A Meditation for New Year’s Day

Posted on January 1, 2021 by The Editor

Genesis 8:13

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): That was a happy New Year’s Day for Noah.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It was the first day of the year, New Year’s Day, and a joyful one it was to Noah and his family, when they saw dry ground; which they had not seen for above ten months.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The first day of the year is generally a time of festivity in all civilized nations.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The beginning of a new year is, not without reason, considered by Christians in general as a fit occasion for more than ordinary attention to religious duties. I say not, indeed, that the generality of Christians actually so employ that hallowed time; for, in fact, the whole season wherein we commemorate the incarnation of our blessed Lord is made rather a time for carnal mirth. But still, this is acknowledged by all to be rather an abuse of our religious privileges than a suitable improvement of them—To review our past errors with penitence, and to prepare for a more diligent performance of our duty in future, is the proper employment of that period, when we are entering, as it were, upon a new scene of things.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Thus should every year begin with the reformation of what is amiss, and the purging away of all the defilements contracted the foregoing year.

C. H. SPURGEON: At the beginning of this year I would urge each one of you to say, “Cannot I make this year better than the last? Can I not pray more, believe more, love more, work more, give more and be more like Christ?” Was last year an improvement upon the previous one?

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): We ought never to be willing to live any year just as we lived the last one. No one is striving after the best things who is not intent on an upward and a forward movement continually…Yet there are some people whose life year by year is only a going around and around in the old beaten paths, with no onward movement. They are like men who walk in a circular course for a prize, covering a thousand miles, perhaps, but ending just where they began. Rather, our daily walk should be like one whose path goes about a mountain, but climbs a little higher with each circuit, until at last he gains the clear summit, and looks into the face of God. While we must do, in a measure, the same things every day, we should do them a little better with each repetition.

VERNON J. CHARLESWORTH (1839-1915): Entering the house of one of his congregation, Rowland Hill saw a child on a rocking-horse. “Dear me,” Hill exclaimed, “how wondrously like some Christians! there is motion, but  no progress.”  The rocking-horse type of spiritual life is still characteristic of too many Church members.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): A new year affords us with another opportunity to mend our ways—the dawning of a new year is a fresh call unto each of us to put first things first, and it is only by heeding this call that we are prepared to start it aright.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Let thy first business then in the year, be the salvation of thy soul through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

C. H. SPURGEON: If you have lived up till now without a Saviour—end that dangerous state! Listen to the Gospel message, “Believe and live.” Ere this New Year’s Day is over, look unto Jesus Christ and be saved! He will have glory and you shall have happiness—and thus shall you begin aright another year of our Lord—His Holy Spirit will make it to you a year of Divine Grace!

A. W. PINK: When we were young, the transition from December to January meant little more to us than the need for another calendar—there was no solemn realization that another milestone had been passed in the short journey of life…But since Divine mercy apprehended us and gave us the spirit of a sound mind, and as we grow older, the passing of each year impresses us more deeply.

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 fullest, sweetest, fellowship with Him.

A. W. PINK: “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous,” Psalm 34:15. Here, Christian reader—to borrow an expression from Spurgeon—is “good cheer for the New Year.”

C. H. SPURGEON: “The LORD hath been mindful of us: He will bless us,” Psalm 115:12. There is a New Year’s motto for you. It will go back through the old year, and forward into the new one. See how mindful He has been of us all through the past year in a thousand ways. Long before we have known our wants, He has supplied them. He has delivered us from dangers of which we never knew; and led us into mercies of which we never dreamed…Are there not reasons why the reader should make the present day the opening of a year of praise?

A. W. PINK: Those who by grace are trusting in the atoning blood of Christ may enter it with the assurance that the friendly gaze of the Lord God is upon them. It is their privilege to enter each day rejoicing in the blessed fact that not for a single second will the Lord their God remove His eyes from them, cease to care for them, or fail to minister to them. Seek to frequently remind yourself that the Lord has pleasure in His people, that His presence is with, and His power engaged, on behalf of them—that they are assured of His protection and provision for their every need. Then should they not be of good cheer?! Should they not be delivered from worrying care? Should they not go forward in holy confidence and joy? Trials and tests are certain, and so also is their blessed issue. In the darkest hour remember, my brother, my sister, the eyes of the Lord your God are upon you: the eyes of His love, of His favour, of His compassion.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Therefore, though we know not what a day may bring forth, we need fear no evil; for He knows all, and will provide accordingly, Oh, what a relief is it, to be enabled to cast every care and burden upon Him that careth for us! Though the night should be dark, the storm loud, and the billows high, the infallible Pilot will steer our boats safely through…May He be with us in the New Year. Yea, He has promised He will, even unto death.

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.

C. H. SPURGEON: May the Lord give you a new heart and a right spirit with which to begin the New Year.

 

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God’s Perfect Timing & Purposes Concerning the Birth of Christ

Posted on December 25, 2020 by The Editor

Galatians 4:1-5

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): It is among the precious testimonies of divine teaching, that there is a “set time” to favor Zion, Psalm 102:13…There is an uncommon degree of beauty in the expression “the fulness of the time.”

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The coming of Christ to this earth was not some sudden, isolated, unexpected event.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Every circumstance about Christ was timed according to the predictions of God. Hence the time of the incarnation of our blessed Saviour is called “the fulness of the time”—the proper season for His coming.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The time was agreed and fixed upon between God and His Son from all eternity, when the Son of God should assume human nature; which time was diligently searched into by the prophets, was revealed unto them, and predicted by them—that it should be before the civil government ceased from Judah, and before the destruction of the second temple.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): When the promise of a Saviour was given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15, nothing was specified respecting the time. Nothing seems to have been declared concerning the time of the Messiah’s arrival, till it was revealed to Jacob, that “the sceptre should not depart from Judah, till Shiloh should come,” Genesis 49:10. And it is remarkable, that a separate jurisdiction did depart from all the other tribes several hundred years before Christ’s advent; but Judah retained it, in a measure, even during the captivity in Babylon; and never completely lost it, till Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. After the restoration of the Jews from Babylon, it was revealed to the Prophet Haggai, that the Messiah should come while that temple was standing; and by the Messiah’s presence in it should add greater glory to it, than the former temple with all its magnificence, Haggai 2:7,9. Thus the fulness of the time was come, because it was the time ordained by God in His eternal counsels, and made known to the world by his holy prophets.

A. W. PINK: After A.D. 70, when the Temple was destroyed, the Jews dispersed throughout the world!

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is generally supposed that by “the fulness of time” Paul means to indicate that Christ came at the moment when the world was especially prepared to receive Him.

A. W. PINK: The “fulness of time” means more than that the ordained hour had arrived: it signifies when all the preliminary operations of Divine providence had been completed, when the stage was thoroughly prepared for this unparalleled event, when the world’s need had been fully demonstrated…In its relation to the immediate context this expression, “the fulness of the time,” signifies that the Church on earth had been prepared for the coming of God’s Son by having now outgrown the conditions of her childhood and minority, making her feel the irksomeness of the bonds upon her and to long for the liberty of maturity. The legal Mosaic dispensation was merely a “schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we may be justified by faith,” and it had now served its purpose, Galatians 3:24. The old Mosaic dispensation had decayed and waxed old, and was “ready to vanish away,” Hebrews 8:13. “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster,” Galatians 3:25.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The time appointed of the Father having come, when the church was to arrive at its full age, the darkness and bondage under which it before lay are removed, and we are under a dispensation of greater light and liberty.

A. W. PINK: There was a remarkable combination of circumstances tending to prepare the world for the Gospel, and a fearful climax in the world’s need of redemption. The break up of old heathen faiths and the passing away of the prejudices of antiquity, disposed men for a new revelation which was spiritual, humane, non-provincial. The utter failure of Pagan religion from immorality, and of Pagan philosophy to cure that immorality and the miseries it entailed, called loudly for some new Faith, which should be both sure and powerful. The century immediately preceding our Lord’s advent was probably the most remarkable in all history. Everything was in a state of transition; old things were passing away…There were strange rumours afloat of coming relief, and singular hopes stirred the hearts of men that some Great One was about to appear and renovate the world.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Hence also it is evident that Christ was promised, not only to the Jews, but to the whole world.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: But while no doubt all this is true and becomes more certain the more we know of the state of things into which Christ came, it is to be noted that Paul is not thinking of “the fulness of time” primarily in reference to the world which received Him, but to the Father who sent Him.

JOHN CALVIN: “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,” These few words contain much instruction. The Son, Who was sent, must have existed before He was sent; and this proves His eternal Godhead. Christ therefore is the Son of God, sent from heaven. Yet this same person was “made of a woman,” because He assumed our nature, which shows that He has two natures.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): And this woman was yet a virgin: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” Isaiah 7:14.

JOHN GILL: “Made,” not created as Adam was; nor begotten by man, as men in common are—but “made;” which word the Holy Ghost chooses, to express the mighty power of God, in His mysterious incarnation, wonderful conception, and birth…He was “made of a woman,” and was “made under the law,” and became subject to it.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Made of a woman” according to the promise of Genesis 3:15—to redeem them that were “under the law,” who were condemned and cursed by it.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): He was appointed both to endure the penalty due to our transgressions, and to fulfill the broken Adamic covenant of immaculate obedience; that He might thereby “redeem them that were under the law,” under its bondage and curse, “that we,” who believe in Him, “might receive the adoption of sons.”

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The long-expected Messiah appeared, as the surety and Saviour of sinners, to accomplish the great work of redemption. For these purposes he was born of a virgin, of the family of David, at the town of Bethlehem, as the prophets had foretold.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): And what God purposed in eternity, Jesus accomplished in the fulness of time, or in the due appointed time—the Son, who was “in the bosom of the Father” before the world was, when the fullness of time came, was sent forth, made of a woman; “He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death…that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man,” Hebrews 2:9. He came to save, to redeem, and therefore to die for the ungodly. He glorified the Father on the earth. He finished the work which the Father gave Him to do. His death as a sacrifice for sin was for the glory of God.

JOHN NEWTON: He did come in the “fulness of time,” according to the prophecy; and the word of prophecy assures us, that He will come again. “Behold he cometh in the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him,” Revelation 1:7.

 

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The Baby Born with Immunity to the World’s Deadliest Virus

Posted on December 18, 2020 by The Editor

Psalm 51:5; Romans 7:18,24,25; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:2

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.

I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing…O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.” The doctrine of Original Sin is here distinctly affirmed.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): David confesses that he was formed in sin, and that he was a transgressor ere he saw the light of this world…The Bible, both in this and other places, clearly asserts that we are born in sin, and that it exists within us as a disease fixed in our nature.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Here is the great Apostle Paul, mourning and groaning over a body of sin and death; in which he declares, “dwelt no good thing.” Notice the lamentable cry Paul put up, in the contemplation of his sinful nature. “Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): His meaning is, that there was no good thing naturally in him.

CHARLES SIMEON: Paul declares of himself, as well as all the rest of the human race, that they are “by nature children of wrath,” Ephesians 2:3…Thus we see both these eminent saints confessing that their nature, as derived from their first parents, was altogether corrupt.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The virus of sin is in our being, from the moment we draw our first breath…Jesus Christ’s humanity was different from ours in this.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Jesus was supernaturally conceived of a virgin, and therefore, the virus of sin never entered His veins…When the Eternal Word was “made flesh,” He did not contract the corruptions of our fallen nature. Unlike all of human kind, He was not “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” On the contrary His mother was told, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): When the angel announced to Mary the glad tidings of the Saviour’s birth, she said unto him, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”—Mary, doubtless, imagined that this birth was to be according to the principles of ordinary generation. But the angel corrects her mistake and enunciates one of the grandest truths of revelation. He declares to her that divine power was about to form a real Man—“the second man, the Lord from heaven,” 1 Corinthians 12:47—one whose nature was divinely pure, utterly incapable of receiving or communicating any taint. This Holy One was made “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” without sin in the flesh, Romans 8:3. He partook of real flesh and blood without a particle or shadow of the evil thereto attaching.

A. W. PINK: He was uncontaminated by the virus of sin.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): The immunity of the nature wherein He was one with us—He was made like unto us in all things, sin excepted.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): For this great and gracious purpose was Jesus Christ manifested, that He who had no sin of His own, might take away our sin.

A. W. PINK: The manifold wisdom of God determined that His Son should become the Representative and Surety of sinners and so be substituted in their place. But who else would have thought of such a thing: that the Son should occupy the place of rebels and become the Object of Divine wrath! And in order for the Son to be the sinner’s Surety, He must render satisfaction to the Law in man’s own nature! What created intelligence had deemed such a thing possible: that a Divine Person should become incarnate and be both God and man in one Person! Had God not made known such a marvel, what finite intelligence could have devised a way whereby the Son should become flesh without partaking of the pollution of fallen human nature? Not only that the infinite should become finite—the Ancient of Days an infant, but that He should be born of a woman without being tainted by the virus of sin!—an immaculate human nature was produced in Mary’s womb by the operation of the Holy Spirit, so that a “holy thing,” spotless and impeccable, was born by her!—The Son of God became the Son of Man.

CHARLES SIMEON: He had no sin of His own to answer for, and hence it is that His atonement becomes effectual for us.

C. H. SPURGEON: “With His stripes we are healed,” Isaiah 53:5. It is a universal medicine—an application of the blue bruises of your Lord will take out the deadly virus from your soul.

CHARLES SIMEON: True it is, that “the body is still subjected to death,” Romans 8:10; as it is said, “It is appointed unto men once to die,” Hebrews 9:27.

H. A. IRONSIDE: We begin to die as soon as we are born. The seeds of death, as it were, are in the body of every child of Adam…These bodies of ours are mortal, that is, subject to death. We are told that, “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,” James 1:15. That is why we die, because we have all inherited the virus of Adam’s sin. But it was otherwise with the body of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the Sinless One, and, therefore, while He came into the world with a body that could die, it was not necessary that it should die. He had in His own power the ability to die or to live on for endless years. But He died out of love for our guilty souls and out of love for the Father, because He came to do the Father’s will.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The grave is the peculiar heritage of a sinner…When we go to the grave, we go to our own place; but our Lord Jesus, who had no sin of His own, had no grave of His own; dying under imputed sin, it was fit that He should be buried in a borrowed grave, Matthew 27:57-60.

C. H. SPURGEON: But now comes the contrast—“being born not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,” 1 Peter 1:23…That child which has just experienced the first birth has been made partaker of corruptible seed—He receives the evil virus which was first infused into us by the Fall. Not so, however, is it when we are born again. No sin is then sown within us. This sin of the old flesh remains, but there is no sin in the newborn nature—it cannot sin because it is born of God Himself.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): All human beings see corruption, because born in sin, and liable to the curse. The human body of Jesus Christ, as being without sin, saw no corruption.

JOHN GILL: He “saw no corruption;” He rose again and lives for evermore, Acts 2:24-31.

THOMAS COKE: We shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: and, as members of His body, because He lives, we shall live also.

JOHN CALVIN: “We shall be like Him,” 1 John  3:2—because He will make “our vile body conformable to His glorious body,” as Paul also teaches us in Philippians 3:21.

 

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The World’s Most Deadly Virus

Posted on December 11, 2020 by The Editor

Jeremiah 17:9; Titus 1:15; Isaiah 1:5,6

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): Probably the greatest practical heresy of each age is a low idea of our undone condition under the guilt and dominion of sin.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The virus of sin, what will it poison? Yes, what will it not poison? Its influence has been baleful upon the largest conceivable scale.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): As to the terrible consequences which sin has wrought in the human constitution, scarcely any now have more than the vaguest conceptions. So long as a man obeys the laws of his country, discharges with measurable faithfulness his human obligations, and does not grossly defy the commandments of God, it is popularly assumed that there is little wrong with him—and he is altogether unconscious of the deadly virus of sin which has corrupted every part of his inner being…In the case of the unregenerate, though they have occasional twinges of conscience when they act wrongfully, they are very largely ignorant of the awful fact that they are a complete mass of corruption in the pure eyes of the thrice holy God.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Sinners are blind; their understanding is so darkened by sin that they see not the way of truth and salvation. They are lame—not able to walk in the path of righteousness. They are leprous, their souls are defiled with sin, the most loathsome and inveterate disease; deepening in themselves, and infecting others. They are deaf to the voice of God, His Word, and their own conscience. They are dead in trespasses and sins; God, who is the life of the soul, being separated from it by iniquity.

A. W. PINK: Precisely, what is the nature of human depravity?

C. H. SPURGEON: Man is a reeking mass of corruption—the virus of evil is in him.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): You see, the trouble with all mankind is not that they become sinners by sinning, but they sin because they are sinners. We are born in sin and are shapen in iniquity. The virus of sin is in our being, from the moment we draw our first breath.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Man’s nature is fallen; his heart is radically corrupt, all its faculties perverted, and his whole mind and conscience defiled. “The heart deceitful above all things; ” it puts false glosses upon sin, which hide its malignity and danger.

C. H. SPURGEON: Men think that sin is nothing, but what will sin do?

WILLIAM S. PLUMER: Truly, sin kills—sin has digged every grave.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Sin brought death into the world. Sin is the very sting of death—and death introduces the sinner to judgment.

A. W. PINK: Had there been no sin, there would have been no death. It is sin, unpardoned sin, which makes death so dreadful, for not only does it put a final end to all its pleasures, but it conducts its subjects to certain judgment.

THOMAS COKE: Fear and terror of conscience are the natural consequences of guilt, and the present wages of sin.

C. H. SPURGEON: This disease, moreover, is not only exceedingly painful when the conscience is smarting, but it is altogether incurable, so far as any human ill is concerned. “For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous,” Jeremiah 30:12. It would be much easier to heal a man’s body of leprosy than to heal a man’s soul of sin. It is a disease which takes such fast hold upon the nature and so entirely impregnates the mind with a deadly virus, that it abides in the very essence of manhood and can only be removed by a miracle. It is far more possible for the Ethiopian to change his skin, or the leopard his spots, than for a man who is accustomed to do evil, to learn to do well—especially to love to do well and find pleasure in it.

THOMAS COKE: Man’s heart is “desperately wicked;” not only evil in that mere state of nature, but evil continually and incurably, without the grace of God, desperately set upon sin, without power to abstain from it, or ability to get rid of the bondage of corruption.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” Proverbs 28:26. Since the thoughts and imaginations of the thoughts of the heart are only evil, and that continually, Genesis 6:5—he must be a fool, and not know the plague of his heart, that trusts in it; and even for a good man to be self-confident, and trust to the sincerity of his heart, as Peter did, or to the good frame of the heart, as many do, is acting a foolish part; and especially such are fools as the Scribes and Pharisees, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others, when a man’s best righteousness is impure and imperfect, and cannot justify him in the sight of God.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We are all naturally self-righteous. It is the family disease of the children of Adam.

C. H. SPURGEON: If this were a matter of custom, or practice, it might be fought with and overcome, but inasmuch as it is a matter of nature, and the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint with it—no human power can possibly effect a cure.

THOMAS COKE: Nothing can cure it but His almighty grace; and therefore it were folly to depend on ourselves or others, in whose hearts such deceit and desperate wickedness are naturally so deeply rooted.

J. C. RYLE: To be sensible of our corruption and abhor our own transgressions is the first symptom of spiritual health.

A. W. PINK: He who is experimentally acquainted with the “plague of his own heart,” 1 Kings 8:38, is one in experience with the most eminent of God’s saints. Abraham acknowledged he was “dust and ashes,” Genesis 18:27. Job said “I abhor myself,” Job 42:6. David prayed, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord heal me; for my bones are vexed,” Psalm 6:2. Isaiah exclaimed “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,” Isaiah 6:5…Daniel said, “There remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption,” Daniel 10:8. Paul cried, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24. Thus it is in the case of one who has been renewed by the Spirit: his eyes have been opened to see the awful filth which lurks in every corner of his heart.

J. C. RYLE: There is far more wickedness in all our hearts than we know.

THOMAS COKE: The more we know of ourselves, far from having fathomed the abyss of evil, we discover but the more clearly, that the depths of corruption in man by nature are unfathomable; we can neither understand the number of our errors, nor promise ourselves for a moment, without divine aid, security from the deepest and foulest falls.

C. H. SPURGEON: Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, and the power of divine grace, hell itself does not contain greater monsters than you and I might become.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Indeed, every sin should convince us of the general truth of the corruption of our nature.

 

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Moral Courage: The Essential Qualification for Political Office

Posted on December 4, 2020 by The Editor

Luke 23:3,4, 13-16; John 19:4-15; Matthew 17:24

Pilate asked [Jesus], saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it. Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.

And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him, and release him.

Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.

The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him.

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The pitiable and miserable character of Pilate, the Roman Governor, begins to come into clear light from this point. We see him as a man utterly destitute of moral courage—knowing what was right and just in the case before him, yet afraid to act on his knowledge—knowing that our Lord was innocent, yet not daring to displease the Jews by acquitting Him—knowing that he was doing wrong, and yet afraid to do right. “The fear of man bringeth a snare,” Proverbs 29:25

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He seems to have gone backward and forward many times, desiring to save the life of Christ, but not having the moral courage to do it. Yet, to be just, we must admit that Pilate did more than wish. He spoke for Christ. But having spoken in His favour he did not proceed to action, as he was bound to have done. It is possible for a man to say with his tongue, “I find no fault in Him,” and then by his actions to condemn Jesus by giving Him up to die.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Talk is cheap, but actions speak louder than words.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Like all weak men, he was not easy in his conscience, and made a futile attempt to do the right thing, and yet not to suffer for doing it.

C. H. SPURGEON: Pilate spoke boldly enough and then retreated before the clamors of the crowd—and yet sometimes Pilate could be firm. When Jesus was nailed to the Cross, the priests begged Pilate to change the accusation which was written over His head, but he would not, but replied, “What I have written, I have written,” John 19:22. Why could he not have shown a little backbone when Jesus yet lived? He was not altogether such a weak, effeminate being as to be incapable of putting his foot down firmly. If he did so once, he might have done it before and so have saved himself from this great transgression.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Politicians consider not often what is just, but what is of use for the present purpose, be it right or wrong.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): They are very little interested about principles, any of them. Now that doesn’t say that we shouldn’t have politics, you’ve got to govern your country.  But oh, that we had politics which was concerned about truth, and about principles, about morality and living, and not merely pandering to the lusts and desires of men and women.

J. C. RYLE: Wretched and contemptible are those rulers and statesmen whose first principle is to please the people, even at the expense of their own consciences, and who are ready to do what they know to be wrong rather than offend the mob! Wretched are those nations which for their sins are given over to be governed by such statesmen! True godly rulers should lead the people, and not be led by them, should do what is right and leave consequences to God. A base determination to keep in with the world at any price, and a slavish fear of man’s opinion, were leading principles in Pilate’s character. There are many like him. Nothing is more common than to see statesmen evading the plain line of duty, and trying to shuffle responsibility on others, rather than give offence to the mob. This is precisely what Pilate did here. The spirit of his reply to the Jews is, “I had rather not be troubled with the case: cannot you settle it yourselves, without asking me to interfere?”

C. H. SPURGEON: There seems to be connected with politics in every country something that besmears the mind, and defiles the hand that touches it…You are told to regard the difference between right and wrong everywhere, except when you get into politics; then stick to your party through thick and thin. Right and wrong vanish at once. Loyalty to your leader—that is the point. Never mind where he leads you, follow him blindly. You are even told that you may do wrong because it is politically right. I hate such an argument!

ROBERT E. LEE (1807-1870): Politicians are more or less so warped by party feeling, by selfishness, or prejudices, that their minds are not altogether balanced.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Not a few are lacking in moral courage. They know what they ought to be, and to do. But they have friends whose frown they dread, or companions from whose laugh they shrink. This is very common. And thus multitudes flee from the frown of man—to take shelter under the frown of God…Take heed against that flexibility of principle, purpose, and character, in reference to what is right—and obstinate perseverance in what is wrong. Be master of yourself. Have a will of your own—but be governed by your own convictions. Knowing what is right, do it, though you stand alone, and though the world laughs in chorus at you.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Pilate asked him, Art thou the king of the Jews? To which Jesus answered, Thou sayest it; that is, “It is as thou sayest, that I am entitled to the government of the Jewish nation…”—Or, “Thou sayest it; but canst thou prove it? What evidence hast thou for it?”

C. H. SPURGEON: If a man believes in anything it is always proper to put this question to him, “Why do you believe? What evidence have you that what you believe is certainly correct?”

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: There are two things equally distant from sound reason—to decide without evidence—and to remain undecided amid abundant evidence.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Thus the entire subject of evidence claims the attention of the reader, let his position be what it may. We are all prone to rush to hasty conclusions—to give place to baseless surmisings, and allow our minds to be warped and carried away by prejudice. All these have to be most carefully guarded against. We need more calmness, seriousness and cool deliberation in forming and expressing our judgement about men and things—Whenever any one brings a charge…we should insist upon his proving it or withdrawing his statement. Were this plan adopted, we should be delivered from a vast amount of evil speaking which is not only most unprofitable, but positively wicked, and not to be tolerated.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The main trouble is that there are far too few Christian people, and that those of us who are Christian are not sufficiently salt. By that I do not mean aggressive; I mean Christian in the true sense.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): We want today men who will make up their minds to do what is right and stand by it if the heavens tumble on their heads…What we want, is men and women who have moral courage.

C. H. SPURGEON: Are there any Pilates here—persons who would long ago have been Christians if they had possessed enough moral courage?

 

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The Prophetic Symbolism of the Rainbow

Posted on November 27, 2020 by The Editor

Ezekiel 1:1, 26-28

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God…

Above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Ezekiel had visions of God. Again and again in the Old Testament we have these marvelous Scripture passages that tell of men beholding God, and yet it says in John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time.” What does it mean? It means that all of these were but theophanies. Men did not actually see God in His essential Being, but He manifested Himself to them—as a man to Abraham, as an angel to Daniel, as a marvelous appearance to Ezekiel.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): At length he says, “this was a vision of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah”—the glory of God was so beheld by the Prophet, that God did not appear as He really is, but as far as He can be beheld by mortal man.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): It was not the full glory of God—it was not the splendour of unveiled majesty.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Never forget, that amidst all the mysteries of this vision, the face of a man was held forth in it, and a voice was heard by the Prophet, which he distinctly observed. Surely, this could be no other than the Lord Jesus.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The person of the Son is the glory of the Father, shining forth with a truly divine splendour. As the beams are effulgent emanations of the sun, the father and fountain of light, Jesus Christ in His person is God manifest in the flesh, He is light of light, the true Shechinah. The person of the Son is the true image and character of the person of the Father; and being of the same nature, He must bear the same image and likeness.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): His glory is as the only begotten of the Father; and Who is the brightness of His Father’s glory, and the express image of His person, Hebrews 11:1-3.

JOHN CALVIN: Since, then, it is certain that Jesus Christ was beheld by Ezekiel, He is Jehovah, that is—Eternal God; and although He is distinct from the person of the Father, yet He is entirely God, for the Father is in Him.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Here the Lord of life appears seated on His royal throne. “Above the firmament was the likeness of a throne;” the symbol of that universal dominion and eternal kingdom which, as God over all, the Lord Jesus essentially possesses; or which, as Mediator, He has received: “as the appearance of a sapphire-stone,” very glorious—“and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it;” even that divine Lord, Who in the fullness of time condescended to appear in fashion as a man.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Over the canopy on which this glorious personage sat there was a fine rainbow, which, from the description here, had all its colors vivid, distinct, and in perfection—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

JOHN CALVIN: What, then, is the object of this bow in the heavens?

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): It notes out the memorial of His covenant of grace; that as the rainbow was the sign of the covenant of nature, to put God and us in mind that He would not destroy the world any more by water, so this rainbow is to God a memorial of His covenant of grace to His church: “With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee; this is to me as the waters of Noah; for as I have sworn that the waters should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn not to be wroth with thee,” saith God, in Isaiah 54:8,9. Which covenant is round about His throne, so to put Him in mind, in all His dispensations towards His church, to “remember His covenant.”—And therefore He also said, He will “ever be mindful of His covenant,” Psalm 111:5, and so of these mercies of His covenant—Let Him go forth any way in His dispensations towards His church, He may still be minded of mercy.

ADAM CLARKE: The rainbow is an illustrious token of mercy and love.

THOMAS GOODWIN: And His church, in all their intercourses with God, and all dispensations from God, and occasions of coming to Him, may be put in mind of mercy also, and His covenant of grace, to trust in it—that the prayers of the church may still pass from them through the rainbow, as all God’s dispensations to the church do come through the said rainbow.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The expectant eyes of the trustful man and the eye of God meet, as it were, in looking on the sign. On earth it nourishes faith; in heaven it moves to love and blessing. God can be reminded of what He always remembers. The rainbow reminds Him of His covenant by its calm light. Jesus Christ reminds Him of His grace by His intercession before the throne. We remind Him of His plighted faithfulness by our prayers.

MATTHEW POOLE: A like appearance of Christ you have in Revelation 4:2,3—“Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

MATTHEW HENRY: In John’s vision, He appeared with a rainbow, the seal of the covenant, about His throne; for it is His glory to be our Redeemer.

ROBERT HAWKER: That throne which John saw surrounded with a rainbow in Revelation 4 is accessible on every side. Jesus, the Lamb, is in the midst of it. He still hears prayers; still feeds the church which He hath purchased with His blood; still acts as a priest upon His throne, and wears thy nature—and He is infinitely more ready to take in petitions and bestow blessings than His people are to ask or receive.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If we can see the “rainbow round about the Throne,” the token of God’s Covenant Love and Grace, then we can pray very differently from the way in which we would pray if we could only see the naked sword of Divine Justice brandished to and fro to keep us back from the holy God who would not have His peerless Majesty polluted by our sinful presence! Let us always remember that when we pray aright, we deal with God on terms of Grace—and answers to our petitions come to us not according to what we deserve, but according to His Infinite Mercy and Grace in Christ Jesus our Lord! The promise that the rainbow should be seen in the cloud in the day of rain has not been forgotten—nor shall any one of the promises of the Covenant ordered in all things, and sure, be forgotten by the God of Grace!

THOMAS COKE: The bow in the clouds is the refraction of the beams of the sun. Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, sits with the rainbow round about His throne, and therefore His people are safe from fear of evil. The sign of our security in the cloud, should ever awaken our thankfulness, and lead our minds from temporal promises thus fulfilled, to conclude the certainty of the eternal promises, which are yet in hope.

 

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Thankful Praise in a Time of Pestilence

Posted on November 20, 2020 by The Editor

Psalm 75:1

To the chief Musician, Altaschith, A Psalm or Song of Asaph.

Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The Chaldee supposes that this Psalm was composed at the time of the pestilence, when David prayed the Lord not to destroy the people, 2 Samuel 24:17.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): David gloried in the number of his people, and the Lord diminished them by pestilence, 2 Samuel 24:15.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Altaschith” signifies “destroy not.”

ADAM CLARKE: Some of the Jews suppose that Altaschith is the air of which this Psalm was to be set and sung.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It might be called “a song of Asaph” because always sung by the sons of Asaph; or, it might be penned by Asaph who lived in David’s time.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): If Asaph wrote this psalm, it is probable that he did it by the desire of David.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): As to the author of it, this is a point which I am not inclined to give myself much trouble. Whoever he was, whether David or some other prophet, he breaks forth at the very commencement into the language of joy and thanksgiving.

MATTHEW HENRY: Unto thee, O God! do we give thanks for all the favours thou hast bestowed upon us; and again, unto thee do we give thanks; for our thanksgivings must be often repeated. Did not we often pray for mercy when we were in pursuit of it; and shall we think it will suffice once or twice to give thanks when we have obtained it? Not only I do give thanks, but we do, and I and all my friends. If we share with others in their mercies, we must join with them in their praises. “Unto thee, O God! the author of our mercies (and we will not give that glory to the instruments which is due to Thee only), we give thanks.

JOHN CALVIN: The verbs in the Hebrew are in the past tense; but the subject of the psalm requires that they should be translated into the future; which may be done in perfect consistency with the idiom of the Hebrew language…The repetition serves the more forcibly to express his strong affection and his ardent zeal in singing the praises of God.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It is repeated to show the constancy, fervency, and sincerity with which this was performed: it may be rendered, “unto thee do we confess” sins committed against God, unworthiness to receive favours from Him, and His grace and goodness in bestowing them.

MATTHEW POOLE: “And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house,” 2 Samuel 24:17. He looked upon himself as the only transgressor, and his people as innocent, and as harmless as sheep; he thought of no sins but his own; these were uppermost in his mind, and lay heavy on his conscience; it grieved him extremely that his people should suffer on his account.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): It should cause all those who are called to positions of leadership to realize their great responsibilities.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): To those who object to the people’s being involved in David’s punishment as inconsistent with the divine justice, we reply, that the reader ought to be put in mind that kings may be punished in their regal capacities, for the errors of their administration, by public calamities; by famine, pestilence, foreign wars, domestic convulsions, or some other like distresses, which affect their people—indeed, this is nothing more than what continually happens in the common course of Providence.

MATTHEW POOLE: But they were not so innocent—it was not only for his, but for their sins, that this evil came.

THOMAS COKE: Even supposing that they were free from all blame in this affair, can we conceive that they were so entirely free from all other transgressions, as that it was injustice in God to visit them with a pestilence? Is it not expressly said in the first verse of Second Samuel 24, that “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel?”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Nations never will be glad till they follow the leadership of Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd; they may shift their modes of government from monarchies to republics, and from republics to communes, but they will retain their wretchedness till they bow before the Lord of all.

JAMES HARRINGTON EVANS (1785-1849): We must learn the godly art of resigning ourselves to His leadership, content to be taken by a way that we know not. We have His promise, “I will guide thee with mine eye,” Psalm 32:8, and we must look Upward.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546):  “In every thing give thanks,” 1 Thessalonians 5:18. To say this is easy, but in times of trial, when the conscience writhes in the presence of God, it is not so easy to do.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Dark seasons afford the surest and strongest manifestations of the power of faith.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Every bird can sing in a summer’s day, but in deep affliction to cover God’s altar, not with our tears, as Malachi 2:13, but with the calves of our lips, Hosea 14:2, this none can do but the truly religious…To believe in an angry God, as David; in a killing God, as Job; to stick to Him in deepest desertion, as the Church, Psalm 44:17,18; to trust in His name, and stay upon His word, where there is darkness and no light, as Isaiah 50:10; to cast anchor even in the darkest night of temptation, when neither sun nor stars appear, as Paul and his company, Acts 27:20, praying still for day, and waiting till it dawn—it is a virtue proper to true Christians, heartily, and not hollowly, to give God thanks for crosses, for it proceeds from the joy of faith, and some taste of God’s fatherly care of us in our corrections.

JOHN GILL: “For that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.” These words are a reason of the above thanksgiving, and are to be understood of God Himself, for His name is Himself; Who is near to His people, both in relation, being their Father, and as to presence, communion, and fellowship, which are matter of praise and thanksgiving; or His works and Word, by which He is known and made manifest.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The Psalmist loves to dwell upon the precious name of the Lord. And when we consider the honour due to this holy name, and the regard the Lord hath in all ages manifested towards it, we may well join with the Psalmist in celebrating it.

JOHN TRAPP: ‘We celebrate thee, O God, we celebrate thee;’ both for mercies and crosses sanctified; for these also are to be reckoned upon the score of God’s favours.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some of us have a further reason for renewing our vows of love to our Lord, because we have lately risen from a sickbed.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): If good things befall thee, bless God, and they shall be increased; if evil things, bless God, and they shall be removed.

 

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Times Past, & Times Present

Posted on November 13, 2020 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11; Ecclesiastes 7:10

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In every age, discontented men have been forward to make this inquiry; “What is the cause that the former days were better than these?” They make no endeavour to ascertain the correctness of their sentiments: but, taking for granted that they are right, they demand the reason of so strange a phenomenon.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): National changes may bring national declension. Increasing wealth and luxury may relax the tone of public morals. But—it may be asked—Is it not the ordinary habit of the old men of the generation to give undue worth and weight to the records of bygone days?

CHARLES SIMEON: Those who are now advanced in life, can remember, that, in their early days, the very same clamour was made by discontented men as at this hour: and, if we go back to every preceding generation, we shall find the same complaints respecting the deterioration of the times: but we shall never arrive at that time, when the people confessed themselves to be in that exalted state in which our imaginations place them.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The same vices and virtues are now as ever, and ever were as they are; men in every age were born in sin, and were transgressors from the womb; from their infancy corrupt, and in all the stages of life; there were the same luxury and intemperance, and unnatural lusts, rapine and violence, in the days of Noah and Lot, as now; in Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the old world, as in the present age; and there were some few then, as now, that were men of sobriety, honesty, truth, and righteousness.

CHARLES SIMEON: What is the inquiry which is here discouraged?

CHARLES BRIDGES: Impatience often produces a querulous spirit—“How much brighter were the days of our fathers! Never shall we see the like again.” Yet be it remembered, we know the former days only by report. Present days are a felt reality. Under their pressure it is natural to believe, that the former days were better than these…The rebuke is evidently directed against that dissatisfied spirit, which puts aside our present blessings, exaggerates our evils, and reflects upon the government of God as full of inequalities, and upon His providence, in having cast us in such evil times…Yet, in a general view, “God has been always good, and men have been always bad,” and “there is nothing new under the sun.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Lay aside, therefore, these frivolous inquiries and discontented cryings out against the times, which, in some sense reflect upon God, the Author of times—for “can there be evil in an age, and He hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6); and bless God for our gospel privileges, which indeed should drown all our discontents.

CHARLES BRIDGES: “Murmurers and complainers” belong to every age. Leave God’s work to Him, and let us attend to our own work, which is—not so much to change the world, but to change ourselves—to “serve our own generation by the will of God.”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Let us be thankful, too…And let us hold firmly to the far deeper truth that the future will be the same as the past, because God is the same. God’s yesterday is God’s tomorrow—the same love, the same resources, the same wisdom, the same power, the same sustaining Hand, the same encompassing Presence. “A thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years;” and when we say there is no new thing under the sun, let us feel the deepest way of expressing that thought is, “Thou art the same, and Thy steadfast purposes know no alteration.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Now the design of this is also to show the folly of the children of men in affecting things that are new, in imagining that they have discovered such things, and in pleasing and priding themselves in them. We are apt to nauseate old things, and to grow weary of what we have been long used to, as Israel of the manna, and covet, with the Athenians, still to tell and hear of some new thing, and admire this and the other as new, whereas it is all what has been. And to take us off from expecting happiness or satisfaction in the creature. Why should we look for it there, where never any yet have found it?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): There is nothing in the world but a continued and tiresome repetition of the same things. The nature and course of the beings and affairs of the world, and the tempers of men’s minds, are generally the same that they ever were, and shall ever be; and therefore because no man ever yet received satisfaction from any worldly things, it is a vain and foolish thing for any person hereafter to expect it.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): But while the fashions of the world, with all its different pursuits, end in vanity; let the subject be considered as it relates to Christ, and here all things become certain, solid, and substantial.

MATTHEW HENRY: If we would be entertained with new things, we must acquaint ourselves with the things of God, and get a new nature; then “old things pass away, and all things become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

JOHN TRAPP: Get into Christ, that thou mayest be “a new creature,” 2 Corinthians 5:17. So shalt thou have a new name upon thee, Isaiah 62:2; a new spirit within thee, Ezekiel 36:27; a new alliance, Ephesians 2:14; new attendants, Psalm 91:11; new wages, and new work, Isaiah 62:11; a new commandment, 1 John 2:8; a new covenant, Jeremiah 31:33; a new way to heaven, Hebrews 10:20; and a new mansion in heaven, John 14:2; 2 Corinthians 5:8.

MATTHEW HENRY: The gospel puts “a new song into our mouths,” Psalm 40:3; Revelation 5:9. In heaven all is new—all new at first, wholly unlike the present state of things, a new world indeed, Luke 20:35; and all new to eternity, always fresh, always flourishing.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: And so, while we confront the future, we can feel that God being in us, and Christ being in us, we shall make it a far brighter and fairer thing than the blurred and blotted past which today is buried, and life may go on with grand blessedness and power until we shall hear the great voice from the Throne say, “There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, for the former things are passed away, Behold! I make all things new,” Revelation 21:4,5.

EDWARD REYNOLDS (1599-1676): Let the badness of the age in which we live make us more wise, more circumspect, more humble.

JEROME (340-420): Thou shouldst so live that thy last days may be thy best days, and the time present better to thee than the past was to those that then lived.

MAXINE COLLINS (1920-1984): I have but today, may I make it tell

Not in history books, but that I used it well

For Jesus.

Just today, yesterday is gone

Tomorrow yet to come;

And between them hung

Is that space, of time and place

That is this day, this hour, this minute

This one breath is all that I can claim

May its aim, be to proclaim:

Jesus.

 

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A Memoir of Edward Payson (1783-1827)

Posted on November 6, 2020 by The Editor

Proverbs 10:7; Psalm 37:37

The memory of the just is blessed.

Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): None of the saints ever affirmed that they had arrived to perfection, but have disclaimed it―such may be said to be perfect, that is, sincere, who have received the grace of God in truth, and have the truth and root of the matter in them; so Noah, Job, and others, are said to be perfect men; but not simply and absolutely in themselves, but as in Christ Jesus―by which they are justified from all sin, and are perfectly comely, and a perfection of beauty, through the comeliness of Christ put upon them.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): I would here offer a remark as to the word “perfect.” When Abraham was called upon to be “perfect,” in Genesis 17:1, it did not mean perfect in himself; for this he never was, and never could be. It simply, meant that he should be perfect as regards the object before his heart that his hopes and expectations were to be perfectly and undividedly centered in the “Almighty God.”

JOHN GILL: Though holiness is not perfect in this life, yet it will be in heaven; and there is a perfection of it in Christ—“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.” Such a man now enjoys a conscience peace, which passes the understanding of worldly men; and which he possesses in Christ, and from Him, amidst a variety of tribulations, arising from a view of interest in His blood and righteousness; and, generally speaking, he goes off the stage of life, if not triumphing, yet resigned to the will of God, and in a serene and tranquil frame of spirit, and even desiring to be gone, and to be with Christ.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You have heard of holy Edward Payson, the American Divine, a man who walked with God in his ministry―Have you ever read of the deathbed of Payson? I cannot describe it to you. It was like the flight of a seraph… His last expressions were weighty sermons.

GEORGE OFFOR (1787-1864): During the last days of that eminent man of God, he once said, “When I formerly read John Bunyan’s description of the Land of Beulah,* where the sun shines and the birds sing day and night, I used to doubt if there was such a place; but now my own experience has convinced me of it, and it infinitely transcends all my previous conceptions.”

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): What a prelude of the celestial banquet must Payson have had, when he wrote the following letter to his sister.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Were I to adopt Bunyan’s figurative language, I might date this letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been for some weeks a happy inhabitant. The celestial city is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odours are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears but as an insignificant rill, that may be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall give permission. The Sun of Righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as He approached; and now He fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float like an insect in the sun beams, exulting, yet almost trembling, while I gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering, with unutterable wonder, why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm. A single heart and a single tongue seem altogether inadequate to my desires—I need a whole heart for every separate emotion, and a whole tongue to express that emotion…

O, my sister, my sister! could you but know what awaits the Christian; could you know only so much as I know, you could not refrain from rejoicing, and even leaping for joy. Labours, trials, troubles, would be nothing—you would rejoice in afflictions, and glory in tribulations; and, like Paul and Silas, sing God’s praises in the darkest night, and in the deepest dungeon. You have known a little of my trials and conflicts, and know that they have been neither few nor small; and I hope this glorious termination of them will serve to strengthen your faith, and elevate your hope. And now, my dear, dear sister, farewell. Hold on your Christian course—but a few days longer, and you will meet in heaven, Your happy and affectionate brother, Edward.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: His language, his conversation, and his whole deportment were such as brought home and fastened to the minds of his hearers the conviction, that he believed, and therefore he spoke. So important did he regard such a conviction in the attendants on his ministry, that he made it the topic of one of his addresses to his clerical brethren, which he entitled, “The importance of convincing our hearers that we believe what we preach.”

C. H. SPURGEON: I remember that Payson, an exceedingly earnest and useful man of God, once did an amazing thing. He had been holding inquiry meetings and great numbers had been saved. At last, one Sunday, he gave out that he would have a meeting on Monday night with those persons who did not desire to be saved—and, strange to say, some twenty persons came who did not wish to repent or believe.

EDWARD PAYSON: Looking back on my sermons, I often wonder that God should ever have blessed a soul through them.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: During his ministry, his solicitude for the salvation of souls was so earnest, that Payson impaired his health by the frequency of his fastings and the importunity of his prayers.

C. H. SPURGEON: He was out one day with a brother minister who made a call at a lady’s house. The lady pressed them both to stay to tea. She was not a Christian woman, and Payson sat down and invoked the Divine blessing which he did in terms so sweet and full of holy unction that he impressed everybody. The lady waited upon him with great attention, and when he rose up to go, he said to her, “Madam, I thank you much for your great kindness to me, but how do you treat my Master?” A work of grace was worked in that lady by the question—she was brought to Jesus, and she opened her house for preaching—and a revival followed.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Payson carried with him into his sick chamber all his undiminished earnestness for the salvation of souls. He directed a label to be attached to his bosom when dead, with the words, “Remember the words which I have spoken unto you, while I was yet present with you,” that they might be read by all who came to look at his corpse, and by them, he being dead, yet spoke. The same words at the request of his people, were engraved on the plate of his coffin, and read by thousands on the day of his internment.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): When a holy man ceases to live among his fellows, his soul becomes an inhabitant of another world, and is joined to “the spirits of just men made perfect,” Hebrews 12:23.

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*Editor’s Note: In John Bunyan’s allegorical Pilgrim’s Progress, the “Land of Beulah,” was a state of joy and peace experienced by a believer just prior to entering heaven, in anticipation of the delight and glory to come in communion with Jesus Christ; it is taken from Isaiah 62:4.

 

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The Battle Cry of the Protestant Reformation

Posted on October 30, 2020 by The Editor

Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:10,11

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): In the 16th century, God raised up Martin Luther to sound, with clarion voice, the battle-cry of the Reformation, “The just shall live by faith!”

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Luther taught in no uncertain terms that sinners are justified by faith, and not by works.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): This doctrine is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It was because Luther was led by God to proclaim that doctrine of justification by faith that we received the Protestant Reformation.

H. A. IRONSIDE: And it is the touchstone of every system since, that professes to be of God. If wrong here, they are bound to be wrong throughout. It is impossible to understand the gospel if this basic principle be misunderstood or denied: Justification by faith alone is the test of orthodoxy.

C. H. SPURGEON: Luther said that it was so difficult to get the doctrine of justification by faith into the minds of the Wittenbergers that he had half a mind to take the Bible and beat them over the head with it!

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Though volumes have been written upon the subject, I think it may be explained in few words. Every one must give an account of himself to God; and the judgment will proceed according to the tenor of His holy word: “By the law no flesh can be justified, for all have sinned,” Romans 3:19,20. But they who believe the Gospel will be “justified from all things,” Acts 13:39, for which the law would otherwise condemn them; and, as “they who believe not are condemned already,” John 3:18, so believers are already “justified by faith, and have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1, in the present life. They plead guilty to the charge of the law; but they can likewise plead, that they renounce all hope and righteousness in themselves, and, upon the warrant of the Word of promise, put their whole trust in Jesus, “as the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” Romans 10:4, and this plea is accepted. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him who justifieth the ungodly, His faith is counted for righteousness,” Romans 4:5, and his sins are no more remembered against him, Hebrews 8:12.

WILLIAM TYNDALE (1490-1536): The law is the key which shuts up all men under condemnation, and the gospel is the key which opens the door and lets them out.

H. A. IRONSIDE: It was the key that opened the door of liberty to Luther.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): When Luther was groaning under the power of sin, and saw not forgiveness, and sought relief by making promises and keeping under the body, one said to him, “Why do you distress yourself with these high thoughts? Look to the wounds of Jesus Christ, to the blood which He has shed for you: it is there you will see the mercy of God. Instead of torturing yourself for your faults, cast yourself into the arms of your Redeemer. Trust in Him, in the righteousness of His life, and in the expiatory sacrifice of His death.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Let us look to the Lord Jesus alone. As we see Jesus we shall see our salvation.

WILLIAM TYNDALE: Remember Christ is the end of all things. He only is our resting-place, and He is our peace. For as there is no salvation in any other name, so is there no peace in any other name. Thou shalt never have rest in thy soul, neither shall the worm of conscience ever cease to gnaw thine heart, till thou come at Christ; till thou hear the glad tidings, how that God for His sake hath forgiven thee all freely. If thou trust in thy works, there is no rest. Thou shalt think, I have not done enough. Have I done it with so great love as I should do?  Was I so glad in doing, as I would be to receive help at my need? I have left this or that undone; and such like. If thou trust in confession, then thou shalt think, Have I told all? Have I told all the circumstances? Did I repent enough? Had I as great sorrow in my repentance for my sins, as I had pleasure in doing them?

C. H. SPURGEON: Even if salvation by good works were possible, no man can ever be sure that he has performed enough of them to secure his salvation…One breakage of the perfect law of God involves transgression against the whole of it. In order to be saved by works, there must be absolutely perfect, and continuously perfect obedience to it, in thought, and word, and deed; and that obedience must be rendered cheerfully, and from the heart, for this is the pith of the first table—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Can you keep that?

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): This is the one true way of peace—justification by Christ…Remember there is no mediator but one—Jesus Christ. Remember there is no purgatory for sinners but one—the blood of Christ. Remember there is no sacrifice for sin but one—the sacrifice once made on the cross. Remember there are no works that can merit anything—but the work of Christ. Remember there is no priest who can truly absolve—but Christ. Stand fast here, and be on your guard. Give not the glory due to Christ, to another.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “And by him all that believe are justified,” Acts 13:39. This saying of Paul is the more to be heeded, saith an interpreter, because it is the very basis, foundation, and state of Christian religion, whereby it is distinguished from all other religions.

C. H. SPURGEON: True justification by faith is the surface soil, but then imputed righteousness is the granite rock which lies underneath it; and if you dig down through the great truth of a sinners being justified by faith in Christ, you must, as I believe, inevitably come to the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ as the basis and foundation on which that simple doctrine rests.

JOHN TRAPP: Jews, Muslims, Pagans, and Papists explode an imputed righteousness; as if we could not be justified by the righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith. The Papists, like king Saul, forbid us to eat of this honey, this precious comfort in Christ—justification by faith alone, as if hereby we should be hindered in our pursuit against sin; whereas indeed, it is the only strength and help against it. Hold fast therefore the faithful word, and transmit this doctrine safe and sound to posterity. It was Martin Luther’s great fear, that when he was dead, it would be lost again out of the world.

MARTIN LUTHER: If the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time.

 

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