Holy Boasting

Posted on January 17, 2020 by The Editor

Jeremiah 9:23,24; Psalm 34:1-4

Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord who exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight.

I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Boasting is generally annoying. Even those that boast themselves cannot endure that other people should boast.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Ungodly men love to boast of themselves—There is no man who has not some imaginary excellencies whereof to boast. If we possess any natural endowment either of mind or body, we are forward to bring it into notice, and to arrogate something to ourselves on account of it. One values herself upon her beauty; another boasts of his strength or courage; another prides himself in his wit, his penetration, or his judgment. Rather than pass unnoticed, the ungodly will boast of their iniquities and excesses; yea, strange to say!―of iniquities they have not committed, and of excesses to which they have never arrived.

C. H. SPURGEON: But there is one kind of boasting that even the humble can bear to hear―nay, they are glad to hear it. That must be boasting in God—a holy glorying and extolling the Most High with words sought out with care that might magnify His blessed name.

CHARLES SIMEON: A sense of gratitude to God for His mercies will ever abide in some measure on the soul of a true believer. But there are special occasions whereon he is so impressed with the Divine goodness, that he feels as if he never could forget it, and as if he would have the whole creation join with him in his devout acknowledgments. This was the frame of David’s mind, when [he wrote Psalm 34].

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It showeth a heart full of joys unspeakable and full of glory.

CHARLES SIMEON: Let us proceed then to consider what is the true and sufficient ground of glorying…We may glory in this knowledge of God, because it comprehends and unfolds to our view wisdom, power, and riches that are indeed infinite. Jeremiah particularly directs us to consider God as exercising loving-kindness—to His friends; and judgment—to His enemies; and righteousness or justice in the distribution both of His rewards and punishments. Now this is a view of God which we have not any where, but in the Gospel of Christ. In His dealings towards the fallen angels we behold only His judgments; but in His dealings with man we behold the exercise of mercy and loving-kindness, because He accepted the mediation of His Son on our behalf. The Apostle Paul directs us therefore to look for the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:30,31.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Glory in this―that thou knowest Him.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord,”―in my relation to Him, my interest in Him, and expectations from Him.” It is not vainglory to glory in the Lord…We may glory in this—that wherever we are, we have an acquaintance with an interest in a God that exercises lovingkindness, and judgment, and righteousness in the earth, that is not only just to all His creatures and will do no wrong to any of them, but kind to all His children and will protect them and provide for them. For in these things I delight―God delights to show kindness and to execute judgment Himself, and is pleased with those who herein are followers of Him as dear children.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): James in the same manner bids the lowly to glory that they had been adopted by the Lord as His children (James 1:9)―Since it is incomparably the greatest dignity to be introduced into the company of angels, nay, to be made the associates of Christ, he who estimates this favour of God aright, will regard all other things as worthless.

CHARLES SIMEON: It was He who purchased eternal life for us: none can claim any part of His glory in this respect: “His life was the ransom paid for us;” and by His obedience unto death we obtain righteousness and life. Moreover it is He who imparts eternal life to us: we receive it from Him, who “is exalted to give it,” and from “whose fulness alone it can be received.” As we cannot merit it, so neither can we obtain it, by any efforts of our own: it is purely the gift of God through Christ…Yea, we declare that every sin we have ever committed is actually forgiven, the very instant we truly believe in Christ: even “the little children in Christ” may glory in this, as a truth on which they may most confidently rely, that on their believing in Christ, they not only shall be, but actually, “are justified from all things, (Acts 13:38,39; 1 John 2:12)―Say, beloved, is not here a ground of glorying? and, if the believer did not glory in this privilege, would not the very stones cry out against him?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): My soul shall glory in this—that I have so powerful and so gracious a Lord and Master.

C. H. SPURGEON: The exultation of this verse is no mere tongue bragging, “the soul” is in it―the boasting is meant and felt before it is expressed. What scope there is for holy boasting in Jehovah! His person, attributes, covenant, promises, works, and a thousand things besides, are all incomparable, unparalleled, matchless; we may cry them up as we please, but we shall never be convicted of vain and empty speech in so doing. Truly he who writes these words of comment has nothing of his own to boast of, but much to lament over, and yet none shall stop him of his boast in God so long as he lives.

CHARLES SIMEON: The godly know, by bitter experience, that in themselves dwelleth no good thing, yea, nothing but what furnishes matter for the deepest humiliation. But they see in God sufficient to excite their devoutest adoration. Whether they contemplate the perfections of His nature, or the works of His hands, the wonders of His providence, or the riches of His grace, they are filled with wonder and astonishment; and, pouring contempt on all created excellencies, they exclaim, “O God! who is like unto thee?” “Thanks be to God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ.”

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

C. H. SPURGEON: You will never exaggerate when you speak good things of God. It is not possible to do so―the more it were indulged the better.

 

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The Audible Difference Between Wisdom & Folly

Posted on January 10, 2020 by The Editor

Proverbs 14:3; Proverbs 14:8; Proverbs 14:16

In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride.

The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.

A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Lord Francis Bacon renders this verse thus: “A wise man is wary of his way; a cunning fool seeks evasion.” “There be two sorts of wisdom,” says he; “the one true and sound, the other counterfeit and false;” which last Solomon hesitates not to call folly. He who applies himself to the former takes heed to his own ways and footings; foreseeing dangers, studying remedies, using the assistance of good men, and fortifying himself against the wicked: wary how he enters upon a business, and not unprepared for a handsome retreat: attentive to advantages, courageous against impediments, with innumerable other things relating to the government of his own ways and actions. But that other kind is made up altogether of fallacies and cunning devices, and relies wholly upon the hopes of circumventing others, and framing them as it lists.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The wit of ungodly men, which, though they account their wisdom, is really their folly, is employed only in finding out ways of overreaching and deceiving others, and themselves too.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): It is distrustful conduct.

THOMAS COKE: This wisdom the parable rejects, not only as wicked, but as foolish; for, first, it is not in the number of things which are in our own power, nor is it directed by any constant rule; but new stratagems must be every day devised, the old failing and growing useless. And secondly, as soon as a man hath got the name and opinion of a cunning crafty companion, he hath deprived himself utterly of the principal instrument for the management of his affairs; which is, trust; and so he will find, by experience, all things go cross to his desires: for, lastly, these arts and shifts, however they promise fair, and much please such as practise them; yet they are commonly frustrated, and, which is worse, end sadly.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): He passes from sin to sin like a madman, and yet persuades himself that all shall do well.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  He puts a cheat upon himself. He does not rightly understand his way; he thinks he does, and so misses his way, and goes on in his mistake: “The folly of fools is deceit;” it cheats them into their own ruin.

MATTHEW POOLE: The fool—the wicked man; for such are commonly and justly called fools every where in Scripture, and that purposely to meet with their false, yet, common, conceit of themselves, as if they were the only wise men, and all others were fools.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): His character is here drawn to life: He “rageth, and is confident.” Such a fool was Rehoboam, when his self-willed confidence rejected the counsel of wisdom and experience, 2 Chronicles 10.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): His speech betrays him―As the words may be rendered, “he goes on confidently,” nothing can stop him; he pushes on, regardless of the laws of God or men, of the advices and counsels of his friends.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The lips only utter what the mind conceives.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  Matthew 12:34: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;” agreeably to the old proverb, which declared the tongue to be the index of the mind. And, indeed, whatever hidden and crooked recesses may exist in the heart of man, and whatever may be the amazing contrivances by which every man conceals his vices, yet the Lord extorts from each of them some kind of confession, so that they discover by the tongue their natural disposition and hidden feelings.

JOHN TRAPP: What is in the well will be in the bucket―so what is in the heart will be in the mouth.

MATTHEW HENRY: See here a proud fool exposing himself. Where there is pride in the heart, and no wisdom in the head to suppress it, it commonly shows itself in the words: In the mouth there is pride, proud boasting, proud censuring, proud scorning, proud commanding and giving law; this is the rod, or branch of pride―it grows from that root of bitterness which is in the heart; it is a rod from that stem. The root must be plucked up, or we cannot conquer this branch, or it is meant of a smiting beating rod, a rod of pride which strikes others. The proud man with his tongue lays about him and deals blows at pleasure, but it will in the end be a rod to himself; the proud man shall come under an ignominious correction by the words of his own mouth, not cut as a soldier, but caned as a servant; and he will be beaten with his own rod, Psalm 64:8.

THOMAS COKE: Fools often bring upon themselves, by their ungoverned tongues, the correction due to their crimes, their pride, and arrogance.

CHARLES BRIDGES: “The mouth of fools poureth out foolishness,” Proverbs 15:2. There is a time for everything—the wise man elsewhere writes—“a time to keep silence, and a time to speak,” Ecclesiastes 3:7. It is a mark of true wisdom to discern the times. Indeed the want of discipline, upon the “little member,” is a sound test of character. The man, who speaks hastily and with conceit, will be put to shame in his folly.

MATTHEW HENRY: He is a fool, for he acts against his reason and his interest, and his ruin will quickly be the proof of his folly.

CHARLES BRIDGES: He might have been “counted” wise in his silence. But silence is beyond his power—he “uttereth all his mind,” Proverbs 29:11—he tells all he knows, thinks, or intends, and runs on, until he has “poured out all his foolishness.” It is sometimes thought a proof of honesty to utter all our mind. But it is rather a proof of folly. For how many things it would be far better never to speak; indeed to suppress the very thought―Oh! for wisdom to govern the tongue! For want of sound wisdom, fools only open their mouths for their own mischief, in profane rebellion, groveling selfishness, ungodly worldliness, or hateful pride.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): There are some persons who have undergone such a process of self-deception that if the angels of God were to tell them the truth they would not believe it, nor be able to comprehend it.

CHARLES BRIDGES: To be deaf to the voice that would save us from ruin is a most fearful error—the proof of a foolish and unhumbled heart, and the certain forerunner, if not corrected, of irremediable destruction.

 

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A Motto for Every New Year

Posted on January 3, 2020 by The Editor

Psalm 119:89; Psalm 119:11

Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.

Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Dear reader, we want you to accept a little motto for the year on which you have just entered. We think you will find it a precious motto for every year during which your Lord may see fit to leave you on this earth. It consists of two short but most weighty passages from Psalm 119. The first is this: “Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven,” and the second is, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” These are golden sentences for the present moment. They set forth the true place for the Word—“settled in heaven” and “hidden in the heart.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): According to the most eminent scholars, the opening sentence should be read—“Forever Thou art, O Lord; Thy Word is settled in Heaven.”

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The Word of God is as unchangeable and everlasting as His own existence. It is established “in the heavens,” beyond the reach of the revolutions of this lower world: and its accomplishment is as certain, as the motions of the heavenly bodies, which are not at all affected by the convulsions and vicissitudes of the earth and its inhabitants.

C. H. SPURGEON: As God changes not, so the Word which He has spoken to His servants changes not. If the foundations of the faith could be removed, what would the righteous do? What would any of us do? But, with an eternally fixed Word of God, we have something solid to build upon, a foundation on which we may confidently rest our everlasting hopes.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): His purposes are all settled above, and they shall all be fulfilled below.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Our salvation, being shut up in God’s Word, is not subject to change, as all earthly things are, but is anchored in a safe and peaceful haven. The same truth the Prophet Isaiah teaches in somewhat different words: “The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field…The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever,” Isaiah 40:6,8.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is eternal and perpetual, neither can it be vacated or abolished by the injury of time or endeavours of tyrants.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): “The Scriptures cannot be broken,” John 10:35. They are called “the Scriptures of truth,” Daniel 10:21; and “the true sayings of God,” Revelation 19:9; and also the fear of the Lord, for every jot and tittle thereof is forever settled in heaven, and stand more steadfast than doth the world. “Heaven and earth,” saith Christ, “shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, Matthew 24:35. Those, therefore, that are favoured by the Word of God, those are favoured indeed, and that with the favour that no man can turn away.

C. H. SPURGEON: God will uphold His Truth that is in this Book and the men that hold that Truth shall be upheld. And similar eternal settlements are made for all whose hope is fixed upon that Word! No truth of it can fail, no promise of it can be broken. What a joy this is to our hearts! There is something sure, after all—We can say, “this is not mere opinion; this is not the judgment of a wise man, this is not the decree of councils; this is the Master’s own declaration.” Not one of His Words shall ever fall to the ground. There is in His authority no change—His Word is forever settled in Heaven and He is, in Himself, the same yesterday, today and forever…No promise of God ever changes—“His Truth endureth to all generations,” Psalm 100:5.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It could not be otherwise, for “He is faithful that promised,” Hebrews 10:23. None has ever laid hold of a divine promise and found it to fail, and none ever will…How comforting is this to the children of God. Unto us are given “exceeding great and precious promises,” 2 Peter 1:4; and these are the promises of Him who can not lie. Rest, then, with implicit confidence on the sure Word—forever settled in heaven—of the Lord our God.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: But let us remember the counterpart: “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” There are three special points suggested, namely, What have I hid? Where have I hid it? Why have I hid it?

C. H. SPURGEON: As one has well said, Here is the best thing—“Thy Word;” hidden in the best place—“in my heart;” for the best of purposes—“that I might not sin against thee.”

A. W. PINK: God has bidden us, “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart,” Proverbs 7:1-3. This cannot be done by reading the Bible for a few minutes, and then an hour later forgetting what has been read. Shame on us that we should treat God’s Word so lightly.

JOHN BUNYAN: There wanteth even in the hearts of God’s people a greater reverence of the Word of God than this day appeareth among us—and this let me say, that want of reverence of the Word is the ground of all disorders that are in the heart, life, conversation, and in Christian communion. Besides, the want of reverence of the Word layeth men open to the fearful displeasure of God. “Whoso despiseth the Word shall be destroyed; but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded,” Proverbs 13:13. All transgression beginneth at wandering from the Word of God…First, then, be sure thou keep close to the Word of God; for that is the revelation of the mind and will of God, both as to the truth of what is either in Himself or His ways; and also as to what He requireth and expecteth of thee, either concerning faith in, or obedience to, what He hath so revealed.

ADAM CLARKE: If God’s word be only in his Bible, and not also in his heart, he may soon and easily be surprised into his besetting sin.

JOHN CALVIN: Our true safeguard, then, lies not in a slender knowledge of His law, or in a careless perusal of it, but in hiding it deeply in our hearts.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Nothing can touch the eternal truth of God, and, therefore, what we want, at all times, is to give that truth its proper place in our hearts, to let it act on our conscience, form our character, and shape our way.

A. W. PINK: Unless we do so, we shall never be able to say, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The Word, if hid in the heart, will certainly be manifest in the life.

 

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A Matter of Time

Posted on December 30, 2019 by The Editor

Galatians 4:4,5; Titus 2:11-13

When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Few people stop to inquire for an explanation of one of the most amazing facts which is presented to the notice of everybody, namely, the fact that all civilized time is dated from the birth of Jesus Christ…To have some common measure of time is, of course, a necessity of organized society, but where shall we find an adequate starting point for the calendar—one which will be acceptable to all civilized nations? A world-shattering victory, the founding of some many-centuried city, the birth of a dynasty, the beginning of a revolution: some such event, it might reasonably be expected, would give time a new starting point. But no conqueror’s sword has ever cut deep enough on Time to leave an enduring mark.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The chief landmark in all time to us is the wondrous life of Him who is the Light of the world! We date from the birth of the Virgin’s Son—we begin with Anno Domini—A.D.—“in the year of our Lord.” All the rest of time is before Christ, and is marked off from the Christian era. Bethlehem’s manger is our beginning. The dense darkness of the heathen ages begins to be broken when we reach the first appearing—and the dawn of a glorious day begins!

A. W. PINK: The Coming of Christ to this world changed its chronology, for all civilized time is now by common consent dated from the Bethlehem manger—from the birth of a Jew, who, according to the view of Infidels, if He ever existed, was a peasant in an obscure province, who was the author of no wonderful invention, who occupied no throne, who died when, as men count years, He had scarcely reached His prime, and Who died the death of a criminal. And how is that strange yet startling fact to be explained? It was imposed neither by the authority of a conqueror, the device of priests, the enactment of a despot, nor even by Constantine; but by slow and gradual consent. The Lord of time has indelibly written His signature across time itself; the years of the modern world being labeled by common consent the years of our Lord! Every dated letter you receive, though penned by an atheist, every newspaper carrying the date of its issue, even though published by Communists, bears testimony to the historicity of Christ!

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  He is the Lord of time, and will be so, till day and night shall come to an end, and the stream of time be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity.

A. W. PINK: As the result of the first Advent a new era was inaugurated, a new prospect was set before the sons of men, the door of mercy was flung wide open, and command was given that the glad tidings should be made known to every creature. Heaven itself was stirred at the miraculous birth of the God-Man. Unto the angels was entrusted the honorous commission of announcing the birth of the Saviour. Heathendom was affected, the good news being conveyed to Chaldea by means of a mysterious “star” which heralded the birth of the King of the Jews. It is impossible for us to fully estimate the tremendous importance of the first Advent of Christ to this earth. The Divine Incarnation is without a parallel in the annals of the human race. But wondrous and blessed as was the first Advent of our Lord in many respects, His Second Coming will be even more momentous.

C. H. SPURGEON: The Apostle Paul in his epistle to Titus describes our position. The people of God stand between two appearances. In the 11th verse of Titus Chapter 2, he tells us, “The Grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” And then he says, in the 13th verse, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” We live in an age which is an interval between two appearings of the Lord from Heaven.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): I believe that the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is the great event which will wind up the present dispensation, and for which we ought daily to long and pray.

C. H. SPURGEON: Brothers and Sisters, we look forward to a second appearing! Our outlook for the close of this present era is another appearing—an appearing of Glory rather than of Grace. After our Master rose from the brow of Olivet, His disciples remained for a while in mute astonishment. But soon an angelic messenger reminded them of prophecy and promise by saying, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven,” Acts 1:11. We believe that our Lord, in the fullness of time, will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the trumpet of the archangel and the voice of God. We look from Anno Domini, in which He came the first time, to that greater Anno Domini, or year of our Lord, in which He shall come a second time, in all the splendor of His power, to reign in righteousness and break the evil powers as with a rod of iron!

A. W. PINK: The need of the world for a competent and righteous Ruler was never as apparent as now.

J. C. RYLE: In a day like this there is no comfort like that of looking forward to Christ coming again—there is a time coming when sin shall be cast out from this world.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Yea, the day is appointed when this judgment will proceed by Him, and He is at the door.

A. W. PINK: When He was here before He was “despised and rejected of men,” but when He comes back again every knee shall bow before Him and every tongue confess His Lordship.

J. C. RYLE: Christ Himself shall be King. He shall return to this earth, and make all things new—His dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

C. H. SPURGEON: See, then, where we are—we are compassed about, behind and before, with the appearings of our Lord. Behind us is our trust. Before us is our hope. Behind us is the Son of God in humiliation. Before us is the great God, our Saviour, in His Glory. To use an ecclesiastical term, we stand between two Epiphanies—the first is the manifestation of the Son of God in human flesh in dishonor and weakness. The second is the manifestation of the same Son of God in all His power and Glory!

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): And time shall be swallowed up in eternity.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): May the Lord give to thee, my dear reader—thus to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before this year closes; and we can promise you truly, a divinely Happy New Year.

 

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Manger Meditations

Posted on December 20, 2019 by The Editor

Luke 2:12

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): That very Jesus, Who once lay in the womb of the blessed Virgin, and Who, at His birth had no other mansion than a stable, no other cradle than a manger—that same Jesus, was “God manifest in the flesh,” 1 Timothy 3:16.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What spiritual lessons are we intended to learn from His being placed in a manger?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Thus He would answer the type of Moses, the great prophet and lawgiver of the Old Testament, who was in his infancy cast out in an ark of bulrushes, as Christ in a manger.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I think it was intended thus to show forth His humiliation.

CHARLES SIMEON: What can we conceive more degrading than for the Saviour of the world to be born in a stable, and to be laid in a manger?

C. H. SPURGEON: He came, according to prophecy, to be “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;” He was to be “without form or comeliness, a root out of a dry ground,” Isaiah 53:2,3. Would it have been fitting that the man who was to die naked on the cross should be robed in purple at his birth? Would it not have been inappropriate that the Redeemer who was to be buried in a borrowed tomb should be born anywhere but in the humblest shed, and housed anywhere but in the most ignoble manner?

A. W. PINK: He was laid in a manger to demonstrate the extent of His poverty. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich,” 2 Corinthians 8:9. How “poor” He became, was thus manifested at the beginning.

MATTHEW HENRY: The word which we render “swaddling clothes” some derive from a word that signifies to rend, or tear, and these infer that He was so far from having a good suit of child-bed linen, that His very swaddles were ragged and torn.

C. H. SPURGEON: He is to wear through life a peasant’s garb; He is to associate with fishermen; the lowly are to be His disciples.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): When He grew up, He probably wrought with His father as a carpenter; and afterwards, while He executed the duties of His ministry, He was so poor, that He had not a place where to lay His head, but lived on the bounty of His friends.

C. H. SPURGEON: The cold mountains are often to be His only bed; He is to say, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head,” Luke 9:58.

MATTHEW HENRY: His being born in a stable and laid in a manger was an instance of the poverty of His parents. Had they been rich, room would have been made for them; but, being poor, they must shift as they could—that a woman in reputation for virtue and honour should be used so barbarously. If there had been any common humanity among them, they would not have turned a woman in travail into a stable.

CHARLES SIMEON: One would have thought that a person in Mary’s situation would have found a thousand females ready to receive her into their houses.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): They put Him in a manger from which the cattle were accustomed to get their food.

A. W. PINK: He was laid in a manger because there was no room in the inn. They provided no better accommodation than a manger for His cradle. How solemnly this brings out the world’s estimate of the Christ of God. There was no appreciation of His amazing condescension. He was not wanted. It is so still. There is no room for Him in the schools, in society, in the business world, among the great throngs of pleasure seekers, in the political realm, in the newspapers, nor in many of the churches.

THOMAS COKE: Thus, by going before men in the thorny path of poverty and affliction, He has taught them to be contented with their lot in life, however mean and humble.

C. H. SPURGEON: Nothing, therefore, could be more fitting than that in His season of humiliation, when He laid aside all His glory, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and condescended even to the meanest estate, He should be laid in a manger. And there I perceive a choice Glory in the mind of God, for He evidently despises the pomp and glory of the world which little minds esteem so highly. He might have been born in marble halls and wrapped in imperial purple, but He scorns these things and, in the manger among the oxen, we see a Glory which is independent of the trifles of luxury and parade. The Glory of God in the Person of Jesus asks no aid from the splendor of courts and palaces.

MATTHEW HENRY: Christ would hereby put a contempt upon all worldly glory, and teach us to slight it.

THOMAS COKE: Upon this humiliating circumstance of our Saviour’s birth in a stable, we may observe, how much the blessed Jesus, through the whole course of His life, despised the things most esteemed by men; for though He was the Son of God, when He became man He chose to be born of parents in the meanest condition of life; though He was heir of all things, He chose to be born in an inn; nay, in the stable of an inn, where, instead of a cradle He was laid in a manger. The angels reported the good news of His birth not to the rabbis and great men, but to shepherds, who, being plain honest people, were unquestionably good witnesses of what they heard and saw.

A. W. PINK: Who among us had ever imagined that the Lord of glory would lie in a manger? But He did!

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): God stripped Him of all earthly splendour, for the purpose of informing us that His kingdom is spiritual.

C. H. SPURGEON: Yet even as a Baby, He reigns and rules! Mark how the shepherds hasten to salute the new-born King, while the magi from the far-off East bring gold, frankincense and myrrh and bow at His feet. When the Lord condescends to show Himself in little things, He is still right royal and commands the homage of mankind. He is as majestic in the minute as in the magnificent; as royal in the Baby at Bethlehem as in later days in the Man who rode through Jerusalem with hosannas! There He lies in the manger, the Infinite, yet an Infant; Omnipotent, yet swaddled by a woman, and hanging as though helpless at her breast. Let Bethlehem always tell the matchless mystery of godliness—God manifest in human flesh!

THOMAS COKE: Jesus is truly worthy of our adoration, even in His lowest humiliation; the Babe in the manger is still the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

 

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The Wisdom of God’s Foolishness

Posted on December 13, 2019 by The Editor

1 Corinthians 1:20; Luke 10:21; 1 Corinthians 1:25-29

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.

The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): You see the state of Christianity; not many men of learning, or authority, or honourable extraction, are called. There is a great deal of meanness and weakness in the outward appearance of our religion. For few of distinguished character in any of these respects were chosen for the work of the ministry.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Neither do I notice any singular genius necessary. It is not said, “With that man of poetic mind will I dwell,” or, “With that person of refined spirit,” or, “With the man that has an eye to the beauties of color,” or, “An ear to the harmonies of sound”—not a word of it. Some men think that genius makes men good and all who happen to excel are set down as the excellent of the earth. With God it is not so and it is not said so here. Neither is it written that God will dwell with persons of any special education. It is well to be educated, but a knowledge of Latin and Greek and Hebrew will not inscribe our names in the Book of Life.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Whatever knowledge a man may come to have without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, is included in the expression, “the wisdom of this world.” This Paul says God has utterly “made foolish,” that is, He has convicted it of folly.  This you may understand to be effected in two ways; for whatever a man knows and understands, it is mere vanity, if it is not grounded in true wisdom; and it is in no degree better fitted for the apprehension of spiritual doctrine than the eye of a blind man is for discriminating colours.

C. H. SPURGEON: Simplicity of heart is more helpful to the understanding of the Gospel than culture of mind. To be ready to be taught is a better faculty than to be able to teach, as far as the reception of the Gospel is concerned. That degree in divinity may stand in your way of understanding the Divine God! And the very position that you have taken in the classical studies may render it the more difficult for you to comprehend that which the wayfaring man, though he is a fool, knows by heart!

MATTHEW HENRY: God did not choose philosophers, nor orators, nor statesmen, nor men of wealth and power and interest in the world, to publish the gospel of grace and peace. Not the wise men after the flesh, though men would apt to think that a reputation for wisdom and learning might have contributed much to the success of the gospel. Not the mighty and noble, however men might be apt to imagine that secular pomp and power would make way for its reception in the world.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The carnal mind would have supposed that a selection had been made from the ranks of the opulent and influential, the amiable and cultured, so that Christianity might have won the approval and applause of the world by its pageantry and fleshly glory. Ah! but “that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God,” Luke 16:15. God chooses the “base things.”

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): His majesty is not enticed by the lofty titles of men, nor, which is more worth, by the learning and knowledge of men.

A. W. PINK: So it was when our Lord tabernacled among men. The ones whom He took into favoured intimacy with Himself and commissioned to go forth as His ambassadors, were, for the most part, unlettered fishermen.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He had none about Him of any rank or figure in life, only some few fishermen, and some women, and publicans, and harlots.

C. H. SPURGEON: Many a Church thinks that all her officers ought to be rich, all her ministers learned, all her agents Masters of Arts, at least—if not Doctors of Divinity. This was not so in olden times. Thus it was not when the Church of God grew mightily, for of old the Church of God had faith—in what? Why, faith in weakness! Faith in the things that were not!—The great mass of Christian discipleship has been taken from among the poor and the working men.

A. W. PINK: And so it has been ever since.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is very memorable that in the catacombs of Rome among those remarkable inscriptions which are now preserved with so much care as the memorials of the departed saints—it is rare to find an inscription which is all of it spelt correctly—proving that the persons who wrote them, who were no doubt the very pick of the Christian flock, could neither write nor spell correctly! And yet these were the men that turned the world upside down.

MATTHEW HENRY: God seeth not as man seeth. He hath chosen the foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world, the base and despicable things of the world, men of mean birth, of low rank, of no liberal education, to be the preachers of the gospel and planters of the church. His thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways–Isaiah 55:8. He is a better judge than we what instruments and measures will best serve the purposes of His glory.

A. W. PINK: And the purpose of God’s choice, the raison d’etre of the selection He has made is, “that no flesh should glory in His presence”—there being nothing whatever in the objects of His choice which should entitle them to His special favours, then, all the praise will be freely ascribed to the exceeding riches of His manifold grace.

C. H. SPURGEON: We must have an educated ministry, they tell us; and, by “an educated ministry” they mean, not the ministry of a man of common sense, clear head and warm heart, deep experience, and large acquaintance with human nature, but the ministry of mere classical and mathematical students, theorists, and novices, more learned in modern infidelities than in the truth of God. Our Lord, if he had wished to employ the worldly-wise, might have certainly have chosen an eleven in Corinth or in Athens who would have commanded general respect for their attainments, or He could have found eleven learned rabbis near at home; but He did not want such men: their vaunted attainments were of no value in His eyes.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): If the gospel was of a nature to be propagated or maintained by the power of the world, God would not have entrusted it to fishermen.

 

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A Divine Promise for the Meek

Posted on December 6, 2019 by The Editor

Matthew 5:5; Psalm 37:11

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): How and in what sense can they be said to inherit the earth?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981):  We can summarize it very briefly. The meek already inherit the earth in this life, in this way: A man who is truly meek is a man who is always satisfied, he is a man who is already content.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): First, spiritually: they “shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): He inherits the blessing of the earth. The wicked man has the earth, but not as a fruit of God’s favour. He has it as a dog has poisoned bread. It does him more hurt than good―the fat of the earth will but make him fry and blaze the more in hell. So that a wicked man may be said not to have what he has, because he has not the blessing; but the meek saint enjoys the earth as a pledge of God’s love.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): Wicked men may delight themselves in the abundance of cattle and riches, but the meek man delights himself in the abundance of peace. What he has, he possesses with inward serenity and quietness.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  Perhaps they have not abundance of wealth; but they have that which is better, an “abundance of peace”―inward peace and tranquility of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God―that great peace which those have that love God’s law, whom “nothing shall offend,” Psalm 119:165―that abundance of peace which is in the kingdom of Christ, Psalm 72:7―that peace which the world cannot give, John 14:27; and which the wicked cannot have, Isaiah 57:21. This they shall delight themselves in, and in it they shall have a continual feast; while those that have abundance of wealth do but cumber and perplex themselves with it and have little delight in it.

A. W. PINK: The spirit of meekness is what enables its possessor to get so much enjoyment out of his earthly portion, be it small or large. Delivered from a greedy, grasping disposition he is satisfied with such things as he has: “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked,” Psalm 37:16. Contentment of mind is one of the fruits of meekness. The haughty and covetous do not inherit the earth, though they may own many acres of it. The humble Christian is far happier in a cottage than the wicked in a palace: “Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith,” Proverbs 15:16.

C. H. SPURGEON: They are like the man we have heard of in China, who met a mandarin covered with jewels, and, bowing to him, said, “Thank you for those jewels.” Doing this many times, at last the mandarin asked the cause of his gratitude. “Well,” said the poor but wise man, “I thank you that you have those jewels, for I have as good a sight of them as you have; but I have not the trouble of wearing them, putting them on in the morning, taking them off at night, and having a watchman keeping guard over them when I am asleep. I thank you for them; they are as much use to me as they are to you.” This meek man can walk along the broad acres of a rich man’s farm, he can see his noble oaks and other forest trees, and he can say, “Thank God for them all! I have as much enjoyment from these as the rich man himself has, for they are mine to enjoy as truly as they are his.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The apostle Paul has put it still better, for he says, “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things,” 2 Corinthians 6:2.

C. H. SPURGEON: His motto is “God’s Providence is my inheritance.” He has his ups and his downs, but he is content with what he has and he says, “Enough is as good as a feast.” Whatever happens to him, seeing that his times are in God’s hand, it is with him well in the best and most emphatic sense.

A. W. PINK: Second, the meek inherit the earth literally, in regard of right, as being the members of Christ, who is Lord of all.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” 1 Corinthians 10:26―which words are taken out of Psalm 24:1 and to be understood of Christ, who by creation and preservation is Lord of the whole earth, and as Mediator has all in His possession.

AMBORSE (340-397): The word “inherit” denotes the saints “title to the earth.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: In Romans 8:17, Paul puts it this way: We are children, “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Notice, too, the striking way in which Paul expresses the same thought in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23―he says, “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The meek will be the lords and heirs of the earth―and this is no imaginary possession; for they know that the earth, which they inhabit, has been granted to them by God.

THOMAS WATSON: Adam not only lost his title to heaven when he fell, but to the earth too; and till we are incorporated into Christ, we do not fully recover our title. When it is said “the meek shall inherit the earth,” it does not intimate that they shall not inherit more than the earth. They shall inherit heaven too―the meek have the earth only for their sojourning-house: they have heaven for their mansion-house.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Obviously it has a future reference also. “Do ye not know,” says Paul, “that the saints shall judge the world?” You are going “to judge angels,” 1 Corinthians 6:2,3.

A. W. PINK: No doubt there is also reference to the fact that the meek shall ultimately inherit the “new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Peter 3:13.

C. H. SPURGEON: The apostle Peter has told us that this world also will be destroyed by fire, but it will afterwards be renewed, and a new sky and a new earth will appear after the first firmament and the first earth shall have become extinct. God means that this planet should continue to exist after it has had a new creation, and renewed its youth. The regeneration of His people, their new birth, is a foretaste of what is yet to happen to this whole world of ours. We have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and we groan within ourselves while we wait for the fullness of that new creation…The end of this world will be the beginning of a new and better one.

JOHN CALVIN: They have already a foretaste, at least, of this grace of God; and that is enough for them, till they enter, at the last day, into the possession of the inheritance of the world.

 

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Flies in the Ointment

Posted on November 29, 2019 by The Editor

1 Thessalonians 2:12; Ecclesiastes 10:1

Walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): There are improprieties of conduct, which, though usually considered as foibles that hardly deserve a severe censure, are properly sinful―they are contrary to that accuracy and circumspection which become our profession.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Be it but a small sin, a peccadillo, no bigger than a few “dead flies” fallen into a pot of sweet odours, it is of that stinking nature, that it stains a good man’s esteem.

JOHN NEWTON: A Christian, by the tenor of his high calling, is bound to avoid even the appearance of evil―and as free as possible from every inconsistency and blemish. I know not how to explain myself better than by attempting the outlines of a few portraits…

Austerus is a solid and exemplary Christian―Inflexibly and invariably true to his principles, he stems with a noble singularity the torrent of the world, and can neither be bribed nor intimidated from the path of duty. He is a rough diamond of great intrinsic value, and would sparkle with a distinguished luster if he were more polished: but, though the Word of God is his daily study, and he prizes the precepts, as well as the promises, there is one precept he seems to have overlooked: Be courteous.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981):  That then leads to censoriousness.

JOHN NEWTON: Instead of that gentleness and condescension which will always be expected from a professed follower of the meek and lowly Jesus, there is a harshness in his manner, which makes him more admired than beloved; and they who truly love him, often feel more constraint than pleasure when in His company.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): How earnestly should we seek, as members of the household of God, to give a right impression of what God is by our temper, spirit, style and manner!

JOHN NEWTON: Querulus wastes much of his precious time in declaiming against the management of public affairs; though he has neither access to the springs which move the wheels of government, nor influence either to accelerate or retard their motions.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): One form of worldliness which has spoiled the life and testimony of many a Christian is politics―to take an eager and deep concern in politics must remove the edge from any spiritual appetite.

JOHN NEWTON: Why should Querulus trouble himself with politics? This would be a weakness, if we consider him only as a member of society; but if we consider him as a Christian, it is worse than weakness; it is a sinful conformity to the men of the world, who look no farther than to second causes, and forget that the Lord reigns―It would be better for Querulus to let the dead bury the dead. There are people enough to make a noise about political matters, who know not how to employ their time to better purpose.

JOHN HENRY JOWETT (1864-1923): Worldliness is a spirit, a temperament, an attitude of soul.

JOHN NEWTON: Prudens is a great economist; and though he would not willingly wrong or injure any person, yet the meannesses to which he will submit, either to save or gain a penny in what he accounts an honest way, are a great discredit to his profession. He is exceedingly hard, strict, and suspicious in making his bargains―and to those who are not acquainted with his private benefactions to the poor, he appears under the hateful character of a miser, and to be governed by that love of money which the Scripture declares to be the root of all evil, and inconsistent with the true love of God and of the saints.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: If men of the world with whom we come in contact see us looking sour, morose, downcast―if they hear us giving utterance to doleful complaints about this, that, and the other―if they see us grasping, griping, and driving as hard bargains as others―what estimate can they form of Him whom we call our Father and our Master in heaven?

JOHN NEWTON: Cessator is not chargeable with being buried in the cares and business of the present life to the neglect of the one thing needful. Had he been sent into the world only to read, pray, hear sermons, and join in religious conversation, he might pass for an eminent Christian―but he does not consider, that waiting upon God in the public and private ordinances is designed, not to excuse us from discharging the duties of civil life, but to instruct, strengthen, and qualify us for their performance. His affairs are in disorder and his family and connections are likely to suffer by his indolence. He thanks God that he is not worldly-minded; but he is an idle and unfaithful member of society, and causes the way of truth to be evil spoken of.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Faith is not an idle grace.

JOHN NEWTON: Volatilis is, perhaps, equally sincere in all his promises at the time of making them; but, for want of method in the management of his affairs, he is always in a hurry, always too late―yet he goes on in this way, exposing himself and others to continual disappointments.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): You cannot rely on his promises.

JOHN NEWTON: But he would do well to remember, that truth is a sacred thing, and ought not to be violated in the smallest matters―such a trifling turn of spirit lessens the weight of a person’s character, though he makes no pretensions to religion, and is a still greater blemish in a Christian.

A. W. PINK: Talk is cheap, but actions speak louder than words.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): David, therefore, condemning this inconstancy, requires the children of God to exhibit the greatest steadfastness in the fulfillment of their promises, Psalm 15:4.

JOHN NEWTON: Humanus is generous and benevolent―Yet, with an upright and friendly spirit, which entitles him to the love and esteem of all who know him, he has not every thing we would wish in a friend. In some respects, though not in the most criminal sense, he bridleth not his tongue. Should you, without witness or writing, entrust him with untold gold, you would run no risk of loss: but if you entrust him with a secret, you thereby put it in the possession of the public. Not that he would willfully betray you; but it is his infirmity: he knows not how to keep a secret; it escapes from him before he is aware.

JOHN TRAPP:  There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak,” Ecclesiastes 3:7. Let us first learn not to speak, that afterwards we may open our mouths to speak wisely.

JOHN NEWTON: Curiosus is upright and unblameable in his general deportment, and no stranger to the experiences of a true Christian…But he would be a much more agreeable companion, were it not for an impertinent desire of knowing everybody’s business―and this puts him upon asking a multiplicity of needless and improper questions; and obliges those who know him, to be continually upon their guard, and to treat him with reserve…

Other improprieties of conduct, which lessen the influence and spot the profession of some who wish well to the cause of Christ, might be enumerated, but these may suffice for a specimen.

 

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Giving Thanks for All Things―Always

Posted on November 22, 2019 by The Editor

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Ephesians 5:20

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ concerning you.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347-407): This is the will of God concerning us―that we give thanks.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The obligation to gratitude, often neglected by us, is singularly, earnestly, and frequently enjoined in the New Testament. I am afraid that the average Christian man does not recognise its importance as an element in his Christian experience.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): God is continually loading you with his benefits; you deserve nothing of His kindness; therefore give Him thanks for His unmerited bounties―for all the favours that He has bestowed upon you.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): And we should give thanks for all things; not only for spiritual blessings enjoyed, and eternal ones expected, but for temporal mercies too.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771):  For things temporal―for our beings, and the preservation of them, and for all the mercies of life. For things spiritual―for Christ, and for all spiritual blessings in Him; for electing, redeeming, sanctifying, adopting, pardoning, and justifying grace; for a meetness for heaven, and for eternal life itself; and for the Gospel, promises, truths, ordinances, and ministry. And this is to be done always, at all times, in times of adversity, desertion, temptation, affliction, and persecution, as well as in prosperity.

MATTHEW HENRY: And not only for what immediately concerns ourselves, but for the instances of God’s kindness and favour to others also.

JOHN NELSON DARBY (1800-1882): But, then, I am in this world of sorrow, and what am I to do? See God in it all.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Every thing should be viewed as proceeding from a God of love: not even chastisement itself should be regarded as a token of His wrath, but rather as a mark of paternal tenderness, whereby He both intimates our relation to Him, and seeks to establish and confirm it. Nothing, however penal in its aspect, should be viewed in any other light. We should taste His love in every thing.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Even in our afflictions we have large occasion of thanksgiving. For what is fitter or more suitable for pacifying us, than when we learn that God embraces us in Christ so tenderly, that He turns to our advantage and welfare everything that befalls us?

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): No matter what God does, or permits to be done, I am entitled by faith to receive it as a blessing to my soul, and for this therefore give thanks. Whatever the trial may be, disappointment, scorn, distraction, the thousand influences that come from an evil world; it is not that I am to thank Him for these, but for the blessing that God designs for me through them.

ADAM CLARKE: For this reason―that all things work together for good to them that love God, Romans 8:28; therefore, every occurrence may be a subject of gratitude and thankfulness.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Be thankful things are not worse. Be thankful that if the Lord be our shepherd we shall not lack any good thing, Psalm 23:1. Be thankful that our trials are only for a comparatively brief moment, whereas the sufferings of the wicked will last for all eternity―happily recognize and gratefully acknowledge that the very things which cross our wills, and which nature dislikes, are appointed by unerring Wisdom and infinite Love.

JEROME (340-420): This is a practice proper to Christians, to be heartily thankful for crosses.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Ah, that is hard. It is possible, but it is only possible if we ‘pray without ceasing,’ and dwell beside God all the days of our lives, and all the hours of every day.

WILLIAM KELLY: Understand that it is rather the directing of the heart, than of exacting something from it. There is a great difference between these two things: so legal are our hearts naturally, that even with the knowledge of God we have, we are apt to clothe the words of our God to us under the form of a law to which we have to bend, instead of seeing it as being the goodly portion God has given us―this thanksgiving always for all things is naturally the expression of the heart taught of the Holy Ghost. It is indeed pure unbelief, wherever the heart is not thus able―the hindrance lies there.

JOHN NELSON DARBY: It naturally takes some time to work this thankfulness in us, but of Jesus it is said, when He was rejected by Chorazin and Bethsaida, “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee,” Matthew 11:25. He saw God in it—and so, when we can see sorrow coming from God, that His hand is in it, we can say, “Oh! then I will thank Thee for it.” It is not so directly with us sometimes, but it is wrought in the soul afterwards, when the risings of the flesh are subdued.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: As we look back, we see the meaning of these old days, and their possible blessings, and the loving purposes which sent them, a great deal more clearly than we did whilst we were passing through them. The mountains that, when you are close to them, are barren rock and cold snow, glow in the distance with royal purples. And so, if we, from our standing point in God, will look back on our lives, losses will disclose themselves as gains, sorrows as harbingers of joy, conflict as a means of peace, the crooked things will be straight, and the rough places plain; and we may for every thing in the past give thanks.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “Oh but,” you say, “there are some things I cannot give thanks for. There are some things so hard and difficult to bear, things that cut my very soul.” Wait a moment. Have you ever undergone a serious physical operation as a result of which you have been delivered from some condition that was wearing out your very life? When you had to undergo it, it seemed hard, but as you look back on it, do you not give thanks for the surgeon’s knife?

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The exhortation as applied to the present means that we bow our wills, that we believe that all things are working together for our good, and that, like Job in his best moments, we shall say, “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Job blessed God as well for taking as giving. He knew that God afflicted him to refine him, not to ruin him.

H. A. IRONSIDE: Someday, “When we stand with Christ in glory, Looking o’er life’s finished story,” we will see more clearly why all the hard things were permitted. We will understand how God our Father was seeking to free us from obstacles and burdens by pruning the branches so that they would produce fruit for Himself. In that day we will thank Him for all the sorrow as well as for all the joy. In faith let us do it now.

 

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The Still Small Voice

Posted on November 15, 2019 by The Editor

1 Kings 19:9-14

And [Elijah] arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.

And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire a still small voice.

And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave.

And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts…

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Elijah housed in a cave at Mount Horeb, which is called “the mount of God,” because on it God had formerly manifested His glory. And perhaps this was the same cave, or cleft of a rock, in which Moses was hidden when the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed his name, Exodus 33:22.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The parallel between Moses and Elijah is very real. The associations of the place are marked by the use of the definite article, which is missed in the Authorised King James Version, “the cave,”―the divine manifestation which followed is evidently meant to recall that granted to Moses on the same spot. “The Lord passed by” is all but verbally quoted from Exodus 34:6, and the truth that had been proclaimed in words to Moses was enforced by symbol to Elijah.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Elijah was now called upon to witness a most remarkable and awe-inspiring display of God’s power.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): It is, however, necessary to explain in what sense it is said that God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. It is certain that, in one sense, He was in each of them―they were all the effect of His power; they were all proofs of His presence, and in all of them some of His natural perfections might be seen. But in another sense He was in none of them. They were rather the precursors, the heralds of the approaching Deity, than the Deity Himself.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): These were the demonstrations of God; but for Elijah there was something deeper, holier, more personal; he learns the superiority of the still small voice of God to all the outward demonstrations.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): These first terrible apparitions might well be to humble the prophet, and to prepare him to hearken more heedfully to the still voice, and to whatsoever God should say unto him.

MATTHEW HENRY: At last Elijah perceived a “still small voice” in which the Lord was, that is, by which He spoke to him, and not out of the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire. Those struck an awe upon him, awakened his attention, and inspired humility and reverence; but God chose to make known His mind to him in whispers soft, not in those dreadful sounds.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): A still small voice―not rough, but gentle, more like whispering than roaring; something soft, easy, and musical.

TERTULLIAN (160-240): This was  scintillatio Divinitatis―a small sparkle of the Deity.

JOHN TRAPP: It was a sweet expression of God’s mind, and in this gentle and mild breath there was omnipotency; in the foregoing fierce representations there was but powerfulness.

MATTHEW HENRY: When Elijah perceived this, “he wrapped his face in his mantle,” verse 14, as one afraid to look upon the glory of God, and apprehensive that it would dazzle his eyes and overcome him. The angels cover their faces before God in token of reverence, Isaiah 6:2. The wind, and earthquake, and fire, did not make him cover his face, but the still voice did.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The Prophet did not come out of the cave until he heard that voice―a mystic whisper, and God was there, as He often is in little things. He was called upon by God to come out and stand in the open before the Most High, but as I read it, he had not done this until the still small voice called him and drew him in the way of the command.

MATTHEW HENRY: Gracious souls are more affected by the tender mercies of the Lord than by His terrors. Elijah stood at the entrance of the cave, ready to hear what God had to say to him.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: That question, ‘What doest thou here?’ can scarcely be freed from a tone of rebuke.

MATTHEW HENRY: Lay the emphasis upon the pronoun thou. “What thou! So great a man, so great a prophet, so famed for resolution―dost thou flee thy country, forsake thy colours thus?” This cowardice would have been more excusable in another, and not so bad an example. “Should such a man as I flee?” Nehemiah 6:11…Elijah hid his face in token of shame for having been such a coward to flee from his duty when he had such a God of power to stand by him in it.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): When the Lord interrogated him, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” he thought of nothing but his own services, and the sins of others: yea, when the question was repeated, he returned the same answer [again]. How strange that he should not, on the repetition of the question especially, suspect himself, and acknowledge that he had come thither without any call or direction from his God! So it too often is with the best of men: they are more ready to look with complacency on their virtues, than with contrition on their sins; and to censure with severity the faults of others, whilst they overlook their own.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: A true answer would have been, “I was afraid of Jezebel.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): But this his guiltiness would not let him do. He is at it, therefore, as before.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: He takes credit for zeal, and seems to insinuate that he had been more zealous for God, than God had been for Himself. He forgets the national acknowledgment of Jehovah at Mount Carmel, 1 Kings 18:39, and the hundred prophets protected by good Obadiah, 1 Kings 18:13. Despondency has the knack of picking its facts. Elijah’s ministry was of such a sort, and he had now to learn the limitations of his work, and the superiority of another type, represented by the ‘sound of gentle stillness.’―It is the same lesson which Moses learned there, when he heard that the Lord is “a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth,” Psalm 86:15.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): What are we to think of Elijah? The Apostle James tells us that he “was a man of like passions with ourselves,” James 5:15. Reader! mark in the circumstances of God’s best servants, how much all men need grace to subdue their angry passions.

A. W. PINK: And is it any different today? Not a whit. So it is in His dealings with our souls―the Lord is not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the “still small voice.”

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): It is as a still small voice that God speaks to His children.

 

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