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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Some Things to Remember on Remembrance Day

Posted on November 8, 2019 by The Editor

John 21:17-19; Revelation 6:9-11

Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

WILLIAM JENKYN (1613–1685): Martyrdom came into the world early; the first man that died, died for religion.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): And none are more readily put to death therein than those who proclaim Jesus Christ. You ought to beware of thinking that Christ will achieve things in the earth quietly and softly, when you see that He fought with His own blood, and afterwards all the martyrs…Why were Christ and all the martyrs put to death?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  For the same reason that Cain killed Abel, 1 John 3:12―“And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous,” 1 John 3:12.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “So persecuted they the prophets,” Matthew 5:12. This is the heritage of the Lord’s messengers: they killed one, and stoned another. The honour of suffering with the prophets, for the Lord’s sake, is so great, that it may well reconcile us to all that it involves.

LORD SHAFTESBURY (1801-1885): The offence of the cross has not ceased.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us therefore bear in remembrance also, that we must with readiness and alacrity embrace the fellowship of the cross of Christ as a special favour from God. “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you,” Matthew 5:12

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Christ’s cross is made of sweet wool when there are comforts peculiar to those who suffer for righteousness. The true cause of Paul’s sufferings was his zeal for God and His truth; “For which I am in bonds,” Colossians 4:3―that is, for the gospel which I profess and preach: as that martyr, who being asked how he came to prison, showed his Bible, and said, “This brought me hither.”

JOHN CALVIN: In addition to “bonds,” Paul subjoins the “defense and confirmation of the gospel,” Philippians 1:7,  that he may express so much the better the honourableness of the service which God has enjoined upon us in placing us in opposition to His enemies, so as to bear testimony to His gospel. For it is as though He had entrusted us with the defense of His gospel. And truly it was when armed with this consideration, that the martyrs were prepared to contemn all the rage of the wicked, and to rise superior to every kind of torture.

WILLIAM GURNALL: Fear not what you can suffer, only be careful for what you suffer.

C. H. SPURGEON: Remember that our Bible is a blood stained Book; the blood of martyrs is on the Bible, the blood of translators and confessors. The doctrines which we preach to you are doctrines that have been baptized in blood; swords have been drawn to slay the confessors of them…All the martyr host have bled and died to keep the truth alive for us, that by the truth men may still be brought to Jesus. Every sufferer who bears pain, or slander, or loss, or personal unkindness for Christ’s sake, is filling up that amount of suffering which is necessary to the bringing together of the whole body of Christ, and the upholding of His elect Church.

JOHN CALVIN: And would that this were present to the mind of all that are called to make a confession of their faith, that they have been chosen by Christ to be as advocates to plead His cause! For were they sustained by such consolation they would be more courageous than to be so easily turned aside.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The expression “glorify God,” John 21:19, is peculiarly interesting, because it teaches that a Christian may bring glory to God by his death, as well as by his life. He does so when he bears it patiently, does not murmur, exhibits sensible peace, enjoys evident hope of a better world, testifies to others of the truth and consolation of the Gospel, and leaves broad evidences of the reality of his religion behind him. He that so ends glorifies God. The deaths of Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, Bradford, Rogers, Rowland Taylor, and many other English martyrs, in the days of Queen Mary, were said to have done more good even than their lives, and to have had immense influence in helping forward the Protestant Reformation.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): In every age God sets up some of all sexes, ages, conditions, that have owned His despised and oppugned truths, and have not counted their lives dear, so as they might give their testimony to the truth of God, Revelation 12:11, and have more greedily embraced martyrdom than other honours and dignities in the church; that they might be faithful to God and the souls of men in future ages, and to preserve God’s truth inviolate.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “The God of the Christians is a great God indeed,” said one Calocerius, a heathen, beholding the patient sufferings of the primitive martyrs. Justin Martyr confesseth of himself, that seeing the piety of Christians in their lives and their patience in death, he gathered that indeed that was the truth which they so constantly professed and sealed up with their blood.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The martyrs “were more than conquerors” under the most cruel tortures, and they “glorified God in the fire.” They were “tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection,” Hebrews 11:35, and they “loved not their lives unto the death,” Revelation 12:11. And who of these repented of the costly purchase?

FRANCES BEVAN (1827-1909): When God honours a person to suffer for His truth, this is a great privilege: “Unto you it is given not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for His sake,” Philippians 1:29―this made John Careless, an English martyr (who died in prison for Christ), say, “Such an honour ’tis as angels are not permitted to have; therefore, God forgive me mine unthankfulness.”

C. H. SPURGEON: We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it…The noble army of martyrs, and the glorious company of confessors, are “witnesses” of our own race to heaven, Hebrews 12:1―from yon blue heaven the eyes of the glorified look down on us; there the children of God are sitting on their starry thrones, observing whether we manfully uphold the banner around which they fought; they behold our valour, or they detect our cowardice; and they are intent to witness our valiant deeds of noble daring, or our ignominious retreat in the day of battle.

JOHN BRADFORD (1510-1555, burned at the stake): Dearly beloved, remember that you are not of this world; that Satan is not your captain; that your joy and Paradise are not here; that your companions are not the multitude of worldlings.  But ye are of another world, Christ is your Captain; your joy is in heaven; your companions are the fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, virgins, confessors, and dear saints of God, who follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth.

 

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The Thrice Holy God

Posted on November 1, 2019 by The Editor

Isaiah 6:1-7

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Holiness is the beauty of God Himself, He is glorious in it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Do we sufficiently realize, dear reader, that the One with whom we have to do is the thrice Holy God?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  He is infinitely holy―originally, perfectly, and eternally so.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): He is essentially holy―It is the infinite purity of His nature.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He does as He wills, but He wills only that which is thrice holy, like Himself…“The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works,” Psalm 145:17. Jehovah cannot be unjust or impure. Let His doings be what they may, they are in every case righteous and holy.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): A chief emphasis is placed upon this perfection of God: God is oftener styled holy than almighty, and set forth by this part of His dignity more than by any other. This is more fixed on as an epithet to His name than any other. You never find it expressed ‘His mighty name,’ or ‘His wise name,’ but His “great” name, and most of all―His “holy” name.

A. W. PINK: What human pen is able or fit to write about the unsullied holiness of God! So holy is God that mortal man cannot look upon Him in His essential being, and live. So holy is God that the very heavens are not clean in His sight, Job 15:15. So holy is God that even the seraphim veil their faces before Him.

C. H. SPURGEON: The holiest tremble in the presence of the thrice Holy One.

A. W. PINK: So holy is God that when Abraham stood before Him, he cried, “I am but dust and ashes,” Genesis 18:27. So holy is God that when Job came into His presence he said, “Wherefore I abhor myself,” Job 42:6…So holy is God that when Daniel beheld him in theophanic manifestation he declared, “there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption,” Daniel 10:8.

SAMUEL RIDOUT (1855-1930): When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord in the temple, and the adoring seraphim with veiled faces celebrating the majesty of the thrice holy triune God, he was overwhelmed with the sense of his own and Israel’s uncleanness. “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

A. W. PINK: The flawless life of Christ made the more evident the awful distance between the thrice holy God and depraved and guilty sinners.

E. W. BULLINGER (1837-1913): The life of Christ on earth was an unceasing proclamation of the fact that only His humanity dwelt in the glory of God. The proclamation of His life ever was: “Except ye be holy, sinless, spotless, perfect, as I am, ye cannot enter into the presence of God”―Even so, it was not the perfection of Christ’s life on earth that brings us into the presence of God.

A. W. PINK: How was it possible for the thrice holy God to dwell in the midst of a sinful people? The answer is, On the ground of accepted sacrifice.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Instantly did one of the seraphim fly to Isaiah, to declare, that his iniquities were all blotted out as a morning cloud, through the atoning blood of Christ. This was emblematically represented to him by a coal taken from off the altar of burnt-offering, and applied to his lips.

A. W. PINK: But now the question arises―How can I, conscious of pollution and utter unworthiness, think of approaching infinite purity?

MATTHEW HENRY: Nothing is powerful to cleanse and comfort the soul but what is taken from Christ’s satisfaction [for our sin], and the intercession He ever lives to make for us in the virtue of that satisfaction. It must be a coal from His altar that must put life into us and be our peace.

A. W. PINK: Ah, here is the blessed answer, the all-sufficient provision to meet my need: I may obtain access to the thrice holy God “through Jesus Christ.”―It is in Christ, and Christ alone, that the thrice Holy God meets the sinner in pardoning mercy. Christ is the One Who met His claims and endured His wrath on the behalf of all who put their trust in Him. Christ is the lone Mediator whereby transgressors can approach unto a reconciled God…The holiness of God was exceedingly glorified at the Cross―and when Christ was “made a curse for us” the thrice Holy One turned away from Him. It was this which caused the agonizing Saviour to cry, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It was because the Saviour was bearing our sins that the thrice holy God would not look on Him, turned His face from Him, and forsook Him―so holy is God that we are told, He is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity,” Habakkuk 1:13.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): He cannot look on sin, but with the deepest abhorrence.

A. W. PINK: How unbearable the thought to a guilty conscience that the unpardoned sinner will yet have to stand before the thrice holy One! Yet he must. There is no possible way in which any of us can escape that awful meeting. All must appear before Him and render an account of their stewardship. Unless we flee to Christ for refuge, and have our sins blotted out by His atoning blood, we shall hear His sentence of eternal doom―For “how shall we escape” the lake of fire “if we neglect so great salvation?” “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near,” in His gracious overtures of the gospel.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): How could we otherwise dare as worshippers to approach Him before Whom even His holy angels cover their faces?

 

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Jesus Christ’s Tender Request

Posted on October 25, 2019 by The Editor

1 Corinthians 11:23-25; Song of Solomon 5:1; 1 Corinthians 11:26

I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The first thing of importance concerning the holy Supper, which we here learn, is that the thing itself is of Christ’s express institution. This I conceive to be a matter of high moment―it ought indeed to have been enough to endear it, and recommend it forever, to the faithful: yet had not the Lord again taught His servant Paul what is here related, and God the Holy Ghost caused it to be handed down in the Church by those written records, we should not have known how highly Jesus prized it.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It seems to me that the Lord’s Supper should be received by us often.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): We have no express command respecting the frequency of its observance.

C. H. SPURGEON: When the Apostle says, in our text, “As often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup,” and our Lord said, in instituting the ordinance, “This do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me,” I will not say that their words absolutely teach that we should frequently come to the Communion Table, but I do think they give us a hint that if we act rightly, we shall often observe this Supper of the Lord.

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): It is a serious question whether the Christian world is not sadly delinquent in having so few communions.

C. H. SPURGEON: Once or twice in the year can hardly be thought to be a sufficiently frequent memorial.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): I do think that is too seldom by a great deal.

C. H. SPURGEON: From the records preserved in the Acts of the Apostles, it appears that when the saints came together on the first day of the week, they usually broke bread.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): It seems plain by the Scripture that the primitive Christians were wont to celebrate this memorial of the sufferings of their dear Redeemer every Lord’s Day.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): That the supper was celebrated on the first day of the week by the church at Troas is certain, Acts 20:7; that it was so every first day of the week is possible, perhaps probable; but the passage does not prove that it was so―I do not think this to be binding, but I am persuaded there can be nothing wrong in it, and that probably, it was then the practice of the primitive churches.

C. H. SPURGEON: At any rate, let it be often.

ROBERT HAWKER: Nothing can be more plain, than that it is the Lord’s pleasure, that His people should often meet in His name, for this holy purpose.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. It may be rendered in the imperative mood, as an exhortation, direction or command: “Show ye the Lord’s death till He come”―for the design of the institution is to declare that Christ died for the sins of His people: to represent Him as crucified; to set forth the manner of His sufferings and death, by having his body wounded, bruised, and broken, and His blood shed; to express the blessings and benefits which come by His death, and His people’s faith in them; and to show their sense of gratitude, and declare their thankfulness.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The Lord’s supper is not a temporary, but a standing and perpetual ordinance―it is to be celebrated “till the Lord shall come;”―till He shall come the second time, without sin, for the salvation of those that believe, and to judge the world. This is our warrant for keeping this feast. It was our Lord’s will that we should thus celebrate the memorials of His death and passion, till He come in His own glory, and the Father’s glory, with his Holy angels.

C. H. SPURGEON: I marvel at some of you who love my Lord that you should keep away from His Table. It is His dying will—“This do you in remembrance of Me.” It is so kind of Him to institute such an ordinance at all. To let us, who were as the dogs, sit at the children’s table and eat bread such as angels never knew! You will say it is non-essential. And I will reply to you, most true, it is non-essential for your salvation, but it is not non-essential for your comfort. Nor is it non-essential for your obedience. It is for a child to do what his parent bids him.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The duty of commemorating our Lord’s death is much neglected; but a neglect of it involves us in the deepest guilt. It implies rebellion against the highest authority—Christ, the Supreme Governor of heaven and earth, has said, “Do this.” Yet the language of too many is, “I will not.” But they who disregarded the passover did not go unpunished―much less shall they who slight the invitations to Christ’s Supper. Surely it is madness to persist in this rebellion. It is ingratitude towards our greatest Benefactor—Christ has even “given his own life a ransom for us;” and shall we disregard His dying command? “On the same night that he was betrayed,” He instituted these memorials of His death. Had He, at that season, such a concern for us, and can we refuse to do so small a thing in remembrance of Him?

C. H. SPURGEON: I understand not, my dear Brother, my dear Sister, what sort of love yours can be if you hear Jesus say, “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” and yet you neglect His ordinances.

ROBERT HAWKER: Who shall describe the feelings of those redeemed souls, who, while Jesus breaks to them the bread, and gives to them the cup of salvation, opens their hearts, warms their affections, cheers their spirits, and makes them sensible of a gracious welcome―when by faith they hear the Lord say: “Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!” Could any child of God, whose soul is truly regenerated, and hath felt the sweetness of the ordinance at the Supper, ever keep from the table, or use it sparingly?

C. H. SPURGEON: The wine how rich, the bread how sweet,

 When Jesus deigns the guests to meet!

A. P. GIBBS (1890-1967): Do we really love the Lord Jesus? If so, we shall not be thinking of how seldom we can remember Him in the way He has requested, but how often we are privileged to do so.

 

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The Insidious Deceptiveness of Modern Idolatry

Posted on October 18, 2019 by The Editor

Exodus 20:3; 1 John 5:21

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): You don’t have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): In America, it is said, they worship the almighty dollar.

D. L. MOODY: With many, it is the god of money. We haven’t got through worshiping the golden calf yet. If a man will sell his principles for gold, isn’t he making it a god? If he trusts in his wealth to keep him from want and to supply his needs, are not riches his god? Many a man says, “Give me money, and I will give you heaven. What care I for all the glories and treasures of heaven? Give me treasures here! I don’t care for heaven! I want to be a successful businessman.”

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): What do you think of the man whose thoughts and affections daily encircle the throne of mammon; whose earth-born soul cannot pass by a particle of shining dust without kneeling and praying; who, to acquire it, rises and grinds the faces of the poor, and transgresses the laws of God; whose highest aim, and whose only business is to amass his thousands? Why, such a man, to use the words of Job, “says to gold, thou art my hope, and to fine gold, thou art my confidence,” Job 31:24. “His wealth,” says Solomon, “is his strong city, and a high wall in his own council,” Proverbs 18:11. “He trusts,” says the apostle Paul, “in uncertain riches,” 1 Timothy 6:17; the covetous man therefore is expressly called an “idolater,” and stands in the Bible excluded from the kingdom of God, Ephesians 5:5.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Observe, covetousness is spiritual idolatry: it is the giving of that love and regard to worldly wealth which are due to God only, and carries a greater degree of malignity in it, and is more highly provoking to God, than is commonly thought.

WILLIAM JAY: What is idolatry?

OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658): Idolatry is anything which cooleth thy desires after Christ.

WILLIAM JAY: Is it not the transferring to the creature, the homage due to the Creator? If therefore we love or fear any thing more than God; if we make it our portion and depend upon it for happiness, we are chargeable with idolatry.

D. L. MOODY: Whatever you love more than God is your idol. Rich or poor, learned or unlearned, all classes of men and women are guilty of this sin. “The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself,” Isaiah 2:9.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): We easily fall into idolatry, because we are inclined to it by nature.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Look at the modern idols―the desire to be thought great―or, people who are considered great, they turn them into idols.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some idolize themselves; they look in the glass, and there see the face of their god.

D. L. MOODY: A man may make a god of himself, of a child, of a mother, of some precious gift that God has bestowed upon him. He may forget the Giver and let his heart go out in adoration toward the gift. Many make a god of pleasure; that is what their hearts are set on. If some old Greek or Roman came to life again and saw man in a drunken debauch, would he believe that the worship of Bacchus had died out? If he saw the streets of our large cities filled with harlots, would he believe that the worship of Venus had ceased? Others take fashion as their god. They give their time and thought to dress. They fear what others will think of them…But all false gods are not as gross as these.

C. H. SPURGEON: Might we not also say to many a mother and many a father concerning their children, keep yourselves from idols?

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600-1661): Take no heavier lift of your children, than our Lord alloweth; give them room beside your heart, but not in the yolk of your heart, where Christ should be; for then they are your idols, not your children.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Oh, there’s no limit to the variety of idols that men and women make.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols―man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual idol factory.

C. H. SPURGEON: You may be sure that there is one idol of which we can never thoroughly cleanse our hearts though we try, and though by God’s strength we give him a blow every day. It is the god of pride. He changes his shape continually; sometimes he calls himself humility, and we begin to bow before him, till we find we are getting proud of our humility. At another time he assumes the fashion of conscientiousness, and we begin to carp at this, and cavil at the other, and all the while we are tampering with our own professed sanctity, and are bowing before the shrine of religious pride…Idolatry will intrude itself in one form or another.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Look at the gods that the world makes for itself. The man who doesn’t believe in God invariably believes in something. And what does he believe in? Well, he believes in idols.

D. L. MOODY: The atheist says that he does not believe in God; he denies His existence, but he can’t help setting up some other god in His place.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: There are people who undoubtedly worship science; they’re always talking as if science were some kind of deity―the modern man says, ‘I believe in Science, I believe in learning and in knowledge.’ He’s turned his back on God―he can’t believe that sort of thing, but he believes that the advance of knowledge and learning is really something that’s going to save man and the world; it’s going to put everything right and straight. Political action, all these things, these are the modern idols, the modern gods.

WILLIAM JAY: All this is trusting in man, and making flesh our arm; and in proportion as we do this, the heart departeth from the Lord. And this is the essence of man’s apostasy; something besides God has his admiration and attachment, his hope and dependence.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The modern man, increasingly, it seems to me, believes in men―in great men. We surely all ought to be wide awake to this. It was the whole explanation, in a sense, of the tragedy of the Second World War, this idea of the superman, the dictator―the great man. Yes, it’s all very well for us to look on at what happened in Germany before the war. My dear friends, this country is rampant with the same thing, in a sense. Not always the same great man, but great men, a belief in men―there are many instances of this, and many manifestations of it. The tendency to turn men into gods; to idealize them―the wise man, the far-sighted leader―and they’re going to solve all the problems of life for us and lead us into some kind of paradise.

C. H. SPURGEON: O beware of all idolatry! We may very well say “Amen” to that.

 

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Open Air Itinerant Preaching

Posted on October 11, 2019 by The Editor

Matthew 5:1,2; Mark 2:13; Mark 10:1; Luke 5:3

And seeing the multitudes, [Jesus] went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them.

And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them…And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.

And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Jesus preached on the mountain; from a ship; in the fields; everywhere and every place.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Our Lord’s practise in this respect, gives a kind of sanction to itinerant preaching, when persons are properly called to, and qualified for, such an employ. And I believe we may venture to affirm―though we would by no means prescribe or dictate to the Holy One of Israel―that, whenever there shall be a general revival of religion in any country, itinerant preaching will be more in vogue…Was not the Reformation began and carried on by itinerant preaching? Were not John Knox and the other Reformers itinerant preachers?”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The first avowed preaching of Protestant doctrine was almost necessarily in the open air, or in buildings which were not dedicated to worship, for these were in the hands of the Papacy…In Germany and other continental countries the Reformation was greatly aided by the sermons delivered to the masses out of doors. We read of Lutheran preachers travelling the country proclaiming the new doctrine to crowds in the market-places, and burial-grounds, and also on mountains and in meadows. At Goslar, a Wittemberg student preached in a meadow planted with lime-trees, which procured for his hearers the designation of “the Lime-tree Brethren.”

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): At Appenzel [in Switzerland], as the crowds could not be contained in the churches, the preaching was held in the fields and public squares, and, notwithstanding keen opposition, the hills, meadows, and mountains echoed with the glad tidings of salvation.

C. H. SPURGEON: Throughout England we have several trees remaining called “gospel oaks.” There is one spot on the other side of the Thames known by the name of “Gospel Oak,” and I have myself preached at Addlestone, in Surrey, under the far-spreading boughs of an ancient oak, beneath which John Knox is said to have proclaimed the gospel during his sojourn in England. Full many a wild moor, and lone hill side, and secret spot in the forest have been consecrated in the same fashion, and traditions still linger over caves, and dells, and hill tops, where of old time the bands of the faithful met to hear the word of the Lord.

JAMES A. WYLIE (1808-1890): The first field-preaching in the Netherlands took place on the 14th of June, 1566, and was held in the neighborhood of Ghent. The preacher was Helman Modet, who had formerly been a monk, but was now the reformed pastor at Oudenard. “This man,” says a Popish chronicler, “was the first who ventured to preach in public, and there were 7,000 persons at his first sermon.”

The second great field-preaching in the Netherlands took place on the 23rd of July, the people assembling in a large meadow in the vicinity of Ghent. The Word was precious in those days, and the people, eagerly thirsting to hear it, prepared to remain two days consecutively on the ground. Their arrangements more resembled an army pitching their camp than a peaceful multitude assembled for worship. Around the worshippers was a wall of barricades in the shape of carts and wagons. Sentinels were placed at all the entrances. A rude pulpit of planks was hastily run up and placed aloft on a cart. Modet was preacher, and around him were many thousands of persons, who listened with their pikes, hatchets, and guns lying by their sides ready to be grasped on a sign from the sentinels who kept watch all around the assembly. In front of the entrances were erected stalls, where peddlers offered prohibited books to all who wished to buy. Along the roads running into the country were stationed certain persons, whose office it was to bid the casual passenger turn in and hear the Gospel.

When the services were finished, the multitude would repair to other districts, where they encamped after the same fashion, and remained for the same space of time, and so passed through the whole of West Flanders.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): I am more than ever convinced that itinerant preaching does a world of good, and that God blesses it continually.

C. H. SPURGEON: During the lifetime of John Wycliffe, his missionaries traversed the country, everywhere preaching the word. An Act of Parliament of Richard II in 1382 sets it forth as a grievance of the clergy that a number of persons went from town to town, without the license of the ordinaries, and preached not only in churches, but in churchyards, and market-places, and also at fairs.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): An evangelist is, of necessity, more or less, a traveller. The world is his sphere.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981):  What is it that always heralds the dawn of a Reformation or of a Revival?  It is renewed preaching.  Not only a new interest in preaching, but a new kind of preaching.

C. H. SPURGEON: It would be very easy to prove that revivals of religion have usually been accompanied, if not caused, by a considerable amount of preaching out of doors, or in unusual places―It was a brave day for England when George Whitefield began field preaching.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD: At Usk, I preached upon a table under a large tree to some hundreds, and God was with us of a truth.

CHARLES WESLEY (1707-1788): I stood by George Whitefield while he preached on the mount in Blackheath. The cries of the wounded were heard on every side.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life—till very lately—so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if had it not been done in a church.

C. H. SPURGEON: It was a blessed day when the Methodists and others began to proclaim Jesus in the open air―when John Wesley stood and preached a sermon on his father’s grave, at Epworth.

JOHN WESLEY: I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners by preaching three days on my father’s tomb than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit…It is field preaching which does the execution still: for usefulness there is none comparable to it.

FRANCES BEVAN (1827-1909): At Gwennap, in Cornwall, there is a hollow in the hills, in the form of a horse-shoe. Here the crowds would sit around John Wesley, one row above another, so that twenty thousand or more could hear him at the same time.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): These gallant evangelists shook England from one end to the other.

 

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Walking with God in a Very Wicked World

Posted on October 4, 2019 by The Editor

2 Peter 3:10,11; Genesis 5:21-23

The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.

Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Enoch lived in a very evil age. He was prominent at a time when sin was beginning to cover the earth. It was not very long before the earth was corrupt and God saw fit to sweep the whole population from off its surface on account of sin.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): I will venture to say that Enoch, in his day, was considered a most singular and visionary man—an “eccentric” man—the most peculiar man who lived in that day. He was a man out of the fashion of this world, which passeth away.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Observe! at the age of sixty-five, Enoch is said to have “walked with God.” May not this be supposed to mean the period of his conversion?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He “walked with God after he begat Methuselah”—which intimates that he did not begin to be eminent for piety till about that time; at first he walked but as other men. Great saints arrive at their eminence by degrees.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He had walked with God undoubtedly before, but perhaps after this time, more closely and constantly: and this is observed to denote, that he continued so to do all the days of his life, notwithstanding the apostasy which began in the days of his father, and increased in his.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Three hundred years was a long while to live thus in a wicked world―but he walked by faith, Hebrews 11:5.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What does “walking by faith” signify?

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): The term walk, as used by the inspired writers, always signifies a continued course of conduct, or a manner of living, in which men persevere till it becomes habitual. Thus the phrase, “Enoch walked with God” evidently signifies that he did not repair to God occasionally, when want or affliction or fear of death impelled; he did not merely take a few steps in that path in which God condescends to walk with men, and then forsake it; but he pursued that path habitually and perseveringly; he lived with God, in contradistinction from those who live without Him in the world.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is implied also in this phrase, that his life was progressive, for if a man walks either by himself or with anybody else, he makes progress―he goes forward. At the end of two hundred years he was not where he began. He was in the same Company, but he had gone forward in the right way. At the end of the third hundred years Enoch enjoyed more, understood more, loved more, had received more and could give out more, for he had gone forward in all respects. A man who walks with God will necessarily grow in grace and in the knowledge of God and in likeness to Christ. You cannot suppose a perpetual walk with God, year after year, without the favoured person being strengthened, sanctified, instructed and rendered more able to glorify God. So I gather that Enoch’s life was a life of spiritual progress. He went from strength to strength and made headway in the gracious pilgrimage.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The sincere Christian is progressive, is not content with any measure of grace, never at his journey’s end, till he get to heaven, Philippians 3:13.

C. H. SPURGEON: Good men are never idle, and hence they do not lie down or loiter, but they are still walking onward to their desired end. They are not hurried, and worried, and flurried, and so they keep the even tenor of their way, walking steadily towards heaven; and they are not in perplexity as to how to conduct themselves, for they have a perfect rule, which they are happy to walk by. The law of the Lord is not irksome to them; its commandments are not grievous, and its restrictions are not slavish in their esteem…They do not consult it now and then as a sort of rectifier of their wanderings, but they use it as a chart for their daily sailing, a map of the road for their life-journey.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Very well, my friends, the question we ask ourselves therefore is this: Do we know anything about that?  Do we know anything about “walking” with God?

A. W. PINK: It means that our thoughts are formed, our actions regulated, our lives moulded by the Holy Scriptures.

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): A careless reader of the Scriptures never made a close walker with God.

VERNON J. CHARLESWORTH (1839-1915): Rowland Hill, entering the house of one of his congregation, saw a child on a rocking-horse. “Dear me, he exclaimed, “how wondrously like some Christians! there is motion, but  no progress.”  The rocking-horse type of spiritual life is still characteristic of too many Church members in the present day.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some have said, “Ah, you cannot live as you like if you have a lot of children about you. Do not tell me about keeping up your hours of prayer and quiet reading of the Scriptures if you have a large family of little ones. You will be disturbed and there will be many domestic incidents which will be sure to try your temper and upset your equanimity. Get away into the woods and find a hermit’s cell—there, with your brown jug of water and your loaf of bread, you may be able to walk with God—but with a wife, not always amiable, and a troop of children who are never quiet, neither by day nor night, how can a man be expected to walk with God?” The wife, on the other hand, exclaims, “I believe that had I remained a single woman I might have walked with God. When I was a young woman I was full of devotion. But now with my husband, who is not always in the best of tempers, and with my children who seem to have an unlimited number of needs and never to have them satisfied, how is it possible that I can walk with God?”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Lift up your eyes, look to God, and you will receive strength from Him.

C. H. SPURGEON: We turn to Enoch, again, and we are confident that it can be done! “Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” Thus, you see, he was a family man—and yet he walked with God for more than three hundred years. There is no need to be a hermit, or to renounce married life in order to live near to God.

THOMAS COKE: Every true saint of God is known by his perseverance in the ways of God.

 

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