here in the sixth chapter of
the book of 2 Corinthians. Chapter 6, the book of 2 Corinthians. The writer is the Apostle Paul. inspired of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. The Word of the Living God, the
Word of Truth. Jesus, our Lord, is the Way and
the Truth and the Life, and no man cometh unto the Father but
by Him. We're going to talk to you about
Him whom to know is life eternal. the gospel of our blessed God. And in the previous chapter,
chapter 5, Paul says, to wit, that God was
in Christ. I remember talking to you here
recently about having right notions as
to who God is. If we have right notions as to
who God is, we'll have right notions as to who we are. And if I remember right, I cited
as an example the patriarch Job, that when Job found out who God
was and is, he found out who he was and who he is. Job had high and lofty thoughts,
if you've read the book of Job, concerning himself. But Job had a root of bitterness
in his soul that he seemingly didn't know about. And throughout
those forty-some chapters of the book of Job, God is teaching Job that that
root of bitterness the root of the matter that was in him must
be brought forth that he might see it and recognize it and forsake
it. So when Job found out who he
was, God had spoken to him there,
and Job said, I've got no answer to the question. He said, Behold,
I am vile, I am unholy. Job never talked
like that before until he got to the last part of the book
of Job, about the forty-first, forty-second chapter. Job said,
I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. But he said, Now
mine eye seeth. And he said, I repent in dust
and ashes. He said, I put my hand over my
mouth and I'll speak no more. I am vile and corrupt. So when Job found out who God
was and he got right with God, he
got right with everything else. So here in this second chapter, or the second
book, Corinthians, Paul is telling us about who God is. He said God
was in Christ in that 19th verse of the fourth chapter, fifth
chapter. To wit, that God was in Christ. What was he doing in Christ? Reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing, not charging to them their trespasses, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. He says, 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. For he hath made him, that's
God, hath made him, and that him is the Lord Jesus Christ,
for He, God, hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
made Him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Chapter 6, verse 1, We then,
Paul said, as workers together with him, beseech you also that
ye receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, that is, God, for he saith, I
have heard of thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation
have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation."
Salvation, the deliverance from that awful and terrible
monster of sin by and through God's prescribed
method, the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. God looked down from the battlements
of heaven to see if there was any that
doeth good. And after he viewed the whole
of Adam's race, he said, There is none good, no, not one. Our whole life preaches the necessity
of putting on Christ. It's a command, a command of
God. The command of God is that every
soul become a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a command,
and the command is suited for our fallen state as a naked,
a hopeless, a helpless, and an unholy sinner in ourselves. The commandment to put on Christ,
even in your regenerate state, as a new creature in Christ Jesus. Now, in our day, this is a very prevalent thought. Some have got such high notions
of believers as though they were not yet still sinners. Some people cannot endure the
phrases of believing sinners or saved sinners. But I am willing to let your
experience and my experience determine this matter. And if you do not hear this morning,
if you do not see yourself a sinner from day to day, then you are
not a believer in the truth. If you do not see as considered
in yourself that you are a naked, hopeless, helpless, unholy sinner,
then you do not see yourself in the light of truth. For all
have seen and come short of the glory of God. You do not know
yourself as you are known. Sin is not exceedingly sinful
to you. Self is not humbled and hated
by you. Christ is not precious in your
eyes, yet though sin dwells in us, it has no dominion over us. It cannot, for we are not under
the law, but under the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which makes us to hate sin and actually subdues
the power of sin in the life of the believer. Though you are
and certainly in a group of people the size that there is here this
morning, 75 or 80 people. There are some here that are
saved by the grace of God. I hope all here, under the sound
of my voice, are saved by the grace of God and that they actually
know from day to day that they are sinners by nature and sinners
by choice and sinners by practice and they will never completely
die unto sin until they die the death of the righteous and go
off into eternity being clothed with the glory of God in Christ
Jesus. So though you are a believer
in Christ, yet still you are a naked sinner in yourself. In yourself you have not anything
that is of a redeemable quality. You have no reason in yourself
whatsoever that God would look in your direction and show you
favor because of something in you or about you or something
that you hope to do or say or think. You are a naked sinner
in yourself, and you have no righteousness which you have
wrought out that can screen you from the divine justice of Almighty
God and answer the demands of God's holy law and that would
entitle you to his favor. Your own righteousness is no
better than filthy rags too ragged to cover your shame. Now that
describes every one of us. Your own righteousness is too
filthy to endure the piercing eye of God's purity. Your own
righteousness, the righteousness that you feel like you have that
would entitle you for a glimpse, for God to get a glimpse of you. You have no righteousness of
your own that would meet the demands of God's piercing eye
of holiness. You cannot, in any wise, have
any hope in yourself or that pertains to yourself. Your hope
for goodness and righteousness must be away from yourself. It must be in another direction. This business of salvation by
the grace of God begins with a look. Look unto me, all ye
ends of the earth, and be ye saved." If you look to Him, you
cannot be looking at yourself. It begins with a look, it commences
with a look, and it finally, ultimately ends in a look. So as long as you look to yourself,
you're not going to find any hope, any comfort, nothing but
misery. If you look at yourself in the
light of who you really are, a naked sinner with no righteousness
of your own and no means to conjure a righteousness of your own.
You have nothing. You are flat out without anything
that would cause God to look in your direction. That's how
we are. Our nature, our nature, tells
us that, and when we find out what we are, then we find out
that that who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done
is suited to meet our needs. It's true that in Christ, in
Christ now, if we be in Christ, if we be saved by the grace of
God. It's true that in Him we have
a perfect and everlasting and glorious righteousness to appear
before God. But it is as true, you can only
enjoy the comfort of this by putting on Christ. or receiving
the Lord Jesus Christ. Receive Him in your mind, in
your memory, and in your conscience. If you have Christ in your mind,
in your conscience, and in your memory, you will have comfort
from that. But if you don't have Him there,
then you have not put on Christ. It's equally true, notwithstanding
all of one's works, his duties, his performances, his fruits
of righteousness which are produced by you and I, that you are still
that naked, sinner who must be found in Christ, clothed in his
righteousness, or you cannot be justified before him, but
must be eternally condemned for your sin, and you cannot say this until you
first put on You cannot see or understand the things of God
in Christ concerning his so great salvation until you see yourself. My soul, I'd love to see myself
as I really am. I say these things, But I don't
always feel and mean really what I say or experience that, my
nakedness before God, my unholiness before God. I keep looking at
myself, and the longer I look at myself, the more I despise
myself as myself. But if I can see myself in Him,
clothed in His perfect righteousness, if I can see that I have been
washed with His precious blood and cleansed from every sin and
stand in Him as though I had never sinned, only then can I
receive any comfort. But as long as my eye is fixed
on myself, I can find no comfort because there is no good thing
in me. I don't even have a good motive.
I got to see Him. Well, what I'm talking about
here is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, putting on Christ. That's what I'm talking about.
It says, Now is the accepted time. That second verse, For
I have heard thee in the time accepted, and the day of salvation
have I suffered thee. Behold now, right now, is the
accepted time. And I often say that if you want
to know what now is, now is now. Now is not tomorrow, now is not
yesterday, now is now. And when he says now is the accepted
time, he means now, when the gospel is preached. And when
you're under the spell of the gospel, now is the time to put
on Christ, to receive Christ. Now, right now. Behold, now is
the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation,
Paul says. I read one time of a godly man
who was once Very ungodly. He's a holy man now, but he once
was unholy. He once was lost, but now he's
saved. He once was an unbeliever, but
now he's a believer. And this godly man, this man
that was saved by the grace of God, This man to whom God revealed
his son to his heart, who made him to know that he was a sinner,
lost and undone, made him to know that he was a brand plucked
from the burning, this godly man who was once very ungodly and began to read a little book, And he became so enthralled with
this book that his former friends that he was friendly with and
joined with them in their ungodly deeds. His former friends tried
to entice him to join them one more time in their wicked ways.
And he told them that he was deeply engaged in meditating
in a little book which only had three pages. And he said that
he spent the biggest part of his time during the day and sometimes
at night meditating on the words of this little book that only
had three pages. and he didn't have time to spend
with them. And so, after so long a time,
his so-called friends asked him if he had finished with his book
that he was reading. He said, no. He said, even though
this book only has three pages, there's so much in it that I
have I have devoted myself entirely to read it the rest of my life. And he said the first page of
the book is read. And he said here I meditate on
the passion of my Savior, on the love of God Almighty in Christ
that I have experienced. He said I meditate constantly
every day and sometimes every night on this first page, which
is blood red, where it speaks of the love of God in Jesus Christ. It tells of his precious blood
as an atonement for my sins and a ransom for my soul. without which I must have been
a damned man throughout the dateless ages of eternity." And he said,
the second page of this book is white. He says, this cheers
my spirit with the comfortable consideration of the unspeakable
joy of being a Christian. He said, it speaks of him of
eternal life, which is free. He said it speaks of him, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who was a man and God in one person. He is
the second person of the Trinity, and he made a covenant with God
that he would stand responsible for all of those that the Father
gave him. And he left the glories of heaven.
He left all of that full-time glory of heaven, being the object
of the angels and the delight of heaven itself. He left all
that. He said that he was rich, but
he became poor. He left all glory to come down
here and become a man. and to take upon himself the
humility of a human being, and as a human, God and man in one
person, and as a human taking upon himself my nature apart
from sin, he endured the hardship of a wanderer here in this life,
from the cradle to the cross and from the cross to the crown
to obtain for me this unspeakable glory. So, he said, I just am
so tied up with this book that I can't get away from it. He
said, it tells me, it speaks to me words of comfort and words
of help and it strengthens me keeps me going from day to day,
and I can't lay this little three-page book down. He said the first
page was red and the second one was white, and he said the third
page of this book was black. He said, here I think, when I
read this black page, he said, I think of the horrible state
of the damned and the never-ending perpetual torment they are suffering
in hell. I think of that. I think of it and I just stop
when I read about that awful place called hell that is for
those who are unbelievers. And he said, I think about that
and I rejoice. and I'm full of thanksgiving
and praise unto God who rescued me to keep me from going to that
place." Oh, he said, this excites thankfulness in my soul, thankfulness
in my heart, thankfulness in my intelligence unto my Savior
for his wonderful love and his never-ending grace of Almighty
God in snatching me, in snatching me as a bran from the burning,
snatching me as a stick from the fire, knowing that if God
had not snatched me as a bran from the burning, I would be
where they are when I think of this horrible, horrible, suffering
and misery in this awful place called hell. He said that's written
on this black page, this last page, and I do a lot of meditating
about that. And I say to myself here this
morning, I say, here's a good man. This is a good man here,
a good man that spends his time, his time and his abilities in
thanking and praising God from whom all blessing flows. A good man. Would you not say
he's a good man? Yes, he's a good man. God made
him a good man and clothed him with the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And now he stands in good favor
with God. He's got a good hope. He's not
comfortless, but he's got comfort. Christ is his comfort. Christ
is his strength. Christ is his all and an all. He wants no more. He said, this
is all that I need is these three pages, the white, the red, and
the black. And he said, it stimulates me. It comforts me. I can't get away
from it. So I conclude by saying he's
a good man and he's got a good book. It's only got three pages,
but it's an awful good book. Let us go and do likewise. Let you and I ape his conduct
and behavior. Let us, who has this blessed
book that has more pages than three, and we can go from day
to day and find something new in practically every line in
this book. This line, or this Bible here,
tells us where we came from, and it'll tell us where we're
going, and it'll tell us how we get there. I say this is a
good book, and we ought not to lay it aside as often as we do. or make a companion with us,
stay with us. Well, he said he constantly meditated
upon Christ. He constantly was reminded of
the wrath of God that he saved him from, and the glory, he said,
that he saved me too. He said, save me from the wrath
of God, snatch me from the burning, and give me hope of eternal life." This God is the God that we adore. He's our faithful and unchangeable
friend, whose love is as large as His power, and He neither
knows or measures or ends. To Jesus, the first and the last,
whose Spirit shall guide us safe home. We'll praise him for all
that is past and trust him for all that's to come. May the Lord
help us and the Lord bless us. Now, Paul said, is the accepted
time, right now. I don't ask anyone to stand up
or come forth or raise their hand, but I tell you, we've got one more step to go.
One of these days, shortly, we're going to have to take a step
in the cold water of Jordan, and we're going to cross over
from this life unto the life to come. It will either be life
with God in Christ or life separated from God in Christ. It all depends
upon now. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation,
not tomorrow, not next week, but right now. When you hear
his voice, when you are alarmed, when God has smitten your conscience,
when you know that you are a sinner, when you know that you're far
off from God, when you know that you're naked, when you know that
you've got no righteousness. You've got no righteousness of
your own. Your own righteousness is tattered
and torn. Your own righteousness is as
filthy rags. You've got no hope in yourself.
When you come down to the end of the line, to the last knot
on the rope, and you're holding on, ah, that's when to let go. and put on Christ, receive Christ. Our Lord said, as many as receive,
gave he unto them eternal life. He came unto his own. Let me
read this to you and then I'll quit. Over here in the book of
John, chapter 1. Chapter 1, I think. Listen to this. It said in verse 9, it says,
John the Baptist wasn't that light. It said, He was not that
light, verse 8, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. He said he was in the world,
speaking of the Lord Jesus, and the world was made by him, and
the world knew him not. He came unto his own, that is,
to Israel. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But, he said, but as many as
received him. That's what I'm saying. There's
a time to put on Christ. When is it? Now is the accepted
time. What has Christ done? Christ
who knew no sin was made sin in order that we might be made
the righteousness of God. If I have no righteousness, which
the Bible through and through tells me I have no righteousness,
what righteousness I have is as filthy rice, the best that
I've ever done. The best deed, the best thought,
the best word, the best act that I have ever done or ever hoped
to do is contaminated with self and sin. So I have no righteousness. I have nothing to offer God. Nothing. He demands and I cannot
provide. But what God demands, He provides. He provides my righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now is the hour, now is the minute. Put on Christ. It says, But as
many as received him, as many as put him on. What happened
to them? Why, to them he gave power. Power means authority. To become
what? The sons of God. even to them that believe on
his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor the will of man, but they were born of God." Putting
on the cross for your comfort, for your comfort now and for
your comfort hereafter. Oh, that fellow in the little
book. the white page. He said, I put that on. I clothe
my mind. I keep my mind clothed with the
atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I keep my mind clothed
with the sovereign grace of God. I keep my mind clothed with the
certainty of God's salvation I keep my mind with this wonder
worker, the Lord Jesus. I clothe my mind, my memory,
and my conscience day in and day out with the Lord. Thereof,
he said, I find comfort in that. Comfort, comfort comes in that. Certainly. I understand who I
am. I understand that I'm a naked,
I am a naked, ungodly, unholy sinner in myself, but I am a
saved sinner in myself. There is not one spot. There is not a spot that you
could put your finger on and touch me and find something that
was good. There is not a good thing about
me, but I am a saved sinner. I'm a saved sinner. God saved
me. I'm still naked before God as
far as my own self-worth and righteousness is, but in Him,
but in Him, I stand as He is. I'll read you one more verse,
then I'm going to quit, for sure. 1 John, 1 John chapter 4, listen
to this now. Oh, this will comfort you, this
will help you, this will get you through your day. When you
have the worst calamity that can fall upon you, the worst
thing that ever happens to you, you can fall on this first and
find comfort, if you've put on Christ. If you haven't put on
Him, there's nowhere else for you to go. Listen to this. Verse 16, John, the beloved apostle,
he says, We have known. We have known we know something.
There's no ifs and ands and buts about this. There's no conjectures. I said, We have known and we
believe the love that God hath for us, that God send His Son. Why would He send His Son for
us? because he loved us, and he sent
the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Now it says, God is love, John
said, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God
in him. Here's this, Herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness when, in the day of
judgment, be called. every word, listen now, because
as He is. Because as Christ is, so are
we in this world. He, the Lord Jesus, who knew
no sin, was made sin in order that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Our Lord Jesus Christ presented a perfect, spotless,
impeccable, sinless perfection unto God on our behalf. And it says He freely charged
that to our camp. He imputed His righteousness
unto us, and so as His So as He is, that's what it says,
because as He is, so are we in this world. Whatever He is, on
the right hand of God, we are because of Him by imputation. Our sins are charged to Him,
and He paid what our sins are. His righteousness, His sinless
perfection is imputed to us, is reckoned to us, is on our
account. So we sing from time to time,
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Blessed be the name of
the Son of God. who so loved his people that
he gave himself for, washed us and loosed us from our sins,
and clothed us in his spotless garment of righteousness that
he wrought himself alone. Blessed be the name of God. Let's
stand with each other.