I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. I've entitled this morning's
message, A New Creation. My text is Galatians chapter
6 verse 15. Last week we looked at verse
14, this week we're going to look at verse 15. Paul says,
For in Christ Jesus Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. And that word creature can just
as easily be translated creation. A new creation. In Christ Jesus. This prepositional phrase in
Christ is found 164 times in the epistles of Paul. The key
to understanding the Bible. The key to understanding the
gospel. The key to understanding how
God can accept you. found in that prepositional phrase,
in Christ Jesus. All of God's salvation hangs
on this phrase, in Christ. Now, this is why Paul said, oh,
that I may win Christ and be found in Him. When God comes
looking for me, All I want Him to see is me being in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I don't want to have Him looking
at me independently of Christ. I want Him to see only Christ. I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. In the life that I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me. All I want God to see is Christ.
That's what we confess in baptism. Baptism is baptism by immersion,
and it's for believers. If people baptize infants, they
don't really understand what baptism means in the first place.
There's nothing in the Bible about the baptism of infants.
And sprinkling, you don't sprinkle dirt on people when they're dead.
You put them under the ground. Now, when I'm baptized, I confess
that when Christ lived, I lived. What He did, I did. When Christ
died, I died because I was in Him. When He was raised from
the dead, I was raised from the dead because I was in Him, in
Christ Jesus. Now 1 Corinthians 15, 22 says,
in Adam all die. Even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. Now God only deals with two people.
Listen to me real carefully. This is so. God only deals with
two people. Adam and Christ. You're either
in Adam or you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in Romans
chapter 5 verse 12, by one man sin entered the world and death
by sin. So that death passed upon all
men in that all sinned. When Adam sinned, everybody in
him sinned. I'm not charged with the sin
I did not commit. No. Being in Adam when he sinned,
I sinned. I think one of the most powerful
illustrations of this is found in Hebrews chapter 7. when it
said that Levi paid tithes when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek
because he was in the loins of his father Abraham. So when Abraham
paid tithes, his great-grandson Levi paid tithes. The point is
everybody in Adam And every human being, by nature, is an Adam,
sinned when Adam sinned. And in Adam all die, even so,
the Apostle says, in their precise same manner in Christ. Everybody
that's in Christ, no exceptions to this rule, everybody that's
in Christ, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive. Now, being in Christ is being
in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You're either in Adam
or you're in Christ. If I'm in Christ, I'm united
to him. Just like in Adam when he sinned,
I sinned, in Christ when he obeyed the law, I obeyed the law. He
said to John the Baptist in Matthew 3.15, thus it becometh us to
fulfill all righteousness. The Lord fulfilled all righteousness. He did it for a great number
called us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Everybody in that group, in Christ,
what He did, they did. For in Christ Jesus, what a blessing
to be in Christ. Now, somebody might say, well,
how do you get in Christ? I want to have these blessings.
All of God's salvation, all of God's spiritual blessings are
in the Lord Jesus Christ. How can I get in Christ? You
know, that's a question I can't answer. I can tell you what the
evidence of being in Christ is, but the only way you can be in
Christ is if God puts you there. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, of Him,
of God, of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
So, the only way I can tell you, I can't tell you how you can
get in Christ. I can't tell you how you can
be born again. I think it's interesting. Billy Graham wrote a book about
how you can be born again, and the Bible never tells you how.
You're just birthed into the kingdom of heaven. Here's the
evidence of being in Christ. Faith. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I can't physically
see whether or not I'm in Christ, but if I have faith, If I trust
the Lord Jesus Christ as everything in my salvation, all that proves
is that I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul says, in Christ
Jesus, circumcision doesn't avail anything, nor uncircumcision. Now, what's he talking about
there? That word avail means has power, has strength. In Christ
Jesus, circumcision doesn't avail a thing. Now, is he talking about
the physical act of circumcision? No. Circumcision represents salvation
dependent upon what you do, salvation by law. And in this epistle to
the Galatians, he gives us a beautiful illustration of this. Now, when
I read Genesis 16, I wouldn't have known that that's a picture
of law and grace, but Paul tells us it is. He says it's an allegory.
He gives the example of God promising Abraham a son. Years pass. It hadn't taken place. Sarah
says, now, God's promise will not take place unless we do our
part, Abraham. Obviously, it's not coming through me, so you
go into my maid Hagar. And that was sinful. It was wrong
for him to do that. But she said, this is how we'll
have a seed. You go into my maid Hagar. He went in, and they had
Ishmael. God never acknowledges Ishmael as a son. Now years later,
13-14 years later Sarah has already gone through the process of menopause.
Abraham goes into her and a miracle takes place. She has a child,
a miraculous child and they name him Isaac. Now Ishmael, is Abraham
doing his part? Isaac is a supernatural birth. Circumcision represents you doing
your part. You know what Paul says in Christ
Jesus? Circumcision avails nothing. It has no strength. It has no
power. If any part of salvation is you,
something that has absolutely no power, no strength at all
with God." And then Paul goes on to say, and neither uncircumcision. Somebody says, well I understand
that. I believe that salvation really is by grace. I believe
that. I see the Bible teaches it. I see the Bible teaches that
we are sinners. I see the Bible teaches that salvation is all
of grace. I understand that. I don't believe this circumcision
stuff. You know how much power that has with God? Absolutely
nothing. Just because you say you believe
that, that doesn't make you a born again child of God. It has no
power with God. Well, what does have power with
God? For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails anything,
nor uncircumcision, what you do or what you understand you
don't do. but a new creature, a new creation. This is what avails with God,
a new creation. Now what is creation? It's important
for us to understand this. What are we talking about when
we talk about creation? Well, it's outlined in Genesis
chapter one, verse one, in the beginning, God. created the heavens
and the earth. In creation, God did what only
God can do. He created something from nothing. Only the power of God can do
that. A man in all of his Technology
in all of his scientific advances, this is something he could never
do, create something from nothing. And that's what God did. There
was a time before time. When all there was, was God. There was no stars, no sun, no
universe, no angels, no men. All there was, was God. And He
was not constrained to create, but in the infinite glory of
His wisdom, He decided that's what He's going to do to glorify
Himself. That's the purpose of creation. It's to glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ. All things were made by Him and
for Him, the Scripture says. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. This is speaking
of creation. Only God can create something
from nothing. And we can see this. Romans 1.20
says, the invisible things of Him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, this creation around us. We see His eternal power
in Godhead, His eternal power. He's always been, and what power
He has that He could create the universe from nothing. And everybody
deep down knows this. There's really no such thing
as an atheist. Now, he may claim to be an atheist
and be brazen and bold about it, but these nagging doubts
are still in his mind, whether he'll admit it or not, for this
reason. The only thing that makes sense
is God created the world. It doesn't make sense to think
that something can come from nothing and just all of a sudden
there it is, or there's a cause behind everything. If there's
no cause, I mean, he only takes a lot more blind faith. to be
an atheist than it does to believe in the existence of God. Creation
says God is. And in this thing of creation,
God had no help. He didn't take counsel with anybody.
He didn't give any advice. Just as an act of His will, He
brought the universe into existence. He had no one and nothing to
help Him. He had nothing to work with.
He had no raw materials. He simply said, light be, and
light was. That's how creation works, the
almighty power of God. Here is something man's science
and technology cannot do, create something from nothing. Now, the believer is called a
new creation. Now, remember, to be a creation,
you had to have been nothing, and then God created you. God
did something for you. A believer is called a new creation. Now the word new is not new in
respect to time like a chronological sequence in order of events.
It means new as in it wasn't there before. New as in recently
made. New as in fresh. New as in unused
and unworn. New as in unprecedented. It hasn't
been there before. Novel, uncommon, unheard of. A new creation. A believer is
a new creation. Now what this is talking about
It's talking about regeneration when he's given life. He becomes
a new creation, a new birth, being born from above, a new
creation. He is something that he was not
before. Now, this new creation, first
of all, obviously, like the old creation, is completely a sovereign
work of the will of God. If you have been born again,
it's because God willed you to be born again. Of His own will
begat He us through the word of truth. Now, when you were
born, how much did you have to do with that in your physical
birth? Did anybody ask you, do you want
to be born? No. You were supernaturally given
life by God placing you in the womb through the physical process,
but it's a supernatural work of God. You weren't consulted.
You weren't asked. Your will had nothing to do with
this. You were birthed. And it's the same thing in the
new birth. You're not born again because you decide you want to
become born again or because of your free will, except some
kind of propositional truth. You're born again because God
birthed you. He gave you life. He created
you in Christ Jesus. John 1, 12, and 13. Listen to
this scripture. As many as received him, to them
gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them which
believe on his name," which were born. Not of blood. You're not born again because
your mom and dad were. Not of the will of the flesh. Not because a bunch of men got
together and said, we're going to pray and pray and pray and
we're not going to give this guy any peace. We're going to
continue to pray for him until God saves him. Not because a
bunch of men got together and decided we're going to do this.
Not of the will of man. Not because of man's free will.
You're not born again because you, of your free will, decide
to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. That's foolishness.
That's all that is. That language is crazy. It's crazy. You think about how
crazy that is. What if the leper, when he came up to Christ, he
said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He didn't
say, Lord, I'm going to allow you to make me clean. I'm going
to, as an act of my free will, allow you to. No, not at all.
This is the sovereign act of God, of His own will beget He
us through the Word of truth. And this is a spiritual creation. Now, what do I mean by that?
Now, it could be that there's a man listening to me now with
cancer. He's dying of cancer. And it
could be that he hears this message And God creates life through
that message. He's made to believe the gospel. Do you know? His cancer is still
going to be there. This is a spiritual creation. It's not a physical
creation. It's not changing your body in any way. This is a spiritual
creation. And it's a radical, comprehensive
creation. What that means is, is when God
gives you life, when he regenerates you, when you're born from above,
it affects every area of your life. There's no rooms that are
left unaffected in your heart. No, this is a radical, comprehensive
creation that affects everything. And this creation is an instantaneous
creation. It's not a process. It works
like this. Lazarus, come forth. and he that was dead came forth."
Lazarus couldn't say no. He had to obey the authoritarian
call of Christ. Lazarus come forth, he that was
dead came forth in an instant, just like that. And this creation
is an individual creation. You know there are no twins in
the Kingdom of Heaven. God saves people by the One.
He deals with you. This is an individual creation. He deals with me. This is an
individual creation. And thank God it's an irreversible
creation. Once born you cannot be unborn.
Once created, you cannot be annihilated. I read recently where a man was
talking about how a child of God can lose his salvation and
end up in hell. Well, you can have that kind
of salvation. There's no salvation in that.
That's a man-made doctrine. No, when God saves somebody,
they're saved. Somebody says, do you believe once saved always
saved? Well, it depends on who's doing the saving. If you saved
yourself, no, you'll fall away. But if God saved you, it's forever. It's eternal and irreversible.
And it is a noticeable creation. What do I mean by that? Somebody
said, should I tell people I'm a Christian? And a man replied,
it'll leak out on you if you are. If people don't notice it,
It is not real. It affects every part of your
life. It's a notable creation. Now,
noticeable creation. Listen to these scriptures. Ephesians
2, 8-10 says, For by grace are you saved, through faith, and
that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship created. Christ Jesus, unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians chapter 4 verse 24, put on the new man which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 2 Corinthians
5, verse 17 says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature,
he's a new creation. Old things have passed away,
and behold, all things have become new. If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation, one that was not there before. And old
things have passed away. They're gone. They're abolished.
Now, what does Paul mean by that? I've heard people say that when
you're saved, you no longer have the same sinful tastes and desires
when you're saved. If that's true, you know what?
I'm not saved and neither are you. Because if you're honest,
you know you have the same sinful tastes and desires. Those things
do not go away. When God saves a man, his old
nature is none the better when that new man, that new creation
comes in. Somebody that makes that claim,
I don't have these sinful desires anymore, they're just lying.
They're just lying. If God has saved you, you still have the
old man and he's just as corrupt and just as sinful as ever. Well, how is it then that old
things have passed away and all things have become new? Well,
old things, my old standing before the law has passed away. I'm
not guilty anymore. I'm perfect. My old sinful nature
no longer has control. The new nature does. The new
nature does. Old things have passed away.
My old belief in salvation by works has passed away. All things
have become new. I'm accepted in Christ. Now,
somebody says, how can these things be? Because the Lord said
in Revelation 21 5, behold, I make all things new. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. Now, I am a new person. that I was not before. I have a new heart. God said
in Ezekiel 36, a new heart will I give them. I've got a new heart
that I didn't have when I was born into this world. I don't
have my old heart being improved. That old heart is still just
as bad. You know, when preachers say, give Jesus your heart, what
would he want with it? He'll give you a new heart. Ask Him.
Isn't that what David asked for? He said in Psalm 51.10, create,
there's the word, create in me a clean heart. Oh, God, my natural
heart is filthy and I can't make it anything different. Create
in me a clean heart. Oh, God. Now this new heart.
Now the heart, the Scripture has a lot to say about the heart.
It represents the whole man. The heart represents the mind
or the understanding. It represents the affections.
It represents the will. Now, I have a new understanding. In Colossians chapter 3, I think
this is the best way to give what this new understanding is
in the Bible. Colossians chapter 3, Paul said,
Lie not one to another, seeing that you put off the old man
with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge. after the image of Him that created
Him." There it is, creation. Again, you see how big this is
in the New Testament? And here's what that renewed
knowledge of the new creation is, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all, in all. Do you know Christ is all in
my salvation? He's all to God. He's all in the Bible. He's all
I need. He's all I want. That's the new
knowledge. You really believe that Christ
is all. He's all to God. He's all that
God requires. He's all that you need. And you
rest in that. That's a new knowledge. And I've
got a new affection. I love this. I love this. And this is what I want. You
know what I want? I want Christ to be all. I want
me to be nothing and Christ to be all. And I love Christ being
all in salvation. And this is my will. You see,
the believer has a new will. While I don't believe in free
will, that doesn't mean that there's no such thing as will.
We're given a new will. Psalm 110.3 says our people should
be willing. in the day of thy power. And
my will is for Christ to be all. That's what I want. Paul put
it this way in Romans 7, bless his heart, I understand exactly
what he's saying. I say bless my heart in thinking this. He
said the will is present with me. I've got a new will. That
will is I want His will to be done. I don't want to sin anymore.
I want to be just like Christ. I want to be perfectly obedient.
The will is present with me. But how to perform that which
is good? Paul says, I find not. But I have a new heart, a new
understanding, new affections, and a new will. I have new eyes. I see things I formerly could
not see. There was a time when I couldn't
see my utter desperate sinfulness. I can now. There's a time when
I couldn't see God's utter holiness. I do now. There was a time when
I couldn't see the sufficiency of Christ. I do now. I have new
ears. I can now hear the gospel. There
was a time when I couldn't hear the gospel. I didn't understand
it. All I heard was law. All I heard was what I need to
do in order to gain God's acceptance. But now I hear the gospel. I can hear the joyful sound. I have a new nose. I can now
smell the sweet fragrance of Christ. And I can smell the stench
of salvation by works. There was a time when I couldn't,
but I can now. I have new feet which walk by faith and not by
sight. I'm relying completely on the
Son of God as everything in my salvation and not anything that
I can see. I have new feet. I have new hands
which handle of the Word of life. I have a new perspective. When
Paul said, If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And then
that very next thing he says is all things are of God. I have
a new perspective. All things are of God. He's in
control of everything and everybody and every event. He's the Lord.
I have a new perspective. All things are of God. I've got
a new book. The Bible is no longer a rule
book, but a hymn book. It's all concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ and His glory and His salvation. And I think this
might be my favorite thought concerning newness. I have a
new history. I have a new history. Nothing bad in it. It's all good. It's all perfect. It's a history
of nothing but perfect obedience. A history of doing nothing but
pleasing the living God. perfect history, because my history
is the history of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if any man be in
Christ, He's a new creation. He's something He was not before,
and He's a creation. That's something that only God
can do. He's a work of God. If any man
be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away,
and behold, all things are forgotten. What a blessing then to be a
new creation. To request a copy of the sermon
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