INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• I hope that our journey looking at God’s recipe for Salvation has been enlightening for everyone.
• My prayer is that when some asks you what they need to do in order to become a part of God’s family, you will be able to give them a full, complete, biblical answer!
• This is the final message in the series and in the spirit of looking at ingredients, I have one last ingredient list to share with you.
• Enriched Bleached flour (Wheat Flour, Barley Malt, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate (vitamin b1) Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Folic Acid, Water, Sugar, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed oil with TBHQ to Preserve flavor, Dextrose, Eggs, Modified Corn Starch, Whey (Milk) Leavening… Natural and Artificial Flavor, Sorbic Acid (TO RETAIN FRESHNESS) Corn Starch, Colors (Yellow #5 Red #50) Citric acid, Potassium Sorbate (TO RETAIN FRESHNESS)
• Delicious! Now who would like to have the fruit of these ingredients? Come on Up!
• OK Here is what they got!
• SLIDE #2
• Here is what the web site says concerning this product! This great-tasting snack combines delicious golden sponge cake with fluffy vanilla creme filling. Individually wrapped 10 to a carton.
• NOW did you hear ANYTHING about vanilla crème?
• Today we are going to examine the final ingredient to God’s recipe for Salvation.
• I had some trouble with outlining the message today because the ingredient of The New Life is an ingredient in God’s recipe for salvation, but it is also something more.
• Let us turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17
• SLIDE #3
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
• Let us begin by seeing…
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
I. The outcome of following God’s recipe for salvation.
• (Therefore, if anyone is in Christ He is a new creation)
• Thus far we have looked at several passages that tell God’s recipe for salvation starts with faith, which leads one to the desire to confess that Jesus is now their Lord.
• We confess that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Then with that realization, we start to understand the need to repent of our old way of life.
• Then because we are still dogged by our old self, we are bogged down by our old sins. We submit to being baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and so that we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!
• So what is the outcome of adding these ingredients to our recipe?
• Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
• Before we get to the main point of this part of the verse, we cannot overlook the first part, IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST.
• The prerequisite to becoming a new creation is to be IN Christ.
• From my research commentator James Burton Coffman states, “A phenomenal blindness is the only thing that could account for the total absence from the writings of so many scholars of any reference whatever to this little prepositional phrase which is nothing if not THE VERY EYE OF CHRISTIANITY. Paul used this expression, or its equivalent, 169 times!”
• He further states, “n the light of the above, how is it that one can read 57 commentaries and find not one single reference to the all important question of "How does one find the status of being `in Christ’"?”
• WE have answered the question by looking at God’s recipe for salvation.
• SLIDE #5
• Galatians 3:27 (ESV) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
• So what do we get when we follow God’s recipe for salvation? We become a NEW creation!
• How can sinful people stand before a holy God?
• They become a NEW creation! Our sins are washed away and we are NEW!
• The word NEW denotes a SUPERIOR QUALITY OF BEING.
• As I have said before the Bible teaches us that when we sin, we are separated from God.
• When we are in Christ, we are alive spiritually again!
• SLIDE #6
• John 3:3–5 (ESV) 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
• Following God’s recipe for salvation allows one to be born again!
• When we are born again, when we become a new creation things change.
• SLIDE #7
• Romans 6:4 (ESV)4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• We are a new creation that is called to walk in a newness of life!
• NEWNESS of life indicates a life new in quality of life that is different from the old life.
• This is why the NEW LIFE is both a result of following God’s recipe for salvation AND an ingredient.
• When we are IN Christ, we are supposed to lead a new life.
• Romans 6:4 gives us the reason we are buried with Christ in baptism, to glorify God by walking in a NEWNESS OF LIFE!
• WE are no longer slaves to sin so we are capable of living this new life. We also have the Holy Spirit in us to help empower us to be able to life this new life.
• SLIDE #8
• Ephesians 2:10 (ESV) 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
• Next let us look at…
• SLIDE #9
II. The ramification of following God’s recipe for salvation.
• When we follow God’s recipe for salvation we receive new life, but how can do we have a new life?
• Here is the key. The old has passed away!
• God removes the old body of sin, God wipes our slate clean. No matter what we have done, God has removed it!
• We are no longer tied to the old things of life. God sees the old things as the past and the past does not have to control our glorious future!
• SLIDE #10
• Romans 6:17–18 (ESV) 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
• We have to play our part in this old stuff passing. We cannot continue to go to the same places, do the same things, hang with the same crowds, then expect something to change.
• The Texas Rangers have an all-star MVP caliber outfielder named Josh Hamilton. Josh was the 1st overall pick in the 1999 baseball draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.
• He did not make his major league debut until 2007 because of drug and alcohol addiction.
• Josh is now a Christian and he struggles daily with staying clean and sober.
• This past week he had his first relapse in about 3 years. I really root for this guy to succeed.
• But here is what happened according to a story on SI online.
• Hamilton acknowledged that he had a "moment of weakness" at two Dallas bar/restaurants Monday night because of a "personal reason with a family member."
• He apologized to his family, fans and the team during a 12-minute news conference at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Friday, when he spoke without a script and did not take questions.
• Hamilton added: "It was just wrong. That’s all it comes down to. I needed to be at a different place. I needed to be responsible. I was not responsible. Those actions of mine have hurt a lot of people I’m very close to."
• I do bring this up to pick on Mr. Hamilton, I am a big fan of his and I respect the fact that he has worked hard on putting his life together. I appreciate that he seems remorseful about his relapse.
• "It was just wrong. That’s all it comes down to. I needed to be at a different place. I needed to be responsible. I was not responsible. Those actions of mine have hurt a lot of people I’m very close to."
• Josh is a new creation in Christ, BUT he cannot go to the same places he used to go and expect different results. He seems to get that. I pray for him and his wife and children.
• SLIDE #11
• Ephesians 4:21–22 (ESV) 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
• God gives us a clean slate, but we have to PUT OFF OUR OLD SELF, it takes effort on our part.
• Let’s conclude by looking at…
• SLIDE #12
III. The blessing of following God’s recipe for salvation.
• IT is awesome that God takes away the old, but now what?
• behold, the new has come.!!!!!!!
• From God we have new goals, a new purpose, a new mind, a regenerated soul!
• SLIDE #13
• 1 Peter 1:23 (ESV) 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
• SLIDE #14
• 2 Corinthians 5:15 (ESV) and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
• Our new purpose is to live for Jesus and glorify Him with our life!
• SLIDE #15
• Philippians 3:12–14 (ESV) 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
• Let me tell you something, I have tried living for myself, it is not satisfying
• This is the call, a new way of life!
• It is important that we understand that once we are immersed, that is when the growth and working on our faith begins.
• For some, the baptistery has been the end of their journey. Folks, it is just the beginning.
• We do not birth a child and leave it on the table saying, well our work is done!
• Our new life is both a result of following God recipe for salvation and an ingredient because our new life shows God we love Him.
• We love Him with our life!
CONCLUSION
• What MUST I do to be saved? This is an important question and I pray we have the right answer to the question.
• You will not find God telling how to do something, then telling them to make up their own way.
• This series was meant to help make sure that when someone asks you about being a part of God’s family that you can truly lead them there with the whole message!
• What about you, are you ready for Jesus!
