When in Doubt, What Should We Do? Consult our Privy Counsellors.

Posted on October 30, 2015 by The Editor

Psalm 119:24

Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The commandments of God, or His law, and the precepts of it, were [David’s] privy counsellors, with whom on all occasions he consulted.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Princes do nothing without the advice of their Privy Counsel. A child of God hath also his Privy Counsel―God’s testimonies…Alphonsus, king of Aragon, being asked who were the best counsellors, answered, “The dead,” meaning books, which cannot flatter, but do without partiality declare the truth. Now of all such dead counsellors, God’s testimonies have the pre-eminence.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): God’s testimonies will be the best counsellors both to princes and private persons. They are “the men of my counsel,” so the word is [in the original Hebrew].

THOMAS MANTON: A poor godly man, even when he is deserted of all, and hath nobody to plead for him, he hath his senate, and his council of state about him, the prophets and apostles, and other “holy men of God, that spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”―he hath counsellors about him that tell him what is to be believed or done; and they are such counsellors as cannot err, as will not flatter him, nor applaud him in any sin, nor discourage or dissuade him from that which is good, whatever hazard it expose him to. And truly, if we be wise, we should choose such counsellors as these.

MATTHEW HENRY: There will be found more safety and satisfaction in consulting them than in the multitude of other counsellors.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This is the book of books, let it not lie idle and unemployed.

THOMAS MANTON: To press us to this consulting with the Word of God, to make the testimonies of the Lord “the men of our counsel,” there are many qualifications and tempers of heart necessary.

First, the fear of God.

“What man is he that feareth the Lord: him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose,” Psalm 25:12.  He that is in doubt and perplexed, and would have counsel from God’s Word; who is the man that is like to have it?  He that feareth the Lord. There is a great suitableness between the qualification and the promise: partly, he that fears God hath a greater awe of the Word than others have, and is loath to do anything contrary to God’s will: he would know what is God’s mind in every particular case: “My heart standeth in awe of thy word,” Psalm 119:161. To offend God, and to balk at the direction of God’s Word, that is the greatest terror to him, greater than all other dangers.

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): Let the fear of God dwell richly in you.

EBENEZER ERSKINE (1680-1754): This is not a slavish fear of hell and vindictive wrath, for that is inconsistent with [a Christian’s] freedom from condemnation: but it is a filial fear of God as a Father, flowing from an affectionate regard to His authority, interposed in the commands of the law. Though [believers] be not afraid of being cast into hell―yet they have much reason to fear Him as a father Judge, lest he “visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes,” Psalm 89:32; for, pass who will unpunished, they shall not pass: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities,” Amos 3:2.

WILLIAM BATES (1625-1699): Therefore, fear God with a fear of reverence.

THOMAS MANTON: Such a man is less apt to miscarry by the rashness and impetuous bent of carnal affections. And he that fears God, he aims at God’s glory rather than his own interest, and so is rather swayed by reasons of conscience and religion, than of carnal concernments. Many times the doubtfulness that is upon the spirit, is because of conflicts between lust and knowledge; our light is weakened by an inordinate affection to our own interests, otherwise we would soon come to the deciding of our case by the Word of God.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): Get the true fear of God upon your hearts: be really afraid of offending Him; God will not hide His mind from such a soul, Psalm  25:15: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will shew them his covenant.”

THOMAS MANTON: Now he that would know God’s mind in everything, this is the man whom God will direct…The second qualification is the meek: “The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way,” Psalm 25:9. By the meek is meant a man who is humble, that will submit himself to God whatever condition He shall appoint.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Such as whose hearts are supple and soluble, tractable and teachable…Such as lie at His feet, and say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”

THOMAS MANTON: The third qualification mentioned in order to this, is a constant dependence upon God: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths,” Proverbs 3:5,6. O! when a man is brought off this spiritual idolatry of making his own bosom to be his oracle, and his own heart to be his counsellor; when he doth in the poverty of his spirit humbly and entirely cast himself upon the help of God, and acknowledge Him in all his ways, then he shall see a clear direction what God would have him to do. You have another place to this purpose: “Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk: for I lift up my soul unto thee,” Psalm 143:8.

MATTHEW HENRY: All those who commit themselves to God shall be guided with His counsel, with the counsel both of His Word and of Spirit, the best counsellors―that is, those that are humble and low in their own eyes, that are distrustful of themselves, desirous to be taught, and honestly resolved to follow the divine guidance…We do not truly desire to know the mind of God if we do not fully resolve to comply with it once we do know it.

THOMAS MANTON: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God,” John 7:17. A man does not know whether this opinion, or that, be according to God’s mind, when there are plausible pretenses on every side. He that maketh conscience of known truth, and walketh up to his light, and he that doth not search to satisfy curiosity, but out of a thorough resolution to obey and submit his neck to the yoke of Christ―whatever he shall find to be the way of Christ―that man shall know what is the way in times of controversy and doubtful uncertainty.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those and those only can expect to be taught of God, who are ready and willing to do as they are taught.  If any man will do His will, and be steadfastly resolved in the strength of His grace to comply with it, He shall know what His will is.

JOHN FLAVEL: If, therefore, in doubtful cases, you would discover God’s will, govern yourselves in your search after it by these rules.

 

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A Bible Text Loved by Libertines & Ignored by Pharisees

Posted on October 23, 2015 by The Editor

Matthew 7:1,2

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There are few verses quoted more frequently than the opening one of Matthew 7, and few less understood by those who are so ready to cite it and hurl it at the heads of those whom they ignorantly or maliciously suppose are contravening it. Let the servant of God denounce a man who is promulgating serious error, and there are those, boasting of their broadmindedness, who will say to him, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): This prohibition, like many others in our Lord’s discourse, if interpreted in its utmost latitude, would go to censure what is elsewhere commended.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We must be careful not to strain [this sentence] beyond its proper meaning. It is frequently abused and misapplied by the enemies of true religion. It is possible to press the words of the Bible so far that they yield not medicine but poison.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): And there are people who are guilty of this―we must remember that if our interpretation of any one of these things contradicts the plain and obvious teaching of Scripture at another point, again it is obvious that our interpretation has gone astray. Scripture must be taken and compared with Scripture.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Our Saviour must not be understood here prohibiting any judgment, which is elsewhere in holy writ allowed…Nor is all judgment of our neighbour’s actions with reference to him forbidden: how can we reprove him for his errors, or restore him that is fallen, without a previous judgment of his actions?

J. C. RYLE: When our Lord says “Judge not,” He does not mean that it is wrong, under any circumstances, to pass an unfavourable judgment on the conduct and opinions of others―nor yet does He mean that it is wrong to reprove the sins and faults of others until we are perfect and faultless ourselves. Such an interpretation would contradict other parts of Scriptures: and it would make it impossible to condemn error and false doctrine; it would debar any one from attempting the office of a minister or a judge. The earth would be “given into the hands of the wicked,” Job 9:24; heresy would flourish; wrong-doing would abound.

ANDREW FULLER: If we judge not truth and error, good and evil, we cannot embrace the one and avoid the other…Paul and Silas are supposed to have judged Lydia faithful ere they entered her house, Acts 16:15; and Peter did not scruple to tell the sorcerer that he “perceived him to be in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity,” Acts 8:23. We are not only allowed, but directed, even in this discourse, to judge of men, as of trees, by their fruit, verses 16-20. It is part of our duty as ministers to declare from God’s word that they who live after the flesh will die; and that they who are carried away by strong delusions and the belief of a lie are in the utmost danger of damnation. They may be displeased with us for thinking so hardly of them, and may allege this passage as a reproof to our presumption.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You are not to judge, but you are not to act without judgment.

A. W. PINK: “Judge not” unmercifully. While on the one hand we are certainly not, as far too many today appear to think, obliged to regard one who holds fundamental error or one who is thoroughly worldly as a good Christian, yet on the other hand the law of charity requires us to put the best construction we can on doubtful actions…God does not require us to call darkness light or evil good―we are not to go about with our eyes closed nor wink at sin when we see it, yet it is equally wrong for us to hunt for something to condemn and seize upon every trifle and magnify molehills into mountains. We are not to make a man an offender for a word.

ANDREW FULLER: The judgment which Christ forbids is that which arises not from good-will and a faithful discharge of duty, but from a censorious spirit, which takes pleasure in thinking and speaking evil of those about us, puts the worst construction upon actions of doubtful motive, and is severe in detecting smaller faults in another, while blinded to far greater ones in ourselves. It stands opposed by Luke to a forgiving spirit, chapter 6:27. It is therefore the judgment of rancour, selfishness, and implacability.

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

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is common for those who are most sinful themselves, and least sensible of it, to be most forward and free in judging and censuring others; the Pharisees, who were most haughty in justifying themselves, were most scornful in condemning others.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: I am not only describing the Pharisees, I am describing all who have the spirit of the Pharisee.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some men seem to think God ordained them to be celestial hedgehogs or spiritual porcupines.

ANDREW FULLER: They would seem to be great enemies to sin, whereas, if this were the case, they would begin with their own. It is therefore nothing better than selfish rancour, under the mask of zeal and faithfulness…To deter us from this evil spirit and practice, we are given to expect that if we judge we “shall be judged,” and that “with what measure we mete it shall be measured to us again.”

C. H. SPURGEON: If you impute motives, and pretend to read hearts, others will do the same towards you. A hard and censorious behaviour is sure to provoke reprisals.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): None are so shunned and censured as those that are most censorious.

ANDREW FULLER: Such is the ordinary course of things even in the present life. A censorious spirit towards others brings censure in abundance upon ourselves. Neither is it in this life only, nor chiefly, that such things will meet with a righteous retribution. If we go on condemning in this manner till death, we must expect to be condemned at a judgment-seat, from the decisions of which there is no appeal.

C. H. SPURGEON: Use your judgment, of course. But do not indulge the criticizing faculty upon others in a censorious manner, or as if you were set in authority, and had a right to dispense judgment among your fellows.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you.”―Awful words! So we may, as it were, choose for ourselves, whether God shall be severe or merciful to us.

 

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The Precious Promises of God Given to Believers in Jesus Christ

Posted on October 16, 2015 by The Editor

Philippians 4:19; Hebrews 6:12,13

My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): God’s promises are made to the spiritual children of Abraham (Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:7), and none of them can possibly fail of accomplishment. “For all the promises of God are in Him―namely Christ―are yea, and in Him amen,” 2 Corinthians 1:20. They are deposited in Christ, and in Him they find their affirmation and certification, for He is the sum and substance of them.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They are all confirmed by the oath of God. He has not only given his people His word, and His hand and seal, but His oath. And here, you will observe, he specifies the oath of God to Abraham, which, being sworn to him as the father of the faithful, remains in full force and virtue to all true believers.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham, Galatians 3:7. They who are partakers of his faith, these, and these only, are the sons of Abraham, and therefore heirs of the promises made to him.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Now to these spiritual Israelites, or ‘seed’ of Abraham, were the word of God, the promises of God concerning spiritual and eternal things made.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us also remember, that the condition of us all is the same with that of Abraham. All things around us are in opposition to the promises of God: God promises immortality; we are surrounded with mortality and corruption; He declares that He counts us just; we are covered with sins; He testifies that He is propitious and kind to us; outward judgments threaten His wrath. What then is to be done? We must with closed eyes pass by ourselves and all things connected with us, that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God is true―the promises of God ought to be most highly valued.

FRANCIS RIDLEY HAVERGAL (1836-1879): Because the promise of the Lord can never, never fail.

JOHN GILL: The promises of God are exceeding great and precious, very ancient, free, and unconditional, irrevocable and immutable, and are admirably suited to the cases of His people―they include in them things temporal, spiritual, and eternal; things temporal, as that His people shall not want, that their afflictions shall work for good, and that He will support them under all their troubles; things spiritual, as that He will be their God, which takes in His everlasting love to them, and His gracious presence with them, and His protection of them; and that all grace shall be wrought in them, and every blessing of grace bestowed on them: and things eternal, as everlasting glory and happiness…The promises of God are sure and certain, being made by the God of truth, and being in Christ, and the performance of them being for the glory of God by the saints.

SAMUEL CLARKE (1684-1759): A thorough acquaintance with the promises would be of the greatest advantage in prayer.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The best praying man is the man who is most believingly familiar with the promises of God. After all, prayer is nothing but taking God’s promises to Him and saying, “Do as Thou hast said.”  Prayer is the promise utilized.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The subject of Scripture promises is a vast and most interesting one. I doubt whether it receives the attention which it deserves in the present day. Few Christians realize the number, and length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and variety of the precious “shalls” and “wills” laid up in the Bible for the special benefit and encouragement of all who will use them.

A. W. PINK: The promises of God are numerous: relating to this life and also that which is to come. They concern the needs of the body as well as those of the soul.

C. H. SPURGEON: God never gives His children a promise which He does not intend them to use―If you are not familiar with them, I should advise you to get a little book called Clarke’s Precious Promises, where you will find them all arranged.

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): The worthy author of that collection, whom I have long known with esteem and honour, has chosen to reduce all the most useful and important promises of the Word of God into order, and set them before us…The disposition of them is elegant and regular; so that it is an easy matter to find something suited to the frame of our souls, or our present wants on every occasion; and that soul who knows what a suitable promise is worth in an hour of darkness or temptation, will never think such a work as this, and such a various treasure, can have sufficient value set upon it.

J. C. RYLE: Clarke’s Scripture Promises is an old book which is far less studied now, I suspect, than it was in the days of our fathers.

C. H. SPURGEON: General Gordon, who was killed at Khartoum,* used to carry a copy in his pocket wherever he went, and he and many others have found it to be a great help to them.

ISAAC WATTS: Those who have little leisure for reading may find [it worthwhile] in keeping this book always near them; and with the glance of an eye they may take in the riches of grace and glory, and derive many a sweet refreshment from hence, amidst their labours and travels through this wilderness. It is of excellent use to lie on the table in a chamber of sickness, and now and then to take a sip of the river of life, which runs through it in a thousand little rills of peace and joy.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): What is it to be possessor of all the promises of God?

ISAAC WATTS: These are the constant food of a living Christian, as well as his highest cordials in a fainting hour. And in such a world as this, where duties perpetually demand our practice, and difficulties and trials are ever surrounding us, what can we do better than to treasure up the promises in our hearts, which are the most effectual persuasives to fulfil the one and sustain the other? Here are laid up the true riches of a Christian, and his highest hopes on this side of heaven.

BILLY BRAY (1794-1868): The promises of God are just as good as ready money all day.
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*Editor’s Notes: Clarke’s Scripture Promises was composed by Samuel Clarke and first published in 1720. British General Charles Gordon was killed in 1885 by the jihadist forces of Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the Mahdi (the messiah of Islam). After a ten month siege, the Mahdi’s followers captured Khartoum, and massacred the entire Egyptian garrison and several thousand Sudanese.

 

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The Unity of the Trinity in the Salvation of Man

Posted on October 9, 2015 by The Editor

Isaiah 61:1,2

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Our Lord Jesus Himself, who read this in the synagogue at Nazareth, applied it entirely to Himself, saying, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, Luke 4:21.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): There are those who observe in this text, and not amiss, the mystery of the Holy Trinity―God the Father anointing his Son Christ with the Holy Ghost.

B. B. WARFIELD (1851-1921): In the unity of the Godhead there subsist three Persons, each of whom has His particular part in the working out of salvation.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Christ is the meeting-point between the Trinity and the sinner’s soul.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): From this great truth we learn another, namely, the perfect co-operation of the three persons of the blessed Trinity in the work of our redemption. The Father sends the Son, the Son with alacrity comes to redeem us, and the Spirit of God is upon Him; so that Father, Son, and Spirit have each a part in the saving work, and the one God of heaven and earth is the God of salvation.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): They have all a concern it―the Gospel and the doctrines of it―which is called the Gospel of God, and the Gospel of Christ, and the ministering of the Spirit. The grace of God in regeneration and conversion is sometimes ascribed to one and sometimes to another, and an increase of it in the heart is wished for from all three, Revelation 1:4-6; and they have a hand in all the glory the saints shall enjoy hereafter: the Father has prepared the kingdom from the foundation of the world; the Son has made way for it by his obedience, sufferings, and death; and the Spirit is the earnest of it, makes meet for it, and introduces into it.

C. H. SPURGEON: Now, let us, for a few moments, discourse upon this wondrous theme—the unity of the three persons with regard to the great purpose of the salvation of the elect. When God first made man, he said, “Let us make man,” not let me, but, “Let us make man in our own image,” Genesis 1:26. The covenant Elohim said to each other, “Let us unitedly become the creator of man.” So, when in ages far gone by in eternity, they said, “Let us save man:” it was not the Father who said, “Let me save man,” but the three Persons, with one consent, said “Let us save man.”

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Each of the three Persons in the blessed Trinity is concerned with our salvation: with the Father it is predestination; with the Son propitiation; with the Spirit regeneration.  The Father chose us; the Son died for us; the Spirit quickens us.

MATTHEW HENRY: There is an order among the three persons, though no superiority; they are equal in power and glory, and there is an agreed economy in their works. Thus, in the affair of man’s redemption, election is by way of eminency ascribed to the Father, as reconciliation is to the Son and sanctification to the Holy Ghost, though in each of these, one person is not so entirely interested as to exclude the other two.

JOHN GILL: The order of the three divine persons in the Trinity, and in the economy of man’s salvation, required such a method to be observed; that the Father should first, and for a while, be more especially manifested; next the Son, and then the Spirit. Besides, our Lord has given a reason Himself, why the Spirit “was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified,” John 7:39. And the coming of the Spirit as a Comforter, and the spirit of truth, was to be through the intercession, and by the mission of Christ; and therefore it was proper He should go away first, in order to send Him.

C. H. SPURGEON: I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, John 14:6. Look at the text, and you will find all the three persons mentioned―all of them doing something for our salvation. “I will pray,” says the Son. “I will send,” says the Father. “I will comfort,” says the Holy Ghost…Now, observe here that each person is spoken of as performing a separate office. “I will pray,” says the Son; that is intercession. “I will send,” says the Father; that is donation. “I will comfort,” says the Holy Spirit; that is supernatural influence…There is a manifest distinction in the divine persons, since one speaks to another; yet the Godhead is one.

JOHN GILL: This is no inconsiderable proof of a trinity of persons in the Godhead; here is the Father prayed unto, the Son in human nature praying, and the Holy Ghost the Comforter prayed for; who is the gift of the Father, through the prevalent mediation of the Son, and is another “Comforter;” distinct from the Messiah.

C. H. SPURGEON: Remember, you cannot pray without the Trinity―you cannot draw near to the Father except through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit…It is well to have clear views of the mutual relations of the persons of the blessed Trinity; indeed, the knowledge of these truths is essential for our comfort and growth in grace.

JOHN TRAPP: Remarkable is that [passage] of the apostle Paul, I Corinthians 12:4-7, where the diversities of gifts are said to be of the Spirit; the diversities of ministries―whereby these gifts are administered―are said to be of the Lord, that is, of Christ; and the diversities of operations―effected by the gifts and ministries―are said to be of God, the Father.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is to me a source of sweet comfort to think that it is not one person of the Trinity that is engaged for my salvation; it is not simply one person of the Godhead who vows that he will redeem me; but it is a glorious trio.

JAMES HARRINGTON EVANS (1785-1849): It requires a whole Trinity to keep a saint of God.

JOHN GILL: They are held and secured by a threefold cord, which can never be broken: by God the Father, who has loved them with an everlasting love, chosen them in Christ, and secured them in the covenant of grace, who keeps them by His power; He has given them grace, and will give them glory; and by the Son, who has undertook for them, redeemed and purchased them, and who prays and makes preparations in heaven for them; they are built on Him, united to Him, and are His jewels, whom He will preserve; and by the Holy Ghost, whose grace is incorruptible, whose personal indwelling is for ever, and who Himself is the earnest and seal of the heavenly inheritance, who having begun, will finish the good work of grace.

 

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Our Busy Lives

Posted on October 2, 2015 by The Editor

Luke 10:40

Martha was cumbered about with much serving.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Martha was encumbered. The Greek word properly signifies to be drawn different ways at the same time, and admirably expresses the situation of a mind, surrounded―as Martha’s then was―with so many objects of care, that it hardly knows which to attend to first.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. “I serve,” should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had “much serving.” We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can…Her fault was that she grew “cumbered with much serving,” so that she forgot Him, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): She was just distracted with it―when she should have been with her sister, sitting at Christ’s feet to hear His word.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Martha was faulty in this respect, that she neglected the main business, and devoted herself entirely to household affairs…We must pay a proper attention to order, lest what is accessory―as the phrase is―become our chief concern.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Others are so taken up with their worldly affairs, and are so busy providing for themselves and their families, they say, “I pray thee have me excused,” Luke 14:18.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): It seems so proper to attend to the duties of our station! It is just here that our danger lies. Our families, our business, our daily callings, our household affairs, our interaction with society, all, all may become snares to our hearts, and may draw us away from God.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): The busy whirl of life.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It fills the heart with cares, and so unfits and deadens it to divine duties.

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): Look at the scenes of a busy world, how they pass away; it is but as the buzzing of a summer fly, and all is gone.  Therefore, set your affections on things above.

R. L. DABNEY (1820-1898): Our hurry and externality has impoverished our graces.

C. H. SPURGEON: The most of you are too busy, you have too much to do in the world; but what is it all about?  Scraping together dust, loading yourselves with thick clay.  O that you were busy after the true riches, and could step aside awhile to enrich yourselves in solitude, and make your hearts vigorous by feeding upon the person and work of your ever blessed Lord!  You miss a heaven below by a too eager pursuit of earth.  You cannot know these joyful raptures if meditation be pushed into a corner.

J. C. RYLE: The fault of Martha should be a perpetual warning to all Christians. If we desire to grow in grace, and to enjoy soul-prosperity, we must beware of the cares of this world. Except we watch and pray, they will insensibly eat up our spirituality, and bring leanness on our souls.

R. L. DABNEY: Too much of even a religious bustle is unwholesome for the soul.

ANDREW BONAR (1810-1892): One of the gravest perils which besets the ministry is a restless scattering energies over an amazing multiplicity of interests which leaves no margin of time and of strength for receptive absorbing communion with God.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): You can be so busy preaching and working that you are not nurturing your own soul. You are so neglecting your own spiritual life that you find at the end that you have been living on yourself and your own activities…That is why it is a good thing for all of us from time to time to stop and take a rest, and to examine ourselves, and ask, “What am I living on?”  What if the meetings you attend so frequently and so regularly were suddenly prohibited to you, and how would you find yourself? What if your health broke down and you could not read, or enjoy the company of other people, and you were just left alone? What would you do? We must take time to ask ourselves these questions, for one of the greatest dangers to the soul is just to be living on our own activities and on our own efforts. To be over-busy is one the high-roads to self-deceptions.

JOHN TRAPP: God would not have the strength of his people to be exhausted in His service, but that respect be had to the health of their bodies, as well as to the welfare of their souls.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Rest is necessary for those who labour; and a zealous preacher of the Gospel will as often stand in need of it as a galley slave.

MATTHEW HENRY: “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while,” Mark 6:31. Christ calls them only to rest awhile; they must not expect to rest long, only to get breath, and then to go to work again…The reason given for this, is, not so much because they had been in constant work, but because they now were in a constant hurry;―“for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”

J. C. RYLE: “Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” These words are full of deep wisdom. Our Lord knows well that His servants must attend to their own souls as well as the souls of others. He knows that a constant attention to public work is apt to make us forget our own private soul-business, and that while we are keeping the vineyards of others, we are in danger of neglecting our own, (Song of Solomon 1:6). He reminds us that it is good for ministers to withdraw occasionally from public work, and look within…The prosperity of a man’s ministry and public work is intimately bound up with the prosperity of his own soul. Occasional retirement is one of the most useful ordinances.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE (1759-1833): Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean.

C. H. SPURGEON: We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites; but Moses, on the top of the mountain in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the hardest to rear: the most heavenly graces are the most difficult to cultivate…Sometimes we think we are too busy to pray. That is a great mistake, for praying is a saving of time.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.

 

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Serving Our Generation

Posted on September 25, 2015 by The Editor

Acts 13:36

David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): It is an honourable epitaph which Paul sets on the memory of David that he “in his own generation served the will of God.” He made it the business of his life to carry on God’s designs: and all gracious hearts touched with the same lodestone of God’s love stand to the same point.  All the private ends of a sincere soul are swallowed up in this, that he may “do the will of God in his generation.”

A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): If we serve God according to His own will, and in doing so serve our generation, we shall have accomplished all that is possible for any human being.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): But here may a question be asked, whether we ought not also to care for our posterity?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): This is a question which ought to interest us all very deeply. We live in the midst of our own generation, and seeing that we are part of it, we should serve it, that the generation in which our children shall live may be better than our own…Even when passing away, David served his generation by giving Solomon some last charges concerning the kingdom.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): David was not permitted to build the temple, and therefore when he had made preparation for it, which was the service he was designed to, he fell asleep, and left the work to Solomon.

C. H. SPURGEON: What, then, is it for a man to serve his own generation?

I note, first, that it is not to be a slave to it. It is not to drop into the habits, customs, and ideas of the generation in which we live―he is not to serve this generation by yielding to any of its notions or ideas which are contrary to the Word of the Lord. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not only for one generation, it is for all generations. It is the faith which needed to be only “once for all delivered to the saints;” it was given stereotyped as it always is to be…That man serves his generation best who is not caught by every new current of opinion, but stands firmly by the truth of God, which is a solid, immovable rock―Look you, sirs, there are ages to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His truth today.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): If I profess, with the loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides, is mere flight and disgrace, if he flinches at that point.

C. H. SPURGEON: If any man says, “The world is so bad, that I will avoid coming into contact with it altogether; even the teaching of Christianity has become so diluted, and is so thoroughly on the Down-grade, that I will have nothing to do with it,” he is certainly not serving his own generation. If he shall shut himself up like a hermit in his cave, and leave the world to go to ruin as it may, he will not be like David. She that goes into a nunnery, and he that enters a monastery are like soldiers who run away, and hide among the baggage. You must not do anything of the sort. Come forward and fight evil, and triumph over it, whether it be evil of doctrine, evil of practice, or evil of any other kind. Be bold for Christ; bear your witness, and be not ashamed. If you do not take your stand in this way, it can never truly be said of you that you served your generation. Instead of that, the truth will be that you allowed your generation to make a coward of you, or, to muzzle you like a dog, and to send you out, into the streets neither to bark nor to bite, nor to do anything by which you might prove that there is a soul within you.

MATTHEW HENRY: We may be useful and serviceable to others for their instruction―knowledge is given us to do good with, that others may light their candle at our lamp.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This is abundantly exemplified in David.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): David, in the different periods of his varied life, was placed in almost every situation in which a believer, be he rich or poor in this world’s goods, can be placed.  This is one feature which makes the study of his life of such practical interest unto us today. And this also it was which experimentally fitted him to write so many Psalms, which the saints of all ages have found so perfectly suited to express unto God the varied feelings of their souls.

JOHN CALVIN: The ministry of the godly is also profitable for the posterity, as we see that David, being dead, doth profit us more at this day than a great part of those which live with us―the sum is, that we must have respect first to our time, that we may serve our brethren, with whom and among whom we lead our life; and, secondly, we must do our endeavour that the fruit of our ministry may redound unto our posterity.

MATTHEW HENRY: Even those that are in a lower and narrower sphere must look upon it that they live to serve their generation.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): We are apt to overlook the minor actors in Scripture stories in our absorbed interest in the prominent ones. Yet often these lesser people are just as important in their own place, and their service is just as essential to the final success of the whole as the greater ones. The little girl in the story of Naaman the leper is scarcely seen among the splendours of the Syrian court; but without her part, we would never have had the story at all.  The young lad with the basket is hardly ever thought of when we read the account of the miracle; but they were his loaves with which the Master fed all those hungry thousands that day on the green grass. The smallest links in a chain are often quite as important as the greatest links…And perhaps our lowly part may some day prove to have been as essential as the great deeds which all men praise. We may at least help some others in doing the great things that they are set to do in this world.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is truly written, “None of us liveth to himself.” we either help or hinder those amongst whom we dwell. Let us see to it that we serve our age, and become stepping-stones rather than stumbling-blocks to those by whom we are surrounded.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Why art thou here, thou who art yet in the world? Is it not that thou also mayest serve the will of God? Art thou serving it now?

 

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The Righteous Symmetry of God’s Judgments

Posted on September 18, 2015 by The Editor

Judges 1:5-7

And they found Adonibezek in Bezek: and they fought against him…But Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The righteous judgment of God clearly appears in this instance.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The righteous God, in His judgments, often observes a rule of proportion, as in the case of Adonibezek…With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again, Matthew 7:2; perhaps in this world, so that men may read their sin in their punishment.

DAVID DICKSON (1583-1662): His judgments bear the impression of His wisdom and justice, so as the sin may be read written on the rod.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Every sin has one twig in God’s rod appropriated to itself.  Suffice it to say, that in God’s hand there are punishments for each particular transgression; and it is very singular to notice how in Bible history almost every saint has been chastened for the sin he has committed by the sin itself falling upon his own head.  Transgression has been first a pleasure, and afterward it has been a scourge. 

JOHN GILL: Samson walked after his eyes, and therefore the Philistines plucked out his eyes, Judges 16:21.

MATTHEW HENRY: For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways, Job 34:11. This is the standing rule of distributive justice, to give to every man according to his work.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Thou temptest God to suffer thy locks to be cut, when thou art so bold as to lay thy head in the lap of a temptation.

JOHN GILL: The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. Proverbs 14:14. There may be a backsliding when the heart does not wickedly depart from God; but is through the infirmity of the flesh and the force of temptation; from which backslidings the Lord’s people are recovered, and which are healed by His grace; but here such an one is meant who willingly and heartily backslides; and such shall have the reward of their hands and actions given them, or the full and due punishment of their sins; they shall have their bellyful of their own wicked ways and works, the just recompense of reward for them.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The terrible and memorable punishments, which are everywhere recounted, instruct us in reverence towards God, and inspire our hearts with awe, lest we should falsely boast ourselves to be His children, whilst indulging in the liberty of sin…“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him,” Isaiah 3:10,11. It may be easily inferred what was the design of the Prophet, namely, to comfort the godly, and to terrify the wicked by the judgment of God.

MATTHEW HENRY: Those who will not observe the judgments of God’s mouth shall not escape the judgments of His hand.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work,” Psalm 62:11, 12. These, then, are the two grand truths that the law, yea, the whole revelation of God, declares through every page. He is the Almighty; He is the most merciful; and hence the inference: The powerful, just, and holy God, the most merciful and compassionate Lord, will by and by judge the world, and will render to man according to his works. How this beautiful meaning should have been unseen by almost every interpreter, is hard to say: these verses contain one of the most instructive truths in the Bible.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Now, the tragedy is that we have been separating these things in the character of God. I have often asserted that the condition of the Church today is due to one major factor: and that is that during the last century, a new attitude towards the Scripture came in, in which men decided that they knew much more about the character of God than what was revealed in this Book. And what they did was to say that God is love and nothing else. So they have put out the justice and the righteousness, and all that God has revealed about Himself, and they have said that God will clear the guilty. ‘God,’ they say, ‘is love.  It does not matter what you do. Go and tell Him you are sorry. Ask for forgiveness, all is well.’ But it is a lie. And the lawlessness we are witnessing in the world, and the lawlessness in the Church, arises from that and nothing else. God will by no means clear the guilty. He is a God of compassion, and of mercy, and of kindness…Yes, but he is still a holy God, remember. He is still the righteous God. And when He forgives, He forgives in a righteous manner.

JOHN CALVIN: God by way of free favour pardons our sins, but only when we renounce them.

ISAAC AMBROSE (1604-1664): True repentance is to cease from sin.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Before you drop on your knees next time and begin to speak to God, try to remember His greatness and His majesty and His might, and then go on to remember that He is life, that He is holy, that He is righteous, that He is just, and that He is of such a pure countenance that He cannot even look upon evil. Remember that you are speaking to the Judge of the whole world.

JOHN CALVIN: He does not so repose in heaven, as to cease to be the Judge of the world; nor will He be unmindful of the execution of His office, in due time.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The judgment of God, in that day, will be according to righteousness.

C. H. SPURGEON: Righteousness is His immutable attribute, and judgment marks His every act.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: He is righteous, He hates sin, and He will punish sin. Do you not have a feeling that this is the one thing that this modern world of ours needs to know? This world that feels that it can dismiss God, and laugh at Him, and break all His laws with impunity. My friends, is not this the thing we need to preach to the world?―That God is holy, that God is righteous, that He hates sin with an eternal hatred, and will punish sin.  That is His own revelation of Himself.

MATTHEW HENRY: If services persevered in now go unrewarded, and sins persisted in now go unpunished, yet there is a day coming when God will fully render to every man according to his works, with interest for the delay.

 

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Prayer & Fasting for the Christian Church, the Spiritual Israel of God

Posted on September 11, 2015 by The Editor

Nehemiah 1:4,5; Daniel 9:3-5

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I [Nehemiah] heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

And I [Daniel] set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments…

SAMUEL MILLER (1769-1850): We have no less reason for fasting and humiliation than our fathers of former ages. Let us not imagine that there was some special character either in the men or the events of ancient times which rendered the exercise in question more needful to them than to us. By no means; human nature is the same, religion is the same, and the causes of Christian mourning are the same now as they were when [Nehemiah and Daniel] fasted and laid in the dust before the mercy-seat.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Why, at this moment we have sin rampant among us almost beyond precedent!

SAMUEL MILLER: Think of the abounding atheism and various forms of infidelity, the pride, the degrading intemperance, the profanations of the Sabbath, the fraud, the gross impiety, the neglect and contempt of the gospel, and all the numberless forms of enormous moral corruption ­which even in the most favoured parts of our country prevail in a deplorable degree.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Look at this attitude towards morality, towards law, and towards the Ten Commandments in particular. People feel that they’re against us, and yet when you come to examine the position, you’ll find that God gave these laws not to hold us down, not to bind us and to band us, but for our good, and for our benefit. Have you ever thought of this? Take the much maligned and criticized Ten Commandments…Thou shalt not kill. Is that a restraint? Is that a grievous band and bond tying you down, and standing between you and a glorious life? Is it wrong to ask you not to kill?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light…The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God! Indeed, some spouses who marry and live together in a respectable manner have various ends in mind, but rarely children.

C. H. SPURGEON: Worse still, if worse can be: those who dare walk our streets after sundown tell us that Sodom, in its most putrid days, could scarce exceed this metropolis for open vice.

JOHN CALVIN: We see that many rush into such excesses of lasciviousness, as to glory in their shame.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Their vices not only expose them to the wrath of God in another world, but often bring them to misery and ruin in this life; and surely such impudent offenders, who glory in their shame, and to whom openness in sin is an improvement of the pleasure of sinning, most justly deserve all the plagues of this life and the pains of the next [life].

C. H. SPURGEON: Deep is our shame when we know that our judges are not clear in this matter, but social purity has been put to the blush by magistrates of no mean degree.

HORATIUS BONAR (1808-1889): Nay, we glory in this as “progress,” “culture,” and “enlightenment,” as freedom from the bigotry of other centuries and the narrowness of our half-enlightened ancestors.

SAMUEL MILLER: Think of these abounding sins; and think also in how small a degree multitudes even of the professing people of God seem to be awake to the great responsibilities and duties of their high vocation; and then say whether we have not reason for special humiliation and prayer?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It is not difficult for us, therefore, to answer the next question: What is the call for us today? It is obvious that we must concentrate our energies on the church, and that the chief need is the revival and the awakening of the church itself. It is in the church, and often through individuals who belong to the church, that the big spiritual movements have always started…I have no hesitation in asserting that the failure of the church to have a greater impact upon the life of men and women in the world today is due entirely to the fact that her own life is not in order. To me there is nothing more tragic or short-sighted or lacking in insight than the assumption, made by so many, that the church herself is all right and all she has to do is to evangelize the world outside…We have to start with the church, not with the world outside. The chief trouble is in the church.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): No careful reader of the New Testament and observer of the present state of the church can fail to be convinced that what is now wanting is a high spirituality.

HORATIUS BONAR: Jude speaks to the Church of the last days. It is against the evils within the Church that he specially warns. What a picture does he draw of error, licentiousness, worldliness, spiritual decay, and ecclesiastical apostasy! Who could recognize the image of the primitive Church in the description he gives of prevailing iniquity?  The world had absorbed the Church, and the church was content that it should be so.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): It is no unusual thing in our day for the service of the sanctuary to be turned into an amusement.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: I ask you solemnly, is this a time for entertainment? Is it not a time, rather, for fasting, for sackcloth and ashes, for waiting upon God in an agony of soul?

E. M. BOUNDS (1835-1913): The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men…The prime need of the church is not men of money, nor men of brains, but men of prayer.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): I had often said that I had rather to be able to pray like Daniel than preach like Gabriel.  What we want is men and women that know how to pray, who know how to call down fire from heaven.

DAVID BRAINERD (1718-1747): Oh, dear sir, let me beseech you frequently to attend to the precious duties of secret fasting and prayer.

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600-1661): Know, therefore, that the best affected of the ministry have thought it convenient and necessary at such a time as this, that all who love the truth should join their prayers together, and cry to God with humiliation and fasting.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: For God’s sake, for the glory of His name, let us intercede and pray for a visitation of God’s Spirit.

 

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God’s Rod of Correction

Posted on September 5, 2015 by The Editor

Proverbs 22:15; Proverbs 3:11, 12

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction: for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): To be suffered to go on in sin without a rebuke is a sad sign of alienation from God; such are bastards, not sons, Hebrews 12:8.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Say not therefore, If we belong to Him, why are we thus afflicted? The correction results from the relation: what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): They are the chastisements of a father, in which He deals with them as with children; and uses them for the good discipline and instruction of them, as the word here signifies; and therefore not to be “despised,” or loathed and abhorred, as disagreeable food; or as if they were unnecessary and unprofitable, or unworthy of notice and regard; or as little, slight, and trifling things, without considering from whence they come and for what they are sent.

MATTHEW HENRY: The best of God’s children need chastisement. They have their faults and follies, which need to be corrected. Though God may let others alone in their sins, He will correct sin in his own children; they are of His family, and shall not escape His rebukes when they want them—No wise and good father will wink at faults in his own children as he would in others.

JOHN GILL: The same thing is meant by “correction” as chastening.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is a divine correction; it is the chastening of the Lord, which, as it is a reason why we should submit to it—for it is folly to contend with a God of incontestable sovereignty and irresistible power—so it is a reason why we should be satisfied in it; for we may be sure that a God of unspotted purity does us no wrong and that a God of infinite goodness means us no hurt.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): God deals with us as we do with our children: He first speaks; then gives a gentle stroke; at last, a blow.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Whatever the providence may be that turns your joy into grief, it is a chastening from the Lord. Taking, in the first place, this more general view of chastening or rebuke, we observe that the command regarding it is twofold: 1. Do not despise it; 2. Do not faint under it. There are two opposite extremes of error in this thing, as in most others; and these two commands are set like hedges, one on the right hand, and another on the left, to keep the traveller from wandering out of the way. The Lord sees that some, when afflicted, err on this side, and some on that; the stroke affects those too little, and these too much.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Of two evils, choose neither.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): “Despise not.”—Either by making light of it, or not being duly affected with it; or by accounting it an unnecessary thing.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is from God, and therefore must not be despised; for a slight put upon the messenger is an affront to Him that sends him.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It is of no use to rebel; if thou do, thou kickest against the pricks, and every act of rebellion against him is a wound to thine own soul. God will either end thee or mend thee.

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): Correction despised brings sharper correction.

WILLIAM JAY: A natural man is only concerned to escape from trouble, but the Christian is anxious to have it sanctified and improved. He is commanded to hear the rod. While God chastens He teaches. I must therefore be in a learning frame of mind. I must say unto God, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.”—“I will hear what, by this event, God the Lord will speak.”

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “Neither be weary of his correction.” This is the other extreme, despair and despondency of spirit.

JOHN GILL: As if no sorrow was like theirs, and to be quite dejected and overwhelmed with it.

WILLIAM ARNOT: Do not be dissolved, as it were—taken down and taken to pieces by the stroke. Do not sink into despondency and despair. Be impressed by the stroke of the Lord’s hand, but not crushed under it.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Neither esteem it tedious and intolerable.

MATTHEW HENRY: We must not be weary of an affliction, be it ever so heavy and long; not faint under it—so the apostle renders it, Hebrews 12:5—not be dispirited, dispossessed of our own souls, or driven to despair, or to use any indirect means for our relief and the redress of our grievances. We must not think that the affliction either presses harder or continues longer than is meet, not conclude that deliverance will never come because it does not come so soon as we expect it.

WILLIAM JAY: Patience is injured by feeling too little as well as by feeling too much; by despising the chastening of the Lord as well as by fainting when we are rebuked of him.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): To lengthen my patience is the best way to shorten my troubles.

R. C. CHAPMAN: Impatience under God’s corrections only shows our need of the discipline He is pleased to visit us with.

JOHN WYCLIFFE (1330-1384): What is patience?—a glad and willing suffering of troubles. He that is patient murmurs not at adversity, but rather, at all times, praises God.

JOHN TRAPP: Count it not a light matter, a common occurrence, such as must be borne by head and shoulders, and when things are at worst, they will mend again. This is not patience but pertinacy; strength, but stupidity—“the strength of stone, and flesh of brass.”

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Of all things in the world to be avoided, a stony heart, or a stupidity under God’s afflicting hand, is most to be deprecated.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The sound discipline of heavenly guidance is our Father’s best blessing. His most fearful curse, is to be given up to our own ways, “to walk in our own counsels,” Psalm 81:12.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Woe, woe to that soul that God will not spend a rod upon. This is the saddest stroke of all, when God refuses to strike at all…God is most angry when He shows no anger. God keep me from this mercy; this kind of mercy is worse than all other kinds of misery.

WILLIAM JAY: “Bastards may escape the rod,

Sunk in earthly, vain delight;

But a true-born child of God

Must not, would not, if he might.”

JOHN NEWTON: Let us therefore pray for grace to be humble, thankful, and patient.

 

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Is Fasting a Christian Duty for Protestant Evangelicals?

Posted on August 28, 2015 by The Editor

Matthew 9:14,15; Matthew 6:16

When came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites….

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): For Evangelicals, this whole question of fasting has almost disappeared from our lives and even out of the field of our consideration. How often and to what extent have we thought about it?  What place does it occupy in our whole view of the Christian life and of the discipline of the Christian life? I suggest that the truth probably is that we have very rarely thought of it at all. I wonder whether we have ever fasted?  I wonder whether it has even occurred to us that we ought to be considering the question of fasting?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Our Lord Jesus Christ never made much of fasting. He very seldom spoke about it; and when the Pharisees exaggerated it, He generally put them off by telling them that the time had not come for His disciples to fast, because the Bridegroom was still with them, and while he was with them their days were to be days of joy. But, still, Holy Scripture does speak of fasting, in certain cases it advises fasting, and there were godly men and godly women, such as Anna, the prophetess, who “served God with fastings and prayer night and day,” Luke 2:37.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): Fasting is supposed to be the ordinary practice of the godly. Christ does not make light of it, but merely cautions them against its abuses.

LANCELOT ANDREWES (1555-1626): “Moreover, when ye fast,” I say first, this very “when” shows Christ’s liking of it, that there is a time allowed for it, else He would allow it no “when”―no time at all; this “when” is a presupposing, at least, for can any man fancy that Christ would presuppose aught that were not required of us by God?

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): This exercise hath still the warrant and weight of a duty, as well from precepts as examples in both Testaments.

HENRY SCUDDER (died 1659): In the sacred Scriptures we have manifold examples of private fasts, and examples and commandments for public ones. Our Lord and Saviour said that His disciples after His departure from them should fast, and gave directions to all concerning private fasts. The apostle Paul spoke of husbands and wives abstaining from conjugal embraces that they might give themselves to fasting and prayer, I Corinthians 7:5. And we have repeated examples of the apostles and primitive Christians [practising] religious fasts, Acts 13:3. All of which prove fasting to be a Christian duty.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is a laudable practice, and we have reason to lament it, that is so generally neglected among Christians…Paul was “in fastings often,” 2 Corinthians 11:27.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The fact is, is it not, that this whole subject seems to have dropped right out of our lives, and right out of our whole Christian thinking.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us, therefore, make some observations on fasting, since very many, not understanding, what utility there can be in it, judge it not to be very necessary, while others reject it altogether as superfluous. Where its use is not well known it is easy to fall into superstition…

Fasting is commended to us, but not on account of itself…Fasting does not of itself displease God; but it becomes an abomination to Him, when it is thought to be a meritorious work, or when some holiness is connected with it―the Papists have this in common with the Jews, that they think that they serve God by it, and that it is a meritorious work. Yet fasting is not the worship of God, and is not in itself commanded by Him―it is an external exercise, which is auxiliary to prayer, or is useful for subduing the flesh, or testifying our humiliation, when, as guilty persons, we implore that the wrath of God may be turned away in adversity.

ANDREW FULLER: It is an appendage to prayer, and designed to aid its importunity. It is humbling, and in a manner chastising, ourselves before God.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Christ fasted in the wilderness.

JOHN TRAPP: All Christ’s actions are for our instruction, not all for our imitation.

MATTHEW HENRY: The reference which the Papists make of their lent-fast to this fasting of Christ forty days, is a piece of foppery and superstition.

JOHN CALVIN: It is plain that Christ did not fast to set an example to others―and it is strange how men of acute judgment could fall into this gross delusion, which so many clear reasons refute: for Christ did not fast repeatedly―which He must have done had He meant to lay down a law for an anniversary fast―but once only, when preparing for the promulgation of the gospel. Nor does He fast after the manner of men, as He would have done had He meant to invite men to imitation.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): He was not an hungred till “he had fasted forty days and forty nights,” Matthew 4:2. Here was the Divine power miraculously seen, in upholding the human nature of Christ without anything to eat: this was a miracle…

Nor did He fast as the Jews were wont, of whom we sometimes read that they kept fasts several days; they only fasted in the day time, but ate their food at night―but Christ fasted from all food, and that not only forty days, but forty nights also; from whence may be easily gathered, how idly, if not impiously, the Papists found their forty days fasting in Lent…There can be nothing more sottish than for us to think that because Christ―supported by the Divine nature―fasted forty days, therefore we are obliged to do it; and because we cannot fast forty days and forty nights, without eating something, therefore we may eat fish, though no flesh; or that we are obliged to fast in the day time, though not at night; and because Christ once in His lifetime fasted forty days and forty nights, therefore we must do so every year, or that the church hath any power to enjoin any such thing.

JOHN TRAPP: They ascribe merit unto it, even to the mere outward abstinence, as the Pharisees did, and these hypocrites in Isaiah (Isaiah 58:3).

ANDREW FULLER: There has doubtless been much formality and hypocrisy in some who have attended to it; but it does not follow that the thing itself should be neglected.

JOHN TRAPP: Now since we cannot but condemn their superstition, so neither is our forlorn indolence and dulness to this duty to be excused…So many are departed so far from Popish fasts, that they fast not at all―and He that blamed the Pharisees here for fasting amiss, will much more blame those that fast not at all.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Because the practice has been turned to superstition, Protestants have too much neglected this duty. But eminently devout men in all ages have found fasting an auxiliary to devotion and to the mortification of sin.

 

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