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  WHEN NEW BEGAN TO BE
  by Fred Tomlinson
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Summary: This sermon delves into the remarkable faith of Old Testament
figures like Abraham, David, Daniel, and Esther, highlighting their
unwavering trust in God despite facing immense challenges. It emphasizes
the radical faith required in the New Covenant era, pointing to the
transformative power of encountering the Holy Spirit and stepping into
the new promises and blessings made available through Christ.

Topics: "Faith in Adversity", "Transformative Power of the Holy Spirit"
Scripture References: Genesis 22:1, 1 Samuel 17:45, Daniel 1:8, Esther 4:16, Matthew 1:1, Ezekiel 36:26, 2 Corinthians 6:4

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the remarkable faith of Old Testament figures
like Abraham, David, Daniel, and Esther, highlighting their unwavering
trust in God despite facing immense challenges. It emphasizes the
radical faith required in the New Covenant era, pointing to the
transformative power of encountering the Holy Spirit and stepping into
the new promises and blessings made available through Christ.

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CONTENT
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Well hello, my name is Fred Tomlinson and it's a pleasure to be able to
share with you today. My mind has gone back to the Old Testament as a
starting point and I have found myself thinking about the remarkable
faith of so many of those men and women who lived under the Old
Covenant. Their faith was utterly remarkable and at the same time as we
read it and we read the accounts and the stories we find it to be
profoundly challenging to our own hearts.

You know, just to give you an idea, I was thinking about Abraham as an
example and you all know the story, I won't take more than a moment to
refer to that, but the setting that I read about in the 22nd chapter of
the book of Genesis and it starts out like this, now it came about after
these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he
said, here I am, and he said, take now your son, your only son, whom you
love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt
offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you. So Abraham rose
early in the morning and saddled his donkey and the verse continues but
I'll stop there. I'm talking to you about stunningly remarkable faith in
God, that God would bring this before Abraham as a challenge as we're
told there in the text, a test that we just can't even begin to enter
into its depths.

It's been suggested that maybe, and no one knows for sure, but maybe
Isaac was, he could have been in his 30s somewhere at this time and God
issues the statement to him and defines what is required of him and this
thing that strikes me so much, we read through the first two verses
which I've just read to you and then we come to verse three which starts
off like this, so Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his ass
and so on. Truly amazing faith in God. Or I could be thinking of David,
I'm thinking of that moment when he has come to see Goliath challenging
the children of Israel and we read about that in, I'm thinking in
chapter 17 of 1st Samuel and the text reads like this, then the
Philistine came and approached David with the shield bearer in front of
him and when the Philistine looked and saw David he disdained him for he
was but a youth and ruddy with a handsome appearance.

The Philistine said to David am I a dog that thou comest to me with
sticks and the Philistine cursed David and his gods. The Philistine also
said to David come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the
sky and to the beasts of the field. Then David said to the Philistine
you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin but I come to you
in the name of the Lord of hosts the God of the armies of Israel whom
you have taunted.

This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will strike you
down and remove your head from you and that text continues. Again a
young man with such remarkable, remarkable faith in God or I'm thinking
of another young man his name was Daniel and his story is a wonderful
story I'm just breaking into this also in the same way I've done with
the other two and without trying to tell you why this came about I read
in the first chapter of Daniel when he's required to do a certain thing
which is too detailed to mention now but here's Daniel's response.
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the
portion of the king's meat and so on goes that story just men here who
are totally given over to God and with faith amazing faith in God and
then I'm thinking of one more I'm thinking of a woman their name is
Esther and in Esther I read this in the 16th verse of chapter 4 where as
the result of certain events she has decided that she's going to go into
the throne room of the king and speak with the king and that would be a
fearful thing to do to approach the king was to risk her own life and
she says and thus I will go into the king which is not according to the
law and if I perish I perish wonderful these are some of the people of
God in the old testament people under living under the old covenant it's
interesting the apostle writing the book of the Hebrews and in writing
he's countering the the unbelief with the necessity of radical faith in
God and he drives home his powerful message and powerful challenge by
saying to them in the first part of the chapter imagine yourselves
living out your lives in in a huge arena and imagine that you're
surrounded by the hosts of witnesses and he brings them a catalogue of
these faithful old covenant saints he said just imagine being in that
arena you're living out your life and you're surrounded by these kinds
of people I'm not suggesting that this is happening literally but the
picture he brings before his people and before us is striking we
ourselves me myself you yourself we're living out our lives to all
intents and purposes as we choose to express ourselves and involve
ourselves but this inspired apostles saying just picture this just
picture that this crowd of saintly people who lived under the old
covenant were all watching you watching how you live watching how you
behave and how you react to your various situations and in this 11th
chapter of Hebrews which you will be familiar with I'm sure he moves
through a number of people one or two that I've alluded to already but
he moves on in the second half of the chapter and in the second half of
chapter 11 he speaks of these who suffered I don't know just
breathtaking suffering that they they passed through but nevertheless
they're catalogued here they some of them died the most gruesome deaths
but they're catalogued here with those who are of faith they died in
faith it didn't appear that they won some great victory they perished in
a dreadful manner but the spirit of God has inspired the apostle put
them all together here catalog them together and in that great chapter
which perhaps I'm encouraging and inspiring you to read uh the apostle
breaking in on that later list of names uh he pauses and he he's clearly
um moved deeply in his heart as he's mentioning these people so much so
that he adds a parenthesis in his sequence of statements and in verse 38
he makes this statement he says of whom the world was not worthy I mean
it just reads like this to give that even more significance and others
had a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and
imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were
slain with the sword they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins
being destitute of tormented of whom the world was not worthy they
wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth
listen to this now and all these having obtained a good report through
faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for
us that they without us should not be made perfect how remarkable and I
think I think you know in in the flow of the chapter I only read to you
several verses but in the flow of the chapter as we're caught with the
the feeling and I think the emotion of a inspired man of God as he works
through these accounts and then he comes to what is in our bible the
39th verse and it's like there he just adds the I don't know the ground
slam as it were when he says that all these in spite of their great
faith in spite of these remarkable lives that were lived before God and
by faith in God they receive not the promise and then the 40th verse
again it where he says God having provided some better thing for us I
think before moving on I want to just add this and we must note this
this doesn't mean that they miss out in the end the people of faith
mentioned there will be where we will end up if we're faithful to God
and so on but nevertheless there's that there's the the stories referred
to there's their faith alluded to and then there's this enormous
challenge they receive not the promise God having provided some better
thing for us you know and then the writer has said something else in the
fourth chapter of the same epistle the chapter starts off like like this
he says let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering
into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it and that's the
challenge that's my starting point here with you in this session we're
surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses these great saints of faith
and yet they could not experience what God has made available through
the redemptive work of Christ for you and for me and this apostle is
saying here you really need you really need to be afraid you really need
to face this challenge that that God has left something that they in
spite of everything and their great faith they couldn't experience they
couldn't enter into and God has made it available for you it's in the
light of that kind of challenge we remind ourselves that there are so so
many today who are professing believers in the Christian gospel but
their life seems to display anything but that radical faith that we're
referring to here that was found in the old testament saints who could
not experience what we may experience you know the tragedy is added for
us today because i think so many people today they give little or no
thought to how their own lives are going to work out in the future in
other words what i'm saying is they give little or no thought to the
fact that a judgment day is coming we don't like to think about that we
want to get on with you know we change the channel go to another speaker
let's hear some of the more dramatic message or something that this is
too challenging but this is real this is the word of God and you know
but in the unfolding of the old testament and we know this very well
don't we that God provided prophets and they brought many different
words and many different statements from the Lord were prophesied but
you remember that there was one particular theme that comes through time
and again through those old testament prophecies and it's this it's God
speaking he says i will do a new thing and for the people who heard the
prophecy at the time for them of course it would perhaps have particular
significance and meaning and encouragement for them with the idea that
God was going to deliver them from Babylon's captivity or what have you
but in reading those prophetic statements we sense that there's a depth
of significance wrapped up in those passages somehow they seem to speak
to our hearts because of the position in history in which we stand in
other words we're standing on this side of that cross that my brother
was singing about a few minutes ago standing on this side of the cross
we look back at those prophecies and we understand things that the
people who heard the prophecies at the time could not possibly have
understood they would apply them to their immediate situation they had
an application to their immediate situation but we look back and we
think of the we think of the ultimate deliverance that was would be
brought about by the promised messiah you know and then the man who is
referred to as the greatest of the prophets of the prophets and i quote
jesus was john the baptist and john the baptist pronounced this is he of
whom i speak another verse of scripture we find is where we read that
john saw jesus as he was walking and beheld him and said behold the lamb
of god that taketh away the sin of the world this is he of whom i speak
glory to god there have been questions people have asked and they'll
continue asking i'm sure what did jesus mean when he spoke of john the
baptist as the graciest of the prophets what about isaiah what about
jeremiah what about ezekiel and so on but the fact is each of those
earlier prophets they were able to bring the word of god as god
quickened it in their own hearts and understanding but the fact is they
could not do what john the baptist did john the baptist was the only one
of the prophets mentioned that could actually point to the person of the
lord jesus christ and say this is he what isaiah would call the new
thing that god would do has come about the new had come and john the
baptist said this is he amen you know as i continue reading and thinking
over the scriptures i find myself thinking about one particular man a
man he's clearly not the only one but he's a man who steps as it were
through the new gate into the new covenant he stepped into the better
thing as the writers of hebrews called it you know jesus as he set out
with his public ministry he called the various men to be with him to be
his disciples and he called 12 as you know very well and none of them
appeared to be particularly remarkable they were just commoner garden
men who were going about their particular business they were all workers
god only calls people who are already working that's the testimony of
the entire scripture but they they were working men they were engaged
industriously in what they were doing what was their particular trade or
whatever and so on but beyond that there was nothing remarkable about
them it would seem and in calling them there was never a suggestion that
anyone would would be the leader of the 12 but having said that there's
one interesting thing that has occurred to me and that is in the in the
four lists of the disciples that i can find in each case peter is the
first in the list we also know that he was one of the three that were
privileged to have several experiences that were very remarkable but we
won't digress to talk about those things but peter certainly seems to
hold a particular place that's all that's all i want to say i don't want
to raise him higher than i should but there's some reason why his name
was first in each of these four lists that i've mentioned but what we
also know about peter is that he's portrayed in scripture as a as an
impetuous man he's he's always speaking out his mind he's an open book
he just what he thinks he says and that wasn't always good but he acted
he acted on impulse and and then we all are only too aware of the latter
part of the gospel story regarding peter not the end but the later part
where we hear him actually blaspheming and betraying the lord jesus
three times i mentioned that i mentioned a couple of things i'm saying
there was nothing remarkable about him at all he's probably a wonderful
fisherman a wonderful husband and father maybe he was married we know
that but uh you know he's just a man he's a man with some terrible flaws
and failures and betraying christ was in our mind would rise to be top
of the list i'm sure but you know watch watch him carefully as the story
unfolds and as we as we do just ask yourself a question like this am i
currently experiencing and enjoying all that has been promised for me as
a child of god you know i see peter this is where i turn my camera on as
it were with him and i see him enter a crowded public square and he
calls the attention it's a feast time there's this the city is thronging
with people i'm in the city of jerusalem and somehow or other he manages
to call their attention he doesn't have a loud speaker system but
somehow he calls their attention and that in itself was no small task
i'm sure but here's this man virtually a nobody he's a fisherman from
miles away up country yet somehow his life is just a flame he's got no
theological qualifications he's never done anything like this before he
doesn't stand there with some kind of crafted exposition of the sacred
text um and yet his preaching is devastating his preaching is powerful
it's it's a prophetic proclamation that he brings to the mass of people
that are listening to him his his words cut like a razor his words cut
to the quick to the heart and these devoutly religious people are
smitten in their hearts picture this and they said what should we do you
know this this moment this activity these responses they all they
transcend all things that are merely natural something supernatural is
taking place here i'm remembering how that jesus spoke to peter earlier
and he in the context of a broader statement which i won't quote we find
these little phrases he said you are you shall be this was a prophetic
statement from jesus you are this peter but you shall be something else
altogether and i find that sort of being expressed here we know what
peter was so far as the limited accounts are concerned in the text of
scripture through the gospels and now we're seeing him here we're in
acts chapter two of course that's what he was this is what he is today
amazing i i hope i'm helping you to catch a glimpse of something that i
think so few actually grasp and perhaps even fewer actually experience
you be the judge but what i'm bringing before you just now is huge an
entirely new element has come in to play and this fisherman peter has
stepped into it he stepped into the new thing the new thing has taken
over his heart and his life this man has been transformed by something
outside of himself he's been transformed by god if we were you know just
imagine i'm perhaps i'm stretching these a little too far here but
imagine that we're with peter back then we've just listened to him
preaching we've seen the response which is remarkable we've found a
moment somewhat quietly where we can just ask a question we say peter
what happened to you you know what i think he'd say because he would
answer in the words of the king james bible he would say the holy ghost
has come you know that which john the baptist prophesied about when he
said that we will be baptized with the holy ghost and fire of the holy
spirit and fire it happened to me that which jesus promised that which
jesus called the promise of the father he said it's happened to me he
said did you hear me when i was preaching do you remember the phrase i
used when i said this that's happening because everyone was saying
what's going on people thought we were all drunk do you remember how i
responded says peter i said this is that which the prophet spoke of amen
today peter would say i received the holy spirit of god jesus by the
spirit of god is here he's transformed me glory to god this is huge on
that day a new generation was born matthew refers to it right at the
beginning of his gospel this is how he starts at the book of the
generation of jesus christ the new thing had come the messiah the lord
jesus christ the son of god he lived out his life he presented himself
to the will of god and suffered at the cross his blood has been shed his
blood has been presented in the most holy of holy places it's been
received by his father the holy spirit has come and lives are being
transformed by it this is the better thing that the old testament saints
in spite of all their great faith and their love for god they could
never have experienced because it was not available at that time but
it's available to you and to me today a new creation began to be amen
let me let me put it this way suppose should the lord cause your journey
to converge with a true new covenant man or a true new covenant woman
you'll quickly observe their radical abandon to god mind you they will
never be arrogant and without exception they will walk with a limp god
having touched that area of self in their lives i think back to jacob
remember but the presence the presence that they carry is undeniably not
of this world they bear in their body the marks of the lord jesus their
lives are being lived out from a different songbook as it were they're
commonly out of tune with the most popular choirs and they have they
have little concern for conventional norms they their delight is in the
fellowship of the saints but should it be required of them they're
prepared to walk alone should you should you hear them preach you'll
detect a distinction that their preaching will will carry that certain
sound clearly not the product of academia they're not cut and paste
preachers like so many today they're not theological technicians they
are as paul puts it on one occasion ministers of god they take they
teach with boldness and with authority yet ever manifesting the
tenderness of the lamb of god i was personally so privileged to meet
such a man just six miles away from my home little did i know at the
time the lifelong impact that meeting would make upon my life my entire
life you know he introduced god to me i've listened to the bible i don't
despise the days by any means i'm thankful to god for them but from my
childhood i learned the scriptures but that man introduced god to me as
i've never known him before he showed the way he lifted up a standard he
showed the way of god more perfectly he was a new covenant man you know
at some point we have to be willing to to break rank with those who
content themselves with making do with the old beloved the new has come
that text from isaiah that i'm quoting it goes on to say shall you not
know it in other words is it possible that you will miss it the new has
come when you miss it and that's the question for you this morning or
this afternoon or this evening whatever time it is where you are the new
has come amen and i wonder i wonder today will this day be the day in
your life when the new begins to be will you your eyes are opened and
your heart is open to the new covenant to the new promises to the new
thing that god promised he would do and is currently doing to the new
heart to the new spirit to the holy spirit i quote from ezekiel 36 my
dear friend open to it open to this truth beloved and may the lord
succeed in making you to be a minister of god i'm quoting 2 corinthians
chapter 6 and verse 4 you can find it there may the cry of your heart
and all of our hearts together ring out in harmony as a prayer i quote
him from amy carmichael i believe don't let me sing to be a clod make me
thy fuel flame of god let me pray father we are totally dependent upon
you and your holy spirit to speak into our individual hearts even when
we read the scriptures even when we share them as we are enabled and
within the limits of our abilities ultimately it must be you that speaks
law you spoke through peter on the day we thought of together lord when
you speak into hearts of those that are listening now and will listen in
the future lord and wake up men and women to these great realities to
this great challenge that there is that that you have purchased and made
available for us to know and for us to experience let us fear lest any
one of us seem to come short of it wake us up lord we pray and bring
your people into the fullness of the blessing which is in christ and we
pray in jesus name amen before i go can i just say excuse me if you'd
like to continue to walk with me to walk together travel together i
wonder if you do a few things for me you know if you're not there
already will the youtube channel which has the title turn to the
scriptures with fred tomlinson click on the subscribe button add a
comment and maybe you'd like to visit the mckenzie fellowship which is
the link is right there for you i'm having to hurry up because my voice
is going um we've also or we are also in the process of making audio
versions of these messages available as podcasts you can find the links
on my channel and on the fellowship channel and that i know they're in a
in a number of locations i don't understand all this other people have
led me into this arena i hope there's no wild beasts here anyway may god
bless you and take us all on in jesus name amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/UECB6Oy8zQc.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/fred-tomlinson/when-new-began-to-be/
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