Stumbling Blocks

Posted on April 21, 2023 by The Editor

Leviticus 19:14—Romans 14:13

Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.—Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): What is a stumbling block?

WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602): A stumbling block is properly anything, as wood or stone or such like, that is cast in a man’s way to hinder him in his gait, and to cause him to trip or fall. An offense is anything that causes a man to sin against God, and so to slip or fall or to go out of his way that leads to life.

JAMES DURHAM: A “stumbling block,” or an “offense,” is anything that may be the occasion of a fall to someone—anything that may make him stumble, or weaken or halt in the course of holiness—just as a block would hinder a runner or put him at risk of falling as he runs a race. Some offenses are in doctrine; others are in practice. There are doctrinal offenses, and there are practical offenses. Doctrinal offenses are such as flow from matters of opinion in which people vent some untruth and so lay a stumbling block before others. This is to break a commandment—the commandment against falsehood, and to teach others to do so, Matthew 5:19. Sometimes this also overlaps with matters of practice—that is, when a corrupt practice is defended by false doctrine, as the Nicolaitans attempted to do, Revelation 2:6,15.

WILLIAM PERKINS: An offense given, is any speech or deed whereby a man is provoked to sin. And so was Peter an offense unto Christ, Matthew 16:23.

JAMES DURHAM: There can be no worse effects than those that follow from causing others to stumble. It brings a woe to the world, and Christ reckons it a most grievous plague when it abounds, for it brings destruction with it to many souls…Causing stumbling harms the reputation of the gospel. Sensitivity about giving offense adorns the gospel exceedingly. It convinces those around us of the reality of the gospel. It encourages charity and warms love. By contrast, carelessness about giving offense opens people’s mouths to criticize the gospel and makes both Christianity and Christians a reproach.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We put offenses or stumbling blocks in the way of men’s souls whenever we do anything to keep them back from Christ, to turn them out of the way of salvation, or to disgust them with true religion. We may do it directly by persecuting, ridiculing, opposing, or dissuading them from decided service of Christ. We may do it indirectly by living a life inconsistent with our religious profession and by making Christianity loathsome and distasteful by our own conduct.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Many a professing Christian is a stumbling block because his worship is divided. On Sunday he worships God; on weekdays God has little or no place in his thoughts.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Do not give the “sanction of your example,” or the “aid of your influence” to the spread of a diseased religious profession, in which such leprous spots as these are continually breaking out! “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” 1 Thessalonians 5:22. You should be the first to set the example, and to give out a pattern of self-denial!—The eyes of the world will be upon you, and as you conduct yourselves, so will religion be honoured or disgraced.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): No Christian is blameless if he voluntarily acts so as to lay a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in another’s path.

JAMES DURHAM: It brings reproach on the profession of Christianity, it cools love among brethren, it begets and fosters contention and strife, it mars the progress of the gospel, and in a word, it makes iniquity to abound…Causing stumbling saps Christian fellowship. Lack of sensitivity about offenses strikes at the root of Christian communion. There can be no freedom in admonitions, little freedom in discussions, and, it may be, no great fervour in prayers with and for others, where offenses abound. And is it possible that religion can be in a healthy condition where we find these problems? From these problems alone it should be obvious why Christ said, “Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Matthew 18:7.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Be very careful not to throw stumbling blocks in a Christian’s path, even in little things. I do not now allude to immoralities and vice. But I refer to lesser violations of Christian propriety; such as the indulgence of bad dispositions and offences against love, gratitude, and humility.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The very heaviest conceivable doom were better than to be a stumbling block in the way of the very least of God’s people. Yet I have known some say, “Well, the thing is lawful, and if a weak brother does not like it, I cannot help it—he should not be so weak.” No, my dear Brother, that is not the way Christ would have you talk! You must consider the weakness of your brother—all things may be lawful to you, but all things are not expedient.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We must be afraid of the sin, and very cautious what we say and do, lest we should through inadvertency give offense to Christ’s little ones, lest we put contempt upon them without being aware of it.

C. H. SPURGEON: Remember, we must measure the pace which the flock can travel by the weakest in the flock—or else we shall have to leave behind us many of Christ’s sheep! The pace at which a company must go, must depend upon how fast the weak and the sick can travel, unless we are willing to part company with them—which I trust we are not willing to do. So let us take care that we cause not even the weakest to stumble by anything that we can do without harm to ourselves, but which would bring harm to them! But I am not sure if it would harm the weakest, whether it would not harm us also, because we are not as strong as we think we are.

JAMES DURHAM: Causing stumbling hardens us in sin. Lack of sensitivity and carelessness in giving offense opens the door to all kinds of carelessness in the person who gives offense. This is because that person’s conscience becomes less sensitive to challenges, so they have greater boldness to do things that are materially evil. By this they also become habitually unconcerned and dismissive of others.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Our Lord said to His disciples at the very end, before His arrest: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another,” John 15:12. And He told them that it would be by their love for one another that the world would know that they were His people, John 13:35. This should always be the overruling and overriding consideration in the church. If we depart from this, we are almost certain to go wrong in our decisions. Whatever we are discussing in the church, we should always start with the consideration that we are to love one another because we are brethren together. Whatever differences of opinion may arise, more important than the particular decision is this spirit of love for one another; and I repeat that if we do not have that in the forefront of our minds, hearts, and spirits, we are bound to go astray.

 

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The Blessing of Christian Fellowship in an Ungodly Age

Posted on April 14, 2023 by The Editor

Philippians 1:3-5; Malachi 3:16,17

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): In times when the Word of God is precious, and when it’s an evil age, like this present one, an age of godlessness, we are told that the people of God met together frequently.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They went to one another’s houses and talked to one another…It is profitable, indeed, when Christians begin to speak often, one to another, and God Himself turns eaves-dropper to His children. He listens and hears, and a Book of Remembrance is written—the Lord, Himself, becomes a reporter and records the conversation of them that fear Him and that think upon His name!

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Nothing warms the heart more than Christian fellowship.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It is one of the greatest blessings that one can have in this life, and in this world. But what is fellowship?

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): If we consider the Greek word translated fellowship, implying spiritual fellowship or communion, then it signifies, not only their attention to the Gospel, their readiness to continue and persevere in it, but also their unity and affection among themselves—the term may not only be applied to communion among themselves, but to communications to others.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: What is it that makes this fellowship possible? Of course, it is identity of nature. This is the result of the new birth…Paul in Second Corinthians puts it like this: he says, “What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness.” It’s as simple as that. Listen, he goes on, “What communion”—it’s the same word—“hath light with darkness?” It’s impossible. Why? “For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Now then, there is the first thing that makes fellowship; that we have the same nature within us. That’s how it begins.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The world unites with those who are of the same mind and spirit with themselves: and so must the godly do: and “in the excellent of the earth must be their chief delight.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: We are sharers of the same life, and the moment you detect it in another, you have fellowship with that person. This is the most wonderful thing, I think, in the whole world. It’s been my privilege to have so many experiences of this, particularly during the Second World War. Oh, I still get it, thank God, but it was really wonderful during the war. There were troops, you remember, in England—Oh, they came from Canada, from America, from Holland, from Norway, every part of the world, and here they were for a while in London, and at the end of the service, they’d come to see me. I’d never seen them before, but you know—I knew them! And they knew me. We’d never seen one another before, we’d never spoken before. But you recognize a brother. It doesn’t matter what colour he is, or what his clothing is, nothing matters, you know at once you’re speaking the same language; you are brethren, you are having fellowship—it’s instinctive!

THOMAS COKE: The gospel is a common salvation for all nations.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Jude talks about the “common salvation,” Jude 1:3. And he’s right—I’ve had people from the South Sea Islands in that vestry of mine at the end of a service, but we knew at once that we were brethren. Why? Well, we were sharing the same salvation. We had a fundamental agreement about basic things. We don’t agree about everything, but we agree about God, we agree about ourselves in sin, we agree about the blessed Saviour, we agree about the new life—and we know one another.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Precious also, will be the communications of Christian fellowship.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The other thing I would emphasize is a sense of trust and of freedom. If there’s any doubt, you don’t have fellowship. There must be mutual trust and understanding that you can speak freely. You can open your heart, and the other person does exactly the same thing, and you’re enjoying fellowship. There’s freedom, there’s an exchange going on, and it’s wonderful—it’s like a family at its very best. That’s fellowship.

C. H. SPURGEON: I thank God that you and I know what it is to enjoy the Presence of God in a great many different ways. How sweet is Christian fellowship!

THOMAS COKE: Christian fellowship is one of the greatest joys on earth, and a little foretaste of what we expect, when we shall join the spirits of the just made perfect.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We conceive that each one of the redeemed will be given the holy privilege of making his or her personal contribution to this unfolding of God’s wondrous ways with us in providence and in grace—each one of the blood-bought company will say, in turn, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul,” Psalm 66:16—not only in regeneration—but in all that followed. O what a testimony each of them will then bear to God’s amazing grace and patience! What a witness each will give to God’s unfailing faithfulness and goodness in supplying every need as he crossed the Wilderness of Sin! How blessed it will be to hear one and another relate God’s wondrous answers to prayer—Everything which redounds to the glory of God will then be made known to the whole of His family.

J. W. ALEXANDER (1804-1859): Those we hope to spend eternity with in heaven are those we should seek out here. Those who are worthy of Christ’s fellowship, are worthy of ours.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It’s been a great means of blessings throughout the centuries. Remember that story of John Bunyan? It’s one of the great highlights of Grace Abounding, his autobiography. How, when he was in the depths of despair, he was in Bedford, and he happened to see two or three old women sitting together—they were talking together about the blessings of the Christian life. As they did so, they were being helped and built up, and the blessing was increased—unconsciously, they were blessing poor John Bunyan.

CHARLES SIMEON: Oh, the benefit arising from such communications—Yes, and thousands have experienced the same blessed consolations and supports from occasional discourse with their fellow-saints, who by seasonable advice have “strengthened their hands in God,” 1 Samuel 23:16,17.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is indeed, a great solace for the heart to enjoy Christian fellowship.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): They who have never tasted that the Lord is good, not having known the difference, can have no conception of this subject.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Reader! what saith your personal experience to these things? Are you born again?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Do you know it? If you do, thank God. If you don’t, go and tell Him. Tell Him you feel you’re outside, tell Him that you don’t understand these things, that they’re strange to you. Tell Him you’d like to know, ask Him to enlighten you with His Spirit, and He will—if you’re honest, and you really want it. Once you’ve got this life—oh, then you’ll love the brethren, and you’ll covet the fellowship above everything else on earth.

 

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Ninth Plague Darkness & Ninth Hour Darkness

Posted on April 7, 2023 by The Editor

Exodus 10:21,22; Matthew 27:45,46

And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Moses is commanded to bring the ninth plague of extraordinary darkness over all the land of Egypt, Exodus 10:21.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “He sent darkness, and made it dark,” Psalm 105:28. It was no natural or common darkness.

THOMAS S. MILLINGTON (1821-1906): It was an horror of great darkness—a darkness “which may be felt,” more oppressive and intolerable the longer it continued; “felt” upon their bodies as a physical infliction, and “felt” even more in their souls in agonies of fear and apprehension.

JAMES GRACEY MURPHY (1808-1896): There is an awful significance in this plague of darkness.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): What was the significance?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It is easily interpreted. God is Light: darkness is the withdrawal of light. Therefore, this judgment of darkness, gave plain intimation that Egypt was now abandoned by God. Nothing remained but death itself. The darkness continued for three days—a full manifestation of God’s withdrawal.

THE EDITOR: Surely that Egyptian darkness has a connection to the darkness at Calvary: it was the ninth Egyptian plague, and it continued for three days; the darkness that fell upon the land while Christ hung on the cross began at noon, the sixth hour, and continued three hours until the ninth hour. And that terrible darkness was certainly “felt,”—but only by Christ Himself, when His Father withdrew His presence, and hid His face, and Jesus cried out in the agony of His soul, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): During the three hours this darkness continued, we do not find that He said one word, but passed this time in a silent retirement into His own soul, which was now in agony, wrestling with the powers of darkness, and taking in the impressions of his Father’s displeasure—not against Himself, but the sin of man, which He was now making his soul an offering for sin.

THE EDITOR: Something similar is also seen in a prophetic figure of Christ’s atonement in Genesis 15:12, when Abram laid out sacrifices according to Jehovah’s instruction. “When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”—“And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, behold a smoking furnace, and burning lamp that passed between those pieces” of the sacrifices, verse 17. It is “a lamp of fire,” in Hebrew—these sacrifices were burnt offerings, consumed in the fire of God’s wrath against sin, “for our God is a consuming fire,” Hebrews 12:29.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): That this darkness was foretold, we cannot doubt. Note Amos 8:9, “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.”

THE EDITOR: After God delivered the Jews from Egypt, Moses warned that “it shall come to pass, that if thou wilt would not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments…the LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness,” Deuteronomy 28:15,28,29. Were Christ’s adversaries smitten by madness and blindness? See their furious mocking and spiritual blindness. And astonishment of heart? From noonday, the sixth hour, a supernatural darkness reigned for three hours.

This warning was given in the second person singular—thou, as to an individual, but yet to the whole nation of Israel. Jesus gave similar personal and national warnings to the Jews, even a universal warning: “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light,” John 12:35,36.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Our Lord here warns the Jews of the things to be feared, if they neglected His advice. Darkness would overtake, catch, and come upon them. He would leave the world, and return to His Father. They would be left in a state of judicial darkness and blindness as a nation, and with the exception of an election, would be given over to untold calamities, scattering, and misery. How true these words were we know from the history of the Jews written by Josephus, after our Lord left the world. His account of the extraordinary state of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, during the siege of the city by Titus, is the best commentary on the text before us. The state of the Jews, as a nation, during the last days of Jerusalem, can only be described as “darkness that might be felt.”

THE EDITOR: As God hardened Pharaoh’s heart after he rejected Moses’ counsel, Genesis 10:24-27, so also, after the Jews rejected Christ’s counsel, God hardened their hearts, and judicial darkness came upon them: “These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them,” John 12:36-40.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): There is no darkness so gross or so terrible as that judicial darkness which settles down upon the heart governed by self-will while professing to have light from God. This will be seen in all its horrors, by-and-by, in Christendom.

C. H. SPURGEON: If you refuse to believe on Christ Jesus, fearfulness and dismay will lay hold on you in the day when “He shall come to judge the world in righteousness,” Acts 17:31.

THOMAS S. MILLINGTON:  Joel speaks of the day of God’s vengeance as “a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness,” Joel 2:2; and Zephaniah 1:15 employs nearly the same language.

THE EDITOR: “Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?” Christ asks, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” Luke 13:4,5. Those who reject Christ’s counsel must face a day of judicial darkness that will also be felt: “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds,” Revelation 16:10,11.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): And hereafter they shall be driven into eternal darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

ADAM CLARKE: Confess your sins and turn to Him, that these sore evils may be averted. “Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness,” Jeremiah 13:16.

 

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Proverbial Wisdom on Dealing With Fools

Posted on March 31, 2023 by The Editor

Proverbs 1:7—14:16—18:2—10:21; Proverbs 16:22; Proverbs 23:9—27:22—14:7

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction—A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident—a fool hath no delight in understanding—fools die for want of wisdom.

Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.

Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words—Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him—Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The facts of God, and man’s relation to Him, must be taken for granted and answered if there is to be any true wisdom.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): In whatever directions a godless man may be wise, in the most important matter of all, his relations to God, he is unwise, and the epitaph for all such is “Thou fool!”

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Fools—that is, wicked men, are so far from attaining true wisdom, that they despise it, and all the means of getting it.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The fool rageth, and is confident;” he fears neither God nor men—he “rages” in heart, if not with his mouth, against God and His law, which forbids the practice of such sins he delights in; and against all good men, that admonish him of them, rebuke him for them, or dissuade him from them: and “is confident” that no evil shall befall him; he has no concern about a future state, and is fearless of hell and damnation, though upon the precipice of ruin; yet, as the words may be rendered, “he goes on confidently,” nothing can stop him; he pushes on, regardless of the laws of God or men, of the advice and counsels of his friends, or of what will be the issue of his desperate course in another world.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He who, when he is warned of his danger, rages and is confident, furiously pushes on, cannot bear to be checked, bids defiance to the wrath and curse of God, and, fearless of danger, persists in his rebellion, makes bold with the occasions of sin, and plays upon the precipice—he is a fool, for he acts against his reason and his interest, and his ruin will quickly be the proof of his folly.

JOHN GILL: “Fools die for want of wisdom;”—not a corporeal death, which is common to men of every rank and quality; wise men die even as fools; but they continue under the power of a spiritual death, for want of enlightening and quickening grace, and so die an eternal death: not for want of natural wisdom, which they may have a greater share of than those who live spiritually and eternally; but for want of spiritual wisdom and knowledge—knowledge of Christ, and the way of life and salvation by Him, and the knowledge of God in Christ; and not always from the want of the means of such wisdom and knowledge, as the Scriptures, which are able to make a man wise unto salvation; and the Gospel, which is the wisdom of God in a mystery; but through the neglect and contempt of them.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those are fools who do not fear God and value the Scriptures; though they may pretend to be admirers of wit they are really strangers and enemies to wisdom.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Why then do multitudes around us despise wisdom and instruction? Because “the beginning of wisdom—the fear of God, is not before their eyes,” Psalm 36:1. They know not its value. They scorn its obligation. Wise they may be in their own sight. But surely God here gives them their right name—for fools they must be, to despise such a blessing, Jeremiah 8:9, and to rush into willful ruin, Proverbs 1:24-32.

MATTHEW HENRY: Having no dread at all of God’s wrath, nor any desire of His favour, they will not give you thanks for telling them what they may do to escape His wrath and obtain His favour. Those who say to the Almighty, Depart from us, who are so far from fearing Him that they set Him at defiance, can excite no surprise if they desire not the knowledge of His ways, but despise that instruction.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875):  The fool’s picture is truthfully sketched here in a few lines. His character is mainly made up of two features: he thinks little of danger, and much of himself. These two ingredients constitute a fool. He stumbles on both sides: that which is strong he despises, and that which is weak, he trusts. The dangers that beset him are great, but he counts them as nothing; the strength that is in him is nothing, but he counts it great. Thus he stumbles at every step.

CHARLES BRIDGES: The fool, however stout and stubborn in his mind, never fears till he falls. The voice of God is unheard amid the uproar of passion, like a raving tempest. Bravely independent, he sits amid the threatenings of God “carried by his rash will, and blind passion, without apprehending the end and issue of things.” His character is here drawn to life. He rageth, and is confident. Such a fool was Rehoboam, when his self-willed confidence rejected the counsel of wisdom and experience, 1 Kings 12:13-15. Such a fool was the raging Assyrian, blindly confident in his own might, till the God whom he despised turned him back to his destruction, 2 Kings 18:28-37.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Of all fools the conceited fool is the worst.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): When it becomes evident that a man is bent on folly with no concern about righteousness, it is best to leave him to himself. To argue or reason with such a one is useless. It is defiling to the wise and only gratifying to the pride of the fool. “From such turn away,” 2 Timothy 3:5.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is easier to deal with twenty men’s reasons, than with one man’s will. He hath made his conclusion, and you may as soon move a rock as move him.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): However you may try, by precept or example, or both, to instruct a stupid man, your labour is lost; his foolishness cannot be separated from him—you cannot purge the fool of his folly.

H. A. IRONSIDE: It is a dreadful state to be in. God alone can awaken such a one to a sense of his guilt and his danger and turn him from his folly.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Let us labour to win their souls to Christ. But the rule of prudence directs—“Cast not your pearls before swine,” Matthew 7:6…So long as there is any hope of reclaiming the fool, make every effort for his precious soul. In the true spirit of our Master, bring the Gospel to the worst and the most unwilling…Yet “there is a time to keep silence, as well as a time to speak,” Ecclesiastes 3:7…This caution extends further—Speak not in the ears of a fool. Such was our Master’s silence before Herod, Luke 23:9. If he would hear, there would be hope. But instead of being thankful for instruction, he will despise the wisdom of thy words, and take occasion from them only to scoff and blaspheme the more.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Wisdom is not to be wasted on a fool.

H. A. IRONSIDE: To seek to instruct him whose heart is set on folly and waywardness is wasting one’s breath. When there is no desire for wisdom, but knowledge and understanding have been deliberately trampled under foot, it is useless to waste words.

 

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Christian Suffering in its Proper Perspective

Posted on March 24, 2023 by The Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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The Dress, Doctrine, & Diet of John the Baptist

Posted on March 17, 2023 by The Editor

Matthew 3:1-4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JOHN GILL: But this is conjecture.

THE EDITOR: Well, compare Scripture to Scripture.

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

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

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

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

JOHN GILL: And the butter?

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

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

 

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The Evils of Gossip & Backbiting

Posted on March 10, 2023 by The Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Thomas

Posted on March 3, 2023 by The Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Sometimes Answers to Prayer are Not What We Expect

Posted on February 24, 2023 by The Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Thought Crime

Posted on February 17, 2023 by The Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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