I started J.C. Ryle's Commentary on Matthew on Friday. I've read his commentary on Matthew 1 so far. I hope to read several chapters per week.
Matthew 1
- It is no light matter how we use this book. Eternal life or death depends on the spirit in which it is used.
- Above all let us humbly pray for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He alone can apply truth to our hearts, and make us profit by what we read.
- Four distinct Gospels tell us the story of Christ's doing and dying. Four times over we read the precious account of His works and words. How thankful we ought to be for this!
- To know Christ is life eternal. To believe in Christ is to have peace with God. To follow Christ is to be a true Christian. To be with Christ will be heaven itself. We can never hear too much about Jesus Christ.
- Learn from this list of names [Matthew 1:1-17], that God always keeps His word. He had promised, that in Abraham's seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed.
- He had promised to raise up a Savior of the family of David. (Gen. 12:3; Isaiah 11:1.) These sixteen verses prove, that Jesus was the son of David and the son of Abraham, and that God's promise was fulfilled.
- Learn next from this list of names, the sinfulness and corruption of human nature. Observe how many godly parents in this catalogue had wicked and ungodly sons.
- Grace does not run in families. It needs something more than good examples and good advice to make us children of God. Those who are born again are not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, (John 1:13.) Praying parents should pray night and day, that their children may be born of the Spirit.
- Learn lastly from this list of names, how great is the mercy and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Let us observe the two names given to our Lord in these verses. One is JESUS: the other EMMANUEL. One describes His office; the other His nature.
- The name JESUS means "Savior." It is given to our Lord because "He saves His people from their sins." This is His special office. He saves them from the guilt of sin, by washing them in His own atoning blood. He saves them from the dominion of sin, by putting in their hearts the sanctifying Spirit. He saves them from the presence of sin, when He takes them out of this world to rest with Him. He will save them from all the consequences of sin, when He shall give them a glorious body at the last day.
- He who cleaves to sin is not yet saved.
- He is called EMMANUEL, "God with us." Let us take care that we have clear views of our Lord Jesus Christ's nature and person. It is a point of the deepest importance. He had a nature like our own in all things, sin only excepted. But though Jesus was "with us" in human flesh and blood, He was at the same time very God.
- Would you have a strong foundation for your faith and hope? Then keep in constant view your Savior's divinity. Would you have sweet comfort in suffering and trial? Then keep in constant view your Savior's humanity. Let us feed on these truths in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.
- Faith studies what the PROMISE is—an emanation of divine grace, an overflowing of the great heart of God; and faith says, “My God could not have given this promise, except from love and grace; therefore it is quite certain His Word will be fulfilled.”
- Thus faith views each promise in its connection with the promise-giver, and, because she does so, can with assurance say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!”
- It is a delightful and profitable occupation—to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints, and to observe His goodness in delivering them, His mercy in pardoning them, and His faithfulness in keeping His covenant with them.
- To neglect the instruction of our offspring—is worse than brutish.
- Heaven is a place of realized victory. Whenever, Christian, you have achieved a victory over your lusts—whenever after hard struggling, you have laid a temptation dead at your feet—you have in that hour a foretaste of the joy that awaits you when the Lord shall shortly tread Satan under your feet, and you shall find yourself more than conqueror through Him who has loved you.
- He who is not angry at transgression, becomes a partaker in it. Sin is a loathsome and hateful thing, and no renewed heart can patiently endure it. God himself is angry with the wicked every day, and it is written in His Word, “You who love the Lord—hate evil.”
- If we cannot control our tempers—what has grace done for us?
- It is impossible for any human speech to express the full meaning of this delightful phrase, “God is for me.” He was “for us” before the worlds were made. He was “for us,” or He would not have given His well-beloved son. He was “for us” when He smote the Only-begotten, and laid the full weight of His wrath upon Him—He was “for us,” though He was against Him. He was “for us,” when we were ruined in the fall—He loved us notwithstanding all. He was “for us,” when we were rebels against Him, and with a high hand were bidding Him defiance. He was “for us,” or He would not have brought us humbly to seek His face. He has been “for us” in many struggles; we have been summoned to encounter hosts of dangers; we have been assailed by temptations from without and within—how could we have remained unharmed to this hour—if He had not been “for us”? He is “for us,” with all the infinity of His being; with all the omnipotence of His love; with all the infallibility of His wisdom; arrayed in all His divine attributes, He is “for us,” eternally and immutably “for us”; “for us” when yon blue skies shall be rolled up like a worn out vesture; “for us” throughout eternity!
- All alterations and amendments of the Lord’s own Word—are defilements and pollutions.
- There is among Christians far too much inclination to square and reconcile the truths of revelation; this is a form of irreverence and unbelief, let us strive against it, and receive truth as we find it; rejoicing that the doctrines of the Word are unhewn stones, and so are all the more fit to build an altar for the Lord.
- If you can wait for Christ, and be patient in the hope of having fellowship with Him at some distant season—you will never have fellowship at all; for the heart that is fitted for communion is a hungering and a thirsting heart.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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