Hello, beloved. Welcome to this evening's message. And I hope that it will be a blessing to you as it's been a blessing to me to prepare for it and to make sure that I can share God's word with you because it's very important for us, especially in the time that we live in, to hear from God's word. Now, I would like to remind you of three passages of scripture. The one is 2 Thessalonians 2, verse one to three, where we read, now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together with him, which means it's talking about the second coming of Christ. Then he says, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us. as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Right, so that's the first passage of scripture. Second Thessalonians 2 verse 1 to 3. Where it says specifically let no one deceive you by any means For this day or that day the day of the Lord the day of Jesus is second coming will not come unless the falling away comes first and the word there that is used to falling away is the apostasy coming first which means people are going to fall away from the faith in the sense that they will not be How can I say? Worshiping God in the way that God expects them to worship. They will not be Changed people who looks different who acts different who lives different lives in Matthew chapter 24 verse 11 and 12 Jesus said then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many and because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold which means we're going to see an increase in lawlessness in the world and We're going to see it in the church there's going to be a lawlessness that's going to to be in the church in the sense that you would wonder, are these people truly believers? Because the way they live is like the sinners in the world. And we're going to find false prophets and false teachers and false apostles in the last days that are going to preach things that are not in line with God's Word. They're going to lead God's people astray. Or they're going to try to do it anyway. But those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, they have nothing to fear. And then the last passage I want to share with you quickly is 2 Timothy 3 1-5. We've looked at that, but I would like to just emphasize something quickly. It says, But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Unholy. Unloving. Unforgiving. Slanderers. Without self-control. Brutal. Despisers of good. Traitors. Headstrong. Haughty. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And then it says in verse 5, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And what is the power of Godliness is the Holy Spirit working in us changing us into the image and likeness of Christ and we becoming more and more holy and be Reflecting the character of Christ more and more through our lives All right, and then Paul says to Timothy says from such people Turn away stay away from these kind of people because they're going to influence your lives now what happened to me It was one afternoon, I was just lying on my bed, looking at a few videos on YouTube, and while I was watching this one video, I was confronted, I mean, it was just one of those moments, and I was confronted with this question. What defines me? So I can ask the question to you as well. What defines us as believers? What defines you? Now, what defines who I am? I mean, most people, including most professing believers, I believe normally they will define themselves based on, let's say, their voices and their style of living, or the style of their clothes, their habits, words, you know, those kind of things. I mean, most people define themselves by where they live, what kind of clothes they wear, what they possess, what kind of language they speak, or how many languages they can speak. In today's world, what race someone belongs to, as if we belong to different races instead of just accepting the fact that we are all of one race, and that's the human race, but we are from different nationalities, that's a fact, and we've got different cultural backgrounds, that's a fact, and we look at life in a different way. If we look at our lives through, if we look at life through a cultural, or cultural lenses, then we are going to look at life in a specific way. but we are all of the same race. But in the age that we're living in, race has been made something very, very serious, something that every second person uses it as a means of attack. But anyway, when we look at ourselves, we look at ourselves with regards to our race, the color of our eyes, the color of our hair, the color of our skin, And then also people define themselves based on the religious affiliation they have, or the political party that they belong to, or it could be their social status in society, or just how healthy they are or not, whether they are health freaks, those people that just goes after healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy things, or whether they eat too much. And we also look at ourselves through the lens of our own goodness. because people think that they are good. But that's the way that people look at one another. That's the way that people look at themselves, but that's the way that the world looks at us. That's the criteria that the world uses to basically examine us and to see what we are, who we are. Now, when everyday people define us, I believe that they will define us as being maybe because we are Christian as being maybe loving or being happy or friendly or they can look at us and say oh that person is a little overweight or they can look at us also and look at us as being tall or pretty or ugly or handsome or fat or stupid or funny or quiet or annoying or sweet or gentle all these kind of things they are all criteria that is used in the world that we live in to basically define who we are Now it's interesting that believers in the church defines others with exactly the same measure stick as the world does. And somehow the world has influenced our thinking to such an extent that we think of ourselves or we kind of define ourselves based on worldly terms rather than on biblical terms. Someone asked, can you tell me who you are without telling me what you are. Let me repeat that. Can you tell me who you are without telling me what you are? Which means, what are you? I mean, who are you? I don't want to know what you are. Beloved most, everything that we have to say about ourselves and what we have to say about others basically describes the person. But still it doesn't define the person. Now if I ask the question, what defines me? I'm actually asking, what is my nature like? I'm not asking for a list of adverbs. that you and I can line up and tell what I am like or what you are like. No, I'm asking you, who are you? Who am I? So beloved, let me ask you this question. And I want you to think about it for a moment. And the question is, can you tell me who you are without telling me what you are? So I don't want to know about your accomplishments. I don't want to know about your track record. I don't want to know about your attributes now, whether you are tall or dark or handsome or that kind of stuff. I don't want to hear about those things. Whether you got, yeah, it doesn't matter. I don't want to hear about those things. I don't want to know about your credentials. I don't want to know about your family. And I don't want to know about any of that. that's just kind of a few things but I don't want to know those things what I want to know is who are you without telling me what you are now beloved the way that we as believers define ourselves are unfortunately determined by the standards of the world We don't look at ourselves through a biblical lens and ask ourselves, so who am I? Where do I actually find the answer to that question? I find the answer to that question, I find it in the word of God. Beloved, if I am not who I'm supposed to be in line with scripture, then I'm gonna look like the world. Then I'm going to be defined the way that the world defines things, right? You see, I think that believers very rarely define themselves based on what scripture teaches us. All right. Now let's see how we should define ourselves publicly. And for that I want us to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 16 to 18. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 16 to 18. Before we continue though, let's have a word of prayer. Father, it's so amazing to come to you, to look at your word, and to learn what your word has to say to us. There's so much that is said prophetically and how there's going to be a falling away at the end of the day where people are going to fall away from the faith and the standards of your word and the power of your word and the power of what the transforming power of the Holy Spirit that changes us from the inside out. But Father, thank you so much that your word always calls us back to the truth. and that your word tells us who we truly are, and that we can test ourselves and see whether we are part of this apostate group, this part of the group that is leaving the faith, or are we where we are supposed to be? Are we who we are supposed to be? I pray, Father, that you will enable me to teach your people this morning, this evening, in this service, and I pray that your hand will be upon me and upon each one as we listen, that our hearts will be open and our minds will receive, in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, now, let me give you a little background on these two verses. Verse 16, 17, 18, three verses in 2 Corinthians 5. Let's start off by saying that the Apostle Paul was facing a hard time with a group of, let's call them false teachers, false apostles. Actually, they were false apostles, but these false apostles who were basically questioning his integrity. And these false apostles were doing it in front of the Corinthian believers. This is the sad part, but it happened. Now these false apostles basically started sowing doubt in the hearts of the Corinthian believers about the apostle Paul and his apostleship. And they were telling the Corinthian church that they were the true apostles and that Paul was a fake. Now when you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 12 we see that Paul basically confronts the false apostles, these false teachers by saying that they were boasting in appearances and did not qualify inwardly as true apostles or true teachers of Jesus Christ. You see, the false apostles were good at telling the Corinthians what they were, and based on that, they wanted the Corinthians to accept the fact that they, how can I say, that they were really apostles. But they couldn't tell the Corinthian believers who they were, because to tell somebody who you are, you have to tell them about inner characteristics, inner character traits, that only God can produce in us, only the Spirit can do it in us. you see what you are says a lot about the things uh... that are visible in your life but who you are it says everything about your inside now back to our passage if we look at second corinthians chapter five verse sixteen it says therefore from now on we regard no one according to the flesh So basically, firstly, Paul told the Corinthians who he was, not what he was. He does not regard anyone, he says, according to the flesh. You see, before Paul was converted, before he had his conversion on the way to Patmos, on the way to Patmos, he, on the road to Damascus, sorry, He used to look at people, let's call it from a fleshly, worldly, religious, this Judaistic religious perspective. That's what he had. He didn't have a true biblical New Testament understanding of who people are in Christ. Now he would look at what people were instead of, on what people were instead of who they were. Paul focused on all the outward appearances of the people, what they sounded like, looked like, spoke like, the color of their eyes and the colors of their skin and their hair and their social status and their influence and their religious affiliation, political affiliation, their styles, their habits, that kind of thing. Paul would persecute them when they would be part of the church. So if they identified themselves with the church, Paul would persecute them even if the people didn't have the characteristics of Christ because he was looking at the outside things. But now, here in Corinthians, Paul says, no, therefore from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh according to what they are. You see, in fact, Paul says to us in verse 16, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. You see, Paul used to look at what Jesus did before. And what Jesus was like was important. What kind of man Jesus was. It was important to the apostle Paul before he was converted. But Paul says, we know Christ like this no longer. I mean, Paul didn't look at what Jesus was and and did in the longer, what he did was he now looked at who Jesus is. So easy for us to just look at certain characteristics of a person, you know, outward characteristics of a person, and then we make an assumption or we judge that person based on what we see. Paul says, this is not how it works in the Christian faith. This is not how it works as a believer. This is not how it works in the kingdom of God. You see, when it comes to Christ, it's important what Jesus did. Really, really important. You know, he was a carpenter's son, and all the prophecies that was fulfilled in the Old Testament, that Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament, those things are all extremely important. But what Paul now did was, and this is important, he focused in on who Jesus was. You see, beloved, the false apostles, these false teachers, they had the ability to focus on the what of Jesus Christ, and the what of themselves. But here comes Paul in 2 Corinthians, and he tells us that he no longer focuses on the what of people. And he doesn't even focus on the what of Christ any longer. What he does is he focuses his attention on the who. Because the who of someone tells us everything we need to know about the inner person. Whether that person is an apostle, a teacher, or whether he is Jesus Christ himself. Who that person is tells us everything. of the inner person. Right now, let's look at verse 17. Verse 17, and this is where we see who believers are, who we are in Christ. Verse 17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now, this is amazing. So Paul is telling the Corinthian believers that he is no longer looking at people by what they are, but rather he's looking at people for who they are. And Paul gives us as believers the kind of second thing that defines who we are. First, it is that we, like the apostle Paul, do not regard anyone anymore according to the flesh, Because this is now who we are. We do not look at what people accomplished. What we do is we look at people's character. We judge people's character, not people's accomplishments. Even though if you are a person of character, it will influence your actions. It's a fact. Now what people accomplish in this life does not define who they are. I mean, whether they've got a good voice or not, you know, a singing voice or a speaking voice or whatever, or whether they've got what kind of hair they have, or clothes they have, or a house they have, or the kind of wealth they have, or the kind of social status they have. Those things do not define a person. It is who that person is that defines the person. You see, their character as a person is important. the character of a person that is or a believer is what makes that person a true believer. Now obviously the person's accomplishments and the things that the person does. Let's say the character of a person will have an influence on the things that a person does. And it's amazing that if you see a person of true biblical character, the kind of accomplishments that person has in his or her life will be in line with scripture, will be in line with God's word. But if a person lacks character, you will also see that their accomplishments are not biblical at all. Very interesting to see that. The second thing that we see when we talk about who we are as believers is we are new creations. The old things have passed away, all things have become new, because the first one is that we no longer regard anyone according to the flesh, according to what a person has accomplished. We don't look at a person like that anymore. And secondly, a person that is saved is a new creation. The old things passed away, all things have become new, and this is who we are. Believer, this is who you are in Christ Jesus, beloved. This defines who I am now. That means I have been recreated, let's say on a quality level that is beyond that of the world. It is a level of excellence. That's my recreation. I cannot compare myself with the world because My quality is just far above it because it is God who did the recreation in me. You see, this is who every single believer becomes once they are regenerated. This is who we are in Christ. It's got nothing to do with what we are. It is all about who we are. And as a new creation, I'm able to function on a new level of excellence. I was unable to do it before, before my rebirth, but now I can function on a level of excellence because of what God has done in my life. Who am I in Christ? I'm a new creation. I function on a totally different level. Beloved, in this new level of excellence, it's only possible because the old things have passed away. Our old value systems are gone. Our self-centered priorities are gone. My focus is now on what God wants and no longer on my self-centered priorities. Our old beliefs are all gone. The unbiblical things that I used to believe in before is gone. Our old How can I say, all the things that we loved before, the old loves of our lives, they're all gone. All the worldly and fleshly things that I used to love before are all gone. Our old selfish plans are all gone. I mean, all the plans that I had, you know, to have my best life now, to make something of my life, to enjoy all the pleasures of my life, to have a fancy car and a fancy house and have stature in society and all those things, these things are all gone. Who I am now in Christ is I'm a new creation. My life is now hidden in Christ. It's, my life now is glorifying God. I live on a, how can I say, on a new level of excellence that I never used to live before. Absolutely amazing. I mean, obviously, evil and sin are still present in my life, as John MacArthur said it in his commentary. But we as believers see it from a new perspective. And evil and sin no longer control us as believers. You see, I have victory over sin. I can live with this new level of excellence. Now, beloved, let me tell you, as we get closer to the return of Christ, unfortunately, this level of excellence that we are called to because of the rebirth, because of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, there's going to be a lot of people that will fall away from this level of excellence that we find in Scripture. and they're gonna become just like the world, look just like the world, live just like the world. That's why Paul basically warned Peter, Timothy, when he said to him, people will be lovers of self, lovers of money. They will be boasters and proud and blasphemers and disobedient to their parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and having a form of godliness but denying its power. These are all warnings that the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy. And it's because this level of excellence that we have in Christ, because of the fact that we are new creations, because it tells us who we are. The people that will be falling away will not be able to reach that level of excellence, they can't, because they're apostates. They have fallen away from their faith. Well, beloved, this is so amazing if we look at who we are. that we are new creation, that all the old things have passed away and all things have become new. This basically means that a believer will continually have a new spiritual perception on everything in life around them. Every single moment of the day and night, the believer will be aware of his or her new spiritual life. And they will live in accordance to that spiritual life. They will understand that there's a level of excellence and that God now in Christ made it possible for them to live up to that level. Absolutely amazing. A believer will now live with new spiritual perspectives. And those perspectives will be new spiritual perspectives on everything in life. They will now be looking at life from a new spiritual perspective. And it will be normal for the believer. The believer will look at who should I be, who am I, not who should I be, who am I in, how can I say, when I study scripture, and then that is the standard. That is what I wanna be. Beloved, it's who we are. And who we are now as believers. I mean, we are new creation in Christ now. All things have passed away now. All things have become new now. That's who I am. That's who you are. It's who we are. Not what we do. It doesn't mean that what we do is unimportant. I mean, what we do will flow from who we are. But beloved, listen carefully. You can't fake being a new creation. You can't fake that all things have passed away. And you can't fake that all things have become new. You can't fake it. It's either who you are, or it is not who you are. You see, the false apostles, these false teachers in Corinth, they could fake looking like true apostles, true teachers on the outside. And we find it everywhere. I mean, all you need to do is, and I say it with a lot of love, but you need to go and study a little bit of Bible and you must sound like someone who can say something about the Bible, maybe you must be eloquent in speech, and you put on your suit, and you drive the right vehicle, and you just do the right things, because there are certain churchy stuff that you need to do, and when you do those things, people will think you're a prophet, or an apostle, or a teacher, a biblical teacher, because that's what's happening today. Just say the right things. And people will think that you are, how can I say, somebody important in the church. Because to fix up the outer stuff, the stuff on the outside, that's easy. You go and buy the stuff. And you study a little bit. But beloved, to change the inner person, who we are, that's a different story altogether. Now, the moment the Apostle Paul showed the Corinthian believers who we are, who a believer is supposed to be, who an apostle is supposed to be, now who a teacher is supposed to be that are biblical, the moment he showed them, they could see that the false apostles were not true apostles. You see, because people can't change the inside, they can't change their inner person. That's a work of the Spirit. Okay. Beloved, to be a new creation for all things to have passed away and all things becoming new continuously is a reflection of who we are. It can't be faked. It can't be duplicated. Either it's true of you or it's not. That's how it works. Okay? You're either a new creation or you're not. And if you are a new creation, it will be very, very clear. Now, Paul then says in verse 18, he says, now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. And this brings us to the third thing that Paul gives us to basically define who we are. Remember first he said, that we are people who do not regard anyone according to the flesh any longer. We don't look at people's accomplishments. We look at people's character, who that person is on the inner, in the inner person, because that defines the person. And second, Paul said that we are a new creation. All things have passed, old things have passed away, and that all things have become new. And that's who we are in Christ. It defines us. And now the third thing that the apostle said is that we receive the ministry of reconciliation. So who are we? We are people who no longer regard anyone according to the flesh. We are new creations. All things have passed away and all things have become new. And above all, we receive the ministry of reconciliation from God. So what does it mean? that we have the ministry of reconciliation. Beloved, we don't have time for going into detail on this or to go into it at all tonight. What I would like to do is next time to go into that, to basically look at the third thing that Paul tells us about who we are because it's important. And especially as Christ warned us about false prophets and false apostles and false teachers that would come, false Christs that would come. Jesus warned us prophetically about that. As we read in 2 Thessalonians chapter two that there's going to be an apostasy where people will no longer have this level of excellence that they will be living by. but they will become people that are living worldly lives but they will still be in the church. And as we see all these things, as we see that we are new creations, those who are, how can I say, not save those who will apostate that 2 Thessalonians talks about. We will clearly see that their lives are not gonna have this level of excellence that is supposed to be there. So beloved, prophetically we are warned. So I believe that we need to examine ourselves, look at our lives and say, okay, who am I? Do my life really reflect Biblical characteristics? Do I reflect the character of Christ in my life? Because if I don't, there's a problem. But if I do, I can, how can I say, reach out to this level of excellence that scripture teaches about and live who I am in Christ. That's the amazing thing, right? That's all for now. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, it's so amazing to read what you have done. And who we are are not defined by the things that we used to do in the past and the way that we used to act in the past and the accomplishments that we've reached. Who we are is not reflected by our outside appearances. But who we are, is inward, accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit in each believer that has been regenerated. Father, I want to pray. Make this message alive in us so that we will not be like the apostates that moves away from the faith, Father, but rather that we will live on a level of excellence because of your enabling power. We are new creations in Christ. All things have passed away. Everything has become new. Father, enable us to basically live that way and you have given us the ministry of reconciliation. This is who we are. May we please, may you enable us please to be that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Beloved, thank you very much for listening. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you. And may He give you His peace. God willing, until next time, bye-bye.