"SIN’S PRESENCE" by A.W. Pink (1186-1952)

 "Sins Presence" 

   Taken from Vol. XXVII February, 1948  No. 2  of  "STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES" 


      “Search the Scriptures” John 5:39


 There are two sides to a Christian’s life: a light and a dark, an elevating and a depressing one. His experience is neither all joy nor all grief, but a commingling of both. It was so with the apostle Paul: “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing” (2Co 6:10). When a person is regenerated, he is not there and then taken to heaven,

"Useful Directions For Reading and Searching the Scriptures" by Thomas Boston

 There is so much to gain from reading the Puritans.  In this "relevant" world we find ourselves the Puritans are often scorned for being "unrelevant" and out of touch with our modern day problems.   God raised these men up for the edification of the people of that time and that place, but He also raised these men up for the people of this time and this place so we would be in serious error not to take advantage of the gift of the Puritans.  It has been centuries since the last of the Puritans put quil to paper but this doesn't mean they are to be left in the past.  Today we have a chance such as previous generations never had, we can easily find, purchase and read hundreds of books that were out of print for years and years.      The following is from Thomas Boston on Reading and Searching the Scriptures......  be Holy!        Shane C. Montgomery

"The Loss of A Friend" by Shane C. Montgomery

  Today being Saturday, as usual, I find myself busy in preparing for tomorrows Lord's Day worship.  Today is also the day winter has chosen to make it's entrance known to all of us here in the Cincinnati area, the snow is blowing hard and coming down very fast, I foresee a good deal of snow shoveling early tomorrow to have the church ready for service, I double as the maintenance man as well as a few other duties in our small church.   My wife Jeannie is getting ready to leave for work where she works as a job coach for mentally impaired adults and has just received a phone call that none of the people she works with are well enough to work today, so this will surely cause some added chaos today. 

The Danger of Christian Complacency Dr J. C. Ryle, First Bishop of Liverpool (1816-1900)

 The times require distinct and decided views of Christian doctrine. I cannot withhold my conviction that the professing Church is as much damaged by laxity and indistinctness about matters of doctrine within, as it is by sceptics and unbelievers without. Myriads of professing Christians nowadays seem utterly unable to distinguish things that differ. Like people afflicted with colour-blindness, they are incapable of discerning what is true and what is false, what is sound and what is unsound. If a preacher of religion is only clever and eloquent and earnest, they appear to think he is all right, however strange and heterogeneous his sermons may be. 

"Letter To A New Convert" by Jonathan Edwards, 1741

"My dear young friend, 
As you desired me to send you, in writing, some directions how to conduct yourself in your Christian course, I would now answer your request. The sweet remembrance of the great things I have lately seen at your church, inclines me to do anything in my power, to contribute to the spiritual joy and prosperity of God’s people there.


1. I would advise you to keep up as great a earnestness in religion, as if you knew yourself to be in a state of nature, and were seeking conversion. We advise people under conviction, to be earnest and violent for the kingdom of
heaven; but when they have attained to conversion, they ought not to be the less watchful, laborious, and earnest, in the whole work of religion, but the more so; for they are under infinitely greater obligations. 

"Justification, Not the End All of Salvation!" by Shane C. Montgomery

  
  It is getting to the end of the worship service, the hymns have all been sung, the testimonies given, the collection has long since been taken up for the week.   The pastor has minutes ago wrapped up another sermon on the importance of tithing and now the worship leader is on stage, his lovely, well dressed wife is sitting at the large, black piano, the lights shinning off the perfectly waxed surface of the Baby Grand.  The worship leader signals to his wife to begin playing a slow, moving song, you know the one, "All To Jesus" maybe, or one of the new Christian pop songs that have been burning up the radio waves, the worship leader ask that the lights be dimmed, he slowly walks the length of the stage and back, you can begin to see the moisture swelling up in his eyes,

"The Importance of Christian Scholarship in The Defense of The Faith"-J. Gresham Machen

   This Address was originally delivered in London on June 17, 1932.

 There are, indeed, those who tell us that no defense of the faith is necessary. "The Bible needs no defense," they say; "let us not be forever defending Christianity, but instead let us go forth joyously to propagate Christianity." But I have observed one curious fact-- when men talk thus about propagating Christianity without defending it, the thing that they are propagating is pretty sure not to be Christianity at all. They are propagating an anti-intellectualistic, non-doctrinal Modernism; and the reason why it requires no defense is simply that it is so completely in accord with the current of the age. It causes no more disturbance than does a chip that floats downward with a stream. In order to be an adherent of it, a man does not need to resist anything at all; he needs only to drift, and automatically his Modernism will be of the most approved and popular kind. 

"Directions for Hating Sin" -Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

The New England Puritan- Thomas Brooks

(1608-1680). Independent. Studied at Cambridge, developed a devotional Experimentalism in a sweet and pithy style. Wrote Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices; The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod; Apples of Gold, etc. One of the most quoted Puritans because of his masterful, proverbial English style.

The following is one of Brook's better known writings:  "Seven Characteristics of False Teachers"

"Top Ten Tips For Sharing The Gospel." by Shane C. Montgomery

 Maybe you have visited this blog in the past and asked yourself, "What is this blog about?  What's the deal here, is it encouraging Evangelism or is it discussing and promoting Reformed Theology?"  Well, it is both.  True it started to be more about sharing the Gospel and later drifted into theology but is there really anything wrong with that?