"He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from Heaven, and fruitful seasons..." --Acts 14:17
1. I CANNOT BUT THINK that the God who made man a reasonable creature by His power has a Right to rule him by His law...And, when I look into my own heart, I cannot but think that it was this which my Master designed in the order and frame of my soul, and that herein He intended to support His own dominion in me.
2. I CANNOT BUT THINK that my happiness is bound up in the favor of God and that His favor will, or will not, be towards me, according as I do, or do not, comply with the laws and ends of my creation, --that I am accountable to this God, and that from Him my Judgment proceeds, not
only for this world, but for my everlasting state.
3. I CANNOT BUT THINK that my nature is very unlike what the nature of man was as it came out of the Creator’s hands, --that it is degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude. I find in myself a natural aversion to my duty, and to spiritual and divine exercises and a propensity to that which is evil....
4. I CANNOT BUT THINK that I am therefore, by nature, thrown out of the favor of God; for though I think He is a gracious and merciful God; yet I think He is also a just and holy God, and that I am become, by sin, both odious to His holiness and obnoxious to His justice. I should not think freely, but very partially, if I should think otherwise. I think I am guilty before God, have sinned, and come short of glorifying Him, and of being glorified with Him.
5. I CANNOT BUT THINK that without some special discovery of God’s will concerning me, and good-will to me, I cannot possibly recover His favor, be reconciled to Him, or be so far restored to my primitive rectitude as to be capable of serving my Creator, and answering the ends of my creation, and becoming fit for another world; for the bounties of Providence to me, in common with the inferior creatures, cannot serve either as assurances that God is reconciled to me or means to reconcile me to God.
6. I CANNOT BUT THINK that the way of salvation, both from the guilt and from the power of sin, by Jesus Christ, and His mediation between God and man, as it is revealed by the New Testament, is admirably well fitted to all the exigencies of my case, to restore me both to the favor of God and to the government and enjoyment of myself. Here I see a proper method for the removing of the guilt of sin (that I may not die by the sentence of the law) by the all-sufficient merit and righteousness of the Son of God in our nature, and for the breaking of the power of sin (that I may not die by my own disease) by the all-sufficient influence and operation of the Spirit of God upon our nature. Every malady has herein its remedy, every grievance is hereby redressed....
7. I CANNOT BUT THINK that what I find in myself of natural religion does evidently bear testimony to the Christian religion; for all that truth which is discovered to me by the light of nature is confirmed, and more clearly discovered by the Gospel; the very same thing which the light of nature gives me a confused sight of (like the sight of men as trees
walking) the New Testament gives me a clear and distinct sight of. All that good which is pressed upon me by the Law of nature is more fully discovered to me, and I find myself much more strongly bound to it by the Gospel of Christ, the engagements it lays upon me to my duty, and the encouragements and assistances it gives me in my duty.... There, just there, where natural light leaves me at a loss, and unsatisfied --tells me that hitherto it can carry me, but no further --the Gospel takes me up, helps me out, and gives me all the satisfaction I can desire, and that is especially in the great business of the satisfying of God’s justice for the sin of man.... I cannot frame a righteousness from anything I am, or have, in myself, or from anything I can do for God or present to God, wherein I dare appear before Him; but the
Gospel comes, and tells me that Jesus Christ has "made His soul an offering for sin," and God has declared Himself well pleased with all believers in Him; and this makes me easy.
8. I CANNOT BUT THINK that the proofs by which God has attested the truth of the Gospel are the most proper that could be given in a case of this nature --that the power and authority of the Redeemer in the Kingdom of grace should be exemplified to the world, not by the highest degree of the pomp and authority of the kings of the earth, as the Jews expected,
but by the evidences of His dominion in the Kingdom of nature, which is a much greater dignity and authority than any of the kings, of the earth ever pretended to, and is no less than divine.... The truth of the Gospel...was designed for the making of men holy and happy.
9. I CANNOT BUT THINK that the methods taken for the propagation of this Gospel, and the wonderful success of those methods, which are purely spiritual and heavenly, and destitute of all secular advantages and supports, plainly show that it was of God, for God was with it; and it could never have spread as it did, in the face of so much opposition, if it had not been accompanied with a power from on high. And the preservation of Christianity in the world to this day, notwithstanding the difficulties it has struggled with, is to me a standing miracle for the proof of it.
10. I CANNOT BUT THINK that the Gospel of Christ has had some influence upon my soul, has had such a command over me, and been such a comfort to me, as is a demonstration to myself, though it cannot be so to another; that it is of God. I have tasted in it "that the Lord is gracious;" and the most subtle disputant cannot convince one who has tasted honey that it is not sweet.
-Matthew Henry
-Reprinted from The Berean, Published by the Berean Baptist Church, Hephzibah, Georgia, Mr. Gene Baxley, editor and pastor
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On Saturday, August 26, twenty-one year old Kris Lines brought nearly 100 Rock and Discotheque record albums and burned them in our backyard. This represented approximately $600 and was at his own suggestion.
This last summer we conducted a seminar on the Creation and Fall of Man. It was a result of this seminar that Mr. Lines made a profession of faith.
We heartily concur with the action Mr. Lines has taken --he burned his idols --have you burned yours?
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