Acts (Program #26) – The Conversion of Saul (2)

One of the classic lines of New Testament scripture is when Paul, anticipating martyrdom, declares, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”. And, surely he did remain faithful to the vision. But, when did he receive this heavenly vision? And, can we enter into the same vision?

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Acts (Program #25) – The Conversion of Saul (1)

One of the many magnificent stories recorded in the passages of the New Testament is the account of the conversion of the fierce persecutor of the church, Saul of Tarsus. The book of Acts gives a rather detailed account of how the Lord gained this fierce opposer. These details, when opened up from the scripture and in God’s shining, afford us one of the most inspiring accounts in all the Bible.

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Zechariah (Program #14) – The Prophecies of Encouragement (5)

Any careful consideration of the history of God’s people, Israel, reveals that for much of that history, Israel has suffered. Paul, even spoke in Romans, of Israel’s heart being hardened until the age of the Gentiles will be fulfilled. We know that, that fulfillment is complete at the Lord’s second coming, so what about Israel after that time? Well the prophet Zechariah is full of encouraging prophecies concerning the eventual household salvation of Israel at the Lord’s return especially in chapter 12. Listen to Zechariah in one of the sweetest verses in all of Scripture: “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they will look upon Me, whom they pierced; and they will wail over Him with wailing as for an only son and cry bitterly over Him with bitter crying as for a firstborn son.”

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Jeremiah (Program #5) – The Intrinsic Content of Jeremiah

In Hebrews, the New Testament book, the apostle Paul who is the likely writer of Hebrews quotes the prophet Jeremiah. Listen to Hebrews 8:10-11 “For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me.” This marvelous prophecy from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah revealing the coming new covenant impressed the apostle enough to include it in the New Testament. But this is certainly not the pointer in this Old Testament book to what God in His divine economy has in store for His elect.

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Ecclesiastes (Program #1) – Vanity of Vanities

The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon after his fall as described in 1 Kings 11:1-8 in his following after the foreign wives. Ecclesiastes begins, “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, the king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What advantage does a man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth stands forever. Also, the sun rises, and the sun sets…All things are wearisome; No one is able to tell it; The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, And what has been done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun…I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed, all is vanity and a chasing after wind…“

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Proverbs (Program #7) – Coming to Proverbs to Cultivate Our Regenerated New Man

Paul, the apostle tells us that the Bible has the potential to affect us when we read it in two very different ways. In 2 Corinthians 3:6 he says “Who has made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Do we have this realization when we come to the word of God?  The same words can either become Spirit and life to us or they can become dead letters to us. It all depends on how we come to the Bible and what kind of persons we are that will determine what we receive. We’re all fallen creatures with an old fallen nature and an old life the Bible calls the old man. When this old man comes to the Bible in order to find help to improve itself before God, the result will be predictable, the result of death.

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Psalms (Program #7) – David’s Concepts Concerning a Godly Life in Comparison a Godly Life in Comparison with His Inspired Praise of the Excellency of Christ (2)

The psalmist David had a particular perspective or point of view when he wrote the 8th psalm. After being intensely occupied with his own desperate messy situation in Psalms 3 through 7, his gaze turns to the heavens and his language and his psalm becomes equally heavenly. “When I see the heavens”, he writes in verse 3, “the works of Your fingers – the moon, the stars which You have ordained…”. Well at this point, David utters one of the great lines in all of Scripture, “What is mortal man that You remember him? And the Son of Man that You visit him?” This is a line so central to God’s eternal plan that Paul quotes it in the New Testament.

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Psalms (Program #5) – David’s Concepts Concerning a Godly Life in Comparison a Godly Life in Comparison with His Inspired Praise of the Excellency of Christ (1)

In Psalms chapter 1, David, the beloved King of Israel, extols the value of God’s law and exults the law to the uttermost. This is wonderful. But, recall the story of 2 Samuel when the same King David so grossly abuses his kingly authority to have an innocent man, even one of his generals murdered, so that he could steal away his beautiful wife, Bathsheba. In the span of this one sin, David breaks two of the most serious commandments, those which he exulted – murder and fornication. How could this happen, we ask? Well the answer comes from the apostle Paul in the New Testament – where the Bible reveals that although the law is good and holy and righteous, it is also powerless to help us because though it may motivate us to keep it, it cannot supply us with the life supply to meet its demands. So its demands fall upon the flesh for their strength. Both David in the Old Testament and Paul in the New Testament discovered this harsh reality the hard way. The question is, have we?

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Philemon (Program # 2) – A Brother Recommended for the Acceptance of the New Man

A picture is worth a thousand words. Today we have a wonderful picture from the book of Philemon illustrating the believers equal status in the New Man.

The apostle Paul gave the teaching of this in Colossians 3:11 where he said, in the New Man “… cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.”  But in the real life story of Philemon with his slave Onesimus we see this illustrated in a beautiful way.

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1 Timothy (Program #8) – A Good Minister of Christ

The apostle Paul reached the highest peak in his letter to young Timothy when he wrote at the end of Chapter 3:16 ” And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”

Surely godliness is a great mystery but in Christ this mystery become manifested. Following this marvelous revelation to Timothy, Paul goes on to warn him of the degradation that was about to befall the church. And then Paul gives Timothy a direct and personal exhortation with some very clear speaking that would equip Timothy to be a genuine minister of the New Testament Economy.

4:6 “If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed.“

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