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 "Moments with Maclaren" - a collection of wisdom from the sermons of Alexander Maclaren in his Expositions of Holy Scripture.

Moments with Maclaren in 2 Kings

 

2 KINGS 2

"When Christ ascended up on high, He relinquished nothing of His activity for us, but only cast it into a new form, which in some sense is yet higher than that which it took on earth. His work for the world is in one aspect completed on the Cross, but in another it will never be completed until all the blessings which that Cross has lodged in the midst of humanity, have reached their widest possible diffusion and their highest possible development. Long ages ago He cried, ‘It is finished,’ but we may be far yet from the time when He shall say, ‘It is done’; and for all the slow years between His own word gives us the law of His activity, ‘My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.’" --The Translation of Elijah and the Ascension of Christ, 2 Kings 2:11

". . . the angels of the Divine Presence are with us as truly, in life, when unseen as if seen. -- Elijah's Translation and Elisha's Deathbed, 2 Kings 2:12

"Not the greatest are indispensable. God lays aside one tool, but only to take up another. He has inexhaustible stores. The work goes on, though the workers change, and there is little time for mere mourning, and none for idle sorrow." --Gentleness Succeeding Strength, 2 Kings 2:13-22

"There is nothing on which some people pride themselves more than upon being practical-which generally means prosaic, and often means blind to God’s greatest deeds." --Gentleness Succeeding Strength, 2 Kings 2:13-22

2 KINGS 4

". . . while God is always giving, our capacity to receive determines the degree of our individual possession of Him. Or, to put it in the plainest words-we have as much of God as we can take in; and the principal factor in settling how much we can take is-how much we wish." --When the Oil Flows, 2 Kings 4:6

"God can give more than we can ask or think, but He cannot at the moment give more than we expect or desire." --When the Oil Flows, 2 Kings 4:6

". . . the day will come, not here, but in the upper chamber, when parted ones shall clasp each other again; and many a mourner shall hear Jesus say from the throne what He once said from the Cross, ‘Woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy mother.’" --A Miracle Needing Effort, 2 Kings 4 25-37

2 KINGS 5

"Naaman wished to be treated like a great man that happened to be a leper; Elisha treated him like a leper that happened to be a great man." --Naaman's Wrath, 2 Kings 5:10, 11

". . . a great many of us would be quite willing to go to heaven, but we do not like to go in a common caravan. We want to have a compartment to ourselves, and to travel in a manner becoming our position." --Naaman's Wrath, 2 Kings 5:10, 11

"The vivid realisation of God in our daily lives is the true shield against the enticements of the world." --Naaman's Imperfect Faith, 2 Kings 5:15-27

"One lie needs another to cover it, and every sin is likely to beget a successor." --Naaman's Imperfect Faith, 2 Kings 5:15-27

2 KINGS 6

"Any man who calmly reflects on the possibilities and certainties of his life will find abundant reason for a sinking heart. So much that is dreadful and sad may come, and so much must come, that the boldest may well shrink, and the most resourceful cry ‘Alas! how shall we do?’ It is not courage, but blindness, which enables godless men to front life so unconcernedly." --Sight and Blindness, 2 Kings 6:8-18

"The truest vision is the vision of faith. It is certain, direct, and conclusive. The world says, ‘Seeing is believing’; the gospel says, ‘Believing is seeing.’" --Sight and Blindness, 2 Kings 6:8-18

"There is a mist over every eye that beholds only the things of time, which prevents it from seeing these as they are, and from recognising a prophet when he is before them. If we would rightly estimate the objects of sense, we must discern, shining through them, the far loftier and greater things of eternity. That flaming background is needed to supply a scale by which to measure the others. The flat plain of Lombardy is most beautiful when its flatness is seen girdled by the giant Alps, where lies the purity of the snow which feeds the rivers that fertilise the levels below." --Sight and Blindness, 2 Kings 6:8-18

2 KINGS 7

"How foolish men’s demonstrations of impossibility look beside God’s deliverances! We have not gone through all the chambers of His storehouse, and ‘His ways are far above, out of our sight.’ Let us hold fast by the faith that His arm is strong to do whatever His lips are gracious to engage, nor let our inability to see where the river gets through the mountains ever make us doubt that it will reach the sunlit ocean." --Impossible,--Only I Saw It, 2 Kings 7:1-16

"We are, every one of us, responsible for all the eyes which we could have opened and which are still dark, and for every soul that gropes in ignorance, if we possess something that would enlighten its darkness." --Silent Christians, 2 Kings 7:9

2 KINGS 8

"God foresees it all. God puts men into circumstances where they will fall, God presents to them things which they will make temptations. God takes the consequences of their wrongdoing and works them into His great scheme. That is undeniable on one side, and on the other it is as undeniable that God’s foreseeing leaves men free. God’s putting men into circumstances where they fall is not His tempting them. God’s non-prevention of sin is not permission to sin. God’s overruling the consequences of sin is not His condoning of sin as part of the scheme of His providence." --The Story of Hazael, 2 Kings 8:9-15

"Life reveals us to ourselves. We learn to know ourselves by our actions, better than by mental self-inspection." --The Story of Hazael, 2 Kings 8:9-15

2 KINGS 10

"Nothing but walking in the law of the Lord ‘with all the heart’ will secure our walking safely." --Impure Zeal, 2 Kings 10:18-31

2 KINGS 12

"No man who regards his own reputation will consent to handle public money without some one to stand over him and see what he does with it." --Methodical Liberality, 2 Kings 12:4-15

"One would be wise always to suspect people who appeal for help ‘for the Lord’s work’ and are too ‘spiritual’ to have such worldly things as committees or auditors of their books." --Methodical Liberality, 2 Kings 12:4-15

2 KINGS 13

". . . Elisha thought that to stick to his life’s work till the last breath was out of him, and to devote the last breath to stimulating successors who might catch up the torch that dropped from his failing hands, was no unworthy end of a prophet’s life." --The Spirit of Power, 2 Kings 13:16

"God’s Church has ample resources to overcome the evil of the world. The fire is tremendous, but the Christian Church has possession of the floods that can extinguish the fire." --The Spirit of Power, 2 Kings 13:16

"All God’s promises and prophecies are conditional. There is no such thing as an unconditional promise of victory or of defeat; there is always an ‘if.’ There is always man’s freedom as a factor." --The Spirit of Power, 2 Kings 13:16

"Make room for God in your lives by your desires and you will get Him in the fullness of His power." --The Spirit of Power, 2 Kings 13:16

"The reason why many of us professing Christians have so little of the strength of God in our lives is because we have made so little use of the strength that we have." --The Spirit of Power, 2 Kings 13:16

2 KINGS 17

"Now, as ever, walking with God means walking in the opposite direction from the crowd, and that requires some firm nerve." --A Kingdom's Epitaph, 2 Kings 17:6-18

" . . . ‘as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,’ whatever his cloak may be; and the thing which we count most precious and long most for is our god, whatever our professions of orthodox religion." --A Kingdom's Epitaph, 2 Kings 17:6-18

"The darker the background of sin, the brighter the beams of His light show against it. Man’s sin is made the occasion for a more glorious display of God’s character and heart. It is on the storm-cloud that the sun paints the rainbow." --A Kingdom's Epitaph, 2 Kings 17:6-18

2 KINGS 18

"The whole secret of a joyful, strong, noble Christian life lies here-that on the foundation of faith we should rear tenacious adherence to Him in spite of all obstacles." --Hezekiah, A Pattern of Devout Life, 2 Kings 18:5, 6

"However close we may be to God, it is always possible to press closer. However full may be the union, it may always be made fuller; and the cleaving spirit will always be longing for a closer contact and a more blessed sense of being in touch with God." --Hezekiah, A Pattern of Devout Life, 2 Kings 18:5, 6

2 KINGS 22

"Unvalued things easily slip out of sight, and if the preservation of Scripture depended on the estimation which some of us have of it, it would have been lost long ago." --The Rediscovered Law and Its Effects, 2 Kings 22:8-20

"There is too much unwillingness, in many modern conceptions of Christ’s gospel, to recognise the place which the apprehension of personal evil consequences from sin has in the initial stages of the process by which we are ‘translated from the kingdom of darkness into that of God’s dear Son.’" --The Rediscovered Law and Its Effects, 2 Kings 22:8-20

2 KINGS 25

"The fall of Jerusalem is not merely a tragic story from the past. It is a revelation, for the present, of the everlasting truth, that the professing people of God deserve and receive the sorest chastisement, if they turn again to folly." --The End, 2 Kings 25:1-12

"As long as His gaze can discern the possibility of repentance, He will not strike; and when that is hopeless, He will not delay." --The End, 2 Kings 25:1-12

"God’s reluctance to punish is no reason for doubting that He will." --The End, 2 Kings 25:12

Moments with Maclaren in 1 Kings

 

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1 KINGS 1

"Let us learn that, though ‘the race is not always to the swift,’ promptitude of action, when we are sure of God’s will, is usually a condition of success. Life is too short, and the work to be done too pressing and great, to allow of dawdling." --David Appointing Solomon, 1 Kings 1:28-39

"We may bewilder our brains with speculations about the relation between God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom, but, when it comes to practical work, we have to put out the best and most that is in us to prevent God’s will from being thwarted by rebellious men, and to ensure its being carried into effect through our efforts, ‘for we are God’s fellow-workers.’ --David Appointing Solomon, 1 Kings 1:28-39

1 KINGS 3

"He who seeks wisdom first is already wise." --A Young Man's Wise Choice of Wisdom, 1 Kings 3:5-15

"For one man who goes wrong by deliberate choice, with open eyes, there are twenty who simply drift. Unfortunately, there is more evil than good in the world; and if a lad takes his colour from his surroundings, the chances are terribly against his coming to anything high, noble, or pure. This world is no place for a man who cannot say ‘No.’" --A Young Man's Wise Choice of Wisdom, 1 Kings 3:5-15

"When God is pleased with a man’s prayers, He gives more than was asked, and so teaches us to be ashamed of the smallness of our expectations, and widens our desires by His overlapping bestowments." --A Young Man's Wise Choice of Wisdom, 1 Kings 3:5-15

"The only way to be sure of getting what we wish, is to wish what God desires to give,-even Himself,-and to ask it of Him" --A Young Man's Wise Choice of Wisdom, 1 Kings 3:5-15

1 KINGS 5

"The effect of blessings should be thankfulness, and the proof of thankfulness is service." --Great Preparations for a Great Work, 1 Kings 5:1-12

I KINGS 6

"Surely nothing is more needed in these days of noisy advertisement, and measurement of the importance of things by the noise that they can make, than this lesson of the place of silence in Christian progress, both for individuals and for the Christian Church as a whole." --Building in Silence, 1 Kings 6:7

I KINGS 8

"The generations of those who trust in God are knit together, and the wonders of old time are capable of repetition to-day." --The King 'Blessing' His People, 1 Kings 8:54-63

". . . in truth what God gives to us is Himself; or, if you like to put it so, His grace. That little word ‘grace’ is like a small window that opens out on to a great landscape, for it gathers up into one encyclopaediacal expression the whole infinite variety of beneficences and bestowments which come showering down upon us." --The Matter of a Day in its Day, 1 Kings 8:59

"God never gives us the wrong medicine. In whatever variety of circumstances we stand, that one infinitely simple and yet infinitely complex gift contains what we specially want at the moment." --The Matter of a Day in its Day, 1 Kings 8:59

"God’s help comes, not too soon, lest we should not know the blessedness of trusting in the dark; and not too late, lest we should know the misery of trusting in vain." --The Matter of a Day in its Day, 1 Kings 8:59

"First, take short views of the future." --The Matter of a Day in its Day, 1 Kings 8:59

"Let us make the minute what it ought to be, then God will make the whole what it ought to be." --The Matter of a Day in its Day, 1 Kings 8:59

". . . let us fill each day with discharged duties. If you and I do not do the matter of the day in its day, the chances are that no to-morrow will afford an opportunity of doing it." --The Matter of a Day in its Day, 1 Kings 8:59

"We must hang continually upon Him, if we are continually to receive from His hand. No past blessing will avail for present use. --The Matter of a Day in its Day, 1 Kings 8:59

1 KINGS 9

"There is no more foolish misconception of Christianity than that which calls it harsh because it reveals that ‘the wages of sin is death.’" --Promises and Threatenings, 1 Kings 9:1-9

1 KINGS 10

". . . this relation with the queen of Sheba was the true one. Solomon did in it what Israel was meant to do for the world. He attracted a seeker from afar, and imparted to her the wisdom that God had given him." --A Royal Seeker After Wisdom, 1 Kings 10:1-13

"All this is but the putting into concrete form of God’s purpose in choosing Israel for His own. It was not meant to retain or to enclose, but to diffuse, the light. The world can only get blessing by one man or people getting it first." --A Royal Seeker After Wisdom, 1 Kings 10:1-13

"They who find their way to Him, and tell Him all that is in their hearts, will have all their questions solved. We have not far to go; for ‘a greater than Solomon is here.’ If we betake ourselves to Him, and learn of Him, we too shall find that ‘the half was not told us’; for Christ possessed is sweeter than all expectation, however high-pitched it may be, and to win Him is the only gain in which there is no disappointment, either at first or at last."----A Royal Seeker After Wisdom, 1 Kings 10:1-13

1 KINGS 11

". . . may we not venture to see a warning here against marriages in which there is not unity in the deepest things, and a common faith? ‘When you run in double harness, take a good look at the other horse.’ If a young Christian man or woman enters on such a union with one who is not a Christian, it is a great deal more probable that, in the end, there will be two unbelievers than that there will be two Christians." --The Fall of Solomon, 1 Kings 11:4-13

"God works out His purposes through men’s deeds, and their motives determine whether their acts are sins or obedience." --The New Garment Rent, 1 Kings 11:26-43

1 KINGS 12

"The fool always thinks himself wiser than the wise dead; the ‘living dog’ fancies that his yelp is louder than the roar of ‘the dead lion.’ What can be done with a Rehoboam who brags that he is better than Solomon?" --How to Split a Kingdom, 1 Kings 12: 1-17

"Passion and offended dignity are the worst guides for conduct. Threats are always mistakes. A sieve of oats, not a whip, attracts a horse to the halter." --How to Split a Kingdom, 1 Kings 12: 1-17

1 KINGS 17

"The worst times need the best men." --A Prophet's Strange Providers, 1 Kings 17:1-16

"God makes us sometimes wait on beside a diminishing rivulet, and keeps us ignorant of the next step, till it is dry. Patience is an element in strength." --A Prophet's Strange Providers, 1 Kings 17:1-16

"The motions of pity and charity are of God, and He commands us to help when He sets before us those who need help." --A Prophet's Strange Providers, 1 Kings 17:1-16

"No sacrifice for God is ever thrown away." --A Prophet's Strange Providers, 1 Kings 17:1-16

". . . what disturbs us in this world is not ‘trouble’ but our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates, and wears away our lives, is not in external things, but in the resistance of our wills to the will of God expressed by external things." --Elijah Standing Before the Lord, 1 Kings 17:1

1 KINGS 18

". . . it is sadly too plain to observation, and to the experience of some of us, that obstacles grow with years, that habits and associations grip with increasing power, that in all things our natures become less flexible, the supple sapling becoming gnarled and tough, that a middle-aged or old man is more inextricably ‘tied and bound by the cords of his sins,’ than a young one is." --Obadiah - To the Young, 1 Kings 18:12

"Sin lies to us by first saying, ‘It is too soon to be religious,’ and then it lies to us by saying, ‘It is too late.’ The inclination diminishes. The Gospel long heard and long put aside, loses power." --Obadiah - To the Young, 1 Kings 18:12

1 KINGS 19

"Love is the victor, and the sharpest weapons of the Christian are love and lowliness." --Elijah's Weakness, and Its Cure, 1 Kings 19:1-18

"The true conception of our work is that we sire only links in a chain, and that we can be done without. ‘God removes the workers and carries on the work.’" --Elijah's Weakness, and Its Cure, 1 Kings 19:1-18

1 KINGS 20

"There is no room for boasting, but there is room for absolute confidence. There is one way of doing it. ‘Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world.’" --Putting on the Armour, 1 Kings 20:11

"My dear young friends, distrust yourselves utterly, and trust Jesus Christ absolutely, and give yourselves to Him, to be His servants and soldiers till your lives’ end. Distrust yourselves; do not underestimate your enemies; understand that life is warfare; trust utterly to Jesus Christ, and He will see to it that you are not conquered . . . ." --Putting on the Armour, 1 Kings 20:11

1 KINGS 21

"The keynote of Elijah’s character is force-the force of righteousness . . .he bursts into the history, amongst all that corrupt state of society, with the force of a hammer that God’s hand wields. The whole of his career is marked by this one thing,-the strength of a righteous man. And then, on the other hand, this Ahab;-the keynote of his character is the weakness of wickedness, and the wickedness of weakness." --Ahab and Elijah, 1 Kings 21:20

"Sin is not only guilt, but it is a mistake. ‘The game is not worth the candle,’ according to the French proverb. The thing that you buy is not worth the price you pay for it." --Ahab and Elijah, 1 Kings 21:20

1 KINGS 22

"Every Christian man has large tracts of unannexed territory, unattained possibilities, unenjoyed blessings, things that are his and yet not his. How much more of God you and I have a right to than we have the possession of! The ocean is ours, but only the little pailful that we carry away home to our own houses is of use to us. The whole of God is mine if I am Christ’s, and a dribble of God is all that comes into the lives of most of us." --Unpossessed Possessions, 1 Kings 22:3

"There may be a peace in our hearts deep as life; a tranquillity which may be superficially disturbed, but is never thoroughly, and down in its depths, broken. And yet, let some little petty annoyance come into our daily life, and what a pucker we are in!" --Unpossessed Possessions, 1 Kings 22:3

"Let us familiarise ourselves with the thought of our present imperfection, and of our future completeness, and of the possibilities which may become actualities, even here and now; and let us not fitfully use what power we have, but make the best of what graces are ours, and enjoy and expatiate in the spiritual blessings of peace and rest which Christ has already given to us." --Unpossessed Possessions, 1 Kings 22:3

"If a man wants to be what he is not, he must cease to be what he is." --Unpossessed Possessions, 1 Kings 22:3