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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The Public Pride of Perversion

Posted on June 23, 2023 by The Editor

Romans 1:21,22,24-32; Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The same vices and virtues are now as ever, and ever were as they are; men in every age were born in sin, and were transgressors from the womb; from their infancy corrupt, and in all the stages of life; there were the same luxury and intemperance, and unnatural lusts, rapine and violence, in the days of Noah and Lot, as now; in Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the old world, as in the present age.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Observe how it was with sinners formerly, and in what posture the judgments of God, of which they had been fairly warned, did at length find them. Look as far back as the “old world,” when all flesh had “corrupted their way,” and “the earth was filled with violence.” Then think how it was with the men of Sodom, who were “wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” Now observe concerning both these, that they had fair warning given them of the ruin that was coming upon them for their sins. Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” to the old world; so was Lot to the Sodomites. They gave them timely notice of what would be in the end of their wicked ways, and that it was not far off. They did not regard the warning given them, and gave no credit, no heed to it. They were very secure, went on in their business as unconcerned as you could imagine; “they did eat, they drank,” indulged themselves in their pleasures, and took no care of any thing else, but to “make provision for the flesh.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): There are always wanton persons who, while they fearlessly despise God, treat with ridicule all threatenings of His judgment, and at the same time hold in derision all injunctions as to a holy and pious life—they insolently persecute those who serve Him. We see what happened to the Sodomites and to others; yea, the abuse of God’s forbearance has ever been the cause of destruction…See how Sodom rushed forward to that degree of licentiousness so as to be horrified by no enormity. God says that they began by pride, and surely pride is the mother of all contempt of God.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Though they had disbelieved God’s threatenings, they soon found, as sooner or later all sinners will find, that their unbelief did not render them false, nor prevent their fulfilment.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “There is no remembrance of former things.” That is the trouble with our present age. Conditions in the past are largely unknown today. A generation has arisen which does little or no serious reading, which are largely unacquainted with history, and unaware of the fact that present conditions are but a reduplication of those which have frequently occurred before.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Now contrast this oblivion of former things, with the great miracle of Providence—the preservation of the Bible, God’s own Book—and therefore under His special protection. Here is indeed the remembrance of former things—free from the injury of time—free from the mists of uncertainty—still full and clear, as from the beginning.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): Dost thou believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God? Then thou standest in awe of, and dost much reverence them. Why, they are the Word of God, the true sayings of God.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): This Bible tells us what is about to take place. We have the news here in this Book—it tells us of the things that will surely come to pass; and that is a great deal newer than anything in the newspapers.

A. W. PINK: The sands in the hour glass of this Day of Salvation have almost run out. The signs of the times demonstrate it. “But,” it may be asked, “Have not other ages, as well as the present, been crowded with signs of distress?” Undoubtedly—yet, today, they shine out more clearly and more prominently than ever before.

JOHN GILL: “The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves,” Isaiah 3:9. They commit it openly, without fear or shame; glory in it, and boast of it.

THE EDITOR: They have misappropriated the rainbow, the symbol of God’s merciful promise, Genesis 9:12-17, to make it a banner of their arrogant pride, publicly parading their perverse abominations before His face. Surely, as happened in Sodom, the cry of such wickedness rises up to heaven, Genesis 18:20,21.

ROBERT HALDANE (1764-1842): What they esteemed as their wisdom was truly their folly—in a moral sense, or as respects the things of God, they were unintelligent and stupid.

A. W. PINK: “But,” it may be objected, “Have there not always been pessimists who interpreted gloomily the events of their day? Have not others, again and again, written in a similar strain, only to be shamed and discredited?” Be it so. But were they not wise men who took the earliest alarm, even though their fears were not immediately realized! They read evil in the signs of their times and gave utterance to their convictions so that men might be aroused; surely that was not folly. They erred in their calculations, yet it cannot be denied that their warning was beneficial in its results, even though it was premature. But today, the signs are so plain they cannot be misread, though the foolish may close their eyes and refuse to examine them.

CHARLES BRIDGES: Contrast, again, this want of remembrance, with the recollection that with God nothing is blotted out—nothing forgotten.

JAMES HERVEY (1713-1758): He remembereth His threatenings, as well as His promises, to a thousand generations.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him,” Isaiah 3:10,11. This is an admirable sentence to support the souls of the pious, amidst all the troubles of this life; God will not forsake those who truly love and serve Him. This reason teaches us, and the experience of all times confirms it.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): And wicked men who now doubt His truth and dare not trust His Word, will hereafter, in the most convincing, affecting manner, find His Word to be true in all that He has threatened, and will see that He is faithful to His promises in rewarding His saints.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Let us not make any mistake about the matter—the devil is the devil, the world is the world, and the flesh is the flesh. None of these things have changed, and the mercy is, that God has not changed. Let us joyfully remember that the Lord our God has not changed, no, not in one jot or tittle. He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

HUDSON TAYLOR (1832-1905): There is a living God. He has spoken in His Word. He means just what He says.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): His promises are sure as the ordinances of heaven, and His threatenings too. Those who cast themselves on revealed wrath are their own destroyers.

 

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God’s Commandment to Fathers

Posted on June 16, 2023 by The Editor

Deuteronomy 6:4-7; Psalm 78:4-7; Ephesians 6:4—Colossians 3:21

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord—Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The responsibility of parents is referred to only with regard to the father. Thus the apostle emphasized that the chief responsibility for training a child should rest with the father.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): Thy duty is to acquaint thy children with the works of God. Teach them His doings, as well as His sayings. “Take heed to thyself, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons,” Deuteronomy 4:9. God’s wonders should be had in everlasting remembrance. “He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered,” Psalm 111:4.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;” instructing them in the knowledge of divine things, setting them good examples, taking care to prevent their falling into bad company, praying with them, and for them, bringing them into the house of God to attend public worship; all which, under a divine blessing, may be very useful to them; the example of Abraham is worthy of imitation, Genesis 18:19, and the advice of the wise man deserves attention, Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Bring them up with tenderness and mildness, in the instruction and discipline of the Lord—both in Christian knowledge and practice. “Provoke not your children to wrath.” Fathers are named, as being more apt to be stern and severe.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): One would think that if there was any one of the near relationships of human life more than another that would of itself absolutely secure kindness, and tenderness, and affability, and love, it would be that of a father. But, as a matter of fact, it is often the very opposite. You never see more impatience, and harshness, and sullenness, and sourness than you see in some fathers.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Fathers are more inclined to become impatient and unduly harsh and unkind with their children.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Why is that so, I wonder?

JOHN GILL: As heads of families, they are apt to be too severe, as mothers are apt to be too indulgent.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): It seems to be the besetting sin of mankind and one of the most terrible results of man’s fall, that there is nothing difficult as to maintain a balance. In correcting one thing we go to such an extreme as to find ourselves in an equally dangerous position.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Indeed, Paul seems more strictly to guard fathers against a mal-administration of their power, and to engage them to lay aside rigour in their government.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Though God has given you power, you must not abuse that power, remembering that your children are pieces of yourselves; and therefore ought to be governed with great tenderness and love. Be not impatient with them, use no unreasonable severities and lay no rigid injunctions upon them. When you caution them, when you counsel them, when you reprove them, do it in such a manner as not to “provoke them to wrath”…So also, “ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself,” Ephesians 5:28. They must love them with tender and faithful affection, as Christ loved the church—“And be not bitter against them,” Colossians 3:19. They must not use them unkindly, with harsh language or severe treatment, but be kind to them.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Severity will hurt your own souls, and do them no good.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Discipline in the spirit of love, and enforced by example, is God’s honoured ordinance—forbearance and forgiveness will therefore take the place of resentment and malice—the tremendous passions of jealousy and rage shut out all forgiveness.

MATTHEW HENRY: We cannot do it without God.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Let every silent, sulky, churlish father watch and examine the working of his own heart till he understands and overcomes this monstrosity in himself. It is against nature. But it cannot be denied that it is very common. It is not for nothing that Paul gives to fathers this somewhat startling counsel, not to provoke their children to wrath. The apostle must often have sat at tables where the children were incessantly corrected and rebuked and exasperated. He must often have seen all-but-innocent children nagged and worried into actions, the whole blame of which he laid on their fathers and their mothers.

ADAM CLARKE: If punished with severity or cruelty, they will be only hardened and made desperate in their sins. Cruel parents generally have bad children.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Unreasonable severity excites hatred, and would lead them to throw off the yoke altogether. Writing to the Colossians, he adds, “lest they be discouraged.”

MATTHEW HENRY: Let not your authority over them be exercised with rigour and severity, but with kindness and gentleness, lest you raise their passions and by holding the reins too tight make them fly out with greater fierceness. The bad temper and example of imprudent parents often prove a great hindrance to their children and a stumbling-block in their way.

MATTHEW POOLE: Paul allows not parents to do that which has a direct tendency to irritate the passions of their children merely for their own pleasure, without a principal regard to God’s glory, and their children’s profit, Hebrews 12:10.

ALEXANDER WHYTE: Treat your children, as your Father treats you. For His name is merciful, and gracious, and long-suffering, and slow to wrath. Command your temper towards your children.

RICHARD CECIL (1748-1810): When they do right, make a point of praising them openly; and when they do wrong, reprehend them secretly.

JOHN CALVIN: Kind treatment has a tendency to cherish their reverence for parents, and increase the cheerfulness and activity of their obedience. To guard them, however, against the opposite and frequent evil of excessive indulgence, he adds, in the instruction and reproof of the Lord. It is not the will of God that parents, in the exercise of kindness, shall spare and corrupt their children. Let their conduct towards their children be at once mild and considerate, so as to guide them in the fear of the Lord, and correct them also when they go astray.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: We cannot fail, once more, to be impressed by the wonderful balance of scriptural teaching.

ADAM CLARKE: He who corrects his children according to God, and reason, will feel every blow on his own heart more sensibly than his child feels it on his body.

MATTHEW HENRY: Bring them up well, in the discipline of proper and compassionate correction, and in the knowledge of that duty which God requires of them and by which they may become better acquainted with Him.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Behold a pious parent encircled by his little family, to whom he is recounting the LORD’s gracious dealings with his soul. Reader! picture a father, thus engaged; then ask whether the blessing of the LORD must not rest upon such households!

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The Lord has a most gracious way of making families to be full of comfort and peace, when those families walk in His fear—but when there is sin in the head of the household, there comes disorder in the family, the departure of the divine blessing, and all goes awry.

 

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William Gurnall & The Christian in Complete Armour

Posted on June 9, 2023 by The Editor

Ephesians 6:10-18

My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The reader will find, in William Gurnall’s “Christian in Complete Armour,” a very large and practical improvement of this portion of Scripture.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): You will often find in a line and a half some great truth, put so concisely, and yet so fully, that you marvel how so much thought could be got into so few words.

D. DUNDAS M’ISAAC (circa 1864): With the exception of two sermons preached on special occasions, The Christian in Complete Armour is William Gurnall’s only published work.

J. C. RYLE: Perhaps there is no writer who has left a name so familiar to all readers of Puritan theology, but whose personal history so little is known. Except that he was a Puritan divine of the seventeenth century—that he was Minister of Lavenham—and that he wrote a well-known book of practical divinity, most persons know nothing of William Gurnall. This dearth of information about so good a man appears at first sight extraordinary and unaccountable. Born, as he was, in a seaport town of no mean importance—the son of parents who held a prominent position in the town—educated at Cambridge, at one of the best known colleges of the day—the contemporary of leading divines of his times—minister of the largest church in West Suffolk for the uninterrupted period of thirty-five years—author of a work which, from its first appearance, was eminently popular.

D. DUNDAS M’ISAAC: The Christian in Complete Armour is a production of a period remarkable beyond any other in the history of England, for earnest activity in the matters of religion—the days of Richard Baxter, of John Bunyan, of Thomas Brooks, Stephen Charnock, John Owen, John Flavel, John Howe, Thomas Watson—men whose many volumes, or whose single treatises, were read with avidity by their contemporaries, and continue still to maintain their position among those esteemed treasures of practical divinity—the Christian classics of our English literature.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Such men as Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, Stephen Charnock, John Flavel, and Richard Sibbes, though living in troublous times and suffering fierce persecution, taught the Word more helpfully―in our judgment, and were more used of God than any since the days of the apostles to the present hour. The ministry of the Puritans was an exceedingly searching one.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): If I might read only one book beside the Bible, I would choose The Christian in Complete Armour.

J. C. RYLE: How shall we account for the absence of any notice of Gurnall in the biographical writings of his day? I believe that answer is to be found in the line of conduct Gurnall followed in the year 1662, on the passing of the unhappy Act of Uniformity. He did not secede from the Church of England! He was not one of the famous two thousand ministers who gave up their preferment, and became Nonconformists. He retained his position at Lavenham. Puritan as he undoubtedly was, both in doctrine and practice, he did not do what many of his brethren did. When Richard Baxter, Thomas Manton, John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, and a host of other giants in theology, seceded from the Church of England, Gurnall stood fast, and refused to move. A neutral is never popular in a season of strife and controversy.

J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): When truth and error are in presence of each other, the right side is not the middle.

J. C. RYLE: This, I suspect, was precisely Gurnall’s position. He was a Puritan in doctrine, and yet he steadfastly adhered to the Church of England. He was a minister of the Church of England, and yet a thorough Puritan both in preaching and practice. He was just the man to be disliked and slighted by both sides…I leave the subject of Gurnall’s conduct in 1662 with the reader. It is one on which different men will have different opinions—I only desire to record my own opinion, that Gurnall was probably just as courageous, conscientious and high-principled in deciding to stay in, as his two thousand ejected brethren were in deciding to go out…Gurnall’s case, perhaps, does not stand alone. Perhaps the last day will prove that some of the best and holiest men that ever lived are hardly known.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): The Puritans were burning and shining lights. When cast out and driven from their respective charges to preach in barns and fields, in the highways and hedges, they in a special manner wrote and preached as men having authority. Though dead, by their writings they yet speak: a peculiar unction attend them to this very hour—the more true and vital religion hath revived either at home or abroad, the more the good old puritanical writings, or the authors of a like stamp who lived and died in the Church of England, have been called for.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It appears from the preface that Gurnall’s “Christian in Complete Armour” was preached before it was printed. In vivid imagery every page of his famous book abounds…He is as profuse in illustration as either Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson, or George Swinnock.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The subject of the treatise is solemn; A War Between the Saint and Satan, and that so bloody a one, that the cruelest war which was ever fought by men will be found but sport and child’s play to this. It is a spiritual war that you shall read of; and that not a history of what was fought many ages past and is now over, but of what is now doing—the tragedy is at present acting—and that not at the furthest end of the world, but what concerns thee and everyone that reads it. The stage whereon this war is fought is every man’s own soul. Here is no neutral in this war. The whole world is engaged in the quarrel, either for God against Satan, or for Satan against God.

THE EDITOR: It is not a physical war fought against men, governments, or nations, but within the soul of each person, between good and evil.

D. DUNDAS M’ISAAC: The war thus described is so illustrated as to embrace the entire course of the Christian’s life on earth. It is divided into two parts. The first is A Short but Powerful Encouragement to the War; and the second, and main part, consists of Directions for Managing the War successfully, wherein is set forth the necessity of being armed for the conflict; the armour required; the nature of the conflict; the character and power of the assailant or enemies with which the Christian has to contend, and the posture to be maintained in the fight; whilst under the various special pieces of armour, the nature and importance of the various Christian graces are set forth—the whole being bound together and fitted for us by all-prayer, under which there is given a very thorough illustration of the nature, privilege, and advantage of prayer to the Christian.

C. H. SPURGEON: It is peerless, and priceless; every line is full of wisdom; every sentence is suggestive. The whole book is, in our judgment, the best thought-breeder in our library…I have often resorted to it when my own fire has been burning low, and I have seldom failed to find a glowing coal upon Gurnall’s hearth.

 

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The Value of Christian Personal Experience

Posted on June 2, 2023 by The Editor

John 4:28-30, 39-42; 2 Peter 1:16,17

The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Peter believed the evidences which he had in common with others: but he felt peculiar conviction from those which he derived from his own personal experience. So the people of Samaria, who had believed on Jesus on account of the woman’s testimony, told her afterwards, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Experience is very different from theory; and when we are taught of God, we have other views of those very things of which we have read and heard before…And there is such a thing as experience, or an acquaintance with divine things derived from trial, in addition to testimony, which is peculiarly satisfactory.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): There are two sorts of knowledge among men; one traditional, the other experiential: this last the apostle calls a “knowing in ourselves,” Hebrews 10:34, and opposes it to that traditional knowledge which may be said to be without ourselves, because borrowed from other men.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): There are two kinds of knowledge—the knowledge of faith, and what they call experiential knowledge.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The knowledge that David had of God’s goodness was experiential—“I was brought low, and He helped me,” Psalm 116:6. A carnal man knows God’s excellencies and will revealed in His word only, as we know far countries by maps; but an experienced Christian knows them as one that hath himself been long there. See the like with Paul in Romans 8:2, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Paul not only knew these things by faith, but he knew much of them by experience.

JOHN CALVIN: “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us,” 2 Corinthians 1:8-10. Here he applies to himself personally, what he had stated in a general way, and by way of proclaiming the grace of God, he declares that he had not been disappointed in his expectation, inasmuch as he had been delivered from death, and that too, in no common form.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): “I know whom I have trusted,” 2 Timothy 1:12. And it is because he knows Him that therefore he is persuaded that “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him.” How did Paul know Him? By experience. By the experience of his daily life. By all these years of trial and yet of blessedness through which he had passed; by all the revelations that had been made to his waiting heart as the consequence and as the reward of the humble faith that rested upon God. And so the whole past had confirmed to him the initial confidence which knit him to Jesus Christ.

JOHN FLAVEL: This experience we have of the power of religion in our souls is that only which fixes a man’s spirit in the ways of godliness; it made the Hebrews take joyfully the spoiling of their goods; no arguments or temptations can wrest truth out of the hand of experience.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): And so, to deepen their knowledge of the truth, to ground and settle them in it, to bring it out in all its practical power, a good, covenant God often places His children in sore trials and temptations. The mariner becomes practiced in his trade in the storm and the hurricane, amid rocks and shoals. All that he knew before he launched his vessel on the ocean or encountered the storm was only theory—but a single tempest or one escape from shipwreck imparts more experiential knowledge than years of merely theoretical work. So learns the believer how theoretical and defective his views of divine truth; how little his knowledge of his own heart, his deep corruptions, perfect weakness and little faith; how imperfect his acquaintance with Jesus and His fullness, value, all-sufficiency, and sympathy, until the hand of God falls upon him! When messenger after messenger brings news of blasted gourds or broken cisterns, when brought down and laid low, they are constrained to confess like Job, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,” Job 42:5,6.

CHARLES SIMEON: He knows the power and grace of Christ in a way that he never could know it from mere argument: and in speaking of Christ he can say, “what my eyes have seen, my ears have heard, my hands have handled of the word of life, that declare I unto you,” 1 John 1:1.

C. H. SPURGEON: He is precious to us by experience because He has helped us in many a dark hour of trial…Those who are, for the most part, without trial, are usually the weakest in the Church of God. They are usually the least spiritual, the least instructed in experimental truth and altogether the least knowledgeable in Divine things. We have our sorrows, but have we not found, by actual experience, that the choicest consolation for sorrow is the fact that Jesus Christ knows all about it and is with us in it!

JOHN TRAPP: In matters of divinity we must first believe, and then know; not know, and then believe.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): If you do not believe, you will not understand.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: We must trust, to begin with, before experience. But the faith that is built upon a lifetime is a far stronger thing than the tremulous faith that, out of darkness, stretches a groping hand, and for the first time lays hold upon God’s outstretched hand. We hope then, we tremblingly trust, we believe on the authority of His Word. But after years have passed, we can say, ‘We have heard Him ourselves, and we know that this is the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Those know Christ best that know Him by experience.

C. H. SPURGEON: Some Christians have a large amount of experimental knowledge. They are not eloquent, they are not educated, but they are wise. It has been our privilege to have some, in the very humblest walks of life, whose experiential knowledge of Divine things was very much more profound than would usually be found in a doctor of divinity—men and women who have learned their theology, not in halls and colleges, but in courts and cellars. They have learned how to pray on bare knees. They have learned how to cry to the God of Providence when the cupboard was empty…If you have any experience, let me say to you—as you have opportunity tell it out. Empty it upon the earth! If you have gained some knowledge of God, communicate it. If you have proved Him, confess to the generation about you that He is a faithful God!

 

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Jesus Christ’s Gifts for Repentant Rebels

Posted on May 26, 2023 by The Editor

Psalm 68:18,19; Ephesians 4:7,8; Acts 2:33-36

Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious, also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): There certainly are many parts of the prophetic writings, and particularly of the Psalms, which have a spiritual or mystical reference to Christ: nor can we err in interpreting them of Him, while we take the inspired Apostles for our guides.

GRIFFITH WILLIAMS (1589-1672): Mystically, this Psalm 68 is an ἐπινικιον, or a triumphal song, penned by king David upon the foresight of Jesus Christ arising from the dead, and with great joy and triumph ascending up into heaven, and thence sending his Holy Spirit unto His apostles and disciples.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Psalm 68:18. This is the verse which serves as a key to unlock the sacred treasury of this whole Psalm. And the Holy Ghost himself is His own commentator. By His servant, the apostle Paul, He hath taught the church how to apply it to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 4:8,9. Hence, by comparing these Scriptures, and looking for the divine teaching of He Who is the almighty Author of both, we are admitted into a blessed apprehension of the things recorded concerning Christ. Observe, in what words the thing is spoken of, “Thou hast ascended.” This was written by the spirit of prophecy, at least a thousand years before Christ was born. But to His almighty eye, before Whom things past, present, or future, form but one object, the event is so sure, that what He hath counseled must stand, and be as certain as if finished. The ascension of the Lord Jesus is the subject here contemplated; but the whole of Christ’s triumphs over death, hell, and the grave, together with his exalted state at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, is included in this hymn of praise.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” Ephesians 4:9. Paul’s meaning appears to be this: The person who ascended is the Messiah, and His ascension plainly intimates His descension—that is, His incarnation, humiliation, death, and resurrection.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): To do battle with our enemies, the Lord descended and left His throne; but now the fight is finished, He returns to His glory, high above all things is He now exalted. “Thou hast led captivity captive.” A multitude of the sons of men are the willing captives of the Messiah’s power. As great conquerors of old led whole nations into captivity, so Jesus leads forth from the territory of His foe a vast company as the trophies of His mighty grace. From the gracious character of His reign it comes to pass that to be led into captivity by Him is for our captivity to cease, or to be itself led captive; a glorious result indeed. The Lord Jesus destroys His foes with their own weapons; He puts death to death, entombs the grave, and leads captivity captive.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The expression is emphatic. He has conquered and triumphed over all the powers which held us in captivity, so that captivity itself is taken captive. The spirit and force of it is destroyed—the energy of the phrase is not unlike that of the apostle Paul: “Death is swallowed up in victory,” 1 Corinthians 15:54.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815): And, having obtained the victory, He proceeds to divide the spoils: Gifts to men, as David made presents. There was a glorious fulfillment immediately after His ascension, in a rich profusion of gifts and graces to His church, like David’s presents. In Psalm 68:18, it is “received;” in Ephesians, “gave.” He received, that He might give; received the spoil, that He might distribute it.

CHRISTMAS EVANS (1766-1838): After He entered the heaven of heavens, did He shower down gifts unto men, as a mighty conqueror loaded with treasures with which to enrich and adorn his followers and people. The apostle shows that a portion of these gifts, are gifts of ministry, Ephesians 4:11.

ANDREW FULLER: Ministers are received for, and are given to you by Christ.

CHRISTMAS EVANS: Accordingly, whenever God condescends to dwell among a people and in a country, He gives that people and country His ministry. He sends them His gospel in the mouths of faithful servants.

ISAAC AMBROSE (1604-1664): He gives the gift of gifts—the gift of the Holy Ghost.

C. H. SPURGEON: The Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost.

ISAAC AMBROSE: “If thou knewest the gift of God,” said Christ to the Samaritan woman, John 4:10: that gift was the water of life, and that water of life was the Spirit, as John, who knew best His mind, gave the interpretation, “This spake he of the Spirit,” John 7:39. Consider this princely gift of Christ. Such a gift was never given before, but when “God so loved the world, that he gave his Son,” John 3:16—and, Christ so loved the world, that He gave His Spirit. But consider especially to whom this Spirit was given—“unto us a Son is given,” said the prophet, Isaiah 9:6; and “unto us the Holy Ghost is given,” saith Paul, Romans 5:5.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): And so the phrase in the original doth more than insinuate: לקחתּ מתּנות בּאדם “Thou hast received gifts in Adam,” in the man, or human nature. And לקח signifies as well to give as to receive, especially when anything is received to be given. Christ received this gift in His human nature, to give it unto others.

ISAAC AMBROSE: Yet above all, consider the reason of this gift in reference to thyself. Was it not to make thee a temple of the Holy Ghost? Stand a while on this! Admire the condescending, glorious, and unspeakable love of Christ in this! It was infinite love to come down into our nature when He was incarnate; but this is more, to come down into thy heart by His Holy Spirit: He came near to us then, but as if that were not near enough, He comes nearer now, for now He unites Himself unto thy person—He comes and dwells in thy soul by His Holy Spirit.

C. H. SPURGEON: What a wonder is this choice mercy, that a den of dragons should become a temple of the Holy Spirit!

CHRISTMAS EVANS: They were gifts of mercy: gifts to the rebellious—to those who laid down their arms at His feet in penitent submission, “that the Lord God may dwell among them.”

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): I have found it as difficult to come to God by prayer, after backsliding from Him, as to do any other thing…Yet that saying would sometimes come to my mind, “He hath received gifts for the rebellious.” “The rebellious,” thought I; why, surely, they are such as once were under subjection to their prince, even those who, after they have sworn subjection to his government, have taken up arms against him; and this, thought I, is my very condition; once I loved Him, feared Him, served Him; yet He has gifts for rebels, and then, why not for me?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): It is one of the most wonderful things to realize, that even when we in our folly sin against Him, or turn our backs upon Him, His love still remains, it still goes on—He has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

 

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The Son of God & The Son of Man

Posted on May 19, 2023 by The Editor

Hebrews 10:12,13; Psalm 110:1

This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): We are here informed of Jehovah’s eternal  and unchangeable decree concerning the kingdom of Messiah, its extension, power, and duration. That Messiah should, after His sufferings, be thus exalted, was determined in the divine counsel and covenant, before the world began.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The resurrection is followed by the ascension into heaven. Although Christ, by rising again, began fully to display His glory and virtue, having laid aside the abject and ignoble condition of a mortal life, and the ignominy of the cross—yet it was only by His ascension to heaven that His reign truly commenced.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): In these days of wide-spread departure from the faith, it cannot be insisted upon too strongly or too frequently that the Lord Jesus is none other than the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In Psalm 110:1, the divinity of Christ is plainly asserted…The Jews have taken great pains to explain it away: but their attempts are, and ever must be, in vain.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347-407): They are speaking inconsistent things, like drunken men, or rather, like men in the dark, running against one another.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836):Our blessed Lord Himself appeals to Psalm 110:1 in order to confound and silence His malignant adversaries. Both Pharisees and Sadducees had endeavoured to ensnare Him by difficult and perplexing questions: and, when He had answered, He put this question to them: “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?” And when they said, “The Son of David,” He asked them, “How then doth David in Spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”

Then we are told, “No man was able to answer Him a word,” Matthew 22:41-46.

Had they been willing to acknowledge Christ as their Messiah, they needed not to have been at any loss for an answer; for they knew Him to be a son of David; and He had repeatedly declared himself to be God, insomuch that they had again and again taken up stones to stone Him for blasphemy. But this passage proved beyond all doubt that the Messiah was to be “the root, as well as the offspring of David,” Revelation 22:16—the Lord of David, as well as David’s son. And here it is worthy of notice, that we see in this appeal what was the interpretation which the Jews of that day put upon the psalm before us.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Indeed the ancient Jews themselves understood it thus; and that this was the known and received sense of it in our Saviour’s time, appears from what passed between Him and the Pharisees.

CHARLES SIMEON: They all understood it as relating to the Messiah: and all the attempts of modern Jews to put any other construction upon it are futile in the extreme.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): These questions of our Lord themselves contain the answers to the present-day critics who deny the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the Davidic authorship and Messianic application of certain Psalms; quoting from Psalm 110:1, our Saviour declared that these were the words of David, speaking “by the Holy Ghost,” Mark 12:36, concerning the Christ, the Messiah. This ought for ever to settle the question about the inspiration, authorship, and application of that Psalm at least.

CHARLES SIMEON: Our Lord speaks of the Holy Ghost as inspiring David—which none but Jehovah could do, to declare what Jehovah the Father had said to Jehovah the Son. If the doctrine of the Trinity had not been received among them, would they have been silent, and not known what to answer Him?

A. W. PINK: To which we may add an amazing, heart-thrilling fact—the Holy Spirit has also been pleased to reveal to us the first words which were uttered by the Father, when His Son returned to Him, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.”

JOHN CALVIN: There is another thing, besides, deserving of notice—that David spake by the spirit of prophecy, and consequently prophesied of the future reign of Christ…it is plainly to be inferred that he had a reference to Christ’s future manifestation in the flesh, because He is the sole and supreme Head of the Church. From which it also follows, that there is something in Christ more excellent than His humanity, on account of which He is called the Lord of David His father. This view is strengthened by what is stated in the second clause of the verse. Earthly kings may indeed be said to sit at God’s right hand, inasmuch as they reign by His authority; here, however, something more lofty is expressed, in that one king is chosen in a peculiar manner, and elevated to the rank of power and dignity next to God—and as God’s right hand is elevated far above all angels, it follows that He Who is seated there is exalted above all creatures.

A. W. PINK: The Son of God Himself, though in our nature, was accorded the highest throne in heaven. It was a Person who was thus magnified. The whole Christ rose, and the whole Christ sits at God’s right hand…Now the foundation of Christ’s being David’s “Lord” lay in His being the Son of God, and it was the second Person in the Trinity, Who had taken human nature into union with Himself, that Jehovah the Father invited to sit at His own right hand. The throne belongs to Him both as God, and as man, see Psalm 45:6,7; John 5:27.

JOHN CALVIN: Being raised to heaven, He withdrew His bodily presence from our sight, that He might rule heaven and earth more immediately by His power; or rather, the promise which He made to be with us, even to the end of the world, He fulfilled by this ascension, by which, as His body has been raised above all heavens, so His power and efficacy have been propagated and diffused beyond all the bounds of heaven and earth.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Sit thou at my right hand;” This implies the possession of the utmost confidence, power, and preeminence. “Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Jesus shall reign till all His enemies are subdued under Him.

C. H. SPURGEON: It seems to me to be such a delightful thought to think that Jesus Christ is King today in the world. The Lord reigns—let the earth rejoice! Jesus Christ wears the crown of universal monarchy this day!—so that nothing happens now, but that which Jesus permits, ordains and overrules. Let empires go to pieces—it is Christ who breaks them with a rod of iron! Let conflagrations burn down cities and let diseases devastate nations! Let war succeed war and pestilence famine—yet still He rules all things well and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, that are called according to His purpose. The saints are in the world, but Christ reigns over the world for His Church, that it may be kept and preserved in the midst of an evil generation.

 

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Honourable Mothers in Israel

Posted on May 12, 2023 by The Editor

Judges 5:6-8

In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel. They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Here Deborah describes the distressed state of Israel under the tyranny of Jabin.  The country has been in a manner desolate. There was no trade—all commerce ceased, and the highways were unoccupied; no travelling, whereas in times when there was some order and government, the travelers might be safe in the open roads, and robbers were forced to lurk in the by-ways; no, on the contrary, the robbers insulted on the open roads without check. No tillage: the fields must needs be laid waste and unoccupied when the inhabitants of the villages, the country farmers, ceased from their employment. No administration of justice. There was war in the gates where their courts were kept. Neither had they arms nor spirit to help themselves with—not a “shield nor spear seen among forty thousand.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): These were the unhappy circumstances Israel was under.

MATTHEW HENRY: She shows what it was that brought all this misery upon them: “They chose new gods.” It was their idolatry that provoked God to give them up thus into the hands of their enemies.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): It will be recollected that national judgments are always the consequence of national sins.

SAMUEL MILLER (1769-1850): How many personal, domestic, ecclesiastical and national sins press heavily upon us as a people, and cry aloud for the judgments of a righteous God! Think of the abounding atheism and various forms of infidelity, the pride, the degrading intemperance, the profanations of the Sabbath, the fraud, the gross impiety, the neglect and contempt of the gospel, and all the numberless forms of enormous moral corruption ­which even in the most favoured parts of our country prevail in a deplorable degree, and in the less favoured hold a melancholy undisturbed reign. Think of these abounding sins; and think also in how small a degree multitudes even of the professing people of God seem to be awake to the great responsibilities and duties of their high vocation.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): For nations there is a weighing time. National sins demand national punishments. The whole history of God’s dealings with mankind proves that though a nation may go on in wickedness; it may multiply its oppressions; it may abound in bloodshed, tyranny, and war; but an hour of retribution draweth nigh. When it shall have filled up its measure of iniquity, then shall the angel of vengeance execute its doom.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Deborah is called “a mother in Israel,” for the same reason as every deliverer of his country is called the father of it.

MATTHEW HENRY: Thus she became a mother in Israel, a nursing mother, such was the affection she bore to her people, and such the care and pains she took for the public welfare.

C. H. SPURGEON: The moulding of the character of the next generation, remember, begins with the mother’s influence…What is it to serve our own generation? This is a question which ought to interest us all very deeply. We live in the midst of our own generation, and seeing that we are part of it, we should serve it, that the generation in which our children shall live may be better than our own. Though our citizenship is in heaven, yet as we live on earth, we should seek to serve our generation while we pass as pilgrims to the better country.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): The names of mothers of good and bad kings are mentioned in Kings and Chronicles, as partakers in their credit or reproach.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): As they were good or evil, so were their children.

C. H. SPURGEON: David had been taught by his good mother. I know he had a godly mother, for he says, “Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid,” Psalm 116:16. He calls his mother, God’s handmaid, which shows that she was one of God’s servants. I have no doubt that she took David on her knee and taught him God’s Word while he was but a child, for he had such a love of it afterwards that he must have had a love of it while he was yet little!―the man never forgets what he learns at his mother’s knee.

WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE (1819-1881): The hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world.

C. H. SPURGEON: Dear Sister, seek to be a mother in Israel, a matron for Jesus Christ.

ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815):  My dear sisters, yours is a great work.

CHARLES BRIDGES: “A gracious woman retaineth honour,” as firmly as strong men retain riches,” Proverbs 11:16. She is known, not by her outward beauty, Proverbs 31:30, but by her “inner becoming ornaments,” 1 Timothy 2:9,10; 1 Peter 3:3,4; which remain in full lustre, when external accomplishments have faded away, Proverbs 31:25. She preserves her character unblemished, Ruth 3:11. She wins her children—perhaps her ungodly husband—into the ways of holiness, Proverbs 31:12,28; 1 Peter 3:1,2. Thus Deborah “retained honour” as “a mother in Israel,” the Counsellor and the stay of a sinking people. Esther retained her influence over her heathen husband for the good of her nation, Esther 9:12,13; Esther 9:25.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Wonderfully did God reward Ruth for all her piety—it pleased God to confer on her that which was the great desire of her soul, and to make her a mother in Israel, yea, so greatly did God honour her, that David, the greatest of all the kings of Israel, sprang from her, as the grandson of her child; and the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Saviour of the world, was lineally descended from her.

C. H. SPURGEON: Happy woman, thus to become a mother in Israel!

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Yes; but behind all the nobleness, steadfastness, beauty, and tenderness of Ruth, I see inspiring, and sustaining, and maturing it all, the wise, chastened, weaned mind of one who was a mother in Israel and a widow indeed. Naomi showed two Moabite women what a widowed wife and mother had to rest on in Israel; and one, at least, of her daughters-in-law laid the lesson and the example well to heart.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): How useful might be the older female members of the churches, in employing those seasons of communion which are continually occurring with their younger friends—to nourish in their minds the spirit of faith, prayer, and holiness.

CHARLES BRIDGES: And still the gracious woman retaineth honour long after she has mingled with the dust: Sarah the obedient wife, 1 Peter 3:5,6; Hannah the consecrating mother, 1 Samuel 1:28; Lois, Eunice, and “the elect lady,” 2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15; 2 John 1-4, in the family sphere; Phoebe and her companions in the annals of the Church, Romans 16:2-6; Philippians 4:3; the rich contributor to the temple, Mark 12:42-44; the self-denying lover of her Lord, Mark 14:3-9; Mary in contemplative retirement, Luke 10:39; Dorcas in active usefulness, Acts 9:36—Are not these “good names,” Psalm 112:6, still had in honourable remembrance?

CHARLES SIMEON: Truly “them that honour God, God will honour,” 1 Samuel 2:30; and every one that will serve Him shall receive an abundant “recompense of reward,” Ruth 2:12—and He has fulfilled His Word to all His servants in all ages.

 

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Unskilful in the Word

Posted on May 5, 2023 by The Editor

1 Peter 2:2,3; 1 Corinthians 3:1,2—Hebrews 5:11-14

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able—We have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): A strange opinion has obtained amongst some, that there is no such thing as growth in grace. But the whole tenor of Scripture, from one end of it to the other, proclaims the contrary.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): Our hearers do not look upon it as their duty to learn to be teachers…They think it enough for them, if at best they can hear with some profit to themselves. But this was not the state of things in primitive times. Every church was then a seminary, wherein provision and preparation was made, not only for the continuation of the preaching of the gospel in itself, but for the calling, gathering, and teaching of other churches also—Wherefore hearers in the church were not only taught those things which might be sufficient unto their own edification, but every thing also that was necessary to the edification of others; an ability for whose instruction it was their duty to aim at.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Are all teachers?” 1 Corinthians 12:29. No; the far greater part of the members of churches are hearers, or persons that are taught in the Word; are neither in the office of teaching, nor have they the qualifications for it.

JOHN OWEN: I do not say that this was the duty of all hearers. Every one was not to labour to profit by the Word that he might be a teacher. Many things might incapacitate persons from any such work. But yet—in general, every one that belongs unto the church ought to have a double aim; first his own edification, and then his usefulness in respect of others. We are so to learn in the church as that we may be useful to others; a matter which few think of or trouble themselves about. But this Christ expects of all the members of His churches in an especial manner. For every church is “the body of Christ, and members in particular,” 1 Corinthians 12:27…Every one is to contribute to the growth of the whole, Ephesians 4:16.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The life of a Christian is a growth; he is first born of God, and is a little child; becomes a young man, and a father in Christ. Every father was once an infant; and had he not grown, he would have never been a man. Those who content themselves with the grace they received when converted, are, at best, in a continual state of infancy.

JOHN OWEN: They are such as, enjoying the dispensation of the Word, or who have done so for some season, yet, through their own sloth and negligence, have made little or no proficiency in spiritual knowledge. Such persons are babes, and have need of milk, and are not capable of instruction in the more heavenly mysteries of the gospel.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): He reproves here an infancy in understanding, such as constrains even God to prattle with us.

JOHN OWEN: God aimeth to bring men unto clearer discoveries of His wisdom, grace, and love, than they have yet attained; into nearer communion with Himself; to a fuller growth in light, knowledge, faith, and experience; that even in this world, He may more eminently communicate of Himself unto them: which He doth in, and by, the truths which they despise. These truths and doctrines, therefore, also, which the apostle calls “strong meat” for “them that are of full age,” are to be searched, and inquired into.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Let us more particularly consider cases in which persons are very unskilful in using the word of righteousness. There are some things in the Scriptures which may appear to be contradictory to us as long as we remain in this weak state. The apparent opposition of many passages of Scripture arises entirely from inattention and ignorance in the reader: a little distinction would serve to harmonize. Thus, it is possible and easy to reconcile such language as this: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him;” Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit,” Proverbs 26:4,5.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): These things are not contradictory.

WILLIAM JAY: We can see harmony between things which appear very contradictory to our little children…In the same way, people have supposed that Paul and James are opposite to each other as to justification; whereas the one refers to God and the other to man; the one to justification as a reality, and this is by faith, the other as to its evidence and fruits, and this is by works. Now, we find the Scriptures in the hands of some people nothing but confusion: we can never get two ideas or notions to lie straight in their brains. “If,” say they, “God works in us to will and to do, why should we work out our own salvation? If it be a duty, how can it be a privilege? If it be a promise, how can it be a command?” Now, these things may be easily harmonized, and will be by those who are “skilful in the word of righteousness.”

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We have so many professors who are still babes, needing the feeding bottle and the baby carriage though they are forty years of age! What can we do with these?

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): As long as they’ve read their little daily portion, they feel all is well whether they’ve understood it or not. They say, “I’ve read my Scriptures; I know my Scriptures.” But they don’t know the truth. It’s not the truth alone—it’s this understanding, it’s getting down to the doctrine, digging down to the depths!

ADAM CLARKE: They do not search the Scriptures.

WILLIAM JAY: Some are unskilful in defending it. A weak argument, instead of strengthening a good cause, always weakens it. It is like supporting a roof by a rotten pillar. How many doctrines are there which have been attempted to be proved by passages of Scripture which have no relation to the subject!

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: All Christians should believe in reading the Bible—and in studying it diligently. Have you got any taste for this?  Do you get any enjoyment of this?

WILLIAM JAY: Some persons are so ignorant and so unfamiliar with the sacred writings as not even to know what is the language of Scripture and what is not, when they hear it. Some are unskilful in finding it. How they fumble for parts of the Old Testament in the New, and for parts of the New in the Old! Some are unskilful in quoting it. Sometimes they misquote the meaning, frequently the words. Now, the meaning is unquestionably the main thing; but we love the very words the Holy Ghost uses.

VERNON J. CHARLESWORTH (1839-1915): Entering the house of one of his congregation, Rowland Hill saw a child on a rocking-horse. “How wondrously like some Christians!” he exclaimed, “there is motion, but no progress.” The rocking-horse type of spiritual life is still characteristic of too many Church members in the present day. “Grow in grace” is an exhortation but little regarded.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Where there is no growth, there is no life.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: If you don’t enjoy the Bible at all—then I suggest that you’re not a child of God, at all.

 

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The Mystery of Regeneration

Posted on April 28, 2023 by The Editor

John 3:3-8

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): The only way to get into the Kingdom of God is to be born into it.

JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758): The manner in which the Holy Spirit operates in those who are born of God is very often exceedingly mysterious; the effects only of those operations are discernible. It is to be feared that some have gone too far in attempting to direct the Spirit of the Lord, and to mark out His footsteps for Him. Experience clearly shows that we cannot trace the operations of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of some who afterward prove the best of Christians. He does not proceed discernibly in the steps of any particular established scheme so often as is imagined. Those who have had much to do with souls and are not blinded by prejudice must know that the Holy Spirit is so exceedingly various in the manner of His operations, that in many cases, it is impossible to trace Him.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): All this is most important to understand. To require all persons to be squared down to one kind of experience is a most grievous mistake.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL  (1635-1711): No one ought to be concerned about the manner of conversion because the manner of his conversion has not been what he himself would prescribe it to be, nor agrees with the manner in which others are converted. lf your conversion is a reality, all is well. The ways of God are mysterious and even in the common way of conversion the one experiences something with which another is not acquainted.

THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677):  Many of God’s children cannot trace the particular footsteps of their conversion, and mark out all the stages of Christ’s approach to their souls.

ROBERT CANDLISH (1806-1873): It is not easy to imagine a more cautious record than the entry in a manuscript written by Lord Eldon: “I was born, I believe, on the 4th of June 1751.” We suppose that this hesitating statement refers to the date, and not to the fact of his birth. Many, however, are just as uncertain about their spiritual birth. It is a grand thing to be able to say, “We know that we have passed from death unto life,” even though we may not be able to put an exact date to it.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL: Some are converted in a very gradual fashion, with much vacillation between sorrow and joy, faith and unbelief, strife and victory, and falling and rising again…When I use the word “gradually,” I am referring to conversion in a comprehensive broad sense; that is, from the first conviction until one consciously receives Christ. For it is otherwise a certainty that conversion—that is, regeneration—transpires in one moment, for the soul in one moment passes “from death unto life.” There is no intermediate state between being dead and alive…Some are converted in a very sudden manner, as in one moment. Such was the case with Zacchaeus, the thief on the cross, many on the day of Pentecost, and the jailer in Philippi.

J. C. RYLE: With some the change is immediate—as it was with Saul when he journeyed to Damascus: with others it is gradual and slow, as it was with Nicodemus.

THOMAS MANTON: Some are brought to God by the horrors of despair, and are convinced with a higher and more smart degree of sorrow, before they come to settle; but all are serious and anxious. There is certainly a difference; some men’s conversion is more gentle, others more violent. To some, Christ comes like an armed man, and doth powerfully vanquish Satan in their hearts; to others, there is a great deal of difficulty and conflict, which must needs impress a notice of itself. Some are sweetly drawn, others are snatched out of the fire. To some, the Spirit comes with a mighty rushing wind; to others, a gentle blast, sweetly and softly blows upon the door, as God “opened the heart of Lydia,” more gently, Acts 16:14.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): On such “it droppeth like the gentle dew from heaven upon the place beneath.”

THOMAS MANTON: The jailer, he had more horror of conscience, and more sorrow and desperation, and was ready to kill himself, saying, “What must I do to be saved?”  Acts 16:27-30.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): God is a sovereign agent, and works upon His children in their effectual calling, according to the counsel of His eternal will.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): The power that works in believers is God’s omnipotent power, which works effectually and mightily.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): But the precise manner how it is done, how the Holy Spirit works this in the soul, neither thou nor the wisest of the children of men is able to explain.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD: The Author of this conversion is the Holy Ghost: it is not their own free will; it is not moral suasion; nothing short of the influence of the Spirit of the living God can effect this change in our hearts—My dear friends, I am now talking of heart religion, of an inward work of God, an inward kingdom in your hearts, which you must have, or you shall never sit with Jesus Christ in His kingdom.

RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): Heart-work must be God’s work.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): What else can be the meaning of these various phrases: “the circumcision of the heart,” Romans 2:29; “a new heart…a heart of stone exchanged for a heart of flesh,” Ezekiel 36:26; “a new creature,” Galatians 6:15; a divine nature, 2 Peter 1:4; a spiritual mind, a new birth, a putting on the Lord Jesus, abiding in Him, and dwelling in Him, a being one with Him? What can be the meaning of all these various phrases, unless they are interpreted as God’s gracious design of putting His own pure and Holy Spirit into the sinner’s heart, as a glorious living principle.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Nothing short of the regenerating work of the Spirit can make any man a new creature in Christ Jesus.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): We do not look for the Spirit to convert souls without the truth; it is by the presentation of this to the judgment, and by the co-working of Divine grace upon the heart, that the great change of regeneration is effected.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Saving faith is the gift of God, and wherever it is, it is wrought by Him. The Word of God is the great means of regeneration, James 1:18. The grace of regeneration is conveyed by the gospel.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): In general, it is accomplished by the preaching of the Word; but sometimes it is effected by reading the Scriptures, by a good book, by pious conversation, by affliction: “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living,” Job 33:29,30.

STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): There is such a thing as the new birth; believest thou this?  It is necessary to be had; believest thou this? God only can work it; believest thou this?

C. H. SPURGEON: We cannot explain conversion, and regeneration, and the new birth, and all that; but we do know this, that Jesus Christ says, “Believe,”—and we believe. By our own power? No.

 

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