Corinthians chapter 5. I forgot
to get wired up here this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Let's
begin reading in verse 12. 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 heart. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then we're
all dead. And he died for all, that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves. But unto him which died for them
and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth, know we
no man after the flesh. Though we have known Christ after
the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we Him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. There are two kinds of religion
in this world, and there are only two kinds. The world over,
there are two kinds of religion. There is grace and works. Grace and works. Works are those
mentioned in verse 12, who glory in appearance and not in heart. Grace are those who believe on
Christ, verse 14, and are constrained in the heart by the love of Christ
for us. Grace is verse 16. We know no man after the flesh,
not even Christ. We worship God in spirit. We
worship God in spirit and in truth, putting no confidence
in the flesh. Works know Christ only after
the flesh. only after the flesh, in a carnal
understanding. And therefore, they mind the
things of the flesh and judge one another after the outward
appearance. Grace means, verse 17, that in
Christ we are a new creature, new creation, born of God, created
of God. And old things are passed away. Old things are dead. They are
dead and passed away. And all things are become new.
Works are not in Christ. Works religionists are not in
Christ. They are not created anew. So
they worship according to old things. And they mind the things
of the flesh. Now who makes the difference
between the man of grace and the man of works? Who makes the
difference? Who gets the glory for this?
Who is to be praised for this? Verse 18 says, All things are
of God. God alone gets the glory. God alone gets the glory. He
hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. I'm about to make one of the
most important statements, the important truth about true salvation,
about true worship of God. The singular most important thing
before God is the heart, is the heart. Scripture says, the Lord
seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. The Scripture says,
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As a man thinketh in
his heart, so is he. Now the true believer believes
on Christ. This is what a true believer
is. He believes on Christ in spirit and in truth. He trusts
that he is complete in Christ Jesus the Lord, been made the
righteousness of God in Christ. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Those that come to God must believe
that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. And then secondly, the true believer does everything he does
in the worship of God, the service of God, obedience to God because
of only one motive, just one motive. And this is our subject
this morning. The only true constraint. There's just one. The only true
constraint which is pleasing to God. The only motive that
is pleasing to God is the constraint of Christ's love for us. That's it. For the love of Christ
constraineth us. Now listen to this. Galatians
5, 6 says, In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything. Circumcision means the law. Righteousness
is not by our obedience to the law. God did not look to His
people to uphold the righteousness of the law. He looks to His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And it says, nor does uncircumcision
avail anything. A man may not even have the law
of God and yet be acceptable to God. How can that be? Well, can you give me some examples? Enoch, Noah, Abraham. Abraham is the youngest of those
men. And the law that was given at
Mount Sinai was not given until 430 years later. And yet Abraham
was accepted of God. Righteous. And he did not have
the law. Why then? How then could he be
accepted? What is it that is the issue? What matters to God? Galatians
5, 6 says, Faith which worketh by love. You see, if I believe
Christ, I have attained unto the righteousness of God. If
I believe Christ, I have come to that end for which the law
was given, Christ Himself. I have come to the righteousness
of God. I have the righteousness of God,
the righteousness of the law, Christ Himself. And if I'm constrained
in my heart by Christ's love for me, that means I'm led of
the Spirit of Christ. That means Christ dwells in me,
I'm led of the Spirit of Christ, and I'm under the rule of Christ,
my Master. That's what it is to be constrained
by the love of Christ. Now, here's our first point.
To be vainly religious, Do you want to know what that is? We
need to know this because we are going to meet God. Every
one of us sitting here are going to stand before God. What is
it to be vainly religious? What is it to be in works religion? Which God won't receive, He won't
accept. What is that? It's to be constrained by anything
other than the love of Christ. Look at verse 12. We commend
not ourselves again unto you. This is Paul the Apostle speaking.
He is speaking to believers at Corinth. He says, 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 heart. Paul has given believers
at Corinth an answer to give to false preachers. those false
preachers who began to come in, and those men were criticizing
Paul because Paul used one method, one means Paul used, just one. Now, these false preachers claimed
to be preaching faith in Christ. But what they did was, as soon
as a sinner would believe on Christ, they would say, now,
you have to keep the law or you can't be saved. You have to keep
the law or you can't be saved. Have you ever heard that? Have
you ever heard a preacher tell you that? Well, now once you
believe on Christ, you got to go back from Mount Zion back
to Mount Sinai and you got to keep the law. They were glorying
in outward appearance of obedience. They were using the law of God,
but that was a doctrine of man. That was a precept of man to
say you got to go back to the law now and keep the law. They
were glorying in outward appearance of obedience, not in the heart. They were like those men from
Judea. Do you remember that? Whenever the Lord sent Peter
to Cornelius and God saved those men. He gave them a new heart
and He bore witness that they were His. He gave them faith,
purified their hearts through faith. And those men were righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were complete in Christ.
Colossians says, if of every believer you are complete in
Him. And there they were, complete
in Christ, seated with Christ at the right hand of God the
Father. And these men came down from Judea and they said, that's
fine, but except you be circumcised, except you keep the law, you
can't be saved. And Peter said to him, he said,
no, we're not going to tempt God. He said, that's tempting
God. We're not going to put a yoke
on these disciples which neither we nor our fathers could bear. And he said, but we believe that
we, Jews, shall be saved as those Gentiles who never even had the
law. How's that? through faith in
Christ, through faith in Christ. Turn over to Galatians 6 with
me, just to your right there, Galatians 6. I want to be as
clear as I can today and I've studied this message for a few
months and I think I've got something from the Lord for you. Galatians
6, verse 12. This is the Holy Spirit's
word concerning those men who were wanting to mix the law with
grace. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh. They constrain you. We are constrained
by the love of Christ. But He says, but those that want
to make a vain show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. They constrain you to keep the
law. They tell you, you've got to
keep the law. And you can add right there,
you can add all the other constraints that men have come up with in
our day. Making you sign a church covenant when you come into the
church. They were telling me Thursday
night about a church where the men, the preachers would make
you give them their pay stubs so they know how much you make
so they could make sure you tithe as you are supposed to. They
used the Lord's table as a tool for discipline, constraining
men, constraining men with these things. He says here, verse 12,
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. If they just preached Christ
and Him crucified, they would suffer persecution, they would
suffer rejection. And He says they won't do that.
They'll use their constraints. They won't do that. Verse 13,
For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law.
Do you know what it is to keep the law? Before God. I'm not
talking about before men. Before God. To keep the law,
you have to keep it in perfect righteousness with no sin. In
thought, word, or deed. You either keep it or you don't. There's no, well, he gave it
a good try. It's you either keep it or you don't. The law requires
perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. So no
sinner has ever kept the law of God. No sinner has ever kept
the law of God. Not we ourselves. The Holy Spirit
says right here, they're doing all this talking about keeping
the law, but they themselves have never kept the law. Now
look here, verse 13, but they desire to have you keep the law. that they may glory in your flesh,
in what they've constrained you to do. I've been with preachers
before and I've heard preachers do these kind of things. They'll
talk about, how do you get the folks to come? Well, here's what
we tried and that didn't work, so we've done this. And this
works real well. How do you get them to stay there?
How do you get them to keep coming? Well, here's what we do. And
it's constraints of men. Made up by men. Now look, next
you see a man constrained by the love of Christ. Verse 14.
But God forbid, this is Paul, but God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. The world is
dead unto me and I am dead to the world. And he says, now watch
this, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything,
it's not your law keeping that's going to avail. And he says,
nor uncircumcision. It's not anything against you
if you don't have the law of God. Here's what matters. But
a new creature, a new creation, and as many as walk according
to this rule, Peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel
of God. The one thing that matters before
God is a new creation. A God-given new heart. God-given faith in Christ. A walk constrained by the love
of Christ for us. That's what matters to God. That's
what God counts. And He says here, He says this
is the believer's rule of life. Faith which works by love. As many as walk according to
this rule, peace be on them, he said. Can we just believe
God's Word? Just believe the Word of God
right here before us? This is such good news for the
believer. Now stay with me. We are all
here this morning. All of us are here this morning.
We are all sitting here in the same room. Some are here, some
are not here. Some are here because God has
given you a new heart, and He has given you faith in Christ,
and He has made you to behold what Christ has done for you,
and He has made you to see that you are complete in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You have been made the very righteousness
of God in Him. And you have traveled a great
distance, a great distance to come here to hear the hearing
of faith. The hearing of the faithfulness
of Christ Jesus the Lord. Because you want to. Because you're constrained by
the love of Christ for you. Because you know this is food
for your soul. You know this is how the flesh
is going to be mortified. This is how you're going to be
strengthened in the inner man. And so you came here. Others
are here in bodily presence, in the outward
form, but the heart's not constrained by the love of Christ. And you
don't really want to be here. And before God, you're not really
here. Not really here. God looks on
the heart. Listen to this. Ezekiel 33, 31
says, They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit
before thee as my people, and they hear thy words. But they
will not do them, for with their mouth they show much love, but
their heart goeth after their covetousness. Again in Isaiah
29, 13, Wherefore the Lord said, The people draw near me with
their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but have removed
their heart far from me. And listen to this part, And
their fear toward me is taught not by the word of God, not by
preaching of Christ in Him crucified, but by the precept of men, by
man-made constraints. What would happen? Reckon what
would happen? Now be honest. What would happen if we took
all the constraints of men, all the gimmicks and all the things
that churches are using to make their converts and to keep their
converts in the pews? What if we took all those constraints
away? And there was nothing but the
preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The preaching of the Son of God
in His person, manifest in the glory of the triune God, and
declaring what He accomplished for His people on Calvary's tree.
I wonder what would happen. There'd be a handful of people
left. A handful. And before God, that's
all that's there anyway. That's all that's there anyway.
God looks on the heart. It doesn't matter how outwardly
faithful he appears to men. He could claim to believe Christ. He could be baptized. He could
join a church. He can take the Lord's table.
He can make great sacrifices. He could appear outwardly to
keep the law. But if his heart has not been
made new by God, and he's given faith to rest in Christ, and
he's not constrained only by the love of Christ for him, it
does not amount to anything. God won't accept it. Now that's
the truth. That's the truth. Where does
that leave you? Where does that leave me? This
is really something we should really look at. Where does that
leave me? Now here's the second thing.
The believers constraint is Christ's love for us, and it comes to
us, we see it from beholding what Christ accomplished for
us by His death. Alright, look at verse 14. It
says, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus
judge, that if one died for all, then we're all dead. Christ's love for His people
is not a sentimental love. It's not a sentimental thing.
It's not at all. Christ's love saves. Christ's love saves. Otherwise,
what does the love of Christ, what does the love of God have
to do with salvation? Why would you even mention the
love of God if it doesn't end in God saving those He loves? I love my children. And if I
had the power to, I'd keep both my children out of hell. I don't
have that power. But God does. God does. And He saves each and every one
that He loves. And He will not lose one. This
is what the Scripture says. Jeremiah 31.3 says, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. You know what everlasting is?
It don't ever end. with an everlasting love. Therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn thee to myself." That's what
he's talking about. That's what God does for those
He loves. And then Paul says here, we thus
judge. This is judgment, true judgment.
Not just this is how we figure it. This is true judgment. This
is spiritual discernment. A man doesn't have this by nature.
We're not coming to the world having understanding of God and
spiritual things. I've got a lot to cover today,
so I'm going to leave this to you, but I'll give you something
to go read. Go read 1 Corinthians chapter 2 at your leisure, and
you're going to see, it has not, eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard, it has not entered into the heart of man the things that
God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed
them, divine revelation has revealed them to us by His Spirit. There
is a two-fold work Christ does. A two-fold work. Isaiah 42, speaking
of Christ, says, He shall not fail till He hath set judgment
in the earth, and the owls shall wait for His law. That judgment
is a two-fold work. Right here, what I am telling
you is, by Christ the Light, He sets judgment in the heart
of His people. He gives us spiritual discernment.
He gives us light to behold the things of God through the Spirit
of God. And the other judgment He says is He justifies all His
people from our sins by His work on the cross. And it says He
shall not fail. He shall not fail. He shall not
fail. Do you want to declare Christ
as a failure? Then all you do is to say, well,
I believe He died for somebody, but He didn't save them. No,
if He died for them, He's going to save them. You can say, He
shall not fail. So this judgment, we don't have
it by nature. It's given to us by the Spirit
of God. Now here's what believers now understand. Here's what we
understand. This is what constrains us. This
is where we see the love of God. Now listen very carefully. Verse
14. We thus judge that if one died
for all, then we're all dead. Now this is true, that all those
for whom Christ died were all dead in sin. That's true. All those for whom Christ died,
that's the reason He came and died for His people, is because
we were all dead in trespasses and in sin. But that's not what
the text is declaring. The text here is declaring this.
Listen carefully. Concerning all things that must
die, the old things that are passed away concerning all things
that must die. When Christ died, then all those
things died. When Christ died, right then,
all those things died. This is the good news of the
gospel. This is the gospel. This is what
men are declaring from the pulpit. This is the good news of the
gospel. concerning all things that must die before God. When Christ laid down His life
on the cross, when He died, then all those things died. Read it
again. The love of Christ constraineth
us because we thus judge that when Christ died for all, for
all these things I'm about to show you, then, right then, we're
all dead. It's why Christ cried out and
said it's finished. It's why God was satisfied by
His one offering. It's why God raised Him from
the dead. It's why everyone for whom He
died must be regenerated to faith in Christ. Preacher, are you
going to show me what these three things are? I wouldn't call on
you to believe them if I couldn't show them to you in the Scriptures. Don't believe anything a man
tells you unless he can back it up in this Word right here.
Now let me ask you a question. If I show you these three things,
that Christ accomplished by His death at Calvary. If I show you
these three things and these give Him all the glory, all the
glory and give man none, will you believe on Him? Only if God teaches you. Only
if God teaches you. Alright, first thing, Romans
6. Romans 6. First of all, before God, this
is before God, before God, when Christ died for all the sin of
all His people, then, right then, were all the old men of sin,
the old men of the flesh and all of His people, right then,
before God, they died. The old man died. Right then,
when Christ died. Romans 6, 6. Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with Christ. That the body of sin
might be destroyed. The word might does not mean
there is a possibility. It means that it shall, that
it should, that it was. That henceforth we should not
serve sin. This is how he is going to bring
his people not to serve sin. Sin had to be purged first. And when the Lord laid on Him
the iniquity of us all, of all of His straying sheep that died
in Adam, when He laid on Him the iniquity of us all, we were
crucified with Him. Our old man, the old man of flesh
was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. Because He that is
dead is freed from sin. The man that is dead is no longer
sinning. Now this is before God. Now this is what was declared
in Hebrews 1.3 when it says, when He had by Himself purged
our sins, then He sat down at the right hand of the Father.
When he finished the work of purging the sin of his people,
he sat down. Now, when born of the Holy Spirit
of God and God teaches a man in his heart, this is what he
teaches him. Look at verse 11, Romans 6, 11. Likewise, reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When he tells you to reckon
it to be so, he is telling you this is how God sees it. This
is how God sees it. The old man of sin died when
Christ died. The old man of sin and all of
his people before God died when Christ died on the cross. And
so God doesn't see the sin of His people. That old man died. And so He tells you now, you
reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
This is what He teaches the believer in our heart when we are quickened
and given life. Alright, now here's the next
thing, Romans 7. Stay with me now, that's the
first thing. When Christ died, then the old man died. Alright,
here's the next thing. Before God, when Christ died
under the justice of the law for all His people, When He died
under the justice of the law, then were all His people dead
to the law. This is before God. Look at verse
4. Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law
by the body of Christ. You become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. When born of the Holy Spirit,
God teaches us to be married now. Not to the law. But, verse
4, that you should be married to another, even to Christ who
He raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. This was because of sin, brethren. Our sin had to be dealt with
before the law of God. Because, look at verse 5, when
we were in the flesh, Believer, when you were nothing but flesh,
the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. We never brought forth anything
but dead fruit. That's it. When we were married
to our first husband, the law. He says, now, before the law,
before God, to the law you've become dead. When Christ died,
His people died to the law. That's the second thing. Now
here's the third thing. Before God, when Christ died
for all His people, then... Stay with me now. This is fixing
to shock somebody. Stay with me. I'm going to show
you. When Christ died for all His
people, then was all the law dead to all His people. This
is before God. This is before God. Look at verse
6. But Romans 7, 6, But now we are delivered from the law. He
is speaking of the law. We are delivered from the law,
that being dead wherein we were held. Now, what held us? We were delivered from what?
We were delivered from the law. It was the law that held us.
He says, Now that law is dead wherein we were held. In Hebrews
8, 13, He said, A new covenant hath He made a new covenant. He made a new covenant in the
heart. This is what He does in the heart. And He says, He hath
made the first old, the covenant of works. That covenant of works
was everything contained in the law given at Mount Sinai. All
the old covenant given at Mount Sinai. The whole thing. There
were 600 and something laws given. And that was the covenant of
works. He has made that old. And he says this, now that which
decayeth and waxeth old, it's dead, is ready to vanish away
like a dead carcass. Stay with me now. Stay with me.
When born of the Holy Spirit, this is what he teaches us, verse
6, that we should serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness
of the letter. Now, because of the sin of His
people, because of the weakness of our flesh as the representative
head of all His people, Christ Jesus gave the law holiness of
nature, which is the saints' sanctification in Christ. He gave the law obedience of
life, which is the saints' righteousness. And He gave the law sufferings
of death, which is the penalty of the law, satisfied for His
people. All for whom Christ died must
be born of God because Christ accomplished this for them. Justice
demands nothing more of them. They must be brought to faith
in Christ. Because justice cannot be carried
out two times or it is double jeopardy. And Christ has settled
it. He settled it. He shall not fail
until He has set judgment in the earth. Therefore, if Christ
be in you, if you are born of the Spirit of God, believe and
get hold of this good news. Listen now. Before God, we have
full expiation of our sins. It's because He was made sin
for us, and He by Himself purged our sin, and our old man of sin
is dead before God. If Christ is in us, we have complete
pardon before the law, because we're dead to the law. The law
is satisfied. And if Christ be in you, we have
eternal redemption from the law. The law is dead to us because
Christ purchased us, redeemed us, and brought us out from the
law. He said, if the Son sets you
free, you can be free indeed. That's being made free, brethren.
And that's the good news of the gospel. Now, Paul went on through
Romans 7 and he talked about how the law was nothing wrong
with the law. It's holy, just, and good. The
law showed me my sin. And he goes on and he talks about
the two natures in the believer, the old man and the new man,
and that warfare between us. How that the old man is just
sin and the new man, born of God, is righteous and holy in
Christ, but they war against each other. And then he picks
back up with this same subject he's talking about in Romans
7 and Romans 8. Now look there with me, Romans
8 and 1. I want you to see this. If you get this, you might sit
there now and think, well, he's my enemy. But you get this and
you'll see I'm not against you, I'm for you. I want you to get
this. I want you to see this. Alright,
look at Romans 8.1. There is therefore now, because
the body, our body is dead to the law and the body of the law
is dead to us, because when Christ died for all three of those reasons,
all three died. Now, there is no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Now listen up, from this whole
time, Paul's been dealing with this back in Romans chapter 2,
Romans 3, and he's been saying all along, he's been telling
us brethren, this is what he's been dealing with, that the believer
is not under the law. because of what Christ has accomplished
for us. God gave the law to drive us
to Christ, to drive us to Him, to show us our sin and our guilt
that we could not keep the law, we could not satisfy God. And
He did it to bring us to the end of that law. And when you
get to the end, you are at the end of it. And there is Christ
our righteousness, the fulfillment of it. And He is the one who
makes us righteous with God. So now when he's talking here,
he hadn't broken from his context. When he's talking here about
those that mind the flesh and those that mind the spirit, he's
still talking about religious folks. Those that mind the flesh
are constrained by the law. They are those that believe that
false message that says, once you believe, now you got to go
back and keep the law. And so they mind the law. And
you cannot mind the law without minding your flesh. When you
start looking at the law and trying to keep the law, you are
going to have your mind and affections set on you and what you are doing.
And then he says, those that walk after the Spirit are those
who walk by faith, constrained only by the love of Christ for
us. Now, why do we do so? Why do we walk after the Spirit
constrained by the love of Christ for us? Verse 2. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus. Now, keep that phrase. The Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. Free from the law of
sin and death. The whole body of the law is
dead to me and I am dead to the whole body of the law. That husband
is gone now that I might be married to another. Now, he went on there
and he talked about how Christ did this. He explained it again.
And then drop down to verse 5. I want you to see this. He is
showing the difference here between religious folks who are constrained
by the law and believers constrained by the love of Christ. Look,
verse 5, they that are after the flesh, natural men, they
born after the flesh, they do mind the things of the flesh.
They mind the law, they mind their flesh for obedience to
it, they glory in appearance. Same thing Paul was talking about
over in 2 Corinthians 5. This is our single most worst
problem, brethren. It's not the sins of immorality. They're wrong. We shouldn't do
anything like that. That's not our worst problem.
Our worst problem is self-righteousness. It's not your sin keeping you
from Christ. It's your righteousness that's
keeping you from Christ. It's not sin that will make a
self-righteous man drop the law. It's his righteousness that won't
make him drop the law. He thinks that he's righteous
by that law. Paul said he did. He said, touching
the law blameless. If any man have wear of the glory,
I more. He said, I was trusting in my family. I thought I was
a son of Abraham naturally, so that made me a chosen child of
God. I had no idea that all those
that are natural sons of Abraham are not the sons of Abraham according
to God. You can read Romans 9 and see
it. They are not all Israel which are of Israel. Just because they
are children of the flesh does not mean they are all children.
But the children of the promise, those God chose, they are counted
as the children of God. We are children of God through
faith in Christ. Children of Abraham through faith
in Christ. Look here now. He says, but they that are after
the Spirit, they mind the things of the Spirit. If you read Colossians
3 once sometimes, it will say, if you are risen with Christ,
set your affection on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. Because you are dead. That is
what I am telling you. When Christ died, then we are
all dead. We died to our old man of sin.
We died to the law and the body of the law died to us. If you
are in Christ, risen with Him, you are dead. And your life is
hid with Christ in God. And when Christ shall return,
then shall you appear with Him in glory. The work is finished,
he is saying. Now watch this. And that is what
we mind. That is what believers mind.
You ever wonder, people, I hear this. People come and they will
say, all you all do is preach Christ and Him crucify. That
is all I hear you preach. Why do you just preach Christ
and Him crucify? Our minds are set on Christ.
We have our minds set on the things of the Spirit of God.
We're hearing the things that God has freely given unto us. The Spirit of God showing us
the things God has freely given us through Christ. This is how
the flesh is mortified. It's not by the law. It's not
by the law. I'm going to show you that. Verse
6. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. You would enjoy Come into the
church house and enjoy hearing the gospel and enjoy the Lord's
people and enjoy everything that goes along with religion. If
you get this message. If God gets you in the heart
with this message, it will be life and peace to you. And you
will enjoy it. You will enjoy it. Look at this,
verse 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. The natural
mind hates God. Hates God. For it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Do you see he is still
talking about those that mind the flesh? He is talking about
them trying to fulfill the law, trying to establish their own
righteousness by the law. And he says if you are constrained
by law, if you got to be constrained by law to do something, he is
saying you are minding the things of the flesh. And you are not
subject to the law. The carnal mind can't be subject
to the law. Now look at this. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. We can't come to God by any righteousness
of our own. No way. Verse 9. Oh, here's the
good news though. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
You are not in the flesh. This is before God now. You are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit
of God dwell in you. And if Christ be in you, if Christ,
verse 10, I skipped down there, verse 10, if Christ be in you,
the body. I have looked at this for months.
And I got it finally. The Lord gave it to me. The body.
The whole body of the law. The whole body of the law. That
body that you were not subject to when you were in your flesh.
If Christ be in you, the body, He calls it in another place,
the body of Moses. Because He was given through
Moses. The body of the law is dead because of sin. Because
sin has been condemned in the flesh by Christ for us. But, here is the good news. The Spirit is life because of
righteousness. Oh, if you could hear what this
means. Brethren, there is no life except
for righteousness. That's the only kind of life
there is with God, is righteousness. Life is righteousness. Death
is sin. Sin is death. Life is righteousness. And He's telling you here this,
He's telling you, if you have the Spirit of God in you, if
you have life in you, it is eternal life. because of righteousness. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath the Son is made
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So that There's nothing
else for you to do. There's nothing else for you.
The work's finished, brethren. It's finished. And then He says
in verse 11, and He'll also do the same for our mortal bodies.
Now there He's talking about our bodies. He'll also do the
same for our mortal bodies in the resurrection. You can read
that down in verse 23. We're groaning within ourselves.
We're waiting for the redemption of our body. He's going to do
for us in the body what He's done for us in the spirit. Here's
how we're new creatures, brethren. Here's how old things are passed
away and all things become new. If Christ is in you, you're not
in the flesh, you're in the Spirit. And the body of the law is dead
to you because Christ has put away your sin, but the Spirit's
life in you because of righteousness. Brethren, it means we have eternal
life. It means we are the sons of God. We are the righteousness of Christ,
by Christ making us so in Him, by His great love for us. Does
that make you want to run out and sin? Not if you know Him. No, sir. No, sir. Look at verse
12. Therefore, brethren, We are debtors, not to the flesh,
to live after the flesh. Remember, the law is like a dead
husband to the believer. That's what Paul said. The law
has become like a dead husband to the believer. That you should
be married to another, not to the law, but even to Christ who
is raised from the dead to serve in newness of spirit. Our text
tells us, they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto Christ which died for them and rose again. Just imagine
this. Imagine that. Imagine if you
were married to a woman whose first husband had died. Now you're
married to this woman. Her first husband died and you
and her married. And all this woman can talk about
and think about is her first husband. And she keeps on wanting
to walk by his rules. And she's terrified. She's in
bondage all the time because she's just wanting to please
that first husband. And here you are, you're way
better to her than that first husband was. You've done things
for her that that first husband never could do. And she's off
living to herself. She's off minding her own self
and not even thinking of you because she's trying to serve
that first husband. Would you be very happy? Look here. Look here. That first husband
is the law, brethren. We're married to a new husband,
Christ. And He says in verse 13, if you live after the flesh,
you're going to die. That's right. If we lose sight
of Christ, we're going to die and prove we never had life in
the beginning. Paul said in Colossians 2, this is what he said, he said,
Believer, if you are dead with Christ, that means Christ nailed
the law which was against us to the cross at Calvary. He satisfied
it. He satisfied it. Now our life
is risen with Him. We are with Him. So why as though
living in this world, Why as though your life is dependent
upon what you do in this life and your obedience to that law,
why as though living in the world would you be brought into subjection
to the law, into bondage to the law, as men insist you must by
their commandments and their precepts? Why would you do that?
He said at the end of Colossians 2, it makes a fair show in the
flesh in will worship. But he says that vain show, that
very vain show is the lust of the flesh. That's what the flesh
wants. The flesh wants people to look at me and think, I'm
fulfilling the law by my obedience. And that's the lust of the flesh.
So it hadn't mortified the deeds of the flesh. It's like throwing
gasoline on a fire. That's just, that's how it is.
When you teach, men the law, and you try to teach them the
law. I don't care how you state it, how you come about it, unless
you're stating plainly that they died under the law in Adam, that
only Christ has fulfilled that law, and there's no way they
can possibly fulfill that law themselves. They are righteous
only in Christ. Unless you shut men up to Christ,
if you preach law and give a man any room to think that he can
come to God by it, or that he's going to add to something Christ
did by his obedience to it, or give him a better reward, that's
all a constraint of law. That ceases to be grace, that's
works brethren. That's works. This is how subtle
the thing is. That's how subtle it is. Romans
8.13, he says, But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, you shall live. Now how do you mortify the deeds
of the body? You know what mortify means? To treat as dead. to treat
his dad. When somebody's dead, I think
it was Spurgeon who told the story about sending the kid out
to the, was it him, Ravi, or was it Phil Pott? I can't remember.
One of them sent the little boy out to the grave and he said,
go out there and brag on that man. He went out there and he
bragged on the man. He come back. He said, what happened?
He said, nothing. He said, now go out there and
talk bad about him. Talk down to him. Criticize him.
He went out there and did that and come back and said, what'd
he do? Nothing. That's being dead. That's what it is to mortify
your flesh. Whether you do something good,
don't look at it. Don't trust in it. Don't think
it's doing anything for you to make you righteous or holy. Our righteousness is Christ.
Christ is our righteousness and our sanctification. And if you
see your sins, brethren, don't let it make you doubt your salvation
because our righteousness is Christ. That's being dead. That's
treating this flesh like it's dead. Not living to it in any
way at all. And he says, now if you mortify
through the Spirit the deeds of the body, you'll live. How
are you going to do that? Just by what we're doing right
here. The believer hears this message about Christ and how
Christ has finished the work, how He is the righteousness of
the law for us. And that through the Spirit,
the Spirit puts down the flesh and the inner man is strengthened
to believe on Christ and walk constrained only by the love
of Christ. And thus we have life and peace. That's why you drive a long ways
to come back and hear the Gospel. That's why I don't have to constrain
you. That's why I don't put any yokes on you. You do it because
you want to do it. Because your faith stands not
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Verse 14, As
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. How are you led? By the Spirit
of God. Not by law, not constrained by
men, by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God. He
is still talking about the law. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. I've heard so many preachers.
I feel sorry for folks. I hear preachers that'll just,
man, they just scare people to death. I'm talking about talking
to believers, using the law to try to force some kind of obedience
out of them and scare them to death with the law. I'm thankful
for the Holy Spirit of God telling us right here, you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. That's not what spirit
He gave us. He gave us this spirit. We've
received the spirit of adoption. whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
We are sons of God. You know what that means, brethren?
Let me turn it back to 2 Corinthians 5. I am going to wind this up.
That means right now, He said in Colossians, we have been made
fit, made meet to enter into the inheritance of the saints
in light. That means right now, because of Christ's work, what
He accomplished, Everyone in whom Christ abides, everyone
who's been given faith to rest in Christ, everyone who's walking
constrained by the love of Christ, they're fit right now to enter
into the holiest of holies in the very presence of God right
now. Right now. And we can right now
through faith, through prayer, we can enter in. You can find
that in Hebrews 10. Through that new and living way, Christ, because
He shed His blood for us and because He sprinkled our conscience
from dead works to serve the living God, we can enter in.
It's a two-fold work. He set judgment on the cross
for us, our judgment settled, brethren. In judgment day, we're
going to stand behind Christ and He's going to speak on our
behalf and we're going to have entrance into heaven because
our works, His works are our works. That's true for the believer. It's settled. And it's a secondary
part of the work is He settles this in our heart. He gives us
discernment to know it. The Scripture says, Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. There's the judgment
settled on the cross. And in whose spirit is no guile. He's not a fake. He's not doing
what he's doing because he's a phony, fake, self-righteous
legalist that's got to be constrained by men to make him even come
to the church house. If I was going to hear what most
men are preaching, I wouldn't want to go either. Look here
though. Back at our text. 2 Corinthians
5.14. The love of Christ constraineth
us because we thus judge that if one died for all, for all
these reasons, then, right then, when he died, we're all dead
before God. 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. Wherefore, henceforth
know we no man after the flesh. Let me tell you what is a great
thing about being in a body of believers. We are not glorying
in appearance. You are not going to have folks
here that the face you see on Sunday morning is the face you
see all during It's not, they're not putting on their Sunday face
and acting all holy on Sunday and then going home and treating
their family like hell the rest of the week. What you see on
Sunday is what you get the rest of the week. We're not glorying
in appearance. And because of that, I know that
she's a sinner, she knows I'm a sinner, I know he's a sinner,
you know I'm a sinner, and all the rest of these brethren here,
so that when we fall We don't take one another to the law.
We don't yoke one another. We don't whip one another. We
don't excuse it. But we restore one another by
appointing them to Christ. Appointing them to Christ. Reminding
them what Christ has done for us. And we bear that burden.
We bear it. We just bear with it. And bear
it. Because that's the love of Christ. That's the law of love written
on our heart. Remember those two sons of Noah? One of them
One of them was a fine, holy, self-sanctified, self-righteous
man. He ran out there and said, look
at daddy, he's drunk. Look at him. Look at him. Called
himself a righteous man. Look at him. And the other two
boys took a blanket and turned their back on his sin and backed
up and covered the sin of their father. Love covers a multitude
of sins. We don't glory in appearance.
We don't know any man after the flesh, though we've known Christ
after the flesh. You know some people knew Christ
personally, after the flesh, just naturally speaking. It didn't
do them any good spiritually. It didn't do them a bit of good.
But we've known Him that way, haven't we, brethren? Once we
only knew Christ after the flesh, we knew the doctrine, we knew
of Him, but we didn't have the work in our heart. We didn't
have the Spirit of God in our heart. We only knew Him after
the flesh. Yet now, henceforth, know we Him no more after the
flesh. We worship God in spirit and in truth. Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
because of this work Christ has done, he is a new creature. Old
things are passed away. The old man of sin, the old curse
of the law, and the old marriage to the law, it's all passed away.
Behold, all things are become new. Remember what Paul said
in Philippians 3, 3? We are the circumcision. Here
is a true Jew, right here. True child of Israel, right here.
Which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. That's right. That's when all
things have become new. And who do we glorify for this
work? Doing this work for us and in us? Verse 18. And all
things are of God. who hath reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now for you who don't believe,
Paul says, be you reconciled to God. Lay down your shotgun. Just lay it down. Surrender to
God. Cease from your works. Believe
on Christ. And you'll walk by the constraint
of His love. If He works in you, you will.
That's the only way. And then for you who claim to
believe Christ, but you're still under the yoke of some legal
preacher or under the yoke of the law or minding your flesh
and thinking that you somehow are going to add to something
Christ has done, be ye reconciled to God. Cease from your works
and believe on Christ and walk constrained by nothing but His
love, by His love. My wife would think I was some
poor husband if I only did things for her because she had a contract
with me that said, if you don't do this, I'm going to do so and
so. That's that covenant that you
make. You know what happened? When I fell in love with her,
when she ravished my heart with her love, I said, baby, I'll
serve you all your days. I'll do everything for you because
I love you. That's what I'm talking about.
And then for you that believe him, Don't let anything corrupt
your minds from the simplicity of Christ, from the singleness
of Christ Jesus the Lord. Stay constantly hearing of His
faithfulness. That's the only way the flesh
will be mortified. And remember this, herein is
our love made perfect. We've been talking about His
love for us. Herein is our love made perfect. Here's how it's
grown and matured right here. that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment, not be sitting there trembling and shaking.
Get this now. As Christ is, right now, seated
at God's right hand, righteous, holy, accepted of God, well-pleasing
in God's sight, the righteousness of God, so are we in this world. That's true of every believer.
Amen. Alright, we're going to have
Brother Kevin is going to come forward and say a few words. And then as we're closing in
a hymn, a last hymn, he and I will go change clothes so we can go
out and baptize him out back. So, Brother Kevin.