Dr James White was in South Africa the past weekend where he held a Biblical worldview seminar addressing topics which are very appropriate for our time.
Session 1 – Homosexuality: Choice or Wired?
Session 2 – Sovereignty versus Free Will
Session 3 – What Every Christian Should Know About the Qur’an
Session 4 – Q and A
You can download the messages at the link here.
the perfect humanity, and he sees in Christ all his people, and treats them accordingly. He looks upon his people as if they themselves had magnified the law and made it honorable by a sinless life. Wondrous doctrine this, but he that believes it shall find rest unto his soul; and it is because of it that we are authorized to come forth this day and declare the day of salvation. The guilt of the believing sinner is put away, for Christ has carried it; and now righteousness belongs to the sinner, for God imputes it to him without works: therefore this is the day of salvation.” – From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “The Day Of Salvation,” delivered January 13, 1878.
“To the self-righteous, being judged according to deeds does not seem too alarming but to the man who knows himself the thought is terrifying.” – Paul Washer
“Don’t believe everything you think. You cannot be trusted to tell yourself the truth. Stay in The Word.” – Jerry Bridges
“Tell the truth” is to the preacher what “First, do no harm” is to the physician.” – R.C. Sproul Jr.
“Historic confessions and creeds protect the Church from foolish ‘cereal aisle’ autonomy. The Spirit who authored Scripture has through the years drawn the Church to understand it, and the great Church confessions greatly aid us in employing faithful hermeneutics. We are not advocating a paper pope, but a biblically grounded confidence in the historic analogy of faith. God is able to reveal clearly in his Word precisely what he wishes – not only to this generation, but consistently over the entire life of the Church.” – David B. Garner
“When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I beat my breast to think I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so and sought my good.” – C. H. Spurgeon
“You can be as straight as a gun barrel theologically—and be as empty as one spiritually.” – A.W. Tozer
“This is your best life, if your next life is in hell. But, on the other hand, if you are a child of God and your sins are forgiven and you’ve come to embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, this is not even close to your best life! You can’t even comprehend what your best life looks like because ‘Eye hath not seen nor has ear heard what God has prepared for those that love Him.’ Contrary to what is popular today, even in religious circles, even in Christian circles, even in the name of Jesus, the Lord is not promising you here and now a full, happy, rich, satisfying, trouble-free life of health, wealth and success. Oh He does promise that, absolutely – a full, happy, rich, satisfying, trouble-free life of health, wealth and success and absolute joy and peace and perfection, but not now. Not now. In fact, quite on the other hand, our Lord has promised to those that know Him and love Him, in this life, trouble, persecution, rejection, difficulty, trials, temptation, pain, suffering, sorrow, sickness, and even physical death. So, for Christians, this is our worst life now. It isn’t that it’s bad, but comparatively, it’s the worst when you think of the life that is to come, which is the best. Your best life as a Christian begins when this life ends. Christians through the centuries have understood this, certainly the early Christians understood it. The Bible makes it clear. You just can’t expect all the promises that God has made to you for Heaven to necessarily show up here. Any sensible Christian understands that. Don’t expect more than this life can deliver.” – John MacArthur
“Whenever any person comes to saving faith in the Lord, it is because he has been supernaturally drawn to believe.” – Steven Lawson
“It is a reading age, a preaching age, a working age, but it is not a praying age.” – C.H. Spurgeon
“The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The resurrection is the proclamation of the fact that God is fully and completely satisfied with the work that His Son did upon the Cross.”
Donald Grey Barnhouse, “Note well that it was not His resurrection that produced our justification, but our justification that produced His resurrection.”
“Scripture sets forth a distinction of the Father from the Word, and of the Word from the Spirit. Yet the greatness of the mystery warns us how much reverence and sobriety we ought to use in investigating this. And that passage in Gregory of Nazianzus vastly delights me: “I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one.” Let us not, then, be led to imagine a trinity of persons that keeps our thoughts distracted and does not at once lead them back to that unity. Indeed, the words “Father,” “Son,” and “Spirit” imply a real distinction—let no one think that these titles, whereby God is variously designated from his works, are empty—but a distinction, not a division.” – John Calvin
“Christ makes intercession, by his appearing in our nature continually before the Father in heaven, in the merit of his obedience and sacrifice on earth, declaring his will to have it applied to all believers; answering all accusations against them, and procuring for them quiet of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings, access with boldness to the throne of grace, and acceptance of their persons and services.” – #55 Westminster Larger Catechism
“It is a good fall when a man falls on his knees.” – C. H. Spurgeon
“If we are true Christians, we must not expect everything smooth in our journey to heaven. We must count it no strange thing, if we have to endure sicknesses, losses, bereavements, and disappointments, just like other people. Free pardon and full forgiveness, grace by the way and glory to the end – all this our Savior has promised to give. But He has never promised that we shall have no afflictions. He loves us too well to promise that.” – J.C. Ryle
“You should tell the devil: Just by telling me that I am a miserable, great sinner, you are placing a sword and weapon into my hand with which I can decisively overcome you; yea, with your own weapon I can kill and floor you. For if you can tell me that I am a poor sinner, I, on the other hand, can tell you that Christ died for sinners and is their Intercessor You remind me of the boundless, great faithfulness and benefaction of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The burden of my sins and all the trouble and misery that were to oppress me eternally He very gladly took upon His shoulders and suffered the bitter death on the cross for them. To Him I direct you. You may accuse and condemn Him. Let me rest in peace; for on His shoulders, not on mine, lie all my sins…” – Martin Luther
“I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.” – C. H. Spurgeon
“We rob the gospel of its power if we leave out its threatenings of punishment.” – C.H. Spurgeon
“It’s the centrality of the Word and not the person who preaches it that’s important.” – Sinclair Ferguson
“Where persons love little, do little, and give little, we may shrewdly suspect that they have never had much affliction of heart for their sins and that they think they owe but very little to divine grace.” – C. H. Spurgeon
An article by and his Jewish listeners are cut to the heart, asking, “What shall we do?” (v. 37). Peter responds in Acts 2:38-39:
Repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself (Acts 2:38-39).
The argument for infant baptism is found in Peter’s declaration that “the promise is for you and your children”—not just you, but you and your children. According to paedobaptists, the promise that Peter refers to in Acts 2:38-39 is the same promise that God made to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 17:1-8. As Robert Booth explains:
This was a promise that [the Jews] would have heard of and talked about many times. Since they were now entering the new covenant era of the church, the question of their children’s relationship to the church would naturally have been on their minds. Being a Jew, Peter was certainly aware of their concern and immediately moved to address the issue. He assured them that the promise was still for them and their children.
Therefore, writes Booth, “If the children of believers are embraced by the promises of the covenant, as certainly they are, then they must also be entitled to receive the initial sign of the covenant, which is baptism.”
To evaluate this argument from Acts 2:39, it is helpful to consider three basic questions: What is the promise?; Who were the recipients of the promise?; and Who was baptized?
What Is the Promise?
In Acts 2:39, Peter says that “the promise” is for his hearers, for their children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord calls to Himself. Even though Peter does not specify the content of the promise here in this verse, his meaning was clear to his original hearers, for he had already referred to this promise several times in the earlier part of his sermon: (a) “I [God] will pour forth My Spirit” (v. 17); (b) “the promise of the Holy Spirit” (v. 33); and (c) “you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38). This promise is the gift of the Holy Spirit and the salvation that accompanies Him.
This understanding of the promise is further supported by Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4. In Luke 24:49, Jesus speaks of the coming Holy Spirit, saying, “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Then, just before His ascension, Jesus commands His disciples “not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised” (Acts 1:4), a clear reference to the Holy Spirit. Continue reading