NEW THINGS

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.  Most individuals like new things:  new homes, new cars, new clothes, new tools, new appliances, new games, new toys, new books, and a host of other new things.

 

B.   The Bible also has something to say about new things.  In this lesson, we are going to look at some of them.

 

I.         A NEW COMMANDMENT

 

A.  In John 13:34-35, Jesus speaks to His disciples of a new commandment.

 

A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this, shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

 

B.   This commandment was not new in the sense that it was the very first time man had every been commanded to love (See Lev. 19:18, 34).

 

C.  The newness sprang from two components:

1.    They were commanded to love as Christ had loved them.

a.    Deity becomes the standard of love.

b.    Pure, genuine, fervent, active, and impartial are words that can be used to describe divine love.

2.    Their love was to be worn as a badge of discipleship.  By this, shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

 

D.  Every congregation of the Lord’s people would be wise to focus upon this commandment.

1.    As they examine how they are fulfilling this responsibility, Jesus must be the standard.

2.    Our flawed standards of love cannot be the rule.

 

II.       A NEW TESTAMENT

 

A.  The prophet Jeremiah had foretold the coming of a new covenant.

1.    Jeremiah 31:31

 

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

 

2.    The next statement by the prophet is of vital importance also (Jer. 31:32).

 

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

 

a.    It is not like the Old Testament.

b.    It does not include the Old Testament.

c.    In fact, it replaces the Old Testament (Heb. 8:13).

 

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.  Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

 

B.   The New Testament was sealed, not with the blood of a physical lamb, but with the precious blood of the Lamb of God (Matt. 26:28).

 

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

 

1.    The words of the NT are confirmed and made binding by the blood of Christ.

2.    To say the NT is not important is to impugn the very blood of the Son of God.

3.    Anything we do to nullify it, disregard it, change it, and deplete it of its authority involves our trampling of the blood of Christ under our feet (Heb. 10:29).

 

III.      ONE NEW MAN

 

A.  This concept is found in Ephesians 2.  It has to do with the union of the Jews and Gentiles.

 

B.   Prior to the death of Jesus, the Jews were God’s covenant people.  The Gentiles, on the other hand, were alienated from God (Eph. 2:12).

 

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

 

C.  This, however, changed with the death of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:13-16).  Note the first two words of verse 13:  “But now…”

 

But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of command-ments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.

1.    Where two distinct groups existed in the past, now there would be just “one new man.”

2.    This new man is:

a.    The body of Christ (Eph. 2:16)

b.    The kingdom of Christ (Eph. 2:19)

c.    The household of God (Eph. 2:19)

d.   The temple of God (Eph. 2:21)

3.    The blood bought institution called “the church” is the institution in which God unites men and women of all races, cultures, nationalities, languages, and socio-economic statuses.

 

D.  It is sad that the religious world has a low view of the church.

1.    Yet, the church manifests the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10).

2.    The church is involved in the eternal purpose of God (Eph. 3:11).

3.    Jesus and Gentiles become “one new man” as members of the church of Christ (Eph. 3:6).

 

That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.

 

IV.      A NEW CREATURE

 

A.  II Corinthians 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.

 

B.   First, to be a new creature one must be “in Christ.”

1.    Baptism is the act that puts one into Christ (Gal. 3:27).

 

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

 

2.    Another way of seeing this is to look at the body of Christ.

a.    If a person is in the body of Christ, he is in Christ.

b.    Again, one must be baptized to be part of the body.

1)     I Corinthians 12:13

 

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…

 

2)    Jesus said that he that believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16).  The saved are then added by the Lord to the church (Acts 2:47).  They are “in Christ.”

 

C.  Those in Christ are “new creatures.”

1.    The old man of sin was buried (Rom. 6:3).

2.    The person arises as a babe in Christ to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).

3.    Examples:

a.    The Jews on Pentecost were murderers, but became members of the Lord’s church (Acts 2:23, 47).

b.    Paul was a persecutor, but became a preacher (I Tim. 1:12-13).

c.    The Corinthians went from being sinners to being sanctified (I Cor. 6:9-11).

d.   The Thessalonians were in the error of idolatry but became examples of faith (I Thess. 1:8-9).

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.  If we enjoy new things, then our spiritual man should really enjoy the things just mentioned.

1.    A new commandment

2.    The new testament

3.    One new man

4.    A new creature

 

B.   There is another new that we want to mention.  It is the place called heaven (Rev. 21:4-5).

 

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:  for the former things are passed away.  And he that set upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

 

C.  To be part of that new place, you must be a new creature, within the new man, living by the New Testament, and practicing the new commandment.