Immanuel Baptist Church

The best gift a person could ever receive from God is the gift of eternal life. It is a permanent gift by definition; eternal is eternal. God can’t take the gift back because He promised that everyone who receives eternal life will live forever with God.

“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16). Without the light of God’s truth, men remain in spiritual darkness, alienated from God, and without hope

One of the greatest deceptions in the world is people developing their own view of God. God has revealed Himself in the creation and in the Bible. He wants people to know Him and give Him glory for all His wonderful works to the children of men. But

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat: the earth also and the works that are in it shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10). The Apostle

Before God created the heavens and the earth, nothing existed except God. At the appointed time, God spoke into existence all the things that previously never existed. “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath

God is unique, set apart, eternal, and infinitely wise. There is none like God; He is the only true and living God. His ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts. At the present time, we are limited in how much we can know God. The

God spoke to Moses and revealed His absolute sovereignty over everything in creation. Deuteronomy 32:39 says, “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal, and there is none who can deliver from my

Jesus was walking through a village one day and heard the cry of ten lepers saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Jesus instantly healed all ten lepers. Because Jesus showed those lepers goodness and compassion, they would no longer have pain,

“God looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there is anyone who understands.” (Psalm 53:2). No one understands who God is and how sinful man is. The entrance of sin into the world through Adam’s disobedience resulted in spiritual,

The love of God is not a feeling, or an emotion, or sentimentality. God’s love is a commitment to do good to and to help those who are rebels against God and undeserving of His goodness. Man’s greatest need is to be reconciled to God but sinful man can’t

In a song I recently heard, the singer asked God to deliver her from several things that she knew were selfish like the need to be praised, the need to be approved, the need to be right, the need to have things her way, etc. The singer was singing about

Through the prophet Isaiah, God informs us that we do not know much. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9). We can easily form thoughts of God in our minds

One day, according to Luke 4:16-20, Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth, the town in which He grew up. The leader of the synagogue handed Jesus the book of Isaiah. Jesus turned to Isaiah 61 and read the passage in verses 1and 2: “The Spirit of the

“By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” (Psalm 33:6). Before God spoke the universe into existence, nothing existed except God! God did not create everything because He needed it. He is eternal,

God reveals in His Word that we are to give thanks in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18). When we have trials and hard times in life, we are still to give thanks to God. If we believe that God is sovereign and that He controls all events in the universe,

“In the day you eat from it, you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). Adam ate from the forbidden fruit and he died that day! God always keeps His promises. Adam’s once perfect fellowship with his Creator was broken by his sin. He died a spiritual death and

Before we were saved by God’s grace, we were totally depraved and slaves to sin. “For we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” (Titus 3

When Jesus was being interrogated by Pontius Pilate, He told Pilate that He came into the world to bear witness of the truth and that everyone that is of the truth hears His voice (John 18:37). Pilate then asked, “What is truth?” (verse38). Ever since the

“The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.” (Psalm 58:3). Jeremiah also helps us understand the condition of unregenerate men; “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”

Many professing Christians believe God is sovereign over creation and weather and in doing good to people but they do not believe God is sovereign over the destinies of men’s souls. The pride of man and ignorance of God’s Word lead to a wrong view of God

Satan has blinded the minds of those who do not believe (2 Corinthians 4:4). He has also deceived true believers into thinking that they can live like the world and not be fully committed to living for Christ. There is a spiritual war going on in which

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus said, “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matthew 11:5). Jesus was proving by His miraculous works that

People want to feel secure but in this world of violence and unexpected trauma, it is not easy to feel safe. The only true and lasting security comes from God Himself. He is the Creator and Sustainer of life. He controls all the actions of men, angels,

Jesus chose twelve disciples who were all believers except Judas. The eleven men learned a lot about Jesus during His three year ministry but they had the wrong idea about what Messiah came to do. They thought Jesus would conquer the Roman occupiers and

It’s hard to forgive! When someone offends you, hurts you, or treats you unfairly, your natural response is to hate, be angry, and try to get even. Only those who are born again followers of Jesus Christ can love and forgive those who hurt them. Jesus was

Everyone begins life in bondage to sin. Each person breaks God’s laws, loves the world, and does what is right in his own eyes. Romans 6:20 says, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.” We were all slaves to our sin nature and

“By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth.” (Psalm 33:6). God is eternal; before there was a universe, there was God! When He wanted to create, He spoke and His Word made things come into existence

If someone kidnapped your child, how much money would you be willing to pay to free your loved one from captivity and certain death? You would give every penny you had and your house, cars, jewelry, clothing, and whatever else you had to appease the

“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). This is how God describes the heart of every unsaved person. The word “heart” is used repeatedly in the Old and New Testaments to describe the inner,

Jesus was walking through cities and villages teaching as He journeyed to Jerusalem. A man in the crowd asked Jesus if there were few that were being saved. Jesus answered, “Strive to enter in at the narrow gate; for many I say unto you, will seek to

“Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1). In this fallen world, life is brief and loaded with pain and disappointments. Trials and tribulations are no respecters of persons; all people will have troubles throughout life

God’s plan of salvation is more than getting people into heaven. God is the Author of our salvation and He designed salvation so He would get the glory, praise, and honor. That is the main reason for salvation and every other act that God plans. Sinful

God has given us a wonderful capacity to remember. We love to have pictures, videos, letters, texts, and emails of loved ones so we can recall the good times we shared with them. The more we love someone, the more we want to remember the special

Have you heard the saying, “Seeing is believing?” In most cases, people will believe what you tell them if you can produce evidence that they can see. But when it comes to the universe and the world, most people will not believe that all of it was created

Everyone wants to go to heaven or at least go to a place in the afterlife where there is no more pain and suffering and sorrow. Stress and emotional trauma and depression can get so bad that some individuals commit suicide in an attempt to remove the pain

The world we live in is a dangerous place! You never know what might happen next. You have heard of the drunk driver who crashes into another car and kills the people in the car. On the news, you have heard of a person entering a store and shooting people

God created man in His image (Genesis 1:26). The first man, Adam, could love, worship, and obey God. But Adam sinned against God and in the day he disobeyed God, his heart and mind became corrupted. Adam died spiritually the moment he sinned and at age

The word “sin” is not heard much in the churches or outside the churches these days. When people do something wrong or say some bad words, it is called a mistake or a slip of the tongue but it is not called sin! Every word, thought, and act that is not

The salvation that Christians experience is not only by the grace of God but it is by the grace of the Triune God! Each member of the Trinity is involved in the salvation of sinners. Salvation is not by works or human effort but by the divine work of God

The Word of God reveals that man is not good. "There is none righteous, no not one." (Romans 3:10). There is none that does good." (Romans 3:12). But God is good according to Scripture; "He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on

There was a time when the world was not groaning and travailing in pain and when men were not suffering. That time in history was when God created the universe and made everything perfect. After six days of creative miracles, God said that everything He

The hardest thing for a person to do is to love someone who is mean, belligerent, and determined to harm you. Think of people who have been put in prison for political reasons or put in death camps because of their ethnicity.  Ask one of those prisoners

In the Bible, the word “know” is often used to describe an intimate relationship as in Genesis 4:1 which says, “And Adam “knew” Eve his wife and she conceived and gave birth to Cain…” In the spiritual realm, when God establishes an intimate relationship

Every person is endowed by God with certain skills, talents, and intellectual capacity. God expects each person to use his gifts for the glory of God and take advantage of the opportunities God gives by virtue of those gifts. In the parable of the talents

The great commission is given to every born again believer. Each Christian has been given the opportunity to share the message of salvation with those who are in the world without God and without hope. Eternity is waiting to receive the souls of men

God revealed His moral law to Moses and it was written down for the first time in human history. The moral law was given to men to help them see the sinfulness of sin. (Romans 5:20). No one has ever been able to keep God’s law because all people are

All humans are conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5) and are sinners by nature. Sinners sin because it is their nature to sin. A pig loves to wallow in the mud because that is his nature. You can put clothes and makeup on the pig but he will still go to the mud

Jesus told us not to be anxious about anything. (Matthew6:25) because anxiety does not help us accomplish God’s will. What Jesus wants us to do instead of worrying is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all the other things

People are born thinking highly of themselves. They compare themselves to others and feel superior if they are a little smarter, prettier, stronger, wealthier, or more moral or religious, etc. God is the Judge and He does not compare one person to another

“Sin” is a small word but it has a huge meaning! It means that a person has broken God’s law. Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). Sinning comes naturally to people because they all have sin natures. All people inherit a sinful disposition from their parents