Ephesians (Program #20) – Saved by Grace to be the Masterpiece of God (2)

Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God created all things, the heavens, the earth, the universe, man and all the living creatures. And how even a simple gaze at  creation often fills us with awes as we consider His creation.  But not until the New Testament book of Ephesians are we told what is at the very top of all that He has done and even all that He is doing. Or use Paul’s language in Ephesians what is His masterpiece.  Listen to Ephesians chapter 2:10 “For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them.”  We, are His masterpiece, we, meaning the Church.

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Joshua (Program #2) – God’s Commission

Whenever we look at history, we should be able to see the hidden history within history. Because the history of mankind is actually the history of God in His move to accomplish His eternal purpose. He created man for this purpose. And from that day unto the present day God has moved in, through and with man. First to redeem and then to from His redeemed into His corporate counterpart, the Church.

The Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel describes this move as the move of a great wheel turning upon the earth as God moves ever closer to His ultimate goal. Even as we read the history of His people, Israel we need to see this move. As we come again today not just to the book of Ezekiel but specifically to the book of Joshua where we see His move as we’re about ready to take a major advance. more…

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Ephesians (Program #19) – Saved by Grace to be the Masterpiece of God (1)

We all know that God is a loving God, in fact the Bible says that God is love. But what does it mean when it says “but God been rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us.”  Well, it means in our fallen natural condition we were so low, that not even God’s love can reach us, we needed something more. We needed God’s mercy to reach into the depths of our lowest state and bring us to a place where His love could affect us in His most marvelous and complete salvation.  This is the message that the apostle Paul brings in Ephesians Chapter 2 and this is also our topic on our program for today.

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Joshua (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

Much of the Old Testament is devoted to history, the history of great men, the history of great nations, especially Israel and the history of God’s people. But you may not realize it is also God’s history, the history of His move to carry out and accomplish His eternal purpose.

The books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth are among the books of history in the Old Testament and even in these books with their rich and colourful stories, if we have eyes to see, we can see the history of God in the move of His economy. That would be our focus for the next several weeks as we come to these wonderful books and see Christ in them, in the light of His eternal economy.

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Ephesians (Program #18) – Dead in Offenses and Sins

The first Chapter of Ephesians presents us with one of the highest, most substantial views in the entire Bible. Because it presents us with the heavenly view of God’s eternal purpose in the universe and our place in it. Chapter 1 ends in the most glorious way as well with the Body of Christ been built up and the Church been produced out of the transmission of the ascended Christ from the heavenlies into us, His redeemed. This surely is the view from the top.

But Chapter 2 gives us the view from the bottom up, from the condition of the fallen men. And we will get into this view today.

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Joshua (Program #14) – Three Particular Matters Concerning the Allotment of the Land and the Departure of Joshua

The two concluding chapters of the book of Joshua concern his departure and his deep burden to charge the children of Israel not to forsake Jehovah as they were endeavoring to possess the land of Canaan. If they did he warned the ungodly nations that were in the land will become a snare to them. What a fitting conclusion coupled with an equally fitting warning. A warning that is still be heeded by God’s people today.  We will consider the final chapters of Joshua on our life study today and several meaningful points in our fellowship as we look back over this book.

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Ephesians (Program #17) – The Triune God Dispensed Into Us and Wrought Into Us

Ephesians Chapter 1 is truly a wonderful portion of the scripture. It begins with God’s blessing to us, the believers and concludes with the Church, Body of Christ as the fullness of Christ. The implication is that everything in between, all that God in Christ has passed through and accomplished has an issue or a result and that result is the Church. But what this Chapter also reveals is that it is not just the doctrines or teachings of this marvelous things that has such an issue, it is the transmission of them by the Spirit to the Church. This transmission or dispensing is the focus of our program today.

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Joshua (Program #13) – Ten Aspects of Christ

In the book of Mathew, one of the early names given to the Lord Jesus was Emmanuel, which means God with us. In Isiah chapter 8 Canaan the good land is called the land of Emmanuel, clearly identify the good land as a type of Christ. Canaan is a land that is rich in its’ variety. Listen to the wonderful details given to us in Deuteronomy 8 “For Jehovah your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains; A land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees with oil and of honey; A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity; you will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you can mine copper. And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given you.”

Actually it takes all the rich details in the Old Testament books like Deuteronomy and Joshua to depict all of the riches of the all-inclusive Christ.  Today as we look at 10 different aspects of Christ in the book of Joshua.

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Ephesians (Program #16) – The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power—Christ to be Head Over All Things to the Church

The apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter 1 that the believers would be brought into a condition where they can see and enter into God’s eternal purpose. His prayer primarily touches three great matters: hope, glory and power. For us, hope and glory are both future items that will issue from God’s blessings concerning to us. But it is His power, the divine energy, that carries out and applies what God has promised to us. The surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe is the topic of our program today.

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Joshua (Program #12) – The Saving of Gibeon

One of the most interesting aspects of the relationship between husbands and wives is how easily and freely the wife can agreed to do something often involving money without checking first with her husband. The husbands also make the same mistake with unfortunate frequency and result is usually the same. A cooling trend seems to over take the relationship for a period of time and the sweetness at least for a season is gone .

God’s relationship to Israel in the Old Testament was also as a husband and the Israel was as His wife. Listen to Israel Jeremiah chapter 2, “Thus says Jehovah: I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, The love of your bridal days, When you followed after Me in the wilderness.”  So what happened in this marriage when the wife acted on her own? Predictably the result was always a suffering for Israel. Such a case is recorded in Joshua 9, the story of the Gibeonites.

Today’s message touches the very essence of the divine romance; a favorite subject of the life study of the Bible and also a topic that Witness Lee frequently came to in his ministry.

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