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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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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