HAMMOND FIRST BAPTIST PULPIT

Sermons from 1970 - 1972
As preached by
Dr. Jack Hyles
Pastor
First Baptist Church
Hammond, Indiana

FOREWORD

In August of 1959, Dr. Jack Hyles became Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. At that time, First Baptist Church (which was affiliated with the American Baptist Convention) was averaging about 700 in attendance. Inspired and taught by the preaching of Brother Hyles, the church became actively involved in winning souls and building the lives of the people they reached. Soon they became an independent Baptist Church and continued to grow, becoming America´s largest Sunday school and consistently winning thousands to Christ each year.

The year 1990 was the best year yet, as Dr. Hyles began his 31st year as Pastor of this 103-year-old church in the downtown area of Hammond. With over 25,000 people walking the aisles professing faith in Christ, and over 8,000 of these getting baptized, 1990 proved that a pastor and people CAN continue on for God! On March 16, 1990, alone, 5,195 people professed faith in Christ in the services at First Baptist Church of Hammond.

What kind of preaching goes forth from this pulpit week after week and year after year? You will find the answer to that question in this volume, which is not a collection of a few choice oratories, but rather, it is a progression of the methodical, sensitive, old-fashioned, fundamental preaching that has taught this ever-growing church family the Word of God and has excited and orchestrated the work activity of these people. God chose these sermons to help mold and move this church into a mighty army of dedicated soul winners who willingly follow the man of God and love to do the work of God. The reader of this particular volume will experience as much as is possible, on a first-hand basis, the early 1970s progression of the ministry that accentuated this phenomenal growth.

Sermons preached by Dr. Hyles are as carefully planned as the nutritious meals cooked by a loving mother to provide for her family; as diligently prepared as the architect´s detailed design for the construction of a large building; as tenderly and skillfully as the precise movements of the hands of the heart surgeon; as artistic and creative as the strokes of the brush in the hands of the artists; and as useful as the tools of the craftsman or mechanic. Yet, his sermons are presented with tears and laughter, wit and wisdom, depth of knowledge and experience, compassion and care, and even a bit of satire, all blended together in a way that communicates to the common man and his every-day needs. The Holy Spirit speaks to hearts through the message from the man of God, for he has indeed walked with God and lived His Word throughout the week.

Though to some, this kind of preaching is looked upon with disdain, one cannot deny that these messages have provided the building blocks-the truths and principles-that God has used to build the lives and the ministry of the First Baptist Church of Hammond. Jesus Christ and the blessed Word of God have been lifted up, and yes, lost souls have been won!

Now, dear reader, welcome to the pews of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. May God bless you as you 'listen' to the sermons Preacher Hyles has given from the HAMMOND FIRST BAPTIST PULPIT!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Some Strange Bedfellows
  2. The First Step to Getting
  3. Giants or Grasshoppers
  4. Jesus First
  5. Truth Is Fallen in the Street
  6. They Youth and the Yolk
  7. Behold My Hands
  8. God's Jealousy
  9. John the Baptist, the Doubter
  10. Do
  11. Without the Bible
  12. How to be Unknown
  13. Come on in, the Water's Fine
  14. The Christian and the Spider Web
  15. The Knitting of Jonathan and David
  16. Why God Is for War
  17. The Perseverance of the Personality
  18. You Don't Have to Tell God How to Do It
  19. What's Behind the Sex Education in Our Public Schools?
  20. The Parables of the Tares
  21. Religion or Christ
  22. Russian Roulette
  23. Who Is in Hell?
  24. When God Has Had Enough
  25. Satan's Shrewdest Tactics
  26. Greasy Fat
  27. Hearing, Knowing and Seeing
  28. Honor Thy Mother
  29. The Uncertain Trumpet
  30. The Most Admirable of the Twelve
  31. Inferior Churches
  32. Let Him Touch Your Lips
  33. Your Child
  34. The True Meaning of the Lord's Supper
  35. The Hoax of Good Friday
  36. I Am a Worm
  37. The Generation Gap
  38. There Remaineth Yet Very Much Land to Be Possessed
  39. Is Not This the Carpenter
  40. Make the Valley Full of Ditches
  41. The Hypocritical Bulrush
  42. Needed, a Daysmen
  43. Where Was the Waste?
  44. Behold, I have Graven Thee Upon the Palms of My Hands
  45. Helps
  46. See My Zeal for the Lord
  47. The Root of the Matter
  48. Ye Are My Subpoenaed Witnesses
  49. Why the Anti-Christ Must Come Soon
  50. Who Went About Doing Good
  51. A Fence or An Ambulance?
  52. Pleiades and Orion
  53. The Cloak, the Books, and the Parchments
  54. Bad Breath
  55. Not for Angels
  56. A City or a Gourd
  57. Sodomy
  58. Unspeakable, Unsearchable and Unchangeable
  59. Ebenezer
  60. Leaving the Door Open
  61. I Would Not Have You Ignorant, Brethren
  62. Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By
  63. A Bundle of Myrrh
  64. Consider the Ravens
  65. A Good Winter Coat
  66. Ben-hadad in His Dressing Room
  67. The One-World System
  68. Physicians of No Value
  69. The Lamb Is My Shepherd
  70. Encourage Him
  71. Conformity
  72. At the Last
  73. What I Like About the Hippies
  74. The Bellows are Burned
  75. Run!
  76. Busy Here and There
  77. Women's liberation and the Women's Place in the Church
  78. We Have None to Lose
  79. The 'Jesus' People
  80. The Mixed Multitude
  81. Gray Hairs Are Here and There
  82. The Five Greatest Days of My Spiritual Life
  83. The Five Most Important Things I Have Learned
  84. Keep On Keeping On
  85. Praying All Night
  86. The Pride of the Tribe of Joseph
  87. How to Argue with God and Win
  88. David's Old Weapons
  89. Rest for the Rested
  90. So You've Seen Better Days
  91. Stay on the Highway
  92. Moab Is My Washpot
  93. Nearer Home
  94. The Sins of Summer
  95. Stay in the Chariot
  96. Let Us Arise and Build
  97. What Memorial Day Means to Me
  98. Blue Denim and Lace
  99. The Apple of His Eye
  100. It Took a Miracle
  101. A Deserted Baby
  102. What You Can Do to Save America
  103. Dwell Deep
  104. We Have Not Passed This Way Before
  105. So Great Salvation
  106. So Great a Cloud of Witnesses
  107. Take Off Your Mask
  108. There Is No Difference
  109. High Places and Groves
  110. How Good People Go Bad
  111. The King Makes a Hospital Visit
  112. What You Are Doing to Promote Communism in America
  113. Narcotics in Bible Prophecy
  114. The Heaven in Heaven
  115. The Road to Heaven Is Paved With Love
  116. Gather Out the Stones
  117. The Honored One
  118. Keeping the Orchard
  119. A Nervous Wreck
  120. Honor the King
  121. Six Unusual Cities
  122. My Reward Is with me
  123. Why Jesus Had Pierced ears
  124. The God of the Second Chance
  125. I Am Debtor
  126. Gethsemane
  127. When King Asa Visited Red China
  128. What Must I Do to Be a Disciple?
  129. Let Not One Escape
  130. Seek Ye First
  131. Following On to Know God
  132. There Is Not Enough Time
  133. Playing King
  134. Clearing the Rubbish
  135. That They Might Be One
  136. God's Summary
  137. What If They Answer Thee Roughly?
  138. How to Be marked for God
  139. The eyes of the Lord
  140. Should Men Have Long Hair?
  141. How Not to Go Back
  142. Jesus Christ Superstar
  143. Put on the Harness
  144. Why Christians Ought to Be Converted
  145. Stay After the Poor
  146. Green, Ripe or Rotten
  147. Christianity is Christ!
  148. The Perfect and the Upright Man
  149. His Servants Shall Serve Him
  150. A Prisoner Who Escaped
  151. Making Our Children Princes
  152. Children Like Olive Plants
  153. Justified By Faith and By Works
  154. Church Buses in the Bible
  155. I Will Praise Thee More and More
  156. Modern-Day Persecutions
  157. Wind It Up
  158. If I Had a Pastor
  159. Your Children's Children
  160. When Absalom Burned Joab's Farm
  161. He's the God of the Valleys Too
  162. The Family in One Accord
  163. What a Difference a Tree Makes
  164. Who Cares?
  165. Ivory Palaces
  166. Samuel, Moses, Noah, Daniel and Job
  167. Raise the Standard High
  168. Hearts of Stone
  169. All Thy Children Shall Be Taught of the Lord
  170. Selfish (Self-hell)
  171. The Government's Bid for Your Child
  172. How Shall I Give Thee Up?
  173. Fearing His Goodness
  174. Behold, His Mother Stood Without
  175. Leave the Fruit Trees Alone
  176. Saved, But Not Converted
  177. They Speech Betrayeth Thee
  178. The Raven and the Dove
  179. The White of an Egg
  180. Bring Me a Minstrel
  181. Lion Tamers
  182. The Two Places I'd Rather Be Than Anywhere
  183. Gifts God Won't Have
  184. Would You Spank Me?
  185. Winning Saved Souls
  186. As Unknown, Yet Well Known
  187. The Church First
  188. I Shall Be Anointed with Fresh Oil
  189. I Cannot Go Back
  190. Now Then, Do It!
  191. God Finishes What He Begins
  192. As the Twig Is Bent
  193. Why God Hides His Face From the Righteous
  194. Just keep on Coming
  195. The Way to Serve God
  196. Chimham
  197. Deep Calleth Unto Deep
  198. Scattered
  199. I Love You
  200. Love Me
  201. Peace, Satan's greatest Tool for Destruction
  202. I Made a Covenant with Mine Eyes
  203. The King Is Coming
  204. I Have Sinned
  205. Circumstantial Happiness