Lessons Learned in the School of Affliction

Posted on September 1, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 119:64-71; Psalm 94:12

The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.

WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800): He speaks not of that learning which is gotten by hearing or reading of God’s Word; but of the learning which he had gotten by experience; that he had felt the truth and comfort of God’s Word more effectual and lively in trouble than he could do without trouble; which also made him more godly, wise, and religious when the trouble was gone.

R. BEACON (circa 1857): The school of affliction, where the best lessons of faith are learned, is necessary, because even God’s saints do not learn in any other way—at least, few learn deeply, save in that school. Man’s nature being so inveterately evil, few lessons are learnt without tears; the Father has to chasten every son He receives.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): The believer, viewing everything God sends in the light of necessary discipline, cheerfully acquiesces to the wisdom and righteousness of the divine procedure. Discipline by trial is an essential element in the Christian’s sanctification and instruction. As a man, our Lord exemplified this truth in His own personal history. We read that, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,” Hebrews 5:8. The lesson Christ learned, was the lesson of obedience to the will of His Father in suffering. As the curse grew before Him to more awful proportions, He came to learn more of the evil of sin and of the difficulties of redemption, and so more deeply the lesson of obedience—doing, and suffering, the will of God. Thus our blessed Lord was perfected through suffering. And this, beloved, is the school in which the “many sons” Christ is bringing to glory, learn submission to the Father’s will.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It is in affliction chiefly that the children of God attain to any considerable eminence in religion.

GEORGE BOWEN (1816-1888): When Jonah came up from the depths of ocean, he showed that he had learned the statutes of God, Jonah Chapter 2. One could not go too deep to get such knowledge as he obtained. Nothing now could hinder him from going to Nineveh…He still, however, needed further affliction; for there were some statutes not yet learned. Some gourds were to wither, and he was to descend into another vale of humiliation, Jonah 4:7. Even the profoundest affliction does not, perhaps, teach us everything; a mistake we sometimes make.

NATHANIEL VINCENT (1639-1697): Saints are great gainers by affliction, because “godliness,” which is “great gain,” is “profitable for all things,” and is more powerful than before. The rod of correction, by a miracle of grace, like that of Aaron’s rod, buds and blossoms, and brings forth the fruits of righteousness, Numbers 17:8.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The discipline which was fitting in the case of Christ, the Head, cannot be without its need and its blessing in the case of us, His members. There are many deep truths of God and many holy lessons of practical Christianity to be learned in the pathway trodden by the Saviour, and they can be learned on no other path than the path of afflictive discipline. But, oh, how needful and how wholesome is this discipline! Who would want to be exempt from it after plucking and tasting the fruit that clusters so richly on the blossoming rod! If submission to the divine will is ever learned, beyond all question it is where Christ learned it—by the things which we suffer.

JOHN FARMER (circa 1744): I shall show the various benefits of affliction, when it is sanctified by the Spirit of God to those persons who are exercised by it. God has made affliction the occasion of converting sinners, and bringing them into a spiritual acquaintance with Christ his Son, see Isaiah 48:10. After conversion, He sanctifies an afflicted state to the saints, to weaken the remains of indwelling sin in them, and make them afraid of sinning against Him in future time. In afflicting the saints, God increases that good work of grace, which His Spirit has implanted in them. He causes His saints to grow in grace, when He corrects them with the rod of sorrow; He assimilates and makes the saints like unto Himself, in a greater degree, by temporal troubles and distresses, Hebrews 12:10,11. God afflicts the saints for the improvement of their knowledge in divine things—to make them better acquainted with the perfections of His nature, and to make them more conformed to Christ His Son. God brings them unto Him with greater nearness and frequency, by prayer and supplication, and oftentimes discovers to the saints, in the season of their affliction, in a clearer manner, that grace which He has implanted in them, and refreshes their souls with the consolations of His Spirit. Lastly, God afflicts the saints, to divide their hearts more from the love of the world, and to make them more meet for heaven.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): A thousand benefits have come to us through our pains and griefs, and among the rest is this—that we have thus been schooled in the law. “That I might learn thy statutes.” These we have come to know, and to keep, by feeling the smart of the rod.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Oh, what holy fruit this is: the will of God accomplished in us! The pathway may be through the furnace, whitened seven-fold with the heat, but your will has become more pliant with the will of your Heavenly Father. If the Christian character has become purified, the graces of the Holy Spirit strengthened, and a wider and freer scope given to faith, hope, and love, then should we not rejoice in tribulation?

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Affliction is one of God’s medicines. By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.

ABRAHAM WRIGHT (1611-1690): What fools are we then, to frown upon our afflictions! What do we care how bitter that potion be that brings health?

C. H. SPURGEON: We prayed the Lord to teach us, and now we see how He has already been doing it. Truly He has dealt well with us, for He has dealt wisely with us. We have been kept from the ignorance of the greasy-hearted by our trials, and this, if there were nothing else, is just cause for constant gratitude.

CHRISTOPHER FOWLER (1610-1678): “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.” Whom God doth correct and teach, him He loves—and he is blessed. Sanctified troubles are tokens of special love.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Thus, when we trace the discipline to its necessity, the chastisement to the evil it was designed to correct, meek and lowly hearts can say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”

J. C. RYLE: Let us beware of murmuring in the time of trouble.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The Son of God drank a deeper, more bitter cup, and trod a more suffering path than you, and yet could say, “Father…not my will, but thine, be done,” Luke 22:42. Will you then shrink from training and discipline, through whose courses God led the Elder Brother and High Priest of our profession?

C. H. SPURGEON: If we would be scholars, we must be sufferers.

 

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Onesiphorus

Posted on August 25, 2023 by The Editor

2 Timothy 4:19; 2 Timothy 1:16-18

Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Onesiphorus appears to have been an Ephesian of wealth and distinction, and who had in various ways, and on different occasions, manifested a generous concern for the apostle’s welfare.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Whatever brought Onesiphorus from Ephesus to Rome, we are left in no doubt as to what he did before he left Rome and returned to Ephesus.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When others did not know Paul because he was a prisoner, Onesiphorus knew him. He sought him out diligently—though probably the population at that time was not less, but perhaps far more than four millions of people.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The apostle was not in any particular place of confinement, but had a lodging where he was kept by a soldier, and which with some difficulty Onesiphorus found out: the manner of his bonds was this; he had a long chain fastened at one end to his right arm, and at the other to the left arm of the soldier that kept him, who constantly attended him in this form, wherever he went.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Paul might be the greatest of the apostles to Onesiphorus, and to you and to me, but he was only “Number So and So” to the soldier who was chained night and day to Paul’s right hand.

C. H. SPURGEON: You could not tell in Rome where a prisoner was. The registers were not open to investigation. You had to go from prison to prison, and pay the guards to get admission, or to be told who might be there, and Onesiphorus was determined to find Paul. I suppose that he went to the Mamertine, a dungeon in which some of us have been—one dungeon under the bottom of another. The first one has no light, except through a round hole at the top, and the second has a round hole through which you drop into the lower one. We think that Paul was there. And then there is the Palatine prison, which was at the guard-house of the Praetorian guards, near the palace on the Palatine Hill. There Paul certainly was.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Paul was now almost entirely alone. “Only Luke is with me,” he says, 2 Timothy 4:11. But the Lord thought of his deserted and solitary servant. A bright beam, as from the fountain of love, shines amidst the darkness and dreariness of his prison. There was one faithful amidst the general defection, and one who was not ashamed of the apostle’s chain. How peculiarly sweet and refreshing to the heart of the apostle must the ministry of Onesiphorus have been at this time!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Paul’s testimony of Onesiphorus, is short, but sweet.

JOHN GILL: “For he oft refreshed me.”—Both with his Christian visits, and spiritual conversation, which to the apostle, in the heat of his affliction and persecution, were like a fan in hot weather, cooling and reviving, as the word signifies; and also by supplying him with the necessaries of life, as food and raiment, or money to purchase them. Onesiphorus answered to his name, which in Greek, signifies, “one that brings profit.”

C. H. SPURGEON: He came to Paul, and talked with him, and probably sang with him, and prayed with him, I have no doubt.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “And was not ashamed of my chain.” This is a proof, not only of his liberality, but of his zeal; seeing that he cheerfully exposed himself to danger and the reproach of men, in order to assist Paul.

EDWARD PAYSON: His kindness, too, displayed at a time when cool friends prudently kept at a distance, and many of his own countrymen were among his bitterest enemies, made a deep impression upon the grateful heart of Paul.

JOHN GILL: The apostle does not propose to requite him himself; he knew it was out of his power; but he had an interest in the Lord, and at the throne of grace; and he makes use of it.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Saints are the honest debtors we can deal with; they will pay you in their own coin. He that shows any kindness to a saint is sure to have God for his paymaster; for it is their way to turn over their debts to God, and engage Him to discharge their score to man. Onesiphorus had been a kind friend to Paul, and what does Paul do for him? To prayer he goes, and desires God to pay his debts.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Paul prays for Onesiphorus himself, and for his house.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Onesiphorus was no doubt a Christian, and Paul prayed for him, “that he might find mercy of the Lord in that day”—the time of future rewards. So filled with gratitude was the heart of the apostle for the special kindness of Onesiphorus, when he risked his own life in finding him out, and in ministering to him in prison, that he prayed for a reward that would be the reflection of, and that would commemorate forever, that noble service of love.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): How heartily prayed Paul for Onesiphorus! Mercy, the fruit of God’s faithfulness, covenant kindness—So Paul prayed for Onesiphorus. And such prayers could not be ineffectual.

JOHN CALVIN: From this prayer, we infer that the good offices done to the saints are not thrown away, even though they cannot recompense them; for, when he prays to God to reward them, this carries in it the force of a promise. Paul testifies his gratitude, by desiring that God will grant the remuneration, because he is unable to pay.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): When we can make no other return to our kind friends, we are bound at least to recommend them in our prayers to the Saviour’s mercy, and beg Him to reward them “in that day,” when Jesus comes to reward every kindness shown to His servants.

MATTHEW HENRY: Christ will account all the good offices done to His poor members as done to Himself.

C. H. SPURGEON: And if you need proof of that, let me remind you that our Saviour’s own description of the Day of Judgment runs thus, “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me food: I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you clothed Me: I was sick, and you visited Me: I was in prison, and you came unto Me,” Matthew 25:34-36. This, therefore, is evidence that they were blessed of the Father!

THOMAS COKE: How dear is one sincere servant of Christ to another, as partakers of the same faith, and embarked in the same noble cause! How greatly do they all need, and how heartily do they wish, and daily pray for grace, mercy, and peace to be multiplied to one another, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! How affectionately are they desirous of each other’s company, especially in times of great tribulation! How tenderly do they sympathize one with another in their afflictions!—May the Lord be gracious to such and their families; and grant them mercy!

 

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Singing in the Ways of the Lord

Posted on August 18, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 98:1; Psalm 138:5

O sing unto the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things.

Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): These are words of promise as well as of prediction. Therefore, we may consider these words as containing one of the exceeding great and precious promises upon which He has called us to hope, and which are all “yea and amen in Christ Jesus, to the glory of God by us,” 2 Corinthians 1:20. The Psalmist tells us the people of God shall sing in the ways of the Lord. First, we understand the “ways of the Lord,” to include the way in which God walks with regard to us—His ways in nature, in His varied dealings with us, and in the different actions of His providence and grace, as well as the ways which He has appointed and commanded His people to walk in with regard to Himself.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): By “the ways of the Lord,” David sometimes means the happy and prosperous issue of affairs, but more frequently he uses this expression to denote the rule of a holy and righteous life.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The ways of the Lord—the straight ways. “For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them,” Hosea 14:9.

WILLIAM JAY: Secondly, they not only walk in the ways of the Lord, but sing in them. This implies acquiescence, approbation, satisfaction, pleasure, delight. Whence springs this singing in the ways of the Lord? We may look after some of the near sources of it. The first of which is conviction. It is a reasonable service; and as the Christian is able to give a reason of the hope which is in him, so is he also able to give a reason of his joy.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): They shall make the ways of the Lord—His glorious acts—the subject of their songs.

WILLIAM JAY: Hence, says the apostle, “They joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have received the atonement,” Romans 5:11. Secondly, it arises from renovation. He is born of God, and therefore hungers and thirsts after righteousness; therefore he feeds—yea, he not only feeds, but feasts—upon the provision of the gospel. He finds God’s words, and he eats them, and they are to him the joy and rejoicing of his heart. Thirdly, it is derived from experience. He has tasted that the Lord is gracious: this taste has provoked appetite, and increased it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We learn by experience what peace and joy there are in being conformed to God’s will. There is a vast difference between a theoretical conviction that God’s will is “good, and acceptable, and perfect” and actually proving it to be so for ourselves, yet that is what we do, just so far as we heed the injunction “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” Romans 12:2 Just so far as we render a willing and more constant obedience to this exhortation, we not only prove for ourselves that God’s commandments “are not grievous,” 1 John 5:3, but we discover that “in keeping of them there is great reward,” Psalm 19:11—that is, in this life. Then it is that we “sing in the ways of the LORD.” Then it is that we obtain a personal acquaintance, an experimental realization of the goodness, the acceptableness, and perfection of the divine will. We determine for ourselves both by inward relish and outward practice the excellence of His will…We prove that God’s will contains everything necessary to make us spiritually complete and to be all that we ought to be.

WILLIAM JAY: And there is much to cause the Christian to sing in the ways of the Lord, when he considers his former experience, when he reviews the dealings of God with him, the surprising instances of goodness he has met with, in which the Lord has been not only better to him than his fears, but surpassing his hopes, and has done exceeding abundantly above what he could either ask or think. Fourthly, this singing flows from fellowship. “As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend,” Proverbs 27:17; “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel,” Proverbs 27:9.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Walking with God is a pleasant walk, the ways of wisdom are called “ways of pleasantness,” Proverbs 3:17…Walking with God is like walking among beds of spices, which send forth a fragrant perfume. This is it which brings peace, Acts 9:31, “Walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.” While we walk with God, what sweet music doth the bird of conscience make in our breast!

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): We drudge in the ways of sin. But we shall sing “in the ways of the LORD.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If your pleasure is not “in the ways of the Lord,” then, surely, you cannot know much about those ways. You must be a stranger to them and you must be walking in paths which may look like the ways of God, but are not really so. I do not say that those who know the Lord are always happy, but I say that they are always “the seed that the Lord God has blessed,” Isaiah 61:9—and when the ways get very tough, and become the paths of sufferings, and the pains are frequent and incessant, then still sing! No music that goes up to the Throne of God is sweeter in Jehovah’s ears than the song of suffering saints…Saints have often sung God’s high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High?

WILLIAM JAY: Fifthly, this singing springs from his prospects and anticipations. The Christian while here has some Bethel visits, and some of Pisgah’s views; but there are better things for him still in reserve, and therefore his prospects cheer and animate him. Oh to see Jesus as He is! Oh to be like Him! Oh to be ever with the Lord, and to have no more to do with a wicked world without and a wicked heart within! Oh to be as innocent as Adam in Paradise, and as holy as the Son of God Himself!—what an expectation is here!

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): There we shall see His face,

And never, never sin:

There from the river of His grace

 Drink endless pleasure in.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Tell me, ye who have been redeemed from death and hell, whether every feeling of your souls should not be swallowed up in joy? Why are we not “singing in the ways of the Lord?” Is it not said of true Christians, that, though they have never seen Jesus Christ, “yet, believing in him, they rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory,” 1 Peter 1:8.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): I pity the professed Christian who has not a song in his heart, who never ‘feels like singing.’ It seems to me if we are truly children of God, we will want to sing about it.

 

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An Encouragement to Personal Evangelism

Posted on August 11, 2023 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 11:1,2,5,6; Isaiah 55:10,11

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight…As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Can you need a more striking subject of instruction, respecting the spiritual seed of the gospel?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Men who expect a good return at harvest do not pinch and spare in sowing their seed, for the return is usually proportional to what they sow. “Cast thy bread upon the waters.” “Waters” in Scripture, are put for multitudes, Revelation 17:15.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The husbandman throws his seed freely, be­cause he sows in hope.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The evangelical gardener must not be discouraged by the lack of response he meets with, and the absence of immediate fruitage to his labours. If he is faithful in casting the Bread of life upon the human “waters,” particularly “thy bread”—those portions you have personally received from God and which have proved a blessing to your own soul—the sure promise is “thou shall find it again after many days.” Therefore be not slack or exclusive, but “give portions to seven, yes to eight,” for if you prayerfully seek opportunities and carefully observe the openings which Providence makes—you will be brought into touch with hungry souls. There is many a starved sheep wandering about who will deeply appreciate the ministrations.

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY (1713-1778): Lady Serena, the Countess of Huntingdon, was once speaking to a workman named James who was repairing her garden wall, and pressing him to take some thought concerning eternity and the state of his soul. Some years afterward, she spoke to another workman on the same subject, and said to him, “Thomas, I fear you never pray, nor look to Christ for salvation.”

“Your ladyship is mistaken,” he answered, “I heard what passed between you and James.”

“How did you hear it?”

“I heard it on the other side of the garden, through a hole in the wall, and shall never forget the impression I received. And the word you designed for him took effect on me.”

WILLIAM TIPTAFT (1803-1864): The Lord only knows what hidden ones there are in your dark little town, and He will appoint some means to bring His banished ones home.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You cannot make the gospel enter into men’s hearts. You cannot tell how it does enter and change them. The Spirit of God does that; but your duty is to go on telling it out. Go on spreading abroad the knowledge of Christ; in the morning, in the evening, and all day long, scatter the good seed. You have nothing to do with the result of your sowing; that remains with the Lord. The seed you sow in the morning may prosper, or the seed you scatter in the evening; possibly God will bless both. You are to keep on sowing, whether you reap or not.

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): If the Lord has ever honoured me in any way by making use of me, it has been in comforting the comfortless, or in speaking a word to the tried and heavy-laden; but never, to my knowledge, in rousing the dead sinner. God does not honour me much in that way. Yet I do feel most anxious for the conversion of sinners. No subject lies so near my heart, and for nothing do I more earnestly pray.

C. H. SPURGEON: Ah! dear friend, you little know the possibilities which are in you. You may but speak a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian church in years to come…Can you not distribute tracts? There is a real service of Christ in the distribution of the gospel in its printed form, a service the result of which heaven alone shall disclose, and the judgment-day alone discover.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Happy if we could learn this one rule, never to write a letter without something of Jesus Christ in it.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): You are not all, it is true, called to be ministers of Christ, but you are all to be witnesses for Him in the midst of a dark benighted world. And such must you be.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875):  Two qualifications are required in a witness, truth and love, Ephesians 4:15—the law under which we live is the law of love.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): You shouldn’t work as a Christian simply because it’s good and right for Christians to work; the motive is all important. We must work because of the love of Christ.

C. H. SPURGEON: The soul winner must first be a soul lover. If there be no love to God, and no love to man, the vital element is wanting. Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): In general no man ought to be accounted a believer, who conceals the knowledge of God within his own heart.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Happy is he who is not ashamed to say to others, “Come and hear what the Lord hath done for my soul,” Psalm 66:16…If we have anything to tell others about Christ, let us resolve to tell it.

DAVID DICKSON (1583-1662): A lover of the glory of God cannot rest till he communicates with others what he knows of the Lord’s wonders: he “will show forth all the Lord’s marvellous works,” Psalm 9:1.

JOHN CALVIN: Our life is, in other parts of Scripture, compared to the seed-time, and as it will often happen that we must sow in tears, it becomes us, lest sorrow should weaken or slacken our diligence, to raise our minds to the hope of the harvest.

C. H. SPURGEON: Sowing looks like a losing business, for we put good corn into the ground never to see it any more. Sowing to the Spirit seems a very fanciful, dreamy business; for we deny ourselves, and apparently get nothing for it.

BROWNLOW NORTH (1810-1875): But shall God’s people, therefore, cease to try? God forbid.

MATTHEW HENRY: Let us continue our pious endeavours for the good of souls.

C. H. SPURGEON: Let each of us, if we have done nothing for Christ, begin to do something now. Dear friends, you do not expect to see fruit at once, do you? “Cast your bread upon the waters and you shall find it tomorrow”—is that the text? If I read rightly it is, “You shall find it after many days.”

ROBERT HAWKER: Like seed sown in the field, it lays hid for awhile. Its product is in future, not now. How often, indeed, after many days and years do they find the fruit of their labours.

C. H. SPURGEON: Remember the promises, let them come up before your mind—believe them, and go in the strength of them. “In due season we shall reap if we faint not,” Galatians 6:9; “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love,” Hebrews 6:10. But if you should not live to see it on earth, remember, you are only accountable for your labour—not for your success! Sow still, toil on! “Cast your bread upon the waters: for you shall find it after many days.” God will not allow His Word to be wasted—“it shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish that which He pleases,” Isaiah 55:11.

 

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When Sudden Anger Ambushes Good Men

Posted on August 4, 2023 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 7:9; Proverbs 14:29; James 1:19,20

Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding; but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): The fury of man never furthered the glory of God.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Intemperate anger deprives men of their senses.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Nothing makes room for Satan more than wrath.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I have no more right as a Christian to allow a bad temper to dwell in me than I have to allow the devil himself to dwell there.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Anger may rush into a wise man’s bosom, but it should not rest there.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): The best practical specific for the treatment of anger against other people is to “defer it.” Its nature presses for instant vengeance, and the appetite should be starved. A wise man may indeed experience the heat, but he will do nothing till he cools again. When your clothes are on fire you wrap yourself in a blanket, if you can, and so smother the flame: in like manner, when your heart within has caught the fire of anger, your first business is to get the flame extinguished.

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): Suppress rising passion early.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When passion is on the throne reason is out of doors.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The next warning is directed against hasty words—let the children of God remember that a hasty spirit condemned the meekest of men, Numbers 20:1-12.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): What was the offense for which Moses was excluded from the promised land?

JAMES HAMILTON (1814-1867): “They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips,” Psalm 106:32,33. Angry he certainly was; and when the Most High directed him to take his rod of many miracles, and, at the head of the congregation, “speak to the rock,” and it would “give forth its water,” in the heat and agitation of his spirit he failed to implement implicitly the Divine command. Instead of speaking to the rock, he spoke to the people, and his harangue was no longer in the calm and dignified language of the lawgiver, but had a certain tone of petulance and egotism. “Hear now, ye rebels; must we—must I and Aaron, not must Jehovah—“fetch you water out of this rock?”

ADAM CLARKE: It seems Moses did not think speaking would be sufficient, therefore he smote the rock without any command so to do. He did this twice, which certainly in this case indicated a great perturbation of spirit, and want of attention to the presence of God.

JAMES HAMILTON: He was angry, and he sinned. He sinned and was severely punished. Water flowed sufficient for the whole camp and the cattle—clear, cool, and eagerly gushing, enough for all; but at the same moment that its unmerited bounty burst forth, “a cup of wrath was put into the hand of Moses.”

CHARLES BRIDGES: The world judges very lightly of a hasty spirit except when it touches themselves: “it is a fit of passion, soon over and forgotten.” But does God judge so? See how His Word stamps the native rooted principle: it is giving place to the devil and grieving the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4:26,27,30; contrary to the mind and example of Christ, Matthew 9:29; Philippians 2:3-5; I Peter 2:23; inconsistent with the profession of the Gospel, Colossians 3:8,12,13; degrading human nature, Proverbs 17:12; 25:8; 29:20; a work of the flesh, that shuts out from heaven, and condemns to hell, Galatians 5:19-21; Matthew 5:22. Surely then, to be slow in wrath―such a fruitful source of sin and misery―is a proof of great understanding.

JOHN HOWE (1630-1705): Can the love of God live and grow in an unquiet, angry, uncharitable breast?

WILLIAM ARNOT: A great part of the danger lies in the suddenness of the explosion; to obtain a delay of a few moments is half the victory. Some knowledge of human nature is displayed in the advice given to a passionate man, to count to a hundred after he felt the fire burning within, before permitting it to blaze forth by his lips.

JOHN TRAPP: It is not a sin to be angry, but hard not to sin when we are angry. Ask permission from God before you dare do anything in an angry way.

ISAAC WATTS:  Guard against every word that savours of malice, or of bitter strife; watch against the first stirrings of sudden wrath or resentment; bear with patience the contradiction of others, and forbear to return railing for railing.

C. H. SPURGEON: On one occasion, when John Wesley was preaching, he said, “I have been falsely charged with every crime of which a human being is capable, except that of drunkenness.” He had scarcely uttered these words before a wretched woman started up and screamed out at the top of her voice, “You old villain!―will you deny it? Did you not pledge your bands last night for a noggin of whiskey, and did not the woman sell them to our parson’s wife?” Then she sat down amid a thunder-struck assembly. Wesley lifted his hands to heaven, and thanked God that his cup was now full, for they had said all manner of evil against him falsely for Christ’s name’s sake.

BENJAMIN KEACH (1640-1704): As Solomon saith, “a soft answer turneth away wrath,” Proverbs 15:1.

ISAAC WATTS: Bury resentment and be deaf to reproaches.

C. H. SPURGEON: There was one woman in the village of Waterbeach who bore among her neighbours the reputation of being a regular scold, and I was told that, sooner or later, she would give me a specimen of her tongue-music. I said, “All right; but that’s a game at which two can play.” I am not sure whether anybody reported to her my answer, but, not long afterwards, I was passing her gate one morning, and there stood the lady herself; and I must say that her vigorous mode of speech fully justified all that I had heard concerning her. I made up my mind how to act, so I smiled, and said, “Yes, thank you; I am quite well, I hope you are the same.” Then came another outburst of vituperation, pitched in still a higher key, to which I replied, still smiling, “Yes, it does look rather as if it is going to rain; I think I had better be getting on.” “Bless the man!” she exclaimed, “he’s deaf as a post; what’s the use of storming at him?” So I bade her, “Good morning,” and I am not sure whether she ever came to the chapel to hear the deaf preacher who knew it was no use to give any heed to her mad ravings.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “The God of Patience” is one of the Divine titles—patience is one of His perfections. When tempted to be disgusted at the dullness of another, or to be revenged on one who has wronged you, call to remembrance God’s infinite patience and longsuffering with yourself. “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus,” Romans 15:5.

 

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Providential Departures

Posted on July 28, 2023 by The Editor

Isaiah 57:1,2

The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When a storm is coming on, you may see the shepherds among the hills, gathering their sheep and taking them home, and when good men die in large numbers, and the Church’s ranks are thinned, it is sometimes a token that bad times are coming on, and so God takes away the righteous from the evil to come.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “And no man layeth it to heart,” that it may sink and soak into it, so as to be soundly sensible of God’s holy hand and purpose in such a providence.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  There are very few that lament it as a public loss, very few that take notice of it as a public warning. The death of good men is to be laid to heart and considered more than common deaths. Serious enquiries ought to be made, wherefore God contends with us, what good lessons are to be learned by such providences, what we may do to help to make up the breach and to fill up the room of those that are removed. God is justly displeased when such events are not laid to heart, when the voice of the rod is not heard nor the intentions of it answered.

C. H. SPURGEON: Oh! did men know what the world loses when a good man dies, they would regret it far more than the death of emperors and kings who fear not God. But as for those who are made righteous by the grace of God, they need not fear to die. To them it will be a rest—a sleep with Jesus—till the trump of the resurrection, and all the evil that will come upon the world will not touch them. They shall rest till the Master comes.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): This doctrine is highly appropriate to every age. It frequently happens that God takes good men out of this world, when he intends to punish severely the iniquities of the ungodly; for the Lord, having a peculiar regard to His own people, takes compassion upon them, and snatches them from the burning.

JOHN TRAPP: As was Methuselah a year before the flood; Jeroboam’s best son, before the downfall of his father’s family, 1 Kings 14:12,13; Josiah before the captivity and first destruction of Jerusalem, 2 Kings 22:20; James before the second, Acts 12:2; Augustine a little before the sack of his city Hippo by the Vandals.  

THE EDITOR: Augustine died in August, 430 A.D.; Hippo was sacked in August, 431.

MATTHEW HENRY: Good men are taken away from the evil to come, rather then when it is just coming, in compassion to them, that they may not “see the evil,” 2 Kings 22:20, nor share in it, nor be in temptation by it. When the deluge is coming they are called into the ark, and have a hiding-place and rest in heaven when there was none for them under heaven. And in wrath to the world, to punish them for all the injuries they have done to the righteous and merciful ones. When those are taken away that stood in the gap to turn away the judgments of God, then what can be expected but a deluge of them? It is a sign that God intends war when He calls Home his ambassadors.

JOHN CALVIN: A remarkable instance of this was given in the death of Martin Luther, who was snatched from the world a short time before that terrible calamity befell Germany, which he had foretold many years before, when he exclaimed loudly against that contempt of the Gospel, and that wickedness and licentiousness which everywhere prevailed. Frequently had he entreated the Lord to call him out of this life before he beheld that dreadful punishment, the anticipation of which filled him with trembling and horror. And he obtained it from the Lord. Soon after his death, lo, a sudden and unforeseen war sprang up, by which Germany was terribly afflicted, when nothing was farther from her thoughts than the dread of such a calamity.

JOHN TRAPP: Howbeit this is not generally so; for Jeremiah lived to see the first destruction of Jerusalem, John the Evangelist the last…But usually God taketh away his most eminent servants from the evil to come. As when there is a fire in a house men carry out their jewels; “The best die first, commonly,” saith an ancient man. The comfort is, that though as grapes they be gathered before they are ripe, and as lambs, slain before they be grown, yet this benefit they have, that they are freed from the violence of the winepress that others fall into, and they escape many storms that others live to taste of.

THE EDITOR: There is, spiritually speaking, no such thing as an untimely death, or an accidental death.

C. H. SPURGEON: No saint dies otherwise than by the act of God! It is always according to the King’s own will—it is the King’s own doing. Every ripe ear in His field is gathered by His own hand, cut down by His own golden sickle and by none other.

CHARLES WESLEY (1707-1788): When mortal man resigns his breath,

                                                                        ’Tis God directs the stroke of death.

THE EDITOR: Indeed, God is sovereign in all things concerning life and death; all souls are born into this world in the time of His choosing, according to His purpose, as Paul implicitly states in Galatians 1:15,16. So also in death, whether men be good or bad, for that matter; they depart this life when the purpose for which God created them has been accomplished, and His timings and dispositions are always right. For bad men, death is the beginning of eternal misery. But for those in Christ, it is the beginning of eternal life.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): A Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations, his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all his hopes, his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): Death is but a passage out of a prison into a palace.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “He shall enter into peace.” He, to be sure, shall be blessed. The prophet Isaiah speaks of it as of a new state or condition succeeding the former, for death is entering into it; and it holds with that of Christ words, “Enter into thy Master’s joy,” Matthew 25:23; and agrees also with another phrase of “entering into life,” Matthew 18:8. And the words of Isaiah answer in another place, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise,” Isaiah 26:19. And this entrance into peace is therefore meant of the soul’s entering into joy and peace, during that time that the body rests in its bed, namely, the grave. Nor is it spoken of martyrs only, that die in evil times by persecution, but, on the contrary, of those that die before such times approach.

ROBERT BOLTON (1572-1631): This is the privilege of saints, that they shall not die until the best time—not until when, if they were but rightly informed, they would desire to die.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Let us ever rest our souls on the thought, that our times are in God’s hand, Psalm 31:15.

 

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The Marriage of Moses & Zipporah

Posted on July 21, 2023 by The Editor

Exodus 2:21,22; Exodus 4:18-20; 24-26

And Moses was content to dwell with the man [Jethro]: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand…And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): This passage lets us into the personal domestic history of Moses.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): It must be remembered that Moses lived forty years in Midian. Moses was content. And so his present and temporary repose there is turned into a settled habitation. Moses married Zipporah not instantly, but after some years of acquaintance with the family, as may probably be gathered from the youngness and uncircumcision of one of his sons forty years after this.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): At last, in obedience to God’s command, Moses goes forth rod in hand, and accompanied by his wife and his sons, to return to the land of Egypt. But one other thing needed to be attended to, an important matter long neglected, before he is ready to act as God’s ambassador. Jehovah was about to fulfill His covenant engagement to Abraham, but the sign of that covenant was circumcision, and this the son of Moses had not received.

MATTHEW POOLE: How came Moses to neglect this evident duty?

A. W. PINK: Apparently, because of the objections of the mother.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Moses, to please Zipporah, displeased God, and it went hard with him.

MATTHEW POOLE: This was probably the effect of his being unequally yoked with a Midianite, who was too indulgent of her child, while Moses was too indulgent of her.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): A very wise and very holy man has given his judgment on this point: “A man who is truly pious, marrying with an unconverted woman, will either draw back to perdition, or have a cross during life.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): He had not omitted his son’s circumcision from forgetfulness, or ignorance, or carelessness only, but because he was aware that it was disagreeable either to his wife or to his father-in-law. Therefore, lest his wife should quarrel with him, or his father-in-law trouble him, he preferred to gratify them than to give occasion for divisions, or enmity, or disturbance. In the meantime, however, for the sake of the favour of men he neglected to obey God. This false dealing was no light offense, since nothing is more intolerable than to defraud God of his due obedience, in order to please men.

MATTHEW HENRY: We have need to watch carefully over our own hearts, lest fondness for any relation prevail above our love to God, and take us off from our duty to Him.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): How apt we are to yield to the foolish fondness of others, even to the offending of God…How dangerous is absence from the people of God, and the means of grace!

MATTHEW HENRY: Even good men are apt to cool in their zeal for God and duty when they have long been deprived of the society of the faithful: solitude has its advantages, but they seldom counterbalance the loss of Christian communion.

JOHN CALVIN: By this example we are warned that we have daily need of God’s help to support our strength, lest our courage should fail us, and our zeal should gradually grow cold or lukewarm; for Satan is constantly devising many temptations, by which he may either destroy or lessen our diligence.

A. W. PINK: Whether the Lord Himself in a theophanic manifestation now appeared to Moses, or whether it was an angel of the Lord with sword in hand, as he later stood before Balaam, we are not told. Nor do we know in what way the Lord sought to kill Moses.

MATTHEW HENRY: God takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the sins of His own people. If they neglect their duty, let them expect to hear of it by their consciences, and perhaps to feel from it by cross providences: for this cause many are sick and weak, as some think Moses was here.

A. W. PINK: It seems clear that he was stricken down and rendered helpless, for his wife was the one who performed the act of circumcision on their son. This is all the more striking because the inference seems inescapable that Zipporah was the one who had resisted the ordinance of God—only thus can we explain her words to Moses, and only thus can we account for Moses here sending her back to her father, Exodus 18:2.

MATTHEW POOLE: “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.” Zipporah both repeats and amplifies her former censure, and reproacheth not only her husband, but also God’s ordinance; which perverse and obstinate spirit her husband observing in her, and wisely forecasting how much disturbance she might give him in his great and difficult work in Egypt, he thought fit to send her and her children back to her father, (see Exodus 18:2-4).

JOHN TRAPP: She was troublesome with her peevishness, and a hindrance to the good work in hand.

JOHN CALVIN: It is worthy of observation, that whereas Moses had two sons with him, mention is here only made of one; from whence is deduced the probable conjecture that one of the two was circumcised. Some think that the eldest son was not circumcised, because Moses had not dared to confess his religion so soon, to awaken hatred on account of it. But I should rather imagine that when, in regard to his first son, he had experienced the hostility of his family, he omitted it in the case of the second son, to avoid the anger of his wife or his father-in-law; for if, in the lapse of time, he had attained more courage, he would not have hesitated to correct the former omission; but, worn out by domestic quarrels, he at last departed from his duty.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): We are distinctly told in 2 Corinthians 6:14 that we are not to be “unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” If you are a Christian and unmarried, and you have never thought this through, take this principle to heart. If you ever contemplate marriage, put it out of your mind at once that you might possibly marry somebody who is unsaved. That would be positive disobedience to the Word of God.

A. W. PINK: Nevertheless, it was Moses, the head of the house—the one God holds primarily responsible for the training and conduct of the children—and not Zipporah, whom the Lord sought to kill. Observe how the above incident teaches us another most important lesson in connection with service. Before God suffered Moses to go and minister to Israel, He first required him to set his own house in order.

MATTHEW POOLE: What could be more absurd than that he should come to be a lawgiver, who lived in a manifest violation of God’s law? or that he should be the chief ruler and instructor of the Israelites, whose duty it was to acquaint them with their duty of circumcising their children, and yet at the same time be guilty of the same sin? or that he should undertake to govern the church of God, that could not well rule his own house? Therefore it is no wonder that God was so angry at Moses for this sin.

THOMAS COKE: Learn from this account that God’s people will not escape His anger, when they offend Him. When we have neglected duty, we must return to it without delay. The removal of our sins will usually alleviate or remove our judgments.

 

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Looking For Christ’s Return

Posted on July 14, 2023 by The Editor

1 Corinthians 11:26; Revelation 22:12

As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892):At the Lord’s Supper, there is no discerning the Lord’s body unless you discern His first coming; but there is no drinking His cup to its fullness, unless you hear Him say, “Until I come.” You must look forward, as well as backward.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900):The ancient Christians made it a part of their religion to look for His return. Backward they looked to the cross and the atonement for sin, and rejoiced in Christ crucified. Upward they looked to Christ at the right hand of God, and rejoiced in Christ interceding. Forward they looked to the promised return of their Master, and rejoiced in the thought that they would see Him again. And we ought to do the same.

JAMES HARRINGTON EVANS (1785-1849): Why was it said, so many years ago, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” James 5:8?―That men might watch for it.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): We do not think enough of Christ’s second coming. What would be said of a wife who, when her husband was away in another county, could be happy without him, and be content to think rarely of him? On the contrary, a loving wife longs for her husbands return. “Oh, when will he come back!” is her frequent exclamation. Wife of the Lamb, Church of the Saviour, where is thy waiting, hoping, longing for the second coming of thy Lord? Is this thy blessed hope, as it was of the primitive church. O Christian, art thou not wanting here? Every morsel of that bread thou eatest at the table, every drop of wine thou drinkest, is the voice of Christ saying to thee, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; and it should draw forth thy longing desires, Come, Lord Jesus; even so come quickly, Revelation 22:20.

W. H. HEWITSON (1812-1850): To say, Come quickly is the result only of close walking with God.

WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602): The daily persuasion of the speedy coming of Christ is of notable use; for, first, it will daunt the most desperate wretch, and restrain him from many sins. And if a man belong to God, and be yet a loose liver, this persuasion will rouse him out of his sins and make him turn to God; for who would not seek to save his soul, if he were persuaded that Christ is now coming to give him his final reward? Secondly, if a man have grace and does believe, this persuasion is a notable means to make him constant in every good duty, both of piety to God and of charity towards his brethren. Thirdly, this serveth to comfort any person that is in affliction; for, when he shall believe that which Christ hath said, I come shortly, he cannot but think but that this deliverance is at hand.

C. H. SPURGEON: His own words are, “Behold, I come quickly!” Revelation 22:7. That is not quite the meaning of what He said; it was, “Behold, I am coming quickly!” He is on his way, his chariot is hurrying towards us the axles of the wheels are hot with speed…The long-suffering of God delays Him, till sinners are brought in, till the full number of his elect shall be accomplished; but He is not delaying; He is not lingering; He is not slack, as some men count slackness; He is coming quickly.

WILLIAM ROMAINE (1714-1795): At the time appointed, He came to suffer for the sins of the world, and at the time appointed, He will come to Judgment. His second advent is as certain as His first. It was foretold in the Old Testament, and promised in the New, and the Scriptures cannot be broken. God had revealed it in the clearest manner to patriarchs, so that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of it, saying—“Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” Jude 14 & 15.

WILLIAM PERKINS: These are the days of grace, but how long they will last, God only knoweth.

JAMES HARRINGTON EVANS: My brother, do you and I know, to a certainty, that the Son of God shall not come this day? Do we know, to a certainty, that we shall not this day hear the trump of the archangel?

HUDSON TAYLOR (1832-1905): Since He may come any day, it is well to be ready every day.

J. C. RYLE: Do not neglect the Lord’s Supper. The man who coolly and deliberately refuses to use an ordinance which the Lord Jesus Christ appointed for his profit, may be very sure that his soul is in a wrong state. There is a judgment yet to come; there is an account to be rendered for all our conduct on earth. How anyone can look forward to that day, and expect to meet Christ with comfort and in peace, if he has refused all his life to meet Christ in His own ordinance, is a thing I cannot understand. Does this come home to you? Mind what you are doing.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):The Lord Jesus will certainly come, and come in His glory…The believing thoughts and expectations of the second coming of Christ should put us upon prayer to God for ourselves and others.

LADY THEODOSIA POWERSCOURT (died 1836): What a thunderclap of hallelujah when all the prayers of the saints for our poor world—long, long laid up—shall be answered in one event.

C. H. SPURGEON:The shout shall be heard, “Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.” Will you not remember Him? Soon will His hand be on the door; soon for you, at any rate, He may cry, “Arise, my love, my dove, my fair one, and come away;” and soon He may be here among us…Christians! be ye waiting for the second coming of your Lord Jesus Christ!

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE (1813-1843): You will be incomplete Christians, if you do not look for the coming again of the Lord Jesus.

EDWARD LEIGH (1602-1671): Let us long for His appearance, and thirst after the great day when He shall come to judge the quick and dead.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): We do not live up to our dignity, till every day we are waiting for the coming of our Lord from heaven.

 

 

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This Do, In Remembrance of Me

Posted on July 7, 2023 by The Editor

1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Song of Solomon 5:1

I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The first thing of importance concerning the holy Supper, which we here learn, is that the thing itself is of Christ’s express institution. This I conceive to be a matter of high moment―it ought indeed to have been enough to endear it, and recommend it forever, to the faithful: yet had not the Lord again taught His servant Paul what is here related, and God the Holy Ghost caused it to be handed down in the Church by those written records, we should not have known how highly Jesus prized it.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The Lord’s supper is not a temporary, but a standing and perpetual ordinance―it is to be celebrated “till the Lord shall come.”―This is our warrant for keeping this feast. It was our Lord’s will that we should thus celebrate the memorials of His death and passion, till He come in His own glory, and the Father’s glory, with His holy angels.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Our Lord Jesus most distinctly commanded His disciples to “eat bread” and “drink wine” in remembrance of Him. What right has any Christian to disobey this commandment? It is impossible to say that any professing Christian is in a safe, healthy, or satisfactory condition of soul, who coolly and deliberately refuses to use an ordinance which the Lord Jesus Christ appointed for his profit.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): A neglect of it involves us in the deepest guilt. It implies rebellion against the highest authority—Christ, the Supreme Governor of heaven and earth, has said, “Do this.” Yet the language of too many is, “I will not.” But it is ingratitude towards our greatest Benefactor—Christ has even “given his own life a ransom for us;” and shall we disregard His dying command? “On the same night that he was betrayed,” He instituted these memorials of His death. Had He, at that season, such a concern for us, and can we refuse to do so small a thing in remembrance of Him? 

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): And yet, some of you never come to His table. May I gently ask you, how you make this disobedience consort with genuine affection for Him? “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” John 14:15.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is, moreover, hinted here, concerning this ordinance, that it should be frequent: “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Our Lord said, in instituting the ordinance, “This do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me,” I will not say that these words absolutely teach that we should frequently come to the Communion Table, but I do think they give us a hint that if we act rightly, we shall often observe this Supper of the Lord.

ROBERT HAWKER: Nothing can be more plain, than that it is the Lord’s pleasure, that His people should often meet in His name, for this holy purpose.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It was not instituted by Jesus for two or three times a year, but for a frequent exercise of our faith.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): Although we have no express command respecting the frequency of its observance, yet the example of the apostles and of the first disciples would lead us to observe this ordinance every Lord’s day.

MATTHEW HENRY: The ancient churches celebrated this ordinance every Lord’s day, if not every day when they assembled for worship.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): That the supper was celebrated on the first day of the week by the church at Troas is certain, Acts 20:7; that it was so every first day of the week is possible, perhaps probable; but the passage does not prove that it was so…It is the practice of this, and all the Baptist churches in Scotland, to commemorate the Lord’s death every Lord’s Day. I do not think this to be binding, but I am persuaded there can be nothing wrong in it, and that probably, it was then the practice of the primitive churches.

A. P. GIBBS (1890-1967): Some years ago an older Christian mentioned that he met each Lord’s day with believers to observe the Lord’s Supper. A young believer looked at him in astonishment and inquired incredulously; “You mean you take communion every Lord’s day?” “Yes,” replied the other, “We break bread each Sunday.” At this the young man remarked: “Apparently you have forgotten that old adage, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’ Why, a rite so often repeated is apt to lose all its significance and value. I would suggest that you take communion once a month.  Better still, once every three months.”

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): I do think that is too seldom by a great deal to have it administered.

JOHN CALVIN: The Lord’s Supper might be most properly administered, if it were set before the church very frequently, and at least once in every week. But because the frailty of the people is still so great, there is danger that this sacred mystery be misunderstood if it be celebrated so often [so let it be observed] once a month.

A. P. GIBBS: Can you imagine a young man who has courted the affections of a young woman, and has obtained her acceptance of his proposal of marriage, complaining to a friend, “Must I go and see her once a week? Wouldn’t once a month be sufficient?”

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): It is a serious question whether the Christian world is not sadly delinquent in having so few communions.

A. P. GIBBS: Do we really love the Lord Jesus? If so, we shall not be thinking of how seldom we can remember Him in the way He has requested, but how often we are privileged to do so. Surely once a week is not too often to remember the One who we profess to love above all others and who, in His wonderful grace, bore our sins and suffered all the judgment of a holy God in our stead, and rose to be our Lord and very best Friend.

C. H. SPURGEON: At any rate, let it be often. My witness is, and I think I speak the mind of many of God’s people, that coming as some of us do, weekly, to the Lord’s table, we do not find the breaking of bread to have lost its significance—it is always fresh to us. I have often remarked, on Lord’s day evening, whatever the subject may have been, whether Sinai has thundered over our heads, or the plaintive notes of Calvary have pierced our hearts, it always seems equally appropriate to come to the breaking of bread. Shame on the Christian church that she should put it off to once a month, and mar the first day of the week by depriving it of its glory in the meeting together for fellowship and breaking of bread, and showing forth the death of Christ till He come. Those who know the sweetness of each Lord’s Day celebrating His Supper will not be content, I am sure, to put it off to less frequent seasons.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): It seems plain by the Scripture that the primitive Christians were wont to celebrate this memorial of the sufferings of their dear Redeemer every Lord’s Day. I believe it will be again in the Church of Christ in the days that are approaching.

 

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True Liberty in the Lord

Posted on June 30, 2023 by The Editor

2 Corinthians 3:17—Galatians 2:4; Galatians 5:1; Psalm 119:45-48

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty—Liberty which we have in Christ Jesus.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): What sweet enjoyments they have who love and serve their God—David accounted the service of his God to be perfect freedom.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): All that love God love His government, and therefore love all His commandments. Five things David promises himself in his duty here, in the strength of God’s grace:

1. That he should be free and easy: “I will walk at liberty,” freed from that which is evil, not hampered with the fetters of my own corruptions, and free to that which is good;

2. That he should be bold and courageous: “I will speak of thy testimonies before kings;”

3. That he should be cheerful and pleasant: “I will delight myself in thy commandments,” in conversing with them, in conforming to them;

4. That he should be diligent and vigorous: “I will lift up my hands unto thy commandments;” which notes not only a vehement desire towards them, but a close application of mind to the observance of them;

5. That he should be thoughtful and considerate: “I will meditate in thy statutes.”

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): The way of God’s precepts is liberty—therefore His law is called a “law of liberty,” James 1:25. No such freedom as in God’s service; and, on the contrary, no such bondage as to be held with the cords of our own sin: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption,” 2 Peter 2:19. A liberty to do all we please is the greatest bondage.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Liberty has always been highly prized—and can never be prized too highly…When will men distinguish between civil governments and Christianity? The one regards us as citizens, the other as Christians. Well, we have civil liberty as citizens, and spiritual liberty as Christians—a liberty “unsung by poets, and by senators unpraised.”

CHARLES SIMEON: Just as civil liberty is appreciated amongst us, there are but few who have just conceptions of that liberty which has respect to morality and religion. Everyone knows that unrestrained liberty is licentiousness: but everyone does not know, that a perfect obedience to God’s Holy Word is the most perfect liberty that man can enjoy.

WILLIAM JAY: Let us endeavour to exemplify our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. It will be found to include five things. First, Our freedom from the exactions and impositions of men in religion. We are willing to abide always by our Saviour’s distinction: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” Luke 20:25. Where religion is concerned, The Lord is our King, the Lord is our lawgiver; and, if any require us to believe or do what He has not enjoined us to believe or do, we are to obey God rather than man.

Secondly, This liberty includes a freedom from the tyranny of sin and Satan. As saith Paul, “What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life,” Romans 6:21,22.

Thirdly, It includes freedom from the condemnation of the law. “The soul that sinneth shall die,” Ezekiel 18:4; and, saith Paul, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them,” Galatians 3:10. And who has ever done this? Who has ever continued, from the first hour of reason, in avoiding everything the law forbids and in doing everything the law commands? But whose curse is it? The curse of Almighty God: and who knoweth the power of His anger? And the execution of this power is certain, unless what?—unless a surety be found; and such a Surety has been found, who has said, “Deliver them from going down to the pit,” Job 33:24; I will give myself a ransom; I will bear their sins in my own body on the tree; I will suffer, “the just for the unjust, to bring them to God,” 1 Peter 3:18; “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1. No; He has “redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them,” Galatians 3:13. Now, “therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1.

Fourthly, It includes freedom of access unto God. The effect of sin is to separate us from God, and to keep us from God. When the angels sinned in heaven, they were immediately banished; when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, they were driven out of it; and for sinning, the Jews were expelled from the land of Canaan. But now, through Christ Jesus, who is the Mediator between us and God, “we have access by one Spirit unto the Father,” Ephesians 2:18. The believer has full liberty to approach unto God at all times, in every place, under all circumstances; full liberty to hold communion with Him in the fields, or in their ordinary business; full liberty to enter His house, to come to His table, to hang upon His arm, to recline upon His bosom, to call Him their Lord and their God—the strength of their heart and their portion forever.

Fifthly, It includes freedom to enjoy the good things of nature and providence. Unscriptural self-denial and self-imposed severity, with regard to abstinence from the blessings of providence, have never promoted the mortification of sin or sanctification of heart. The Scripture hath said, “Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer,” 1 Timothy 4:4,5.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Saints find no bondage in sanctity. The Spirit of holiness is a free spirit; He sets men at liberty and enables them to resist every effort to bring them under subjection. The way of holiness is not a track for slaves, but the King’s highway for free men.

FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON (1816-1853): When the Bible says that a man led by the Spirit is not under the law, it does not mean that he is free because he may sin without being punished for it; it means that he is free, because being taught by God’s Spirit to love what His law commands, he is no longer acting from restraint. The law does not drive him, because the Spirit leads him.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Wherever God pardons sin, he subdues it, Micah 7:19. So, how shall we know God hath pardoned us? If the fetters of sin be broken off, and we walk at liberty in the ways of God, this is a blessed sign we are pardoned.

CHARLES SIMEON: Let me commend this liberty to your acceptance—think not that the Gospel is a mere system of restraints: no, it is a “perfect law of liberty,” James 1:25; and “all who are made free by Christ, are become free indeed,” John 8:36. Take upon you the yoke of Christ, and you shall find it light and easy; and you shall obtain everlasting rest unto your souls, Matthew 11:28,29.

 

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