Blog Archives

11 Sep 2023 Exodus (Program #46)

Exodus (Program #46) – The Defeat of Amalek

To be sure, the Old Testament book of Exodus gives us a complete picture of God’s full salvation, from the Passover, a full type of our redemption in Christ to the feeding of God’s people with the heavenly manna and satisfying them from the flowing water from the smitten rock.  All of our genuine experiences of our Christian life are marvelously depicted.  But the picture will not be complete without the experience of the victory of Christ against the enemy of God’s people.  The battle is engaged on today’s program.

We have come to a point in Exodus that is very meaningful.  We are about to see God’s people, the nation of Israel engage in battle for the first time since their exodus out of Egypt.  Here are some excerpts of a few verses in chapter 17:8, 9, 10, 13 “Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.  And Moses said to Joshua, Choose men for us, and go out; fight with Amalek…. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek…. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”  Some who has been following this life study closely may take issue with us in saying that this portion depict the first account of Israel fighting against the enemy.  Because they surely had an encounter with the army of Pharaoh on the occasion of their exit out of Egypt.  Why do we say that this is really their first battle?

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11 Sep 2023 Romans (Program #6)

Romans (Program #6) – Justification in God’s Way

It’s on Christ as our propitiation place that God can dispense Himself as grace into us for His glory, for His expression, and for the manifestation of His righteousness.

Our life-study today brings us to one of the pillars of the Christian faith – justification. Most Christians are aware of the famous doctrine of justification by faith, and Martin Luther was very much used by the Lord to recover this marvelous truth of our faith. more…

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10 Sep 2023 Romans (Program #5)

Romans (Program #5) – The Vanity of Religion and the Totality of Hopelessness

Paul is saying here, “My gospel is for God’s economy, but to do that, you don’t need religion. It’s not a matter of outward practices, it’s not a matter of just not doing or doing certain things – it’s a matter of getting into God’s salvation.”

We are going to look today at God’s condemnation as is presented in Romans chapter 1. Why is it important for mankind to have a realization of God’s condemnation? more…

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10 Sep 2023 Exodus (Program #45)

Exodus (Program #45) – Flowing the Water of Life

Exodus 17 is a chapter of the Old Testament that contains a seed of one of the great truths of the New Testament Christian experience. Listen to verse 3, “So the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses…” but the Lord said to Moses in verse 6, “I will be standing before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it so that the people may drink…” The Apostle Paul in the New Testament tells us that this rock and this drink are Christ. Drinking the living water is our focus today in this life study of the Bible.

Today we have a marvelous topic – Drinking the living water! We want to look again at this matter of drinking and flowing of the living water. We have some tremendous topic this week on drinking, today, we really want to see the counterpart of drinking which is the flowing out. There’s a wonderful verse in the gospel of John that brings both of these matters together. more…

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09 Sep 2023 Romans (Program #4)

Romans (Program #4) – The Source of Wickedness and the Way of Restriction

We can be protected so that for the sake of God’s interest, God’s purpose – yes, for the sake of the divine romance, we may be preserved vessels that the Lord can train, fill, and use, to fulfill His heart’s desire of a bride, a wife, for eternity.

We have a message today that includes a strong section on God’s condemnation. We know that as believers in Christ, we have been saved from God’s condemnation, so why we are going back today to see the source of wickedness and the way of restriction?… more…

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09 Sep 2023 Exodus (Program #44)

Exodus (Program #44) – Drinking the Water of Life (2)

Not all divine secrets in the Bible are revealed in a clear and evident way.  Sometimes God reveals His secrets in a hidden way.  The Bible contains many such hidden secrets that require the Lord’s shining to see clearly.  For example, the Bible commands man to believe in order to be saved, but where does it tell us how to believe?  The Bible also tells us to eat and drink of Christ, but how do we eat and how do we drink?  Don’t miss this classic presentation on this life study.

Yesterday, we saw very strikingly that eating and drinking in the Bible are not simply metaphors for us to contemplate.  They are genuine, crucial matters revealed in Scripture.  The Lord clearly said in John that if we don’t know how to eat and drink, we will not have the eternal life in us in a practical way.  It seems that all of us as Christians need to pay our full attention to these matters.

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08 Sep 2023 Exodus (Program #43)

Exodus (Program #43) – Drinking the Water of Life (1)

Sometimes the most obvious things in life are the easiest to overlook.  This is often also the case with the Bible.  Have you ever noticed it begins with man’s food and water and it ends the same way in Revelation.  Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible shows us a river of water of life and on this side and on that side of the river is the tree of life.  If we miss the matter of eating and drinking in the Bible, we miss a major portion of what God desires to reveal to man.

In a sense the Bible ends the way it began; a flowing river and the tree of life.  In fact what man takes in has a lot of implications.

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08 Sep 2023 Romans (Program #3)

Romans (Program #3) – The Gospel of God

Through His incarnation, the Triune God became a man, Jesus Christ, to be among us. Through His death and resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit to be within us.

Our life study today brings us to Romans chapter 2.  Romans is a gospel because Paul calls it that.  What does he mean by this?  If Romans is a gospel, how is it differ from the four traditional gospels? more…

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07 Sep 2023 Exodus (Program #42)

Exodus (Program #42) – The Water of Life in Resurrection

Every record in the Bible has a spiritual significance.  We shouldn’t try to understand any portion of the biblical record simply according to the black and white letter.  Let’s take Exodus 16 as an example.  This is a chapter revealing the giving of manna to the children of Israel.  Surely manna is something mysterious and spiritual.  Chapter 17 shows us how God provided water for the children of Israel as Moses struck or smote the rock in the wilderness and the water flow from the clefts.  Surely this also bears tremendous spiritual significance.  The spiritual reality of the water flowing from the smitten rock is our story today of this life study of the Bible.

We are going to pick up Witness Lee’s own speaking for our introduction today.  He make a very striking point about interpreting the Bible.  Of course, we do believe it literally word for word.  But we also don’t want to be blind to its spiritual and mysterious implication.

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07 Sep 2023 Romans (Program #2)

Romans (Program #2) – A Foreword

God wants to fill us with Himself to such an extent that we are swallowed up by His life even in our mortal bodies until we become in full His many sons to glorify Him.

There are probably more studies and expositions of the book of Romans than nearly any other New Testament book. But this study is unique in that we want to take the view of how we want to enjoy Christ as our life and life supply so that He can be everything to us for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God’s unique goal in this universe. more…

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