A Prescription For Restoring Spiritual Health

Posted on August 14, 2020 by The Editor

Lamentations 3:40; Psalm 119:37

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Have we never inwardly backslidden, so that if God had not for His own mercy’s sake restored us, we must have departed forever?

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Let the spiritual believer take only the history of a single week as the gauge of the general tenor of his life, and what a lesson for him of the downward, earthly tendency of his soul! In one short week, how have the wheels lessened in their turning; how has the timepiece of his soul lost its power; how have the chords of his heart become unstrung!

CHARLES SIMEON: Since all are “bent to backslide,” more or less, it is of great importance to inquire of what kind our backslidings are, and to see whether they are merely the infirmities of an upright soul, or the revolt of an apostate. It is indeed difficult to determine this with precision; yet something may be said to aid you in this inquiry.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Be very honest and diligent in ascertaining the cause of your soul’s deadness. The correct knowledge of this is necessary to its removal; and its removal is essential to the recovery of the inner life from its relapsed state. Is it indulged sin? Is it the neglect of private prayer? Is it worldliness, carnality, carelessness? Any one of these would so grieve the Spirit of God within you as to dry up the spirituality of your soul.

CHARLES SIMEON: Examine diligently the cause, the duration, and the effects of your backslidings. Those of the sincere arise from the weakness of their flesh, while yet their spirit is as willing as ever: but those of the hypocrite proceed from a radical disaffection to the ways of God. Those of the sincere continue but a little time, and are an occasion of greater diligence: those of the hypocrite remain, and become the habit of his soul. Those of the sincere humble him in the dust: those of the hypocrite produce a blindness of mind, a scarred conscience, and a hardness of heart.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Be not beguiled with the belief that the real recovery has taken place simply because that, conscious of your state, you acknowledge and deplore it in meaningless regrets. “The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing,” Proverbs 13:4 Observe that he has his desires, but nothing more, because with them he is satisfied. Let this not be your state.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is the great concern of those who have backslidden from God to hasten their return to Him…David, being convinced of his sin, poured out his soul to God in prayer for mercy and grace.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: His prayer is for divine quickening. His anxious inquiry is, “What course am I to adopt when I find deadness in my soul, and cannot feel, weep, sigh, nor desire—when to read and meditate, to hear and pray, seem an irksome task—when I cannot see the Saviour’s beauty nor feel Him precious nor labour as zealously or suffer as patiently for Him as I would?” The answer is at hand: Look again to Jesus. This is the only remedy that can meet your case. Go directly to Christ; He is the Fountain; He is the living Well.

CHARLES SIMEON: There is no other way for our continuance in life than that by which we are first brought into a state of spiritual existence. As at the beginning it is said, “He that hath the Son of God hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life,” 1 John 5:12; so must it be said even to the end: for “all our fresh springs are in Him;”―Have we continually fresh sins to be forgiven? There is no way of being cleansed from them but by washing continually in “the fountain which has been once opened for sin and uncleanness,” Zechariah 13:1. Have we on account of our remaining corruptions continual need of fresh supplies of grace? There is no other source of grace but He: “It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell,” Colossians 1:19. and “out of His fulness must we all receive, even grace for grace,” John 1:16.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “He restoreth my soul,” Psalm 23:3—Either when backslidden, and He brings it back again when led or driven away, and heals its backslidings; or rather, when fainting, swooning, and ready to die away, He fetches it back again, relieves, refreshes, and comforts with the discoveries of His love, with the promises of His word, and with the consolations of His Spirit, and such like reviving cordials.

CHARLES SIMEON: If you reply, “There is no hope for me, because I have once known the Lord, and have backslidden from him;” be it so; yet, as a backslider, hear what a gracious message He sends thee by the Prophet Jeremiah: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings,” Jeremiah 3:2.

MATTHEW HENRY: Though our sins have been very great and very many, and though we have often backslidden and are still prone to offend, yet God will repeat His pardon, and welcome even backsliding children that return to Him in sincerity.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Seek earnestly and believingly until you possess more abundant life from Christ. Seek a gracious revival of the life of God in your soul. Seek a clearer manifestation of Christ, a renewed baptism of the Spirit, a more undoubted evidence of your conversion, a surer brighter hope of heaven. Thus seeking, you will find it―Oh, the joy of a revived state of the inner life of God! It is the joy of spring after the gloom and chill of winter. It is the joy of the sunlight after a cloudy and dark day―“Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved,” Psalm 80:19.

CHARLES SIMEON: Let us only examine the records of our own hearts, and call our own ways to remembrance; and there is not one of us who will not be ready to look upon himself as the greatest monument of mercy that can be found on earth.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see that, while all emptiness exists in you, all fullness dwells in Jesus. There is a fathomless depth in the heart of Christ of love unchangeable, of grace all-sufficient, of truth immutable, of salvation from all sin and trial and sorrow. It is commensurate with your need and vast as His own infinity. Your grace can never be too low, your frame too depressed, your path too perplexing, your sorrow too keen, your sin too great, nor your condition too extreme, for Christ.

 

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The Spiritual Blindness of the Jews

Posted on August 7, 2020 by The Editor

Romans 10:1-3; Romans 3:22—2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Corinthians 3:14-16; Romans 11:7,8,25

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe—For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day…For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): See how they went astray through inconsiderate zeal! for they sought to set up a righteousness of their own; and this foolish confidence proceeded from their ignorance of God’s righteousness.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This the Jews submitted not to, because they had no true humble sense of themselves as sinners, nor did they care to acknowledge themselves as such; which submission to Christ’s righteousness requires and necessarily involves—and because they had an overweening opinion of their own righteousness, which they trusted to, and depended upon, imagining it to be blameless, and to contain all that the law required, and therefore they stood in no need of any other; and as for the righteousness of Christ, they had it in contempt; their carnal minds being enmity to Him, they were not subject to His righteousness.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They are so proud that they will not submit to be saved by the righteousness of another, even though that other is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Yet this is the main point—the submission of our proud will to the righteousness of God.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  Unbelief is a non-submission to the righteousness of God.

JOHN CALVIN: The first step towards obtaining the righteousness of God is to renounce our own righteousness: for why is it, that we seek righteousness from another, except that necessity constrains us?

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): What is the real state of the case before us? They were not all unbelievers: several thousands of them had been converted to the Christian faith; though the body of the nation, and especially its rulers, civil and spiritual, continued opposed to Christ and His doctrine.

JOHN GILL: Israel—the body and bulk of that people, who sought for life and righteousness by their obedience to the law, which they in general were in quest of, and pursuit after, but did not obtain—for the thing was impracticable and impossible—no life nor righteousness are ever to be had by the law of works; they did not obtain life and righteousness, because they sought them in a wrong place and in a wrong way; they sought them not by faith in Christ Jesus, where they are only to be had, but by their own works, which fall abundantly short.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): What is the conclusion? It is this: that Israel in general hath not obtained justification; but those of them only who believe. And the rest were blinded by their own willful prejudice.

JOHN GILL: As they knew not the Messiah, so neither would they understand; they sinned willfully against light and knowledge; they shut their eyes against all that evidence and demonstration given of Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah, by His doctrines and miracles…And they were also blinded by God Himself, so that they could not believe; for after all this, it was but just with God to give them up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart.

MATTHEW HENRY: Blindness and hardness are expressive of the same senselessness and stupidity of spirit. They shut their eyes, and would not see; this was their sin: and then God, in righteous judgment, blinded their eyes, that they could not see; this was their punishment.

JOHN CALVIN: He assigns a reason, why they are so long in blindness.

JOHN WESLEY: God hath at length withdrawn His Spirit, and so given them up to “a spirit of slumber,” Isaiah 29:10; which is fulfilled unto this day.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): They do not see that chain of prophecy, commencing with the promise of “the Seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head,” Genesis 3:15, and gradually proceeding through all successive ages, with ever increasing clearness and precision, till it terminated in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In this respect the Jews of later ages are blinder than their forefathers. The Jews previous to the coming of Christ did so far understand the prophecies, that they knew of what tribe the Messiah was to be born, and what was to be the place of his nativity: they knew also, that the various prophecies which were cited by our Lord and his Apostles were cited according to their true import: for we do not find them on any occasion controverting the application of those passages to the promised Messiah. But Jews of later ages, seeing how demonstrably those passages prove the Messiahship of Jesus, have resorted to other interpretations, in order to weaken the force of the arguments with which they are pressed.

MATTHEW HENRY: Of all judgments spiritual judgments are the sorest, and most to be dreaded, though they make the least noise. Ever since Isaiah prophesied—or, rather, ever since the first preaching of the gospel—It is still true concerning multitudes of them, even to this day in which we live; they are hardened and blinded, the obstinacy and unbelief go by succession from generation to generation, according to their own fearful imprecation, which entailed the curse: “His blood be upon us and upon our children,” Matthew 27:25.

CHARLES SIMEON: But it shall not be always so: there is a time coming, “when that infatuated nation shall turn unto the Lord; and then the veil shall be taken away.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Blindness is happened to Israel in part only. They were not all blinded or hardened; or this blindness should not last always, but for a time.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is neither total nor perpetual.

MATTHEW POOLE: The latter sense agrees best with the word “mystery.” Secondly, another part of this mystery was, that this blindness of the Jews should continue till “the fulness of the Gentiles” came in.

JOHN GILL: Since the blindness of the Jews is not yet removed, it seems plain that the full number of God’s chosen ones among the Gentiles is not yet completed in regeneration; for as soon as ever they are all called and brought in, the vail will be taken away from the Jews, and they will be turned unto the Lord.

JOHN WESLEY: Israel, therefore, is neither totally nor finally rejected.

CHARLES SIMEON: How great will that “mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh,” appear to them, when they shall see, that that very Jesus, whom their fathers crucified, was indeed “the Lord of glory,” “Jehovah’s fellow,” “Emmanuel, God with us!” Then they will see, that every part of their ceremonial law was fulfilled and realized in Him: that He was the true Temple, “in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;” the altar, which sanctifieth all our gifts; the sacrifice, that taketh away the sins of the whole world; the priest, that offered that sacrifice, and is gone with his own blood within the vail, and ever liveth there to make intercession for us. Then they will see why God repeatedly gave that particular command to Moses, “See thou make all things according to the pattern shewn to thee in the mount.” Even the minutest point that was revealed to Moses, portrayed something in the character of Christ—all the offices of Christ, as Prophet, Priest, and King, together with all that He should do in the execution of them, was there delineated: and, when the completion and concentration of them all shall be made manifest to them, with what wonder and admiration will they exclaim, “O the depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”

 

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Solomon’s Worldly Extravagance & His Son’s Stupidity

Posted on July 31, 2020 by The Editor

1 Kings 7:1,2,9-11; Ecclesiastes 2:4-11

Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon….Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken to wife…All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court. And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits. And above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars.

I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Solomon surrounded himself with every kind of luxury, gathered large possessions, gave himself over to music and to women, allowing full reign to all his desires.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He gave himself much to building, both in the city and in the country; and, having been at such vast expense in the beginning of his reign to build a house for God, he was the more excusable if afterwards he pleased his own fancy in building for himself; he began his work at the right end, Matthew 6:33; not as the people that “ceiled their own houses” while God’s house lay waste, Haggai 1:4; and it prospered accordingly. In building, he had the pleasure of employing the poor and doing good to posterity. We read of Solomon’s buildings, and they were all great works, such as became his purse, and spirit, and great dignity.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “I made me great works.”—magnificent works for my honour and delight.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “I builded me houses”—palace after palace; the house of the forest of Lebanon; a house for the queen; the temple, besides many other buildings.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Houses and offices for his stores, for his servants, his horsemen, and chariots, I Kings 7:1; and in fine chariots and spacious buildings men take a great deal of pleasure, and promise themselves much happiness in dwelling in them, and in perpetuating their names to posterity by them, Psalm 49:11.

MATTHEW POOLE: “I made me gardens.”—“paradises” in Hebrew, gardens of pleasure.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): And herein perhaps he gratified Pharaoh’s daughter—the Egyptians took great pleasure in gardens—like as that king of Assyria did his wife with a garden that hung in the air, to his incredible cost.

MATTHEW HENRY: See his mistake: he enquired after the good works he should do, Ecclesiastes 2:3, and, in pursuit of the enquiry, applied himself to great works. Good works indeed are truly great, but many are reputed great works which are far from being good, wondrous works which are not gracious, Matthew 7:22.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Other evils of his which gradually crept in, were, the multiplying of gold and silver for himself; the multiplying of horses also, and that “from Egypt;” and, above all, the multiplying of wives. All of these things were forbidden in as plain and express a manner as could be conceived, Deuteronomy 17:16,17.

MATTHEW HENRY: Solomon took many women, so many that, at last, they amounted to 700 wives and 300 concubines…But this was not all: They were strange women, Moabites, Ammonites, etc., of the nations which God had particularly forbidden them to intermarry with, 1 Kings 11:2 and he tolerated and maintained his wives in their idolatry and made no scruple of joining with them in it—he built chapels for their gods.

CHARLES SIMEON: “God was angry with him,”—as well He might be; and He declared to Solomon that the kingdom of which he had rendered himself so unworthy, should be taken from him, and given to a servant of his.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): In mercy God deferred the execution of His sentence till his son’s reign, but left Solomon to lament the approaching desolations, when all the glory that he hoped to transmit to his posterity would be so eclipsed.

JOHN TRAPP: “I got me servants.” Too many by one—Jeroboam.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Jeroboam, while a young man, was employed by Solomon to superintend the improvements and buildings at Millo, 1 Kings 11:27; and had so distinguished himself there by his industry and good conduct as to attract general notice, and to induce Solomon to set him over all the labourers employed in that work, belonging to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

ADAM CLARKE: Jeroboam becomes his enemy, and the reason why, 1 Kings 11:26-28. Ahijah the prophet meets Jeroboam, and promises, in the name of the Lord, that God will rend Israel from the family of Solomon, and give him ten tribes. Solomon, hearing of this, seeks to put Jeroboam to death, who escapes to Egypt, where he continues till the death of Solomon.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Then comes Solomon’s son Rehoboam on the scene.

MATTHEW HENRY: The people desired a treaty with Rehoboam at Shechem, and he condescended to meet them there…The meeting being appointed, they sent for Jeroboam to come out of Egypt and be their speaker. “And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee,” 1 Kings 12:4,5.

ADAM CLARKE: They seem here to complain of two things—excessively laborious service, and a heavy taxation.

MATTHEW HENRY: Yet the complaint was groundless and unjust. Never did people live more at ease than they did, nor in great plenty. Did they pay taxes? It was to advance the strength and magnificence of their kingdom…Were many servile hands employed about them? They were not the hands of the Israelites…I know nothing in Solomon’s administration that could make the people’s yoke grievous, unless perhaps the women whom in his latter days he doted on, connived at oppressing them.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: No doubt, the luxury and splendour of Solomon’s brilliant reign had an underside of oppression. Probably the severity was exaggerated in these complaints—but there was enough truth in the complaint to make it plausible and effective for catching the people. At first it appears that Solomon employed none of the Israelites in any drudgery; but it is likely that, as he grew profane, he grew tyrannical and oppressive: and at the works of Millo he changed his conduct; and there, in all probability, were the seeds of disaffection sown…The oppression of forced labour and heavy taxation no doubt was the reason for the readiness with which the ten tribes rallied to Jeroboam’s flag.

MATTHEW POOLE: Heavy taxes and impositions—not only for the temple and his magnificent buildings, but for the expenses of his numerous court, and of so many wives and concubines, whose luxury and idolatry must needs be very costly.

JOHN TRAPP: Rehoboam, with one churlish breath, lost ten tribes. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger,” Proverbs 15:1.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Rehoboam’s disregard of the people’s terms was ‘a thing brought about of the Lord,’ but it was Rehoboam’s sin none the less: “And the king answered the people roughly…My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions,” 1 Kings 12:13,14.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Jeroboam withdrew the ten tribes from their allegiance to Rehoboam.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Notice also, that God is in events which are produced by the sin and the stupidity of men. This breaking up of the kingdom of Solomon into two parts was the result of Solomon’s sin and Rehoboam’s folly, yet God was in it—“This thing is from Me,” says the Lord, 1 Kings 12:24…Every sin has one twig in God’s rod appropriated to itself. Suffice it to say, that in God’s hand there are punishments for each particular transgression; and it is very singular to notice how in Bible history almost every saint has been chastened for the sin he has committed by the sin itself falling upon his own head.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): And the sins of the fathers will be recompensed upon the children, if they walk in their fathers’ steps.

 

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The Scriptural Christian’s View of the World

Posted on July 24, 2020 by The Editor

1 John 3:16; 1 John 5:19

All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): We have here the Christian view of the surrounding world. I need not, I suppose, remind you that John learned from Jesus to use that phrase ‘the world,’ not as meaning the aggregate of material things, but as meaning the aggregate of godless men. If you want a modern translation of the word, it comes very near a familiar one with us nowadays, and that is “Society”—the mass of people that are not of God.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): “The whole world lieth in wickedness,” or, as it should read, “in the wicked one,” that is, Satan.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  Under the term world, the Apostle no doubt includes the whole human race. By saying that it lieth in “the wicked one,” he represents it as being under the dominion of Satan.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771):  The men of the world, the greater part of the inhabitants of it, are as they were when they came into it, not being born of God; these are addicted to sin and, wickedness; the bias of their minds is to it, they are set upon it, and give themselves up to it, are immersed in it, and are under the power of it: or “in the wicked one,”―Satan, “the god of this world,” 2 Corinthians 4:4; they are under his influence, and led according to his will, and they are governed by him, and are at his beck and command; and this is known by sad experience.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Do not the actions, tempers, propensities, opinions and maxims of all worldly men prove and illustrate this?

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: You have only to look around you to see that.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Look around, and see what are the dispositions and habits of all around us. Are not all “fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,” Ephesians 2:3, without affecting anything higher than the gratification of their own corrupt appetites?

ADAM CLARKE: Yes―their actions are opposed to the law of God; their conversations shallow, and false; their contracts forced, interested, and deceitful; their quarrels puerile, ridiculous, and ferocious; and their friendships hollow, insincere, capricious, and fickle―all the effect of their lying in the arms of the wicked one; for thus they become instinctive with his own spirit: and because they are of their father the devil, therefore his lusts they will do.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Yea, as Christ is said to be in us, and we in Christ mutually; so of the world it is said, that the devil is in them, and that they are in the devil.

CHARLES SIMEON: If we would have our judgment still more according to truth, let us look within our own hearts, and see what horrible abominations are harboured there. We know nothing of others, but by their words and actions: but we have a juster criterion within our own bosoms: we may search into our own thoughts and desires; we may discern the base mixture that there is in all our motives and principles of action—Yes, in our own hearts there is an epitome of all the evil that is in the world: and, if we know any thing of ourselves, we shall stand amazed that God should look upon such a world as this, and give His only dear Son to save those who so richly merited His hottest indignation…And who is it that has made the difference between you? Must you not say, “By the grace of God I am what I am?”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The solemn alternative opens before every one of us―either I am “of God,” or I am “in the wicked one.” Now, the more a man is conscious that he himself, by faith in Jesus Christ, has passed into the family of God, and possesses the life that comes from Him, the more keen will be his sense of the evil that lies round him, and of the contrast between the maxims and prevalent practices and institutions and ways of the world, and those which belong to Christ and Christ’s people. So the more we feel the sharp contrast between the blessedness of the Divine life which we believe ourselves to possess, and the darkness and evils of the world that lies around us, the more we should sorrow, and the more we should sympathize, and the more should succour be ours. Look on the world as Christ looked on it. There must be no contempt; there must be no self-righteousness; there must be no pluming ourselves on our own prerogatives. There must be a sorrow caught from Him, and a tenderness of pity, like that which forced itself to His eyes as He gazed across the valley at the city sparkling in the sunshine, or such as wrung His heart when He looked upon the multitude as sheep without a shepherd.

CHARLES SIMEON: Look around you and see how many even of your own friends and relatives are yet in bondage to their sins; whilst you have been delivered with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Work for the deliverance of your brethren from the alien tyrant. Notice the difference between the two clauses in the text. “We are of God;” that is a permanent relation. “The world lieth in the wicked one;” that is not necessarily a permanent relation. The world is not ‘of ’ the wicked one; it is “in” him, and that may be altered―“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil,” 1 John 3:8; and for that purpose He has called us to be His servants. Brethren, for ourselves let us remember that we cannot better help the world to get away from the alien tyrant that rules it, than by walking in the midst of men, with the aureola of this joyful confidence and certitude around us.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Let us be His witnesses. Let us testify from our own experience.

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

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Our eyes are far too apt to look below, or to look within, or to look around, but it is wisdom on our part to look up. There is always something blessed to see upward, especially when we look up to Him who dwells in the highest heavens—our Father, our Saviour, our Comforter. There is little down here that is worth looking at, but there is everything for our comfort when we look up.

 

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Light on the Beauty of Holiness & the Colours of the Rainbow

Posted on July 17, 2020 by The Editor

Matthew 17:1,2; Psalm 27:4—2 Chronicles 20:21

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD—And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Light is used throughout Scripture as a synonym for infinite holiness, purity, and perfect righteousness.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The Scripture uses light as an emblem for God in His holiness.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He is “glorious in holiness,” Exodus 15:12; His holiness is His glory. It is that attribute which angels adore, Isaiah 6:3.

JOSEPH LE CONTE (1823-1901): Shall I call holiness an attribute? Is it not rather the glorious combination of all His attributes into one perfect whole?

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Holiness is more, for it is the beauty of the Divine Being Himself; not so much a separate attribute of His nature, as the perfection of all His attributes. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all,” 1 John 1:5.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): In light, all the colours are blended. A perfectly white substance combines all the colours of the rainbow merged in true proportion…God’s attributes are like the amazing crystal shining out with its clear white light, but which may be divided into all the colours of the prism, each different and all beautiful.

JOSEPH LE CONTE: From the insufferable white light of the Absolute they all seem to diverge and separate into prismatic hues, so they all seem again to converge and meet and combine in the dazzling white radiance of His holiness. This, therefore, is rather the intense whiteness, purity, clearness, the infinite lustre and splendour of His perfect nature, like a gem without flaw, without stain, and without colour. All of His attributes are glorious, but in this we have a combination of all into a still more glorious whole. It is for this reason that it is so frequently in Scripture associated with the Divine beauty. The poetic nature of the Psalmist is exalted to ecstasy in contemplation of the “beauty of holiness,” the “beauty of the Lord.” Beauty is a combination of elements according to the laws of harmony; the more beautiful the parts or elements, and the more perfect the harmonious combination, the higher the beauty. How high and glorious, therefore, must be the beauty of this attribute which is the perfect combination of all His infinite perfections!

ANDREW GRAY (1805-1861): The colours of the rainbow are beautiful, when taken one by one. But there is a beauty in the rainbow which consists in their blended radiance. In like manner do the several perfections, which unite in the nature of God, produce a glorious beauty. Holiness is beautiful; mercy is beautiful; truth is beautiful. But, over and above, there is a beauty which belongs to such combinations and harmonies as the Psalmist describes, when he tells us, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” Psalm 85:10; “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep,” Psalm 36:5,6.

C. H. SPURGEON: The dazzling radiance of God is too glorious for our mortal eyes, but each Revelation teaches us more of His beauty and perfectness.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): God, it is true, is, in His essence, invisible: “He dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto; and no man hath seen him, or can see him,” 1 Timothy 6:16…Behold then, I say, that Almighty God, is become visible to us in the person of His Son: as it is said, “No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him,” John 1:18.

WILLIAM DAWSON (1773-1841): As all the colours of the rainbow meet in one sunbeam, so all the perfections of God as perfectly unite, and more beautifully shine forth, in the person and offices of Jesus Christ.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It is worthy of note that when the white light is broken into its varied parts we have just seven colours, as seen in the rainbow…Seven is the number of perfection, and we do not reach perfection till we come to Christ.

MATTHEW HENRY: The great truth which we declare, is that “God is light,” “dwells in the light,” and “covers Himself with light,” Psalm 104:2. Therefore when Christ would appear in the form of God, He appeared “in light,” the most glorious of all visible beings, the first-born of the creation, and most nearly resembling the eternal Parent…All His body was altered, as His face was; so that beams of light, darting from every part through His clothes, made them white and glittering—Christ is “the Light,” John 1:5; while He was in the world, He “shined in darkness,” and therefore “the world knew him not,” John 1:10, John 9:5.

C. H. SPURGEON: Like the drops of a luster, which reflect a rainbow of colours when the sun is glittering upon them and each one, when turned in different ways, from its prismatic form shows all the varieties of colour, so the mercy of God is one and yet many, the same yet ever changing, a combination of all the beauties of love blended harmoniously together.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: But we need all the seven prismatic tints to make the perfect white light—the bright light of holiness.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Some think the rainbow serves to put in mind both the destruction of the old world by water, through its watery colours, and of the present world by fire, through its fiery ones.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): His justice is part of His holiness.

A. W. PINK: God magnified His justice, for when sin—by imputation—was found upon His Son, He called for the sword to smite Him, Zechariah 13:7. He magnified His holiness: His hatred of sin was more clearly shown at the Cross than it will be in the lake of fire. He magnified His power by sustaining the Mediator under such a load as was laid upon Him. He magnified His truth by fulfilling His covenant engagements and bringing forth from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, Hebrews 12:20. He magnified His grace by imputing to the ungodly all the merits of Christ. This, then, was the prime purpose of God in the Atonement: to magnify Himself…A dark background it was indeed, but a dark background is required to bring out the white light of Divine holiness.

CHARLES SIMEON: See then in Him, and in His cross, not some perfections only, but all, even all the perfections of the Godhead shining in their utmost splendour.

MATTHEW HENRY: One sun enlightens the whole world, so does one Christ, and there needs no more. Christ in calling Himself the light expresses, what He is in Himself—most excellent and glorious. And what He is to the world—the fountain of light, enlightening every man. What a dungeon would the world be without the sun! So would it be without Christ by Whom “light came into the world,” John 1:19.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): And thou art going into the dark, as soon as thou turn thy back upon Him.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Holiness is light, as well as truth.

 

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The Ninth Plague – Egyptian Darkness

Posted on July 10, 2020 by The Editor

Exodus 10:21-23

And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): We cannot but think that this particular plague had something in it more than ordinarily instructive.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “He sent darkness, and made it dark,” Psalm 105:28. It was no natural or common darkness.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): And a most dreadful plague it was, and therefore is put first of the ten in Psalm 105:28; and in the destruction of the spiritual Egypt it is produced by the fifth vial, which is poured out upon the “seat of the beast,” Revelation 16:10.

THOMAS S. MILLINGTON (1821-1906): A darkness “which may be felt.”—more oppressive and intolerable the longer it continued; “felt” upon their bodies as a physical infliction, and “felt” even more in their souls in agonies of fear and apprehension; such a darkness as that which, the fifth angel pours out upon the seat of the beast: “Whose kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds,” Revelation 16:10,11.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): We may observe concerning this plague that it was a total darkness.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It is easily interpreted. God is Light: darkness is the withdrawal of light. Therefore, this judgment of darkness, gave plain intimation that Egypt was now abandoned by God. Nothing remained but death itself. The darkness continued for three days—a full manifestation of God’s withdrawal.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): We have darkness presented in four different ways in Scripture. There is the natural darkness, “having the understanding darkened,” Ephesians 4:18. This darkness is natural to all men. No man by nature understands God.

CHARLES SIMEON: The ungodly man is truly in darkness with respect to every thing that is of a spiritual nature. He neither does, nor can, comprehend any thing of that kind, for want of a spiritual discernment.

A. W. PINK: “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble,” Proverbs 4:19, and this because they are “without God in the world,” Ephesians 2:12.

H. A. IRONSIDE: In the second place, we have willful darkness. Our Lord Jesus said, “This is the condemnation”—not that men were born sinners, but “that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil,” John 3:19. Men are therefore responsible when they reject the light that comes to them. That is the condemnation. That is willful darkness.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,” 2 Corinthians 4:3. Why should the apostle Paul put an if upon its being hid? all mankind are in a lost and perishing condition through sin; though some will not be lost eternally, whom God has chosen, Christ has redeemed, and who by the Spirit are brought to believe in Christ; but there are others who will be lost for ever; to these the Gospel is hid; they are such, who are left to the native blindness of their minds, and are given up to a reprobate mind, and to judicial darkness.

H. A. IRONSIDE: The solemn result of willful darkness is judicial darkness. In Jeremiah 13:16 we read, “Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.” Does a God who is Light sometimes cause darkness? Yes, if men deliberately reject and turn their backs on the light. Pharaoh rejected the light. He hardened himself against God, and God hardened him in his sins…When people refuse light, the light is withdrawn, and they are given up to judicial darkness.

CHARLES SIMEON: Truly in relation to the future world he is in darkness, even in “a darkness that may be felt.” If he reflect at all, he can feel nothing but “a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation to consume him,” Hebrews 10:27, and has no prospect but that of “the blackness of darkness for ever,” Jude 1:13.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): And there is no darkness so gross or so terrible as that judicial darkness which settles down upon the heart governed by self-will while professing to have light from God—“because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And “for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,” 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.—How awful is this! How solemnly it speaks to the whole professing church! How solemnly it addresses the conscience of both the writer and the reader of these lines! Light not acted upon becomes darkness—Matthew 6:23 “If the light which is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

MATTHEW HENRY: Pharaoh had time to consider, if he would have improved it…It was a righteous thing with God thus to punish them. Pharaoh and his people had rebelled against the light of God’s word, which Moses spoke to them; justly therefore are they punished with darkness, for they loved it and chose it rather. The blindness of their minds brings upon them this darkness of the air. Never was a mind so blinded as Pharaoh’s, never was the air so darkened as Egypt’s.

A. W. PINK: Finally, this three days of dense darkness upon Egypt utters a solemn warning for all who are now out of Christ.

H. A. IRONSIDE: If you persist in loving darkness rather than light God may some day say, “If you want the darkness you may have it,” and you will enter into the darkness forever. That is the doom of those who have refused the light—eternal darkness!

MATTHEW HENRY: Let us dread the consequences of sin; if three days’ darkness was so dreadful, what will everlasting darkness be?

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,” John 8:12. Let this saying sink down into our hearts. It is weighty and full of meaning…He only is the true Light Who came into the world to save sinners, Who died as our substitute on the cross, and sits at God’s right hand.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Hence it follows, that out of Christ there is not even a spark of true light.

A. W. PINK: Unsaved reader, if you continue in your present course, if you go on slighting the mercy of God, if you refuse to heed His warning to flee from the wrath to come, you shall be finally cast into “the outer darkness,” Matthew 8:12. Neglect, then, thy soul’s salvation no longer. Turn even now unto Him who is “the Light of the world,” and “in His light thou shalt see light,” Psalm 36:9.

 

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True Liberty

Posted on July 3, 2020 by The Editor

John 8:32; John 8:36; 2 Corinthians 3:17

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Liberty is the birthright of every man—Liberty is the heirloom of all the sons and daughters of Adam. But where do you find liberty unaccompanied by religion? True it is that all men have a right to liberty, but it is equally true that you do not meet it in any country except where you find the Spirit of the Lord. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” I have commenced with this idea because I think worldly men ought to be told that if religion does not save them, yet it has done much for them—that the influence of religion has won them their liberties.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): This fact is so very plain and undeniable, that I cannot but think that, were men to consider it fairly, they would soon be convinced how much they are indebted to the revelation of the Gospel.

C. H. SPURGEON: This land is the home of liberty. But why is it so? I take it, it is not so much because of our institutions as because the Spirit of the Lord is here—the spirit of true and hearty religion! There was a time, remember, when England was no more free than any other country, when men could not speak their sentiments freely, when kings were despots, when Parliaments were but a name. Who won our liberties for us? Who has loosed our chains? Under the hand of God, I say the men of religion—men like the great and glorious Oliver Cromwell, who would have liberty of conscience, or die—men who, if they could not reach kings’ hearts because they were unsearchable in cunning, would strike kings low, rather than they would be slaves. We owe our liberty to men of religion—to men of the stern Puritan school—men who scorned to play the coward and yield their principles at the command of man.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): How did the United States of America ever come into being? It would have never come into being were it not for the Protestant Reformation. The Puritan fathers who crossed the Atlantic in the Mayflower were men who were products of the Reformation, and it was the desire not only for religious liberty, but also for democratic liberty, that drove them to face the hazards of crossing the Atlantic at that time and to establish a new life, a new state, and a new system of government in the New World. You cannot explain the story of the United States of America except in terms of the Protestant Reformation.

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): The necessity of liberty for the Gospel, and of the Gospel for liberty, is now acknowledged by all thoughtful men.

C. H. SPURGEON: And if we are ever to maintain our liberty—as God grant we may—it shall be kept by religious liberty—by religion! This Bible is the Magna Charta of old Britain! Its Truths, its Doctrines have snapped our fetters and they never can be riveted on again, while men with God’s Spirit in their hearts, go forth to speak its Truths. In no other land, save where the Bible is unclasped—in no other realm, save where the Gospel is preached—can you find liberty! Roam through other countries, and you speak with bated breath. You are afraid. You feel you are under an iron hand. The sword is above you. You are not free. Why? Because you are under the tyranny engendered by a false religion—you have not free Protestantism there and it is not till Protestantism comes, that there can be freedom! It is where the Spirit of the Lord is that there is liberty and nowhere else.

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

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): We breathe the air of civil liberty―It cost our forefathers many struggles to bring forward and establish this national blessing; but we have enjoyed it so long, and so quietly, that we seem almost to forget its value, how it was obtained, or how only it can be preserved.

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY (1713-1778): Were liberty to perish from any part of the English speaking world, the whole would soon be deluged by the black sea of arbitrary power.

J. C. RYLE: These verses show us, lastly, the nature of true liberty. Our Lord declares this to the Jews in one comprehensive sentence. He says, “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”—Yet, after all our boasting, there are many so-called free men who are nothing better than slaves. There are many who are totally ignorant of the highest, purest form of liberty. The noblest liberty is that which is the property of the true Christian. Those only are perfectly free people, whom the Son of God “makes free.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  The Gospel is a proclamation of liberty…Christ not only proclaims liberty to the captives, but He sets at liberty them that are bruised, Isaiah 61:1. Jesus Christ, as one having authority, as one that has “power on earth to forgive sins,” came to set at liberty.

C. H. SPURGEON: The text speaks of spiritual liberty—and now I address the children of God. Let us now examine, a little more closely, in what our liberty consists. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” from the bondage of sin; and liberty from the penalty of sin. What is it? Eternal death and torment forever—that is the sad penalty of sin. But there is one fact more startling than both of these things—there is liberty from the guilt of sin—the Christian is positively not guilty any longer the moment he believes…Furthermore, the Christian, while delivered from the guilt and punishment of sin, is likewise delivered from the dominion of it. Every living man, before he is converted, is a slave to lust.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Many can say, “I was once a slave to sin, and led captive by the devil at his will: but now the Son of God has made me free; and I am free indeed: He has brought my soul out of prison, and set my feet at liberty.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Once more—“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” in all holy acts of love…There is much virtue which is like the juice of the grape—it has to be squeezed before you get it. It is not like the generous drop of the honeycomb, distilling willingly and freely. I am bold to say that if a man is destitute of the Grace of God, his works are only works of slavery, he feels forced to do them. But—to conclude, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” from the fear of death.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): A Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations, his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all his hopes, his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments.

C. H. SPURGEON: What is death?

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): Death is but a passage out of a prison into a palace.

 

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Philemon

Posted on June 26, 2020 by The Editor

Philemon 1:1-3,10,11

Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer, and to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds: which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This epistle stands alone among Paul’s letters in being addressed to a private Christian, and in being entirely occupied with a small though very singular private matter.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The occasion of it was this: Philemon had a servant named Onesimus, who having purloined his goods, ran away from him, and in his flight came to Rome, where Paul was then a prisoner for the gospel. Providentially coming under Paul’s preaching there, by the blessing of God, Onesimus was converted, after which he ministered awhile to the apostle in bonds, and might have been further useful to him. But, understanding him to be another man’s servant, Paul would not, without his consent, detain him, but sends him back with this letter-commendatory, wherein he earnestly sues for his pardon and kind reception.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Philemon seems to have been an inhabitant of Colosse, and rather to have been a Gentile than a Jew; he was a rich and hospitable man, and greatly respected, and therefore called “our dearly beloved” by Paul and Timothy, not only as being a believer, but as being also generous and useful in his station, and likewise as he was a minister of the Gospel; for so the next phrase, “and fellow labourer,” seems to import; though such are sometimes said to be labourers and fellow helpers with the apostle, who assisted in carrying on the interest of Christ, with their purses, and prayers, and private conversation.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): There is a peculiarity in the use of proper names in this epistle which is not found in any other part of Paul’s writings. The names to which we refer are Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and Onesimus. Philemon means “affectionate or beloved,” from φιλημα, a “kiss;” this led the apostle to say: “Unto Philemon our dearly beloved.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): This good man had a wife of the same character; for she, too, not without reason, is commended by Paul.

JOHN GILL: “Beloved Apphia.” This is a woman’s name; and it is thought that she was the wife of Philemon, since she is placed next to him, and before Archippus, a minister of the word, and very prudently is she wrote to, and justly commended, in order to engage her to use her interest with her husband to receive his servant again, who otherwise might have stood against it, and been a very great hinderance to a reconciliation.

MATTHEW HENRY: She is set before Archippus, as more concerned and having more interest.

THOMAS COKE: Archippus has been generally thought to be Philemon’s son; probably he was one of Paul’s assistants, who had some gifts of the Spirit, and had devoted himself very much to the work of the ministry in Colosse.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: A greeting is sent, too, to “the Church in thy house.”—It is natural that they should be addressed; for Onesimus, if received by Philemon, would naturally become a member of the group, and therefore it was important to secure their good will.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It may be well to point out that so far as we have any record Paul had never been to Colosse.

ADAM CLARKE: It is evident, from verse 19 of this epistle, that Philemon was converted to the Christian faith by Paul; but as some suppose that the apostle had not visited Colosse previously to the writing of this epistle, they think it probable that he might have met with him at Ephesus, or in same other part of Asia Minor, where he formed an acquaintance with him, and became the means of his conversion.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): As Paul had been the means of Philemon’s conversion, so he was immeasurably in debt to the apostle; but in verse 19, Paul only gently reminds him of the fact as a reason why he should deal kindly with Onesimus for his sake.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): God, in the course of His wise providence, had so ordered it, that Onesimus’s going to Rome had been the happy occasion of his becoming a Christian. Philemon, therefore, could not be angry at such an event, unless he had a mind to quarrel with Divine Providence, the progress of the gospel, the conversion and welfare of Onesimus, and what would in the end prove his own advantage…It may not be improper to attend to the apostle’s soft and tender manner of expressing this in verses 15 and 16: “For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?” The word Εχωρισθη we have translated “he departed;”—which is softer than to have said, he ‘absconded,’ or ‘ran away’ like a criminal; but the Greek word signifies “he was separated,” which is still softer.

ADAM CLARKE: We must take the term “flesh” here, as referring to the right which Philemon had in him. He was a part of his property and of his family; as a slave, this was his condition; but he now stood in a twofold relation to Philemon: According to “the flesh,” as above explained, he was one of his family; and “in the Lord,” he was now also a member of the heavenly family, and of the Church at Philemon’s house. Philemon’s interest in him was now doubled, in consequence of his conversion to Christianity…Onesimus means “useful or profitable;” from ονημι, “to help.” The import of this name led the apostle Paul to play upon the word thus: “I beseech thee for any son Onesimus—which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and me.”

JOHN GILL: Grace, of an unprofitable man, makes a profitable one…If only a private believer, he is often profitable to others, by relating the work of God upon his soul; and he is serviceable to the interest of Christ, for the support of the ministry, and supply of the poor; useful by his good examples, and prayers, in the neighbourhood, town, city, or nation, in which he dwells. This argument from profit, the apostle knew would be an engaging one.

MATTHEW HENRY: There may be something further in all this. By way of allusion, it is applicable to the mediation and intercession of Christ for poor sinners. We, like Onesimus, were revolters from God’s service, and had injured Him in His rights. Jesus Christ finds us, and by His grace works a change in us, and then intercedes for us with the Father, that we may be received into His favour and family again, and past offences may be forgiven; and we are sure that “the Father heareth him always.” There is no reason to doubt but Paul prevailed with Philemon to forgive and receive Onesimus.

ADAM CLARKE: Some think that Paul hints to Philemon that he should free Onesimus.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The letter Paul sent with Onesimus to his injured master Philemon, is one of the most touching ever written. Looking at it simply as such, we are at a loss whether most to admire the warmth and earnestness of his affections, the delicacy and justness of his thoughts, or the sublime dignity which pervades the whole epistle.

 

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Jesus Christ, Our Father From Everlasting—To Everlasting

Posted on June 19, 2020 by The Editor

Isaiah 9:6; Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 63:16; Habakkuk 1:12; Proverbs 8:23; John 8:58

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One?

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Our Lord here, in the strongest terms, asserts His Divinity, declaring Himself to be what John more largely expresses, the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, who is, and who was, and who is to come; the Almighty,” Revelation 1:8.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): It is therefore undoubtedly to be understood of Christ’s eternal existence.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting; the “Ancient of days,” Daniel 7:9,13,22―before all things, and all time; which is, and was, and is to come: the same is true of Christ, who is the everlasting Father, or Father of eternity, the true God, and eternal life; as appears from His nature, having the whole fullness, all the perfections of deity in Him; from His office, as Mediator, in which He was set up from everlasting; from His concern in eternal election, in the everlasting covenant, and in the creation of all things out of nothing.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): As He is the “mighty God,” so He is “the everlasting Father.” Can such a title be ascribed to any whose being depends upon the will of another, and may be dashed out at the pleasure of a superior? As the eternity of God is the ground of all religion, so the eternity of Christ is the ground of the Christian religion.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “The everlasting Father.” This has puzzled many. It need not.

JOHN GILL: The “everlasting Father” does not design any relation of Christ in the Godhead. There is but one Father in the Godhead, and that is the first Person; indeed Christ and the Father are one, and the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father, and He that has seen the one has seen the other. And yet they are distinct.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): This title respects not His relation to the Deity―for with respect to that, He is the Son and not the Father―but rather His relation to His spiritual seed, whom He has begotten by His Word and Spirit.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK: He is particularly called the “everlasting,” or “eternal Father;” not the Father in the Trinity, but a Father to us.

JOHN GILL: Some render the words, “the Father of eternity”―the Author of eternal life, Who has procured it for His people, and gives it to them; or to Whom eternity belongs, Who inhabits it, and is possessed of it, Who is the everlasting I AM, and was before all persons and things, was set up in an office capacity from everlasting, and had a glory with the Father before the world was, in Whom is eternal election, and with Whom the everlasting covenant, were made.

CHARLES SIMEON: But perhaps the words should rather have been translated, “The Father of the everlasting age.” The Jewish dispensation was intended to continue but for a limited time; but the Christian dispensation was never to be succeeded by any other: hence it is called “the last times;” and may be considered as “the everlasting age.” Of this Christ is the Author; it owes its existence to Him as its parent; it is preserved by His guardian care; and the whole family in heaven and earth who participate its blessings, both bear His image, and inherit His glory.

A. W. PINK: Christ is the “everlasting Father” because from everlasting He had “children!”

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): And of all these it must be said, that every individual of Christ’s seed was in Christ from all eternity, for they were chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world,” Ephesians 1:3,4.

THOMAS COKE: As Adam was the first man that God created, so he was the first father and progenitor of all other men, who are every one born in his image as they come into the world of nature, and breathe the vital air. Just so, from Jesus Christ, the everlasting Father, all who come into the world of grace derive their spiritual being; His image they bear, 1 Corinthians 15:49, and from Him “the whole family in heaven and earth is named,” Ephesians 3:15…So all the saints are descendants from Jesus Christ, their everlasting Father.

JOHN GILL: These bear His name, are called “Christians” from Him.

MATTHEW HENRY: (1662-1714): It was from everlasting in the counsels of it; and will be, to everlasting, in the consequences of it.

JOHN GILL: His seed and offspring shall endure forever.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Think for a little.

MATTHEW HENRY: The everlasting Father became a child of time―the Ancient of days became an infant of a span long.

C. H. SPURGEON: Remember that He who became an infant of a span long was no less than the King of Ages, the “everlasting Father” Who was from eternity, and is to be to all eternity…He is the mighty God! He that made the heavens and stretched them out like a tent to dwell in—He Who speaks and it is done—the everlasting Father—is anything too hard for Him?

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Want we grace and His image to be renewed and increased in us? He is “the everlasting Father”―a father to beget His likeness in us, and everlasting to maintain it ever, when it is begun once: He is made “sanctification” to us, 1 Corinthians 1:30. Want we wisdom to guide us? He is the ‘Counsellor,’ and is made wisdom to us. All we want He hath; even as all He hath, we want.

RALPH ERSKINE (1685-1752): Do you need his fatherly pity? His name is the everlasting Father; “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him,” Psalm 103:13. Plead His pity, for His name’s sake.

ROBERT HAWKER: Surely Jesus is the everlasting Father of His people.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting”―from eternity, and on to eternity― “and let all the people say, Amen,” Psalm 106:48.

 

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A Covid-19 Message From God’s Word, Confirmed By Science

Posted on June 12, 2020 by The Editor

Exodus 20:8-11; Ezekiel 20:19,20; Leviticus 26:27,28,31-35

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury…And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.*

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We believe that God sends all pestilences, let them come how they may; and that He sends them with a purpose—And we conceive that it is our business as ministers of God to call the people’s attention to God in the disease and teach them the lesson which God would have them learn.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The pestilence is God’s messenger.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We live in days when anything like strict Sabbath observance is loudly denounced, in some quarters, as a remnant of Jewish superstition. We are boldly told by some persons, that to keep the Sabbath holy is legal, and that to enforce the fourth commandment on Christians, is going back to bondage.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Is it not tragic beyond words to witness not only the general indifference of the vast majority of professing Christians unto the claims of the Holy Sabbath and to the world’s awful profanation of it, but also to find that many influential men among the reputedly orthodox sections of Christendom should oppose those who are striving for the preservation of this spiritual heritage? These men are seeking to destroy its very foundations by teaching that the Sabbath is only a Jewish institution, and therefore is not binding upon us today.

J. C. RYLE: Let us settle it in our minds, that the fourth commandment has never been repealed by Christ, and that we have no more right to break the Sabbath day, under the Gospel, than we have to murder and to steal.

A. W. PINK: The Christian Sabbath is specifically designated “the Lord’s Day” in Revelation 1:10…To be guilty of desecrating the Holy Sabbath is therefore no light matter. The violation of the Fourth Commandment is a sin of the gravest and blackest kind; yet, sad to say, the profanation of the Lord’s Day has become one of the most common crimes of our perverse generation. So general is its pollution that few have any conscience on the matter, but placidly take it as a matter of course. The world has turned the Holy Day into a holiday, and even the majority of professing Christians join hands with them therein. No wonder God is displeased with us as a people, and is more and more evidencing His displeasure against us.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Oh! ye ministers of the sanctuary and faithful magistrates of the people, may the Lord encourage your hearts and hands to bring back the hallowed Sabbaths of the Lord to their original sanctity.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL (1635-1711): We sin when we make a workday out of this day, if we occupy ourselves with the work of our profession; and we sin when we transform this day into a market day; this pertains to buying and selling. And we sin when we make this day a day of worldly pleasure. The sabbath is a delight—however, a “delighting in the Lord.” It is a dreadful desecration of this day, however, when we abuse it by delighting ourselves in worldly things and in the lusts of the flesh, or to the entertaining of one’s self with such things that are lawful at the appropriate time and place, in the appropriate company, and with the appropriate objective.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): They are no benefactors to the community who seek to break down and relax the stringency of the prohibition of labour. If once the idea that Sunday is a day of amusement takes root, the amusement of some will require the hard work of others, and the custom of work will tend to extend, till rest becomes the exception, and work the rule. There never was a time when men lived so furiously fast as now. The pace of modern life demands Sunday rest more than ever. If a railway car is run continually it will wear out sooner than if it were laid aside for a day or two occasionally; and if it is run at express speed it will need the rest more. We are all going at top speed; and there would be more breakdowns if it were not for that blessed institution which some people think they are promoting the public good by destroying a seventh day of rest.

A. W. PINK: It is an incontestable fact that the times when the Sabbath’s sanctity was most faithfully proclaimed and maintained in the British Isles—and we may add, in the U.S.A.—were those in which true spirituality was healthiest and vital godliness was in its most flourishing state…A right observance of the Lord’s Day lies at the foundation of national happiness and prosperity. So prolific of good is this blessed day that its powerful influences on the well-being of our country vitally affects its spiritual intelligence, the morality of its social order, and the liberties of its people…The Lord is very jealous of its sanctity, honouring the nation which respects it and visiting His indignation upon those who pollute it.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): No nation has ever prospered that has trampled the Sabbath in the dust. Show me a nation that has done this and I will show you a nation that has got in it the seeds of ruin and decay. I believe that Sabbath desecration will carry a nation down quicker than anything else. Adam brought marriage and the Sabbath with him out of Eden, and neither can be disregarded without suffering. When the children of Israel went into the Promised Land, God told them to let their land rest every seven years, and He would give them as much in six years as in seven, (Leviticus 25:3-6, 18-22). For four hundred and ninety years they disregarded that law. But mark you, Nebuchadnezzar came and took them off into Babylon, and kept them seventy years in captivity, and the land had its seventy sabbaths of rest. Seven times seventy is four hundred and ninety. So they did not gain much by breaking this law.*

A. W. PINK: A yet more decisive consideration is found in our Lord’s words, “The Sabbath was made for man,” Mark 2:27. This cannot mean less than that the Sabbath was made for man’s observance and for his benefit…God has graciously sanctified it for the good of the whole world.*

D. L. MOODY: You can give God His day, or He will take it.*

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*Editor’s Note on Scientific Confirmation: According to an April 2, 2020 article in The Atlantic magazine, the earth experienced 30-50 percent less seismic activity during the world-wide shutdown due to the Covid-19 virus. The drop was immediate, and even the oceans were quieter as shipping traffic decreased; “researchers working in Canada’s Bay of Fundy found that over the course of just a few days, when the noisy waters calmed, right whales in the bay experienced a drop in their stress-level hormones.” Air pollution also dropped dramatically, and satellites detected “a significant decrease in the concentration of nitrogen dioxide, which enters the atmosphere through emissions from cars, trucks, buses, and power plants.” That decrease is estimated to have saved tens of thousands of children and elderly people from deaths “resulting from stroke, heart disease, and respiratory illnesses.”

When mankind ceased its labours by a shutdown imposed in response to God’s providential pestilence, all the economic gains of many years were lost, while “the land rested, and enjoyed her Sabbaths;” a Sabbatical rest long denied to the earth because of modern man’s disobedience to God’s commandment to keep His weekly Sabbath day of rest. And Christians are not blameless in that sin. Do we not often buy and sell, and indulge in worldly pleasures and holidays on the Lord’s day? Therefore God’s judgment must begin with us; and have not the Covid-19 restrictions on our Lord’s Day church services brought our “sanctuaries into desolation?”

 

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