Christian Suffering in its Proper Perspective

Posted on March 24, 2023 by The Editor

2 Timothy 2:12—Romans 8:17,18; 1 Peter 3:14,15—4:16,19—Hebrews 11:25

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him—If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

If ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear—If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf…Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator—choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): As the way to Canaan lay through a howling wilderness and desert, so the path to heaven lies through much affliction.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,” Acts 14:22. Luke speaks not in this place only of the persecutions which the adversaries raise against us with drawn swords and flaming fires; but he comprehends under the word “tribulations,” all the sorrows and miseries whereunto the life of the godly is subject; not because the faithful alone are miserable; because this is the common state both of the good and bad…For besides common molestations, they are oppressed peculiarly with many discommodities, and the Lord doth humble them with such exercises, keeping their flesh under correction lest it wax wanton; He awakens them, lest they lie sleeping upon earth. Unto these are added the reproaches and slanders of the wicked.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): The believer should never fail to remember that the present is, by the appointment of God, his state of affliction. It is God’s ordained, revealed will that His covenant children here should be afflicted. When called by grace, they should never take into their account any other state. They become the disciples of the religion of the cross, become the followers of a crucified Lord, put on a yoke, and assume a burden: they must, then, expect the inward cross and the outward cross. To escape it is impossible. To pass to glory without it is to go by a way other than God’s ordering, and in the end to fail to arrive there.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): “He performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with Him,” Job 23:14. We are here assured that our afflictions are not casual or accidental. Nothing in any of our trials occurs by chance. With us there may be contingencies, seeing we are not acquainted with the plan to be developed and executed in the arrangements of an all-wise Providence; but all events are “determined by Him Who sees the end from the beginning, and Who is working all things after the counsel of His own will,” Ephesians 1:11. Nothing transpires without Him. He strikes no random blows: His arrows never miss their object. He is performing the thing that is appointed for us; and the appointment is in all respects perfectly equitable…It is also intimated that these afflictions are not peculiar. “Many such things are with him;” and when writing to the Thessalonians the apostle Peter says, “The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world,” 1 Peter 5:9.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): So it “must” be—there is a necessity of it, partly on account of the decrees of God, who has appointed afflictions for His people; and partly on account of the predictions of Christ, Who foretold His disciples, that in the world they should have tribulation; as also, that there might be a conformity to Him, that as He the head must, and did suffer many things, and enter into His glory, so must they His members: as well as likewise for the trial and exercise of the several graces of the Spirit, and to make the saints meet for heaven, and to make that the sweeter to them.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The gate is strait and the way is narrow that leads to life, and a man must become nothing if he would enter and be saved. He must deny himself; he must become a fool that he may be wise, and receive the sentence of death in himself that he should not trust in himself. The wise man must cease to glory in his wisdom, the mighty man must cease to glory in his might, the rich man must cease to glory in his riches, and their only ground of glory in themselves must be their insufficiency, infirmity, poverty, and weakness. Their only ground of glory outside of themselves must be that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16.

WILLIAM JAY: “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” says the Saviour Himself, John 16:33: “but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” And with respect to the final results, these “light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” 2 Corinthians 4:17; and while our heavenly Father is performing the thing that is appointed for us, we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, Romans 8:28.”

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): A Christian man is seldom long at ease,

When one trouble’s gone, another doth him seize.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: If bitter adversity, if deep affliction, if the daily and the heavy cross be your portion, do not breathe one murmur, but rather rejoice that you are led into the path that Jesus Himself walked in, to go “forth by the footsteps of the flock,” Song of Solomon 1:8, and that you are counted worthy to thus share the circumstances of Christ and His people.

WILLIAM JAY: He who is bringing to pass the appointments of His providence, so loved us as not to spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Let us take this principle with every circumstance of life, and say, “The cup which my Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?” It is “the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.” “I will cry unto God most high, unto God who performeth all things for me,” Psalm 57:2. And we are not only allowed, but invited—yea, required, to cast all our cares on Him, with the assurance that He careth for us.

JOHN GILL: And God sometimes lays His afflicting hand upon His people, when they have been negligent of their duty, and He has not heard of them for some time, in order to bring them near to Him, to seek His face, pay Him a visit, and pour out a prayer before Him.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699):  Pray—Because it is the conduit of comfort, and hath a settling efficacy. Besides, there is no time for hearing of prayers like the time of affliction. Then the saints may have anything of God with reason, for then His heart is turned within Him, His repentings are kindled together, Hosea 118; Zechariah 13:9; Psalm 91:15. Then it was that Lot had Zoar given to him; David, the lives of his enemies; Paul, all the souls in the ship.

JOHN CALVIN: But this is the best comfort, and which is sufficient enough to confirm their minds, that this way, though it be hard and sharp, leads unto the kingdom of heaven.

JOHN GILL: The sufferings of the saints are but for a time, but their glory is eternal.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The believer in Jesus, then, must nor forget that if the path he treads is rough and thorny, if the sky is wintry and the storm severe, and if the cross he bears is heavy, yet this is the road to heaven.

 

Posted in Trials, Temptations & Afflictions | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Christian Suffering in its Proper Perspective

The Dress, Doctrine, & Diet of John the Baptist

Posted on March 17, 2023 by The Editor

Matthew 3:1-4

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): No man will be fit or qualified for so distinguished an office who has not been formed and moulded by the hand of Christ Himself.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): Indeed, He trains men while they know it not, for the work He means them to do later.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel,” Luke 1:80. John the Baptist’s early life pictures a child growing up before the Lord, devoted to Him, strong in spirit, spurning the evil, choosing the good; then, when the divine call came, going alone out in the desert where he might commune with God, where he could better hear His voice and be instructed by Him, that when the appointed time came, he might appear to the people of Israel as the messenger of Jehovah.

J. R. MILLER: When God trains a man for any great work, He always takes plenty of time.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921):  Till John was about thirty years of age, he was in the deserts that lay all around the Dead Sea. Up and down he wandered, and fasted, and prayed, where Sodom and Gomorrah had once stood, until the Lord rained fire and brimstone upon those cities…And John was clothed with camel’s hair, a leathern girdle about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey—after thirty years of such a curriculum and probationer-ship, what kind of preaching would you look for? A dumb dog that cannot bark?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): John was rough and stern, like Elijah. His garments betokened his simplicity, his sternness, his self-denial.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): His raiment was not of camel’s hair softened and dressed—but camel’s skin with the hair on it, the “rough garment,” or “garment of hair” prophets used to wear, Zechariah 13:4; or camel’s hair undressed, very coarse and rough, and suitable to the austerity of his life, and roughness of his ministry—he appeared in the same dress as Elijah, “a leathern girdle about his loins,” 2 Kings 1:8, which showed he was prepared, in readiness to do the work he was sent about.

THE EDITOR: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,” Ephesians 6:14; truth in doctrine, and according to that doctrine, truth in one’s walk.

C. H. SPURGEON: Everything connected with John the Baptist was in harmony with his message. His raiment and his food were like his doctrine—rough and simple—his food showed that he cared nothing for luxuries.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Locusts were a flying insect, good for food, and allowed as clean, Leviticus 11:22…This intimates that he ate sparingly—a man would be long, ere he filled his belly with locusts and wild honey; John the Baptist came “neither eating nor drinking,” Matthew 11:18.

THE EDITOR: Locusts often represent God’s judgments upon unrepentant sinners, as in Egypt, Exodus 10:14; and judgments to move men to repentance, 2 Chronicles 7:13,14. John’s desert diet of locusts prepared him spiritually for the first half of his ministry—John warned of God’s coming judgment, and exhorted men to repentance.

C. H. SPURGEON: His message was simply, “Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The one culminating point of his exhortations was “Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!”

THE EDITOR: That brings us to the “wild honey,” the preparation for the second half of John’s ministry—declaring the glory of God’s grace, to be found in the “Lamb of God.”

MATTHEW HENRY: “Wild” honey was that which Canaan flowed with—as it was found in the hollows of trees and rocks, where bees built, that were not, like those in hives, under the care and inspection of men.

THE EDITOR: Like wild honey, grace is sweet, and without man’s hand on it; “otherwise grace is no more grace,” Romans 11:6. When Jonathan dipped his rod in wild honey from a honeycomb on a tree, and tasted it, “his eyes were enlightened,” 1 Samuel 14:27.  Only God’s grace spiritually enlightens a man’s eyes. Eating “wild honey” implies that John fed spiritually on the grace to be found in Christ, for “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” John 1:17.

JOHN GILL: But this is conjecture.

THE EDITOR: Well, compare Scripture to Scripture.

By His sovereign grace, God “made” Jeshurun, “suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs,” Deuteronomy 32:13,14. “And that Rock was Christ,” 1 Corinthians 10:4.

See Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Christ: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat,”—why?—“that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good,” Isaiah 7:14,15. Without the honey of grace, who knows how “to refuse the evil, and choose the good?” Even as a child, “the grace of God was upon Him,” Luke 2:40.

See Leviticus 2:11—“Ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire,” all figures of Christ’s atonement on the cross. Leaven, emblematic of corruption, was prohibited because Immanuel Himself was personally sinless; no honey was permitted, because when God poured out His wrath upon Christ for our sin, He hid His face from His beloved Son, and Jesus felt a complete absence of all grace—“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!”

Solomon mentions honey also in a negative sense: “Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it,” Proverbs 25:16. Is this simply a dietary caution to moderation? Can we ever have too much grace? No, Solomon warns us: if thou hast found God’s grace, never presume upon that grace to continue in sin; “shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Romans 6:1. If we abuse God’s grace, as Jeshurun did, judgments will make us vomit up such presumption, as God judged Jeshurun: see Deuteronomy 32:15-36.

JOHN GILL: And the butter?

THE EDITOR: “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter,” Proverbs 30:33. The land of Canaan flowed not only with the honey of God’s grace, but with the milk of His Word. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious,” 1 Peter 2:2,3. Meditating on God’s Word churns that sincere milk into butter—but we only eat this spiritual butter by applying it to our walk, “being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,”—doing that, God promises that “this man shall be blessed in his deed,” James 1:29. So Job testified of the spiritual blessing he had, “when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil,” Job 29:6. And our Immanuel? “He that sent me is with me,” Jesus said,“for I do always those things that please Him,” John 8:29; and all “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth,” Luke 4:22.

Lastly, Job’s friend Zophar, warns hypocrites who hear, but who are not doers, that they “shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter,” Job 20:17.

 

Posted in Bible Characters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Dress, Doctrine, & Diet of John the Baptist

The Evils of Gossip & Backbiting

Posted on March 10, 2023 by The Editor

Leviticus 19:16; Proverbs 18:8; Psalm 15:1-3

Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.

The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Gossip is a very ready means of separating friends from one another.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What a fearful amount of gossip or idle talk, the children of God are guilty of!

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): A very common vice, and as destructive as it is common.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Who but of Jesus can it be said, that he never slandered his neighbour, nor did evil to him, nor took up a reproach against him?

ANDREW BONAR (1810-1892): Gossip, idle talking, and meddling with our neighbour, and more directly still, insinuating and hinting evil of him are sins forbidden here.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The smutting of another man’s good name in any kind behind his back is backbiting; it is an irreparable wrong; take heed of it.

GEORGE DOWNAME (1566-1634): For first, in Leviticus, where it is straightly forbidden, the “tale-bearer” is compared to a pedlar—so much does דכיל signify. For as the pedlar having bought his wares of someone goeth about from house to house that he may sell the same to others; so backbiters and tale-bearers, gathering together tales and rumours, as it were wares, go from one to another, with such wares as either themselves have invented, or have gathered by report, that they may utter in the absence of their neighbour to his infamy and disgrace.

ADAM CLARKE: The words backbite and backbiter come from the Anglo-Saxon bac—the back, and to bite. How it came to be used in the sense it has in our language, seems at first view unaccountable; but it was intended to convey the triple sense of knavishness, cowardice, and brutality. He is a knave, who would rob you of your good name; he is a coward, that would speak of you in your absence what he dared not to do in your presence; and only an ill-conditioned dog would fly at and bite your back when your face was turned. All these three ideas are included in the term; and they all meet in the detractor and calumniator. His tongue is the tongue of a knave, a coward, and a dog.

JOHN ROBINSON (1575-1625): Slanderers may be called devilish, seeing the devil hath his name of slandering.

JOHN TRAPP: Some say that the word signifies to speak truth, but with a mischievous mind, to hurt another.

CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT (1602-1658): If that which he speaks be true, yet he is void of charity in seeking to defame another. For as Solomon observes, “Love covereth all sins,” Proverbs 10:12. Where there is love and charity, there will be a covering and concealing of men’s sins, as much as may be. Now, where charity is wanting, their salvation is not to be expected.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): If a good name is a treasure, more precious than all the riches of the world, Proverbs 22:1, no greater injury can be inflicted upon men than to wound their reputation.

ADAM CLARKE: “He that utters slander is a fool,” too, Proverbs 10:18; for God will sooner or later bring forth that righteousness as the light which he endeavours to cloud, and will find an expedient to roll the reproach away.

JEREMY TAYLOR (1613-1667): This crime is a conjugation of evils, and is productive of infinite mischief; it undermines peace, and saps the foundation of friendship; it destroys families, and rends in pieces the very heart and vitals of charity; it makes an evil man party, and witness, and judge, and executioner of the innocent.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It has been well remarked that a talebearer injures three persons: “he injures himself, he injures his hearer, and he injures the subject of his tale.”

JOHN TRAPP: The tale-bearer carrieth the devil in his tongue, and the tale-hearer carries the devil in his ear.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The receiver of stolen goods is as guilty as the thief. So is it with the one who encourages another to relate scandalous stories. Nothing is more conducive to strife and sorrow among the people of God than the repeating of matters that cannot profit and that bring pain to the one of whom they are related. But there is no surer way to encourage the backbiter than by listening to his tales. If met by an angry countenance and reproved in the fear of God, the malicious gossip might often be nipped in the bud.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Shun the company of talebearers and tattlers; idle gossip is injurious to the soul.

C. H. SPURGEON: There are some brethren with whom it is ill for us to associate, lest they do us hurt, and it is ill for them that we associate with them, lest we seem to assist them in their evil deeds. Especially is this so in the case of mischief makers, troublers, people that can always tell you the gossip of a congregation…Remember how John Bunyan pictures it in Pilgrim’s Progress? When Talkative came up to gossip with Christian and Hopeful, he chattered away upon all sorts of topics and they were wearied with him. To get rid of him, Christian said to Hopeful, “Now we will talk a little about experimental godliness.” And when they began to speak about what they had tasted and handled of Divine Truth, Mr. Chatterbox dropped behind. He did not like spiritual conversation—neither do any of the breed! The holy pilgrims were not so rude as to tell him to go—they only talked about heavenly things which he did not understand—and he went away of his own accord!

H. A. IRONSIDE: Jesus says, “Whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops,” Luke 12:3. If we would keep that in mind I think it would stop a great deal of gossip. If we realized that everything we whisper about another person, every unkind criticism and evil story which we spread abroad concerning others will at last be made known to them and to everyone else, would it not have a tendency to make us very much more careful as to the use of our tongues? It is all coming out some day for, “Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment,” Matthew 12:36.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: This is a most seasonable admonition for the people of God, in every age. A talebearer is sure to do incalculable mischief…Let us carefully guard against this horrible evil. May we never suffer a tale to, pass our lips; and let us never stand to hearken to a talebearer.

GEORGE DOWNAME: The citizen of heaven doth, and ought to abhor backbiting.

C. H. SPURGEON: Beware of a woman who says she “hates gossip.’” She is pretty sure to be up to her neck in it.

 

Posted in Christian Life | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Evils of Gossip & Backbiting

Thomas

Posted on March 3, 2023 by The Editor

John 11:11-16; John 14:2-5; John 20:19,24-29

Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

[Jesus said] I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

The first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you…But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Thomas, called Didymus, one of the twelve apostles who were first ordained, happened not to be present when Jesus showed himself to the rest.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Where was Thomas that glorious Sabbath evening? He must have been told that the disciples were to be all together that night—astounded, overwhelmed, and enraptured with the events of the morning. What conceivable cause could have kept Thomas away?

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The cause of it may be found, I think, if we take into account the two other facts John’s Gospel records concerning him. One is his exclamation, in which a constitutional tendency to accept the blackest possibilities as certainties, blends very strangely and beautifully with an intense, brave devotion to his Master. “Let us also go,” said Thomas, when Christ announced His intention of returning to the grave of Lazarus, “that we may die with Him.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It seems to be the language of despair—a blunt speech, and overly bold.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): His words signified great rashness and unbelief…Thomas ought to have believed our Saviour, who had told them, that though Lazarus slept the sleep of death, yet He went to awake him.

THE EDITOR: Raising Lazarus from the dead was to the glory of God, and Jesus said it was “for their sakes…to the intent that ye may believe;”—to strengthen their faith in Him, probably to prepare them for His own resurrection.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: In John 14:2-5, Thomas broke in with a brusque contradiction of Christ’s saying that they knew the way, and they knew His goal. “Lord! we know not whither Thou goest”—there spoke pained love fronting the black prospect of eternal separation—“and how can we know the way?”—there spoke almost impatient despair. A constitutional pessimist!

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): On each occasion he appears in the same state of mind—ready to look at the black side of everything, taking the worst view, and raising doubts and fears—in John 20, he cannot believe our Lord has risen.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Very likely, Thomas was broken-hearted when he found that his Master was dead; so, when his fellow disciples told him that Jesus was alive again, he could not believe it—the news was too good to be true. He had fallen into a fit of despondency, and got away, as broken-hearted, depressed people often do, trying to get quite alone.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: All that doubt, and fear, and despondency, and despair, met in Thomas’s melancholy heart till it all took absolute possession of him.

MARCUS DODS (1786–1838): If the bare possibility of his Lord’s death had plunged this loving yet gloomy heart into despondency, what dark despair must have preyed on it when that death was actually accomplished! How the figure of his dead Master had burnt itself into his soul, is seen from the manner that his mind dwells on the prints of the nails, the wound in His side. It is by these only, and not by well-known features or peculiarity of form, he will recognize and identify his Lord. His heart was with the lifeless body on the cross, and he could not bear to see the friends of Jesus or speak with those who had shared his hopes, but buries his disappointment and desolation in solitude and silence.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Death was the object which filled his vision. Thomas refused to accredit the testimony of ten competent witnesses who had seen Christ with their own eyes—he obstinately declares that he will not believe, unless he himself sees and touches the Lord’s body. He presumes to prescribe the conditions which must be met before he is ready to receive the glad tidings…A doubting Thomas does not honour God.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: He was no doubter. Flat, frank, dogged disbelief, not hesitation or doubt, was his attitude. The form in which he puts his requirement shows how he was hugging his unbelief, and how he had no idea what he asked would ever be granted. ‘Unless I have so-and-so I will not,’ indicates an altogether different spiritual attitude from what ‘If I have so-and-so, I will,’ would have indicated. One is the language of willingness to be persuaded, the other is a determination to be obstinate.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Thomas’s unbelief was very black, for he refused to believe all the testimonies of the disciples concerning Christ’s resurrection; but when he was sensible of his crime, and so kindly dealt with by his Saviour, he puts forth a stronger act of faith than any of the rest: “My Lord, and my God.” His faith was not satisfied with a single my; he gives Him more honourable titles, and his heart grasps Him more closely and affectionately than any of the rest.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: It is clear that Thomas did not reach forth his hand and touch. The rush of instantaneous conviction swept him far away from the state of mind which had asked for such evidence. Our Lord’s words must have pierced his heart.

THE EDITOR: Three times John’s Gospel records that Thomas is “called Didymus.” Why?

J. C. RYLE: Some have thought his Greek name “Didymus,” signifying “two” or “double,” was given him because of his character being double—part faith and part weakness. But this is very doubtful.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Thomas in Hebrew, and Didymus in Greek, both signify a twin; it is said of Rebekah, Genesis 25:24, that there were “twins in her womb;” the word is Thomim. Probably Thomas was a twin.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): I wonder who the other twin was. Perhaps if you look into the mirror you will see him.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Thomas, in all his melancholy and resentment, is ourselves. Unbelief, and obstinacy, and loss of opportunity, and then increased unbelief, is no strange thing to ourselves.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): We are too prone to carry our faith, like Thomas, at our fingers’ ends; and to trust God no further than our hand of sense can reach.

C. H. SPURGEON: There is a class of disciples like Thomas who think much and are apt to doubt much. They do not love doubts—they hate them, yet their doubts often go very deep and undermine the most precious doctrines.

J. C. RYLE: Thomas was a good man with a very doubting and gloomy turn of mind—a man that really loved Jesus and was willing to die with Him, but a man who saw little but the dangers attending everything that a disciple had to do, and the difficulties belonging to everything a disciple had to believe. There are many like him. John Bunyan’s characters, “Fearing,” “Despondency,” and “Much afraid,” in Pilgrim’s Progress, are types of a large class of Christians…There is no more common fault among believers, perhaps, than despondency and unbelief.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): I may say in this case, just as Christ said to Thomas, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

J. C. RYLE: “Be not faithless, but believing.” This is a rebuke and an exhortation at the same time. I believe our Lord had in view the further object of correcting Thomas’s whole character, and directing his attention to his besetting sin—How faithless we often are, and how slow to believe!

 

Posted in Bible Characters | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Thomas

Sometimes Answers to Prayer are Not What We Expect

Posted on February 24, 2023 by The Editor

2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Romans 8:26-28

Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmity, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): This furnishes us with an opportunity to remark two things. The first regards our infirmities in prayer. We often know not what we ask.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): We must always remember how it is said that we do not know what to pray for, because with regard to ourselves it is something that exceeds all our understanding. The most able of us fail in that respect, despite the fact that there are a number who imagine that they know perfectly how and what to pray to God.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Our own limited views, short-sighted purposes and desires, may be, and will be, often over-ruled.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): God will not grant us every desire, that is our mercy; for, some of them are sinful.  David desired to be revenged on Nabal and his innocent family. Jonah desired Nineveh’s ruin. Others would not be for our good. David desired the life of the child he had by Bathsheba; David also desired the life of Jonathan; neither of which would have been for his good. Nay, not every righteous desire…David desired to build a house for God, and it was a righteous desire, for God took it well at his hands; yet He did not grant it. Kings and prophets desired to see the Lord Messiah, and yet did not see Him. How then are we to understand it? Doubtless there is great mystery in these things.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): But the Holy Spirit will “make intercession for them.” Christ is properly our Advocate and Intercessor, 1 John 2:1; but the Spirit also may be said to “intercede for us.” The Spirit intercedes in us at the throne of grace, while Christ intercedes for us at the throne of glory. The Holy Spirit sometimes enables us to pour out our hearts with fluency. This he does by discovering to us our wants, quickening our affections, and testifying to us God’s willingness to answer prayer. He does not, however, always operate in this way. He will make intercession “with unutterable groans”—the joy of Christians is represented as being sometimes inexpressible, 1 Peter 1:8; but frequently a sense of sin overwhelms them. Then sighs and groans are the natural language of their hearts. Nor are such inarticulate prayers unacceptable to God. We have a remarkable instance of their success in the history of our Lord, see John 11:33,38,41.

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): He knows what we need, and what we ought to have, and will deny us no good thing.  But He must judge for us, who are but as babes, who cannot judge for ourselves.

WILLIAM JAY: The second point is God’s method in answering us. He grants us while He denies. If He refuses us, He gives us something better in exchange, something better in itself, and better also for us…With regard to the thorn in the flesh, Paul was more than satisfied with the manner in which his prayer for the removal of it was answered, when, though it continued, he had the assurance of all-sufficient grace under it, and that the Saviour’s strength should be made perfect in his weakness. “Most gladly therefore,” says he, “will I glory in my infirmity, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” He withholds abundance, but He teaches and enables us to be content with such things as we have.

RICHARD CECIL (1748-1810): God is omniscient as well as omnipotent: and omniscience may see reason to withhold what omnipotence could bestow.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Observe, if in the thing which thou hast prayed much about, though it be denied thee, yet if God doth not give thee all satisfaction that may be.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Though God accepts the prayer of faith, yet He does not always answer it in the letter; as He sometimes grants in wrath, so He sometimes denies in love. It is a great comfort to us, whatever thorns in the flesh we are pained with, that God’s grace is sufficient for us.

WILLIAM JAY: Prayer is sometimes answered by strange and even terrible things in righteousness.

MARY WINSLOW: How often does God answer prayer by terrible things in righteousness! When we are in a thick mist we can discern nothing, and are anxious to escape from its perils. But, as it rolls away, we begin to see a gleam of light, and hail it as the commencement of a fuller and brighter discovery. Now this often the case with the people of God’s everlasting love. We pray for what we believe would promote our happiness and the comfort of others, and for the glory of God. Perhaps we do not in so many words ask for this favour; but we earnestly desire it in our hearts, and often plan in our minds how it may be brought about. God sees the heart’s fond wish; presently He brings us, by His all-wise providence, to the very thing we desired; but oh! in such a different way from what we had planned in our own minds. And yet, how much more effectually has He done it than we had thought. Such is our God, and it is a mercy when we see His blessed hand in every dispensation towards His elect.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When we ask in faith, nothing doubting, if we receive not the precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than an equivalent for it. As one remarks, “If the Lord does not pay in silver, He will in gold; and if He does not pay in gold, He will in diamonds.” If He does not give you precisely what you ask for, He will give you that which is tantamount to it, which you will greatly rejoice to receive in lieu of it.

WILLIAM JAY: Wisdom therefore is here necessary in discerning, and caution in judging.

JOHN CALVIN: We shall have profited greatly when we have learned to refrain hasty judgment.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): Many prayers that seem to be unanswered are really answered. The blessing comes, but in a form we do not recognize. Instead of the thing we sought, something better is given. The burden is not lifted away, but we are sustained beneath it. We are not spared the suffering, but in the suffering we are brought nearer to God, and receive more of His grace. The sorrow is not taken away, but is changed to joy. Our ignorant prayers are taken into the hands of the great Intercessor, and are answered in ways far wiser than our thoughts—instead of earthly trifles, heavenly riches; instead of things which our poor wisdom sought, things God’s infinite wisdom chose for us; instead of pleasure for a day, gain for eternity.

WILLIAM JAY: Let us leave ourselves to His wisdom and goodness; a wisdom that is infinite, and a goodness that spared not His own Son.

C. H. SPURGEON: God’s memorial is that He hears prayer, Psalm 65:2; and His glory is that He answers it in a manner fitted to inspire awe in the hearts of His people.

JOHN NEWTON: How happy are they who can resign all to Him, see His hand in every dispensation, and believe that He choses better for them than they possibly could for themselves.

 

Posted in Prayer | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Sometimes Answers to Prayer are Not What We Expect

Thought Crime

Posted on February 17, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 119:113; Psalm 94:11,12; Psalm 119:67,71

I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.

The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word…It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Thoughts are the words of the mind.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): How lightly do most men think of the responsibility of their thoughts! as if they were their own, and they might indulge them without restraint or evil.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is profoundly true that “As a man thinketh, so is he,” Proverbs 23:7. Our characters are largely made by our estimates of what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): There is no better test of our true character, than the habitual effect of “vain thoughts” upon our minds—whether we love and indulge them, or abhor and watch and pray against them.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): As long as we think of sin only in terms of things actually done, we fail to understand it…Thoughts, motives, and desires are equally important―Take that statement: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,” and so on, Matthew 15:19―Our Lord always includes evil thoughts with murders, and such things as strife, enmity, deceit, and many other things.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Our greatest sins are those of the mind.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Some of our thoughts are specially vain in the sense of vain glory, pride, conceit, and self trust; others in the sense of bringing disappointment, such as fond ambition, sinful dreaming, and confidence in man; others in the sense of emptiness and frivolity, such as the idle thoughts and vacant romancing in which so many indulge; and, yet once more, too many of our thoughts are vain in the sense of being sinful, evil, and foolish.

WILLIAM JAY: Vain thoughts are foolish thoughts, wandering thoughts, unbelieving thoughts, worldly thoughts, self-righteous thoughts, sinful thoughts. Vain thoughts here do not mean empty ones, but evil ones.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): The sins that do most usually engross and take up our thoughts are: First, Uncleanness. There is a polluting ourselves by our thoughts, and this sin usually works that way.

Secondly, Revenge. Liquors are soured when long kept; so, when we dwell upon discontents, they turn to revenge. Purposes of revenge are most sweet and pleasant to carnal nature: “Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually,” Proverbs 6:14; that is to say, he is full of revengeful and spiteful thoughts.

Thirdly, Envy. It is a sin that feeds upon the mind. Those songs of the women, that Saul had slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands; they ran in Saul’s mind, therefore he hated David, I Samuel 18:9. Envy is an evil disease that dwelleth in the heart, and betrays itself mostly in thoughts.

Fourthly, Pride. Either pride in the desires or pride in the mind, either vain glory or self conceit; this is entertaining our hearts with whispers of vanity―proud men are full of imaginations.

Fifthly, Covetousness, which is nothing but vain musings and exercises of the heart: “A heart they have exercised with covetous practices,” 2 Peter 2:14. And it withdraws the heart in the very time of God’s worship: “Their heart goeth after their covetousness,” Ezekiel 33:31.

Sixthly, Distrust is another thing which usually takes up our thoughts―distracting motions against God’s providence.

JOHN ROBINSON (1575-1625): Every thought of evil is not an evil thought, but only such as to which we adjoin either consent of will, or, at least, a delight of affection.

WILLIAM JAY: David had vain thoughts: and who has not? Who on earth are free from vain thoughts? Who can say, “I have made my heart clean; I am free from sin?” Proverbs 20:9. Why, “there is not a just man upon earth that does good, and sinneth not,” Ecclesiastes 7:20; “in many things we offend all,” James 3:2…Secondly, there is something else: David not only had vain thoughts—but he hated them.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): He likes their company no better than one would a pack of thieves that break into his house.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He did not countenance them, nor give them any entertainment, but did what he could to keep them out, or at least to keep them under.

WILLIAM JAY: This is the difference between the naturally and spiritually minded man. Evil thoughts are common to both; but let us mark the distinction. The natural man loves these thoughts; he therefore encourages them: the spiritually minded man hates them. But how can a man evince that, though he has vain thoughts, he hates them? Why, he will be sure to be humbled before God; and then he will be sure to pray against them; and if these prayers be sincere and importunate, then he will strive against them.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” Isaiah 55:7; Galatians 5:24. Mortification must extend to these: affections must be crucified, and all the little brats of thoughts which beget them, or are begotten by them.

THOMAS MANTON: “A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things,” Matthew 12:35. The workings of our spirits are as our treasure and stock. The mind works upon what it finds in itself, as a mill grinds whatsoever is put into it, be it chaff or corn. Therefore, if we would prevent wicked thoughts, and musings of vanity all the day long, we must hide the Word in our heart—“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee,” Psalm 119:11.

MATTHEW HENRY: “Thy law do I love.” The more we love the law of God the more we shall get mastery over our vain thoughts, the more hateful they will be to us, as being contrary to the whole law, and the more watchful we shall be against them.

KATHARINA VON BORA* (1499-1558): “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” I had never known what such and such things meant, in such and such Psalms, such complaints and workings of spirit: I had never understood the practice of Christian duties, had not God brought me under some affliction.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): If, by outward afflictions, thy soul be brought more under the inward teachings of God, doubtless thy afflictions are in love.

RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): Suffering unbolts the door of the heart that the Word hath easier entrance.

JOHN MASON (1646-1694): By affliction God separates the sin which He hates from the soul which He loves.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): I have always found it one of my best schoolmasters.

DANIEL DYKE (1617-1688): “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.” The first schoolmaster is affliction. The second schoolmaster is God Himself. Afflictions of themselves, though severe schoolmasters, yet can do us no good, unless God come by His Spirit, and teach our hearts inwardly. And for the second point, the lessons taught, they are included generally in those words, “in thy law.”—“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” God doth not willingly afflict us, but being necessarily thereunto enforced, by that strength of corruption in us, which otherwise will not be subdued. Let us therefore pray, that as in the ministry of God’s Word, so also of His works and judgments, we may be all taught of God.

___________________

*Editor’s Note: Katharina Von Bora was Martin Luther’s wife.

 

Posted in Sanctification & Holiness | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Thought Crime

A Morning in the Temple, Part 3 of 3: Jesus Speaks to the Woman

Posted on February 10, 2023 by The Editor

John 8:9-11

And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” But if they all went out, how could she be in the midst?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): No doubt but His apostles were there, for they constantly attended Him; and no doubt divers others were also there, see John 8:2; but the meaning is, that He was by this means quit of the scribes’ and Pharisees’ company, who were gone out of shame, being thus convicted by their own consciences.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The woman likely stood trembling at the bar, as one doubtful of the issue…She did not seek to make her escape, though she had opportunity for it; but her prosecutors had appealed unto Jesus, and on Him she would wait for her doom, for Christ was without sin, and might cast the first stone—the question is asked: “Where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” She said, “No man, Lord.” She speaks respectfully to Christ, calls Him Lord, but is silent concerning her prosecutors, and says nothing in answer to that question, “Where are those thine accusers?”

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Observe that our Lord, with merciful consideration, did not ask the woman whether she was guilty or not. Thus she could with truth reply to His question, and yet not incriminate herself…To suppose, as some have thought, that the narrative before us palliates the sin of adultery, and exhibits our Lord as making light of the seventh commandment, is surely a great mistake.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): She was taken in adultery. There was no doubt of it. She was “taken in the very act,” and there she stands—no, she kneels—all covered with blushes before the Man who is asked to judge her! And remember His words? He never said a word to excuse her guilt—the Saviour could not and would not condone her shame! Nor would He, on the other hand, crush the woman who had sinned.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The law required two witnesses before its sentence could be executed, Deuteronomy 19:15, yet, those witnesses must assist in the carrying out of the sentence, Deuteronomy 17:7. But here not a single witness was left to testify against this woman who had merely been indicted. Thus the law was powerless to touch her. What, then, remained? Why, the way was now clear for Christ to act in “grace and truth.”

MATTHEW HENRY: In this He attended to the great work which he came into the world about, and that was to bring sinners to repentance; not to destroy, but to save…For Christ to say, I do not condemn thee is, in effect, to say, I do forgive thee; and the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins, and could upon good grounds give this absolution; for as He knew the hardness and impenitent hearts of the prosecutors, and therefore said that which would confound them, so He knew the tenderness and sincere repentance of the prisoner, and therefore said that which would comfort her, as He did to that woman who was a sinner, such a sinner as this, who was likewise looked upon with disdain by a Pharisee, Luke 7:48-50: “Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.”

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): What a lovely portrait is it of the Son of God in our nature! Look at Jesus in this sweet point of view, pardoning the sinner, while reproving the sin.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): It does not appear to me that this woman was a penitent, or that Christ forgave her sin; but only that He dismissed her, as not thinking it proper to take upon Himself the office of the civil magistrate in condemning her.

A. W. PINK: No doubt the question occurs to many of our readers, Was this woman saved at the time she left Christ? Personally, I believe that she was. I believe so because she did not leave Christ when she had opportunity to do so; because she addressed Him as “Lord”—contrast the “Master” of the Pharisees in John 8:4; and because Christ said to her, “Neither do I condemn thee.”

ADAM CLARKE: It is generally supposed that our Lord acquitted the woman: this is incorrect; He neither acquitted nor condemned her: He did not enter at all judicially into the business. His saying, “Neither do I condemn thee,” was not more than a simple declaration that He would not concern Himself with the matter—that being the office of the chief magistrate.

J. C. RYLE: Let us calmly weigh the matter, and examine the contents of the passage.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Christ came not into the world to act the part of a civil magistrate, and therefore refused to arbitrate a case, or be concerned in dividing an inheritance between two brethren, Luke 12:13. Nor did He come into the world to condemn it, but that the world, through Him, might be saved, John 3:17; nor would He pass any other sentence on this woman, than what He had done; nor would He inflict any punishment on her Himself; but suitably and agreeably to His office as a prophet, He declares against her sin, calls her to repentance, and bids her “go and sin no more.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Greatly as our Lord delighted in mercy, He would not so exercise it as to give the least countenance to sin.

MATTHEW POOLE: He did not acquit her, for He was not to make void the law of God; nor did He condemn her: He was neither a witness in the case, nor yet a secular judge, to whom such judgments did belong; He was only to speak to her, as the Mediator and Saviour of man.

ADAM CLARKE: As a preacher of righteousness, He exhorted her to abandon her evil practices, lest the punishment which she was now likely to escape, should be inflicted on her for a repetition of her transgression…While there is life there is hope; God has no pleasure in the death of sinners; He is gracious and compassionate.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): There is hope for you, adulterer. There is hope for you, adulteress. God will not turn you away if you truly repent—you may be washed, you may be sanctified, you may be justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

THOMAS COKE: Jesus is now a merciful Saviour: He will shortly be an inexorable Judge. Wise and happy are they who improve the moment of opportunity, and seek to Him for mercy while mercy may be found.

CHARLES SIMEON: Be thankful that thou art not now sent into the presence of thy God with all thy sins upon thee: let the “space which is given thee for repentance,” be well employed: lose not an hour in seeking forgiveness with thy God. Go to thy chamber, and pour out thy soul before Him.

D. L. MOODY: Are you guilty, even in thought? Bear in mind what Christ said: “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart,” Matthew 5:28—Confess your sin to Him. Ask Him to give you victory over your passions.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827):  His goodness in sparing thy life, is designed to lead thee to repentance.

 

Posted in Attributes of God, Jesus Christ | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Morning in the Temple, Part 3 of 3: Jesus Speaks to the Woman

A Morning in the Temple, Part 2 of 3: Christ Answers the Pharisees

Posted on February 3, 2023 by The Editor

Proverbs 26:5; John 8:6-9

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.

Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.” This was the first thing that He here did.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Most likely, Christ on purpose put Himself into this posture, as if He was busy about something else, and did not attend to what they said; and hereby cast some contempt upon them, as if they and their question were unworthy of His notice.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  This is the only mention made in the gospels of Christ’s writing.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): What He wrote, or how He could write upon the floor of the temple, which was of stone, are idle questions; the first not possible to be resolved, the second impertinent; for it is not said, that he made any impression upon the ground, though it be said, He wrote upon it. It appears plainly to have been but a divertive action, by which our Saviour signified that He gave no ear to them.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Nor are we told precisely what He meant by that significant action.

A. W. PINK: That there was a symbolical significance to His action goes without saying, and what this is we are not left to guess. Scripture is its own interpreter. This was not the first time that the Lord had written “with His finger.” In Exodus 31:18, we read, “And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”—Thus did He show these Pharisees that He had come here, not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. His writing on the ground, then, was symbolically a ratification of God’s righteous law. But so blind were His would-be accusers they discerned not the significance of His act.

MATTHEW HENRY: Some think they have a liberty of conjecture as to what He wrote here. Some Greek copies here read, He “wrote on the ground, the sins of every one of them;” and this He could do, for He “sets our iniquities before him,” Psalm 90:8.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Perhaps He thus wrote on the ground to show that sin, which is written before God, Isaiah 65:6, and graven as it were “with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond, ” Jeremiah 17:1.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Now because they knew their Bibles, they must have known of the passage in Jeremiah 17:13, which says, “O LORD, the Hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.” It might be translated, “written on the ground.” See them gathered about Him, and He stoops down and writes on the ground. They turn one to the other, saying, “What is He doing, writing on the ground? Writing on the ground! Isn’t there something like that in our Bibles?” Yes, there is.

MATTHEW HENRY: Jerome and Ambrose suppose He wrote, “Let the names of these wicked men be written in the dust,” Jeremiah 17:13.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): But this is mere conjecture.

JOHN TRAPP: Nothing certain can be determined.

A. W. PINK: It is evident that our Lord’s enemies mistook His silence for embarrassment. They no more grasped the force of His action of writing on the ground, than did Belshazzar understand the writing of that same Hand on the walls of his palace, Daniel 5:5-9, 25-31. Emboldened by His silence, and satisfied that they had Him cornered, they continued to press their question upon Him.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Silence may sometimes be mistaken for defeat. Unanswered words may be deemed unanswerable, and the fool becomes arrogant, more and more “wise in his own conceit.”

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): “When they continued asking,” our Lord silenced them with a withering and heart-searching reply—“He that is without sin among you,” He said, “let him first cast a stone at her.” He did not say that the woman had not sinned, or that her sin was a trifling and venial one. But He reminded her accusers that they were not the persons to bring a charge against her. Their own motives and lives were far from pure…What they really desired was not to vindicate the purity of God’s law, and punish a sinner, but to wreak their malice on Him.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): It is also evident that the accusers showed great partiality, from their apprehending the woman only, and not the man also, when the law condemned both; they must have favoured his escape, because they were both “taken in the fact.” It is plain, however, that our Lord’s certain knowledge of what the effect would be, at once vindicated the wisdom of His putting the matter upon this issue.

MATTHEW HENRY: “In the net which they spread is their own foot taken,” Psalm 9:15. They came with design to accuse Him, but they were forced to accuse themselves. Christ owns it was fit the prisoner should be prosecuted, but appeals to their consciences whether they were fit to be the prosecutors.

CHARLES SIMEON: To give time for His word to operate on their consciences, He stooped down and wrote again: and behold, these accusers, self-condemned in their own minds, and fearful lest their own secret abominations should be exposed to public view, withdrew as privately as they could. The elder part among them, as being most fearful of exposure, retiring first, and gradually the younger following their example; so that in a little time not a single accuser was left.

MATTHEW HENRY: They went away by stealth, as “people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle,” 2 Samuel 19:3. It is folly for those that are under convictions to get away from Jesus Christ, as these here did, for He is the only one that can heal the wounds of conscience, and speak peace to us. Those that are convicted by their consciences will be condemned by their Judge, if they be not justified by their Redeemer; and will they then go from Him? To whom will they go?

J. C. RYLE: We learn, for one thing, the power of conscience…Wicked and hardened as they were, they felt something within which made them cowards.

MATTHEW HENRY: Christ by this teaches us to be slow to speak when difficult cases are proposed to us, not quickly to shoot our bolt; and when provocations are given us, or we are bantered, to pause and consider before we reply; think twice before we speak once: “The heart of the wise studies to answer.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): After He fired that one red-hot shot, He waited until it had produced its due effect.

CHARLES SIMEON: And thus was the snare broken.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Oh! for wisdom to govern the tongue; to discover “the time to keep silence, and the time to speak,” Ecclesiastes 3:7; most of all to suggest the “word fitly spoken” for effective reproof! Proverbs 15:23, 25:1. How instructive is the pattern of our great Master! “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” Proverbs 26:5. His silences, and His answers were equally worthy of Himself.

 

Posted in Attributes of God, Jesus Christ | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on A Morning in the Temple, Part 2 of 3: Christ Answers the Pharisees

A Morning in the Temple, Part 1 of 3: The Scenario of a Subtle Snare

Posted on January 27, 2023 by The Editor

Proverbs 26:4; John 8:1-6

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.

Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It is surprising to see what a variety of ways the wickedness of the human heart will betray itself: sometimes in the commission of gross iniquity, and sometimes in apparent indignation against it: sometimes in open hostility against Christ, and sometimes in hypocritical professions of regard for Him. Who that had seen the zeal of the Scribes and Pharisees against an adulterous woman, would not have thought them the purest of the human race? Who that had heard their citations of Moses’ law, and their respectful application to Christ as an authorized expositor of that law, would not have supposed that they truly feared God, and desired to perform His holy will? Who would have imagined that the whole was only a murderous plot against the life of Christ?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The awful malignity of the Lord’s enemies is evident. They brought this adulterous woman to Christ not because they were shocked at her conduct, still less because they were grieved that God’s holy law had been broken. to exploit this woman’s sin and further their own evil designs. With coldblooded indelicacy they acted, employing the guilt of their captive to accomplish their evil intentions against Christ.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): It is worthy of remark, that these sworn foes of Christ did not bring the Adulterer as well as the Adulteress. Had their designs in coming to Jesus been purely from a regard to the sanctity of God’s law, they would have been as anxious to punish the man, as the woman; for so the law enjoined, see Leviticus 22:10.

CHARLES SIMEON: These accusers had no indignation against the sin of adultery, nor any love to the law of Moses, nor any zeal for the honour of God: they were actuated solely by an inveterate hatred of Christ, and a determination to find, if possible, some occasion against Him, that they might accuse Him. Their professed object was, to punish the woman; but their real object was, to lay a snare for His life.

A. W. PINK: They were anxious to discredit our Lord before the people. They did not wait until they could interrogate Him in private, but, interrupting as He was teaching the people, they rudely challenged Him to solve what must have seemed to them an unsolvable enigma. The problem by which they sought to defy Infinite Wisdom was this: A woman had been taken in the act of adultery, and the law required that she should be stoned.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Moses in the law, Leviticus 20:10, commanded that such malefactors should “be put to death;” but we read of no law commanding this kind of death. Their rule was, that when the law had set no kind of death for an offence, there the mildest kind of death was to be their punishment, which they counted strangling to be. But they ordinarily entitled Moses to their traditional additions to the law; and death being commanded by the law as the punishment, they took themselves to be at liberty to determine the kind of death, as prudence and reason of state ruled them; so probably, seeing that that sin grew very frequent amongst them, appointed stoning to be the kind of death such malefactors should be put to. The manner of which was this: The guilty person was carried up to some high place, and thrown down from there headlong by such as witnessed against him; then they threw stones at him till they had killed him, if not killed by the fall; or covered his body, if he were dead. This they tell our Saviour that Moses commanded, because he had commanded that such a person should die, and their Sanhedrim had determined this particular death to such malefactors. But they would know what our Saviour said to this.

A. W. PINK: “What sayest thou?” they asked. An insidious question, indeed.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If they had asked this question in sincerity, with a humble desire to know his mind, it had been very commendable. Those that are entrusted with the administration of justice should look up to Christ for direction.

A. W. PINK: “What sayest thou?” they asked. An insidious question, indeed.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If they had asked this question in sincerity, with a humble desire to know his mind, it had been very commendable. Those that are entrusted with the administration of justice should look up to Christ for direction.

ROBERT HAWKER: But the object they had was to entangle the Lord Jesus in a snare.

A. W. PINK: Had He said, “Let her go,” they could then accuse Him as being an enemy against the law of God, and His own word “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill,” Matthew 5:17. But if He answered, “Stone her,” they would have ridiculed the fact that He was the “friend of publicans and sinners.” On one hand, if He ignored the charge they brought against this guilty woman, they could accuse Him of compromising with sin; on the other hand, if He passed sentence on her, what became of His own word, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved,” John 3:17.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Their intention was, to constrain Christ to depart from his office of preaching grace, that he might appear to be fickle and unsteady.

A. W. PINK: Here, then, was the dilemma: if Christ palliated the wickedness of this woman, where was His respect for the holiness of God and the righteousness of His law; but if He condemned her, what became of His claim that He had come here to “seek and to save that which was lost?”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): But there is something more than that here.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Observe further, that the Jewish Sanhedrim sat by licence from the Roman governor; and though they had a right to try capital causes, it was necessary that the sentence which they passed should be recognized and allowed by the Roman governor, before it could be carried into execution.

MATTHEW POOLE: If He had directed to send her to be punished by the Roman governors, who administered justice in capital causes, the people would be fired with indignation; for they looked upon them as invaders of the rights of government that belonged to the Israelites. If He had advised them to put her to death by their own power, they would have accused Him of sedition, as an enemy of the Roman authority. If He had dismissed her as not worthy of death, they would have accused him to the Sanhedrim, as an infringer of the law of Moses, and a favourer of dissoluteness.

A. W. PINK: No doubt they were satisfied that they had Him completely cornered.

MATTHEW POOLE: This malicious design, so craftily concerted, our Saviour easily discovered and defeated—He seemed not at all to attend to what they said, but, stooping down, wrote on the ground.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Our Lord knew the hearts of the malicious questioners before Him, and dealt with them with perfect wisdom—He refused to be “a judge” and lawgiver among them, and specially in a case which their own law had already decided. He gave them, at first, no answer at all.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.” Sometimes a fool, or a wicked man, is not to be answered at all—as Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees.

 

Posted in Attributes of God, Jesus Christ | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Morning in the Temple, Part 1 of 3: The Scenario of a Subtle Snare

Unteachableness—a Deadly Fruit of Formality

Posted on January 20, 2023 by The Editor

Job 12:2

No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): These words of Job are to be taken ironically, exposing their vanity and self-conceit: “ye are the people;” the only, and all the people in the world of importance and consequence for good sense and wisdom; the only wise and knowing folk, the men of reason and understanding; all the rest are but fools and asses or, ye are the only people of God, His covenant people, His servants; that are made acquainted with the secrets of wisdom, as none else are.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is astonishing what unteachable, untamable creatures men are.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Man’s ultimate problem is his pride.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Do you know a class of people that pull the most tremendously long faces, that always look so serious, that talk the English language with a kind of unctuous twang, that give a savory pronunciation to every word they utter? Beware of them!

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): In a vain religion there is much of show, and affecting to seem religious in the eyes of others. In a vain religion there is much censuring, reviling, and detracting of others…It is common for those who are most sinful themselves, and least sensible of it, to be most forward and free in judging and censuring others: the Pharisees, who were most haughty in justifying themselves, were most scornful in condemning others.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: What is this spirit that condemns? It is a self-righteous spirit. Self is always at the back of it, and it is always a manifestation of self-righteousness, a feeling of superiority, and a feeling that we are all right while others are not. That then leads to censoriousness, and a spirit that is always ready to express itself in a derogatory manner. And then, accompanying that, there is the tendency to despise others, to regard them with contempt. I am not only describing the Pharisees, I am describing all who have the spirit of the Pharisee.

C. H. SPURGEON: You know some men, perhaps, who are very stringent believers of a certain form of doctrine and very great admirers of a certain shape of Church rule and government. You will observe them utterly despising, and abhorring, and hating all who differ from their predilections. Albeit the difference is but as a jot or a tittle, they will stand up and fight for every rubric, defend every old rusty nail in the Church door and think every syllable of their peculiar creed should be accepted without challenge. “As it was in the beginning, so must it be now, and so must it ever be even unto the end.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564); Moroseness is the character of the old, but they become especially unteachable, because they measure wisdom by the number of years.

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY (1713-1778): King Henry made the length of his own arm a standard measure throughout England―since called a yard.  Do not bigots act much the same part in matters of religion?

C. H. SPURGEON: Now it is an observation which your experience will probably warrant, as certainly mine does, that mostly these people stand up so fiercely for the form, because, lacking the power, that is all they have to boast of. They have no faith, though they have a creed. They have no life within and they supply its place with outward ceremony. What wonder therefore that they fiercely defend that?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The Pharisees were expert at that. They went to the temple regularly; they were always punctilious in these matters of the details and minutiae of the law. But the whole time they were judging and condemning their fellows with contempt.

C. H. SPURGEON: One of the most frequent symptoms is formality in his religious worship…They will have it that there must always be observed, not simply reverent behavior in the House of God, but something more than mere reverence, there must be an abject slavish, tyrannical fear upon the hearts of all who are gathered. They will have it that every jot and tittle of our worship must always be conducted with a certain traditional decorum. Now these people, as frequently as not, know nothing whatever of the power of godliness and only contend for these little shells because they have not the kernel. They fight for the surface albeit they have never discovered “the deep that couches beneath.” They know not the precious ores that lie in the rich mines of the Gospel, and therefore the surface, covered though it is with weeds and thistles, is quite enough for them.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Formal Christianity is often the greatest enemy of the pure faith.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): If you love your own soul, beware of formality. Nothing is so dangerous to a man’s own soul. Familiarity with the form of religion, has a fearfully deadening effect on the conscience. It brings by degrees a thick crust of insensibility over the whole inner man. None seem to become so desperately hard as those who are continually repeating holy words and handling holy things, while their hearts, while their hearts are running after sin and the world…They are gradually hardening their hearts, and searing the skin of their consciences.

JOHN CALVIN: They become especially unteachable.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Each of us must be much on his guard lest he mistake pride and self-will for conscientious scruples. There is a vast difference between firmness and an unteachable spirit, as there is between meekness and fickleness.

MATTHEW HENRY: When we hear people ready to speak of the faults of others, or to censure them as holding scandalous errors, or to lessen the wisdom and piety of those about them, that they themselves may seem the wiser and better, this is a sign that they have but a vain religion. The man who has a detracting tongue cannot have a truly humble gracious heart. He who delights to injure his neighbour in vain pretends to love God; therefore a reviling tongue will prove a man a hypocrite. Censuring is a pleasing sin, extremely complaint with nature, and therefore evinces a man’s being in a natural state.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): He is not half a saint who is but a negative saint―The tree that is barren and without good fruit is for the fire, as well as the tree that brings forth evil fruit.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “The fruit of the Spirit―mark that allusion―is love, peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” Galatians 5:22.

C. H. SPURGEON: The man who knows how precious the life of godliness is, the man who understands its vitality, its deep-seated, deeply-rooted heart power—he also loves the form, but not as he loves the Spirit…He is apt, perhaps, to think less of forms than he should do, for he will mingle first with one body of sincere Christians, and then with another, and he will say, “If I can enjoy my Master’s presence it is but little matter to me where I am found. If I can but find the name of Christ extolled and His simple Gospel preached, this is all I desire.”

J. C. RYLE: If you love life, beware of formality.

 

Posted in Sin & Unbelief | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Unteachableness—a Deadly Fruit of Formality