Donald Whitney On The Hunger For Holiness

Quoting Donald Whitney:

Wherever the Holy Spirit dwells, His presence creates a hunger for holiness. His office is to magnify Christ, and it is He who gives the believer a desire to be like Christ. The natural man has no such passion. But in the Christian, the Spirit of God begins to carry out the will of God to make the child of God like the Son of God (Romans 8:29). And He who began this good work in the life of the believer “will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). (Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 1991, p. 237)

John Adams On Christianity And Independence

John-Adams-1780

Quoting John Adams – second President of the US:

“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.” (Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson)

The Preacher Must Sit Under The Judgment Of God’s Word

James Montgomery Boice

While many may say in our modern times that the Bible contains errors and has many difficulties, these are not recent discoveries. They were known centuries ago to the most serious Bible students: Origen, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and many others were aware of these so-called problems. However, they did not deem them worthy to compel the abandonment of orthodoxy and the Scriptures. The basis for their stand against these difficulties was their own careful study of the Bible and (as they would say) the compelling witness of the Holy Spirit to them through that study. They believed that the Old and New Testaments are uniquely the Word of God and are entirely reliable and truthful. In the article below. James Montgomery Boice touches on this theme:

And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19-21)

The important teaching is that the Scriptures had their origin in God; therefore the copies that Peter’s readers had were also to be considered as being from God and thus worthy of their careful study . . . Certainly Peter is not making a distinction between the originals and copies. That is just the point. He is not even thinking in these terms. . . .

Peter is not the only one whose sermons are recorded in Acts, of course. Stephen is another. Stephen was arrested by the Sanhedrin on the charge of speaking “blasphemous words against [the law of] Moses and God,” and he replied with a defense that occupies nearly the whole of Acts 7. This sermon contains a comprehensive review of the dealings of God with Israel, beginning with the call of Abraham and ending with the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ. It is filled with Old Testament quotations.

Its main point is that those who were defending the law were not obeying it. Rather, like those before them, they were resisting the Word of God and killing God’s prophets (Acts 7:51-53). . . .

We conclude that each of the New Testament preachers is concerned to proclaim God’s word as fulfilled in the events of his own lifetime. Moreover, his emphasis is on this word rather than on his own subjective experiences or any other less important matter. The thesis that emerges at this point . . . is that preaching that is patterned on the preaching of the apostles and other early witnesses will always be biblical in the sense that the very words of the Bible will be the preacher’s text and his aim will be a faithful exposition and application of them. This cannot be done if the preacher is sitting in judgment on the Word rather than sitting under it. (The Foundation of Biblical Authority. London & Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, 1979. pp.123-143)