James (Program #10) – A Life Not Fully According to and for God’s New Testament Economy (1)

In Acts chapter 2, the apostle Peter spoke boldly to his Jewish kinsman, “be saved from this crooked generation.”   Some time later, the apostle  Paul reminded the Jewish believers that God had rescued them out of the present evil age.  The context of both passages makes it clear that these strong words, “the crooked generation” and “the present evil age” both refer to the religious system that had become modern Judaism at the time when God was ushering the New Testament economy.

Peter and Paul made it very clear God was calling people out of that religious system.  Yet in other New Testament passages, it is equally clear that the apostle  James was not only comfortable receiving the Jews into the fellowship of believers, he was even willing to accommodate the major practices of Judaism into the church.  Well what lessons can we glean from this confused situation today?

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Ezekiel (Program #25) – The Holy Land and the Holy City

Clearly the subject and central focus of the last section of the book of Ezekiel is the temple, the house of God. Show the house to the house, the Lord tells Ezekiel and that is exactly what he does in the final chapters. Yet, there’s a very profound postscript to Ezekiel’s vision that is found in the final chapters of the book and that is the land upon which the temple sits. In fact the land and the house are the central focus of the entire Old Testament. Recall Jehovah’s words to Joshua following the death of Moses as the children of Israel were encamped at the border of the good land in Canaan, “Moses My servant is dead; now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you, as I promised Moses…Be strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.” (Joshua 1:2-3,6). Well if the temple typifies the church as the fulfillment of the house of God, what then does this land typify?

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Ezekiel (Program #23) – The Priests and the Offerings

The Lord revealed to Ezekiel that above all, He desires a place on the earth where He can put the soles of His feet that would also be the place of His throne. In other words, God desires to have a dwelling place, a place of rest and satisfaction; and, a place where He can administrate His heavenly rule and His divine move over the entire earth. This is the real significance of the house of God as revealed to Ezekiel and as revealed to us, the church, which is the reality of the house of God in the New Testament. But after we receive such a high revelation concerning the significance of God’s building, we need a further realization as to the kind of persons that are qualified to serve Him in His house.

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Ezekiel (Program #20) – The Temple and Side Chambers

The gospel of John gives us the unforgettable picture of Jesus coming into the temple in Jerusalem. And in the display of the most righteous anger, the sight of God’s house being turned into a place of merchandise and commerce, He cleanses the temple – overturning the tables and chasing the peddlers away. Immediately following this comes a profound exchange between the Lord Jesus and the religionists. In John 2:18-21, “The Jews then answered and said to Him, What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, This temple was built in forty-six years, and You will raise it up in three days? But He spoke of the a temple of His body.” What makes this word so meaningful is that John clearly identifies Jesus as the real temple, the real house of God. This means even as we consider the temple in the Old Testament such as in Ezekiel’s great vision in chapters 40 to 48, we must realize that this is a type of the Lord Jesus Himself and of the church, the New Testament, the enlargement of God’s house.

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Ezekiel (Program #19) – The Altar

God’s eternal purpose is to have a building and the center of that building is the altar. This is a picture of the cross of Christ – apart from which we cannot have the church.

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Hebrews (Program #56) – The Experiences of Christ for the Church Life

The book of Hebrews marvelously presents the heavenly Christ again and again. But, interwoven in the presentation is God’s purpose, the Church. Stay with us with for today’s life study of the Bible as we see the wonderful Christ together with the glorious Church in the book of Hebrews.

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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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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 #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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