The Gospel of Jesus Christ in Three Prophetic Signs – Part 2

Posted on November 17, 2023 by The Editor

Exodus 4:6,7

And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Moses’ hand itself is next made the subject of a miracle. This signified that Moses, by the power of God, should bring sore diseases upon Egypt, and that, at his prayer, they should be removed; that whereas the Israelites in Egypt had become leprous, polluted by sin—by being taken into the bosom of Moses they should be cleansed and cured; and that Moses was not to work miracles by his own power, nor for his own praise, but by the power of God and for His glory.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This was an astonishing miracle, that he should be at once smote with a leprosy; that this should be only in his hand, and not in any other part of his body; and that it should be cured immediately, without the use of any means. By this miracle Moses and the Israelites might be instructed and confirmed in the power of God, that He was able to deliver them out of captivity, which was as death.

MATTHEW HENRY: A leper is “as one dead,” Numbers 12:10-12.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Hence, when the king of Syria sent his general Naaman to the king of Israel to cure him of his leprosy, he rent his clothes, saying, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?” 2 Kings 5:7. This appears to be the reason why God chose this sign, as the instantaneous infliction and removal of this disease were demonstrations which all would allow of the sovereign power of God. We need, therefore, seek for no other reasons for this miracle: the sole reason is sufficiently obvious.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): I confess the subject appears to have a much higher and more spiritual meaning.

THE EDITOR: Those explanations fail to address the most obvious salient detail of this miracle—the one thing most necessary to rightly understand its full spiritual significance.

ADAM CLARKE: And what is that?

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Leprosy is the well-known type of sin…In both instances of this particular miracle, the Lord tells Moses to put his hand “in his bosom,”—and then take it out again.

THE EDITOR: That’s the key to understanding its spiritual significance. Moses’ first sign was about what Christ has done for us. The second sign is about our spiritual condition, and what we must do—and what God will do.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The principal effect this sign was calculated to have on Moses himself was a humbling one. Lest he become puffed up by the power of the rod, he is forcibly reminded of that sink of iniquity, the corrupt heart within him.

THE EDITOR: God showed Moses the true spiritual condition of his own human heart by nature. Moses hand was leprous, because his heart was leprous. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. God knows our hearts, “for the LORD seeth not as man seeth—the LORD looketh on the heart,” 1 Samuel 16:7. Most men will admit they are sinners in some general way, but they will never be convinced that they are nothing but sin, until God shows them what their true spiritual condition is in His eyes.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): It is true, the natural man discerns it not…So long as men remain in their natural blindness of understanding, they are not sensible of their spiritual wants, and of this in particular. But as soon as God opens the eyes of their understanding, they see the state they were in before; they are then deeply convinced, that “every man living”―themselves especially, are by nature “altogether vanity”―that is, folly and ignorance, sin and wickedness.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Let us but lay our hands upon our hearts, thrust them into our bosoms to look there, and we shall be sure to take them out leprous.

THE EDITOR: Secondly, “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one,” Job 14:4. As leprosy is incurable, so is sin. It’s impossible for a man to cleanse his own heart of its wickedness, by the works of his own hands, because anything his leprous hand touches becomes unclean, Leviticus 22:3-6.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The Gospel regards the unconverted man as “dead in trespasses and sins.” It tells him that, first of all, he must be quickened by a new life—he must be born-again, or else he is not capable of those actions which would be acceptable with God.

ROBERT HAWKER: Our best things, which from sinners by nature “dead in trespasses and sin,” can be no otherwise than dead.

C. H. SPURGEON: Such is human nature. It can by no means help towards its own restoration—Man, think not to save yourself by your works.

A. W. PINK: Cleansing must begin with the heart—here signified by the leprous hand being thrust into the bosom before the loathsome disease was removed.

THE EDITOR: Precisely. When Moses removed his hand from bosom the second time, his hand was healed because his heart was healed. God had spiritually circumcised his heart, Romans 2:28,29. But consider this: if Moses hadn’t obeyed God’s command to put his hand in his bosom again, both his heart and hand would have remained leprous! Later, Moses admonished the Jews “to circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and be no more stiff-necked,” Deuteronomy 10:16. But how can dead sinners circumcise their own hearts? So asked the Philippian jailor, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:30,31. Now God “has commanded all men everywhere to repent,” Acts 17:30; therefore, turn away from stiff-necked unbelief, and do what Christ has commanded—“Repent, and believe the Gospel,” Mark 1:15. By your own power? No. “The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” Romans 1:16.

JOHN GILL: The Gospel, and the truths of it, which are the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, are the means of conveying the Spirit of God as a spirit of illumination and sanctification into the hearts of men, and of quickening sinners dead in trespasses and sins.

THE EDITOR: Jesus said, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth—the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,” John 6:63. The power of God’s Spirit is in the effectual voice of His Word. In Deuteronomy 30:6, Moses gave God’s promise of what He would do for all who obey that voice—“the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart…to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.” Think also of this promise of God: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them,” Ezekiel 36:26,27. “Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,” Hebrews 3:7,8.

 

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The Gospel of Jesus Christ in Three Prophetic Signs – Part 1

Posted on November 10, 2023 by The Editor

Exodus 4:1-9

And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.

And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This passage continues God’s discourse with Moses at the burning bush concerning bringing Israel out of Egypt. Moses objects to the people’s unbelief, and God answers that objection by giving him a power to work miracles—to turn his rod into a serpent, and then into a rod again—to make his hand leprous, and then whole again—and to turn the water into blood.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Man’s unbelief and God’s boundless grace are here made manifest in a striking way. We might suppose that Moses had seen and heard enough to set his fears entirely aside. The consuming fire in the unconsumed bush, the condescending grace, the precious comprehensive titles, the divine commission, the assurance of the divine presence—all these things might have quelled every anxious thought, and imparted a settled assurance to the heart. Still, however, Moses raises questions, and still God answers them, and each successive question brings out fresh grace.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is a deep meaning to these three signs. They were designed to teach important lessons to Moses, to Israel, and to us—that these three signs are the first recorded in Scripture denotes that they are of prime importance and worthy of our most careful study. The first of these signs was the turning of the rod into a serpent, and then back again into a rod.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: This is a deeply significant sign. The rod became a serpent, so that Moses fled from it; but, being commissioned by Jehovah, he took the serpent by the tail, and it became a rod.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): What are we to make of this?

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “The Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand?” This is a proof that questions are frequently asked in the Scripture, not merely for the purpose of information—the Lord could not be ignorant of what Moses had in his hand. This remark may be useful for rightly understanding many texts of Scripture.

THE EDITOR: God is drawing attention to this rod’s significance. What should we understand by it?

ADAM CLARKE: As it was made the instrument of working many miracles, it was afterwards called “the rod of God,” Exodus 4:20.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: The whole land of Egypt was made to tremble beneath the successive strokes of “the rod of God,”—and in Exodus 17:5,6, we have a type of Christ smitten for us, by the hand of God in judgment: “The Lord said onto Moses, go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.” Note: “Thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river,” Why should this particular stroke of the rod be referred to? Exodus 7:20 furnishes the reply: Moses “lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.” It was the same rod which turned the water into blood that was to smite “that Rock which was Christ,” that streams of life might flow for us, 1 Corinthians 10:4.

THE EDITOR: God’s judgment, and His grace, is definitely connected to this rod. And the Bible also depicts a “rod” as a figure of Christ Himself: in Numbers 17:1-10, God caused a “rod” with Aaron’s name written upon it, to become a living branch with leaves, buds, and fruit, which demonstrated God’s choice of Aaron as Israel’s priest; it was an allegory of Christ’s resurrection, which demonstrated Jesus as God’s chosen Priest. “Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH…and he shall build the temple of the LORD, ” Zechariah 6:12.

A. W. PINK: In Psalm 110:2, the Lord Jesus is also called the “Rod of God:” “The Lord shall send the Rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.” The reference is to the second advent of Christ when His governmental authority and power shall be fully displayed. But when He was on earth the first time, it was in weakness and humiliation, and to this Moses casting down the “rod” on the ground points. But it will be objected, surely there is no possible sense in which the Rod became a “serpent!”

THE EDITOR: Isn’t a serpent a figure of the devil, who was cursed in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:1,14? And again, in Revelation 20:2. Is there any other Old Testament usage of a serpent as a figure of Christ?

A. W. PINK: Yes, there is, and none other than the Lord Jesus is our authority for such a statement. The “serpent” is inseparably connected with the curse, and on the cross, Christ was “made a curse” for His people, Galatians 3:10-13. Said He to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” John 3:14.

THE EDITOR: The Israelites were dying, bitten by fiery serpents that God had sent among them because of their sin. Moses raised up a brass serpent on a pole, saying that if they looked at the serpent, they would live, Numbers 20:6-8. What they saw, was their sin being judged! In a figure, they saw Christ on the cross, bearing the sin of His people upon His own body—so God has laid all our iniquity on Jesus, “for he hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Those who believed Moses, looked at the serpent and lived; but those who didn’t believe, didn’t look—and thus they died in their sin.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Now, we may rest assured these facts are full of spiritual meaning.

THE EDITOR: When Moses cast his rod to the ground, it became a serpent—see Christ in a similar figure, “being made sin for us,” cast down into the grave in His death for us. Moses fled from the serpent, just as God hid His face while His wrath against sin was poured out upon Jesus, Who cried out in agony, “My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken me?” Then Moses returned, picked up the serpent, and it became a rod again; just as God raised Jesus from the dead. This sign was a figure demonstrating Christ’s death and resurrection, by which God declared Jesus to be the Son of God, Romans 1:4. Later, when Aaron cast down this same rod before Pharaoh, it became a serpent again; and when Pharaoh’s magicians did the same thing, Aaron’s serpent swallowed up all their serpents, Exodus 7:10-12.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): What did that signify?

THE EDITOR: That there is no other atonement for sin. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12; As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6.

 

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The Counterfeit Gift of Tongues

Posted on November 3, 2023 by The Editor

Acts 2:4,7,8; Acts 2:11; 1 Corinthians 14:13-15,28

They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance…And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

Let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also…But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Some time ago, when I officiated at a funeral, I was told that the dear lady who had passed away had a number of friends given to the use of a gift they called “speaking in tongues,” though it certainly was not that which the Bible refers to as the gift of tongues. They had a habit of going into a semi-trance condition and uttering strange sounds.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples “began to speak with other tongues,” Acts 2:4―not in the absurd and unintelligible jargon of cunning impostors or deluded fanatics.

H. A. IRONSIDE: The gift of “divers kinds of tongues” was the ability bestowed on some to preach the gospel in languages they had never learned—a person with this gift was able to stand up and preach in the power of the Spirit in a foreign tongue, Acts 2:7-11. God gave those gifts in the beginning, but I have not heard evidence of their being in the world today.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): That dispensation of the Spirit has long since ceased, and where it is pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as enthusiastic delusion.

THE EDITOR: The spiritual gift of tongues is not babbling incomprehensible gibberish, but a miraculous ability to speak an actual foreign language. Some claim their gibberish is an ancient dead language, or an “unknown” tongue of “angels,” citing individual words from 1 Corinthians 13:1 and Chapter 14. But “angels” can also be translated properly as “messengers;” and the word “unknown” is not in the original Greek. I believe that the true spiritual gift of tongues has not been seen in the church since the Canon of Scripture was completed; everything that God has to say to men is now in His written Word.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Edward Irving, founder of the “Catholic Apostolic Church” in 1831, propounded the theory that the supernatural gifts which existed in the early Church had been lost through the unbelief and carnality of its members, and that if there was a return to primitive order and purity, they would again be available. Accordingly, he appointed “apostles,” and “prophets” and “evangelists.” They claimed to speak in tongues, prophesy, interpret, and work miracles. There is little doubt in our mind that this movement was inspired by Satan, and probably a certain amount of abnormal phenomena attended it, though much of it was explainable as issuing from a state of high nervous tension and hysteria. Irving’s theory, with some modifications, and some additions, has been popularized and promulgated by the more recent so-called “Pentecostal movement,” where a species of unintelligible jabbering and auto-suggestion is styled “speaking in tongues.”

A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): The Pentecostal tongues movement has magnified one single gift above all others and that one gift, as Paul said, was the least. Now, that does not cause me to have great confidence in the movement that would do that. Then there is an unscriptural exhibition of that gift, which, incidentally, began in the United States about 1904.

PHILIP MAURO (1859-1952): Regarding the strange modern idea that speaking in tongues is the “Bible-sign” of having received the Holy Spirit, we would point out that faith does not seek after a sign, but rests upon the simple Word of God…Appeal is frequently made to the words of Mark 16:17,18, as if they contained the promise that all that believe should be endowed with the gift of tongues. They declare that certain signs, of which speaking with new tongues was one, should follow them that believe. But the Lord no more promised that all believers should speak with tongues than He promised that all should cast out devils, take up serpents, and drink poison without hurt.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): The gift of tongues is not meant for all. The Apostle asks, “Do all speak with tongues?” And the answer is, “No, all do not speak in tongues, all do not have the gifts of healing, all do not interpret,” and so on, 1 Corinthians 12:30.

PHILIP MAURO: Indeed the questions are asked for the very purpose of enforcing the argument that, as in the human body there are many members, each with its own special function, to be exercised for the benefit of all, so in the church—there are different gifts assigned to the several members, 1 Corinthians Chapter 12.

THE EDITOR: The “gift of tongues” was only intended to be used publicly in the church to the edification of all, and only when an interpreter was present; otherwise, there was no edification, 1 Corinthians 14.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Paul is at great pains to say that everything must be done “decently and in order,” for God is not the author of confusion, 1 Corinthians 14:27-33,40. So if you meet people who say they speak in tongues, or if you have been at a meeting where this is claimed, and if there was disorder and confusion, then you are entitled to say, in terms of the scriptural teaching, that whatever else it may have been, it was not the gift of tongues as described in the church at Corinth.

THE EDITOR: Furthermore, when anyone is alone, and praying to God, there is not a shred of Biblical precedent to support praying in any “tongue” but their own language. How could speaking in a strange “tongue” which they do not understand, possibly make their prayer more “spiritual,” or more acceptable to God?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We need not judge those who pray unintelligible prayers in a “foreign” tongue which they do not understand. We know that the prayer which is not understood cannot be a prayer in the Spirit, for even the man’s own spirit does not enter into it—how then can the Spirit of God be there?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): There seems something monstrous in this determination to hold converse with God in sounds which fall without meaning from the tongue. Even if God did not declare His displeasure, nature herself, without a monitor, rejects it. Besides, it is easy to infer from the whole tenor of Scripture how deeply God abominates such an invention. As to the public prayers of the church, the words of Paul are clear―the unlearned cannot say Amen if the benediction is pronounced in an “unknown” tongue, 1 Corinthians 14:16. And this makes it the more strange, that those who first introduced this perverse practice ultimately had the effrontery to maintain that the very thing which Paul regards as ineffably absurd was conducive to the majesty of prayer.

THE EDITOR: Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.

PHILIP MAURO: We believe the modern error regarding tongues, as made prominent by those who call themselves “Pentecostals,” is one of the most dangerous of these last days. Many true, earnest, and zealous children of God have been deluded by it. The appeal it makes is very attractive to saints who groan and sigh for something different from the dead formalities of religious Christendom. Its phenomena—ecstasies, transports, prostrations, yielding to “the power,” displaced personality—are the very same that we have seen with hypnotism, spiritism, and other psychic and occult phenomena. We know by personal observation some of the terrible havoc—moral and spiritual—it has wrought. Most earnestly, therefore, do we warn the beloved people of God against it.

 

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Lengthy Public Prayers

Posted on October 27, 2023 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 5:2

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What a contrast is this from the long drawn out and wearisome prayers in many pulpits today! Such a verse as this appears to have no weight with the majority of ministers…If any of our readers be distressed because of this, we would ask them to make a study of the prayers recorded in Holy Writ—in Old and New Testaments alike—and they will find that almost all of them are exceedingly short ones.

ROBERT C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): The prayers recorded in Scripture say much in few words.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): As to the prayer which our Lord taught His disciples, it can be uttered in less than a minute. Indeed, we may say, without exaggeration, that if all the prayers recorded in the New Testament were read consecutively, they would not occupy nearly so much time as we have frequently known to be occupied by a single prayer in some of our so-called prayer meetings.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): The prayer our Lord taught His disciples is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. I think that the Lord’s prayer, more properly, is that in the seventeenth of John. That is the longest prayer on record that Jesus made. You can read it slowly and carefully in about four or five minutes. I think we may learn a lesson here. Our Master’s prayers were short when offered in public; when He was alone with God that was a different thing, and He could spend the whole night in communion with His Father.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Prayer doth not consist in a multitude and clatter of words, but in the getting up of the heart to God, that we may behave ourselves as if we were alone with God, in the midst of glorious saints and angels…The Pharisees, that they might be counted great devotionaries, would make long prayers.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Jesus condemned them for making long prayers in public just in order that they might be seen of men.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Not that all lengthy prayers are to be condemned, or all repetitions in them; our Lord was all night in prayer Himself; and Nehemiah, Daniel, and others, have used repetitions in prayer, which may be done with fresh affection, zeal, and fervency; but such are forbidden as are done for the sake of being heard for much speaking, as the heathens, who thought they were not understood unless they said a thing a hundred times over; or when done to gain a character of being more holy and religious than others.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Long prayers are not to be condemned, but the affectation of them is.

THOMAS MANTON: What is the reason men have such a barren, dry, and sapless spirit in their prayers?

D. L. MOODY: Long prayers are too often not prayers at all, and they weary the people.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Some people seem to think that in prayer they must go through the Westminster Assembly’s Confession of Faith, or some similar compendium of Doctrine—but that is not real praying.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: What can be more painful than to hear a man in prayer explaining and unfolding doctrines? The question forces itself upon us: “Is the man speaking to God, or to us?” If to God, then surely nothing can be more irreverent or profane than to attempt to explain things to Him; but if to us, then it is not prayer at all…How often are our prayers more like orations than petitions—it seems, at times, as though we meant to explain principles to God, and give Him a large amount of information.

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): Some seem to feel the impropriety of such speech, and to save themselves they say, “Thou knowest.”—Nor should prayers be tedious.

C. H. SPURGEON: I have heard a Brother pray a wearisome while; and I believe he was long because he had nothing to say. A horse can run many miles if he has nothing to carry. Long prayers often mean wind and emptiness.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Some seem to think it necessary to make one long prayer about all sorts of things—many of them very right and very good, no doubt—but the mind gets bewildered by the multiplicity of subjects.

A. W. PINK: How many prayers have we heard that were so incoherent and aimless, so lacking in point and unity, that when the amen was reached we could scarcely remember one thing for which thanks had been given, or request had been made, only a blurred impression remaining on the mind?

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): This is frequently owing to an unnecessary enlargement upon every circumstance, as well as to the repetition of the same things. And here I would just notice an impropriety we sometimes meet with, when a person gives expectation that he is just going to conclude his prayer, and something occurring that instant to his mind, leads him to begin again. But, unless it is a matter of singular importance, it would be better omitted. The tone of the voice is likewise to be regarded. Some have a tone in prayer so very different from their usual way of speaking, that their nearest friends could hardly know them by their voice.

D. L. MOODY: My experience is that those who pray most in their closets generally make short prayers in public.

C. H. SPURGEON: God does not measure our pleadings by the yard. Prayer must be estimated by weight, not by length. It is necessary to draw near unto God, but it is not required to prolong your speech till everyone is longing to hear the word “Amen.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH: It will, perhaps, be said that we must not prescribe any time to the Holy Spirit. Far away be the monstrous thought! Are we presuming to dictate to the Holy Ghost?

JOHN NEWTON: Not that I think we should pray by the clock, and limit ourselves precisely to a certain number of minutes—but it is better of the two, that the hearers should wish the prayer had been longer, than spend a considerable part of the time wishing it was over. There are, doubtless, seasons when the Lord is pleased to favour those who pray with a peculiar liberty; they speak because they feel; they have a wrestling spirit, and hardly know how to leave off. When this is the case, they who join with them are seldom wearied, though the prayer should be protracted beyond the usual limits.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): We would not overlook the fact that when the Spirit’s unction is enjoyed, the servant of Christ may be granted much liberty to pour out his heart at length—yet this is the exception rather than the rule, as God’s Word clearly proves.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: During very many years of close observation, we have invariably noticed that the prayers of our most spiritual, devoted, intelligent, and experienced brethren have been characterized by brevity, definiteness, and simplicity. It is according to scripture, and it tends to edification, comfort, and blessing. Brief, fervent, pointed prayers impart great freshness and interest―but long and desultory prayers exert a most depressing influence upon all. Long prayers are terribly wearisome; indeed, in many cases, they are a positive infliction.

 

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The Testimony of Many Witnesses

Posted on October 20, 2023 by The Editor

1 Peter 1:3-5; Romans 8:29,30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 1:6; 1 John 3:1,2

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Among men, the testimony of “two or three witnesses,” Matthew 18:16, is sufficient to remove all doubt. God lays down, authoritatively, this law as applicable to all cases, that they shall be decided “by the mouth of two or three witnesses,” Deuteronomy 17:6.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): In Deuteronomy the rule given concerns only judicial trials; in Matthew it is a rule given for the management of persuasion.

THE EDITOR: Here we have the infallible inspired witness of three Apostles—Peter, Paul and John—to the predestination of believers chosen in Christ, and the inevitable certainty of their being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, by faith, through a process of sanctification that will not be finished in its fullness until the day of glory at the last day, when Jesus appears.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Beloved, now are we the sons of God”—By adoption, secretly in God’s predestination, in the covenant of grace; and openly in regeneration, through faith in Christ, and by the testimony of the Spirit: “and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” Though sons, they do not appear now as such, as they will do, when they shall be introduced into their Father’s house, and into the many mansions there prepared for them; when Christ shall publicly own them as the children given unto Him, and when they shall be put into the possession of the inheritance they are heirs of—they will then inherit the kingdom prepared for them, and will sit down on a throne of glory, and have a crown of righteousness, life, and glory, put upon them; and will appear not only perfectly justified, their sins being not to be found—but they will be perfectly holy and free from all sin, and perfectly knowing and glorious.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714):  “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” We are changed into the same image “from glory to glory,”—from one degree of glorious grace unto another, till grace here be consummated in glory for ever…The work of grace is but begun in this life; it is not finished here; as long as we are in this imperfect state there is something more to be done. If the same God Who begins the good work did not undertake the carrying on and finishing of it, it would lie for ever unfinished. He must perform it who began it. We may be confident, or well persuaded, that God not only will not forsake, but that He will finish and crown the work of His own hands.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): His image shall then be perfected in us…Lest it should be objected, that though the inheritance be safe in heaven, yet the heirs are in danger here upon earth, by reason of the power and stratagems of enemies, and their own imprudence and weakness, Peter adds, that not only their inheritance is reserved for them, but they are preserved unto it, kept securely and carefully, as with a garrison—so the word signifies—against all the assaults, incursions, and devices of the devil and the world. “Who are kept, by the power of God,” which power is infinite and invincible, and therefore able to keep them.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): How fully doth it prove, our oneness with Christ, and our interest in Christ. How ought it to bear us up, against every temptation, every sorrow, trial, and affliction! And what a security against sickness, death, judgment, and all fears of the future.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,” Romans 5:10. Paul argued that if the death of Christ reconciled God’s enemies to Himself, the life of Christ will certainly preserve safely those who are the friends of God! That was a good argument, was it not? Moreover, I doubt not that Paul remembered the doctrine of the union of believers with Christ, and he said to himself, “Shall Christ lose the members of His body? Shall a foot or an arm be lopped off from Him?” And he could not think that it could be so!

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): Is it not a comfortless doctrine, that founds their believing and perseverance on their own free will?

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): It has a natural tendency to keep the soul in darkness for ever; because the creature thereby is taught, that his being kept in a state of salvation, is owing to his own free will.  And what a sandy foundation is that for a poor creature to build his hopes of perseverance upon? Every relapse into sin, every surprise by temptation, must throw him into doubts and fears, into horrible darkness, even darkness that might be felt.

JOHN CALVIN: But we, on the contrary, ought to feel confident, that He who has begun in us a good work, will carry it on until the day of the Lord Jesus—Christ is the bond; for He is the beloved Son, in Whom the Father is well pleased. If, then, we are through Him united to God, we may be assured of the immutable and unfailing kindness of God towards us.

C. H. SPURGEON: Somebody says, “That is Calvinistic doctrine.” If you like to call it so, you may, but I would rather that you made the mistake of the good old Christian woman who did not know much about these things and who said that she was “a high Calvarist.”—And it is “high Calvary” doctrine that I find in this passage. He who hung on high at Calvary was such a lover of the souls of men that, from that glorious fact, I am brought to this blessed persuasion, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8:38,39.

ROBERT HAWKER: Yea, such astonishing love God hath shown, as passeth all understanding: He hath given us His own Son. He hath justified, Christ has died, the Holy Spirit hath witnessed. And therefore, Paul challenges the whole creation to separate us from Christ.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We may feel convinced in our minds that the thing is true because affirmed by one in whom we have confidence; but God is wiser than we. It may be that the one witness is thoroughly upright and truthful; all this may be true, but we must adhere to the divine rule, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”

THE EDITOR: Very well then. If the testimony of two or three human witnesses is sufficient evidence to decide a matter among men, how much more so is the testimony of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?

ROBERT HAWKER: Brethren! the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

 

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Man’s Natural Pride & Its Enmity Against God

Posted on October 13, 2023 by The Editor

Jeremiah 17:9; Obadiah 1:3; Psalm 10:4; Romans 8:7

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is in the unregenerate an opposition to spiritual things and an aversion against them.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): He doth not say the carnal mind is an enemy, but in the abstract, it is enmity, which heightens and intensifies the sense. An enemy may be reconciled, as Esau was to Jacob; but enmity itself cannot be reconciled; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be—the carnal mind is rebellious in the highest degree against the will of God, unless it be changed and renewed.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It is enmity itself against God—against His being; it wishes He was not; it forms unworthy notions of Him; thinks Him such an one as itself; and endeavours to bury him in forgetfulness, and erase out of its mind all memorials of Him: it is at enmity against His perfections; either denying His omniscience; or arraigning His justice and faithfulness; or despising His goodness, and abusing His grace and mercy: it finds fault with, and abhors His decrees and purposes; quarrels with His providences; it is implacable against His Word and Gospel; especially the particular doctrines of grace, the Father’s grace in election, the Son’s in redemption, and the Spirit’s in regeneration; and has in the utmost contempt the ordinances and people of Christ.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): What is the cause of it?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It springs from self-righteous pride.

JOHN GILL: Pride is naturally in every man’s heart.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Our natural pride is a great hindrance to believing.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): It was the sin of pride that changed angels into devils. Pride not only withdraws the heart from God, but lifts it up against God.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God.” He is too proud to bend his knee before his Judge; he is too haughty to put on sackcloth, and lay himself in the dust, though without deep repentance and humiliation, he must without doubt perish everlastingly.

THOMAS MANTON: Pride destroys love.

CHARLES SIMEON: In the most imperfect of the regenerate, there is a predominant principle of love to God; whereas in the best of unregenerate men there is a rooted enmity against Him—It deems His holiness too strict, His justice too severe, His truth too inflexible; and His mercy itself is hateful to them, on account of the humiliating way in which it is dispensed. Even the very existence of God is so odious to them, that they say in their hearts, “I wish there were no God,” Psalm 14:1.

JOHN DAVIES (circa 1798): Man naturally hates God, and all who are like Him, and all that is calculated to make man like Him.

ADAM CLARKE: It is irreconcilable and implacable hatred. “It is not subject to the law of God.” It will come under no obedience; for it is sin, and the very principle of rebellion; and therefore it cannot be subject, nor subjected; for it is essential to sin to show itself in rebellion.

JOHN GILL: Carnal men are subject to the law’s sentence of condemnation—but not to its precepts, by obedience to them—neither indeed can it be, without regenerating grace, without the power and Spirit of God—for carnal men are dead in sin, and so without strength to obey the law; and besides, the carnal mind, and the law of God, are directly contrary one to another.

MATTHEW POOLE: It is impossible it should be otherwise; there is in it a moral impotency to obedience.

CHARLES SIMEON: This incapacity to obey God’s law is justly adduced as proof of our enmity against Him: for if we loved Him, we should love His will; and if we hate His will, whatever we may pretend, we in reality hate Him.

JOHN GILL: Where is man’s power and free will?

JOHN CALVIN: The Scripture testifies often that man is a slave of sin.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): The Scripture avers, that “by one man’s disobedience all men were constituted sinners;” that “in Adam all died,” spiritually died, lost the life and image of God; that fallen, sinful Adam then “begat a son in his own likeness”—nor was it possible he should beget him in any other; for “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?”—that consequently we, as well as other men, were by nature, “dead in trespasses and sins, without hope, without God in the world,” and, therefore, “children of wrath;” that every man may say, “I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me;” that “there is no difference” in that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”―of that glorious image of God wherein man was created. And hence, “when the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, He saw they were all gone out of the way; they were altogether become abominable, there was none righteous, no, not one”―“that the wickedness of man was great in the earth”―so great, “that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  This is God’s account of man.  And this account of the present state of man is confirmed by daily experience.

A. W. PINK: Such a conception of man—so different from man’s own ideas, and so humiliating to his proud heart, never could have emanated from man himself. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” is a concept that never originated in any human mind.

JOHN GILL: No wonder the carnal mind does not stoop to the Gospel of Christ, when it is not, and cannot be subject to the law of God. It is natural and deeply rooted in the mind, and irreconcilable without the power and grace of God. This enmity is universal, it is in all unregenerate men, either direct or indirect, hidden or more open.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Man’s ultimate problem is his pride.

JOHN CALVIN: Pride is always the companion of unbelief.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): No sin is so deeply rooted in our nature as pride. It cleaves to us like our skin.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): Pride takes many forms and shapes; and it encompasses the heart like the layers of an onion―when you pull off one layer, there is another underneath.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Self-righteousness is never meek. The man who is proud of himself will be quite sure to be hard-hearted in his dealings with others.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): Offended pride is one of the most active principles of human nature.

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): Pride nourishes the remembrance of injuries: but humility forgets as well as forgives them…If the sufferings of Christ, who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, be much in my heart, I shall see my worst enemy to be pride, especially pride of wisdom, pride of righteousness.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): There is no reasoning with a proud man; he castles himself in his own opinion, and stands upon his defence against all arguments that are brought.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Thus their pride deceives them, and by it slays them.

JOHN GILL: Hence we see the necessity of almighty power, and efficacious grace in conversion. It is Christ’s work to subject men to the law, which is done when He justifies by His righteousness.

 

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Thanksgiving & Praise, the Inseparable Twins of True Worship

Posted on October 6, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 100

A Psalm of praise.

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): In all acts of religious worship, whether in secret or in our families, we come into God’s presence, and serve Him; but it is in public worship especially that we “enter into his gates and into his courts.” But let the people be thankful for their place in the courts of God’s house, to which they were admitted and where they gave their attendance.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): When ye come to the house of prayer, be thankful that you have such a privilege; and when you enter His courts, praise Him for the permission.

MATTHEW HENRY: Great encouragement is given us in worshipping God, to do it cheerfully: “Serve the Lord with gladness.” By holy joy we do really serve God; it is an honour to Him to rejoice in Him, and we ought to serve Him with holy joy…We must intermix praise and thanksgiving with all our services. This golden thread must run through every duty—“In every thing give thanks,” in every ordinance, as well as in every providence.

THE EDITOR: How often we read of David joyfully intermixing praise and thanksgiving in the true worship of God! “I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people,” Psalm 35:18. “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving, Psalm 69:30. “Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.” Psalm 18:49. “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD,” Psalm 116:17. Indeed, it seems impossible to truly worship God without praise and thankfulness. “Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name,” 1 Chronicles 29:13.

MATTHEW HENRY: The matter of praise, and motives to it, are very important. Know what God is in Himself and what He is to you. Let us know then these things concerning the Lord Jehovah, with Whom we have to do in all the acts of religious worship.

“1. The Lord He is God,” the only living and true God—that He is a Being infinitely perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient, and the fountain of all being; He is God, and not a man as we are. He is an eternal Spirit, incomprehensible and independent, the first cause and last end. The heathen worshipped the creature of their own fancy; the workmen made it, therefore it is not God. We worship Him that made us and all the world; He is God, and all other pretended deities are vanity and a lie, and such as He has triumphed over.

2. He is our Creator: “It is He that has made us, and not we ourselves.” Therefore He is our rightful owner. He has an incontestable right to, and property in, us and all things. His we are, to be actuated by His power, disposed of by His will, and devoted to His honour and glory.

3. He is our sovereign ruler: “ We are His people,” or subjects, and He is our prince, that gives law to us as moral agents, and will call us to an account for what we do. “The Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver,” Isaiah 33:22. We are not at liberty to do what we will, but must always make conscience of doing as we are bidden.

4. He is our bountiful benefactor. We are not only His sheep, whom He is entitled to, but “the sheep of His pasture,” whom He takes care of; the flock of His feeding—so it may be read—He that made us maintains us, and gives us all good things richly to enjoy.

5. He is a God of infinite mercy and goodness: “The Lord is good,” and therefore does good; “His mercy is everlasting;” it is a fountain that can never be drawn dry. The saints, who are now the sanctified vessels of mercy, will be, to eternity, the glorified monuments of mercy.

6. He is a God of inviolable truth and faithfulness: “His truth endures to all generations,” and no word of His shall fall to the ground as antiquated or revoked. The promise is sure to all the seed, from age to age.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771):  Be thankful for all blessings of grace in Him, and by Him.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Do but think what a Protector you have, even One who is infinitely wise to discover all that your great adversary is plotting for your destruction, and infinitely powerful to shield you from his fiercest assaults. Surely you may adopt the triumphant language of Paul, Romans 8:35-39, since, however weak you be, God has engaged to “perfect His own strength in your weakness,” 2 Corinthians 12:9. Think too what a Friend you have, Who will “supply your every want out of the fulness that is in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:19, and employ all His wisdom and all His power for the enriching and comforting of your souls. Lastly, think what a Rewarder you have, Who has provided for you on earth whatsoever His infinite wisdom has judged best, and all that His almighty power can impart to make you happy, whilst in heaven is reserved for you an eternity of inconceivable and unutterable bliss. I say then to you especially, “tune your harps to sing the praises” of your redeeming God, and live in the habitual and delightful anticipation of the blessedness that awaits you in a better world.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He speaks to us in His works, let us answer Him with our thanks. All He does is gracious, every movement of His hand is goodness; therefore let our hearts reply with gratitude, and our lips with song. Our lives should be responses to divine love.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Answer God’s goodness by thankfulness and obedience.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is the soul that is to be employed in blessing God, and all that is within us.

CHARLES SIMEON: Indeed, if we duly contemplate His character, and the wonderful things which, of His sovereign goodness, He has wrought for us, we shall find our minds constantly attuned to this holy exercise: methinks, our every feeling will be gratitude, and our every word be praise. This is the return which our God looks for at our hands: “Whoso offereth me praise, glorifieth me,” Psalm 50:23.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): David engages us to give thanks to God for His goodness, since the faithful can render Him no other recompense than the sacrifice of praise. “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD,” Psalm 116:17.

C. H. SPURGEON: Jehovah is ever engaged in giving, let us respond with thanksgiving “Unto our God.” How that possessive pronoun puts a world of endearment into the majestic word “God”! “This God is our God.” Now, can you call God your God? Is He indeed yours? If so, “Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God,” Psalm 147:7.

 

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When Jesus Christ Stands Up

Posted on September 29, 2023 by The Editor

Acts 7:51-60

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The picture of the martyrdom of Stephen is full of exquisite beauty.

THE EDITOR: In the forty-nine verses that preceded this passage, Stephen had calmly recited the history of the Jews from God’s calling of Abraham to the building of Solomon’s temple. But then, with these final words, the tone of his speech suddenly changes; Stephen now accuses them plainly and directly of their crimes against God, His Holy Spirit, and His Son; and by the power of the Holy Spirit, these words cut them to the heart. Undoubtedly, this is a New Testament “Thus saith the Lord,” moment; and at this very moment, Stephen “being full of the Holy Spirit,” sees the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Note: Those that are full of the Holy Ghost are fit for anything, either to act for Christ or to suffer for Him. And those whom God calls out to difficult services for His name, He will qualify for those services, and carry them comfortably through them, by filling them with the Holy Ghost, that as their afflictions for Christ abound, their consolation in Him may yet more abound, and then “none of these things move them.” Now here we have a remarkable communion between this blessed martyr and the blessed Jesus in this critical moment.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: A vision of his Lord was granted to him in the hour of his suffering and death. This vision of Christ seems to have shut out the brutality of the mob from the eyes of Stephen, and he saw the mob only in its folly and sin.

MATTHEW HENRY: He sees Christ is for him, and then no matter who is against him.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Other martyrs, when called to suffer the last extremities, had extraordinary assistances of a similar kind; or frail mortality surely could not have endured the torments under which they rejoiced; sometimes they preached Christ to the conversion of the spectators—occasionally even of their guards and tormentors.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Let Readers notice how Stephen speaks of Christ in His Mediator character and office—and I beg you not to overlook the Lord’s posture of standing, as if in readiness to receive Stephen to His arms, and to execute judgment upon His enemies.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: He saw His Lord, not sitting, but standing, thus fulfilling one aspect of His great priesthood.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This is very significant. We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that when Jesus “had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:3; but here, as Stephen looked up, he saw the Lord standing. What does it mean? It is just as though the blessed Lord in His great compassion for Stephen had risen from His seat and was looking over the battlements of Heaven to strengthen and cheer the martyr down on earth.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Stephen saw Him ‘standing,’ as if He had risen to His feet to see His servant’s need and was preparing to come to his help. What a rush of new strength for victorious endurance would flood Stephen’s soul as he beheld his Lord thus, as it were, starting to His feet in eagerness to succour! He looks down from amid the glory, and His calm repose does not involve passive indifference to His servant’s sufferings. Into it comes a full knowledge of all that they bear for Him, and His rest is not the negation of activity on their behalf, but its intense energy—Stephen’s vision brought together the glorified Lord and His servant, and filled the martyr’s soul with the fact that He suffered with those who suffered for His sake. That vision is a transient revelation of an eternal fact. Jesus knows and shares in all that affects His servants.

MATTHEW HENRY: He stands ready to receive him and crown him, and meanwhile to give him a prospect of the joy set before him—this was intended for Stephen’s encouragement.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Stephen “knew in whom he had believed,” and that “He was able to save him to the uttermost.” He knew that the soul, when liberated from the body, would continue to exist.

THOMAS COKE: That Stephen was fully confident of this is evident from his resigning up his soul to Jesus with the same confidence, and almost in the same words, with which Jesus gave up His soul to God the Father. The last words of our Saviour were, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” Luke 23:46.  Stephen, in the extremity of his sufferings, called upon God, and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” He died with these, and the following words in his mouth, “crying again with a loud voice,—Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!” In which he expressed as much charity to men, as in the other sentence he did faith in Christ…It has been well observed that Christ is generally represented sitting, but now as standing at God’s right hand—Stephen saw Him risen up from His throne, as if He was coming to be avenged of His enemies, and to welcome this martyr to immortal bliss.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people,” Isaiah 3:13. Both expressions show indignation and resentment; He rises up out of His place, and stands up in defence of His cause, and avenges Himself on a wicked ungrateful people.

THE EDITOR: But at this time our Lord answered Stephen’s intercessory prayer for those who were murdering him. No fire fell upon them instantly from heaven, and Christ’s judgment was stayed. But there will certainly come an appointed day, when Jesus shall stand up again to judge these people for their sins, of which, through the accusation of Stephen, the Holy Spirit had convicted their hearts—and also for their unrepentant rage, which added sin to sin.

JOHN GILL: Then “He shall stand upon the earth,” Job 19:25; for it is expressly said, that when He shall come, and all the saints with Him, “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives,” Zechariah 14:4—where He often was in the days of His flesh, and from whence He ascended to heaven, Luke 21:37; but He did not appear here at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; wherefore this must refer to a time to come; and seeing it is certain that He will come down from heaven in like manner as He went up, it seems very probable that He will descend upon that very spot of ground from whence He ascended.

CHARLES SIMEON: Soon will that Saviour who once died upon the cross come again in His glory to judge the world. Then will He bestow on them that recompence of reward, to which, whilst suffering for His sake, they had looked forward.

MATTHEW HENRY: When followers of Christ are for His sake “killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” does this separate them from the love of Christ? Does He love them less? Do they love Him less? No, by no means; and so it appears by this narrative.

 

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The Unity of Believers As Seen in the Lord’s Supper

Posted on September 22, 2023 by The Editor

Romans 15:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16,17

Receive ye one another, as Christ hath also received us to the glory of God.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Paul says that as we partake of Christ, we become one; we become, if you like, one loaf. There are some who say that verse 17 should be translated: “For we being many are one loaf—not bread—and one body.” So as we come to the Communion Service, and as the bread is broken, we are reminded at one and the same time of the parts, and of the whole.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The Lord’s Supper demands that the body be fully recognized: if the one body be not recognized, it is but sectarianism: the Lord Himself has lost His place. If the table be spread upon any narrower principle than that which would embrace the whole body of Christ, it is become a sectarian table…The celebration of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper should be the distinct expression of the unity of all believers, and not merely of the unity of a certain number gathered on certain principles, which distinguish them from others.

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE (1813-1843):  When Rowland Hill had preached in a Baptist chapel where none but baptized adults were admitted to the Lord’s Supper, he wished to observe it with them, but was told respectfully, ‘You cannot sit down at our table.’ He only calmly replied, “I thought it was the Lord’s table.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They forgot, when they denied fellowship in the outward act of eating bread and drinking wine, that the essential spirit of communion was far too spiritual to be thus restrained. The Holy Ghost will go into every member, and you may try to check Him by Church decrees, or to stop Him by your trust-deeds and your ordinances, that such-and-such a Church shall never be loosed from the bands of ancestral bigotry, but communion will go to all who are in Christ.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): The Baptist congregation at Northampton has at all times held a warm place in my affections, as it respects their love to all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, and prove the same by a holy correspondent life and conversation. In this sense only we should hold what may be called strict communion, but when our communion with each other is found inadmissible because of our less important differences about the mere circumstantials of religion, or the administration of a religious ordinance, this should not be called strict but sectarian communion.

C. H. SPURGEON: When I hear “strict communion” talked of, it reminds me of a little finger which was washed very clean, and therefore thought the rest of the body too filthy to have fellowship with it, so it took a piece of red tape and bound it tightly round itself, that the lifeblood might not flow from itself into the rest of the body.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There should be a happy medium between sectarian narrowness and the world’s ‘broadmindedness,’ between compromising the truth and turning away from some of the Lord’s people because they differ from us on non-essentials. Shall I refuse to partake of a meal because some of the dishes are not cooked as I like them? Then why decline fellowship with a brother in the Lord because he is unable to pronounce correctly my favourite shibboleth? It is not without reason that “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” is immediately preceded by “forbearing one another in love, ” Ephesians 4:2,3.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): This brings to mind the following occurrence―I was one day to dine with John Ryland at a friend’s house: while waiting for dinner, a minister asked Ryland’s opinion concerning strict communion and excluding pious men from the Lord’s table. “You decide the thing by calling it the Lord’s table, he replied. “Suppose, sir, when I entered this room, I had said, ‘Mr. such-a-one, you shall not sit down at this table; and Mrs. Such-a-one, you shall not sit down at this table?’ What would the master of this house, say?―‘Why, John Ryland, you are not the owner of this table. The table is mine, and I have a right to invite them; and I have invited them; and is it for you to forbid them?’ So in the church: the table is the Lord’s; and all who are called by His grace are His guests, and He has bidden them.”

ROWLAND HILL: What sort of evil is sectarianism? It is the cruel iron wedge of the devil’s own forging, to separate Christians from each other.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: If there be any term of communion proposed, save the all-important one of faith in the atonement of Christ, and a walk consistent with that faith, the table becomes the table of a sect.

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE: The early Reformers held the same view. Calvin wrote to Cranmer that he would cross ten seas to bring it about. Baxter, Owen, and Howe, in a later generation, pleaded for it; and the Westminster Divines laid down the same principle: “Saints, by profession, are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God—which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH: If we could only bear in mind that the Lord Himself presides at the table to dispense the bread and wine; if we could hear Him say, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves,” we should be better able to meet all our brethren on the only Christian ground of fellowship which God can own. In a word, the person of Christ is the centre of union; the word is, “Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.”

ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE: I have no doubt from Scripture that, where we have good reason for regarding a man as a child of God, we are permitted and commanded to treat him as a brother; and, as the most sacred pledge of heavenly friendship, to sit down freely at the table of our Lord, to eat bread and drink wine together in remembrance of Christ. If we have solid ground to believe that a fellow-sinner has been, by the Holy Spirit, grafted into the true vine, then we have ground to believe that we are vitally united to one another for eternity.

HUGH MARTIN (1822-1885): Those that are Christ’s are welcome; those that are not are forbidden…In the name of Christ, who spreads this table and presides over all its fellowship, we invite those that are Christ’s, those who have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts―to come to the table of the Lord.

C. H. SPURGEON: What food luxurious loads the board,

When, at His table, sits the Lord!

The wine how rich, the bread how sweet,

When Jesus deigns the guests to meet!

R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): With Jesus in the midst, we gather round the board,

 Tho’ many, we are one in Christ, one body in the Lord.

MARY B. PETERS (1813-1856): Around Thy table, holy Lord, In fellowship we meet,

                                                              Obedient to Thy gracious word, This feast of love to eat.

Here ev’ry one that loves Thy name, Our willing hearts embrace;

 Our source of life and hope the same, all debtors to Thy grace.

 

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What Thinkest Thou?

Posted on September 15, 2023 by The Editor

Ezekiel 11:5; Jeremiah 4:14

I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

Wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): “How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” is the inquiry of the prophet Jeremiah. And Paul hath set it down as a truth perfectly incontrovertible, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God; that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and they that are in the flesh cannot please God, ” Romans 8:7,8.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Carnal hearts are stews of unclean thoughts, shambles of cruel and bloody thoughts, exchanges and shops of vain thoughts, a very forge and mint of false, political, undermining thoughts, yea, often a little hell of confused and black imaginations, as one well describeth them.

ROBERT HAWKER: And although the mind be renewed by grace, still “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing,” Romans 7:18. The man who thinks otherwise, only manifests that he is a stranger to his own corruptions, and Paul’s experience.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): By nature we love vain thoughts, and hate the law of God. But in a renewed mind the case is altered; its delight is in the law of God; and therefore it cannot bear vain thoughts, which are contrary to that law, and exalt themselves against it, Psalm 119:113.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): They who “regard iniquity in their hearts,” are in a state of desperate delusion. God, who searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins, “will bring every secret thing into judgment,” and acquit or condemn, according as He sees the prevailing bent of the heart. If then our “thoughts be not so far captivated to the obedience of Christ” that we cherish those that are holy, and mortify all that are corrupt, we may perceive beyond a doubt that we are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.

THOMAS SCOTT: Thoughts are often said to be free from human censure―they are, but not from the cognizance and judgment of the Omniscient.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): How solemn is this fact: nothing can be concealed from God!

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): Thy thoughts are vocal to God.

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

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Evil thoughts as unavoidably arise from an evil nature, as steam arises from a boiling tea kettle. Every cause will have its effect, and a sinful nature will have sinful effects. You can no more keep such thoughts out of your mind than you can stop the course of the clouds. But though we cannot prevent evil thoughts from rising in our minds, we should endeavour to combat and suppress them.

CHARLES SIMEON: We are well aware that the best of men may have sinful thoughts rushing into their minds; but will they harbour them? No: every true Christian may say as in the presence of God, “I hate vain thoughts.”

JOHN TRAPP: In the midst of thee, in the very heart of thee, creep in they will, but why should they lodge there?

THOMAS SCOTT: 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…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.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The moralist is quite content to look after his actions, but the Christian is never happy until his thoughts are sanctified―vain thoughts nailed his Saviour to the tree.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): 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.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): What are our own thoughts at this moment? What have they been this very day, while we have been reading this? Would they bear public examination? Should we like others to know all that passes in our inner man? These are serious questions, and deserve serious answers. Whatever we may think of them, it is a certain fact that Jesus Christ is hourly reading our hearts.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Behold the Great King sitteth on the throne of judgment, and challenging every child of Adam—“Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee; and answer thou me,” Job 38:3. The answer humbles us in the dust, Proverbs 20:9—“Who can say”—truly say—“I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” A sinner in his self-delusion may conceive himself to be a saint. But that a saint should ever believe that he made himself so, is impossible. What! no vain thoughts, no sinful imaginations, lodging within! No ignorance, pride, wandering, coldness, worldliness, unbelief indulged! The more we search the heart, the more will its impurity open upon us. “Turn thou yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations,” Ezekiel 8:13, evils hitherto unsuspected. Vain boasters there are, who proclaim their good hearts. But the boast proves, not their goodness, but their blindness; that man is so depraved, that he cannot understand his own depravity.

J. C. RYLE: Truly we ought to humble ourselves before Him, and cry daily, “Who can tell how oft he offendeth?”—“Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”—“God be merciful to me a sinner!”

JOHN TRAPP: Behold a little the body of thy Saviour, hanging upon the cross. See Him afflicted from top to toe. See Him wounded in the head, to heal our vain imaginations. See Him wounded in the hands, to heal our evil actions. See Him wounded in the heart, to cure our vain thoughts. See His eyes shut up, that did enlighten the world; see them shut, that thine might be turned from seeing vanity. See that countenance so goodly to behold, spit upon and buffeted, that thy face might shine glorious as the angels in heaven,

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): With thoughts of Christ and things divine,

Fill up this foolish heart of mine.

 

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