Grace to You: Video Podcast

Open your Bible, if you will, to the fourth chapter of the gospel of Mark and we come to the final paragraph in this fourth chapter, verses 35 through 41...verses 35 through 41. Now remember that Mark's purpose in writing the gospel is stated in chapter 1 verse 1, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."...

This morning we come to one of the extensive teaching sections in the gospel of Mark and there really are only two. This is an action-packed gospel, kind of the newspaper edition of the record of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and Mark doesn’t spend a lot of time on the detailed teaching of our Lord, except here in chapter 4 and once again in chapter 13. There are other sections of teaching scattered throughout but not nearly to the degree of the other three gospels. So when we do land on a teaching section, we know that Mark has invested it with great significance, and certainly that is the case in this passage. In fact, the teaching of our Lord here extends all the way down to verse 34, as He gives several parables. Just one of those parables goes down to verse 20. It is the very familiar parable of the soils, sometimes called the parable of the sower, sometimes called the parable of the seed. But it really is the parable of the soils...

In the seventeenth chapter of Acts, the Apostle Paul comes to the religious focal point of the ancient world of his day. He comes to Athens. And it is in Athens that there are many philosophers and many religions, and many gods. In fact, in verse 16 of Acts 17 it says that, “He observed the city of Athens and that it was full of idols.” There were in Athens, along with all the idols, there were the priests and priestesses that were associated with those idols and their various religions. And on top of that, there were all kinds of philosophers, as verse 18 indicates. There were Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well as many others...

Now I know tonight we’re going to be looking at 1 Corinthians 15 as we continue through this great resurrection chapter. But to begin with, I want you to turn in your Bible to the seventeenth chapter of Acts...the seventeenth chapter of Acts because I think it gives us a good setting for what we’re going to see in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians...

Open your Bible to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah for one final time. This is message number ten in this series and I will tell you that it is with great reluctance that I say farewell to this. It has found its way, has this chapter, into the fabric of my soul, into my spiritual DNA. But then again, every passage seems to do that to me. This one, however, rises above the rest in so many ways. I’ve tried to share those with you in the last nine hours that we have gone through this chapter...

I would also say it is perhaps the single greatest evidence of the inspiration and divine authorship of holy Scripture, of any portion of Scripture, because 700 years before the arrival of Jesus Christ, it records the details that were played out in His incarnation, His humiliation, and His exaltation. It is an amazing portion of Scripture and though we have spent ten weeks on it, that is but a taste of this chapter, and I would commend to you that you would in diligence and faithfulness give yourself to this chapter far beyond the conclusion of this series, which is likely to come next Sunday...

I was reading one book this week on Isaiah 53 in which the writer said, “Words collapse under the weight of this chapter.” And I understand that, that there just aren’t words to hold it up; it’s too vast, too massive to be carried by vocabulary. This is a chapter that, in a sense, you get to the point where you feel the weight of it without being able to articulate it. And, of course, that’s always the preacher’s problem and most particularly my problem since I am limited in my ability to express myself, and I find myself to some degree frustrated and at the same time trying to relieve that frustration by going back over it and enriching things that we’ve already talked about just so I don’t leave anything unsaid that should be said...

We have come into a study of the Old Testament, after spending forty-some years studying the New Testament here at Grace Church. We are greatly challenged in this study and, I think, profoundly blessed. We are looking for Christ in the Old Testament, everywhere we can find Him, and we start where He is most marvelously and most completely revealed and that is in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Actually this revelation of our Lord starts in chapter 52, verse 13, and runs down to 53, verse 12. There are five stanzas in this servant song, we might call it. It is a song; it has a certain lyric to it. It has a certain rhythm to it as it is read in the original Hebrew language. It is a servant song, it is the fourth servant song written by Isaiah. In the second half of Isaiah’s prophecy, from chapter 40 to the end in chapter 66, he focuses on salvation and salvation is dependent upon the Savior. And so Isaiah introduces us in this section to the Savior. There are other places in his prophecy where he refers to the Savior, back in chapter 7 he makes reference to the virgin birth of the Savior. Back in chapter 9 he identifies the Savior in a number of wonderful ways, the mighty God, the Prince of peace, the Father of eternity, the Son who is born to us, upon whose shoulders final and everlasting government will rest. So there’s much that he says about the Messiah...

Now, let’s open the Word of God to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. This is our sixth journey into this marvelous chapter and with every passing week as I survey the text that is here and all of the trails that it leads to other places, I am reminded of how fathomless this chapter really is. One could spend a lifetime here and going from here to all of the things that are implied and elucidated by this great chapter...

We are in a study of Isaiah 53 and I would invite you to turn to Isaiah 53 at this time, this great chapter is in many ways the heart of the Old Testament. The name Isaiah means salvation of the Lord. Isaiah’s prophecy of 66 chapters, interestingly enough, is divided the same way the Bible is divided. The Bible has 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 books in the New and Isaiah has 39 books in the first half and 27 in the second half...

We’re studying the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah is a prophecy in the Old Testament. If you have a Bible, turn to Isaiah chapter 53, and that’s the chapter we’re looking at. Some would consider this the greatest chapter in the Old Testament. There’s no question about the fact that it is the most detailed prophecy of the Messiah that the Old Testament contains. It is a powerful, powerful chapter that has to be considered phrase by phrase if not word by word because of its high impact and profound truth...

By now we hope you’ve had the opportunity to read John MacArthur’s blog post from yesterday on The Abundance of Giving. It highlights a vital aspect of life in the church, and it will be a powerful encouragement as you seek to serve the Lord in your local congregation. We also wanted to share with you a short video from John on the topic of the love of money. When he was recently in studio, we asked him how believers can successfully avoid the love of money in a culture dominated by greed and materialism. Here’s what he said:

For now I want you to open the Word of God to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53. We have had a couple of weeks of getting introduced to this chapter. Two weeks ago a rather broad introduction and then last Lord’s day, which was resurrection Sunday, we looked at the introduction to chapter 53 that is given at the end of chapter 52. And that brings us, today, to this incredible chapter, Isaiah 53...

We have been anticipating a study of the Old Testament here at Grace Church, for those of you gathering with us, after many years in the New Testament, and a few forays into the Old. And we have just recently embarked upon that study of the Old Testament and are beginning to look at one particular prophecy in the Old Testament, found in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah...

Now for this morning, I finally want you to open your Bible to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53, and we are about to embark on a study of this immensely important portion of the Old Testament as we begin our series in the Old Testament, finding Christ there...