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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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revelation out of which faith is born. God becomes spir itually tangible. We all know men and women who have known God. i ne saints of all ages have known Him personally, intimately, increasingly. It is a privilege open to all— rich and poor, educated and unlearned, old and young. Their lives, their examples, their testimony backed by their experience is our strongest and sweetest argument against unbelief. May God deepen our experience of Him that we in turn may be an argument for God.
8. The evidence of the Holy Spirit. Once again, let the same seeker ask the help of the Spirit of God in his search for truth and he will find Spirit meeting with spirit in such a way that unbelief will become impossible. “ The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, hut he that is spiritual discerneth. . . To the heart wrought upon by the Spirit of God there is given a personal
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cU - His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we are healed.” (Heb. 2 :9 ): “ That He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.” • (1 John 2 :2 ): “ He is the propitiation for our sins: and not our sins only but for the sins of the whole world.” (Isa. 63 :6 ): “ 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.” (Psa. 103: 12.R “ As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." Yes, your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world, were laid on Jesutf; and God has promised to remember them against us no more forever. No wonder the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom that day, for Jesus on the cross had by bearing in His own body our sins, taken away that which separates us from God, and opened the way so that the lost sinner could have free access to the Throne of His grace. He poured out His blood on Calvary for the remission of sins, and there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, for God accepted the sacrifice on the cross as the complete atone ment for the sins of the whole world. The blood of Jesus ' cleanses from all sin. The central fact in the history of the Christian religion ip the Cross of Christ. Around it cluster all the great doctrines of the redemption of the human race: The atone ment, substitution, - restoration, propitiation, Justification, reconciliation, etc., all would be annulled if the cross could be banished. Satan indeed could glory in the death bf Christ if that death could have been accomplished apart from the cross; but by the death of Christ on the cross, he is forever a defeated foe. Nothing would give Satan more satisfaction today than to have the Story of the Cross eliminated from the Christian message. The sad fact is, he has already accomplished that purpose in many of our churches and in them no longer is heard the wonderful story of the redemption of lost sinners by the atoning blood of a crucified and risen Saviour; and, as a result, no longer in those churches are souls born anew into the Kingdom of God. The key-note and very essence of the preaching of the apostles and disciples of the first century, was the procla mation of the Gospel o f the cross of Christ; an£ to that message we can attribute their success in persuading men to accept the teachings of Christ. When Paul said, “ I (Continued on page 50) “ F or (k t preaching o f the eroaa la to them which perish foolishn ess: but unto us which are saved it Is the pow er of , God.” 1 Corinthians I 1 I 8 . NE day, early ip the springtime, nearly nineteen centuries ago, in the city of Jerusalem, a cross was prepared, upon which was to be crucified one j of the greatest criminals that had infested that part of the country for many a year. He was charged with robbery, sedition and murder, pronounced guilty, and con demned to death by crucifixion.. It was the morning he was to be crucified. He knew he was guilty, and that the sen tence was a Just one. As helay there he realized that the way .of the transgressor is hard and that sin brings death as an inevitable result. There seemed no way of escape. Soon the door was opened; and the keeper said, “ Barabbas, you are free; you do not have to die; another has been condemned to be crucified in your place, and you can go out a free man.“ On Calvary, that day, an awful scene took place: Jesus, the Son of God, our Saviour, He of whom Pilate said, “ I find "no fault in Him;” He who always went about doing good,—was there crucified. Could it be possible that men could stand by and mock, While Jesus, our Saviour, the best man that ever lived, endured the cross, despising the shame, that He might present us faultless before the Throne of God? Nature hides her face, and darkness covers the awful scene. God withdraws His presence from Him; and in the loneliness of that dark hour, and in the anguish of His soul, He cries, "My God, My God, why hast thou for saken Me!" Not only did Jesus, our Saviour, bear the shame and Ignominy, and the cruel persecution of that awful hour; but God added to Him there, a greater burden than all other burdens combined. God laid on Him the sins of the released criminal Barabbas, the sins of the wicked coun cilors and persecutors who had condemned Him to death; and the sins of the cruel mob which stood by and taunted Him as He suffered there, and then, looking down through the centuries, saw you and me, and laid on Him the sins of each one of us. To this awful load, He added the sins of every person who has lived in this world" since the day Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, down to the present day; and to that He added the sins of every person who shall live in this world till sin shall be no more, and Jesus bore them all in His own body on the tree. “ Oh,” you say, "surely God would not put such a load as that on Him?” See what the Scripture says about it (1 Pet. 2 :24 ): “ Who
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