Pastor Ralph Douglas West - A New Person in Christ Jesus | 2 Corinthians 5:17

0:00 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. Let me say that again. This is the day. I'm waiting so I can hear myself. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad about it. Thank you so much. This would be a good time to testify. If you don't mind doing it, then just tell somebody, there's no way I could live without Christ. That's a good place to do it. Hallelujah. 2 Corinthians, I know, chapter 5, I know, yeah. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, one verse this morning, and verse 17.

1:05 it's one of those verses probably everybody in the room knows. And if you don't know it, it's only because you knew in Christ and you haven't had a chance to read 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And then some of you are going to say, I'm new in Christ, but I've heard that verse recited. In verse 17, the NIV reads this way And I told them at 8 o'clock When I memorized this verse I memorized it in the King James Version In the NIV it says, and I'll make a comment about that in about 10 minutes.

1:57 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, The new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here. This is the word of God. You may be seated. Therefore if anyone be in Christ The NIV says The new creation has come The old is gone The new is here How many of you have the NIV translation? Good How many of you don't have a Bible at all this morning? You don't?

2:53 Lean over to somebody next to this lady here Say she doesn't have a Bible And don't try to get cute and say Well I don't have a Bible But I got it on my phone It's the Bible And lean over because I want to show you What Christ has done for you So I want to tag this text A new person in Christ Jesus Peter Schaefer in his award winning drama Equus highlights the central character as a young boy named Alan and his atheist father, Frank Strain,

3:40 thinks that his son's problems are associated to his religion. And in a petulant outburst, father Strain, the daddy of Alan, makes this comment about Jesus. He wants to tell his son about the cross. His atheist daddy wants to tell Alan, who got religion, about the cross. Sounds like some of us with our friends that you listen to that know nothing about Jesus gonna tell you about what Jesus said. Let me say it again. I'm just letting you get caught up.

4:31 Peter Schaeffer's award-winning drama. Equus has a central character, Alan. An atheist daddy, Frank Strang, who believes that his son's problems are associated to his religion. And so Frank, atheist father strain is going to tell Alan about his religion. And in a petulant outburst he says, son, an innocent man tortured to death. Thorns on his head, nails in his hand, a spear between his ribs. A story like that can mark anybody That kind of thing can leave a mark on you You're here this morning because you've been marked And what I just said If that didn't do anything to you You're not a Christian And so I might need to open up the door to church right now.

5:39 A thing like that can mark you. One reverend commentator was writing on 2 Corinthians. and when he became a Christian, he said that he was talking to one of his friends about the language that the Bible uses to describe people who are Christian. That word Christian means one who follows Jesus Christ's teachings.

6:17 Said his friend when he read this said, y'all weird. And that's the truth that if you really embrace These metaphors that the Bible uses To describe who we are A royal priesthood A holy nation Then the truth is You're weird It might not be much of a compliment If your atheist friend says to you You cool you might want to be a little different.

7:05 We've been marked by the cross. But the cross is not a sign of death, but of life overcoming death. And so when we read 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Then the gospel has been announced to us And it simply says this therefore if any what did y'all do to the south therefore if any man be in Christ He's a new creature Old things have passed away And behold all things become new I'm going to act like the charismatics now The devil done got in this thing I got to blame it on the devil And y'all done something while I was preaching Now, you want to hear this message.

8:12 Let me say it again. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. This is another word to say that in Christ you have been transformed. Do you know what transformed means biblically? You know it, you just have a hard time reconciling everything you know into biblical terms. You know exactly what transformation is. You remember in elementary school you learned the word metamorphosis. How did you learn it?

9:06 You learned it in science. And the teacher said, an ugly caterpillar goes into a cocoon. and stays there until it breaks out of its shell,

9:29 but it doesn't come out a hairy caterpillar. It comes out as an Olympian butterfly. And if God can change a caterpillar, into a butterfly. And so this morning, if you can embrace science,

9:57 which I believe is one of the ways that God reveals grace to humanity is to say, look what I did in nature. I can do that to your nature, I can change you. Whatever you were when you walked in here this morning, if you put your trust in me, I can make you something brand new.

10:22 Therefore. In verse 17, and time does not permit, I said this at eight o'clock and they knew it, and people, those of you who are here for the first time, or you've never, when I say time doesn't permit, the people around you say, trust me, 30 minutes ain't enough time for him to unload one verse. So I'm just giving you the cliff notes of it, all right? But when you read this on your own, verse 17, it starts off in NIV, it says what? Therefore. But then you go up to verses 14, 15, and you see that there's another therefore.

11:07 And therefore, in verses 14 and 15, speaks of what? Christ, the love of Christ does something. It constrains us. Do you know what constraining is? That's one of the things I've always enjoyed Preaching about to this church You always ask the right questions The word constrain Do you see it in that? The love of Christ constrains us It compels us It means it keeps us from falling apart Okay, you buried your mother. You lost your job. You've gone through a divorce. You had to bury a son or a daughter. You've been diagnosed with a sickness. And yet you still wake up in the morning with a smile on your face. It is the love of Christ that is constraining us.

12:05 Holding us. You can't explain it any other way. I've asked myself that when I said, I wonder if I faced that, how would I respond? And when the compelling love of God constrains us, holds us together. And so when you get to verse 17, you know that Paul is alluding to something before that because he said, therefore, and you know what you see, therefore, therefore, is there for a reason. If any man be in Christ, I want to show this to you. Does anybody else have another translation like the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible? Because the NIV says, if any man is in Christ. But if you have another translation, it might read a different kind of way. It might say something like If any situation are there is There is Alright So he is in NIV But then it says a new thing Or in the NRSV There might be there is Both situations or both Emphasis imply that something is happening And so the emphasis rests on the pronoun anyone.

13:35 Anyone. So now Paul is now giving us some insight to simply say that if you're in Christ, then your vision of the world changes radically because of what Christ has done inwardly to you. Remember, you're no longer a caterpillar. you've been transformed into a butterfly. You have been metamorphosed. You have been changed, transformed. You have been made brand new and therefore any person who's in Christ.

14:26 And so then what the question is, Paul gives us four statements that are in some ways not only exclusive, but they may be exclusively antithetical. And that is that when you read it, you can ask yourself, what are the dimensions of being in Christ? But church, let me tell you something. I know it's the first Sunday year and you would rather me preach about how to get a car. But if you hear me today, this text will change your life forever. So what does it mean then to be in Christ? That's all you want to know. What does it, what is Paul getting to? And I may not get past this. When he says to be in Christ. Look what he says.

15:21 If any man is in Christ, number one it might mean those who belong to christ the word for that you might want to say salvation i've been saying so i belong to christ i'm in christ that's what we get i'm a follower of christ i'm a doer of christ okay but then it might be in christ might mean that one is united with Christ. That's verse 18, reconciliation, and I'm not going to spend time with that, but that's another way of saying those who've been separated from Christ have been brought into unity with Christ. That means if you're separate from Christ this morning, you're an enemy of Christ. But in reconciliation, God hugs himself by hugging you.

16:18 But then in Christ could mean I belong to the body of Christ. You have a lot of bad teaching. Some of you right now, no offense, but you believe I don't have to go to church. That's one of the dumbest things you could ever say. You don't, you are the church. And notice what Paul is talking about. Have you noticed it? He's not talking about individual nothing. He's saying, and I've been trying this for 38 years to get people to understand this. I haven't succeeded yet. When Christ redeemed you, saved you, reconciled you, he didn't save you for you. I know you can't clap because that's not what Reverend Popular teaches.

17:18 But Christ never saved you just for you. He saved you to belong to a community to make the world a better place than the world was when you found it. That's why we go to church. Or we unite together as believers in a fellowship called the church. Because when you move in this room this morning, you'll run into somebody that don't know you, don't know what you've been going through, and they'll have the nerve to say these words to you. I saw you when you came through the door, and I started praying for you. I just want to encourage you. And it's the very thing that you needed for today Is that nobody knew what you was going through But when you belong to the fellowship God always reveals what you need The right song, the right prayer The right statement, the right sermon The right joke Something happens where you say I'm sure glad I got up this morning Because the Lord And that's what it means to be in Christ One last thing.

18:31 So the four things is, you might belong to Christ, that's salvation. Live in Christ in the sphere. I'm going to stop there. In the sphere, united with Christ, number three, part of his body. But I skipped over the sphere because in the sphere, and I can see some of you geometrically minded people saying, oh, I know that. that means circle. And so when I'm in Christ's circle, then you say, but in geometry, there's all this vacuous space. So when you're in Christ And all of that vacuous space Emptiness of life It is Christ who says I'm going to fill it in Wait a minute now You ain't shouted yet But you're getting ready to Because remember a few minutes ago I was talking about verses 14 and 15 Down to verse 16 Because the love of Christ constrains us It holds us Therefore the love of Christ Constrains us Therefore anyone who's in Christ Anyone who is constrained by Christ Hear the question you have to ask yourself Who kept you When everything else was falling apart Who kept you when you didn't know your way Didn't know your way out Who kept you when you lost your job Who kept you You say Christ held me together And it's Christ in Christ that makes the difference.

20:10 All right, I'm through because my time is running out. So let me give you something else. And so from that, he says, therefore, any man, any person that's in Christ, you are, number one, a new creation. When Paul said this, Paul is looking backwards to the prophet Isaiah, who on multiple occasions, chapter 64, I believe it is, and then chapter 45, 54, he goes on and he talks about this. God's going to do a new thing. And when people read that And that's why you know You remember what your elementary teacher told you Read the Bible how Our book in context What goes before and what after And so when you read it God's not just saying I'm going to do a new thing Just for the sake of new things He says I've already done Something You was in Egypt And I exodus you out of bondage. You was in Babylon and I got you back home. You was enslaved from Africa to America and up the Iberian coast but I set you free. You were strangled by Jim Crow laws but I broke the back of that. I want you to know that And not only was I able to do something in the Old Testament, New Testament, in the 1800s, 1900s, or the 20th century, I'm the God that does new things.

22:02 I ain't through doing the new yet. I can still do new things in you right now. Any man who's in Christ is a new creation. I'm gonna ask you something. So you think... that all God got is what God done done?

22:29 Well, no wonder it takes so much to get you excited. Let me give you a line. His mercies are new every morning. God haven't run out of what you need? Bless your heart. You need some new friendships. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation.

22:57 And so when Paul is talking about new creation, he's saying, look, the day will come where these old orders, values, systems shall pass away. But I can live in a bad order because I'm a new person. I'm not confound or confined by what is bad.

23:22 I mean, we got a president. who goes into Little Venice Waiver on the assumption of narco drugs. It sounds very interesting, that narco, but the man just exonerated. One of the biggest drug traffickers in all the world who had a 45-year sentence, so we know that ain't true. I wonder, does oil have anything to do with it? but you know why that doesn't affect me? I mean, it could affect your cost to live, but I'm talking about affect my person because I'm a new person in Jesus Christ, and I see that that's all way of living.

24:19 All right? If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, everything becomes new. Let me close because y'all can't take too much. No, I'm serious. I love you to death and you can't take too much. So let me wrap it up this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, their new creation, all things are passed away. And I apologize, I know that's your president.

24:57 But that man needs help. And since he's your president, you ought to at least pray for him that the Lord would help him make sense in the world. I mean, you voted for him. Not me. Let me go on the record today. I did not vote for that megalomaniac.

25:28 I did not. I can't speak for you. I know you get offended. Hey, I know y'all got money. And when you make money, I know how you think. You know, I know, I know, I know. I ain't vote for him. I ain't voting for none of his sickle-pants fans that's running for office in Texas either. None of them, I don't care. I'm a new creature in Christ Which means I got good sense I said it Y'all vote that way, you're crazy Alright, now, let me wrap up Stop cutting up in there So all things, and this is my last point All things are past, but behold, all things have become new So, Pastor West, you've been going on, ranting and raving on things.

26:22 Can you just give me just a cheat sheet to go home with so that when people ask me, I will say yes. Verse 17 is situated between verses 11 through 21. Verses 11 to around, you could just say 13, 14. You could say this is the motive of Pastor Paul's preaching are the preacher's motive, okay? Get me now. The motive is Paul's a pastor talking to his congregation and he's talking to them about how he lived before he became a new creature, all right? Then when you get to around verse 15, 16 following down to verse 17, then you could say this is his message. So the message is that he wants them to know is two things.

27:17 One is in verse 17, you know, we've read it, but also in verse 14, 15, the love of Christ constrains us, number two. Therefore, we're new in Christ Jesus. And then the ministry that we're to exercise, verse 18, talks about be reconciled unto God. Okay, so that go your structure. Inside of it, verse 17, is what we've been talking about. Therefore, anyone who's in Christ is a new creation Old things have passed away, behold, all things come new This came clear to me in something that happened at Ms. Wesley's house Now, at her house, we had bought a house, we had been there, and these people told us when we built this house and built it, they told us about some guarantees.

28:20 And I mean, we were young, so we didn't know, and I never owned nothing, you know, so I believe what they said. They talked about the length of the kind of material that was on the roof, and the material that the house would be able to hold that kind of stuff. Well. One weather event, the outside was inside of our house.

28:52 And I just simply said, Ms. Webb. is that outdoors pouring into our house? I said, what about that expensive roof these people told us that would be with us for 25, 26 years and we would never have to? Now, those of you who are smart, you already said to your neighbor, now, do you see what Pastor West is doing? He's backed this sermon all the way up to chapter five, verse one, and talk about earthly houses. Because when he got down to verse 17, being new, he's saying that God's given us a new house to live in. And so the people said to us, you know, that there was a certain guarantee that we didn't have to worry about.

29:48 And I said, all right then, this is good. Well, outdoor showed up in our house. Then, then we had some people moved in our house, some squatters uninvited called termite.

30:08 I know, I know you ain't never had these things, but at our house, they just showed up and had never paid one mortgage, you know? And then I had the nerve to tear up, tear up a house.

30:31 So I'm going somewhere. And so we had to get that repaired. And then we had to get it repaired more than what we wanted to be repaired. It was just a mess for a whole year of trying to get that place livable again. I mean, it was a mess, because when we bought it, they told us, now this house, and they told us all of what that house wasn't gonna do. You'll never need this, you'll never need that, but I'm here to tell you, if man made it. I'm getting closer to you now. Y'all a good looking group of congregation. I love you handsome men. You attractive women. I love preaching to you.

31:23 I love walking in and looking. There's some good looking people. Watch the way you just walk in here. I mean, just strutting here late. Looking for a seat And I'm here to tell you one day, our steps gonna get shorter.

31:50 Eyes get down. And when you 15 years old, 13 years old, 10, 25, 30, you can't even imagine. Even when I'm saying that, you nudging somebody and you saying, not me. And then my reply is, keep on living. I'm done now. So these people just kept working on our house.

32:19 The roof, the siding, the outside, uninvited guests living in. Then stuff stopped breaking down outside. And just recently they had to replace some pipes and gadgets or apparatus for the pool and all that kind of stuff. And the guy made a comment about what he wanted to use, he said because they don't make this no more. So I'm at the mercy of something new. I just said, all I need to know, is it really going to work? I know you got to sell it. I know you got to jack up the price. Is it going to work? He said it would and it didn't.

33:10 But I'm done. But when he finished repairing it, this was the line. He had old nuts and bolts and stuff and he gave them to me and said, would you like to have this? I said, what am I going to do with it?

33:36 This is the truth. He said, I just want to know if you want to. I said, this is the old equipment. I said, do they make it anymore? He said, no. I said, anything I can do with it? No. I said, am I going to shrine it or something? He said, I guess that's up to you. I said, if it's old, I don't want it. And if it's old and unusable, I don't want it. and if it's old and it's going to remind me of how much money I had to spend to correct it, I sure don't want it. I said, you can put that in the garbage and take that with you and when Christ did his work on us, stop carrying around the old stuff that he's delivered you from. Say bye to that and say, I'm a new person in Jesus Christ.

34:30 I'm done now, I'm through with it. But there are too many of us even now, we never rejoice, we're never happy because we're walking around with old stuff and the Lord said, I delivered you from that 20 years ago. It didn't help you 20 years ago, it's not gonna help you now. Any person that's in Christ is a new creation. all things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

35:06 I told him this morning when I was a younger preacher and I was trying to finish a sermon like this, I would say nature formed us and sin deformed us. Environments conform us and schools inform us and prisons reform us. but Christ transforms us. We are new in Christ Jesus. Brand new in Christ Jesus. Come on, let's go to God in prayer. I'm going to stop right there. My soul about to get happy. But I'm going to stop right there. Let's go to God with heads bowed and eyes closed. If our leaders, if you would take your place real quick, standing now. I know it. I'm saying thank you Lord too.

36:02 Come on, let's go to God and pray. Our Father, we thank you for the day. Thank you for your word and we thank you for the power of Jesus Christ at work inside of us. And now we ask of you to continue to transform us anew. We thank you today that we're not what we used to be and we thank you that we're not everything that we're going to be. That you're transforming us.

36:35 Transforming our mind and our heart and our vision. We thank you. And even for those today who are here to say I know, I know God can but I'm trying help us take our hands off our own bad situation and put it in the hand of Christ and let him do our finished work. We thank you, Lord, already in advance for those who are going to get up, take the long walk, come forward to this and say, I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. Thank you for in advance for them now we pray. in Jesus name and God's people say amen give God praise now two invitations number one I'm gonna ask you today to do me a big big favor and not to get up and walk out okay I'm just gonna ask you to do that you know so like when I come to your place and you say pass don't leave until I sit there.

37:50 The day I'm going to ask you that because you don't know how God wants to bless you and how God's going to use you to be a blessing to somebody. Okay? Now, this is for you, number one. That you're sitting here and say, God, I need you to do something special in my life.

38:11 I need you to work in my life. and you know what those ways are and so this is your time to ask God to do that. This is some father praying for his family, some mother for her children, some son, some daughter, some brother, some sister, some best friend praying for somebody. I want to give you that moment to do that right now. And then secondly, this is for the other group that's here to say, Pastor Wes, today I need to make new commitments to Jesus Christ. Not no resolution, because you ain't going to do it. you may last a week at best two or three weeks but if you make a commitment to christ and every believer ought to daily be making commitments on how to grow maturely in in the lord jesus christ okay that's that's the second thing now here's the third one Lord, I've been promising you, if you keep me and sustain me, it ain't no deal making.

39:25 Let me say this. Ain't no deal making you have with God. The Lord just wakes you up because the Lord wakes you up because he loves you enough to give you another opportunity. You can't cut no deal with God like, Lord, if you do this, I'll do that. It won't work like that. But today I'm talking to a lot of you. Those are the two invitations. The third one is I need a church home to grow in I know Pastor Wes is grumpy But he always tells me the truth And he loves me enough to tell me the truth And I need to be in a place Where I have a pastor who's more interested In my mind and heart Than anything else For me to grow as a believer In the Lord Jesus Christ And when you get up this morning to come down this aisle, we're going to rejoice with you as God answers your prayers.

40:25 OK, so the choir is going to start singing. And I want you to get up from that seat and come down the aisle and meet me at the altar to receive the great grace that God has made available for you. Amen. Come on. I need all my believers.