Jim's Footnotes

Righty Dividing Part 1 (7-2-06)

Rightly Dividing (Part 1)
Bible Study Time 7-2-06

From his prison house in Rome, the Apostle Paul was able to look back on his life and see the influence of the three basic programs of God. Paul was raised under the influence of Israel’s first covenant, the Law of Moses. On the road to Damascus, Paul met the Lord Jesus from whom he learned the significance of the New Covenant. After Paul was arrested and sent to Rome, God revealed to him the great truth of the Church which is the Body of Christ.

With these three programs in mind, the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith, admonishing him to rightly divide the word of truth. Specifically, Paul said:

2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJ)
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Without the principle of right division, the scriptures would certainly seem to be a mixed up blend of contradictions, but as we rightly divide the word of truth, we see that all of the scriptures fit together to reveal a complete and total picture of God’s dealings with man, past, present and future.

Paul was raised in the city of Tarsus which was under Roman rule but had a great deal of independence because they had proven their loyalty to Rome. It was a city which was loved and celebrated for its literature and philosophy. Some scholars believe that it was comparable to and maybe superior in culture to that of Athens in Greece and Alexandria in Egypt.

It seems likely then that Paul, even as a child, would have had access to Greek literature and philosophy, but Paul’s father was a Pharisee who probably saw to it that Paul’s primary instruction even as a child was in the Jewish Law, the first great program of God for mankind. In fact, Paul may not have been much more than a child when he was sent to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel who was one of the greatest Jewish scholars of the day. In Acts 22 and verse 3, Paul spoke before an angry mob in Jerusalem and said:

Acts 22:3 (NKJ)
3 "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and was zealous toward God . . .

Paul went on to tell how he had persecuted those who had believed in Jesus but how he had been saved on the road to Damascus. He said:

Acts 22:4-10 (NKJ)
4 "I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
5 "as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 "Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me.
7 "And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'
8 "So I answered, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.'
9 "And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me.
10 "So I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.'

Paul was about to learn that God had a plan for Israel which was much more glorious than that of the Old Covenant Law. From Damascus, God did not lead Paul back to Jerusalem to learn from the apostles. In Galatians 1, Paul said:

Galatians 1:11,12,15-17 (NKJ)
11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

At this time the original Apostles knew only the promises contained in the Law concerning the Messiah and the earthly kingdom. In Acts, Chapter 3, after Peter healed the lame man, Peter said to the Jewish crowd:

Acts 3:22-26 (NKJ)
22 "For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.
23 'And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.'
24 "Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.
25 "You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'
26 "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."

God was doing some spectacular things through the Apostles there in Jerusalem. He was using the Apostles to heal the sick, cast out demons and grant the power to speak in tongues, but Peter was still looking at these events through the eyes of the Old Covenant. He could not see this bigger picture. These things were a fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Covenant, but even more than that, they were actually being done in accordance with and as evidence of the New Covenant, God’s second great plan for mankind.

God had chosen Paul as the one who would reveal the details of the New Covenant. In II Corinthians, Chapter 3, Paul said:

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 (NKJ)
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

It was the Apostle Paul who revealed that this outpouring of God’s spirit was in accordance with the New Covenant and that it would be the power of the Holy Spirit which would bring about Israel’s everlasting kingdom of peace and righteousness. It was the Apostle Paul who taught that God was not just refining the Law and taking the Law to a new level, but God was doing away with the Law so that He could bring in a better covenant.

The New Covenant had a better priesthood, a better sacrifice and a better hope. Paul told the Roman believers in Romans, Chapter 11:

Romans 11:25-27 (NKJ)
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."

The New Covenant, based in the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, will someday bring salvation to the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel has to be saved before the New Covenant Kingdom can come.

This is the message that Timothy first heard from the Apostle Paul in Galatia. In Galatians, Chapter 4, Paul said:

Galatians 4:21-31 (NKJ)
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise,
24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar--
25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children--
26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Timothy had been taught that the New Covenant was a better covenant than the Old Covenant and that the Old Covenant had passed away. It was time to cast out the bondwoman so to speak. With these things in mind Timothy could now understand the words of the Lord Jesus when He said:

Matthew 9:16-17 (NKJ)
16 "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.
17 "Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

The Old Covenant and New Covenant just don’t mix. They operate in two different paradigms. The Old Covenant operates in the realm of the flesh while the New Covenant operates in the realm of the Spirit.

Timothy had been well trained in the Law by his mother Lois and his grandmother Eunice. He had been trained in the New Covenant by the Apostle Paul. But Timothy was also with Paul there in Rome when Paul wrote his epistles to the churches at Ephesus, Colossae and Philippi. So Timothy was well aware of the revelation which God had given to Paul concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ, the third great program of God.

Timothy’s close association with Paul not only in Paul’s travels but also in Paul’s imprisonment at Rome make it certain that Timothy was aware of the difference between the New Covenant program of God and God’s program for the Church which is the Body of Christ. Timothy would have known that the New Covenant was prophesied by Jeremiah when he said:

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.

But Timothy would have also known that God’s revelation to Paul concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ was something that was never revealed to any person ever, until it was revealed to Paul. As Paul said in Colossians 1:24:

Colossians 1:24-26 (NKJ)
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

Timothy would have known the difference between the mystery of the New Covenant in Romans 16 and the mystery of the Church, the Body of Christ, in Ephesians, Chapter 3. In Romans 16, Paul said:

Romans 16:25-26 (NKJ)
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began
26 but now has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all nations . . .

This mystery of the New Covenant was being made known to all nations by the prophetic Scriptures, but in Ephesians, Chapter 3, Paul spoke of the mystery of the Church, the Body of Christ, and said:

Ephesians 3:3-9 (NKJ)
3 . . . by revelation (God) made known to me the mystery
9 . . . which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;

Ephesians 3:6 (NKJ)
6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,

The mystery of the New Covenant was hidden in the scriptures all through the centuries, and God called Paul to reveal that mystery during the Acts period. The mystery concerning the Church, the Body of Christ, was hidden in God all through the centuries, and God called Paul to reveal that mystery after the Acts period.

Timothy knew these three major programs of the Bible: the Law, the New Covenant and the Church which is the Body of Christ. Therefore, Paul challenged Timothy and every believer since Timothy to:

2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJ)
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

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

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Faith In His Blood (6-25-06)

The Righteousness of Faith
Bible Study Time 6-25-06

It was the Apostle Paul who first taught the message of salvation through faith in the blood of Christ. In Romans, Chapter 3, he said:

Romans 3:21-22 (NKJ)
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe . . .

Romans 3:24-25 (NKJ)
24 (for we are) justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness . . .

Nothing less than the shed blood of the spotless lamb of God could possibly be accepted by God as an appropriate sacrifice for sin so Jesus Christ offered His blood upon the cross of Calvary to demonstrate the righteousness of God and justify His forgiveness for sin.

Adam and Eve were created without sin in the Garden of Eden, but after they sinned, death passed upon all of their descendants. In spite of this death sentence, however, Adam and Eve and their immediate descendants had much longer life expectancies than we do today. Adam lived for 800 years, Seth lived for 912 years, and Seth’s son, Enosh, lived for 905 years.

If you do the math in the book of Genesis, the flood came only 1500 years after Adam was created, and since Adam lived for 800 years, that means that Adam lived nearly half of the time period between his creation and the flood. Furthermore, it was only 8 generations from Adam to Methuselah, and Methuselah was 113 years old when Adam died. Of coarse, the flood came when Methuselah died.

With these long life spans, people during that time before the flood had plenty of time to fine tune their capacity for evil, and that is exactly what happened. Genesis, Chapter 6 says that by the time Methuselah died,

Genesis 6:5 (NKJ)
5 . . . 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.

But then, the Bible holds out a small ray of hope for mankind when it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. As a result, God told Noah that he should build an ark to protect himself and his family from the great flood which was sure to come. Then Genesis 7 says:

Genesis 7:1 (NKJ)
1 Then the LORD said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.

It is interesting to note that this is the very first time that the word righteous is used in the Bible, and the fact that Noah is found to be righteous in the midst of an extremely wicked world makes this passage even more interesting, especially in the light of the fact that David said:

Psalms 53:1-3 (NKJ)
1 . . . there is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3 Every one of them has turned aside; they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.

Now, if there is none who does good, then how is it that God called Noah righteous? He said, “I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.” To find the answer to this question we need to look at Hebrews, Chapter 11, where we read in verse six that:

Hebrews 11:6 (NKJ)
6 . . . without faith it is impossible to please (God), for he who comes to God must believe that (God) is, and that (God) is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Clearly, no one can possibly hope to be declared righteous in the sight of God on the basis of their good deeds for truly there is none who does good, but there is hope for sinful man, and that hope is to please God on the basis of faith.

Genesis 7 goes on to say:

Genesis 7:7 (NKJ)
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Well, there we have it. Noah became the heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Noah’s obedience resulted in his being saved from the flood, but it was his faith that brought him into the ranks of those who possess eternal life.

Noah believed that it was going to rain even though he had never seen rain. He was divinely warned of things not yet seen, but he believed in that which he had not seen because faith is the evidence of things not seen. Because of his faith, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and he became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Why didn’t God reveal in the book of Genesis that the righteousness of Noah was the righteousness which is according to faith? I believe that the answer is found in the verses we read in Romans, Chapter 3, where Paul says:

Romans 3:21-22 (NKJ)
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed . . .
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

The righteousness which comes by faith could not be revealed until after the death of Christ. This righteousness all hinged upon the shed blood of Christ for it was the blood of Christ which justified God’s forgiveness for sin.

As far as we know, Noah did not know about or believe that Jesus Christ would someday come to die for his sins, but it was the planned sacrifice of Christ that allowed God to forgive Noah’s sins and call him righteous. Noah did not believe that Jesus was going to die for his sins, but he did believe what God told him. God told Noah that it was going to rain, and Noah believed God, and in so doing he became the heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Now, when we get over into the writings of the Apostle Paul, we find that Jesus Christ was and is the Jehovah God of the Old Testament. Therefore, when Noah believed the words of Jehovah, he was also putting his faith in Jesus Christ, and that fits perfectly with the teaching of the Lord Jesus when He said to Thomas:

John 14:6 (NKJ)
6 . . . "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

We read about Noah in Hebrews 11:7, but in the next few verses of Hebrews 11, we read about Abraham, and Abraham was another one of those men who put his faith in Jesus Christ by believing the words of Jehovah. Jehovah told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to the land of promise for eternal blessings. When Abraham believed the words of Jehovah, he was putting his faith in Jesus Christ.

Now Abraham is similar to Noah in that the very first time that the word righteousness is used in the Bible, it is used in reference to Abraham. God told Abraham that he was going to have a son even though Abraham was 99 years old, and Genesis 15:6 says that:

Genesis 15:6 (NKJ)
6 (Abraham) believed in the LORD, and (the LORD) accounted it to him for righteousness.

In other words, Abraham believed in Jehovah when he believed the words of Jehovah. No one can say that they believe in God if they don’t believe the word of God. That’s why we study the Bible. The Bible is the word of God, and how can we say that we believe in God if we don’t know and believe His word. Abraham believed in the LORD, and the LORD accounted to him for righteousness.

The Jews never understood the real impact of this verse until the Apostle Paul revealed the righteousness of God which comes through faith in Christ. Paul made good use of this verse in Romans, Chapter 4. In Romans 4, verse 1, we read:

Romans 4:1-6 (NKJ)
1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

And in Galatians, Chapter 3, Paul said:

Galatians 3:5-9 (NKJ)
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?--
6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Both of these passages were written by the Apostle Paul while he was going out to the Gentiles as a minister of the New Covenant. He knew that as long as he was preaching the kingdom which was promised to Abraham, the means by which Abraham was accepted by God was of critical importance.

Paul could see that if simple faith in the LORD, Jehovah, could bring to Abraham the righteousness of God and the promise of the kingdom before he was circumcised and before the Law was given, then certainly that same simple faith in the LORD, Jesus Christ, could bring the salvation of God apart from the Law to the uncircumcised Gentiles.

After the nation of Israel rejected Christ as her Messiah, God temporarily set aside Israel’s hope of the New Covenant Kingdom. At that point, the question of whether a person was a Jew or a Gentile was beside the point because God starting calling out the Church which is the Body of Christ in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile.

Throughout the Acts period, the Jews had continued practicing the rituals and ceremonies of the Law, but when Israel’s hope of the New Covenant Kingdom was set aside at the end of the Acts period, there was no longer any valid reason for the Jews to continue observing the practices of the Law. Therefore, Paul said in Ephesians 2:

Ephesians 2:14-16 (NKJ)
14 For (Christ) Himself is our peace, who has made both (Jew and Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

Today, salvation is offered to all people everywhere on the basis of faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. So if you’re listening today without the assurance of your own personal salvation, you can take God at His word, like Noah did and like Abraham did. You can believe that Christ died for your sins, and then you can rest in the assurance that God sees you as perfectly righteous, and He has made you an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Then you can say with Paul, “My standing before God is not based in my own righteousness, but it is based in the righteousness which is from God by faith.”

I see our time is gone for 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:

Thursday, June 08, 2006

The Power of the Blood (6-11-06)

The Power of the Blood
Bible Study Time 6-11-06

During the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus gave his disciples the cup of wine and said, “This is My blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” According to Luke 22, the Lord went on to say:

Luke 22:29-30 (NKJ)
29 "And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me,
30 "that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

The New Covenant stands in contrast to the First Covenant which was the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was based in the blood of bulls and goats, and it’s kingdom was the kingdom of David and Solomon. The High Priest had to go into the Holy of Holies once each year with the blood of an animal sacrifice to make atonement for the sins of the people. This covenant did allow for the acceptance of Gentiles but only if they were willing to accept the Jewish religion and live as a Jew. This kingdom was doomed to fail for it had no power to change the hearts of the people.

The Lord Jesus said that the New Covenant would usher in the glorious kingdom of heaven which was to be a kingdom of love, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It would be world-wide, it would last forever, and it would be based in the blood of Jesus Christ. But, as far as the salvation of the Gentiles was concerned, the Apostles assumed that the New Covenant would be the same as the first, that Gentiles would be accepted only if they converted to the Jewish religion and lived as a Jew.

No one knew in the early years after the cross that the New Covenant would open up a whole new world of opportunity for the Gentiles. That would remain a secret until after the calling of the Apostle Paul. Shortly after God saved Paul on the road to Damascus, God told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel to bear the name of the Lord before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.

When Paul did go out preaching to the Gentiles, he knew that he was functioning as a minister of the New Covenant. He said in II Corinthians, Chapter 3:

2 Corinthians 3:6 (NKJ)
6 (God has) made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

In Galatians, Chapter 4, Paul said that Ishmael and Isaac represent Israel’s two covenants. He said that Ishmael represents the slavery of the Law, while Isaac represents the liberty of the New Covenant. He reminded the Galatians that God said to cast out the bondwoman with her son. Paul was very pleased to be a minister of the New Covenant.

Therefore, Paul was a minister of the New Covenant just as the other Apostles were, but Paul’s message was very different in several important ways from the other Apostles. In Galatians, Chapter 1, Paul said:

Galatians 1:11,12,15-20 (NKJ)
11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
15 . . . when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.
20 (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)

Paul said, I know that my ministry is different from the other apostles, but I want you to know that the things I teach were given to me by Jesus Christ, Himself. I didn’t learn them from other men. Well, what was it that made Paul’s ministry so different from the other Apostles?

The first thing that set Paul’s ministry apart was his ministry to the Gentiles. God told Paul that under the New Covenant Gentiles could be saved without having to submit to the Law of Moses. He was the only Apostle who taught that Gentiles could be saved by simple faith in Christ apart from the Law.

The Old Testament scriptures often spoke of the salvation of the Gentiles. In Romans 15, Paul quoted four different Old Testament passages to show that the salvation of the Gentiles was a matter of prophecy. He said in verse 8:

Romans 15:8-12 (NKJ)
8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: "For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name."
10 And again he says: "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!"
11 And again: "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!"
12 And again, Isaiah says: "There shall be a root of Jesse; and He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope."

With these prophecies in mind, why was it such a shock to the Jews when God started saving the Gentiles? The reason is that the Jews always saw these verses through the filter of the First Covenant. They just thought that in the kingdom many, many Gentiles would convert to Judaism and come to God through the Law.

But God gave Paul a vision for what the New Covenant Kingdom was really going to be. Paul could see that the spiritual power of the New Covenant was going to reach out the Gentiles of the world without the stranglehold of the Law, and Paul said this message was not given to him by any man, but it was given to him by the Lord.

So Paul went out preaching to the Gentiles that they could be saved through faith in Christ without the Law, but there was something else that was uniquely different about Paul’s New Covenant ministry and that is that Paul was the first of the Apostles to emphasize not only faith in the person of Christ but faith in the work of Christ as well. Paul told the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

Paul said, this gospel which I preach is the gospel by which you are saved. Therefore, he said, hold fast to the word which I preach.

Many people today think that people have always been saved by believing that Christ died for our sins, but that’s not the case. The gospel that Christ died for our sins was never taught until it was taught by the Apostle Paul. The Lord Jesus certainly never told anyone that they could be saved by believing in His death, burial and resurrection. In Peter’s early ministry, he never told anyone that they could be saved by believing in the finished work of Christ upon the cross. In Acts, Chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood before the Jews in Jerusalem and said:

Acts 2:22-24 (NKJ)
22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know--
23 "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
24 "whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.

Peter said, you killed the Messiah but do not despair. God has raised Him from the dead. He reminded them of David’s prediction that the Christ would suffer and die and be raised from the dead. Now verse 29 of Acts 2 says:

Acts 2:29-32 (NKJ)
29 "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 "Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
31 "he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
32 "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.

Peter told these Jews that they could be saved if they would just believe that Jesus was who He said He was. They had to believe that Jesus was the Christ. This was a beautiful message which was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. I doubt that Peter even knew about Joel, Chapter 2, or Psalms, Chapter 16, before he started speaking, but he quoted them by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This message was given by the Holy Spirit, but there was not a word about Jesus Christ dying for our sins. Peter and the other original Apostles had no understanding of the fact that the shed blood of Jesus Christ was the means by which men could be reconciled to God.

The message of reconciliation through the blood of Christ was hinted at and pictured in many ways in the Old Testament scriptures, but no one understood it until it as revealed to the Apostle Paul. Paul said, the gospel I preach is not according to man, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. In Romans 3, Paul said that we are :

Romans 3:24-26 (NKJ)
24 . . . justified freely by (God’s) grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood . . .
26 . . . that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Here, Paul is not only teaching the importance of who Jesus was, but he is teaching the importance of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary. The word propitiation is the word for the mercyseat which is the blood sprinkled lid of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies. It’s where all of God’s righteous and all of God’s love come together to offer forgiveness on the basis of an appropriate sacrifice for sin.

In Paul’s early ministry, as a minister of the New Covenant, the gospel of the Apostle Paul was that the blood of Jesus Christ was the means by which man could be reconciled to God through faith. It was not until after Paul taught this message that the other Apostles began to teach the same thing. John said in I John 2:

I John 2:2 (NKJ)
2 (Jesus) Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Here we see that in John’s later years he could see that the blood of the Lord Jesus had opened the door of salvation not only to the Jew but to the whole world.

In I John 4, John said:

I John 4:10 (NKJ)
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Again, we see John teaching that it’s the blood of Jesus Christ that God accepts as a payment for sin.

At the end of the Acts-period, God temporarily set aside Israel’s hope for the New Covenant Kingdom. At that time, Paul was instructed to reveal the details of the Church which is the Body of Christ, and if the blood of Jesus Christ is the prominent feature of the New Covenant, then certainly it is even more prominent in the revelation concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ.

In Paul’s letters to the Church, he emphasized time and time again the importance of the blood of Christ. Ephesians 1:7 says:

Ephesians 1:7 (NKJ)
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Ephesians 2:13 says:
Ephesians 2:13 (NKJ)
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In Colossians 1:13, we read:
Colossians 1:13-14 (NKJ)
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

And then in Colossians 1:19, we read:
Colossians 1:19-20 (NKJ)
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

The blood of Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation for any person of any time period. All those who come to God for salvation must meet God at the mercyseat and have the blood of Jesus Christ applied to their hearts as the perfect payment for sin.

If you don’t know Christ today, you can be saved through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. All you have to do is believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. This is the gospel by which we are saved.

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

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Thursday, June 01, 2006

The New Covenant Part 2 (6-4-06)

The New Covenant (Part 2)
Bible Study Time 6-4-06

The Law of Moses is what the book of Hebrews calls the First Covenant. It was formalized at Mt. Sinai when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. This First Covenant was glorious in that it did reveal the righteousness of God, but it was flawed in that it did not provide its followers with the power to live according to God’s righteousness. Therefore, a thousand years after the First Covenant was given, God promised a New Covenant. In Jeremiah 31:31, the Lord said:

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.

Now, oddly enough, the New Covenant is not a major theme in the New Testament scriptures. The Lord mentions it at the Last Supper, and Paul mentions it twice in his letters to the Corinthians. But then, the New Covenant is thoroughly examined by the writer of the book of Hebrews.

According to Matthew’s account of the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus took a cup of wine and gave thanks. Then the Lord gave the cup to his disciples, saying:

Matthew 26:27-28 (NKJ)
27 . . . "Drink from it, all of you.
28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

That very evening the Lord was arrested and the next day He was crucified.

In I Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul repeated the words which the Lord spoke at the Last Supper because the Corinthian believers were apparently misusing the words of the Lord to justified some of their church traditions. Paul wanted to set the record straight so He wrote in I Corinthians 11:23:

1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (NKJ)
23 . . . I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

Paul went on to say that there was no way the Corinthian believers could justify the things that they were doing on the basis of the words of the Lord.

In II Corinthians 3, Paul declared that He was an able minister of the New Covenant. He said that the way God had worked in their lives and changed their lives was all that he needed to justify his ministry among them. He said:

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 (NKJ)
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

God did many miracles, wonders and signs through the Apostle Paul during the Acts period, and Paul understood that these miracles were being done by the power of the Holy Spirit. He understood that this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was in keeping with the ministry of the New Covenant. The Old Testament prophets had predicted that the New Covenant Kingdom would be preceded by this great outpouring of God’s Spirit. Therefore, Paul said that he was an able minister of the New Covenant.

In II Corinthians 3, Paul spoke of the glory of the First Covenant, the Law of Moses. He said that the Law was so glorious that Moses had to put a veil over his face when he came down from Mt. Sinai because his face was shining so brightly. Then, Paul reminded the Corinthians that as time went on Moses’ face stopped shining and his face went back to normal. This pictured the fact that the glory of the Law was a fading glory. Its glory was going to fade away in the light of the glory of the New Covenant. Paul said:

2 Corinthians 3:7-11 (NKJ)
7 . . . if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

The Lord mentioned the New Covenant once, and Paul mentioned it twice, but it was left up to the writer of the book of Hebrews to really explain the details of the New Covenant. In Hebrews, Chapter 8, we see that even before the creation of all things, God had a tabernacle in heaven with lampstands and a table and an altar and all of the things that were contained in the earthly tabernacle that Moses built. In fact, the things that Moses made were patterned after the heavenly things.

In the First Covenant, God called upon Aaron and his sons to offer animal sacrifices and sprinkle the blood of those sacrifices on the altar of the earthly tabernacle. However, all through the years of that First Covenant, there was no blood sprinkled on the heavenly altar. God was reserving that altar for the blood of the New Covenant.

Hebrews 10 says that it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Therefore, no blood from the animal sacrifices was ever placed on the heavenly altar. That altar was waiting for the blood of Jesus Christ.

When John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” When the Lord Jesus gave the wine to His disciples at the Last Supper, He said, “This is my blood of the New Covenant.” As Jesus drank that wine, He knew that the time had come for Him to shed the blood of the New Covenant, and He knew that with that blood, He would deal with the sins of the world once and for all.

Obviously then, as God was waiting for the blood of the New Covenant all through the years of the First Covenant, He was using the First Covenant to picture what He was going to do in the New Covenant. The Law was given as a teacher to bring mankind into an understanding of God’s true righteousness and justice. The tabernacle of the Law pictured the tabernacle in heaven, and the sacrifices of the Law pictured the death of the Lord Jesus.

The animal sacrifices pictured the Lord Jesus, but we must not forget that the priests also pictured the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ was designated as both the Lamb of God and the High Priest of God even before the creation. Revelation 13:8 says that the Lord Jesus is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.

Then, when we think of the Lord’s position as High Priest, we have to think about the fact that Abraham paid a tithe to a Priest named Melchizedek way back in Genesis 14. David said that the Messiah would be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and the book of Hebrews confirms that Jesus Christ is the High Priest of the New Covenant. It says:

Hebrews 5:4-6 (NKJ)
4 . . . no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was (God) who said to Him: "You are My Son, today I have begotten You."
6 As He also says in another place: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek";

And so, Jesus Christ offered His blood as the blood of the New Covenant, and as the High Priest of the New Covenant, He carried that blood into the heavenly tabernacle and placed it upon the mercyseat of the altar. Once that was done, the earth was ready for the outpouring of God’s Spirit and the glory of the kingdom.

Now, if we go back and take a look at Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the New Covenant, we find that God says He will establish the New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. He does not say that He will establish the New Covenant with the Gentiles.

When the Lord Jesus spoke of the New Covenant at the Last Supper, He was speaking to His Jewish disciples about the Jewish people when He said, “This is my blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many.” When the writer of Hebrews spoke of the superiority of the New Covenant, he was obviously writing to the Hebrews. But what about Paul? What about his references to the New Covenant in I and II Corinthians? Wasn’t Paul the minister to the Gentiles?

Yes, Paul was the minister to the Gentiles, but in the early years of his ministry, he went out, as he said, as a minister of the New Covenant. In Romans, Chapter 1, he said that God’s offer of salvation was to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In Romans 15:8, Paul said that Jesus Christ came to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and then he quoted four different Old Testament passages to prove that the salvation of God had to go out to the Gentiles before the kingdom could come.

If we examine Paul’s early letters, we see that in I and II Corinthians Paul mentioned the New Covenant twice. In II Thessalonians 2, Paul warned the people about the coming of the antichrist and the fact that the antichrist had to come before the setting up of the kingdom. In I Corinthians 6, Paul taught that believers will someday judge the world. In Romans 8, Paul said that the whole creation groans with labor pains as it eagerly waits for the revelation of the Sons of God.

Now let me just say that the creation is not eagerly awaiting the rapture of the Church because after the rapture of the Church the labor pains of the creation will become worse and worse until the revelation of the Sons of God at the second coming of Christ.

As we look at statements such as this one in Romans, we cannot help but conclude that in Paul’s early ministry, he was looking, not for the rapture of the church, but he was looking for the return of the Lord Jesus who would defeat the antichrist and set up the kingdom.

On the other hand, when we study the letters of Paul’s later ministry, we see that Paul has a totally different point of view. Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians as well as Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus were written after the Acts period, and in those letters he makes no mention of the New Covenant, the antichrist, the tribulation period or any of those things. Only in those letters does Paul specifically reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ. Only in those letters does he reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ as a heavenly institution. Only in those letters does Paul reveal that all believers today are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ and that, as such, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

There are many doctrines which set Paul’s later epistles apart from his earlier writings, and we’re not going to go into all of those points of doctrine today, but it is to these later epistles of Paul that believers today should look for specific direction.

All scripture is profitable because we can always learn from the wisdom and the foolishness of those who lived before us or will live after us, but we cannot expect to experience all of the things that the people of others ages experience. God’s dealings with the Church of our present age is uniquely different from his dealings with the people of other ages.

During the Acts period, the Holy Spirit was being poured out upon the believers who accepted Christ, and they experienced miracles, wonders and signs. However, when Israel steadfastly refused to accept Christ throughout the Acts period, God temporarily set aside Israel’s hope of the New Covenant Kingdom. It was at that time that God allowed Paul to start revealing the Church which is the Body of Christ.

After the rapture of the Church, God will bring back the ministry of the New Covenant during the tribulation period, and once again, there will be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit with miracles, wonders and signs.

In Acts, Chapter 2, Peter quotes from Joel, Chapter 2, to show that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was predicted as that which would come before the setting up of the kingdom, but if we look back in Joel, Chapter 2, at the preceding verses, we see that Joel gives us a hint that the outpouring of the Spirit will come in two different phases. Verse 23 says:

Joel 2:23 (NKJ)
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you-- the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

Of coarse, Joel was specifically referring to the former rain and the latter rain which are both necessary for a good harvest, but in the context of His prophesy concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we see a hint that there will be a former rain and a latter rain. The former rain occurred during the Acts period, and the latter rain will occur during the tribulation period. It will be after the latter rain, that Christ will return to the earth to harvest His elect. Matthew 24 says:

Matthew 24:30-31 (NKJ)
30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

What a marvelous day that will be when the full glory of the New Covenant is revealed on the earth as Jesus Christ rules and reigns for a thousand years.

Well, I see that our time is gone for 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:

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The New Covenant (5-28-06)

The New Covenant
Bible Study Time 5-28-06

We saw last week that the first man, Adam, was not born of the flesh, but he was born of the Spirit, for God blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living being. The life which is given by the Spirit of God is holy and pure. It is eternal in character, but Adam forfeited that life of the Spirit when he chose to eat of the forbidden fruit. All men since the time of Adam have been born of the flesh, cursed with mortal bodies and a nature which is opposed to God.

The book of Matthew gives the genealogy of the Lord Jesus from the time of Abraham and lists all the men who were begotten by other men, but then it says that:

Matthew 1:18
18 . . . the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the Lord Jesus entered into the curse by taking upon Himself a mortal body which was subject to death. However, He was born of the Spirit because the life which was in Him was the life of the Holy Spirit of God. Mary was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Where the first Adam failed to live by the Spirit of God, Jesus Christ, whom the Bible calls the last Adam, lived in complete submission to the Spirit of God. As a result, He was qualified to take upon Himself the curse of sin. He did so by shedding His blood upon the cross of Calvary so that He could give the life of the Spirit of God to all who believe in His name. Paul said in I Corinthians that the first man, Adam, became a living being, while the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

When Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus by night, the Lord told him that he had to be born again, or literally born from above, before he could see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, the life that comes from the Spirit of God.

The Bible tell us that in the tribulation period, God will send two witnesses. They will be the prophets of God, and they will have the power to stop the rain from heaven. They will have the power to turn the water into blood. They will have the power to breath fire from their mouths to destroy anyone who tries to hurt them.

The Bible says that when these two witnesses have completed their work, the devil will make war against them and kill them. Their dead bodies will lie in state for three and a half days while the people of the earth rejoice and send gifts one to another. In Revelation 11, the Apostle John looks into the future and says that:

Revelation 11:11-12 (NKJ)
11 . . . after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.

Notice that it will be the breath of the life of God that will enter into them. They will stand on their feet, and then they will be called up into heaven. Well, just as surely as the Spirit of God will give life to the dead bodies of these prophets, the Spirit of God gives life to our dead spirits when we believe in Jesus Christ. And just as surely as the Spirit of God gives life to our dead spirits, God will someday give eternal life to our mortal bodies when God calls us up to be with Him in the glory of heaven. He shall change our vile body that it may be like His glorious body.

This promise of life from the Spirit of God was something that God promised in the Old Testament. It was to be the predominant feature of Israel’s promised New Covenant. In Jeremiah 31, the Lord spoke to the nation of Israel, saying:

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (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.
34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

This New Covenant will bring in the glorious kingdom which will bring blessing to all of the nations of the earth. Jeremiah said that in this kingdom, all men will know the Lord. There will be no need for anyone to go tell his neighbor about the Lord. There will be no need for anyone to go to the remote corners of the earth to tell the lost about the Lord, for in this kingdom everyone will know the Lord.

The Lord speaks through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36 and expands upon the role of the Holy Spirit in this New Covenant Kingdom. In verse 24 the Lord speaks to Israel and says:

Ezekiel 36:24, 26-28 (NKJ)
24 " . . . I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 "Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

However, Isaiah spoke of the great tribulation and distress that the whole earth will go through before this kingdom is established. Isaiah 24 says:

Isaiah 24:1, 3 (NIV)
1 See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants--
3 The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word.

Isaiah 24:19-23 (NIV)
19 The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.
20 The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls . . .
21 In that day the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.
22 They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.
23 The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously.

Israel’s New Covenant Kingdom is going to come to the earth but only after much tribulation. Zechariah speaks more specifically of the tribulation that will come upon Jerusalem. In Chapters 12 and 14, the Lord says:

Zechariah 14:2-3 (NIV)
2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women (ravished). Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle.

Zechariah 12:6-10 (NIV)
6 "On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 "The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem's inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.
8 On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them.
9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

Notice that in this time of great tribulation, the Lord has David on His mind. In II Samuel, Chapter 7, the Lord promised David that one of his descendants would sit upon the throne in this everlasting kingdom, and all of this great tribulation is merely a precursor to the glorious New Covenant Kingdom.

David was so looking forward to this kingdom. We see his rejoicing in Psalms 47, where he sings:

Psalms 47:1-9 (NKJ)
1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
2 For the LORD Most High is awesome; he is a great King over all the earth.
3 He will subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet.
4 He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah
5 God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.
8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.
9 The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.

But as much as David loved to praise the Lord for the glory of the coming kingdom, he was also able to praise the Lord for His mighty display of power during the coming tribulation period. In Psalm 46, David again sings to the Lord:

Psalms 46:1-7, 10, 11 (NKJ)
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
6 The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; he uttered His voice, the earth melted.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
11 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Through Zechariah the Lord said that the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will look on Him whom they have pierced, and they will morn, but He also said:

Zechariah 9:9-12 (NKJ)
9 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; he is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 . . . his dominion shall be 'from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.'
11 " . . . because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Israel has seen her King lowly and riding on a donkey, but she has not yet seen His dominion which extends to the ends of the earth and is based in the blood of their covenant. What covenant was the Lord talking about? It was the New Covenant. What blood was the Lord talking about? It was the blood of Jesus. Jesus said at the Last Supper, “This is my blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many.”

After Israel rejected Christ throughout the Acts period, God temporarily set aside the New Covenant Kingdom program. He took the blood of the New Covenant which was shed for many and applied to the sins of the whole world so that any and all who believe in the finished work of Christ might be born from above with the everlasting life of the Spirit of God.

The believers of our present age are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Church which is the Body of Christ. Someday, we will be caught up to be with the Lord, and then the New Covenant Kingdom will once again be offered to the nation of Israel. After much tribulation, the nation of Israel will be saved, and the Lord Jesus will reign as King over all the earth.

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:

Monday, May 15, 2006

Power from on High (5-21-06)

Power from on High
Bible Study Time 5-21-06

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, saying:

Galatians 4:4-6 (NKJ)
4 . . . when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"

From this we see that Jesus Christ was born of a woman so that we might be born of the Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus:

John 3:6-7 (NKJ)
6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

In the first chapter of Matthew, Matthew gives the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, saying that Jesus Christ was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Then he goes through the lineage of Christ, saying that Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah, and so forth and so on until we get to the birth of Jesus. At that point, Matthew says:

Matthew 1:18
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

All of the men listed in the genealogy of Jesus were born according to the flesh, but Jesus Christ was born on this wise: Mary was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

God gave a hint concerning the virgin birth of Christ in Genesis, Chapter 3, when Adam and Eve first sinned. The Lord pronounced a curse upon Satan, saying:

Genesis 3:15 (NKJ)
15 . . . I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

God said that it would be the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of Satan, not the seed of the man or the seed of the man and the woman. From the time of that first sin, God patiently waited as mankind grew more and more sinful and farther and farther from God, but as we saw in Galatians 4, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman to redeem those who were under the law.”

In I Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul spoke of Christ and referred to Him as the last Adam. He said, “The first man, Adam, became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

When Adam came into being, he was born of the Spirit. He did not have an earthly father. The Bible says that God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and then Adam became a living being.

Adam lived for 930 years, and can’t you just imagine Adam telling his children and grandchildren and many generations of great-grandchildren all about the creation story? What a wonderful story that must have been to listen to.

But, as we know, the story had some sad news too. Adam and Eve sinned and lost the life that had been given to them by the Spirit of God. They could not pass on to their children the life of the Spirit of God. All men who came after Adam were born according to the flesh, and Romans 8 says that the fleshly mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

When Christ came, however, He was not born according to the flesh. He was born according to the Spirit. Now this does not mean that Christ was just a spirit being any more than Adam was just a spirit being. They both had bodies of flesh, but their bodies were given life by the Spirit of God, and in that sense, they were not born of the flesh, but they were born of the Spirit. Where the first Adam had failed to live according to the Spirit, Jesus Christ, the last Adam, would dedicate Himself completely to the Spirit of God, and He would make it possible for all believers to be born again by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Notice that Paul did not say that Christ was the second Adam. That would imply that a third or a forth Adam might come after the Lord Jesus, but Paul was emphatic when he said that Jesus Christ was the last Adam.

Jesus Christ came to live a perfect live, in perfect obedience to the Father and in total submission to the Holy Spirit. He came to destroy the curse of sin and the power of Satan. There would be no need for another Adam. There would be no need for another virgin birth.

As Christ took His last breath while hanging upon the cross, He exclaimed, “It is finished!” He had fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of the Law. He had fulfilled all that the prophets had written. He had done all that was necessary to break the curse of sin and the power of Satan.

The Seed of the woman had bruised the head of the serpent. This wound, as of yet, is just a bruise. Satan is still functioning in our world today, but he has been wounded. Someday, God is going to take the Church of our present age out of this world. Then He will turn this world over to Satan and the antichrist. At the end of the seven-year tribulation period, Jesus Christ will catch up the tribulation saints, and then return to the earth with all of the kingdom saints from Abraham to that time.

He will cast the antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire. He will bind the devil and cast him into the bottomless pit. After a thousand years of peace on the earth, Satan will be loosed to stir up one final rebellion against Jesus Christ. At that time, Satan’s rebellion will be destroyed with fire from heaven, and Satan, Himself, will be cast into the lake of fire.

The entire spectrum of this future scenario has been made sure by the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, for by His death He paid the penalty for sin, and by His resurrection He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them.

Therefore, Jesus Christ is the last Adam, and He is a life-giving spirit. He was born of the Spirit, and lived by the Spirit. He was raised from the dead by the Spirit, and He gives the life of the Spirit to all who believe in His name.

When Nicodemus came to the Lord by night, he said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

In His reply, Jesus did not beat around the bush with Nicodemus. Immediately, He said, “Most assuredly, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said unto you, 'You must be born again.'”

After His resurrection, the Lord spent 40 days with His disciples, teaching them about the kingdom. Luke says that Christ commanded His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father. He told them that John truly baptized with water, but they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit in just a short time.

Because of Christ’s death burial and resurrection, those men were ready to be born of the Spirit, and shortly thereafter, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was poured out upon them. Acts 2 says:

Acts 2:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Luke goes on to tell how the people who gathered outside the house thought the disciples were drunk, but Peter stood up and explained that this was the fulfillment of the prophet Joel who said:

Acts 2:17-21 (NKJ)
17 'And it shall come to pass in the last days . . . that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

Clearly, Peter was expecting the kingdom to come at any moment. He was expecting the events, which we now know, will happen at the end of the tribulation period. As far as Peter knew, he was in the last days just before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Peter went on to tell the crowd that they had crucified the promised Messiah. He reminded them that Jesus did miracles while He lived among them, and now they, the apostles, were doing miracles to prove that Jesus was alive and that He was the Messiah.

Those who heard Peter’s message were convicted of their sin, and when they ask what they should do, Peter said:

Acts 2:38-39 (NKJ)
38 . . . "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

Notice that Peter never said a word about Jesus dying for their sins. Peter simply told them that they had killed the Messiah and that they should repent and get right with God.

Today we preach a different message. We preach that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And this is the gospel message which was given to the Apostle Paul.

In Paul’s earlier ministry during the Acts period, He proclaimed this message as he went preaching the gospel of the kingdom. During that time, there was a different program for the Jews and the Gentiles as was acknowledged at the Jerusalem Council in Acts, Chapter 15. However, throughout the Acts period, Israel steadfastly refused to accept Christ as her Messiah, and as a result, God set Israel’s kingdom program aside.

At that point, God called out the Apostle Paul to reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ. In Ephesians, Chapter 2, Paul revealed that on the cross, Christ broke down the middle wall of separation between the Jew and the Gentile, and He brought the two together in Himself in one new man. He revealed that now Christ has reconciled both Jew and Gentile in one body through the cross.

Today, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit but without the miracles which were so evident during the time of Israel’s kingdom program. Those signs were given for the Jews to leave them without excuse when they stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgment.

Today, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Paul says in Colossians 2:

Colossians 2:11-13 (NKJ)
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

This is the means by which we are born of the Spirit today. We are raised with Christ through faith in the working of God who raised Christ from the dead. In Ephesians 5, Paul says:

Ephesians 5:8,14-17 (NKJ)
8 . . . you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
14 . . . "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, who was born of a woman but conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. God sent forth His Son so that we might receive the Spirit of God and be born again.

If you don’t know the Lord Jesus today as your personal Savior, you are still walking in darkness with no ability to understand what the will of the Lord is. The Lord Jesus said:

John 11:9-10 (NKJ)
9 . . . “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 "But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."

God wants to illuminate your path so that you can walk uprightly without any fear of stumbling. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. In Him is life and the life is the light of men. There is no light apart from Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Him today and your will experience what it means to be born of the Spirit.

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

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

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Monday, May 08, 2006

Choices (5-15-06)

Choices
Bible Study Time 5-14-06

Joshua of the Old Testament is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. In fact, the name Jesus is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua which means Savior. When the angel told Joseph that Mary had conceived a child by the Holy Spirit, the angel concluded:

Matthew 1:21 (NKJ)
21 " . . . she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

As you read the Old Testament, Joshua first appears on the scene in Exodus, Chapter 17, while the children of Israel were traveling from the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai. The Amalekites had gathered to attack Israel at Rephidim, and Moses called upon Joshua to gather his men for battle. Moses stood at the top of a nearby hill and held his staff high in the air as Joshua defeated the Amalekites. For Joshua, this was but a taste of things to come for Joshua would later lead the nation of Israel to victory over all of the pagan nations living in the land of Canaan.

The life of Joshua is generally divided into two parts. First, Joshua served as Moses’ assistant. When God called Moses up to the top of Mt. Sinai to receive the Law, the Bible says that Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and then Moses went up to the mountain of God. This is a picture of Jesus Christ in His first advent because Jesus Christ came as the servant of God. Jesus said:

John 6:38 (NKJ)
38 " . . . I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

The Apostle Paul admonished the people in Philippi with these words:

Philippians 2:5-8 (NKJ)
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

But then Paul says:

Philippians 2:9-11 (NKJ)
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This brings us to the second aspect of Joshua’s life which covers that period of time after Moses’ death. This is the time in which Joshua served as the Commander in Chief of the Army of God, leading the nation of Israel to victory over the pagan nations of the land of Canaan. Of coarse, this pictures the Lord Jesus at His second coming when He will return from heaven on a white horse with His robe dipped in blood. Revelation 19 says that in righteousness He will judge and make war against the antichrist and his army of unbelievers.

Now, we know today, because of the writings of the Apostle Paul, that believers of our present age will be taken up into heaven at least seven years before the Lord Jesus returns to defeat the antichrist. We, as members of the Church, the Body of Christ, will be taken up into heaven, then there will be the seven years of the great tribulation period during which the antichrist will rise to power. Toward the end of the tribulation period, Christ will catch up the believers of the tribulation period, and they will return with Christ to the earth to wage war with the antichrist and then rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years.

The book of Joshua describes the various battles that took place as the nation of Israel conquered the land of Canaan. It describes the division of the land among the twelve tribes of Israel, and it also describes Joshua’s final words to the nation of Israel. Joshua was a hundred and ten years old by this time, and he spoke to the people as the prophet of God. Joshua, Chapter 24 says:

Joshua 24:1-2 (NKJ)
1 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods.

God wanted to remind the children of Israel that Abraham and his father and brothers were idolaters. They had worshiped the idols of the Chaldeans on the other side of the Euphrates Rivers up until the point when God called Abraham out of paganism to follow the true and the living God.

It was important for Israel to know that their many victories over the Canaanites were not just because of their own faithfulness to God, but they were also a result of Abraham’s faithfulness to God. God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants, and God was fulfilling His promise to Abraham. In this we see an example of how God blesses even the generations that follow those who are faithful to the Lord.

God continues in Joshua 24, saying, “I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them.”

Even the plagues that God sent upon Egypt through Moses were specific judgments upon the pagan gods of Egypt. God is a jealous God, and He will not share His glory with another. The plague of flies was a judgment on the god of the flies. The plague of the frogs was a judgment on the god of the frogs, and so forth and so on.

In Joshua 24, God goes on to remind the children of Israel that He was the One who had led their fathers out of Egypt and had brought them through the Red Sea. He was the One who had destroyed the Amorites and the Moabites before the Jews even got to the promised land. He was the One who had delivered all the land of Canaan into their hands and had driven out the pagan nations. God said:

Joshua 24:12-13 (NKJ)
12 'I sent the hornet before you which drove them out from before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with your bow.
13 'I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.'

At this point Joshua speaks for himself, saying:

Joshua 24:14-15 (NKJ)
14 "Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!
15 "And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

The nation of Israel had a decision to make. It was a decision that would affect their lives and the lives of their children for many years to come. Would they be willing to put away the pagan gods and serve the Lord? This was a very important decision.

As I read this account, I can’t help but think of the people who say that they don’t want to influence the beliefs of their children when it comes to religion. They say that they will raise their children the best they can, and then their children will be able to decide for themselves about religion when they get old enough to understand.

Well, Joshua was speaking for the Lord when he presented the children of Israel with this decision, but God was not about to put this decision upon them without giving them the information they needed to make a good decision. God knows that good decisions are based on reliable information, so God reviewed the whole history of the nation of Israel before asking them to decide. Then, in the light of this glorious history, Joshua asked them to choose for themselves whether they wanted the blessings of God or the misery and suffering that comes to those who refuse to follow the Lord. With this information, the Jews were able to make a good decision, and they said:

Joshua 24:16-18 (NKJ)
16 . . . "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods;
17 "for the LORD our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.
18 "And the LORD drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the LORD, for He is our God."

So the children of Israel renewed their covenant with the Lord that day, and the Bible says that Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the LORD which He had done for Israel.

The Jews made the right choice because they had good, reliable information upon which to make their decision, and they had effective leaders like Moses and Joshua who were willing to teach them the truth and then live by the truths they taught. Oh, how much we need effective spiritual leadership in our homes, in our churches and in our country. Leaders who are willing to stand for the truth.

What a difference it makes in a home when the parents are willing to stand up for the truth of God’s word and teach their children about the righteous God who created all things and then gave His Son to die for the sins of the world so that those who believe might have eternal life.

What a difference it makes when churches have pastors who are willing to stand up for the truth of God’s word. Who fight spiritual battles with the spiritual weapons provided by the Holy Spirit of God: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, and the sword of the Spirit.

What a difference it makes when a country has leaders with a firm commitment to the principles of truth and honesty. Who are led by the Holy Spirit to protect those who are defenseless and provide for those who cannot provide for themselves.

God had blessed Israel with strong, effective leadership in Moses and Joshua. They taught the truth and lived by the truth, and the Bible says that:

Joshua 24:31 (NKJ)
31 Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the LORD which He had done for Israel.

However, as time went on the children of Israel did turn away from God. During the time of the judges, Deborah sang a song which said:

Judges 5:7-8 (NKJ)
7 Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel.
8 They chose new gods; then there was war in the gates; not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

The nation of Israel chose new gods. They forgot about the history lesson that Joshua taught them or maybe they just stopped believing it. Either way, they chose new gods, and there was war in the gates. Israel was defenseless before her enemies.

People today have the same choice to make that Israel had to make. Will we serve the true and the living God or not. God has given us a free will, and we are free to choose. However, today, we have an advantage over the Jews of the Old Testament because today we have the completed word of God. We can see the purpose of the Old Testament Law and the fact that it was given as a tutor, or schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ.

The Old Testament Law promised physical blessings on this physical earth, but today, we have the opportunity to receive eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus said, “I did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill the Law.” He lived a perfect life and then offered His life upon the cross of Calvary as the spotless lamb of God so that all those who believe might have everlasting life.

If you have never trusted Christ as your personal Savior, won’t you make that decision today. God has given us all of the information that we need to make a well-informed decision. He has given us the word of God, and He has given us pastors and teachers to explain the word of God to us. If you choose to follow Christ, then you will know what a blessing it is to be able to say as Joshua did, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I see our time is gone. It’s been a pleasure studying with you this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links: