Now last week our lesson ended
in verse 10 where Paul says, For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the
things done in his body. According to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ. So he says in verse 11, knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made
manifest unto God. And I trust also are made manifest
in your consciences. And by God's grace, we know something
of the terror of appearing before the judge of all the earth without
an advocate. That's a terror. We know the
terror of appearing before God dressed in our own unholy rags
of righteousness. We know the terror of appearing
before God outside of Christ. We persuade men. We persuade
men, as best we can, that they're in danger. We persuade men to
come to Christ. Like Dan said in his prayer,
to run to Him. Don't delay. Don't go slow. Run to Him. Come to Christ. We
persuade men, as best we can, of the certainty of condemnation
outside of Christ. And we persuade men of the certainty
of salvation that's found in Christ. Now, we're not trying
to scare people into heaven, because that's never going to
work. You're not going to scare somebody into heaven. You're not trying
to scare someone into thinking you can use Christ as a fire
escape, you know, that you're just going to escape the fires
of hell. But we do try to preach in such
a way that people understand clearly we're sinners. That's
what we are. We are sin. and that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. He's the one who can
save us from our guilt and our shame and our iniquity. So I implore you, I persuade
you, come to Christ. Come to Him. Throw yourself on
His mercy. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. Come to Him. Throw yourself on His mercy.
I implore you, come to Christ for salvation. Come to Him for
life. Come to Him for righteousness.
Come to Him for mercy and grace. It's all found in Christ. Come
to Him. I implore sinners, sinful men,
to come to Christ because He's able and willing to save even
the chief of sinners. So come to Him. I implore dead
men to come to Christ for life because you'll find life in Him
Now, that sounds strange to implore dead men, doesn't it? I implore
dead men to come to Christ, knowing they never will, except the Spirit
draw them. But if the Spirit draws them,
they'll come to Christ. Now, come to Christ. Don't come
to correct doctrine. You know, you can teach. Our
children, in very, very short order, are going to know a lot
of correct doctrine. But that's not salvation. Don't
come to religion. You know, it might make you look
better on the outside. It might make you feel good, you know,
in this holy atmosphere, but that's not salvation. Don't come
to a reformed life. You know, a reformed life will
make it easier for men to deal with you, for men to live with
you, but that won't put away your sin. I know a man who, when
he was a young man, I didn't know him when he was a young
man, but this is his reputation. Had a very, very bad temper. I mean, you just never know when
the guy would go off. A bad temper. Well, as he got
older, he got religion. And now he's real proud of the
fact that he doesn't have the temper. He doesn't show the temper
like he used to do it, you know. Well, from what I understand,
it is easier to be around him now than it was 30 years ago. But he's just as lost. He just
as lost, even if he cleaned up the outside a little bit, without
Christ, we're just as lost. So come to Him. And if men are
not persuaded to come to Christ, and most of them won't be, most
people will not be persuaded to come to Christ. But God still
knows our hearts. He knows the sincerity of our
preaching, the sincerity of our desire for men and women to come
to Christ, to know Him. And Paul says, I hope you know
that, too. I hope you know that, that the
Lord has opened your eyes to see this in the Gospel, in the
Word. So he says in verse 12, For we
commend not ourselves again unto you, but we give you occasion
to glory in our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer
them, which glory in appearance and not in heart. Now, men have
always loved a glory in appearance, especially in the appearance
of religion, you know, the outward show of religion. And these kind
of men would come into Corinth. They'd attack the gospel. They'd
attack the message of the Apostle Paul. They would attack the message
of those other men who came in and preached the gospel to them.
And Paul says, now there's no need for us to commend ourselves
again to you. You know us. You know our message. You know our ministry. We don't
need to brag in our ministry to you. You know us. But we are
going to give you an answer for these men, these kind of men
who glory in appearance and not in heart. You know, when they
glory in appearance and not in heart, it's evident that they
miss Christ because salvation is a heart work. This is where
God deals with us, where he works in his people, it's in the heart. Now, if the Lord saved you. You
know the man who preaches the gospel, the Lord's give you an
ear for it, particularly If you've been converted under his ministry,
you know that man's ministry, you know his message. You know,
people can say everything they want to about Henry Mahan. But I'm telling you the truth,
I know that man preaches the gospel. I know it. I heard it for years, practically
my whole life. I was converted under that message,
that message. The Lord used that message to
reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. to my heart. I experienced a
lot of growth. I learned a lot under that message.
I know that message is the gospel. And that's the answer that we
have to these people who glory in appearance and not in heart.
So he says in verse 13, for whether we be beside ourselves, it's
to God, or whether we be sober, it's for your cause. Now, the
apostle Paul, he is a very zealous man. He was zealous about preaching
the gospel. He was very enthusiastic about
the glory of God and seeing the good of God's people. He cared
about people's souls. He could be a very serious man,
very sober in matters of the gospel. And at times, he seemed
very fanatical about this thing of preaching, preaching Christ.
And he was accused of just being a madman. Look back in Acts 26. You know the story here. In Acts 26. Verse 22, he says, having therefore
obtained help of God, I continue unto this day. witnessing both
the small and great, saying none other things than those which
the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should
suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from
the dead, and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.
And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice,
Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee
mad. You have lost your mind. And he said, I am not mad, most
noble Festus. but speak forth the words of
truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these
things, before whom also I freely speak. For I am persuaded that
none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was
not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou
the prophets? I know that thou believest."
See how Paul is persuading men? He said, I know you believe this. I know you know this. Then Agrippa
said unto Paul, Thou persuadest me to be a Christian. See, Paul
can't do this by himself. This is a gift of God. You can
almost persuade men, but God's the one who in the heart persuades
his people. But Paul, you almost persuaded
me to be a Christian. And Paul said, and here's his
care for people. Paul said, I would to God that
not only you, but also all they that hear me this day were both
almost and altogether such as I am. Accept these bonds. See how Paul, he was fanatical. He cared for people. Paul said,
I'm not mad. I just want you to know Christ.
And you could tell from his preaching, didn't you? He wanted men to
know Christ. To come to Christ. And that's
our desire. Is to see our God glorified. And see the eternal good of His
people. That's why we're here at all, isn't it? That's why
we support this ministry. That's why we found this place.
continually meet here to worship Him is to see our God glorified
and see the good, the eternal good of God's people. Now, what
gives a child of God this kind of zeal? I'm not just talking
about preachers. I'm talking about all God's children.
What gives you this kind of zeal to support this ministry, to
be so faithful, to be just so zealous for the gospel, for our
Lord? Well, it's not rewards, I can
tell you that, because those things will get old. It's not
the recognition of men, because that'll fade. I promise you,
you might earn some recognition of men, but that'll fade real
quick. That'll be gone. It's not recognition. The thing
that gives believers, God's children, this kind of zeal is the love
of Christ. Look at verse 14. For the love
of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge. That if one died
for all, then we're all dead. Now, the love of Christ is what
motivates a child of God. It's not fear of punishment.
It's not rewards. It's the love of Christ. The
love of Christ, Paul says, constraineth us. And that word constrain means
to hold together, means to be pressed together so that it can't
be separated. And we're constrained, we're
held to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and love. We're held
or pressed together in His surface by love. This word constrained
also means to be preoccupied. We're motivated by Christ's love
because we're preoccupied with Christ. We're preoccupied with
His love for us because you can never get over it. You can never
get over God's love for you. So you're preoccupied with that.
Remember last week in verse nine, we looked at this word labor.
Wherefore, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be
accepted of him. And that word labor is to strive
from a sense of love. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us. And love is the strongest motivator
there is. The best example I can think
of is parents. You can't pay a parent to be
a loving parent. You cannot do it. Parents do
everything they do. They work so hard to provide
for their children. They work hard to teach them.
They work hard to be so patient with them because of love and
love alone. You know, a kid gets to be a
teenager in present company excluded. suffered with this, very thankfully.
But you see teenagers and you think, my soul, why don't you
just kick them to the curb? Love, that's the only reason,
love. And that's what a believer is
motivated by. It's love. We follow Christ because
of his love for us and our love for him. We love him because
he first loved us. And that's why we follow him.
What did our Lord say to Peter? Peter, I'm going to send you
all over this place and people are going to hate you for it.
They're going to take you where you would not go. They're going
to crucify you upside down. Now, Peter, I got one question
for you. Do you love me? Oh, he said,
yes, Lord, I love you. He said, Peter, do you love me?
He said, Lord, you know all things, you know I love you. Then feed
my sheep. He didn't say, Peter, are you
ashamed of what you've done? Do you want to make up for what
you've done? You want to do something, get back in my good graces? No. He said, do you love me? Then
feed my sheep. And Peter did, didn't he? And
we do too, because we love him. And we love him because he first
loved us. And the greatest illustration
of Christ's love for his people is that he died for us. Our Lord
told his disciples, greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends. And he went out and
did it. Laid down his life for his friends. Now it's obvious
that all of God's elect were dead in Adam. If we weren't dead
in Adam, it wouldn't have been necessary for Christ to die for
us. But we were dead. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. We were dead under the sentence
of eternal death, and we would have stayed that way. If Christ
didn't come and take our place and die for us as our substitute. If salvation, if redemption could
come any other way than the death of God's son, you can rest assured
God would have done it that way. But there wasn't another way.
So Christ died. He died for his people. Now you
consider that. Christ's love for you, that he
would die for you. That's what we looked at Wednesday
night. Is it nothing to you? It's not nothing to the believer.
It's everything to the believer. His love for us is everything
to the believer. Now, some try to take this verse
and say that Christ died for all mankind, but that's not what
this verse is saying. The all that Christ died for
is the same all throughout the rest of scripture. It's all that
the father giveth me is what our Lord said. It's all those
who the father gave him in the covenant of election. It's all
those that the father called. It's all those that God gave
to Christ. And those all will be saved. The real meaning of the verse
is not that Christ died for everyone. What Paul is telling us here
is that everyone for whom Christ died was dead. And now they're
made alive in Christ. Now, Christ's love for his people
constrained him, compelled him to the cross, to suffer and die
as a substitute for his people. And Christ's love for us constrains
us to live a life not unto ourselves, but to him. Look at verse 15.
Now this word that is in italics, just cross that out, that was
added by the translators, it's easier to understand this verse
without that word that. And he died for all, for all
those that the Father gave him, that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
and rose again. Now Christ loved his people so
much, he willingly died for them. Now how will those people live?
How will those people that Christ loves so much, how will they
conduct themselves? Well, they'll live to Him who
loved them, who died for them, and who rose again. They're not
going to waste this life that God's given them on themselves.
We're not going to waste this life on our honor, on our ambition
to try to get our own profit. We're not going to waste this
life trying to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
We'll live to Christ. the one who gave us this life.
Look at Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 19. For I through the
law, through Christ keeping the law for me, making me legally
justified, I through the law am dead to the law. The law has
no more claim on me than I might live. unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Because he loved me and gave
himself for me, I am living a life that is consecrated to Christ,
that is given to him. Christ died, we know, to deliver
his people from to deliver us from the curse of the law. But
he also died to set us free from self, so that we don't live to
self anymore, we live to him. Christ died to make his elect
holy, to live a holy life. Now that's why he died. Now let
me ask you this question. Is Christ's death effectual?
Did God's Son accomplish his eternal purpose when he died
for his people? Well, you know he did. He's never
going to fail or be discouraged. His people are going to live
a holy life. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. Because he died an
effectual death, his people will live a holy life. Ephesians 1
verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. This
is the life we will live, to the praise of the glory of his
grace." for us. We died in him, but he also arose
and he arose for his people. When he arose, we arose in him
to a brand new life that he's given his people. And we're going
to look at that new life here in just one second. But when
I was thinking this week about this life that we've been given,
how a believer will live this life consecrated to Christ, I
thought of a movie that I enjoy, The Count of Monte Cristo. And I don't know how that movie
matched the book. You know, I don't know whether
it matched the book or not. But in the movie, the future
count found himself in a position to kill this pirate. He found
himself in this position because the other pirates didn't want
this fella. So the future count finds himself in a position to
kill this fella. And he could have done it. But
he refused. He had mercy on that pirate.
Now, that pirate was a goof. I mean, he's just another goof,
even though the pirates said thumbs down on him. I mean, he's
a goof. But he recognized he owed his
life to this man who had mercy on him. And he followed that
future count everywhere. No matter where he went, no matter
what he did, whether the situation looked good or whether it looked
bad, he followed that count. And the count tried to run him
off and he would not leave. And here's the reason he gave
for not leaving. I'm your man. You saved my life. You gave me this life. I'm your
man. And that's the way the child
of God is. I'm a goof. I mean, I'm just worthless in
myself, but I'm his man. I'll follow him wherever, just
wherever. By God's grace, I'm your man. I'll follow him. This life is
the life you gave me, and I'll give it to you. I'll just wholly
give it to you. So verse 16, Paul says, Wherefore,
henceforth, know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have
known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him
no more. Now this word, know, Paul uses
here means to esteem or to value. And Paul's not saying that we
don't esteem any men because we do honor to whom honors do. I esteem you, just esteem you
so highly and thankful for you. But what Paul is saying is we
don't esteem or honor a man simply because of his fleshly circumstances. You know, we don't honor him
because he descended from Abraham and somebody else didn't or because
he's wealthy or powerful or he's got an education. Christ took
away all those fleshly distinctions and made us all equal. We're
all equally dead in Adam and we're all equally righteous and
alive in Christ. So we don't pay attention to
those distinctions. And the reason we don't esteem
this flesh and the reason that believers are all equally righteous
is the Lord Jesus Christ. God's Son became a man. He was conceived in the womb
of a virgin, and he was born as a human child. And that human
baby grew to be a man. Now we, especially the apostles,
knew him in the flesh. We see him in the flesh in the
Word. And we highly esteem Christ,
the God-man. He's the only man who ever lived
who was perfect. We highly esteem him. And you
simply cannot overestimate what he's done for his people. That's
why we highly esteem him. But we see him no more. I've never seen him in the flesh
and you haven't either. He's ascended back to the Father
and we've never seen him. Yet we do see him with eyes of
faith. We see him. And this is why we
don't make statues of the Lord Jesus or pictures, you know,
hanging up and so forth. Because those things do appeal
to the natural man. No question about it. It's huge
business to sell those things. But those things are deadly hindrance
to worship and to the Spirit. And here's why. I read this this
week. This is excellent. When someone makes an image of
the Lord Jesus, they're taking away God's appointed way of coping
and strengthening His people. The just shall live by faith. We walk not by sight, but by
faith. It's the will of God that we
know Christ and we trust Christ by faith, not by sight. So we have these images that
takes away God's appointed way of faith, of looking to Christ
by faith. You know, people make these statues
and paint these pictures. They have absolutely no idea
what our Lord Jesus looked like. There's no possible way for them
to know that. It's a waste of their time. And
the important thing is not what he looked like in the flesh anyway,
is it? The important thing is that he came in the flesh and
what he accomplished in his flesh. That's the important thing and
that's what we see by faith. Now, there are two Very important
results of Christ's death. Two very important, I hate to
say things, that are the necessary result of Christ's death. What he accomplished in his death
for his people. Two things that God's people,
every one of them without exception, will experience. Regeneration
and reconciliation. Now we'll look at reconciliation
next week, but verse 17, Paul deals with Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Now, therefore, he says, because
of the death of Christ our substitute, these people, that they are in
Christ, they are in Christ by election. Before the foundation
of the world, the Father elected them. They are in Christ. They're
in Christ by redemption. Christ died for them. He died
for his people. They're in him. He bought them.
They belong to him. They're in Christ by the new
birth. They've been born into the family of God. They've been
born into this union with Christ. Now, again, it's not that they're
in religion. They're not just in church. They're not come to
a right doctrine. They're not come to a reformation.
They're in Christ, in Him, in the Beloved, put there by God. And everyone who's in Christ
is a new creature. That word creature is creation.
They're a new creation. And this is what every child
of God experiences. I suppose, except for babies,
you know, who die in infancy. This is what the child of God
experiences. And it's vital. It's necessary. It's absolutely necessary. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You cannot see the kingdom of
God without this regeneration, without this new birth. It's
vital. And we must be made a new creation. This new man was created by God
out of nothing, out of nothing. The same way he created this
world out of nothing. God created this world out of
thin air. He didn't take elements already
there and fashion it together to make this world. He spoke
this world into existence out of thin air. That's what he does
with the new man. God speaks it into existence
and it never existed before. And God has to do it. It takes
the same power. The same power that created the
sun is the same power that speaks life. to the souls of God's people. Now, this is not reforming the
old man. God's not taking that old man and reforming him and
changing him and, you know, molding him like Play-Doh. It's not giving
life to the flesh. It's not giving light or understanding
to the flesh because the flesh is carnal and can never have
any understanding of spiritual truth. This does not affect a
change in the flesh in any way. The flesh is completely unaffected.
This is a creation of God. It's a creation of a new man
who never existed before. And this new man, everything
is new to him. He's got a new heart. He's got
new affections. He's got new desires. He's got
a new life that's consecrated to Christ. He has new principles. And you know why? Because he's
got a new heart that come from a new heart. He's got new eyes. to see Christ. He's got new ears
to hear Christ. He's got new feet that follow
Christ. He's got new hands that strive
to work in the service of his Lord. He's got a new commandment
of love. He's got a brand new name, Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. There's a new song in his mouth.
He's got a new inheritance. He's on his way to a new home
in glory. He worships in a new and living
way, which has been opened for him by the blood of Christ. Behold,
I make all things new. Everything is new to this new
man. It's as new to you as this world
is new to any. Everything in this world is new
to her, even seeing her daddy's face. It's new. She ain't seen
much of it, but everything of it she's seen is new. Why? She'd
never been here before. She'd never seen anything else
before. That's the way the new man is. You can spend your life
in church, in Sunday school. And you open that up and say,
I never saw that before. That's brand new to me. I make all things
new. That's the creation of God. And
old things are passed away. Now, that old man's still there,
isn't he? You haven't got rid of him. But he's not in control
anymore. That old way of life is gone. Now those old desires are still
there, but they're put down. They're not in control. Those
old thoughts of God that I promised you were much too low are replaced
with new thoughts of God, new understanding of who he is and
his glory. And those old thoughts of self,
which I promised you were much too high, are replaced with much
lower thoughts of ourselves, with hatred and loathing of who
and what we are. Those old ways of worship are
gone. It's not worshipped in the flesh. God's worshipped in
the Spirit. That old self-love is gone. It's
not completely gone. But it's been replaced with a
love for Christ and love for His people. Now, remember I told
you, love is the best motivator there is. Love. Self-love. Sure motivates that
old man, doesn't it? Oh, self-love motivates that
old man, that old flesh to just go to the ends of the earth.
to serve this flesh, but that self-love has been replaced with
love for Christ. And that's what motivates the
new man to live to Christ. All right. Lord bless you.