The Holy Exchange

I'd like to read today from 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 16 and 17. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view. Even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.

If anyone is in Christ, he, she, is a new creation. The old is gone, and the new has come. Now, we know that that's how it should be.

Mary Magdalene was a new creation. Her seven devils were gone. Her past was removed.

Her sins were washed away, and she was a woman of God. Peter, for all his faults, was a new creation. He had a new name, a new spirit, a new nature.

And as time went on, this became more and more evident, on through the time when he denied his Lord, and on through the death of Jesus, and the resurrection, and Pentecost, and soon it became obvious that this man was totally, almost unrecognizable from the one he had been before. The woman at the well came back to the village of Sychar and announced, Come see a man who told me all I ever did is not this to Christ. People looked up into her face, and they could see that she was different.

She never spoke like that before. There was something new about her that was so arresting to that whole village that they dropped everything and went to see who this was who brought about such a change so quickly. But, when we look at our own lives, even though we thank God for the changes which have occurred since we met Jesus, yet, we're frustrated.

We certainly don't feel like we're new creations, and we often feel like we're only half born. So can I honestly say, yes, I'm a new creation. The old is gone.

The new has come. That heart of stone that used to be in me is gone. Now I have a heart of flesh that is really tender.

Can I honestly say, yes, the blood of Jesus has indeed washed away my sins to the point where I'm free, really free. Can I say the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is even at this moment quickening my mortal body to the point where I am able to manifest the mercy of God. I have love in my heart now for everybody.

I'm ruled by a forgiving Spirit. Now we know that that's how it ought to be. If any man, any woman is in Christ, he, she is a new creation.

The old is gone. The new has come. We ought to be able to walk out that door today free from this self-centeredness, free from this self-righteousness, free from the self-pity, free from the self-seeking, the self that's tattooed on our faces and corrupts our highest and best intentions.

We ought to be able to go out that door today inflamed by the love of God, free not spiritually, anointed with His power, stamped with His nature. What's the point of even talking about Jesus dying for our sins and rising for our justification and baptizing us in the Spirit, enabling us to live as sons and daughters of heaven if this never happens, if it isn't really possible? Again, from now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view. Even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard Him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.

We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might be the righteousness of God, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. If the Father made Him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become in Him the righteousness of God, when does this happen? When do we become the righteousness of God? When does this wonderful, supernatural, evident change take place? Reading from the third chapter of Zechariah, beginning at the first verse.

Then He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing in his right hand to accuse him. So, Satan standing at the right hand of Joshua the high priest is saying, Joshua, you're the high priest. You represent the people before the throne of God and you are a failure.

You're hopeless. You're never going to change. You're supposed to be the high priest and look at you.

You're filthy. You can't even clean up your own life. And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuked you, oh Satan.

The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuked you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? You're wrong, Satan. Joshua, the high priest, and all the ones who were included in him, the ones he represents before my throne, Joshua, is going to change.

Watch what I'm going to do for him. Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed in filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, Remove the filthy garments from him.

And to him he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you and I will clothe you with rich apparel. And I said, Let them put a clean turban on his head. So, they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord was standing by.

See, and when the filthy garments are removed from Joshua and he's wrapped now in the new garments, Joshua is a new creation. He's a new man. If anyone is in Christ, wrapped in those new garments, he's a new creation.

The old has passed away, the new has come. If we're having trouble, and who of us isn't? If we're having trouble taking the new life brought for us by the blood of the land, brought to us by the power of the Spirit, and translating that new life into real, day-in and day-out living. Making it actual.

In our homes, on our jobs, in our relationships with each other, in our dealings with our enemies. If we're having trouble applying it, making it real. Zechariah chapter 3 is an extremely helpful passage.

Worth studying, reading, praying over. Because in this third chapter of Zechariah, we are shown precisely the things that are hindering us in receiving and incorporating and being transformed by the new life that the Lord has paid for and given to us. And the first thing we see in this chapter that hinders us from experiencing and making real the new life is Satan, the accuser, who stands at our side.

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing in his right hand to accuse him. And Satan is saying, Joshua, you're hopeless, you're never going to change, you're no good. And for years, Joshua would try to defend himself.

And he would argue. And he would try to rebuke Satan. He tried everything, nothing worked.

So this time, Joshua, the high priest, doesn't even look at Satan, doesn't even answer Satan, he just keeps looking at the throne of the Lord. And the Lord takes care of it. When Satan accuses us, throws up our past, reminds us of what schmucks we are, what failures we've been, how dishonest we have been, you know, how phony we are, what hypocrites.

Shows this to us, pulls up the mirror and makes us see it. The worst thing that we can do is try to defend ourselves. We get into a conversation with him, we lose.

Try to argue with him, we lose. You know, you can rebuke Satan if he's messing over somebody else. But if he's accusing you, don't do it.

Don't even try. You know, you just fail. Let the Lord do it.

You know, when all these accusations are coming, keep your eye on the Lord, keep your ear open to Him, ignore the enemy, ignore the accuser, and let the Lord do the rebuking, and He will. The second thing that makes it so difficult for us to appropriate the new life that we are meant to experience and live now is our fear of giving up our old, filthy garments. Now, you know, we admit that they're a little bit dirty.

A couple little spots here and there, but they don't look filthy to us, due to everybody else. But to us, you know, it's all I got, you know. And at least it covers my shame.

But it doesn't cover my shame, it adds to my shame, this filthy garment I'm wrapping around myself. The blood of the Lamb, powerful as it is to deliver us from our sin, can't do that until we let it take the old garment, until we give up the old garment. Let it happen.

If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation, the old has passed away. The old has passed away, and nothing new can happen until the old is taken away, and we have to let go of the old. See, and here we are, wrapping ourselves in this old, dirty, filthy, smelly garment, afraid to let go of it, because it's all I got.

And the Lord says, come on, give it to me. And I'm not just talking about our sins, they're bad enough, you know. We need to begin by saying, Lord, okay, here's this mask I've been wearing, so long it's almost part of my face.

I don't know how to take it off. You help me, Lord. Here it is.

I'm living a lie, Lord. Help me to get rid of it. I'm always defending myself.

I'm forever afraid of being wrong. I always make excuses. But then there are the things that we, we even think of as spiritual, the mark of my spiritual uniqueness.

And I walk around wrapped in this thing, thinking it's covering me, and it's exposing me for what I am. It's filthy garment. I have to give up this thing.

You know, maybe, maybe I have developed a habit of wearing the mask of despair whenever I come among the saints. Blessed are they that mourn. You know? Or maybe I walk through doors backwards.

Here's an example. Up until a few months ago, I was driving a little Pinto with Playboy tires and all kinds of rust holes in it. And people would say, where did you get that piece of junk? And it made me feel good.

A gene would keep saying, when are you going to get rid of that thing? You have more problems with it. You know, I says, well, no, I'm going to drive a little longer. I enjoyed it.

You know? Finally, quiet there. You know, finally, I had so much trouble with this car, I broke down and decided, you know, one Sunday afternoon, come back from the hospital, and look through the one edge, and boom, there's a Horizon, 80 Horizon, and bought it. And I drive up to the church a couple days later, and I believe it was Trist, Tatum is walking along, and she says, is that your car? That doesn't look like you.

I was crushed. You know, sometimes it's our dress. You know, I'm walking around in sackcloth, and, you know, here comes Saint so-and-so, they always wear sackcloth, isn't that wonderful? You know, or maybe she's taking a vow to always do such a thing.

Unique. And I think that's my spiritual garb. You know what that is? That's the filthy, smelly garment that God is saying, give it up.

I don't care if you've worn that sackcloth for 20 years, get rid of it. Give it up, that's what the Lord is saying to us. Get that thing off.

That's not your spiritual robe. You know, that's not the Lord's spiritual robe, that's yours, and it smells. Give it up.

The third thing that hinders us from appropriating the life of God is our fear of opening our hearts and receiving His Spirit. Now remember, you can't do that, you can't receive the Spirit in fullness until you get rid of the filthy garment. You're walking around in that spiritual sackcloth or that robe of your own righteousness and you say, Lord, fill me with your Spirit, you know, you're going to have a problem.

Because the real life of God can't come down over that filth. And you may pretend you're clothed in righteousness, but you're fooling yourself. But when that's taken away, we give it up to the Lord, now we open our hearts to receive the new life.

If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation, the old has passed away, the new has come. Am I letting the new come? There's a fear of opening ourselves to receive this. What will happen if the Spirit really takes over my life and fills me? You know, what if He shows me to do things I don't want to do? All these things we jump ahead and Satan helps us with this.

It's like, Lord, I don't care what you do, what you do, it's worth it. I mean, where I am now is nowhere. I need your fullness.

Lord, help me. And so it becomes like a little child that's waiting to be dressed. He puts his hands up and lets his mother pull a sweater down over his head and his arms and he's clothed.

Let the Lord do that. Lord, help us to just open ourselves and receive your nature, your Spirit. And then the final thing that hinders us from really walking the new road and living the new life is our fear of, now that I've received the new robe, stepping out and doing it.

Reading again from the same third chapter of Zechariah, The angel of the Lord enjoined Joshua, Thus says the Lord of hosts, If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Wonderful. Here we are.

Satan's been rebuked and he's been removed. The filthy garments have been taken away. We've been clothed in new garments so we don't just sit around in church and look pretty.

We go out and we live the new life. And as we do, the power of heaven quickens us so that we are able to overcome evil, able to set the captives free, and we even have access among those who are standing there, access to heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Here now, oh Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you are men of good omen. Wonderful.

Now Joshua's not alone. He's surrounded by others. This is the body of Christ.

Behold, I will bring my servant the branch, and the branch, obviously, is the Messiah, the branch of David, the son of David. For behold, upon the stone which I have set before Joshua, and the stone is the stone which the builders rejected, the Messiah, Jesus, upon a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day. In that day, says the Lord of Hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.

So a promise of wonderful hope, tremendous power, is being offered now. A tremendous promise. Satan is removed.

The old garments are gone. The new garments have been put on. We have the power to walk in a new road, and so now, not alone, but together, and filled with the presence of the spirit of the Lord himself, we go out into the world to bring about and establish the kingdom of heaven, where every man and every woman will invite their neighbor under their vine and under their fig tree.

If anyone is in Christ, he, she, is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.

Surely the time has arrived for us to appropriate this promise of God in our lives and let it become real. And to do this, and to begin doing it even today, there are four things. The first is to simply start to ignore the accuser.

Even now, as he accuses us and throws things at us, not even try to answer him, not try to justify ourselves, to keep our eyes on the throne. Secondly, to give up our old garments. Today, as we break bread, let's give up our old garments.

Maybe before, let's put a pile of dirty old garments right down here in the front. Let's throw them all on a pile and let the Lord burn them up with his fire. Lord, I offer up to you my failure, my sin, my attitude, my self-righteousness, my critical eye, my sour, negative, nasty tongue, my little claim to fame, my spiritual idiosyncrasy, the thing that marks me off as different from everybody else and better, I think.

I give it up to you, Lord God. Help me to just join the body of Christ and stop trying to be God's man for the hour, God's woman for the hour. I give off the filthy garment to you, Lord.

And then, as we break bread, he visits us. He becomes our light. And he pours out upon us his Spirit.

If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? And so he gives us his mercy, his love, his forgiving spirit, his holiness, his righteousness. And then he says, Now you can do it. Now you can do it.

And then we go out that door confident that we can and will walk. And the angel of the Lord enjoined Joshua, Thus says the Lord of hosts, If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. And we will win victories we've never been able to win before.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold a new, a second kind of son.