The Cornerstone (4-23-06)

The Cornerstone
Bible Study Time 4-23-06

In Psalm 118, the psalmist praised the Lord, saying:

Psalms 118:21,22 (NKJ)
21 I will praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

In days of old, the stone masons would cut the stone which would then be carried to the construction site. If the stone didn’t fit, the builders would cast it aside. In Psalm 118, the psalmist praises the Lord because the stone which was rejected by the builders has become the chief cornerstone of the building.

Of coarse, this is a reference to Jesus Christ and the fact that He came to earth as the cornerstone of the kingdom of God. He was perfectly designed by God to complete the work of the kingdom of God.

God started building the kingdom at Mt. Sinai when He gave the Law of Moses, but the Law was not able to bring in the promised eternal kingdom. The Old Testament Kingdom was glorious by human standards. Heads of state came from all around to see the glory of it, but that kingdom fell far short of God’s standard for the promised eternal kingdom. The Old Testament kingdom had divisions and rivalries within the kingdom, not to mention the idolatry and immorality. The eternal kingdom will have none of these things. The Law was perfect, but it lacked the power to bring humans beings into the righteousness of God.

Jesus Christ came into the world to shed the blood of the New Covenant which put the Law of God in the hearts of those who believe in Jesus.

Romans 8:3-4 (NKJ)
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Jesus Christ was the rock who was perfectly suited to complete the work of the kingdom. He came performing mighty miracles and preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, but He was rejected by the builders.

The builders were the religious leaders of Jesus day. They were the ones who were supposed to be building the kingdom of God, but when they saw Jesus, they decided that He was not fit for the kingdom of God so they cast Him aside and crucified Him on the cross of Calvary. Jesus Christ is the stone who was rejected by the builders but will someday still become the cornerstone of the kingdom.

Zechariah speaks of the cornerstone and says that the cornerstone will come from the tribe of Judah. As we know, Jesus Christ was of the house and lineage of David and was, therefore, of the tribe of Judah. As Jacob lay upon his death bed, he gave this blessing to Judah, saying:

Genesis 49:10 (NIV)
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

The scepter was the symbol of kingdom authority, and Jacob knew that the scepter would be given to a descendant of Judah and that all the nations of the earth would obey him. When Jesus comes to rule over the earth, He will be known as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Isaiah also spoke of the cornerstone, saying:

Isaiah 28:16 (NKJ)
16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; . . .

But Isaiah also said that this precious stone would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Isaiah 8:14). Well, that fits the analogy. When the builders cast off one of the stones, it makes sense that someone may stumble over it. Isaiah said that the nation of Israel will stumble over this stone from heaven.

Jesus Christ came to earth, born into the tribe of Judah, but before He could take the scepter of the kingdom, He was rejected and cast aside by the builders of the kingdom. At one point the Lord Jesus asked the Jewish leaders about the meaning of Psalm 118. He asked:

Luke 20:17 (NKJ)
17 . . . "What then is this that is written: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone'?

Jesus’ point was clear. They could reject Him. They could kill him. But He would still become the chief cornerstone of the kingdom. This infuriated them because it implied that there was a power in heaven which was greater than they, and that there was nothing they could do to overthrow the plan of God.

Jesus wanted them to really think about what they were doing. They needed to think about the consequences of their actions. Jesus went on to say:

Luke 20:18 (NIV)
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

Jesus warned these “builders of the kingdom of God” that they had better not be too hasty in their decision to cast off this rock for those who do will either stumble over the rock and be broken to pieces or they will be crushed when the rock falls on them.

In Acts, Chapter 4, Peter and John were brought before the council of Jews for healing a lame man and preaching the resurrection of Christ. At the hearing Peter revealed the grace of God by offering them salvation through the cornerstone which they had rejected. Verse 9 says:

Acts 4:9-12 (NKJ)
9 "If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well,
10 "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
11 "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'
12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

These men were stumbling over the rock which they had cast aside, and they were about to be broken into pieces. History tells us that by the year 70 A.D. the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans, and the Jews were either killed or driven from the city. Peter offered them salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, but they steadfastly refused.

In I Peter, Chapter 2, Peter encouraged the Jewish believers, saying:

1 Peter 2:6-9
6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,"
8 and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Peter wrote these words to the Jewish believers. He did not write it to the unbelieving Jews, and neither did he write it to the believing Gentiles. The Gentiles were never told that they would become a royal priesthood or a holy nation. Paul spoke to us, as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, and said that we too are a special people. He said that we are:

Titus 2:13-14 (NKJ)
13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

There is no word here about a royal priesthood or a holy nation. The Church is composed of a heavenly people and our hope is the appearing of Christ, but the hope of Israel relates to this earth. Peter was looking for the day when Christ will return to establish the earthly kingdom, and that is exactly what the psalmist had in mind when he said, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Let’s look at that once again in verse 19 of Psalm 118.

Psalms 118:19-24,26 (NKJ)
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, and I will praise the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD, through which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This was the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! . .

When we sing verse 24, we usually emphasize the word DAY and say, this is the DAY the Lord has made, but the context shows that the emphasis should be on the word LORD. This is the day the LORD has made because He is the One who has made the rejected stone the chief cornerstone. He is the One who has brought about the fulfillment of the promised kingdom. In that day the nation of Israel will sing, this is the day the Lord has made, and they will sing, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

When Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey just before His crucifixion:

Matthew 21:9 (NKJ)
9 . . . the multitudes . . . cried out, saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' Hosanna in the highest!"

Obviously, the crowds believed that Jesus was the Messiah who had come in the name of the Lord. It was not the common people who rejected the cornerstone of God; it was the builders, the religious leaders of the people of God. They were the ones who had the authority to put their faith in Christ and offer up the reigns of government, and Christ was not about to overthrow the established government of God.

These religious leaders were determined to cast this rock aside, and they were blinded to the consequences. They rejected Christ, and their city was destroyed, but far worse than that is the fact that someday they will stand before God at the Great White Throne of judgment where they will be sentenced to the lake of fire.

Jesus said that some would stumble over the rock while others would be crushed by the rock when the rock falls on them. At the end of the tribulation period, Jesus Christ will return as the cornerstone of the kingdom, and this time He will come with a sword in His hand. He will not be rejected at His second coming. At that time, He will crush the empire of the antichrist as well as the unbelieving Jews.

Daniel saw these things in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the human statue. The statue represented the Gentile empires that would rule over Israel before the setting up of the kingdom. The empires were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the Empire of the antichrist. Daniel said:

Daniel 2:44-45 (NKJ)
44 "And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
45 "Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold-- the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."

In this way the hope of Psalm 118:22 will be fulfilled; the stone which the builders rejected will return from heaven to destroy the Gentile nations, and that stone will become the chief cornerstone of the eternal kingdom of righteousness.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

The God of the Living (4-16-06)

The God of the Living
Bible Study Time 4-16-06

In Mark, Chapter 12, the Sadducees came to the Lord Jesus with some of their trick questions. As unbelievable as it may sound, the Sadducees were religious leaders, and they did not believe in the resurrection from dead. How can you be a religious leader and not believe in life after death? Obviously, they did not have much to offer the people in terms of hope, and if you’re like me, your probably wondering what on earth even possessed them to get involved in religion in the first place?

That question seems to be answered for us in passages like Mark, Chapter 12. These men were not interested in helping people find God, and they were not interested in helping people find salvation. They were interested in only one thing, and that one thing was power. They loved the power that religion gave them to control the lives of the people.

Well, when Jesus came along teaching the scriptures with authority, they felt threatened, and they hated Jesus. So they came to Jesus time and time again trying to trap Him with their questions. In Mark 12, they said:

Mark 12:19-27 (NKJ)
19 "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

Then they described a hypothetical situation in which a married man died with no children. Each of his six brothers in succession married his surviving wife, but each of his brothers also died without children, and then the woman died. The question for Jesus was this:

Mark 12:23 (NKJ)
23 " . . . in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife."

The Lord Jesus, of coarse, knew that they did not believe in the resurrection, and so He could see their hypocrisy and their ignorance concerning the issue of the resurrection. Drawing upon His divine wisdom, the Lord said:

Mark 12:24 (NKJ)
24 . . . "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?
25 "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
26 "But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?
27 "(God) is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken."

What a beautiful answer! They quoted Moses in their question, and He answered them with Moses. He said, “Have you not read the book of Moses? In it God said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and that means that God is not the God of the dead, but He is the God of the living.”

Just think about that. Isn’t that a powerful statement? God is the God of the living. Even in the first chapter of Genesis, it’s clear that God is the God of the living. On the fifth day God said:

Genesis 1:20,21,24 (NKJ)
20 "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, . . ."
21 (And) God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves . . .
24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind

Our God is the not the God of the dead; He’s the God of the living. He is the life giving force of the universe. By the word of His mouth, He created all living things. But notice what happened when man was created in Genesis 2. Verse 7 says:

Genesis 2:7 (NKJ)
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Certainly, we have to agree with the psalmist when he spoke to the Lord and said, with You is the fountain of life (Psalm 36:9). Life, itself, flows from God as easily as the water flows from the snowed capped mountains in the spring. God spoke the word and all living creatures came into being. He formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Our God is the God of the living and with Him is the fountain of life.

He is the God of the living because He is the living God. We do not serve a God made of wood or stone. We serve the living God. The heart of fallen man has a hard time with this. Human reasoning resists the idea of a living God because that implies that man is subject to a power that is higher than he.

Today, we idolize wealth and power and those who have wealth and power, but in ages past, people made idols of wood or stone. After they carved them to suit themselves, they declared them to be god. In this way they could create a God who was subject to them. This infuriated God, so when He gave the Law, the very first commandment He gave was:

Exodus 20:3-6 (NKJ)
3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Again, the point is clear, man is indeed subject to the living God. He is not subject to our authority, but we are subject to His, and He has His own standard of righteousness which is different from our own. In Isaiah 55, He says:

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJ)
8 " . . . My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," . . .
9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

Man’s natural inclination is to resist God’s authority, but God says, remember, I am a jealous God, and I will punish your iniquity. However, I am a merciful God, and I will show mercy to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Through the ages, God has demonstrated for Jews and Gentiles alike that He is the true and the living God by His judgments and also by His mercy. He destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but He revealed His mercy by sparing the city of Nineveh when they repented. The God of the Bible is the true and the living God, and He has the ultimate authority over the affairs of the earth.

When Jesus Christ came to the earth, He revealed to us the true and the living God. John spoke of Jesus and said:

John 1:14,17,18 (NKJ)
14 . . . the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

The Lord Jesus came as the very expression of the true and the living God, and with Him came the life giving force of God. John said:

John 1:1,4 (NKJ)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Jesus said,
John 6:48-51,47 (NKJ)
48 "I am the bread of life.
49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 "This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
47 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.

Over and over again the Old Testament writers spoke of the death, burial and resurrection of the Christ. In amazing detail, David spoke in Psalm 22 of the crucifixion. In the first verse, he utters the very words of Christ upon the cross, saying:

Psalms 22:1 (NKJ)
1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

In verse 16, he elaborates, saying:

Psalms 22:16-18 (NKJ)
16 . . . dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.

David saw the cross of Christ, but he also saw the resurrection of Christ. Psalm 16 says:

Psalms 16:9-10 (NIV)
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

As Peter said on the Day of Pentecost:

Acts 2:29-32 (NIV)
29 "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.
30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.
31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.
32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

What a beautiful message for this Easter Sunday! It’s just as beautiful now as it was when Peter spoke it 2000 years ago. Jesus Christ is alive. He is risen from the dead.

Even today, those of us who know the Lord as Savior can stand up with Peter and say that we, too, are witnesses of the fact that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. We have not seen Him as Peter and the other apostles did, but we have experienced the resurrection life that He gives us by His Spirit. Jesus Christ is the fountain of life, and He says:

John 7:37-38 (NKJ)
37 "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

John 4:14 (NKJ)
14 "whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

This resurrection life, however, is just a down payment on the glory which shall be revealed in us. Someday, Jesus Christ will change these mortal bodies of ours and give them immortality. Whether living or dead, we shall all be changed.

Paul said that the first man, Adam, became a living being when God blew into him the breath of life, but the last Adam, who is Christ, became a life giving spirit. We have borne the image of the man of dust, but we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man, who again is Jesus Christ. Already, we are citizens of heaven from which we look for the Savior who shall change our lowly body and make it like unto His glorious body.

As you celebrate Easter today, I hope you will rejoice with me in the fact that our God is not the God of dead, but He is the God of the living.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning, it’s been a pleasure studying with you. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

The Faithful Spies (4-9-06)

The Faithful Spies
Bible Study Time 4-9-06

When the children of Israel left Mt. Sinai, it took them 11 days to reach Kadesh Barnea on the border of the promised land. As we see in Deuteronomy, Chapter 1, and verse 21, when they arrived at Kadesh Barnea , Moses said:

Deuteronomy 1:21 (NKJ)
21 'Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.'

Well, after seeing God part the waters of the Red Sea and after seeing the awesome signs of God’s presence at Mt. Sinai, you would think that the children of Israel would be filled with confidence in this God who had promised to protect them and give them the land of Canaan. But such was not the case. In verse 22, Moses said:

Deuteronomy 1:22 (NKJ)
22 " . . . everyone of you came near to me and said, 'Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.'

Don’t you such kind of have to wonder where this is coming from. God said, go, and now they were saying, wait a minute, first let’s send some spies to spy out the land. This was not God’s idea.

Actually, this venture was doomed to bring failure and disappointment to the children of Israel because they were sending these spies in to see if they could conquer the land, and God never told them that they could conquer the land. God said, I have set the land before you. I have given you the land. The children of Israel needed to rely upon the strength of the Lord. Sending these spies in was only going to reveal their own human weaknesses unless they were willing to look through the eyes of faith.

The fact that the children of Israel wanted to send in spies to view the land was not a bad idea in and of itself. If they had said, we know that God is willing and able to give us the land. God has promised us the land, and what He has promised He will do, but let’s just send in some men to take a look so that with God’s help we can come up with the very best plan of attack. If they had said this, I am confident God would have been very pleased. God does not want us to be foolish as we walk by faith. That’s why Moses said in verse 23:

Deuteronomy 1:23-25 (NKJ)
23 "The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe.
24 "And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.
25 "They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, 'It is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us.'

Then Moses reminded them of their rebellion and said:

Deuteronomy 1:26 (NKJ)
26 "Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God;

Here we see what was really in the hearts of the people. Their hearts were full of doubt and fear, and that’s why they wanted to send in the spies. They were just looking for an excuse to keep from going into the land.

Now let me just stop and ask you this. What excuses are you making to God today? What excuses have you made that are holding you back from all that God has called you to be and all that God has called you to do. Excuses like these are all based on the lies of the devil.

The devil was deceiving the children of Israel to keep them from going into the promised land. It is sad how susceptible they were to the lies of the devil. But that is the way human nature is. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to see through the lies of the devil.

All that the children of Israel could see was the danger ahead. They could not see the powerful deliverance that God provided for them when they left the land of Egypt, when all the firstborn sons of Egypt were killed by the death angel because they were not covered by the blood of the Passover lamb. They had forgotten about the fact that the Egyptians loaded them down with all kinds of gold and silver and clothing before they left Egypt. God had revealed His awesome power not only in Egypt but also at the Red Sea and then again at Mt. Sinai.

Satan’s deception is also made evident by the fact that the children of Israel really had no viable alternative to going on into the land of Canaan, but still they refused to go in. Did they really think they would be safer in the wilderness? Where would they get water? What would they eat? But for the power of God, they would die in the wilderness. Satan had truly blinded their eyes to the glorious power of God.

All they had hoped for was at their fingertips. While in Egypt, they had prayed for God to deliver them, and God sent Moses. They had hoped to return to the promised land, and now here they were encamped along its border. All they had to do was go and possess the land, but did they go? No. They rebelled against the command of the Lord their God. Moses said:

Deuteronomy 1:27,28 (NKJ)
27 " . . . you complained in your tents, and said, 'Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 'Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there."'

This provides a great lesson for us today. How many people today are blinded by the devil to the great salvation which God has provided for us? All of the joy and all of the peace and all of the love that people are desperately seeking, God is offering through Jesus Christ. All we have to do is reach out and take it.

All we have to do is look back at the mighty works that God did for the nation of Israel to know that the God of the Bible is the true and the living God. All we have to do is look at the great miracles that Jesus performed, and we can know that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. All we have to do is look at the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and we can know that all of the Old Testament scriptures were given to lead the world to Jesus Christ. All of these things God has provided, but still people shrink back in unbelief, and Paul says that:

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (KJV)
3 . . . if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

So people today are blinded to the truth of the gospel just as the Jews at Kadesh Barnea were blinded to the kingdom which lay before them, and like the Jews at Kadesh Barnea people today have no real alternative to Jesus Christ. There is not another religion on the face of the earth that offers forgiveness for sin. All other religions are religions of good works. Just do the best you can and then hope for the best. They do not offer forgiveness for sin because they have no means of forgiveness.

Jesus Christ offers forgiveness for sin because He died on the cross for our sins. He made atonement for all sin. Therefore, He can offer forgiveness. No other religion comes close. People who try good works for salvation often end up frustrated, and they turn back to their old ways. This is like turning back to Egypt with all of its misery and despair.

Jesus Christ is the only real alternative when it comes to hope for the future. He offers forgiveness for sin and the hope of eternal life. If you find yourself being paralyzed by sin, and you’re afraid of dying because you don’t know what monsters you will face on the other side, turn to Jesus Christ and believe. Paul wrote to Timothy and said:

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJ)
7 . . . God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

I spoke to you a moment ago about Weldon and Doris Rightmer who served the Lord faithfully at the Liberty Heights Chapel for so many years. Recently, Doris Rightmer was in the hospital for some surgery, and she was such a source of encouragement to everyone who came to visit her. When people came to see her, she would quote this verse:

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJ)
7 . . . God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

What a beautiful testimony! Whenever we find ourselves experiencing a little fear, we can turn to the Lord and trust in Him. That’s what King David did. He said in Psalms 53:

Psalms 56:3 (KJV)
3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

The Jews were afraid of the giants on the other side of the Jordan River, and if you find yourself being afraid of the giants that are on the other side of this life, you can put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you believe that He died for your sins, He will forgive your sins, and He will give you eternal life. When the children of Israel shrunk back in fear because of the giants in the land of Canaan, Moses said:

Deuteronomy 1:29-30 (NKJ)
29 . . . Do not be terrified . . . of them.
30 'The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

Moses did not try to deny that Israel’s enemies were real. He knew they were going to have to face many strong enemies, but He also knew the power of God. He knew that God was going to fight for them with the same power that He had revealed in Egypt and the same power that He had revealed at the Red Sea. He knew that if God be for us, who can be against us?

Now before we close I’d like for us to look at Joshua, Chapter 1, for just a moment, where God speaks to Joshua after the death of Moses and, of coarse, after Israel has wondered in the wilderness for forty years. In verse 1 we read:

Joshua 1:1-3 (NKJ)
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying:
2 "Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to . . . the children of Israel.
3 "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.

Joshua 1:10-11 (NKJ)
10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,
11 "Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, 'Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'"

Then Chapter 2 says:

Joshua 2:1 (NKJ)
1 Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there.

Of coarse we know that God spared Rahab’s life because she believed in God, but here we see that Joshua sent out spies before leading the children of Israel into the promised land. As I mentioned earlier, it’s not a lack of faith to gather information so that we can make plans for the future. It’s not a lack of faith, that is, if we do it believing in the power of God and trusting God to lead us in His perfect will. God does not want us to be foolish in our approach to the future. He wants us to be wise and to walk in wisdom.

Did you know that God gave us the Bible so that we can make good, solid plans for the future? He didn’t want us to go into eternity without knowing the means by which we could be received eternal life. The Bible is God’s way of providing us with the information that we need.

If you don’t know Christ as your Savior, the question for you today is this. Will you be willing to make your plans for eternity based on the information that God has provided in His word. The Bible says that:

John 3:16 (KJV)
16 . . . God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure being with you, and I’ll look forward to being with again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

The End of the Age (4-2-06)

The End of the Age
Bible Study Time 4-2-06

After His resurrection from the dead, the Lord Jesus sent out His disciples saying:

Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJ)
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

We know that God encouraged the nation of Israel many times with the thought of His faithful presence with them. When Moses was turning over his mantel of leadership to Joshua, he said to the nation:

Deuteronomy 31:6-8 (NKJ)
6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid . . . ; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."
7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.
8 "And the LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."

This commitment that God made to Israel turned out to be both conditional and unconditional. Later on, in the same chapter of Deuteronomy 31, the Lord said to Moses:

Deuteronomy 31:16-17 (NKJ)
16 . . . "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, . . . and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
17 "Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'

The conditional character of God’s commitment to Israel was typical of the old covenant Law of Moses. God had made it very clear from the beginning that the Law of Moses was a conditional covenant. He said, “If you keep my commandments, I will bless you, but if you fail to keep my commandments, I will curse you.”

There is a sense, however, in which God was making an unconditional commitment to Israel when He said I will not leave you or forsake you. As He said these words, He was anticipating the day when He would make a New Covenant with the house of Israel which would be unconditional and everlasting. Jeremiah wrote with great enthusiasm about the New Covenant, saying:

Jeremiah 31:31-33 (NKJ)
31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--
32 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Later in that same chapter, Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 31:35-37 (NKJ)
35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name):
36 "If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever."
37 Thus says the LORD: "If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD.

God was saying that when the sun and the moon stop shining, that’s when His commitment to Israel will end. God was saying that when people get to where they can measure the universe and find out the origins of the earth, that’s when He will cast off all the seed of Israel.

Isn’t it interesting that man has such a burning desire to do these two things. For some completely irrational reason, man has dedicated himself to finding out and measuring the far flung limits of the universe. For some inexplicable reason, man has an obsession with finding out the foundations or the origins of the earth, but men will never be able to do either of the two.

Man’s obsession with these two areas of science is driven by Satan, Himself, because Satan hates Israel and wants to explore every possible avenue which might lead to Israel’s destruction. Satan suffers from the delusion that Israel has some mysterious vulnerability that is held secret within the measurements of the universe and the origin of the earth, and He would love to get his hands on that information. Satan deceives mankind and he deceives himself. God will never allow anything to interfere with His everlasting commitment to Israel. God’s commitment to Israel under the Law of Moses was conditional, but His commitment to Israel under the New Covenant will be unconditional.

Just before the Lord Jesus went to the cross, He said that His shed blood was the blood of the New Covenant. Someday, Israel will believe in Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus will wash Israel’s sins away and purify her heart to make it fit as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. God will put His Law in their minds and write it on their hearts. He will be their God and they will be His people.

This New Covenant will be made only with the Jews who believe in the One whom God has sent. The vast majority of all Jews will not enter into the New Covenant relationship with God. It will be only the small believing remnant of the nation of Israel who will accept Jesus Christ and receive the New Covenant.

When Jesus spoke to His disciples just before He ascension, He was speaking to them on the basis of the New Covenant, without any conditional stipulation. He said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. These disciples had accepted Christ and had left everything to follow Him. Jesus had told them,

Matthew 19:28 (NKJ)
28 . . . Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

As Jesus said His final words to His disciples, He wanted them to know that His commitment to them was solid and sure and unconditional. He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

Well, these words of Jesus give us cause to consider what the disciples must have thought when Jesus talked about the end of the age. They had asked Jesus what would be the signs of the coming of the Son of Man and the end of the age, and He had told them about the things that would happen during the tribulation period before the coming of the Son of Man.

However, they did not think about the tribulation period as we think of it today. Even if they were aware of Daniel’s prophecy concerning the 70 weeks, they would not have known that each week was a period of 7 years.

Daniel said that there would be 70 weeks from the time the Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylon until the restoration of the kingdom. Daniel specifically said that the Messiah would be cut off or killed after the 69th week. That means that until the Messiah was killed, no one would have the means to calculate how long each week was in the mind of God.

Today, we can calculate how long it was from the Jews return to Jerusalem from Babylon to the death of Christ, and if we divide that length of time by 69 we can know the time period for each week. Since it was 483 years from the Jews return to the crucifixion, and since 483 divided by 69 is 7, we know that each week in Daniel’s prophecy represents a 7 year period. In other words, each week is a week of years.

We, today, know that the tribulation period will be 7 years long because it’s the 70th week of Daniel. But the disciples didn’t know anything about that. If and when the disciples ever looked at Daniel’s prophesy, all they would have seen is that the kingdom was the next big thing on God’s agenda for the nation of Israel.

Therefore, when Jesus said, “I will be with you, even unto the end of the age,” they would have understood that to mean that Christ would be with them all the way to the kingdom. As far as they knew, the kingdom was the next item on God’s agenda, and the Lord even spoke about the kingdom as being the next age. In Matthew 12, He said:

Matthew 12:32 (NKJ)
32 "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

The point being made is that there will be no forgiveness for rejecting the Holy Spirit, not now, not ever. That means that the next age is the everlasting kingdom, and if the next age is the everlasting kingdom then the end of the age would have to be that period of time just before the everlasting kingdom. In Matthew 13, Jesus was explaining the parable of the weeds in which the enemy planted weeds among the wheat. He said:

Matthew 13:39-43
39 "The enemy who sowed (the weeds) is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
40 "Therefore as the (weeds) are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.
41 "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,
42 "and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

We have already seen that the disciples did not know the details of the 7 year tribulation period, but here in Matthew 13, we see that they knew nothing about the thousand year reign of Christ. Revelation 20 tells us plainly that unsaved people will not be cast into the lake of fire until after Christ rules with the saints for a thousand years. We also know that at the end of His thousand year reign there will be a rebellion of the unsaved nations which God will crush by sending down fire from heaven. Then, the unsaved will be called before the Great White Throne judgment, and they will be judged and sentenced to the lake of fire.

Now, it is interesting that the parable of the weeds does give a hint that there will be a rebellion of unsaved people even in the kingdom because He says that He will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. But as Jesus explained the parable of the weeds, He chose not to reveal the details of the thousand year reign of Christ. He spoke of the end of the age as if it would coincide with the Great White Throne judgment where the unsaved will be judged and cast into the lake of fire.

Obviously, Jesus was content to leave it up to the Apostle John to reveal the somewhat startling truth that Christ will rule for a thousand years between His second coming and the Great White Throne judgment. The disciples didn’t know that. They saw the two as being coincidental, and Jesus chose not to reveal to them the truth of the 1000 year reign at that time. It was the Apostle John who revealed this great truth almost 6 decades later in the book of the Revelation.

Well, before we close today, I would like to mention that there was another great mystery which the Lord Jesus did not reveal to His disciples, and that was the mystery of the Church which is the Body of Christ. When Jesus told His disciples, “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the age,” they had no idea that Israel would reject the kingdom by rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. They had no idea that God would set aside Israel’s kingdom program on a temporary basis to bring in a totally different body of believers who would have no material interest in Israel’s kingdom.

They did not know these things, but that is exactly what happened. Israel rejected Christ, and God called the Apostle Paul to reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ. This is the Church to which all believers belong today. God’s program for the Church of our present age ended up being right between the age in which the disciples lived and Israel’s tribulation period. The 70th week of Daniel did not immediately follow the 69th week of Daniel. We have already had a 2000 year interlude between the two. Someday the Church will be taken up in the glory, and God will resume His dealings with Israel by sending the great tribulation period.

When the Lord said, “I will be with you, even unto the end of the age,” He did not reveal that our present age of the Church and the age of the tribulation period would lie between the disciples and the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age. He did not reveal that our present age and the tribulation period and the 1000 year reign of Christ would lie between the disciples and the Great White Throne judgment which He also said would happen at the end of the age. These were mysteries which the Lord Jesus left for others to reveal.

I see our time is gone this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

The Only Begotten (3-26-06)

This Day Have I Begotten Thee
Bible Study Time 3-26-06

In Psalms, Chapter 2, verse 6, God says, “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” But then the Messiah-King, Himself, says:

Psalms 2:7 (NKJ)
7 "I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.

We know that these verses look forward to the day when Jesus Christ will rule the earth from Jerusalem, the holy hill of Zion, because the next verse says:

Psalms 2:8 (NKJ)
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.

This kingdom is something that God had in mind before sin and its curse come into the world, and we have looked at the fact that God hinted at this worldwide kingdom at the time the curse was pronounced. He said, “The Seed of the woman would bruise the head of Satan.”

But let’s look again for just a few minutes at the first few verses of Psalms, Chapter 2. Verses 1, 2 and 3 read this way:

Psalms 2:1-3 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."

This is certainly a good description of the world we live in today, and it is a good description of the world as it has been since shortly after the curse was pronounced. We see the curse in Genesis, Chapter 3, and in Genesis 4 Cain killed his brother Abel and went to live to the east of Eden in the land of Nod. By the time we get to Genesis, Chapter 6, the world is in such rebellion and chaos that God elects to destroy all of the people of the earth except Noah and his family.

We might be tempted to think that there were relatively few people on the earth in Noah’s day, but if you do the math and consider the fact that people lived for eight or nine hundred years and often had multiple births, you will find that it is altogether possible that the population of the earth at that time was almost has dense as it is today with 4 to 6 billion people. If that’s true then we can safely assume that their technology was also very advanced.

But out of all of these billions of people, God saved only Noah and his family. It was not that Noah and his family were so good. On the contrary, the Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and the book of Hebrews tells us that Noah became the heir of the righteousness which is of faith. God told Noah that it was going to rain and that he should build an arc. Noah simply believed what God said and did what God told him to do, and he became the heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

But the rest of the people who lived on the earth at that time had no concern for God. Whether consciously or subconsciously, they were in a rage against God, and they wanted to break loose from any connection with God. Genesis 6:5 says:

Genesis 6:5,11,12 (NKJ)
5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
11 The earth . . . was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Therefore, God sent the flood to destroy everyone on the earth except Noah and his family. How different life must have been after the flood. Noah and his family went from a high tech world filled with billions of people to a world with 8 people who simply depended on God and His wisdom to survive. This may well be the way the world will be when Jesus Christ establishes His kingdom after the tribulation period. There may be very few people on the earth at the beginning of the kingdom.

But after the flood, it wasn’t long before man set his heart against God again. Genesis 11 says that the people all got together and decided to build a great tower which was probably a great temple dedicated to the worship of the heavens. The Bible says that the people wanted to make a name for themselves by building this tower which would reach up into the heavens. The people were taking counsel together against the Lord and plotting a vain thing so the Lord stepped in and confounded their language, and they were scattered abroad over the face of the earth.

As mankind followed his vain imagination, he grew continually worse and worse and farther and farther from God. One day God called out a man named Abraham and told him to leave his family and friends and go to a new land where God would bless him with great blessings. Now why did He chose Abraham? For the same reason that God chose Noah. Abraham believed what God said and did what God told him to do. The Bible says that Abraham believed God, and God counted it to him for righteousness. God’s purpose was to pour out His blessings upon Abraham and his descendants and make them an example to all other nations of what it’s really like to walk in fellowship with the true and the living God.

All the nation of Israel had to do was live by the righteous laws of God. All they had to do was love God and love one another for, in fact, all of the laws of God hang upon these two commandments, love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. But the children of Israel were still under the curse of sin, and it is impossible for those who live under the influence of the old sin nature to please God. The old sin nature loves pleasure, and it loves self glorification. The children of Israel were in no position to love God or their neighbors.

As a result, the nation of Israel joined the other nations of the earth in their rebellion against God. They took counsel against the Lord, and they specifically took counsel against the Lord’s Anointed. When the Lord Jesus walked and talked among them, they witnessed His miracles. They saw Him give sight to the blind and heal the lepers. They saw Him cast out demons and raise the dead.

However, on two different occasions the Pharisees and other religious leaders came to Jesus and asked Him to give them a sign from heaven. Can you image? After all of these miracles, they ask for a sign from heaven. Well, this was Jesus’ answer:

Matthew 12:39-40 (NKJ)
39 . . . "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

He said that the Son of man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, but then like Jonah He would rise again. This would be the sign that would prove who Jesus really was and is.

The religious leaders plotted against the Lord’s Anointed. They nailed Him to the cross, but death could not hold Him. It may be that it took more power to bring the Lord Jesus back from the dead than it did to create the universe, but come back from the dead He did. And when Jesus Christ came back from the dead and conquered death, hell and the grave, that is when God the Father declared before all the hosts of heaven and earth, “Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten Thee.”

David predicted the resurrection of Christ, and He foresaw the day when the Father would say, “Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten Thee.” But it was the Apostle Paul who put the two together. In Acts, Chapter 13, we read that when Paul and Barnabas arrived in Antioch of Pisidia, they went on the Sabbath day to the Jewish synagogue where they were asked to speak.

When Paul stood up to speak, he demonstrated his enthusiasm by motioning with his hands, and he reminded the Jews that they were God’s chosen people and that God had demonstrated His mighty power to them over and over again. Then Paul told them about the Lord Jesus, saying:

Acts 13:26-30,33 (NKJ)
26 "Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent.
27 "For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know (Jesus), nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, (they) have fulfilled them in condemning Him.
28 "And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that (Jesus) should be put to death.
29 "Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning (Jesus), they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.
30 "But God raised Him from the dead.
33 " . . . As it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'

In this passage the Apostle Paul reveals for the first time that the statement in Psalms, Chapter 2, finds its fulfillment in the resurrection of Christ. It was in the through the resurrection of Christ that God made the proclamation, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” Jesus Christ was always the only begotten of the Father, but it was the power of the resurrection that declared Him to be the Son of God before all of creation. Paul said in Romans, Chapter 1, that the gospel of God concerns:

Romans 1:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
4 and (was) declared to be the Son of God . . . by the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.

In Psalms, Chapter 2, immediately after declaring the Christ to be His Son, the Father says:

Psalms 2:8 (NKJ)
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.

It was only after Christ’s resurrection from the dead that Jesus told his disciples:

Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJ)
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Before the resurrection, Jesus had emphasized that they should go to no one except the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They were not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans. But now, after the resurrection, He tells them to go and make disciples of all the nations. The resurrection had set the stage for the kingdom in which Christ would be given all of the nations of the earth for His inheritance just as David predicted in Psalms, Chapter 2.

However, the book of Acts is a record of Israel’s rejection of Christ and His kingdom. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said to the Jews, “You with wicked hands have crucified the Messiah, but the good news is, God has raised Him from the dead, and His resurrection proves that He is the Christ, the Son of God.”

Peter said, “Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins for the promise is to you and to your children and to those who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” What promise? The promise of the kingdom. Peter was offering them the earthly kingdom even as Jesus had taught them.

This offer of the kingdom went out to the Jews all the way through the book of Acts, but in Acts 28, the Apostle Paul called for a meeting with the Jews of Rome. He showed them from the books of the Old Testament that Jesus had to be the Christ. He had fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophesies. When the Jewish leaders of Rome refused to accept Christ, Paul proclaimed,

Acts 28:28 (NKJ)
28 " . . . let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!"

From that time on, the Apostle Paul spoke no more about the promised earthly kingdom. Instead, he revealed a body of believers who have a heavenly hope. He called them the Church which is the Body of Christ. If you want to know how to be saved today, you need to look at what Paul revealed for the Church the Body of Christ.

Paul says that for us to be saved and accepted into this church, we have to do what Noah did and what Abraham did. We have to believe what God has said. For us that means believing that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. We have nothing to add to what Christ has already done. All we have to do is accept it by faith.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

Jesus, The King (3-19-06)

Jesus, The King
Bible Study Time 3-19-06

The prophet Zechariah was speaking of the Lord Jesus when he said:

Zechariah 6:12-13 (NKJ)
12 . . . "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the LORD;

Zechariah saw the day when Jesus Christ would leave the glory of heaven to come to the earth and rebuild the Jewish temple. The faithful Jews had been looking for a kingdom since the time of Abraham. When God first called Abraham, God said:

Genesis 12:1-2 (NKJ)
1 . . . "Get out of your country . . . to a land that I will show you.
2 (And) I will make you a great nation . . .

Later, God spoke to Abraham again and said:

Genesis 22:17-18 (NKJ)
17 " . . . I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed . . .

From this statement the faithful Jews knew that they should look for one man who would come as the Messiah, or the Savior as we would say, and King David was one of those faithful Jews who was looking for this Messiah. He was, of coarse, overwhelmed when God told him that the Messiah would not only be the Seed of Abraham, but He would be of the house and lineage of David. In 2 Samuel 7, God said, David:

2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NKJ)
12 "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Do you see how the Bible is a progressive revelation? God reveals a little bit here, and then He reveals a little bit more as time goes on, and then later He reveals even more. Well, that’s the way the Bible is. If we study it all, and compare scripture with scripture, we start to get the whole picture of what God wants us to know.

The Messiah was going to be a descendant of Abraham, and He was going to be a descendant of David, and He was going to build a house for God. Now what does this mean, that He was going to build a house for God. Well, it means two things. First, it means that the Messiah will build the Jewish temple as Zechariah would later confirm. Second, it means that the Messiah would build a family of believers.

Mankind was kidnapped by Satan in the Garden of Eden, and it was God’s plan to provide a way for people to come back home to God. Those who are willing to come home to God become a part of the house of God or the family of God. God told David, “the Messiah will come from your house, but the Messiah will build a house for Me.”

Jesus Christ came as the Son of David to build a house for God. At one point, when Jesus was on the earth, He was told that His mother and brothers were waiting for Him outside. When Jesus heard this He looked around and said, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Those of us who hear the word of God and do it are welcomed as members of the house of Jesus Christ. We become a part of the family of God.

In Psalms, Chapter 2, David looked into the future and saw the time when the Lord Jesus will rule the earth in an earthly kingdom. He said:

Psalms 2:1-12 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision.
5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:
6 "Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion."
7 "I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

David saw the day when Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, would sit upon His earthly throne and rule for a thousand years. At that time, God the Father will declare from heaven, “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion . . . You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”

When we look at Jerusalem today, it’s hard to imagine that someday it will be the most powerful city on the face of the earth. People from all over the world will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Zechariah says that:

Zechariah 8:23 (NKJ)
23 In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"

Ezekiel described the vast dimensions of this future city of Jerusalem and then said, “the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”

But as strange as it may seem, the Bible is clear that some of the nations that are on the earth during the kingdom will not be pleased to have Jesus as their king. Of coarse, these people are people who do not know the Lord. They do not believe in Jesus and therefore they still have a sin nature.

Obviously, the sin nature is never satisfied. Jesus Christ will establish a kingdom in which the entire population of the earth will be provided with food and shelter. The air will be clean and the water will be pure. They won’t need hospitals on every street corner because people won’t need them. The people will be healthy. So David asks the question:

Psalms 2:1-3 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves . . . against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."

David asks, why? Why do these kings of the earth want to rebel against Jesus? But then he says:
Psalms 2:4-5 (NKJ)
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision.
5 . . . He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:

The Apostle John tells us in the Book of the Revelation that at the end of the tribulation period Satan will be cast into the bottomless pit where he will be bound for a thousand years. He will not be able to go out and deceive the nations as he does today. He will not be able to stir up the envy and greed and distrust which is so prevalent among the nations of the world today. But at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, Satan will be loosed once again. Revelation 20, verse 7 says:

Revelation 20:7-10 (NKJ)
7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth . . . to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.
9 (And) They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Those rebellious nations who are on the earth during the thousand year reign of Christ will not have the foolish courage to openly attack the Son of God, but when the devil is turned loose, he is going to be able to give these nations a false sense of confidence, and they will decide to overthrow Jesus Christ.

Well, they have no idea who they’re up against. They don’t believe in Jesus. They don’t know that He is the God of creation. So when they come up against Him, He sends down fire from heaven, and they are devoured.

Zechariah also predicted that this would happen, saying:

Zechariah 12:3 (NKJ)
3 "And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.

In Psalms 2, the Father says to His Son, who is the King of Zion:

Psalms 2:8-9 (NKJ)
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"

Then God adds a word of warning for the kings of the earth and particularly for those kings who will be on the earth during the kingdom. Verse 10 says:

Psalms 2:10-12 (NKJ)
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

This is a warning for all of the kings of the earth, but it’s also a warning for all of us as individuals. Today, God is offering salvation, eternal life, as a free gift to all who will receive it by faith. When Jesus Christ was dying upon the cross of Calvary, He said, “It is finished.” He had done all that was necessary to provide for our salvation. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

Romans 5:6-8 (NKJ)
6 . . . when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 . . . scarcely for a righteous man will one die . . .
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus Christ is God, the Son, and He was willing to take upon Himself a body of flesh so that He could die and offer His blood as the payment for sin. When he arose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He took some of that blood which He shed on the cross, and He placed it on the mercyseat in the temple in heaven. Because that blood was the blood of the spotless Lamb of God, God accepted it as the payment for all sin. It fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of God.

Today, God is offering salvation to anyone and everyone. It does not matter how good you’ve been or how bad you’ve been. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in church all of your life or if you’ve lived on skid row. All that matters is whether or not you have accepted by faith God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Those who refuse to accept God’s salvation, however, will be like the unbelieving nations of the kingdom. They will face the judgment of God. The other day I was preaching in Mineral Wells, Texas, and afterward a lady came up to me and said that she appreciated the message. She said she liked the fact that I spoke with in a nonjudgmental way with compassion and love, but then she said, “Although, when I got saved, it was because I was afraid of going to hell.”

Well, I thanked her for the compliment and for the thought because we should never forget the fact that there is judgment ahead for those who refuse the salvation of God. David said:

Psalms 2:11 (NKJ)
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way . . .

If you should die without ever accepting Christ as your personal Savior, without ever believing that He died on the cross for your sins, you will have nothing to look forward to in eternity except the fires of hell. Now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation, and blessed are all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ. John said:

I John 5:11-12 (NKJ)
11 . . . this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

If you don’t know Christ today, and you have not accepted His salvation, ask you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure being with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

In His Image (3-12-06)

In His Image
Bible Study Time 3-12-06

Last week we saw that the Lord Jesus is like a tree planted by the river of waters. He is prosperous in all that He does, and He is fruitful. The Lord not only bears good fruit, but He bears it in abundance. He spoke the light into being, and the light was good. He created the heavens and the earth, and the sun, the moon and the stars, and they were good. He made all of the plants and all of the animals, and they were all good.

But when it came to man, the members of the Godhead took counsel together and said:

Genesis 1:26 (NKJ)
26 "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; . . .

Genesis 2:7 (NKJ)
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 1:27 (NKJ)
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

According to Colossians, Chapter 1, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God so that it was in the image of Christ that man was made. Man was made in the image of Christ in every aspect, spiritually, physically, intellectually and emotionally.

However, when Adam and Eve sinned, they lost the image of Christ. Their bodies converted into bodies of flesh which were susceptible to death and were, in fact, doomed to die. Adam and Eve also lost the divine nature which is characterized by love and peace and joy. Instead, they were given over to a fleshly nature which is characterized by greed and selfishness.

This body of corruption with its fleshly nature was passed along from Adam to Cain and Abel, his first two sons. As we all know, when they became adults, Cain became so jealous of Abel that he killed Abel. Cain had refused to bring the sacrifice that God had told them to bring, and when God rejected Cain’s offering but accepted Abel’s offering, Cain went into a jealous rage and killed his own brother, Abel. This whole scenario demonstrates the power of the curse. Cain was full of pride and envy because he had a fleshly nature. Abel’s body was subject to death because it was a body of flesh.

When Adam and Eve were blessed with their third son, the Bible says that Adam begot a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and named him Seth. Again, we see that the children of Adam and Eve did not inherit the image of Christ. Seth was born in the image of his father, Adam.

The Apostle Paul tells us that all men since the time of Adam have been born with Adam’s corrupt image. Romans 5 says:

Romans 5:12 (NKJ)
12 Therefore, . . . through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men . . .

Paul says in Romans 8 that the fleshly mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God, nor indeed can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

When Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord Jesus spoke of the day when the Son of God would come into the world as the Seed of the woman to rescue man from Satan, the father of sin, and from corruption, the curse of sin. The Lord spoke to Satan and said that Satan would bruise the heel of the Seed of the woman, while the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of Satan.

Jesus Christ came in a body of flesh as the Seed of the woman. Satan bruised His heel by nailing Him to the cross. This was not a mortal wound, spiritually speaking, because Christ overcame this wound by means of His resurrection from the dead. However, Christ’s resurrection from the dead proved to be a mortal wound to the head of Satan. Since the time of Christ’s resurrection, Satan has known that all of his evil scheming and plotting will come to nothing. His attempts to overthrow the plan and purpose of God will fail. Even today, Satan’s goal is simply to take as many people as possible with him to the lake of fire.

Those of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ can rest assured that our eternal peace and our eternal fellowship with the Father have been made secure by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is the resurrection power that sets believers free from the corruption of sin. Paul said in I Corinthians 15 that:

1 Corinthians 15:49-51,53-54 (NKJ)
49 . . . as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

Someday, Christ will appear in the glory of heaven and then, in an instant, believers will appear with Him in glory. He will transform our lowly bodies and fashion them like unto His glorious body. However, even now we are already citizens of heaven, and we have been given the power to overcome the fleshly nature. Paul said in Romans 6:

Romans 6:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

To the Corinthians Paul said:
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJ)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Unfortunately though, this is not the whole story. As believers today, we still have a big problem to deal with, and that big problem is our body of flesh. Romans 7 says that the body of flesh is the force behind the old sin nature. Paul says:

Romans 7:22-24 (NKJ)
22 . . . I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

But Paul goes on Chapter 8 to say:

Romans 8:1 (NKJ)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

The very day that Adam and Eve sinned the curse of sin fell upon the body and the spirit, but now that we have access to the Spirit of God through faith in Christ, we can have victory over the fleshly nature. The Spirit of God is stronger, He’s more powerful than the impulses of the body of flesh. Paul says that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

How do we walk according to the Spirit? We set out minds on the things of the Spirit. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said:

Philippians 4:8-9 (KJV)
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

In Romans 12, we read that we should not be conformed to this world, but we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we might be able to prove what is the good and acceptable and prefect will of God. We need the renewing of our minds to walk according to the Spirit.

God’s ultimate goal for believers is that we might be conformed, not to the world, but to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Man lost the image of Christ in the Garden, but now through faith in Christ we have access to His image once again. Romans 8:29 says:

Romans 8:29
29 For whom (God) foreknew, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Even before Adam and Eve sinned, God had already planned for the consequences of sin, He had already planned the remedy for sin, and He knew exactly who would accept His remedy for sin. Whom He foreknew, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. His plan provided the way for man to be brought back to the image of Christ.

When Jesus Christ was on the earth, some of the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus with great wisdom took a coin and asked whose image was on the coin. When they replied that it was Caesar’s image, Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and render to God the things that are God’s.”

The question for believers today is, whose image is stamped upon our lives? Is it the image of Christ, or is it the image of the world? Jesus Christ offered His blood upon the cross so that He might deliver us from the condemnation into which we were born. It is His will, and He has determined it to be so, that all who believe in Christ should be conformed to the image of Christ. Colossians 3:8 says:

Colossians 3:8-10
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of (Christ) . . .

The glorious image of Christ was presented in the Old Testament Law. As the psalmist said, the Law of the Lord is perfect. But man in his sinful state can not behold the glory of that image. His fleshly mind could not comprehend it. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Law, his face shone so brightly from being in the presence of the Lord that he had to put a veil over his face. The brightness of his face was so intense that the people could not look upon him.

II Corinthians 3 explains that Moses’ veil represents the inability of the fleshly mind to comprehend the glory of Christ as it is pictured in the Law. The glory of Christ can only be seen through the power of the Spirit of Christ. II Corinthians 3 goes on to say:

II Corinthians 3:16-18 (NKJ)
16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image . . .

If you are listening today and have not put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, then you are still living in a world of corruption. Someday your body will die, and it will never be transformed into the glorious image of Christ. Even now, as you live upon this earth, you will never be able to comprehend the glorious nature of Christ without the Spirit of Christ. But if you accept Christ and believe that He died for your sins, the Spirit of Lord will come to live within your heart. The veil will be lifted, and you will be set free from the bondage of the flesh. The Spirit of God will start the process of transforming you into the image of Christ.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

The Fruitful Branch (3-5-06)

The Fruitful Branch
Bible Study Time 3-5-06

The past couple of weeks we have been looking at Psalms, Chapter 1. First, we saw that the man who delights in the Law of the Lord and shuns the counsel of the ungodly will be prosperous in all he does. He will be able to withstand the various on slots of the devil. God will supply all that is needed for him to accomplish God’s plan and purpose.

Then we saw that this tree planted by the river of waters is an excellent picture of the nation of Israel in that the nation of Israel has been able, against all odds, to survive through the centuries. If you know a person who is looking for proof that the Bible is true, all you need to do is point them to the history of the nation of Israel. There is no logical explanation for their presence on the earth today except that God has personally intervened in a miraculous way to provide for and protect this tiny little nation.

With steadfast determination, God has kept Israel alive and well because it was part of His plan for this tree to bring forth the one that the Bible calls the BRANCH. Isaiah said:

Isaiah 11:1-4 (NKJ)
1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

Jesse, of coarse, was the father of King David, and the Branch which was to come out of Jesse was the Lord Jesus. Obviously then, if the nation of Israel is an example of one who is planted by the river of waters, how much more is the Lord Jesus, Himself. Isaiah said that the Branch of Jesse will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will be guided, not by the ungodly, but by the counsel of the Holy Spirit. He will judge with equity on behalf of the meek, and He will not judge based on what He sees with His eyes or what He hears with His ears. He will judge according to the righteousness which comes from the Holy Spirit.

This Branch, who is Jesus Christ, is not only the Branch of Jesse, but He is the Branch of the Godhead who came to the earth to establish a kingdom of righteousness and peace. The Apostle Paul confirmed this for us in Colossians 2:9 saying that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is similar to what Paul said in Chapter 1, where he said that Christ is the image of the invisible God. But in Chapter 1, Paul went on to say that Christ is also the firstborn of all creation.

Jesus Christ is eternal. He has always been and will always be. He is Jehovah God, the self existing One. He is not a created being for He always was. But Colossians 1:15, indicates that there was a time when He took upon Himself a body, so that He is the firstborn over all creation.

Now, why did He take a body? It would seem from scripture that He took a body in order to create all things. Let’s read in Colossians 1 again.

Colossians 1:15-17 (NKJ)
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Is this Branch of the Godhead fruitful or not? You can judge for yourself. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. All things were created through Him and for Him. All of creation is the fruit of the labor of the Son of God.

This Branch from the tree of Israel bears fruit and prospers in all that He does. It was He who spoke and there was light. It was He who spoke and the heavens and earth appeared. He made the grass and the plants and the trees. He made the sun, the moon and the stars. He made the animals and the birds. But then God said:

Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJ)
26 . . . "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . .
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Man was the glorious crowning achievement of creation. God said, let us make man in our image. What image is that? It was the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we read in Colossians 1, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. Therefore, man was made in the image of Jesus Christ.

Oh how Adam and Eve must have enjoyed the fellowship with Him there in the Garden of Eden. I can just picture them walking and talking and planning the things that they would do. The temperature was just right. The humidity was just right. Everything grew and brought forth fruit.

There was one thing, however, from which the Lord wanted to protect them. He did not want to them to know anything about good and evil. He told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, in the day that you eat of that tree, you shall surely die. God can have no fellowship with sin, and He knew that even if Adam and Eve had the knowledge of good and evil, it would hinder their fellowship.

We don’t know how long they were able to enjoy this beautiful fellowship which was pure and sweet, but as we all know, it ended when Eve was tempted by the devil and ate the forbidden fruit. Then Adam also ate. Immediately, their innocence was gone. They had the knowledge of sin for they had sinned.

In vain they tried to hide from God. When God found them, they confess their sin, and the Bible says that at that moment a death sentenced passed upon all men. Romans 5 says:

Romans 5:12,14
12 Therefore, . . . through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, . . .
14 . . . even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam . . .

Well, here in the Garden of Eden as the death sentence is to be pronounced, we see the love of God. In a very carefully worded statement, the Lord revealed the He, Himself, would be born into the world as the Seed of the woman and that, as the Seed of the woman, He would deliver a fatal blow to the head of Satan.

Some four thousand years later, the angel Gabriel appeared to a young woman named Mary, saying, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. This Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Mary could not have imaged at that time all that her son was really going to be, but she didn’t have to know. She just had to be willing to submit to the will of God. And so she did. She simply said, “Let it be unto me according to thy word.”

Jesus Christ was the firstborn of all creation. As God the Son, He took a body in order to do the work of creation. When He was born in Bethlehem, He left behind His glorious, immortal body and took upon Himself a body of flesh. He became the Seed of the woman so that He could conquer Satan.

Back in the garden, when the Lord told about the coming Savior, He did something that was very important. He took a lamb and sacrificed it, thus revealing that the shedding of blood would be required to provide a remedy for sin. Jesus Christ had to have a mortal body of flesh in order to die for sin, and as He was there on the cross of Calvary, He said, it is finished. He had done all that was necessary to provide atonement for sin.

We saw in Colossians 1:15 that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation, but in Colossians 1:18 we see that He is the firstborn from the dead so that He might be preeminent in all things. When the Roman soldiers put Jesus’ body in the grave, that was not the end of the story. He not only died for our sins, but He rose again to provide everlasting life for all who believe.

He humbled Himself and took a body of flesh. He became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name with is above every name. We who believe have been given the opportunity to share in His glory. Hebrews 2:9 says:

Hebrews 2:9-10
9 Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting for Him . . . in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Jesus Christ is the Branch of God who came as the Branch of Israel. In His body of flesh, He was made perfect through suffering so that He, as the captain of our salvation, might bring many sons to glory. Again, we see that Christ bears much fruit, and He prospers in all that He does.

When Christ was raised from the dead, He became the firstfruits of those who have died. I Corinthians 15 says:

1 Corinthians 15:22-25 (NKJ)
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.
24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

In Adam all die. Our bodies of flesh have this death sentence upon them. But, in Christ, all will be made alive. Christ was the first to conquer death, and the next group to conquer death will be those who belong to Christ. Then unbelievers will be brought back to face the judgment of the Great White Throne.

The question that remains is this: When will you be raised from the dead? Will you be taken up with those who belong to Christ? Or will you be taken up with the unbelievers to face the Great White Throne judgment? If you don’t know Jesus Christ today, Christ is speaking to your heart, saying:

Revelation 3:20 (NKJ)
20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Won’t you open the door of heart to Him. If you do, Christ will claim you as His own, and you will have no cause to fear death any longer because there is coming a day when all those who belong to Christ will be raised from the dead to enjoy eternal life and the glory of heaven forevermore.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a blessing to share God’s word with you. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/

http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/

http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/