William Edward Hunter
Kentucky Baptist PastorWilliam E. Hunter was born in 1874 and was a Kentucky Baptist pastor noted for his dynamic preaching, love of missions and strong commitment to Baptist doctrine.
He pastored the First Baptist Church of Princeton from 1906 to 1912. He then pastored the First Baptist Church of Somerset from 1912 to 1939. He served as Moderator of the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 1924-1925.
He preached at a Bible Institute in 1930 at the First Baptist Church of Murray, Kentucky, where H. Boyce Taylor was pastor. Notes from three of the sermons he preached are available:
Depravity The highest motive to missions is because God commanded it. Depraved means crooked, distorted, corrupt. Total depravity means we are altogether crooked - crooked in all five of our senses - crooked in our minds and hearts. The whole world is crooked in all parts. That is why we have to send missionaries - because they are wholly crooked.
The Bible teaches universal depravity. For that reason the need of repentance is universal and the need for regeneration is universal. Universal condemnation is a further result of this depravity. Not only is depravity universal, but it is total.
This depravity extends to the imagination of man and the thoughts and purposes of the heart. The Bible is dry to the fellow with the 'dry rot' in his mind and heart.
The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint, sick in head and heart, trouble in all. This corrupt nature is ours by birth; we are born with a lying nature. The carnal nature can't feed on God's truth.
This nature can not be changed by man's power. Only God can give a new nature and that only by miraculous power. The slaves of sin see less of sin because of their blindness. History itself proves universal depravity.
---------------------- Justification by Grace
Justification is the acquittal of the sinner because of his faith in the merits of Jesus Christ.
Justification is an act of God. It is a judicial act. It declares a sinner 'just' because he receives the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Justification does not make a sinner righteous, but God declares the sinner righteous because of the imputed righteous of Christ.
Remission is never separated from restoration.
1. The basis of justification is not works.
2. Justification is not by the law.
3. Not by man's righteousness.
4. Not by man's zeal. The only person who can convince of the need of the righteousness of Christ is the Holy Spirit.
5. Righteousness could not have come by the law. The merits of Christ are the only basis of justification.
6. Faith is the means of justification. Neither love, nor hope, nor repentance are the means of justification.
7. The result of justification is peace. Romans 5:1.
8. Justification is an instantaneous act - no degrees in justification - no progress in justification. Weak faith justifies as truly and fully as great faith. It is not the faith that saves, but Jesus Christ, the object of faith.---------------------- The New Birth
The new birth is one of the corner-stones of missions.
Jesus talked to Nicodemus about life and death, about the kingdom of God, about seeing and entering that kingdom. The new birth is essential to seeing or entering the kingdom of God.
The new birth is a mystery. The two musts: You must be born again. "I (Jesus) must be lifted up."
The new birth is not obtained by baptism - infant or adult.
It is not obtained by circumcision or any other external act. The new birth is internal and spiritual and supernatural. Born of water means born of the Word. James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23, Ephesians 5:26, and John 15:3.
All of these passages show the Word is used in the new birth. Psalm 119:105, 130; Romans 10:17. The new birth is not by man's exertions or by praying through.
The new birth is a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit. You can't see or enter the kingdom without the new birth, John 3:14. There was no power in the brazen serpent. The supernatural power of God was the thing that cured.
How do I know I am born again? Because I'm resting wholly on Jesus. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."
====================== [From Ben Stratton, Secretary/Treasurer of the J.H. Spencer Historical Society and published in a tract form. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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