Precepts Audio

PA573 What Is a Church 5 – Word Study of Ekklesia 2 mp3

In this message, we continue our word study of the important Greek word ekklesia, that is often translated church, but that corresponds with qahel in the Old Testament and refers to outcalled, meaning out-positioned, people. We continue our word study of every occurrence of ekklesia in the New Testament from Acts 19, considering the odd occurrences in that chapter that tell us that this word cannot possibly mean what we think of when we use the word church. Continuing the study through the end of Acts, through Romans, and through I Corinthians.

PA572 What Is a Church 4 – Word Study of Ekklesia 1 mp3

In this message, we consider ekklesia, the New Testament equivalent of qahel in the Old Testament. Ekklesia appears three times in two important passages in Matthew, which we examine carefully, and never again in the gospels. In Acts we read the story of Christ’s ekklesia, as it grows and spreads around the world. We discuss the fact that the ekklesia was not “the church,” and consider what this ekklesia was that Christ was building in the Acts period.

PA571 What Is a Church 3 – Word Study of Qahel 3 mp3

In past messages in this series, we discovered that the Greek word for church, ekklesia, has a Hebrew equivalent, qahel. This word occurs throughout the Old Testament, and we examined every occurrence through the law, the so-called historical books, and the wisdom literature. We saw that it means a marked out company, and most often a company of marked-out leaders. In this message, we continue our word study throughout the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi, considering every occurrence of the word and what the Old Testament can teach us about God’s conception of what we in modern times call a “church.”

PA570 What Is a Church 2 – Word Study of Qahel 2 mp3

In our last message, we discovered that the Greek word for church, ekklesia, has a Hebrew equivalent, qahel. This word occurs throughout the Old Testament, and we examined every occurrence in the five books of Moses. We saw that it means a marked out company, and most often a company of marked-out leaders. In this message, we continue our word study throughout the so-called historical section of the Old Testament from Joshua to II Esther, and then through the wisdom literature from Psalms to Song of Solomon, examining every occurrence of qahel and what we can learn about the word “church” as it is used by God.

PA569 What Is a Church 1 – Word Study of Qahel 1 mp3

In this message, we consider the word “church” and the unbiblical use made of it by much of the Christian world today. Many will laud and applaud the church and credit it with a host of honors, but few will go back to Scripture and determine just what a church is and what the church of Jesus Christ really is according to Scripture. We start just such a study, starting with the Old Testament, where the word equivalent to the New Testament ekklesia is the Hebrew word qahel. We begin a study of this word and all its occurrences.

PA568 Old Testament Security 2 – Kingdom Security mp3

In considering the Biblical topic of security, we have considered the Old Testament and the fact that most of the righteous there were not secure, but we did read of the “sure mercies of David,” and realized that some did indeed have their future privileges ensured. Now, we consider the coming kingdom of God. Will there be eternal security for those who enjoy life at that time? And finally, we finish up considering the New Testament. Was there security then? What about today in the dispensation of grace?

PA567 Old Testament Security 1 – Insecurity and Sure Mercies mp3

Those of us who believe in Jesus Christ today enjoy many benefits of believing. One of them is the security of knowing that our future is guaranteed to us in Christ. But what was the position of the believers in the Old Testament? Did they have salvation secure? And what about in the kingdom of God? Will they have security in that kingdom? Finally, what about today? Are we really certain that our salvation is secure, in light of what we read in much of the Bible about this issue? We consider Old Testament insecurity, and the strange exception of the sure mercies of David.

PA566 Baptism Part 6 mp3

In this message, we complete our examination of the topic of baptism by looking at the words in the baptism family as they appear in the epistles and Revelation. When we are done, we will have examined every passage where the six words bapto, baptizo, baptisma, baptismos, and embapto are found. This provides a basis for an honest study of baptism. For many, baptism has superseded belief as the essential work of God. We should not allow this to be in our lives. We should exalt the reality of baptism, identification with Jesus Christ, not the ritual.

PA565 Baptism Part 5 mp3

In this message, we continue our study of the Biblical uses of the baptism family of words throughout the New Testament. We have seen in our study of its uses in Matthew and Mark that baptism was a Divine addition to the religion God gave Israel: performed by a priest, and heralded only to Israelites. Nothing tells us to figure out the method of baptism, and then find someone to perform it on us. Now, we cover its uses in Luke, John, and Acts, and see what further we can learn about this important concept of baptism.

PA564 Baptism Part 4 mp3

In this message, we insist that if baptism, the water ritual, is as important and meaningful as the declarations of many would indicate, then every professed lover of God’s truth should take a searching look at every Biblical passage that speaks regarding it. Therefore, we begin just such a study, considering the occurrences of every one of the baptism family of words from the books of Matthew and Mark.