LUKE 4
We all know a good deal about man in the flesh, not only from Scripture, but from personal experience and by observation of others, but God would have us to apprehend and appreciate the moral beauty that has been disclosed in His beloved Son, who was here in manhood wholly for His delight. He came to that place in view of God’s thought to have many sons before Him for the pleasure of His love. God would have it to be evidenced that a dependent Man full of the Holy Spirit can withstand “every temptation”.
Luke is the only evangelist who speaks of the Lord as being full of the Holy Spirit; Luke presents Him as a vessel in manhood for the Holy Spirit. With one exception Luke is the only New Testament writer who speaks of men being full of the Holy Spirit. The one exception is in Ephesians 5, where Paul says, “be filled with the Spirit”. But Luke speaks repeatedly in the Acts of disciples and servants as full of the Holy Spirit. That kind of man is seen patterned in Jesus.
There was no unsuitability in that holy Person; He did not need to have suitability conferred on Him. If we are to be filled with the Spirit it is obvious that suitability must be conferred on us; it is not personal to us as it was to Him. Our suitability to receive the Spirit is the result of our being in the value of redemption, and it is by the working of God that brings us through many exercises into suitability. But Christ was personally suitable as a vessel to be full of the Holy Spirit. It is touching to observe that He was sealed with the Spirit at the moment when He was identifying Himself with the repentant company; it shows the kind of spirit that is delightful to God. He is seen as personally delightful to God in chapter 3, and this involved His sealing, a personal matter, but He is the anointed Servant in chapter 4. What He is personally [p. 59] precedes, and is morally greater than, what He is officially. As regards ourselves it is good to be exercised as to what we are personally and spiritually rather than as to what we might be officially: one might have capacity to serve the Lord in some way, but to be in conscious sonship for the delight of God is greater.
Spiritual suitability in full maturity is seen here in the Lord Jesus. Luke presents a wondrous development in Him; He introduces the Lord as a Babe, and he calls our attention in a marked way to His growth, His increase to full maturity. I have likened it to the Lord’s word, “First the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear”, Mark 4: 28. In the little Child who had the grace of God upon Him (Luke 2: 40) we see the “blade”: at twelve years of age we see the “ear” — things taking definite and intelligent form for God; then at thirty years of age we see the “full corn in the ear” — everything had come to maturity. There was no single element wanting that could be for the pleasure of God in Man. He thus comes into view as the incomparable Vessel, full of the Holy Spirit. An entirely new character of things came in with the Lord. If we want to know the character of man as dependent and as full of the Holy Spirit we must contemplate Jesus.
In regard to the temptation it is to be noted that He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted: the Spirit was the first mover, not the devil. It was necessary that what man was as dependent and as full of the Holy Spirit should be manifested in the presence of all the power and subtlety of the devil. It was not a test of man as independent of God; that testing had been going on for four thousand years, and at every moment the independent man had proved a failure, but God would have it manifested that the dependent Man full of the Spirit was able to withstand the whole power of evil. That is an immense thing for us to understand: God is well pleased that we should contemplate the perfection of Jesus, and look on Him as the pattern of what man really is as dependent and full of the Holy Spirit.
The features that come out here are of the utmost importance. We may be sure that the devil would not raise minor points, but would attempt to strike at that which was most precious to God, and most essential to the life of man in relation to God. Then, on the other hand, these features were precisely [p. 60] those which the Spirit of God intended should be brought to light. God would engage our hearts with the positive features in Christ which were disclosed in Him as tempted; they are features which are proper to man as in relation to God. We see one here as Man in the place of man’s responsibility, filling that place with absolute perfection. In Him we see Man in responsibility without any failure, without any imperfection, marked by dependence and the presence of the Spirit. God’s thought is to have man in responsibility after the pattern of Jesus; it is the proper character of the sons of God. As a Christian I learn what I am privileged to be as in responsibility, not from man after the flesh, but from Christ. He came into the place of man’s responsibility, and has filled it with absolute perfection; not as having strength or resource in Himself at all — that is the wonder of it — but as having confidence in God. He filled that place as the dependent Man drawing every bit of strength and support from the God whom He trusted. He has fulfilled responsibility in exactly the same way as we are privileged to fulfil it. If I were always dependent and full of the Holy Spirit I should always fulfil my responsibility for the pleasure of God. There has been One here upon earth as Man who lived by every word of God, and was dependent upon God at every moment and in every step, and everything in Him was for God’s delight. I need not say that there was much more than fulfilled responsibility in Christ, for there was in Him the perfect setting forth of the favour and love of God to men, but we are speaking for the moment of what was tested and brought out by the temptations of the devil. What came out as the result of his temptations was that there was a Man upon this earth in whom man’s relations with God were seen in perfect adjustment, and so secured that not all the power of the devil could disturb the adjustment.
No doubt the devil was aware that He had been saluted from heaven as the beloved Son of God, but it was morally impossible for the devil to know the Person that he was tempting. How could an evil being understand a Person who was absolutely true and holy and good? If the devil had known Him morally he would never have tempted Him; he would have known that it was utterly useless to present such things to Him. But God permitted the temptation, and it was by the leading of the Holy Spirit that Jesus went into it, in order that the true character of Man in dependence and full of the Holy [p. 61] Spirit might be manifested, and that it should be seen that such a Man could maintain all His relations with God inviolate. God has introduced into this world, in the Person of His beloved Son, something which is invulnerable in presence Of all the power of evil. Perfection was there which the devil could not touch so as to mar it in any way.
It was important in the first place that it should be demonstrated how man lives in relation to God. The first temptation brought that out; man lives “by every word of God”. He lives by what God is pleased to communicate to him. It was this great lesson which God was seeking to make Israel know in the wilderness. “He suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna ... that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by everything that goeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live”. It is by receiving communications from God that man lives; there is no other life for man as to his spirit, which is indeed the true man; he cannot live by any outward resources. We all naturally turn to something else, but it fails. We think it will be some satisfaction to do this or that, something that we mark out for ourselves, but humbling and hunger come in on that line. The cravings of the spirit of man are not met by such things, as we see in the book of Ecclesiastes. We scheme and plan and work out our designs to completion if God allows it, but we find there is no life on that line at all; we cannot get bread from stones, but communications from God enable a man to live. All the exercises of the wilderness were designed to teach the children of Israel that lesson, and we have to learn it too. Material things, and what we can get in a natural way, do not bring in life for our spirits in relation to God. Some of the Psalms are very precious as showing the value attached by men to communications from God. Men who had the Spirit of Christ attached the greatest value to communications from God. Psalm 19 and Psalm 119 are fine instruction as to the preciousness of “every word of God”.
For about thirty years Jesus Himself had been living by the words of God, taking up each word as it came to Him, in its application to the conditions in which He was found, as light and sustainment. “Every word of God” had been appropriated by Him; the communications of God, not only as a whole, but in detail; “morning by morning” His ear had been awakened to hear as the instructed; Isaiah 50: 4.
[p. 62] He gave every word of God its place, and He lived by the blessedness of what was communicated to Him by God. He would not make stones into bread at the tempter’s instigation, for He lived in the strength of another kind of food. I suppose we have all known how a word coming to us, perhaps in pressure or circumstances of trial, has altered everything. Not that anything external was changed; the circumstances were all the same, but a word from God had come into our souls so that we lived in the blessedness of it. That is more precious than to have all the resources of the world at our disposal. The lack of resources may test us at times, and cast us upon God, but it is an even greater test to be in affluence, to have the ability to supply every desire of one’s heart, and to be able in such surroundings to live by every word of God. That is the true blessedness of a saint. I have known persons with great resources as regards this world, who as to the life of their spirits did not live in these resources, but on communications coming to them from God. “Every word of God” would cover all His communications. We get the knowledge of God by listening to communications from Him. The first breath of life in a man’s soul is when he receives a communication from God. It gives him what natural resources never could give him. He finds out the precious thoughts of God in regard to him, and he lives by them. Here, of course, it is not the impartation of life, but the sustainment of it. Our souls need to be set in life; Psalm 66: 9. The practice of having a few verses of Scripture early in the morning is a fine support for the day, and it is wonderful how often in one’s regular reading one gets just what is needed for the day. We become conscious that it is the word of God to us for the time. If we do not get it, it is very likely that before the day is over we shall be trying to make some stone into bread..
The second temptation brings out the great and blessed subject of God’s service and worship, and this can only be taken up by those who know what it is to live by communications from God. God is ready to speak to us every day; He taught us that by the manna. He showed that He cared for His people every day; He did not give a week’s supply but a daily supply. The Lord Himself as Man here knew what it was to live by every word of God, and we have it on record that He received communications every morning. Jehovah opened His ear to hear as the instructed One, (Isaiah 50); it is [p. 63] really the word disciple: He was the true Disciple. His spirit was not sustained by outward circumstances or encouragement, but by every word of God. If He could speak of having His ear wakened, we may gather from it that we are dependent on God to waken our ears, and to speak to us every morning. He is exceedingly ready to do so. He never failed to give the manna. He never once threatened to stop the manna, although they were disobedient, rebellious, idolatrous, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt. The manna was a particular evidence of the faithfulness of God; it was never suspended however badly they behaved. We need to be much exercised as to being sustained in life, because God is a living God and He wants a living people — people living by fresh communications each day. The Lord Jesus had fresh communications every morning; therefore He was qualified to serve; He could speak a word in season to him that was weary. He said to the disciples, “All things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you”. He received communications and passed them on. If I receive from God I have something to pass on, and others will get the benefit of it.
The full scope of man’s ambition as fallen away from God is found in the power and glory of the world-kingdom, and this is also the limit of what the devil can give. He can give nothing beyond death, nothing for eternity, but power and glory in the present habitable world can be bestowed by him. He proposed to confer it on Jesus if He would but do homage before him. This brings out the terrible price at which present world glory can be purchased. To covet it is really to bow down to a power which is hostile to God. But the Son of God, the blessed dependent Man, full of the Holy Spirit, was absorbed with God, and with what is due to God. One who does homage to God will not be attracted by a power and glory which the devil can give. He has another kind of power and glory before him. “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee ... to see thy power and thy glory, as I have beheld thee in the sanctuary”, Psalm 63: 1, 2. It is striking that the worship and service of God should stand in contrast with wanting the power and glory of the world, If we live by what God speaks to us it is in view of our worshipping and serving in a priestly way. God’s sons are also priests for holy service Godward in His house. As in the shining of God’s love and delight the outgoings of the heart [p. 64] are in a worshipping spirit. God has now a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. It is said of Zacharias in this gospel that he “fulfilled his priestly service before God”, Those who do so find no attraction in a power and glory which the devil can confer. The house of God is a glorious place; there is a power and glory there which throws into the shade everything that is in the world.
The temptations stand in a setting which corresponds with the book of Deuteronomy, for each quotation of Scripture by the Lord is from that book, and in Deuteronomy great place is given to the place where Jehovah would cause His name to dwell, and where He would be served and worshipped. Our attention is thereby called to the magnificence of what God would set up here in contrast to everything that has power and glory in the estimation of the fallen man. Solomon’s temple was, I have no doubt, the most magnificent building that ever stood on the earth; it was “great and wonderful”; but it was only a typical shadow, and we have to do with the substance. The house of God as it is on the earth at this moment is far more magnificent spiritually than Solomon’s temple, and we have not to go to Jerusalem to find it.
The devil does not speak to the Lord of what men would call the evil things in the world, but of the world-kingdoms with their power and glory; he claims them as given up to him and the Lord does not dispute his claim. In that world which the devil can claim as his own there may be power and glory, and everything to satisfy ambition and the vanity and pride of man, but what is due to God cannot be found there. But in the house of God there is everything chat ministers to His pleasure; it is a spiritual house, and the sacrifices offered in it are spiritual sacrifices, and they are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
There are two great systems; the world system where man is clothed with power and glory without God, and another system where all power and glory is seen to belong to God, and where He is served and worshipped. Which system are we living in? The house of God is the assembly of the living God, and it is built up of living stones, and God is served and worshipped there. When the house was built the glory came down and filled it. I believe that is always morally true; the glory of God fills His house. To see God’s power and glory as it is known in the sanctuary delivers us from the [p. 65] world system. The thought at the end of Ephesians 2 is very beautiful: “all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord”. Finality is not yet reached, but the holy temple character is increasing all the time. It is not when we reach heaven, because it is “in the Lord”, and that is while we are here in responsibility. There should be something more of holy temple character about the saints now than there was five years ago. We do not get free from the world merely by renouncing certain things, but by realising the moral grandeur of a sphere where everything is spiritual, where all the light of God is, and where He is served and worshipped. The great business of Israel was to go up to the place where Jehovah set His Name; they had to have that in mind all the time; and our chief business is to be engaged in the service and worship of God in His house, which is a good place for men, but which is prominently brought before us in Scripture as a place for God where there is something agreeable to Himself — “spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”.
The devil proposed to give the power and glory of the world-kingdom to the Son of God if He would do him homage; to have that kind of power and glory involves some measure of homage to the devil. It is a very serious thing to think of. The devil said, “it is given up to me”; that would be true, not as a matter of any right to it, but as a fact through the lusts of men. The lusts of men have given the devil power, because he can minister to such lusts. The power and glory of the world have become the great prize of man’s unholy ambitions, answering to every corrupt desire in the heart of a man who does not know God. How blessed to recognise another system where everything is of God, a system filled with all the perfection and blessedness of Christ, and the fruit of His work, and everything sustained by the presence of the Spirit! There is a system where God and Christ and the Spirit are the source of everything, and in that system God is served and worshipped; He is not served and worshipped in this world.
Luke puts the temptations in moral order; Matthew gives the historical order. What Luke gives as the second temptation was the last in historical order according to Matthew; when the Lord said, “Get thee away, Satan”, that was the end; the devil said no more after that. But Luke puts the temptations in moral order, he writes with method, and he puts the temptations [p. 66] in an ascending scale. First the temptation to make stones into bread, then the devil’s offer of the power and glory of the kingdoms of the world, and then finally he brings forward what may be called a spiritual temptation. The devil is the slanderer; he slanders God to men, and he slanders the saints to God. Satan is his name as the adversary, the one who is in positive opposition to God at every point.
I do not think any other family will have the same privilege to serve and worship as we have. Praise and worship is rendered now by persons who have been in the holiest: that will not be true in the millennium. It gives the Lord joy for us to praise in concert with Him; the great delight of His heart is that we should know His God and His Father so as to worship and serve Him, and when He has brought us to that point it is His supreme satisfaction. If the Lord delighted to identify Himself with a few poor sinners who were repentant if they were to Him the excellent of the earth, of whom He could say that in them was all His delight — how does He delight in those who have received from Himself the knowledge of His God and Father, and who live in the enjoyment of the grace and blessedness that He has brought to them! What immeasurable delight He has in such a company! He speaks of them as being not of the world; they are of a spiritual system which is outside the world altogether.
The third temptation was more subtle than the first two, because it was based upon a divine promise; it was a suggestion that the Lord should avail Himself of a promise which would show publicly that He was the subject of divine care. The devil would suggest a putting of God to the test as to whether He would be true to His word. To do so would be a proof of want of confidence in God; it would be to tempt God, as the people did when they said, “Is Jehovah among us or not?” The Lord answered this by the scripture which forbad doing so. We learn here that Satan is conversant with Scripture; he knew that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah, and he knew the scriptures referring to the Messiah, and quoted one of them. I suppose the devil knows the Bible better than any one of us and he often quotes it for his own ends. But he was careful to quote just as much as would answer his purpose; there was another verse immediately following: “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot”. He did not quote that [p. 67] The question is raised now whether one dependent and full of the Spirit requires any outward and circumstantial proof that God cares for Him. The Lord Jesus had a home; according to the very Psalm quoted, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”. One who is dwelling in the secret place — one might say, in the very bosom of God — does not need any circumstance, sign, or miracle to make him sure of God’s love and care. Verse 4 of this Psalm says, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou find refuge”. Nothing could be more touching than that the blessed God should compare Himself to a bird cherishing her young; He speaks of the Messiah as being covered with His feathers. Nothing could be nearer or more intimate. He was under the warmth and cherishing of the love and care of God, and He did not need any outward sign of it. Verse 9 of the Psalm shows the conditions in which He lived: “Because thou hast made Jehovah, my refuge, the most High, thy dwelling place”. That is the privilege of the saint. The dependent Man, full of the Holy Spirit, was in the most intimate enjoyment of the love of God; He lived there. It has been said that we cannot live in the world and we do not yet live in heaven; the only place where we can live is in the love of God. If you live continuously in the known love of a person, you do not think of putting that love to any test; to do so would be a proof of distrust. It is just the same with God; if we have to put Him to the test as to whether He loves and cares for us or not, it is a proof of unbelief and distrust. The apostle says, “We boast in tribulations ... because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. That is the secret. I do not know the love of God by outward circumstances; He might allow me to suffer very severely. Many of our brethren suffer very severely; their outward circumstances do not seem to evidence that God loves them, but we know the love of God by the fact that Christ has died for us, and the Spirit of God pours that love into our hearts. We have a secret; this Psalm speaks about “the secret place of the Most High”. The love of God is a blessed secret only known to those who come into the light of the death of Christ. As Christians we cherish this wonderful secret, We know the love of God in two ways; by the expression of it in the death of His Son, and by the Spirit shedding it abroad in our hearts.
It is really “the secret place”, and if we live there we do not need a sign.
It is very sweet to think that God has a secret place in the heart of one where His love has become known, and we have a secret place in the heart of God. “Because he hath set his love upon me”. There was a blessed Man in this world who set His love upon God, and that is our privilege too. Then there will be no thought of requiring some outward evidence of His love; we have it in the secret of our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Even Job could say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him”. He had the root of the matter in him. God is pleased sometimes to leave His children in very trying circumstances and great suffering; He does not appear to intervene. I have known many saints who have not even wanted Him to intervene. They have been so happy in His known love that they have not wanted Him to change their circumstances; they have not wanted any outward sign. That is very glorifying to God. It is a great triumph on God’s part to make one in such circumstances conscious of His love. I remember an old sister who had never been outside the four walls of her little room for thirty-five years, and, when my mother went to see her and said something to her about the love of God, she said, ‘O, the love of God, it swallows me up’. She was in the secret place. We need to cherish that. We sing sometimes,
“Our hearts resort to where
Thou liv’st In heav’n’s unclouded rays”.
That is a secret place. Then you do not need to put the love of God to the test. The Scripture said, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”; that referred to the children of Israel in the wilderness when things all went wrong and they had no water to drink. Things were looking very black; to be in a wilderness without water to drink is a dire case. But they said, “Is Jehovah among us or not?” and God never forgot it; He reminded them of it several times in their history. Think of what He had done for them: the passover lamb, the passage of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire by night, and the pillar of cloud by day, the manna every day, and yet they said, “Is Jehovah among us or not?” And for us, we have the death of His Son: “Christ has died for us”. Nothing in the history of the world can be compared to that.
The Lord has overruled the devil’s quoting of Psalm 91 [p. 69] because it attracts the attention of saints constantly to that Psalm, which so beautifully brings out the personal relations of the Lord Jesus as Man to the blessed God, so that it is a Psalm which deserves most careful consideration. It is a conversation; there are different speakers in it, but it brings out the relations of Christ as Man to God.
It is of the greatest importance that we should cultivate the secret life of our spirits with God, so that we taste the known love of God all along, and do not wait until we get into a tight place and then look to God for deliverance, and take it as a proof of His care and love; but we live in the sweetness and blessedness of the known love of God all the time. Romans 8 tell us that nothing can separate us from the love of God or the love of Christ; these are things from the preciousness of which nothing can separate us. Then why should we want any circumstances changed to make us more sure that God or Christ loves us? Nothing is more humbling than to think what a little thing can upset us; it shows how little we are really living in the love of God. We spend time in praying that God would change our circumstances, whereas we should use our time better by asking that we might be changed.
Jesus returned in the Rower of the Spirit to Galilee; He had passed through the testing with undiminished power. Full of the Holy Spirit to begin with, He was not one whit less full when He came back to take up publicly His precious service of grace as God’s Anointed.
All the grace of heaven was waiting to break forth upon men, but it needed a suitable vessel in which to disclose itself. The full and perfect answer is found in Jesus. There is a Person in whom there is not the slightest disparity with heaven. Heaven found a perfect answer here on earth in a Man, so that in the presence of God He was the beloved Son — the object of God’s delight — and in the presence of the devil He was untouchable. That is the One in whom the grace of heaven has come to man — to us. It pleased God that the great light should shine, not in Judea, but in Galilee, for the value of a great light is best known in darkness. The prophetic word was that to a people who were in darkness and in the shadow of death the light should shine, and that light is shining still for us. It is a Person having such a character and such qualifications who is able to bring all the grace of heaven to man.
[p. 70] Now we see Him full of the Holy Spirit and speaking with divine authority. He is speaking in absolute grace to a people who are poor, captive, and blind. He brought tidings of immeasurable grace to those who deserved nothing. Everything that we learn in the Lord in His pathway here lives in Him in heaven, so it raises our hearts to heaven above. Every person in the world who knows the grace of God learned it from Jesus. He is still the anointed Preacher; human vessels are only mouthpieces, but Jesus is still the anointed Preacher; and Ephesians tells us that He is come to the Gentiles to preach peace to them that were afar off. He is saying the same things from heaven as He said on earth. What we have to do is to allow the Spirit of God to fill our hearts with a sense of who Jesus is and what He has brought.
The very fact that the Lord preached such wonderful divine favour to people who had not the slightest appreciation of it shows how entirely it is from God’s side, because it would appear that the Lord never had one convert in Nazareth. We see this grace in all its supremacy and majesty and glory, and it shines all the more brightly because it shines in darkness. Nothing influenced the shining and the preaching — the indifference has not influenced the preaching one iota. He came to a place where He knew He would not be appreciated: “Verily, verily, I say unto you that no prophet is accepted in his own country”.
Isaiah 61 had been read on numerous occasions before, but it had never been read as it was that day, because there was something more than Scripture read — it was Scripture fulfilled. The Lord then closed the book; He did not read a long piece — only two verses — but what volumes were in those two verses! Then He added something which no one could have added before: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears”. There was no haphazard reading; He found the scripture for that day; He did not read further.
Jesus represents the grace of heaven, and if we really are prepared to appreciate Him, He will become the supreme Object for each one of us. He said, “The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me, because he hath appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”, But are we poor and captive [p. 71] and blind so as to appreciate Him, or are we full of self-righteous pride? That is the test, and when it comes home to us that we are blind and that we do need glad tidings and deliverance from heaven, it no longer becomes just a picture to admire; it is a personal Deliverer who captivates and charms the heart, so that we are made willing to follow Him at all cost to ourselves. If the Lord is anointed to preach glad tidings just to people who are broken-hearted, Sidonian widows or Syrian lepers are just as much entitled to it as anyone else. Both in the widow of Sarepta and in Naaman, there was that which had to be taken to pieces, so that each of them might understand the wealth of grace and mercy that had come to them, undeserving as they were.
When the Lord brought home to His congregation the real state of their hearts, it turned out that on their side they were not poor, blind, crushed, and captives; they were not at all in that spirit, for they took Him to the brow of the hill to cast Him down. We do not learn grace very readily; it is wonderful how little one’s heart is prepared to take in pure grace.
Conviction of sin is of divine sovereignty; it is a divine operation which we cannot explain and no human power can bring about.
In verses 33 - 41 we see grace in its application. The condition of man is such that he is quite incapable for service either Godward or manward. But the gracious power of Jehovah’s Horn of deliverance came out in dispossessing the unclean demon that was in the synagogue, so that the man might be found in conditions suitable to the holiness of God and the service of God. Then Simon’s mother-in-law was incapable of service manward by reason of fever; and the application of grace to her set her in perfect liberty for service manward; she stood up and served them. The two incidents largely characterise the gospel of Luke. God has introduced a Person who in the application of His grace is capable of delivering men from everything that incapacitated them for service Godward and manward. A great many people want deliverance; the secret of it is a Person, and that Person is fully available for us. All that is in Him as power is as much available for us in our moral weaknesses and necessities as it was physically for the people that came in contact with Him in the days of His flesh. We have to go to the gospels to learn the character of the Person of whom the epistles speak. The [p. 72] doctrine is unfolded in the epistles, but for the substance we must go to the gospels. The substance and power of deliverance are in the Person of Christ.