Vain Foolish Boasters

Posted on October 23, 2020 by The Editor

James 3:3; Proverbs 15:2,4; Psalm 94:4

The tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.

The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness…A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.

How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He who praises himself writes himself down as a fool in capital letters…First of all, because it is extremely foolish to boast at all. Boasting never makes a man any the greater in the esteem of others, nor does it improve the real state of his body or soul. Let a man brag as he will, he is none the greater for his bragging, no, he is the less, for men invariably think the worse of him!

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): “Praise,” says an old expositor, “is a comely garment. But though thyself doth wear it, another must put it on, or else it will never sit well about thee. Praise is sweet music, but it is never tuneable in thine own mouth. If it cometh from the mouth of another, it soundeth most tuneably in the ears of all that hear it. Praise is a rich treasure, but it will never make thee rich, unless another tell the same.” Indeed—except as the vindication of our character, or as our Master’s honour connected with it, may require—nothing so degrades a man with his fellow-men, as setting out his own praise. For though every man is his own flatterer, yet men usually know how to estimate pride in others, while they cherish it in themselves.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When men lift up themselves in pride and vain glory they are justly laughed at for their folly.

C. H. SPURGEON: Generally your boaster has nothing in him of true grit. The more of the solid there is in a man, the less does he act the balloon.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The greatest boasters are usually the greatest cowards.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Pride leads them on to belittle the work of other men and to applaud their own.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Self-love makes men unreasonable, and ever teacheth them to turn the glass to see themselves bigger, others lesser, than they are.

MARTIN LUTHER: By men’s boasting of what they have done, they become nothing else but dregs.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Vain talkers”—Empty boasters of knowledge, rights, and particular privileges; all noise, empty parade, and no work. A bragging man, who does not fulfill his promises, is like clouds which appear to be laden with vapour, and like the wind which, though it blow from a rainy quarter, brings no moistness with it. So the vain boaster; he is big with promise, but performs nothing.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Least doers are the greatest boasters.

C. H. SPURGEON: A boaster and a liar are much about the same thing—these proverbs are but specimens of many just observations upon the vice of bragging. It would be hard to tell where a boast ends and a lie begins: it is like the distinction between a snake and its tail. Boasters are hardly conscious of their own falsehoods, for they have talked themselves into believing their own bombast.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Ungodly men love to boast of themselves…Rather than pass unnoticed, the ungodly will boast of their iniquities and excesses.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The fool condemns himself with his own mouth by his vain boasting.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is insanity which evokes wonder, as well as sin which deserves rebuke.

C. H. SPURGEON: “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly,” Psalm 75:4. The Lord bids the boasters boast not, and commands the mad oppressors to stay their folly. If the wicked were not insane, they would even now hear in their consciences the still small voice bidding them cease from evil, and forbear their pride. “And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn. Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck,” Psalm 75:4,5. He bids the ungodly stay their haughtiness. The horn was the emblem of boastful power; only the foolish, like wild and savage beasts, will lift it high. For their abounding pride there is a double rebuke. Would to God that all proud men would obey the word here given them.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight,” Psalm 5:5. By the “foolish” are meant not such who are so in a natural, but in a moral sense—wicked and ungodly men. The word used comes from a root which signifies to “praise;” and may design such as are praisers of themselves, proud boasters; who are elated with their own excellencies, with their wisdom, strength, honours, riches, and righteousness, and treat all others with contempt.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It is all vanity.

C. H. SPURGEON: There is many a man without the fear of God who blusters and bullies as if everybody had to be his slave…Big boasters should heed the word of the wise man, “Let not him that girds on his harness boast himself as he that takes it off,” 1 Kings 20:11.

JOHN TRAPP: God delights to cross such vain boasters, and to confute their confidences.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision,” Psalm 2:4. He has them perfectly under his control, holds them in a chain when they think themselves most at liberty, appoints the bounds beyond which they cannot pass, and can in a moment check them, and make them feel his hook and bridle, when in the height of their career.

C. H. SPURGEON: Impudence before God is madness. The out-stretched neck of insolent pride is sure to provoke His axe. Those who carry their heads high shall find that they will be lifted yet higher, as Haman was upon the gallows which he had prepared for the righteous man.

CHARLES BRIDGES: “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth,” Proverbs 27:1. How awfully has boasting been put to shame! Abner promised a kingdom, but could not ensure his life for an hour, 2 Samuel 3. Haman plumed himself upon the prospect of the queen’s banquet, but was hanged like a dog before night, Esther 5:12; 7:1-10.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: What an end to all human pride and boasting!

JOHN NEWTON: Let us beware of boasting.

JOHN TRAPP: Virtue is no braggart.

C. H. SPURGEON: We do not like boasters, but we would encourage every child of God to boast in the Lord as much as he pleases. “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD,” Psalm 34:2.—We may boast of the Lord, in Himself, His manifestations of Himself, His relationship to us, our interest in Him, and our expectations from Him.

SIR RICHARD BAKER (1568-1644): Can any boasting be greater than to say, “I can do all things?” Yet in this boasting there is humility when I add, “in Christ that strengtheneth me,” Philippians 4:13. For though God likes not boasting, yet He likes this boasting, which arrogates nothing to ourselves, but ascribes all to Him.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is not vainglory to glory in the Lord.

 

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The Christian Voter’s Responsibility

Posted on October 16, 2020 by The Editor

Exodus 18: 20,21

Thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This text is part of the sagacious advice which Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, gave him about the sort of men that he should pick out to be his lieutenants in civic government.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): God has plainly described the characters we ought to choose for rulers and magistrates. He has also told us, that “when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice, but that when the wicked bear rule the people mourn,” Proverbs 29:2. If then, we choose different men for our rulers, we slight God’s counsels and disobey His commands.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Look first, at the ideal of a politician set forth here—run over the details. They must be ‘able men,’ or, as the original has it, “men of strength.” The statesman is not one that puts his ear down to the ground to hear the tramp of some advancing host, and then makes up his mind to follow in their paths; he is not sensitive to the varying winds of public opinion, nor does he trim his sails to suit them, but he comes to his convictions by first-hand approach to, and meditation on, the great principles that are to guide, and then holds to them with a strength that nothing can weaken, and a courage that nothing can daunt. ‘Men of strength’ is what democracies like ours do most need in their leaders.

EDWARD PAYSON: He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in “the fear of God.”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: “Such as fear God.” There is the secret of strength…He that would govern others must first be lord of himself, and he only is lord of himself who is consciously and habitually the servant of God. So that whatever natural endowment we start with, it must be heightened, purified, deepened, enlarged, by the presence in our lives of a deep and vital religious conviction.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Thirdly, “Men of Truth;” men whose veracity may be depended upon, who may be absolutely confided in and trusted, and, consequently, will never deviate from the paths of justice.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “Truth” is opposed not only to deception and gross falsehoods, but to popularity hunting, flattering promises, and other crooked arts.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: “Hating covetousness;” or, as it might be rendered, “unjust gain.” “Clean hands,” Psalm 24:4, and that not only from the vulgar filth of wealth, but from the more subtle advantages which may accrue from a lofty position, are demanded of the leader of men. Such is the ideal. The requirements are stern and high, and they exclude the vermin that infest “politics” as they are called, and cause them to stink in many nostrils. The self-seeking schemer, the one-eyed partisan, the cynic who disbelieves in ideals of any sort, the charlatan who assumes virtues that he does not possess, and mouths noble sentiments that go no deeper than his teeth, are all shut out by them. The doctrine that a man may do in his public capacity things which would be disgraceful in private life, and yet retain his personal honour untarnished, is blown to atoms by this ideal.

EDWARD PAYSON: Now, my friends, it becomes us to inquire to whom is the prevalence of these vices to be ascribed?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared,” Job 34:30. By “hypocrite” is not meant a common hypocrite in religion, but an hypocrite in politics, who pretends to great humanity and goodness, to a tender care of the people, and a preservation of them in their rights and liberties, and promises to support and establish the constitution, and observe the laws of the nation, with a show of zeal for the religion professed in it.

EDWARD PAYSON: Subjects who have the privilege of choosing their own rulers and magistrates, make themselves partakers of all their sins, when they give their votes for vicious or irreligious characters. I hope, my hearers, it is not necessary to assure you that this remark has no party political bearing. In making it, I certainly do not mean to censure one party more than another, nor do I intend the most distant allusion to any of our rulers or magistrates; for I am taught not to speak evil of dignities. I merely state it as an abstract principle, which cannot be denied, without denying the truth of Scripture, that when we vote for vicious or irreligious men, knowing them, or having good reason to suspect them to be such, we make ourselves partakers of their sins.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When we become Christians, we do not cease to have the rights and privileges which citizenship has bestowed on us. Let us, whenever we shall have the opportunity of using the right of voting, use it as in the sight of Almighty God, knowing that for everything, we shall be brought into account and for that among the rest, seeing that we are entrusted with it.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Though we cannot be great, let us be honest; and though we cannot be brilliant, let us be genuine.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): A man may be a pious patriot, without degenerating into a malignant partisan.

C. H. SPURGEON: Be not a thick and thin supporter of a doubtful cause. Do not vote wrong is right to serve your party.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The religion of God says, we must not do evil that good may come, Romans 3:8.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The Bible is my system of politics. There I read, that “the Lord reigns,” Psalm 97:1; that no wisdom, understanding, counsel, or power, can prevail without His blessing, Proverbs 21:30; that as “righteousness exalteth a nation, so sin is the reproach,” and will even totally be “the ruin of any people,” Proverbs 14:34.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The general duty which these words should teach us is very plain. We are to observe carefully the public events of the times in which we live. We are not to be absorbed in politics, but we are to mark political events.

C. H. SPURGEON: And let us remember that we are our own governors, to a great degree, and that if at the next election we should choose wrong governors, we shall have nobody to blame but ourselves, however wrongly they may afterwards act, unless we exercise all prudence and prayer to Almighty God to direct our hearts to a right choice in this matter.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “Consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds,” Judges 19:30. Let every man retire into himself, and weigh the matter impartially and fully in his own thoughts, and seriously and calmly consider it, without prejudice on either side, before he speaks upon it. Let them freely talk it over, and every man take advice of his friend, know his opinion and his reasons, and weigh them. Then let every man speak his mind, and give his vote according to his conscience.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The nation, of which you are members, demands it of you.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: To judge righteously, to vote honestly, is as much worship as to pray.

 

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The Thankful Leper

Posted on October 9, 2020 by The Editor

Luke 17:11-19

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests.

And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Let us mark, firstly, in this passage, how earnestly men can cry for help when they feel their need of it.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Ten men with a common need lifted a cry of agony in petition.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Hereby it appeared that they were in earnest, and would not go away, nor let Christ go without a blessing.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Cold prayers will not seize the prize.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We must pray with fervency, importunity, reiteration, if we would prevail with God! We must say, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” The Lord loves that kind of pleading!

J. C. RYLE: How is it, again, that many true believers often pray so coldly? What is the reason that their prayers are so feeble, and wandering, and lukewarm, as they frequently are? The answer once more is very plain. Their sense of need is not so deep as it ought to be. They are not truly alive to their own weakness and helplessness, and so they do not cry fervently for mercy and grace…The conduct of the ten lepers is very instructive.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Their cry indicates some knowledge. They knew the Lord’s name, and had dim notions of His authority, for He is addressed as Jesus and as Master. They knew that He had power to heal, and they hoped that He had “mercy,” which they might win for themselves by entreaty. There was the germ of trust in the cry forced from them by desperate need. But their conceptions of Him, and their consciousness of their own necessities, did not rise above the purely physical region, and He was nothing to them but a healer. Still, low and rude as their notions were, they did present a point of contact for Christ’s “mercy,” which is ever ready to flow into every heart that is lowly, as water will into all low levels.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): They had heard that the Lord Jesus healed immediately other people of all kinds of diseases. He had cleansed many lepers by a word or a touch. He had said to one, “I will; be thou clean,” and the leper was cleansed. But the Lord does not deal with everyone in the same way…So the Saviour said to these men, “Go show yourselves unto the priests,” implying that ere they reached the priest they would be cleansed. There would be no use to show themselves to the priest if they were still leprous, for in that condition there was nothing he could do for them…They knew what His words implied: they would be cleansed. And so they turned to go as He had commanded.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Whilst they were in the way, they at once found themselves entirely healed of their disease; as Christ very likely gave them reason to believe they should; whereby His power was seen in it; and it was a clear case that it was owing to Him, and not the priests, that they had their cleansing.

MATTHEW HENRY: How rich Christ is in doing good. Here was a cure by wholesale, a whole hospital healed with one word’s speaking—and but one of them returned to give thanks.

J. C. RYLE: The words that fell from our Lord’s lips upon this occasion are very solemn: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: A tone of surprise as well as of sadness can be detected in the pathetic double questions.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We might think it almost incredible that of the ten lepers cleansed by Christ, only one returned to give glory to God; yet observation shows it was sadly true to life.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The nine might have said, “We are doing what the Healer told us do; to go back to Him would be disobedience.”—How like us all it is to hurry away clutching our blessings, and never cast back a thought to the giver!

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What ingratitude is there in the human heart! We are amazed at the conduct of the ungrateful lepers. We are ready to suppose that nothing could induce us to act like them. Yet we may see in them a true picture of the world at large. How many temporal mercies have we experienced through our whole lives! What continuance of health, or deliverances from sickness! What freedom from want, or relief in the midst of it! What comfort in the society of our friends and relatives! Yet how little have we thought of Him, Who bestowed these blessings! How many spiritual mercies too have we received from God! What provision has been made for the healing of our souls! The Son of God Himself has suffered, that He might “heal us by His stripes:” and offers of pardon and salvation have been proclaimed to us in His name; yea, we have been promised a deliverance from the leprosy of sin, and have been entreated to become children and heirs of God. Are not these mercies which demand our gratitude? Yet what returns have we made to our adorable Benefactor?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us learn that this complaint is brought generally against all of us, if we do not at least repay the divine favours by the duty of gratitude.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those who have received mercy from God should publish it to others, that they may praise God too, and be encouraged by their experiences to trust in Him.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): But the most remarkable feature to be noticed in this miracle, as it related to this man, is that the Lord Jesus said unto him, his faith had made him whole. How is this? The whole ten were healed by Christ: and was there then anything special in this man’s case?

MATTHEW HENRY: When he “saw that he was healed,” instead of going forward to the priest, to be by him declared clean, and so discharged from his confinement, which was all that the rest aimed at, he turned back towards Him who was the Author of his cure, Whom he wished to have the glory of it, before he received the benefit of it. He appears to have been very hearty and affectionate in his thanksgivings: “With a loud voice he glorified God,” acknowledging it to come originally from Him.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The simple reason is, Those who have much forgiven will love much, Luke 7:47.

ROBERT HAWKER: They were all healed of the leprosy of the body; but this man only of both leprosy of the soul and body. And hence the different effects. When the ten felt their cure, nine of them had all they desired, all they asked for. But in this man, grace entered his soul, and healed a far deeper and more dreadful leprosy there; and, therefore, led by that awakening grace in the heart, he had forever done with Jewish priests and legal sacrifices, and fled to Christ the Author and Finisher of his salvation. Reader! if my views be right, we see at once the effect of distinguishing grace.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): He was as earnest in his praises as he had been in his prayers…Hearty thanks must be given to God: such as cometh not from the roof of the mouth, but the root of the heart.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: A grateful heart knows that to express its gratitude is the highest duty, and is necessary for its own relief.

 

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Autumn Reflections

Posted on October 2, 2020 by The Editor

John 15:2,6; Isaiah 64:6

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit…If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We are about to let autumn preach…Falling leaves are nature’s sermons.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Man in his best estate is only like an autumn leaf. “There is none abiding.” The highest position, the loudest profession, may all end in following Jesus afar off, and in basely denying His name. Spurious cases may arise; counterfeit conversions may take place. Persons may seem to run well for a time and then break down. The blossoms of spring time may not be followed by the mellow fruits of autumn.

C. H. SPURGEON: Remember, Brethren, that decays in Divine Grace and backsliding are usually very much like the fall of the autumn leaves. You are watching the trees, for now they are beginning to indicate the coming fall. They evidently know that their verdant robes are to be stripped from them for they are casting off their first loose vestments. How slowly the time of the brown leaf comes on! You notice here and there a tinge of the copper hue, and soon the gold leaf or the bronze is apparent. Week after week you observe that the general fall of the leaves is drawing nearer, but it is a matter that creeps slowly on. And so with backsliders. They are not put out of the visible Church all at once. They do not become open offenders all at once. The heart, by slow degrees, turns aside from the living God and then, at last, comes the outward sin and the outward shame.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The strangers shall fade away,” Psalm 18:45. Like the leaves of trees in autumn, when they fall and perish; to which hypocrites and nominal professors are compared―carnal professors who had no true grace in them; and so dropped their profession, and became like trees whose fruit withered; or like trees, in the fall of the year, which are without fruit, and shed their leaves.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): They fall as leaves in the autumn, in the declension of their years, before the winter of old age comes, and seldom or never continue till then.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Jude employs other metaphors for the same end, that they were trees fading, as the vigour of trees in autumn disappears. He then calls them trees unfruitful, rooted up, and twice dead, Jude 12; as though he had said, that there was no sap within, though leaves might appear.

JOHN GILL: This is to be understood not of true believers and real members, for these are rooted in the love of God, and in Christ, and have the root of the matter in them, the true grace of God; and therefore, though they meet with many blustering storms, yet do not cast their leaf of profession—“Whose leaf shall not fade,” Ezekiel 47, as the leaves of trees in autumn do, and drop off and fall.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The trees of the Lord, though they seem dry trees, are “full of sap,” Psalm 104:16.

JOHN GILL: True believers, as they take up a profession on principles of grace, they hold it fast without wavering; their root, seed, and sap, remain, and so never wither and die in their profession; indeed there may be, as there often are, decays and declensions in them.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: True believers may fail in many things. They may stumble and break down in their course. They may have ample cause for self-judgment and humiliation, in the practical details of life. But, allowing the widest possible margin for all these things, the precious doctrine of final perseverance remains unshaken―yea untouched, upon its own divine and eternal foundation: “I give unto my sheep eternal―not temporary or conditional―life, and they shall never perish,” John 10:28. Yet so it is. People may argue as they will, and base their arguments on cases which have come under their notice, from time to time, in the history of professing Christians; but, looking at the subject from a divine point of view, and basing our convictions on the sure and unerring word of God, we maintain that all who belong to the “us” of Romans 8:1-39, and the “sheep” of John 10:1-42, are as safe as Christ can make them, and this we conceive to be the sum and substance of the doctrine of final perseverance.

C. H. SPURGEON: And there are some whose ripe and mellow experience has the peacefulness of autumn about it…We like to let our eyes rest upon that beautiful lake in the distance, or that forest browning with the tints of autumn, or that green hill, or that sky checkered with a thousand hues as the sun is setting.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): I remember once standing by the side of a little Highland loch on a calm autumn day, when all the winds were still, and every birch tree stood unmoved, and every twig was reflected on the steadfast mirror, into the depths of which Heaven’s own blue seemed to have found its way. That is what our hearts may be, if we let Christ put His guarding hand round them to keep the storms off, and have Him within us for our rest.

C. H. SPURGEON: Our sins are countless as the drops of dew in these autumn mornings when every leaf is wet, for every tree is weeping tears of sorrow over the dying year. Yet when the sun has risen, with a little of its heat, the moisture of the dew is gone—as if it had never been. Our sins are countless—but the removal of our transgressions is complete when the infinite love of Jesus shines upon us and God in His Son has reconciled us by His atoning blood!—Oh, to make the autumn of your life and the coming winter of your last days into a new spring and a blessed summer—this is to be done by laying hold of Christ now!

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: But the man who does not trust Jesus “is like the troubled sea which cannot rest,” but goes moaning round half the world, homeless and hungry, rolling and heaving, monotonous and yet changeful, salt and barren—the true emblem of every soul that has not listened to the merciful call, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”—I saw a forest fire this last autumn, and the great pine-trees stood there for a moment in pyramids of flame, and then came down with a crash. So that hereafter will be to godless men.

C. H. SPURGEON: In the social economy of life, a man may be of some use however bad he may be; but a man who is in the nominal Church of Christ, and yet does not bring forth fruit unto God, is of no use whatsoever. There is nothing to be done with him but to gather him up with the autumn leaves, and the decaying stalks of vegetation, to be burned in the corner outside the wall.

 

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Elementary Education

Posted on September 25, 2020 by The Editor

Proverbs 22:6; 2 Timothy 3:15

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

From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Education is a matter of first-rate importance; and in this country at the present time its importance is, in some measure, felt and acknowledged. It has become, or at least is becoming, the question of the day. Out of it many difficulties arise; over it many battles are fought.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The good education of youth is a public concern.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Besides all the noise which we make about the quantity of education, we quarrel about the kind.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Education in modern parlance, means nothing more than instruction, or the communication of knowledge to the mind; and a good education means, the opportunity of acquiring all kinds of learning, science, and what are called achievements. But properly speaking, education in the true and higher import of the term, means the implanting of right dispositions, the cultivation of the heart, the guidance of the temper, the formation of the character.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The expression, “from a child,” in 3 Timothy 3:15, might be better understood if we read it, “from a very child” or, as the Revised Version has it, “from a babe.” It does not mean a well-grown child, or youth, but a child just rising out of infancy. From a very child Timothy had known the sacred writings. This expression is, no doubt, used to show that we cannot begin too early to imbue the minds of our children with Scriptural knowledge. Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact.

WILLIAM ARNOT: The oldest training school is still the best: home is the best school room, sisters and brothers the best class-fellows, parents the best masters.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): What rules shall we observe about his education?

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Education includes not only instruction, but the right application of knowledge to practical purposes—in other words, the formation of character. This is beautifully expressed in the proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go.” Not merely in what he should know—but in the way he should go…His mind is, of course, to be stored with knowledge, but his judgment, heart, will, and conscience, must also be trained to act rightly.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The Hebrew of this clause, “Train up a child in the way he should go” is curious: It means “Initiate the child at the opening—the mouth—of his path.” When he comes to the opening of the way of life—being able to walk alone, and to choose, stop at this entrance, and begin a series of instructions, how he is to conduct himself in every step he takes. Show him the duties, the dangers, and the blessings of the path; give him directions how to perform the duties, how to escape the dangers, and how to secure the blessings, which all lie before him. Fix these on his mind by daily inculcation, till their impression is become indelible; then lead him to practice by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, till each indelible impression becomes a strongly rooted habit. Beg incessantly the blessing of God on all this teaching and discipline; and then you have obeyed the injunction of the wisest of men. Nor is there any likelihood that such impressions shall ever be effaced, or that such habits shall ever be destroyed.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: The time of school education is of immense consequence to future life, and should, and does, lead all considerate parents most anxiously to look out for suitable people to entrust with the education of their children, when they are no longer able themselves to educate them at home.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546):  My advice to every person is, not to place his child where the Scripture does not reign paramount. Every institution in which the studies carried on lead to a relaxed consideration of the Word of God must prove corrupting; a weighty sentiment which governments, literary men, and parents in all ages would do well to ponder.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): No age doth despise the Word of God so much as this, which hath most need of it…Go to the universities, and you will find that those who should be as Nazarites, consecrated to God, live as those who have vowed and consecrated themselves to Satan.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We may depend upon it, the one aim of the enemy is to set aside the authority of the Word of God—whether we look at the religion or the education of the country, we observe a fixed purpose to set aside the Bible—a settled determination, not only to cast it down from its excellency, but to fling it completely into the shade.

WILLIAM ARNOT: If you do not adopt the Bible as your standard in training the young, combined training is impossible. If, in moral principles, every man is his own lawgiver, there is no law at all, and no authority…In efficient training two things are absolutely necessary—a rule to show the ignorant what the way is, and an authority to keep the wayward on it…If we do not train the children in truth and righteousness, it would be better that we should not train them at all.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): All training, save on the principles of the Bible, must be injurious. To expand, without soundly enlightening the mind, only increases its power for evil.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The training of children is a most solemn responsibility, and in these days of laxity and lawlessness, an increasingly serious problem. No little grace is needed to defy the general trend of our day, and to take a firm stand.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The best education is education in the best things. Education without religion is like the solar system without the sun…If we know the Lord’s statutes we have the most essential education.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: The most important part of education is that which relates to the communication of godly principles, and the formation of moral habits. You educate your children by your example, your conversations, your likings and dislikings, your home life, your daily behaviour—these will educate them! You began educating your children the moment they were capable of forming an idea. This unconscious education is of more constant and powerful effect, and of far more consequence than that which is direct and apparent. This education goes on at every instant of time. It goes on like time—you can neither stop it, nor turn its course. Your children may read many books, but the first book they read, and that which they continue to read, and by far the most influential—is that of their parents’ example and daily deportment.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): We may see, in our children, the wickedness of the world in embryo: their dislike to religion, their ingenuity at inventing lies, their pride, obstinacy, vanity, envy, and anger, are rank weeds, which if neglected, will overspread their minds, and prevent the growth of every good thing. It is our duty therefore to bestow much pains upon their education; and above all to pray for converting grace to make them new creatures.

ADAM CLARKE: These things observed, and illustrated by your own conduct, the child will never depart from the path of life—and you have God’s word for it.

 

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Unclean Devils in the Souls of Men

Posted on September 18, 2020 by The Editor

Luke 4:31-36

And [Jesus] came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power. And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): I am certain that one of the main causes of the ill state of the Church today is the fact that the devil is being forgotten—any man who believes in the devil today is regarded as almost unintelligent.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Here we have man presented to us as under the direct power of Satan. This is a very solemn phase of man’s condition, and one not sufficiently pondered—not understood.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): In the synagogue at Capernaum, as Christ was there teaching, there was a certain man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil: who was possessed with the devil, and was filled with the spirit of the devil, with a spirit of divination, and was acted by him, to impose upon the people; he influenced his mind as an enthusiast, as well as possessed his body: and this was on the Sabbath day.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It seems the man had lucid intervals; else he could not have been admitted into the synagogue.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Every man, before his conversion, as he is a child of Satan, so, as Ephesians 2:2 hath it, the devil works effectually in him while he is a child of disobedience; he doth ride and act, and fill the hearts of men, as you have it in Acts 5:3…According to the proportion of a man’s wickedness in the state of nature, accordingly hath he devils that possess his soul; that is certain. “According,” saith Paul in that Ephesians 2:2, “to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works now in the children of disobedience.”—When a man is converted, Satan is judged, is cast out. Before, a man was “taken captive of him at his will,” 2 Timothy 2:26.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is possible that those who are very much under the power and working of Satan may yet be found among the worshippers of God…This unclean spirit works in the children of men, in the souls of many, as then in men’s bodies.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): This mode of expression which Luke employs, conveys the idea that the man was driven by the impulse of the devil. By the permission of God, Satan had seized the faculties of his soul in such a manner, as to drive him not only to speak, but to perform other movements, at his pleasure. And thus, when the demoniacs speak, the devils, who have received permission to tyrannize, speak in them and by them.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We should notice, in this passage, the clear religious knowledge possessed by the devil and his agents. Twice in these verses we have proof of this. “I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God,” was the language of an unclean devil in one case; “Thou art Christ the son of God,” was the language of many devils in another.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Observe too, the unclean spirit’s knowledge not only of the birthplace and name, but of the character and divine relationship of Jesus. That is one of the features of demoniacal possession which distinguish it from disease or insanity, and is quite incapable of explanation on any other ground. It gives a glimpse into a dim region, and suggests that the counsels of Heaven, as effected on earth, are keenly watched and understood by eyes whose gleam is unsoftened by any touch of pity or submission.

J. C. RYLE: Yet this knowledge was a knowledge unaccompanied by faith, or hope, or charity. Those who possessed it were miserable fallen beings, full of bitter hatred both against God and man. Let us beware of an unsanctified knowledge of Christianity. It is a dangerous possession, but a fearfully common one in these latter days. We may know the Bible intellectually, and have no doubt about the truth of its contents. We may have our memories well stored with its leading texts, and be able to talk glibly about its leading doctrines. And all this time the Bible may have no influence over our hearts, and wills, and consciences.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: What a contrast to the tempest of the demoniac’s wild whirling words is Christ’s calm speech! He knows His authority, and His word is imperative, curt, and assured: “Hold thy peace!”—literally, “Be muzzled,” as if the creature were a dangerous beast, whose raving and snapping must be stopped. Jesus wishes no acknowledgments from such lips.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): It is both here and in many other places observable, that when the devils made a confession of Christ, yet neither Christ nor His apostles would ever take any notice of it. Truth is never advantaged from the confession of known liars, as the devil was from the beginning.

MATTHEW HENRY: In the breaking of Satan’s power, both the enemy that is conquered shows his malice, and Christ, the conqueror, shows His over-ruling grace. Here, First, The devil showed what he would have done, when he “threw the man in the midst,” with force and fury, as if he would have dashed him to pieces.

THOMAS FULLER (1608-1661): Like a bad tenant—whose lease is out, he hates the landlord and so he does all the damage he can, because he has got notice to quit. Often just before men are converted, they are worse than ever. There is an unusual display of their desperate wickedness, for then the devil has great wrath, now that his time is short.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If Satan must come out of a man, he will do him as much mischief as ever he can before he departs.

MATTHEW HENRY: But, Secondly, Christ showed what a power he had over him, in that he not only forced him to leave him, but to leave him without so much as hurting him—whom Satan cannot destroy, he will do all the hurt he can to; but this is a comfort, he can harm them no further than Christ permits; nay, he shall not do them any real harm. He “came out, and hurt him not;” that is, the poor man was perfectly well in an instant, though the devil left him with so much rage that all that were present thought he had torn him to pieces.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): If any doubt the existence and agency of devils, the history before us is well calculated to satisfy them upon that head.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: I suppose ultimately that the reason we don’t pray more than we do is because we are not clear about the doctrine of the devil, and of the forces of evil, and of hell.  ‘Look here,’ says Paul, ‘if you only realize that you’re not wrestling only against flesh and blood, but against these principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in the high places, well, you’d very soon realize the absolute necessity of prayer,’ Ephesians 6:10-18.  Our Lord knew all about that; our Lord met the devil in single mortal combat; He experienced all the power of the devil and of hell.  I say, it is because we don’t realize that, we fail to pray as we ought.

 

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Can a Christian Be Too Righteous?

Posted on September 11, 2020 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 7:16,17

Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770):  Righteousness over-much! May one say, is there any danger of that? Is it even possible? Can we be too good?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It must be confessed, that the sense of this passage is not obvious at first sight.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): One easily perceives how a premature death is the consequence of an excess of wickedness and folly; but, to make destruction a consequence of an excess or over-affectation of wisdom or righteousness, looks like propounding a riddle.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): “Be not righteous over much” is the sheet anchor of the profane, the ungodly, and the formalist!—We cannot wonder, therefore, that this should be one of their favourite texts—held in high estimation…It seems to admit of so many shades of interpretation, as if it would allow any man his own rule and standard. The insincere professor finds an excuse for loving the world in his heart, and meeting it halfway in his practice. He may have a plea for avoiding all the offence of the cross. He may revolt from the most spiritual doctrines and exercises of the Gospel. He has one answer at hand against every warning.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The world is in their hearts and they have no wish to get it out. They have heard some people say that all conversation about God, the soul and eternity is dull Puritan talk, so they have picked up an expression as parrots often do and they say, “No, we do not want to be Puritans. We do not care to be extra precise and righteous over much.”

CHARLES BRIDGES: Such is the rule, as expounded by the votaries of the world. But is it really possible to transgress it, so as to have too much of the substance of religion? We cannot have religious sentiments and principles too strong, if only they have a right object. We cannot love God too warmly, or honour Him too highly, or strive to serve Him too earnestly, or trust Him too implicitly; because our duty is to love Him with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength. And it is surely absurd to warn the carnal man against an excess of spirituality—the earthly-minded man against the over-much seeking of heavenly things.

C. H. SPURGEON: What, then, does it mean?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This is not meant of true and real righteousness—even moral righteousness—a man cannot be too holy or too righteous; but of a show and ostentation of righteousness, and of such who would be thought to be more righteous and holy than others, and therefore despise those who, as they imagine, do not come up to them; and are very rigid and censorious in their judgment of others, and very severe in their reproofs of them. And many there be, who, by an imprudent zeal for what they judge right, and which sometimes are mere trifles, and by unseasonable reproofs for what is wrong, expose themselves to resentment and danger.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Neither make thyself over-much wise—a wholesome practical rule! Avoid all affectation or high pretensions to superior wisdom. Guard against that opinionative confidence, which seems to lay down the law, and critically finds fault with every judgment differing from our own. The Apostle gives this warning with peculiar emphasis and solemnity—“This I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith,” Romans 12:3. The more humble thou art, the more wary and circumspect thou wilt be; and the more wary, the more safe. A question is put to give energy to the warning—“Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?” Men may be martyrs to trifles magnified unduly. They may bring needless trouble upon themselves, by making conscience of doubtful or subordinate matters.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Either by being too severe in observing, censuring, and punishing the faults of others beyond the rules of equity, without giving any allowance for human infirmity, extraordinary temptations, the state of times, and other circumstances. Or, by being more just than God requires, either laying those yokes and burdens upon a man’s self or others which God hath not imposed upon him, and which are too heavy for him, or condemning or avoiding those things as sinful which God hath not forbidden, which really is superstition, but is here called righteousness abusively, because it is so in appearance, and in the opinion of such persons.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): What is this spirit that condemns? It is a self-righteous spirit. Self is always at the back of it, and it is always a manifestation of self-righteousness, a feeling of superiority, and a feeling that we are all right while others are not.  That then leads to censoriousness, and a spirit that is always ready to express itself in a derogatory manner. And then, accompanying that, there is the tendency to despise others, to regard them with contempt.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Doubtless the contempt of the brethren, moroseness, envy, immoderate estimate of ourselves, and other sinful impulses, clearly show that our love is either very cold, or does not at all exist.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Utmost right may be utmost wrong. He is righteous over much that will remit nothing of his right, but exercise great censures for light offences; this is, as one said, to kill a fly upon a man’s forehead with a mallet.

CHARLES BRIDGES: And thus, unless the exercise of wisdom is tempered with humility and reverence, it may be “the pride that goeth before destruction,” Proverbs 16:18.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: We must remember that men who are equally honest may differ.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Be not opinionative, and conceited of thy own abilities. Set not up for a dictator, nor pretend to give law to, and give judgment upon, all about thee. Set not up for a critic, to find fault with every thing that is said and done.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We are well aware that in this age of fleshly indulgence the majority are greatly in danger of erring on the side of laxity, yet in avoiding this sin, others are in danger of swinging to the other extreme and being “righteous over much.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It seems to be the besetting sin of mankind and one of the most terrible results of the Fall, that there is nothing difficult as to maintain a balance. In correcting one thing we go to such an extreme as to find ourselves in an equally dangerous position…The light-hearted, glib Christian, and the morbid, ultra-sensitive, over-careful, hypochondriacal Christian are both wrong; and there are many such.

MATTHEW POOLE: Righteousness, as well as other virtues, avoids both the extremes, the excess as well as the deficit.

CHARLES BRIDGES: “Turn not to right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil, ” Proverbs 4:27…We have therefore valuable cautions against all extremes. It is wise for us to “make strait paths for our feet,” Hebrews 12:13—to preserve the mean of a sober scriptural righteousness—to cultivate “that gracious humility, which hath ever been the crown and glory of a Christianly-disposed mind.”

 

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The Pursuit of Happiness Part 1

Posted on September 4, 2020 by The Editor

Proverbs 16:20; Ephesians 3:14-17

Whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Men want happiness, where shall they go for it?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): To inquiries after happiness, one answer only can be given. Every thing in the whole creation is forced to confess, “It is not in me, It is not in me.” It can be found in God alone.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “The depth saith, It is not in me, and the sea saith, It is not with me,” Job 28:14.  Men may dig into the bowels of the earth, and there find gold, silver, and precious stones; but these will not give them true happiness. Men may explore foreign countries, and by navigation connect as it were the most distant parts of the earth, and multiply the comforts and luxuries of life; but every voyage and every enjoyment proclaim, True happiness is not here.

C. H. SPURGEON: If the swallow were to fly straight for the north pole in the hope of finding a genial climate, he would not be more foolish than most men are in their supposed pursuit of happiness! Some fly to unchastity and lasciviousness and, in this way both wreck their bodies and damn their souls! Some fly to money-grubbing, raking up their gold and silver till they fancy that they are wealthy, whereas, often the more a man has of these things the more he craves, and it is a poor thing that makes us want more than we have any need of.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): “A man’s life,” therefore—his true happiness, “consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth,” Luke 12:15.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some fancy that they shall find pleasure in the approbation of their fellow men, but before long they discover that the breath of man’s nostrils can never fill an immortal soul.

ADAM CLARKE: Men miss the mark of true happiness in aiming at sensual gratifications; which happiness is to be found only in the possession and enjoyment of the favour of God, from whom their passions continually lead them. He alone hits the mark, and ceases from sin, who attains to God through Christ Jesus.

CHARLES SIMEON: The Psalmist’s choice was the only one that could be made consistently with true wisdom: “There be many that say, Who will shew us any good! Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us,” Psalm 4:6.

ADAM CLARKE: “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased,” Psalm 4:7. Thou hast given my soul what it wanted and wished for. I find now a happiness which earthly things could not produce. I have peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost; such inward happiness as they cannot boast who have got the highest increase of corn and wine; those two things in the abundance of which many suppose happiness to be found.

CHARLES SIMEON: But on the other hand, it is possible to speak of earthly things in terms more contemptuous than either the Word of God, or the experience of His people will justify. It is not uncommon for persons professing the Gospel, or even preaching it, to represent earthly things as altogether worthless. But who is there that finds them so? Who is there that does not experience pain from the want, and satisfaction from the supply, of them? Nor is this feeling at all unbecoming a real Christian: for Christians are men; and, consequently, susceptible of pain or pleasure from the want or the enjoyment of the things that are needful for the body.

C. H. SPURGEON: Such things are not to be overlooked.

CHARLES SIMEON: Let anyone be honest, and he will confess that he is not so independent of earthly things as to feel no comfort from the possession of them, and no grief at their loss.

C. H. SPURGEON: Temporal blessings are not trifles, for the miss of them would be a dire calamity.

CHARLES SIMEON: As for those who affect voluntary poverty and privations, they are no more really mortified to the world than others: they prefer the gratification of their spiritual lusts to merely corporeal indulgences: and whatever they take out of the scale of earthly pleasure, they put, in full proportion, into the opposite scale of pride and self-complacency. They entertain a notion that the mortification of their bodies is meritorious, and that it will raise them in the estimation of God and man; and, under this impression, they pour contempt on earthly comforts. But they only exchange one lust for another that is equally hateful in the sight of God. Their superstition contradicts the testimony of God Himself, who, both under the Old Testament and the New, promises earthly things under the notion of blessings. The whole Mosaic law was enforced with promises of temporal prosperity. Was not that an acknowledgment that temporal prosperity contributed to our comfort? Even under the New Testament dispensation, we are told that “godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come,” 1 Timothy 4:8; and, that “God hath given us all things richly to enjoy,” 1 Timothy 6:18, which shows that enjoyment is connected with the possession of them.

C. H. SPURGEON: Temporal gifts are a part of happiness, but still the heart and soul of happiness lies in the people being right with God, and having a full possession of Him.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): What more can be sought for by a mortal man than to enjoy his God, in Whom there is the fullness of all blessings?

C. H. SPURGEON: Verily the true Christian has a portion of happiness allotted to him here below which far excels all the voluptuous pleasures and intoxicating joys of sense! He has a right to be cheerful, a duty to rejoice evermore! The worldling boasts that he is happier than you are—it is a vain boast, an empty vaunt. His mirth—what does it consists of but quips, cranks, and wanton wiles? His joys but flash and crack and sparkle—like thorns that burn for a few minutes, and then turn to ashes. Their fun will never compare with your happiness! They may have more laughter, but you have more liveliness. They dissipate their spirits, while you renovate your strength! Gloom follows their glee, but your calm eventides forestall bright tomorrows, and your present serenity is the sure presage of a welcome eternity!

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): What more could be said?

JOHN CALVIN: God has offered Himself to you, and His bounty has ever been extended to you, as though He were a fountain from which you might draw enough to satisfy you.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Yea, happy is that soul whose God is the Lord! Reader! Is this your portion? Can you call God your Father, Jesus your Redeemer, God the Spirit your Teacher, Sanctifier, and the Glorifier of Jesus?

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Consider how much it would promote your present happiness to possess such a character. Where can happiness be found on earth, if not in such a family? “Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD,” Psalm 144:15.

 

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A Precept of Duty & A Promise of Payment

Posted on August 28, 2020 by The Editor

Proverbs 3:9, 10; Proverbs 11:25

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “Honour the Lord with thy substance” is a precept which makes it our duty to serve God with our estates. It is the end of our creation and redemption to honour God, to be to Him for a name and a praise―His honour we must show forth, and the honour we have for Him. We must honour Him, not only with our bodies and spirits which are His, but with our estates too, for they also are His.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Our time, our property, our influence, should all be considered His, and nothing as really ours, except the honour and happiness of employing it all for God.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): To ‘honour God with our substance’ is not necessarily to give it away for religious purposes, but to use it devoutly and as He approves. Christianity has more to say about the distribution, as well as the acquisition of wealth, than professing Christians, especially in commercial communities, practically recognize. This precept grips us tight, and is much more than a ceremonial regulation.

MATTHEW HENRY: Worldly wealth is but poor substance, yet, such as it is, we must honour God with it, and then, if ever, it becomes substantial, we must honour God “with our increase.” Where riches increase we are tempted to honour ourselves, Deuteronomy 8:17, and to set our hearts upon the world, Psalm 62:10; but the more God gives us the more we should study to honour Him. It is meant of the increase of the earth, for we live upon annual products, to keep us in constant dependence on God. As God has prospered us in everything, we must honour Him…“Thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,” Deuteronomy 8:18.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): And do you think that He does so in order that we may gratify selfish lusts and indulge extravagant tastes? No, God’s bounty unto us is to be used in works of piety and charity—and not wasted upon luxuries and vanities! Christ still sits near the offering box, Mark 12:41, beholding how we drop in our money!

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Lay out thy estate not only to please and advance thyself or family, but also to glorify God; which is done by the payment of all those offerings and dues which God hath required; by giving according to thy abilities whatsoever is necessary for the support and advancement of God’s worship and service in the world; by free and liberal contributions to those whom God hath made His deputies, and, as I may say, the receivers of His rents, to wit, faithful ministers and good Christians, and all others who need and require thy help. The performance of these duties is here called an honouring of God―and partly because it is, a testimony of our respects to God, of our obedience to Him as our sovereign Lord, and of our thankfulness to Him as our chief Benefactor and Donor of all that we have, and of our belief of His promises made to the faithful practisers of this duty; which if they were believed, the most covetous persons would be the most charitable.

R. K. (19th Century)*: “The liberal soul shall be made fat.” It holds good to this day. “Honour the Lord with thy substance” is a word we do well to remember. Will it not impoverish us? Not a bit.

MATTHEW HENRY: Here is a promise, which makes it our interest to serve God with our estates. It is the way to make a little much―and much more; it is the surest and safest method of thriving: “So shall thy barns be filled with plenty”…If we make our worldly estates serviceable to our religion we shall find our religion very serviceable to the prosperity of our worldly affairs. “Godliness has the promise of the life that now is,” 1 Timothy 4:8, and most of the comfort of it. We mistake if we think that giving will undo us and make us poor. No, giving for God’s honour will make us rich, Haggai 2:19

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): How wonderful is the Lord! He gives the property, gives the heart to use it aright, and recompenses the man for the deed though all the fruit was found from Himself!

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): God takes it for an honour; how should this prevail with us!

R. K. (19th Century): As to niggardly souls, what can we say of them?

A. W. PINK: It is miserliness which impoverishes, Proverbs 11:24―“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He that is covetous, angers the great Giver of all good, whose liberal soul cannot endure churls and misers.

ADAM CLARKE: Whatever God sends us in the way of secular prosperity, there is a portion of it always for the poor, and for God’s cause. When that portion is thus disposed of, the rest is sanctified; when it is withheld, God’s curse is upon the whole.

CHARLES SIMEON: God has said, that “what we give to the poor, we lend unto Him, and He will repay it again,” Proverbs 19:17…Very remarkable is His promise in relation to the present life: “Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again,” Luke 6:38.

MATTHEW HENRY: “So shall thy barns be filled with plenty.” He does not say thy bags, but thy barns; not thy wardrobe replenished, but thy presses: God shall bless thee with an increase of that which is for use, not for show or ornament―for spending and laying out, not for hoarding and laying up. Those that do good with what they have shall have more to do more good with.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): There is no presumption, or enthusiasm in looking for the literal fulfillment of the promise.

A. W. PINK: Of all the miracles performed by the Lord Jesus the feeding of the five thousand is the only one recorded by each of the four Evangelists. This at once intimates that there must be something about it of unusual importance, and therefore it calls for our most diligent study…They “filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten,” John 6:13. How this confirms what we have said about giving out to others. The loaves were augmented by division and multiplied by subtraction! We are never impoverished, but always enriched by giving to others. It is the liberal soul that is made fat. We need never be anxious that there will not be enough left for our own needs. God never allows a generous giver to be the loser. The disciples had more left at the finish than they had at the beginning!

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): There was a man, some called him mad;

The more he gave, the more he had.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): John Bunyan’s quaint rhyme [from Pilgrim’s Progress,] is in itself a suited commentary on these verses. It was propounded as a riddle by Old Honest, and explained by Gaius: “He that bestows his goods upon the poor

Shall have as much again, and ten times more.”

____________

*Editor’s Note: No further information available as to the identity of R.K. 

 

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The Glorious Mysterious Change Yet to Come

Posted on August 21, 2020 by The Editor

Philippians 3:20,21; 1 John 3:2,3

Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

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. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “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.” It is observable, that these are the words of John, who had not only so familiarly conversed with Christ on this sublime and delightful subject, but had seen His transfiguration when Moses and Elias appeared in such shining glory.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): John teaches the same thing as Paul in Colossians 3:3, where he says, “Your life is hid with Christ in God: when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

THOMAS COKE: In our present state, we are not capable of forming an adequate idea of our future selves, or of the glorious scenes which will present themselves to the view of the faithful hereafter; but when our Saviour shall be revealed from heaven, arrayed in all His glories, we are assured that our frail bodies shall be transformed into the likeness of His glorious body.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Very little is known respecting this. We can form no idea of spiritual and glorified bodies. We cannot imagine how extensive will be the capacities of the soul. We have very faint conceptions of perfect holiness and perfect happiness. Even one who had seen Christ transfigured, says, “It doth not appear.” Yet there are some things revealed to us. We shall see Christ, not merely by faith, but with our bodily eyes, Job 19:25-27; not veiled as formerly, but in all His glory.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Of that eternal glory, to which we are begotten and called by Christ Jesus, there are no images or similitudes with which we are acquainted here below, by which we can explain it. Nay, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of men to conceive, of the nature or extent of that glory which shall be revealed, 1 Corinthians 2:9. But this we know—that amidst all that want of conformity we now have to the person and image of our Lord, there will be then a likeness.

JOHN CALVIN: “We shall be like Him,” because He will make our vile body conformable to his glorious body, as Paul also teaches us in Philippians 3:21. And now, indeed, God begins to renew in us His own image, but in what a small measure! Except then we be stripped of all the corruption of the flesh, we shall not be able to behold God face to face. And this is also expressed here, “as He is.” John does not, indeed, say, that there is no seeing of God now; but, as Paul says, “We see now through a glass, darkly,” 1 Corinthians 13:12.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Now we see as in a glass obscurely, as an old man through spectacles, as a weak eye looks upon the sun; but in heaven we shall see Him as He is, so far as a creature is capable of that blissful vision.

CHARLES SIMEON: We shall resemble Him in all His imitable perfections. This resemblance will result from our sight of Him. Even “our bodies shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” This shall be fully accomplished at the great day of His appearing. These things we may be said to “know.” We have already experienced the earnest of them in our hearts. When we believe in Him, we have views of Him which we had not before; these transform the soul into His image.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Those who have in a measure seen Him, are in a measure like Him.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): So certain are the apprehensions of faith, that when He shall appear—or, display His own glory in the appearance of His Son, who is then “to come in the glory of his Father,” Matthew 16:27, we shall be like Him, as it befits children to be unto their Father; His image shall then be perfected in us, which was defaced so greatly in the apostasy [of Adam’s fall], which is restored imperfectly in regeneration, (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10)—and which must be daily improved in progressive sanctification.

JOHN TRAPP: That is true hope that runs out into holiness. Faith and hope purge, and work a suitableness in the soul to the things believed and hoped for.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Those then who hope to live with Him must study the utmost purity from the world, and flesh, and sin; they must grow in grace and holiness. Not only does their Lord command them to do so, but their new nature inclines them so to do; yea, their hope of heaven will dictate and constrain them to do so—It is a contradiction to such hope to indulge sin and impurity. And therefore, as we are sanctified by faith, we must be sanctified by hope; that we may be saved by hope we must be purified by hope. It is the hope of hypocrites, and not of the sons of God, that makes an allowance for the gratification of impure desires and lusts.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” Not that any man can purify or cleanse himself from sin. This is only owing to the grace of God and blood of Christ; nor that any man can be so pure and holy as Christ is, who is free from all sin, both original and actual…A true hope of that eternal happiness, which lies in likeness to Christ, and in the vision of Him, is only founded on His person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice: and this hope every man has not, only he who is born again; for this grace is implanted in regeneration, and bestowed upon them as a free grace gift.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): In the matter of holiness, how is it with our souls?

ROBERT HAWKER: When the holiest child of God takes a view of himself, and dissects the anatomy of his own heart, what an humbling prospect is before him. And when he contemplates the life of Him, of whom it is said, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, what a striking dissimilarity instantly appears! Is it possible the child of God will say, as the question ariseth in the heart, that where there is so little conformity—yea, so much opposition—will there ever be a likeness and agreement? When these questions arise in the soul, I know no scripture more sweet and consolatory to silence fears, and strengthen faith and hope, than this very blessed verse: “We shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

CHARLES SIMEON: Our Lord has given us the fullest assurance of these things in John 17:22-24. Paul also leaves us no room to doubt.

C. H. SPURGEON: Discouragement and despair will not purify you, doubt and darkness will only make you worse than you were before; but the indulgence of this blessed hope that you are to be like Christ will help you to purify yourself, “even as he is pure.” Therefore, beloved, have hope in God. Remember that it is one of Satan’s tricks and snares to try to discourage you, but it is God’s will to increase your hope, for thereby you increase in purity.

 

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