2 Corinthians 5:17
New
I first started serving the Lord not long after I was saved and
selected Zech 4:6 as my life’s verse, mainly because I wanted to see
the power of God in my life.
Zec 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me,
saying, This is the word of the LORD unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
However, it wasn’t not too many years (probably five or six, before I
came to realize that our testimony should reflect what Christ has
done in our life more than our desire for what He would do, so I
changed my verse to 2Cor 5:17.
2Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
I believed then as I believe now, that this verse best describes what
God has done in my life. Would you consider some thoughts with me
this morning.
I. "IF"
A. The "if" in the verse means that not everyone is in Christ or
saved.
B. There are several mindsets that the unsaved person can have
even inside of a church. Here are a few.
1. A person may know of Jesus but not know enough to be
saved.
a. Some religions don't teach enough for the people to
be saved.
b. But even if they do, the unsaved must hear it,
understand it, and be drawn to it.
2. A person can know enough to be saved but not have trusted
the Lord.
a. He may know what that means or he may not, but he
knows that he is not surrendered to Jesus.
b. He may agree with what the Bible says or he may
dismiss it totally, but he knows that he is not
obeying it.
3. A person know enough to be saved, think that he is somehow
qualified for heaven but still be lost.
Mt 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven.
C. Of those three, I deem the last to be the most pathetic.
1. Here is a person who perhaps goes to church, reads a
Bible, and gives some money—all in the name of religion,
all the time thinking they belong to Christ—but they
will still die and go to hell.
2. It will be difficult to witness much to this type of
person without insulting them and calling them a liar.
3. Perhaps I feel for this type of a lost person because I
was one.
a. I was not reared in a Christian home. My parents were
both lost.
b. I guess I was about 13 when a friend took a Chick
track, Holy Joe, and let me read it. When I
finished, he asked if I wanted to go to hell….
c. I walked down the aisle twice after that
(1) First at Rosedale Baptist Church. I am sure I
was counseled about salvation before I was
baptized.
(2) Then again at a James Robison Crusade. The
invitation was if you want to live for Jesus,
come down to the front so I did. (I thought
they might have something more that I needed.)
d. Sadly, after I read the tract and prayed, was
baptized, and left the coliseum, I was still lost.
(1) I could not stop doing the bad or start doing the
good.
(2) I did not know why I could not stop the bad and
start the good, but I couldn’t.
(3) So I eventually quit trying.
(4) In time, I quit going to church too.
D. As one who made a false profession of faith and one who has
tried to help some whose salvation seems sketchy at best, I
have noticed how so many follow a similar path.
1. False professors get "religion" but they never change.
a. They go to church some, get a Bible, listen to some
preaching, make some new friends.
b. But by-in-large, they have the same language, the same
short tempers, the same lustful hearts, and the same
ambitions as before.
2. But they never develop a love or understanding of
spiritual things.
a. They go to church, but they do not love church.
b. They have the Bible, but they do not read the Bible.
c. They know about prayer, but they do not talk to God
in any meaningful way.
(1) But how can they?
(2) It is the Holy Spirit within the believer who
makes these things possible.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
3. By the way, these are those who give Christianity a black
eye. They are the hypocrites who confuse the lost and
lead the saved back into the world.
II. "in Christ"
A. The Bible is clear that there is a salvation.
1. The phrase "in Christ" is a symbolic term to describe the
person who is truly saved.
2. In the days of Noah, God determined to judge the whole
human race, but in mercy, He provided a salvation.
3. He gave Noah instructions on how to build a gigantic ark,
a floating boat; and then for 120 years, He told Noah to
invite the people to enter it and be saved from the
coming judgment.
4. \\#1Peter 3:20\\ says that of the entire world population,
only eight people entered the ark; but those that were
"in the ark" were saved.
5. Jesus is mankind’s Ark.
a. As in the days of Noah, God is inviting the human race
to go inside of the Ark, Jesus Christ.
b. Those who are "in Christ" are saved from all of the
judgments that will fall upon mankind and this world.
c. This outside of Jesus Christ will experience the full
wrath of the Almighty God.
B. The Bible is clear on what it takes to be saved.
1. There must be faith in what Jesus has done.
a. Some Bible knowledge is required to be saved. (This
is the reason the Bible asks the question, "How can
they hear without a preacher?" \\#Romans 10:14\\)
b. The most basic knowledge is that Jesus died for our
sins, thus making payment for us.
c. I do not think you can strip the message down any more
than that.
d. In fact, unless I was talking to a person who was
literally breathing his last breathe, I would also
tell him:
(1) That Jesus is God who came from heaven just to
die for us.
(2) That we are sinners but Jesus was sinless.
(3) And that to prove that Jesus was God, God raised
Jesus from the dead on the third day.
e. But it is not just knowing these facts that save.
(1) It is believing them.
(2) This is why Christians talk so much about faith
and believing.
(3) If you do not believe that Jesus literally died
for your sins, you cannot be saved.
2. But there is also repentance.
Ac 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out, when the
times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord;
Ac 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God
winked at; but now commandeth all men every where
to repent:
Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also
to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
a. Repentance means, the best you know how, you surrender
yourself to Jesus Christ. Not just for the moment,
the hour, or the year; but for all eternity.
b. It would take some time before I understood why my
first encounter with the gospel did not produce
salvation; but I came to understand that it was
because I did not repent.
(1) I could not stop the bad and start the good
because I was still the captain of my fate.
(2) It was not until I was 16 that I actually came to
the place where I surrendered myself to Jesus
and was saved.
(3) But even that event did not cause all of my bad
to go away—indeed, after all of this years, it
still has not!
(4) But Jesus now being the Captain of my fate gave
me the ability to stop the bad and to start the
good.
III. "new creature"
A. Salvation gives us something new, something different and
something powerful.
B. The new and different go together.
1. Paul spoke of salvation as being recreated into a new
being.
2. Jesus spoke of the salvation as a brand new birth.
3. But in both the emphasis is on the new.
a. As a Christian, you have never been what you ARE and
you will never be what you WERE.
b. You are now a new being with new desires, new
passions, and new abilities.
c. This newness shows in three ways.
(1) God sees someone new. Your sins and mistakes
are gone. As far as God is concerned, you were
just born and you can do nothing wrong.
(2) You should see yourself as someone new.
Salvation gives you a do-ever. It does not
matter how old you are, you get a brand new
life to live. Hopefully, every Christian
desires to please God with their new life. If
they do, they will find themselves to be a much
better person.
(3) And if you live different, others will see the
new in you as well.
4. You become different.
a. The contrast in what we WERE and what we ARE is
repeatedly noted in the Bible by God calling what we
were the OLD us.
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin.
Ephesians 4:22 That ye put off concerning the
former conversation the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts;
Colossians 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
b. The OLD means that which was, the previous, the done
away with.
c. There should be as much difference in you from your
salvation to now as there is difference between:
(1) OLD and NEW,
(2) DARK and LIGHT,
(3) EVIL and GOOD,
(4) HELL and HEAVEN.
C. But Christians also become powerful.
1. This is the proof of salvation that the religiously lost
are missing.
2. John, the apostle, described salvation as being endued
with godly powers.
John 1:12 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:
a. This implantation of God within you totally changes
you.
b. You are now "in Christ," directly connected to God at
all times.
(1) That gives you spiritual abilities:
(a) You can know what God thinks and desires.
(b) You can be warned of the devil’s traps and
the flesh’s weaknesses.
(c) And if you rebel against God’s wishes, He
will sting your soul with conviction.
(2) That also gives you spiritual rights:
(a) You have the right to speak to God and to
know that He hears you.
(b) The right to enter His presence.
(c) The right to be forgiven of any and every
sin.
(d) The right to be used by God.
(3) And best of all, you have spiritual strength.
(a) Whatever God can and desires to do, He can
do it through you.
(b) You can help rescue those who perishing,
teach those that are ignorant, and help
those who are hurting to such a great
extent, that you can literally change the
world—or at least the part of the world
you live in.
IV. "any man"
A. These two words may be the best part.
B. They mean that this can happen to any and every person on the
planet.
1. I realize I am preaching to those sitting in a church, but
I could just as well be preaching to those in prison.
2. In fact, I could be preaching to the death row inmates, or
the psychotic killers, or the worst of the war criminals.
3. The phrase "any man" means any man, woman, boy, or girl
can come to Jesus if he or she desires.
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