Voddie Baucham 1969-September 25, 2025

September 25, 2025

A servant of God is now with the Lord. I appreciate this man and what he did to help my understanding of our great God. Here is just one of his many hopeful sermons:

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Posted by Chris

Quotes #6…Reverand Paul Ford (Karl Malden) Early 1900s’

September 22, 2025

“Death comes unexpectedly.  And the God Jehovah will execute his vengeance on ye who despise his dying love and trample his benefits underfoot.  The unconverted soul, the foolish children of man do miserably delude themselves in the false confidence of their own strength and wisdom.
Now the great King of heaven and earth will abolish and annihilate this pride, will crush the hardened wretch of the polluted infinite abomination and rain on him a deluge of fire and brimstone…”

This is the first half of the second worse sermon ever preached.

Here is the full two minute sixteen second video of the second worse sermon ever preached.

This is the sermon that Reverand Paul Ford (Played by Karl Malden) “preached” in the fictional town of Beldingsville, Vermont where the movie Pollyanna (1960) was set. When I first saw it, I called it “the second worst sermon ever preached.” What is the law without the gospel after all?

Preacher Ford is a legalist who thinks that he can bully his congregation into good behavior (and maybe salvation) by preaching sermons that are all law and no gospel. Any sermon like this one, devoid of the greatest message given to the world through Jesus Christ our Lord, is an abomination to the purposes of God. There, I have given the legalist his own medicine.

One of the central themes of the movie, Pollyanna, is the power of optimism. Would I rather Preacher Ford give a sermon containing only optimism, completely ignoring the law? Absolutely not! I would consider a sermon like that possibly “The third worse sermon of all time.” A sermon like that would sound like something done by Joel Osteen, Robert Schuller, or Norman Vincent Peale. Most of those sermons weaken the gospel message by understating the seriousness of the law. This creates a misunderstanding of the power of the gospel. If a person doesn’t understand the importance of the law, a person doesn’t understand why we need the gospel. Sermons that don’t attempt to balance the truths of the law and gospel distort the truth found in the Bible.

CR

Note: I have highlighted the movie Pollyanna on this blog before. I enjoy the movie because the acting is great and it captures some truths found in a small town, both good and bad. They have done a good job of capturing the time period as well. It is a secular movie because it does not include the gospel message even though there are Christian themes within.

Here is my previous post about this movie from 12 years ago.

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Posted by Chris

Quotes…#1 Spurgeon 1855

August 27, 2025

“The preaching of good works and the exhorting of men to holiness, as the means of salvation, is very much admired in theory, but when brought into practice, it is found not only ineffectual, but more than that—it becomes even ‘a savour of death unto death.'”
So it has been found, and I think even the great Chalmers himself confessed that for years and years before he knew the Lord, he preached nothing but morality and precepts. But he never found a drunkard reclaimed by showing him merely the evils of drunkenness. Nor did he find a swearer stop his swearing because he told him the heinousness of the sin.
It was not until he began to preach the love of Jesus, in His great heart of mercy—it was not until he preached the Gospel as it was in Christ, in some of its clearness, fullness, and power, and the doctrine that, ‘by grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,’ that he ever met with success. But when he did preach salvation by faith, by shoals the drunkards came from their cups, and swearers refrained their lips from evil speaking, thieves became honest men, and unrighteous and ungodly persons bowed to the sceptre of Jesus.”

It has come to my attention that I have been way too quiet in this space for way too long. Even though I rarely have words of my own that I think are important enough to share, I am constantly running across quotes that I would like to share with others. Here is the first in a series that I’ll call “Quotes.”

LINK TO THE SERMON WHERE THIS QUOTE IS FOUND

LINK TO MR. SPURGEON’S SERMONS

God’s blessings…

Chris Reimers

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Posted by Chris

A Statement Concerning Humanity

November 9, 2022


I hope you have heard a good sermon lately. If not, you might want to watch Alistair Begg’s message from Sunday.

Parkside Church is in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and their service is aired weekly on the YouTube channel above.

There are many other good options for those who, for whatever reason, would like to hear a sermon of a different man of God.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London for almost 30 years during the late 20th century. People of all ages came to hear his sermons. Thankfully, his studies of God’s Word were recorded in numerous sermons that can be found HERE.

Occasionally, I find myself hungering for one of Mr. Spurgeon’s sermons. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years in the later half of the 19th century. We do not have any recordings of his voice but almost every sermon he spoke was written down. His mining of God’s Word for gold can be found HERE.

Besides reading your Bible, it is always a blessing to hear a man of God give a good sermon. This video definitely fits that description.

Chris Reimers

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Posted by Chris

Radiant With Hope

April 6, 2020


“Amidst chaos and confusion, where can we find hope?”

Just like my church (and yours) Parkside Church is full of empty seats until further notice. Pastor Begg gives a sermon to his congregation through his church’s website. It is relevant to our times. The message starts at 16:45. May God bless you by His Holy Spirit through this recent lesson.

(CLICK HERE TO HEAR PASTOR BEGG’S RECENT TREATISE.)

CR

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Posted by Chris

What mean these stones?

June 1, 2018

A Sermon by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (An excerpt)

Let me put it to you like this. Christianity is not a philosophy. What is a philosophy? Well, a philosophy is made up of ideas put forward by men, in an attempt to try to understand life and our problems and how to deal with them and how to solve them. It is a matter of ideas, of thoughts and of teachings. My point is that while there is obviously a teaching and a doctrine which is a vital part of Christianity, that is not the first thing. What differentiates this is that it is first and foremost a record of historical events and historical facts. What mean these stones outside Gilgal? All that they mean is that certain things happened to these people-history. Let us be clear about this. There are so many people today who talk about the Christian attitude-towards war and peace, a Christian attitude towards education, a Christian attitude towards art, drama and literature. Now all that tends to turn it into a philosophy, into a teaching, into a theory, into a point of view. But that is really not to be true to our position. So Christianity, we must remember, is not one of a number of theories and ideas and philosophies with respect to life. It is quite unique because it is teaching which is based upon history.

I can go further and I can say this. That this is the thing that differentiates the Christian faith from religion-from any kind of religion. You take these religions that people, some of them, are turning to at the present time. Buddhism or Confucianism or Hinduism, or any one of these ‘isms’. What are they? Well, they are all something invented by men. They are all teachings. They involve a kind of worship, but they are not based upon facts and upon events. They are all based upon ideas-and they are ideas that are supposed to lead you and to help you to arrive at the particular deity that you want to worship.

Now here again, you see, our Christian faith is entirely different. It calls attention to facts. And that is why this building in a sense is going to do exactly the same as the bread and the wine do in a communion service. They again are calling attention to facts. So, we must start with this all important matter-this principle-and realise that it is vital to our whole situation. The uniqueness of the Christian faith depends upon a series of historical facts and events and the teaching which results from them.

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It is probably not altogether right to excerpt from one of the greats, though I think the good Doctor would be happy with my reasoning here. How many were saying in 1977, when the sermon was given, that the Bible was a good book but that much of it consisted of “meaningful fables” and “nice stories” and that its historicity was in serious question? This type of liberal Christianity, already quite popular then, was something that Martyn Lloyd-Jones abhorred. How much more are the historical parts of the Bible under attack today? Yes, parts of the scriptures are beautiful poetry and some are eschatological wonders. But there are the parts that, until the past few centuries, were always considered history and still are by men in agreement with Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Remarkably, currently and in the recent past, men are calling what has always been considered history poetry or allegory. There is the “Documentary Hypothesis” and a myriad of similar criticisms which weaken the inspired intentions of the text. Some go so far as to question the miracles.

I admire men like David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walter Martin, and Charles H. Spurgeon and I agree with them. All great scholars, they upheld the Bible as the inspired word of God in times of question. We are living in times when many consider the Bible as just another book on the shelf. In their time, these great men were astonished that anyone could have such an opinion and if any were with us today I think they would receive more mocking than they did in their day and would respond no differently than when they were alive.

This is a sermon that needs to be heard more today than ever. I am including a link to the text of this sermon and another to the recording of the actual sermon. Either would be more than worth your time.

Chris Reimers

COMPLETE TEXT OF “WHAT MEAN THESE STONES?”

A RECORDING OF THIS EXACT SERMON BY Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Preached at West Street Baptist Church; Crewe; in 1977.)

A sermon WITH THE SAME TITLE was preached at Newport; South Wales; in 1977. Martyn Lloyd-Jones often used this text at the opening of new churches. It was on this text that he last preached at the opening of Barcombe Baptist Chapel in 1980.

MEET DR. LLOYD JONES (INTERVIEW)

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Posted by Chris

Calvinism vs. Arminianism

April 24, 2018

I appreciate this statement. You will see the same basic statement made in Charles Spurgeon’s sermon called THE SUM AND SUBSTANCE OF ALL THEOLOGY. It is a sermon version of this few minutes by Dr. MacArthur.

cr

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Posted by Chris

The Immutability of God

April 12, 2018

A Sermon (No. 1) delivered on January 7th, 1855 by C. H. Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

“I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”—Malachi 3:6

It has been said by some one that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with the solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God.

Click here to read the rest of Mr. Spurgeon’s sermon…

Source: The Spurgeon Archive

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Posted by Chris

The Resurrection

April 1, 2018

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God Incarnate, the End of Fear

September 24, 2017

What a wonderfully uplifting post by Sherry, of the “He Hath Said” blog. Be encouraged by the song “God Will Take Care of You” and by the “Prince of Preacher’s” sermon entitled “God Incarnate the End of Fear!”

Sherry's avatarHe Hath Said

You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy. 

Sermon Text

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