We're back this morning in 2 Corinthians and chapter 5. 2 Corinthians and chapter 5. From verse 16, therefore from now on we regard no one according to the flesh Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now, all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Let's pray once more. Heavenly Father, send to us by your Spirit now the richest treasures that man can wish or you can bestow. Father, we ask for yourself. We ask that we might know you in Christ, and that knowing you, our hearts, being captured by your grace, might be taken up with your glory. Lord, lead us, we pray, in a perfect way, for Christ's sake. Amen. You may not be able to recite him yet, but I hope you can at least remember Joseph Hart saying that once someone has been joined to Jesus Christ, when all this is done and his heart is assured of the total remission of sins, when his pardon is signed and his peace is procured, from that moment his conflict begins. Every Christian is a truly saved man or woman. Everybody who is joined to Jesus Christ by faith is a possessor of new life. It is why gospel preachers can stand and tell everybody in this room this morning. to come and be reconciled to God. Christ is the one in whom God has provided all things needful for your peace and your spiritual prosperity now and always, because God made the man who knew no sin to be sin for sinners like us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And if you will come this moment to Jesus Christ, if you will trust Him this day, if you have not trusted Him before, then you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. This radical transformation, this fundamentally new reality in which old things go and never come back. And look, says Paul, with excitement, with joy, with eagerness. Behold, all things have become new. And we're looking at this of essentially backfilling before we return to what we were looking at of life under God, in order to emphasize something that we may not yet have, well, who of us have fully grasped it, but not grasp it yet as we should have done and need to, just what it means to be a new creature in Christ Jesus. And how radical, from the Latin word radix, root, how deeply rooted that change is, that I am no longer a part of this world as once I was, but that I now am a citizen of heaven. My soul has been washed and renewed, says the Christian. God has blessed me. My spirit has been made new. The Holy Ghost now dwells within me. And because there's been that radical newness of life at the very core of my being, everything else is going to change and keep on changing. Everything is new for me. I don't look with the old eyes. I don't judge by the old standards. I don't live by the old rules. I don't pursue the old goals. I am Christ's man, Christ's woman. I am, to use the language of Romans 6, I'm dead indeed to sin, but I'm alive to God now in Christ Jesus, my Lord. And as a result of the new root, there will always be then this new fruit. I am walking in newness of life. God has done this for us, brothers and sisters. This is the divine design. The Father has purposed this. It is the Son's life which has secured this being given for us and then rising again from the dead. And it is the Spirit's application to us, which is why we sing that the Holy Spirit being given to us in ever abundant measure would bring into our experience more and more these realities. And it is your responsibility to grasp it. Not just to hear it and say, well that's nice, but to work out your own salvation which God has given to you with fear and trembling because God is at work in us now to will and to do for his good pleasure. And that's the evidence of your salvation. How do I know that the root is in you? Because the fruit is around you. You're bearing fruit. The evidences of your repenting and your believing are clear in your life. Not necessarily yet fully mature, but real, substantial, and developing. And we need to reckon with this and we need to work this out because I would say there's not a Christian who belongs to this church as a covenanted member whose life would not be again in some measure transformed if we didn't get something of this more deeply and more clearly and grasp it more tightly. And I include the man who's preaching this message to you this morning. I am not the man who is attained. I'm the man who wants to know more of these things, who needs to believe that this is true, and whose life would go on being transformed in ways that would be manifest to my wife and my children and my fellow church members if it were to be more deeply and truly grasped by me. So according to Romans chapter 12, we need to start thinking. We need to know what is true. We need to believe the things that we know to be true, and then we need to start living them out. So we've been looking at the incremental fruit of this fundamental root. And we've said that though still imperfect, because of this new principle of life, we are pressing forward with new faith, with new hope and new love. And that is transforming everything about us. So far we've said that it gives us new appetites. Our sinful desires are being put to death. Our pursuit is for things that are pleasing to God. We have new company, new friends. We no longer feel at ease among the wicked, but we delight to be with God and his people. New guidance. We're no longer under the influence of the world. This is what we were talking about in our adult Bible class, the question about how does a woman of God Learn to be God's woman. Leave behind the perversions and the contortions and the distortions of femininity that the world offers. Well, you need to leave behind the way the world thinks. You need to avoid the pressures of the world, the teaching of the world, the instruction of the world, the council. The articles, the influences who are saying to you, think like this, where that thinking is not scriptural. And you turn to the word of God. New attitudes, no longer confusion and anxiety, not sure which way to turn, but rather a clarity and a calmness of mind and of heart. New battles. Sometimes it's more peaceful not to be a Christian. Usually it's more peaceful not to be a Christian, because you're under Satan's control and he's quite happy to have you there. But once you're enlisted in the armies of the Lamb, once the battle lines are drawn, Once the difference between godlessness and godliness becomes plain, then at least within, if not without, you will begin to fight battles that you'd never realized before, and those can be dispiriting and discouraging. Sometimes even say, I thought I was a Christian. Surely Christians don't feel these kinds of temptations and difficulties. And often I say, maybe it's because you're a Christian that you're feeling these temptations and difficulties. It's not that that's the sort of invariable badge. Oh, I'm sinning terribly, therefore I must be a Christian. I didn't say sinning terribly, but I said if Satan is battering you, if you're feeling because of those new appetites for holiness, a distaste for sin you never felt before, and a A horror because of the battle for godliness that you seem sometimes to be losing in, those may very well be the evidences of someone who has left the darkness behind and is now walking in light. We're living by new standards. No longer judging things as the world judges them, but seeking that which pleases God. We're no longer judging ourselves by our old patterns. Remember the limping son, excused by the limping father. The men and the women who cannot see where they need to grow because they're trapped by the blindness of what they once were. New commitments. We're no longer living for ourselves, selfishly and indulgently, but we're now living for Christ and his church, and new labours, no longer sullen, lazy, hard to stir, indulging our sins, but now striving as servants of God, following that beautiful example of Jesus Christ who went about doing good. And you may hear all of that, and you may say, I don't know if I can. Well, let me begin by assuring you that you can't. You may look at what stands against you and say, who can overcome these things? You may look at what you face and you might ask, who could possibly stand in the evil day? It's not a fairy story. Those of you who enjoy watching those Lords of the Rings films, when Theoden King stands on the ramparts of Helm's Deep and looks out at the Orc army, what can men do against such reckless hate? But it's all right, Gandalf's gonna ride over the hill and everything's gonna be better. My friends, reckless hate doesn't begin to describe the animosity of the forces of evil against the people of God. These aren't, you know, big ugly orc actors. These are the forces of evil in the heavenly places. And they are against me and you. And we feel our feebleness and we feel our weakness. But in Christ, brothers and sisters, we are new creations. The old is gone and it stays gone. And the new has come and it will not be quenched or quashed. So alongside those new appetites that we find so hard to sustain, those new friends that sometimes feel like we want to go back to our old ways, that new guidance that sometimes we can't discern, those new attitudes that sometimes feel so weak, those new battles that sometimes we seem to lose again and again, those new standards that can feel somehow unattainable to us, those new commitments that can seem beyond us, and those new labours that leave us exhausted in ourselves. There are also new resources. there are also new pleasures, there are also new motives, and there are also new goals. And I want to lift your eyes this morning to these things. So, there are new resources. Sometimes people will say, how do you do the things that you do? Anybody ever said that to you? How do you do the things that you do? And I learned to give Spurgeon's answer, not because I'm Spurgeon, but because his answer's a good one. When people would come to him and say, how do you accomplish everything? Ah, you forget that there are two of us at work. You forget that there are two of us at work. Stop making excuses for yourself. I'm only human. There's only 24 hours in the day. There's only so much that can be expected of me. Brothers and sisters, We are new creatures in Christ Jesus. We have all the time that we need to do everything that God calls us to do. And the Holy Spirit of Christ is in you to equip you and to enable you for everything to which the Lord calls you. Now, if someone were to come to me and say, why don't you do everything that Spurgeon does? I would say quite plainly, because I'm not Spurgeon and I don't need to worry about that. But if someone were to come to me and say, why don't you do everything that you should do? Then I have to ask, am I using, as I ought, the resources that are available to me as a child of God to accomplish my purposes? You see, my friends, my strength is not sufficient and neither is yours. I don't have the wisdom to do what I am called to do in and of myself. But it was never by strength and it was never by wisdom, it was always by the Holy Spirit that God intended to accomplish his glorious purposes. So you look around this church and you might say, there's so few of us. What is that when it comes to God? And we're quite pathetic. Well, that's glory in that, because it's in our weakness that Christ reveals his strength. When people say to me, but you're an awful preacher, and you lack this, and you're not good at that, and you can't accomplish this, and you try. Yeah, I know. But it's not about me. If I'm as bad as you say, then might I just not be the appropriate vessel for Christ to prove that it was never about the man in the pulpit? We should boast in our weakness when we feel our feebleness. That's the very platform upon which Christ displays his strength. It's by the word and by the spirit of God. Remember Jeremiah chapter nine. The prophet says this, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches. Whatever you think you can boast about, whatever you're inclined to rely upon, I'm wise enough, I'm strong enough, I'm rich enough, stop it. because relying on those things will lead to collapse and emptiness. Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, says the Lord. Brothers and sisters, our encouragement lies in the fact that God is our God. And while God is our God, then we have all that we need in terms of heavenly resource to do everything that God calls us to do while here upon earth. And we don't need to be afraid. And we don't need to trim our sails. And we don't need to diminish our expectations. We are like William Carey, to attempt great things and expect great things. And I think I'm right in saying that's the necessary order. Because too often, Christians and churches say, once we've got enough people, and once we've got enough space, and once we've got enough gifts, and once we've got enough elders and deacons, and once we've got enough money, and once we've got enough time, watch us go. Nothing ever happens in a church that says that. Because you've never got enough. You're always waiting and watching and looking for something more. It's like the person who says to me, just wait until the circumstances are right and then watch me go. You'll see what I can do once everything's proper. I know to expect nothing of that person, because nothing will ever be enough for them to actually get up and get going. Brothers and sisters, we need to use what we've got while we've got it. It's one of the things that at least perhaps is implied by what our Lord says in Mark chapter four. Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you, and to you who hear, more will be given. Our faith grows weak because it's not exercised. We don't act within our own limitations, we push to the extent of God's holy promise. We believe what God has said and we serve accordingly. God will grant you, according to the riches of his glory, Ephesians 3.16, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. What greater resources could you ask for? According to the riches of divine glory, you will be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. Do you need anything else? If we pray such prayers, that according to the riches of divine glory, infinitude doesn't begin to describe that, does it? What more could you wish for? What greater promise could you receive? What higher and sweeter and brighter resources could you plead for? In Colossians 1 and verse 29, Paul says it this way very simply. When he's talking about his pastoral labor, to this end I also work, striving according to his working which works in me mightily. This is the man who said, who's sufficient for these things? Not in myself, but Christ is sufficient to make me sufficient for the work that God has given me to do. And brothers and sisters, that's true for every Christian in this place. God can supply more than any one of us needs to do everything that God has called us to be and to do. Now, we're not saying then that we need to try and be something that God hasn't made us. We ought to think of ourselves soberly and make a sober self-assessment. But I don't think sobriety in self-assessment is the problem that most of us have. I think if some of us made a more sober self-assessment we'd try and do a great deal more than we're doing at the moment. Our problem is fearfulness. Our problem is we do not believe what God has said and therefore we're not acting in accordance with his promises. Brothers and sisters, God has given us himself in the person of his son and in the presence of his spirit to equip and to enable us for every duty to which we are individually and congregationally called. And what's the excuse that we make? Ah, but that's you. You do this, you do that. Or, well, you've been put together like that, or he's been, or she. Brothers and sisters, what is that to you? What if the Lord were to bless Pastor Clark with a thousand converts over the next year? What if he were to expand his gifts and graces so that he becomes the great gospel preacher of this generation? What should I do? I'm never having that punk down to preach again. Who does he think he is? I can rejoice in that, can't I? That the Lord has provided him with doing those things. And what if someone says, why can't you be more like Ryan Clark? I'm not saying that happens a lot, brother, but you know. I'm not Ryan Clark. I'm not you and you're not me. But you're called to be everything that God has made you in accordance with the heavenly resources that God has provided for you. And that's your encouragement. But don't be the man or the woman who, when Christ returns, says, yeah, well, I wasn't sure, so I wrapped it all up in this handkerchief and buried it somewhere. I'd want to go so far as to say, stretch as far as you can, run as hard as you are able, push to and beyond the limits of what you think you can do. and I will answer for it if God fails to sustain and support you, because he will not abandon us in any righteous cause. We have new resources individually and congregationally. None of us needs to say, oh, it's only me, I'm just a man, I'm just a woman, I'm just this kind of Christian. Brothers and sisters, you're everything that you ought to be, by God's design and you have everything that you actually need in order to do everything to which you're called for the glory of God. We have new resources. And in the face of everything else, that's wonderful news because the old things have gone. I'm not relying on my old strength and wisdom and riches. The new has come and it keeps on coming. Then we have new pleasures. And these two sustain us because I am no longer trying to live out of the filthy cisterns of this world. Not the things that are passing, not the things that are vile, not the things that are ugly, not the things that by indulgence drag me down, but as Christians, my friends, we have new delights, things that are virtuous and things that are clean. This is what James says in chapter four and verse four. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Is it any wonder that we are so often feeble when basically we're still playing in the graveyard? If you're alive in Jesus Christ, you've left that behind. You're like Lazarus. Take the grave clothes off him. The man lives. Come out of the grave, Lazarus, and get rid of the things that belong to the grave. Why is it then that we are so surprised that while we're still dabbling in the corpse trade, we end up feeling sick? Friendship with the world is enmity with God. If you go to the places you used to go, if you hang with the people with whom you used to hang, if you watch the stuff you used to watch, if you read the stuff you used to read, if you think the way you used to think, you are going to be spiritually enfeebled. And you're going to feel guilty, because you're a Christian now. And you're going to feel shame, because you're a Christian now. And you're going to feel weak, because you're a Christian now. Your pleasures are different, they're virtuous, they're pleasant, they're joyful. Think of Hebrews chapter 11, that beautiful example of Moses. He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. That's a choice, brothers and sisters. I will not indulge that any longer. I will choose Christ over the world, esteeming even the reproach of Christ, greater riches and the treasures in Egypt. It is better to suffer with him than to be applauded by this world because we're looking to the reward. That's a fundamental recalibration isn't it? not seeking now the stuff of this life, but desiring that which is pleasing to God. And what is pleasing to God? Here's Philippians in chapter four, which is a beautiful catalog that all of us might do well to memorize and then to use for assessment. Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, truth in a world of lies, whatever things are true, Whatever things are noble, not petty and small and vile. Whatever things are just, righteous and good. not twisted and contorted. Whatever things are pure, clean rather than dirty. Whatever things are lovely, delightful to the soul because they are a reflection of God's own character. Whatever things are of good report, the things that God says are good, the things which mature saints approve. If there's anything virtuous, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Is that what we're doing? Are we seeking heavenly pleasures? Are our treasures and our hearts both locked in in the same place? If we're Christians, there are blessings and delights that this world does not know that will sustain us in our spiritual life. And when you're criticized, when you're complained against, and when you're battered, when you're wearied, when you're bruised, and when you feel like you're just sick of this fallen world in all its ugliness. There's a heavenly breeze. There's an eye of faith that looks to where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Where there are what? Pleasures forevermore. My friends, men at the stake, your brothers and sisters now and in days past who are in prison cells, they are sustained by pleasures that their persecutors, that their murderers, that their guards cannot understand. Living with joy in their hearts and even smiles on their faces, because they are breathing heaven's air even while suffering here upon earth. Don't we know that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glories that are going to be revealed in us? Well those are the pleasures of heaven that we've begun to taste upon earth. The gatherings of the saints A little foretaste of heaven. Isn't it delightful when brothers dwell together in peace and unity? Isn't it a joy to be able to come to church with eager expectation? I'm going to be with God's people. They're my people, the excellent of the earth in whom is all my delight. I hope you look forward to it because heaven is going to be this and then song. I'll be better, thank God. So will you, praise the Lord. But it's all this and so, so much more. And this is what keeps our eyes fixed on what lies ahead. New resources, new pleasures and new motives. What drives you and what draws you? See, it would be a tragedy, wouldn't it, if I were to stand up here over the course of these sermons and do a bit of whip and club shepherding, rather than rod and staff, and rage and roar and rant and stamp and thump, and somehow, just somehow, get a few of you lazy so-and-sos to do a little bit more for just a little bit longer. How long would that last? If that were my disposition toward you, and if that were your response to me, You know what happens when you work because someone's watching in this world, don't you? You work as hard or as long as you need to while their eyes upon you, and then, oh, at least they're not there anymore. Reminds me of the famous work assessment that was once written for someone. Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap. But isn't that the way the world works? We don't work like that. We've got new motives. We've got new expectations. We don't live in this world or we shouldn't because of the fear of man. You afraid of people? That's my inclination. To fear their frowns and to want their applause. Every faithful pastor needs to put to death the fear of man every time he stands in a pulpit. It would be easy, wouldn't it, for me to say things that you would like to hear. Easy to trim some of the things that we've been talking about so that some of you don't feel provoked or offended or stirred or rebuked. But if I'm subject to the fear of man, how can I serve you? Husbands, if you're afraid of your wives, how can you love them? Wives, if you're afraid of your husbands, how can you submit to them? if you're afraid of one another, if you only do what you do because someone's watching, if you're crippled by a sense of some kind of worldly expectation, and worldly expectations can cripple churches as well. This is the way things must be done. Who says? If God says, no question. But not just because someone thinks that it is so. We're not governed by the fear of man. Their scowls don't mean so much to us. Who cares if my neighbor hates me? It grieves me that it's so. In that sense, I care. It distresses me that my family don't embrace Jesus Christ if they don't. But if I'm being faithful to him, what does their frown matter? I think it was one of the church fathers who said, was it Irenaeus? Don't quote me on Irenaeus, but I think I'm right on the quote itself. That if you realized how quickly you would be forgotten by men when you die, you would worry a great deal less what they think of you while you live. I'm really not that important, and neither are you. It doesn't matter what the world thinks of us. They'll forget us when we die. So what does it matter why they think of us this way or that way while we live? And there's smiles. I'm not trying to please men. That's what the Apostle Paul said. Do I now try and please men? We're God's servants. It's liberating to be motivated not by the fear of man, but by the father's love, and not a carnal desire for approval. You boys and girls, do you think daddy loves you because you're his children, or do you think daddy loves you because you do enough good things? I hope you're gonna say daddy loves me because I'm his son, I'm his daughter. And that's why I want to honor and obey my father. I am not competing for my father's love. He loves me. I know because he's told me and he's shown me. And therefore I want to do what pleases him. And if you had a father who wasn't like that, then measure him by the divine standard and realise that God was not like your sinful dad. If you had a great father then remember still that he wasn't as great as God is as a father and that your father has loved you and he's given his own son for you to make you his son and that having brought you into his family there is no sweeter or higher motive that will now energise and sustain us than that of wanting to glorify our Father who is in heaven. There's nothing more Christ-like than that, is there? What have you come to do, Jesus of Nazareth? I've come to do my Father's will. What is your great goal? That I might glorify Him who sent me. Isn't that what should now motivate us? Matthew chapter 10, verse 28. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, that's true and I need to take account of that. Or Galatians chapter one and verse 10. Do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Or 1 Thessalonians chapter two and verse four. We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. My friends, we're in the family of God now for Christians. God has loved us, God is loving us, and our God will never cease to love us. We don't work so that God will love us. We work because God has loved us. We're like the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road. who turned upside down. If any man ever had reason to say, old things have gone for good, and look, all things have become new. It's the man who once saw Jesus Christ according to the flesh, but then saw him revealed in his glory on the Damascus road. And what was Paul's question? The implied answer to which characterized his whole life from that point on. having seen the glory of the risen and saving Jesus. Lord, what do you want me to do? And that's not carnal fear, that's holy fear. That's the language of a man whose eyes have seen the glory of God. I am for him. And so are you. And so am I, not speaking as Paul. What do you want me to do? That's my motive, to please him, to show the love that I have for him who loved me and gave himself for me. That, my friends, is liberating. It's not what anybody else thinks. It's what God wants and it's what God knows. And that's what governs me from this point on. And then new goals, new goals. They still ask, don't they, what do you want to be when you grow up? Not sure who, I think I know who's the oldest person. I could still ask that of the oldest Christians here this morning. What do you want to be when you grow up? And I hope the answer would be more like Jesus Christ. That's what I want to be by the end of today. what I want to be by the end of this week, what I want to be by the end of the month and the year, what I want to be by the end of this life. We're no longer governed by worldly expectations. Why? Because we know that this isn't everything and this isn't lasting. 1 John 2 and verse 16. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. So why would I build my castles on the world's sand? Why would I invest only in things that will pass away? Why would I not use the things that are with a view to the things that will be? Why would I live as if this world is everything when there is holiness and there is heaven ahead? What is it that so often chokes these holy desires and aspirations? There are some who are sown among thorns. These are the ones who hear the word. That's all of us today. Some even responding to it. But the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Even as Christians, we can feel the choking influences. It's love for this world that will snuff out the prospect of life in some of your souls, unless you hear what God has to say. We are not to be governed by this world and the things of it. What has God intended us for? the best and the brightest of all possible prospects. Romans 8 and verse 28, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, for whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that Christ might be the firstborn among many brothers. Is that your highest aspiration? that you might be more like Jesus Christ. This is what Paul had in mind when he said that he wanted to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means he might attain to the resurrection from the dead. Do you judge of your life in this world in the light of the coming resurrection? That when I'm called to account, when I stand before the judge of the living and the dead. That's the moment that matters. The glory that follows is what I should calculate. Paul said, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What are you running for? A little more ease? A little more comfort? A little better health? a little longer life. I press toward the prize, the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That Christ who will, Philippians 3.21, transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he's able even to subdue all things to himself. Please ask yourself now this question. What will the things that you do and pursue matter in that day? If you can say that this will contribute to the glory of God, now and eternally, that this is one of the things by which God will conform me to the image of his son, that this is something by which God, having purposed these good works for me, that I should walk in them. I will shine like a star in the firmament. Then it's worth doing. But don't drop your gaze. Don't live for a passing world and its passing pleasures. Brothers and sisters, we have new resources. Everything you need. that you may ultimately be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and by degrees made more like him now. New pleasures, to buoy up your soul and to sustain your spirit on this pilgrim way. The brighter glories gleam afar to nerve our faint endeavour and so to watch, to work, to war and then with him forever. New motives, I want to please God in heaven. I want my father to be pleased with me. I know he loves me, but I want to serve him and I'm not afraid of what other people think. And new goals. I've lifted my eyes. to those bright glories that gleam afar, to the highest, sweetest, most enduring pleasures and treasures that heaven itself can offer, because that is where Jesus Christ is. Christians, you see, we don't stagnate. We don't drift. We don't tread water. We're swimmers. We're strivers, not by our own strength, but through Jesus Christ. Why do I know this? I know this because the Apostles Paul says that if anybody is in Jesus Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Brothers and sisters, look at this. Everything has become new. You and I are men and women who are dead to sin. When it comes calling, we send it back. We are alive to God in Jesus Christ. And that ought to be increasingly evident in every word you speak, in every relationship you sustain, in every affection that stirs your spirit, in every deed that you carry out in this world. It's not easy. That's why we're preaching these things. It is real. and that's why we're preaching these things. Do you remember Augustine? Not personally, but the story we told a few weeks ago. Walking down the street in a dodgy part of town, and a lady with whom he'd committed sin before he was a Christian sidled up to him, recognising him in the street, thinking perhaps he'd returned to his old haunts and his old ways. Augustine, It is I. And that man, a new creation in Jesus Christ, looked at that woman still dead in her trespasses and sins and said with compassion and with conviction, ah yes, but it is not I, Augustine. I am a new man in Christ Jesus. And that's the testimony of every Christian here. Wherever you go, whatever you do, when the temptations and the assaults come in, it is not I that was. I am in Christ Jesus. That's not self-determination. That's not turning over a new leaf. That's not outward reformation. That's a radical change of heart in Jesus Christ. That's the root. And if you want this life, you must come to Jesus Christ that you may have it. And you may come to Jesus Christ that you will have it. This is not held out to good people who want to be better. This is the good news for sinners who cannot help themselves. If you want these new resources, these new pleasures, these new motives and these new goals, then you need a new life. and there's only one who can give it to you. It is God by his Christ through his spirit. It's a new life. It's a change of heart. It's a new man in Christ. Do you have it? I can tell because you'll be living it. How strange is the course that a Christian must steer how perplexed is the path he must tread. The hope of his happiness rises from fear and his life he receives from the dead. His fairest pretensions must wholly be waived and his best resolutions be crossed, nor can he expect to be perfectly saved till he finds himself utterly lost. When all this is done and his heart is assured, of the total remission of sins, when his pardon is signed and his peace is procured, from that moment his conflict begins. My friends, it's a good fight, worth fighting. And at the end of it, the crown, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to you, and not to you only. but the all who have lived and served and died looking for and longing for his appearing. Amen.