1 Peter (Program #2) – The Operation of the Triune God Upon the Elect for Their Participation in His Full Salvation

The story of the Lord’s calling of the apostle Peter as is recorded in the gospel of John includes and intriguing unusual component; he changes his name from Simon to Cephas which literally means a stone. This is John chapter 1: 40-42
1:40 “One of the two who heard this from John and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.”

41 “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which translated means Christ).”

42 “He led him to Jesus. Looking at him, Jesus said, You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which is interpreted, Peter).”

Of course nothing of God’s genuine work is accomplished merely in name only. And so the changing of this poor Galilean fisherman’s name from Simon to something so solid and permanent, as Peter, a stone for God’s building is full of meaning. And it implies that God has much more in mind for Peter than simply saving him from his sins. For both Peter’s transformation and the accomplishment of God’s very eternal purpose is hinted at in this symbolic act.

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1 & 2 Samuel (Program #3) – The History Concerning Samuel (1)

Throughout history, whenever God has desire to move on earth to carry out His purpose He has always require the co-operation of man. Perhaps the situation is so degraded that He can only find a handful or may be even only one person who would co-operate fully with Him. But even one person, sufficiently one with God and willing to co-operate with Him can provide Him a way to move on earth to carry out His eternal purpose and even to change the age.  Samuel was such a person one with God and one who co-operated with Him fully and enabling Him to change the age in that time.  But even the origin of Samuel demonstrates God’s desire even His need to work in and through man to carry out His move. We’ll consider Samuel’s origin in today’s program

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1 Peter (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

Of all the disciples called by the Lord Jesus in the gospels, probably the one we can most readily identify with is Peter. Simon Barjona as he was known before the Lord changed his name to Peter. In John chapter 1 was as impetuous as he was fervent and often found himself as the target of the Lord Jesus’ reprove.

Recall for example in Matthew chapter 16, Peter’s sympathetic suggestion to the Lord that He should keep Himself from the suffering of death that He knew awaited Him. “get behind Me, Satan” was the Lord’s reply. “You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.” How could Peter possibly recovered from such a stinging rebuke?

And of course it was also Peter, who denied the Lord three times during the hour of trial preceding the actual crucifixion. Yet only days later it was this same Peter who stood on the day of Pentecost and usher thousands into the kingdom with his powerful and dynamic speaking.

And not only so, in his two epistles, Peter uses language and phrases so rich and full of high and profound meaning that we can’t help but marvel at the power of God’s full salvation. That this unlearned fisherman could write such thing. Listen to his word in 1 Peter,

1:18 “Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers,”

19 “But with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ;”

Welcome to our first life-study of the book of 1 Peter.

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1 & 2 Samuel (Program #2) – An Introductory Word

To really understand the Bible you might think that it takes great intellect or years of training and Biblical education.  Well, this surely may be helpful, but according to the Bible itself  what is most needed is what the apostle Paul prayed for in his letter to the Ephesians chapter 1:17 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.”

What we need most is our spirit and our spirit becoming a spirit of wisdom and revelation. We need such a spirit to see what’s revealed in the two Old Testament books of 1 & 2 Samuel.  Samuel begins with the story of a godly woman praying desperately to Jehovah that He would give her a son.  and in this story we began to see again how God’s economy is the central focus of the entire Bible.

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James (Program #11) – A Life Not Fully According to and for God’s New Testament Economy (2)

The book of James has many wonderful expressions and utterances that many Christians love to quote.  His exhortation on bridling an evil tongue for example, and on other various Christian virtues are the stuff of many good Sunday school lessons.  In chapter 4, we have another admirable example of the practical Christian perfection that James espoused.   He says in verse 13 “Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit; Whereas you do not know the matter of tomorrow, what your life will be; for you are a vapor, which appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will both live and do this or that. ”  Who could argue or take issue that such an expression “if the Lord wills”?  But by comparison we must consider another angle, another perspective. It’s the perspective of the dominant New Testament writer, the apostle Paul, who did not exhort the believers simply to follow God’s will in an objective outward way, but rather to be those that live moment by moment under the influence and direction of the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:14, “or as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.“

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1 & 2 Samuel (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

The Bible is the divine revelation, the word revelation according to the Greek means to uncovered or unveil something that had been hidden or concealed. Though the Bible contains teachings and truths on many levels, fundamentally this book conveys God’s eternal purpose that which God Himself desire in His heart in the eternity past above all else and planned even before He laid the foundations of the earth and the universe. Surely for us to see such a divine and eternal purpose we need more than our merely mental faculties. We need what the apostle Paul prayed for, so earnestly in his epistle to the Ephesians believers. He prayed that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.”  Welcome to our first life study from the book of 1 Samuel.

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James (Program #10) – A Life Not Fully According to and for God’s New Testament Economy (1)

In Acts chapter 2, the apostle Peter spoke boldly to his Jewish kinsman, “be saved from this crooked generation.”   Some time later, the apostle  Paul reminded the Jewish believers that God had rescued them out of the present evil age.  The context of both passages makes it clear that these strong words, “the crooked generation” and “the present evil age” both refer to the religious system that had become modern Judaism at the time when God was ushering the New Testament economy.

Peter and Paul made it very clear God was calling people out of that religious system.  Yet in other New Testament passages, it is equally clear that the apostle  James was not only comfortable receiving the Jews into the fellowship of believers, he was even willing to accommodate the major practices of Judaism into the church.  Well what lessons can we glean from this confused situation today?

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Ruth (Program #6) – A Concluding Word

Have you ever heard a powerful preacher who eventually was exposed in fornication or some other sin?  You knew the person was a powerful preacher, even under the power of God, he was speaking according to the power of God.  It wasn’t false. And you’re so confused how can such a one ended up in such a gross and evil sin.  But today we have the answer for you as we conclude the wonderful book of Ruth.

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James (Program #9) – Practical Virtues of Christian Perfection (9)

Most Christians today view the Lord’s coming in an altogether objective way. In a way that has nothing to do with our spiritual condition or our spiritual growth. Their expectation is that one day the Lord will suddenly come and that His coming will have nothing to do with their maturity. It may be that the concepts many Christians hold regarding Lord’s coming back are actually causing Him to delay His coming.

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Ruth (Program #5) – Boaz and Ruth Typifying Christ and the Church

Romans 7:1-4 say,

1 Or are you ignorant, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law lords it over the man as long as he lives?

2 For the married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he is living; but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law regarding the husband.

3 So then if, while the husband is living, she is joined to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4 So then, my brothers, you also a have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God.

This is the New Testament truth and now in the book of Ruth we are going to see an Old Testament picture that it helps us to explain what is the real meaning of these verses who is the old husband and who is the new husband and how is that we who are believers in Christ had been freed from any obligation to our old husband so that we can be joined to Christ our new husband and bear fruit for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

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