Numbers (Program #22) – Fighting (3)

In the Old Testament book of Numbers there is the story of a gentile prophet named Balaam.  The Moabite king Balak had hired him to curse and prophesy against God’s people Israel, who Balak the king greatly feared.  Yet at each instance, as much as Balaam desire to please the king, whatever he spoke concerning Israel turned out not to be a curse but a blessing.  These parables recorded in Numbers 22 through 24 had a greater impact than just the Lord’s frustration of a heathen king with an evil intention towards God’s people.  These parables actually revealed how God views His people, whether the nation of Israel in the Old Testament or the church in this age despite the failures and weaknesses.  God sees the church as glorious, victorious and beautiful.  How can this be?  it’s because He sees the church, the believers, in Christ.

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Luke (Program #40) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (20)

The Bible is so marvelous.  Not only do the teachings convey truths to us, the parables and the stories illustrate those truths and even more marvelous, eventually we discover that even the arrangement and sequence of the story and accounts in the Bible help to underscore those truths. One example is found in Luke 18, where the Lord Jesus for the third time tries to unveil His coming death and resurrection to His disciples, but they simply do not have eyes to see or ears to hear. Then the Lord Jesus in a wonderful display of His sovereign arrangement heals a blind man. Who, in reality were the blind ones in this passage?

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Luke (Program #38) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (18)

Have you ever noticed how often the Lord Jesus spoke in parables to illustrate various aspects and great truths that He was presenting during His earthly ministry?   Parables are in effect pictures in words, pictures that can convey deep and profound truth with a simple story.  Some of the parables especially in Luke have a mysterious quality about them. Such as in Luke 16 when a story about an unrighteous steward who is praised for his unrighteous action was presented. This steward it turns out typifies us, servants of God, serving with Him to bring in His kingdom.
Now we come to Chapter 18, and a parable that represents God as an unrighteous judge.  Is He really unrighteous? and should we really serve Him unrighteously? well, surely not.  But the discovery of what this parable do depict is the focus of our life study today.

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Luke (Program #34) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (14)

Luke 15 is a chapter with three tremendous parables including one of the best known in the whole Bible, the parable of the prodigal son. When you take these three parable together, they reveal to us the three persons of the Godhead. The Son is seen the first parable, the Spirit in the second, and the Father in the third, and all three bring us to salvation. Then, we come to another parable at the beginning of chapter 16. At first, it seems terribly out of place. The story of a steward, who threatened with the loss of His position, unrighteously deals with his master’s assets only to gain His praise. But as we will see today, these parables fit very well together.

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Luke (Program #17) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in Galilee (8)

The progression in the gospel of Luke is truly marvelous. Chapter 7 concludes with several very touching stories of sinful people being forgiven and drawn to the Lord Jesus in love. Surely their cases match our own. Then after teaching His follower with parables we come to the most interesting passage in chapter 8, where the Man-Savior instead of acknowledging His flesh mother and brothers, identified His chosen ones, His believers as His real family members and relatives.

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Mark (Program #12) – The Parables of the Kingdom (2)

All genuine Christian believers love to hear the preaching of the gospel. We admire greatly those whom the Lord had raised up with the gift of evangelism and most of us prayed fervently for the spread of the gospel.  But as such believers we should also asked ourselves a couple of basic questions regarding the gospel.

First, what is the gospel?  Then, what is the goal of the gospel?  If our answer to the first question did not incorporated the realization that the gospel really is just Christ Himself then we need some further enlightenment.  And if our answer to the question in regarding to the goal of the gospel was something along the line that the goal of the gospel is to save sinners so that they can go to heaven then we should pray as Paul the apostle prayed that the Father in His mercy would grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.

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Mark (Program #11) – The Parables of the Kingdom (1)

The true gospel of God always issues in the kingdom of God. In the gospel of Mark chapter 4 there are 4 parables of the kingdom of God.

Prior to chapter 4 we had seen the beginning with its contents in Mark chapter 1 and the ways of carrying out the gospel service with the auxiliary acts in chapter 2 and 3.  So the simple message here is that the gospel issues in the kingdom of God.

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Matthew (Program #68) – Prophecy of the Kingdom (7)

The parables in Matthew chapters 24 and 25 are the Lord’s clear word to us regarding His second coming and many of the things that happened at that time. Interestingly, all three categories of people on the earth are covered in these parables. The Jews in Israel, the believers in the Church, and the unsaved, the gentiles, the nations.  If we know these parables, we have a very good picture of what’s ahead.  And what’s ahead for the believers, the Christians, is something that every saved one should know.

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Matthew (Program #65) – Prophecy of the Kingdom (4)

Of all the parables in the final chapters of Matthew, none is more striking and sobering than the parable of the ten virgins in chapter 25. Coupled with the other parables around it, we can clearly see that at His Coming, the Lord will judge and examine His people, the believing and saved ones. This judgment will not be concerning sin or our eternal salvation, of that we have been assured. But in the matters of watchfulness and faithfulness we will be examined. Not at the risk of our salvation, but at the potential risk of the reward of the enjoyment of the kingdom.

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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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