All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. 2 Corinthians, chapter
5. I'd like to deal this evening
with verses 11 through 15. And when we left off last time,
the Apostle Paul had declared the surety of a day of judgment. He declared in verse 10, for
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And the reason that we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ is that everyone may
receive the things done in his body whether, I'm sorry, according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. So we know we're all going to
stand before God. We're going to stand before God.
The books are going to be opened for everyone that has never been
found, written in the book of life, and the book of life itself
should be opened in every name, written in that book. will be
those that Christ has answered, put away their guilt. And so
the Apostle Paul says in verse 11, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences,
knowing therefore the exceeding justice that shall be the standard
of that day. And knowing the reverence that
is due unto the Lord, the one before whom we must all stand,
Paul said, we sincerely desire to persuade men to cast themselves
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul knew, as all
believers know, that salvation is only in Christ Jesus the Lord,
that He alone is able to save to the uttermost them that come
unto God by Him, seeing that the Lord Himself ever liveth
to make intercession for Him. And that all that come to him
by faith, that come as needy, helpless sinners, Paul knew that
the Lord had said it, I will in no wise cast out. So Paul says we persuade men. Then he says, but we are made
manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your
consciences. We're preachers of the gospel. We preach to men attempting,
sincerely striving, and knowing all by grace that we purpose
to preach the gospel and pray that God teaches and persuades
them knowing that the only persuasion is going to be by the Spirit
of God through the preaching of the gospel. I don't have the
power, no man has the power to persuade men. I don't have the
power to speak to a dead heart and cause that heart to hear.
I can't do that. When Paul says, we persuade men,
we're taking the only means that God has declared that he's going
to bless. This is it. We're not going to
try anything else. I don't have any other game plan
like the world's religion does. If this doesn't work, then we'll
try this. Or if this doesn't work, we'll try that. There are
two scare tactics. Paul said, we persuade men. And
the only way that we know to preach the gospel, we don't try
to frighten people into making empty professions. They're going
to come to nothing. If I can talk you into something,
humanly speaking, somebody else can talk you into something else.
But with a heart of tenderness toward those that oppose themselves,
we exhort men and women, cast yourselves upon Christ. Come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. the Lord to do what only the
Lord can do. And all the while we know that
unless the Lord does it, it's going to avail nothing. But if
those who hear, when he said, but we are made manifest, he
said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,
but we are made manifest unto God. What was he saying when
he said that? We persuade men. We're made manifest unto God. He said this. He said some can
listen to what we're doing. Somebody can listen to someone
preaching. And they can make accusations
and say, well, you're doing that for ulterior motives. Paul says,
if those who hear us preach doubt the sincerity of our hearts and
our actions, thinking that our motives are less than God honoring. He said, the Lord who knows our
intent is the one before whom we must stand. And we trust that
our intent is also known by those that hears us. He said, look,
we can be accused of things. We can be accused of being hucksters
and shysters and money grabbers and just trying to get people
over our side. And he said, we can be accused
of anything. But, he said, the Lord himself, but we are made
manifest unto God. He said, God knows. God knows. And I trust also that we're made
manifest in your conscience too. We said in verse 12, we commend
not ourselves, again unto you. Here Paul was continuing to qualify
what he had just said about his sincerity of heart to preach
to the church at Carnes. He said it wasn't because he
was trying to praise himself, boast of himself, boast of his
character, boast of his talents. He said what we're doing, he
said, we give you occasion to glory on our behalf. that you
may have somewhat to answer them, which glory in appearance and
not in heart." He said, I'm saying that I'm writing these things
to you so that you might realize that when false professors come,
and we're not here to defend ourselves, and they're saying
to you, well, Paul is this, that, and the other. He's not God-honored.
He said, I'm telling you what I'm telling you out of sincerity
of my heart. We're striving, praying God bless
the message of the gospel and that God give new hearts. And he said, the Lord knows our
sincerity. But he said, I pray you do too.
But he said, I'm telling you this so that when others come
and accuse us, that you might have somewhat to answer them. I'm giving you something to come
back with. I'm giving you an answer that you can come back
with. Those that glory in appearance
and not in heart, they do what they do, to appease their own
consciences, They do what they do to be seen of men and do for
the praise of men. Everything they do or say is
for outward appearance and it doesn't come from a new heart,
Paul says. And when they come and accuse
us, I'm giving you an answer. You might not persuade them,
but when they come and accuse us, he said, I'll give you something
to settle your heart. that Almighty God has called
us to preach the gospel. And he said, I'm telling you,
God knows our hearts and I pray you do too. He said in verse
13, for whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. Whether we be sober, it's for
your cause. He said, I know what it is to
be accused of being beside myself, being a madman. being somebody
that's, you know, insane. He said, I know what it is, Acts
26, 24. As he thus spake for himself, Paul was preaching. Festus said with a loud voice,
Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee
mad. Obviously, Paul's love and enthusiasm
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and his love for the gospel
led some people to think that he'd gone over the top. Paul, listen now, you're just
kind of taking this thing just a little bit too far. You're
acting as though you have absolutely nothing else on your mind. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. To die is gain. I know that the
world has no love for the God of the Bible. And forsaking all
for God's glory is something that's just foreign to the natural
mind. But Paul was telling the people,
he said, listen now, verse 13, whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God. If we're mad or fanatics, he
said, like many accuse us of being, it's for God's glory.
He said it's out of a heart made willing to follow Him and it's
not for show. It's not for our own glory. Our
attitude and actions are concerning our desire for obedience to Him. That's what it is. If we're,
you know, beside ourselves, if we're mad men, whatever you want
to call us. He said, well then I'd rather
be accused of that and know that I'm being sincere unto the Lord.
Time is short. The older Paul got, like every
believer, realized this life's a vapor. And it's going to be
over. I think about our dear brother,
Brother Don, that recently died. I love him, appreciate him so
much. And people would tell him, say,
you know what, you just, you know, you just, don't you ever
slow down, don't you ever do this. Well, Paul, he was doing
what he wanted to do. That's what he wanted to do.
That's what he wanted to do. And if I'm a fanatic, well, you
know, I'm gonna be a fanatic as unto the Lord. But then he
said, whether we be sober, he said, if what we're doing is
we're being sober-minded, others may call us fanatics, but if
we're sober-minded, sound in our thinking and our zealousness
to follow after Christ and preach the gospel to all men as he's
commissioned us to do, he said, it's for your benefit. He said,
I'm doing this for your cause, for your good. And he said, the
most beneficial thing that any preacher can do for anybody is
preach the gospel to them. You've been the best friend that
you possibly can be to somebody. And if people think, well, you
know, you're just a little fanatical. Well, Paul said, OK, well, call
me what you want to call me. He said, but I'm doing this for
the glory of God and I'm doing it for the good of God's people.
Then he said in verse 14, for the love of Christ constraineth
us. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. All believers, especially
those called and taught and commissioned to preach the gospel, are men
who are motivated by the sweetest constraint, the strongest constraint
that they could possibly be under. Their love for Christ and Christ's
love for them. You know, you'll do things because
of love that you'd never do because of law. You know? If you do something
because of law, just because, you know, you got to, well, you're
going to resent it. You're going to resent the one
that's trying to make you do it. But if you're doing what
you're doing out of love, think of what we do for each other,
for our spouses, for our brethren. And we do it because we love
them. And you want to do it. You don't
feel as though that it's a burdensome thing. But the love of Christ, the love
of Christ. You think of the love of Christ
to His people. His love is eternal. There has
never been a time that He did not love His people. He knew them. They had always
been in Him. Chosen in Him from before the
foundation of the world. And He knew every one of them.
He said, I know my sheep. I know them. And He loves them. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. There's never been a time that
His affection was not set upon Him. And so that love of Christ,
it's eternal. And because of who He is, the
Word, God, Man, Mediator, His love is effectual. What does
that mean? He got the job done. He came
into this world made of a woman, made under the law, made flesh,
and accomplished, He finished the work. Why? Love. He loved. He loved his
people. He loved his father. He loved
his commission. He loved their redemption. He loved everything. And his
love is sacrificial. That's love. Love gives. Love just gives. It gives what
you got. At what point do you cut off,
if you have it within your power, to help a friend, one you love,
at what point do you cut them off? And you say, you know what,
I've reached my limit on you. I'm not, you know, that's not
love. No, you give till you ain't got
no more. So men and women called of God are not motivated. They're not motivated by the
fear of hell. Believers don't do what they
do because, you know, I don't want to go to hell. They're not
motivated by the praise of men. Man, a believer, he just don't
hear much praise from men. You know, you hear thankfulness
from other believers, love from other believers, but he's not
motivated, you know, to let people come and pat him on the back
and tell him. They're not motivated by their
desires for rewards. Well, I think if I just keep
doing what I'm doing, the Lord's going to, you know, He's going
to look at this, you know, see all the bad I did, and He's going
to see all the good I did, and if the good I did outweighs the
bad. That's foolishness. That's not what motivates a believer. They do what they do out of a
heart made sensitive for Lord Jesus Christ, for God's love
for them, their love for Him, for God's grace and mercy that
He's shown them. Consider again His love for us
as people. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. He chose us in Christ to be His
people. Now you think, you look around
and you see, as far as we know, that there is a remnant. There's just a remnant. Look at all the people that we
know, that we deal with, that we see in this community in which
we live and where you think, I am what I am by the grace of
God. I'd be doing the same thing other
people, but that He loved me and chose me and that the Lord
Jesus Christ, God Himself, God, did not leave this into the hands
of someone else, but the Word was made flesh, and Christ, the
only begotten of the Father, came into this world, and made
Himself answerable to every demand of the law, and answered it,
every jot and every tittle of it. and then bore, and I get
so far over my head here, I can't even imagine, I believe this,
but I can't even begin to wrap it around my little fickle brain,
that he bore every infraction, every sin, every transgression,
of everyone that God had given him. And just think of the ones
for us, just one, just one person. There's no limit to the disrespectful
thoughts that I think and the attitudes and the words that
I say. One. But all of them for the entirety
of this life on this earth from the creation of man to the second
coming of Christ that he bore, all of their sins. made them
his own, these are mine, these are mine. I'm taking them from
him and they're mine, mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my
head. And then he bore them and he made himself answerable before
God and God's law and where the law found sin, though he knew
no sin personally, he was made what we are, made sin and the
law God had to judge him. God's just. He had to. He had
to. There was no option. He had to
do it. And he died. He gave himself
for the sheep. Why? He loved them. He loved
them. And he could not let them perish.
And then the Spirit of God in regeneration gives them a new
heart. And it's a heart made sensitive
and it's a heart of compassion and love. And now it gives them
new ears, and now they hear the voice of the Savior. They come
to Him, follow Him, trust Him, obey Him, because they love Him.
He robes them in righteousness, and they're His. They're His,
and there's that mutual bond of love, the love of Christ.
Constraineth us. And then I think about that passage
in Psalm 40 verse two, he brought me up out of a horrible pit,
a cistern, a cistern or a dungeon of horrors, out of a horrible
pit, out of the miry clay, the dregs that are at the bottom,
usually of a pit right here that holds the sinner bound fast.
And he set my feet, upon a rock. He set my feet upon that which
alone is stable, substantial, eternal, the rock himself, and
established my goings. He appointed and made prosperous
my steps. He's bringing us to himself and
ordering our steps, making them prosperous, you know, convicting
us, chastening us, teaching us, growing us in grace, Why? Because he loved us. He loved
us. You think how you raise your
children. You just, you know, we always
can have some regrets on what we did. I should have done this.
I should have done that. But he who knows us and loves us
is perfect. He knows exactly, you know. So
here's the love of God, the love of Christ for his own. He finished
the work of their redemption. They're accepted. in Him, and
the Father now sees them, ever been in Him and now sees them
regenerated, robed, their names written in heaven. His love for
us, His elect, is our motivation. We don't do anything for our
salvation, but I can tell you this, works, I mean faith, without
works, without a reaction, is dead. It would be just like if
I said to somebody, that corpse that's laying right there, that
corpse is alive. Do you know how I know that that
corpse would be alive? It wouldn't be a corpse. You
know how that body, I know it, it moved. Something happened. There was some action. There
was a reaction. There is a motivation for our
love for Him. There's a motivation for our
love for Him. What is it? His love for us. That is our
motivation. When the Lord appeared to His
disciples on the Sea of Tiberias, He asked Peter three times. He
said, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Simon grieved, surely
thinking of his own unfaithfulness, and declared the truth that every
vessel of God's mercy, made sensitive of his own failings, admits out
of a new heart. He said, Lord, thou knowest all
things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Now you think for just a second on yourself. I think on myself.
Has there been a time that we've, you know, Been unfaithful? What
time have we not been unfaithful? But has there been a time since
the Lord has called you out of darkness that you didn't love
the Lord? No. He's given us a heart to know
Him, to love Him, made willing in the day of His power. So every
remembrance of past, present sins renews the sorrow. of a true believer and causes
him to appeal to the mercy and omniscience of the Lord, he who
knows all things, the secrets of his heart. And Peter said,
Lord, you know, you know, you know, you know that I love you. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, verse 14, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. The love of Christ constraineth
us to love and to follow Him because we know, we know, we
judge this to be the truth, that He died for all. That is, all given Him by the
Father. All sorts of men, Jews and Gentiles,
male, female, bond-free, we were all, we judge this to be so. And because He died, That had
to have meant that we were dead in trespasses and sins and needed
redemption. We judge that. If one died for
all, then we were all dead. We know that. Ephesians 2, 1
and 2, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world. according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. So Christ's love for us and to
us, when rightly judged or considered, is going to have an effect upon
us. when we, by the grace of God,
conclude that we were all lost and undone, dead in trespasses
and sins, ruined and slaves to sin, and no heart and no power
to deliver ourselves from the dregs of our misery, we must
have been in this condition forever had He not died. So we therefore
shouldn't consider ourselves, but Christ, to be the end of
our living and our actions. Because we judge this, if one
died, then all were dead. The Apostle Paul says, I know. He said, I'm judging this to
be a fact. I was dead, and the effects of
that old deadness is still with me. I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. I desire to be faithful
to him. How to perform that which is
good I find not. So this heart made pure in regenerating
mercy and grace is quick to realize that sin still remains I see
the beauty of holiness and the excellence of the law, and I
earnestly desire to obey, but the whole good on which my new
man is fully bent, I admit that in my flesh, I don't do it. And it's ever springing, but
he said the love of Christ constrains me. Though I admit I can't, I
judge that he died, he died for all, and all were dead, and I
admit it. And he said, I love it. Therefore,
in conclusion for today, that, verse 15, 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. Now here, Paul
is setting forth, as I said in conclusion, the reason why. Every believer conducts himself
concerning his love for Christ and his attitude in the preaching
of the gospel. He said, the Lord who came to
save us, came to redeem us, he did so that we might live. But
he did so that we might live, here in verse 15, that we which
live should not henceforth live unto ourselves. What is he saying? It's not about us. That's what
he's saying. He said it's not about us. He
came that we should henceforth live not unto ourselves. We should not. We should not.
Our redemption and our salvation was not something accomplished
without a total commitment by the God of all grace and therefore
it is totally disrespectful for us who are the recipients of
his mercy and compassion to do anything less than what we can
or should, I think, about that woman with the alabaster box.
How much glory Do you think she thought in her mind that she
had rendered unto herself? None. None. She was doing what
she was doing for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. She was
reprimanded for it. She slipped in there. She tried
to come in without heyday and fanfare All this kind of stuff. She broke that box and poured
that ointment on him. And they got on to her, told
her, you fanatic, you just, you know. She was not in her mind
living unto herself. She wasn't. I believe that with
all my heart. I believe it. Because of what
the Lord told her. He told her, he said, I'll paraphrase
it here. He said, you leave her alone.
Now you just hush. This woman has done what she's
done unto my death, unto my burial. And she's done what she could.
And that's the heart. This is what Paul says, that
he died for all, that they which live, that is spiritually live,
should not henceforth live unto themselves. As I said a moment
ago, It ain't about us, but unto Him which died for them and rose
again. The honor of Him who died and
was raised for us is deserving of our faithfulness. He's deserving
of our obedience. And we struggle with everything
we do. Paul said, I know, listen, I'm
accused of being a fanatic. I understand that. But I'm doing
it because it's what I want to do for the glory of God. I'm
being sober-minded. I know God knows it and I pray
that you do too. He died, He said, buried and
rose again that we don't live unto ourselves. He said in 1
Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, What? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have
of God? Do you realize where you got
that new man? Do you realize that you're the
recipient of being a new creation, created in righteousness? Do
you know that you are the temple of the living God and that you're
not your own? You don't own you. He said you're
bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Turn over to Titus
chapter two. This will be our last verse for
today. Titus chapter two. I'm gonna say it like this. I'm
gonna try to be as plain and honest. We owe him. We owe him obedience. We owe
him. Paul said, you know, when we've
done all can do. He said, we're just unprofitable
servants. He said, we've done that which
was our duty. It's our duty to serve him, not
live to ourselves. Titus 2, 11 to 15, for the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. And of course, we don't have
to qualify this every time, but I do. all men, all types of men,
Jews, Gentiles, not all men without distinction, teaching us that
denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. Looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority and let no man despise thee. When we think of what the Lord
has done for us. And we'll all admit, we don't,
we can't, we don't know the depth of it, I know that. But when
we consider what He's done for us out of His love for us, and
if He loved us while we were yet sinners in rebellion against
Him and died for us, think of that, the sweetness now of our
realization of what he's done, and the honor that is due unto
him, and how little we find ourselves doing it. The will is present,
as I said, but how to accomplish that, which I should, I don't
find that. So Paul was not deterred by people
calling them a fanatic and, you know, do you think that in that
day, do you think any believer will ever regret whatever by
the grace of God that they did do unto the Lord's people, which
was to do it unto Him? Do you think he'll ever regret
doing what they've done? You know, you think, oh, I've
done so little, I did so little, but how much I would want to,
how much I desire to, I pray that the Lord teach us something
and show us. We don't exhort people out of
these scriptures like that to browbeat them or anything, but
we just tell them what God has to say and pray that the Lord
bless it. And I pray that the Lord does bless it to His glory
and our good. Amen.