Hebrews (Program #38) – The Working of the Law of Life

We have to realize God has an eternal plan. This plan is all worked-out by setting up a model and this model was Jesus Christ.

Hebrews, a New Testament book, full of Old Testament types and shadows embodies the central theme of God’s New Testament revelation. That is, that He desires to produce many sons and bring them fully into glory according to the pattern of the first born son, Christ. We will explore this great topic of Scripture in today’s life-study of the Bible.

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Lamentations (Program #4) – God’s Eternal Being and His Throne

The book of Lamentations has often been praised for its rich poetic expression of the human suffering and anguish that was experienced by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. And from this perspective, it is an astonishing work. But recall that Jeremiah, more than any other Old Testament figure, has seen much and experienced much of God in the principle of God’s New Testament economy. Even in the midst of His lamentation, he offers a very new testament encouragement in 3:22-24, “It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness”, he wrote, “that we are not consumed, For His compassions do not fail; They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; Therefore I hope in Him.” It is Jeremiah’s realization and expressions of God’s New Testament economy that should leave the deepest and most profound impression on us in reading his two Old Testament books.

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Hebrews (Program #37) – The Law of Life

God operates in our lives not so much according to what we feel He should be doing but according to the accomplishment of His own purpose.  For this He has given us a new covenant.

Today’s life study will remind many of our listeners of the life study of Romans that we recently completed.  These two books do overlap a lot, it seems, despite the complete different audience and how their truth are presented.

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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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Lamentations (Program #2) – The Third Lamentations

The book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah after he had witnessed the devastation that had befallen on the nation and people of Israel.  Altogether he includes five lamentations in this short book.   The third of which is perhaps the most important for us, God’s New Testament people because this lamentation is one of the prophets being identified with the rebellious people of God, the apostate nation of Israel.  Even though Jeremiah himself had remained utterly faithful to the Lord.  Yet because he still was an Israelite, God was demonstrating to him that every true prophet must identify with God’s people even in their chastisement and suffering.  But another striking element of this lamentation bears a uniquely New Testament quality and even hints of God’s desire to restore His chosen people, even to impart Himself to the deepest part of their being.

With that in view, now listen closely to Jeremiah’s own words in this third lamentation. “It is Jehovah’s loving-kindness that we are not consumed, For His compassions do not fail;They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; Therefore I hope in Him. Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him, To the soul that seeks Him.“

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Hebrews (Program #36) – The New Covenant

Hallelujah for the new covenant! In the new covenant we’re just the happy inheritors. Our need is just to take, receive and enjoy.

Laws are a part of every aspect of life. We often think of laws as requirements that are outwardly placed on us, keeping us under an expectation to carry them out. But the Bible presents another kind of law to us, laws that God installs in us, full of the power of His divine life. These laws, the laws of the new covenant, are our focus today on the life study of the Bible.

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Lamentations (Program #1) – Introduction

No two books of the Bible are probably more linked than the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Lamentations.  Jeremiah, a book of God’s judgment and punishment upon His rebellious people Israel is followed by the prophet Jeremiah’s lamentations over the sufferings of Israel.  Listen to his word in the first of these lamentations, chapter 1:1-2 “How the city sits alone That was full of people! She who was once great among the nations Has become like a widow; She who was a princess among the provinces Has become tributary.  Bitterly she weeps in the night, And her tears are on her cheeks. There is no one to comfort her Among all her lovers; All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies.”  This was Jeremiah’s speaking of the utter destruction and devastation that had been visited upon the city by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.  And the suffering of Jeremiah reflects that of all of God’s people, especially no doubt the few righteous among them.

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Hebrews (Program #35) – A Heavenly Minister with a More Excellent Ministry

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked to have you all to sift you as wheat.  But I have made petition concerning you that your faith would not fail; and you, once you have turned again, establish your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)  Why didn’t Peter’s faith fail?  It’s because the Lord was praying for him.

Many portions of Scripture talk about salvation, and most of us as Christians feel that we understand this term well enough.  But do we really know what it is to be “saved to the uttermost,” as spoken of in Hebrews 7?  We will see this higher view of salvation in today’s life-study of the Bible.

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Hebrews (Program #34) – The Indestructible Life

We should really open to the Lord and to the Word, and to this ministry, to learn more, appreciate more, and experience and enjoy more of Christ as our High Priest.  The New Testament book of Hebrews shows us a kingly and majestic view of Christ in His priesthood – offering, ministering, and saving.  These three functions of our heavenly High Priest will open up our heart and uplift our appreciation of God’s full salvation.

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Jeremiah (Program #25) – The Foundation of the New Covenant

The Bible reveals that God’s heart desire is to have close and intimate contact with man, to be one with man and even to come into man, as His life.   In order to accomplish this, God has made many covenants or promises with man throughout history.  But of all these covenants only two are counted by God.  The Old Testament covenant of the law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and the New Testament covenant of grace enacted by the Lord Jesus on the cross on Calvary.  Although this New Covenant was not enacted until hundreds of years later, it is clearly foretold in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.  In chapter 31, “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.”  Marvelous New Covenant seen in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.

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