Results 41 - 60 of 6029
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Results from: Notes Author: DocTrinsograce Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
41 | The Sole Authority | Ps 119:133 | DocTrinsograce | 243958 | ||
"Jesus prayed to the Father, 'Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth' (John 17:17). Scripture is God's Word written, and apart from it we cannot have a saving knowledge of God or grow in our relationship with Him. The Apostle Paul says God gave us the Scriptures to profit us through teaching, reproving, correcting, and training in righteousness so 'that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work' (2 Tim. 3:16–17). To grow in maturity, a Christian must grow in his understanding of and submission to Scripture. "A casual acquaintance with the Bible will not suffice, as Jesus makes clear in the conclusion of His Sermon on the Mount when He contrasts a house built on a rock that withstands the storms with one built on sand that is destroyed by them. The latter represents the person who merely hears the Word of Christ without submissively complying with it. His life lacks stability. The former is like the wise man who not only hears the teachings of Jesus but 'does them.' His life will be characterized by a maturity that stands firm through the trials of life. "God has designed His Word to shape us through reading and hearing (Romans 10:17; Revelation 1:3), through meditation and memorization (Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:1-3; 119:11), and especially through faithful preaching (2 Timothy 4:1-5)." |
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42 | God Gains the Victory | Ps 98:1 | DocTrinsograce | 243957 | ||
"There are other ways in which God works sanctification in us in such a way that we are victorious over sin. "To confess our sins before God brings forgiveness. That too is victory. When, at Calvary, we confess our sins and seek forgiveness through the blood of Christ, these sins are forgiven, and we know that we are righteous and sinless before the eyes of our Father in heaven. Sin cannot rob us of His love and care. Sin confessed cannot keep us from heaven. Sin washed away in the blood of Christ gives us victory over Satan and his hosts, the world, and our own remaining sin. "Thus the victory of the child of God is found in a good conscience. Our conscience condemns us because it shows us our sins. But Scripture speaks of consciences washed in the blood of Christ (Heb.9:14). With freedom from an accusing conscience, we walk in the joy and hope of our salvation. Free from sin in God’s eyes, we are victorious. ... "The victory of the Christian is evident too in the fact that, although he falls in his path, he never gives up. He may yield to that temptation again and again, and commit the same sin repeatedly. The temptation to give up and fight no longer is strong. But he never does. Fallen, he rises again. Weary in the battle, he presses forward. Wounded and bleeding, he resolves to pursue his calling with renewed strength. He cannot be defeated, no matter how fierce the battle. He is more than a conqueror!" --Professor Herman Hanko (2016) from his book "The Victorious Christian" |
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43 | Christ Calls for Repentance | Rev 2:22 | DocTrinsograce | 243956 | ||
"Repentance is looked upon as a tedious thing, requiring great effort; but men are content with their dregs and do not care to stir. They would rather go sleeping to hell than weeping to heaven. 'A slothful man hides his hand in his vest' (Prov. 19.24); he will not strike his breast. Many would rather lose heaven than ply the oar and row on the waters of repentance. We cannot have the world citra pulverem (without labor and diligence); would we not rather have what is more excellent? Sloth is the cancer of the soul: 'Slothfulness tosses into a deep sleep' (Prov. 19.15). It was a witty fiction of the poets that when Mercury put Argus to sleep and closed his eyes with an enchanted flute, he then killed him. It is no fiction that when Satan has lulled men to sleep in sloth by his witcheries, he then destroys them. Some report that while the crocodile sleeps with its mouth open, the Indian rat gets into its belly and eats up its entrails. So too while men sleep in false security, they are devoured." --Thomas Watson (1620-1686) |
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44 | Thanksgiving Unto our Lord 2016 | Ps 50:23 | DocTrinsograce | 243955 | ||
The past few days, and the current holiday, have caused me to think back upon those things for which I am grateful to our God in His eternal providence. I am grateful for family, and God's work in their lives. I am grateful for a Proverbs 31 wife, who consistently manifests all of the fruit of the Spirit. I am grateful for a church who holds firmly to the truth, all that God has revealed (Deuteronomy 29:29). I am grateful that they do not try to revise history so as to cause themselves and the Reformers to look more fully Scriptural and more righteous than they were. I am grateful to a Saviour who affirmed the importance of truth and only truth. I am grateful that I have been received amidst a group of scholars who will not bend history to fit their doctrine, but rather recognize that our doctrine doesn't need such bolstering. I am grateful for the Reformers, who sought the truth of God even though it often resulted in the loss of their lives. I am grateful for the technology that allows us to verify church history. Above all else, I am grateful for God's wondrous work of salvation, that -- through absolutely no merit of my own -- saved a wretch like me. Have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving to one and all. The First Thanksgiving Proclamation (06/20/1675): "The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present War with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgments he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions.†|
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45 | Attestation of Unity in the Truth | 3 John 1:3 | DocTrinsograce | 243953 | ||
"Unity without verity is no better than conspiracy." --John Trapp (1601-1669) |
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46 | Judgment Against False Doctrine | Zech 5:4 | DocTrinsograce | 243949 | ||
"And no fact in Church history is more clearly proved than this -- that false doctrine has never ceased to be the plague of Christendom for the last eighteen centuries [now twenty-one centuries]. Looking forward with the eye of a prophet. Saint Paul might well say 'I fear: I fear not merely the corruption of your morals, but of your minds.' The plain truth is that false doctrine has been the chosen engine which Satan has employed in every age to stop the progress of the Gospel of Christ. Finding himself unable to prevent the Fountain of Life being opened, he has laboured incessantly to poison the streams which flow from it. If he could not destroy it, he has too often neutralized its usefulness by addition, subtraction, or substitution. In a word he has 'corrupted men's minds.'" --J. C. Ryle from his "Warnings to the Church" |
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47 | Wolves Among the Sheep | Ezek 22:27 | DocTrinsograce | 243948 | ||
"Many things combine to make the present inroad of false doctrine peculiarly dangerous. There is an undeniable zeal in some of the teachers of error: their 'earnestness' (to use an unhappy cant phrase) makes many think they must be right. There is a general tendency to free thought and free inquiry in these latter days: many like to prove their independence of judgment, by believing novelties. There is a wide-spread desire to appear charitable and liberal-minded: many seem half ashamed of saying that anybody can be in the wrong. There is a quantity of half-truth taught by the modern false teachers: they are incessantly using Scriptural terms and phrases in an unscriptural sense. There is a morbid craving in the public mind for a more sensuous, ceremonial, sensational, showy worship: men are impatient of inward, invisible heartwork. There is a silly readiness in every direction to believe everybody who talks cleverly, lovingly, and earnestly, and a determination to forget that Satan is often 'transformed into an angel of light.' (2 Corinthians 2:14) There is a wide-spread 'gullibility' among professing Christians: every heretic who tells his story plausibly is sure to be believed, and everybody who doubts him is called a persecutor and a narrow-minded man. All these things are peculiar symptoms of our times. I defy any observing man to deny them. They tend to make the assaults of false doctrine in our day peculiarly dangerous. They make it more than ever needful to cry aloud, 'Be not carried about.'" --J. C. Ryle, from his "Warnings to the Churches" |
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48 | What Liberty is This? | Prov 10:20 | DocTrinsograce | 243946 | ||
"This doctrine of total inability which declares that men are dead in sin does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as bad as he could be, nor that anyone is entirely destitute of virtue, nor that human nature is equal in itself, nor that man’s spirit in inactive, and much less does it mean that the body is dead. What is does mean is that since the fall, man rests under the curse of sin, that he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is wholly unable to love God, or to do anything meriting salvation. His corruption is extensive, but not necessarily intensive. It is in this sense that man, since the fall, is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, wholly inclined to all evil. He possesses a fixed bias of the will against God, and instinctively and willingly and turns to evil. He is an alien by birth, and a sinner by choice. The inability under which he labors is not an inability to exercise volition, but an inability to be willing to exercise holy volitions. And it is this phase of it which led Luther to declare that ‘free will’ is an empty term, whose reality is lost; and a lost liberty, according to my grammar, is no liberty at all." --Loraine Boettner |
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49 | Our Proper and Only Happiness | Eccl 3:13 | DocTrinsograce | 243944 | ||
"God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper; and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Better than fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of any, or all earthly friends. These are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean." --Jonathan Edwards (1732) |
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50 | Liberalism, Despite Different Names | Jer 32:33 | DocTrinsograce | 243940 | ||
"At the outset, we are met with an objection. 'Teachings,' it is said, 'are unimportant; the exposition of the teachings of liberalism and the teachings of Christianity, therefore, can arouse no interest at the present day; creeds are merely the changing expression of a unitary Christian experience, and provided only they express that experience they are all equally good. The teachings of liberalism, therefore, might be as far removed as possible from the teachings of historic Christianity, and yet the two might be at bottom the same.' "Such is the way in which expression is often given to the modern hostility to ‘doctrine.’ But is it really doctrine as such that is objected to, and not rather one particular doctrine in the interests of another? Undoubtedly, in many forms of liberalism it is the latter alternative which fits the case. There are doctrines of modern liberalism, just as tenaciously and intolerantly upheld as any doctrines that find a place in the historic creeds. Such for example are the liberal doctrines of the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. These doctrines are ... contrary to the doctrines of the Christian religion. But doctrines they are all the same, and as such they require intellectual defense. In seeming to object to all theology, the liberal preacher is often merely objecting to one system of theology in the interests of another. And the desired immunity from theological controversy has not yet been attained." --J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) |
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51 | The Word Gifted to the People of God | 2 Pet 1:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243936 | ||
Hi, Pastor... You have to interpret Ed based on context: in this case by 600 years, i.e., the Dutch Remonstrants (1610). He would not have necessarily know of the Pelagian Heresy, otherwise he would have written 1600 years; or the Montanist Heresy, otherwise he would have written 1800 years. You have to subtract a couple of centuries to understand the historic reference. He cherishes the teaching of these people, with some contemporary adjustment; but it would be a logical fallacy for me to denigrate his logic based on arithmetic/historic weaknesses; which thing I will not do. In Him, Doc |
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52 | The Word Gifted to the People of God | 2 Pet 1:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243935 | ||
Job 32:1 applies... so does Proverbs 1:5; 12:15 | ||||||
53 | Both Fell in a Hole | Luke 6:39 | DocTrinsograce | 243933 | ||
"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." --Augustine of Hippo (354 AD - 430 AD) | ||||||
54 | Eyes on Self Alone | Job 32:1 | DocTrinsograce | 243930 | ||
"The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone, he don't obey no orders unless they is his own." --Rudyard Kipling (1892), from his poem Tommy |
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55 | The Word Gifted to the People of God | 2 Pet 1:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243929 | ||
Ah... Clearly you have not read a thing that I have posted. So much complaining without hearing a word (Proverbs 18:13). Thus, I am answering someone who is simply parroting out of their bigotry. I fear that that makes me the greater fool. I will cease with impunity. | ||||||
56 | The Word Gifted to the People of God | 2 Pet 1:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243927 | ||
I see. So, when you teach -- presumably something from the Scriptures -- you have utterly no authority because it is what you are saying it. I think the Quakers used to do that. But they would completely forgo having that fellow up there in front going on about things that he cannot say authoritatively. So I now see your point, Ed. I didn't realize your position applied to all those 22,000 independent preachers out there, too, along with yourself. I will keep this in mind as you trail along behind my posts. Thank you for explaining. | ||||||
57 | The Word Gifted to the People of God | 2 Pet 1:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243924 | ||
QED. | ||||||
58 | The Word Gifted to the People of God | 2 Pet 1:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243922 | ||
"I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:1-6) As explained so clearly in the first portion of this epistle, God has brought dead people to life and estranged people together -- through the Gospel! Any other groups using some other means of unity are not the His body, but something else! Thus we strive for this unity... not one of our own making... but one of His making. To help us do this, He has equipped us individually: "But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift." (V7) By looting the world to give gifts to the church (vv8-10). "And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." (vv1-12) Note that this is not based on some mystical experience of Aunt Mildred! He actually gave us men through history to help us understand clearly what God has spoken. (The liberal view always resists history.) And for what reason has God given us (the church) these gifts? "Until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge [not magic] of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming." We can actually study these gifts to the church and see to what extent they rightly interpret the Word. They are not infallible, but instruct us. The human trickery and deceitful scheming, always arises from those who will not accept this great gift of Christ to His church. They must not, lest their heretical and faulty teaching be exposed. They will even say that these gifts are all demonic. Not by study and careful analysis in the light of reason and the Holy Spirit who is creating this unity. On the contrary, the live and teach bigotry -- "intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself." Watch the blanket posts down through the years here in the forum. There is a knee jerk resistance by some, despite even the efforts of Lockman to resist this denominational bias from going on and on contrary to the intentions of our Lord and His Spirit. The nature of these posters are always evident, for they seek to divide, disparage, and destroy rather than to unite, accept, and build-up the Body of Christ. Note the responses to any effort to elevate Christ, His Word, and His Holy Spirit. The evidentiary trail continues. It cannot help itself -- for such is the world and the prince and power of the air. |
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59 | Right-Minded Christians and Doctrine | 1 Tim 1:3 | DocTrinsograce | 243920 | ||
"For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians, even as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not admit that the Sadducees, or similar sects of Genistae, Meristae, Galileans, Hellenists, Pharisees, Baptists, are Jews, but are [only] called Jews and children of Abraham, worshipping God with the lips, as God Himself declared, but the heart was far from Him. But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead." --Justin Martyr (100 AD-165 AD) |
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60 | The Word Gifted to the People of God | 2 Pet 1:17 | DocTrinsograce | 243919 | ||
The Apostle Peter tells us, about the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration (cf Matthew 17:1-6): "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased' -- and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain." (2 Peter 1:16-18) "So we have the prophetic word [Scripture itself] made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. (v19) Then Peter tells us with great clarity, the primary principle of Biblical interpretation: "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (vv20-21) God Himself is speaking to man in the Word. Who else should interpret it than the recipients of the writing? If you write to your Aunt Mildred, would you think that anyone other than Aunt Mildred should interpret what you have written with the intent of her interpretation? Clearly, thinking that sort of distortions that Peter says are symptomatic of the unlearned (those who refuse to learn from Christian teachers), unstable (those who have lives built upon something other than the Rock), and unprincipled (those who show no evidence of a Holy Spirit transformed life) (vv3:16-17). So Peter concludes with this advice to the true believers: "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace [gifted to the believer through the Holy Spirit] and knowledge [from the Scriptures] of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (vv17-18) Again, thank you Lockman, for understanding the principles of Sola Scriptura so well, that you provide such a careful and learned translation for all to receive the very Word from our God and Father! |
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