Gadsby’s Sermons

“Blessed are the pure in heart.”—Matthew 5:8

There may be some poor soul here to-night who is exclaiming, “Ah! That text cuts me up, root and branch; for, so far from my heart being pure, it seems to be the abode of every evil, rising up continually, causing me to groan and sigh, and cry to be delivered from it; but the more I groan and cry, the more those evils seem to rise up, until I am almost smothered.” Why, now, poor soul, you are just the character whose heart is pure. Every man’s heart is vile by nature, and it is…

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“And Peter followed afar off.”—Luke 22:51-62

Preached in Manchester, 9 August 1842

1. Let us look at the weakness of man and the power of temptation.
2. The criminality of Peter.
3. The matchless display of God’s grace.
4. The effect produced.
5. The lesson taught us.

1. The weakness of man and the power of temptation.

The weakness of man is very great. Compared with the Almighty God, his Creator and Upholder, he is at his best estate altogether vanity; he is weakness itself. We are not sufficient of ourselves, go as to do anything of ourselves; we know not even what to pray to God for as we ought. May we in humility pray to him to direct us how to pray, and what to pray for; to hold us up in his righteous ways, to keep us weak in ourselves; for when we are thus weak, then are we…

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Preached on Tuesday Evening, May 25th, 1841, in Gower Street Chapel, London.

“For he that is dead is freed from sin.”—Romans 6:7

In the chapter preceding this, the apostle has been led by the Divine Author of the Word to take a view of the two Adams and their two seeds; that Adam the first, by his awful sin and apostasy, brought death and condemnation upon all his offspring, so that in him, in his very first act of transgression, they “all sinned and came short of the glory of God,” and thus, “by one man’s offence death reigned by one;” but that Adam the Second, “the Lord from Heaven,” represented an elect seed, and had them all in his loins, chosen by the Father and locked up safe in him. Though that seed fell with the rest in Adam the first, in Adam the Second they were preserved from the awful damnation that their sin had merited, and, by his obedience and the invincible power of the Spirit, all are brought to newness of life and to justification of life, and so are made the rich…

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Preached on Sunday Evening, May 9th, 1841, in Gower Street Chapel.

“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.”—2 Corinthians 1:9.

In the fourth verse the apostle says, “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” Now I have been there in some solemn measure in my conscience; and sometimes I have been there not very pleasingly, and sometimes more pleasingly. My flesh and blood, at times, have murmured to think I must go deeply into certain conflicts, certain tribulations, certain distresses, certain miseries, both within and without, to be an instrument in God’s hand of leading some hobbling soul in the same hobbling hole; and I have been ready to say to the Lord, “Lord, I think I have enough to do with my own troubles, without being plagued with other people’s;” and thus insult the Lord, instead of taking it kindly in him that he should make me the…

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Preached in Manchester, 9 Februay 1840.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”—2 Pet 3:9

To add to, or diminish from, the Word of God is a crime, though much employed in the frivolities of the world; and the office of a minister is a very responsible one. He is God’s steward, and he must one day give up his stewardship; and if he seeks to please men, he is not a true servant of God; nay, it is insulting God. Some say God is not willing that any creature should perish, but every one should come to repentance; but in our text we are told…

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