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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Ephesians (Program #9) – To Head Up All Things in Christ (1)

The book of Ephesians presents the highest view in the entire New Testament. The apostle Paul identifies the focus of this book in the very first chapter when he says, “Making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, Unto to the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him;” (Ephesians 1:9-10) This is not a book about improved behavior, how to raise our children or even how to have a successful marriage; yet in one sense, it’s on all these things. But fundamentally this book is altogether dealing with God’s eternal purpose which is according to His good pleasure and on how He is working in the world situation without and more specifically on how He is working within us to bring this purpose into reality.

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Ephesians (Program #5) – The Praise of the Glory of God’s Grace

In all the Bible, no book gives us a perspective of the church from the heavenlies as Ephesians does. From the opening verse to the end, the view presented in Ephesians is God’s view, not man’s. And it’s from this view that we see that we have been chosen from the foundation of the world, not to be sinless or even perfect but to be holy. And further, that we have been marked out, predestinated not to be spiritual giants but to be sons of God.

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Ephesians (Program #2) – Three Aspects of Well Speaking

Of all that God possesses and does on the earth, the single most important thing to Him is the church. In fact, the church is the unique subject and perhaps the highest book in the New Testament Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. But if you were asked, “what is the church?” How would you answer? Well that is what we want to see today – “What is the church?” not from our perspective but from God’s perspective.

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Deuteronomy (Program #13) – God’s Choice—The Definite Ground for the Worship of God

The Bible often speaks of God’s love and we take great comfort from the love of God. But the Bible also speaks very much about the things that God hates. You may say “well I know that God hates sin”, that’s true. But specifically they are a few sins that God hates above all others because they damage the very person of God and His Christ or they damage His corporate expression which is the Body of Christ. Many times it is verses from the Old Testament that help us to see things if our eyes are opened.

Deuteronomy 13:4  says “You shall follow Jehovah your God; and you shall fear Him, keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and hold fast to Him.. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has advocated apostasy from Jehovah your God.”  Apostasy, an Old Testament word but there is a New Testament equal, we will find out from this life study of Deuteronomy.

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Galatians (Program #6) – Paul’s Faithfulness and Peter’s Unfaithfulness to the Truth of the Gospel

The New Testament book of Galatians reveals much about the Gospel of Grace and the freedom that believers have in Christ. But if we read it carefully, we will also see a marvelous pattern for all believers; the living and manner of the Apostle Paul. This epistle shows us one who was bold and faithful to the truth, yet humble and careful before the Lord to preserve the oneness of the Body of Christ without ever falling into politics. Stay with us for this enlightening life study of the Bible.

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Leviticus (Program #40) – Devotions for a Vow (1) & (2), A Concluding Word

The conclusion of the book of Leviticus is a remarkable one. The early chapters present in great detail the offerings that depict so vividly that our Saviour Christ as the solution to every problem and barrier between God and man. Then come the festivals and the jubilee pointing us to the enjoyment and experience of God in Christ as our food, our rest and ultimate satisfaction. But then we are warned not to neglect such an all-inclusive provision and finally the last chapter presents the child of God making a devotion with a vow to live in the reality of all that God has prepared for us.

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2 Corinthians (Program #45) – The Apostle’s Fellowship Concerning the Needy Saints (4)

2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 are often used in campaigns for money-raising for various Christian causes or ministries.  But it’s interesting, although they both deal with the matter of giving, they don’t focus on the word “giving”.  In chapter 8, Paul refers to our giving as a kind of gathering, as the children of Israel gathered manna each day for their daily supply.   In chapter 9, our giving is called sowing, as a farmer sow seeds in order to produce a crop, in order to meet his family’s daily need.  Gathering and sowing, this is the renewed thought concerning the offering of material items to meet the needs in the Body of Christ.

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2 Corinthians (Program #40) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (13)

2 Corinthians chapter seven is very unique in the New Testament. It’s hard to find even a thread of teaching or doctrine in this chapter. But rather we are allowed into Paul’s heart to touch the deep and intimate feelings that he has regarding the believers in Corinth.

7: 3…”you are in our hearts...”
7:4… “I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our affliction.”

This is the apostle, fully restoring and fully reconciling those whom he had previously rebuke for their many failures and sins in his first epistle to the Corinthian church.

Although we may only see his tender emotional feelings been expressed here. Under all is his strong desire for the church in Corinth even all the believers and the entire body of Christ to be brought up to the standard that he revealed in another of his epistle, Ephesians. Ephesians 4:16

16 “..all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”

To see this link between 2 Corinthians 7 and God’s eternal purpose in Ephesians is rare glimpse into the depth of the riches in God’s word.

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1 Corinthians (Program #50) – Dealing with the Gifts (6)

Two chapters in 1 Corinthians deals specifically with the matter of the gifts, chapter twelve and thirteen. Though there is similarities between these two chapters there is a significant change in focus or emphasis. Eighteen times in the chapter twelve Paul uses the term, “the Body” referring of course to the Body of Christ.

But in chapter fourteen, we never hear the Body. Rather in this chapter the emphasis was the church and specifically is the building up of the church. Listen to the shift that takes place in  these few verses.

12:12 “For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.”

12:27-28  “Now you are the Body of Christ, and members individually. And God has placed some in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then works of power, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.”

Is this just Paul used of idol synonyms? Or is this divine? Or is this the divine wisdom manifest once again for our further instruction?

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