Ephesians (Program #67) -Putting on the New Man by Growing Up into Christ

The Church as seen in Ephesians has many aspects. First as the Body of Christ, the Church has His life. But even in a higher aspect is that of the New Man. In order for the Church to be joint with Christ as the head to become he New Man, it must not only have the life of Christ, but it must also have Christ as its’ person. It is this aspect that the apostle Paul was focused on as he prayed so earnestly in Chapter 3 that we would be strengthened so that Christ might make His home in our hearts.

What is it really to have Christ making His home in our hearts? It means that His person with His own likes and dislikes would occupy our hearts, replacing even becoming our own likes and dislikes.

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Ephesians (Program #54) – Warfare to Deal with the Spiritual Enemy (1)

After 5 marvelous chapters leading us progressively to ultimately see the highest aspect of the Church in God’s eternal purpose, the New Man, expressing a full grown man and then seeing the Church as the Bride to satisfy the longing within the heart of Christ.  At last we come to the final chapter and the final aspect of the Church in Ephesians and here the scene changes from a positive one with Christ and His loving Bride to warfare, a universal conflict, but not between right and wrong or good and evil. A universal conflict or clash of wills, God’s and Satan’s. It is in this light that we see the Church not as a loving Bride, even as a New Man, but as a fierce, corporate warrior.

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Ephesians (Program #53) – A Summary of Exhortation in Chapter 5

Ephesians is the most profound book in the Bible portraying the Church as the Body of Christ, as the New Man, as the Bride and eventually a corporate warrior. No other book brings us such depth of understanding, to this very central item in God’s eternal purpose.

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Ephesians (Program #24) – Putting on the New Man

When people think about God’s work of creation they usually think of Genesis. After all Genesis begins with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

By the time we get to the New Testament we think that God’s creating work is over. But Ephesians Chapter 2 reveals that the most crucial item of God’s creation took place in the New Testament.  Chapter 2 :15 “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace”

So, what is this newly created item or more accurately this new creation?   it is the new man and it is the center piece of God’s work through out the ages. If we love God and love His word and desire to be in the center of His plan we need to see a vision of the one new man.

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Ephesians (Program #23) – The Two Created Into One New Man

When the Lord Jesus gave His life on the cross or our redemption, what were the main items that the Bible tells us were dealt with by His death?  Well, the first answer most people would give, of course is our sins. Then some might mention the devil, Satan. If you still would add the corrupted world, and our old fallen nature that the Bible calls our old man. These could be a good list an accurate one according to the New Testament but still incomplete. Or it is probably fair to say that the precious view would include on the list, the last item that the apostle Paul gives us in Ephesians Chapter 2 :15 “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.”  Isn’t this interesting? And isn’t it surprising? Included among the crucial items dealt with by Christ on the cross are ordinances. How could ordinances be included with such obvious matters as sins, Satan and the world. We’ll find out in today’s fellowship.

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Leviticus (Program #34) – The Holy Living of the Holy People — Putting Off the Old Life and Putting On the New

A wonderful passage familiar to many Christians in the New Testament is found in Ephesians 4  “This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind. That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit.  And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.”  This marvelous passage in the new testament inspires us all but have you ever thought the Old Testament passage that parallels this one. Well, in fact there is such a passage and it is found surprisingly in the book of Leviticus.  We want to explore these two parallel passages one from the Old Testament and one from the New today.

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Mark (Program #42) – The Death and Resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishment of God’s Redemption (4)

As Jesus was hanging there on the cross for six agonizing hours bearing the reproach of man and the judgment of God, He did so as a genuine man. Yes, He was unique among all mankind in that He was without sin even of Himself, but His humanity was the same as ours in every other way.

Yet at the same time He was also God and despite the fact that for the final three hours of His suffering, God as the economical Spirit had to forsake Him, while He took upon Himself the sins and transgressions of every man.

Yet intrinsically and essentially He was and still is God.  This is Christ Jesus, the Lord our Savior. The immortal Who put on mortality.  And this mysterious and marvelous God Man died a death that accomplish what no other death could ever accomplished.

His death accomplish far more than just the forgiveness of sins as we will see today. And in addition to dealing with all the negative things, His death also release the divine life to create the New Man, the New Creation and ultimately to bring in the kingdom of God.

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Mark (Program #34) – The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service (8)

Mark chapter 13, is a chapter that’s difficult to understand. In this chapter the Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples by way of prophecies concerning events that must occur before the ushering in of the kingdom age.

Many people studied this chapter focusing on these prophecies while missing the real significance of His speaking.  For in this chapter He is not just predicting the future events in order to entice us to follow the prophecies but rather He was preparing the disciples as well as all those who would follow the disciples to become His believers in future generations. This preparation was with a definite goal and purpose. Not merely to strengthen our faith in His word by accurately predicting future events. No.  Much more than that.; His speaking in this portion of scripture is to prepare all His seeking ones for the producing and bringing forth of the New Man.

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Proverbs (Program #9) – Using Proverbs for Building Up the New Man

When we come to the book of Proverbs in the Bible we need to see that the place that the book of Proverbs placed in God’s economy.  According to God’s economy, Proverbs should not be used to build up the Old Man.  The big Proverbs are like nuggets and the small ones are like gems and they are not for us to build up our Old Man to cultivate ourselves and our natural man.  Rather they are for us to build up our New Man.  It’s for this purpose that the Proverbs are useful.  While we are still living in this body on the earth we need the Proverbs to give us instructions on how to live rightly in so many aspects in order to build up our New Man.

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Proverbs (Program #8) – The Detailed Precepts for Man To Live a Proper Human Life (3)

The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom but the real purpose of Proverbs is to cultivate our new man. Yet many people come to the book of Proverbs seeking wisdom to help them and improve their old man, their natural life, to improve their “self”. But the problem is no matter how much we improve our “self”, we still according to the Lord’s word in Luke 17:33 we need to deny our “self”. We need to take up the cross and follow the Lord. So at best we’re perfecting our “self” that we need to deny. But if we have the light and we see Proverbs in a proper way, we can see the benefit of the book of Proverbs is to help us to cultivate our new man.

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