Galatians (Program #42) – Walking by the Spirit According to to the Elementary Rule to Live

Galatians 3:26 identifies us as the very sons of God through faith in Christ. That means that we have become members of God’s household or His folks we could say. We could also say this is tremendous. But by chapter 6, these sons have now become God’s prince, the Israel of God. This goes beyond tremendous, and this is also the focus of today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #28) – Crucifying the Flesh to Walk by the Spirit

To walk in Spirit is to live, move, even have our being according to the Spirit. In essence, it means we live as genuine sons of God, matching our Father in His life and nature. For this, we’ve been saved. And for this, we’ve been positioned in Christ. So what is it that keeps this wonderful sonship from being our day by day practical, real experience?   Don’t miss today’s very helpful and enlightening life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #26) – Getting Rid of the Leaven

Galatians 5:1 tells us that it was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Yet later, we see how this freedom can actually turn out to be a stumbling to both ourselves and others around us. How to safeguard the freedom we have received in Christ is our focus on today’s life study of the Bible.

Galatians 5 brings us to the daily walk of God’s children. And, it’s quite good to see that in chapter 5 verse 4, Paul’s letting them know, don’t be taken away from Christ; You should not be brought to nothing from Christ; and you should not fall away from grace. In our daily walk, God has jealously betrothed us to Himself in Christ. And, we should not be brought to nothing from Christ. Neither, should we fall from grace.

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Galatians (Program #21) – Baptized into Christ and Putting on Christ

The thought in this chapter (Galatians 3) is quite deep and the thought is also divine. And, it’s one thing to be in the first couple of chapters with more objective matters, precious but yet rather basic concerning the fundamental truth of the Gospel and being justified by faith through grace and not out of the works of the law. But in chapter 3 and also chapter 4, which is not that much easier than chapter 3, we’re at the heart of this book. And, we’re deep into the experiential aspect of this book.

Let me try to summarize. We have received the Spirit, not by works of law, but by the hearing of faith. By receiving the Spirit, we receive the reality of the blessing God promised to Abraham. Having received the Spirit and having been brought to Christ through the law as a child-conductor, we are now sons of God and true sons of Abraham. We have believed into Christ. We have been baptized into Christ. We have put on Christ. And, by so doing, we have put off all natural distinctions. And, this is all for the carrying out of God’s economy for us to be in Christ and for Christ to be in us, that we may be the corporate expression of Christ.

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Numbers (Program #22) – Fighting (3)

In the Old Testament book of Numbers there is the story of a gentile prophet named Balaam.  The Moabite king Balak had hired him to curse and prophesy against God’s people Israel, who Balak the king greatly feared.  Yet at each instance, as much as Balaam desire to please the king, whatever he spoke concerning Israel turned out not to be a curse but a blessing.  These parables recorded in Numbers 22 through 24 had a greater impact than just the Lord’s frustration of a heathen king with an evil intention towards God’s people.  These parables actually revealed how God views His people, whether the nation of Israel in the Old Testament or the church in this age despite the failures and weaknesses.  God sees the church as glorious, victorious and beautiful.  How can this be?  it’s because He sees the church, the believers, in Christ.

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Galatians (Program #13) – Christ and the Spirit

If you’ve been following along with us, you realize that today we’re scheduled to bring you a life study message from the book of Galatians. We really thought we were going to. When we begin work on this particular program, we knew we had a tape of Witness Lee from 1979 that was going to be difficult. But, we thought we’d be able to restore it to a condition that was acceptable to broadcast. But in our final review, we realize the audio quality of that old recording just did not meet our standards. So we’ve decided to bring you instead, a highlight program from the life study of Romans. This program deals with very much the same topic as the Galatians message we were scheduled to bring you. We think you’ll enjoy this.

To find our way out of this experience of Romans 7, we need to see in detail what this experience is. And, I believe this can be a big help to us today. The first thing we need to see is although this is the experience of an unsaved person, nearly all Christians can identify with this chapter. Romans 5 speaks of the truth of being in Adam, where as when we come to Romans 6, we see what the truth is of being in Christ. When we come to Romans 7, what we see is the experience of someone who is in Adam. And, of course Romans 7 describes a very terrible situation that we would like to be delivered from. Eventually when we come to Romans 8 and we will come to Romans 8 in a future broadcast, this shows us the experience of being in Christ. We’re in Christ doctrinally and positionally. But, we want to have the daily experience of being in Christ through the law of the Spirit of life.

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Galatians (Program #7) – Freedom in Christ Versus Slavery Under Law

The book of Galatians is a book of contrasts. For example, God’s Son is contrasted with man’s religion. And, freedom in Christ is in contrast to slavery under the law. And, the spirit is in contrast with the flesh. To understand the depths of this book is to understand these great contrasts. Please stay with us for today’s life study of the Bible.

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1 Corinthians (Program #38) – Dealing with Eating of Sacrifices to Idols (3)

1 Corinthians chapter 9 shows us two very significant factors in the ministry of the apostle Paul. First we see how pure he was. Pure in a sense that he had only one motive to be wholly in Christ and for Christ. He sought nothing for his personal gain. Second Paul was also faithful. Faithful because he saw his commission from the Lord in the gospel is a kind of stewardship with which he had been entrusted. Listen to these verses in 1 Corinthians

9:16-17 “For if I preach the gospel, I have no boast, for necessity is laid upon me; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a stewardship.”

To read words such as these can’t help but convict us because we all become keenly aware of the impurity of our motives when we receive light from God’s word. But rather be discouraged we should take heart. For in other of Paul’s writing he opens the door to help all of God’s children to as such pure living and in such a faithful serving.

In Galatians
2:20 “I am crucified with Christ;”

and in this book 1 Corinthians chapter

6:17 “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

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Romans (Program #42) – Saved in Life from Naturalness

Romans can be summarized three words: redemption, life and building. The matter of life is stated clearly in Romans 5:10 “…much more we shall be saved in His life”. If we don’t know life and building, we’re missing two-thirds of God’s salvation.

Romans is arguably the definitive book of the Bible regarding Christian doctrine but we’re finding out that it is much more than that. It is really a book opening the way for all of us, as believers in Christ, to enter into the rich experience of the saving life of Christ everyday.

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Romans (Program #34) – The Basic Points in Chapters 5-8

The Lord is with our spirit, so this wonderful. If we’re going to contact God, we need to exercise our spirit. God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in their spirit so that we can live and walk according to the Spirit who is mingled with our spirit.

If you’ve ever had the experience of making a resolution to be better, or to try harder, or promising never to do something again and then failing miserably, you will want to stay tuned for today’s Life-Study of Romans with Witness Lee.

We’re going to revisit Romans 5 to 8. In these chapters, we’ll see something wonderful concerning how we can experience and enjoy Christ. In today’s message we’re going to hear Witness Lee talk about the Spirit as it’s mentioned in chapter eight. In reading these verses, it seems almost impossible to tell whether the reference is made to the divine Spirit or the human spirit. What’s the relationship between these two and is it important for us to make a distinction? more…

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