Tag-Archive for ◊ degradation ◊

11 Sep 2023 Romans (Program #6)

Romans (Program #6) – Justification in God’s Way

It’s on Christ as our propitiation place that God can dispense Himself as grace into us for His glory, for His expression, and for the manifestation of His righteousness.

Our life-study today brings us to one of the pillars of the Christian faith – justification. Most Christians are aware of the famous doctrine of justification by faith, and Martin Luther was very much used by the Lord to recover this marvelous truth of our faith. more…

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26 Feb 2023 Zechariah (Program #1)

Zechariah (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

During the days of the degradation of the house of Israel, God’s word was primarily limited to his overcomers, the prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah. But as the people’s hearts began to turn back to the Lord, other prophets were still needed to bear Jehovah’s testimony and to release His speaking for His people in that age to accomplish His purpose and plan. Among these prophets were Haggai and Zechariah who shared in the captivity of Israel in Babylon but who were raised up by the Lord to accompany His people back to Judah and to encourage and exhort them to go back and rebuild the temple of Jehovah within Jerusalem.

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14 Jan 2023 Ezekiel (Program #22)

Ezekiel (Program #22) – The Return of God’s Glory to the House

Early in his ministry as recorded in chapters 9 and 10, the prophet Ezekiel had seen the glory of Jehovah depart from the temple and even from the earth. It was the gross sin of the people, the abominations, the whoredom, the carcasses and the degradation that caused the Lord’s glory to depart. But after receiving the vision of the completion of the building of the temple in chapter 43, Ezekiel saw another vision. This time a vision of the glory of Jehovah returning to the earth and filling the temple. This is Ezekiel 43:1-5, “Then He brought me to the gate, that is, the gate that faces toward the east. And the glory of the God of Israel was there … and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth was illuminated with His glory. And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, that is, like the vision that I had seen when He came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I had seen by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face. And the glory of Jehovah came into the house through the gate which faced toward the east. And the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court, and just then the glory of Jehovah filled the house.”

Following the vision of the glory of the Lord filling the house, the Lord had many things to say to Ezekiel as He also does to us concerning His house. Question is, do we have ears to hear and eyes to see the house of God?

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06 Jan 2023 Ezekiel (Program #14)

Ezekiel (Program #14) – God’s Recovery by Life

The Old Testament book of Ezekiel is broken up into four main sections. The first section is the amazing vision in chapter 1 of God’s move. Then from chapter 2 through 32 it covers God’s judgment and the degradation of God’s people. And then we jump to a very encouraging section – the third section which is God’s recovery by life from chapters 33 to 39. And this recovery by life will issue in God’s holy building from chapter 40 through the end of the book in chapter 48.

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03 Jan 2023 Ezekiel (Program #11)

Ezekiel (Program #11) – The Degradation of God’s People

The first chapter of Ezekiel with its awesome vision of the appearance of the glory of God is one of the truly remarkable and critically important chapters in all of the Bible. From there the book of Ezekiel is best understood by viewing it in its respective sections. The second section, a long portion from chapter 2 through chapter 32 reveals how Israel, once the treasure of God, the chosen and lovely people of God had become utterly rebellious and fit only for God to judge. This judgment finally comes in chapter 22, we’ll read about it in verses 16 to 19, “And you will be profaned through yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am Jehovah. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; all of them are brass and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver. Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because all of you have become dross, therefore I am now gathering you into the midst of Jerusalem.”

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21 Dec 2022 Lamentations (Program #3)

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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03 Dec 2022 Jeremiah (Program #10)

Jeremiah (Program #10) – A Word concerning Israel’s History

Many people think the book of Jeremiah is not easy to read nor to understand. Well, it maybe hard to ready because it seems to be full of the failures and degradation of God’s people, Israel. Yet despite page after page of such failures, there are wonderful crystals of God’s economy and of the new covenant and of Christ Himself. It’s hard to understand because much of it is based on the history of God’s people and what has led up to the time when God called a young man, even still in his mother’s womb to be a prophet for Him and speak on His behalf to the rebellious and unfaithful people of Israel. This was the prophet Jeremiah.

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07 Aug 2022 Jude (Program #6)

Jude (Program #6) – The Basic Structure of the Epistles of Peter and Jude (2)

The epistles of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude have occupied us now for the past nine weeks on this program. And today we conclude the life study of these three short but very significant books in the divine record. But not with the systematic or academically summary but rather by following the spiritual thread that links these three books. Though they are separated in the canon scripture by the three epistles of John in their subject and basic structure they bear a striking similarity and easily warrant being considered as a group.

All three were written against the back drop of the degradation and decline of the church, a time of apostasy. And therefore all three can be considered as an inoculation against the heresies that were damaging the testimony of the church at that time. Yet they also shared a basic structure that is one hundred percent positive and absolutely in concert with the central focus of the entire New Testament. And that is that we would all be brought into the real enjoyment of the Triune God. In order that through His operation in us we would be transformed that we would be built up into His spiritual habitation so that He could indwell us and that we would express Him for eternity.

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05 Jul 2022 1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #5)

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #5) – Being Fundamental in the Full and Walking According to the All-Inclusive Spirit

The children of Israel were already in degradation when ten of the twelve tribes separated following the leadership of Jeroboam.  This act of division was further compounded when they established an alternate place of worship, far from Jerusalem in the northern region of Dan.  The result was two kingdoms under two kings, fully breaking the principle of oneness that the Lord has established for them in Deuteronomy 12 when He declared time after time that His choice was Jerusalem and all the children of Israel must come uniquely to Jerusalem to present their offerings and worship Jehovah.  But two of the tribes under the kingship of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son remained faithful to God’s command and kept Jerusalem and the temple as their center.  Thou this pleased Jehovah and preserved a measure of blessing upon them, still the Lord was strict and willing to discipline both the kings and the people whenever their hearts strayed from Him and the law of Moses that He had commanded them to keep.

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01 Jul 2022 1 & 2 Kings (Program #20)

1 & 2 Kings (Program #20) – Concluding Word of the History of the Kings among Israel

During the 400-year period when the kings rule in Israel, God witnessed the hearts of His people drifting farther and farther away.  Except for a very few exceptions this degradation was actually led by the kings themselves.  Idolatry, immorality and general hardness of their hearts were the things that characterize this dark dark period in the history of God’s people.  But actually there is much that we can learn even from the failures of those kings.  Because as we have seen so often in this life study, the Old Testament is a book of types of typology and the New Testament is the fulfillment of those types.  We will explore the New Testament fulfillment of the type shown to us by the kings in this final program in the life study of Kings

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