Mark (Program #24) – The Move of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (12)

The Lord Jesus said in Mark chapter 9 verses 42 through 45, “And whoever stumbles one of these little ones who believe into Me, it is better for him if a great millstone is placed around his neck and he is thrown into the sea.  And if your hand stumbles you, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life maimed than to have two hands and go away into Gehenna, into unquenchable fire.  And if your foot stumbles you, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into Gehenna.”  For a life study touching the believers reward and punishment in the next age.

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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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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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Jeremiah (Program #18) – Jehovah’s Condemnation of and Punishment upon the Kings and Prophets of Judah

In the middle chapters of Jeremiah, the Lord is condemning and chastising the kings and prophets of Israel for how they had so fully turned their backs on Him. Listen to this verse from chapter 22, “I spoke to you in your prosperity; But you said, I will not listen. This has been your way from your youth, That you have not listened to My voice.” But despite how this must have deeply offended the very God that had brought them through so much and had proven Himself to them again and again, it’s in the midst of His exposing how utterly unrighteous His people had become that He offers the most hopeful and encouraging promise through the prophet Jeremiah. Just a few verses later, we hear “Indeed, days are coming, Declares Jehovah, When I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot; And He will reign as King and act prudently And will execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

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Jeremiah (Program #9) – Israel’s Sin against Jehovah, Jehovah’s Punishment upon Israel (2)

During one of the dark hours in Israel’s history, Jehovah poured His heart out to Jeremiah, the prophet that He raised up to speak to Israel on His behalf. Listen to his word and see if you can sense in His speaking the anguish of a distraught husband over the unfaithfulness of a wife to whom He had been faithful to the uttermost. Jeremiah 3:6-9 “Then Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what Israel the apostate has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every flourishing tree and committed fornication there. And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return to Me; but she did not return…And I saw that because of all the adultery that Israel the apostate committed I divorced her and gave her a certificate of divorce, And because she treated her fornication lightly, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.”

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Jeremiah (Program #8) – Israel’s Sin against Jehovah, Jehovah’s Punishment upon Israel (1)

The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah that He held two things against Israel above all else. First, they had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters. And second, they had hewn out for themselves broken cisterns incapable of holding water. The context of this passage is in chapter 2 of Jeremiah. And in a way can be considered the conversation between a distraught husband and an unfaithful wife. Listen to this sweet and intimate way that Jehovah began His word to Israel, “I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, The love of your bridal days, When you followed after Me in the wilderness, In a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to Jehovah, The firstfruit of His increase;” (Jeremiah 2:2b-3a) As we consider these two great sins before Jehovah, sins that did not only plague Israel but also that we ourselves have to be constantly aware of.

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Isaiah (Program #12) – Jehovah’s Punishment over Ephraims Drunkards

In the gospel of Matthew, the Lord Jesus quoted from Isaiah regarding the hypocritical worship that confronted Him in every turn.  He said “these people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts stay far away from Me.”  It seems the same can be spoken regarding today’s situation.  If we are honest we have to admit that it even describes our own situation from time to time.  How does God lead His people out of religious falseness into genuine experience and worship?

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Jude (Program #2) – Evils of the Apostates and Their Punishment Under the Lord’s Judgment

Jude charges the believers in verses three and four in his epistle,  “…to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who of old have been written of beforehand for this judgment, ungodly men, perverting the grace of our God into licentiousness and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

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