Ephesians (Program #10) – To Head Up All Things in Christ (2)

The notion or idea of an eternal struggle in the universe is certainly not new or novel.  Most societies, even most religion makes reference to the struggle of good versus evil that is larger than our world.  But what the Bible actually reveals is that the struggle is not directly good versus evil; rather it is God versus His enemy, Satan – the source of all evil and the source of death.  Actually, if our eyes are open, we realize that God in His wisdom allowed this archangel to rebel.  With one possible reason being the  tremendous opportunity that afforded God to manifest His wisdom through the church by heading up all things in Christ.  This is the view in Ephesians.

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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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Galatians (Program #44) – Walking by the Spirit as Sons of God (1)

Galatians, much like the book of Romans, reveals God’s salvation to us in a most dynamic and marvelous way. We are saved by faith, through grace and fully according to the operation of the Spirit and not by the works of law. But the revelation of the New Testament and of these books especially does not stop here. There is a goal to this salvation, a wonderful goal, that should become our goal as well. This was the deep burden of the apostle Paul in Galatians.

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Galatians (Program #42) – Walk by the Spirit in the Enjoyment of Christ in our Spirit

To many people, the main item of the book of Romans is justification by faith and the main item in Galatians is to be free from the bondage of the law. Although both of these truths are present in these two books, the real goal and focus of both books is something else. For both Romans and Galatians reveal that God’s purpose or economy in justifying us and freeing us is for one thing – to make forgiven sinners into genuine sons of God in life.

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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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Zechariah (Program #14) – The Prophecies of Encouragement (5)

Any careful consideration of the history of God’s people, Israel, reveals that for much of that history, Israel has suffered. Paul, even spoke in Romans, of Israel’s heart being hardened until the age of the Gentiles will be fulfilled. We know that, that fulfillment is complete at the Lord’s second coming, so what about Israel after that time? Well the prophet Zechariah is full of encouraging prophecies concerning the eventual household salvation of Israel at the Lord’s return especially in chapter 12. Listen to Zechariah in one of the sweetest verses in all of Scripture: “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they will look upon Me, whom they pierced; and they will wail over Him with wailing as for an only son and cry bitterly over Him with bitter crying as for a firstborn son.”

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1 Corinthians (Program #1) – Introduction (1)

Every detail of the Bible is under the sovereign arrangement of God. Not only the words themselves have God as their source even the arrangement of the Bible is significant.

Romans for example gives us a full and complete sketch of both the Christians life and the church life. Then immediately following Romans we  1 Corinthians. What we have is the illustration of the same church life in the Christians life. What Romans reveals 1 Corinthians illustrates.

As we begin the life study of 1 Corinthians, a book that on the surface seems to be mainly focus on the problems of this 1st century gentile church in the city of Corinth but actually we will come to appreciate there is a very positive message in this book that is critical in God’s economy.

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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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Romans (Program #69) – God Condemning Sin in the Flesh That We May be in the Spirit

We have a very helpful program today dealing with a topic that’s often debated among believers.

Today we have one of the great goals that we as Christians set for ourselves and that is the matter of walking according to spirit. Is this a proper goal for us as Christ to set for ourselves?   It seems like in one sense like one of those nebulous and kind of spiritual items that may be somewhat difficult to get a handle on in our experience.

Of course It is very critical that we Christians walk according to the spirit.  In Epistles, Paul even commands us to do this.  more…

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Romans (Program #68) – The Processed God Being the Law of the Spirit of Life

Today we will see a particular term the law of the Spirit of life in Romans chapter 8 which tells us how the Triune God is transforming the tripartite man.

One of the wonderful verses in the New Testament tells us that the law of the Spirit of life has freed us from sin and from death. It may seems strange that a law frees us from sin and from death. We will explore this freeing law of life on today’s life study.

For our final three programs in Romans we come back to chapter 8 and revisit some of the real highlights of this crucial chapter in all of Scripture.

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