Bible Study Radio

Matthew (Program #60) – The Heavenly King Being Tested (3)

In the day right before the crucifixion of Christ, the situation in Jerusalem was very confused.  In many ways we have to say it’s much like today.  All manner of religious factions and groups each with their own spin on the theological questions of the day.  And each of these groups took their turn asking the Lord Jesus what they thought were difficult even clever questions try to catch Him in a way that they could use to their advantage.  But in each turn, of course Jesus prevailed.   Until ultimately He silences them by asking them the real question of questions, “What did you think about Christ?  Whose Son is He?”  As we look at the four-part test that the Lord Jesus allowed His opposers to subject Him to.  And then this greatest of all questions that He turn to them.

Matthew (Program #59) – The Heavenly King Being Tested (2)

The final chapter of Matthew presents a series of parables that are often referred to and even quoted but seldom understood or explained in a full and complete way.  These parables all deal not with going to heavens but with the coming kingdom to be established on earth with Christ Himself reigning in righteousness as the King of kings.  And they also deal with our participation and enjoyment in this coming kingdom age.  One of these well-known parables is the story of the marriage feast.  In particularly, one who is called but then expelled for not being dressed in proper wedding garment.

Exodus (Program #32) – The Experience of Manna

In Exodus the Lord performed miracle after miracle in rescuing His people Israel.  Once through the Red Sea, He continue to bless them with rich experiences such as quenching their deepest thirst.  Yet despise His merciful treatment, they murmur bitterly at the first sign of difficulty.  How can we explain such pitiful behavior by the people of God?  Well, the same way we can explain much of our own shameful behavior before the Lord.  Stay with us as we get another view of our savior God on today’s life study of the Bible.

We see something very remarkable in this journey with the children of Israel in the wilderness.  They had a remarkable series of experiences with the Lord; His miraculous deliverance of them through the Passover and going through the Red Sea, and this marvelous experience of the bitter water at Marah and finally the flowing stream and the growing palm at Elim.  Yet after all of these, there is a very ugly, an ugly display of their dissatisfaction toward the Lord.  Listen to these verses in Exodus 16,  “And they journeyed from Elim, and all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure out of the land of Egypt.  And the whole assembly of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness.  And the children of Israel said to them, If only we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole congregation with hunger.  Then Jehovah said to Moses, I will now rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My law.”  After all that He had done to rescue these people, this must have tested the Lord very very much…

Exodus (Program #31) – Israel’s Experience at Elim

When God led the children of Israel out of Egypt in the book of Exodus, their destination was ultimately northward to Canaan, the good land and the place of fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.  But He took them first far to the south, to the shores of the Red Sea, then after crossing the Red Sea, He led them south again to a place call Marah and then to Elim.  Surely this did not match their expectations.  God’s ways are not our ways.  Is He leading you south when you thought that you should be headed north?

The background of this message today is one that most of us can relate to, at least to some extend.  The children of Israel had just come through the miraculous events related to their exit out of Egypt; the Red Sea, the Passover, all the miracles in God’s dealing with Pharaoh.  By now they must have been expecting a swift and direct journey to the promised land, the Good Land.  But in chapter 15, we see that the pillar of cloud that the Lord had given for them to follow, brought them first to a place called Marah, which we talked about yesterday and then to a place called Elim.  This is verse 27, “And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters.”  You can tell by a map that these places were both far to the south, in the absolute opposite direction of where they thought the Lord was planning to take them.  This must have been quite a surprise to Moses and to all the people.

Matthew (Program #58) – The Heavenly King Being Tested (1)

During the final six days of His life on the earth, the Lord Jesus presented Himself to be examined repeatedly even by His strongest critics and most venomous opposers.  As we began to look at how Christ came through this series of examinations in Matthew 21.

Matthew (Program #57) – The Cleansing of the Temple and the Cursing of the Fig Tree

After beginning His ministry in the religious capital of Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus went far away when He needed to reveal His kingdom to His disciples.  But now He returns for one final triumphant entry into the city of the king prior His being crucified there.  All of these details are full of rich meanings and much significances as we will see in today’s life study.

Exodus (Program #30) – Israel’s Experience at Marah

Exodus is surely a book of great stories.  How many Sunday school lessons have come from these wonderful stories?  We do love these stories.  But a deeper and far richer appreciation awaits the ones willing to go beyond the surface and into these pictures for what they really are; dynamic, vivid portraits of the deep and indescribably rich experience of the living and ever present Christ in resurrection.  Please set the next 30 minutes aside for your own spiritual journey with Christ, as we see Him leading us as He led the children of Israel in the book of Exodus.

We’ve seen over and over in this book of Exodus that is just one striking picture after anther, depicting our real spiritual experience of all these rich aspects of Christ.  Today this message will be very much in that same vein.  There are a lot of commentaries on the book of Exodus and the library of Christian literature.  In your years of studies, have you ever come across anything to help unveil these pictures that can remotely compare with this life study of Exodus that is being brought forth in this broadcast?

Exodus (Program #29) – Israel’s Crossing of the Red Sea

The children of Israel had two serious problems; God’s judgment and Pharaoh’s tyranny.  Although the Passover was adequate to save them from God’s judgment, it was not effective to rescue them from the usurpation of the Egyptians, to be saved from Pharaoh’s tyranny.  For this they needed the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea.  Without the crossing of the Red Sea, there would have been no separating line.  Today we will consider the significance of crossing the Red Sea on this life study of the Bible.

Today we are going to look at a very well-known passage, the children of Israel are passing through the parted water of the Red Sea.  But we are going to see today from an angle that will likely be new to many of our listeners.  The apostle Paul refers to this story in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”.  Those are very enlightening verses because they really pick up this story we had before us today and see how it applies to us.  Of course, it’s not hard to see that this could very easily represent the significance of our baptism..

Matthew (Program #56) – The Throne of the Kingdom and the Cup of the Cross

It is easy to read the gospels in the Bible such as Matthew’s gospel and be fascinated by the wonderful stories and the accounts of the many great miracles done by the Lord Jesus.  But throughout this gospel, the Lord Jesus repeatedly spoke to His disciples of how He would go to Jerusalem and suffer the humiliating death on the cross to be raised on the third day.  But despite His repeating of this most critical aspect of the gospel, His disciples were fully occupied with other things; like who among them will have the highest position in the coming kingdom.

Exodus (Program #28) – Pharaoh’s Last Struggle

God’s complete salvation includes redemption, escape from the world and baptism.  These 3 elements are all vividly portrayed in the book of Exodus.  As we see ourselves again and again through the depiction of this wonderful book.  Pharaoh, representing God’s enemy plays a key role in God’s bringing His people Israel through these stages of complete salvation.  How does He use Pharaoh in our lives today?  That will be our focus on our life study of the Bible.

Today’s program brings us to a very marvelous presentation of the escape of the children of Israel from the pursuing Pharaoh and his Egyptian army.  Through the first 14 chapters of Exodus, we have seen a lot of things but there are really 3 significant events related to the Lord’s people; the Passover, their exodus or exit out of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea.  As pictures of our own experience, these are really unmatched in Scripture.  What did these sections refer to in our experience?