The Christian Faith Podcast

Philippians 3:7-11 shows us the stages by which we come to know Christ. In verses 7-8 we see that, if we truly desire to gain Christ, we must first allow the Lord to bring us through many difficult experiences, and suffer the loss of so many things, even of all things, so that we come to the point where we are ready to gain Christ. But after this, in verse 9, we come to something still more diffic...

In the book of Romans, the apostle speaks of the two basic problems a fallen sinner has before God when he says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). The first problem here is that of sin; that is something we are all aware of. But, what does it mean to say we “fall short of the glory of God”? It means that, because we are now corrupted by sin, we cannot enter i...

Although every believer in Christ has the initial, inward knowing of Him (John 17:3), what we see in Philippians 3 are the stages we must pass through as we pursue Christ and seek to know Him in a much deeper, fuller way than we do through the new birth alone. This chapter shows us that, after suffering the loss of all things and counting them as refuse, we begin to gain Christ (vv. 7-8). For this...

For many Christians, Philippians 3 is one of their favorite chapters in the Bible, because it shows us how we can pursue Christ and ultimately come to know Him. What we see in this chapter is that there are stages we must pass through in our seeking after Christ. To begin with, we need to reject the “religious dogs” (v. 2) who want to turn us away from Christ to some other kind of righteousness. N...

What does it mean to truly grow in Christ? To answer this question, we must be clear that when we first believed in Christ, we received God’s own divine life. Thus, we became the genuine children of God (John 1:4, 12-13) who, along with the divine life, now possess the divine nature inherent in that life (2 Pet. 1:4). Thus, our salvation involves much more than the forgiveness of sins, as wonderfu...

If we desire to know Christ, our outer man must be broken so the treasure we have been given in our inner man may come forth. This was the experience of the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 4:6-12, 12:7-10), and even of Christ Himself (John 12:24). That is why the prophet says, concerning Christ, It pleased God to crush Him. — Isaiah 53:10 And eventually, this must become our experience as well. Thus, the Lor...

The church in Laodicea is the last of the seven churches the Lord addresses in Revelation 2-3, and of all the seven churches, it is the one most severely reproved by the Lord. The name means “the Judgment of the People,” and it signifies the church as it has become degraded among so many Christians today, with “everyone doing what is right in his own eyes” (Jdg. 21:25). No doubt it is composed of...

The Lord’s promise to the overcomers in Philadelphia is that He will write upon them the name of His God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and His own new name (Rev. 3:12). This experience, however, is not only for the future; rather, even today, we should be those who open to the Lord and give Him the full ground to write Himself into our being, so that we may become living letters of Christ to the...

Among the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, Philadelphia is the one that fulfills the Lord’s desire. This church signifies the recovery of the genuine New Testament church life, which began in the 1800s with the Plymouth Brethren and John Nelson Darby, and continued in the 20th century with the local churches raised up through the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. To this church alone th...

The Lord appreciated the church in Philadelphia because she had not denied His name (Rev. 3:8). This does not only mean she was faithful to Christ in the face of persecution, but even more, that she refused to take any name for herself other than the name of Christ. This is in strong contrast to what Christians have practiced throughout history, which has been to call themselves by the name of som...

Of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, it is the church in Philadelphia alone that fulfills the Lord’s desire. While almost all of the other churches are reproved by the Lord, to this church alone the Lord says, “You…have kept My word and have not denied My name” (Rev. 3:8). Prophetically, Philadelphia, “the church of brotherly love,” signifies the recovery of the genuine church life, beginning...

In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul considers how our efforts to keep the law bring us under bondage. In doing so, however, he brings to light, by means of an analogy regarding the relationship of a wife with her husband, a great secret concerning our relationship both with ourselves and with Christ (Rom. 7:1-4). If we see this secret, it will give us a deeper realization of our need to be freed from ou...

Among the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, it is the church in Philadelphia that fulfills the Lord’s desire. But, why did the Lord, under His sovereignty, name this city so that the church there would be “the church in Philadelphia,” and not “the church in Agape?” In other words, why is this church called “the church of brotherly love,” rather than, “the church of divine love?” (That’s what the G...

The Lord’s word to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 is a truly remarkable prophecy of the seven stages the professing church would pass through before the Lord’s return. Understanding this prophecy will ground us much more firmly in our following of the Lord. But, we can also view this prophecy in terms of the lessons it provides regarding our own spiritual experience, and that is what we focu...

Understanding the Lord’s word to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 will greatly help us to see where we need to be in terms of our own church fellowship. So, in this edition of the podcast we come to His word to the church in Sardis, which is found in Revelation 3:1-6. Just as during His earthly ministry, the word the Lord speaks to the seven churches is not at all political; rather, He gives a...

As the followers of Christ, it is important for us to not only love what the Lord loves, but also to hate what the Lord hates; otherwise, it indicates that our love for the Lord may not be so genuine, or at least, not so enduring. So, in this episode of the podcast we consider the Lord’s word to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29. To this church the Lord says that He has “the eyes like a...

As we study the prophecy of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, which shows us the seven stages of the history of the church, we will gain a clear view of where we should seek to be in terms of our church fellowship, namely, in the fellowship of the church in Philadelphia. In this episode we consider the fourth of these churches, the church in Thyatira. This signifies the apostate, pagan, Roman...

The more you study the prophecy of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, the more you have to be convinced that only God Himself could have written this book; only He could have so accurately foreseen the history of the professing church, as it is depicted in this prophecy, from the end of the first century all the way until the Lord’s return. Moreover, having a clear view of the prophetic history...

In Revelation 2-3 the Lord first deals with the seven churches, which show us prophetically the history of the entire church age, before going on in the remaining chapters of Revelation to judge the world and Satan. This is in keeping with the principle the Apostle Peter gives us, that “judgment begins with the house of God” (1 Pet. 4:17). On the one hand, before God the churches are golden lampst...

This episode begins with a clip of some recent sharing by Titus Chu, a brother who has helped me a great deal in my walk the Lord. He answers the question, “What is the need of the churches today?,” saying, very directly, that the need is for brothers and sisters to be raised up by the Lord to serve Him with various ministries; only when there are such ones among us can the churches go on in a goo...

This episode begins by highlighting the ministries of three servants of the Lord who helped the saints enter into the experience of Christ as their life, and recommending their books to the saints: T. Austin Sparks, Mary McDonough, and Andrew Murray. I then go on to encourage readers to study the writings of J.N. Darby, who focused more on the objective aspect of the truth, and also the 1917 editi...

Which ministry we choose to receive will to a large extent decide our life. Those who receive the ministry of the pope will be Catholics, those who receive what Mohamed taught will be Muslims, etc. For those of us who are Bible-believing Christians, the ministry we choose to receive will to a large extent determine how well we are able to go on with the Lord. So, in this episode I share how I came...

In the 20th century the Lord used two of His servants, Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, in a unique way to help the saints into the experience of Christ as their life, and as their indwelling hope of glory (Col. 1:27). In the previous episode I shared my experience of how I came to appreciate the ministry of the first of these brothers, Watchman Nee. Now in this episode I begin to share about Witness...

In Colossians 1:27 the Apostle Paul tells us, in a concise way, what is the central point of the entire Bible: “Christ in You, the hope of glory.” But how can we enter into the experience of Christ living within us? The New Testament makes it clear that for this to happen there must be, first of all, brothers raised up as servants of the Lord to help us in this regard (cf. Col. 1:24-29). In the 20...

Have you ever asked yourself, What is the Bible all about? Or, to put it another way, What is the central thing in the entire Bible? How would you answer that question? Fortunately, we don’t have to guess, because there is one verse in the New Testament that tells us, very specifically, what the Bible is all about, namely, Christ and our relationship with Him. In this episode we consider the verse...