Our Lord’s First Recorded Sermon – Luke 4:16-21

I have never claimed to have a very good memory – in fact I admit to having just the opposite. When I need to know something about the history of our church I ask one of you. But I do remember some of the details of the first sermon that I preached nearly 50 years...

October 30

On this day in 1753, David Barrow was born. The place was Brunswick County, Virginia. He was saved by the grace of God in his seventeenth year, and when he was eighteen, he began preaching Christ. He was ordained in 1774 and soon became the pastor of three churches in...

Rules of the Road – Philippians 3:16

In the Olympics there are some contests which look a bit awkward or strange. For example, there is the hammer toss, but the thing thrown doesn’t look anything like my hammers. It is not a claw hammer, or a sledge hammer. Someone might want to throw a ball-peen...

October 23

In a letter to a friend, written on this day (October 23) in, 1801, a man named M’Gready described the revival which had gripped the Baptist churches in Logan County, Kentucky. When Pastor Lemuel Burkitt, of North Carolina heard of the pouring out of God’s...

A Storm on the Horizon – Daniel 8:15-25

This is not the first time, but it is not something I do very often. I am giving you another man’s sermon this afternoon. You could say that we have a guest speaker. I was given an article a few weeks ago – one with which I fully agreed, and which I thought would be a...

Two Births but One Begotten – John 1:1-18

I’d like you to put your thinking caps on this morning. I have a gospel message for you, but it is not a “simple” gospel message. I need all of you to engage your ears and hearts, turning up your hearing aids if necessary. When Mary gave birth, more than...

October 16

On this day William Ward was commissioned to become the Lord’s printer in India, primarily helping William Carey. But this little vignette is not about William Ward. It is about a Baptist missionary on the Island of Java. I have read that there are more professing...

As Many as be Perfect – Philippians 3:13-15

The Lord miraculously appeared to Solomon on two occasions; the second time when he had completed the temple. In I Kings 9 the Lord said, Solomon “if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according...

To Bring Us to God – I Peter 3:18

Elizabeth Barrett’s parents disapproved of her marriage to Robert Browning so strongly they disowned her. Almost every week Elizabeth wrote letters to her mother and father pleading for some sort of reconciliation. Those letters were sent for years, but her...