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8/30/2011

"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." II Corinthians 5:17
    This passage implies the greatest act that History and Eternity have ever known! And I am not talking about the creation of the world and man in it. I am talking about the creation of the Son of Man, the God/Man, Christ Jesus. I am speaking, if I may be so bold, of the "Divine Hybrid", the grand work of the Triune God for the purpose of displaying the Glory of His Mercy and Grace and Wisdom by Christ Jesus in His church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, world without end.! (Ephesians 3:10;21) I say "Hybrid" advisedly, my use of this term not implying man's method of genetic alteration, but rather God's creative "Genetic Union". This Word being made flesh(John 1:14), as one old saint said, "was more than if a star became a clod." For God to create this Glorious Union of the Divine Godhead and his created humanity--who can fathom it? Who would have dreamed that the seed of woman that would crush the head of Satan and deliver God's creation from death, that that seed would be the Union of the Glorious Creator with His Glorious creation in the womb of a young virgin by the Glorious "hovering" of His Eternal Spirit?(Genesis 3:15, Luke 1:38; 3:23-38)
    Unlike the sterile hybrids that man gloats in and offers up to his godhood, this "Divine Hybrid" is marvelously productive--He is the firstborn among many brethren.(Romans 8:29). And it doesn't stop there. He is the firstborn over all creation! (Colossians 1:15) This One Who created all things in heaven and earth, is the first of a New Creation that assures the total recreation and restoration of all things to, and beyond His original design. His means of accomplishing this New Creation is the Spirit's birthing a people to Himself in such an inseparable union, that they become His Body!(Romans 12:1-5; I Corinthians 10:16-17, 12:12-14, 27) And we are complete IN HIM. (Colossians 1:10) How desperately do we need to know more of Who He Is that we may bask in the completeness that we have IN HIM.

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8/19/2011

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Matthew 11:28-29 "Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you AND LEARN OF ME for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest to your souls."
This passage is too often used as an symptom reliever for the stressed or anxiety ridden. "Jesus promises rest and quiet to the soul, so just claim the promise" And that is true, as far as it goes. But it implies far more that just claiming a specific promise. Yes, there is peace and rest in Jesus, but what He promises is far more than anxiety relief for the temporary mess I'm in! Jesus is here laying out the path of Eternal Rest for the people of God. He says in John 17:3, "and this is Life Eternal, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent." Here the operant word is KNOW. Learning Christ, knowing Him, is to be the consuming passion of everyone who names His Name. In Ephesians 4:17-24, Paul describes the radical difference of the new man in Christ. He starts with, "I testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind." He goes on to describe this "Gentile mindedness" in some detail. Then in verse 20 he inserts a profound statement, "but you have not so LEARNED CHRIST." He is saying that the source of the "mind/heart change" is their having LEARNED CHRIST! He goes on to describe this learning--"if indeed you have HEARD HIM, and have been TAUGHT BY HIM, as the truth is IN JESUS, that you put off your former conduct.....and be renewed in the SPIRIT OF YOUR MIND, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God (in His Image), in righteousness and true holiness." The putting on the new man IS ACCOMPLISHED BY LEARNING CHRIST, THE ORIGINAL NEW MAN, THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN. This is not learning stuff about Christ. This is an intimate "knowing", a feasting, meditating on all scripture says about his Unique Person and Work. This is not informational assimilation! This is communing and worshiping Him in Who He Is, and all He has done! And this is the work of the Holy Spirit Who is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our innermost being as we saw earlier in II Corinthians 4:6. Paul speaks in Ephesians 3:14-21 of this process of the Holy Spirit, as "strengthening us in the inner man in order that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" that we might be rooted and grounded in God's love and be filled with the fullness of God.
The child of God enters a whole new curriculum! Jesus Christ is his Subject! Learning Him is transformational. According to Philippians 2:5, we are to "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus", and then the mind is described as that meek and lowly spirit and behavior Jesus spoke of in Matthew 11. Later on (Philippians 3:8-10), Paul counts everything else as rubbish in comparison to this knowing Christ Jesus--it is the very gaining Christ! He wants to know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. And remember, as we learn Christ, as we grow in Him, we see the Father! And the Holy Spirit is the Divine Means to bring us into this transformational relationship. "When He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth;........He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things are Mine, therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.".
So you want to grow closer to the True God? Then seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ! So you want to put off the deeds of the flesh, you want to do what Jesus did? Then grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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8/18/2011

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John 1:14   "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Colossians 2:9 "For in Him (Christ as in vs 8) dwells ALL the fullness of the Godhead BODILY."
    If our "God stuff", our communication about God, for God, and to God, is not "enfleshed" in Jesus Christ, we have come short of the Glory of God! Again in John, chapter 1, verse 18, "No one has seen God at any time. The Only Begotten Son, WHO IS IN THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER, He has declared Him." In Hebrews 1:1-3 states, "God who at various times and in different ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us BY HIS SON, Whom He has appointed Heir of all things through Whom also He made the worlds; Who being THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS GLORY and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the Word of His Power, when He had by Himself purged our sins (by a bodily death and resurrection), sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." It is disturbing and and gives a sense of incompleteness to hear people talk much about God, with no mention of Jesus Christ. I'm talking about "christians" here. In the Gospel of John, chapters 14-17, Jesus makes it very plain that no one can come to God the Father but by Him. No one can enter into a relationship of communion with the Father except by being found "in Christ Jesus"(Philippians 3:8-9) and are brought into the love bond the Son has had with the Father for all eternity (John 17:20-26) only in Him. Jesus is the only way to the Father, He is the only truth about the Father, and He is the only Life of the Father, accessible to fallen man. To think to approach the Presence of the Most High God apart from the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the mediation of the riches purchased for us, and that by Christ's continual intercession for us, is fatal foolishness! (Exodus 33:20-23) Thank God that He remembers that we are but dust and bears with our frailness and ignorance, but that forbearance and Divine patience are because of the Righteousness of Christ on our Judicial Account.
    The Apostle Paul sums this up beautifully in II Corinthians 4:6. "For it is the God Who commanded light to shine out of darkness Who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ." As Hugh Martin has pointed out, we misread this text when we think it means God has shined a light into our hearts. What it means is that the Holy Spirit, the Power of God in creation, has taken up residence IN OUR HEARTS!!!! It is there that He is shining His cagillion candle power beacon on the Face of Jesus Christ, and in Christ, we behold the Glory of God in His Fullness!! Therefore, I do believe we can discern our growing relationship with our God by the increase of Jesus references in our conversation, our prayer, and our praise. After all, according to Jesus in John 6:29, the one work that God would have us do is "believe on Him Whom He has sent." We, with Paul should seek to know nothing among one another except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (I Corinthians 2:2)
Anything less than this Jesus saturation and dependence falls short of Biblical Christianity, and I fear it has it's origin in the Pit! It falls short of the Glory of God!!

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8/14/2011

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From Isaac Ambrose 1604-1664
    But why was it required that our Saviour should be God? I answer, 1. Because none can save souls, nor satisfy for sin alone: "There is none, (says the psalmist) that can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him.--But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave."(Psalm 49:7) 2. Because the satisfaction which is made for sin, must be infinitely meritorious. An infinite wrath cannot be appeased, but by an infinite merit; and hence our Saviour must needs be God, to the end that His obedience and sufferings might be of infinite worth. 3. Because the burden of God's wrath cannot be endured by a finite creature; Christ therefore must be God, that He might abide the burden, and sustain the manhood by His Divine Power. 4. Because the enemies of our salvation were too strong for us: how could any creature overcome Satan, death, hell, and damnation? This required the power of God: there is none but God that could destroy "him that had the power of death, that is the devil."
    As Christ is God, so he is true man. He was born as man, and bred as man, and fed as man, and slept as man, and wept as man, and sorrowed as man, and suffered as man, and died as man; therefore he is man. But more particularly, Christ had a human body. "Wherefore when he came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offerings You would not, but a body You prepared for me." (Hebrews 10:5) Christ had a human reasonable soul. "My soul is heavy unto death." (Mark 14:33-34) And again, "Father, into Your hands I commend my Spirit." (Luke 23:46) Christ had all the properties that belong either to the soul or body of a man: nay more, Christ had all the infirmities of our nature, sin only excepted; as cold, and heat, and hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and pain, and the like.
    But why was it required, that our Savious should be man? I answer, 1. Because our Saviour must suffer and die for our sins, which the Godhead could not do. 2. Because our Saviour must perform obedience to the law (for us), which was not agreeable to the lawgiver; the Godhead certainly is free from all manner of subjection. 3. Because our Saviour must satisfy the Justice of God in the same nature wherein it was offended. 4 Because by this means we might have free access to the throne of grace, and might find help in our necessities, having such an High Priest, as was in all things tempted like unto us, and was acquainted wit our infirmities in His own person. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
    From the union of these two natures, believers derive the inestimable privilege of being themselves personally united to Christ, If you are united to Christ, you have all Christ! (Colossians 2:9-10): You are one with Him in His nature, in His name: you have the same image, grace and Spirit in you as He has; the same precious promises, the same access to God by prayer as He: you have the same Love of the Father, all that He did or suffered, you have a share in it: you have His live and death; all is yours. So on your pare, He has you wholly, your nature, your sins (while not being a sinner), the punishment of your sin, your wrath, your curse, your shame: yes, all that you are is for Him (I Corinthians 6:20). "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." (Song of Solomon 2:16)

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8/4/2011

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"Consider the gracious nature of Jesus Christ. Our thoughts of God are necessarily more strange than of Christ, because of our infinite distance from the Godhead; but in Christ, God is come down into our nature and so, Infinite Goodness is incarnate. Are you afraid, O my soul, at His Name Jah, and Jehovah! Remember, His Name is Emmanuel (God with us): the lion is here disrobed of his Garment of terror.(Isaiah 65:25) See your God disrobed of His terrible Majesty. See, your God is a Man, and your Judge is a Brother. O that name Jesus! It sounds healing for every wound, settlement for every distraction, comfort for every sorrow....What is the sum of the Gospel but this? 'Take Christ, and life in Christ, that you may be saved.' God is the first suitor, He first prays the soul to take Christ. Do you hear Him at the door?" Isaac Ambrose 1604-1664

    Isaac Ambrose has beautifully illustrated the truth of Hebrews 12:18-24, Mount Sinai Vs Mount Zion. We have talked a bit about the Fearsome God at Mount Sinai.(Exodus 12:18-21) He came down on the Mount in fearsome fire and smoke, and the mountain shook with an earthquake. Even the physical earth cannot remain passive in the Presence of the Lord of heaven and earth. Recall the restrictions placed upon Israel prior to the giving of God's Law: Clean clothes, no sexual relations between husband and wife, and no touching the mountain on threat of death. There was no room for curiosity at the mount, God reiterated his restrictions twice to Moses. Then the loud blast of a trumpet that increased in volume and duration, and the Lord spoke audibly/Voice of words in Hebrews12:19. The peoples' response? "All the people in the camp trembled." This is our Judge, robed in His Perfect Righteousness and Majesty. God tells Moses before the second giving of the Lay, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." This is Mount Sinai, this is the declaration of the Holy, Perfect God with Whom we must give account. He is the source of Dread and Fear for fallen man, and unapproachable, even with clean clothes on! "And all the people trembled."
    That brings us to Mount Zion, the city of the Living God (Hebrews 12:18) It first of all must be noted that man doesn't go tramping into this City on his own merit or strength either. Such presumption is just as fatal as touching Mount Sinai. The entire book of Hebrews is taken up in unveiling to us Jesus Christ, our God/Man High Priest and the Only Mediator between God and man. It goes into great detail to prove to us that Jesus is the One Atoning Sacrifice that sinful man must have. Jesus is the One High Priest Who can bring His One Atoning Sacrifice as the perfect satisfaction of the Triune Godheads' Righteousness and Wrath. Jesus is the only access that fallen man has to God, the only means into the Father's Presence. Jesus is our Eternal confidence and boldness to come into God's Presence because, "But He, because He continues forever (doesn't die), has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives (eternally) to make intercession for them.
    That is why, and the only why, that those whose faith is in this Righteous Redeemer, "have come" to Mount Zion instead of Mount Sinai! Notice, not will come, but have come. There is a real sense, by faith, in which the children of the Most High God, whose faith is in His Beloved Son for their hope and salvation, why these blessed ones receive NOW the benefits of this Mount Zion. We will delve into these blessings as enumerated in Hebrews 12:22-24 next time.

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