Pastor Don Fortner, Grace Baptist
Church, Danville, Kentucky. told us this morning or told
me that I think in the morning you said that a Sunday morning
service that you've only been here once or twice on Sunday
morning services. So for him to be with us this
weekend is a real honor and a real joy. Brother Don, you come preach
for us. I can't tell you how honored
I am to be here, how honored I am that your pastor asked me
to have this place in helping you and joining you in the celebration
of God's goodness to you, to this assembly, to his kingdom
in our generation. I'm highly honored to be here.
I cherish the friendship God's given us Forty-three years now. Forty-three years. I met your
former pastor, Brother Scott, in the fall of 1972 and I told
some of the men this morning that Scott had his way of doing
things and it was only his way. We met out in Memphis, Tennessee,
and he asked before we left, he said, would you come preach
for me sometime? I said, I'd be glad to. And I
didn't see him or hear from him, and he was at a meeting in Charleston,
Randolph Street Church, Brother Bob McNeil asked me to preach
for him, and several of you folks were there, and he handed me
the bulletin. Back then, you all had your Easter
conferences starting on Thursday, and I had me scheduled to lead
off on Thursday night at 7 o'clock. And I said, Brother Scott, have
we talked about this? He said, well, you said you'd
come preach for me sometime. You're not too busy, are you? And that was
in Easter of 1973. Every year in the nation of Israel,
God ordained that they commence the year with the celebration
of redemption in the ordinance of the Passover. He ordained
that the Passover be kept, and that that day when God brought
them out of Egypt be the first month of the year to them, and
that each year begin with the celebration of redemption, with
fathers explaining to their sons and daughters how God had brought
them out of Egypt, how God had accomplished salvation for them.
And I want us to do something similar tonight. Turn with me,
if you will, to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I believe God's given
me a message for you. May he give me the grace to deliver
it. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 11. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. We persuade men. Knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. I want to persuade you who
do not yet know our God, you who are yet rebels to King Jesus,
you who yet refuse to bow to him as Lord. you who yet refuse
to trust Him as your Savior and your Redeemer. I want to persuade
you to put down your weapons of warfare against God and raise
up the white flag of surrendering your soul to Jesus Christ the
Lord. I want to persuade you to come
to God by faith in His Son. I want to persuade you to believe
on the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. and you who are gods
you who are gods I want to persuade you in this time of refreshing
the new year is always a time of renewal I want to persuade
you to renewed consecration to the Son of God renewed devotion
to God our Savior I spoke to the men this morning somewhat
in this regard. We need constantly, constantly
to be reminded and to remind ourselves that we're not our
own. We've been bought with a price.
Let us therefore glorify God in our body and in our spirit,
which are God's and not ours, so that to our dying day, we
give ourselves relentlessly in renewed consecration to our Redeemer. Old John Newton was asked when
he was an old man why he didn't retire. And he said, what? Shall the old slave trader cease
while he has breath in his body to tell sinners of the riches
of God's grace? Oh, let us never, never, never
cease to give ourselves to our Redeemer. He who is utterly devoted to
you, my brother, my sister. Can you imagine that? The Son
of God, God our Savior, is utterly devoted to you. Utterly devoted
to you. Completely devoted to you. Shall not we be utterly devoted
to Him? What little response that is
from us. I want to be like Caleb. When
he was 80 years old, he said to Moses, give me this land. I'll take it today. This is what
God's given me to do. To my dying breath, God give
me grace. to set my heart to my Redeemer,
to set my heart to your cause, to your gospel, to the increase
of your kingdom, to the fragrance of your kingdom, and the spread
of your name in the earth. I want to persuade your pastor
and this one who's preaching to you to give ourselves to the
blessed work of the gospel. I've been doing this a while
now. I've been preaching the gospel of God's grace since I
was 17 years old. I want today to give myself to
this work like I never had before. I have just a few days left at
best. I want to give myself to the
service of the master and I want you to do the same. We persuade
men It is my awesome responsibility and my great privilege to stand
here and speak to you, eternity-bound immortal souls, in the name of
God Almighty as his ambassador, to feed, comfort, instruct, reprove,
rebuke, and edify his saints. and to call sinners to life and
faith in Him, to be reconciled to Him before He crushes your
soul into hell in His fierce anger. I want by the grace and
power of God the Holy Spirit to persuade you to be reconciled
to God who are yet enemies in your own minds to our God. But
my task is too great for me. I recognize I can't persuade
anybody to anything with regard to godliness and faith and commitment
to the Redeemer. Only God the Holy Spirit can
turn our hearts and persuade us to follow hard after the Savior. Only God the Holy Ghost can draw
us and cause us to run after our Redeemer. I pray that he
will do so. Let me call your attention to
some things here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Just hold your Bibles
open on your laps. You'll find the burden of my
message in verses 11 and 20. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. I can't do it. And I'm fully
aware of your own inability to heed the instruction of God.
And yet it is my business to persuade, to pressure you by
the preaching of the gospel to believe on the Son of God and
to give yourself to Him. And it is your business and your
responsibility to heed that which God commands. Now look at verse
20. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. I stand here as God's ambassador
to you. I don't take that lightly. A
man sent of God with the message to deliver to you that you must
hear and you must heed. But I'm not just a messenger
boy. I sometimes hear a fellow say,
I'm just God's messenger. It doesn't matter to me what
you do with the message. It matters to me. I want to meet you face to face
at the bar of God one day. It matters greatly to me that
you hear and heed the message God's given me. I can't think
of anything more important than these three things are on my
mind right now. First, the one who sent me. Hold
your hands here in 2 Corinthians. Turn back to Jeremiah. Jeremiah
chapter 1. I want you to see this. Jeremiah
chapter 1. I'm far less confident about
most things than I was when I was a young man. But I'm confident of the one who sent me to do
this work. I'm confident that God has called
and gifted me for the work of the ministry and sent me to preach
the gospel of his grace. Look at Jeremiah chapter 1 verse
4. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, before I
formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest
forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Look at verse 7. The Lord said
unto me, say not, I am a child. Don't tell me I can't do this.
For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee. And whatsoever
I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the
Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto
me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. The one who sent
me is God himself. Jehovah, our triune God, he who
redeemed me, he who rules the universe, has sent me with his
message. And I'm confident of the message
he's given me. Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel. Christ has sent me into this
world to spend my life preaching the gospel. He sent me to Fairmont,
West Virginia on this occasion to preach the gospel of his grace
to you. You have been privileged to hear
it for longer than many sitting here have been alive. You've
been privileged to hear it almost for as long as I have been alive.
I told the men this morning, I've read a little bit of history
and I've been around for a while. I can count on my two hands every
church known to me, there may be others, but everyone known
to me and I don't have to use both hands to do it. And I don't
have to use all fingers on one hand to do it. The number of
churches that have been blessed of God to stand for more than
one generation to succeed through more than one pastor, believing
and preaching the gospel of God's free grace. That's a rare blessing. How blessed of God you are to
hear the gospel of his grace. And I'm confident that he sent
me here to preach that same gospel to you. And I'm confident that
he has sent you into this world to proclaim that same gospel
to the end of your days, generation after generation. And any departure
from the gospel of God's free grace is a departure from the
captain of your salvation, a departure from God himself, a departure
from light into darkness. And I recognize the heavy, heavy
weight of the fact that I'm speaking, preaching the gospel to you who
are men and women with immortal souls who will spend eternity either
in the bliss of heaven's glory in the presence of God our Savior
are in the torments of hell's darkness, banished from light
and life, and all that is good forever to the everlasting damnation
of your souls. My prayer and my heart's desire
to God for you is that you shall be saved. Now, this is what I'm
doing. I'm calling for you to cease
rebellion and come to the Savior. I'm calling for you who are gods
to again surrender your life to the Redeemer. I've lifted my hand to God, Jephthah
said, I can't go back. I've lifted my hand to God. Like 49 years ago, my soul, 49
years ago almost, I lifted my hand to God in waters of baptism. And I said, I'm yours. I can't
go back. Nothing has changed. Nothing
has changed. I call on you to, again, give
yourselves to the Redeemer. And I'm going to offer you five
or six reasons for doing so. Hold your Bibles open again here
at 2 Corinthians 5. First, my appeal. Because of
the immortality of your soul back up to verse 18 of chapter
4 The Apostle says we look not
at the things which are seen but at the things which are not
seen For the things which are seen are temporal Look around you for a minute
Mamas and daddies, turn and look at your babies. Look at one another. The things that you see, these
relationships, dear as they are, dear as they are, are just temporal. Just temporal. This woman's been
married to me for nearly 46 years. Just temporal. Soon, I'm going
to say goodbye to her, she's going to say goodbye to me. Just
temporal. And that's the most precious
of things you see. All the other stuff that gets
your attention, don't let it have too much attention. It's
just temporal. Your house, your property, your
possessions, your riches, your wealth, your poverty, your want,
your need, all of this is just temporary. Your health, your
sickness, your strength, your weakness, just temporal. Just
temporal. The things that are seen are
temporal. We live in a world where everything
is rapidly vanishing away. Don't build your nest in any
of the trees of these woods. They're all marked for burning. Set your heart upon the Redeemer. We look not at things which are
seen, but of the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but all the things that are not
seen, they're eternal. We're moving rapidly to a world
where everything is eternal. Whatever your state is when you
leave this world, that shall be your state forever. Whatever
your state is, be it a life of union with Christ Jesus the Lord,
or be it death and darkness. Whatever your state is when you
leave this world, that will be your state forever. All right,
read on. Verse 1, chapter 5. We know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, We have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Imagine that. Imagine that. In these verses,
the apostle Paul, written by divine inspiration, shows us
what the believer's attitude ought to be toward life and death
and the issues of warning to all who are yet without Christ.
It tells us three things here with regard to all believers. We live in the expected hope
of immortality. As soon as this earthly house
of this tabernacle is dissolved, What a fit description. This
earthly house of this temporary pupty. As soon as this is dissolved,
then we have a building, a house, not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. Immediately, immediately we enter
into everlasting glory with Christ our Savior. Look at this, verse
2. For in this we grow. earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."
We're not anxious just to escape trouble. We often have pity parties
for ourselves, you know. Well I do wish I could die. That's
not what he's talking about. No, no, no, no. Not burden that
we might be unclothed. Burden that we might be clothed
upon. Burden that we might have the
perfection of our Redeemer in the sweet experience of it. clothed upon with the very immortality
with which the Son of God, our Savior, is clothed today as he
sits in glory. The apostle also tells us here
that our faith in Christ gives us confidence and assurance with
regard to these things. Look at verse 5. Now he that
hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God. That sure reads
strange, doesn't it? It looks to me like it ought
to read, he that hath wrought for us the selfsame thing is
God. But that's not what it says. It says, he that hath wrought
us for the selfsame thing is God. That is, God has worked
in us to give us this hope of glory and to prepare us for heavenly
glory. He also had given unto us the
earnest of the spirit, the pledge, the earnest money of the spirit.
Therefore, we are always confident, always confident, knowing that
whilst we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. For
we walk by faith, not by sight. We're confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. And yet this confidence, this assurance is not a presumption. Look at verse 9. Wherefore we
labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of
him. In Philippians chapter 3 the
apostle says I forget those things which are behind and reach forth
to those things which are before and press toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We recognize
the blessedness of eternity. and we live with the confident
hope of eternity. I persuade you, my brother, in
the light of eternity and the immortality of your soul, to
give yourself to Christ. I persuade you, who are yet enemies
to God, in the light of eternity and the immortality of your soul,
to be reconciled to God by faith in his Son. Second, I do so on
the basis of this fact, the certainty and the strictness of divine
judgment. Look at verse 10. I remind you
once more that there is a day of judgment. I know there is
a day of final climactic judgment called the great white throne
judgment. But don't imagine that until then your sins will go
unpunished. It's not so. Immediately after
death, you and I will meet the Son of God in judgment. Look
at verse 10. 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. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Now wait a minute, preacher.
Are you saying that we're going to be judged of God on the basis
of our works and be rewarded according to our works? No, I
would never say that. That's what Paul said right here
in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10. That's exactly what he said. You and I shall receive from
God exactly what we deserve when we stand before God in judgment.
We will receive from God exactly what justice demands that we
have when we stand before God in judgment. You will either
stand before him in your own righteousness, with your own
works, and be judged accordingly, and perish in everlasting destruction,
Or you'll stand before God in the works of another, in the
righteousness of another, in the obedience of another, and
be judged of God accordingly, who will say to you, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. We haven't yet begun, Brother
Glenn, to get a handle on this. When Christ lived on this earth,
we lived in him. When he obeyed God, we obeyed
God in him. When he loved God with all his
heart, we loved God with all our hearts. When he loved his
neighbor as himself, we loved our neighbor as ourselves. And
when he died under the wrath of God, we were crucified with
him. And when he arose, we arose with
him. And we were seated together with
him at the right hand of God. And we shall stand with him,
one with him, in judgment. And God shall reward us according
to our works performed in our substitute. They're really ours. That really, His righteousness,
as Brother Scott used to say, is not a pasted on righteousness.
It's really ours. We're made the righteousness
of God in Him. All right. I'll give you another
reason for trusting the Redeemer. Oh, I urge you, flee to Christ
like the manslayer would flee to the city of refuge. I appeal
to you. on the basis of the love of God
revealed in Christ. Look at verse 12. It's actually beginning verse 11,
right in the middle of it. But we are made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. That is, God knows, I should
say, God knows. this will surprise you but not
everybody loves me like you do and I get some nasty comments
from folks now and then and they have some severe things to say.
One of the ladies attending our church asked me a couple of years
ago, she said, do you ever read what folks say about you on the
internet? I said no, I don't bother. I don't bother. And here's
the reason. It's a small thing to me that
I'd be judged by any man. I don't judge myself. God's my
judge and God's my witness. And Paul is appealing to these
Corinthians who had been taught by others. Paul is, he's not
all he says to be. He's not what you think he is.
Paul said, we're made manifest to God and I trust made manifest
to you. So that we are, we commend not
ourselves again to you. I'm not about to commend myself
to you. But give you occasion to glory on our behalf. So you
can be the one who commends us. That you may have somewhat to
answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. Now look at
verse 13. Paul says this is my motive.
Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. Or whether we be
sober, it is for your cause. Some folks say, well, Paul, he's
a fanatic. He's always just so fanatical. He says, that's for God. And
some of them say, well, he's just too sober, too strict, too
severe. He says, that's for your cause. Now, here's the basis
of our appeal. The foundation of our message,
the strength of the call, is to issue to you word of God's
grace in the revelation of God's love in his son. Look at verse
14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. The love of Christ constraineth
us. What's that mean? This is the
thing that tugs at our hearts. This is the thing that gets us
up in the morning. This is the thing that drives
us through the day and guides us through the day. This is our
motive. This is our rule. The love of
Christ constraineth us because we thus judge. That is, this
is what we understand. That if one died for all, then
we're all dead. Let me give you a fortnight paraphrase.
This is what he's saying. If Christ died for all his people,
then all his people died when he died, we died in him. I am
crucified with Christ. The apostle says, and that he
died for all, all God's elect that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves. I spent the life of my vanity
living to myself, to the lust of my flesh, to the
desires of my mind. Christ died for us. He died for
us, Mitch, that we should not live unto ourselves. Look what
it says. But unto him which died for them and rose again. He died for us, and we died in
Him. And He did this that we should
no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died for us.
Now watch what it says in verse 16. Wherefore henceforth know
we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. What does
that mean? What does that mean? I met Brother
Marvin Stoniker, I'm going to guess about 36, 37 years ago,
someone in that vicinity. And I know him pretty well. I
know him pretty well. I know his family, know all of
his children, know all of his grandchildren. I've known him
a long time, known him a long time. All those things I know
as you would know any man after the flesh. I know because I've
been around him. I've read things he wrote. I've
read things about him. I know him after the flesh. But
I know him in a much better way than that. I know him in Christ. Here's a man in Christ. Paul
says, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus.
Let each man esteem the other better than himself. I don't
know. what's going on in his mind right
now. I don't know what goes on inside him. I do know he's in
Christ. In Christ he's redeemed, he's
forgiven, he's without sin, he's righteous. That's how I know
him. That's how I ought always to
think of Him. That's how I ought always to
speak of Him. We don't know any man after the
flesh, but we know them according to their relationship with the
Son of God. Oh, let us thus esteem one another. And we don't know Christ after
the flesh. That is, we don't know Christ
by carnal means. You've all been through the nonsense
in religion. Folks get you to make a profession
of faith, ask you some questions. You say yes or no. Do you want
to go to heaven? Yes or no. Do you want to go
to hell? Yes or no. Do you believe in Jesus? Just say I believe
in Jesus. Now you're saved and everything's alright. We don't
know Christ after the flesh. If you know Christ only because
somebody talked you into a profession, you don't know Christ at all.
We know Him after the Spirit. He's been revealed in us by the
power of His grace, by the power of His Spirit, through the preaching
of the Gospel. Christ is made known to us and
made known in us. In these verses, the Apostle
is telling us that the love of God revealed in Christ is revealed
by the sacrifice of His Son, by the substitutionary nature
of His sacrifice, and by the sanctifying efficacy of that
sacrifice, as is made known to us in the sweet revelation of
His grace. Now, look at verse 17. Here God
the Holy Ghost appeals to sinners, and I appeal to you, upon the
basis of the fact of the blessedness of God's salvation. Oh, the blessedness
of God's salvation. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Did you ever wish that you could
start all over? Just start all over. Remember
how on cassette tapes and real reel tapes we used to hit that
rewind button? Just hit rewind, start all over.
Did you ever wish you could just hit the rewind button and start
life all over again? How would you like to go home
tonight starting life all over? Hit the reset button. And everything
starts all over in perfection with no possibility of messing
it up. If any man be in Christ, in Christ
by God's purpose and decree, by God's election, in Christ
by the gift of his spirit, in Christ by faith in him, if any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. new creature. A new creation of God. Christ
created in you. That new man created in righteousness
and in true holiness. That holy thing created in you
that John says cannot see because it's born of God. He's a new
creature. Old things are passed away. God
Almighty has wiped the slate clean. Christ has not just Covered up our sins. He has put
away our sins. So that God Almighty declares
that he will not remember our transgressions. He will not remember
our transgressions because he has put them away. And he will
not impute sin. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Old things are passed away. You
mean Brother Don? If I believe on the Son of God,
God Almighty forgives me of all my sin, past, present, and future,
and will never impute sin to me. That's what he says. Old
things are passed away and all things become new. He's given
you a new heart, a new nature, a new will, a new record, a new
name. The name of our Savior is called
in Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 6, Jehovah seek in you the Lord
our righteousness. and the name he gives to his
church in Jeremiah 33 16 is Jehovah Shekinu, the Lord our righteousness. Isn't that amazing? He declares
that we are indeed the righteousness of God in him. All right, here's
another motive, another reason to be reconciled to God. Look
at what he says here about the finished work of Christ. And
all things are of God. He's talking about God's salvation.
All things are of God. The whole thing from start to
finish is God's work. He planned it. He purchased it.
He performs it. He preserves it. He perfects
it. He's going to have the praise of it. It's God who chose you,
God who redeemed you, God who gave you life, God who gives
you faith, God who sustains the faith, God who lifts you up when
you fall, God who holds you by the right hand of his righteousness
and will not let you go. All things are of God. who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. And notice how I put
it. Who hath at one time with finality reconciled us to himself. He did so by the sacrifice of
his son at Calvary. And he did so by the gift of
faith where he calls us to be reconciled to him in the new
birth. And hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, the
service of reconciliation. So he's given to us, to you and
me as preachers, to this congregation, to the church in Danville, to
his churches, generation after generation, in all parts of the
world, he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. The service
of reconciliation. This is our business. This is
our stewardship. We carry the gospel into the
four corners of the earth. Calling all sinners to be reconciled
to God. Seeking the Lord's sheep. Calling
God's elect to faith in Christ. Read on. This is it, to wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world. Now you can take your
pencil or pen and write it in the margin of your Bible or write
it on a piece of paper and if anybody asks you, who told you
this? You say, Brother Fortner told me this. Reconciling the
world of his elect to himself. That's exactly what it means.
Reconciling the world of his elect to himself. He was not
reconciling everybody in the world to himself. Had that been
the case, everybody in the world would be reconciled to him. He
was reconciling his people, his elect, throughout all the ages
of time, in all parts of the world, unto himself. Not imputing their trespasses
unto them. And he's committed to us the
word, the message of reconciliation. Committed to us the gospel of
his free grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. He's given us the word
of reconciliation. And now we come and proclaim
the gospel and beseech sinners to be reconciled to God. Be reconciled. I call on you. Oh, I call on
you. Quit fighting God. Quit living
with your fist in God's face. Quit shoving God out of your
way. Be reconciled to God. And I'll
give you another reason. And that's the message of grace
revealed in the gospel. Look at verses 20 and 21. There's no passage in all the
Bible more glorious than this. No words found in human literature
to compare with these. Read these two verses and weep
over your sins that demanded such a sacrifice. Read these
two verses and rejoice and give thanks to God for the grace that
provides such a sacrifice. Here's the call of grace. Now
then, we're ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be you reconciled to God. But Brother Don, if God's holy
and just and righteous and true, he must punish sin. How can he
be gracious to a sinner like me? For he hath made him sin
for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him God took our sins and made them His son's sins Our Savior bearing our sins in
his body on the tree, cried, thou knowest my guiltiness, O
God. My sins are more numerous than
the hairs of my head. My heart faileth me. I cannot
look up. He who knew no sin was made sin,
the awful, horrible, ignominious, hateful thing itself. He was made sin, made sin because
God is just and God is gracious and he who is just cannot punish
a guiltless man for sin He who is just cannot punish a man who
has no reason to be punished. But when Christ was made sin
for us, he bare our sin in his body on the tree. And God cried,
Awake, O sword, against the man that is my fellow. Smite and
slay the shepherd. and God slaughtered his son in
the fury of his justice until justice was fully satisfied and
he now says fury is not in me he made him to be sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him as really and truly As Christ
was made sin, I have been made the righteousness
of God in him. As really and truly as he was
justly rewarded for my sin made his, I have been and shall be
justly rewarded for his righteousness made mine. Now, I make this appeal to you. Be reconciled to God. Children
of God, give yourselves afresh to the Redeemer because faith
is a matter of urgency. Look at verse one of chapter
six. We then as workers together with him beseech you also that
you receive not the grace of God in vain. don't hear this word for nothing. For he saith, I've heard thee
in a time accepted. In the day of salvation have
I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, today is the day of salvation. Several years ago, I read a story
that was purported to be true. I presume it was true. who was
a very wealthy man who lived in Chicago. And he was a widower,
never remarried after his wife died. He and his son were very,
very much involved in collecting art. And they had collected some
rare, rare pieces of art. And they were very thankful,
very proud of their art. But they displayed it to folks
when they'd come, and they had special room for it. But when
the Vietnam War broke out, his son felt it his duty to volunteer
for combat. And he volunteered for the United
States Army. And he served in Vietnam for
a while. One day, father got a note. His son had been killed in combat
while rescuing another soldier, saving his life. And the father,
of course, grieved, as any father would, the loss of his son. And
some months later, he was at home one afternoon, late in the
afternoon, and the doorbell rang. And there was a man standing
there with a large package under his arm. And he introduced himself. He said, you won't know me, but
I knew your son. In fact, he and I were buddies
in Vietnam. And he said, the fact is, your
son lost his life saving my life and I wanted to come by here
and introduce myself to you. He's your son while we were together
often spoke of your great love for art and he said I'm no artist
but and he started to unwrap the package he said I did this
portrait of your son as I saw him and as I knew him and he
opened the picture he saw it old man's tears just welled up
you can imagine And he took it immediately, took down whatever
the beautiful painting he had over his fireplace was and hung
that picture up. And every time folks came in,
he'd take them to see his son, show them that picture of his
son. Kind of crudely done, but the most valuable, most beautiful,
most precious piece he had in all his collection. And when
he died, they had an estate auction. Auctioning off everything. Of
course people came from everywhere wanting to get a chance to buy
some of his rare art at a good price. And the auction started. Just one picture sitting up here
covered up. The auctioneer opened it up, unveiled that picture.
Folks just let out sighs and spoke evil. We're not interested
in that. Where's the art? He said I have
instructions to auction this painting of the man's son first. Nobody bid. Finally, the old
man in the back bid $10 for it and got it. It was their gardener.
And the auctioneer said, there's one more piece of instruction
I have here that I could not read and make known publicly
until this painting of the man's son was sold. He struck the gavel
and he said, the auction's closed. Our instructions are that whoever
takes the son gets everything. Whoever takes the Son gets everything
from God. Whoever takes the Son gets everything. Oh, God give you grace now to
lay hold on eternal life and take the Son of God, your Savior
and your Lord. Amen.