It is a great joy to be back in this Tabernacle. The memories of the first two visits are very sweet and precious to my heart this morning, and it is a great joy to be back by the side of your beloved pastor. My one and only purpose in being here is to lift up Jesus. He is my only theme. This is not Gipsy Smith’s campaign—it is yours. You people who live in Chicago, you Christian people both inside this building and on the air, it is your work—more yours than mine, because you live here. Whatever spiritual …
“I will go into Thy house with burnt-offerings.” —Psalm 66:13
If you want to get into “the house,” and by that I mean the Holy of Holies, and into the presence of God, the real glorious Shekinah presence of the fullness of the Holy Ghost, you will have to realize that Jesus has been made available to you in the burnt-offering. You will have to take Him as your whole burnt-offering, reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, and then let His fire burn in your daily life around everything that is of self.
And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge, which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the …
Shall we now turn to the 28th chapter of the book of Acts. This last chapter of our book may well be divided into five distinct sections. In verses one to ten we have the account of Paul and his companions at Melita, or as we now say, Malta, an island that has been very much to the front in these last few months because of the heroic defense of its garrison and the men of the navy and the air force there at the present time. The General who just recently retired from the governorship of Malta, General Dobbie, …
“And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon a housetop, and …
It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so than no one can boast. —Ephesians 2:8-9
Grace is God’s “unmerited favor” toward us; it comes to us as a gift we do not deserve. Here is something you can count on: The better you believe yourself to be, the less grace you will think you need. The more self-confident you are, the more convinced you will be that you could get by even if God were stingy with grace. All you need is some help from …
And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, He stood by the lake of Gennesaret, And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And He entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And He sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down …
In Psalm 13 we have the tried believer crying to God for deliverance and yet trusting in His overruling providence in spite of all the difficult circumstances of the way. Four times in the first two verses we get the cry, “How long?” “How long with thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? How long wilt thou hid thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?” This is the heart cry, not only of Christian people during this present age …
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, …
“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” —Romans 12:2
Two little girls were washing the dishes one day. One of them was murmuring over her task, when the other said, “Let’s think about what we are going to get for Christmas, and doin’ the dishes won’t hurt so much.”
There is a law here in this little incident that is worthy of our close attention. It is the law of transformation by renewing. Are we to let circumstances, moods, conditions, rule us and weigh us down, or are we to find this spiritual law of transformation by renewal? …
