet he was never arrayed with
 the taste and beauty of \\one of these.\\ It is probable that
 both birds and lilies were in sight from where the Lord was
 sitting.
 (PNT 44)
00168
 # Mt 6:30
    \\If God so clotheth the grass of the field.\\ Wild flowers
 belong to the herbage that is cut with the grass. In Palestine
 the forests in many localities disappeared thousands of years
 ago, and in the scarcity of fuel, dried grass and weeds are
 often used to heat the oven.
 (PNT 44-45)
00169
 # Mt 6:31
    \\Therefore be not anxious.\\ Have no anxiety over the
 question of food and raiment. Do your duty, with a full trust in
 God that he will see that you do not lack for these things.
 (PNT 45)
00170
 # Mt 6:32
    \\For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.\\ This
 worldliness, anxiety, and distrust, might do in heathen, who
 have no knowledge of a heavenly Father, but you have a heavenly
 Father, and he knows that ye "need of all these things."
 (PNT 45)
00171
 # Mt 6:33
    \\Seek ye first the kingdom of God.\\ The promise is made that if
 we seek it first, and its rightness, earthly needs will be supplied.
 The condition demands,
 (1) That we seek the kingdom \\first\\ in point of time.  Does God
     use those who give him only their spare time?
 (2) We must make it \\first\\ in importance. Nothing else deserves
     priority over it.
 (3) It must be \\first\\ in our affections, have our whole hearts. We
     must "love the Lord our God with the whole heart."
 # 27:37
    \\His righteousness.\\ We seek true righteousness whenever we seek
 to advance his kingdom and obey his will.
 (PNT 45 edited)
00172
 # Mt 6:34
    \\Be not anxious for to morrow.\\ Have no anxiety about
 tomorrow.
    \\To morrow will be anxious for the things of itself.\\ Not
 "take care of itself," but bring its own cares, anxieties and
 troubles. We should not foolishly increase our present burden by
 borrowing trouble about tomorrow.
 (PNT 45)
00173
 # Mt 7:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 7
  \\The Sermon on the Mount (concluded)\\

  Motes and Beams
  Casting Pearls before Swine
  Asking and Receiving
  The Golden Rule
  The Broad and Strait Gates
  Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
  The Tree Known by Its Fruits
  The Kingdom Entered by Obedience
  The Wise and Foolish Builders
  The Wonderful Teacher

    \\Judge not, that ye be not judged.\\ The term "judge" is
 used in more than one sense, but Christ's meaning is plain.
 (1) He does not prohibit the civil judgment of the courts upon
     evil doers, for this is approved throughout the whole
     Bible.
 (2) He does not prohibit the judgment of the church, through
     its officers, upon those who walk disorderly, for both he
     and the apostles have enjoined this.
 (3) He does not forbid those private judgments that we are
     compelled to form the wrong-doers, for he himself tell us
     that we are to judge men by their fruits.
     # 7:15-20
     What he designs to prohibit is rash, uncharitable
     judgments, a fault-finding spirit, a disposition to condemn
     without examination of charges.
 (PNT 45)
00174
 # Mt 7:2
    \\With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.\\ Not by
 men, but by God. He takes note of the unkind, harsh, censorious
 spirit, and deals with the man according to his own spirit.
 There is declared here a great principle that runs through the
 moral government of God: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
 also reap."
 # Ga 6:7
 (PNT 45-46)
00175
 # Mt 7:3
    \\Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?\\
 The Lord uses a figure to show the absurdity of judging severely
 the faults of others, while we have greater ones. The term
 translated "mote" means a little splinter, while the beam is
 something very large.
 (PNT 7:3)
00177
 # Mt 7:5
    \\Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thy own
 \\eye.\\ The man who finds fault with another for sin, while he
 is more guilty, is a hypocrite. A great many are very zealous to
 convert the world, who are themselves unconverted.
 (PNT 46)
00178
 # Mt 7:6
    \\Give not that which is holy to dogs.\\ The dog was regarded
 an unclean animal by the Jewish law. They probably represent
 snarling, scoffing opposers. The characteristic of dogs is
 brutality. To try to instill holy things into such low, unclean,
 and sordid brutal minds is useless.
    \\Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.\\ The swine were
 also unclean. They would have no use for pearls, and perhaps
 would rush upon those who scattered the pearls. So, too, there
 are men so dull, imbruted and senseless, as to reject the pearls
 of truth. It is our duty to help and to try to save others, but
 we must use common sense.
 (PNT 46)
00179
 # Mt 7:7
    \\Ask, . . . seek, . . . knock.\\ The terms are here used
 with reference to prayer, and these constitute a climax.
    \\Ask\\ implies a simple petition.
    \\Seek\\ indicates an earnest search.
    \\Knock\\ shows perseverance in spite of hindrances.
 The three represent earnest prayer.
 (PNT 46)
00180
 # Mt 7:8
    \\For every one that asketh receiveth,\\ etc. Every one of
 the class concerning whom the Saviour speaks. That class is those
 who can say, "Our Father in heaven; Hallowed be thy name; Thy
 will be done."
 # 6:9
 (PNT 46)
00181
 # Mt 7:9-10
    \\If his son shall ask bread, will he give him a stone?\\ The
 assurance of an answer to prayer is based on the fact that God
 is our Father. He treats his children as a good and wise earthly
 parent would. No kind parent would mock his child by answering
 his cry for bread with stones. Bread and fish were the chief
 articles of food of the Galilean peasant.
 (PNT 46)
00183
 # Mt 7:11
    \\If ye then, being evil.\\ Men who have the natural
 affection of parents, even though sinful men, will not do such
 things. Whoever believes that the term "Father," as applied to
 God, is more than a figure of speech, must believe in prayer.
    \\Give good gifts.\\ Luke, in the parallel passage, says,
 instead of "good gifts," "the Holy Spirit," as though this is
 heaven's greatest blessing.
 # Lu 11:13
 (PNT 46-47)
00184
 # Mt 7:12
    \\Whatever . . . do ye even so to them.\\ This does not imply
 that we are always to do to others as they wish, but what we
 would like to have done to ourselves if we were placed in their
 condition and they in ours. We might injure them by complying
 with their foolish wishes.
    A maxim similar to the Golden Rule is found in the teachings
 of various sages; Socrates among the Greeks, Buddha and
 Confucius among the Orientals, and Hillel among the Jews. But
 the other teachers do not come up to Christ's standard. Their
 maxim is negative and passive. They say: "Do not do to others
 what you would not have done to you." It is a rule of NOT doing,
 rather than of DOING.
 (PNT 47)
00185
 # Mt 7:13
    \\Enter ye in at the narrow gate.\\ The leading thought of
 the whole discourse is the kingdom of heaven and its conditions.
 Hence, when the Lord says, "Enter ye in," he means into the
 kingdom of heaven. Nearly every town in Palestine is surrounded
 by walls and is entered by gates. The principal ones are wide,
 with double doors, closed with locks and fastened with iron
 bars. The "strait gates" are in retired corners, are narrow, and
 are only opened to those who knock.
 (PNT 47)
00186
 # Mt 7:14
    \\For small [is] the gate.\\ What is it, Augustine asks, that
 makes this gate so small to us? It is not that it is small, or
 narrow, in itself, but that we want to take in our pride, our
 self-will, our darling sins.
    \\Few there are that find it.\\ It has been to be sought. The
 reason that men do not find it is not because it is hard to
 find, but because they prefer to walk in the broad way.
 (PNT 47)
00187
 # Mt 7:15
    \\Beware of false prophets.\\ The word "prophet," as used in
 the Scriptures, means any one who teaches authoritatively the
 will of God. A false prophet is one who is a false teacher.
 Christ refers to the scribes and Pharisees.
    \\Come to you in sheep's clothing.\\ While appearing as
 harmless as sheep they are wolves.
 (PNT 47)
00188
 # Mt 7:16
    \\Ye shall know them by their fruits.\\ This common figure is
 wonderfully expressive. Not leaves (professions), or appearance,
 are the proper tests of the life that is in the tree, but the
 fruit it bears. We are to test men and every institution by this
 principle.
    \\Grapes from thorns.\\ Two of the most highly valued fruits
 of Palestine are grapes and figs. Nothing is more common than
 thorns and thistles. Geike says that it is the land of thorns
 and thorny plants. Good fruit cannot be expected on such evil
 stocks.
 (PNT 47)
00190
 # Mt 7:18
    \\A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit.\\ The Lord points
 to the uniform law of nature. Every tree bears after its kind.
 The same principle holds good in the moral world. A good man
 will show forth good deeds, while a bad man will bear fruit
 according to his nature.
 (PNT 47)
00191
 # Mt 7:19-20
    \\Every tree . . . is hewn down, and cast into the fire.\\
 The test of good and bad trees, good and bad men, good and bad
 systems, has been presented. Now the figure is carried further
 to show their destiny. The Saviour states a principle that seems
 to run through the whole government of God. Whatever is useless
 and evil shall finally be swept away.
 (PNT 47-48)
00193
 # Mt 7:21

    \\Not every one\\, etc.  It is not all who call him "Lord" but
 those who are truly obedient, who submit to his Lordship, enter
 the "small gate" and follow the narrow way.

    \\that doeth the will of my Father.\\ No one can be a citizen
 of the kingdom who does not obey the King.
 (PNT 48 edited)
00194
 # Mt 7:22
    \\Many will say to me in that day.\\ The great day of the
 Lord.
    \\Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?\\ The Lord
 chooses out of the greatest class of non-doers to show that all
 such will fail of entrance. They have omitted the one thing
 needful, a faithful obedience.
 (PNT 48)
00195
 # Mt 7:23
    \\I never knew you.\\ "I never knew you" must be accepted in
 its deeper signification of "recognizing the disciples."
 Augustine says that for Christ to say, "I never knew you," is
 only another way of saying, "You never knew me."
    \\Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.\\ In spite of all
 their professions they had been evil doers. Their religion
 expended itself in professions and prayers. Hence, in "that day"
 they are commanded to depart. What it is to so depart we may
 learn from
 # 25:41
 It is evident from this passage that many are self-deceived.
 (PNT 48)
00196
 # Mt 7:24
    \\Whoever heareth these sayings of mine.\\ The words that he
 has spoken in this discourse, and all his teachings.
    \\I will liken him to a wise man.\\ The wise man, with wise
 forethought, has built on a firm foundation. In a country with a
 rainy season and heavy floods this was essential. The man who
 "hears and does" Christ's words is building upon the rock.
 # 16:16
 (PNT 48)
00197
 # Mt 7:25
    \\The rain descended, . . . and it fell not.\\ Palestine is a
 country of torrents and sands. This verse gives a picture of the
 sudden violent storms and sweeping floods which are so common
 during the rainy season. The house founded upon the rock could
 not be undermined and destroyed, but would stand firm. So, says
 the Lord, shall it be with those who hear and obey. "They shall
 stand in the judgment."
 # Ps 1:5
 (PNT 48)
00198
 # Mt 7:26
    \\Heareth these sayings . . . and doeth them not.\\ The
 hearer who obeys not is likened to the foolish man who built his
 house on the sand. Every one knows how transitory and shifting
 is a sandy foundation. Whole towns on the Missouri or lower
 Mississippi have been undermined and gone into the vortex
 because they were built upon the sand. So will fall the
 disobedient.
 (PNT 48)
00199
 # Mt 7:27
    \\Great was its fall.\\ The Lord describes the thoughtfulness
 of the builder on the sand, the storm and the utter destruction.
 There is an awful solemnity about this close to the wonderful
 sermon.
 (PNT 48-49)