Hebrews (Program #11) – The Sanctifier and the Sanctified

The history of the Christian faith shows us that the great truth of God’s eternal plan were first given to man in Scripture but then lost during centuries of darkness and then later recovered by God moving in His Body.  Such was the case with justification by faith and its recovery during the time of Martin Luther.  We will see another great item of recovery – sanctification, in today’s life study of the Bible.

We mentioned the matter of recovery.  We are going to hear Witness Lee refer to it today in our message several times.  For those listening that may not understand what we mean by this term in its historical context.  It might help if we could have a look at the meaning of the word “recovery”.

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Hebrews (Program #10) – The Captain of Salvation (2)

This wonderful Jesus is not only our Savior but He is also the marvelous captain of our salvation. And He is leading us even during this broadcast into the goal of our salvation. Glory is God expressed – this may seem simple but nonetheless this is what the Bible reveals. But just as we need our entire body to be adequately expressed, God desires to bring us as the members of His body into the region of His glory. So He’s provided us with a captain of salvation to lead us into glory.

We’ve spoken our first life study of Hebrews about though it’s a mysterious and somewhat hidden book to a lot of Christians when we’re given just one or two keys, it opens up like a flower. We’ve just spoken of the two of the keys that we’ve been given and these will be part of our life study today: river-crossers and the captain of salvation. more…

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Hebrews (Program #9) – The Captain of Salvation (1)

God’s goal is not to bring us to heaven. The goal of God’s salvation is to bring us into the very glory which in Christ has been sown into us at the time of our regeneration. Christ is many things to His saved ones. We may appreciate Him as our Savior and our Redeemer or may be even as our friend. But Hebrews unveils Him as the Captain of our Salvation. We’ll see Him as the fighting captain in today’s life study of the Bible.

Logically, we think that for salvation you need a savior or a redeemer but why do we need a captain for our salvation?

We need to make it emphatically clear that we surely need Christ as the Savior and we absolutely need Christ as the Redeemer. There’s no way to be saved without this personal Savior, the God-man. And we surely need Him as the Redeemer who bought us back with His precious blood and has brought us back to God that we may enjoy God as everything to us in Christ as the Spirit. Regrettably, many believers have a shallow even elementary concept of salvation. If we understand salvation merely as a rescue from hell to heaven then we don’t really need a captain. We just need a savior and a redeemer, one who allegedly who brings us out of the likelihood of going to hell and brings us to heaven. However, the goal of God’s salvation is not heaven. We are told in the book of Hebrews that God is bringing many sons into glory. For this we need a captain. Why? more…

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Hebrews (Program #8) – Jesus in Incarnation, Crucifixion, Glorification and Exaltation

The gospel includes the entire process of God’s eternal purpose. His purpose is to impart Himself and dispense Himself into man. Hebrews chapter 2 may be one of the deepest chapters in the entire Bible. Yet it’s not often studied and perhaps even less understood. We’ll see this chapter open in a tremendous way in today’s life study of the Bible.

Some or all of the terms maybe familiar to all – incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification and exaltation. I believe you all know these five terms deeper but my burden is to show you in no other chapters, no other portion of the Holy word that has put all these five things together. In some of the chapters, you can see a part of Christ’s crucifixion, in some the chapters you could see Christ’s resurrection, in some portions you could see He is glorification, He is exaltation and so forth. But in no portion so short you can see all these main items – incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification and exaltation. Not only so, these five major points of what Christ has passed through are presented in this chapter in a very particular way. Not in the way as the four Gospels did, not in the way as Acts did, not in the way as all the other Epistles did. This chapter presented these five things in a very very strange way.

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Hebrews (Program #7) – Jesus as the Son of Man – as Man Superior to the Angels

There is a certain fascination with angels in this present age and the Bible certainly confirms that angels and the angelic realm exist. But the Bible also confirms that man occupies an even higher place in God’s eternal plan. Are you surprised? Don’t be. We’ll see that and much more in today’s life study of the Bible.

Today we are on Christ as superior to the angels in two ways. First, as the Son of God which means as God He was superior. Second, as the Son of Man, which affects us a little bit more that as a man He was also superior to the angels. And in fact, it shows us man’s place in God’s plan and how the angels are really our servants. So it puts everybody in their proper place. I think as our listeners know, ours is not a topical study of the Bible, we are really going book by book. And it just happens that today the subject matter does line up with a topic that is currently very much of interest to a lot of people Christians and non-Christians alike. So, I believe our listeners will be very interested to stay tuned as we are going to see angels from the Bible.

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Hebrews (Program #6) – So Great a Salvation

You have to look at Acts 7:56 where Stephen when he was being martyred, he looked up in the heavens and he said, “I see the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God”. Our Savior Christ in the victory of His resurrection today is in the heavens and on the throne of God. But is He there as God only or is He enthroned also as a man?   We will explore this profound item from the book of Hebrews on today’s life study of the Bible.

We’ve been given two keys in the early programs of our life study of Hebrews: (1) river-crossers; (2) seeing so great a salvation. What are these two keys about and how are they connected? more…

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Hebrews (Program #5) – Heirs of Salvation

So here in Hebrews we have Christ as the ladder, we have the joint heirs as the components of the house, and, we have the angels ministering to us as we are in the process of being brought into the glory of God. When we have all this, we have the gate of heaven.

Destiny is a concept that occupies many seeking people. As Christians, we may believe that our destiny is just to be saved. But Hebrews reveals that as saved ones, our destiny is to become joint heirs with Christ. We will explore our destiny and our inheritance on today’s life study of Hebrews.

We’re going to begin today’s message by seeing a comparison of Hebrews and Revelation – two books that are often avoided by many Christians. Why is it that many serious believers don’t like to get into these two books that deeply? more…

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Hebrews (Program #4) – Christ as the Son of God – as God Superior to the Angels

In the book of Hebrews, we see the vast superiority of Christ to everything, everyone and every matter in the entire old covenant. What could compare to Christ? We all know that there is an Old and New Testament (or covenant). Both have God and angels and many other godly items. But one is vastly superior to the other. We’ll look at this comparison from the book of Hebrews on today’s life study of the Bible.

We believe that the apostle Paul was the writer of Hebrews. Considering his audience at the time, why was it necessary for him to so meticulously build a strong case for the new covenant by comparing it to the old? more…

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Hebrews (Program #3) – The Son

God has spoken, praise Him!   Without His speaking, God is mysterious. But He has revealed Himself in His speaking.  God is mysterious and this book of the New Testament, Hebrews, is mysterious as well. But God does not desire to remain a mystery to His created vessels, does He? How has He chosen to unveil this mystery to mankind?

God is certainly mysterious, He is invisible. Even John says “no man has ever seen God”. Also Paul mentioned the same thing – he said “confessedly great is the mystery of godliness”. But both of these writers also let us know that God can be known. First of all, John says “the only begotten Son has declared Him” and Paul says “He was manifested in the flesh”. So this mysterious God has been incarnated, He has come in the flesh, He has come in a visible way to make this mysterious God known. God became a man – Jesus Christ. So, this is one way which God has chosen to unveil this mystery to mankind, that is, by coming into mankind and also by His speaking. And the main thing we’re emphasizing today is that God is speaking; God has spoken. more…

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Hebrews (Program #2) – God Has Spoken

Hebrews is a book of God’s speaking. Do you have God’s speaking? Listen today to find out how you can receive light, life and power from God’s speaking in the Son. The book of Hebrews begins with God’s speaking. Speaking is the way a living person makes himself known. Without doubt, we have a living God desiring to make Himself known to men.

It’s interesting that this mysterious book opens with God’s speaking and a contrast to His speaking in the Old Testament dispensation with that of His speaking in the New Testament. What is the primary distinction? Hebrews is a book of God’s speaking; it doesn’t acknowledge an author to emphasize the point that it is the speaking of God to His people. The main point of the book of Hebrews is to help those who had heard His Old Testament speaking to realize that He has a New Testament speaking. more…

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