An Enlarged Heart

Posted on November 4, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 119:2,7,11,32

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Note how the heart has been spoken of up to this point: “whole heart,” verse 2; “uprightness of heart,” verse 7; “hid in mine heart,” verse 11; “enlarge my heart,” verse 32. There are many more allusions further on, and these all go to show what heart-work David’s religion was.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “Enlarge my heart.” What does that mean?

ROBERT LEIGHTON (1611-1684): It is said of Solomon, that he had “largeness of heart, as the sand of the sea shore,” 1 Kings 4:29; that is, a vast, comprehensive spirit, that could fathom much of nature, both its greater and lesser things. Thus, I conceive, the enlargement of the heart comprises the enlightening of the understanding. There arises a clearer light there to discern spiritual things in a more spiritual manner; to see the vast difference betwixt the vain things the world goes after, and the true solid delight that is in the way of God’s commandments; to know the false blush of the pleasures of sin, and what deformity is under that painted mask, and not be allured by it; to have enlarged apprehensions of God, His excellency, and greatness and goodness; how worthy He is to be obeyed and served; this is the great dignity and happiness of the soul; all other pretensions are low and poor in respect of this. Here then, is enlargement to see the purity and beauty of His law, how just and reasonable, yea, how pleasant and amiable it is; that His commandments are not grievous, that they are beds of spices; the more we walk in them, still the more of their fragrant smell and sweetness we find.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The melting of soul, and the enlargement of the heart, are sweet and gracious feelings.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The meaning of the prophet is, that when God shall inspire him with love for His law he will be vigorous and ready, nay, even steady, so as not to faint in the middle of his course. His words contain an implied admission of the inability of men to make any advancement in well-doing until God enlarge their hearts.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The Hebrew word translated as “when,” should be translated as “because;”—Because thou shalt enlarge, or dilate, my heart.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): This enlargement of heart in Scripture is ascribed to wisdom, 1 Kings 4:29, and love, 2 Corinthians 6:11, and joy, Isaiah 60:5—when Thou shalt knock off the fetters of remaining corruption, and give me a more noble and generous disposition towards Thee, and establish me “with thy free spirit,” as expressed in Psalm 51:12. Thus David both owns his duty, and asserts the absolute necessity of God’s grace to the performance of it.

HENRY MELVILL (1798-1871): His wish is that his heart might be enlarged; and this wish amounted to a longing that the whole of himself might act in unison with the heart, so that he might become, as it were, all heart, and thus the heart in the strictest sense be enlarged, through the spreading of itself over body and soul, expanding itself till it embraced all the powers of both. If there be the love of God in the heart, then gradually the heart, possessed and actuated by so noble and stirring a principle, will bring over to a lofty consecration all the energies—and he became, according to the phrase which we are accustomed to employ when describing a character of unwonted generosity and warmth, “all heart.” So that the desire after an enlarged heart you may fairly consider tantamount to a desire that every faculty might be brought into thorough subjection to God.

HUGH B. MOFFAT (circa 1871): It may not unnaturally excite surprise, that “the sweet singer of Israel,” he who was emphatically declared to be “a man after God’s own heart,” Acts 13:22, should nevertheless, in the words of the text, seem to imply that he was not yet “running the way of God’s commandments.’ But dear brethren, the greater an individual’s comparative holiness, the more intense will be his longing for absolute holiness. It was not the walking, but the running “the way of God’s commandments,” to which David aspired.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677):  By running is meant a cheerful, ready, and zealous observance of God’s precepts: it is not go, or walk, but run. They that would come to their journey’s end, must run in the way of God’s commandments. It notes a speedy or a ready obedience, without delay—and it notes earnestness; when a man’s heart is set upon a thing, he thinks he can never do it soon enough. And this is running, when we are vehement and earnest upon the enjoyment of God and Christ in the way of obedience…This running is the fruit of effectual calling. When the Lord speaks of effectual calling, the issue of it is running; when He speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles, “Nations that know not thee shall run unto thee,” Isaiah 55:5; and, “Draw me, and we will run after thee,” Song of Solomon 1:4. When God draws there is a speedy, earnest motion of the soul. This running, as it is the fruit of effectual calling, so it is very needful; for cold and faint motions are soon overborne by difficulty and temptation: “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1. When a man hath a mind to do a thing, though he be hindered and jostled, he takes it patiently, he goes on and cannot stay to debate the business. A slow motion is easily stopped, whereas a swift one bears down that which opposeth it; so is it when men run and are not tired in the service of God.

HENRY MELVILL: So long as the dedication is at best only partial, the world retaining some fraction of its empire, notwithstanding the setting up of the kingdom of God, there can be nothing but a slow and impeded progress, a walking interrupted by repeated halting, if not backslidings, by much of loitering, if not of actual retreat; but if the man be all heart, then he will be all life, all warmth, all zeal, all energy, and the consequence of this complete surrender to God will be exactly that which is prophetically announced in Isaiah 40:31, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

THOMAS MANTON: Last of all, the prize calls for running—“So run that ye may obtain,” 1 Corinthians 9:24.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Begin, then, the course which David ran, and prosecute it with the ardour that filled his soul.

C. H. SPURGEON: There is an enlargement of the heart that is very dangerous, but this kind of enlargement of the heart is the most healthy thing that can happen to a man! A great heart, you see, is a running heart. A little heart goes slowly, but an enlarged heart runs in the way of God’s Commandments. Oh, for a heart full of love to God! And then to have that heart made larger, so as to hold more of God’s love! Lord! enlarge my heart in that sense!

 

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The Mighty Men of Prayer of the Protestant Reformation

Posted on October 28, 2022 by The Editor

James 5:16-18; John 15:4,5,7

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing…If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with Him—to be always leaning on Him, resting on Him, pouring out our hearts to Him, as our Fountain of life and strength, and our chief Companion and best Friend. To have His words abiding in us, is to keep His sayings and precepts continually before our memories and minds, and to make them the guide of our actions and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior. Christians of this stamp, we are told, shall not pray in vain. Whatever they ask they shall obtain, so long as they ask things according to God’s mind. No work shall be found too hard, and no difficulty insurmountable. Asking they shall receive—such men were Martin Luther, the German Reformer, and our own English martyr, Hugh Latimer. Such a man was John Knox.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Luther and his companions were men of such mighty pleading with God, that they broke the spell of ages, and laid nations subdued at the foot of the Cross. John Knox grasped all Scotland in his strong arms of faith; his prayers terrified tyrants.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): The Queen of Scots professed she was more afraid of the prayers of John Knox, than of an army of ten thousand men.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Great is the power of faithful prayer…Martin Luther was wont to say that prayer was sort of omnipotent: for whatsoever God can do, that prayer can do.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Prayer is that mightiest of all weapons that created natures can wield—it is ‘bombarda Christianorum,’ the cannon of Christians. It shaketh heaven and earth.

F. W. KRUMMACHER (1796-1868): Prayer burst the fetters of Peter, and broke open the doors of his prison. Prayer rebuked storms, healed the sick, and brought back the dead to life. And what shall I say more of the power, the wonders, and the performances of prayer—the whole Scripture is full of them. But prayer sleeps amongst us; for what we call praying, morning and evening, according to custom—the sleepy, dull, and heartless repetition of devotional language—does not deserve the name of prayer.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man. To say a prayer is not prayer.

MARTIN LUTHER: Prayer is the sweat of the soul.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Men who are mighty for God are generally famous for courage with Him. Look at Luther! They say it was wonderful to hear him preach, but a hundred times more so to hear him pray! There was an awful reverence about that heroic man, but there was also such a childlike simplicity of daring that seemed as though he did really lay hold of God.

THEODORA BEZA (1519-1605): I overheard him in prayer—but, good God, with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence, as if he were speaking to God, yet with so much confidence as if he were speaking to his friend.

C. H. SPURGEON: This is the boldness for which Luther was remarkable…When you can say, as Moses said upon the Mount, “What will Thou do for Thy great name?” When you can plead as Luther did, “Lord, this is no quarrel of mine, it is Thine! Thou knowest that Thou didst put me to speak against Thy foes; and now if Thou dost leave me, where is Thy Truth?” When you can plead with God in this way, surely He will rescue you. You cannot fail when your cause is God’s cause.

J. C. RYLE: We should cultivate the habit of pleading promises in our prayers. We should take with us some promise, and say, “Lord, here is Thine own word pledged. Do for us as Thou hast said.” This was the habit of Jacob, and Moses, and David. The 119th Psalm is full of things asked, “according to Thy word.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us learn therefore in a word, that if we will pray to God aright, we must know what His will is, and to understand that, we must know what He hath showed us in His Word; we must frame ourselves to it, we must hear what He saith unto us, and compass all our requests according to His will, and rest ourselves upon His promises.  And then let us not doubt, but when we shall call upon Him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall feel that our prayers shall not be in vain, nor unprofitable.

MARTIN LUTHER: When I get a promise I treat it as a tree in my garden. I know there is rich fruit on it. If I cannot get it, I shake it backwards and forwards by prayer and meditation, until at last the fruit drops into my hand…Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.

C. H. SPURGEON: Methinks, in a spiritual sense, when Luther first bowed his knee the Church began to chant, “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered,” Psalm 68:1.

JOHN TRAPP: Luther came leaping out of his closet where he had been praying with vicimus, vicimus—“we conquer, we conquer,” in his mouth.

J. C. RYLE: Now, why is there so little power of prayer like this in our own time? Simply because there is so little close communion with Christ, and so little strict conformity to His will. Men do not “abide in Christ,” and therefore pray in vain. Christ’s words do not abide in them, as their standard of practice, and therefore their prayers seem not to be heard. They ask and receive not, because they ask amiss. Let this lesson sink down into our hearts. He that would have answers to his prayers, must carefully remember Christ’s directions. We must keep up intimate friendship with the great Advocate in heaven, if our petitions are to prosper.

C. H. SPURGEON: Lord send us men of the school of Elias, or at least of Luther and Knox!

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They continued in prayer, spent much time in it, more than ordinary, prayed frequently, and were long in prayer.  They never missed an hour of prayer; they resolved to persevere herein till the Holy Ghost came, according to the promise, “to pray, and not to faint,” Luke 18:1.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Luther thought three hours a day little enough to spend in prayer.

JOHN FLAVEL: These were mighty wrestlers with God, howsoever condemned and vilified among their enemies. There will a time come when God will hear the prayers of His people who are continually crying in His ears, “How long, O Lord, how long?”

C. H. SPURGEON: “Where is thy God?” Psalm 42:3. This is what Queen Mary said when the Covenanters were obliged to fly to the Highlands. “Where now is John Knox’s God?” But when her French soldiers were afterwards put to the rout by the brave Scots, she found out where God was.

JOHN FLAVEL: The prayer of a single saint is sometimes followed with wonderful effects. What then can a thundering legion of such praying souls do?

 

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A Grievous Plague of Flies

Posted on October 21, 2022 by The Editor

Exodus 8:20,21; Exodus 8:24―Psalm 78:45

The LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are…

And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies―He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Pharaoh was early up at his superstitious devotions.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): At the river Nile, either to take his morning’s walk, and to refresh himself at the waterside; or to observe divinations upon the water, as a magician―in the Talmud, it is said, that the Pharaoh in the days of Moses was a magician. Or rather, as Aben Ezra thinks, which he says is a custom of the kings of Egypt, to go out in the months of June and July, when the river increases, to observe how many degrees it has ascended, by which the fruitfulness of the ensuing season was judged of. Or else he went to worship the rising sun, or the Nile, to pay his morning devotions to it―nothing was so much honoured with the Egyptians as the Nile.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): In ancient times, when offal of different kinds permitted to corrupt in the streets and breed vermin, flies multiplied exceedingly, so that we read in ancient authors of whole districts being laid waste by them; hence different people had deities whose office it was to defend them against flies. Among these we may reckon Beelzebub, the “fly-god” of Ekron; Hercules, the “expeller of flies,” of the Romans―and hence Jupiter, the supreme god of the heathens, was supposed to expel flies, and defend his worshippers against them.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Satan, the prince of the power of the air, has gloried in being Beelzebub―the god of flies, Matthew 12:24; but here it is proved that even in that he is a pretender and a usurper, for even with swarms of flies, God fights against his kingdom and prevails…Pharaoh must be made to know that God is “the Lord in the midst of the earth;” and by this it will be known beyond dispute: Swarms of flies, which seem to us to fly at random, shall be manifestly under the conduct of an intelligent mind.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Insects of various annoying kinds came up in infinite hordes, a mixture of biting, stinging, buzzing gnats, mosquitos, flies, beetles, and other vermin.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Divers sorts of flies.” A mixture of insects or flies―and doubtless larger and more venomous and pernicious than the common ones were.

JAMES G. MURPHY (1808-1896): “Flies” denote a kind of insect that alights on the skin, or the leaves of plants, by its bite inflicting pain in the one case, and causing destruction in the other. The swarms of flies in Egypt are usually numerous and excessively annoying. They alight on the moist part of the eyelids and nostrils, and inflict wounds that produce great pain, swelling and inflammation. They are also ruinous to the plants in which they lay their eggs. Gnats and mosquitoes are also abundant and virulent. A plague of such creatures would cause immense suffering and desolation.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): These displays of the Lord’s power were so many judgments directed against the false confidences and idolatrous objects of the Egyptians.

MATTHEW HENRY: God can make the weakest, most despicable animals instruments of His wrath when He pleases; what they want in strength may be made up in numbers.

C. H. SPURGEON: As an illustration of the power of flies, we give an extract from Charles Marshall’s Canadian Dominion:* “I have been told by men of unquestioned veracity, that at midday the clouds of mosquitoes on the plains would sometimes hide the leaders in a team of four horses from the sight of the driver. Cattle could only be recognised by their shape; all alike becoming black with an impenetrable crust of mosquitoes. The line of the route over the Red River plains would be marked by the carcasses of oxen stung to death by this insignificant foe.”

THOMAS CROSBY (1840-1914): In Canada’s Fraser Valley,* we were besieged by myriads of mosquitoes, that bred in the marshy places, particularly after high water. They literally swarmed, and some places rose in clouds as one passed―millions of them. I noticed in my preaching journeys on horseback that my little pony, otherwise gentle and manageable, would jump and run at times in an unaccountable fashion. At such times the mosquitoes would strike my face and forehead like a storm of hail. Then it occurred to me that the intelligent little beast only ran when passing through the spots where these insects mostly swarmed, and henceforth, I let him gallop. The settlers tell of dogs and calves being killed by the mosquitoes, and one reputable gentleman maintains that he had in his possession at one time a cow whose tail had been so bitten by these venomous pests that it dropped off.

ADAM CLARKE: In Egypt, “the land was corrupted.” Every thing was spoiled, and many of the inhabitants destroyed, being probably stung to death by these venomous insects.

THOMAS CROSBY: On the Fraser River, I met two Englishmen. It was the height of the mosquito season, and they started off in a canoe to “see the country.” Some days after, I met them in Chilliwack, and the sight they presented was, to say the least, ludicrous. They had evidently been in the water, for the legs of their pants had shrunken until there was quite four inches between the ends of their pants and the tops of their socks. The mosquitoes had been getting in their work, for their necks and legs and wrists were red and swollen.

C. H. SPURGEON: Small creatures become great tormentors―when they swarm they can sting a man till they threaten to eat him up.

THOMAS CROSBY: At one of my visits to Langley, the high water was just going down, and the mosquitoes were very bad. I was invited to stay overnight at the home of settler, who had built a little log house of two rooms on a ridge. They had no mosquito netting, but they had taken a crinoline dress, and hung it up over where my head and face were to be, tacked it to the clothes, and round the pillow. I was told to be careful in getting into bed, and to keep this thing tucked well around. I did as I was told―but, oh! the noise overhead, and all around, until finally the mosquitos found their way inside my shield. I stood the torture for a while, thinking it was but a few stragglers who, when they had had their fill, would leave. They, however, loaded up, and spread their wings with a whirring buzzing, as if to call others to the feast. It seemed as if hundreds accepted the invitation.

C. H. SPURGEON: The plague of flies in Egypt, was perhaps the most terrible that the Egyptians ever felt.

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*Editor’s Note: Charles Marshall’s The Canadian Dominion was published in 1871. In the 1870’s, Thomas Crosby was a itinerant Methodist missionary in British Columbia, Canada. One hundred years later, in the 1970’s, I stayed in a cabin in the Besnard Lake area in Canada’s Northern Saskatchewan. A short walk through the silent pine forest behind the cabin, there was a swampy low spot. As I walked towards that low spot, I began to hear a whining buzz ahead of me, growing louder and louder as I got closer; it was the sound of mosquito wings—millions of them.

 

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Holy Boldness

Posted on October 14, 2022 by The Editor

Exodus 33:12-17

And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): There are certain elements that always come out in all the great Biblical prayers, and the first characteristic of Moses’ prayer is its boldness, its confidence. There is no hesitation here. There is a quiet confidence. Oh, there is a “holy boldness.” This is the great characteristic of all prayers that have ever prevailed. It is, of course, inevitable. You cannot pray truly, still less can you intercede, if you have not an assurance of your acceptance, and if you do not know the way into the holiest of all. If, when you get down on your knees, you are reminded of your sins, and are wondering what you can do about them, if you have to spend all your time praying for forgiveness and pardon, wondering whether God is listening or not, how can you pray? How can you intercede, as Moses did here?

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): In Hebrews 4:16, we are encouraged to “come boldly to the throne of grace,” because “we have an high priest entered into the heavens,” Hebrews 4:14.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: “Let us therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”—You notice his ‘therefore’? “Therefore, let us come boldly.” What does it refer to? It refers to the truth about the great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God; that is the only way to be bold in the presence of God. If I look at myself I cannot be bold, I become speechless. With Job, I put my hand upon my mouth―I cannot speak. But I must speak if I am to intercede. How can I do so with confidence and assurance?  There is only one answer—it is to know that my great High Priest is Jesus, the Son of God, and that by His blood I have a right of entry into the holiest of all, and can go there with boldness.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is no right faith but when we are bold with quiet minds to show ourselves in the presence of God. Which boldness comes from assured confidence in the goodwill of God. It is assuredness that maketh the conscience quiet and cheerful before God.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Now this is absolutely vital to prayer. If we want to have real confidence in prayer, then we must know that we ourselves are accepted by God. As Christian people, we should always approach the throne of God with confidence and, of course, always with reverence and godly fear, because He who is in heaven is our Father. Now, Moses was face to face with God—he was assured, and he was bold with a holy boldness.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): There is an unseemly familiarity in some men’s prayers, which I cannot praise. But there is such a thing as a ‘holy boldness,’ which is exceedingly to be desired. I mean such boldness as that of Moses.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: But there is a second point in Moses’ prayer of Exodus 33:12-17 which is most valuable and interesting, and that is the element of reasoning, and of arguing that comes in. It is very daring, but it is very true. “Moses said unto the Lord, See—which really means that he is arguing with God—“See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said.” He is reminding God of what He had said. He is having an argument with God. “And yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore,” says Moses, as if he were saying to God, ‘Be logical, be consistent, carry out your own argument. You cannot say this to me and then not do anything.’ “Now, therefore, I pray thee, if—still arguing—“if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.” Then, “For wherein”—if you do not do this—“wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight?  Is it not in that thou goest with us?”

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Faith is the wrestling grace. It comes up close to God; takes hold of God, and will not easily take a denial.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Is it right, someone may ask, to speak to God like that? Is this not presumption? No, these things go together.

GEORGE SEATON BOWES (circa 1820’s-1880’s): A holy boldness, a chastened familiarity, is the true spirit of right prayer.

J. C. RYLE: This is the boldness for which Martin Luther was remarkable. One who heard him praying said, “What a spirit—what a confidence was in his very expressions! With such a reverence he sued, as one begging of God, and yet with such hope and assurance, as if he spoke with a loving father or friend.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Some men fail in reverence for God, but far more fail in holy boldness towards God! Men who are mighty for God are generally famous for courage with Him. They say it was wonderful to hear Luther preach, but a hundred times more so to hear him pray! There was an awful reverence about that heroic man, but there was also such a childlike simplicity of daring that he seemed as though he did really lay hold of God.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness. When I get a promise I treat it as a tree in my garden. I know there is rich fruit on it. If I cannot get it, I shake it backwards and forwards by prayer and meditation, until at last the fruit drops into my hand.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Oh! that is the whole secret of prayer, I sometimes think. Thomas Goodwin in his exposition on the sealing of the Spirit uses a wonderful term. He says, “Sue Him for it, sue Him for it.” Do not leave Him alone. Pester Him, as it were, with His own promise. Tell Him what He has said He is going to do. Quote the Scripture to Him. And you know, God delights to hear us doing it, as a father likes to see this element in his own child who has obviously been listening to what his father has been saying. It pleases Him. The child may be slightly impertinent—it does not matter, the father likes it in spite of that. And God is our Father, He loves us, and He likes to hear us pleading His own promises, quoting His own words to Him.

RICHARD SIBBES (1577-1635): When we hear any promise in the Word of God, let us turn it into a prayer. God’s promises are His bonds. Sue Him on His bond. He loves that we should wrestle with Him by His promises.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: May God grant us this assurance, this holy boldness in prayer, so that whatever our condition, we may take it to the Lord in prayer and do so confidently.

 

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Psalm 136—A Song of Thankful Praise to God for His Mercy

Posted on October 7, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 136:1-3

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.

O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.

HENRY SMITH (1560-1591): Many sweet things are in the word of God—but the name of mercy is the sweetest word in all the Scriptures, which made David harp upon it twenty-six times in this Psalm, “For his mercy endureth for ever.”

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The frequent repetition of this sentence shows how greatly the Lord delights in mercy, and deems Himself honoured by the exercise of it: and it teaches us that this attribute should be peculiarly dear to us, being the source of all our hopes and comforts. At every half verse, one half of the choir answers to the other in these words: “For His mercy endureth for ever.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When the chorus was taken up by the whole of the people, accompanied by a blast of trumpets, this must have been a magnificent hymn of praise.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): And the design of this psalm is to show that blessings of every kind flow from the grace, goodness, and mercy of God, which is constant and perpetual; and to impress a sense of it upon the minds of men.

C. H. SPURGEON: It commences with a three-fold praise to the Triune Lord.

DANIEL CRESSWELL (1776-1844): The three several names of the Deity are commonly rendered Jehovah, God, and Lord, respectively; the first having reference to His essence as self-existent, and being His proper name; the second designating Him under the character of a judge or of an all-powerful being; and the third, representing Him as exercising rule. 

C. H. SPURGEON: If there be any other god, if there can be imagined to be any, our God is infinitely above them all. The gods of the heathen are idols, but our God made the heavens.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): All other mighty beings, false or true, are less than He; and subservient to Him. In the same way He is Lord of lords.

C. H. SPURGEON: There are lords many—but but Jehovah is the Lord of them all. All lordship is vested in the Eternal. He makes and administers law, He rules and governs mind and matter, He possesses in Himself all sovereignty and power. All lords in the plural are summed up in this Lord in the singular: He is more lordly than all emperors and kings condensed into one. For this we may well be thankful, for we know the superior Sovereign will rectify the abuses of the underlings who now lord it over mankind. He will call these lords to his bar, and reckon with them for every oppression and injustice. He is as truly the Lord of lords as He is Lord over the meanest of the land, and He rules with a strict impartiality, for which every just man should give heartiest thanks.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every verse of this psalm outlines God’s wondrous mercy in creation, in providence and power, in judgment and deliverance, and in forgiveness and redemption.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): We are here reminded of the source of our salvation…Thus Peter says, “According to his abundant mercy he hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection from the dead,” 1 Peter 1:3; and Paul says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us,” Titus 3:5. The whole design of our salvation originates in and is secured by the purpose and grace of God.

THOMAS SCOTT: By mercy we understand the Lord’s disposition to compassion and to relieve those whom sin has rendered miserable and base; His readiness to forgive and be reconciled to the most provoking of transgressors, and to bestow all blessings upon them; together with all the provision which He has made for the honour of His name, in the redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ. The counsels of this mercy have been from everlasting; the effects of it will be eternal to all who are interested in it: and the Lord continues, from age to age, equally ready to show mercy to all who seek to Him for it.

ROBERT HARRIS (1578-1658): Mercy pleaseth Him—it is His delight: and we are never weary of receiving, therefore He cannot be of giving it; for it is a more blessed thing “to give than to receive,” Acts 20:35; so God takes more content in the one, than we in the other.

PHILIP HENRY (1631-1696): “Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever: And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever,” verses 23-24. “And.” If the end of one mercy were not the beginning of another, we were undone.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): My brethren, God’s mercies are from everlasting; and it is a treasure that can never be spent, never exhausted, unto eternity…If God will but continue to be merciful to me, will a poor soul say, I have enough? Why, saith Isaiah, “in His mercies is continuance, and we shall be saved,” Isaiah 64:5. Hath God pardoned thee hitherto? But hast thou sinned again? Can He stretch His goodness and mercy a little further? Why, He will stretch them out unto eternity, unto everlasting; and if one everlasting be not enough, there are twenty-six everlastings in this one Psalm.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “O give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his mercy endureth for ever,” vs. 26. His mercy in providing heaven for His people is more than all the rest.

EDITOR’S NOTE: But notice what is said immediately before that very last verse of this psalm—“Who giveth food to all flesh, for his mercy endureth for ever,” vs. 25.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): The very air we breathe in, the bread we eat—our common blessings, be they never so mean, we have them all from grace, and all from the tender mercy of the Lord. You have in this psalm the story of the notable effects of God’s mercy, and the Psalmist doth not only ascribe those mighty victories, those glorious instances of His love and power, to his unchangeable mercy, but he traces our daily bread to the same cause. In eminent deliverances of the church we will acknowledge mercy; yea, but we should do it in every bit of meat we eat; for the same reason is rendered all along. What is the reason his people smote Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan, and that they were rescued so often out of danger? “For his mercy endureth for ever.” And what is the reason he giveth food to all flesh? “For his mercy endureth for ever.” It is not only mercy which gives us Christ, and salvation by Christ, and all those glorious deliverances and triumphs over the enemies of the church; but it is mercy which furnisheth our tables, it is mercy that we taste with our mouths and wear at our backs. It is notable, our Lord Jesus, when there were but five barley loaves and two fishes, John 6:11, “He lift up his eyes and gave thanks.” Though our provision be never so homely and slender, yet God’s grace and mercy must be acknowledged.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let us arouse ourselves to laud our glorious Lord! And let this one reason suffice us for three thanksgivings, or for three thousand—

For His mercy shall endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.

 

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Alexander the Coppersmith

Posted on September 29, 2022 by The Editor

Acts 19:29-34; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 2 Timothy 4:14-17

The whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not. And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): The first time we come on Alexander he is a Jew of Ephesus, and a clever speaker to an excitable crowd.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “And would have made his defence unto the people.”—which looks as if he was a Christian, or at least was charged with being one.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Many writers suppose that this was Alexander the coppersmith, who was one of the most violent judaizing Christians, consequently one of the greatest enemies of Paul, and most in favour with the unbelieving Jews, of any who professed Christianity; and, if so, no wonder that the Jews should be desirous of his making his oration to the people.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Alexander was brought forward on this occasion by the Jews, that he might make an oration to the multitude, in order to exculpate the Jews, who were often by the heathens confounded with the Christians; and to cast the whole blame of the uproar upon Paul and his party. Alexander was probably chosen because he was an able speaker.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Alexander had this temptation, that he was fitted by nature to be much more than a mere coppersmith, he was so clever and so captivating with his tongue. Unless you are a man of a very single heart and a very sound conscience, it is a great temptation to you to be able in a time of public commotion to speak so as to sway the swaying multitude and to command their applause and their support. You rise on a wave of popularity at such a season, and you make use of your popularity for your own chief end in life.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Ah, it is an easy thing to float with the tide of popular opinion.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): There are, as you know, two kinds of popularity: the one, when we hunt after favour from motives of ambition and the desire of pleasing; the other, when by fairness and moderation we gain their esteem so as to make them willing to by taught by us.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): If opposition has hurt many, popularity has wounded more. It is like walking upon ice—while human nature remains in its present state, there will be almost the same connection between popularity and pride, as between fire and gunpowder: they cannot meet without an explosion, at least not unless the gunpowder is kept very damp. So, unless the Lord is constantly moistening our hearts by the influences of His Spirit, popularity will soon set us ablaze. You will hardly find a person who has been exposed to this fiery trial, without suffering loss.

JOHN CALVIN: It is uncertain whether this be that Alexander of whom Paul makes mention elsewhere, yet the conjecture seemeth to me allowable. He mentions both of them to Timothy as persons whom he knew. For my part, I have no doubt that this is the same Alexander that is mentioned by Luke, and who attempted, but without success, to quell the commotion.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Alexander the coppersmith, who was here near to martyrdom, yet afterwards made shipwreck of the faith, and did the apostle much evil.

JOHN CALVIN: What are the “many evils” which Paul complains that Alexander brought upon him?

ADAM CLARKE: “He hath greatly withstood our words.” He had been a constant opposer of the Christian doctrines.

JOHN TRAPP: He greatly withstood not Paul’s person only, but his preachings.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Alexander followed Paul about wherever he went, poisoning the minds and the hearts of all men to whom his tongue had access. One of our latest and best authorities thinks that Alexander even followed Paul to Rome, and did his best to poison Nero and his court still more against Paul.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): What harm he did to Paul, and where, whether at Ephesus or Rome, it is not said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Timothy had travelled many years with Paul. He knew about the “evil” that Alexander had done previously at Ephesus, and Paul had informed him of Alexander’s excommunication from the church in his first epistle, which had been written either from Macedonia or Laodicea. However, Paul’s second epistle to Timothy was written later from Rome during his second imprisonment, in which Paul was pleading with Timothy to “do thy diligence to come shortly unto me” in Rome “before winter,” 2 Timothy 4:9,21. And the context and tone of Paul’s specific warning to beware of Alexander, suggests that the apostle was speaking of specific evils that Alexander had done to him more recently in Rome, the details of which Timothy did not yet know about.

ANDREW MILLER (1810-1883): The precise charge now made against the apostle, for which he was arrested, we have no means of ascertaining. It may have been simply on the charge of being a Christian. The general persecution against the Christians was now raging with the utmost severity…He was now treated as an evil-doer, as a common criminal—“Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds,”—and very different to the bonds of his first imprisonment, when he dwelt in his own hired house, Acts 28:30. Alexander had evidently something to do with his arrest. He was either one of his accusers, or, at least, a witness against him. “Alexander the coppersmith,” he writes to Timothy, “did me much evil,”—exhibited much evil mindedness towards me.

THOMAS COKE: Some years before this, Paul had delivered over Alexander unto Satan.

ANDREW MILLER: Alexander may now have sought his revenge by laying information against Paul in Rome.

MATTHEW POOLE: Some think that this signified a peculiar power granted the apostles, God confirming regular excommunications, by letting Satan loose upon persons excommunicated to torture them; but we find nothing of this in Scripture. I rather think the sense is no more than, whom I excommunicated, and cast out of the church, making them of the world again, as the world is opposed to the church, and kingdom of Christ, which, for the greater terror, the apostle expresses this notion of being “delivered to Satan,” who is called “the god of this world”—that “they may learn not to blaspheme:”—not that I might ruin and undo them, but that I might amend them by this exercise of discipline, teaching them to take heed of spreading damnable and pernicious errors to the reproach of God.

THOMAS COKE: But the punishment so inflicted had not reclaimed him. And if Alexander was incorrigible, the apostle might justly denounce some greater curse upon him, or rather, foretell his future and final punishment: “the Lord reward him according to his works.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is a prophetical denunciation of the just judgment of God that would befall him.

THOMAS COKE: There is not in it the least degree of revenge on Paul’s part: for the apostle leaves it to the great Searcher of Hearts, to determine what Alexander’s works had been, and what the principle was from which they had proceeded; and then he foretells, or petitions, that God would reward him, according as God Himself knew his works had been: which was really no other than foretelling, that the God and Judge of the earth will do right, or praying him to do so.

 

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Seasons of Nature, Providence, & Grace

Posted on September 23, 2022 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 3:1; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Psalm 104:24

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): God has made everything; as all things in creation are made by Him, for His pleasure and glory, and all well and wisely, there is a beauty in them all; so are all things in providence—He upholds all things; He governs and orders all things according to the counsel of His will. Some things are done immediately by Him, others by instruments, and some are only permitted by Him; some He does Himself, some He wills to be done by others, and some He suffers to be done; but in all there is a beauty and harmony; and all are ordered, disposed, and overruled, to answer the wisest and greatest purposes.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): It is too vast for our human minds to trace the Divine purposes in passing events; we can see but in part, and even that little which we do notice is seldom the cause, but merely the effect. We view the great and momentous fruit come to harvest, but see not the seed. We do not discern the connection between the smallest, seemingly insignificant event that may, in God’s infinite wisdom, in the space of two hundred years hence, bring forth a mighty fruit as a consequence. Nor can we know His perfect timings, nor His instruments, nor His methods in advance.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we “cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end,” and therefore must judge nothing before the time…Every thing is done well, as in creation, so in providence, and we shall see it when the end comes, but till then we are incompetent judges of it—but we must wait till the veil be rent, and not arraign God’s proceedings nor pretend to pass judgment on them.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: And so it is in history. Only in looking back upon the vast, and infinitely complex ocean of passing events, and only at those rare times when God is pleased to lift a small corner of the veil, may we be privileged to glimpse a trace of His hidden hand, governing and guiding the affairs of men.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): “Put your hope in God,” Psalm 43:5. Please remember there is never a time when we cannot hope in God, whatever our need or however great our difficulty may be. Even when our situation appears to be impossible, our work is to “hope in God.” Our hope will not be in vain, and in the Lord’s own timing help will come. Oh, the hundreds, even the thousands, of times I have found this to be true in the past seventy years and four months of my life! When it seemed impossible for help to come, it did come, for God has His own unlimited resources. In ten thousand different ways, and at ten thousand different times, God’s help may come to us.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Not only the mercy, but the timing of it, is in the hands of God; therefore are we bidden, “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him,” Psalm 37:7. Alas, how sadly do we fail at this point. How easily we become discouraged if our Jericho does not fall the first or second time we encompass it: “the vision is yet for an appointed time…though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come,” Habakkuk 2:3. But Oh! how impatient is the flesh.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): Folks should not limit God in His way and timing of things to them, but wait upon and submit to His carved out time.

GEORGE MÜLLER: Our work is to lay our petitions before the Lord, and in childlike simplicity to pour out our hearts before Him, saying, “I do not deserve that Thou should hear me and answer my requests, but for the sake of my precious Lord Jesus; for His sake, answer my prayer. And give me grace to wait patiently until it pleases Thee to grant my petition. For I believe Thou will do it in Thine own time and way.”

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

JOHN GILL: Everything is done in the time in which He wills it shall be done, and done in the time most fit and suitable for it to be done.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): The sovereignty of God appears in the timing.

A. W. PINK: The natural world illustrates the spiritual world—as there is a continual alternation between spring and autumn, summer and winter—so there is in the history of the soul. He who gives rain and sunshine, also sends droughts and biting frosts; likewise does He grant fresh supplies of grace—and then withholds the same; and also sends grievous afflictions and sore tribulations. Herein is His high sovereignty conspicuously displayed; as there are some lands which enjoy far more sunshine than others—so some of His elect experience more of joy than sorrow. And as there are parts of the earth where there is far more cold than heat, so there are some of God’s children who are called on to suffer more of adversity—both inward and outward—than of prosperity. Unless this is clearly recognized, we shall be without the principle key which unlocks the profoundest mysteries of life.

JOHN GILL: Things in summer, winter, spring, and autumn; frost and snow in winter, and heat in summer; darkness and dews in the night, and light and brightness in the day; and so in ten thousand other things: all afflictive dispensations of Providence; times of plucking up and breaking down of weeping and mourning, of losing and casting away are all necessary, and seasonable and beautiful, in their issue and consequences: prosperity and adversity, in their turns, make a beautiful checker work, and work together for good.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We are in autumn now, and very likely, instead of prizing the peculiar treasures of autumn, some will mournfully compare yon fading leaves to funeral sermons replete with sadness.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The fervid suns of autumn and the biting blasts of November equally tend to the production of the harvest.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some will contrast summer and autumn, and exalt one above another. Now, whoever shall claim precedence for any season shall have me for an opponent! They are all beautiful in their season, and each excels after its kind. Even thus it is wrong to compare the early zeal of the young Christian with the mature and mellow experience of the older Believer and make preferences. Each is beautiful according to its time.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): In things of nature, providence, and grace, we may well cry out, as we contemplate them—“in wisdom hast thou made them all.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): God’s works are well done; there is order, harmony, and beauty in them all.

 

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Delusional Dreams of Salvation

Posted on September 16, 2022 by The Editor

Jeremiah 23:28,29; Hebrews 1:1,2; John 5:39—John 6:63; 2 Peter 1:19

The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me—the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

GEORGE BURDER (1752-1832): Dreams are sometimes of use to warn and encourage a Christian, and seem to be really “from God;” but great caution is necessary, lest they mislead us. They must never be depended on as the ground of hope, or the test of our state; nothing must be put in the place of the Word of God.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Another very common error is that a good dream is a most splendid thing in order to save people—that if you dream that you see the Lord in the night you will be saved, or if you think you see some angels, or if you dream that God says to you, “You are forgiven,” all is well. Now, if it be so, the sooner we all begin to eat opium the better; because there is nothing that makes people dream so much as that; and the best advice I could give would be—let every minister distribute opium very largely, and then his people would all dream themselves into heaven.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We believe that many have been awakened to a sense of their danger, and brought to think seriously of their souls and eternity, by means of a dream. But to rest in, or build upon a dream, would be obviously quite a different thing.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Whence is that confidence which some derive from dreams, or visions, or other conceits of their own? It all arises from a propensity inherent in fallen man to rest in something besides God.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): They that take more heed to their own dreams than to the Word of God, fear not God. This also is plain from the Word. “For in the multitude of dreams, there are also divers vanities, but fear thou God,” Ecclesiastes 5:7; Isaiah 8:20—that is, take heed unto His Word. The fearing of God is opposed to our overmuch heeding dreams: and there is implied, that it is for want of the fear of God that men so much heed those things.

GEORGE OFFOR (1787-1864): No one can charge Bunyan with a superstitious notion of dreams. Such a mode of interpretation as he recommends is both rational and scriptural.

C. H. SPURGEON: I know some who think themselves to be God’s children, because they dreamed they were. They had a very remarkable dream one night, and if you were to laugh at them they would be unutterably indignant; they would call you an “accuser of the brethren.” They do not rely upon what God has said to them in the Bible; but they had some singular vision, when deep sleep had fallen upon them, and because of that, they reckon they are children of God.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: We do not believe that the soul will ever be allowed to rest in such dreams or visions, if the Holy Ghost is really working.

C. H. SPURGEON: In the course of seeing persons who come to me, I hear every now and then a story like this, “Sir, I was in such-and-such a room, and suddenly I thought I saw Jesus Christ, and heard a voice saying such-and-such a thing to me, and that is the reason why I hope I am saved.”—“Oh, but,” saith another, “I have confidence that I am saved, for I have had a wonderful dream, and, moreover, I heard a voice, and saw a vision.” Rubbish all! Dreams, visions, voices! Throw them all away. There is not the slightest reliance to be placed upon them. “What, not if I saw Christ?” No, certainly not, for vast multitudes saw Him in the days of His flesh, and perished.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “But we see Jesus,” Hebrews 2:9. What is meant by this? How do we “see Jesus”?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Not with bodily eyes, but with the eyes of the mind, and understanding.

A. W. PINK: Not by means of mysterious dreams or ecstatic visions, not by the exercise of our imagination, nor by a process of visualization; but by faith. Just as Christ declared, in John 8:56, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.” Faith is the eye of the spirit, which views and enjoys what the Word of God presents to its vision.

In the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Revelation, God has told us about the exaltation of His Son; those who receive by faith what He has there declared, “see Jesus crowned with glory and honour,” as truly and vividly as His enemies once saw Him here on earth “crowned with thorns.” It is this which distinguishes the true people of God from mere professors. Every real Christian has reason to say with Job, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee,” Job 42:5. He has “seen” Him leaving Heaven and coming to earth, in order to “seek and to save that which was lost.” He has “seen” Him as a sacrificial Substitute on the cross, bearing “our sins in His own body on the tree.” He has “seen” Him rising in triumph from the grave, so that because He lives, we live also. He has “seen” Him highly exalted, “crowned with glory and honour.” He “has seen Him”—as presented to the eye of faith in the sure Word of God.

C. H. SPURGEON: Dreams! The disordered fabrics of a wild imagination—how can they be the means of salvation? Poor dear creatures, when they were sound asleep they saw the gates of heaven opened, and a white angel came and washed their sins away, and then they saw that they were pardoned; and since then they have never had a doubt or a fear. It is time that you should begin to doubt, then; a very good time that you should; for if that is all the hope you have, it is a poor one—to trust them is to trust a shadow, to build your hopes on bubbles.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Believe me, it was not a whim or a dream, which changed my sentiments and conduct, but a powerful conviction—that many wholesome and seasonable admonitions have been received in dreams, I willingly allow; but though they may be occasionally noticed, to pay a great attention to dreams, especially to be guided by them, to form our sentiments, conduct, or expectations upon them is superstitious and dangerous.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: I could never find peace for my guilty conscience in visions or dreams, for the simplest of all reasons, that visions and dreams could not cancel my guilt or satisfy the claims of the holiness of God. I may be aroused to a sense of need, by a vision or dream; but my need can only be satisfied by Jesus and His precious blood, as unfolded in the Word, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

C. H. SPURGEON: “But surely a dream will save me.” It will give you a dreamy hope, and when you awake in the next world your dream will be gone…The one thing to rest upon is a more sure word of testimony—Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and whosoever believeth in Him is not condemned.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: You must rest only in Christ—build only upon Christ—boast only in Christ. All else beside that will prove utterly insufficient.

 

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Monitory Dreams – Warnings, Admonitions, & Convictions

Posted on September 9, 2022 by The Editor

Job 33:14-17

God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The dreams of men are not such insignificant things as many imagine.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): We are far from recommending any one to trust in dreams, or to pay any attention to them whatever, for “in the multitude of dreams are divers vanities.” But we dare not say that God never makes use of dreams to forward His own inscrutable designs: on the contrary, we believe that He has often made a dream about death or judgment the occasion of stirring up a person to seek after salvation; and that He has afterwards answered the prayers, which originated in that apparently trifling and accidental occurrence.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): I have had some people awakened by dreams—two persons, who lived like heathens, and never came to church, were alarmed by some terrifying dreams, and came out to hear forthwith. There the Lord was pleased to meet with them. One of them died triumphing; the other, I hope, will do so when her time comes.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Many, by such means, have had the most salutary warnings; and to decry all such, because there are many vain dreams, would be nearly as much wisdom as to deny the Bible, because there are many foolish books—Many warnings in this way have come from God; and the impression they made, and the good effect they produced, were the proofs of their Divine origin. To deny this would be to call into doubt the testimony of the best, wisest, and holiest men in all ages of the Church.

RICHARD CECIL (1748-1810): John Newton, being a common sailor [in 1742, at age 17], received a remarkable check by a dream, which made a very strong, though not abiding, impression upon his mind.

JOHN NEWTON: The scene presented to my imagination was the harbour of Venice, where we had lately been. It was night, and my watch upon the deck; and as I was walking to and fro, a person brought me a ring, with an express charge to keep it carefully; assuring me, that while I preserved that ring, I should be happy and successful: but if I lost or parted with it, I must expect nothing but trouble and misery. I accepted the present and the terms willingly, not in the least doubting my own care to preserve it, and highly satisfied to have my happiness in my own keeping.

I was engaged in these thoughts, when a second person came to me, and observing the ring on my finger, asked me some questions concerning it. I told him its virtues; and his answer expressed a surprise at my weakness in expecting such effects from a ring. I think he reasoned with me some time, upon the impossibility of the thing, and urged me to throw it away. At first I was shocked at the proposal; but his insinuations prevailed. I began to reason and doubt, and at last plucked it off my finger, and dropped it over the ship’s side into the water.

At the same instant it hit the water, a terrible fire burst out from a range of mountains behind the city of Venice. I saw the hills as distinct as if awake, and they were all in flames. I perceived, too late, my folly; and my tempter, with an air of insult, told me that all the mercy God had in reserve for me was comprised in that ring, which I had willfully thrown away. Now I must go with him to the burning mountains. I trembled, and was in a great agony; so that it was surprising I did not then awake: but my dream continued.

Then, when I thought myself upon the point of a forced departure, and stood self condemned, without a plea or hope—suddenly, either a third person, or the same who brought the ring at first, I am not certain which, came to me, and demanded the cause of my grief. I told him, confessing that I had ruined myself willfully, and deserved no pity. He blamed my rashness, and asked if I should be wiser if I had my ring again. I thought it was gone beyond recall, and I had not time to answer, before I saw this unexpected friend go down under the water, in the spot where I had dropped it; and he soon returned, bringing the ring with him: the moment he came on board, the flames in the mountains were extinguished, and my seducer left me. Then was the prey taken from the hand of the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered. My fears were at an end, and with joy and gratitude I approached my kind deliverer to receive the ring again; but he refused to return it, and said, “If you should be entrusted with this ring again, you would very soon bring yourself into the same distress: you are not able to keep it; but I will preserve it for you, and, whenever it is needful, will produce it in your behalf.”

Upon this I awoke, in a state of mind not to be described: I could hardly eat, or sleep, or transact my necessary business for two or three days: but the impression soon wore off, and in a while I totally forgot it; I think it hardly occurred to my mind again till several years afterwards.

GEORGE OFFOR (1787-1864): John Bunyan profited much by dreams and visions.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): The time that I was without God in the world, it was indeed according to the course of this world, and “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” Ephesians 2:2,3. It was my delight to be “taken captive by the devil at his will,” 2 Timothy 2:26. Being filled with all unrighteousness, which did so strongly work and put forth itself in my heart and life, and that from a child, that I had but few equals, for cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God. Yea, so settled and rooted was I in these things, that they became as second nature to me; which, as I have with soberness considered since, did so offend the Lord, that even in my childhood, He did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me with dreadful visions; for often, after I had spent a day in sin, I have in my bed been greatly afflicted, while asleep, with the apprehensions of devils and wicked spirits, who still, as I then thought, laboured to draw me away with them, of which I could never be rid.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Wicked men’s sleep is often troublesome, through the workings of their evil consciences; king Richard III, after the murder of his two innocent nephews, had fearful dreams, insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword, which always lay naked stuck by his side, he would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own disquiet.

GEORGE OFFOR: We have no space to attempt drawing a line between convictions of sin and the terrors of a distempered brain. John Bunyan’s opinions upon this subject are deeply interesting. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, the narrative of Bunyan’s progress in his conversion is, without exception, the most astonishing of any that has been published.

 

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Kindergarten in the School of Christ

Posted on September 2, 2022 by The Editor

1 John 3:23; Matthew 16:24

This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): This commandment—“that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ,” is little thought of, and it is often despised by the many who talk much of their obedience: but it stands as a prominent command of the gospel; it stands at the entrance of the Christian life; and, until this command be complied with, we are neither in a disposition nor in a state properly to comply with any other.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Repentance, therefore, is the commencement of true docility, and opens the gate for entering into the school of Christ.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Moreover, we believe that the new birth must take place, in every instance―and we are convinced that this new birth is entirely a divine operation, effected by the Holy Ghost, through the Word, as we are distinctly taught in our Lord’s discourse with Nicodemus, in John chapter 3.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): God teaches a man to know himself, that, finding his need of salvation, he may flee to lay hold on the hope which His heavenly Father has set before him in the Gospel.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Nicodemus had, like many, to unlearn a great deal, ere he could really grasp the knowledge of Jesus. He had to lay aside a cumbrous mass of religious machinery, ere he could apprehend the divine simplicity of God’s plan of salvation. He had to descend from the lofty heights of Rabbinical learning and traditional religion, and learn the alphabet of the gospel, in the school of Christ. This was very humiliating to a “man of the Pharisees”—“a ruler of the Jews”—“a master of Israel.” There is nothing of which man is so tenacious as his religion and his learning; and, in the case of Nicodemus, it must have sounded strange upon his ear when “a teacher come from God,” declared to him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Being by birth a Jew, and as such, entitled to all the privileges of a son of Abraham, it must have involved him in a strange perplexity, to be told that he must be born again—that he must be the subject of a new birth, in order to see the kingdom of God. This was a total setting aside of all his privileges and distinctions. It called him down, at once, from the very highest to the very “lowest step of the ladder.”

JOHN CALVIN: The Spirit of God here opens a common school for all…The first lesson which He gives us, on entering His school, is to “deny ourselves, and take up his cross.” He lays down a brief rule for our imitation, in order to make us acquainted with the chief points in which He wishes us to resemble Him. It consists of two parts, self-denial and a voluntary bearing of the cross. This self-denial is very extensive, and implies that we ought to give up our natural inclinations, and part with all the affections of the flesh, and thus give our consent to be reduced to nothing, provided that God lives and reigns in us. We know with what blind love men naturally regard themselves, how much they are devoted to themselves, how highly they estimate themselves. But if we desire to enter into the school of Christ, we must begin with that folly to which Paul exhorts us, “becoming fools, that we may be wise,” 1 Corinthians 3:18; and next we must control and subdue all our affections.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): How blessed, then, is the teaching of the Holy Ghost, which strips the sinner, makes him all bare, leaves him nothing, but shews him his whole insolvency, emptiness, and poverty, that he may make room for Jesus! And when He hath thus made the sinner sensible of his nothingness, He makes him equally sensible of Christ’s fulness and all sufficiency; and that in bringing nothing to Christ, but living wholly upon Christ, and drawing all from Christ; in this simplicity that is in Christ, He teacheth the poor sinner how to live and how to keep house by faith, wholly upon the fulness that is in Christ Jesus.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): As the Master in this school is “meek, and lowly in heart,” and teaches with gentleness and wisdom, the scholars should surely be teachable and learn in meekness and humility.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): In the school of teachableness, humility, and simplicity, the best and wisest have yet many lessons to learn…In the school of Christ, every one must study meekness and humility: for to these two the whole science of Christianity may be reduced; the meekness of love, calm and sedate in the midst of wrongs, injuries, affronts, persecutions; without envy, without malice, without revenge: humility of heart, remote from all inordinate and worldly desires, by which pride is nourished; ascribing nothing to itself, and desiring nothing; ready to part with all things, to be placed below all men, to remain in silence and oblivion. Lord, vouchsafe to teach us this science, writing it in our hearts by Thy love!

JOHN CALVIN: And let him take up his cross. He lays down this injunction, because, though there are common miseries to which the life of men is indiscriminately subjected, yet as God trains His people in a peculiar manner, in order that they may be conformed to the image of his Son, we need not wonder that this rule is strictly addressed to them. It may be added that, though God lays both on good and bad men the burden of the cross, yet unless they willingly bend their shoulders to it, they are not said to bear the cross; for a wild and refractory horse cannot be said to submit to his rider, though he carries him. The patience of the saints, therefore, consists in bearing willingly the cross which has been laid on them. Luke 9:23 adds the word daily—“let him take up his cross daily,”—which is very emphatic; for Christ’s meaning is, that there will be no end to our warfare till we leave the world. Let it be the uninterrupted exercise of the godly, that when many afflictions have run their course, they may be prepared to endure fresh afflictions.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: The Lord’s lessons are often painful and difficult, because of the waywardness or indolence of our hearts; but every fresh lesson learned, every fresh principle imbibed, only fits us the more for all that is yet before us. Yet it is blessed to be the disciples of Christ, and to yield ourselves to His gracious discipline and training. The end will unfold to us the blessedness of such a place. Nor need we wait for the end; even now, the soul finds it most happy to be subject, in all things, to the Master. “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light,” Matthew 11:28-30.

ROBERT HAWKER: This is the sweet instruction taught in the school of Jesus.

 

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