The year was 1969. The place was California. The governor was Ronald Reagan. And it was that year that Ronald Reagan signed the Family Law Act. What was the Family Law Act? The Family Law Act was the act that said, you may have no fault divorces. You see, up until then, if a husband and a wife got to the place where they didn't want to remain married, one of them had to prove sexual infidelity on the part of the other, or that one of them desired to leave and get out of the premises and never come back. Because you see, in the early days of the United States, by and large, we all had a Christian world and life view. We all believed that God existed. We all believed that there would come a time that we would die. And we all believed that, you know, where we would spend life after death depended on how well we behaved. But when we have a Christian world and life view that is not rooted and grounded in a saving relationship with the God who exists, such that when we desire to live the kind of life that would have our Creator say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into my rest, We stop living as wannabe Christians and we live as Christians. And when we live as Christians, we understand that we have a new identity. And it's that new identity that it's my prayer will be reminded by God's grace as we look together at this fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians is our identity. Now we have to understand that the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians and there were issues brought before him and he actually wrote a second letter that's not inscripturated. And we know that that second letter was written because Titus comes to Paul in Macedonia and talks to Paul about the reception that the Corinthians had to that second letter that's not part of the scriptures that then led the apostle to write what we know as 2 Corinthians. And in this letter of 2 Corinthians, one of the things the Apostle Paul is seeking to do is demonstrate that he indeed is one who was sent by God, a messenger of God, who's bringing the gospel to the people. So with that as an introduction, let's listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we're away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known to you also to your conscience. We're not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us. So you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance, not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If you're in a right mind, it's for you. For the love of Christ controls us. Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. 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. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God. who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting us, entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, we made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Grass withers, flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Amen. The first 10 verses of this chapter appears to me, and I trust you'll understand this, that the Apostle Paul is talking about the here and the there of our identity. He's talking about the here and now of our identity, but he's not confining us to the here. He wants us to remember that our identity is also linked, as Elder Weir prayed, with there. And notice how he says it. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. He, I'm sorry, that's the second point. It's in verse one. Second point is the then and now, but we'll get to that verse later. The here, there you have it. For we know, that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We live in a tent. This is our home during the number of years that we are going to traverse this earth. And he speaks about this tent as being a jar of clay. And for those of us who are by God's grace united to Jesus Christ through faith, this tent, this jar of clay, carries about with it the gospel. We carry about in this jar of clay the gospel. When we think about carrying about in this jar of clay the gospel, we need to be thinking about carrying Jesus Christ in this jar of clay. This treasure, But when we think about this treasure, this gospel, this reality of Christ that dwells within us, we have to think about that life of Christ to whom we are going to be conforming our lives here. And when we think about Jesus Christ as he traversed this earth, particularly in the last three years of his life, what did he say about himself? He was indeed transient, he had no place to lay down his head. What else do we know about him? Well, he was afflicted, he was perplexed, he was persecuted, he was struck down, he was always carried about in him. Oh, no, wait a minute. This is what Paul says about himself. The death of Christ. The death of Christ. And when we think about our here and now as we are living testimonies of the gospel to those about us and as we have opportunity to speak that gospel and seek to see that gospel applied to all of life, We are often afflicted. We are often persecuted. We are often perplexed. We are often struck down. Indeed, we understand a bit more what it is to carry with us the death of Jesus in our bodies. But too often, this is not what Christianity is proclaimed to be. by the health and wealth ministers, is it? Too often what we are promised as Christians is a good life. What we're promised as Christians often is we'll have no conflict. Our marriages will be wonderful marriages. We'll really get along with each other. We won't find fault with each other. So what does Paul say? Our new identity is not so much tied up with here and what's happening here. As in these bodies, what do we do? We groan. As Elder Chin and I were talking this morning about growing older and the groaning is getting more pronounced. As we begin to see how playful these jars are and how indeed a tent these bodies are. And so as Elder Weir was praying, what do we do? Well, we look forward to there. And what is there? This mortal is not swallowed up in death. Did you catch that? This mortal is not swallowed up in death. This mortal is swallowed up in life. How does that go? I say to my Christian children, good night. I say to my non-Christian children, Goodbye. Why goodnight? Because you see, if we're in Christ, when we die, it's a blowing out of a candle so that the light that we'll enjoy in the new heavens and the new earth, where there's no need for a candle because the light God will shine. We're what? We're saying we'll see you on the other side in the morning light. And so we talk about Christians not so much dying as we talk about Christians in the scripture going to sleep. And what? Waking up. Now we understand when we die the spirit goes to be with the Lord and the body indeed is placed in the grave and the spirit is yearning for what? For the resurrection. For the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we will be united again as God intended us to be, that dust and that That dust into which the breath of life was exhaled in the garden. So that as a living soul, we became worshipers and servants of our creator. Are we living? Are we truly living? for the return of Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, are our aspirations going to find their culmination in being there? And what will happen when we are there is that there becomes here, the new heavens and the new earth. Do we really live thoroughly looking forward to sinless lives? Or are we stuck Well, this is just how I am. You need to accept me and all the works, all the sins that I have. In other words, we need to learn how to live unrighteous lives with one another and be satisfied. No, that's not our identity. We live here wanting to be there. And therefore, what we find here becomes more and more conformed to what's going to be there. Well, how's that at all possible? Well, now we can look at verse 11. Because in verse 11, he begins to talk about the then and the now, and that's important. Now, Paul begins again by arguing for his apostleship, doesn't he? Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we, Paul and others like me, persuade others. I don't get misled by that word persuade. The Apostle Paul knows full well that his argumentation, his strict adherence to the laws of logic, is what's going to bring someone to saving faith. He understands that. He's not going to spend his life trying to persuade people that God exists. He wrote Romans chapter one, remember? And you remember what he says there in verses 18 and following in Romans chapter one, don't you? They're not a living person that doesn't know God exists. There's not a living person that doesn't know God exists. We don't have to persuade people that God exists. That's not our responsibility at all. What is our responsibility? To be able to speak To be able to speak the good news. To be able to speak about Christ and what Christ did living that perfect life. What Christ did living that perfect life by going to the cross. And what it meant for us to deny self and take up the cross and follow Him. Because it's the gospel that's the power of God unto salvation. That's what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. He's not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God unto himself. What did he do on Mars Hill? Jesus was raised from the dead. One of the most attested to miracles in all of history is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Upwards to 500 people saw him after he rose. If there was any a time in history to prove the resurrection of Jesus was false, it was right then and there. And they could not disprove his resurrection. But what we are is known to God, and I hope is known also to your conscience. Please, Corinthians, you who are saints, remember how he starts his writing? You who are professing faith in Christ, you in your conscience know I am an apostle because what? Because I preached to you about the one who died. For God so loved the world, he sent his only begotten Son, who died and rose again the third day. And why did he die? So that those in whom the Holy Spirit instills salvation, they're born again from above, in order that those who by grace are saved through faith will exercise that faith in embracing Jesus Christ. It's the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world. So he says, I'm not commending, we're not commending ourselves to you again, but we're giving you cause to boast. It wasn't the order of Apollos. It was this persecuted, stoned, left for dead. When it comes to the eyeball test, this, I don't know, what do you think his body looked like being broken all over the place? This clay vessel, this tent, this apostle, who reminds them that there are times you'll think I'm out of my mind. What's that about? If our Spanish-speaking friends stood up and prayed fervently in Spanish, it would appear to me there's something wrong, because I don't understand at all. My mind can't comprehend that language because I don't know Spanish. And here's the Apostle Paul who was so multilingual that he could interact with kind of like Dick Weir as I remember him. At the time we were in front of the garage car pulls up and he's speaking Spanish, I think. He comes down, he says, well, obviously they were Spanish speaking people, so I gave them directions to Yonkers in Spanish. Oh, okay. To me, that's kind of out of my mind. And when I speak intelligently, rationally, You who understand my language can understand it. It makes perfect sense to you. Beside ourselves, it's for God. In our right mind, it's for you. For the love of Christ controls us. Our identity now is that Christ's love, Christ's love controls us. And it's this Christ whose love is to control us on more than one occasion. Made it very clear, didn't he? If you love me, you'll do your best to do what I want you to do. If you love me, you'll write the Ten Commandments and put them on the wall. If you love me, you'll be able to recite the Ten Commandments. No, if you love me, you'll keep. You'll keep my commandments. Our new identity now is fashioned and shaped by Christ's love for us. How great is that love? When we were his utter enemies, he died for us. When we were despising and rejecting him, he died for us. He took the wrath of his father that we deserve. Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, those who live. might no longer live for themselves, but for him, for their sake, died and was raised. Our identity now is with Jesus Christ. He died. He rose again. We died with Him on the cross and rose again with Him in the resurrection. So that now we live as new creations in Christ Jesus. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. When the scriptures use the word flesh, indeed, there are many, many, many, many, many times he's talking about this. as opposed to what we talk about as the heart or the spirit or the soul. Right? But here when he uses the word flesh, he's using what we see with our eyes acted out by the other person in their life. We no longer see Jesus walking on this earth. We no longer see him. We don't know what he looked like. We don't put representations on the wall trying to think this is Jesus. No, we don't see him as he was. And we don't regard one another any longer only on the basis of what we see. with our eyes, physically. But we see those who name the name of Christ, plagiars, tense, but what? Who are carrying this treasure, who are carrying Christ. who have the Lord dwelling within them in the person of the Holy Spirit. And so what are we looking for? We're looking for Jesus in others who name the name of Christ. And therefore, all of this is to get us to verse 17. How many in the NASDAQ, the whole memory system, or how many early on in your Sabbath school, Christian Sabbath education, were you taught to memorize 2 Corinthians 5.17? What does it say? Therefore, if anyone is a Christ, he's what? He's a new creation. Some things are gone, but a lot are sticking around. Whoops. That might be the new living. But it's not the Bible. And it's remarkable, isn't it? What are we now? The old has. Not the old is likely to. Not the old someday will. I was a math major, but I think I understand enough about English. It's an indicative of reality. That's our new identity. That's incredible. It's a miracle. Look with me, please, at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Because we need to understand the then that preceded the now, all right? When I taught at the seminary and I would ask students to write their testimony, I said you need to have the B.C., the E.C., and the A.C. Before Christ, encounter with Christ, and after Christ. The then, that's the B.C. Listen to verse nine. First Corinthians chapter six, verse nine. For do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy. I remember the movie Wall Street. I remember the actor. What's Wall Street built on? Greed. Nor the greedy. Nor drunkards. nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And I don't want to take us to Romans chapter 1 and go down beginning with verse 18 You know, that passage that we look at and we often put the flag up. Homosexuality, that horrible sin. Look at what happens when God gives you over to the depravity of your heart. Read the last verse. Read the last verse of that first chapter of Romans. If you're familiar with Jerry Bridges' book, Respectable Sins, Yeah, you'll find a few of them down there at the end of Romans chapter 1. We don't put those up on the flagpole. No, no, no, no, no. Those are respectable things. Why do I say all of that? The 11th verse of this 6th chapter of 1 Corinthians is the... Such were some of you. You see, that's what we were. That's the then. That's the BC. That's what filled our lives. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. That's what filled our lives. I want what I want when I want it. The song. the 60s by old Blue Eyes himself. I did it. My way. That's the garden. I'll do it my way. But you see, that's then. Our new identity is now. All of that, all of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is Christ, in Christ, God reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting us, to us, the ministry, message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sinned, who knew no sin. So that in him we might become the righteous of God. I cited what Reagan did, Governor Reagan did in 1969. Because you would think that as people come to know Jesus Christ in a saving way, Christian marriages would not end in divorce, at least not in no-fault divorces. But you know the Barnard Polls as well as I do. It wasn't long after 1969 that we were hearing Christian marriages were ending in divorce about as equally to the non-Christian marriages. And we heard yesterday, those of us who were at the wedding, vows that even non-Christians will take in their wedding. Until death, we will remain married. Whom God has joined together, let no man separate. Jesus made it plain, you may have a divorce for sexual adultery and for willful desertion. But how many times, how many times do Christian marriages have a spouse who flirts or even would commit adultery. Such that the innocent party throws up their hands and says, we need to get a divorce. And I'm not here to say that's wrong because Jesus said it's great. No, he said that's not what God intends, but you may. I had the privilege of helping a young man come to Saving Faith in Jesus Christ. He was a scoundrel of a guy. He impregnated a lady. They didn't get married. After a while, he decided he needed to be a father to the daughter that he had fathered. He asked if I would marry him and the lady that he impregnated. I said, are you a Christian? Well, I'm not ready for that. But that's my child, and I believe God would have us be married. And the elders met and said, yes, go ahead. And in God's grace, they had a second child. That first child had grown to be a teenager and he came into a class just like we had here before worship. And may I meet with you after class, Pastor Bruce? I'm ready to profess faith in Christ. That's the back story. Fast forward to about three years ago. I get a phone call and I'm on vacation. My wife committed adultery. He was devastated. He went to the man who succeeded me there in first RP with his wife. I said, well, what did What did Pastor Miller say? He said he walked into his office and he said to my wife, you know in Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven. My friend who I professed faith about 20 years, I'm sorry, about 12 years ago. Pastor Bruce, what could I do but forgive him? Because I've been reconciled to Jesus Christ. who forgave me. Now I'm not hearsay. If you've been, somebody committed adultery and you got a divorce, I'm not saying anything against that. I'm simply saying this. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation. Are we being faithful ambassadors for Jesus Christ? When we espouse Jesus said we may for two reasons. Amen. So now, think about relationships. Think about relationships with one another. Think about relationships within the Church of Jesus Christ. Are there people who name the name of Christ with whom we need to be reconciled? The world is watching Christians, whether we like it or not. Do we live here, in light of there, and do we live now, or are we still living like then? If you're struggling, do you truly know the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior? Is it His love that controls you? Is it His love that controls you. And if the answer is no, I have the greatest news for you. If you will but repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will know this new identity right now. And if the Holy Spirit is working on you right now, to renounce your then and live a new now. Please talk to me. Please talk to me or Elbert Chin or Elbert Weir after the service. At least, if you're a child, tell your parents. But this can be the day that what you were is no longer. and what you can be will be a follower of Jesus Christ. And His love, His love will be your guiding force as the Spirit takes up residence in your life. And for those of us who name the name of Christ, it's a plain admonition. Stop quenching the Holy Spirit. Stop quenching the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is alive and well in us to convict us of sin, judgment, and righteousness, sin, righteousness, and judgment, to keep ever before us the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have his fruit born in and through us. Don't continue being intoxicated by the world. But give the Spirit full access to your heart, soul, strength, mind, will, to the greater praise and glory of Him who has worked His saving grace in your life to make you the new creation that you are. Praise be to the Lord. Amen. Father in Heaven, for this new identity that we enjoy in Jesus Christ,