Sowing the Wind & Reaping the Whirlwind

Posted on February 1, 2019 by The Editor

Job 4:8; Hosea 8:7

They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): To “sow the wind” is a proverbial expression for labouring in vain.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Lost labour—or, which is much worse, labour that will undo and tear to pieces him that labours: both these are in the verse. Man’s life and labour is a seed that will bring forth fruit.

CHARLES SIMEON: From the seed which they sow, we may easily perceive, what they may expect to reap.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): As the husbandman reaps the same kind of grain which he has sown, but in far greater abundance, thirty, sixty, or one hundred fold; so he who sows the wind shall have a whirlwind to reap. The seed shall be multiplied into a tempest so they who sow the seed of unrighteousness shall reap a harvest of judgment. This is a fine, bold, and energetic metaphor.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The sin being as the seed, and the punishment as the fruit that cometh of it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” Galatians 6:7. It is an unalterable law of the Divine government that as we sow, so shall we reap. That principle is enunciated and illustrated all through the Scriptures. God will not be defied with impugnity.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Both Scripture and history prove this truth.

A. W. PINK: For the last fifty years Christendom has attempted to serve both God and mammon: and having sown the wind, God is now making us reap the whirlwind. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Conditions which occur in the profane world are but a repercussion of those which prevailed first in the professing world; the state of things in the political, industrial, and social realm, is only a reflection of things in the ecclesiastical realm. God’s Law was banished from the pulpit and the assembly, before lawlessness became rife in the community. Discipline ceased to be enforced in the local church before it disappeared from the home; where the wife refuses to submit to her husband, the children are sure to defy their parents—sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

CHARLES SIMEON: Is it not manifest, that the generality who call themselves Christians are influenced only by the things of time and sense; and that their principles and pursuits are altogether earthly? Know then, ye lovers of this present evil world, that, if God’s Word may be depended on, you are deluding yourselves to your eternal ruin.

JOHN TRAPP: Solomon saith, “He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity,” Proverbs 22:8. But our prophet here saith more. He that soweth the wind of iniquity shall reap the terrible tempest of inconceivable misery.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): They do not reap the wind, but the law of increase comes in, and they reap the whirlwind.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): They have indulged sinful passions in this life, and those passions, blown up, as from a wind to a whirlwind, shall be their future companions and tormentors.

MATTHEW POOLE: The whirlwind is a violent, tearing, and dissipating tempest, which beareth down and destroyeth all that is in its way; an emblem of the wrath of God breaking out.

CHARLES SIMEON: “A whirlwind” is a figure used to represent extraordinary calamities. And such is the harvest which they will reap in due season. Their calamities will be, sudden, irresistible, and tremendous. It will be sudden—The corn ripens gradually for the sickle, and its fate is foreseen; but the destruction of the ungodly cometh suddenly and at an instant. They indeed have many warnings from all which they see around them; but they put the evil day far from them, and think it will never come, 2 Peter 3:4. Thus it was with the whole world before the Deluge. Though Noah preached to them for many years, they would not regard him; and were taken by surprise at last, as much as if no notice had been given them. Thus also it will be with all who reject the Gospel salvation.

C. H. SPURGEON: Who shall help them in that hour of terror?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): There will be no means possible for them to avoid the terror nor the punishment of that day.

CHARLES SIMEON: It is irresistible—Sinners of every description can withstand the word spoken by their fellow-creatures; but they will not be able to resist God when He shall call them into judgment. And it will be tremendous—Nothing can be conceived more dreadful than the desolation made by whirlwinds. Yet this suggests a very inadequate idea of the ruin that will come on the ungodly.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): When I was at the Paris Exhibition in 1867 I noticed there a little oil painting, only about a foot square, and the face was the most hideous I had ever seen. It was said to be about seven hundred years old. On the paper attached to the painting were the words, “Sowing the tares.” The face looked more like a demon’s than a man’s, and as he sowed these tares, up came serpents and reptiles. They were crawling up on his body; and all around were woods with wolves and animals prowling in them. I have seen that picture many times. Ah! The reaping time is coming. If you “sow to the flesh,” you must “reap corruption,” Galatians 6:8.

C. H. SPURGEON: Therefore let us beware of scattering seeds of sin, for they will produce a terrible harvest of woe!—I shall not enlarge upon what sort of punishment this will be. Suffice it to say that whatever it is, it will be just. The sinner in Hell shall not endure one iota more than he deserves. He shall have the due reward of his deeds—no more. God is not unjust to punish men arbitrarily—I know of no arbitrary condemnation. There is no such thing as sovereign damnation. It will be justice—inflexible, I grant you—but yet not such as shall pass the bounds of due and right desert. God will give to man only the harvest of his own deeds.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This is so self-evident that it needs no emphasis. Yet how easily we forget it, and how readily we hope that in some strange, unnatural transformation our sinful folly will be so overruled as to produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness. But whether it be in the case of the unsaved worldling, or the failing Christian, the inexorable law will be fulfilled—we reap what we sow. How important then that we walk carefully before God, not permitting ourselves any license which is unbecoming in one who professes to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ.

A. W. PINK: If we sow the wind, we must not be surprised if we reap the whirlwind.

C. H. SPURGEON: Remember, your sins are like sowing for a harvest—And you shall “reap the whirlwind,” unless you speedily repent and seek the Lord.

 

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Incense & The Angel of Incense

Posted on January 26, 2019 by The Editor

Exodus 30:34-36; Leviticus 16:12,13; Revelation 8:1-4

The LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.

And [Aaron] shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat.

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Who is this angel-priest? I think you will agree that he can be no created angel. Scripture never speaks of any created angel offering incense with the prayers of saints to make them acceptable to God. The Church of Rome does; but nowhere in the Bible do you get anything of the kind.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): By this angel I understand Christ. Nor, indeed, can what is said of this angel agree to any other but Christ, who is called an Angel, as in Genesis 48:16; and the Angel, or “messenger of the covenant,” Malachi 3:1. Christ is here represented as “having a golden censer.” Here is a manifest allusion to the order of the Jewish worship; they had an altar of incense upon which the high priest was to burn incense every morning and evening, Exodus 30:1,7,8. In the holy of holiest was reserved the golden censer, on which the high priest put the incense when annually he entered there, that the cloud of it might cover the mercy-seat, and so was kept for that service in it, Hebrews 9:4.  

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Now, that symbol of incense is thus used in many places in Scripture―you remember how, when the father of John the Baptist went into the Holy Place: “According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense,” Luke 1:9,10.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): It is the prerogative of Christ to be the only agent in heaven for His saints on earth. In the outward temple we find the whole congregation praying, but into the holy of holi­est entered none but the high priest with his perfume. Every saint is a priest to offer up prayers for himself and others on earth; but Christ only as our High-priest intercedes in heaven for us. The glorious an­gels and saints there no doubt wish well to the church below; but it is Christ’s office to receive the incense of his militant saints’ prayers, which they send up from this outward temple here below to heaven, and to offer it with all their desires to God; so that, to employ any in heaven besides Christ to pray for us, is to put Christ out of office.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): That in general, by incense prayer is signified, the Scripture expressly testifieth.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): David compared his prayers to “incense”―“Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense,” Psalm 141:2.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Prayer is that “incense,” which, according to Malachi’s prediction, “shall be offered unto the name of the Lord in every place,” Malachi 1:11.

JOHN OWEN: And there is a fourfold resemblance between in incense and prayer, in that the incense was “beaten” and pounded before it was used. So doth acceptable prayer proceed from a broken and contrite heart, Psalm 51:17.

A. W. PINK: The incense which was offered in the tabernacle and temple consisted of various spices compounded together, and it was the blending of one with another that made the perfume so fragrant and refreshing.

THOMAS COKE: Was the holy incense compounded of various sweet spices? The graces of the Holy Spirit are the precious ingredients in the effectual prayer of the righteous.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): In this incense how many sweet spices are burned together by the fire of faith―as humility, hope, love, etc., all which come up for a memorial before God, Acts 10:4; and the saints (as Manoah’s angel) ascend up in the flame, and do wondrously, Judges 13:19,20―Prayer goes up without incense, when without thankfulness.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Remember, too, that the incense lay dead, unfragrant, and with no capacity of soaring, till it was kindled; that is to say, unless there is a flame in my heart there will be no rising of my aspirations to God. Cold prayers do not go up more than a foot or two above the ground; they have no power to soar.

THOMAS COKE: The fire which burnt the incense, may denote the fervency of spirit required in acceptable worship. But take heed of the sparks of your own kindling, and lift up holy hands without wrath: for the incense must not be kindled with fire from the kitchen, but from the altar.

JOHN OWEN: Incense was of no use until fire was put under it, and that taken from the altar. Nor is that prayer of any virtue or efficacy which is not kindled by the fire from above, the Holy Spirit of God, which we have from our altar, Christ Jesus.

A. W. PINK: Our prayers, too, are acceptable to God only because our great High Priest adds to them “much incense” and then offers them on the golden altar before the throne. Our spiritual sacrifices are “acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,” 1 Peter 2:5.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Prayer is acceptable only as offered in His name—and it is the office of faith to realize this glorious fact.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Through Him, all their prayers, and praises, and thanksgivings, come up for a memorial before God, being perfumed with the incense of His precious blood.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Oh, it is the merit of our Immanuel, who “hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour,” that imparts virtue, priority, and acceptance to the incense of prayer ascending from the heart of the child of God, Ephesians 5:2. Each petition, each desire, each groan, each sigh, each glance, comes up before God with the “smoke of the incense” that ascends from the cross of Jesus and from the “golden altar which is before the throne.” All the imperfection and impurity that mingles with our devotions is separated from each Petition by the atonement of our Mediator, who presents that as sweet incense to God.

JOHN TRAPP: Their pillars of smoke are perfumed with myrrh and frankincense―that is, with the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, those sweet odours poured into the prayers of saints, for want whereof the incense of the wicked is abomination, Isaiah 1:13, as stinking of the hand that offers it.

 

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A Conditional Promise of Our Lord’s Special Blessing

Posted on January 19, 2019 by The Editor

Isaiah 58:13,14

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Some of God’s promises are general rather than specific; some are conditional, others unconditional; some are fulfilled in this life, others in the world to come…Let it be noted that these promises are conditional, conditional on obeying the preceding exhortations.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): God will keep His promise to you; only see you to it that the way in which He conditions His engagement is carefully observed by you. Only when we fulfill the requirements of a conditional promise can we expect that promise to be fulfilled to us.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Too many of those who profess religion, are, it must be confessed, scarcely, if at all, advancing in the divine life: their evil dispositions still retain such an ascendant over them, as to make them go on heavily all their days. But, if we were to inquire how they spent their Sabbaths, and what efforts they made to glorify God in their public, private, and social duties, we should soon find the reason of their slow progress…A person who has attained to fifty years of age, has had above seven years of Sabbaths. O what blessings might not have been secured in that time, if all those Sabbaths had been sanctified to the Lord! and what judgments does not he merit, who has wasted all of them in a wilful neglect of God! Little as we think of Sabbaths now, we shall find ere long, that the profaning of them has greatly increased our guilt and misery.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): What blessings God had in store for them, if they would make conscience of sabbath sanctification?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Whatever reference there may be in our text to the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, we cannot doubt but that the promises here made have a higher and more spiritual import. In them we are assured, that, if we really keep the Sabbath as we ought, we shall be blessed with delight in God. There is not any thing which God more delights to honour than a due observance of the Sabbath. We may perform the outward duties of that day, and reap no material benefit: but if we truly and earnestly endeavour to honour God in the way before described, God will draw nigh to us, and reveal himself to us, and fill us with joy and peace in believing. And here we confidently make our appeal to all who have ever laboured to spend a Sabbath to the Lord, whether they have not found such a measure of grace and peace flowing into their souls, as has abundantly recompensed their utmost exertions?

C. H. SPURGEON: There is no doubt that a reverent, happy, joyful keeping of the Sabbath ministers greatly to spiritual advancement. Here is the promise made to those who delight in the Sabbath―“And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Thou shalt enjoy the good of the land of Canaan, which God had promised as a heritage of Jacob and his seed, Genesis 35:12, and feed on the fruits of it. Why doth He say of the “heritage of Jacob” and not of Abraham or Isaac? Because the whole posterity of Jacob was within the covenant, but Ishmael and Esau, one the seed of Isaac, the other the seed of Abraham, were both excluded.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The benefit of such an improvement of the Lord’s day will be great; for, “then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord;” abundant consolation will be the blessed fruit; and clearer discoveries of the riches of the grace and love of Christ be made to the soul; so that by experience we shall say, “One day in thy courts is better than a thousand,” Psalm 84:10.

CHARLES SIMEON: And where the Sabbath is thus habitually honoured, we will venture to say, that such happiness will at times flow into the soul, as David experienced, when he said, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, whilst my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips,” Psalm 63:5; yes, “they shall be satisfied with the fatness of God’s house; and he will make them drink of the river of his pleasures,” Psalm 36:8.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771):  “And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth;” to live above the world, and to have their conversation in heaven; to be in the utmost safety, and enjoy the greatest plenty, especially of spiritual things.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those that honour God and His sabbath He will thus honour. If God by His grace enable us to live above the world, and so to manage it as not only not to be hindered by it, but to be furthered and carried on by it in our journey towards heaven, then He makes us “to ride on the high places of the earth.”

THOMAS COKE: Their prayers shall be heard and answered. Thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am, a very present help in trouble; while they are speaking, He will hear; He will be near them, when affrighted they cry to Him.

CHARLES SIMEON: Victory over our spiritual enemies—this seems to be the import of that expression, “I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth:” compare Deuteronomy 32:13 & Deuteronomy 33:29; and it shall be fulfilled to all who conscientiously improve their Sabbaths to the glory of their God.

THOMAS COKE: They shall be honoured as the instruments of building up the church of God.

MATTHEW HENRY: “The mouth of the Lord has spoken it; you may take God’s Word for it, for He cannot lie nor deceive; what His mouth has spoken His hand will give, His hand will do, and not one iota or tittle of His good promise shall fall to the ground.”

HUDSON TAYLOR (1832-1905): He means just what He says and will do all that He has promised.

CHARLES SIMEON: What blessings may not you yourselves expect at His hands?

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The Lord will guide continually, it is said. He will satisfy thy soul in drought. He will make fat thy bones.

MATTHEW HENRY: Blessed, therefore, thrice blessed, is he that doeth this, and lays hold on it, that keeps the sabbath from polluting it.

 

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Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy

Posted on January 11, 2019 by The Editor

Deuteronomy 5:12-14; Isaiah 58:13,14; Exodus 20:8

Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is easy to ridicule the Jewish Sabbath and “the Puritan Sunday.” No doubt there have been and are well-meant but mistaken efforts to insist on too rigid observance. No doubt it has been often forgotten by good people that the Christian Lord’s Day is not the Jewish Sabbath.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): The day of rest under the law, as a pledge of final rest with God, was the last day of the seven, the seventh day; but under the gospel it is the first day of the seven. Then the week of labour went before, now it follows after. And the reason hereof seems to be taken from the different state of the church. For of old, under the covenant of works, men were absolutely to labour and work, without any alteration or improvement of their condition, before they entered into rest. They should have had only a continuance of their state wherein they first set out, but no rest until they had wrought for it. The six days of labor went before, and the day of rest, the seventh day, followed them. But now it is otherwise. The first thing that belongs unto our present state is an entering into rest initially; for we enter in by faith, Hebrews 4. And then our working doth ensue; that is, “the obedience of faith.” Rest is given us to set us on work; and our works are such as, for the manner of their performance, are consistent with a state of rest. Hence our day of rest goes before our days of labour: it is now the first of the week, of the seven, which before was the last. And those who contend now for the observation of the seventh day do endeavour to bring us again under the covenant of works, that we should do all our work before we enter into any rest at all.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “The Sabbath was made for man,” Mark 2:27; God has graciously sanctified it for the good of the whole world.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Of course the religious observance of the day is not a fit subject for legislation. But the need for a seventh day of rest is impressed on our physical and intellectual nature; and devout hearts will joyfully find their best rest in Christian worship and service. The vigour of religious life demands special seasons set apart for worship. Unless there be such reservoirs along the road, there will be but a thin trickle of a brook by the way. It is all very well to talk about religion diffused through the life, but it will not be so diffused unless it is concentrated at certain times. They are no benefactors to the community who seek to break down and relax the stringency of the prohibition of labour.

J. W. ALEXANDER (1804-1859): The best preparation for the week’s work is the communion of the Sabbath.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL  (1635-1711): We sin when we make a workday out of this day—if we occupy ourselves with the work of our profession; we sin when we transform this day into a market day.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: There never was a time when men lived so furiously fast as now. The pace of modern life demands Sunday rest more than ever…we are all going at top speed; and there would be more breakdowns if it were not for that blessed institution which some people think they are promoting the public good by destroying―a seventh day of rest. Our great trading centres have the same foreign element to complicate matters as Nehemiah had to deal with, Nehemiah 13:15,16. The Tyrian fishmongers knew and cared nothing for Israel’s Jehovah or Sabbath, and their presence would increase the tendency to disregard the day. So with us, foreigners of many nationalities, but alike in their disregard of our religious observances, leaven the society, and help to mould the opinions and practices, of our great cities. That is a very real source of danger in regard to Sabbath observance and many other things; and Christian people should be on their guard against it.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We must “turn away our foot from the sabbath,” from trampling upon it, as profane atheistical people do.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The foot in Scripture is frequently used for all the labour and business of men: see Proverbs 4:26,27, Psalm 119:101, and Isaiah 56:2.

MATTHEW HENRY: On sabbath days we must not walk in our own ways―that is, not follow our callings; not find our own pleasure―that is, not follow our sports and recreations; nay, we must not speak our own words, words that concern either our callings or our pleasures.  

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL: We sin when we make this day into a day of worldly pleasure.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): How vilely is this rule transgressed by the inhabitants of this land! They seem to think that the Sabbath was made only for their recreation!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): How do all faithful souls mourn in secret in the view of those troops of sabbath-breakers of our poor bleeding land, for which the nation mourns, and which come forth every Lord’s day to their sport and pleasures!

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: If once the idea that Sunday is a day of amusement takes root, the amusement of some will require the hard work of others, and the custom of work will tend to extend, till rest becomes the exception, and work the rule.

 CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Worldly business, and carnal pleasure, and unprofitable conversation, are all expressly proscribed: “we must not do our own ways, nor find our own pleasure, nor speak our own words.” On all the other days of the week we may find time for these things; but on the Sabbath-day they are to be excluded altogether. It is a grievous mistake to imagine, that after the public services of the day we are at liberty to engage in vain pursuits, invented only to beguile the time, which otherwise would be a burden upon our hands: there are pursuits proper to the day; and in them exclusively should our time be occupied.

 JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  If we framed our life in obedience to God, we should be His delight, and, on the other hand, He would be our delight.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): You show me a nation that has given up the Sabbath and I will show a nation that has got the seed of decay.

 

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Possessing the Land of Our Inheritance

Posted on January 4, 2019 by The Editor

Joshua 13:1: Joshua 15:63; 1 Chronicles 11:4

There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed…

As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.

And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Jebusites were one of the seven nations of the land of Canaan who were to be dispossessed and destroyed.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Whether Jebus had its name from the Jebusites, or the Jebusites from it, cannot be ascertained―though after the death of Joshua it appears to have been partly conquered by the tribe of Judah, yet the Jebusites kept the stronghold of Zion till the days of David, by whom they were finally expelled.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Mount Zion was a place of so much strength, that, from the days of Joshua to the time of David, the Israelites could never take it. They occupied Jerusalem: but Mount Zion was too strong for them; insomuch that the Jebusites who inhabited it laughed them to scorn, vaunting, that if there were none left but blind and lame to defend the fortress, the Jews should never be able to prevail against it.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The Jebusites who, from the long respite which had been given them, seemed to have struck their roots most deeply―this furnishes no excuse for the people, for had they exerted themselves to the full measure of their strength, and failed of success, the dishonour would have fallen on God Himself, who had promised that He would continue with them as their leader until He should give them full and free possession of the land, and that He would send hornets to drive out the inhabitants. Therefore, it was owing entirely to their own sluggishness.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Israel had suffered the Jebusites to remain among them contrary to the Lord’s command, and therefore they became a snare to them as the Lord had said, Judges 1:21; Deuteronomy 7:16-18.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Why did He not show Himself strong on their behalf? Because they had failed in their duty, for, instead of finishing the work which the Lord had given them to do, they became slack and took their ease.

JOHN CALVIN: A moderate delay might have been free from blame; but a long period of effeminate ease, in a manner, rejected the blessing which God was ready to bestow.

CHARLES SIMEON: Now this is an habit which we are all too apt to indulge, and which has a most injurious effect wherever it prevails―it was four hundred years before the Jebusites were driven from Jerusalem. Had all the tribes proceeded with united vigour to fulfil the divine command in its utmost extent, they would not so long have had to lament that their remaining enemies were as “scourges in their side, and thorns in their eyes,” Joshua 23:13. And who does not find, that corruptions gather strength by indulgence, and that graces decay for want of exercise?

ROBERT HAWKER: Much corruption remains in that heart where grace dwells.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): The Jebusites still held a hilltop in the heart of the country, never having been dislodged―and there are Jebusites in every Christian heart. For example, there is worldliness, which has its Jebusites everywhere. It is so intrenched there, too, that it seems impossible to dislodge it. There are many other such citadels of evil, which rear their proud towers and defy conquest. Sometimes it is a secret sin which lives on amid the general holiness of a life, refusing to submit to the sway of the grace of God. Sometimes it is a remnant of the old nature—pride, willfulness, weakness, selfishness, or bitterness. “We all have our faults,” we confess with penitence, and under this veil we manage to tuck away a large number of dear idols that we do not want to give up.

CHARLES SIMEON: In the mortification of sin we particularly resemble the Israelites of old. Because the armies of Canaan were no longer formidable to them, they overlooked the scattered remains which still occupied many strongholds, and considered them as unworthy of their notice. And is it not thus with too many amongst ourselves? We are not any longer tempted to the commission of gross, open, scandalous iniquities; and therefore we rest satisfied with the victories we have gained, instead of prosecuting them to the utter extirpation of our indwelling corruptions. Look at many professors of religion: they will not be guilty of palpable dishonesty: yet will harbour covetous and worldly desires: they will not commit whoredom or adultery: yet will indulge much impurity in their imaginations―Do not these things shew, how lukewarm we are in the prosecution of our best interests? Were we in earnest, as we ought to be, we should account sin our only enemy, and the extirpation of it would be the one labour of our lives.

J. R. MILLER: We ought to give attention to these unsubdued parts of our life, that every thought, feeling, and temper may be brought into subjection to Christ. It is perilous to leave even one such unconquered stronghold in our heart. It may cost us dearly in the end.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We are saved, but we are not completely delivered from tendencies to sin, neither have we reached the fullness of holiness.

A. W. PINK: The fact must be faced that “there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” No matter what be your growth in grace or the extent of your progress in spiritual things, you are not as completely conformed to the image of Christ as you should be, nor have you as fully possessed your possessions as it is your privilege to do…The antitypical Canaan is ours. It is the “purchased possession,” bought by Christ’s precious blood. That inheritance is to be enjoyed now: by faith, by hope, by fixing our affection upon things above. As we do so, we experimentally “possess our possessions.”―But there are powerful foes seeking to keep us from enjoying our heritage! True, but we may obtain victory over them, as Israel did over theirs. And we shall, in proportion as faith is in exercise, and as we walk obediently.

CHARLES SIMEON:  “Look then to yourselves, that ye lose not the things that ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward,” 2 John 8—the promise and oath of Jehovah are on your side.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): “Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion,” 2 Samuel 5:7. David’s exploit reads us anew the lesson that to the Christian soldier there is nothing impossible, with Jesus Christ for our Captain…For our own personal struggle with sin, and for the Church’s conflict with social evils, this story is an encouragement and a prophecy.

C. H. SPURGEON: Though there is very much land to be possessed, yet plunge into the war without fear, for, “He has said, I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee,” Hebrews 13:5. We are able to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil, since the Lord our God will be with us.

 

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An Ebenezer for New Year’s Eve

Posted on December 28, 2018 by The Editor

1 Samuel 7:12

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Where that gray stone stands no man knows today, but its name lives for ever. This trophy bore no vaunts of leader’s skill or soldier’s bravery. One name only is associated with it. It is ‘the stone of help,’ and its message to succeeding generations is: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The “hitherto” included all through which they had passed, not the victories only, but the discipline and the suffering also.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): Just now we are looking back over the story of a closing year. What have we given the days to keep for us? What lessons of wisdom have we learned from them, as one by one they have passed. There is little good in worrying over the failures of the year, but we ought to learn from our past―there is a proper use of past experiences.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The best use of memory is to mark more plainly than it could be seen at the moment, the divine help which has filled our lives. Like some track on a mountain side, it is less discernible to us, when treading it, than when we look at it from the other side of the glen. Many parts of our lives, that seemed unmarked by any consciousness of God’s help while they were present, flash up into clearness when seen through the revealing light of memory, and gleam purple in it, while they looked but bare rocks as long as we were stumbling among them. It is blessed to remember, and to see everywhere God’s help. We do not remember aright unless we do. The stone that commemorates our lives should bear no name but one, and this should be all that is read upon it: “Now unto Him that kept us from falling, unto Him be glory!”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Perhaps you are like the Welsh woman who said that the Ebenezers which she had set up at the places where God had helped her were so thick that they made a wall from the very spot she began with Christ to that she had then reached! Is it so with you? Then talk—talk you of all His wondrous works! I am sure you would find such talk most interesting, most impressive, and most instructive, for the things we have seen and experienced, ourselves, generally wear a novelty and abound in interest beyond any narrative we get from books, or any unauthenticated story we pick up secondhand. Tell them how God has led you, fed you, and brought you to this day—and would not let you go!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Reader! how many Ebenezers have you and I erected of deliverances and mercies? Alas! if we cannot point to very, very many, it is not because our gracious God hath afforded no remarkable occasions for them; but because they have passed by unnoticed and disregarded from our ungrateful and unworthy minds. How much owest thou unto my Lord? is a question, I would pray for grace to put to my soul in the close of every day and night.

C. H. SPURGEON: Is not this a very common fault with us? Do we not too often forget what the Lord has done for us in times past? Do we not forget those Ebenezers?

J. R. MILLER: We should remember past mercies and blessings. If we do, our past will shine down upon us like a sky full of stars. Such remembering of the past will keep the gratitude ever fresh in our heart, and the incense of praise ever burning on the altar. Such a house of memory becomes a refuge to which we may flee in trouble. When sorrows gather thickly; when trials come on like the waves of the sea; when the sun goes down and every star is quenched, and there seems nothing bright in all the present, then the memory of a past full of goodness, a past in which God never once failed us, becomes a holy refuge for us, a refuge gemmed and lighted by the lamps of other and brighter days.

C. H. SPURGEON: The word “hitherto” seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, “hitherto the Lord hath helped!” Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, in dishonour, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation, “hitherto hath the Lord helped us!” We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received “hitherto.” But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes “hitherto,” he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: “Hitherto” means more than it says. It looks forward as well as backward, and sees the future in the past. Memory passes into hope, and the radiance in the sky behind throws light on to our forward path. God’s “hitherto” carries ‘henceforward’ wrapped up in it. His past reveals the eternal principles which will mould His future acts. He has helped, therefore He will help, is no good argument concerning men; but it is valid concerning God.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And we trust He will do so still; for every former mercy is a pledge of a future mercy.

J. R. MILLER: We are leaving the old year behind, but we are not leaving Christ in the dead year. We need not be afraid, therefore, to go forward, if we go with Him.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): How many Ebenezers have we been called upon to rear to His praise! And He has said, He will never leave us nor forsake us. And, oh, what a prospect lies before us! When by His counsel He has guided us through life, He will receive us to His kingdom, give us a crown of glory, and place us near Himself, to see Him as He is, and to be satisfied with His love for ever.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: That “hitherto” is the word of a mighty faith.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let not the new year’s midnight peals sound upon a joyless spirit!

JOHN NEWTON: He who hath helped thee hitherto,

Will help thee all thy journey through;

And give thee daily cause to raise

New Ebenezers to His praise.

 

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A Great Mysterious Wonder

Posted on December 21, 2018 by The Editor

Matthew 1:18-23

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Doubtless there is great mystery in these things.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory,” 1 Timothy 3:16. This is a great mystery, is it not? “God was manifest in the flesh,” is one of the most extraordinary doctrines ever declared in human hearing. Were it not so well attested, it would be absolutely incredible that the infinite God, who filleth all things, who was, and is, and is to come, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, and the Omnipresent, actually condescended to veil Himself in the garments of our inferior clay. He made us, yet He deigned to take the flesh of His creatures into union with Himself; the Eternal was blended with mortality.

CHRISTMAS EVANS (1766-1838): With the greatest astonishment, Solomon asked the important question, “Will God in very deed dwell with men on earth?” (2 Chronicles 6:18). The question is now answered in the affirmative by men and angels. Though we cannot form any idea of the infinite distance between God and man, yet that vacuum is filled up in the incarnation of the Messiah, so that He is called the true God, and the man Christ Jesus―Though it was impossible for the divine nature to become human, or the human nature to become divine, yet the two natures, mysteriously united in Christ, make but one glorious person.

MATTHEW POOLE: How an infinite nature could be personally united to a finite nature, so as to make one person, is a mystery, and a great mystery.

C. H. SPURGEON: Since this matchless truth is “without controversy,” let us not enter into any controversy about it, but let us reverently meditate upon it. What a miracle of condescension is here, that God should manifest Himself in flesh! This is not so much a theme for the tongue or the pen, as something that is to be pondered in the heart. It needs that we sit down in quietness, and consider how He, who made us, became like us; how He, who is our God, became our Brother man; how He, who is adored of angels, once lay in a manger; how He, who feeds all living things, hungered and was athirst; how He, who oversees all worlds as God, was, as a man, made to sleep, to suffer, and to die like ourselves. This is a statement not easily to be believed. If He had not been beheld by many witnesses, so that men handled Him, looked upon Him, and heard Him speak, it would have been a matter not readily to be accepted that so Divine a Person should ever have been manifest in flesh.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word with God, and the Word was God…and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth,” John 1:1,14―that very person who was in the beginning―who was with God―and who was God, in the fullness of time became flesh―became incarnated by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin. Allowing this apostle to have written by Divine inspiration, is not this verse, taken in connection with John 1:1, an absolute and incontestable proof of the proper and eternal Godhead of Christ Jesus?

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): When you hear these very plain words of God the Holy Ghost, concerning the person and coming of the Son of God, in substance of our flesh, and behold the whole body of scripture in both Testaments bearing testimony to the same; perhaps you are astonished how it is, that such men should arise, who deny Christ’s Godhead.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Jesus Christ is to be confessed as the Son of God, the eternal life and Word, that was with the Father from the beginning; as the Son of God that came into, and came in, our human mortal nature, and therein suffered and died at Jerusalem―on the contrary, “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God,” 1 John 4:3.

C. H. SPURGEON: Consider, again, the incarnation of Christ, and you will rightly say, that His name deserveth to be called “Wonderful.” Oh! what is that I see? Oh! world of wonders, what is that I see? The Eternal of ages, whose hair is white like wool, as white as snow, becomes an infant. Can it be? Ye angels, are ye not astonished? He becomes an infant, hangs at a virgin’s breast, draws his nourishment from the breast of woman. Oh wonder of wonders!

AUGUSTINE (354-430): Man’s maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Behold here a sacred riddle or paradox—“God manifest in the flesh.” That man should be made in God’s image was a wonder, but that God should be made in man’s image is a greater wonder. That the Ancient of Days should be born, that He who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle; that He who rules the stars should suck the breast; that a virgin should conceive; that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which He Himself made; that the branch should bear the vine; that the mother should be younger than the child she bare, and the child in the womb bigger than the mother; that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God—Christ taking flesh is a mystery we shall never fully understand till we come to heaven.

C. H. SPURGEON: It must ever remain to us the mystery of mysteries that God Himself was manifest in the flesh. God the invisible was manifest; God the spiritual dwelt in mortal flesh; God the infinite, uncontained, boundless, was manifest in the flesh—if we desire to see God, we must see Him in Christ Jesus.

AUGUSTINE: The only Son of God became the Son of man, that He might make us sons of God.

THOMAS WATSON: He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God. He took our flesh, that He might give us His Spirit. He lay in the manger, that we may lie in paradise. He came down from heaven, that He might bring us to heaven.

C. H. SPURGEON: Man may go up to God, now that God has come down to man.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): This is the meaning of Christmas. Oh, the glory and the wonder of it all!

 

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Angelic Curiosity

Posted on December 14, 2018 by The Editor

Ephesians 3:9-11; I Peter 1:12

The fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus.

Which things the angels desire to look into.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Angels spend their existence in a wondering study of the ways of God, especially of God’s gracious acts. “These things,” said the apostle Peter, “the angels desired to look into.” They are continually increasing in knowledge, and it appears from the book of Daniel that they ask questions, and long to be instructed.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This was one things, among others, which God had in his eye in revealing this mystery, that the good angels, who have a pre-eminence in governing the kingdoms and principalities of the world, and who are endued with great power to execute the will of God on this earth may be informed, from what passes in the church and is done in and by it, “of the manifold wisdom of God;” that is, of the great variety with which God wisely dispenses things, or of His wisdom manifested in the many ways and methods He takes in ordering His church in the several ages of it, and especially in receiving the Gentiles into it―and this is “according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Holy angels are struck with astonishment at the plan of human redemption, and justly wonder at the incarnation of that infinite object of their adoration.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “For unto us a child is born,” Isaiah 7:14. This was “good tidings of great joy to all people,” Luke 2:10. Angels first brought it, and were glad of such an errand. Still they pry into this mystery and can never sufficiently wonder to see that the great God [should be] a little child; that He who ruleth the stars should be sucking at the breast; that the eternal Word should not be able to speak a word; that He that should come in the clouds should appear in clouts―old tattered rags.

MATTHEW HENRY: It was a wonder of His grace that Christ “humbled Himself,” and appeared “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” Romans 8:3.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): That babe, lying in the manger―a helpless babe that can’t move, has to be carried, has to be attended to―there He is, lying in a manger. What is this? Well, you see, this how the apostle Paul describes it, this is what he says: “All the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him bodily,” Colossians 2:9. It’s all there! In that one little babe!―All the glorious purposes of God, they’re all there in that helpless little babe in the manger! And all the Godhead, “for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell,” Colossians 1:19―it’s all in Him―the babe lying in the manger! But He is the Saviour of the world.

RALPH ERSKINE (1685-1752): Indeed, all the elect angels brake forth into joyful songs of praise at this solemnity; when He came in the flesh, they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill towards man,” Luke 2:14.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): So excellent and ravishing a mystery is this plot of salvation of lost sinners by Christ incarnate, that the very angels cannot enough exercise themselves in the contemplation of it.

ADAM CLARKE: The design of God, in the incarnation, was to manifest the hidden glories of His nature, and to reconcile men to each other and to Himself. The angels therefore declare that this incarnation shall manifest and promote the glory of God, not only in the highest heavens, among the highest orders of beings, but in the highest and most exalted degrees. For in this astonishing display of God’s mercy, attributes of the Divine nature which had not been and could not be known in any other way should be now exhibited in the fullness of their glory, that even the angels should have fresh objects to contemplate, and new glories to exult in. These things the angels desire to look into, and they desire it because they feel they are thus interested in it―the incarnation of Jesus Christ is an infinite and eternal benefit: heaven and earth both partake of the fruits of it, and through it angels and men become one family, Ephesians 3:15.

C. H. SPURGEON: Angels take an active interest in the gospel of our salvation. It is true that they are not interested in it for themselves. They have never sinned and, consequently, they need no atonement and no forgiveness―as far as the Gospel brings salvation, healing, pardon, justification and cleansing, angels do not need it. Never having been defiled, they need not to be washed. And being perfect in their obedience, they need not to be forgiven for any shortcomings. And yet they take a deep interest in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ!

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: You know, were it not for you and me, and those who are redeemed, the angels would know nothing about the grace of God. It is only where our salvation is concerned that the grace of God comes in, and the angels are astounded at it; they say, “What is this?  This is the most wonderful thing of all.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Angels know not what it is to be fallen; they have never fought with any temptations from within―they carry about with them no inbred sin―they have not to lament lascivious desires, or covetous cravings; they have no proud thoughts which must be cast down, no depressions of spirit, no taunts of unbelief, no motions of self-will; they serve God without a slur in their obedience; no thought of sin ever taints their soul; no syllable of evil ever falls from their holy lips; no thought of transgression defiles their service.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It’s such a marvel, it’s such a wondrous thing, that these created angelic spirits who have always spent eternity in the presence of God as it were, are looking at this thing which is most astonishing to them, surpassing everything else.

ADAM CLARKE: The victories of the cross in the conversion of sinners causes joy among the angels of God.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): “I say unto you, that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,” Luke 15:10. Nothing can more powerfully imply or express the importance of conversion than this declaration of the Saviour, the faithful and true witness. However lightly or contemptuously conversion may be thought of among men, celestial beings, proverbial for their wisdom and incapable of mistake, always behold it with wonder and delight. With them, the improvement of art, the discoveries of philosophy, the exploits of heroes, the revolutions of empires, are comparatively nothing to the salvation of a soul.

MATTHEW HENRY: The conversion of sinners is the joy of angels, and they gladly become ministering spirits to them for their good, upon their conversion. The redemption of mankind was matter of joy in the presence of the angels, for they sung, “Glory to God in the highest.”

ADAM CLARKE: If then these things be objects of deep consideration to the angels of God, how much more so should they be to us; in them angels can have no such interest as human beings have.

 

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Eminent Examples of Meekness in Word & Deed

Posted on December 7, 2018 by The Editor

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Who are the meek?

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Let us set before our eyes the examples of some of the saints who have shined in this grace.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Look at Abraham, and you see a wonderful portrait of meekness―you remember his behaviour with respect to Lot, and how he allows the younger man to assert himself and take the first choice and does it without a murmur and without a complaint―that is meekness. See it again in Moses, who is actually described as the most meek man on the face of the earth, Numbers 12:3. Examine his character and you see the same thing, this lowly conception of himself, this readiness not to assert himself but rather to humble and to abase himself―that is meekness.

THOMAS WATSON: Moses was a man of unparalleled meekness.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): That is a precious testimony which the Holy Ghost gives of Moses.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): When Joshua conceived that he was only shewing a commendable regard for the honour of Moses, he desired that Eldad and Medad, who were prophesying in the camp, should be silenced, Numbers 11:28. But Moses reproved him, saying, “Enviest thou for my sake? Would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets!”

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This is perfectly beautiful. Moses was far removed from that wretched spirit of envy which would let no one speak but himself. He was prepared, by grace, to rejoice in any and every manifestation of true spiritual power, no matter where or through whom.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): How was Moses so meek, when we often read of his anger?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): True meekness doth not exclude all anger, but only such as is unjust, or immoderate, or implacable. Moses was, and ought to be angry, where God was offended and dishonoured, as he was in Exodus 11:8; 16:20; 32:19; Leviticus 10:16; and Numbers 16:15.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Moses could be angry enough when there was cause.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is a holy and spiritual anger―a righteous indignation―as well as a carnal and sinful one. Anger is one of the divine perfections, and when the Son of God became incarnate we read that on one occasion He “looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,” Mark 3:5.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When God’s honour was concerned, as in the case of the golden calf, no man was more zealous than Moses; but, when his own honour was touched, no man more meek: as bold as a lion in the cause of God, but as mild as a lamb in his own cause.

THOMAS WATSON: How many injuries did he put up with? When the people of Israel murmured against him, instead of falling into a rage, he falls to prayer for them, Exodus 15:24,25. The text says, they murmured at the waters of Marah. Sure the waters were not so bitter as the spirits of the people, but they could not provoke him to passion, but to petition. Another time when they wanted water, Exodus 17:3, they fell a chiding with Moses. “Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children with thirst?” As if they had said, ‘If we die we will lay our death to your charge.’ Would not this exasperate? Surely it would have required the meekness of an angel to bear this.

MATTHEW POOLE: The meekest men upon earth are provoked sometimes, yea, oftener than Moses was.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Take Jeremiah. He was called upon to speak the truth to the people—not the thing he wanted to do—while the other prophets were saying smooth and easy things. He was isolated―non-co-operative they would call him today—because he did not say what everybody else was saying. He felt it all bitterly. But he suffered it all and allowed the unkind things to be said about him behind his back, and went on delivering his message. It is a wonderful example of meekness…

Look at it in the case of Paul, that mighty man of God. Consider what he suffered at the hands of the different churches and at the hands of his own countrymen and various other people. As you read his letters you will see this quality of meekness coming out, especially as he writes to the members of the church at Corinth who had been saying such unkind and disparaging things about him.

THOMAS WATSON: Another eminent pattern of meekness was David. When Shimei cursed David, and Abishai, one of David’s lifeguards, would have beheaded Shimei. No, says king David, “Let him alone, and let him curse,” 2 Samuel 16:11. And when Saul had wronged and abused David and it was in David’s power to have taken Saul napping, and have killed him, yet he would not touch Saul, 1 Samuel 26:7,12

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Read the story of David again and you will see meekness exemplified in a most extraordinary manner.

THOMAS WATSON: When Saul lay at David’s mercy and David only cut off the skirt of his robe, how was Saul’s heart affected with David’s meekness? Saul lifted up his voice and wept, and he said to David, “Thou art more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil…wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou has done unto me this day.” This ‘heaping of coals’ melts and thaws the heart of others.

C. H. SPURGEON: In Puritan times, when an eminent godly minister named Edward Deering was sitting at a table, a graceless fellow insulted him by throwing a glass of beer in his face. The good man simply took his handkerchief, wiped his face and went on eating his dinner. The man provoked him a second time by doing the same thing—he even did it a third time with many oaths and blasphemy. Edward Deering made no reply, but simply wiped his face and, on the third occasion, the man came and fell at his feet and said that the spectacle of his Christian meekness, and the look of tender, pitying love that Deering had cast upon him, had quite subdued him. So the good man was the conqueror of the bad one! No Alexander was ever greater than the man who could bear such insults like that!

THOMAS WATSON: Meekness is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy.

C. H. SPURGEON: It used to be said of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, “Do my lord of Canterbury an ill turn, and he will be a friend to you as long as you live.” That was a noble spirit, to take the man who had been his enemy and to make him henceforth to be a friend. This is the way to imitate Him who prayed for His murderers, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Of course we must come to the supreme example, and look at our Lord Himself.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “Learn of me,” says Christ, “for I am lowly and meek,” Matthew 11:29.

THOMAS WATSON: Christ was the pattern of meekness. “When he was reviled, he reviled not again,” 1 Peter 2:23. His enemies’ words were more bitter than the gall they gave him, but Christ’s words were smoother than oil. He prayed and wept for His enemies.

 

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The Prayer Life of Married Life

Posted on November 30, 2018 by The Editor

1 Peter 3:1,7; Ephesians 5:33

Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands…Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

JEREMY TAYLOR (1613-1667): Mutual respect is a duty of married life; for though especial respect is due from the wife, yet respect is due from the husband also.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Marriage necessitates certain mutual relations. I cannot say “duties,” for the word seems out of place on either side.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): They are united to be companions; to live together, to walk together, to talk together. They should be helpful to each other in the concerns of personal religion―where both spouses are real Christians, there should be the exercise of a constant reciprocal solicitude, watchfulness, and care, in reference to their spiritual and eternal welfare. One of the ends which every true believer should propose to himself, on entering the marriage state, is to secure one faithful friend, at least, who will be a helpmate for him in reference to the eternal world, assist him in the great business of his soul’s salvation, and that will pray for him and with him; one that will affectionately tell him of his sins and his defects, viewed in the light of a Christian; one that will stimulate and draw him by the power of a holy example, and the sweet force of persuasive words; one that will warn him in temptation, comfort him in dejection, and in every way assist him in his pilgrimage to the skies. The highest end of the marital state is lost, if it be not rendered helpful to our piety; and yet this end is too generally neglected, even by professors of religion.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): That verse inculcates family worship, the husband and wife praying together. Further, it teaches that their treatment of one another will have a close bearing upon their joint supplications, for if domestic harmony does not rule—what unity of spirit can there be when they come together before the Throne of Grace?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): If a man doesn’t treat his wife right he needn’t pray. It is all a farce, you know. “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God; but the prayer of the upright is His delight,” Proverbs 15:8. If sacrifice is an abomination to God do you tell me that the prayers of a man or woman who is not living right is not an abomination to God?

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Jarring will make them leave praying, or praying leave jarring.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): All married people should take care to behave themselves so lovingly and peaceably one to another that they may not by their broils hinder the success of their prayers.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): What a test this is! When husband and wife can kneel and pray together with joy and confidence, the home will be what God desires; but there is something radically wrong when their actions hinder this communion with each other and the Lord.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: We should all enter the married state, remembering that we are about to be united to a sinful person―and it is not two angels that have met together, but two sinful people, from whom must be expected much weakness and selfishness. We must expect some imperfection in our spouse. Remembering that we ourselves have no small share of sinfulness, which calls for the forbearance of the other party, we should exercise the patience that we ask from them. Where both have infirmities, and they are so constantly together, innumerable occasions will be furbished, if we are eager or even willing to avail ourselves of the opportunities for those contentions, which, if they do not produce a permanent suppression of love, lead to its temporary interruption. Many things we should overlook, others we should pass by with an unprovoked mind, and in all things most carefully avoid even what at first may seem to be an innocent disputation. Love does not forbid, but actually demands that we should mutually point out the faults of our spouses; but this should be done in all the meekness of wisdom united with all the tenderness of love, lest we only increase the evil we intend to remove, or substitute a greater one in its place.

JEREMY TAYLOR: Let man and wife be careful to stifle little irritations—that as fast as they spring, they be cut down and trod upon; for if they be allowed to grow by numbers, they make the spirit peevish, and the relationship troublesome, and the affections loose and uneasy, by all habitual annoyance. Some men are more vexed with a fly than with a wound; and when the gnats disturb our sleep, and the reason is disturbed, but not perfectly awakened, it is often seen that he is fuller of trouble than if in the daylight of his reason he were to contest with a potent enemy. In the frequent little incidents of a family, a man’s reason cannot always be awake; and when his discourses are imperfect, and a trifling trouble makes him yet more restless, he is soon betrayed to the violence of passion. It is certain that the man or woman are in a state of weakness and folly then, when they can be troubled with a trifling accident; and therefore it is not good to vex them when they are in that state of danger. In this case, the caution is, to subtract fuel from the sudden flame; for stubble though it be quickly kindled, yet it is as soon extinguished, if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath, or fed with new materials. Add no new provocations to the incident, and do not inflame this, and peace will soon return, and the discontent will pass away soon, as the sparks from the collision of a flint—ever remembering that discontents proceeding from daily little things, do breed a secret indiscernible disease, which is more dangerous than a fever proceeding from a discerned notorious malady.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): All sin hinders prayer; particularly anger. Anything at which we are angry is never more apt to come into our mind than when we are at prayer; and those who do not forgive will find no forgiveness from God.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): God cannot be rightly called upon, unless our minds be calm and peaceable. Among strifes and contentions there is no place for prayer. Peter indeed addresses the husband and the wife, when he bids them to be at peace one with another, so that they might with one mind pray to God.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): How necessary is prayer in the marriage state.

JOHN TRAPP: Praying together, apart from others, being taken up by married couples, will much increase and spiritualize their affection one to another.

C. H. SPURGEON: Marriage is cemented by mutual love.

WILLIAM JAY: Go hand in hand into His presence: Agree, touching the things you shall ask, and it shall be done for you of our heavenly Father.

 

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