Leviticus (Program #30) – The Cleansing of the Leper (1) & (2)

The clear and proper understanding of Old Testament books such as Leviticus shows us pictures that portray graphically and vividly man’s true condition contaminated by sin and death.  Unclean from natural birth and leprous within and without.  This is surely man’s condition apart from God’s intervention but motivated by His great love and desire for man to be His eventual eternal counterpart. God does not leave us in such a condition.

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2 Corinthians (Program #39) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (12)

The book of 2 Corinthians is the book of the New Testament that’s not that well known, not frequently quoted and not really that well understood. One passage however that is familiar to most believers is found in chapter 6 in verse 14, where Paul tells the Corinthians,  “Do not become dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?”

It’s good to consider this verse in any context but better is to consider it in the context to which it was delivered to us in the divine revelation.

Here 2 Corinthians chapter 6 is in the context of the New Testament Ministry, the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry where Paul under his commission by the Lord charges the believers in Corinth to be fully reconciled to God.

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Leviticus (Program #29) – Uncleanness Issuing From Within Man (2) & (3)

Leviticus like several books in the Bible mentions the ancient disease of leprosy.  Why was leprosy given such attention in God’s revelation to mankind.  Well, leprosy is associated with one of the basic factors of man’s sinful condition and that is rebellion.  Who among us is free from rebellion? Maybe not in dramatic outward demonstrations but within even in its own most subtle manifestations rebellion lurks perpetually beneath the surface of almost every person.

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2 Corinthians (Program #38) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (11)

2 Corinthians is a marvelous book giving us both a detailed biography of the apostle Paul and a clear understanding of the goal of the New Testament ministry.  The goal as we have seen is for the believers and unbelievers alike to be fully reconciled to God.  That means that both in fact and in our experience, there is no barrier, no hindrance, nothing separating us from enjoying God and living Christ.  This is the ministry that Paul and the other apostles were commissioned with.  Further, it should be the goal of our own Christian life.  We have been saved many years ago, having settled that question of our eternal destiny once for all.  But do we live a life that’s fully reconciled to God?  This was Paul’s question to the believers in Corinth as well.   Listen 5:20 of  2 Corinthians say:

“On behalf of Christ then we are ambassadors, as God entreats you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God.“

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Leviticus (Program #28) – Uncleanness in Human Birth

What does it mean to be clean in the eyes of God?   Does it mean that our behaviour is proper and according to His principles?  Or does it mean that we get down on our knees and determine before Him to be a better person or even a better Christian?   Well the Bible says that regardless of our behaviour or our determination there is no way to be clean if the source of what we are offering Him is the natural life we were born with regardless of how good we may think it is.   So what is God’s view of us and all mankind in our natural life?  We will see today that the very source of all human life is depicted in this riveting account in chapters 11 and 12 of Leviticus.

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2 Corinthians (Program #37) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (9 & 10)

Any study or serious consideration of 2 Corinthians brings you to Paul’s explanation of both the New Testament ministry and the New Testament ministers.  The ministry in chapter 5 is called the ministry of reconciliation and the work of the minsters was to fully reconcile both unbelievers and believers fully into God.  In chapter 6 the focus now turns to the ministers themselves.  And what these ones were and what really we all should be in our being.  In another word, we get a very detailed view of the kind of living that qualifies one to be a genuine minister of the New Covenant and an ambassador of Christ.

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Leviticus (Program #27) – Abstaining from Death

Leviticus chapter 11 is concerned with the matter of diet, the matter of eating.  But this chapter also is very much concerned with death.  The word “carcass” is used at least 13 times in this chapter.  The fact that this chapter speaks of eating in relation to the death that results from contacting something unclean means that Leviticus chapter 11 is very much like the whole Bible is a book of life and death.

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2 Corinthians (Program #36) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (8)

2 Corinthians is a book dealing with the New Testament ministry and the New Testament minsters.  As this ministry is comprised of the essentials of God’s economy carry out His eternal purpose, we might well think that the apostle would place particular emphasis on the ministry in such a book.  But actually he devoted only one chapter to the ministry of the New Covenant.  While he devoted four chapters to the qualifications and characteristics of the New Covenant ministers.   Why such emphasis on the ministers rather than on their work?  Because God cares much more for what we are than what we do.  We may do many things for Him or in His name, but the question is “does our living, does our experience of Christ really match our words or even our works?”

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Leviticus (Program #26) – Discernment in Diet

We’ve all heard the term “Kosher” and probably realize that kosher has to do with the approved or acceptable diet of Orthodox Jews. But you may not know that the origin of kosher dietary regulations is in Leviticus chapter 11. Though we are not here to discuss the nutritional benefits of such a diet we do want to see the spiritual significance that these dietary regulations have for all of us in the New Testament regardless of what we chose to eat.

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2 Corinthians (Program #35) – A New Creation in Christ Becoming God’s Righteousness (2)

The New Testament Ministry described in the epistles of Paul is characterized as the ministry of reconciliation and the ministry of the Spirit. While the Old Testament Ministry is called the ministry of death and the ministry of the letter.

The apostle according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and ultimately the believers as well become ambassadors of this New Covenant ministry of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians  5:20, “On behalf of Christ then we are ambassadors, as God entreats you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God.”

What is it to be fully reconcile to God according to this verse?  We will explore the New Testament ministry of reconciliation today.

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