Let us turn again to God's Word,
and the words to which I would call your attention this morning
are in the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter
5, verse 17. the second epistle of Paul to
the Corinthians, chapter 5 and verse 17. Therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. It's a good sign, isn't it, when
we read words like these or when we hear them read, if we find
something in our hearts that says, I want that. Perhaps sometimes
when you read some of the promises of God to his people in scripture,
you find that although you perhaps cannot claim to know these things
in their entirety, that there is that within you that wants
them, that's looking for them, that's praying for them. Have
you had to ever come with these words in your prayers and ask
God to give you that passing away of old things, that making
new of all things? It's a good sign because not
many people would. Many people, and we naturally are, just like
other people, aren't we? Many people are satisfied with
the old things. If you were to go to people in
the street and to ask them if they would like old things to
pass away and old things to become new in a spiritual way, they
probably would not be very interested in what you were saying. But
one of the things, surely, that God teaches his people is to
want what he wants. to want those things that he
promises to give. When he promises to give a new
heart to his people, he will teach them to know that desire
after that new heart, so that they can plead those promises
that he makes. Well, do you want these things
that the apostle is talking about here in this verse? Do you long
to know what it is to be in Christ, to be made a new creature, for
old things to pass away and for all things to become new? That
surely was in effect what the hymn writers were talking about
in that hymn that we were just singing. They're praying for
an experience of that fountain that is open for sin and for
uncleanness. That fountain open for the poor,
where sickly souls may find a cure. And what is it that they want?
They want to stay fast by it. Fast by this fountain, let me
stay, and drink and wash my sores away. If but a moment I depart,
sick is my head and faint my heart. You see how the hymn writers
saw that their spiritual strength, their spiritual life, depended
on being close to that fountain, that fountain that is Christ,
that fountain that is revealed in the word of God. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And yet perhaps also when you look at this verse, you find
that it condemns you. Perhaps you're ready to say,
well, I trust that I am in Christ. I have that confidence in a measure
that I have believed upon Him. Perhaps you say I've made an
open profession of Him, and yet perhaps you also have to say,
well, the old things seem to be so often present with me.
The old things don't seem to have passed away. All things
don't seem to have been made new. Perhaps you still struggle
with the same sins, with the same fallen heart. Again, the
hymn writer spoke about the fretful look, the wanton eye, the lordly
self. Perhaps you have to say these old things, they often
hold too much influence over me. Well, we mustn't make the
mistake of thinking that what the apostle is saying is that
when a man becomes a Christian, he becomes perfect. When he says
old things are passed away, it's not that the man is suddenly
entirely changed into a different person in the sense that he becomes
no longer a sinner. The apostle Paul was the last
person who would come with that kind of teaching. You read what
he says about himself when he writes to the Romans in that
well-known seventh chapter. And it's a controversial chapter,
isn't it, if you're familiar with it? You read the kinds of
things that Paul says about himself and how ultimately he comes to
that crying out at the end of the chapter when he says, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
He talks about that will that is present with him. But he says,
the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not,
that I do. Even Paul, even that great apostle,
even after that remarkable experience that he had had on the Damascus
Road, and even having been made that great apostle that wrote
these wonderful epistles, Even he had to say that he found that
within him that was contrary to the law of God. Oh yes, he
says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. I want
it. I want to do it. I want to walk in it. I want
to be close to that fountain. But he says, I see another law
in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Why is it a controversial chapter? Well, you will find those who
will look at that chapter and they'll say, well, Paul can't
possibly be a Christian when he's writing these things. Surely
they say that the Christian will never call himself a wretched
man. He's a blessed man, isn't he? And of course, there's some truth.
The Christian is a blessed man. But what they fail to understand
is that that conflict in the life of the Christian is something
that goes on even after conversion. There are those who say that
Paul is writing about his life in the past, about his life before
his conversion. Well, you read about some of
the things that he says. But Paul could never have said
before his conversion, I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. Paul before his conversion would
never have been able to say that to will is present within. Paul,
before his conversion, would never have been able to say,
we know that the law is spiritual. He didn't know that the law was
spiritual. That was his problem as a Pharisee. He thought that
the law was all just carnal. It was just about what he did
with his hands and where he went with his feet. He didn't realise
that it was mainly to do with the heart. No, Paul is speaking
as a converted man. He's speaking as a Christian.
And even he has to say, I'm not perfect. I find that within me
that is contrary to the law of God. He was in Christ. He was
a new creature. Old things had passed away. Old
things had become new, but there was still that within him that
was constantly leading him in the wrong direction and casting
him down. Those sins that he fell into,
the sin of pride, the sin of unbelief, he still found that
these things troubled him. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Well, the words of Paul, they
suggest to us a very obvious test, don't they? If you're concerned to know whether
you're in Christ, well, here is one way to test it. To what
extent have old things passed away? To what extent have all
things become new? Have you been given a new understanding,
new eyes, as it were? You remember the story of the
man, and he was a very religious man, and he read his Bible regularly,
and he used to go to church regularly. And then one day he experienced
the converting grace of God. And he went home and he got his
Bible off the shelf again and he opened the Bible and he was
reading in the Bible and he said to his wife, wife, is this the
same old Bible that we've always had? And she said, yes, it's
the same one. Nothing has changed about it.
And he said, well, it seems that I've been given new eyes then.
He was reading the Bible in a different way now. It was the same words
that he was reading. But he was seeing something entirely
new in them. Old things had passed away. All
things had become new. And if you are a Christian, no
doubt you will be able to look back to a time in your life when
the things of God held no interest for you. And you may have been
brought to chapel. Some of us were brought to chapel
from when we were children. And I can remember as a boy sitting
in the chapel that I was brought up to go to and coming into the
chapel and sitting down and heaving a sigh and saying, well, here
we are for another 90 minutes of this. And my main interest
is when the service was going to finish. And the only reason
I looked at the preacher was to figure out how much more he
had to say. We are all like that by nature.
We hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, we read about his sufferings,
we read about his work, and yet these things are not interesting
to us. They hold no attraction for us. We need to be changed. We need old things to pass away.
We need new eyes, a new understanding. And then we'll see the Bible
in a different way. And then we'll see Christ in a different
way. And then we'll see Christians
in a different way. And we won't look at them and say, well, aren't
they unfortunate to be caught in that old way of thinking,
that old-fashioned way of thinking. Isn't that the way the world
thinks as they look at Christians and they say of them, well, it's
just a shame that they haven't progressed in the same way that
we have. And they go into their religious
meetings and they pull down the shutters and they shut the door
and they reassure themselves that everything is going to be
alright based on this made-up belief. Well, if God is teaching
you, you will not think of Christians in that way. You will look at
them and you will say, I wish I had what they have. That's one of my first really
religious experiences that I can remember. When I was in my mid-teens,
and they used to have the Lord's Supper every first Sunday, and
I used to look at the church sitting at the front, and I remember
them singing that hymn about Jesus Christ, there is a friend
that sticketh closer than a brother, it's based on. And I remember
thinking, I wish I knew what they knew. I wish I had what
they obviously have. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things have become new. Has it happened for you? Have
you known this change that the apostle is talking about? This second epistle is really
quite different, isn't it, to his first epistle. You remember
the situation in the church at Corinth when Paul wrote his first
epistle. He'd had news about them. He'd
had a visit by them, which are of the house of Chloe, and he
says, I've heard that you've got divisions amongst you. There
are contentions among you. What was going on in the Corinthian
church? Well, they were dividing themselves up into different
groups. And some were saying, I am of Paul. Others were saying,
I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas. I am of Christ. They were dividing themselves
up into these different groups and setting themselves up against
each other. And Paul has to write to correct
it. There's many other things that he has to correct in that
first epistle. He writes to teach them. He writes
to correct them. And I'm sure I've said it here
before, but it's always very remarkable how he does that.
You read through that first chapter in his first epistle, and you
look at those first 10 verses as he writes to that divided
church, and you look at the number of times that he mentions the
name of Jesus Christ. Just in those first ten verses,
he mentions the name of Jesus Christ ten times, as if he would
say to them, this is the main thing, this is the real thing,
this is the true thing. He writes to them in effect and
he says, I'm not really wanting to get involved in your divisions
and your arguments. I come before you to set before
you Christ. He says that explicitly, doesn't he, in the second chapter. He says, And I, brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified. And as he writes to them, he
comes with that same determination. He speaks of Christ time and
time again. There's much that he has to correct as he takes
up that first epistle. And when you read his second,
it's very obvious that that first epistle had done its work. In chapter 7 of his second epistle,
he refers back to that first epistle. And he says, though
I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did
repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry,
though it were but for a season. He says, in effect, that first
epistle, it made you sorry, it made you sad. It was an epistle
that had to come with a message of correction. And it made the Corinthians sorry.
But he says, I don't regret it. It's done its work. I rejoice,
not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance.
That sorrow that they experienced when they read his first epistle,
it had a good effect on them. It made them turn back to the
right way. It made them put things right. You sorrowed after a godly
sort, he says, and what carefulness it wrought in you, what clearing
of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire,
what zeal, what revenge in all things you have approved yourselves
to be clear in this matter. He says to them, it worked, that
first epistle. You listened, you heard, you
understood, and you put things right. Well, in this second epistle
he writes to encourage them further, doesn't he? And he says to them,
in effect, don't go back there. Look at his closing words in
this second epistle. Finally, brethren, he says, farewell.
Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind. Be of one mind,
he says. Don't go back to that old way
of thinking where you're dividing yourselves up into different
groups and saying, I'm of Paul and I'm of Apollos and I'm of
Cephas and I'm of Christ. Be of one mind, live in peace.
He's talking about Christian unity, church unity, an essential
thing. Yes, churches can survive with
a disunited church, but it's very rare to see a church prosper
when the members of the church have no concern for each other
and are only there for themselves. though there is to be that bearing
of one another's burdens. He writes to encourage them.
He writes to instruct them further. And he says, therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things have become
new. What does he mean when he talks about being in Christ? If any man be in Christ, he says,
what is it to be in Christ? How does a person get to be in
Christ? How is it that some people are
in Christ and other people are not in Christ? What does he mean? It's a common expression of Paul. You read through most of his
epistles and this more often than not is the way that he refers
to those Christians that he's writing to. When he writes to
the Ephesians, you notice how he describes those Christians
that he was writing to. He says, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. This is the way in which
he describes Christians. They are those who are in Christ
Jesus, not just those who know about him, not just those who
talk about him. not even just those who worship
him, but those who are in him. And it's not just Paul, is it?
You read the epistles of Peter and you'll find him using a very
similar expression. As he closes his first epistle,
he says, Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace
be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. that are in Christ Jesus,
well there is a sense in which the Christian is in Christ eternally. It's not that these people were
once outside of him in that sense and then by their own efforts
got into him somehow. That's the emphasis of Paul's
first chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, isn't it? And
he talks about the Christians as those who are chosen in him
before the foundation of the world. There is a sense in which
that unity between Christ and the Church is eternal. It's not
something that comes into being, it's something that always was,
always has been. Eternal union, but Paul is not
so much talking about that here. There is a sense in which it
is eternal, but there is also a sense in which it is something
that the Christian is experiencing. Something that happens in time,
something that happens at a certain point in their lives. That surely
is what Paul indicates when he writes to the Romans in the last
chapter. And he gives all those greetings to various different
people. And one of them is to these people called Andronicus
and Junior. And he calls them his kinsmen
and his fellow prisoners who are of note among the apostles.
And he says, they also were in Christ before me. What does he
mean? He means they were converted
before him. Paul and those two people, they
were both members of that church that was united to Christ before
the world began. But this came into their experience,
something that happened in their lives. This surely is the meaning
of Paul here when he writes about being in Christ. There is a sense
in which it is eternal, but there is also that point in the life
of a man, of a woman, of a child when they experience that union,
when they know what it is to be in Christ. not just in that
eternal sense, but in an experimental sense, an experiential sense. If any man be in Christ, well,
John is often giving us the words of Christ on this same subject. When Jesus is talking to his
disciples shortly before his crucifixion, He uses the illustration
of a vine and the branches. And you remember his words, I
am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye
can do nothing. He that abideth in me. He's talking
about the same truth, that same union, that same indwelling. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye
can do nothing. And again in the previous chapter
he's again talking to his disciples and he says, At that day ye shall
know that I am in my Father and ye in me. Ye in me. At that day ye shall know that
I am in my Father and ye in me and I in you. He says this is
something to be known, something to be experienced. How does it happen? How does
it come about that a man, a woman knows this union? How is it that
a person experiences this coming into Christ, this dwelling in
him? Well, perhaps Jesus gives the
clearest description of this in that remarkable sixth chapter
of John's Gospel. and it's a remarkable chapter
in many ways. It's remarkable for the contrast that there is
as you go through that chapter. It would be no exaggeration to
say that really that chapter gives us a description of a turning
point in the ministry of Christ. You look at the beginning of
that sixth chapter and you see Jesus followed by a great multitude. There were many people who were
following him because they saw the miracles that he did and
they were impressed by them and they heard his words and they
were struck by them. A great multitude followed him
because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were
diseased. But then you see the contrast
as you turn to the end of the chapter and it says, from that
time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with
him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
It's almost as if all that great multitude had all gone, and it's
almost as if it's just the twelve disciples left. Will ye also
go away? And Simon Peter says, To whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. What happened in that chapter
to make all that great multitude go away, leaving just those twelve
disciples? Well, essentially it was the
teaching of Christ that drove them away, wasn't it? It was
his words. He begins to talk about himself
as the bread of life. He begins to talk about the importance
of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And many of those
that heard him said, this isn't hard saying. Who can hear it? They said, this doesn't make
sense. We don't understand. They were offended by it and
many of them went back and walked no more with him. But you see
the words of Christ there at verse 56 in that chapter. He
says, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth
in me and I in him. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me. This surely is what it is to
be in Christ. It's the same truth that Christ is setting before
the people there, to eat his flesh and to drink his blood.
And, of course, we're not to understand that in a literal
sense, as the Jews did. Many of those that heard him,
they said, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? It doesn't
make any sense. It's nonsense, they said. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, says Jesus to them, Except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life
in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me." What
is it to eat his flesh and to drink his blood? Well, John Gill,
in his commentary, he put it very well. He says, it is to
believe that Christ has come in the flesh and is truly and
really man. That his flesh is given for the
life of his people and his blood is shed for their sins. And he
says this with some view and application to ourselves. What is it to eat his flesh and
to drink his blood? It's to believe on him. It's to believe on him. Not just
to believe that he is a saviour or the saviour, but to be able
to say he is my saviour. To say he loved me and gave himself
for me. This is what it is. To eat his
flesh and to drink his blood. It's to be nourished by his sacrifice. It's to be strengthened by that
pouring out of himself. that he suffered upon the cross,
he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I
in him." This is what it is to be in Christ. It's something that is of faith.
It's not just a man saying, I believe there was a man called Jesus
Christ who lived 2,000 years ago and walked on the earth for
33 years, died rose, and was ascended into heaven. All that
is true. All that is essential. But that's not what is meant
by eating his flesh and drinking his blood. It's to come and to
be nourished by those things. It's to be strengthened by those
things. It's to believe that his flesh is given for the life
of his people and his blood shed for their sins. And this with
some view and application to ourselves. He that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me. Therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. It's a way of faith. That's how
a man, a woman, a child becomes in Christ in this experimental
sense. It is by faith, it's by believing. That same truth is put before
us in the third chapter of John. You remember Jesus' conversation
with Nicodemus. And more than one time in that
passage, Jesus uses the expression, believeth in him. He uses it
in that well-known 16th chapter. The Gospel in miniature, Luther
called it, didn't he? For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Believeth in him. Well, if you were to be able
to read the underlying Greek text, you would find that that
word in, when it says believeth in him, it's a very expressive
word. It's a very Meaningful word. It appears many times in the
New Testament, but more often than not, when you come across
that same Greek word, it's not translated simply as in, it's
translated as into, or unto, or to. It's the same word that we have
later on. Light has come into the world. believeth in him. Jesus is not
just saying that those who believe in him have everlasting life. It's not
just to believe in Christ in the sense of believing that he
lived and that he did what is written of him in the scriptures.
No, it's something more than that. It's to believe into him,
to believe unto him. That's how a man, a woman, a
child becomes into Christ. By faith, by believing into him.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth into him should not perish. There's that
wonderful hymn, isn't there, that talks about all those different
kinds of faith. And the hymn writer is very clear
that they're all good kinds of faith. But he says there is a
sense in which a man can believe in Christ and yet not be fully
safe, as it were. He that believeth Christ the
Lord who shed for man his blood, by giving credence to his word,
by believing it, by accepting it, exalts the truth of God.
So far he's right, he says, but let him know farther than this
he yet must go. It's not enough just to say,
I believe in Jesus. I believe that he came, I believe
that he lived, I believe that he died. The devils believe that
and they tremble. So the hymn writer goes on to
say, he that into Christ believes, what a rich faith has he. In
Christ he moves and acts and lives from self and bondage free.
He has the Father and the Son, for Christ and he are now but
one. To believe into him is to put trust in him, to put
confidence in him. And we see it in so many illustrations
and examples throughout scripture. You think of Noah. You remember the account of Noah
and his ark. Perhaps one of those passages
that we learnt about when we were children. A very memorable
account, isn't it? Here is Noah. He's living in
a time of great wickedness. And it seems that he was the
only man who really feared God and worshipped God. Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. And God instructs Noah to build
that ark. Make thee an ark of gopher wood.
And he's given the way in which he's to make it, the dimension,
where the window is to be, where the door is to be. And God promises
that he will send a flood of waters upon the earth. but that
Noah will be kept safe. And so Noah builds the ark. And
it takes him many years, it seems, to build it. It was a massive
ark. You've probably seen the pictures.
They built a replica of it. Somewhere in America, there's
a creation museum, and they built a replica of this ark. It's an
enormous ship. So Noah builds the ark. And you
can imagine him, can't you, stepping back and looking at it. He'd finished the ark. He'd built
the ark. He'd done exactly what he was told to do. But that wasn't
the end of it, was it? And so in the seventh chapter
of Genesis we read, And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and
all thy house into the ark. It wasn't enough for Noah just
to build the ark, was it? It wasn't enough for Noah just
to be an expert in the dimensions and the materials and the way
in which it was constructed. No, he had to be into it. He
had to go into it. And Noah went in and his sons
and his wife and his sons' wives with him into the ark because
of the waters of the flood. That ark is a picture of Christ.
And as we see Noah going into it, it's a picture of the Christian
believing into Christ. What was Noah doing? He was putting
all his trust in that ark in a sense, wasn't he? He was putting all his confidence
in that ark. God had said to him, this is the way of escape.
This is the place of refuge. This is the only way to be delivered
from the flood that is coming. And Noah didn't just say, oh
yes, I believe all that. It would have been a dead kind
of faith, wouldn't it? If Noah had said, oh, I believe
that the ark is the only place of refuge, and then remained
outside it. No, the faith of Noah is seen
by his works, by his going into the ark. by his movement, by
his motion. He didn't just believe in the
Ark, he believed into the Ark. And he went in. There is a picture of what it
is to be in Christ, to believe into him. Again, you think of
that woman with the issue of blood that we see in the Gospel.
She heard of Christ, she believed that he was able to save her,
to deliver her from her sickness that she had. But she didn't just believe,
did she? She didn't just say, oh yes, I believe in Jesus Christ.
He's a wonderful teacher, a wonderful healer. What did her faith do
for her? It moved her. It moved her to
him. And she had to overcome, didn't
she? She had to press through that crowd. It wasn't an easy
journey for her. What was it that motivated her?
What was it that was moving her to press through that crowd and
to come to the feet of Jesus and to put her hand out and touch
the hem of his garment? It was her faith. It was her
faith. And Jesus commends her for it.
Thy faith hath made thee whole. It was her faith that brought
her there. This is what it is to be in Christ. Not just to
believe in him, in that intellectual sense, but to be moved to him,
to come to him, Paul writes about it, doesn't
he, when he writes to the Hebrews, he describes his own experience. He says we have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us. It's not just that
we've had the hope set before us. It's not just that we've
accepted in our minds the truth of that hope. No, says Paul,
there has been a fleeing for refuge, a moving, a motion. Faith without works is dead,
says James. There is a kind of faith which is a dead faith.
When a man says, oh yes, I know all about Jesus Christ, I believe
in him. But there's no coming, there's no fleeing for refuge. Safety is in Christ, not outside
him. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. We're told in the Proverbs, the righteous runneth into it
and is safe. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Notice, Paul says, if any man
be in Christ. This is not an experience that
is reserved just for a few of those who are high up in the
church. He's not just talking about apostles and prophets and
ministers and teachers and preachers. If any man be in Christ, male
or female, young or old, rich or poor, educated or uneducated,
It's not just for people from one nation, not just for people
from one denomination, not just for people from one background.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. This is true
of them all. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. What's the effect? Well, he gives
us two, doesn't he? Old things are passed away. Old
things are passed away. What are these old things that
will pass away when a man knows that fleeing to Christ? Well, the old thoughts of God
will pass away. There's many wrong views of God,
aren't there? You ask people in the world what God is like
and they'll give you all sorts of strange ideas. There are those
who think of him as someone far off. who, as it were, wound up
the world and set it going and then has turned his eyes away
and is not interested anymore. Well, if we think of God like
that, we won't come in the way that the apostle is talking about
here. If we have wrong views of ourselves,
we won't come in the way that the apostle is talking about
here. If we think that we can manage our own sins and bring
ourselves to heaven by our own works, There'll be no fleeing
to the refuge. If Noah hadn't believed the flood
was coming, and if Noah hadn't believed that there was no other
way for him to escape it, he would never have come into the
ark. If the woman with the issue of blood had believed that there
was some other way that she could deal with her condition, if she thought that by her own
work she could cure herself, she would never have come to
Christ in the way that she came. Old things have passed away,
old thoughts, old priorities, old motivation. Don't we see
it in Paul? Look at the difference it made
when he became a Christian. He was a very religious man before, but he was trusting in himself.
He was like that Pharisee in the parable. He was trusting
in himself that he was righteous. You see him there on the Damascus
road. What a difference it makes. Look at the question he asks.
Now he says, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He wants
to do the will of God. Now he delights in the law of
God after the inward man. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. New thoughts. New thoughts of
God. New thoughts of Christ. New thoughts
of self. New priorities. A new motive. Doesn't Paul describe it when
he writes to the Philippians and he talks about his background? He talks about how he had been
of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the
Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. But now he says,
what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ,
yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dung. He counts
them but dung, rubbish, something to be cast away, that I may win
Christ. He has a new motive. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things have become new. Well, notice the order. Paul
is not saying that when a man becomes new, then he is put into
Christ. No, he says, if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature already. Old things are already
passed away. All things have become new. The
order is important. It's not that the Christian is
to believe and then is given new life as a reward for it.
That's how they will put these things sometimes. You go onto
the websites of some churches and you look at their doctrines
and they put it in a very disingenuous way. They say things like this, they
say Jesus Christ is exalted and he gives new life to all those
who repent and believe. Well, we have to ask the question,
how is it that they repent and believe before they're given
new life? We're not to make people offenders
for a word and we're not to cut people off and condemn them because
they perhaps have a slightly imperfect understanding of the
mechanisms of salvation or can't put it into very clear words.
We're not to cut people off because they haven't grasped the truth
in the same way that we think we have. But the order is important. New life is not given to those
who believe. If they believe, they already
have the new life. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. But
notice, if you have a margin in your Bible, Just in closing,
notice that there is an exhortation hidden in this verse. We're told
that the translation could be put like this. Therefore, if
any man be in Christ, let him be a new creature. Let him be
a new creature. And surely when we have a verse
which can be translated in two different ways, Surely it's really
telling us that both are true, often. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. That's a fact. Something has happened to him.
He has been changed. But the apostle is also putting
across the point that there's no room for complacency. It's
not that the Christian is made a new creature and now he can
sit down and relax. If that were the case, the epistles
would be much shorter, wouldn't they? There wouldn't be need
for all these exhortations that Paul so often fills his epistles
with. If it was true that the Christian is put into this life
and then it just happens automatically. He's constantly exhorting the
church, isn't he? To do things, to live in a certain
way, to do this and not that. You can't read the epistles without
coming across these exhortations. Look at how he writes to the
Ephesians. He doesn't just say, well, now your loins are being
girt about with truth. Everything will be okay. No,
he says, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.
He doesn't just say, well, you've been given faith. Now you can
sit down and there's no need to do anything else. No, he says,
take the shield of faith. Take it. Take the helmet of salvation.
Take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. There's a narrow line to be trod
here, isn't there? We're not to give the impression
that the Christian works himself up to heaven by his own efforts. But we also have to be very wary
of thinking that the Christian life
is something that happens automatically. And there are those who teach
that. I remember hearing someone putting it like this. They say
some people, they think of faith almost like a thermostat. You
know that you have a thermostat in your house and you set the
temperature to what you want and when it gets cold and the
temperature falls below it, the thermostat clicks and the heating
comes on. Well, this man said, some people
think that the Christian life is like that. That when you come
into trouble as a Christian, It's almost as if your faith
just turns on by itself. And there's no need to do anything.
You can remain where you were, passive. And this Christian life, it would
just happen automatically. Well, that's very contrary to
the teaching of the New Testament, isn't it? Very contrary to the
teaching of Paul. He says, fight the good fight
of faith. He says there is a fight to be fought, there is a battle
to be won. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Let him be a new creature. He's
not saying to the Corinthians, what you must do is pretend to
be new creatures. He's not just saying, think of
yourselves as new creatures and then perhaps you'll be able to
behave like them. No, he says to them, you are new creatures,
behave like a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Let him behave like one. Let
him remember that old things are passed away. Let him remember
that all things are become new. Let him remember that all things
are of God. Let him remember that he has reconciled us to
himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. This is the only real antidote
to sin, isn't it? You read through the experiences
of so many Christians of the past and you will find that the
thing really that enabled them to resist temptation was not
the threatenings of the law of God, but it was a sight of the
love of God in Christ. It's not that they were scared
out of sinning, it's that they were loved out of it. And they saw what Christ went
through on account of sin. And they thought, well, how can
I do this? How can I do this great wickedness and sin against
God, when he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that I may be made the righteousness of God in him? These are the
things to set our eyes upon, says Paul. Look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. The things
which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. Behold, all things are become new. Old things
have passed away, sin has been put away. The message of the
Gospel is a message of reconciliation, of sins forgiven. If any man be in Christ, let
him be a new creature. how we have to pray for grace
to live as we should as Christians if we know anything of this change
that the Apostle is talking about, this new creature, the passing
away of the old things, all things becoming new. That's not the
end of the journey. That's not the end of a man's
Christian experience. It's the start of it. There is
still a fight to be fought. There is still a battle to be
won. There is no room for complacency. Backsliding is a real danger
for the Christian. And very often, if not always,
backsliding is the fault of the Christian. It's not something
that happens to him. It's something that he brings upon himself.
We can all make excuses for our sins, can't we? And we can do
it inadvertently sometimes. You read some people writing
about their sins and they say, I was left to it, almost as if
it's the fault of God. Well, there's some truth in that.
Of course there is. But we have to be very careful
about giving the impression that anyone is to blame other than
ourselves for our sins. Those says the apostle, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Let him be a new creature. We need to pray for grace to
do that, to obey that exhortation, to live as Christians should.
We're going to sing about it in a few moments in our closing
hymn. The hymn writer, he knew something about this struggle,
this conflict. Charles Wesley has to say, when
shall thy love constrain this heart thy own to be? When shall the wounded spirit
gain a healing rest in thee? He looks at himself and he sees
himself as one who is always wandering to and fro. What is it that he reminds himself
of? My worthless heart to gain, the
God who gave me breath, was found in fashion as a man and died
a cursed death. Then may I sinful say, the world
for thee resign. And he has to pray this gracious
Redeemer, take, O take and seal me ever thine. Because this experience
that the apostle is talking about is not a once in a lifetime experience.
It's something that we need continually to be renewed. Not just to come to that fountain
that's opened once, but to come to it daily and hourly and moment
by moment. That believing into Christ is
not something that the Christian does once and for all. There
is a first time, of course, but it's not the only time. That's
why it's called a fight of faith. We have to continually come,
to continually believe into him, to continually flee into that
refuge. and come to that fountain. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. May God bless his word to us.
Amen.