God’s Conditional Promise For Times of Pestilence

Posted on May 15, 2020 by The Editor

Psalm 91:1-3, 5-7, 9,10

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence…Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday…Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The triumphant assurances of this psalm, “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling,”—“the pestilence shall smite thousands and ten thousands beside thee, but not come nigh thee,”—seem to be entirely contradicted by experience which testifies that “there is one event to the evil and the good,” Ecclesiastes 9:2; and that, in epidemics or other widespread disasters, we all, the good and the bad, God-fearers and God-blasphemers, do fare alike, and that the conditions of exemption from physical evil are physical and not spiritual. It is of no use trying to persuade ourselves that this is not so. We shall understand God’s dealings with us, and get to the very throbbing heart of such promises as these in this psalm far better, if we start from the certainty that whatever it means, it does not mean that, with regard to external calamities and disasters, we are going to be God’s petted children, or to be saved from the things that fall upon other people. No! no! we have to go a great deal deeper than that.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): This is a Psalm written for comfort, but it is not addressed to all mankind—neither I venture to say, to all believers, but only those who are described in the first verse. There are some that abide in Christ and His words abide in them. They live near to God. They receive therefore choicer favours than those who do but come and go. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High.”

ROBERT HORN (Circa 1628): That which is here translated “dwelleth,” is as much in weight as sitteth, or is settled; and so, our dwelling in God’s secret place, is as much as our sitting down in it; the meaning is, we must make it our rest, as if we should say, Here will we dwell. From whence we learn, that God’s children should not come to God’s secret place as guests to an inn, but as inhabitants to their own dwellings.

C. H. SPURGEON: He who has learnt to stand in the holy of holies, near the blood-besprinkled mercy-seat, to whom prayer is a constant privilege and enjoyment—he dwells in the secret place. Such a man, living near to God, “shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

MARY B. M. DUNCAN (1807-1867): This is an expression which implies great nearness. We must walk very close to a companion, if we would have his shadow fall on us. Can we imagine any expression more perfect in describing the constant presence of God with His chosen ones, than this—they shall abide under His shadow? In Solomon’s beautiful allegory, the Church, in a time of special communion with Christ, says of Him, “I sat down under his shadow with great delight,” Song of Solomon 2:3—“sat down,” desiring not to leave it, but to abide there for ever. And it is he who chooses to dwell in the secret place of the most High, who shall “abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” There is a condition and a promise attached to it. The condition is, that we “dwell in the secret place”—the promise, that if we do so we “shall abide under the shadow.” It is of importance to view it thus.

C. H. SPURGEON: So there must be great access to God—great familiarity with Him; there must be something of the assurance of faith, before we shall be able to grip such a Word as that which follows in this Psalm. Read it again, and if you have not attained to it, labour after it.

MARY B. M. DUNCAN: He wishes us to know Him, and by His Word and His Spirit, He puts Himself before us. Ah! it is not his fault if we do not know him. It is our own carelessness.

JEREMIAH DYKE (1584-1639): Our safety lies not simply upon this, because God is a refuge, and is an habitation, but “Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee,” It is therefore the making of God our habitation, upon which our safety lies; and this is the way to make God an habitation, thus to pitch and cast ourselves by faith upon His power and providence.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Though God is the judge of the whole world, yet he would have His providence to be especially acknowledged in the government of His own Church—He indeed puts forth his hand indifferently against His own people and against strangers; for we see that both are in common subjected to adversities.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It may befall a saint to share in a common calamity; as the good corn and weeds are cut down together, but for a different end and purpose.

JOHN CALVIN: He restores by corrections His own children, for whom He has a care, to the right way, whenever they depart from it. In this sense it is that Peter says that judgment begins at the house of God, 1 Peter 4:17; for judgment includes all those punishments which the Lord inflicts on men for their sins, and whatever refers to the reformation of the world. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

JOHN TRAPP: A good man may die of the plague, as did John Oecolampadius, and many others; Hezekiah is thought to have had it, so had Theodore Beza—his family was four different times visited herewith, and he was much comforted under that and other heavy afflictions by this sweet psalm, which, therefore, he hugged and held most dear all the days of his life.

THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY (ANNOTATIONS, 1658): Most dangerous then and erroneous is the inference of some men, yea, of some expositors upon these words of the Psalmist, that no godly man can suffer by the plague, or pestilence…Most interpreters conclude here, that the godly are preserved in time of public calamities; which, in a right sense, may be true; but withal they should have added, that all godly men are not exempted at such times, to prevent rash judgments.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): God doth not say here that no afflictions shall befall us, but no evil.

C. H. SPURGEON: As for His saints, it is their consolation that their death is entirely in His hands. In the midst of fever and pestilence, we shall never die until He wills it!

JOHN RYLAND (1753-1825): Plagues and deaths around me fly,

Till He bids I cannot die:

Not a single shaft can hit,

Till the God of love thinks fit.

 

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When Men Act Like Babies, God Raises Up Mothers in Israel

Posted on May 8, 2020 by The Editor

Judges 4:4-9

Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.

And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This is, I believe, the first instance of female government on record. Deborah seems to have been supreme both in civil and religious affairs; and Lapidoth, her husband, appears to have had no hand in the government.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Who Lapidoth was, or what is meant by the name, is not certain; most take it to be the name of her husband, which seems best, but who he was is not known—some render the words, “a woman of Lapidoth,” taking it for the name of her native place or habitation; but where there was a place of this name no account can be given.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Some have thought that, as Lapidoth is not a very common name for a man,* and means light, and illumination, the expression is symbolical, for the extraordinary degree of grace imparted to Deborah, and particularly on this occasion, of delivering Israel.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In the history of Israel, it was always a proof of the nation’s low condition when the female was thrown into prominence. It was Barak’s backwardness that threw Deborah forward. According to the normal, the divine idea, the man is the head. This is seen, in perfection, in Christ and the Church. Here is the true model on which our thoughts are to be formed.

RICHARD ROGERS (1550-1618): We have heard Deborah’s message to Barak—now follows Barak’s answer to her message in the eighth verse: “If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.” This answer of his seems to yield little to God’s commandment, sent to him by Deborah’s ministry, neither to ascribe anything to God’s promise; and therefore it shows how he profited not from those two strong persuasions to lead him to his duty, but proves that he ascribes more to her presence, then to God’s promise; which, would it be less than a great blemish in him? Besides, she was offended with him—and this she said, “I will go with thee, but it shall not be for thine honour.” Wherein she finds fault with him, and tells him that he should suffer the punishment of his infidelity, while the glory which he might otherwise have had thereby, should be given to a woman, meaning Jael [who killed Sisera], and not in the least part to herself.

JOHN GILL: Now, till Deborah arose, there was no perfect salvation and deliverance wrought for them—until it pleased God to raise her up, and endow her in a very wonderful and extraordinary manner with gifts qualifying her to be a nursing mother to Israel, to teach and instruct them in the mind and will of God, to administer judgment and justice to them, to protect and defend them—in all which, she discovered a maternal affection for them. And as a good judge and ruler of a people may be called the father of them, so she, being a woman, is with propriety called a mother in Israel, having an affectionate concern for them as her children.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Deborah is called “a mother in Israel,” for the same reason as every deliverer of his country is called the “father” of it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Barak, like a ‘hind let loose,’ was at first timid of responding to Deborah’s call. He had not dared to go forth with his little handful of men unless Deborah had sent for him and assured him of success. The battle was not of Barak’s choosing; it was forced upon him by Deborah.

RICHARD ROGERS: Why then is he afterward so highly commended for his faith?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Barak’s offer to go with her shows the truth of his faith, for which he is praised [in Hebrews 11:32]; but his refusal to go without her shows the weakness of his faith, that he could not trust God’s bare Word, as he ought to have done, without the pledge of the presence of His prophetess, whom he thought God would preserve and deliver, and himself for her sake.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Women sometimes lend superior courage to men, and the weaker sex proves itself the stronger.

A. W. PINK: Read verses 10 to 24, and note the hind-like swiftness of Barak’s onslaught down the slopes of Mount Tabor. It is significant that the name “Barak” means “lightning,” and, like lightning he burst as a storm on the startled hosts of Sisera, which were scattered by the hand of God at his unexpected approach. Note Judges 4:14: “So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him,” not “with him”—he was running ahead of them all!

C. H. SPURGEON: Look at Barak! After he has once believed in the power of God he marches to the fight and wins the victory! And he is commemorated in soul-stirring words by the poetess, “Awake, awake, Deborah; awake, awake, utter a song; arise, Barak, and lead your captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.” If you would grow, you must believe your God! He that gets close to God and leans wholly upon God, shall have Divine strength imparted to him.

A. W. PINK: Christians ought to grow and become strong in the Lord. They are exhorted to “be not children in understanding,” 1 Corinthians 14:20. They are bidden to “stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong,” 1 Chronicles 16:13.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Oh! it is a crying shame and sin that in all Christian communities there should be so many grey-headed babies, men who have for years and years been professing to be Christ’s followers, and whose faith is but little, if at all.

C. H. SPURGEON: You know the good Methodist woman’s outcry at the funeral sermon when the minister said, “Now that this eminent servant of the Lord is departed, we know of no one to fill his place. The standard-bearers are removed and we have none left at all to be compared with them. It seems as if the glory were departing and the faithful failing from among men.” A worthy mother in Israel called out from the aisle, “Glory be to God, that’s a lie!” Well, I have often felt inclined to say the same when I have heard a wailing over the absence of good and great men—and melancholy prophecies of the awful times to come! “Glory be to God, He will never let His Church die out for lack of leaders! He has a grand reserve somewhere!”

RICHARD ROGERS: Let this be briefly added, that Deborah yielding to, and helping the weakness of Barak in going with him, teaches us to regard, help, and encourage our weak brethren, by counsel, travail, and example.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If others fail in their duty to us, this does not discharge us from our duty to them, nor take off the obligations we lie under to seek their welfare.

____________

*Editor’s Note: According to Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary (#3941, from #3940), ‘Lapidoth’ is the feminine plural of an unused Hebrew root word probably meaning to shine. Proper names often have spiritual significance (see Hebrews 7:1,2). Perhaps the name of Deborah’s husband is in the feminine form to emphasize that she was the shining spiritual light in their marriage, and that her husband was either unconverted, or a weak man not governing his household as he should. She was certainly more prominent and distinguished than him. And it is plural, either because as married they are one flesh in God’s eyes, but still remain two very different people; or because such was the general spiritual condition of Israel at the time.

 

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The Equitable Poetic Justice of God’s Judgments

Posted on May 1, 2020 by The Editor

Jeremiah 17:10; Proverbs 11:5; Esther 7:9,10: Proverbs 26:27

I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

The wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): These are proverbial expressions, teaching men to be wise and cautious, lest by their conduct they bring mischief upon themselves; as it often is, the one that digs a pit for another, falls into it himself―or, any man that devises mischief against another, frequently so it is that the same befalls them; as Haman, who prepared a gallows for Mordecai, was hanged on it himself.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Haman was justly hanged on the very gallows he had unjustly prepared for Mordecai. If he had not set up that gallows, perhaps the king would not have thought of ordering him to be hanged. In the morning Haman was designing himself for the robes, and Mordecai for the gallows; but the tables are turned: Mordecai has the crown, Haman the cross.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Was it not an act of what men term, poetic justice?

MATTHEW HENRY: The Lord is known by such judgments. “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead,” Proverbs 11:8.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The nets of evil plotting and malicious enterprise swing far out in the tides of human life, but never far enough to enmesh God. He remains beyond them all, and gathering them in the hands of His power, He makes them include the men who weave them to destroy others…It was a fierce and terrible judgment, and yet characterized by poetic justice.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): And what a display is made of the Lord’s providential superintendence.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “I cannot pass over the wonderful harmony of Providence,” says Josephus, “without a remark upon the Almighty power and admirable justice of the wisdom of God, not only in bringing Haman to his deserved punishment, but in entrapping him in the very snare which he had laid for another, and turning a malicious invention upon the head of the inventor.” Well says the heathen poet, “No law is more just, than that the workers of wickedness should perish by the means of their own subtilty.”

ROBERT HAWKER: Pause and contemplate the sure end of the ungodly.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Sin and punishment are inseparable companions…Every man shall be sure to reap as he sows, to drink as he brews, to receive according to that he hath done in the flesh, whether good or evil, 2 Corinthians 5:10―as sure as the night followeth the day, a day of account will come, and God will render unto each man reward or punishment according to his works.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): We are not to suppose that our good works are put in one scale, and our evil works in another; and that, according to the scale which preponderates, our fate shall be. Nor are we to imagine that, when we have done a certain number of good works, the merits of Christ shall be cast, as it were, into the scale, in order to procure acceptance for them. The way of salvation is widely different from either of these. We all, without exception, are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath and indignation. But He has given His only-begotten Son to die for us; and will accept to mercy all who come to Him in His Son’s name. Those who have believed in Christ will in that day be approved as having embraced the proffered salvation: and those who have rejected the Saviour, will be rejected of their God. But still there will be a great difference as to the measure of misery or of happiness which these different parties will inherit. Amongst the righteous, “one star will differ from another star in glory;” and amongst the wicked, some will be “beaten with many stripes, and others with few,” according as circumstances have occurred to extenuate or aggravate their guilt.

MATTHEW HENRY: Sooner or later, in this world or in that to come, He will cause every man to find according to his ways. This is the standing rule of distributive justice, to give to every man according to his work. “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with them: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with them: for the reward of his hands shall be given him,” Isaiah 3:10,11. If services persevered in now go unrewarded, and sins persisted in now go unpunished, yet there is a day coming when God will fully render to every man according to his works, with interest for the delay.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): God ever will do justice.

MATTHEW HENRY: Though He does not always do this visibly in this world, yet He will do it in the day of recompence.

CHARLES SIMEON: He records every thing in the book of His remembrance—The thoughts as well as the words of men are recorded in this book, Malachi 3:16; and out of these books shall they be judged, Revelation 20:12,13. Indeed, they are all “sealed up, as it were, in a bag,” in order to be then brought forth as grounds of God’s decision, and as evidences of His equity. Nothing will escape His observation.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  When the ungodly are secure, let us know that God’s judgment is indeed hidden, but yet certain, and will shortly overtake them; for when they say, “Peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them,” 1 Thessalonians 5:3…If the judgments of God be so dreadful in this life, how dreadful will He be when He shall come at last to judge the world!

CHARLES SIMEON: Behold, then, What an awful prospect is here opened to the ungodly! There is not a day or an hour in which an ungodly man is not providing misery for himself, and “treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.”

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Evil shall fall on the heads of its own authors.

A. W. PINK: Note how an exact retribution―“poetic justice” worldlings would call it―overtook Jezebel: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth,” who was murdered at the orders of that wicked queen, there was her corpse consumed by dogs, 2 Kings 9:36.

 

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Walking the Walk That Pleases God

Posted on April 24, 2020 by The Editor

Colossians 1:10―1 Thessalonians 4:1; John 8:28, 29

Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God―Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

Then said Jesus unto them…He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Let Christians never forget the practical lesson that, in this verse, as in many other places, Christ is their example and their encouragement. Like Him, however short they may come, let them aim at “always doing what pleases God.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): What will the Lord be pleased with?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): More depends upon my walk than my talk.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): If we entertain any doubt how we ought to walk we need only look to the Lord Jesus Christ: in Him we see precisely how we ought to walk and to please God.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We should not know how to walk were it not for that one most precious, most deep, most comprehensive sentence which fell from the lips of our blessed Lord, “I am the way.” Here is divine, infallible guidance. We are to follow Him. “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. This is living guidance. It is not acting according to the letter of certain rules and regulations. It is following a living Christ—walking as He walked, doing as He did, imitating His example in all things.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “He that abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked,” 1 John 2:6. This is the same with that Colossians 2:6, to “walk in Christ;” and with that, 1 Peter 2:21, “to follow His steps.”

CHARLES SIMEON: We must walk in Christ, by a living faith…Our Lord Himself tells us, that “without Him,”―that is, without an union with Him by faith, “we can do nothing,” John 15:5; and Paul tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God,” Hebrews 11:6.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Then the next question is, “Do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” Faith is the main question for conscience to decide, together with the following ones, “Do I also keep His Commandments? Do I obey God? Do I seek to be holy as Jesus is holy? Or am I living in known sin and tolerating that in myself which does not and cannot please God?”

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): They who receive the precious gift of faith, thereby become the sons of God; and, being sons, they shall receive the Spirit of holiness to walk as Christ also walked.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him,” Colossians 2:6. That is an exhortation to Christians, and its force is, “Continue as you began.” But how had they begun? It was by “receiving Christ Jesus the Lord,” by subjecting themselves to His will, by ceasing to please themselves. His authority was now owned. His commands now became their rule of life. His love constrained them to a glad and unreserved obedience. They “gave their own selves to the Lord,” 2 Corinthians 8:5.

CHARLES SIMEON: By this is meant that we should walk in a continual dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for all those blessings which we stand in need of. He is the fountain of them all: they are treasured up in Him―Do we need a justifying righteousness? To Him we must look for it, and from Him we must receive it: We must call Him, “The Lord our Righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6. Do we need grace to sanctify and renew our souls? From Him we must receive it, according to our necessities, John 1:16…Those who are striving after a more perfect conformity to their Lord and Saviour, it is well that you are endeavouring to “walk even as Christ walked.” But attempt it not in your own strength. You must be “strengthened with all might in your inward man, by the Spirit of the living God.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us,” Ephesians 5:2. We ought to embrace each other with that love with which Christ has embraced us.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The will of Jesus Christ is, that those who belong to Him should walk exactly in His footsteps; that they should be, as He was, full of mercy and love; that they should render to no one evil for evil, but endure, for His sake, injuries calumnies, and every outrage. To them all anger and resentment should be unknown.

CHARLES SIMEON: Like Him, we must exercise meekness and patience, and forbearance, and love even to our bitterest enemies, never swerving in the least from the path of duty for fear of them, nor yielding to any thing of a vindictive spirit on account of them, but rendering to them, under all circumstances, good for evil, and committing ourselves entirely to the disposal of an all-wise God, 1 Peter 2:21-23.

C. H. SPURGEON: The large-heartedness of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most glorious traits in His Character. He scattered good of all sorts on all sides.―Do good “as much as lies in you,” to the utmost extent of your power and let that be of every sort.

CHARLES SIMEON: In a word, “the same mind must be in us as was in Him,” Philippians 2:5, under every possible situation and circumstance of life; and then, as “he pleased the Father always,” so shall we infallibly be approved by Him. Like Him, we must live altogether for God, making it our “meat and our drink to do His will,” John 6:34. Like him, we must rise superior to all worldly cares, or pleasures, or honours, “not being of the world, even as he was not of the world,” John 17:16.

J. C. RYLE: And like Him, let them be sure that in so doing, they will find the Father “with them,” and will never be left quite “alone.”

CHARLES SIMEON: And as surely as we tread in His steps in this world, we shall be seated with Him on His throne in the world to come―Up then, and be doing. We have shewn you how to walk and to please God, and you have begun the blessed work: but O, we entreat you to abound more and more! And may “the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ: to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

 

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A Three Point Gospel

Posted on April 17, 2020 by The Editor

Job 13:23; Romans 7:18; Romans 5:8

How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We lately met with an old man, in the West of England, who for forty-five years he had never entered any place of religious instruction. He was, however, induced by a friend to come under the sound of the gospel; and, on the very first occasion, his soul was arrested. He continued to attend regularly, and divine light shone in gradually upon his soul. After attending for some weeks, he was speaking to a Christian friend, and telling him, in his own simple style, his spiritual experience. “Sir,” said he, “the first thing I learned was that I had never done a right thing, all my life. The next thing I learned was that I could not do a right thing, my nature was that bad. And, then, sir, I learned that Christ had done all, and met all.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This, indeed, is the sum of the Gospel; and an epitome of its operations in the hearts of men.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Now, these are what we may call, three good things to learn; and, if the reader has not already learned them, we would earnestly entreat him to apply his heart to them now. Let us briefly glance at these three points of Christian knowledge. They be at the very foundation of true Christianity. And, first, then, our poor old friend discovered that he had never done a right thing, all his days.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): No man begins to be good till he sees himself to be bad.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: This is a serious discovery for a soul to make. It marks an interesting epoch in the history of a soul when the eyes are first opened and thrown back upon the entire career, from the earliest moment, and the whole thing is found to have been one tissue of sin from beginning to end―every page of the volume blotted, from margin to margin. This, we repeat, is very serious. It marks the earliest stage of spiritual conviction. But there is more than this. Our old friend not only learned that his acts―all his acts―the acts of his whole life had been bad; but also that his nature was bad; and not only bad, but utterly unmendable. This is a grand point to get hold of. It is an essential element in all true repentance.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Many will confess, they do not as they should, who will not think by any means so ill of themselves, that theirs is a state of sin and death; whereas, the convinced soul freely puts himself under this sentence, owns his condition―“I am a vile wretch,” saith he, “as full of sin as the toad is of poison. My whole nature lies, in wickedness, even as the dead, rotten carcass does in its putrefaction.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH: It is of all importance, therefore, for the reader to give attention to the second point learned by our dear old friend. He will have to learn, not only that the acts of his life have been all bad, but that his nature is incurable. No doubt, people differ as to their acts and their ways; but the nature is the same. A crab tree is a crab tree, whether it bear but one crab in ten years, or ten thousand crabs in one year. Nothing but a crab tree could produce even a solitary crab; and hence the nature of the tree is as clearly proved by one crab as by ten thousand. And further, we may say that all the art of man; all his cultivation; all his digging and pruning, cannot change the nature of a crab tree. There must be a new nature, a new life, ere any acceptable fruit can be produced. “Ye must be born again.”

WILLIAM GURNALL: The convinced sinner does not only condemn himself for what he has done and is, but he despairs as to anything he can do to save himself―he sees himself beyond his own help, like a poor, condemned prisoner, laden with so many irons, that he sees it is impossible for him to make an escape, with all his skill or strength, out of the hands of justice. O, friends, look whether the work be gone thus far in your souls!

C. H. MACKINTOSH: But this leads us to look at what our old friend learned, as the third point, namely, that Christ had done all, and met all…The Lord Jesus has met the sins of my life―and the sin of my nature. He has cancelled the former, and condemned the latter. My sinful acts are all forgiven, and my sinful nature is judged. The former are washed away from my conscience, the latter is forever set aside from God’s presence. It is one thing to know the forgiveness of sins, and another to know the condemnation of sin. We read in Romans 8:3 that “God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” It does not speak of the forgiveness of sin. Sins are forgiven―the sinner is pardoned; but sin is condemned―an immensely important distinction for every earnest soul. The reign of sin is ended forever, as to the believer; and the reign of grace is begun.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Christ washes away our sins by his blood, and reconciles our Heavenly Father to us by the sacrifice of his death; but, at the same time, in consequence of  “our old man being crucified with him, and the body of sin destroyed,” Romans 6:6, He makes us “alive” unto righteousness. The sum of the Gospel is, that God, through his Son, takes away our sins, and admits us to fellowship with Him, that we, “denying ourselves ” and our own nature, may “live soberly, righteously, and godly.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; this is the sum of the gospel.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I have heard of a certain man who always carried with him a little book. This tiny volume had only three leaves in it; and truth to tell, it contained not a single word. The first was a leaf of black paper, black as jet; the next was a leaf of red paper—scarlet; and the last was a leaf of white paper without spot.  Day by day he would look upon this singular book, and at last he told the secret of what it meant.  He said, “Here is the black leaf, that is my sin, and the wrath of God which my sin deserves; I look, and look, and think it is not black enough to represent my guilt, though it is as black as black can be. The red leaf reminds me of the atoning sacrifice, and the precious blood; and I delight to look at it, and weep, and look again. The white leaf represents my soul, as it is washed in Jesus’ blood and made white as snow.”

 

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Resurrection First Fruits

Posted on April 10, 2020 by The Editor

1 Corinthians 15:20,23; Matthew 27:50-53

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept…But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): This was also a striking miracle, by which God declared that His Son entered into the prison of death, not to continue to be shut up there, but to bring out all who were held captive. For at the very time when the despicable weakness of the flesh was beheld in the person of Christ, the magnificent and divine energy of His death penetrated even to hell. This is the reason why, when He was about to be shut up in a sepulcher, other sepulchers were opened by Him.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The graves were opened to show that death was now swallowed up in victory.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It is written that they came out of their graves. Of course they did. What living man would wish to stay in his grave?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The bodies of the saints did not arise, till after Christ was risen.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Why the graves should be opened on Friday, and the bodies not be raised to life till the following Sunday, is difficult to be conceived. The passage is extremely obscure.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): It is not likely that the graves opened any considerable time before they came out of their graves.

JOHN CALVIN: In my opinion, the resurrection of the saints, which is mentioned immediately afterwards, was subsequent to the resurrection of Christ. There is no probability in the conjecture of some commentators that, after having received life and breath, they remained three days concealed in their graves. I think it more probable that, when Christ died, the graves were immediately opened: and that, when He rose, some of the godly, having received life, went out of their graves, and were seen in the city.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The ancient sepulchres were hewn out of rocks, which being rent by the earthquake, discovered the cells wherein the bodies of the dead were deposited; but though these sepulchres were opened by the earthquake at our Lord’s death, yet the dead in them did not come to life until His resurrection: for Jesus Himself was “the first-born from the dead,” Colossians 1:18, and “the first-fruits of them that slept.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In this, as in all things else, Jesus must have the pre-eminence.

JOHN CALVIN: But here a question arises. Why did God determine that only some should arise, since a participation in the resurrection of Christ belongs equally to all believers?

JOHN GILL: These were saints, such as slept in Jesus; and not all, but many of them, as pledges of the future resurrection, and for the confirmation of Christ’s resurrection, and the accomplishment of a prophecy in Isaiah 26:19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.”

JOHN CALVIN: As the time was not fully come when the whole body of the Church should be gathered to its Head, He exhibited in a few persons an instance of the new life which all ought to expect. For we know that Christ was received into heaven on the condition that the life of His members should still be hid, Colossians 3:3, until it should be manifested by His coming. But in order that the minds of believers might be more quickly raised to hope, it was advantageous that the resurrection, which was to be common to all of them, should be tasted by a few.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We may raise many enquiries concerning it, which we cannot resolve, as, Who these saints were, that did arise? Some think, the ancient patriarchs that were in such care to be buried in the land of Canaan, perhaps in the believing foresight of the advantage of this early resurrection. Christ had lately proved the doctrine of the resurrection from the instance of the patriarchs, Matthew 22:32, and here was a speedy confirmation of His argument. Others think, these that arose were saints such as had seen Christ in the flesh, but died before Him; as His father Joseph, Zecharias, Simeon, John Baptist, and others, that had been known to the disciples, while they lived, and therefore were the fitter to be witnesses to them.

THOMAS COKE: It seems probable that those saints were not some of the most eminent ones mentioned in the Old Testament, but disciples who had died lately; for when they went into the city, they were known by the persons who saw them, which could not well have happened, had they not been their contemporaries.

JOHN GILL: They appeared unto many of their friends and acquaintances, who had personally known them, and conversed with them in their lifetime.

JOHN CALVIN: That they continued long to converse with men is not probable; for it was only necessary that they should be seen for a short time; that, in them, as in a mirror or resemblance, the power of Christ might plainly appear—Another and more difficult question is, What became of those saints afterwards?

MATTHEW HENRY: Some think that they arose only to bear witness of Christ’s resurrection to those to whom they appeared, and, having finished their testimony, retired to their graves again.

JOHN CALVIN: But it is more probable that the life which they received was not afterwards taken from them; for if it had been a mortal life, it would not have been a proof of a perfect resurrection.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is more agreeable, both to Christ’s honour and theirs, to suppose―though we cannot prove, that they arose as Christ did, to “die no more,” and therefore ascended with Him to glory. Surely on them who did partake of His first resurrection, a second death had no power.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: It is a remarkable passage, and shows the complete victory of Christ over death, no doubt.

MATTHEW HENRY: We may learn many good lessons from it: that even those who lived and died before the death and resurrection of Christ, had saving benefit thereby, as well as those who have lived since; for He was the same yesterday that he is today, and will be forever, Hebrews 13:8…Death to the saints is but the sleep of the body, and the grave the bed it sleeps in.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): When the author to the Hebrews had given us a catalogue of the worthies of the Old Testament, he saith at last, “These all died in faith,” Hebrews 11:13.  In the faith of what? That they should lie and rot in their grave eternally? No, verily―they all died in faith, that they should rise again.

JOHN CALVIN: We know that “God is the God of the living, and not of the dead,” Matthew 22:32. Accordingly, if we are God’s people, we shall undoubtedly live.

 

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Christian Duty in a Time of National Distress

Posted on April 3, 2020 by The Editor

Joel 2:11,12; Daniel 9:3-6,19

The day of the Lord is very terrible; and who can abide it? Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land…O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him…O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): To prayer it is often proper to add fasting…In every age pious men have united fasting and prayer in times of distress.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Fasting is of use to put an edge upon prayer; it is an evidence and instance of humiliation which is necessary in prayer, and is a means of mortifying some corrupt habits, and of disposing the body to serve the soul in prayer. Their fasting was to express their humiliation―and it signified the mortifying of sin and turning from it, “loosing the bands of wickedness,” Isaiah 58:6,7.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): With respect to sackcloth and fasting―those who lived in ancient times resorted to these exercises when any urgent necessity pressed upon them. In the time of public calamity or danger they all put on sackcloth, and gave themselves to fasting, that by humbling themselves before God, and acknowledging their guilt, they might appease His wrath…Although we may reckon the wearing of sackcloth and sitting in ashes among the number of the legal ceremonies, yet the exercise of fasting remains in force amongst us at this day as well.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): For Evangelicals, this whole question of fasting has almost disappeared from our lives and even out of the field of our consideration. How often and to what extent have we thought about it? I suggest that the truth probably is that we have very rarely thought of it at all. I wonder whether we have ever fasted?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Many there are, it is to be feared, who―instead of “fasting twice a week,” have never fasted twice, nor even once, in their whole lives, for the purpose of devoting themselves more solemnly to God…Fasting is grievously neglected amongst us; and all are ready to excuse themselves from it, as unprofitable to their souls―The truth is, that we are as far from observing those other duties, of “weeping and mourning,” as we are that of fasting: and hence it is that fasting is so little in request amongst us.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Has it even occurred to us that we ought to be considering the question of fasting?

CHARLES SIMEON: Our Lord indeed intimated, that there would arise occasions which would call for solemn fasts; and He gave directions for the acceptable observance of them. Note Matthew 6:16―“When ye fast.”

LANCELOT ANDREWES (1555-1626): This very “when” shows Christ’s liking of it, that there is a time allowed for it, else He would allow it no “when”―no time at all.

JOHN CALVIN: Fasting is a subordinate aid, which is pleasing to God no farther than as it aids the earnestness and fervency of prayer.

CHARLES SIMEON: But why should it not be as profitable to us as it was to the saints of old?

SAMUEL MILLER (1769-1850): We have no less reason for fasting and humiliation than our fathers of former ages. Let us not imagine that there was some special character either in the men or the events of ancient times which rendered the exercise in question more needful to them than to us. It is to be considered as an occasional, or perhaps, more properly speaking, a special duty, which, like seasons of special prayer, ought to be regulated, as to its frequency and manner of observance, by the circumstances in which we are placed.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Why, at this moment we have sin rampant among us almost beyond precedent!

SAMUEL MILLER: Think of the abounding atheism and various forms of infidelity, the pride, the degrading intemperance, the profanations of the Sabbath, the fraud, the gross impiety, the neglect and contempt of the gospel, and all the numberless forms of enormous moral corruption ­which even in the most favoured parts of our country prevail in a deplorable degree.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): There have been times when some one object has seized with a more absorbing power, and a more giant grasp, the intellect of the nation; such as a season of the prevalence of the plague, or other forms of pestilence.

JOHN CALVIN: Pestilence, and other scourges of God, do not visit men by chance, but are directed by His hand.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This being one of His sore judgments―judgments upon a wicked world.

CHARLES SIMEON: But we must remember that there is a moral “pestilence” raging all around us, and sweeping myriads into the pit of destruction.

JOHN CALVIN: When God, therefore, calls us to repentance, by showing us signs of His displeasure, let us bear in mind that we ought not only to pray to Him after the ordinary manner, but also to employ such means as are fitted to promote our humility.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Deep afflictions call for deep and solemn humiliation.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Have our senators before they have gone to the place of legislation, and our councillors and aldermen, before they have entered the civic hall, fortified themselves by fasting and prayer, with the spirit of piety?

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): What would you think of a man that had a specific for some pestilence that was raging in a city, and was contented to keep it for his own use, or at most for his family’s use, when his brethren were dying by the thousand?

HENRY FOSTER (1760-1844): The times are awful. In such times Scripture characters fasted and prayed. The old Puritans did so.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Have you any days of fasting and prayer?

HENRY FOSTER: I have not. Yet I think we ought to.

C. H. SPURGEON: Be awake, Christian, and be aware of God’s design, for the trumpet is sounding, and when the trumpet sounds the Christian must not slumber.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): They that fast not on earth, when God calls to it, shall be fed with gall and wormwood in hell―they that mourn in a time of sinning, shall be marked in a time of punishing―and as they have sought the Lord with fasting, Ezekiel 9:4-6, so shall He yet again “be sought and found” of such with “holy feasting,” Zechariah 8:19, as He hath promised, and performed to His people in all ages of the Church.

 

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A Pestilence in the Land

Posted on March 27, 2020 by The Editor

Amos 3:6—Isaiah 45:7—Deuteronomy 32:39; Hosea 4:1

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?—I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.—See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Though the earth be filled with tokens of the goodness, patience, and forbearance of God, it likewise abounds with marks of His displeasure. I think we have sufficient reason to attribute earthquakes, hurricanes, famine, and pestilence, to sin as their original and proper cause.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It must not be supposed that to do evil denotes, in this passage, to commit injustice, which is contrary to the nature of God; but it means to inflict punishment, and to send adversity, which ought to be ascribed to the providence of God. In this sense it is very frequently found in Scripture. In like manner Jeremiah accuses the people of not acknowledging God to be “the Author of good and of evil,” Lamentations 3:38.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): God has a variety of sore judgments wherewith to punish sinful nations, and He has them all at command and inflicts which He pleases—they are God’s messengers, which He sends on His errands, and they shall accomplish that for which He sends them.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The “four sore judgments” of God—famine, the sword, wild beasts, and pestilence, are among the rods by which guilty nations, in all ages, have been scourged, Ezekiel 14:21.

JOHN CALVIN: By “evils” of that kind, therefore, such as wars, pestilence, famine, poverty, disease, and others of the same kind, the Lord punishes the sins of the people, and wishes to be acknowledged as the Author of them all.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When pestilence stalks through the land and sweeps away its myriads, think not that God has done an unthoughtful act without any intention in it—He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men for nothing…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. I am not among those, as you know, who believe that every affliction is a judgment upon the particular person to whom it occurs—except in extraordinary cases. But we do, nevertheless, very firmly believe that there are national judgments, and that national sins provoke national chastisements.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What is it that arms God against a nation, and provokes Him to visit it with war, pestilence, and famine? Is it not sin?

MATTHEW HENRY: The pestilence is God’s messenger.

WILLIAM GREENHILL (1591-1677): “Pestilence.” It is from a Hebrew word דּבר that signifies to speak, and speak out; the pestilence is a speaking thing, it proclaims the wrath of God amongst a people…The Hebrew root signifies to destroy, to cut off, and hence may the plague or pestilence have its name.

MATTHEW HENRY: The righteous God long seems to keep silence, yet, sooner or later, He will make judgment to be heard. When God is speaking judgment from heaven it is time for the earth to compose itself into an awful and reverent silence: “Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still,” Psalm 76:8—as silence is made by proclamation when the court sits.

ROBERT SOUTH (1634-1716): When God speaks, it is the creature’s duty to hear.

C. H. SPURGEON: Though God is speaking, at this moment in the clearest tones, none will recognize His voice, or understand His words, but those who are taught by His Holy Spirit.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): When God is speaking loudly in judgment―as He is today―the one endowed with spiritual wisdom will discern the intent of the Divine dispensations, and set his own house in order…God has a controversy with the world, and bids His sinful and rebellious creatures cease their controversy with Him. Because they will not, He frequently gives signs of His displeasure and portents of the future storm of Divine judgment which shall yet burst upon the wicked and wholly engulf them. Every epidemic of disease, every severe storm on land and sea, every pestilence and famine, every earthquake and flood, is a mark of the Creator’s anger, and presages the Day of Judgment. They are Divine calls for men to cease fighting against God, and solemn warnings of His dreadful and future vengeance if they will not.

C. H. SPURGEON: It only needs God to will it and the pestilence lays men low in heaps, like the grass of the meadow when the mower’s scythe has passed over it.

CHARLES SIMEON: Yes, it is a chastisement from God on account of our sins: and I call upon you not only to “believe” this, but to “hear the rod, and Him that has appointed it,” Micah 6:9. If we will not view the hand of God in these dispensations, we can have no hope that they shall be exchanged for mercies: but to acknowledge Him in them will be the best preparation for the reception of mercies from Him, and the most certain prelude to His bestowment of them.

A. W. PINK: His “rod” bids us consider the Hand that wields it and calls upon us to forsake our sins.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): When God speaks, it is neither reverent nor safe to refuse to listen…Pestilence walks in darkness, and the victim does not know until its poison fang is in him.

C. H. SPURGEON: When pestilence comes, with equal foot it kicks at the door both of the palace and of the cottage.

MATTHEW HENRY: Prince and peasant stand upon the same level before God’s judgments, for there is no respect of persons with Him.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It matters not of what nation, or of what state and condition of life persons be.

A. W. PINK: When God speaks in judgment to a nation—and it refuses to heed His voice—His judgments increase in severity, as did His plagues upon Egypt of old. Therefore it is the part of wisdom to redeem the time and make the most of the privileges which are ours today…When God speaks in judgment it is the final warning that He is not to be trifled with.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The nearer judgements approach, the louder they call for repentance.

CHARLES SIMEON: Every sinner therefore, in proportion as he increases the nation’s guilt, contributes also to its punishment.

C. H. SPURGEON: Listen! God is speaking! God is speaking to you somewhat roughly by that dread disease, but listen to its voice! If I am addressing any who are in the condition, most pitiable and sad, of being likely to end their days in the hospital, let me interpret to them the voice of God in this trying dispensation—“Turn you, turn you to Him that smites you; turn at once unto the Lord, and live.”

 

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Man’s Way & God’s Way

Posted on March 20, 2020 by The Editor

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We have here an account of the way, and end, of a great many self-deluded souls.

JOHN MASON (1600-1672): Vain confidence is this very way.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Thus confident are they that their way is right.

MATTHEW HENRY: Their way is seemingly fair: It seems right to themselves; they please themselves with a fancy that they are as they should be, that their opinions and practices are good, and such as will bear them out. The way of ignorance and carelessness, the way of worldliness and earthly-mindedness, the way of sensuality and flesh-pleasing, seem right to those that walk in them; much more the way of hypocrisy in religion―external performances, partial reformations, and blind zeal; this they imagine will bring them to heaven; they flatter themselves in their own eyes that all will be well at last.  

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The sinner has his own idea of how salvation is to be obtained―all over the world fallen man has his own opinion of what is suitable and needful. One man thinks he must perform some meritorious deeds in order to obtain forgiveness. Another thinks the past can be atoned for by turning over a new leaf and living right for the future. Yet another, who has obtained a smattering of the gospel, thinks that by believing in Christ he secures a passport to heaven, even though he continues to indulge the flesh and retain his beloved idols. However much they may differ in their self-concocted schemes, this one thing is common to them all: “I thought.” And that “I thought” is put over against the Word and way of God. They prefer the way that “seemeth right” to them; they insist on following out their own theorizings; they pit their prejudices and presuppositions against a “thus saith the Lord.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This is man’s way of salvation, as opposed to God’s way.

A. W. PINK: This “way” that ends in “death” is the Devil’s Delusion—the gospel of Satan—a way of salvation by human attainment. It is a way which “seemeth right,” that is to say, it is presented in such a plausible way that it appeals to the natural man…But such a verse has a far wider application than merely to those who are resting on something of, or from themselves, to secure a title to everlasting bliss. Equally wrong is it to imagine that the only deceived souls are they who have no faith in Christ.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The ways of death are many.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It may be his own false views of religion: he may have an imperfect repentance, a false faith, a very false creed; and he may persuade himself that he is in the direct way to heaven.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): I once spoke with an Englishman who was sincerely religious in his own way: and a part of his confession was that every man’s religion would carry him to heaven whatever it might be in itself, provided he sincerely believed it. He accounted it rank bigotry to doubt the safety of any fellow mortal on the ground of erroneous belief. His creed, although he probably would have refused to sign it if he had seen it written out, was: “Safety lies in the sincerity of the believer, without respect to the truth of what he believes.’

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The Hindu meets the Muslim and he says, “No doubt you are sincere as well as we are, and you and we shall at last meet in the right place.” They would salute the Christian, too, and say the same to him, but it is a necessity, if our religion is true, that it should denounce every other and that it should say unto those who know not Christ, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): I have had people say to me so many times, “We are traveling different roads, but we will all get to heaven at last.” No, no, I don’t find that in my Bible…Oh, do not talk about many ways―there is only one way to the Father’s house. And what is that way? There is only one―Jesus is the only way. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” but the name of Jesus, Acts 4:12.

C. H. SPURGEON: Christ declares that He, and only He, is the way to peace with God, to pardon, to righteousness and to Heaven! It is a remarkable fact that none of us ever met with a man who thought he had his sins forgiven unless it was through the blood of Christ. Meet a Muslim. He never had his sins forgiven. He does not say so. Meet an Infidel. He never knows that his sins are forgiven. Meet a Legalist. He says, “I hope they will be forgiven.” But he does not pretend they are. No one ever gets even a fancied hope apart from this—that Christ and Christ, alone, must save by the shedding of His blood.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): It was, and is, the only way, there is no other. Let the world in its supposed wisdom call it “narrow-minded.” As long as it does so it will continue to degenerate morally and ethically, and fester in its own iniquity. The Christian way is the only way.

CHARLES SIMEON: But let the Scriptures speak for themselves: “He that believeth on Christ is not condemned: but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God,” John 3:18; and again, “He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life: but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John 3:36.

C. H. SPURGEON: Yes, it goes still further and pronounces its anathema upon those who pretend to any other way! “Though we or an angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than that which you have received, let him be accursed,” Galatians 1:8. I assure you, in God’s name, that there are roads which lead to Hell and that none of them can bring you to Heaven. There is only one way by which the soul can come to God and find eternal life—and that way is Christ!

A. W. PINK: How terribly deceptive is the human heart! “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

JOHN MASON: See the end of it, and tremble; for it leads to darkness, and ends in death.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Your opinion that the path is right does not make it right: your sincerity in that erroneous opinion does not exempt you from its consequences.

A. W. PINK: O reader! Make certain that you believe―really, savingly, on the Son of God.

 

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Is Tithing a New Testament Duty?

Posted on March 13, 2020 by The Editor

Deuteronomy 8:18; Proverbs 3:9

Remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Wealth is not truly ours till we thank the Lord for it. We have not paid the royal dues upon it—it is contraband and we are illegally using it. Beloved, as you have not failed to give unto the Lord your loving thanks, your mercies are now yours to enjoy as in His sight. I hope, too, that the most of my Brethren can feel that their temporal possessions are theirs because they have conscientiously consecrated the due portion which belongs to God. From the loaf there should be cut the crust for the hungry. From the purse there should come the help for the Lord’s work.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Ere leaving this verse, a few words need to be said upon the subject of tithing.

C. H. SPURGEON: The tithing of the substance is the true title to the substance. It is not altogether yours till you have proved your gratitude by your proportionate gift to the cause of the Master.

CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): I do not personally believe that tithing is incumbent upon us. It was a Jewish provision and has passed away, in common with all ceremonial law.

A. W. PINK: Tithing existed among the people of God long before the law was given at Sinai―this principle of recognizing God’s ownership and owning His goodness, was later incorporated into the Mosaic law, Leviticus 27:30.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Jews say Abraham was the first in the world that began to offer tithes.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Now what saith the Scripture on this subject?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): This is the first scripture, Genesis 14:20, that gives us any account of paying the tenths of goods to God―and this Abraham did.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Had we been told that Abram gave Melchizedec a present, we should merely have considered it as a proper compliment suited to the occasion. But we are informed that “he gave him tithes of all.” This circumstance is peculiarly important. If we attend to it, and consider it according to the light reflected upon it in other parts of Scripture, we shall find in it an acknowledged duty.

JOHN GILL: This is no proof of any obligation on men to pay tithes now; for this was a voluntary act, and not what any law obliged; it was done but once, and not constantly, or every year; it was out of the spoils of the enemy, and not out of his own substance, or of the increase of the earth―but to testify his gratitude to God, for the victory obtained, and his reverence of, and subjection to the priest of God.

A. W. PINK: No one can point to a “thus saith the Lord,” nor can we assign chapter and verse giving a command for the saints to tithe before the Mosaic law was given; yet is it impossible to account for it without presupposing a revelation of God’s mind on it. The fact that Abraham did give a tithe, or tenth to Melchizedek, intimates that he acted in accordance with God’s will. And Abraham is the father of all that believe, Romans 4; Galatians 3―the pattern man of faith. He is the outstanding exemplar of the stranger and pilgrim on earth.

C. H. SPURGEON: I cannot help believing that when Abraham met Melchizedek, the Priest of the most high God, first King of Righteousness and then King of Peace—and when he gave Him tithes of all and received His blessing—he recognized in Melchizedek, One who was greater than himself.

A. W. PINK: Melchizedek is the type of Christ. If then, Abraham gave the tithe to Melchizedek, most assuredly every Christian should give tithes to Christ, our great High Priest…So too, the words of Jacob in Genesis 28:22 suggests the same thing. Here again we see the tithe.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): This is the second place in which we find mention of the tenth, or tithes, solemnly consecrated to God. Jacob promises to give them in return for his prosperous journey, as his grandfather Abraham had given them in return for his victory…How they came to pitch upon this portion, rather than a fifth, twentieth, or any other, is not so easily to be resolved.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Probably it was according to some general instructions received from heaven that Abraham and Jacob offered the tenth of their acquisitions to God. The tenth is a very fit proportion to be devoted to God and employed for Him.

A. W. PINK: We are not told why Jacob selected that percentage, nor why he should give a tenth; but the fact that he did determine to do so, intimates there had previously been a revelation of God’s mind to His creatures, and particularly to His people, that one-tenth of their income should be devoted to the Giver of all.

CHARLES SIMEON: Though the particular engagement then made by Jacob is not binding upon us, yet the spirit of it is of universal obligation.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The law dealt with us as children, and prescribed the exact amount. The gospel treats us as men, and leaves it to circumstance, principle, and conscience.

A. W. PINK: Are our offerings to be regulated by sentiment and impulse, or by principle and conscience? That is only another way of asking, Does God leave us to the promptings of gratitude and generosity, or has He definitely specified His mind and stated what portion of His gifts to us are due Him in return? Surely He has not left this important point undefined. Only God has the right to say how much of our income shall be set aside and set apart unto Him. And He has said so clearly, repeatedly, in the Old Testament Scriptures, and there is nothing in the New Testament that introduces any change or that sets aside the teaching of the Old Testament on this important subject.

A. P. CECIL (1841-1889): In the Christian economy there is no stated rule; only special principles are given to be carried out by the motive power of the love of Christ.

A. W. PINK: Tithing is even more obligatory on the saints of the New Testament than it was upon God’s people in Old Testament days—not equally binding, but more binding, on the principle of “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required,” Luke 12:48. The obligations of God’s saints today are much greater because our privileges and our blessings are greater. As grace is more potent than law, as love is more constraining than fear, as the Holy Spirit is more powerful than the flesh, so our obligations to tithe are greater, for we have a deeper incentive to do that which is pleasing to God.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Is it not a privilege to lay aside a portion of our substance with this sacred stamp: This is for God? The “first-fruits of the increase” were the acknowledgment of redemption from Egypt, Exodus 13:12,13; Deuteronomy 26:1-10―and shall we, redeemed from sin, Satan, death, and hell, deny the claim? Well may we think our substance due, where we owe ourselves, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20. Nay, could we be happy in spending that substance on ourselves, which He has given us wherewith to honour Him? The rule and obligation are therefore clear.

 

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