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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A Mother’s Most Important Duty

Posted on May 6, 2022 by The Editor

Proverbs 22:6; Psalm 145:4; Psalm 78:3,4; Psalm 34:11

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

Come, ye children, hearken unto me—I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): A mother’s first duties are to her children. No amount of public religious service will atone for neglect of her sacred home tasks. She may attend meetings and missionary services, do good work among the poor, and carry blessings to many a sorrowful home; but if she fails meanwhile to look after her own children, she can scarcely claim to have been a successful worker. A mother’s first duty is to bring up her children for God.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): She educates them for God—and for eternity.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Train up a child in the way he should go” is a privilege and responsibility which she cannot delegate unto others.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): O dear mothers, you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God!

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Now this is what God has done. He has placed before you immortal minds, more imperishable than a diamond, on which you inscribe every day, and every hour, by your instructions, by your spirit, or by your example, something which will remain and be exhibited for or against you at the judgment day.

J. R. MILLER: But it will be a sad thing if a mother allows the proper care of her own children to be crowded out of her life by the appeals on behalf of other people’s children, the calls for public service, however important, or the cries of any other human needs in the world. These outside duties may be hers in some measure, but the duties of the home are hers, and no other’s.

C. H. SPURGEON: For my part, I abhor the spirit which takes a Christian mother from her children to be doing good everywhere except at home! I dread the zeal of those who can run to many services but whose households are not cared for—yet sometimes such is the case. I have known people very interested in the seven trumpets and the seven seals who have not been quite so particular about the seven dear children that God has entrusted to them! Leave somebody else to open up the Revelation and look to your own boys! And see to your girls, that they know the Gospel, for, indeed, there are some households where there is ignorance of the plan of salvation, albeit that the parents are professedly Christians! Such things ought not to be!

WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE (1819-1881): Woman, how divine your mission!

C. H. SPURGEON: One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters―she has the first hand in the fashioning.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Education should commence even in the cradle.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Yes, we repeat, from “the cradle;” for we are most fully persuaded that all true Christian training begins at the very beginning. Some of us have little idea of how soon and how sharply children begin to observe; and how much they take in as they gaze at us through their dear expressive eyes.

C. H. SPURGEON: Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact. During the first months of a child’s life—it learns more than we imagine.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: And how marvellously susceptible they are of the atmosphere which surrounds them! Yes; and it is this very moral atmosphere that constitutes the grand secret of training our families. Our children should be permitted to breathe, from day to day, the atmosphere of love and peace, purity, holiness and true practical righteousness. This has an amazing effect in forming the character.

CHARLES BRIDGES: The godly matron is the very soul of the house. She instructs her children by her example, no less than by her teaching.

C. H. SPURGEON: The first messenger that some of us had was that fond woman upon whose breast in infancy we hung. We should never breathe the word, “mother,” without grateful emotions! How can we forget that tearful eye when she warned us to escape from the wrath to come? We thought her lips right eloquent—others might not think so—but they certainly were eloquent to us! How can we ever forget when she bowed her knees, and with her arms about our neck, prayed for us, “Oh, that my son might live before Thee?” Nor can her frown be erased from our memory, that solemn, loving frown when she rebuked our budding iniquities! And her smiles have never faded from our recollection, the beaming of her countenance when she rejoiced to see some good thing in us towards the Lord God of Israel! Mothers often become potent messengers from God. And I think each Christian mother should ask herself in secret whether the Lord has not a message to give through her to her sons and to her daughters.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): See that your children read the Bible—Fill their minds with Scripture.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): My mother was a pious woman and as I was her only child, she made it the chief business and pleasure of her life to instruct me, and bring me up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord…When I was four years old, I could read and could likewise repeat the answers to the questions in the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism, with the proofs; and all Isaac Watts’s smaller Catechisms, and his Children’s Hymns.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians of England.

C. H. SPURGEON: A Christian mother—what a minister is she to her family!

JOHN NEWTON: My dear mother, besides the pains she took with me, often commended me with many prayers and tears to God.

W. T. P. WOLSTON (1840-1917): It is an inestimable boon for a man to have a praying mother and much, I know, mine prayed for me.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some words of a mother’s prayer we shall never forget, even when our hair is grey. I remember on one occasion my mother praying this: “Now, Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold of Christ.” That thought of a mother’s bearing swift witness against me, pierced my conscience and stirred my heart. This pleading with them for God, and with God for them, is the true way to bring children to Christ.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): Augustine saith that his mother travailed in greater pain for his spiritual than for his natural birth.

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

C. H. SPURGEON: The moulding of the character of the next generation, remember, begins with the mother’s influence…Doubtless a good man generally comes of a good mother. It was usually so in Scriptural times, and it is so still―and the daughter of a good mother, will be the mother of a good daughter…The future of society is in the hands of mothers.

WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE: Blessings on the hand of women!

Angels guard its strength and grace…

For the hand that rocks the cradle,

Is the hand that rules the world.

 

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The Perfect Man With Perfect Preeminent Power

Posted on April 29, 2022 by The Editor

Matthew 28:18

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): The question is, whether this power here means authority or ability, or both. Assuredly, both. These are not always co-equal. A man’s ability may surpass his authority, and his authority may surpass his ability; but in our risen Redeemer they are equally combined, and His ability and authority are boundless.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): “All power is given to me.”—Even as Man. As God, He had all power from eternity.

WILLIAM JAY: There are four classes of men whom we should not wish to possess much power, for they would either misuse, or abuse it. We should not wish an ignorant man to possess power: he would, for want of wisdom and knowledge, err in a thousand things. But in Him who has “all power” are “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” Colossians 2:3. He sees the end from the beginning, and actions in their very causes. He can distinguish between appearances and realities…He “needs not that any should testify of man, for he knows what is in man,” John 2:25; therefore He is not deceived, and never feels any perplexity in His government with regard to any of His measures or means. While other rulers are often at their wits’ end, and compelled to call counsellors to advise them, “He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,” Ephesians 1:11; and He does “all things well.” Mark 7:37.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): There is nothing the heart can crave which we have not in Jesus…Does it seek the protection of real power? It has but to look to Him who made the world. Does it feel the need of unerring wisdom to guide? Let it look to Him who is wisdom personified, “who of God is made unto us wisdom,” 1 Corinthians 1:30.

WILLIAM JAY: Nor should we like an unfaithful man to have power. He would misuse or abuse it. When God confers power He always commits a trust. He looks beyond the receiver. The receiver is not to become a proprietor, but a steward; a receiver not for himself only, but for others. We may exemplify this with regard to property. He gives a man wealth, for what purpose? To be useful, to do good, to communicate. But an unfaithful man hoards it, or improperly expends it; and so the goodness of the Benefactor is counteracted by the villainy of the trustee.

But with regard to this Saviour-Prince, He is true to all His trusts; He is faithful to all that is deposited in His hands. Paul tells us that “it hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell,” Colossians 1:19, for the use of His church, and He will be faithful to the consignment of it. We are told that “He received gifts for men, even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them;” Psalm 68:18; and He will apply them accordingly, and He is delighted in the distribution of these benefits.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He is infinitely gracious and delights to do good.

WILLIAM JAY: We should also not wish an impatient man to have power. We know that he would ruin a thousand good plans and interests by his impetuosity, his passion, his haste. For as Solomon wisely remarks, “He that is hasty in spirit exalteth folly,” Proverbs 14:29.

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

WILLIAM JAY: Now, with regard to our Saviour, He does not display slackness, as some people imagine, but He is “long suffering to us-ward,” 2 Peter 3:9. He exercises patience; He is slow to anger; and therefore it is we are not consumed, because “His compassions fail not,” Lamentations 3:22. Let us view Him where Paul has placed Him. Paul tells us He is at the “right hand of God, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,” Hebrews 10:12,13. He is in a state of expectancy, and He is waiting for something. He knows that He must reign “from the river even to the ends of the earth,” Zechariah 9:10; but He sees not at present all things put under Him. He looks down and sees much of His own empire at present over run with ignorance, error, idolatry, and superstition, and the works of the devil; but He knows that He shall realize it all by-and-by, and “in patience, He possesses his soul,” Luke 21:19.

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 all concur to make the path of duty plain to those who serve Him; though, perhaps, until 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.

WILLIAM JAY: We make haste in many cases; we are ready to complain, even murmur, if our prayers are not immediately answered. Why, many of the prayers which Jesus offered in the days of His flesh are not answered to this very hour! But they all will be answered—every one of them—in due time and manner; and He knows this, and reposes in the determination of infinite wisdom, “whose thoughts are not our thoughts, and whose ways are not our ways,” Isaiah 55:8.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Promised mercies are to be expected when the full time for them is come, and not before.

WILLIAM JAY: Lastly, We do not wish an unmerciful, an unkind man to have power. Solomon tells us that “as a roaring lion and ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.” Proverbs 28:15. What does he know of their miseries? He never tasted their bitter bread. What cares he for any of their sufferings, provided he can roll in luxury, splendour, and ease? How often will he draw them from their peaceful homes, and expose them to hardships—yea, sometimes lead thousands of them to the slaughter—to gratify his own ambition! But there is “another King, one Jesus.” This Prince does not sacrifice His subjects, but He sacrificed Himself for their sakes. “My flesh,” says He, “I give for the life of the world,” John 6:51. Ah, here we find that power, absolute power, is placed just where it should be placed: we find infinite power lodged in the bosom of infinite benevolence.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Did we but enter, with a more artless faith, into the truth of the Man Christ Jesus, Whose sympathy is perfect, Whose love is fathomless, Whose power is omnipotent, Whose wisdom is infinite, Whose resources are exhaustless, Whose ear is open to our every breathing, Whose hand is open to our every need, Whose heart is full of unspeakable love and tenderness towards us—how much more happy we should be, and how much more independent of creature streams, through whatsoever channel they may flow!

 

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Asking Amiss

Posted on April 22, 2022 by The Editor

Matthew 20:20-22; Romans 8:26; James 4:3

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask.

We know not what we should pray for as we ought.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): If God does not grant your petitions, it will put you to study a reason for that; and so you will come to search into your prayers and the carriage of your hearts, therein to see whether you did not pray amiss…As if you send to a friend, who is punctual in that point of friendship of returning answers, and used not to fail—and you receive no answer from him, you will begin to think there is something in it. And so also here, when a petition is denied, you will be jealous of yourselves, and inquisitive what should be the matter; and so by that search come to see that in your prayers which you will learn to mend the next time.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It is greatly to be feared that one of the principal reasons why so many of our prayers remain unanswered is because we have a wrong, or an unworthy end in view—Only three ends are permissible: that God may be glorified, that our spirituality may be promoted, that our brethren may be blessed…We “ask amiss” when natural feelings sway us, when carnal motives move us, or when selfish considerations actuate us.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): Prayer that will not be accepted of God it is, when either they pray for wrong things, or if for right things, yet that the thing prayed for might be spent upon their lusts, and laid out to wrong ends.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): A believer may make a request that is wrong in itself. The mother of Zebedee’s children did this when she asked the Lord if her two sons could sit, the one on His right hand, and the other on the left, in His kingdom. Who could miss the selfishness that appears in this petition? Although a mother’s love prompted it, and, as such, presents a picture of touching beauty and feeling, yet it teaches us that a parent, betrayed by love for his child, can ask something of God that is really wrong in itself. He may ask worldly distinction, honour, influence, or wealth for his child, which a godly parent should never do; and this may be a wrong request, which God, in His infinite wisdom and love, withholds. This was the petition of the mother, and our Lord saw fit to deny it. Her views of the kingdom of Christ were those of earthly glory. To see her children sharing in that glory was her high ambition, and Jesus promptly but gently rebuked it.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): “Ye ask amiss”—that is, from a wrong motive.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Alluding to another illustration of our topic, it was wrong of Job to ask the Lord that he might die, Job 6:8-9. It was an unwise and sinful petition, and in great mercy and wisdom, the Lord denied him. Truly “we know not what we should pray for as we ought.” What a mercy that there is One who knows!

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Our petitions are so self-centered and so concerned about the gratification of our own desires that God cannot in faithfulness grant our requests. True prayer is not asking God to do what we want, but first of all, it is asking Him to enable us to do that which He would have us do. Too often we endeavour by prayer to control God instead of taking the place of submission to His holy will.

A. W. PINK: Ah, this is a truth which is very unpalatable to our proud hearts. Did not Moses “ask” the Lord that he might be permitted to enter Canaan? Did not the Apostle Paul thrice beseech the Lord for the removal of his thorn in the flesh? What proofs are these that “we know not what we should pray for as we ought!”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): James meant briefly this: that our desires ought to be bridled; and the way of bridling them is to subject them to the will of God.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: A child of God may ask for a wise and good thing in a wrong way.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Some there were that did ask of God the blessings of His goodness and providence, and yet these were not bestowed on them; the reason was, “because ye ask amiss”—not in the faith of a divine promise; nor with thankfulness for past mercies; nor with submission to the will of God; nor with a right end, to do good to others, and to make use of what might be bestowed for the honour of God, and the interest of Christ.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We ought to well consider our prayers…I fear we often ask amiss from lack of preparation!

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It is well that we should challenge our hearts, as to the motives of our prayers.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Therefore, Christian, catechize thyself before thou prayest, “O my soul, what sends thee on this errand?” Know but thy own mind, what thou prayest for, and thou mayest soon know God’s mind how thou shalt speed. Secure God His glory, and thou mayest carry away the mercy with thee. Had Adoni­jah asked Abishag out of love to her person, and not rather out of love to the crown, it is likely Solomon would not have denied the marriage between them; but this wise prince observed his drift, to make her but a step to his getting into the throne which he ambi­tiously thirsted for, and therefore his request was denied with so much disdain, 1 Kings 2:13-23. Look that, when thy petition is loyal, there be not treason in thy end and aim. If there be, He will find it out.

C. H. SPURGEON: If we ask contrary to the promises of God—if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us cultivate—if we ask anything contrary to His will, or to the decrees of His Providence—if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease and without an eye to His glory, we must not expect that we shall receive.

WILLIAM GURNALL: When shall I know that I aim at God or self in prayer? This will commonly appear by the pos­ture of our heart when God delays or denies the thing we pray for. A soul that can acquiesce, and patiently bear a delay or denial—I speak now of such mercies as are of an inferior nature, not necessary to salva­tion, and so not absolutely promised—gives a hopeful testimony that the glory of God weighs more in his thoughts than his own private interest and accommo­dation. A selfish heart is both peremptory and hasty. It must have the thing it cries for, and quickly too, or else it faints and chides, falls down in a swoon, or breaks out into murmuring complaints, not sparing to fall foul on the promises and attributes of God Himself. “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?” Isaiah 58:3. Now, from whence come both these, but from an overvaluing of ourselves?—which makes us clash with God’s glory, that may be more advanced by these delays and denials, than if we had the thing we so earnestly desire.

A. W. PINK: The Holy One will be no lackey unto our carnality.

 

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Jesus Christ’s Answer to the Sadducees

Posted on April 15, 2022 by The Editor

Acts 23:8; Matthew 22:23-32

The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit.

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The Sadducees, those freethinkers of the age, denied that there will be a resurrection of the dead, or that there is any such permanent being, as an angel, in the invisible world, or a separate spirit of man that survives the death of the body, and subsists in a state of disunion from it.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Sadducees expressly denied that the resurrection could be proved out of the law.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): What a remarkable text our Lord brings forward, in proof of the reality of a life to come.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Jesus might have referred to many passages in the Old Testament about the resurrection; but as the Sadducees regarded the Pentateuch with special honour, He quoted what Moses had recorded in Exodus 3:6: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;” and then added His own comment and exposition: “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): But where is there anything in that about resurrection?

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Let it be observed, that Abraham was dead upwards of 300 years before those words were spoken to Moses.

J. C. RYLE: Two centuries had passed away since Jacob, the last of the three, was carried to his tomb. Yet God spoke of them as being still His people, and of Himself as being still their God.

H. A. IRONSIDE: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not blotted out of existence; they had not become extinct through death; they are still living. God did not say to Moses that He “was” the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob when they were here in the world. He said, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

C. H. SPURGEON: There is much teaching in this truth, that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Some suppose that, until the resurrection, the saints are virtually non-existent; but this cannot be. Though disembodied, they still live.

THOMAS COKE: Christ’s argument was this: “As a man cannot properly be a father without children, or a king without subjects, so God cannot properly be called in this sense God or Lord, unless He has His people, and be Lord of the living. Since, therefore, in the law He calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, long after these patriarchs were dead, the relation denoted by the word God still subsisted between them; for which reason they were not annihilated, as the Sadducees pretended, when they affirmed that they were dead, but were still in being, God’s subjects and glorified saints.”

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): To be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is to be understood of His being their God under a new covenant consideration, as He saith, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” Ezekiel 37:27.

H. A. IRONSIDE: It is necessary that there be a resurrection for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because God had made a promise to them which had not been fulfilled. He promised to give them the land of Canaan that they might possess it to the end of the time, and they never possessed it while on earth. They dwelt in the land as strangers, but the promise will be fulfilled when God brings them back from the dead.

THOMAS COKE: Wherefore, as the patriarchs “died without having obtained the promises,” Hebrews 11:39, they must exist in another state to enjoy them, that the veracity of God may remain sure. Besides, the Apostle tells us, that “God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared for them a city,” Hebrews 11:16…This argument was very conclusive against the Sadducees, who denied the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the body: but it proves at the same time the resurrection, because the souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not being Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves, it follows, that God could not properly be styled their God, unless they were to rise again from the dead.

JOHN GILL: Thus our Lord fetches His proof of the doctrine of the resurrection from a passage out of the law which respects the covenant relation God stands in to His people, particularly Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; which respects not their souls only, but their bodies also, even their whole persons, body and soul; for God is the God of the whole.

THOMAS COKE: The argument taken either way is conclusive; for which cause we may suppose, that both the senses were intended, to render it of full demonstration.

C. H. SPURGEON: Jesus does not argue about it—He states the fact as beyond all question. The living God is the God of living men, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive, and identified as the same persons who lived on the earth. God is the God of Abraham’s body as well as of his soul, for the covenant seal was set upon his flesh. The grave cannot hold any portion of the covenanted ones; God is the God of our entire being—spirit, soul, and body.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Lastly, We have the issue of this dispute. The Sadducees were “put to silence,” Matthew 23:34, and so put to shame.

JOHN GILL: These two things were the spring and source of their errors: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

J. C. RYLE: Let us settle it in our minds, that the dead are in one sense still alive. From our eyes they have passed away, and their place knows them no more. But in the eyes of God they live, and will one day come forth from their graves, to receive an everlasting sentence. There is no such thing as annihilation. The idea is a miserable delusion.

ADAM CLARKE: Our Lord confutes another opinion of the Sadducees, that there is neither angel nor spirit; by showing that the soul is not only immortal, but lives with God, even while the body is detained in the dust of the earth, which body is afterwards to be raised to life, and united with its soul by the miraculous power of God.

J. C. RYLE: We are told plainly—we shall be “as the angels of God.” Like them, we shall serve God perfectly, unhesitatingly, and unweariedly. Like them, we shall ever be in God’s presence. Like them, we shall ever delight to do His will. Like them, we shall give all glory to the Lamb. These are deep things. But they are all true—May we never forget this! Happy is he who can say from his heart the words of the Nicene Creed, “I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”

ADAM CLARKE: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,” Romans 10:9. Believe in thy heart that He who died for thy offenses has been raised for thy justification; and depend solely on Him for that justification, and thou shalt be saved.

 

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Evil Speaking of Powers That Be

Posted on April 8, 2022 by The Editor

Acts 23:5 (Exodus 22:28); Ephesians 4:31; 1 Timothy 2:1-3; Romans 13:1,2

It is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors,” 1 Peter 2:13,14. There is scarcely any thing in the New Testament inculcated with more solemnity than that individuals, and especially Christians, should be obedient, peaceable, and loyal subjects; nor is there any sin much more awfully censured than the contrary conduct.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The spirit of disaffection and sedition is ever opposed to the religion of the Bible.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “By me kings reigns and princes decree Justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth,” Proverbs 8:15, 16―It is not owing to human perverseness that supreme power on earth is lodged in kings and other governors, but by Divine Providence, and the holy decree of Him to whom it has seemed good so to govern the affairs of men.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): No human government is perfect, and it may appear to us that a particular form of government is acting unwisely in its legislation and arbitrarily in its administration. The question therefore arises, How should a Christian citizen act under a particularly offensive one?

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Christians should not, under the pretence of Christian religion, refuse to obey men in authority even if they are wicked. Even though rulers are wicked and unbelieving, yet is their governmental power good―in itself―and of God. So our Lord said to Pilate, to whom He submitted as a pattern for us all: “Thou couldst have no power against me, except it were given thee from above, ” John 19:11.

ANDREW FULLER: On this principle it is probable the apostle enjoined obedience to the powers that were, even during the reign of Nero.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This is not to be understood, as if magistrates were above the laws, and had a lawless power to do as they will without opposition—and when they make their own will a law, or exercise a lawless tyrannical power, in defiance of the laws of God, and of the land, to the endangering of the lives, liberties, and properties of subjects, they may be resisted, as Saul was by the people of Israel, when he would have took away the life of Jonathan for the breach of an arbitrary law of his own, I Samuel 14:45; but the apostle is speaking of resisting magistrates in the right discharge of their office, and in the exercise of legal power and authority.

JOHN CALVIN: We are subject to the men that rule over us, but subject only in the Lord. If they command any thing against Him, let us not pay the least regard to it.

A. W. PINK: That a child of God must refuse to do the bidding of a government when it enjoins something contrary to the Divine will is clear from the cases of the three Hebrews, Daniel 3:18, and of Daniel in Babylon, Daniel 5:10-13, who firmly declined to conform unto the king’s idolatrous demands. It is equally evident from the apostles, who, when they were commanded by the authorities “not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus,” answered “whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye,” Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29.

ANDREW FULLER: We are not called to yield up our consciences in religious matters, nor to approve of what is wrong in those which are civil; but we are not at liberty to deal in acrimony and evil-speaking.

ADAM CLARKE: When those who have been pious get under the spirit of misrule, they infallibly get shorn of their spiritual strength, and become like salt that has lost its savour…The highest authority says, “Fear God: honour the king,” 1 Peter 2:17.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Paul applies this law to himself, and owns that he ought not to “speak evil of the ruler of his people;” no, not though the ruler was then his most unrighteous persecutor, Acts 23:5.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): O my brethren, how often have you and I been guilty of this great evil?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): I have heard many confessions, in public and private, during the past forty years, but never have I heard a man confess that he was guilty of this sin.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): What sayest thou, art thou guilty of this indictment, or not?

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Surely may we, by conviction, apprehend ourselves guilty.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Let us, then, never more be guilty of this conduct.

ANDREW FULLER: It requires not only that we keep within the compass of the laws―but that we honour and intercede with God for those who administer them.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The kings of the earth at that time were all heathens, and enemies to the Christian religion, and so, generally, were those who were in a subordinate authority to them, yet the apostle commands that prayers should be made in the Christian congregations for them. They were to pray for their life and health so far forth as might be for God’s glory, and for God’s guidance of them in the administration of their government.

MATTHEW HENRY: Thus the primitive Christians, according to the temper of their holy religion, prayed for the powers that were, though they were persecuting powers.

ADAM CLARKE: Good rulers have power to do much good; we pray that their authority may be ever preserved and well directed. Bad rulers have power to do much evil; we pray that they may be prevented from thus using their power. So that, whether the rulers be good or bad, prayer for them is the positive duty of all Christians; and the answer to their prayers, in either case, will be the means of their being enabled to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

JOHN CALVIN: That is the reason why believers, in whatever country they live, must not only obey the laws and government of magistrates, but likewise in their prayers supplicate God for their salvation.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This is a responsibility that rests upon us as believers today. Christians are to be examples to others of subjection to the government…When we come together in a public service, we usually pray for those who are in authority. But are we as much concerned about remembering them before God when we kneel alone in His presence? I am quite sure of this: if we prayed more for those at the head of the country and in other positions of responsibility, we would feel less ready to criticize them.

EDWARD PAYSON: Thou shall not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. Pray for all that are in authority.

 

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The Proverbial Folly of Fools

Posted on April 1, 2022 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 7:25; Ecclesiastes 2:13

I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.

Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The very first part of wisdom is to receive the Gospel of salvation into our hearts. We all need it; nor can any human being be saved without it; and God offers to us all the blessings of it, freely, without money and without price. Were we under a sentence of death from a human tribunal, and were offered mercy by the Prince, it would be accounted wisdom to accept the offer, and folly to reject it. How much more is it our wisdom to accept a deliverance from eternal death, together with all the glory and felicity of heaven! This must commend itself to every man who reflects but for a moment: and to despise these proffered benefits must, of necessity, be regarded as folly, bordering upon madness.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Wisdom enlightens the soul with surprising discoveries and necessary directions for the right government of itself; but sensuality—for that seems to be especially the folly here meant—clouds and eclipses the mind, and is as darkness to it; it puts out men’s eyes, makes them wander out of it.

CHARLES SIMEON: The world gives its voice in direct opposition to the foregoing statement. It represents religion as folly, and the prosecution of carnal enjoyments as wisdom. But its “calling good evil, and evil good,” will not change their respective natures: nor, if the whole world should unite in putting darkness for light, or light for darkness, will either of them lose its own qualities, and assume those of the other. “Sweet” will be sweet, and “bitter” bitter, whether men will believe it or not. “The foolishness of fools is folly,” Proverbs 14:26.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): What think we of folly?    

MATTHEW HENRY: It is the character of a wicked man that he takes pleasure in sin; “Folly is joy to him,” Proverbs 15:21. The folly of others is so, and his own much more. He sins, not only without regret, but with delight, not only repents not of it, but makes his boast of it. This is a certain sign of one that is graceless.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): The best way to know a man is to observe what gives him pleasure. A good man may once, or many times, be betrayed into foolish words or deeds, but the indulgence of them makes him miserable. Folly, like Ezekiel’s roll, was sweet in his mouth, but left a lasting bitterness behind. Fools, on the contrary, “feed on foolishness,” Proverbs 15:14; it is pleasant to their taste at the time, and they ruminate with relish on it afterwards.

CHARLES BRIDGES: He sins without temptation or motive. He cannot sleep without it, Proverbs 4:16. It is “the sweet morsel under his tongue,” Job 20:12. He “obeys it in the lusts thereof,” Romans 6:12. He “works it with greediness,” Ephesians 4:19. He hates the gospel, because it “saves from it,” Matthew 1:21; Acts 3:26.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Proverbs 13:16, “Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his folly,”—or “spreads” it, and exposes it to the view of everyone, by his foolish talk and indiscreet actions.

CHARLES BRIDGES: The tongue shews the man. The wise commands his tongue. The fool—his tongue commands him. He may have a mass of knowledge in possession. But from the want of the right use, it runs to waste. Wisdom is proved, not by the quantum of knowledge, but by its right application. “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness,” Proverbs 15:2.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly,” Proverbs 14:29—exalteth folly. He sets it up upon a pole, as it were; he proclaims his own folly by his ireful looks, words, gestures, actions.

WILLIAM ARNOT: “Fools make a mock at sin,” Proverbs 14:9. It is emphatically the part of a fool to mock at sin. God counted it serious, when, to deliver us from its power, He covenanted to give his Son to die. Christ counted it serious, when He suffered for it. All holy beings stand in awe before it. Angels unfallen look on in wonder, and converted men who have been delivered from it, fear it with an exceeding great fear. Only the victims who are under its benumbing power, and exposed to its eternal curse, can make light of sin.

JOHN TRAPP: “It is as sport to a fool to do mischief,” Proverbs 10:23. He is then merriest when he hath the devil for his playfellow.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Those who make a mock at sin are obliged also to mock at holiness. This is the law of their condition. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” 2 Timothy 3:13. To laugh at sin and to laugh at holiness are but two sides of one thing. They cannot be separated. Those who make mirth of goodness persuade themselves that they are only getting amusement from the weakness of a brother. Let them take care. If that in a Christian which you make sport of, be a feature of his Redeemer’s likeness, He whose likeness it is, is looking on, and will require it…Let them take care—God is not mocked.

JOHN GILL: “A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident,” Proverbs 14:16. He fears neither God nor men, he sets his mouth against both; he “rages” in heart, if not with his mouth, against God and His law, which forbid the practice of such sins he delights in; and against all good men, that admonish him of them, rebuke him for them, or dissuade him from them: and “is confident” that no evil shall befall him; he has no concern about a future state, and is fearless of hell and damnation, though just upon the precipice of ruin.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit,” Proverbs 14:8. They deceive themselves more than they deceive anybody else.

CHARLES BRIDGES: “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him,” Proverbs 27:22. Much is said of the effectiveness of correction. But of itself it works nothing. What can it do for the fool, that despises it? “The rod” ordinarily “will drive foolishness out of the heart of a child,” Proverbs 22:15. But the child is here become a man in strength of habit, and stubbornness of will. As soon, therefore, “can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots,” as those can do good, “who are accustomed to do evil,” Jeremiah 13:23. “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly,” Proverbs 26:11.

WILLIAM ARNOT: To mock at sin now, is the way to the place of eternal weeping. They who weep for sin now, will rejoice in a Saviour yet. Blessed are they that so mourn, for they shall be comforted.—“Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly,” Proverbs 16:22. To him that hath it, this wisdom from above will be a well-spring of life; to those who refuse it, life will never spring at all.

 

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Reflections on a Blind Man’s Cure

Posted on March 25, 2022 by The Editor

Mark 8:22-26

And [Jesus] cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This miracle, which is only recorded by the Evangelist Mark, has about it several very peculiar features.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We see Jesus taking this blind man by the hand, leading him out of the town—spitting on his eyes—putting His hands on him, and then—and not till then, restoring his sight. And the meaning of all these actions, the passage leaves entirely unexplained.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): First, our Lord led the man out of the town, before He would heal him; and, when the cure was performed, He forbad him to return thither, or so much as to tell it unto any who lived in the town.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It would be difficult to find out the reason which induced our Lord to act thus.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Had He herein only designed privacy, He might have led him into a house, into an inner chamber, and have cured him there; but He intended hereby to upbraid Bethsaida with the mighty works that had in vain been done in her, Matthew 11:21.

THOMAS CHALMERS (1780-1847): The conversion and regeneration of a sinner is a noble, yet a secret work.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It is in the heart that the Spirit works.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): As to the secret work, who knows how the Spirit works? “The wind blows where it lists and you hear the sound thereof but you can not tell from where it comes nor where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit,” John 3:8.

A. W. PINK: There is something about the wind which defies all effort of human explanation. Its origin, its nature, its activities, are beyond man’s ken. Man cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. It is so with the activities of the Holy Spirit. His operations are conducted secretly; His workings are profoundly mysterious.

MATTHEW HENRY: Christ used a sign; He spit on his eyes and put His hands upon him.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Why did He do that?

MATTHEW HENRY: This spittle signified the eye-salve wherewith Christ anoints the eyes of those that are spiritually blind, Revelation 3:18.

ADAM CLARKE: There is a similar transaction to this mentioned by John—“He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing,” John 9:6,7.

C. H. SPURGEON: It seems to me that the use of spittle connected the opening of the eye with the Saviour’s mouth, that is to say, it connected in type the illuminating of the understanding with the Truth of God which Christ utters.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): And, generally speaking, in the illumination of a sinner, the word of Christ’s mouth is a means—the Gospel, and the truths of it, which are the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, are the means of conveying the Spirit of God, as a spirit of illumination and sanctification, into the hearts of men, and of quickening sinners dead in trespasses and sins.

C. H. SPURGEON: You will further perceive that when He had spit on his eyes it is added He put His hands upon him. Did He do that in the form of heavenly benediction? Did He, by the laying on of His hands, bestow upon the man His blessing, and bid virtue stream from His own Person into the blind man? I think so.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): He did so most probably for the purpose of proving that He had full liberty as to His method of proceeding, and was not restricted to a fixed rule.

C. H. SPURGEON: We must not attempt to tell the Lord Jesus Christ how He is to work, for He has various ways of working in the blessing of men. For instance, when this blind man was brought to Him, He did not open his eyes with a word. Often, when the sick were brought to Him, He spoke and they were at once cured. He might have done so in this case…But there came out of Christ’s mouth—not a word—but spittle!

THOMAS COKE: In giving sight to this blind man, Jesus did not, as on other occasions of the like nature, impart the faculty at once, but by degrees.

JOHN CALVIN: He does not all at once enlighten the eyes of the blind man, and fit them for performing their office, but communicates to them at first a dark and confused perception, and afterwards, by laying on his hands a second time, enables them to see perfectly. And so the grace of Christ, which had formerly been poured out suddenly on others, flowed by drops, as it were, on this man.

C. H. SPURGEON: So is it with the first sight that is given to many spiritually blind persons.

J. C. RYLE: Conversion is an illumination, a change from darkness to light, from blindness to seeing the kingdom of God. Yet few converted people see things distinctly at first. The nature and proportion of doctrines, practices, and ordinances of the Gospel are dimly seen by them, and imperfectly understood. They are like the man before us, who at first saw men as trees walking. Their vision is dazzled and unaccustomed to the new world into which they have been introduced. It is not till the work of the Spirit has become deeper and their experience been somewhat matured, that they see all things clearly, and give to each part of religion its proper place. This is the history of thousands of God’s children.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Where the eyes are divinely enlightened, the soul’s first views of itself and of the Gospel may be confused and indistinct, like him who saw men as it were trees walking; yet this light is like the dawn, which, though weak and faint at its first appearance, “shineth more and more unto the perfect day,” Proverbs 4:18. It is the work of God; and His work is perfect in kind, though progressive in the manner. He will not despise or forsake the day of small things. When He thus begins, He will make an end.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): But we must not, from hence, conclude that our being in Christ is obtained in a progressive manner, though our enjoyment of that being in Him is increased by an increasing knowledge.

J C. RYLE: Finally, let us see in the gradual cure of this blind man, a striking picture of the present position of Christ’s believing people in the world, compared with that which is to come. We see in part and know in part in the present dispensation…In the providential dealings of God with His children, and in the conduct of many of God’s saints, we see much that we cannot understand—and cannot alter. In short, we are like him that saw “men as trees walking.” But let us look forward and take comfort. The time comes when we shall see all “clearly.” When the day of the Lord comes, our spiritual eyesight will be perfected.

 

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