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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Speaking the Truth in Love, and Grace, Seasoned with Salt

Posted on December 2, 2022 by The Editor

Proverbs 15:23; Proverbs 25:11; Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:14,15

A word spoken in due season, how good it is!

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): After being born to Christ, we ought to grow, so as “not to be children in understanding,” 1 Corinthians 14:20.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Brethren, we have everywhere to battle with falsehood and if we are to bless the world we must confront it with sturdy face and zealous spirit.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): We should not be ashamed of our principles. We should candidly state that we are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath and indignation: that God has sent his only-begotten Son to die for us: that through His precious blood, we hope and believe that we have obtained the forgiveness of all our sins. We should then state our conviction, that sinners redeemed with so inestimable a price, are bound to consecrate themselves to Him, and, above all things, to seek the glory of His great name. We should further avow our full persuasion, that in the day of judgment we shall all be dealt with according to our works; that those who have suffered any thing to stand in competition with their duty to Christ, will assuredly be cast out as wicked and unprofitable servants; but that they who have loved, and served, and honoured Him with their whole hearts, shall be applauded by Him as good and faithful servants, and enter forever into the joy of their Lord.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It is an important thing to stand for the fundamentals, but as we seek to bear witness to the great fundamental truths, let us never forget that the greatest fundamental of all is love.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The cause of truth itself may be discredited by improper management.

CHARLES SIMEON: As respects the truth itself, we should have no hesitation in declaring it, yet we should be much on our guard against any thing harsh or acrimonious in our manner of declaring it…A Christian on such occasions must bear in mind how much the honour of God is involved in his conduct; and how much, humanly speaking, the salvation of others may depend on him. By an indiscreet mode of vindicating the truth, he may shut the ears, and harden the hearts of many; and so embitter their minds, as to make them determined haters and despisers of vital godliness: but by a meek, modest, affectionate, and prudent statement, he may remove their prejudices, and lead them to a candid examination of their own state before God.

H. A. IRONSIDE: It should always be remembered that in contending for the faith, the soul of the sinner has to be thought of as well.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “A word fitly spoken,”—Or, “a word spoken on its wheels,” as it is in the Hebrew, that proceeds aright, keeps due order, is well circumstanced as to matter, method, time, place, and persons; a discourse well put together, properly pronounced, roundly, easily, and fluently delivered to proper persons, and adapted to their circumstances; and “seasonably” spoken, as many versions render it.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Our Lord witnessed of Himself, as “gifted with the tongue of the learned, that he might know how to speak the word in season,” Isaiah 50:4—a word upon the wheels—not forced or dragged, but rolling smoothly along, like the chariot-wheels. His discourses on the living water and the bread of life arose naturally out of the conversation, and therefore were full of arresting application.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Let your speech be alway with grace,” because our converse with men ought to be managed with the greatest circumspection, in imitation of Christ, who entertained those that did converse with Him with “gracious words,” Luke 4:22. Endeavour to speak that the hearers may conceive your discourse proceeds from a gracious spirit, or “grace in the heart,” Colossians 3:16, teaching your mouth “with meekness of wisdom,” James 3:13, “using knowledge aright,” Proverbs 15:2, and being in its tendency gracious, Ecclesiastes 10:12, not as tinctured with gall or venom—but “ministering grace to the hearers,” Ephesians 4:29.

CHRISTMAS EVANS (1766-1838): There is great need of faithfulness and prudence, in defending the truths of Christ, against the errors of the times. Faithfulness indeed will oblige us to do it; but prudence must direct us how to do it.

CHARLES BRIDGES: We may think to relieve our conscience by speaking our mind. But to do it rudely and harshly, may put a stumbling-block in our brother’s way. Under all circumstances our “lips should know what is acceptable,” Proverbs 10:32. Unseemly language makes wholesome truth more unpalatable.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Let them see that love, not wrath, gives the blow.

C. H. SPURGEON: Speak your mind, but still be kind. In being frank some are rough, and this is by no means needful.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is a happy medium between harshness and firmness, as there is between sentimentality and tenderness. We are bidden to speak “the truth in love,”—and Christ was doing so as truly when denouncing the Pharisees in Matthew 23:1-39—as when He was comforting His disciples in John 14:1-31. But does that mean that His countenance, the tone of His voice, or His general bearing was the same? He ever spoke the truth in love—but if some would re-read the four Gospels with this particular thought in mind—it might cause them to revise, or at least, to modify their present conception of what “speaking the truth in love” really is. It depends upon the particular fault committed. Mole-hills are not to be magnified into mountains. There are times when it is fitting “to rebuke sharply,” Titus 1:13, as Christ did in Luke 24:25. But for the most part, it should be done in “the spirit of meekness,” Galatians 6:1.

CHRISTMAS EVANS: Wisdom is necessary here to distinguish the different characters, those who require severity, and those who claim tenderness.

CHARLES BRIDGES: A word spoken for everyone, like a coat made for everyone, has no individual fitness. When “the wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment,” Ecclesiastes 8:5, the word is doubly effective…Paul powerfully charged superstition on the Athenians by an inscription on their own altar; and strengthened his reasoning by quoting one of their own poets, Acts 17:22-28. To a corrupt and profligate judge he preached “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,” Acts 24:25. In general intercourse much depends, not only upon the word spoken, but upon the occasion and spirit of speaking. We must not only lay ourselves out to do good, but to watch the fittest seasons of doing it. Under affliction, or tender impressions of conviction, “a word fitly spoken” may be as the descent of our gracious Lord to the soul, “like rain upon mown grass,” Psalm 72:6. The plough enters most effectually when the earth is softened.

JOHN NEWTON: But let us be firm and unmoved, and not hesitate to speak the truth in love, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. Go forth, therefore, in the name and strength of the Lord of Hosts, speaking the truth in love; and may He give you a witness in many hearts, that you are taught of God, and favoured with the unction of His Holy Spirit.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): The God of grace and peace grant all His children spirits endeavouring to speak “the truth in love” in these dividing times.

 

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Is it True that “God Loves the Sinner, But Hates the Sin”?

Posted on November 25, 2022 by The Editor

Mark 10:17-22

There came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): One of the most popular beliefs of the day is that God loves everybody, and the very fact that it is so popular with all classes ought to be enough to arouse the suspicions of those who are subject to the Word of Truth.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Notice the expression of Jesus beholding this young man, and as it is said, “loved him.”—It should be carefully distinguished what this “love” meant, from the love Jesus beareth to His people.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Remember, this young man already thought himself to be quite good, and that he had kept all of God’s commandments. But listen to the very first words Jesus said unto him—“Why callest me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Then Jesus told him to keep the commandments.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “And he answered and said unto Him,”—with a great deal of pertness—“Master, all these have I observed from my youth.”  The sense is, that Jesus looked upon him, when he expressed himself in such a pert manner, and had a compassionate concern for him; He pitied him for his ignorance of the law, in its spirituality and large extent; and for his pride and vanity, his conceit, and his glorying in himself: wherefore, in order to mortify him, and abate these swelling thoughts of himself—“He said unto him, one thing thou lackest…” This young man’s reigning sin seems to have been an overweening affection for the things of this world; his riches were his idol, on which his heart was set, and in which he trusted.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Now the Scripture strongly suggests that this young man never picked up that cross, and followed after Jesus. So then, how did Jesus “love” him? Jesus loved him enough to show him the truth of his sinful condition before God, by revealing his covetous love for the things of this world.

ROBERT HAWKER: The love here spoken of, differs altogether from the special affection the Lord Jesus bears to the persons of His redeemed, which are the gift of his Father, the purchase of His blood, and the objects of the everlasting love of God the Holy Ghost, in whom He puts the influences of His sovereign power and grace to make them wise unto salvation, through the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The other day I saw a little tract bearing this title, “It is certain that God loves you.” And I burned it, for I was afraid that somebody who had no right to it, might see it and believe that it was true. I do not believe that God loves every individual who might pick that tract up in the sense in which such an individual would understand the expression. I know that God loves, in a certain sense, all the creatures that He has made. But such love as that gives me no comfort, as long as I am an unreconciled sinner under condemnation, because I have not believed in God’s dear Son!

A. W. PINK: No matter how a man may live—in open defiance of Heaven, with no concern whatever for his soul’s eternal interests, still less for God’s glory, dying, perhaps with an oath on his lips—notwithstanding, God loves him, we are told. So widely has this dogma been proclaimed, and so comforting is it to the heart which is at enmity with God, we have little hope of convincing many of their error.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): They think God loves them because they love themselves; and though they know they have sin, yet they think God will not be so ill, as to reckon with them; they think they are sure that God loves them, but they cannot give a ground for it.

A. W. PINK: That God loves everybody, is, we may say, quite a modern belief. The writings of the church-fathers, the Reformers, or the Puritans, we believe, will be searched in vain for any such concept…It has been customary to say “God loves the sinner, though He hates his sin.” But that is a meaningless distinction. What is there in a sinner but sin? Is it not true that his “whole head is sick,” and his “whole heart faint,” and that “from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness” in him?” Isaiah 1:5,6. Is it true that God loves the one who is despising and rejecting His blessed Son?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): If ever anyone knew the love of God, if ever “the love of God” was preached and understood by anyone, that one was Jesus Christ.

A. W. PINK: If it be true that God loves every member of the human family then why did our Lord tell His disciples, “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father…If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him,” John 14:21,23? Why say “he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father,” if the Father loves everybody? The same limitation is found in Proverbs 8:17—“I love them that love Me.” Again, we read, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity”—not merely the works of iniquity. Here, then, is a flat repudiation of present teaching that, “God hates sin but loves the sinner;” Scripture says, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity,” Psalm 5:5! “God is angry with the wicked every day,” Psalm 7:11. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God,”—not “shall abide,” but even now—“abideth on him,” John 3:36. Can God “love” the one on whom His “wrath” abides?

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): So long as our thoughts are cast in the mold of divine truth, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, we shall be kept from expressions, which, though something like scripture, are not according to it. In these days, we need to watch lest we take up the Lord’s Word with mere natural effort, instead of in heartfelt dependence on the Holy Ghost; and to dread lest we traffic in favourite doctrines, instead of setting forth the infallible testimonies of Holy Scripture. It is a blessed fact that “God commendeth his love toward us,”—His saints—“in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8; but that is very different from going up to an ungodly man, and saying, “God loves you.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Our Lord’s method must ever be the pattern and example for all preaching—We are to speak “the truth in love.”

A. W. PINK: With the exception of John 3:16, not once in the four Gospels do we read of the Lord Jesus—the perfect Teacher—telling sinners that God loved them! In the book of Acts, which records the evangelistic labours and messages of the apostles, God’s love is never referred to at all! But, when we come to the Epistles, which are addressed to the saints, we have a full presentation of this precious truth—God’s love for His own. Let us seek to rightly divide the Word of God and then we shall not be found taking truths which are addressed to believers and misapplying them to unbelievers.

 

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A Puritan Thanksgiving

Posted on November 18, 2022 by The Editor

Acts 11:26; 1 Corinthians 4:12,13

And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): In almost every age and country where Christianity has been professed, some hard name or term of reproach has been imposed upon those who ventured to maintain a more evangelical strain of doctrine, or a stricter course of conduct, than was agreeable to the spirit of the times in which they lived. Even the Christian name, honourable as we may now think it, was used by the heathens, when it first obtained, as a stigma, a term of the utmost contempt and hatred; Christians were, by common consent, reputed the off-scouring, and filth of all things…Men of the same spirit were afterwards branded in Protestant nations with the terms Pietist and Puritan.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): He that was the old English Puritan was cried out upon as the worst of men.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): There are more baseless and false ideas current about them than about any class of men in British history. The impressions of most people are so ridiculously incorrect, that one could laugh if the subject were not so serious. To hear them talk about Puritans is simply ludicrous. They make assertions which prove either that they know nothing at all of what they are talking about, or that they have forgotten the ninth commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The name “Puritan” was the lowest of all. It was the symbol which was always employed by the drunkard and swearer to express a godly man.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Ignorant people use it as a scoff. It should be a crown of glory.

J. C. RYLE: The Puritans, as a body, have done more to elevate the national character than any class of Englishmen that ever lived. Ardent lovers of civil liberty, and ready to die in its defence—mighty at the council board, and no less mighty in the battlefield—feared abroad throughout Europe, and invincible at home while united, great with their pens, and no less great with their swords—fearing God very much, and fearing man very little—they were a generation of men who have never received from their country the honour that they deserve.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): The gigantic Republic of the United States of America is in a great measure the result of their migration.

C. H. SPURGEON: What would the United States have been, at this moment, if it had not been for “the men of the Mayflower” in the olden times, and the many pilgrim fathers and pilgrim sons and daughters who have since gone across the Atlantic to be as salt in that part of the earth?

J. C. RYLE: That they were not perfect and faultless, I freely admit. They said, did, and wrote many things which cannot be commended. Some of them, no doubt, were violent, fierce, narrow-minded sectarians; some were half-crazy fanatics―Yet, even then, great allowance ought to be made for the trying circumstances in which they were often placed, and the incessant, irritating persecution to which they were exposed…With all their faults, the leaders of the party were great and good men. With all their defects, the Puritans, as a body, were not the men that some authors and writers in the present day are fond of representing them to have been.

C. H. SPURGEON: Our Puritan forefathers were strong men, because they lived on the Scriptures…Their leader Oliver Cromwell could hardly be called a fool, even by those who stigmatized him as a “tyrant.” Cromwell, and all that were with him, were not all weak-minded persons—surely?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Such men as Goodwin, Owen, Charnock, Flavel, Sibbes, though living in troublous times and suffering fierce persecution, taught the Word more helpfully―in our judgment―and were more used of God than any since the days of the apostles to the present hour. The ministry of the Puritans was an exceedingly searching one.

HORATIUS BONAR (1808-1889): They were men whose doctrines were of the most decided kind, both as respects law and gospel. There is a breadth and power about their preaching—a glow and energy about their words and thoughts, that makes us feel that they were men of might. Their trumpet gave no feeble nor uncertain sound, either to saint or sinner, either to the church or the world. They lifted up their voices, and spared not. There was no flinching, no flattering, or prophesying of smooth things. Their preaching seems to have been of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy; it was far too solemn to be such; it was massive, weighty, cutting, and piercing―sharper than a two-edged sword.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Nowadays, people make cheap reputations for advanced thought by depreciating their theology.

C. H. SPURGEON: Nothing is so obnoxious as that which has the smell of Puritanism upon it. Every little man’s nose goes up celestially at the very sound of the word “Puritan.”―Ah, how many have there been who have said, “The old Puritan principles are too rough for these times, we’ll tone them down a little.”―The same men who reject the old-fashioned doctrines also rebel against the old-fashioned style of living; loose living generally goes with loose doctrine. There never was an age in which the doctrines of grace were despised but, sooner or later, licentiousness prevailed. On the other hand, when we had Puritan teaching, we had also pure and holy living.

J. C. RYLE: Their commentaries, their expositions, their treatises on practical, casuistical, and experimental divinity, are immeasurably superior to those of their adversaries in the seventeenth century. In short, those who hold up the Puritans to scorn as shallow, illiterate men, are only exposing their own lamentable shallowness, their own ignorance of historical facts, and the extremely superficial character of their own reading. The Puritans were not unlearned and ignorant men. The great majority of them were Oxford and Cambridge graduates―many of them fellows of colleges, and some of them heads or principals of the best colleges in the two Universities. In knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in power as preachers, expositors, writers, and critics, the Puritans in their day were second to none. Unhappily, when they passed away, they were followed by a generation of profligates, triflers, and skeptics; and their reputation has suffered accordingly in passing through prejudiced hands―but, “judged with righteous judgment,” they will be found men of whom the world was not worthy. The more they are really known, the more they will be esteemed.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): If you wish to know what Puritanism really is, don’t read large volumes on the subject by men who may be scholars, but never were Puritans―but rather, read the life-stories of Puritans.

J. C. RYLE: Milton, Selden, Blake, Cromwell, Owen, Baxter, and Charnock were men of which no well-informed Englishman ought ever to speak with disrespect. He may dislike their principles, if he will, but he has no right to despise them. Lord Macaulay, no mean authority in matters of English history, might well say, in his famous essay on John Milton, “we do not hesitate to pronounce the Puritans a brave, a wise and honest, and a useful body.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We have reason to thank God for them all.

 

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The Courageous Faith of Ann Askew (1521-1546)

Posted on November 11, 2022 by The Editor

Luke 12:4; Luke 21:12-15; Matthew 10:20

Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It is very remarkable what wise answers many of the martyrs often gave. Illiterate men, when confronted by the learned ones of the earth, completely baffled them; and weak women nonplused their assailants and judges. A notable instance of that is recorded in the history of the brave Anne Askew.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): Ann Askew was the second daughter of Sir William Askew, a member of a very ancient Lincolnshire family. Her father had compelled her to marry the son of a rich neighbour. The Holy Scriptures in the English version attracted Ann’s attention, and led by them to a living faith in Jesus Christ, she renounced the Roman Catholic superstitions, and she denied the corporeal presence of the Saviour in the sacrament.

ANNE ASKEW (1521-1546): I had sooner read five lines in the Bible, than hear five masses in the church.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: The priests, who were greatly annoyed, stirred up her young husband against her, and he, being a rough and staunch Roman Catholic, “violently drove her out of his house.”

J. C. BAYLEY (circa 1884): That young wife, whose previously affectionate husband turned her out of doors because she had imbibed the doctrines of the Reformation, showed a spirit equally undaunted, but a loftier and more serene courage, “unmoved by poisoning wrath.”

ANNE ASKEW: Since, according to 1 Corinthians 7:15, “if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases,” I claim my divorce.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: Ann went to London for the divorce proceedings, where she made the acquaintance of the pious ladies of the court, and of the queen herself. Queen Katheryn frequently received Anne and other Christian women in her private apartments; and there prayer was made and the Word of God expounded by an evangelical minister. King Henry VIII indeed was aware of these secret meetings, but he feigned ignorance. It was a great vexation to the enemies of the Reformation to see persons of the highest rank almost openly professing the evangelical faith. As they did not dare to attack them, they determined to make a beginning with Anne Askew. She was sent to prison.

When she was taken to Sadler’s Hall, the judge, Christopher Dare, asked her, “Do you believe that the sacrament hanging over the altar is really the very body of Christ?” Anne replied, “Wherefore was Stephen stoned to death?” Dare, doubtless, remembered that Stephen had said, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God,” Acts 7:56. From this, it followed that He was not in the sacrament, but Dare preferred to answer, “I cannot tell.”

ANNE ASKEW: No more, then, will I answer your vain question.

C. H. SPURGEON: And there was my Lord Mayor of London—what a fool she made of him! He put to her this question—“Woman, if a mouse were to eat the blessed sacrament which contains the body and blood of Christ, what do you think would become of it?”

ANNE ASKEW: My lord, that is a deep question. I had rather you would answer it yourself. What do you think would become of the mouse that should do that?

C. H. SPURGEON: “I verily believe,” said the Lord Mayor of London, “that mouse would be damned!”

ANNE ASKEW: Alas! poor mouse.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is really marvelous to read how she overcame them…Often a few short words—three or four words—have met the case when the martyrs have waited upon God! And they have made their adversaries seem so ridiculous that I think they might hear a laugh both from Heaven and Hell at once at their foolery, for God’s servants have convicted them of folly and put them to shame!

ANNE ASKEW: They said to me that I was a heretic, and condemned by the law, if I would stand in my opinion. I answered, that I was no heretic, neither yet deserved I any death by the law of God. But, as concerning the faith which I uttered and wrote to the council, I would not, I said, deny it, because I knew it true. Then would they needs know, if I would deny the sacrament to be Christ’s body and blood. I said, Yea: for the same Son of God that was born of the Virgin Mary, is now glorious in heaven, and will come again from thence at the latter day like as he went up. And, as for that ye call your God, it is a piece of bread. For more proof thereof, let it but lie in the box three months, and it will be moldy, and so turn to nothing that is good. Whereupon I am persuaded that it cannot be God.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Anne Askew thus subscribed her confession: “Written by me, Anne Askew, that neither wisheth for death, nor feareth its might; and as merry as one that is bound for heaven.”

ANNE ASKEW: After that, they willed me to have a priest; and then I smiled. Then they asked me, if it were not good; I said, I would confess my faults unto God, for I was sure that He would hear me with favour. And so, we were condemned.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: At this time, she was twenty five years old. Determined at any cost to obtain information against influential persons at court, they ordered the rack to be applied to the young woman. The torture lasted a long time. She fainted away and was well nigh dead.

ANNE ASKEW: In all my life afore, I was never in such pain…Then was I brought to a house, and laid in a bed, with as weary and painful bones as ever had patient Job—the Lord strengthen us in the truth. Pray, pray, pray.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: Everything was ready for the burning of Anne at Smithfield. They were obliged to carry her to the place of execution, for in her state at that time she was unable to walk. When they reached the pile, she was bound to the post by her waist, with a chain which prevented her from sinking down. Three other evangelical Christians were to die with her. When the fires were about to be lighted, the Lord Chancellor offered Anne the king’s pardon if she would recant.

JOHN TRAPP: How bravely did Anne Askew, Alice Driver, and the other poor women answer them.

ANNE ASKEW: I am not come thither to deny my Lord and Master.

JOHN TRAPP: Was not that the Spirit of the Father speaking in them? “Strength and honour were their clothing,” Proverbs 31:25; and “they rejoiced at the time to come:” they went as merry to die as to dine, and cheered up one another with this, that although they had but a bitter breakfast, yet they should sup with Christ in joy.

JOHN FOXE (1517-1587): Thus the good Anne Askew, being compassed in with flames of fire as a blessed sacrifice unto God, slept in the Lord, July 16, 1546, leaving behind her a singular example of Christian constancy for all men to follow.

 

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An Enlarged Heart

Posted on November 4, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 119:2,7,11,32

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

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

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Note how the heart has been spoken of up to this point: “whole heart,” verse 2; “uprightness of heart,” verse 7; “hid in mine heart,” verse 11; “enlarge my heart,” verse 32. There are many more allusions further on, and these all go to show what heart-work David’s religion was.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “Enlarge my heart.” What does that mean?

ROBERT LEIGHTON (1611-1684): It is said of Solomon, that he had “largeness of heart, as the sand of the sea shore,” 1 Kings 4:29; that is, a vast, comprehensive spirit, that could fathom much of nature, both its greater and lesser things. Thus, I conceive, the enlargement of the heart comprises the enlightening of the understanding. There arises a clearer light there to discern spiritual things in a more spiritual manner; to see the vast difference betwixt the vain things the world goes after, and the true solid delight that is in the way of God’s commandments; to know the false blush of the pleasures of sin, and what deformity is under that painted mask, and not be allured by it; to have enlarged apprehensions of God, His excellency, and greatness and goodness; how worthy He is to be obeyed and served; this is the great dignity and happiness of the soul; all other pretensions are low and poor in respect of this. Here then, is enlargement to see the purity and beauty of His law, how just and reasonable, yea, how pleasant and amiable it is; that His commandments are not grievous, that they are beds of spices; the more we walk in them, still the more of their fragrant smell and sweetness we find.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The melting of soul, and the enlargement of the heart, are sweet and gracious feelings.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The meaning of the prophet is, that when God shall inspire him with love for His law he will be vigorous and ready, nay, even steady, so as not to faint in the middle of his course. His words contain an implied admission of the inability of men to make any advancement in well-doing until God enlarge their hearts.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The Hebrew word translated as “when,” should be translated as “because;”—Because thou shalt enlarge, or dilate, my heart.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): This enlargement of heart in Scripture is ascribed to wisdom, 1 Kings 4:29, and love, 2 Corinthians 6:11, and joy, Isaiah 60:5—when Thou shalt knock off the fetters of remaining corruption, and give me a more noble and generous disposition towards Thee, and establish me “with thy free spirit,” as expressed in Psalm 51:12. Thus David both owns his duty, and asserts the absolute necessity of God’s grace to the performance of it.

HENRY MELVILL (1798-1871): His wish is that his heart might be enlarged; and this wish amounted to a longing that the whole of himself might act in unison with the heart, so that he might become, as it were, all heart, and thus the heart in the strictest sense be enlarged, through the spreading of itself over body and soul, expanding itself till it embraced all the powers of both. If there be the love of God in the heart, then gradually the heart, possessed and actuated by so noble and stirring a principle, will bring over to a lofty consecration all the energies—and he became, according to the phrase which we are accustomed to employ when describing a character of unwonted generosity and warmth, “all heart.” So that the desire after an enlarged heart you may fairly consider tantamount to a desire that every faculty might be brought into thorough subjection to God.

HUGH B. MOFFAT (circa 1871): It may not unnaturally excite surprise, that “the sweet singer of Israel,” he who was emphatically declared to be “a man after God’s own heart,” Acts 13:22, should nevertheless, in the words of the text, seem to imply that he was not yet “running the way of God’s commandments.’ But dear brethren, the greater an individual’s comparative holiness, the more intense will be his longing for absolute holiness. It was not the walking, but the running “the way of God’s commandments,” to which David aspired.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677):  By running is meant a cheerful, ready, and zealous observance of God’s precepts: it is not go, or walk, but run. They that would come to their journey’s end, must run in the way of God’s commandments. It notes a speedy or a ready obedience, without delay—and it notes earnestness; when a man’s heart is set upon a thing, he thinks he can never do it soon enough. And this is running, when we are vehement and earnest upon the enjoyment of God and Christ in the way of obedience…This running is the fruit of effectual calling. When the Lord speaks of effectual calling, the issue of it is running; when He speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles, “Nations that know not thee shall run unto thee,” Isaiah 55:5; and, “Draw me, and we will run after thee,” Song of Solomon 1:4. When God draws there is a speedy, earnest motion of the soul. This running, as it is the fruit of effectual calling, so it is very needful; for cold and faint motions are soon overborne by difficulty and temptation: “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1. When a man hath a mind to do a thing, though he be hindered and jostled, he takes it patiently, he goes on and cannot stay to debate the business. A slow motion is easily stopped, whereas a swift one bears down that which opposeth it; so is it when men run and are not tired in the service of God.

HENRY MELVILL: So long as the dedication is at best only partial, the world retaining some fraction of its empire, notwithstanding the setting up of the kingdom of God, there can be nothing but a slow and impeded progress, a walking interrupted by repeated halting, if not backslidings, by much of loitering, if not of actual retreat; but if the man be all heart, then he will be all life, all warmth, all zeal, all energy, and the consequence of this complete surrender to God will be exactly that which is prophetically announced in Isaiah 40:31, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

THOMAS MANTON: Last of all, the prize calls for running—“So run that ye may obtain,” 1 Corinthians 9:24.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Begin, then, the course which David ran, and prosecute it with the ardour that filled his soul.

C. H. SPURGEON: There is an enlargement of the heart that is very dangerous, but this kind of enlargement of the heart is the most healthy thing that can happen to a man! A great heart, you see, is a running heart. A little heart goes slowly, but an enlarged heart runs in the way of God’s Commandments. Oh, for a heart full of love to God! And then to have that heart made larger, so as to hold more of God’s love! Lord! enlarge my heart in that sense!

 

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The Mighty Men of Prayer of the Protestant Reformation

Posted on October 28, 2022 by The Editor

James 5:16-18; John 15:4,5,7

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing…If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with Him—to be always leaning on Him, resting on Him, pouring out our hearts to Him, as our Fountain of life and strength, and our chief Companion and best Friend. To have His words abiding in us, is to keep His sayings and precepts continually before our memories and minds, and to make them the guide of our actions and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior. Christians of this stamp, we are told, shall not pray in vain. Whatever they ask they shall obtain, so long as they ask things according to God’s mind. No work shall be found too hard, and no difficulty insurmountable. Asking they shall receive—such men were Martin Luther, the German Reformer, and our own English martyr, Hugh Latimer. Such a man was John Knox.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Luther and his companions were men of such mighty pleading with God, that they broke the spell of ages, and laid nations subdued at the foot of the Cross. John Knox grasped all Scotland in his strong arms of faith; his prayers terrified tyrants.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): The Queen of Scots professed she was more afraid of the prayers of John Knox, than of an army of ten thousand men.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Great is the power of faithful prayer…Martin Luther was wont to say that prayer was sort of omnipotent: for whatsoever God can do, that prayer can do.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Prayer is that mightiest of all weapons that created natures can wield—it is ‘bombarda Christianorum,’ the cannon of Christians. It shaketh heaven and earth.

F. W. KRUMMACHER (1796-1868): Prayer burst the fetters of Peter, and broke open the doors of his prison. Prayer rebuked storms, healed the sick, and brought back the dead to life. And what shall I say more of the power, the wonders, and the performances of prayer—the whole Scripture is full of them. But prayer sleeps amongst us; for what we call praying, morning and evening, according to custom—the sleepy, dull, and heartless repetition of devotional language—does not deserve the name of prayer.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Lifeless prayer is no more prayer than the picture of a man is a man. To say a prayer is not prayer.

MARTIN LUTHER: Prayer is the sweat of the soul.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Men who are mighty for God are generally famous for courage with Him. Look at Luther! They say it was wonderful to hear him preach, but a hundred times more so to hear him pray! There was an awful reverence about that heroic man, but there was also such a childlike simplicity of daring that seemed as though he did really lay hold of God.

THEODORA BEZA (1519-1605): I overheard him in prayer—but, good God, with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence, as if he were speaking to God, yet with so much confidence as if he were speaking to his friend.

C. H. SPURGEON: This is the boldness for which Luther was remarkable…When you can say, as Moses said upon the Mount, “What will Thou do for Thy great name?” When you can plead as Luther did, “Lord, this is no quarrel of mine, it is Thine! Thou knowest that Thou didst put me to speak against Thy foes; and now if Thou dost leave me, where is Thy Truth?” When you can plead with God in this way, surely He will rescue you. You cannot fail when your cause is God’s cause.

J. C. RYLE: We should cultivate the habit of pleading promises in our prayers. We should take with us some promise, and say, “Lord, here is Thine own word pledged. Do for us as Thou hast said.” This was the habit of Jacob, and Moses, and David. The 119th Psalm is full of things asked, “according to Thy word.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us learn therefore in a word, that if we will pray to God aright, we must know what His will is, and to understand that, we must know what He hath showed us in His Word; we must frame ourselves to it, we must hear what He saith unto us, and compass all our requests according to His will, and rest ourselves upon His promises.  And then let us not doubt, but when we shall call upon Him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall feel that our prayers shall not be in vain, nor unprofitable.

MARTIN LUTHER: When I get a promise I treat it as a tree in my garden. I know there is rich fruit on it. If I cannot get it, I shake it backwards and forwards by prayer and meditation, until at last the fruit drops into my hand…Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.

C. H. SPURGEON: Methinks, in a spiritual sense, when Luther first bowed his knee the Church began to chant, “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered,” Psalm 68:1.

JOHN TRAPP: Luther came leaping out of his closet where he had been praying with vicimus, vicimus—“we conquer, we conquer,” in his mouth.

J. C. RYLE: Now, why is there so little power of prayer like this in our own time? Simply because there is so little close communion with Christ, and so little strict conformity to His will. Men do not “abide in Christ,” and therefore pray in vain. Christ’s words do not abide in them, as their standard of practice, and therefore their prayers seem not to be heard. They ask and receive not, because they ask amiss. Let this lesson sink down into our hearts. He that would have answers to his prayers, must carefully remember Christ’s directions. We must keep up intimate friendship with the great Advocate in heaven, if our petitions are to prosper.

C. H. SPURGEON: Lord send us men of the school of Elias, or at least of Luther and Knox!

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They continued in prayer, spent much time in it, more than ordinary, prayed frequently, and were long in prayer.  They never missed an hour of prayer; they resolved to persevere herein till the Holy Ghost came, according to the promise, “to pray, and not to faint,” Luke 18:1.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Luther thought three hours a day little enough to spend in prayer.

JOHN FLAVEL: These were mighty wrestlers with God, howsoever condemned and vilified among their enemies. There will a time come when God will hear the prayers of His people who are continually crying in His ears, “How long, O Lord, how long?”

C. H. SPURGEON: “Where is thy God?” Psalm 42:3. This is what Queen Mary said when the Covenanters were obliged to fly to the Highlands. “Where now is John Knox’s God?” But when her French soldiers were afterwards put to the rout by the brave Scots, she found out where God was.

JOHN FLAVEL: The prayer of a single saint is sometimes followed with wonderful effects. What then can a thundering legion of such praying souls do?

 

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