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Why Did Christ Die?
According to some people, Christ died to give all a chance of being saved! I do not know that I hate anything more in my soul than to hear that. It makes Jesus Christ so little that He should do so much, and after all only to get us a chance of being saved. Why, if a man is set up in business, you see how often it happens that he fails in it; and if man cannot manage the paltry things of time and sense without being insolvent, what will he do with eternal realities? And if you come a little closer, when God "made man upright" and he had no sinful nature, what did he do with his innocence? He lost it all!…
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Christ Only
Manchester, August 14, 1834 Dear Brother in Jesus, the Lord of Zion,—I wish to have nothing to do with party spirit; but I cannot, I dare not, sacrifice truth and a good conscience; and I hope no one will wish me to do so. Through the matchless riches of God's grace, I have been taught a little of the glorious importance of divine truth in all its bearings; and as far as I know my own heart, I had rather die than shrink back from the truth of God. The Lord keep me! When I visit you I wish to know nothing among you but Christ and his cross, as couching in it all the glorious gospel of God from the springhead of electing love,…
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Cave Adullam
The Substance of a Sermon preached at Zoar Chapel, London, in April 1842 "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over them.” (1 Samuel 22:2) These words contain something more than a literal meaning of the circumstances which are mentioned. And the order in which they have been laid upon my mind is as follows: I. In many respects, David was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. II. The men that went down to the Cave of Adullam, and the circumstances in which they were placed, were typical of all who really go unto Christ for salvation. I. The psalmist, the…
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Christ’s Sheep, And Their Marks
Notes of a Sermon preached on 11 April 1843 “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish.”—John 10:28 The Holy Ghost, in the canon of Scripture, has borrowed a variety of metaphors from natural things to show us what Christ is to his people, and what his people are to him. Here he calls them "sheep," and himself the "Shepherd." Jesus has received his sheep from his Father's hand as his portion, as the lot of his inheritance. He knows his sheep intimately and perfectly. When they are wandering on the mountains of the Adam fall, the shepherd has his eye upon them, and he seeks them out, and calls them to the rest of his flock, in his own time.…
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The Justification of a Sinner before God
Two sermons preached at Gower Street Chapel, London on 14 and 21 November 1841 [On Sunday, 14 November 1841, Pastor Kershaw spoke on the subject of justification. His text was Job 25:4. Although he intended to cover his three headings in a single sermon, he took up only the first heading on Sunday 14 November, then completed the final two headings on Sunday 21 November. The two sermons are combined in the manuscript that follows.] "How then can man be justified with God?”—Job 25:4 The doctrine of justification is clearly and strikingly revealed in the sacred oracles of truth, and is by God the Holy Ghost made manifest in the souls of all the election of grace. Hence, Paul speaks of it as one of…
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1. God In Our Nature
“God with us.”—Matthew 1:23 There will be such a mystery unfolded, in “God in our nature,” as will fill the church of God with immortal wonder for ever and ever. When Christ speaks of it, he says, “Father, I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me; for they are thine,” and “that they may be one in us.” This blessed Redeemer, this Person of the Son, takes our nature, and is “God with us.” I believe that our blessed Christ really took soul and body, the whole of humanity. He was “God with us” in his weakness; “God with us” in his conflicts; “God with us” in his victories; “God with us” in his exaltation;…
