Transformative Power of Being a New Creation in Christ

The Apostle you notice starts off with this great and resounding and assured statement we know that if the Earthly House of this T of this hour Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God and house not made with hens Eternal in the heavens now there as we were trying to see last Sunday night is the great statement the great offer of the Christian gospel and uh therefore the challenge which we all confront as we consider this message this gospel is just that what is our position as we look at and contemplate the possible dissolving of the Earthly House of this hour Tabernacle. [00:57:44]

The Christian faith to enable us to face that question if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved and it may be it may be before we realize where are we do we know where we are what have we got what would our whole situation be now that's the business of Christianity is to bring us to face that very question I was establishing the point that it is the only teaching that rarely does that it is certainly the only teaching that has an adequate answer to that question. [01:32:44]

Here is a message that can enable one to face the end of all things and still to be more than conqueror to be triumphant to be able to look at it at its worst and say we know but even if that does happen it's all right it doesn't upset us it doesn't mean that we' miscalculated it doesn't indeed make any difference to us at all in any vital sense sense or manner now that is the proposition of the Christian faith. [02:11:20]

The Christian method is very different from that it shows you exactly how to arrive at this position in which you can make this aeration that you know that even if your Earthly House of this cabinal we disol you a building of God and house not made with hens Eternal in the heavens very well how does one get there well here's the answer in in its essence you can only get there in the Christian way you can only get there by believing what the scriptures teach. [06:12:12]

There are no shortcuts in Christianity in other words every blessing and every benefit that is offered in the New Testament is always something that results from the belief of and the acceptance of the faith and of the teaching you can never get the deduction without working out the argument you can never arrive at the result without going through the process now this is something that should be obvious but it very clearly isn't obvious. [08:36:80]

Christianity is not an addition to life it's a revolution in the life it's the ending of something and the beginning of something new it is to use the very term in our text tonight a new creation you see the Apostle here is astonished at the whole thing that's what he's trying to bring out he's amazed even at himself because of the profound and the radical character of this change that has taken place in him. [31:03:20]

The Christian message is entirely and allog together different from everything else that is known in this world this evening if any man be in Christ he is a new creature a new creation old things are passed away behold all things are become new now then I say the principle that is taught there is this that this Christian message this Christian position the Christian attitude the position of a man who can say yes I know that even if I've got to die it's all right. [10:53:48]

This is something which is done to us by God and not by ourselves I needn't emphasize that these are fundamental points need I see these are preliminary considerations if you go wrong on any one of these you're you'll never arrive at this destination you'll never know how to face death and Conquer it this I say is something that is done to us by God and not by ourselves If any man be in Christ he is a new creature a new creation. [22:12:79]

The Apostle is so anxious that we shouldn't go wrong about this that he says it more than once in this very chapter here he says it in verse 5 now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God who also hath given to us the earnest of the spirit he says you see this is my position in this Tabernacle we do grown being burdened not for that we would be clothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. [22:51:20]

The Christian is not only a good man he is a good man but he's something much more than that he's a new man entirely new there is something there that wasn't there before there's a new beginning he's a new creature he's got a new nature inside him it isn't an improvement of the old it isn't a modification it isn't an addition to it is a new new nature there is a principle in him of life and of power and of understanding that wasn't there before. [31:50:88]

The moment a man becomes a Christian everything's different a new softness in the heavens a new greenness in the grass every tint and every color is the mark of the Creator I think I've told you before of the two men who went on holiday to the country and stood at a gate looking at a field of brightened wheat and the one said what a fine crop and the other said Well Done God that's it oh the man who's got a Christian nature a new nature he not only thinks in a different way because of that he sees everything differently. [44:11:20]

The Apostle himself in writing to the Galatians says I live yet not I you remember it don't you Galatians 2 at the end I live yet not I well what is it all Christ liveth in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me my friend have you been trying to make yourself a Christian have you been saying oh I wish I could say I know that if the Earthly House of this my Tabernacle were dissolved I've got a building I wish I'd give anything to get I'm going to try to get there you'll never get there you've got to be made a new you've got to be born again. [34:31:20]