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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Romans 10:17; Mark 4:9

Posted on March 6, 2020 by The Editor

Romans 10:17; Mark 4:9

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

And [Jesus] said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

BROWNLOW NORTH (1810-1875): These Scriptures teach that men are justified “by the hearing of faith,” Galatians 3:2,5; and again, that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

HUGH  LATIMER (1483-1555): Then, if we will come to faith, we must hear God’s Word.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Oh, how I wish our hearers would begin to ask, “What does it mean?”

BROWNLOW NORTH: There is no other possible way by which any man can be saved except by faith: that is, by rejecting his own reasonings, wisdom, and carnal senses, and by hearing―that is, by receiving, believing, and attending in their stead to what the Scriptures tell him.

ALEXANDER COMRIE (1706-1774): Soon as a soul begins to give ear unto Jesus, there is much astir—the world allures, Satan threatens, the evil heart attempts to oppose the words of Jesus: many difficulties are suggested—that will help, this will harm; but this “hearing” will be a casting of all that to the winds, and a giving of attention and heed alone to that which Jesus speaks to the soul in His Word; and so I find that sometimes all that God demands is thus expressed: Hearken, only hear.

BROWNLOW NORTH: In other words, faith is hearing the Word of God, and believing it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What does it mean to savingly “believe”?

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): A mere cold assent―commonly called believing the doctrines of the gospel, unaccompanied with love to them, or a dependence on Christ for salvation, is very far from being true saving faith.

C. H. SPURGEON: True faith is reliance. Look at any Greek lexicon you like and you will find that the word pisteuein does not merely mean to believe, but to trust, to confide in, to commit to, entrust with, and so forth. And the marrow of the meaning of faith is confidence in, reliance upon. Let me ask, then, everyone who professes to have faith—is your faith the faith of reliance? You give credit to certain statements—do you also place trust in the one glorious Person who alone can redeem? Have you confidence as well as credence? A creed will not save you, but reliance upon the Anointed Saviour is the way of salvation!

JOHN G. PATON (1824-1907): For a long time no equivalent could be found [for the word “faith” in the language of Aniwa Island]; and my work of Bible translation was paralyzed for the want of so fundamental and oft-recurring a term.  The natives apparently regarded the verb “to hear” as equivalent to “to believe.” I would ask a native whether he believed a certain statement, and his reply would be, should he credit the statement, “Yes, I heard it,” but should he disbelieve it he would answer, “No, I did not hear it,”―meaning, not that his ears had failed to catch the words, but that he did not regard them as true. This definition of faith was obviously insufficient. I prayed continually that God would supply the missing link, and spared no effort in interrogating the most intelligent native pundits, but all in vain, none caught the hidden meaning of the word.

One day I was in the Mission House anxiously pondering.  I sat on an ordinary kitchen chair, my feet resting on the floor.  Just then an intelligent native woman entered the room, and the thought flashed through my mind to ask the all-absorbing question yet once again, if possible in a new light.  Was I not resting on the chair?  Would that attitude lend itself to the discovery?

I said, “What am I doing now?”

“Koikae ana, Misi,” the native replied―“You’re sitting down, Misi.”

Then I drew up my feet and placed them upon the bar of the chair just above the floor, and leaning back in an attitude of repose, asked, “What am I doing now?”

“Fakarongrongo, Misi.”―“You are leaning, wholly, Misi,” or “You have lifted yourself from every other support.”

“That’s it!” I shouted, with an exultant cry; and a sense of holy joy awed me, as I realized that my prayer had been so fully answered. To “lean on” Jesus wholly and only is surely the true meaning of appropriating or saving faith. And now “Fakarongrongo Iesu ea anea mouri”―“Leaning on Jesus unto eternal life,” or “for all the things of eternal life” is the happy experience of those Christian Islanders, as it is of all who thus cast themselves unreservedly on the Saviour of the world for salvation.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): No doubt that is quite true; and rightly understood that is a strengthening and a glad truth. But is that all which can be said in explanation of this principle? Surely not.

A. W. PINK:. John 1:12 makes it clear that to “believe” is to “receive”―to receive “Christ Jesus the Lord,” Colossians 2:6. Christ is the Saviour of none until He is welcomed as LORD. The immediate context of John 1:11 shows plainly the particular character in which Christ is there viewed: “He came unto His own;” He was their rightful Owner, because their Lord. But “His own received Him not;” no, they declared, “We will not have this Man to reign over us,” Luke 19:14.

C. H. SPURGEON: Be it also known that Jesus the Saviour must be received as Lord in the souls of those whom He redeems. You must obey Him if you trust Him, or else your trust will be mere hypocrisy. If we trust a physician we follow his prescriptions. If we trust a guide we follow his directions, and if we fully rely on Jesus, we obey His gracious commands. The faith which saves is a faith which produces a change of life, and subdues the soul to obedience to the Lord. Be not deceived—where Jesus comes, He comes to reign. Without submission to His will and Word, you are without the safety of His Atonement.

A. W. PINK: “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:31. Ah, dear friend, this is searching. Have you received “The Lord Jesus Christ”? We do not ask, “Are you resting on His finished work,” but have you bowed to His scepter and owned His authority in a practical way? Have you disowned your own sinful lordship? If not, you certainly have not “believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and therefore the promise of Acts 16:31 does not belong to you.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Trust in God first as your Saviour, and then own Him as Lord of your life…If you have never recognized Him as your rightful Lord, do it today. It is not yet too late.

JOHN KNOX (1514-1572): Let every man therefore examine himself, with what mind, and what purpose, he comes to hear the Word of God―yea, with what ear he hears it.

GEORGE BURDER (1752-1832): What a blessing to be able to say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,” 1 Samuel 3:10―“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” May God bestow “the hearing ear” upon every reader.

 

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God’s Word on All Who Deny the Deity of Jesus Christ

Posted on February 28, 2020 by The Editor

1 John 4:1-3; 1 John 2:22,23

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Compromise must always be impossible where the Truth of God is essential and fundamental. There are some points in which we may agree to differ, but these are points in which there can be no mutual concessions or toning down of statement. Christ Jesus is either God or He is not! And if He is God, as we believe He is, then those who reject His Deity cannot be true believers in Him. And therefore they must miss the benefits which He promises to those who receive Him. I cannot conceive any man to be right in religion if he is not right in reference to the Person of the Redeemer. “You cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of Him.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): All that deny the deity, sonship, and Messiahship of Jesus Christ, are liars…And such who deny the deity, incarnation, Messiahship, work, office, grace, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; and who profess themselves to be Christians, are not.

C. H. SPURGEON: We cannot make any terms of peace with those who deny the Deity of Christ, nor ought they to want to be at peace with us, for if Christ is not the Son of God, we are idolaters. And if He is, they are not Christians! There is a great gulf between us and them and we do not hesitate for a moment to say on which side of that gulf we stand.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The Socinians, in all their disputes against the deity of Christ, do always make use of this name, and continually repeat it―“Christ,” they say, “is not the most high God.” A god they will allow Him to be, but not the ‘most high’ God.* But whereas this name is used in distinction only from all false gods, if their Christ be a god, but not on any account the most high God, he is a false god, and as such to be rejected.

C. H. SPURGEON: The Socinian is nearer akin to the Mohammedan than to the Christian. He who does not acknowledge the Deity of Jesus disowns Him altogether. I cannot see how Jesus Christ can be anything but one of two things—either the Son of God, or else a gross impostor who allowed his disciples to think him Divine—and used the virtues of his character to support his claim…He must have been either God or an arch-deceiver!

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Men may profess to honor Jesus by recognizing Him as the mightiest among the mighty, the greatest of all the great men of the world, the most marvelous of all its ethical teachers, but in reality they are only degrading Him unless they acknowledge Him as God over all. Jesus is God come in the flesh. The denial of this fundamental doctrine is the spirit of antichrist. Notice, whether this denial is couched in rude or ignorant terms, or presented in beautiful language, it is the denial of the incarnation. To think of Jesus as anyone else than God the Creator become man for our redemption, is to deny the truth concerning Him revealed in this Book, and is the spirit of the antichrist.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let others say of Him what they will. Let them make Him to be a mere man, or a Prophet, or a delegated God—such talk is nothing to the point with us! We believe Him to be very God of very God and we worship Him this day as He is enthroned in the highest heavens, believing Him to be worthy of the adoration which is due to God, alone! I do not wonder that those who believe our Lord Jesus Christ to be a mere man say severe things of us. Nor must they wonder if we deliver very strong utterances with regard to them! If we are wrong, we are idolaters, for we worship a person who is only a man. If we are right, much of their teaching is blasphemous.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Reader, ponder this testimony: Jesus of Nazareth, the anointed Saviour of poor sinners, is emphatically styled the “great God,” Titus 2:13; the “mighty God,” Isaiah 9:6; the “only wise God,” Jude 25; the “true God,” 1 John 5:20; and the “only Lord God,” Jude 4. The name Jehovah particularly belongs to God; it is never applied to a mere creature. “I am Jehovah; that is my name,” Isaiah 42:8. And yet this very name is ascribed to Jesus by the Holy Spirit: “This is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness,” Jeremiah 23:6. He is Jehovah Jesus, “over all, God blessed for evermore,” Romans 9:5. Could a testimony be more clear and decisive? What a precious truth on which to live and glorious rock on which to die! Jesus is Jehovah; He is “Emmanuel, God with us,” Matthew 1:23―God manifest in the flesh.

C. H. SPURGEON: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” John 1:1; In His glory He was “with God.” In His nature, He “was God.” “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth),” John 1:14; “And He was in the world, and the world was made by Him,” John 1:12. We cannot describe the Deity of Christ in clearer language than John uses. He was with God; He was God; He did the works of God—for He was the Creator.

H. A. IRONSIDE: The great truth is that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation,” 2 Corinthians 5:19; “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory,” 1 Timothy 3:16. This is the Christian confession.

C. H. SPURGEON: If any doubt His Deity, they must do so in distinct defiance of the language of Holy Scripture. How any believers in Scripture ever get to be disbelievers in the Deity of Christ is altogether astounding.

H. A. IRONSIDE: Those who deny the deity of our Lord are of the world.

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*Editor’s Note: Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, and Unitarians all deny the Deity of Jesus Christ, and therefore are not Christians, no matter what they may profess to be. Like Socinians, some will admit that Jesus is a god, but not the “Almighty God,” which is really no different from polytheistic paganism, in which some gods are more powerful than others; it also denies the essential Trinitarian unity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, as well as Jesus Christ’s own statement of John 10:30, “I and my Father are one.”

 

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The Difference Between Christianity & Communism

Posted on February 21, 2020 by The Editor

Acts 4:32-35; Luke 3:11

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

[Jesus] saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): There is the point in which Christ’s teaching joins hands with a great deal of unchristian teaching in this present day which is called Socialism and Communism.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): All believers were together in those early days. There was no sectarianism, no strife, no denominationalism. All that believed were together, and “had all things common.” For a little while they had what some people call a world ideal, a kind of Christian communism. It was founded on love for one another―very different from modern worldly communism. The believers were as “brethren in Christ,” Colossians 1:2.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The disciples loved one another dearly.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They were a generous Church as well as a united Church. They were so generous that they threw their property into a common stock lest any should be in need.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): They “had all things common”―which they were not obliged to do, but it was a free and voluntary action of their own, and so is not binding on others; nor indeed is their practice to be imitated, in the direct manner in which they did it, for their case was peculiar. They were not only every day liable to persecutions, and to have their possessions seized, and their goods confiscated; but they also knew, that in process of time, Jerusalem would be destroyed, and they could not tell how soon; therefore judged it right to sell their possessions, and throw the money into one common stock, for their mutual support, and for the carrying on the common cause of Christ.

H. A. IRONSIDE: That is altogether different from what is called communism today. It was not forcing people to give up their possessions; but it was love working in their hearts that made these Christians say, “I will gladly share my possessions with those who are more needy”―They were not forced to do this. No one said, You must sell your property and use your money in this way. But they were moved by the Spirit of God to share with one another.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Further, the distribution was not determined by the rule of equality, but by the “need” of the recipients; and its result was not that all had share and share alike, but that “none lacked.”

C. H. SPURGEON: “Share alike today, and share again tomorrow,” this is the leveler’s motto. If we were all equal at this moment, one would spend all, and another would labour to increase his stock, and so the demand would arise for sharing again. What is a Communist? One who hath yearnings, for the equal division, of unequal earnings.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: You may do as you like about the distribution of wealth, and the relation of Capital to Labour, and the various cognate questions which are all included in the vague word Socialism; and human nature will be too strong for you, and you will have the old mischiefs cropping out again.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): So, in fact, such a thing as communism lets loose corrupt lusts too.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The “poor always ye have with you,” John 12:8, in like manner, disposes of an idle dream of Socialism.

C. H. SPURGEON: Great schemes of socialism have been tried and found lacking…These Believers acted in such a generous spirit, one to the other, that it seemed as if nobody accounted that what he had belonged to himself…They were not communists, they were Christians—and the difference between a communist and a Christian is this—a communist says, “All yours is mine;” while a Christian says, “All mine is yours.” And that is a very different thing. The one is for getting, and the other for giving.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Christianity is not communistic. It asserts your right of property, but it limits that right by this: That if you interpret your right of property to mean the right to “do what you like with your own,” ignoring your stewardship to God, and the right of your fellows to share in what you have, then you are an unfaithful steward, and your mammon is unrighteous.

MATTHEW HENRY: We can call nothing our own but sin. What we have in the world is more God’s than our own; we have it from Him, must use it for Him, and are accountable for it―to Him.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): True love towards man does not flow except from the love of God.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: And that principle, the true communism of Christianity, has to be worked into modern society in a way that some of us do not dream of, before modern society will be organized on Christian principles. These words are no toothless words which are merely intended to urge Christian people on to a sentimental charity, and to a niggardly distribution of part of their possessions: but they underlie the whole conception of ownership, as the New Testament sets it forth. Wherever the stewardship that we owe to God, and the participation that we owe to men, are neglected in regard to anything that we have, there God’s good gifts are perverted and have become “unrighteous mammon.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Some of us may have passed away, but you who are younger may live to see modern thought obtain supremacy over human minds—German rationalism, which has ripened into Socialism, may yet pollute the mass of mankind and lead them to overturn the foundations of society. Then “advanced principles” will hold carnival, and free thought will riot with the vice and blood which were years ago the insignia of “the age of reason.” I say not that it will be so, but I should not wonder if it came to pass—Some who defend Socialism may soon have too much of it.*

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*Editor’s Note: Spurgeon’s prophetic words were spoken in a Sunday sermon on June 23, 1878; the last sentence about “some who defend Socialism” is from his book, The Salt Cellars, published in 1889. The Age of Reason is the title of a book written by Thomas Paine, published in three parts between 1794 and 1807. Paine advocated Deism, which claims a belief in a “Supreme Being,” but rejects Jesus Christ as God come in the flesh, and the Bible as God’s inspired Word. Paine vilified all churches as “human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, for power and profit,” and boasted that “my own mind is my church.” In the “Age of Reason,” Paine slandered God, and claimed that man can be his own god, which is exactly what Satan did in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3:1-5).

 

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Walking in Love

Posted on February 14, 2020 by The Editor

Jude 1:21; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): How affectionately the Church is called upon to follow God; and the way, in which they are to follow Him—not as children only, but as dear children.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): We should set up God’s love, not as a pattern only to us, but as an incentive to inflame us; and therefore he adds these words, ‘as dear children.’ The words are in the original ὡς τέκνα ἀγαπητά.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Having called on us to imitate God, he now calls on us to imitate Christ, who is our true model. We ought to embrace each other with that love with which Christ has embraced us, for what we perceive in Christ is our true guide.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): What a path to walk in! “Walk in love.” What a well-paved way it is! What a blessed Person for us to follow in that divinely royal road! It would have been hard for us to tread this way of love, if it had not been that His blessed feet marked out the track for us. We are to love as Christ also hath loved us and the question which will often solve difficulties is this, “What would Jesus Christ do in my case? What He would have done, that we may do: “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.” And if we want to know how far that love may be carried, we need not be afraid of going too far in self-denial; we may even make a sacrifice of ourselves for love of God and men, for here is our model: “As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.”

JOHN CALVIN: This was a remarkable proof of the highest love. Forgetful, as it were, of Himself, Christ spared not His own life, that He might redeem us from death. If we desire to be partakers of this benefit, we must cultivate similar affections toward our neighbours. Not that any of us has reached such high perfection, but all must aim and strive according to the measure of their ability…He, by not sparing His own life, testified how much He loved us…Christ presents to us, in a summary view, the way and manner of fulfilling this precept, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” Matthew 22:39.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): True brotherly love is a reflection of God’s love for us, and He loves His people not for their native attractiveness, but for Christ’s sake; and therefore does He love them in spite of their ugliness and vileness. God is “longsuffering to us-ward,” 2 Peter 3:9, bearing with our crookedness, pardoning our iniquities, healing our diseases, and His word to us is, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love.” We are to love the saints for what we can see of Christ in them; yes, love them, and for that reason—in spite of all their ignorance, perverseness, ill-temper, obstinacy, fretfulness. It is the image of God in them not their wealth, amiability, social position—which is the magnet that attracts a renewed heart toward them.

C. H. SPURGEON: Because iniquity abounds even in the professing Church, the love of many is growing cold today. What a sermon one might preach upon this!

A. W. PINK: Remember, dear brother, God suffers our love for one another to be tried and tested—as He does our faith—or there would be no need for this exhortation “forbearing one another in love,” Ephesians 4:2. The most spiritual Christian on earth is full of infirmities, and the best way of enduring them is to frequently and honestly remind yourself that you also are full of faults and failings.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): If ye are converted, and become as little children, then for God’s sake take care of doing what children often do; they are too apt to quarrel one with another. O love one another; “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,” 1 John 4:16. Ye are all children of the same Father, ye are all going to the same place; why should ye differ? The world has enough against us, the devil has enough against us, without our quarreling with each other; O walk in love. If I could preach no more, if I was not able to hold out to the end of my sermon, I would say as John did, when he was grown old and could not preach, “Little children, love one another.” If ye are God’s children, then love one another.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): “The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance,” These virtues almost exclusively refer to our fellow-creatures; yet they are the fruits of the Spirit—The man who cherishes in his bosom the spirit of love to his fellow-creatures, from a deep sense of God’s love to him in Christ, and who is enabled to make some tolerable proficiency in learning of Jesus, who is “meek end lowly in heart,” has more of the living power of the Holy Spirit in his soul, than he who is dissolved in tears, or rapt in ecstasy under the burning, melting words and tones of some eloquent preacher. Never can it be repeated too often, or expressed too emphatically, that “to walk in the Spirit,” is to walk in love.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Let every act of life be dictated by love to God and man.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This is all-important. To pretend to great zeal for the truth of the one body while failing to manifest the love of the Spirit is to put the emphasis in the wrong place. Doctrinal correctness will never atone for lack of brotherly love. It is far more to God who is Himself love, in His very nature, that His people walk in love one toward another, than that they contend valiantly for set forms of truth, however scriptural.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): And to “walk” in love, is not merely to talk of it, but to exercise it; and to do all that is done for God, and Christ, and the saints, from a principle of love.

JOHN CALVIN: Whatever is devoid of love is of no account in the sight of God.

 

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King Asa’s Old Age

Posted on February 7, 2020 by The Editor

2 Chronicles 16:1-10,12

In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent to Benhadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.

And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time…

And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This is a very sad chapter, telling as it does the story of the lapse of a man who, considering the conditions under which he lived, had for six and thirty years been so remarkably true to God.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): That Asa was a pious man is clear from 2 Chronicles 14:2, where we are told that he “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” Alas, like many whose early life promised well, it expired amid the shadows. And wherein was it that he failed so lamentably?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Notice the grave error into which Asa fell—the foolishness for which the Prophet rebuked him. He was threatened by Baasha, the king of the neighbouring territory of Israel. He was not directly assailed by war, but Baasha began to build a fortress which would command the passages between the two countries—and prevent the people of Israel from coming to settle in the land of Judah, or making their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Now, one would naturally have expected, from Asa’s former conduct, that he would either have thought very little of Baasha, or else that he would have taken the case to God, as he did before in the matter of the Ethiopians, 2 Chronicles 14:9-11. And this was a smaller trouble altogether, and somehow I fancy it was because it was a smaller trouble, that Asa thought that he could manage it very well himself by the help of an arm of flesh. In the case of the invasion by countless hordes of Ethiopians, Asa must have felt that it was of no use calling in Benhadad, the king of Syria, or asking any of the nations to help him, for with all their help he would not have been equal to the tremendous struggle. Therefore he was driven to God. But this, being a smaller trial, he does not seem to have been so thoroughly divorced from confidence in man.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Now here was a man of God who had committed the very common sin of making alliance with the world. He made a league with Ben-hadad, king of Syria―he relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on Jehovah.

C. H. SPURGEON: According to God’s mind, the king’s course was evil, but it did not turn out badly for him politically. Now, many people in the world judge actions by their immediate results. If a Christian does a wrong thing and it prospers, then at once they conclude he was justified in doing it; but, ah, Brothers and Sisters, this is a poor, blind way of judging the actions of men.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: Things which appear successful may be in the life of faith most disastrous. How perpetually men defeat their own ends when either through lack of faith, or overconfidence, which are practically the same thing, they attempt to do by policy what God is prepared to do for them in answer to their obedient belief.

C. H. SPURGEON: Oh, the tricks, plots, deceptions, equivocations and intrigues of diplomacy! Asa, I have no doubt, thought that all was fair in war. He took the common rule, the common standard of mankind, and went upon that. Whereas, as a child of God, he ought to have scorned anything that was dishonourable or untrue. And as to saying to a heathen king, “Break your league with Baasha and make a league with me”—why, if he had been in a right state of heart, he would sooner have lost his tongue than have uttered such disgraceful words! But, child of God as he was, when he once got off the plain simple way of believing in God and taking his trouble to God, there was no telling what he would do.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: When once a man allows himself to slip aside from the position in which faith would keep him, there is no accounting for the extremes into which he may run.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: The story is the sadder in that the king seems to have had no repentance for his wrong. He persecuted the prophet, flinging him into prison.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time; by fines and imprisonments, such as perhaps expressed their disapprobation of his league with the king of Syria, and of his ill usage of the prophet.”

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Alas! what an awful picture is this of Asa. Oh! how evident it is when men grow cool towards God that they grow impatient of reproof.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The old also think, that wrong is in a manner done them when they are reproved.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished,” Ecclesiastes 4:13. That is, he will not suffer any counsel or admonition to be given him―no one about him dares contradict him, or, he will not hearken to the counsel and admonition that are given him…Folly and wilfulness commonly go together, and those that most need admonition can worst bear it.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Thus he added sin to sin, as the best shall do if God restrain them not.

MATTHEW HENRY: Is this Asa? Is this he whose heart was perfect with the Lord all his days? Well, let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. A wise man, and yet in a rage! An Israelite, and yet in a rage with a prophet! A good man, and yet impatient of reproof, and that cannot bear to be told of his faults! Lord, what is man, when God leaves him to himself?

C. H. SPURGEON: For a man to trust himself in the beginning of his Christian career is very unwise, for Scripture warns him against it! But for him to trust himself after he has been 20 or 30 years a Christian is surely insanity, itself—a sin against common sense! If we have spent only a few years in the Christian life, we ought to have learned from our slips, follies, failures, ignorance and mistakes, that we are less than nothing! The college of experience has done nothing by way of instructing us if it has not taught us that we are weakness, itself―Are you an aged Christian and yet self-confident? Surely this cannot be!

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): And are we in no danger of this? Read the Scriptures. See the falls of good men, and men eminently good.

 

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An American “New & Improved” Gospel

Posted on January 31, 2020 by The Editor

Galatians 1:6,7

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): In twentieth century evangelism, there has been a woeful ignoring of the solemn truth of the total depravity of man―a complete underrating of the desperate case and condition of the sinner. Very few indeed have faced the unpalatable fact that every man is thoroughly corrupt by nature, that he is completely unaware of his own wretchedness, blind and helpless, and dead in trespasses and sins. Because such is his case, his heart is filled with enmity against God.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): As for the system which men have substituted in its place, it is indeed “another Gospel,” which the Apostles never knew, and which God never revealed.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): Leave out the holy character of God, the holy excellence of His law, the holy condemnation to which transgressors are doomed, the holy loveliness of the Saviour’s character, the holy nature of redemption, the holy tendency of Christ’s doctrine, and the holy tempers and conduct of all true believers: then dress up a scheme of religion of this unholy sort—represent mankind as in a pitiable condition, rather through misfortune than by crime: speak much of Christ’s bleeding love to them, of His agonies in the garden and on the cross without showing the need, or the nature, of the satisfaction for sin: speak of His present glory, and of His compassion for poor sinners; of the freeness with which He dispenses pardons; of the privileges which believers enjoy here, and of the happiness and glory reserved for them hereafter: clog this with nothing about regeneration and sanctification, or represent holiness as somewhat else than conformity to the holy character and law of God: and you make up a plausible ‘gospel,’ calculated to humour the pride, soothe the consciences, engage the hearts, and raise the affections of natural men, who love nobody but themselves.

A. W. PINK: Declare that the sinner has simply to accept Christ as his personal Saviour—though his heart be still unhumbled, without contrition and thoroughly in love with the world—and eternal life is now his.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): I do not want to be unfair, but I say that a gospel which merely says “Come to Jesus”, and offers Him as a Friend, and offers a marvellous new life, without convicting of sin, is not New Testament evangelism.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): Do not the generality of men consider God as their friend? Nor can you persuade them that they are under His displeasure.

THOMAS SCOTT: And now no wonder if this ‘gospel’―which has nothing in it affronting, offensive, or unpalatable, but is perfectly suited to the carnal unhumbled sinner, and helps him to quiet his conscience, dismiss his fears, and encourage his hopes―incurs no opposition amongst ignorant persons, meets with a hearty welcome, and makes numbers of supposed converts, who live and die as full as they can hold of joy and confidence, without any fears or conflicts.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: I can think of an old man who often used the following expression: “You know, friends, I decided for Christ forty years ago, and I have never regretted it.” What a terrible thing to say!  “Never regretted it!” But that is the kind of thing people say who have been brought up under this teaching and approach.

THOMAS SCOTT: What wonder if, when all the offensive part is left out, the gospel gives no offence? What wonder if, when it is made suitable to carnal minds, carnal minds fall in love with it? What wonder if, when it is calculated to fill the unrenewed mind with false confidence and joy, it has this effect?  What wonder if, when the true character of God is unknown and a false character of Him is framed—a God all love and no justice, very fond of such believers as his favourites—they have warm affections towards him?

ANDREW FULLER: Yet, this has no tendency to remove their enmity. What they hate in God is that from which their hearts are wholly averse, and that is, His true character.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Evangelistic preaching should be more, rather than less theological, than any other, and for this good reason. Why is it that you call people to repent? Why do you call them to believe the gospel? You cannot deal properly with repentance without dealing with the doctrine of man, the doctrine of the Fall, the doctrine of sin and the wrath of God against sin…Evangelism which is not theological is not evangelism at all in any true sense. It may be a calling for decisions, it may be a calling on people to come to religion, or to live a better kind of life, or the offering of some psychological benefits; but it cannot by any definition be regarded as Christian evangelism, because there is not true reason for what you are doing apart from these great theological principles.

A. W. PINK: “Coming to Christ” is a far, far different thing from raising your hand to be prayed for by some Protestant “priest,” coming forward and taking some cheap-jack evangelist’s hand, signing some “decision” card, uniting with some “church,” or any of the “many inventions” of man (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: No sinner ever really “decides for Christ.” That term “decide” has always seemed to me to be quite wrong…A sinner does not “decide” for Christ; the sinner flies to Christ in utter helplessness and despair saying—“Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Saviour, or I die.” No man truly comes to Christ unless he flies to Him as his only refuge and hope, his only way of escape from the accusations of conscience and the condemnation of God’s holy law. Nothing else is satisfactory—the convicted sinner no more “decides for Christ” than the poor drowning man “decides” to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape.  The term is entirely inappropriate.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): These people think it unnecessary to attend to the trifle of heart work―they dare to omit the most vital part of the matter. They attend a revival meeting, and they declare themselves saved, though they have not been renewed in heart, and possess neither repentance nor faith. They come forward to avow a mere emotion. They have nothing better than a resolve; but they flourish it as if it were the deed itself.

THOMAS SCOTT: I cannot but avow my fears that Satan has propagated much of this false religion, among many widely different classes of religious professors; and it shines so brightly in the eyes of numbers who “take all for gold that glitters” that―unless the fallacy be detected―it bids fair to be the prevailing religion in many places.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): The world will have such wolf’s preaching, and indeed desires no better, because it hears not Christ nor regards Christ. It is no wonder that true Christians and their pastors are so few.

 

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Phebe

Posted on January 24, 2020 by The Editor

Romans 16:1,2

I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910):  Note the person here disclosed. A little rent is made in the dark curtain through which we see, as with an incandescent light concentrated for a moment upon her, one of the many good women who helped Paul.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): But still, we find very little about her.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: This is an outline picture of an else wholly unknown person. She, like most of the other names mentioned in the salutations in Romans chapter sixteen, has had a singular fate. Every name, shadowy and unreal as it is to us, belonged to a human life filled with hopes and fears, plunged sometimes in the depths of sorrows, struggling with anxieties and difficulties; and all the agitations have sunk into forgetfulness and calm.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): She is recommended as a sister―“our sister”―not in a natural, but spiritual relation; one that was a member of the church at Cenchrea, and in full communion with it; for as it was usual to call the men brethren, it was common to call the women sisters. Elderly men were called fathers, younger men brethren; elderly women were styled mothers, and younger women sisters, who were partakers of the grace of God, and enjoyed the fellowship of the saints. As she dwelt at Cenchrea, it is probable she was a Grecian, as is her name. With the Heathen poets, Pheobus was the sun, and Phoebe the moon. Though it is not unlikely that she might be a Jewess, since there were many of them in those parts; and this was a name in use among them.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Where, do you think, stood this same Cenchrea?

JOHN GILL: This place was a seaport of the Corinthians, distant from Corinth about eight or nine miles.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Corinth was situated on the isthmus that connects Peloponnesus to Attica…It was most advantageously situated for trade; for, by its two ports, the Lecheum and Cenchreae, it commanded the commerce both of the Ionian and Aegean Sea—Cenchrea was a sea-port on the east side of the isthmus which joined the Morea to Greece, as the Lechaeum was the sea-port on the west side of the same isthmus. These were the only two havens and towns of any note, next to Corinth, that belonged to this territory. As the Lechaeum opened the road to the Ionian sea, so Cenchrea opened the road to the Aegean; and both were so advantageously situated for commerce that they were very rich.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: But if we take into account the hideous immoralities of Corinth, we shall deem it probable that the port of Cenchrea, with its shifting maritime population, was, like most seaports, a soil in which goodness was hard put to it to grow, and a church had much against which to struggle. To be a Christian at Cenchrea can have been no light task.

JOHN GILL: In the way to this place from the Isthmus was the temple of Diana, and a very ancient sculpture; and in Cenchrea itself was the temple of Venus, and a wooden image; and near the flow of the sea was a Neptune of brass. But now, in this place, there was a church of Jesus Christ.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: She was a “servant”―or, as the margin preferably reads, a “deaconess of the Church which is at Cenchrea.”

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Deacons were officers employed in distributing the church’s stock among the necessitous. They were to be persons of an eminent character, 1 Timothy 3:8-11, and therefore their service in the church might not consist only in relieving the poor, but in visiting the sick, in exhorting, comforting, and teaching, as occasion required…According to the customs of that country, men could not well be allowed to perform those good offices to the women: for men to have visited and conversed with women, would have been counted a very great indecency, and must have brought a scandal upon the Christian profession.

JOHN GILL: Not that she was a teacher of the word, or preacher of the Gospel, for that was not allowed of by the apostle in the church at Corinth, that a woman should teach—see 1 Corinthians 14:34; and therefore would never be admitted at Cenchrea. Rather, as some think, she was a deaconess appointed by the church, to take care of the poor sisters of the church; though as they were usually poor, and ancient women; that were put into that service, and this woman, according to the account of her, being neither poor, nor very ancient; it seems rather, that being a rich and generous woman, she served or ministered to the church by relieving the poor; not out of the church’s stock, as deaconesses did, but out of her own substance.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: And, in that capacity, by gentle ministrations and the exhibition of purity and patient love, as well as by the gracious administration of material help, had been a “succourer of many.” There is a whole world of unmentioned kindnesses and a life of self-devotion hidden away under these few words. Possibly the succour which she administered was her own gift. She may have been rich and influential, or perhaps she but distributed the Church’s bounty; but in any case the gift was sweetened by the giver’s hand, and the succour was the impartation of a woman’s sympathy more than the bestowment of a donor’s gift.

JOHN GILL: And she received the ministers of the Gospel, and all strangers, into her house, which was open to all Christians; and so was exceeding serviceable to that church, and to all the saints that came thither.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Sometime or other, and somehow or other, she had had the honour and joy of helping Paul, and no doubt that opportunity would be to her a crown of service.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): We are apt to overlook the minor actors in Scripture stories in our absorbed interest in the prominent ones. Yet often these lesser people are just as important in their own place, and their service is just as essential to the final success of the whole as the greater ones.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Remember our Lord’s teaching? That the giver of “a cup of cold water in the name of a prophet” in some measure shares in the prophet’s work, and will surely share in the prophet’s reward, Matthew 10:41. She who helped Paul must have entered into the spirit of Paul’s labours―Paul and Phœbe were one in ministry and one in its recompense―Little did Phœbe dream that her name would have an eternal commemoration of her unnoticed deeds of kindness and aid, standing forth to later generations and peoples of whom she knew nothing, as worthy of eternal remembrance. For those of us who have to serve unnoticed and unknown, here is an instance which may stimulate and encourage: It matters little whether our work be noticed or recorded by men, so long as we know that it is written in the Lamb’s book of life and that He will one day proclaim it “before the Father in heaven and His angels.”

 

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