Turn with me, if you would, back
to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, being that this is the first
Sunday of a new year, I felt that this was an appropriate
scripture for our message this morning. Let's read verse 17
together. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, Behold,
all things are become new. Doesn't that sound nice? Doesn't
that sound so nice? To a sinful soul who God has
revealed to him or her something of what he or she truly is in
the flesh. God reveals that to his people
and whoever he has revealed that to, nothing sounds more wonderful
than that right there. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold. all things are become new." Now,
what I want to try to clearly set forth this morning is everything
that pertains to this flesh is old, and everything that pertains
to Christ is new. Everything that pertains to this
flesh was old, It is old and it will always
be old. In the future, everything that
pertains to this flesh will be old. It has nothing to do with tense
or time. Everything about this flesh is
old. This is the old man. In that same regard, everything
that pertains to Christ is new. It was new. Way back in eternity past. Way
back in eternity past, all right? Before the foundation of the
world. Everything that pertained to Christ was new. It right now is new, and I hope
this will be a blessing to you. I'm gonna repeat this at the
end of the message, but it will forever be new, always. It always was, it is, and it
will always be to the child of God, New to God's people, the
old paths of the gospel, you know, Solomon wrote, give us
the old paths, the old paths of the gospel of Christ to God's
people. They're always new. God's people know that He is
from everlasting. This is why I said I'm gonna
try to clearly set this forth. Old and new, okay? God's people
know He's from everlasting. They know that He is the Ancient
of Days. But every time they see Him and
hear Him in His Word, and it's not every time they open it,
I wish it was one day it will be. But right now it's every
time his spirit comes and blesses this word and they truly see
him and hear him in the word. Every time they have a moment
to really think on him. Every time they are caused to
be reminded of what he did for them. And what they have in Him, because
of Him, every time, it is so fresh. So fresh in their hearts, so
fresh in their minds, so fresh in their souls. It's brand new. You ever find that to be so?
Like it's brand new again. Every time God's people truly
hear the gospel message of Christ, they may have heard it 10,000
times before, but every single time it truly
reaches their soul, it's brand new. It's brand new. And this is what they cry. This
is what all of God's people cry. Tell me the old, old story of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His love for sinners like me. Tell me the old, old story again. How many times have you showed up
to a place and sat in a pew to hear that same old story, what
did you want to hear when you came this morning? Tell me the
old, old story of Jesus Christ and His love for sinners like
me. Why do you want to hear that
again? Why do you want to hear that again? It's because to my
soul, the Spirit of God has made it to be brand new. Brand new. We're just saying it. Tell me
the story simply. God's people want to hear it
simply. It's to a little child. That's
what I am. Tell me the story slowly. Tell me the story often. How often do you want to hear
the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for His beloved
bride? How often would you like to hear
that? Every time we come. Tell me the story softly. Tell
me the story always. Tell me that same old story.
because it's so brand new to my soul. Every word about my
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is brand spanking new to my soul. We have another song in our hymnal.
It's called, I Love to Tell the Story. And I love that song. This is the last verse of that
song. It says, I love to tell the story for those who know
it best. And I agree with that. Actually, I love to tell the
story to those who've never heard it before, too. But I still love
to tell the story for those who know it best. The song says,
they seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And
when in scenes of glory, when the Lord delivers me, and I'm
there in His home, When in scenes of glory I sing the new, new
song, t'will be the old, old story that I have loved so long."
It's the old, old story of the Lord Jesus Christ and His love
for His people and what that love in Him caused Him to do
for His people. Every time a child of God hears
it, it brings new life, It brings new hope. It brings a new refreshing
every single time. The ancient message of Christ,
that message is, He is the newness of life itself to every one of
His people. I don't believe it could be better
said than in this way. Years ago, a dear brother who
the Lord has now called home, also from Danville, Kentucky,
Bob Poncer. If you did not have the privilege
of meeting him, look forward to it. He's a precious soul.
But one Sunday, Brother Larry Criss was filling the pulpit.
And just before the service started, Brother Bob Poncer came up behind
him, leaned up behind him and whispered in his ear, he said,
Brother Larry, Do you have something new and stale for us, or old
and fresh?" What he was saying was, are you
going to preach the staleness of the work that man must do
for salvation? Or are you going to preach the
freshness of the finished work of Jesus Christ for the salvation
of His people? You're not going to preach man,
are you? You're going to preach Christ, right? Now, I set all of that up in
this way to say this. Christ is not new. This is important. We need to know this. Christ
is not new. But everything about old, wretched,
sinful man that is new is Christ. Christ is not new. But everything
about this old man that is new is Christ. Verse 17 says, therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become Christ new. All things have become Christ.
When salvation comes to a child of God, everything becomes Christ. Christ becomes everything. And
I'm going to repeat that. I pray the Lord will let us get
a hold of this. Let's ask the Lord to let us
get a hold of this. When salvation comes to a child of God, everything
becomes Christ. and Christ becomes everything.
What's my doctrine? Christ. What's my hope? Christ. What's
my life? Christ. When salvation comes to a child
of God, at that moment, everything becomes Christ. New. It's all Christ. Christ becomes
everything. Before salvation is revealed
to one of God's own, All that's there is the old man. That's
all that's there. With his old flesh and his old
sin clinging to his old ways of death and destruction. That's
all that's there. But when Christ comes to a center,
everything becomes brand new. It's all brand new. Oh, that
men and women understood this. Oh, that they understood this.
Salvation is not becoming better. Salvation is becoming new. Salvation is not in this old
flesh being renovated and remodeled like you do to an old house.
That's not what salvation is. Salvation is in this flesh passing
away. being done away with, and Christ
making all things in himself brand spanking new, brand new. Go with me if you would to Galatians
6, Galatians chapter 6. Galatians 6 verse 14 says, But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Crucified to
the world. Crucified to the world. The Apostle
Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. This old man and his
old flesh passed away. That's what happened. Passed
away. Died with Christ on the cross
of Calvary. That's what happened. That's
what Christ was doing when He took upon Himself the likeness
of our old nature, our old flesh, and hung on the cross with it
and died. He was putting away all of our
old. That's what He was doing. Putting
away all of the old. And He was establishing and creating
all things brand new. Everything for us, brand new.
That's what happened when He walked out of that tomb. Brand
new. Everything was brand new. All
things for His people. So verse 14 right here. Says,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. For in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature. Circumcision, uncircumcision,
it doesn't matter what you do with his flesh. It does not matter
what you do with it. The only hope that any sinner
has before God is that Christ put away our flesh on the cross
of Calvary and all things pertaining to us in Him are brand new. That's the only hope. We've been
made to be new creatures, new creations in Him. That's the
only hope we have, and in Him we have been. We've been made
brand new. Just listen to some of these
scriptures. In Jeremiah 31, 31, he said, I'm going to make a
new covenant with you. And it's this covenant right
here. He said, it's not the covenant of the law. It's the covenant
of grace. It's not the covenant of your
works. It's the covenant of my works. The covenant that you broke,
he said, it's not going to be altered. It's going to be brand
new, make a new covenant, brand new. In Ezekiel 36 verse 26,
he said, I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to take out your old
stony heart and your wicked spirit. And I'm going to put my heart
and my spirit in you. I'm going to get rid of it. I'm not going to make your heart
better. I'm going to take it out and throw it away. And I'm
going to give you a new one. I'm gonna give you a brand new
heart. I'm gonna make a new covenant. We'll put a new heart and a new
spirit in you. In Isaiah 62 verse two, he said,
I'm going to give you a new name. He said, your name used to be
termed forsaken and desolate, but now you're going to be called
married. And my delight is in her brand
new name. In Psalm 96 verse 1, he said,
I'm going to give you a new song to sing. That old song is about
everything that sinners have done for God. That's the old
song. And it's sung all over the place. Everything that sinners
have done for God. The new song is about everything
God has done for sinners. Don't you love that song that
our brother wrote where he got rid of the old lyrics and he
wrote some brand spanking new lyrics, made a brand new song
out of it. The old lyrics went like this. All to Jesus, I surrender. All to him, I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him
in His presence daily live. That's the decision I made. I
decided to do that, okay? That's a commitment that I made.
I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee,
my blessed Savior, I surrender all. That's the old song. That's
the song God said, I'm throwing that one away. I reject that
song. I'm getting rid of that song.
The new song sounds like this. All for me, Christ did surrender. All for me, He freely gave. Holy One made sin for sinners. By His death, my soul is saved. He surrendered all. He surrendered
all. All to be my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. And that's exactly what He did.
When He made everything brand new for His people, He surrendered
Himself to everything that was old in us and about us. so that He could create everything
new in us and about us. Everything new. God forbid that
we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. God
forbid. Turn the page to Ephesians chapter
two, verse 15. Ephesians two, verse 15 says, having abolished in His flesh
the enmity being at odds, being enemies, having abolished in
his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself up twain one new man,
so making peace." That's what he made with us in himself, one
new man. A brand new man, so making peace.
Look back at 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 18 says, "...and all things are up God,
who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." All things
are up God. God has done all these things.
"...who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." How
did He do that? How did God reconcile us to Himself
by Jesus Christ? Look down at verse 21. He hath
made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. He took our old upon
Himself so that He could place His new upon us. We were just told about an exchange.
Our sin for His righteousness, an exchange. That's what He did
for us on the cross of Calvary. Our sin, and here's the thing
to know about that, He took all of it. Our sin, He took all of
it. His righteousness, how much did
He give? All of it. Is that not amazing? Our sin
for His righteousness. Back up in our text, verse 17
says, Therefore, therefore, If any man be in Christ, placed
by God the Father in Christ, placed in His choice, placed
in His love, placed in His blood, placed in His mercy, placed in
His compassion, placed in His forgiveness, in Him, if any man
be in Him. Paul told the Philippians, oh,
that I might win Christ and be found in Him. If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Everything about me in my flesh
is put away, done away with, gone. You know how we're always
so worried about our flesh? I am. And you are too, because
you tell me you are. We're always so worried about
our flesh. Everything about my flesh has been put away, done
away with. Yeah, but I'm so, I know, gone. But why do I still? I don't know. I do know, but just bear with
it. It's already put away. It's already
gone. Verse 17 goes on to say, old
things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. All things, all things in Christ
are brand new. And in him, that's what we have
to look forward to for all eternity. All right. I told you this at
the beginning. Now this is the end. And I hope we enter into
this. Do you ever think about eternity?
Our brother just again, pointed out how weak we are in the flesh,
that we can't make it through one message without wandering,
veering, the brain saying, yeah, I heard that before. You ever
worry that you might lose interest after a few billion years? You
ever worry that eternity, like how much can you really learn?
How much, you ever worry about that? All right, listen, this
is what God has made it to be. For all eternity, Christ will
forever be brand new. Wow. You're going to look at
Him and go, wow. You see that? Wow. Never seen
that before. How many times have you looked
at it? A hundred million trillion gazillion. I've never heard that before. Is that not amazing? Is grace
not amazing? Moses, isn't grace amazing? Moses, have you ever heard that
before? Not like that. Tell us that again. It's brand
new. It's all brand spanking new.
For all eternity, forever. It's going to be brand new. All
right, let me close with this. Go with me to Revelation 21. Revelation 21, verse 1 says,
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, For the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." In
Christ we have a new heaven and a new earth, a new city, A new
dwelling place. In Him we have a new dwelling
place. Verse 3, And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them,
and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with
them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away." Every old thing is passed away. All former things, all former
events, all former emotions. Every former thing that ruined
this old man will be done away with forever. Verse five, and
he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write, for
these words are true and faithful. All things new. All things new. Everything new. And what is new? What did we
say at the beginning of the message new was? Christ. Behold, I make all things Christ. I make everything Christ. Everything Christ. In Christ. Like Christ. with Christ. Behold, I make Christ to be all
in everything. And every soul in him cries,
Amen. Do away with me. Amen. Get rid of me. So be it, to Him be all the glory,
to Jesus Christ alone be glory forever. God forbid that we should
glory in anything but the new creation of Christ, that He's
made His people to be in Himself, unto Himself, for His glory,
our good. Amen. All right, Brother Eddie,
you come.