Colossians (Program #39) – Not Defrauded of Your Prize of Enjoyment of Christ

What is your favorite book in the Bible? Maybe many would say the gospel of John or perhaps one of the other gospels. Others will surely pick the book of Revelation with all the exciting things it says about the end times. But what about the writings of Paul, the apostle, which actually make up the bulk of the New Testament? How many of you picked one of Paul’s letters? Let’s see what Paul has to say about his ministry in Colossians 1, it says “Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God. The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints; To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of this glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

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Psalms (Program #24) – Three Categories of Persons Regarding the Enjoyment of God in Christ

To study the Psalms it’s helpful to know their arrangement, many of the Psalms are grouped for us in order to help our understanding.  Psalms 49, 50 and 51 form such a group and show us three categories of persons in their experience and enjoyment of God.  Those depicted in Psalms 49 actually do not have God as their enjoyment but rather are those who put their trust in riches, in their wealth.  Such one missed the real experience and enjoyment of God.  Psalms 50 show us ones who call on the Lord according to His covenant.  This is to call on the Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator between us and God and surely result in deep enjoyment.  Finally Psalms 51 shows us a person in the full realization of his sin.  Repenting, confessing even begging God’s cleansing, forgiveness and washing.  This Psalms give us a real pattern of genuine repentance and will lead us into a richer and deeper experience and enjoyment of God.

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Philippians (Program #42) -Doing Everything in the Name of the Lord by Being Saturated with His Riches

What did the apostle mean when he said “I am able to do all things in Him Who empowers me” in Philippians 4:13.  Wouldn’t you like to know the secret?

Despite what it says in the Bible, we have a different way that we tend to hear it.  We like to hear it “I am able to do all things through Him”, but this says “I am able to do all things IN Him, who empowers me.”  The apostle Paul uses  similar phrase in Colossians 3:17 “whatever you do in word or in deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  What we are going to explore what it means to be in His name, what it means to be in Him and to be in the name of the Lord Jesus.

This matter been in the Lord’s name, praying in His name, doing things in His name is greatly misunderstood. This message, this fellowship would unload us of some concepts that really hinder us in our experience with the Lord just from our misunderstanding of this phrase “in His name” or “in Him”.

We were thinking that in such a verse where God is really promising there to do something outside of us somehow to make us strong enough that we are able to do the things that we are trying to do.  But it is very different as what we are going to see today.  It’s not just tagging His name onto something, but it’s really been one with Him.

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Ephesians (Program #69) -Experiencing the Riches of Christ

Ephesians Chapter 3 is a remarkable Chapter in all of Scripture. For it tells us that the immeasurable, unsearchable and unlimited Christ has now become so close, so intimate and so personal to us that He is actually making His home in our hearts.

This Chapter also tells us that this one is unsearchably rich. In fact it’s by our experiencing Him in this unsearchable riches that bit by bit, day by day, He is able to spread Himself into all the regions of all our inner being. This is the Christ that Paul presents to us in the book of Ephesians. And it is the very Christ that Paul himself experienced and described in many of his other epistles. We will consider the unsearchable riches of Christ on our program today.

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1 & 2 Samuel (Program #22) – The History Concerning David (9)

After years of being persecuted at the hands of the evil king Saul, David has finally become king, fulfilling the promise that Jehovah had given to him as a young boy. Now, the entire nation of Israel was with him. And, even the surrounding nations lent their support to him as king. But most importantly, David had Jehovah’s presence with him as well. With all things fully in order under God’s sovereign arrangement, what would David turn his attention to now?

Many before him had sought greater riches and glory for themselves, but David has a different kind of heart. David had a heart that was fully one with the Lord. So and with his own house in order, David turned his full attention to God’s house. What a marvelous picture and pattern for us as believers today.

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Ephesians (Program #15) – The Hope of God’s Calling and the Riches of the Glory of God’s Inheritance in the Saints

Hope can be a tremendous thing. If a person has hope, then their ability to withstand hardship and suffering is immeasurably enhanced. And as Christians, we above all people should live a life that is full of hope and therefore equipped to handle whatever may come our way. Paul, the apostle, experienced many hardships and knew much about hope; and in his letter to the Ephesians he opens up his earnest prayer to God on behalf of all the believers. One of the items that he prayed for strongly was that we all would see clearly and truthfully what is the hope of our calling. Where hope is a wonderful thing but our hope needs to be founded in truth and in the reality that the Bible conveys and not in something fanciful or simply according to the popular thought of the day.

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Ephesians (Program #7) – The Mystery of God’s Will

In the first chapters of Romans, the apostle Paul begins by establishing man’s pitiful and sinful condition; almost as though, he is proving to all mankind the need for redemption. Ephesians, however, another letter written by the apostle Paul, also speaks of redemption in the first chapter but from an entirely different perspective. This time it’s from the perspective of God and how He sees us and our need for redemption from the heavenlies. Listen to the marvelous way in which it’s presented in Ephesians chapter 1 “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved; In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses according to the riches of His grace,” What an uplifted view of this matter of redemption we have in Ephesians.

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Exodus (Program #139) – The Sanctification of Aaron and His Sons to be the Priests (9)

As Christians we all know that our salvation in Christ is presented throughout the pages of the New Testament.  The gospels show us the savior in His humanity and the epistles open up the content of God’s eternal plan and purpose.  So why then do we even need the Old Testament?  Is it just for the stories and lessons that we can learn by studying the inspirational lives of great men?  The answer must be an emphatically “No”.  For it is in the Old Testament that we can see  many details concerning Christ and our own experience of Christ that cannot be seen in the New Testament.  These details like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle when properly assembled present us the most complete picture of the riches of a genuine life in Christ.  Don’t miss today’s life study of the Bible.

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Acts (Program #19) – The Propagation in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria through the Ministry of Peter’s Company (14)

The early church life of the saints in first century Jerusalem was a unique time in Church history. They experienced the Lord mightily and inwardly, and they were multiplied even daily. But, this didn’t stop problems from creeping into their midst. Some of which remain with us even today. Stay with us for another marvelous and enlightening life study of the Bible as we probe the riches of the New Testament book of Acts.

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John (Program #38) – The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensation (2)

When He speaks to us, we have to keep it. When His word abides in us, then right away, we are abiding in His love. So, just by saying Amen to His speaking, love will fill us, and we will find the prevailing way to love the Lord Jesus and abide in His love.

The very striking point in John 15 to me is the illustration of the vine and the branches. There’s no other plant that could adequately illustrate the life flow that exists between the Lord and His believers. The Lord said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Could any other illustration make it more clear? Then, what God is producing is an organism, not an organization. The “I am” here is Christ when He said, “I am the vine.” And, the “you are” is that part of the vine known as branches. Christ, the Son, is the very center of God’s economy, and He’s also the embodiment of all the riches of the Father.

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