Ephesians (Program #25) – Both Reconciled to God in One Body and Fellow Citizens of the Household of God

Imagine that you are a lonely visitor in a foreign country and meet a fellow citizen of your own country, the American, Great Britain or Canada.  You immediately sense a kind of kinship. But how is that compare with the intimacy and share delight that would result from unexpectedly meeting one of your own family members in the same setting?

Well, this is the situation that should exist with all members of the Body of Christ, the Church. And not just with those who are in our circle of fellowship. For the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2 that not only we are fellow citizens with all the believers in the kingdom of God, but we are also His household, family members. This describes which should be a sweet and intimate relationship with all those who belong to Christ.  We will consider both of these aspects today.

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Romans (Program #70) – Being in the Spirit to Experience the Work of the Spirit

We may have the assurance that we are children of God by the witnessing of the Spirit with our spirit. This is not a method, this is an action of the Spirit.

Today brings us to our 70th and final life study of the book of Romans. It has been quite an examination of one of the classic books of the Christian faith.

What has been the central message of this life study of Romans?  One way to summarize it is with five words: sinners, sons, members, Body and churches. The central thought or message of Romans is that God is making sinners into sons to be the members of the Body of Christ expressed in local churches…

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Acts (Program #48) – The Propagation in Asia Minor and Europe through the Ministry of Paul’s Company (14)

The book of Acts is a unique book in all of scripture. Unveiling, not the Christ of the Gospels in its earthly ministry, but the Christ in resurrection: living, working, and spreading through His members as the Church was established in the remote regions of the inhabited earth in the first century.

The life study of Acts is the basis of our program today. This week, we’ve been seeing the second great missionary journey, as it’s called, of the Apostle Paul. We begin the life study of Acts by seeing that Acts is a book of the propagation of the resurrected and ascended Christ through His disciples…

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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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Philemon (Program #1) – A Slave Reborn to be a Brother

The short, one chapter epistle of Philemon serves a special purpose in the Divine revelation of the holy scriptures.  It shows the equality in eternal life and divine love of all the members in the Body of Christ.

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Colossians (Program #43) – Christ as All the Members and in All The Members In the New Man

Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.” What a wonderful utterance by Paul the Apostle! Christ our life. What is it to have Christ as our life? Well Paul goes even farther in Colossians to bring us to the eventual stage of having Christ not just as our life, but as our living. Christ, as our life, bring us to an awareness, a consciousness of His Body and our place as members in His Body. But Christ as our living bring us to the higher stage of the new man, where Christ is all and in all.

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Colossians (Program #27) – Conclusion

The book of Colossians is a book that gives us the highest vision and revelation of Christ. It’s a book unveiling Christ. The full revelation of Christ comes in Chapter 3 verses 10 and 11, which reveal the heart’s desire of God, the New Man, a corporate entity composed of Christ as the head and the members as His body. With all their cultural and ethnic differences blended away, so that joined with the head they become His full and unique expression. Well, we would consider such a book would have a lofty and profound conclusion to match its rich content, but rather it concludes with various greetings and short reports concerning different brothers in Christ familiar to the Colossians. It is tender but it seems to lack the impact and spirit to make it a fitting conclusion. Was this Paul’s random thought? Or, God’s marvelous wisdom?

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