The Great Spiritual Danger of Worldly Riches

Posted on February 25, 2022 by The Editor

Luke 18:18-27

A certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

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

And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved?

And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The story we have now read is three times reported in the Gospels; Matthew, Mark and Luke were all moved by the Holy Ghost to record the history of the rich man who came to Christ. This fact should be noticed. It shows us that there are lessons before us which demand special attention.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Very little benefit would accrue to a person from knowing that a rich young man had turned away from Christ because he disliked the directions which our Lord had given him. If we would derive any material instruction from this event, we should consider what aspect it has upon the manners of men in general: we should, after the example which our Lord Himself has set us, contemplate the effects which wealth generally produces on those who possess it, and the obstacles it lays in our way to the kingdom of heaven.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is true indeed, that riches do not, in their own nature, hinder us from following God; but, in consequence of the depravity of the human mind, it is scarcely possible for those who have a great abundance to avoid being intoxicated by them.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): That which makes it so hard for a rich man to be saved, is the difficulty of having riches and not placing our happiness in them, being secure because of them, and having our hearts cleave unto them, so as we cannot deny ourselves in them to obey any command of God; and the suffering them to be temptations to us to pride, luxury, ambition, oppression, contempt and despising of others.

CHARLES SIMEON: It is difficult for a person to have riches, and not be corrupted by them. Whatever a corrupt heart can desire is attainable through riches. Wealth opens a way for all manner of sensuality and self-indulgence: and, at the same time that it gives us facilities for gratifying our evil inclinations, it leads us into such habits as greatly dispose us to sin. A luxurious table draws us to intemperance; intemperance inflames our passions; and affluence opens an easy way to the indulgence of them. The rich even think that they are, in a measure, licensed to commit iniquity: and, in their eyes, intemperance and lewdness are, at the most, no more than venial follies, which they can commit without shame, and look back upon without remorse. It is difficult for a person to have riches, and not be puffed up by them.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Wealth often ends in pride.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Pride breeds in wealth as the worm doth in the apple, and he is a great rich man indeed, and greater than his riches, that doth not think himself great because he is rich.

CHARLES SIMEON: As great respect is paid to riches, the people who possess them are apt to think that they deserve it. They arrogate it to themselves; they are offended, if any persons refuse to gratify them with the homage which they claim. They shew in their look, their dress, their manner of speaking, yea, in their very gait, they “think themselves to be somebody.” They expect their wishes to be consulted, and their judgment to be followed. They are impatient of contradiction. They do not like, either in public or in private, to be told of their faults. If a minister deal faithfully with their consciences, they rather condemn him for what they will call his rudeness or harshness, than themselves for their departure from God. How commonly this disposition springs from riches, we may judge from that direction which is given to ministers; “Charge them who are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded,” 1 Timothy 6:17.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Somehow or other―“Gold and the gospel seldom do agree, Religion always sides with poverty;”―Because a man’s possessions are so liable to get into his heart. He is apt to turn them into idols, and to make devotion to them the great object of his life; as long as he does so, he cannot be saved.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): To be rich, therefore, is in general a great misfortune: but what rich man can be convinced of this?

CHARLES SIMEON: Where is the man, who, if offered great riches, would be afraid to accept them, lest they should impede his way to heaven? or, when congratulated on his attainment of wealth, would damp the ardour of his friends by entreating rather an interest in their prayers, that the newly-acquired riches might not corrupt and destroy his soul? Where is the man possessed of riches, who does not think his way to heaven as easy as that of any other person? In short, where is the person who does not say in his heart, “Give me riches: I will run the risk of their doing me any harm: I have no doubt I shall get to heaven with them as easily as without them?” But would it be thus, if we really believed the words of our blessed Lord?

ADAM CLARKE: Christ himself affirms the difficulty of the salvation of a rich man, with an oath, verily; but who of the rich either hears or believes Him!

JOHN CALVIN: So they who are exceedingly rich are held by Satan bound, as it were, in chains, that they may not raise their thoughts to heaven; nay more, they bury and entangle themselves, and became utter slaves to the earth. The comparison of the camel, which is soon after added, is intended to amplify the difficulty; for it means that the rich are so swelled with pride and presumption, that they cannot endure to be reduced to the straits through which God makes His people to pass.

CHARLES SIMEON: Alas! even the Apostles themselves scarcely knew how to receive so hard a saying: we are told, that they were “astonished out of measure,” Mark 10:26. But it becomes us to credit the assertion of Him who could not err, and would not deceive.

J. C. RYLE: Few of our Lord’s sayings sound more startling than this. Few run more counter to the opinions and prejudices of mankind. Few are so little believed. Yet this saying is true, and worthy of all acceptation. Riches, which all desire to obtain—riches, for which men labour and toil, and become gray before their time—riches are a most perilous possession. They often inflict great injury on the soul. They lead men into many temptations. They engross men’s thoughts and affections.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Earthly riches are called thorns, Luke 8:14; and well they may, for as thorns, they pierce both head and heart; the head with cares in getting them, and the heart with grief in parting with them.

CHARLES SIMEON: Hence that caution of the Psalmist’s, “If riches increase, set not your heart upon them,” Psalm 62:10.

JOHN CALVIN:  This doctrine is highly useful to all; to the rich, that, being warned of their danger, they may be on their guard; to the poor, that, satisfied with their lot, they may not so eagerly desire what would bring more damage than gain.

 

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Jesus Christ’s Gracious Restoration of Peter

Posted on February 18, 2022 by The Editor

John 21:14-19

This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.

Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.

And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): To the careful Bible reader, who remembers the Apostle’s thrice-repeated denial of Christ, the passage cannot fail to be a deeply interesting portion of Scripture.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Our blessed Lord was full of compassion towards Peter, after his shameful dereliction of duty: He looked upon him with pity—and restored him publicly to his office, from which he had fallen. But in what manner did he restore him?

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): “When they had dined,” Jesus took Peter apart to let in upon his soul the light of truth, so that by it he might discern the root from where all his failure had sprung. That root was self-confidence which had led him to place himself above his fellow-disciples. This root had to be exposed.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Mark carefully how the Lord began: not with a reproach, still less a word of condemnation, nor even with a “Why did you deny Me?” but “Lovest thou me more than these?”

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Remember what Simon had said on the night of the betrayal, before they went out to the Garden. “Master, though all men forsake Thee, yet will I not.” He was saying practically, I love Him more than all the rest of them. “Lovest thou me more than these?” I think Christ pointed to John and James and Thomas and the rest of them. And Peter answered, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The second and third Christ put this question, He left out the comparison “more than these,” because Peter, in his answer, modestly left it out, not willing to compare himself with his brethren, much less to prefer himself before them.

A. W. PINK: Yet, observe that the Lord did not now address him as “Peter,” but “Simon, son of Jonas.” This is not without its significance. “Simon” was his original name, and stands in contrast from the new name which the Lord had given him: “And when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon the son of Jonas: that shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone,” John 1:42. The way in which the Lord now addressed His disciple intentionally called into question the “Peter.” Christ would here remind him of his entire past as a natural man, and especially that his fall had originated in “Simon” and not “Peter!”

J. C. RYLE: This mode of address, thrice repeated in this remarkable conversation, is only used by our Lord on this occasion, and when Peter first came to Him.

A. W. PINK: On one other occasion did the Lord address him as “Simon, son of Jonah,” and that was in Matthew 16:17, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” But note that the Lord is quick to add, “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” Thus this first word of the Lord to His disciple in John 21:15 was designed to pointedly remind him of his glorious confession, which would serve to make him the more sensitive of his late and awful denial.

J. C. RYLE: There are little nice distinctions in the original Greek in the words that are used, which the English language cannot convey. But they deserve notice, and are not without meaning. Three times we find Him saying, “Feed” my flock: once, “Feed my lambs;” and twice, my “sheep.” Can we doubt that this thrice-repeated charge was full of deep meaning?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “Feed My lambs”—that is, instruct such as are truly gracious, but young in years. It is very remarkable that the Greek word used here for “Feed My lambs” is very different from the word employed in the precept, “Feed My sheep.” The second “feed” means exercise the office of a shepherd—rule, regulate, lead, manage them, do all that a shepherd has to do towards a flock. But this first “feed” does not include all that: it means distinctly to feed—namely, instructing children in the faith.

J. C. RYLE: Two different Greek words are used to express our one word “love.”

MATTHEW HENRY: In the first two enquiries, the Greek word is Agapas me—‘Dost thou retain a kindness for me?’ In answer Peter uses another word, more emphatic, Philō se—‘I love thee dearly.’ In putting the question the last time, Christ uses that same word: ‘And dost thou indeed love me dearly?’

C. H. MACKINTOSH: This was a pointed and strong question, and it went right to the very bottom of Peter’s heart.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347-407): Peter was grieved, fearing Christ saw something in his heart which he saw not himself, that might lead to another fall—that Christ was about to tell him of it, as He had before predicted his denial.

A. W. PINK: That Peter was “grieved” does not mean he was offended at the Lord because He repeated His question, but it signifies that he was touched to the quick, was deeply sorrowful, as he recalled his threefold denial. It is parallel with his “weeping bitterly” in Luke 22:62.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): When our dear Lord questioned Peter, He said not, ‘Art thou wise, learned, and eloquent?’ He said not, ‘Art thou clear, and sound, and orthodox?’ but this only, “Lovest thou me?” An answer to this was sufficient then; why not now?

C. H. SPURGEON: Here is a lesson for all who would be pastors of Christ’s flock. The first necessity of a true pastor is love to Christ, the second necessity of a true pastor is love to Christ, and the third necessity of a true pastor is love to Christ. A man who does not love the great Shepherd cannot properly feed either His sheep or lambs.

J. C. RYLE: Our Lord, like a skillful physician, stirred up this grief intentionally. He intended to prick the Apostle’s conscience, to teach him a solemn lesson. For another thing, Peter uses stronger language when he appeals to our Lord’s knowledge of his heart. “Lord,” he says, “Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee.”

A. W. PINK: What marvelous grace was this! Not only does the Lord accept Peter’s appeal to His omniscience, but He gives here a blessed commission.

MATTHEW HENRY: This word, “Follow me,” was a further confirmation of his restoration to his Master’s favour, and to his apostleship; for “Follow me” was the first call, Matthew 4:18,19. And it was an explication of the prediction of his sufferings, which perhaps Peter at first did not fully understand, till Christ gave him that key to it, Follow me—“Expect to be treated as I have been, and to tread the same bloody path that I have trodden; for the disciple is not greater than his Lord.” It was to excite him to, and encourage him in faithfulness and diligence in his work as an apostle…He girded up the loins of his mind to the service.

A. W. PINK: See how He comforted and strengthened him.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): That Peter might be prepared to endure it.

 

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A Good Wife is a Gift from God

Posted on February 11, 2022 by The Editor

Genesis 2:18, 21-23; Proverbs 31:10, 12—Proverbs 19:14; Proverbs 18:22

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him…And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies…She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

A prudent wife is from the LORD…Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Marriage, with all its troubles and embarrassments, is a blessing from God; and there are few cases where a wife of any sort is not better than none, because celibacy is an evil; for God himself hath said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is neither for his profit, nor his comfort.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Solitude is not good, excepting only him whom God exempts as by a special privilege.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): A good wife is a great blessing to a man. He that finds a wife, that is, a wife indeed, finds a help meet, that is a wife in the original acceptation of the word―a bad wife does not deserve to be called by a name of so much honour.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Every married woman is not a wife; a bad woman is but the shadow of a wife―“the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping,” Proverbs 27:15; like the dropping of rain, in a rainy day, into a house out of repair, and which is very uncomfortable to, the inhabitants of it. Such are the contentions of a peevish, ill natured, and brawling wife, who is always scolding; and which is a continual vexation to a man, and renders him very uneasy in life.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Probably it is that to which Solomon alludes, when he saith, “It is better to dwell in a corner of the house-top, than with a brawling woman in a wide house,” Proverbs 21:9.

ADAM CLARKE: As to good wives and bad wives, they are relatively so, in general; and most of them that have been bad afterwards, have been good at first; and we well know the best things may deteriorate, and the world generally allows that where there are matrimonial contentions, there are faults on both sides.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): This is obviously to be taken with limitation. Manoah found a good thing in his wife, Judges 13:23. But not Job, Job 2:9,10. Some find “a crown to their head;” others, “rottenness to their bones,” Proverbs 12:4. That which alone deserves the name is indeed a good thing. If in a state of innocence “it was not good for a man to be alone,” much more in a world of care and trouble “two are better than one” for mutual support, helpfulness, and sympathy. The good thing implies godliness, and fitness. Godliness is found, when the man marries “only in the Lord,” 1 Corinthians 7:39, and only one who is the Lord’s.

JOHN CALVIN: Now, since God assigns the woman as a help to the man, He not only prescribes to wives the rule of their vocation to instruct them in their duty, but he also pronounces that marriage will really prove to men the best support of life. We may therefore conclude that the order of nature implies that the woman should be the helper of the man. The vulgar proverb, indeed, is, that she is a necessary evil; but the voice of God is rather to be heard, which declares that woman is given as a companion and an associate to the man, to assist him to live well. On this main point hangs another; that women, being instructed in their duty of helping their husbands, should study to keep this divinely appointed order.

ADAM CLARKE: A prudent wife is from the Lord―one who has a good understanding avoids complaining, though she may often have cause for it.

MATTHEW HENRY: A wife that is prudent, in opposition to one that is contentious. For, though a wife that is continually finding fault may think it is her wit and wisdom to be so, it is really her folly; a prudent wife is meek and quiet, and makes the best of every thing.

JOHN TRAPP: Nature makes a woman, election a wife; but to be prudent, wise, and virtuous is of the Lord. A good wife was one of the first real and royal gifts bestowed on Adam. God set all the creatures before him ere He gave him a wife, that, seeing no other fit help, he might prize such a gift; not a gift of industry, but “of destiny,” as one saith; for “marriages are made in heaven,” as the common sort can say, and as very heathens acknowledge.

MATTHEW HENRY: If a man has such a wife, let him not ascribe it to the wisdom of his own choice or his own management for the wisest have been deceived both in and by a woman; but let him ascribe it to the goodness of God, who made him a help meet for him, and perhaps by some hits and turns of providence that seemed casual brought her to him.

CHARLES BRIDGES: But how is this good thing found?

MATTHEW HENRY: Happy marriages, we are sure, are made in heaven.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It is God that gives him a wise and discreet woman to be an help-meet to him…A good one―and no other can be meant, even a good natured one; wise, prudent, careful, and industrious; a proper helpmeet, a virtuous woman―is from the Lord, and it is under His direction and guidance in seeking, that a man finds a good wife.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Isaac found it, where every Christian looks for his blessing, as an answer to prayer, Genesis 24. A man’s choice for his own indulgence will bring a curse upon himself and his family, 2 Chronicles 21:1-6. “Choose thou mine inheritance for me,” is the cry and confidence of the child of God, Psalm 47:4. Then truly will he obtain the gift, not as the result of fortune, or as the proof of his own good discernment; but, as Adam received his wife, “from the Lord.”―“The LORD brought her to the man” by His special Providence, and therefore as His special gift. Thus is the prudent wife honoured as a special blessing of God’s immediate choosing, and therefore to be obtained by our prayers at the hand of the giver.

MATTHEW HENRY: He that sought such a one with care and prayer, and has found what he sought, has found a good thing, a jewel of great value, a rare jewel; he has found that which will not only contribute more than any thing to his comfort in this life, but will forward him in the way to heaven…A discreet and virtuous wife is a choice gift of God’s providence to a man.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Truly “her price is above rubies.” No treasure is comparable to her. It is not too much to say with Aristotle, that prince of heathen philosophy: “If women be good, the half of the commonwealth may be happy where they are.”

 

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The Discernment of the Men of Issachar

Posted on February 5, 2022 by The Editor

1 Chronicles 12:12,13, 32

At that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God…[and they] came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of the LORD…And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): The Israelites who were of the tribe of Issachar, in the time of David, received a high praise for understanding the times, and knowing the best course for the inhabitants of the kingdom to do. They were thoughtful, intelligent men, who studied and who understood the signs of the times, and were well versed in public affairs; they knew the character of the age that was passing over them, and what was best to be done for the exigencies of their nation.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It appears that in their wisdom, experience, and skill, their brethren had the fullest confidence; and nothing was done but by their direction and advice.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They understood public affairs, the temper of the nation, and the tendencies of the present events. It is the periphrasis of statesmen that they “know the times,” Esther 1:13.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): These were men that knew the fit time for doing anything.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): It is the character of the wise, that he discerneth the time; and the want of this discernment is the cause of much human misery. For, “to every purpose there is time and judgment,” the proper season and manner when it should be put in execution; the ignorance, improvidence, and neglect of men in this behalf, occasion most of their distresses. They trifle with the opportunity, and it slips irrecoverably by; “therefore the misery of man is great upon him,” and he has usually only his own negligence to blame for the sufferings that he undergoes; which prudent foresight, and careful diligence, might probably have prevented. “For he knoweth not that which shall be,” or whether ever again he shall have the opportunity that he has lost, and none know what tomorrow will bring forth:” for who can tell him when it shall be, or how it shall be?” Future events are secrets concealed from human foresight; the present moment only is our own, and time is to be redeemed by us, Ecclesiastes 8:16,17.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Political prudence to discern and embrace the fit seasons for all actions—this is so considerable a circumstance especially in public affairs, that the success or disappointment of them depends very much upon the right or wrong timing of them.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Solomon tells us, that “there is to every thing a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven,” Ecclesaiastes 3:1. To discern all these occasions, and to improve them aright, is the grand line of distinction between the thoughtless and considerate, the fool and the wise, Ecclesiastes 2:14, Proverbs 22:3.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Thoughtful men fix their eyes on the currents of events, to see which way they are flowing; who not only make themselves acquainted with the surface of things—but who look beneath it, and endeavour to trace events backward to their causes, and forward to their consequences; who not only exercise their curiosity in knowing what is taking place—but their reason in judging of its tendencies and influences; who read the histories of past times, as well as the chronicles of the present age, to form opinions founded upon examination, comparison, and legitimate deduction. They endeavour to discern the connection of events, and their influence upon the great interests of social happiness, liberty and true religion.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The men of Issachar were such as “knew the times,” and what was best to be done in them. This skill they had gotten by much reading of politics and histories, and long observation.

CHARLES SIMEON: Knowing how to judge of the various occurrences that arise, and how to improve them to the good of the state—that constitutes the great science of politics: and it is to this knowledge, that the expression “understanding of the times” primarily refers. A statesman cannot determine what will be fit to be done a year hence, because circumstances may arise which would render all his plans abortive. He may indeed display much wisdom in the exercise of foresight, and in providing for contingencies; but still he must of necessity follow events which he cannot control, and be himself controlled by existing circumstances: and he is the greatest benefactor to the state, who is enabled to judge of them most correctly, and to adapt his measures to them most wisely.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): Above all, we should remember that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

JOHN GILL: This shows who the wise men are, and in what true wisdom lies.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We have many examples of this in scripture; and it would be our wisdom to consider them, and to weigh the great practical truth they illustrate.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): David found himself the possessor of a tottering throne, troubled with the double evil of faction at home, and invasion from abroad. He traced at once the evil to its true source, and began at the fountainhead. His were the politics of piety, which after all are the wisest and most profound. He knew that the displeasure of the Lord had brought calamity upon the nation, and to the removal of that displeasure he set himself by earnest prayer. “O God, Thou hast cast us off,” Psalm 60:1. David clearly sees the fruits of the divine anger, he traces the flight of Israel’s warriors, the breaking of her power, the division in her body politic, to the hand of God. Whoever might be the secondary agent of these disasters, he beholds the Lord’s hand as the prime moving cause, and pleads with the Lord concerning the matter.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Recognize, in the current of human affairs, the scheme and operations of an all-wise, all-controlling Providence.

CHARLES SIMEON: We may, however, lay down one general rule, which will be of service in determining most of the cases that can occur. The consideration of times and circumstances is never to affect our principles, but only the application of them. Our principles must be fixed by the unerring standard of God’s word. The love of God, and the love of our fellow-creatures, a regard for truth, and honour, and integrity, with all other Christian graces, must be as fixed principles in our minds, from which we are never to swerve on any account. We must not regard life itself in comparison of these. But then the peculiar mode in which these principles are to operate, must be a matter of discretion, arising from the circumstances of the case.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Very important is it to maintain an independence of mind, quite distinct from pride, which elevates the mind far above doing or conniving at evil, for the sake of pleasing a patron. Many have been forced to great entanglement of conscience, perhaps to vote contrary to their conscience, rather than lose the great man’s smile.

THOMAS COKE: Some make it a duty blindly to comply with every whim of their superiors, without ever allowing themselves the liberty to examine whether they are right or wrong; but the wise man always makes use of his discernment.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: He is the best reformer who begins with the reformation of himself; no systems will be effectual for public improvement which leave out of consideration the necessity of individual regeneration and Christian virtue. A deep sense of personal responsibility should lie on every man’s conscience. Every man is a part of the existing generation, and does something by his own character and conduct to form the character of the age. Each ought therefore to resolve—What I would have the age to be, that I will endeavour to be.

 

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Organized Crime Prosecuted

Posted on January 28, 2022 by The Editor

Deuteronomy 5:7-9; Isaiah 2:18

Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them.

The idols he shall utterly abolish.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me,” is against mental or theoretic idolatry. The Second Commandment is against making and worshipping images, or practical idolatry.

J.H.M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): All portraitures, shapes, images of God, whether by effigies or pictures, are here forbidden. “Take heed lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make the similitude of any figure,” Deuteronomy 4:15,16. God is to be adored in the heart, not painted to the eye. “Thou shalt not bow down to them.” The intent of making images and pictures is to worship them. No sooner was Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image set up, but all the people fell down and worshipped it, Daniel 3:7. God forbids such prostrating ourselves before an idol. The thing prohibited in this commandment is image-worship. To set up an image to represent God, is debasing Him.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): And there are two parts in the Second Commandment—the first forbids the erection of a graven image, or any likeness; the second prohibits the transferring of the worship which God claims for Himself alone, to any of these phantoms. Therefore, to devise any image of God, is in itself impious; because by this corruption His Majesty is adulterated, and He is figured to be other than He is.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): It is idolatry, not only to worship a false god, but the true God in a false manner.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): As for the church of Rome, if there is not an enormous quantity of systematic organized idolatry, I frankly confess that I do know not what idolatry is. To my mind, idolatry is to have images and pictures of saints in churches, and to give them a reverence to which there is no warrant or precedence in Scripture.

THOMAS WATSON: Roman Catholics make images of God the Father, painting Him in their church windows as an old man; and an image of Christ on the crucifix…They say they do not worship the image, but only use it as a medium through which to worship God. Where has God bidden them worship Him by an effigy or image? “Who has required this at your hands?” Isaiah 1:12. The Papists cannot say so much as the devil, “It is written.” The heathen may bring the same argument for their gross idolatry, as the Papists do for their image-worship. What heathen has been so simple as to think gold or silver, or the figure of an ox or elephant, was God? These were emblems and hieroglyphics only to represent him. They worshipped an invisible God by such visible things. To worship God by an image, God takes as done to the image itself.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): I would not hesitate to assert that this system known as Roman Catholicism, is the devil’s greatest masterpiece!

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The idea was to Christianize heathenism. They virtually said to idolaters, “Now, good people, you may keep on with your worship, and yet you can be Christians at the same time. This image of the Queen of heaven at your door need not be moved. Light the lamp still; only call the image ‘our Lady,’ and ‘the Blessed Virgin.’ Here is another image; don’t pull it down, but change its name from Jupiter to Peter.” Thus with a mere change of names they perpetuated idolatry: they set up their altars in the groves, and upon every high hill, and the people were converted without knowing it, to a baser heathenism than their own. They wanted priests, and, lo, there they were, robed like those who served at the altars of Jove. The people saw the same altars and sniffed the same incense, kept the same holy days and observed the same carnivals as aforetime, and called everything by Christian names. Hence came what is now called the Roman Catholic religion, which is simply fearing God and serving other gods, 2 Kings 17:32,33,41. Every village has its own peculiar saint, and often its own particular black or white image of the Virgin, with miracles and wonders to sanctify the shrine.

J. C. RYLE: It is idolatry to invoke the Virgin Mary and the saints in glory, and to address them in language never addressed in the Scripture except to the Holy Trinity.

THOMAS WATSON: To pray to saints is idolatry advanced to blasphemy.

C. H. SPURGEON: With what indignation then, must the Lord look down upon that apostate harlot called the Roman Catholic Church, when in all her sanctuaries, there are pictures and images, relics, and poor infatuated beings are even taught to bow before a piece of bread.

J. C. RYLE: It is idolatry to adore that which man’s hands have made―to call it God, and to adore it when lifted up before our eyes.

C. H. SPURGEON: I have seen thousands adore the wafer, hundreds bow before the image of the Virgin, scores at prayer before a crucifix, and companies of men and women adoring a rotten bone or a rusty nail, because it is said to be the relic of a saint. It is vain for the Romanist to assert that he worships not the things themselves, but only the Lord through them, for this the second commandment expressly forbids.

J. C. RYLE: Whether in the adoration of the Hindu idol of Juggernaut,* or in the adoration of the host in St. Peter’s Basilica at Rome, the idolatrous principle is in reality the same. Whenever this is done, whether in heathen temples, or professedly Christian churches, there is an act of idolatry…Roman Catholicism is a gigantic system of Mary-worship, saint-worship, image-worship, relic-worship, and priest-worship—a huge organized idolatry.

THOMAS WATSON: The Church of Rome is reproved and condemned, which, from the Alpha of its religion to the Omega, is wholly idolatrous.

J. C. RYLE: The desolation which reigns where Cyprian and Augustine once preached―the living death in which the churches of Asia Minor and Syria are buried―all are attributable to this sin. All testify to the same great truth which the Lord proclaims in Isaiah, “My glory I will not give to another,” Isaiah 42:8…The end of idolatry shall one day come. Its doom is fixed. Its overthrow is certain. Whether in heathen temples, or in so-called “Christian” churches, idolatry shall be destroyed at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall be fulfilled the prophecy, “The idols he shall utterly abolish.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Wait but a little while and you shall see them fall! Cruel Juggernaut, whose car still crushes in its motion the foolish ones who throw themselves before it,* shall yet be the object of derision. And the most noted idols, such as Buddha and Brahma and Vishnu, shall yet stoop themselves to the earth and men shall tread them down as mire in the streets, for God will teach all men that He is God and that there is none else!

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*Editor’s Note: Juggernaut is a title of the Hindu idol-god Krishnu, meaning “the Lord of the world.” Visitors to India in the 19th Century reported that worshippers of Juggernaut sometimes threw themselves beneath the wheels of the car carrying the idol-god to be crushed as sacrifices. A drawing (1851) and a photo (1870) of these idol cars may be seen at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut

 

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Praying in the Holy Spirit

Posted on January 21, 2022 by The Editor

Jude 20,21; Ephesians 6:18

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Notice—we are to make our prayers and petitions “in the Spirit.” That admonition should cause many of us to consider the effectiveness of our prayer life.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): What is it to pray “in the Spirit?”

CHARLES STANLEY (1821-1890): Sometimes we understand what a thing is, by looking at what it is not, or in contrast.

H. A. IRONSIDE: Some time ago I officiated at the funeral in California—I was told that the lady who had passed away had a number of friends given to the use of a gift that they called “speaking in tongues,” though it certainly was not that which the Bible refers to as the gift of tongues. They had a habit of going off into a semi-trance condition and uttering strange sounds.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Brothers and Sisters, we need not judge those who pray unintelligible prayers, prayers in a foreign tongue, prayers which they do not understand. We know without a moment’s discussion of the question that the prayer which is not understood cannot be a prayer in the Spirit, for even the man’s own spirit does not enter into it—how then can the Spirit of God be there?

PHILIP MAURO (1859-1952): We believe that the modern error regarding tongues, as made prominent by those who call themselves “pentecostals,” is one of the most dangerous of these last days. Many true, earnest, and zealous children of God have been deluded by it…We have had it under observation from the start.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): A certain Edward Irving,* founder of the “Catholic Apostolic Church,” propounded the theory that the supernatural gifts which existed in the early Church had been lost through the unbelief and carnality of its members, and that if there was a return to primitive order and purity, they would again be available. Accordingly, he appointed “apostles,” and “prophets” and “evangelists.” They claimed to speak in tongues, prophesy, interpret and work miracles. There is little doubt in our mind that this movement was inspired by Satan, and probably a certain amount of abnormal phenomena attended it, though much of it was explainable as issuing from a state of high nervous tension and hysteria. Irving’s theory, with some modifications, and some additions, has been popularized and promulgated by the more recent so-called “Pentecostal movement,” where a species of unintelligible jabbering and auto-suggestion is styled “speaking in tongues.”

A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): It has magnified one single gift above all others, and that one gift, as Paul said, was the least. Now that does not cause me to have great confidence in a movement that would do that. Then there is an unscriptural exhibition of that “gift,” which, incidentally, began in the United States about 1904.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): There seems, as I lately observed, something monstrous in this determination to hold converse with God in sounds which fall without meaning from the tongue. Even if God did not declare His displeasure, nature herself, without a monitor, rejects it. Besides, it is easy to infer from the whole tenor of Scripture how deeply God abominates such an invention. As to the public prayers of the church, the words of Paul are clear―the unlearned cannot say Amen if the benediction is pronounced in an unknown tongue, 1 Corinthians 14:16. And this makes it the more strange, that those who first introduced this perverse practice had the effrontery to maintain that the very thing which Paul regards as ineffably absurd was conducive to the majesty of prayer.

C. H. SPURGEON: What does praying in the Holy Spirit mean?

H. A. IRONSIDE: Prayer “in the Spirit” is prayer in accordance with the mind of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God.

A. W. PINK: To “pray in the Spirit,” it follows that our prayers ought to be according to the Scriptures, seeing that He is their Author throughout. It equally follows that according to the measure in which the Word of Christ dwells in us “richly,” Colossians 3:16, or sparsely, the more or the less will our petitions be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” Matthew 12:34. In proportion as we hide the Word in our hearts, and it cleanses, moulds and regulates our inner man, will our prayers be acceptable in God’s sight. Then shall we be able to say, as David did in another connection, “Of Thine own have we given Thee,” 1 Chronicles 29:14.

C. H. SPURGEON: Praying in the Holy Ghost is praying in fervency. Cold prayers ask the Lord not to hear them. Those who do not plead with fervency, plead not at all.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Our prayers are most likely to prevail when we pray in the Holy Ghost—that is, under His guidance and influence, according to the rule of His word, with faith, fervency, and constant persevering importunity; this is praying in the Holy Ghost.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Yes, but that is not all.

C. H. SPURGEON: The word may be translated, “by the Holy Spirit,” or, “through the Holy Spirit,” as well as, “in the Holy Spirit.” And the phrase means, first, praying in the Holy Spirit’s power. The carnal mind knows nothing about this.

H. A. IRONSIDE: No unconverted person, of course, can pray in the Spirit, but there are even Christians who are in such a low carnal condition of soul that it is impossible for them to pray in the Spirit. I cannot pray in the Spirit if I am harbouring a grudge against my brother. I cannot pray in the Spirit if there is anyone I will not forgive because of some real or imagined wrong done to me. I cannot pray in the Spirit if I have a selfish motive, or if I am seeking merely my own glory or comfort. I cannot pray in the Spirit if I have a covetous heart—If I would pray in the Spirit, I must live in the Spirit, and so I am to watch against anything that would come into my life to grieve the Spirit of God and thus hinder real prayer…I can pray in the Spirit when I am living in the Spirit. Then He, the gracious third person of the Trinity who dwells in every believer, will guide my thoughts as I come to God in prayer.

C. H. SPURGEON: We know that the Divine Spirit, without the use of sounds, speaks in our hearts. We know that without an utterance which the ears can hear He can make our soul know His Presence and understand His meaning. He casts the spiritual shadow of His influence over us, colouring our thoughts and feelings according to His own design and will. It is a great spiritual fact which the Christian knows for certain that the Holy Spirit, the Divine Spirit, has frequent dealings with spiritual minds and imparts to them His power…Our spirit prays, but it is because it is overshadowed and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Now, lean upon that Divine power which works in us both to will and to do. Live in the Spirit; walk in the Spirit; pray in the Spirit.

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*Editor’s Note: Edward Irving (1792-1834), called the “fore-runner of the charismatic movement,” founded his church in 1831.

 

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Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Posted on January 14, 2022 by The Editor

Luke 11:1; Job 37:19; Romans 8:26,27

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): I am sure we need take no time emphasizing the vital importance of this whole subject of prayer. In many ways there is nothing more important for us in this life and pilgrimage than that we should be well instructed in this matter. Yet there is nothing perhaps that seems to give people so much trouble and perplexity.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Observe our weakness in prayer: “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.”  As to the matter of our requests, we know not what to ask…As to the manner, we know not how to pray as we ought.  It is not enough that we do that which is good, but we must do it well, to seek it in a due order.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): I have often been struck with how often preachers and others misquote, “Lord, teach us to pray,” by inserting “teach us how to pray.” Man is occupied with the “how,” but God with the “pray”—which is often an inarticulated groan!

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Prayer is not easy; prayer, because we are what we are, is difficult and we need instruction. If we have never felt what our Lord’s disciples felt when they turned to Him one afternoon and said, “Lord, teach us to pray,” it is probably because we have never really prayed at all.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): “An easy thing to pray!” Who that has made the trial, and is concerned for the result of it, exclaims with Elihu, “Teach us what we shall say unto Him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness,” or, with the disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Mark the grand characteristic of true prayer—in the Holy Ghost.

MATTHEW HENRY: We must pray in the Spirit―our spirits must be employed in the duty, and we must do it by the grace of God’s good Spirit.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): What is it to pray “in the Spirit?”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: An incident within my own experience demonstrates this to perfection. I remember being in a prayer meeting that I used to attend regularly every week. On this occasion it was a hot summer’s evening toward the end of June or the beginning of July. We started at 7:15, and I asked somebody to open the meeting by reading the Scriptures and praying. He did so, and one or two others took part in prayer. Everything was just as usual―it was always a good prayer meeting, always a benediction to one’s soul. But then an older man stood up to pray, a man who normally stumbled in his praying. He was a man who knew his duty and he took part in prayer, but, we draw these distinctions, do we not?―there was nothing very inspiring about the way he normally prayed.

But this night, before he had spoken two or three sentences, I and everybody else present became conscious of the fact that something was happening. He was an entirely different man. His voice deepened, and he was speaking with freedom and liberty and an eloquence such as I had not only never heard from him, but perhaps had never heard from anybody else in prayer. He was a transformed man―entirely transformed―and the words were pouring from his mouth in perfect order and with warmth and freedom and power and liberty. The effect of that was that all the others felt the same power and the same freedom, and they went on praying non-stop, one after another, without anybody being called and without any intermission until about ten minutes to ten. We were all conscious that we were in the realm of the eternal and the spiritual. What was that? That was praying “in the Spirit.” It was the liberty and freedom of the Holy Spirit. And that is what I am referring to. It can happen in a prayer meeting, or it can happen you individually, in private, when you are led out, as it were. The Spirit takes hold of you, and you are praying in the Spirit with glorious freedom and liberty.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): By the greater part of those who call themselves Christians, the whole of this subject is accounted visionary and absurd. They have no idea of one person being filled with the Spirit any more than others: and all the joyous frames arising from His presence in the soul, they deem the very essence of enthusiasm. But what, then, can be meant by all those directions which are given us to “live in the Spirit,” “walk in the Spirit,” and “pray in the Spirit,” and to “bring forth the fruits of the Spirit?” And why has our blessed Lord so encouraged us to pray for the gift of His Spirit, if no such communication is to be expected by us?

WILLIAM GURNALL: Christ Himself assures as much. Take it from His own mouth: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? ” A father may deny his wanton child bread to play with and throw under his feet, but not his starving child who cries for bread to preserve his life. God can, and will, deny him that asks the Spirit to pride himself with his gifts, but not the hungry soul, that, pinched with his want of grace, humbly yet vehemently cries, “Lord, give my Thy Spirit, or else I starve, I die.” Nay, let me tell you, your strong cries and earnest prayers for the Spirit would be sweet evidence to you that you have Him already with you.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The very ability to pray in the Holy Ghost is a sweet and sure sign of salvation.

WILLIAM GURNALL:  Prayer, you see, is not a work of nature, but a gift of grace; not a matter of will and parts got by human skill and art, but taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those that were endued habitually with the powers of the Holy Ghost still had occasion for fresh supplies of the Spirit, according to the various occurrences of their services. We have here an instance of the performance of that promise, that “God will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him,” Luke 11:13, for it was in answer to prayer that they were filled with the Holy Ghost: “When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness,” Acts 4:31. God gave them greater degrees of His Spirit, which was what they prayed for.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Let me exhort you to pray for the Spirit above all, and to bless God for this Holy Spirit, as one of the greatest blessings of all.

JOHN TRAPP: A very grave divine writeth thus: “Yea, I had rather God should give me the gift of prayer than, without that gift, the whole world besides.”

A. W. KRUMMACHER (1796-1868): Pray in the Spirit―in the Holy Ghost, and not in your own self-sufficiency, and you will pray with power.

 

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Experiential, or Experimental Understanding

Posted on January 7, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 34:8; Hosea 6:3; Isaiah 7:9; Hebrews 10:32-34

O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used…and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): In matters of divinity we must first believe, and then know; not know, and then believe. In human sciences it is otherwise. Men are brought to assent and believe by experience, knowledge, and sense; as to believe that fire is hot—but here, belief and assent go before experimental knowledge, sense, and use.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): There are two sorts of knowledge among men; one traditional, the other experimental: this last the apostle calls a “knowing in ourselves,” Hebrews 10:34, and opposes it to that traditional knowledge which may be said to be without ourselves, because borrowed from other men.  Now this experience we have of the power of religion in our souls is that only which fixes a man’s spirit in the ways of godliness; it made the Hebrews take joyfully the spoiling of their goods; no arguments or temptations can wrest truth out of the hand of experience.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The Lord alone can give us the true, vital, comfortable, and useful knowledge of His own truths. We may become wise in notions, and so far masters of a system, or scheme of doctrine, as to be able to argue and fight in favor of our own hypothesis, by dint of application, and natural abilities; but we rightly understand what we say no farther than we have a spiritual perception of it wrought in our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost.

JOHN TRAPP: This makes knowledge to become experimental, as in Psalm 116:6, Romans 8:1,2; this is to “follow on to know the Lord,”—as without this men’s knowledge is but a flash, and may end in ignorance and profaneness, because never formed and seated in their hearts, never digested by due meditation and application to their own consciences―it is notional knowledge, not experimental and practical…Men should get a Bible stamped in their heads, and another in their hearts, as David had, Psalm 119:11—“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Knowledge that swims in the head only, and sinks not down into the heart, does no more good than rain on the surface.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Experience is very different from theory; and when we are taught of God, we have other views of those things of which we have read and heard before…And there is such a thing as experience, or an acquaintance with divine things derived from trial, in addition to testimony, which is peculiarly satisfactory.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): One grain of the truth of God experienced in the heart is more valuable and precious than the whole system in the head only. And so, to deepen their knowledge of the truth, to ground and settle them in it, to bring it out in all its practical power, a good, covenant God often places His children in sore trials and temptations. The mariner becomes practiced in his trade in the storm and the hurricane, amid rocks and shoals. All that he knew before he launched his vessel on the ocean or encountered the storm was only theory—but a single tempest or one escape from shipwreck imparts more experiential knowledge than years of merely theoretical work. So learns the believer. How theoretical and defective his views of divine truth; how little his knowledge of his own heart, his deep corruptions, perfect weakness and little faith; how imperfect his acquaintance with Jesus and His fullness, value, all-sufficiency, and sympathy, until the hand of God falls upon him! When messenger after messenger brings news of blasted gourds or broken cisterns, when brought down and laid low, they are constrained to confess like Job, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,” Job 42:5,6.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He is precious to us by experience because He has helped us in many a dark hour of trial.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Welcome whatever makes you more acquainted with God; despise nothing that will deepen your intimacy with God in Christ. Welcome the cross, though it may be heavy; welcome the cup, though it may be bitter; welcome the chastening, though it may be severe; welcome the wound, though it may be deep. Welcome to your heart whatever increases your knowledge of God. Receive it as an advantage sent to you from your Father; receive it as a heavenly message to your soul. Listen to the voice that is in that rod: “My child, I want you to know Me better, for in knowing Me better you will love Me better, and in loving Me better, you will serve Me better. I send this chastening, this loss, this cross, only to draw you closer and closer to My embrace—only to bring you nearer and nearer to Me.”

C. H. SPURGEON: “O taste and see.” Make a trial, an inward, experimental trial of the goodness of God. You cannot see except by tasting for yourself; but if you taste you shall see, for this, like Jonathan’s honey (1 Samuel 14:29) it enlightens the eyes, “that the Lord is good.” You can only know this really and personally by experience. There is the banquet with its oxen and fatlings; its fat things full of marrow, and wines on the lees well refined; but their sweetness will be all unknown to you except you make the blessings of grace your own, by a living, inward, vital participation in them. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” Faith is the soul’s taste; they who test the Lord by their confidence always find Him good, and they become themselves blessed.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious,” 1 Peter 2:1-3. Regenerate persons have tasted that He is so: an unregenerate man has no spiritual taste; his taste is vitiated by sin, and not being changed, sin is a sweet morsel in his mouth, and He disrelishes everything that is spiritual. But one that is born again savours the things of the Spirit of God; sin is exceeding sinful to him, and Christ exceeding precious; He, and His fruit, His promises, and blessings of grace, His Word and ordinances, are sweet unto His taste—and the taste he has is not a mere superficial one, such as hypocrites may have of the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come; but such a taste of Christ, and of His grace, as by a true faith, to eat His flesh, and drink His blood, and so have everlasting life. Such have a saving and experimental knowledge of Christ, an application of Him, and His saving benefits to them, a revelation of Him in them, so that they find and feel that He dwells in them, and they in Him; such receive out of Christ’s fullness, and grace for grace, and live by faith upon Him, and receive nourishment from Him.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): If you do not believe you will not understand.

 

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The Key to a Happy New Year

Posted on December 31, 2021 by The Editor

Psalm 90:12; Proverbs 3:13; Proverbs 29:18

Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

He that keepeth the law, happy is he.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Though every day be a New Year’s Day, still the alteration in our dates and our calendars should set us all thinking of that continual lapse of the mysterious thing—the creature of our own minds, which we call time, and which is bearing us all so steadily and silently onwards.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): To be happy is the universal desire; but while all pursue this as their aim, few comparatively attain the accomplishment of their wishes: and the reason is evident; they mistake wherein man’s true happiness consists, and the means which lead to it: consequently, they are ever bewildered in a fruitless search, and tormented with continual disappointment.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Wherein is happiness to be found?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): True happiness lies in being united to God. And hence we may infer what is the true happiness of men. It is, when God enlightens our understandings, so that we embrace the salvation which has been revealed to us in Christ. For, so long as we are destitute of that knowledge, we are at the greatest possible distance from happiness.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “O Lord, thou art my God,” Isaiah 25:1―Not by creation and providence only, but by covenant and grace. This is the first and foundation blessing of grace, and secures all the rest; in this true happiness consists, and is preferable to every other enjoyment. “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom.”―By wisdom is meant Christ, and a saving knowledge of Him by means of His Gospel.

JOHN CALVIN: Paul says that “He is made unto us wisdom,” 1 Corinthians 1:30, by which he means, that we obtain in Him an absolute perfection of wisdom, inasmuch as the Father has fully revealed Himself to us in Him…There is a similar passage in Colossians 2:3—“In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

JOHN GILL: “And the man that getteth understanding,” gets Jesus Christ and a spiritual understanding of Him: this is not a proper acquisition of a man’s own; an interest in Christ is not gotten by anything of man’s; not by his good works, which are the fruits of grace; nor by faith and repentance, which are gifts of grace themselves; but it is given unto a man: and “getting” here signifies the possession and enjoyment of Christ, as God’s pure gift—as a man that is said to obtain the favour of God, when he enjoys it, and the effects of it, in consequence of finding Christ.

JOHN CALVIN: We ought also to bear in mind that saying of the Psalmist, “Blessed are the people whose God is Jehovah,” Psalm 144:15. It confirms what I have just said, that a happy life is complete in all its parts, when God promises to be a God to us and takes us as His people. The Prophets, therefore, do not without reason so often inculcate this truth; for though nothing else might be wanting to us that could be expected to make us happy, yet until we feel assured that God is a Father to us, and that we are His people, whatever happiness we may have, it will only end in misery.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Suppose a man to possess the whole world, there will still be in his bosom an aching void, a secret something unpossessed. But the man who can look up to the Lord Jesus Christ, and say, “This is my Friend, and my Beloved;” “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” can never wish for any thing beyond.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): So the apostle Paul judged it. So upon a trial he found it. All the world’s show, all his former valuable “gain, he counted as dung and dross” for the true wisdom—“the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord,” Philippians 3:4-8.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Nothing can make that man truly miserable that hath God for his portion, and nothing can make that man truly happy that wants God for his portion. God is the author of all true happiness; He is the donor of all true happiness; He is the maintainer of all true happiness, and He is the centre of all true happiness; and, therefore, he that hath Him for his God, and for his portion, is the only happy man in the world.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Thus it must ever be—if we want to be happy, we must be occupied with God.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): True happiness is found in hearing the glad tidings of salvation by Christ Jesus, and keeping them in a holy heart—and, practicing them in an unblamable life…Those are truly blessed, or happy, whose hearts are devoted to God, and who live in the habit of obedience. Those, whom the general tenor of their life is not conformed to the will of God, have no true happiness

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is piety only that will secure men’s true happiness.

JOHN CALVIN: It is then our true happiness when we acknowledge that we are not our own, and allow God, by His sovereign power, to rule us as He pleases. But we ought to begin with the law of God. Hence, then, it is that we are said to bear the yoke of God, when we relinquish our own judgment, and become wise through God’s Word, and when, with our affections surrendered and subdued, we hear what God commands us, and receive what He commands. True happiness, with its accompaniments, consists in obedience to God. It amounts therefore to this—that they who obey God, and submit to Jesus Christ as their king, shall be blessed.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): That this conformity to His image and obedience to His commands, are pleasing to Christ and excite His affection, is evident from His own language. “I have not called you servants,” says He to His disciples, “but I have called you friends; and then are ye my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you,” John 15:14,15. The fruits of holiness thus produced by His people on earth, imperfect as they are, are on some accounts more pleasing to Him even than those produced by the angels in heaven.

ADAM CLARKE: Live to His glory, as this is the sure way to be happy in this life, and in that which is to come.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: As thou art crossing the threshold of another New Year, be sure that thou commence it with a heart undivided for Him. We know of no happiness for a new year, or for any day in all the year, but in the fullest, sweetest, fellowship with Him. All happiness without Christ is vapid and worthless, and must soon pass away, as time rolls on rapidly.

ADAM CLARKE: The world by wisdom―its wisdom, never knew God, 1 Corinthians 1:21.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Let thy first business then, be the salvation of thy soul through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

JOHN CALVIN: Seek Him without delay.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: That all our readers may have a Happy New Year, in the richest and truest sense, and one of happy service and communion with the Lord, is our most earnest and fervent prayer.

 

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A Lowly Manger, But A Glorious Majesty

Posted on December 24, 2021 by The Editor

Luke 2:8-14

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The meanest circumstances of Christ’s humiliation were all along attended with some discoveries of His glory, to balance them, and take off the offence of them; for even when He humbled Himself, God did in some measure exalt Him and give Him earnests of His future exaltation.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Thus, in the incarnation of our Lord, there was a meanness, which seemed unsuitable to such an occasion; and at the same time a majesty, that was worthy the person and character of the new-born infant: He was born, not in a palace, but a stable, and had only a manger for his reception: yet did an angel come from heaven to announce His birth; and a multitude of the heavenly host attended to proclaim His praise.

MATTHEW HENRY: When we saw Him wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, we were tempted to say, “Surely this cannot be the Son of God?” But see His birth attended, as it is here, with a choir of angels, and we shall say, “Surely it can be no other than the Son of God, concerning Whom it was said, when He was “brought into the world, Let all the angels of God worship him,” Hebrews 1:6.

CHARLES SIMEON: The angels had doubtless seen much of the Divine glory before: they had seen God’s wisdom, power, and goodness in the creation and government of the world. But they never before had such a view of His condescension and grace as when they beheld Him lying in the manger, a helpless babe. Now also the design of God to glorify all His perfections in the work of redemption was more clearly unfolded. Hence the whole multitude of the heavenly choir began to sing, “Glory to God in the highest.”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This strange blending of opposites—the glory in the lowliness, and the abasement in the glory—is the keynote of this singular event. He lies in a manger, but a star hangs trembling above it, and leads sages from afar with their myrrh, and incense, and gold.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Amid the deeper humiliation of Jesus, some bright displays of His uncreated glory still broke forth.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The blending of these two is one of the remarkable features in the New Testament portraiture of Jesus Christ. Wherever in our Lord’s life any incident indicates more emphatically than usual the lowliness of His humiliation, there, by the side of it, you get something that indicates the majesty of His glory—He submits Himself to the baptism of repentance, but the heavens open and a voice proclaims, “This is My beloved Son!” He sits wearied, on the stone coping of the well, and craves for water from a peasant woman; but He gives her the Water of Life. He lies down and sleeps, from pure exhaustion, in the stern of the little fishing-boat, but He wakes to command the storm, and it is still. He weeps beside the grave, but He flings His voice into its inmost recesses, and dead Lazarus comes forth. He well-nigh faints under the agony in the garden of Gethsemane, but an angel from Heaven strengthens Him. He stands a prisoner at a human bar, but He judges and condemns His judges. He dies, and that hour of defeat is His hour of triumph, and the union of shame and glory is most conspicuous in that hour when on the Cross the “Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.”

CHARLES SIMEON: The circumstances of our Saviour’s birth characterize in a measure, the dispensation which he came to introduce. The Gospel exhibits a plain, yet profound, scheme of salvation: while its great outlines are intelligible to the meanest capacity, it abounds with the most sublime, and inscrutable mysteries.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: If you want to understand Bethlehem, you must go back to a time before Bethlehem. The meaning of Christ’s birth is only understood when we turn to John, that Evangelist who does not narrate it. For the meaning of it is here: “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father,” John 1:14. The surface of the fact is the smallest part of the fact. They say that there is seven times as much of an iceberg under water as there is above the surface. And the deepest and most important fact about the nativity of our Lord is that it was not only the birth of an Infant, but the Incarnation of the Word…We have to travel back and recognise that that life did not begin in the manger. We have to travel back and recognize the mystery of godliness—“God manifest in the flesh.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He that was born in Bethlehem’s manger was the Infinite, as well as the Infant.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): No wonder that angels should desire to look into these things. No wonder that they left heaven in multitudes to visit our world when their Creator and their Lord lay an infant in a manger. No wonder that raptures and ecstasies unfelt before swelled their bosoms, and called for new songs to express them.

CHARLES SIMEON: And if their hosannas increased with their discoveries of the Divine glory, should not ours also? Have not we also abundant reason to magnify our incarnate God; and to exalt our thoughts of Him in proportion as He has debased Himself for our sakes?

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: When we look far beyond the manger of Bethlehem into the depths of Eternity and see God so loving the world as to give His Son, we cannot but recognize that He has intervened in the course of human history and that the mightiest force in the development of man, is the eternal Son Whom He sent to save the world.

EDWARD PAYSON: The wonder is, that man—stupid, insensible man, should be no more affected by this event; that he should regard it without interest, and almost fall asleep while he hears it described. It is not thus, when events comparatively trifling solicit his attention. Let the President of the United States come among us, and every house pours out its inmates to gaze. Let a comet blaze athwart the sky, and thousands of sleepless eyes are open to watch. But let the Creator, the Eternal Sovereign of the universe—by whom and for whom all things were made, come in the most interesting form, how few are found who even trouble themselves to ask whence He comes, or what is His object; how much fewer to give Him the welcome which He had a right to expect! My hearers, how strange is this: and how strange it is, that we cannot see and blush at our own stupidity. Why is this event, which will cause the name of our world to resound through the whole created universe of God, and to be had in everlasting remembrance, regarded with such indifference?

THOMAS COKE: Such is man’s fallen nature…They who are offended at the meanness of Jesus in the manger, will tremble before Him when He shall come again at the head of His angelic hosts.

 

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