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.

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Song of Songs (Program #9) – Sharing in the Work of the Lord

There are many ways to study the Bible. We may study it from a historical perspective or from a theological doctrinal perspective or we may study it as a book of moral precepts or as a pattern for our living. Surely the Bible is a book of truth but preeminently, the Bible is also a book of life. “I have come that you might have life”, the Lord Jesus said in John. And also in John He said, “The words that I speak are spirit and are life”.

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Proverbs (Program #2) – The Principles for Man to Live a Proper Human Life

Many people love the book of Proverbs because the truth conveyed in these short, easy to understand, poetic utterances matches their ethical approach to the Bible and the Christian life itself.  Fearing God is a good example. There are numerous passages in Proverbs that extol the benefit of fearing God. The question is not then, “Should we fear God?” Of course we should and even we must. But we fear God not simply out of duty or instruction but because our reverence to Him issues in a deeper and more genuine experience and love for Him. The difference may seem subtle but in actuality, the difference is profound and life-changing.

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Colossians (Program #41) – Having Died With Christ And Having Been Raised With Christ

The Bible tells us that, in Christ, we are dead to sin and to the world and even to ourselves. Not only so, it also tell us that we also have been raised in Christ and made alive to God in Christ. This is truly wonderful when we treasure verses like these that point us to the spiritual facts that are true in Christ. But, does simply knowing these facts help us in our day to day walk?  Is our experience parallel what is true in Christ? Well, I think we all know the answer to this question and the struggle and the anguish that most serious believers go through trying desperately to experience in us what is factually true in Christ.  As we come back again to consider how to bring into reality, the reality of being in Christ.

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Ephesians (Program #74) -The Spirit and the Church

One of the major changes that takes place in the life of a Christian is in their mind.  As unbelievers we were as Paul described in Ephesians 4, darkened in our understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which was in us and because of the hardness of our heart.

Contrast that to the conditions of the believers that follow in Chapter 5, For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord, walk as children of light for the fruits of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.  How does this transformation in our minds take place?  The answer to this crucial matter is also found in Ephesians.

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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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Numbers (Program #31) – A Vital Sketch of the Divine Revelation in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers (1)

Most serious readers of the Bible recognize there are unmistakable portraits of of Christ in the Old Testament, among these of course are the Passover Lamb and the brass serpent.  If our understanding has been enlightened we can see not only Christ but God’s eternal purpose and plan in picture forms throughout the Old Testament.  The key to this understanding is what apostle Paul called the economy of God.  God’s economy is His plan, His purpose and all that He has arranged to work it out.  This life study of the Bible has this economy as its focus.  The result is that book after book, including the obscure  and seldom spoken of books such as Numbers in the Old Testament all become a rich treasury of light and truth unveiling Christ and God’s purpose in marvelous details.

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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 #10) – No Longer I, but Christ Living in Me

We have come to an extreme crucial verse in the New Testament economy. Today we’re on Galatians 2:20:

“I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

This is a mysterious verse to be sure, but one that contains crucial revelation of what it means to live the Christian life. Some people have used the expression “an exchanged life” to help describe the truth that’s being conveyed here. Is this a valid way of looking at it?

No. It’s not a valid way, even though some of us at one point considered using this expression. The reason I say it’s not valid is because it doesn’t apply to the whole verse…

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Galatians (Program #8) – The Truth of the Gospel

What is the function of the commandments to a Christian? Well perhaps first, it would be best to see what it’s not. The Apostle Paul in Galatians says it very well. “And knowing that a man is not justified out of works of law, but through faith in Jesus Christ … because out of the works of law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). If the law was not given in order to justify man before God, then why was it given? We’ll open up this mysterious box on today’s life study of the Bible.

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