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| Pastor Timothy O.A. Yerokun, Ph.D |
Preacher - Pastor Timothy O.A. Yerokun,Ph.D
Text - II Cor. 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.”
INTRODUCTION
All glory to God for the privilege granted unto us from God to witness the beginning of this year 2024. This is not because of our righteousness but God bestowed his mercy on us, our God is worthy of our praises. Beloved, as you proceed in the journey of this year, 2024; it is expected of you that you move from Oldness of your lifestyle to Newness in Christ.
It is quite unfortunate today that our society is surrounded with dubious and hesitant ministers jabbering around, tarnishing the image of the Gospel and bastardizing the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and even that of his Apostles and patriarchs of faith in the preaching of the Gospel or claiming to be Christian.
One key ingredient in knowing God and being close to Him is walking in righteousness. To walk in righteousness, we must place our trust in the finished work of His son, Jesus to forgive and change us.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:3 that 'Almighty God through Christ Jesus has given us ALL that we need for life and godliness. . .,' this is why 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold ALL things have become new.”
From the view of C.H. Spurgeon -
“If you have been truly born again you have a new and holy nature, and you are no longer moved towards sinful objects as you were before. The things that you once loved, you now hate, and therefore, you will not run after them. You can hardly understand it but so it is, that your thoughts and tastes are radically changed. You long for that very holiness which once was irksome to hear of; and you loathe those vain pursuits which were once your delights…”
From the above quotation, it means title has nothing to do with holiness. The more of Christ in you, the more fulfillment of life you live and this affects your generations positively.
THE CONCEPT DEFINED
A. Transition
Transition means changing, stretching, groaning and growing. It signifies that there is something to leave behind and something to look forward to.
“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” (Isaiah 49:16, NIV).
Transition is an invitation to intimacy with God. It requires adjustment. To be progressive in life and in the things of God, we must transit into the things the Lord is saying.
B. Oldness
It is an act of resistant to guidance and self-willed; lack of the moral compass or somebody that has been cast aside because of bearing characteristics that are adrift, carnal, loose morals, and unstable as water. A man or woman living an oldness of life gives a false representation, wayward and belied the truth of his/her testimony.
Proverbs 1:32-33:
“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”
C. Newness
For Paul, the word “newness” is a word that implies resurrection. You resurrect from old nature of life to new nature. It also means new creation, or new order, as it is written in the book of Isaiah 65:17-25 – and you find it in the gospels as well.
Newness elongates one to walk in the newness of life and no longer be a slave to sin, you must disconnect from sin. This is something you must do willingly. For whosoever is born of God does not sin. Why? Because the seed of God abides in him (1 John 3:9). You need to lay aside every weight and sin that easily beset you so that you can walk in the newness of life that you received because the Lord knows those who are his. If you name the name of the Lord, you must depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19). For God is of a pure eye, He cannot behold iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13).
A Life of holiness enables the believer access his redemptive rights in Christ. To walk in the newness of life also entails walking in all that the blood of Jesus delivered to us at Calvary. Salvation is not limited to the soul and the spirit of man. It covers all areas of human endeavour.
POWER OF GOD TO TRANSFORM OLDNESS TO NEWNESS
This is a call to eternal life. To strike your attention, it is a call to resurrection of life. To actually have the same new life God gave Jesus when He raised Him from the dead residing inside of you.
We can experience the power of a new life in our everyday walk with the Lord. As it was found in Romans 6:4 -
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
The major statement is “just as.” Just as Jesus was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so are we to walk in newness of life by that same glory. This portrays the glory that resides already in us.
In spirit, we have already been resurrected to a level high enough to defeat anything the enemy would bring against us. The Father has enabled us as believers to live above the dominion of sin and death.
He gave us a new reborn spirit and filled us with His Spirit.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezek. 36:26-27).
Until we were born again and filled with His Spirit, we were held by the things of this natural world. We were dead to God and alive to sin.
That means, we need to be crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). We need to die to sin and be raised together with Him (Eph. 2:5-6). The old sinner that we once were has died. We have become a new creation on the inside (2 Cor. 5:17).
And that new creature lives in the image of Jesus Christ, Who is the express image of the Father!
Your spirit man has been resurrected with the same new life with which He made Jesus alive.
"But God - so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead [slain] by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him...." (Eph. 2:4-5 AMP).
Colossians tells us that we have the potential to become fully spiritually mature:
“For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead), continues to dwell in bodily form (giving complete expression of the divine nature). And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life (in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and reach full spiritual stature). And He is the Head of all rule and authority—of every angelic principality and power.”
(Col. 2:9-10 AMP)
God has given us Himself, His very own nature, His own substance, His life. We call it eternal life. To strike your attention, I want to call it resurrected life. You actually have the same new life, God gave Jesus when He raised Him from the dead, residing on the inside of you. The moment you live your life in pattern with the scripture and lay down principles of God.
WHAT MAKES PEOPLE REMAIN IN THEIR OLDNESS OF LIFE
Aside of series of information from different people, below are reasons why people remain in oldness of life…
A. Lack of understanding about true faith
True faith is not fully understood by most people in the believing world. Faith of religious feeling is not a coequivalent of the objective truth of God’s revelation to man i.e., faith is not a matter of what you feel that counts, it’s a matter of what you believe that counts (and that must correlate with what God’s Word says). As Scripture states, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1); keep in mind, those two emboldened words are emphatic in Greek — the reality is, faith is essentially being sure and certain of what is hoped for according to God’s Self-revelation (i.e., according to God’s Word – 2 Tim 3:16-17). So the question is, are you confident in the work that God is doing in your life? Or are you simply hoping it is true? This is where major problem resides, some people think once they accept Jesus Christ all must be well - “ for better, for best.” So, when other side of the world turns to them, they are easily defeated from faith and grow wings in sinful lifestyle.
B. Spiritual Depression
Spiritual depression is a very common complaint in the believing world, because most Christians simply don’t feel good about their faith, their relation-ship with God, or all they are experiencing in life — one of the premiere problems is that they make wrong assumptions; in so doing, many believers often question their faith and even doubt it. Now with that in mind, give careful attention to what Martyn Lloyd-Jones had to say on this subject. He told the Christian world that their spiritual depression essentially was the result of their not embracing the fullness of the gospel message. He told them that remaining in such a condition is not only very sad for believers, but a poor representation of the Christian faith. The second chapter of his book on 'Spiritual Depression' is titled “The True Foundations,” and in it he says we must address ourselves as the Psalmist addressed himself and his soul, and ask the questions: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Why art thou depressed and cast down?” (cf. Ps 42:5, 6, 11; 43:5).
Spiritual depression has prompted many to become ritualist, join evil company and be wayward. The moment believers started looking at himself or herself as inferior to others or thinking that others are favoured by God more than them, depression will come in and they will start misbehaving.
C. Lack of understanding about Essence of True Repentance.
The present Christian community is full of baby pastors and believers. Some became pastors as a result of unemployment and because they can speak good English. Some come to church to enjoy goodies from God, nothing more. Meanwhile, repentance can be defined as a wholehearted turning to God that was preached numerous times by Old Testament prophets — terms such as “return, turn, and seek” are used over and over again to express the idea of repentance in the OT (cf. Deut 4:29-31; 30:1-3; Is 55:6-7; Jer 3:10; Ezek 33:11, 19; Ps 119:2; Prv 28:5; Is 51:1; Hos 5:15). To change one’s mind is to change one’s attitude as well as one’s actions and even his whole way of life. Repentance is an important element in both Old & New Testament preaching (cf. Jer 25:1-7; Mk 1:15; 6:12; Lk 1:16ff; Acts 2:38) — the reality is, repentance is actually an aspect of con-version; the other being Faith; so repentance and faith are two aspects of the one exper-ience in which a man turns from sin and self to Christ. So, genuine repentance essentially leads to a renunciation of sin (i.e. it involves sorrow toward God for one’s sin; cf. 2 Cor 7:9; Mt 5:3-4; Ps 51), the forsaking of one’s sin (cf. Mt 3:8; Acts 26:20; Heb 6:1), and humbly surrendering oneself to the will of God.
D. Temptation
Where there is no sin, there is no need for repentance, and where there is no temptation, there is no sin. So “temptation” is where all the negatives of life begin, and temptation is a by-product of our “flesh” — without the flesh there would be no temptation. The reason we end up embracing certain temptations in life, is because our flesh “insists” on our do-ing, so; the reason our likes and dislikes and lusts and desires are problematic is because our flesh strongly expresses itself on everything in life of which it has a strong opinion. So, we cave into temptation because our flesh expresses its feelings about the issue, and our flesh always embraces that which is contrary to the will of God — what is important to remember, is the fact that our flesh strongly influences our feelings. So temptation essen-tially is a strong enticement to do evil; i.e. do that which does not conform to God’s will. Remember, Satan tempted Adam, Eve, Cain, Abraham, David and every other human being to sin. James, the brother of Jesus, described temptation as “being carried away and enticed by our own lust / fleshly desires” (cf. Jam 1:14; also cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9; 2 Cor 5:17); so the origin of temptation is attributed to man’s fallen nature; therefore all temptation is common to man (1 Cor. 10:13).
The major problem lies on the fact that human concur to decision of flesh and abandon the leading of the spirit. Flesh prefers to do anything that contradicts to the desire of the spirit because they have different ending. Flesh leads us to be perpetual to oldness lifestyle.
E. Inability to understand God’s Eternal purpose for Humanity
Sin first occurred in heaven by Satan and all of his cohorts in antiquity past, and that is the reason for man’s existence, and the reason why God essentially did everything He did in our world — “SIN” is the reason why God operates the way He does in our world; were it not for sin in the heavenly realm in the ancient past, human beings would not exist! When God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, it is important to remember He also placed Satan in the Garden as well, and Satan ended up "causing finite man to fall” — it is not as if God was ignorant of all that was going to transpire in the new world (as some people foolishly think; the problem for many people even in the Christian world is that they minimize GOD and actually make Him out to be a creature who does not possess omniscience, omnipotence or eternity.
Remember, there is absolutely nothing that God doesn’t know He knows the past, the present and the future. The reality is God knew full-well all that was going to happen in our world long before it ever came to pass as Scripture says, “God declared the end from the beginning; thus He accomplishes all His good pleasure; as God has planned things, so they exist” (cf. Is 46:10-11). The truth is, “God works all things after the counsel of His will” (cf. Eph 1:11). Thus, there is absolutely nothing that God does not know though we as temporal finite creatures don’t know anything that is of future origin, God knows everything, be it past, present or future); the reality is, God has prophesied numerous things through His prophets (i.e., He has foretold the future through His prophets). The reason God knows all things is because He is the eternal, omniscient, omnipotent One who created all things; so His infinite nature completely transcends the entire created order.
It is quite unfortunate that we easily comply to Satan's decisions and ideas. As he deceived Adam and Eve in Garden of Eden, he also deceive us today with series of worldly things, such as money, position, lust, just to mention few, in order to take our mind away from God.
PREREQUISITES TO BE PERPETUAL IN NEWNESS OF GOD
God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth created mankind in His own image and for a purpose. He invested a lot in us and gave us dominion over all the other things He created. In addition, He sent His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die for us and to reconcile us to Him. Through the bible, we see how much love God has bestowed on mankind and how He seeks to have a relationship with mankind. While God is able to fulfil his part in the relationship, He expects mankind to also fulfil their part.
Some of the prerequisites needed to remain in God’s Newness as revealed by the scriptures are as follows:
1. To have no other gods before Him Ex 20:3.
2. To not misuse His name Ex 20:7.
3. To do what is right and good in His sight Deut 6:18.
4. To fear Him, walk in all His ways, love Him and serve Him with all your heart and soul Deut 10:12.
5. To keep His commandments and statues Deut 10:13.
6. To give Him praise Ps.22:3.
7. To not share His glory with anybody Isa 42:8.
8. To bring the tithe of our income into the storehouse Mal 3:10.
9. To let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise Him in heaven Matt 5:16.
10. To seek first His kingdom and His righteousness Matt 6:33.
11. To fellowship with Him regularly Matt 18:20.
12. To love Him with all your heart, mind and strength Mark 12:30.
13. To love your neighbour as you love yourself Mark 12:31.
14. To be involved in the Great Commission Mark16:15.
15. To worship Him in Spirit and in truth John 4:23.
16. To remain and abide in Him and let His words remain in you John 15:7.
17. To bear fruit that will remain John 15:16.
18.To have pleasure in knowing Him Eph 1:9.
19. To work out your salvation with fear and trembling Phil 2:12.
20. To surrender your life totally to Him James 4:7.
21. To follow righteousness and to be as holy as He is 1Peter 1:16.
CONCLUSION
Undoubtedly, we are carriers and representatives of Christ. People read us than Bible. We must not align with oldness lifestyle, even as we are going to new year (2024). Christian is not the person that goes to church, Christian is the church. When Christ is in you, you take him to everywhere you go. You can worship anywhere, inasmuch you have Christ in you. Until the Spirit of God dwells in us in form of Newnss, we continue to rot away in oldness. Disassociate yourself from company of Ichabod (1 Sam. 4:21), run after holiness and do the will of God.
Happy New Year (2024)… Your testimony sure… Get set for His second coming…
Shalom…