2 Corinthians (Program #6) – The Ministry of the New Covenant (2)

Metaphors play an important role in Scripture. Webster says a metaphor is the use of one set of words to describe or illustrate a similar point.

John uses the technique when he speaks of Jesus approaching him in the gospel. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Surely he wasn’t saying that Jesus was a literal “lamb”. But the metaphor or picture gives us a much richer and clearer understanding.

The apostle Paul was also very fond of metaphors, particularly when conveying his deepest thoughts in teachings. We see it used intensively in 2 Corinthians. For example in 2 Corinthians chapter 2:14 he says “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ”  Here, the metaphor is the triumphant possession of captured and vanquished folks after a Roman battle. And Paul says that we, the believers had become such vanquished ones in the train of the victorious Christ.

Now, we come to another marvelous metaphor in the very next chapter, chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians begins this way:

1-3 “Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.”

Living letters of Christ. This is our topic today.

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Exodus (Program #171) – Moses Stay With God

After 40 days and 40 nights with God on Mount Sinai, Moses was instructed on how to begin building the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place with man.  But twice in Exodus chapter 24 and again in chapter 35 the Lord cautions even warns Moses and the people not to begin working for Him without first enjoying the Sabbath rest.  Is this just an oddity of the Old Testament dispensation or is this a real and meaningful exhortation for us, God’s New Testament believers?  We will explore the real Sabbath today.

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2 Corinthians (Program #5) – The Ministry of the New Covenant (1)

When we consider what are the main qualifications to be an effective and useful minister of the gospel. We may list things like been an eloquent speaker or having a charismatic personality or been one in power with miraculous gifts that can perform mighty works of power in the name of Jesus.  But the New Testament itself when presenting to us what’s the genuine ministry of the New Testament doesn’t uplift any of these things. Rather what we see in the genuine ministry of the apostles was the growth and maturity in the divine life. Paul the apostle himself was such a minister not relying on either natural ability or super natural gifts. He was the one spent years experiencing, enjoying and been constituted inwardly with the life giving Spirit, the very Christ in resurrection.

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Exodus (Program #170) – Moses Stay With God – Donkey, Lamb, Bringing the First Fruits to God, Not Boiling a Kid in Mother’s Milk

It has been marvelous, the reason is that we have seen Christ Himself in a wonderful way, unveiled for our experience for the carrying out of God’s economy.  When we see such a Christ in relation to our experience and God’s economy, the situation in our reading and study of the Word truly become wonderful.

Today we come to chapter 34.  This is a chapter where once again the Lord gives Moses the tablets containing the commandments.  But there are a couple of other matters that we need to look at.

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2 Corinthians (Program #4) -Introduction (4)

Have you ever noticed a married couple that’s been together for a long long time and they know each other so well that they seems to be an unspoken communication between them. It seems that the one can tell how the other feels just by a glance into their face. This is really a blessed state of marriage to arrive at. But more importantly it demonstrate a very special intimacy and knowledge of one another. It is just this kind of tender and intimate knowing that the apostle Paul was referring to in 2 Corinthians chapter 2:10 “But whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the person of Christ;”

This phrase “in the person of Christ” can also be translated as “in the face of Christ” and it implies the most intimate knowledge of another person.

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Exodus (Program #169) – Acts Program 6, Life-study of Acts 6

As we near the conclusion of our life study of Exodus, we come to a matter that seems to be just an Old Testament issue that is the keeping of feasts.  These feasts are presented in Exodus and several other Old Testament books.  But we would like to go back into our archives today and pick up a highlight program from the life study of Acts.  We are going to see that feasting is surely not just an Old Testament matter.

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2 Corinthians (Program #3) -Introduction (3)

The apostle Paul after his strong rebuke and dealing with the Corinthians in his first letter had good reason to visit the city at his first opportunity. It would had given him the chance to answer first hand any misunderstandings and to sue any lingering stinging from his rebuke.

In the realms of public relations or human wisdom he surely would had taken this way. But Paul’s living was not directed by such things as “PR” in human wisdom. And though he was criticized by some of the Corinthians for delaying his coming after he told them of his desire to come.  We see the real reason for his delay. The reason was the Lord Jesus Himself. And Paul’s first concern which was not to live just a Godly life, but to live Christ, to live in perfect oneness with Him. This is the pattern that Paul had become not just to the Corinthians but to all of us.

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Exodus (Program #168) – Moses Stay With God – Recovery of a Broken Covenant, Warning Concerning Idolatry, The Lord’s Promise

Most of us know the story of the great sin of Israel at Mount Sinai as Moses is coming down the mountain with the tablets containing the ten commandments.  The people get fully caught in idolatry even gross sin.  Moses reflecting God’s own indignation smashes the tablets containing the law, deal sternly with the people.  What follows this well-known account is very fascinating, yet it’s usually overlooked when the story is told.

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2 Corinthians (Program #2) -Introduction (2)

The apostle Paul was a remarkable person. He was used by the sovereign God to unveil much of the New Testament revelation. He also performed wondrous miracles and was a mighty evangelist. Yet in the book that had been understood to almost be his autobiography, he tells us that his only boast was in the singleness or sincerity or purity with which he and his co-workers lived and served the faithful God by living Christ. Listen to his words to the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians chapter 1,

12 “For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.”

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Exodus (Program #167) – A Companion of God – Propitiating for the People, Interceding, Bargaining With God

In Genesis, Abraham is called the friend of God.  And in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus referred to His disciples with the same intimate expression.  But in Exodus, God called Moses not just His friend but His companion.  As a  companion, Moses became God’s associate, His partner in pursue of a single enterprise.  How can we become God’s partner?  We will look at this intriguing question today.

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