Walking in the Newness of Life

As you heard, tomorrow we are having a baptism. Mrs. McEwen didn't know it, but it works with what I wanted to begin with today. I want to talk a little bit about baptism. Just to start us out, I'll give you the title of my sermon. The title is, Walking in the Newness of Life. Baptism, I think we know, is much more than a ceremony. Maybe that's how we think of it, but it's much more than that. It's more than a physical representation of death, our death, and burial and resurrection. That symbolism is very important. It's crucial for us to understand. But baptism itself is more than mere ritual. As we should well know in Acts 2.38, Peter said that baptism in the name of Jesus Christ is a required condition for forgiveness, or for the remission of sins, is what most of our translations probably say in Acts 2.38. God holds each person guilty of every sin he or she has ever committed until those sins are blotted out through Jesus Christ's blood.

And at baptism, upon believing and accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and repenting of our sins, we reveal to God and to others publicly that we believe that and accept it. We accept Christ's blood for the remission of our sins.

At baptism, then, at that moment, that repentant person is immersed completely into the water. If you've watched the baptism back here, you may have noticed, even last time when we had the baptism, Dr. Ward made sure Mr. Stewart and I were standing there to make sure the legs and feet go underwater. It's very important that the whole body go underwater. That represents the death of the old man in the watery grave of baptism. So we must be entirely immersed, completely in the water. That represents that all our sins are forgiven. At that moment, in fact, we are forgiven. We die, our old life dies, represents our forgiveness. We stand up a new person before God. We stand up clean. And that's one of God's great gifts to us, his gift of forgiveness of all those sins. Now, once a person has been baptized here, she is ready to receive the Holy Spirit. At that time, a minister of God lays his hands upon that person and prays for the Father to place his second gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, into that person. And that Holy Spirit is the very essence and power of God. And it now exists in that newly forgiven person. Once you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have Christ in you. We were told in Colossians 1, 27, You abide in Christ and he abides in you. You are now in the process of becoming a new man, a new person. You also become a member of the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, 13 tells us, We are all baptized into one body, the body of Christ. And so with Christ's spirit in us, we also become members of the body of Christ or of God's church, I should say. And again, you have a new life in you.

With baptism then and the receiving of God's Spirit, we begin to walk in the newness of life, and to take ourselves with God's help upon a path we have never experienced before. We have never experienced this path before. It's quite unlike anything we've experienced because this path is a path of spiritual growth, and it's a path that leads us to eternal life. Until God called us and we accepted His calling and began listening and hearing with His help, we didn't even know that path existed. But because of God's blessing, His grace, His mercy, and kindness, we know that. And that's why many of us are, all of us I'm sure, here today. Spiritual growth, becoming less sinful and more righteous, as we heard in Dr. Ward's sermon this morning, is something we must strive for every day until our physical lives are over, whenever that may be. But how do we maintain this new life in us? That's really what I want to focus on today. How do we maintain this new life in us? How do we walk in this newness of life? Now, those are really big questions, if you think about it. They're huge. We spend the rest of our lives answering that question and finding out. But those are part of the questions and part of the answers we learn about during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Because the Feast of Unleavened Bread offers us, seemingly, a simple approach, basically, but an approach we have to keep practicing our whole life. That is, we have to practice putting sin out and letting in, putting into us the unleavened bread of God's righteousness, of Christ in us, living that new life. So this afternoon, as we draw near the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread for this year, just a few hours away, I would like to share some vital keys to walking in the newness of life, of a life of faith towards God. Now, applying these keys in our lives will not be easy. Jesus Christ talked about a path we take that is narrow-gated, straight, and difficult. So what I'm hoping to do for all of us today is to break that down into a few keys. There are many other keys. I could probably find you a list of 13 if I wanted to. But again, some of you put upon me to keep you awake, so I'll keep it down to just a few keys today. And you will stay awake.

If the thunderstorm lets me talk, we'll see what happens. So let's begin with key number one. Key number one. Very basic principle here, but foundational to everything we do. Key number one is accept God in His word as the final authority in our lives. Everything else depends on this. Accept God in His word as the final authority in our lives. We keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as well as God's Weekly Sabbath, other feasts and holy days. Why? Well, because we believe in the authority of Scripture. The Bible is the Word of God, so we choose to submit to God's instruction as revealed in His word. Jesus Christ established the authority of Scriptures by living its every word. Remember when Christ battled Satan's temptations. Temptations in which Satan tried to coerce him into disobeying God. Jesus said then, Matthew 4-4, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, and I think you know the rest of it, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Matthew 4-4. Jesus referred to Scripture as powerful and authoritative, too. Let's look at John 7.38. Let's look at the brief Scripture here, John 7.38.

John 7.38, Scripture is powerful and authoritative. Jesus said, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. It's a metaphor to express to us just how powerful God's Spirit is.

Have you ever tried to walk upstream against a rather deep current, whether it's a creek or a creek we have around here, or a river? It's very hard to do. And if you go down to Houston, where they've had flooding recently, I think you'll see the evidence of what a current of water can do.

It's a metaphor of just how powerful God's Word is. Also, John 17.17, you jot this one down. Later, in a prayer to the Father, his Father Christ, prayed, Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth. It's one of the scriptures we've taught our children here at Sabbath School. Later, that same day, ironically, Pontius Pilate would ask Jesus, What is truth? And it's a question people still wonder. And it isn't an amazing thing if we stop and think about that. We know that answer.

We know it. We're called upon by God to live by it. Now, the apostles accepted the authority of Scripture and lived accordingly. Paul exhorted Timothy in a very familiar Scripture. He exalted Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.16.17 to do good works. These are the words. 2 Timothy 3.16, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Why? That the man of God, woman of God, may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We must be like Paul and other apostles who never questioned the authority of Scripture, if we're going to uphold this first key. The apostles were young, we might argue, in the newness of life, in their own right back in that time, the early days, months of the Church. They were new in the newness of life, this new life we live, yet were brought several times before the Sanhedrin.

How would you like to be baptized and receive God's Spirit, and within a short amount of time, be standing for a group of people that really want to kill you? They did well. We should remember the answer that the apostles told the Jewish leaders in Acts 5.39. In Acts 5.39, speaking of the authority of Scripture, the authority of God's Word, in Acts 5, I think I said 29, I should have said Acts 5.29, yes, in Acts 5.29, in response to the Sanhedrin, to these Jewish leaders, who were telling them to quit preaching in the Word of this man, Jesus, Acts 5.29, but Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.

At that point, as always, the apostles' faith in God and in His authority did not waver. And it's interesting to note that this really wasn't the first time they've given these Jewish leaders this answer. It's interesting to note it's very similar to response Peter and John gave to the Sanhedrin. Apparently, some time later, I couldn't figure out if it was days or weeks earlier, but let's look in Acts 4.18.

Again, at this earlier occasion, Peter and John had been preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. In Acts 4.18-20, the Sanhedrin called them in, and so they, the Sanhedrin, called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

Verse 20, You judge, for they said, For we cannot but speak, or we cannot today, we say, we cannot help but speak the things which we have seen and heard. These men of God believed and trusted absolutely in the authority of God, in the authority of His Scripture. And I find, and we should all find, their example is very inspiring.

It should inspire us to similar acts, if called upon to make a defense, of why do we do what we do. Perhaps some of our young people in school, or if you go on to college, you're challenged about why do you need this day off. Will you be able to express your belief that you do this because you believe what God says in His Bible? It's not a popular thing to do. God's Word is truth, and as Jesus Christ Himself testifies in John 10.35, you can just jot that down, John 10.35, He said Scripture cannot be broken.

That's what Jesus said. Scripture cannot be broken. Now, there are times when we obey God's instructions, and frankly, we may not always grasp why God has us do what He commands us to do, such as removing leaven from our homes and eating unleavened bread for seven days. When I was very early in the church, hadn't been baptized yet, I had never heard of any of these holy days.

I didn't even know what unleavened meant. The idea of putting the bread out of the house, I didn't understand why. I really didn't. But guess what I did? Probably like some of you. You did it, right? You didn't quite understand why, but God's Word said to do it, and you believed in God, and God only does what's best and good for us, so I'll do it.

What happened through time? As we grew in knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, we came to understand. Now, I look forward to these days, because I know in myself that I need this reminder, this annual reminder of what I should be doing with sin and what I should be doing with the Word of God and His Holy Spirit. We must trust God, study His Word carefully, then, while believing and obeying His commandments. That's that faith, and then understanding will eventually come to us.

And so, to grow in the newness of life, we must accept the authority of Scripture and strive to live according to God's instruction. That's key number one. And that brings us to the next key in walking in the newness of Christ.

Key number two is, keep God's commandments. Keep God's commandments. Now, I thought about this key, and I thought, well, everybody knows to keep God's commandments. It's an obvious thing we should do, right? Not always. We didn't always think like that. It may seem like an obvious thing to do, and I really hope it is. But God has called us out of a society that increasingly ignores those commandments, or simply does not know about them.

And, frankly, they couldn't care less about God's commandments. The challenge I worry about is that perhaps society's attitudes and nonchalance about the commandments and how vitally important they are to us will start rubbing off on us and start influencing us in how we look at the commandments. Could we slip and start looking at them as a little more like, well, it's a strong, very strongly worded suggestion. I hope that's not what we would do with God's commandments.

That would be a really bad thing for us to do. Traditional Christianity generally contends and argues that the Ten Commandments have been done away with. My relatives believe that. That the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross along with Jesus Christ.

So upon Christ's resurrection, they claim, and under the New Covenant, people no longer need to keep them. They're nice. They're a good idea. They're good parameters to work with. But that's not what Scripture says. That authority. That's not what Jesus Christ said. Let's read some vitally important scriptures here. Let's look at Matthew 19, verse 16. Matthew 19, 16.

Here's how important are these commandments. Matthew 19, 16 breaks into the instant where a young man asked his good teacher, Jesus, a question. Matthew 19, 16.

We love students that ask great questions. Why do you call me good? There is no one that is good but one that is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. In verse 18, he said to him, which ones? Jesus said, you shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Christ's response to the man's question is very specific.

If you want to have eternal life, he says, keep the commandments. I don't know if many people hear that. If you want to have eternal life, there is something very specific to be doing. And then, of course, Christ lists five of the Ten Commandments we see here. And he also quotes from Leviticus 19, 18. And that is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In Matthew 22, he is going to refer to that as the second great commandment. Let's turn to Matthew 22, 35. Let's turn there to Matthew 22, 35. Again, referring to the importance of keeping God's commandments. Matthew 22, 35. Here we read... A different person comes and asks a question. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question.

This person is testing him, trying to put him in a bad spot. A lawyer asked him a question, testing him, and saying, Teacher, verse 36, which is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now, Jesus was summarizing the Ten Commandments that underpin all Scripture. He did not introduce new commandments about loving God and neighbor, and that we get to define for ourselves what love means. That's what we might hear in traditional Christianity.

But many people do believe just that. They believe that Jesus Christ came and created a gentler and kinder set of commandments. We just need to love one another. And that's where a lot of people become confused, just as we are confused and didn't understand until God began to work with us. And in time, everyone will come to understand. They'll be rid of the confusion. The blinders will be taken off, and they'll all come to understand.

Jesus did not come to remove all those old ancient thou shalt nots. There's only one set of commandments, and they're evident in the Old and New Testaments. But Jesus did expand their meaning. He did do that. He taught the spiritual application of God's law that complements their more literal meaning. For example, Christ expanded the meaning of thou shalt not murder. We probably could feel pretty good thinking, well, I've never killed anybody. I haven't. That's my knowledge.

I've never shot anybody with a gun. I've never stabbed them. I've never shoved them over a cliff. So, hey, I'm good. You don't have to worry about that commandment. But then, as you know, Christ expanded the meaning of that. To tell us, wait a minute, not so quick, if you have hatred in your heart, if you poke fun at other people, if you denigrate, degrade people out of meanness and spite, that's hate. You're murdering them. That is not of God. That's not love. So now, I and all of us, we have much to keep working on. We have to practice the commandments as Christ instructs us and set the example.

So we must allow ourselves to be confused about whether we are to keep the commandments or not. Jesus kept the commandments, so why wouldn't we? Christ did keep the commandments. Let's look at John 14.15. Part of this course is what I'm doing. I'm hoping I can give you some ammunition. Especially young people, or maybe if you have a coworker that's challenging you, as to why do you keep those old laws?

Well, perhaps what you're learning today could be something you could turn to and think about and have ready to have a ready answer. Jesus kept the commandments. John 14.15. He himself said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And another person will say, aha! See? He has a different set of commandments. My commandments, he calls him. Not so. Let's look at John 15.10. Probably close to being across the page from where you were at.

John 15.10. Let's read that. Again, Christ speaks, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. That's where we want to be. Just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. Christ kept his Father's commandments. What commandments were those? The Ten Commandments. Not a new set. He said for humanity the example of how to live in obedience to those wonderful laws of God. Christ expects us to keep the commandments, too. Let's turn to 1 John and read some more here. 1 John, towards the back of your Bibles.

I'm wisely keeping your fingers moving, making you move and stay awake. Yes, aren't I? You all look pretty good so far. 1 John, 1 John. And I'd like to begin in 1 John 2, 3-4.

Now by this we know that we know Him, Him meaning Jesus Christ, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. Those are pretty tough words. Again, if we don't keep the commandments, we cannot even claim to know who Jesus Christ is. Let's also read 1 John 3, 22, perhaps a page over. 1 John 3, 22. How important is it that we keep the commandments?

Well, we read 1 John 3, 22. In whatever we ask, we receive from Him. Why? Because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. We wouldn't know what to do if we didn't keep these commandments in order to please God. And let's also turn, one more time here, please, 1 John 5, 2-3. 1 John 5, 2-3. Here we read, By this we know that we love the children of God. How do we love humanity? How do we love one another? We know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. They only seem hard when we haven't been doing it. We're just learning. And we have something called our carnal human nature that hates God and hates anything about God. And that's what makes it difficult. But as we practice God's way of life and then we get the extra help of His Holy Spirit, it becomes much easier. One more. Revelation 14.12. You thought I was done here.

Revelation 14.12. We heard something about saints this morning. Revelation 14.12 says, Here is the patient of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God in the faith of Jesus. The elect of God, His saints, is called out once. Those in whom God's Holy Spirit dwells. They keep His commandments. This scripture, then, takes us back to where we started with Christ's own statement in Matthew 19.17. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. That's who's going to enter the kingdom.

Those who keep the commandments. It's very important that we understand this. And if your parents, I'm a parent, most of us are parents, or grandparents, but if we're parents and we still have children at home especially, we really must be diligent to be teaching these commandments to our children. You probably know Deuteronomy 6.7 tells us to teach the commandments diligently to your children.

And talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. It begs the question, when don't we talk about the commandments? Well, never. You should always... Not that you go there and just keep pushing it, pushing it, but when there's the right time and it's unnatural and you don't have to say, well, you know, commandment number four says, you don't have to do it like that.

I couldn't do it that way. We just talk generally, naturally. This is what God wants us to do, Joey. This is, you know, you're not supposed to kick your sister. That's really not loving her. You don't want to... That's a sign of hatred. You don't want to be that way. We need to be talking about these things.

But it's really important that our children also know what the commandments are. You know, do your kids know the commandments? Can they list them in order? Well, maybe they did a few years ago. Can they still? I might ask them. And more importantly, can they explain what they mean in their own age-appropriate way? I've done a lot of memorizing of many things growing up. I can recite many things.

Some things in Old English and Latin. But it doesn't mean I understand it. And I know what it means to live by it. That's part of what we need to be teaching our children in this. And as I've grown older and I've seen my children grow and look at my own life, I recognize that good grades, music lessons, athletic ability, proper posture, saying, yes, ma'am, no, sir, that's a southern thing. My folks up north don't like that. I think it's too formal, but we say it anyway.

Saying yes, sir, no, sir, please, and thank you. Serving others, all these things are very important for our children's well-being. But what about their eternal well-being? I think that's very important for us to think about. What about their eternal well-being? Do we diligently teach our children's God's way of life as the really right and normal way to live? What God says in the Bible, the Scriptures, and obeying Him, that's normal. What you're seeing out there on the playground, in the classroom, that's not normal.

And we need to help our children understand that. And sometimes even be a little firm with them when they want to do what, according to God's mind, and what we believe and understand, is quite abnormal. You know, whether it's tattooing or smoking. In fact, I just saw an article the other day that more teenagers vape now than smoke. Do you all know what vaping is? Mm-hmm. It's a new word. Vaping are those little electric cigarettes.

And I guess they could be useful for people learning how to quit smoking. But what teenagers are doing, they're getting liquid nicotine, and they're also just getting liquid flavors, like grape, or cinnamon, or coke. And it vaporizes and goes straight into their lungs. There's an article that came out that said, it's such a new phenomenon, studies are just still coming out. What they're discovering so far is even vaping, some of those chemicals in that liquid, they're vaping.

They can cause lower fertility in men. They can increase disease of the throat lining, the nasal lining. They also affect the genes in lowering our immunity. And so we're opening ourselves up to more disease. I mention it because I hope, you know, we remind our kids about that, too, that, yeah, it seems safer. They're not smoking cigarettes. But there are other dangers there. And I know years ago there was a saying, what would Jesus do?

It's a cliché, and I don't know. But I have to ask myself, would Jesus vape? Yeah, I don't think so either. But there's many things out there. Body piercing. So other things. That's normal out there. But we need to help our children, and we need to remind ourselves that our definition of normal, even what love means, normal love and loving in the right way, it has to depend on what's in the Scripture.

What does it fit? How does it fit in there? And where we don't understand, where it's confusing, believe me, there's a lot of things as parents that come to us, and we really don't know the answer. Talk with people you trust. Talk to the ministry. Talk to people. Talk to your parents that have some great wisdom and experience. Ask. Ask and try to come up with an appropriate answer based on the Word of God. And so as parents, back to my point, as parents here, we really do have a precious opportunity not only to teach our children what God's commandments are, but to live by them.

And as they grow older, they watch us more carefully. And they may even catch us slipping up. But you know, that's okay. Tell them, whoops, yep, dad shouldn't have done that. Thank you. There should be no problem with us being able to do that. As long as our kids do it, and we do it to our children in a very respectful and loving way. And I just imagine what a wonderful picture it is. In essence, when we walk hand in hand with our children, it's the little kids teaching them the way of God. And then as they get older, and they start towering over us a little bit, to stand with them shoulder to shoulder as they keep the commandments in God.

And then what we really pray and hope, don't we, as parents, that one day they'll teach God's commandments to their children. And it just keeps going on and on. So we must teach the commandments. We must walk in the newness of life, that means keeping God's commandments. Christ lived them, taught them, and it means we really should help our children understand what they mean.

They help us know what we need to repent of. And that brings us to key number three. Key number three. Allow Christ to help us conquer sin.

Key number three. Allow Christ to help us conquer sin. Now our commitment to God at baptism is likened to burying. I don't know where that dropping the ING is coming from. I'm going to get in trouble for doing that. Our commitment to God at baptism is likened to burying our old, sinful self in a grave. And then we rise up above the water to a new life. Let's read something about that in Romans 6.4. In Romans 6.4.

Actually, let's begin Romans 6.3. Romans 6.3.

Romans 6.3. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Symbolically, we're putting to death ourselves, putting to death that old man through the symbols of baptism. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that watery grave. We were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we should also walk in newness of life. We come out of that water of baptism as something new. We're not the person we used to be. We may feel the same. We may even think the same, except we're wetter. Okay, we're wet. That's true. But we really...we don't...I've never known anyone to be baptized and feel like they've been zotted with a bolt of electricity. That's really not it. And when we received the Holy Spirit, that didn't happen to me. I don't know. I don't think that's what happens. It's not quite like that. But what we have when we stand up out of the water, we have facing before us, as far as we can see, a newness of life. And that newness of life, a new way to live, is because made possible by the love of God. We need to remember our Father willingly gave up his Son. And Jesus Christ willingly suffered and shed his blood so that we might be forgiven of all our sins and have that penalty for our sin, death, removed. Christ died so all might receive God's gift of eternal life and have a right relationship with our Father, with him, with others in the body of Christ, his Church. Yet even after laying on of hands by God's minister, and we have received in us God's Holy Spirit, we still sin. We will still sin. Our old carnal ways are what Paul calls the old man. They will continue to strive to resurface. Sometimes in your life you may feel like the old man is just struggling to get back on top of that water and push you out of the way and take control of our lives, especially if we have old habitual sins we're struggling with. The old man that we put under the water and die to will try to come back up and rule over us again.

Why is that? Let's look at Romans 8-7-9, a page over or so. Romans 8-7-9.

Why must we continue the struggle against sin? Romans 8-7, because the answer is because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It hates God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God, but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. That's part of what we heard about this morning. In verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. If God's spirit dwells in us, we belong to God. We have a new life, and our new lives in Christ do require that we keep fighting against the sin, fighting against temptations.

And so what we pray will happen with the help of God, instead of readily giving in to temptations with little or no resistance, just easily doing what we've always done, God expects us to exert some real effort in fighting that old carnal impulse, those old carnal ways.

Ephesians 4.22. In Ephesians 4.22, we're to fight a little bit. We're to struggle. Imagine the old man in us is rising up, trying to put his hands around our spiritual throats and take us down.

In essence, he's trying to put the new life in us to death. We can't allow that. We must turn to God, seek his help, strengthen ourselves in God, and reverse that action to keep the old man down. Let's say Ephesians 4.22. Paul urges us to action. Ephesians 4.22. We need to put off concerning your former conduct. Put off your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. We have to put out sin, our old habits, but bring in something new that gives us life. Paul is describing here in many ways what symbolically we've been doing during this week of Unleavened Bread. It's really part of what's going on. We must live out our new lives in Christ by putting out, removing sin, leaven, from our lives, and partaking of God's righteousness in Jesus Christ in our lives. That's that Unleavened Bread. Christ living in us through God's Spirit gives us the spiritual strength we need to overcome those old attitudes, those rebellious ways, sinfulness. But we have to choose it. We have to choose to do what is right. We have to choose to obey God's commandments in any way we understand how. We must be persistent in doing so.

In Colossians 3, Paul elaborates a little bit more detail on this new life we're to live in Christ. Let's turn there, please. In Colossians 3, a few pages forward. In Colossians 3.1, there are many different places in the New Testament where we see this discussion of the way of sin and the way of life, the old way, the new way. I chose Colossians 3.1 because it's a little more succinct in one spot. Let's look at Colossians 3.1. If then you were raised with Christ, the idea of coming up out of the water in baptism, if you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, that old you died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. Our lives are God's now. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. With Christ living in us, then, by the God's Holy Spirit in us, we'll be resurrected to a new, glorious life when Christ returns. When He returns and establishes His kingdom on earth. And until that moment, or until we die, we must struggle against sin. Let's continue reading verse 5, and notice this list of attitudes and ways of our old sinful nature that we must be putting away. Verse 5, Paul continues, Therefore put to death your members, which are on the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now, you yourselves are to put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds. It's possible this past week, while we've been trying to put away sin, some of these old deeds popped up rather surprisingly. Just like when you find a package of crackers in your suit coat pocket.

You thought you had taken care of, and there it is. Verse 10, And put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Paul urges us to remember our commitment to live a new life. Put on this newness of life, this new man. Continuing in verse 10, You have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. That's what we do with the receiving of God's Spirit. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free. Whoever you are, it doesn't matter in many ways. What matters is Christ in you, for Christ is all and in all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longing, suffering. Don't you love the way those words sound? They sound so soothing and comforting, don't they? The other words of the old way just sound so strident and angry. These are calming, soothing, like God's Holy Spirit, his way of life. It's pure, good, and true. Verse 13, Varying with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has complied against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

We've got to forgive one another. We may not want to. We may want to nurse that and hold on to it, but we've got to let it go. And above all, verse 14, above all these things put on love, which is a bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body. Be thankful, he says. Be thankful. What there's an attitude that is not of our old way of life is that true heartfelt thankfulness and gratitude. So we must be grateful.

With Christ living in us, we have immediate access to the only source that ultimately allows us to transform our lives, to transform our attitudes, and thoughts, and behaviors, and the way they were to the way God wants them to be, and the way we truly want them to be. But we have to be patient with ourselves. Don't give ourselves excuses to stay in sin, as we heard this morning.

But we have to give ourselves time because change does take time. As much time as we have in this life, that's the time we're given. We need to do the best we can to be repenting of sin and putting on this new life. So we must persevere. We mustn't give up. And I know sometimes we want to give up. We're sick of it. We're sick of the struggle. We're sick of being our old, stupid selves.

Get over it and move on. Keep moving forward with God.

We do have greater success when we draw upon the strength of God. And when we do feed and nurture that new life in us. And that brings us to key number four.

Key number four.

Partake daily of the bread of life.

That should ring a bell. I thought we'd been doing this week. Sound familiar? Partake daily of the bread of life.

If you'd please be turning to John 6 with me. John 6. I want to read just a few of the scriptures we've read.

Most of us are at Passover service. Most of us read these one week ago tonight. That's something that's just one week ago tonight.

We read these scriptures during Passover course. And they do consider, they make us consider, I wonder if we can reconsider again that symbol of bread. Jesus Christ applied to Himself. Let's look at John 6.35.

John 6.35. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Let's also read verse 47.48. Right, same chapter. John 6.47. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Then verse 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, and I shall give for the life of the world. Signifying the sacrifice, Creator dying for his creation. Finally, verse 57.58.

As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats of this bread will live forever.

If we partake of Christ, we shall have eternity. Of course, God's Spirit in us gives us a promise of eternity.

Of course, there's much more of this in John 6. And through all this repetition and emphasis, Jesus Christ clearly identifies himself as the unleavened bread that will satisfy our deep spiritual hunger. Lavas came to God when he was calling us. We thought we were coming to God. He'd already come to us. But a lot of us were probably searching for something, weren't we? Lavas probably felt empty. Something isn't right. I don't know what it is. So some of us may be dabbled in different religions or different practices trying to find whatever it was.

And sooner or later, we finally listened and hearkened to God's calling and paid attention, and there it was. That's what we've been looking for. We didn't know it. God knows what we need.

Jesus Christ is the bread that will satisfy that spiritual hunger. He will fill the spiritual vacuum that exists in our own lives and in every human being. Everyone will come to understand this in time. And that should give us the strength to resist sin and to cope with the trials and challenges that we face in our everyday lives.

And just as physical bread is essential for our lives, physical lives, so is Jesus Christ essential for our eternal life. Eating daily of this bread of life is vital to us.

Now, a critical part of eating this bread, of course, I think we normally think of this, is to read, study, and meditate on the Scripture, God's Scripture.

You know, if we of us would choose to skip lunch or dinner every day, ask a teenager not to eat a meal, you're not going to get a good response.

And we do fast and atonement. We can go all day without eating. But expand that a little longer. Think of it. If you didn't eat for more than a day or several days, we've got to eat every day. We need that nutrition. To skip a meal, that's ridiculous. If we don't eat healthy, nutritious food regularly, our physical bodies weaken. Different systems in our bodies start breaking down, our kidneys start failing, and then our heart gets out of whack, and all these other systems just start breaking down. I'm thinking too fast to get the right word. But you know what I mean. Our bodies will sicken and grow weak. Two weak often times defend off disease, the attack of disease and infections. Even simple injuries become harder to heal when we don't eat well. We don't eat the right vitamins and minerals that God intends for us to have. My point is, the same thing can happen to us spiritually if we choose not to eat regularly of His Word, the Bible.

So let me ask a few questions here. I'm going to get personal. Some of you don't like that, maybe. But I love you and you love me. It's okay. When it comes to reading and studying the Bible, do we just grab a bite to eat on the run? You know what that's like. Just grab something and go out the door. Is that how we treat God's Word? Do we skip meals, spiritually speaking, so we can do something more important, something more pressing? That's a tough question, because what can be more important than eating regularly of God's Word? Nothing should be more important to us than being right with God. We can choose times appropriately. We can take care of our physical needs, job, kids, school, whatever. Still, make sure we have time for God. And if we're not careful, we may discover that we're hardly eating of God's Word during the week. I've caught myself. Times passed.

Which of us would consider eating only once a week? Could you imagine having one meal on Friday night, and that's it?

Some of us wouldn't be here come next Friday night, would we? We wouldn't! And yet, sadly, some of us may be tempted, or may actually practice it. I hope not! Some of us may be eating only the prepared meals we receive on the Sabbath, in the form of sermons or sermonettes. Is that really enough food to feed us, spiritually speaking, for the entire week? It's not enough. It's not enough. It's not enough for a spiritual survival. We've got to do more to eat of the bread of life. That means, yes, we do have to read God's Word and study. Carve out a time in your life where you can do that. Get up early if that's what it takes.

Do what it takes. It's very important. It's a matter of life and death. It also means, as we've already talked about, keeping God's commandments, respecting what God says, living by every word of God, the best way we know can count with God's help. We've got to apply what we read. James 1, 22, you can just jot that down. But James 1, 22 warns us to be doers of God's Word and not just hearers only. Here's another side of this. You can read your Bible every day. Religiously, as we would say. But if you're not thinking about it, once you close the Bible up, or once you hit the off button on your cell phone, iPhone, whatever, if you don't think about it anymore that day, did you really do any good? Did you really eat meal? Did you really get a nutritious bit of spiritual food that day? So, yes, we tell ourselves, read God's Word every day, but I would say it this way. Read God's Word every day. Does that make a difference? Don't just read it. Read it. It means you have to take smaller bites, work on two or three scriptures, instead of saying, Well, I read three chapters today. Maybe you've been reading it so many times that in all your years you almost have it memorized. That's different, but if you're learning God's Word, you may want to take some good bite-sized chunks and mull it over. Chew on it a little bit. Chew on it a little bit.

And so, we have a new life in us. We need to feed it. We need to nurture it.

We need to take care of it in the right way. And so, yes, we must eat bread and all those good things, God's Word, but we also must practice His way of life. It goes hand in hand with getting rid of the old ways, getting rid of that old stuff.

And so, if anybody or anything is going to starve in our life, don't let it be the kids or the dog, but if anything's going to go without food in our life, what should that be?

It should be the old man, our old carnal way. Let the old carnal self in us starve a little bit. Let it go hungry. Let's not feed it our favorite rated R TV show. Let's not give in to that extra beer if that's our weakness. Let it starve for a while and instead feed the new life in us. Feed the new man in us. We've got to stay right with God and walk in the newness of life, so we persist, so that we can receive that greatest gift from God, and that again is eternal life. And finally, key five. Key five.

Set our hearts and minds on eternal life. How can we practice this new life? How do we walk in the newness of life? These are keys we're looking at. The fifth one, set our hearts and minds on eternal life. Start with the end in mind. Know where you're going. Don't lose sight of it. Christ set this example. He had his priority straight. He even taught his disciples what our priorities should be. And you don't need to be turning to these. These are rather well known, but please jot them down. Matthew 6, 10. He taught his disciples, for example, to pray, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, as it is on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6, 10. And even when Christ was suffering before he was crucified in the garden of Gethsemane, He himself prayed to the Father. Remember what he said? He said, Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, He said, Your will be done. Christ set his priorities straight. Now, in this scripture, we may not know as well. John 4, 24. Are we still in John? Hopefully you don't have to go too far. Yeah, we're still in John. John 4, 24. You're in the neighborhood there.

Not what Jesus Christ claimed as His food. We were talking about food a little bit. What was Christ's food? John 4, 24. Jesus said this, My food, He said, is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.

When we follow Christ and we walk in this newness of life, we must be striving to do the Father's will and not our own. You see, God has called us to become His sons and daughters. His Spirit, part of Him rests in us, part of His essence, who He is and what He is. It's in us now. He wants us to cherish it and take care of it and let it grow and use it to help us grow and to become even more like Him, even more like His Son, Jesus Christ. That was our commitment at baptism.

So we must bear this goal in mind every day to endure, to grow, to be welcomed into His kingdom, to receive that gift of eternal life.

We've got to maintain zeal and drive. We've got to keep striving against the old man. Let's look at 1 Peter 4.12. 1 Peter 4.12. It's not easy walking in a different path. 1 Peter 4.12. Peter writes, Beloved, do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing has happened to you. This is part of what we signed up for when we were in the early days of the Bible. This is part of what we signed up for when we accepted Christ's sacrifice, when we committed ourselves to Him with baptism.

Do not think it's strange, as though something strange has happened to you, but rejoice, verse 13, to the extent that you partake of Christ's suffering, so that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. I can't imagine how joyful that will be when we have new bodies and we're glorious, and we can look at Christ face to face in His glorified form, and talk with the Father and all these wonderful things.

So also be glad with exceeding joy. Verse 14, if you were reproached, condemned for the name of Christ, blessed are you. Consider that a blessing. For the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. On their part, He is blaspheme through ridiculing you. But in your own part, God is glorified. In other words, you're receiving what we should expect to receive if we're becoming more like God, if we're becoming more like Christ. That should be a badge of honor. So don't let ourselves become discouraged and weary in doing good. Let's also look at 2 Peter 1, 1 through 10. I'm going to read through this section. 2 Peter 1, 10. This exhortation is very much needed. We have some really rough times in our lives right now. They're always rougher times ahead. But Peter exhorts 2 Peter 1, verse 1, to persevere in the way of God. Don't give up on God. Give up other things in our lives. But don't give up God. Don't give up His way. So we read, Simon Peter, a bondservant, a slave, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. It's interesting. He's talking not as I'm one of them, but I'm one of you. We're in this together.

Obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Verse 2, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature.

Wow! Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, this is why you must give all diligence. Add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge. To the knowledge, add self-control. That means applying what we know. To self-control perseverance. Keep controlling yourself. To perseverance godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. Keep building and growing, doing these things. It's newness of life. Verse 8, for if these things are yours, if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For He who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that He was cleansed from His old sins. We can't go backwards. We can't go backwards. Therefore, brethren, verse 10, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. It's really up to us, ultimately, whether we receive that gift of eternal life.

It's up to us. We could choose to be serious, stick with it, or give up and turn away. Make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God has called us to receive the everlasting kingdom. It's His plan, and it's His desire to give us eternal life.

We've got to remember that goal. When life hurts, when things don't go as we expected, we've got to keep our focus laser sharp on what it's all about. Being able to receive from God the gift of eternal life. You know that simple phrase, eternal life? You ever think about words just as words? Eternal life! It just rolls off the tongue. Boom! Eternal life! It's only two words. It's only how many syllables? Four.

Only four syllables. But just think what those words convey. They carry so much more than I can comprehend. My life is so short, I can't even imagine life without end. Only four syllables, but they convey so much more than we can imagine. I tried to make a list of what it means. Dr. Ward's sermon this morning did a good job of those who overcome, shall, in Revelation. That was wonderful. We need to think about that a lot.

But eternal life means life without end. Yeah, that's hard to wrap my mind around. I do like this part. It's a time with no more tears and sorrow. That I can relate to. That I'm really looking forward to. Absolute righteousness. Why is it so hard to imagine somebody being so good? The hardest type of character to write in fiction as a writer is a good character. So many depictions of Jesus Christ in literature are just awful. Because they don't understand Him.

And frankly, the human mind cannot comprehend what a totally good person can be like. You know what's really easy to write? Bad characters. Evil people. It's so much easier for us all to imagine evil, isn't it? We just have to look within our own hearts, turn it up a notch or two, and poof, we know what evil is. But to understand what absolute righteousness is, then we've got to say, well, it's like a brilliant bright light. It's so pure. We just can't quite comprehend it. But that's what's waiting for us. I'm looking forward to this, too.

No more struggling against that old carnal human nature. I can't wait to get rid of this junk I carry, and we all carry. That baggage that we've tried so hard to keep in that watery grave.

I really want to experience eternal life.

Don't you? I really think you do. And again, like you, I'm still learning a lot about it. There's so much more I need to learn about it.

Paul in Philippians 3.13. I think Paul was really fired up at times, obviously. He suffered so much, and yet you're so incredibly powerful. And humble, and just...

Somebody we look forward to meeting him one day. Philippians 3.13. We've got to keep pushing forward. We've got to keep pushing forward to this goal of eternal life. Philippians 3.13. That's what Paul says here about commitment and faith. Paul writes, I do not count myself to have already apprehended. I'm not there yet. But one thing I do, for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. He's got the vision. He's got the goal in mind. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God, in Christ Jesus. And I also like, we may not always read this part. Sometimes we get to those two scriptures and ministers sometimes, and move on. But notice verse 15. Because what I like here is that Paul reminds us very much that we're not in this alone. You're not struggling against sin alone. I'm not struggling against sin alone. Of course we have Christ, but we have something else we received at baptism. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we become part of a larger body. We become part of a group of people, with Christ as it said. Verse 15, Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. Rather, join in following my example, and note those who walk, who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. There are people in our midst who are doing, it seems Paul suggests, they really know how to let God live in their lives. And if we're new in Christ, babes, we need to look to those, look to the ministry, look to those that are mature in spirit, in years, in wisdom. Look to them, and not that you stopped looking at Christ, but look to them as an example, as a human example we can reach out to and talk with and get help from and comfort. Verse 20 So Christ is with us, and in us most willing to help us to be like He is. If we seek His help, if we choose to turn to God and ask for His help, pray for it, and stop doing what we know we shouldn't do, and quit giving excuses like we heard it, just do it! I think you'll be amazed if you just start doing what you know to do. I'm constantly amazing myself. I still amaze myself. I mean that as a joke. When I stop being stupid and stubborn, and just do what the book says, and wow! Why didn't I do that before? Why was I so stubborn? Oh yeah, the old man, that old carnal nature. Just stop that. Give in and follow Christ. Let Him live in us. And so we've got to trust God and continue to focus on the goal of eternal life, so we can be part of that everlasting kingdom. A wonderful thing that will be. Now, I can give you many more keys, but I'm not going to, because we have enough. And you've been pretty good today. I didn't see anybody nodding off. You hide it well. But I hope that what I've shared today has been helpful. So we do, I just humbly offer us five keys to help us walk in the newness of life. We've got to accept God in His word as that final ultimate authority in our lives. We've got to keep His commandments. We've got to let Christ help us, being so independent, I guess. Let Christ help us conquer sin. Partake daily the bread of life and set our hearts and minds on eternal life.

I believe that if we practice these keys, and even these keys, probably have other keys and so on, it can really be overwhelming. But focus on what we can do and do it. Seek God's help, and He will help us overcome sin. He will help us, with the Spirit in us, be much more than we are now, and especially what we want to be in the future. Now walking the newness of life does require faith in God. I really like the way Dr. Ward has defined it for us, believing in obeying God. That I can grasp. So to walk the newness of life, we've got to have faith in God. Believe God and do what He says. Yes, it's not easy, but I seem to recall that Jesus Christ called this a difficult way or path that leads to life. And He also promises us somewhere in His Bible, His Word, and He will not try us more than we can bear. And He's always there with us. He's there by our side. If we remember it, and if we turn to Him for help, He'll quickly help us.

So we're on this path. It's a path that very few have chosen. But we have. We've got to stick to it to the end. So, brethren, God has called us to this new way of life, and if we accept, He will help us. If we trust Him, faith in Him, He'll be right there alongside of us as we walk in the newness of life.