The Testimony of Many Witnesses

Posted on October 20, 2023 by The Editor

1 Peter 1:3-5; Romans 8:29,30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 1:6; 1 John 3:1,2

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 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.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Among men, the testimony of “two or three witnesses,” Matthew 18:16, is sufficient to remove all doubt. God lays down, authoritatively, this law as applicable to all cases, that they shall be decided “by the mouth of two or three witnesses,” Deuteronomy 17:6.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): In Deuteronomy the rule given concerns only judicial trials; in Matthew it is a rule given for the management of persuasion.

THE EDITOR: Here we have the infallible inspired witness of three Apostles—Peter, Paul and John—to the predestination of believers chosen in Christ, and the inevitable certainty of their being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, by faith, through a process of sanctification that will not be finished in its fullness until the day of glory at the last day, when Jesus appears.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Beloved, now are we the sons of God”—By adoption, secretly in God’s predestination, in the covenant of grace; and openly in regeneration, through faith in Christ, and by the testimony of the Spirit: “and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” Though sons, they do not appear now as such, as they will do, when they shall be introduced into their Father’s house, and into the many mansions there prepared for them; when Christ shall publicly own them as the children given unto Him, and when they shall be put into the possession of the inheritance they are heirs of—they will then inherit the kingdom prepared for them, and will sit down on a throne of glory, and have a crown of righteousness, life, and glory, put upon them; and will appear not only perfectly justified, their sins being not to be found—but they will be perfectly holy and free from all sin, and perfectly knowing and glorious.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” We are changed into the same image “from glory to glory,”—from one degree of glorious grace unto another, till grace here be consummated in glory for ever…The work of grace is but begun in this life; it is not finished here; as long as we are in this imperfect state there is something more to be done. If the same God Who begins the good work did not undertake the carrying on and finishing of it, it would lie for ever unfinished. He must perform it who began it. We may be confident, or well persuaded, that God not only will not forsake, but that He will finish and crown the work of His own hands.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): His image shall then be perfected in us…Lest it should be objected, that though the inheritance be safe in heaven, yet the heirs are in danger here upon earth, by reason of the power and stratagems of enemies, and their own imprudence and weakness, Peter adds, that not only their inheritance is reserved for them, but they are preserved unto it, kept securely and carefully, as with a garrison—so the word signifies—against all the assaults, incursions, and devices of the devil and the world. “Who are kept, by the power of God,” which power is infinite and invincible, and therefore able to keep them.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): How fully doth it prove, our oneness with Christ, and our interest in Christ. How ought it to bear us up, against every temptation, every sorrow, trial, and affliction! And what a security against sickness, death, judgment, and all fears of the future.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,” Romans 5:10. Paul argued that if the death of Christ reconciled God’s enemies to Himself, the life of Christ will certainly preserve safely those who are the friends of God! That was a good argument, was it not? Moreover, I doubt not that Paul remembered the doctrine of the union of believers with Christ, and he said to himself, “Shall Christ lose the members of His body? Shall a foot or an arm be lopped off from Him?” And he could not think that it could be so!

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): Is it not a comfortless doctrine, that founds their believing and perseverance on their own free will?

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): It has a natural tendency to keep the soul in darkness for ever; because the creature thereby is taught, that his being kept in a state of salvation, is owing to his own free will.  And what a sandy foundation is that for a poor creature to build his hopes of perseverance upon? Every relapse into sin, every surprise by temptation, must throw him into doubts and fears, into horrible darkness, even darkness that might be felt.

JOHN CALVIN: But we, on the contrary, ought to feel confident, that He who has begun in us a good work, will carry it on until the day of the Lord Jesus—Christ is the bond; for He is the beloved Son, in Whom the Father is well pleased. If, then, we are through Him united to God, we may be assured of the immutable and unfailing kindness of God towards us.

C. H. SPURGEON: Somebody says, “That is Calvinistic doctrine.” If you like to call it so, you may, but I would rather that you made the mistake of the good old Christian woman who did not know much about these things and who said that she was “a high Calvarist.”—And it is “high Calvary” doctrine that I find in this passage. He who hung on high at Calvary was such a lover of the souls of men that, from that glorious fact, I am brought to this blessed persuasion, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8:38,39.

ROBERT HAWKER: Yea, such astonishing love God hath shown, as passeth all understanding: He hath given us His own Son. He hath justified, Christ has died, the Holy Spirit hath witnessed. And therefore, Paul challenges the whole creation to separate us from Christ.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We may feel convinced in our minds that the thing is true because affirmed by one in whom we have confidence; but God is wiser than we. It may be that the one witness is thoroughly upright and truthful; all this may be true, but we must adhere to the divine rule, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”

THE EDITOR: Very well then. If the testimony of two or three human witnesses is sufficient evidence to decide a matter among men, how much more so is the testimony of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?

ROBERT HAWKER: Brethren! the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

 

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Man’s Natural Pride & Its Enmity Against God

Posted on October 13, 2023 by The Editor

Jeremiah 17:9; Obadiah 1:3; Psalm 10:4; Romans 8:7

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is in the unregenerate an opposition to spiritual things and an aversion against them.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): He doth not say the carnal mind is an enemy, but in the abstract, it is enmity, which heightens and intensifies the sense. An enemy may be reconciled, as Esau was to Jacob; but enmity itself cannot be reconciled; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be—the carnal mind is rebellious in the highest degree against the will of God, unless it be changed and renewed.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It is enmity itself against God—against His being; it wishes He was not; it forms unworthy notions of Him; thinks Him such an one as itself; and endeavours to bury him in forgetfulness, and erase out of its mind all memorials of Him: it is at enmity against His perfections; either denying His omniscience; or arraigning His justice and faithfulness; or despising His goodness, and abusing His grace and mercy: it finds fault with, and abhors His decrees and purposes; quarrels with His providences; it is implacable against His Word and Gospel; especially the particular doctrines of grace, the Father’s grace in election, the Son’s in redemption, and the Spirit’s in regeneration; and has in the utmost contempt the ordinances and people of Christ.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): What is the cause of it?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It springs from self-righteous pride.

JOHN GILL: Pride is naturally in every man’s heart.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Our natural pride is a great hindrance to believing.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): It was the sin of pride that changed angels into devils. Pride not only withdraws the heart from God, but lifts it up against God.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God.” He is too proud to bend his knee before his Judge; he is too haughty to put on sackcloth, and lay himself in the dust, though without deep repentance and humiliation, he must without doubt perish everlastingly.

THOMAS MANTON: Pride destroys love.

CHARLES SIMEON: In the most imperfect of the regenerate, there is a predominant principle of love to God; whereas in the best of unregenerate men there is a rooted enmity against Him—It deems His holiness too strict, His justice too severe, His truth too inflexible; and His mercy itself is hateful to them, on account of the humiliating way in which it is dispensed. Even the very existence of God is so odious to them, that they say in their hearts, “I wish there were no God,” Psalm 14:1.

JOHN DAVIES (circa 1798): Man naturally hates God, and all who are like Him, and all that is calculated to make man like Him.

ADAM CLARKE: It is irreconcilable and implacable hatred. “It is not subject to the law of God.” It will come under no obedience; for it is sin, and the very principle of rebellion; and therefore it cannot be subject, nor subjected; for it is essential to sin to show itself in rebellion.

JOHN GILL: Carnal men are subject to the law’s sentence of condemnation—but not to its precepts, by obedience to them—neither indeed can it be, without regenerating grace, without the power and Spirit of God—for carnal men are dead in sin, and so without strength to obey the law; and besides, the carnal mind, and the law of God, are directly contrary one to another.

MATTHEW POOLE: It is impossible it should be otherwise; there is in it a moral impotency to obedience.

CHARLES SIMEON: This incapacity to obey God’s law is justly adduced as proof of our enmity against Him: for if we loved Him, we should love His will; and if we hate His will, whatever we may pretend, we in reality hate Him.

JOHN GILL: Where is man’s power and free will?

JOHN CALVIN: The Scripture testifies often that man is a slave of sin.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): The Scripture avers, that “by one man’s disobedience all men were constituted sinners;” that “in Adam all died,” spiritually died, lost the life and image of God; that fallen, sinful Adam then “begat a son in his own likeness”—nor was it possible he should beget him in any other; for “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?”—that consequently we, as well as other men, were by nature, “dead in trespasses and sins, without hope, without God in the world,” and, therefore, “children of wrath;” that every man may say, “I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me;” that “there is no difference” in that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”―of that glorious image of God wherein man was created. And hence, “when the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, He saw they were all gone out of the way; they were altogether become abominable, there was none righteous, no, not one”―“that the wickedness of man was great in the earth”―so great, “that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  This is God’s account of man.  And this account of the present state of man is confirmed by daily experience.

A. W. PINK: Such a conception of man—so different from man’s own ideas, and so humiliating to his proud heart, never could have emanated from man himself. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” is a concept that never originated in any human mind.

JOHN GILL: No wonder the carnal mind does not stoop to the Gospel of Christ, when it is not, and cannot be subject to the law of God. It is natural and deeply rooted in the mind, and irreconcilable without the power and grace of God. This enmity is universal, it is in all unregenerate men, either direct or indirect, hidden or more open.

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

JOHN CALVIN: Pride is always the companion of unbelief.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): No sin is so deeply rooted in our nature as pride. It cleaves to us like our skin.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): Pride takes many forms and shapes; and it encompasses the heart like the layers of an onion―when you pull off one layer, there is another underneath.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Self-righteousness is never meek. The man who is proud of himself will be quite sure to be hard-hearted in his dealings with others.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): Offended pride is one of the most active principles of human nature.

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): Pride nourishes the remembrance of injuries: but humility forgets as well as forgives them…If the sufferings of Christ, who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, be much in my heart, I shall see my worst enemy to be pride, especially pride of wisdom, pride of righteousness.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): There is no reasoning with a proud man; he castles himself in his own opinion, and stands upon his defence against all arguments that are brought.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Thus their pride deceives them, and by it slays them.

JOHN GILL: Hence we see the necessity of almighty power, and efficacious grace in conversion. It is Christ’s work to subject men to the law, which is done when He justifies by His righteousness.

 

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Thanksgiving & Praise, the Inseparable Twins of True Worship

Posted on October 6, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 100

A Psalm of praise.

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): In all acts of religious worship, whether in secret or in our families, we come into God’s presence, and serve Him; but it is in public worship especially that we “enter into his gates and into his courts.” But let the people be thankful for their place in the courts of God’s house, to which they were admitted and where they gave their attendance.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): When ye come to the house of prayer, be thankful that you have such a privilege; and when you enter His courts, praise Him for the permission.

MATTHEW HENRY: Great encouragement is given us in worshipping God, to do it cheerfully: “Serve the Lord with gladness.” By holy joy we do really serve God; it is an honour to Him to rejoice in Him, and we ought to serve Him with holy joy…We must intermix praise and thanksgiving with all our services. This golden thread must run through every duty—“In every thing give thanks,” in every ordinance, as well as in every providence.

THE EDITOR: How often we read of David joyfully intermixing praise and thanksgiving in the true worship of God! “I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people,” Psalm 35:18. “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving, Psalm 69:30. “Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.” Psalm 18:49. “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD,” Psalm 116:17. Indeed, it seems impossible to truly worship God without praise and thankfulness. “Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name,” 1 Chronicles 29:13.

MATTHEW HENRY: The matter of praise, and motives to it, are very important. Know what God is in Himself and what He is to you. Let us know then these things concerning the Lord Jehovah, with Whom we have to do in all the acts of religious worship.

“1. The Lord He is God,” the only living and true God—that He is a Being infinitely perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient, and the fountain of all being; He is God, and not a man as we are. He is an eternal Spirit, incomprehensible and independent, the first cause and last end. The heathen worshipped the creature of their own fancy; the workmen made it, therefore it is not God. We worship Him that made us and all the world; He is God, and all other pretended deities are vanity and a lie, and such as He has triumphed over.

2. He is our Creator: “It is He that has made us, and not we ourselves.” Therefore He is our rightful owner. He has an incontestable right to, and property in, us and all things. His we are, to be actuated by His power, disposed of by His will, and devoted to His honour and glory.

3. He is our sovereign ruler: “ We are His people,” or subjects, and He is our prince, that gives law to us as moral agents, and will call us to an account for what we do. “The Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver,” Isaiah 33:22. We are not at liberty to do what we will, but must always make conscience of doing as we are bidden.

4. He is our bountiful benefactor. We are not only His sheep, whom He is entitled to, but “the sheep of His pasture,” whom He takes care of; the flock of His feeding—so it may be read—He that made us maintains us, and gives us all good things richly to enjoy.

5. He is a God of infinite mercy and goodness: “The Lord is good,” and therefore does good; “His mercy is everlasting;” it is a fountain that can never be drawn dry. The saints, who are now the sanctified vessels of mercy, will be, to eternity, the glorified monuments of mercy.

6. He is a God of inviolable truth and faithfulness: “His truth endures to all generations,” and no word of His shall fall to the ground as antiquated or revoked. The promise is sure to all the seed, from age to age.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771):  Be thankful for all blessings of grace in Him, and by Him.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Do but think what a Protector you have, even One who is infinitely wise to discover all that your great adversary is plotting for your destruction, and infinitely powerful to shield you from his fiercest assaults. Surely you may adopt the triumphant language of Paul, Romans 8:35-39, since, however weak you be, God has engaged to “perfect His own strength in your weakness,” 2 Corinthians 12:9. Think too what a Friend you have, Who will “supply your every want out of the fulness that is in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:19, and employ all His wisdom and all His power for the enriching and comforting of your souls. Lastly, think what a Rewarder you have, Who has provided for you on earth whatsoever His infinite wisdom has judged best, and all that His almighty power can impart to make you happy, whilst in heaven is reserved for you an eternity of inconceivable and unutterable bliss. I say then to you especially, “tune your harps to sing the praises” of your redeeming God, and live in the habitual and delightful anticipation of the blessedness that awaits you in a better world.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He speaks to us in His works, let us answer Him with our thanks. All He does is gracious, every movement of His hand is goodness; therefore let our hearts reply with gratitude, and our lips with song. Our lives should be responses to divine love.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Answer God’s goodness by thankfulness and obedience.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is the soul that is to be employed in blessing God, and all that is within us.

CHARLES SIMEON: Indeed, if we duly contemplate His character, and the wonderful things which, of His sovereign goodness, He has wrought for us, we shall find our minds constantly attuned to this holy exercise: methinks, our every feeling will be gratitude, and our every word be praise. This is the return which our God looks for at our hands: “Whoso offereth me praise, glorifieth me,” Psalm 50:23.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): David engages us to give thanks to God for His goodness, since the faithful can render Him no other recompense than the sacrifice of praise. “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD,” Psalm 116:17.

C. H. SPURGEON: Jehovah is ever engaged in giving, let us respond with thanksgiving “Unto our God.” How that possessive pronoun puts a world of endearment into the majestic word “God”! “This God is our God.” Now, can you call God your God? Is He indeed yours? If so, “Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God,” Psalm 147:7.

 

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When Jesus Christ Stands Up

Posted on September 29, 2023 by The Editor

Acts 7:51-60

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The picture of the martyrdom of Stephen is full of exquisite beauty.

THE EDITOR: In the forty-nine verses that preceded this passage, Stephen had calmly recited the history of the Jews from God’s calling of Abraham to the building of Solomon’s temple. But then, with these final words, the tone of his speech suddenly changes; Stephen now accuses them plainly and directly of their crimes against God, His Holy Spirit, and His Son; and by the power of the Holy Spirit, these words cut them to the heart. Undoubtedly, this is a New Testament “Thus saith the Lord,” moment; and at this very moment, Stephen “being full of the Holy Spirit,” sees the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Note: Those that are full of the Holy Ghost are fit for anything, either to act for Christ or to suffer for Him. And those whom God calls out to difficult services for His name, He will qualify for those services, and carry them comfortably through them, by filling them with the Holy Ghost, that as their afflictions for Christ abound, their consolation in Him may yet more abound, and then “none of these things move them.” Now here we have a remarkable communion between this blessed martyr and the blessed Jesus in this critical moment.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: A vision of his Lord was granted to him in the hour of his suffering and death. This vision of Christ seems to have shut out the brutality of the mob from the eyes of Stephen, and he saw the mob only in its folly and sin.

MATTHEW HENRY: He sees Christ is for him, and then no matter who is against him.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Other martyrs, when called to suffer the last extremities, had extraordinary assistances of a similar kind; or frail mortality surely could not have endured the torments under which they rejoiced; sometimes they preached Christ to the conversion of the spectators—occasionally even of their guards and tormentors.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Let Readers notice how Stephen speaks of Christ in His Mediator character and office—and I beg you not to overlook the Lord’s posture of standing, as if in readiness to receive Stephen to His arms, and to execute judgment upon His enemies.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: He saw His Lord, not sitting, but standing, thus fulfilling one aspect of His great priesthood.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This is very significant. We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that when Jesus “had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:3; but here, as Stephen looked up, he saw the Lord standing. What does it mean? It is just as though the blessed Lord in His great compassion for Stephen had risen from His seat and was looking over the battlements of Heaven to strengthen and cheer the martyr down on earth.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Stephen saw Him ‘standing,’ as if He had risen to His feet to see His servant’s need and was preparing to come to his help. What a rush of new strength for victorious endurance would flood Stephen’s soul as he beheld his Lord thus, as it were, starting to His feet in eagerness to succour! He looks down from amid the glory, and His calm repose does not involve passive indifference to His servant’s sufferings. Into it comes a full knowledge of all that they bear for Him, and His rest is not the negation of activity on their behalf, but its intense energy—Stephen’s vision brought together the glorified Lord and His servant, and filled the martyr’s soul with the fact that He suffered with those who suffered for His sake. That vision is a transient revelation of an eternal fact. Jesus knows and shares in all that affects His servants.

MATTHEW HENRY: He stands ready to receive him and crown him, and meanwhile to give him a prospect of the joy set before him—this was intended for Stephen’s encouragement.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Stephen “knew in whom he had believed,” and that “He was able to save him to the uttermost.” He knew that the soul, when liberated from the body, would continue to exist.

THOMAS COKE: That Stephen was fully confident of this is evident from his resigning up his soul to Jesus with the same confidence, and almost in the same words, with which Jesus gave up His soul to God the Father. The last words of our Saviour were, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” Luke 23:46.  Stephen, in the extremity of his sufferings, called upon God, and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” He died with these, and the following words in his mouth, “crying again with a loud voice,—Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!” In which he expressed as much charity to men, as in the other sentence he did faith in Christ…It has been well observed that Christ is generally represented sitting, but now as standing at God’s right hand—Stephen saw Him risen up from His throne, as if He was coming to be avenged of His enemies, and to welcome this martyr to immortal bliss.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people,” Isaiah 3:13. Both expressions show indignation and resentment; He rises up out of His place, and stands up in defence of His cause, and avenges Himself on a wicked ungrateful people.

THE EDITOR: But at this time our Lord answered Stephen’s intercessory prayer for those who were murdering him. No fire fell upon them instantly from heaven, and Christ’s judgment was stayed. But there will certainly come an appointed day, when Jesus shall stand up again to judge these people for their sins, of which, through the accusation of Stephen, the Holy Spirit had convicted their hearts—and also for their unrepentant rage, which added sin to sin.

JOHN GILL: Then “He shall stand upon the earth,” Job 19:25; for it is expressly said, that when He shall come, and all the saints with Him, “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives,” Zechariah 14:4—where He often was in the days of His flesh, and from whence He ascended to heaven, Luke 21:37; but He did not appear here at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; wherefore this must refer to a time to come; and seeing it is certain that He will come down from heaven in like manner as He went up, it seems very probable that He will descend upon that very spot of ground from whence He ascended.

CHARLES SIMEON: Soon will that Saviour who once died upon the cross come again in His glory to judge the world. Then will He bestow on them that recompence of reward, to which, whilst suffering for His sake, they had looked forward.

MATTHEW HENRY: When followers of Christ are for His sake “killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” does this separate them from the love of Christ? Does He love them less? Do they love Him less? No, by no means; and so it appears by this narrative.

 

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The Unity of Believers As Seen in the Lord’s Supper

Posted on September 22, 2023 by The Editor

Romans 15:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16,17

Receive ye one another, as Christ hath also received us to the glory of God.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Paul says that as we partake of Christ, we become one; we become, if you like, one loaf. There are some who say that verse 17 should be translated: “For we being many are one loaf—not bread—and one body.” So as we come to the Communion Service, and as the bread is broken, we are reminded at one and the same time of the parts, and of the whole.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The Lord’s Supper demands that the body be fully recognized: if the one body be not recognized, it is but sectarianism: the Lord Himself has lost His place. If the table be spread upon any narrower principle than that which would embrace the whole body of Christ, it is become a sectarian table…The celebration of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper should be the distinct expression of the unity of all believers, and not merely of the unity of a certain number gathered on certain principles, which distinguish them from others.

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE (1813-1843):  When Rowland Hill had preached in a Baptist chapel where none but baptized adults were admitted to the Lord’s Supper, he wished to observe it with them, but was told respectfully, ‘You cannot sit down at our table.’ He only calmly replied, “I thought it was the Lord’s table.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They forgot, when they denied fellowship in the outward act of eating bread and drinking wine, that the essential spirit of communion was far too spiritual to be thus restrained. The Holy Ghost will go into every member, and you may try to check Him by Church decrees, or to stop Him by your trust-deeds and your ordinances, that such-and-such a Church shall never be loosed from the bands of ancestral bigotry, but communion will go to all who are in Christ.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): The Baptist congregation at Northampton has at all times held a warm place in my affections, as it respects their love to all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, and prove the same by a holy correspondent life and conversation. In this sense only we should hold what may be called strict communion, but when our communion with each other is found inadmissible because of our less important differences about the mere circumstantials of religion, or the administration of a religious ordinance, this should not be called strict but sectarian communion.

C. H. SPURGEON: When I hear “strict communion” talked of, it reminds me of a little finger which was washed very clean, and therefore thought the rest of the body too filthy to have fellowship with it, so it took a piece of red tape and bound it tightly round itself, that the lifeblood might not flow from itself into the rest of the body.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There should be a happy medium between sectarian narrowness and the world’s ‘broadmindedness,’ between compromising the truth and turning away from some of the Lord’s people because they differ from us on non-essentials. Shall I refuse to partake of a meal because some of the dishes are not cooked as I like them? Then why decline fellowship with a brother in the Lord because he is unable to pronounce correctly my favourite shibboleth? It is not without reason that “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” is immediately preceded by “forbearing one another in love, ” Ephesians 4:2,3.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): This brings to mind the following occurrence―I was one day to dine with John Ryland at a friend’s house: while waiting for dinner, a minister asked Ryland’s opinion concerning strict communion and excluding pious men from the Lord’s table. “You decide the thing by calling it the Lord’s table, he replied. “Suppose, sir, when I entered this room, I had said, ‘Mr. such-a-one, you shall not sit down at this table; and Mrs. Such-a-one, you shall not sit down at this table?’ What would the master of this house, say?―‘Why, John Ryland, you are not the owner of this table. The table is mine, and I have a right to invite them; and I have invited them; and is it for you to forbid them?’ So in the church: the table is the Lord’s; and all who are called by His grace are His guests, and He has bidden them.”

ROWLAND HILL: What sort of evil is sectarianism? It is the cruel iron wedge of the devil’s own forging, to separate Christians from each other.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: If there be any term of communion proposed, save the all-important one of faith in the atonement of Christ, and a walk consistent with that faith, the table becomes the table of a sect.

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE: The early Reformers held the same view. Calvin wrote to Cranmer that he would cross ten seas to bring it about. Baxter, Owen, and Howe, in a later generation, pleaded for it; and the Westminster Divines laid down the same principle: “Saints, by profession, are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God—which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH: If we could only bear in mind that the Lord Himself presides at the table to dispense the bread and wine; if we could hear Him say, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves,” we should be better able to meet all our brethren on the only Christian ground of fellowship which God can own. In a word, the person of Christ is the centre of union; the word is, “Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.”

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE: I have no doubt from Scripture that, where we have good reason for regarding a man as a child of God, we are permitted and commanded to treat him as a brother; and, as the most sacred pledge of heavenly friendship, to sit down freely at the table of our Lord, to eat bread and drink wine together in remembrance of Christ. If we have solid ground to believe that a fellow-sinner has been, by the Holy Spirit, grafted into the true vine, then we have ground to believe that we are vitally united to one another for eternity.

HUGH MARTIN (1822-1885): Those that are Christ’s are welcome; those that are not are forbidden…In the name of Christ, who spreads this table and presides over all its fellowship, we invite those that are Christ’s, those who have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts―to come to the table of the Lord.

C. H. SPURGEON: What food luxurious loads the board,

When, at His table, sits the Lord!

The wine how rich, the bread how sweet,

When Jesus deigns the guests to meet!

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): With Jesus in the midst, we gather round the board,

 Tho’ many, we are one in Christ, one body in the Lord.

MARY B. PETERS (1813-1856): Around Thy table, holy Lord, In fellowship we meet,

                                                              Obedient to Thy gracious word, This feast of love to eat.

Here ev’ry one that loves Thy name, Our willing hearts embrace;

 Our source of life and hope the same, all debtors to Thy grace.

 

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What Thinkest Thou?

Posted on September 15, 2023 by The Editor

Ezekiel 11:5; Jeremiah 4:14

I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

Wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): “How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” is the inquiry of the prophet Jeremiah. And Paul hath set it down as a truth perfectly incontrovertible, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God; that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and they that are in the flesh cannot please God, ” Romans 8:7,8.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Carnal hearts are stews of unclean thoughts, shambles of cruel and bloody thoughts, exchanges and shops of vain thoughts, a very forge and mint of false, political, undermining thoughts, yea, often a little hell of confused and black imaginations, as one well describeth them.

ROBERT HAWKER: And although the mind be renewed by grace, still “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing,” Romans 7:18. The man who thinks otherwise, only manifests that he is a stranger to his own corruptions, and Paul’s experience.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): By nature we love vain thoughts, and hate the law of God. But in a renewed mind the case is altered; its delight is in the law of God; and therefore it cannot bear vain thoughts, which are contrary to that law, and exalt themselves against it, Psalm 119:113.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): They who “regard iniquity in their hearts,” are in a state of desperate delusion. God, who searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins, “will bring every secret thing into judgment,” and acquit or condemn, according as He sees the prevailing bent of the heart. If then our “thoughts be not so far captivated to the obedience of Christ” that we cherish those that are holy, and mortify all that are corrupt, we may perceive beyond a doubt that we are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.

THOMAS SCOTT: Thoughts are often said to be free from human censure―they are, but not from the cognizance and judgment of the Omniscient.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): How solemn is this fact: nothing can be concealed from God!

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): Thy thoughts are vocal to God.

WILLIAM SECKER (died 1681): Vain thoughts defile the heart as well as vile thoughts.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Evil thoughts as unavoidably arise from an evil nature, as steam arises from a boiling tea kettle. Every cause will have its effect, and a sinful nature will have sinful effects. You can no more keep such thoughts out of your mind than you can stop the course of the clouds. But though we cannot prevent evil thoughts from rising in our minds, we should endeavour to combat and suppress them.

CHARLES SIMEON: We are well aware that the best of men may have sinful thoughts rushing into their minds; but will they harbour them? No: every true Christian may say as in the presence of God, “I hate vain thoughts.”

JOHN TRAPP: In the midst of thee, in the very heart of thee, creep in they will, but why should they lodge there?

THOMAS SCOTT: The spiritual mind recoils at them; such thoughts will intrude from time to time, but they are unwelcome and distressing, and are immediately thrust out…There is no better test of our true character, than the habitual effect of “vain thoughts” upon our minds―whether we love and indulge them, or abhor, and watch and pray against them.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The moralist is quite content to look after his actions, but the Christian is never happy until his thoughts are sanctified―vain thoughts nailed his Saviour to the tree.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Follow men all the day long, and take account of their thoughts. Oh! what madness and folly are in all the musings they are conscious of―if we did judge as God judges, all the thoughts, reasonings, discourses of the mind, if they were set down in a table, we might write at the bottom, Here is the sum and total account of all: nothing but vanity.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): What a mass of vanity should we find in our minds, if we could bring our thoughts in the space of one day, even only one hour, to account? How many foolish thoughts with our wisdom, ignorant thoughts with our knowledge, worldly thoughts with our heavenliness, hypocritical thoughts with our religion, and proud thoughts with our humiliations? Our hearts would be like a grotto, furnished with monstrous and ridiculous pictures; or as the wall in Ezekiel’s vision portrayed with every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, Ezekiel 8:10-12.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): What are our own thoughts at this moment? What have they been this very day, while we have been reading this? Would they bear public examination? Should we like others to know all that passes in our inner man? These are serious questions, and deserve serious answers. Whatever we may think of them, it is a certain fact that Jesus Christ is hourly reading our hearts.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Behold the Great King sitteth on the throne of judgment, and challenging every child of Adam—“Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee; and answer thou me,” Job 38:3. The answer humbles us in the dust, Proverbs 20:9—“Who can say”—truly say—“I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” A sinner in his self-delusion may conceive himself to be a saint. But that a saint should ever believe that he made himself so, is impossible. What! no vain thoughts, no sinful imaginations, lodging within! No ignorance, pride, wandering, coldness, worldliness, unbelief indulged! The more we search the heart, the more will its impurity open upon us. “Turn thou yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations,” Ezekiel 8:13, evils hitherto unsuspected. Vain boasters there are, who proclaim their good hearts. But the boast proves, not their goodness, but their blindness; that man is so depraved, that he cannot understand his own depravity.

J. C. RYLE: Truly we ought to humble ourselves before Him, and cry daily, “Who can tell how oft he offendeth?”—“Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”—“God be merciful to me a sinner!”

JOHN TRAPP: Behold a little the body of thy Saviour, hanging upon the cross. See Him afflicted from top to toe. See Him wounded in the head, to heal our vain imaginations. See Him wounded in the hands, to heal our evil actions. See Him wounded in the heart, to cure our vain thoughts. See His eyes shut up, that did enlighten the world; see them shut, that thine might be turned from seeing vanity. See that countenance so goodly to behold, spit upon and buffeted, that thy face might shine glorious as the angels in heaven,

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): With thoughts of Christ and things divine,

Fill up this foolish heart of mine.

 

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An Enlarged Heart

Posted on September 8, 2023 by The Editor

Ezekiel 36:26,27; 1 Kings 4:29; Psalm 119:32; 2 Corinthians 6:11-13

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

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

O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): 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.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Now what is meant by enlargement of heart?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Solomon “had wisdom and understanding, exceeding much,”—a quickness of thought, strength of memory, and clearness of judgment, such as never any man had. It is called “largeness of heart,” for the heart is often put for the intellectual powers. He had a vast compass of knowledge, could take things entire, and had an admirable faculty of laying things together. Or it may be meant of his disposition to do good with his knowledge. He was very free and communicative, had the gift of utterance as well as wisdom.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): The ‘heart’ is the centre of the personal being, from which thoughts as well as affections flow, and the phrase here points to thoughts rather than to affections.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We are thoroughly convinced the only true breadth of mind, largeness of heart and catholicity of spirit, is to obey the commandments of God.

JOHN CALVIN: In Psalm 119:32, the meaning of David 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. No sooner does God expand their hearts, than they are fitted not only for walking, but also for running in the way of His commandments. He reminds us that the proper observance of the law consists not merely in external works—that it demands willing obedience, so that the heart must, to some extent, and in some way, enlarge itself. Not that it has the self-determining power of doing this, but when once its hardness and obstinacy are subdued, it moves freely without being any longer contracted by its own narrowness.

JEREMIAH DYKE (1584-1639): The heart is prepared and enlarged to praises, thanksgiving, and joy in the Lord.

MATTHEW HENRY: God, by His Spirit, enlarges the hearts of His people when He gives them wisdom—for that is called largeness of heart, when he sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and puts gladness there. The joy of our Lord should be wheels to our obedience.

C. H. SPURGEON: A great heart is a running heart. A little heart goes slowly, but an enlarged heart runs in the way of God’s commandments.

THE EDITOR: “Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee,” Isaiah 60:5. Its context speaks of the Gentiles coming to Christ. What of this text?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Fear doth properly contract the heart, therefore this expression intimates it to be a fear mixed with such an affection as will dilate it.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The prophet signifies that this wonderful increase of the church shall excite in the minds of the pious the different affectations both of fear and joy. Thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged—shall fear the Lord and His goodness, and be enlarged with love to Him, His truths and ordinances, and His people.

MATTHEW HENRY: When God intends the beauty and prosperity of His church He gives this largeness of heart and an extensive charity.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER: Before conversion, the soul is sordidly selfish, but no sooner does this change take place than the heart begins to be enlarged with an expansive benevolence. The whole world is embraced in its charity. “Good will to man” is a remarkable characteristic of the “new creature;” and this intense desire for the salvation of our fellow-men, and ardent wish that they may all become interested in that Saviour whom we have found to be so precious, is the true source of the missionary spirit.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): And what is the effect of it?

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The apostle Paul was full of the Spirit of love.

HENRY SCOUGAL (1650-1678): A soul thus possessed with divine love must need be enlarged toward all mankind, in a sincere and unbounded affection, because of the relation they have to God being His creatures, and having something of His image stamped upon them.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): An enlarged heart of affection to the whole body of Christ, could not but show itself, in suitable terms, of the warmest desires for their welfare.

MATTHEW HENRY: Because Paul’s heart was thus enlarged with love to them, therefore he opened his mouth so freely to them in kind admonitions and exhortations.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Our mouth is opened toward you, with uncommon freedom, because our heart is enlarged—in tenderness.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): We may take largeness of heart for grandeur of soul, magnanimity, generosity, liberality.

RICHARD SIBBES (1577-1635): Let us remember that grace is increased, in the exercise of it, not by virtue of the exercise itself, but as Christ by His Spirit flows into the soul and brings us nearer to Himself, the fountain, so instilling such comfort that the heart is further enlarged. The heart of a Christian is Christ’s garden, and His graces are as so many sweet spices and flowers, when His Spirit blows upon them, send forth a sweet savour. Therefore keep the soul open to entertain the Holy Ghost.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): What is the reason we are so dumb and tongue-tied in prayer? Because our heart is so barren.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): In all your approaches to God, beg and plead hard with Him for the manifestations of His love, and further communications of His grace.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): The Spirit helps our infirmities. He teaches us how to pray and leads us out in prayer; He enlarges us in prayer.

JOHN FLAVEL: The wants of the body enrich the soul, outward straightenings are the occasions of inward enlargements. “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress,” Psalm 4:1.

C. H. SPURGEON: Suffering enlarges the heart by creating the power to sympathize. If we pray eagerly for ourselves, we shall not long be able to forget our fellow-sufferers.

THE EDITOR: God uses various means to enlarge our hearts, as He did with David in his distress. An enlargement of heart is a gift from God, as it was to Solomon. It gives us greater love for God, a willing obedience to His commandments, and joy, thanksgiving, and full-hearted praise to God, along with a freeness of communication in our prayer; all of which increases our affection for our brethren in Christ. And Paul’s heart-felt exhortation to the Corinthians is made equally to us: “Be ye also enlarged.”

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Let us therefore enlarge our desires and our hopes, and seek to be filled with all the fulness of God.

C. H. SPURGEON: 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! Let me feel at home and at liberty with Thee.

 

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Lessons Learned in the School of Affliction

Posted on September 1, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 119:64-71; Psalm 94:12

The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.

WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800): He speaks not of that learning which is gotten by hearing or reading of God’s Word; but of the learning which he had gotten by experience; that he had felt the truth and comfort of God’s Word more effectual and lively in trouble than he could do without trouble; which also made him more godly, wise, and religious when the trouble was gone.

R. BEACON (circa 1857): The school of affliction, where the best lessons of faith are learned, is necessary, because even God’s saints do not learn in any other way—at least, few learn deeply, save in that school. Man’s nature being so inveterately evil, few lessons are learnt without tears; the Father has to chasten every son He receives.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): The believer, viewing everything God sends in the light of necessary discipline, cheerfully acquiesces to the wisdom and righteousness of the divine procedure. Discipline by trial is an essential element in the Christian’s sanctification and instruction. As a man, our Lord exemplified this truth in His own personal history. We read that, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,” Hebrews 5:8. The lesson Christ learned, was the lesson of obedience to the will of His Father in suffering. As the curse grew before Him to more awful proportions, He came to learn more of the evil of sin and of the difficulties of redemption, and so more deeply the lesson of obedience—doing, and suffering, the will of God. Thus our blessed Lord was perfected through suffering. And this, beloved, is the school in which the “many sons” Christ is bringing to glory, learn submission to the Father’s will.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It is in affliction chiefly that the children of God attain to any considerable eminence in religion.

GEORGE BOWEN (1816-1888): When Jonah came up from the depths of ocean, he showed that he had learned the statutes of God, Jonah Chapter 2. One could not go too deep to get such knowledge as he obtained. Nothing now could hinder him from going to Nineveh…He still, however, needed further affliction; for there were some statutes not yet learned. Some gourds were to wither, and he was to descend into another vale of humiliation, Jonah 4:7. Even the profoundest affliction does not, perhaps, teach us everything; a mistake we sometimes make.

NATHANIEL VINCENT (1639-1697): Saints are great gainers by affliction, because “godliness,” which is “great gain,” is “profitable for all things,” and is more powerful than before. The rod of correction, by a miracle of grace, like that of Aaron’s rod, buds and blossoms, and brings forth the fruits of righteousness, Numbers 17:8.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The discipline which was fitting in the case of Christ, the Head, cannot be without its need and its blessing in the case of us, His members. There are many deep truths of God and many holy lessons of practical Christianity to be learned in the pathway trodden by the Saviour, and they can be learned on no other path than the path of afflictive discipline. But, oh, how needful and how wholesome is this discipline! Who would want to be exempt from it after plucking and tasting the fruit that clusters so richly on the blossoming rod! If submission to the divine will is ever learned, beyond all question it is where Christ learned it—by the things which we suffer.

JOHN FARMER (circa 1744): I shall show the various benefits of affliction, when it is sanctified by the Spirit of God to those persons who are exercised by it. God has made affliction the occasion of converting sinners, and bringing them into a spiritual acquaintance with Christ his Son, see Isaiah 48:10. After conversion, He sanctifies an afflicted state to the saints, to weaken the remains of indwelling sin in them, and make them afraid of sinning against Him in future time. In afflicting the saints, God increases that good work of grace, which His Spirit has implanted in them. He causes His saints to grow in grace, when He corrects them with the rod of sorrow; He assimilates and makes the saints like unto Himself, in a greater degree, by temporal troubles and distresses, Hebrews 12:10,11. God afflicts the saints for the improvement of their knowledge in divine things—to make them better acquainted with the perfections of His nature, and to make them more conformed to Christ His Son. God brings them unto Him with greater nearness and frequency, by prayer and supplication, and oftentimes discovers to the saints, in the season of their affliction, in a clearer manner, that grace which He has implanted in them, and refreshes their souls with the consolations of His Spirit. Lastly, God afflicts the saints, to divide their hearts more from the love of the world, and to make them more meet for heaven.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): A thousand benefits have come to us through our pains and griefs, and among the rest is this—that we have thus been schooled in the law. “That I might learn thy statutes.” These we have come to know, and to keep, by feeling the smart of the rod.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Oh, what holy fruit this is: the will of God accomplished in us! The pathway may be through the furnace, whitened seven-fold with the heat, but your will has become more pliant with the will of your Heavenly Father. If the Christian character has become purified, the graces of the Holy Spirit strengthened, and a wider and freer scope given to faith, hope, and love, then should we not rejoice in tribulation?

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Affliction is one of God’s medicines. By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.

ABRAHAM WRIGHT (1611-1690): What fools are we then, to frown upon our afflictions! What do we care how bitter that potion be that brings health?

C. H. SPURGEON: We prayed the Lord to teach us, and now we see how He has already been doing it. Truly He has dealt well with us, for He has dealt wisely with us. We have been kept from the ignorance of the greasy-hearted by our trials, and this, if there were nothing else, is just cause for constant gratitude.

CHRISTOPHER FOWLER (1610-1678): “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.” Whom God doth correct and teach, him He loves—and he is blessed. Sanctified troubles are tokens of special love.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Thus, when we trace the discipline to its necessity, the chastisement to the evil it was designed to correct, meek and lowly hearts can say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”

J. C. RYLE: Let us beware of murmuring in the time of trouble.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The Son of God drank a deeper, more bitter cup, and trod a more suffering path than you, and yet could say, “Father…not my will, but thine, be done,” Luke 22:42. Will you then shrink from training and discipline, through whose courses God led the Elder Brother and High Priest of our profession?

C. H. SPURGEON: If we would be scholars, we must be sufferers.

 

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Onesiphorus

Posted on August 25, 2023 by The Editor

2 Timothy 4:19; 2 Timothy 1:16-18

Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Onesiphorus appears to have been an Ephesian of wealth and distinction, and who had in various ways, and on different occasions, manifested a generous concern for the apostle’s welfare.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Whatever brought Onesiphorus from Ephesus to Rome, we are left in no doubt as to what he did before he left Rome and returned to Ephesus.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When others did not know Paul because he was a prisoner, Onesiphorus knew him. He sought him out diligently—though probably the population at that time was not less, but perhaps far more than four millions of people.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The apostle was not in any particular place of confinement, but had a lodging where he was kept by a soldier, and which with some difficulty Onesiphorus found out: the manner of his bonds was this; he had a long chain fastened at one end to his right arm, and at the other to the left arm of the soldier that kept him, who constantly attended him in this form, wherever he went.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Paul might be the greatest of the apostles to Onesiphorus, and to you and to me, but he was only “Number So and So” to the soldier who was chained night and day to Paul’s right hand.

C. H. SPURGEON: You could not tell in Rome where a prisoner was. The registers were not open to investigation. You had to go from prison to prison, and pay the guards to get admission, or to be told who might be there, and Onesiphorus was determined to find Paul. I suppose that he went to the Mamertine, a dungeon in which some of us have been—one dungeon under the bottom of another. The first one has no light, except through a round hole at the top, and the second has a round hole through which you drop into the lower one. We think that Paul was there. And then there is the Palatine prison, which was at the guard-house of the Praetorian guards, near the palace on the Palatine Hill. There Paul certainly was.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Paul was now almost entirely alone. “Only Luke is with me,” he says, 2 Timothy 4:11. But the Lord thought of his deserted and solitary servant. A bright beam, as from the fountain of love, shines amidst the darkness and dreariness of his prison. There was one faithful amidst the general defection, and one who was not ashamed of the apostle’s chain. How peculiarly sweet and refreshing to the heart of the apostle must the ministry of Onesiphorus have been at this time!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Paul’s testimony of Onesiphorus, is short, but sweet.

JOHN GILL: “For he oft refreshed me.”—Both with his Christian visits, and spiritual conversation, which to the apostle, in the heat of his affliction and persecution, were like a fan in hot weather, cooling and reviving, as the word signifies; and also by supplying him with the necessaries of life, as food and raiment, or money to purchase them. Onesiphorus answered to his name, which in Greek, signifies, “one that brings profit.”

C. H. SPURGEON: He came to Paul, and talked with him, and probably sang with him, and prayed with him, I have no doubt.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “And was not ashamed of my chain.” This is a proof, not only of his liberality, but of his zeal; seeing that he cheerfully exposed himself to danger and the reproach of men, in order to assist Paul.

EDWARD PAYSON: His kindness, too, displayed at a time when cool friends prudently kept at a distance, and many of his own countrymen were among his bitterest enemies, made a deep impression upon the grateful heart of Paul.

JOHN GILL: The apostle does not propose to requite him himself; he knew it was out of his power; but he had an interest in the Lord, and at the throne of grace; and he makes use of it.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Saints are the honest debtors we can deal with; they will pay you in their own coin. He that shows any kindness to a saint is sure to have God for his paymaster; for it is their way to turn over their debts to God, and engage Him to discharge their score to man. Onesiphorus had been a kind friend to Paul, and what does Paul do for him? To prayer he goes, and desires God to pay his debts.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Paul prays for Onesiphorus himself, and for his house.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Onesiphorus was no doubt a Christian, and Paul prayed for him, “that he might find mercy of the Lord in that day”—the time of future rewards. So filled with gratitude was the heart of the apostle for the special kindness of Onesiphorus, when he risked his own life in finding him out, and in ministering to him in prison, that he prayed for a reward that would be the reflection of, and that would commemorate forever, that noble service of love.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): How heartily prayed Paul for Onesiphorus! Mercy, the fruit of God’s faithfulness, covenant kindness—So Paul prayed for Onesiphorus. And such prayers could not be ineffectual.

JOHN CALVIN: From this prayer, we infer that the good offices done to the saints are not thrown away, even though they cannot recompense them; for, when he prays to God to reward them, this carries in it the force of a promise. Paul testifies his gratitude, by desiring that God will grant the remuneration, because he is unable to pay.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): When we can make no other return to our kind friends, we are bound at least to recommend them in our prayers to the Saviour’s mercy, and beg Him to reward them “in that day,” when Jesus comes to reward every kindness shown to His servants.

MATTHEW HENRY: Christ will account all the good offices done to His poor members as done to Himself.

C. H. SPURGEON: And if you need proof of that, let me remind you that our Saviour’s own description of the Day of Judgment runs thus, “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me food: I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you clothed Me: I was sick, and you visited Me: I was in prison, and you came unto Me,” Matthew 25:34-36. This, therefore, is evidence that they were blessed of the Father!

THOMAS COKE: How dear is one sincere servant of Christ to another, as partakers of the same faith, and embarked in the same noble cause! How greatly do they all need, and how heartily do they wish, and daily pray for grace, mercy, and peace to be multiplied to one another, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! How affectionately are they desirous of each other’s company, especially in times of great tribulation! How tenderly do they sympathize one with another in their afflictions!—May the Lord be gracious to such and their families; and grant them mercy!

 

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Singing in the Ways of the Lord

Posted on August 18, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 98:1; Psalm 138:5

O sing unto the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things.

Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): These are words of promise as well as of prediction. Therefore, we may consider these words as containing one of the exceeding great and precious promises upon which He has called us to hope, and which are all “yea and amen in Christ Jesus, to the glory of God by us,” 2 Corinthians 1:20. The Psalmist tells us the people of God shall sing in the ways of the Lord. First, we understand the “ways of the Lord,” to include the way in which God walks with regard to us—His ways in nature, in His varied dealings with us, and in the different actions of His providence and grace, as well as the ways which He has appointed and commanded His people to walk in with regard to Himself.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): By “the ways of the Lord,” David sometimes means the happy and prosperous issue of affairs, but more frequently he uses this expression to denote the rule of a holy and righteous life.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The ways of the Lord—the straight ways. “For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them,” Hosea 14:9.

WILLIAM JAY: Secondly, they not only walk in the ways of the Lord, but sing in them. This implies acquiescence, approbation, satisfaction, pleasure, delight. Whence springs this singing in the ways of the Lord? We may look after some of the near sources of it. The first of which is conviction. It is a reasonable service; and as the Christian is able to give a reason of the hope which is in him, so is he also able to give a reason of his joy.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): They shall make the ways of the Lord—His glorious acts—the subject of their songs.

WILLIAM JAY: Hence, says the apostle, “They joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received the atonement,” Romans 5:11. Secondly, it arises from renovation. He is born of God, and therefore hungers and thirsts after righteousness; therefore he feeds—yea, he not only feeds, but feasts—upon the provision of the gospel. He finds God’s words, and he eats them, and they are to him the joy and rejoicing of his heart. Thirdly, it is derived from experience. He has tasted that the Lord is gracious: this taste has provoked appetite, and increased it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We learn by experience what peace and joy there are in being conformed to God’s will. There is a vast difference between a theoretical conviction that God’s will is “good, and acceptable, and perfect” and actually proving it to be so for ourselves, yet that is what we do, just so far as we heed the injunction “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” Romans 12:2 Just so far as we render a willing and more constant obedience to this exhortation, we not only prove for ourselves that God’s commandments “are not grievous,” 1 John 5:3, but we discover that “in keeping of them there is great reward,” Psalm 19:11—that is, in this life. Then it is that we “sing in the ways of the LORD.” Then it is that we obtain a personal acquaintance, an experimental realization of the goodness, the acceptableness, and perfection of the divine will. We determine for ourselves both by inward relish and outward practice the excellence of His will…We prove that God’s will contains everything necessary to make us spiritually complete and to be all that we ought to be.

WILLIAM JAY: And there is much to cause the Christian to sing in the ways of the Lord, when he considers his former experience, when he reviews the dealings of God with him, the surprising instances of goodness he has met with, in which the Lord has been not only better to him than his fears, but surpassing his hopes, and has done exceeding abundantly above what he could either ask or think. Fourthly, this singing flows from fellowship. “As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend,” Proverbs 27:17; “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel,” Proverbs 27:9.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Walking with God is a pleasant walk, the ways of wisdom are called “ways of pleasantness,” Proverbs 3:17…Walking with God is like walking among beds of spices, which send forth a fragrant perfume. This is it which brings peace, Acts 9:31, “Walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.” While we walk with God, what sweet music doth the bird of conscience make in our breast!

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): We drudge in the ways of sin. But we shall sing “in the ways of the LORD.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If your pleasure is not “in the ways of the Lord,” then, surely, you cannot know much about those ways. You must be a stranger to them and you must be walking in paths which may look like the ways of God, but are not really so. I do not say that those who know the Lord are always happy, but I say that they are always “the seed that the Lord God has blessed,” Isaiah 61:9—and when the ways get very tough, and become the paths of sufferings, and the pains are frequent and incessant, then still sing! No music that goes up to the Throne of God is sweeter in Jehovah’s ears than the song of suffering saints…Saints have often sung God’s high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High?

WILLIAM JAY: Fifthly, this singing springs from his prospects and anticipations. The Christian while here has some Bethel visits, and some of Pisgah’s views; but there are better things for him still in reserve, and therefore his prospects cheer and animate him. Oh to see Jesus as He is! Oh to be like Him! Oh to be ever with the Lord, and to have no more to do with a wicked world without and a wicked heart within! Oh to be as innocent as Adam in Paradise, and as holy as the Son of God Himself!—what an expectation is here!

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): There we shall see His face,

And never, never sin:

There from the river of His grace

 Drink endless pleasure in.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Tell me, ye who have been redeemed from death and hell, whether every feeling of your souls should not be swallowed up in joy? Why are we not “singing in the ways of the Lord?” Is it not said of true Christians, that, though they have never seen Jesus Christ, “yet, believing in him, they rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory,” 1 Peter 1:8.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): I pity the professed Christian who has not a song in his heart, who never ‘feels like singing.’ It seems to me if we are truly children of God, we will want to sing about it.

 

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