Please open your Bibles to 2nd
Corinthians chapter 5. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. This
is the fifth message that I've been preaching based upon verse
17 of 2nd Corinthians 5. I've entitled this series, what
in the form of a question, what's really new? And I have this message
and one more that I want to preach in this series. Next week, I'll
finish it up. And next week, what I'm going
to be dealing with, I believe, is one of the most difficult
truths concerning every true believer in every generation
about what's old and what's new. And it concerns family and friends. That's the issue. And I'm going
to deal with that. next week and and conclude this but today
what i want to really focus on in this what's really new are
matters of the heart i started this last week i dealt with a
little bit matters of the heart look at verse seventeen again
paul writes by inspiration of the holy spirit second corinthians
five seventeen therefore if any man be in christ he is a new
creature a new creation Old things are passed away, behold all things
are become new. Now you know what the world does
with passages like that when they speak of what's old in my
life and what's new if I claim to be a Christian. But what's
Paul talking about? What's the intention of God in
revealing this to his people? It simply says this, if I'm a
sinner saved by grace, If I'm truly a believer, a Christian,
a born-again person, then I'm in Christ. If any man be in Christ,
if Christ is my representative, if he's my surety, if my sins
were charged to him and his righteousness is charged to me, if I'm justified
in him, if he redeemed me by his blood, If I am justified
in Him, and if He died for me, then how can I know those things? We were talking about earlier,
how can I know if I'm one of God's elect? All of those things
are included there. Well, if all that's true of you,
then at some point in time, you're going to be made a new creature,
a new creation. What is the new creature? A new
creature is a born-again person. A new creature is one of God's
elect, chosen before the foundation of the world, whose name was
written in the Lamb's Book of Life, who fell in Adam into sin
and death, born dead in trespasses and sins, but who has been redeemed
by the blood of Jesus Christ, bought and paid for. He's one who has been justified
before God based upon Christ's righteousness charged, accounted,
imputed, reckoned to him. And therefore, as the result,
as the fruit, he's been born again by the Spirit. He's been
given life. He's been quickened. He's been regenerated, converted.
And that's the new creation. We didn't create ourselves. We
didn't birth ourselves. It's the work of God. The new
birth is not the result of our believing or our willing anything
or deciding anything. Our believing and our being willing
to come to Christ and our deciding for Christ is the fruit and evidence
of the new birth. We've been made new creatures.
Well, how can I know if I've been made a new creature? Well,
he says old things have passed away. All things are become new. Now what's really new then in
my life? Well, everything here has to
be understood in light of how God, now think about this, everything
here has to be understood in light of the context here of
how God reconciles sinners unto himself. That's what the subject
is. How sinners are commanded to
be reconciled unto God. And he tells us, look at verse
18 again, all things are of God, all things are become new and
these all things are of God. Who hath reconciled us unto himself,
how? By Jesus Christ. Now, what does
that mean though? You know, there's a lot of people
who say, well, I love Christ, I believe in Christ, but they
don't even know Christ. Well, you're reconciled. Now,
you know what reconciled, man? There's peace between you and
God. By nature, we're enemies of God, even at our best. But he said there's peace. And
it come by Jesus Christ and God has given us the ministry of
reconciliation. Verse 19, to wit or namely, that
God was in Christ. In other words, however, whatever
God is in his glory and in his nature, and however God works,
in this matter of reconciliation, and however God reveals himself
to his people, it's all in Christ. Is that right? It's not in the
clouds, it's not in the stars, you can't get it by reading your
horoscope, and it's not even in the heart of man. Remember
last week we read Jeremiah 17, the heart is deceitful, desperately
wicked, who can know it? We can't even know our own hearts
by nature. We think we can now. So if you're
going to know anything about God, if you're going to have
any relationship with God, if you're going to have any blessing
from God, it comes in Christ. If you're going to have any love
from God, it comes in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's no
love from God, folks. People are lying to people today. And what does it say? Reconciling
the world unto himself. Now the world there, anytime
people today in religion, we talked about this last Wednesday
night, they see the word world and they automatically say, well
that means everybody in the world, everybody without exception.
And the reason they say that is they've been taught wrong.
We don't think like that in any other way, except in religion,
especially salvation, because we've been taught wrong. What
he's talking about is all whom God reconciled unto himself all
over the world, both Jew and Gentile. It's talking about his
elect. That's who he's talking about.
How do you know? Well, how did God do it? Now, how did God reconcile
them unto himself? Well, look at it, verse 19. He
said, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them. Now what does that mean? That
means he does not charge them with their sin debt. He doesn't
lay it to their account. He doesn't reckon it to them.
Wait a minute, they're sinners, aren't they? Yes. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save what? Sinners. And so And so how can God not
charge me with sin if I'm a sinner? Well, he can do it in a just
way, in a righteous way. And let me say this first. How
can God not charge me with sin if I'm a sinner? Man cannot figure
that out. That's an impossibility for man.
Oh, if you have a known criminal standing before a judge and that
criminal's guilty, the judge could say, well, I'm not going
to charge you with that sin. But that would be unjust, wouldn't
it? How can God do it and still be just? All right. Let's look at it. He says, not
imputing their trespasses and have committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now that's important for this
message today. We have the word of reconciliation. Now what is
that? That's the gospel of peace in Christ, isn't it? That's the
gospel wherein we show people from the scripture how God cannot
charge a sinner with his sins and still be just. and righteous
and true. How God, and not only does he
not charge me with sin, he charges me with the righteousness of
Christ. That's the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now, how can God do
that? Well, go on, verse 20. Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ as though God did beseech you by us. In other words, this
is God speaking because it's the word of God. We pray you
in Christ that be ye reconciled to God. Now, if you're in Christ
and you've been made a new creation, a new creature, and old things
have passed away and all things have become new, you are reconciled
unto God on what ground? Now, here's the key. On what
ground? You say, well, I walked an aisle
and I made a decision or I got baptized. Is that what the Bible
says? No. Look at the ground, verse
21, for he, that is the father, hath made him, that's the son,
Jesus Christ, to be sin or sin for us. Our sins, the sins of
God's chosen people, were imputed, charged, reckoned to Christ.
And he died and paid the penalty. He himself knew no sin. Who knew
no sin? He was not a sinner. He was not
made a sinner. Sin was imputed to him, and he
justly went under the wrath of God as the surety and substitute
of his people. He drank damnation dry. He satisfied
justice in order that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him." That's how God does it. It's in Christ. Christ the
substitute. Christ the surety. Christ is
my righteousness. My sins are forgiven on a just
ground, the blood of Christ. who paid the penalty with the
price of His blood. Now that's the word, that's the
gospel of reconciliation, the great exchange. Christ stood
in my place as my surety, having my sins charged to Him, and I
get in return His righteousness. And it's all His work. And so when God brings a sinner
to be reconciled to him truly as he does all of his elect in
each successive generation under the preaching of the gospel and
the power of the Holy Spirit. He brings that sinner to be reconciled
to God on this same basis. Now if you claim to be reconciled
to God on any other basis or any other ground, you're just
lying to yourself. You say, well, I claim to be
reconciled to God based on faith. That's not a good ground. Your
faith does not equal righteousness. You see, my faith does not equal
righteousness. I have faith in one who is my
righteousness. And that's not just splitting
hairs, folks. Now, go back to verse 12 of 2 Corinthians 5. When we talk about old things
have passed away, you see my old natural way of being reconciled
to God by the works, by my will, by my faith, by my decision,
that's passed away. That's gone. I don't seek to
be reconciled to God anymore that way. I've repented of that. That's dead works. That's fruit
unto death. That's the broad way that leads
to destruction. It may come in many different
forms, but it's gone now. I believe in Jesus Christ. I
rest in Him, the Lord, my righteousness. Now, you remember back in verse
12, Paul said, well, we're not trying to commend ourselves again
unto you. In other words, I'm preaching
this message, this gospel, and The natural man will not receive
the things of the Spirit of God, the scripture says. In fact,
we read there, remember the opening scriptures, John 3? Christ said,
this is the condemnation that light has come into the world
and men love darkness and hate the light. Why? Because their deeds are evil.
You take a person who's doing their dead level best to be reconciled
to God by their works, their morality, their religion, Their
sincerity. The gospel that we believe and
preach exposes that as being evil in the sight of God. Not
in the sight of men now, but in the sight of God. Why? Because it denies His glory.
It denies Christ. Why did Christ come into the
world? To do for His people what we cannot do for ourselves. Alright? So Paul says, I'm not here trying
to just win friends and influence people. Oh, I want you to believe
it. And I beg you to. He said, we
beseech you. But we're not going to hone this
message or form this message or whittle this message to a
point to just tickle the ears of men. You know, that's what
the scripture talks about, how when Paul says, I don't preach
with the words of man's wisdom, because what he's doing, he's
talking about false preachers there who change the message
to suit the hearer. We can't do that. We don't have
that authority. You say, well, I don't like what
you have to say. Well, if it's God's word, that's
your problem, not mine. I start to say, what do I care?
I do care. I care a lot. It breaks my heart. But I can't
change the message to make it palatable to lost people. That's why the gospel today is
almost nonexistent. And what people call gospel today
is dumbed down to the point to where, well, yeah, we all believe
that. Somebody says, well, what you
preach is too complicated. Well, let me tell you something. It's not that complicated, but
it's something that we by nature don't like and don't want to
hear. So Paul says, I'm not trying
to commend myself to you, but give you, he says in verse 12,
but give you occasion to glory on our behalf. In other words,
what he's saying, we want you to boast, but if you boast on
my behalf, you know what you're actually doing? You're boasting
in Christ. Because that's who I'm telling you to look to. I'm
telling you to look to Christ. I'm not telling you to look to
me to follow. I'm telling you to look to Christ.
And he says, and that you may have somewhat to answer them
which glory in appearance and not in heart. And what is it
to glory in appearance? That's false religion. It's boasting
in the flesh, what the flesh can produce and do, even in its
reformations, even in its religion, and not in heart. What is it
to glory in heart? It's the glory in Christ. That's
the new heart, the new heart. And when we glory in heart, which
means to glory in Christ from the new heart, you know what
it'll do? It'll change our whole world.
It'll change our whole relationship. We've talked about how, how we've
seen what's new in light of the judgment. We all have a judgment
to face. How are we going to face it?
Well, I used to think that I was a pretty good fella and God's
going to put my good works on one part of the scale, my evil
works on the other part, and whichever one outweighed the
other would determine where I go to heaven or hell. That's what
I used to think. That's passed away. All things have become
new. Now I know that if I don't stand
before God in Christ, washed in His blood, clothed in His
righteousness, I'm done for. I have one hope, and it's built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's the
new for me. That's not a new message. It's
not a new way. It's always been God's way, but
it's new for me. When I came to see it, when the
Holy Spirit brought me to see it, The glory in heart. It changes our whole world. It
changes our view of the world, our view of God, who God is,
our view of ourselves, our view of others, our view of Christ.
You see, it brings us into a new relationship with others. What
is the heart? Well, this is the new heart.
Look back with me at the book of Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah
chapter 31, the Old Testament, the old prophet Jeremiah. Israel, the nation, was under
the old covenant. It was a law covenant. It was
a conditional covenant. It was an imposition, the scripture
says. In other words, it was something
imposed to them. It's kind of like saying this,
I can lay the law down on my children, but I can't give them
a heart to love to obey it. That's what happened with Israel.
God laid down the law. But as a nation now, He didn't
give them a heart to obey it, to love it, to desire. It's kind
of like the little boy in church jumping up and down the pews
and his mother said, you either sit still or I'm going to whip
you. And he sat there the rest of
the service. And after they got out and she said, I'm proud of
you for sitting there. And he looked up and he said, well,
I may have been sitting on the outside, but I was jumping on
the inside. And that's the way we are by
nature. And they broke the covenant.
And of course that covenant was never given to them by God for
salvation. It was given to show them their
sinfulness, their need of grace, their need of the promised Savior
who would come. And listen to what Jeremiah,
in Israel's rebellion, they're about to go under the punishment
of God in captivity. And look at verse 31. Here's
what Jeremiah is doing here. He's prophesying of a new day. under a new covenant through
the Messiah where it's going to be different. And listen to
what he says. He said, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant. You see, if we're
reconciled to God based upon the imputed righteousness of
Christ, we're under a new covenant. It's a gospel covenant. It's
a covenant that does not say do and live, disobey and die.
It's a covenant that says, all is done by Christ. Now obey him. It's an unconditional covenant
towards us. And he said, with the house of
Israel and the house of Judah, That's spiritual Israel and Judah,
that's all believers, Jew and Gentile. Not according to the
covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant
they break, although I wasn't husband to them, saith the Lord.
In other words, God joined with them under that covenant for
1,500 years. Jeremiah later on says he writes
them a bill of divorcement. But verse 33, here's the point.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
law or my word in their inward parts. What's your inward parts? He says, I'll write it in their
hearts. I'll put it in your heart. I'm gonna give you a new heart.
I'll be their God and they shall be my people. Look at Ezekiel. Turn to Ezekiel 36. Under that new covenant, that
gospel covenant, that word of reconciliation, He's going to
give them a new heart. A new heart. What is that? Well, that's the new birth by
the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel says it this way. Verse
26, when he prophesies at the same time, later on, he says,
a new heart, Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh. And I will give you a heart of
flesh. The flesh there doesn't mean sin like it does in other
content. It means a pliable, bendable, submissive heart. and
I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes
and you shall keep my judgments and do them. What's he talking
about? He's talking about the word of
God written on the heart, the new heart. What is the heart? It's the mind. It's the affections. It's the will. It's the conscience.
It's the inner man. Nor is He changes us by His power
and His grace when He gives us spiritual life. And what is the
evidence of having a new heart? We come to Christ. We believe
on Him. We rest in Him. We're reconciled
to God based upon His blood and righteousness. And we repent,
we reject every other way, no matter how good it appears to
men. That's what he's saying. Turn over to that passage that
Brother Jim read in Matthew chapter 12. You see, these matters of
the heart. You're not going to understand
the script, you know, when people today think about the heart,
you know what they think about? They think about emotions, okay? Now there's nothing wrong with
emotions if they're based on truth. People think about sincerity. Well, there's nothing wrong with
sincerity if it's based on the truth. People think about depth,
you know, like somebody told me once, said, to glory in appearance
means that they're shallow. Shallow religion. I mentioned
this last week, the fellow who said that Christianity in America
is 3,000 miles wide and one inch deep. Well, listen, if God has
given you a new heart, you're not a shallow person when it
comes to The truth. But it's all based on the truth.
You can have sincerity, you can have morality, you can have religion,
you can have depth in a lie. You can. And that's why everything
has to be based on the word of reconciliation. What gospel do
you... You may be the most prime citizen
in the city. the most sincere dedication.
But if you don't believe the gospel, the true gospel, you've
not been made a new creature. You're lost in your sins. You
understand that. Until we come to see that the
best acts of morality and religion and sincerity that men and women
can perform are evil deeds in the sight of God without Christ,
without God's grace, without righteousness in Him. We've not
been made new creatures, we've not been given a new heart, we've
not been born again. But here in Matthew chapter 12,
I know there's a lot of questions about this passage, because this
is where most people get the idea of the unpardonable sin,
you've heard that? And let me just say this, I don't
have time this morning to go into all the details of this
because what I want us to really get to is verse 34. This is not teaching any notion
of the unpardonable sin. What it's teaching, what Christ
is saying here is this, there is no pardon or forgiveness of
any sin without Him, without Christ. That's what he's teaching.
That's what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, you know what
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is? It's to not believe in Christ. And if you don't believe in Christ,
none of your sins are forgiven. It's not just one particular
sin which people can't really figure out or argue about. That's just false religion trying
to scare people into some kind of a profession. Without Christ,
No sin is forgiven. With Christ, all sin is forgiven. Now that's what this is teaching.
But look at verse 35, he says, or verse 34, he's talking to
the Pharisees here who preached a false gospel of work salvation. He said, oh generation of vipers,
how can you being evil speak good things? Now, did the Pharisees,
did they preach immorality? Did they tell the Jewish people,
well, now you all go out and murder everybody, murder and
steal everything you can steal. No. What were they teaching? They were teaching that sinners
can be made righteous before God by their works. That's what
he's talking about. And you don't preach the gospel.
You're evil, how can you speak good things? For out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. You see that? Verse 35, a good
man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good
things. Now how do you interpret a verse like that in light of
Romans 3, 10 through 12? There's none good, no not one. What's he talking about? Christ
who is the good man has the only true gospel. And he brings it
forth to his people. He says, an evil man out of the
evil treasure bringing forth evil things. Verse 36, but I
say anew that every idle word that men shall speak. I've heard people teach, well,
that means that any word that we speak that is idle, like telling
a joke or something like that, God's gonna judge it. That's
not what this is talking about. It's talking about false gospels. And those who preach a false
gospel, they're dying their sins and found at judgment, they'll
give an account at the day of judgment and that account will
be bad. Verse 37, for by thy words thou shalt be justified
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Now go back to 2 Corinthians
5. Now here's the issue that comes
forth. And all of this, listen to 2
Corinthians 5, listen to the verse 14. 2 Corinthians 5, I'm just gonna
read through this and then next week I'm gonna conclude this
with showing you exactly what I'm talking about. He says, for
the love of Christ constrains us. Why do I preach this message
that's so hated by the world? It's the love of Christ that
constrains me, that motivates us. Why don't we compromise in
order to gain more of a following? Why don't we? The love of Christ
constrains us. And what that's talking about
is His love for us, not our love for Him. Even though when God
gives us a new heart, we do love Him. Not perfectly. But it's
His love for His people that constrains us and motivates us
and inspires us. How do you know it's talking
about that? Well look, Because we thus judge that if one died
for all, if Christ died for all his people, then all died. That's
what that literally says. When Christ died, I died. My
whole salvation is in his death. He was buried and arose again
the third day because in his death he established righteousness.
That's my only hope of salvation and I'm telling you that's your
only hope too. And look at verse 15, and that
he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves. I'm not here trying to promote myself, but
unto him which died for them and rose again for his glory. Verse 16, wherefore, or for this
reason, henceforth, from this point on, know we no man after
the flesh. In other words, we don't estimate
whether or not a person is a Christian or not a Christian after the
flesh. Yea, though we've known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Think about
Saul of Tarsus and how he estimated, judged Jesus of Nazareth when
he himself, when Paul, Saul was a lost person, blasphemer, criminal. There's an interesting verse
in the book of, I think it's Haggai, which talks about Christ
being the desire of all nations. What is that talking about? It's
talking about God's elect all over the world in every nation. The world doesn't desire him.
There was a time I didn't desire him. When I first heard about
the true Christ, I hated every word of it. But then God gave
me a new heart and I desired him. And he says, therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. See that standard
of, a new standard of judgment. That's what I'm going to talk
about next week. All right.