Jeroboam

by Garry Maddux

April 16, 2023

Opening Scripture Psalm 49:12-20

Like today the modern Israelites are under punishment again. We have also followed the ways of Jeroboam.

After the death of Solomon, the 12 tribes were split (Judah, and Benjamin), and the other 10 northern tribes were. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah and Sechem was the capital of the northern tribes. Jeroboam was made King of the Northern 10 tribes while Rehoboam was the king of Judah.

The story of how Jeroboam came to power...

by Brian Jones

April 9, 2023

Scripture Reading: Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8

Overall Lesson: God's judgement never changes.

The following verses are explored:

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

April 2, 2023

Scripture Reading:  Romans 7:4

Who was the Apostle Paul’s brethren?  Paul said in the Holy Scriptures that he was of the tribe of Benjamin of the kingdom of Judah/Israel (Philippians 3:6).  So, his brethren would be those of the tribes of Israel.  He also predicted that his brethren would become dead to the marriage law and would be remarried to the resurrected Christ. This cannot be applied to anyone else besides Israel, for they were the ones that were married to Him previously.  One can only be REmarried if they had been married once before.

Ephesians 2:21-22 “Habitation”

by Walter Giddings

March 26, 2023

In our 1st Lesson on The Temple we ended with a question:  Is it “manifest” or evident that “the first tabernacle” is not “standing”? 

Hebrews 9:6-8:  "Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.  But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing."

Our question: Is it “manifest” that “the first tabernacle” is not “standing”?!  Did we answer by showing the destruction of every last Temple was fulfilled in A.D. 70.  Our last question is:  Is there no New Testament Temple?  ().  If there is a New Testament Temple, what and where is that building?

Hebrews 9:11   "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building."

What is this greater and more complete tabernacle?  And how can we say it is “not made with hands”?

by Pastor Jim Jester

March 19, 2023

SCRIPTURE READING: Isaiah 53:1-8

Every year on Good Friday, or Passover, Christians take time to meditate on Jesus’ sacrifice for us in a humiliating and torturous death by crucifixion. It’s a time to dwell on what our Lord suffered for us, in all its pain and intensity, without rushing straight ahead to the good news of resurrection and new life.

The seven last statements of Jesus Christ from the cross reveal much about our Savior’s personality. The first two words reveal his deity; the remaining five reveal his humanity. One of the ways Christians have traditionally meditated on the events of this day is by reading and reflecting on the seven last words of Jesus from the cross.

A person who anticipates being crucified does not prepare a speech for the occasion. Even less so Jesus, who had advised His disciples: ”But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matt. 10:19-20)

So let us spend some time at the foot of the cross and listen to the precious words and try to understand their meaning. Perhaps they will reveal God to us more than the longer speeches of Jesus, which involved some preparation, whereas the words on the cross were spontaneous expressions of himself.

by Pete Vollmer

March 12, 2024

Scripture Reading:  Psalm 127:3-5

Good scriptural advice for parents on raising their children.

Golden Calves and Modern Day Israelites

by Garry Maddux

March 5, 2023

Scripture Reading:  Exodus 32:1-4

Why were calves worshiped at Mt Sinai? Why are they worshiped in churches today?

• Golden calves represent a symbol of a god (catholic symbols)
• Golden calves can be seen as a visible god (Pictures of Christ)
• Golden calves are a substitute for God (The anti-Christ today)
• Golden calves are idols (Idols brought into churches)
• Golden calves were hated by God

Does God hate how most Israelites worship today?

“(Ross 2020) An important context is that the people who worshipped before the golden calf had personally and recently witnessed some of the greatest miracles God had ever performed. Yet, despite these awesome numerous miracles they had recently experienced, after forty days of Moses’ absence they doubted both the existence of God and Moses.

by Walter Giddings

February 26, 2023

Scripture:  Exodus 25:8

Greetings kindred and fellow sheep.  We are on a first name basis here.  My name is Walter.  I am your classmate in God’s Classroom.  The Holy Spirit whose name is Jesus Christ is our Teacher.  Our Saviour prophesied the Destruction of the Temple: 

Matthew 24:1-2

1  And Jesus went out and departed from the temple:   and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

2 And Jesus said unto them,  See ye not all these things?  Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. 

What was the fulfillment of this Prophecy?  Within the years named Anno Domini (Latin for the year of our LORD), do we have a temple in Jerusalem?  What happened to the Temple after Jesus ascended?

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

February 19, 2023

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:11-12

Dispensationalism is a very popular and widespread way of studying the Bible. But it only originated in the late 1500s with the pen of one of the Catholic Jesuits.  It was picked up two-and-a-half centuries later in the teachings of John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren in the United Kingdom and Ireland.  Then the doctrine was spread through the channels of:

• The writings and speeches of Darby and Americans James Inglis, James H. Brookes, Dwight L. Moody, Cyrus I. Scofield, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Harry A. Ironsides, Arno C. Gaebelein, J. R. Graves, Billy Graham, R. A. Torrey, Gary North, Pat Robertson, Renald Showers, D. J. Kennedy, R. C. Sproul, Arthur Pink, etc.
• A series of major prophecy conferences in the 1880s,
• The more than 100 Bible institutes founded in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century,
• Publication of the Scofield Reference Bible which was published in 1909.

Ezekiel

Sermon by Pastor Jim Jester

February 12, 2023

SCRIPTURE READING: Ezekiel 14:13-14

INTRODUCTION

If anyone believes that a nation is not held accountable for its corporate sin, let this passage of Scripture set him straight. A nation does sin, and that nation pays for the sin it commits. We really have not seen, as yet, the retribution God will place upon America for its disobedience. But there are many signs: extreme weather, cyber threats and hints of nuclear war.

The background to Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry is Judah’s apostasy following the death of the last good king, Josiah, in 609 B.C. From that time on Judah’s kings seemed to go out of their way to avoid righteousness, and the kingdom rapidly declined. Sounds like the present national administration in America, 2023, does it not?