A Door of Hope is Opened Wide
"The
LORD
loveth the gates of Zion."
-PSALM
87:2 [KJV]
What
are gates for? Two purposes, entrance and exit. And Zion, too, has
her gates of exit and entrance; she has her gates of access to God,
entrance into the presence of the Most High; "the door of
hope," opened in "the valley of Achor." And
who has opened the door; or, rather, Who has not only opened it and
made it, but Himself is the Door? "I am the Door,"
says Jesus. And was not "the door" opened through His rent
flesh? As the Apostle speaks: "Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which He hath consecrated
for us, through the veil, that is to say, His
flesh." Through His bleeding wounds, through His pierced
side, through His mangled feet and hands, there is now access to God:
"A
door of hope is open'd wide
In
Jesus' pierced hands and side."
Is
there any other access to God, but through the slaughtered Lamb?
"Through
Him
we have access by one Spirit unto the Father."
There is no other; for He
is "the
way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the Father but by
Him."
Is not this an open way? Does not the soul through this door "walk
in and out and find pasture,"
and enter into the immediate presence of God? Do you, my friends,
ever find access to God, a heart to pray, a sense of acceptance in
prayer, AN
OPEN DOOR, and
power to enter therein? What
opens it? Merit? Set up merit, and we are all damned to a man. It is
not merit, great or little; it is the blood of the Lamb which alone
has opened a way for poor lost sinners to draw near to God.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
March
26th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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