God help us if we ever get over
His love. God help us. Well, we're so delighted. I hope you're half as delighted
as I am to have Pastor Clay Curtis with us this evening. In a very
short time, Clay's become a very dear friend of mine. I just look
forward to his visit. Like we always do, I kept him
up after midnight last night, sitting, talking, and just enjoying
the time of fellowship. Clay's a pastor of the Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church in Princeton, New Jersey, and we're thankful
he brought along his wife, Melinda, and his daughter, Emma, and his
son, Will, and we're just such a sweet family. We just enjoy
the tantalized time of fellowship with them. Clay, you come preach
to us. We've got nowhere else to go
this evening, so you just come preach your heart out. Clay's
going to be preaching in the conference in Danville and then
Sunday night in Lexington. I tell you, don't let everybody
know he's coming to this end of Kentucky, because we'll put
him to work. So we got him first, and we're thankful. Well, I thought I was keeping
Frank up until after midnight last night. That's good fellowship
when that happens. It's so good to be with y'all.
We've been looking forward to this really sincerely since we
were here last year. And it's so good to be back with
you. It's always good to be with Frank
and Janet and to see y'all and also so many familiar faces and
friends. I enjoy it. Let's look there
in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In verse 14, the Apostle Paul
said, The love of Christ constraineth us. The love of Christ constraineth
us. This is such an important subject,
the love of Christ. This is the only true constraint. The only true constraint is the
love of Christ. The only motive that God is pleased
with is when a believer lives under Christ because there is
one reason. The love of Christ for us, what
He has done for us, constrains us. I want to show you three
things here. works religion, what constrains
works religion, and then how these believers come to be constrained
by the love of Christ for us, and then lastly, what this constraint
is. What is it to live unto Christ? First of all, to be in works
religion, and we all need to know this, even if you think,
well, why would he want to say this to me? I trust Christ. I
believe Christ. But the believer never tires
of making our call in an election sure. And we need to hear this. We need to hear it. To be in
works religion is to be constrained by anything other than Christ. To be constrained by anything
other than the love of Christ. Look there in verse 12. He said,
We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion
to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer
them with glory in appearance, that glory in appearance and
not in heart. Paul is giving true believers
at Corinth an answer to give to those false preachers who
were criticizing Paul. Then, just like it is now, there's
just two kinds of religion in the world. That's all there's
ever been, is just two kinds, grace and works. Grace is true,
works is false. Those who are saved by grace,
in grace religion, we worship God because we've been born of
the Spirit of God. We've been made a new creature
by the Spirit of God. And we believe on Christ. We
trust Christ to be our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification,
our redemption. And we're constrained, we're
motivated in our heart by his love for us. This is what breaks
our heart when we sin against him. This is what makes us want
to walk in a way that honors him. It's the love of Christ
for us. And we put absolutely no confidence in our flesh whatsoever. And works religion. Whether they
profess faith in Christ or whether it's any other religion in the
world, they all have this one thing in common. Every one of
them. They all put salvation in the hands of a sinner at some
point. A sinner has something to do
with his salvation at some point. And for those who do call themselves
Christians, who say they believe on Christ, their main constraint
is law. Their number one constraint is
law. The letter of the law given at Mount Sinai, precepts of men,
all these different constraints they used. And that was the case
in Paul's day. That's what was going on in Paul's
day. Their doctrine is that once the sinner comes to Christ, you've
got to go back to the law. And except you keep the law,
you cannot be saved. Have you ever looked at a map,
just look at a map, of where Mount Zion is and where Mount
Sinai is? You know that if you go from
Mount Zion, where Christ was crucified, back to Mount Sinai,
you've got to go down. You've got to leave that place
and go down. And if you're going to be constrained
by law, you've got to take your affection off of Christ, sit
at the right hand of God, and come down and put your affection
on things below. That's just always the case.
You can't have your focus in two places at one time. It's
just impossible. It was an unlawful use of the
law. It is an unlawful use of the law. In Colossians 2, Paul
called it the precepts of men. To tell men to observe, touch
not, taste not, handle not the law, he said that's the precepts
of men. That's not the precept of God.
That's not what God teaches. Paul used the means God ordained. The means we use is the means
God ordained. The preaching of Christ and Him
crucified. preach Christ, use the law to
show a sinner their guilt, show us our guilt, show us our sin,
the impossibility of us pleasing God, and shut sinners up to Christ,
to faith in Christ. And then pray to God, the Holy
Spirit, to bless the Word, give a new heart, and give faith in
the heart, and wait on God to do it. Wait on God to do it.
That's what you see in Ezekiel 37 in the Valley of Dry Bones.
That's what Ezekiel was taught. Preach the Word, pray to the
Spirit to bless the Word, and wait on God to do the work. And
that's what the believer does. And so since Paul believed that,
he believed Christ really is alive, he believed Christ really
is at the right hand of God, and he believed Christ really
is working through the preaching of the Gospel in the hearts of
his people. So that he's able to make them a new creation through
the Spirit, in the heart, through the Gospel. He's able to rebuke,
to exhort, to admonish, he's able to do the whole work from
Heaven's glory through the preaching of the Word. And then he sends
you out into the world and he controls everything in Providence.
So he not only teaches you through the Word, he'll take you out
into Providence then and make sure you get the lesson by experience. This is our Redeemer. You believe
that? You believe he's really that alive, he's really that
powerful, he's really working like this? I do. I believe this.
I would not preach if I didn't believe this. He's doing this. Christ is doing it. And Paul
did. And you know what they said about Paul? He says there, they
said that he's beside himself. He's beside himself. I can't
remember which king it was now that said, Paul, much learning
has made you mad. You're just beside yourself.
You're too fanatical. You're a mystic. You believe
this thing and what? You believe Christ is working
in this earth? I had a man a few weeks ago.
Asked me, he said, how many elders do y'all have? And I said, we
just have one preacher. That's what he meant. I said,
we got one preacher. He said, well, if you just got one preacher,
who's he accountable to? I said, he's accountable to God.
And he said, yeah, but who's keeping him in order? I said,
God is. And if you got a man that's not
constrained by God and accountable to God, it don't matter how many
men you got trying to constrain him. He doesn't matter. He's
not going to be constrained in his heart. Accountable to God. Accountable to God. And they
said he's too sober. They said he's too dogmatic.
He just preaches Christ and he just shut sinners up to Christ.
He's just too dogmatic, too singular, too set on this one. He said, whether, verse 13, whether
we be beside ourselves, it's to God, or whether we be sober,
it is for your cause. Look there in verse 12. Those
in works religion glory in appearance not in heart. They glory in appearance
not in heart. Look over Galatians 5. Galatians
chapter 5. This is the most important thing.
I wish I could get this. You and I as believers need to
get this. The most important thing before
God is the heart. The heart. the inward man. That's the most important thing.
The scripture says the Lord seeth not as man seeth. He's supposed
to glory in an outward appearance, but not in heart. And the scripture
says the Lord sees not as man sees. He doesn't look on the
outward appearance, he looks on the heart. What's the heart? Where's the heart? What direction
does the heart turn? And the scripture says as a man
believes in his heart, so is he. That's where the real man
is, is in his heart. Now look at this, Galatians 5,
6 says, In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Circumcision,
the law, does not avail. We sinners in Adam, and no sinner
has ever kept the law of righteousness, and we can't attain to the law
of God, to the law of righteousness by our works under the law. It's
impossible. We can't do it. Not before conversion,
not after conversion. It's an impossibility. If it
was, if we could, God would have sent his son. But he sent his
son for that very reason. And neither does uncircumcision
avail. Do you realize that Abel and
Enoch and Noah and Abraham and every Gentile before God gave
the law at Mount Sinai and every Gentile after God gave the law
at Mount Sinai Every Gentile that God has saved, they didn't
have the law given at Mount Sinai, and they weren't even under that
covenant of works. Never were under that covenant
of works. And yet, listen to this, if you want to turn there,
but hold your place in Galatians. I'm going to come back. Listen
to this in Romans 9. Let me do it. I'll just read
it to you. The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
didn't even have the law. They didn't have what men say
is the Believer's Rule of Life. They didn't have it. And it says
they have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which
is of faith. But, listen to this, but Israel
which followed after the Law of Righteousness, they had the
Ten Commandments and all the 600 and some odd plus commandments,
and they followed after the Law of Righteousness in strict detail. And it says, but they have not
attained, they have not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were
by the works of the law, because they stumbled at Christ. They
stumbled at that stumbling stone. In the very next chapter, Paul
said they'd gone about to establish their own righteousness and didn't
submit to the righteousness of God. Men come, we think this,
had a man tell me this. He said, you know, we don't the
reason Paul and Peter and the other apostles spoke so much
and they spoke more on this subject, on a believer being free from
the law, not being under the law. They spoke on this subject
more than anything else. And he said to me, he said, the
reason they did that is because you got to understand the Jews
had all their life been taught that they were under the law
and that they had to come to God by the law. And so it was
necessary for them to just Keep preaching that and keep preaching
that, keep preaching that. And he said, it's been 2,000
years since that time. And he said, now we know we're
not under the law. You don't have to keep preaching
that. No, no, we're just like the Jews. We've come up being
taught, you've got to keep the law. And we have in our mind
by nature, you've got to keep the law. If you want to come
to God, you've got to come to God through the law. That's what
we think by nature. We're all Pharisees by nature.
And so we had to be taught over and over and over, no, you don't
come to God by the law. You come only by Christ. He is
that righteousness of God. And when you come to Christ,
you come smack dab to the very end, to the very end for which
the law was given. And that's Christ himself, the
righteousness of God. That's where he brings you. So
it's not circumcision that avails. It's not uncircumcision that
avails. Here's what avails with God.
Faith in Christ. which works by love. It does
everything we do, everything we do, living under Christ, constrained
by his love only. Not by law. Not by law. Turn
to Galatians 6 just a minute. Galatians 6 and look at verse
12. He said, this is why they do
it. This is why they do it. This is why you and I were trying
to come to God by the law at one time. As many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh." There you go. A fair show. A show in the flesh. And that's
what Paul said about it in Colossians 2. He said, when you constrain
men by law, it don't mortify the deeds of the flesh. He said
it's got an appearance in will worship of that. It's got an
appearance of self-humility and all those things. But it does
not mortify the deeds of the flesh. It's what the flesh wants.
So it's just like throwing gas on a fire. And the man that feels
so low and so down and so humble and like he just wouldn't dare
do anything against the law, he's just so proud of him because
he's constrained by law. He's done it. He's done it. They
want glory in the flesh. They constrain you to be circumcised.
And I was talking to some men, and when it says there they constrain
you to be circumcised, you can add any of the constraints of
men in our day. Not only law. When they had this
fellow email me 15 questions, and, you know, what covenant
do I have to sign before I can come and join your church? Covenant. You've got to sign a covenant,
you know. So it's saying you're going to do this, you're going
to do that, you're going to do the other. Christ said don't forswear yourself.
Because you can't, you don't know what tomorrow holds. You
don't even know, you can't turn one hair one color or the other.
He said, don't forswear yourself at all. And that's all that is,
writing out a covenant, saying I'm going to keep a covenant.
We ought to learn from Israel that we're not covenant keepers. We're not covenant keepers. And
they were telling me about this church that they were in that
the preacher would have the people give them their pay stubs to
them so they could tell who who was tithing and who wasn't tithing.
You know, all these constraints, they use the Lord's Table like
that, you know, to be a disciplinary measure. All of these different
things to constrain men. And he said, why do they do it?
He said, verse 12, only lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law. If they preach this, if they
preach Christ, they're going to have to confess, I don't keep
the law. Only Christ is kept alive, and only Christ is my
righteousness, and I can only come to God by Christ. And they're
going to have to confess, I can't even make a man obedient in his
heart. And to preach that message means that you're going to lose
your following. You're going to lose men that
are following you, that love to be constrained by law. But,
verse 13, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they
may glory in your flesh. You know, religion uses the things
that they have, the strengths they have on men. Religion uses
those things to attract folks. The glory in those things attracts
folks. And I believe it says here that they're going to glory
before God in those things. I believe it's what the Lord
was saying when he said, you know, didn't we do many wonderful
works? Didn't we preach in your name? Didn't we cast out devils? We
excommunicated folks that didn't measure up outwardly to the obedience
of the law. We kicked them out. And the Lord
will say, depart from me. I didn't know you. He said, you
that worketh iniquity. You work in iniquity right now,
trying to come to me by that. He'll say, in that day. Now notice
here, notice this man constrained by the love of Christ. Verse
14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world's crucified under me and
unto the world. That includes what Paul called
the rudiments of the world. Touch not, taste not, handle
not, it's all crucified to me and I to the world. Look at verse
15, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. He said it again, and
as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and
mercy and upon the ears full of God. The rule of the believer's
life, brethren, the rule of the believer's life is faith which
works by love. If you're not constrained, if
we're not constrained by the love of Christ, there is nothing
else that will constrain us. And this is what I'm talking
about before God. Before God. We're all here tonight. Every
one of us is here tonight. And I'm glad everybody's here
tonight. This is the best place you could be is sitting on the
sound of the gospel. I'm glad you're here. But the truth of
what our text is teaching is this. Some are here and some
are not here. Some are here and some are not
here. Some are here because God's given you a new heart. He's given
you faith. He's given you an understanding
of what Christ's done for you. He's shown you the love of Christ
for you. And you're here because you have
to hear a word from your Redeemer. You want to worship Him. You're
here because you want to be here. And some are here because of
something else. That's just, it's always the
case. Some's here because of something else. Something else
brought you here. And you don't really want to be here. And before
God, you're not really here. That's true. That's true. They
come unto thee as the people cometh. 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. That's true. That's the man by
nature. A sinner can do everything a believer does. He can profess
faith. He can be baptized. He can join
the church. table, he can do many wonderful
works, except it be from the constraint of Christ's love for
us, every bit of it's in vain. Every bit of it's in vain. You
reckon what would happen if we took all the constraints off
of men that churches and preachers have on folks today? I wonder
if we took all those constraints off, I wonder what would happen.
Either there would only be a handful of folks left, Or if we started
just preaching Christ being crucified, God might work a revival, might
work a revival. All right, that's enough of that.
Let's look now at how the believer comes to be constrained only
by Christ's love for us. Verse 14, 2 Corinthians 5, 14. He says there, For the love of
Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died
for all, then were all dead. 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." Now this love of Christ
that constrains us, because we thus judge, Christ's love is
not sentimental, it's saving love. There would be no point
of mentioning the love of Christ if it wasn't saving love. And
those that he loves he draws. I've loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore in loving kindness have I drawn you. And those that
he loves, he gives an understanding. He gives spiritual discernment
to judge. This judgment's not something
we have by nature. This is spiritual judgment. Remember
1 Corinthians 2, he says, we've not received the spirit of the
world, we receive the spirit of God. That we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. And we speak the
things which the Holy Ghost teaches. And he says, He says there that
the natural man does not receive these things. He says, but the
man that has been born of the Spirit, he that is spiritual,
judgeth all things. He discerns all things. And he
said, so the love of Christ constrains us because this is what we judge.
This is what we judge. Now here, look at verse 14, that
if one died for all, then we are all dead. And it is absolutely
true. It is absolutely true that All
those for whom Christ died were spiritually dead. That's true.
We were dead. That's why Christ came and laid
down his life for us. We were dead. There was no other
way that we could have life. But understand this. Understand
this. Concerning all things that must
die, when Christ died for all his people right then, all those
things died. That's what we're learning here.
When Christ died for all, for all his people, right then, all
the things that needed to die, all the old things that needed
to pass away and die so that all things could become new,
right then, all those things died. They all died. There are
three things. Let me show them to you. Romans
6. Romans 6. The body of sin died. When Christ
died for all his people, right then, the body of sin. in all
his people died. Romans 6, 6, Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that is dead is freed from sin. And when you are born of
the Holy Spirit, this is what the Spirit of God teaches you.
Verse 11, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All right, Romans 7. Here's the second thing that
died when Christ died. Secondly, before God. All of
this is before God. You and I didn't know anything
about it when Christ died. This is before God. Secondly,
before God, when Christ died under the justice of the law,
he made him to be sin who knew no sin. that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him, and when he died under the justice
of the law for all his people, right then all his people died
to the law. Look at Romans 7 verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. And when
we're born of the Holy Spirit, he teaches us to be married not
to the law, but instead that you might be married to him.
He says there, even to him who's raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God. And then thirdly, before
God, when Christ died for all his people, right then the law
became dead to all his people. Not only did we die to the law,
the law looking at us and saying, yup, that man's dead now. But
we, the law, us looking at the law, the law died to us too.
Look here, Romans 7, verse 6. But now we are delivered from
the law, that being dead wherein we were held. So when the Holy
Spirit of God quickens us, he teaches us in Romans 7, 6, that
we should serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of
the letter. Believer, do you see that this
is our rejoicing? This is what we're rejoicing
in. This is what we've got to hear. This is what we delight
in. This is the gospel. This is salvation. Christ gave
the law. Don't misunderstand me now. Folks
will hear this and they'll think, oh, he's disparaging the law.
No, no. We have such a delight for the
law of God that we will not bring the law down to man's level and
preach that a man can keep it. Remember what Brother Henry used
to say? I can keep the law if you let me, or what he said,
I can jump over a barn if you let me build a barn. We don't
bring the law down to a man's level. Here's what happened.
Christ gave the law holiness of nature, holiness of nature,
and that's the saint's sanctification in Christ. Christ gave the law
obedience of life, that's the saint's righteousness in Christ. And Christ gave the law the sufferings
of death, and that's the saint's justification in Christ. So the
law's dead to us and we're dead to the law. When he died, we
died. And so the law has nothing else
to say to us. Now let me tell you what this
means. This means that for all those for whom Christ died, now
the law, the justice of God, demands They must be born of
God. They must be given faith in Christ.
They must be brought to see what Christ has done for them to rest
in Christ alone. Because if they pass through
this life without faith in Christ, they'll meet God, and for God
to pour out justice on them a second time would be double jeopardy.
And he won't do that. He won't do that. This is what
Christ did for his people. If you'll permit me briefly,
I want to give you something in Romans 8. Look there with
me, Romans 8. Paul's still talking about the same thing here. In
the same context, and when you read this, he talks about two
different kinds of folks, those that mind the flesh and those
that mind the spirit. And those that mind the flesh
are religious folks who are trying to come to God, constrained by
the law. And those who mind the things
of the spirit are believers that Paul's talked about in 2 Corinthians
5. We're constrained by the love of Christ. Now look at this.
Verse 7, he said that those that mind the flesh, he said, the
carnal minds enmity against For it's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they there in the flesh
cannot please God." That means everything that's being done
in religion is being done by the constraint of law. I don't
care what it's conquered. I don't care what it looks like
it's accomplished in the world. God said, every bit of it is
hatred against me. Every bit of it. Because they're
not keeping the law. They're not subject to it, and
they can't be. Not only the Lord's Son now, but they're now subject
to the gospel. They're not bowing to, this is
the work of God if you believe on his Son. Not bowing to God. But now look, watch this brethren.
But concerning the carnal mind, believer, you're not in the flesh. You're in the Spirit, if so be
the Spirit of God dwelling in you. And look at verse 10. And
concerning subjection to the body of the law, if Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of sin. The body of the law is
dead to you and your body is dead to the law because Christ
is taking care of our sin. But look at this, look at this,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. That means
brethren, if you have everlasting life, if you have, if you've
been regenerated, if your heart is set on Christ and you see
that there's nothing good in you, you know that Christ is
your all and you trust him and him alone. All your eggs is in
this one basket. The very fact you've been regenerated
to faith in Christ is because Christ made you the righteousness
of God in Him, the Spirit's life because of righteousness. Now
read on, read on, look at this now. And concerning our walking
in newness of spirit, concerning us mortifying the deeds of our
flesh, God gives the glory for that too. Look at verse 11. If
the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Remember
what Christ said? He said, the Spirit quickens, the flesh profits
nothing. And he's saying right here, not
only has he regenerated you because of righteousness, not only does
he dwell in you because of righteousness, he's the one that's going to
make you walk in newness of spirit, following Christ along and mortify
the deeds of your flesh. Look, therefore, brethren, we're
debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, for if you live
after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the Spirit
to mortify the deeds of the body you shall live. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. You've
not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear. You've not received
the Spirit to bring you back under the bondage of the law
and make you fearful. You've received the Spirit of
adoption whereby you cry, Have a Father. You've got access into
the throne room of God. And if you want, if the Lord
was to take you there right now, the believer is as fit for heaven
right now as Christ is there seated there. Right from the
moment he's born again. So then, how are we going to
be constrained? How are we going to now walk
in newness of life? Let's look at that very briefly.
Back at our text. I'll hurry. Verse 2 Corinthians
5, 15. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. You know, if I, let me
illustrate it, that'd be the best thing. You imagine, fellas,
imagine this, and ladies, you'll get this. Imagine, men, if your
wife had been married before to a husband that has died. And
you've married her, and you have provided everything for her which
her first husband never did provide. You've removed all all the bondage
and burden off of her and have done everything for her that
her first husband never did do. Now, you've told this, your wife,
that, honey, if you want to work, if you want to do something,
that's fine. But you don't have to do it. You do it, if you love
me and you want to do it because you love me, that's fine. I delight
in that. But honey, I've done everything for you. You don't
have to do it back. Women are sitting there thinking, that'd
be a mighty good husband. We got a mighty good husband.
I'm telling you, a mighty good husband. But now imagine that
wife, if she turned around and kept going out to the grave of
that old husband, and she kept trying to think about the rules
of that first husband, and she kept bringing up that first husband,
and she kept wanting to walk by his rules, and his regulations,
and all his harshness, and all his difficulty, and everything
she complained about when she was under his rule. You think
that last husband is going to be happy with her? He won't be. He won't be. She's minding that
old husband. Brethren, that old husband's
the law. And if you're a believer, born of his spirit, that old
husband's dead. And it's lawful for you to be
married to Christ. That's the point of Romans 7. We're not talking about something
that's unlawful. This is lawful. Now, if we're
going to go back to the law, that makes us a I can't remember
that term. What is it when you marry the
two women? Polygamous, is that it? That
makes us a polygamous if we're going to try to be married to
the law and to Christ. You can't be married but to one.
That's one. So now, that's the truth of it.
And here's why we're married to him. Romans 7 said that we
might bring forth fruit unto God. We didn't bring forth any
fruit when we were dead in sin and when we thought we were living
by the law. We didn't bring forth any fruit then. The wife bears
children. How does she bear it? Fruit.
That's what she bears. How does she do that? By her
husband's seed within her. That's exactly how the believer
bears fruit. By our husband's seed within us. Christ Jesus,
through the incorruptible seed, the word which is preached unto
you, through the Spirit of God. That's how we pray. He said,
not only did he say the Spirit is the Spirit that quitteth the
flesh, prophets, nothing. He said the words that I speak
unto their spirit and their life. That's how we're going to bring
forth fruit. Philippians 2 says all fruits of righteousness are
by Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God. So what is
it to live to Christ? It's fruit. First of all, it's
how we regard one another. Look at verse 16. Wherefore henceforth
know we no man after the flesh. You know, isn't it good to be
in a place where you don't have to walk in here and put on a
You don't have to walk in here and put on your Sunday face and
your Wednesday night face and act like, you know, you're somebody
you're not. Because you're a sinner and the
person next to you knows you're a sinner, and you know they're
a sinner, and all of you is on it for one another by it. It's
just what we are. We can't help it. It's what we
are. We don't approve of it. We don't like it. We hate it.
But it's what we are. And so we don't, we're not, we're
not walking around faking things, but we truly believe Christ and
we want to serve. We delight in the law of God
after the inward man. So when we see our brother fall
and stumble, we don't take him to the law. We don't call up
everybody and say, did you hear about what so-and-so did? We
don't expose him like him did his father Noah when he was drunk.
We turn our backs on it and we cover their sin. Love covers
a multitude of sins. And when you're constrained by
the love of Christ, you know that's exactly what Christ did
for you. And that's what you do for your
brethren. You cover their sin and you try to restore them back
to Christ through this Word, through this Word. And here's
the second thing it involves. This truth concerns our worship
of Christ. Look at verse 16. Yea, though
we've known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know
we Him no more after the flesh. Some people literally knew Christ
when he walked this earth in the flesh. And some people were
even, you know, the relatives of Joseph and Mary were near
kin to him, according to the flesh. He didn't do them any
good whatsoever. No good whatsoever. Imagine if
one of those folks was alive today. Every church in this country
would have them preaching in the pulpit. They'd have them
speak and tell us about what it was to be with Christ. And
he didn't do them any good. Nothing. And you and I knew Christ
after the flesh at one time. He was all right here, and it
didn't do us any good either. He's got to go from here to here.
He's got to get in the inward land, and then you're constrained
by him, by his love. You let other spirits, you're
walking after him because you want to serve him. And then look
at here, look at here in verse 16, I'm sorry, in verse 17. Everything about
our worship's new. It's spiritual now. Look at verse
17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Our old man of sin's gone. You know what this mortifies
the flesh? If you do something good, you don't pay any attention. And if you do something sinful,
you don't make it bring you to doubt your faith and doubt your
hope in Christ. To treat it like God says it
is. Treat it like it's dead. It's dead. It's not going to
benefit you, and it's not going to harm you. Either way. That's
to treat it like it's dead. And look to Christ only. Look
to Christ only. And that's what we do, because
old things are gone. Our old man of sin's dead. We're
dead to the law, and the law's dead to us, and we're alive under
God now. We are the sons of God now. And
men will say, they'll hear that, and they'll hear us preaching
this Word, and they'll say, you spiritualize the Scriptures too
much. No, the problem is, carnal men carnalize the scriptures
too much. The scripture is spiritual. God is spiritual, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. God seeks
those to worship him that way. That's how we worship him, in
spirit and in truth. We used to worship by the flesh,
now we worship by the spirit. And here's the last thing, and
this fruit produces, this living under Christ, brethren, concerns
who we glory in. You know, when you were in, if
you were in religion, you know who you glory in? Big ol' I. What I did. But you know who
we glory in now? Look at verse 18. And all things
are of God. We glory in God. All this is
of God who's reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and given
us the ministry of reconciliation. The last two things he says there
now, he says, now, as an ambassador for Christ, we beseech you, be
ye reconciled to God. God did this to His Son to make
us the righteousness of God in His Son, not by anything we've
done. So here's something to take home
with you. If you don't believe Christ, if you don't trust Christ,
or if you claim to believe Christ and you get trust in something
in you, some goodness in you, something you've done, whatever
it is, law, whatever, be ye reconciled to God. Be ye reconciled to God. Believe on Christ, repent from
you, repent from your works, repent from everything, anything
about you, and everything about you, and believe on Christ, and
live under Him, constrained only by His love. And I pray God will
give you a heart of good, and that's the only way you'll do
it. And then two, believer, don't ever turn from Christ. Don't
ever, ever turn from Christ. We start out, it's, please God,
by the foolishness of preaching to save them who believe. Paul
said in Galatians, In Galatians 3, he said, we started out through
the hearing of faith, through the hearing of the faithfulness
of Christ Jesus. And if we're going to be mature
and grown, and this love is going to increase, and we're going
to grow in Him, we've got to know more and more of Him. It's
going to be through the hearing of the faithfulness of Christ.
We save the first hour through preaching of His gospel, and
we save to the day we die through the preaching of His gospel.
It's how He does it. Come hear this gospel and don't
let anything separate you from it. And don't look anywhere else. But regard your flesh as dead
and know that your life is dead and your life is hit with Christ
in God, at the right hand of God. That's where your life is.
Focus your attention there. And this is what he says. Now,
we've been talking about Christ's love for us. John said, Herein
is our love made perfect. Herein is our love drawn. Herein
is how we're going to be able to stand in the judgment day
with boldness. Picture our sister who just went
to be with the Lord. And you picture her standing
there before God Almighty, holy God who knows the heart. And
she stood there with boldness. With boldness. Why? She wasn't looking at herself.
She wasn't trusting herself. Christ is her advocate with the
Father. Herein is our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. As He is
right now there at the right hand of God, so are we right
now in this world. Perfect. Righteous. Accepted. Never to be broken ever again.
If that don't constrain us, nothing will. You can whip a man till
he's black and blue, but at that, oh, that's the constraint. That's
heart constraint. Amen.