The Son of God & The Son of Man

Posted on May 19, 2023 by The Editor

Hebrews 10:12,13; Psalm 110:1

This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): We are here informed of Jehovah’s eternal  and unchangeable decree concerning the kingdom of Messiah, its extension, power, and duration. That Messiah should, after His sufferings, be thus exalted, was determined in the divine counsel and covenant, before the world began.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The resurrection is followed by the ascension into heaven. Although Christ, by rising again, began fully to display His glory and virtue, having laid aside the abject and ignoble condition of a mortal life, and the ignominy of the cross—yet it was only by His ascension to heaven that His reign truly commenced.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): In these days of wide-spread departure from the faith, it cannot be insisted upon too strongly or too frequently that the Lord Jesus is none other than the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In Psalm 110:1, the divinity of Christ is plainly asserted…The Jews have taken great pains to explain it away: but their attempts are, and ever must be, in vain.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347-407): They are speaking inconsistent things, like drunken men, or rather, like men in the dark, running against one another.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836):Our blessed Lord Himself appeals to Psalm 110:1 in order to confound and silence His malignant adversaries. Both Pharisees and Sadducees had endeavoured to ensnare Him by difficult and perplexing questions: and, when He had answered, He put this question to them: “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?” And when they said, “The Son of David,” He asked them, “How then doth David in Spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”

Then we are told, “No man was able to answer Him a word,” Matthew 22:41-46.

Had they been willing to acknowledge Christ as their Messiah, they needed not to have been at any loss for an answer; for they knew Him to be a son of David; and He had repeatedly declared himself to be God, insomuch that they had again and again taken up stones to stone Him for blasphemy. But this passage proved beyond all doubt that the Messiah was to be “the root, as well as the offspring of David,” Revelation 22:16—the Lord of David, as well as David’s son. And here it is worthy of notice, that we see in this appeal what was the interpretation which the Jews of that day put upon the psalm before us.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Indeed the ancient Jews themselves understood it thus; and that this was the known and received sense of it in our Saviour’s time, appears from what passed between Him and the Pharisees.

CHARLES SIMEON: They all understood it as relating to the Messiah: and all the attempts of modern Jews to put any other construction upon it are futile in the extreme.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): These questions of our Lord themselves contain the answers to the present-day critics who deny the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the Davidic authorship and Messianic application of certain Psalms; quoting from Psalm 110:1, our Saviour declared that these were the words of David, speaking “by the Holy Ghost,” Mark 12:36, concerning the Christ, the Messiah. This ought for ever to settle the question about the inspiration, authorship, and application of that Psalm at least.

CHARLES SIMEON: Our Lord speaks of the Holy Ghost as inspiring David—which none but Jehovah could do, to declare what Jehovah the Father had said to Jehovah the Son. If the doctrine of the Trinity had not been received among them, would they have been silent, and not known what to answer Him?

A. W. PINK: To which we may add an amazing, heart-thrilling fact—the Holy Spirit has also been pleased to reveal to us the first words which were uttered by the Father, when His Son returned to Him, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.”

JOHN CALVIN: There is another thing, besides, deserving of notice—that David spake by the spirit of prophecy, and consequently prophesied of the future reign of Christ…it is plainly to be inferred that he had a reference to Christ’s future manifestation in the flesh, because He is the sole and supreme Head of the Church. From which it also follows, that there is something in Christ more excellent than His humanity, on account of which He is called the Lord of David His father. This view is strengthened by what is stated in the second clause of the verse. Earthly kings may indeed be said to sit at God’s right hand, inasmuch as they reign by His authority; here, however, something more lofty is expressed, in that one king is chosen in a peculiar manner, and elevated to the rank of power and dignity next to God—and as God’s right hand is elevated far above all angels, it follows that He Who is seated there is exalted above all creatures.

A. W. PINK: The Son of God Himself, though in our nature, was accorded the highest throne in heaven. It was a Person who was thus magnified. The whole Christ rose, and the whole Christ sits at God’s right hand…Now the foundation of Christ’s being David’s “Lord” lay in His being the Son of God, and it was the second Person in the Trinity, Who had taken human nature into union with Himself, that Jehovah the Father invited to sit at His own right hand. The throne belongs to Him both as God, and as man, see Psalm 45:6,7; John 5:27.

JOHN CALVIN: Being raised to heaven, He withdrew His bodily presence from our sight, that He might rule heaven and earth more immediately by His power; or rather, the promise which He made to be with us, even to the end of the world, He fulfilled by this ascension, by which, as His body has been raised above all heavens, so His power and efficacy have been propagated and diffused beyond all the bounds of heaven and earth.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Sit thou at my right hand;” This implies the possession of the utmost confidence, power, and preeminence. “Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Jesus shall reign till all His enemies are subdued under Him.

C. H. SPURGEON: It seems to me to be such a delightful thought to think that Jesus Christ is King today in the world. The Lord reigns—let the earth rejoice! Jesus Christ wears the crown of universal monarchy this day!—so that nothing happens now, but that which Jesus permits, ordains and overrules. Let empires go to pieces—it is Christ who breaks them with a rod of iron! Let conflagrations burn down cities and let diseases devastate nations! Let war succeed war and pestilence famine—yet still He rules all things well and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, that are called according to His purpose. The saints are in the world, but Christ reigns over the world for His Church, that it may be kept and preserved in the midst of an evil generation.

 

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Honourable Mothers in Israel

Posted on May 12, 2023 by The Editor

Judges 5:6-8

In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel. They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Here Deborah describes the distressed state of Israel under the tyranny of Jabin.  The country has been in a manner desolate. There was no trade—all commerce ceased, and the highways were unoccupied; no travelling, whereas in times when there was some order and government, the travelers might be safe in the open roads, and robbers were forced to lurk in the by-ways; no, on the contrary, the robbers insulted on the open roads without check. No tillage: the fields must needs be laid waste and unoccupied when the inhabitants of the villages, the country farmers, ceased from their employment. No administration of justice. There was war in the gates where their courts were kept. Neither had they arms nor spirit to help themselves with—not a “shield nor spear seen among forty thousand.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): These were the unhappy circumstances Israel was under.

MATTHEW HENRY: She shows what it was that brought all this misery upon them: “They chose new gods.” It was their idolatry that provoked God to give them up thus into the hands of their enemies.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): It will be recollected that national judgments are always the consequence of national sins.

SAMUEL MILLER (1769-1850): How many personal, domestic, ecclesiastical and national sins press heavily upon us as a people, and cry aloud for the judgments of a righteous God! Think of the abounding atheism and various forms of infidelity, the pride, the degrading intemperance, the profanations of the Sabbath, the fraud, the gross impiety, the neglect and contempt of the gospel, and all the numberless forms of enormous moral corruption ­which even in the most favoured parts of our country prevail in a deplorable degree, and in the less favoured hold a melancholy undisturbed reign. Think of these abounding sins; and think also in how small a degree multitudes even of the professing people of God seem to be awake to the great responsibilities and duties of their high vocation.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): For nations there is a weighing time. National sins demand national punishments. The whole history of God’s dealings with mankind proves that though a nation may go on in wickedness; it may multiply its oppressions; it may abound in bloodshed, tyranny, and war; but an hour of retribution draweth nigh. When it shall have filled up its measure of iniquity, then shall the angel of vengeance execute its doom.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Deborah is called “a mother in Israel,” for the same reason as every deliverer of his country is called the father of it.

MATTHEW HENRY: Thus she became a mother in Israel, a nursing mother, such was the affection she bore to her people, and such the care and pains she took for the public welfare.

C. H. SPURGEON: The moulding of the character of the next generation, remember, begins with the mother’s influence…What is it to serve our own generation? This is a question which ought to interest us all very deeply. We live in the midst of our own generation, and seeing that we are part of it, we should serve it, that the generation in which our children shall live may be better than our own. Though our citizenship is in heaven, yet as we live on earth, we should seek to serve our generation while we pass as pilgrims to the better country.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The names of mothers of good and bad kings are mentioned in Kings and Chronicles, as partakers in their credit or reproach.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): As they were good or evil, so were their children.

C. H. SPURGEON: David had been taught by his good mother. I know he had a godly mother, for he says, “Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid,” Psalm 116:16. He calls his mother, God’s handmaid, which shows that she was one of God’s servants. I have no doubt that she took David on her knee and taught him God’s Word while he was but a child, for he had such a love of it afterwards that he must have had a love of it while he was yet little!―the man never forgets what he learns at his mother’s knee.

WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE (1819-1881): The hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world.

C. H. SPURGEON: Dear Sister, seek to be a mother in Israel, a matron for Jesus Christ.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815):  My dear sisters, yours is a great work.

CHARLES BRIDGES: “A gracious woman retaineth honour,” as firmly as strong men retain riches,” Proverbs 11:16. She is known, not by her outward beauty, Proverbs 31:30, but by her “inner becoming ornaments,” 1 Timothy 2:9,10; 1 Peter 3:3,4; which remain in full lustre, when external accomplishments have faded away, Proverbs 31:25. She preserves her character unblemished, Ruth 3:11. She wins her children—perhaps her ungodly husband—into the ways of holiness, Proverbs 31:12,28; 1 Peter 3:1,2. Thus Deborah “retained honour” as “a mother in Israel,” the Counsellor and the stay of a sinking people. Esther retained her influence over her heathen husband for the good of her nation, Esther 9:12,13; Esther 9:25.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Wonderfully did God reward Ruth for all her piety—it pleased God to confer on her that which was the great desire of her soul, and to make her a mother in Israel, yea, so greatly did God honour her, that David, the greatest of all the kings of Israel, sprang from her, as the grandson of her child; and the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Saviour of the world, was lineally descended from her.

C. H. SPURGEON: Happy woman, thus to become a mother in Israel!

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Yes; but behind all the nobleness, steadfastness, beauty, and tenderness of Ruth, I see inspiring, and sustaining, and maturing it all, the wise, chastened, weaned mind of one who was a mother in Israel and a widow indeed. Naomi showed two Moabite women what a widowed wife and mother had to rest on in Israel; and one, at least, of her daughters-in-law laid the lesson and the example well to heart.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): How useful might be the older female members of the churches, in employing those seasons of communion which are continually occurring with their younger friends—to nourish in their minds the spirit of faith, prayer, and holiness.

CHARLES BRIDGES: And still the gracious woman retaineth honour long after she has mingled with the dust: Sarah the obedient wife, 1 Peter 3:5,6; Hannah the consecrating mother, 1 Samuel 1:28; Lois, Eunice, and “the elect lady,” 2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15; 2 John 1-4, in the family sphere; Phoebe and her companions in the annals of the Church, Romans 16:2-6; Philippians 4:3; the rich contributor to the temple, Mark 12:42-44; the self-denying lover of her Lord, Mark 14:3-9; Mary in contemplative retirement, Luke 10:39; Dorcas in active usefulness, Acts 9:36—Are not these “good names,” Psalm 112:6, still had in honourable remembrance?

CHARLES SIMEON: Truly “them that honour God, God will honour,” 1 Samuel 2:30; and every one that will serve Him shall receive an abundant “recompense of reward,” Ruth 2:12—and He has fulfilled His Word to all His servants in all ages.

 

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Unskilful in the Word

Posted on May 5, 2023 by The Editor

1 Peter 2:2,3; 1 Corinthians 3:1,2—Hebrews 5:11-14

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.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able—We have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): A strange opinion has obtained amongst some, that there is no such thing as growth in grace. But the whole tenor of Scripture, from one end of it to the other, proclaims the contrary.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): Our hearers do not look upon it as their duty to learn to be teachers…They think it enough for them, if at best they can hear with some profit to themselves. But this was not the state of things in primitive times. Every church was then a seminary, wherein provision and preparation was made, not only for the continuation of the preaching of the gospel in itself, but for the calling, gathering, and teaching of other churches also—Wherefore hearers in the church were not only taught those things which might be sufficient unto their own edification, but every thing also that was necessary to the edification of others; an ability for whose instruction it was their duty to aim at.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Are all teachers?” 1 Corinthians 12:29. No; the far greater part of the members of churches are hearers, or persons that are taught in the Word; are neither in the office of teaching, nor have they the qualifications for it.

JOHN OWEN: I do not say that this was the duty of all hearers. Every one was not to labour to profit by the Word that he might be a teacher. Many things might incapacitate persons from any such work. But yet—in general, every one that belongs unto the church ought to have a double aim; first his own edification, and then his usefulness in respect of others. We are so to learn in the church as that we may be useful to others; a matter which few think of or trouble themselves about. But this Christ expects of all the members of His churches in an especial manner. For every church is “the body of Christ, and members in particular,” 1 Corinthians 12:27…Every one is to contribute to the growth of the whole, Ephesians 4:16.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The life of a Christian is a growth; he is first born of God, and is a little child; becomes a young man, and a father in Christ. Every father was once an infant; and had he not grown, he would have never been a man. Those who content themselves with the grace they received when converted, are, at best, in a continual state of infancy.

JOHN OWEN: They are such as, enjoying the dispensation of the Word, or who have done so for some season, yet, through their own sloth and negligence, have made little or no proficiency in spiritual knowledge. Such persons are babes, and have need of milk, and are not capable of instruction in the more heavenly mysteries of the gospel.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): He reproves here an infancy in understanding, such as constrains even God to prattle with us.

JOHN OWEN: God aimeth to bring men unto clearer discoveries of His wisdom, grace, and love, than they have yet attained; into nearer communion with Himself; to a fuller growth in light, knowledge, faith, and experience; that even in this world, He may more eminently communicate of Himself unto them: which He doth in, and by, the truths which they despise. These truths and doctrines, therefore, also, which the apostle calls “strong meat” for “them that are of full age,” are to be searched, and inquired into.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Let us more particularly consider cases in which persons are very unskilful in using the word of righteousness. There are some things in the Scriptures which may appear to be contradictory to us as long as we remain in this weak state. The apparent opposition of many passages of Scripture arises entirely from inattention and ignorance in the reader: a little distinction would serve to harmonize. Thus, it is possible and easy to reconcile such language as this: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him;” Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit,” Proverbs 26:4,5.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): These things are not contradictory.

WILLIAM JAY: We can see harmony between things which appear very contradictory to our little children…In the same way, people have supposed that Paul and James are opposite to each other as to justification; whereas the one refers to God and the other to man; the one to justification as a reality, and this is by faith, the other as to its evidence and fruits, and this is by works. Now, we find the Scriptures in the hands of some people nothing but confusion: we can never get two ideas or notions to lie straight in their brains. “If,” say they, “God works in us to will and to do, why should we work out our own salvation? If it be a duty, how can it be a privilege? If it be a promise, how can it be a command?” Now, these things may be easily harmonized, and will be by those who are “skilful in the word of righteousness.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We have so many professors who are still babes, needing the feeding bottle and the baby carriage though they are forty years of age! What can we do with these?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): As long as they’ve read their little daily portion, they feel all is well whether they’ve understood it or not. They say, “I’ve read my Scriptures; I know my Scriptures.” But they don’t know the truth. It’s not the truth alone—it’s this understanding, it’s getting down to the doctrine, digging down to the depths!

ADAM CLARKE: They do not search the Scriptures.

WILLIAM JAY: Some are unskilful in defending it. A weak argument, instead of strengthening a good cause, always weakens it. It is like supporting a roof by a rotten pillar. How many doctrines are there which have been attempted to be proved by passages of Scripture which have no relation to the subject!

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: All Christians should believe in reading the Bible—and in studying it diligently. Have you got any taste for this?  Do you get any enjoyment of this?

WILLIAM JAY: Some persons are so ignorant and so unfamiliar with the sacred writings as not even to know what is the language of Scripture and what is not, when they hear it. Some are unskilful in finding it. How they fumble for parts of the Old Testament in the New, and for parts of the New in the Old! Some are unskilful in quoting it. Sometimes they misquote the meaning, frequently the words. Now, the meaning is unquestionably the main thing; but we love the very words the Holy Ghost uses.

VERNON J. CHARLESWORTH (1839-1915): Entering the house of one of his congregation, Rowland Hill saw a child on a rocking-horse. “How wondrously like some Christians!” he exclaimed, “there is motion, but no progress.” The rocking-horse type of spiritual life is still characteristic of too many Church members in the present day. “Grow in grace” is an exhortation but little regarded.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Where there is no growth, there is no life.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: If you don’t enjoy the Bible at all—then I suggest that you’re not a child of God, at all.

 

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The Mystery of Regeneration

Posted on April 28, 2023 by The Editor

John 3:3-8

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): The only way to get into the Kingdom of God is to be born into it.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): The manner in which the Holy Spirit operates in those who are born of God is very often exceedingly mysterious; the effects only of those operations are discernible. It is to be feared that some have gone too far in attempting to direct the Spirit of the Lord, and to mark out His footsteps for Him. Experience clearly shows that we cannot trace the operations of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of some who afterward prove the best of Christians. He does not proceed discernibly in the steps of any particular established scheme so often as is imagined. Those who have had much to do with souls and are not blinded by prejudice must know that the Holy Spirit is so exceedingly various in the manner of His operations, that in many cases, it is impossible to trace Him.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): All this is most important to understand. To require all persons to be squared down to one kind of experience is a most grievous mistake.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL  (1635-1711): No one ought to be concerned about the manner of conversion because the manner of his conversion has not been what he himself would prescribe it to be, nor agrees with the manner in which others are converted. lf your conversion is a reality, all is well. The ways of God are mysterious and even in the common way of conversion the one experiences something with which another is not acquainted.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677):  Many of God’s children cannot trace the particular footsteps of their conversion, and mark out all the stages of Christ’s approach to their souls.

ROBERT CANDLISH (1806-1873): It is not easy to imagine a more cautious record than the entry in a manuscript written by Lord Eldon: “I was born, I believe, on the 4th of June 1751.” We suppose that this hesitating statement refers to the date, and not to the fact of his birth. Many, however, are just as uncertain about their spiritual birth. It is a grand thing to be able to say, “We know that we have passed from death unto life,” even though we may not be able to put an exact date to it.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL: Some are converted in a very gradual fashion, with much vacillation between sorrow and joy, faith and unbelief, strife and victory, and falling and rising again…When I use the word “gradually,” I am referring to conversion in a comprehensive broad sense; that is, from the first conviction until one consciously receives Christ. For it is otherwise a certainty that conversion—that is, regeneration—transpires in one moment, for the soul in one moment passes “from death unto life.” There is no intermediate state between being dead and alive…Some are converted in a very sudden manner, as in one moment. Such was the case with Zacchaeus, the thief on the cross, many on the day of Pentecost, and the jailer in Philippi.

J. C. RYLE: With some the change is immediate—as it was with Saul when he journeyed to Damascus: with others it is gradual and slow, as it was with Nicodemus.

THOMAS MANTON: Some are brought to God by the horrors of despair, and are convinced with a higher and more smart degree of sorrow, before they come to settle; but all are serious and anxious. There is certainly a difference; some men’s conversion is more gentle, others more violent. To some, Christ comes like an armed man, and doth powerfully vanquish Satan in their hearts; to others, there is a great deal of difficulty and conflict, which must needs impress a notice of itself. Some are sweetly drawn, others are snatched out of the fire. To some, the Spirit comes with a mighty rushing wind; to others, a gentle blast, sweetly and softly blows upon the door, as God “opened the heart of Lydia,” more gently, Acts 16:14.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): On such “it droppeth like the gentle dew from heaven upon the place beneath.”

THOMAS MANTON: The jailer, he had more horror of conscience, and more sorrow and desperation, and was ready to kill himself, saying, “What must I do to be saved?”  Acts 16:27-30.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): God is a sovereign agent, and works upon His children in their effectual calling, according to the counsel of His eternal will.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): The power that works in believers is God’s omnipotent power, which works effectually and mightily.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): But the precise manner how it is done, how the Holy Spirit works this in the soul, neither thou nor the wisest of the children of men is able to explain.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD: The Author of this conversion is the Holy Ghost: it is not their own free will; it is not moral suasion; nothing short of the influence of the Spirit of the living God can effect this change in our hearts—My dear friends, I am now talking of heart religion, of an inward work of God, an inward kingdom in your hearts, which you must have, or you shall never sit with Jesus Christ in His kingdom.

RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): Heart-work must be God’s work.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): What else can be the meaning of these various phrases: “the circumcision of the heart,” Romans 2:29; “a new heart…a heart of stone exchanged for a heart of flesh,” Ezekiel 36:26; “a new creature,” Galatians 6:15; a divine nature, 2 Peter 1:4; a spiritual mind, a new birth, a putting on the Lord Jesus, abiding in Him, and dwelling in Him, a being one with Him? What can be the meaning of all these various phrases, unless they are interpreted as God’s gracious design of putting His own pure and Holy Spirit into the sinner’s heart, as a glorious living principle.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Nothing short of the regenerating work of the Spirit can make any man a new creature in Christ Jesus.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): We do not look for the Spirit to convert souls without the truth; it is by the presentation of this to the judgment, and by the co-working of Divine grace upon the heart, that the great change of regeneration is effected.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Saving faith is the gift of God, and wherever it is, it is wrought by Him. The Word of God is the great means of regeneration, James 1:18. The grace of regeneration is conveyed by the gospel.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): In general, it is accomplished by the preaching of the Word; but sometimes it is effected by reading the Scriptures, by a good book, by pious conversation, by affliction: “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living,” Job 33:29,30.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): There is such a thing as the new birth; believest thou this?  It is necessary to be had; believest thou this? God only can work it; believest thou this?

C. H. SPURGEON: We cannot explain conversion, and regeneration, and the new birth, and all that; but we do know this, that Jesus Christ says, “Believe,”—and we believe. By our own power? No.

 

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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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