A Morning in the Temple, Part 3 of 3: Jesus Speaks to the Woman

Posted on February 10, 2023 by The Editor

John 8:9-11

And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” But if they all went out, how could she be in the midst?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): No doubt but His apostles were there, for they constantly attended Him; and no doubt divers others were also there, see John 8:2; but the meaning is, that He was by this means quit of the scribes’ and Pharisees’ company, who were gone out of shame, being thus convicted by their own consciences.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The woman likely stood trembling at the bar, as one doubtful of the issue…She did not seek to make her escape, though she had opportunity for it; but her prosecutors had appealed unto Jesus, and on Him she would wait for her doom, for Christ was without sin, and might cast the first stone—the question is asked: “Where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” She said, “No man, Lord.” She speaks respectfully to Christ, calls Him Lord, but is silent concerning her prosecutors, and says nothing in answer to that question, “Where are those thine accusers?”

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Observe that our Lord, with merciful consideration, did not ask the woman whether she was guilty or not. Thus she could with truth reply to His question, and yet not incriminate herself…To suppose, as some have thought, that the narrative before us palliates the sin of adultery, and exhibits our Lord as making light of the seventh commandment, is surely a great mistake.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): She was taken in adultery. There was no doubt of it. She was “taken in the very act,” and there she stands—no, she kneels—all covered with blushes before the Man who is asked to judge her! And remember His words? He never said a word to excuse her guilt—the Saviour could not and would not condone her shame! Nor would He, on the other hand, crush the woman who had sinned.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The law required two witnesses before its sentence could be executed, Deuteronomy 19:15, yet, those witnesses must assist in the carrying out of the sentence, Deuteronomy 17:7. But here not a single witness was left to testify against this woman who had merely been indicted. Thus the law was powerless to touch her. What, then, remained? Why, the way was now clear for Christ to act in “grace and truth.”

MATTHEW HENRY: In this He attended to the great work which he came into the world about, and that was to bring sinners to repentance; not to destroy, but to save…For Christ to say, I do not condemn thee is, in effect, to say, I do forgive thee; and the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins, and could upon good grounds give this absolution; for as He knew the hardness and impenitent hearts of the prosecutors, and therefore said that which would confound them, so He knew the tenderness and sincere repentance of the prisoner, and therefore said that which would comfort her, as He did to that woman who was a sinner, such a sinner as this, who was likewise looked upon with disdain by a Pharisee, Luke 7:48-50: “Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.”

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): What a lovely portrait is it of the Son of God in our nature! Look at Jesus in this sweet point of view, pardoning the sinner, while reproving the sin.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): It does not appear to me that this woman was a penitent, or that Christ forgave her sin; but only that He dismissed her, as not thinking it proper to take upon Himself the office of the civil magistrate in condemning her.

A. W. PINK: No doubt the question occurs to many of our readers, Was this woman saved at the time she left Christ? Personally, I believe that she was. I believe so because she did not leave Christ when she had opportunity to do so; because she addressed Him as “Lord”—contrast the “Master” of the Pharisees in John 8:4; and because Christ said to her, “Neither do I condemn thee.”

ADAM CLARKE: It is generally supposed that our Lord acquitted the woman: this is incorrect; He neither acquitted nor condemned her: He did not enter at all judicially into the business. His saying, “Neither do I condemn thee,” was not more than a simple declaration that He would not concern Himself with the matter—that being the office of the chief magistrate.

J. C. RYLE: Let us calmly weigh the matter, and examine the contents of the passage.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Christ came not into the world to act the part of a civil magistrate, and therefore refused to arbitrate a case, or be concerned in dividing an inheritance between two brethren, Luke 12:13. Nor did He come into the world to condemn it, but that the world, through Him, might be saved, John 3:17; nor would He pass any other sentence on this woman, than what He had done; nor would He inflict any punishment on her Himself; but suitably and agreeably to His office as a prophet, He declares against her sin, calls her to repentance, and bids her “go and sin no more.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Greatly as our Lord delighted in mercy, He would not so exercise it as to give the least countenance to sin.

MATTHEW POOLE: He did not acquit her, for He was not to make void the law of God; nor did He condemn her: He was neither a witness in the case, nor yet a secular judge, to whom such judgments did belong; He was only to speak to her, as the Mediator and Saviour of man.

ADAM CLARKE: As a preacher of righteousness, He exhorted her to abandon her evil practices, lest the punishment which she was now likely to escape, should be inflicted on her for a repetition of her transgression…While there is life there is hope; God has no pleasure in the death of sinners; He is gracious and compassionate.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): There is hope for you, adulterer. There is hope for you, adulteress. God will not turn you away if you truly repent—you may be washed, you may be sanctified, you may be justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

THOMAS COKE: Jesus is now a merciful Saviour: He will shortly be an inexorable Judge. Wise and happy are they who improve the moment of opportunity, and seek to Him for mercy while mercy may be found.

CHARLES SIMEON: Be thankful that thou art not now sent into the presence of thy God with all thy sins upon thee: let the “space which is given thee for repentance,” be well employed: lose not an hour in seeking forgiveness with thy God. Go to thy chamber, and pour out thy soul before Him.

D. L. MOODY: Are you guilty, even in thought? Bear in mind what Christ said: “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart,” Matthew 5:28—Confess your sin to Him. Ask Him to give you victory over your passions.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827):  His goodness in sparing thy life, is designed to lead thee to repentance.

 

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A Morning in the Temple, Part 2 of 3: Christ Answers the Pharisees

Posted on February 3, 2023 by The Editor

Proverbs 26:5; John 8:6-9

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.

Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.” This was the first thing that He here did.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Most likely, Christ on purpose put Himself into this posture, as if He was busy about something else, and did not attend to what they said; and hereby cast some contempt upon them, as if they and their question were unworthy of His notice.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  This is the only mention made in the gospels of Christ’s writing.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): What He wrote, or how He could write upon the floor of the temple, which was of stone, are idle questions; the first not possible to be resolved, the second impertinent; for it is not said, that he made any impression upon the ground, though it be said, He wrote upon it. It appears plainly to have been but a divertive action, by which our Saviour signified that He gave no ear to them.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Nor are we told precisely what He meant by that significant action.

A. W. PINK: That there was a symbolical significance to His action goes without saying, and what this is we are not left to guess. Scripture is its own interpreter. This was not the first time that the Lord had written “with His finger.” In Exodus 31:18, we read, “And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”—Thus did He show these Pharisees that He had come here, not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. His writing on the ground, then, was symbolically a ratification of God’s righteous law. But so blind were His would-be accusers they discerned not the significance of His act.

MATTHEW HENRY: Some think they have a liberty of conjecture as to what He wrote here. Some Greek copies here read, He “wrote on the ground, the sins of every one of them;” and this He could do, for He “sets our iniquities before him,” Psalm 90:8.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Perhaps He thus wrote on the ground to show that sin, which is written before God, Isaiah 65:6, and graven as it were “with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond, ” Jeremiah 17:1.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Now because they knew their Bibles, they must have known of the passage in Jeremiah 17:13, which says, “O LORD, the Hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.” It might be translated, “written on the ground.” See them gathered about Him, and He stoops down and writes on the ground. They turn one to the other, saying, “What is He doing, writing on the ground? Writing on the ground! Isn’t there something like that in our Bibles?” Yes, there is.

MATTHEW HENRY: Jerome and Ambrose suppose He wrote, “Let the names of these wicked men be written in the dust,” Jeremiah 17:13.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): But this is mere conjecture.

JOHN TRAPP: Nothing certain can be determined.

A. W. PINK: It is evident that our Lord’s enemies mistook His silence for embarrassment. They no more grasped the force of His action of writing on the ground, than did Belshazzar understand the writing of that same Hand on the walls of his palace, Daniel 5:5-9, 25-31. Emboldened by His silence, and satisfied that they had Him cornered, they continued to press their question upon Him.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Silence may sometimes be mistaken for defeat. Unanswered words may be deemed unanswerable, and the fool becomes arrogant, more and more “wise in his own conceit.”

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): “When they continued asking,” our Lord silenced them with a withering and heart-searching reply—“He that is without sin among you,” He said, “let him first cast a stone at her.” He did not say that the woman had not sinned, or that her sin was a trifling and venial one. But He reminded her accusers that they were not the persons to bring a charge against her. Their own motives and lives were far from pure…What they really desired was not to vindicate the purity of God’s law, and punish a sinner, but to wreak their malice on Him.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): It is also evident that the accusers showed great partiality, from their apprehending the woman only, and not the man also, when the law condemned both; they must have favoured his escape, because they were both “taken in the fact.” It is plain, however, that our Lord’s certain knowledge of what the effect would be, at once vindicated the wisdom of His putting the matter upon this issue.

MATTHEW HENRY: “In the net which they spread is their own foot taken,” Psalm 9:15. They came with design to accuse Him, but they were forced to accuse themselves. Christ owns it was fit the prisoner should be prosecuted, but appeals to their consciences whether they were fit to be the prosecutors.

CHARLES SIMEON: To give time for His word to operate on their consciences, He stooped down and wrote again: and behold, these accusers, self-condemned in their own minds, and fearful lest their own secret abominations should be exposed to public view, withdrew as privately as they could. The elder part among them, as being most fearful of exposure, retiring first, and gradually the younger following their example; so that in a little time not a single accuser was left.

MATTHEW HENRY: They went away by stealth, as “people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle,” 2 Samuel 19:3. It is folly for those that are under convictions to get away from Jesus Christ, as these here did, for He is the only one that can heal the wounds of conscience, and speak peace to us. Those that are convicted by their consciences will be condemned by their Judge, if they be not justified by their Redeemer; and will they then go from Him? To whom will they go?

J. C. RYLE: We learn, for one thing, the power of conscience…Wicked and hardened as they were, they felt something within which made them cowards.

MATTHEW HENRY: Christ by this teaches us to be slow to speak when difficult cases are proposed to us, not quickly to shoot our bolt; and when provocations are given us, or we are bantered, to pause and consider before we reply; think twice before we speak once: “The heart of the wise studies to answer.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): After He fired that one red-hot shot, He waited until it had produced its due effect.

CHARLES SIMEON: And thus was the snare broken.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Oh! for wisdom to govern the tongue; to discover “the time to keep silence, and the time to speak,” Ecclesiastes 3:7; most of all to suggest the “word fitly spoken” for effective reproof! Proverbs 15:23, 25:1. How instructive is the pattern of our great Master! “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” Proverbs 26:5. His silences, and His answers were equally worthy of Himself.

 

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A Morning in the Temple, Part 1 of 3: The Scenario of a Subtle Snare

Posted on January 27, 2023 by The Editor

Proverbs 26:4; John 8:1-6

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.

Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It is surprising to see what a variety of ways the wickedness of the human heart will betray itself: sometimes in the commission of gross iniquity, and sometimes in apparent indignation against it: sometimes in open hostility against Christ, and sometimes in hypocritical professions of regard for Him. Who that had seen the zeal of the Scribes and Pharisees against an adulterous woman, would not have thought them the purest of the human race? Who that had heard their citations of Moses’ law, and their respectful application to Christ as an authorized expositor of that law, would not have supposed that they truly feared God, and desired to perform His holy will? Who would have imagined that the whole was only a murderous plot against the life of Christ?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The awful malignity of the Lord’s enemies is evident. They brought this adulterous woman to Christ not because they were shocked at her conduct, still less because they were grieved that God’s holy law had been broken. to exploit this woman’s sin and further their own evil designs. With coldblooded indelicacy they acted, employing the guilt of their captive to accomplish their evil intentions against Christ.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): It is worthy of remark, that these sworn foes of Christ did not bring the Adulterer as well as the Adulteress. Had their designs in coming to Jesus been purely from a regard to the sanctity of God’s law, they would have been as anxious to punish the man, as the woman; for so the law enjoined, see Leviticus 22:10.

CHARLES SIMEON: These accusers had no indignation against the sin of adultery, nor any love to the law of Moses, nor any zeal for the honour of God: they were actuated solely by an inveterate hatred of Christ, and a determination to find, if possible, some occasion against Him, that they might accuse Him. Their professed object was, to punish the woman; but their real object was, to lay a snare for His life.

A. W. PINK: They were anxious to discredit our Lord before the people. They did not wait until they could interrogate Him in private, but, interrupting as He was teaching the people, they rudely challenged Him to solve what must have seemed to them an unsolvable enigma. The problem by which they sought to defy Infinite Wisdom was this: A woman had been taken in the act of adultery, and the law required that she should be stoned.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Moses in the law, Leviticus 20:10, commanded that such malefactors should “be put to death;” but we read of no law commanding this kind of death. Their rule was, that when the law had set no kind of death for an offence, there the mildest kind of death was to be their punishment, which they counted strangling to be. But they ordinarily entitled Moses to their traditional additions to the law; and death being commanded by the law as the punishment, they took themselves to be at liberty to determine the kind of death, as prudence and reason of state ruled them; so probably, seeing that that sin grew very frequent amongst them, appointed stoning to be the kind of death such malefactors should be put to. The manner of which was this: The guilty person was carried up to some high place, and thrown down from there headlong by such as witnessed against him; then they threw stones at him till they had killed him, if not killed by the fall; or covered his body, if he were dead. This they tell our Saviour that Moses commanded, because he had commanded that such a person should die, and their Sanhedrim had determined this particular death to such malefactors. But they would know what our Saviour said to this.

A. W. PINK: “What sayest thou?” they asked. An insidious question, indeed.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If they had asked this question in sincerity, with a humble desire to know his mind, it had been very commendable. Those that are entrusted with the administration of justice should look up to Christ for direction.

A. W. PINK: “What sayest thou?” they asked. An insidious question, indeed.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If they had asked this question in sincerity, with a humble desire to know his mind, it had been very commendable. Those that are entrusted with the administration of justice should look up to Christ for direction.

ROBERT HAWKER: But the object they had was to entangle the Lord Jesus in a snare.

A. W. PINK: Had He said, “Let her go,” they could then accuse Him as being an enemy against the law of God, and His own word “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill,” Matthew 5:17. But if He answered, “Stone her,” they would have ridiculed the fact that He was the “friend of publicans and sinners.” On one hand, if He ignored the charge they brought against this guilty woman, they could accuse Him of compromising with sin; on the other hand, if He passed sentence on her, what became of His own word, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved,” John 3:17.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Their intention was, to constrain Christ to depart from his office of preaching grace, that he might appear to be fickle and unsteady.

A. W. PINK: Here, then, was the dilemma: if Christ palliated the wickedness of this woman, where was His respect for the holiness of God and the righteousness of His law; but if He condemned her, what became of His claim that He had come here to “seek and to save that which was lost?”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): But there is something more than that here.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Observe further, that the Jewish Sanhedrim sat by licence from the Roman governor; and though they had a right to try capital causes, it was necessary that the sentence which they passed should be recognized and allowed by the Roman governor, before it could be carried into execution.

MATTHEW POOLE: If He had directed to send her to be punished by the Roman governors, who administered justice in capital causes, the people would be fired with indignation; for they looked upon them as invaders of the rights of government that belonged to the Israelites. If He had advised them to put her to death by their own power, they would have accused Him of sedition, as an enemy of the Roman authority. If He had dismissed her as not worthy of death, they would have accused him to the Sanhedrim, as an infringer of the law of Moses, and a favourer of dissoluteness.

A. W. PINK: No doubt they were satisfied that they had Him completely cornered.

MATTHEW POOLE: This malicious design, so craftily concerted, our Saviour easily discovered and defeated—He seemed not at all to attend to what they said, but, stooping down, wrote on the ground.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Our Lord knew the hearts of the malicious questioners before Him, and dealt with them with perfect wisdom—He refused to be “a judge” and lawgiver among them, and specially in a case which their own law had already decided. He gave them, at first, no answer at all.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.” Sometimes a fool, or a wicked man, is not to be answered at all—as Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees.

 

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Unteachableness—a Deadly Fruit of Formality

Posted on January 20, 2023 by The Editor

Job 12:2

No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): These words of Job are to be taken ironically, exposing their vanity and self-conceit: “ye are the people;” the only, and all the people in the world of importance and consequence for good sense and wisdom; the only wise and knowing folk, the men of reason and understanding; all the rest are but fools and asses or, ye are the only people of God, His covenant people, His servants; that are made acquainted with the secrets of wisdom, as none else are.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is astonishing what unteachable, untamable creatures men are.

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

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Do you know a class of people that pull the most tremendously long faces, that always look so serious, that talk the English language with a kind of unctuous twang, that give a savory pronunciation to every word they utter? Beware of them!

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): In a vain religion there is much of show, and affecting to seem religious in the eyes of others. In a vain religion there is much censuring, reviling, and detracting of others…It is common for those who are most sinful themselves, and least sensible of it, to be most forward and free in judging and censuring others: the Pharisees, who were most haughty in justifying themselves, were most scornful in condemning others.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: What is this spirit that condemns? It is a self-righteous spirit. Self is always at the back of it, and it is always a manifestation of self-righteousness, a feeling of superiority, and a feeling that we are all right while others are not. That then leads to censoriousness, and a spirit that is always ready to express itself in a derogatory manner. And then, accompanying that, there is the tendency to despise others, to regard them with contempt. I am not only describing the Pharisees, I am describing all who have the spirit of the Pharisee.

C. H. SPURGEON: You know some men, perhaps, who are very stringent believers of a certain form of doctrine and very great admirers of a certain shape of Church rule and government. You will observe them utterly despising, and abhorring, and hating all who differ from their predilections. Albeit the difference is but as a jot or a tittle, they will stand up and fight for every rubric, defend every old rusty nail in the Church door and think every syllable of their peculiar creed should be accepted without challenge. “As it was in the beginning, so must it be now, and so must it ever be even unto the end.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564); Moroseness is the character of the old, but they become especially unteachable, because they measure wisdom by the number of years.

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY (1713-1778): King Henry made the length of his own arm a standard measure throughout England―since called a yard.  Do not bigots act much the same part in matters of religion?

C. H. SPURGEON: Now it is an observation which your experience will probably warrant, as certainly mine does, that mostly these people stand up so fiercely for the form, because, lacking the power, that is all they have to boast of. They have no faith, though they have a creed. They have no life within and they supply its place with outward ceremony. What wonder therefore that they fiercely defend that?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The Pharisees were expert at that. They went to the temple regularly; they were always punctilious in these matters of the details and minutiae of the law. But the whole time they were judging and condemning their fellows with contempt.

C. H. SPURGEON: One of the most frequent symptoms is formality in his religious worship…They will have it that there must always be observed, not simply reverent behavior in the House of God, but something more than mere reverence, there must be an abject slavish, tyrannical fear upon the hearts of all who are gathered. They will have it that every jot and tittle of our worship must always be conducted with a certain traditional decorum. Now these people, as frequently as not, know nothing whatever of the power of godliness and only contend for these little shells because they have not the kernel. They fight for the surface albeit they have never discovered “the deep that couches beneath.” They know not the precious ores that lie in the rich mines of the Gospel, and therefore the surface, covered though it is with weeds and thistles, is quite enough for them.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Formal Christianity is often the greatest enemy of the pure faith.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): If you love your own soul, beware of formality. Nothing is so dangerous to a man’s own soul. Familiarity with the form of religion, has a fearfully deadening effect on the conscience. It brings by degrees a thick crust of insensibility over the whole inner man. None seem to become so desperately hard as those who are continually repeating holy words and handling holy things, while their hearts, while their hearts are running after sin and the world…They are gradually hardening their hearts, and searing the skin of their consciences.

JOHN CALVIN: They become especially unteachable.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Each of us must be much on his guard lest he mistake pride and self-will for conscientious scruples. There is a vast difference between firmness and an unteachable spirit, as there is between meekness and fickleness.

MATTHEW HENRY: When we hear people ready to speak of the faults of others, or to censure them as holding scandalous errors, or to lessen the wisdom and piety of those about them, that they themselves may seem the wiser and better, this is a sign that they have but a vain religion. The man who has a detracting tongue cannot have a truly humble gracious heart. He who delights to injure his neighbour in vain pretends to love God; therefore a reviling tongue will prove a man a hypocrite. Censuring is a pleasing sin, extremely complaint with nature, and therefore evinces a man’s being in a natural state.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): He is not half a saint who is but a negative saint―The tree that is barren and without good fruit is for the fire, as well as the tree that brings forth evil fruit.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “The fruit of the Spirit―mark that allusion―is love, peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” Galatians 5:22.

C. H. SPURGEON: The man who knows how precious the life of godliness is, the man who understands its vitality, its deep-seated, deeply-rooted heart power—he also loves the form, but not as he loves the Spirit…He is apt, perhaps, to think less of forms than he should do, for he will mingle first with one body of sincere Christians, and then with another, and he will say, “If I can enjoy my Master’s presence it is but little matter to me where I am found. If I can but find the name of Christ extolled and His simple Gospel preached, this is all I desire.”

J. C. RYLE: If you love life, beware of formality.

 

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David’s Hope in the Goodness of the Lord

Posted on January 13, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 27:13—Psalm 71:5,14—Psalm 25:7; 2 Samuel 7:28—Psalm 23:6

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.—For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth…But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.—Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.

And now, O Lord GOD, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant.—Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I want to urge you to observe the goodness of God carefully for your soul’s good. There is a great difference between eyes and no eyes—yet many have eyes and see not. God’s goodness flows before them and they say, “Where is it?”

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What improvement shall we make of this subject?

DAVID CLARKSON (1622-1686): Study much the all-sufficiency, the power, the goodness, the unchangeableness of God—His all-sufficiency and power make Him able, and His goodness makes Him willing to do for His people under the cross what His all-sufficiency and almighty power can afford. His goodness sets His mighty power a-work for His suffering saints. His goodness sets His all-sufficiency, His fullness, in action for them, so that it runs freely upon them; and never more freely than when they are under the cross. “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living,” Psalm 27:13. What is it that makes you ready to faint under the cross, or thoughts and foresight of it? Look to the goodness of God—there is support.

CHARLES SIMEON: Study the character of God as drawn in the Holy Scriptures. Some think of Him as a God of all mercy; and others, as clothed only in the terrors of inexorable justice. But the true character of God is, that He is “a just God and a Saviour,” Isaiah 45:21. In the Lord Jesus Christ this union of justice and mercy is fully displayed. Once view Him as dying, rising, reigning for sinful man, and then all the description given of God in our text will be seen in its true light, and all the brightness of the Godhead irradiate your souls.

C. H. SPURGEON: David was a man of many troubles. Especially in the latter part of his life, he was incessantly in the furnace and he says that he would have “fainted” under those many troubles if he had not “believed to see,” in the particular matter of his trials, “the goodness of the Lord” in that land which is the special sphere of trouble. David believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not only in the Glory Land yonder, but also in this land here below. He believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not merely when he emerged from the furnace, but also while he was in it! As a pilgrim and a stranger, he believed to see the goodness of the Lord during the days of his pilgrimage. He did not always see it, but he believed to see it—he believed in it and anticipated it and, by believing in it—he did actually come to see it with the eyes of his mind and to rejoice in it!

TIMOTHY CRUSO (1657-1697): When we thus see the goodness of the Lord, it encourages our subjection to His government.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Do not let tears so fill your eyes that you cannot see the goodness of the Lord. Do not let thunderclouds, however heavy their lurid darkness, shut out from you the blue that is in your sky.

CHARLES SIMEON: Let David’s confidence be ours also.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “According to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.” These two import not barely His affording outward favours, which we call kindness, or God’s being good to us in benefits communicated; but they connotate a root that is in God’s nature, from whence these outward kindnesses proceed. The Lord is first good in Himself, and thence and therefore doth good; and in like manner He is of a kind heart and nature in Himself first, and thence and therefore is kind to others, even to the evil and unthankful, as Luke 6:35; the abundancy of His goodness and kindness in effects is from the amplitude and largeness of the goodness and kindness in His own heart and nature.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  God does good, because He is good; what He bestowed upon us must be traced up to the original; it is according to His mercies—not according to our merits—and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses.

A. W. PINK: The goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth forever, we ought never to be discouraged: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him,” Nahum 1:7.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “He knoweth them that trust in Him”—that hover and cover under His wings, as the chicks do under the hen’s wings: for that is the force of the Hebrew word here used. Such as these God knoweth for His, 2 Timothy 2:19; He knoweth their soul in adversity, Psalm 31:7; He knoweth how to deliver them, as He did righteous Lot, 2 Peter 2:9; then, when they know not what to do, as Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:12, yet if their eyes be toward Him, their faith in Him, He will extricate and deliver them. So well pleased is He with those that trust in Him—for that is what is meant here by His knowing of them—that He taketh such complacence and delight in them, Psalm 147:11; Psalm 33:18, and such continual care of them that they shall be sure to have whatsoever heart can wish or need require; even miraculous lovingkindness from God in a strong city, Psalm 17:7; Psalm 33:21, so great as cannot be uttered, Psalm 31:19. This is for the comfort of God’s Israel.

CHARLES SIMEON: How much more then ought we to do so, when all His glory is made to shine before us in the face of Jesus Christ! How should we love Him, serve Him, trust in Him, and delight ourselves in Him!

C. H. SPURGEON: Therefore praise Him. So good a God should not be without your gratitude. He that believes on Christ Jesus shall be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord!

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): There are two graces, which Christ useth above any other, to fill the soul with joy—faith and hope, because both of these two graces draw all their wine of joy draw at one tap—Christ and His promise: Faith tells the soul what Christ hath done for it, and so comforts it; hope revives the soul with the news of what Christ will do.

CHARLES SIMEON: O, beloved, let your hearts ascend to Him, and your souls be devoted to Him, as the occasion demands. Is He “good?” Praise him for His goodness. Is He “a strong-hold?” Flee to Him, and dwell continually in Him. Does He “know those who trust in Him?” Let Him have joy over you as monuments of His grace, and delight in you as heirs of His glory, Zephaniah 3:17. In a word, live but for Him; and as He has “bought you with a price, see that ye glorify Him with your bodies and your spirits, which are His,” 1 Corinthians 6:20.

 

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Iniquity in the Heart

Posted on January 6, 2023 by The Editor

Proverbs 15:8—Psalm 66:18-20

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.—If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): By observing God’s answers to your prayers, you will gain much insight into your own hearts, and ways, and prayers, and may thereby learn how to judge of them. David’s assurance that he did not regard iniquity in his heart was strengthened by God’s having heard his prayers; for thus he reasons, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me; but verily God hath heard me.”

ROBERT GORDON (1786-1853): The very supposition that “if he regarded iniquity in his heart, the Lord would not hear him,” implies the possibility that such may be the state even of believers; and there is abundant reason to fear that it is in this way their prayers are so often hindered, and so frequently remain unanswered.

ROBERT SOUTH (1633-1716): Whence is it that a man’s regarding or loving sin in his heart hinders his prayers from acceptance with God?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): To “regard iniquity in the heart,” does not mean to be conscious of sin—for all the Lord’s people must see their sins and be grieved for them, and this is rather praiseworthy than condemnable—but to be bent upon the practice of iniquity.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The original is, “If I looked at iniquity with my heart;”—that is, if I thought of it with affection and desire. He that “regards iniquity,” entertains the thoughts of it as a man does a welcome visitor. He provides for their entertainment, is reluctant to part with them; and, as far as he can safely, he seeks and seizes the occasion of practicing the sin, which he thinks of with satisfaction. This evidences a love and dominion of sin, and is inconsistent with true repentance; and, if connected with a profession of religion, it is a clear evidence of hypocrisy.

JOHN WITHERSPOON (1722-1749): They regard iniquity in their heart, who practice it secretly, who are under restraint from the world, but are not possessed of an habitual fear of the omniscient God, the searcher of all hearts, and from whose eyes there is no covering of thick darkness where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. They regard iniquity in the heart, who entertain and indulge the desire of sin, although in the course of providence they may be restrained from the actual commission of it. I am persuaded the instances are not rare, of men feeding upon sinful desires, even when through want of opportunity, through the fear of man, or through some partial restraint of conscience, they dare not carry them into execution. They regard iniquity in their heart who reflect upon past sins with delight, or without sincere humiliation of mind…they can remember their sins without sorrow, they can speak of them without shame, and sometimes even with a mixture of boasting and vain glory. Did you never hear them recall their past follies, and speak of them with such relish, that it seems to be more to renew the pleasure than to regret the sin? Even supposing such persons to have forsaken the practice of some sins, if they can thus look back upon them with inward complacency, their seeming reformation must be owing to a very different cause from renovation of heart.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): This is the wickedness of man’s heart, that it will even love, and hold fast, that which with the mouth it prays against: and of this sort are they that honour God with their mouth, but their heart is far from Him, Isaiah 29:23; Ezekiel 33:31.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “Iniquity in my heart.” If, having seen it to be there, I continue to gaze upon it without aversion; if I cherish it, have a side glance of love towards it, excuse it, and palliate it; “The Lord will not hear me.” How can He? Can I desire Him to connive at my sin, and accept me while I willfully cling to any evil way? For God to accept our devotions, while we are delighting in sin, would be to make Himself the God of hypocrites, which is a fitter name for Satan than for the Holy One of Israel.

JOHN CALVIN: The Psalmist mentions integrity of heart as indispensable…When the heart does not correspond to the outward conduct, and harbours any secret evil intent, the fair exterior appearance may deceive men; but it is an abomination in the sight of God.

ROBERT SOUTH: In this case, he cannot pray by the Spirit. All prayers that are acceptable with God are the breathings of his own Spirit within us, Romans 8:26. As without the intercession of Christ we cannot have our prayers accepted, so without the intercession of the Spirit we cannot pray. The second reason is, because as long as a man regards iniquity in his heart he cannot pray in faith; that is, he cannot build a rational confidence upon any promise that God will accept him. Now, faith always respects the promise, and promise of acceptance is made only to the upright: so long, therefore, as men cherish a love of sin in their heart, they either understand not the promises, and so they pray without understanding, or they understand them, and yet misapply them to themselves, and so they pray in presumption: in either case, they have little cause to hope for acceptance.

ROBERT GORDON: Another case is, I fear, but too common, and in which the believer may be still more directly chargeable with regarding iniquity in his heart. It is possible that there may be in his heart or life something which he is conscious is not altogether as it should be—some earthly attachment which he cannot easily justify—or some point of conformity to the maxims and practices of the world, which he finds it difficult to reconcile with Christian principle; yet all the struggle which these have from time to time cost him, may only have been an effort of ingenuity on his part to retain them without doing direct violence to conscience—a laborious getting up of arguments whereby to show how they may be defended, or in what way they may lawfully be gone into; while the true and simple reason—namely, the love of the world, is all the while kept out of view.

JOHN WITHERSPOON: In the last place, I suspect that they regard sin in the heart, who are backward to bring themselves to the trial, and who are not truly willing that God Himself would search and try them. If any, therefore, are unwilling to be tried, if they are backward to self-examination, it is an evidence of a strong and powerful attachment to sin. It can proceed from nothing but from a secret dread of some disagreeable discovery, or the detection of some lust which they cannot consent to forsake.

JOHN BUNYAN: While prayer is making, God is searching the heart to see from what root and spirit it arises.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  God looks on the heart and sees the thoughts and intents of that.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Are you troubled because your prayers are not answered?

THOMAS GOODWIN: If God doth not grant your petitions, it will put you to study a reason for it, of His dealing; and so you will come to search into your prayers and the carriage of your hearts.

 

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A Prayer for God’s Blessing in the New Year

Posted on December 30, 2022 by The Editor

1 Chronicles 4:9,10

And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Jabez called on the God of Israel,” when he was undertaking some great and dangerous service. Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed,”—I trust not to my own or people’s valour, but only to thy blessing and help…That thine hand might be with me, to protect and strengthen me against my adversaries.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In its primary sense, it evidently related to temporal blessings. God had promised His people an inheritance in Canaan, but they were not able of themselves to drive out the inhabitants. Jabez therefore, sensible of his insufficiency, prayed to God for help. He begged for the blessing of God upon his endeavours: he desired to be preserved from the dangers to which his military exploits would expose him, and to have an enlarged inheritance in the promised land. But there is reason to think it had also a spiritual meaning.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “Oh, that Thou would bless me, indeed.” Think it over, and you will see that there is a depth of meaning in the expression. We may set this in contrast with human blessings—“Oh, that Thou would bless me, indeed.” Other blessings are mere tittles in comparison with Thy blessing. For Thy blessing is the title “to an inheritance incorruptible” and unfading, to “a kingdom which cannot be moved.” Well might David pray in another place, “with Thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed forever,” 2 Samuel 7:29.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): This, therefore, evidently argues that there was another sort of blessings, which were latent and hid, even a substantial, spiritual, invisible kind of blessings for evermore. That which Jacob obtained is called the “blessing,” in Genesis 27, eminently such, or it was the “blessing indeed,” which was in Jabez’s eye under all these veils; ‘the blessing, even life for evermore,’ as the Psalmist speaks by way of exposition, Psalm 133:3.

CHARLES SIMEON: Like the patriarch Jacob, Jabez “wrestled with God, and prevailed.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Perhaps Jabez had an eye to the promise God made to Abraham, “In blessing, I will bless thee,” Genesis 22:17. “Let that blessing of Abraham come upon me.” Spiritual blessings are the best blessings, and those are blessed indeed who are blessed with them.

THOMAS GOODWIN: And, indeed, when Isaac afterwards with such vehemency doubles Jacob’s blessing, “I have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed,” Genesis 27:33, this imports a blessing indeed to have been contained and involved in that blessing; and Isaac also showed that the same blessing that was promised to Abraham, which was spiritual, was made over by inheritance to Jacob. The words of Abraham’s blessing have the same emphatical duplication that we find in Jacob’s, “In blessing, I will bless thee,” Genesis 22:17. Further, the last words in that blessing of Jacob’s, “Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee,” Genesis 27:29, manifestly refer to the blessing made to Abraham, being part of the words that are used in Abraham’s blessing, “I will make thee a blessing, and I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee,” Genesis 12:2,3.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Jabez being so remarkably spoken of, and his prayer so recorded, and the Lord’s gracious answer in granting it so striking, demands a more particular attention. His prayer is evidently a proof of his great piety.

MATTHEW HENRY: What was the nature of his prayer?

CHARLES SIMEON: The manner in which it was offered was believing. The title, by which he addressed the Deity, argued his faith in God. It expressed a confidence in God as the hearer of prayer.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): His prayer was at once both enlightened and pious. He had piety towards God, and therefore he trusted in Him; he knew that He was the fountain of all good, and therefore he sought all necessaries both for body and soul from Him…Both the matter and manner of his prayer were excellent.

CHARLES SIMEON: It was humble. He felt his entire dependence upon the power and grace of God. This is intimated not merely in the petitions offered, but in the very manner in which they were offered. Such humility is absolutely necessary to render prayer acceptable. The more we abase ourselves, the more will God exalt us. Let this be remembered in all our addresses at the throne of grace. It was importunate. He enforced his request with a very earnest plea.

ADAM CLARKE: His heart was deeply impressed with its wants, and therefore he was earnest and fervent: “O that thou wouldest bless me indeed.” He dreads both sin and suffering, and therefore prays against both: “O that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!” Sin and misery are in every step of the journey of life; keep me from sin, that I grieve thee not; and keep me from sin, that I render not myself miserable! We can never offend God without injuring ourselves; he that sins must suffer.

CHARLES SIMEON: Nor, in reference to sin, could any plea be more proper for him.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Nothing is more grieving to a good man than the evil of sin, so contrary to the nature and will of God, being committed against a God of infinite love, grace, and mercy, whereby the name, ways, and truths of Christ are dishonoured, and the Spirit of God grieved, and saints are bereaved of much comfort; and therefore they desire to be kept from it, knowing they cannot keep themselves, but the Lord can and will, at least from the tyranny of it, and destruction by it.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast”—my heart—“When thou shalt have enlarged mine heart,” saith David, “then will I run the way of thy commandments,” Psalm 119:32.

ADAM CLARKE: Jabez is conscious that without the continual support of God he must fail; and therefore he prays to be upheld by His power: “That thy hand might be with me!”

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Every blessing, temporal and spiritual, comes from God, and should be sought in the way of prayer. They who wait upon God, will renew their strength, and be kept from the power of the evil one, the evil heart, and the evil world. Unless God strengthen us, we become a prey to the weakest of our enemies. God granted his prayer: so ready is God to give to him that asketh, and to supply the largest desires of our souls.

C. H. SPURGEON: O Lord, we would have the blessings of our fellow creatures, the blessings that come from their hearts—but, “Oh, that Thou would bless me, indeed,” for Thou can bless with authority. Their blessings may be but words, but Thy words are effectual. They may often wish what they cannot do, and desire to give what they have not at their own disposal, but Thy will is Omnipotent. Thou didst create the world with but a word. O that such Omnipotence would now show me Thy blessing!

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): Let us pray with Jabez to be blessed indeed!

 

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A Tale of Taxes & Timing, Prophecy & Providence

Posted on December 23, 2022 by The Editor

Luke 2:1-7

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the City of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus—By a sweet providence of God, that Christ might be born at Bethlehem, according to the Scriptures. Howbeit Augustus thought not so, as it is said in another case of Nebuchadnezzar, Isaiah 10:7, “He meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): That which Augustus designed was either to gratify his pride in knowing the numbers of his people, and proclaiming it to the world, or he did it in policy, to strengthen his interest, and make his government appear the more formidable; but Providence had another reach in it. All the world shall be at the trouble of being enrolled, only that Joseph and Mary may—this brought them up from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, because they were of the stock and lineage of David, Luke 2:4,5.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Luke sets aside the idea of human contrivance, by saying, that Joseph and Mary had left home, and came to that place to make the return according to their family and tribe. If intentionally and on purpose they had changed their residence that Mary might bring forth her child in Bethlehem, we would have looked only at the human beings concerned. But as they have no other design than to obey the edict of Augustus, we readily acknowledge, that they were led like blind persons, by the hand of God, to the place where Christ must be born. This may appear to be accidental, as everything else which does not proceed from a direct human intention is ascribed by irreligious men to Fortune. But a comparison will clearly show it to have been accomplished by the wonderful Providence of God, that a registration was then enacted by Augustus Caesar, and that Joseph and Mary set out from home, so as to arrive in Bethlehem at this very point of time.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The overruling providence of God appears in this simple fact. He orders all things in heaven and earth. He turns the hearts of kings whithersoever He will. He overruled the time when Augustus decreed the taxing. He directed the enforcement of the decree in such a way, that Mary must needs be at Bethlehem when “the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.” Little did the haughty Roman emperor, and his officer Cyrenius, think that they were only instruments in the hand of the God of Israel, and were only carrying out the eternal purposes of the King of kings.

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

JOHN CALVIN: We must remember also the prediction which was uttered by the prophet many centuries before.

MATTHEW HENRY: Jesus was born when Judea was become a province of the empire, and tributary to it; as appears evidently by this, that when all the Roman empire was taxed, the Jews were taxed among the rest. Jerusalem was taken by Pompey the Roman general, about sixty years before this, who granted the government of the church to Hyrcanus, but not the government of the state; by degrees it was more and more reduced, till now at length it was quite subdued; for Judea was ruled by Cyrenius the Roman governor of Syria: Now just at this juncture, the Messiah was to be born, for so was dying Jacob’s prophecy, that Shiloh should come when the “sceptre was departed from Judah,” and the “lawgiver from between his feet,” Genesis 49:10. This was the first taxing that was made in Judea, the first badge of their servitude; therefore now Shiloh must come, to set up His kingdom.

JOHN CALVIN: Augustus orders a registration to take place in Judea, and each person to give his name, that they may afterwards pay an annual tax, which they were formerly accustomed to pay to God. Thus an ungodly man takes forcible possession of that which God was accustomed to demand from His people. It was, in effect, reducing the Jews to entire subjection, and forbidding them to be thenceforth reckoned as the people of God.

J. C. RYLE: Let us notice, secondly, the place where Christ was born. It was not at Nazareth of Galilee, where His mother Mary lived.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Jerusalem was not the Saviour’s birthplace, nor was it one of the prominent towns of Palestine; instead, it was in a small village! The Holy Spirit has called particular attention to this point in one of the leading Messianic prophecies.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This passage connects very definitely with a prophecy which was given some 700 years before the events took place, which is found in the fifth chapter of the book of Micah. “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel,” Micah 5:2.

A. W. PINK: How startlingly the sovereignty of God was displayed in that momentous event…How different are God’s thoughts and ways from man’s! How He despises what we most esteem, and honours that which we look down upon. One of the most insignificant of all places was chosen by God to be the scene of the most stupendous of all events.

JOHN CALVIN: Nor is the Providence of God less wonderful in employing the mandate of a tyrant to draw Mary from home, that the prophecy may be fulfilled. God had marked out by His prophet the place where He determined that His Son should be born. If Mary had not been constrained to do otherwise, she would have chosen to bring forth her child at home. Thus we see that the holy servants of God, even though they wander from their design, unconscious where they are going, still keep the right path, because God directs their steps.

A. W. PINK: There is a wonderful order in all God’s works, an all-wise timing of the divine actions. Not that the Almighty is hampered or hindered by finite creatures of the dust, but that His wondrous ways may be the more admired by those who are granted spirituality to discern them. “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints,” Revelation 15:3.

MATTHEW HENRY: See how man purposes and God disposes; and how Providence orders all things for the fulfilling of the scripture, and makes use of the projects men have for serving their own purposes, quite beyond their intention, to serve His.

J. C. RYLE: The heart of a believer should take comfort in the recollection of God’s providential government of the world. A true Christian should never be greatly moved or disquieted by the conduct of the rulers of the earth. He should see with the eye of faith a hand overruling all that they do to the praise and glory of God. He should regard every king and potentate as a creature who, with all his power, can do nothing but what God allows, and nothing which is not carrying out God’s will. And when the rulers of this world “set themselves against the Lord,” he should take comfort in the words of Solomon, “There be higher than they,’ Ecclesiastes 5:8.

 

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God’s Absolute Sovereignty

Posted on December 16, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 47:4

He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): To what does this sentiment refer—our inheritance?

JOHN BOYS (1619-1625): “He shall choose our inheritance for us,” means that He hath chosen, that is, hath appointed, of His own good will and mercy towards us, our inheritance; not only things meet for this life as lands, and houses, and possessions, but even all other things concerning the hope of a better life.

WILLIAM JAY: The Christian has “another and a better country,” Hebrews 11:16; “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” for him, 1 Peter 1:4; and this inheritance God has chosen for him…But the sentiment here refers to time rather than eternity, and to God’s choice in the regulation of our allotments on earth—Realize this principle. See the providence of God determining the bounds of your habitations; the age in which you were to live; the stations you were to fill; the comforts you were to enjoy; and the trials you were to endure.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This is a song of the sovereignty of God.

WILLIAM CAREY (1761-1834): God has a sovereign right to dispose of us as He pleases.

WILLIAM JAY: He has a right much greater than that of the potter over the clay; a right still greater than that of a father over his children; a right derived from absolute propriety. For has He not a right to do what He will with His own? What right have we to choose? We have neither made ourselves, nor redeemed ourselves, nor sustained ourselves. From His wardrobe we have been clothed, at His table we have been fed. He it is that draws the curtains of night around us, and tells creation to be quiet while we slumber and sleep; and His mercies are new every morning. Secondly, God is qualified to choose for us. As the right belongs to Him, so the ability belongs to Him to judge, and His judgment is always according to truth. He can never be mistaken in His decision. He knoweth our frame. He can distinguish between our wants and our wishes. He knoweth what will be good for us, and what would prove injurious to us. But every thing unfits us for choosing our inheritance for ourselves—we are too ignorant, too selfish, and too impatient for this.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Ignorance of the providence of God is the cause of all impatience.

A. B. JACK (Unknown): We are all very apt to believe in Providence when we get our own way; but when things go awry, we think, if there is a God, He is in heaven and not upon the earth. When we get our own way, we are happy and contented. When we are subjected to disappointment, we become the victims of despair. We are all like crickets. The cricket, in the spring, builds his house in the meadow, and chirps for joy because all is going so well with him. But when he hears the sound of the plough a few furrows off, and the thunder of the oxen’s tread, then his young heart fails him. By-and-by the plough comes crunching along, turns his dwelling bottom-side up, and as he goes rolling over and over, without a house and without a home, “Oh,” he says, “the foundations of the world are breaking up, and everything is hastening to destruction.” But the husbandman, as he walks behind the plough, does he think the foundations of the world are breaking up? No. He is thinking only of the harvest that is to follow in the wake of the plough; and the cricket, if it will but wait, will see the husbandman’s purpose.

JOHN CALVIN: Truly we never lean upon a better support than when, disregarding the appearance of things present, we depend entirely upon the Word of the Lord, and apprehend by faith that blessing which is not yet apparent…Therefore, whenever we wander in uncertainty through intricate windings, we must contemplate, with eyes of faith, the secret providence of God which governs us and our affairs.

BASIL (329-379): Never let us say of anything, it happened by chance; there is nothing that has not been fore-arranged, nothing which has not its own special end, by which it forms a link in the chain of appointed order.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): All is under the management of infinite wisdom.

WILLIAM JAY: And if you have not much of the world―ask―why is it? Is it because my Heavenly Father is not able to give me more?  No. The silver and the gold are his.  The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.  The world, and they that dwell therein. Is it because He has no inclination to indulge me? No. He takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants. It is therefore to be resolved into the wisdom and kindness of His administration.

GILES FLETCHER (1586-1623): It may be thou art godly and poor―Tis well; but canst thou tell whether, if thou wert not poor, thou wouldst be godly? Surely God knows us better than we ourselves do, and therefore can best fit the estate to the person.

WILLIAM JAY: His wisdom tells Him how much I can bear―and His kindness will not suffer Him to give me more. His aim is my welfare. The same disposition which leads Him to give, induces Him to deny. He corrects and He crowns with the same love. This loss is to enrich me: this sickness is to cure me. I know that “all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them that are the called, according to His purpose,” Romans 8:28.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Strangers may speak of providence; but only the children love it. Those who are alienated from God in their hearts, do not like to be so completely in His power.

WILLIAM JAY: Let us remember that He has chosen for us already.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The Apostle Paul assures us that “we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,” Ephesians 1:4; and that “we are saved and called according to God’s own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ, before the world began,” 2 Timothy 1:9.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This is the language of every gracious soul, “God shall choose my inheritance for me; let Him appoint me my lot, and I will acquiesce in the appointment. He knows what is good for me better than I do for myself, and therefore I will have no will of my own but what is resolved into His.”

WILLIAM JAY: As to life itself, He shall determine how long or how short shall be its continuance; and the time, place, mode, and means of my removal I leave with Him in whose hands my breath is, and in “whose hands are all my ways.”—Thus, as to all my interest, all that alarms my fears, all that excites my hopes, all that engages my expectations in the world, I commit to Him, in compliance with His merciful commands and injunctions: “Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee,” Psalm 55:22; “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass,” Psalm 37:5; “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you,” 1 Peter 5:7.

 

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Faithful Witnessing

Posted on December 10, 2022 by The Editor

Mark 12:31; Proverbs 24:11,12; Isaiah 43:10,11,15

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?

Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour…I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

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

E. W. BULLINGER (1837-1913): We are God’s witnesses.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Here Isaiah includes all believers, for this office of bearing testimony is binding on all.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): You are not all, it is true, called to be ministers of Christ, but you are all to be witnesses for Him in the midst of a dark benighted world. And such must you be.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): “Before Pontius Pilate, Christ witnessed a good confession,” 1 Timothy 6:13. The servants of Christ in every age must remember that our Lord’s conduct in this place is meant to be their example. Like Him we are to be witnesses to God’s truth, salt in the midst of corruption, light in the midst of darkness, men and women not afraid to stand alone, and to testify for God against the ways of sin and the world. To do so may entail on us much trouble, and even persecution. But the duty is clear and plain.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Note what we have to do—to bear witness; not to argue, not to adorn, but simply to attest. Note what we have to attest—the fact, not of the historical life of Jesus Christ, because we are not in a position to be witnesses of that, but the fact of His preciousness and power, and the fact of our own experience of what He has done for us.

CHARLES SIMEON: You must let it be seen that He both does, and will renew the powers of a withered soul, and infuse into it such energies as shall bear the stamp and character of divinity upon them.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: This is the witness that needs no eloquence, no genius, no anything except honesty and experience; and whosoever has tasted and felt and handled of the Word of Life may surely go to a brother and say, “Brother, I have eaten and am satisfied. Will you not help yourselves?” We can all do it, and we ought to do it. The Christian privilege of being witnessed to by the Spirit of God in our hearts brings with it the Christian duty of being witnesses in our turn to the world…The health of his own soul, his reverence for the truth he has learnt to love, his necessary connection with other men, make it a duty, a necessity, and a joy to tell what he has heard, and to speak what he believes.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Two qualifications are required in a witness, truth and love―Ephesians 4:15; these are needed, but these will do—the law under which we live is the law of love; and whenever any doubt arises as to practical details, the Pattern is at hand to mold it on and test it by: “Love one another as I have loved you,” John 15:12.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If there be no love to God, and no love to man, the vital element is wanting.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Whoso hath this world’s good, or the next world’s good, or both, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): What is to be thought of Christians who have heard the charge of the Lord Jesus, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” Mark 16:15, but who, paying no attention to the appalling condition of lost souls on every side of them, think only of their own pleasure and comfort?

JOHN CALVIN: In general no man ought to be accounted a believer, who conceals the knowledge of God within his own heart, and never makes an open confession of the truth.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): But how much more guilty to forbear the deliverance of immortal souls in ignorance, ungodliness, or unbelief, drawn unto death, and ready to be slain! Ought they not to be the objects of our deepest, most yearning anxiety? What shall we then say to that frozen apathy, which forbears to deliver? “We have no right to judge—We knew it not—Am I my brother’s keeper? It is no concern of mine.” But might not many a soul have started back from the brink of ruin, if only the discovery of his danger had been made, ere it was too late? Yet the one word, that might have saved him, was forborne.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He knows and considers whether the excuse we make be true or no, whether it was because we did not know it or whether the true reason was not because we did not love our neighbour as we ought, but were selfish, and regardless both of God and man. Let this serve to silence all our frivolous pleas, by which we think to stop the mouth of conscience when it charges us with the omission of plain duty: “Does not He that ponders the heart consider it?”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Where shall we find words weighty and burning enough to tell what fatal cruelty lies in the unthinking negligence so characteristic of large portions of Christ’s professed followers?

J. C. RYLE: If we love life, if we would keep a good conscience, and be owned by Christ at the last day, we must be “witnesses.” It is written, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels,” Mark 8:38.

H. A. IRONSIDE: These are unspeakably solemn words and worthy of being carefully pondered in the presence of God by every converted reader of these lines. May grace be given to each one to weigh well their solemn import, and to seek day by day to faithfully make known the only message which can deliver from the second death.

C. H. SPURGEON: For this end were we born, and for this purpose were we sent into the world, that we might bear witness to grand soul-saving truths.

CHARLES BRIDGES: This obligation, with all the responsibility of its neglect, is the universal law of the gospel.

WILLIAM ARNOT: The prophets before Christ’s coming, and the apostles after it, all conspired to teach, by their lips and by their lives, that “a man liveth not to himself, and dieth not to himself,” Romans 14:7. Ye who bear the Saviour’s name, and trust in His love, ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price. Ye have talents to lay out, and a work to accomplish—a Master to serve and a brother to save.

J. C. RYLE: Happy is he who is not ashamed to say to others, “Come and hear what the Lord hath done for my soul,” Psalm 66:16…If we have anything to tell others about Christ, let us resolve to tell it. Let us not be silent, if we have found peace and rest in the Gospel. Let us speak to our relations, and friends, and families, and neighbours, according as we have opportunity, and tell them what the Lord has done for our souls.

 

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