Article
I am going to read a text from a narrative that gives an account of the first Christian services ever held. It is the first song service that is recorded.
Acts 16:25: “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.”
Christianity is a religion of song and in this particular respect it is distinguished from very many of the false religions known to the world. It is a religion of song because it is a religion of gladness. Christ not only saves the soul but He satisfies the longing of the …
Read More >
Article
The 34th Psalm is quite a catalogue of things that prayer will accomplish. It starts off concerning praise. Now, praise is the highest form of worship. Prayer is something like water; it refreshes, it cleanses, it greatly aids growth; but remember it is steam—powerful steam—when it is heated. So hot prayer, believing prayer, turns to praise (v. 1).
The fighting attitudes of man and beast are interesting and stimulating, but prayer brings the soul to a fighting attitude very different from any flesh feeling. The psalmist speaks of his attitude caused by prayer as “boast in the Lord” (v. 2). …
Read More >
Article
I am thinking especially of two or three things in connection with this topic. First, is baptism essential to salvation? A great many people think it is, but I want to let the Word of God answer that question. And then if we find that it is not essential to salvation, another question arises: Why then baptize at all? In the next place, I am thinking of a slightly different question: Has water baptism any place at all in this present dispensation of the grace of God or has it been done away with altogether? If not, just what place …
Read More >
Article
“Wherein...Christ is all in all.”—Colossians 3:11
Christianity is not a cold, dead or not a theory about Christ; it is not a series of ethical statements proceeding from Christ; it is not a system, builded upon the concepts of Christ—Christianity is Christ.
Christianity is not a cold, dead organization; it is a living organism, and it could not survive the loss of Christ, its living, vital Head any more than a human body, a living organism, could survive the loss of its head. Herein lies the chief distinction between Christianity and all world religions. Buddhism survive the loss of Buddha; …
Read More >
Article
The last verses of the sixth chapter of Acts gives the story of Stephen when he was summoned before the Sanhedrin. He was tried, found guilty and stoned to death for blasphemy.
What has this to do with the first and last church? Here was a man who was hounded to death for trying to explain the difference between the first and the last church, and many a preacher has lost his life, financial and denominational, since then trying to explain that same thing.
There is the first church and there is the last church, and they are a different …
Read More >
Article
“And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.” —Acts 20:20–22
From these verses we get the apostle’s conception of true Gospel preaching. He believed that repentance toward God should have a prominent place in the preacher’s message. We do not hear many sermons …
Read More >
Article
I made a covenant twenty-six years ago that every Sunday night I would preach the Gospel of the grace of God for the sake of those who might want to know the way of Life. We live in a city of three million. What a place to witness for Jesus Christ! What a sad thing to go out of the presence of this need and stand in His presence without having tried to bring someone to a knowledge of the truth!
I want to read you a few verses of Scripture from the sixteenth chapter of the Acts: “And at …
Read More >
Article
Someone has said that the disciples were gazing when they should have been going. They were now commissioned to go first to the upper room until Pentecost, which means fifty days; that is, fifty days after the Passover was the feast of Pentecost. The real Passover had come at last, “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” had been slain, and fifty days from His slaying the Holy Spirit came with the real feast of Pentecost, making His advent into this world, blessed Third Person of the Trinity. When He came, what Jesus said to …
Read More >
Article
Address at the Second World Conference on Christian Fundamentals, Chicago, May 20, 1920.
“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” —Revelation 16:13–14
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye …
Read More >
Article
Opening address of Fifth Annual Missionary Rally, May 27, 1920.
What is the next step in getting ready for the coming of the Lord? First of all, if we are going to step at all, we must find out which way is forward. Sometimes when the fire alarm sounds people know help is needed, but they run in the wrong direction. So many of the things the church of Jesus Christ has done on Earth through the years have been in the wrong direction, that it behooves the church of God to be very careful to know the will of …
Read More >