Tag Archives: Jesus

You Have Free Will (A Christmas Message)

Posted on December 27, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

Adam and Eve have both free will and the image of God. God told Adam that he was free to choose to eat of any tree in the Garden BUT the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). Someone asked me once, “Why did Adam have ONE tree that he could not eat of? Why did God even put that tree there?” Again, this is a fair question.

Free will assumes a person has a choice.

If I went to the market to buy bread, but say, only one type of bread – white Wonder Bread – was the only bread available. If that’s all you can get, there is no free will. Free will means a choice. If you had a Garden where absolutely everything is edible, you have no opportunity to exercise your free will. Free will would just be a blank concept, but would never be practically expressed. God gave man free will, then gave humanity a choice. Choose to do your job, and never suffer. Choose to disobey God and do the forbidden, then choose death over life (Genesis 2:17).

You know the story. Adam chose to disobey God. When you disobey God you lose His blessing. God has free will too. Humanity could enjoy the Garden while they obeyed the Owner of the Garden. But once they chose to reject God’s directive, they lost God’s blessing. God said to Adam:

Genesis 2:17-19 … cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground…

Man was creation’s caregiver. Because Adam fell into sin, creation fell into sin. The ground previously brought forth only fruit bearing plants. Now the ground is cursed – thorns and thistles along with other weeds come up. Man never had to use his sweat glands…. Continue reading →

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A Virgin Named Mary

Posted on December 14, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

“Behold, Thou Shalt Conceive In Thy Womb, And Bring Forth A Son”. Jesus will come into the world through Mary as a boy, a man. Mary would conceive Jesus totally apart from any man’s intervention. This will be a fulfillment of the first prophecy of the Messiah. God told Satan in the Garden of Eden:

Genesis 3:15 (NASB) And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.

A woman does not produce SEED, but the EGG that the man fertilizes. Yet God said that the Avenger that would one day come and destroy Satan – that Old Serpent (Revelation 12:9) will be the “Seed of the Woman”. Later on in Scripture the Prophet would tell us in:

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel…. Continue reading →

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Resurrection Changes Everything

Posted on April 19, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

People die. This is the nature of life. Founders of businesses die, founders of religions die. The founder of Islam, Muhammad died in 632 AD. The founder of the Indian Independence Movement, Mahatma Gandhi died from an assassin’s gun in 1948. People die. The Scripture says:

Hebrews 9:27 … it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment

Today we commemorate the death of another Founder, and we will celebrate His death by partaking of what we call “Communion” or “The Lord’s Table”. There is one big difference in the death of Christianity’s Founder and the death of all others.

Jesus didn’t stay dead!

Executed on a Roman Cross after several hours of brutal torture, Jesus’ death was not a mistake nor a miscarriage of justice. Jesus told His disciples:

John 10:15 … I lay down My life for the sheep {His people}

The Great Shepherd, Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be slandered and railroaded into an execution. But Jesus told us:

John 10:17 … I lay down My life, that I might TAKE IT AGAIN …

Jesus promised that – though He would die willingly on that terrible Cross – that death would not be able to hold Him. On the Day of Pentecost – some 50 days after Jesus rose from the Grave – Peter preached:

Acts 2:22-24 (NLT) People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. 23 But God knew what would happen, and His prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed Him to a cross and killed Him. 24 But God released Him from the horrors of death and raised Him back to life, for death could not keep Him in its grip.

Death could not hold Jesus. Jesus told us:

Matthew 12:40 (ESV) For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jesus Christ died on that Cross so that we who believe in Him can have access to the Holy Father, Creator of all things. God the Father covered our sins by the death of Jesus. The Apostle says, … Continue reading →

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Baptist Distinctives #3: Jesus Is God Our Brother

Posted on January 20, 2022 by bibleteacherorg

During our “Snow Day” last Sunday, I listened to an online preacher talking about the Dangers of Idolatry. It was a very interesting sermon/ teaching, and very much enjoyed it. In the sermon the minister noted that “everybody worships something”, and that when God took His people out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership, one of the first requirements that God gave His people was:

Exodus 20:2-3 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

God identified Himself as Israel’s Savior, and Israel as a people saved. God commanded that His people have no other gods before the God Who saved them. God identifies Himself frequently throughout the Scripture, using the same terminology He uses in Exodus 20:2 ..

Deuteronomy 5:6 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt …

Psalm 81:10 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt …

Isaiah 43:3 For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior: I gave Egypt for thy ransom …

Hosea 13:4 Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me.

God identifies Himself as Israel’s Savior.
God identifies Himself as OUR Savior.

When we make an idol of anything, if we worship anything or anyone outside of the God of the Scripture, we demean God our Savior. It is God Who saves us, and not we ourselves. When the commercials today say “Keep on doing YOU”, they are bidding us to follow idols. … Continue reading →

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Happy People Will See God

Posted on May 3, 2021 by bibleteacherorg

Many people followed Jesus for temporary relief. People with “divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatics, and those that had the palsy” flocked to Jesus, and Jesus healed them all. Many people follow Jesus that same way today. They only seek out Jesus when some great negative comes into their lives. When life is good, they only want a part time Savior, a Jesus Who will stay in the background until needed, Who only – like a trained dog – comes when called. The Bible says:

Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

No heart is born into this world “pure”. “Those that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). It is because of the condition of the human heart that evil is perpetuated. Jesus told the Pharisees and Scribes:

Matthew 15:18-20 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 these are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Illustrate I often people today say “just follow your heart”. Beloved, if you just “follow your heart” you will end up getting in terrible trouble. Case in point, consider the heart of the first human King of Israel, King Saul. When Saul was first chosen the Prophet Samuel told him:… Continue reading →

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The Stone The Builders Rejected

Posted on January 10, 2021 by bibleteacherorg

Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

What is our purpose? What is our goal?

Our text today comes at the end of a parable that Jesus spoke to the Chief Priests and Pharisees of His day. The Chief Priests and Pharisees were considered “the builders” of Israel. They weren’t actually the builders – God is the Builder.

Psalm 127:1 Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

God is the Builder of His Kingdom. God the Son now stands in front of the Chief Priests and the Pharisees, and as He stands there these people reject Him and plot against Him. Jesus speaks a parable to them, to show them that their focus is wrong. The Kingdom of God belongs to God, not to man. The fruit of the Kingdom of God belongs to God, not to us. Continue reading →

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First Cry From A Bloody Pulpit

Posted on October 25, 2020 by bibleteacherorg

They part His clothing, and cast dice for it. Jesus is on the hill of Golgotha, the hill of punishment, making payment for their sins. But the soldiers, dotted with Christ’s blood, are unconcerned. A poor man’s clothing is more to them than what Christ is doing. Oh, do not be too quick to judge these men, for many of us are the same. We love things more than God. We love stuff, more than the Creator. What shall it profit a person, if you gain the whole world… Continue reading →

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Jesus Is More Than

Posted on May 19, 2019 by bibleteacherorg

Today is the National Day of Prayer for Vacation Bible School. As I pondered what to preach this Sunday God placed on my heart the need to preach our focal text. John 20:31 is the theme and focal verse for our Vacation Bible School In The Wild. Continue reading →

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Why Did Jesus Weep?

Posted on September 27, 2018 by bibleteacherorg

Martha dodges the question. Jesus asked her if she thought He had control over life, that He is THE RESURRECTION, that Jesus can defeat death. But instead of saying “Yes, You ARE the RESURRECTION. You can raise Lazarus from the grave. Continue reading →

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Are You Blind?

Posted on September 6, 2018 by bibleteacherorg

I was reading a commentary today where the writer began to teach that there are two levels of Christians – the Christian who just believes and is saved, and the Christian who is saved by faith and does the things that God commands. I don’t know where this nonsense came from. I suspect it is an aberration created by liberal preachers who are looking for numbers. It is not taught in Scripture. And it is not natural. Continue reading →

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