Sermon Central
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Studies In Genesis
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 23, 2021 (message contributor)
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1. Let There Be Light
Contributed on Mar 23, 2021
God speaks and says, "Let there be light." In both the physical and spiritual world God has turned the chaos into harmony, and the darkness into light.
Billy Graham in his book World Aflame tells of how he sat in the office of Dag Hammarskjold at the United Nations shortly before he was killed in the plane crash. He said that Mr. Hammarskjold seemed deeply depressed, and as he looked out over New York City he said quietly, "I see no hope ...read more
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2. The Making Of Man
Contributed on Mar 23, 2021
There is no higher view of man in the world than the biblical view. David in Psa. 8 says that man was made just a little lower than God Himself. Here God declares without any vagueness that He made man in His own image.
On July 14, 1789 the people of Paris stormed the Bastille and began to tear down this hated symbol of tyranny. So many had been brutally tortured an imprisoned there. No one seemed to know what happened to the stones until Joseph Gies in doing research for his book Bridges And Men discovered ...read more
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3. Christianity And Science
Contributed on Mar 23, 2021
The Bible and Science agree that prevention is the ideal. The goal of science is to be able to predict so men can avoid what is bad and gain what is good.
Jesus was a great physician who believed in preventive medicine. Curative medicine is the most spectacular, for what can compare to saying to the leper, "Be made whole!" Or what can be more amazing than to command the blind to see or the lame to rise up and walk? Preventive medicine is ...read more
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4. God's Day Off
Contributed on Mar 23, 2021
As Christian we ought to have it clear in our minds that we are no longer under the law with all of its Sabbath regulations. If we were, we are all storing up the wrath of God for the day of judgment.
I had the unique opportunity to talk deeply about biblical matters with a wealthy orthodox Jew. Among other things we talked about the Sabbath. He was a very conscientious Jew who knew his Bible quite well, and so I asked him how he reconciled operating a business on Saturday when the ...read more
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5. The Man Who Was Not Born
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
How did man begin? Verse 7 makes it clear that he was not born, but was formed. He was molded as clay in the potter's hand. He was a product of what already existed.
An old preacher from the back woods was teaching a class of children about how God created man. He said, "In the beginning there was just nothin at all. One day God was fooling around with some mud, and before you knew it he had a man. He put that man up against a fence to dry there in the ...read more
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6. The First Lady
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
Women have always been a major force in history, if for no other reason, because of their influence on men. Never was this more true than when there was only one woman and one man.
Only one president of the United States was a bachelor as president, and that was Grover Cleveland. All others had wives, and these First Ladies of our land have had an enormous influence on history. Martha Washington was the first First Lady of the United States. She, like other wives in those ...read more
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7. Satanic Success
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
The Christian must forget tradition and art, and build his concept of Satan on the only reliable source of information, and that is the Bible.
William Congreve said, “If I were a painter I would draw the devil like an idiot, a driveller with a bib and bells.” All I can say to that is that I am glad he is not a painter, for he would only serve the devil’s cause by painting him as a driveling idiot. I agree with Thomas Lodge who said, ...read more
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8. Tricked Into A Treat
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
The very first sin teaches us of the danger of letting the end justify the means. It is by this philosophy that Satan can trick us into treats
On Halloween night the streets are filled with masked children out to get treats and to play a few tricks. Their masks may hide their identity from us, but we are only moderately fooled because we know that underneath there are children and not assorted demons, or at least not supernatural ...read more
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9. Fruit Of Evil
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
This is the test that Eve failed, and then Adam followed. The first sin of man, like the first sin in the life of most everyone, was very simple and not sensational.
We have seen in our study of verse 6 that the fall of man was brought about by Satan’s subtlety in getting Eve to gain a good end by a bad means. The danger of allowing the end to justify the means is a real danger all of us need to be aware of, for none are immune to the virus of this danger. We ...read more
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10. The Dawn Of Conscience
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
The conscience was a faculty, which God had built into man from the beginning, but as long as men were in perfect fellowship with Him they had no awareness of it.
A ten-year-old boy came home from Sunday School and his mother asked him what he had learned. "Well," he began, "Our teacher told us about when God sent Moses behind the enemy lines to rescue the Israelites from the Egyptians. When they came to the Red Sea, Moses called for the ...read more
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11. God In Man's Image
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
Even before man knew of God the Son, the Father was described in terms of human characteristics. The reason for this is obvious, for there is no alternative if man is going to have any intelligent concept of the nature of God.
A young boy afraid of the dark called for his mother to come upstairs to his bedroom to be with him. She came and sought to comfort him by telling him God was there with him, and so he didn't have to be afraid. He was all right for a while, but then he called her again. When she came up he ...read more
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12. Guilty But Not As Charged
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
This passage makes it clear that man does not need to be totally depraved to be totally out of God's will, and that he who stands must beware less he fall.
A close study of the account of the fall of man has done more to open my eyes to the danger of tradition than any other study I have done. Those who profess to take it literally have done much in making it mythological by using it to teach lessons that have no basis in the text itself. Those who ...read more
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13. The First Judgment
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
Satan caused man to lose Eden and perfect fellowship with God, and so he is man's greatest foe. Man and Satan are enemies.
An angry customer came stomping into the pet shop and confronted the owner. He said, "When I bought this dog you said he would be splendid for rats. He won't even go near a rat." "Well," said the owner, "That is splendid for the rats ain't it?" The statement ...read more
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14. The Judgment Of Eve
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
The judgment here upon Eve is not to be taken as a universal punishment of all women because of her sin. This is Eve's personal penalty for her sin.
When W. C. Fields was deathly sick his friend Gene Fowler dropped in on him and caught him reading the Bible. Fowler was astounded, for Fields had never found any use for the Bible other than to prop up his martini. Fowler said, "Bill I am deeply touched." "Don't bother, ...read more
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15. From Dust To Dust
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
Adam faced a terrible punishment when he was sentenced to return to dust, but God forbid that we ignore the changes made by Christ, and continue to live on the level of that judgment "From dust to dust."
The Sunday School teacher was introducing his lesson on heaven by asking his boys if they wanted to go to heaven. One boy said, "Not me!" The teacher was shocked and asked, "You mean to tell me you don't want to go to heaven when you die?" "When I die? O, sure !" ...read more
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16. A Good Start Is Not Enough
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
One of the basic truths we learned from the account of the fall is that it is not a good start, but a good ending, that is most important.
A young boy came home from his first day of school and confessed to his father that he told a lie. The father asked why he did it and the boy said, "Well, dad, when they asked me where I was born it seemed so sissy to say The Woman's Hospital, so I said the Yankee Stadium." So often ...read more
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17. Awful Angels Or Miserable Men?
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
When scholars disagree the best thing we can do is examine the evidence for each view and see which case is the strongest.
A modern book titled Sex After Sixty Five was written to encourage older people to realize their is still sexual life after retirement. This would have sounded like a joke to the people before the flood. In Gen. 5:21 we are told that Enoch was 65 when he had his first son Methusalah. Then in ...read more
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18. The Curse Of Canaan
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
The story begins with the folly of Noah drinking wine until he was drunk. All of the trouble began with alcohol. This was not much of a start for the new world
Violence is not limited to the destruction of life and property. If one destroys love, truth, and understanding, or any virtue or value, that is emotional, social or intellectual violence. As Christian we would certainly agree to deprive men of the Gospel is to do violence to their souls. To ...read more
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19. Dream Awareness
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
We want to look at the second dream of Jacob in which we see the dream as a source of insight and instruction.
Doctor Paul Tournier, the great Christian psychiatrist, tells of the child who once remarked to his mother, "Dreams are God's movies, arn't they?" Doctor Tournier believes they are often just that. The early Christians believed dreams were a tool God used to give guidance, but ...read more
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20. Dreams Can Come True
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
A dream can be an escape from reality, but it can also be an alternative to a present inadequate reality. A dream can provide an ideal toward which we strive and thereby change reality for the better.
Vanna White, the glamorous star who shows the letters on Wheel of Fortune, was a leader in her church youth group in North Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. Her pastor wrote about how he asked her, when she was a senior, what she was going to do after graduation. She responded that her dream was to ...read more
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21. Labor For The Lord
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
Joseph was a peanut shell in Yankee Stadium, and that is the level of notice he would have gotten in history from that point on. But God gave him the ability to interpret dreams, and he impressed the Pharaoh. He was instantly exalted to the highest level of power in the powerful nation of Egypt.
Grace Kelly, the American actress, married into royalty when she became the wife of Prince Rainier of Monaco. This became world wide news back in 1956 as an American girl became Princess Grace. But it was far from being a rags to riches story, for Grace grew up in wealth and luxury. Her father ...read more
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22. The Importance Of The Information
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
The will of God does not just float down from the sky on heavenly parchment. It is in books, tapes, papers, experience, lectures, sermons, advice, and every other source of information you can imagine.
My grandchildren were telling me of the play that was put on in the opening of their Sunday School. It seems that a man heard of an umbrella that was guaranteed to keep you dry, but after he bought one he went out in the rain and got soaked. He brought it back and was informed that he had to hold ...read more
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23. Emotions Under Control
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
I know it is a popular myth that the Christian is supposed to experience only the good ones of love, joy, and peace, but unfortunately the Word of God will not support this myth. God's people in the Bible felt every feeling there is to be felt.
Three Frenchmen have come to the rescue of fathers who have no pleasure in trying to discover if their baby needs a diaper change. They have invented a little electronic device that fits right into the infant's diaper. As soon as there is any contact with moisture it breaks out with a bubbly ...read more
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24. Interpreting Life's Events
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
Jacob saw his life falling apart when in reality God was bringing it all together. The sons saw God punishing them, when in reality God was blessing them more than they had ever been blest.
Myron Maddsen, an outstanding author, speaker, and Christian leader in New Orleans, tells of his experience of interpreting his Bible story book as a young boy. He noted that all the characters had long flowing garments down to their feet, and angels had similar garb. So he concluded that only ...read more
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25. The Universal Tool
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
You are only truly one with Jesus when you eat with Him. You are only truly one with anyone by means of eating with them. It was by means of food and eating that Joseph worked out reconciliation with his brothers.
Life revolves around eating, for where there is no eating there is no life. Our vacation made us all the more aware of this obvious truth, for everyday we had to make decisions about where we would eat. In Fort Lauderdale where we stayed there is a place to eat every few feet, and along the ...read more
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26. Passing The Test
Contributed on Mar 24, 2021
It was an awful ordeal Joseph put them through, but it was worth it, for Joseph learned that people can change. God knows this and that is why He is long suffering and puts up with people for a long time.
Children often obey the Bible even before they know there is a Bible. Paul said in I Thess. 5:21, "Test everything, hold on to the good." Babies are testing everything by putting everything in their mouth, and as they get older they begin to test adults. Our little granddaughter Kelly ...read more