One verse we want to read, and
it's more than enough to take up what time we'll be here this
morning. And it's verse 17. You may have guessed that from
our reading. What Paul says here is the same
thing that our Lord was telling Nicodemus. The new birth, being
born again. Paul here calls it a new creature.
Creation is the word. Let's read it together. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, creation. Old
things are passed away. Behold, behold, all things are
become new. The title of my message, and
I somewhat struggled, probably more than I should have, as to
what to title the message. A Wondrous Blessed Fact. Did you notice that? Paul doesn't
leave any room for doubt. He says that this is so. There's
no question about it. This is true of every man. And
if it's not true, that man is not in Christ Jesus. If any man
be in Christ, he's a new creation. He's a new creation. There's
something happened to him as our Lord again told Nicodemus.
He's been created new in the image of the Son of God with
these likewise blessed results, blessed consequences. If any
man being Christ, he's a new creature. Old things, here's
the fruit of that. Again, it's a blessed, glorious
fact. There's no doubt about this.
There's no doubt about this. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. Paul never tried to deny what
he was, as Saul of Tarsus did. I mean, he mentions it, I think,
in about every epistle. When he stood before kings, governors,
rulers, he never denied what he was before grace found him
on the Damascus road. I'm the chief of sinners. But
he never denied what he was after God found him on the Damascus
Road. He said, God's grace to me was not in vain. And God's
grace, Billy, is never in vain. This is why we read here, the
blessed, glorious fruit of being a new creation. Behold, all things
become new. Let's consider, first of all,
the problem. The problem. Why this blessed
work is necessary? And second, the solution. What's
the solution to our sinful condition? And then third, and we just made
mention of it, the evidence. What's the evidence? Is there
evidence of being a new creation? Paul says, absolutely. All things
are passed away. My old way of life, my old way
of thinking, my old sinful, or rather the old dominion that
sin had over me, now it doesn't reign as it once did. How can
it? I'm a new creation in Christ
Jesus. I want to begin the message by
just reading briefly. I think this will be a good introduction.
the article in your bulletin by Mr. Fortner. He carries a
lot of weight around here, so let's see what he has to say.
Is it nothing to me? I gave it that title. Is it nothing
to me? And this is what Don wrote. The
conviction of sin is nothing to me unless I feel. Some folks
seem like they're afraid of that word. Unless I feel my depravity,
my helplessness, and my guilt. The conviction of Christ's righteousness
is nothing to me if I do not see the necessity of it, the
value of it, and rejoice in it, and rest in it. The comforts
of the Spirit are nothing to me if I do not feel His comfort. Unfelt consolation is a contradiction
of words. How can unfelt comfort be of
any help to anybody? I mean, that's a contradiction. Who does not feel life, feel
rest, feel peace, feel joy, and feel love? Only the dead are
without feeling. And that's why we must be made
alive, new creations born again. Because the old man, the natural
man, descends from fallen Adam. When we had the last service
this past Wednesday in North Carolina, the ladies there went
to the fellowship hall and fixed breakfast for supper. I'm like
that any time. But someone, I think it was Darwin,
was talking to some of the fellows. And I walked by and he said,
Larry, have you ever tracked your roots? They were talking
about where they came from. I said, Darvin, it doesn't matter.
I know where I came from. You shake anybody's tree you
want to shake, an old fallen Adam is going to come out. He
fell. He fell and we fell in him. And
when he fell, contrary to fundamentalism, Contrary to what most people
teach today, when he fell, he didn't just break his arm. He
didn't break his leg. That's not what God warned him
of, did he? He said, Adam, the day that you
eat of that fruit, the day you disobey my commandment, in that
day, you're going to die. Now Adam didn't drop dead physically.
He lived a good while after that. But he died spiritually. What do we read in Romans? In
Adam, in Adam, all died. Sin passed upon all men, for
all have sinned. Adam, the Lord, again said to
him, thou shalt surely die, surely die without question. And we
died in our daddy, Adam. Fallen Adam, notice what we are in him, briefly. We are dead spiritually. I hear preachers, and I've had
them tell me this. They're not bashful about it.
They should be ashamed of it, but of course they're not. Maintain,
argue about man's so-called free will. Forget God's will. Forget God's honor. They don't
mind disrespecting God, but we can't disrespect man. We can't
make him worse than he is. Well, you don't have to worry
about that. You can only make him any worse than he is, but
they portray man's will and so forth, his ability, which he
has none, his willingness, which he has none, as something Adam
possessed before the fall. There was no kids born to Adam
before the fall. What Adam was, what he had, what
he was able and willing to do, he lost. That's part of his spiritual
death. That's why the Lord said, ye
will not come to me. It's against your will. It's
against your nature. You don't want to come to me
and you're not able to come to me. Oh no, it's after the fall
that we inherit Adam's nature, his fallen nature. We're born
dead spiritually. Are you still here in 2 Corinthians,
or rather 1 Corinthians? Look in chapter 2. And while
you're turning there, remember what our Lord said? The people
who had followed Him, sacrificed, crossed the ocean, hunted Him
until they found Him. He said, It is the Spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. It's the Spirit that
quickeneth. You've come to me with your feet,
he said, but you've not really come to me. No man can come to
me unless the Father who has sent me draw him. Draw him. It is written in the scriptures,
he said, everyone that has learned of the Father will come to me. That's the result of the quickening
power of God's Holy Spirit. But here in 1 Corinthians 2,
look at verse 14. But the natural man, The fallen
man. The sinful man. The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Isn't that what
our Lord told Nicodemus? You can't see. You can't perceive. You can't comprehend. You're
not able to do it. Because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. There's foolishness under
him. Neither can he know them. understand
them, embrace them. He's not able to do it. Neither
can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. I thought of this last night
while I was preparing or looking over my message. I thought about
Terry. I'd hoped he'd be here this morning.
I thought that he would. I think he would like this illustration.
We all know Terry likes his cars. He's got some fine looking automobile,
some vintage things. If someone called Terry and said,
hey, I've got a 57 Chevy. You interested? Yeah, Terry,
I'm interested. And Terry goes to look at that
car, and it looks good. Man, it's shiny. It's pristine. It doesn't have a scratch on
it. It's polished. This man wants to sell the car.
It looks so good. But what if Terry lifted the
hood and there was no engine? No motor? Well, my soul, that
car's not going anywhere. It doesn't have the power to
go anywhere. Even so, this is what we just
read. Ballerman has no engine. He has
no equipment. He has no power to know the things
of God. He doesn't even want to know
them. That's how dead he is. Nicodemus again. He came to the
Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps out of curiosity, I really don't
know. He was a ruler. He was a teacher
of teachers. Nicodemus, wearing his religion
no doubt, His long robes, his broad phylacteries, that blue
fringe of his garment, so he would stand down, so everybody
would know how religious he was. I wonder if Nicodemus was one
of those Pharisees that stood on the street corner and prayed
real loud so everybody would take notice and say, man, isn't
he religious? Oh, what a godly man. With all
that, Nicodemus didn't know God from a goose. He could talk about the Old Testament,
he could talk about the Temple, he could talk about the sacrifices,
and he didn't have a clue what any of that represented. He was
blind. He was spiritually dead. He didn't
have the equipment. There was no engine under the
hood by which he could comprehend the things of God. This religious
world that we live in, It's rejected this along with everything else
in God's Word, has made the new birth to be nothing more. And
this is so dishonoring to God. I mean, we'll consider how this
great operation of God's grace is described, but it's been reduced,
in most places, to being no more than a decision. A decision. Walking down an aisle, saying
a prayer, Is that what Paul was talking about? Is that what the
new creation is? Is that all that the Lord was
talking about, He must be born again? Is that all He meant?
That can be produced, that can be experienced by doing such
trivia on scriptural things. But brothers and sisters in Christ,
no matter how men might pervert the glorious doctrine of God,
we rejoice to know we're not bashful to proclaim, and even
more so, what he said to Nicodemus, these five words. You must be
born again. You must be Nicodemus. Although
you're a Pharisee and a ruler and a teacher of teachers, of
the highest rank in the Jewish church, you're dead Nicodemus. You're dead. You're spiritually
dead. You're without life before God. And because you are, you're
completely ignorant of anything spiritual. Nicodemus, you're
a lost man. It's amazing how sometimes I
scratch my head when I hear someone speak about someone that makes
no profession of faith whatsoever. Doesn't even claim to be a Christian,
and someone will say, oh, but they know the Bible. They know
the Word of God. What difference does it make?
What difference has it made? They still don't know God. Must
is the second word in Nicodemus. You must. This is not just good
advice. This is not a friendly recommendation. This is imperative. This is vital. Now I know we use that word rather
loosely. There are some things that are
not vital. If you don't agree with me about certain aspects
of the Lord's second coming, and to tell you the truth, there's
a lot about that. Most of that I don't understand. I'm content
to know who's coming back. How he comes, where he comes.
I'm content to know who's... Jesus himself shall descend from
heaven. Let the theologians argue about
all the other ins and outs. I don't think they know what
they're talking about. But this is imperative. This is vital. Miss this and you miss salvation
altogether. This is an absolute necessity.
Nicodemus, you must. You must. You can't see the kingdom
of God and you can't enter the kingdom of God if this doesn't
take place. You must be born again, otherwise
you'll perish, you'll die in your sins. Now look at the third
word there, ye must be. Be. The new birth is not something
you do. You must be born again, but you
can't do it. The Lord didn't tell him he must
be born again, but he never told him it's something you can do
for yourself. It's something only God can do
for you. Until a man is born again by
the Spirit of God, becoming a new creation, as our text says, he
remains dead. In the matter of regeneration,
a new birth, man is passive. He has no more to do with that
than he did his first birth. That's exactly right. He was
all outside of himself. I picked up a track. I think
it was when my wife and I were coming from West Virginia. We
knew the refrigerator was kind of bare. We'd been gone. So we
stopped up at Talladega. What is that state place? Oh,
it starts with an S. Stampede! Stampede! Stop there.
I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and there was this tract
laying on the sink, laying on the counter. And I picked it
up. Let me just share this with you. This is typical. I mean,
it would be sad if this was just a exception to the rule. This
is the rule in our religious day. This lady wrote, as a young
girl I saw an old black and white Cecil D. DeMille film on the
life of Jesus called King of Kings. The film was very moving. And when I watched the crucifixion
scene I began to weep. And I realized that Jesus had
died for me and that my sin had nailed him to the cross. My mother
led me in prayer as I confessed my sin to God and told him I
was sorry. I thanked Jesus for dying for
my sin and asked God to forgive me. I told him I believed Jesus
had risen from the dead. And I invited him to come into
my heart. I don't remember any dramatic
sensation afterward, you think, but I knew that my sin had been
forgiven and I had been born again. That's Mr. Graham's daughter
that wrote that. And on the back, as you might
suspect, It says, if you accept Jesus and have just prayed this
sinner's prayer, check this box saying, I have prayed to receive
Jesus as my Savior. Hogwash. Hogwash. That's not being born again.
I can sign on that dotted line and check all the boxes until
I've got writer's cramp. Nicodemus, you must be born again. Remember what we read in John
1. He, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God,
God in the flesh, He came unto His own, that is the Jewish nation,
the Jewish people, and His own received Him not. But, John 1
verse 12, But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.
And then in the next verse, verse 13, we're told why. Why? Although most rejected Him, some
received Him. Some believed on Him. Some were
saved. And the next verse tells us the
reason. Not because they signed on the dotted line of some stupid
tract, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh. Then how were they born again?
Nor of the will of man, but of But of God. That's why we sing. That's why we preach. To God
be the glory. Great things He has done. We
don't preach to men to man be the glory. What did He do? What
did I do? I ran and God caught me. I refused
to bow and He brought me down. He made me willing in the day
of His power. God forbid that I should glory
in anything save the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember
what Paul wrote, you have He quickened in adhesion to. He
said the one time you're just like everybody else. There's
no difference in you and anybody else. You loved this world, your
heart was into this world, and the way you lived gave proof
positive that it was so. You loved the things of this
world. You had no more interest in God than a billy goat. What
happened? You had He quicken. He made you alive. Made you alive. He gave you spiritual
life. He rose you from the dead. and made you a new creation in
Jesus Christ. That's why we sing, to God be
the glory. Not to man, not to man's will,
to God be the glory. Great things he had done. Nicodemus,
you must be, and here's the fourth word, born. Born. When our Lord declares you must
be born again, he's saying you must be the object of God's divine
power. Just that same power by which
God created the world. That same power we read in Ephesians
2, by which God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That's
the same power. Now you think about that. Nothing
less than that will do it. He raised us up and made us new
creatures in Christ Jesus. Our only hope is that God the
Holy Spirit will give us life. And I can troll up every aisle
in every church in Sylacauga, I won't be born again. I can
shake every preacher's hand. I can say every sinner's prayer
until I lose my voice. That won't make me born again.
If the Baptist won't do it, I can check out the Catholics and say,
Father, forgive me of this and forgive me of that. And he can
tell me to do 10 push-ups and everything's well. No, no, no.
I won't be born again until God, the Spirit of God, as Jesus said,
moves upon him. Again. Again. Why must we be
born again? Because we were born wrong the
first time. We were born without life, without Christ, without
hope, without God's Spirit. Remember what James said? Of
His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth. Peter said
the same thing. Be begotten again by the incorruptible
Word of God. You see, God doesn't work apart
from His Word. How important that is. You must
be born again a second time because we were born wrong the first
time. And we must be born again from
above. From above. That's what it means
to be born again. From above. By our second birth
we become wise unto salvation. By our first birth we were slaves
to sin and the lust of the flesh and we could not do anything
about it. But by our second birth we are made free from the dominion
of sin. Is that not what Paul said in
Romans 6? Sin shall not have dominion over you. Verse 14. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Why Paul? Because you're not
under love. You're under grace. Grace reigns. Grace reigns through righteousness
to everyone. Every man that's in Christ Jesus. He has a hundred, that is the
Lord Jesus Christ, has 100% success rate. Any man that's in Him,
any man that's made to be a recipient of this new birth, this creation,
being made a new creation, He's not what He once was. He's not what he once was. He's
not the same as he once was and he'll never be again. God's work
is greater than that. It's greater than that. It's
more glorious than that. It's more wondrous than that.
When he breathes upon a dead sinner and says, live, live. Oh, glorious, glorious salvation. Glorious, glorious redeemer. Now let's look at the solution.
Let's look at the solution. There's the problem. Now, the
solution. The new birth. Let me just say
this. Man today is just as dead spiritually
in our enlightened age of 2019. He's just as dead spiritually
as Adam was that very moment he ate the fruit and died. He's
not improved one lick. He's dead. Here's a dead one. Here's a dead one. Who's the
most dead? Equally dead. Equally without
life. Adam demonstrates his fall, doesn't
he? I mean, we read in Genesis that
before Adam fell, his joy, his delight was to walk and talk
with God. Imagine that. You know, what's
that old hymn? He walks with me, and he talks with me, and
he tells me I am his own. Oh, my soul! What a joy! What a marvel! And Adam had no
sin between he and his God. After he falls, he hears that
same voice. God's not changed. Adam has. Look how he acts. He hears the
voice of God, and he fears God. He tries to hide from God. Can
you imagine that? Adam, what's wrong with you?
What's happened to you? You fear the voice of your God,
your Creator, that One you once loved and fellowshiped with,
now you hide from Him? Do you actually think, Adam,
that you can hide from God Almighty? Nothing's changed. More people
try to hide from God in religion, in churches, than any place else. Or they make another God, one
that will suit them. And the Lord said in Psalm 115,
they that make them are like unto them, so are they that trust
in them. They can't deliver. Another thing
Adam did other than hiding, he tried to appease God, didn't
he? He tried to appease that holy God that says that all of
his creatures You must be perfect to be accepted. You ever heard
that? You ever had that blazed in your
heart with the finger of God? That'll make all flesh become
grass. That's the withering work of
God's Holy Spirit. That'll make our hearts fear,
as old Newton said. Adam tried to appease God with
his fig leaves. He tried to cover his shame,
his sin, his nakedness, with Bigleys, and those were the work,
that apron of Bigleys were the work of his own hands. Nothing's
changed. His offspring are doing the same
thing. How often people say to me, try
to witness to me, man, over the last several weeks, it's heartbreaking,
some of them my brothers, my sisters, I'm not so bad. Larry, I'm not so bad. I'm a
good moral person. I was talking to Darwin. He stopped
up in Augusta to see his brother that's older than he is, that's
battling cancer. And I said, Darwin, is he a believer?
He says, Larry, he says he can't let go of his own righteousness.
He said, I just can't let go. That's all I have. I said, oh,
Darwin, that's so sad. That's so sad. Others say, I'm
a Baptist. How about this? I'm a Calvinist. I'm a Calvinist. Why we think
people can't go to hell is a Calvinist I don't understand. Big lifts. Filthy rags. And here's the last
thing Adam did. He even tried to blame God. We're
bombarded with that on every hand in our ungodly generation,
aren't we? He tried to blame God. He said
to God, you, the woman you gave me, she tempted me, and I took
the fruit. It's your fault, God. If you
hadn't give her to me, this would have never happened. Doesn't
that sound familiar? My sin is not my fault. God made
me this way. I'm a pervert, but I can't help
it. God made me this way. See how
that flies when we stand before God Almighty. And if God doesn't
find Adam, if God doesn't call Adam, if God doesn't expose Adam
and provide a sacrifice for Adam, he's lost forever. because it
was true of him as it is every one of us, his descendants, with
men, this is impossible. It's impossible. this mighty
work of grace that puts us in Christ Jesus, that makes us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have righteousness and sanctification
and redemption and wisdom, in whom we are made new creations. Oh, with men, that's impossible. Impossible, but not with God. Now we come to the solution.
You remember When our Lord God took Ezekiel to a valley of dry
bones, remember that? He set Ezekiel down in that valley,
and Ezekiel said, oh, there were very many, and they were very
dry. And God said to him, Ezekiel,
can these bones live? Can they live? And he said unto
me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord,
thou knowest. Can you imagine Ezekiel saying
to him, oh, yes, not a problem. It's easy as ABC. It's easy as
signing on the dotted line. Oh, no, Lord, thou knowest. This
is what Ezekiel was saying. God, if it's done, if these bones
live, you'll have to give them life. With men, it's impossible. And I love that chapter. We won't
read any more of it. But you know the story. God breathed. God breathed on those bones. Flesh again on the bones. And
an army stood up. And God said, Ezekiel, this is
my doing. I've done this. And when I do
it, they'll know that I've done it. And bless God, when he does
the same thing to a sinner, which that is a picture of, they'll
know that he did it, because with God all things are possible. With men it's impossible, but
with God all things are possible. You remember the context of those
words? You remember when our Lord spoke
those words to his disciples? It was concerning that rich young
ruler that came to Jesus. He wanted to go to heaven, but
he wasn't willing to let go of the Word. It's pretty much what
that boils down to. And when he heard the Lord tell
him, you gotta let go, you can't love your money more than that.
No. You're bound to meet physically,
but not spiritually, not in your heart. And when that young man
heard those words, we're told that he went away sorrowful,
very sorrowful, because he was very rich. And the Lord Didn't do anything
to stop him, did he? Did he? He didn't do what preachers
do today. He didn't run after him. He let
him go. Let him go. You know why? Anyone
that doesn't bow to Jesus Christ is a rebel. Makes no difference
how many decisions he makes, how many cards he signs, what
he does, what he reforms. It doesn't matter. If he doesn't
bow to Jesus Christ, he's a rebel. My soul, as my daddy used to
say, anybody with a lick of sense ought to know that. And brothers
and sisters in Christ, I would that everyone in this town, especially
the preachers, could hear this. Let us not dishonor our God either. The Lord Jesus Christ, he wouldn't
dishonor God by lowering what God demanded of that rich, young
ruler. He didn't run after him and say,
well, I tell you what, if you won't bow to me, we'll just make
you a carnal Christian and everything will be all right. No. How dishonoring
that would be to his God and himself and his gospel. And let
us not dishonor our God either by compromising his word and
his glorious gospel to appease this religious generation no
matter who they are. whether they're my daughter,
my son, or yours. Let us not give any rebel any
implication, any inclination that we believe that they're
a child of God when it's obvious that their heart's in this world.
Don't dishonor God that way. Just don't do it. It'll dishonor
Him, your glorious Redeemer, and it'll also give them a false
refuge, which is the last thing they need. I told Robin the other
day, I said, Robin, please be careful what you like on Facebook. Just be careful what you give
your approval to. Think about what you're doing.
Don't like something on Facebook that God Almighty hates because
it gives the wrong impression. It gives the wrong impression.
Be careful about that. Just don't do that. You represent
God. You represent your husband. You
represent Fairmont Grace Church. Be careful what you say and do.
It matters. People say it doesn't matter
how we live. I beg your pardon, it matters much how we live.
Christ said, let your light so shine before men that they might
see your good works. Not glorify you, but glorify
your Father which is in heaven. Here's the third and the last
thing. The evidence. The evidence. Old things are
passed away. And this is just a certain. Just
as sure, just as wondrous, here's the blessed fruit of being in
Christ Jesus, being a new creation. This is what takes place. Old
things are passed away. Behold, behold, oh this is better
than walking an aisle. I wouldn't bat an eye at that.
This is better than signing a decision card. Oh, my soul, I'd rather
watch. I'd get more excited about playing
a round of golf. I should. But oh, not this. Oh, behold, look at the blessed
result of God's work. Look what God's done. Old things
are passed away. Behold, behold, everything becomes
new. Now, that's worth marveling about.
That's worth singing about. That's worth preaching about.
And that's worth being thankful about. My soul, God came to me. I was in that valley of dead,
dry bones. He could have left me there.
He had every right to do so. But He breathed on me, and I
arose. A new creation, not of this world. This world can't do this. They
can reform a sinner, but they can't regenerate a sinner. Only
God can do that. That morning after Spurgeon had
visited that primitive Methodist chapel, he didn't make it to
the Baptist church because of the snow, so he ducked down an
alley and he went in. He said there was just a handful
of people because they stayed home. The preacher didn't even
get there that morning because of the snow. And a deacon, he thought
he was a deacon or someone, stood up, turned to Isaiah 45, look
unto me and be ye saved. And there said Spurgeon, he said,
I've been looking everywhere else, to everything else, to
everybody else. And he said, then God took the
blinders off. He gave me sight. And when that
man pointed a bony finger at me and said, son, you look miserable.
You look miserable. You need to behold the Lamb of
God. He said, look, look, look, young man. And God gave him sight. And Spurgeon said, I could have
looked my eyes out. I saw Jesus as the Lamb of God,
taking all my sins away forever. When he got home later that day,
he said he heard his mother in the next room telling his father,
Something's happened to Spurgeon. I'm sorry. Something's happened
to Charles. Something's come over him. He's
not like he's been. He's not sad. He's not melancholy. There's a glow on his face. And
Mr. Spurgeon said he was glad to
tell them all about it. He said, mother, either the world
has changed or I have. I'm not what I once was, a believer
that's been made a new creation in Christ Jesus. As I said before,
that's not the product of anything on this earth. Anything religion
can do, because with men, it's impossible. This is a work from
above. This new creation, it's God's
work. Rowland Hill, I believe it was
Rowland Hill I was reading about, he was preaching one time at
a place where he would go annually once a year or so, And before
the service started, he was standing outside with one of the members.
And this fellow comes staggering down the street, just drunk as
a skunk, got a bottle in his hand. And the guy nudged Roland
Hill, just to be smart, and said, hey, Roland, there's one of your
converts. There's one of your converts
from a year or two ago. And Roland said, yeah, he must
be mine. He must be mine. He must belong to me, because
he sure doesn't belong to the Lord. The Lord does a better
job than that, does he not? The solution, the solution, the
evidence is this. Old things are passed away. I
like this that I found somewhere. It says, it is the Holy Spirit
that quickeneth the soul. God will not take man worship
or bow to man's control. No human innovation, no skill
or worldly art can give a true repentance or break a sinner's
heart. You just can't do it, can you? The sovereign will of
God alone creates us heirs of grace, born in the image of His
Son, a new, peculiar race. I like Scott's quote in your
bulletin today. I hope you read it. A sense of
God in our heart will burst out in life. Where there is no reverence
of God in the heart, it is easily concluded there is no Reverence of God in the life,
I'm sorry, it is easily concluded that there is less in the heart.
What are the things? The effects of the Spirit that
He always produces in those who are really possessed, born again
by Him. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. How unlike, let's put it this
way, how unlike was Lazarus shut up in that tomb The tears of
his sisters don't touch him. He can't hear them. He's dead.
If they can call his name, no avail. He's dead. That's a picture of what we are
by nature. But oh, how different is it from
what he was when he was yet dead in the tomb than when he heard
the voice of the Son of God and he came out alive. Big, big difference. Big difference. Sin is no more
pleasant. Old things are passed away. It
is to our sorrow. Is it? Y'all go back and bear
witness of me on this, don't you? You don't enjoy, if you
enjoy sin, you don't know God. No, we cry out daily, every day.
Oh, wretched man, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? We don't view it in the same
way, do we? 1 John 5 and 1. He that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. There's the evidence. How do I know I'm born of God?
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? You couldn't without
being made a new creation. Last Sunday night when we got
to Hendersonville to the motel where
we were staying. I was pretty tired. And when we checked in to the
hotel, the fellow said, is there a reservation for Larry Chris?
Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't know why, but he handed me this card
and it said upgraded. He said, oh, you've been upgraded.
I said, I have. He said, man, I don't think that's ever happened.
I've been downgraded quite a few times, but not upgraded. And
he said, listen, you can't tell now because it's dark. But in
the morning, you're going to be on the third floor. And when
you open the window, you're going to look out and see the beautiful
mountains in North Carolina. I said, well, I'm looking forward
to that. And I did. I did. And they were beautiful.
But I couldn't help being distracted. I just couldn't help it. Because
below the hotel, there was highways running everywhere. Cars zipping
here and there, horns a-honking, building stores, you know, the
usual. So they distracted me from that
blessed view of those mountains. And I thought, I have that same
problem following my glorious Redeemer. Don't you? I want to
honor Him. I want to trust Him. He's so
trustworthy. I want to always keep looking
to Him. But I'm so easily distracted. This world shouts for my attention. Larry, look at this. Larry, check
this out. It's a constant, constant battle. But it's not going to be forever,
is it? It's not going to be forever.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God. and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Let me read
you and then I'm done. Listen to this. I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, and there were no more sea. And I, John, saw the
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as He adorned for her husband, perfect. And I heard
a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with me, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. I'm reading from Revelation 21,
verse 5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make
all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. God prepares a new creation for
his new creations. And then, then, as Old McShane
wrote, When I see thee as thou art, love thee with an unsinning
heart, then, Lord, then shall I fully know Not till then, how
much I owe children of God. Don't we
have something to look forward to? God bless you.