His Power Creates a New Man

To the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy.

Christ is king. You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

Summer Sermon Series Introduction and the Thesis of Reconciliation

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. My name is Allen Nelson. I am the host, one of the pastors, at Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. ProvidenceBaptistAR .com. And you're listening to our Summer Sermon Series, where we are featuring various sermons.

And each week, I'll just kind of give a little lead-in to what the sermon is. This sermon is His Power Creates a New Man, from 2 Corinthians chapter five, and preached at the Easter Conference at By the Word Baptist Church in Breyer, Texas, just outside Azle.

This sermon is my first opportunity to preach for Pastor Randall Easter in Azle. And one of the important things about this sermon, though you can't hear it from the sermon, but just in the worship and such, before the sermon, my wife and I were just gripped and challenged and encouraged.

And it really, being at this conference in 2022, April 13th, 2022, being at this conference helped shift some things at our own church in the same year. So important in that regards. I hope that it's a blessing to your soul.

My thesis tonight is simply this, you cannot be reconciled to God and not be transformed. You cannot be reconciled to God and not be transformed. The Gospel, as you know, is a Trinitarian work. It is an outflow of the Father's plan, the Son's propitiation and the Spirit's power.

And through the Gospel, sinners are reconciled to God and you cannot be reconciled to God and not be transformed. Five times, you may have noticed, in this passage we see either the noun reconciliation in the English or the verb reconciled.

And we see this reconciliation is centered in the work of Christ. So much so, if you notice, if you're a quick noticer, you notice that verse 17 and verse 21, the beginning and ending of this passage, this passage opens and closes by pointing to our union with Christ.

Verse 17 says, therefore, if anyone is what? In Christ. Verse 21 says, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him. We might become the righteousness of God. So since tonight the theme of reconciliation so permeates our passage, and since the passage ought to dictate the sermon, I'm going to use this structure for our outline.

We will consider first reconciliation articulated. Next, we'll look at reconciliation accomplished. And finally, in key to tonight's theme, we will examine reconciliation applied. And so here's where we will see God's power creating the new man and what this looks like practically.

I'll try to be like Brother Harold and notice the clock that is up there. Okay, I see you clock, and we're going to be friends tonight. Number one, reconciliation articulated. Let's begin in verse, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against him and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Two points here. Reconciliation articulated, two points under this heading. First, reconciliation's nature. What is, what I'm asking here is, what is reconciliation?

We see this word permeate our text, so what is it? Reconciliation, by the way, that's a hot button word if you're paying attention to our culture today, talking about reconciliation. Well, the Greek word here, one lexicon, defines the word for reconciliation this way.

Katheleison denotes a transformation or renewal of the state between God and man and therewith of man's own state. In 2 Corinthians 5 .18, it is introduced as the basis of the most comprehensive renewal possible for man.

Namely, that he's become a new creature, that old things have passed away and that all things have become new. So the word for reconciliation here originally had the idea of exchanging coins. I give you a quarter and you give me two dimes and a nickel.

But it came to mean not exchanging coins, but exchanging states, right? From one of enmity to one of friendship. And so this here is how Paul is using it. We are reconciled to God, moving away from a state of enmity and to a state of unity with God.

We move from a state of hostility to one of peace. And this leads to our second point here. First, reconciliation's nature, now reconciliation's necessity. Verse 20, why would Paul say this? Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Why is this such a burden on Paul's heart? Why does he say, even in Romans, how he himself could be accursed if his brothers would know Christ, right?

Why is reconciliation such a burden? It's because it's not just a cute theological word. It is a necessity because of our sin. You understand in the text that God does not need to be reconciled. We need to be reconciled to God.

Your life literally depends on it. God does not change. He is immutable, he is holy. But the Bible points a deplorable picture of our depravity. Reconciliation is a necessity because of our sin. So go back, I know verse 17 is there, and we're gonna get to that.

But I wanna show you something. Paul says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And my assignment tonight is to talk to you about God's power in creating the new man.

But if we want to rightly articulate God's power in creating the new man, then we have to spend a moment here in describing what the old man is like. Listen to John Owen's words. For our old way. Oh, he paints it like only Owen can.

Sin, in respect of the creature, is folly, madness, fury, blindness, hardness, darkness, stupor, giddiness, torpor, turpitude, uncleanness, nastiness, a stain, a spot, an apostasy, degeneracy, a wandering from the mark, a turning aside from the right path, a disease, a languor, a destruction, death, in respect of the creator, it is a disgrace, an affront, blasphemy, enmity, hatred, contempt, rebellion, an injury.

In respect of its own nature, it is poison, a stench, dung, a vomit, polluted blood, a plague, a pestilence, an abominable, detestable, cursed thing, which by its most pernicious power of metamorphosing has transformed angels into devils, light into darkness, life into death, paradise into a desert, a pleasant, fruitful, blessed world into a vain, dark, accursed prison, and the Lord of all into a servant of servants, which hath rendered man the glory of God and enemy to himself, a wolf to others, hateful to God, his own destroyer, the destruction of others, the plague of the world, a monster and a ruin.

The wretchedness of the old man. Oh, the wretchedness tonight of our depravity. What a deplorable condition sinners are in. Friends, this is why reconciliation with God is necessary. Mankind is not neutral.

Don't listen to the theological liberalism that is creeping in even to conservative churches. Mankind is not neutral. Deep down inside, mankind is not good. If all things other being equal and everybody was just given this choice, then everybody would choose God.

That is not the testimony of Scripture. We don't need more education or more money or more positions of power to set humanity upon a worthy trajectory. We don't need more laws. We don't need more healthcare.

We are at enmity with God. The unregenerate man is hostile to God. He does not submit to God's law. He doesn't want to. Indeed, he cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Apart from God's grace, we hate God.

We plow forward in the old way in our state of sin and misery. We do not desire reconciliation with God. I've been with Brother Randall. Y 'all know Randall well enough. You can't be with Brother Randall well enough long before he's sharing the gospel with somebody, right?

And in just a short time, I've known Brother Randall. I've seen him share the gospel so many times and 99 of the time that I've seen it, well, really, probably 100 of the time I've seen him share the gospel.

It's just like, man, stop. Just, you know, it's ignored. They don't care. They're not seeking reconciliation. In fact, if we could, we'd eliminate God altogether. We'd banish him from our lives and we would live in complete autonomy.

Welcome to America 2022. Right? Husbands don't want to be husbands. Wives don't want to be wives. Employees feel entitled to be employers. Men want to be women. Women want to be men. And no one even knows what a woman is.

Children disobey their parents. We are redefining everything and all of this flows out of our unrestrained rebellion. Listen, our society is literally, literally losing its mind because of our rejection of God.

And all of this is important to note before we talk about God's power in creating a new man. Now, our text makes it explicit that mankind doesn't seek reconciliation, but that God has initiated this anyway by his grace through Christ.

And that leads to our next point here. So first, reconciliation articulated. Secondly, reconciliation accomplished. And so now we're going to go to verse 21. Paul says, for our sake, as we're already saying this tonight, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I suppose that we could spend weeks on this verse. I suppose if I were going to preach this verse, I might begin studying and I might say, we're going to have to, we're going to spend a 45-week series on 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21.

Perhaps in eternity, the first 10 million years are just going to be glorying in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

But we don't have that time tonight. Here are the basics. For our sake, follow along with me in your text. For our sake, that is for those who are reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him, that is the Father made Christ, to be sin who knew no sin.

Now, it's very important that we understand what's going on here. And lots have been written about this. But this phrase is important because I want to make the point that sin is used twice here. And it's my argument to you tonight that it's used the exact same way both times.

Because some commentators want to say that Christ being made sin means that he is a sin offering. So the text would read something like this. For our sake, he made him to be a sin offering. Now, that's a butchering of this text, but certainly that's true, right?

Christ is a sin offering, certainly, amen, right? We need his offering for sin, which is his body, right? Like Christ did not offer the blood of bulls and goats, but he offered his own body. Praise God that Christ is a sin offering.

But this text does not mean that Christ is merely a sin offering. Because if it did, then how is sin used in the second way? Let me just read it. For our sake, he made him to be a sin offering who knew no sin offering.

Well, that's just dumb, even for an Arkansan. That makes no sense, right? That makes no sense. And Paul is using this word in the same way in both senses. The text is saying that Jesus knew no sin, that he is the spotless lamb of God.

Because just think about this for a second. He knew no disobedience. He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He had no sins of omission. He had no sins of commission. He had no stench, no rebellion, no darkness, no blindness, no death.

There was no guilt in this man. I believe that when Pilate says that, that that's the way our Lord is using it all the more, the Holy Spirit's using it all the more to remind us. Pilate doesn't even know the fullness of what he's saying.

I find no guilt in this man, right? Right? There was no guilt in this man, no depravity, no wretchedness, no transgression of the law in any conceivable way, in no way whatsoever. He never looked upon a woman with lust.

He never harbored unrighteous anger in his heart toward his neighbor. He obeyed God in every way. He never lied, he never stole, he never cheated. He never envied. All that Adam failed to do, he did. All that Israel failed to do, he did.

All that you and I have failed to do, he did. Behold the man, impeccable, flawless, guiltless, blameless, the fairest of 10 ,000 to my soul. Look here at God with us, Jesus, Messiah, before us with no shame or sin or rebellion.

He knew no sin. But what does the text say? Listen very carefully. For God to reconcile us to himself, Christ, in one sense, did not merely die for us. Certainly he died for us. I said he did not merely die for us.

Here we see he died as us. Suppose, suppose next week you get a call from your insurance, say, hey, we just wanna inform you. Your rate is increasing by $5 ,000 a year. My driving record is impeccable.

I haven't had a wreck, I haven't had a speeding ticket. Like I have a perfect record. Why is my insurance going up $5 ,000 a year? And they say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. Everything is, it's wonderful.

You're doing great. But see, we've credited your account with the driving record of a man with seven DUIs. That'd be outrageous. That'd be absolutely outrageous. And you would have a right to be upset.

And yet here, look at the cross we have Christ, who in being the covenant head of his church agreed to undertake their record upon his account. And so God imputed Christ with our sins. The text says for our sake he made him to be sin.

Christ who never sinned took our sin in his own body on the tree. He was treated as sin. He was treated as a sinner because there on the cross it was the will of the father Isaiah 53 to crush him so that we could be reconciled to God.

Our sins have made a separation between us and God and our sins deserve 10 ,000 hells for they are against an infinitely holy and worthy God. And yet there on Calvary, listen to this, hell is unleashed on Christ.

Behold the man. Look, I wanna show you his beauty, but we gotta look at his blackness. I wanna show you his glory, but we've gotta look just a moment here at his shame because you see what happened is your line was laid upon him.

Your lust, your greed, your selfishness, your laziness, your idolatry, your pride, your disobedience, your prejudice, your love for the things that God hates and your hatred for the things that God loves, all of it.

Every wicked motivation, every evil thought, every scandalous deed, your envy, your boastfulness. Christ has made those things and more and he suffers in our stead. He's treated as a homosexual and a pedophile and a murderer.

He never did those things, not even anywhere close to those things. He was fully righteous and perfect, obeyed God's law in every way and yet the text says that he was made sin. He suffers for us and he suffers as us.

In all the powers of the enemy, in all the lawless man of his time, they mock our substitute. You are pitiful, you can't even save yourself. Satan has more power, Rome has more power, Pilate has more power, the Pharisees, Sadducees have more power.

What? A weak, pathetic, laughable sight you are. Hanging, naked, beaten, battered on a Roman cross. But friends, God was doing something here of unspeakable power. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin.

What is happening here? So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. God was doing something there of immense value and worth and unspeakable and infinite power. Here is the great exchange.

Christ has made sin for us. That is, by faith alone, we are imputed with his righteousness. Christ is our propitiation, our wrath satisfying sacrifice and he dies on Calvary and is buried, but what happens?

He raises again on the third day. And all who look upon him in faith will be saved by this glorious transaction alone. My account of sin, my righteousness was moved to Christ so that his account of righteousness can be legally credited to me.

We could spend so much time on that. We're not, we've got to move to our third point because here's the main point of tonight. Reconciliation articulated, reconciliation accomplished. And then if you know John Murray, I borrowed some of his wording here, but reconciliation applied.

Now, now, let's go to verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. Let me ask you tonight, what happens then when this display of the power of God in atoning for our sins in Christ on Calvary and the power of God and the resurrection of Christ from the grave, what happens then when this power is applied to our soul?

It would be like asking you, what would happen to your body if you were standing on the tracks and a hundred mile per hour, 80 ton Amtrak train hit you? You would be rearranged. And listen, friends, the power of God in the gospel has an even greater impact on your soul.

We know from Paul's arguments in second Corinthians chapter three, that it is the Holy Spirit who transforms us into the image of Christ. He does this by applying the work of Christ to our souls. The great power displayed on Calvary and in Christ's resurrection now comes home to the human soul where we see his power creates a new man.

All the mockery and all the weakness. And now we see that Jesus has been vindicated in his resurrection. And we see what was happening there was not weakness, but power. And in the resurrection, we see power.

And so the father has power and the son has power. Who are we to say tonight that the Holy Spirit doesn't have power? And he applies this. When the work of Christ is applied to our souls, we're reconciled to God.

We're united to Christ and we are in Christ and he is in us. And so I want to highlight five realities. Don't let that scare you. Five. Been going a while. But five realities we experience when reconciliation is applied to us from God.

First, first, we are part of a reorganization. Now the language here is important and I'm not gonna make a huge point here. I'm just gonna be very brief on this point. But I do actually think this is part of the text.

And so I want us to pay attention. You might not have noticed this one. So therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Why does Paul use that word, creation? Okay, I think it's because I'm gonna use the word reorganization.

What I'm trying to hit on here is that Jesus says in Revelation 21 five that he's making all things new. And so listen very carefully. In Christ, the whole universe is going to be made new and part of that has ushered in now.

You're tasting that now. You're not just waiting on that to come, although we're waiting on it to come in its fullness, but you're tasting that in part right now when sinners are reconciled to God and they're made new by his grace and all this is God's power in the gospel.

So one reality to see here is we're part of a reorganization that is happening. Okay, but how this comes to us personally, that's kind of the cosmic scope, if you will, but now we're gonna get personal on the rest of these.

This has already been preached on, regeneration, but that's second. How it comes to us personally, secondly, is by regeneration. Paul says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come. Maybe even in one sense, the rest of the realities I'm going to mention are just fruits or even synonyms, really, of regeneration because this is the key. God's power for us personally, God's power creates a new man.

What we have here, what the text is telling us is we have a total change of nature here. We are actually born again, right? The language today, right? I didn't come up with this, but the language today is like this.

I was born that way. Right, you need to be born again. That's what the Bible says, right? That is what's going on here. The old is passing away, the new has come. In our regeneration, we've given new affections, new attitudes, and we now act in accordance with these things.

Consider there, look at the text, look at the text. If anyone, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. So my argument is, verse 17 is not just on the cosmos or the new heavens and new earth. I mean, all of that, I think, is hanging around there, sure.

I think it's in the backdrop, if you will, but the focus here is individual transformation. God creates new people out of old people. God brings us from death to life. You cannot be reconciled to God and not be transformed.

To live as though, or speak as though, or act as though the gospel does not transform lives and create new creatures is to belittle the glory of God. It is to profane the Father's plan, the Son's propitiation, and the Spirit's power.

Certainly, we're not saying that God makes us righteous. We need to understand our categories here. We are declared righteous when we trust Christ by grace through faith, but we are saying that being born again is so radical that the text actually calls us a new creation.

I'm not coming up with that. Randall didn't come up with that. Not even Paul came up with that in and of himself. This is God's word. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. In my hometown, there's a restaurant.

I know there's 12 people, but there's a restaurant. Recently, they underwent a name change. But in reality, it's the same food, right? You didn't pull one over on me. Same food, new name. Okay, that's not regeneration.

Regeneration is going from fast food to a steakhouse. It's a new name, new food, new menu, new hours, new staff. It's all new. The old is gone. The new has come. Look at verse 18. All this is from God.

We are passive in our regeneration. It's monergistic. We do not decide we want to be made new. God makes us new by his sovereign grace. You were born again, not by your pick, but by God's power. And immediately, you look to Christ in faith, and his reconciliatory work was applied to you.

You were washed in the blood. You were forgiven. You're a new man with a new way of thinking, new desires, new goals, and a new way of holy living. Thirdly, reorganization, regeneration. Thirdly, restoration.

If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Restoration. Listen, God treats a new man by restoring us to a right relationship with him. Some commentators believe that Paul is drawing on Isaiah here where God says things like in Isaiah 43, 18 and 19, remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing. Okay, so God is restoring us. But listen, not back to Sinai. It's not anyone who is in Moses is a new creation. Right? We're not even being restored back to the garden.

It's not anyone who is in Adam is a new creation. Rather, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. God is restoring us back to his original plan and intention for man. That is that we would walk with him in righteousness and holiness and harmony.

That we would glorify him and enjoy him forever. This is accomplished in Christ and God's power takes the wretched, sin-stained man and places him now cleansed in Christ. So that all Christ did is though as we did it.

While in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me fence the part. Why? Because all that Christ did, I did, that's credited to me. Right? This is where I'm taking back, I'm restored. And all Christ paid is applied to my account.

And we have eternal life. Reorganization, regeneration, restoration. Fourthly, oh, this is a fun one, reorientation. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.

Orientation, that is a fun word today, isn't it? No, really, it's used in all sorts of rebellious ways. It's a despicable word in some ways, isn't it? But can I just say this? The old creation is oriented towards sin in more ways than I can enumerate here.

The old way is oriented towards sin and death and hell and sin and misery. But in Christ, we are reoriented to godliness. Look at what the text says as though if you were gonna miss it, right? Look at that little word sometimes, edu, behold, right?

Behold, in this case, you're gonna miss it. But Paul's like, don't miss this. Therefore, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. Look at it, see it?

The old was oriented toward all manner of lawlessness, but now the new has come and you're reoriented to godliness. You follow Jesus because that's what you wanna do now because you've been given a new heart.

Little kids, man, you can get them to eat boogers, but not broccoli, right? And you just say to that little girl, eat your broccoli, you know, and she may eat it. And she's like, one of my girls. I have sweet girls.

Oh, let me use my boys. Like one of my boys. I'll eat it. You know, like, it's always dramatic and maybe they get half a broccoli down. Oh, well, here's a new parenting strategy. Try this next time you go on a date.

Just tell them to love it. Like, hey, love it. Just love the broccoli now. Well, what's that gonna do? Nothing. They can't magically just love something that they hate. Okay, that is a picture. You never knew that boogers and broccoli were gonna be a picture of regeneration.

That's a picture, that's a picture of regeneration. We don't know, we're not being force-fed these things, but now the law is written on our hearts and it's what we wanna do, right? We love it. Give me more broccoli.

Away with the boogers, right? I want the vegetables. I wanna do what God wants me. I want to do, I want to. I wanna please Christ because he's changed me. Remember 1 Corinthians 6, 11? The new has come.

Remember 1 Corinthians 6, 11? I'm so tired of the capitulation on LGBTQ. Hey, if you're in here tonight and you are unregenerate and you're struggling with homosexuality, I got good news for you. The gospel's big enough for you.

You understand that? Don't forget to preach it. The gospel's big enough for every sinner, but when the gospel hits us, this is what the Bible says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God.

Christians are now repenters. Christians live a life of repentance, turning from sin. God's decisive dealings with sin on Calvary have both a legal and practical function when applied to the soul by the Holy Spirit.

Legally, we are declared righteous by faith alone. We're crucified with Christ, and now practically we no longer live, but Christ lives in us, and the life that we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

We are a new creation, and this means we are now reoriented to godliness. Consider just for a moment God's great power here. In creation, God spoke into nothingness and brought forth light. That was the first creation, right?

But in the new creation of the sinner, God doesn't speak into nothingness. He speaks into active rebellion. He speaks into a vile and depraved heart resisting his kindness, and God takes these rebellious, vile, depraved hearts, and he doesn't move them from rebellion to neutrality.

No, his great power moves rebellious hearts from a life to sin to a reorientation to godliness. The new is really coming. But do you know why evangelicalism seems so weak and anemic today? Why Beth Moore is able to make millions of dollars with her teaching?

Why the Southern Baptist Convention is just spiraling downward? There's a very simple answer. Many who claim to be born again have never been made new by the power of God. Just briefly, maybe I could make it more personal for you.

I'm not talking about struggling with sin. Like, preacher, I struggle with sin. What do I do? Good, it probably means you're a Christian because Christians fight sin, right? All Christians struggle with sin and fight sin.

But do you know why some in here tonight outwardly put on a facade of righteousness but inwardly worship the idols of this world? Why you secretly commit sins that maybe no one else knows about? Why your plans and your dreams and your goals are in line with the kingdom of this world and not Christ?

It's because our language has become so meaningless that we think being a Christian is just affirming the right answers about Jesus with no experience of God's transforming power. Perhaps there are some in here who think, well, I vote the right way and I can answer all the Sunday school questions.

I must be a Christian. If you have the appearance of godliness but deny its power, you are not a new creation. And if you are not a new creation, you are not in Christ to remain a child of wrath like the rest of mankind.

Okay, fifth. I thought me and the clock were friends. We're not friends. It's, okay, fifth, redirection. Reorganization, regeneration, restoration, reorientation. Finally, we experience God's power in redirection.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. We walk in newness of life. Again, we live a life of repentance. Brothers and sisters, Christians now live in, through, for, until, to the glory of Christ.

We have turned from our old way and we keep turning from our old way daily. Now, the Greek word for old in our text is archaia. It's where we get the word archaic. Now, I'm not trying to read this back into the text, but I have an interesting observation here as I thought about this.

I'm a millennial. And basically, people in Gen X and millennials in Gen Z, how they respond when true Christians want to bring Christianity to bear in society and walk in newness of life, they say things like, that's archaic.

Well, not really, because they don't know those big words, but you know what I'm saying. That's archaic. Don't talk about moral living. That's old-fashioned. Marriage is honored. Home's well-ordered.

Sunday's cherished. Bible's read. The triune God prayed to in public. Christ proclaimed, displaying the Ten Commandments. Dude, all that stuff is archaic. Get with the times. Get on the right side of history.

Get with the 21st century. My response? Well, no, actually. You see, you know what's really, literally archaic? Living like a pagan. That's the old way. That is the archaic way. That is the way that the Christian, for the Christian has passed away.

The new has come. You cannot get more archaic than living mired in sin. Oh, but you think LGBTQ whatever the alphabet is there, you think that that's new. Read Romans 1. You think, I know we have younger people who say, you think sleeping with whoever you want to, you think that's new.

Have you read Leviticus? That's not, none of that is new. In Solomon Pegasus, there's nothing new under the sun in terms of this passing world. Sins today aren't new. They're just recycled. That is the old way.

That's the archaic way. But by God's power, the new has come. Christians are redirected to now walk this new way, to live for the glory of the Lord, to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We follow Jesus.

We love the local church. We love the word of God. We love to tell the good news. We love to learn and study and grow in the knowledge of God. We bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And all this is from God.

Christian values are not archaic. Paganism is. And we live in a time period of neo-paganism. And you are surrounded by neo-pagans. Watch the junk that's coming out of Disney. Hey, some of you need to cancel some things in your life.

Ours is not the old way. Theirs is. Ours is the new. Behold, the new has come in Christ. By God's power, our new life touches everything. We are bound for glory, and our journey there is marked by faith and repentance.

We trust the promises of God, and we live now a life of repentance. We're not perfected yet. That's coming. Praise God that's coming. But as we walk in newness of life, we really hate and fight and turn from sin.

This means we don't let the neo-pagan society define stuff for us. We don't let the neo-pagan society tell us what a wife should be like, or a husband should be like, or what a man or a woman or child should be like.

That's an archaic way of thinking. You think that that swimmer at Penn University or whatever, who's a man, but he's breaking all these records now that's not new, that's old, that's archaic. That's sin.

But we are new. We walk in newness of life because the power of God has created a new man. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Behold, has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Okay, I do have one more thing.

I blame y 'all. You've been so encouraging that I've just kept preaching. Okay, but I do have a very short pointed bonus point here because I've talked to you about reconciliation articulated, reconciliation accomplished, and reconciliation applied.

But I just can't preach this text without this last little point that I'm gonna add here. And you need to understand that I'm coming here from Arkansas, and 95 of you, I don't know. But I have to do this last point, and I want to do this last point, and that is reconciliation offered.

Look at verse 20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you. I hate hyper-Calvinism. I hate the idea of even a Calvinist that would just give some sort of dry repent and believe.