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Enjoy The Righteousness Of Christ
Our standing as Christians is founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We say it, we hear it, and nodding affirmatively we agree that it is true. Yet, all too often we fail to grasp the implications of this fact. All too often our actions and our attitudes, our feelings, our hopes and fears are motivated by something quite different. Instead of looking to Christ we look to ourselves. We imagine that if we could better overcome temptation we would be happier, if we could subdue our sin we would find more peace. We suspect that our interest in God’s love is hindered by our lack of faith and wonder if our conviction for sin has been deeply enough felt. So we become pre-occupied with…
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Why So Particular?
To be described as being particular about things is not always a compliment. In fact it is sometimes used as a polite put down as much as to say, ‘He’s very fussy’, or ‘She’s hard to please’. This is often the impression given when some Christians, usually Baptists, describe themselves as ‘Strict and Particular’. One can imagine someone new to the phrase wincing slightly at the expression. The picture of an austere old aunt or a disciplinarian teacher might spring to mind. Hair combed, laces tied and sitting quietly. Overly strict and very particular. Strict Of course the real meaning of the term is quite different and has more to do with the historical development of theology in certain churches. Congregations who practise strict communion…
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Salvation By Grace
Substance Of A Sermon Preached By John Kershaw At Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London, On Lord's Day Morning, April 12th, 1846. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.”—Ephesians 2:8,9 My beloved friends, as we had this precious portion of God's holy Word under consideration last Lord's day, we will come at once to the second part of our subject, that the enjoyment of our interest in the salvation of Christ is by faith. What a blessing, beloved, for us that the work of salvation is finished. The poor sinner is made to feel his lost, ruined and undone state. It is necessary in this…
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The Burnt Offering
"And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him."—Leviticus 1:4,5 The Book of Leviticus contains a series of very blessed illustrations of the Gospel of our God, of the Person and of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we are enabled prayerfully to read it with a spiritual eye, by the side of the gospel as recorded in the New Testament, and in the light of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we are favoured to become somewhat instructed in the things that make for our eternal peace. It is Jehovah Himself who is speaking in nearly every verse in this book. I would draw your attention first,…
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The Breastplate
“And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim.”—Exodus 28:30 The breastplate that formed so prominent and beautiful an object in the dress of the High Priest of Israel, was designated the breastplate of judgment because, as this verse affirms, God directed that the Urim and Thummim—" lights and perfections "—should be placed in it. The breastplate was fastened to the blue robe of the ephod; a bag was at the back of the breastplate, and in this bag what is designated Urim and Thummim were placed. The marginal reading has it "lights and perfections." By Urim and Thummim the High Priest of Israel consulted the Lord in seasons of embarrassment and perplexity; and by Urim and Thummim the mind…
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The Two Deeps
My dear Friend,—I am, more or less, living in the engagement of wading into two great deeps, but cannot fathom either of them, and I often think I am a greater bungling fool in the work than ever; I mean the awful deep of sin and the glorious deep of God's matchless grace. O the horrible springing up and belching forth of sin that my poor soul is obliged to wade in, at times! I once thought that if I should live to be old, I should get rid of some of the branches of the boilings up of sin; but I now live to prove that the decay of nature does not mend the corruption of the heart and that the internal filth of…
