Colossians (Program #23) – Christ-Our Life

We live in an age when Christians and faith in God and belief in His Word are under much outward attack. Things that were once accepted as firmly part of our heritage and foundation as a nation are now ridiculed, publicly criticized. Many believers see this as a time to rise up and be heard, be seen. Many high profile ministries, Christian workers vie for exposure in the media to make a name for themselves to counter this attack of God’s enemy against His people. But, what does the Bible say about our outward visibility? Yes, we are to be lights in the world shining forth with the Word of light, but we need to consider Paul’s word to the Church in Colossians 3. “If therefore you were raised together with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.”

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Psalms (Program #38) – Christ—The Reality of the Law as the Testimony and the Word of God

consider for a moment an interesting observation.  Suppose the ruler of a country were to pass a law legalizing corruption, what will that tell you of the character of that ruler?  It will likely tell you that this person, this one making such law was also corrupt himself.  You see, laws are actually a kind of portrait of the law-giver.  So when we come to the laws of God we shall realize that they are a portrait of the Person that gave them.  In another word, the laws given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai is a portrait of the Person of God, a portrait of Jesus Christ.  So when we come to a passage of Scripture such as the 119th Psalm with its 176 verses many speaking of the law, we should have the impression that what we are seeing is not God’s demands upon you and me but rather we are seeing Christ as God’s expression and also the one to whom we are coming that He may supply us with Himself in order that we as His members could live Him out fully meeting even surpassing God’s every demand.

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Psalms (Program #37) – The Praise of God’s Elect Consummating in the Particular Position of Christ

The four gospels give us a four-fold record of what Christ is and what He has done.  However, the gospel did not reveal Christ as much as the Psalms do.  Psalms 118:22 says “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the head of the corner.”  The head of the corner, that is the corner stone.  Christ as the corner stone is the hardest point to understand in the entire Bible.

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Psalms (Program #36) –  The Highest Revelation of Christ

OK, here is a Bible question for you.   There is one verse in the Old Testament that is quoted directly at least twenty times in the New Testament and is referred to indirectly at least another twenty times.  What Old Testament verse could possibly command this much attention in the New Testament?  Well, here is a clue: it’s a verse from the Psalms.  In fact, it’s from a Psalms that Martin Luther said it’s the highest revelation of Christ in all the Psalms.  Give up?  It is Psalms 110:1  “Jehovah declares to my Lord, Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies Your footstool.”  That’s our topic today.

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Colossians (Program #20) – The Economy Of God’s Salvation

As the Church in Colossae continued after its promising beginning, several factors became important to the believers there. Among these were the practice of keeping various ordinances and aspects of the Old Testament law as well as the influence of those who promoted the worship of angels to serve as intermediaries between sinful and fallen man and the righteous and holy God. Though these things may not seem harmful or dangerous, Paul the Apostle went to great lengths to completely eradicate these factors from the sphere or the realm of the salvation of the saints.

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Psalms (Program #31) – A Supplement to Message Thirty-Two on Psalm 84

Psalms 84:1-4 say “How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Jehovah of hosts! My soul longs, indeed even faints, For the courts of Jehovah; My heart and my flesh cry out To the living God.  At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; And the swallow, a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young, O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will yet be praising You.”

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Psalms (Program #30) –  The Psalmist’s Love for the House of God with Christ

Psalms 84 is a lovely expression of the Psalmist’s intense love and longing for God’s house.  “How lovely are Your tabernacle.” he writes.  “Oh Jehovah of hosts, my soul longs even faints for the cores of Jehovah.”  As this wonderful Psalm develops it becomes clear just what it is regarding God’s house that draws him so.  For it’s here, in God’s habitation which in His time was the tabernacle but today we realizes it’s the church that we find Christ.  It is Him that we long for and desire above all else.  Of course, this Psalm also shows us that on the way to God’s house, the journey brings us through many stations, like a valley of weeping and eventually to the two altars that reside in the tabernacle,.

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Ezra (Program #1) – The Need of a Return from Captivity

The history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament gives us a picture of the church today in the New Testament.  And today what we want to look at is the picture of the children of Israel going into captivity and the recovery out of that captivity.  Today when God’s people are defeated in their spiritual life they remain in captivity until they repent and have a turn back to Him.  This repentance brings us back to the enjoyment of Christ.

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Philippians (Program #15) – The Apostle’s Concern for the Believers

“Ministering to the House or to God”  Watchman Nee gave a message with this title once.  Hope our listeners can stay to grasp the depth that are contained in this thought. Are we too busy taking care of the Church, God’s house, that we’re not taking care of God?   Or are we too busy taking care of God that we forget about caring for the Church, His Body?

We are going to see in our program today from the book of Philippians chapter 2, that these two aspects of our experience and our service cannot be separated.

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Ephesians (Program #74) -The Spirit and the Church

One of the major changes that takes place in the life of a Christian is in their mind.  As unbelievers we were as Paul described in Ephesians 4, darkened in our understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which was in us and because of the hardness of our heart.

Contrast that to the conditions of the believers that follow in Chapter 5, For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord, walk as children of light for the fruits of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.  How does this transformation in our minds take place?  The answer to this crucial matter is also found in Ephesians.

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