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“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” —1 Corinthians 13:13, RV
I used to wonder how a chapter could be ended up in such a way as this. I remember that as a boy, I used to read it, and it struck me as an awfully weak climax. After Paul had talked about prophecies, and tongues, and knowledge, and wonderful gifts, it seemed an awful come-down to say that without love they were nothing.
A carnal mind will never exalt love above a hard task well done. It cheapens the medals men …
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“Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.” —2 Corinthians 6:3
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” —1 John 2:15
Not a few Christians have been‚ and some are—greatly perplexed as to what should be the attitude of a Christian toward the world and its amusements. There are some Scriptures that tell us very definitely that the Christian is not of the world, that he has been chosen out of the world, that he is separated …
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“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the …
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“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” —Isaiah 53:6
Notice how we went astray: “We have turned every one to his own way.” That is sin. Your way is not God’s way. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Those are God’s words. Your way is sin, and that is the reason He tells you that you went astray; “All we like sheep have …
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“And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” —Leviticus 16:21–22
There are two great facts standing over against each other right from the very beginning of …
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Five times in the New Testament our Lord Jesus Christ is called the only begotten and five times He is called the first-born or the first-begotten. Five times our Lord is called the only begotten—that is what He is in His essential deity. Five times He is called first begotten—that is what He became as a man. All I shall attempt to do is to turn you from one Scripture to another, linking these together with a few comments to bring out the true deity and the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The five instances in which the …
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I speak of rank modernism. There are varying degrees of this heresy. Some so-called modernists, who are in the drift from the truth, but have not landed in the extreme camp of modernism, would deny the following; but if they will keep on drifting in their preaching and teaching they will practically, sooner or later, confirm what is said below:
1. Modernism in the character of Jesus substitutes “divine” for “deity.” This is a Unitarian position. The true Gospel says that Jesus is very God of very God. He who denies the deity of Jesus, and compliments Him with being …
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“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” —Ephesians 4:14–16
I never knew until I …
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“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
In this second chapter of Ephesians we have already had brought before us in a very vivid way our relationship to the Father as those who have been quickened together …
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I am thinking especially of two or three things in connection with this topic. First, is baptism essential to salvation? A great many people think it is, but I want to let the Word of God answer that question. And then if we find that it is not essential to salvation, another question arises: Why then baptize at all? In the next place, I am thinking of a slightly different question: Has water baptism any place at all in this present dispensation of the grace of God or has it been done away with altogether? If not, just what place …
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