Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V00300

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 26KB | 614 lines

00300
 # Mt 10:27
    \\What I tell you in darkness.\\ In privacy. The Lord had to
 teach them in private before he could send them forth.
    \\Upon the house tops.\\ The flat roofs of eastern houses
 made a conspicuous pulpit. The Lord directs them to speak in the
 most public manner. In Syria proclamations are still often made
 from the house tops.
 (PNT 62)
00301
 # Mt 10:28
    \\Fear not them.\\ Of men, who can only destroy the body, but
 cannot harm the soul.
    \\But rather fear him,\\ etc. Fear God, who can condemn the
 soul to banishment. The command is to fear not the displeasure
 of man, but that of God.
    \\In hell.\\
    See note on "Mt 5:22"
 The word in the Greek is \\Gehenna\\, not \\hades.\\
 (PNT 62)
00302
 # Mt 10:29
    \\Two sparrows.\\ Among the smallest and least valuable
 birds, yet under the Divine care. So cheap as to be offered in
 pairs for an insignificant coin, but God notes the fall of one.
 (PNT 62)
00303
 # Mt 10:30-31
    \\The very hairs of your head are all numbered.\\ An
 assurance of the most special providence over all Christ's
 disciples. The next verse shows to whom the blessed assurance
 applies.
 (PNT 63)
00305
 # Mt 10:32
    \\Whoever will confess me before men.\\ To confess Christ
 does not mean to accept some particular creed, but to publicly
 acknowledge the Lord, and to live before men as his servant. It
 implies,
 (1) A confession of faith in him with the lips, such a
     confession as Peter made and the eunuch Paul describes this
     confession in Romans.
     # 16:16 Ac 8:37 Ro 10:10
 (2) An acknowledgment of Christ by obedience and by giving the
     life to his service.
    Confession is a demonstration of faith,
 (1) by public acknowledgment, and
 (2) by an obedient life.
 A verbal acknowledgment of Christ is not enough if the life is
 a denial, for then it shows that the acknowledgment was a lie.
 The two must correspond.
    \\Him will I confess.\\ Christ sitting on the throne of
 judgment promises to acknowledge as his own faithful brother
 every one who has thus acknowledged him before men.
 (PNT 63)
00306
 # Mt 10:33
    \\But whoever shall deny me before men.\\ The Jews denied him
 when they rejected him as Messiah. All who refuse to receive him
 as their Lord deny him still. The disciple who, through the
 cares of the world, turns away from Christian life, denies him.
    \\Him will I also deny.\\ Those who receive him will be
 received; those who reject him will be rejected; those who
 confess him will be confessed, and those who deny him, denied.
 (PNT 63)
00307
 # Mt 10:34
    \\Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.\\ Christ
 has to conquer a peace by overcoming the evil that is in the way
 of peace. Hence, to preach the gospel of purity and peace always
 arouses the opposition of the evil doer. Evil has to be put down
 before peace can prevail. Hence, while the great end that Christ
 proposes is peace, the immediate result of his coming, and of
 the preaching of the gospel, was opposition and bloodshed.
    \\But a sword.\\ The only sword that Christ or his followers
 use in the conflict is the Sword of the Spirit, but the
 persecutor has in every age turned upon them the carnal sword.
 The sword is sent because persecutors use it upon the church.
 (PNT 63)
00308
 # Mt 10:35
    \\I am come to set a man at variance against his father.\\
 This was not the Saviour's object, but the effect. The conversion
 of individual members of the family would cause variance. In
 nearly all quarrels, except those about religion, the members of
 the same family stand together, but in religious feuds the
 family circle is often broken and its parts arrayed against each
 other.
 (PNT 63)
00309
 # Mt 10:36
    \\A man's foes [shall be] they of his own household.\\ This
 has been verified thousands of times. Many a convert has been
 turned out of home and banished by kindred, because he had
 confessed Christ.
 (PNT 63)
00310
 # Mt 10:37
    \\He that loveth father or mother more than me.\\ The Lord
 does not require us to love these less, but him more. Love for
 him must become the dominant principle of life.
    \\Is not worthy of me.\\ Will not be accepted as worthy.
 (PNT 63)
00311
 # Mt 10:38
    \\He that taketh not his cross.\\ Luke adds, "daily"; not
 once, but all the time.
 # Lu 9:23
 The cross is the pain of the self-denial required. The cross is
 the symbol of doing our duty, even at the cost of the most
 painful death. Christ obeyed God, and carried out his work of
 the salvation of men, though it required him to die upon the
 cross in order to do it. And ever since, the cross has stood as
 the emblem, not of suffering, but of suffering for the sake of
 Christ and his gospel.
    \\And followeth me.\\ To follow Christ is to take him for our
 master, our teacher, our example; to believe his doctrines, to
 uphold his cause, to obey his precepts, and to do it though it
 leads to heaven by the way of the cross.
 (PNT 63-64)
00312
 # Mt 10:39
    \\He that findeth his life shall lose it.\\ Whoever counts
 his life of so much value that he will preserve it by
 sacrificing his Christian integrity, or will renounce his
 religion to save his life, will find in the end that he has lost
 his soul forever for the sake of a few fleeting years; while he
 who gives up all things, even life itself, will find an abundant
 reward in the life eternal. All self-seeking is self-losing. The
 Divine law is always to give in order to receive.
 (PNT 64)
00313
 # Mt 10:40
    \\He that receiveth you receiveth me.\\ They would go forth
 in Christ's name, as his servants and ambassadors. They carried
 his message, and to receive it and them was virtually receiving
 him.
 (PNT 64)
00314
 # Mt 10:41
    \\In the name of a prophet.\\ That is, because he is a
 prophet. The apostles themselves were prophets.
 (PNT 64)
00315
 # Mt 10:42
    \\Whoever shall give to drink to these little ones.\\ By the
 "little ones" are probably meant Christ's disciples.
    \\A cup of cold [water] only.\\ The smallest act of kindness.
 If done "because he was a disciple," or out of regard for
 Christ, he should never lose his reward. Good deeds are never
 lost.
    Note the six things here spoken of as belonging to
 discipleship of Christ:
 (1) Confessing or professing;
 (2) Fighting;
 (3) Bearing his standard (the cross);
 (4) Suffering;
 (5) Following;
 (6) Giving up life.
 These are all the duties of the soldier.
 (PNT 64)
00316
 # Mt 11:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 11
  \\The Message from John the Baptist\\

  John Sends from Prison to Christ
  Christ's Answer
  The Character of John the Baptist
  None Greater before Him
  The Least in the Kingdom
  The Criticisms of John and Christ
  The Woes of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum
  Wisdom Hid from the Wise, but Given unto Babes
  The Sweet Invitation
00317
 # Mt 11:2
    \\When John had heard in the prison.\\ Compare
 # Mr 6:14-29 Lu 7:19-28
 John had now been a year in prison, to which he had been sent by
 Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, because he had rebuked
 his adulterous marriage with his brother Philip's wife.
 # 14:1-11
 Josephus says that Machaerus, a strong fortress built by Herod
 the Great, the father of Antipas, about ten miles east of the
 Dead Sea, was the prison.
    \\He sent two of his disciples.\\ To make the inquiry
 found in the next verse. The course of Jesus was so different
 from what John himself, in common with other Jews, expected of
 the Messiah, that after lying in a dungeon for a year, he began
 to be uncertain. If Jesus was the Christ, why did he not
 proclaim himself the Messiah King, destroy the power of the
 Romans and of Herod, and release John himself from prison? So he
 reasoned.
 (PNT 64-65)
00318
 # Mt 11:3
    \\Art thou he that should come?\\ John the Baptist had
 predicted the coming One.
 # 3:11
    Perhaps John, impatient of the long delay, hoped to incite
 Jesus to proclaim his Messiahship.
 (PNT 65)
00319
 # Mt 11:4
    \\Jesus answered and said.\\ Luke states that at that same
 hour he cured many of their infirmities. After permitting the
 messengers to see his work, he pointed to it as his answer.
    \\Go and show John again those things which ye hear and
 \\see.\\ To John's question Jesus gives no direct reply. There
 is something severe in the whole of our Lord's demeanour and
 language, as if reproving this shaking of John's higher faith in
 God.
 (PNT 65)
00320
 # Mt 11:5
    \\Dead are raised.\\ In Luke, the raising of the widow's son
 at Nain immediately precedes this message; and in this Gospel we
 have seen the ruler's daughter raised.
    \\The poor have the gospel preached to them.\\ It adds to the
 force of this testimony that the poor had always been overlooked
 by Pharisees and the Jewish doctors. The ancient philosophers
 and theologians had no gospel for those who could not pay for
 it. The climax is preaching the gospel to the poor. Jesus
 answers John by pointing to his works. They were a more
 convincing answer than words. What he has done for mankind is
 still a most convincing demonstration.
 (PNT 65)
00321
 # Mt 11:6
    \\Blessed is [he]\\, etc. This is suggested by John's seeming
 to have stumbled, not fallen, because Christ had not publicly
 declared his mission. The Lord does not upbraid, but gives in
 this way a tender rebuke, implying that he knew what to do with
 reference to his kingdom.
 (PNT 65)
00322
 # Mt 11:7
    \\What went yet out into the wilderness to see?\\ An allusion
 to John's ministry in the wilderness, which had been attended by
 most of Christ's disciples.
    \\A reed shaken with the wind.\\ The reed of Egypt and
 Palestine is a very tall cane, growing twelve feet high, and is
 easily bent by the wind. John was not like the reed. He could
 not be bent by every breath of applause or displeasure.
 (PNT 65)
00323
 # Mt 11:8
    \\A man clothed in soft raiment?\\ Were you attracted into
 the wilderness of Judea to see an effeminate courtier? Had he
 been a pliant courtier he would have flattered Herod, and would
 not have been thrown into prison for his rebuke of sin in high
 places.
 (PNT 65)
00324
 # Mt 11:9
    \\More than a prophet.\\ He was more than a prophet, because
 he was a reformer, forerunner and way-preparer, as well as
 prophet. No other prophet ever had so honoured an office.
 (PNT 65)
00325
 # Mt 11:10
    \\This is he, concerning whom it is written.\\ Of whom
 Malachi and Isaiah prophesied.
 # Mal 3:1 Isa 40:3
 See note on "Mt 3:3"
 (PNT 65)
00326
 # Mt 11:11
    \\Among them that are born of women.\\ Among all of the human
 race that were before John the Baptist. The world thinks that
 kings, generals, and statesmen are the greatest of men. But God
 measures differently. Time, too, measures differently. Herod,
 now, would hardly be known at all if he had not imprisoned John
 the Baptist.
    \\He that is least in the kingdom of heaven.\\ This shows,
 (1) That John was not in the kingdom of God.
 (2) That, as none greater than John has been born of women, no
     one had yet entered the kingdom.
 (3) That, therefore, it had not yet been set up, but as John
     himself, Jesus, and the Twelve under the first commission,
     preached, was "at hand."
 (4) All in the kingdom, even the humblest, have a superior
     station to John, because they have superior privileges.
 (PNT 66)
00327
 # Mt 11:12
    \\From the days of John the Baptist until now\\, etc. The
 idea is, that from the time when John began preaching, men of
 violence were trying to force their way into the kingdom. It is
 compared to a walled city that men try to storm and enter. They
 tried a little later to make Jesus a king by force.
 (PNT 66)
00328
 # Mt 11:13
    \\The prophets and the law prophesied until John.\\ For the
 meaning we must turn to Luke, where the same words occur with
 the addition, "since that time the kingdom of heaven is
 preached."
 # Lu 16:16
 Then first began the announcement that John was the
 way-preparer, the forerunner of the King, that the kingdom was
 at hand, that the old dispensation was about to close.
 (PNT 66)
00329
 # Mt 11:14
    \\This is Elijah, who was to come.\\ Malachi predicted that
 Elijah would come to prepare the way for the Lord. Christ
 explains that this was fulfilled in John. He was not the
 literal, but a spiritual Elijah. See
 # Mal 4:5
 (PNT 66)
00330
 # Mt 11:15
    \\He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.\\ A formula used
 by Christ to give emphasis to an utterance of especial
 importance.
 (PNT 66)
00331
 # Mt 11:16
    \\To what shall I liken this generation?\\ Compare
 # Lu 7:31-35
 The Jewish nation is meant. The Lord shows that they were as
 capricious as children.
    \\Children sitting in the markets.\\ All ancient towns had an
 open market place, which was the great place of resort.
 (PNT 66)
00332
 # Mt 11:17
    \\We have piped to you.\\ One set of children is represented
 as having invited another set to play, first in a mock wedding,
 then in a mock funeral, but the dissatisfied children were
 pleased with neither, and would neither dance nor lament.
 (PNT 66)
00333
 # Mt 11:18
    \\John came neither eating nor drinking.\\ At feasts. He
 lived abstemiously and austerely.
    \\He hath a demon.\\ They accused him of being under the
 influence of evil spirits; of being a crank, or fanatic.
 (PNT 66)
00334
 # Mt 11:19
    \\The Son of man came eating.\\ Like other men. He was at the
 wedding feast of Cana; at Matthew's feast, etc.
 # Joh 2:1-11 Mt 9:10
    \\A winebibber.\\ There was nothing singular about his social
 habits. Like all the people, he drank the light, harmless wine
 of Palestine, either free from, or with a very slight percentage
 of, alcohol. Our modern wines are very different.
    \\A friend of tax collectors and sinners.\\
    See note on "Mt 9:12"
    See note on "Mt 9:13"
    \\Wisdom is justified of her children.\\ Those who are wise
 will approve both the course of John and his Lord.
 (PNT 66-67)
00335
 # Mt 11:20
    \\Then he began to upbraid the cities,\\ etc. Compare
 # Lu 10:12-15
 The cities in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee had, thus far,
 heard and seen the most of the Lord and had the least excuse for
 rejecting him. In all the reproofs of Jesus there is sadness in
 the severity. The very denunciations seem to mourn.
    \\In which most of his mighty works were done.\\ We know
 of a number of miracles which had been wrought in these cities,
 the healing of the centurion's servant, of the son of nobleman,
 of the diseased woman, of two blind men, and the raising of the
 daughter of Jairus. The Scriptures assure us that these were
 only a very small part of the mighty works he did. See
 # 9:35
    \\Because they repented not.\\ The great end proposed by the
 gospel is repentance and a new life.
 (PNT 67)
00336
 # Mt 11:21
    \\Woe to thee, Chorazin!\\ Chorazin has long been extinct,
 and its site is not certainly known. It is named only here and
 in
 # Lu 10:13
 Situated about two miles from the ruins of Tell-Hum, thought to
 be Capernaum, there are ruins now called Kerazeh, including a
 synagogue, columns and walls of buildings, supposed to mark the
 site of Chorazin.
    \\Woe to thee, Bethsaida!\\ The word means "House of fish,"
 and the name would imply that it was a fishing town, and it was
 the home of the fishermen, Peter, Andrew and Philip.
 # Joh 1:44
 Its locality is in dispute. It was probably situated on both
 sides of the Jordan, where it emptied into the Sea of Galilee.
 The ruins of a city lie there, mostly on the east side of the
 river.
    \\For if the mighty works . . . had been done in Tyre and
 \\Sidon.\\ These were rich Phoenician trading cities on the east
 shore of the Mediterranean. Tyre was long the chief commercial
 city of the world; it still exists as a wretched town.
    \\In sackcloth and ashes.\\ The symbols of mourning and
 repentance. See
 # Joh 3:5
 on the repentance of Nineveh. Sackcloth was a kind of coarse
 cloth, woven of camel's hair.
 (PNT 67)
00337
 # Mt 11:22
    \\It shall be more tolerable\\, etc. These solemn words
 teach:
 (1) That there will be a day of judgment for all cities,
     nations and men.
 (2) That men will be judged according to their opportunities;
     that those who have had and neglected opportunities will be
     held most guilty.
 (3) That there will be different degrees of future punishment,
     according to guilt and opportunities; that those whose
     opportunities have been greatest will receive the greater
     punishment, if these are neglected. Every man will be
     judged and punished according to his opportunities and
     works. The idea of a hell of the same severity for all the
     unsaved is nowhere taught by Christ.
 (PNT 67)
00338
 # Mt 11:23
    \\And thou, Capernaum.\\ Capernaum was at that time a city of
 30,000 inhabitants. Its site also is disputed. Most locate it on
 the lake shore, at the ruins called Tell-Hum, but others locate
 it about three miles north of the ruins of Tell-Hum. It enjoyed
 signal advantages as being the Galilean home of Christ, who
 taught in its streets, houses and synagogue, and worked many
 miracles there.
    \\Art exalted to heaven.\\ By the privilege of having Christ
 as an inhabitant.
    \\Shalt be brought down to hell.\\ Not hell, but \\hades\\,
 the unseen. Capernaum shall disappear from human view. Within
 less than forty years Capernaum was destroyed by the Romans, and
 for many centuries has not had an existence.
    \\Would have remained until this day.\\ Note the inference:
 (1) Sodom was destroyed for its sins.
 (2) Had it not been sinful it would have "remained."
 (3) Therefore it is sins that destroy cities and nations.
     Jerusalem, Babylon, Sodom, Capernaum, and other extinct
     ancient cities have perished on account of their sins.
 (4) Modern cities which scoff at God and revel in iniquity will
     "be brought down to hades" also.
 Permanent temporal prosperity depends on righteousness.
 (PNT 67-68)
00339
 # Mt 11:24
    \\More tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment.\\ Because
 it had poor opportunities. Sodom had fallen two thousand years
 before Christ, and had been extinct ever since, yet the Lord
 speaks of a \\future\\ day of judgment for both Sodom and
 Capernaum. Therefore,
 (1) There is a judgment after death.
 (2) Temporal punishment for wickedness does not satisfy eternal
     justice. The Sodomites were held to a future judgment.
 (3) The inhabitants of Sodom had not been annihilated, but were
     alive, waiting for the judgment.
 (PNT 68)
00340
 # Mt 11:25
    \\At that time.\\ Immediately after this judgment upon the
 impenitent cities was denounced.
    \\O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.\\ Christ addresses God
 as his Father, not as his Lord. The obedience he yields is that
 of a Son, not of a subject. Four more times, in deep emotion,
 Christ thus addresses the Father.
 # Joh 11:41 12:28 17:1 Lu 23:34
    \\Thou hadst hid these things from the wise and prudent.\\
 From the worldly wise Pharisees and Jews. God had hid these
 things from this latter class through the natural operation of
 their own corrupted hearts and perverted minds.
    \\Babes.\\ The simple and believing.
 (PNT 68)
00341
 # Mt 11:26
    \\Even so, Father,\\ etc. "Even so" is better rendered "Yea."
 (PNT 68)
00342
 # Mt 11:27
    \\All things are delivered to me of my Father.\\ The Lord
 speaks, in part, in anticipation. It was the divine purpose, in
 sending the Son, to deliver "all things," the gospel, salvation,
 judgment, the rule of heaven and earth, to him.
    \\Neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son.\\ He only
 is in the secret of the Divine counsels.
    \\And [he] to whomever the Son will reveal [him].\\ Christ is
 the revelation of God to man. "He that hath seen me hath seen
 the Father."
 # Joh 14:9
 Those who "know" Christ by humble obedience and docility learn
 to know the Father also.
 (PNT 68)
00343
 # Mt 11:28
    \\Come to me.\\ This is one of the sweetest passages in the
 NT. It shows the willingness of the Lord. The kings and earth
 and the great are usually difficult of access, while Jesus is
 not only willing, but invites us, to come to him. Note how
 gracious is the invitation!
 (1) It is the Lord who speaks.
 (2) He invites to come to him.
 (3) The invitation is to those who labour and are heavy laden.
 (4) He promises, to all these weary ones who come, rest. The
     offer is not that of a man, but of the Divine Saviour.
     Millions in all ages since can bear witness that the
     promise is sure.
    \\That labour and are heavy laden.\\ Feel heavily the burdens
 of life, of sin and sorrow.
    \\Rest.\\ Peace of soul.
 (PNT 68)
00344
 # Mt 11:29
    \\Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.\\ He has first
 asked us to come, and made a gracious promise. He next shows us
 how to come. We are to come by taking HIS yoke upon us. Taking
 on the yoke is a symbol of submission. The two steps by which we
 come, and secure the promise of "rest unto our souls" are then,
 (1) Submission to Christ.
 (2) Becoming his disciples.
 (PNT 68)
00345
 # Mt 11:30
    \\For my yoke [is] easy.\\ The yoke that sin imposes is
 heavy, and bearing it brings no rest. So, too, the yoke of false
 or corrupted religion is burdensome; but Christ's yoke is easy.
 It is not hard to bear it because it is borne in love. His
 burden, even if it be the cross, is light, because he helps us
 to bear it. Note: That one rejecting Christ in the midst of
 light is worse than a heathen. Christ graciously invites all to
 come to him. He is the rest of the soul.
 (PNT 69)
00346
 # Mt 12:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 12
  \\The Pharisees Take Counsel Against and Seek to Destroy Jesus\\

  Jesus Accused of Sabbath Breaking
  The Son of Man Lord of the Sabbath
  Healing the Withered Hand
  The Pharisees Take Counsel to Destroy Jesus
  The Tenderness of Christ
  A Dumb and Blind Demoniac Healed
  Accused of Help from the Devil to Cast Out Demons
  A Divided Kingdom
  Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
  Shall Give Account for Idle Words
  The Sign of Jonah
  The Queen of the South
  His Mother and Brethren
  Who Are My Mother and Brethren?

    \\At that time.\\ Compare
 # Mr 2:23-28 Lu 6:1
 About the time when grain begins to ripen in Judea, that is, not
 far from the first of May.
    \\Through the grain fields.\\ Wheat or barley. The paths, the
 only roads, led and still lead through the grain fields in
 Palestine.
    \\Began to pluck.\\ Permitted by Moses.
 # De 23:25
 (PNT 69)
00347
 # Mt 12:2
    \\But when the Pharisees saw [it].\\
    See note on "Mt 3:7"
 Some of the sect were in attendance on the watch for a ground of
 accusation.
    \\Not lawful to do on the sabbath.\\ They did not object to
 taking the ears of corn, but to gathering, rubbing out the
 grains of wheat in the hand, and eating them on the sabbath.
    To understand their position, it must be noticed that after
 the Law had said that the Jews were "to do no manner of work" on
 the Sabbath, the "Tradition of the Elders" had laid down
 thirty-nine principal prohibitions, which were ascribed to the
 authority of the Great Synagogue, and which were called
 \\abboth,\\ "fathers," or chief rules. From these were deduced a
 vast multitude of \\toldoth,\\ "descendants," or derivative
 rules. Now, "reaping" and "threshing" on the Sabbath day were
 forbidden by \\abboth\\; and by the \\toldoth\\ it was asserted
 that plucking corn-ears was a kind of reaping, and rubbing them
 a kind of threshing.
    The vitality of these artificial notions among the Jews is
 extraordinary. Abarbanel relates that when, in 1492, the Jews
 were expelled from Spain, and were forbidden to enter the city
 of Fez lest they should cause a famine, they lived on grass; yet
 even in this state "religiously avoided the violation of their
 Sabbath by plucking the grass with their hands." To avoid this
 they took the much more laborious method of grovelling on their
 knees, and cropping it with their teeth.
    We give one more example of their Sabbath requirements. "If
 on the Sabbath a Jew put out a lamp from fear of the Gentiles,
 or robbers, or on account of an evil spirit, he was guiltless;
 if to save oil, he was guilty."--"Milman's Jews," Vol. 2, p.
 480.
 (PNT 69)
00348
 # Mt 12:3
    \\Have ye not read.\\ The Lord answers them by citing the
 case of David, who, under necessity, took, ate, and gave to his
 followers the show bread which it was lawful for priests only to
 eat. Necessity rose higher than ceremonial. See
 # 1Sa 21:1-6
 (PNT 69)
00349
 # Mt 12:4
    \\Entered into the house of God.\\ The tabernacle at Nob. The
 temple had not been built.
    \\The showbread.\\ Twelve loaves placed upon a table in the
 holy place as a symbol of the communion of the twelve tribes,
 and a type of the Bread of Life to be given to the whole world.
 They were kept a week, renewed, and the old loaves eaten by the
 priests. If David could take these under necessity, so could
 Christ's disciples pluck corn under necessity.
 (PNT 70)