Exodus (Program #18) – God’s Demand and Pharaoh’s Resistance (4)

God’s desire is that His people will build Him a dwelling place on the earth. This was His intention for the children of Israel even as they were held in bondage under Pharaoh in the book of Exodus and it’s His intention for us today. In Exodus, a struggle ensued between God and Pharaoh whereby He manifested not only judgment upon the Egyptian world but also the real nature and issue of the life of the world – the life that usurps God’s people. If we receive mercy, we’ll take this warning given to all God’s people about the usurping worldly system.

It has been a tremendous journey thus far, as we just get into the book of Exodus.  We come to that portion in the last few days, we have been reviewing the conflict between God and Pharaoh.  It is a fairly well-known story to most Christians and believers.  But Witness Lee has been pointing out that we are going to see very directly today that these 10 plagues and these 10 encounters, actually a dozen encounters that took place over all between God and Pharaoh were not just God’s judgement on Pharaoh and on Egypt but are really intended as an exposure and a kind of education for God’s people as well, to realize the real situation that Egypt represents.  Why do we know that this is a picture to expose but not just a matter of God’s judgement on Egypt and Pharaoh?

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Ezekiel (Program #13) – God’s Judgment Upon the Nations

There are seven nations mentioned from Ezekiel chapters 25 through 32. Even in the midst of God’s judgment from Ezekiel in the Old Testament on the nations, you will find that there is an application to us today in the church.

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Ezekiel (Program #12) – God’s Judgment Upon His People

In the book of Ezekiel, we come today to God’s judgment upon His people which is a picture of His judgment upon the church today. Yet the result of God’s judgment upon the church is to gain a group of people who return to Christ and gain Christ.

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Lamentations (Program #3) – The Third Lamentations (2)

The prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament had much to be sorrowful for.  For all around him is God’s judgment.  This judgment fell upon God’s people Israel because of their degradation and their unfaithfulness.  It also fell upon the nations that surrounded Israel for opposing God’s people and His purpose.  And finally God’s judgment fell upon the prophet himself, not so much for his own failures and sins but rather because the prophet Jeremiah properly identified with his people Israel and thereby shared in their judgment.  It was these sufferings that brought him to pour out his heart and soul to Jehovah in the short book called Lamentations.  But in so doing, we see some wonderful passages that can be immense help to those of us in the New Testament economy.  For Jeremiah learned to practice three marvelous things that sustain him and likewise can sustain us.  We will look at these three in today’s program.

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Lamentations (Program #1) – Introduction

No two books of the Bible are probably more linked than the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Lamentations.  Jeremiah, a book of God’s judgment and punishment upon His rebellious people Israel is followed by the prophet Jeremiah’s lamentations over the sufferings of Israel.  Listen to his word in the first of these lamentations, chapter 1:1-2 “How the city sits alone That was full of people! She who was once great among the nations Has become like a widow; She who was a princess among the provinces Has become tributary.  Bitterly she weeps in the night, And her tears are on her cheeks. There is no one to comfort her Among all her lovers; All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies.”  This was Jeremiah’s speaking of the utter destruction and devastation that had been visited upon the city by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.  And the suffering of Jeremiah reflects that of all of God’s people, especially no doubt the few righteous among them.

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Jeremiah (Program #24) – Separation of the Church, God’s New Testament Elect from the World in All its Aspects

The Bible, especially the Old Testament is often studies merely in the way of history, looking at names, dates and places.  And though there are some values in this manner of study, for us as believers the greater need is to see the Bible open up as a book of life.  For this, it is seeing the spiritual significance of events that yields the greatest benefit.  And It is in this light that our study of Jeremiah has brought us to consider the final chapters where God’s wrath even His vengeance is poured out on one nation on earth that has been the most offensive to Him and rendered the most damage upon His chose people.  God’s judgment upon Babylon and its significance for God’s people today is our topic.

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Isaiah (Program #14) – Jehovah’s Destruction of the Nations to Bring in the Restoration for Israel

Isaiah is a book with many lovely passages revealing that Christ will come.  But it also is a book with chapter after chapter of God’s judgment in dealing with Israel’s fallen and low  condition.  To understand this book is to understand our own experience of Christ.  God’s dealing is what ushers in the wonderful experience of Christ.

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Isaiah (Program #10) – The Judgment of Jehovah Upon the Nations and Its Issue (1)

When God’s people give in to temptation, sin and corruption, God in His righteousness surely must judge and discipline.  Of course, as Christians He also has a way to forgive us and lead us back into His loving presence.  But ultimately the solution for our continuous failures lies not in renew commitment and more earnest and sincere effort.  Rather we need to be fired, terminated and eventually replaced.  We all desperately need to see that God’s solution for us is to be replaced.  Don’t miss this extraordinary life study of the Bible.

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Isaiah (Program #9) – The Salvation of Jehovah (7 & 8)

The Old Testament book of Isaiah seems to alternate between God’s judgment which issued from the degenerating and corrupted condition of His people and the glorious revelation of our Savior Christ.  This sequence also seems to parallel at times, our own experience.  After God’s chastisement and discipline we often enjoy the Lord in a deeper and more substantial way.  We will see this issue once again in two of Isaiah’s most marvelous chapters 11 and 12 on today’s life study of the Bible.

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Psalms (Program #8) – David’s Concept Concerning God’s Judgment on David’s Enemies Among the Nations and Concerning Man’s Condition Before God

The Psalms beloved by all of God’s people are composed of the expression of the sentiments, feelings, impressions and experiences of godly men. Many of the psalms express primarily the concept of the writer. David, for example, in a number of the psalms was frequently in grave danger being pursued by his enemies those who were desiring even to do away with him. And so we see his crying out to Jehovah for safety and deliverance. Other of the psalms exult and uplift the law of God connecting God’s blessing with our ability to keep the law. There are however, many psalms that express a much higher thought, even the divine thought. Psalms which present the very Christ of God maybe not in direct reference but in unmistakable clarity. These are psalms which convey God’s deepest feeling and His heart’s desire for man that Christ would occupy the center in our lives as He occupies the center of God’s own economy.

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