SEPTEMBER 2026 CONTENTS
Editorial — Dedicated to God
Sermon — The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12)
Gracious Counsel — Coming to the Lord’s Table
Best Behaviour — Church Membership
Gospel Standard Trust Meetings:
Address — Growing Old with Grace
Business meeting
Love to the Brethren
Book Reviews
Matters of the Moment — The idol of avoiding suffering
Poetry — “Unto Seventy Times Seven”
Cover image — A residents’ outing from the Brighton Bethesda Home to the South Downs, c.1970, photo taken by the matron, Miss N Harwood.
Dedicated to God
The Book of Leviticus ends with the laws of dedication. The structure of Leviticus, in broad terms, indicates the trajectory of grace in the soul.
When the Lord begins with us He convinces us of sin and we are brought to know and feel that our sins have separated us from God. That is where Leviticus starts — the Israelites are shut out of the tabernacle because they are sinners and God is holy (Exod. 40:35). Leviticus then sets before the Israelites God’s way of mercy. The way He has made by which they may come into the presence of God is through sacrifice, specifically through shed blood. The blood takes away sin and brings the soul to God. This culminates in the day of atonement (ch. 16) — the only day of the year when the Israelite was represented by the priest in the holiest place.
With the sacrificial system set out (ch. 1-7, which represented the saving work of Jesus), the Israelite is hedged in to it as the only way of salvation by the emphasis on the need for purity. Purity is required both in the priest who approaches for us (ch. 8-10), and in the people (as regards their food, bodies, homes and habits; ch. 11-15). In this way, the law is our “schoolmaster” to bring us to Christ. For who is sufficiently pure to approach to God? None! That is why we must come in the way God has provided, through the person and work of our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. The day of atonement evidences that it is a way which really saves.
What mercy there is in the opening verses of Leviticus, where we read how the Lord called “out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, …
If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, … he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and
it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him”! The “
whosoever will” of the gospel is very sweet. “Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The second half of the Book of Leviticus speaks of the sanctified life of the believer. Those who have come to God through the Lord Jesus should offer pure worship and remember the essential nature of the blood of the sacrifice (ch. 17). They should have pure morals and pure customs (ch. 18-25). In this there is a mirroring of the standards set out in ch. 11-15, a reminder that the holiness required by the law is not lessened under the gospel. Christ touches every part of the believer’s life ― from inward thoughts, through outward appearance, to how we behave to one another and our God. The blessings for obedient children, and a way of mercy for backsliding ones almost closes the book (ch. 26).
Then the law of dedication is given in the closing chapter.
In Leviticus, dedication was the way in which the Israelite responded to all that had been given them in the law. It was the way they demonstrated that they accepted it, and hoped in all that the ceremonial law typified. It is permanent dedication, and it could not be reversed (Lev. 27:28-29). It is this dedication which really marks out the child of God. Can we truly know the love of God in Jesus Christ for us and not leave all and follow Him?
The apostle has this dedication in mind when he writes, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” He describes it in more detail when he says: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
If we truly have a part in Jesus it calls for dedication outwardly ― in our behaviour ― and inwardly ― in our spirit. It calls for us to embrace pure worship, to prize the blood of Jesus which cleanses from all sin, and to have pure morals and show purity in every part of our life. Those who are dedicated to God will be found studying and seeking to put into practice the gospel precepts (the exhortations of the New Testament). They will be longing for, and pursuing after, greater conformity to the image of Christ. The Christian calling is the highest of any. Nobody can live it out in their own strength, but the same blood which redeems and dedicates also promises grace and strength sufficient for the whole of Christian discipleship.
Often we lose sight of our dedication and our desires to be dedicated to the Lord are very weak. The reason must lie in a lack of the knowledge of our sin and of the preciousness of the only Saviour, “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Those who are filled with love to the Saviour after being brought through a sense of their sin to look alone to Jesus and receive mercy, are the ones who evidence this dedication to the Lord in their thoughts and lives. Do you know it? Do you want to be more dedicated to your Lord? O that the Holy Spirit would shed abroad the Saviour’s love more clearly in our souls; then we shall be truly dedicated to the Lord!
Of course, this dedication is
ultimately entered into in glory. In heaven the saints are eternally given to the worship and glory of their Saviour God. What a prospect for sinners saved by grace! It is a searching question which gets to the heart of just how dedicated we are: do we really look forward to that eternal service of praise? O for a fresh sense of blood-bought pardon to put us in such a frame!