Isaiah (Program #25) – Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (12)

Isaiah concludes as the whole Bible does, with the New Heaven and New Earth with New Jerusalem as God’s ultimate habitation and our ultimate destiny as the people of God.  Where would you be?  Where would God’s Old Testament saints be?  and how about the angels?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Timothy (Program #9) – Dealing with the Saints of Different Ages

1 Timothy chapter 3 ends in a very high, divine and spiritual note. Talking about “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”

But in chapter 5, the apostle drops to the human level. “Do not upbraid an elderly man, but exhort him as a father.” And continues discussing other human relationships. It’s not enough to be spiritual, we have to learn how to be human.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Timothy (Program #8) – A Good Minister of Christ

The apostle Paul reached the highest peak in his letter to young Timothy when he wrote at the end of Chapter 3:16 ” And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”

Surely godliness is a great mystery but in Christ this mystery become manifested. Following this marvelous revelation to Timothy, Paul goes on to warn him of the degradation that was about to befall the church. And then Paul gives Timothy a direct and personal exhortation with some very clear speaking that would equip Timothy to be a genuine minister of the New Testament Economy.

4:6 “If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed.“

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Timothy (Program #7)- The Prediction of the Decline of the Church

In reading the Bible, sometimes it is the short, simple words that can provide the greatest insight into the richer meaning been conveyed. For example take the little word “but”.  In Chapter 4 of 1 Timothy, Paul begins with this three letter word, the clear implication been that what is about to be spoken is in start contrast to what’s been previously presented. And likely no way in scripture is the contrast between two adjoining verses any more start than these passage.  Listen as the apostle Paul turns from one of the highest revelation in the entire Bible to one of its’ darkest portions.

In Chapter 3:15-16 Paul says, “But if I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.  And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory. But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Timothy (Program #6)- The Function of the Church

After clearing away several important problems that were affecting the  churches under Paul’s ministry and then establishing the proper leadership the apostle comes to the crucial point and some of the highest speaking in all of scripture concerning the church, moving the reality of the church far away form the traditional and common thought that identifies the Church with a physical structure.

Listen to Paul’s word in 1 Timothy Chapter 3 : 14-16 “These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly.  But if I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.  And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”  We’ve come to the critical and crucial point in our fellowship in the life study of 1 Timothy.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Colossians (Program #21) – Christ the Body of All Shadows and Christ versus Mysticism

Paul the Apostle is marvelous in his writing in the book of Colossians. He begins with a universal presentation of Christ, and not just Christ, but Christ in us the hope of glory. But then he turns and becomes very practical in leading us into the genuine experience of such a Christ. Listen to verses 16 and 17 in Chapter 2, “Let no one therefore judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ”. Here, he begins to remove things like the law and angels and anything else that represents God to us in an indirect way. For God’s desire is that nothing stands between us and Him no matter how good or how religious it may seem.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Colossians (Program #19) – Made Full And Circumcised in Christ

In the second chapter of Colossians, the Apostle Paul was struggling to remove all barriers that stood between genuine believers and their full and proper enjoyment of Christ. Two major items that he labored to deliver them from were the worship of angels and the practice of asceticism. Why were these things so damaging to the Church in Colossae? We’ll look at these today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Ephesians (Program #11) – The New Testament Believers to the Praise of God’s Glory

Three times in the first chapter of Ephesians, the apostle Paul uses an expression like “to the praise of His glory”. The first time in verse 6, the praise is offered by us – the believers – as the issue of our sonship. The second mention, however, in verse 12 also deals with our sonship but the praise is not offered by us but rather it is the angels even the creation itself that joins in praise to God because of what He has accomplished in us – His sons. Now, not just sons in name and position but sons of God in life and nature.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

John (Program #11) – An Introduction to Life and Building (7)

God drove His economical car from the first section of eternity through the time bridge to the last section of eternity. By driving through the bridge, He got everything finished.

We still have another message for chapter 1. This message in a sense is a kind review of what we have seen already. But, some different aspects are shown up in this message. Chapter 1 reveals to us two sections of eternity. In the beginning was the Word. That was the eternity in the past. At the end of this chapter, the Lord says, “you will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”, and that we all know will happen in eternity future. In eternity past, Christ was merely the Word, and the Word was God. And, God by that time had only divinity, nothing human. By that time He didn’t have the humanity what He had was just divinity.  But in eternity future, His main aspect will be, not the Son of God, but the Son of Man. If He’s not the son of God, He could never be life to us. If He is not the Son of Man, He could never be the essence for the building of God. For life to us, He has to be the Son of God. For the building of God, Christ has to be the Son of Man. The Son of God is for life and the Son of Man is for building…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Jeremiah (Program #13) – God’s Economy with His Dispensing in Jeremiah (2)

It seems upon casual reading of the Old Testament that the central focus of the book is the law of Moses.  When God brought Moses to the mountain and deliver the ten commandments that surely was a key moment, a key factor in God’s dealing with His people Israel.  But in the New Testament, the apostle Paul tells us that the law was not part of God’s original intention for man, rather it was something added due to man’s failures and sins.   In Galatians chapter 3 he says, “Why then the law? It was added because of the transgressions until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, it being ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. ”  Actually God’s intention for man has never changed.  From the beginning He has desire that He Himself would be everything to man.  And Jeremiah, he lamented that His people Israel had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters.  If we have this view of God’s eternal desire, our understanding of such Old Testament books as Jeremiah will be greatly uplifted.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS