I invite you to turn back with
me to 2 Corinthians 1. As I studied and thought about
these verses, I began to think about how distant
we are from the severe tribulations which these men suffered. I have in my lifetime had groups
of people come out to the job where I work and tried to get
me fired because they just didn't like me. And I've had people
throw their Bibles down and stomp out. I've had people just turn
red, just fire engine red listening to me before we could even get
the last hymn sung out the back door. But I don't know any grace
preacher In the past, in my lifetime, I don't know any grace preacher
that's ever been put to death for preaching the gospel. I don't
know any grace preacher who's ever been put into stocks and
tortured. I don't know any grace preacher
who's ever been fed to the lions or sawn asunder with a wooden
saw. and such atrocities as what these
men suffered. I know a lot of grace preachers,
none of them ever suffered death. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians
chapter 11, verse 24, that five times he was beaten within one
lash of death by the Jews, five times. Cat and iron tails with
pieces of glass or metal on the end of them. And had this punishment down
to a science. 40 stripes is all a man could
take. He'd die. They beat him 39 times,
five times. I just can't imagine. I can't
imagine. Three times he said I was beaten
with rods. That's a Roman punishment. The
Jews didn't use rods. These rods were made of birch,
and they looked like these big old heavy wood dowels that you
see that they put to hang curtains on, and they were about eight
or 10 feet long, like a ball bat, and they beat him with it.
If the Romans really wanted a confession out of you, they'd tie you upside
down and beat your ankles and feet with that thing until they
broke every bone in them. He said, They beat him with rods three
times. And the Romans, you know, the
Jews limited their within one stripe of death. The Romans didn't
limit anything. When they beat you, they just
beat you till they got tired of beating. One historian said these rods
were usually made of birch wood. They weren't like a switch. You
know, you switch your kids. You remember here, I don't know
how many years ago, it's quite a while back, had a guy over
there and he was gonna get beaten with rods, you remember that?
And they tried every way in the world to get him out of it. But
these rods were not like a switch, but able to break bones. He said,
once I was stoned, you know, We think about stoning,
we think about picking up pretty good sized gravel and throwing
it. That's not what they did. They picked up stones, this big
round. They meant to crush your skull
with it. This stoning was to death. To death. And he was stoned
and left for dead. Maybe he did die and the Lord
resurrected him, I don't know, but he was left for dead. Three
times he said, I suffered shipwreck a day and a night in the deep.
He was out in the middle of a sea for a day and a night. And he
said, my whole life, my whole missionary life, my whole ministry,
He said, I'm in constant danger or perils. He talks about his
perils, perils of water, robbers, his own countrymen, perils in
the city, perils in the wilderness, perils among false brethren. He said, I suffered weariness
above you all. I just can't imagine. I can't
imagine being beat like he was. Beaten with rods, you know it's
going to leave a continual effect on you. You don't just heal up
in a day or two and walk around. You had all the skin ripped off
your back. There's going to be infections.
This man had to walk to wherever he was going after being beat. He said, I
suffered weariness, painfulness, hunger, and thirst. He suffered
cold and nakedness. And it was from the standpoint
of one of his sufferings, whatever they were, we're not told what
they were in Asia, but they were beyond measure, he said, beyond
measure. And it was from the standpoint
of one whose life seemed to be a sentence of death, He said,
we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh. So then death worketh in us,
but life in you. What's he saying? He's saying
he suffered that you might hear the gospel. He suffered that
we might have the word of God written and preserved before
us. He suffered. He suffered, I cannot
identify with his sufferings. I don't know anybody in recent
history who suffered like these men suffered. Why must a man suffer these things? Verse nine, 2 Corinthians one.
We had the sentence of death in ourselves. The realization
of it, the certainty of it. that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raiseth the dead. Now let me take another
step here. Here's a man who in his own mind
was persuaded that he was gonna die any day. He was gonna die. He'd been beaten, imprisoned.
You know, prison back then, it ain't like it is today. Got you
on TV and feed you real good. No, you're just thrown in there. They went to the bathroom in
the floor. There was infection. They didn't feed them like they
need to feed them. And what they did feed them was probably polluted. Why must such a man suffer these
things? We had the sentence of death
in ourselves, the realization of it, that we should not trust
in ourselves but in God, which raiseth the dead. All right? We're talking about physical
sufferings here. That's what he's talking about. And he said,
I have a consolation in these sufferings. And he said, one
of those consolations is that I might comfort you who are suffering
the same thing. A preacher, I hear you talk about
sin and you seem like you really understand, because I've been
there. And I'm still there. I'm still
battling with sin. I'm able to deal with sin because
I've experienced it in my heart. You can't tell what you don't
know. And that's what he's saying about this comfort. Unless I've
suffered, I can't comfort you. I can't comfort you. All right,
these are physical sufferings. Now let me take another step
here. Turn over with me to Colossians
chapter three. What does all this persuasion
of death have to do with you and I? Nobody's threatening our
lives. Nobody's gonna burn us at the
stake. Of course, they might one of these days. But right
now, I don't see any examples of it anywhere. I don't see any
reason to fear those things. Now watch what he says here,
Colossians 3.1. If you then be risen with Christ,
That is my hope of resurrection, my actual spiritual resurrection. If you then be risen with Christ, when and how were we risen with
Christ? When he died, we died. When he
was buried, we was buried. When he rose from the dead, he
raised us up with him. And when he ascended into glory
and was crowned the king of glory, He seated us with him at the
right hand of God. That's what it says in the scripture.
If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above
where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth. Now watch this. For, what's he
say? Ye are dead. Ain't that what that said? Huh? I'm not dead. You're not. He said you are. He said you
are. You're dead. And your life, you
still have a life. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. That's the life I have. The life
I now live in the flesh, I live by the Son of God. Huh? For me to live Christ, I don't
have a life. My life is cursed. My life is
fallen. My flesh is fallen. It has no
desire of any kind for anything of God. What life I have is in Christ. That's my hope. I don't have
any other hope. There is no other hope. And there's a sense in which
every believer, now watch this. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ and God when Christ, who is our life, shall
appear. Then shall you also appear with
him in glory. Then you'll know something about
true life. True life. And there's a sense in which
every believer has the sentence of death in him. And this sentence
of death Paul had in himself was not one pronounced on him
by any civil magistrate, nor was it pronounced on him by God. It was a persuasion in his mind
and heart that he was gonna die. He was gonna die. Death was imminent. It was imminent. It was sure
to happen. Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses,
and he's asking God for knowledge and a sensible experience concerning
the providence of God. And in this prayer, he says,
so teach us to number our days. Not set a time and a place, but
to understand that our days are numbered. Do you ever think about
that? Your days are numbered. And mine's
getting fewer and fewer. My days are numbered. Oh, why? Why think about that?
What a morbid thing to think about, death. Why? That we might
apply our hearts to wisdom. Wisdom. My friends, we're just
gonna be here for a little while. We're just passing through, aren't
we? This world is not my home. I'm
only passing through. That's what the hymn writer wrote. It's like the sojourn of Abraham
in the wilderness. God told him he was gonna show
him a land, and all his offspring gonna go into that land, all
his seed's gonna inherit that land, and so he started sojourning. And boy, he went through some
nice places. where people prospered, he went through some nice places,
but he didn't set down any roots, he just pitched a tent. Why? He said he looked for a city
that had foundations whose builder and maker was God. This world
was not his home, and he knew it. He just passed it through. I'm just here for a little while.
Well, I know that, do you? Do I? Do I understand? I'm just here for a little while.
And then I'm gone. And get closer all the time,
ain't he? Conviction of sin is a persuading
of the Holy Ghost of your spiritual death. That's what it is. Conviction of sin. He's gonna
persuade you that you're really dead in trespasses and sin. It's being carried by the Spirit
of God to see things as they really are. Paul said there was
a time when I was alive without the law. I looked at the law,
it says pay tithes, I paid tithes. It says keep the Sabbath, I kept
the Sabbath. It says do this, I did that.
It says don't do this, I didn't do that. He was alive without
the law, but all one day the commandment come. All these things that you're
doing, he said, if they're not done out of a love for God, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and mind.
If it's not done in love, you didn't keep the commandment.
If you didn't prefer your neighbor to yourself, you didn't keep
the commandment. On these two laws hang the whole law of God.
I don't care what you do outwardly, you haven't kept that law without
that motive, and you can't produce it. Our Lord said, I know you
that you have not the love of God in you. It's a persuasion of the Holy
Ghost of your spiritual death. It's being carried by the Spirit
of God to see these things as they really are, out of the heart,
he said. Oh, look, you've defiled yourself. You ate a hamburger and you didn't
wash your hands. You think I'm stretching things?
You ain't been around religion very long if you do. Look at
that dress, and you call yourself a believer. Oh, here's where it's at. Out
of the heart. What heart? That evil heart,
that old heart, that natural heart. Out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts. Oh, you read this book or that
one, and it had its influence. It may have, but that ain't where
it come from. Ain't where it come from. Our Lord had seen
everything there was to see. He wasn't affected by it. Why
am I? Because I've got a heart of flesh. Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile
a man. It's what he is. What he is,
the sentence of death is in ourselves. Oh, wretched man that I am, Paul
said, who shall deliver me? I need delivered. I can't be
left alone. I can't just be influenced. I
can't just be taught. I have to be delivered. Delivered
from what? From me. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Oh, when I realized the law was
spiritual and I'm carnal, sold unto sin, when I've made to see
that not just an outward adherence to the law was commanded, but
the affections, the motives, and the heart was included. Sin revived, he said, and I died. But here's where sin is truly
seen. You wanna know what sin is? Look
at the cross. You wanna discover what sin is?
Look at the cross. See your sin in the person of
a substitute. In Isaiah, he said, we did esteem
him, talking about Christ, stricken. smitten of God and afflicted. Why would God afflict his son
who did no sin? Because he was made sin for us,
that's why. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. He was bruised for our iniquities,
wounded for our transgressions. All we like sheep have gone astray
and we've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has
laid on him the iniquity of us all. You wanna see iniquity?
There it is. There it is. God gonna pat the sinner on the
head. I'm so sick of going to funerals, I try my best not to
go to any. You go down there and they start
talking. All of a sudden, this man never donned the door of
a church. He'd never been to church. He had no interest. You
try to witness to him, he'd walk away. But he dies, and now they
write up a little pamphlet and they pass it out to all his relatives.
He's gone to be with the Lord. Now he's in heaven. Now he's
joined comfort and grace. Oh, no he ain't. He said, let
him that is filthy be filthy still. Ain't that what Scripture
said? There's no cure in judgment for
these things. It's seen on the cross. It's
not so much a look within that convinces us of sin as it is
to see our sin on a suffering face. He did no sin, yet he was
made sin for us. That's what it says, who knew
no sin. His sufferings were not for what
he did, but for what we did, thought, loved, and practiced.
He suffered, it said, the just for the unjust that he might
bring us to God. Listen to this, and you that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death. What'd that do? To present you
faultless. Huh? Oh, my soul. To present
you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. Where do sinners learn about
sin? Sin is a threefold revelation, and it begins here in the Word
of God. You have no clue what you are,
but God does. He sees things as they really
are. You wanna know what you are, read the Word of God. If
you ain't shocked, there's something wrong with you. He'll tell you
what you are. He'll tell you what you thought.
and what you're thinking. He'll tell you your motives.
He'll judge your righteousnesses. We learn about sin as God reveals
it to us in his word, none righteous. Why do men talk about their righteousness? There's none righteous. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone to believe in. He's not righteous
in himself. I came not to call the righteous,
Christ said. Who'd he say that to? Self-righteous
men. All our righteousnesses, he said,
are as filthy rags. Man at his best state, altogether
vanity. He drinks iniquity, Job said,
like water. He's ignorant of God. Enmity,
his mind is enmity against God. They're all gone out of the way.
The poison of ash is under their lips. They're snakes, they're
vipers. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Destruction
and misery are in their ways. No fear of God before their eyes.
They know that certain things they do is gonna kill them. Do
they quit? No, keep right on doing it. Why? Because destruction and misery
are in their ways. That's why. And sin is pictured
in the word of God. It's not just stated in the word
of God. I read you several scriptures
here that plainly states what sin is, but then he pictures
it. And it ain't pretty. See the leper. You can't stand
to smell him. His flesh is rotten and pus is
running out open sores and you can't even recognize him. Parts
of his flesh are just falling off. He's rotten from the inside
out. And he covers his face. That's
the sinner before God. He said, he's a smoke in my nose.
I had a neighbor down in Taylor, bless his heart. He was a nice
guy, he really was. But he burned his trash every
evening. Been doing it all his life, I
guess. And he'd go out there and he'd pour out some of that
plastic stuff on that fire about seven o'clock at night, and I'd
have to go shut the windows. The Lord said, you're a smoke
in my nose. He's just burning rubbish. Oh, you who were sometime alienated
and enemies by your mind with wicked works, yet now hath he
reconciled. We learn about sin in his word,
leprosy, vipers, demon possession, paralysis, and on and on the
list goes, all of these Men with all of these diseases and maladies,
they all came to Christ to be healed, and all of these things
together picture the sinner. And then he describes it to us
in the word of God by suffix. We're a worm, look that word
up, wiggling maggot. That's what it means, wiggling
maggot. What's that? That's a worm that
feeds on the corruption of others. That's what that is, rotten flesh. Kills, cheats, steals, uses others
for its own gain. The word of God paints a clear
picture of sin. And then secondly, the word reveals
our sin in the person of a representative man. How awful sin must be that
another must come and live and die in our stead. Nothing I can do, nothing I've
ever done, nothing I could ever do that I could bring and present
before God. I dare say if there was such
a thing as a movie screen that could read your heart right now
and your thoughts right now, You'd be embarrassed to death
for everybody here to see it. Oh, you'd go crawl in a hole
somewhere. Oh, my soul. I've heard these
words so many times in my life. I ain't always doing the right
thing, but one thing I can say. No, sir, you can't even say that. What thing soever the law saith
it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped. You don't have one thing that
you can say, well, at least I have this. No, sir, you don't have
anything. By the deeds of the law, holy,
just, good law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. And all the law can do for any
man is just prove him to be the sinner that it says he is. That's
what it does. Listen to this. If righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. There's no
reason for him to come. The appearance of a representative
man shows us the awful condition of the sinner. He can't be reformed. He can't be saved. With man, it's impossible. There's
nothing in him to use. God has to send a representative
man. He has to send a substitute. And the Word of God, thirdly,
shows us the reign of sin. Here's a man that God said is
a man after my own heart. He's a righteous man. They so often pictured Christ
in the Scripture. Do you know when, probably the
most famous thing David did was went out and faced Goliath. If
you read that closely, you'll find out that he went out as
a representative man. He's a picture of Christ. He
represented Israel. Huh? Win the battle or lose it,
it's all on David. Representative man. When he went
out, he didn't go out in the name of David. Did he? He went out in the name of the
Lord. In the name of the Lord. Oh my,
and here's this man, this holy man, this righteous man, and
now see him. He's out there. All of his servants
are inside. He quietly sneaks out. He gets
up on the roof and he looks down and sees this woman taking a
bath. And boy, he's enjoying it. He's just sitting there watching,
thinking, I'm the king. I know she's married, but I can
take care of that. I'll get rid of him. Huh? This is a righteous man. It's
a righteous man. Oh. He shows us the reign of
sin. Sin's a powerful influence. It's
made its way into every part of society, schools, churches,
hospitals, the workplace, recreation, and on and on. By one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. What I'm talking about to you
is the sentence of death. Has God ever proved to you that
you're dead? And that which God the Holy Ghost
uses to convince men of sin is their unbelief in a loving substitute. When a person's convinced of
sin, he receives in his mind a sentence of death, the realization
of it, the force of it, the presence of it. And from that time forward,
he's reminded of it, convicted of it, and reasons according
to it. He's not gonna talk about his
goodness. Not a believer. We have the sentence of death
in ourselves. Why? Why would the Lord put such
a thing upon the hearts of those he loves that we should not trust
in ourselves? Huh? Oh, if he'd just prove to me,
if he'd just show me, convict me, convince me of sin, I'll
quit trusting in this flesh, and I'll trust in him. That we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raiseth the dead. And no man will ever look
to, trust in, or submit to the Savior of sinners, who's not
convinced of his sin. The reality of sin. in the light
of the holy character of God, leaves the sinner desperate. I was desperate. I don't know why, but people
come hear me preach. I must not be telling it the
way it needs to be told or something, I don't know, but they leave
here as though there's a world of options out there. There are no options. He that
believeth not shall be damned. Isn't that what it says? There
ain't no options. The reality of sin in the light
of the holy character of God leaves the sinner desperate.
Oh, to find a desperate sinner. Don't think I ain't looking.
If I could find one, I got good news. I got good news from him. I'm talking about a man stripped
of all hope. He didn't got any hope. A man
whose righteous covering has been taken away. A man left naked
in his sin. Oh, to find a sinner, Russell,
just to find a sinner who knows he's a sinner. One that has seen
himself through the eyes of God and has sided with God in his
own condemnation. Here's a man or a woman who has
a sentence of death in themselves. And death, spiritual death, is
no longer just a concept or a term or a doctrine. It's a reality. It's a reality. If I could find
a sinner, I got good news for him. What good news? Christ came into this world to
save sinners. What kind of sinners? All of
sin comes short of the glory of God. No, a sinner who knows
he's a sinner. Hopeless, helpless sinners, desperate
sinners, ungodly sinners. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for what? The ungodly. Huh? Oh, to find a sinner whose confession
is, I don't know God. I thought I did, but I don't
know God. There's nothing in me God-like
from what I can read. Desperate sinners. Enoch prophesied
of a day when Christ would come with 10,000 of his saints. Maybe
we're living in that day. to execute judgment upon all,
to convince all that are ungodly among us of all their ungodly
deeds which they've ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches
which they've ungodly spoken against Him. Conviction of sin,
so that What's the good news? The good news is that God in
the person of his son, look here, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 10. I've been preaching in verse
nine, here's verse 10. Who hath delivered us from so
great a death. Death in the true sense of the
word is no little thing. The death he's talking about
here is a spiritual death, an eternal death, a second death,
any way you want to look at it, it's forever. Everlasting death,
a death from which we cannot escape. Sin entered, death passed. So how can a holy God deliver
a sinner from such a death? by the eternal appointment of
a substitute and a representative, provision in his son. That's
how. That's how. He tells us plainly in Ephesians
1-4 that he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world that we should be holy. I don't feel holy, but I'm holy
in Christ. See how he shut you up to Christ? Without blame. Boy, look in the mirror and see. Man,
there's enough blame to go around, ain't there? Before him in love. Never a time
when God didn't love his people. Why? Because he loved them and
his son. He loved him in a substitute.
He loved him in this representative of man, Christ. He put us in
him. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. His birth is our birth. He's
the firstborn among many brethren. His life is our life. And Paul
said his death is our death. He delivered us from so great
a death. Now watch this. Look at the second
line in verse 10. And doth deliver. Now wait a
minute, he delivered me in Christ. Yeah, I know. But he's still
delivering you. That mouth's still going, that
heart's still active, that sin's still present. He's delivering
you every day. no telling the circumstances
that would have caused your fall that he's delivered you from,
and you never had to confront him. Peter said, they might deny
you, but not me. He said, Peter, Satan has desired
to sift you like wheat, and I pray for you that your faith fail
not. He delivers us. Constantly, constantly in his
providence, protects us, preserves us, makes a way out of the temptation
that we fall in. He, who shall deliver me from
the body of the, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And we have at the right hand of God a holy advocate, whoever
liveth to make intercession for his saints, and who's gonna separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And boy,
he names a house full. Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril of sword. As it is written, for thy sake
we're killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. And it's for his sake and for his people that we suffer
at the hands of persecutors. And it has been and is the lot
of all that believe to be hated by ungodly men. But chiefly,
the sentence of death is pressed into our minds and hearts that
we should not trust in ourselves. That's it. If I preach the gospel
to you, you ought to know at least in your head that all of these things together
have brought me to the place where I don't trust in myself.
If you have any trust in yourself, I'm trying to cut it off with
the sword of God. I'm gonna cut it off to where
you don't have any hope left but Christ, but Christ. May the Lord teach us all what
it is to believe, repent, and serve the living God and to know
something of a resurrected life, an experience of grace in our
hearts. Father, take the message. Use
it for thy name's honor and glory. And be with us. Be with these
preachers as they travel. Protect and preserve them. Bring
them to us. And lay on their hearts your
words. Your word for us. Words of encouragement. Words of knowledge. Words of
comfort. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen.