Ephesians (Program #21) – Once Far Off, but Now Near

Let me ask you a question, before we were saved, what was our status before God?   Well, yes, we were sinners condemned to judgment. But actually according to Paul in Ephesians we had 2 major problems: first our nature.  We were dead in offenses and in sins, that’s verse 1 and 2 of Chapter 2.  But our problem also involved our status before God. As he points out in verses 12-13 “That you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near in the blood of Christ.”  So, we see that our problem before God extend far beyond sins and even beyond our being dead before Him. We have a status problem.

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Galatians (Program #42) – Walk by the Spirit in the Enjoyment of Christ in our Spirit

To many people, the main item of the book of Romans is justification by faith and the main item in Galatians is to be free from the bondage of the law. Although both of these truths are present in these two books, the real goal and focus of both books is something else. For both Romans and Galatians reveal that God’s purpose or economy in justifying us and freeing us is for one thing – to make forgiven sinners into genuine sons of God in life.

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Leviticus (Program #16) -The Sin Offering Christ for the Sins of God’s People (2)

Leviticus 4:2 speaks of the sin of ignorance, whereas some version translated unintentional sin.  God’s remedy in the Old Testament was the sin offering. Today, we  commit sins unintentionally or inadvertently.  In fact often times the very thing that we determine not to do we end up doing and doing them repeatedly.  Why does this occur even to the most spiritually advanced?  Of course we know that in Christ we are forgiven but still the utter frustration and discouragement that we feel. How many times have we prayed “Lord how long will I continue to do this?”.  But we hope that our fellowship today will be a much practical help to all of God’s seekers as we look at the sin offering in Leviticus and also its New Testament application.

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1 Corinthians (Program #52) – Dealing with the Matter of Resurrection (1)

Have you ever noticed in the presentation of the gospel it’s often the graphic picture of Jesus dying on the cross and bearing our sins that preachers draw upon to engage their audience?   Frequently the gospel is presented with great passion regarding the death of Christ, the sinless One dying for the sinners.

Well, we praise the Lord for His crucifixion, without it we sinners would have no way to come to God. But as effectively as His dead is in dealing with the record of sin, it alone can’t save us from the power of sin. For that we must turn our gaze from the Christ on the cross to the Christ raised from the dead. It is death and resurrection together that bring us a full salvation. And the death and resurrection of Christ is our topic today.

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Romans (Program #70) – Being in the Spirit to Experience the Work of the Spirit

We may have the assurance that we are children of God by the witnessing of the Spirit with our spirit. This is not a method, this is an action of the Spirit.

Today brings us to our 70th and final life study of the book of Romans. It has been quite an examination of one of the classic books of the Christian faith.

What has been the central message of this life study of Romans?  One way to summarize it is with five words: sinners, sons, members, Body and churches. The central thought or message of Romans is that God is making sinners into sons to be the members of the Body of Christ expressed in local churches…

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Romans (Program #55) – Designation by the Spirit of Holiness

Romans 10:12 says, “The same Lord is Lord of all, and rich to all who call upon Him.” Whenever we call upon the dear, sweet name of our Lord Jesus, He is the life-giving Spirit, applies all of His unsearchable riches to us, thus transforming us from sinners in the flesh to sons of God in the spirit for the Body of Christ.

In God’s plan of salvation, we begin as sinners. And upon our believing into Him, we experience His forgiveness. But God’s goal is not just to have forgiven sinners; His goal is to have sons. For sinners to become sons, we need the riches of God’s salvation applied to us, and that’s the focus of our Life-Study of the Bible today.

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Romans (Program #53) – Designation

The goal of the book of Romans is sonship.  Today we see how Christ became the first-born Son of God and how we as the many sons become one with Him to express the Triune God.

Romans is often considered a book focusing on justification or justification by faith.  This is certainly true, but Romans also conveys a deeper truth and that is at its core it unveils God’s work of sonship; making sons out of sinners.  We will look at sonship today on our life study.

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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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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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Romans (Program #33) – The Consummation of the Gospel

In God’s salvation, He does not just wash us from our sins, forgive us and make us clean, but He imparts His very life into us.  He does this in order to make us His sons.  So sonship or being sons of God is a matter of receiving the life of God.

God’s plan or eternal purpose cannot be realized without genuine sons of God that are match to Him in righteousness, holiness and glory.  But all He has to work with is just sinner like you and me.  How can He accomplish such a lofty goal?

We have a favor theme of Romans as our focus today and that is God is making sons out of sinners.  This seems out of comprehension to most of us.  But what does it mean really to make such a statement?

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