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67 Parable Of The Marriage Of The King’s Son
Many thing in the parables of our Lord, and especially in the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son, Matt 22, have been considered quite to the point, in favor of duty faith and universal invitations, and are of course so taken up and handled. But passing by the fact, that parables have always some general design, and are never intended to mean every thing that the distinct words borrowed to make up the figure, would literally imply, we win look and turn our attention to verse 11-13, which contain the general design of this parable, and which must at once exclude all warrant for such sentiments, as having no possible place whatever in our Lord's intention by the parable, or by any of…
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68 The Use Of Texts In Isolation, Without Regard To The Overall Teaching Of Scripture
There are many who now say, 'that they think it best to take the scriptures and preach from them as they find them.' If this was in the mind and spirit of truth, it would be all right; for although there might be a difficulty in coming at the precise meaning of some circumstantial passages, all fundamental truths would be clear as a sunbeam, the scriptures would be seen to be perfectly harmonious without a shadow of discord, and so uniform as a whole, as not to admit the appearance of self contradiction, jar, or what could not be righteously reconciled. But this is not what is meant; but the taking of the letter of scripture as it stands in mere sounds, without any of…
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69 Where Did The Doctrine Of Duty Faith Come From?
As there is not one text from the lips of our Lord, or the pen of his apostles, that can be construed to mean any thing in favor of the duty of the natural man to believe unto eternal salvation or of universal invitations, without doing violence to the connection, and to the credit of the sacred speakers; perhaps it will be asked, where then did duty faith, and universal invitations come from? And how is it that so many good men, great writers, and most of those who are called the ancient Fathers, have in a greater or less degree held them? My answer to these questions is, that they came from the early corruptions of Christianity; and of those many spirits that were…
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70 Concluding Statement
We will now bring our remarks to a close, by observing, that I have not thus written to elicit any reply from you, nor to be considered as laying you under any personal obligation to reply; but to anew, as I said on the first page of these remarks, 'Why I spurn duty faith as the spawn of at least half the errors there are in the professing world.' But I have either written truth or falsehood, and if the latter, that will be easy to be proved, by the spirit of truth in the sacred text; and be it so done by some hand, until it be brought quite down to the ground, as flat as Dagon fell on his face, 1 Sam 5:3.…
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The Evangelical Revival Or The Great Awakening
Bible Reading: Romans 10:13-14. In the eighteenth century, an Evangelical Awakening swept through the western world ushered in through the medium of restored preaching. Never since the Reformation had earnest men taken to the highways and by-ways and preached to the multitudes with such power. Hundreds of thousands who had never cared for religion, found themselves drawn to it through the spoken Word. Stop: you might say. The Church is not a preaching factory. Preaching is of use in its right place but church worship, the communion of the saints and pastoral care are essentialities of church fellowship. We understand this and this conference and our Society do not neglect to teach about the inner fellowship shared by the communion of the saints. But our…
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What Does It Mean To Be Reformed?
The sermons from which this tract sprang were preached to the Grace Baptist Church of Danville in Danville, Kentucky - USA, November 2, 1997 by Pastor Don Fortner. The tract is taken directly from the pastor’s sermon notes, with as few changes as possible. It was intended for our congregation, and is offered to the public only because of numerous requests that it be put into print. Tapes of the original messages preached in Danville are available. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” - Colossians 2:8 We are warned repeatedly to beware of false religion, false doctrine, and false prophets. Here Paul urges us to beware of those who…
