Romans (Program #39) – Life and Death in Romans Five through Eight

The book of Romans chapter 8:10 says “…if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness”. Two parts of the tripartite man are mentioned here with two conditions – the body is dead, the spirit is life.

Our life study today is one of those that presents the Bible in such a marvelous fashion that it has definitely the effect of strengthening our faith in God’s word. The Bible has such a consistent thought and revelation once we have the keys to open it up. We’ll see in this current message how that our natural way of trying to understand the word of God by the principle of right and wrong doesn’t work. Today we are going to see two keys given that really show us the way to get into the Bible in a living way so that it supplies us with life.

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Exodus (Program #79) – The Blood of the Covenant (2).

The Old Testament book of Exodus speaks of a covenant between God and man and this covenant was ratified by blood. In the New Testament the Lord Jesus speaks of a New covenant in Luke 22 and once again the covenant is connected to the shedding of blood. And finally in Hebrews the writer speaks of an eternal covenant enacted and ratified by the offering of eternal blood. What is the relationship between these covenants and the blood that enacts and ratifies us?

It has been an amazing journey to see so many places and to consider them and respond to them in light of the very things we’ve been ministering in this life study of the scripture. This present message on the blood of the covenant I find particularly apt in recent days a number of us have been fellowshipping again and again about what we may call a dispensational change brought about by the ministry of the Lord Jesus. And by dispensational change we mean the ending, the terminating of the old covenant and the introducing of the new covenant through the redeeming death of Christ.  more…

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Romans (Program #38) – Law in Romans Seven and Eight

Romans chapters 7 and 8 are the most crucial chapters to every Christian in understanding how to live a vital Christian life.

Paul was speaking frankly concerning his experience, what he was doing, what he could do and what he couldn’t do. If ever there was a man that could be good, that was equipped to be good, to fulfill the law and be obedient, this would have been Paul. Yet he met with such experience that he ended up crying “What wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from … this death?” (Romans 7:24) Many many believers identify with that – we feel that we have tried, that we’ve worked, we’ve tried plan A and then we heard plan B. We go from plan to plan, thinking that something is going to finally make this Christian life vital and real to all of us. And, some things help in a little bit and the it seems like somehow the things get shorted out and sometimes disastrously so and yet many times we get up and start again.  more…

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Exodus (Program #78) – The Blood of the Covenant (1)

All genuine believers in Christ who experienced redemption are familiar with and surely have a deep appreciation for the blood of Christ. But listen to Moses’ word in Exodus 24, “And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Here is the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah has made with you in accordance with all these words.”  What is the blood of the covenant?  Stay with us as we explore this divine reality and marvelous truth on today’s life study of the Bible.

We come again today to the broadcast, the recording actually in the holy land today from the hotel room in Jerusalem.

It’s good to be here especially here in Jerusalem. All the things we’re seeing here are just pictures of the divine realities in God’s economy. The listeners are in for real treat because we will see the highest function of the Lord’s precious blood in this broadcast. more…

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Exodus (Program #77) – The Enactment of the Covenant (2)

According to our natural concept the almighty God, the creator, the Holy One has given us the law that we might observe it and keep it. Although this religious concept is common among all believers, is far off from God’s intention, God’s New Testament Economy.

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Romans (Program #37) – Being Freed from Death (2)

We need to call it by its right name – it’s death.  God in His organic salvation has a way of deliverance from it, a way to overcome it – in Christ as our resurrection life.

Today in chapter 8, we’re going to find out about being freed from sin and death.  What is the death that we are being freed from?

Romans 8 is a chapter of experience and the death here is not the physical death to which we are subjected in the old creation.  When we are talking about being free from death, we are not talking about some kind of miraculous cure for our mortality or some premature deliverance from the power of death in a physical way.  Death in Romans 8 is a terrifying and powerful spiritual source and force that has its source in Satan, the origin of death. more…

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Romans (Program #36) – Being Freed from Death (1)

We sinners are not sinners only because we commit some sin. Through the fall of Adam, we all were constituted sinners by being born in sin.

We’re somewhere at the midpoint in our study of Romans. I think it’d be helpful if we reviewed briefly and summarized the central focus of this book that has been dubbed, as we mentioned before, “The Gospel of God”.  This book of Romans is called “The Gospel of God” because it gives us the full gospel including the judicial redemption by Christ’s death and the organic salvation in His resurrection life. The focus of the revelation of this book is that God is making sons out of sinners to form the Body of Christ to express Christ. In this book, we have seen also that God is expressed in the Son, Jesus Christ, and further that the Son is expressed in a Body. We have seen and we will see further that the Body is expressed in the local churches.

That’s “The gospel of God” and Romans, as we’ve indicated, has also been called the fifth gospel.

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Exodus (Program #76) – The Enactment of the Covenant (1)

The book of Exodus is a story of God delivering His people Israel out of bondage and slavery in Egypt. He led them from Egypt through the Red Sea and into the wilderness, where they wondered for forty years. God gave them the law, His commandments and the ordinances in this wilderness time. Was it His intention for them to just simply take the law that He has given and carry it out? Or did God first need to reveal Himself and His heart desire?  He rescue them, delivering them from their bondage in Egypt and brought them to the wilderness to have an intimate fellowship with Him. more…

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Romans (Program #35) – Being Freed from Sin, the Law and the Flesh

Our destiny is not merely to go from hell to heaven.  Our destiny is God’s heart desire which is to make us sinners into sons of God, to be constituted the Body of Christ for His glorious expression in this universe.

Many of us know what it is to struggle against sin and the flesh.  And many also know the struggle of never living up to the standard that we or others set for us.  All three requires the freeing of the spirit recorded in Romans chapter 8.  This is our focus of the life-study of the Bible today.

Once again today we look at the tremendous revelation that God is busy making sinners into sons.  Sometimes you hear the word “adopted” inserted into this portion regarding our being the sons of God.   To be a son of God, you need the life of God. The word “adopted” doesn’t do justice simply because of our understanding of “adopted”. more…

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Exodus (Program #75) – The Angel of Jehovah for His People (3)

Prior to taking possession of the promised good land, God’s people were commanded to fully and absolutely drive out the pagan tribes from that land. Failure to do so will result in the people sharing in the sins of these pagan occupants. History clearly shows that this ultimately is the case. This pagan enemies became the source of the sin of God’s people, Israel.  What is the source of our sins? And how does the Lord command us to deal with this source?   We can learn a lot about ourselves by following the story of God’s people Israel in the pages of Exodus.

We have seen so much in the book of Exodus these Old Testament stories are really all pictures of things that have very real and current New Testament relevant in our experience. That’s why we are here today in Exodus 23. It deals in parts the Lord’s command to the children of Israel to drive these pagan tribes completely out of their land.  more…

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