Jeremiah (Program #23) – A Supplement to the History of Captivity

After so many chapters in Jeremiah dealing with God’s judgment upon the sins of His people Israel, the prophet turns his attention to the judgment upon worldly nations and governments.  The height of this judgment is centered on the one nation throughout history that has been the greatest evil and the greatest offense to God, Babylon.  In chapter 51, Jeremiah uttered these prophetic words about what will befall this evil city. “And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words; And say, O Jehovah, You have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that nothing should dwell in it, neither man nor animal, for it will be an eternal desolation.”  But as severe as this judgment sounds, it was not the final judgment against this mighty city and what it represents.  For at the end of the New Testament, the judgment of Babylon is once again a key factor in the events related to the end of this age.  What is this city Babylon?  What does it represent and why does it occupy such a prominent position in the history of mankind and all that stands and opposes God?  We will consider the judgment of Babylon on today’s program.

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Matthew (Program #60) – The Heavenly King Being Tested (3)

In the day right before the crucifixion of Christ, the situation in Jerusalem was very confused.  In many ways we have to say it’s much like today.  All manner of religious factions and groups each with their own spin on the theological questions of the day.  And each of these groups took their turn asking the Lord Jesus what they thought were difficult even clever questions try to catch Him in a way that they could use to their advantage.  But in each turn, of course Jesus prevailed.   Until ultimately He silences them by asking them the real question of questions, “What did you think about Christ?  Whose Son is He?”  As we look at the four-part test that the Lord Jesus allowed His opposers to subject Him to.  And then this greatest of all questions that He turn to them.

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Jeremiah (Program #22) – The Spiritual Sequence in the Bible and in Jeremiah

The Bible presents God’s work and God’s plan in a marvelous sequence.  If we see the spiritual significance, we can see that right after creating man, God presents Himself to man as man’s source, only to be rejected by the very man that He had created.  But what seems to be the end of God’s plan is really just the beginning.  As God deals with the sins that besets mankind by coming Himself to be man’s righteousness and his life and ultimately to gain man fully for Himself as His enlargement and expression.  This is the sequence of the whole Bible.  And that sequence is closely parallel by the account of the prophet Jeremiah.  The sequence of the divine revelation in the Bible and the same sequences as found in Jeremiah is our topic on today’s life study.

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Matthew (Program #59) – The Heavenly King Being Tested (2)

The final chapter of Matthew presents a series of parables that are often referred to and even quoted but seldom understood or explained in a full and complete way.  These parables all deal not with going to heavens but with the coming kingdom to be established on earth with Christ Himself reigning in righteousness as the King of kings.  And they also deal with our participation and enjoyment in this coming kingdom age.  One of these well-known parables is the story of the marriage feast.  In particularly, one who is called but then expelled for not being dressed in proper wedding garment.

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Jeremiah (Program #21) – The Principle of Being One with God

Let me ask you, “What is sin?” As you ponder this great and universal question and before you begin enumerating any number of transgressions that would easily fall into the general category of sin, please consider that the Bible makes a clear distinction between “sin” and “sins”. Sins are the by products of the principle of sin. So, once again let me ask, “What is sin”? Well if we drop our own speculations and restrict our consideration to the clear revelation of the Bible, we realize that sin is fundamentally a matter of leaving God and doing something by ourselves and for ourselves. In other words, sin is to take anything other than God as our unique source. He desires to be the source of our life, of our living and even of our satisfaction. Any departure from taking Him as our source is sin and it will unavoidably result in innumerable sins. In that light, now let’s consider these verses from the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis 2:9, 16-17 “And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely … But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

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Matthew (Program #58) – The Heavenly King Being Tested (1)

During the final six days of His life on the earth, the Lord Jesus presented Himself to be examined repeatedly even by His strongest critics and most venomous opposers.  As we began to look at how Christ came through this series of examinations in Matthew 21.

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Jeremiah (Program #20) – Jehovah’s Promise concerning the Restoration of Israel

The history revealed in the Bible is a history of the covenants that God made with man.  In reality, only two of these covenants have great significance.  The first of which from Exodus 25 was the covenant of law that God made through Moses when He gave Israel the ten commandments.  The second covenant called the new covenant was also the last covenant.  And though it was not enacted until the Lord Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for our redemption.  It was clearly foretold by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 31, listen to the word of this marvelous new covenant as spoken by the Old Testament prophet.

“Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, declares Jehovah. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for all of them will know Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them, declares Jehovah, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.“

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Matthew (Program #57) – The Cleansing of the Temple and the Cursing of the Fig Tree

After beginning His ministry in the religious capital of Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus went far away when He needed to reveal His kingdom to His disciples.  But now He returns for one final triumphant entry into the city of the king prior His being crucified there.  All of these details are full of rich meanings and much significances as we will see in today’s life study.

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Matthew (Program #56) – The Throne of the Kingdom and the Cup of the Cross

It is easy to read the gospels in the Bible such as Matthew’s gospel and be fascinated by the wonderful stories and the accounts of the many great miracles done by the Lord Jesus.  But throughout this gospel, the Lord Jesus repeatedly spoke to His disciples of how He would go to Jerusalem and suffer the humiliating death on the cross to be raised on the third day.  But despite His repeating of this most critical aspect of the gospel, His disciples were fully occupied with other things; like who among them will have the highest position in the coming kingdom.

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Jeremiah (Program #19) – Jeremiah’s Genuine Prophecies

In the book of Jeremiah, we have the indelible account of God’s people forsaking Him in the most fundamental way. Listen again to Jehovah’s words though His prophet Jeremiah to the children of Israel “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns, Which hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) This warning applies not only to the children of Israel in the Old Testament but to us as well. Because to forsake the Lord in this way is to depart from Him as our very source and it’s an offense to God that is far more serious than even the sins we commit as a result of taking our own way and living independently from Him.

Israel’s departure from Jehovah was connected to the worship of idols that had become so prevalent among them. Though we may not be sacrificing to idols of wood and stone, as they were we too are tempted to be drawn off to our own idols. But what we all must see is that behind every idol whether or wood and stone, or an object of pleasure or a position that may attract us, the same spiritual force is present. God’s enemy Satan who will stop at nothing to distract God’s people from knowing and enjoying God as this fountain of living water.

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