Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 15. Hymn number 15 in our hardbacked
hymnal. Brethren, we have met to worship.
And let's all stand together. Number 15. Brethren, we have met to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power
while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the spirit
of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round
you, slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell
is moving, can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and
our brothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help
us? Moses' sister aided him. Will you help the trembling mourners
who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all about the
Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners
till our God makes all things new. Then he'll call us home
to heaven. At his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself and
serve us with sweet manna all around. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in second Corinthians
chapter five this morning, continuing our study in this wonderful portion
of God's word. Pam Belarus put Brian back in
the hospital last night, and we went by this morning and visited
with him. He's in the hospital in Orange
City. I asked him what he wanted me
to tell you, and he said, please tell them that I love them and
they are my family. I was very encouraged to hear
him tell me of his assurance of his salvation. And he said,
I've just been sitting here thinking about what it's going to be like
not to be a sinner. anymore. And the Lord's given
him great grace. And if you get a chance to go
by and see him, I know he'll be encouraged to see you. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for the testimony that you've put into our brother's
heart. We thank you for the hope of salvation that you've given
to him. We ask father that you would send your Holy Spirit and
power to give us the same hope or that we would find ourselves
resting in and relying upon thy dear son and his accomplished
work of redemption. Lord, we pray for Pam and Charlie
and we ask Lord that you would continue to minister your grace
and mercy to them and For those that tend to Brian's physical
needs, we ask that you'd give them wisdom, knowledge to do
their task well, and we look to you, Lord, as the great physician. We pray now, Lord, that you would
open the eyes of our understanding, cause us, Lord, to see that which
can only be seen through the eye of faith. For we ask it in
Christ's name, Amen. I was talking to someone this morning
about that passage in 2 Kings chapter 6. We looked at it recently
where Elijah was surrounded by the Assyrian army and the Lord
had sent chariots of fire to protect him, but his servant
couldn't see them. And he interceded for his servant. He prayed for his servant. And
he said, Lord, open his eyes that he might see. That's my
hope this morning. The Lord would open our eyes
and enable us to see what the natural man cannot see. The verse
of scripture that I'm speaking of in particular is found in
verse 10 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. If you take this verse out
of the context of God's Word, out of the context of the gospel
of God's grace, out of the context of everything else that the Lord
has told us about union with Christ, then this one verse will
have one of two effects on you. It will either cast the honest
soul into deep despair, fearing that day when he stands before
God and not being able to say, with our brother Brian, I have
confidence of my salvation and I'm anticipating what it's going
to be like to not be a sinner anymore. Or, or, This verse will cause you to
be the most self-righteous Pharisee, pretending to be something that
you're not. And yet, I have found in my own
experience, in years gone by before the Lord opened my eyes,
before he enabled me to see who Christ really is. And the hope
that I have by virtue of my union with Christ, I have found this
verse to have both those effects on me. I have found it to cause
me to be in despair, and I found it to cause the inspiration of
pharisaical self-righteousness in my heart. I pray that neither
one of those things will be true of us this morning, but that
the Lord will cause us to see that which cannot be seen by
the natural man. We look upon that which cannot
be seen, for that which cannot be seen is eternal. It is spiritual. That which can
be seen is outward behavior. The dressing up of self-righteousness,
the whitewashed tomb can be seen. The cleaning up of the outside
of the cup can be seen. The way in which men try to prove
their salvation and their righteousness in competing with one another
to see who's more holy, those things can be seen. And if you
read this verse apart from the rest of what we know about scripture
and about the gospel, then you'll be stuck on only seeing that
which can be seen with the natural eye. Look what he says, for we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad. How does that verse strike you? Does it cause you to fear standing
before God and being judged by what you've done in your body,
whether it be good or bad? Boy, what despair, what hopelessness
there is in understanding that verse like that. Or does it cause
you to think, well, you know, I've not been so bad. I'm better
than most folks. I'm doing my best. I'm trying
hard and I think God's going to be pleased with my efforts. Now you're worse than being in
despair. Now you're holding on to your
own righteousness as the hope of your salvation. This verse
cannot mean either one of those things. Otherwise, we have to
deny everything else that we have clearly taught to us in
Scripture. Let's begin in verse 7. For we
walk by faith, not by sight. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for. Faith is not your contribution
to salvation. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
is a work of grace in the heart whereby God enables you to set
your affections on things above where Christ is seated at the
right hand of God, to trust Him for all your righteousness, to
look upon His death on Calvary's cross for the only reason why
God would be pleased to put away your sin. That's faith. Faith is looking to Christ, resting
in Christ, relying upon Christ. Walking by sight, that's looking
at my behavior, looking at comparing myself to myself, thinking that
I'm getting better, comparing myself to other men, thinking
that I am better, comparing myself to the law of God, believing
that to some degree I'm satisfying its demands. That's walking by
sight. We walk by faith, not by sight. Oh Lord, enable me to see that
which the natural man cannot see. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the spirit, for they are spiritually discerned. Wherefore, we labor that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. How am I going
to be accepted before God? Ephesians chapter 1 makes it
very clear. Where our acceptance before God
can only be found in Him. In Him, in the Beloved. Not having
my own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's the only way I'm
going to be accepted. Four, we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body according to that which he hath done, whether
it be good or bad. On this day of judgment, there
will be two responses to Christ. There will be screams of terror. and there will be shouts of joy. That's it. There's no in-between.
No in-between. If I'm going to be judged by
the things that are done in my body, I've got to have faith. Whatever's not a faith is sin.
I've got to be looking to Christ. I've got to have union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. His life has to be my life. That's the only hope that I have. And if I do have Him, then I
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
I've got a perfect standing before God. I've got nothing to fear. The law of God's been silenced.
It's been satisfied. My sin's been put away. Now we're
not, don't misunderstand, we're not advocating lawless living,
we're just saying that if I've got to stand before God and be
judged by what I've done, then I've got no hope. No hope whatsoever. Screams of terror are the only
thing that I have to look forward to. But if I'm found in Him,
If I have been given the gift of faith and I'm in union with
the Lord Jesus Christ, then what he did in his body is sufficient
to God for me. He's my hope. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord. You see that in the next verse?
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. We've got great
terror. God's a righteous God. It's a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. I need
for the anger of God for my sin to be put away. I need a propitiation. I need a sacrifice with whom
God is pleased so that I don't have to fear his anger anymore. The only hope I have is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. to believe on Him. But knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men, we plead with men. Oh, don't
be so presumptuous as to think that you're going to stand in
the presence of a holy God and be accepted based on anything
that you've ever done. anything. You can't stand before
God with your best efforts. Man at his very best state is
altogether vanity and all your righteousnesses. All your righteousnesses. I'm not talking about things
you're ashamed of. I'm not talking about the things that you're
afraid that, you know, God's gonna get me for that. I'm talking
about the things that people know about, things that people,
you know, you're the best thing you've ever done. If you've got
to stand before God, then you have nothing but terror. Nothing
but terror. God will have to condemn your
soul to a devil's hell for all eternity if he judges us based
on the best thing we've ever done. If the Lord should mark
iniquity, who can stand? Oh, Lord, we can't. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Oh, what do we say? Come to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest the hope of your soul on
Him. But we are made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your conscience. Now what Paul's talking about
is the gospel that he preaches. The gospel that he preaches.
What we're talking about is the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our union with Christ, the only
hope that we have to stand in the presence of a holy God is
to be found in him. And Paul said, I've been made
manifest to God and I pray that this message is manifest in your
conscience. In other words, when you hear
the truth, when you hear the truth, you know it's true. You
know it's true. There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. You're not saying, well, yeah, what he says is true,
but you got your objections. No, you know that Christ is all
and in all. He's my wisdom. He's my justification. He's my righteousness. He's my
sanctification. Don't make a work out of sanctification. Don't do it. You'll not stand
before God. Oh, there's such a progressive
sanctification is such a God dishonoring evil doctrine that
will leave you under the law. It'll leave you under the law. For we commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf,
that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance
and not in the heart. There are plenty of folks that
are glorying in their appearance. They're trusting in their righteousness. They're pretending to be something
that they're not. They're competing with other
religious folks to see who's holier than the next person.
And Paul said, we don't have to prove ourselves to you. We
don't have to promote ourselves. We don't have to commend ourselves
to you. We don't have to talk about what good lives we're living. The message that we preach, from
the heart tells you where our hope is. And if God's made you
to be His, you know that's the only place your hope can be.
And those who want to put, those who want to glory in appearances
and establish their righteousness by their outward behavior, we're
not just, we're not going to go there. We're not, that's what
Paul's saying, we're not going to go there. Verse 13. for whether we be beside
ourselves. That's what the folks outside
would say about Paul and they would say about us. You all are
crazy. You're cult. You're just weird. You've separated yourself from
the rest of Christianity and you've made yourself to be beside
yourself. And what Paul says, if they want
to say we're beside ourselves, then so be it. God's made us
that way. This message that we believe,
this gospel we preach, it came to our hearts from God. And so
if they want to accuse us of that, then we'll take that accusation
because it came from the Lord. And whether we be sober, In other
words, whether or not we're telling the truth, whether or not this
gospel message of the perfect sacrifice, accomplished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ being all our righteousness before
God is true, and it's sober, and it's no, it's not to be,
then it's for your cause. It's for your cause. And that's
who it's for. The gospel's not for everybody.
It's for those who understand it as a sobering message of free
grace. Free grace. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge, if one died for all, then we're
all dead. Here's my hope. I was crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but it's Christ that liveth in me. The life that I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and died
for me. When Christ died, I died. I have
fellowship in his suffering, and he's the firstborn among
many brethren. Therefore, by his resurrection, I'm justified
before God. I'm raised to walk a new life
in Christ Jesus. And it's the love of Christ.
It's the love of Christ. It's not my love for Him. It's
His love for me. Do I love Him? Yes. But only
because He first loved me and my love for Him is so faulty
and feeble. I'm certainly not going to trust
my love for Him for my salvation. But I can trust His love for
me. His perfect love for me. I can trust that for all my salvation. There is a judgment seat to which
we'll all have to stand. We'll find ourselves either in
Christ or out of Christ. If we're in Christ, then there'll
be nothing but shouts of joy. Enter in to the kingdom prepared
for you from everlasting, my good and faithful servant. and
will rejoice in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
for all our salvation. For those horrible, terrible,
dreadful words, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for
I never knew you. I never knew you. You were never
mine. You trusted in your own righteousness
for your salvation. You didn't trust Christ. That's the judgment seat of Christ.
And knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, come to
Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust Christ. Because when the tree falls, if it falls to the north or if
it falls to the south, wherever it falls, there it shall lie. Today is the day of salvation.
Come right now, just like you are. Just like you are. Do you know anything about the
love of Christ constraining you? Drawing you? Lord, it's an irresistible
love. You can't resist the love of
Christ. Not if He constrains you. Verse 15, and that he died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Our life belongs to Christ. We've
been raised to walk a new life in Christ. We walk a walk of
faith. We look to Christ. We trust in Christ. We rely upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't mistake this by thinking,
well, you know, I need to look for some improvement in my life
to make sure that I'm a child of God. You do that, you're looking
away from Christ. You're looking to yourself. You look to Christ. And you'll not live unto yourself. Now that means you won't look
for your life in yourself. You got that? You won't look
for your life in yourself. You'll look to Him for your life. But unto Him, wherefore henceforth
know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth we know Him no more. The Lord
Jesus Christ was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were cursed by the law. He lived His life here in
the likeness of sinful flesh. Men didn't even know that He
was God. They looked at Him, they talked to Him, they touched
Him. They didn't know that the Creator of God was in their presence. That's how much like a man He
was. And that's what Paul's saying. There was a time when we saw
Him in His fleshly body living in this world. and the only fellowship
we had with him was when we were in close proximity to that fleshly
body. Now Paul's not talking about
himself, there's no evidence in scripture that Paul had any
relationship with Christ in his worldly ministry, earthly ministry
here. He's talking about the church, he's talking about the
apostles. He's saying there was a time when we had fellowship
with him in his body. But the only fellowship we enjoyed
is when we were in close proximity to that body. That's why he said
to Mary, Mary, it's expedient. I've not yet gone to the Father.
He told the disciples, he said, it's expedient for you that I
go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come.
But when he comes, when he comes, he will convict the world of
sin. because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my father, and of judgment because the prince of this world
has been judged. And his resurrected body is now
seated at the right hand of God. And He has sent His Spirit in
power so that our fellowship with Him now is not based on
what we see with the physical eye like it was with the apostles
when He was here in His physical body. That's why I started this
by saying, you've got to have eyes of faith. You've got to
see something that you can't touch. You can't handle it. You can't see it. He's comparing our Lord's earthly
ministry to his spiritual ministry now. Therefore, verse 17, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. When God puts you in Christ,
everything changes. Everything changes in terms of
what you believe and what you see. You see yourself for the
first time, like Job saw himself when he said, Behold, I am vile. You see yourself as a sinner.
You didn't see yourself as a sinner before. You saw yourself as having
spots of leprosy and problems with this sin and that sin, but
you didn't know that in you, that is in your flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. You didn't know you were a sinner.
You didn't know that you were leprous from the top of your
head to the bottom of your feet until the Lord cause you to see
your position in Christ. And now for the first time in
your life, you see yourself not comparing yourself to yourself
or to other men or to the law, but now you see yourself in light
of His glory and you know that everything about you falls short
of the glory of God. You see yourself for the first
time in your life as a sinner. A sinner. Do you believe yourself to be
in need of more grace than anyone else? You don't look down your
self-righteous nose at other men, and you don't say with that
publican, God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other men. You don't
look at someone who's in some sort of bad shape and say, but
for the grace of God, there go I. You don't say that. You know
what bad shape you're in. And you know how dependent you
are upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness before
God. Everything changes, doesn't it?
Let me say this. People can debate limited atonement
and irresistible grace and particular redemption and perseverance and
You know, the sanctification, they can debate all those subjects
all they want. The problem is, if a person doesn't
believe the Gospels, it's because God's not yet made them to be
a sinner. God makes you to be a sinner.
You don't stand in judgment of anyone. All things become new. You now
see the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope before God, and
all your hope, and all your righteousness, and all of your justification,
all your sanctification. You see God as being holy, holy. He's got a standard of righteousness
that you cannot even come close to. All things become new. You have a love for God's people.
You've got a love for the gospel. You've got faith in his word. You believe everything the Bible
says. Everything. Everything. If you're in Christ, all things
have become new. Everything. Your relationship with this world. The problem with your sin is
how much you hate it. And the problem with this world
is how much you love it. You hate how much you love things,
don't you? God makes you to be a sinner.
And how attached you are to these things. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Everything. Well, I don't want
to become new. I like where I'm at right now. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Oh, ask God to give you a new
heart. Ask Him to cause you to come
to Christ. If he does, you'll know what
verse 18 means, and all things are of God. Your ability to believe is of
God. Your understanding of your sinfulness is of God. Your trusting
Christ is of God. Your stranger in this world is of
God. Everything is of God. You don't
take credit for anything. Nothing. Lord, had you not made
me a new creature, I'd be just like I was. It's all of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given
us the ministry of reconciliation. Now, what's the difference? What's
the opposite of reconciliation? Emnity. You and I come into this
world at enmity with God. Our children are at enmity with
God. Until the Lord reconciles them,
gives them ears to hear the gospel. That's their natural state. Dead
in their trespasses and sins. They need to be reconciled. God's
got to give them ears to hear. He hath given us the ministry
of reconciliation. That's the message of reconciliation.
That's preaching the gospel that men might be reconciled to God. And if the Lord doesn't give
them faith to believe the gospel, they will remain at enmity with
God for all eternity. and stand before the judgment
seat of Christ with no hope and no advocate and no sin bearer,
no substitute. To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. The only way that you and I are
going to be able to stand before the judgment seat of Christ is if He does not impute to us
our trespasses. He's got to charge somebody else
for what I've done in my body. He has committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. Oh, be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God. Now, then, we are ambassadors
for Christ's sake. Now, an ambassador does not have
the liberty to negotiate anything other than what the King has
given him to say. You can't. An ambassador is presented
with a situation that the King hasn't given him. He's got to
get back in touch with the King. You know, what do you want me
to do about this? All I am is an ambassador and a voice of
one crying in the wilderness who would just tell you what
God says. The King is the one who has the authority. We are
but ambassadors. The question that all we have
to ask is, is what I'm hearing from that man what God says?
Is it what God says? As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's head, be reconciled to God. Gospel preachers don't say to
God's people, you know, there's nothing you can do. Just wait
until you get zapped from heaven. Just hope that maybe something
happens and that maybe somewhere along the line, God will have
mercy on you. We don't preach a fatalistic message like that.
We say to men, come to Christ. Come to Christ, just like you
are. We understand that your ability
to come is only by the grace of God. But nevertheless, the
means by which God... Well, just read the verse. Now
then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech
you by us. We pray you, we plead with you. In Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God. How am I going to be reconciled
to God? For he, God the Father, hath made him. Notice the verb
to be is in italics. It doesn't belong there. It's
not as if Christ was made sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was charged
with all the sins of all of God's people. He bore them in his body
upon that tree to the extent that he felt the full shame of
it. And God the Father, because of
his holiness, was forced to turn his back on his own son. He forsook
the Lord Jesus Christ because Christ became sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. There's the only way you can
be reconciled is if Christ bears all your sin and you bear all
His righteousness. And that's only going to happen
by faith. only by faith. Oh God, give me faith. Open the eyes of my understanding.
Cause me to come unto Thee. Alright, let's take a break.