Acts (Program #51) – The Propagation in Asia Minor and Europe through the Ministry of Paul’s Company (17)

We’re going to hear reference in the program today to a mixture that was present in the Church in Jerusalem. Even a mixture to some degree in the Word of the Apostle James. We want to be clear we’re not condemning or criticizing the Word of God, but simply looking at how the divine record, the Holy Word, has presented the condition that existed at that time. What is this mixture regarding and what kind of influence did it have on the early Church, particularly in Jerusalem?

This mixture is really a mixture of God’s New Testament economy with the Old Testament dispensation. It’s a mixture of Christ with things that are out of date. Many things in the Old Testament, in fact the entire Old Testament, with all the types, the figures, the shadows, and the prophecies – all pointed us to Christ…

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Amos (Program #1) – The Introductory Word, Jehovah’s Judgments on the Surrounding Nations, and His Judgments on Judah and Israel, and Jehovah’s Contending with the House of Jacob

There are many ways to look at and interpret human history. But if we study the divine record in the Bible, we can see a clear and on going pattern. And that is that for more than 20 centuries God’s people Israel had been under a kind of suffering, a chastisement at the hands of the surrounding nations.  At the same time God has been judging and punishing those nations for their excessive brutality toward Israel. And during these entire period beginning from the incarnation of the Savior, Christ had been increasingly manifested on the earth. This clear, concise summary of the past centuries is the topic and focus of most of the Old Testament books of the prophets. Amos is one of the Minor Prophets that continues this revelation.

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Mark (Program #15) – The Move of the Slave-Savior’s Gospel Service (2) & (3)

Mark chapter 6 presents us with 4 seemingly unrelated cases. To our shallow understanding these 4 cases seems to be merely 4 separate stories of events that took place during the Lord’s earthly ministry. However if we receive even a little enlightenment we can see that once again the sequence in the divine record of how these events are unfolded is really marvelous.  And that when taken together these 4 cases really are layers of meaning and significance.

So here are 4 cases, 2 negative and 2 positive. That individually show us the rejection, hatred and justice even martyrdom that typifies the world’s response to the gospel. But collectively they fill us with encouragement, conviction and even a renewed determination to go forth to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth.

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Jude (Program #6) – The Basic Structure of the Epistles of Peter and Jude (2)

The epistles of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude have occupied us now for the past nine weeks on this program. And today we conclude the life study of these three short but very significant books in the divine record. But not with the systematic or academically summary but rather by following the spiritual thread that links these three books. Though they are separated in the canon scripture by the three epistles of John in their subject and basic structure they bear a striking similarity and easily warrant being considered as a group.

All three were written against the back drop of the degradation and decline of the church, a time of apostasy. And therefore all three can be considered as an inoculation against the heresies that were damaging the testimony of the church at that time. Yet they also shared a basic structure that is one hundred percent positive and absolutely in concert with the central focus of the entire New Testament. And that is that we would all be brought into the real enjoyment of the Triune God. In order that through His operation in us we would be transformed that we would be built up into His spiritual habitation so that He could indwell us and that we would express Him for eternity.

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Job (Program #14) – The Significance in the Sequence of Job and the Psalms

As Christians we all hold the Bible as the infallible and inspired word of God. But not only are the words themselves divinely inspired even the arrangement of the book also bears God’s direct involvement. Take for instance the sequence of the various books in the Bible. Many do not actually follow the historic timeline yet the sequence in the divine record is truly marvelous. Consider the book of Job and the book of Psalms. They are separated by nearly a thousand years historically but Psalms immediately followed by Job in the Bible. What the Bible sequence reveals is that the divine revelation is not static, but rather shows a progression.  A progression that should also be matched in our experience.

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1 & 2 Samuel (Program #28) – The History Concerning David (12)

Of all of the great figures in the Old Testament, none found more favor in the eyes of Jehovah than His beloved King David. David had a heart that matched God’s heart and therefore God was able to reveal the highest things to him. Yet in one critical area, David was weak and this weakness remains even today as a dark blemish on the light of one of God’s great servants.

Even in the divine record, the Holy Word, both in the New and Old Testament, God has reminded us of David’s fall. In 1 Kings 15:5, it says because David did what was upright in the side of Jehovah and did not turn aside from anything that He had commanded him all the days of his life except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

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Philippians (Program #39) -To Participate in the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit

There is the Christ of the divine record, the Bible, the Christ of history, our eternal Redeemer and Savior.  Believers have honored and worshiped Him through the centuries and rightly so. But what about the present Christ?  The Christ of our moment by moment salvation Who went through such a marvelous process not only that He can be with us but even more that He could be in us.  The subjective Christ, that’s our focus today as it should be everyday.

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