BIBLE STUDY AUDIO
TEACHIINGS FOR YOUR EDIFICATION AND BRINGING YOU TO THE FULLNESS OF THE STATURE OF CHRIST
Our Bible Study audio messages can be accessed from here. These are teachings recorded in the course of our weekly serialised Bible Study meetings for your spiritual edification and development.
Besides the audio, the conclusion/summary of the message is also displayed. This notwithstanding, the full Bible Study outline can also be accessed from the link indicated at the end of the conclusion/summary.
We pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to you as you listen.
Blessed Are... (6.3)
The pure in heart is one who indeed is blessed by reason of the presence of God in him. God cannot and will not indwell a man (and thus His glory will not manifest), if the man does not have a pure heart: clean thoughts, the mind of Christ, emotions under the control of the Holy Spirit, and a godly nature. This is the man who will see God, and who will be able to replicate here on earth, the will of God which He shows him!
For us to maintain heart purity so that we can always know and do God�s will, and see it revealed in us, we must have a transformed nature by reason of the action of the word of God coupled with the operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Sin must be avoided like a plague, as it cuts off our link with God, and thus stops us from seeing what is happening in heaven, and manifesting the glory of God. Therefore, once sin is detected, we must immediately deal with it through the blood of Jesus. When, however, sin is not immediately dealt with, and is sustained in the life of a man, he becomes hardened and unyielding to the nudging of the Holy Spirit; he becomes plainly religious, attending church without manifestation of the power of God to do good works; and is pre-occupied with the affairs of this world and life. If nothing is done, such an individual ends up condemned to eternal damnation. But thank God for His intervention through circumcision of the heart, which involves the ploughing of the stony heart, and the cutting off of the sinful nature, and thus enable us to love and obey God, and do His will.
If we are to continue to see God and the things He is doing and thus replicate them here on earth, we must maintain a pure heart at all times through constant in-filling of the Holy Spirit, yielding daily to His dealings in our lives through the word of God, and pray always (Matthew 26:41; Luke 18:1).
May the Lord help us to remain supple in our hearts, and love and obey Him at all times, so that He can bless our lives with His presence, show us things that the natural man cannot see, and use us for His glory here on earth, and in eternity all that He has promised those who live for Him (1 Corinthians 2:9-11).
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Blessed Are... (7)
The true son of God is not just the one who has been given the right to be so-called, but also one who has peace with God and who in turn is working for that peace in the lives of others. This is the individual who is called a peacemaker.
Such a person is blessed by reason of God being present in him because of the absence of the conflict caused by sin in a man�s life, as well as the absence of confusion and chaos associated with sinful living: the result of the new birth.
Once an individual arrives at the point where all the conflict, confusion, and chaos arising because of sin have been dealt with, that individual is necessarily required to transmit the knowledge of this peace to others through the preaching of the gospel; through prayers for their peace; and through the pursuit of peace in his interaction with others. This is the individual who demonstrates that he is not just the son of God by the new birth only, but also by the way he is living his life in a very personal relationship with God. An evident son of God will attract others to God! (Mark 5:15-20; John 4:27-30, 39-42).
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Blessed Are... (8)
Persecution of those who are doing right by God, is as old as time. This is because men who do evil do not want their deeds to be known as evil, and so they would go to any length to discredit those who are doing and living right in the sight of God!
This then is the challenge for the believer: Would you join them in doing evil, rather than doing what is right, just because you may be laughed at, lose your job, or even your live to hired assassins? Would you keep silent in the face of injustice, just so that you can save your skin? Would you opt out of persecution so that you can live a �peaceful� life while here on earth? (Matthew 16:24-27)
Indeed there are rewards reserved for those who did not avoid persecution when it came to them (2 Timothy 4:2-8). Let us all live as Christians in this dark and perverse world even though we may be hated and reviled by others, remembering that those before us had gone throw the same thing; and they laid a basis for Christianity in this world. We have the challenge to build on what has been laid for us rather than laying again, another basis for Christianity. May the lord help us to live for him and not for ourselves, seeking to protect ourselves!
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You Are … (1)
What could have been a blissful life on earth, was truncated and damned because of the sin of Adam and the disobedience of man thereafter; but Christ came and redeemed man from the curse of the Law. To ensure that the deliverance of man and the earth from the curse of the law is maintained, the Christian is kept on earth to make it worth living. When the Holy Spirit leaves the earth taking with Him all that should be raptured, lawlessness will become the order of the day.
The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is thus the ‘salt’ that makes the earth worth living in. He gives it taste, preserves and even purifies it. The greatest challenge, however, is keeping the ‘saltiness’ of the believer in Christ, in the face of the lure of the world. We have thus seen that we must have the Holy Spirit constantly in and with us; we must desire, and live out, the word of God in our everyday lives.
The consequence of not retaining our saltiness is something we don’t want to experience; for once a person, having tasted the goodness of God, sins continually, he is lost forever! Let us therefore not just be salt for a season, but for all seasons (Psalm 1:1-3); and let us not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
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You Are … (2)
The Christian is the light of the world, only because the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is in him. He is therefore going to shine forth that light as long as he allows or permits the light of God to be displayed through him. The light that God requires a Christian to display is God’s life, projecting especially, His goodness and love towards fallen mankind; and the permission the Christian grants is his yielding to the Holy Spirit.
We have been called and chosen to be light in this dark and evil world. We must shine forth the life of Christ while here on earth, as we imitate Him in our daily life through our obedience to the word of God, and as we do all that the Holy Spirit tells us to. We must also tell the inhabitants of the earth of the goodness and love of God in wanting to save them from His severe judgment. As men see and experience the life of God through interaction with us on a daily basis, they cannot but praise God, and seek to enter into a relationship with Him.
Unfortunately, for the most part, the experience the people of the world have with Christians is far from what God expects! Many who say they are Christians are void of light that shines in a dark and perverse world. Indeed, gross darkness is encompassing the world both morally and spiritually, because many of those who say they are Christians are imitating the people of the world rather than their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. At the heart of their inability to shine forth the life of God is their refusal to obey the Holy Spirit and the corruption in their heart. Thus, as the life of God comes in contact with their lives, it unfortunately encounters an unhealthy, stubborn, and corrupt heart, which cannot shine forth the life, love, and light of God. This situation, fortunately can be remedied when we turn to God in genuine repentance and permit the Holy Spirit to have His way.
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Not to Destroy, But to Fulfill (1)
The Lord Jesus did not come to destroy the requirements and contents of the word of God; rather, He came to fulfill every last one of it. The word ‘destroy’ as used in the scripture means, ‘to throw down what has been built’; ‘to dissolve’; ‘to demolish’; ‘to abolish’; ‘to abrogate’; ‘to repel’; ‘to annul’; ‘to cancel’. The word ‘fulfill’ means ‘to ‘accomplish’; ‘to perform fully’; ‘to fully satisfy’. Hence, we can reconstruct the Lord’s statement as follows: “Do not think or imagine for one moment that I have come to throw down or dissolve or demolish or abolish or abrogate or repeal or cancel what God has established or erected as His standard for living, as contained in His word (the Law and the Prophets). Rather, I have come to accomplish, perform fully, and fully satisfy all that it demands and requires”.
The Lord Jesus affirms that the Law is good, holy and just. The law of God is indeed very beneficial to us in that it enables us to know the right thing to do, so that we can live acceptably before God and peaceably among men. It keeps us from sinning against God, and does much more in us. Without the law of God, we will have to establish our own laws which will then make each one of us a law unto himself, which will result in a state of anarchy. Besides, the righteousness or standard of man for living is as filthy rags before God, and can never be accepted by Him. We cannot therefore abolish the Law; instead, we establish and enforce it.
The issue therefore should not be whether the Law is good, but how can we measure up to its demands, since we must satisfy it. Remember, the Lord Jesus did not come to avoid or circumvent the Law, but to fully satisfy its requirements, even when it meant the death on the cross! (Philippians 2:8-12). And just like the Lord Jesus, we must not attempt to circumvent the word of God with glowing words of human wisdom: we must establish it! We need to be able to fully satisfy its requirements in a way prescribed by God: this is the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ!
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Not to Destroy, But to Fulfill (2)
The issue before us tonight has been to establish or refute the claims of Jesus as the Christ. Only the Christ would have fulfilled all that was written about Him. Our study today has therefore been to survey the scriptures with a view to finding out if Jesus is indeed the Christ. We have through many scriptures been able to confirm that indeed Jesus is the Christ, for He fulfilled all that was written of Him! (Luke 24:44)
Having confirmed this then, we can now comfortably look at what He did, and be bold to make up our minds to be part of Him in every respect. This has been another of the greatest challenges confronting Christians today. Since many are not so sure that Jesus is indeed the Christ, nor what the Christ came to achieve, they are going about trying to fulfill God’s laws, rather than coming under Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled them all! (Matthew 16:13-19).
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Not to Destroy But to Fulfill (3)
In fulfilling the requirement of the Law, Christ paid the price of death for sin. We owe the debt of death for sin, but the Lord Jesus came to pay the price, and by so doing, freed us from the hold of sin and Satan. Having been freed therefore, we are no longer to continue to live as we did: being dictated to by Satan and sin, rather, we are to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us and to give us direction in life.
Christ, having fully satisfied the demands of the Law, makes it possible for us to live as people who have themselves fulfilled these demands by extension or through Him; having become part of Him, through the remission of our sins by reason of our seeking the forgiveness of God. we must accept that we are sinners and owe the debt of death for sin which has now been paid by Christ, hence we are free from sin, but not free to live as we wish, but as Christ desires (John 1:11-13; 1 Peter 1:13-23; Galatians 5:1). The way and means of living right before God has also been supplied to the believer through the Holy Spirit which has been given to him, to help him live as God wants (Galatians 5:16-24).
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Kingdom Greatness
Greatness from the standpoint of the world is markedly different from kingdom greatness. Whereas the great people of the world exercise authority over their subjects, kingdom greats serve God’s people. Whereas highly esteemed people in the world are high-minded and selfish, those who are highly esteemed in the kingdom of God are lowly in heart and are selfless, giving themselves to others. Whereas people who are counted worthy in the world recline at tables to be served, people who are counted worthy in the kingdom of God are waiters serving at tables.
To be prominent and important in the world is to be proud, self-confident, snotty, powerful, strong, and so on. To be prominent and important in the kingdom of God, however, is to be the direct opposite: humble, have no confidence in yourself (but in God), lowly, meek, and such like.
Kingdom greatness is therefore for those who, as a result of the above kingdom-oriented qualities, submit themselves to the will of God, and His teachings; and who teach others to do the same. Anything else leads to being in the lowest rung in God’s kingdom or even complete exclusion from the kingdom.
Our example should therefore be the Lord Jesus, who did not grab for the position He rightly had, but who subjected Himself to the authority of his Father, even when it meant death. As a result, His Father made Him the greatest there ever can be. Similarly, as John the Baptist was counted worthy and highly esteemed by God, it is God’s plan that every child of His be so; but this can only happen if we will live according to his teachings, and not some abridged or modified form (1 Samuel 2:27-30).
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The Righteousness That Excels That of The Scribes and Pharisees (1)
The righteous standard of the Scribes and Pharisees is the making of men who lack the understanding of why God gave the commandments. This arose from ignorance on the one hand, and unwillingness to submit to the righteousness of God on the other hand. If we are to enter into the kingdom of God, we must live by a standard that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees.
Although the Scribes and the Pharisees of Jesus’ days are dead and gone, we still have them today. These are religious people who, not being able to live by God’s standard, are now creating their own way of attaining to the righteousness of God. They modify God’s word to accommodate their wrong doing; they justify their wrong actions, and replace God’s word with philosophies of men; and have no room for mercy for those who break their laws, but insist on God’s mercy for themselves. They are hypocrites who say one thing and do another; and who have an outward show of religion, but no complementing inner life of holiness (2 Timothy 3:5)
To enter into the kingdom of God, our standard of living must excel that of these Scribes and Pharisees. Christians must of necessity possess a righteousness that is devoid of hypocrisy and an outward show of religion. Church attendance without holiness amounts to hypocrisy; so does giving to be acknowledged by men. The fundamental problem of many so called Christians today is that they live by the letter of the word of God which leads to death; and not by the Spirit, which gives life and the grace to live according to God’s word.
Let us go to the Lord in prayer and seek his face for help to strip us of every “leaven of the Pharisees”.
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The Righteousness That Excels That of The Scribes and Pharisees (2)
The righteousness that excels that of the Scribes and Pharisees is one that is predicated on God! It is first and foremost based on the finished work of Christ on the cross, and then it empowers those saved to live as God wants them to in the power of the Holy Spirit. It must begin from the heart of a transformed man, and work its way outward (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The righteousness of God, in contradiction to that practiced by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, is first inward, and then manifests outwardly in good works; and not merely an outward show, lacking inner spiritual life. It is based on an on-going relationship with God through the finished work of Jesus Christ; not on religious observance and personal merit. It arises from a walk with God, not from working to earn it by personal effort (Ephesians 2:8-9); it is lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in your own strength (1 Samuel 2:9b); it requires that you submit and yield to God’s standard; it is imbibing and living the word of God, not the mere observance of the letter of scripture; it is holiness, not hypocrisy; and, it is God’s way, not our way. It is attained by faith in Christ (the fulfillment of the Law).
Without the righteousness of God, no one can enter into heaven. But God be praised Who has given us His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our righteousness; and the Holy Spirit to help us live righteously.
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God’s Standard for Murder
God’s standard for murder is to look at what gives rise to the act. Hence, we are variously warned against uncontrolled and unjustified anger, despising others, and name calling. Indeed we have seen some biblical examples of the horrible consequences of allowing these seemingly ‘minor’ emotions to take control of us. And since the judgment of the root cause is as severe, nay, more severe, than on the actual physical act; we must deal decisively with these root causes.
To deal with the root causes of murder, and therefore be righteousness before God on the matter, you need to effect the following: (a) love all men (regardless of status, tribe, tongue, ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, gender); (b) promptly resolve both inner conflict and those between you and others before it is too late; (c) practice forgiveness on all matters from the heart; (d) bring your tongue under the control of the Holy Spirit; (e) be transformed in your heart by the word of God (f) be prayerful always; (g) occupy your mind with godly thoughts; (h) exercise self-restraint; and (i) engage in long suffering. Furthermore, (j) be more concerned with doing God’s word rather than performing religious service (which is unacceptable to God, except it is from a heart of obedience); and (k) seek the intervention of the Holy Spirit to rid you of all the ‘small’ things that give rise to murder: bitterness, envy, jealousy, etc.
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God’s Standard for Sexual Immorality
God’s standard for sexual immorality, of which adultery is a major subset, is very high. So high that a lustful look at another individual with amorous thoughts is all it takes to be guilty of sexual immorality. Engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage is also wrong by God’s standard. Another major ground for failing God’s standard on sexual immorality is the issue of divorce and remarriage.
How do we deal with the issue of sexual immorality with a view to keeping God’s standard? The Lord’s answer about gouging out the offending eye may seem gross, but the point is to ensure that we get rid of every iota of the remote causes for sexual immorality. The bible encourages young people to flee every appearance of physical closeness, including loose talks of a sexual nature; and to get married rather than to burn. More fundamentally, however, you are advised to make a covenant with your eyes not to look lustfully upon a woman or man; bring your heart under the control of the Holy Spirit; store up God’s word in your heart, and heed His every command; and, have agape love for all men and women (see them as blood relatives). Though these remedies seem simplistic, in reality however, they require intense prayers unto God who is able to help us in time of need (Hebrews 5:7; Matthew 26:37-44).
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God’s Standard for Divorce and Remarriage
God’s standard for permitting divorce is that either Party in a marriage had been sexually active before the marriage; and that this was previously unknown to the spouse. The moment it is discovered that the man or woman had, prior to being married, been engaged in sexual activity, only then can there be grounds for divorce. If, however, nothing is done after the disclosure or revelation, the issue of divorce becomes mute!
In the case where one Party in the marriage becomes a Christian and the other is not, the Christian is not permitted to divorce the non-Christian spouse. If, however, the non-Christian spouse chooses to leave the marriage, the Christian may try to dissuade his or her spouse against it; failing which he or she should let the spouse go. But can the Christian who is divorced in such a manner remarry? It is clear from scripture that remarriage is considered an act of adultery, except after the death of a spouse. Of course one does not expect that such remarriage will take place shortly after the decease of the spouse in question.
God has made it abundantly clear that He hates, and is opposed to divorce (and remarriage under such circumstances). Reconciliation is the word that every Christian must imbibe into his or her spirit. Scripture helps us to understand that God’s interest is in two people becoming one in marriage, not more than two! (1 Corinthians 6:16) Also, marriage mirrors the union between Christ and the church, hence, if divorce were permitted, then Christ can divorce the church, and then our faith and salvation can actually be truncated. But this is not possible. Even God, the Father, who is espoused to Israel is not divorced from her, even till this day, for it is an everlasting covenant. He may discipline them, but he will not divorce them!
To help us avoid divorce, the Lord tells us that hardness of heart (stubbornness, rebellion, disobedience, etc.) is the chief culprit and must be dealt with by the operation of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts. The bible admonishes wives to submit to and respect their own husbands; and husbands to love their wives, and be ready to give their lives for them, and treat them with knowledge. These injunctions can only be heeded by someone whose heart is not hardened.
Marriage is an honourable and lifelong union, and must not be entered into in a hurry, or just because one burns with lust. Instead of rushing into marriage to quench the lust in you (which marriage does not really quench); go to God in prayer to help you deal with it (lust). Marriage must be thoughtfully and prayerfully entered into by those concerned.
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God’s Standard for Oath Taking
God’s standard for oath taking is simple: “Do not swear ahead of time what you may not be able to fulfill.” [Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance]. Since you don’t know what may happen in the period between when the oath is taken and when it is to be performed, do not make vows! If you have made any vow in the past, however, please do not delay to perform it. Talk to God about it and ask for His help in performing your oath or fulfilling your vow or promise.
Swearing by people or things that you do not have control over is forbidden for the Christian; and this includes anything to do with any life form, nature, and time. And in any case, every vow or oath must be promptly discharged, including appointments, guarantees, debts owed, etc.; even if it means that it will cost you all, including your life! For this reason, Christians must listen carefully, and not be hasty to speak. We must literally, sit down to count the cost (and even sleep over matters) before making promises. Oath taking, even as an elected officer or a political appointee, must be taken seriously, lest you sin against God, when you are found to be unable to perform what you had sworn to. The same holds true in civil oath taking such as Age Declaration, Affidavits, testifying in court, etc.
The Christians code of living as it concerns oath taking, vows, and promises should be: listen carefully, think deeply, and tread cautiously, before you utter any word (spoken or written). If you must speak, let your words be few and relevant. We must note that non-performance of our oaths and vows is one of the factors that can take us away from God’s presence. God does not Himself say things that He is unable to do, or that He does not intend to do. This is why we have confidence in His word. And if we are indeed His children, then our word should be our bond, no matter the intervening circumstances: let us learn the lessons of the hasty vow of Jephthah.
May the Lord help us all, Amen.
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