Verse For Today

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Mt 14:23 And when He had sent the crowds away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when evening had come, He was there alone.

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Observe here, 1.  Christ dismisses the multitude, and then retires to pray; teaching us, by his example, when we have to do with God, to dismiss the multitude of our affairs and employments, of our cares and thoughts.  O how unseemly it is to have our tongues talking to God, and our thoughts taken up with the world!
 
Observe, 2.  The place Christ retires to for prayer, a solitary mountain; not so much for his own need, for he could be alone, when he was in company, but to teach us, that when we address ourselves to God in duty, O how good is it  to get upon a mountain, to get our hearts above the world, above worldly employments and worldly cogitations!

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Mt 14:24 But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind was against them.

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Note here, the great danger the disciples were in, and the great difficulties they had to encounter with; they were in  the midst of the sea, they were tossed with the waves, the wind was contrary, and Christ was absent.
 
The wisdom of God often suffers his church to be tossed upon the waves of affliction and persecution, but it shall not be swallowed by them: often is this ark of the church upon the waters; seldom off them; but never drowned.

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Mt 14:25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

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Christ having seen the distress of his disciples on the shore, he hastens to them on the sea.  It was not a stormy and tempestuous sea that could separate betwixt him and them: he that waded through a sea of blood, and through a sea of wrath, to save his people, will walk upon a sea of water to succour and relieve them.
 
But observe, the time when Christ came to help them, not till the fourth watch, a little before the morning.  They had been many hours upon the waters, conflicting with the waves, with their fears and danger.  God oft-times lengthens out the troubles of his children before he delivers them; but when they are come to an extremity, that is the season of his succours.  As God suffers his church to be brought into extremities before he helps her, so he will help her in extremity.  In the fourth watch Jesus came

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Mt 14:26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a phantom! And they cried out for fear.

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See how the disciples take their deliverer to be a destroyer: their fears were highest when their deliverer and deliverance were nearest. God may be coming with salvation and deliverance for his church, when she for the present cannot discern him

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Mt 14:27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer, I AM! Do not fear.

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Observe, when the disciples were in the saddest condition, how one word from Christ revives them; it is a sufficient support in all our afflictions to hear Christ's voice speaking to us, and to enjoy his favourable presence with us.
 
Say but, O Saviour,  It is I; and then let evils do their worst: that one word, It is I, is enough to lay all storms, and to calm all tempests.

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Mt 14:28 And Peter answered Him and said, LORD, if it is You, tell me to come to You on the water.

Mt 14:29 And He said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

Mt 14:30 But seeing that the wind was strong, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me!

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Observe here, 1.  The mixture of Peter's faith and distrust: it was faith that said,  Master; it was distrust that said, If it be thou: It was faith that said, Bid me come to thee: it was faith that enables him to step down on the watery pavement: it was faith that said, Lord save me: but it was distrust that made him sink.
 
O the imperfect composition of faith and fear in the best of saints here on earth!  Sincerity of grace is found with the saints here on earth; perfection of grace with the saints in heaven.  Here the saints look forth, fair as the moon, which has some spots in her greatest beauties; hereafter they shall be clear as the sun, whose face is all bright and glorious.
 

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Mt 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him; and said to him, Little-faith! Why did you doubt?

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Observe here, 1.  The mercy of Christ is no sooner sought, but found:  immediately Jesus put forth his hand and caught him.  O with what speed, and with what assurance, should we flee to that sovereign bounty, from whence never any suitor was sent away empty.
 
Observe, 2.  Though Christ gave Peter his hand, yet with this hand he gave him a check; O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?  Though Christ likes believing, yet he dislikes doubting.  A person may be truly believing, who nevertheless is sometimes doubting, but his doubting eclipses the beauty of his believing.

[airIam2worship]

Mt 15:1 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying,

Mt 15:2 Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.

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The former part of this chapter acquaints us with a great contest between our Saviour and the Pharisees, about their traditions and old customs, which they valued more than the commandments of God; they accused the disciples with eating bread with unwashed hands, which, though it were in itself but a decent custom, the Pharisees made it a religious rite; for which reason our Saviour and his disciples would not observe it.
 
Whence we learn, that what is in itself and may without offence be done as a civil custom, ought to be discountenanced and opposed when men require it of us as a religious act, or place religion in it.  The Pharisees placed so much religion in washing their hands before meat, that they looked upon it as highly criminal to neglect it as to lie with a whore.  One of them being in prison, and not having water enough to drink and to wash his hands too, chose rather to die with thirst, than to trangress the tradition of the elders.

[airIam2worship]

Mt 15:3 But He answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Mt 15:4 For God commanded, saying, "Honor your father and mother"; and, "He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die by death."

Mt 15:5 But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever you would gain from me, It is a gift to God;

Mt 15:6 and in no way he honors his father or his mother. And you voided the commandment of God by your tradition.

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Observe here, 1.  The heavy charge which our Saviour brings in against the Pharisees; namely, for violating an express command of God, and preferring their own traditions before it: you make void  the commandments of God by your traditions.
 
Observe, 2.  The command which our Saviour instances in, as violated by them; it is the fifth commandment, which requires children to relieve their parents in necessity.  Now, though the Pharisees did not deny this in plain terms, yet they made an exception from it, which if children had a mind, rendered it void and useless.  For the Pharisees taught, that in case any would give a gift to the temple, which gift they called corban, and of which they themselves had a great share; that then children were discharged from making further provision for their poor, or impotent parents; and might say unto them after this manner, that which thou askest for thy supply, is given to God, and therefore I cannot relieve thee.  So that covetous and graceless children looked upon it as the most frugal way, once for all to fine to the temple, rather than pay the constant rent of daily relief to their poor parents.
 
Learn, that no duty, gift, or offering to God, is accepted, where the duty of charity is neglected.  It is more acceptable to God to refresh the hearts of his saints, who are the living temples of the Holy Ghost, than to adorn material temples with gold and silver.

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Mt 15:7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,

Mt 15:8 "This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.

Mt 15:9 But in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

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Our Saviour reproves the hypocritical Pharisees for the same things:
 
1.  That they preferred human traditions before the divine precepts.
 
2.  That by their human traditions they made void the worship of God. It is God's undoubted prerogative to prescribe all the parts of his own worship; and whoever presumes to add thereunto, they worship him in vain.
 
Our Saviour farther shews, that all this proceeded from the insincerity of their hearts:  This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
 
Whence learn, 1.  That the removing the heart far from God in worship, is a great sin, and an high degree of hypocrisy.
 
2.  That whatever outward shew and profession of religion men make, if their hearts be not right with God, and what they do proceeds not from an inward principle of love and obedience to God, they are under the reign and power of hypocrisy.  Ye hypocrites, in vain do ye worship me.
 
Learn, 3.  That we must not be forward, from Christ's example, to pronounce men hypocrites; because we have neither that authority nor knowledge of the heart which Christ had, to authorize us so to do.
 
Christ here called the Pharisees hypocrites,
 
1.  Because they placed holiness and religion in ceremonies of human invention.
 
2.  Because being so superstitiously careful to avoid bodily pollutions, they left their hearts within; full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

[airIam2worship]

Mt 15:10 And He called the crowd and said to them, Hear and understand.

Mt 15:11 Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man; but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.

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Our blessed Saviour leaving the Pharisees with some dislike, applies himself to the multitude, and shews them the true spring and original fountain of all spiritual pollution and uncleanness; namely, the filthiness and impurity of man's heart and nature, which boiling in the heart, the scum runs out at the mouth: thereby informing the multitude, that not that which is eaten, but that which is spoken, defiles a man: not the meat eaten with the mouth, but the wickedness of the heart vented by the mouth, pollutes a person in God's account.

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Mt 15:12 Then His disciples came and said to Him, Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?

Mt 15:13 But He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.

Mt 15:14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

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Observe here, 1.  How the disciples wonder that our Saviour did so little regard the displeasure of the Pharisees:  Knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended?  Although nothing vexed the Pharisees more than the discovery of their false doctrine before the multitude, yet our Saviour did not stick to detect their errors, and to declare the truth, let the effects of their displeasure be what they would: sinful man-pleasing is fruitless and endless.
 
2.  Observe, our Lord's answer, which shews a double reason why he thus slighted the offence taken by the Pharisees.
 
1.  He compares the Pharisees' doctrine and tradition to noisome weeds in the church, planted there, not by God, but themselves; and consequently shall certainly be rooted up.  In matters of religion, if men will act according to the dictates of their own fancies, and not walk by the rule of God's word, they may please themselves, perhaps, but they can never please their Maker.  Divine institution is the only sure rule of religious worship.
 
2.  Christ compares the Pharisees themselves to blind guides; They are blind leaders of the blind; leaders and followers both blind, who will certainly and suddenly fall into the ditch of temporal and eternal destruction.
 
Learn, 1.  That ignorant, erroneous and unfaithful ministers, are the heaviest judgments that can befall a people.
 
2.  That the following of such teachers and blind guides will be no excuse to people another day, much less free them from the danger of eternal destruction.

[airIam2worship]

Mt 15:15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, Explain this parable to us.

Mt 15:16 And Jesus said, Are you also still without understanding?

Mt 15:17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly, and is cast out into the waste-bowl?

Mt 15:18 But the things which come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile the man.

Mt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies;

Mt 15:20 these are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.

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The disciples desiring the interpretation of the foregoing parable, our Saviour gives it them; but with all expostulates with them, that they did not understand a thing so obvious and plain:  Are ye yet without understanding?  As if he had said, "Have ye sat thus long under my ministerial teaching, and enjoyed the benefit of my company and conversation, and are yet no farther proficients in knowledge?"
 
Whence learn, that our Lord expects a proficiency in knowledge from us, answerable to the opportunities and means of knowledge enjoyed by us.
 
Next, he gives them the sense and signification of the parable; telling them, that it is out of a sinful heart that all sin proceeds; the heart is the cage or nest, which is full of these unclean birds, and from whence they take their flight.  Though the occasions of sin are from without, yet the source and origin of sin is from within.
 
Learn, that the heart of man is the sink and seed-plat of all sin, and the fountain of all pollution; the life could not be so bad, if the heart were not worse; all the irregularity of our lives flows from the impurity of our hearts and natures.

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Mt 15:21 And going out from there, Jesus withdrew to the parts of Tyre and Sidon.

Mt 15:22 And behold, a woman of Canaan coming out of these borders cried to Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed with a demon.

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Observe here, the constant employment of our Saviour,  He went about doing good, from place to place.  In the borders of Tyre and Sidon he finds a faithful woman of the race of the Canaanites, who becomes an humble supplicant to Christ, while the Jews neglected so great a salvation.  Yea, she not only speaks, but cries unto him.  Were we duly affected with our spiritual wants, we could speak to God in no other language than that of cries and tears; nothing but cries can pierce heaven.
 
Observe, 2.  Though all Israel could not example the faith of this Canaanite, yet was her daughter tormented with a devil.
 
Learn, that neither truth, nor strength of faith; can secure us either against Satan's inward temptations, or outward vexations; and consequently, the worst of bodily afflictions are no sufficient proof of divine displeaure.
 
Observe, 3.  The daughter did not come to Christ for herself, but the mother for her.  Perhaps the child was not sensible of its own misery, but the good mother feels both the child's sorrow, and her own.
 
True goodness teaches us to appropriate the afflictions of others to ourselves; it causes us to bear their griefs, and to sympathize with them in their sorrows.

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Mt 15:23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and begged Him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us.

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Strange!  That a miserable supplicant should cry and sue, whilst the God of mercy is speechless.  What! is the fountain of mercy dried up? O Saviour! we have oft found cause to wonder at thy words, but never till now at thy silence.
 
Learn hence, that Christ doth sometimes delay to return an answer to a well qualified prayer.  Sometimes his people do not pray earnestly enough; sometimes they pray too earnestly, for some outward and temporal mercy; sometimes the mercy they pray for is not good for them, or it may be it is not yet good for them.  Let us not then judge of God's hearing prayer by his present answer.