Your State By Nature

Again: the Gospel is designated “the kingdom of God,” because it is the ordained instrument of God to restore His authority over the minds of men. While men who reject the Gospel are under the physical dominion of God, every step and stage of their life being placed at His sovereign bidding, properly speaking they are in a state of revolt against Him. They are not subject to His law; they are “alienated and enemies by wicked works;” they have rendered their allegiance to the antagonist power of the great adversary—“the prince of the power of the air,” of whom it is emphatically said, that he “worketh in the children of disobedience.” This, my hearers, is your state by nature, as it is the state of the whole universe beside.

The Grand Design Of The Gospel

Now it is the grand design of the Gospel, to exert such an influence over the intellect and the passions of men, as shall change the entire current of their thoughts and feelings and actions towards God—shall soften them, shall subdue them, and shall reconcile them—shall cause them to render their entire and devoted allegiance to Him, who alone deserves and can rightly demand it. For this grand end, the Divine wisdom of its great Originator has wisely and perfectly adapted it. [The Gospel] contains ample announcements of the Divine character and claims, of the “exceeding sinfulness of sin,” and of the tremendous consequences to which sin exposes transgressors in the world that is yet to come. [The Gospel] exhibits the great provision of atonement, which has been made by the Son of God in His sufferings and death, as the result of infinite love, sufficient for the pardon and redemption of the guiltiest of men, who shall repent and believe; and it reiterates invitations, free and touching and tender beyond comparison, urging men to flee for mercy, that they may not perish, but have everlasting life.”

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