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62 The Acceptable Year, And Day of Vengeance
A Sermon Preached By William Gadsby At The Old Surrey Tabernacle, Borough Road, London, Wednesday Evening, June 1st, 1842. “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God.”—Isaiah 51:2 Our text contains one part of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ; and as a solemnly glorious minister of the New Testament, he was anointed by the Lord for the important work. And the two things mentioned in our text his Majesty proclaims in the Word, and in the conscience of all that he takes to heaven. A man, whose notions are all he has of religion, a mere judgmental knowledge of it, can be satisfied with the proclamation made in the letter of the Word; but I…
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63 Who Hath Believed Our Report?
“Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”—Isaiah 53:1 This solemn question might have been put to God himself; for no human being in existence is capable of answering it; for though, in the dispensations of the Lord's providence, God's ministers are now and then encouraged by hearing of one and another having been brought under their ministry to believe their report, yet there may be hundreds of others of whom they may never hear. And then again, they may be so distressed, through unbelief, as to cry out, “Unto whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Who hath believed our report?” But, though we do not see the works of the arm of the Lord, our…
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64 An Exposition: Preaching Good Tidings Unto The Meek
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.”—Isaiah 61:1-3 What a divine cluster of immortal blessings rests in the Man Christ Jesus; and how blessed it is for poor sinners that he is appointed to give them these blessings and is filled with the Spirit without measure, that he might give them in measure to such poor vile sinners, loathsome sinners, God dishonoring sinners as we; and his blessed Majesty has to deal out these blessings to these poor sinners. However men may despise these poor hobbling creatures, the Lord will find them out, in some corner or another. God's method is to deal out his pity to these poor, forlorn…
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Chapter 27: It Should Be Openly Preached – Part 1
Showing That The Scripture Doctrine Of Predestination Should Be Openly Preached And Insisted On, And For What Reasons. Upon the whole, it is evident that the doctrine of God's eternal and unchangeable predestination should neither be wholly suppressed and laid aside, nor yet be confined to the disquisition of the learned and speculative only; but likewise should be publicly taught from the pulpit and the press, that even the meanest of the people may not be ignorant of a truth which reflects such glory on God, and is the very foundation of happiness to man. Let it, however, be preached with judgment and discretion, i.e., delivered by the preacher as it is delivered in Scripture, and no otherwise. By which means, it can neither be…
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Chapter 28: It Should Be Openly Preached – Part 2
And now why should not this doctrine be preached and insisted upon in public?—a doctrine which is of express revelation, a doctrine that makes wholly for the glory of God, which conduces, in a most peculiar manner, to the conversion, comfort and sanctification of the elect, and leaves even the ungodly themselves without excuse. But perhaps you may still be inclined to question whether predestination be indeed a Scripture doctrine. If so, let me by way of sample beg you to consider the following declarations—first, of Christ; secondly, of His apostles. "If the mighty works that have been done in thee had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented," etc. (Matt. 11), whence it is evident that the Tyrians and Sidonians, at…
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Chapter 29: It Should Be Openly Preached – Part 3
The great St. Augustine, in his valuable treatise, De Bono Persever, effectually obviates the objections of those who are burying the doctrine of predestination in silence. He shows that it ought to be publicly taught, describes the necessity and usefulness of preaching it, and points out the manner of doing it to edification. And since some persons have condemned St. Augustine, by bell, book and candle, for his stedfast attachment to and nervous, successful defences of the decrees of God, let us hear what Luther, that great light in the Church, thought respecting the argument before us. Erasmus (in most other respects a very excellent man) affected to think that it was of dangerous consequence to propagate the doctrine of predestination either by preaching or…
