Visiting Pastor Sermons

by Walter Giddings

December 20, 2020

Scripture Reading:  Jeremiah 10-1-3

Greetings Kindred. We are on a first name basis here. My name is walter. This lesson comprises Scriptures that have puzzled me for a long time.

Acts 28:11 And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.

This ship’s sign was Castor and Pollux. Ships have names. The most famous names for ships in elementary school in the 1950’s were the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, the ships of Columbus’ first voyage to the New World, and the Mayflower. The Mayflower was the place the Pilgrims composed their Deed of government, the Mayflower Compact. That solemn Christian Covenant of their formation into a Civil Body Politick, the Law of the Land, was drawn up on that ship in Cape Cod cove.

Scripture does not tell us the name of the ship that wintered at Malta. What is this ship’s “sign” in Acts 28:11? Is it the flag the ship sails under? We see from the Scriptures that it is “a ship of Alexandria”. Alexandria was the major Mediterranean port for Egypt. “Castor and Pollux” is not an Egyptian flag. What does it mean that the ship’s “sign was Castor and Pollux”?

“For there must be also heresies among you ...”

by Walter Giddings

November 29, 2020

Scripture Reading:  Micah 6:6-8

What is heresy? Who among us are the heretics? Can we tell, or count, the Heretics among us, if we have little or no idea what Heresy is? We are 3 Questions into this Lesson. Have we even finished the 1st Paragraph? Are we belly up dead in the water already? If we have trouble with Investigation, shall we turn to Confession? Who, among us, is willing to have a good Confession before God “I am an Heretic!”? Volunteers, raise your right hand. Let the record of this proceeding show that we have one hand raised and it is mine. This is troublesome. At this point, let us ask, what does The LORD God require of us?

God requires us “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Man translates H120 Adam, aw-dawm’. “He hath shewed thee, O Adam, what is good.” If we do justly, love mercy, as our Heavenly Father does, are we acting like Family? How important is it to know from God what is good? Do we know what is good apart from Him?

THE RAGE OF GOD'S DISPLEASURE WITH SIN

By Walt Giddings

October 25, 2020

Greetings Kindred and Fellow Sheep. We are on a First Name Basis here. My name is Walter. In the Roman Gregorian calendar Year of Our Lord, [Anno Domini in the Latin], Two thousand twenty, the greater number of State Governors declared Panic-demic Emergencies. They issued Emergency Orders forbidding Churchianity from assembling.

Isaiah 26:20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

“Hide thyself ... until the indignation be overpast.” What is “The Indignation?” In Greenville, Mississippi, the police interdicted an assembly of cars on a meetinghouse parking lot on “Palm Sunday” telling pastor and people the Governor’s Emergency Order cancels Constitutional Rights. They issued citations subjecting them to a potential fine of $500.00. The Governor of the State of Maryland issued a Proclamation declaring the Easter Bunny!! an Essential Industry! Is there any second witness to God decreeing His People to hide themselves? Do we have second witness to the end time Prophet Isaiah?

by Walter Giddings

September 27, 2020

Greetings Kindred and Fellow Sheep.

Isaiah 14:20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

Who is this “thou” who has destroyed his land, and slain his people? Why does God through the endtime prophet Isaiah call him an evildoer? If a soldier in war kills an enemy, is he an evildoer? Is he guilty of murder? Peaceniks will answer “yes!”. But they forget this is not about peace; it is war! The law of our Land is clear on this point. Prosecutors may act like persecutors, and refuse to apply this point of law, but this point of law is clear: a man guilty of self defense is not guilty of murder. Ever hear of a novel theory of prosecution? Juries are convicting their neighbors on novel theories of prosecution! Are such jurors public fool graduates, disabled from the capacity to learn? When reminded that a novel theory of prosecution means no man can anticipate what the law requires of him, their faces wear the “stupid sheep” look. Does the application of a novel theory of prosecution render the application of the law on that theory void for vagueness? Novel means new! The accused committed his act prior to the introduction of the novel theory of prosecution. The accused becomes guilty by theory! Constitutions term this “ex post facto,” meaning the act committed is called a crime after the fact! Show me one public fool graduate that has ever heard of the “void for vagueness doctrine”! Does this mean not all killings are murder? (Verse 20). God calls him who destroyed his land and slew his people an “evildoer”. Are Evildoers criminals?

BIBLICAL SURNAMES

By Walt Giddings

August 30, 2020

Ecclesiastes 7:1-2

1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all Adam; and the living will lay it to his heart.

There is so much doctrine in these two verses we could go anywhere in the books of God’s Library. Shall we narrow the scope and lighten our burden? The title of our Fellowship lesson is “Our Name”.

Proverbs 22:1: A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favour than silver and gold.

“A good name is better than precious ointment.” Why would a pedagogue, whose history is doing lessons on Bible Biology, lead a lesson on our family name(s)? Biology has a great deal to do with family. It starts with DNA, genes and chromosomes, who gets whose blood on transfusions, right down to what we eat. Family is biological.

Amos 3:2: You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

The Hebrew word translated “families” is translated elsewhere as “kind” and “kindred”. Even a nation is described as a body of people who all have a common ancestor. Each of us has family. Because of the evils of this life a few of us are a family of one. Yet we have family. Our family name reveals we have family. What is a surname? What is your surname?

by Walter Giddings

July 26, 2020

In 1 John 3:2, why does the composer John, the beloved disciple, say “now”? Was there ever a time, then, when the sons and daughters of Adam were not the sons and daughters of God? Was there a time then, a time past, when we did not have sonship and were not family? The title of this lesson is Now and Then. Why was Now not true then? The long title of this Lesson is "Why Now was not True Then".

The Worst Decision I Ever Made With Respect to Eternity.  How Jesus Got Me Out Of It and What I Learned Along The Way

by Walt Giddings

June 28, 2020

The last time we met on the topic, Foundation. I testified that in my sophomore year in junior college, October 1964, I watched the movie Inherit the Wind, starring Spencer Tracy, Frederick March, and Gene Kelly. Because of Inherit the Wind I decided the Bible was a beautiful book of fables, for which I was not responsible, for which I had no accountability.

From the age of nineteen in October 1964 to the age of thirty seven July 1982, I wallowed in doing things every way but God’s way. Isolated at the house I was losing, I decided to read this book I bought a year ago, Miracle on Main Street by Tupper Saussy. On page ten it quotes Deuteronomy 25: 13-15. When I finished, I went back to page ten and read again the Bible verses. I now understood a Scripture from the Bible that had been a closed Book to me. If I had understood that Scripture I would have been a wiser steward of the household dominion. The thought occurred to me, what else is in The Bible?

Psalms 25:8 Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

God was teaching me, a sinner, and I was not worth the powder to blow me to kingdom come! Tis mercy all!

The Worst Decision I Ever Made With Respect to Eternity.  How Jesus Got Me Out Of It and What I Learned Along The Way

by Walt Giddings

May 17, 2020

Greetings Kindred. We are on a first name basis here. My name is Walter. I am not your teacher. The Holy Spirit is your Real Teacher. As my classmates in God’s classroom You will do the work with me. In the Liberty granted me on this occasion I ask the able bodied brethren to join me in Proverbs.

Proverbs 13:13 Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

Although I see the power of testimony in the lives of my brethren, I remain a bit of a sceptic with respect to autobiography. Second, the axiom that the pastors of a local body are by the Holy Spirit best endowed in Christ to see the church in its most immediate spiritual need, needs no explanation. Since I see that these two axioms, the power of testimony and the endowment of pastors, are not mutually exclusive, you get to watch me struggle to strike a balance.

By Walt Giddings

April 26,2020

​Greetings kindred and fellow sheep. We are on a first name basis here. My name is Walter. My presence in the pulpit indicates I am your Pedagogue. My role is to lead you to our real Teacher, the Master, Jesus Christ. As a direct lineal descendant of Adam in the flesh of Abraham I possess no power of conviction. The jurisdiction or authority to work that kind of dynamite power within us belongs only to the Holy Spirit whose name is Jesus Christ.

Do we have blessed assurance that asking ourselves three questions and sharing the Scriptures will be fruitful? Is Church hard? Christ said in Matthew (18:20) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” With the Master present how can the words of the end-time prophet Isaiah fail? So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

Here is a second witness to the blessed assurance that God’s word will prosper whereto he sends it. Jeremiah 23 has a detailed indictment against the under shepherds that “destroy and scatter the sheep.”

But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Jeremiah 23:22

JESUS' DEATH:  THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS

By Walt Giddings

March 29, 2020

Scripture Reaading:  2 Corinthians 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

What does “always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” mean? How do we do that? What Scriptures witness to us how to always bear about in the body “the dying of the Lord Jesus?” Did Paul explain it to the Corinthians earlier?

What was Paul’s fixed purpose? 1 Corinthians 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

What Scriptures mention the Lord’s death? 1 Corinthians 11:26: For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

How easy is it to “shew the Lord’s death” if we are ignorant concerning “bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus”? What if we are ignorant of the manner of His Death?