-
A New Heart, And New Spirit
FOR A COMPLETE ORDER OF WORSHIP, INCLUDING BIBLE READING, HYMNS AND SERMON...
-
Book 3: Chapter 2, Of Faith—The Definitions Of It; Its Peculiar Properties
1. All these things will be easily understood after we have given a clearer definition of faith, so as to enable the readers to apprehend its nature and power. Here it is of importance to call to mind what was formerly taught, first, That since God by his Law prescribes what we ought to do, failure in any one respect subjects us to the dreadful judgment of eternal death, which it denounces. Secondly, Because it is not only difficult, but altogether beyond our strength and ability, to fulfill the demands of the Law, if we look only to ourselves and consider what is due to our merits, no ground of hope remains, but we lie forsaken of God under eternal death. Thirdly, That there is…
-
Book 3: Chapter 1, The Benefits Of Christ Made Available To Us By The Secret Operation Of The Spirit
We must now see in what way we become possessed of the blessings which God has bestowed on his only-begotten Son, not for private use, but to enrich the poor and needy. And the first thing to be attended to is, that so long as we are without Christ and separated from him, nothing which he suffered and did for the salvation of the human race is of the least benefit to us. To communicate to us the blessings which he received from the Father, he must become ours and dwell in us. Accordingly, he is called our Head, and the first-born among many brethren, while, on the other hand, we are said to be ingrafted into him and clothed with him, all which he…
-
The Quick And The Dead
FOR A COMPLETE ORDER OF WORSHIP, INCLUDING BIBLE READING, HYMNS AND SERMON...
-
The Quick And The Dead
The word ‘quick’ has an old meaning of ‘alive’ or ‘animated’ and this is the sense in our Bible verses today from Ephesians. Here Paul tells the church that God the Father has quickened, or given spiritual life to them when they were spiritually dead in sin. The emphasis in Paul’s words is that spiritual life comes from God when sinners, being dead in trespasses and sins, are incapable themselves of doing anything for their own spiritual good. The new birth Paul shows the Ephesian believers that the motivation, or moving power, for quickening comes from God’s love and mercy. The spiritual transformation that follows is a new creation into which spiritual life is infused. Spiritual sense is enabled where before there was none. Suddenly,…
-
The Work Of The Holy Spirit
After exposing and explaining anti-Christ, with some account of his devotees who separate themselves from a profession of the truth, being "sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jude 19), the apostle describes and distinguishes the true saints in the language of our text:— I.—The saints anointed. II.—Their saving knowledge. "But ye," "little children,'' conscious of their weak, feeble, and helpless condition, who feel they must be washed, cleansed, clothed, comforted, fed, and educated, as all God's people are by Himself; "ye," as distinct from all others, "have an unction”—the anointing oil, Divine influence, and experimental tuition of the eternal Spirit, without which all is sham and ''strong delusion." The allusion is to the "holy anointing oil for Aaron and his sons, and the vessels of the…
