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Holding Fast The Faithful Word

preach-the-word

Don Fortner 

It is very easy and a very common thing to teach false, damning, heretical doctrine using only Bible terms. God’s servants faithfully expound the sense the Scriptures, giving out the message of God the Holy Spirit conveyed in the text from which they preach.

“Preach the Word!”

2 Timothy 4:2

Those who piously insist that we say exactly what God says in the Bible, no more and no less, prove themselves terribly hypocritical by the fact that they never follow the practice. Like heretical Campbellites, they refer us to a word, phrase, or statement in the Bible, and then explain their meaning in words totally contrary to that which God the Holy Spirit has stated in Holy Scripture.

Words are vehicles of communication. They express ideas. The ideas expressed by any use of words can only be determined by the context in which they are used. In preaching the gospel we interpret the ideas (the doctrine) conveyed in a passage in the light of its immediate context and in the light of the whole Volume of Divine Inspiration, and declare that doctrine honestly in the language of the people we address. When a man takes refuge in a pretense of using only the very words of Scripture, it is because he is either uncertain of the meaning of those words, or those words convey something he wishes to hide.

     “Holding fast the faithful Word,” as we have been taught by God the Holy Spirit, let every faithful gospel preacher boldly and confidently expound exactly what God says in the Bible, no more and no less, “by sound doctrine,” “for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” I say with Paul, to all who are responsible to proclaim the gospel of Christ, “speak thou the things which become sound doctrine,” for the time has come when men “will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” — Brethren, “PREACH THE WORD!”

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Grace or Works ?

Grace or Works

By Donald S. Fortner

CULTS, SECTS, AND DOGMATISM

Acts 28:22

            When men cannot refute our doctrine, or choose not to pay the price of being decidedly committed to the message of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ, their only weapon is slander. One of the surest ways to raise suspicions about a preacher, a church, or a religious group is to refer to it as a “sect,” or a “cult.” That immediately congers up images of horror. This has been one of Satan’s ploys since the beginning. When the Jews came to visit Paul in prison, they said, “Concerning this sect, we know that it is every where spoken against.” Do not allow such slanders to scare you or make you feel uneasy in standing firm against the tide of human opinion. Let men call me sectarian, cultic, and dogmatic, or scandalize my name if they must. I rejoice to walk in the company of a great multitude, though scandalized and always in the minority in their day. Yet, I am not, in the least, daunted by the fear of standing alone against all the opinions of men. Here are three things I affirm with every fiber of my being. They are not rash, youthful, novice opinions, but the deliberate statements of thoughtful judgment and consideration. Continue reading →

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WHO ARE THE ELECT?


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        Pastor Don Fortner

Everyone who reads the Bible, even casually, knows that it teaches the doctrine of election. All God’s saints rejoice in that doctrine. Nothing sounds sweeter in the believer’s ear than the voice of the Son of God saying, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”

Yet, no mere man can open and read the Lamb’s Book of life. No mortal can ever know who the elect are until they are regenerated and called by God the Holy Spirit. However, each of us can prove our own selves. We can make our calling and election sure.

In 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul, writing by Divine inspiration, tells us that he knew those men and women in the Church at Thessalonica were elect, chosen of God, and precious by five distinct marks of grace upon them. If you are one of God’s elect, these five marks are upon you. If I am one of the elect, these marks are upon me.

Who are God’s elect? Look into the Word of God, and you will see. Continue reading →