John The Baptist: Preaching the O.T. Prophets!

Mat 3:12; Luke 3: 17

John was preaching the Old Testament, making it new again, bringing people to the LORD JESUS CHRIST, even before they were seeing HIM in person. One aspect of John’s message was a separation of the wheat from the chaff.

That separation was preached more than once in the OT by the prophets of GOD, warning the people, esp. the religious leaders, their time was coming unless they repented of their evil teaching. xref: Jeremiah 23:28; Isaiah 66:24.

Nevertheless, John was also preaching the same thing the LORD JESUS was going to preach, even if HE did not use the exact same words. Mat 13:49-50; John 15.2

One final point to mention. Many of these verses bring home the fact that GOD will indeed separate the wheat from the chaff. It will not go well for the chaff. More than once in the OT, many times in the new… the place where the chaff (the unsaved) wind up is in torment, forever. JESUS and Isaiah each put it this way: the unbelievers will be cast to the place where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.

Ask, Seek and Knock

◘ Asking is Desiring: petitioning the LORD with our prayer requests

◘ Seeking is Discernment: finding GOD’s will and agreeing with HIM, and allowing that to lead our prayer. We seek HIM in prayer, but also, in reading the Bible, and being obedient to HIM.

◘ Knocking is our Drive: for a result, for an answer. Shows our passion in asking and seeking.

Paraphrased from Adrian Rogers radio show, 2 Sept 2010

Ephesians 2: “Remember” (Kevin does a little thought rambling)

Ephesians 2:11: Starts off with, “Wherefore remember…” In context, Paul is reminding the saved of where these people came from: from being “dead in their sins and trespasses;” of being “…called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;…” That was a derisive term used by the Israelites of any nonJew. Paul is stating that thru JESUS CHRIST, and the work HE did on the cross, there is no longer that division. Essentially, the only division now are the saved or the lost (unsaved). Believers and Unbelievers. Or, as Adrian Rogers used to put it, the Saints and the Ain’ts. All fall under one of those two categories: either you are Heaven bound or Lake of Fire bound, regardless of your nationality. Paul goes on to make it very plain that GOD has provided the gift of life FREELY to all who will believe. (Ephesians 2:8)

So, verse 11 has the word,  remember. I did a little study this morning, on that word. Some fun connections were made, just in the Bible alone.

Connecting the Old Testament and the New

In the Old Testament, the LORD commanded Israel to remember that they were slaves in Egypt before HE brought them out of the land of slavery.

Deuteronomy 5:15 
And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and [that] the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

All along, GOD has always been commanding HIS chosen people: “remember from whence you came.”

“by a stretched out arm”

I’m reminded, JESUS stretched out HIS arms wide on the cross, taking my sin, and my hell from me and in my place. (and your’s too, if you believe.) 

“a mighty hand ”

GOD told Moses (as a type of CHRIST) to stretch out HIS arms over the Red Sea, and GOD parted the waters there in the presence of the Israel and their enemy. (Exodus 14:16) Unlike Moses, GOD’s arms never age or grow tired, they are never weary. HIS arms are able to carry out anything and everything HE so desires, and HE desired us enough to stretch out HIS arms on the cross. ► Kevin’s Komment: that last phrase is worth thinking about! ☺ ◄

Isaiah 41:10: It is by the mighty right hand of the LORD that HE helps us. The right hand is a place of power, authority and strength. JESUS is now, at the “right hand of the throne of GOD, “ (Hebrews 4:12) and will someday establish HIS power, authority and strength bodily on the earth. Before that, of course, is that every believer in JESUS CHRIST the LORD, is looking for the day when HE comes and calls us out of the dust from which we are buried, to meet HIM in the air, to live eternally with HIM.

So, I’ve gone from connecting remembering to stretched out arm to the mighty hand of GOD.

Guess I do not have a particular point to make here, but I sure do like the way the Bible leads me in all kinds of fun directions. Studying the Bible never grows old.