-
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…
-
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.…
-
51. The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
Preached, on Lord's Day Morning, Nov. 1st, 1840, in Manchester. “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”—Ps. 116:17. Under the Jewish dispensation, God had appointed a variety of offerings and sacrifices for the Jews, under certain circumstances, to be attended to; and if you turn to Leviticus 7, you will find that the offering of the sacrifice of thanksgiving was to be accompanied with unleavened bread, mingled with oil, with wafers anointed with oil, and with cakes fried in oil. Now in reality, beloved, there is no sacrifice of thanksgiving without this oil; and it is not necessary merely that the wafers should be anointed with oil, but that the fat of the offering should be mingled with oil. The figure imports the…
-
61. Come, And Let Us Reason Together
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.”—Is 1:18 Here is a special people addressed, “a small remnant.” They tremble and fear under a feeling sense of their guilt and utter unworthiness; but God mercifully calls unto them, saying, “Come, let us reason together.” Some people think they are as good as any of their neighbours, and a deal better than most; and they try to thus comfort themselves. But unless God brings them to repentance and teaches them to place entire dependence upon Christ, they will sink into black despair. The Lord does not say, “Come pious, come virtuous;” but “though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they he red like crimson they shall be…
-
72 God A Father
“If I, therefore, be a father, where is mine honour?”—Malachi 1:6 We might notice that the Speaker is the God of nature, that he is the Father of all in a natural sense, that he is the Father of the Jews nationally, but that principally he is the Father of all his heaven-born children, and deserving of all honour. And what proof do you give that you honour him? Let us first consider him as being the Father of all heaven-born souls. What a field is open hero for our work. Can we honour him in it? He is their Father in his eternal council and love, in his personal election, in his choice of his children in Christ their Head,—the mystical body, the church;…
-
Chapter 19: Its Relation to Saints – Part 1
Concerning Election Unto Life, Or Predestination As It Respects The Saints In Particular. Having considered predestination as it regards all men in general, and briefly shown that by it some are appointed to wrath and others to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:9), I now come to consider, more distinctly, that branch of it which relates to the saints only, and is commonly styled election. Its definition I have given already in the close of the first chapter. What I have farther to advance, from the Scriptures, on this important subject, I shall reduce to several positions, and subjoin a short explanation and confirmation of each. Position 1.—Those who are ordained unto eternal life were not so ordained on account of any worthiness…
