Psalms (Program #6) – David’s Concepts Concerning a Godly Life in Comparison a Godly Life in Comparison with His Inspired Praise of the Excellency of Christ (2)

The early Psalms, many of which were written by David, present us with two very strikingly different concepts; Psalm such as 3 through 7 give us David’s idea of what it is to live a godly life. But the language, the content and surely the inspiration expressed in Psalm 8 is altogether different. “Oh Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, You who have set Your glory over the heavens!” Here the language is heavenly and the thought does not convey the human concept of godliness but rather brings us to the divine concept and the divine thought where Christ is exulted and uplifted to the uttermost. Clearly though this Psalm was also penned by David, it was initiated by God Himself and full of His heart and thought.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Revelation (Program #4) – The Triune God In Revelation

Of all the books in the Bible, Revelation is quite unique in the way that it reveals things.  John told us himself that this is a book of signs.  But these signs often convey not just the future events of prophecy, but the basic items of the faith as well. Among the basic and fundamental signs it gives us, is to show God to us in His Trinity.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #5) – David’s Concepts Concerning a Godly Life in Comparison a Godly Life in Comparison with His Inspired Praise of the Excellency of Christ (1)

In Psalms chapter 1, David, the beloved King of Israel, extols the value of God’s law and exults the law to the uttermost. This is wonderful. But, recall the story of 2 Samuel when the same King David so grossly abuses his kingly authority to have an innocent man, even one of his generals murdered, so that he could steal away his beautiful wife, Bathsheba. In the span of this one sin, David breaks two of the most serious commandments, those which he exulted – murder and fornication. How could this happen, we ask? Well the answer comes from the apostle Paul in the New Testament – where the Bible reveals that although the law is good and holy and righteous, it is also powerless to help us because though it may motivate us to keep it, it cannot supply us with the life supply to meet its demands. So its demands fall upon the flesh for their strength. Both David in the Old Testament and Paul in the New Testament discovered this harsh reality the hard way. The question is, have we?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Revelation (Program #3) – The Testimony of Jesus Particular and Consummate

Revelation is a book that shows us many things in many unique ways and among the focal points of this book surprisingly is the churches of God.  Notice the term “churches” and not just the more generic term “church”.  What did these churches look like in Revelation.  What they look like is our subject today.   As we consider the 7 golden lampstands among other things in the book of Revelation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #4) – Christ in God’s Economy versus the Law in Man’s Appreciation (3)

In our natural common mentality, the law of God easily assumes a preeminent position.  We can relate to the notion of keeping a high moral standard of conduct.  And surely this seems in line with what must be God’s plan and desire for mankind.  After all God Himself gave the commandments to Moses to pass on to His people, the children of Israel.  But there is a fundamental problem; when we afford the law the central position in our relationship to God and that is although it is good and righteous and holy, the law is powerless and must rely on man’s fallen flesh to carry it out.  Try as we may and regardless of how much desperate prayer expressing our earnest desire to carry it out we add to it,  the result is inevitable, an utter failure, leaving us defeated and condemned and spiritually dead.  Oh that our eyes would be open to see that this righteous law that so vividly portraits God’s holy nature has never occupied the central place in His plan.  For that place throughout eternity is reserved unchangingly for the Christ of God alone.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Revelation (Program #2) – The Revelation of Christ Unique and Ultimate

Of all the signs and pictures given to us in the book of Revelation the one that is most crucial for us to give our attention to is the one presented in the very first verse in this book, Revelation 1:1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to show to His slaves the things that must quickly take place; and He made it known by signs, sending it by His angel to His slave John”.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #3) – Christ in God’s Economy versus the Law in Man’s Appreciation (2)

The Bible is not an ordinary book.  Though it surely contains a lot of history, we should not read it as a history book. It also contains scores of moral and behavioral imperatives but we should not take it as a book of ethics.  Neither should we approach the Bible as a book of philosophy . Because beyond all of these things, history, ethics, philosophy, The Bible is in its’ essence, God’s own breath revealing the Christ of God enable to convey God Himself as life into those who come to seeking nothing else but His very person.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Psalms (Program #2) – Christ in God’s Economy versus the Law in Man’s Appreciation (1)

Many of the 39 books of the Old Testament touched the matter of the law. The law generally refers to the commands that God delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai after the children of Israel had their exodus from Egypt. And the impact that these laws has had not just on God’s people but on all of western civilization is hard to overstate.

God’s people both in New and Old Testament heirs treasure the law of God.  But there is a key word in the New Testament that reveals something crucial concerning God’s entire economy and how the law relates to it.  In Rom 5:20 it says, “And the law entered in alongside that the offense might abound”  What does it mean that the law entered in alongside?  Well, we will discuss this in many more items relate to the law and the central focus of God’s economy on today’s program.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Revelation (Program #1) – Foreword

This will be the most enlightening and surprising life study.

This life study will be very different from other studies of Revelation.  Mainly because of a difference in focus.  The focus of this life study will be a Person, the wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.  And it is a focus on Him in relation to God’s economy that brings in the newness and the freshness because this focus is in line with the focus of the Bible and the central thought of God in the Scriptures.  Of course, the prophecies will be considered, but everything will be considered in relation to the preeminence of this Person.  And this Person is the center of the divine administration according to the divine economy.  So we will focus on Christ.  The prophecies, the symbols and revelations, all the events to come, the kingdom everything, must be and will be related to Christ.   If we in our study of Revelation pay attention to matters other than Christ, we are fundamentally defective in our approach.  We must be Christ-centered and understand everything in relation to Him.  This is our burden and this is our intention.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Jude (Program #6) – The Basic Structure of the Epistles of Peter and Jude (2)

The epistles of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude have occupied us now for the past nine weeks on this program. And today we conclude the life study of these three short but very significant books in the divine record. But not with the systematic or academically summary but rather by following the spiritual thread that links these three books. Though they are separated in the canon scripture by the three epistles of John in their subject and basic structure they bear a striking similarity and easily warrant being considered as a group.

All three were written against the back drop of the degradation and decline of the church, a time of apostasy. And therefore all three can be considered as an inoculation against the heresies that were damaging the testimony of the church at that time. Yet they also shared a basic structure that is one hundred percent positive and absolutely in concert with the central focus of the entire New Testament. And that is that we would all be brought into the real enjoyment of the Triune God. In order that through His operation in us we would be transformed that we would be built up into His spiritual habitation so that He could indwell us and that we would express Him for eternity.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS