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41 The Wrestlings of Naphtali
A Sermon Preached By William Gadsby At Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London, On Sunday Morning, May 28th, 1843. “And of Naphtali, he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord.”—Deuteronomy 33:23 It is a blessed time with the soul, when it can really feel, and sweetly enter into the enjoyment of the language you have just been singing: “While Jesus shows his heart is mine, And whispers I am his!” But I believe the Lord never bestows such solemn favors either to be sported or trifled with; and when the favour comes to our souls in this way, it is either to prepare us for trouble, to prop us up in trouble, or to deliver us out of…
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42 Happy Israel
“Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord.”—Deuteronomy 33:29 You all know the circumstances which gave rise to the name Israel, when Jacob wrestled, really and truly, with a man, and prevailed; SO much so, that when break of day came, the man said, “Let me go;” and Jacob said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” It would have been much more likely for Jacob to have let him go in the gloomy and dark night, than at break of day. What! A child of God let Christ go when he has begun to shine into his heart? O no! All the powers of hell cannot make him let him go then. His…
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43 The Lord’s People Righteous
“Perfect and upright.”—Job 1:1 You have read the history of Job, how that Satan desired to sift him as wheat is sifted, affirming that he would make him curse God to his face, and that God granted his request, so far as to suffer his infernal majesty to do his utmost to make Job curse God. But was this to satisfy Satan, or torture Job? No; though no doubt it did both; but to show that wherever God has put his life, it is out of the power of the devil to remove it; and though Beelzebub, with all the soldiers under his command, blew into Job all their infernal venom, yet God held him up, and would not let him curse him; and though…
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44. God’s People Led By Him In His Paths
Preached on Tuesday Evening, May 21st, 1839, in Gower Street Chapel, London. “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.”—Ps. 17:5. One difference betwixt the presumptuous professor and a child of God, blessed with a tender conscience, is this: the presumptuous professor seems anxious to know how far he may go without being particularly criminal, what steps it is possible for him to take in pleasure or in vice without bringing himself in as false and vile; but the child of God, with a tender conscience, is constantly praying, “Hold up my goings in thy paths.” He is not wanting to know, “Can I do such a thing that is pleasing to flesh and blood, and yet not be criminal?” But…
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45 No Guile In The Spirit, And Keeping Silence
“Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile.”—Psalm 32:2“O!” says some poor soul; “that is not me; for I feel that I am full of guile.” Indeed! Can you then go to the Lord and tell him you have no sin, that you are as good as your neighbours, and that you have a claim upon his mercy? “No,” say you. “I have to tell the Lord that I am full of sin and that I deserve nothing but his wrath.” Then in your spirit there is no guile. God has made you honest, that you can neither attempt to deceive him nor yourself. There is no deceit in you nor about you in this respect. “When I kept silence,” &c. (Ver.…
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46 A Godly Man
“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee at a time when thou mayest be found.”—Psalm 32:6 Let us inquire what constitutes a godly man; and, in order to clear the way for this, we will first notice a few things that men may possess, and yet not be godly. We live in a day when we are to have charity for every body and every thing but God and truth, and when we are to have none for them. Men are to be allowed to reject truth, and set up something or anything to oppose it, and we must have charity for them, but none for the truth itself; but this is not the charity of the gospel, for that rejoiceth…
