Tuesday, April 14, 2009

It is Christ Himself



God did not sit in solemn silence and create the light, but he spake. He said, “Light be,” and light was. So the way in which we receive light is by the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Christ himself is the essential Word, and the preaching of Christ Jesus is the operative Word. We receive Christ actually when God’s power goes with God’s Word - then have we light. Hence the necessity of continually preaching the Word of God. If I preach my own word, no light will go with it; but when it is God’s Word, then I may expect that light will follow.

Oh! to preach Christ’s cross. My brethren and sisters, choose no ministry but that which savours much of God’s Word, and especially of the Word Christ Jesus. Better to preach one sermon full of Christ, than a thousand in which he shall be left out. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” The great magnet and lodestone of gospel attraction is Christ himself; and if we leave him out, it is as though we should expect the world to receive light without the Almighty Word.

From a sermon entitled "Light, Natural And Spiritual," delivered November 12, 1865. Image by Roberto Ferrari under Creative Commons License.

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