MADE NEW
Isa. 43:18-19
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: FUNNY RESOLUTIONS
1. “I have resolved not to do drugs anymore, because I get the same effect just standing up really fast.”
2. “I have resolved to live in my own little world, because at least they know me here.”
3. “I have resolved to stay married, because it is so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
4. “I have resolved to not make any resolutions, because nobody is perfect. I’m a nobody, therefore I’m perfect.”
B. TEXT
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” Isa. 43:18-19. “Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. 21:5.
C. THESIS
1. The beginning of a new year is a wonderful thing. It affords us new beginnings, new hopes, and new dreams. We can’t change the past, but 2017 holds out the possibility of a whole new life. Will we seize the opportunity?
2. The title of this message is “Made New.” We’re looking at the 3 things NEW about Christians since they’re new creatures:
I. NEW IN INNOCENCE
A. IS INNOCENCE POSSIBLE?
1. DEFINITION: 1 a : freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil : blamelessness b : chastity c : freedom from legal guilt of a particular crime or offense d (1) : freedom from guile or cunning : simplicity (2) : lack of worldly experience or sophistication [Merriam-Webster].
2. Despite us having lived ungodly lives prior to our salvation, we can get our innocence back after getting saved. In fact, getting your innocence back is one of the marks of a Child of God! Listen to what Jesus says:
3. “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” Matt. 18:3. Two key factors about children are their innocence and their trust. How is renewed innocence possible? Because the old sinful self died with Christ and the New Creation being has never sinned! Gal. 2:20.
4. 2 Cor. 5:17; “Therefore if any man (person) be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
5. God says He’ll give us a new heart (Eze. 36:26) and a new spirit (Eze. 11:19), make us a new creature (2 Cor.5:17) with a new name (Isa. 62:2; Rev. 2:17), and put a new song ((Ps. 40:3) and a new tongue in our mouths (Mk. 16:17). Then He’ll help us walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:14) by a new commandment (Jn. 13:34) into the new heavens and new earth (2 Pet. 3:3) where we’ll get to enter His holy city New Jerusalem (Rev. 3:12). That’s a lot of new!
B. TWO KEY STAGES
1. FORGIVENESS & CLEANSING. The blood of Jesus is said to be “innocent blood” Mt. 27:4. His blood justifies us (Rom. 5:9), redeems us (Eph. 1:7), brings us near (Eph. 2:13), makes peace with God (Col. 1:20), cleanses our consciences (Heb. 9:14), sanctifies us (Heb. 13:12), cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn. 1:7), & washes us (Rev. 1:5).
2. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 Jn. 1:7-9.
3. How can we have our innocence back? Because God will make us like a newborn babies! (1 Pet. 2:2; Lk. 10:21). Those newly born in Christ are called “babes in Christ” (1 Cor. 3:1).
4. When the Bible says I’m “justified” it means I/you are “just as lf I’d never sinned at all!” God blots out our sins, and remembers them no more!
5. After you’ve repented and been forgiven, if you asked God about your former sins, He would say, “I can’t remember any sins you ever committed!”
6. God took all your sins and put them on Jesus! “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” 1 Cor. 5:21.
II. NEW IN THINKING
A. ATTITUDE FROM HEAVEN’S PERSPECTIVE
1. “Be made new in the attitude of your minds” Eph. 4:23.
2. Because you’ve been saved and empowered by the Holy Spirit, you have been transformed from a nobody to a somebody. You’ve been bought with a price -- the precious blood of Jesus; the old you has passed away, and behold, you’re a new creation, one of God’s champions!
3. You know, of all people on the face of the earth today, Christians should have the most reason to have a positive and upbeat attitude, because we’ve been given a new life.
4. We need to understand that our attitudes are a direct result of whether we’ve accepted the world’s view of life or God’s view.
5. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If you perceive something to be a problem, then it will be. If we endure many hardships and negative experiences in life, then our attitude has a tendency to be negative.
6. Sometimes people are in such a bad situation that they have an attitude of hopelessness. Instead of fighting the good fight and battling and persevering through it, they merely resign to the situation and live out a self-destructive lifestyle because they have adopted a negative attitude.
7. But Paul tells us we need to be MADE NEW in the attitudes of our minds!
B. TRANSFORMED BY RENEWING YOUR MIND
1. Paul said, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” Rom. 12:2.
2. There’s 2 things we must do, one in the negative & one positive. First, DON’T CONFORM TO THE WORLD. We’re to resist it’s attempts to squeeze us into its mold.
3. EX. OF CONFORMING: BARNYARD DUCKS
a. Barnyard ducks are an example of birds which conform. Normally, they are migratory and wild, traveling thousands of miles in large groups. It's the same with geese.
b. But there are those (like at the Sam Houston Museum Park) which become satisfied with their immediate surroundings and food supply, and their sense of “the call of the wild” is lost.
c. When waves of ducks/geese fly over, quacking and honking, they momentarily feel the desire to go, but their ease/complacency has too strong a hold on them, they no longer possess the will to leave the earth for the skies.
d. That’s like many Christians. They become so worldly that the stirring, wooing of the Holy Spirit -- which used to motivate them to seek God – no longer moves them. The Holy Spirit’s presence is a forgotten memory.
4. Second is the word “transformed:” in the Greek it’s the word “metamorphosis,” which describes the transformation of a creature, from within, into a wholly new kind of creature.
5. Two common examples of this are frogs & butterflies, who go through a metamorphosis, and are transformed from worms and tadpoles into completely different forms of creatures. They go from being earthbound creatures, to being creatures able to leave the ground by jumping or flying.
6. 3 key things assist with the transformations of our minds: 1). The Word of God, 2). The Presence of Christ -“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” Eph. 3:16, and 3). Fellowshipping with other believers.
III. NEW IN LIFESTYLE
A. LIVING DIFFERENTLY
1. “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.” Rom. 12:2, Living Bible
2. The new creature does not feel at home in this present evil world, for this is the old creation, and feels as if he were out of his element and not in a congenial country. He loves not the world, neither the things in the world.
3. Now the man has new views, new notions, new ambitions, new convictions, new desires, new hopes, new dreads, new aims, new principles, and new affections: he is led by a new spirit and follows a new course of life;
B. ILLUSTRATION
1. Imagine a baby chick, which before was imprisoned in the dark, narrow, and uncomfortable prison of its natural shell. Wouldn’t he remember moments before when the shell was broken and he came out into the open?
2. At first he is weak and feels strange and full of wonder at the world into which he has come. Then that young life begins to feel its wings and try them a little.
3. It also moves with trembling footsteps, trying a new walk. It sees things it never dreamed of when shut up in the darkness. It is a wonderful thing, this new life.
4. Paul described how to live: “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” Tit. 2:11-13.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Max Walsh was staying at a lodge in the Austrian Alps. On
a beautiful winter day with the blue sky, he told the owner he was going out for a walk by himself.
2. He was about a mile and a half from the lodge when suddenly the weather changed. A tremendous snowstorm descended on the area. He was blinded by the snow, became disoriented, and finally stumbled and fell passed out in the snow.
3. The owner of the lodge, worried about him, sent one of
his rescue dogs out to look for him. He located Walsh's body in the snow and latched onto it and started to drag him out of the snow.
4. Max Walsh became semiconscious and awoke to a big dog ripping at his clothing. He assumed it was a wolf and so took out his pocket knife and mortally stabbed the dog, which returned to his master and fell dead at his feet.
5. The owner of the lodge, realizing what it happened, followed the trail of blood through the snow until he found Max Walsh and took him back to safety.
6. Years later when Max Walsh became a Christian, he used to tell that story, "When I realized that I was lost and headed for hell, I realized the only way that I could find life was to follow the trail of blood back to the cross of Jesus, where I found the Jesus who died for me!"
B. ALTAR CALL
1. You’ve been bought with a price! Have you given Jesus the Lordship over your life yet?
2. Do you need a NEW…
a. Innocence?
b. New Thinking?
c. New Lifestyle?
3. Let’s go to prayer and claim the newness and purity that God says you have in Christ! Prayer.
[II.A. has a few thoughts from Rick Adams’ “Maintaining a Winning Attitude”]
