Nehemiah’s Prayers

Posted on August 9, 2019 by The Editor

Nehemiah 1:1-4,11; Nehemiah 2:1-5,8

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.

And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven…O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer…

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, and said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it…

And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Do not let us forget that Heaven’s clock is different from ours.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): It was in November or December when those men arrived at that court, and this man prayed on until March or April before he spoke to the king. If a blessing doesn’t come tonight, pray harder tomorrow, and if it doesn’t come tomorrow, pray harder, and then, if it doesn’t come, keep right on, and you will not be disappointed. God in heaven will hear your prayers, and will answer them…Let your faith beget patience.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The time and way in which our prayers shall be answered are matters which we must leave entirely to God. But that every petition which we offer in faith shall certainly be answered, we need not doubt. Let us lay our matters before God again and again, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. The answer may be long in coming―but though it tarry, let us pray on and wait for it. At the right time it will surely come and not tarry.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Nehemiah also, upon the occasion of the king’s speech to him, interposeth a short prayer to God between the king’s question and his answer to it: “Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto the king…” So soon was this holy man at heaven and back again—even in a trice —without any breach of manners in making the king wait for his answer. Sometimes you have the saints forming their desires into a few smart and passionate words, which fly with a holy force from their lips to heaven, as an arrow out of a bow.

D. L. MOODY: Nehemiah shot up a prayer to heaven right there in the king’s dining hall that the Lord would help him to make his request in the right way. He first looked beyond Artaxerxes to the King of Kings.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): A short but fervent prayer―silently, but powerfully sent up, for grace in the king’s sight.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): We are here reminded of one course of God’s Providential acting: His uncontrollable sway upon the most absolute of all wills—the king’s heart. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will,” Proverbs 21:1.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The king consented that he should go.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Nehemiah also asked for a convoy, and an order upon the governors, not only to permit and suffer him to pass through their respective provinces, but to supply him with what he had occasion for, with another order upon the keeper of the forest of Lebanon to give him timber for the work that he designed, Nehemiah 2:7,8.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “And the king granted me”―all the above favours.

MATTHEW HENRY: Nehemiah gained his point, not according to his merit, his interest in the king, or his good management, but “according to the good hand of his God upon him.” Gracious souls take notice of God’s hand, His good hand, in all events which turn in their favour.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): What an atmosphere of prayer surrounds this man! It is his constant resource throughout all his varied experiences. He walked with God because he talked with God.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): Yea, let me add, if a man can with a good conscience say that he desires to fear the name of God, it will add boldness to his soul in his approaches into the presence of God. “O Lord,” said Nehemiah, “I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and servants, who desire to fear thy name.” He pleaded his desire of fearing the name of God, as an argument with God to grant him his request; and the reason was, because God had promised before “to bless them that fear him, both small and great,” Psalm 115:13.

D. L. MOODY: He has never failed, if a man has been honest in his petitions and honest in his confessions.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Blessed be God, when the heart is true to Him, He always comes in to cheer, to strengthen, and to fortify, at the right time.

D. L. MOODY: You need not make a long prayer.

MATTHEW HENRY: This may well be the summary of our petitions; we need no more to make us happy than this: “Remember me, O my God, for good,” Nehemiah 13:31.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): God will remember thee, as good Nehemiah prays in his last chapter, for thy zeal for God.

J. C. RYLE: We are never beyond the reach of His care. Our way is never hid from Him. He knows the path that we take, and is still able to help. He may not come to our aid at the time we like best, but He will never allow us utterly to fail. He that walked upon the water never changes. He will always come at the right time to uphold His people. Though He tarry, let us wait patiently. Jesus sees us, and will not forsake us.

 

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How Can Salt Lose Its Savour?

Posted on August 2, 2019 by The Editor

Matthew 5:13

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): There are countries where there is found salt from which the pungency has completely gone. It is an altogether useless article.

WILLIAM McCLURE THOMSON (1806-1894): I have often seen just such salt, and the identical disposition of it that our Lord has mentioned. A merchant of Sidon having farmed of the Turkish government the revenue from the importation of salt, brought over an immense quantity from the marshes of Cyprus―enough, in fact, to supply the whole province of Sidon for at least twenty years. This he had transferred to the mountains, to cheat the government out of some small percentage. Sixty-five houses were rented and filled with salt. These houses have merely earthen floors, and the salt next the ground, in a few years, entirely spoiled. I saw large quantities of it literally thrown into the street, to be trodden underfoot by people and beasts. It was “good for nothing.”

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): When our Lord reminds His people that they are “the salt of the earth,” He describes the state of all real believers in grace. The grace of God is that “salt,” apart from which all is corruption and spiritual decay.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Salt is good―to make meat savoury, and keep flesh from corrupting; and so is the grace of God, to season men’s hearts, make their discourse savoury, and preserve them from the corruption of sin: and so men made partakers of the grace of God; they are good and useful to others, both by their words and actions.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Grace is the salt with which all our religious performances must be seasoned, Colossians 4:6.

JOHN GILL: The “savour” here supposed that it may be lost, cannot mean the savour of  true grace itself, which cannot be lost, being an incorruptible seed.

MATTHEW HENRY: An everlasting covenant is called a “covenant of salt,” because it is incorruptible. The glory reserved for us is incorruptible and undefiled. and the grace wrought in us is the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The indestructibility and imperishable nature of real grace in the soul of man is a truth that greatly impacts the holiness and happiness of the Christian and―what is of still greater importance―the glory of God…We should never forget that, where real grace exists, that grace is as imperishable as the God who implanted it; that, where true faith has led your trembling footsteps to Jesus, to receive Him as all your salvation, that faith is as deathless as its Author. But with this broad and emphatic truth, we must proceed to justify the affecting declaration of the Saviour’s words: That it may “lose its savour.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): By salt in this place our Saviour seems to mean a Christian life and profession. It is a good, a noble, a great thing to be a Christian: but one that is so in an outward profession may lose his savour.

MATTHEW HENRY: Degenerate Christians, who, rather than part with what they have in the world, will throw up their profession, and then of course become carnal, and worldly, and wholly destitute of a Christian spirit, are like salt that has lost its savour―the most useless worthless thing in the world; it has no manner of virtue or good property in it. It can never be recovered: Wherewith shall it be seasoned? You cannot salt it. This intimates that it is extremely difficult, and next to impossible, to recover an apostate, Hebrews 6:4-6. If Christianity will not prevail to cure men of their worldliness and sensuality, if that remedy has been tried in vain, their case must even be concluded desperate.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Where divine grace, does not exist, nothing stunts the growth, impedes the progress, or restrains the power of the soul’s depravity.

MATTHEW HENRY: We must not only have this salt of grace, but we must always retain the relish and savour of it.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Our Lord’s supposition of the salt’s losing its savour is illustrated by Mr. Henry Maundrell.

HENRY MAUNDRELL (1665-1701): In the valley of salt, near Gebul, and about four hours’ journey from Aleppo, there is a small precipice, occasioned by the continual taking away of the salt. In this, you may see how the veins of it lie: I broke a piece of it; the part exposed to the rain, sun, and air, though it had the sparks and particles of salt, yet it had perfectly lost its savour, as in Matthew 5:13. But the innermost, which had been connected with the rock, retained its savour, as I found by proof.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: How does this apply to the spiritual life of the believer? It applies most clearly and indisputably to a relapsed state of grace, and of its consequent loss of vigorous influence.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): As salt, however good, may possibly “lose its saltness,” so as to become unfit for the service of God; so may immortal souls lose the divine savour which is pleasing to God.

MATTHEW POOLE: Though a man cannot fall away from the truth and reality of grace, yet he may fall away from his profession; he may be given up to believe lies, and embrace damnable errors; he may shake off that dread of God which he seemed to have upon him; and then what is he good for? Wherewith shall he be seasoned? He is neither fit for the land nor the dunghill: as some things will spoil dunghills, so debauched professors do but make wicked men worse, by prejudicing and hardening them against the ways and truths of God…If they have lost their soundness in the faith, and holiness of life, they are of no value.

THOMAS COKE: Those who profess to spread the lively truths of God, who adulterate the Word, and grow degenerate in their tempers and manners, wherewith shall it be seasoned?

MATTHEW HENRY: If you, who should season others, are yourselves unsavoury, void of spiritual life, relish, and vigour; if a Christian be so―especially if a minister be so, his condition is very sad; for, he is irrecoverable: Wherewith shall it be salted? Salt is a remedy for unsavoury meat, but there is no remedy for unsavoury salt. Christianity will give a man a relish; but if a man can take up and continue the profession of it, and yet remain flat and foolish, and graceless and insipid, no other doctrine, no other means, can be applied, to make him savoury. If Christianity does not do it, nothing will. He is unprofitable: It is thenceforth good for nothing; what use can it be put to, in which it will not do more hurt than good?

C. H. SPURGEON: Many a barren Christian has come into this mournful condition by a careless, unsanctified walk before the Lord. Let not saints who are now useful run the risk of enduring the loss of their mercies, but let them be watchful that all things may go well with them.

 

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Why Am I Here? In This Place? And At This Time?

Posted on July 26, 2019 by The Editor

Esther 4:14; Acts 17:25,26

Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Nothing comes by chance in our affairs. The Lord determines the bounds of our habitations, appoints us our stations and offices, and assigns us our talents and opportunities…As men, we are not the creatures of chance. There is an “appointed time to man upon earth,” Job 7:1. And, as Christians, are we the offspring of contingency? Is conversion a happy accident? It is the work of God, and He does nothing without foreknowledge and design.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): Nothing is by blind chance, all is under the management of infinite wisdom.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): How admirably does God determine even the place of our birth!

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): For every one of us, there is a decreed place; for He that determined the times beforehand, determined also the bounds of our habitation.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): But is that all? Surely, if we believe that God determines the bounds of our habitation, we must believe that other purposes affecting other people are also meant by God to be accomplished through us.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Every child of God is where God has placed Him for some purpose. The practical use of this first point is to lead you to inquire for what practical purpose has God placed each one of you where you now are.

MATTHEW HENRY: We should every one of us consider for what end God has put us in the place where we are, and study to answer that end; and, when any particular opportunity of serving God and our generation offers itself, we must take care that we do not let it slip; for we were entrusted with it that we might improve it.

C. H. SPURGEON: In every event of Providence God has a purpose―Times are hard. The people are famishing―and who knows but that, like Queen Esther, you may have come to the Kingdom of God for such a time as this? God may have brought you where you are to make use of you―perhaps the Lord intends, by some of you, to save multitudes of souls, to stir up His Churches and to awaken the slumbering spirit of religion.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): None but an infidel believes in things happening by chance, though there are many infidels now wearing the name of “Christian.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Listen, Friends, many people are not true to their occasions, whatever they may be. They do not consider that they have come to the Kingdom of God for such a time as this…Should not this cheer us—that the appointment of our lot has been made by a loving Father’s prudence?

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): It is sweet, it is precious, to eye the hand of the LORD in all events. And it is equally so to trust God upon all occasions. The Holy One of Israel is engaged for His people’s welfare, both by word, and by oath, and by the blood and righteousness of His dear Son. And He hath manifested His faithfulness, as all the saints have borne testimony to under all trials. Why then, Reader, shall you or I be an exception to this everlasting care and love that Jehovah hath to His people? Oh! for faith to give God in Christ the credit of GOD, and to believe in Him when matters are most dark and discouraging.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Think with thyself, I was converted, born again for such a time as this; shall I fail God now, and bid farewell to His friendship, when there are such obligations between God and me?

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Consider that all the injuries and unkind usages we meet with from the world, do not fall out by chance, but are disposed of by the all-wise God for our good. Many are like the foolish cur that snarls at the stone, never looking to the hand that threw it―If we looked higher than instruments our hearts would grow meek and calm. David looked beyond Shimei’s rage: “Let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him,” 2 Samuel 16:11. What wisdom were it for Christians to see the hand of God in all the barbarisms and incivilities of men! Job eyed God in his affliction, and that meekened his spirit.  “The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord,” Job 1:21. He does not say, ‘The Chaldeans have taken away,’ but “The Lord hath taken away.” What made Christ so meek in His sufferings?  He did not look at Judas or Pilate, but at His Father: “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” John 18:11.

WILLIAM JAY: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee,” Isaiah 26:3. This confidence composes the mind in the events of life—and this is the thing principally intended.  We live in a world of changes, and uncertainties…And with regard to ourselves, our wisest schemes are frequently thwarted, our fairest hopes destroyed, our choicest comforts laid waste. Thus we are liable to be perpetually ruffled and dismayed: and there is only one principle that can sustain and solace the mind: It is holy confidence in God…God governs the world—if we could see what God sees, we should do precisely what God does. His people are His care; nothing can essentially injure them―yea, all things are working together for their good.

A. W. PINK: Yes, dear reader, a spiritual faith perceives that things do not happen by chance, but that everything is regulated by the Lord God. Second, faith recognizes that everything which enters our lives is ordered by Him who is our Father…There are no accidents in a world which is governed by the living God, for “of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen,” Romans 11:6. Therefore does faith perceive the hand of God in every thing which enters our lives, be it great or small.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): He arranges our movements for us; He fixes the bounds of our habitation; He tells us how long to stay in a place, and where to go next. He has charged Himself with all our concerns, all our movements, all our wants. His gracious word to us is, “Be careful far nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God,” Philippians 4:6. And what then? “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:7.

A. W. PINK: And it is only as we recognize His hand molding all our circumstances that God is honoured, and our hearts are kept in peace. O for grace to say at all times, “It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good,” 1 Samuel 3:18.

BASIL (329-379): Never let us say of anything, ‘it happened by chance;’ there is nothing that has not been fore-arranged, nothing which has not its own special end, by which it forms a link in the chain of appointed order.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): We must all be witnesses for God in the place where we live, and shine as lights in a dark world. And if for our fidelity we be called to suffer, we must rejoice that we are so honoured of our God.

 

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The Key to Receiving God’s Guidance

Posted on July 19, 2019 by The Editor

Psalm 25:9

The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What is meekness?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The term “meekness” is of very extensive import. But, instead of entering into the variety of senses in which the word is used, we shall find it more profitable to confine ourselves to the precise view in which it is used in the passage before us. Men may be denominated “meek,” when they are sensible of their own ignorance, and when they are willing and desirous to be taught of God.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The meek, here spoken of, are not those of naturally easy, quiet, and indolent tempers; but such as are rendered humble, teachable, submissive, and gentle, by the special grace of God. And as the Master in this school is “meek and lowly in heart,” and teaches with gentleness and wisdom; the scholars should surely be teachable, and learn in meekness and humility.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Humble, candid, teachable minds receive the Word, and are made wise unto salvation…He that is not willing to learn has not begun right.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): A deep sense of sin, a humble willingness to be saved in God’s way, a teachable readiness to give up our own prejudices when a more excellent way is shown, these are the principal things.

C. H. SPURGEON: True meekness is that which Grace gives.

JOHN BERRIDGE (1716-1793):  They have been made meek―desirous of being taught, and praying to be so; but, being now sensible of unworthiness, they are afraid that God will not teach them. This may be done to other sinners but not to them. Therefore they are told who may expect teaching, even they who desire and pray for teaching, verses 4 & 5, “Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me.”

C. H. SPURGEON: We must begin with a teachable spirit.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): A peculiarly humble frame of spirit, which is teachable. As there is no grace that is either more useful unto our own souls or more acceptable with God than humility, I Peter 3:4, so it is in an especial manner required as a qualification in them who would be instructed in the mind of God out of His Word. So the promise is, “The meek will he guide in judgment; and the meek will he teach his way;”—that is, the humble and contrite ones. And it is the same that is twice expressed in that same psalm by “fear,” verse 12: “What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall He teach in the way that He shall choose;” and verse 14, “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him; and He will shew them His covenant.”

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Those that, in an humble sense of their own nothingness, depend upon direction, them will He teach…By the meek is meant a man humble―that will submit himself to God whatever condition He shall appoint. This man God in His Word will teach and direct.

A. W. PINK: Meekness is not to be confounded with humility, for they are quite distinct qualities. This is clear from the words of the Saviour who said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart,” Matthew 11:29. The Greek word here rendered “lowly” is translated “humble” in James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Well then, what is meekness?

A. W. PINK: There should be no difficulty in discovering the force of this word―the fact that “meekness” is required in order to our being “guided” and “taught” suggests that it signifies a pliant and receptive heart. As humility is the opposite of pride and self-sufficiency, so meekness is the opposite of self-will and stubbornness. Thus, it should be evident that there is a real difference between true humility and meekness. Not only are they distinct—but they are not always operative in the same person. One may be humble and yet far from being meek. One may have a real sense of his own ignorance and stupidity, pray to God for light and wisdom, search His Word for the needed direction, and then when those directions are received, disregard them because unacceptable. Unless our wills be truly yielded to God’s, when His will crosses ours—then we shall decline to heed the same.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It is a grand point in the soul’s history when one is enabled to bow with meekness to all the dispensations of our Father’s hand.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The meek are those who quietly submit themselves before God, to His Word, to His rod, who follow His directions and comply with His designs.

A. W. PINK: As pointed out above, this is not constitutional, but gracious—a precious fruit of the Spirit’s working. Godly sorrow softens the heart, so that it is made receptive to the entrance of the Word. Meekness consists in the spirit being made pliant, tractable, submissive, teachable…The moment any of us really takes it for granted that he already knows all that there is to be known on any subject treated of in Holy Writ, he at once cuts himself off from any further light thereon. That which is most needed by all of us in order to a better understanding of Divine things is not a brilliant intellect, but a truly humble heart and a teachable spirit, and for that we should daily and fervently pray—for we possess it not by nature.

J. C. RYLE: We must pray daily for the teaching of the Holy Ghost, if we would make progress in the knowledge of divine things. Without Him, the mightiest intellect and the strongest reasoning powers will carry us but a little way. In reading the Bible and hearing sermons, everything depends on the spirit in which we read and hear. A humble, teachable, child-like frame of mind is the grand secret of success. Happy is he who often says with David, “Teach me thy statutes,” Psalm 119:64. Such an one will understand, as well as hear.

C. H. SPURGEON: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go,” Psalm 32:8. Here the Lord is the speaker, and gives the Psalmist an answer to his prayer. Our Saviour is our instructor. The Lord Himself deigns to teach His children to walk in the way of integrity, His holy word, and the monitions of the Holy Spirit are the directors of the believer’s daily conversation. But “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding,” Psalm 32:9―not only David, but all of you. If God will guide you, be guided; if He will teach you, be teachable; if He will be gracious to you, be gracious towards Him.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The condition of our hearing and profiting by the guidance is meekness―of which the prime element is the submission of my own will to God’s.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Such a person has a teachable spirit.

MATTHEW HENRY: Meekness is wisdom.

 

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Do Christians have a “Right” To Die? Or An Obligation to the Lord?

Posted on July 12, 2019 by The Editor

1 Corinthians 6:19,20; Romans 14:7,8

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

None of us liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): This evidently implies, waiting till God shall see fit to release us, without voluntarily hastening our death, either in a direct or indirect manner. There have been frequent instances in which persons who were weary of life, but who did not choose to die by their own hands, have thrown themselves in the way of danger, or exposed themselves to infectious disorders, or refused, when ill, to use any means for their recovery, with a view to hasten the approach of death. For all these indirect methods of suicide, as well as to direct acts of violence upon our own lives, the resolution in our text is evidently opposed.

RICHARD ROGERS (1550-1618): As the soldier may not discharge himself or forsake his station, without his Emperor’s permission, who has set him in his place; so neither ought any to destroy his own life and soul by wilful death, but wait the time that God hath appointed.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): All that is implied either in the precepts or the promises of our text is altogether unknown to those who experience not the power of religion in their hearts. Whatever burdens they have, are borne upon their own shoulders: they know not what it is to cast them upon the Lord. Hence, when oppressed with heavy trials, they faint and sink under them; and for want of the consolations and supports of religion, they not unfrequently meditate, and sometimes also carry into execution, the awful act of suicide.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): A believer’s death is intended to glorify God. The Holy Ghost tells us this truth in plain language. He graciously interprets the dark saying, which fell from our Lord’s lips about Peter’s end―He tells us that Jesus spake this, “signifying by what death he should glorify God,” John 21:19…We may glorify God in death, by patiently enduring its pains. The Christian whose spirit has complete victory over the flesh, who quietly feels the pins of his earthly tabernacle being plucked up with great bodily agonies, and yet never murmurs or complains, but silently enjoys inward peace—We may glorify God in death, by testifying to others the comfort and support that we find in the grace of Christ.

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.

J. C. RYLE: It is a great thing, when a mortal man can say with David, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me,” Psalm 23:4.

CHARLES SIMEON: Those who have no God to go to, often sink under their troubles, and not unfrequently seek refuge from them in suicide.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): Who ever, unless bereft of his wits and distracted, would murder his own body?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Let us put the question in its strongest form—is it possible for a real Christian, under the pressure of sore trial and protracted trouble, for his mind to give way, and in a fit of madness take things into his own hands and make an end of his earthly sufferings?

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): The commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” Exodus 20:13, requires that we should preserve our own life…I can see no ground of hope for such as make away with themselves; for they die in the very act of sin, and cannot have time to repent. They murder their own souls.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Is it not probable that Satan had secretly tempted Job to self-murder? His wife had openly recommended it, Job 2:9.

A. W. PINK: But before weighing that, perhaps a word or two should be said upon what the Spirit has chronicled about Jonah, for the nearest approach to a saint actually committing suicide is his, for he distinctly bade the sailors in the ship to “take me up and cast me forth into the sea,” Jonah 1:12. But observe, first, that was designed for their good, “So shall the sea be calm unto you.”―As in the case of Samson, the providence of God had designed that he should be a remarkable type of Christ.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Samson said “Let me die with the Philistines,” and did what he did under the direction and influence of the Spirit of God.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Samson may very well be justified, and brought in not guilty of any sinful murder either of himself or the Philistines…It was not from a principle of passion or personal revenge, but from a holy zeal for the glory of God and Israel, that he desired to do this, as appears from God’s accepting and answering the prayer―this was done, not by any natural strength of Samson, but by the almighty power of God.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Samson’s death is no example nor encouragement to those that wickedly murder themselves―his case was not much unlike theirs, that in the heat of battle run upon the very mouth of the cannon to execute a design upon the enemy.

CHARLES SIMEON: Indeed God’s honour, if we may so speak, required such a signal act of vengeance to be inflicted on His enemies. The Philistines had assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their idol god. To him they ascribed praise and honour, as having triumphed over the God of Israel. Thousands of their chief men and women were assembled in the place, and three thousand others on the roof; and Samson was brought forth, to be made an object of profane mirth and triumph. Then it was that Samson offered this prayer, and willingly devoted himself to death, that he might be an instrument of God’s vengeance on them.

RICHARD ROGERS: What was that but a faithful serving of God, though with the loss of his life?

J. C. RYLE: Like Samson, we may do more for God in our death, than ever we did in our lives, Judges 16:30…We may die to the Lord as well as live to the Lord; we may be patient sufferers as well as active workers.

A. W. PINK: When, then, some insist that a real child of God may lay suicidal hands upon himself, we ask, Where is Scripture in support of such a horrible affirmation? And the answer is—there is none.

J. C. RYLE: Let us leave it to God to choose the where, and when, and how, and all the manner of our departing. Let us only ask that it may “glorify God.”

A. W. PINK: And to those Christians who are fearful lest such a terrible ending as suicide should be their lot, we close by reminding them of the sure promises of the preserving hand of the Most High over His saints. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous—but the Lord delivereth him out of them all,” Psalm 34:19, “who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,” 1 Peter 1:5.

 

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Jesus Christ, the King of Empathy

Posted on July 5, 2019 by The Editor

John 11:32-35

When Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

Jesus wept.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): This is one of those verses which bring out very strongly the real humanity of our Lord, and His power to sympathize with His people. As a real man, He was specially moved when He saw Mary and the Jews weeping.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): And a man, too, who, notwithstanding His amazing dignity and excellence, did not feel it beneath Him to sympathize with the distressed, and weep with those who wept―Jesus had humanity in its perfection, and humanity unadulterated is generous and sympathetic. A particular friend of Jesus was dead; and, as his friend, the affectionate soul of Christ was troubled, and he mingled his sacred tears with those of the afflicted relatives. Behold the man, in His deep, heart-felt trouble, and in His flowing tears!

J. C. RYLE: Jesus is no less certainly perfect man—able to sympathize with man in all his bodily sufferings, and acquainted by experience with all that man’s body has to endure. Power and sympathy are marvelously combined in Him who died for us on the cross―If we saw His divine acts only, we might forget that He was man. If we saw His seasons of poverty and weakness only, we might forget that He was God. But we are intended to see in Jesus divine strength and human weakness united in one person. We cannot explain the mystery; but we may take comfort in the thought, “this is our Saviour, this is our Christ—one able to sympathize, because He is man, but one Almighty to save, because He is God.”

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): As God, He of necessity possessed every perfection: but, as man and mediator, He learned much from His own experience. By His own temptations, He learned our need of succour. He Himself, under His own grievous sufferings, “prayed to God with strong crying and tears, and was heard,” and was strengthened from above, Hebrews 5:7; Luke 22:42,43. Hence then, He knows how much we must need assistance under our trials, and how certainly we must faint, if we be not supported by His almighty power…Are we exposed to severe afflictions and manifold temptations? In Him is boundless compassion to sympathize with us, and irresistible power to succour and support us.

WILLIAM PRINGLE (1790-1858): How needful it was for Him to become man, and to suffer as He did―In being capable of sympathy with His people, God made Him perfectly qualified to be the Captain or leader in our salvation, that is, in the work of saving us, even through sufferings, as thereby He procured our salvation and became experimentally acquainted with the temptations and trials of humanity.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  Christ is a brother to us, not only on account of unity as to flesh and nature, but also by becoming a partaker of our infirmities.

CHARLES SIMEON: A consciousness of His relation to us calls forth His sympathy―yet He could not know this experimentally, but by being reduced to a suffering condition; this therefore was one benefit which He derived from His sufferings. He learned by them more tenderly to sympathize with His afflicted people, and more speedily to succour them when imploring His help.

J. C. RYLE: One comfortable practical lesson stands out on the face of this truth, which ought never to be overlooked. Our Lord is able to sympathize with man in every stage of man’s existence, from the cradle to the grave. He knows by experience the nature and temperament of the child, the boy, and the young man. He has stood in their place. He has occupied their position. He knows their hearts.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): It is our mercy that the Lord Jesus perfectly knew, and as truly felt the whole of what human nature is in all its parts, yet without sin. Had it been otherwise, He would have been man in appearance, and not in reality. Whereas, the Holy Ghost expressly saith, that “in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren,” Hebrews 2:17.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Now look back to Psalm 22, verses 14 and 15, and you will see how fully Christ can sympathize with His people, because He also walked through the valley of the shadow of death even as they have to do. Hear Him crying there, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me”—remember that this is the Saviour speaking here―“thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” Well then, there is great comfort for the sheep in the fact that their Shepherd has been along that gloomy way before them.

CHARLES SIMEON: We are assured that “he learned obedience by the things that he suffered,” Hebrews 5:8. Now, as obedience consists entirely in love to God and man, sympathy, which is the highest office of love, must of necessity have been learned by Him. And how perfectly He had learned it, His address to the persecuting Saul declares, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Acts 9:4―Whether it be good or evil, He considers it as done to Himself. Thus it is with our blessed Lord. Are we persecuted? He feels in his inmost soul the dagger that pierces us, Zechariah 2:8. Do we labour under distresses of any kind? “In all our afflictions he is afflicted,” Isaiah 63:9.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): And the same tenderness He retains still toward His afflicted.

J. C. RYLE: He did not leave behind Him His human nature when He ascended up into heaven. At this moment, at God’s right hand, He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and can understand tears as well as ever―Our Lord Jesus Christ never changes. He is “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. His heart is still as compassionate as when He was upon earth. His sympathy with sufferers is still as strong.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Such an one is Christ, a merciful King, as well as High Priest, who is touched with a feeling of His people’s infirmities.

JOHN CALVIN: Therefore whenever any evils pass over us, let it ever occur to us, that nothing happens to us but what the Son of God has Himself experienced in order that He might sympathize with us; nor let us doubt but that He is at present with us as though He suffered with us.

CHARLES SIMEON: Let this be a source of comfort to you under every affliction.

 

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God’s Law & God’s Gospel Illustrated

Posted on June 28, 2019 by The Editor

1 Kings 19:9-13

And [Elijah] 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, 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?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): In the phenomena of the mount we may perceive a striking illustration of the vivid contrast between the Law and the Gospel. Thus we may see in this incident a figure of God’s ordinary manner of dealing with souls, for it is customary for Him to use the Law before the Gospel.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): The manner in which God manifested Himself to His prophet on this occasion, resembles, in many respects, the manner in which He now manifests himself to men, when He comes to reprove them for their sins, and thus prepare the way for their conversion and salvation…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. And like heralds they proclaimed, though without a voice, the greatness, the majesty, and the power of Him whose heralds they were.

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.

A. W. PINK: As the plough and the harrow are necessary in order to break up the hard earth and prepare it for the seed, so a sense of the majesty, holiness and wrath of God is the harbinger which prepares us to appreciate truly His grace and love. The careless must be awakened, the soul made sensible of its danger, the conscience convicted of the sinfulness of sin, ere there is any turning unto God and fleeing from the wrath to come.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679):  The field is not fit for the seed to be cast into it till the plough hath broken it up.  Nor is the soul prepared to receive the mercy of the gospel till broken with the terrors of the law.

A. W. PINK: Self-complacency has to be rudely shattered and the rags of self-righteousness torn off if a sense of deep need is to fill the heart. The Hebrews had to come under the whip of their masters and to be made to groan in the brick kilns before they longed to be delivered from Egypt. A man must know himself to be utterly lost before he will crave salvation. The wind and fire must do their work before we can appreciate the “joyful sound.” Sentence of death has to be written upon us ere we turn to Christ for life. Yet those experiences are not saving ones: they do but prepare the way, as the ministry of John the Baptist fitted men to behold the Lamb of God.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Terrible judgments appear as if they must convert sinners, yet there certainly are those in many places who have passed through a whole series of judgments and are rather hardened than softened by them!―That which effectually wins human hearts to God and to His Christ is not an extraordinary display of power. Men can be made to tremble when God sends pestilence, famine, fire and others of His terrible judgments—but these things usually end in the hardening of men’s hearts, not in the winning of them. See what God did to Pharaoh and his land. Surely those plagues were thick and heavy—the like of which had never been seen before, yet what was the result? “And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened,” Exodus 9:7. So it usually is. These things are well enough as preliminaries to the Divine Gospel which gently conquers the heart, but they do not, of themselves, affect the soul.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Not the most dreadful things of God’s wrath, the terrors of the law, the alarms of threatening justice, nor even the apprehensions of hell and everlasting misery, though passing before his view, will compel him to cover his face in shame and confusion, and make him tremblingly cry out, “Lord! save or I perish.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Men are not converted by judgments. They may submit themselves in a false way, but power and displays of terror do not win the heart. What, then, does God use to touch the heart?

GIOVANNI DIODATI (1576-1649): God’s saving revelation of Himself is in the Gospel only, which soundeth grace and comfort, and not in His terrible law.

C. H. SPURGEON: That which conquered Elijah’s brave heart was not a whirlwind, nor the earthquake, nor fire—it was the still small voice!—Observe that where there was a display of power, as in wind, earthquake and fire, we read afterwards, “God was not in it,” but here, in this still small voice in which there was no display of power, God was at work! Here, then, we see the weakness of power, but we learn also the power of weakness, and how God often makes that which seems most resistible to be irresistible—the still small voice succeeds where “terrible things in righteousness” are of no avail.

ROBERT HAWKER: The strong wind rending the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces, the earthquake, the fire―the Lord was not discovered by the prophet any of them: neither did he cover his face in his mantle until he heard the still small voice.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In the same way also does God accomplish His purposes in the souls of men. It is not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, that God manifests Himself to them, but in the still small voice.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Now the prophet perceives the present Deity. Wrapped in his mantle, his face is hid, ashamed, afraid to look upon God, yet standing in the mouth of the cave, attentive to the words of the eternal Jehovah.

C. H. SPURGEON: The Prophet did not come out of the cave until he heard that voice. 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, so that obedience is a second blessed effect. Shamefaced on account of his errors, he is now resolved to follow his Lord’s word at once. And he stands at the opening of the cave to hear what God, the Lord, will speak. If the Spirit of God shall work effectually upon any of us, one of the first marks of it will be that while we are humbled because of sin, we shall grow earnest to work righteousness. Grace makes us tender in the matter of obedience.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Blessed are the people that hear this still, small, gentle voice―“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance,” Psalm 89:15.

ROBERT HAWKER: Reader! have you heard that voice? Hath your soul passed under the condemning sentence of God’s law, and are you fled from it to the Lamb of God for salvation?

 

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Assembling Ourselves Together

Posted on June 21, 2019 by The Editor

Hebrews 10:23-25

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised; and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): Surely there is great force in the words, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.”

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): I think some Christians need to have their consciences exercised more than they are, in regard to gathering together with God’s people, where the Word of God is appreciated, and where they come together to sing His praises and to pray.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It is the duty of saints to assemble together for public worship, on account of God, who has appointed it, who approves of it, and whose glory is concerned in it; and on the account of the saints themselves, that they may be delighted, refreshed, comforted, instructed, edified, and perfected; and on account of others, that they may be convinced, converted, and brought to the knowledge and faith of Christ; and also, in imitation of the primitive saints.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Every man that professes Christianity should, in this respect also, copy their conduct: nor can any man be considered to have any religion, let his sentiments be what they may, who does not attend on the public worship of his Maker.

H. A. IRONSIDE: Many Christians today shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh, I am not interested in going to church. I don’t need to go; I can worship God just as well at home.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): So they stay at home all day on Sunday―Yes, there are some who even make a bad use of what ought to be a great blessing, namely, the printing press and the printed sermon, by staying at home to read a sermon because, they say, it is better than going out to hear one!

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We should observe, in Luke 4:16, what marked honour our Lord Jesus Christ gave to the public means of grace. We are told that He went into the synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read the Scriptures, Luke 4:16. In the days when our Lord was on earth, the Scribes and Pharisees were the chief teachers of the Jews. We can hardly suppose that a Jewish synagogue enjoyed much of the Spirit’s presence and blessing under such teaching. Yet, even then, we find our Lord visiting a synagogue, and reading and preaching in it. It was the place where His Father’s day and Word were publicly recognized, and, as such, He thought it good to do it honour.

ADAM CLARKE: “As His custom was,” Luke 4:16. Our Lord regularly attended the public worship of God in the synagogues.

J. C. RYLE: We need not doubt that there is a practical lesson for us in this part of our Lord’s conduct. He would have us know that we are not lightly to forsake any assembly of worshipers, which professes to respect the name, the day, and the book of God. There may be many things in such an assembly which might be done better. There may be a want of fullness, clearness, and distinctness in the doctrine preached. There may be a lack of unction and devoutness in the manner in which the worship is conducted. But―it becomes a Christian to think much before he stays away. If there be but two or three in the congregation who meet in the name of Jesus, there is a special blessing promised. But there is no like blessing promised to him who tarries at home.

C. H. SPURGEON: David said, “In the congregations will I bless the Lord,” Psalm 26:12; by which I understand he felt that his blessing God might be useful to others, else he might have shut himself up in his room and praised God there. David was not like some of whom we know. I hear of some who say, “I shall not go to the place of worship in my village. I cannot get on with the minister. I buy Mr. So-and-So’s sermons and I find more truth in them, so I shall stay at home.” You remember the view the Apostle took of this when he wrote, “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some”—a very bad manner, let me say, by the way the Apostle mentions it!

H. A. IRONSIDE: A man said to me once, “If I could find a perfect Church I would attend there.” I replied, “My dear friend, don’t. If you find a perfect Church don’t join it, because if you did it would be imperfect the moment you got into it.” There is no such thing as a perfect Church, but we can thank God for the places where people meet to hear the Word of God, and to join in praise and prayer.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): One important lesson we may learn from this is, how much we lose by our failure to cultivate the fellowship of Christian brethren.

H. A. IRONSIDE: We need one another; and because we do, the Spirit of God has come down to knit us together into one body. Think of one of the most frequently quoted verses in the Bible: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all, ” 2 Corinthians 13:14. Have you ever stopped to think what is meant by the communion of the Holy Ghost? It is God working in our hearts, helping us to enjoy the things of God together, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): United to Christ by faith, we become members of the Body, of which He is the Head. To that body we have duties―With that body we are to unite, both in its public and social meetings, and not by withdrawing ourselves from it, to shew an indifference to its welfare. Some there were, even in the Apostle’s days, who, through cowardice or worldly-mindedness, forsook the assemblies of the Church: and some there are who do so at the present day.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): This in all ages hath prevailed on many, in the times of trial and persecution, to withdraw themselves from those assemblies; and those who have done so are the “fearful and unbelieving,” Revelation 21:8.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The apostle saw good reason to join both these in one exhortation: “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,”―as if he had said, ‘If you cannot agree to worship God one with another, you will have little love one for another.’

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Extremely needed, therefore, by us all, is the admonition to be stimulated to love and not to separate from those whom God has joined to us, but to embrace with brotherly kindness all those who are united to us in faith―for doubtless the contempt of the brethren, moroseness, envy, an immoderate estimate of ourselves, and other sinful impulses, clearly show that our love is either very cold, or does not at all exist.

A. W. PINK: When Christians are in fellowship with Christ, they desire and seek the fellowship of His people; conversely, when they are out of fellowship with the Lord they have little or no desire for communion with believers.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Fire increaseth by laying together many coals on one place; so is devotion inflamed by the union of many hearts, and by a joint presence; nor can the approach of the last day of judgment, or particular judgments upon a nation, give a writ of ease from such assemblies.

 

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A Reminder For Fathers & Grandfathers

Posted on June 14, 2019 by The Editor

Exodus 20:5,6; Exodus 34:6,7

I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): This law was not to serve a particular dispensation, or to endure a particular time, but it was a declaration of His Will, invariable in all places and all times; being founded upon the immutable nature of His being.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He that sins against God not only wrongs his own soul, but perhaps wrongs his seed more than he thinks of.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): This is a terrible word of threatening, which justly afrights our hearts, and stirs up fears in us. It is quite contrary to our reason, for we conceive it to be a very unjust proceeding, that the children and posterity should be punished for their fathers’ and forefathers’ offences.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The Jews profanely characterized the Divine procedure by this proverb, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” Ezekiel 18:2.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): In the judgments of God there is always a deep abyss, into which if you fear to be plunged, adore that which it is not lawful to question.

MARTIN LUTHER: Forasmuch as God has so decreed, and is pleased so to proceed, therefore our duty is to know and acknowledge that He is a just God, and that He wrongs none. Seeing that these fearful threatenings are contrary to our understanding, therefore flesh and blood regard them not―but we that are true Christians believe the same to be certain, when the Holy Ghost touches our hearts, that this proceeding is just and right, and thereby we stand in the fear of God.

JOHN CALVIN: If it be objected that there is no reason why the sins of their fathers should be brought as an accusation against them, because it is written, “The soul that hath sinned shall die, and the children shall not be punished instead of the fathers,” Ezekiel 18:20, the answer will be easy. The Lord makes the children to bear the punishment of the sins of the fathers, when they resemble their fathers; and yet they are not punished for other men’s sins, for they themselves have sinned.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Anybody who studies human nature cannot help discovering that a child of a drunk has a greater tendency to drink than a child of a sober man.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “He that troubleth his own house, shall inherit the wind,” Proverbs 11:29. To trouble one’s own house is to walk so as to leave an evil example for succeeding generations. It is not merely physical ills handed down in judgment, as in the case of the alcoholic’s child being born with an inherent tendency to disease; but the father’s ways are copied by the children. This is what is so prominent in the case of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, “who made Israel to sin,” 1 Kings 14:16.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): National judgments, thus continued from generation to generation, appear to be what are designed by the words in the text―the punishment which the Jewish nation had been meriting for a series of years came now upon them, because they copied and increased the sins of their fathers, and the cup of their iniquity was full. Thus the children might be said to bear the sins of the fathers, that is, in temporal punishment, for in no other way does God visit these upon the children.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): That denunciation of the LORD is, of visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): The infants that perished in the flood (Genesis 7), and at the conflagration of Sodom (Genesis 19), died penally under the judgment that came for the sin of their parents―even in things moral, God threatens to “visit the iniquities of the fathers on the children.” So the Israelites wandered penally in the wilderness forty years, and bare the iniquity of their parents.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL  (1635-1711): Everyone’s commission of sin is personal, but judgment may come upon the children—not eternal judgment, but temporal judgment.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means “clearing the impenitent,”—or perhaps, rather, ‘clearing I will not clear;’ that is, although He forgive, yet He will chastise, and not altogether leave unpunished.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): Even children that have been good, have suffered for their father’s sins.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): How can this be just?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Was the wicked treatment of Joseph by his brethren to pass unpunished? No, that could not be. They, like all others, must reap what they had sown; reap the bitter harvest not only themselves but in their offspring too, for the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. So it proved here, for it was the “fourth generation” (Genesis 13:15) which came out of Egypt. Four generations, then, reaped the harvest, and reaped precisely “whatsoever” had been sown; for just as Joseph was sold into slavery, and carried down into Egypt, so in Egyptian slavery his brethren and their children suffered!

MARTIN LUTHER: God permits the external and corporal punishment to go on, yea, sometimes over the penitent children also for examples, to the end that others may fly from sin and lead a godly life.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The consequences of conduct do not die with the doers. “The evil that men do, lives after them.” The generations are so knit together, and the full results of deeds are often so slow-growing, that one generation sows and another reaps―it is true evermore and everywhere.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Does not this approach very near to that precious truth of the New Testament times, that we are members one of another, and that the conduct of one member affects all the rest?

A. W. PINK: Today we are suffering from the compromisings, unfaithfulness, sectarianism, pride, and wickedness, of those who went before us.

MARTIN LUTHER: But He will also do good and be merciful “unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” This is a great, glorious, and comfortable promise, far surpassing all human reason and understanding, that, for the sake of one godly person, so many should be partakers of undeserved blessings and mercies. For we find many examples, that a multitude of people have enjoyed mercies and benefits for the sake of one godly man; as for Abraham’s sake, many people were preserved and blessed, and also for Isaac’s sake; and for the sake of Naaman the whole kingdom of Assyria was blessed of God.

GEORGE SWINNOCK: The branches fare the worse for the defects that are in the root; and the branches thrive the better for the sap that is in the root. “The just man walks in his integrity, and his children are blessed,” Proverbs 20:7. Thy duty is to instruct thy children in the Word and Will of God.

 

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A Day of Pentecostal Power

Posted on June 7, 2019 by The Editor

Acts 2:1-4, 14, 17, 22-23, 32-33, 41

When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance…

Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said…this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upoon all flesh…Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain…This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear…

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Marvellous, beyond conception, was the miracle wrought on the day of Pentecost; when a company of illiterate fishermen were enabled, in one moment, to speak a great diversity of languages, with as much ease and fluency and propriety as their own native tongue.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This produced an effect on the city which called forth the first recorded address in the power of Pentecost. It is arresting to see in that address how the apostle first referred to the Old Testament Scriptures, and, second, showed how all their predictions were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. The result of this message was immediate and glorious. Under conviction produced by the Holy Spirit, the people asked, “What shall we do?” Peter replied, by giving clear instructions, and by testimony and exhortation, until about 3,000 souls were added to the church.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We cannot too often read the story of that wondrous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost; and let us never read it without asking the Lord to manifest in our midst the fullness of the Spirit’s power.

CHARLES SIMEON: The Christian Church—this is at a low ebb, and greatly needs a revival. Where are the Pentecostal effusions of the Spirit, and the simultaneous conversions of thousands unto God? In great and extensive countries, where religion once flourished, the very name of Christ is now scarcely known.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): I do not suppose that any man can look thoughtfully and dispassionately on the condition, say, for instance, of Manchester, or of any of our great towns, and mark how the populace knows nothing and cares nothing about us and our Christianity, and never comes into our places of worship, and has no share in our hopes any more than if they lived in Central Africa.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): I do not hesitate to assert this―that the only hope of the church lies in revival…I see no hope whatsoever in any other movement, or organization, or any other kind of effort. The one supreme need of the church is revival.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): A revival of true, vital godliness in the souls of believers, or an increased number of conversions, is the work of God’s Spirit. Strictly speaking, He is the only Revivalist.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Revival is always His work―A revival, I would say, is a repetition in some degree or in some measure of that which happened on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. It is a pouring out, or a pouring forth of the Spirit of God upon a number of people at the same time.

C. H. SPURGEON: I fancy that if God were to give us Pentecostal blessings, it would be seen that many of us are by no means ready to receive them. Suppose there were 3,000 persons converted in one day here, most of the churches round here would say, “There is a shocking state of excitement over at the Tabernacle. It is really dreadful!” The very ‘sound’ Brethren would feel that we had gone off into Arminianism, or some other error and I expect some of you would say, very dolefully, “Oh, dear! Dear! Dear! Dear! We do hope they will all stand.” The first thought that would be excited in many Christian minds would be one of suspicion!―there is not one in a hundred who would think it was true! And we ministers would be very much of the same mind.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: My friends, when the next revival comes, it come as a surprise to everybody, and especially to those who have been trying to organize it.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Let us not fold our arms and vainly say, “The time is not come.” Let us not yield to that pernicious offshoot of a one-sided theology, which is rightly called fatalism, and say, “God is sovereign, and He works according to His own will. We must wait His time. Human effort is in vain. We cannot get up a revival.”

C. H. SPURGEON: I was preaching in Bedford, and I prayed that God would bless the sermon and give me at least some few souls that afternoon. When I had done, there was an old Wesleyan Brother there who gave me a good scolding, which I richly deserved. He said to me, “I did not say, ‘Amen,’ when you were asking for a few souls to be converted, for I thought you were limiting the Holy One of Israel! Why did you not pray with all your heart for all of them to be saved? I did,” he added, “and that was why I did not say, ‘Amen,’ to your narrow prayer.” It is often the case that we preachers do not honour God by believing that He will give great blessings and, therefore, He does not honour us by giving those great blessings! But if we maintained a closer adherence to the Truth of God and had a firmer confidence that God’s Word shall never return unto Him void, He would do far greater things by us than He has ever yet done!

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Let us seek to get together according to God; to come as one man and prostrate ourselves before the mercy-seat, and perseveringly wait upon our God for the revival of His work.

CHARLES SIMEON: We want to see the lighting down of His arm amongst us; and such displays of His power and glory as when He “shook the room where His people were assembled, and filled them all with the Holy Ghost,” and with power, Acts 4:31-33. We are looking for “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,” Acts 3:19. And for these we should be earnestly pleading with God in prayer; saying, with the prophet, “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, and come down; that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,” Isaiah 64:1!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Oh! blessed Pentecost of a blessed God! Lord! grant in this latter day of thy Church a renewed Pentecost to manifest Thy glory!

CHARLES SIMEON: “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” Psalm 85:6. But the petition may be offered also, for our own souls in particular—Who amongst us does not need to offer it? We are but too apt, all of us, to experience changes in the divine life—how often do we see reason to deplore the loss of those ardent affections which once glowed in our souls! so that we have need particularly to cry, “O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of my years!”

 

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