Mark (Program #34) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (8)

Mark chapter 13, is a chapter that’s difficult to understand. In this chapter the Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples by way of prophecies concerning events that must occur before the ushering in of the kingdom age.

Many people studied this chapter focusing on these prophecies while missing the real significance of His speaking.  For in this chapter He is not just predicting the future events in order to entice us to follow the prophecies but rather He was preparing the disciples as well as all those who would follow the disciples to become His believers in future generations. This preparation was with a definite goal and purpose. Not merely to strengthen our faith in His word by accurately predicting future events. No.  Much more than that.; His speaking in this portion of scripture is to prepare all His seeking ones for the producing and bringing forth of the New Man.

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Mark (Program #15) – The Move of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (2) & (3)

Mark chapter 6 presents us with 4 seemingly unrelated cases. To our shallow understanding these 4 cases seems to be merely 4 separate stories of events that took place during the Lord’s earthly ministry. However if we receive even a little enlightenment we can see that once again the sequence in the divine record of how these events are unfolded is really marvelous.  And that when taken together these 4 cases really are layers of meaning and significance.

So here are 4 cases, 2 negative and 2 positive. That individually show us the rejection, hatred and justice even martyrdom that typifies the world’s response to the gospel. But collectively they fill us with encouragement, conviction and even a renewed determination to go forth to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth.

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Mark (Program #8) – The Ways the Slave-Savior Carried Out His Gospel Service (3)

After opening with the clear picture of meaning and contents of the glad tidings of the gospel. The book of Mark then give us the 5 cases in which the Lord Jesus carries out the gospel in His dealing with so many fallen people. The first of these cases involved a paralytic man who not only received healing from the Lord, but even more importantly at least in its’ significance was the forgiveness of sins.  We then had the case of a saved sinners, Matthew, the tax collector preparing a feast for His Savior and for many of His friends. This case was a case of enjoyment.

Three additional cases followed in chapter 2, and the first part of chapter 3. Each one depicting the carrying out of His gospel service. A gospel not only of forgiveness and of enjoyment but of joy, of satisfaction and freedom as well.

We come to another enjoyable, joy-filled, satisfying and liberating message from this life study of Mark.

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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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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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Job (Program #14) – The Significance in the Sequence of Job and the Psalms

As Christians we all hold the Bible as the infallible and inspired word of God. But not only are the words themselves divinely inspired even the arrangement of the book also bears God’s direct involvement. Take for instance the sequence of the various books in the Bible. Many do not actually follow the historic timeline yet the sequence in the divine record is truly marvelous. Consider the book of Job and the book of Psalms. They are separated by nearly a thousand years historically but Psalms immediately followed by Job in the Bible. What the Bible sequence reveals is that the divine revelation is not static, but rather shows a progression.  A progression that should also be matched in our experience.

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Nehemiah (Program #4) – The Reconstitution of the Nation of God’s Elect (2)

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah bear a strong intrinsic significance for the Lord’s recovery today. We should not think that the Old Testament is unrelated to us. The Bible is written in two sections – the Old Testament and the New Testament. The first section contains pictures while the second section contains the fulfillment of what is signified by the pictures. Without an intrinsic understanding of the Old Testament types, it is not easy to understand the fulfillment of God’s economy in the New Testament.

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1 Peter (Program #15) -Christian Life and Its Sufferings (2)

The word “grace” bears tremendous significance in the New Testament, yet like so many biblical terms, it has become almost a clichéd to many people and it’s been greatly devalued in the understanding of most Christians.  God’s unmerited favor has become the most common definition among believers.   While this does convey a certain  limited sense of the word, it’s obvious by considering Scriptures that this definition is grossly inadequate.

Consider Peter’s use of the word “grace” in 1 Peter 2:19-20 “for this is grace” he writes “if anyone, because of a consciousness of God, bears sorrows by suffering unjustly.  For what glory is it if, while sinning and being buffeted, you endure? But if, while doing good and suffering, you endure, this is grace with God.“

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1 Thessalonians (Program #3) – The Triune God Embodied in the Word to Produce a Holy Life for the Church Life (1)

The word of God is so marvelous, the more you discover its’ infinite riches and hidden treasures the more you realize that there is far more to see than we can ever possibly exhaust. Its’ structure, its’ order even the subtle ways in which several passages begin are full of meaning and significance.

For example consider a passage that you may have read hundreds of times and never really stop to consider. Paul begins his letter to the Church in Thessalonica not in a general way, but in way that it is unique from the way he open any of his letters to the other Churches.

“Paul and Silvanus,” he writes, I Thessolonians 1:1, “and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.”  Even in a simple greeting we just read we will see there is a lot of meaning here.

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