Life and Building Teachings: Recent Episodes
Pastor Denis Matovu
God’s creation was centered on life. This is unfolded in Genesis 1. If you read our messages on Genesis 1, you will see that God’s creation was focused on life. After creating man God placed him in front of the tree of life, indicating that He wanted man to take Him in as life. This is unveiled in Genesis 2:8-9. The Old Testament saints enjoyed God as their life. In the time of the New Testament, God came in the Person of the Son to be life to man. As we have already seen, the flow of the river from Eden brought forth gold, pearl, and onyx, which are materials for God’s building (Gen. 2:10-12). God used a rib from Adam to build a bride for him (Gen. 2:22), which was a type of the building of the church and ultimately of the New Jerusalem.
Christians have been told that they will go to heaven to live in a mansion and walk on streets of gold. But the pure revelation in the Bible tells us that our ultimate destiny is much higher, richer, and more profound. It is the New Jerusalem. We must see three crucial aspects of the New Jerusalem as our eternal destiny.
In the book of Exodus, which is a book of pictures, we have a remarkable picture of baptism. The New Testament speaks in various places regarding the significance of baptism. However it is exceedingly helpful to ponder the picture of baptism in the book of Exodus.
God asked David two questions: “Are you the one who will build Me a house?” and “When did I ever ask someone to build Me a house of cedar?” The answers to these two questions give us a clear understanding of what God desires for His dwelling place.
God gives significant attention in His word to an evil city that stands in direct opposition to His purpose with His people. This city’s name in Hebrew is Babel (Gen. 11:9) and its name in Greek is Babylon (Rev.17:5). Although the city possesses a prestigious reputation of strength and splendor, the Scriptures reveal Babylon as a place that captures God’s elect and seizes their pure and single-hearted worship toward Him. For this reason God makes a call to His chosen ones, saying, “Come out of her, My people...for her sins have accumulated up to heaven” (Rev. 18:4-5).
To understand what the self is, we must consider the creation and fall of man. God created man with a spirit, a soul, and a body (Gen. 2:7; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12). He made man’s spirit with the capacity to contact, receive, and contain God (John 4:24; 3:6; Rom. 8:16). God formed man’s soul with the faculties of mind, emotion, and will so he could express Him. God created man’s body so he could contact the physical world. God’s intention was for man to be filled in his spirit with God’s divine life to express Him through the organ of his soul.
We must pay careful attention to an expression such as “the processed Triune God” to correctly understand what it means. This matter is in the depths of the divine revelation, based on the Word of God and not on philosophy, religious theology, nor a self-invented understanding. The Bible clearly reveals that there is one God who is immutable in His essence and attributes; He does not change (Isa. 45:5; 1 Cor. 8:4). He is eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Few Christians today understand the biblical idea of the birthright. Yet to the writers of both the Old and New Testaments, it was a tremendous matter. We believers, by virtue of our second birth, are the sons of God and participate in God’s blessings as our spiritual birthright in both this age and the next. Our birthright as Christians is to inherit all that God is in Christ. The apostle Paul told us that Christ Himself is our allotted inheritance (Col. 1:12; Eph. 1:14), that we are heirs of God (Rom. 8:17), and that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).
The Believer’s Second Garment [Matthew 22:11] says, “But when the king came in and beheld those reclining at the table, he saw there a man not clothed with a marriage garment.” The man without a marriage garment must surely have been a saved one. How could anyone answer God’s calling, yet not be saved? As long as we have answered God’s calling, we have been saved. In verse 14 the Lord Jesus speaks of many being called, and in Ephesians 4:1 Paul points out that we, the saved ones, are the called ones. We have been called to be saved. Although the man in verse 11 was called and saved, he nevertheless lacked the marriage garment
The term the old man is used three times in the New Testament (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; and Col. 3:9). In Romans 6:6 the old man is something personal, whereas in Ephesians and Colossians, according to the context, it is clearly something corporate. When we are saved and baptized, we put off the old man both in a personal way and in a corporate way. In Romans 6:6 the old man refers to our natural but fallen life; it is the life of our soul, which acts independently of God. This is the “I” that Paul said was crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). Since that old “I,” the old man, was crucified with Christ, it is good for nothing but burial, which Paul speaks of in Romans 6:4. Thus, in this sense the old man is something personal.
The revelation of the Holy Spirit in the Bible includes many divine titles, such as, the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20), the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit (John 7:39), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), and the seven Spirits (Rev. 1:4). Each divine title has its own significance, revealing a different aspect of the Holy Spirit in the plan of God and in the experience of the believers. One of the most profound titles in the New Testament concerning the Spirit is “the life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45). This aspect of the Spirit is for imparting life.
The New Testament uses the phrase “new man” three times. In Ephesians 2:15 Paul says that Christ on the cross created “one new man” in Himself. In Ephesians 4:24, Paul tells us to “put on the new man, which was created according to God.” Then in Colossians 3:10 Paul says that we “have put on the new man, which is being renewed.” What is the new man? Was it created by Christ on the cross or is it being created now through our being renewed? In his first mention of the new man, Paul speaks of how Christ created one new man out of the two peoples on the earth, the Jews and the Gentiles, slaying the enmity that was between them because of ordinances (Eph. 2:15). This shows us that the new man is something corporate, just as Adam was not only a single man but the beginning of man as a collective entity (Gen. 1:26).
.” The all-inclusive Christ, signified by the good land, is exceedingly rich! He is the springs and fountains (John 4:10, 14; 7:37-38). He is the wheat, barley, and vines (John 12:24; 6:9; 15:1, 5). The innumerable riches of the good land illustrate the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). This understanding concerning the good land is confirmed by Colossians 1:12, which speaks of “the allotted portion of the saints in the light.” The term allotted portion refers to the allotment of the good land given to the children of Israel as their inheritance, showing that the portion given to the New Testament believers is not a physical land but the all-inclusive Christ for their enjoyment.
[In Mark chapter 10] the Lord asked the same question both of James and John and of Bartimaeus: “What do you want Me to do for you?” (vv. 36, 51). In the Lord’s understanding, the two sons of thunder were the same as the poor beggar. However, there was a significant difference: James and John begged in a wrong way, but Bartimaeus begged in a right way. James and John asked to sit on the Lord’s right and left, but Bartimaeus asked to receive his sight. By dying with Him we pass out of our blindness and into the Lord’s resurrection
Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls unto deep." Only a call from the depths can provoke a response from the depths. Nothing shallow can ever touch the depths, nor can anything external touch the inward parts. Only the deep will respond to the deep. Anything that does not issue from the depths cannot touch the depths. Others can respond deep within to only what issues from deep within us. When we go to a certain place and listen to a message, the only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others. If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just outward. We have to see the importance of the depths. Anything that is not from the depths will never reach the depths of others.
Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls unto deep." Only a call from the depths can provoke a response from the depths. Nothing shallow can ever touch the depths, nor can anything external touch the inward parts. Only the deep will respond to the deep. Anything that does not issue from the depths cannot touch the depths. Others can respond deep within to only what issues from deep within us. When we go to a certain place and listen to a message, the only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others. If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just outward. We have to see the importance of the depths. Anything that is not from the depths will never reach the depths of others.
Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls unto deep." Only a call from the depths can provoke a response from the depths. Nothing shallow can ever touch the depths, nor can anything external touch the inward parts. Only the deep will respond to the deep. Anything that does not issue from the depths cannot touch the depths. Others can respond deep within to only what issues from deep within us. When we go to a certain place and listen to a message, the only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others. If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just outward. We have to see the importance of the depths. Anything that is not from the depths will never reach the depths of others.
Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls unto deep." Only a call from the depths can provoke a response from the depths. Nothing shallow can ever touch the depths, nor can anything external touch the inward parts. Only the deep will respond to the deep. Anything that does not issue from the depths cannot touch the depths. Others can respond deep within to only what issues from deep within us. When we go to a certain place and listen to a message, the only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others. If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just outward. We have to see the importance of the depths. Anything that is not from the depths will never reach the depths of others.
Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls unto deep." Only a call from the depths can provoke a response from the depths. Nothing shallow can ever touch the depths, nor can anything external touch the inward parts. Only the deep will respond to the deep. Anything that does not issue from the depths cannot touch the depths. Others can respond deep within to only what issues from deep within us. When we go to a certain place and listen to a message, the only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others. If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just outward. We have to see the importance of the depths. Anything that is not from the depths will never reach the depths of others.
Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls unto deep." Only a call from the depths can provoke a response from the depths. Nothing shallow can ever touch the depths, nor can anything external touch the inward parts. Only the deep will respond to the deep. Anything that does not issue from the depths cannot touch the depths. Others can respond deep within to only what issues from deep within us. When we go to a certain place and listen to a message, the only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others. If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just outward. We have to see the importance of the depths. Anything that is not from the depths will never reach the depths of others.
Psalm 42:7 says, "Deep calls unto deep." Only a call from the depths can provoke a response from the depths. Nothing shallow can ever touch the depths, nor can anything external touch the inward parts. Only the deep will respond to the deep. Anything that does not issue from the depths cannot touch the depths. Others can respond deep within to only what issues from deep within us. When we go to a certain place and listen to a message, the only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others. If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just outward. We have to see the importance of the depths. Anything that is not from the depths will never reach the depths of others.
[Matthew 22:11] says, “But when the king came in and beheld those reclining at the table, he saw there a man not clothed with a marriage garment.” The man without a marriage garment must surely have been a saved one. How could anyone answer God’s calling, yet not be saved? As long as we have answered God’s calling, we have been saved. In verse 14 the Lord Jesus speaks of many being called, and in Ephesians 4:1 Paul points out that we, the saved ones, are the called ones. We have been called to be saved. Although the man in verse 11 was called and saved, he nevertheless lacked the marriage garment.
The study of Leviticus, summarizes the general sketch of Leviticus in this way: “through the tabernacle, with the offerings and by the priests, God’s redeemed are enabled to fellowship with God, serve God, and be God’s holy people living a holy life, which expresses God... What does it mean to be a “holy people living a holy life”? The apostle Peter revealed two divine facts that the Triune God gave to every believer. First, we “call as Father” the Holy One who called us (1 Pet. 1:15-17), implying that we have been born of God (1 Pet. 1:3, 23) and thereby possess His holy life and His holy nature. Peter confirmed this divine fact by telling us that we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). We are holy because we have both the life and nature of our holy Father.
According to the Bible, man is a being of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Many consider the soul and the spirit as being the same, but they are actually distinct from each another. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prayed that “your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete,” indicating that the soul and the spirit are distinct from each other, just as the body is distinct from the soul.