John 3:11 Truly, truly, I say to you, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and you receive not our witness. e: — Whatever exists, exists positively, has existence and also energy. Positiveness is the very soul of growth. I. CHRISTIANITY IS POSITIVE. 1. God is a positive Being. 2. Man is a positive being. 3. Sin is a positive condition. 4. Holiness is a positive state, II. CHRISTIANITY MUST BE POSITIVELY APPLIED. 1. It is to honour God. 2. It is to be serviceable to man. 3. It is to prove victorious over sin. 4. It is to be potential unto holiness. III. THE POSITIVENESS OF CHRISTIANITY IS NEUTRALIZED — 1. When it is interpreted as a system of polite moral and aesthetic education. There is a class of writers and preachers who blot out of the Scriptures everything that is positive, who drop every word that bristles with damnatory energy, theorize the birth of Jesus, reduce the atonement to heroism, treat human depravity as a misfortune, speak patronizingly of hell as an exploded idea, and allude pleasantly to heaven as a benevolent myth. Many people are frightened by this "modern thought." They need not be, for this is a positive age, and a negative religion can make no headway. 2. When it is over-organized. Christ did not organize it because He saw that truth was over.organized, and therefore cramped. Christianity is a power only when it is organized in human hearts. (W. H. H. Murray.) Parallel Verses KJV: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. |
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