Showing posts with label the new man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the new man. Show all posts
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Saturday, June 10, 2017
"World Aflame"
It was and is a Prophetic book analysing the world of 1965 and looking at Biblical Prophecy.
If you were to read it now the message is equally as important for today's world.
It is a challenge for Christians and non Christians alike.
Here are the chapter titles.
1.Flames out of Control
2.The Old Immorality
3.Our Psychological Jitters
4.The National Idolatory
5.The Searchers in a Flaming World
6.Who am I?
7.Man's Fatal Disease
8.The Inadequacy of Modern Religion
9. The Incredible Journey
10. How does God speak?
11.The Inescapable Christ
12. God's Foolishness
13. The Day Death Died.
14.The Possibility of the New Man(Woman)
15.How to become a New Man(Woman)
16.The Dynamics of the New Man(Woman)
17.Social Involvement of the New Man(Woman)
18.The Fabulous Future
19. The Distant Trumpet
20. Signs of the End
21. The Coming Judgement
22.The World on Fire
23. The World of Tomorrow
Human Beings have been always on a journey towards an individual destiny.
With or Without Jesus Christ.
The world is also on a collision course with it's end and its new creation.
If you have not examined these big questions don't delay.
I can assure you we are only here for a short while.
Then what?
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
The Centrality of the Cross
Below is an extract from a book or series of sermons with the above title by Jessie Penn-Lewis.
Every serious Christian should consider her work and teachings.
These are a few paragraphs taken from her writings.
You can find all this book at the following link.
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/jessiepenn-lewis/8791/8791tc.htm
Put simply the cross of Christ is the key to Christian Living,Experience and Victory.
Some teachers like John Stott,Neil Anderson, Charles Solomon,Frank Hunting and others will show you how we can exchange our lives for the life of Jesus.
The Great Exchange.
Romans 6 is the key.
from Jessie Penn-Lewis
"Now let us pass on to see the Cross as the centre, or 'fixed point', for VICTORY OVER SIN, OVER THE WORLD, OVER THE FLESH, AND OVER THE DEVIL. For a clear unveiling of the Cross as the 'fixed point' for the Christian's victory over sin, we turn to Romans 6. It is the basic chapter in the whole of the New Testament, where the deep meaning of the death at Calvary is set forth, in language which is extraordinary in its simplicity and clearness, and marvellous in its comprehensive explanation of the gospel. No wonder that the "god of this world" has influenced so many to relegate Romans 6 to the theologians, so as to keep believers from understanding its simple truth, because the deceiver knows it to be the CRUCIAL MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL from the experimental standpoint.
God-ward, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was the atonement, and the propitiation for sin, but in Romans 6 we are shown the Cross in its manward aspect-in its dealing with the sinner. Here is the practical, deep and vital message to the sinner, showing him the way of deliverance from the power of sin, from the world, the flesh and the devil. Here in the Romans 6 message of Calvary, Paul laid the foundation deep and, strong. Here lies the bed-rock depth of the Cross, as the 'fixed point' for the personal life of the believer, personal equipment, and personal victory in every aspect of need.
Let us read the passage slowly and carefully: Verses 1-2, "What shall we say then? Shall we persist in sin that the gift of grace may be more abundant? God forbid! WE WHO HAVE DIED TO SIN." Here is the Cross in its aspect of the death of the sinner with the Saviour. It is clear from this that Christ's Cross was the sinner's cross, not, of course, in the matter of atonement God-ward, but in the taking of the old creation life to the Cross, that the believer should be delivered from the power of sin; and that, not by conquering it, but by dying to it. Here is the key to victory. The deepest things are the simplest.
The real trouble about understanding the sixth of Romans is not a theological, but a moral one. When we sincerely want deliverance from the power of sin, it is within our reach. It lies just here for the simple soul who will take the statements as a fact. For the sake of a lost world, let us have no 'moral' hindrances to our knowing the reality of the Cross. If men and women would be utterly willing for the deepest work of the Cross to be wrought in or applied to them, there would be a trembling of the powers of hell, a shaking of the kingdom of darkness. The pivotal secret of God's plan for the redemption of a lost world lies in the meaning of Romans 6. The central fact of the Cross being the sinner's cross, as well as the Saviour's.
Moreover, this Romans 6 meaning of the Cross must be recognized as the root foundation of the Christian life, just as the 'root' is necessary to the life of the tree. A tree cannot part with its root, but must strike it deeper into the ground, so that all external growth may have strong support in the earth, and strong life-force for its maintenance.
" We who have died to sin," how can we any longer live under the mastery of sin? Or "have you forgotten that all of us ... were baptized into fellowship with His death?" writes the Apostle. 'All of us'-not the few who wish to be advanced souls, but young converts also! If every convert to Christ was 'born again' through the gospel message of this chapter, and they knew its power in experience at the very beginning of their Christian lives, there would be less backsliding, and need of careful nursing lest they fell away, for a new life would be imparted to them in stronger power, and Christ as the Living One would be known as a real Saviour."
Every serious Christian should consider her work and teachings.
These are a few paragraphs taken from her writings.
You can find all this book at the following link.
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/jessiepenn-lewis/8791/8791tc.htm
Put simply the cross of Christ is the key to Christian Living,Experience and Victory.
Some teachers like John Stott,Neil Anderson, Charles Solomon,Frank Hunting and others will show you how we can exchange our lives for the life of Jesus.
The Great Exchange.
Romans 6 is the key.
from Jessie Penn-Lewis
"Now let us pass on to see the Cross as the centre, or 'fixed point', for VICTORY OVER SIN, OVER THE WORLD, OVER THE FLESH, AND OVER THE DEVIL. For a clear unveiling of the Cross as the 'fixed point' for the Christian's victory over sin, we turn to Romans 6. It is the basic chapter in the whole of the New Testament, where the deep meaning of the death at Calvary is set forth, in language which is extraordinary in its simplicity and clearness, and marvellous in its comprehensive explanation of the gospel. No wonder that the "god of this world" has influenced so many to relegate Romans 6 to the theologians, so as to keep believers from understanding its simple truth, because the deceiver knows it to be the CRUCIAL MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL from the experimental standpoint.
God-ward, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was the atonement, and the propitiation for sin, but in Romans 6 we are shown the Cross in its manward aspect-in its dealing with the sinner. Here is the practical, deep and vital message to the sinner, showing him the way of deliverance from the power of sin, from the world, the flesh and the devil. Here in the Romans 6 message of Calvary, Paul laid the foundation deep and, strong. Here lies the bed-rock depth of the Cross, as the 'fixed point' for the personal life of the believer, personal equipment, and personal victory in every aspect of need.
Let us read the passage slowly and carefully: Verses 1-2, "What shall we say then? Shall we persist in sin that the gift of grace may be more abundant? God forbid! WE WHO HAVE DIED TO SIN." Here is the Cross in its aspect of the death of the sinner with the Saviour. It is clear from this that Christ's Cross was the sinner's cross, not, of course, in the matter of atonement God-ward, but in the taking of the old creation life to the Cross, that the believer should be delivered from the power of sin; and that, not by conquering it, but by dying to it. Here is the key to victory. The deepest things are the simplest.
The real trouble about understanding the sixth of Romans is not a theological, but a moral one. When we sincerely want deliverance from the power of sin, it is within our reach. It lies just here for the simple soul who will take the statements as a fact. For the sake of a lost world, let us have no 'moral' hindrances to our knowing the reality of the Cross. If men and women would be utterly willing for the deepest work of the Cross to be wrought in or applied to them, there would be a trembling of the powers of hell, a shaking of the kingdom of darkness. The pivotal secret of God's plan for the redemption of a lost world lies in the meaning of Romans 6. The central fact of the Cross being the sinner's cross, as well as the Saviour's.
Moreover, this Romans 6 meaning of the Cross must be recognized as the root foundation of the Christian life, just as the 'root' is necessary to the life of the tree. A tree cannot part with its root, but must strike it deeper into the ground, so that all external growth may have strong support in the earth, and strong life-force for its maintenance.
" We who have died to sin," how can we any longer live under the mastery of sin? Or "have you forgotten that all of us ... were baptized into fellowship with His death?" writes the Apostle. 'All of us'-not the few who wish to be advanced souls, but young converts also! If every convert to Christ was 'born again' through the gospel message of this chapter, and they knew its power in experience at the very beginning of their Christian lives, there would be less backsliding, and need of careful nursing lest they fell away, for a new life would be imparted to them in stronger power, and Christ as the Living One would be known as a real Saviour."
Saturday, August 4, 2012
The new man Tape 3 Frank Hunting
Below is a a slide show of some of my pictures accompanied by a sermon on the New Man by Frank Hunting.
The pictures should point you to the creator.
How can we deny there is a God when we look at the beauty of the Natural World.
When we have recognised there is a God and we can know Him through Jesus Christ and have responded to that, we need to then start the Christian journey towards maturity in Christ.
We are not instant new creations when we become Christians although in a sense that is true.
Our position has changed and our disposition can become the disposition of Jesus.
Sadly, many of us never know the fullness of our Salvation.
The sermon is one of the many that I listened to in a five year period when Frank Hunting was our Pastor.
His colleague Harold Long preached the Gospel that God used to bring me to Him.
Frank was the one God used to keep me there when I could easily have faded away.
So the pictures are meant to compliment the message not distract you.
The pictures should point you to the creator.
How can we deny there is a God when we look at the beauty of the Natural World.
When we have recognised there is a God and we can know Him through Jesus Christ and have responded to that, we need to then start the Christian journey towards maturity in Christ.
We are not instant new creations when we become Christians although in a sense that is true.
Our position has changed and our disposition can become the disposition of Jesus.
Sadly, many of us never know the fullness of our Salvation.
The sermon is one of the many that I listened to in a five year period when Frank Hunting was our Pastor.
His colleague Harold Long preached the Gospel that God used to bring me to Him.
Frank was the one God used to keep me there when I could easily have faded away.
So the pictures are meant to compliment the message not distract you.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
The New Man Tape 2
I started this post a few weeks back and have now competed transcribing Frank Hunting's tape from the 1970's.
See the link below to about Frank Hunting.
http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/about-fank-hunting.html
If it hadn't been for Frank's counsel and teaching I doubt that I would still be a committed Christian today.
God brought him into our lives at just the right time.
My prayer is that some of what's on this blog may be for you at just the right time.
The New Man Tape 2 F C Hunting
"Therefore if any man is in Christ,he is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold the new has come."
If you were to read that in the JB Phillips translation,this would be the translation.
"For if any man be in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether.
The past is finished and gone,everything has become fresh and new. '
For thousands of Christians that is simply not true!
Very little, for them, has become new!
During the week I read that it is estimated that nearly 90% of all Christians never experience the abundant or victorious life.
And that includes (I've finished the quote, this is me)
Ministers!
leaders in our Churches!
teachers!
Elders!
Deacons!
whoever!
We shall never begin to understand why this unhappy state of affairs exists until we begin to ask the right questions and come up with the right answers..
Why are Christians not becoming new people?
New persons altogether as the scriptures say they will?
If they are in Christ!
Now there are various reasons for this.
There are scores of thousands of Christians who do not even know that they can become new people in Christ.
They simply have never heard of it!
Certainly vast numbers of Christians,if they have happened to have been told that they may
able to become a new person altogether,
have not been told how to become a new person in Christ.
By and large, we have prided ourselves as being Bible teaching Churches.
Yet there are people who have been 30,40, 50 years regularly coming to Church to worship,
every sunday morning,
and they have never been shown, how to become a new person in Jesus Christ.
Some of them have been told that they ought to be new people,in Christ,
indeed some of them,
some of us,
really need to become new people in Christ, but haven't been told.
Nobody has spelled it out.
Just how does a person become a new person in the Lord Jesus Christ?
So the first thing to notice is the most obvious, but it's strange how blind we can be to the obvious!
And it's this.
That if you and I are going to become new persons in Jesus Christ,
then the most obvious thing is,
that if that is going to happen,
we must bring to Jesus what we are!
We must bring to Him,
each one of us ,
the things to Him that need changing!
If we have been, or are badly relating to someone,
If we have or are , being hard in our attitudes to someone,
If we have or are being critical,-it may never be spoken,
but if that;s the attitude that we've got in
our minds, that is the way that we think about people or someone!
If we have fears!
If we have envy, or jealousy or guilt, these are the things that are wrong in us!
And these are the things that we ought to be taking to Jesus!
But right at this point we do something,so often, that effectively, prevents us from taking what we
are to Him,
He who is able to make people new.
And this is how we do it.
When we become conscious that we have some of those things I've just listed,
when we realise that that is a part of me, what am I prone to do?
I'm prone to justify that feeling!
I'm prone to justify that hard attitude!
prone to find some reason so I can excuse me from being that kind of a person!
Oh, I can always find a very good reason, why I am entitled to have that attitude!
To have that feeling!
to think that way!
about that person!
or about those people!
or about that situation!
So if I pretend it doesn't matter,
or I blame somebody else,
or something,
there's no chance of Jesus ever making me new!
And so we stay exactly as we've always been!
If we are a worrier, we stay a worrier!
If we are harsh in our criticisms, we stay harsh in our criticisms!
If we are an extrovert and we are dominating in our attitudes to people, we stay that way!
If we are full of fears, we stay crippled by our fears!
The reason being
we don't get them to Jesus!
If we are weak and wobbly as people, we stay weak and wobbly as Christians.
Nothing changes.
Why?
Because we are not getting the thing that needs to be changed to our Saviour.
So that leads me to say the next thing.
Often we are strangely blind to the very thing that most needs to be changed in our makeup.
We are strangely blind to that need.
And we are strangely blind to our need to get that to Jesus.
For instance if we happen to be a worrier we say "I am a worrier by nature!"
"I can't help it,
it's my nature to worry!"
"I always do it!
I'm stuck with it!"
Now doing this, we never see two things about our worrying.
Both of them totally wrong.
NO 1. Worry is one of the worst sins because it doubts God!
Oh, we wont face that one will we?
It says God is dead!
It says God is powerless!
It says God is useless!
The second thing that's wrong about worry is that it says that Jesus has no answer
to my worrying,
and that isn't true!
We may for instance be given to criticising.
Now we do it so often, it has in fact, over the years,become a deeply entrenched habit!
Indeed we are often doing it and we are not aware of it.
Again there are two things wrong with this.
It too is one of the worst sins.
Now you listen, I am talking to you good people and you and I are Christians!
That true?
And I'll tell you why this is one of the worst sins.
It's a terrible sin against Love.
And God is Love.
And we are sinning against Him.
When we have this in our lives.
In the 2nd place because we justify our criticising in various ways,
we never take it to Jesus so we stay stuck with it!
and we really become and are, unlovely people.
albeit we are Christians.
The same is true of fear, fear makes pygmies of us.
It makes us mice instead of men.
But fears can be very powerful, they may also become very frightening.
And it;s very easy
because of those two things
to think or feel that you can do nothing about them!
But Jesus has the answer to all our fears!
To every single one of them He has the answer!
If we learn, how to take them to Him.
Now at this point we run into another obstacle of getting g free from these things that prevent us
from becoming new people,new persons altogether! in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I know, I know, you know that this to become a new person, is for most Christians ,deep down, the one thing they most want.
Well, what's this other thing that prevents us from becoming a new person altogether.
We often pretend not to be afflicted by the thing that is really bugging us.
We often pretend that it isn't the thing that is the matter with us.
Now this is one of the biggest barriers that I had to break through.
I worried.
I had big fears.
Crippling fears.
And I was critical, judgemental.
And I leaned as you have this morning that these things are grave sins.
They put us right out of joint we our God no matter whatever our protests may be.
Now I didn't want to admit those things.
Why?
Well I can tell you quite easily.
I could hear people saying "but you are a minister! you shouldn't worry! "
"You're a Minister, you shouldn't be critical! "
"You're a Minister, you shouldn't have any fears!"
And that brought me, and it brings all of us when we start this business of really getting
ourselves to Jesus, slap bang up against another big sin, Pride!
You wouldn't believe how much pride keeps Christian men and women away from all that He can be and do in them.
Pride is probably the biggest reason why we don't face the things we need to take to Jesus.
We are afraid someone might know what really bugs us,
what really torments us.
we are afraid of then saying to us,
"But you are a Christian,you've been a Christian for 40 years, you've been a Christian for 20 years,and you still have that thing in your life?"
So we pretend, and we cover up, and we stay stuck.
The same old person all the way through life.
Now let me show you another way we rationalise what we are doing.
And so we never change, never become the new creations that Jesus longs to make us, sometimes we long to be.
I'l just give you one illustration , but we do this in many ways , and you might be able to see for yourself how you are doing it, if you do.
Dad comes home from work, somethings gone wrong with the kids, they're having a real good old set to.
Squabbling and arguing, yelling and screaming at each other,
Mum meets dad at the door, and in an hysterical voice says,
"Oh you don't know what I've had today!
"oh you don't know what those kids--I could have choked them!"
And Dad goes in , and with a heavy hand, he whacks into them, and he over does it,
and their's crying and shouting and yelling,
followed by an all round family sulk.
Every body out of joint, sick sore and sorry with each other.
And that night Dad goes to bed.
And he begins to review the whole situation.
He thinks how the night before he was in that long protracted meeting,where every thing went wrong.
And as a result of it, he hardly sleep a wink the previous night, and he woke up in the morning with a head like a pumpkin.
And he stayed that way all day,
and he felt as lousy as a human being could,
and at work they were coming at him from all angles.
He was pressured and he had had a dog of a day at work.
and when he landed home, and the door was opened,
he walked into the same thing he had just left at work.
and of course he went over board.
what else could you expect.
Now everything that Dad looked at was true, every bit of it was true.
But if he began to excuse his over reacting to the children,because of all that had happened to him,
you know, and I know, that he'll stay stuck with it.
He'll never change.
And that problem will grow and increase in that home.
Because deep in here Dad has to get something to Jesus.
So that when these things do come, he is able in a strength,
and because of attitudes that he's got,
he will handle them as a Christian should.
There are deeper, now there are the many ways that we do that sort of thing,
I've just illustrated one,
There are deeper an rather more serious things than the ones I have hinted at this morning.
I'll mention them and next time I have the privilege of talking to you I'll tell you how Jesus is the answer to these deeper problems..
More serious ones.
For these things are serious.
They cause all kinds of neurotic conditions , all kinds of Psychotic conditions and all sorts of odd and difficult behaviour patterns.
They send millions of people to Doctors and Psychiatrists, and Psychologists.
Often to receive no help.
Many, only to be patched up.
Does it ever seem to you, a rather wonderful thing, how great crowds of people, going to doctors,find valium cures almost, or is supposed to, but it doesn't, does n't come within coo-ee of healing.
All kinds of nervous disorders--
doesn't matter what you present to the doctor you get the same prescription.
Well, there is no drug, and no treatment that comes out of a syringe, that can heal the conditions I am going to name to you.
The problem of inferiority!
That deep feeling of being an inferior person that you take around with you wherever you go.
That tragic attitude and feeling you may have to yourself, of insecurity!
That's a real handicap.
And it produces all kinds of odd behaviour in people.
It makes people very difficult to get along with sometimes.
And what about anxiety?
That number one producer of mental illness.
And this constant feeling that thousands of people in our world have ,
the feeling of being rejected.
How neurotic that can make you.
Now these feelings are serious ones, these are the deep ones.
These are the disturbing ones.
These are the ones that produce all sorts of behaviour patterns that none of us feel very happy about.
They can produce schizophrenia or paranoia.
Or fantasy.
They can produce seriously neurotic conditions and do.
There are plenty of people around suffering from these things.
They lie deep within us and if we are afflicted by them, we can and do have real problems.
And most or all of us at some time or other have had one or more of them.
Sometimes a combination of them.
Now if we are afflicted in this way there is no way in the world if we allow them to continue that we can become a new person in Jesus.
No way in the world!
No way that He can bring to us His abundant life, His victorious life!
Now I am meeting Christians crippled by these things and I want to say this very kindly and quietly, and I hope you will think about it.
Many of them are afraid to accept the only help they will ever get.
They are afraid to accept the only help they will really ever get.
Many of them are afraid of you if they think you can read what is the matter with them.
And when they are at the depths disturbed and we think a person can really see what our need
is we become afraid of that person.
And we steer clear.
Even though that person may be the only one that can help them to the answer!
Many of these folk feel so threatened that they back off entirely from the person who can help them.
Now I am not going to talk to you about the answer to this in this talk. I am going to take that up in my next because you know I've got so much that you need to think about, that if I hurl too much at you in one sermon, or one talk, you will be overwhelmed.
And you won't be able to take it all in.
But you are meeting people who have these needs that I've discussed and we in this Church and other churches if we only knew it, we have the answer.
So this morning in closing I want to say this.
For all of the things I have talked about,
Jesus does have the answer.
He can and does heal.
Indeed I'd go further,
He is the only one who has the answer!
So what I have been saying to you this morning is this.
If we want the answer that Jesus alone can give,
the first thing that we are to do is to stop pretending,
stop covering up,
stop rationalising,
break through the barrier of pride,
look fearlessly at what is wrong,
and begin to believe that our wonderful Saviour,
is the answer.
Foot note.There are many tapes in my possession and Bible studies by Frank Hunting. I would welcome any enquiries from those who believe they might be helped by such. Geoff Thompson
email geoff@geoffthompson.com.au It is my intention to post transcripts of tapes 1 and 3 in the New Man Series
See the link below to about Frank Hunting.
http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/about-fank-hunting.html
If it hadn't been for Frank's counsel and teaching I doubt that I would still be a committed Christian today.
God brought him into our lives at just the right time.
My prayer is that some of what's on this blog may be for you at just the right time.
The New Man Tape 2 F C Hunting
"Therefore if any man is in Christ,he is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold the new has come."
If you were to read that in the JB Phillips translation,this would be the translation.
"For if any man be in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether.
The past is finished and gone,everything has become fresh and new. '
For thousands of Christians that is simply not true!
Very little, for them, has become new!
During the week I read that it is estimated that nearly 90% of all Christians never experience the abundant or victorious life.
And that includes (I've finished the quote, this is me)
Ministers!
leaders in our Churches!
teachers!
Elders!
Deacons!
whoever!
We shall never begin to understand why this unhappy state of affairs exists until we begin to ask the right questions and come up with the right answers..
Why are Christians not becoming new people?
New persons altogether as the scriptures say they will?
If they are in Christ!
Now there are various reasons for this.
There are scores of thousands of Christians who do not even know that they can become new people in Christ.
They simply have never heard of it!
Certainly vast numbers of Christians,if they have happened to have been told that they may
able to become a new person altogether,
have not been told how to become a new person in Christ.
By and large, we have prided ourselves as being Bible teaching Churches.
Yet there are people who have been 30,40, 50 years regularly coming to Church to worship,
every sunday morning,
and they have never been shown, how to become a new person in Jesus Christ.
Some of them have been told that they ought to be new people,in Christ,
indeed some of them,
some of us,
really need to become new people in Christ, but haven't been told.
Nobody has spelled it out.
Just how does a person become a new person in the Lord Jesus Christ?
So the first thing to notice is the most obvious, but it's strange how blind we can be to the obvious!
And it's this.
That if you and I are going to become new persons in Jesus Christ,
then the most obvious thing is,
that if that is going to happen,
we must bring to Jesus what we are!
We must bring to Him,
each one of us ,
the things to Him that need changing!
If we have been, or are badly relating to someone,
If we have or are , being hard in our attitudes to someone,
If we have or are being critical,-it may never be spoken,
but if that;s the attitude that we've got in
our minds, that is the way that we think about people or someone!
If we have fears!
If we have envy, or jealousy or guilt, these are the things that are wrong in us!
And these are the things that we ought to be taking to Jesus!
But right at this point we do something,so often, that effectively, prevents us from taking what we
are to Him,
He who is able to make people new.
And this is how we do it.
When we become conscious that we have some of those things I've just listed,
when we realise that that is a part of me, what am I prone to do?
I'm prone to justify that feeling!
I'm prone to justify that hard attitude!
prone to find some reason so I can excuse me from being that kind of a person!
Oh, I can always find a very good reason, why I am entitled to have that attitude!
To have that feeling!
to think that way!
about that person!
or about those people!
or about that situation!
So if I pretend it doesn't matter,
or I blame somebody else,
or something,
there's no chance of Jesus ever making me new!
And so we stay exactly as we've always been!
If we are a worrier, we stay a worrier!
If we are harsh in our criticisms, we stay harsh in our criticisms!
If we are an extrovert and we are dominating in our attitudes to people, we stay that way!
If we are full of fears, we stay crippled by our fears!
The reason being
we don't get them to Jesus!
If we are weak and wobbly as people, we stay weak and wobbly as Christians.
Nothing changes.
Why?
Because we are not getting the thing that needs to be changed to our Saviour.
So that leads me to say the next thing.
Often we are strangely blind to the very thing that most needs to be changed in our makeup.
We are strangely blind to that need.
And we are strangely blind to our need to get that to Jesus.
For instance if we happen to be a worrier we say "I am a worrier by nature!"
"I can't help it,
it's my nature to worry!"
"I always do it!
I'm stuck with it!"
Now doing this, we never see two things about our worrying.
Both of them totally wrong.
NO 1. Worry is one of the worst sins because it doubts God!
Oh, we wont face that one will we?
It says God is dead!
It says God is powerless!
It says God is useless!
The second thing that's wrong about worry is that it says that Jesus has no answer
to my worrying,
and that isn't true!
We may for instance be given to criticising.
Now we do it so often, it has in fact, over the years,become a deeply entrenched habit!
Indeed we are often doing it and we are not aware of it.
Again there are two things wrong with this.
It too is one of the worst sins.
Now you listen, I am talking to you good people and you and I are Christians!
That true?
And I'll tell you why this is one of the worst sins.
It's a terrible sin against Love.
And God is Love.
And we are sinning against Him.
When we have this in our lives.
In the 2nd place because we justify our criticising in various ways,
we never take it to Jesus so we stay stuck with it!
and we really become and are, unlovely people.
albeit we are Christians.
The same is true of fear, fear makes pygmies of us.
It makes us mice instead of men.
But fears can be very powerful, they may also become very frightening.
And it;s very easy
because of those two things
to think or feel that you can do nothing about them!
But Jesus has the answer to all our fears!
To every single one of them He has the answer!
If we learn, how to take them to Him.
Now at this point we run into another obstacle of getting g free from these things that prevent us
from becoming new people,new persons altogether! in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I know, I know, you know that this to become a new person, is for most Christians ,deep down, the one thing they most want.
Well, what's this other thing that prevents us from becoming a new person altogether.
We often pretend not to be afflicted by the thing that is really bugging us.
We often pretend that it isn't the thing that is the matter with us.
Now this is one of the biggest barriers that I had to break through.
I worried.
I had big fears.
Crippling fears.
And I was critical, judgemental.
And I leaned as you have this morning that these things are grave sins.
They put us right out of joint we our God no matter whatever our protests may be.
Now I didn't want to admit those things.
Why?
Well I can tell you quite easily.
I could hear people saying "but you are a minister! you shouldn't worry! "
"You're a Minister, you shouldn't be critical! "
"You're a Minister, you shouldn't have any fears!"
And that brought me, and it brings all of us when we start this business of really getting
ourselves to Jesus, slap bang up against another big sin, Pride!
You wouldn't believe how much pride keeps Christian men and women away from all that He can be and do in them.
Pride is probably the biggest reason why we don't face the things we need to take to Jesus.
We are afraid someone might know what really bugs us,
what really torments us.
we are afraid of then saying to us,
"But you are a Christian,you've been a Christian for 40 years, you've been a Christian for 20 years,and you still have that thing in your life?"
So we pretend, and we cover up, and we stay stuck.
The same old person all the way through life.
Now let me show you another way we rationalise what we are doing.
And so we never change, never become the new creations that Jesus longs to make us, sometimes we long to be.
I'l just give you one illustration , but we do this in many ways , and you might be able to see for yourself how you are doing it, if you do.
Dad comes home from work, somethings gone wrong with the kids, they're having a real good old set to.
Squabbling and arguing, yelling and screaming at each other,
Mum meets dad at the door, and in an hysterical voice says,
"Oh you don't know what I've had today!
"oh you don't know what those kids--I could have choked them!"
And Dad goes in , and with a heavy hand, he whacks into them, and he over does it,
and their's crying and shouting and yelling,
followed by an all round family sulk.
Every body out of joint, sick sore and sorry with each other.
And that night Dad goes to bed.
And he begins to review the whole situation.
He thinks how the night before he was in that long protracted meeting,where every thing went wrong.
And as a result of it, he hardly sleep a wink the previous night, and he woke up in the morning with a head like a pumpkin.
And he stayed that way all day,
and he felt as lousy as a human being could,
and at work they were coming at him from all angles.
He was pressured and he had had a dog of a day at work.
and when he landed home, and the door was opened,
he walked into the same thing he had just left at work.
and of course he went over board.
what else could you expect.
Now everything that Dad looked at was true, every bit of it was true.
But if he began to excuse his over reacting to the children,because of all that had happened to him,
you know, and I know, that he'll stay stuck with it.
He'll never change.
And that problem will grow and increase in that home.
Because deep in here Dad has to get something to Jesus.
So that when these things do come, he is able in a strength,
and because of attitudes that he's got,
he will handle them as a Christian should.
There are deeper, now there are the many ways that we do that sort of thing,
I've just illustrated one,
There are deeper an rather more serious things than the ones I have hinted at this morning.
I'll mention them and next time I have the privilege of talking to you I'll tell you how Jesus is the answer to these deeper problems..
More serious ones.
For these things are serious.
They cause all kinds of neurotic conditions , all kinds of Psychotic conditions and all sorts of odd and difficult behaviour patterns.
They send millions of people to Doctors and Psychiatrists, and Psychologists.
Often to receive no help.
Many, only to be patched up.
Does it ever seem to you, a rather wonderful thing, how great crowds of people, going to doctors,find valium cures almost, or is supposed to, but it doesn't, does n't come within coo-ee of healing.
All kinds of nervous disorders--
doesn't matter what you present to the doctor you get the same prescription.
Well, there is no drug, and no treatment that comes out of a syringe, that can heal the conditions I am going to name to you.
The problem of inferiority!
That deep feeling of being an inferior person that you take around with you wherever you go.
That tragic attitude and feeling you may have to yourself, of insecurity!
That's a real handicap.
And it produces all kinds of odd behaviour in people.
It makes people very difficult to get along with sometimes.
And what about anxiety?
That number one producer of mental illness.
And this constant feeling that thousands of people in our world have ,
the feeling of being rejected.
How neurotic that can make you.
Now these feelings are serious ones, these are the deep ones.
These are the disturbing ones.
These are the ones that produce all sorts of behaviour patterns that none of us feel very happy about.
They can produce schizophrenia or paranoia.
Or fantasy.
They can produce seriously neurotic conditions and do.
There are plenty of people around suffering from these things.
They lie deep within us and if we are afflicted by them, we can and do have real problems.
And most or all of us at some time or other have had one or more of them.
Sometimes a combination of them.
Now if we are afflicted in this way there is no way in the world if we allow them to continue that we can become a new person in Jesus.
No way in the world!
No way that He can bring to us His abundant life, His victorious life!
Now I am meeting Christians crippled by these things and I want to say this very kindly and quietly, and I hope you will think about it.
Many of them are afraid to accept the only help they will ever get.
They are afraid to accept the only help they will really ever get.
Many of them are afraid of you if they think you can read what is the matter with them.
And when they are at the depths disturbed and we think a person can really see what our need
is we become afraid of that person.
And we steer clear.
Even though that person may be the only one that can help them to the answer!
Many of these folk feel so threatened that they back off entirely from the person who can help them.
Now I am not going to talk to you about the answer to this in this talk. I am going to take that up in my next because you know I've got so much that you need to think about, that if I hurl too much at you in one sermon, or one talk, you will be overwhelmed.
And you won't be able to take it all in.
But you are meeting people who have these needs that I've discussed and we in this Church and other churches if we only knew it, we have the answer.
So this morning in closing I want to say this.
For all of the things I have talked about,
Jesus does have the answer.
He can and does heal.
Indeed I'd go further,
He is the only one who has the answer!
So what I have been saying to you this morning is this.
If we want the answer that Jesus alone can give,
the first thing that we are to do is to stop pretending,
stop covering up,
stop rationalising,
break through the barrier of pride,
look fearlessly at what is wrong,
and begin to believe that our wonderful Saviour,
is the answer.
Foot note.There are many tapes in my possession and Bible studies by Frank Hunting. I would welcome any enquiries from those who believe they might be helped by such. Geoff Thompson
email geoff@geoffthompson.com.au It is my intention to post transcripts of tapes 1 and 3 in the New Man Series
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The New Man Tape 2 F C Hunting part 1.
This is a transcript from a tape by Frank Hunting.
I am in the process of typing this a bit each day.
I thought I would share what I have done so far.
Frank's teaching on the New Man is life changing if we claim it and practice it for ourselves.
Geoff Thompson
"Therefore if any man is in Christ,he is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold the new has come."
If you were to read that in the J B Phillips translation,this would be the translation.
"For if any man be in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether.
The past is finished and gone,everything has become fresh and new. '
For thousands of Christians that is simply not true.
Very little, for them, has become new.
During the week I read that it is estimated that nearly 90% of all Christians never experience the abundant or victorious life.
And that includes (I've finished the quote, this is me)
Ministers!
leaders in our Churches!
teachers!
Elders!
Deacons!
whoever!
We shall never begin to understand why this unhappy state of affairs exists until we begin to ask the right questions and come up with the right answers..
Why are Christians not becoming new people?
New persons altogether as the scriptures say they will?
If they are in Christ!
Now there are various reasons for this.
There are scores of thousands of Christians who do not even know that they can become new people in Christ.
They simply have never heard of it!
Certainly vast numbers of Christians,if they have happened to have been told that they may
able to become a new person altogether,
have not been told how to become a new person in Christ.
By and large, we have prided ourselves as being Bible teaching Churches.
Yet there are people who have been 30,40, 50 years regularly coming to Church to worship,
every sunday morning,
and they have never been shown, how to become a new person in Jesus Christ.
Some of them have been told that they ought to be new people,in Christ,
indeed some of them,
some of us,
really need to become new people in Christ, but haven't been told.
Nobody has spelled it out.
Just how does a person become a new person in the Lord Jesus Christ?
So the first thing to notice is the most obvious, but it's strange how blind we can be to the obvious!
And it's this.
That if you and I are going to become new persons in Jesus Christ,
then the most obvious thing is,
that if that is going to happen,
we must bring to Jesus what we are!
We must bring to Him,
each one of us ,
the things to Him that need changing!
If we have been or are badly relating to someone,
If we have or are , being hard in our attitudes to someone,
If we have or are being critical,-it may never be spoken, but if that;s the attitude that we've got in
our minds, that is the way that we think about people or someone!
If we have fears!
If we have envy, or jealousy or guilt, these are the things that are wrong in us!
And these are the things that we ought to be taking to Jesus!
But right at this point we do something,so often, that effectively, prevents us from taking what we
are to Him,
He who is able to make people new.
And this is how we do it.
When we become conscious that we have some of those things I've just listed,
when we realise that that is a part of me, what am I prone to do?
I'm prone to justify that feeling!
I'm prone to justify that hard attitude!
prone to find some reason so I can excuse me from being that kind of a person!
Oh, I can always find a very good reason, why I am entitled to have that attitude!
To have that feeling!
to think that way!
about that person!
or about those people!
or about that situation!
So if I pretend it doesn't matter,
or I blame somebody else,
or something,
there's no chance of Jesus ever making me new!
And so we stay exactly as we've always been!
If we are a worrier, we stay a worrier!
If we are harsh in our criticisms, we stay harsh in our criticisms!
If we are an extrovert and we are dominating in our attitudes to people, we stay that way!
If we are full of fears, we stay crippled by our fears!
The reason being
we don't get them to Jesus!
If we are weak and wobbly as people, we stay weak and wobbly as Christians.
Nothing changes.
Why?
Because we are not getting the thing that needs to be changed to our Saviour.
So that leads me to say the next thing.
Often we are strangely blind to the very thing that most needs to be changed in our makeup.
We are strangely blind to that need.
And we are strangely blind to our need to get that to Jesus.
For instance if we happen to be a worrier we say "I am a worrier by nature!"
"I can't help it,
it's my nature to worry!"
"I always do it!
I'm stuck with it!"
Now doing this, we never see two things about our worrying.
Both of them totally wrong.
NO 1. Worry is one of the worst sins because it doubts God!
Oh, we wont face that one will we?
It says God is dead!
It says God is powerless!
It says God is useless!
The second thing that's wrong about worry is that it says that Jesus has no answer
to my worrying,
and that isn't true!
We may for instance be given to criticising.
Now we do it so often, it has in fact, over the years,become a deeply entrenched habit!
Indeed we are often doing it and we are not aware of it.
Again there are two things wrong with this.
It too is one of the worst sins.
Now you listen, I am talking to you good people and you and I are Christians!
That true?
And I'll tell you why this is one of the worst sins.
It's a terrible sin against Love.
And God is Love.
And we are sinning against Him.
When we have this in our lives.
In the 2nd place because we justify our criticising in various ways,
we never take it to Jesus so we stay stuck with it!
and we really become and are, unlovely people.
albeit we are Christians.
The same is true of fear, fear makes pygmies of us.
It makes us mice instead of men.
But fears can be very powerful, they may also become very frightening.
And it;s very easy
because of those two things
to think or feel that you can do nothing about them!
But Jesus has the answer to all our fears!
To every single one of them He has the answer!
If we learn, how to take them to Him.
I am in the process of typing this a bit each day.
I thought I would share what I have done so far.
Frank's teaching on the New Man is life changing if we claim it and practice it for ourselves.
Geoff Thompson
"Therefore if any man is in Christ,he is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold the new has come."
If you were to read that in the J B Phillips translation,this would be the translation.
"For if any man be in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether.
The past is finished and gone,everything has become fresh and new. '
For thousands of Christians that is simply not true.
Very little, for them, has become new.
During the week I read that it is estimated that nearly 90% of all Christians never experience the abundant or victorious life.
And that includes (I've finished the quote, this is me)
Ministers!
leaders in our Churches!
teachers!
Elders!
Deacons!
whoever!
We shall never begin to understand why this unhappy state of affairs exists until we begin to ask the right questions and come up with the right answers..
Why are Christians not becoming new people?
New persons altogether as the scriptures say they will?
If they are in Christ!
Now there are various reasons for this.
There are scores of thousands of Christians who do not even know that they can become new people in Christ.
They simply have never heard of it!
Certainly vast numbers of Christians,if they have happened to have been told that they may
able to become a new person altogether,
have not been told how to become a new person in Christ.
By and large, we have prided ourselves as being Bible teaching Churches.
Yet there are people who have been 30,40, 50 years regularly coming to Church to worship,
every sunday morning,
and they have never been shown, how to become a new person in Jesus Christ.
Some of them have been told that they ought to be new people,in Christ,
indeed some of them,
some of us,
really need to become new people in Christ, but haven't been told.
Nobody has spelled it out.
Just how does a person become a new person in the Lord Jesus Christ?
So the first thing to notice is the most obvious, but it's strange how blind we can be to the obvious!
And it's this.
That if you and I are going to become new persons in Jesus Christ,
then the most obvious thing is,
that if that is going to happen,
we must bring to Jesus what we are!
We must bring to Him,
each one of us ,
the things to Him that need changing!
If we have been or are badly relating to someone,
If we have or are , being hard in our attitudes to someone,
If we have or are being critical,-it may never be spoken, but if that;s the attitude that we've got in
our minds, that is the way that we think about people or someone!
If we have fears!
If we have envy, or jealousy or guilt, these are the things that are wrong in us!
And these are the things that we ought to be taking to Jesus!
But right at this point we do something,so often, that effectively, prevents us from taking what we
are to Him,
He who is able to make people new.
And this is how we do it.
When we become conscious that we have some of those things I've just listed,
when we realise that that is a part of me, what am I prone to do?
I'm prone to justify that feeling!
I'm prone to justify that hard attitude!
prone to find some reason so I can excuse me from being that kind of a person!
Oh, I can always find a very good reason, why I am entitled to have that attitude!
To have that feeling!
to think that way!
about that person!
or about those people!
or about that situation!
So if I pretend it doesn't matter,
or I blame somebody else,
or something,
there's no chance of Jesus ever making me new!
And so we stay exactly as we've always been!
If we are a worrier, we stay a worrier!
If we are harsh in our criticisms, we stay harsh in our criticisms!
If we are an extrovert and we are dominating in our attitudes to people, we stay that way!
If we are full of fears, we stay crippled by our fears!
The reason being
we don't get them to Jesus!
If we are weak and wobbly as people, we stay weak and wobbly as Christians.
Nothing changes.
Why?
Because we are not getting the thing that needs to be changed to our Saviour.
So that leads me to say the next thing.
Often we are strangely blind to the very thing that most needs to be changed in our makeup.
We are strangely blind to that need.
And we are strangely blind to our need to get that to Jesus.
For instance if we happen to be a worrier we say "I am a worrier by nature!"
"I can't help it,
it's my nature to worry!"
"I always do it!
I'm stuck with it!"
Now doing this, we never see two things about our worrying.
Both of them totally wrong.
NO 1. Worry is one of the worst sins because it doubts God!
Oh, we wont face that one will we?
It says God is dead!
It says God is powerless!
It says God is useless!
The second thing that's wrong about worry is that it says that Jesus has no answer
to my worrying,
and that isn't true!
We may for instance be given to criticising.
Now we do it so often, it has in fact, over the years,become a deeply entrenched habit!
Indeed we are often doing it and we are not aware of it.
Again there are two things wrong with this.
It too is one of the worst sins.
Now you listen, I am talking to you good people and you and I are Christians!
That true?
And I'll tell you why this is one of the worst sins.
It's a terrible sin against Love.
And God is Love.
And we are sinning against Him.
When we have this in our lives.
In the 2nd place because we justify our criticising in various ways,
we never take it to Jesus so we stay stuck with it!
and we really become and are, unlovely people.
albeit we are Christians.
The same is true of fear, fear makes pygmies of us.
It makes us mice instead of men.
But fears can be very powerful, they may also become very frightening.
And it;s very easy
because of those two things
to think or feel that you can do nothing about them!
But Jesus has the answer to all our fears!
To every single one of them He has the answer!
If we learn, how to take them to Him.
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