Resources by Baker, Al

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelistic preaching? First, consider the work of the Holy Spirit upon the preacher himself.1 Clearly the preacher’s private time with the Lord is vital. This includes his own personal devotional time when God speaks to him in prayer, and his own systematic reading of the word […]

They spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who was testifying to the word of His grace (Acts 14:3). I very well remember in 1976, while working with Dr. Jim Baird at the First Presbyterian Church, Macon, Georgia, reading for the first time Arnold Dallimore’s marvellous biography on George Whitefield,1 […]

The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple (Psalm 19:7). In his blockbuster book of 1976, The Battle for the Bible, Harold Lindsell exposed the massive infiltration of liberalism and neo-orthodoxy into nearly every denomination and seminary that considered itself evangelical. Many […]

I think you know my deep conviction that the church of Jesus must be intentional, earnest, and aggressive in going into our communities and nations with the life saving message of reconciliation to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save sinners. Indeed, we must constantly look for ways to publish the good […]

. . . his blood I will require at your hand (Ezekiel 3:18). I have been saying for a long time now that what young people of this generation need, what they have always needed, is a direct, passionate, declaration of the truth as it is in Jesus. David Murray, in citing an article by […]

John Bunyan was born near Bedford, England in 1628, just a few years before the Puritan revolution began. He grew up very poor and had no formal education. He taught himself to read and write, however, and enjoyed immensely medieval novels of the day. He was so foul-mouthed that even wicked men were embarrassed by […]

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel (Zechariah 3:3). An estimated one in four women, and one in six men were sexually assaulted before the age of eighteen.1 Perhaps you were sexually molested as a child. If so, then the chances are pretty good that you battle with a […]

A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way (Isaiah 35:8). Jehovah spoke the word through Jeremiah the prophet (Jer. 7:12), giving Judah a history lesson, that they might remember what […]

Go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel (Jeremiah 7:12). Thirty-seven year old Asahel Nettleton, the powerful Presbyterian evangelist, was exhausted. He had been preaching several times daily in […]

. . . propitiation in His blood (Romans 3:25). Our God is a consuming fire. He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In his just wrath he casts sinners into a Christless hell where they remain in conscious torment until the day they appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give account […]

And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32). At Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit came, Peter preached with great convicting and converting power, resulting in three thousand people calling on the name of the Lord to be saved […]

As according to Paul’s custom he went to them (Acts 17:26). On his second missionary journey, after heeding the Macedonian call to go into Europe and preach the gospel, Paul made his way from Philippi through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica. Luke tells us that according to Paul’s custom he went directly to the Jews, […]

I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees (Ecclesiastes 2:5-6). The Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem writes of the futility of living life ‘under the sun’,1 that […]

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit . . . Do not quench the Spirit . . . Insulting the Spirit of grace (Ephesians 4:30, 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Hebrews 10:29). If the filling of the Holy Spirit yields conviction of sin, conversion, and sanctification;1 if the believer can expect his words to bring forth Holy Spirit […]

Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, using the so-called ‘Lord’s Prayer’ as a model. Many have noted that the six petitions in the Lord’s Prayer serve as an excellent outline of how God’s people ought to seek him earnestly in prayer.1 When Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ what does he mean? […]

Although they have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away. Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more. Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away (Nahum 1:12-13). In July, 1755 as British General Braddock, along with young, twenty-three year old […]

I met Patience, a young black woman from Zambia, on my recent trip to Cape Town, South Africa. She is attending the Maranatha Family Church in Masephumalele, pastored by my friend Ronni Cronje. Patience, a year or so ago, was riding with her mother on a small taxi van from Zimbabwe to South Africa when […]

Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:25). Most of us, most of the time, have little or no zeal for intentional evangelistic outreach. We will talk about what is important to us. I live in Alabama and most of the people here have no […]

Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting (Psa. 126:5). Read carefully. If your church does not evangelize, then it will surely perish. I say this even if you have several hundreds or thousands of members and are presently a vibrant, fast growing church. We all know of churches that fifty or one […]

Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal . . . he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears (Hebrews […]

For our gospel did not come in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction (1 Thessalonians 1:5). No one took the preaching of Jesus in a casual, ambivalent manner. They either loved it or hated it, were drawn to him or repulsed by him. The same was true […]

The love of Christ controls me (2 Corinthians 5:14). How did the Apostle Paul do it? How did he maintain his zeal for the kingdom of God? After his conversion experience on the road to Damascus, he found out from Ananias, to whom Jesus had spoken, that he would suffer greatly for the sake of preaching […]

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me. When Thou didst say, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to Thee, ‘Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek’ (Psalm 27:7-8). Sarah Butin, an eighteen year old recent high school graduate on her way to Furman University in the […]

Agrippa replied to Paul, ‘In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian’ (Acts 26:28). Jean Jacques Rousseau, one of the two greatest and most influential writers of the 18th century Enlightenment (the other being Francois-Marie Voltaire), the one who ushered in the Romantic period of literature with his Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse, […]

What hath God wrought? (Numbers 23:23). When Balak sought Balaam to curse God’s covenant people, Yahweh spoke to Balaam, informing him that what he had ordained would indeed happen. He is not a man that he should lie or repent. The nations would look on and see God’s blessing on his people and say, “What hath […]