Will you please turn to the book of Revelation, Revelation 21? You do not like that. We will read from Verse 1 to Verse 6.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.
And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true.
And He said unto me, They are come to pass.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you.
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Dear heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank You that we are gathered together here tonight in the name of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have the confidence that You are here. We ask You, Lord, to prepare our hearts for Your Word. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will open Your Word to us.
May Your Word be light and life in each one of us, that we may walk in Your light and live by Your life. May it all be to the praise of Your glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
One day, as I was meditating on the Word of God, one phrase caught my heart. It is in Revelation 21, where God says, “Behold, I make all things new.”
When God says, “Behold, I make all things new,” it is a voice of satisfaction. God is looking at all things, and He says, “I make all things new.” Finally, all things have passed away—things that are connected with sin, things such as death, crying, distress, and pain. All these things have passed away.
Now everything is new, and everything corresponds to the very nature of God Himself. When God looks at all things, He says, “Behold.” In other words, let everyone pay attention to this: something wonderful has happened. All the old things have passed away. There is no trace of all these old things. Everything is new now.
This is a tremendous declaration.
You know, today, as we look around and look into ourselves, we find that many old things are here. We find that we are surrounded, drowned as it were, in former things—things that are the result of sin.
As a matter of fact, the whole creation is under bondage and despair. When God created all things, all things were good. But because of sin, the whole creation has entered into vanity and corruption.
If we have spiritual hearing, we can hear that the whole creation is groaning, because it is not willing to be under such conditions. Not only is the whole creation groaning; in Romans 8, we are told that even those who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan within ourselves.
We groan because we long to see all things made new. We find that there are many old things sticking to us. We are under a burden—things that remind us of the old things, things related to the world, to the flesh, to self, and even to the enemy.
But thank God, one day God will cry out and say, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Now, how does God make all things new? He looks at all things and says, “It is done.” In other words, God is working toward that day.
God is working to let the old things pass away and to bring in all things new. That is the very work of God. As God has done the work, one day He will again say, “It is done.”
Brothers and sisters, have you heard these words, “It is done,” before? Two thousand years ago, when our Lord Jesus was crucified on Calvary’s cross, before He gave up His spirit, He cried out and said, “It is finished.”
It is because of the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus on the cross that the foundation has been laid for God to make all things new. Our Lord Jesus completed the work of redemption. When He was crucified on the cross, He took the old creation with Him and crucified it.
So, on the cross, in Christ, the old creation passed away; and in Christ, the new creation came into being. On the basis of the finished work of our Lord Jesus on the cross, God has been working throughout these two thousand years toward that very end.
The end is that one day He can look at all things and say, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Our God is a God of newness. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never grows old. Newness is His very nature.
This newness is not in the sense of novelty. We like to see something new because it is strange or different, but that is not the meaning of newness here. Newness is in the sense of life.
Life is new. Life never grows old. Life is vibrant, living, and fresh. When life begins to cease growing, death comes in. Our God is a living God. He is the very spring and source of life. Therefore, with God, it is always new. In Him, everything is new.
Now, what is old? Oldness is from sin. Whatever is the result of sin has oldness in it. In other words, it is the lack of life.
Brothers and sisters, whatever is connected with God is always new. It may happen a hundred times, but it is still new because it is of God. Whatever is not of God, even if it happens for the first time, is old, because there is no life there. It is death.
Our God wants to make all things new. One day, He can look at all things and say, “It is done.”
This evening, we would like to apply this principle to ourselves. How can we be made new?
In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul says, “He who is in Christ, he is a new creation.” Some versions say, “He is a new creature,” but I think “new creation” is better.
You know, when we come to believe in the Lord Jesus, what do we think of as salvation? Do we think that when we come to the Lord and believe in Him as our Savior, our sins are forgiven, and one day, when we die, we go to heaven?
Of course, these are included in the salvation of our Lord Jesus. To have our sins forgiven is a tremendous thing. When we were under the load of sin, and there was a guilty feeling within our conscience, one day, because of the blood of our Lord Jesus, our conscience was cleansed. We know that we have forgiveness, and we know that one day we can go home.
But what the Lord has done for us is far better, far more, than that. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
In other words, when you are saved, it is an act of creation. Just as in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, He does another work of creation. It is a creative act of God.
As a new creation, there is nothing old. God is not trying to improve the old creation and make it better. He is not adding new clothing to the old creation. It is totally new. There is no trace of the old creation.
Now, brothers and sisters, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Are you in Christ?
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we say that we are born again. We are born of the Spirit, and he that is born of the Spirit is spirit. When we are born again, we receive a new life, and this new life is none other than Christ Himself. Christ comes into us and becomes our life.
But at the same time, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, God has not only put Christ in us; He has also put us in Christ. Christ in you is your life. You in Christ means that you come into a new world.
Just as when we are born of our parents, we are born with a life and are born into a world, so when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we have Christ within us, and we are born into Christ. Christ becomes our new world, our new environment, and our new surroundings. Everything is new now.
How are you in Christ? How is Christ in you? In 1 Corinthians 1:30, it tells us, “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus.” The “Him” there is God. Of God, ye are in Christ Jesus. God has made Christ our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
You see, this is an act of God. When you believe in the Lord Jesus, God does an act of creation. He puts Christ in you, and He puts you in Christ. You get a new life, and you get a new world.
All things old belong to the old creation. The old things have passed away. Everything is made new, and all things are of God. There is nothing in that new creation that is not of God. There is no trace of the old creation there. It is completely new.
It is all of God, because He has reconciled us to Himself through Christ Jesus. To be reconciled means to be at one, to be at peace.
Formerly, we were enemies of God. Everything in us was opposite to what God is. Whether we thought it was good or bad, everything that belonged to the old creation was against God. But now the old has passed away. Everything is of God. We are one. We are at peace with God: a new creation.
Why do I labor over this point? We still do not believe that we are a new creation. When we look at ourselves, we find that many old things are still there. The old things have not passed away, and all things have not become new.
Brothers and sisters, so far as your personal experience is concerned, this may be true. But so far as God’s truth is concerned, this is not true.
So far as God’s truth is concerned, God looks at you in Christ, and He says that you are a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things have become new, and all things are of God. Why? Because our Lord Jesus has done that perfect work.
This is the ground on which we have to stand. How are we going to live our Christian life? If we live our Christian life by standing on the ground of our own experience—what we can see, hear, and feel—we will find that we are building on sand. You cannot build your Christian life on that.
It cannot stand the wind. It cannot stand the storms. That is the reason why we find our Christian life so unstable: we are standing on the wrong ground.
Brothers and sisters, we must stand on the right ground. We must stand on the ground of the truth of God. What is truth? Truth is what God has accomplished in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the truth.
Truth never changes. Truth is absolute. Truth is finished. It is done. It is not going to be done; it is done. That is truth.
First of all, we have to stand on the truth of God. We have to see that we are in Christ, and because we are in Christ, we are a new creation. All things have passed away. We will not allow the old things to come back and hold us.
We will declare that all the old things have passed away on Calvary’s cross. God has made all things new, and we stand on this ground. As we stand on this ground, then the Holy Spirit is able to work for the passing of the old and the bringing in of the new.
Isaiah tells us, “Behold, I have made a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?”
Our problem is that we always remember the old things. We cannot forget the things behind, and we do not see the new work of God in our lives. Because of this, the old things come back like a heavy load and bring us down.
We do not know how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. We are a new creation, and whenever these old things come back, the Holy Spirit invariably will remind us. He will tell us, “This is old. This does not belong. You should deny it. You should not accept it.”
Brothers and sisters, our problem is that we still live by our feelings. We do not live by faith. We feel that something is very true, so we accept it. When we accept these things, these things become our life. We do not see the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Whenever our eyes are turned off the Lord Jesus, and we look away from Jesus into other things—into ourselves, other people, our environment, our feelings, and our senses—immediately we fall back into the old creation.
As a matter of fact, the old creation has already been crucified.
Let me use an illustration. In Romans 6:6, Paul tells us, “Our old man was crucified with Him.”
In other words, when Christ died on the cross, He not only bore our sins in His body and died for us, but He also took the old man with Him, and the old man was crucified. When Christ died, the old creation died in Him.
But then you find Romans 7. Formerly, this old man used his mind and energy to commit sin. But now he tries to use this old man to keep the law and to please God.
Instead of living as a new creation, instead of living in Christ and by the life of Christ within him, he goes back to live by his own life. Formerly, he used his own life to commit sin; now he has changed and tries to use his own life to please God.
He tries, and he discovers one thing: in him, that is, in his flesh, there is no good thing. The will is in him, but the doing is not in him. Why? Because the old creation is under the bondage of the law of sin and of death.
As long as he tries to go back to the old, he will be under the law of sin and death. Finally, he cries out, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
After he makes that cry, he says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” At that very moment, he begins to see that he is in Christ as a new creation. The old creation has passed away.
He is no longer leaning upon that old life; he leans upon the life of Christ, and there is victory.
Brothers and sisters, how are we going to live our Christian life? Remember the apostle Paul in Philippians 3. He says, “I press on.” He forgets the things behind and stretches himself out toward the goal that is before him.
This man Paul had a shameful past. When he was Saul the Pharisee, he persecuted Christians. He was insolent, proud, haughty, and cruel—a persecutor of the church of God. He had a very shameful past.
But at the same time, he had a very glorious past. On the road to Damascus, he met the Lord. His whole being was changed. He suffered for the Lord, was used by the Lord, and planted churches everywhere. He had a glorious past.
Yet Paul says, “When I pursue after Christ, I have to forget the past.” Not only the shameful past—the shameful past belongs to the old creation, and if you remember these things, they become a weight in your life.
But he also says, “I forget my glorious past.” Even though this glorious past belongs to the new creation, when you remember your glorious past, it will either deflate you or inflate you.
If you remember your shameful past, it deflates you. If you remember your glorious past, it inflates you. Either one becomes a weight in your life, so that you are not able to run the race.
You remember in Hebrews 12 that we are on a racecourse. When we are saved, God has put us on that racecourse. This race is an obstacle race. There are many obstacles along the way, but we have a goal.
When you run the race, your eyes are upon the goal, and the goal is Christ Jesus. We are to be looking away from everything unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
When a runner is running a race, he has to take off every weight from his body so that he is able to run. Weight may not be sin, but weight retards and slows down your running.
Brothers and sisters, when we remember the former things, whether they are shameful or glorious, remembering them will slow us down. It may slow us down to such an extent that it may even push us back.
Paul says, “I forget the things behind.” Whatever the things behind may be, they may be shameful or glorious. They may be failure or success. Paul says, “I forget all, and I concentrate on the Lord.” With this mind, you can run the race.
Brothers and sisters, we find that it is very important for us, as we live our daily Christian life, to stand on the ground of newness in Christ. We will refuse and deny everything that belongs to the old creation.
As Romans tells us, we are to put to death the deeds of the body. It is not a passive thing. God does not simply come to you and take your weight away. You have to lay it aside yourself. It is something we have to do. As we are willing to do that, God will help us to take it away.
But our problem is that we always hold on to the former things. We cannot forget the past, and we find that the past becomes our greatest hindrance in Christian life. It takes our eyes away from Christ and keeps our eyes upon ourselves.
We return to the old creation. We are not living in the new creation.
So, brothers and sisters, I feel it is very important that we lay aside every weight, forget the past, and keep our eyes on the Lord. This is the only way that we can run our race. Then we can live as a new creation.
Why is this so important? It is not only for our personal good; it is also for the good of the church.
You remember in Ephesians 2 that the church is one new man. Individually, we are a new creation; corporately, we are one new man. There is nothing old in it.
In the old man, you find Jews and Gentiles. In other words, in the old man there were many distinctions: race, background, traditions, and all kinds of differences. You cannot simply put them together. There is nothing common between the Jew and the Gentile.
But thank God, in Christ Jesus, He has made the Jews and the Gentiles one new man. How do they become one new man? Because of the cross.
When you come to the church, the cross keeps the old creation—the old man—outside. Suppose I am a Jew. When I come to the church, the cross takes away my Jewish things. When I come into that new man, there is neither Jew nor Gentile.
The Jew is outside the door of the church. In the church, there is no Jew, no Chinese, and no Canadian. When you come to the church, the Canadian and the Chinese are all left outside in the world. In the church, everyone is a new creation. Everything is of Christ. That makes us one new man.
Brothers and sisters, do you see the point? It is important that individually we live as a new creation, because if we try to bring the old into the church, we destroy the very nature of the church. The church is one new man. There is nothing old in it.
It is very important for each one of us, in our daily life, to stand on the ground of a new creation in Christ and reject everything that is old. Then, when we come together, we are one new man.
This is the work that the Holy Spirit is doing today. He is doing it in each one of us, and He is working it in the church.
One day, when this work is done, the whole creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and vanity. The day will come when God can look at all things and say, “Behold, I have made all things new.”
Dear brothers and sisters, what a glorious day! This is the day for which we are looking forward. But for that day to come, today is the time when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us.
On the basis of the finished work of Christ, the Holy Spirit is doing this work to make all things new. But we need to understand this.
We thank You, God, for on that day You will say, “Behold, I have made all things new.”
Because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, may You continue to do this work of renewal in us. We want to stand in Christ. By Your grace, we shall reject all that is of the old creation.
We have to forget what is behind and look forward, that we may apprehend that for which You have apprehended us. Because You have apprehended us, You can apprehend all things.
May the Holy Spirit do this work in each one of us. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.