Romans 10:17; Mark 4:9

Posted on March 6, 2020 by The Editor

Romans 10:17; Mark 4:9

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I said, “What am I doing now?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Posted on February 28, 2020 by The Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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The Difference Between Christianity & Communism

Posted on February 21, 2020 by The Editor

Acts 4:32-35; Luke 3:11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Walking in Love

Posted on February 14, 2020 by The Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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King Asa’s Old Age

Posted on February 7, 2020 by The Editor

2 Chronicles 16:1-10,12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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An American “New & Improved” Gospel

Posted on January 31, 2020 by The Editor

Galatians 1:6,7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Phebe

Posted on January 24, 2020 by The Editor

Romans 16:1,2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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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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