Mirror, Mirror, upon the Wall, Who shall be the Greatest of us All?

Posted on March 21, 2014 by The Editor

Jeremiah 45:5; Mark 10:35-37, 41-45
       Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.
       And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy glory…And when the ten heard about it, they began to much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise lordship over them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Worldly honour is a glittering thing, with which the eyes of Christ’s own disciples have many a time been dazzled.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Yea, many times most unseasonably and unsavourily, when Christ had been forewarning them of His ignominious death, and forearming them against the scandal of the cross, they fell into those absurd disputes, who should be the greatest among them, and have the highest place of preferment, such as Mark 9:31-34, [when] our Saviour dissuaded them from this folly, and set a child in the midst of them to learn them lower thoughts.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): While the mind of Jesus was occupied with His humiliation and death, His followers were thinking of their own honour and ease!―that the other disciples were displeased showed that they were ambitious also…Naturally, the other ten apostles did not relish the attempt of the sons of Zebedee to steal a march upon them. We never hear that they resented our Lord’s preference of Peter, James, and John; but when two of these sought precedence for themselves, they could not bear it. Peter was with them in this, for we read, “When the ten heard it.”

MATTHEW HENRY: They were angry at them for affecting precedence, not because it did so ill become the disciples of Christ, but because each of them hoped to have it himself…There was pride at the bottom of it, a proud conceit of their own merit, a proud contempt of their brethren, and a proud desire of honour and preferment.

JOHN TRAPP: Self-love makes men ambitious, and teacheth them to turn the looking-glass, to see themselves bigger, and others lesser than they are; Paul, on the contrary, was least of saints, last of apostles.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): There are many people who start out with idea that they are great and other people are small, and they are going to bring them up on the high level with themselves. God never yet used a man of that stamp.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): There is nothing less tolerable in the servants of Christ than ambition and vanity―the evils of ambition and self-love must be plucked from our hearts by the roots―The chiefest thing the ministers of the Word of God have to do, is, not to be carried away with ambition, to get themselves credit, nor to desire things that have a goodly show, and are glorious in men’s eyes, but to content themselves to serve God, and their neighbours, and to instruct them fitly which are committed to their charge.

WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602): He who would be a faithful minister of the gospel must deny the pride of his heart, be emptied of ambition, and set himself wholly to seek the glory of God in his calling.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): If we secretly wish to appear great among our brethren, to magnify ourselves or our party, or to figure away in the religious world, as persons of extraordinary zeal, all is naked to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, and, depend upon it, He will have no delight in us.

MATTHEW HENRY: If, instead of aiming only at the glory of God, and our acceptance with Him, we look aside at the applause of men, and while we profess to honour God, contrive to honour ourselves, and seek our own things under colour of seeking the things of Christ, this spoils all…It is a holy ambition to strive to excel others in grace and holiness; but it is a sinful ambition to covet to exceed others in pomp and grandeur―to be good should be more our care than to look great, or to have the pre-eminence.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Some one has said, “I never was truly happy until I ceased to wish to be great.” This is a wholesome saying, and one which some of us would do well to ponder.

D. L. MOODY: Seeking to perpetuate one’s name on earth is like writing on the sand by the seashore.

MATTHEW HENRY: What folly is it then to seek great things for ourselves here, where everything is little and nothing certain!

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Thomas Goodwin said that the greatest fight of his life was to conquer this “master lust.” His “master lust” was nothing physical or moral; it was the desire to obtain distinction and honour by eloquent preaching.

C. H. SPURGEON: We must for ever quit hunting after honour, office, power, and influence. If we aim at greatness at all, it must be by being great in service, becoming the minister or servant of our brethren…In this kind of rivalry we shall be allowed to excel without exciting the indignation of the brethren.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): As a minister, one is but a servant to hew wood and draw water for the house of my God. Yea, Paul, though a son, yet counted himself not a son but a servant, purely as he was a minister―a servant of God; a servant of Jesus Christ; a servant of all, and your servant for Jesus’ sake, Titus 1:1; Romans 1:1; I Corinthians 9:19; 2 Corinthians 4:5.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Let us remember these things. Let us beware of seeking false greatness: let us aim at that greatness which alone is true.

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): Let it be our ambition to act on the stage of life as men who are devoted to the service of the God of heaven, to the real benefit of mankind on earth, and to their eternal interests.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Ambition is the rankest poison to the church, when it possesses preachers…See to it that these three dogs do not follow you into the pulpit—ambition, covetousness, and envy.

 

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Death, the Great “Last Enemy” & the “King of Terrors”

Posted on March 17, 2014 by The Editor

I Corinthians 15:26; Psalm 55:4,5
       The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
       My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Death is a solemn event even to the believer in Christ.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Think of our Lord in the garden, with His “soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death,” and you have a parallel to the griefs of the psalmist. Perchance, dear reader, if as yet thou hast not trodden this gloomy way, thou wilt do soon; then be sure to mark the footprints of thy Lord in this miry part of the road.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Death is terrible to nature; our Saviour himself prayed, Father, save me from this hour.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): Death is a dreadful enemy, it defies all the sons and daughters of Adam.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): The “king of terrors.” Youth cannot resist him―beauty cannot awe him―wealth cannot bribe him―eloquence cannot persuade him―learning cannot confound him―skill cannot baffle him―tears cannot move him―religion cannot evade his icy touch. To all this, his uplifted dart is inexorable. He takes the prince from the throne, the ruler from the state, the orator from the senate, the judge from the bench, the minister from the pulpit, the head from the family, the light from the home, the babe from its mother’s arms. None―none are spared.

JOHN FLAVEL: None dared cope with this king of terrors but Christ, and He, by dying, went into the very den of this dragon, fought with it, and foiled it in the grave, and came off a conqueror. For, as the apostle speaks, “It was impossible it should hold or detain him,” Acts 2:24. Never did death meet its overmatch before it met with Christ, and He conquering it for us, and in our names, rising as our representative. Now every single saint triumphs over it as a vanquished enemy; O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, I Corinthians 15:55. Thus, like Joshua, they set the foot of faith upon the neck of that king, and, with an holy scorn, deride its power. O death, where is thy sting?―So that there is no reason why a believer should stand in a slavish fear of it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Since Christ has made a full atonement for the believer’s sins and obtained remission for him, death can no more harm him than could a wasp whose venomous sting had been removed―though it might still buzz and hiss and attempt to disturb him.

WILLIAM ROMAINE (1714-1795): Death stung itself to death when he stung Christ.

J. C. RYLE: For [the believer] no doubt the “sting of death” is taken away. Death has become one of his privileges, for he is Christ’s. Living or dying, he is the Lord’s. If he lives, Christ lives in him; and if he dies, he goes to live with Christ. To him to live is Christ, and to die is gain, Philippians 1:21. Death frees him from many trials—from a weak body, a corrupt heart, a tempting devil, and an ensnaring or persecuting world. Death admits him to the enjoyment of many blessings. He rests from his labours—the hope of a joyful resurrection is changed into a certainty—he has the company of holy redeemed spirits—he is “with Christ.” All this is true—and yet, even to a believer, death is a solemn thing. Flesh and blood naturally shrinks from it.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Let thy hope of heaven conquer thy fear of death. Why shouldst thou be afraid to die, who hopest to live by dying?

JAMES JANEWAY (1636-1674): Who would be afraid of everlasting rest?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): If we remember that by death we are called back from exile to home, to our heavenly fatherland, shall we then not be filled with comfort?

WILLIAM GURNALL: The Turks say they do not think we Christians believe heaven to be such a glorious place as we profess and talk of; for, if we did, we would not be so afraid to go thither.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): But why should a saint be fond of life, or afraid of death, since to him it is but as his father’s horse, or as Joseph’s chariot rattling with wheels, to carry old Jacob to his son Joseph, so him to Christ?

C. H. SPURGEON: I know precious children of God now—I believe that when they die, they will die triumphantly. But I know this, that the thought of death is never pleasing to them. And this is accounted for, because God has stamped on nature that law, the love of life and self-preservation. And again, the man that hath kindred and friends, it is natural enough that he should scarce like to leave behind those that are so dear.

MATTHEW HENRY: Righteousness delivers us from the sting of death, but not the stroke of it.

WILLIAM GURNALL: Sometimes orders come to soldiers for a sudden march; they must be gone as soon as the drum beats…If God should, before any lingering sickness hath brought thee into some acquaintance with death, say no more but “Up and die” as He did once to Moses, art thou shod for such a journey? Couldst thou say, “Good is the word of the Lord”?

C. H. SPURGEON: I remember my aged grandfather once preached a sermon which I have not forgotten, from the text “The God of all grace,” I Peter 5:10―and he somewhat interested the assembly, after describing the different kinds of grace that God gave, by saying at the end of each period “But there is one kind of grace that you do not want.” After each sentence there came the like, “But there is one kind of grace you do not want.” And, then, he wound up by saying, “You don’t want dying grace in living moments, but you shall have dying grace when you want it.”

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Oh, to have a God, the God of all grace, at hand, a very present help in that time of trouble, laying underneath His everlasting arms—shedding around the light of His countenance—communicating the joy of His salvation, and insuring the glory to be revealed, in ways beyond all our present experience and thought!

A. W. PINK: If David under the Old Testament dispensation could say, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, Psalm 23:4, why should believers now fear, after that Christ has extracted the sting out of death! Death may be the “King of terrors” to the unsaved, but to the Christian, death is simply the door which admits into the presence of the well Beloved.

HANNAH MORE (1745-1833): No man ever repented of being a Christian on his deathbed.

ALEXANDER CARSON (1776-1844): When we pass through the valley of shadow of death let us fear no evil. Jesus, the Shepherd of His flock, will be with us, and His rod and staff will comfort us.

 

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Trusting God When Everything Seems to Go Wrong

Posted on March 12, 2014 by The Editor

Genesis 32:12; Judges 6:13
       I will surely do thee good.
       And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Gideon said, “If God be with us, why then is all this evil befallen us?” And Jacob said, “All these things are against me.” In an agreeable mansion, and enjoying all the comforts of life, no difficulty may be felt from the language of God; but what is Joseph in prison, what is Job among the ashes—what is he who says, ‘All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning’—what is he to make of the promise, “I will surely do thee good.”

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): God is to be trusted when His providences seem to run contrary to His promises.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The high favourites of heaven are sometimes to be located in queer and unexpected places. Joseph in prison, the descendants of Abraham labouring in the brick-kilns of Egypt, Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah in the great fish’s belly, Paul clinging to a spar in the sea, forcibly illustrate this principle.

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600-1661): Learn to believe Christ better than His strokes; Himself, and His promises better than His glooms―“For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” Romans 8:28―ergo, shipwreck, losses, etc., all work together for the good of them that love God: hence I infer, that losses, disappointments, ill tongues, loss of friends, houses, or country, are God’s workmen, set on to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The very things that have seemed most unfavorable to God’s people have often turned out to be for their good. What harm did the persecution do to the church of Christ after Stephen’s death? Those who were scattered “preached the word wherever they went,” Acts 8:4. What harm did imprisonment do Paul? It gave him time to write many of those letters which are now read all over the world. What real harm did the persecution of bloody Mary do to the cause of the English Reformation? The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church. What harm does persecution do the people of God at this very day? It only drives them nearer to Christ: it only makes them cling more closely to the throne of grace, the Bible, and prayer.

WILLIAM JAY: Let us believe the truth of this declaration—I will surely do thee good. There are four steps by which we may reach the conclusion:
      The first regards His sufficiency. He is able to do us good. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. There is no enemy but He can conquer, nor exigency but He can relieve. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.
      The second step regards His inclination. He is disposed to do us good. His love is not only real, but passes knowledge. He feels towards us as His jewels, His friends, His children, His bride. He rests in His love, and joys over us with singing.

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): Be familiar with this precious thought, that God decrees the little as well as the great things of His providence; and that all His decrees are those of love to His people. If we judge not God’s character by His providences, but His providences by His character, we shall be able to rejoice when the flesh would repine.

WILLIAM JAY: The third step regards His engagement. He is bound to do us good. We have not only His Word, but His oath; an oath sworn by Himself, because He could swear by no greater, and confirmed by the blood of an infinite sacrifice.

WILLIAM GREENHILL (1591-1677): He is a God that cannot lie, He is Truth, speaks truth, and not one of His promises can, or shall fail.

WILLIAM JAY: The fourth step regards His conduct. He has done us good. We have had complaints enough to make of others, but of Him we are compelled to say, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord.” His goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our lives. How often has He turned the shadow of death into the morning?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Former experiences of God’s goodness in delivering us out of troubles ought to increase our faith.

A. B. JACK (Unknown): We are all very apt to believe in Providence when we get our own way; but when things go awry, we think, if there is a God, He is in heaven and not upon the earth.
      The cricket, in the spring, builds his house in the meadow, and chirps for joy because all is going so well with him. But when he hears the sound of the plough a few furrows off, and the thunder of the oxen’s tread, then his sky begins to darken, his young heart fails him. By-and-by the plough comes crunching along, turns his dwelling bottom-side up, and as he goes rolling over and over, without a house and without a home, “Oh,” he says, “the foundations of the world are breaking up, and everything is hastening to destruction.” But the husbandman, as he walks behind the plough, does he think the foundations of the world are breaking up? No. He is thinking only of the harvest that is to follow in the wake of the plough; and the cricket, if it will but wait, will see the husbandman’s purpose.
      My hearers, we are all like crickets. When we get our own way, we are happy and contented. When we are subjected to disappointment, we become the victims of despair.

WILLIAM JAY: We must confide in the judgment of God, and distrust our own. We are short-sighted creatures, and easily imposed upon by appearances, and know not what is good for us in this vain life which we spend as a shadow. But He cannot be mistaken. A wise father will choose far better for his infant, than the infant can choose for himself.

J. C. RYLE: Let all true Christians lay these things to heart, and take courage. We live in a world where all things are ordered by a hand of perfect wisdom, and where in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. The powers of this world are only tools in the hand of God: he is always using them for His own purposes, however little they may be aware of it. They are the instruments by which he is forever cutting and polishing the living stones of his spiritual temple, and all their schemes and plans will only turn to His praise. Let us be patient in days of trouble and darkness, and look forward. The very things which now seem against us are all working together for God’s glory.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): Trust thou in God; for He is faithful.

 

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The Leading of the Holy Spirit in Selecting Preaching Material

Posted on March 8, 2014 by The Editor

Haggai 1:13; Ephesians 6:19
       Then spake Haggai the LORD’S messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying…
       [Pray] for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make know the mystery of the gospel.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): When the apostle desires “utterance” to be given him, he may mean that he may have a word given him to preach—according to that which Christ promiseth, Matthew 10:19: It shall be given you in that hour what he shall speak.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Many persons have been converted by some striking saying of the preacher. But why was it the preacher uttered that saying? Simply because he was led thereunto by the Holy Spirit. Rest assured, beloved, that when any part of the sermon is blessed to your heart, the minister said it because he was ordered to say it by his Master. I might preach to-day a sermon which I preached on Friday, and which was useful then, and there might be no good whatever come from it now, because it might not be the sermon which the Holy Ghost would have delivered today. But if with sincerity of heart I have sought God’s guidance in selecting the topic, and He rests upon me in the preaching of the Word, there is no fear but that it shall be found adapted to your immediate wants.

E. J. POOLE-CONNOR (1872-1962): C. H. Spurgeon could not preach with ease or power—sometimes he felt he could not preach at all—without the assurance that he was then and there the Divine mouthpiece. When preparing for public service, a dozen subjects would present themselves to his mind; but he must needs wait until some Scripture was impressed upon him as the paramount theme for the occasion, one from which without disobedience he could not escape. It was this feature of his ministry which gave his utterances their peculiarly prophetic character. Like Haggai, he was supremely “the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message.”

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Spurgeon did not believe in preaching a series of sermons; indeed he opposed doing so very strongly. He said that there was a sense in which it was impertinent for a man to decide to preach a series of sermons. He held that the texts should be given to the preacher, that he should seek the Lord in this matter and ask for guidance. He held that the preacher should not decide but pray for the guidance and the leading of the Holy Spirit, and then submit himself to this. He will thus be led to particular texts and statements which he will then expound in sermonic form. That was the view held by Spurgeon and many others. I myself was brought up in a tradition which adhered to that view. We never heard a series of sermons based on a book, or part of a book of the Bible, or on a theme. But over and against that you have the position of the Puritans who were clearly great believers in preaching series of sermons. Though Spurgeon was such a great reader of the Puritans, and such a great admirer of them, at this point he disagreed with them entirely.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let me say, it is no use your expecting me to preach a course of sermons. I know a great deal better than that. I don’t believe the Holy Spirit ever intended men to publish three months beforehand, lists of sermons that they were going to preach; because there will always arise changes in Providence, and different states of mind both in the preacher and the hearer, and he will be a very wise man who has got an Old Moore’s almanac correct enough to let him know what would be the best sort of sermon to preach three months hence.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: And here I am with Spurgeon whole-heartedly—we must preserve and safeguard ‘the freedom of the Spirit.’ We must not be in control in this matter; we must not decide in cold blood, as it were, what we are going to do, and map out a programme, and so on. I am sure that is wrong. I have known men who have done that. I have known men who, at the beginning of a season after a vacation, would actually hand out a list of their text for many months ahead and would indicate what was going to be preached every particular Sunday during that period of time. I reprobate that entirely and completely―I feel that to plan and publish such a programme is surely to put certain limits upon the sovereignty and the leading of the Spirit.

C. H. SPURGEON: He had better leave it to his God to give him in the same hour what he shall speak, and look for his sermons, as the Israelites looked for the manna, day by day.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Often when I begin preaching, I am at a loss how I shall proceed; but one thing insensibly offers after another, and, in general, I believe the best and most useful parts of my sermon occur de novo―new―while I am preaching.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: That again is a most thrilling and wonderful experience which fills one with a sense of amazement. It is quite extraordinary, and one seems to have no control over it; it just happens. I have often found when I have gone into the pulpit with a prepared sermon, that while I have been preaching, my first point alone has developed into a whole sermon. Many times I have gone out of the pulpit realizing that I had a series of sermons which I had not seen before. As the first point had become a complete sermon I could see that the same would happen to the others and so I would have a series. I had not seen this in my preparation, but while preaching, it had all opened out before me.

JOHN NEWTON: It seems to me a point of more curiosity than use, to inquire too nicely into the modus of the Holy Spirit’s assistance in the composure and delivery of sermons.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Well, I do not know that it is a part of the business of a preacher to explain the processes of his own mind and his own heart, but clearly no man should preach unless he has felt that God has given him a message. It is the business of any man who tries to preach and expound the Scriptures to wait upon God for leading and guidance―What, then, does one say about this? All I can say is that it seems to me to be quite wrong to be rigid in this matter, and to lay down any hard and fast rule. I cannot see why the Spirit should not guide a man to preach a series of sermons on a passage or a book of the Bible as well as lead him to one text only. Why not?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Ah, there is the sovereignty of God!
__________________________________
Editor’s Note: While C. H. Spurgeon never preached sermons in a series, Martyn Lloyd-Jones usually preached one of his two Sunday sermons as part of a series, verse by verse, through an entire book of the Bible.

 

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The Spirit of Martyrdom in the 21st Century

Posted on March 4, 2014 by The Editor

Genesis 4:8; I John 3:12
       And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
       And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Persecutors may pretend what they please, but it is the saint’s religion and piety that their spite is aimed at.

WILLIAM JENKYN (1613–1685): Martyrdom came into the world early; the first man that died, died for religion.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): The world is a cavern of assassins under the command of the devil; an inn, whose landlord is a brigand, and which bears this sign, “Lies and Murder.” And none are more readily put to death therein than those who proclaim Jesus Christ. You ought to beware of thinking that Christ will achieve things in the earth quietly and softly, when you see that He fought with His own blood, and afterwards all the martyrs.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The Son of God hath pronounced that the cross and tribulation shall always accompany His gospel; we must not pamper and cherish ourselves with a vain hope, as though the state and condition of the Church should be quiet―prosperous, and flourishing here upon earth. Let us, therefore, address ourselves to suffer the like things. And that is added as no small comfort for us, that as God hath marvellously delivered His Church in times past, being afflicted and oppressed so many ways, so He will at this day be present with us also.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Suffering is commonly connected with service in the divine life. It was so invariably in the beginning of the gospel. Then it was deemed impossible for any one to live godly in Christ Jesus and not suffer persecution. Therefore no sooner was Paul converted, than he was told how great things he had to suffer, Acts 9:16.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Paul must suffer for His name’s sake. Those that bear Christ’s name must expect to bear the cross for His name; and those that do most for Christ are often called out to suffer most for Him.

WILLIAM JAY: As real religion is always the same, some degree of the same opposition may be always looked for; and the hatred of the world will be shown as far as they have liberty to express it, and are not restrained by law, or the usages of civilized life.

LORD SHAFTESBURY (1801-1885): The offence of the cross has not ceased.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): My dear brother, you must also be willing to bear Christ’s burden. Now the burden of Christ is His cross, which every Christian must take up. Expect to be reproached, expect to meet with some degree of the scandal of the cross, for the offence of it never ceases. Persecution and reproach are a blessed burden; when your soul loves Jesus, it is a light thing to suffer for Him, and, therefore, never by any cowardly retirement or refusal to profess your faith, evade your share of this honourable load. Woe unto those who say, “I will never be a martyr.” No rest is sweeter than the martyr’s rest. Woe unto those who say, “We will go to heaven by night along a secret road, and so avoid the shame of the cross.” The rest of the Christian is not found in cowardice but in courage; it lies not in providing for ease but in the brave endurance of suffering for the truth.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Faith imparts a steadfastness of purpose, a noble courage, a tranquillity of mind, which no human education or fleshly efforts can supply. Faith makes the righteous as bold as a lion, refusing to recant though horrible torturers and a martyr’s death be the only alternative.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): The hypocrite makes faith a cloak; the martyr makes it a shield…It is true that every Christian is not a martyr, but he has the spirit of martyrdom in him.

WILLIAM GURNALL: We must not spread our sails of profession in a calm, and furl them up when the wind riseth. Pergamos is commended, Revelation 2:13, for her bold profession: I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

WILLIAM JAY: And thus it is with His people now. They are in the world, and this is their field of action; and this is their sphere of duty and trial for a season. There they are to serve their generation, there they are to glorify God, by doing and suffering His will. The world has advanced much in science and civilization, but it retains the same disposition towards real godliness as formerly, and is more perilous in its smiles than in its frowns, in its treacherous embraces than in its avowed hostilities.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The smiling daughters of Moab did more mischief to Israel than all Balak’s frowning warriors. All Philistia could not have blinded Samson if Delilah’s charms had not deluded him.

HENRY CLAY FISH (1820-1877): Dr. Neander, in his History of the Christian Religion during the First Three Centuries, says, with reference to the struggle which the early Christians were obliged to maintain against a conformity to the customs of society: “This struggle might indeed have been partially avoided, had the early church, like the churches of later days, been inclined to humour the world, had they at least accommodated themselves to the prevailing manners, even when opposed to Christianity, merely to obtain more followers. But the first Christians were far more inclined to a haughty abomination of everything heathen, and even of that which had merely an apparent connection with paganism, than to any thing like a lax accommodation.” It is precisely this spirit that is now required. Instead of indulging in a “lax accommodation” to “humour the world,” we need to “come out of the world and be separate.”

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): There is no being a Christian without giving up all for Christ. We must all have the spirit of martyrdom, though we may not all die martyrs.

HENRY CLAY FISH: A return, therefore, of the self-sacrificing spirit of the primitive Christians, is a grand necessity of the times…The prevailing influence is not that of the gospel. And the followers of Jesus are in danger of being contaminated by that influence, and losing “the simplicity that is in Christ.” To resist it, requires moral courage. As large a measure of self-denial is requisite, on our part, to withstand the tide of worldly influence, as was requisite on the part of the early Christians. The martyr spirit is still essential to a life of eminent godliness. And this spirit waits a resurrection. It shall yet be revived. The time is coming when men shall act less from impulse and matters of convenience in religion, and more from principle.

 

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The Traditional Primary Principle of the Protestant Reformation

Posted on February 28, 2014 by The Editor

Colossians 2:8; Isaiah 8:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:15
       Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men.
       To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
       Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

WILLIAM C. BURNS (1815-1868): The word “tradition” has no mysterious or difficult signification; it means something handed down, whether from God to man, or from man to man.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): All are ready to declare, that they do not speak except from God. So the Papists at this day boast with magisterial gravity, that all their inventions are the oracles of the Spirit. Nor does Mahomet assert that he has drawn his dotages except from heaven…But to all this I reply, that we have the Word of the Lord, which ought especially to be consulted.

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): The infallible authority of the Word of God alone was the first and fundamental principle of the Reformation. All the reformations in detail which took place at a later period, as reformations in doctrine, in manners, in the government of the Church, and in worship, were only consequences of this primary principle. One is scarcely able at the present time to form an idea of the sensation produced by this elementary principle, which is so simple in itself, but which had been lost sight of for so many ages…The bold voices of all the Reformers soon proclaimed this powerful principle, at the sound of which Rome is destined to crumble away: “Christians, receive no other doctrines than those which are founded on the express words of Jesus Christ, His apostles, and prophets. No man, no assembly of doctors, are entitled to prescribe new doctrines.”

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): In the times immediately after the Reformation, when the word of God was new to the people, it was much valued…They were not ashamed of their deliverer: all classes felt and acknowledged their obligations to the Bible. In this respect our lot has fallen on worse times: direct appeal to the Scriptures seems to be counted a violation of taste.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Another form which the modern attitude sometimes takes is the suggestion that those of us who are Conservative Evangelicals are “Bibliolators,” that is, we put the Scriptures in the place of the Lord. Their own authority, these critics tell us, is not the Scriptures, but the Lord Himself.
       Now this sounds very impressive and very imposing at first, as if they were but stating that for which we ourselves are contending. It sounds as if it were a highly spiritual position until, again, you begin to examine it carefully. The obvious questions to put to those who make such statements are these: “How do you know the Lord? What do you know about the Lord, apart from the Scriptures? Where do you find Him? How do you know that what you seem to have experienced concerning Him is not a figment of your own imagination, or not the product of some abnormal psychological state, or not the work perchance of some occult power or evil spirit?” It sounds all very impressive and imposing when they say “I go directly to the Lord Himself.”

JOHN CALVIN: When, therefore, false spirits pretend the name of God, we must inquire from the Scriptures whether things are so.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): It is refreshing to observe how the early Reformers appealed to the Scriptures as the supreme arbiter.

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: “How is it possible,” asked the Reformers, “to distinguish between what is human in tradition, and what is divine, unless by the Scriptures of God?”

E. W. BULLINGER (1837-1913): It was the one great question which underlay all others at the Reformation. For, what was the Reformation in its essence? Was it not just the abandonment of human authority for Divine authority?

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ: The Reformers and the Apostles held up the Word of God alone for light, just as they hold up the sacrifice of Christ alone for righteousness. To attempt to mix human authority with this absolute authority of God, or human righteousness with this perfect righteousness of Christ, is to corrupt Christianity in its two foundations.

HUGH LATIMER (1483-1555): Let us beware of the bypaths of human tradition, filled of stones, brambles, and uprooted trees. Let us follow the straight road of the Word.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We hold it a sin to “take for doctrines the commandments of men,” Colossians 2:22; Titus 1:14. We give no heed to the traditions that are handed down to us. If our opponent cannot quote text or verse for anything he advances, we hold no argument with him.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The most exquisite deceivers are they, who under the shadow of religion do set forth men’s traditions.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): If a teaching is opposed to Scripture, whatever be its origin—traditions, custom, kings, sophists, Satan, or even an angel from heaven—all from whom it proceeds must be accursed.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It has ever been a special design of Satan to lead God’s people away from Scripture. He will use anything and everything—tradition, the church so-called, expediency, human reason, popular opinion, reputation and influence, character, position, and usefulness—all those he will use to get the heart and conscience away from that one golden sentence—that divine, eternal motto, “It is written.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Thus, our Lord gave His opponents Scripture instead of tradition.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It is always wrong to put tradition before truth―the Scripture is our sole authority, our only authority, I say this to emphasize that we do not accept tradition as an authority in any sense of that term.

WILLIAM C. BURNS: Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught―not the traditions of men, not the traditions of Rome, not the traditions of your fathers, Christ’s faithful martyrs though they were. No―your faith lies here, within the boards of this Book.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): The faith will totter if the authority of the Holy Scriptures loses its hold on men. We must surrender ourselves to the authority of Holy Scripture, for it can neither mislead nor be misled.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: We believe the Bible. We take it authoritatively. We don’t impose our philosophies and ideas upon it, and we’re the only people who are doing this. God has given us this solemn task of guarding and protecting and defending this faith, in this present evil age in which we find ourselves. But, my friends, we’re not only the guardians and custodians of the faith of the Bible itself. We are the representatives and the successors of the glorious men who fought this same fight, the good fight of faith in centuries past. We are standing in the position of the Protestant Reformers. Are we accepting this modern idea that the Reformation was the greatest tragedy that ever happened?

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Never forget the principles of the Protestant Reformation―and let nothing tempt you to forsake them.

 

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Roman Catholicism – The Great Church of Human Tradition

Posted on February 24, 2014 by The Editor

Mark 7:5-7,13
      Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
      He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men…Making the word of God of none effect through your traditions which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The doctrine of the Pharisees may be summed up in three words—they were formalists, tradition-worshippers, and self-righteous. They attached such weight to the traditions of men that they practically regarded them of more importance than the inspired writings of the Old Testament.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): They observed the traditions of the elders, were still adding to them; and the consequence was―as it will always be in such a case―that they were so pleased with their own inventions, as to prefer them to the positive commands of God.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They enforced the observation of their own impositions as much as of God’s institutions…Where will men stop, when once they have made the word of God give way to their tradition?

J. C. RYLE: All this time, be it remembered, they did not formally deny any part of the Old Testament Scripture. But they brought in, over and above it, so much of human invention, that they virtually put Scripture aside, and buried it under their own traditions. This is the sort of religion, of which our Lord says to the Apostles, “take heed and beware,” Mark 8:15. How awful the picture of Scribes and Pharisees, and their religion! But who can wonder? The Scripture was made of none effect by man’s traditions―Do we not see the same thing coming out in after times, in the form of Romanism?

J. H. MERLE d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): Rome places human tradition above the Word of God.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Roman Catholicism puts the Church, its tradition and its interpretation of Scripture first…Protestantism teaches the “universal priesthood of all believers” and the right of every man to read the Scripture for himself and to interpret it under the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Rome denies that completely and absolutely…She does not believe, as true Protestants do, that revelation ended with what we have in the New Testament. She claims a continuing and a continuous revelation. She therefore does not hesitate to say that you must add to the truth in the Scriptures. While saying that the Bible is the Word of God, she claims that her tradition, which she adds on, is equally authoritative and equally binding.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): They reproach and defame the Scripture, calling it an uncertain thing, a dead letter, an insufficient guide of itself, without their tradition.

E. J. POOLE-CONNOR (1872-1962): The matter is nothing short of vital―where is authority for the Christian faith to be found? “In the Scriptures, plus tradition and Papal decrees,” replies the Romanist.

HUGH LATIMER (1483-1555): They make a mingling of the way of God and man’s way together; a mingle-mangle, as men serve pigs in my country―they mingle-mangle the Word with man’s invention and traditions…If they say, “This was done by a council, determined in a council;” what is it the better, if the council be wicked?

E. W. BULLINGER (1837-1913): After exploring several special objects in the [Vatican] Library…[I] was examining the ceiling, which was arched and was very gaudily painted with pictures of all the Councils of the Church from the Council of Nicea to that of the Council of Trent…In the first, that of the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., no prelate or potentate occupies the chair. The Bishop of Rome and the Emperor Constantine both declined to preside, and the Bible is placed on the chair. In the succeeding pictures man becomes more and more prominent, the Bible more and more insignificant. In the second picture, it is placed by the side of the chair; and it gets smaller and smaller; until, at the Council of Trent in 1545 A.D., it vanishes altogether. This is―though doubtless undesigned―a fitting symbolical representation of the relations between the Church and the Bible! As the one increases in authority, the authority of the other decreases.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): The ungodly papists prefer the authority of the church far above God’s Word; a blasphemy abominable and not to be endured…These adulators put the pope above Scripture and say that he cannot err. In that case Scripture perishes, and nothing is left in the Church save the word of man.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Religion based on human authority is worthless―doctrines and ordinances are only to be accepted when the divine Word supports them, and they are to be accepted for that reason only.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: There is no other foundation of faith but this; and the faith that rests on any other is not true faith at all. A faith resting on human tradition—on the authority of the Church—on the authority of so-called general councils—on the clergy—or on learned men, is not divine faith, but mere superstition; it is a faith which stands “in the wisdom of men,” and not “in the power of God,” I Corinthians 2:5.

C. H. SPURGEON: Thus, our Lord gave his opponents Scripture instead of tradition.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Let not authority from man, but evidence from the Word, conclude thy judgment; that is but a shore, this a foundation. Quote the Scripture rather than men for thy judgment.

RICHARD SIBBES (1577-1635): Too much respect to man was one of the inlets of popery.

C. H. SPURGEON: We think too much of God’s foes and talk of them with too much respect. Who is this pope of Rome? His Holiness? Call him not so, but call him His Blasphemy! His Profanity! His Impudence! What are he and his cardinals, and his legates, but the image and incarnation of Antichrist, to be in due time cast with the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire?

MARTIN LUTHER: I once said that the pope was the vicar of Christ; now, I say that he is the enemy of the Lord, and the apostle of the devil…Our unthankfulness for, and light esteem of God’s Word, will do more than anything to help the pope into the saddle again―the state of the church was terrible under the pope.

C. H. SPURGEON: Holy Scripture must be our weapon against the Church of traditions: nothing will overthrow Rome but the Word of the Lord.

MARTIN LUTHER: It was by the Word the world was overcome, by the Word the church has been saved, and by the Word will she be re-established.

 

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The Necessity of True Christian Zeal in Evil Times

Posted on February 19, 2014 by The Editor

Titus 2:11-14
       For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Syriac version renders it, “a new people.” And they who are redeemed and purified by Christ, through the power of his grace upon them, become a people “zealous of good works;” not in order to [gain] their justification and salvation, but in obedience to the will of God, and to testify their subjection and gratitude to Him, and for His honour and glory, and for the credit of religion, and the good of men. These not only perform them, but perform them from principles of truth and love, and with a zeal for the glory of God, and the honour of his Gospel.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): Zeal is the heat or tension of the affections; it is a holy warmth, whereby our love and anger are drawn out to the utmost for God, and His glory.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): It maketh us spare no cost, yea, it judgeth that best done for God which costs us most, as David would not serve God with that which cost nothing, 2 Samuel 24:25. That is worth nothing that cost nothing in religion…Therefore they that will be at no cost for Christ, maintaining His truth, upholding His worship, relieving His people, have no zeal.

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): He who has no zeal has no love to God.

JOHN ROBINSON (1575-1625): As nothing lives without natural heat; so neither does he live the life of Christ indeed who is destitute of Christian zeal to warm him in his affections and actions―especially in the matter of God’s worship and service; in which, whether wrong or right, lukewarmness is odious and loathsome. The Lord will spue out of His mouth the lukewarm, Revelation 3:16.

THOMAS WILSON (1601-1653): Lukewarm men call zeal fury; God’s Spirit names it a “live coal,” that hath a most vehement flame, Isaiah 6:6.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): A childlike heart is a zealous heart. It is impatient of God’s dishonour. Moses was cool in his own cause, but hot in God’s. When the people of Israel had wrought folly in the golden calf, he broke the tables. As we shall answer for idle words, so we shall answer for sinful silence. It is dangerous in this sense to be possessed with a dumb devil. David says that the zeal of God’s house had eaten him up, Psalm 69:9. Many Christians, whose zeal once had almost eaten them up, now they have eaten up their zeal. Let some talk of bitterness, but I can never believe that he has the heart of a child in him, that can be patient when God’s glory suffers…Though we should be silent under God’s displeasure, we must not be silent under His dishonour.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): And I am sure zealous lovers of truth count it as melancholy living in evil times, when that is fallen in the streets.

THOMAS MANTON: Oh! we should not let one dust of truth perish. This is to be zealous for the truth, standing to, and striving for the defence thereof, in our way and place. If God had not raised up zealous instruments in every age to plead for his truth, what a sad case would the church have been in? Truth would have been buried under a great heap of prejudices, and Christ’s kingdom have been crushed in the very egg, and religion strangled in the cradle. But there is a cloud of witnesses gone before us.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): It is desirable to enlist the feelings on the side of truth and excellence. Impulse is useful and even necessary to exertion and success; but in proportion to its force, it requires guidance, if not restraint. It is good to be always zealously affected in a good thing; but, without knowledge, zeal may even in a good cause carry us astray; so that our good may be evil spoken of, and even produce evil…We are not therefore pleading for a zeal without knowledge; but we are not satisfied with a knowledge without zeal.

ASAHEL NETTLETON (1783-1844): Zeal without prudence will defeat its own end. Zeal, untempered with love and compassion for souls, will soon degenerate into harshness and cruelty of manner and expression, which will have no other effect on an audience than scolding, or even profane swearing.

THOMAS MANTON: The true cause of holy zeal is love to God and what belongs to God…It quickens us to our duty, and makes us publicly active for God: Galatians 4:18, It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. Oh! how remiss and sluggish would we be otherwise in matters of God’s kingdom and glory, if we had not a strong degree of love to stir us up to appear for God, in the worst times, and in the way and places that is proper for us! Paul, when he saw the whole city given to idolatry, it is said, his “spirit was stirred in him,” Acts 17:16; he could not contain; and again, Acts 18:5, Paul “was pressed in spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.”

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): I doubt not the warmth of his zeal, in this respect, has disgusted many in the present day, wherein a seeming candour and forbearance is pleaded for and extended to almost every sentiment, except the truths in which Paul gloried. There is little doubt but many, if they had the courage and honesty to speak out, would add Paul himself to the list of those whom they despise as uncharitable and hot-brained bigots; for who has offended more than he against the rules of that indifference to error which is at present is miscalled charity?

JOHN ROBINSON: Worldly wise men despise zeal, as prejudicial to wisdom and discretion.

THOMAS MANTON: Zeal for God is so little understood by men of the world, that it always draws down opposition upon those who are inspired with it; they are sure to be accused of sinister motives, or of hypocrisy, or being out of their senses.

THOMAS WILSON: Festus called Paul mad with a loud voice, when he spoke but words of truth and soberness, Acts 26:24,25. Christ’s kinsmen thought that he was beside himself, Mark 3:21.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Lastly, let us be zealous: “Let not thy hands be slack,” Zephaniah 3:16. Now is the time when every Christian should do more for God than ever. Let us plan great things for God, and let us expect great things from God. “Let not thine hands be slack.”

SELINA HASTINGS, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON (1707-1791): None know how to prize Christ but those who are zealous in good works.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Has God wrought in you a spirit of zeal and love? Has He wrought in you a love to His name, and a zeal for His cause?

 

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True Christian Meditation is not Contemplative Mysticism

Posted on February 15, 2014 by The Editor

Psalm 1:2; Psalm 119:99; Psalm 39:3,4
       His delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
       I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
      My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, LORD, make me to know my end.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): King David was fond of retirement, and was much alone in meditation and prayer.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Let us inquire what meditation is, because the practice and knowledge of the duty is almost become a stranger to us.

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): Meditation on the Word of God is the chief means of our growth in grace.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The word meditate implies a deep, and serious, and affectionate thoughtfulness about it: see Psalm 19:14; Psalm 49:3; Proverbs 24:2; Isaiah 33:18.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): It is not a few transient thoughts that are quickly gone.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Meditation is a studious act of the mind, searching the knowledge of a hidden truth by the discourse of reason. A most sweet exercise to those that are any with acquainted with it, who could even wish themselves pent up in voluntary prison-walls of divine meditation. This―this is that which makes a man see far into God’s secrets, and enjoy both God and himself with unspeakable comfort.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): What we love we love to think of; by this it appeared that David loved the Word of God, that it was his meditation.

THOMAS MANTON: But mark, first, the Word was his delight, and then his meditation.

THOMAS WATSON: How shall we be able to meditate? Get a love for spiritual things…Many say they cannot meditate because they lack memory; but is it not rather because they lack affection? If they loved the things of God, they would make them their continual study and meditation.

THOMAS MANTON: Delight causeth meditation, and meditation increaseth delight. A man that delighteth in the law of God, will exercise his mind therein. Our thoughts follow our affections. He that findeth a heart to this work, will find a head. Delight will set the mind at work; for we are more apt to muse and pause upon that which is pleasing to us. Why are not holy thoughts as natural and as kindly to us as carnal? The defect is in the heart.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): A natural man is said not to know God, or the things of God; he may know them notionally, but he knows them not affectionately. A sensual soul can have no delight in a spiritual law. To be sensual and not to have the Spirit are inseparable, Jude 19. Natural men may indeed meditate upon the law and truth of God, but without delight in it; if they take any pleasure in it, it is only as it is knowledge, not as it is a rule…and if they have a delight, it is not in the duties that stream from that knowledge; they design the furnishing of their understandings, not the quickening of their affections—like idle boys that strike fire, not to warm themselves by the heat, but to sport themselves with the sparks. Whereas, a gracious soul accounts not only his meditation, or the operations of his soul about God and His will to be sweet, but He hath a joy in the object of that meditation. Many have the knowledge of God, who have no delight in Him or His will.

THOMAS MANTON: Meditation is in order to practice; and if it be right, it will beget a respect to the ways of God. We do not meditate, that we may rest in contemplation, but in order to obedience: “Thou shalt meditate in the book of the law day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein,” Joshua 1:8. So, “think of these things, do these things,” Philippians 4:8,9…Meditation is not a flourishing of the wit, that we may please the fancy by playing with divine truths―nor yet acquainting ourselves with the Word, that we may speak of it in company―nor merely to store ourselves with curious notions, and subtle inquiries; study searcheth out a truth, but meditation improveth it for practical use…In hiding the word in our hearts there must be a right end; our knowledge of it, and delight in it, must be directed to practice.

THOMAS WATSON: Meditation produces reformation. I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies, Psalm 119:59.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Meditation is the machine in which the raw material of knowledge is converted to the best uses. By reading, research, and study, we gather the grapes; but it is by meditation we press out the juice of those grapes, and obtain the wine.

JOHN TRAPP: Make the best of what you read, by serious and set meditation thereupon. David hereby became wiser than his teachers, elders, and enemies, Psalm 119:98-100. And why? When the Lord spake once he heard him twice, Psalm 72:11―to wit, by an after-meditation.

THOMAS WATSON: As the bee sucks the flower, so by meditation we suck out the sweetness of a truth. It is not the receiving the meat into the mouth, but the digesting of it which makes it nutritional.

C. H. SPURGEON: Meditation is of all things the most soul-fattening when combined with prayer.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): From meditation go to prayer. Indeed, a soul in meditation is on his way to prayer; that duty leads the Christian to this, and this brings help to that.

THOMAS WATSON: Meditation is a help to prayer. Gerson calls it the nurse of prayer. Meditation is like oil to the lamp; the lamp of prayer will soon go out unless meditation cherish and support it. Meditation and prayer are like two [turtle-doves]―if you separate one the other dies…Meditation hath a double benefit in it―it pours in and pours out; first it pours good thoughts into the mind, and then it pours out those thoughts again into prayer; meditation first furnisheth with matter to pray and then it furnisheth with a heart to pray. “I was musing,” saith David, and the very next words are a prayer, “Lord, make me to know mine end.”

RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): When we read, that Isaac went out to meditate in the field, Genesis 24:63, the margin says to pray, for the Hebrew word signifies both…And our speaking to ourselves in meditation, should go before our speaking to God in prayer.

THOMAS WATSON: Prayer is the child of meditation: meditation leads the van, and prayer brings up the rear.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Meditation is the grand means of our growth in grace; without it, prayer itself is an empty service.

C. H. SPURGEON: Why remain a babe in grace? Grow up…The Puritans were abundant in meditation and prayer; and there were giants on the earth in those days.

 

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Sanctified Thought Control

Posted on February 13, 2014 by The Editor

Psalm 94:11; Proverbs 24:9; Jeremiah 4:14; Psalm 119:113
       The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
       The thought of foolishness is sin.
       How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?
       I hate vain thoughts; but thy law do I love.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Here we have, David’s dread of the risings of sin, and the first beginnings of it: I hate vain thoughts. He does not mean that he hated them in others, for there he could not discern them, but he hated them in his own heart. Every good man makes conscience of his thoughts, for they are words to God. Vain thoughts, how light soever most make of them, are sinful and hurtful, and therefore we should account them hateful and dreadful, for they not only divert the mind from that which is good but open the door to all evil, Jeremiah 4:14.

WILLIAM SECKER (died 1681): Vain thoughts defile the heart as well as vile thoughts.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Let us see what vanity is.
It is taken for unprofitableness. So, Ecclesiastes 1:2,3, “All is vanity,” because there is “no profit in them under the sun.” Vanity is taken for lightness. “Lighter than vanity,” is a phrase used, Psalm 62:9; and whom is it spoken of?―Of men; and if anything in them be lighter than other, it is their thoughts, which swim in the uppermost parts, float at the top, are as the scum of the heart. When all the best, and wisest, and deepest, and solidest thoughts in Belshazzar, a prince, were weighed, they were found too light, Daniel 5:27. Vanity is put for folly. So, Proverbs 12:11, “vain men” is made all one with men “void of understanding.” Vanity is put for inconstancy and frailty; therefore vanity and a shadow are made synonymous, Psalm 144:4. Such are our thoughts, flitting and perishing, as bubbles: “All their thoughts perish.” Lastly, they are wicked and sinful. Vanity is yoked with wickedness, and vain men and sons of Belial are all one, 2 Chronicles 13:7.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): The thought of foolishness is sin; not only the thought of wickedness, but foolishness. Thoughts are the firstborn of the soul, the immediate issues of the mind; yet we lavish them away upon every trifle. Follow men all the day long, and take account of their thoughts. Oh! what madness and folly are in all the musings they are conscious of―If we did judge as God judges, all the thoughts, reasonings, discourses of the mind, if they were set down in a table, we might write at the bottom, Here is the sum and total account of all: nothing but vanity.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): What a mass of vanity should we find in our minds, if we could bring our thoughts in the space of one day, even only one hour, to account? How many foolish thoughts with our wisdom, ignorant thoughts with our knowledge, worldly thoughts with our heavenliness, hypocritical thoughts with our religion, and proud thoughts with our humiliations? Our hearts would be like a grotto, furnished with monstrous and ridiculous pictures; or as the wall in Ezekiel’s vision portrayed with every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, Ezekiel 8:10-12.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Some of our thoughts are specially vain in the sense of vain glory, pride, conceit, and self trust; others in the sense of bringing disappointment, such as fond ambition, sinful dreaming, and confidence in man; others in the sense of emptiness and frivolity, such as the idle thoughts and vacant romancing in which so many indulge; and, yet once more, too many of our thoughts are vain in the sense of being sinful, evil, and foolish.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Mark, David doth not say he is free from vain thoughts, but he “hates” them, he likes their company no better than one would a pack of thieves that break into his house.

MATTHEW HENRY: He hated them; he did not countenance them, nor give them any entertainment, but did what he could to keep them out, or at least to keep them under.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): The spiritual mind recoils at them; such thoughts will intrude from time to time, but they are unwelcome and distressing, and are immediately thrust out; while other subjects, from the word of God, are stored up in readiness to occupy the mind more profitably and pleasantly during the hours of leisure and retirement. There is no better test of our true character, than the habitual effect of “vain thoughts” upon our minds―whether we love and indulge them, or abhor, and watch and pray against them.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): A godly man may have roving thoughts in duty. Sad experience proves this; the thoughts will be dancing up and down in prayer…The heart is like quicksilver which will not fix. It is hard to tie two good thoughts together; we cannot lock our hearts so close, but that distracting thoughts, like wind, will get in.

THOMAS MANTON: Vain thoughts will be more ready with us, unless the word dwell richly in our hearts; “A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things,” Matthew 12:35. The workings of our spirits are as our treasure and stock. The mind works upon what it finds in itself, as a mill grinds whatsoever is put into it, be it chaff or corn. Therefore, if we would prevent wicked thoughts, and musings of vanity all the day long, we must hide the Word in our heart.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Let the Word be kept “in the midst of the heart,” Proverbs 4:20-22.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): The heart cannot be reduced to a vacuum; if spiritual things do not occupy it, carnal things will…Hence we see the force of the wise man’s precept, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life,” Proverbs 4:23. Look well to the fountain, or the streams will in vain be expected to be pure. To watch our words and actions to the neglect of our hearts will be unavailing.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): First the fountain, then the streams: first the heart, then the life-course…The same prescription for the same disease occurs in that great hymn of Hebrews, Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

MATTHEW HENRY: “Thy law do I love,” which forbids those vain thoughts, and threatens them. The more we love the law of God the more we shall get the mastery of our vain thoughts, the more hateful they will be to us, as being contrary to the whole law, and the more watchful we shall be against them, lest they draw us from that which we love.

J. C. PHILPOT (1802-1869): Now if you carried about with you a deep and daily sense that God saw every thought, marked every movement, heard every word, and observed every action, this sense of His presence would put a restraint upon your light, trifling, and foolish spirit. You would watch your thoughts, your words, your actions, as living under a sense of God’s heart-searching eye.

 

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