Now this morning, what I'm going
to do is begin a series of messages, as Randy mentioned. The series is entitled, What's
Really New? What is Really New? And it's
taken from verse 17 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now, what I'm going
to do this morning is sort of lay the foundation in this one
verse And then I'm going to come back to this chapter. There's
a lot of things that were read there that I'm sure that many
of you may have some questions concerning. Things about the
afterlife for believers, that's what it begins talking about,
the hope of eternal life for God's people, spending glory
with Christ. And then it speaks of the judgment.
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. I'll
deal with that in detail a little bit later on. And then it comes
down to the work and the ministry and the word of reconciliation.
This chapter, and especially these last verses beginning at
verse 17, is really a description of a
true gospel ministry. Now, understand now that ever
since the inauguration and the inception, the beginning of the
New Testament church, the Bible says that Satan has been busy
sowing tares. You know, the parable of the
tares. And a tare is a false church. That's what a tear is. Some people say, well, it's false
believers in the church. Well, you can call them tears
in some aspects, but that parable is Satan sowing his seed in the
world, not in the church. Now, there are false believers
in the church. The parable of the of the grounds,
or what we call the seed and the sower deals with that. The
stony ground hearer, the thorny ground hearer, the wayside hearer. And those are all false believers,
false professors. But the parable of the tares
is Satan sowing his seed in the world, and they are false believers,
but they're false churches that come in the name of Christ, but
deny the truth. of Christ. They hold the truth
in unrighteousness. And so, it is impendent upon
us to go to the Word of God to seek, to be guided by God, and
to find a true gospel ministry. In other words, I don't want
to be found sitting in a false church. How about you? I don't
want to be found sitting somewhere where the true gospel is not
preached. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. A false gospel will produce nothing
but dead, false professors. So if you want to know what a
true gospel ministry is, there are several passages obviously
we could go to, but this is one of the best. If you really know
what it is. If you're looking for a church,
this is what you ought to be looking for. It may not be what
you're looking for. But it's what you ought to be
looking for. And it has to do with the ministry of reconciliation. And when I deal with this series,
a lot of these things will come clear. What is it to be reconciled
to God? Here in verse 20, Paul writes,
now then we are ambassadors for Christ. That's preachers of the
gospel. as though God did beseech by
us. In other words, we're preaching
the Word of God, the command and call of God. And here it
is, be ye reconciled to God. What is it to be reconciled?
Why is there a need, there's a need of reconciliation? Well,
reconciliation comes when two parties who are at odds, enemies,
There's a real problem of disagreement. There's a problem that keeps
them apart. And so reconciliation comes when
these two parties, who are at odds, are brought together in
peace, in friendship, in acceptance, on some common ground that meets
the need of both. That's what reconciliation is.
I think we have at least two lawyers in the audience today.
You know something about what I'm talking about, don't you? You've had to deal with people
who are at odds, and they've got to be brought together on
some common ground that meets the need of both. That's what
it's about. Well, here's where we have to
understand in this issue of salvation in the gospel. Number one, God
is the offended party. God's in the right. Man is the offender. We fell
in Adam. We're in the wrong. God's in
the right. We're in the wrong. Here's where
it starts in the Bible. Whatever God does, whatever God
says, however God acts, whatever God commands, is right. Can you start there? You say,
well, I may not like it. Doesn't matter. I may disagree
with it. You may even say, I may not understand
it. Doesn't matter. God's right.
Romans chapter three, let God be true. And every man what? A liar. Y'all know people who you could
say, well, that's an honest person. But when it comes to reconciliation,
now listen to what I'm saying there. I know people who I'd
say I can trust, who are honest people when it comes to dealing
with each other. But when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to reconciliation between God and sinners, only
God is true and every man is a liar. That's what that means. Man does
not know by nature now the way of reconciliation, the way of
salvation. It has to be revealed, it has
to be taught to him by God. You take somebody who you'd say
is an honest person, if that person thinks that he can be
reconciled to God based on his honesty, that's the biggest lie
of the universe. Now, can you agree with that?
Can you think like that? All right. God is the offended
party. Man is the offender. And I'll
tell you, when you quote passages like Romans 3.23, which is often
quoted in religion today, that's exactly what we're saying. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all
sinners. If you're not a sinner, then
why are you here? You don't need salvation. You
don't need what I'm saying. Now, remember reconciliation
is when these two offended parties come together in acceptance and
in friendship and at peace on some common ground that meets
the need of both. Well, what is God's need? You
know, people today When they talk about God, they
do talk about God as if He is a needy God. Oh, He needs you. He doesn't need you. And He doesn't need me. He is
singularly within Himself. Full and complete. I heard a
preacher say one time, he says, you're the only eyes that God
has. These are the only eyes. I wear contacts. I've got to
wear these to read. You're the only arms that God
has. You're the only legs. Oh, no. You know, God owns the
cattle on a thousand hills and He makes this statement in the
psalm. He said, if I needed anything, I wouldn't tell you. What can we add to God? Nothing. We need Him. Somebody said, well, you need
to go to God when you're in need. That's all the time for me. We're
just a needy people. How many times have you heard
me say, take the next breath? That's a gift from God. He gave
that to you, and you didn't earn it and didn't deserve it. That's the way it is with me,
too. But if you're gonna talk about what God needs, what does
He need? He needs to be glorified. He needs to be honored. He needs
to be worshipped in every attribute of His nature. In other words,
whatever God does, whatever God thinks, however God acts, it's
to His glory. And His glory is Himself. His
glory is that which identifies and distinguishes Him. His glory
is the truth about Him. If I get up here this morning
and tell you something that's wrong about God, that's dishonoring
to Him. That's why I have to stick with
the Scriptures. When I tell you that you're the
only arms that God has, that's a lie. That's a lie, folks. There used to be an old false
preacher named Harrington who'd go on the Phil Donahue show. Y'all remember the Phil Donahue
show? And he had a ten most wanted list. And he had ten celebrities
that he told Phil Donahue, he said, if I could just win them
to the Lord, I could convert the world. He had people like Muhammad Ali.
He had Phil Donahue on there too. That's so he'd get invited
back. Are you kidding me? Here, the Lord Jesus Christ chose
twelve nobodies and made them preachers of the
gospel. And look what happened. He didn't
have a 10 most wanted list among the celebrities and the nobles
and the princes of the world. God doesn't need you or me. But He's going to be glorified.
1 Corinthians 1 speaks of that. Not many noble, not many mighty.
What? That the power might be of His
glory and His grace. Let He that glorieth glory in
this. That He knows God. and understands how God can be
just and justify the ungodly by His grace through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, God is to be glorified. Now, what does man need? We need
salvation from sin. That's what we need. You say,
well, we need reformation. We need this. We need that. We
need a new government. We need a new concept. We need
salvation from sin. Sin is the problem. And God must
punish sin because He's got to be glorified. He can't look over
sin. He can't deny it. He can't act as if it doesn't
exist. It does. Sin is an offense to
God. Even if I sin against you, it's
an offense to God. Did you know that? David, King
David said that in Psalm 51. When he sinned against Uriah,
when he stole Uriah's wife, and then had Uriah murdered, and
when he prayed his prayer of repentance, as he was moved by
the Holy Spirit, he said to God, against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Sin's the problem. God must punish sin with the
just penalty of death. The wages of sin is death. He
cannot deny it, he cannot ignore it, he cannot look over it. So that begs the question, how
in this world can God be reconciled to sinners? How can God be at
peace with sinners? How can God forgive sinners?
How can God bless me, accept me, be in communion with me? How can He save me? How can He
justify me? You know what justify means,
it means you're not guilty. I'm a sinner. If God ever gave
me what I deserved or what I've earned, it would be damnation.
How can He save me? How can He say I'm not guilty
and not be pretending? And then how can He declare me
righteous? Do you see me as righteous? Well,
follow me around a little while. And here's, it's like a fellow
I told me one time, he said he's not a sinner. I said, you're
not? He said, no, I used to be, but I'm not a sinner now. I said,
well, what if I could take a film, a movie, and record your thoughts
for one day? Would you allow me to show that
in front of your church? Just your thoughts. And he had
to go on to tell me, he said, well, that's not sin, it's just
action. I said, you better read Matthew chapter five. You better
read the Bible. Now, how in the world can it
happen? How can God be just and still
justify the ungodly? Well, the answer is the ministry
of reconciliation. Look at verse 17 here. He says, Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature or a new creation, either way,
old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. All things. Now, what's really
new here? All right, now go on, verse 18. All things are of God. These all things, the old things
that are passed away, that's the work of God. The all things
that have become new, that's the work of God too. All things
are of God. And what are the all things?
Centered around. Look at it. Who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ. has to do with reconciliation.
How's a sinner reconciled to God? "...and have given to us
the ministry of reconciliation." The gospel is called the gospel
of reconciliation. Look at verse 19. Namely, that
God was in Christ, God engaged Himself in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. That's who Jesus Christ
is. The God-man. Colossians chapter 2 and verse
9, For in Him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bodily in the person of the God-man. So God engaged His glory, His
honor, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Now,
who's the world there? That's not everybody without
exception now. And I'm going to show you that as I come back
through these messages. In fact, the word world never
in the scripture means everybody without exception. And I'll show
you that. Who is the world here? Look at
the next phrase. It tells you. It identifies who
he's talking about. Not imputing, not charging, not
counting, Their trespasses unto them. God was in Christ not charging
their sins to them. Not imputing, not accounting,
not reckoning. Now in the Bible, the non-imputation
of sins by God in Christ means also the imputation of righteousness
to His people. And he hath committed unto us
the word, the gospel of reconciliation. Now then, we're ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God." And his brother Randy, when he
read it, he said, upon what ground? What is the common ground now
upon which God and sinners come together in peace, friendship,
and acceptance? Here it is. For he, that is the
Father, hath made Him, that is the Son, Jesus Christ, to be
sin for us." Christ as the surety, as the representative, as the
substitute of God's people, had their sins imputed to Him. If God did not impute sin to
me, what did He do with it? Where did He impute it? He had
to charge it somewhere, to someone. He couldn't just throw it into
the air and act like it's gone. The debt has to be paid. Who
did he charge it to? He charged it to Christ. That's
how Christ was made sin. Christ who knew no sin. The sinless
substitute. Who knew no sin, did no sin,
contracted no sin. Every thought, every action,
every motive was perfect in Christ. And God charged the debt, laid
it to his account. You see, that happened before
the foundation of the world. Christ became the surety of God's
elect, and he did all that in order that we might be made the
righteousness of God. And look at the last two words,
in him. I'm righteous, but not in myself. I fail every day. If I'm standing
up here in this pulpit and saying, now I'm not going to think, act,
or do any sin the rest of this day, I'm going to tell you something,
I'm going to fail. I'm going to fall short. But
in Christ, I have His righteousness imputed to me. Now go back up to verse 17, and
I'm just going to whet your appetite for just a few minutes, alright?
And then I'm going to come back and I'm going to parse this verb
every way that you can parse in 2 Corinthians 5, the whole
thing. I want you to see this is important. This is what a
gospel ministry is, folks. Reconciliation with God through
the righteousness of Christ. And righteousness is the merit
of his work, his obedience unto death. His blood is his righteousness. You see what I'm saying? And
look here in verse 17, now let's read it. Therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature or a new creation. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now, what I'm really gonna get to here is what is really
new? Religious people go all over
the map with this thing. Well, somebody says, well, I
used to be a sinner. That's old. Now I'm not. That's
new. Well, that's a lie. And a lot
of people, they will go with habits. Well, I used to smoke. Now I don't smoke. Old and new. I used to drink. Now I don't
drink. I used to do this, and I don't do that anymore. That's
not what this is talking about. Now let me be the first to tell
you, if your habits and your way of life and your walk is
immoral or habitually harmful to you or other people, stop
it! That is not Christian behavior. All of those... Christianity
never promotes or allows immorality. Can Christians be immoral at
times? Yes. Sadly, yes. We're in a warfare against sin.
And the warfare, the biggest warfare that we have against
sin is not in how we vote or don't vote. It's not in how we
picket or not picket. It's right in here. My biggest
warfare Against sin is my warfare against myself. But that's not what he's talking
about here. There are three vital issues here presented concerning
salvation. Concerning reconciliation. Here's
number one. Verse 17. Therefore if any man
be in Christ. Salvation, number one, is to
be in Christ. And so the question, am I in
Christ? Well, what is it to be in Christ?
The Apostle Paul wrote of his desire to be in Christ. He said,
Oh, to be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law. So to be in Him, is not based
upon my works, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, His faithfulness,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. What is it to be
in Christ? Well, I know this, it means Christ is my representative. He was set up before the foundation
of the world to be my representative. God chose him, appointed him,
And He is willing, was willing to do whatever it took to save
His people from sin. And here's another thing, not
only is He willing, He's able. I was reading about a little
boy who has leukemia, lying in a hospital bed, dying. Anytime I see that, it just tears
my heart out when I see young babies, young children, And the
father was leaning over the little boy kissing his head. I guarantee
you that father was more than willing to save that child. But here's the question. Is he
able? Is he able? You see what I'm
saying? Christ is not only willing to
save His people from sin, He's able. Paul said, I know whom
I have believed and He's able. to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day." Now what have I committed unto Him?
My whole salvation is committed to Christ and He's able. So He's
my representative. Secondly, it means He's my surety.
He took to Himself the debt of all my sins, charged, imputed,
accounted to Him. He said to the Father, His sins
put Him on my account. Her sins put Him on my account.
I will repay. I'll pay it all. We sing a hymn,
Jesus paid it all. And His righteousness is imputed
to me. That's what it is to be in Christ.
It means that when He died, I died. And that's thirdly, He's my substitute. He took my place. He redeemed
me from my sins. Christ suffered for sins, the
just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And
then it means this, to be in Christ is this, Christ is my
life, He's my hope, He's my all. By the power of the Holy Spirit
in the new birth, I lay hold of Him. He is my only Savior. He's my only righteousness. I
have no other. He's my all, as I said. So salvation
is to be in Christ. Secondly, salvation involves
being made by God a new creature. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. That's a new creation. Am I a new creature? What is it to be a new creature?
Turn over to Galatians chapter 6 and look at verse 14. Now I want you to understand what
Paul is talking about here. A new creation or a new creature
means that you've been created anew. Now, did you create yourself? When you were conceived in the
womb, did you have anything to do with that? That's a creation
of God. Well, the new creature is the
same thing and the same way, right? You don't create yourself. But look at verse 14 of Galatians
chapter 6. But God forbid that I should
glory or boast or have confidence save or accept in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? What is it that
reconciles God to sinners and sinners to God? It's the cross. It's the righteousness of Christ
imputed. That's what that is. It's His
blood, the blood of the cross. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood. What can make me whole again?
All right, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world
is crucified unto me. Now, what does that mean? It
means the world is cursed and dead to me. And I unto the world,
I'm cursed and dead to the world. Verse 15, for in Christ Jesus,
remember to be in Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. In other words, at
one time, now this gets you an idea of what the old and new
is, what's really new. At one point in time, Paul thought
that circumcision, his physical circumcision, in other words,
his being a physical Jew, a physical descendant of Abraham, he thought
that that recommended him unto God. He thought that made him
a child of God. That's old. But now there's something
new. God forbid that I should boast,
glory, have confidence except in one thing, the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? That's new. How do I know if I'm one of God's
elect? How do I know if I'm a child
of God? How do I know that I'm in Christ Jesus? Well, have I
been made a new creature? And that brings us to the third
thing. Salvation means that old things are passed away and all
things are become new. Is that my case? What does that
mean? What are the old things? What
are the new things? What's really new? Now, in verse 17 there, that
old things passed away, that does not mean, as some say, that
old things are in a continual process of passing away gradually. That's not what it means. And
that all things are continually, progressively becoming new. No,
this is past tense. Old things have passed. All things
are become new. Everything about this new creature
and the all things that have become new can only be known
in light of the gospel of reconciliation. That's what Paul's teaching here.
How God is just to justify the ungodly. Old things and new can
only be known, evidenced, and determined as they relate to
a sinner being reconciled unto God and having been brought by
the Holy Spirit to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance
of dead works and idolatry. And you know what it is? What's
really new? I'll tell you what. When God
brings His people to be reconciled unto God, Based upon the cross,
the blood, the righteousness imputed of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what that does? That changes your whole world. You have a whole new world view. You view God differently than
you used to. You view yourself differently.
You view Christ and salvation in a whole different way. And
you know what that causes you? It causes you to view everybody
else differently. Whereas you used to think that
people were saved and that they were accepted of God based upon
this, that, and the other. Now you see that apart from God's
grace in Christ and His righteousness imputed, His merits alone, there
is no salvation. And we're going to capitalize
on that as we go through this passage. That's what it has to
do with. It has to do with faith in Christ, repentance of dead
work, reconciliation to God. What's really become new? You
say, well, I used to do this, but I quit that. I'll bet you
still have a struggle with it. I'll bet it hadn't passed away
totally. You might lie to yourself and
think, you might go to a hypnotist and he might hypnotize you. We
still struggle with sin. But if we're saved, if we're
in Christ, if we're a new creature, we've been reconciled to God
on one ground, and one ground alone. That's His righteousness
imputed. Now that's the ministry of reconciliation.