Consider This

Posted on July 15, 2022 by The Editor

Job 9:12; Job 2:10; Ecclesiastes 7:14

Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?

What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): The time of affliction is a time of consideration; and if men are not extremely hardened, they cannot but bethink themselves who sends affliction, and for what end it is sent.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): Often in prosperity folks are partial in examining and judging themselves, and therefore God brings on affliction, strips them of worldly comforts, makes them sit alone, and examine matters over again.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Consider what? This: that “God also hath set the one over against the other,” and, therefore, thou must take the one as well as the other.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Whatever the providence may be that turns your joy into grief, it is a chastening from the Lord.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL (1635-1711): Consider where your affliction originates. It does not originate with yourself, for you love yourself too much for this. It does not originate with men, for they cannot so much as move without the will of God, nor pull one of your hairs out. Rather, it is the Lord Himself who sends this upon you—the sovereign Lord whose hand none can stay and to whom no one can say, “What doest Thou?” It is your reconciled Father in Christ who sends this upon you in His wisdom, goodness, and love, doing so to your advantage. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,” Hebrews 12:6.

JOHN TRAPP: God hath not only a permissive, but an active hand in all our afflictions.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Dear child of God, your afflictions, your trials, your crosses, your losses, your sorrows―all―all are in your heavenly Father’s hand. They cannot come unless sent by Him.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us mark that God intendeth to try His faithful ones. For as much as He suffereth and ordaineth them to be grieved and vexed during this earthly life, so as they pass through many troubles, and things fall not out as they would have them: He seemeth to have forsaken them, yea and even to be their enemy. But we must understand that He doeth it not without cause, and that we have need to be so exercised. And in good faith if a man should deliver us gold or silver, we should fain know whether it were good or no: and if we doubted of it, we would make it pass through the fire. And is not our faith more precious than all the corruptible metals that are tried so carefully? Then is it good reason that so worthy a thing as our faith is should have the fear of God, that it might be tried in good earnest; which thing is then done, when God sendeth us afflictions.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): God delights to increase the faith of His children. Our faith, which is feeble at first, is developed and strengthened more and more by use. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say—and say it deliberately—trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Trials are the winds which root the tree of our faith.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” James 2:5. Rich in faith—not that they were so, or considered as such when chosen, and so were chosen because of their faith—but the sense is, that they were chosen “to be rich in faith.”

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): A dear old Baptist minister once remarked that “when God means to make a man rich, He takes away his money.”

GEORGE MÜLLER: To have our faith strengthened, we must feel a willingness to take from God’s hand the means for strengthening it. We must allow Him to educate us through trials and bereavements and troubles. It is through trials that faith is exercised and developed. God affectionately permits difficulties, that He may develop unceasingly that which He is willing to do for us, and to this end we should not shrink, but if He gives sorrow and hindrances and losses and afflictions, we should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The goodness of God to us, combined with a jealous regard to His own glory, constrains Him to conceal the path along which He conducts us. His promise is, “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not: I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them,” Isaiah 42:16.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): He hath said, “I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made,” Isaiah 57:16. The time may seem long, but I shall not be detained a moment longer than the case requires. He hath appointed the hour of deliverance, and His time is the best time; for He is a God of knowledge, and blessed are all they wait for Him.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The great Shepherd and Head of the Church has an appointed time and manner for the accomplishment of all His purposes; nothing can be effectually done, but when and where He pleases; but when His hour is come, then hard things become easy, and crooked things straight; His Word, His Spirit, and Providence then will all concur to make the path of duty plain to those who serve Him; though, perhaps, till this knowledge is necessary, He permits them to remain ignorant of what He has designed them for. By this discipline they are taught to depend entirely upon Him, and are afterwards more fully assured that He has sent and succeeded them.

C. H. SPURGEON: Our sorrows shall have an end, when God has gotten His end in them.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If we cry to God for the removal of the oppression and affliction we are under, and it is not removed—the reason is not because the Lord’s hand is shortened or His ear heavy, but because the affliction has not done its work…Afflictions are continued no longer than till they have done their work.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Bow that stricken heart, yield that tempest-tossed soul to His sovereign disposal, to His calm, righteous sway, in the submissive spirit and language of your suffering Saviour, “Not my will, but thine, be done!” Luke 22:42. “My times of sadness and of grief are in Thy hand.”

ALEXANDER CARSON (1776-1844): It is God who raises the storm; and it is God who stilleth it. See Jonah 1:1-16.

WILLIAM JAY: And it is this that God Himself has enjoined: “Be still, and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10. This turns submission into acquiescence; this enables the Christian to say, with his Lord and Master, “The cup which my heavenly Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?”

 

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The Other Side of the Rainbow

Posted on July 8, 2022 by The Editor

Revelation 4:1-5; Revelation 10:1-7

Behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices.

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): John saw Christ as a mighty Angel come down from heaven, clothed with a rainbow, and His face was as it were the Sun, and His feet as “pillars of fire.” So John had seen him before, in Revelation 1:15,16. It is the peculiar prerogative of Christ, to shine as the sun upon His people, and to lift up the light of His countenance upon them.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “He set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth,” to show the absolute power and dominion He had over the world.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The rainbow is an illustrious token of mercy and love…Almost every critic of note understands this of the rainbow, which God gave as a sign that the earth should no more be destroyed by water; see Genesis 9:12-17.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “A rainbow around about the Throne!” I have a notion concerning this rainbow, that it was a complete circle. In the 10th Chapter, the Apostle John tells us that he saw “another mighty angel with a rainbow upon his head,” which could hardly have been the semi-circular arc we are accustomed to see in the sky in times of rain and sunshine. It must have been, I should imagine, a complete ring.

ROBERT HAWKER: There are so many very blessed things connected with this token of the rainbow, that I beg the Reader’s indulgence, to dwell upon the subject somewhat more particularly—“Out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices.” Perhaps these were meant to show, the many dispensations of the Lord, both to the Church and to the world. But whatever dispensations come from the throne, they must all pass through the rainbow, for the rainbow was all round the throne, so that nothing could be manifested but through it. And this, very blessedly teacheth the Church, how everlastingly safe all Christ’s redeemed must be, since nothing can come to pass, but it must pass His hands. On the other hand, how awful to His enemies, since Christ is in all dispensations, and nothing can escape Him.

MATTHEW HENRY: The rainbow has fiery colours in it, to signify that though God will not again drown the world, yet, when the mystery of God shall be finished, the world shall be consumed by fire.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): A fire of love to His people, a fire of wrath to His enemies.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): His countenance, like the pillar of cloud between the Israelites and Egyptians, will present a double appearance; and though clothed with the rainbow of peace toward His friends, it will lower on His enemies like a stormy sky; and while His eye, at every glance, pours upon the former a flood of joy, it will flash lightnings on the latter, which will scorch their inmost souls, and fill them with unutterable, inconceivable anguish.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The Angel that hath a rainbow about His head, hath “pillars of fire” for His feet to consume them who refuse His peace. “He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained,” Acts 17:31.

EDWARD PAYSON: Then shall He come in the clouds of heaven, and every eye shall see Him, and yours, my friends, among the rest. Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they who condemned Him as guilty of blasphemy will find, to their eternal shame and confusion will find, that He uttered a solemn truth when He said, “Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven,” Matthew 26:64. Then shall His murderers find, that He whom they buffeted, scourged, mocked, and crucified, was indeed the Lord of life and glory, and they, with all who have since despised, and all who are now despising His offered grace, will then be convinced by their own sad experience, that “whosoever falls on this stone shall be broken, and that on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder,” Matthew 21:44.

ROBERT HAWKER: Great Father of mercies! hast Thou said, that Thou wilt set thy bow in the cloud, that it shall be a token of thy merciful engagements to mankind? that Thou wilt look upon it, and that Thou wilt remember Thine everlasting covenant? Genesis 9:17. Oh! then, give me grace, to look upon it also; and to behold in it, by an eye of faith, that mighty Angel, even the Lord Jesus Christ, whom John saw clothed with a rainbow round the throne.

EDWARD PAYSON: But it is also necessary to guard against the perversions of such as would derive from it encouragement to hope for heaven while they continue in sin…They may say, since there is so much reason to hope, we will hope for the best, and not despair of salvation, though we should continue a little longer in sin. If any are saying this, I do most solemnly protest against this perversion, this abuse of the grace of God, and warn them of its danger. This is what the apostle calls making Christ the minister of sin, and turning the grace of God into wantonness…If any such still pretend, from what has been said, to hope in God’s mercy, I would remind them of the words of the apostle John: “Whosoever hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure,”1 John 3:3.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): It is necessary, because God calls for it, and will not pardon sin without it. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” Luke 13:3.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” declared the Lord Jesus, “but my words shall not pass away,” Matthew 24:35. To keep His Word is to live. To refuse it is to die eternally! Let not Satan persuade any that God will be better than His Word; He will fulfill it to the letter, though man may think otherwise and hope for mercy apart from Christ.

EDITOR’S NOTE: What a terrible awakening the Day of Judgment will be for those who turn God’s rainbow, His covenant symbol of mercy and love, into a proud emblem of perverted sexual abominations which God condemns in His Word, Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:22-27; and which brought God’s fiery judgment upon Sodom, and a global destructive flood in Noah’s day. It is such an open Satanic affront to God, that surely the “cry of it comes up to heaven,” as God phrased it in Genesis 18:20,21.

A. W. PINK: And “what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17. What can it be? What must be the portion of those who love darkness and hate the Light? Only one answer is possible. And Scripture does not leave us in ignorance thereof. “If they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from Heaven,” Hebrews 12:25. Escape they shall not…And in that Day, He shall say, “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me,” Luke 19:27.

C. H. SPURGEON: Oh, turn, you heathens—some of you as vile as the inhabitants of Sodom—turn! turn to God!

 

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A Reminder to Canada on July 1—and to the USA on July 4

Posted on July 1, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 22:28; Daniel 2:21—Job 12:23; Proverbs 14:34—Psalm 66:7

The kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.

He removeth kings, and setteth up kings—He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again.

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people—He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The cabinet counsels of princes are before God’s eye, 2 Kings 6:11…Kingdoms have their ebbings and flowings, their waxings and wanings; and both are from God.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): And this is marked by the extraordinary note “Selah,” or, “Mark well, take notice.” So the term may be understood.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Mark the presence of the great Ruler among the nations. He breaks in pieces oppressive thrones, and punishes guilty peoples. No one can study the rise and fall of empires without perceiving that there is a power which makes for righteousness, and, in the end, brings iniquity before its bar, and condemns it with unsparing justice.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): It is indispensably necessary to the perfection of God’s moral government that it should extend to nations and communities, as well as to individuals. This, I conceive, is too evident to require proof, for how could God be considered as the moral governor of the world, if nations and communities were exempt from His government?

JAMES HERVEY (1713-1758): How can the justice of God, with regard to a wicked nations, be shown, but by executing His vengeance upon them, in temporal calamities?

C. H. SPURGEON: National sins demand national punishments.

JAMES HERVEY: Consider, Sirs, the very essence of political communities is temporal, purely temporal. It has no existence but in this world. Hereafter, sinners will be judged and punished, singly and in a personal capacity only. How then shall He that is Ruler among nations, maintain the dignity of His government over the kingdoms of the earth, but by inflicting national punishments for national provocations?

C. H. SPURGEON: The whole history of God’s dealings with mankind proves that though a nation may go on in wickedness; it may multiply its oppressions; it may abound in bloodshed, tyranny, and war; but an hour of retribution draweth nigh. When it shall have filled up its measure of iniquity, then shall the angel of vengeance execute its doom. There cannot be an eternal damnation of nations as nations, the destruction of men at last will be that of individuals, and at the bar of God each man must be tried for himself. The punishment, therefore, of nations, is national. The guilt they incur, must receive its awful recompense in this present time state.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Though the occasion will require me to take some notice of our public affairs, I mean not to amuse you with what is usually called a political discourse. The Bible is my system of politics. There I read, that “the Lord reigneth,” Psalm 97:1; that “He doth what He pleaseth in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth,” Daniel 4:35; that no wisdom, understanding, counsel, or power, can prevail without His blessing, Proverbs 21:30; that as “righteousness exalteth a nation,” so “sin is the reproach,” and will even totally be the ruin of any people.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): This is political wisdom on scriptural principles. If “righteousness exalteth a nation,” the open acknowledgment of it is the sure path to national prosperity. If it be not beneath statesmen to take lessons from the Bible, let them deeply ponder this sound political maxim, which commends itself to every instinct of the unsophisticated mind. Indeed it would be a strange anomaly in the Divine administration, if the connection between godliness and prosperity, ungodliness and misery, established in individual cases, should not obtain in the multiplication of individuals into nations.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Justice, reigning in a nation, puts an honour upon it. A righteous administration of the government, impartial equity between man and man, public countenance given to religion, the general practice and profession of virtue, the protecting and preserving of virtuous men, charity and compassion to strangers, these “exalt a nation;” they uphold the throne, elevate the people’s minds, and qualify a nation for the favour of God, which will make them high, as a “holy nation,” Deuteronomy 26:19. Vice, reigning in a nation, puts disgrace upon it: “Sin is a reproach” to any city or kingdom, and renders them despicable among their neighbours. The people of Israel were often instances of both parts of this observation; they were great when they were good, but when they forsook God all about them insulted them and trampled on them.

CHARLES BRIDGES: As they were a righteous or sinful nation, they were marked by corresponding exaltation or reproach. The Scripture records clearly prove this to be the rule of national conduct—not the wisdom of policy, extent of empire, splendid conquests, flourishing trade, abundant resources—but righteousness—exalteth a nation.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Nations who depend for their protection and prosperity upon navies, armies, commerce, and forget God; they are idolaters.

ADAM CLARKE: It is therefore the interest and duty of princes to use their power for the suppression of vice and support of virtue.

EDWARD PAYSON: National judgments are always the consequence of national sins.

C. H. SPURGEON: Go ye this day to Jerusalem, look beneath the buildings of the modern town, and mark the excavations which reveal the utter ruin of the holy city…Why was the siege of Jerusalem the most bloody and horrible in all history?” It was because the Jews rejected the Messiah, and would not believe the testimony of the Living God. O accursed unbelief!

MATTHEW HENRY: If Jerusalem be punished―shall not the nations?

JOHN NEWTON: We likewise are a highly favored people, and have long enjoyed privileges which excite the admiration and envy of surrounding nations: and we are a sinful, ungrateful people; so that, when we compare the blessings and mercies we have received from the Lord, with our conduct towards Him, it is to be feared we are no less concerned than Israel was of old. Some people are startled at the enormous sum of our national debt: they who understand spiritual arithmetic may be well startled if they sit down and compare the debt of national sin.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): O that we would but steer our course according to those rare politics of the Bible, those divine maxims of wisdom!

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): This is the book on which the well-being of nations has always hinged, and with which the best interests of every nation at this moment are inseparably bound up. Just in proportion as the Bible is honoured or not, light or darkness, morality or immorality, true religion or superstition, liberty or despotism, good laws or bad, will be found in a land.

MATTHEW HENRY: People are ruined, not so much by doing what is amiss, as by doing it and not repenting of it—doing it and standing to it.

EDWARD PAYSON: As sinful nations, like individuals, if they do not reform, usually become worse, it will ever be found that the last days of a nation are its worst days, and that the generation which is destroyed is more abandoned than all preceding generations.

JOHN NEWTON: To stand in the breach, by prayer, that, if it may be, wrath may yet be averted, and our national mercies prolonged—This, I think, is the true patriotism, and the best, if not the only way, in which persons in private life may serve their country.

 

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Absalom’s Memorial & Absalom’s Hair

Posted on June 24, 2022 by The Editor

2 Samuel 14:25,26; 2 Samuel 15:1-6; 2 Samuel 18:9-11,14,15,17,18

In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight.

And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak. And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle…Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. And ten young men that bare Joab’s armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him…And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him.

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Absalom being desirous to perpetuate his memory, had erected a pillar, which, no doubt, he designed as a mausoleum, and which we may reasonably conclude was equally magnificent with the ambition of him who reared it. But see how short-sighted are mortals! This same Absalom, so far from being buried in this proud monument which he had erected, was killed and buried like a traitor, thrown into a pit, and a great heap of stones laid upon him. The sacred writer mentions this particular, not only to show the vanity of Absalom, but, we may reasonably conclude, to show the vanity of human life in general.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Absalom committed a grievous offence against his father king David, for he sought to rob him of his scepter and wrest the kingdom from his hands, 2 Samuel 15:7-14…The methods he followed thoroughly revealed what a godless and unscrupulous scoundrel he was; see 2 Samuel 15:1-6, and 2 Samuel 16:20 to 2 Samuel 17:4.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Amidst all the beauty of Absalom’s person, we hear nothing of the graces of his mind! Alas! what are all outward attractions but vanity.

THOMAS COKE: It is very evident from the peculiar manner in which it is mentioned in the sacred text, that there must have been something extremely singular, even at that time, in this large quantity of Absalom’s hair.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Absalom had a very fine head of hair; whether it was the length, or colour, or extraordinary softness of it, something there was which made it very valuable and very much an ornament to him. This notice is taken of his hair, not as the hair of a Nazarite, Numbers 6:1-5—Absalom was far from that strictness—but as the hair of a beau. Absalom let it grow till it was a burden to him, and was heavy on him—nor would he cut it as long as ever he could bear it.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It grew so very thick and long in one year’s time, that he was obliged to cut it; and what might add to the weight of it, was its being oiled and powdered; and, as some say, with the dust of gold, to make it look yellow and glistering.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): An abundance of oil and ointments were used by the ancients in dressing their heads; as is evident, not only from many places in the Greek and Roman writers, but also from several places in the sacred writings; see Psalm 23:5, Ecclesiastes 9:8, Matthew 6:17. Josephus, the Jewish historian, also informs us that the Jews not only used ointments, but that they put gold dust in their hair that it might flame in the sun.

MATTHEW HENRY: When he did cut it, for ostentation he had it weighed, that it might be seen how much it excelled other men’s.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Absalom had a pride in his hair.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Satan himself is described figuratively as being the most beautiful angel, Ezekiel 28:12-17, and his sin was pride, and wanting the throne of his Creator, that he might be God, and worshipped as God, Isaiah 14:12-14. And this was the Satanic character of Absalom’s vanity, and his rebellious sin was in seeking to gain the throne of his father king David. Does not the phrase “after the king’s weight,” suggest something more than merely a physical unit of measure? Absalom weighing his hair every year, perhaps spiritually symbolizes his own assessment of how much his efforts had advanced his plans to gain his father’s throne; and he gloried in the very thought of it.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Those who cannot blush for sin too much resemble the beasts. There are some so far from this holy blushing that they are proud of their sins. They are proud of their long hair. These are the devil’s Nazarites. “Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him?” 1 Corinthians 11:14. It confounds the distinction of the sexes. Some glory in what is their shame: they look at sin as a piece of gallantry. The swearer thinks his speech is most graceful when it is interspersed with oaths. The drunkard considers it a glory that he can drink to excess.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Sodom rushed forward to that degree of licentiousness so as to be horrified by no enormity. God says that they began by pride, Ezekiel 16:49―and surely pride is the mother of all contempt of God.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In our modern day, Sodomites publically celebrate their sin with annual June parades, which they themselves call “Pride Parades.”

ADAM CLARKE: They glory in their iniquity. This is the highest pitch of ungodliness.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): God often uses the lust a man hath been most indulgent unto to be his ruin, his hangman and executioner; so Absalom’s hair was to him.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The locks of his hair in which he gloried were caught in the low branches of an oak, and there he hung.

JOHN TRAPP: By that head he hanged, which had plotted treason against so good a father; and by the hair of his head twisted and wound about the boughs, God made his hair his halter: those tresses that had formerly hanged loosely on his shoulders—now he hangs by them. He had been accustomed to weigh his hair, and was proud to find it so heavy: now his hair bears the weight of his body, and makes his burden his torment.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Thus the thing of his pride was the instrument of his ruin.

ROBERT HAWKER: Every prelude to the death of Absalom is awful. His death is not after the common visitation of all men. He is first suspended, as it were, a spectacle between heaven and earth, unworthy of being in either.

A. W. PINK: Full opportunity was now afforded him to meditate upon his crimes and make his peace with God. But so far as the sacred record informs us, there was no contrition on his part. As God declared of Jezebel “I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not,” Revelation 2:21, so the life of Absalom was spared a few more hours, but no hint is given that he confessed his fearful sins to God. No, God had no place in his thoughts; as he had lived, so he died—defiant and impenitent. Absalom’s decease presents to us one of the darkest pictures of fallen human nature to be met with in the whole of God’s Word. A more melancholy and tragic spectacle can scarcely be imagined than Absalom dangling from the boughs of that tree.

C. H. SPURGEON: The proud may vaunt themselves of their beauty—their hairy scalp, like that of Absalom, may be their boast—but as the Lord made the hair of Absalom to be the instrument of his doom, so can He make the glory of man to be his ruin. “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall,” Proverbs 16:18. No man is out of the reach of God—and no nation, either!

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

THOMAS GOODWIN: Adam, our forefather, like rebellious Absalom, sought to dethrone God; that he should be as God was his temptation to sin against Him, Genesis 3:5.

 

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Advice to a Young Woman Entering Into Adult Life

Posted on June 17, 2022 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 12:1; Proverbs 3:5-7

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Young women! Deeply ponder, that character for life is usually formed in youth. It is the golden season of life, and to none more truly and eminently so than to the young woman. Her leisure, her freedom from care, and her protected situation, give her the opportunity for this, which it is her wisdom and her duty to consider, embrace, and improve.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” What does the text say? It says in effect, you are not your own, you have no right to yourselves. God made you; He is your Creator: He made you that you might be happy; but you can be happy only in Him. And as He created you, so He preserves you; He feeds, clothes, upholds you. He has made you capable of knowing, loving, and serving Him in this world, and of enjoying Him in his own glory for ever. And when you had undone yourselves by sin, He sent His Son to redeem you by His blood; and He sends His Spirit to enlighten, convince, and draw you away from childishness, from vain and trifling, as well as from sinful pursuits.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): And remember what an obligation it lays upon us to depart from iniquity.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Set out in life with a deep conviction of the momentous consequence of self-discipline. Lay the basis of all your excellences in true religion—the religion of the heart, the religion of penitence, faith in Christ, love to God, a holy and heavenly mind. No character can be well-constructed, safe, complete, beautiful, or useful, without this.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Diligently remember what Christ Himself teaches, that “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,” John 8:12.

ADAM CLARKE: Remember what thou hast heard, and practice what thou dost remember; and let all obedience be from the heart: “Let thy heart keep my commandments,” Proverbs 3:1.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): The first benefit resulting from this is, that it will bring most honour and glory to God. This ought to be the point in which our actions should center; for to this end were we born, and to this end were we redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that we should promote God’s eternal glory. And as the glory of God is most advanced by paying obedience to His precepts, they that begin soonest to walk in His ways, act most to His glory. But, secondly, as an early piety redounds most to the honour to God, so it will bring most honour to ourselves: for those that honour God, God will honour, 1 Samuel 2:30.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: The perfection of human character consists of piety, prudence, and knowledge. Make that noble trio your own—Cultivate a thoughtful, reflective turn of mind. Look beneath the surface of things; beyond their present aspect to their future consequences. Be somewhat meditative, and learn to restrain your words and feelings, by a rigid self-control. Pay most anxious attention to your temper, and acquire as much as possible its perfect command. More women are rendered miserable, and render others miserable, by neglect of this, than perhaps from any other cause. Let meekness of disposition and gentleness of manner be a constant study.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This advice is specially needed; for youth has so much that is delightful in its novelty to think about, and the world, on both its innocent and its sinful side, appeals to it so strongly, that the Creator is only too apt to be crowded out of view.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): How many young women exist only for amusement and vanity?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Whatever you make most of is your god. Whatever you love more than God is your idol. Many make a god of pleasure; that’s what their hearts are set on.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Fashion is the goddess to whose shrine too many bow with ardent devotion—the mind is filled with pride and vanity, and a deteriorating influence is placed on upon what constitutes the true dignity of the soul. The love of ostentation infects the character…Modesty is the most attractive of all female graces. What is intelligence without it, but bolder impudence? Or beauty, but a more seductive snare? Modesty is a woman’s ornament, investing all her other excellences with additional charms—the blush of purity upon the cheek of beauty. It is her power, by which she subdues every heart that is worth the conquest. Chastity is the robe which every woman should wear, and modesty is the golden clasp that keeps it upon her, and the fringe that adorns it.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): With many people of fashion, infidelity is fashionable.

C. H. SPURGEON: If sin be in fashion, let us be out of fashion.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD: Be not “ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation,” Romans 1:16. Fear not man; fear not the contempt and revilings which you must meet with in the way of duty.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Take heed against flexibility of principle, purpose, and character, in reference to what is right—and obstinate perseverance in what is wrong…Knowing what is right, do it, though you stand alone, and though the world laughs in chorus at you. Possess that due degree of moral courage which, while it leaves you in possession of true shame when doing what is wrong, shall extinguish all false shame in doing what is right…On the other hand, it is no less great, good, and glorious, to say, “I am wrong,” when charged with an error, and convinced that you have committed it. An obstinate perseverance in a bad course, to avoid the shame and humiliation of confessing that you are wrong, is neither dignity nor greatness of mind, but stubborn imbecility.

RICHARD STEELE (1629-1692): Of all the temptations to which the young are exposed, none is more fatal and pernicious than evil company.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: There are evil companions to be avoided. The Scripture says that “the companion of fools shall be destroyed,” Proverbs 13:20…Beware, then, I implore you, to whom you give your company and friendship—and whose company you accept in return.

HENRY VENN (1724-1797): Be therefore deliberate, and discreet in your choice of company. Always say to yourself: “Do I find either reproof, or exhortation, or comfort, or instruction in the great things of God, from their company?”

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: With much the same emphasis do I warn you against bad books…In some respects bad books are more mischievous than bad companions, since they can be more secretly consulted, and lodge their poison more abidingly in the imagination, the intellect, and the heart. A bad book is a bad companion of the worst kind, and prepares for bad companions of all other kinds! There are bad places also, places which endanger you, as well as bad companions and bad books; places where, if you have not already formed bad companionships, you are sure to find them!

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): Go nowhere where you cannot take Christ with you.

DUTCH PSALTER 322 (Psalm 119:9): How shall the young direct their way?

What light shall be their perfect guide?

Thy Word, O Lord, will safely lead,

If in its wisdom they confide.

 

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The Elect Lady

Posted on June 10, 2022 by The Editor

2 John 1:1-4

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; for the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): John calls himself “elder” either on account of his age, or on account of his office, being a bishop or overseer, not only of the church at Ephesus, but of all the Asiatic churches.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): At the time John wrote this Epistle, he could not be less than an hundred years old, if it was after his return from banishment. But the principal point for the Church of God to regard is, the character to whom John wrote—namely, one of the Elect of God.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): She is called the “elect lady.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Some think the Greek word “Kyria”, translated “lady,” was the name of the person—the Syriac and Arabic versions read, “to the elect Kyria.” Others think that the word translated “elect” is a proper name, and this person’s name was “Electa;” and then it must read, “to the lady Electa;” but her sister also is so called in verse 13, “the children of thy elect sister greet thee,” and it can hardly be thought two sisters should both have the same name.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Others think that a particular Church is intended, which some think to be the Church at Jerusalem, and that the elect sister means the Church at Ephesus; but these are conjectures—I am satisfied that no metaphor is here intended.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): There is no reason to suppose this elect lady is the church, as some have thought, nor that we should read “the Lady Electa,” as others have suggested.

WILLIAM JAY: But who was this distinguished personage?

H. A. IRONSIDE: The “elect lady” was evidently a Christian woman who, with her children, had embraced the doctrine of Christ. In all probability she was one who had been blessed and helped through John’s ministry.

WILLIAM JAY: She seems to have been a person of high reputation, and of some rank, and able disposition. But whatever her worldly condition, it of itself would never have attracted the notice of John without her character. He regarded her according to her real worth. Birth, and wealth, and honour, are nothing in themselves.

JOHN GILL: This person also is said to be “elect,” either because she was a choice, famous, and excellent person, not only for her birth, nobility, and riches, but for her virtue, grace, and good works; or because she was chosen unto eternal life and salvation.

MATTHEW HENRY: The elect lady—not only a choice one, but one chosen of God.

ROBERT HAWKER: Notice with what confidence John speaks to this lady, in consequence of being an elect child of God. He saith, he loveth her for the truth’s sake—meaning Christ Himself, Who is the truth, John 14:6; and which John saith, “dwelleth in us,” that is, in all the elect, “and shall abide forever.”

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The true doctrine of Election, I believe to be as follows: Those men and women whom God has been pleased to choose from all eternity, He calls in time, by His Spirit working in due season. He convinces them of sin. He leads them to Christ. He works in them repentance and faith. He converts, renews, and sanctifies them. He keeps them by His grace from falling away entirely, and finally brings them safe to glory. In short God’s eternal Election is the first link in that chain of a sinner’s salvation of which heavenly glory is the end. The primary and original cause of a saint’s being what he is, is eternal God’s election.

ROBERT HAWKER: Reader! Do not overlook this, for it is blessed. The elect lady, as John calls her, had in that election all the blessed fruits and effects wrought up in it, as the bud contains all the future blossoms, and foliage of the flower. Together with this electing grace, there is calling grace appointed also: “For whom he did predestinate, them he also called,” Romans 8:30. And in the season of that call, there is given the pardoning grace to all sins. So speaks Paul: “And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses,” Colossians 2:13. Neither doth the blessing stop here, for justification immediately follows: “Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,” Romans 3:24. And both sanctification and glory bring up the rear, the sure events involved in the blessed act of God’s sovereign love.

J. C. RYLE: Election can only be known by its fruits. The Elect of God can only be discerned by their faith and life.

JOHN GILL: Which John might know without a special and divine revelation, by the Gospel coming with power to her, and by the grace that was wrought in her; and by the faith of God’s elect, which she appeared to have, seeing it worked by love.

H. A. IRONSIDE: John’s heart had been gladdened by the good report that had reached him of the ways of the elect lady’s household. Her children walked in the truth in accordance with the commandment received from the Father. Hers was a truly Christian home in the midst of an ungodly world.

WILLIAM JAY: Perhaps she was a deaconess; perhaps she had a church in her house; perhaps her mansion was the asylum of the persecuted, and the dwelling where ministers of the word and the brethren always found a welcome and a home. She was pre-eminently pious: the foundation of all her excellencies was her personal and evangelical godliness. She was “walking in the truth.” She exemplified the influence of the truth by her walking in the knowledge, practice, and profession of the truth, and in being “a fellow helper to the truth,” 3 John 1:8.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL (1635-1711): These are fruits issuing forth from election; they are not the causes of election—but are a consequence of it. Nothing in man, nor any future deeds, moved God to elect a person. The reason for election is nothing but the sovereign good pleasure of God, Ephesians 1:5,9.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Besides, as election rests on the mercy of God alone, it is in vain to seek the cause of it in the worthiness of man.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is lovely and beautiful to see ladies, by holy walking, demonstrate their election of God…The great concern of those who have received Christ is to walk in Him—to make their practices conformable to their principles. As we have received Christ, or consented to be His, so we must walk with Him in our daily course and keep up our communion with Him. The more closely we walk with Christ the more we are rooted and established in the faith. A good conduct is the best establishment of a good faith. If we walk in Him, we shall be rooted in Him; and the more firmly we are rooted in Him, the more closely we shall walk in Him: rooted and built up, Colossians 2:6,7. Observe—we cannot be built up in Christ, unless we be first rooted in Him. We must be united to Him by a lively faith, and heartily consent to His covenant, and then we shall grow up in Him in all things.

 

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Christ’s Certain Word, Peter’s Confidence, & Paul’s Persuasion

Posted on June 3, 2022 by The Editor

John 10:27-30 & 6:39; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 2 Timothy 1:12 & 4:18—Romans 8:38, 39

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.—And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

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

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day—And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.—For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): One of the outstanding glories of the Gospel is its promise of eternal security to all who truly believe it…It proclaims no feeble Redeemer, but One who is “mighty to save,” Isaiah 63:1; though the world, the flesh and the Devil, combine against Him, He cannot be frustrated. He who triumphed over the grave cannot be thwarted by any feebleness or fickleness in His people. “He is able”―which would not be true if their unwillingness could balk Him―“to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him,” Hebrews 7:25.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He tells us, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” Matthew 28:18…He has all power―that He might “give eternal life to as many were given Him,” for the more effectual carrying on and completing our salvation.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): There are in the world certain people who teach that Christ gives grace to men, and then tells them, “Now, you shall be saved if you will persevere; but this must be left to yourself.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The words of Hebrews 3:14 strongly imply the possibility of falling from the grace of God and perishing everlastingly…Having believed in Christ as the promised Messiah, and embraced the whole Christian system, they were made partakers of all its benefits in this life, and entitled to the fulfillment of all its exceeding great and precious promises relative to the glories of the eternal world. The former they actually possessed, and the latter they could have only in case of their perseverance; therefore the apostle says, “If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end,”―meaning, to the end of our life.

ANTHONY BURGESS (died 1664): Were they not kept by God’s grace and power, they would every moment be undone both in soul and body. It is not our grace, our prayer, our watchfulness keeps us, but it is in the power of God, His right arm, that supports us.

A. W. PINK: Apart from the renewing and sustaining power of God—they would assuredly perish under the corruptions of the flesh and the assaults of the Devil.

ADAM CLARKE: There shall be nothing lacking on God’s part to support you—and bring you at last to His kingdom and glory.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): If we hold fast our faith unto the end. If―but not else.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is not your hold of Christ that saves, but His hold of you.

A. W. PINK: If left entirely to themselves believers would perish. Temptations and tribulations from without and corruptions from within would prove too strong for them, and therefore does Christ make intercession on their behalf, that God would grant them such supplies of grace and pardoning mercy that they will be preserved from total apostasy.

ADAM CLARKE: Our participation of glory depends on our continuing steadfast in the faith, to the end of our Christian race. If this were not held fast to the end, Christ, in His saving influences, could not be held fast.

C. H. SPURGEON: Will you please to remember that if you look to creature strength it is utterly impossible that you should persevere in grace, even for ten minutes, much less for ten years! If your perseverance depends upon yourself you are a lost man. You may write that down for a certainty.

A. W. PINK: The honour and glory of Jehovah is bound up in the final perseverance of the saints.

C. H. SPURGEON: Why? First, because He has promised to do it; and God’s promises are bonds that never yet were dishonoured. If He hath said He will, He will. Secondly, because Christ Jesus hath taken an oath that He will do it―and, therefore, because Christ is responsible, because He is the heavenly sponsor for all God’s people, they must be kept: for otherwise Christ’s bond were forfeited, and His oath were null and void. They must be kept, again, because otherwise the union that there is between all of them and Christ would not be a real one. Christ and His church are one—one body—we are “His body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all,” Ephesians 1:23. If, then, the whole church were not gathered in, Christ would be an incomplete Christ, seeing He would want His fullness. They must all be saved, for God the Father has determined that they shall be; nay, the Son has sworn they shall be; and God the Holy Spirit vouches for it that they shall be.

A. W. PINK: Now is the Father’s eternal purpose placed in jeopardy by the human will? Is its fulfillment contingent upon human conduct? Or, having ordained the end, will He not also make infallibly effectual all means to that end? That predestination is founded upon His love: “I have loved thee”―says the Father to each of His elect―“with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee,” Jeremiah 31:3. Nor is there any variation in His love, for God is not fickle like us: “I am the Lord, I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed,” Malachi 3:6. Were it possible for one of God’s elect to totally apostatize and finally perish it would mean the Father had purposed something which He failed to effect and that His love was thwarted…If the final perseverance of the saints be a delusion, then one must close his Bible and sit down in despair.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): If my confidence of my final salvation, and of my ultimate perfection, rested in myself―my own energy, my own zeal, my own purposes and desires―I know that I’d never get there. My assurance is based on this: that God, the infinite eternal God, is vindicating His own eternal character, through me. And if He started saving me, and then left it undone or unfinished, and I ever arrived in hell, the devil would have the greatest joke of eternity. He’d say “there’s a being that God began to save, and failed to complete.” It’s impossible, it can’t happen. There is no more monstrous idea than the idea that you can fall away from grace―that you can ever be born again, and then be damned! The character of God is involved, it’s impossible! It’s not merely to save me, it’s to vindicate His own being and nature.

A. W. PINK: Those whom He pardons, He preserves. Therefore each one who trusts in Him, though conscious of his own weakness and wickedness, may confidently exclaim “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day,” 2 Timothy 1:12.

C. H. SPURGEON: Paul was fully persuaded of this great Truth of God…When you know that your Lord is able to keep that which you have committed to Him until that day, then you are firm as a rock.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The thing’s absolutely certain, because God’s character is involved in it.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let us go forward into the future, however dark it is, with this confidence, that at least one thing we know—the love of Christ will hold us fast and, by His Grace, we will hold fast to Him—we are joined to Him by a living, loving, lasting union that never shall be broken!

 

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The Promise & The Warning of Jesus Christ’s Ascension

Posted on May 27, 2022 by The Editor

Acts 1:9-11

While they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Conceive with what astonishment the disciples beheld the ascension of Christ! What must have been their feelings! What their holy joy! How gracious was it in the Lord, not only to them, but for the sake of the whole Church, to send those two angels in human form, to explain to the wondering Apostles what they saw. Their minds no doubt, were absorbed in contemplating the glorious sight, which so beautifully corresponded to the predictions of prophecy concerning it—see Psalm 24 & Psalm 47.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” They are roused out of the ecstasy they were in at that glorious sight, to learn what was so much to their and our advantage.

ROBERT HAWKER: Probably some of them might recollect what Jesus had said to Nathanael: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man,” John 1:51; and also what He had said to the murmuring Jews: “When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” John 6:61,62.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): As Christ’s resurrection had been honoured with the appearance of angels, it is natural to expect that His ascension into heaven would be so likewise.

ROBERT HAWKER: But be this as it might, the angels called off their attention from attending to the mere splendour of the sight, to the blissful consequences of their Lord’s ascension. And oh! how sweet the scripture which follows: “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come, in like manner, as ye have seen him go into Heaven.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Their Master had often told them of this, and the angels are sent at this time seasonably to put them in mind of it.

THOMAS COKE: The angels spake of our Lord’s coming to judge the world at the last day, a description of which He Himself had given in His life time on earth: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels,” Matthew 16:27.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He shall come in the same flesh, in the same human nature; He shall come in the clouds of heaven, and shall be attended with His mighty angels, as He now was; He shall descend Himself in Person, as He now ascended in person; and as He went up with a shout, and with the sound of a trumpet—“God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet,” Psalm 47:5—so He shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, 1 Thessalonians 4:16; and, it may be, He shall descend upon the very spot from whence He ascended—see Zechariah 14:4.

ROBERT HAWKER: Reader! Ponder well these words. Your God, your Saviour, in the same identity of Person; divine, and human, as He left the earth again will return, when His feet shall stand again on the very same mount from whence he went up.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): He will descend from heaven in visible form, in like manner as He was seen to ascend, and appear to all, with the ineffable majesty of His kingdom, the splendor of immortality, the boundless power of divinity, and an attending company of angels. Hence we are told to wait for the Redeemer against that day on which He will separate the sheep from the goats and the elect from the reprobate, and when not one individual either of the living or the dead shall escape His judgment, Matthew 25:31-46. From the extremities of the universe shall be heard the clang of the trumpet summoning all to His tribunal; both those whom that day shall find alive, and those whom death shall previously have removed from the society of the living.

ROBERT HAWKER: In the mean time, for the full scope of faith, in every need and want, we should never, no, not for a moment, forget that the Son of God in our nature, is now in heaven, and there exercising His office of an unchangeable priesthood, Hebrews 7:24. So that His mercies towards His people, are the mercies of both natures; and are manifested in this double way, and through such a medium as could not have been shown had He been God only. His mercies are indeed infinite, because He is God: and His human nature in communicating them to us, renders them endless and unceasing from that Almighty power. But at the same time, they are all in One of our own nature, and they flow to us in, and through this nature, with a sweetness to endear them to our hearts. And hence the Apostle’s direction to go to Him, Hebrews 4:14-16.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Though He shed His blood for sinners on the cross, He is now in heaven, and is the true Object of faith; He is the Christ, He is the Son of God. An ever living glorified Man now in heaven He is, and there is no other Saviour. He was the Son by whom the worlds were made, Colossians 1:16; He was the Son whom God sent to make propitiation for our sins, He was the Son in resurrection and ascension, and He is the Son now seated on the Father’s throne, whom the gospel declares to be the only Saviour of sinners.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): As yet He is proclaimed by the Gospel, a Saviour, seated upon a throne of grace, stretching forth the golden scepter of His love, and inviting sinners to be reconciled. Now is the accepted time. Hereafter He will be seen upon a throne of judgment, to take vengeance of His enemies.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): If you do not believe this, if it appears to you more like a tale, a fiction, or a dream, than a reality, you do not believe the Bible.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Oh, I pray you do not say that the Lord delays His coming—for it is the mark of the mockers of the last days, 2 Peter 3:4, that they say, “Where is the promise of His coming?”

JOHN NEWTON: Our ascended Lord will one day return; then they who have loved, and served, and trusted Him here, “shall appear with Him in glory,” Colossians 3:4. Others, if they can, must prepare to meet Him. But, alas! how shall they stand before Him? Or, whither shall they flee from Him whose presence filleth the heavens and the earth? “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD,” Jeremiah 23:24. Have they an arm like God? Or can they thunder with a voice like His?

C. H. SPURGEON: His return is certain, and your summons to His bar equally certain. But what account can you give if you reject Him? O come and trust Him this day!

 

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An Astonishing Self-Deception: Waiting in Unbelief

Posted on May 20, 2022 by The Editor

John 4:48; John 5:2,3,5

Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water…And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): This is the thought of many of those who feel their sins and who desire salvation. They accept that unscriptural dangerous advice given to them by a certain class of ministers—they wait at the pool of Bethesda—they persevere in the formal use of means and ordinances, and continue in unbelief, expecting some great thing. They abide in a continued refusal to obey the Gospel and yet expect that all of a sudden they will experience some strange emotions, feelings, or remarkable impressions! They hope to see a vision, or hear a supernatural voice, or be alarmed with deliriums of horror.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): This is a subject rarely touched upon today, yet in certain quarters especially there is a real need that it should be dealt with. By inward impressions we have reference to some passage of Scripture or some verse of a hymn being laid upon the mind with such force that it rivets the attention, absorbs the entire inner man and is accompanied by such an influence, that the partaker thereof is deeply affected.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Expectations of this sort have a tendency to great inconveniences, and often open a door to the delusions of mysticism and dangerous impositions; for Satan, when permitted, knows how to transform himself into an angel of light.

A. W. PINK: When a looking and waiting for inward impressions becomes the rule of duty, the ground of faith, and the foundation of comfort, the Word of God is grievously slighted, if not altogether set aside.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Like Thomas, they will yield to no method of conviction but what they shall prescribe themselves.

C. H. SPURGEON: The Gospel does not come to you and say, “Whoever waits for impressions shall be saved.” No, it says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!”―“Look unto Me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth,” is God’s Gospel. “Wait at the pool,” is man’s Gospel, and has destroyed its thousands. This ungospel-like gospel of waiting is immensely popular. I should not wonder if well near half of you are satisfied with it. Oh, you do not refuse to fill the seats in our places of worship! And there you sit in confirmed unbelief—waiting for windows to be made in Heaven—and neglecting the Gospel of your salvation! The great command of God, “Believe and live,” has no response from you but a deaf ear and a stony heart while you quiet your consciences with outward religious observances!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Their usual excuse is that God must save them, so they can do nothing; therefore they will not deceive themselves with a presumptuous false faith. But it’s a strange logic that twists God’s truth into poison, to justify sitting in self-righteous unbelief, self condemned by an obstinate disobedience to God’s commandment to believe His Gospel (Acts 17:30; Mark 1:15).

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Nothing is so fallacious as to substitute feelings and sensibilities for definite obedience.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Vague and fanciful impressions, visions and voices, received and rested upon as evidences of salvation are fearful delusions.

A. W. PINK: A faith which will not rest on God’s bare promise, which dare not meddle with it as it stands in the written Word until it has additional warrant from inward impressions, is a fanciful and worthless faith. A Divinely-given faith answers or responds to God’s faithfulness in the promise, just as it stands in the written Word, without expecting or looking for any further confirmation of the warrant of faith. But a faith which answers to something other than the bare Word of God—to some impressions of it on the mind with light and power—is a fanciful faith, for it makes these impressions and feelings the ground and warrant of believing. How justly may God deliver up to delusion those who make an idol of their feelings and refuse to rest directly on that Word of Truth in which alone the Divine faithfulness is pledged.

C. H. SPURGEON: Now, we shall not deny that a few persons have been saved by very singular interpositions of God’s hand in a manner altogether out of the ordinary modes of Divine procedure.

A. W. PINK: For example: a person may have lived a most godless life, utterly unconcerned about spiritual things and eternal interests, when suddenly there sounded in his conscience the words, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” So forcibly is he impressed, it seems as though someone must have audibly uttered those words, and he turns to discover the speaker, only to find he is alone. So deep is the impression, he cannot shake it off, and he is convicted of his lost condition and made to seek the Saviour. Quite possibly a number of our readers are distressed in that there has been nothing in their own experience which corresponds thereto, and because there is not, they greatly fear they have never been truly converted. But such an inference is quite unwarranted. God does not act uniformly in the work of regeneration, any more than He does in creation or in providence; and we have met many who never had any such experience as we have described above, yet whose salvation we could not doubt for a moment.

C. H. SPURGEON: When the Lord bids you believe in Jesus, what right have you to demand signs and wonders instead? For you to wait for remarkable experiences is as futile as was the waiting of the multitude who lingered at Bethesda waiting for the long-expected angel, when He who could heal them stood already in their midst, neglected and despised by them!

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): To such as may fall to doubt and dispute what warrant they have to believe, we say you have as good warrant as Abraham, David, Paul, or any of the godly that lived before you had. You have the same gospel, covenant and promises; it was always God’s Word which was the ground of faith.

C. H. SPURGEON: Where is the sinner told to wait upon God in the use of ordinances so that he may be saved? The Gospel of our salvation is this—“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

JOHN NEWTON: You say, “I hope it is my desire to cast myself upon the free promise in Jesus Christ; but this alone does not give assurance of my personal interest in His blood.” I ask, Why not? It appears to me, that if I cast myself upon His promise, and if His promise is true, I must undoubtedly be interested in His full redemption; for He has said, “Him that cometh I will in no wise cast out,” John 6:37. If you can find a case or circumstance which the words “in no wise” will not include, then you may despond.

C. H. SPURGEON: Ah, I tremble for some of you—you Chapel-goers and Church-goers, who have for years been waiting—how few of you get saved! Thousands of you die in your sins, waiting in wicked unbelief. A few are snatched like brands from the burning, but the most of those who are hardened waiters, wait, and wait, till they die in their sins. I solemnly warn you that, pleasing to the flesh as waiting in unbelief may be, it is not one which any reasonable man would long persevere in!

 

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The Goodness of the Lord

Posted on May 13, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 33:5; Matthew 5:45—Psalm 107:8; Jeremiah 31:14; Psalm 106:1

The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.—Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.

O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

ANDREW BONAR (1810-1892): The first words of Psalm 106 are abundant in thought concerning Jehovah: “For He is good.” Is this not the Old Testament version of “God is love”? And then, “for His mercy endureth for ever.” Is not this the gushing stream from the fountain of Love?

GEORGE BURDER (1752-1832): In discoursing on the glorious perfections of God, His goodness must by no means be omitted; for though all His perfections are His glory, yet this is particularly so called, for when Moses, the man of God, earnestly desired to behold a grand display of the glory of Jehovah, the Lord said, in answer to His petition, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee,” Exodus 33:19; thus intimating that He Himself accounted His goodness to be His glory.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): And what is the goodness of the Lord? Ah, who is capable of returning an answer: human definitions are worthless—But has not the Lord Himself answered our question, and fulfilled His promise to Moses when He declared. “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,” Exodus 34:6,7.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Goodness is the one all-comprehensive character of the Deity, it shines forth in all His works: it meets us wherever we turn our eyes.

GEORGE BURDER: When it relieves the miserable, it is mercy; when it bestows favours on the worthless, it is grace; when it bears with provoking rebels, it is long-suffering; when it confers promised blessings, it is truth; when it supplies indigent beings, it is bounty. The goodness of God is a very comprehensive term; it includes all the forms of His kindness shown to men; whether considered as creatures, as sinners, or as believers.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You would think, from the way most people talk, that the world was full of misery and full of the anger of the Lord; but it is not. Notwithstanding all the evil that is in it, it is still true that “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): To hear its worthless inhabitants complain, one would think that God dispensed evil, not good. To examine the operation of His hands, everything is marked with mercy and there is no place where His goodness does not appear. The overflowing kindness of God fills the earth everywhere. Even the iniquities of men are rarely a bar to His goodness: He causes “His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends His rain upon the just and the unjust.”

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): No man can look around upon a world like this without sorrow if he possesses the Spirit of Christ. Yet we are made to rejoice as we think of the goodness of the Lord.

JAMES SAURIN (1760-1842): It is impossible to consider the works of the Creator, without receiving evidence of His goodness.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): So that we cannot look any way, but matter of praise presents itself to our view. The whole nature of things is set forth, as an ample theatre of God’s wisdom, justice, and goodness.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): We should, with wonder, gratitude, and praise, behold the abundance, which by the wise and kind providence of God, is diffused through the earth: and, while we see year after year crowned with the goodness of the Lord, so that the hills and valleys, covered with corn and cattle, seem to proclaim and rejoice in their Creator’s praise.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The earth, though lying in the wicked one, is filled with the goodness of the Lord. He preserveth man and beast, sustains the young lion in the forest, and feeds the birds of the air, which have neither storehouse or barn, and adorns the insects and the flowers of the field with a beauty and elegance beyond all that can be found in the courts of kings.

H. A. IRONSIDE: It is all because of the goodness of the Lord.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is comfortable to observe the goodness of the Lord in the gifts of common providence, and even in them to taste covenant-love.

CHARLES SIMEON: To commemorate the goodness of the Lord, “Samuel set up a stone, which he called Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us,” 1 Samuel 7:12.

C. H. SPURGEON: Did Jacob not also offer the worship of testimony when he acknowledged God’s goodness to him all his life? He says, “The God that fed me all my life long,” Genesis 48:15; thus acknowledging that he had been always dependent but always supplied.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): The goodness of the Lord—which runs from generation to generation…Whatever our condition is, let it be owned, that God is good, and whatever fails, that His mercy fails not.

C. H. SPURGEON: “For He is good.” This is reason enough for giving Him thanks; goodness is His essence and nature, and therefore He is always to be praised whether we are receiving anything from Him or not. Those who only praise God because He does them good should rise to a higher note and give thanks to Him because He is good. In the truest sense He alone is good, “There is none good but one, that is God,” Luke 18:19; therefore in all gratitude the Lord should have the royal portion. If others seem to be good, He is good. If others are good in a measure, He is good beyond measure. When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless Him that “He is good.”

THOMAS SCOTT: We should remember our unworthiness, be thankful for our portion, and use it to the glory of the Giver; admire and imitate His bounty to the indigent, as we are able, and His goodness to the wicked and ungrateful children of men; and pity and pray for those, who abuse these gifts to the dishonour of the Giver.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let our thanks be as many as the stars, and let our lives reflect the goodness of the Lord, even as the moon reflects the light of the sun…We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questionable, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same, and always good. It is not only that He was good, and will be good, but He is good, let His providence be what it may. Therefore let us even at this present moment, though the skies be dark with clouds, yet give thanks unto His name.

 

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