Now I want you to turn in your
Bibles to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. My text
this morning is what I've been preaching on for the past several
weeks concerning the subject of what's really new. What is
really new? Verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 17, the Apostle Paul Writing
by inspiration of the Spirit, he says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are
passed away. Now remember that's past tense,
that's not a progressive thing. Whatever the old things are here,
they're gone. That's what he's saying, they're
passed away. He says, behold, all things are become new. That's
not progressive either. He's not saying all things gradually
or progressively become new. He says they've been made new.
He shows us, as I've said in other two messages, and I'm not
going to go into details on this except as we look at the points
of today's message on what's really new. If you're a sinner
saved by grace, a saved person, saved man, saved woman, you're
a new creature. That's what he's saying. And
in your case, in my case, if that's the truth, old things
have passed away. All things have become new. Now,
what's really new? And you know, the reason I'm
dealing with this is you know how religious people are and
people who go through religious experiences, people who have
all kinds of different feelings, habits, all of these things,
and they say, well, I used to do this, so I'd now do that,
all this thing. I'll never forget this. When
I first got to Albany, it was about 1985, and I think it was the following
year, we had a conference here, had several preachers down, and
one, we had visitors come in. It was like going through the
week or the weekend. Had some visitors coming in.
and one man got up and preached the gospel. I can't remember,
I don't remember the text but he preached the gospel showing
how that all of salvation is in Christ by the grace of God
not conditioned on sinners but conditioned on Christ but there
was one man in the audience that upset him because he knew he'd
never heard this gospel before and uh... he took it, well that
preacher's telling me I'm lost, which he was and uh... I was standing right up here
and he come up to me and he looked at me and he said, I'll tell
you right now, he said, I know I'm saved. And I said, well,
that's good if you know that. I said, but I hope it's based
on scripture. He said, I knew I was saved when I stopped smoking. He said, I don't smoke anymore. And I looked at him and I said,
well, I said, I'm glad you stopped smoking. Smoking's bad for your
health, and I don't like to be around it anyway. So I'm glad
you stopped smoking. But I said, if that's your salvation,
you're still lost. I told him that. And he got upset
and left. If anybody in here smokes, stop
it. Stop it. It's not good. It's
not good for you, OK? But that's not salvation. That's
not the old things that have passed away and all things become
new. Now, we can talk about habits of life. You know, there are
things maybe some of you did before you were saved that you
don't do in habits of life. And that's good. I mean, I'm
not putting that down now. But that's not what this is talking
about. You understand that? We all have habits of life. You
know, somebody, I started to tell the fellas, said, well,
you quit smoking, but I bet every now and then you still want one. Well, I mean, it's just true,
isn't it? You still struggle with it, so it hadn't passed
away, you know? Old things, whatever Paul's talking
about, they passed away. All things become new. You may
have a habit of life that you shouldn't be. It's a sinful habit.
You may have stopped it, but I bet you still struggle with
it. I know you do. I know you do, because I know
myself. I know what the Bible teaches. But here's what it says. First of all, it's talking about
salvation. In verse 17 there, it says, salvation, number one,
is to be in Christ. That's my concern. I want to
be in Christ. How about you? I want to be,
I want to be washed in his blood and I want to be clothed in his
righteousness in Peter. Paul stated that in Philippians
three, didn't he? He said, Oh, that I may know
him and be found in him, not having mine own righteousnesses,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
the faithfulness of Christ. And that's our desire. If you're
a true believer, if you know your sinfulness, if you know
your frame, if you know what you're capable of, but for the
grace of God as revealed by his word, your one desire is to be
in Christ. Listen, if nothing, I want to
be in Christ. And I gave you some points of
that in the other message I won't give. What is it to be in Christ?
He's my representative. He's my substitute. He's my surety. He's my savior. He's everything. I want to be in Christ. Secondly,
if you're saved, it's to be in Christ. It's to be a new creature,
a new creation. Now who's the creator and who's
the creature? God's the creator. He created physical life, God
did. You didn't do that. You didn't
conceive yourself in your mother's womb and you didn't birth yourself.
In fact, you can't even remember back that far, can you? You had
no mind to do it. Not that kind of mind. No growth
of mind. Well, it's the same thing in
the new birth. Now that's what he's talking about here, the new birth,
isn't it? A new creature. Created in Christ Jesus. Ephesians
2.10, right after it talks about by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works. Let's say, man should boast, 2.8 and 9. Verse 10, it says,
we are His workmanship. If you're a sinner saved by grace,
you are the workmanship of God. You didn't work, you didn't build
yourself. You didn't save yourself. It
wasn't based upon your decision or your will or anything. It's
the Creator. If you have a will to come to
God, it's because He made you willing. Because by nature, you're
not. I'm not. No man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me drawing. How does He draw? Through the
preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's
what the Scripture says. Remember in John 1 verse 11,
it says, Christ came into his own and his own received him
not, but to as many as received him, to them he gave the power,
it's not the word ability, it's the word right or privilege to
become the sons of God, even to them which were born not of
blood, not of physical heritage. nor the will of the flesh, that's
the works of the flesh, nor the will of man. You weren't even
born by your own will. God's will is the source and
power of the new birth, isn't it? But born of God, it says
there in verse 13. So it's a new creation. How do I know I'm a new creature?
Well, here's the third thing. If you've been saved, Old things
have passed away and all things are become new. Now, what's he
talking about there? What's passed away and what's
become new? Well, I stopped smoking, now stop chewing, stop drinking,
no, no. And you may have a problem in
those areas and you may, you probably should stop all of them.
But that's not what he's talking about. What's new? Now, I can give you several details
on this, but it takes more than one message. And I'm gonna show
you several passages of scripture, but let's stay right here in
2 Corinthians 5. Number one, what's new in light
of final judgment? You know what the final judgment
is, don't you? One of the first gospel funeral messages I heard,
I heard a lot of funeral messages, but not many gospel ones. But
one of the first gospel funeral messages I heard, the man had
four points. Life, death, judgment, and eternity. We all have a life to live, don't
we? Some short, some longer. Abel had a life to live, cut
down in the prime of his youth. You remember Abel? Methuselah
had a life to live, 969. What's the testimony that God
had upon Abel? He was righteous. And what God
says about him? Well, what, was Abel just a better
fella than the rest of them? No, he was a sinner saved by
grace, and his testimony was the blood of a substitute. He brought the lamb, remember?
Methuselah had a life to live, and what was God's testimony
on Methuselah? Three words, anybody know them?
And he died. What a legacy of 969 years. I don't know much about Methuselah
because the scripture doesn't tell us much, but he's not listed
in the Hall of Faith, is he? In Hebrews 11, like Abel. Y'all have a life to live, I
have a life to live. Some short, some long, most in
between. We all have a death to die. It's
appointed a man once to die. How are we going to die? Scripture
says, blessed are those who die in the Lord. Most die in unbelief. We all
have a judgment to face. How are we going to face it?
And then we all have an eternity to spend. How are we going to
spend it? Well, Paul's talking about judgment. Look back at
verse 10 of 2 Corinthians 5. You know what he's been saying
here? He's been talking about the glory and the beauty and
the privilege and the power of a gospel ministry. We have the
gospel. It's a treasure, he says. It's
a treasure. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, clay pots. We're just weak human beings.
I'm a weak human being. You are too. You may think you're
real strong, but you're weak compared to God and what he'll
say. We can't save ourselves. We can't
make ourselves righteous. We can't even change our own
mind in matters of salvation. Now you can change your mind.
You may choose to have ham this Thursday instead of turkey. You
can change your mind about that. But I'm talking about matters
of salvation. Man's mind is depraved in matters of salvation. That
doesn't mean that we're all raving lunatics. Doesn't mean we all
need to be locked up and put in jail. It just simply means
that we will not choose God as he reveals himself in this word. Because we want our own way.
We can't. No man can come to me. We have
to be changed to do that. We have to be convicted. So Paul's
talking about this great and glorious ministry, but he says
it's a ministry that we have in this world and the world hates
it. It's a scandal to the world because it exposes the world's
evil deeds. You remember in Luke 16, 15,
how the Lord said, that which is highly esteemed among men
is an abomination to God. That's why the world hates it.
Man's religion, you know, let me tell you something about man's
self-righteous, works-oriented, freewill religion. God hates
it. Is that too strong? God hates it. It's an abomination. Because it takes a sinner's mind
away from Christ and His blood and His righteousness. You see,
the glory of God is wrapped up in the person and work of Christ.
When you make the issue you and me and men and women, that takes
away from His glory and God hates it. He will not share His glory.
That's what was wrong with Israel under the Old Covenant there
in the book of Ezekiel. They put their trust in their
heritage. They say, we'll be Abraham's
children. That's got to count for something. No, it doesn't
count for anything. They say, we, we're circumcised. That's got to count for something.
Oh no, it doesn't count for anything. It's an abomination. Listen,
God commanded them to be circumcised, every male under that board of
Abraham, but not for salvation, not for righteousness, It was
an outward sign of their relationship to the covenant. But when they
began to think that it was for salvation, that it was for righteousness,
it became an abomination. Then it was unbelief. Then it
was self-righteousness. Then it was a denial of God's
glory. Because God's glory is wrapped up in Christ. God commands every one of his
children to do right. To obey. to be diligent, to be
sincere, to be dedicated, to be moral, but not in order to
be saved. Because when you do it for that
reason, then you deny God's glory. Then you cast shame and reproach
upon Christ and what he accomplished in order to gain and secure the
salvation of his people. You see the difference? Then
it's unbelief. Then it's like those who stood
before God and judged, haven't we prophesied in your name? He
said, it's iniquity. Look at verse 10. He says, for
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that
everyone may receive the things done in his body according that
he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now you know what false
religion does with a passage like that, don't you? Well, we're
going to come before God, we're going to stand before God at
judgment, and God's going to weigh our good works with our
bad, and if our good works outweigh our bad, then we're going to
heaven. If our bad works outweigh our good, then we're going to
hell. That's a lie. That's right. First of all, that's
not what the judgment is about. This is not talking about judgment
based on our works. It's not. It's not talking about
what our works will do for us or earn for us. If it is, then
we better close up this book and go out here and sell everything
we have and give it to the poor and stop talking about salvation
by grace. If God is going to judge me based
upon what I do, that's salvation by works. Some people say, well,
no, that's not talking about salvation, that's talking about
rewards in heaven. That's not in the Bible. You know who's going to be rewarded
for their works at judgment? Revelation tells us this. Unbelievers. And you know what everyone who
is found in unbelief at the judgment will receive as their reward?
Eternal damnation. So what hope have we? Oh, that
I may know him and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law by works, but that which is through his
faithfulness, You see, I want to stand before God in a righteousness,
listen, that I had no part in producing because I can't produce
one. There's none righteous, no not
one. Christ is the only righteous one. I want to stand before God
washed in his blood. Well, what is this talking? This
is not talking about what our works do for us, earn for us.
It's talking about the evidence of our union with Christ. If
we're in Christ, what do our works say about us? And here's
the question at the judgment. Now listen to this very carefully.
If you get nothing else out of it, listen to this. Upon what
ground Do I expect God to receive me, accept me, and allow me to
enter glory with him? Upon what ground? Well, Paul
has been talking about reconciliation to God. Look over at verse 18
of 2 Corinthians 5. He's talking about all things
become new. Well, verse 18, all things are of God. The all things
that have become new, they're of God. God's the source of them.
God's the power of them. You see what we need to understand
that if we're saved by God's grace, we're not the source of
any of that. God is, salvation's of the Lord.
We're not the cause of it. It's not that Christ died for
you, now if you can do your part, he'll save you. No, that's not
scriptural, folks. Read your Bibles. I know people
hate to hear that. Well, if you hate to hear it,
that's a sign that old things haven't passed away and old things
haven't become new. He says, all things are of God
who hath reconciled us unto himself. There's a reconciliation. There's
peace between God and sinners. How does it happen? By Jesus
Christ. You see that? And have given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. That's what I preach. That's
the ministry. Verse 19, to wit that God was
in Christ. God engaged himself, his glory,
his power in Christ. reconciling the world unto himself. Now the world there is not everybody
without exception. The world in the scripture is
never everybody without exception. It's always qualified. Well,
what's the qualification? Now look at it. God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing, not accounting,
not reckoning, not charging their trespasses unto them. It's his
people, his bride, his elect. He doesn't charge them with their
trespasses. Well, what does he do with them?
He charged them to Christ. Christ was set up to be the surety
of the people of God before the foundation of the world. A surety
takes accountability for their debt. And he says, not imputing,
not charging. See, if God doesn't charge you
with sin, he cannot send you to hell. That's right. Somebody said,
well, you've got to accept it. You will. If that's the case,
believe me, you will. If God, the Holy Spirit ever
shows you what you are, shows me what I am, we'll accept it.
There's no other choice. There's no other way. And he
says in verse 19, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation,
that's the gospel of peace. Verse 20, now then we are ambassadors
for Christ. We stand in the, we preach under
a higher authority. It's not my authority. He says,
though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead
be ye reconciled to God. Now you be reconciled to God.
How, on what ground? Verse 21, for God the Father
hath made him, God the Son incarnate, to be sin for us. God imputed
the sins of his people to Christ, Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's his righteousness
charged accounted to us. So go back to 2 Corinthians 5.10.
What this is teaching is this, if you're in Christ Your works
will evidence His power, His grace, His glory. How can any
work be called good? As Christ is the source of it.
Didn't He say that in John 15? I'm the vine, you're the branches. And what does a branch do? It
doesn't produce fruit. Listen, I've got some branches
on a tree that are dead. That branch cannot produce fruit.
No branch has ever produced fruit. What produces the fruit? The
root, the vine. The branch bears fruit. And the life is in the vine.
You see the difference? Christ is the vine. We're the
branches. We don't produce fruit, we bear
it. And if we're bearing fruit, The fruit of faith, the fruit
of repentance, the fruit of love, the fruit of good works. He's
the source of it, he's the power of it, not us. So who gets the
glory? Me. Let your light so shine,
Matthew 5, 16, that men may see your good works and do what?
Give you the key to the city. Glorify your Father which is
in heaven. You see, any fruit that I bear is not my righteousness
before God. It's not my grant of salvation.
It's not what I plead at judgment. It's the fruit of the vine. And
that's it. Now, bad works are the fruit
of unbelief, the fruit of self-righteousness, the fruit of pride. So that when
they stood before Christ and said, haven't we preached in
your name? Haven't we prophesied? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't
we done many wonderful works? Nothing wrong with those things
in and of themselves, but they were pleading them at judgment
as their ground of salvation, as their righteousness. And he
said, depart from me, I never knew you. Now look at verse 11
of 2 Corinthians 5. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord. What's the terror of the Lord? It's the wrath of
God against those who stand before him at judgment without Christ. Without his blood. And we persuade
men. We persuade men, that means we
preach. I beg you, hear what I'm saying. I can't make you hear it. I can't
even make myself hear it. You know Christ said, he that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. Who gives the ears to hear, the
spiritual ears, the spiritual eyes? Christ told Nicodemus,
except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven,
the kingdom of God. And all I'm simply saying, I'm
preaching to you. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now
you may walk out unaffected. You may walk out mad. My old
pastor used to say, some get glad, some get mad. I mean, we
don't have any power over how it affects ourselves. That's
of God. You may walk out today and say,
well, that's okay. You got your opinion, I got mine.
I beg you to follow the scriptures, study the scriptures, but I know
this, I know the terror of the Lord. I know that when you go to meet
God, if you're not in Christ, evidenced by faith in Him and
repentance of dead works, incidentally, if you want to talk about old
things passed away, all things become new, that's where you
begin. Faith in Christ, He's my all. Old things passed away,
I've repented of everything else that I used to think recommended
me unto God. If you stand there before God
without Christ, evidenced by faith in Him, I know the terror
of the Lord. His wrath will bite upon you.
And so I beg you, beseech you, Paul said. I try to persuade
you. I'm not saying I can save you
or give you a new heart, but I'm just begging you, don't go
on for another second in unbelief. You say, well, you said God will
give faith and heal with whole faith. That's right. But that's
his business. That's not ours. Look at it, he says, knowing
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we're made manifest
unto God. I'm preaching the word of God. That's what he's saying
here. I have confidence that I have the authority of God's
word on this, and I'll be willing to sit down with anybody and
go through this book on this issue. And I've talked about
it with a lot of people over these years. And every now and
then somebody comes in that God has given a new heart, and we
find we're in agreement. on the Scriptures. And I'll have
some people come in, they'll want to argue. I'll look at them
and say, well you can believe that if you want, but it's not
in the Bible. That's what I believe. I had a fellow come in one time,
he called me on the phone actually, he said, well I want you to know
I don't believe the Bible. And I said, well you and I don't have anything
to talk about then. Because everything I tell you is going to be from
the Bible. We're made manifest unto God,
made known unto God. And I trust are made manifest
in your consciences. You know what the conscience
is, don't you? That's the seed of judgment in the mind. You
say, well, I know right from wrong. Well, that's your conscience.
But here's the thing. When it comes to salvation, now
you know right from wrong when it comes to society, don't you?
You know that if you go out here and rob a bank, the cops are
going to be looking for you and you're going to be put in jail,
hopefully. You've got that, you know, you husbands. You know
that you're to be loyal to your wives and you wives to your husbands. You know that. You know that
you're to be good fathers, mothers, all that. You've got a conscience.
Some of you do a lot for society and the community and all of
that, charitable. And that's okay. But when it
comes to a right relationship with God, when it comes to salvation and
how God saves sinners and upon what ground God will save sinners,
the Bible says that man by nature is insane. What does that mean? It means
he doesn't know right from wrong. Because here's, think about, think about
Saul of Tarsus who became the Apostle Paul. Now, he had it
in his mind as a lost person that if he did his best to keep
the law of Moses, God would accept him and receive him and reward
him. That's insanity! Because God
will not accept. That's evil in the sight of God.
You ever read those scriptures in the Old Testament? I think
Judges is one of them, but I can't remember. But go back and say,
men call good evil and evil good. Now we know there are segments
of society that do that even in morality, but when it comes
to a right relationship with God, that's the way we all are
until God saves us and old things are passed away and all things
are become new. In other words, old things, that
which I used to think recommended me unto God and contributed to
my salvation, I now count as loss, as Paul wrote in Philippians
3, even dung, that I may, what? Here's the new thing, that I
may win Christ and be found in him and have his righteousness. That's new. That's what's changed. That's one of them. And everybody
who's ignorant of that righteousness of Christ, Romans 10, is lost. Now, look at verse 12. And I'm
gonna hurry here. He says, for we commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion to glory in our behalf,
that you may have somewhat to answer them with glory in appearance
and not in heart. Now, what Paul's saying here
is this. I'm not preaching here to gain a following or to win
friends and influence people. This is not a popular message.
Commending ourselves. And when he talks about glory
in our behalf, what he's talking about is glorying in Christ,
because that's who Paul's preaching. He's not preaching himself. He's
not saying, well, I want to start a denomination, we'll call it
the Church of Paul, and we'll call it Paulism. No. Or Paulist. No. If you glory
on my behalf, you're gonna glory in Christ. Paul said in Galatians
6, 14, God forbid that I should glory, boast, have confidence,
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember what
he said after that? By whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. See, that's old and new. And he said, I'm giving you a
way to answer those who glory in appearance. and not in heart. What is it to glory in appearance?
Well, that's false religion. The world. Christ said of the
Pharisees, they do indeed appear righteous unto men, on the outward. That's why he said in Matthew
521, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven. What is it to glory in heart? Well, I'm gonna give
you some things about that in the next message. But basically,
to glory in heart, that's the new heart. Brother Jim read that
in Ezekiel 36, and I'll go over there in the next message. He
said, I'll give you a new heart. What does the new heart? Who
is the one who brings the new heart? That's Christ sending his spirit
in the new birth. A new mind, a new affections,
a new will. And what does the new heart do?
Glories in Christ. Pleads the blood and righteousness
of Christ. That old heart had its affections
on things below. False religion, materialism,
whatever. We'll talk about that. But my
friend, If you've been made a new creature, if old things have
passed away and all things become new, I'll tell you what your
concern is right now. That you be found in Christ.
That's it. You say, well, I just want to
do more for him. Well, that's okay. You say, well,
I haven't done enough. You never will. You never will. And when you think you have,
that's self-righteousness. I want to be found in him. and
in him alone. I want to be washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness alone. Okay?