Christian Marital Love & Respect

Posted on February 12, 2021 by The Editor

Colossians 3:18,19; Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): No woman has the duty of a wife to perform but she who is one, and no man has the duty of a husband to perform but he who is married.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): That may be a very trite remark, yet today it needs making.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Today, the whole thing has become aggravated, because of the modern notions of equality between men and women, the results of the so-called “feminist” movement—which claims that men and women are equal in every respect…Taking it in general, and as a principle, it flies against the plain teaching of the Scripture at this point, and is without any question, the cause of much confusion, much trouble, and much damage to the marriage state—and alas! it seems even to be seeping into the thinking of many who call themselves evangelical, and who claim to believe in the Scripture as the inspired Word of God.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The rejection of the inspiration of the Bible places the law of God, as written in the Ten Commandments, among the productions of the human mind. Therefore its code of morals is spurned and a lower ethical system, more in keeping with present day conditions, is substituted. And so, loose standards prevail where Scripture no longer speaks with authority. “They have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?” Jeremiah 8:9. Unholy ways always accompany, and indeed spring from, unholy teachings…Men and women sustaining unholy relations are rocked to sleep in their sins while death, judgment, and eternal punishment are fast approaching!

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): And certainly, where the bond of marriage is broken—the whole of human society sinks into decay.

A. W. PINK: Marriage is designed as a preventive of immorality: “To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband,” 1 Corinthians 7:2.

H. A. IRONSIDE: He made them at the beginning, male and female—This is the divine institution of marriage…These verses picture sanctified wedded love.

ARTHUR TAPPAN PIERSON (1837-1911): The Divine institution of marriage teaches that the ideal state of both man and woman is not in separation but in union, that each is meant and fitted for the other; and that God’s ideal is such union, based on a pure and holy love, enduring for life, exclusive of all rivalry or other partnership, and incapable of alienation or unfaithfulness because it is a union in the Lord—a holy wedlock of soul and spirit in mutual sympathy and affection.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: What the apostle is concerned about here, is one big point only—harmony, and peace, and unity, as it is displayed in the married relationship. So, that being his leading theme, he picks out on the two sides, the element that needs to be emphasized above every other. The thing the wife has to keep her eye on in maintaining the harmony, is this element of submission. The thing the husband has to keep his eye on, is this element of love.

JOHN DAVENANT (1572-1641): It is to be observed that He requires the duty of the wife in the first place.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Submit is a short word, but of large extent. It comprehends reverence; “Let the wife see that she reverence her husband,” as Sarah did, and is chronicled for it, Peter 3:6, “Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” God is pleased to single out this, and set it as a precious diamond in a gold ring to Sarah’s eternal commendation.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Whether the woman lusts for rule, or repines under the obligation to submit, either principle breaks the rank in which God has placed her.

H. A. IRONSIDE: “Silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,” 2 Timothy 3:6. How remarkably this is fulfilled in modern Feminism! Observe the words “led away with divers lusts,” which might be freely rendered “ambitious desires.” This desire for publicity, this deplorable masculinity, this denial of man’s headship, this usurping of authority, is one of the most striking signs of the times…But also to the attitude and position taken by so many “silly women” in the churches. How sad it is to see the plain command of God: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak,” 1 Corinthians 14:34—now so generally disregarded. Today there are not a few who unblushingly denounce the inspired apostle as “an old bachelor with narrow ideas.”

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): When women keep their places, and men manage their worshipping of God as they should, we shall have better days for the church of God in the world.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Husbands—Your duty is to “love your wives,” and never on any occasion to entertain an unkind feeling towards them. A proud, haughty, imperious carriage towards them is most offensive to God, who will regard every harsh, bitter, or contemptuous expression towards them as an abuse of your authority and a violation of His commands. Though He has constituted you lords, He has not authorized you to be tyrants; but requires you to be precisely such lords over your wives, as Christ is over His Church. You are to govern, it is true; but you are to govern only for the good of the wife: you are to seek only, and at all times, her best interests, and to promote to the utmost of your power her real happiness. You must not require any thing unreasonable at her hands, nor ever fail to recompense with testimonies of your love, the efforts which she makes to please you.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): If the wife is to be governed by you, you are to be governed by reason and religion. You are to “give honour unto the wife,” 1 Peter 3:7. What honour? The honour of attention. Nothing is so intolerable to a female as neglect; and upon what principle can a man justify indifference, omissions of observance, and heedless manners towards a wife?

CHARLES SIMEON: Nor must you merely endeavour to render her happy, but you must be ready to make great sacrifices for this end. What the Lord Jesus Christ has done for His Church, is set forth as the proper model and pattern of your duty towards your wife: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.” O! what an example is here! Methinks, no wife would complain of the obedience that is required of her, if the authority of her husband were exercised in such a way as this: on the contrary, obedience on her part would be her chief delight. Know then, ye husbands, that this is the duty assigned to you: if your wives are to be obedient, as the Church is to Christ, ye also on your part are to be loving, even as Christ is to the Church. Your wives should be to you as your own flesh.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It is only as we realize the truth about the relationship of Christ to the Church, that we can really function as Christian husbands are to function.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Husbands and wives are continually doing either good or harm to each other’s souls. Let all who are married, or think of being married, ponder these things well.

 

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Heavenly Light for the Human Heart of Darkness

Posted on February 5, 2021 by The Editor

Genesis 1:3; John 1:1-5,9,10; 2 Corinthians 4:6; John 8:12; Psalm 36:9

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

With thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The God of grace is the fountain of spiritual life.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): There is not a drop of life to be found without Him, or which flows not from His grace. The metaphor of light, in the last clause of the verse, is most emphatic, denoting that men are altogether destitute of light, except so far as the Lord shines upon them. If this is true of the light of this life, how shall we be able to behold the light of the heavenly world, unless the Spirit of God enlighten us? for we must maintain that the measure of understanding which men are by nature endued, is such that “the light shineth in darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not,” and that men are enlightened only by a supernatural gift.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): God can only be known by means of a supernatural revelation of Himself. Apart from the Scriptures, even a theoretical acquaintance with Him is impossible. It still holds true that “the world by wisdom knew not God,” 1 Corinthians 1:21. Where the Scriptures are ignored, God is “the unknown God,” Acts 17:23. But something more than the Scriptures is required before the soul can know God—know Him in a real, personal, vital way. This seems to be recognized by few today. The prevailing practice assumes that a knowledge of God can be obtained through studying the Word, in the same way as a knowledge of chemistry may be secured by mastering its textbooks. An intellectual knowledge of God maybe—not so a spiritual one. A supernatural God can only be known in a manner above that which mere nature can acquire, by a supernatural revelation of Himself to the heart.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): No man can illuminate his own soul; all understanding must come from above…“In thy light shall we see light.” This is literally true.

A. W. PINK: God can only be known through a supernatural faculty. Christ made this clear when He said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” John 3:3. The unregenerate have no spiritual knowledge of God. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” 1 Corinthians 2:14.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The first work of Grace is to enlighten the soul. By nature we are entirely dark. The Spirit, like a lamp, sheds light into the dark heart, revealing its corruption, displaying its sad state of destitution and, in due time, also revealing Jesus Christ, so that in His light we may see light.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): It is God’s love, from the face of Jesus shining into my dark heart, that makes my heart open to Him, and delight to be His dwelling-place.

ADAM CLARKE: “God said, Let there be light; and there was light;” by that light the eye of man was enabled to behold the various works of God, and the beauties of creation: so, when God speaks light into the dark heart of man, he not only beholds his own deformity and need of the salvation of God, but he beholds the “light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;” “God, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Darkness fled before Him in the primeval chaos and order followed confusion. Do you think, if He shall say, “Let there be light” in a dark heart, that there shall not be light there? I think it is just this—that God is the absolute monarch of the hearts of men…The Lord, when He means to save sinners, does not stop to ask them whether they mean to be saved, but like a rushing mighty wind the Divine influence sweeps away every obstacle. The unwilling heart bends before the potent gale of grace and sinners that would not yield are made to yield by God. I know this, if the Lord willed it, there is no man so desperately wicked here this morning that he would not be made now to seek for mercy. However infidel he might be, however rooted in his prejudices against the Gospel, Jehovah has but to will it and it is done. Into your dark heart, O you who have never seen the light, would the light stream. If He did but say, “Let there be light,” there would be light.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): When He arises on the soul, He enlightens it, and infuses into it a principle of life.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): As He speaks life into them in regeneration, commands light to shine in their dark heart, and says to them, when in their blood, Live; so by the mighty power of His Word, He commands the fear of Him in them, and it continues.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Certain it is, that man hath neither life nor light in himself till it be communicated unto him from God.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): In communion with Him who is the Light as well as the Life of men, we see a whole universe of glories, realities, and brightnesses. Where other eyes see only darkness, we behold “the King in His beauty, and the land that is very far off.” Where other men see only cloudland and mists, our vision will pierce into the unseen, and there behold “the things which are,” the only real things, of which all that the eye of sense sees are only the fleeting shadows, seen as in a dream—They who see by the light of God, and see light therein, have a vision which is more than imagination, more than opinion, more than belief. It is certitude. Communication with God does not bring with it superior intellectual perspicuity, but it does bring a perception of spiritual realities and relations, which, in respect of clearness and certainty, may be called sight.

A. W. PINK: The one who has been favoured with this supernatural experience has learned that only “in thy light shall we see light.”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: In communication with God, we see light upon all the paths of duty. It is wonderful how, when a man lives near God, he gets to know what he ought to do. That great Light, which is Christ, is like the star that hung over the Magi, blazing in the heavens, and yet stooping to the lowly task of guiding three wayfaring men along a muddy road upon earth. So the highest Light of God comes down to be “a lantern for our paths and a light for our feet.” And in the same communion with God, we get light in all seasons of darkness and of sorrow. “To the upright there ariseth light in the darkness,” Psalm 112:4.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): Beg of God that He would do these two things for thee: First, Enlighten thine understanding. And, Second, Inflame thy will…Cry hard to God for an enlightened heart, and a willing mind.

 

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Lessons in Christian Evangelism Part 2: Witness & Testimony

Posted on January 29, 2021 by The Editor

1 Peter 3:15; Proverbs 24:11,12; Luke 24:45-48

Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

If 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?

Then opened [Jesus] their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): There is a special sense in which the office of witness-bearing belonged only to those who had seen Jesus in the flesh, and could testify to the fact of His Resurrection—for witness implies fact, as being the simple attestation to the occurrence of things that truly happened in the earth…They were witnesses, and their business was to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. All doctrine and morality will come second. The first form of the Gospel is, “How that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised again the third day, according to the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:3,4. First, a history; then a religion; then a morality; and morality and religion because it is a history of redemption. But that is somewhat apart from the main purpose of my remarks now. I desire rather to emphasise the thought that, with modifications in form, the substance of the functions of these early believers remains still the office and dignity of all Christian men. “Ye are the witnesses of these things.” And what is the manner of testimony that devolves upon you and me?

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold,” Job 36:24. Take this into consideration.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We cannot live to ourselves, if we are Christians. The eyes of many will always be upon us. Men will judge by what they see, far more than by what they hear. If they see the Christian contradicting by his practice what he professes to believe, they are justly stumbled and offended.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): A man may know a great deal about truth, and yet be a very damaging witness on its behalf, because he is no credit to it.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Most men take their notions of what Christianity is from the average of the Christians round about them. And, if we profess to be Christ’s followers, we shall be taken as tests and specimen cases of the worth of the religion that we profess…It is our task to “adorn the doctrine of Christ in all things,” Titus 2:10. “Ye are the Epistles of Christ,” and if the writing be blurred and blotted and often half unintelligible, the blame will be laid largely at His door. And men will say, and say rightly, “If that is all that Christianity can do, we are just as well without it.”

J. C. RYLE: For the world’s sake, as well as for our own, let us labour to be eminently holy. Let us endeavour to make our religion beautiful in the eyes of men, and to “adorn the doctrine of Christ” in all things. Let us strive daily to lay aside every weight, and the sin which most easily besets us, and so to live that men can find no fault in us, except concerning the law of our God. Let us watch jealously over our tempers and tongues, and the discharge of our social duties. Anything is better than doing harm to souls. The cross of Christ will always give offence. Let us not increase that offence by carelessness in our daily life. The natural man cannot be expected to love the Gospel. But let us not disgust him by inconsistency.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Witness by your lives…And depend upon it, mightier than all direct effort, and more unusual than all utterances of lip, is the witness of the life of all professing Christians to the reality of the facts upon which they say they base their faith. But beyond that, there is yet another department of testimony which belongs to each of us—and that is the attestation of personal experience.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Every Christian should be able to give an account as to why he is a Christian.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: That is a form of Christian service which any and every Christian can put forth. You cannot all be preachers—But I will tell you what you all can be. You can all say, “Come and hear all ye; and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.” It does not take eloquence, gifts, learning, intellectual grasp of the doctrinal side of Christian truth for a man to say, as the first preacher of Christ upon earth said, “Brother! we have found the Messiah,” John 1:41. That was all, and that was enough—that you can say, if you have found Him—and after all, the witness of personal experience of what faith in Jesus Christ can make of a man, and do for a man, is the strongest and most universal weapon placed in the hands of Christian men and women—“this one thing I know, that whereas I was blind now I see.” There is no getting over that! “Ye are the witnesses of these things.”

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

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: May I say a word here about the grounds on which this obligation to witness rests for us? If Jesus Christ had never said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” it would not have made a bit of difference as to the imperative duty that is laid upon all Christian men; for it arises, not from that command, which only gives voice to a previous obligation, but it flows directly from the very nature of things—the obligation arises from the links that knit us all together. Humanity is one—our indebtedness and obligation is to every man, woman, and child that bears the form of man.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Ought they not to be the objects of our 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—It is no concern of mine. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN:  Why, the question answers itself. If he is your brother, you are certainly his keeper.

CHARLES BRIDGES: If “a true witness delivereth souls,” a false witness destroyeth them, Proverbs 14:25. Fearful guilt and responsibility! But how much more guilty to forbear the deliverance of immortal souls in ignorance, ungodliness, or unbelief, are “drawn unto death, and ready to be slain!” Might not many a soul have started back from ruin, had the discovery of his danger been made, ere it was too late? Yet the one word that might have saved was not spoken. Is there no brother, or child, or neighbour, who may pierce thy conscience to eternity with this rebuke—“Hadst thou dealt faithfully with my soul, I had not been in this place of torment.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): 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.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: It is cowardice to shirk the duty because of the peril that lies in it…And you cannot shuffle off the obligation—it peals into the ears of every Christian man and woman: “Thou art a witness of these things;” and “to this end were thou born again, that thou mightest bear witness to the truth.”

 

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Lessons in Christian Evangelism Part 1

Posted on January 22, 2021 by The Editor

Luke 9:1,2; Luke 10:1-11,17-20

[Jesus] called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

After these things, the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The verses before us relate a circumstance which is not recorded by any Gospel writer except Luke. That circumstance is our Lord’s appointment of seventy disciples to go before His face, in addition to the twelve apostles.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The mission of the Seventy is clearly distinguished from and contrasted with that of the Twelve by the word “others” which points back to Luke 9:1. The Twelve were prohibited from going beyond Jews, Matthew 10:5; the Seventy were under no such restriction, and were probably sent to the half-Gentile districts on the east side of the Jordan River…Much of the charge given to either is given to both, as is most natural, since they had the same message, and both were sent to prepare for Christ’s personal ministry. But though the seventy were sent out but for a short time, permanent principles for the guidance, not only of Christian workers, but of all Christian lives, are embodied in the charge which they received.

J. C. RYLE: The first point in our Lord’s charge to the seventy disciples is the importance of prayer and intercession. This is the leading thought with which our Lord opens His address. Before He tells His ambassadors what to do, He first bids them to pray. “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into his harvest.” Prayer is one of the best and most powerful means of helping forward the cause of Christ in the world. It is a means within the reach of all who have the Spirit of adoption. Not all believers have money to give to missions. Very few have great intellectual gifts, or extensive influence among men. But all believers can pray for the success of the Gospel; and they ought to pray for it daily.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The lack of positive conviction of the deep importance of prayer is plainly evidenced in the corporate life of professing Christians. God has plainly said, “My house shall be called the house of prayer,” Matthew 21:31—Note, not “the house of preaching and singing,” but of prayer. Yet, in the great majority of even so-called orthodox churches, the ministry of prayer has become a negligible quantity. There are still evangelistic campaigns, and Bible teaching conferences, but how rarely one hears of two weeks set apart for special prayer!

J. C. RYLE: Many and marvelous are the answers to prayer recorded for our learning in the Bible. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” James 5:16.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Take the word “prayer,” and run through the Bible tracing it out. Read about nothing else. I think you would be perfectly amazed if you took up the word “prayer,’ and counted the cases in the Bible where people are recorded as praying, and God answering their prayers.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Let us always seek the united prayers of many Brothers and Sisters…How was it that you were converted? It was because somebody else prayed for you. I, in tracing back my own conversion, cannot fail to impute it, through God’s Spirit, to the prayers of my mother…Now, if by others’ prayers you and I were brought to Christ, how can we repay this Christian kindness, but by pleading for others?

J. C. RYLE: The second point in our Lord’s charge to the seventy disciples, is the perilous nature of the work in which they were about to be engaged. He does not keep back from them the dangers and trials which are before them. He does not enlist them under false pretenses, or prophesy smooth things, or promise them unvarying success. He tells them plainly what they must expect. “Behold,” He says, “I send you forth as lambs amongst wolves.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): He sent them two by two, which might be for their better mutual assistance of each other, and also for their mutual testimony, one for another.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): If we be heartily engaged in the service of Christ, we must expect many adversaries, and strong oppositions; men that will raise clouds of reproaches, to darken our reputation among the people; men that will represent us to them as ignorant and unlearned, factious and seditious, erroneous and enthusiastical.  Prudence, in this case, will restrain us from rendering reproach for reproach.

HENRY MOORHOUSE (1840-1880): In talking to an infidel, if you argue with him, he gets the best of you; but bring a text suited to him, and see how that will cut.

C. H. SPURGEON: We are not to stop and argue; that is no business of ours. We have to tell our message. If men will receive it, we are glad; if they will not hear it, with a heavy heart we turn aside, and go elsewhere. Our work is to proclaim the glorious message of mercy through a dying Saviour, salvation through the great atonement; it is our business to proclaim it and leave it, and the responsibility of receiving or rejecting it rests with our hearers.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The return of the Seventy soon followed their being sent forth. They came back with a childish, surprised joy, and almost seem to have thought that Jesus would be as much astonished and excited as they were with the proof of the power of His name. They had found that they could not only heal the sick, but cast out demons.

C. H. SPURGEON: They were especially delighted with it—“Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name!”

J. C. RYLE: From this, we learn how ready Christians are to be puffed up with success.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Jesus’ answer is meant to quiet down their excitement.

J. C. RYLE: We learn, for another thing, that gifts, and the power of working miracles, are very inferior to grace. It was doubtless an honour and a privilege to be allowed to cast out devils. The disciples were right to be thankful. But it was a far higher privilege to be converted and pardoned men, and to have their names written in the register of saved souls. The distinction here drawn between grace and gifts is one of deep importance, and often and sadly overlooked in the present day. Gifts, such as mental vigour, vast memory, striking eloquence, ability in argument, power in reasoning, are often unduly valued by those who possess them, and unduly admired by those who possess them not. These things ought not so to be. Men forget that gifts without grace save no one’s soul, and are the characteristic of Satan himself. Grace, on the contrary, is an everlasting inheritance, and, lowly and despised as its possessor may be, it will land him safe in glory. He that has gifts without grace is dead in sins, however splendid his gifts may be. But he that has grace without gifts is alive to God, however unlearned and ignorant he may appear to man. And “a living dog is better than a dead lion.” Ecclesiastes 9:4.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Great as are the gifts to the faithful servant, they are less to be rejoiced in than his personal inclusion among the citizens of heaven.

 

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The Pride of Political Demagogues & False Prophets

Posted on January 15, 2021 by The Editor

2 Samuel 15:1,4; John 7:17; Acts 8:9-11; Proverbs 11:2; Acts 12:19-23

Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him…Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!

He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory.

There was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

When pride cometh, then cometh shame.

And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Tyranny, both in state and church, owes its origin to pride.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): In every form of government, monarchy or republic, there will be would-be leaders, who seek to gain influence and carry their objects by tickling vanity, operating on vices, calumniating innocent men, and the other arts of the demagogue. Where the power is in the hands of the people, the people is very apt to take its responsibilities [lightly], and to let itself be led blindfold by men with personal ends to serve, and hiding them under the veil of eager desire for the public good…An accomplished charlatan will leave much to be inferred from nods and hints, and his admirers will generally spin even more out of them than he meant.

THOMAS CHALMERS (1780-1847): Be assured, it is not because the people know much, that they ever become the willing subjects of any factious or unprincipled demagogue. It is just because they know too little. It is just because ignorance is the field, on which the quackery of a political impostor ever reaps its most abundant harvest.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel,” 2 Samuel 15:6. Absalom was thoroughly versed in the arts of the demagogue; and the common people heard him gladly. He used the patriot’s arguments, and was every thing of the kind, as far as promise could go. He found fault with men in power; and he only wanted their place, like all other pretended patriots, that he might act as they did, or worse.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): A just retribution overtook him. The locks of his hair in which he gloried were caught in the low branches of an oak and there he hung.

C. E. STUART (1827-1903): Suspended by his hair between heaven and earth, Absalom met with the due reward of his deeds, 2 Samuel 14:6 & 18:9.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): “As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise,” Proverbs 27:21. Absalom was tried in this fining-pot, and found “reprobate silver.”

C. H. SPURGEON: And there are those in all ages who set up to be prophets, and who seek to draw men after them, of whom it is well to beware.

ADAM CLARKE: Simon endeavoured to persuade the people that he was a very great personage, and he succeeded.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “They had regard,”—they acquiesced in what he said, and yielded obedience unto it; not only attending to his words with their ears, but with their hearts.  “From the least to the greatest,” showing how general their mispersuasion was.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He drew the attention, and commanded the regard, both of princes and peasants, of the learned and unlearned, of the great men, and of the common people, who one and all wondered at him, and applauded him…He “bewitched the people,” or rather astonished them, with the strange feats he performed; which were so unheard of and unaccountable, that they were thrown into an ecstasy and rapture; and were as it were out of themselves, through wonder and admiration, at the amazing things that were done by him.

MATTHEW POOLE: He caused them to be amazed at, and afraid of him.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): And this amazedness was grown to some strength by reason of a long space of time. Furthermore experience teacheth what a hard matter it is to pluck that error out of the minds of men which hath taken root through long continuance and to call them back unto a sound and right mind who are already hardened…Hence it comes that hypocrites are proud of their numbers; and weak men, terrified by the pompous display of those numbers, stagger.

MATTHEW HENRY: Simon was more desirous to gain honour to himself than to do good to others.

JOHN CALVIN: “And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost,” Acts 8:18,19. That ambition which was hidden before breaketh out now, when as he desireth to be equal with the apostles.

MATTHEW HENRY: Simon showed that, like Balaam, he aimed at the rewards of divination; for he would not have offered money for this power if he had not hoped to get money by it. He showed that he had a very high conceit of himself.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Such self-seekers are all proud men.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It is a shame for men to seek their own glory.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Here we arrive at the close of Herod’s pomp, in which we behold the sure end of iniquity.

MATTHEW HENRY: The men of Tyre and Sidon had, it seems, offended Herod, Acts 12:20…They had been guilty of some misdemeanours which Herod highly resented, and was resolved they should feel his resentment. Some very small matter would serve such a proud imperious man as Herod was for a provocation, where he was disposed to pick a quarrel. He was highly displeased with this people, and they must be made to know that his wrath was as the “roaring of a lion, as messengers of death,” Proverbs 16:14. The offenders truckled, being convinced, if not that they had done amiss, yet that it was in vain to contend with such a potent adversary, who, right or wrong, would be too hard for them.

C. H. SPURGEON: Proud men are generally hard, and therefore very unfit for office; persons of high looks provoke enmity and discontent.

MATTHEW HENRY: Proud men will have all about them to be of their mind, of their religion, to say as they say, to submit to their dominion, and acquiesce in their dictates—those that idolize their own conduct cannot bear contradiction—and those that will not yield to them they malign and hate with an inveterate hatred.

JOHN CALVIN: In short, they can bear nothing, and are not only passionate, but likewise outrageous. They would wish that all should yield to them, and that they should yield to none. If all do not yield at their bidding, they think that injustice is done to them. This passionate temper is easily betrayed by proud men.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What was said of the Cretans, Titus 1:12, might, with few exceptions, be applied to all: “The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow-bellies,”—a wretched compound of falsehood, and cruelty, and abominable sensuality.

JOHN CALVIN: Proud men, who are apt to be blinded by a sense of their importance, require to be brought down, and made to see that in God’s estimation they are no better than others.

MATTHEW HENRY: Note, God takes notice of the boasts of proud men, and will call them to an account. It is the glory of God to “look on every one that is proud, and bring him low,” Job 40:12. The instance of it here is very remarkable, and shows how God “resists the proud.” Observe how the measure of Herod’s iniquity was filled up: it was pride that did it; it is this that commonly goes more immediately before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Herod, under the shouting praise of his flatterers, “gave not God the glory,” and was blasted in shame.

MATTHEW HENRY: Thus is shame the fate of proud men.

 

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The Spiritual Profit of Considering Scripture Details

Posted on January 8, 2021 by The Editor

John 10:22-26

It was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.

Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “The feast of the dedication, and it was winter.” This verse affords two questions, which have not a little troubled interpreters—What feast of dedication was this?

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): This Jewish festival is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible. John Chrysostom and others think that the “feast of dedication” was appointed to commemorate the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian captivity, in Ezra’s time, Ezra 6:16. Some think that it was to commemorate the dedication of Solomon’s temple, 2 Chronicles 7:9.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): No detail in Scripture is meaningless…The feast could not be in remembrance of the dedication of Solomon’s temple, for it had been dedicated at harvest-time, I Kings 8:2; nor was it to celebrate the building of Nehemiah’s temple, for that had been dedicated in the spring-time, Ezra 6:15,16. This “feast of the dedication” was celebrated every year for eight successive days in the month of December, and is mentioned by Josephus (Antiq. 12:7).

J. C. RYLE: The mention of “winter” goes far to prove that the feast of dedication must have been appointed in commemoration of the work of Judas Maccabeus…It is a matter of history, according to most commentators, that it was appointed by Judas Maccabeus to commemorate the purging of the temple, and the rebuilding of the altar, after the Syrians were driven out. Its appointment is recorded in the Apocrypha, in 1 Maccabees 4:52-59. The Apocryphal books are, no doubt, uninspired. But there is no reason to question the accuracy of their historical statements.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910):  But now, turn to the other question.

MATTHEW POOLE: A second question is, whether dedications of places to the worship of God be warrantable or not?

J. C. RYLE: The passage before us is often referred to, as proving that our Lord recognized, and tacitly sanctioned, a man-made and man-appointed festival.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Now this was certainly a mere human institution, and had no divine image, had no divine superscription upon it; and yet I do not find that our blessed Lord and Master preached against it…on the contrary, He did go there, not so much as to keep the feast, as to have an opportunity to spread the gospel-net; and that should be our method, not to follow disputing.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): So, our Lord observed festivals even of human appointment. Is it not, at least, innocent for us to do the same?

J. C. RYLE: “The Church has power to decree rites and ceremonies;” so long as it ordains nothing against God’s Word, its appointments deserve respect.

MATTHEW POOLE: It is not so much a question, whether it be lawful in a solemn decent manner to consecrate a house to the public worship of God, by such acts of worship as God hath appointed under the gospel, such as prayer, praise, reading, preaching, and hearing the Word—as to whether it may be done by such rites and ceremonies as Roman Catholics do it with, for which there is no institution…They do it by many superstitious ceremonies—none of which we know of the least warrant in holy Writ. Secondly, they plead for the holiness of the place when so consecrated—we cannot conceive how any consecration can imprint any character of “holiness” upon a place, or make prayers offered up in it more acceptable.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): So tenacious are many in regarding a certain character of building as the “house of God,” and so entirely has the spiritual character of worship and service been let slip, that it is not uncommon to find the very words used in reference to the temple of Jerusalem, and the Jewish worship of Jehovah, applied to ecclesiastical buildings on earth now—only, with the complete revelation of God in our hands, is it not more sad?

A. W. PINK: And this leads us to ask another question—a deeply interesting and important one: What is the force of “it was winter,” in the light of what follows?

J. C. RYLE: The season of winter is mentioned to explain why our Lord walked under cover “in a porch.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It was winter— Χειμων ην, or, it was stormy or rainy weather.

A. W. PINK: There is a deeper meaning than the mere historical. The mention of “winter” at this point is most significant and solemn. It was winter-time—the season of ingathering was now over; the “Sun of righteousness” had completed His official circuit, and the genial warmth of summer had now given place to the season of chilling frosts. The Jews were celebrating “the feast of the dedication,” which commemorated the purification of the temple. But for the true Temple, the One to Whom the temple had pointed—God tabernacling in their midst—they had no heart. The Lord Jesus is presented as walking in the temple, but it is to be carefully noted that He was “in Solomon’s porch,” which means that He was on the outside of the sacred enclosure; Israel’s “house” was left unto them desolate! While here in the porch, “the Jews,” the religious leaders, came to Christ with the demand that He tell them openly if He were “the Christ,” saying, “How long dost thou make us to doubt?” This was the language of unbelief, and uttered at that late date, showed the hopelessness of their condition.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Judgment was then at the doors of Jerusalem.

A. W. PINK: The Jews knew not their “day of visitation,” and henceforth the things which “belonged to their peace,” were hidden from their eyes, Luke 19:42. So far as they were concerned, the words of Jeremiah applied with direct and solemn force: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved,” Jeremiah 8:20. For them there was nothing but an interminable “winter.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It was an instance of their impudence and presumption that they laid the blame of their doubting upon Christ Himself. Christ’s answer to this question? The Jews pretended that they only doubted, but Christ tells them they did not believe—He condemns them for their obstinate unbelief, notwithstanding all the most plain and powerful arguments used to convince them: “You believed not;” and again, “You believed not.”

A. W. PINK: Following this interview of the Jews with Christ, and their unsuccessful attempt to apprehend Him, John 10:39, the Lord retires beyond Jordan, “unto the place where John at first baptized, and there He abode,” John 10:40. Thus did Israel’s Messiah return to the place where He had formally dedicated Himself to His mission…In leaving Jerusalem, to which He did not return until the appointed “hour” for His death had arrived, and in going beyond Jordan, the Lord gave plain intimation that His public ministry was now over—He had presented Himself to Israel; now, shortly, He would offer Himself as a sacrifice to God. It is to this “the dedication” here points—That the Holy Spirit has here prefaced this final conversation between the Saviour and the Jews by mentioning “the feast of the dedication” is in beautiful striking accord with the fact that, from this point onwards, Christ was now dedicated to the Cross, as hitherto He had been engaged in manifesting Himself to Israel.

 

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A Meditation for New Year’s Day

Posted on January 1, 2021 by The Editor

Genesis 8:13

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): That was a happy New Year’s Day for Noah.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It was the first day of the year, New Year’s Day, and a joyful one it was to Noah and his family, when they saw dry ground; which they had not seen for above ten months.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The first day of the year is generally a time of festivity in all civilized nations.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The beginning of a new year is, not without reason, considered by Christians in general as a fit occasion for more than ordinary attention to religious duties. I say not, indeed, that the generality of Christians actually so employ that hallowed time; for, in fact, the whole season wherein we commemorate the incarnation of our blessed Lord is made rather a time for carnal mirth. But still, this is acknowledged by all to be rather an abuse of our religious privileges than a suitable improvement of them—To review our past errors with penitence, and to prepare for a more diligent performance of our duty in future, is the proper employment of that period, when we are entering, as it were, upon a new scene of things.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Thus should every year begin with the reformation of what is amiss, and the purging away of all the defilements contracted the foregoing year.

C. H. SPURGEON: At the beginning of this year I would urge each one of you to say, “Cannot I make this year better than the last? Can I not pray more, believe more, love more, work more, give more and be more like Christ?” Was last year an improvement upon the previous one?

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): We ought never to be willing to live any year just as we lived the last one. No one is striving after the best things who is not intent on an upward and a forward movement continually…Yet there are some people whose life year by year is only a going around and around in the old beaten paths, with no onward movement. They are like men who walk in a circular course for a prize, covering a thousand miles, perhaps, but ending just where they began. Rather, our daily walk should be like one whose path goes about a mountain, but climbs a little higher with each circuit, until at last he gains the clear summit, and looks into the face of God. While we must do, in a measure, the same things every day, we should do them a little better with each repetition.

VERNON J. CHARLESWORTH (1839-1915): Entering the house of one of his congregation, Rowland Hill saw a child on a rocking-horse. “Dear me,” Hill exclaimed, “how wondrously like some Christians! there is motion, but  no progress.”  The rocking-horse type of spiritual life is still characteristic of too many Church members.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): A new year affords us with another opportunity to mend our ways—the dawning of a new year is a fresh call unto each of us to put first things first, and it is only by heeding this call that we are prepared to start it aright.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Let thy first business then in the year, be the salvation of thy soul through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

C. H. SPURGEON: If you have lived up till now without a Saviour—end that dangerous state! Listen to the Gospel message, “Believe and live.” Ere this New Year’s Day is over, look unto Jesus Christ and be saved! He will have glory and you shall have happiness—and thus shall you begin aright another year of our Lord—His Holy Spirit will make it to you a year of Divine Grace!

A. W. PINK: When we were young, the transition from December to January meant little more to us than the need for another calendar—there was no solemn realization that another milestone had been passed in the short journey of life…But since Divine mercy apprehended us and gave us the spirit of a sound mind, and as we grow older, the passing of each year impresses us more deeply.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: As thou art crossing the threshold of another New Year, be sure that thou commence it with a heart undivided for Him. We know of no happiness for a New Year, or for any day in all the year, but in fullest, sweetest, fellowship with Him.

A. W. PINK: “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous,” Psalm 34:15. Here, Christian reader—to borrow an expression from Spurgeon—is “good cheer for the New Year.”

C. H. SPURGEON: “The LORD hath been mindful of us: He will bless us,” Psalm 115:12. There is a New Year’s motto for you. It will go back through the old year, and forward into the new one. See how mindful He has been of us all through the past year in a thousand ways. Long before we have known our wants, He has supplied them. He has delivered us from dangers of which we never knew; and led us into mercies of which we never dreamed…Are there not reasons why the reader should make the present day the opening of a year of praise?

A. W. PINK: Those who by grace are trusting in the atoning blood of Christ may enter it with the assurance that the friendly gaze of the Lord God is upon them. It is their privilege to enter each day rejoicing in the blessed fact that not for a single second will the Lord their God remove His eyes from them, cease to care for them, or fail to minister to them. Seek to frequently remind yourself that the Lord has pleasure in His people, that His presence is with, and His power engaged, on behalf of them—that they are assured of His protection and provision for their every need. Then should they not be of good cheer?! Should they not be delivered from worrying care? Should they not go forward in holy confidence and joy? Trials and tests are certain, and so also is their blessed issue. In the darkest hour remember, my brother, my sister, the eyes of the Lord your God are upon you: the eyes of His love, of His favour, of His compassion.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Therefore, though we know not what a day may bring forth, we need fear no evil; for He knows all, and will provide accordingly, Oh, what a relief is it, to be enabled to cast every care and burden upon Him that careth for us! Though the night should be dark, the storm loud, and the billows high, the infallible Pilot will steer our boats safely through…May He be with us in the New Year. Yea, He has promised He will, even unto death.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: That all our readers may have a happy New Year, in the richest and truest sense, and one of happy service and communion with the Lord, is our most earnest and fervent prayer.

C. H. SPURGEON: May the Lord give you a new heart and a right spirit with which to begin the New Year.

 

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God’s Perfect Timing & Purposes Concerning the Birth of Christ

Posted on December 25, 2020 by The Editor

Galatians 4:1-5

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): It is among the precious testimonies of divine teaching, that there is a “set time” to favor Zion, Psalm 102:13…There is an uncommon degree of beauty in the expression “the fulness of the time.”

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The coming of Christ to this earth was not some sudden, isolated, unexpected event.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Every circumstance about Christ was timed according to the predictions of God. Hence the time of the incarnation of our blessed Saviour is called “the fulness of the time”—the proper season for His coming.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The time was agreed and fixed upon between God and His Son from all eternity, when the Son of God should assume human nature; which time was diligently searched into by the prophets, was revealed unto them, and predicted by them—that it should be before the civil government ceased from Judah, and before the destruction of the second temple.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): When the promise of a Saviour was given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15, nothing was specified respecting the time. Nothing seems to have been declared concerning the time of the Messiah’s arrival, till it was revealed to Jacob, that “the sceptre should not depart from Judah, till Shiloh should come,” Genesis 49:10. And it is remarkable, that a separate jurisdiction did depart from all the other tribes several hundred years before Christ’s advent; but Judah retained it, in a measure, even during the captivity in Babylon; and never completely lost it, till Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. After the restoration of the Jews from Babylon, it was revealed to the Prophet Haggai, that the Messiah should come while that temple was standing; and by the Messiah’s presence in it should add greater glory to it, than the former temple with all its magnificence, Haggai 2:7,9. Thus the fulness of the time was come, because it was the time ordained by God in His eternal counsels, and made known to the world by his holy prophets.

A. W. PINK: After A.D. 70, when the Temple was destroyed, the Jews dispersed throughout the world!

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is generally supposed that by “the fulness of time” Paul means to indicate that Christ came at the moment when the world was especially prepared to receive Him.

A. W. PINK: The “fulness of time” means more than that the ordained hour had arrived: it signifies when all the preliminary operations of Divine providence had been completed, when the stage was thoroughly prepared for this unparalleled event, when the world’s need had been fully demonstrated…In its relation to the immediate context this expression, “the fulness of the time,” signifies that the Church on earth had been prepared for the coming of God’s Son by having now outgrown the conditions of her childhood and minority, making her feel the irksomeness of the bonds upon her and to long for the liberty of maturity. The legal Mosaic dispensation was merely a “schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we may be justified by faith,” and it had now served its purpose, Galatians 3:24. The old Mosaic dispensation had decayed and waxed old, and was “ready to vanish away,” Hebrews 8:13. “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster,” Galatians 3:25.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The time appointed of the Father having come, when the church was to arrive at its full age, the darkness and bondage under which it before lay are removed, and we are under a dispensation of greater light and liberty.

A. W. PINK: There was a remarkable combination of circumstances tending to prepare the world for the Gospel, and a fearful climax in the world’s need of redemption. The break up of old heathen faiths and the passing away of the prejudices of antiquity, disposed men for a new revelation which was spiritual, humane, non-provincial. The utter failure of Pagan religion from immorality, and of Pagan philosophy to cure that immorality and the miseries it entailed, called loudly for some new Faith, which should be both sure and powerful. The century immediately preceding our Lord’s advent was probably the most remarkable in all history. Everything was in a state of transition; old things were passing away…There were strange rumours afloat of coming relief, and singular hopes stirred the hearts of men that some Great One was about to appear and renovate the world.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Hence also it is evident that Christ was promised, not only to the Jews, but to the whole world.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: But while no doubt all this is true and becomes more certain the more we know of the state of things into which Christ came, it is to be noted that Paul is not thinking of “the fulness of time” primarily in reference to the world which received Him, but to the Father who sent Him.

JOHN CALVIN: “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,” These few words contain much instruction. The Son, Who was sent, must have existed before He was sent; and this proves His eternal Godhead. Christ therefore is the Son of God, sent from heaven. Yet this same person was “made of a woman,” because He assumed our nature, which shows that He has two natures.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): And this woman was yet a virgin: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” Isaiah 7:14.

JOHN GILL: “Made,” not created as Adam was; nor begotten by man, as men in common are—but “made;” which word the Holy Ghost chooses, to express the mighty power of God, in His mysterious incarnation, wonderful conception, and birth…He was “made of a woman,” and was “made under the law,” and became subject to it.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Made of a woman” according to the promise of Genesis 3:15—to redeem them that were “under the law,” who were condemned and cursed by it.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): He was appointed both to endure the penalty due to our transgressions, and to fulfill the broken Adamic covenant of immaculate obedience; that He might thereby “redeem them that were under the law,” under its bondage and curse, “that we,” who believe in Him, “might receive the adoption of sons.”

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The long-expected Messiah appeared, as the surety and Saviour of sinners, to accomplish the great work of redemption. For these purposes he was born of a virgin, of the family of David, at the town of Bethlehem, as the prophets had foretold.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): And what God purposed in eternity, Jesus accomplished in the fulness of time, or in the due appointed time—the Son, who was “in the bosom of the Father” before the world was, when the fullness of time came, was sent forth, made of a woman; “He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death…that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man,” Hebrews 2:9. He came to save, to redeem, and therefore to die for the ungodly. He glorified the Father on the earth. He finished the work which the Father gave Him to do. His death as a sacrifice for sin was for the glory of God.

JOHN NEWTON: He did come in the “fulness of time,” according to the prophecy; and the word of prophecy assures us, that He will come again. “Behold he cometh in the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him,” Revelation 1:7.

 

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The Baby Born with Immunity to the World’s Deadliest Virus

Posted on December 18, 2020 by The Editor

Psalm 51:5; Romans 7:18,24,25; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:2

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.

I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing…O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.” The doctrine of Original Sin is here distinctly affirmed.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): David confesses that he was formed in sin, and that he was a transgressor ere he saw the light of this world…The Bible, both in this and other places, clearly asserts that we are born in sin, and that it exists within us as a disease fixed in our nature.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Here is the great Apostle Paul, mourning and groaning over a body of sin and death; in which he declares, “dwelt no good thing.” Notice the lamentable cry Paul put up, in the contemplation of his sinful nature. “Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): His meaning is, that there was no good thing naturally in him.

CHARLES SIMEON: Paul declares of himself, as well as all the rest of the human race, that they are “by nature children of wrath,” Ephesians 2:3…Thus we see both these eminent saints confessing that their nature, as derived from their first parents, was altogether corrupt.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The virus of sin is in our being, from the moment we draw our first breath…Jesus Christ’s humanity was different from ours in this.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Jesus was supernaturally conceived of a virgin, and therefore, the virus of sin never entered His veins…When the Eternal Word was “made flesh,” He did not contract the corruptions of our fallen nature. Unlike all of human kind, He was not “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” On the contrary His mother was told, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): When the angel announced to Mary the glad tidings of the Saviour’s birth, she said unto him, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”—Mary, doubtless, imagined that this birth was to be according to the principles of ordinary generation. But the angel corrects her mistake and enunciates one of the grandest truths of revelation. He declares to her that divine power was about to form a real Man—“the second man, the Lord from heaven,” 1 Corinthians 12:47—one whose nature was divinely pure, utterly incapable of receiving or communicating any taint. This Holy One was made “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” without sin in the flesh, Romans 8:3. He partook of real flesh and blood without a particle or shadow of the evil thereto attaching.

A. W. PINK: He was uncontaminated by the virus of sin.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): The immunity of the nature wherein He was one with us—He was made like unto us in all things, sin excepted.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): For this great and gracious purpose was Jesus Christ manifested, that He who had no sin of His own, might take away our sin.

A. W. PINK: The manifold wisdom of God determined that His Son should become the Representative and Surety of sinners and so be substituted in their place. But who else would have thought of such a thing: that the Son should occupy the place of rebels and become the Object of Divine wrath! And in order for the Son to be the sinner’s Surety, He must render satisfaction to the Law in man’s own nature! What created intelligence had deemed such a thing possible: that a Divine Person should become incarnate and be both God and man in one Person! Had God not made known such a marvel, what finite intelligence could have devised a way whereby the Son should become flesh without partaking of the pollution of fallen human nature? Not only that the infinite should become finite—the Ancient of Days an infant, but that He should be born of a woman without being tainted by the virus of sin!—an immaculate human nature was produced in Mary’s womb by the operation of the Holy Spirit, so that a “holy thing,” spotless and impeccable, was born by her!—The Son of God became the Son of Man.

CHARLES SIMEON: He had no sin of His own to answer for, and hence it is that His atonement becomes effectual for us.

C. H. SPURGEON: “With His stripes we are healed,” Isaiah 53:5. It is a universal medicine—an application of the blue bruises of your Lord will take out the deadly virus from your soul.

CHARLES SIMEON: True it is, that “the body is still subjected to death,” Romans 8:10; as it is said, “It is appointed unto men once to die,” Hebrews 9:27.

H. A. IRONSIDE: We begin to die as soon as we are born. The seeds of death, as it were, are in the body of every child of Adam…These bodies of ours are mortal, that is, subject to death. We are told that, “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,” James 1:15. That is why we die, because we have all inherited the virus of Adam’s sin. But it was otherwise with the body of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the Sinless One, and, therefore, while He came into the world with a body that could die, it was not necessary that it should die. He had in His own power the ability to die or to live on for endless years. But He died out of love for our guilty souls and out of love for the Father, because He came to do the Father’s will.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The grave is the peculiar heritage of a sinner…When we go to the grave, we go to our own place; but our Lord Jesus, who had no sin of His own, had no grave of His own; dying under imputed sin, it was fit that He should be buried in a borrowed grave, Matthew 27:57-60.

C. H. SPURGEON: But now comes the contrast—“being born not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,” 1 Peter 1:23…That child which has just experienced the first birth has been made partaker of corruptible seed—He receives the evil virus which was first infused into us by the Fall. Not so, however, is it when we are born again. No sin is then sown within us. This sin of the old flesh remains, but there is no sin in the newborn nature—it cannot sin because it is born of God Himself.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): All human beings see corruption, because born in sin, and liable to the curse. The human body of Jesus Christ, as being without sin, saw no corruption.

JOHN GILL: He “saw no corruption;” He rose again and lives for evermore, Acts 2:24-31.

THOMAS COKE: We shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: and, as members of His body, because He lives, we shall live also.

JOHN CALVIN: “We shall be like Him,” 1 John  3:2—because He will make “our vile body conformable to His glorious body,” as Paul also teaches us in Philippians 3:21.

 

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The World’s Most Deadly Virus

Posted on December 11, 2020 by The Editor

Jeremiah 17:9; Titus 1:15; Isaiah 1:5,6

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): Probably the greatest practical heresy of each age is a low idea of our undone condition under the guilt and dominion of sin.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The virus of sin, what will it poison? Yes, what will it not poison? Its influence has been baleful upon the largest conceivable scale.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): As to the terrible consequences which sin has wrought in the human constitution, scarcely any now have more than the vaguest conceptions. So long as a man obeys the laws of his country, discharges with measurable faithfulness his human obligations, and does not grossly defy the commandments of God, it is popularly assumed that there is little wrong with him—and he is altogether unconscious of the deadly virus of sin which has corrupted every part of his inner being…In the case of the unregenerate, though they have occasional twinges of conscience when they act wrongfully, they are very largely ignorant of the awful fact that they are a complete mass of corruption in the pure eyes of the thrice holy God.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Sinners are blind; their understanding is so darkened by sin that they see not the way of truth and salvation. They are lame—not able to walk in the path of righteousness. They are leprous, their souls are defiled with sin, the most loathsome and inveterate disease; deepening in themselves, and infecting others. They are deaf to the voice of God, His Word, and their own conscience. They are dead in trespasses and sins; God, who is the life of the soul, being separated from it by iniquity.

A. W. PINK: Precisely, what is the nature of human depravity?

C. H. SPURGEON: Man is a reeking mass of corruption—the virus of evil is in him.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): You see, the trouble with all mankind is not that they become sinners by sinning, but they sin because they are sinners. We are born in sin and are shapen in iniquity. The virus of sin is in our being, from the moment we draw our first breath.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Man’s nature is fallen; his heart is radically corrupt, all its faculties perverted, and his whole mind and conscience defiled. “The heart deceitful above all things; ” it puts false glosses upon sin, which hide its malignity and danger.

C. H. SPURGEON: Men think that sin is nothing, but what will sin do?

WILLIAM S. PLUMER: Truly, sin kills—sin has digged every grave.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Sin brought death into the world. Sin is the very sting of death—and death introduces the sinner to judgment.

A. W. PINK: Had there been no sin, there would have been no death. It is sin, unpardoned sin, which makes death so dreadful, for not only does it put a final end to all its pleasures, but it conducts its subjects to certain judgment.

THOMAS COKE: Fear and terror of conscience are the natural consequences of guilt, and the present wages of sin.

C. H. SPURGEON: This disease, moreover, is not only exceedingly painful when the conscience is smarting, but it is altogether incurable, so far as any human ill is concerned. “For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous,” Jeremiah 30:12. It would be much easier to heal a man’s body of leprosy than to heal a man’s soul of sin. It is a disease which takes such fast hold upon the nature and so entirely impregnates the mind with a deadly virus, that it abides in the very essence of manhood and can only be removed by a miracle. It is far more possible for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or the leopard his spots, than for a man who is accustomed to do evil, to learn to do well—especially to love to do well and find pleasure in it.

THOMAS COKE: Man’s heart is “desperately wicked;” not only evil in that mere state of nature, but evil continually and incurably, without the grace of God, desperately set upon sin, without power to abstain from it, or ability to get rid of the bondage of corruption.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” Proverbs 28:26. Since the thoughts and imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are only evil, and that continually, Genesis 6:5—he must be a fool, and not know the plague of his heart, that trusts in it; and even for a good man to be self-confident, and trust to the sincerity of his heart, as Peter did, or to the good frame of the heart, as many do, is acting a foolish part; and especially such are fools as the Scribes and Pharisees, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others, when a man’s best righteousness is impure and imperfect, and cannot justify him in the sight of God.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We are all naturally self-righteous. It is the family disease of the children of Adam.

C. H. SPURGEON: If this were a matter of custom, or practice, it might be fought with and overcome, but inasmuch as it is a matter of nature, and the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint with it—no human power can possibly effect a cure.

THOMAS COKE: Nothing can cure it but His almighty grace; and therefore it were folly to depend on ourselves or others, in whose hearts such deceit and desperate wickedness are naturally so deeply rooted.

J. C. RYLE: To be sensible of our corruption and abhor our own transgressions is the first symptom of spiritual health.

A. W. PINK: He who is experimentally acquainted with the “plague of his own heart,” 1 Kings 8:38, is one in experience with the most eminent of God’s saints. Abraham acknowledged he was “dust and ashes,” Genesis 18:27. Job said “I abhor myself,” Job 42:6. David prayed, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord heal me; for my bones are vexed,” Psalm 6:2. Isaiah exclaimed “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,” Isaiah 6:5…Daniel said, “There remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption,” Daniel 10:8. Paul cried, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24. Thus it is in the case of one who has been renewed by the Spirit: his eyes have been opened to see the awful filth which lurks in every corner of his heart.

J. C. RYLE: There is far more wickedness in all our hearts than we know.

THOMAS COKE: The more we know of ourselves, far from having fathomed the abyss of evil, we discover but the more clearly, that the depths of corruption in man by nature are unfathomable; we can neither understand the number of our errors, nor promise ourselves for a moment, without divine aid, security from the deepest and foulest falls.

C. H. SPURGEON: Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, and the power of divine grace, hell itself does not contain greater monsters than you and I might become.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Indeed, every sin should convince us of the general truth of the corruption of our nature.

 

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