Let's go back to that passage
he read, 2 Corinthians 5. And this evening I want to talk
to you about new creatures in Christ. And that would be verse
17, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 reads, Therefore if any man be
in Christ, He is a new creature. That is, He's a new creation. Old things are passed away. And then He says, Behold, all
things are become new. Ask God to bless again. Lord,
we We feel our need of the Spirit
of God because you've made us to know of our own sinfulness
and weakness and depravity. And here we are gathered together,
a group of people, folks who are watching, joining us by way
of the internet. Lord, we want to think about
yourself about the Savior, about all that He's done for us. We want to think lofty thoughts
of our Lord, and yet we find that there is
within us opposition that rises up, it's our own flesh. Lord, forgive us for what we
are by nature and grant unto us that we would be so blessed
as to think for a bit on what you've done for us through
Christ Jesus. We are truly a helpless people. We're to be pitied. There's no
goodness, no soundness in us. And Lord, we spread our case
before you. Look on us in mercy. And then
sovereign saving grace, and give to us the delightful
privilege of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. We ask that you'll now take the
things of Christ, O Spirit of grace, and would you show them
unto us and let us go away in a little bit rejoicing in the
Lord, rejoicing in your grace to us, rejoicing that you have
loved us with an everlasting love, and that you always care
for us, you always think of us, and you've said you'll never
leave us, and you'll never forsake us. Oh, how good and gracious
you are to us. We thank you and we ask these
things for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In the book of Ecclesiastes,
a man whom God said was the wisest man who ever lived, that is Solomon,
he wrote, the things that have been and that which is, Let me start again, the things
that have been shall be, and that which is done is that which
shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. And he's right, there is no new
thing under the sun as far as natural things, natural things. But that is not right when it
comes to spiritual things. You see, our God is the God of
creation. The Bible begins, in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth. He spake and it was done. He called He called into existence
this earth and the heaven, and all that in them is, He did so
out of nothing, out of nothing. We can't create anything because
we use whatever we have at hand and put those things together. And we may say, or somebody may
say, well, I have this creation. Well, it isn't really the creation
in the strictest sense of the word because in order for creation
to take place, there was first of all, nothing. Only God can
make something out of nothing. But this is the creative act
of God is especially seen in our salvation. We are new creatures
in Christ Jesus. We didn't have any life. When
God the Spirit, when he came to work within us, he found nothing
with which he could work. There's no contribution that
any of us made to our salvation. There was nothing good in us,
so we couldn't contribute anything good. There wasn't anything worth
the while in us, so there wasn't anything we could give to God. There was nothing he could make
use of within us. It wasn't that God saw us and
then He decided He would work within us and He would redo what
was in us already. No, He didn't redo anything. We're a new creature in Christ
Jesus. He created life where there was
only death. He created light. where there was only darkness. And no one who has ever been
saved has ever made any contribution to that salvation which is of
God. That's the reason we read here
that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, he's a new
creation. Look over at Ephesians, the second
chapter. Here's how Paul writes to the
Ephesians, and we read a little bit of this this morning, but
here in Ephesians, the second chapter, look at verses eight,
nine, and 10. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, watch
it, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Those of you who know God, or
as the apostle writes, or who are known of God. Those of you
who believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus, those of you who
have laid a hold upon the Son of God for your righteousness,
for your salvation and your acceptance before God, you did those things. Yes, you believed. Yes, you did
repent. There's no question about that.
But those things did not naturally, they weren't within you naturally,
God gave you life and then you repented. God gave you life and
then you believed. These things, they start with
God and they end with God. That's the way it is in God's
salvation. He originated it. He purposed
it. And he perfects it. And in no
way along life's journey Do we make any contribution to our
acceptance by God or our righteous standing in the Lord Jesus or
this great salvation? We make no contribution in it. To God be the glory. The scripture says, great things
he hath done. You see, God specializes in doing
new things. New things. Do you remember back
in the Old Testament when three men, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,
they went to Moses and Aaron and said, you fellas got, you
got too big a workload and we're ready to take some of the work
off of you. We don't need you two fellas
very much really. And we'll be our own priests. and we'll minister to God. You fellas can just take it easy.
And of course, this was an insult to God. It was an insult to our
Lord Jesus Christ, because Moses was a picture of our Savior and
Aaron was a picture of our Savior. And what these men were saying
was, we don't need the Lord. We don't need anybody to stand
before, between us and God. We can do that ourselves. And of course, the Lord was angry,
Moses was angry. And in the end, the scripture says, in Numbers
16 and verse 30, and I'll read it to you. This is what Moses
said, if the Lord make a new thing, And the earth opens up
her mouth and just swallows these men. And all that appertained
to these men. And they go down quickly into
the pit. Then you shall understand that
the Lord has been provoked by these men. God did a new thing. He did a new thing. Hadn't ever
been done before. And the children of Israel must
have just gasped as they watched the earth open up. And there's
Korah and Dathan and Abiram and all things that appertained to
them, their tents. Everything just went down into
the pit and then God closed the earth over top of them. God can do new things. There's a verse of Scripture
in Isaiah 43 verse 19. God says, Behold, I will do a
new thing, and that shall it spring forth. Shall ye not know
it, I will even make a way in the wilderness. And He says,
And I'll make rivers in the desert. That's the grace of God. He makes
a way in the wilderness, Here we are in this wilderness of
sin, death, desolation. God says, I'll make a new way.
He makes a new way, a way to himself. Christ Jesus is that
way. And he makes rivers in the desert,
in your heart, which is a desert. which is a wilderness. There's
no life within you, and yet God, by his free and sovereign and
effectual grace, he makes rivers of water. It flows to you. God does that. That's a new thing
he does too. Jeremiah 31 verse 22, God says,
how long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? For the Lord created, the Lord
hath created a new thing in the earth. What is that new thing
God has created? A woman, she shall compass a
man. You know what that is? That's the virgin birth of our
Lord Jesus. That's a creative act of God. Every other baby that had been
born into this world was as a result of the union of a man and a woman. But God said, I'm going to do
a new thing. I'm going to create life a new
way. By the Spirit of God overshadowing
Mary. You remember in Acts chapter
17 when the apostle Paul was in Athens, and the scripture says that the
men of Athens, they loved to spend their time finding new things, new things. Well, I'll tell you what, they
heard something new that day that they'd never heard before.
They heard that God, God reigns. Paul said, I see you got a statue. You've got an image to the unknown
God. That's the God I want to preach
to you. And he did preach to them. I tell you, every person
who is born of God has experienced the new birth of creative act
within you. I know we're covered up today,
and we have been ever since false gospels came into being, but
we're covered up with decisionism, especially in the last 50, 60
years, walk the aisle for Jesus and you decide for God and things
of that nature. This matter of salvation, it's
a whole lot more than that. It's more than you change. Well,
I've changed my mind about Jesus. It's more than changing your
mind. Well, I think I'll let God do something for me. It's
not about you letting God do anything. I believe I'll go down
to the front. I'll go down to the front the
next time they sing some kind of invitation song, and I'll
just give my heart to Jesus. He don't want your heart. What's
He going to do with it? It's a filthy heart. It's a nasty
heart. It's an ungodly heart. It's a
wretched heart. He said, I don't want your heart.
I'll give you a new heart. That's what I'll do. That's what
God does. He gives a heart of faith. Now
this is a whole lot more than a man or a woman or a boy or
a girl doing something for God. This is a creative act of God. And we've gotten plum away from
that today in religion. One nationally known preacher,
he closes his broadcast every time with, I don't want to close
my broadcast without giving you a chance to be saved. You believe
on Jesus and if you believe on Jesus, we believe you just got
born again. Oh, that's not the new birth. If
you think it is, you're still dead in trespasses and sins. Look over here at John chapter
1. This new birth. What is this? Well, John chapter 1. You say,
preacher, don't you believe people receive the Lord Jesus? I know
they do. I've received Him. You received
Him, Alan? I've received Him. He's received
us, several of us in here tonight. We've received Him as prophet,
priest, and king. We've received Him as all of
our salvation. We've received Him as our righteousness. We've received Him who is the
Lord of glory. He finds a welcome within us. But how did that come to be?
Oh, due to a creative act of God. Look at John chapter one. Look at verse 11. Even verse
10. He was in the world, Christ.
And the world was made by him. Here's the creator came down
here. And the world knew him not. The
world did not perceive who he was. The world didn't understand. The world had no knowledge of
him. They knew Messiah was gonna be
born in Bethlehem. Herod called the chief priests
and said, where is he gonna be born? They said, in Bethlehem.
But when he came into this world, he wasn't received by anybody
except those in whose hearts God had created life. Look at
verse 11, he came into his own, his own world. This is his world,
he made it. His own nation, his own family,
his own kinfolk, he came into his own and his own received
him not. They said, we're not interested
in the Savior and you're not the Savior anyway, you're not
the Messiah. People said, we know who you
are, we know who your mom and dad are. Mary and Joseph, what
are you talking about being the son of God? Bunch of foolishness. They said, you blaspheming God. We're not gonna receive you.
But verse 12, as many as received him, there were some people who
received him. To them gave he authority or
privilege or power to become the sons of God. Well, who's
got this privilege? Those who believe on his name.
But that is not the end of the sentence. There's something that
preceded believing on his name. Which were born. Not of blood. Not because you
can trace your lineage to Abraham. You're born again not because
your mom and dad have been born again, nor of the will of the
flesh. Your flesh doesn't enter into the picture
here. Your will in bondage. Our Lord said, and you will not
come to me that you might have life. Don't tell me men have
a free will, women have a free will. God says your will's in
bondage. Not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man. Somebody else wants you to be
safe. Somebody else is praying for you. That's not the way the
new birth comes about. But of God. but of God. This is why we believe. And what
I'm trying to say is, if we embrace the gospel tonight, if the gospel
is indeed good news, it's not good news to everybody. To a
lot of people, it's news that they're not interested in. It's
news that they have no desire to know any more about. But if
the gospel of redeeming grace of the Savior who came into this
world and lived and died to satisfy divine justice, and He did it
for sinners, and He rose again because He paid the debt that
all those sinners in whose stead He died, they owed to God, if
that's good news to you, it's only because there's been an
operation of grace within you. Let me set before you in the
moments we have left some three things that I think, I hope they'll
help you. First of all, go back to our
text in 2 Corinthians 5. Here's the first thing, our safety
in Christ, in Christ. There's our safety. The believer's
safety is being in Christ. Thirdly, or secondly, the believer's
formation. We're a new creature in Christ. That is a new creation. And thirdly,
the believer's new relationships. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things are become new. First of all, the believer's
safety is in Christ. In Christ. Here's a valid question. Preacher,
the Bible talks about, you read in Ephesians chapter one this
morning, Ron read in Ephesians chapter one, in Christ, in whom,
those expressions are made several times there in Ephesians chapter
one. How did we come to be in Christ? That's a good question. If we're in Christ, how did we
come to be in Christ? Well, let me say first of all,
it was a work of God Himself. This is the work of God. And
I had you go back to 2 Corinthians, but now I want you to go to 1
Corinthians chapter 1. Because these words here, if
you read them honestly, you can't mistake what the Scripture says.
This was a work of God himself, that we're in Christ. Look at
1 Corinthians 1, look at verse 30. But of him, who's the him? And no use going any further
unless we understand these pronouns, of God. It's talking about God. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus. who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according
as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. This
is God's work. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ Jesus, you're
in Christ Jesus due to God Himself. Now, how long have we been in
Christ Jesus? Sometimes, to accommodate our very limited understanding, and
because we can't comprehend eternity, sometimes we'll say, God put
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But even that's
not right, is it? That's not right. We've always
been in Christ Jesus. That's something you can't handle.
You can't comprehend that. So we try all these different
words to put in there. I know it's a work of God and
so forth and so on, but really as long as there's been the Son
of God, that's how long we've been in Him. That's why justification
is eternal. It's got to be. Because He is
eternal. By divine election. And that
was something that's always been. we kind of put things in a chronological
order, because that's about the only way we can begin to commence
to get started to understanding these things. And we say, well,
the Lord chose us in Christ, and then He predestinated all
things, and then He redeemed us, but we've always been His
children. Does it not say of our savior
in Isaiah chapter nine and verse six, one of his names is the
everlasting father. Well, the everlasting father
has everlasting children. And that's us. This is of God. And I'll tell you, let me give
you several things here. There's no condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus, Romans chapter eight and verse one.
The reason we cannot be condemned, it is impossible for us to be
condemned because we've always been in Christ Jesus. Nothing can ever separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Read the end
of Romans chapter 8. To those who are in Christ Jesus,
there's a promise of a glorious resurrection. There's a promise
of eternal life. You see, to be in Christ Jesus
means we're in the hands of our eternal surety. The song, we've all sung it before. He's got the whole world in his
hands. He's got you and me, brother.
He's got you and me, sister, in his hands. We're in his hands,
that's right. And we've always been in his
hands. Always, from eternity. He's always been our surety.
He's always stood good for us. You see, God has never looked
to his children to make one single, even little contribution to our
salvation, never. Our surety bore full responsibility
for our salvation and our righteousness. And I know there's a sense in
which we say, well, we're responsible to God, but actually, Our Lord
Jesus was responsible to God for us. You think He's up for that task?
Oh, yes, He is. Yes, He is. To be in Christ is to be in His
loins. It's to be in His body. He's
the head. He's the head of all things to
the church. and we're his body. How long
have we been his body? As long as he's been the head,
we've been the body. To be in Christ is to be in his
heart. We're in his heart. Do you remember Aaron? He had
the breastplate. That's one of the things he wore.
Aaron, the high priest of Israel, breastplate, 12 precious stones. Boy, he always wore that when
he is ministering to God on behalf of the people. He bore the children
of Israel, as it were, close to his heart. Our Lord Jesus
bears us close to his heart. You ever say, you husbands and
wives, say to one another, honey, I love you with all my heart. Let me tell you something. Our
Lord Jesus loves us with all His heart. He loves me that way. He loves
all of his people that way. And to be in Christ means that
we're always on his mind. He has nothing but thoughts of
love toward us. Look at this reference. Look
at Jeremiah 29. This is a promise of God to the
children of Israel when they were in captivity. But this is
beautiful as we understand this also that he's speaking about
spiritual Israel. Look at the book of Jeremiah
chapter 29 in verse 10. For thus saith the Lord, that
after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I'll visit you. You're going into captivity,
but I will visit you. and I will perform my good word
toward you in causing you to return to this place. For I know
the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord. What kind
of thoughts are they, Lord? Thoughts of peace, not of evil. to give you an expected end,
to give you a desired end. And that's both your desire and
moreover, it's his desire. He's gonna give you your desired
end, you who are the people of God, you who long to be with
Christ, you who long to be without sin. He's gonna give you your
expected end one of these days. and you'll rejoice to be in his
presence. But this is the end that he desires,
that you be with him. He says in John 17 in his high
priestly prayer, Father, I will that those whom thou has given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. That's
the end he desires. We're in him. We're in Him. So there's our safety. And here's
the second thing, the believer's formation. It says we're a new
creature in Christ Jesus, a new creation. Now, we're the people
of God by God's sovereign purpose, we know that. We're the people
of God by special purchase. Our Lord Jesus has purchased
us from the justice of God. And all of the people of God
are His by special, very special power. He's made us alive and
He gave us the gifts of faith and repentance. All of the people
of God are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Go back
over to our text there in 2 Corinthians chapter five and look what he
has to say here in chapter five, verse 21. Chapter five, verse
21. for He, God, the Father." Nothing is said here about what
you did, about what you contributed, or what I did, or what I contributed. No. We don't even enter into
the picture except that we're the recipients of this grace.
That's all. God did something. What did God
do? God made Him to be sin for us. Who did that? God did that. All the sins of all of his people
were heaped on the Lord Jesus. Isaiah 53 verse six, all we like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord had laid on him or made to meet on him
the iniquities of us all. who as it were gathered up all
the iniquities of all of his people of all ages and then laid
them on his son. God did that. He laid them on him who knew
no sin. Well, why did God do that? Well, it was that we might be
made or in order that we would be made the righteousness of
God in that one on whom He laid our sin. And there's a marvelous
transfer here. We call it, the Bible calls it
imputation. so that all of the sins, all
of the iniquities of all of the elect of God of all ages were
given to, imputed to, laid to the charge of the Lord Jesus
and he suffered, bled and died as though he himself were guilty
because he was guilty by imputation. And that righteousness that he
established by satisfying God That's put over dire count. And in the books of heaven, God
looks at the books. James Ferguson Byrd, born January
11th. Oh man, I got a birthday next
week. January 11th, 1951. Died whatever, whenever that
is. And God says, let's see here
what it says in the book about this fellow. Perfect righteousness. Come on in. Perfect righteousness. There's not a blot against my
name. You know, when we used to count,
go one, two, three, four, right? Make five. How many sins you
think you've had over the course of your life? more than you can ever imagine. But in the books of God, nary
one. And all that's written there
is perfectly righteous. Now what do you think about that?
That's why this gospel is good news, you see. It's good news. Our Lord Jesus suffered, bled,
and died for us. You see, let's put it this way. Since we're in Christ and we've
always been in Him, we've established that already, that means that
when He went to the cross of Calvary, we were in Him. And when He suffered, we suffered. It's just like Noah and his wife
and his sons and his daughters-in-law and all of the animals, when
they were in the ark, the wrath of God fell on the ark, so in
a sense it fell on them, because they were in the ark. Well, all
of the judgment of God fell on Christ, and we were in Him, so
it fell on us. We've already died to the law
of God in the Savior. Justice has already been satisfied. And justice, once satisfied,
will never come calling again. Never. Jesus paid it all. all the debt
I owed. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. We're
in him. That's our safety. That's our
safety. And then, let me just give this
to you quickly. The believer's new relationships. And notice what he says here
in verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. New creation. Old things are
passed away. Behold. This is shocking. That's why he says, Behold. All
things are become new. Now, he doesn't say old things
are passing away. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say the old nature
is passing away. He doesn't say that. See, we use that expression passed
away to express death. The old nature is not dying.
First of all, it's already dead. But it's sure enough not getting
any better. There are a lot of people who
are under the mistaken notion that when Peter wrote there in
2 Peter 3 about, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus, that that means that the new nature is growing
and the old nature is growing weaker. No, the old nature is
not growing weaker. It's rotten to begin with, it's
gonna be rotten till you die. It's not passing away either.
It's still opposed to the new man. That's the reason we have
a war within, a constant battle within. So whatever it is that
has passed away, it's not the old nature and it's not the old
man. Well then, what has passed away? Our old relationship to
Adam has passed away. It's died. We have a new standing
in Christ Jesus. In the first Adam, we fell and
became sinful, but in Christ Jesus, that relationship to the
first Adam is legally dead and gone. It's passed away. And our old relationship to the
law of God has passed away. The law of God makes demands. be perfect or die. That's it. Doesn't say do the best you can.
The law of God that I have offended, the law of God that I have broken
has been satisfied by my Savior. Therefore, the law of God having
executed my substitute has no issue with me whatsoever. Because the Word of God says
in 1 Timothy, the law of God was not made for a righteous
man, but for the ungodly. And you can say what you will,
but you're looking at a righteous man. So, well, you don't look
righteous to me. Well, I know. And I don't look righteous to
me. But the way I view things, that doesn't change the way things
really are. I'm righteous in God's sight,
and that's the only sight that matters. I'm dead to the law. I've already
died to it. The law says, well, I got nothing
to do with you. I already executed you. As Brother Toplady said, twice
payment God will not demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
hand, and then again at mine. Can't be. And I'll tell you something else
that passed away. Our old, stony, calloused heart has been taken
away and God's given us a new heart and a new spirit. He's
given us a heart of faith. Our old relationship with the
powers of darkness have passed away. We were blinded by Satan. We were held captive at his will,
but we're not blind anymore. We're not held captive by his
will anymore. That's passed away. We've been
liberated. If Christ has made you free,
hey, you're really free. You're free indeed. And our old relationship to these
false gospels, that's passed away too. We used to embrace
them. Now we have no use for them at
all. I don't listen to them, no, no. See, when he says here, If any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. The word new certainly
blends in beautifully with our Lord Jesus Christ and the new
covenant of grace. In him, everything's new. It's
new. And we have new views, new views
of things, new ambitions, new purpose, new goals, new affections,
Led by a new spirit, we follow a new course of life. Our goal before was whatever
pleases me. Our goal now is, oh, enable me
to glorify God. That's new. That's new. If any man be in
Christ, are you in Christ? If you're in Christ, you're a
new creature. Old things have passed away,
behold, all things have become new. Thank God for what he's done
for us, what he's still doing for us. And what he will yet
do for us in Christ, he gonna take us home to glory. And I'll
tell you what, if you're a child of God, as soon as you die, the
gates of heaven are going to swing wide open for you. You're
not going to barely make it in. Like a fellow said, if I can
just get into heaven by the skin of my teeth, and nobody gets
in that way. And you're not going to sneak
in. If you get there, the gates of glory will open wide and the
Son of God is going to welcome you and say, Welcome home. I bought you, I chose you, I
bought you, I called you, and I'm gonna make you perfect. And
you won't ever have to worry about sin again. New creatures
in Christ. Bless, Lord, the words that have
gone forth. Encourage your people. There's
so much, Lord, in ourselves and in this world to discourage us.
Oh, but may we be encouraged in Christ Jesus, our savior,
who took our sin and died under your wrath and then was raised
again because he had justified us by his death. And he ever
lives to make intercession for us. He's ascended back to heaven
and really in him we ascended with him. and we're seated there
in glory. That's how certain it is that
we're gonna wind up in everlasting glory. We sure do thank you,
Father, from the, as we say, the bottom of our hearts for
all that you've done for us unworthy sinners. Oh, and well may we
sing to God be the glory, great things He hath done. We pray these things for Christ's
sake.