Am I a Child of God?

Posted on March 1, 2019 by The Editor

Ephesians 1:15; 1 John 3:14

I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints.

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Love to the brethren is oft given as a character of a true saint.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Why is this so important? Why is this loving of the brethren something that comes in as an acid test immediately after faith in the Lord Jesus?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Faith cannot be separated from love.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Upon this single evidence, John grounds an assurance of heaven—the Apostle having said, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you,” immediately subjoins, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” By the manner of his expression, he sufficiently intimates that the want of this love is so universal, till the Lord plants it in the heart, that if we possess it, we may thereby be sure He has given us of His Spirit and delivered us from condemnation.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Why is love for the brethren an infallible evidence and assurance of regeneration?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Oh, I’ll tell you, it is an absolute proof of life―this love. You see, by nature, we all hate one another. You dispute that? Well, the apostle Paul says so, and I think he’s saying the truth―this is how he puts it: “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful―and hating one another,” Titus 3:3…The natural man, the man who’s not a Christian, the man who is not born again, he has no interest in Christian people, he dislikes them, he finds them dull, uninteresting, downbeat―those are his terms about them. And he certainly wouldn’t like to spend a number of hours in the presence of such a person.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If we do not love the brethren, we are still dead.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Therefore, you see, if it can be said of a man that he loves the saints, you can be absolutely sure that the man has been given a new nature; he’s been born again.

A. W. PINK: Love to the brethren is the fruit and effect of a new and supernatural birth, wrought in our souls by the Holy Spirit, as the blessed evidence of our having been chosen in Christ by the Divine Father, before the world was―we love the brethren, because they have been made “partakers of the Divine nature,” 2 Peter 1:4.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: So you see, if we love the saints, it is a proof that the Holy Spirit is in us…I ask myself, why do I love these saints? And the answer is I love them because they are in the same relationship to God as I am.  These are the people who have been segregated out of the world, chosen of God, translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. These people and I are walking together through this world of sin in the direction of heaven!  I’m going to spend my eternity with people like this…We belong to the same Father, to the same household, to the same family, we are going to the same home.

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): I have this one evidence, if I have no other, of my election of God—I love all the saints in the bowels of Jesus Christ. I feel a oneness with them that I feel to no other.

C. H. SPURGEON: Have you a love towards the saints? Well, then you are a saint yourself! The goats will not love the sheep. And if you love the sheep, it is an evidence that you are a sheep yourself…Hypocrites do not love one another—Listen to them! They are always denouncing other people—and this is no mark of love to the brethren. They have a keen eye for the imperfections of others, but they have no love to those they censure. We must love the brethren or we lack the most plain and most necessary evidence of salvation.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: You see, a Christian is a man who’s got a new test―he’s only interested in one thing: Is he a child of God? Is he my brother? Is this my sister? Are we related?

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Here is a test of our relationship to the family of God that never fails.

JOHN NEWTON: But as the heart is deceitful, and people may be awfully mistaken in the judgment they form of themselves, we have need to be very sure that we rightly understand what it is to love the brethren, before we draw the Apostle’s conclusion from it, and admit is as an evidence in our own favour, that we have passed from death unto life.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): It is possible to love a saint, yet not to love him as a saint; we may love him for something else—for his ingenuity, or because he is affable and bountiful.  A beast loves a man, but not as he is a man, but because he feeds him, and gives him provender.

JOHN NEWTON: A “party” love is also common. The objects of this are those who are of the same sentiment, worship in the same way, or are attached to the same minister. They who are united in such narrow and separate associations, may express warm affections, without giving any proof of true Christian love.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): As soon as the love of God was shed abroad in my soul, I loved all, of whatsoever denomination, who loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity of heart.

A. W. PINK: Wherever the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, the affections of that soul will necessarily flow unto all His people…If we love one saint as a “saint”—for what we see of Christ in him—we shall love all saints.

JOHN CALVIN: If we would so love the saints as to please God, we must bear in mind that their names are written in heaven and on Christ’s heart; otherwise we shall love some because they are lovely, and dislike others because of their blemishes.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: All the saints. Not only some of them. Not only the ones you happen to like, but all the saints. Not only the clever ones. Not only the learned ones. Not only the pleasant ones. Not only the ones who belong to a particular social strata. No, no, all of the saints.

C. H. SPURGEON: Yes, a love even to the bad-tempered ones, the irritating ones, the unsaint-like “saints.”

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Then, let every Christian professor test his religion by this grace. Let him who has been prone to retire within his own narrow enclosure ask himself the question, “If I love not my brother whom I have seen, how can I love God whom I have not seen?”

RALPH ERSKINE (1685-1752): But how may we know, if our love toward the children of God be of the right sort?  This is answered, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments,” 1 John 5:2.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Do I show evidence of a regenerate soul? Do I love the brethren? Do I love the commandments of God? Is the Word of God sweet to me, and do I delight to feed on it?

 

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God’s Delights

Posted on February 22, 2019 by The Editor

Proverbs 11:20; Psalm 147:11; Jeremiah 9:24

They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight.

The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “In these things I delight”―both in Himself and others.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It concerns us to know what God hates and what He loves, that we may govern ourselves accordingly, may avoid His displeasure and recommend ourselves to His favour. Now here we are told that nothing is more offensive to God than hypocrisy and double-dealing, for these are signified by the word which we translate “frowardness.” And that nothing is more pleasing to God than sincerity and plain-dealing: “such as are upright in their way,” such as aim and act with integrity.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Integrity and uprightness, indeed, give God delight.

HENRY HAMMOND (1605-1660): “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” Psalm 51:6. The Hebrew word אמת, [translated] truth, ordinarily signifies sincerity, uprightness, and integrity; and so “truth in the inward parts” is equivalent to a hearty sincere obedience, not only of the actions, but of the very thoughts and affections to God―this God is said to will, or “desire,” or delight in, and so to command and require of us.

JOHN CALVIN: In all things God delights in truth, but especially in the worship due to His majesty―God delights in the pure and sincere worship of the faithful.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): God delights in the prayers and praises of Christian families and individuals, but He has a special eye to the assemblies of the faithful, and He has a special delight in their devotions in their church capacity. The great festivals, when the crowds surrounded the temple gates, were fair in the Lord’s eyes, and even such is the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven…Know you not that Christ’s delights are with the sons of men and that the holiness, the patience, the devotion, the zeal, the love and the faith of His people are precious to Him? The whole creation affords no fairer sight to the Most High than an assembly of His sanctified people in whom He sees the beauty of His own Character reflected.

JOHN CALVIN: The Lord takes the highest delight in the true observation of the Sabbath―Nothing can be more pleasing or acceptable to God, than the observation of the Sabbath, and sincere worship.

C. H. SPURGEON: Spiritual qualities are His delight. He cares most for those emotions which centre in Himself, the fear which He approves is fear of Him, and the hope which He accepts is hope in His mercy…And especially if there is one thing in a saint which delights God more than another, it is the choice grace of faith.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): He delights more in our knowing Him to be merciful and to be gracious, which indeed is seen in our believing on Him, than in all our obedience which we perform to Him.

MATTHEW HENRY: A humble confidence in the goodness of God’s nature is very pleasing to Him, as that which turns to the glory of that attribute in which He most glories―the reasons why God pardons sin, and keeps not His anger for ever, are all taken from within Himself; it is because “He delights in mercy,” Micah 7:18…God delights to show kindness.

JOHN CALVIN: God then is said to take delight in doing good because He is, in His nature, inclined to goodness and mercy.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Nothing can please Him better than having the opportunity, from the return and repentance of the sinner, to show him that mercy without which he must perish everlastingly.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Mercy is natural to Him, abundant with Him, and exercised according to His sovereign will and pleasure, very delightful to Him; He takes pleasure in showing mercy to miserable creatures, and in those that hope in it; this is the spring of pardon, which streams through the blood of Christ…it is what God delights in, and therefore He pardons freely; it is large and abundant, and hence He pardons fully.

C. H. SPURGEON: He is at home in this blessed work! With God, it is His nature to forgive—He is Love—and mercy is a drop from the honeycomb of love. God must be just, but to punish is His left-handed labour, while to forgive is His right-handed work. He is happy at it! He finds pleasure in man’s turning to Him and finding life.

ADAM CLARKE: God delights in mercy―God delights not in the rod; judgment is “His strange work,” Isaiah 28:21.

JOHN CALVIN: God delights in judgment as well as in mercy―for as His judgment is right, He delights in it.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906):  God delights to manifest Himself in all His fulness.

MATTHEW HENRY: “The LORD loveth judgment,” Psalm 37:28. He delights in doing justice Himself and He delights in those that do justice…Those that are elevated God delights to abase, and commonly does it in the course of His providence: The proud, that magnify themselves, bid defiance to the God above them and trample on all about them, are such as God resists and will destroy—see how God delights not only to bring down proud men, but to bring them down in such a way as is most mortifying, and pours most contempt upon them. Herod is not only destroyed, but destroyed by worms, that the pride of his glory may be effectually stained, Acts 12:23.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): God delights to cross such vain boasters, and to confute their confidences, that speak and live as if their lives were riveted upon eternity.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): They who abuse their power, and walk in pride, God delights to abase.

JOHN TRAPP: God delights to retaliate to bloody and deceitful men especially; as were easy to instance in the Egyptians, Adonibezek, Agag―Thus God delights to retaliate and proportion jealousy to jealousy, provocation to provocation; so frowardness to frowardness, contrariety to contrariety. God delights to give men their own, as good as they brought, to pay them home in their own coin, or, with the merciful to show Himself merciful, and with the froward to wrestle, Psalm 18:25,26.

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

WILLIAM KELLY: The spirit of a Christian servant is not doing merely what is commanded, but the doing whatsoever delights God: the desire of the servant should be to please the Master.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In particular, consult the sacred records, and see what those things are in which your God delights. Does He delight to honour His only dear Son? Let your whole soul engage in this blessed work, looking to Him for all that you want, “receiving every thing out of His fulness,” and devoting yourselves in body, soul, and spirit, to His service. Does God delight in holiness? Seek it in its utmost heights, that ye may “be holy as he is holy, and perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

C H. SPURGEON: Beloved, nothing so delights God, next to the Person of His own dear Son, as the sight of one of those whom He has made like unto the Lord Jesus!

 

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The Dangers of Solitude

Posted on February 15, 2019 by The Editor

Genesis 2:18; Ecclesiastes 4:9

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Learn here, solitude is not suited for man―though man was possessed of all the bliss of Paradise, one thing was still wanting to his felicity. He was alone; nor amidst the various orders of creatures could find any like unto himself. Angels were rational spirits, but incorporeal; beasts corporeal, but irrational. In his state of innocence society was needful.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Though there was an upper world of angels and a lower world of brutes, and he between them, yet there being none of the same nature and rank of beings with himself, none that he could converse familiarly with.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): As it holds true in things natural and civil, so in things spiritual and religious; man is a sociable creature, was made to be so; and it was the judgment of God, which is according to truth, and who can never err, that it was not good for man to be alone.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is neither for his profit, nor his comfort.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is not for his comfort―It is a pleasure to him to exchange knowledge and affection with those of his own kind, to inform and to be informed, to love and to be beloved. What God here says of the first man, Solomon says of all men that “two are better than one, and woe to him that is alone.” If there were but one man in the world, what a melancholy man must he needs be! Perfect solitude would turn a paradise into a desert, and a palace into a dungeon.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): But although God pronounced, concerning Adam, that it would not be profitable for him to be alone, yet I do not restrict the declaration to his person alone, but rather regard it as a common law of man’s vocation, so that every one ought to receive it as said to himself, that solitude is not good, excepting only him whom God exempts as by a special privilege.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): If in a state of innocence “it was not good for a man to be alone,” much more in a world of care and trouble “two are better than one” for mutual support, helpfulness, and sympathy.

JOHN CALVIN: In our best state in this world we have need of one another’s help; for we are members one of another, and “the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee,” 1 Corinthians 12:21.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those therefore are foolish who are selfish and would be placed alone in the earth…Hence Solomon infers the mischief of solitude: “Woe to him that is alone.” He lies exposed to many temptations which good company and friendship would prevent and help him to guard against; he wants that advantage which a man has by the countenance of his friend, as iron has of being sharpened by iron.―Virtuous and gracious affections are excited by good society, and Christians warm one another by provoking one another to love and to good works.

WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): Interchange of affection and interest is good for Man. No wonder that solitude is in general a most severe punishment short of death.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Solitude is of itself a certain cross, and especially so in such great torments, in which it is most grievous to be immersed without an example and without a companion.

JOHN MILTON (1608-1674): Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named not good.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Lonely sorrow falls to the lot of not a few.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): We hear a great deal about the solitude in which men of genius live, and how all great souls are necessarily lonely. That is true, and that solitude of great men is one of the compensations which run through all life, and make the lot of the many little, more enviable than that of the few great. ‘The little hills rejoice together on every side,’ but far above their smiling companionships, the Alpine peak lifts itself into the cold air, and though it be ‘visited all night by troops of stars,’ it is lonely amid the silence and the snow.

C. H. SPURGEON: There are perils in company, but there are perils, likewise, in our loneliness…Guard yourselves in solitude, lest selfishness and pride creep in.

MARTIN LUTHER: I have my worst temptations when I am by myself.

C. H. SPURGEON: When we mix with the world, we know that we shall be tempted. In our business in the banking-house, on the farm, on the vessel, in the street, we expect that in the world we shall have temptation. But if you could get out of the world, you would still be tempted! Jesus Christ went right away from human society into the wilderness and, “then” was He tempted by the devil. Solitude is no preservative against temptation from Satan!

MARTIN LUTHER: Whosoever is in honest company is ashamed to sin, or at least has no opportunity for it―more and greater sins are committed when people are alone than when they are in society. When Eve, in paradise, walked by herself, the devil deceived her. In solitary places are committed murders, robberies, adulteries, etc.; for in solitude the devil has place and occasion to mislead people.

C. H. SPURGEON: I am afraid that, sometimes, solitude is a help to temptations.

MATTHEW HENRY: Solitude has its temptations as well as company, and particularly to uncleanness.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The remainder of corrupt nature often renders solitude as dangerous, as the world itself can be.

MARTIN LUTHER: I myself have found that I never fell into more sin than when I was alone.

C. H. SPURGEON: Beware of falling into solitary sin. Certain young men and women, when alone, pull out a wicked novel which they would not like to be seen reading. Others will have their sly nips though they would be reputed very temperate. If a man is right with God, he is in his best company when alone, and he seeks therein to honour his God and not to grieve Him. Surely, when I am alone with God, I am bound to use my best manners. Do nothing which you would be afraid to have known. Be in the fear of the Lord when you are so much alone that you have no fear of men.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): O, what can be hidden from the all-seeing eye of God? “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance,” Psalm 90:8. Those committed in darkness and privacy are easily discovered.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): A Christian is never out of the view of God’s eye.

C. H. SPURGEON: You are alone—maintain the fear of the Lord in your solitude.

 

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Enoch’s Prophesy & the Prophetic Symbolism of His Departure

Posted on February 9, 2019 by The Editor

Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5; Jude 14,15

Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. .

Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied…saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is expressly called a prophet; and Jude has preserved a fragment of one of his prophecies, relative to the corruption of the ante-diluvian world, and the approaching judgments of God.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): This prophecy is not recorded in the Old Testament.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We read in Deuteronomy 33:2 of the Lord’s coming “with ten thousands of saints.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): That Enoch wrote a prophecy, and left it behind him in writing, does not appear from hence, or elsewhere―Enoch’s prophecy was not written, as we know of.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Perhaps it was not written, but oral.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Some say that this prophecy of Enoch was preserved by tradition in the Jewish church; others that the apostle Jude was immediately inspired with the notice of it: be this as it may, it is certain that there was such a prophecy of ancient date, of long standing, and universally received in the Old Testament church; and it is a main point of our New Testament creed.

C. H. SPURGEON: When Enoch thus prophesied, we do not know. That he did so was revealed to Jude and he, here, tells us of it―how Jude knew that Enoch said that, I cannot tell—it is another instance of Divine Inspiration.

CHARLES SIMEON: Whatever means Jude attained the knowledge of it, whether by tradition, or by some written memorial, or by immediate inspiration, we may be sure that it was delivered by Enoch; and we may be thankful that such a precious fragment of inspired truth has been preserved to us.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Enoch prophesied that God would come, and, with a flood, punish that impious race among whom he lived, as well as punish the impenitent with everlasting destruction. By a parity of reason, Jude intimates, that the wicked of his day―and of all ages―may also expect to meet with the due reward of their deeds.

ROBERT HAWKER: It should seem from what is here said, that there were characters in those days not unlike the scoffers the Apostle Peter describes that should come in the last days, who derided the day of the Lord’s coming, 2 Peter 3:3,4―“There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?”

JOHN GILL: With respect to Christ’s coming to judgment, that is certain from prophecies, particularly from the prophecy of Enoch―this being prefaced with a “Behold,” shows the certainty of His coming, which nothing is more certain, and to be depended on, as appears from Enoch’s prophecy, and others of the Old Testament; from Christ’s own promise; from the testimony of angels; from the words of the apostles; and from the institution of the Lord’s supper―“till He come,” 1 Corinthians 11:26―and from the general expectation of the saints.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is clear that Enoch encountered opposition. I am certain that he did so from the context in Jude, because the passage in Jude has to do with “murmurers” and “complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaking great swelling words”―It is clear that they spoke against Enoch, they rejected his testimony, they grieved his spirit and he mourned that in this they were speaking against God. For he speaks “of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

CHARLES SIMEON: He was a bold and faithful witness for God, and doubtless incensed many against him. And “God took him” from a persecuting and ungodly world, who probably enough were seeking to destroy him on account of his pungent admonitions. It is said “he was not found.” This may refer to some search made by his friends―see 2 Kings 2:16;  or rather, by his enemies―see 1 Kings 18:10.

C. H. SPURGEON: Enoch’s departure was a testimony. What did the Blessed Spirit say by the fact that, “he was not, for God took him,” but this—there is a future state. Men had begun to doubt it, but when they said, “Where is Enoch?” and those who had witnessed his departure said, “God took him,” it was to them an evidence that there was a God and that there was another world. And when they asked, “But where is his body?” there was another lesson―that the body is capable of immortality!

CHARLES SIMEON: While Enoch was in the body, he could not endure the full splendour of the divine glory―but God translated him, both in body and soul, to the highest heavens; making him thereby not only an eminent type of Christ’s ascension, but an earnest and pledge to us, that our bodies shall hereafter be raised.

C. H. SPURGEON: He could not bear testimony to the resurrection, for he did not die.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Andrew Bonar has said that Enoch took a long walk one day, and has not got back yet. With one bound he leaped the river of death, and walked the crystal pavement of heaven…Moses, the great earthly chronicler, tells us nothing of the manner of his translation, beyond this―“he was not, for God took him.”

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What God did for Enoch, He can, and will yet do, for a whole generation of saints.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those that are alive at our Lord’s coming will be caught up into the clouds, without dying, 1 Thessalonians 4:11. But it is plain from 1 Corinthians 15 that it will not be without changing from corruption to incorruption. The frame of their living bodies shall be thus altered, as well as those that are dead; and this “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”―this corruptible body must be made incorruptible, this mortal body must be changed into immortal body.

D. L. MOODY: Those simple, yet mysterious words, “he was not, for God took him” seem written in anticipation of that coming mystery, when the world shall wonder because from the bed, or the mill, or the open field, one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.

THOMAS COKE: How illustrious was the prophesy with which Enoch was inspired―and which shall surely be accomplished in its season! The day is now much nearer, when the Lord will come with ten thousands of his saints: may the ungodly remember it, and suppress in time their speeches which will then assuredly be reproved, and repent of their deeds, which, if unrepented of, however forgotten now, will be brought into open view, and draw down upon their heads the destruction which at present seems to linger.

 

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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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