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 #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 #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 #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 #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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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 #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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Matthew (Program #55) – The Kingdom Reward and the Parable of the Kingdom Reward

A rich young man who desired to do something in order to receive eternal life approached the Lord Jesus about this matter.   But the Lord’s word to him caused him to leave in utter discouragement at the impossibility that he could ever meet such requirement.  Jesus then use this occasion to review the matter not of salvation but of the reward awaiting those who follow Him into the kingdom.

The reward of the kingdom is NOT our salvation and the hope of our salvation.  This is something altogether different many believers have missed…

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Jeremiah (Program #18) – Jehovah’s Condemnation of and Punishment upon the Kings and Prophets of Judah

In the middle chapters of Jeremiah, the Lord is condemning and chastising the kings and prophets of Israel for how they had so fully turned their backs on Him. Listen to this verse from chapter 22, “I spoke to you in your prosperity; But you said, I will not listen. This has been your way from your youth, That you have not listened to My voice.” But despite how this must have deeply offended the very God that had brought them through so much and had proven Himself to them again and again, it’s in the midst of His exposing how utterly unrighteous His people had become that He offers the most hopeful and encouraging promise through the prophet Jeremiah. Just a few verses later, we hear “Indeed, days are coming, Declares Jehovah, When I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot; And He will reign as King and act prudently And will execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

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