Bible Study Radio

Jeremiah (Program #3) – Crucial Aspects of the Divine Revelation in Jeremiah

The Lord Jesus in the gospel of John chapter 5 speaking to the religionists of His day told them, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40) Well, the clear message in this strong word to them and to us is that the whole Bible – both Old and New Testament – reveal Christ and should bring us to the very Christ it reveals every time we touch it. How crucial it is for us to keep such a view in mind whenever we come to the word of God especially in the Old Testament book such as Jeremiah.

Hebrews (Program #11) – The Sanctifier and the Sanctified

The history of the Christian faith shows us that the great truth of God’s eternal plan were first given to man in Scripture but then lost during centuries of darkness and then later recovered by God moving in His Body.  Such was the case with justification by faith and its recovery during the time of Martin Luther.  We will see another great item of recovery – sanctification, in today’s life study of the Bible.

We mentioned the matter of recovery.  We are going to hear Witness Lee refer to it today in our message several times.  For those listening that may not understand what we mean by this term in its historical context.  It might help if we could have a look at the meaning of the word “recovery”.

Jeremiah (Program #2) – An Introductory Word

Much of the history in the Old Testament concerns the great failures and sins of the children of Israel. They were all the time disobedient to the Lord, transgressing His laws and straying far from Him in their deeds and actions. Yet in Jeremiah we get a clear window into how God interprets and evaluates the failures of His people. In chapter 2, He tells Jeremiah of the two great evils committed by Israel, His people. What would He enumerate above all the others? But the answer reveals much about God’s heart and about our own living before Him.

Hebrews (Program #10) – The Captain of Salvation (2)

This wonderful Jesus is not only our Savior but He is also the marvelous captain of our salvation. And He is leading us even during this broadcast into the goal of our salvation. Glory is God expressed – this may seem simple but nonetheless this is what the Bible reveals. But just as we need our entire body to be adequately expressed, God desires to bring us as the members of His body into the region of His glory. So He’s provided us with a captain of salvation to lead us into glory.

We’ve spoken our first life study of Hebrews about though it’s a mysterious and somewhat hidden book to a lot of Christians when we’re given just one or two keys, it opens up like a flower. We’ve just spoken of the two of the keys that we’ve been given and these will be part of our life study today: river-crossers and the captain of salvation.

The word “Hebrew” means river-crosser. And, in this particular book, we have a marvelous speaking from God especially to the Jewish believers, those who have contacted God by faith, but were lingering in Judaism.  They were called by God in this book to cross the river, to become river-crossers, to come forward and to leave so many things on one side and enter into Christ, into grace, into the region of glory on the other side. In Matthew 17 where the Lord was transfigured and Moses and Elijah also showed up miraculously, representing the law and the prophets. And there God was very clear – do not honour anyone other than His Son. Don’t honour the law, don’t honour the prophets because Christ is the fulfillment of everything of the law and the prophets. So we need to be the river-crossers and this book indicates that not only the Jewish believers but also any of us who have contacted God by faith need to cross anything that’s holding us back from this dear One into Himself as the region of glory. We need to especially cross the river from religion to Christ and we need to cross the river from the law to grace, cross the river from the old covenant to the new covenant, from ritual to reality, from the earthly things to the heavenly things, from the soul to our spirit. So this is the river-crossers.

Then secondly, this captain of our salvation is none other than our Christ who from the moment of His incarnation by the putting on of the flesh through His resurrection was a fighter to lead, even to break into the region of glory. Within Him was the seed of glory, the divine glory was concealed within His human shell from the time of His incarnation. If you observe and read carefully the details of His living and even through His death and resurrection, there was a constant fighting going on that even His humanity would be brought into this glory. The desire to fight through into the glory so that both God and man could be together in this glory. He Himself could be the first God-man who is fully in the glory. So He’s the One who is always fighting to enter into this region of glory to bring man, first of all His humanity and then a corporate humanity into this region of glory which is just God Himself expressed. And now He’s qualified to be the captain of our salvation to lead us into glory.

Jeremiah (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

The prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament was raised up by the Lord during a particularly difficult time in Israel’s history.  During the forty one years during Jeremiah’s ministry, Israel was carried away into exile at least three times. Certainly, this negative history is an important part of the book of Jeremiah but there also is a marvelous aspect to this book as it unveils the restoration of Israel as well as God’s tenderheartedness and righteousness in His care for His chosen people even in the midst of their frequent rebellion. And of course, as it’s always the case in this life study of the Bible, we will see Christ revealed in the context of His divine economy today and throughout this new life study of Jeremiah.

Hebrews (Program #9) – The Captain of Salvation (1)

God’s goal is not to bring us to heaven. The goal of God’s salvation is to bring us into the very glory which in Christ has been sown into us at the time of our regeneration. Christ is many things to His saved ones. We may appreciate Him as our Savior and our Redeemer or may be even as our friend. But Hebrews unveils Him as the Captain of our Salvation. We’ll see Him as the fighting captain in today’s life study of the Bible.

Logically, we think that for salvation you need a savior or a redeemer but why do we need a captain for our salvation?

We need to make it emphatically clear that we surely need Christ as the Savior and we absolutely need Christ as the Redeemer. There’s no way to be saved without this personal Savior, the God-man. And we surely need Him as the Redeemer who bought us back with His precious blood and has brought us back to God that we may enjoy God as everything to us in Christ as the Spirit. Regrettably, many believers have a shallow even elementary concept of salvation. If we understand salvation merely as a rescue from hell to heaven then we don’t really need a captain. We just need a savior and a redeemer, one who allegedly who brings us out of the likelihood of going to hell and brings us to heaven. However, the goal of God’s salvation is not heaven. We are told in the book of Hebrews that God is bringing many sons into glory. For this we need a captain. Why? Because there are forces both human and satanic that resist this kind of progress in God’s salvation. The Lord has come into us, Colossians 1:27 says “…Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Deep within our regenerated spirit we have Christ, the life-giving spirit, as the hope of glory. But there is a lot of resistance to this glory saturating and permeating our entire being. The self resists, the flesh resists, things like sin and death in us resist, human opinion resists, our old man,  our oldness resists, religion is a resistance, the world is a resistance, culture is a resistance… The enemy Himself resists our progress; He wants to keep God’s children in an infantile state so they are no threat to him. Because of all of this resistance and opposition, there is a fight concerning our being brought into glory. Because of the fight, there is a captain. A captain, Christ was revealed to Joshua chapter 5 before the children of Israel entered into the good land, the leader so called Joshua, needed to see who the real commander was – that is Christ Himself. Now if we have some understanding of God’s goal to bring is unto glory and some recognition of the fact there is resistance, we will appreciate Christ as our fighting captain. I am happy to testify that my Christ is my captain of salvation. And over the years, He has been fighting in me even fighting against me in order to bring this brother of His more and more into the glory of God. This is a wonderful, a thrilling, an inspiring aspect of Christ. So let’s listen for more of this Christ.

Isaiah (Program #47) – The Servant of Jehovah as the Anointed of Jehovah…

Isaiah, unlike nearly any other book of Scripture captures the most beautiful and compelling images of Christ.  Listen to these lovely poetic utterance from the final chapters.  in chapter 61 “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, Because Jehovah has anointed Me To bring good news to the afflicted… To grant to those….the oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness;” and also chapter 63 “In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He bore them up and carried them All the days of old.”  Today is our final program from this beautiful and majestic book of Isaiah.  Please stay with us for today’s life study of the Bible.

Isaiah (Program #46) – The Servant of Jehovah as the Sure Mercies of David…

Isaiah 55 reveals that Jesus, the very Christ of God became mercies to the mighty King David.  We usually think of mercy something to be shown to a poor person, even a destitute person like a beggar.  Why would a great and mighty king like David need mercy?  How about you?  Do you need His mercies? or are you already rich and in need of only His grace and blessing?

Hebrews (Program #8) – Jesus in Incarnation, Crucifixion, Glorification and Exaltation

The gospel includes the entire process of God’s eternal purpose. His purpose is to impart Himself and dispense Himself into man. Hebrews chapter 2 may be one of the deepest chapters in the entire Bible. Yet it’s not often studied and perhaps even less understood. We’ll see this chapter open in a tremendous way in today’s life study of the Bible.

Some or all of the terms maybe familiar to all – incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification and exaltation. I believe you all know these five terms deeper but my burden is to show you in no other chapters, no other portion of the Holy word that has put all these five things together. In some of the chapters, you can see a part of Christ’s crucifixion, in some the chapters you could see Christ’s resurrection, in some portions you could see He is glorification, He is exaltation and so forth. But in no portion so short you can see all these main items – incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification and exaltation. Not only so, these five major points of what Christ has passed through are presented in this chapter in a very particular way. Not in the way as the four Gospels did, not in the way as Acts did, not in the way as all the other Epistles did. This chapter presented these five things in a very very strange way.

Isaiah (Program #45) – The All-Inclusive Christ in His Four Stages (3)

Isaiah 53 is one of the best known chapter in the Bible.  Its detailed account of the crucifixion of Christ given seven centuries before the actual event has captivated believers and historians throughout history.  Yet the short chapter end somewhat curiously.  Its final verse says “Therefore I will divide to Him a portion with the Great, And He will divide the spoil with the Strong”.  This imagery speaks of victory in warfare, the conquers dividing up the spoils of battle.  How does this fit with the striking account of Christ’s suffering and humiliating death on the cross?  Don’t miss today’s life study of the Bible.