Open your Bibles with me to 2
Corinthians chapter 5. This morning I want to deal with one
verse, verse 17, concerning the gospel
of the new creation. The gospel of the new creation.
Now, as we've looked at this chapter, and I'm obviously taking
my time going through it, because there's so much that's important
here, Paul has been describing the gospel ministry. And he's
talking about the aim of the gospel ministry here, the goal
of it. He talked about that in verse
15, talking about the death of Christ, verses 14 and 15. Verse
14, he said, for the love of Christ constraineth us. those
were constrained and and look at it this way both negatively
and positively uh... we who know christ we who are
truly in him believers our motivation what not what is it that motivates
us to live onto the lord to live a godly life to to live obedient
life well it's not legalism That's wicked in the sight of God. It's
not threats of punishment and promises of mercenary reward. We're not hirelings. Our debt's
paid by Christ on the cross. Our righteousness is established
by Christ on the cross. We stand upon his merits. The earning power of the gospel
is not with us, it's with Christ. the wages of sin is death but
the gift of God is eternal life through Christ so it's not legalism
that that uh... motivates us it's the love of
God in Christ and it's our love for Him shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit and that and listen I'll tell you that's a
struggle now that doesn't come naturally I've heard preachers
say you know it's just as natural for a believer to to pray or
to worship sometimes you have a struggle there All the time
you have a struggle there. And don't, you know, be honest.
That's one thing that really drew me to the gospel when I
first started coming here. I didn't have to lie anymore.
I didn't have to pretend anymore to be something that I'm not.
And then what constrains us to put away sin, to fight sin? What
is it that motivates us in this warfare of the flesh and the
spirit? It's the love of Christ. It's grace. I say it like this
all the time. Grace and gratitude and love. Not law, but grace, gratitude,
and love. And so keep that in mind. And
he says in verse 14, because we thus judge that if one died
for all, then we're all dead. Then all died, literally. He's
talking about Christ's death for his people. The all dying
for all and the all dead there, that's Christ dying for his sheep.
And so when he died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
When he arose again, we arose again. That's important. Verse
15, And that he died for all, all his people, the elect of
God, that they which live, that is, live spiritually, and that
life comes from his death. Spiritual life. You must be born
again. That's the fruit and the result. The product. of what Christ accomplished on
Calvary, that they which live should not henceforth or from
this time forth live unto themselves, live selfishly, live in a way
that pleases ourselves, but we should live unto Him, but unto
Him, unto His glory, unto His pleasure, unto His Word. That's
the goal, you see. That's why we preach the Gospel. That's why we worship together
and learn His Word because we want our lives to be to His praise
and to His glory. And He who died for them and
rose again, verse 16, wherefore henceforth know we no man after
the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh,
yet now henceforth know we Him no more. These issues of spiritual
life, these things of living under the Lord cannot be judged
That's gospel judgment. That's what he's talking about
there. Cannot be judged by what we see with these physical eyes. And I think I mentioned last
week the book of Job. Job was a justified man. It's
amazing to me that when God says something, preachers want to
argue over it anyway. But I've heard preachers argue
about whether or not Job was saved at the beginning of the
book. Well God says he was an upright
and just man. And that he feared God and escheweth,
that means he flees from evil. Now what does God say about an
unregenerate person? There's no fear of God before
his eyes. Romans 3.18. He said Job fears God. God said that. Now why do I want
to argue about that? Yeah, he had a lot of trouble.
He went through a lot of trouble. And he didn't understand it.
He messed up a lot. He said a lot of wrong things.
Said a lot of right things. Sounds like us, doesn't it? But
that's the way it is. God said it. But here's Job's
suffering. And here's three of his self-righteous,
legalistic, fair-sake friends come along and say, now Job,
you've sinned and that's why God's punishing you. That's not
why God allowed Satan to do what he did to Job. They didn't see
it. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. We know no man after the flesh. You say, we don't,
we can't judge that way. Well, how do we judge? Well,
look at verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, and
that's a phrase that you ought to get a hold of and learn. Ephesians chapter one is one
of the greatest commentaries on that, to be in Christ. He's
a new creature or a new creation. That is, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, a new creation. That's how that would read. A
new creation. And that's why I call this the
gospel of the new creation. And then he says, well, old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now the first thing that you
have to know to understand what he's talking about is to know
what it is to be in Christ. Now, what does that mean, to
be in Christ? Well, as I said, you can look
at Ephesians chapter 1. We won't turn there this morning
because we don't have time. But let me give you these three
things about being in Christ. Number one, that means He's your
representative before God. It's the gospel of representation. In other words, I cannot stand
before God on my own. And that's what people who deny
Christ, that's what they're doing. If I seek to go before a holy
God without a proper, able, God-appointed representative, then what's going
to happen? I'll be doomed forever. Without
Christ. That's it. There's nothing but
eternal damnation. Now that's so. There's only one
representative that god has appointed there's only one representative
who's able to do for me what i cannot do for myself satisfied
the law and justice of god there's only one representative who is
willing to stand for people like me centers who don't deserve
anything from god but damnation and that's the lord jesus christ
he's my representative i stand in him I'm in Christ as he's
my representative. No preacher's my representative.
First Corinthians, they were dividing over preachers. And
I think that's one of Satan's greatest deceptions, to have
people divide over preachers. And Paul, when he opened up the
first letter to Corinth, he said, well, did Paul die for you? No. Does Paul save you? No. Were you baptized in the
name of Paul? Then why divide over men? They're
not your representative. Think about this. Somebody said,
well, when I get to heaven, I want to see the Apostle Paul. Well,
you'll see the Apostle Paul, but you won't. You know what?
I've thought about this a lot. When we get to glory, when our
minds, and we can't even imagine what this is like, when our minds
are changed to perfection, You know, we'll have no more joy
over seeing Paul than seeing old Joe Blow over there. It'll
all be the same. You know, we worship Christ,
not Paul. Somebody said, I want to see
Paul and I want to say, Paul, what did you mean there in Ephesians
chapter? That's crazy. You'll just look to Christ. That's
what that's all about, you see. He's my representative. Now here's
the second thing about to be in Christ. If any man be in Christ,
that means he's my substitute. He's my surety. Not only does
he represent me before God, but he actually took my place. It's a gospel of substitution.
Remember the high priest in old Israel? He was the representative
of Israel. Had the 12 tribes on his breastplate
and on his amulets on his shoulder. The 12 tribes of Israel. He went
into the presence of God in the holiest of all one time of year,
representing Israel. But he had to go there with what?
Blood. The blood of an animal. Now that
high priest was not their substitute. You say, he was their representative.
But he had to bring a substitute, the blood of the Lamb, the spotless,
pure blood of the Lamb. Because God is a just God and
He must punish sin. Now all that was a picture of
Christ who is both our representative and our substitute. He's the
only proper substitute. He's holy, harmless, undefiled.
He was made sin, but He knew no sin. That's why we say He
was not made a sinner. If He was, He would not be a
proper substitute. He's the holy, undefiled, harmless
Son of God. He's the spotless Lamb of God. And He not only represented us,
He went to the cross and died for God's people. He satisfied
justice. He brought forth everlasting
righteousness to enable God to be just and justify the ungodly.
He's my substitute. My sin was charged to Him. The demerit, the debt, the condemnation,
the guilt of my sin was charged to Him. That's how I'm in Him.
So that when He died, I died. When He was buried, I was buried.
When He arose again, I arose again. And He's still my substitute. Because when we sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. His
righteousness is imputed, charged to me. I'm in Him. And then here's
the third thing to be in Christ. It's a matter of regeneration.
It's to be Him. You might say it this way. It's
to believe in Him. It's to be in Him by faith. It
means to be given life from Him. Spiritual life. It is the impartation
of spiritual life. It's a quality and a power of
God's grace and life that we really can't explain, but we
know by its evidences. He said it in John 15, He said,
I'm the vine, you're the branches. So to be in Christ is to be in
Him as the branch is in the vine. Now where does the life of the
branch come from? It comes from the vine. Christ
is the vine. And remember what He said in
John 15, those who are in Him, He said, every branch in Me.
See? And those who are in Him, what
will they do? They'll bear fruit. Life from the vine. Okay? And
so to be in Christ is to be blessed in Him with all that He is and
all that He gives in salvation. So He says here in verse 6 to
17, if any man be in Christ. Now if you're in Christ, if He's
your representative, if He's your substitute, surety, if you've
been regenerated, if you've been united to Him, that's another
thing, we can say it that way, to be in Him is to be united,
it's a union with Christ. And if you're in Him by the new
birth, in Him by faith, you see, then you're a new creation, He
says. A new creature. Now here's the second thing.
What is that new creation? Well, He expands on it. Whenever
you read the Bible, look at this again. Look down there at verse
17. When you read the Bible, Now look at it in verse seven,
he says, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. And you notice the two dots there,
it's a colon, you know that. That means that he's going to
explain what he's just said. And here it is. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now how do I know if I'm in Christ? How can I make that statement
and have any assurance about it? I'm in Christ. Because there
are times it sure doesn't look like I'm in Christ. But now we
just know man by the flesh. If you go back in time, in the
Old Testament, and look at Lot. Let's take a Lot. Remember Lot,
Abraham's nephew? There are times you'd look at
Lot and you'd say, I know that guy's not in Christ. Somebody said, about Lot, said,
well, he may have made it to heaven, but he had flames licking
at his back. I thought, good night. Was that mean we can do anything
we want to do? You know, you get all that stuff, you know.
No, it doesn't mean that at all, you know. But how do I know I'm
in Christ? Is it because I'm up here preaching?
There's a bunch of them who aren't in Christ. There are a bunch
of them who said, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name?
And he said, depart from me, I never knew you. How do I know? He explains it. He says, old
things are passed away. Behold, all things become new.
And that's the only way we can know is to find out from God's
Word, what are these old things? And I want you to notice something
here. This is past tense. In other words, when he says
old things are passed away, now listen to me very carefully.
It does not mean old things are in the process of passing away. That's not what this means. That's
not the tense of the original there. It means whatever these
old things are, they're gone. They're passed away. And it doesn't
mean that all things are in the process of becoming new. Now there is a process in the
Christian life. It's called growth in grace and
in knowledge, what it's called. But that's not what he's talking
about here. What he's talking about here, if you're in Christ,
these old things are passed away. And these new things are new.
They're there. And that's it. Well, you know
what most people do with this thing, don't you? Old things
passed away. Behold, all things become new. They judge it and interpret it
as the things they stopped doing and the things they started.
Well, old things passed away. I didn't go to church. All things
become new. Now I go to church. That's not
what it's talking about. My friend, don't get me wrong.
If you're a believer in Christ, you're commanded to meet publicly
and worship the Lord. And those who don't are just
either false professors or very, very, very sick believers. Now, that's true. That's true. That's not what he's talking
about here. Well, what is he talking about? Well, in order
to understand it, there are three realms that you have to go to
in the Scripture. And the first realm, I believe,
fits the context here, is number one, the New Covenant. The New Covenant. That's number
one. The New Covenant. Now that would fit the context.
Look back over at 2 Corinthians chapter 3. The Old Covenant has passed away. It's gone. All things have become
new. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
3, look at verse 1. He says, Do we begin again to
commend ourselves, or need we as some others epistles of commendation
to you, or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle
written in our hearts, known and read of all men. He's talking
about believers here. In other words, the only letter
of commendation I need as a gospel preacher is you. Now, how is
that a letter of commendation? for a preacher of the gospel.
Well, what are you doing for salvation? Who are you looking
to? You're looking to Christ. What
did John the Baptist say? Christ must increase, I must
decrease. In other words, if you're looking
to Christ and He's your only hope of salvation, of forgiveness,
of righteousness, of eternal life and glory, then you've got
the message. You didn't get it because you
were better than everybody else. You got it because God revealed
it to you. And that's a letter of commendation. What does he
preach? Does he preach Christ? You see,
if somebody asks you, well, how do you know you're saved? Well,
Bill Parker baptized me. You didn't get the message from
me. Now, if I baptized you, that's okay. But when I baptize you,
I hope you're confessing Christ and not Bill. And if you're confessing,
Bill, you didn't get the message, not from me. You're not my letter
of condemnation, a commendation, right? Yeah, you're my letter
of condemnation. But what I'm saying, and that's what Paul's
saying, you're looking to Christ from the heart. And he says in
verse three, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be
the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink,
but with the spirit of the living God. In other words, the Holy
Spirit's done his work. Not in tables of stone, you know
what that refers to, Ten Commandments. But in fleshy tables of the heart.
Verse 4, and such trust have we through Christ to God were,
not that we're sufficient of ourselves to think anything as
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. In other words, if
you're a letter of commendation, if you're an epistle, a testimony
to the preaching of Christ. You're not my work, you're God's
work. I think I told you the story
a couple weeks ago. I think Brother Tim James said about an old preacher
who was performing a meeting up in New York. And after the
meeting, he was walking back to his hotel and some drunk stumbled
out of the alley and was going to ask him for some money. He
looked up and he recognized this preacher. He said, I know who
you are. He said, you're that preacher. He said, you're the
one who saved me. And the preacher said, well,
you look about like some of my work. Well, see, if you really believe
Christ, if you're really resting in Him for all salvation, you're
not my work. I'm just the signpost. I pointed
you to Him, and that's okay. And I thank God for the man who
pointed me to Christ. I do love Him, respect Him, honor
Him, but He's not my salvation. I'm not His work. You're the
work of God. Well, look at verse 6 of 2 Corinthians
3. He said, "...who also hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament." The New Covenant.
Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth.
That's what the Old Covenant did. It was a covenant of condemnation. That's what it was. Paul wrote
it in Hebrews. It was a reminder of guilt. Every
time they went to the sacrifice, it was a reminder of their guilt
and deservedness of condemnation, but the Spirit giveth life. And
he says in verse 7, but if the ministration of death, that's
the old thing, it's passed away, written and engraved in stones
was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which glory was to be done away. That's Moses coming down out
of Sinai with that effulgent light that physically came from
his face. They couldn't look at it. He
says in verse 8, How shall not the ministration of the Spirit,
that's the new thing right there, be rather glorious? For if the
ministration of condemnation be glorious, that's the old covenant
that's passed away, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceeding. That's the new covenant. Where
is that righteousness found? In Christ. It's the preaching
of the righteousness of God. You see, the New Covenant, now
listen, the New Covenant is the establishment and revelation
in time of the everlasting covenant of grace. In substance, the New
Covenant is the same as the everlasting covenant of grace. In substance
now. Now what do I mean by that? What
ratified the new covenant? The blood of Christ. What ratifies
the everlasting covenant of grace? The blood of Christ. In fact,
do you know that Christ's blood is referred to and described
as the blood of the New Testament, isn't it? Matthew 26, when he
instituted the supper. he said this is my blood this
is the blood of the new testament new covenant that same thing
and in hebrews chapter thirteen in verse twenty it's called the
blood of the everlasting covenant so in substance it's the same
thing but the new covenant is the establishment in time of
the terms of the everlasting covenant of grace now turn to
hebrews eight hebrews chapter eight And what does that mean? Well,
that means that if we're in Christ, we don't need to go under the
old covenant. We don't preach the law in that
sense. We preach the commandments of
Christ, what he's commanded us, but that's new covenant. But
look at Hebrews chapter 8, look at verse 6, talking about Christ.
He says in verse 6 of Hebrews 8, But now hath he obtained a
more excellent ministry? By how much more? Also, he is
the mediator of a better covenant, the new covenant, which was established
upon better promises. Now, think about that. The promises
of that old covenant to the nation Israel were all earthly, temporal
and temporary. He promised them an earthly land. Now He's never promised you or
me an earthly land. Not one square inch of land. That's not part of the New Covenant. What did He promise us under
the New Covenant? A heavenly Jerusalem. A heavenly city. Whose builder and foundation
is not man but God in Christ. That will never be defeated.
Never be taken away. You see, that's a better promise.
They were sanctified in their flesh in this sense. The blood
of animals set them apart as a nation. But it did not wash
away their sins. The blood of bulls and goats
could never wash away sin. You see, what they were promised
was temporal and earthly and temporary. What we're promised
in the new covenant is forever and ever. The blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sin, past sin, present sin, future sin.
You see that? Isn't that better? Oh, I'm telling
you. He says in verse 7, for if that
first covenant had been faultless, Now that's the old covenant,
first in time. That's what he's talking about
there. And what does that tell you? It had faults. There was
stuff it couldn't do. And what couldn't it do? It could
not save a sinner. The law cannot save you. It could
not change your heart. It could reform you outwardly,
but it could not change your heart. You see, that's why religion
that is aimed at outward reformation though applauded and respected
and highly regarded by men, is an abomination to God. The gospel
ministry is aimed where? At the heart. At the heart. That's what Christ said to the
Pharisees, outwardly you appear righteous, but inwardly, dead
men's bones. And he says in verse, he said,
for if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no
place have been sought for the second, second in time, that's
the new covenant. For finding fault with him, he
said, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah. Now that's a symbol there of the union of the church,
the unity of the church. And he says, not according to
the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.
Not like that one, see. Because they continued not in
my covenant. See, that covenant was conditioned
on their obedience. The new covenant's not conditioned
on our obedience. You know what it's conditioned
on? Christ's obedience. Now, does that mean that we don't
have to obey? Oh, no. You see, the fruit and
the vine. The vine. Life goes from the
vine to the branches. And the branches bear what? Fruit.
And then he says, he says, and I regarded them not, saith the
Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws
into their mind and write them in their hearts. I will be to
them a God. They shall be to me a people
and they shall teach them. Every man that shall not teach
every man, his neighbor and every man, his brother saying, no,
the Lord, you know why the prophets had to continually teach that
to Israel? Because they didn't know the
Lord. But in the New Covenant, he said, they shall all be taught
of God. They shall all know me, look at it, for all shall know
me from the least to the greatest. They're going to know God as
Savior in Christ. They're going to know Him as
a just God and a Savior in Christ. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities while I
remember no more. See, in that Old Covenant, every time they
brought the blood of the Lamb, there was a remembrance made
of their iniquities. Would you like somebody to follow
you around all the time reminding you of your past sins? Would
that be fun to you? No. When God says He doesn't remember
them, that doesn't mean He doesn't see them. That means He doesn't
hold them against us. He doesn't charge them with... David said
it this way, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth, chargeth,
not iniquity. But He charges righteousness.
And then he says in verse 13, in that he saith, A new covenant
he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth
old," that means grows old, is ready to what? Vanish away. It's gone. Old things are past. All things have become new. Now
that's the first thing back here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. All right, here's the second
thing. Now, let's look at this. Talking about three realms that
we have to view this in. First of all, old things passed
away. That's the old covenant. All
things have become new. That's the new covenant. Christ
has already come. You see, that old covenant was
in effect until Christ came. And He came and He did His work.
And what did He say, John 19, 30? What did He say? It is what? Finished. finished. Christ is
the end of the law, the finishing, the fulfillment, completion of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Alright?
Here's the second thing, and I'll just put it this way, right
here it says a new creation. Now, what Paul is talking about,
his subject in 2 Corinthians 5 is reconciliation. God reconciling His people unto
Himself. That's what he's talking about.
Talking about being in Christ. To be reconciled to God is to
be in Christ. And to be in Christ is to be
brought from a state in which we fell in Adam, ruined by the
fall, according to the covenant of works, to the state into which
we are raised in Christ, according to the covenant of grace. Everyone
in Christ is this new creation. Now listen, turn to Romans chapter
6. Romans chapter 6. Look at verse 3. Here he's talking about our union
with Christ in His death. And he says, no you not. Now
I've read this before going through these passages, so this shouldn't
be anything new to you, but if you haven't heard it, listen
to what he says here. No you not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Now
I've told you, now baptized there is not talking about water baptism. It's not talking about the ordinance,
which is a New Testament ordinance. And believers are commanded to
be baptized in water as a confession of something that's already taken
place in their lives, and that's the new birth. And so, this baptized
though, the word baptized means placed into, literally that's
what it means, placed into. So read it this way, know you
not that so many of us as were placed into Jesus Christ, that
is united with Christ, were placed into His death. What does that
mean? That means He's our substitute,
our representative. When He died, I died. I was placed
into Him and into His death. When He was buried, I was buried.
When He arose again, I arose again. Verse 4, Therefore we
are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted
together, that's a good way to look at that baptism, planted
together in the likeness of His death, you know often times christ
would use that analogy talking about his death being planted
john chapter twelve the seed of wheat fall into the ground
and die and it brings forth fruit and remember that's where he
said if I be lifted up will draw all unto me and this he said
signifying what death he should die well when he was planted
in his death I was planted with him I wasn't there physically
I wasn't there in my experience, wasn't even born yet. But I was
on his heart and mind. My name was written on his breastplate
and on his amulet. That's what it is. So he died
for his people. And so in verse 5, if we've been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be
in the likeness of his resurrection. Now look, verse 6, knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him. Now what is the old
man there? And incidentally, when it says
the old man there is crucified, that's past tense too, that's
not a process. I've heard preachers go to this
verse and say this, they say the old man's not dead yet, he's
dying. And they're talking about the
old sin nature in us. That's not what this says. This
doesn't say the old man is dying. This says the old man's dead.
Now that's what that means. That's the tense of the verb.
You can't get around it. He's dead. Whatever he's talking
about is dead. Dead, dead, dead. So the old man, how did he die?
He was crucified with Christ. And he says that the body of
sin, now that's, that's sin in us now. That the body of sin
might be destroyed. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner saved
by grace. The old man's dead. All right? That henceforth we should not
serve sin. What's he talking about? You
know what he's talking about? He's talking about our justification
before God. He's talking about that condemnation that I was
associated with in Adam in the fall. It's dead. That's the old
man. It's dead. Christ removed it. Christ killed it. How did he
do it? He died. That's how He killed. The death of death and the death
of Christ. How do you know He's talking
about justification? Look at verse 7. For he that is dead is freed. Now, do you have a concordance
in your Bible? There's probably a number by freed, isn't there? Look at it. Look at your concordance
there. What does it say? Justified. That's what that word free is.
It's the Greek word for justify. All right? To be justified before
God is to be free. That's why the King James translators
translated that way. I'll give you an example of what
I'm talking about. Look over across the page to verse 18. He says, being then made free
from sin. Now the word free there, you
don't have a number by that, do you? If you have a Cambridge,
I think it is. That doesn't mean justified there.
You know what that means? That means liberated. So over
in verse 7, he's talking about being justified from sin. When
did that happen? When Christ died on that cross.
The old man died. You see, that covenant, that
covenant was fulfilled. My sins were already imputed
to Christ and His righteousness imputed to me. He accomplished
it in time though. And that old man, my association
with Adam under that covenant, dead, dead, dead. I'm in Christ. Now, I've been that way since
eternity, haven't I? Haven't you? But he just accomplished
it in time. Now, over there in verse 18,
he's talking about me being liberated. Well, that's the new birth. That's
another matter, all right? So, that's what he's talking
about. That's the new creation. In Adam, all die. But in Christ,
what? All are made alive. He's talking
about reconciliation. Look back at 2 Corinthians 5. That's his subject. His subject
here is really not regeneration, though that comes with it. His
subject here is reconciliation. Let me prove it to you. Look
at verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5. Now remember what he said. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Verse 18, and all things are
of God. Those all things that become
new, that's the work of God. That's not your work. It's not
my work. It's God's work. Salvations of
the Lord, who hath reconciled us unto himself. Now how did
he do it? By Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, verse 19, to wit, or namely,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing
not charging their trespasses unto them and have committed
unto us the word of reconciliation that's what he's talking about
God reconciling his people unto himself and I could show you
many more scriptures on that but I don't have a lot of time
I'm going to come back to this and expand upon it But here's
the key, believers in Christ are not condemned. You see, condemnation's
dead. It's dead. Old things have passed
away. All things become new. If any
man be in Christ, he's what? A new creature. And he says in
Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ. Men may condemn you, preachers
may condemn you, but God doesn't. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
He's risen again. Seated at the right hand of the
Father. Now let me tell you something. You see, in Christ we're not
condemned and alienated with the old creation. We're reconciled
to God, justified, declared righteous. Our record in heaven is clean. And how did it get clean? Well,
you just did as many good works as you can and it all balances
out. No, sir. That's old. That's the old way. Got clean by being washed off
by the blood of Christ. We're righteous in Him. based
on God having imputed our sins to Christ and imputing His righteousness
to us. And our believing doesn't reconcile
us to God. It's what God has already done
for us by Jesus Christ. It's not something He's waiting
for us to do. I tell you, you hear what I said
there? This thing about old things,
the past, all things become new. It's not something God's waiting
for you to do or for me to do. It's something He's done. It's
His work. He reconciled us unto Himself. Well, let me give you this third
one. And like I said, I'll come back and expand on this. But the third one on this new
creation, these three realms, new covenant, new creation, here's
the third one, new life. new life. And that's the new
birth. Now first of all, there's a lot
of things that we can talk about that are new. And there are a
lot of things that people talk about that are new that really
aren't new at all. A lot of things we can talk about. I'll tell
you what, he's given us a new name. Am I right? Just like old Jacob. Remember
Jacob? He said, I think it's Genesis 32, he said, I'm not
going to call you Jacob anymore, I'm going to call you Israel.
You know what Jacob means, don't you? Anybody here named Jacob,
don't get offended, but it means supplanter. That's what it means. That's what the name means. I
personally like the name Jacob in the English, but not in the
Hebrew. But Jacob means supplanter. That's what it means. And that
was indicative of his character. Because that's what he was, a
sinner. I'm not going to call you Jacob, I'm going to call
you Israel. You know what Israel means, don't you? It means one
who has prevailed with God. You remember that name was given
to Jacob after he had wrestled with the angel and he prevailed.
Now what does that mean? That's a picture of Christ who
has prevailed on our behalf with God. And we call it Prince of
Israel. That's our Prince of God. That's
what Israel, that's the way we say it. We've been given a new
name. We've been given new life, spiritual life in the new birth.
Remember he said, I'm going to make a new covenant with the
house of Israel. I'm going to write the law on their hearts, the
Word of God on their hearts. I'm going to put a new spirit
within them. We'll look at that later. A new heart, a broken, contrite
heart, wherein the love of Christ is being shed. A heart of faith,
a heart of repentance. New motives. The love of Christ
constrains us. In other words, we're no longer
motivated by legal motives to serve God, but we have a new
motive. Grace, gratitude, love, new knowledge. We're taught of
God. We know God now. We know God because we know Christ. When we were trying to work our
way into God's favor, we didn't know God at all. We thought we
did. All we knew was an idol. New
eyes. New ears. But you can't see it
with the flesh. I don't have new eyes up here.
I wouldn't have to be wearing these. And new ears. Some of you have to wear hearing
aids, don't you? That's not the new ears. But what are they?
Blessed are your ears, for they hear. You hear things you didn't
hear before, don't you? When the gospel's preached, I
know I did. When I used to hear the gospel preached, boy, I hated
it. I'm telling you, I did. I didn't
want to hear any more. I was trying to get my mother
out of this place. That was my goal. I said, that
guy's crazy, Mom. He thinks he's the only one.
I told her one time, I said, I bet he doesn't even believe
half that congregation's saved. I said that. My goal was to get
her. But then, God gave me new ears. And I began to hear something
of the glory of God in Christ. New eyes. I saw things I didn't
see before, spiritually. A new commandment. Love one another.
You say, well, that's always... Not in the gospel. That means
the ones I wanted to get away from, He said, you warm up to.
Have fellowship with. And it's a new fellowship, isn't
it? Whereas before it was fellowship with the world and fellowship
with the old things, old religion. But now it's fellowship in the
faith. All those things. I'll expand upon those next time. All right. Let's sing as our
closing hymn, hymn number 309, Beneath the Cross.