Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
There is an infamous cult of quasi-Christians living in the hills of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Every once in a while they pull out their stash of rattlesnakes and play with them in their church services. They pet them, they carry them, they even hold them...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
Is there anyone here tonight who understands all the REFERENCES TO JAMES in the New Testament? If there is, I will gladly sit down and let you lead us in a good Bible study. Anyone? I’m not sure that anyone can dogmatically answer all the questions that I have about...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
Our church, like many other churches, has something that we call our “Statement of Faith.” It outlines most of the things that we believe. It would be much simpler, and yet correct, to say that we believe the Bible from cover to cover. We even believe the...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
This is our eighth message from Acts 15. The primary theme of the chapter is the council at Jerusalem, And the subject of that theme was the salvation of the Gentiles. We’ve looked at the Peter’s relationship to that meeting and also James’ and Paul’s. We made a quick...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
This evening we review the theological aspect to James’ comments: He said: Peter said, Paul said, Amos said, God did and God knows. Peter described the salvation of the Gentiles to whom God had sent him. “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
The first half of Acts 15 deals with the question of the salvation of the Gentiles. What is it that people who are raised in heathenism and idolatry must do in order to be delivered from their sins and received as sons by the most holy God? This is an extremely...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
For a couple of weeks, I have called the meeting described in this chapter “The Council in Jerusalem.” But I’ve done so with some degree of hesitancy. Having been raised in a Protestant church, the word “council” raises images within me that it...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
Several years ago a preacher came to me with a grave warning about another pastor. I was told that this third person was a terrible heretic, a trouble-maker, and a potential a church wrecker. It was recommended that I have nothing to with the man. One of the things...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
I need to correct one of my unthought-out comments uttered a time or two over the last couple of weeks: I referred to Silas or Judas reading the letter that their church had sent to Antioch. Even though these two verses are filled with half a dozen confusing pronouns,...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
If we had a quiz this morning on the geography of the United States, I wonder how well we would do? If I asked you to name the capitals of the fifty states, how well you would do? If I asked you to visualize the location of the state of Rhode Island, would you get it...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
When medical students are learning their trade, they use two primary methods: First they study how things ought to be; They study text books about health and anatomy, and they examine systems that are working properly. But then they go on to also study disease and...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
We are introduced in this chapter to one of the most delightful people of the Word of God. Unlike Elijah and Daniel, who appear larger than life, Timothy was a someone more like ourselves. He had his flaws, but they weren’t so large that we don’t want to associate...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
As I said this morning, every Christian sermon can be brought back to the cross. As we see in verse 5, the churches of Galatia were increasing daily. That means that people were being saved by the grace of God and being led of the Holy Spirit to join with other saints...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
The other day Judy and I were running some errands, and she was telling me a story about boots. Boots is not the name of a cat; Boots are a kind of foot-wear designed to protect people’s feet from rain and snow, And they are often made with a tread which keep them...
Jan 21, 2015 | Acts
I’d like you to return to the scripture that we read earlier in Zechariah 4:1-10: “And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a...
