Nov 1, 2018 | Wednesday
Verse 31: “The hoary head is a crown of glory.” The word “hoary” is so old that it’s hard to trace its origins. But I have read that it originally referred to ice. A hoary head is one with grey or whitening hair. Solomon says that a head full...
Oct 21, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
On this day (October 28) in 1856, Francis Wayland penned the preface to his work, “Notes on the Principles and Practices of Baptist Churches,” in which he clearly enunciated the principles of religious freedom and the autonomy of the local church. He...
Oct 21, 2018 | Sunday Evening
The old saint of God lays comfortably dying – in his own bed at home. Around him are gathered his three children and seven grand-children. Everyone knows that he will not be long in this life. The sliver cord will soon be loosed and the golden bowl shows signs of...
Oct 21, 2018 | Sunday Morning
Two weeks ago we had the first in a series of messages entitled “Eschatological Absolutes.” My plan is to address those areas of prophecy which I think are unassailable – Biblical absolutes. There is more controversy and divergence of understand about...
Oct 18, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Russia has never possessed the blessing of religious liberty. While periods of severe persecution have come and gone and come again, there has always been a hatred towards the gospel and Bible-believing people. Today, there are an unknown number of Russian Baptists...
Oct 18, 2018 | Wednesday
The year is 1842; the place is the Congo. A Christian family is pushing into the jungle to join a pioneer missionary who is working in the interior. We might argue that no Christian family should be doing this work, because Biblical missions were done by single men...
Oct 15, 2018 | Sunday Evening
This is the penultimate message in our study of Ecclesiastes; we have but one more. We are told, “of making many books there is no end,” and that is equally true of the making of sermons. But with “much study is a weariness of the flesh.”...
Oct 11, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
On this day in 1774, while the First Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia, James Manning and Isaac Backus were granted permission to speak to the delegates from Massachusetts. Manning read an article entitled “An Appeal to the Public for Religious...
Oct 11, 2018 | Wednesday
There are six simple key words or ideas in this verse. They are “despise,” “neighbor,” “sin,” “mercy,” “poverty” and “happiness.” Probably no one here needs me to explain any of them. While that...
Oct 8, 2018 | Sunday Evening
Just about a year ago I preached from the first half of chapter 12. The title of the message was “Our Long Home” – referring to the grave – death. And then this morning I referred to this scripture again. So avoid too much reiteration, I’m going to...
Oct 7, 2018 | Sunday Morning
In our current doctrinal statement – under the title “The Lord’s Return” – there is this statement: “We believe that Christ Jesus is coming back to earth again; that His return shall be personal, audible, visible, and bodily; that it shall mark the...
Oct 4, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
What is the likelihood that our service for Christ in this place might become a blessing to someone on the other side of the globe? And if it was, how would you feel, if no one even knew your name in regard to that service? There was a young Irishman, whose name...
Oct 4, 2018 | Wednesday
I thought that I had dealt with the subject of the first half of this verse already, but I was mistaken. It was a small point in a message from Ecclesiastes, but with another theme in mind I only touched it. Ecclesiastes 7:9 says – “Be not hasty in thy spirit...
Oct 1, 2018 | Sunday Evening
On one of the family vacations to the Black Hills when I was 8 years old, we paid our money to join a group of tourists entering a deep-shaft gold mine. We used flashlights to look at gold-laden ore, examining star-like twinkles in the hard rock walls. At some point...
Sep 30, 2018 | Sunday Morning
Some of you have already seen the cartoon in today’s bulletin. For those who haven’t, there is a line of silly-looking people awaiting the signature of yet another Christian author. In the foreground are another two, one of which says, “I just can’t understand...
Sep 29, 2018 | Timothy Parrow
Dear Pastor and Brethren: No New Visitors This Month The Lord did see fit to send us four return visitors, Braden, Khloie, and Gaven, the children of Bro. Ruben Torres, and Earl Oswalt. Earl Oswalt’s girlfriend died. He arrived home in the afternoon after...
Sep 27, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
When King Charles II died, his brother James II ascended to the British throne. James was an avowed Catholic and was ready to re-establish Catholicism in England. It was during his short three-year reign that Benjamin and William Hewling surrendered their lives to...
Sep 23, 2018 | Sunday Morning
I read about the death of Michael Costello in a book of contemporary sermon illustrations. According to the Chicago Tribune, Michael was a parachute instructor. Although the article didn’t say, I’m going to assume he was the owner or manager of a company which...
Sep 20, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Mrs. Sabrina Chivers Mercer died on this day in 1826. She was the faithful companion and help meet of the well-known Baptist, Jesse Mercer. They were married nearly forty years. She passed away while traveling home through South Carolina with her husband after...
Sep 20, 2018 | Wednesday
One of the problems with the proverbs in this book is the obvious simplicity of so many of them. You’d think that would not be a problem, but it is. Because, when we think we know a subject thoroughly, we don’t take the time to refresh ourselves in it. We have...
Sep 16, 2018 | Sunday Morning
Why are there so many denominations trying to squeeze under the umbrella called “Christianity”? The short answer is that they all believe different things while still claiming to follow Christ Jesus. Lutherans believe different doctrines from the Mormons...
Sep 13, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were among the first to explore the place we know as Idaho. From September 13 to 20, 1805 the group were basically lost, looking for the headwaters of the Missouri River. On this date their journal reveals that their hunting had...
Sep 13, 2018 | Wednesday
As a young Christian, I heard the word “backslider” so often, I assumed it was found in every book of the Bible. It is not. The word “backslider” is found in this one verse only. I will admit however that the related word...
Sep 10, 2018 | Sunday Evening
We’ve been looking at this book for several months now. I hope we’ve not been into it for so long you’ve forgotten how gloomy Solomon was at the beginning. At first everything he touched seemed to crumble to dust. “Laughter is vanity, work is vanity, rest is...
Sep 9, 2018 | Sunday Morning
It might be fun during some evening of casual fellowship to play a little game which we might call “First Lines.” Mankind has been writing books for thousands of years now, and many of them have begun with interesting or powerful opening sentences. I...
Sep 6, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
A great many Baptists foolishly praise early Protestant leaders. They either consider themselves to be Protestants (and indeed many of them are), or they have never learned, or else they have forgotten, what those Protestants have done in an attempt to rid the world...
Sep 6, 2018 | Wednesday
For the last month there has been quite a bit of hubbub along Spokane’s Monroe Street bridge. It seems that particular the bridge is one of the favorite suicide sites in the city. But a woman, after hearing about a similar situation in England, began posting notes...
Sep 3, 2018 | Sunday Evening
The last half of this chapter isn’t organized and put into a nice clean outline; there isn’t a plan or objective. Here, the penman of the Proverbs gives to us a few more examples of his divinely-given wisdom. And in this case several times in these verses he speaks...
Sep 2, 2018 | Sunday Morning
There are many people who are offended by any reference to “blood” in modern day religion. To them “religion” is a spiritualized moral philosophy of positive thoughts and actions. As far as I am concerned…..let those people be offended...
Aug 30, 2018 | This Sunday in Baptist History
William Francis Luck was born in Campbell County, Virginia in 1801. His Father died when he was young. Even though his Baptist mother did her best to raise William properly, as he matured he became a wild and sinful young man. On this day (September 2) in 1824, Luck...
