Category: Old Testament

The Four Most Important Verses in the Book of Jeremiah

The prophet Jeremiah lived before and through the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

One of Jeremiah’s many prophecies before that disaster is as follows:

  • 31:31-34 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbour and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

1.  The promise of the new covenant (vv. 31, 32)

2.  Some of the provisions of the new covenant (vv. 33, 34)

Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth

There were many people of tremendous faith in the bible and in this mornings sermon we look at Abraham. Spending the majority of his life in his father house it would appear like a failure to launch for Abraham until he received a Promise from God that he will have a legacy and land to call his own. Abraham knew the promise of physical land didn’t compare to the promise of an eternity in heaven. Because of his Faith in that promise and ultimately in God many have access to this same promise through Christ Jesus. Join us in learning more about his wonderful gift of salvation through todays sermon. Enjoy.

Ezekiel 37

In the midst of their despair, the two halves of Ezekiel 37 contain:

  • A vision of the restoration of the nation (37:1-14), and
  • An enacted prophecy about the Messiah’s nation (37:15-28)!
  • In the explanation of these things (Ezk.37:11-14), who were represented by the bones?
  • Two sticks of Judah and Joseph demonstrating when all God’s people would be united in the Messiah’s nation!
  • David, the second king of Israel (Acts 13:21,22), had died about 400 years before the time of Ezekiel (cf. Matt.1:17). So who then is the “one shepherd” described as “My servant David”(Ezk.37:24)?
  • the “one shepherd” described as “My servant David” is David’s descendant, the Messiah(Acts 2:29-32)

What kind of covenant would be made?

  • Ezek 37:26 “And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever.
    • Col 1:20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

David’s Psalm of Deliverance

 

David’s Song (also recorded as Psalm 18) is first and foremost a prophesy of the coming Messiah, as it says things which cannot be said of any ordinary man.

However, it is also a summary and reflection of the life of David, who sang this song “in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” And thus we consider the great drama of the life of David with it’s many ups and downs, and see how through it all, David was faithful to the LORD (despite his many sins and shortcomings), and the LORD rewarded David and delivered him from his enemies.

All of this serves to place David as a witness for us to the faithfulness of God. Why should we believe this prophesy of a faithful Messiah who is delivered from His enemies…? Because David was a faithful man whom God delivered from his enemies.

David’s life is the perfect testament to the faithfulness of God towards those who serve Him

Is the Bible out of date?

Introduction
Is the Bible out of date? (= outmoded, obsolete)?

• After all, it was completed almost 2,000 years ago.
• And society has changed and progressed so much, even in just the last 50 years (calculators,
computers, phones, internet, etc.)!
• We certainly know that modern textbooks are constantly being updated!

1. The old covenant is obsolete because it has been replaced with the new covenant.

God never intended the OT to be permanent:
– Gal. 3:19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
– Gal. 3:24-25 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Heb. 7:12 For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

2. The old covenant is obsolete but is not irrelevant.

-1Cor. 10:5-6 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. 6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
– Lk. 24:25-27 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

3. The whole Bible is the word of God and has not changed.

2Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
– 1Co 14:37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.

= Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

4. Mankind’s need for the word of God has not changed.

Ecc 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. Eccl. 12:13-14 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

Is the Bible out of date?
• This has not changed today.
• i.e., Every person needs God’s commandments!
• God’s commandments for us today, as we have seen, are in the NT (new covenant).
• Our need for the word of God has not changed!

Rom. 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
• Mankind still needs salvation today.
• The gospel is still the only “power of God for salvation” today.

Respect Part 2

We continue our look at part 2 of the topic of Respect through the historical event of Cain and Abel. We see how we should respect ourselves, those we come in contact with (our neighbours) and finish with how Jesus showed respect to God and his neighbours, even though he was faced with difficult circumstances.

Zechariah chapter 14 is NOT a second coming of Christ chapter

An exposition of Zechariah 14

  • Zechariah 14 is almost universally used as a “second coming of Christ chapter” but it is a “destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70) and the nations” chapter instead.
  • In other words, rather than a “second coming of Christ chapter”, Zechariah 14 is a “first coming of Christ chapter”.  The context is decisive in proving this.

Respect Part 1

What is Respect? Are there people in our lives that we respect? Why is it that we have respect for them? In this sermon we take a look at Genesis 4:1-5 and the interaction between the first family and God and how they show their respect, and for some their contempt, for their God. What lessons can we learn and apply to our own lives.