Psalms (Program #38) – Christ—The Reality of the Law as the Testimony and the Word of God

consider for a moment an interesting observation.  Suppose the ruler of a country were to pass a law legalizing corruption, what will that tell you of the character of that ruler?  It will likely tell you that this person, this one making such law was also corrupt himself.  You see, laws are actually a kind of portrait of the law-giver.  So when we come to the laws of God we shall realize that they are a portrait of the Person that gave them.  In another word, the laws given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai is a portrait of the Person of God, a portrait of Jesus Christ.  So when we come to a passage of Scripture such as the 119th Psalm with its 176 verses many speaking of the law, we should have the impression that what we are seeing is not God’s demands upon you and me but rather we are seeing Christ as God’s expression and also the one to whom we are coming that He may supply us with Himself in order that we as His members could live Him out fully meeting even surpassing God’s every demand.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #4) – Christ in God’s Economy versus the Law in Man’s Appreciation (3)

In our natural common mentality, the law of God easily assumes a preeminent position.  We can relate to the notion of keeping a high moral standard of conduct.  And surely this seems in line with what must be God’s plan and desire for mankind.  After all God Himself gave the commandments to Moses to pass on to His people, the children of Israel.  But there is a fundamental problem; when we afford the law the central position in our relationship to God and that is although it is good and righteous and holy, the law is powerless and must rely on man’s fallen flesh to carry it out.  Try as we may and regardless of how much desperate prayer expressing our earnest desire to carry it out we add to it,  the result is inevitable, an utter failure, leaving us defeated and condemned and spiritually dead.  Oh that our eyes would be open to see that this righteous law that so vividly portraits God’s holy nature has never occupied the central place in His plan.  For that place throughout eternity is reserved unchangingly for the Christ of God alone.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #2) – Christ in God’s Economy versus the Law in Man’s Appreciation (1)

Many of the 39 books of the Old Testament touched the matter of the law. The law generally refers to the commands that God delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai after the children of Israel had their exodus from Egypt. And the impact that these laws has had not just on God’s people but on all of western civilization is hard to overstate.

God’s people both in New and Old Testament heirs treasure the law of God.  But there is a key word in the New Testament that reveals something crucial concerning God’s entire economy and how the law relates to it.  In Rom 5:20 it says, “And the law entered in alongside that the offense might abound”  What does it mean that the law entered in alongside?  Well, we will discuss this in many more items relate to the law and the central focus of God’s economy on today’s program.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #8) – Living Christ for the Expression of God

After the division of Israel into two kingdoms, God was still able to point to some among His people that have not given up their proper standing and had maintained at least outwardly some devotion to His fundamental word.  God’s word at that time of course, consisted of the laws.  But many don’t realize the law came in two sections, both of which came through Moses.  The first section is the law of commandments, were the ten commandments we commonly referred to them.  These are the moral laws that God gave to His people cover all aspects of relationships.  The second section is called the ceremonial law, the laws governing the details of the offerings and the priesthood and the feasts that God established for His people.

Though the kings of Judah stood on the proper ground of Jerusalem and professed allegiance to all the laws of God, in reality they kept neither the moral law nor the ceremonial law.  The result was that ultimately they lost their possession and enjoyment of the good land that God had given them.  What can we, God’s New Testament people learn from such a tragic example?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 & 2 Kings (Program #12) – The Reign of Jehu Over Israel

Many prominent figures of the Old Testament are important not only because of the actual events associated with their lives historically but also because they represent or typify something greater and more significant than themselves.  For example, in the New Testament, Moses still typifies the law and similarly Elijah represents the prophets.  Of course, Moses and Elijah were godly and used by Him to advance His purpose in the Old Testament age.  But there is another Old Testament figure that was utterly evil and led God’s people into idolatry and inequity and is also referred to in the New Testament typifying the idolatry and inequity that still consume many of God’s people today.  Today we come to consider the evil prophetess Jezebel from the books of 1 & 2 Kings.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 & 2 Samuel (Program #9) – Samuel—A Man According to God

Through out the history of Israel only two men had ever been identified been raised up by God in three critical aspects, as priest, as prophet and as judge over Israel.  These two are Moses and Samuel. Samuel like Moses before him was unique and having such a position before Jehovah.  In many ways he was God’s representative on the earth and there were none that were higher than he.  Yet it is interesting that when the Lord instructed him in I Samuel chapter 9, to anoint a king over Israel with his status already intact as priest, prophet and judge we can see it would been easy for him to say at least in his heart “how can God ask me to anoint anyone to be above me?”  Yet in Samuel God had found a man who care nothing for his own position but who only care for what was on God’s heart.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Deuteronomy (Program #25) – The Final Exhortation and Charges, The Blessing of Moses

Deuteronomy, the mysterious little book with a very strange name. Actually it means re-speaking or second speaking as we have seen over the past weeks and this is the an account of Moses re-speaking the law with all of the statues and all the ordinances to a new generation of the children of Israel as they were about to enter into the land of Israel, the good land. But incorporated into this book were page after page of serious warnings of the curses that were befall Israel if they were to not listen to the word of Jehovah.

Near the end of the book, there is a long section, chapter 33, called the song of Moses that accounts in poetic form many incorporated in this book and it concludes this way, a very fitting conclusion to the entire book of Deuteronomy.  “So Israel dwelt securely, The fountain of Jacob in solitude, On a land of grain and new wine; And the heavens over him drop their dew. Happy are you, O Israel; who is like you? A people saved by Jehovah, The shield of your help And He who is the sword of your majesty! So your enemies shall come cringing to you, And you shall tread upon their high places.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Deuteronomy (Program #23) – Warning (Implying Grace) (1) and Christ in Deuteronomy – The Monument, the Altar, and the Offerings

In the land of Israel near the ancient city of Shechem they are two peaks.  One is called Mount Ebal and the other is Mount Gerizim. The two were separated by a narrow valleys and to this day one is called the Mountain of Cursing and the other is the Mountain of Blessing. Because it was here that Moses commanded the children of Israel to erect a monument to the law and an altar for burn offering and peace offering. Under the law man is cursed but under the cross of Christ were He was offered to God as the unique offering, God and man find peace and the very man that was formerly cursed is brought under the blessing of righteous and Holy God.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Deuteronomy (Program #22) – The Rehearsal of the Law (16)

Deuteronomy contains a lengthy section, 13 chapters actually where Moses rehearsed or repeated the law that had came down from Jehovah on Mt Sinai. He was repeating it to a new generation of the children of Israel that had never heard it before.

We come today to the final program dealingwith this rehearsal of the law and how it concluded gloriously with the children of Israel declaring that they would keep these commandments and walk in them and Moses saying to them, “today you had declared Jehovah to be your God that you would walk on His way and keep His statues, His commandments and His judgments and listen to His voice and He will set you high above all the nations which He has made for praise and for a name and for honor and that you will be a holy people to Jehovah your God as He has spoken.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Deuteronomy (Program #18) – The Rehearsal of the Law (12)

When Jehovah God gave the 10 commandments to Moses on Mt Sinai to pass on to the children of Israel, they failed to understand that God was giving them a portrait of Himself.  In any society, the laws of that society reflect the kind of person the law giver is. But not only did the 10 basic commandments review our God in His person so also do the detail ordinances and statues that followed.

Deuteronomy, is the rehearsing or re-speaking of the law to a new generation of Israelites waiting to enter into the good land. And each of them unveils more of what kind of God we have.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS