Bible Study Radio

Philippians (Program #15) – The Apostle’s Concern for the Believers

“Ministering to the House or to God”  Watchman Nee gave a message with this title once.  Hope our listeners can stay to grasp the depth that are contained in this thought. Are we too busy taking care of the Church, God’s house, that we’re not taking care of God?   Or are we too busy taking care of God that we forget about caring for the Church, His Body?

We are going to see in our program today from the book of Philippians chapter 2, that these two aspects of our experience and our service cannot be separated.

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #8) – Living Christ for the Expression of God

After the division of Israel into two kingdoms, God was still able to point to some among His people that have not given up their proper standing and had maintained at least outwardly some devotion to His fundamental word.  God’s word at that time of course, consisted of the laws.  But many don’t realize the law came in two sections, both of which came through Moses.  The first section is the law of commandments, were the ten commandments we commonly referred to them.  These are the moral laws that God gave to His people cover all aspects of relationships.  The second section is called the ceremonial law, the laws governing the details of the offerings and the priesthood and the feasts that God established for His people.

Though the kings of Judah stood on the proper ground of Jerusalem and professed allegiance to all the laws of God, in reality they kept neither the moral law nor the ceremonial law.  The result was that ultimately they lost their possession and enjoyment of the good land that God had given them.  What can we, God’s New Testament people learn from such a tragic example?

Philippians (Program #14) – A Drink Offering Poured Out Upon the Sacrifice of the Believer’s Faith

Philippians 2:17 says “But if i am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and priestly service of your faith, I rejoice together with you all.” What is this drink offering that the apostle said he was poured out at?  If our experience of Christ has not come to the point where we have been constituted as a drink offering we have not yet experienced Christ to the uttermost. The drink offering is our topic today on this life study of the Bible from the book of Philippians.

We touched the drink offering back in the life study of Genesis, it was a remarkable program at that time, and we had several calls from people who have some inkling of what it was but really had an experience of being brought into a vision of it for the first time.

As an introduction to the drink offering, from Leviticus in the Old Testament and it was this that the apostle Paul referring to in Philippians 2:17.  A portion out of the life study message from Philippians.  This will be a good background for drink offering for those who are not familiar with it:

“The burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the trespass offering were the basic offerings, but the drink offering was not. The 5 basic offerings covered in chapter 1 through 7 of Leviticus are types of various aspects of what Christ is to God on our behalf.  If we read number 15:1-10, 28:7-10 we see that drink offering was something additional. If one of the basic offerings was offered without the drink offering this was an indication that there was something lacking with the presentation of the basic offering. The one who offer the basic offering must have been rather poor. Actually the drink offering signifies that the offerer himself becomes the drink offering. However this does not mean that the offerer can be such a drink offering according to his own natural constitution rather he must enjoy Christ to such an extent that Christ fills him, saturates him and permeates him. Christ is the heavenly wine for our enjoyment. When we enjoy Him by taking Him into us, we shall become filled with Him and thoroughly saturated with Him. In this way we become the wine to be poured out as the drink offering upon the offering we present to God.”

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #7) – The Supplement to the History of the Kings of Judah (2)

Hezekiah, one of the top kings of Judah is a breath of fresh air to readers of the Bible.  Today we are going to spend our entire life study from Chronicles enjoying this fresh air.

This is a sweet program and a program of fresh air.  The reason for that is because with Hezekiah we see with so many positive things; we see recovery, we see restoration and the result of that is bringing revival to God’s people.  What a contrast to the black situation there in Hezekiah’s day.

Philippians (Program #13) – Holding Forth Christ

In Philippians 2:14 the apostle Paul says “do all things without murmurings and reasonings.”  This is a very small verse that many of us pass over or may be even take for granted. In today’s life study from the book of Philippians,  we are going to focus how it affects our obedience to work out our salvation to live Christ, to express Christ and to hold forth Christ.

Murmurings and reasonings that are mentioned in this verse are a big problem and frustrated our Christian life. These are two little annoying things always troubling us in our daily life to undermine the real experience and enjoyment of the Lord.  Many of us probably take not only this verse for granted but we probably take our murmuring and reasoning for granted.  We just consider this as normal path of our daily experience, but actually these are the main items that the apostle Paul is laboring not just to deliver the Philippians that we ourselves would be saved from these things.

In our past programs in this book, we’ve seen that it’s our cooperation with the operation of the indwelling God that’s saving us subjectively so that we can be one with Christ who is truly an expression of the pattern that we see in verses 5 through 9 in chapter 2. One key thing that’s seen in that pattern is the Lord’s willingness to obey. In this portion we want to see how important the matter of obedience is.

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #6) – The Supplement to the History of the Kings of Judah (1)

Did you know that the entire books of 1 & 2 Chronicles do not talk about any of the kings of Israel but they only talk about the kings of Judah?  We got a special life study program for today, we hope you stay with us.

We have quite an enlightening message with us today to see even what is the difference between Judah and Israel…

Philippians (Program #12) – Working Out Our Salvation

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  This is the apostle Paul’s word to us in Philippians 2:12. It seems to be nearly a contradiction to the verses in Ephesians chapter 2 which tells us that salvation is the gift of God and not of works. Well, we will try to unravel the seeming paradox of today’s life study of the Bible. We are going to look at both aspects, both sides of God’s salvation today.

Let’s take a look back for a moment before we get into this topic specifically, yesterday we saw the verses 2:5 -11 Christ in our salvation is really our pattern and today we have the working out of this full salvation. What is the connection that we are going to see?

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #5) – Being Fundamental in the Full and Walking According to the All-Inclusive Spirit

The children of Israel were already in degradation when ten of the twelve tribes separated following the leadership of Jeroboam.  This act of division was further compounded when they established an alternate place of worship, far from Jerusalem in the northern region of Dan.  The result was two kingdoms under two kings, fully breaking the principle of oneness that the Lord has established for them in Deuteronomy 12 when He declared time after time that His choice was Jerusalem and all the children of Israel must come uniquely to Jerusalem to present their offerings and worship Jehovah.  But two of the tribes under the kingship of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son remained faithful to God’s command and kept Jerusalem and the temple as their center.  Thou this pleased Jehovah and preserved a measure of blessing upon them, still the Lord was strict and willing to discipline both the kings and the people whenever their hearts strayed from Him and the law of Moses that He had commanded them to keep.

Philippians (Program #11) – The Exaltation of Christ

Philippians chapter 2 deals with the exaltation of Christ and Paul about that very topic has this to say in verses 9 through 11. “God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  That’s the inspirational portion in the New Testament.

A striking feature of our program today that the exaltation of Christ rather than something apart from us and far away from us that took place or will take place in the heavens, not so.  Actually there is the participation in an experiential aspect of that we are very much privilege to have a portion in and that’s our treat today.

1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #4) – Learning from the Examples of the Kings of Judah to Have a God-Man Living in Our Daily Life

Not long after the death of King Solomon, David’s son, the nation of Israel separated and became two kingdoms.  Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king in Jerusalem and ruled on the throne.  But another one Jeroboam departed from Jerusalem and led ten of the twelve tribes away establishing the northern kingdom called Israel with a different center of worship in Dan far in the north.  In the book of Deuteronomy, Jehovah made it clear that He had chosen only one place on this entire earth to be the center for His worship.  To break this God ordained principle is an abomination in the eyes of Jehovah.  Listen to His word in Deuteronomy in 12 “but you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes to establish His name there for His dwelling and there you shall come.  You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.  Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offering in every place you see, but in the place which the Lord chose.”