Middletown Baptist Church

I say the main point is that the day of the Lord is near and that genuine repentance is the only remedy. I explain that Joel chapter one showed a real locust plague as a warning and that chapter two warns of a far greater judgment yet to come. I describe that judgment as swift, terrible, and cosmic, with an organized army and darkened sun and moon. I urge that the proper response is to turn to God with fasting, weeping, and a broken heart, not merely outward signs. I call for leaders and the who

We declare that the principal duty a Christian owes is love, for Romans 13 commands that we "owe no man anything but to love one another." I explain that love fulfills the law and that loving God is inseparable from loving our neighbor. We teach that this love is agape: sacrificial, not self-seeking, and it must be shown in how we treat others. I stress that love is more than avoiding harm; it is active service, sacrifice, and seeking the good of people. We draw on Matthew, Galatians, and First

I state the principal point without delay: David confronts overwhelming fear and elects to counter it by trusting God rather than succumbing to the fear of man. I recount his flight from Saul to Gath, his earlier misrepresentation at Nob, and his arrival before Achish where he feigns madness to obtain safety. I draw attention to Psalm 56 as contemporaneous testimony in which he cries for mercy and resolves, “when I am afraid I will trust in thee.” I maintain that the salient lesson for us is to

I assert that God's judgment is real and imminent, and that the locust plague described in the Book of Joel functions both as a literal calamity for Judah and as a prophetic foreshadowing of the greater day of the Lord. I emphasize that the devastation summoned urgent repentance and communal lament, for the loss extended from fields to the altar and revealed how sin undermines both material blessing and spiritual vitality. We have committed to a series on Joel, Amos, and Obadiah to examine these

I taught that Christians should submit to legitimate government because God has ordained civil authority, but our ultimate allegiance is to Christ. I spoke from Romans 13 and linked it to Romans 12, 1 Peter 2, Acts 5, and Matthew 22 to show the full biblical view. I explained that government should punish evil and praise good, and that we should pay taxes and obey laws that do not conflict with God’s commands. I warned that submission is not blind obedience and that when a law contradicts Script

I assert at the outset that the principal theme we examine is how David’s fear precipitates a departure from faith, manifested in his deceit toward Ahimelech and subsequent impulsive flight, thereby exemplifying the peril attendant upon allowing human terror to supplant trust in God. I elucidate the episode in First Samuel 21 by tracing the immediate circumstances of David’s flight from Saul, the transgression of truth in his interaction with the priest, and the extraordinary concession of the c