Noah’s Faith

Posted on May 24, 2019 by The Editor

Matthew 24:37-39; Hebrews 11:7; Genesis 7:6,11

As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth…In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is not without reason that Moses again mentions the age of Noah. For old age has this among other evils, that it renders men more indolent and morose; whence the faith of Noah was the more conspicuous, because it did not fail him in that advanced period of life.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Aged persons are apt to be peevish, fretful, and passionate; and therefore need to be on their guard against such infirmities and temptations. Faith, love, and patience, are three main Christian graces, and soundness in these is much of gospel perfection. There is enduring patience and waiting patience, both of which must be looked after; to bear evils becomingly, and contentedly to wait for the good till we are fit for it, and it for us, being “followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises,” Hebrews 6:12.

JOHN CALVIN: So Noah’s promptitude deserves no little commendation; because, being commanded to enter the ark, he immediately obeyed―he, being moved with fear by the Word, perceived by faith the approach of that deluge which all others ridiculed. Wherefore, his faith is again commended in this place, because, indeed, he raised his eyes above heaven and earth.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He was nearly five hundred years old when he began to preach about the flood—a good old age to take up such a subject. For a hundred and twenty years he pursued his theme—three times as long as most men are ever able to preach, and now, at last God’s time of long-suffering is over, and He proves the truthfulness of the testimony of His servant by sending the flood that Noah had foretold.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): He was five hundred old when God first foretold the flood, and promised the old world one hundred and twenty years’ respite: but, wearied out with their obstinacy in sin, He “cut the work short in righteousness,” Romans 9:28, and brought the flood upon them twenty years sooner:* as it is said of Christ’s second coming, that, “for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened,” Matthew 24:22; so, for the contumacy of these ungodly sinners, their judgment was hastened.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): And remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, how He said, “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.” Some would have us to believe, that ere the Son of man appears in the clouds of heaven, this earth shall be covered, from pole to pole, with a fair mantle of righteousness. They would teach us to look for a reign of righteousness and peace, as the result of agencies now in operation; but the brief passage just quoted cuts up by the roots, in a moment, all such vain and delusive expectations. How was it in the days of Noah? Did righteousness cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea? Was God’s truth dominant? Was the earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord? Scripture replies, “the earth was filled with violence,” Genesis 6:13; “all flesh had corrupted his way on the earth,” Genesis 6:12; “the earth also was corrupt before God,” Genesis 6:11.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): I don’t find any place where God says the world is to grow better and better…I find that the earth is to grow worse and worse.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Well, then, “so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.” This is plain enough. “Righteousness” and “violence” are not very like each other. Neither is there any similarity between universal wickedness and universal peace. It only needs a heart subject to the Word, and freed from the influence of preconceived opinions, in order to understand the true character of the days immediately preceding “the coming of the Son of man.” Let not my reader be led astray. Let him reverently bow to Scripture. Let him look at the condition of the world, “in the days before the flood;” and let him bear in mind, that “as” it was then, “so” shall it be at the close of this present period. This is most simple―most conclusive. There was nothing like a state of universal righteousness and peace then, neither shall there be anything like it by and by.

MATTHEW HENRY: The Lord will come in a day when we look not for Him, and an hour when men are not aware. The time which men think to be the most improper and unlikely, and when therefore they are most secure, will be the time of the Lord’s coming. Let us then beware how we in our thoughts and imaginations put that day far away from us; but rather suppose it to be so much nearer in reality, by how much further off it is in the opinion of the ungodly world.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): This is the way of sinners: “because judgment is not executed speedily upon them,” they think it never will. The scoffers in the last days will say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” But God assures us, that “the judgment of sinners now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not,” 2 Peter 2:3.

JOHN TRAPP: For God is not asleep, or gone a journey, “because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness,” Acts 17:31.

C. H. SPURGEON: Noah is the picture of one who is the Lord’s witness during evil days, and lives through them faithfully, enduring unto the end.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): When Noah built the Ark, there were few with him, and many mocked at him; but he was found to be in the right at last. There was an ark for Noah, in the day of the flood―and there shall be a hiding-place for all believers in Jesus, when the wrath of God at last bursts on this wicked world.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): May it be my mercy, to remember, while reading the account of Noah’s finding favour with God, that it is by the Lord Jesus Christ alone, of whom Noah was a type, that I can find favour and acceptance with God in this life, or salvation in another. In Him, as the True Ark, may I be found, when God shall arise to judge the world.

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*Editor’s Note: John Trapp’s analysis of the timing of the flood is based upon comparing Genesis 5:32, Genesis 6:1-3, and Genesis 7:6, in addition to the Scriptures that he has cited.

►Editor’s Note: Today’s publication marks the six hundredth article posted on the Bible Truth Chat Room website. All these posts are accessible from the links on the sitemap page.

 

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Holy Hate Speech

Posted on May 17, 2019 by The Editor

Proverbs 6:16-19; Psalm 97:10; Psalm 139:21,22

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Ye that love the LORD, hate evil.

Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The Lord hates sin with a perfect hatred.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He hates every sin; He can never be reconciled to it; He hates nothing but sin. But there are some sins which He does in a special manner hate; and all those here mentioned are such as are injurious to our neighbour. It is an evidence of the good-will God bears to mankind that those sins are in a special manner provoking to Him which are prejudicial to the comfort of human life and society.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): To represent the Most High as simply a loving Father to His creatures is not only extremely partial, but altogether an erroneous view of His relations to us. His love is indeed the originating impulse of all the blessings of the covenant. But God is also a moral Governor, a righteous King, whose character is reflected in the government which He exercises; and therefore does He manifest His holy hatred of sin and justly punishes it. Hence it is that when He seeks the return of sinners unto Himself it is by a system of mediation which vindicates His perfections and magnifies His law. Calvary supplied the most solemn and awe-inspiring display of God’s hatred of sin that time or eternity will ever furnish!

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): The torments of the bottomless pit are not so dreadful a demonstration of God’s hatred of sin, as the agonies of the cross!

JOHN NELSON DARBY (1800-1882): Upon the cross, all that God was in His holy hatred of sin fell on Christ for our sakes; and hence it was not then a question of love and fellowship, but all else that God was—His holiness, truth, majesty, righteousness—all was against Him, because on the cross He was as the One made sin for us.

C. H. SPURGEON: When sin was laid on Christ, even though it was none of His, yet the Father forsook Him…Unless we believe that sin cost Christ His life, we shall never have that holy enmity towards sin which we ought to have, that blessed intolerance of sin which ought to take possession of every Christian’s heart and mind!

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Sin is to be hated, because of the evil nature of it, it being exceeding sinful; and because of its evil consequences, bringing death, ruin, and destruction with it to the souls of men, unless grace prevents; and disquietude, distress, and trouble to the saints themselves; and because it is hateful to God, being contrary to His nature, will, and law, and is hated by Christ; and therefore those that love Him should hate that, shun it, avoid it, depart from it, and abstain from all appearance of it; as all such will, that love Him in sincerity.

RICHARD SIBBES (1577-1635): It is evident that our conversion is sound when we loathe and hate sin from the heart: a man may know his hatred of evil to be true, first, if it be universal: he that hates sin truly, hates all sin. Secondly, true hatred is fixed; there is no appeasing it but by abolishing the thing hated. Thirdly, hatred is a more rooted affection than anger: anger may be appeased, but hatred remains and sets itself against the whole kind.

WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602): And all this must proceed from a good ground, even from a good heart hating sin perfectly, that is, all sin, as David, “I hate them with perfect hatred;” and not as some, who can hate some sin, but cleave to some other: as many can hate pride, but love covetousness or some other darling sin: but we must attain to the hatred of all, before we can come to the practice of this precept.

RICHARD SIBBES: If our hatred be true, we hate all evil, in ourselves first, and then in others; he that hates a toad, would hate it most in his own bosom. Many, like Judah, are severe in censuring others (Genesis 38:24), but partial to themselves. Fifthly, he that hates sin truly, hates the greatest sin in the greatest measure; he hates all evil in a just proportion. Sixthly, our hatred is right if we can endure admonition and reproof for sin, and not be enraged; therefore, those that swell against reproof do not appear to hate sin.

C. H. SPURGEON: The Spirit also, very graciously, sanctifies us, and it is a part of His work to discover sin in us and to excite a holy hatred of it. He burns in our soul like flames of fire consuming evil.

RICHARD SIBBES: God is a Spirit, and He looks to our very spirits; and what we are in our spirits, in our hearts and affections, that we are to Him. Therefore, what ill we shun, let us do it from the heart, by hating it first. A man may avoid an evil action from fear, or out of other respects, but that is not sincerity. Therefore look to thy heart, see that thou hate evil, and let it come from sincere looking to God. “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil,” saith David: not only avoid it, but hate it; and not only hate it, but hate it out of love to God.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): True Christians will maintain a holy hatred to all the ways of sin.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): To hate evil is to walk in light.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Who is there that enters into the interests of God with such oneness of soul as to say, “I hate them that hate thee, with perfect hatred”?

AUGUSTINE (354-430): What is “with a perfect hatred?”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Literally it is, “I hate them with a perfection of hatred.”

AUGUSTINE: How then will he fulfil in them both his own saying, “Have not I hated those that hated thee, Lord,” and the Lord’s command, “Love your enemies”?

C. H. SPURGEON: We are bound to love our own enemies, but not God’s enemies, since they are haters of all that is good and true, and the essentially good One Himself. We love them as our fellow-beings, but we hate them as haters of God…To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse Him their affection. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha,” 1 Corinthians 16:22.

JOHN GILL: Wicked men are haters of God; of His Word, both Law and Gospel; of His ordinances, ways, and worship; of His people, cause, and interest; and therefore good men hate them: not as men, as the creatures of God, and as their fellow creatures, whom they are taught by the Gospel to love, to do good unto, and pray for; but as haters of God, and because they are so; not their persons, but their works.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Hate we may, but then it must be not the man, but his evil qualities.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: Therefore let His saints learn the lesson and “hate evil.”

C. H. SPURGEON: We cannot love God without hating that which He hates.

 

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Mothers

Posted on May 10, 2019 by The Editor

Proverbs 1:8; Proverbs 10:1

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “A wise son maketh a glad father.” This first sentence seems not to have been casually set first…Lord Bacon thinks that the gladness and heaviness which are in fathers and mothers, according as their children prove good or bad, are so accurately distinguished by Solomon, that he represents a wise and well-governed son to be chiefly a comfort to the father, who knows the value of wisdom better perhaps than the mother―which account the Hebrews also give of this matter; and therefore, he rejoices more at his son’s good judgment; which he not only better understands, but has taken perhaps so much care about his education, that the good fruits of it give him a greater joy than they can do to the mother.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Prize fathers as you may, and will, and should—yet there is a tender touch that comes home to every man’s heart when he thinks of his mother!

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): I never knew a mother. I have been an orphan, almost from the first opening of my eyes―the keenest longing of my heart is that I had a mother…Oh, how sweet it must be to a son in his manhood strength to be the ‘gladness’ of his mother. “A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” A son who breaks his mother’s heart—can this earth have any more irksome load to bear!

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Though mothers bear much, still they blush on account of the wicked actions of their children.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It is the mother who feels most keenly the folly of her child. See the record of Esau in Genesis 26:34,35 and Genesis 27:46.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Besides that natural affection planted in mothers towards their children, as they are theirs, the very pains, hard labour, and travail they were at in bringing them forth, increaseth their affections towards them, and that in a greater degree than fathers bear; and, therefore, the eminency of affection is attributed unto that of the mother towards her child, and put upon this, that it is “the son of her womb,” Isaiah 49:15. And then the performing of that office and work of nursing them themselves, which yet it is done with much trouble and disquietment, doth in experience yet more endear those their children unto them.

THOMAS COKE: She is more grieved and discomforted at the calamity of the son; both because the affection of a mother is more soft and tender―and, perhaps, because she may be conscious to herself that by too much indulgence she hath tainted and corrupted his tender years.

HENRY VENN (1724-1797): We pity orphans who have neither father nor mother to care for them. A child indulged is more to be pitied. It has no parent. It is its own master, peevish, froward, headstrong, blind―not only miserable itself, but worthless, and a plague to all who in future will be connected with it. What bad sons, husbands, masters, fathers, daughters, wives, and mothers, are the offspring of fond indulgence, shewn to little masters and misses almost from the cradle!

C. H. SPURGEON: The moulding of the character of the next generation, remember, begins with the mother’s influence.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The father occasionally gives instruction; but he is not always in the family, many of those occupations which are necessary for the family support being carried on abroad. The mother―she is constantly within doors, and to her the regulation of the family belongs; therefore she has, and gives laws.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): She is particularly mentioned, because the law of God equally enjoins reverence and obedience to both parents, and because children are too apt to slight the directions and instructions of a mother; whereas they carry equal authority, and have in them the nature of a law, as those of a father.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is the duty of mothers, as well as fathers, to teach their children…When they are young and tender they are most under the mother’s eye, and she has then an opportunity of moulding and fashioning their minds well, which she ought not to let slip.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): My mother―almost her whole employment was the care of my education…At not more than three years of age, she herself taught me English. When I was four years old I could read with propriety in any common book. She stored my memory, which was then very retentive, with many valuable pieces, chapters, and portions of Scripture, catechism, hymns and poems.

C. H. SPURGEON: I am sure that, in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother; neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such a influence over the young heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians of England.

C. H. SPURGEON: See how a woman’s life projects itself and either casts a ray of brightness over her children’s characters, or a cloud of shame over their entire being.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The names of mothers of good and bad kings are mentioned in Kings and Chronicles, as partakers in their credit or reproach.

C. H. SPURGEON: What some of us owe to our mothers, we shall never be able to tell. If we had to write down the choicest mercies that God has bestowed upon us, we would have to first mention the mother who prayed for us and taught us to trust in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing upon the sweet way in which she spoke to us about the Saviour. But a mother, trained in the school of Satan, and who has become a mistress in the art of sin is a terrible source of evil to her children. May God have mercy upon any of you mothers who have sons growing up to follow the evil example which you are setting them! Mothers, by the love you bear your children—and there is no stronger love, I think, on earth—if you will not think of your own soul’s best interests, I do pray you, for your children’s sake, consider your ways and seek the Lord with the purpose in your heart that your children may, if possible, live in the Presence of God.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Any teaching that leads men and women to think of the marriage bond as the sign of bondage, and the sacrifice of all independence, to construe wifehood and motherhood as drudgery and interference with woman’s higher destiny…threatens the very foundations of society.

C. H. SPURGEON: Those who think that a mother detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true―she is doing the best possible service for her Lord! Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord, as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple!

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called her Eve, that is to say, the Mother of All, Genesis 3:20. He did not style her wife, but simply mother, mother of all living creatures. In this consists the glory and the most precious ornament of woman.

 

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Our Omnipresent All-Seeing God

Posted on May 3, 2019 by The Editor

Psalm 139:7,8,12; Proverbs 15:3; Jeremiah 23:23,24

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there…Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): God asserts His own omnipresence and omniscience.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): The proposition is absolutely universal.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): To confirm this He adds, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith Jehovah?―What therefore God declares here, that He fills heaven and earth, ought to be applied to His providence and His power.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it without the interrogative: “I am a God near, saith the Lord, and not afar off.” The meaning is, that God is alike near in one place as in another; which is a very great truth. And a very comfortable one it is to the people of God, to whom He is near in all places, and at all times; He is a present help in time of trouble; He is near them, to hear their cries, and grant their requests; He is near to give them assistance in a time of need, and to deliver them out of all their troubles; to afford them His gracious presence, and to indulge them with communion with Himself; to communicate all good things to them; to speak comfortably to them; to take them by the hand, and lead them in the way everlasting: He is at their right hand to uphold them with His, and to strengthen them with strength in their souls; to advise and counsel, and direct them; to rebuke their enemies, and save them from them that condemn them.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): He is everywhere present to protect His people, and to defeat the plots of their adversaries. He it is that has given to our enemies the strength and wisdom which they exert against us; and He engages that “none of the weapons which they form against us shall prosper,” Isaiah 54:17. “Let the weak then say, I am strong:” for “if God be for them, who shall be against them?” Only let them “acknowledge Him in all their ways,” and depend upon Him in all their trials, and they need not fear, for “His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in their behalf,” 2 Chronicles 16:9.

JOHN GILL: Indeed there are no people like them, who have God so nigh unto them.

JOHN CALVIN: This sentiment, that God is nigh and not afar off, is indeed true; but what is meant here is quite another thing—that God sees in a way very different from men, for He fully and perfectly sees what is farthest from Him…But we ought especially to consider for what purpose it is that He sees all things; which is evidently this—that He may at last call to judgment whatever is done by men.

CHARLES SIMEON: Sinners of every description commit in secret what they would not dare to perpetrate, if they knew that the eyes of their fellow-creatures were upon them―But they are under a fatal delusion: for however secret their iniquities may be, there is One who beholds them, with all their aggravating circumstances, and will bring them forth to the light, as grounds of His righteous indignation―for “God’s eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The evil are first mentioned, because they make question of this truth.

CHARLES SIMEON: Every man who has ever heard of God has within him a consciousness that the Divine Being is present with him, and is privy to his most secret thoughts. In the midst of their wickedness indeed men try to persuade themselves that God does not see them…But whence is this, unless from the atheistical conceit that God is not privy to their actions, or from an utter forgetfulness of His presence?

WILLIAM ARNOT: The unholy do not like to have a holy Eye ever open over them, whatever their profession may be. If fallen men, apart from the one Mediator, say or think that the presence of God is pleasant to them, it is because they have radically mistaken either their own character or His: they have either falsely lifted up their own attainments, or falsely dragged down the standard of the Judge.

CHARLES SIMEON: Yea, we may also deceive our own selves; but we cannot deceive God―He will discern our corrupt motives and principles, and will judge us according to the real quality of our actions.

JOHN CALVIN: Wherever men betake themselves, it is impossible for them to be concealed from Him.

JOHN TRAPP: “Whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Surely nowhere; they that attempt it do but as the fish which swimmeth to the length of the line with a hook in the mouth.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” A “behold” is added to the second clause, since it seems more a wonder to meet with God in hell than in heaven. Of course the presence of God produces very different effects in these places, but it is unquestionably in each; the bliss of one, the terror of the other.

JOHN MASON (1600-1672): The presence of God’s glory is in heaven; the presence of His power on earth; the presence of His justice in hell; and the presence of His grace is with His people. If He deny us His powerful presence, we fall into nothing; if He deny us His gracious presence, we fall into sin; if He deny us His merciful presence, we fall into hell.

WILLIAM ARNOT: “Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?” Proverbs 15:11; This terrible truth these hearts secretly know, and their desperate writhings to shake it off show how much they dislike it.

MATTHEW HENRY: God is greater than our hearts, and knows them better than we know them ourselves, and therefore is an infallible Judge of every man’s character…No arts of concealment can hide men from the eye of God, nor deceive His judgment of them.

JOHN TRAPP: Hide he may, God from himself, but not himself from God.

JOHN CALVIN: There is then an application of the doctrine to our case; for we hence learn, that whatsoever we do, think, and speak, is known to God.

CHARLES SIMEON: There is one way, and only one, in which we can hide our sins from God; and that is, by fleeing to the Lord Jesus Christ for refuge: then, though God will behold the sinner, He will not behold the sin; for it shall all be “blotted out as a morning cloud,” and be “cast behind Him into the depths of the sea;” the vilest sinner in the universe, if he “be found in Christ,” shall be “without spot or blemish,” Ephesians 5:27. Such a hiding-place is Christ, of all that believe in Him, Isaiah 32:2; Acts 10:43. But it is in vain to hope that by any other means we shall escape the wrath of God: for “all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do,” Hebrews 4:13; and every sin not purged away by the blood of Jesus shall be visited with just and everlasting judgments.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): How shall I meet these eyes? As a rebel or as a child? Do they inspire me with terror, or with love?

 

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The Unholy Carnal Paradise of False Religion

Posted on April 26, 2019 by The Editor

Matthew 22:23-30

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The question put by these bad men is well suited to the mouth of a libertine. Those who live without God in the world have no other god than the world; and those who have not that happiness which comes from the enjoyment of God have no other pleasure than that which comes from the gratification of sensual appetites.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Sensualists cast God and the things of God into a dishonourable mould.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Nothing gives greater advantage to atheism and infidelity than the carnality of those that make religion, either in its professions or in its prospects, a servant to their sensual appetites and secular interests―It is not strange that carnal minds have very false notions of spiritual and eternal things. The natural man receiveth not these things, “for they are foolishness to him,” 1 Corinthians 2:14.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I have heard that an Englishman has professed himself a Mohammedan because he is charmed by the polygamy which the Arabian prophet allows his followers. No doubt the prospect of four wives would win converts who would not be attracted by spiritual considerations.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is not in ‘the last times’ only that men who will not endure sound teaching ‘heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts.’

PHILIP MAURO (1859-1952): This seems to point clearly to one of most conspicuous features of the Mohammedan religion, that which allowed in this life unrestrained indulgence of the animal passions of men―to the great degradation of womankind―and which promised in paradise the most unlimited delights of sensuousness. It was in order to subdue men, that the appeal was made to what is basest in nature of man. This is grossly demoniacal.

JOHN TRAPP: Mohammed, as he professed that he himself had a special licence given him by God to know what woman he would, and to put them away when he would; so he promised to all his votaries and adherents the like carnal pleasures at the resurrection.

ADAM CLARKE: The stream cannot rise higher than the spring―these men, and atheists, deists, and libertines of all sorts―can form no idea of heaven as a place of blessedness, unless they can hope to find in it the gratification of their sensual desires. On this very ground Mohammed built his paradise.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Mohammedanism speaks of its Paradise—but how groveling, how sensual, how unworthy of the soul of man. The false prophet accommodates his heaven to the carnal and lowest passions of our nature, and holds out to the faithful little more or better than the lecherous harem of an Eastern despot. He carries his sensual system into the celestial state, and peoples his eternal world with a race of voluptuaries. What a contrast is here presented to the Christian Paradise, where flesh and blood are excluded, with all their grosser appetites and propensities; and not only is the soul perfect in purity—but even the body is too spiritual for the sensual passions of the flesh.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): How unlike the sensual religion of Mohammed! Here is no license, or encouragement to sin, no connivance at it.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Mohammed promised his fanatical followers a place in Paradise if they died for the faith in conflict with the “infidels” who rejected his teachings.

C. H. SPURGEON: He who religiously obeys Mohammed may yet be doing grievous moral wrong; but it is never so with the disciple of Jesus: obedience to Jesus is holiness.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Holiness! Here is another vital Biblical emphasis…Holiness is not negative; it is positive; it is to be like God. “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord, 1 Peter 1:15,16. They know nothing about that, they never mention it.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): It is as certain as anything in the Bible that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” Hebrews 12:14.

C. H. SPURGEON: Did I hear someone object, “But many professors of Christianity are not holy”? I grant you it, but, then, everybody knows that they are inconsistent with the religion which they profess. If I heard of a lustful Muslim, I should not consider him inconsistent with Mohammedanism—is he not allowed his harem? But everybody knows that if a man professes to be a Christian and he is guilty of a gross fault, the world rings with the scandal, because it recognizes the inconsistency of his conduct with his profession. Though some may, at the first breath of a slander, blazon it abroad and say, “This is your religion,” the world knows it is not our religion, but the lack of it!―The world’s conscience knows that the religion of Jesus is the religion of purity—and if professed Christians fall into uncleanness the world knows that such a course of action does not arise out of the religion of Christ—they know it is diametrically the opposite to it.

JOSEPH CARYL (1602-1673): Perfect holiness is the aim of the saints on earth and it is the reward of the saints in heaven.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The highway of holiness is the only path which leads to heaven.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Heaven is only for the holy man―heaven is a garment of glory, that is only suited to him that is holy. God, who is truth itself, and cannot lie, hath said it, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Mark that word “no man”―O, sirs, do not deceive your own souls; holiness is of absolute necessity; without it you shall never see the Lord―Without holiness here, no heaven hereafter. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,” Revelation 21:27.

THOMAS ADAMS (1583-1656): Heaven begins where sin ends.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: What is heaven? We have again and again answered that question. It is not a Mohammedan Paradise—but a state where we shall see Christ as He is, and be like Him. It is the region of moral purity. Its inhabitants are holy—the Holy Father, the Holy Saviour, the Holy Spirit, holy angels, and holy men. Its occupations are holy—the service of God—the song of cherubim and seraphim, crying “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty;” and all other things in harmony with this sacred employment.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): If an unholy man were to get into heaven, he would feel like a hog in a flower-garden.

 

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How to Pay an Unpayable Debt that Must be Paid

Posted on April 19, 2019 by The Editor

Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 3:10,23

The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one…for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The debt of sin is a very great debt; and some are more in debt, by reason of sin than others [but] we are all debtors; we owe satisfaction, and are liable to the process of the law.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Every sinner is insolvent―and is become a bankrupt, and has nothing to offer by way of compensation; nor has he any righteousness to answer for him, nor any works of righteousness which deserve that name: and if he had, these are nothing in point of payment: for a debt of sin cannot be discharged by a debt of obedience; since God has a prior right to the latter; and in paying it, a man does but what is his duty. Sin being committed against an infinite God, contracts the nature of an infinite debt, which cannot be paid off by a finite creature. Christ only was able to pay this debt, and He has done it for His people; and without an interest in His blood, righteousness, and satisfaction, every debtor is liable to be cast, and will be cast, into the prison of hell, there to lie till the uttermost farthing is paid, which will be to all eternity.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Even eternal torments can never satisfy eternal justice, or cancel the infinite debt of sin.

JOHN GILL: We see what a sad condition sin has brought men into―it has reduced them to want and beggary; it exposes them to a prison; to the just resentments of their creditor; to the wrath of God, and the curses of the law; and what little reason there is to think, yea, how impossible it is, that a man should be able to merit anything at the hands of God, to whom he is so greatly indebted: he must first pay his debts, which is a thing impracticable, before he can pretend to do anything deserving the notice of God.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Consider the manner how the debt is paid. When the sinner is damned, it is in a poor beg­garly way by retail; now a few pence, and then a few more. He is ever paying, but never comes to the last farthing, and therefore must forever lie in prison for non-payment. But, at Christ’s hands, God receives all the whole debt in one lump, so that Christ could truly say, “It is finished,” John 19:30.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The death of Christ was the payment of my awful debt—if I am in debt and unable to discharge it and another comes forward and pays my creditor in full, and receives a receipt in acknowledgment, then in the sight of the law, my creditor no longer has any claim upon me.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If the debt was paid, then surely a full receipt was given!

A. W. PINK: His resurrection was God’s receipt for the same; it was the public acknowledgement that the debt had been cancelled.

C. H. SPURGEON: Jesus has paid our debts and, therefore, we are out of debt! He has taken “the handwriting of ordinances which were against us and nailed it to His cross,” Colossians 2:14—there is the receipt for all our debts, fastened up before Heaven and Hell upon the cross of Christ! “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again,” Romans 8:33,34. Is not that answer enough for all the charges of Hell? Let us put together two or three texts and drink in their sweetness. “Once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,” Hebrews 9:26. Get hold of that. Sin is put away forever—think how David puts it: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,” Psalm 103:12.

WILLIAM GURNALL: We see also from hence, how much the saints are obliged to Christ Jesus, and how thankful they should be to Him.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Whatever debt of sin any man may owe, it shall be forgiven him.

C. H. SPURGEON: When God forgives, He means it, and the offense is gone forever! He cleans off the record. It is all gone, every trace of it. Do you remember the story of Martin Luther when Satan came to him, as he thought, with a long black roll of his sins? To the archenemy Luther said, “Yes, I must admit to them all. Have you any more?” So the foul fiend went his way and brought another longer roll, and Luther said “Yes, yes, I must admit to them all. Have you any more?” Being expert at the business, Satan soon supplied him with a further length of charges till there seemed to be no end to it. Martin waited till no more were forthcoming and then he cried, “Have you any more?” “Were not these enough?” said Satan. “Yes, that they are,” said Luther, “But write at the bottom of the whole account, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin!’” Brothers and Sisters, this was a receipt in full, stamped in such a manner that even Satan could not question the correctness of it!

WILLIAM GURNALL: Yea, still more: Christ hath not only discharged the old debt, but by the same blood hath made a new purchase of God for His saints―and that for no less than eternal life, which Christ hath paid for, and given every believer authority, humbly to claim of God in His name. See both in one place: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,” Hebrews 10:12-14. He not only crossed the debt-book for believers, but per­fected them for ever; that is, made as certain provi­sion for their perfection in glory, as for their salvation from hell’s punishment. From which He exhorts them to “draw near in full assurance of faith.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): All that believe in Christ with the heart, by His merit and mediation shall be absolved, and shall not come into condemnation. “By Him all that believe are justified from all things,” Acts 13:39.

MATTHEW HENRY: Every sin we commit is a debt to God…There is an account kept of these debts, and we must shortly be reckoned with for them―these accounts will be called over, and either passed or disallowed, and nothing but the blood of Christ will balance the account.

WILLIAM GURNALL: But think, O sinner, what thou wilt be able to say and do, when God comes to reckon with thee, and thou hast nothing to pay, nor any to pay for thee, or be thy surety.

R. BEACON (Circa 1857): Death is the debt of sin.

RALPH ERSKINE (1685-1752): Everlasting death, and damnation.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): A debt you cannot pay.

CHARLES SIMEON: And this debt―must be paid.

 

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Two Mites Enriched With Mighty Lessons

Posted on April 12, 2019 by The Editor

Mark 12:41-44

Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The subject before us is peculiarly heart-searching…We learn, for one thing, from these verses, how keenly our Lord Jesus Christ observes the things that are done upon earth.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): We can hardly suppose, that at each of the chests there were officers placed to receive and count the money which the people offered, and to name the sum aloud before they put it in; it is more reasonable to believe, that each person put his own offering privately into the chest, through a slit in its top. Wherefore, by mentioning the particular sum which the poor widow put in, as well as by declaring that it was “all her living,” our Lord shewed that nothing was hidden from His knowledge.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Christ still sits and sees the condition, gift, and mind of every almsgiver―and weighs all.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): What an awful thought for the rich! “God sees every penny I possess, and constantly observes how I lay it out.” What a comfortable thought for the poor and desolate! The eye of the most merciful and bountiful Jesus continually beholds my poverty and distress, and will cause them to work for my good.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Much was there in the conduct of that poor widow that is deserving of imitation. We should dispense our charity secretly. We are well assured, that there was nothing of ostentation in her upon this occasion; else our Lord would not have bestowed such commendation upon her. She wanted none to be spectators of her liberality; it was sufficient for her that God was privy to it. Thus “our left hand should not know what our right hand doeth,” Matthew 6:3. There are occasions indeed, when, for the sake of example, it is necessary that our liberality should be known: but, when that is not the case, we should rather affect privacy, and be satisfied with approving ourselves to God.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): In the second place, we learn from this passage that heaven’s arithmetic―heaven’s method of bookkeeping―is altogether different from ours.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Christ measures what we really give by what we have left—by the proportion which what we give bears to what we possess.

JOHN TRAPP: A mite is valued of our money to be three parts of one cent. Her mite could weigh but little, but her heart weighed heavy; and so her heart, being put to her mite, gave it weight above the greater but far more heartless largesses of the Pharisees. Two mites from that poor widow went farther than two millions from some others.

ADAM CLARKE: Works of charity should be estimated, not by their appearance, but by the spirit which produces them.

CHARLES SIMEON: That which gives every thing its chief value is, it being done with an unfeigned desire to please and honour Him. Without that we may give all our goods to feed the poor, and yet have not one atom of that charity which will be approved of our God, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The more of the heart and spirit is in any holy service, the more real goodness there is in it―the widow’s two mites surpas­sed all the rest, Christ Himself being judge.

ADAM CLARKE: She did this in a better spirit, having a simple desire to please God. Never did any king come near the liberality of this widow; she gave all that she had to provide for one day’s sustenance, and could have no more till by her labour she had acquired it. What trust must there be in the Divine Providence to perform such an act as this!

J. C. RYLE: How pleasing to Christ is self-denying liberality in giving.

CHARLES SIMEON: Benevolence is essential to the Christian character―and especially in administering relief to the Lord’s people. We should also impart liberally of what we possess. If any be disposed to set aside her example as singular, and not intended for our imitation, we appeal to similar conduct in the Churches of Macedonia; where, in the midst of “deep poverty,” they abounded unto the “riches of liberality;” and gave, not only according to their power, but even beyond their power, being willing of themselves, and praying the Apostle with much entreaty to be the distributor of their alms, 2 Corinthians 8:2-4.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is given to each member in his measure, to serve God by giving. Some are enabled, being made stewards of wealth, to give largely of their substance. They are bound to do so, but they should not give it merely as being bound, but feeling it to be their privilege to give whatever they can to Him who gave them their all, and who is their All. The poorest Christian is not exempted from this privilege. If he has but little, God accepts “according to that which a man has, and not according to that which he has not,” 2 Corinthians 8:12.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Therefore we must follow this rule, that every one, considering how much is granted him, impart the same courteously with his brethren―for the poor who appear not to have the power of doing good, are encouraged by our Lord not to hesitate to express their affection cheerfully out of their slender means.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): And it is of great concernment that we not only do what is required, but do it as it is commanded―“He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver,” 2 Corinthians 9:6,7.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself,” Proverbs 11:25. God has put a mark of distinguishing favour upon the exercises of that mercy, which is His own attribute. He scatters his blessings richly around, and those that partake of His Spirit do the same.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): The lesson is plain―the way to make sure of spiritual blessing is to seek to be a blessing. If your love is growing cold, help someone and it will become warm again. We cannot afford to shut our doors in the face of those God sends to us for sympathy and for the ministries of love. Such serving brings to us blessings which we must not miss.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Let us be faithful today, and our Lord will support us tomorrow.

 

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The Dark Places of the Earth, Past & Present

Posted on April 5, 2019 by The Editor

Psalm 74:20

The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

JOHN HAMBLETON (1820-1889): Heathenism is cruel. It is not changed in character since the days when parents made their children to pass through fire to Molech, Jeremiah 32:35.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Rome and Greece, in the zenith of their glory, had neither a hospital for the sick, nor an asylum for the poor; they treated their enemies with the most insolent cruelty.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): In ancient Greece, parents were at liberty to abandon their children to perish from cold and hunger―and such exposures were frequently practiced; they passed without punishment or censure. Wars were prosecuted with the utmost ferocity and the Greeks commonly sacrificed their captives at the tombs of their heroes. At Rome, Pompey turned five hundred lions into the arena to battle an equal number of his braves, and “delicate ladies” sat applauding and gloating over the flow of blood. Aged and infirm citizens were banished to an island in the Tiber. Almost two-thirds of the “civilized” world were slaves, their masters having absolute power over them. Human sacrifices were frequently offered on the temple altars. Destruction and misery were commonplace.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): But who can wonder? The times might well be dark, when men had not the light of the Bible.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Without the Word, men lie in darkness, whatever learning they have.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Evidence from history shows that God’s Word has imparted the light of civilization, liberty, holiness.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: What a blessing has Christianity been to the whole world—It has suppressed polygamy, put a stop to the sale of children by their parents, and the abandonment and murder of aged parents, by their children; it has rescued women from their abominable degradation by the other sex, and raised them to their just rank in society; it has sanctified the bond of marriage, checked the licentiousness of divorce, destroyed slavery, mitigated the terrors of war, given new sanction to treaties, introduced milder laws, and more equitable governments; it has taught mercy to enemies and hospitality to strangers—it has made a legal provision for the poor; formed institutions for instructing the ignorant; purified the stream of justice; erected the throne of mercy. “These, O Jesus, are the triumphs and the trophies of your gospel! Which of your enemies—Paganism, Islamism, or Infidelity—has done, or could do the like?”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): All the Word of God is light, but especially the gospel.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Even avowed and inveterate opponents of the gospel, have been reluctantly compelled to acknowledge its excellence. Voltaire says expressly, “that religion is necessary in every community; the laws are a curb upon open crimes, and religion on those that are private.” “No religion,” says Bolingbroke, “ever appeared in the world, whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind, as the Christian religion. The gospel of Christ is one continued lesson of the strictest morality, of justice, benevolence, and universal charity. Supposing Christianity to be a human invention, it is the most amiable and useful invention that ever was imposed upon mankind for their good.” Hume acknowledges, “that disbelief looses in a great measure the ties of morality, and may be supposed, for that reason, pernicious to the peace of civil society.” Rousseau confesses, “that if all were perfect Christians, individuals would do their duty, the people would be obedient to the laws, the rulers just, the magistrates incorrupt, and there would be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state.” Gibbon admits, “that the gospel discouraged suicide, advanced education, checked oppression, promoted the emancipation of slaves, and softened the ferocity of barbarous nations; that fierce nations received at the same time lessons of faith and humanity, and that even in the most corrupt state of Christianity, the barbarians learned justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel.” And yet with such concessions, and after having paid such a tribute of praise to the excellence of Christianity, these miserable men have been so vile and perverse as to conspire for her destruction.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): As the Scripture strongly expresses it, they “rebel against the light,” Job 24:13.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They hate the light because it robs them of the good opinion they had of themselves, by showing them their sinfulness. This is the “light that shines in a dark place,” 2 Peter 1:19; and a dark place indeed the world would be without the Bible.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  All are immersed in darkness, who do not attend to the light of the Word.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, where the Gospel was once known, have been for many ages involved in Mohammedan darkness.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: How completely Islamism has filled its votaries with the most ferocious bigotry and the most merciless intolerance, is known by universal testimony. The spirit of the system is everywhere visible in the absolute despotism of the governments of those countries in which it prevails. Where it is found, the arts and the sciences do not flourish, and liberty withers in its shade—and it is essentially and unalterably cruel.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Let us beware how we throw aside our Bibles, or treat them with a fashionable contempt and neglect; which, besides the danger of it to our constitution, must unavoidably be attended with a corruption of manners, widely spreading and increasing in proportion to it. For as there can be no sufficient curb to the inordinate passions of men without religion, so there can be no religion of sufficient authority to influence mankind, without a revelation―nor is there any other real revelation of the will of God beside that contained in the Holy Scriptures―they are the only true supports of true religion in the world.

J. C. RYLE: This is the book on which the well-being of nations has always hinged, and with which the best interests of every nation in Christendom at this moment are inseparably bound up. Just in proportion as the Bible is honoured or not, light or darkness, morality or immorality, true religion or superstition, liberty or despotism, good laws or bad, will be found in a land.

A. W. PINK: Blot the Bible out of existence and what would we know about God’s character, His moral attributes, His attitude toward us, or His demands upon us?

JOSEPH CARYL (1602-1673): The prophet Hosea shows that where there is no knowledge of God in a land, for want of means, there is no truth nor mercy in that land―that is, there is none exercised―but oppression, deceit, and falsehood bear down all, Hosea 4:1. How much more must it be so where there is no knowledge of God in a land because of the contempt of that means, and rebellion against the light?

A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): There are two degrees of darkness, according to our Lord, Matthew 6:23. First, there is the darkness that is absolute―where there has never been any light. That is the darkness of the heathen. But the second is another degree of darkness and more intense―the darkness that follows rejected light. How much more are they prepared for the acting of any wickedness who have thrust the light from them, and are in dark places of their own making?

A. W. PINK: It has ever been true, and still is today, that “the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.”

 

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Why Government Leaders Need Our Prayers

Posted on March 29, 2019 by The Editor

1 Timothy 2:1-4

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Those who are invested with authority, need, more than other men, our prayers; because they are exposed, more than other men, to temptation and danger. While they have a more than ordinary share of duties to perform, they are urged by temptations, more than ordinarily numerous and powerful, to neglect their duty. They have, for instance, peculiarly strong temptations to neglect those personal, private duties which God requires of them as men, as immortal and accountable creatures; and a performance of which is indispensably necessary to their salvation. They are exposed to the innumerable temptations and dangers which ever attend prosperity. The world presents itself to them in its most fascinating, alluring form; they are honoured, followed, and flattered; they enjoy peculiar means and opportunities for gratifying their passions; they seldom hear the voice of admonition or reproof; and they are usually surrounded by persons who would consider every expression of religious feeling as an indication of weakness.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): It is fashionable in high places to laud religious indifference, and stigmatize as bigotry all earnest belief.

EDWARD PAYSON: How powerfully, then, must they be tempted to irreligion, to pride, to ambition, to every form of what the Scriptures call worldly-mindedness?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They have many difficulties to encounter, many snares to which their exalted stations expose them.

EDWARD PAYSON: How difficult must it be for them to acquire and maintain an habitual, operative recollection of their sinfulness, their frailty, their accountability to God, their dependence on His grace, and their need of a Saviour. How difficult, in the midst of such scenes and associates, as usually surround them; to keep death in view; to be in a constant state of preparation for its approach; to practice the duties of watchfulness, self-denial, meditation and prayer; and to preserve, in lively exercise, those feelings and dispositions which God requires, and which become a candidate for eternity. How strongly, too, must they be tempted to make the performance of their official duties, an excuse for neglecting those personal duties, which God requires of all men, in whatever station or circumstance they may be placed.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is hard for great ones to deny themselves.

EDWARD PAYSON: We may remark farther, that they have many powerful temptations to neglect, not only their personal, but their official duties. They are tempted to indolence and self-indulgence; tempted to prefer their own private interest, to the public good; tempted to pay an undue regard to the selfish wishes and entreaties of their real, or pretended friends; tempted to adopt such measures as will be most popular, rather than those which will be most beneficial to the community; tempted to forget the honour and the rights of Jehovah, and suffer them to be trampled on with impunity.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): If we consider how heavy the burden of government is, and how much the welfare of any people depends on the zeal and godly conversation of those that have the rule over them: if we set before us the many dangers and difficulties, to which governors by their station are exposed, and the continual temptations they be under to luxury and self-indulgence; we shall not only pity, but pray for them.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Paul teaches “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all classes of men; for kings, and for all that are in authority”—in which duty many are woefully remiss—yet it is not for their salvation, but “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Since the hearts of kings are in the hands of the Lord, and He can turn them as He pleases, prayer should be made to Him for them, that He would either convert them, and bring them to the knowledge of the truth, they now persecuted; or at least so dispose their hearts and minds, that they might stop the persecution, and so saints might live peaceably under them, enjoy their religious liberty, and be encouraged in their moral conversation.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is our duty, therefore, not only to pray for those who are already worthy, but we must pray to God that He may make bad men good.

EDWARD PAYSON: It can scarcely be necessary to add, that persons who are exposed to temptations so numerous and powerful, peculiarly need our prayers. I will only add that the Scriptures intimate with sufficient clearness that those temptations are, in most instances, but too fatally successful. They inform us, that “not many mighty men, not many noble” are saved, 1 Corinthians 1:26. Our Saviour farther declares, that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God; and it would be easy to shew that the causes which render it difficult for a rich man, operate with equal force to make it difficult for men clothed with authority, to enter this kingdom.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are chosen and called!

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Not many mighty—men of power and authority.

C. H. SPURGEON: Is it not an extraordinary thing that the Lord should ever have loved some of us? We are nothing in particular and there are mighty men, learned men, men of rank and station, yet He has passed them by.

JOHN CALVIN That man, however, were an arrant fool, who would infer from this, that God has in this manner abased the glory of the flesh, in order that the great and noble might be shut out from the hope of salvation. There are some foolish persons that make this a pretext for not merely triumphing over the great, as if God had cast them off, but even despising them as far beneath them.

JOHN TRAPP: Saith Martin Luther of Elizabeth, Queen of Denmark, who lived and died in the truth of the gospel: “God hath His, even among great ones, too.”

C. H. SPURGEON: True enough is that word―it was never said, “Not any great men, not any mighty are chosen.” God has selected a few in places of wealth, and power, and influence who have faith in their hearts, and that in an eminent degree.

FRANCES BEVAN (1827-1909): Lady Huntingdon said she was thankful for the letter “m.”

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): When someone asked her what she meant, she stated that she was so thankful that Scripture does not say, “Not any noble are called.” It says, “Not many noble, ” and therefore she got into heaven by an “m.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): As it is a positive maxim of Christianity to pray for all secular governors, so it has ever been the practice of Christians.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Let us pray much for great men. They need great grace to keep them from the devil. High places are slippery places. No wonder that Paul recommends intercession “for kings and for all that are in authority.”

 

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“Battle Lines Being Drawn; Nobody’s Right, If Everybody’s Wrong”

Posted on March 22, 2019 by The Editor

Romans 14:1-6, 10

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks…

But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We have in this chapter an account of the unhappy contention which had broken out in the Christian church…It was not so much the difference itself that did the mischief as the mismanagement of the difference, making it a bone of contention. Those who were strong, and knew their Christian liberty, and made use of it, despised the weak, who did not. Whereas they should have pitied them, and helped them, and afforded them meek and friendly instruction, they trampled upon them as silly, and humoursome, and superstitious, for scrupling those things which they knew to be lawful: so apt are those who have knowledge to be puffed up with it, and to look disdainfully and scornfully upon their brethren.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): There is a principle of self, which disposes us to despise those who differ from us, and we are often under its influence, when we think we are only showing a becoming zeal in the cause of God.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): We must remember that men who are equally honest may differ.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Where men are right in the main, and give diligence to know God’s mind, there will be mistakes in lesser things.  All have not parts alike, and gifts and graces alike; and therefore there is some variety of opinions and interpretations of Scripture among the godly wise. Every man is not so happy to be so well studied, nor hath that ability to understand, nor so furnished with acquired helps of arts and tongues, nor such a degree of the Spirit. There is a difference in age, growth, and experience, among good men; some are babes, and some grown in years, in Christianity.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Give men time. I took three years of constant study, reflection, and discussion to arrive where I now am, and can the common man, untutored in such matters, be expected to move the same distance in three months?

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Many religious people are blamable here…They want to effect everything at a stroke. They forget their own ignorance and slowness when God began to deal with them.  They forget Him who does not despise the day of small things. They forget Him who said to His followers, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now,” John 16:12.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Yea, further, some of them were censorious, and judging all others rashly that were not of their minds.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those who were weak, and durst not use their Christian liberty, judged and censured the strong who did [use their liberty], as if they were loose Christians, carnal professors, that cared not what they did, but walked at all adventures, and stuck at nothing. They judged them as breakers of the law, condemners of God’s ordinance, and the like. Such censures as these discovered a great deal of rashness and uncharitableness, and would doubtless tend much to the alienating of affection.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): Hence arise debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults. Thus the sweets of society, both civil and religious, are embittered; and, instead of the ills of life diminishing, they greatly accumulate in our hands.

THOMAS MANTON: Censuring is a pleasing sin, extremely compliant with nature.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It is a self-righteous spirit. Self is always at the back of it, and it is always a manifestation of self-righteousness, a feeling of superiority, and a feeling that we are all right while others are not.  That then leads to censoriousness, and a spirit that is always ready to express itself in a derogatory manner.  And then, accompanying that, there is the tendency to despise others, to regard them with contempt.

JOHN NEWTON: Yea, I would add, the best of men are not wholly free from this leaven; and therefore are too apt to be pleased with such representations as hold up our adversaries to ridicule, and by consequence flatter our own superior judgments.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It seems to me, further, that a very vital part of this spirit is the tendency to be hypercritical.  Now there is all the difference in the world between being critical and being hypercritical…The man who is hypercritical, which means that he delights in criticism for its own sake and enjoys it. I am afraid I must go further and say that he is a man who approaches anything which he is asked to criticize expecting to find faults, indeed, almost hoping to find them. The simplest way, perhaps, of putting all this is to ask you to read 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Look at the negative of everything positive which Paul says about love. Love “hopeth all things,” but this spirit hopes for the worst; it gets a malicious, malign satisfaction in finding faults and blemishes. It is a spirit that is always expecting them, and is almost disappointed if it does not find them; it is always on the look-out for them, and rather delights in them. There is no question about that, the hypercritical spirit is never really happy unless it finds these faults.  And, of course, the result of all this is that it tends to fix attention upon matters that are indifferent and to make of them matters of vital importance.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If we really believe a truth, we shall be decided about it. But certainly we are not to show our decision by that obstinate, furious, wolfish bigotry which cuts off every other body from the chance and hope of salvation and the possibility of being regenerate or even decently honest if they happen to differ from us about the color of a scale of the great leviathan. Some individuals appear to be naturally cut on the cross; they are manufactured to be rasps, and rasp they will. Sooner than not quarrel with you they would raise a question upon the color of invisibility, or the weight of a nonexistent substance. They are up in arms with you, not because of the importance of the question under discussion, but because of the far greater importance of their being always the Pope of the party.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): As we grow older we have less patience with those who demand that others must adopt their interpretation of Scripture on all points.

MATTHEW HENRY: Well, this was the disease, and we see it remaining in the church to this day; the like differences, in like manner mismanaged, are still the disturbers of the church’s peace.

 

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