Psalms (Program #27) – The Suffering Christ and the Reigning Christ

The Psalms are wonderful portion of God’s word.  They are treasured by countless lovers of God and His Holy Word.  In this collection of poetry, praises and hymns is found a wide range of expressions.   We might turn to our favorite Psalms during times of trial or suffering and seek comforting words.  And surely many of the Psalms do convey such comfort and solace.  But at their height or peak are those Psalms that clearly and definitely reveal Christ in much detail and richness.  For those Psalms preceded the incarnation of the God-Man Jesus by many centuries.  The eternal Son is clearly found in the Psalms, if we know where to look and how to recognize it.

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Psalms (Program #23) – The Psalmist’s Intensified Enjoyment of God in His House and City Through the Suffering, Exalted, and Reigning Christ (4)

Psalms 48:1-2 says ” Great is Jehovah, And much to be praised In the city of our God, In His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, The city of the great King.”

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Psalms (Program #21) – The Psalmist’s Intensified Enjoyment of God in His House and City Through the Suffering, Exalted, and Reigning Christ (2)

Psalms 45 is a marvelous Psalms and it starts with verse 1 saying “My heart overflows with a good matter. I speak what I have composed concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” Today in our life study of Psalms we come to the highest and greatest of all the Psalms; Psalm 45. Stay with us for the next half hour as we turn our attention to the fairest among ten thousands.

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Psalms (Program #20) – The Psalmist’s Intensified Enjoyment of God in His House and City Through the Suffering, Exalted, and Reigning Christ (1)

The Old Testament book of Psalms includes 150 individual Psalm. Well, majority of these were written by David, others contributed to this wonderful portion of the Scripture.  Bible scholars throughout the centuries have realized that by virtue of how the Psalms are arranged, they are broken into five distinctive groups or books.  Book one of the Psalms for example include Psalms 1 through Psalms 41.   The second book begin with Psalms 42.  But what is critical to realize in this divine arrangement is that each successive book takes us to a higher spiritual plain than the previous one.  So that at the end of Psalms we are brought to the highest peak in the experience and enjoyment of God.

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Job (Program #8) – God’s Answer to Job

Job 10:13 says, “But You have hidden these things in Your heart; I know that this is with You:”. Job knew there must be a reason why God was allowing him to suffer so much but he didn’t know what God’s purpose was. Job was frustrated but we don’t have to be – God has shown us the answer.

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Job (Program #5) -The First of the Three Rounds in the Debates Between Job and His Three Friends (1) – Eliphaz’s Answer to Job by Rebuking

In Job chapter 4 and 5 Eliphaz, the first of Job’s three friends opens up the first of three rounds of debates concerning Job’s sufferings. Job held the concept that he was right but Eliphaz corrected him. Referring to Job in chapter 4:17 Eliphaz asked him, “Can a mortal man be more righteous than God? Can a man be purer than his Maker?”

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Job (Program #4) – Job’s Cursing of His Birthday

In Job chapter 3, Job cursed the day of his birth. He was a good man and he was trying to keep his perfection, uprightness and integrity. But due to his vexation he could not contain himself and he didn’t know what to do. Job’s suffering was so intense and most of the book of Job is a debate about why God would allow such a good person to suffer so much. And this debate continues today. At the end of chapter 2, Job painfully sat in silence for seven days and nights. And then in chapter 3 Job broke the silence and initiated the debate, which is most of the book of Job, by cursing the day of his birth because of his suffering of this very great pain.

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Philippians (Program #3) – Paul’s Suffering for the Gospel and His Enjoyment of Grace

Through out the ages many people had suffered for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Among these the apostle Paul stand prominently. In fact in many of his Epistles they are specific references and even details regarding not only his suffering but also the suffering we may experience as well. Philippians gives us such an account not just the suffering because of his willingness to preach the gospel in a general way.

Today on our life study of the Bible we will see Paul as an example not just of suffering but as one who also had the enjoyment of grace under suffering and the high gospel for which he had suffered.

This phrase” enjoyment of grace under suffering”, almost sounds like kind of contradiction to our natural ear…

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Joshua (Program #12) – The Saving of Gibeon

One of the most interesting aspects of the relationship between husbands and wives is how easily and freely the wife can agreed to do something often involving money without checking first with her husband. The husbands also make the same mistake with unfortunate frequency and result is usually the same. A cooling trend seems to over take the relationship for a period of time and the sweetness at least for a season is gone .

God’s relationship to Israel in the Old Testament was also as a husband and the Israel was as His wife. Listen to Israel Jeremiah chapter 2, “Thus says Jehovah: I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, The love of your bridal days, When you followed after Me in the wilderness.”  So what happened in this marriage when the wife acted on her own? Predictably the result was always a suffering for Israel. Such a case is recorded in Joshua 9, the story of the Gibeonites.

Today’s message touches the very essence of the divine romance; a favorite subject of the life study of the Bible and also a topic that Witness Lee frequently came to in his ministry.

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2 Corinthians (Program #50) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (5)

At the end of 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul was compelled to make a vindication of his apostolic authority.   In the course of this defense, he described much of the sufferings and poverty that seem to be his constant companions during his ministry.  Judging his ministry by today’s common standards, it might seem to some that his work lack the Lord’s blessing.  Listen, “three times I was beaten with rods” he writes, “once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I had spent in the deep, In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers; In labor and hardship; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness.”

This kind of hardship and shortage even of the basic material supplies might seems strange to some.  How could this be the case of a genuine servant of the Lord?  But to Paul, it was quite the opposite.  For to his realization the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry similarly suffered and Paul considered it an honor that the Lord would find him worthy to share in the sufferings.

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