David’s Hope in the Goodness of the Lord

Posted on January 13, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 27:13—Psalm 71:5,14—Psalm 25:7; 2 Samuel 7:28—Psalm 23:6

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.—For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth…But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.—Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.

And now, O Lord GOD, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant.—Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I want to urge you to observe the goodness of God carefully for your soul’s good. There is a great difference between eyes and no eyes—yet many have eyes and see not. God’s goodness flows before them and they say, “Where is it?”

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What improvement shall we make of this subject?

DAVID CLARKSON (1622-1686): Study much the all-sufficiency, the power, the goodness, the unchangeableness of God—His all-sufficiency and power make Him able, and His goodness makes Him willing to do for His people under the cross what His all-sufficiency and almighty power can afford. His goodness sets His mighty power a-work for His suffering saints. His goodness sets His all-sufficiency, His fullness, in action for them, so that it runs freely upon them; and never more freely than when they are under the cross. “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living,” Psalm 27:13. What is it that makes you ready to faint under the cross, or thoughts and foresight of it? Look to the goodness of God—there is support.

CHARLES SIMEON: Study the character of God as drawn in the Holy Scriptures. Some think of Him as a God of all mercy; and others, as clothed only in the terrors of inexorable justice. But the true character of God is, that He is “a just God and a Saviour,” Isaiah 45:21. In the Lord Jesus Christ this union of justice and mercy is fully displayed. Once view Him as dying, rising, reigning for sinful man, and then all the description given of God in our text will be seen in its true light, and all the brightness of the Godhead irradiate your souls.

C. H. SPURGEON: David was a man of many troubles. Especially in the latter part of his life, he was incessantly in the furnace and he says that he would have “fainted” under those many troubles if he had not “believed to see,” in the particular matter of his trials, “the goodness of the Lord” in that land which is the special sphere of trouble. David believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not only in the Glory Land yonder, but also in this land here below. He believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not merely when he emerged from the furnace, but also while he was in it! As a pilgrim and a stranger, he believed to see the goodness of the Lord during the days of his pilgrimage. He did not always see it, but he believed to see it—he believed in it and anticipated it and, by believing in it—he did actually come to see it with the eyes of his mind and to rejoice in it!

TIMOTHY CRUSO (1657-1697): When we thus see the goodness of the Lord, it encourages our subjection to His government.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Do not let tears so fill your eyes that you cannot see the goodness of the Lord. Do not let thunderclouds, however heavy their lurid darkness, shut out from you the blue that is in your sky.

CHARLES SIMEON: Let David’s confidence be ours also.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “According to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.” These two import not barely His affording outward favours, which we call kindness, or God’s being good to us in benefits communicated; but they connotate a root that is in God’s nature, from whence these outward kindnesses proceed. The Lord is first good in Himself, and thence and therefore doth good; and in like manner He is of a kind heart and nature in Himself first, and thence and therefore is kind to others, even to the evil and unthankful, as Luke 6:35; the abundancy of His goodness and kindness in effects is from the amplitude and largeness of the goodness and kindness in His own heart and nature.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  God does good, because He is good; what He bestowed upon us must be traced up to the original; it is according to His mercies—not according to our merits—and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses.

A. W. PINK: The goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth forever, we ought never to be discouraged: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him,” Nahum 1:7.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “He knoweth them that trust in Him”—that hover and cover under His wings, as the chicks do under the hen’s wings: for that is the force of the Hebrew word here used. Such as these God knoweth for His, 2 Timothy 2:19; He knoweth their soul in adversity, Psalm 31:7; He knoweth how to deliver them, as He did righteous Lot, 2 Peter 2:9; then, when they know not what to do, as Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:12, yet if their eyes be toward Him, their faith in Him, He will extricate and deliver them. So well pleased is He with those that trust in Him—for that is what is meant here by His knowing of them—that He taketh such complacence and delight in them, Psalm 147:11; Psalm 33:18, and such continual care of them that they shall be sure to have whatsoever heart can wish or need require; even miraculous lovingkindness from God in a strong city, Psalm 17:7; Psalm 33:21, so great as cannot be uttered, Psalm 31:19. This is for the comfort of God’s Israel.

CHARLES SIMEON: How much more then ought we to do so, when all His glory is made to shine before us in the face of Jesus Christ! How should we love Him, serve Him, trust in Him, and delight ourselves in Him!

C. H. SPURGEON: Therefore praise Him. So good a God should not be without your gratitude. He that believes on Christ Jesus shall be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord!

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): There are two graces, which Christ useth above any other, to fill the soul with joy—faith and hope, because both of these two graces draw all their wine of joy draw at one tap—Christ and His promise: Faith tells the soul what Christ hath done for it, and so comforts it; hope revives the soul with the news of what Christ will do.

CHARLES SIMEON: O, beloved, let your hearts ascend to Him, and your souls be devoted to Him, as the occasion demands. Is He “good?” Praise him for His goodness. Is He “a strong-hold?” Flee to Him, and dwell continually in Him. Does He “know those who trust in Him?” Let Him have joy over you as monuments of His grace, and delight in you as heirs of His glory, Zephaniah 3:17. In a word, live but for Him; and as He has “bought you with a price, see that ye glorify Him with your bodies and your spirits, which are His,” 1 Corinthians 6:20.

 

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Iniquity in the Heart

Posted on January 6, 2023 by The Editor

Proverbs 15:8—Psalm 66:18-20

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.—If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): By observing God’s answers to your prayers, you will gain much insight into your own hearts, and ways, and prayers, and may thereby learn how to judge of them. David’s assurance that he did not regard iniquity in his heart was strengthened by God’s having heard his prayers; for thus he reasons, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me; but verily God hath heard me.”

ROBERT GORDON (1786-1853): The very supposition that “if he regarded iniquity in his heart, the Lord would not hear him,” implies the possibility that such may be the state even of believers; and there is abundant reason to fear that it is in this way their prayers are so often hindered, and so frequently remain unanswered.

ROBERT SOUTH (1633-1716): Whence is it that a man’s regarding or loving sin in his heart hinders his prayers from acceptance with God?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): To “regard iniquity in the heart,” does not mean to be conscious of sin—for all the Lord’s people must see their sins and be grieved for them, and this is rather praiseworthy than condemnable—but to be bent upon the practice of iniquity.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The original is, “If I looked at iniquity with my heart;”—that is, if I thought of it with affection and desire. He that “regards iniquity,” entertains the thoughts of it as a man does a welcome visitor. He provides for their entertainment, is reluctant to part with them; and, as far as he can safely, he seeks and seizes the occasion of practicing the sin, which he thinks of with satisfaction. This evidences a love and dominion of sin, and is inconsistent with true repentance; and, if connected with a profession of religion, it is a clear evidence of hypocrisy.

JOHN WITHERSPOON (1722-1749): They regard iniquity in their heart, who practice it secretly, who are under restraint from the world, but are not possessed of an habitual fear of the omniscient God, the searcher of all hearts, and from whose eyes there is no covering of thick darkness where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. They regard iniquity in the heart, who entertain and indulge the desire of sin, although in the course of providence they may be restrained from the actual commission of it. I am persuaded the instances are not rare, of men feeding upon sinful desires, even when through want of opportunity, through the fear of man, or through some partial restraint of conscience, they dare not carry them into execution. They regard iniquity in their heart who reflect upon past sins with delight, or without sincere humiliation of mind…they can remember their sins without sorrow, they can speak of them without shame, and sometimes even with a mixture of boasting and vain glory. Did you never hear them recall their past follies, and speak of them with such relish, that it seems to be more to renew the pleasure than to regret the sin? Even supposing such persons to have forsaken the practice of some sins, if they can thus look back upon them with inward complacency, their seeming reformation must be owing to a very different cause from renovation of heart.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): This is the wickedness of man’s heart, that it will even love, and hold fast, that which with the mouth it prays against: and of this sort are they that honour God with their mouth, but their heart is far from Him, Isaiah 29:23; Ezekiel 33:31.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “Iniquity in my heart.” If, having seen it to be there, I continue to gaze upon it without aversion; if I cherish it, have a side glance of love towards it, excuse it, and palliate it; “The Lord will not hear me.” How can He? Can I desire Him to connive at my sin, and accept me while I willfully cling to any evil way? For God to accept our devotions, while we are delighting in sin, would be to make Himself the God of hypocrites, which is a fitter name for Satan than for the Holy One of Israel.

JOHN CALVIN: The Psalmist mentions integrity of heart as indispensable…When the heart does not correspond to the outward conduct, and harbours any secret evil intent, the fair exterior appearance may deceive men; but it is an abomination in the sight of God.

ROBERT SOUTH: In this case, he cannot pray by the Spirit. All prayers that are acceptable with God are the breathings of his own Spirit within us, Romans 8:26. As without the intercession of Christ we cannot have our prayers accepted, so without the intercession of the Spirit we cannot pray. The second reason is, because as long as a man regards iniquity in his heart he cannot pray in faith; that is, he cannot build a rational confidence upon any promise that God will accept him. Now, faith always respects the promise, and promise of acceptance is made only to the upright: so long, therefore, as men cherish a love of sin in their heart, they either understand not the promises, and so they pray without understanding, or they understand them, and yet misapply them to themselves, and so they pray in presumption: in either case, they have little cause to hope for acceptance.

ROBERT GORDON: Another case is, I fear, but too common, and in which the believer may be still more directly chargeable with regarding iniquity in his heart. It is possible that there may be in his heart or life something which he is conscious is not altogether as it should be—some earthly attachment which he cannot easily justify—or some point of conformity to the maxims and practices of the world, which he finds it difficult to reconcile with Christian principle; yet all the struggle which these have from time to time cost him, may only have been an effort of ingenuity on his part to retain them without doing direct violence to conscience—a laborious getting up of arguments whereby to show how they may be defended, or in what way they may lawfully be gone into; while the true and simple reason—namely, the love of the world, is all the while kept out of view.

JOHN WITHERSPOON: In the last place, I suspect that they regard sin in the heart, who are backward to bring themselves to the trial, and who are not truly willing that God Himself would search and try them. If any, therefore, are unwilling to be tried, if they are backward to self-examination, it is an evidence of a strong and powerful attachment to sin. It can proceed from nothing but from a secret dread of some disagreeable discovery, or the detection of some lust which they cannot consent to forsake.

JOHN BUNYAN: While prayer is making, God is searching the heart to see from what root and spirit it arises.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  God looks on the heart and sees the thoughts and intents of that.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Are you troubled because your prayers are not answered?

THOMAS GOODWIN: If God doth not grant your petitions, it will put you to study a reason for it, of His dealing; and so you will come to search into your prayers and the carriage of your hearts.

 

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A Prayer for God’s Blessing in the New Year

Posted on December 30, 2022 by The Editor

1 Chronicles 4:9,10

And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Jabez called on the God of Israel,” when he was undertaking some great and dangerous service. Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed,”—I trust not to my own or people’s valour, but only to thy blessing and help…That thine hand might be with me, to protect and strengthen me against my adversaries.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In its primary sense, it evidently related to temporal blessings. God had promised His people an inheritance in Canaan, but they were not able of themselves to drive out the inhabitants. Jabez therefore, sensible of his insufficiency, prayed to God for help. He begged for the blessing of God upon his endeavours: he desired to be preserved from the dangers to which his military exploits would expose him, and to have an enlarged inheritance in the promised land. But there is reason to think it had also a spiritual meaning.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “Oh, that Thou would bless me, indeed.” Think it over, and you will see that there is a depth of meaning in the expression. We may set this in contrast with human blessings—“Oh, that Thou would bless me, indeed.” Other blessings are mere tittles in comparison with Thy blessing. For Thy blessing is the title “to an inheritance incorruptible” and unfading, to “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” Well might David pray in another place, “with Thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed forever,” 2 Samuel 7:29.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): This, therefore, evidently argues that there was another sort of blessings, which were latent and hid, even a substantial, spiritual, invisible kind of blessings for evermore. That which Jacob obtained is called the “blessing,” in Genesis 27, eminently such, or it was the “blessing indeed,” which was in Jabez’s eye under all these veils; ‘the blessing, even life for evermore,’ as the Psalmist speaks by way of exposition, Psalm 133:3.

CHARLES SIMEON: Like the patriarch Jacob, Jabez “wrestled with God, and prevailed.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Perhaps Jabez had an eye to the promise God made to Abraham, “In blessing, I will bless thee,” Genesis 22:17. “Let that blessing of Abraham come upon me.” Spiritual blessings are the best blessings, and those are blessed indeed who are blessed with them.

THOMAS GOODWIN: And, indeed, when Isaac afterwards with such vehemency doubles Jacob’s blessing, “I have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed,” Genesis 27:33, this imports a blessing indeed to have been contained and involved in that blessing; and Isaac also showed that the same blessing that was promised to Abraham, which was spiritual, was made over by inheritance to Jacob. The words of Abraham’s blessing have the same emphatical duplication that we find in Jacob’s, “In blessing, I will bless thee,” Genesis 22:17. Further, the last words in that blessing of Jacob’s, “Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee,” Genesis 27:29, manifestly refer to the blessing made to Abraham, being part of the words that are used in Abraham’s blessing, “I will make thee a blessing, and I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee,” Genesis 12:2,3.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Jabez being so remarkably spoken of, and his prayer so recorded, and the Lord’s gracious answer in granting it so striking, demands a more particular attention. His prayer is evidently a proof of his great piety.

MATTHEW HENRY: What was the nature of his prayer?

CHARLES SIMEON: The manner in which it was offered was believing. The title, by which he addressed the Deity, argued his faith in God. It expressed a confidence in God as the hearer of prayer.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): His prayer was at once both enlightened and pious. He had piety towards God, and therefore he trusted in Him; he knew that He was the fountain of all good, and therefore he sought all necessaries both for body and soul from Him…Both the matter and manner of his prayer were excellent.

CHARLES SIMEON: It was humble. He felt his entire dependence upon the power and grace of God. This is intimated not merely in the petitions offered, but in the very manner in which they were offered. Such humility is absolutely necessary to render prayer acceptable. The more we abase ourselves, the more will God exalt us. Let this be remembered in all our addresses at the throne of grace. It was importunate. He enforced his request with a very earnest plea.

ADAM CLARKE: His heart was deeply impressed with its wants, and therefore he was earnest and fervent: “O that thou wouldest bless me indeed.” He dreads both sin and suffering, and therefore prays against both: “O that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!” Sin and misery are in every step of the journey of life; keep me from sin, that I grieve thee not; and keep me from sin, that I render not myself miserable! We can never offend God without injuring ourselves; he that sins must suffer.

CHARLES SIMEON: Nor, in reference to sin, could any plea be more proper for him.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Nothing is more grieving to a good man than the evil of sin, so contrary to the nature and will of God, being committed against a God of infinite love, grace, and mercy, whereby the name, ways, and truths of Christ are dishonoured, and the Spirit of God grieved, and saints are bereaved of much comfort; and therefore they desire to be kept from it, knowing they cannot keep themselves, but the Lord can and will, at least from the tyranny of it, and destruction by it.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast”—my heart—“When thou shalt have enlarged mine heart,” saith David, “then will I run the way of thy commandments,” Psalm 119:32.

ADAM CLARKE: Jabez is conscious that without the continual support of God he must fail; and therefore he prays to be upheld by His power: “That thy hand might be with me!”

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Every blessing, temporal and spiritual, comes from God, and should be sought in the way of prayer. They who wait upon God, will renew their strength, and be kept from the power of the evil one, the evil heart, and the evil world. Unless God strengthen us, we become a prey to the weakest of our enemies. God granted his prayer: so ready is God to give to him that asketh, and to supply the largest desires of our souls.

C. H. SPURGEON: O Lord, we would have the blessings of our fellow creatures, the blessings that come from their hearts—but, “Oh, that Thou would bless me, indeed,” for Thou can bless with authority. Their blessings may be but words, but Thy words are effectual. They may often wish what they cannot do, and desire to give what they have not at their own disposal, but Thy will is Omnipotent. Thou didst create the world with but a word. O that such Omnipotence would now show me Thy blessing!

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): Let us pray with Jabez to be blessed indeed!

 

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A Tale of Taxes & Timing, Prophecy & Providence

Posted on December 23, 2022 by The Editor

Luke 2:1-7

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the City of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus—By a sweet providence of God, that Christ might be born at Bethlehem, according to the Scriptures. Howbeit Augustus thought not so, as it is said in another case of Nebuchadnezzar, Isaiah 10:7, “He meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): That which Augustus designed was either to gratify his pride in knowing the numbers of his people, and proclaiming it to the world, or he did it in policy, to strengthen his interest, and make his government appear the more formidable; but Providence had another reach in it. All the world shall be at the trouble of being enrolled, only that Joseph and Mary may—this brought them up from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, because they were of the stock and lineage of David, Luke 2:4,5.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Luke sets aside the idea of human contrivance, by saying, that Joseph and Mary had left home, and came to that place to make the return according to their family and tribe. If intentionally and on purpose they had changed their residence that Mary might bring forth her child in Bethlehem, we would have looked only at the human beings concerned. But as they have no other design than to obey the edict of Augustus, we readily acknowledge, that they were led like blind persons, by the hand of God, to the place where Christ must be born. This may appear to be accidental, as everything else which does not proceed from a direct human intention is ascribed by irreligious men to Fortune. But a comparison will clearly show it to have been accomplished by the wonderful Providence of God, that a registration was then enacted by Augustus Caesar, and that Joseph and Mary set out from home, so as to arrive in Bethlehem at this very point of time.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The overruling providence of God appears in this simple fact. He orders all things in heaven and earth. He turns the hearts of kings whithersoever He will. He overruled the time when Augustus decreed the taxing. He directed the enforcement of the decree in such a way, that Mary must needs be at Bethlehem when “the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.” Little did the haughty Roman emperor, and his officer Cyrenius, think that they were only instruments in the hand of the God of Israel, and were only carrying out the eternal purposes of the King of kings.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): The timing of affairs is an eminent part of the wisdom of God.

JOHN CALVIN: We must remember also the prediction which was uttered by the prophet many centuries before.

MATTHEW HENRY: Jesus was born when Judea was become a province of the empire, and tributary to it; as appears evidently by this, that when all the Roman empire was taxed, the Jews were taxed among the rest. Jerusalem was taken by Pompey the Roman general, about sixty years before this, who granted the government of the church to Hyrcanus, but not the government of the state; by degrees it was more and more reduced, till now at length it was quite subdued; for Judea was ruled by Cyrenius the Roman governor of Syria: Now just at this juncture, the Messiah was to be born, for so was dying Jacob’s prophecy, that Shiloh should come when the “sceptre was departed from Judah,” and the “lawgiver from between his feet,” Genesis 49:10. This was the first taxing that was made in Judea, the first badge of their servitude; therefore now Shiloh must come, to set up His kingdom.

JOHN CALVIN: Augustus orders a registration to take place in Judea, and each person to give his name, that they may afterwards pay an annual tax, which they were formerly accustomed to pay to God. Thus an ungodly man takes forcible possession of that which God was accustomed to demand from His people. It was, in effect, reducing the Jews to entire subjection, and forbidding them to be thenceforth reckoned as the people of God.

J. C. RYLE: Let us notice, secondly, the place where Christ was born. It was not at Nazareth of Galilee, where His mother Mary lived.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Jerusalem was not the Saviour’s birthplace, nor was it one of the prominent towns of Palestine; instead, it was in a small village! The Holy Spirit has called particular attention to this point in one of the leading Messianic prophecies.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This passage connects very definitely with a prophecy which was given some 700 years before the events took place, which is found in the fifth chapter of the book of Micah. “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel,” Micah 5:2.

A. W. PINK: How startlingly the sovereignty of God was displayed in that momentous event…How different are God’s thoughts and ways from man’s! How He despises what we most esteem, and honours that which we look down upon. One of the most insignificant of all places was chosen by God to be the scene of the most stupendous of all events.

JOHN CALVIN: Nor is the Providence of God less wonderful in employing the mandate of a tyrant to draw Mary from home, that the prophecy may be fulfilled. God had marked out by His prophet the place where He determined that His Son should be born. If Mary had not been constrained to do otherwise, she would have chosen to bring forth her child at home. Thus we see that the holy servants of God, even though they wander from their design, unconscious where they are going, still keep the right path, because God directs their steps.

A. W. PINK: There is a wonderful order in all God’s works, an all-wise timing of the divine actions. Not that the Almighty is hampered or hindered by finite creatures of the dust, but that His wondrous ways may be the more admired by those who are granted spirituality to discern them. “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints,” Revelation 15:3.

MATTHEW HENRY: See how man purposes and God disposes; and how Providence orders all things for the fulfilling of the scripture, and makes use of the projects men have for serving their own purposes, quite beyond their intention, to serve His.

J. C. RYLE: The heart of a believer should take comfort in the recollection of God’s providential government of the world. A true Christian should never be greatly moved or disquieted by the conduct of the rulers of the earth. He should see with the eye of faith a hand overruling all that they do to the praise and glory of God. He should regard every king and potentate as a creature who, with all his power, can do nothing but what God allows, and nothing which is not carrying out God’s will. And when the rulers of this world “set themselves against the Lord,” he should take comfort in the words of Solomon, “There be higher than they,’ Ecclesiastes 5:8.

 

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God’s Absolute Sovereignty

Posted on December 16, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 47:4

He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): To what does this sentiment refer—our inheritance?

JOHN BOYS (1619-1625): “He shall choose our inheritance for us,” means that He hath chosen, that is, hath appointed, of His own good will and mercy towards us, our inheritance; not only things meet for this life as lands, and houses, and possessions, but even all other things concerning the hope of a better life.

WILLIAM JAY: The Christian has “another and a better country,” Hebrews 11:16; “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” for him, 1 Peter 1:4; and this inheritance God has chosen for him…But the sentiment here refers to time rather than eternity, and to God’s choice in the regulation of our allotments on earth—Realize this principle. See the providence of God determining the bounds of your habitations; the age in which you were to live; the stations you were to fill; the comforts you were to enjoy; and the trials you were to endure.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This is a song of the sovereignty of God.

WILLIAM CAREY (1761-1834): God has a sovereign right to dispose of us as He pleases.

WILLIAM JAY: He has a right much greater than that of the potter over the clay; a right still greater than that of a father over his children; a right derived from absolute propriety. For has He not a right to do what He will with His own? What right have we to choose? We have neither made ourselves, nor redeemed ourselves, nor sustained ourselves. From His wardrobe we have been clothed, at His table we have been fed. He it is that draws the curtains of night around us, and tells creation to be quiet while we slumber and sleep; and His mercies are new every morning. Secondly, God is qualified to choose for us. As the right belongs to Him, so the ability belongs to Him to judge, and His judgment is always according to truth. He can never be mistaken in His decision. He knoweth our frame. He can distinguish between our wants and our wishes. He knoweth what will be good for us, and what would prove injurious to us. But every thing unfits us for choosing our inheritance for ourselves—we are too ignorant, too selfish, and too impatient for this.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Ignorance of the providence of God is the cause of all impatience.

A. B. JACK (Unknown): We are all very apt to believe in Providence when we get our own way; but when things go awry, we think, if there is a God, He is in heaven and not upon the earth. When we get our own way, we are happy and contented. When we are subjected to disappointment, we become the victims of despair. We are all like crickets. The cricket, in the spring, builds his house in the meadow, and chirps for joy because all is going so well with him. But when he hears the sound of the plough a few furrows off, and the thunder of the oxen’s tread, then his young heart fails him. By-and-by the plough comes crunching along, turns his dwelling bottom-side up, and as he goes rolling over and over, without a house and without a home, “Oh,” he says, “the foundations of the world are breaking up, and everything is hastening to destruction.” But the husbandman, as he walks behind the plough, does he think the foundations of the world are breaking up? No. He is thinking only of the harvest that is to follow in the wake of the plough; and the cricket, if it will but wait, will see the husbandman’s purpose.

JOHN CALVIN: Truly we never lean upon a better support than when, disregarding the appearance of things present, we depend entirely upon the Word of the Lord, and apprehend by faith that blessing which is not yet apparent…Therefore, whenever we wander in uncertainty through intricate windings, we must contemplate, with eyes of faith, the secret providence of God which governs us and our affairs.

BASIL (329-379): Never let us say of anything, it happened by chance; there is nothing that has not been fore-arranged, nothing which has not its own special end, by which it forms a link in the chain of appointed order.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): All is under the management of infinite wisdom.

WILLIAM JAY: And if you have not much of the world―ask―why is it? Is it because my Heavenly Father is not able to give me more?  No. The silver and the gold are his.  The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.  The world, and they that dwell therein. Is it because He has no inclination to indulge me? No. He takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants. It is therefore to be resolved into the wisdom and kindness of His administration.

GILES FLETCHER (1586-1623): It may be thou art godly and poor―Tis well; but canst thou tell whether, if thou wert not poor, thou wouldst be godly? Surely God knows us better than we ourselves do, and therefore can best fit the estate to the person.

WILLIAM JAY: His wisdom tells Him how much I can bear―and His kindness will not suffer Him to give me more. His aim is my welfare. The same disposition which leads Him to give, induces Him to deny. He corrects and He crowns with the same love. This loss is to enrich me: this sickness is to cure me. I know that “all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them that are the called, according to His purpose,” Romans 8:28.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Strangers may speak of providence; but only the children love it. Those who are alienated from God in their hearts, do not like to be so completely in His power.

WILLIAM JAY: Let us remember that He has chosen for us already.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The Apostle Paul assures us that “we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,” Ephesians 1:4; and that “we are saved and called according to God’s own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ, before the world began,” 2 Timothy 1:9.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This is the language of every gracious soul, “God shall choose my inheritance for me; let Him appoint me my lot, and I will acquiesce in the appointment. He knows what is good for me better than I do for myself, and therefore I will have no will of my own but what is resolved into His.”

WILLIAM JAY: As to life itself, He shall determine how long or how short shall be its continuance; and the time, place, mode, and means of my removal I leave with Him in whose hands my breath is, and in “whose hands are all my ways.”—Thus, as to all my interest, all that alarms my fears, all that excites my hopes, all that engages my expectations in the world, I commit to Him, in compliance with His merciful commands and injunctions: “Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee,” Psalm 55:22; “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass,” Psalm 37:5; “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you,” 1 Peter 5:7.

 

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Faithful Witnessing

Posted on December 10, 2022 by The Editor

Mark 12:31; Proverbs 24:11,12; Isaiah 43:10,11,15

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?

Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour…I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): The special work for which Christians are left in the world is to be witnesses.

E. W. BULLINGER (1837-1913): We are God’s witnesses.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Here Isaiah includes all believers, for this office of bearing testimony is binding on all.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): You are not all, it is true, called to be ministers of Christ, but you are all to be witnesses for Him in the midst of a dark benighted world. And such must you be.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): “Before Pontius Pilate, Christ witnessed a good confession,” 1 Timothy 6:13. The servants of Christ in every age must remember that our Lord’s conduct in this place is meant to be their example. Like Him we are to be witnesses to God’s truth, salt in the midst of corruption, light in the midst of darkness, men and women not afraid to stand alone, and to testify for God against the ways of sin and the world. To do so may entail on us much trouble, and even persecution. But the duty is clear and plain.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Note what we have to do—to bear witness; not to argue, not to adorn, but simply to attest. Note what we have to attest—the fact, not of the historical life of Jesus Christ, because we are not in a position to be witnesses of that, but the fact of His preciousness and power, and the fact of our own experience of what He has done for us.

CHARLES SIMEON: You must let it be seen that He both does, and will renew the powers of a withered soul, and infuse into it such energies as shall bear the stamp and character of divinity upon them.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: This is the witness that needs no eloquence, no genius, no anything except honesty and experience; and whosoever has tasted and felt and handled of the Word of Life may surely go to a brother and say, “Brother, I have eaten and am satisfied. Will you not help yourselves?” We can all do it, and we ought to do it. The Christian privilege of being witnessed to by the Spirit of God in our hearts brings with it the Christian duty of being witnesses in our turn to the world…The health of his own soul, his reverence for the truth he has learnt to love, his necessary connection with other men, make it a duty, a necessity, and a joy to tell what he has heard, and to speak what he believes.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Two qualifications are required in a witness, truth and love―Ephesians 4:15; these are needed, but these will do—the law under which we live is the law of love; and whenever any doubt arises as to practical details, the Pattern is at hand to mold it on and test it by: “Love one another as I have loved you,” John 15:12.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If there be no love to God, and no love to man, the vital element is wanting.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Whoso hath this world’s good, or the next world’s good, or both, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): What is to be thought of Christians who have heard the charge of the Lord Jesus, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” Mark 16:15, but who, paying no attention to the appalling condition of lost souls on every side of them, think only of their own pleasure and comfort?

JOHN CALVIN: In general no man ought to be accounted a believer, who conceals the knowledge of God within his own heart, and never makes an open confession of the truth.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): But how much more guilty to forbear the deliverance of immortal souls in ignorance, ungodliness, or unbelief, drawn unto death, and ready to be slain! Ought they not to be the objects of our deepest, most yearning anxiety? What shall we then say to that frozen apathy, which forbears to deliver? “We have no right to judge—We knew it not—Am I my brother’s keeper? It is no concern of mine.” But might not many a soul have started back from the brink of ruin, if only the discovery of his danger had been made, ere it was too late? Yet the one word, that might have saved him, was forborne.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He knows and considers whether the excuse we make be true or no, whether it was because we did not know it or whether the true reason was not because we did not love our neighbour as we ought, but were selfish, and regardless both of God and man. Let this serve to silence all our frivolous pleas, by which we think to stop the mouth of conscience when it charges us with the omission of plain duty: “Does not He that ponders the heart consider it?”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Where shall we find words weighty and burning enough to tell what fatal cruelty lies in the unthinking negligence so characteristic of large portions of Christ’s professed followers?

J. C. RYLE: If we love life, if we would keep a good conscience, and be owned by Christ at the last day, we must be “witnesses.” It is written, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels,” Mark 8:38.

H. A. IRONSIDE: These are unspeakably solemn words and worthy of being carefully pondered in the presence of God by every converted reader of these lines. May grace be given to each one to weigh well their solemn import, and to seek day by day to faithfully make known the only message which can deliver from the second death.

C. H. SPURGEON: For this end were we born, and for this purpose were we sent into the world, that we might bear witness to grand soul-saving truths.

CHARLES BRIDGES: This obligation, with all the responsibility of its neglect, is the universal law of the gospel.

WILLIAM ARNOT: The prophets before Christ’s coming, and the apostles after it, all conspired to teach, by their lips and by their lives, that “a man liveth not to himself, and dieth not to himself,” Romans 14:7. Ye who bear the Saviour’s name, and trust in His love, ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price. Ye have talents to lay out, and a work to accomplish—a Master to serve and a brother to save.

J. C. RYLE: Happy is he who is not ashamed to say to others, “Come and hear what the Lord hath done for my soul,” Psalm 66:16…If we have anything to tell others about Christ, let us resolve to tell it. Let us not be silent, if we have found peace and rest in the Gospel. Let us speak to our relations, and friends, and families, and neighbours, according as we have opportunity, and tell them what the Lord has done for our souls.

 

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Speaking the Truth in Love, and Grace, Seasoned with Salt

Posted on December 2, 2022 by The Editor

Proverbs 15:23; Proverbs 25:11; Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:14,15

A word spoken in due season, how good it is!

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): After being born to Christ, we ought to grow, so as “not to be children in understanding,” 1 Corinthians 14:20.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Brethren, we have everywhere to battle with falsehood and if we are to bless the world we must confront it with sturdy face and zealous spirit.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): We should not be ashamed of our principles. We should candidly state that we are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath and indignation: that God has sent his only-begotten Son to die for us: that through His precious blood, we hope and believe that we have obtained the forgiveness of all our sins. We should then state our conviction, that sinners redeemed with so inestimable a price, are bound to consecrate themselves to Him, and, above all things, to seek the glory of His great name. We should further avow our full persuasion, that in the day of judgment we shall all be dealt with according to our works; that those who have suffered any thing to stand in competition with their duty to Christ, will assuredly be cast out as wicked and unprofitable servants; but that they who have loved, and served, and honoured Him with their whole hearts, shall be applauded by Him as good and faithful servants, and enter forever into the joy of their Lord.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It is an important thing to stand for the fundamentals, but as we seek to bear witness to the great fundamental truths, let us never forget that the greatest fundamental of all is love.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The cause of truth itself may be discredited by improper management.

CHARLES SIMEON: As respects the truth itself, we should have no hesitation in declaring it, yet we should be much on our guard against any thing harsh or acrimonious in our manner of declaring it…A Christian on such occasions must bear in mind how much the honour of God is involved in his conduct; and how much, humanly speaking, the salvation of others may depend on him. By an indiscreet mode of vindicating the truth, he may shut the ears, and harden the hearts of many; and so embitter their minds, as to make them determined haters and despisers of vital godliness: but by a meek, modest, affectionate, and prudent statement, he may remove their prejudices, and lead them to a candid examination of their own state before God.

H. A. IRONSIDE: It should always be remembered that in contending for the faith, the soul of the sinner has to be thought of as well.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “A word fitly spoken,”—Or, “a word spoken on its wheels,” as it is in the Hebrew, that proceeds aright, keeps due order, is well circumstanced as to matter, method, time, place, and persons; a discourse well put together, properly pronounced, roundly, easily, and fluently delivered to proper persons, and adapted to their circumstances; and “seasonably” spoken, as many versions render it.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Our Lord witnessed of Himself, as “gifted with the tongue of the learned, that he might know how to speak the word in season,” Isaiah 50:4—a word upon the wheels—not forced or dragged, but rolling smoothly along, like the chariot-wheels. His discourses on the living water and the bread of life arose naturally out of the conversation, and therefore were full of arresting application.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Let your speech be alway with grace,” because our converse with men ought to be managed with the greatest circumspection, in imitation of Christ, who entertained those that did converse with Him with “gracious words,” Luke 4:22. Endeavour to speak that the hearers may conceive your discourse proceeds from a gracious spirit, or “grace in the heart,” Colossians 3:16, teaching your mouth “with meekness of wisdom,” James 3:13, “using knowledge aright,” Proverbs 15:2, and being in its tendency gracious, Ecclesiastes 10:12, not as tinctured with gall or venom—but “ministering grace to the hearers,” Ephesians 4:29.

CHRISTMAS EVANS (1766-1838): There is great need of faithfulness and prudence, in defending the truths of Christ, against the errors of the times. Faithfulness indeed will oblige us to do it; but prudence must direct us how to do it.

CHARLES BRIDGES: We may think to relieve our conscience by speaking our mind. But to do it rudely and harshly, may put a stumbling-block in our brother’s way. Under all circumstances our “lips should know what is acceptable,” Proverbs 10:32. Unseemly language makes wholesome truth more unpalatable.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Let them see that love, not wrath, gives the blow.

C. H. SPURGEON: Speak your mind, but still be kind. In being frank some are rough, and this is by no means needful.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is a happy medium between harshness and firmness, as there is between sentimentality and tenderness. We are bidden to speak “the truth in love,”—and Christ was doing so as truly when denouncing the Pharisees in Matthew 23:1-39—as when He was comforting His disciples in John 14:1-31. But does that mean that His countenance, the tone of His voice, or His general bearing was the same? He ever spoke the truth in love—but if some would re-read the four Gospels with this particular thought in mind—it might cause them to revise, or at least, to modify their present conception of what “speaking the truth in love” really is. It depends upon the particular fault committed. Mole-hills are not to be magnified into mountains. There are times when it is fitting “to rebuke sharply,” Titus 1:13, as Christ did in Luke 24:25. But for the most part, it should be done in “the spirit of meekness,” Galatians 6:1.

CHRISTMAS EVANS: Wisdom is necessary here to distinguish the different characters, those who require severity, and those who claim tenderness.

CHARLES BRIDGES: A word spoken for everyone, like a coat made for everyone, has no individual fitness. When “the wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment,” Ecclesiastes 8:5, the word is doubly effective…Paul powerfully charged superstition on the Athenians by an inscription on their own altar; and strengthened his reasoning by quoting one of their own poets, Acts 17:22-28. To a corrupt and profligate judge he preached “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,” Acts 24:25. In general intercourse much depends, not only upon the word spoken, but upon the occasion and spirit of speaking. We must not only lay ourselves out to do good, but to watch the fittest seasons of doing it. Under affliction, or tender impressions of conviction, “a word fitly spoken” may be as the descent of our gracious Lord to the soul, “like rain upon mown grass,” Psalm 72:6. The plough enters most effectually when the earth is softened.

JOHN NEWTON: But let us be firm and unmoved, and not hesitate to speak the truth in love, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. Go forth, therefore, in the name and strength of the Lord of Hosts, speaking the truth in love; and may He give you a witness in many hearts, that you are taught of God, and favoured with the unction of His Holy Spirit.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): The God of grace and peace grant all His children spirits endeavouring to speak “the truth in love” in these dividing times.

 

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Is it True that “God Loves the Sinner, But Hates the Sin”?

Posted on November 25, 2022 by The Editor

Mark 10:17-22

There came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): One of the most popular beliefs of the day is that God loves everybody, and the very fact that it is so popular with all classes ought to be enough to arouse the suspicions of those who are subject to the Word of Truth.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Notice the expression of Jesus beholding this young man, and as it is said, “loved him.”—It should be carefully distinguished what this “love” meant, from the love Jesus beareth to His people.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Remember, this young man already thought himself to be quite good, and that he had kept all of God’s commandments. But listen to the very first words Jesus said unto him—“Why callest me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Then Jesus told him to keep the commandments.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “And he answered and said unto Him,”—with a great deal of pertness—“Master, all these have I observed from my youth.”  The sense is, that Jesus looked upon him, when he expressed himself in such a pert manner, and had a compassionate concern for him; He pitied him for his ignorance of the law, in its spirituality and large extent; and for his pride and vanity, his conceit, and his glorying in himself: wherefore, in order to mortify him, and abate these swelling thoughts of himself—“He said unto him, one thing thou lackest…” This young man’s reigning sin seems to have been an overweening affection for the things of this world; his riches were his idol, on which his heart was set, and in which he trusted.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Now the Scripture strongly suggests that this young man never picked up that cross, and followed after Jesus. So then, how did Jesus “love” him? Jesus loved him enough to show him the truth of his sinful condition before God, by revealing his covetous love for the things of this world.

ROBERT HAWKER: The love here spoken of, differs altogether from the special affection the Lord Jesus bears to the persons of His redeemed, which are the gift of his Father, the purchase of His blood, and the objects of the everlasting love of God the Holy Ghost, in whom He puts the influences of His sovereign power and grace to make them wise unto salvation, through the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The other day I saw a little tract bearing this title, “It is certain that God loves you.” And I burned it, for I was afraid that somebody who had no right to it, might see it and believe that it was true. I do not believe that God loves every individual who might pick that tract up in the sense in which such an individual would understand the expression. I know that God loves, in a certain sense, all the creatures that He has made. But such love as that gives me no comfort, as long as I am an unreconciled sinner under condemnation, because I have not believed in God’s dear Son!

A. W. PINK: No matter how a man may live—in open defiance of Heaven, with no concern whatever for his soul’s eternal interests, still less for God’s glory, dying, perhaps with an oath on his lips—notwithstanding, God loves him, we are told. So widely has this dogma been proclaimed, and so comforting is it to the heart which is at enmity with God, we have little hope of convincing many of their error.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): They think God loves them because they love themselves; and though they know they have sin, yet they think God will not be so ill, as to reckon with them; they think they are sure that God loves them, but they cannot give a ground for it.

A. W. PINK: That God loves everybody, is, we may say, quite a modern belief. The writings of the church-fathers, the Reformers, or the Puritans, we believe, will be searched in vain for any such concept…It has been customary to say “God loves the sinner, though He hates his sin.” But that is a meaningless distinction. What is there in a sinner but sin? Is it not true that his “whole head is sick,” and his “whole heart faint,” and that “from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness” in him?” Isaiah 1:5,6. Is it true that God loves the one who is despising and rejecting His blessed Son?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): If ever anyone knew the love of God, if ever “the love of God” was preached and understood by anyone, that one was Jesus Christ.

A. W. PINK: If it be true that God loves every member of the human family then why did our Lord tell His disciples, “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father…If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him,” John 14:21,23? Why say “he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father,” if the Father loves everybody? The same limitation is found in Proverbs 8:17—“I love them that love Me.” Again, we read, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity”—not merely the works of iniquity. Here, then, is a flat repudiation of present teaching that, “God hates sin but loves the sinner;” Scripture says, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity,” Psalm 5:5! “God is angry with the wicked every day,” Psalm 7:11. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God,”—not “shall abide,” but even now—“abideth on him,” John 3:36. Can God “love” the one on whom His “wrath” abides?

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): So long as our thoughts are cast in the mold of divine truth, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, we shall be kept from expressions, which, though something like scripture, are not according to it. In these days, we need to watch lest we take up the Lord’s Word with mere natural effort, instead of in heartfelt dependence on the Holy Ghost; and to dread lest we traffic in favourite doctrines, instead of setting forth the infallible testimonies of Holy Scripture. It is a blessed fact that “God commendeth his love toward us,”—His saints—“in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8; but that is very different from going up to an ungodly man, and saying, “God loves you.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Our Lord’s method must ever be the pattern and example for all preaching—We are to speak “the truth in love.”

A. W. PINK: With the exception of John 3:16, not once in the four Gospels do we read of the Lord Jesus—the perfect Teacher—telling sinners that God loved them! In the book of Acts, which records the evangelistic labours and messages of the apostles, God’s love is never referred to at all! But, when we come to the Epistles, which are addressed to the saints, we have a full presentation of this precious truth—God’s love for His own. Let us seek to rightly divide the Word of God and then we shall not be found taking truths which are addressed to believers and misapplying them to unbelievers.

 

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A Puritan Thanksgiving

Posted on November 18, 2022 by The Editor

Acts 11:26; 1 Corinthians 4:12,13

And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): In almost every age and country where Christianity has been professed, some hard name or term of reproach has been imposed upon those who ventured to maintain a more evangelical strain of doctrine, or a stricter course of conduct, than was agreeable to the spirit of the times in which they lived. Even the Christian name, honourable as we may now think it, was used by the heathens, when it first obtained, as a stigma, a term of the utmost contempt and hatred; Christians were, by common consent, reputed the off-scouring, and filth of all things…Men of the same spirit were afterwards branded in Protestant nations with the terms Pietist and Puritan.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): He that was the old English Puritan was cried out upon as the worst of men.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): There are more baseless and false ideas current about them than about any class of men in British history. The impressions of most people are so ridiculously incorrect, that one could laugh if the subject were not so serious. To hear them talk about Puritans is simply ludicrous. They make assertions which prove either that they know nothing at all of what they are talking about, or that they have forgotten the ninth commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The name “Puritan” was the lowest of all. It was the symbol which was always employed by the drunkard and swearer to express a godly man.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Ignorant people use it as a scoff. It should be a crown of glory.

J. C. RYLE: The Puritans, as a body, have done more to elevate the national character than any class of Englishmen that ever lived. Ardent lovers of civil liberty, and ready to die in its defence—mighty at the council board, and no less mighty in the battlefield—feared abroad throughout Europe, and invincible at home while united, great with their pens, and no less great with their swords—fearing God very much, and fearing man very little—they were a generation of men who have never received from their country the honour that they deserve.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): The gigantic Republic of the United States of America is in a great measure the result of their migration.

C. H. SPURGEON: What would the United States have been, at this moment, if it had not been for “the men of the Mayflower” in the olden times, and the many pilgrim fathers and pilgrim sons and daughters who have since gone across the Atlantic to be as salt in that part of the earth?

J. C. RYLE: That they were not perfect and faultless, I freely admit. They said, did, and wrote many things which cannot be commended. Some of them, no doubt, were violent, fierce, narrow-minded sectarians; some were half-crazy fanatics―Yet, even then, great allowance ought to be made for the trying circumstances in which they were often placed, and the incessant, irritating persecution to which they were exposed…With all their faults, the leaders of the party were great and good men. With all their defects, the Puritans, as a body, were not the men that some authors and writers in the present day are fond of representing them to have been.

C. H. SPURGEON: Our Puritan forefathers were strong men, because they lived on the Scriptures…Their leader Oliver Cromwell could hardly be called a fool, even by those who stigmatized him as a “tyrant.” Cromwell, and all that were with him, were not all weak-minded persons—surely?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Such men as Goodwin, Owen, Charnock, Flavel, Sibbes, though living in troublous times and suffering fierce persecution, taught the Word more helpfully―in our judgment―and were more used of God than any since the days of the apostles to the present hour. The ministry of the Puritans was an exceedingly searching one.

HORATIUS BONAR (1808-1889): They were men whose doctrines were of the most decided kind, both as respects law and gospel. There is a breadth and power about their preaching—a glow and energy about their words and thoughts, that makes us feel that they were men of might. Their trumpet gave no feeble nor uncertain sound, either to saint or sinner, either to the church or the world. They lifted up their voices, and spared not. There was no flinching, no flattering, or prophesying of smooth things. Their preaching seems to have been of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy; it was far too solemn to be such; it was massive, weighty, cutting, and piercing―sharper than a two-edged sword.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Nowadays, people make cheap reputations for advanced thought by depreciating their theology.

C. H. SPURGEON: Nothing is so obnoxious as that which has the smell of Puritanism upon it. Every little man’s nose goes up celestially at the very sound of the word “Puritan.”―Ah, how many have there been who have said, “The old Puritan principles are too rough for these times, we’ll tone them down a little.”―The same men who reject the old-fashioned doctrines also rebel against the old-fashioned style of living; loose living generally goes with loose doctrine. There never was an age in which the doctrines of grace were despised but, sooner or later, licentiousness prevailed. On the other hand, when we had Puritan teaching, we had also pure and holy living.

J. C. RYLE: Their commentaries, their expositions, their treatises on practical, casuistical, and experimental divinity, are immeasurably superior to those of their adversaries in the seventeenth century. In short, those who hold up the Puritans to scorn as shallow, illiterate men, are only exposing their own lamentable shallowness, their own ignorance of historical facts, and the extremely superficial character of their own reading. The Puritans were not unlearned and ignorant men. The great majority of them were Oxford and Cambridge graduates―many of them fellows of colleges, and some of them heads or principals of the best colleges in the two Universities. In knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in power as preachers, expositors, writers, and critics, the Puritans in their day were second to none. Unhappily, when they passed away, they were followed by a generation of profligates, triflers, and skeptics; and their reputation has suffered accordingly in passing through prejudiced hands―but, “judged with righteous judgment,” they will be found men of whom the world was not worthy. The more they are really known, the more they will be esteemed.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): If you wish to know what Puritanism really is, don’t read large volumes on the subject by men who may be scholars, but never were Puritans―but rather, read the life-stories of Puritans.

J. C. RYLE: Milton, Selden, Blake, Cromwell, Owen, Baxter, and Charnock were men of which no well-informed Englishman ought ever to speak with disrespect. He may dislike their principles, if he will, but he has no right to despise them. Lord Macaulay, no mean authority in matters of English history, might well say, in his famous essay on John Milton, “we do not hesitate to pronounce the Puritans a brave, a wise and honest, and a useful body.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We have reason to thank God for them all.

 

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The Courageous Faith of Ann Askew (1521-1546)

Posted on November 11, 2022 by The Editor

Luke 12:4; Luke 21:12-15; Matthew 10:20

Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It is very remarkable what wise answers many of the martyrs often gave. Illiterate men, when confronted by the learned ones of the earth, completely baffled them; and weak women nonplused their assailants and judges. A notable instance of that is recorded in the history of the brave Anne Askew.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): Ann Askew was the second daughter of Sir William Askew, a member of a very ancient Lincolnshire family. Her father had compelled her to marry the son of a rich neighbour. The Holy Scriptures in the English version attracted Ann’s attention, and led by them to a living faith in Jesus Christ, she renounced the Roman Catholic superstitions, and she denied the corporeal presence of the Saviour in the sacrament.

ANNE ASKEW (1521-1546): I had sooner read five lines in the Bible, than hear five masses in the church.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: The priests, who were greatly annoyed, stirred up her young husband against her, and he, being a rough and staunch Roman Catholic, “violently drove her out of his house.”

J. C. BAYLEY (circa 1884): That young wife, whose previously affectionate husband turned her out of doors because she had imbibed the doctrines of the Reformation, showed a spirit equally undaunted, but a loftier and more serene courage, “unmoved by poisoning wrath.”

ANNE ASKEW: Since, according to 1 Corinthians 7:15, “if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases,” I claim my divorce.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: Ann went to London for the divorce proceedings, where she made the acquaintance of the pious ladies of the court, and of the queen herself. Queen Katheryn frequently received Anne and other Christian women in her private apartments; and there prayer was made and the Word of God expounded by an evangelical minister. King Henry VIII indeed was aware of these secret meetings, but he feigned ignorance. It was a great vexation to the enemies of the Reformation to see persons of the highest rank almost openly professing the evangelical faith. As they did not dare to attack them, they determined to make a beginning with Anne Askew. She was sent to prison.

When she was taken to Sadler’s Hall, the judge, Christopher Dare, asked her, “Do you believe that the sacrament hanging over the altar is really the very body of Christ?” Anne replied, “Wherefore was Stephen stoned to death?” Dare, doubtless, remembered that Stephen had said, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God,” Acts 7:56. From this, it followed that He was not in the sacrament, but Dare preferred to answer, “I cannot tell.”

ANNE ASKEW: No more, then, will I answer your vain question.

C. H. SPURGEON: And there was my Lord Mayor of London—what a fool she made of him! He put to her this question—“Woman, if a mouse were to eat the blessed sacrament which contains the body and blood of Christ, what do you think would become of it?”

ANNE ASKEW: My lord, that is a deep question. I had rather you would answer it yourself. What do you think would become of the mouse that should do that?

C. H. SPURGEON: “I verily believe,” said the Lord Mayor of London, “that mouse would be damned!”

ANNE ASKEW: Alas! poor mouse.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is really marvelous to read how she overcame them…Often a few short words—three or four words—have met the case when the martyrs have waited upon God! And they have made their adversaries seem so ridiculous that I think they might hear a laugh both from Heaven and Hell at once at their foolery, for God’s servants have convicted them of folly and put them to shame!

ANNE ASKEW: They said to me that I was a heretic, and condemned by the law, if I would stand in my opinion. I answered, that I was no heretic, neither yet deserved I any death by the law of God. But, as concerning the faith which I uttered and wrote to the council, I would not, I said, deny it, because I knew it true. Then would they needs know, if I would deny the sacrament to be Christ’s body and blood. I said, Yea: for the same Son of God that was born of the Virgin Mary, is now glorious in heaven, and will come again from thence at the latter day like as he went up. And, as for that ye call your God, it is a piece of bread. For more proof thereof, let it but lie in the box three months, and it will be moldy, and so turn to nothing that is good. Whereupon I am persuaded that it cannot be God.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Anne Askew thus subscribed her confession: “Written by me, Anne Askew, that neither wisheth for death, nor feareth its might; and as merry as one that is bound for heaven.”

ANNE ASKEW: After that, they willed me to have a priest; and then I smiled. Then they asked me, if it were not good; I said, I would confess my faults unto God, for I was sure that He would hear me with favour. And so, we were condemned.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: At this time, she was twenty five years old. Determined at any cost to obtain information against influential persons at court, they ordered the rack to be applied to the young woman. The torture lasted a long time. She fainted away and was well nigh dead.

ANNE ASKEW: In all my life afore, I was never in such pain…Then was I brought to a house, and laid in a bed, with as weary and painful bones as ever had patient Job—the Lord strengthen us in the truth. Pray, pray, pray.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: Everything was ready for the burning of Anne at Smithfield. They were obliged to carry her to the place of execution, for in her state at that time she was unable to walk. When they reached the pile, she was bound to the post by her waist, with a chain which prevented her from sinking down. Three other evangelical Christians were to die with her. When the fires were about to be lighted, the Lord Chancellor offered Anne the king’s pardon if she would recant.

JOHN TRAPP: How bravely did Anne Askew, Alice Driver, and the other poor women answer them.

ANNE ASKEW: I am not come thither to deny my Lord and Master.

JOHN TRAPP: Was not that the Spirit of the Father speaking in them? “Strength and honour were their clothing,” Proverbs 31:25; and “they rejoiced at the time to come:” they went as merry to die as to dine, and cheered up one another with this, that although they had but a bitter breakfast, yet they should sup with Christ in joy.

JOHN FOXE (1517-1587): Thus the good Anne Askew, being compassed in with flames of fire as a blessed sacrifice unto God, slept in the Lord, July 16, 1546, leaving behind her a singular example of Christian constancy for all men to follow.

 

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