Louisa Fletcher wrote a beautiful poem that began with the words, "I wish that there were some wonderful place / Called the Land of Beginning Again, / Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches / And all of our poor selfish grief / Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door / And never put on again." Well, that is what becoming a Christian is all about, my friend. Stay tuned.
Welcome to our Bible study program. It is good to have you join our Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way. Our visit with you each week is made possible through the generosity of some friends of yours and ours in churches of Christ. That is why we never have to ask you to send us money. So, let me invite you to visit a nearby church of Christ real soon.
We are told that suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the general population--seventh among males and tenth among the females. It's third, and some say the second leading cause of death among the youth, following closely behind drunk driving as number one, and murder as number two. I am not a psychologist or a sociologist having made an in-depth-study of these things, so I don't know why there are so many such deaths, or why the rate is increasing, but (and this is purely unscientific) it seems to me that a lot of people are finding the life they have been living is not worth living really. Or perhaps they just see no prospects for a better life in this world. So, they just end it. Oh, there are many more than that who are finding life unbearable but they haven't, and they won't, end it. They will just suffer through it. The well-known lawyer and orator of almost a century ago, an agnostic, Clarence Darrow, might have been one of those. In debate with Dr. Frederick Starr on the question, "Is Life Worth Living," he argued that, "Life is but an unpleasant interruption of nothing, and the best that can be said for it is, that it does not last long."
Well, our program today is not about suicide, but it is about a hundred-eighty degree turn from that to a New Life in Christ Jesus. For people who are tired of life the way it is, rather than to end it all, there is a new life possible in Jesus Christ, and that is the title we've given today's message. And you may have a written or audio taped copy of it by writing us: In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our E-Mail address is Searchtv@aol.com. And our telephone number is 1-800-3221-8633. It is a toll free number and you may use it. Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as we sing, and then I will be back for Bible reading and prayer.
We are reading today from Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth in chapter five. We are beginning at verse 17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, who has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” We read through verse 21, the end of the chapter. Now let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father in heaven, we are so grateful to You for Jesus Christ. Not only for the salvation that He brought us, not only because through Him we are reconciled, but we must live in this world until death should call us home to be with You and with Him. And He brought us the best way to live that man has ever known, and we are thankful for that. He promised us that He came to give us an abundant life, and now as Christians we can enjoy that abundant life here in this world. In Jesus’ name we thank You and praise You and pray to You. Amen.
There are lots of people that are really hurting today. There is no way of knowing all the ways or the reasons. Only God can know that. Their pains are as real as they are varied. Some are suffering innocently; others are not. It may be that the life they have carved out for themselves hasn't been too good to them. It's a hard lesson, but we have to learn it sooner or later, one way or another: choices and deeds have their consequences--or their rewards. Our choices and our preferred lifestyles inevitably determine the course of our lives. There is a verse in the Old Testament that says, "Good understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors is hard.” That is Proverbs 13:15. It is so true. It's always been that way. From the very beginning God has had an unfailing law which says that all life shall "bring forth after its own kind." That is Genesis 1, verses 11 and 12. The apostle Paul makes a spiritual application of that principle in Galatians 6 and verses 7 and 8. He says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked (meaning scorned or taunted); for whatever a man sows, he says that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life everlasting." The choice is always ours as to how we live, but the choice is never ours when it comes to the consequences of a bad choice. Job 4 and 8 says, "They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same." And Psalm 37, verses 23 and 24 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand."
Our message today is for people who now know that they have goofed in life. It's about an alternative to self-destruction or suicide. It is about the urgency of beginning a new life. It is about abandoning the continuance of a bad choice. Why stay aboard a train that isn't going anywhere, or even worse than that, why stay aboard a sinking ship, or one that will take you to where you don't want to go or to be?
You probably know that our Savior referred to the process of becoming a child of God as a new birth. In His conversation with the man Nicodemus in John chapter 3, beginning at verse 1, He said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And where there is a birth there is always a new creature--a new life. The apostle Peter referred to the new child of God as a "newborn baby." He said, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (I Peter in chapter 2, verse 2). That just simply means that for the new born babe in Christ there are many questions for which he has no answers, but he keeps on studying the word of God and the answers will come as he grows in knowledge and in faith. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17 as we just read, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Let's consider some of those "old things" that are passed away and the new things that have come in Christ.
First, I think of the old cynicism that is passed away and the new faith that has come. Without faith it is impossible to please God. He that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11 and 6). A person's faith in God--and in His Son Jesus Christ--and in the Bible as His inspired word, determines the course of his life more than any other single factor. Oh, it does, my friend. In believing, the old fatalism of doubt is replaced with the new optimism of assurance and conviction. That is powerful, powerful enough to bring about other changes, too.
Second, the old slavery or addiction to sin is passed away and the new freedom from that addiction to sin is in Jesus Christ, and it has come when one becomes a Christian. That is the way Jesus said it to the Jews who had believed in Him, that "If you abide in My word, then are you My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Oh! They were offended and bristled up at that. They answered Him, “We are Abraham's seed and offspring, and we have never yet been enslaved to any one. How is it that you say, You shall become free?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that every one who commits sin [or lives in sin according to Dr. Williams New Testament In the Language of the People] is the slave of sin. And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:31 through 36).
So then, there is a new life in Jesus Christ. It is a life that is free from the gnawing, nagging guilt of past sins and freedom from the craving to the sins of the past, to keep on doing the sin or the sins of the past through which one has been enslaved in the past. In Romans chapter 6, verses 16, 17, 18 the Holy Spirit says, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked that you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." Are you thinking as did the Jews, that you are not a slave to your sins? Try renouncing them--try giving them up. That is why we have "support groups" such as AA and gamblers anonymous and drug recovery groups and various kinds of other reform groups. People become addicted to their sin and find it exceedingly difficult to quit. Without Christ and apart from the grace of a loving God, it is sometimes impossible with men.
One of my favorite hymns is titled "Buried with Christ." It was written by Thomas O. Chisholm, the music by L.O. Sanderson in 1935 and published by the Gospel Advocate Company in Nashville, Tennessee. It expressed the thought that we are studying today. It says: "Buried with Christ, my blessed Redeemer, Dead to the old life of folly and sin; Satan may call, the world may entreat me, There is no voice that answers within. Think it not strange that things I once cherished Cannot allure me or charm as before; For in the flesh with Christ I have suffered, Old things are passed, I love them no more. Dead unto sin, alive through the Spirit, Risen with Him from the gloom of the grave. All things are new, and I am rejoicing, In His great love, His power to save. Sin hath no more its cruel dominion, Walking in newness of life, I am free-- Glorious life of Christ, my Redeemer, Which He so richly shareth with me." And the chorus says, "Dead to the world, to voices that call me, Living anew, obedient but free; Dead to the joys that once did enthrall me--Yet 'tis not I, Christ liveth in me."
We used to sing it a lot--not always but often on the occasion of a baptism because that is the point in time, that by the grace of God, the old life of sin ends, and the new life in Christ begins. That's the moment a person passes from out-of-Christ into Christ. That is what the Holy Spirit says in Romans chapter 6 verses 3 through 13: "We are buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."
Well, the new life in Christ also begins a new purpose, a new purpose for living. I don't know about you, but it saddens me deeply to see so many people just drifting along through life without the slightest idea why they are here. Our faith in God demands that there's purpose in creation. There is purpose in the movements of history. There's purpose in human existence. We mentioned the agnostic Clarence Darrow awhile ago. He is recognized as one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century. He was for many years a platform speaker and debater and a famous criminal lawyer. He was the ACLU attorney for the state in what has been called "the trial of the century, the twentieth century," the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee in 1925. He made the statement in his final summation in a debate with Dr. Frederick Starr, an anthropologist, also an agnostic (I believe he was.) from Illinois, on the question "Is Life Worth Living," Darrow said, "Life is but an unpleasant interruption of nothing; and the best that can be said for it is, that it does not last long." That, my friend, is life without God and His Son Jesus Christ. But in sharp contrast to that, in Colossians 3 and 4, the apostle Paul wrote of "Christ who is our life." Christ gives meaning and purpose to life.
Not only is there new life and faith and freedom and purpose in the life which is in Christ, there is also a new hope. Job who is the very personification, or maybe, incarnation of trouble said, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.”
Jeremiah was sent by the Lord to a backslidden nation about to go into bondage to a pagan nation because of their national sins and rejection of God. And he was told to warn the people, "Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds. But they will say, It is hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart." That is Jeremiah 18, verses 11 and 12 in the New American Standard Version. "It is hopeless!" they said, because they would go their own way and do their own thing, and without God there is no hope. Our text says "God is in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." The hope He offers is eternal life with Him beyond the grave. I hope you will become a Christian today. Father, we thank You for the blessings that we receive in Jesus. We are thankful for the blessings we receive from Him in this life, the forgiveness of sins and the hope that we have of life to come, and the newness and the freshness of living without that old burden of the guilt of sin. And it is in His name that we pray. Amen.
Now, we have talked about the essential role of faith, without which a person cannot establish a life with God. By it there is a change of heart, where new life begins. We have discussed turning from the old life of sin to the new life which Christ teaches in the Scriptures and that is called repentance. We've considered our new life as it means a new commitment to Christ--and not to Satan. We are no longer slaves of sin; Christ has now become our Master. Such a commitment is made in a confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as we read in Romans 10:9 and 10: "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." And we have seen that the consuming experience, or consummating experience I should say, in coming to Christ is being baptized into Him, His death, and His resurrection by which we obtain new hope of eternal life with God and with all the redeemed. Are you tired of the old life of sin, and are you now ready to begin that new life in the Lord Jesus Christ? I pray so. May God bless you to that end.
We are presented here by your friends, members of churches of Christ in the area who want to share the good news message with Christ with everyone possible before any of us go to meet the Lord. We would like to enjoy a grand reunion with you on the other side of death. Pay us a visit in a congregation in the area, and--please--do it soon, will you? We are not "just another denomination." We are not even trying to be that. We're trying to be Christ's church just as you read about it in your New Testament. No, we will never attain it to perfection, but it is better to have that noble aim and miss it, than to aim lower and succeed. Don't you agree? If so, come to see us.
If you would like a free printed transcript or audio cassette tape of today's message titled, "In Christ, There's A New Life," or if you would like to enroll in our free Bible Correspondence Course for a systematic study of the Bible from beginning to end in the privacy of your own home, at your own pace, simply address your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK. If you prefer, our E-Mail address is Searchtv@aol.com. If you use the E-Mail address and request either the tape or the transcript, please don't forget to give us your mailing address. Our toll-free telephone number is for your convenience is 1-800-321-8633. You will find the message on our web page also, and that is www.searchtv.org. We appreciate your being with us today more than we can say. Do it again next week, will you? Until then God bless and keep you. We love you.
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