Dec 17, 2017 | Sunday Morning
How patient are you? I have known some Christians who appeared to be proud of their IM-patience – their lack of patience. That has always surprised me, because I’ve never considered impatience to be a good thing. But I have to admit, I can’t find a scripture which...
Dec 14, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Barnet Grimsley was born in Culpeper County, Virginia on this day (Dec. 17) in 1807. This was after some degree of religious peace had been won through the sacrifice of earlier Baptist brethren. Barnet had a prodigious intellect and memory. When he was but...
Dec 14, 2017 | Wednesday
Knowing a week ago, what would be our scripture for today, I have been praying for the Lord’s direction. Many of us have these verses memorized – or if not stored in our heads, at least they are in our hearts. You’ve probably heard or read seven point sermons from...
Dec 11, 2017 | Sunday Evening
You have heard me say many times that I view the word “Lord” in the New Testament as being equivalent to “LORD” in the Old Testament. When Christ is said to be “Lord” – depending on the context, the Spirit is saying that He is...
Dec 10, 2017 | Sunday Morning
Most Christians are familiar with the account of the rich, young ruler. He was thoroughly sincere in his question: “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Today, he might have been a Roman Catholic, a Mormon, one of any number of sects or...
Dec 7, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Dutton Lane was born in Maryland in 1732, but when he was young his father moved the family to Virginia near the North Carolina border. Shubal Stearns and Daniel Marshall, after establishing the Sandy Creek Baptist Church, began to minister in the vicinity where the...
Dec 7, 2017 | Wednesday
As I first read this paragraph the other day, first one, then another kind of person, came to my mind. Those of you who can remember public school can probably picture both of these people. And I suppose that anyone who has ever spent much time at the playground can...
Dec 4, 2017 | Sunday Evening
A good test of our spiritual condition might be how we respond to meditations upon the Person of God. A couple of weeks ago, I told you that the message for that day, came from an edited version of Stephen Charnock’s “Discourses on the Existence and Attributes...
Dec 3, 2017 | Sunday Morning
You and I live in a variety of houses – some are old, some are newer; some have basements & some don’t. Some are two storey, some are bungalows, some are modular – the varieties go on an on. But for most of our houses, at the foundation lays a substance called...
Nov 30, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Baptists owe a great debt to the country of Wales, where our forefathers lived and thrived long before the Protestant Reformation. In addition to many individuals, during the days of American colonization, more than one entire church emigrated from Wales to the Middle...
Nov 30, 2017 | Wednesday
Not only does Paul tell us in Romans 1 that God has proven Himself through His physical creation, but throughout the Bible we are told to look at creation for specific lessons. The Lord Jesus, for example, tells us to examine the lilies in the field and the fowls in...
Nov 27, 2017 | Sunday Evening
Christ Jesus told the Samaritan woman that since God is a spirit, His worship must be of a spiritual nature. Since God is a spirit, fellowship with Him must involve our spirit, not our flesh. Worship must suit the nature of the Object worshiped. And so for us, it is...
Nov 27, 2017 | Sunday Evening
How the Spiritual God Should be Worship – John 4:4-23 Christ Jesus told the Samaritan woman that since God is a spirit, His worship must be of a spiritual nature. Since God is a spirit, fellowship with Him must involve our spirit, not our flesh. Worship must suit the...
Nov 26, 2017 | Sunday Morning
I made reference a few minutes ago to the differences between the “Separate” Baptists and the “Regular” Baptists of the 18th and early 19th centuries. There were not many at all, and unlike today’s Baptists, sovereign grace was not one of...
Nov 24, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Baptist associations and organized fellowships always (almost always???) take upon themselves more authority than the Bible allows. One case in point involves John Newton. This John Newton was born in Kent County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1732. After his salvation...
Nov 23, 2017 | Wednesday
How would you define the word “friend?” The dictionary answers, “a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.” Is there a difference between a “friend” and an “acquaintance?” Don’t we often...
Nov 19, 2017 | Sunday Morning
As I was shaking hands with one of the speakers at the conference in Kentucky, he asked for my mailing address, telling me that he wanted to send some books. He apparently saw how shallow my message had been and that I was in need of instruction. A week or ten days...
Nov 18, 2017 | Timothy Parrow
Dear Pastor and Brethren: Another New Visitor! Mrs. Alta Simpson began coming on the fifth of October and has visited with us since then two more times. She is an elderly lady and lives near the church building, so she has walked to each of the services. Roxanne and I...
Nov 17, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
This is more of a lesson than a point of history, yet it begins in our usual way. Barnstaple, England was without a Baptist witness until 1815. A year earlier, a nineteen-year-old man, Charles Veysey came under conviction and was born-again by the grace of God....
Nov 16, 2017 | Wednesday
Two weeks ago, I was thinking that I would simply expound these verses, as I did the first part of the chapter. But as I was looking at it, it became obvious that an exposition might be more problematic than an outline. So, once again, we have a brief, devotional...
Nov 13, 2017 | Sunday Evening
For a couple of weeks, I have been thinking about this sample prayer. I thought I might incorporate it into the service last Tuesday, but it wasn’t the Lord’s will. However it was the Lord’s will that I spend some time meditating on it. As an example and guideline...
Nov 12, 2017 | Sunday Morning
The older I get, the more closely death creeps in around me. By that I don’t mean that I am sick and approaching death myself. While that is undoubtedly true, death isn’t near enough to me personally to be an immediate concern. Rather, more and more people near me...
Nov 10, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Three years after his first wife died, John Bunyan married Elizabeth. This was 1659. Elizabeth was an outstanding Christian lady. She immediate took Bunyan’s four children from his first marriage and raised them as her own. And then just a year later, on this day...
Nov 2, 2017 | Wednesday
What is the Biblical definition of sin? I John 3:4 – “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” So sin makes itself known in outward ways. We might say that specific sins originate in the heart, but...
Nov 1, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Under Britain’s Toleration Act of 1649, which also applied to all her colonies, officials of neither the State nor the Church could prosecute Baptists for merely preaching the gospel. But our Baptist brethren in Virginia were so hated that the State trumped up other...
Nov 1, 2017 | Lessons on Bible Trivia
Under Britain’s Toleration Act of 1649, which also applied to all her colonies, officials of neither the State nor the Church could prosecute Baptists for merely preaching the gospel. But our Baptist brethren in Virginia were so hated that the State trumped up other...
Oct 30, 2017 | Sunday Evening
This is not the first time that I have preached on the subject of the human ear. I’ve done that in two sermons before, but the last time was many years ago. I thought about starting with an object lessons for tonight, but I think that we’re familiar enough with ears...
Oct 29, 2017 | Sunday Morning
Jacob, the son of Isaac, was traveling from Beersheba to Padan-Aram to find a good wife. Or perhaps someone else might say – “He was hoping to find himself.” You might also say that he was trying to escape a dysfunctional family with a murderous brother....
Oct 23, 2017 | This Sunday in Baptist History
William Harris, was the pastor of the Goose Creek Church in Buckingham County, Virginia, before moving to the wilderness of Bedford County. As one of the first settlers in the area, he worked with his hands and back throughout the week before preaching the gospel on...
Oct 23, 2017 | Sunday Evening
I have just finished listening to a CD biography of William Tyndale by David Teems. It was so fascinating that I asked the library to find a hard copy so I could re-read what I had heard. Tyndale loved the Word of God and the English language which was still in its...
